The life and times of Libby Withnall

On Friday afternoon I headed off for a scrapbooking weekend. I didn’t have far to go and in just 20mins I had arrived.

The beach was just minutes from where we stayed but I didn’t venture there again. For some reason I took very few photos this weekend – very strange for me. Mel and Jody were already getting set up when I arrived so I quickly got unpacked and settled and got to work. A while later another of their friends had arrived and we headed for dinner at a Thai restaurant. No photos (what the?) but a lovely meal. I was even adventurous and even ordered a penang curry.

The rest of the weekend was a combination of scrapbooking, chatting, playing on the i-pad (which Kevin kindly delivered to me on Sat morning), eating, scrapbooking, chatting, drinking tea and more eating. We were totally spoil with the food. Just check out what I ate.

Cupcakes by Jody

A vegetarian cesear salad

and an amazing Indian dinner, complete with horrific India travel stories told by Jody & Mel. I won’t go into detail but let’s just India has moved considerably DOWN the travel list.

Two delicious indian curries made just for me. Thankfully some of my table mates were keen to share.

Now, you might wonder why this post is titled Half Weekend Away. Well, even before I headed off on Friday afternoon I’d been thinking of not going so I could spend some time with Kevin. With him being away so much of late it seems like I’ve not spent any quality time with him. So I decided to head home after dinner on Saturday night so we could spend Sunday together. What a sap am I? It’s not like me at all but I really was missing him. I’m glad I went though. I got lots of pages done, had a blast chatting and laughing with Mel and Jody.

I was so bad with the photo taking I only got one of Mel & I – and that was because she thought to get one. Mel & Jody – if you managed to get a photo together can you please send me a copy?

and now I get to spend a day with Kevin as well. The best of both worlds I’d say.

It’s been a pretty quiet week so far with the girls back at school so I thought I’d share some more of the layouts I’ve been working for LOAD. I’m really enjoying the challenge of this class and it’s definitely been taking me out of my comfort zone and getting me to try new things.

Yes, yes, I know, I seem to always be tidying up the scrapbook room. But this time I did some major reorganising and tried to be ruthless with getting rid of old products.

Before:

After: Under the desk looks messier as the extra containers are the ones full of stuff to give to the kids or donate. I’m also on the lookout for some extra storage that will fit nicely under there.

A close up …before…

and after…

Before …still need to go through the drawers and cupboard… I got rid of the tub (which stored stickers by theme – now in clear trays in the photo above. Also moved the letter stickers (above).

After….the embellishment drawers got moved off my main work area.

Before….

And after….bought all five purple boxes that Office Works had in stock and hope I can pick up some more (and relocate the baskets)

I’m so much happier with how this looks – it had gotten too cluttered. Now I’m inspired to get on with my UK album – I’m up to Scotland now .

Okay, I’m doing a combined post today about two classes I’m currently taking. The first is LOAD (layout a day). I’m really enjoying the challenges and so far have completed 3 out of the 3 days.

The second class is Picture Spring. I actually bought this class 6 months ago and have been waiting for Spring to come along (in Australia) do the photo prompts. But this morning I got an e-mail to say that BPC are offering this class as a self paced class – meaning you can start at any time. So wish I’d know this was going to be an option as instead of the daily e-mail coming into my inbox I have to go check out the achieves to get my prompt for the day. And I’ve also already paid for Summer and Fall!!! Oh, well live and learn. Here are the photos so far.

Day 1 – Beginnings

Day 2 – part of morning routine (I’ve photographed my morning tea making so much I thought I’d do something different)

Day 3 – 30 steps from where your camera lives

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 .