That 70s Show

I absolutely love this picture.  I know that it can't really be the 70s because I'm at least 3 here but everything from my Mum's hair and the chunky pottery on the cabinets to my Dad's pint mug and massive watch is so deliciously retro in black and white, I feel like  English Heritage should just be able step in and list this moment in time.

My Dad used to lecture at an agricultural college and around Christmas each year, he invited his students to come to the house for festive celebrations.  I remember being hurried to bed that evening so my parents could get everything ready and lying awake hearing the knocks on the door as people started to arrive.  Never one to sleep through a good party, I think I must have been woken later on by the general sounds of merriment and I remember insisting that both Green Geoffrey and I be allowed out to say hello to everyone and join in the fun  One of the students must have taken this picture and given it to my Dad which is how it found its way into the family annals until it was liberated in honour of my 30th birthday. 

It's capturing and recording everyday moments like this which is the reason I photograph and scrapbook.  If this picture hadn't been taken, then the memory of that night might never have resurfaced and that's why I think it's so important to capture life's ordinary and extraordinary moments before they slip away for good.  In the end, what else do we have to show for our lives except a collection of memories to relive from our arm chairs in the old folks home and I want to make sure I have more than enough to keep me going well into my twilight years.

This picture and so many like it, deserve layouts all of their own.

Filling in the Blanks

So what's been going on?  Christmas was merry, gorgeous, relaxing and involved all the sleeping, chocolate and amaretto one could want.  We spent Christmas day at home (breaking with the tradition of a full day of pyjama wearing by getting dressed before we even opened our presents) and then went up to Wiltshire on Boxing Day to catch up with family and friends.  The big news of the festive season was my homegirl Anna turning up to our festive catch up with a diamond on her finger, courtesy of the lovely Thomas which obviously caused much excitement in the ranks and provided yet another reason to hit the sparkling stuff.  It also means that I get to be a bridesmaid not just once but twice over the next 18 months, weddings are clearly like buses so I can't wait to find out who's going to be on the next one.

As you'll clearly already know due to my self pity, whining, whinging, moaning and complaing, a lot of the Christmas break was taken up with lots of essays and revision.  While it was basically awful,  it's over for this round and with just one more set of modules to go, it'll be all over soon and perhaps one day my rose tinted glasses will fall into place and I'll look back on this fondly.  Or maybe not.

2010 got off to pretty much the worst start possible when we had to make a very difficult decision about my soul mate in cat form, Sophie.  She'd been poorly and not eating properly all the way through Christmas and despite our best efforts to get her teeth opperated on (in case that was the problem) and feeding her with a syringe for the best part of a month, in the end we had to let her go.  I still don't really believe that the cleverest and most beautiful cat in the world is no longer with us.  I wake up most days expecting to be greeted by her angry (she was always grumpy in the mornings) miaow and as soon as I get in from work, I automatically look at her old spot on the sofa.  There'll never be another cat like Sophie and while I feel to privileged to have known her, it doesn't make it any easier to live without her.

I am clearly the queen of bringdowns so sorry about that.  I'd better finish with my first couple of layouts of 2010 made using the weight of Go Go kits which I'd not had time to use which threatened to crush me during the massive tidy up of the scrapbooking stuff (among other things) cupboard  over the festive period.

Dawson's Geek

You know, I've been finding getting back on the various wagons quite difficult this year and therefore I am seriously considering adopting failure as a way of life. 

As soon as Christmas was over, I knew I should shake off the chocolate induced malaise and get the hell on with my revision work and yet, because I am able to procrastinate at a professional level, I put it off and then put it off a bit more until the very real possibility of actually failing my exams finally made me spring into (bad tempered) action. In the week following the exams I was very keen to get the house in order and finally clear away the remaining Christmas debris, but somehow I never got round to it and so there are still paper chains up in the dining room and I strongly suspect there is 1/2 a nut roast at the back of the fridge. Even this weekend, I've really wanted to throw myself back into scrapping and blogging and generally wafting about the place pretending to be one of those bohemian creative types but in reality, I've been feeling a bit rusty and self concious which means I have actually had to force myself sit down and do it rather than waitingg for actual inspiration.

Of course never one to take responsibility for my own failings, I think a big part of the problem lies with one of my Christmas presents and so I place the blame firmly at Santa Claus's door. You might remember that back in September when I was learning something new everyday, I found that Dawson's Creek has stood the test of time and so after dropping a series of (elephantine) hints I was very happy to find this in my stocking (not literally, it's pretty huge and would have compromised the integrity of the elastic) on Christmas morning:

That's right, 34 discs of Dawson's Creek lushness and I am loving every minute of it.  There have been a lot of minutes so far even though I've only just reached the halfway point this weekend, and that's with an average viewing schedule of between 3 and 4 episodes a day.  However, when I finally managed to pull myself away from the television to tidy the kitchen this afternoon, my shuffling iPod gave me a bit of wake up to call as to what my life has become.

Busted's song (has it really been 5 whole years since they split?) Dawson's Geek is all about someone obsessed with the all things Capeside and while the entire song had a certain apt-ness for my current lifestyle, the line that prompted me to smile wryly to myself was 'naming your dog Pacey was taking things a little too far'. This very morning I was sitting on the sofa musing to myself whether I could persuade Alistair to consider naming out first born child Pacey when the time came and while I concluded probably not, I though I might be able to get away with it for a dog or a cat at some point in the future.

So there we have it. I am officially a loser (after all, you can't of missed the fact that I still have Busted on my iPod!). Hopefully I'll be back in a couple of days with an update as to what I've been up to whilst on hiatus (apart from revising and watching DVDs), but in the meantime here are a couple of layouts made with a combination of SBK's December and January kits which seem a little irrelevent now Christmas is technically ages away.

Almost There

Avast ye festive lubbers, what the hell happened to December?  I'm still just about keeping my head above water university work wise, normal work wise and Christmas preparation wise, but at the expense of cleaning, scrapping, blogging and relaxing.

I did however want to squeeze in one last post before Friday to say happy Christmas to everyone - I've a feelling it's going to be a really great one actually.  I haven't felt this festive in years (I thought to myself as I sat on my sofa last night drinking Babysham through a straw and eating Chocolate Orange segments) and now all the shopping (food and present) is complete, there's only a this afternoon and tomorrow morning left to do at work and everything is all but wrapped, there's nothing left to do but bask in wondeful relaxing, chocolate-y, amaretto-y, present-y joy of the season.

This is probably the last time I'll be able to check in before the 14th January (when my exam is) so have a wonderful time and I'll see you on the otherside...

It's Going to be a Big One

I know, I know, Christmas isn’t even here yet and I’m already thinking about 2010 but there’s going be a lot happening and am getting very excited about lots of it already. Sorry to do another list style post but ½ my life seems to involved working on one list or another at the moment and I’ve got rather good at them (if I do say so myself) so here goes:

1) After I hand in my assignments in January, there’s only one more set of work to hand in in May and then I’m all done with the teaching part of my Masters. The big dream would be to finish and be able to hand in my dissertation in November and be completely done by this time next year. Here’s to freedom (and qualifications!).

2) Obviously the wedding in September is going to be massive and I’m so excited about that and everything that goes with it, but I also predict that the hen weekend which we’ve been pulling together this week is going to be pretty amazing. However, as it’s going to be a surprise I shall say no more at this time (you’ll get no clues here Miss Harper).

3) Following on from that, it’s also going to be a big year for birthdays with both my best friends catching me up and turning 30. I am obviously (and perhaps selfishly) very happy about this as it means that I won’t feel so old anymore, but it also means that we’ll have lots of practice munching cake and quaffing champagne before September rolls around.

4) Now this one may be slightly sad, but I’m waiting on the edge of my seat for Eclipse (Twilight) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, both of which will be out next year in June and November respectively.

5) Last but not least, going on holiday *sigh*. We so enjoyed the sunshine in Greece this year, we’re planning to go to France in June and re-visit a campsite I have very happy memories of in the Dordogne to hopefully lie in the sun, eat (not too much) cheese, read lots of books and splash around in the river. I can’t wait, it’s going to be so relaxing.

You see? I told you. It's going to be massive and now we're on the downhill slope towards Christmas (less than 20 days - eeek), it's going to here faster than we can say happy new year!

Ups and Downs

Things have been a bit up and down here on Walton's Mountain lately and I'm starting to get slightly dizzy from all the changes in direction.  I think the lack of chocolate may be getting to me...(see point 5.)

Things I Want to Increase:

1. The length of my hair and nails - I'm taking these Holland and Barrett suplements called 'Skin Hair and Nails Formula' which are huge and taste discusting even when you wash them down with huge amounts of water.  One of these days I'm actually going to throw up on my keyboard so any recomendations for alternatives would be greatly received.

2. How much I understand Travel Demans Analysis - I have an exam on the 15th January and although I'm super organised with my revision timetable, I really don't understand all the complicated equations.  Still haveing to refer to the instructions each time I use my scientific calculator has got to be a bad thing.

3. My bank balance - I completed my Christmas shopping yesterday so I am quietly smug about that, while also being left somewhat financially challenged.  Luckily I have my clubcard vouchers to buy lots of Chritsmassy treats from Tesco otherwise it might be spaghetti hoops on toast on Christmas day!

4. Time for scrapping - Sadly, all the scrapping stuff in the dining rooms has been piled onto the piano to make way for tedious text books and revision cards.  I hope to get a bit in before Christmas, but am finding it very frustrating.

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Things I Want to Decrease:

5. How much I weigh - This is the big focus at the moment and I'm bouncing around on my Wii Fit and scribbling in my food diary everytime I even look at a cake for too long so I will look pretty in my bridesmaid dress next September .  Currently, there are 292 days until the wedding and so I have plenty of time but as I plan to have Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day off, I need to get ahead of myself as much as possible.

6. The amount of clutter in my house - Honestly, I cannot understand how other people manage to keep their houses looking so lovely all the time.  I lurch from one mad panic because visitors are coming to another and I wish that I could have a tranquil organised house to come home to everyday.  I need a cleaner, or even better to give up work and stay home being a house wife.  God, I'd love that.  Truly.

7. How quickly time is passing - Isn't it the end of September?  No?  Well early October then? Oh.  Where the bloody hell has all that time gone?  While I'm not going to go on about the inevitable passage of time inching us ever closer to the sweet embrace of the crypt (although you know I REALLY want to), I'm not quite liking how fast things are passing me by and not quite ready for it to be Christmas (apart from the shopping!)

Early To Bed

My goodness, the time is just flying by at the moment. I feel like I could get travel sickness just by standing still but Alistair's Christmas shopping has been started and so hopefully mine won't be far behind. I'm having a lovely time chilling out at home today in my pyjamas (I know it's early, but I did get properly dressed for a couple a hours earlier but then I went out in the rain and got soaked) after another great but busy weekend.

I saw New Moon on Friday afternoon which was totally amazing, so much better than I thought it would be and even Alistair professed to have enjoyed it. I'm just wondering how long I need to leave it before I suggest going for again, I'm not sure I like my chances. Yesterday I had another flying visit to London to see my homegirls, make exciting wedding plans and begin the hunt for the perfect wedding dress which got off to a strong start.

Anyway, to the important stuff. Check out SBK's fantastic festive blog candy:

And speaking of SBK, here are a couple of layouts I've made with the gorgeous Webster's Pages. The Christmas stuff is particularly beautiful and has a great Victorian look about it which I love so take a tour round their shop if you're interested: