What Caught Her Eye #30

Continuing my new series for Fridays: 

the contents of that Smythson notebook,

one page at a time.

"The things in love are the things

that really need to be done."

~ Unknown

Things He Says | The Golfing Edition

Him: "Mum, did you know that Arnold Palmer's died?

People say he had a good whack!" 

Snap #31 | At the Library

Helena has a new photographic theme for 2016:

Snap, a visually linked group of 2 to 4 images.

***

Visits to the local library tailed off over the Summer holidays.
As in, we didn't visit the library at all.
In trying to rectify that, I have designated 
Tuesdays after school as library afternoons.
It seems to be working so far.

You can see more Snap images here.

Continuing a Theme ...

Having created a scrapbook page in 8.5x11 last week,

I needed to create another so that there would be a pair

back-to-back in the album.

Enter inspiration from Shimelle's blog, and a tad more sewing.

{You know, seeing as I'd dusted off the sewing machine and all ...}

Eye to Eye

I've reached an age where I need two different pairs of glasses .

I've been wearing varifocal lenses for two years now,

both glasses and contact lenses.

{I loathe selfies}

At my appointment two weeks ago, I was informed of the need for

occupational lenses.  

Quite.

A pair specifically for close-up work ...

... ie. scrapbooking.

This pair is now known as the-do-not-wear-outside-of-the-house pair. 

Middle age.  Such a joy.

  

What Caught Her Eye #29

Continuing my new series for Fridays: 

the contents of that Smythson notebook,

one page at a time.

"What is a friend?

A single soul living in two bodies."

~ Aristotle

A Cush{ion}y Number

I like cushions on sofas.

The Brainy One doesn't care to express an opinion on them.

The Boy Child has a penchant for chewing them. 

With Autumn making its presence felt, we'll obviously spend less time 

sitting in the garden after school and at weekends.

However, glancing into the lounge didn't fill me with

happy thoughts of snuggling up on the sofas.

Why?

Because the cushions were looking more than a little shabby

 and some even had pieces missing thanks to some surreptitious chewing

by The Boy Child.

And dare I say it, we had too many cushions.

Telling myself I was implementing an Autumn update,

which let's face it, is much cheaper than full redecoration,

I swept aside the old cushions and installed new ones.

Now I'm waiting to see if anyone notices.   

Snap #30 | Autumn Garden

Helena has a new photographic theme for 2016:

Snap, a visually linked group of 2 to 4 images.

***

Autumn arrived in London without fanfare this week.

One day we were sweltering in 30C,

the next we were pulling on jumpers and looking for coats.

 ~Leaves belonging to trees the other side of our garden wall ~ 

 ~ Love in the Mist seed pod ~

~ Catmint ~

You can see more Snap images here.

  

A Boy and His Dog {Paired With a Spot of Scraplifting}

Every now and again, I see a scrapbooking layout and I think, "I love that!"

It happened just the other day with a page created by the lovely Sian.

I had a photo I also loved,

so I put my photo with Sian's design.

The sewing machine was delighted to have months years of dust blown off it.

{I had to look up how to thread the thing, it's been that long, and I think I might have to tweak the tension, because the cardstock is now a wee bit curly at the edges}
I don't usually work in 8.5x11, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

You can see Sian's original idea here.

This Weekend

It was a weekend of simple things.

Of checking out the possibility of a new bed.

 Of trying to persuade Mum that bunk beds would be a good idea.

Of walking the dog.

 Of visiting a friend's art exhibition.

 It was busy.  It was easy.

It was great.

What Caught Her Eye #28

Continuing my new series for Fridays: 

the contents of that Smythson notebook,

one page at a time.

"Man has conquered every darkness

open to him except the

distance between men."

~ Rabbi Barry Marcus

100 Days

It was pointed out to me recently that today marks 100 days until Christmas.

Yep, really.

I've always tried to avoid thinking about Christmas until at least October, but as The Boy Child has grown up, talk of Christmas starts earlier.  In fact, we've already had a chat about writing to Santa ...   

I have plenty of happy memories relating to the Christmas period 

and a handful of family traditions that appear every year. 

 It was while thinking about those traditions earlier this week, I realised I'd created new traditions for my own family of three. 

 {Anything done at the same time each Christmas counts as a tradition, right?}    

***

Here's a look at a few of them:

{feel free to stop reading here, if you truly can't bear to read about Christmas just yet} 

December Daily: the brilliantly simple Christmas memories scrapbooking project.  To quote Ali Edwards {whose idea December Daily is}, the simple goal is to capture the spirit of December via one story per day. 

  This year will be my 9th year of documenting Christmas.

Christmas baubles: We never planned it, but each year of our married life, The Brainy One and I have added a bauble to our collection.

 The only stipulation being that its purchase must have significance for us.

The Christmas Box:  The Christmas Box makes an appearance on the 1st December 

and is eagerly awaited by The Boy Child.

 What's in the box? 

A collection of storybooks relating to Christmas and the Christmas CDs.

Elvis the Elf: Elvis joined our family in December 2011 and has appeared as regular as clockwork every subsequent December since.  For those of you who may not know why he appears, he was chosen by Santa to be his eyes and ears in our home.  Every evening, he pops off to Santa and reports back on The Boy Child's behaviour.  He does this every evening until Christmas Eve, when he goes home with Santa for a well deserved break.

How do we know that Elvis pops off to see Santa?  Because every morning, he can be found in a different place and sometimes he even brings a note back from the big man.

So there you have it.  Just 100 days to the big day

and an opportunity for me to legitimately think about the things

 that make Christmas special to me and mine. 

Thanks for indulging me!

{Today is also the 76th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain.  Per Ardua ad Astra}

   

    

Snap #29 | Royal College of Surgeons

Helena has a new photographic theme for 2016:

Snap, a visually linked group of 2 to 4 images.

***

{don't look at the last image if you're squeamish ...}

The Royal College of Surgeons houses the eclectic Hunterian Museum;

a vast collection of pickled specimens, for want of a better description,

from mammals, reptiles and insects.  

The Boy Child found the small section on vaccinations hugely interesting

{and became mildly obsessed with the idea of Small Pox}.

Photography is not allowed.

You can see more Snap images here.

Editorial Content

You might think that I choose what to post on an ad hoc basis.

{ahem ...}

That used to be the case, but I've made more of an effort with blogging in 2016,

and have a monthly plan {of sorts}.

That's not to say that things aren't moved around or changed.

Some months the plan looks likes the above.

Some of my favourite bloggers have drawn a line recently,

but I plan to continue for some time yet.

Blogging was never about attracting readers, nice as that is,

it was always a creative outlet.

It remains that.    

Rite of Passage

He's gone.

For three days and two nights ...

... off on the Year 5 Residential.

It was much harder to say goodbye than I thought it would be.

Excuse me while I go and put the kettle on and have a wee cry.

What Caught Her Eye #27

Continuing my new series for Fridays: 

the contents of that Smythson notebook,

one page at a time.

"Love is what makes you

smile when you are tired."

~ Terri, age 4

{A wise child, Terri ...} 

Sunflowers

My friend Deb,

she of the newly-closed Paper Turtle blog,

has a passion for sunflowers.

Living in Arizona certainly helps with the sun part.

Here in London, it may not be as sunny {ahem!},

but I have managed to coax three wee sunflowers into blooming, or as near as.

I bought three seedlings from The Boy Child's friend back in early July.

He was attempting to raise money for the charity Water Aid,

which I felt was a notable thing for a 9-year-old boy to do. 

And having admired my small-but-perfect sunflowers,

I'm off to see what else I might attempt to grow next Spring and Summer. 

Snap #28 | Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome

Helena has a new photographic theme for 2016:

Snap, a visually linked group of 2 to 4 images.

***

The church of Santa Maria Maggiore is one of Rome's

 four great basilicas, second only to St. Peter's itself.

  It certainly packs 'wow' factor.

You can see more Snap images here.

Things He Says | The Not Quite a Compliment Edition

Me: "Isn't Dad the best dad in the world?"

Him: "Kind of ... he'd be in the Top Five!" 

Back to School | Year 5

And as it ends, it also begins.

Summer holidays are over

and the adventure of Year 5 is waiting ...

What Caught Her Eye #26

Continuing my new series for Fridays: 

the contents of that Smythson notebook,

one page at a time.

"In the midst of winter

I finally learned that there

was in me an invincible summer."

~ Albert Camus

Month in Numbers | August

August was awesome!

Here's how some of it looked:

9: the number of BFG Dream Jars we found in Central London this month.

We doggedly continued with our hunt; some of them

were tricky to find.  In some cases, they weren't there at all!

Still, we managed a grand total of 23.

7: the number of overnight guests we had.  Some stayed the odd night here and there.

Some stayed three nights in a row.  Some arrived ready to stay for a number of weeks.

No matter who rocks up at out front door, 

we love having people to stay!

30C: the highest temperature recorded in our bit of West London.

It didn't last.

4: the number of times we went to the cinema - Ice Age Collision Course,

  Finding Dory (AF), Nine Lives and Swallows and Amazons.   

2: the number of times we went to the theatre in the West End :- Horrible Histories

Barmy Britain at the Apollo, Shaftesbury Avenue and Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone at the Lyric,

Hammersmith.  Both productions were very good.

  Month in Numbers is the brainchild of Julie

and you'll always find a warm welcome over at her place. 

 Not to mention entertaining posts about a varied list of topics.

Go on over, stop by and say hello.

You can see my previous Month in Numbers here.