I’ve been making it a priority to try and do a bit of scrapbooking most days – usually for an hour or so after lunch, and before the girls get home from school.  I’ve also signed up for a few online classes to help get the creative juices flowing. The next one to start is Shimelle’s Learn Something New Everyday. Class hasn’t started yet so there’s still time to sign up.

I’ve decided to use an 8×8 felt album that I had lying around. I have to confess I signed up for the class last year but never actually did any of it. Luckily you only pay once .

In addition to working on the trip album I’ve been doing some other layouts as well.

I’ve been going through my ideas folder so this next one is a scraplift from Gretchen. Love that girls style .

… I’ve started to get back into scrapbooking. I really missed but after not doing any for over 2 months I’ve found it very hard to get started again. So I’ve made myself sit and do at least one (simple) page a few day this last week.

And today I made a start of the 1,200 photos I printed from our trip .

It’s another beautiful day so it was somewhat reluctantly that set off this morning for the 90 min drive to Culloden.

We arrived around 11am. First up we went through the visitors center. It’s well set out but was a bit too much reading for the girls. The short 360 deg movie showing what the battle was like was really good and bought tears to my eyes. We saw a presentation which was really good and probably more helpful to the girls.

We then went out to the battlefield where we took the audio tour.

It wasn’t as moving as it’s been the last two times here but I’m not sure whether it was because of the weather (last time it was gloomy) or the audio tour (as opposed to the live guide) or just that we had the girls! It was still good though and very sad to think of all the lives lost in the battle and the subsequent end to the traditional highland way of life.

We had lunch at the cafe, where Amy spotted a Goldie.

Christy sat at the special kids table.

I had a lovely salad.

followed by the sharing of Mars Bar Slice.

Next we drove to Fort George (getting a little lost along the way).

This was SO much bigger than we’d expected. Another audio tour told us the main points of this still working barracks (thought the Scots Watch are currently in Kenya).

We also saw a show about the life of a soldier – and amazingly it was same guy from the Glen Coe demonstration. He even picked on Christy again and when we checked with him at the end of the show that it was indeed him he remembered her giggly .

We left here at 4.30pm and drove to Aviemore and on to Rothiemurchus Estate where we are staying for the next 3 nights. It is not what I had expected. It is HUGE and the campground a little more rustic that I’d thought. At first I thought we were in the wrong campground .

Once the initial disappointment was over it really is a nice park – full of  trees and streams.

And thankfully, I have internet again so am able to blog the last few days.

I’ve been feeling a bit poorly the last few days – so has Kevin – so not much has been happening around here. To keep you from getting too bored I thought I’d share some recent layouts.

Goodness my handwriting has gotten messy…

Wasn’t I a chubby baby? And my Mum & Dad so young…

Today I did a layout from an old Big Picture Scrapbooking class run by the lovely Gretchen (I’m re-doing all the lessons). The prompt today led me to create a layout about my favourite musican EVER – The Boss – Bruce Springsteen.

I’m so happy with how it turned out and that I now have documented my love for The Boss. I first heard Dancing in the Dark back in 1984 and became an immediate fan. I quickly purchased the Born in the USA album plus his entire back list – on cassette tape . I love loads of his songs but my favourite would be Born to Run. I had posters up all over my teenage bedroom and had a big crush on his guitarist Nils Lofgren .

I still buy every album that comes out and still love his sound. I’ve been lucky enough to see him in concert 3 times. The first back in 1985 at the height of his popularity. My Mum got us tickets and it was the very first concert I ever went to. We were way at the back but it was still fantastic. The next time was a  solo acoustic tour at the Capital Theatre and the last time in Brisbane (we were on holiday) – I went by myself and had the best night – dancing away in the 10th row (on the floor). Hope he tours here again one day. If you ever get the chance go see him – he’s a legend!

I’ve been having fun in the scrapbook room – now that it’s all tidy and organised and I’ve got new goodies to play with .

Yes, that’s what I’ve been named on the fantastic blog – Crafty Storage. Go check it out!

Look what arrived in the post today…

The three identical albums are for our UK trip – don’t know how I’m going to keep it to just three albums when I usually need an album per week for an overseas trip!!

Then later today I had a whole lot of Creative Memories tape runner refills delivered. So I’m guessing you should be seeing some layouts over the next few weeks .

I’ve been working on going through everything in the scrapbook room the last couple of weeks and getting rid of old products that I’m just not going to use. I’ve tried to be fairly ruthless and have a box full of stuff to donate. Doing this has made me realize a lot of my stuff doesn’t get used because I can’t see it so I’ve re-organised my room yet again and decided to make a new purchase – which arrived today.

And it is everything I’d hoped. Here’s my main work area before…

and after with my new love….

These new drawers are way better than what I had before. And I was able to empty what was left (after the declutter) of two my drawers into these new drawers. I think the fact that I can see everything so easily will really help me get things onto layouts – which is why we buy them afterall. I found quite a few items I had totally forgotten about .

I moved all the boxes of stamps over to the ladder…

and organised all my prettys .

I need to finish sorting through photos then the room will be 100% done – just in time for my new goodies (ordered from the USA) to arrive so I can start playing once more.

Not anything exciting or important to blog about today so I thought I’d share some more layouts that I’ve done recently. The first 3 are for Shimelle’s class and the last two for the Got Sketch class.