New Year's Eve!

I feel like I have hardly had time to think about the New Year, Christmas has been all-consuming with the scrapping and moving and cleaning that December brought with it!

Plans for today... I think that we are going to spend a family evening with some drinks and some games of some description. The 'family game' that Mum buys for Christmas (a new one every year!) often makes a reappearance on New Year's Eve - this year's game was less competitive than usual because we played as individuals rather than teams (this family gets EVIL when there are teams involved!) but there were still some sneaky tactics when we played 'Destination : Hogwarts' on the 25th!

In the meantime there was a sleepy afternoon in work to get through... and a sneaky pic of the little wall I built on my desk to hide my doodling!

Yesterday I had some new scrappy goodies through the post - of course all the websites are doing sales at the moment which is AWESOME :) I picked up a scrapbooking pen set for £11.74 in the sale on one site (I had seen the same set for £25-£30 in a shop in Cardiff). I also needed some Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter fibres (gorgeous!) and some Liquid Pearls to try out :) Resisting the temptation to go scrappy shopping tomorrow as I found out some of the shops are open! When did that happen? I thought EVERYTHING closed on New Year's Day. Maybe I just never left the house to find out before now!

So I guess today is a good day to think about resolutions... I want to work harder at the good things in life. This year I will:-

• begin planning my wedding and become more shapely for my wedding dress
• work hard for The Scrappy Tree and try to get better at what I do
• study hard and get my head around some more statistics on the way to finishing my MSc
• try art journalling
• find something blissful every month to add to my New Year/New Beginnings album
• make more things for my family to show them I care (this went down well at Christmas!) and try not to inflict too many of these on my friends (who can make much better things than me and are not afflicted with feeling the emotions and sentimentality that I am taking advantage of with my family ;)

Back to work...

Oh dear, first day back at work after the Christmas break - ugh! I was torn between hoping it would snow really hard and stop me having to go, and knowing that if it did snow that hard it would be more hassle than it was worth not to turn up to a difficult client this morning!

Fortunately (or unfortunately!) the snow was further north of us and this was the view from the office window this morning - pretty bleak, but certainly safe to travel!

I forgot to put my memory card back in my camera today so had to use the internal memory; when I was uploading the photo above I found these two slightly more cheery pics taken one day last summer driving on the motorway as the sun was going down...

I am going to bask in the glow from these for a while to make up for it staying gloomy ALL day! I must figure out how to get photo messages from my phone onto the internet; I was sent some glorious pics from Huntingdon Beach by my good friend Kristin just last night and I want to see them on a BIG screen!

I have finished my mini album for The Scrappy Tree now but better not post the finished version just yet :) I have decided on 'bliss' for my Word of the Year because I need to find my bliss, and find as much of it in as many places as possible :)

I already know what the January page in my mini-album is going to be...

Welcome!

Hi and welcome to my blog :) I am starting this as part of what will no doubt form itself into a New Year's resolution to be more scrappy and do more things that I enjoy, so I decided it was time to have a place to ramble on and post pretty much whatever interests me that day!

I chose the name Altered Orchid because I love to grow orchids and think they're absolutely beautiful, and altering is something that's fast becoming a firmly established part of my life these days! I hope always to aim at doing the name justice.

Having just finished the rush of Christmas presents and a few thank you cards, I wanted to make something for me which tied in perfectly with the January theme at The Scrappy Tree; new year, new beginnings. I've now realised that the colour scheme matches the background I've chosen for my blog!

I decided to make a mini-album with a 6x6 scalloped chipboard album from Papermania that has been sitting in my stash since I bought it a year ago. I am really liking the idea of doing a page in it at the end of every month using an image or photo that spoke to me over that month. This is the front cover...

I quite like the idea of theming it around Ali Edwards' Word of the Year, as soon as I figure out what my word will be! I am liking 'peace' or 'bliss' at the moment, really feeling the need for a calming influence and a bit of escapism!