Addendum...

My friend in Reading rang yesterday evening with a, "Guess what Iiiiiiiii've got in my hand?". Mr Welch had duly popped the remains of the album (RIP) round to their house. Well, she went through each layout's condition and it seems that only 2 or 3 of the pages are little bit crumpled and that's all, a couple have lost part of their titles (chipboard or pieces of card cut out and stuck on etc.) so no biggie...easy to redo...and the rest seem fine (praise be all things AMM). But the album is completely wrecked, bent out of shape, and very obviously run over. So it's all just great really...albums can easily be replaced.

I don't think he restored my faith in human nature, as I have never lost it! I still have this overriding belief that the bigger majority of humans are actually fairly nice, decent people for the most part ('that time of the month' and 'I'm having a terrible day' days aside). It's just like at school - the small minority who are bad, naughty, nasty little buggars get all the attention and make it horrible for everyone else in the class.

I thought it would make a good story for the papers too but, way more importantly, I also wanted Mr Welch's address to thank him with various things of loveliness, but when I asked him he wouldn't give it me, and my friend asked 3 times as well. He wouldn't cough up with her either and said to Judith, "No no...I know why she wants it and it's fine. I don't want a reward. I just hope someone does something nice for me sometime. That's how it works." So I can't give him anything at all...not even a card...and I can't publish the story without him being involved really eh? Shaun (Judith's husband) said that I have to create a layout now all about this story (which is hilarious...I think he's got the scrapping bug without actually doing it! LOL).

I know I could easily track my hero down (Burghfield Village is small and I've got his phone number), but Husband and Mother both say that then I'm not respecting his wishes. True...but I feel so bad not to thank him properly.

Suggestions on a postcard please, addressed to Confused of Cymru....

So, do you want the good news or the bad news?

The good news is that my album has been FOUND! As I was dropping Celyn off at nursery school this morning, her teacher came up to me and said, "Have you lost one of your scrapbooking photo albums in Reading?" Of course I was immediately bowled over by how she knew that and, more to the point, why she knew that. It turns out that a fella had found the album and seen Celyn's school name on her uniform and had rung the school (clever chap). My first thought was 'Thank goodness I called her Celyn and not some name like Amy or Hannah or any other number of names that are pretty common in any school.' Anyway, I left the playground whooping like a girly and went straight home to ring my hero. He was quite befuddled as to how my album had ended up in Burghfield Village when I live in Wales, but I soon explained my stooooooopidity with the car roof, ya-di-ya-di-ya. Burghfield Village, by the way, is about 3 miles from Burghfield Common where I was staying, so it clung on to the roof of the car for some way.

The bad news is that my album, it appears, was run over several times by various vehicles (I have visions of lorries smashing over it...*cringe*) and the pages were scattered all over the place and the album is completely unusable apparently. He said every page is damaged in some way. This rather dampened my joy, but hey...I've got the photos and the original work, so I can put most of it back together again.

My Burghfield friends are coming down here to visit in a couple of weeks anyway, so I shall see the damage myself then, although Judith's going to ring and give me a page by page breakdown when he drops the album off to her. Ah well...worse things happen at sea. And my faith in human nature is as strong as ever. He got out of his car and gathered up all of the pages, and then took the time to track me down because "I have little ones too and know how precious these memories are." Bless. Really I mean it...bless.

And the irony of the story. The man's name is Mr Welch (Welch...Welsh...geddit, geddit?).

Come ON!!!!

So how gorgeous was that goal against Ecuador then EH, EH, EH? It was Beckham bending it with complete brilliance and I think my whole neighbourhood heard my yelling through the open window and my mum laughing at my exuberance!

Come on England!!!!

Julia and I spent Friday and Saturday in Reading, so we could teach the Colour for Design seminar there. It was fun, as always, for me to be home and especially at the moment, as there are Cross of St. George flags everywhere.

I did a really really really dim, stupid thing though. We always stay with my friends (thanks Pines!) who live in Burghfield Common, just outside Reading. Saturday morning we go out to the car with our various paraphernalia, including my lovely blue All My Memories album, which has the class layouts for Colour for Design in it, as well as my girly-girl's A-Z album layouts (Z is for Zoo, C is for Chocolate Cake, etc.) and all of my latest layouts too. So, we got to the seminar, greeted everyone, and I started teaching the first class, which is a mini-book and not a page. And then I got on to the first layout - This Face. Mmmm...where's my album? Where did I put it. Tsk..it must be in the car. Julia trots out to the car park. No album. So we called the Pines..."Sorry...I've left my album over there and I need it." "Er...no...it's not here". "No it's got to be...it's not here." "No...no...*looking, looking* no...it's definitely not here. Are you sure it's not in the car?" Look in the car again - not there. And then the awful realisation hits. I'd put it on the roof of the car while I was loading the crate/suitcase/bag into the car. And then we drove off. It was on the roof. *Cue sick feeling*.

So. If anyone reading this lives in the Reading area and you know someone who knows someone who found a 'photo album' lying by the side of the road....

Colour for Design

So Julia and I are in the throes of the Colour for Design seminars, where we teach not only scrapbooking but also how good designers use colour and how we can use colour to create better pages. Gosh that sounds pompous! But these seminars are real learning days. They're fun to teach and we've really appreciated and learnt stuff even in putting the seminar together.

Last Saturday we were in Caerphilly, at the Crafty-Ness premises. And man alive it was HOT. Us ladies are supposed to 'glow'...but I'm telling ya, it was sweat and there's no two ways about it!
It was a lick your finger and chalk one up to smugness though, as my friend Nell (and her mum Sue, pictured here) came. Nell. Nell who was my bridesmaid. Nell who is now 5 months with child. Nell who last New Year's mocked me mercilessly for scrapbooking and fell about laughing every time I said the word 'crop'. And there she was, blue paint on her finger, making clay embellies. She'll be buying an Art Bin before you know it.

THIS Saturday we're in Reading with the same seminar. And I had a wild "NO!!!" experience this week when talking to one of the delegates. Anne and Tracey have booked to attend, and they both live in Basingstoke. I grew up in Basingstoke (age 5 to 10...which isn't that long, but a significant chunk of my childhood in my memory) so of course, when talking to Tracey, I mentioned this. "Whereabouts did you live then?" asks she. "Oh, just off the Winchester Road, on Packenham Road" replies I. "You're KIDDING!" says she. "I grew up on Packenham Road". Turns out she lived almost opposite me, and (we think, we're sure) her sister was in my class in junior school. We started rattling off friends we played with and we shared knowing most of them. She EVEN mentioned the Monkey Tree which was a FABULOUS tree that grew in a woods just behind her house which was excellent for climbing and swinging on and doing flips over one of the branches. How small a world is that then? So she's bringing any photos she can muster of her childhood and I am too.

Husband of course mocked me. He thinks it's not such an amazing thing and I overreact. *Him mocking me*..."Did you live in a house?!! WE lived in a house!!! Did you have a cat?!! No!! WE had a cat!!" Husband, of course, has no soul.

The next Colour for Design seminar after the Reading one is back in Caerphilly again on 1 July, and then at Crafty Pastimes on 22 July. Inbetween all of this we've got a South Wales Crop and The Swansea Crop as well.

It's all good!

Ooo Ooo Ooooooooooooo!

Look what I'm getting, look what I'm getting *Chrissie's bits start jiggling where she's jumping from one foot to the other doing a happy dance*

Prisca Jockovic is one of my favourite scrapbookers. She's French, and, partly due to the fact that I speak French, I am buddy with her (Coucou Prisca *Chrissie ondule!*) and she (bless her little French chaussettes de coton) is sending me her brand spanking new book. Which, to be fair, is

GORGEOUSNESS ON A STICK!!!!

I'm so happy, I'm so happy, I'm so haaaaa-ppyyyyyy! Tee hee heeeeeeee, hee heeeeeeee!

Merci bien Prisca!!! Grosses biz!

Scrappedy-doo-daaaaaaa, Scrappedy-aaaaaay...

My oh my, what a wonderful day!

In our home we have an evening a week which we call Family Night, where we take time to be together. We pray, sing a song (Celyn always wants to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!), have a little lesson (could be on something in the scriptures or could be on floating and sinking *she says, thinking about one memorable evening and lots of water all over the place - LOL*) and then we play a game. Well yesterday for Family Night, Celyn decided she wanted Mummy to teach her scrapbooking. So Husband dove into the garage and pulled out his scrapbook he started about 4 years ago and I sat with Celyn and we all scrapbooked together. All of us. The whole fam-lee. It was so coooooooool!

So this is Danny's page (he held it up and counted, "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9...NINE pictures on there!" He has concerns that I only scrapbook one photo at a time on the whole - LOL).

And this is Celyn's. I did most of the cutting (she pushed the blade across the trimmer a few times but the anal person in me just couldn't bear for it to be wonky, so I set up the cut!) but she glued everything down, including the extraneous pink stripy paper that doesn't quite match but she wanted to put on the left there "because it's pink Mummy!" and she knew we had to use pink and yellow paper because of her dress in the photo.

She chose the title and the journaling sentence (which I wrote out in pencil and she traced over the top). And she wrote her name at the bottom...she gets phonetic i and y mixed up because her name is Welsh and y in Welsh is always pronounced 'Ih' (if you know what I mean). Hence she wrote an i!

And I thought I'd upload the page I had started the evening before (just for me, not for a class, just for ME!) where I was playing about with my new Heidi Swapp pencils (won them at Bonanza!).

So ain't we the Scrappy Family on the Happy Families pack of cards eh? Eh?

It's all good!

What will I do with my Wednesday evenings?

Desperate Housewives Wednesday has finished for the summer...and probably most of the autumn as well (seeing as the series never starts here the same time as it does in the States). And what a STUNNER of an ending too. Back to back soapy slathering bliss...two whole hours of action packed, funny (oh I howled when Lynette was shouting at that woman (no spoilers) in the restaurant...she's so fab!!), tense, emotional, twisty-turny drama. Completely worth staying up till 1am to watch (and I may watch those 2 episodes all over again on Channel 4 next week just to get another fix!) What a fab show. I shall miss it...*sigh*

Still sorting all the stuff for the Caerphilly Scrappers Unlimited seminars on Saturday. Nearly there. Husband is going to help me do all the final bits and bobs tomorrow (he volunteered!). He received his results for his degree today too...a 2:1. Good job Mr Willicombe! He da bomb!

And we are sporting a rather large England flag in our bedroom window (which overlooks the front of the house) as of today, to cheer on the lads...which is no small thing when you live in the middle of Welsh Wales I can tell you (heh heh). The England flag is received with much thanks from the lovely lovely Linz at Crafty Pastimes. That Linz is such a thoughtful girly (something I've noticed about her). She knew how hard (well, nigh on impossible) it was for me to get a Cross of St. George living here and sent me one in with my ribbon order for Saturday. I did ask in one of the larger supermarkets if they had any flags and the shop assistants just sort of laughed at me. Ho hum.

Anyway...2-0 over Trinidad tonight...and I was only able to catch the first half (including the near miss where Terry just managed to kick the ball out of our goal in time ...eeek!) and of COURSE they score both goals in the second half. Blimmin' typical.

So...nothing much along the scrapping vein in my blog today. Just lots of telly really! LOL

Oh Scwidgmfffffraaaapoooooooo craaaaasssssshhhhiiii*!@!

I've been printing off the handout for the Colour for Design seminars, which kick off this Saturday at Crafty-Ness in Caerphilly. The handout is actually not, as the name conjures up, one flimsy page of cursory information, but a fabulous (IMHO) 12 page booklet that it's taken me hours to write. And. I am telling you. If the printer takes 2, 3 or 4 sheets through all in one go one more time (which, I strenuously add, have already been printed on the other side with text and pictures galore, eating up my ink like a ravenous wolverine meaning I have to reprint the soddin' lot), I swear...I SWEAR...I shall throw it out of the window and be done with it. That'll learn it.

Damn silly stupid damn printer damn thing.

Witterings...

Anyone that knows me knows that I like a good laugh. And this entry in my mate Debbie's blog today made me howl.

And this Torn link in Jools' blog on Wednesday made me laugh out loud (as they LOLingly say).

And one of my scrapping buds, Chris, describing the rest of the residents on her holiday in Cyprus as "the cast from Cocoon" made me gurgle the drink I was in the middle of downing.

Nothing like a good laugh eh?

I am just a little bit perturbed though...my barometer in my bathroom that I watch like a hawk has dipped. About 2cm. Edging its way towards 'Rain'. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... this weather is so divine. I just can't be going back to cloudy grey. Make it stop. Positive thinking. Everyone will the pressure to rise again!

Scrappin' on the patio...

This is the layout (finally) that I put together last week when I taught my friend to scrapbook sitting on her patio (with the coleslaw, the bubbles and the happy children...you remember). I just wanted to add the journaling and the word to the left of the photo.

Papers are Daisy D's, and the background is the white sheet from the Basic Grey Blitzen range. 'Sweet Memories' is a Scenic Route rub-on (loves them, I do), and the 'Happy' letters are Provo Craft. Photo by me (I love my camera).

And...praise be all things hayfever...Husband is strimming our back garden (which was in all fairness, completely un-cuttable for weeks because we have a bog instead of a lawn. We're indispute with the builders about it at the mo'...but this was it 2 weeks ago...and it hadn't rained for days when I took these pics).

Oh the happy hum of the strimmer. Oh the not so happy sound of husband muttering...

There is sunshine in my soul today...

I've been busy this week and been a quasi-pseudo blogger. Repent, repent, repent. In my defence, husband has had his final performance for his music degree (he had to choose six pieces of music that showed off his various skills on the guitar...both electric and acoustic...and then put together a band to accompany him, although the examiners only really look at his playing). He was cacking himself, to put it politely, but he's good and I'm sure he's done well. He did the music from that advert...the one with the coloured balls bouncing around San Francisco...as one of his pieces. It was really lovely hearing him practice it around the house. Anyway, he's finished now and I've suddenly got a husband/father/general dogsbody (did I say that? Did I say that?) again.


Saturday is the South Wales Crop and Sue Bailey and I are teaching techniques and ideas we picked up at Bonanza. This is my version of one of my classes. Different papers, different everything really except the flappy bit at the bottom (the two squares open to reveal more space for photos and journaling). This layout is all about the many moods of Celyn, and we love her "whatever" that mood is. Eeeeeeeven when she's whiiiiiiiiiining.

The 'LOVE' bit is a sort of (but not really) steal from the famous Green Peace Love Art by Robert Indiana. I printed my chosen font out hoooooooge and then cut it out in black cardstock. Patterned paper is Melissa Frances and the ribbon is delicious and I want its babies (but I don't know what it is...May Arts probably). I've got a little Making Memories sticky jewel on the brad too, which is rather shiny-shiny (and therefore gorgeous).

Celyn and I were in that lovely garden of her friend yesterday after school, and they played in the paddling pool till they were (a) very cold and (b) prunes. Summer...it's just happiness.
Look at that girl posing though. She reminds me of a 1940s model. I'm a scrapping mum and I've unleashed a monster...a kid who is becoming very proficient in front of the camera!

Ooo ooo...big news is that Gloucester 2 retreat is FULL and it's not till the beginning of November!! And there's a growing reserve list too! We've got some great classes lined up because The Scrappers Unlimited design team is just fab! Fiona is published in this month's edition of The Scrapbook Magazine, and Julia and Rachel's work has both been requested by a magazine too, so they'll be in future editions.

It's all good!

And (no spoilers) but who saw Desperate Housewives on E4 last night? How dark was that?!! Poor Lynette. Poor Bree. (Great telly though!!!)

In an attempt to avoid being a donkey's bottom...

...and because it's Saturday and the Post Office is now closed...and because the third-place winner of both challenges lives in Swansea...and because I'm dozy and forgot to bring the prizes with me to the crop last night...I'm off over to Kim's house this afternoon with scrapping stash.

Zu...I'm saving yours till you're back from your trip
Fi and Debbie...I'm bringing yours to the South Wales Crop next Saturday
Gill...Monday (I promise!)

The first Swansea Crop was really really fab. There were several new people to meet and get to know which is always a pleasure, and then lots of faces I know and love there too. It's all just happiness really. But in all the madness I forgot to (a) bring my camera and (b) get Susie-Woo to take a photo with her camera. Ruh-roh Shaggy.

And I think Sian's outdoing herself now with this here weather. Right. Off out.

Busy, busy, busy...

...doing South Wales Crop admin, Swansea Crop admin, Gloucester 2 retreat admin (you get the picture). Big wide bum from sitting in front of the pooter all day...

But here's a cartoon I came across that made me laugh out loud.

Later, bloggy peeps.