getting to somewhere and other stories

Had a fab time at the Exeter crop last Saturday. Likely I won't be able to make it again until April now. :(

I have done a couple of layouts lately. Love the colours of this, as it happens, and am especially pleased to finally get to use one of the Karen Foster shirt labels I have had in their pristine packed since I started scrapping 3 years ago!

I completed this layout for a challenge on the Indigo Mill website:

The photo is of me, about 4 years old (and the original photo is in colour, might I add) standing on the bank of the river Exe. I had my whole life ahead of me.....

The challenge was to create a layout using your favourite poem/song lyric, but I have taken that as OK to use a piece from a book as well... The big 'J' journalling card hidden in the layout tells this story:

'This passage is from Alice In Wonderland. I have loved it for years. Twenty years ago I bought a poster in a kind of 'vintage style' with Alice and the Cheshire Cat having this very conversation. I thought it very poignant and loved the idea that you would get somewhere if only you kept going. That poster is still safely stored in it's cardboard tube in immaculate condition in the loft, and been carted around from relationship to relationship, house to house and now it is the right time to get it framed and get it up on the wall. I have walked for long enough to get to my somewhere.'

'Cheshire Puss, would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'

'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.

'I don't much care where-' said Alice.

'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.

'-so long as I get somewhere,' Alice added as an explanation.

'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat.

'If only you walk long enough.'

I feel all a-flush with my 'achievements' this week - I decided to give up drinking wine for a month. Now, I know that probably doesn't seem like a big deal for most people, but I am a heavy consumer of white wine. We are talking 4-6 bottles a week here. It's got out of control, I think, and while I don't want to/intend to give up wine completely, I do not want to be consuming it as I have been, so I am reigning it in now. I have felt a bit fed up with myself because of the alcohol for a while to be truthful, and felt a bit of a 'prisoner' to it. Think it is a habit, rather than an addiction - I don't get the shakes/cravings but I am sure my moods have been affected one way and another. This is the first time I have ever wanted to stop, and the first time I have stated my intention to do so.

I began on Monday, and actually, I feel 'free'. How bloody stupid I am to have got myself so 'wrapped up' in my wine drinking that it feels strange to not have wine by my side of an evening. The evenings seem longer, and I can get lots more done.

I have also decided that I want to learn something. This is partly because I genuinely enjoy 'learning' things, partly because I now find myself with a couple of hours to kill each week whilst at one of Oliver's activities and partly because I think it will be good for Oliver to see me tackling something new/educational. To this end, I have chosen maths. I hated maths at school. I truly believe I don't have a 'maths brain' (left and right sided brain people and all that shit), which is why I struggled to grasp many mathematical concepts but I also believe that I wasn't helped by being badly taught at high school and the fact that my closest friends were mathematically adept girls and surged ahead of me. (you know who you are ha ha...)

Anyhoo, I have talked to the Great Kimbo, knower of all things, and I have ordered a maths text book from which my niece managed to pass her IGCSE at age 14. If it's good enough for her....

I then intend to take an IGCSE in maths next year. I feel very buoyed up with the whole scheme.

Hells teeth, haven't ever blogged this much at once... will be updating soon with my alcohol-free stories (bet that will be fascinating), pics of Roger the recovering pigeon and the all-new all-shiny bedroom for Oliver. In the meantime, here is Poppy the naughty kitten, too big for her box. Literally.