AAAARRRRR! Pirate Party

Wow, we did it! We had the pirate party that has been 3 years in the planning but only about 3 weeks in the actual organizing. 

The Crazy Housewife will be posting details for where to get the stuff and ideas for games and hopefully link up to the Pintrest Board (which will be updated for things that we actually did as well as the ideas) But one of the reasons that I am happy that it is Done and In The Past is that I Planned Accordingly.

I only ended up being in charge of entertainment (which is a definite benefit of having the party at someone else's house) for a party in 2 halves. 1 half for the afternoon where kids will be involved and then a Post 6pm party which is just for grown ups. 

Part 1 is actually easy to plan for because basically you don't. I have learnt very quickly that children, and toddlers in particular, have no respect for timetables and carefully scheduled activities. So you make sure that there are a few games that you can get out in case of emergency and let them get on with it. Especially when there is a paddling pool so they won't even be dressed up in their carefully chosen outfit for more than 1/2 the party anyway.

Grown ups are a different matter. Some thought has to be put in, but actually the same kinds of principles do apply. You need to leave time for eating (Lots of time!) and for chatting. But actually most kids party games can be tailored to any theme and adults enjoy them too as they aren't too taxing on the brain. 

I did 2 types of games, running around and sitting about. Some bad pirate jokes to act as a during mealtime entertainment. And a guessing game which they could play at any time. This sort of game is the best kind as it's set up early and minimal effort. As I had forseen, the running about games didn't get a look in. Especially after 2 rounds of BBQ and pudding still to come. But we had a game of bingo and a game of consequences which was highly amusing. 

The only difference between adults and kids though is that adults ask questions about EVERYTHING! So make sure that you are fully prepared as teeny tiny mistakes will get picked up and debated for 20 minutes with a lot of repetition afterwards. You have been warned.

So I pillaged the internet, changed a couple of words to suit my theme, got all my stuff together and set off to the party. On the night I read the mood, ate far too much, did the games that were applicable at the time and just let the others go. And I had a very very relaxing evening, albeit dressed up a bit odd. Which is apparently how my parties should have been all along.

Why make 43 when you can just make 1??

I seem to be an expert in making a project into a chore. Not a skill I enjoy but one that is rapidly developing.

There are so many wonderful things out there in the world to make and I have beautiful ideas sparkling and shimmering in front of my eyes whenever I see something that grabs my attention. And they do grab for my attention with the same intensity that Pickle Pants will grab my hand and drag me places, shouting "Come on Mummy!  Let's Go!"

So I look and get just as excited. Think about telling others. Then think about how much they would like one too. And so would someone else. I can't leave thingy out either. But now I haven't got the time. Oh wow, that is going to cost a lot to make. Should I put it on the blog? Wouldn't it be nice to have a tutorial? That will take ages to do. I really need to do some other posts first. Plus some work. And some chores. Oh well, can't do it then.

And so my excitement to play quickly fizzes out and stands looking as dejected as Pickle Pants does when Mummy says "Not now baby, Mummy has to do this first."

But I have had an idea. A fizzy sparkling little idea that I have for a bag that I going to do. Just for me. All Mine. I might post about it, I might not. It might never again be mentioned until I go "Ta Dah! , I made THIS! " I am not going to make a tutorial as I only ever intend on making ONE.

And at the weekend Pickle Pants and I are going to go and dig in the mud.

Come on! Let's Go!

Many types of Me

I managed to achieve something today that I think deserves to be documented as it is something POSITIVE and that I have been trying to do for a LONG time. So, drumroll please. ................ I went swimming! 

Now I realise that this isn't a groundbreaking experience but in the midst of a fairly crazy and hormonal time I feel proud that I have managed to manage my time to do something that I have wanted to do for a while.

Now to some people the thought of going out for some exercise is not a big deal and to others I imagine that it seems like a terrifying prospect. For myself sport or exercise has just never really featured in my "favourite things to do" list. I like to swim. I like to use some machines in the gym. I quite liked zumba when I tried it and I don't mind doing the wii fit at home so long as I stay away from muscle-y things. But I am not one of nature's sportswomen so to go out of an evening just for the sole purpose of swimming entails much more effort for me than others.

Then when balanced against all the other things I have to do and want to do, the effort required is nearly quadrupled. How on earth could I go swimming,  I have to make cakes and sew cushions and a million other things that I have promised to others that I will do for them and now can't wait? And its favourite counter argument, I have spent all day working hard and doing what I have to do, I now just want to do what I want to do.

I have noticed that since Pickle Pants is about I have had to fit myself into a few more versions of Me, depending who I am with and what I am doing. Today I was Mummy, Pickle Pants' mummy asking about nursery things, colleague, friend, staff, customer, wife, hungry dieter. All things that need a different approach, but also all that need decisions to be made. And weighed up, and then actioned.  Something that I am struggling with again at the moment.

I am currently still being treated for PND and annoyingly this can be made worse by PMS which is where my problem lies (I am currently having more than my fair share) I find that I am getting overwhelmed with the vast amount of decisions and resulting actions that seem to be flowing my way. Some of these are time related, and some to imminent changes in our daily life. But I am also worrying about longer term issues, some that might not ever exist. And nearly all these decisions are things that as an adult/parent I should expect to have to deal with. So surely the decision to start a new exercise habit that will need a conscious and concentrared effort to maintain seems like a bad thing to try and squeeze in on top of this.

Well actually, no. I managed today much better than yesterday with getting stuff done because for a lot of what I did, the decision to do it had already been made. I put away the recycling because I had already decided yesterday that it needed to be done. Same for emptying the suitcase. At work I did what I had to based on time decisions made for me. I ordered my wool as I need to finish off a project and knew I couldn't get what I wanted from hobbycraft as I went at lunchtime. And I went swimming because I knew that Wednesday was the best day of the week to go and i was already a member so didn't have to worry about paying.

So I can now see the benefits of actioning some of my decisions that are currently just waiting for me to get round to them, in order to free up some space to deal with the next batch. And I can also see that one of the people that I need to be is "looking after myself" Me and that person is allowed to go swimming on Wednesdays. But she isn't allowed to use the vending machines.

New look, new plan

Hi all

Just a quicky post as I have spent all evening re-designing the blog. Hope you all love the vintage-y feel. Tomorrow when I get sorted, I will post up the blog that provided me with the images, don't they look cool!

Along with the new look is a new plan-ish thing. As I'm now doing a lot of crochet and sewing as well as my scrapping, I've decided to include these into the blog as they are part of my world. As well as some other bits and pieces.

All home type posts are going to come under my alter ego of The Crazy Housewife. You know, that person who lives in your head who thinks that you have loads of time to make stock from scratch and have a spotless house whilst holding down a job and looking after a toddler. So from time to time, she will take over and expand and explain her crazy.

I'm hoping that I can arrange it so that I have set topics per day, I've done a lot of bits and pieces for the last couple of months that I would like to blog so when I arrange a schedule I'll let you know.

Hope that you are all feeling lovely and creative, what have you guys been up to?

Love from
Elliefantasy xxxx

I amaze myself......

Early last month I had a fantastic evening of sticking things to paper! A couple of scrapbook pages nearly completed whilst listening to the latest podcast from the Roundtable.The interesting thing was which photos I chose to scrap. I have 12 months + of photos of my LO, an album of weddings that  just need papers picking and stuff sticking, and various ephemera  piled neatly on my desk. But I chose to scrap a couple of my nephew from 2011.

The reason for this selection is my new journaling scheme. I have to pick and choose when I sit down in my room to scrap, balanced against all my other hobbies and my housewifely/motherly/social obligations. But I do have a lot of time for just sitting down and writing out journaling. So its not hard for me to look at a picture and decide on what story I wish to tell, write that story in a notepad and then pop the note and the photo in a expanding file and move on to the next one. I have an accordian file for holding my photos and journalling, and any work that I had done on my titles or other ephemera. So, on this particular evening, when I had the time to sit and scrap in my room, I was able to go to the first section, pull out the photo, title and journalling and get down to work.

I was trying to just create a page so I didn't think too hard about what background I wanted, I picked a nice green textured piece of card that matched with the grass colour of the picture, made a lovely yellow sun for the corner, matched up ribbon for the bunting title and then stuck and wrote. And its a good page, not sensational but it is good and fits the mood of the picture in the colour choices and composition. It needs something else and I don't know yet quite what that is, but not wanting to get bogged down, I have mentally marked it as "not quite finished" and it was headed for storage in my nephews album. And here comes the part that amazed me.

The photos are from a weekend in April 2011, when we had really lovely weather. That time particularly sticks in my mind as we had 2 BBQ's at my mum's house in the space of 2 weeks as the weather was so fine and I took loads of pictures at both. All the pages that I have scrapped so far are in very primary shades of Red, Yellow, Green and Blue, some patterns but mostly blocks of colour, because these are the colours that jump out at me. They are such a good match of colours across the pages that I can to put them into their own album to remember that special time. And this has now helped me when I chose to get the others finished as I know the palettes that I will be using. Obviously the pages will be different and some from these weekends wont match and so wont go into this album. But its such a good starting point that I have subconciously made for myself, that it re-inforces my faith that I do enjoy this hobby and have some aptitude for it, even though I can't make much time any more for the sticking and the writing.

Paperclipping RoundTable 132 - Pause for a thought

I was listening to this episode of the Paperclipping RoundTable today whilst driving to and from work. It was just a random back-episode I had stashed to listen to but like many, it really spoke to me about what I do when I scrap and why.

One of my latest revelations/realisations is that my scrapping is a memory keeping excercise, just in a pretty format. And listening to the "professionals" on PRT has helped show me that this is ok. I don't have to make pages full of embellishments and blank space if I want pages full of journaling and photos.

A key point that came up was about style and that scrappers seem to think that having a set style is a negative thing. I know that I suffer from this impression, I think I should be trying every different style and technique and that no two pages should be the same. Yet, I know that if I looked now, I would see quite similar layouts. The only thing that is different now is that I won't see this as a bad thing. 

The guests on PRT mention President Obama's trick of having suits for designated days so as not to waste "decision making power" on trivial things. I really identified with this idea that you have a limited amount of DMP in your day, and although I do not have the same kind of pressure as the leader of the free world, I would like to cut down on the guilt that interferes with my creativity. 

So no more guilt about pages that look similar. If I like them, then thats enough. And to link in with a phrase for May's OLW prompt,

"I shall balance the excitement of experimentation with the comfort of the familiar" 

Love Elliefantasy

xxx

Big Leap Forward....

.... but no sticking??

Today I finished my photobook of LO's first year. It is jam packed of photos and has loads little comments detailing the who, what, where, when and whys. All that needs doing is a final proof read by OH and then we can hit the finish button. And in 5 days time we will have a lovely memento of LO's first year in a handy, slim volume, ready to pull out for guests with the option of easily made copies for grandparents.

I could have scrapped it all, and I have got a half finished book of the first month, which might just become the first 2 weeks. It is important as it contains a lot of ephemera.

But for most of the pictures taken in the 12 months there isn't much of a story other than what we did or who we were with. Or, in a lot of cases, who the person was that brought the thing in the picture. It needs remembering but I'm not sure it needs patterned paper or alphas etc.

I am coming to a point where I want my scrapped pages to be about feelings and impressions. If I have managed to squeeze out time to stick and cut, I want to find a bit more time to describe and discuss.

So now I have found a way to do both. Yes, it has taken me a few evenings, but it was fun to remember all the.different events and focus my mind on the stories that might have a little more behind them. And with a nice discount coupon to redeem, it leaves more money in the pot for real stash!

Do you use photobooks or have an alternative way to keep your pics that works alongside your scrapping? I'd love to hear them

Love Elliefantasy