Fire and Ice

Every week, on a Thursday, I get home and have a surprise waiting for me. It is a box of lovely organic veggies and it gets delivered while I’m at work. So I get home and it’s almost as if someone gave me a lovely gift. I take my box inside and almost can’t wait to see what we got this week: lately it’s been yummy courgettes, sweet carrots, fantastic pumpkins and the best sweetcorn I’ve ever had. Sometimes I even get a vegetable I can’t identify and I have to use the included leaflets to learn what it is, how I store it and what to do with it. It is all terribly exciting. The organic veggie box schem e is one of my weekly thrills, not the least because of the element of surprise. I have little choice of what goes in the box, other than basic decisions (what size? All veggies? Some veggies, some fruit? etc) the whole experience is one where I have very little control. And I wouldn’t want to change that. I have noticed that there seems to be a rise in the amoun...

As a scrapbooker, I am generally very restrained. I don’t shop for new stash very often, I don’t get seduced by the latest thing and I make the best of the stuff I already have. I have gone for as long as a year without buying anything new, except basics like adhesive and cardstock when they ran out. Yet my pages are, if I may say so myself, pretty acceptable and in some cases, actually very nice. Why can’t I be the same way when it comes to clothes? I am almost the complete opposite when it comes to clothes shopping: I am always buying something new, love getting the latest thing (if it suits) and sometimes do not make the most of what I already have. I have a lot of very pretty things hanging in my closet but, because there are so many things in there, I miss them and never wear them! How can I convert my scrapbooking resourcefulness into the fashion world? What strategies can I learn from one to apply into the other? First of all, I should stop the shopping. Just like my stash, my w...

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...

As I’ve said before, I am not one of those scrappers that buys a lot of stash a lot of the time. I used to, though but thankfully this was when I started scrapping ‘properly’ and the variety of materials and tools available isn’t what it is now. So even though I shopped a lot, I still don’t have a huge stash. Through the years, more and more things have become available and I am so bewildered with choice that I shop less and less. The last couple of years I have literally just bought essentials (adhesives, page protectors, that kind of stuff) and had one or two big shops a year. I am trying very hard to use what I have and I think I am winning - and have even had big clearouts where I let go of those things that I just know I will never use, that perhaps came from kits or from some impromptu shopping spree years ago. Last weekend I was putting together kits to take to my Tuesday crop and I must admit I found it a little harder than usual: I am running a little low on stuff. ...

Why is it that scrappers feel that they must “have it all”? Not only do I mean “all” as in career, kids, etc but more like everything that is out there and available for sale in stash-land. You know, the papers, the embellishments, the tools, the bags, the cardstock… I know I keep talking about this but I just can’t bring myself to shop, shop, shop like nearly everyone else seems to. For one, I sometimes feel that scrapping stuff is quite over-priced (especially in the UK) so I have to really, really justify the purchase to myself before I commit. And I’m talking about justifying the purchase of a set of brads – not even something more expensive! The other thing is that I know that I won’t use some things. I don’t buy stash specifically for pages (that would be TOO organized) but I do know my style well enough to know that I will never really have any use for any die cutting machines. Or those enormous chipboard embellishments that are everywhere at the moment – gorgeous as they ...

Just before I went on vacation, a dream store opened here in Milton Keynes: Borders! Yes, the bookstore. I really love this store mainly because it sells books and does this job beautifully. There are few bookstores that display books so well and make it so easy for me to have to buy another book. If I could, I think I’d love to work there and I would be in heaven, surrounded by books. I’ve already been like five times since it opened earlier in the month, and bearing in mind I’ve been on vacation for most of November, it isn’t a bad average. I just love books. I love and love and love books. Books have been my friends for a long time, since I learned to read at the age of 4. Ever since I discovered the written word I have been pretty obsessed with books and have always been attracted to reading. It’s one of my favourite pastimes – sometimes even more adored than scrapbooking, I have to say. Reading is portable, easy to do and it fills my head with places, peoples and ideas that mig...

t’s official – there is something wrong with me when it comes to shopping for stash. I’ve just spent a lovely couple of weeks in the States and along with enjoying the sunshine and beaches of the Sunshine State, I had the chance to visit a few scrapbook shops (only a few, honestly, I was having too much fun to be inside). I visited a couple of the big chains and a couple of smaller, independent shops but the result in all of them was the same: I hardly bought anything. I don’t know what it is about stash shopping but I seem unable to do it like everyone else does: with gusto. I relish the experience and like looking through the lovely shelves of merchandise but when it comes to committing some money, I become far too practical and choosy: it is all so lovely but do I really need it? The answer is usually no, so it stays on the shelf. Besides, I say to myself, where will I put it when I get home? I don’t have that much room anyway. Nothing really grabbed me and shouted at me BUY ME. Sur...