Storytelling Sunday 3 - June

This year Storytelling Sunday asks you to "pick your precious". This is how Sian described it ...

Start looking around, see what you love. Pick Your Precious is for short story tellers and for long. You can take the idea of simply a photo with a few words; or, if you are a can't-stop-yourself storyteller, you can expand as much as you like. The thing to keep in mind is that at the end of the year you'll have a permanent record of the little things you hold dear - and your family will know why you are holding onto them! Doesn't that sound like it might be worth it? No more "Do you really need that?"

Please join us this year. It only takes a minute and even if you only write a story or two, that will be a few more of your stories written down. I have missed playing along over the last two months but it has been just crazy around here! We have almost found a new routine and I added STS to my personal To-Do list using my new app Wunderlist. I even set it to email me and flash me a reminder on screen!  And see, it worked!!!  I'm here on time :-)

If you have read any of my stories this year you will know that I am trying to look through my shoe boxes that have followed me near and far.  I finally got around to opening this one ...

It is filled with letters, newspaper clippings, school reports I wanted to keep, and mementos from weddings and outings.  It is going to take me a while to sort it out!  I had forgotten that I had a pen friend in Spain, until I saw the return address on one of the letters.  I was a letter writer as a kid but I was continually disappointed when people didn't write back!  My family lived far and wide and I loved to write letters :-)  But two things in it caught my eye this morning and so I will write about them this month.

Does your family have any traditions for the first day of the month?  Did you ever do anything at school on the first of the month?  If I remember rightly this story began in the school playground on the first day of the month many, many years ago.  It then spread to home and became ingrained in our family life on the first day of every month.

A pinch and a bunch on the first day of the month, and no returns!

The idea is to quite literally pinch and punch people and they couldn't do it back!  At some point we began to retaliate with "A slap and a kick for being so quick!" which caused the ending be altered to "no returns of ANY kind!" (You could only 'pinch and punch' a person once each month)

The morning of the 1st in our house was like watching a suspenseful thriller.  There was hiding, stalking, and lightning quick movements to get everyone and avoid being gotten.  At one point our step-dad worked morning shifts and so there were two times of attack.  First in the morning and then when we returned from school.  We would drop our bags and try to work out which door was safe to enter, or was there a way to entice him out of the house unsuspectingly so we could all get him at the same time!

Folded in my box I found this piece of paper ...

My brother must have left it on my door so that he could win.  We must have had some sort of conversation the night before about actions speaking louder than words as he noted this on the page ...

I love his pinch and punch pictures!

The LOML was never a fan of this game and when the boys were little it got out of hand and so it died out in our house ... until this year.  Living with my mom and my step-dad has seen the tradition come alive again as they have still done it to each other every month.  The first of May was the first time that it became a real game!  I think there will be lots of sneaking next month!  Maybe I should add it to my to-do list too, with an email reminder and a flashing reminder!

The other interesting item that surfaced in my box was a school project from when I was nine.  It is a booklet (mini-album) all about me.  I have covered some of the details that are not suitable for cyber-space.  I guess I have always been a collector of memories.

This page also contained all of my contact details and full name.  I still love Macgyver and trying new foods!

I didn't really go much for drawing to scale at the time.  My bed actually filled almost my whole room!  Sitting on my bed is Drooper the dog wrapped in a blanket.  Maybe you will meet him in the future :-)

The card that was stuck to my hospital crib when I was born and a lock of hair from my first hair cut ( I was a baldy for a very long time!).  My mom must have kept a record of the place and time.  This hair salon is still there.

And some interesting facts about me including my birth announcement from the newspaper.  I even included a scrap of carpet from my bedroom (I hated that pink carpet and it was ALL through the house!) and the grey vinyl from our kitchen floor.

I think I shall have to try and preserve this a bit better but I am very happy that I have a record of it all.

If you enjoy a story or two why not pop on over to Sian's and join in!

Happy Sunday,

Chipper

CSI - Case File 73

I have noticed a few mentions of CSI (Colour Stories Inspiration) floating around Blogland and they intrigued me.  I thought that I would have a go with this week's Case File.  If you have no idea what I am going on about I will explain in a minute.  Here is this week's Case File.

Here is how they explain the challenge ...

"The Scene" - This is the inspiration image from which the color palette, inspiration, and story starters are drawn.
"The Scheme" - This is the palette of five colors you must use. You may add neutrals (black, white, kraft, cream, gray, brown) to these colors. Please try to get your colors as close to this swatch as possible, but don't drive yourself crazy or not play because you don't have the exact shade of a color. If you'd like to add an additional color to accent, please restrict it to about 10% of your page.
"Evidence" - These are elements drawn from the inspiration image that you should include on your page. They may be products, techniques, or other design ideas. Choose two or more to include in your layout. If you see other elements that inspire you in this picture, feel free to add those, too!
"Testimony" - This is the journaling part. Choose one (or more) elements for your journaling. The journaling elements are also drawn from the inspiration image and may be in the form of topic ideas, journaling formats, journaling approaches, or words to inspire your stories. They are meant to spark ideas for you to tell a story on your page. You can combine them, use them as a jumping-off point, or you can always use The Scene (inspiration image) as inspiration for your journaling.

I thought it would be fun to give it a go and so I dived into my patterned papers to see what I could come up with, but I struggled with the shades of teal!  I ended up finding the colour 'rules' too constricting as I easily found papers with some of the colours, but they always had an additional colour which would have broken the 'rules'.  I almost gave up but I was determined to do it!  That was when I decided to use plain old grey as the background and forget about my beloved patterned paper for a while!  I have a beautiful shade of mist from Mr Huey called 'heirloom blue' which gave me my teal :-)

I didn't journal so I technically didn't complete the Case File.  This photo was taken on one of our camping trips to France and I didn't think it needed journalling as the photo is the story.  I used tone-on-tone paper and the pom-pom trim from the 'Evidence' section.

I did this challenge over a couple of hours and was very relaxed by the end of it.  I didn't spend time over-thinking it and spent more time waiting for things to dry than anything else!  This is not a colour combo I would have come up with on my own but I love it.  I will probably come back to the CSI Case Files even if just for the colour challenge.  If you are feeling like you need some fresh inspiration pop on over to them and look at their Case Files.  A new one goes live each week so there is always plenty to keep you going!

It is a long weekend here and I am working but I am crafting with friends tonight.  I am hoping to have my story ready for Story Telling Sunday with Sian this month so why not pop back for it :-)

Happy Crafting,

Chipper

Congratulations!

Do you know what this is?

It is an Australian Army Cadet Lance Corporal badge. Congratulations to BOTH The Extrovert and The Thinker who were promoted tonight! Needless to say they are very excited!!!

Congrats boys! I am very proud of you and the extra work you have done to earn this promotion. 

Chipper

Happy Birthday Princess

Today our beautiful Princess turned 12.  It's hard to imagine that twelve years have passed, where has the time gone!  In recognition of the digital age we now live in, we received her Birthday List via email.

My birthday list
1. The ultimate decorating set
2. Match Attax 2013
3. Craft stuff
4. Books ( Fairy books, I don't have-1, 9, 13-20, 23-29, 31-50, 57-58, 60-61, 63-65, 68-79, 81, 83-87, 89-93, 95, 98, 101, 103)
5. Panting stuff
6. Playstation games
7. Playstation romot (PINK or blue)
8. CD
9. DVD (the rise of the gardens and Scooby Doo)
10. Headphones (the ones from the smiggle shop it needs to be PINK)
11. Shoes
12. Cooking stuff

BREAKFAST
Pancakes

DINNER
Tunacasharoll
DESSERT
Cake- I am going to make it and decorate it too

In our family the birthday person gets to choose whatever they want (within reason!) for breakfast and dinner.  They also get to choose the type of cake/dessert they want.  Pancakes and waffles are the most popular breakfast choices with dinner usually being something more unusual.  The Princess' favourite dinner is Tuna Casserole and as we only have it on a rare occasion she has started requesting it every year.

I took the day off today and decided to make her a special layout for her own album all about her birth.  I haven't scrapped any of the kids early years yet and I thought she would appreciate it and it was a good way to kick start my crafting again after the shop closing.  I used an old favourite paper of mine that I now wished I had bought more of!  It was the 'Katlin Collection' by Crate Paper.  Add in a few newer pieces like the overlay and the glassine envelope and you would never know the paper was old.

The tag has writing on both sides and tells the following story ...  "Early in the morning on Wednesday the 23rd of May you decided that this was the day you were going to be born!  Grandma and Pops came and collected the boys while we waited for the contractions to get closer.  The Doctor had said to leave for the hospital when the contractions were 15 minutes apart.  As I was walking in circles around the backyard, your Dad decided to cut the grass while he waited.  He walked up and down with the lawn mover, I walked around and around.  Neither of us were really paying much attention to the time.  Thankfully the mower ran out of fuel or this story would have a very different ending!!!  That was when Dad decided to time the contractions, they were only 5 minutes apart!!!  We quickly got in the car and drove to the hospital.  Dad dropped me at the door while he parked the car.  The receptionist wanted me to wait for an orderly to come with a wheelchair.  I told her that I didn't have time and to let the ward know I was on my way up.  I got into the labour room and Dad arrived just as I was getting changed.  I hopped up on the bed and you decided you weren't waiting any longer!  5 minutes later and you had arrived!!!!"

The Princess chose to make carrot cake for her birthday and she wanted to bake it and decorate it herself when she came home from school.  We bought her a cake decorating kit for her birthday (number one on her list) and she can't wait to use it on her next cake.  I think there will be a few cakes and cupcakes in our future :-)

I couldn't resist this flannel sheet set and had to get it for her birthday.  Her pre-teen genes are kicking in and she has started to sleep in on the weekend.  She saw the funny side and as you can see they are already on her bed along with the soft, fluffy pink pillow from The Thinker.  We also bought her some more painting supplies (number 5 on the list).  She loved the canvas brush roll and the new brushes.

We have had a very special day.  Happy Birthday Princess!

King of the Castle

Did you ever find the need to climb to the top of everything when you were a child?  The Extrovert does!  And he always has to pose too :-)  I wonder if I was like that too????

I loved the papers from My Minds Eye's 'Indie Chic'.  I love the colours, patterns and texture so I just couldn't cover it all up.

Hope you had a great weekend,

Chipper