An explained absence

I haven't updated my blog for a while as I've been really busy getting things ready for the Hitchin Craft and Farmer's Market which is on the last Saturday of every month.

I was a little worried about getting everything ready as I had put all of my stock into The Willow Room so it was like starting all over again. I didn't think that it would look very good as it was all woolies with no cards or button badges but I had some really nice compliments.

People keep on asking me whether I teach crochet or knitting and I'm really thinking about starting up a class. I'm not sure where I could do it but it's going to have to be somewhere with plenty of tea and cakes on hand! :-) x

School's out!

Yay! Its the weekend and I can finally catch up on some sleep :-) I always forget how hard the first week back is.

All in all its been a good week - the class have settled in well, I'm managing to keep on top of my deadlines so far, I have lost 3lbs in my first week at Slimming World AND I have just completed my fourth layout (and final lesson) of the Up and Running course at jesssicasprague.com.

I am *so* pleased that I decided to do this class. A lot of the stuff I did already know from fiddling about previously with free downloads but there were so many tips and tricks that I didn't know, as well as lots of downloads and freebies to add to my digitial stash - including the amazing bunting on this layout. Oh my goodness I love it!! It will defintely be appearing on many more layouts as well as the really cute tea cups I have downloaded from here.

Lessons in learning

Still loving my Jessica Sprague lessons but boy am I tired!

First two days back at school and I am drained - will have to try and remember that this must be what my class feel like too. I've been making silly mistakes with my typing, forgetting where I have saved things, closing down the wrong windows... its hard to learn when you're tired.

Its hard not to take things for granted

I'm loving my photoshop lessons - its so exciting learning something new!

It was the first day back at school today and there were nerves and excitement in the air. There's something so nice about a fresh start.

A new class. A new year. A new beginning.

Not to mention the new shoes, lunchboxes, pens, notebooks and pencil cases to show off - that's very exciting too!

You don't always have pictures of your favourite memories

I've decided that really if I have any hope of trying to get scrapbooking in my life its going to have to be done digitally. With the house up for sale and most of my craft materials safely packed away in storage there really is no other way of me expressing my creative side and I really need that outlet as its back to work tomorrow and who knows when I'll have the time or energy to explore, compute and create around what I have learnt.

Anyhoo...I have decided that I really am going to learn something this September and enrolled myself on the Up & Running With Photoshop - Beginning Digital Scrapbooking course on www.jessicasprague.com


I have played with photoshop before and was surprise at how easy it was to fudge my way through through uing forums and google to find out what I needed to know in order to put a simple layout together. I found Shabby Princess *really* useful for this. Having decided that digital scrapbooking is the way forward for me I thought I should learn how to use photoshop properly and so far I have completed two layouts following the simple instructions - no actually creativity yet as I 'm just using quick page templates but I have learnt a lot of things I didn't know. Unfortunately the main thing I have discovered is that I don't take enough photographs - looking through my photo folders I was really disappointed at the poor choice I had. I think learning how to take better photographs should be my next project!

What have I learnt so far?

Yesterday I learnt that I need to make time for myself.

I spent some time yesterday looking around the forum for Learn Something New Today and realised that by not fully taking part in both of the last two Shimelle classes that I signed up for I have missed out on learning some new skills, meeting new people and most importantly making some time for myself in the hectic schedule of work and general everyday life.

Today I learnt that big journeys start with small steps.

Today I decided to rejoin Slimming World. I have joined three times in the last three years and been to three different groups! What’s going to be different this time? I am not sure but there’s no point in looking back and meditating on failure, this month is all about learning something new right? So today I learnt that there is no point in sitting and thinking I’d like to lose weight I actually have to take steps to make it happen.