Great news

After being told last June that my job was going to be cut, and having been through a 90 day consultation process, changes, missed launch dates for revised plans, the new consultation was issued yesterday and my post is safe! I know with the current state of the NHS this is a minor win in the battle rather than a major victory but it feels so good. It was very unexpected, the message about my job had been consistent all the way through - there would be no Programme Manager post in any of the scenarios they were considering.

I drove home last night with my music blaring in the car (Florence and the Machine - Dog Days are over seemed very apt) and the windows down, and, after a bit of celebratory tea and toast - I know how to live, started doing a layout for the first time in ages.

And I can't wait to get home tonight to finish it off! It's taking a while to sink in about the job, hoping it does soon and I can get a good night's sleep.

Long weekend coming, dinner with the family on Monday, then a short week and then Claire's house warming party on the 29th. Things are looking shiny :)

Happy Birthday Sharon

It's my Sister in Law's birthday this week, and I'm ahead of the game for a change. This is the card I've made for her:

Lots and lots of textures and layers in there - it was great fun to make. With a bit of luck I'll even post it in time.

I spent last Sunday with my Mum, watching films and relaxing with some lunch and cake. I used

my new camera to take these, I'm pleased with the results, they're nice and clear and sharp, though I've found indoors I've had to turn off the automatic flash as it's just too much.

The cake was scrummy, filled with fresh strawberries, cream and strawberry jam, using Deb's recipe (and Dove's Farm Self Raising Gluten Free flour).

Shame the weather's gone all grey again but it does feel like spring is here. I'm hoping to get out and take some pictures of a big patch of crocuses after work to do a scrap booking page, light permitting.

Excuses

We all do it, make excuses for things we don't want to do, or more likely, fear. For me and scrapping my stumbling block has always been the quality of photos I take, I never seem to get the right shot - it's badly lit, blurry, too small. But the thing with excuses is generally people can see right through them. We let ourselves off whatever it is we find difficult or challenging by finding ways that indicate it's not our fault. In this case, it's the camera's fault. Honest. You're not fooled, right? In part this isn't completely untrue, my little Samsung Digital 10Mp compact does a pretty good job, but it's a bit unpredictable in low light - sometimes good, sometimes awful, and the zoom isn't much to write home about. Photos taken of artists on a stage could be of anyone from from Abba to Led Zeppellin. Though anyone who knows me would realise that my attendance of a Led Zep concert is just a teensy bit unlikely. So, I've gone for an upgrade, to another member of the Samsung famiy, a WB600 Bridge camera. A bridge is somewhere between a compact and a fancy schmansy SLR (see why it's called a bridge huh?). So, you can point and click but once you get a bit more adept you can mess with the manual settings. Having the tools is all very well, of course, but I'm aware that the camera isn't really the whole and entire cause of my failure to reach the David Baileyesque levels of image capture. So I'm signed up to one of Cheryl's online workshops - which can be found here: http://feelgoodphotos.com/ to learn some basic techniques. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm never going to be one of those people with a hulking great DSLR and a trunk full of lenses, though all power to you if you are. I just want to look at my pictures and not feel myself making excuses for them. Even if it's just to myself.