Bryan and I decided to hire a film tonight. We’ve both wanted to see The Invention of Lying since it came out in the cinema (but considering most of our cinema viewing experiences are to U or PG rated films that the girls want to see we’ve had to content ourselves with waiting till it was released on DVD!) One of the songs in the film was Mr Blue Sky – it was just so incredibly perky that I had to share it! Great film – we both really enjoyed it. It raised some incredibly interesting questions about truth, faith, God and, of course, about lying. We enjoyed the accompanying toffee popcorn too!
February 4, 2010
Hazel chose today’s theme for the SALT challenge – the Beatitudes. You can read her thoughts on the blog. I decided that I wanted to use a photo of a person in silouhette standing on a mountain (not 100% why, but that’s the photo I was looking for!) I was pleased with the one I found, especially by the black space at the bottom. I planned to write directly on the photo but when I came to do that (having carefully placed the Thickers) the pen splodged all over the lovely black part so I had to do a hasty cover-up! I think even though I practiced with the pen that perhaps it’s been idle for too long! My plan with the layout was to take each of the Beatitudes and write what we have to do to be blessed so that’s the journalling. Of course typically I’m not happy with the layout because it isn’t what I’d planned, but ho hum!
Supplies used: Felt Thickers in Playroom font and Making Memories Spiral Journalling Book in their 5th Avenue range.
Please have a look at the blog and read Hazel’s reflection. Join in with our challenge and link back to the blog with your work – we’d love to see how others interpret the challenges.
February 1, 2010
Amazon delivered my copy of You Can Still Wear Cute Shoes – can’t wait to read it!
January 27, 2010
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day.
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is encouraging people to pause during the day to remember the victims of Nazi persecution and those who were murdered under exclusionary policies in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. Pause to honour the survivors of those genocides and become part of The Legacy of Hope (this year’s theme). The Trust is asking everyone to grasp the opportunity to listen to the voices of all who suffered in the Holocaust and under Nazi persecution, and to make the hopes of the survivors part of a shared, safer future – a future that is free from the dangers of exclusion and persecution. Some more information from the Trust about HMD 2010:
HMD 2010
- This year’s HMD marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
- The number of Holocaust survivors who have built their lives, communities and families in the UK is inevitably diminishing, and, as they become frail, their thoughts are turning to their future remembrance and the preservation of their memory. On HMD 2010, we all have an opportunity to become part of their Legacy of Hope.
- It’s our responsibility to remember those who were persecuted and murdered, because their lives were wasted. Our challenge is to make the experience and words of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides a meaningful part of our future.
- We hope the words and experience of victims and survivors will help people to think about their own attitudes, behaviour and choices, the way they vote, the way they interact with others and the way they respect and celebrate differences.
- On HMD 2010, we hope people will think about how they can make a difference in their own communities, asking themselves what they can do today to build a safer, stronger society so that the risk of the building blocks of genocide ever being laid is removed
At school we’re doing some cross-curricular work on the Holocaust in the hope that we can encourage pupils to reflect on what has happened and then to react to it by playing their part in eliminating exclusion and persecution. It’s not easy to guide teenagers in reflection and I hope that I am doing the topic justice. There have been some encouraging conversations with pupils who are creating a memorial wall with paper candles but we have also encountered some intense questioning from pupils who have not grown up thinking about these issues and want to know why they should consider them now. Challenging times.
January 21, 2010
Lisa, the Preacher’s Wife, has a giveaway on her blog – her new book is soon to be available and you can win a copy by going to her blog and posting a comment. I’m looking forward to reading it!
January 21, 2010
Tanis’s theme for the SALT team this week is being a daily Christian. There are lots of parts to this but I chose to focus on the fact that God is there for us on a daily basis and we should take time to be with Him daily. My page layout inspiration came from a layout by Cathy Zielske in Clean and Simple Scrapbooking The Sequel. Those who’ve looked on here before will know that I’m very much in the clean and simple style – I just can’t seem to do very embellished pages so I’m happy to keep doing what I’m happy with! Cathy’s layout shows the same squared style with lists of things she does on a daily basis. Mine show’s a typical weekday timetable (missing out a few things which happen less than daily like ballet classes for the girls etc.) and the last square quotes the Bible verse I used as the basis for the layout, “Praise be to the Lord, to God our Saviour, who daily bears our burdens.” Psalm 68:19.
There’s a bit of glare on the photo – partly the terrible light at the moment (Scottish winters are very ‘grey’) and partly due to my terrible photography. I’ve been given some very good advice though from the rest of the Salt team so over the next few challenges my layout photography might improve?!
Supplies used are: Bazzill white, American Crafts Everyday patterned papers – Gidday (spots) and What’s Up (flowers and the pale blue), brown chipboard letters (not sure what brand they are – they’re so old they’ve lost their stickiness!), Heidi Swapp chipboard clocks and Making Memories pastel brads.
I really loved this challenge – it made me think so much about what I do on a daily basis and how much time I set aside for God. I hope you’ll play along with the challenge – please comment on the blog and link to your layout/card/etc. we’d love to see your work!
January 10, 2010
I’m a few days late with my SALT contribution but here it is at last! Stacy asked us to reflect on 1 Corinthians 13 on the theme of love. Like Stacy, these verses made me immediately think about being a parent and part of a family. Bryan took this photo of the girls and I on Christmas Day. We had lots of extended family visiting that day but in the evening we had the opportunity to enjoy some time together, just the 4 of us. It was really special, we were all relaxed (and tired thanks to Iona being up at 5.15am!) and we all simply sat around chatting. It was my favourite part of the day though.
The layout is an 8.5×11 one using Bella Boulevard Flirty patterned paper, 7 Gypsies Family stickers (the photo corners are from the same sticker sheet), Jenni Bowlin Blue Label stickers and some Papermania gems. The gems were a happy accident – as I was drawing the border the ruler slipped so I had a messed up line. I was going to cover it with a sticker but with it being near the middle of the page I found it looked better with the gems. I quite like them now that they’re stuck down!!
The girls on the SALT team have each produced a layout, card or ATC with their own interpretation of the theme. We’d love some more people to play along with the challenges so remember to link back to the blog if you do create something!
January 7, 2010
It’s SALT challenge day and it’s Stacy’s turn to set the topic. I’m extremely disorganised this week because the snow is making my journeys to and from work treacherous and long! I will catch up over the weekend but in the meantime check out the team’s contributions because they’re gorgeous and very thought provoking.
January 4, 2010
Shimelle and ukscrappers are running a class for the year to encourage us to scrapbook our daily lives. I’ve decided that it would be good to do a bit more documenting of everyday life (I’ve always meant to in the way I’ve seen other scrappers such as Ali Edwards do but haven’t quite got round to it!) Looking forward to something achieveable for the year.
January 2, 2010
My 2010 word is going to be resolve. I’m viewing this as a positive word meaning various things – determination, objective and purpose as well as to work things out, find solutions and achieve goals. From that one word come several resolutions:
- To lose weight. I joined Weightwatchers online a few months ago and have lost some weight but enough is enough, I’m taking it seriously and want to do this as a positive step for myself and my health. When I go back to work on Tuesday the points counting restarts!
- To improve my fitness. I did better with this when the girls were smaller recently I’ve been struggling to get to the gym or swimming pool. I’ve a few plans for home-based exercise and hopefully it’s a challenge but one that’s achievable.
- To read more. Not just school work reading but reading for pleasure.
- To scrapbook more. Scrapbooking and reading have taken back seats since I started work but I’m hopeful that I can be more organised to find some ‘me’ time each week.
It does all seem quite ambitious but I’m feeling positive!
