of a 30 year old English girl
Kirsty…
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True to my word, as I joked with 2 of the girls in the office this week, the word of the week most certainly was “complicated”. I have excitedly found out my “travel slippers” which was a cute gift from my nan for my honeymoon and have been wearing them, along with my Mickey Mouse earrings. It’s coming around so fast.
Time goes so fast. I remember back in April last year thinking that October 2012 seemed so far away, yet here it is. I left college over 10 years ago, I mean it didn’t seem that long ago, and even one image that has cropped up on Pinterest that reminds me of this:
Source: artpixie.tumblr.com via Kirsty on Pinterest
I have spoke to a couple of my college friends this week which cheered me up (especially when one conversation involved how awesome Max is from Tangled LOL, I am partial to Pascal too he’s adorable!) The other week I had a message from one of my old friends, we hung out a lot back in the day, but there was a misunderstanding that ended in us not speaking for at least 8 years I believe. I had messages before but I simply deleted them as I just wasn’t interested in hearing what they had to say. Probably such a silly thing to do and I realised this, so I finally replied 
It’s been a nice catch up over this week, apologies were exchanged, and we have moved on. I feel like a weight has been lifted and it’s nice to know I have my friend back for random gossip sessions & pick me ups. Remembering all the other people we hung out with too & being told how they are doing. It’s been quite a week for sure.
Now it’s Friday night, I have to get some sleep before I have to get up early and have my eye appointment. Last one I hope! Contact lenses are a pain in my rear, and I am still rather fond of my glasses thank you, but I hate not being able to see in situations where I can’t wear my glasses. So when I get a month’s supply that should last me a good 30 weeks I should think! Night night.
Well hello there. Yes I am still here, but to be fair I didn’t think there was much to blog about. I have come up with a few ideas for topics to get on my soapbox about the next time that happens. My car got fixed! I was so happy when it started back up thanks to wonderful uncle!
I have been entertaining all my Facebook friends with old family photographs, and as a result myself and 2 of my cousins have changed our profile pictures to old school ones. Well, all the kiddies are back to school and little Lauren had her first day so it seemed fitting. To be honest talking about old photos is another post in itself and I think I may save that topic for next week if things are the same old, same old.
The weather is certainly changing. I have been happily curled up on the sofa at home, apple & spice candle going with our small lamp on as the night draws in early. And eating beef casserole (Will have to get some part baked rolls for the cupboard!)
I have done a free website mockup class in photoshop which for me was a perfect excuse to have a play learning new techniques that I was doing the long way round so now I know a quicker way. Some of the tips will also help when I get around to doing a few other of my crafty bits (when time & inspiration allows it shall be a freebie kit and some more Hanson crafts). I’ve not scrapped in ages, but I want to focus a bit more on design right now. That’s where my head is at.
I had some fab news at the hospital as well: I definitely have more proctitis and because it’s only affecting 10cm in a few months they reckon I should be off the meds all together and in remission! So fingers crossed
**QUICK MESSAGE** Fancy trying digital scrapbooking? Well there’s a giveaway of software at Katy’s Blog, go here: http://katy-itsmyworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/we-have-giveaway.html & comment for your chance to win! Spread the word
Now regular readers may know about my passion for journals & memory keeping, and as this weekend just gone myself & Gareth were reading trip reports, thoroughly enjoying them…
… And this afternoon it struck me. My very first trip report in 1993 aged just 10 years old was in a cupboard tucked away in a “holiday folder” along with a few momentos (see, I’ve been at this since a very early age, and I have to admit as I’m older I am enternally grateful to my young self for doing this!)
I plan on getting this scanned to share with you all, and yes it’s in comic sans but I was only young so I hope you forgive me! On our home computer we had some creative writing software aimed for kids & I loved it and the only thing I could think of writing at the time was about my very first holiday abroad.
Then I see the awful quality photos in the back and want to cry, and save this piece of my history, so I’m debating whether to re-write the trip reports I have and putting them into PDF so I can keep them on my phone to read or a mini book in their own rights :) My parents have the photos, but I can scan them in
And if you’re wondering where you can read these Disney Trip Reports, they are located on the forums of thedibb.co.uk but you need to be a member to view them
This is my current journal, and I will share with you some bits and bobs from it
It’s another Daler Rowney of course! I decorated the book with Making memories stuff. I am missing one of the flower gems off the front though, and I have a velour lilac ribbon as a bookmark that co-ordinates.
and here’s a sneek peek at some of my entries (more after cut as image heavy!)
With my swap journal, I began to include a few more relevant bits in my journals, not just random stuff I picked up along the way (although, in one of my hard back books I have a return bus ticket from at least 10 years ago – and it’s interesting to see the price difference!)
Yes, when I get upset I generally head straight to the journal and whine about my life in it – it’s free therapy and it never judges me. I like that! But I also like to put the every day life in it too As I also carried it everywhere with me in my bag, I kept some of my favourite photos in the back (this from my swap journal)
Pictures of myself and Stewart growing up That always cheered me up!
I’m also not an artist by any means. I really suck at drawing, but my journal was my go to place just to release some creativity (One of my Daler-Rowney journals)
I like to include happy photos:
Portraits of myself, and talking about my hobby (in this case this was about photography – before I got my DSLR):
and simple reminders to myself:
Some of the other things I have found helpful in my journals are tabs. Loving the Tabs! I can quick reference back to things – you have no idea how many times I thought about something, and thought “that was back in August 2005″ or something, gone back to my journal for that time and sat flicking through the pages to get back to that date to see what it was I was looking for. These tabs are by Doodlebug, and was on their Summer cardstock stickers sheet. Doodlebug was my happy thing back then and my journal is even covered in doodlebug papers.
I also kept miniature envelopes in my journal for no other reason than to write cute notes to myself and stash them away in there to find again later, and any smaller bit of emphemera I had collected. Larger envelopes is definitely something I will do in my next journal, to keep all my bits and bobs in a nice and neat order.
Now, you may notice a very silly thing, and ask: “But Kirsty, you said you chose Daler Rowney books because they were acid free, protected your photos and I can see you even used scrapbook products in your books… so WHY can I see BIRO in your books!?” Ah yes. This is something I stupidly and completely over looked! I do in fact journal with acid free pens now. It was shocking to me, that although you can’t see it in photos, my very first journal is already yellowing. Seriously breaks my heart, and this is why I’m going all out acid free in my current journals.
Also my number 1 top tip: If you should take you journal around with you, put your address in the back of the book! Mine reads: “This journal has no monetary value but it means a lot to me, so if found please return to {address} I will gladly refund the postage.”
Tomorrow I will be sharing bits from my current journal and might have a little something for you 
I thought I’d take the opportunity to take this week to talk about things and give things to all my blog readers (lol, all two of you Rachael and Katie ) Today will be part one of my ramblings on journals It’s what gave me the idea when I was doing my personal blog. I wanted to keep it separate from my photography hobby blog and giving that the subdomain “blog” I chose “journal” for my personal blog.
This is my very first journal, aged 11 years:
It did have a lock on it and you could at one time back when I was 11, close it up but over the years I used it I began putting things in it and it would no longer close properly.
I also had horrific 11 year old writing and mainly talked about teddy bears and what I called them lol.
and my random stickers – back when the original 90210 was on! I kid you not, I even have a sticker of MC Hammer in there – don’t ask me why!
Then came my awesome “fluffy” journal, which still locks and I still have the key hidden away in my secret hiding place even after all these years and moving.
Filled with Hanson goodness
Continue reading
Awww, 1984…
and our lush tent:
And then there’s 1997:
and our itty bitty tent:
So what’s up with the nostalgia? I want to go camping and have been taken over by camping fever lol! Poor Gareth got dragged around Attwools this afternoon (practically kicking and screaming) and we found a cute tent… but we’re awaiting the brouchers for a few of the camp sites we’ve (read: I’ve) been looking at before we start thinking about that. It’s been so long since I’ve been camping, after that camping trip dad got a lush 6 berth tent (sadly, no photos from that trip!) but since gave it to my Uncle Mark so he could work on his car if it was raining.
But for me, the tent (Khyam Chatsworth) would be worth the investment if we would do it as a regular thing. Going abroad is expensive… Staying in a static caravan or a lodge etc is still expensive… Camping has to be the way to go… Ok, ok, so the British weather is absolute cack, but that’s why we were looking for a tent with a decent sized living space.
The coolest thing I saw in the shop though was a camping bunk bed! LOL! Seriously it looked so cool.
As for the fact there are lots of past entries means I finally figured out how to transfer it over (only I had far too much for my 2MB upload limit!)
Cos Brian Conley rules, I had a huge crush on him when I was 9 lol. The best bit is from 2:12, and you HAVE to watch the wong at the end. Laugh!
And Septic Peg with the real Mystic Meg
Can you believe, this was me yesterday:
Walking along the pier.
This is the pier today, burnt to the ground:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7528258.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7528747.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7528165.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7528315.stm
I’m seriously upset 
I’ve been going there since I was a baby. I couldn’t believe my ears when I was watching GMTV this morning and they said at 7.40am “Breaking news – Weston Pier is on fire”. It started at 7am, they think it was a fire that started in the fish and chip kitchen on the pier, and it just took over. Very sad.
To make things worse, we’re having a thunderstorm and torrential rain right now. It was just over a year ago that we had the floods and we’re due more heavy rain during the night. They’ve been saying on the local news for the last 2 weeks that if we have rain like last year, we’re still not prepared and could endure more flooding. Poor baby got soaked on the way home from work. He had to change.