Missing

The boy is in India. Again. We're just over half way through his 5 week stint now. I know I shouldn't complain. After all it is only 5 weeks. And we can skype and Google chat almost every day. I know in that way we're lucky, some people have to deal with much worse - like people with loved ones in the Army, but lets be honest, it pretty much sucks.


Yes, true, the plus side of it is that I can eat pop tarts for breakfast, lunch and dinner {but that wouldn't be the action of a sane person would it?} and leave my sewing machine out for days, and watch chick flicks on Anytime whenever I want - but I miss him. A lot. 
Especially in the middle of the night when I wake up {I don't sleep well alone},  And I think a little more this time than usual because I have been home all day for the last few weeks too.  


But I have been trying to be proactive with this time alone - I am painting the hallway {seriously, the painting of this house never stops} I am planning the launch of an etsy shop, I am designing invites for friends, I am teaching my body to run again and I am learning to enjoy the time alone. 


*Things I wish he was here for - my second interview, valentines, my nanna's funeral last week, starting my new job next week & helping me figure out how to paint the hallway ceiling!

3hundredand65

"Cephalopod stroked Cope's chin with a tentacle. "You need a shave, mate. Here, have a cuppa". A moment's pause before the whirlwind resumed. ...Ginger nut, and enough sugar to make the spoon stand straight up." From Feb 18th's part of the story! 

I have just found out about this amazing twitter story project - 3hundredand65. Its basically a story told through a series of tweets by different people, that are then illustrated and put on the site. So far the story is kind of odd, but the images are amazing.  You can get involved just by choosing a day from their calendar to join in and tweet your bit of the story. And it's all to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.  

Winning

A couple of weeks ago, on a whim, I entered a few of my Holga shots into a Facebook Lomo competition run by a cool little shop near by, Kuji. I thought nothing more of it until I saw on one of their Facebook updates I had won. I know. WTF? I won. 

This is my shot - the theme was 'Earth, Wind & Fire'

And as it was a Lomo competition, I won a new Lomo camera - A Coloursplash. It comes with a whole bunch of colour filters for the flash and a book! Which is ace as I don't have a 35mm lomo. 

And one of the best bits is it comes from one of my favourite local shops - Kuji. The sell some uber cool clothing from local designers, loads of Lomo gear and really stunning jewellery. 

Project Life

I decided at the end of last year I wanted to do Project Life, but here in the UK it didn't go on sale until the 2nd Feb, so I couldn't start it at the beginning of the year like most people do. And since I have my list that run birthday to birthday, I thought that maybe it might be better to do Project Life birthday to birthday, {which was still before the kits went on sale, but I figured that it would be easy enough to make up a couple of weeks.} 
Finally, after waiting for the kits to go on sale, and then waiting for then to clear customs, and then waiting for them to ship I got my kit last week. 


So, here is my start on Project Life - Here is my 31st year.

And I have been working hard these last few days to figure out how I want it all to look beyond the title page and I am sure my style will change over time, but here are my first few pages. I don't know if I'll be using embellishments {as I don't have them} but I will be using it as a space to keep momento's and the likes. 
Right, on with my completed pages so far;

 My 31 things before 32 list and a few little bits from my birthday. Some birthday cards, and a little reminder of my day. 

 Week 1 - our week in Deux Alpes. Some photo's from the week, my lift pass and a piste map, my favourite ever Burton Advert from the mid 90's and little envelope I made with a bunch of momento's in it. 

The logistics- I have decided to to run it Sunday - Saturday - then I can work on it on a Sunday {during the football!}. I am planning on doing one page a week - I know a lot of people do 2 pages, but I think one page a week I think will be fine for me. Maybe some weeks might stretch it if I've had a holiday or a trip, but most weeks it'll just be one. I also have a little book that I have scribbled little layouts in that has a little space for notes too. 


My Kit - I have the Amber Core Pack {that's all that was available in the UK}. The Type A page protectors. This folder from Hobbycraft. I also have a whole load of downloaded cards. I am using a combo of my Canon Selphy CP730 photo printer and my HP 3050A printer/scanner/copier to print, and a corner rounder from Hobbycraft, but I can't find it on the site. 
You can see all my Project Life posts here.

Meeting, Making and Eating Herman

Have you met Herman?
No? 
Well, Herman is a sour dough 'friendship cake' who seems to be popping up all over the place - you feed him, look after him, share him and then bake him.
I'd never heard of him before the boy's mum gave us one when we returned from snowboarding, but my mum tells me they were everywhere in the 80's. So much so she got sick of 'feeding' and baking them and one ended up down the loo. Nether the less, this was our first Herman experience so we brought him home, stirred him and fed him for 10 days. 
And this week I got to bake him. 
I mixed up the recipe I was given a little - it seemed too dry, and I am not a fan of dry cake mix, so I added extra vanilla {I never measure vanilla essence, more slosh it in} and a few glugs of milk. And it doesn't seem to have done any harm to the cake. I did follow the boy's mums instructions and cooked the cake for slightly longer than it said, which made the cakey bit better, but burnt the edges slightly, so it doesn't look as pretty as it might. 

I packaged Herman up for my friends in little food containers in lieu of anything more bowl like as I had them lying about - I bought them in a fit of 'lets give people leftovers' for a dinner with my friends. {Clearly I hadn't met my friends before. As if there would be food left over!} I made a little fold out booklet with the instruction to go with it. 

If you fancy making a cake, or starting a chain of your own - I've found this post on how you start the process. 

The Meal

Have you heard about 'The Meal'?
It's a photo project that wants everyone to take a picture of what they are eating at 12noon EST {which is 5pm GMT} on the 24th February, print it and send it to the guys at The Art House Co-op in New York. 
How much fun would that be to see? Although at 5pm I am usually so hungry that I'd eat anything in sight so I best make sure it's not something shit like a piece of Soreen or a yoghurt!

January

January's Shuttercal. 

January was a month of birthdays and cakes and soup and random house parties and dog sitting and snowboarding and cheese and cheese and cheese. 

{In case you're not familiar with Shuttercal, it is a fab site you can easily store your 365 pictures on - you just upload them to the site on the right day. The great thing is I can just upload from my android phone to the site - And there is an Iphone app too! And if you fancy it you can get the shots printed - they come with a cool shoebox to store the year in!}