Rocking my World 2014; Week 3

Well I sat down to write this post after lunch, and instead, I chatted with my sister on Skype for over an hour. So the internet is my first blessing as it makes keeping in touch so much easier.

This has been a good week for me because I have actually had some 'me' time, which I have mostly spent making a few cards, and doing some digital scrapbooking. I had fallen behind with my Project Life. After our holiday in UK, back in September, I never quite got back into it. I have been collecting the photos in weekly folders, so now I need to get the pages made, as I am determined to make the album for the complete year. I decided to work from the end of the year backwards, so this week I have done two double spreads. (I do a double spread for each week, running from Sunday through to Saturday). Here are the pages for week 50. You will probably recognise most of the photos from this blog, but they are displayed somewhat differently for my Project.

On Wednesday I went to my usual sewing group in the morning and then to my Life Group in the afternoon. We were at a friend's house in Turre, and they have a few chickens in their yard. We were a fairly small group this week, so they were able to give each of us six lovely fresh eggs. 

I also had a second gift that day. Our group leader had been to visit his mother who lives down in Marbella, and he had stripped her tree of it's bitter oranges. He gave them to me and ordered my first jars of Seville orange marmalade when it is made! A friend at the sewing group had also brought me a bag of bitter oranges, so you know what I will be doing next week.

This must be my week for nice surprises. I ordered a stamp from a blog friend who sometimes sells off some "used but forsaken" craft items. I knew she had posted it on Tuesday, so I was really surprised when it arrived today. Considering I received several Christmas cards this week, all clearly showing from the post-mark that they were posted around 13th December, for something to arrive in just a few days is surprising! And not only did it arrive really quickly, but it was accompanied by this lovely card. Isn't that enough to give you a lift?

I spent all day yesterday 'Spring-cleaning' my larder. You might not think that is much to be happy about, but now it is all clean, I know everything in there is in date, and I have replaced some sets of very old metal containers with plastic ones and renewed all the labels, and it makes me very happy to see it like that! It also meant that I ended the day feeling I had accomplished what I had set out to do, which was very satisfying.

Also during this quiet week, I took a day to learn a new technique in Photoshop. I had bought some page templates from a digi-store, which had a photo mask and several layers of paint, textured overlays etc. I soon managed to add a backing paper and the photo behind the mask, but I couldn't for the life of me work out how to colour the other layers. In the end I found several online tutorials and by the end of the day I had cracked it. I used a photo of one of my sons, taken on a day when we went up to Granada together on his last visit. I managed to colour the layers in tones that mirrored the backing paper and the colours in the photo and then I added the script, and here is the end result.

I may at some stage add some extra embellishments but I think it works very well as it is, and I am so happy to have mastered how to use templates like this one.

And to end with I have three more sky photos for you. This first one made me smile. I am known for 'seeing faces' in everything, and to me, this little section of cloud looks just like the head of a big soppy dog with a long nose and ears like Grommet, (of Wallace and Grommet fame). I am sure you won't all see it how I do, but maybe it will make you smile too.

These other two were both sunsets this week. I love the big blue hole in the first one. It was taken as the sun went down below the clouds, but just before it was really dark so the sky behind the clouds still had colour.

And in the final one, the whole sky was on fire again. These beautiful scenes only last for a few minutes, so it is easy to miss them, but as they usually occur just at the time I go out to give our dogs their tea, I see them, and just have to catch them on camera. It is next years calendar in preparation!

Now I am off to link this to Virginia's blog at Celtic House, and to Annie's Friday Smiles. And I'll see you all again next week.