15th Jan -more good news and day 15 - an ordinary day

Good news here, no snow just a heavy frost and very cold and  the sun is shining and now we have a cloudless blue sky!  Hope it is the same with you Anne? Not sure about this red sky in the morning......

Can you see the lovely blue sea in the distance?

 The South Downs can be seen on the horizon too!

Well back to a bit of nostalgia for today
I retired from teaching when I was 55yrs and worked part time for our local LEA until I was 60 so I have been out of teaching and new terms for more than 13yrs but I still think about the schools I worked in at the beginning of terms with mixed emotions and memories.  I have to say I have never regretted finishing early  get my health and life back, to enjoy the grandchildren and to learn to scrap and blog. Retirement was a NEW BEGINNING.......A whole new life!

Thought you might like to see me with my class as a Home Economics teacher in a Sec school in 1982. Don't I look young!! These girls will be women in their 40's now LOL!!

 I became a primary school teacher in 1986 after marrying Peter and here I am in 1992 with my yr3 class. They seemed such tiny tots when I first started teaching there!!

and finally to remember the fun we had in the staffroom and on special days with the children. Here I am with a colleague in 1999 on red nose day!!

Well enough nostalgia for today
Day 15 FSM photo - an ordinary day - taking my daily tablets for BP and under active thyroid(family history)

Back with good news

Back from my first WI of 2013 and I have lost 31/2 lbs this week :) I am thrilled to bits! Most losses were as good as mine too which was great for the group

Didn't have time to post this earlier. I have tried to kind of do art journaling  (messy play yuck!!!) Really isn't my cup of tea but used gesso on the album pages.( I have removed the binding now so can move the pages around and bind it again at the end of the year) Then I used distressing inks and pearl mist and played. I was very distressed myself at the state of my hands at the end of 'playing' and wasn't too happy with the end results........It would have been easier to have found some pretty paper!!! Any way if my friend Shirley reads this,  I followed my little distressing book and you would have been proud of me :)
I then tried stamping some Tim Holz stamps on the paper which of course one page is covered up by photos ( a good job as the chicken wire wasn't successful LOL!!)

The pages are actually the same colours but I took the photos with the light on, we have had a light on most days as the days are so dark and grey!!

14th Jan - Nostalgia - New beginnings and #14 YELLOW

This is a new week for Lucky Snapping and this week it it is Kathi's turn to set the challenge The main theme being NOSTALGIA and Jan week 3 New Beginnings.

Kathi said don't do too much on the 1st day!! Well my mind is buzzing with ideas and I was interested in her reason for starting scrapbooking as well as bloggging, I had never really thought of this as recording my life but yes she is quite right it does!!

So this afternoon I looked at my LO's I did weekly in the challenge 52 in 10 with Scrapdolly. I is a wonderful record of my life and was my intro LO's from this album

and another one from UKS WC challenge

Looking back and my main resolution for 2013 is to lose at least 2 st to get back to my slimest in 2010 and lose a few more pounds. Here is a collage of photos from my heaviest in 2008 and to getting 2 awards when I attended SW in 2008/9 Each photo was taken by my gate for 25th of the month which Idid with Shimelle for the year...yes I am a great one for challenges!!

I am off to WI in 30 mins so we shall see how good I have been this my first week back at club for 2years, I def cannot do it on my own!

SNOW we had a light fall and this was our garden at 9am this morning, it soon got washed away when the wet snow turned to rain, but it is cold!!

This was me in the pink jacket on 10th Jan last year!

Now my photo for Day14 - YELLOW My egg for breakfast before I cooked it

13th Jan Day 13 - CIRCLE and scrapping

Day 13 my circle photo is my breakfast glass on my table cloth!

I finally scrapped yesterday and did my 2nd LO for 2013,.
This is Xanthe on Christmas day eating her dinner, she did enjoy it!
It was the weekly challenge on UKS week 1. I was supposed to use scraps but have more untouched kits than scraps so used a class kit from 2012. I give all the credit to AnitaM who plans and designs the class LO and papers, thank you Anita you are such a talented lady xxx

Off to church now and then to do Lucky Snapping album. Kathy I don't intend to do a page each week, thinking more monthly but maybe it will hold 52 pages, will see how it goes during the year!!

12th Jan - rain rain and more rain

What a miserable day and wondered what I would say having already done day 12 photo yesterday!!
It was the kind of day where you had to put on the lights during the day and was glad not to put my nose out of the door. Even the cats didn't move much!

A close up of the rain lashing at the window and you can see we have the lights on!

Apart from scrapping the WC and cooking dinner we have chilled out watching recordings on TV, I caught Florrie very interested with the large cats in Africa. What a fascinating programme!

 I took down all our lovely thank you cards today and re read the lovely kind words my 2 collage friends wrote after staying with us on 28th Dec, another Serendipity moment, thank you Anne for making us aware of these little moments xxx

Tomorrow I will try and do my Serendipity pages in my Lucky Snapping album following My View LO and photos

11th Jan Day 11 -WATER an early day 12- SURPRISE

I thought I would blog this morning and then spend the rest of the day ironing, my first proper load since Christmas!!! and then scrapping I want to do the WC and HC on UKS this weekend as they seem easy.

 I also plan to put on paper what is in my mind for Serendipity this week on the next page from My 2 views LO's. Think this will be an intro and then journaling.  Lucky Snapping 2013 will all be in the same mini book.

WHOOPS!!!! today should be water so off to remedy this NOW!!! Day 12 is surprise LOL!!
Day 11 Water a photo of all the water we drink, we never drink tap water!!

Day 12 Surprise  a photo seeing the sun for the first time for many days!! I took the photo from our front door as it is rising from the east!!

The clouds are around and so are patches of blue, kind of in layers, no fluffy white clouds. Do hope we don't get the snow that is forecast this weekend. The weather man is usually right these days!

I forgot last night to tell you what I impulsively bought whist walking towards Covent Garden. A bright lime green waterproof in a clearance sale for £40 instead of £99.(not that I would never pay that price!!) It had a detachable fleece jacket so 2 jackets for that price. I will look like a slimy frog....not a red whale!!!

I will have a photo taken of me wearing it when it snows!!!!! Seriously I guess I had a serendipity moment of joy in finding a new waterproof so unexpectantly to replace my famous pink one!

10th Jan Day 10 Io'clock and a little serendipty moment

Peter and I have just returned from a really lovely day in London. I bought tickets for Peter at Christmas to see Top Hat  in which Tom Chambers is still in the musical until 2nd Feb. He was excellent and the show was fast moving, funny and I really lovely to.

I definitely had a serendipty moment when I saw my lovely Peter's face mesmerised by the show and singing along (not too loudly thank goodness). It gave me such joy to watch him occasionally and I was so pleased I had bought them!

We arrived in time for lunch before the show and here is my day 10 photo at 1o'clock. As you can see I chose really wisely for my lunch

This was Peter's plate after he had eaten his pizza! 

 After the show we found a greek restaurant which was very reasonable.  I did not choose so wisely tonight, here is my Meze plate which I had with a glass of wine!

9th Jan Day 9 - PAPER

Today's word day 8 is paper, an easy one today as plenty of ideas but to record on my blog, this is our Mon to Fri paper which is a really quick read and cheap version of the Independent paper. Sat we buy the Daily Mail for the week ahead TV guide and no Sun paper for us. Too expensive and we hardly read all the articles either!!

Anne you will be pleased to know that I think I had a serendipity moment this am. I am looking hard for them I promise you!!  Well I had an email from MNS to say that they were closing on 15th March and joining with Skype. So I decided to join immediately as the only peep I chat with at the moment on MSN is a teamie living Penang. Within 30 mins I was up and running and connected to Susie and chatting away. I have met her and she has stayed with me when she came to UK to a Sarah card's retreat.  I was so excited and so thrilled I felt like a child ' being given the top brick off the chimney'!!

Off to the cinema with Peter in 20 mins to see Quartet.What a lovely day I am having!!!

8th Jan Day 8 - SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH T

Here is my day 8 photo for FSM, something beginning with T-  my teabag for my morning cuppa!!

A very routine today with DGD Xanthe. Toddlers gym this am and then a lovely surprise, Peter stayed with us this pm instead of his Men's Forum, a really appreciated himbeing with us.

There was more washing to do at Carol's house (No the washing machine engineer hasn't contacted me yet!!)

We did the school run to get Zac and finally arrived homeat 6pm to find a parcel had arrived and had been left unsugned for in our green bin (emptied this am!!!)

I now have a case, a protected film cover and a pen for my kindle!!

7th Jan week 2 LET'S REFLECT and Day 7 - ROAD

Today we have a week from Anne on Lucky Sanapping 2013, This will be based on, Let's Reflect.  In the year our discovering will be based on 12 words, each one starting from a letter from SILVER LINING.
Today's word is SERENDIPTY  meaning " the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you aren't looking for it" In simple words, it's taking joy out of something you didn't expect.
Anne gave us these examples....
A stranger smiling at you and making your day
Someone telling you you look nice
A letter from an old friend you had lost contact with
A song bringing back beautiful memories

So this week we have to concentrate on the little things life brings us. These little things that sometimes we are too busy to see.We can use moments having happened before and what will happen in the future
I shall try to look for things I wouldn't normally think about. I thought about RAK, random acts of kindness but will leave that thought today

Guess my joy today was Carol letting me use her washing machine whilst she is away. (my machine is leaking and I await an engineer since Friday)

 I had Zac (DGS) today and he once more homed in on my new Kindle Fire to play Ice Age village another app I had put on for him with Angry Birds which he taught me on Sat!!

 We went to a Launderette to collect our summer duvet which I had finally taken off our bed before Christmas, I miss the light weight as I am always hot in bed!!!  He was such good company and a good boy today.

We also went to Sainsbury and met my step daughter who found a bargain, a £5 pack of Christmas wrapping paper for 50p. We bought several packs, Zac has one pack for his Mummy .Well done Jo spying it!!

My Day 7 photo for ROAD is below. Our road outside our house which badly needs repairing as do many of our roads in Britain!!

Tonight I bit the bullet and went back to SW. I first went in 2010 and lost nearly 5st and went from size 24 to size 16. I left in 2011 and in that time have maintained and finally put on nearly 2st and into a size 18 though I still wear a few size 16 but more and more feeling uncomfortable.  I am  feeling quite excited about a new start to a new year :)

6th Jan Day 6- MINE

Had a great day at our monthly crop and then we went and had our Christmas meal, we always have this in January!

I finally got 2 CJ's back in 2012 which were of 2 holiday cruises.This one was our cruise in 2011 to the Baltic St Petersburgh.         Day 6 MINE!

I added some additional pages to it today

5th Jan - Day 5 MOVEMENT

5 days I have managed to blog in 2013!!

Today has been a lazy day. Took rest of decs down and good dusting as it hadn't been done for 3 weeks!!
DGC and Mum came this afternoon so a good excuse to chill. Zac loved my Angry Birds app and Xanthe twirled all the time so plenty of movement.her is my day 5 photo!!

She just loved her tutu which was bought for Zac for his school end of term class performance!!

Quite a performer eh!!

Off to pack for my crop tomorrow and our crop Christmas meal

4th JAN - Day 4 VIEW

A very lazy day for me, 12noon and I am still in bed, been up since 8am and read  book from my new Kindle fire, got email on it and some games apps, wonder if I will play them? Guess my DGS Zac will like Angry Birds :)

 I have done a lot of things as I laid in bed, I complained to our local councillor for our area about the state of the road and pavement outside. Within 2 hrs there are road repairs going on!!

Day 4 of photo challenge was VIEW so a completely different view from my bed!!

Well off to shower and wash my hair then tackle the ironing pile, I hate ironing!! Oh and the washing machine is leaking!!!