All the colours...

...of the RAINBOW

Hello, Janice aka Serial Crafter waving to you from a very snowy Scotland!  It's my turn to create some prompts for your Lucky Snapping in 2013 week.  I thought I'd take us back to our original 365 roots and provide some photo prompts.  You can use old photos or take them as you go, you can post every day or have a round up of your week's photos, it's entirely up to you.

I've been thinking about the prompts I could give you.  I was reading my book the other night and in it there is a character who is very fond of using Mnemonics to remember different facts, it struck me that this would be ideal for a photo prompt.    One of the best known of these is Richard of York gave Battle in Vain which is used to help remember the colours of the spectrum as seen in a rainbow.  There are seven colours, one for each day!

red
orange
yellow
green
blue
indigo
violet 

Apologies to non-native English speakers, but I know you like to learn new things!

We had a heavy snowfall yesterday, about 4 inches (10cm).  We had to cancel our appointments in town because the country roads were not clear.  However, the sun came out and it was the perfect opportunity to take photographs.  This is my RED glove on the snow.

 Last weekend I made marmalade with Seville oranges, I love the sharpness of homemade marmalade and the glowing ORANGE colour too.

 You can see the depth of the snow on top of our roller which, fortuitously, happens to be YELLOW.  We use the roller in the spring to make sure there are no stones or raised earth that would contaminate the silage or hay crop, it also compact the soil which makes the grass have to work harder and become stronger.

 It may not be obvious what this is!  It's a pile of sandstone slabs and troughs piled up behind the hedge and covered with snow.  The sandstone is the perfect base for lichen to grow and gives them a GREEN tinge.

 I deliberately went back and took this view that I photographed last week to show the snowy covering.  The sky is a beautiful 'sky BLUE'.

INDIGO is a tricky colour to define, it should probably be a little more purply but this was a close as I could find, that deep blue is such a contrast to the snow overhanging the gutters on our house.

 I couldn't find anything outside that was VIOLET so am showing you my hat. It's the one I wear going to work on cold days, it combines two of my favourite colours, teal and violet.

Add your photographs to the Linky and I'll vist your blog to comment as soon as I possibly can. 

End of the week...

My week is finally over today and it seems that all of you had a chance to reflect and think about what makes you happy? are you busy? how demanding are you? Some interesting thoughts and answers were blogged. Thank you for sharing them. 

It didn’t create a lot of photos but it seems to have got us blogging more. Some great snow pictures from you all, I hope we won’t be seeing flood pictures next!

It was lovely to see our newcomers April, Joyce and Karen continuing this challenge and letting us get to know them more too. Sorry Joyce that you are having a problem uploading after your first photo. I too tried again yesterday and was unable to link a second photo either!  Kim sadly none of us are able to get permission to see your blog except I think Anne.

We will all look forward to celebrating Joyce’s retirement on Thursday 31^st and following with great interest her new life ahead on her blog. xxx and seeing baby Annabelle change over the months xxx

I am thinking of having a page in my album on my answers to those questions with maybe a photo from this week. It might even become a scrapping LO!

I will look forward to anything else you come up with too, please share it.

Thank you for joining me this week and I hope like me you are looking forward to………Janice’s challenge for next week, check back tomorrow!

Edit from Jen:-  A massive thank you to Lynne, fabulous challenge, I do hope you will come back with more quote inspiration next month. I have had a sneak peak at Janice's and it looks great! Also on the question of not being able to upload more than one photo I will have a look and see if I can work it out later today and pop back in if I suss it out :)

Thanks again Lynne, I have done my layout and got my photos and will get uploading tonight.

January Week 4: A Quotation

Hello everyone. My name is Lynne, known also as Scrapping Nana.

This week it is my turn to give you a challenge.

I am going to give you a quotation and during the week you have free choice to journal, take photos daily or whenever you want to in the week.   
Link your photos and journaling to the theme of the quotation


A bit about the man Paulo Coelho, whom I have taken the quotation from this week.
Wikipedia: Paulo Coelho was born in Brazil in Aug 1947. He is a Brazilian lyricist and novelist. He has become one of the most widely read authors in the world today. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious international awards, amongst them the Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum and France's Légion d'honneur
Coelho also writes up to three blog posts a week at his blog  www.paulocoelhoblog.com

Here is the quotation

“There are 3 things that a child can teach an adult
To be happy for no reason
To be always be busy doing something
And to know how to demand – with all one’s might- what one wants”    ~ Paulo Coelho

My questions to you
What makes you happy?  Are you ever happy for no reason? Why?
What are you busy doing this week?
What do you want, wish for? Are you good at demanding what you want like children do?


I hope you can manage to take photos showing what makes you happy, being busy and desire or wish for.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with from this interesting quotation this week. I now have to do this challenge myself!! 
Don’t forget to show us by linking below to your blog

Lynne xx (aka Scrapping Nana)

January Nostalgia Challenge: Update.

Just a last-day-thank-you to everyone for such lovely support and stories this week in our Nostalgia : New Beginnings challenge. Haven't we all done well?  From following the (we-know-the-end-but-are-still-on-tenderhooks) tale of when Lynne met Peter to everyone's individual snow stories, now and then, we have really taken up the baton and run!
And of course what bigger new beginning for me than welcoming my new grand-daughter to our family, a little peach.. x

And how kind of the snow to make an appearance so most of us can offer a snow in January picture for Jen's week!  I just had to add in this very old picture of my big brother in the snow where I grew up.. it was so close to the sea it was a very unusual event, I think this was in 1962 perhaps even the late 50's.

It has been so nice too to welcome some new names and faces, Joy, Karen, Ike, Suzy, I don't think I have missed anyone... oh yes, I think April is almost there with hers! (shouts... Aprrrriiiiillllll!!!)  Tell your friends about the challenge if they like a bit of a blog and a chat and the odd bit of scrapbooking and photography thrown in.  With only one challenge a week it's not so hard to catch up..

Next week Lynne is hosting the challenge.. and I have no idea where it will take us.. cooking maybe, or a clever wordy challenge from our retired teacher?  Check in tomorrow to see what she has planned for us... and I will be back on week 3 of February with some more Nostalgia prodding and poking! ;-)

If you have done any layouts or some other way of recording the challenge feel free to post it here:


lots of love to you all..wrap up warm..it's getting chillier, even in Cornwall!

Kathi x

Nostalgia Challenge: New Beginnings...Update!

Well here I am, hosting my first Week 3 of the Lucky Snapping in 2013 challenge. .  When we first started talking about a new challenge to keep us all in touch after 365+1 I don't think we envisaged it turning out quite such a varied and exciting plan.

 

 I think the whole thing is going really nicely, people are popping in and out and the themes are bringing up some really great thoughts and moments, not to mention photos.. which when we started was what it was all about!

 

I came to blogging about five years ago as a way to pad out the information about the pictures I was scrapbooking. (well I know there is always hidden journalling, but I always have way too much to say on a little tag.. as you know!)

At the time my dear Mum had been suffering confusion and memory loss associated with health issues and I had difficulty realising that she was forgetting lots of things we had experienced together when I was young.  Having recently had a grandchild of my own I kind of felt the need to put fingers to the keyboard (as opposed to pen to paper) so that some of my own memories would be there should the family ever want to know what the day to day life was like 'when you were young Nannie'

 

Sometimes I found myself blogging about an item I had found amongst old photos, or a photo had been enlarged to really show the emotions of the day.

 

Other times a song on the radio or a comment I made had transported me right back to the days when my Mum had said the same to me.  You know, a song from your teenage years or the odd 'It'll end in tears' comment!

 

In the same way I documented more of the normal .. Sunday afternoons barbecueing, the baby in Costa with a big mug of coffee, no 2's first bath in my tiny bathroom basin..all little moments which if not documented might be less well remembered  in the future.

So, for my challenge I am going to see what it is that takes you back, or what will take you back when you look at this week's post in the future.....

• it doesn't have to be a long lost memory, it may just be from last year;
• maybe it will be a vintage postcard or a retro styled cup in a shop..
• or a special little thing you do in your house that might become a traditon for your children in their future...
• it might be just your news this week which fits the theme and you can put it down for posterity..

To make it easy we will use the term 'nostalgia' for my prompts..though as I said it may just be something happening now which people will enjoy reading or seeing in the future..

 

The term describes a sentimental longing for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations......In common, less clinical usage, nostalgia sometimes includes a general interest in past eras and their personalities and events, especially the "good old days," such as a sudden image, or remembrance of something from one's childhood. (thanks to Wikipaedia as ever)..

 

Each month will be a separate theme, loosely associated with the time of year and like the other weeks they would make a nice album, perhaps an accordian book or perhaps you could call it your 'Yearbook' ... let it grow with you, post some pictures, do some layouts, some nice journalling (hidden or otherwise) or save them up and we'll see if it lends itself to a special project... easy does it..again No Pressure..!!

 

So, for January  ...  the theme is 'New Beginnings' ..

 

I don't want to give you too many ideas on this first day, it would be nice if you made the words your own..but hints of ..

• NewYear Resolutions: successes or failures,
• New Jobs / Terms at School / Uni
• New Year Sale shopping (New Clothes!)

                                                     ...........................are the first ideas which came to my mind.

 

I will come back with some news and further suggestions as the week goes by.... I am so looking forward to what you come up with.. add your link below..

 

Good Luck everyone

 

Kathi xxxxx

PS Writing on Tuesday evening I can let you all know that my eldest daughter has just added a new baby girl to our family, her third little girl, a sweet 5lb14oz and so so cute.. Annabelle Ivy (we think!)... pic later! xxxx

So here's some more ideas..:

• a new addition to your family : remembering that 'new arrival'
• a new job perhaps : those days when you were learning the ropes!

Let's Reflect January - End of the Serendipity week

I have really enjoyed reading your blogs, discovering your stories and admiring some beautiful photos.
It's amazing how we all have been actively looking for those serendipity events and many of you have described it as a very positive experience in itself, so I am really happy about that.
I wasn't sure at all how it would be for me either but I am delighted by what we have shared.


The Serendipity week is finishing but try and keep your eyes open on new moments that will brighten your days. They are invaluable, especially during these cold and dark months.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Kathy (who isn't to be introduced anymore to most of us). She will hosting the Nostalgia challenge on Monday and spend the whole week with us.

I then will say thank you and good bye for now,  I will see you again on February 11th for another word. 

Take care and keep smiling. Anne xxx

If you have prepared something for this week, a page, a collage, some journalling . . .  you can link it below. If you didn't really start (like me), you still have plenty of time until Sunday night. If you are too busy for now, there will be another link available each month.

Let's reflect - January

Welcome to you all.

So here we are, at the start of the Let's reflect challenge. We will be together for 12 weeks, the 2nd of each month. Wow !

I called my challenge let's reflect, because sometimes life gets in our way, doesn't go at all in the direction we wanted and we can feel hopeless and disoriented. I have been in this situation several times and to be honest I am in it right now, preparing my post in advance. A good way to go through these difficult times we all experience is to look inside and also to concentrate on others as learning from loved ones, even from strangers is also learning about ourselves.

As you know our discovery will be based on 12 words, each one starting with a letter from SILVER LINING.

Today's word is Serendipity. I absolutely love this word. If you never heard it before, it means

the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it

In simple words, it's taking joy out of something that you didn't expect.  

It 's a stranger smiling at you and making your day. 
It's your granddaughter saying " you look beautiful today ".
It's a letter from an old friend you had lost contact with.
It's a song that brings back some beautiful memories.
It's a smell that makes you hungry when you weren't.

During this week, we will concentrate on the little things life brings, these little things that we sometimes are too busy to see. It is a good exercise to look for these moments during this coming week but you also can use moments having happened before and come back and add moments that will happen in the future. Remember, we are building a " Silver Lining book " for difficult times. Anything that can help you, can go inside.

You are doing this challenge for yourself, so whatever your serendipity examples will be this week or earlier, they are yours. We are all different, so if your examples only make sense to you and nobody else, that's OK. If you want to only share some with us and leave the others hidden, that's OK. If you want to explain a lot or just a little, that's OK. What is important is what you are doing for yourself.

The way you choose to do this challenge is also up to you. You can take pictures, you can write, you can make a scrapbook page, you can art journal it, you can draw, you can share about a book that brightened your life, whatever you feel like doing will be the right thing to do.
When I had my accident downstairs in August 2011, I went from strong person to hopeless and scared person and I had a very difficult time coping with that. One day I watched the movie Burlesque on TV, I heard a song by Cher "You haven't seen the last of me" . I printed the lyrics and pinned them down on a shelf in front of me. I am fine now but I kept these words as they still are an inspiration to me. Many things come our way, we just need an open mind.

You might want to use different ways with the different words we will have along this year, depending on how they are talking to you. As long as you can keep all your pages together so you can go back whenever you want, any way will be good.

What I have in mind to use myself is this :

The 2 covers (mount board) are a bit more than 10" by 7.5" and the pages ( kind of thick drawing/painting paper ca 150gsm) are 10" by 7".  I then punched them with my Cinch. It will accept paints, promarkers, normal journaling pens and I still can stick some pictures, so I should be able to do whatever I fancy on it.

You might want to work on separate pages and only bind them at the end of the year, so you keep open the option of adding later more experiences to some words, but that is up to you.

If you decide to make a kind of book, you might want to decorate the cover and write a short introduction page. I started thinking about that but because I don't know exactly where the challenge will bring me, I decided to wait a bit and see.

Knowing that next Monday will be time for the next challenge (hosted by Kathi), it gives you a week for this one but there isn't any dead line at all. The last thing we need here is stress !

Believe it or not, it's not because I chose the word that my task will be any easier this week so I certainly will be playing along with you.

I didn't include any finished examples, firstly because I don't have any, and also because this is a personal thing that must talk to us and I am sure we all will come up with very different ideas, certainly learning a lot from each other.

Last but not least, your real challenge with this first word is to try and find at least 2 new nice things happening to you during this week. If like me you mainly work from home, do not worry, nice unexpected things happen even when we are alone : A phone call, a sound, a ring at the door, something you see on TV or hear on the radio, something you lost and find again, an email you receive ... 
If you work out of home, you might want to take a small notepad with you to jot down what happens.

At the end of the day, the challenge is not to find the event, the challenge is to have an open heart to recognize it.

Remember, this is not a competition. Even if all your events happened in the past, it's fine.

It's a different type of challenge and if you ask yourself how on earth I came up with this, well I am asking myself the same question, LOL, but I hope you will enjoy it.  

You can pop in at any time to comment/chat/ask questions ( I won't be far ) or to link to your blog and show some of your examples.

I can't wait to see what you would like to share. xxx

The View Challenge: Additional Prompt #2.

If you fancy it why don't you show us a photo of your local neighbourhood, I am going to do this one as a monthly project too. If you are already using one as your main view, you could take another, maybe something else you like, maybe something you don't, maybe a close-up or maybe from an unusual angle.

This is from my local everyday walk with my dogs, around our local Church and it's graveyard.

I love the lamp post, it reminds me of the one CS Lewis describes in The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. I also love the bright green of the grass and the dark green of the trees with the Torrs hills behind so misty. The muddy trail, not so much.

The View Challenge: Additional Prompt #1

If you have time or inclination to take more than one view this week why not take one from your kitchen sink?

It's looking a bit sad out there, there is some furniture that needs to go to the recycling centre on Monday, the sweet peas need sorting and a general tidy...not in the rain though. 

The View Challenge: Layouts & Sketches.

Hello again.

I hope you found the challenge post yesterday, if not it is here. I couldn't be more thrilled that we already have links to the challenge.

Today I would like to show you the layouts as sketches should you want to play along and scrap your view photos.

So for those of you that would like to make a full 12x12, and well, x12 months scrapbook of layouts you could follow along with the layout and the sketch of it. I am not sure what wizardry my friend Sue uses to make these great sketches but I love them. She has very kindly agreed to turn my layouts into sketches for me to make it easier for you to follow and for those of you, like me, that love sketches.

 How to if you want to =)

1. 12x12 white cardstock (alternatively, any colour you like).

2. Stamp and splatter ink across from top left to bottom right with two tonal colours (alternatively, 2 opposite or clashing colours).

*A very favourite technique learned from Shimelle*

3. Stitch around edge, (alternatively, faux stitch, draw a border using a ruler or free-hand).

4. Cut out strips of patterned paper in the colours of your choice, I have used scraps and a little bit of new stash. Punch borders and snip frayed borders on a couple of them for texture (alternatively, don't ;) ).

5. Stick down in a random fashion across the page (alternatively, vertically).

6. Mat and stick on the photo (alternatively, mat it twice).

7. Add a piece of vellum fringed with a chipboard border over the top (alternatively, use whatever border stickers or your own punched border).

8. Add pearls (alternatively add bling, liquid pearls). 

How to if you want to =)

As above but with 5x7 cardstock and part of the border tucked in underneath to the right.

Of course I know most of you can see how to do that and it would be great to see you do your own thing too. If you do have any questions though please ask me.

Ok, I will be back on friday with an additional photo prompt if you fancy it.

The View Challenge 2013: January

January brings the snow,

makes our feet and fingers glow.

Happy New Year and as that makes it 1st January 2013 it is time to start Lucky Snapping.

It is my turn first with The View challenge.

So this challenge is to decide on a view that you love and take a photo of it at some point this week, when the light is good and/or you have time. Over the year we will then have one photo a month of that view which will show the changes in the seasons. Of course if your favourite view is completely urban then this won't be as obvious, but it will still completely work.

I was initially inspired by Anne's view that she often takes at the start of her walks with her lovely dogs (I have been lucky enough to go on that walk with them). 

Originally I was going to take a view that is at the end of my road (I love it and I am hoping to incorporate it into my challenge as an extra, more on that later this week.), but then it occurred to me that my very favourite view is one I don't go to nearly as much as I used to and that the challenge would give me a reason to go. As we got to talking about how we could carry on with a photography challenge as a group it grew from there. 

I am hoping that the weather will be different enough to make it varied but the changing environment should be enough. 

I am also offering a challenge to scrap those photos, now, please don't panic, this is entirely optional. 

If you did want to join in then there will be a 12x12 layout and sketch and instructions or a 5x7 option for a speedier minibook version. If I do get anyone joining me in this then I will also offer how to make covers for these scrapbooks to tie it all together at some point through the year.

The theme that I am going to use for this is a favourite childhood poem.

The Months

January brings the snow,

makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,

thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

fills the children's hand with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,

apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,

then the harvest home is borne.

Warm September brings the fruit,

sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasants,

then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast,

then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,

blazing fire, and christmas treat.

Sara Coleridge

Here is my first layout, I was aiming to get out and get my first photo last week but work and the weather prevented me, so I have put in a temporary photo so you get the idea and I will replace it with the real one when I have taken the photo.

The 5x7 version

So I hope you can join in.

This is the schedule this week.

1st - Today challenge starts.

2nd - Layouts, sketches and how I made the layouts.

4th - Additional photo prompt and white balance tips.

5th - Additional photo prompt.
6th - Round-up of the first week.

*Please find the linky below*