Saturday 8 August 2009

Saturday Scrapping/ And Am I The Only Looney Looking For Mars!

It's Saturday and I have finally made a couple of scrap pages. I think I have been spurred on by a couple of very creative friends. Carmen over at Whoopidoo...ings and Anne over at Pretty. They have been busily creating all manner of things over the last week and I felt a bit left out, so I urged myself to scrap.
I made two pages this week, which for me is amazing. Unfortunately, I am aware that they are not my best pages and I felt I spent a lot of time faffing with them, as I really didn't know what I was doing. My scrapping mojo is in need of a boost.
Anyway, here are my layouts.
This first one is of my girls getting ready for the local carnival. Every year their teacher picks children from her class to join her in the carnival. This year, we were lucky enough to be chosen. It was a fabulous day and I ended up walking round with a bucket collecting money. I really got into the swing of it and actually wondered if I could take it up as a profession!

This page had quite a bit of sewing on it. You would think after my fancy dress attempts last week, I would have hidden all needles and threads somewhere I was guaranteed never to find them again, but after seeing what Anne over at Pretty can do with some beads and cotton, I was inspired. Unfortunately, what she didn't let on in her posts, was how time consuming sewing scrap pages actually is.
Look I stitched on every individual sequin!
My next page is for my aunt's album. The one I need to get done, the one I keep talking about and the one I don't seem to be getting very far with. This is a picture of my aunt and uncle just before they left for their honeymoon.

I haven't put any writing on it, as it is so difficult to add journalling to someone else's album.

So those are my attempts as scrapping this week.
I thought I would also show you one of my new unusual nocturnal habits!

I have spent most evenings after about 11pm outside with my camera, attempting to take pictures of the moon. Why, I hear you ask?
Well my sister in law sent me the following information by email.
'Mars is about to be spectacular! This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again. The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within 34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month. Share this with your children and grandchildren. NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN.'

Amazing huh! So each night I have been out there to see if I can catch a glimpse and so far I haven't seen a thing. Then I began to wonder if just maybe, my sister in law may be fooling me and this could all be a hoax. So I did a bit of internet searching and lo and behold, look what I found. This message debunking the whole thing. So there I am, looking like a complete plum for the last few nights and telling everyone I know that Mars will be as big as the Moon and it is a big hoax. I can only laugh at myself for being so daft and believing it in the first place. I am easily fooled, just ask my hubby how many times he used to ask me to pause the video when we were watching live tv (before Sky+) and I would always fall for it!
So that is me for today, hope you are having a fabulous weekend. I am off for a bit of R&R and will see you tomorrow for the Sunday Salon. Tata for now!

17 comments:

  1. Really, that sounds cool, must have a look too if I can see Mars

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  2. What great projects. I wish I had done somethinhg like this when my children were little. Too busy working, going to school, and life at that time Lol

    I admire your creativity!

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  3. Girl, you are so patient and talented with your scrapbooks. I've always admired individuals who can envision a page and then make it look good.

    And if it makes you feel any better, I sorta fell for the e-mail thing too here in the States. (Although I didn't get as far as going outside to take pictures. Which I'm glad that you did because your moon cloud shots totally rock. And you're neighborhood is so different than mine. So that was pretty cool to notice!). No, instead, I sent out an e-mail to all of my closest friends STOKED about the whole rare sky show. One friend e-mailed me back and told me to check my resources, she was much kinder than that. Ooops. :)

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  4. I love pictures of the moon, but I can't get one nearly that good. I'm very impressed!

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  5. Very cool scrapbook pages. You may inspire me to do that - it looks like fun!

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  6. Hahahahaha. Well as I was reading your post I was sitting here thinking - you know what the moon HAS been really bright the last week or so (we sleep with the curtains open) and then I get to the end of your post and am thinking... ah nuts! So I woulda been hoaxed too if that's any consolation :P

    Thank you so much for your lovely comment. How cool to think I might have inspired you in some way. My Ready Brek glow is going to be positively flammable at this rate ;) I love your pages and admire anyone that can sew like that - it's precisely the time element that has put me off so far :P I love the end effect but am just so damn lazy!

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  7. Too funny about the Mars thing :) And as always, your scrapbooking beautiful!

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  8. Love your pages. I haven't scrapped for years and really need to get back to it.

    Thanks for the tip about Mars and the moon. I hadn't heard yet. Very cool!

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  9. i am going to send you all my photos and you can scrap them for me!! :)

    as for the mars thing...i wonder geographical location has an impact--can we see it on this side of the world too? (is that an utterly idiotic question?) i know that sometimes we can see constellations that other countries can't...right? lol

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  10. I think your layouts are perfectly lovely! But I do understand about losing your scrapping mojo...mine's been absent as of late, for sure. I've had this same layout in progress for the past week, and I just can't decide what to do with it.

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  11. I'm glad you found out yourself that this was a hoax and that I didn't have to be the one telling you. LOL! ;)

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  12. Well, at least you got to look at the night sky, which is always nice :D It's too bad it's a hoax, though...a huge Mars would have been cool.

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  13. I would have totally been taken in by that too! :) I've been bummed because most of the planets are not viewable in the night sky in our location right now (well unless we want to get up at the crack of dawn - so not happening). Thankfully in a few months, when the sky gets darker much earlier, we'll be able to hunt for a few of the planets with our telescope.

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  14. Fantastic scrapbooking pages! That sewing part may take a lot of time but it sure looks pretty. The pics of the night sky are awesome even if it was a hoax. I'm really a sucker for stuff like that too-everyone has a good laugh at my expense most times.

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  15. I love your scrap pages, they look awesome! I wish I had more of a talent (and the time!) for it... I'll just have to live vicariously through you :-D

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  16. I think your scrapbook pages are mighty fine, Viv. :)

    I totally ignored the Mars thingy but I did see a very bright round moon in the last few days.

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  17. very nice scrapping! I like the carnival one lots.

    cool pic of the moon anyway!
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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