It’s coming!!!

Have been checking older blog posts in the last hour while the Hobbitses are sleeping, and remembered how much fun I had doing Rinda’s Photo Scavenger Hunt 2012!!  And while reading comments to my Scavenger Hunt blog posts and then blog hopping, I found the new link for the 2013 Scavenger hunt!!! YAY!!!

Well… not the list just yet, but the reminder. The hunt will start 1. June, and Rinda will be posting the list and full guidelines the same day.

I really had lots of fun last year, so will definitely take part again – and hope that lots of my friends will take part, too!  

Blame it on the weather…

Been battling with cold bugs again the last 2 months – I blame the girls, who always LOVE sharing cold bugs with me (such nice kids, aren’t they? ), and somehow the bug is always worse with me, like 6 months of dry coughs etc. The weird weather doesn’t really help either!

Been otherwise busy, too, with prepping hubby’s comic & toy mart selling stuff (spending evenings ticketing comic books – 6 boxes of them!) and all in all just not having the urge to blog. BAD!!

Right now in the “rush” to get things sorted for our family visit again, so just short note today while the girls are asleep – we have a PJ day for them (I really should have stayed in mine, too) as we all have runny/stuffy noses and I got headaches to go with it due to interrupted/short nights (Supergirl has nasty cough which *could* be croup – need doctors appointment tomorrow).

I haven’t been doing much scrapping lately, apart from the layout for the Chinese Whisper we run at our crop right now. I bought some things at Sincerely Yours though, including one 3 D-Ring album (my first, YAY!) and several packs of divided page protectors in different ways (I “blame” Shimelle for this). I also saw the first SN@P albums, which I am more partial to using than the SMASH books. Considering getting one (or more) for this year’s JYC.

As for not scrapping much – I really have to get into setting up page kits, but I think my embellies are giving me a headache. It’s still all a jumble in the spare bedroom (which is supposed to be the new study at some point – hopefully before we move it again when the girls want their own rooms!! ), nothing really sorted, and I seem to have problems putting them into page kits or finding the right ones for layouts. Watching some “Glitter Girl” videos right now (the girls LOVE the “theme” music and always come running once I start a new video!) in hope of inspiration.

And I call myself a Scrapbooker?!?!

Mmmh… Interesting statement, that. I *thought* I’m a scrapbooker, but while reading Prompt 3 of Shimelle’s “Cover to Cover” (identifying gaps), I realise I’m not. Maybe a trainee scrapper, but not a scrapbooker.

I’m good at taking PHOTOS for scrapbooking – yet fail to print them regularly to actually SCRAP events

I WAS good at “journalling” when I was a kid (had TONS of diaries – still have them up in the loft), WAS good at blogging up to a point, WAS good at updating Facebook with info that could be used as journalling, or at least as starting points/pointers.

I AM going to crops, just to end up making 1-2 layouts if at all, or a card … all that in about 4-5 hours…  

I HAD sooooo many plans for scrapbooking, paper and digital:

1) Scrap the individual years of the Wolves from 2002 – 2010 (and I managed 2002/2003 fully, but with missing journalling).

2) Scrap the photos I took of the Stirling Clansmen in a photo yearbook so the students/alumni could purchase their own copy.

3) Same plan as above for the Edinburgh Wolves seasons 2004 – 2010.

4) Scrap about my experiences at BritBowl and the friends I/we made there

And that’s just the football related stuff!!

Add to that the usual: Wedding album, Honeymoon, Cruise, regular Holiday (vacation) albums, UK Album for trips away (if needed), My girls’ First year and our “Road to the Twins” struggle of 6 years, Day to day layouts, …

Prior to 2011 I blamed football – my involvement didn’t give me much time to do anything else there.

From 2011 onwards I “could” blame the Twins, but I know it’s not them … it’s actually stupid Facebook games which always draw me in.

Given the time I spend on the games (partly due to Shockwave issues, game issues etc), I think IF I’d organise myself to create page kits etc, I could actually scrap in the evenings while watching TV. Or get more than 1-2 layouts done at crops.

I won’t go cold turkey on the game – I’ve already stopped other games, now I just play ChefVille – but definitely won’t spend as much time anymore. Just to help friends out with their requests …even if it’s very tempting to get that German Restaurant section, the Shanty etc.  

Soooo … that’s the big blurb over now … Now I really need help … how do I do it? Where to start? How to do digital albums?

Any suggestions out there?

Oh … and anyone of my scrapping buddies know of a UK place who sells 12 x 12  3 D Ring albums fairly cheaply?

As for the Prompt 3 bit about gaps: Journalling, pages, photos … all/mostly missing (I ONLY scrapped Wolves layouts in the beginning, plus the odd non-Wolves related layout at Cyber Crops for challenges/classes…

Thanks for listening…

ARrrgh!!! Blimming Shockwave!!!

There we are … Hobbitses are both (!!!) asleep at the same (!!!) time, I’ve got some time to watch Shimelle’s videos on Youtube and play some ChefVille, and what happens? Shockwave happens – or not it seems!!

First I thought it’s all due to Chrome, so I switched back to Firefox, but it seems it’s just crashing anywhere!!! I’ve been putting up with that for the last couple of months, have been disabling/enabling/updating Shockwave etc, but it really royally pi$$e$ me off right now!!

Suggestions/help anyone??

Hoping to get at least some stuff working while the Hobbitses are still asleep, but with my luck they will wake up and demand attention the minute I get things working!!

Sharing with the girls…

Well… more the girls sharing with me … their viral infections that is. I’m really feeling ill, have a racking barking cough, stuffed nose and a headache to boot. Of course can only take the usual for it, and I hate it that I always seem to get the colds worse than the Hobbits! WHY?!?!

They have been “carted off” by their daddy to the grandparents this morning, and I mostly sat on the couch, catching up with my TV shows etc, putting files in the printing basket for Lidl photos (and deleting the basket again, as I want to sort through the photos first).

So, that’s so far it, just a quick update, although I am going to do some back dated blogging for the last 2 weeks I think. Just to keep the blog alive…  

Decided to stay away from the crop tomorrow, too, as I probably wouldn’t get much done with the cough, and I don’t want to pass on whatever I have to others (some of which are like me very susceptible  to picking up colds etc).

Let’s hope having a couple of days without the girls (Doug hopes to go to the zoo with the girls tomorrow to see the Penguins) will get me back onto the feet – until the next cold is coming around…

Google Reader replacement for me…

With Google getting rid of yet another of their programs (really getting fed up with their updates, I for one liked both Reader and iGoogle!!), I had to made a decision, which blog reader to use in future … and decided to go for BLOGLOVIN.

So… if you want to follow me in future and you have a blog reader list, you may want to click on the link below (unless you use Feedly or other).

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

 

PS: Back full strength … that’s 3 blog posts for the day.

Sorting out scrapbooks (to be done)

1) Wedding album (09/2001) – original photos printed
2) Honeymoon album (09/2001 – 10/2001) – printed photos (35mm) in boxes + some photos in CM album, need reprint from negatives
3) Orlando/Florida/Disney albums (several, from 1999 until 2009, printed and digital photos)
4) Chicago/Minnesota/Green Bay album 2002 (?)
5) Several Edinburgh Wolves albums (2002/2003 done, 2004- end of 2009 to be done) – most likely digital album
6) Clansmen albums (2010 – 2011) – Digital
7) Twins first year album – digi photos
8) Germany trips album/s – several, digi and paper photos
9) UK trips – London & Bath plus Scottish destinations
10) “Road to baby/s” album
11) Our Eastern Med cruise in 2007 album
And that’s just the stuff I have so far by skimming through my MASSES of digital photos!!
Annual albums – have to sort through existing layouts for that (from my photos of layouts I realise that I must have an album with layouts somewhere that I haven’t found yet since moving scrap area from now nursery to not yet new study.). Then have to figure out how many pages in the annual albums are ok of the same theme before I am giving the theme its own album?
What DO YOU put in an annual album? Project Life not working for me, so will just do the normal scrapping … but am a bit flummoxed. Have been thinking of “Review of month” pages, too, but haven’t done anything yet. Back to reading prompts on Shimelle’s Cover to Cover forum.

Looking into photos …

My photos are all over the place, not really the best system. Not for back-ups, either. Got photos on my laptop (which are about 95% on either my big PC or the external HDD as well though), lots on my big PC, which are about 75% backed up on the external HDD. And the photos from my new mobile are now on Dropbox, too.

I’m currently looking into getting a photo library software (hopefully free) which lets me add comments to each folder with info as to where/what/who is on the photos. So far I’m not lucky though, shame really. I’m partly using Windows Live Photo Gallery and the other part is Picasa – which software are you using?

Also – while I’ve not been scrapping much in the last 1.5 years, the only layouts I’ve done is about the girls, so getting a bit “fed up” of baby photos (and I haven’t even scrapped much of their first year!). Now had a look at some photos I’ve taken pre-twins, like ALL Florida photos (several trips), our wedding/honeymoon, our cruise in 2007 … unfortunately found that I barely took notes of any of the events. Thought my blog would help me at least with the cruise, but there’s not ONE BIT about it on here. And I don’t think NYC has been much documented, either. Waaaaaaaah!!!

How do you do document bits for scrapbooking? I’m not the best person for running around with notepad and pen in the change bag (partly because I forget, partly because the “Hobbitses” get into pens and paper for either chewing, ripping apart or drawing)… and have to admit that I haven’t been updating my blog much as I’m too fixed on Facebook (and even that doesn’t give me much info on updates).

And how do you deal with your photos? Do you use online backup places? I’m shying away from them because of money at the moment … and the fact that I have TONS of photos … just checked my Picasa web album, and I’ve got lots of football (American) albums there…  

MMmmmh… think I’ll read up a bit on Shimelle’s forum in Cover to Cover for album organisation etc to get some inspirations…

Whooops!!!

Yes, we’re all still alive.

Yes, I am planning to take up blogging again.

No, I can’t promise regular updates on here.

…. I blame Facebook.  

 

Back later this week.