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yeah just being real

A long debated post on Scrapbooking or should I call it crapbooking, because scrapbookers suck. This post has swirled round in my brain for a good couple of months now.

Scrapbooking is something that has been part of my life since mid December 2001, when a friend showed me how to do a CM page, her mum was a CMC and my journey began. Buying supplies, doing pages etc, etc. I was happy, I was on a message board with other CMC’s and other customers, we had fun, we chatted, there was never any negativity, there was no burden of getting published, it was just about the photos and the story they tell.

Somewhere after my end of school trip in 2002/03, I was no longer satisfied with CM, I was spending time on 2peas, shopping local sales I was having fun, but even then looking back on it I was relatively unsettled in my work, always going was it good enough, was it hip enough? I wonder sometimes if it was because I was comparing my work to that I saw on 2peas, in the magazines. When I was CM I never questioned my pages. 2peas changed my outlook on Scrapbooking.

This afternoon I was working on some projects for a magazine that I have to have in before I leave for Iceland and I was angry, with the fact that my samples were not playing nice and working out properly. Angry with the world for random minor stuff – possibly due to lack of sleep the night before.

I have come to think that I need to refocus. I am no longer going to chase commissioned work, I will no longer submit to those random calls which are rare even for me to submit to now. I am not going to look at the gallery each day, I will look randomly every so often. I will keep on enjoying my monthly Aussie Pea thread but that may be about it. , I will keep not reading scrap magazines, I question if I will put my work on 2peas or just post the layouts here for my family and friends plus the occasional random who stumbles on to my blog searching for “blood donation fainted” “lee kwan yew quotes” “helen is silly” “skonsur” “australian secret intelligence service blog” “shiney”, “hide and seek imogen heap” plus a good stack more of weird search phrases.

Out of all of my what 16 or so published or to be published works, 2 of those were from submissions, I know I am hell lucky to have had the chances I have had, but I wonder if that ratio has influenced my view on publishing.

For a while now I have stressed the importance of being real in my scrapbooking and I am happy to see others now who are “getting real” in their scrapbooking, because sure I do like getting affirmations (praise) on my work but really at the end of the day do I a give a flying xyron what they think? My work is for me and those I love. It is meaningful for us, they would not give a flying hoot if I haven’t used the latest supplies, hell they probably wouldn’t even notice if it was a CM style page or not. They purely like seeing my photos and what I write. That is it, I could share my journal with them which has random photos and my musings in, just a white page, a photo and a pen and they would enjoy it.

What brought this outpouring on? I am starting to realise my self and what I want or don’t want. I don’t want to see to others get tangled up in a web of publishing and is my work good enough. I wanted to go public to express the conversations I have often with other girls. Below are some random comments from a chat I had with Barb today.

Helen says:
I just am disorientated with the idea of scrapbooking and what it means
Barb says:
I think you do it perfectly helen and I think doing it for money sux
Barb says:
that it is not about being in fashion but about being real? and scrapping like a mess if you want
life is too short to scrapbook to please anyone other than who is in your family (that includes sean)
Helen says:
because my family doesn’t care what I use on a page, in fact they probably don’t even care it is a CM page – they like seeing their photos, they like seeing what I have to say
Barb says:
chris just likes looking at the photos in my pictures on the computer, he couldn’t care if there are mm rub-ons, he just wants to play with my paints lol
Helen says:
exactly

I ask if there is any reason to this post, do others want to see what goes on in my mind? Then I say this is my space on the server, if one reader leaves here thinking about what they do and why they do I will feel content.

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browsing in Borders

ok so imagine this.

Young funky girl wearing a pair of moleskin pants, a Kahlua tee and a bulging back pack on back, wondering round Borders after finishing another exam. Decides to go to the top level where the bargain buys are, see if I can find anything I like – nothing much. Now over to cooking that is on the same floor – nothing grabs my eye here either so I wander over to the craft section and smack bang in the middle shelf of the craft section, is the book – The Complete Book of Creative Scrapbooking a whole shelf of our book.

So what does this girl do?
does she
a) just keep on browsing and pretend not to notice it.
b) saunter over and have a flick through and mutter to self about how good looking that guy is on page 75.
or c) pull out mobile phone and ring Barb to tell her that our book has it’s own shelf at Borders, meanwhile having staff and customers look over in awe and amazement.

Now if you picked C you are right of course. I am going to have to go back with a smaller camera and take a photo – didn’t really want to pull out the DSLR and ask someone to take a photo.

Then one of the staff that was near me comes over and asks me which one is the book and proceeds to tell me that he only made that display yesterday 🙂 and chats with me about the book and the process. How cool 🙂

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Ralph’s Chocolate Cake

I can’t exactly remember where Mum brought home this recipe from it was either a Guide family camp or someone from an old staff room probably eight or so years ago and from then on, she has cooked it for many staff morning teas, birthdays etc. It is very rich and decadent and when I was younger I did find it too rich to eat, not now though 🙂

Ingredients:
250g cooking margarineralphs
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 tblsp instant coffee (we use nescafe 43)
200g dark cooking chocolate broken into pieces
2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Method:
Melt butter in large saucepan. Add water with coffee dissolved in it, chocolate and sugar.
When well mixed, remove from heat and add SR flour, cocoa, eggs and vanilla.
Mix thoroughly and poor into deep, square, well-greased tin that has greased greaseproof paper lining it (do not use a spring form pan).
Bake for 1 1/2hrs at 150ºC
Remove from oven and turn out straight away.

Icing:
100mls thickened cream
200g dark chocolate broken into pieces.

Method:
Heat cream until it is just about to boil. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate. Leave to thicken and then pour and smooth over cake.

Serve with thickened, dollop or whipped cream or ice-cream or strawberries. mmmm so yummy

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the Club of Jim Beringer

Yesterday Matthew was watching me type in some of my 101 in 1001 goals and started asking me about zinfandels and how I should start looking harder in the bottle shops as I might just find some. So Matthew and I went down to the liquor superstore and 7-11 yesterday to pick up whatever we found interesting and some slurpees.
Well after ohhing and ahhing over some of the spirits (most of the spirits and upper range wine is kept in glass cabinets with locks on) and Matthew debating what he wanted to get we had a browse in the wine section. All of a sudden Matthew asks me what was the type of wine I was after and I said Zinfandel, he goes is this one? Well imagine my surprise when he showed me a Beringer 2003 White Zinfandel and then I saw the price AU$8.95 (US$6.80) wow what a bargain price for an imported wine. I picked up a bottle and asked one of the workers if they had any red Zins and he said no 🙁 though they do get them from time to time.

Matthew bought a bottle of Jim Beam Rye and a bottle of Candian Club Classic 12 I also saw some spirits that I will try when I return from Iceland, one was an UK 5 Organic vodka, looks quite interesting.

Then slurpees – they had Mountain Dew in the machines – very nice slurpee 🙂

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101 things in 1001 days

Karyn is doing it, I decided I want to do it, so this list will grow and grow till I reach my target. According to the date calculator I have until March 11, 2008 to complete this list or at least make a fair attempt at it.

1) add some more RAM into my computer Done – see this post
2) address dress standards with the local clubs
3) be a tourist in my own city with my camera
4) buy a funky dress for B&D’s wedding Skirt bought from FCUK in London.
5) check out local digital printing options
6) clean my fan done just before I left for Iceland.
7) continue to pass all my assesmentPassed all subjects Sem 1 2005 🙂
8) craft more creations
9) create a wearable art dress
10) decide on a major Doing the dual – IR/history&politics
11) do some early morning portraits in the city/valley
12) do some serious exercise regurarly
13) do something drastic with my hair A cut in London and then colour from Kaliope
14) don’t leave dirty clothes round my room. doing pretty good oct ’05
15) drink a Ravenswood Zinfandel California Vintners Blend again
16) drink some Jever again
17) exercise
18) explore more world and jazz music
19) finish my degree
20) finish the quilt – done and entered in the quilt show (oct ’05)
21) get a new camera bag
22) get a new pair of sunnies
23) get a webcam Yep see here
24) get more yellow patterned paper
25) get pink nail polish.
26) get some new funky bed linen Got some for my 20th bday
27) go back to Hohenkirchen
28) go back to the SF bay area
29) go to a dropkick murphys gig
30) go to the races Tats day, the day we came back from Iceland
31) have a better food variety in my diet – should be at least 25 different items a day.
32) have some more work published overseas
33) hook up with the melbourne peas in december 05/jan 06
34) improve my essay writing
35) keep track of the books I read
36) keep up to date with my readings
37) learn a whole lot more Icelandic
38) learn some more PHP
39) meet some internet buddies met Ali oct 20 05
40) move out of home
41) pick up some wacky things from an antiques shop
42) play a game of netball
43) play footy again
44) play the bassoon again
45) procrastination is something I wish to reduce
46) see a wallabies game
47) see the doc about my poor feet – the pain has to stop
48) see u2 in concert
49) sort out some way to display my photos
50) go to the next Bomber’s game in brisbane
51) track down my Aunt Pauline or her daughters
52) update my photo blog more often every day now 🙂
53) use my quadcam camera at last finished a roll and got it developed – sept 05
54) visit the op shops more often
55) visit the reading room at the British Museum UPDATE – missed out on my last trip to London due to the damm bombers on July 21.
56) work on a another book
57) update the front page of my site. all done and much better now
58) create some business cards.
59) apply for icelandic citizenship UPDATE – Ran out of time to do this on my last trip to Iceland
60) buy an item of clothing either from 66° North or from cintamani
61) print some of my photos for my walls
62) exercise more restraint on junk food
63) return to Iceland again
64) become semi-profecient in Icelandic
65) put a message in a bottle and give it to the waves
66) make something from driftwood
67) work on getting contributions for my book
68) go to the rugby world cup in france in 2007
69) get my veggie garden back in order
70) build something
71) have a successful beach combing day
72) take a sailing trip
73) visit another glacier
74) explore Australia
75) visit a distant friend or two
76) buy a car
77) start cycling again
78) decide on a plan of action for my fake tooth
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100) publish my book.
101) do everything on this list