May month in numbers...

Another month has passed me by and again it is time to round up my month in numbers. 

1: The number of bottles of wine purchased due to the label and product description. Anyone who knows me will understand the fact that this wine had to be chosen in the restaurant due to the fact that the label featured a Geoffrey [known to most people as a tortoise!]

1: The number of birthday afternoon teas attended with a rather magnificent tea pot birthday cake.

Many: The hours spent baking for my part of the party food.

1: The number of beautifully lit sky lines captured on camera as summer slowly approaches us with one lone, but very bright star.

2: The number of additional days done at work in the lead up to my students final major exhibition.

1: The number of promotional posters I designed to advertise the forthcoming exhibition.

5: The number of days until its birthday time! Yippee.

31: The age I will be turning in 5 days.

27: The highest recorded temperature by my car this month. It's been hot.

3: The number of days sitting outside for lunch at work underneath a beautiful cherry blossom tree.

So there we have it, low numbers this month, maybe next month will bring some higher ones, perhaps in the number of birthday cards I receive. *wink*

Until soon,

♥

Gothic Arches challenge #9...

The second of the bi-monthly challenges for April, over on the Gothic Arches blog was to create a piece of work using a photo and or a digital image.

I combined both of these elements to create my interpretation. The bunting and digital camera by Michelle Underwood are available on Two Peas in a bucket, here and here for FREE! The 'hybrid' stamp is also digital but I can't remember where it came from and the Polaroid frame comes as part of a kit from Daisy Trail.

The background of the arch is Basic Grey and the rest of the paper and text come from an old book cover.

The photograph was taken from a hostel balcony in February this year and altered using my fav app of the mo; Instagram.

If you would like to play along pop over to the Gothic Arches blog for more info.

See you all again soon.

♥

April month in numbers...

Hello blogland,

I have missed you. In fact I have missed you so much that my first number this month is influenced by my recurrent inability to blog regularly.

0 - The number of posts [other than this one] written in April. Whoops.

1 - The number of new desserts experimented with this month. A vanilla panna cotta with raspberry sauce. So yummy I ate two at once. You can get the basic recipe here.

4 - The number of days spent at the Parentals over Easter holidays where Mummy made some yummy profiteroles which coincidentally looked like Easter chicks.

3 - The number of pairs of jeans which are now too small for me. Something to do with amount of puddings in my diet perhaps?

[April's word bird says: 'April Showers']

The number of 'Word Birds' completed this month [but not blogged!] You can find out more about Mr. Word Bird here.

3 - The number of nights spent at Center Parcs @ Whinfell Forest. This led to a plethora of numbers in itself...

9 - The number of completely digital layouts completed so far. This is the first totally digital album I have created and I can tell you it's rather addictive!

[Various kits used including Echo Park: note to self, various freebies from Two Peas and Daisy Trail]

100 - The number of points I scored during our field archery session. This was possibly the best activity we did. Running [ahem, walking] around a forest with a bow and arrows shooting at life size rubber animals. Most excellent.

1 - The number of wetsuits squeezed into. I may have to start wearing them continuously if I want to get back into the three pairs of jeans which are too small.

9 - The number of activities we did all together in 3 days.

A million - The number of hours sleep I needed to recover from the physical exertion.

4 - The number of Gothic Arches challenges completed in one evening. 

[Flown the nest, Bedazzled, Egg & Spring].

The next challenge is up now and if you want to play along you can read more about it over on the Gothic Arches blog. I'll be blogging my contribution soon. I promise.

9 - The number of days until my best friend and her husband return from a year working in South America. I cannot wait; I anticipate the number of coffee, wine and girly chats to increase tremendously next month. 

If you are interested in reading more peoples numerical statistics for this month then pop over to Julie's blog to see how her April added up and you can also find more inspiring images over on the 'Month in numbers' board on Pinterest.

Thanks for reading.

I hope I'll be back soon.

♥

March month in numbers...

Another month has passed us by and already we are approaching month number 4. With that numerical introduction here are March's month in numbers...

2 = The number of days in March spent in beautiful Barcelona.

14 = The numbers of photos taken to this time around to document the graffiti out there. Each time I passed a piece I was tempted to take a piccy only to think to myself 'I'm sure I've already photographed that piece before'.

1 = The number of mini books completed this month. You can see more about it here.

1 = The number of Smash books I now own after my lovely Mummy bought me one at the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza.

Far too many = The number of calories consumed during the biannual 'gluing and sticking in the country' weekend.

5 + 1 + 6 = The number of students taken on an overnight trip to Edinburgh where we visited 6 galleries.

3 = The number of summer shoes which have migrated from out beneath the bed.

3 = The number of tulips blossoming in my garden. Planted by me. I grew something. *does a little celebratory dance*

5 = The number of seed trays planted up and in my greenhouse. There are signs of growth already!

4 = The number of consecutive days of sunshine. Long may it continue.

Why not pop over to the number one 'Month in Mumbers' blogger Julie to see how her stats are adding up. There is even a lovely tutorial available here if you are interested in playing along. 

This month I'm going to make an effort to read and comment on at least 3 other month in numbers players [that's one number sorted for next month already!] Can't wait to see how you're all adding up. Thanks for popping by.

♥

Bits of Barcelona...

I have been hankering after a K&co Smash book for a while. Strange that  slick advertising and idea of sticking bits in a notebook should appeal to me. Well maybe not so strange.

As Barcelona has become somewhat of an annual pilgrimage I have amassed  a major collection of tickets, gallery leaflets and general yummy paraphernalia as well as over 500 photographs which would have the most ardent 12"x12" scrapbooker running for the hills. Anyway the general vibe in Barcelona is a much more laid back, hotch potch kind of style which wouldn't suit a 'formal' 12"x12".

So a Smash book seemed the perfect solution, even if the tag line 'because done is better than perfect' disturbs me to me very perfectionist core.

However I didn't have a Smash book and don't have the pennies to buy one either. Solution? Use a fab note book bought in Barcelona on last years trip, but never been touched. 

This was a fab notebook because the pages inside aren't plain. [A perfectionists nightmare... Where to put that first possibly imperfect mark?! Aargh!!]

Each page has a quirky little doodle [quite a few about chickens. Maybe chickens are a source of inspiration in Spain?] on the page to take away the scary starkness of working onto a white page.

So tickets and *stuff* before me I set out to glue and stick...

Using chipboard letters to give the original notebook a title and attaching various tags to the spine.

Gallery leaflets etc attached with large paperclips so you can take them out to read.

Using the 'contact sheet' print option with Windows printer allows you to include millions of images without taking up too much space.

More important photos were printed with the 'wallet' option.

Doodle of chickens that were already inside the book!

I cut up the paper carrier bags I had collected and fixed them in to create extra pages.

Most of the bits of *stuff* were attached with paperclips, staples or washi tape so it gives the book a kind of art college, working sketchbook feel. Appropriate really as I went on the trip with college.

So there you have it; how to include a million different pieces of wonderful *stuff* in one book. There are still a few pages left for the next trip too...

♥

Gothic Arches #4...

This weeks Gothic Arches challenge is a little bit late as I have been separated from my laptop for a while but here it is. 'Music'.

The arch was created using old music sheets and pages from a child's dictionary.

See you very soon with another Gothic Arch.

♥

February's month in numbers...

Here we are already ending the second month of 2012 and it is time to round up those numbers once again.

1+1 = The number of 12"x12" albums and accompanying mini books I have created to house my month in numbers.

1 = External exhibitions I was involved in with my second year BTEC students. They did a great job of producing the work, curating the show and hanging the work themselves. You can read more about it here.

2 = The nights spent on a mini break in Chollerford and the number of Roman Forts we saw that weekend.

12 = The number of months Hugh and I have been officially dating, hence the mini break.

5 = Number of days that I will be spending in Barcelona this month. It seems to have become somewhat of an annual pilgrimage.

2.5 = Days off work in February half term which actually equals a whole week for me. Yay!

37 = Wii fit age no. 1.
42 = Wii fit age no.2
36 = Wii fit age no.3. I am slowly improving!

31 = The number of photos taken to capture one yellow outfit for Julie's 'month of sunrays' series.

3 = The number of nights the parentals spent with me during half term.


A dozen = The number of beautiful pink roses I received for Valentines day.

I am sure that I could have added a lot more numbers if I hadn't had to schedule this post as I am in Barcelona. Did I mention that already?
;-)

♥