Fire and Ice

I have noticed that today is turning into an 80s day – from the music I’m listening to at work to some stuff I’ve seen online to the emails I’ve received, lots of things today have something to do with the 80s. 1985 was a long time ago, over 20 years, but somehow events from this year and the rest of the 80s have shaped my life in different ways, subtle ways. I started (and finished) High School in the 80s and this was a time when I grew up, took more responsibility for my life and made some amazing discoveries about myself. For example, I decided to join the Drama department – even though I’d never really done anything like this before. I just heard that the cast parties were awesome so there I was… I ended up spending the rest of my academic life in theatres and surrounded by actors and dancers. I gained a new perspective on musicals and it led to a love of the live theatre that survives to this day. I also noticed that most of my friends are people I met during these days ...

Here are a few more layouts from my marathon album... As I mentioned before , I tried to bring the sunrise colors into my album as I progressed through the course so here is a great example: We're getting close to the Magic Kingdom and the excitement is high - and so are the colors. What a great race... sure, there are more prestigious marathons but how many let you see Woody and Jack Sparrow? The whole album does have a lot of journaling because I actually don't have that many photos (I carried a disposable so only had 26 shots that had to last the whole race). Besides there are a lot of thoughts and emotions I want to remember and this layout is a good example. I knew that The Wall was out there somewhere around mile 20 and it was also a possibly quite boring part of the course - with a long out and back on a straight road. In the end I didn't meet any 'walls' and the out and back was quite interesting so I wanted to be able to recall this. Ahh, finally in The St...

There is a reason I don't upload my layouts to galleries more often - it's pure laziness. I do so many of them at once that then I would spend lots of time photographing, cropping, uploading, writing descriptions, etc. But I am pretty proud of how this marathon album is turning out so I've made the special effort to share some more layouts with you! The first three are about some of the more interesting places I ran while training over 2007 - Holland, Florida, London, Paris among others. As part of the training I also ran in Milton Keynes, of course, as that is where I live. I even ran in our local half marathon as part of training. It was a low point in training as I struggled so much with the half marathon that I thought I could never do a full. I nearly quit at this point... ...But of course I didn't and eventually marathon weekend was here! This is more of a pocket than a layout but I wanted somewhere to hold all those precious documents. Collecting my number - I ha...

Pretty much since I came back from Florida I started working on layouts for my WDW marathon album. I think I spent a lot of those long training runs planning layouts in my head for such an album, even though I really didn't know then what photos I would have or what products I would use! Here's a small sample of the layouts I've done so far (all 9x9): I love this layout below - I think it shows that this was one of my favorite parts of the race! The layout below is all about 'Sharpie signs' which were little signs placed along the course on one of the most boring parts of the race. These signs ranged from funny to interesting to make-you-think signs. I wanted to convey on the layout that miles 13 to 16 were really all about the Sharpie signs as there wasn't anything else to look at. Most of the album so far has been put together using a few elements: Bazzill or DCWV cardstock (cut down to 9x9), Christina Cole, Scenic Route and DCWV papers, journaling block sta...

A month ago I started my OU course Networked Living and so far it's been both enjoyable and educational. It is my second course so distance learning isn't a totally new experience for me, but it is my first level one course (the previous was a short course, 10 weeks only) and it goes on until sometime in September. The past few days I've been working on my first tutor-marked assignment (TMA) and while it's been a pleasure to return to the world of lessons and homework, it has also been a little bit of a shock. I think the way education works here in the UK is different from what I am used to in Mexico and I struggle with concepts such as word counts which I've never really had to deal with back in my student days. But I think I've done a good job on my first TMA and I've now completed it and submitted it too: nearly a week early! I am not sure when I get my results but I'm hoping for a good one... that is one thing that hasn't changed since my days a...

The past weekend was nice and sunny around here and it all looked so nice. It sure was nice to look out the window and see the sun rather than the clouds that had been hanging around for a while now. The only downside of all that glorious sunshine is that it highlighted all the dust inside my house! Contrary to popular belief I don't love cleaning - I just like the house to be clean. If I could I would let someone else do it but as that's not an option, I had to spend a lot of time dusting and cleaning last weekend. It was hard work but in the end I was quite proud of my very tidy lounge and dining room (I also cleaned upstairs but I'd lost a lot of enthusiasm by then so the results were not quite so stunning). Thing is, I know I'll have to do it all over again next weekend... yuck. Why can't someone invent a self-cleaning house? I know that there are already robots that can do the vacuuming or mow the lawn but that is not helpful when I have to dust all the flat su...

A month ago I completed the WDW marathon. In that time I’ve had a chance to reflect on this experience, so what have I learned? All that training was definitely worth it – I remember thinking this at about 19 or 20 miles, while I was still going and knew I would finish. All those endless loops, treadmill sessions, cold days… all SO worth it on the day. Marathons are hard work but they can be fun and also very inspiring. I was expecting the atmosphere at WDW to be a little more competitive but I felt more camaraderie than competition. Well, at least way back where I started. All during my training I was scared of being swept or of being last. Neither happened, I’m happy to say. I didn’t even SEE the sweepers or the back of the pack! Music was a huge influence on my mood and motivation. I knew this from training but on the day it was great to have my MP3 on me but also to turn it off sometimes and enjoy the music from marching bands or speakers around the course. The right song at the ...

I wasn’t able to go for a run yesterday or today, because of various (boring) reasons. And surprisingly to me – I actually miss it. A year ago when I started running and training for the marathon, a missed day was at most, annoying, because it meant that I didn’t “tick the box” as it were, for that day’s scheduled program. I wasn’t so much irritated because I didn’t go running but more that I wouldn’t be able to fill my log in with some additional distance and time. Flash forward to now and even though I’m not actually training for anything difficult (a 5k isn’t difficult is it?) I have had to find myself a new runner’s log because I need the focus. I found it weird to complete runs, no matter how short, and not be recording them somewhere. But weirdest of all is that my annoyance at missed runs isn’t because I didn’t fill out the log but because I missed out on a run. I am now missing the actual run as opposed to missing the act of ticking a box or filling my log. I miss ...

(I’m warning my four readers – I’ll be getting on my soapbox again and ranting about single photo layouts!) WHAT is the big idea with these one-photo layouts taking over the (scrapbooking) world? I do go on and on about this but it really does irritate me that they are everywhere. Case in point: in my latest UK scrapbooking magazine, which shall remain nameless, I counted 19 layouts in their reader’s gallery yet only TWO had more than one photo on them. And out of those two, one had a large photo and several other photos so tiny that they are really more embellishments than photos. What’s going on? I am starting to believe that the industry, fuelled by the media, is trying to propagate the idea that single-photo layouts are the way to go. This means that it takes scrapbookers a lot longer to work through those mountains of photos, using a lot more paper and stash along the way which means more shopping which of course means more revenue for the scrapbooking industry! ...