Project 366: 1-16

Hi again, my friends - I'm still not finding it easy to spend too much time online, but I have managed to pop round to quite a few of your blogs, and while I haven't been leaving comments I've so enjoyed visiting you all and finding out what you're up to :) As my eyes get stronger and more used to the screen I hope to be back up to commenting strength soon!

I have also been able to get all my photos so far this year uploaded and resized, so the next few posts will bring you up-to-date with what I've been doing this year, via my Project 366. Here's the first half of January to start with:

1st January: We went to The Mother's for lunch, and I took along a chocolate surprise pudding for dessert.

2nd January: Time to get all the decorations down and put them away - we always do that job before the new school term starts!

3rd January: A very sad day :( The New Hamster, who had been ailing for a little while, died on this day :(

 4th January: I popped into Lakeland to spend some vouchers we'd received for Christmas.

5th January: This is the reason I don't walk or cycle to work! With my laptop, workbag and handbag to transport, I need to use the car!

Imagine photo here

 6th January: My first haircut of the year! I also had my legs waxed - not quite as painful as I expected, though not something I plan to do regularly..... (The photo shows the outside of the salon, with identifying information. I did take a self-portrait but will include it in my Project Life rather than in Project 366 on this occasion.)

7th January: The Tomboy, who's been learning about India in school, noticed that I had a 3D jigsaw of the Taj Mahal and asked if we could make it together.

8th January: Our  Rector announced that he was resigning from his post and would be looking to move on to another church later this year.

 9th January: My packed lunch included sandwiches made with leftover pork from the previous day's roast, yum!

10th January: My first papercrafts class of term. We explored different ways of using squares on cards.

11th January: The first House Group of term was at our house.

12th January: An unexpected gift of an omelette maker arrived from The Parents-In-Law!

13th January: I started a photography course today. I noticed this flat roof out of the window, and the moss and puddles of water reminded me of little islands.

14th January: I tried out a mix for making gluten-free bread - it was OK, but I probably won't get it again....

15th January: My turn to help out at Sunday Club this week.

16th January: Cold and frosty conditions!

Project 365: 357-365 (the details)

As in - the detail photographs! Here they are:

357: log

358: muppet

359: tea

360: board

361: leftovers

362: travel

363: duck

364: complete

365: home

And that's 2011 done :)

I'm not doing 'detail' photos this year, by the way - I'm doing Project Life (while also continuing with Project 365 366 as it is this year!) so I figured that the details would get incorporated into that.

Project 366 photo catch up to follow!

Project 365: 357-365

Yes, that's how far behind I am - I never actually shared with you the Project 365 photos from the end of last year! So I'll do a round up of those first, before starting to work through this year's Project 366...

357. 23rd December: This year, rather than our usual annual 'Christmas lights walk', we took a 'Christmas lights drive' instead so we could go further afield and enjoy some variety (and keep warmer!!)

358. 24th December: A new Christmas Eve tradition - we had some sparklers left over from Bonfire Night, so we saved them til Christmas Eve and used them to 'write' messages and wishes in the air :)

359. 25th December: Christmas Day! Yay! :)

Imagine photo here!

360. 26th December: We had very high winds again and we were nervous about the new garage roof as it appeared to be undulating rather... I made a few phone calls to our insurers and eventually managed to get hold of the company who'd done the work for us, too; they came out the following day and reassured us that although there might be some movement the roof wasn't going anywhere. (The pic shows the phone surrounded by the various insurance documents, receipts and guarantees etc, with identifying info.)

361. 27th December: My mind now at rest about the garage roof, I could enjoy my new Lego Harry Potter Wii game, my Christmas gift from The Children! :)

362. 28th December: What a lovely surprise! Happy Mail from Melissa arrived just before we left to visit The Parents-In-Law :) Thank you, my dear!

363. 29th December: We always meet up with The Sister-In-Law and her family while visiting The Parents-In-Law, which usually means going out for a meal together. The Tomboy and The Youngest Cousin get on so well together :)

364. 30th December: The Doctor and I nipped out to do a bit of shopping, leaving The Children with their The Grandparents. We stopped off for a leisurely coffee, too. So lovely to have that time together :)

365. 31st December: And the end of a really lovely, special year. So much happened over this year - amazing travel opportunities, the chance to meet up with so many friends old and new, The Boy getting into the secondary school of his choice and settling in so well there - much to be thankful for!

(I'll do a separate round up post of the final 'detail' pics of 2011 later - this is pretty photo heavy already!)

And the book goes to...

...Miriam! Congratulations, Miriam :) I already have your address, so I'll get the book packaged up and sent on to you asap - I hope you enjoy it!

At last, at last - I'm Passing The Book!

I received this lovely book via Deb right back at the beginning of December....

I'd finished happily reading through it, admiring the different projects and picking up snippets of inspiration by Christmas, but as I explained in my last post I decided to wait till after the busy festive season before I offered it to the next reader. This was partly to make things a bit easier for myself during a busy time, but also I figured that so many of you would also be busy that you might not have time to check many blogs and you might my post and hence also miss your chance to put your name in the hat!

And then my silly eyes started :(

So, rather later than I planned, hoped and expected, here at last is your chance to have a read of Sian's lovely book.... I'll tell you how in a minute!

First, though, here are the first two art journal pages that came together based on inspiration I gained from reading it myself.

This simple colour wheel page by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare herself eventually led to a colourful mish-mash of little pieces of paper cut from magazine pages:

And a featured doodly project by Jennifer Cooke created a train of thought in my mind that ended with me buying the cloud punch I've been coveting for some time, grabbing some paint sample charts from B&Q and putting together this rather pessimistic page:

Of course, usually I'm of a far more optimistic bent and would say that every cloud has a silver lining, but I wanted to play with that idea a bit!

So, would you like to be next in line to read this book? If so, please leave me a comment telling me whether you're naturally optimistic or pessimistic, and I'll pick a name at random as soon as possible after 5pm GMT next Thursday (15th March) - if I can get things turned around quickly enough I hope to then get the book in the post the following day :) Good luck everybody! Let's Pass The Book...

As Granny Weatherwax would say...*

Hello, my dear, dear friends :) Gosh, how I've missed you! My eyes are finally well enough to cope with looking at a screen for longer than 30 seconds at a time, and my hand has healed up enough that I can type properly again, thank goodness!! (I hate eczema. *big sigh!*) So here I am :)

You lovely, lovely people, I can't thank you enough for your wonderful messages, emails, cards and so on. I've been touched beyond words by the number of people who've contacted me or enquired about me to make sure I'm OK. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to respond in person to each of you, though I hope to remedy that at some point - just please know that it's meant such a lot to me :) It's been so frustrating that while the stupid eczema was a relatively minor problem it was one that prevented me from communicating to you all that it was a relatively minor thing that had caused my disappearance.... So I'm really sorry that you've been concerned about me, I promise that there hasn't been anything major going on :)

I've been thinking about the best way to get back into a more regular blogging pattern again; I don't yet feel ready to hurtle straight back into the kind of posting I was doing before, though I may well work back up to that in time. And I have a lot of catching up to do, which feels a bit overwhelming to be honest so I've taken some time to figure out how to make sure I don't get overwhelmed!

I've been keeping up with taking my daily photos, so my plan is to have a Project 365 (from the end of last year)/Project 366 (from the start of this) post every few days, with several photos at a time; those daily shots will bring you all up to date with what's been happening in our loves since Christmas (I can't believe it's been so very long, aargh!!) I have new pets to introduce to you, for example, so look out for those as the Project 366 photos start to appear!

I also have some books to give away. I've been fortunate enough to have been chosen as one of the World Book Night givers, so look out for details of the title I'll be sharing nearer the time - World Book Night itself is 23rd April, so I'm giving you plenty of warning! Much sooner than that, I have a well overdue Pass The Book - Sian, I'm so sorry! I finished it before Christmas but thought I should wait till after the festive season to make sure as many people as possible had the chance to see the post and put their names down, and then the silly trouble started with my eyes.... But I'm hoping to Pass The Book within the next week, watch out for that post :)

Meanwhile, as I still have to ration my screen time somewhat, I'll have to keep my blog amnesty going a little longer, sadly :( I hope to be able to start visiting your blogs again over the next few days, but to make it manageable I won't be leaving any comments yet - though I do hope I'll be able to get back into that asap. I miss you and it doesn't feel the same when I read without commenting!

Finally (for now), I haven't forgotten about the Face Book Project, but the addresses of those of you who don't yet have the stamped images are safely stored on my computer so I haven't been able to access them.... That's high on my to-do list now, so if you're in the second wave of that project, expect an email and package of stamped faces very soon.

Once again, thank you all so, so much for your loving concern for me. I really can't put into words how heartwarming it's been to know how strong the bonds of blog friendship truly are. Thank you xx

* PS In case you haven't read the Discworld series, Granny Weatherwax would say - or rather, hold a sign saying - 'I Aten't Dead'. There is a reason but I won't go into detail here! Instead, I recommend you read the Discworld books, Terry Pratchett is a fine author :)