For Team Teal...

...and Marti, whose birthday it is today. And Deb, who loves her mom very much indeed.

Birthdays and cancer are already inextricably linked in our family. Maybe that's why no project I could create, no page I could make, no post I could write would fit what I really wanted to say. So I offer you simply this:

Me. Wearing my teal wristband. For you. On your birthday. With ♥.



Captured in a Card #1

If you were here on Tuesday, you might have noticed the quick card I made. Well, I have a confession to make. I've never made cards before. Alright, I've made a couple of half hearted attempts; but the whole process never grabbed me. Until now. When the beautiful Emma's Shoppe papers appeared in my Gotta Craft kit, I suddenly - just wanted to make cards.

As I played around I thought about how much fun working on a small canvas really is. And that gave me an idea. What if I made a card, loved it, wanted to keep it? What if I made cards to fit inside 4x6 page protectors? And what if I used those cards as tiny scrapbook pages? You don't need a 12" square to tell a little story. One small moment, one quip, one quote you love. You only need a card. Maybe with space for a tiny photo, certainly with room for a favourite embellishment.

"When Grandpa Lex was a little boy during The Depression, he used to take off his shoes and hide them in the hedge before going into school, because so many of the other children had no shoes at all. This story stuck in my mind I think because he grew up to be a clergyman."

I love the thought of someone on a rainy Sunday afternoon sitting down and leafing through an album of cards. Pulling out one here and there and reading the memory inside. Like a collection of old postcards, maybe, or visiting cards. I've made one already. One card. One memory. Captured.

My Day In Photos

See more days here

A Beyond Blogging For Scrapbookers Project.

Tuesday, Not Monday

Do you have any traditions for this time of year? Apart from the obvious I mean? We have. Every Easter Monday we pack a picnic and head out for the day with a bunch of longtime friends.

We've all been together since we shared a house together in our student days. When we did things like boil potatoes without water in the saucepan (doesn't work); and use the carpet as an irong board (doesn't work); and charm the landlord into letting us redecorate (can work if you really work it).

We've been to each others weddings and visited each others newborns in hospital. We've celebrated new jobs, big birthdays and the Millenium along the way. And we've cried together when one of our own lost her darling husband to cancer.

We're a party, now, of nine adults and eleven children. And, every year we gather together on New Years Eve and Easter Monday (and several other days in between). No arguments, no excuses allowed. Except this year it's a Tuesday.

But, no matter. If the sun shines we'll be sitting at a picnic table enjoying our festive hardboiled egg sandwiches. And if the heavens open - yes, we'll be sitting at a picnic table enjoying our festive hardboiled egg sandwiches. It's been known to blow a gale. It's been known to snow. But that hasn't stopped us yet. And the forecast is looking pretty good for today..

Whatever you are doing this Tuesday, have a Good One!

Five Steps to Blogging a Layout

The five steps I took to get this page onto this blog:

2005 - Help The Small One make an Easter hat for the school Bonnet Parade.

2006 - Pack up the hat and move it to our new house.

2010 - Hunt out said hat and take photos of a bigger Small One to create a quick Easter blog post.

2011 - Print out photos and make a page.

Today - Follow advice of Shimelle and fellow bloggers and publish LARGE photo of page for another new Easter post

Have a joyous Easter! And while you are out and about, see if you can gather a story for next week. It's Storytelling Sunday.

Paper, Polls and Passing The Book(s)

It's Results Day here at High In The Sky. Let's start with that poll, shall we? On Tuesday I asked you to choose one thing you might like to see more of and our survey said? 37% of you wanted more scrapbooking, and 28% said more storytelling. Interesting! Thank you for taking the time to vote and leave a comment. And if you haven't yet, then you are still welcome right here.

With my two favourites top of the poll, I'm happy to get to it straight away, so I'd like to show you  my "inspiration page " from last week's Pass The Book:

As soon as I saw that Romancing The Ordinary was arranged by months, I remembered one of my favourite childhood birthday presents. A fat pink Puffin book given to me by an aunt who has a talent for good gift giving. It's still on my shelf today, battered and worn. Well loved, you could call it. It, too, has a chapter for every month of the year with hearty old fashioned suggestions for "something to do", usually involving old matchboxes or balsa wood. I never did find any spare balsa wood lying round our kitchen, which is probably a good thing, but this book sat beside my bed for years. Thanks Auntie B!

Which brings me to the adopter of Romancing The Ordinary. It's....Helena this month. Helena, I hope you enjoy it. Drop me an email with your address and I'll get it in the post.

But, wait. This month I was also choosing a new adopter for Creative Wildfire. And it turns out to be FurryPig. I think you are going to like this one!

Now I'm off to do some more scrapbooking. Or maybe write another story. Mmm..which to choose? Maybe a coffee will help me decide...

ETA: I've made my photo bigger today. What do you think? Please let me know!

Black and White and Teal All Over - and Beyond

It's no secret round here that one of my all-time favourite online classes is Blogging For Scrapbookers. So you won't be surprised to learn that I'm going Beyond Blogging For Scrapbookers ! I've got three weeks to learn even more about one of my favourite pastimes. Three weeks to make From High In The Sky bigger, brighter and better? I'm going to need your help!

I know you lovely readers are out there - I hear from quite a few of you, thank you - but I'm not always sure what it is you like to read about most. So, with help from my class notes, I'm trying something new today. I'm having a poll. It's very easy, so I hope you'll read to the end and then tick a box for me. Just the one! No names are required, that means if you do like to keep to yourself a bit, you can still join in. Every answer counts and I'd love to hear from you. If you have anything else you'd like to add, please feel free to leave a comment when you are finished. Or just say hello. Thank you!

But I won't leave you today without a layout (or two - I also have a new one over at Gotta Craft ) Remember my teal wedding page? Well, as I was shuffling stuff round my desk the other day, I found this photo. And I thought - what if I do the same thing backwards? A teal coloured photo on a black and white page? This is what I came up with:

Now, that poll. If you are fresh here today (and I'm kind of hoping some of you are) you can browse the tags or Take The Tour before you decide.If you are a long term follower, I guess you know what you like and all you have to do is tick. So please click here and let the voting begin..

ABC, 123..The Alphanumeric Blog Hop

Finally Friends, you've Found the Family at From High in the Sky! How Fine it is to Fraternise with Fabulous Folk (I bet you had Fun with the Fetching Denise)..

I'm sure you've guessed by now that my post today on the Fabulous Alphanumeric Blog Hop is brought to you by the letter F. We are a family of  F 's here, so it's a letter we like a lot. Feel like Ferreting out our Favourites? Let's Fire away, then!

The Tall One's favourite is Formula One

When I asked The Accountant he said "Mmm, F's? They look a lot like little £ signs, don't they?"

The Small One's favourite is, of course, her Flute

And my Favourite F is the Fresh one I've just Formed using some of my Frippery. I Found the Formula on the American Crafts blog here if you Fancy Fashioning a Fast Facsimile:

Finally, I need to thank Mel for organising us all today; and Forward you to the next blog on our list: it's Rinda of Gallo Organico.  Farewell!

And if you have happened upon this hop here today, you might like to start at the very beginning with Mel or simply keep going forward to Rinda. You'll find a welcome wherever you land. So, A B C 1 2 3 ..

HOP!

Five Reasons to Come Back Here Tomorrow

1. If Mel is organising it, it's sure to be fun.

2. I've heard there might be some giveaways somewhere along the way.

3. It's a great chance to catch up with lots of Blogging For Scrapboookers bloggers - maybe you'll be joining us for Beyond BFS on Monday too?

4. I'll have a new project to show you - easy enough for Easter holiday crafting

5. It's going to rain tomorrow. Stay inside, drink coffee, eat biscuits and read blogs

So, repeat after me:

A B C...1 2 3...HOP...to...

Sunday 17th April 2.00pm GMT

Pass The Book: The Eighth

It's time for Pass The Book again! I have an interesting one for you this month. I found it through one of Amazon's "we have recommendations for you" emails, and I thought it sounded intriguing:

Romancing the Ordinary by Sarah Ban Breathnach

It is organised month by month, with suggestions for things to think about, things to treat yourself with, things to make each month seem different from the last. It does have a spiritual aspect, which I hadn't been expecting, but which, I think, is worth a read. I found myself noting down lots of quotes and thoughts which could easily become titles for layouts or blog posts. There are seasonal recipes and craft ideas too. A real mixture. If you are a Brene Brown I think you might like this one.

So, same rules as always (you can find them here). BUT WAIT, this month there is more -

Back in October I sent out Creative Wildfire:

It has been with Nicky of Creative Flourishes and she has asked me if I would choose the next adopter. I said I'd be delighted - so what I'll do is include everyone who commented on the original post here AND any new commenters who would like a chance at this one. So, that's two chances this month. All newcomers welcome and I'll draw the names in a week's time. There is nothing to stop you trying for both books, so Good Luck and Happy Thursday!

We're Off to Join the Circus

When The Small One was a very little girl, she had a t-shirt with the legend "I'm Off To Join The Circus"

printed on the front. It was an excellent kind of a t-shirt, because you could wear it when you were happy (and thought a bit of trapeze sounded fun); and you could wear it when you were sad and thinking about running away from home. It always worked.

We've been thinking about that t-shirt as we've been working on our felt circus. See,  The Small One liked the felt farm so much, she thought she might like a felt something of her very own. And when Jemma suggested a joint project, I said - Genius! and we made a start.





You've already had a peep at the lion in Sian on Safari. He was getting a bit boisterous, so I've made him a cage:

The film is set in the 1930's - it looks like my Buggabugs pattern from Etsy will give us exactly the right look

The Small One is on elephant duty at the moment. It was slow going, to be honest, until I showed her the pictures of Robert Pattinson's animal training act for the new movie Water For Elephants. Mmm..R. Patz modelled entirely from craft felt?  Remember - you heard it here first..

And my caged lion is this month's entry for Annie The Felt Fairy's Monthly Make. The Big Top, The Ring Of Fire, the clown, the monkey? - all in production. At a blog near you soon.

Bring No Book

It's a beautiful day here today. Not one for sitting inside and cutting and sticking. It's a day for throwing my head back and looking to the sun and remembering a favourite bit of Wordsworth:

"Put on with speed your woodland dress and bring no book. For this one day we'll give to idleness"

I'm going out for some fresh air. I'm not even bringing a book. I'm going to be completely idle. And I hope that you find room for a little idleness in your day too.

Five Things I Need Explained This Week

Five things I've been wondering about this week:

1. Why border punches feel the need to throw up all over the floor. And how long can I look at the mess before I give in and haul the vacuum cleaner up the stairs.

2. Why the postman manages to sense when I have left the house and decides to try and deliver a parcel the minute I go out.

3. Why the phone always rings when my hands are wet.

4. Why school asked The Tall One to bring in stamps for posting out his exam results the day postal charges went up.

5. Why the engineers working down the road turned the water off just before I needed to cook pasta. Leaving me approximately 15 minutes to - what? BAKE POTATOES??

Have a great weekend, whatever you are up to!

April's Counterfeit Kit Challenge

I'm still in a teal kind of mood today! It's all down to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge (if you are new to this wheeze, quick - check it out here and come back).

The kit the girls (and that brand new Design Team) have chosen this time round is from a new kit club Front Porch Kits and the link to the kit to copy can be found here. It was a hard one for me to get a feel for at first. I had a couple of false starts before I really looked at that teal and loved it.

I've already used up my stash of "For The Record" , so without that to base my kit around, I decided to take it in a fresh, Spring direction. With linen and Amy Butler fabric, embroidery threads, flowers and butterflies. It probably doesn't look a lot like the original (except for that teal!), but it does look a lot like a kit I think I'll use. What do you think?

Pink Paislee tapes, Prima flowers, linen tag and bird, Making Memories Bamboo Alpha.

Black and White and Teal All Over

I have a new page for you today. My colorsplash photos from Saturday's post got me playing around with with the contrast between black and white and a monochrome colour scheme. It's certainly an easy way to pull together supplies for a layout: one black and white photo and a selection of embellishments in one colour gives you a look like this:

Photographed before the journaling was added. It's a family story, this one. But I will tell you that the bridesmaids dresses were in the shade of blue I have chosen for my background paper

I'll be trying this one again soon in a different colour. And that's a promise!

Many, many thanks to everyone who contributed a story for Storytelling Sunday this month, and to everyone who hopped around enjoying the tales. It's not too late, there is still time to add yours to the list. Or, if your story is still cooking, there is always next month..

Storytelling Sunday: The Day Our Pens Froze

We were gathered round the fire in Granny's house, not so long ago. The Tall One had stretched his very long legs right out into the middle of the room; and Higgins, the three-legged cat, was trying to limbo underneath. Granny and The Small One were playing their favourite game: Granny describes a bit of her old school and The Small One tells her if it is still there. Most of it is.

A chance remark, and The Small One suddenly looked up. I knew she was going to ask the question most youngsters with teacher-parents hear more than once: did your Mum ever teach you?

Why, yes! She did. Though it really started with my Dad...

He was Head of a school in the same building as our Primary; and he happened to be passing our classroom one day when our teacher had been called away. He stepped inside and he restored calm with his quiet authority which owed a lot, I suspect, to the twinkling eye and lilting voice of a Welshman far from home. Our teacher wouldn't be back, he said, not this week anyway. And then he did what any sensible man would. He went off to phone the missus.

My Mum arrived shortly after, for the week. And, do you know? I enjoyed every minute of it. It was a privilege to watch her at work. We did art, we did hstory. We did poetry - Walter de la Mare's "The Listeners" - spooky, haunting. I can remember that. But the bit we both remember best, I think, was The School Trip.

We had been looking forward to it for weeks; and the thought that it might have been cancelled made stepping on that bus all the sweeter. It was crisp when we set out, even crisper when we got there. And, as the temperature continued to drop, we shivered our way round the thatched cottage, the old church, the blacksmith's forge (bit warmer in there). By the time we reached the old schoolhouse it was so cold our pens had frozen. We couldn't write. No more notes!

We made our projects up as we went along when we got home. But I'm wondering still just how cold was that school many, many years ago? And could that be why a certain teacher I know still buys me thermal vests for Christmas?

Happy Mothers Day, Mum!

And that is the story of the day our pens froze. Now, have you got a story to share? Newcomers very welcome! Link us up - we'd love to visit...

Five Signs of Spring

Five signs of Spring at High In The Sky. The pops of colour today are courtesy of the Colorsplash iphone app. It's a lot of fun for 59p.

1. Our peg bag comes out of storage because there is a chance of hanging the washing outside

2. The Tall One stacks up a big pile of textbooks and hides behind them. It's nearly exam time

3. The coats gradually come off our hook tree and are put away upstairs, and we get a look at the fresh green tree instead

4. I get the Cif out and try to clean up my plimsolls

5. There are signs of life in the basket of flowers I was given last Mother's Day

If you are celebrating tomorrow, have a good one!  But do remember to come back for Storytelling Sunday whenever you can grab a moment for a sit down and a read..