Between tiredness and dissapointments....

..are the girls who make me happy.
I haven't been all that well.Lots of stress plus some decision making that almost tore me apart.Not gonna go into it because it affect my condition heavily, and I just came out of hospital after the whole right side of my body got paralysed and ...well.
But there are some girlies out there who keep me smiling.They are the Gotta Pixel groupies. As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm working on new look, new blog energy and need to decide where to stay or where to go.

credits: top part of main background paper is from Tweenie 4, freebie collab a while ago @ Digital Crea, shape cut in the back with the yellow rays paper from Connie Prince's a Pocket Full of Sunshine, Clouds Julie Marie Day Dreamer(both here at GP) & Dunia's Mixed Emotions (DigiScrappersBrasil), trees from Loloden 's Have a Good Day and Chouk77's PopCity (again Digital Crea)
the road (bottom part of background), suitcases and road sign (I write the words) are from OnTheRoad, Holliewood Studios @ Deviant Scrap
arrow and bird also Holliewood Studios, Got your number kit,letters E & R from her random alpha,
Play tag and the bottom what a strange world I made with pieces of Oddly Odds and Ends, Crowabout @ Deviant Scraps
number 52 with Magazine Alpha, Boutique Cute Dolls @ DigiScrappersBrasil.
Bpdy & Head from TumbleFish's Studios Twinkle Toes kit.
Most peeps know my scrapping home is Gotta Pixel, and I wanted to thank the girls who look after me every day, who encourage my art (even if you are reading and are one who think scrapbooking isn't an art, trust me, Sir/Ma'am, it well bloody IS!). Few of these girls have a blog, few others don't, so I will link their galleries here, in case you would like to go see what they do. I need to have time to do these things, and I will do very soon.
There are big time changes going on in my life, both because of my condition is deteriorating and because my daughter has reached an age in which she is shaping out her personality, which still has a lot I like, but a few issues I don't. Struggle, struggle.
Story of my life.
Anyway.
I wanted to show something I made which is scrap photos of my little self, and finally use the stuff I bought a while ago at Deviant Scraps, mainly from Tumble Fish Studios (the reason I went into Deviant'sScraps and now I see she isn't there anymore?) Holliewood Studios and Crowabout, and the other page a collab from GeekChick and LaurenGreer, a store I'm not normally able to afford either but what the heck, one can forget about the financial break down of the world and spend a bit once in a while. (said peeps being generous means sometimes you have some coupons to aid in this!)
So, that was it.
I have to add that, the more I look at what's in my head, the more I want to try spare time and energy to attend Marit's courses,and the more I think about the Brave Girls Club retreat, especially taken it that Sarita was over the moon when I showed her the Mother and Daughter's camp, the more I think of giving up little bits and pieces and asking my family to collaborate (read send money) for us to go. But I'll keep you posted, in case you wanna know, that is.
Wonderfully Weird, collab GeekChic & Lauren Grier

Creative Sweeties Blog Train!(and freebies galore!)

Hello hellooo, hope you are starting the weekend happily. First, let me show you what I did with SweetDigiScraps newest release,Miss Merry Sunshine,this will be available in a few hours (time differences) at the Gotta Pixel store. I also used the Happy Stickers by SweetDigiScraps by Danyale

So, here we are....
Maybe you come from another stop, maybe you just stumbled upon this blog, so, let me tell you a bit about us:

We are the Creative Team for one of the most amazing designers of the whole digi scrapping world, Liz Hutchison,who runs SweetDigiScraps by Liz and Gotta Pixel, which is my scrapping home.
Our CT is full of talented girls, starting by our lead who also makes some of the most amazing Word Arts and extras (like clusters, borders, some amazing work) which you will find in Liz's store but as SweetDigiScraps by Danyale.
Then comes the Sweeties.
These women are people I admire and love, extremely talented girls, and we have some marvellous guests at the moment too, so we all have teamed up to give you a little (big!) present with this Blog Train...
If you are coming from another stop, you have seen how amazing these girls are, so grab my bit and carry on, we made them with love for you to enjoy.
If you just arrived here, go to the previous stops as well as the following ones, you wont regret it :)

My bit of the train is a cluster frame I made with Liz' kit Precious.
The LO I made with the kit was (is) very special to me because I made it for my friend Lu in Brazil, who just had her baby girl Valentina (we call her Nina) as a present as I couldn't be there for the arrival.Here is the LO I did with the kit:

The kit is great for all those precious little ones,but it's fun, fresh colors make it not only great for girls of all ages,with beautiful flowers and flourishes to help accent your memories, but also the colors are so wonderfully great for any other themes, as it is not a totally pink kit, can be used for boys too, nature or 365 Project are also some of the themes I have scrapped using it.
Created at 300 dpi and 12 inch print quality (as are all other Liz' and Gotta Pixel Products) it'll help you make some of the most amazing pages...I know it did with me :)
Here is the kit preview, click HERE to go to the store
Precious, SweetDigiScraps by Liz,


Precious Word Art & extras, SweetDigiScraps by Danyale click HERE to go to the store


and finally, here is my freebie for you

you can download it HERE
the link may come up with and advert, which has a link underneath, just click there and it will download from Media Fire :)
Here are the stops for this wonderful Blog Train:
The Sweeties:
Liz: http://www.sweetdigiscraps.blogspot.com/
Team Blog: http://creativesweeties.blogspot.com/
Danyale http://bygonesscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
Lei: http://leidee-q.blogspot.com
Kerri: http://www.kayjaysdays.blogspot.com
Jan: http://intensemagicscraps.blogspot.com/
Sheila: http://www.scrappingmyjourney.blogspot.com
Colie: http://www.coliescorner.blogspot.com
Cynthia: thelatinmrspeel.blogspot.com You Are HERE!!!!!
Mary: http://texaschicstyle.blogspot.com/
Dana: http://www.scrappydoosordonts.blogspot.com
Trista: http://www.busybee-hive.blogspot.com/
Simona: http://lightmistress.blogspot.com/
LaShawn: http://the3cbears.blogspot.com
Carolyn: http://carolynscommotions.blogspot.com
Barb: http://digi-dallies.blogspot.com
Rachel: http://iwishiwasthatcreative.blogspot.com
and, if you make something, we would be delighted to see it over at SDS's gallery at Gotta Pixel...if you are not one of us...what are you waiting for to join us?
see you there!
(and soon back here with some really, really more great news (and freebies!)

Something about my passion for photography

I'm shutter happy, always have been.
Maybe because I couldn't walk up to the age of 5 (in case youjust stumble upon this and don't know me, I was born with a double hip dislocation and doctors insisted I wouldn't be able to walk, but my parents were the loving and stubborn kind: I had 9 operations up to the age of 8, and started walking aged 5, never stopped until the British NHS decided to give me a hip replacement in 2003, followed by other 4 operations which failed in fixing what they did in the first) but my passion for all things artsy, being that the visual or the performing arts started very, very early.
BUt we are talking pre-digital times (VERY pre digital!)
And thinking about photography as a career was something one couldn't do, unless money was flowing, which, though we were middle class, in my case was not really an option.
If you think about the money we spent in those days just to develop films...well...
But I got given a camera by one of my dad's brothers, who also gave me my first guitar, and taking photos was as important as breathing...though I lost LOTS of photos through my gipsy life, careless *friends* and my own irresponsibility, I still got the joy of my mum keeping some treasures.
Though my daughter was born before digital cameras were something one would have at hand, we documented her life pretty well, which took me into digi scrapping and where I am now...
I was so, so excited when I saw Liz's new kit...it was like made to measure...so don't be surprised if lots of pages start coming up with this kit...is just one of the most amazing kits I have seen in my years in digi-land.
Someone suggested I could start an *all about me* book with my LOs, and I may do just that.
Have a look at the Gotta Pixel gallery to see what the rest of the Sweeties have created, and have a look at Liz's store there too...she has always fascinated me with her kits (she is probably the one I should thank for me being where I am, as it was through a freebie of hers I arrived in the forums) because the material is so versatile that you can create amazing variety of styles...here is a quick peak at what the Sweeties have made.

you can get this kit HERE, there is also some AWESOME word art by just as awesome Danyale HERE, and a cool alpha HERE.

I'll be back soon!

Letting the Sunshine In

Credits: Connie Prince's A Pocket Full Of Sunshine, stiches under the dotted paper also from Connie Prince's Backyard Adventure,bottom yellow tag from Simply Scraps' Take it Back, all @ Gotta Pixel.
I wanted to write. Like I used to. Nothing much, just making a record of our lives, and I had this project, I was gonna print it all, again, nothing much, just a home printer and cheap paper, but it would be a tangible reminder of what it was, and probably would paint in my daughter's face the same smiles all the stuff my mum has kept painted in mine.
Then things got in the way.
Like my health, for starters.
My energy levels aren't high enough, then I found scrapping and that kinda simplifies the way....
But for the past 3 or 4 weeks I have been really, really wanting to document what is going on...only for one reason or another it gets put aside....

But today something happened that, though it wont respect the chronological line up at least gets me going...

I also want to write about my latest experiences in the (various) scrapbooking communities I am part of, or visit or buy stuff,something that I rather do in a separate post as my feelings are very passionate and don't want to mix things:
Where my feelings regarding our last few weeks as a family with my daughter are something beautiful and uplifting... my feelings towards what the scrapbooking communities are turning into are, to say the least, of disappointment.

OK, so..we have been to the West End theaters.
First we got free tickets to see the newest David Essex's musical, All The Fun in The Fair,through the Mousetrap Foundation, a charity that helps getting children up to 16 years old into theatre, but that also deserves it's own post, promise to write that soon, the Mousetrap team certainly deserves it.

Then we saw Hair @ the Gielgud Theatre, to which we got less than half price tickets as we are lucky (in an ironic sort of way, as I get them through my being registered disabled) to get this kind of deal from most West End theaters.
Now this was a huge thing for both of us.
Hair was the first musical I was on stage,and my daughter grew up listening to the songs in all three languages, Spanish, Portuguese, English, so when I saw that Hair was coming over from Broadway, I started saving money straight away.
On Friday, 30th of April, we saw it from the first row of the dress circle, which was quiet a nice seating as the theatre isn't that big...and that was it. The love affaire started for Sarita with the same passionate strength that hit me on that night of 1971 when my parents (after a LOT of begging from my part, I was only 13) took me to see it.

The whole Broadway cast is absolutely fabulous, words are not enough to describe the Hair experience.
Each and every one of these actors are a hurricane of energy, talent and emotion, and, funnily enough, though there are not many hippies left in this society of ours, the subject of war will always remain the same (unfortunately)
I need to point out to a couple of facts:
One is that we did not (both times we saw it) saw Sasha Allen perform.
I'm not completely sure but I think the girl we saw opening the show with Aquarius & singing the White Boys songs is Phyre Hawkins, and we were extremely pleased to have had the luck of seeing her perform.
We saw Sasha Allen in YouTube, and, despite her being really good, we LOVED this other girl's performance.

Now...onto the reason that brought me back to the theatre every night until I was on stage in the 70s and has awaken in my daughter the same passion...
Hair's George Berger is, undeniable, the most charming character of the whole play, and this time Berger is played by (oh drool, droll and treble drool) Will Swenson.
The man is so talented, gifted, such a singer, dancer & actor that you can't help falling in love with him. The fact that he is the most sensual, sexy, gorgeously looking guy i have seen in the past 15 years helps...
So, before the play was even nearing the interval, my daughter leans and whispers in my ear:
*mum, we NEED to come back: front row*
and I, of course, said yes.
Why?
Because front row gives you the complete Will Swenson experience.
The whole time the cast mingles around with the audience, but Berger/Swenson's opening monologue sees him interacting with the front row people...and this involves very, very close contact....who am I to deny my daughter such pleasure?

One of my best friends in life, a friendship that dates from those 70s was coming to spend a week in London with us after lecturing in a couple of conferences in Europe,so we thought we wait and take her too...so on tuesday the 18th of May we had another mind blowing evening on the AA row @ The Gielgud...this time very special to Sarita.
She got hugged (proper squeeze hug, as she describes it) kissed and then hugged a bit more.
Marta got to hold Will's trousers (which he takes of right from the start LOL) and we all enjoyed the talents of the whole cast apart from the beautiful view.

Credits:again, Connie Prince's Backyard Adventure plus elements from the INSD blog train, meaning there is something from: Scatcy Carlson,SpinkyDinkyScraps,CreationsbyRachael,Lorie M,CaptivatedVisions,Litabells,Kristmess and LindsayJane. All these wonderful designers can be found @ Gotta Pixel

I find it difficult to stop talking about this, could stay here all night telling you about each and every one of these actors, all wonderful, but as time presses I ll mention, of course, Gavin Creel, more than fabulous as Claude, Kacie Sheik as Jeannie (the pregnant girl who sings Air), Caissie Levy as a gorgeous Sheila with a voice to remember,Luther Creek (I think he is the only Brit at the moment)in a most wonderful Woof,Allison Case in the sweetest, most beautiful interpretation of Crissy,Darius NIchols amazing Hud,Andrew Kober 's voice on Margaret Mead and Claude's father,Kaitlin KIyan in the black boys trio but also taking over with her paradisiac vice on the Hare Krishna chorus (to the point that I didn't rest until I found where that voice was coming from the first time we saw them), but all of them are fantastic.

After the last song and curtain call, the audience is invited up on stage which turns into the most marvelous party ever...I was taken by emotion on seeing and feeling how the producers have kept the feeling of the original Hair that marked my teens and stayed with me with passion.
After that I did something I have never, ever done as audience: we went to wait for them at the stage door, as sarita wanted them to sign the program.
On this I also have to comment how great they all were (or most of them) ...lots of photos of that too :)

Of course I had to start scrapping the photos...and this gave me another huge emotion...
Not only were the pages I made featured in the Galleries Stand Outs @ Gotta Pixel,but this morning when I opened the Gotta Pixel newsletter I had the (beautiful!!!) surprise to see my Will Swenson's page chosen as Layout of the Day....
Thanks so much to Stacy & all the Gotta Pixel team.
People who know me know I don't scrap for others, I m just making a record of our lives, but having people as talented as the women who are part of the Gotta Pixel site choosing something I made...well, is a nice feeling, one that I wanted to share with you all, as Gotta Pixel has become a bit of a home for me, some of the designers I love the most at the moment have stores there....but that's another story.
If you would like to go leave some love, the LOs are here:
Hair 1
Hair 2
Hair 3
you can also have a look at the store, most of the designers are amazing,and they have regular sales, every tuesday is U$1 (which to us is like 75 pence...an amazing price for what you get!) and the Gotta Grab it that is amazing because is all designers creating from a palette...meaning one can buy kits for a dollar each, then scrap with all, and the combination is perfect)
The forums are also a nice place, full of gorgeous people but need a bit of an injection if movement (or maybe is because I don't do the challenge thing?) so it would be nice to see you around...

So, if you are still there (i know I talk a lot!) will upload some photos for your delight :)
Promise to come write again asap...there is a LOT i would like to talk about! :)
Thanks for popping in and, Michelle, if you are reading, I left you my email address after that comment you left me here, or leave me your email here so I can give you the password for the mini kit :)
Huggzz to all!

Credits: Captivated Visions' These Days, alpha from Between the Headlines (also from Captivated Visions),string with the bow again from Connie Prince's A pocket Full Of Sunshine.

Birthday Week 2: some scrapping

I'm having a weird week. apart from some health issues,I haven't been very inspired,but I'm determined to finish scrapping Sarita's birthday week's photos,so I thought I post some so it doesn't come all in one go...there are a lot in this post as it goes..I'm almost finished with it though, using the latest MOI's & Chriscrap kits, beautiful :)
This one is MartaDesign's kit Happy New Year plus bits of Chriscrap & Dilo, all @ Digital Crea France

I love this one...I used Marta Designs part of the freebie Enchanted World @Digital Crea. The photo I took with flash whilst Sarita was asleep, then worked it in DSA's photolab

this photo came out too blurred, so I put a filter to rescue...it would have been a great pic.
The fame is from Cardamome, the flowers & foliage & paper from various kits from DigitalCrea, and the side doodles are from marvelous Rosemarie @ Pixel Scrapbooking, I'm quiet sure the download would still be active, her freebies are amazing.

for this one I used another kit I bought on the dollar sale @ GottaPixel, this time from Captivated Visions called Happy Being Me. Love this kit, but unfortunately I only bought the elements pack, would love to get my hands in the papers, but gonna have to be on a sale. The alpha is from a kit from JulieMarieDesigns called A Mother's Love.


these two were made with stuff from Gotta Pixel too.
The first one is from Simply Scraps, called Sweetly Sinful I love that cluster frame, but I used it in a different way and added more stuff to the cluster...amazing kit, this one, there is not even a quarter of all in this page, and I payed a dollar!
The next one is from JulieMarieDesigns @ GottaPixel,but I couldn't find the link. I buy only at the dollar sales, so it is possible that the kit isn't for sale, though both DC &GP will take them out for a while and then put them back full price,but I'm always watching for sales...



I recently joined a group called Digital Scrapbooking Freebies,is a Yahoo group that Melinda, Lovemyzombie @ Serif/DaisyTrail/YouTube recommended. For those who use DSA, Melinda has tutorials in YT that are wonderful, easy to follow and will get you creating in no time...
This group though, the first 3/4 days I thought I was wasting my time. The way it works one gets the emails with the links to freebies and a preview, in theory easier than Digifree, but I really didn't like anything at first. I have so much stuff alreeady that downloading things that are not my style is a waste of time...but then I found Scraps by Jessica
The link provided in the group was for something I didn't fancy, but I caught a glimpse of a cute felt monkey, and then downloaded all her felts, including this kit which is called Spring into Happiness...beautiful.

I bought this kit, Wise Owl, by RedJu @ Digital Crea, because it has the plastic clouds...then I found myself lacking inspiration...
the letters I made with DSA, I can see myself never buying or downloading an alpha again, but then again, there are designers who make amazing stuff, which I have no idea how to...here is a link to the kits preview, but I couldn't find it in DC, I bought it for a Euro, so probably it was taken out of sale...
http://redjuscrap.blogspot.com/2009/09/digital-crea-birthday-sale-1-euro-kit.html


this one was a frustrated attempt to use more brushes...but the program was misbehaving so I gave up...the stiches came up nicely though LOL

with these I'm gonna try print at home, but will come back, probably later, with the last, which, of course, are always the best! :)