Photo Freedom

I have been reading Stacy Julian's 'Photo Freedom', and have decided to give it a go! I have been meaning to get all the old photos out of the sticky albums for ages. So I gathered them all up in the dining room, ordered some photo albums and inserts from Arrowfile, and proceeded to empty the old albums into the new, acid free, archival ones! It is taking forever! It is a job you need to do in small bursts, otherwise it is really tedious, and sometimes depressing!

However, I am up to the end of the 1990s now! (Except that I found an album with a mix of late 90s in it, but it won't take long to slip them inbetween.)

Once I have them all in albums, I am going to go through and decide which photos I am likely to scrapbook. The ones I am not going to do anything with can go into 'cold storage', and then I have a Creative Memories Powersort box, that I will file photos in subject categories, instead of chronological order. I had already started to do this some months ago before reading SJ's book, so it feels right for me. I love the idea of being able to make 'connections' between photos over time. For example, I found one of the chimney of Shoreham power station being blown up, then one of the new power station. I can feel a LO coming on!



So the idea is not to have chronological albums, but albums such as People, Places, Things we do etc.

This system is going to take a long time to get going properly, but I am enjoying the journey! I have discovered some real gems along the way, and some really awful photos too! And I have even stopped and created a couple of LOs. More about them tomorrow!

crafting at last!

Look at the state of my dining room! This is my dining room table which I work on. I literally have like a postage stamp spce to work on!!! The yellow scrapagogo box is supposed to have things in it that I must use up, that's why it is on my table, but I am afraid to say I very rarely use anything in it!










This view is from the dresser. What a mess! You don't want to see the floor!

















I did make a few cards this week. I have loads of birthdays in August.

Using these fab Paper Artsy stamps and distress inks. I just love the style of these stamps, and the little houses! I love the bright colours of the distress inks too. Although I probably shouldn't put so many of them on one background!

I made this card for my friend Claire. It was her birthday on Sunday and I still haven't got it to her! One reason is that I don't know her house number, or else I could have posted it to her! Anyway, it is 2 stamps from Tanda Stamps summer set, whch I absolutely love!

Finally these stamps are from Oxford Impressions. They are mostly photo stamps, like old vintage photos, but they are very difficult to stamp nicely! More practice needed I think! More distress inks on the background.

woohoo 3 days in a row!

GCSE results today. GCSE results today! Lucy did really well! A* for PE, A for food tech, 6 Bs 3 Cs, and a C in A/S art which she took in 1 year. (She already has art GCSE (B) , and 1 science (B)!!!) So proud of her!!!

She is doing really well this summer. She has been working really hard to earn enough money to go to Spain again with Tom and his family. It is a long story, but they want to go again to spread Tom's stepmother's mother's ashes in Spain. We told her she would have to pay, and so she has worked every time she has been able to. Consequently she hasn't been bored, and we have not had many arguments.

I'm back!

I am going to try and update this more often, especially with crafty things!! (We'll see how long it lasts LOL)

Craft projects I have on the go atm:
CJ - last of the Holiday CJ I organised on UKS. Unfortunately one of the Cjs got lost in the post, but luckily has reemerged a couple of months later, so I must do my entry for it, then I can rate everyone and close the CJ
Shimelle class - My Freedom. I made a great start on this, and completed 5 LOs. I want to get back to this and finish it soon.
Birthday cards. August is a really busy month for birthdays!
Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one now, more about ths later.
BPS classes. I have only managed to print out the prompts for 52 card pick up (52 techniques) and I think I have enrolled for another class starting soon!

I think that's all for now. But of course as I go through my photos loads more ideas pop into my head! Must write them down!!

Dad 16-08-1934 to 04-08-2008

Sad to report that Dad finally passed away 2 weeks ago on August 4th. He died very peacefully at home whch was where he wanted to be, surrounded by his friends and family. At the actual moment of death it was just me and Mum, with soft lights and soft music. Couldn't have been better! He is at peace now, and he is no longer suffering pain and disease.

However, we will miss him terribly! It hits me every so often when I think I'll ask him something, or show him something! He and Mum are my biggest fans of my scrapbooking- they would pore over my scrapbooks and look at every detail! I want to make a scrapbook of Dad's life - in fact, that is my only regret, that I didn't have time to do it with him in his final days. In the end his passing was quite quick - we thought we would have him for a few more weeks.

The funeral went off very well, it was a lovely day with loads of friends and family. Dad's sister made a big effort to come down from birmingham, as did 2 of Mum's brothers. Dad's 3 closest cousins came (they lived with them in WW2 when they were bombed out!) Loads of old colleagues came, as did quite a few friends from the British Polio Fellowship. Mum and Dad helped with the local branch for over 40 years. The vicar was tremendous, she caught the essence of Dad so well in her eulogy! She spent a long time with all of us over several days, and made us feel we were the only people in her world at that time. Afterwards at Mum and Dad's bungalow, it seemed like a real celebration of Dad's life! Although we would have liked him to live for a few more years (he was only 73), he did have a good long life, and it is not a tragedy for us. Mum and I realised that today as we went round Lancing cemetary to see if we would like his ashes buried there. There are too many people who die young, leaving young children and wives to cope alone.

We now have to help Mum to cope with her grief. We need to be patient with her, and not hurry her through the process. She is not used to doing things on her own, which does make it more difficult for her. She will miss him terribly, as we all will

RIP Dad. We have so many good memories to cherish.