Rocking My World Friday



First & foremost I am rocking that today is the last day of this half term so I can hope for a lie in for the next week, note I say HOPE, that doesnt mean I will, especially as my 2 lads are wake up usually at 6 if not earlier.

This week I have received Nalini Singhs Guild Hunter Series which I won on the Gollancz Dark Fantasy Facebook page, 3 books containing Vampires & Angels, 2 of my all time favourite subjects, I cant wait to start reading them.

Kai has got through the past 2 weeks without getting chicken pox or Conjuctivitus which is rife at his pre-school at the moment, though I do realise Chicken Pox doesnt show for about 3 weeks. Today only about a 1/4 of his class came in, meaning they all had lots of fruit for their snack today as they didnt want it going off during the hols. Though I'd prefer Kai to get Chicken Pox at a young age neither my other half nor Zack have ever had it, they may be immune, but I'd rather they didnt get it at their ages.

Had a nice talk with my Mom over brecky at the pub yesterday .... its always amusing to reveal something naughty I got upto when I was 15 or something to her, very therapeutic, lol.
I also feel honoured that my MIL got in touch to ask for my help & advice on some family matters, makes me feel wise & appreciated :-)

& finally, my MIL, while sorting out her attic, finding a turtles bag with some of my other halfs stuff in it. So as not to pry she didnt open it but gave it to me. I of course immediately opened it :-D Inside among school work & books were some photos of my other half as a child. There was also some beautiful photos of him dressed up, about the age of 6, along with his parents in old fashioned clothes. The photos are sepia so as to look old fashioned. I shall be scanning them to not only scrap but also so my MIL can have a copy of them all.

I'm off to have a look at what other people have been upto this week, if you want a look you can visit Celtic House for the list of Participants. Before I go, I'd love to know, whats rocked your world this week?

Cuddles

This page just wouldnt photo very well, but you get the jist of it. This is my newest niece Trinity, who my eldest wanted a cuddle with. As there wasnt much journalling & I felt the pictures pretty much spoke for themselves I decided on layering up the background, 1st a 12x12 sheet, & then a 10x10 sheet, making the blank surface less.

The 10x10 sheet is close to the colour of Trins suit without over powering it or making it the main feature. As Zack was also a main subject on the page I didnt want to make the page too girlie so avoided pinks, opting for more purpley colours & whites. The flowers in the corners are layered up flower shaped sequins & not only balance the page but also reflect the flowers to the right bottom of the page

A snowy white page

I wanted the page to give the image of snow so kept colours to a minimum and added texture. A white brizzly background with a pearlescent white sheet I'd shaped and roughed up the edges on top.
Felt snow lace on top of that, along with material snowflakes and pearlescent flowers.

I mounted the photo onto white card that I'd again roughed up the edges on, & added the journalling onto a seperate piece. Finally I added the chipboard title "let it snow".

I think I managed to achieve a cold, frosty & purely snowy scrapbook page.

Christmas Eve Page

This page evolved from an idea that was totally different, I knew I wanted the photos laid out in a higgledy piggledy way, in a group, maybe in a circle, but I had originally envisaged lots of layers, cut out shapes, stockings etc.

I looked through my scrappy borders etc to find something to make the journalling stand out a bit from the rest so came across this frame, & then the oval "title" that went so nicely together, christmassy yet not in your face christmassy. While flicking through the 12x12s I came across this sheet & thought it would be a nice plain background to layer up on, & found a 6x6 that went with the colours & did my journalling,

I noticed that all the colours were kinda working at this stage, but the journalling & frame were too big to have away from the photos so I decided to put the photos around the frame.With a little bit of jiggling they fell into place. I looked at the page, ready to start thinking of shapes, images etc for the backgound ........and stopped. The page worked as it was, it just worked. No need for anymore adding to it.

Zack looked at it later on & said it was weird how no matter how he looked at it that his eyes were always drawn to the images & writing, & that it was my best page yet - compliment indeed from the 12 year old who not only works on the straight forward "It looks nice" but also on "Its aesthetically pleasing & works on many other levels due to...."

Sparkle

A simple scrapbook page to show my lads hanging their new christmas baubles last year.
The background sheet of pine needles I thought I'd never use except maybe for a mounting photos on but I found it went great with this topic.
The photos are mounted on blue, I know a risky colour to go with the green but it brought out the colour of Zacks ornament so well. I then mounted onto white to help avoid clashes of colour & to bring out the white of Kai's ornament.

I put the journalling almost hidden away on one of the silver trees, it simply reads..

"Zack and Kai put their new ornaments on the tree, 2010"

I'll be doing a page with this theme on every year so I'm trying not to get too repetitive on my wording.

Nearly finished with last years christmas scrapping, as I've always just done random pages as they take my fancy it actually feels a little weird & yet also a feeling of accomplishment. Tomorrow you'll see my final 2010 christmas page which is christmas eve & the one Zack says is my best yet.

Homemade Eclairs / Profiteroles

One of my favourite puddings are Profiteroles and Eclairs, I count them as one as its only really the shape that alters them from the one to the other. They are sooooooooo simple to make but will impress your guests.

Ingredients:
50g (2oz) butter or Marg
60g (2 1/2oz) plain flour (all purpose flour)
2 eggs, well beaten
150ml (1/4pt) water
125g (4oz) chocolate
a small carton whipping cream

Method:

1. Grease a baking sheet and dampen it under a cold tap for a few seconds - place to one side until needed.
2. Cut all the butter and heat it in a saucepan with the water. Sift the flour into a bowl.
3. When the mixture in the saucepan begins to boil take it off the heat & tip in all the flour in one go.
4. Beat the mixture until it is smooth and comes away from the sides of the pan. This only takes a minute or two.
5. Cool the mixture for 5mins then beat in the egg a bit at a time to make a thick, smooth, glossy paste
6. Turn the oven on to 200C, 400F, gas Mark 6.
7. Put teaspoons of pastry on the baking sheet and put in the oven. (for eclairs put the pastry into lines, you could even do this with an icing bag) After 10mins turn the temperature upto 220C, 425F, gas mark 7
8. Bake for another 15-20mins, then peep into the oven. The buns should look puffy and golden brown.
9. Put them onto a wire rack & prick a hole into the side of them to let out steam, otherwise they'll get soggy & collapse.
10. Put the chocolate into a bowl. then gently heat this over a pan of water until the chocolate melts. Stir until smooth & scoop over the eclairs.
11. When the eclairs have cooled make a larger hole in the side and fill with whipped cream - I find this easiest to do with a good quality icing bag with a nozzle on, that way you can just pop the nozzle inside & squeeze the cream in.

Tada, all done & ready to eat!

Rocking My World Friday

I thought I'd start making a note of all the positive things that happen on a weekly basis & what better way than to join in with "Rocking Your World Friday". When times are hard its best to concentrate on the brighter things, to remind us thats its not a dark hard world out there.

So first of all we had attended our termly parents meeting with Zacks tutor, which was MORE than positive. Hes doing really well with all his lessons, apart from PE, which when mentioned he told his tutor "well I cant be good at everything!". I've been telling him this ever since people have commented on his lack of sportyness & I am so glad hes taken it on board. He's obviously a teachers pet with his tutor as she gushes over him, lol, he's 1 of her 6 stars, all of which have already reached the level they should finish year 7 at & are even looking at GCSE level maths books :-O He's expected to leave the school with straight A's.

To add to this we received a letter saying Zacks been added to the gifted & talented list for both ICT (computing) & English.

Second on my list is my new table, which I'm sure your fed up of so I'll skip going on about it ;-) I will say though that not only is it making life easier for me tidying but its also bringing the family together.  Kai comes home from Pre-school & sits with me at the table to eat lunch, chat & then play. Zack gets home from school & immediately sits on one of the chairs to chat to me & flick through the scrapbook. Even my other half, Ryan, will sit & chat to me at the table while I cook dinner.

Its only been taking me a morning to get the house looking tidy & clean!!!! As we're not using the lounge so much its staying tidy so I only need to give it a quick tidy & clean, the same with our bedroom so the main clean up areas are kitchen, bathroom & lounge. I also do a different job each day such as clean the windows, wash all the floors etc.

I am totally rocking getting my scrapbooking mojo back, I have done **runs off to count** 10 layouts this week, 7 single pages & 3 doubles.

I am absolutely loving seeing so many blogs doing "pay it forward" & even more so using the logo I found for it, its lovely to think they are all part of my tree :)

Finally I am getting lots of inspiration from One World One Heart, my blog roll is getting longer as is my want-to-try list. It is well worth going to have a look.

So whats rocked your world lately?