June CT layouts

Well, I have been busy doing some layouts for Scrapartist. I am really enjoying my time there, the other ladies are so welcoming and the designers are so artistic and creative, it is a joy to work with their designs!

This is the first layout I made, using Wish Bliss Studio's 'Kelly Bea' and Paula Kesselring Designs 'Scrap On The Beach - Papers'
Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST

I have been waiting for ages to scrap that photo and these kits seemed to be the perfect fit for it.

This is my second page, using this cool wooden alpha by Paula Kesselring: 'Wood Printer Blocks'and Pixel Works: 'Remembrance Day Elements' I do so love Pixel Works word definition clip-tionary bits! Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST
This one was done for the CT Scrap For Fun Challenge. Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DSTI used too many kits to include previews of them all but I just had to share this preview of SherrieJD's Kitschy Kitchen, it is to die for! The wooden kitchen utensils in the kit are red and yellow but I recoloured them to make them purple. I truly do have purple kitchen utensils and I do actually have a purple potato masher almost exactly like that!
The theme was "Then and Now" and I chose a photo of me when I turned 19. The quality of the photo is poor but it is one that I love. I am holding my cat, although it is hard to see him. I think I must be going through a mid life crisis because I am reminiscing about my youth more and more these days! I never thought I'd marry or have children and even tho I was lonely I was happy enough with just my cat for company. Then love came along and swept me off my feet, made me a wife and a Mother and I have been so busy being those things that I had forgotten who I was before it all started. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, I adored being pregnant and having little babies. I breastfed for virtually 12 years straight and I loved nurturing my children, they are my whole life, but it is nice to remember myself and get back to being who I am as an individual. From carrying 4 babies, my thyroid issues and the ups and downs of married life, I've put on over 40 kilos. For a long time now it hasn't bothered me much. Being pregnant 4 times, I'm sort of used to the big tummy, plus my husband, God love him, has never complained about my weight. He still finds me sexy and that's all that matters, right? But other people don't see me that way, not that I've ever cared about what others think of me. I have the oppposite to anorexia I think, lol, I don't feel thin but I have always felt 'normal' and it's taken me a long time to come to the realisation that I am terribly overweight and I need to do something about it. So I have been very good the last 5 weeks and have lost about 5 kilos, so I am happy about that. I am determined to keep it up this time. In the past I would be good for a month or 2 and when I hadn't lost 40 kilos in that amount of time I would just give up because it was taking too long and seemed too hard and I would get despondent and go back to overeating. This time I know that it will take a long time and I am OK with that. But I am determined to be me and get back to who I once was. The size I was. I don't even look like 'me' anymore and I want that to change so much. One of the best things I can say is to drink plenty of water. I drink at least 2 litres a day. And if I am feeling 'hungry' I have a glass of skim milk as a snack. Calcium is something I can definitely use these days. I gave up coffee a year ago and I haven't looked back although I might have one every 2 or 3 months. I have tea once in awhile but not too often. I am hoping I stay focused and keep believing in myself. I know it will make me a happier more energetic person.

Here is another layout I have done.
Credits: @ Scrapartist @ DST

It is made with Christine Honsinger {Fiddlette}'s kit: 'Kitschy Kutie' I know I had some of those beads, bows and plastic bits as a kid.
Now, I haven't spoken about what I am reading for awhile and that is because I have been reading the same book for months on end. It is a wonderful book but it is not a novel and the format of the writing, while entertaining, it is hard to wrap my brain around at times. So it's taking me an age to get through it. I am reading 'The Complete Goodies' by Robert Ross. It is a very informative book, reviewing and reporting every television appearance, every public appearance, every TV show, every radio show and every book, comic or vynal and CD publication and recording that each of the Goodies have ever done in their lives. As well as any other key actors that they have been involved with. As much as I am enjoying learning all this information, it is not written in chronological order of appearances, rather it is written in alphabetical order. So all of Bill Oddie's birding shows and books have come before all the Goodies stuff in the book, even tho that all happened some time after the Goodies finished. I know it makes me very dull complaining about that but there you have it. I am enjoying it however as I am a huge Goodies fan and they really shaped who I am today. Many of the quotes, jokes and quips that are classic Goodies are in my regular vocabulary and there is nothing that makes my day more than the image of Bill Oddie's quick jerk of the head and saying... 'Wayhehey!" Awhile before my old computer died I had started a layout on why I had become a vegetarian and I credited Morrisey of The Smiths as being my eye opener with their song 'Meat Is Murder' but really if I go back in my childhood, I really must say The Goodies really lay the foundation of my vegetarianism. The image of Bill eating the rabbit host of the chat show in the 'Animals' episode shocked my 7 year old senses to the core. And after reading the detailed reviews of each Goodies episode in this book I am reading, it brought back all the different images of critter consuming and animal abuse that is in the show. Tho as a 7 year old I found it confusing as to what was a joke and what was point pushing, but that is what they were doing, I guess. Anyway, they are brilliant and my kids adore them too, we watch the 2 DVDs I have every now and then.... I do wish their entire 9 seasons were on DVD. Here in Australia they were repeated and repeated on the ABC and I have almost every episode backed up on my brain but it would be nice to be able actually see them again.
Last week end, hubby and I went into the city and saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the doomed Regent Theatre. It was the last week end that it would be playing movies before it gets knocked down to make boring office blocks. It is such a beautiful cinema, the subject of my 'A Gothic Daydream' layout. Terribly sad to see it go. Anyway, as you can imagine, my very macho husband thought going to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show was the worst idea I'd had in my life, but truly there was nothing else we could stomach seeing. I'd rather slit my wrists than see 'Sex In The City 2' or 'The Back Up Plan' as would he, so I made an executive decision to just go and watch my all time favourite movie 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' Of course I had to bribe my husband into going.... I lured him with rum, lol... we snuck rum and cokes into the theatre. And being the sweetheart that he is, Rob eventually just said, 'Well, as long as you have a good time, then I'm happy' And did I ever! It is the first time I have seen it on the big screen. Can you imagine, Frak'n'furtur larger than life!! What IS it about a man in a corset???!!! I had a wonderful time, although I really wanted to sing out loud along with it, tho everyone else in the cinema was really well behaved and as it was a send off for the Regent Theatre, I thought I'd better be respectful, well, that and the fact that I knew hubby couldn't take me singing AS WELL as them, lol! I giggled all the way home. Hubby said it was because I'd had too much rum but I didn't care, it was a wonderful night out. A too rare occurrence. So it was extra special.
Have to get to bed. Goodnight.