Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010!

Well not quite, but only a few more hours to go and 2009 will be a thing of the past!
I achieved many of my goals in 2009, although there are a couple that will be carried forward to the year ahead.
It's been a busy year -

• we bought our first home together and moved in
• we took on the challenge of being responsible parents to 3 gorgeous kitties lol!
• I finished my first year of work & training and began year 2
• scrapbooking wise I enjoyed working for Scrapbook Inspirations and Sarah's Cards, and enjoyed a number of trips away with wonderful scrappy friends
• we enjoyed the weddings of several family & friends
• we took a much needed holiday & finally got diving again

With so much going on the year has flown by, and I have a funny feeling that 2010 is going to whizz on past too. With that in mind (and in the style of the lovely SJ) I have a word for 2010:

Indulge

This isn't about being luxurious or self-absorbed, but it is about making time for myself & doing the things I enjoy. It's about reward for work - if I spend my time doing something necessary but boring, I reward myself for it by allowing myself to chill out for the next hour. It's about learning skills to make my house an inviting ones - baking, quilting & decorating are 3 that spring to mind! It's about slowing time down, immersing myself in the moment and savouring the little things.

A very happy new year to you!

December Sarah's Cards kit!

Perfect for both snowy and non-snowy pics lol!
Here are my pages - apologies for the horrendous light, much as I love winter I do not love the lack of good quality daylight!

So Christmas is almost upon us - are you ready?
I have done the last of my wrapping this morning. Sadly I will be off to work this afternoonn until midnight, and same again tomorrow. Still, at least I get Christmas day morning at home. It will be very strange not seeing all the family at Christmas though.

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Tranquility

Taking photos underwater is so hard to get right so I was pleased with this shot on holiday earlier in the year! It's all fairly self explanatory really lol!
I used papers by We R Memory Keepers, letters & badge by American Crafts, stickers by Scenic Route, flowers by Prima and journalling spot by Elle's Studio.

So I started work in A&E a couple of days ago and am loving it so far! It's a total change to ward work, completely different way of working, but it's great. It's a good job I'm enjoying it because I don't have a day off for another couple of weeks lol!

Being the on-call for general surgery the alst week has kept me busy, so I haven't had time for blogging, but thats all done now and I have finished general surgery whoop whoop! I'm pleased to move onto something new - surgery is not the career I want, and although everything is useful and interesting to a degree, 4 months has been plenty lol! I move onto A&E now and I'm quite excited about it - I think I'll quite enjoy it! Before that I have a few days off, so I'm making the most of it, although the list of household jobs is growing ever longer and the pile of washing is slowly taking over the spare room!

Still working my way through all the layouts I've done recently - here's another one for you :)

I wish....

Underwater photos are so difficult to scrap - basically there is blue, blue and some more blue lol! The idea for this page started off with the cute Cosmo Cricket Snorkel range, and when I saw this banner I knew it had to be my title! I also used Bazzill Kraft & Swiss Dots, Prima flowers, Hambly overlay, Scrap 'Em journalling spot, October Afternoon tag & My Minds Eye mini alphabet.

Best girlies

This is a layout about another of my favourite groups of girls - my school friends. We spent a weekend up in the Yorkshire Moors back in June, and went for a lovely (and exhausting!) walk down to a stunning river & waterfall. At the bottom we had a little impromptu photo shoot and came away with this lovely group shot. I used lots of October Afternoon 'Cherry Hill', along with some Doodlebug glitter cardstock & scallop edge, AC Thickers 'Chit Chat', My Minds Eye mini alphabet, AC 'Letterbox' chipboard frame, Prima flowers & gems, Sassafrass flower & Creative Imaginations label.
This page and the one below go together really! The second page being documentation of the 'out-takes' lol! Only three of us are in the picture & you can just see our heads, but for some reason I just loved this photo and had to scrap it! I used Bazzill swiss dots cardstock, AC 'Blue Skies' papers & badge, October Afternoon journalling stickers and Prima gems.

Sarah's Cards Lovelies

I spent last weekend with this bunch of lovely ladies - the Sarah's Cards gang - in a barn in the middle of nowhere! It was a fantastic couple of days, despite me having a nasty cold, so thank you girls for the laughs & the inspiration. A couple of weekends ago I had another scrappy weekend away with my lush girlies so I have lots of layouts to share over the coming few days :)

You can see work from all of the design team over at the Sarah's Cards Blog, and at the moment we have a challenge for you! Take part in the sketch challenge and you could win a £10 e-voucher fvor the shop! Why not give it a go?

Here is my layout from the sketch - yup, I used my blog post from the other week to make this page!

5 favourites on the 5th

Here are five things I am loving right now:

1) Log fires. There is nothing quite like it! Trudging outside to the log shed at the bottom of the garden and lugging a big basket full of logs back into the house; lighting up and watching the flames dance; the homely smell and cosy feel; the kittens snuggling up on a cushion in front of the stove - you can't beat that.

2) The iPhone. This little gadget has made my life simpler, easier, and more fun! At the touch of a button I can check the headlines, read my email, send a blog post, get my daily LOLcats fix, get directions, look up facts & figures, take photos, have a game of scrabble, or even make a phone call!

3) The troublesome two (aka Mungo, Daisy & sometimes Bret!). They get into all sorts of mischief, and have already successfully broken several items, but they are so darn cute that it is all forgotten in an instant. You never quite know what you'll find on opening the door in the morning, but it does make things all the more interesting around here! They have definately made our house a home.

4) Roast dinners. It's the perfect time of year for a big roast meal with all the trimmings, and I'd happily have one every week! Chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, pork, duck, pheasant... Cooking on the aga makes them all the more tasty and traditional (you've never really had roast potatoes if you've never had aga roasted potatoes!), and M enjoys cooking them too, which is a bonus!

5) Pjamas. I adore pjamas - the are the comfiest & cosiest of outfits, and they come in all sorts of pretty and fun materials. Combine them with some big fluffy slippers and a thick dressing gown or cosy throw and you have the perfect chillaxing attire. In my opinion, you can never have enough pjama days.

Class is in session!

Shimelle's new class - Blogging for Scrapbookers - is up and running this week, and today (well, yesterday actually) is all about the pledge!
I'm not going to pressure myself - I know I won't get around to blogging everyday, or even every other day, but I would like to form some new habits. I would love to start sharing photos and projects soon after they take place, rather than 2 months later! I want to document events while they are fresh in my memory. Work, life and general procrastination tend to get in the way when it comes to blogging, yet really being busy should be what enriches the stories I have to tell - a busy life surely must have some interest to it!
Watch this space!

Underwater is my favourite place to be!

So this time a month ago I was out in Gozo, having a wonderful holiday and enjoying a spot of diving. Underwater is such a fantastic place to be, I find it so incredibly relaxing - I can totally chill out and just go with the flow - I love it! How I wish I could be back there now, drifting along with the fishies.
Underwater photography on the other hand in tricky. Very tricky. There were a couple of pro BBC photographers out there and their equipment is incredible - it looks like a car is driving towards you on the bottom of the ocean the amount of lights they have! I managed to snap a few shots that came out okay - yes that bottom one is on a wreck (seriously quite a surreal experience swimming through wrecks!). We also did a night dive, which was fab - there were literally hundreds of these giant fried egg jellyfish, some of them a foot or so in diameter and bright yellow. What with the wierd creatures, the black water and the slight nitrogen narcosis it was a bit trippy!

In sadder news, which I'm sure everyone has heard by now, Scrapbook Inspirations is to cease publication with the next issue being the last. I am so sad because it was my favourite magazine, which I had bought right from the start, and of course on a personal level it is disappointing having only just been given the opportunity to be involved in the regular design team. It was quite a shock to everyone, and a shame that it perhaps reflects the falling trend in scrapbookers :(

Well its 4:40 in the morning and i have no patients to see but annoyingly the registrar is asleep in the doctors mess lounge & is snoring like a creature possessed haha!
In my boredom & sleep-deprived state I thought I would share a photo of my current location - a little snippet of life in a hospital rest room in the middle of the night!


-- Post From My iPhone

I am working nights this week which basically means sleep-work-eat-sleep-work so no time for scrapping or blogging! Back on Friday with holiday photos!


-- Post From My iPhone

Explorer

This is my 'I haven't been playing in the cobwebs, I promise' look!

Yes I'm turning into a plane buff!

I had a lot of fun phtographing these planes, more than I was expecting, so a few more photos then I promise I'm done with the aeroplanes lol!

Mighty machine

The Eurofighter: this thing is menacing! Seriously the amount of noise it made, my stomach was churning. It travels in directions and at angles that are so unnatural - it must take a lot of training to stay conscious doing this kind of stuff!

On the second day...

Day 2 - these two purring is the best sound! It makes my heart melt! This is their 'it wasn't us' look haha!

The 1st

Finally getting around to uploading my pages for learn something new everyday - here is page 1 - always keep first aid skills up to date! After a scary day with hubby cutting his wrist with a blade, promptly passing out, obstructing his airway & fitting as a result I learnt that even if I ever stop being a doctor it is so important to keep those skills! So a fairly serious message for day 1 - something more lighthearted to come tomorrow!

Cute update: Mungo

My little boy is so photogenic, he takes such a cute photo!

Red Arrows Rule!

We had an awesome time att he Duxford airshow a couple fo weekends ago but, as I discovered, taking photos of fast moving planes is hard! The Red Arrows are seriously cool - how they stay so so close and so perfectly in formation is such a skill - definately something to be proud of as a Brit!

Who doesn't need a giant grass chair?

These photos are from a while ago - June actually (wow, doesn't seem that long ago!)
We spotted these giant grass chairs on Southbank and of course, had to take the photo op - so groovy!