Thinking out loud about blogging and creativity and a whole lot of random

So many friends in the blogging community have been vocalising what I have been feeling and battling with recently.
That "meh" feeling. That feeling of being obligated. Obligated to post and obligated to comment.
Of being in a continual paradox. Of loving the community of blogging but feeling totally overwhelmed by people to follow, read and communicate with.

I too am struggling with balance. Of working through the day and then wanting to cook and spend time with friends but also engage here because at the heart of it I love this creative space.

I am feeling battered. Battered with keeping up, battered every time I see that number on bloglovin of unread posts.

I am feeling swamped. With Project Life and with creative projects and not enough hours in the day. That quote "you can do anything but you can't do everything" is sticking with me at the moment.
I am so aware that it was this comparison, this need to keep up with new trends and new ideas that brought scrapbooking crashing down. I don't want that to happen with PL but gosh is it easy to be swept away.

I have been so encouraged in the last few days to read posts from wise wise people about these things.
To read Amy's words about scrapbooking and hobbies and how they are for enjoyment not keeping up with trends.

Rinda vocalised exactly what I was feeling about obligation in blogging and that "social contract".

Deb wrote a lovely post about where blogging has taken her and particularly about finding the balance of writing for yourself and writing to an audience.

And Alexa wrote words that brought tears to my eyes because many times when I look at my computer screen I feel like that plant that needs some more water and the dead leaves brushed away.

I don't really know what I am trying to say here but maybe that I/we are not alone in feeling these things.
That these four posts and more besides are a good indication of where we are all at with blogging and being creative.
I think I need to vocalise on here for myself as much to anyone else that this is my space and PL is my hobby.
I choose how much time I will commit to those things. When to be influenced and inspired by others and when to just do my own thing.

I think I need to give myself permission to cut some slack. To be silent sometimes, to finish that layout when I am feeling ready rather than when I feel it needs to be published on the blog.

I think as a community we need to tear up that "contract" that we feel we are in which says "you comment on my blog, I comment on yours". No. I want to comment on your blog because I like reading your words, because you are my friend and because I find what you make/photograph/write inspiring.

I think we need to dispel the obligation to comment. That niggle that says we need to keep up our online appearance.
You are my friend. I know you may have read and haven't commented and I value that.
You are my friend and I thank you and love that you did comment.
You are my friend and I understand with all my heart that you didn't have the time to stop by today, tomorrow and perhaps all week and you know what, I probably didn't either.

Blogging is beautiful and magical and so inspiring, as is the world of craft.
But it is also fast paced and selective. We rightly show the good bits, the things that made us smile, the photos, the craft.
I think it is good to admit though that we struggle, that we compare and that sometimes this blogging thing is a chore.
I think if we recognise that, if we cut some slack, if we value the silence in blogging sometimes as much as the posting, we will have a far richer experience.

This is really a thank you to all those women who put into words what they were feeling the last few weeks about blogging. It's a thank you to everyone who stops by and reads/comments or gazes from afar. It's me trying to put into words where I am at and as always trying to keep it real and honest.

Seeking an adventure

Last weekend was Lumiere festival in Durham. 

Three days of beautiful light installations around the city. 

My housemates and I had seen the installations on both Thursday and Friday and come Saturday me and A were sitting together seeking an adventure...

"We're never spontaneous" she said. "let's do something spontaneous tonight". 

In typical "us' fashion, we started planning. (Not spontaneous I know, but we tried!)

That evening we grabbed two rucksacks and whilst she filled a flask with hot chocolate I packed the hot water bottles and a big blanket. 

Our bags packed we headed into the cold Durham evening, our plan to go sit on the wall by the cathedral and watch the projections lit up on the cathedral walls whilst snuggled under a blanket drinking hot chocolate. 

Idyllic? We thought so. 

So together we set out into the night. 

We weren't counting on the queues. 

It was Saturday night and this was a bi-annual festival so it should have been expected. 

As Students we tried to find all our short cuts to get into the city but to no avail. 

We ended up waiting in line. For 20 mins, then half an hour, to an hour. 

We found the whole thing funny, the amusement of having an adventure and simply standing 100 yards from our house in a queue. We had hot chocolate to drink to pass the time and in a stroke of brilliance A. pulled from her bag a packet of marshmallows to dunk in our warm drinks. 

Time passed and we chatted. 

We shared laughter and deep thoughts and future plans. There in the queue we so enjoyed each others company. 

We eventually reached the front of the queue and there was a man. Standing on a box, with a megaphone. He told us that the queues were too long to get up to the cathedral. 

Our glorious cosy plan wasn't going to happen. 

A and I looked at each other and then around at the street. 

A lovely little cafe she had never been to was next to us. 

One look was all it took. 

Ten minutes later we where in the warm, giggling over a cup of tea and piece of cake, at eleven at night. 

Spontaneity happened right there. When we least expected it. 

Project Life week 45

 I am slowly getting further and further behind on this project but am so determined to finish the year. 

7 weeks left and then the book can go into production!

This was week 45 and I had a lot of fun photos to play with and new techniques to try out. I really like how this week turned out. 

Photos: 

Lots of photos from both the ball, a pudding party we had to celebrate my housemates birthday and the boy coming to visit. I also popped in two photos from the fireworks night. A lot of photos this week were taken indoors so I ran them through one of my favourite black and white filters to get rid of the funny lighting. 

There were so many snapshots taken at the ball so rather than try and squeeze them all in I popped them straight into a grid and added it as a journalling card. They will turn out quite small in the final book but I like how many happy smiles are captured in just one square. 

Journalling: 

I think one of the things I have most enjoyed about project life is telling the stories each week. That photo of the boy and me for instance on the left hand spread. The journalling is more about how lovely it was to see him again rather than the photo itself but the joy of project life is that you can do that. 

It's been fun to look back on my first spreads and compare them to this. I definitely journal more on photos themselves than I did before. 

Techniques: 

As usual I did an inspiration sweep before I sat down and made this layout. I saw several examples across the web of using a quote across a picture in two pockets and tried that out on the left hand spread. 

I have also found, throughout this album, that I like the combination of a handwriting script and a capital graphic font. I used two together on the photo of the boy and like that it adds a little bit more to that photo. 

Anything else: 

Still mulling things over for next year. I am keen to commit to three years of project life. One for each of my years in Durham. I am debating the best way to do that at the moment.  I will certainly stick to digital but will probably go for a different page template. 

Have you seen anything new/inspiring in the project life world at the moment? I am interested in collecting some ideas about how to tackle the new year! 

Simply a moment

We've finished dinner and we are sitting around the table, slumped in our chairs and replete from a good meal.
We are chatting away and soon one of us has to break the magic and start to clear.
The clatter of plates being stacked fills the air and I move to the kitchen to turn on the tap.

We congregate there. Conversation moving from table to sink.
We laugh over whose turn it is to wash, whose turn to dry and who gets the nice job of making the tea.
Someone puts their phone on and soon the love actually playlist is being piped out at high volume.
We dance around the kitchen, wiping plates, putting things away.
Song requests come thick and fast.
The kitchen smells of soapy water as we splash about, singing along to our favourite songs.

The time around the kitchen sink is one of my favourites.

Today I am joining in with Alexa's beautiful meme, "Simply a Moment." Do stop by her blog to read both Alexa's words and other bloggers as they record their moments. 

Five things guest posting with Shimelle

So, the secrets out! I am in a different place today.

You will find me over at Shimelle's for five ways to use photos in project life

Here is a little sneak preview. Do pop on over to say hi! 

DIY instagram calendar

Thank you for all your sweet words about the ball photos. We had the best time!

It's November but I'm thinking about Christmas and wanted to share over the next few weeks a few simple ideas for handmade gifts.
I love buying presents but I also enjoy making them (although handmade presents for teenage brothers may not go down so well)

This was a DIY I made a couple of months ago for a friends birthday but I think it would work really well as a christmas present.
A simple flip instagram calendar for the New Year.

You will need: 
Instagram photos
Thick A3 card
3 jump rings


1. Find a selection of instagram photos. I wanted to use photos from my friends feed so I logged into ink361 searched for her in my followers and then saved her photos.
Obviously the quality won't be as great as if you took them directly from the phone but if it is a surprise, needs must!

2. Open up a simple photo editing software. I used photoshop but any web based one would work just as well. Choose thirty one photos and add the numbers to the centre of the photo. I made the number quite big and used the photo as the background. You could make the numbers any size you wanted though. I found white was the best colour to use and used this font.

Then do the same with twelve different photos and add the months of the year.

Repeat with the days of the week on seven new photos. To keep things fresh I did fourteen days of the week cards so that it would be on a rolling two week cycle! You don't want to be bored...

3. Once you have edited and saved these photos you need to print them as square photos. I printed mine at 3x3. There are many different ways to print. On photoshop I opened up a 6x4 canvas then added the photos side by side and saved them as a new file. I then ordered these as 6x4 prints online and trimmed them when they arrived.

4. This is the fun bit! You will need a piece of pretty sturdy, thick white card. Most good stationary shops have some. Mine was A3 size.
Holding the card horizontally fold into three equal sized pieces and then an inch flap like this. Score along the folds.

5. Now get your three jump rings. Open them up and place them evenly along the top fold in the card just like this. They can take a bit of fiddling to get them in.

6. Grab your photos. Depending on what you printed them on you could leave them as they are or do as I did and back them onto some thin card for extra strength. I then punched a hole in the top of each photo.

7. Glue your the stand together. Fold along the scored lines to form a prism shape and secure with that inch flap you created and a bit a of super glue.

8. If you want to decorate the stand this is the time to do it. Grab each pile of photos- the months, the numbers and the days. Make sure they are in order! Open each jump ring and attach to the stand in whichever order makes sense to you. I did day of the week, date and then month.

Such a fun gift and simple to make! Enjoy.

The Ball

On Friday night I went to the ball. I also took a lot of photos.
These are the stories behind them that I want to remember.....

His tractor cufflinks. A little bit of humour and a little bit of love. His family roots are in the countryside.

Posing for group photos in the post room because the light was better and we needed somewhere to store our coats. We are nothing if not practical!

Dancing with the boy to jazz, to pop and everything in between. Held close or cracking out the "dad dance" moves.

Magical lights. The ball was willy wonka themed so imagine chocolate fountains, candy floss, red and white striped material and a checkered dance floor.

These girls. Housemates. Getting ready in each others bedrooms. Straighteners and curling tongs held aloft, mascara and hair pins littering the landing. Doing each others hair on the stairs and rummaging through drawers to find the spare pair of tights to lend.

This man. This look. Sitting in front of him with google opened in front of us trying to tie his bow tie. Me telling him how easy it was and then being proved categorically wrong by my several failed attempts. His ability to laugh at this, at us.

Spending the evening with a camera and my new lens and capturing the memories.

A moment captured. There was a lot of happiness that evening.

A ball definitely brings out the best: the smiles, the drinks, the dancing and the dressing up. What a treat!