Explore - New Shimelle class

On Monday I started Shimelle's new class 'Explore'.As this is the first 'Shimelle' I have undertaken I had no idea what to expect!!!

Our first task was to set up a 'playbook' (like a workbook but it's play - yay!! I can do play!! :D)

So this is my 'Playbook'. It's made from 12 x 12 cardstock cut down to 6 x 4 pages. I added some photos backed with patterned paper and then decorated the front cover. For this I used several scraps of paper cut into random strips then stuck down at angles ( I saw this method being used in quilting on TV and thought I would give it a go - using my initiative you see and exploring! :-D)

The first page inside has a picture of me !

This is the original which I cropped.

And then we had to write a 'Note to Self' (and for all you KU fans out there not Bill Self  :lol:) 

which reads as follows :-

18^th July 2011

Note to Self :)

The self-portrait was not too bad – I am getting better! I have very few pictures of me…partly because I am usually the one behind the lens but also because I hate having my picture taken!

I have done a few scrapbook pages of me, mostly of me as a child though.

I am feeling very creative at the moment particularly as I have a new found interest in photography. I only wish that I had started all this years ago when the children were small and I could have documented their lives and special moments. I sometimes feel like I am making up for the missed opportunities by being a ‘scrapping dervish’ (term borrowed from my scrappy friend Maria :))

I love the view from my window – I scrapped it a couple of weeks ago! I look out over sand dunes and the golf course and to the right I can see green fields (well they are brown at the moment because the farmer has just cut the corn!).

I am so lucky to live where there is so much inspiration and ‘potential’. I can go out on a Sunday and take 150-200 photos and every one will be different!! :)

Sometimes I look out of my symbolic window and feel sad and tired but most days I embrace the adventure and look forward to continuing on my journey of life! My youngest son once told me that you have to have dreams because without dreams you have nothing to look forward too :).