Brummie Blogger

Planning ahead

A few years ago I got it into my head that for our next big wedding anniversary I'd really like to do an Alaskan cruise followed by a trip over the Rockies. In my head it was a train ride over the Rockies but over the years that's developed into a road trip as the scrapbooker in me needs to be able to stop and take photos and a husband driving a car is much more likely to do that than a train driver. It's been one of those dreams, you know those dreams that you can think about for hours but you never think will actually come to pass, expecially with the current economic climate.

Then, a few weeks ago, Disney announced that one of their cruise ships, The Disney Wonder, would be doing Alaskan cruises in 2011 from May to September. Our Anniversary is during the very last cruise. And, we could use our Disney Vacation Club points to pay for it. Suddenly it was looking very possible.

Could I really just book a cruise for two years ahead when I hadn't even finished planning next year's holiday yet? What if our financial situation changed? What if? What if?

I dithered for a couple of weeks, while doing extensive research online into the Disney cruises, the staterooms on the ships, the Alaskan cruises in general, the rough cost of flights etc. etc. Then, I took a very deep breath, phoned member services and booked it. I got the date I wanted and the exact stateroom that I wanted. When I put the phone down I just sat there slightly stunned. I had just booked a 7 night Alaskan cruise. I was going to Alaska! Holy cow!

This is our itinerary

I think I may have told everyone I came into contact with over the next couple of days. My colleagues were getting slightly worried that I was going to keep up that level of excitement for the next two years. I have now calmed down slightly, luckily for them and for everyone else that I know.

What I need to do now though, to ensure that this is a holiday of a lifetime, is to plan for all I'm worth. The rough plan so far is to fly into Vancouver and have a few days there before the cruise. Then after the cruise we'll drive to Calgary and fly home from there. I need to plan the route we take from Vancouver to Calgary to make sure we take in as many highlights as possible and do the research to find out where to stay along the way and for how long. We'll probably take three weeks to do it all. Possibly a few days more.

Once I've got a better idea of our route across the Rockies I'll blog about it, with some notes about the places we plan to visit. I also need to pick shore excursions for our cruise. I've been looking at some typical ones and they're amazing. The things you can do! Must start saving my pennies...

Four days to go!

 Let the packing commence.

Shopping for clothes

This is something that I tend to avoid. Mainly because I have to do it in person, as in actually go to the shops and try stuff on. I much prefer do my shopping on the internet but clothes just don't seem to fit me so internet shopping isn't really an option for that. Also, when I do find clothing that fits me and is comfortable, I tend to keep it. For years. So, I don't need to go clothes shopping very often. Usually a quick trip to Matalan once a year to top up on plain t-shirts will do me. Mind you, having now renovated the bedroom so that I have sufficient space to hang all my t-shirts up in one place, I can see that I don't actually need any more t-shirts ever again. Seriously.

Problem is, I have just lost a bit of weight, and need some clothes that aren't quite as baggy. We've been in the loft - and by we I mean Stephen - to retrieve the case full of clothes that were too small and 'would never fit me again'. They now fit and some were slightly too big. Yes, you may have detected a slightly smug note there. Sorry. After going through that lot, and discarding the seventies and eighties fashion disasters, I still needed a few things to manage with on holiday, the main items being a couple of pairs of trousers and a navy cardigan to tie everything together. Boring, I know, but necessary.

So, off to Tesco as I had some vouchers to spend. As I'd hoped I got two pairs of trousers, one navy, one grey. They'll go with my existing shoes, blouses, jumpers, and t-shirts. What's more, they're a smaller size than I've worn for over 20 years and they made me feel rather good. Not too expensive either.

 Great. Next I just needed to find a navy cardi and I could call it job done. There was a slight lack of Navy Cardigans though. Plenty of other woollens, including a rather lovely jumper which I fell in love with. I didn't need another jumper, I wasn't shopping for a jumper but it was so long and slim and it looked so lovely over both the navy and the grey trousers...

 Then I found some cardigans. There were some really nice ones with a three-quarter sleeve, almost like a batwing. Part cashmere so very, very soft. Fairly short, buttons at the bottom but loose at the top. Lovely. Just what I'd had in mind.

Hmm? Oh yes, it's grey. Not navy. Wondered if you'd notice that. But it was so pretty. And soft. And it does go so nicely with the grey trousers. Not a problem, anyway. I had more vouchers for Debenhams so we were headed there next. 

I always find Debenhams confusing. Why can't they just put all the dresses in one place, jumpers in one place etc. You have to really search to find anything with all the separate shops in there. Strange place. What was even odder was that we bumped into a woman there that we'd been chatting to in Tescos. The two shops are ten miles apart and the woman was a complete stranger. Bit 'twilight zone' if you ask me.

But we did find one bit that had some lovely clothes in it and I fell in love with this one jumper. I know, I know, I wasn't looking for a jumper. I didn't buy it. I went upstairs and looked some more for a navy cardigan. Then, when I didn't find one, I went back downstairs and bought the jumper instead...

Oh come on! Look at it. It's gorgeous. How could I resist? And that is actually a lousy photograph. I hadn't realised how tricky it was to photograph woollens. Look at it on the website here. That is a much better photograph and that is what it looks like on. All sleek and slimming, and clinging in all the right places.

That was Thursday. Friday I had to go back out to do more shopping. This time for undies. While it was very nice losing some weight off my backside, I also lost some of my, umm, cleavage. This meant buying some new bras as mine just don't seem to fit right any more. First thing in the morning found me in M&S. Over an hour later I emerged with a small selection of colours and styles carefully chosen to fit all occasions. Then it was back to Debenhams where finally I emerged with...

Drum roll please

Oh yes, it's a navy cardigan. Very plain, very boring but it'll do the job. It is soft and it is quite pretty. The buttons are nice. It's just hard to get excited about a navy cardi.

Blogging for Scrapbookers: Prompt four was to blog about a life experience you consider to be boring and as I dislike shopping I reckon this'll do nicely for that particular assignment. So, two jobs done. One cardi purchased and one assignment completed. I reckon I've earned some chocolate.

I'm inspired

I must be feeling inspired by this class I'm taking. Either that or there's something in the water today, as for the first time in quite a few weeks, I've not only started a layout but I've sat down and finished it as well. Not only that, but I'm now blogging about it and I'm about to post a photo of it. It's a flamin' miracle!

I had a good think about yesterday's day two prompt, but to be honest I could have quite happily sat all day looking through photos trying to find 'just the right one' to do the assignment with. When I read today's prompt, I knew straight away what I could do so I thought it would be better to do that and be caught up than get even further behind. When I do come across that perfect photo for day two, I'll just do that day's assignment then.

So, today's task was to incorporate a list onto a scrapbook page or your blog. I do have rather a lot of Disney Photopass photos from last year still waiting to be scrapped, and I'm running out of ideas of what to do with them. A list sounded a splendid idea so I've picked a photo that has a nice background showing The Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom and made a list of things we like to do in that park. I'm feeling very 'Disney-ish' at the moment so it seemed appropriate. The best bit is, I can repeat the process with photos from the other three parks so that'll be a few more layouts completed in double quick time.

 

The list says:

• Riding on Dinosaur
• Eating frozen bananas
• Watching the tigers
• Going on Safari
• Walking round The Tree of Life
• Visiting the Gorillas
• Looking for Pooh and Tigger

Paper used is all Basic Grey Marrakech, stickers are BG Marrakech, Prima and Mustard Moon.

That solved that little problem

I have this bookcase which is pretty much just for books that are waiting to be read. The top shelf has a section for BookCrossing books, mostly 1001-library books that are waiting for someone to ask for them or for me to read them, but also any rings or rays that I currently have. The rest of the top shelf and the other five shelves are all TBRs.

My problem was that it was overflowing a bit. Well, quite a lot really. I had odd books stashed away anywhere they'd fit. There were some squeezed in between some classics on another bookcase where they looked a bit odd. Paperback Dean Koontz and Tess Gerritsen next to leather bound Hardy and Austen? Not what I had planned when I designed the room. Then on the other side of the room where I have the paperbacks that I'm particularly fond of there were unread books squashed in there too, but double stacked. Eeek. Not allowed!

So, something had to be done, and as I seem to be buying the darn things faster than I'm reading them at the moment it needed to be done quickly. I mean, I am reading them, just not the ones off mount TBR. Not enough of them to make a difference.

Now, I'll be taking a fair few on my holidays as I'll get through quite a bit of reading while we're away so as a lot of the books I've been buying have been earmarked for 'The Holiday Pile', it occured to me that if I pulled those out of the TBR pile, it would then look a bit smaller. Good plan, huh? Now, what I hadn't realised, and I really should have after last year, is just how many books I've bought for 'The Holiday Pile'. Hmm, It made an awfully big dent in Mt. TBR.

So, I've finally whittled it down to a sensible number. Sensible being the most that I think I can sneak into the suitcases without Stephen blowing a gasket. And now all of the TBR pile is back in one bookcase.

This is the holiday selection, until something else new comes out and I change my mind of course.

For the journey there, bearing in mind that this has to cover an overnight stay in a guesthouse as well as a few hours in Gatwick plus a very long flight. Quite a varied selection, eh? Sway looks really good.
Sway - Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
Remember me - Sophie Kinsella
Dear Fatty - Dawn French
Odd hours - Dean Koontz

For the return journey when I'll have less time to read as it's a night flight so we're hoping to sleep.
Folly - Alan Titchmarsh
Two caravans - Marina Lewycka

For the actual holiday. They may not be read in this order but this was an attempt to mix them up a bit. As much as you can when you're only taking light reading with you that is.

 Wk 1
Kill for me - Karen Rose
Wedding season - Katie Fforde
Bad things - Michael Marshall

Wk 2
Keeping the dead - Tess Gerritson
The Beach house - Jane Green
Out of the blue - Belinda Jones

Wk 3
Change of heart - Jodi Picoult
Too close to home - Linwood Barclay
Rumour has it - Jill Mansell

Actually, I'm worried that I might run out but there are some lovely bookshops and I know where they all are so not really a problem. There's supposed to be a rather nice used bookstore in Key West and I thought I might see if they had any Hemingway in there. Seemed appropriate somehow and I'll take any excuse for a browse amongst some smelly old books.

Right, I'm just about to make sure all of these are registered on BookCrossing as I doubt any of them will be making the return journey across the Atlantic. Their suitcase space will be needed for other things...

Decorating binge

Last week's decorating binge went really well. The back bedroom/gym is done apart from a few bits that can't be completed until we can move furniture into other rooms when they've been done. The front bedroom is coming along nicely. We emptied it, which took a lot of doing as it was full of clutter having been our living room for the past twenty years. The charity shop has had a windfall! When it was completely empty, we stripped wallpaper, ripped up carpet, removed skirting, and sanded and filled the walls. I spent several hours chiselling glue off the back of the plastic skirting so it can go back on when the flooring is down - that was fun, I like playing with hammers ;-)

We've just been doing some more wallpapering - a couple more hours after work tomorrow will finish that and as the undercoat is on the woodwork, it won't take long to do the painting. We need one or two coats of paint on the wallpaper - we've used lining paper again, and then the floor can go down.

I haven't posted any pretty pictures for a while so here's a layout I did a few months ago but hadn't got around to uploading ->

We took advantage of one of the perks of staying on Disney and went to several 'Extra Magic Hours'. This was Epcot at night. You can see the delightful wristband that Stephen is wearing so the cast members know we're allowed to be there. They fasten them on well - they don't come off without scissors.

Epcot is lovely at night, especially when the fountain is going and I'm quite fond of this photo as the dark hides the other people lurking behind us.

All this uses is Basic Grey Granola - paper, chip sticker, border sticker and alpha stickers. I do love Granola - blues and browns - bostin'!

Almost as cute as meerkats

We spent quite some time watching and photographing these guys on holiday last year. They are cute, aren't they. Not as much as Meerkats, who I can watch for hours, but still pretty adorable. I think it's the way their tails wave around when they walk and the way they lounge around. They make for some very scrappable photos so here we have yet another layout.

More Basic Grey, this time Archaic. I'm going to be gutted when that's all gone as it's by far one of my favourite lines. There're a couple of Prima flowers on there and the alpha is QK Frankie. Based on a Becky Fleck sketch from the book.

 

The layout was done before the weekend, but of course I've only just got around to uploading it. I've been rather busy since I broke up for this week off work doing work on the house. We now have a gym set up in the hottest room in the house - where else - but it was a room full of pretty much just 'stuff' a few days ago and now boasts a treadmill, music, and a tv & dvd to distract from the actual exercising. Not to mention the redundant aircon unit from the coldest room in the house (don't ask). I think that's not bad going.

We're currently working on the next room, which will be a spare bedroom. It's now empty of the 'stuff', and it's amazing just how much stuff there was in there. Seven bookcases for starters, plus two built in walls of bookshelves floor to ceiling and both eight foot long. Yes, and just think of all those books I had to sort through and be ruthless with 'cause I did not keep all those bookcases and the shelves have all gone. The charity shop is very happy.

There's just a wee bit of wallpaper to come off then the carpet will come up and we're hoping to be at the putting wallpaper back on stage at some point tomorrow. I'd like to think we might get some floor down before the end of the week but that may be a tad optimistic as we're out for dinner on Friday and I'm out cropping with Chris and the girls on Saturday. I'm very much looking forward to that as I haven't been down to Paperarts in ages so it'll be grand to see everyone again.

Tiger's eyes

Tigers. Can't resist 'em. This one was a beauty, and he was so close. Ok, there was this huge pane of glass between us but you can't see that in the photo so the larger of the two pics looks darned impressive, if I say so myself. I really was only about four feet away from him, and that only because he was on a walkway above my head. Isn't he just gorgeous. We had this love affair going on for about ten minutes, just staring lovingly into each others eyes. I'm pretty sure he was comtemplating me as lunch more than anything but that's ok. It's in his nature...

So, a layout. Yes, I really am on a roll now. I'm reading less and scrapping more. I've even put down my books long enough to clear out the room that will be the gym and later today I'll be moving some stuff back into it as Stephen managed to put a lick of paint round it yesterday. Photos to follow.

Right back to this layout. Here is today's offering. Scrapped last weekend but it's taken me this long to get around to photographing it...

Paper, stickers, alpha are all Basic Grey Granola. Background paper donated by Ang as she knew I'd have some Tiger photos knocking around somewhere. Thanks Ang :-)
Becky Fleck sketch from the book and umm, that's about it really. TFL

Dreaming of my holiday

I've just spent a very pleasant fifteen or twenty minutes looking at websites about Key West, ending with the website for the hotel we'll be staying at - The Crowne Plaza La Concha. I still can't believe I got such a gorgeous hotel at such a bargain price. The location is perfect. It's right on Duval Street, just a short walk from pretty much everything, including the Hard Rock cafe which is just a block away.  

It has everything I need. A lovely room, free wireless internet in the room, my favourite cafe down the road, a restaurant on site with a menu that's just been making my mouth water. I do love shrimp and they have a lot of shrimp. Shrimp caesar salad anyone? Yum. Or how about Caribbean Shrimp Cobb salad? Or Shrimp Caesar wrap? Shrimp heaven. Deep joy...

You can go up on the roof for the best view on the island of the sunsets. That's a must do. And, the icing on the cake - there's a Starbucks on the premises.

How did I find such a perfect hotel? I really can't wait for that particular leg of our holiday. It's going to be amazing!

Where did those two weeks go?

Is it really that long since I blogged? I know things have been a bit hectic but I didn't think I'd neglected my blog for two weeks. Oops.

This month so far, I've had two mad selling sessions on Ebay and raised enough for one basic laptop or half towards the one that I actually want. I think I'll see if there's anything else I can sell before making a final decision there.

The new TV finally arrived and I spent most of a day playing with lots and lots of wires. The back of the new cabinet looks like a plate of spaghetti gone mad, but at least it's all out of sight. In the process of moving the TV decoder boxes around I managed to kill my broadband connection. As I wasn't sure that it was the move round that had caused my internet to vanish, I waited a while to see if it was just down, then went through the routine of rebooting the modem, fiddling with all the connections, running diagnostics, crying etc. I couldn't check the status to see if there was a problem as I couldn't get online and I couldn't call the broadband helpline as the number is on the bill and I have online billing - and I couldn't get online. (I have since made a note of that number.)

That was on Friday. On Saturday morning at 7.30am, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I phoned Virgin Media. Within three hours an engineer had been to the house and fixed it. Virgin Media are Gods. Neil Herring, Virgin Media engineer, is a genius and if his boss is reading this can you please give him a bonus. He deserves it. Ok?

Tuesday a migraine struck, so it was straight to bed when I got in from work. I made it in to work on Wednesday but I don't remember a great deal about it. Back to bed when I got in and there I stayed until yesterday lunchtime. Luckily I had a lieu day yesterday as I'd have had to go in to work but I have no idea what they'd have done with me as I was even worse than on Wednesday.

Another migraine struck this afternoon which is an an absolute bummer as we were supposed to be entertaining for the first time in our new living room. Jo and Kan were coming over but I had to cancel at the last minute. We had a lovely dinner planned and I was really looking forward to seeing them both. The migraine hasn't quite gone yet but quite frankly I'm getting a bit sick of being in bed, hence the blog updating.

I entered the book that I finished earlier this week into my 'books read' page this morning and realised that it's halfway through the month and I've only read four books. Looks like blogging isn't the only thing that I haven't found time for. I haven't had any bookrings yet this month, until now that is. Two arrived yesterday and one today, along with a RABCK from Finland. Thank you to Bookwormess for sending me Les Miserables. I've been after reading that for ages.

Oh, and I sent for my tickets for Mickey's very merry Christmas party for when we go on our hols, and they arrived by courier six days later. My ticket has Goofy on it and Stephen's has Mickey on it. I can't wait for that. They make it snow on Main Street you know. And you get hot chocolate and cookies. I love it!