Fire and Ice

I have of course very fond memories of my time as a Disney Cast Member. I loved spending time alone in the parks, when off-duty. It may sound a bit sad but it is very hard to feel lonely when surrounded by happy families on vacation and all enjoying the warm sunshine and the blue skies, while making memories that will last forever. My favourite thing to do in the parks was to sit and eat a hot dog while watching the Fountain of Nations in Epcot while it performed it’s explosive and watery shows. Seriously, I loved to do this (plus, I really love hot dogs and it’s the one thing I miss now that I’m veggie!) and I sometimes would hang around so that I could catch two or more shows. I loved it. Thinking about it now, I think what I really liked about this was that it was a chance for Disney music to shine. I am talking about all that background music that you can hear everywhere on property as well as the music from the rides. I have always found it interesting that these pieces of music –...

I have a confession to make – I’m a big Disney fan. A huge Disney fan. I’m practically a Disney maniac. I’d have Mickey everywhere in the house if I could, not to mention all the DVDs and CDs and books... I try to keep this under restraint, though. Especially now that I live in the UK, the land of the restrained. For example, my little boy does not have a Disney-themed bedroom because I purposely chose quite a neutral décor. He does have a Sorcerer Mickey plush (which is actually mine) and a Mickey blanket, but that gets rotated so it’s only on the bed one week out of four. The other three weeks there is a plain blanket on the bed. Plus, the only reason I have a Mickey blanket is because someone gave it to me when he was born! Like any addict I’ve tried to control the obsession: I do have a few earrings and necklaces with Mickeys on them, but they are pretty discrete. All my Disney books are on one bookshelf and not very obvious. I have a normal telephone even though I would really, re...

I know some people out there will sympathize with this thought: is it possible to ever go back home? Of course we can all physically return to the place we consider home, but what I mean is, there are so many other things that make a place “home”, not just the physical, and often these things are so transitory that they aren’t there ever anymore. But the people that stayed behind, as it were, evolved slowly with these changes so they don’t notice anymore – but those of us that didn’t participate in these changes will of course notice and of course not like them. Because that means it isn’t “home” anymore. For example, I’ve been living in the UK nearly 10 years and all those things that one does as an adult (bank accounts, mortgages, home maintenance, etc) I’ve only done in the UK. I don't know how any of these things work back in Mexico. For instance, when I go back it always strikes me that people don’t have access to online banking, yet it’s something I just couldn’t live without...

It’s not a complaint heard often but I’ve discovered I really don’t know how to shop for embellishments. I love going to scrapbook shops and looking through all the lovely things available, touching them and seeing all the beautiful colors... but when it comes to commit and pay some money, I always find myself saying “what do I need this for?” I’m ok buying cardstock and of course adhesives. Those are good old practical essentials and I have no problems there (although at the moment I haven’t bought any cardstock for ages because I know I have plenty). But I really struggle when it comes to paper but can sort of do it. But embellishments – I am hopeless there. Unless it is something really simple and useful like brads, I just can’t buy the stuff. I went to one of the loveliest shops in the UK last weekend (IMHO) and spent a lovely time looking through all the stash for sale there and almost forced myself to buy something – and then it only was something I knew I needed and would use. W...

Yesterday was such a beautiful day – and it was my day off so what good timing, hey! Even though it’s mid-October and the weather is certainly cooler now, the sun shone, the sky was blue and the colors of everything were just amazing. I went for a long walk along some of our local linear parks and was just struck by how pretty everything looked. But I didn’t take my camera! To be honest, I did think about it before I left the house but I just wanted to walk and enjoy being outside, rather than concentrating on taking photos. I felt that my walk would become almost a chore, having to compose photos and then print them out to place on a layout. I did have a lovely walk, it was certainly memorable and deserved a special place in my scrapbook but I just thought that somehow recording it would make it less special... does this make any sense? In any case, I do think I should take some photos of Milton Keynes soon. It is such an unusual place here in the UK – a planned city that is successfu...

As many of you know, I’ve recently joined the design team at www.willowtreecrafts.co.uk and although I’d already completed this month’s project, I had enough paper left over to try and do something else with. The kit was mainly shades of pink and some Doodlebug text paper with love words all over it... now, I don’t have many photos that scream LOVE to me, and neither do they necessarily require pink, so it took some thinking but in the end I’ve managed to create two things so can’t be bad! The first was a mini album – it was easy to put together and a joy to decorate with the gorgeous sheets of matching Chatterbox papers I got. I had some old photos of David and I while we lived in Florida, so this was a great place to put them, so the little book had the theme of love all over it, based on the Doodlebug paper. In the end I didn’t actually USE that paper but I managed to convey the love thing through the colors and embellishments. So last night I sat staring at this unused Doodlebu...

I really like patterned paper and am truly not afraid to use it – I think that buying pretty paper for it to sit unused for ages in a cupboard is a crime! So whenever I get the chance, I will cut, sand, tear, rip, wrinkle and otherwise destroy perfectly good pieces of patterned paper to create embellishments for my pages and you know what? I LOVE IT! I love layering patterned papers and sometimes even think I use this technique too much. But it is very effective, easy and infinitely variable. It suits almost any kind of layout and also enables me to use my precious scraps. One quick look at my gallery and you’ll find lots of examples of my layouts with this technique – I can’t stop using it. So I thought I was pretty good at using patterned papers until someone told me to read Ali Edwards’s book “Designer’s Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper”. Oh my goodness – this is one good book. Not only does it have some amazing layouts, it has completely usable ideas that I am definitely g...