Layouts and Learning

You may recognise the photo in the layout I am sharing with you today. It was my Wordless Wednesday image from last week. Sharing the photo prompted me to actually print it out and create a layout using the photo. I love it when my creative urges work in tandem like that!

I just love this Amy Tangerine paper. I keep saying I don't use much pink which is starting to suggest to me that I use a lot more than I think I do. The pink does match one of the colours in Miss S's leggings so that was enough for me. I used some scraps from a previous layout to layer under the photo. I also added a couple of journalling cards - the ampersand is from the SC Project Life kit and the hidden page clipped under it is a Creative Bubble printable.  I then threw in some vellum die cuts from Studio Calico and a glittery title from the Christmas Add On and called it pretty much done.

I have just started a blogging course to help me organise my blogging process a little better. It is run by Melissa at Momcomm. I do have a vague plan of how things work here but I think the time has come to be a little more focused. I have even set up a twitter account for the blog and when I figure how that all works I will be sharing it with you. 

To be honest, I am feeling a little overwhelmed by the course as some of the people taking part are serious bloggers with huge followings. I am not sure if my little spot in the blogging community is grand enough to be taking part. I have learnt a huge amount already though and I can see some ways that I can improve the blog.

As always I would love to hear from you, my kind readers. Are there things you love or loathe about this blog? I really would value your feedback.

By the way, Geralyn has some gorgeous new printables up this week. I especially love her new neutral set but the Valentines ones are also very cute.

Happy Wednesday!

White Space and a Specialist

This post is a bit of a grab bag of the good, scary and a layout.

I had a wonderful morning tea out with a fellow blogger on Monday! In true hopeless style, I did not take a single picture! I had been following Britney's blog for a while and then she announced she was moving to Singapore. We have kept in online touch since she arrived and finally we managed to meet in real life! It was really great to meet her and her gorgeous children. I love the fact that our blogs have enabled us to meet someone we would never normally come into contact with. We had some lovely pastries at my favourite Tiong Bahru Bakery and a little look around a new neighbourhood for them. I am really looking forward to meeting up with them again soon.

You may have noticed that there have been a few gaps in blogging over the last few weeks. Over the past few months I have really been struggling with stomach issues. I am not going to share too much information but suffice to say that Imodium is my best friend at present. I have seen two doctors and a specialist in the past week or so and we are now at the point of having a colonoscopy. I am all booked in for Monday morning. At the very least I might get some answers about what is going wrong with my whole digestive system. I am trying not to get too worried about it all but I must confess to being more than a little nervous.

Crafting time has been more than a little limited with illness and hubby being away a lot with work of late. I have one new layout to share today.

This layout was inspired by a question Britney asked me when we met up about what I liked about Singapore. This led to me thinking about what I really missed and that is space. Space to run and play for Scarlett and room to breathe for me. I don't usually go monochromatic with my layouts but it just felt right for this topic. I used a little of the Hambly overlay from one of the Summer of 69 add ons and the corrugated letters came from there too. All the pictures are from December last year.

We are already entering the weekend here and it is a very exciting one as the Formula One Night Race happens here this weekend. There is a real buzz around town at this time of year! I am not going but I will enjoy the buzz. Have a lovely weekend!

Simple Summer Sketch

I really enjoy the blog Write Click Scrapbook. I am not a digital scrapbooker but I find the simple approach and wide range of contributors really inspiring.

A few weeks ago Donna Jannuzzi shared a great simple sketch that I filed away.

Here is the sketch.

I had a couple of pictures from a trip to the Chinese Gardens that I wanted to scrap and decided that this sketch would be ideal.

The entry to the gardens is so man made and hard that I thought softer floral based patterns would be the right thing to add a garden feel. These papers from the Sc So Cal add on Malibu, fitted the bill.

I am expecting nearly 150 photos in the mail today from our New Zealand trip in December. I managed to restrain myself from printing all the photos I uploaded to Snapfish! I can't wait to get stuck in with some serious scrapping!

Have a wonderful weekend! Tet is away all next week from Sunday to Saturday so we will be squeezing in a lot of family fun tomorrow to make up for his absence.

Five on a Friday - The Blog Edition

I love my blog. I love sitting down and thinking about what to write and connecting people from all over the world. The Internet is a truly wonderful thing. There are a couple of things that bug me too so this will be a balanced five today... I hope.

1. 14 People who I have never met in real life follow my blog. This is amazing to me. I love the thought that people from all kinds of places are finding at least the occasional interesting thing among my mixed bag of offerings. I have barely mentioned the fact that I blog to people that I know in real life and I have found that to be very freeing. I can truly be me.

2. It is a form of creative expression that I have been missing for a very long time. I always used to write and then I left University and I stopped. I missed it but I did not really have any idea how to bring writing back and I have never been a journal keeper. This has enabled me to write again without any pressure and to remember just how much I love doing it.

3. Generally the blogging world is super supportive. I have found that bloggers are almost all generous with their knowledge, ideas and keen to help new bloggers learn the ropes. There us a real generosity of spirit that is a really pleasant change of pace from the real world.

4. Comments - a double edged sword. I love getting comments on my blog and I love leaving them on other people's blogs that I have enjoyed. My problem is twofold. I am never sure how to respond to the comments left on my blog and I sometimes get overwhelmed sharing the love on all the blogs I read. I always respond if someone asks me a question but I am never sure if I should be individually responding to all the kind messages. I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this as it is something I really struggle with. I am currently following over 100 blogs and I struggle to leave comments even when I really enjoy a post just with the sheer volume of posts I read. 

5. Moving from blogging for love to blogging for profit is a minefield. I am totally not at the point where this could be a consideration but I have seen blogs I love go from creative and interesting places to very commercially driven spaces and it makes me a little sad. I know how much time and effort goes into something as small as mine so I totally understand the need to make the time financially productive but I really wonder if there is a good middle ground. I have seen a couple of bloggers pull right back from their commercial endeavours lately as they just do not feel right about the way their blog has changed. I think it may just be an extension of the work life balance conundrum. Is there ever a happy middle ground?

I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on blogs generally or some of the points I have raised here. Have a very happy weekend wherever you are.