Sian on Safari

I don't do zoos very often. Anymore. Zoos and I don't get on. I'm always telling the story of me and the Very Angry Penguin, so I probably don't need to go over it again (oh, alright. Me. Mr. Angry. My hand. Wrong place, wrong time..). But I have others..

The year before, I'd got lost in London Zoo (or was it Windsor Safari Park? We did both, that school trip). All I know is that turning first left after the candyfloss stand didn't take me where I needed to go. ..But they found me eventually; and I got a big cheer when I got back on the bus, so that was nice.

I think I'm better sticking to felt animals

Next time I tried a Safari Park, my mum turned to me just as we entered the lions' enclosure and said (really - was she joking? I don't think so) "There isn't as much petrol in this car as I'd like". That was the same park (closed, now, funnily enough) which ran the Jungle Extravaganza stage show. Turned out to be a man in a gorilla suit. My sister has had a phobia of fancy dress shops ever since..

So, I've decided I'll stick to my museums and srt galleries. I'm making an exception for Gary the Magnificent, because, as hamsters go, he is pretty cool and -

"Woah, Mum, are you putting this on your blog?" the family has just said. "Because if you are, you need to be honest. You need to tell them the whole story. Sometimes you can manage animals. Sometimes you even like animals. You'd better show them - the monkey.."

So, in the interests of full and frank disclosure, here it is:

We only met the once, but I could tell he liked me..

You Don't Know What You've Got..

..til it's gone. It sounds as if many of you have been having blogger bother.  It's hard to imagine, isn't it? Fixing something as big as blogger?

Anyway, I got my walk by the sea at the weekend and I got some photos. Round here I play with colour all the time: I scrap with it, sew with it, use it round the house. When I'm at the seaside, I like things to be serene; and so my decorating goes like this:

The view from the back door - that's why I keep the rest of it light and bright

I'm really not good with plants, so I cheat. This is a (sshh! ) fake from Bloom Mail Order

Print and frame from Ikea. The boat was a gift. The painted chest of drawers is an old one from years ago. I paint lots of our old furniture in Antique Cream to freshen it up - I take my shade card to the Trade Cente and get them to mix up big tins of good quality eggshell.

Another Bloom plant and Ikea seaside print. The armchair came from a Homebase sale and the ticking curtains I made with factory shop fabric

Cream Captains's Light

Bedside table from Ikea, cushions from Cath Kidston, the swan is from a gift shop and the bedframe is painted taupe

And that's From High In The Sky - Seaside style.

What's Good About Blogger Going Bad

All day yesterday I waited for Blogger to let me upload my photos, without any luck. I'm hoping it will be sorted out soon. In the meantime, I'm thinking postive:

• If I'm not posting, I've got more time to read your blog! So, if you are a new Blogging For Scrapbookers blogger (or a regular who doesn't often say hello),  please leave me a link. I'd be delighted to call.
• I don't need a photo to give you a reminder that Storytelling Sunday comes back next Sunday 3rd April. It's Mothering Sunday too here in the U.K. - maybe you have a good Mum story to tell? Newcomers are most definitely very welcome.
• Sandra at Gotta Craft was able to insert my photos into a post I did for the Gotta Craft Blog yesterday. (Thank you!) So if you click here, you'll find me...

Five Ingredients For My Perfect Weekend

I like:

1. A quick trip into town, stopping off at the bookshop first, then a rifle through the magazines in Smiths (I always buy something), then over to Paperchase. This week I need to hunt out a special Mother's Day card for my Mother-in-Law who only accepts the wording "Mothering Sunday" (anything else just isn't official). Then it's a paperbag full of toffee bonbons from the tobacconists and home again in time for lunch.

2. A chance to read my new magazine and then make something in peace. That means finding a little DIY job for The Accountant and his willing, small assistant. This week they are on plumbing - in The Adventure of the Minty Mould. Don't ask.

3. A delicious dinner I haven't had to cook myself. I need to go to my Brother-in-Law, Kenny-Who-Cooks, for that. Or I could throw something in the Slow Cooker very quickly and then run away and pretend it wasn't me.

4. A new DVD to watch, courtesy of the Love Film subscription friends bought us for Christmas. This week it's a girls' pick - "The Illusionist" an animation we hope will be lovely to look at.

5. A walk by the sea. I wish they'd wait for me, though, I can never keep up..

Meaning From The Mundane

I'm playing a game of two halves here today. Blogging For Scrapbookers has really got going - with new blogs to visit and new faces to welcome here. Hello! It's so good to see you. I've pulled out my 2009 class notes; and I've been thinking about Shimelle's ideas for today. Meaning from the mundane, something from nothing. Last time round I wrote this post about a teatime conversation. It's still one of my favourites. Since then, among others, we've had the crumble post and the pop-up tuck shop. I usually tag them "silly stories".

We all have days to celebrate, it's true; but, most of the time most of us get up and do mostly the same things most every day.

"And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfilment in being ordinary"   Marilyn Thomas

Meanwhile, scrappin' on, I've been working on Finding Your Way with Karen Grunberg. Some of you said "No! What if all your pages look the same?" But so far, finding a groove is making me happy. If you know what you like, you really don't feel the need to reinvent yourself every time you make a page. I love that. Yesterday I made this one:

Check out that grin - for anyone who commented on The Small One's smile on Tuesday. That's her Granny, almost eighty years ago. It's exactly the same.

I'm thinking the Sian stuff on there might be:

Patterned paper background

Only one photo

Cutting up a pattern and putting it back together again

Sewing

More journaling on the back

Clustering

Does that sound like me to you?

Pass The Book: March Adopter And More

Wow, it's not much of a day here. It's bleak and dull. Exactly the kind of weather for staying in with  for books and blogging!

If you have landed here from Blogging For Scrapbookers - hello and welcome! Come on in and make yourself at home. Actually, make yourself known - I'd love to get to know you and return the visit.

It's Pass The Book day today - all the information is here if it's new to you. I'm going to be sorry (sort of) to see this month's Expressive Photography head off on its journey. There is still so much to learn! It has inspired me in a different kind of way than I expected. As soon as I started to read, I remembered a clipping I had which I'd meant to share with you before now. It's on tips for portraits with camera phones.

Yes, I'm going back to basics! With the help of my delightful assistant (who felt her maths homework could wait) I bring you our iphone portraits.







The BEFORE shot. Inside and without any thought or plan. Can we do better?



TIP ONE: Get the light right. A cloudier day gives a softer, more flattering light and stops squinting into the sun. If you are at a party - try beside a lamp which will light you side on



TIP TWO: With no variable focus you get no depth of field. As simple a background as you can find, then



OR get in nice and close (because iphone photos don't enlarge well anyway). Which brings us to TIP THREE - a bit of makeup! "I should be so lucky," said The Small One. So, moving right along:.



According to Cindy Crawford, you need big hair! - hair looks better bigger on camera, she says, so flip your hair over and ruffle it up a bit before you pose. I think I see what she means



Or, finally, failing all else, dress your shot up with an app. This is good old Hipstamatic once again.





So, what do you think? We have our favourite already picked out...



Which brings us back to the book. I've picked out the adopter for this month (I'm going to have to learn how to use a random number generator. I've just chased all the little bits of paper round the kitchen) and it's...



Deb from Paper Turtle. Deb, I'm glad it's your turn - I'll get it out to you just as soon as I can. In the meantime, lets take phone photos. Lots of them.



Hot Chip

It was turning out to be a bit of a slow news day here at High In The Sky until I came home and found The Small One cooking oven chips with a hairdryer.

She said it was an experiment, but that they were delicious and would I like some?

I was telling a friend about it yesterday. he said, "What are you waiting for, Sian? Write it down and save it. You'll want to use it in a speech at her wedding reception."

I thought he was right. So here it is :

Five Reasons For Me to Cheer This Weekend

I'm feeling cheerful on this lovely Saturday morning:

1. Ruth has sent me one of her World Book Night books - Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" - and I'm going to crack it open this afternoon.

2. I've recently discovered I love mustard after avoiding it for years. There's always something new to learn in the world (but does anyone know if it's possible to overdose?)

3. It's only another week til the Formula One season starts. Sometimes I have a need for speed.

4. I've just found They Draw & Cook. If I could draw I would make scrapbook tutorials just like this. (And that reminds me - did I tell you about the rosettes I made for the Gotta Craft blog?)

5. I have two new linen shirts for the summer and I want to take a photo of them looking pristine..because I'll never be able to launder them like this again.

A Bit Of Better Blogging: Part Five

Better Blogging? It's been a while, but I'm marking the return of Shimelle's Blogging For Scrapbookers class (hurrah!) with a new selection of good things I've found. I hope you see something here to interest you.

• Blogging Bookshelf - has a nice reminder here about adding your blog to your email signature. And a lot of other marketing based articles to browse - you could spend an hour in here.
• Blog World - here is their update on the planned new Blogger interface. Did you know Blogger now boasts over 500 million posts? Wow.
• Jacq's Blogger Tips - has lots of practical advice for playing about with your blog. It's unassuming and helpful. A nice site.
• Makin' Cute Blogs - has free tutorials including this one on google webmaster tools and this one on meta tags. And she has some for WordPress too.
• Just for fun - have you seen these blog cards? Like a business card, but for your blog!
• Finally, I just had to include Julie's Tips For The Twitter Curious. Did I say comprehensive? This has everything you need to know! She very nearly, almost has me persuaded..

But wait, before you go, Mel's post on blogger stats got me thinking. Have you ever checked to see which posts are your most popular? I had a look and my all time most popular post in my first Storytelling Sunday. How about you? I'd love to know..

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We'll be having potato bread for lunch. With lots of butter.

Pass The Book: The Seventh

It's the middle of March, there's a hint of Spring in the air and I'm looking outside, wondering if the daffodils need their photo taken.

Yes, I have a photography boook for you this month. It's a beauty:

Expressive Photography: The Shutter Sisters' Guide to Shooting from the Heart. If you are already a Shutter Sisters fan, this one really need no explanation. If they are new to you, then head over to the blog and prepare to be completely inspired.

Then come back and cross your fingers! I loved this book: it's definitely one I would love to see landing back on my mat when everyone is finished with it. I've been through it once, and I'm hoping for another read this week before I make the draw.

Same rules as always - it's all here. Newcomers are welcome. Oldtimers please continue to keep me updated when you send or receive a book. That way we can all track the ones we are interested in. So, it's over to you: leave a comment if you would like to be involved..

March at Gotta Craft

Today I have my March Gotta Craft pages to show you. Sandra has put together a truly lovely kit based around the new For The Record papers by Echo Park and they are gorgeous. Richly printed, double sided and ready for Spring. This is what I made:

For this one I cut the roses from one sheet of paper and put them back together again to embellish a page about a trip I made to a rose garden with my Auntie Rose. I used a sticker from the add-on sticker sheet as my title because it matched the colour and font of the sign in the photo.

This one shows a photo of some back copies of a family magazine I created when I was about nine. As soon as I saw the typewriter sticker and the yellow and black papers, this is the story I wanted to tell

And this one is about a little girl who didn't get to the beach very often, but made the most of it when she did.

And I've still got some bits and pieces left. There may be more to come..

I think Sandra has a couple of kits here and the individual papers are here. I can recommend the sticker sheet -it's packed!

Have a nice Sunday, whatever you are up to! I'm off to a birthday party. With ice cream.

Five Quotes From My Notes

Five things I read. And then nodded my head.

1.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Maya Angelou

2.

"The world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people." Henry Miller

3.

"Childhood is measured out by sounds and smells and sight, before the dark hour of reason grows." John Betjeman

4.

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and the pupil are located in the same individual." Arthur Koestler

5.

"My idea of hell is a very large party in a cold room where everybody has to play hockey properly." Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm. Was ever a truer word spoken?

We don't like hockey

My March Monthly Make

Today I have for you my Monthly Make.  Annie The Felt Fairy has been busy passing out patterns for anyone who fancied a go at sewing Stanley. And I did, so I grabbed one.

My Stanley looks like a bit of a handbag dog:

The original, of course, was made famous by Cath Kidston. He started out as a pet and became a muse. I saw the real Stanley in one of her shops in London once; but he was curled up fast asleep in his basket and I just couldn't persuade him to part with any Cath secrets at all..

Here he is in front of a layout I made about a trip to a Cath Kidston shop. The story is here

The March Counterfeit Kit Challenge

It's time to get fancy with forgery again - it's the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

This month's kit comes from Studio Calico. And who doesn't love a bit of Studio Calico? This one is bound to have a record number of counterfeiters! It sold out as soon as it was released, so the only way to get one now is to make it yourself. And that's exactly what I did.

The original can be found here. It's an earthy mix of browns and yellows with touches of green and blue. I pulled some papers, mixed up a bit of this and a bit of that and made an outdoorsy kit of my own:

contents:

Dark Brown, Green, Kraft, Dandelion and Vanilla cardstock

2 exclusive Studio Calico papers - alphabet and blue grid

1 Pink Paislee Enchanted

1 October Afternoon Nightlight

2 October Afternoon Campfire "campstove" and "animal tracks"

1 Dream Street Heartsong "lighthearted"

1 My Minds Eye Cloud paper

1 Basic Grey Marjolaine "profiteroles"

1 piece woodgrain fablon

1 My Minds Eye Stella and Rose title

1 American Crafts Thickers "hardcover"

1 Sassafras chartreuse glitter alpha

2 pieces Prima flower

mini chipboard trees, woodgrain stamp, felt bee, journaling tags, buttons and butterly chipboard stickers - all from stash.

And a closer look:

Gotta Crafters, I'm saying nothing. But it's a nice little tag isn't it?

Now there's a stamp I'm glad I found

Now all I need are some fresh outdoorsy photographs. Did anyone just say "hike"?

Join the Counterfeiters right here to check out the other kits.

Storytelling Sunday

Are you ready for a story? It's time to begin...

"Thank you for bringing your flute and playing for me today," said Granny, as the last notes of "Hillbilly Holiday" fell from the air.

You are welcome," smiled The Small One, sweetly, because she knew what kind of a reward she would like. "May I go into the dining room and play with, er, play on the piano?" She disappeared and came back carrying a battered old music book. "Did you play with this one?"

"A little bit," said her Granny, "but of course the piano was my Dad's, your Great Grandpa's, really."

"My Mum says she thinks that I'm a lot like him because I play and I sing and I invent things and I like entering competitions and doing magic tricks.."

"Yes, he did all of those things,"  laughed Granny. "He taught himself how to play the piano. Never had a lesson in his life. And the bagpipes in a band. he kept a practise chanter for that, long after his chest got bad. He used to get your mum to sing for him when she was a little girl. Amazing Grace or Morning has Broken. I don't suppose she'd do it now."

"No, she wouldn't," I said quickly, and buried myself in the Sunday paper.

"He was still making music in his seventies, when Uncle Sam bought him a stylophone, like Rolf Harris had. remember?"

Oh, yes. I think we all remember that.

"So I am like him! But then my Mum says I'm like her Dad, too, because he played the recorder and I like to do that. We're doing some good tunes for the Easter Concert. But it's a surprise."

"She's right," said Granny. "You are. He had a few recorders. He even made a recorder himself. And because you have played so nicely for me today, I'm going to give you a present."

And she loooked at me and I knew exactly what it was she wanted me to fetch..

And that is the story of how Grandpa G's big bass recorder in its polished wooden box came to live in our house, to take pride of place on The Small One's music shelf.

And that's my tale for today. If you have one you would like to share, please link us up! Everyone welcome.

Five Random Things About Me

Dedicated to the lovely bloggers Carmen, Kelli, RachelB, Sandie and Sandra who have very kindly passed on blogging awards to me recently. Thank you. And while we're on the subject, I'd also like to thank  every single one of you who comes back here week after week to see what we've been up; and every follower whose smiling face makes me grin every time I go to post. You are very much appreciated.

So, the facts:

1. I was due to be born on my Grandma's birthday, but I was ten days late. The Accountant, who is five days older than me, actually was born on his Grannie's birthday.
2. When I was fourteen I spent two weeks living with a French family in the beautiful cathedral town of Chartres. No English speaking allowed. The thought of doing it now scares the living daylights out of me.
3. The first time I ever went to the cinema I saw Bugsy Malone and it's still a favourite of mine. I'd still love the chance to drive one of those pedal cars.
4. When I was six I told everyone in school I was going to Sweden for my holidays. I wasn't, but I was fed up hearing about where everyone else was going and thought I would wow them with an exotic choice. This plan backfired when the teacher asked my mum about her interesting holiday. This year I will come the closest I've ever been - we are going to Norway.
5. I learned to drive when I was seventeen and I was still driving the same little car I passed my test in when we drove off for our honeymoon. Several years after that, I saved it from being stolen one night when I woke to the sound of breaking glass, looked out the bedroom window and saw two lads breaking into my car. I ran downstairs, out the front door and stood in the street yelling at them until they got out and ran away. I now realise that was probably a very stupid thing to do. But I did still have my car..

Storytelling Sunday tomorrow! I hope I'll see you there.

You Need to Know

When you grow up with teachers for parents, you get used to being told things. Lots of things. Useful, educational things you didn't realise you needed to know. Especially when you were only asking if there were any more cornflakes.

So I'm always just a little bit wary of, um, instructional opportunities with my own two. All the same, every so often, the stars align, I'm feeling my parenting groove, and I open my big mouth..

This page records a day when The Small One and I talked about Suffragettes and elections and why I like to use my vote to honour the bravery of those women who dared to ask.

The journaling reads: "The end of term production of Mary Poppins gave The Small One a chnace to march on stage as one of Mrs Banks' Suffragette friends. We had just finished voting in the European election and so we had an interesting opportunity to talk about equality. The background photos are from the BBC History magazine's article on The Cat and Mouse Act.

Before I go today- Gotta Crafters, if you would like a peek at this month's kit, then head over to the shop blog where I have posted some sneaks today.

The Post Of Procrastination

Today I have lots of things I could be doing. I have lots of things I should be doing. But then again..

• I could spend hours Mad Men -ing myself (I found this thanks to Rosie - please do some more blogging soon Rosie!)

• 

  Do you think she looks like me?

• I could start googling "sinus problems", so that I know what I'm talking about when I see the Specialist on Thursday. Then again, maybe not. I'll leave it to him to know what he's talking about.
• I could browse Daily Post for some fantastic blogging prompts. There's a new one every day, all year.
• I could stop knitting Little E's sweater (again) and look out some new wool for Knit-A-Square which sends hats and blanket squares to South Africa. Now, this one I will get round to.
• I could thank Carmen, Kelli, RachelB, Sandie and Sandra who have all given me blog awards recently. But I'll do that properly with a Random Five on Saturday.

And when I've done all that, there'll be nothing else for it: I'll have to do the ironing. But first? I think I'll change into something green, so I look more like my Mad Men image. After all, round here they do call me:

The Queen Of Green