Fire and Ice

We've been busy these past few weeks trying to get the Darwin Open University site up and running and it is now live and ready to share! The best bit is the section where you can upload a photo of yourself and then 'devolve' it to see what you would have looked like a few thousand (or million) years ago. This is me as a rather attractive Homo erectus: Cool huh?

If you know anything about me, you know that I think journaling is what differentiates scrapbooking from photo albums. It’s not the pretty papers or the title or even the embellishments: it’s the journaling that tells others why these photos are special or how they make you feel. Journaling is what takes your place when you can’t be around and tell the story in person. I’m glad to see that so many manufacturers are bringing out more and more products that should make journaling easier (I particularly like those little labels that you can journal on and then simply stick onto a layout) but sometimes it seems that journaling is taking a further step back in scrapbookers’ minds. Wherever I look, I find layouts that have absolutely no journaling on them at all. Sure, they look very nice but I am none the wiser as to who is in the photo, why, what they are doing, anything at all! I also think this is more of a British thing as people from this side of the world find it harder to share their...

I did something this week that I hadn’t done in a very, very long time – I logged on to a scrapbooking website and bought something! Not only have I not purchased anything from a scrapbook shop (online) in a good long time, I hadn’t even gone on to any sites just to browse. I just didn’t feel the need to! What prompted this purchase was also real need – I am going to a scrapbooking retreat this weekend and I was nearly out of adhesive so I had to order some online. Sure, while I was there I had a little look at the shop but ended up buying some more, practical, things like post extenders (which I also need) and a cardstock pack for a specific project I’ll be working on. It’s been about two years since I decided to stop buying scrapbooking stuff ‘just because it’s there’ and focused more on using what I have. It was a little hard at first (although I have always struggled to spend hundreds in stash at one time ) but now it’s become second nature, so much that I don’t ev...

Can we talk? Really, really talk? I am really struggling to come to terms with my changing shape. I am having trouble looking at myself in the mirror, hate the fact that most of my ‘normal’ clothes no longer fit and I am certainly not taking any photos of myself for posterity. I’m practically running away from cameras now, which explains why my scrapbooking output is seriously diminished. The last time I was pregnant I remember feeling the same way, but I always thought that there would come a point when I would feel better and be happy with my growing body. That point never came and now, second time around, I know better. I also know that I will get much, much bigger and be even more uncomfortable, look more like a helium balloon and that the feeling goes on for a few months even after the birth. I know that there are some girls out there that love being pregnant, I even know some personally. I totally don’t get this because this isn’t something that I enjoyed in the past or am enjoyi...

Let me get this out of the way - I like Sarah Palin. She seems to be a hardworking mom, easy on the eye and generally no worse than the average person. I could say I identify with her, after all I am also a working mom juggling family life and work. But do I think she is a good choice for Vice-President of the US? No. Last night we sat and watched some of the debate between Palin and Biden and one thing quickly became obvious: a lot of time, effort and resource has been spent in making Sarah Palin sound like she knows what she's talking about. But I still felt that she really, really doesn't. I know that she's done a relatively okay job as Mayor and then Governor of Alaska, but let's get real. This is not good enough experience for the next-to-top job in the USA. I obviously can't vote in the US elections and you could say that whatever US citizens decide doesn't really affect me but I, like thousands of people around the world (maybe even millions), find the wh...