What a week ...

Gosh - ever had a week where you have SO much on your plate you just don't know where to start or what to finish first?  I've just had one of those.  I got to the stage where I was almost paralysed with the inability to actually do anything!  So glad that this one is now behind me but the very long list of "things to do" just doesn't seem any smaller even though I have a lot of ticks marked against things.  Hopefully I can make a better fist of things this coming week.

Some layouts ...

Thought I'd share a few layouts I have completed for challenges recently.  Certainly haven't done as much as I would have liked due to any number of other commitments but have managed to sneak in a couple.




From Screen 2 Scrap



Artastic

Scrap Boutique

Scrap Happy Kat

Scrap the Boys

And the band played ...

Gosh I'm a week behind in scrap entries - I seriously need to do some updates but right now I thought I would post a few images from my daughters Year 12 school formal last night.

It was beautiful, she was beautiful as were all the other students.  It was a lovely night that went off without a hitch.  All the stress of dress shopping and shoe buying and hair style drama was put aside and a wonderful time was had by all.



The function room




Some of the girls (plus one guy who wouldn't get out of the photo!)




My daughter and her partner




Year 12 plus a few teachers



Songs as memories ...

Today's prompt is about looking around for inspiration in two ways - borrowing formats for your writing as well as finding topics that you might want to explore.

Today's projects include:

*Writing as a sportscaster describing an event in real time.

*Using your music collection set to play at random to help get your pen writing about lots of different memories.

*Describing a location as if you were writing for a travel guide rather than narrating a slide show.


I don't have a huge repertoire of music that "means" something to me - I think there are probably only a dozen or so songs that cast me back to specific times and events in my life - some of them intensely personal.  My husband and I don't even have a song that we specifically call "ours" like many couples do - sure there is music we both like and songs that we relate to but not one that was playing for a first dance or when he asked me to marry him or even one we used at our wedding (we used traditional wedding music) so music doesn't instantly open the floodgate of memories for me.

The few that do oddly bring back some vivid teenage moments - of frustrated love and heartfelt angst.  Of hot summers and back seats of cars and mushy kisses and sweaty hands.  Of tears and hurt, of girlfriends, gossip and notes passed across class.  Of rumours and breakups and furtive glances across rooms.  Of thick frothy milkshakes, and hot chips with chicken salt, kids piled into a cafe booth on a Saturday night.  Fogged up car windows at the drive in, birthday parties in backyards, bonfires and BBQ's and a time when it all felt so right.

Grandfather ...

Prompt 10 is a bit of Friday fun - instead of lengthy journaling, we're looking up words in the dictionary or the thesaurus!


Three ideas to try:

*Start with an existing layout and extend your writing on an additional page. Start by identifying a key word you used on the first page and adding its definition to the second page to link the two journaling sections.

*Start with one word to describe someone or something and write it in your notebook. Look it up in a thesaurus and write down all the other words that are suggested. Use them as a list or as a starter for descriptive writing about your subject.

*Start with a draft in your notebook and identify lazy word choices that could be improved. Look those up in a thesaurus and help boost your vocabulary and paint a more vivid picture of your memory.


My Grandfather was born in a small rural township in 1898; one of 8 children. He served in the 14th Light Horse Battalion during WW1, pitching his tent in sight of the Great Pyramid at Geiza and trudging his quarter horse through the hot desert sands. He farmed the land during the heartless depression, raising 3 daughters and a son. He loved to fish, often going for extended expeditions to remote inland waterways, camping in rough canvas tents and loving the land. In later life he was a well-known and well-liked barman at the local Returned Serviceman’s Club. He had a dry wit and a ready smile. A fascinating life – a Grandfather I wish I had known.

The Grandfather I knew was a frail old man, propped up with pillows, sitting in his worn leather chair, large oxygen tank by his side, clasping the clear mask in his thin hands. The Grandfather I knew couldn’t sit me on his lap; he didn’t have the breath to read me stories or the strength to play games in the yard. My Grandfather died of advanced emphysema in his hospital bed, canopied in plastic sheeting, gasping for every feeble, tortured breathe; he died before his time, the result of a lifetime of smoking his own cigarettes and breathing in the residual smoke of a thousand others. Smoking kills; my Grandfather would tell you that.

No Bees for me ...

Prompt 8 is all about collaborative writing and including the voices of others in your storytelling -include the words of you + another person taken straight from everyday life or write your perspectives of the same event with a friends (without comparing notes) and see what specifics you both remember!

In the car on the way home from school ....

Me:  So how was Inter-relate today? (gender seperated 4 part series of sex education classes)

Son  (just 12):  ..........GLARE........

Me:  That good huh???

Son (just 12):  .....Groan...

Me:  So what was the topic today??

Son (just 12):  (whispering) puberty - it was grose!

Me:  Oh

Son (just 12):  but the girls were even more grossed out than us

Me:  Hmmm (thinking that the prospect of 40+ years of monthly bleeding could do that!)

Me:  So what's the topic next week?

Son (just 12):  making babies ....... but I am NOT talking about it ........

Me:  OK sounds like fun .. so you don't want to ask me any questions now??? (joking)

Son (just 12):  .........GLARE........



If ...

Prompt 6 focuses on the word IF - Think of a milestone event then think back to the little moments that made the big event happen, write advice to someone in a format inspired by Rudyard Kipling's poem If or combine the idea of daydreams and do a "Once Upon a Time" starter.

The very first thing I thought of when I read the title of today's prompt was this song ....

ARTIST: Bread
TITLE: If

If a picture paints a thousand words
Then why can't I paint you
The words will never show
The you I've come to know

If a face could launch a thousand ships
Then where am I to go
There's no one home but you
You're all that's left me too

And when my love for life is running dry
You come and pour yourself on me

If a man could be two places at one time
I'd be with you
Tomorrow and today
Beside you all the way

If the world should stop revolving
Spinning slowly down to die
I'd spend the end with you
And when the world was through

Then one by one the stars would all go out
And you and I would simply fly away



Then I decided on this:

If I had another second in today I would put another kiss upon your chubby baby cheek,
If I had another minute in today I would hold you closer for just a little longer,
If I had another hour in today I would sit and sing you lullaby's and stroke your tiny fingers and toes,
If ...