Help me I am out of control!!

This

and this

arrived today!

I have read the geocaching book now and really want to do it. I went for this mid price GPS in case we don't enjoy geocaching . If we do and want to invest in a better one later on at least I will know what to look for.

Thanks Nick for your comment on the last post - it was very helpful - great blog by the way - its gone into my Google reader.

The camera was a split decision on Sunday. Saw it on QVC and it seemed to have everything on it I needed so I ordered it Sunday - it was dispatched Monday, arrived today -Tuesday. At last QVC are getting their deliveries sorted out.

I have a compact Panasonic camera which is brilliant and takes great photos due to the Lecia Lens but it only has a 3x optical zoom which limits its use somewhat.

I also have a Nikon D40 DSLR which also takes great photos but it is a real faff to change the lenses all the time and I must admit I rarely take it off auto. So this bridge has an optical zoom x 18 and a Lecia lens and face recognition so should really suit my needs - just got to find out how to tell hubby!

The GPS and book are going to be his birthday present next week! He also gets presents that he does not want. they are things that I want but cannot justify so he gets them instead! One year he got a gas fire! I am really a terrible wife. I had better get him something else as well - socks perhaps?

I have printed off some easy local Geocaching visits and hope to do them next Saturday - the day after his birthday. I hope he will enjoy it.

Geocaching?

I have been reading a lot about this lately - particularly from Jane Deans blog - so have started to investigate it a bit more.

This book arrived from Amazon Saturday morning - only managed one chapter so far but I am quite excited about the idea of doing it. Its a combination of outdoor expedition and technology. You visit geocaching .com to get the co-ordinates of where some treasure is hidden and then using a GPS you try and find it.

Trouble is I don't have a GPS yet so have been investigating these - some are cheap £60, then going up to different prices £130 & £170. I don't know what features I will need until I start - but I can't start until I have one! Perhaps I should just get a cheap one to see if I like it and then can get a bigger & better one later on?

Just watched the Gadget show and they looked at 3 GPS - the latest one from Garmin the Colorado 300 did really badly and the winner SATMAP active 10 looked great on the telly but had mixed reviews on Amazon and was very expensive - plus the maps on SD cards were also expensive addons.

Looking on the web site - there are lots of caches hidden around here and also Norwich - which is an area we want to explore - what a fun way to do that.

My Scrap Revolution order

This arrived Saturday morning and had some lovely goodies in it.

After trying a good quality trimmer at a crop I gave in and ordered this one from Making Memories. It was expensive, but once I got it out of its packaging - not an easy task!- it seems to be easy to use. My other guillotine was not very good - kept getting uneven lines so I gave up and just used a ruler and knife to cut everything - I am quite good at cutting like this but sometimes my matts are a bit uneven so hopefully this MM trimmer may make my presentation better.

I have been waiting to order this book by Stacy Julian called Photo Freedom for ages. I am half way through it at the moment - it is OK - but not sure if I am going to put into place her whole plan - may takes bits & pieces out of it. I have my photos organised in really useful boxes - one for each child. I still have lots of photos in albums and my plan for scrapping is just to go through the boxes and albums and find some photos that trigger of a nice memory or have a story that I want to tell. Because I have so many old photos to scrap I tend to do some old ones and then scrap some newer digital photos that are on my computer - and that I have fresher memories of.

April's Creating Keepsakes mag - its OK but I was more excited with my Aussie mag.

Acrylic album - this is my first one but not the one I really wanted. I wanted a square one with tabs on to use for my No Place Like Home project but she rang to say she had sold out of these so would I accept this instead - wish I had said no as it will be a nightmare to cut out papers for all these scallops - but perhaps not as the point of these clear albums is to be clear - so I can just add photos?

Autumn Leaves swirl stamp - lovely design but much smaller than I expected - hope I can use it on my large 12x12 layouts without it getting lost.

lovely photos of Jess, Liam & me

Well lovely of the children - I look like the haggared old bag I am - but the children look gorgeous and Liam is actually starting allowing us to take his photo now and even smiling - just typical now I don't need to take them for his year album!

I like the portait one of Jess & Liam so think I might try and scrap this one soon.

My Artbase parcel!

Well I was a naughty girl the other day - despite not having any money and telling myself that I must not buy any more stash - I did - in fact made 2 orders!!! This is the smaller order from Artbase.

I really wanted Jessica Spragues computer tricks 2 - as I had had her first book and found it fab and as I am trying to get more out of Photoshop Elements just had to have this one as well. Found one of my fave Aussie mags on the web site so that slipped in my basket as well - have looked through it already and am amazed at the skill and talent of the Aussie scrapers.

This third thing was an impulse buy! I have seen these journalling notes before so thought I would try them out as I do like to add journalling to my pages and often struggle for something to write on - lets hope these solve my problems!

My bigger order from Scrap Revolution has not arrived - so may come tomorrow Saturday and 
Steven will then spy it! It has the large Making Memories trimmer in it - so I can't hide it easily!

"Go Jess Go" DLO

Layouts 53 & 54 for this year. I am reasonably happy with these
 layoutsas I like the story that it tells.
However  I should have cropped the first photo on the first  to make it a bit more of a focal point.
I have added jewels around her - but stll wish I had done more with the photo really- like I did with her diving in on the second side. I may go back and change it.

In real life there are not black spots on them - these are reflections of the rain drops on the window!

I have hit my 52 layout target - yeh!

Yes I have officially reached the target number of layouts I set myself for the whole year and I am very pleased with myself. Think I may have to double it or even quadruple it as we are only a quarter way through the year.

I love this layout - even if it is a bit of a copy of one I did earlier! I had cut up all the squares from the Love Elsie Roxie paper at the crop yesterday and so had to use them before I lost them. I put the other layout in Eleanor's album and this one was for Liam so butched it up a bit by using black Bazzill cardstock and using a photo that he had changed to B & W - leaving a bit of colour on Jess's scarf and Eleanor's bag. I actually think I prefer this one! I doodled around the edge of the layout and squares with a white Signo uni pen - its true the more you doodle the more confident you become. I am not good at it at all but I am loosing the fear of drawing straight onto the layout.