I don't know what it is...

I don't know what it is about children's books! But I love them, there's something about them that draws me in and makes me want to read some more. As a teacher I have a way of passing on my recommendations and I thought I would do the same here. I hope that you enjoy reading as much as I do and all of these books are available through Amazon or Waterstones.com (I checked!).

So here goes:
Skellig - by David Almond
This really is my all time favourite book. It is about a boy named Michael who has to deal with his emotions, moving house, a poorly little sister and a girl called Mina who doesn't go to school. On top of this, he finds something extraordinary in the garage that turns his life around. This is a pulling of the heartstring book so I would recommend readers of 10+

Journey to the River Sea - by Eva Ibbotson
I love this story, it's sort of a modern day 'Little Princess' tale. Eva Ibbotson is an excellent story teller and I don't want to give away any more except to say read it! And also The Star of Kazan is also a great read, one you will want to read over and over. 9+

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit - by Judith Kerr
A child's story of the war, touching, classic, clever. Well worth the read! 9+

Ballet Shoes - by Noel Streatfield
It doesn't matter that this book is considered by some to be old fashioned. It's still fantastic, full of surprises and the Fossil sisters Pauline, Petrova and Posy remind me of children I know and you will recognise someone in them too. Able readers of 7+

Magyk - by Angie Sage
This I think will become a modern classic. It has all the features of a fairytale - wizards, princesses, an orphan girl, good, evil and a dragon. But it is written in such an inviting and real way and Jenna is such an appealing character that I couldn't wait to find out what happened to her. There will be 7 books in this series but only 4 have been published so far. 10+

Saw this at the shopping centre - just love it!

Star book

I have a good friend who is one of those people who send you things because they 'saw it and thought of you'. She's very thoughtful so I thought I would do something for her.

I adapted this star book, using up scraps of paper and Sakuri gel pens. I like the way it turned out and she seemed to as well. The thing I like the most is that you could make 4 star books out of 4 pieces of 12x12 cardstock!

There is an online video tutorial on YouTube for how to make a star book (although these ones are bigger than mine!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke19zFCcG7Q

Icy morning

This morning I woke up to snow outside! I had been reading on Facebook that it was snowing elsewhere in the UK, but definitely not outside my window! So when I woke up this morning there was a layer of whiteness everywhere! The cats didn't know what to do with it but it was fun to watch them experience their first snow. And as I walked out of the front door I saw this icicle suspended on the end of a spider's web. Just beautiful!

Feeling overwhelmed

I mentioned in a previous post that I have a bad back at the moment and am off work. I think this bout is a repurcussion of the car accident I had nearly 2 years ago where a white van drove into me at 30mph while I was stationery.

I'm seeing a physio to help me get it sorted but I'm struggling if I'm honest. I suffer from chronic fatigue so of course it's made worse by my back hurting and I have Coelic disease so my back is pulling on the gut and making that feel worse too.

I'm not writing this for sympathy, I'm not writing it because I feel I have to. I just want to send this message out into cyberspace in the hope that it will make me feel a little better, just a bit.

My actual scrapping spot!

I think a person's scrapping space can say a lot about them and the way they live their life. This is my little scrapping haven in the corner of our spare room and I love it! We only have a little house so I feel lucky to have this all to myself. I am one of those people who like to be super-organised (even though I don't always achieve it) and I think this probably shows in my scrap space. As much as I love my scrapping spot, I still dream of the kind of scrap rooms you can find on 2peas. Have you seen this one?:

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1170072

Colour my world

I got to thinking about the way colour affects our everyday, the way we feel, act and make choices. I often link a colour to a mood/feeling and sometimes when I put together a layout I think about the memories and feeling from the day or event as I scrap.

This is a chipboard mini book (I think it came in the Scrapagogo kit). When I couldn't sleep one night between the hours of 3 and 5am(!) I put this mini book together.

I hope the photos are clear - I've taken a a snap of each colour and although I originally wanted to add every colour, I just wrote about the ones that appealed to me.

New Stash Goodies!

I'm a lucky girl! Look at all my new goodies :-)

I'm a very lucky girl. Dave asked me what I wanted for my birthday (in a couple of weeks) and I said I would like some lovely new stash. I'm normally quite thrifty and try to just buy patterned paper, cardstock and glue. So yesterday Dave drove me to WillowTreeCrafts (brilliant shop, I would recommend it) and I was able to shop! The photo above is all the goodies I came away with. I'm really liking the Creative Imaginations range, funky buttons and Thickers stickers right now! Can't wait to get scrapping with this lot and luckily I've been told I'm allowed to have these goodies early as I'm stuck at home and off work right now. Will post some piccies of the layouts I make with some of these bits!

Local area

This week I have been off work, stuck at home with a bad back. I was looking through some albums and came across this layout I did of the village where I live. Really it's all I've seen from the window this week, but the familiar is somehow comforting.

Thought I'd share - I had forgotten about these ghost letters. Although they don't show all that well in this photo, there is one letter across each photo spelling out the name of the village.

Failure!

Okay, so my new year's resolution was to Blog more. Failed! It's been a busy old year, not that I'm trying to make excuses, but I haven't blogged enough.

Yesterday when I couldn't sleep I felt all creative. I made a mini book themed on colours, what I feel about them and things they remind me of.

I love the way this mini book turned out... it's now sitting on my desk ready to inspire me when I get Scrappers' block.