Step by Step

If you have been following my Instagram any time in the last year, you will have noticed a lot of pics of my shoes. (if you haven't been following me, you should! I'm neat! @craftygirl_tk)  I've been walking A LOT. Aiming for the daily goal of 10,000 steps per day. Yep, you heard it. Ten. Thousand.

That's the 'average' daily amount that you should walk to maintain fitness, set by someone, somewhere.

I have a bunch of weight to get rid of, and walking is just so convenient and cost effective, so it's my exercise of choice at the moment.

I don't get to 10,000 every day, but I don't beat myself up about it.

Trying to create a new lifestyle with new habits is a hard, slow process, especially when you have things so ingrained. It has to be done though. I have been told I have IRS, Insulin Resistance Syndrome. And I really don't want it to get to diabetes any time soon.

After a year of walking pretty much every day, I've slowly noticed improvements - I can walk further, and I can carry on a conversation at the same time as well. Hills and steps are definitely still my nemesis, but they are getting easier. And all of this activity is helping to keep the Black Dog at bay, too.

So if you need me, I'll probably be out walking ;)

Tracey xox

Feeling Low

Today I'm feeling pretty low.

Last night our little scrapping community lost a very dear and talented friend. I knew Deb when I was working at Scrapbook HQ, and she was so supportive and kind to me throughout the whole Dizzy Izzy experience. She was a scrapper with a fantastic eye for colour and a knack for putting together really great layouts.

I'll never forget how she pulled her very first 'all nighter' at our May retreat this year, and went kind of loopy towards the end. She was so proud of herself for making it!

I will miss laughing with my lovely, kind, crafty friend.

xox

Floods & Fires

This week we had a HUGE storm in Sydney, and a friend's house was damaged by a flash flood. Her family were lucky to make it out of their house before the downstairs was completely submerged in water. Seriously, they were on the news and everything.

Seeing the pictures of their destroyed house has brought back some memories for me of the year that my family went through some devastation of our own.

Back when I was 10, our year contained both a flood AND a fire.

We were staying at a friends property for the Easter holidays when it and the neighbouring properties flooded. All of the kids were sent to higher ground, so I don't have many memories of the actual flood, but I do know that they travelled around in boats, trying to get things sorted and to save the stuff that was washing away.

After that drama, our year was relatively quiet (as far as I recall) until the end of November when we lost most of our home in a house fire.

We were all home, Mum out sewing a dress for a dancing competition, my sister was in bed and I was watching a video with Dad and our neighbour who I was having a sleepover with.  The fire started in garage, so luckily we weren't trapped and there was time for us to leave safely once we noticed it.  Unfortunately Dad lost all of his music equipment, tools, Square Dance records, and we lost our bikes and even my beloved roller skates!

our garage was on the left, that's the garage door frame laying on the driveway

our lounge room - you can see through to the garage

It was a really scary night, and it wasn't just the fire that caused damage - we lost many family photos and electrical items to water damage.  Our insurance only covered the building, none of the contents. We were lucky enough to have lots of our neighbours, family and friends rally around us to support us. An army of people showed up the next day to clear the house out. We had people take clothes and other items to clean them, and my parents Square Dancing friends held fundraisers for us to help buy the major white goods.  People gave us copies of photos to help replace the memories that we lost. I've since learnt, after seeing it many, many times on the TV, that this is the true Aussie spirit showing through.

the kitchen with the roof caved in

even in the rooms that weren't burnt, you can see the smoke and water damage. dig those retro arches!

We rebuilt, and moved about 4 years later into the house that my parents still live in, a new area, new schools (ha, I remember changing school being WAY more traumatic than the fire). And it will be 26 years ago in a few weeks. Some things stay with you though. I ALWAYS try to seek out the source if I smell smoke. I'm overly attached to the precious photos that we were able to replace.  Deep down I know though, that you will always be okay, even if you lose everything, as long as you survive, because the days go on, and roller skates can be replaced, and one day you realise that you haven't thought about it in so long that it was nearly forgotten.


Tracey xox

Retreating... to a Crafty Zone

I'm heading off to a Scrap Retreat this weekend hosted by the Little Scrapbook Shop. It will be (hopefully) a lovely girly weekend with some crafty friends. I am aiming to upload some of my pages as I go, so hopefully I will have something to show for all of the time it has taken me to get organised and packed!

Time away with my own thoughts and crafty encouragement is just what I need at the moment. I'm still struggling with a continual headache (since March), and life is a little hectic at the moment. I definitely need to recharge a little to get my focus back for the second half of the year.

Wish me luck!

Tracey xx

Meet & Greet with Becky Higgins!

Last Tuesday I skipped work and headed off to Lidcombe Spotlight to meet a scrapping idol of mine, Becky Higgins. This is certainly not my usual Tuesday morning, but was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

You may be familiar with Becky through her industry-revolutionising scrapping system Project Life. I'm only new to Project Life and pocket scrapping this year, but I've been a fan of Becky's for over 10 years.

When I first started scrapping, the goto source of inspiration was definitely Creating Keepsakes Magazine (which is sadly no longer published). I can remember spending hours pouring over the submitted layouts, copying the ones I liked, and wondering why I couldn't get my scrapping to look as 'finished' as the published layouts.

Remember, this is way before blogs, Instagram and Pinterest. It was way harder to find great sources of scrap inspiration than it is today. I was also the only one I knew who scrapbooked - it was before I found my lovely scrapping community.

Then I discovered Becky's sketches. Each month she would have an article in CK featuring one of her sketches, and different interpretations of the sketch.

CLICK!

It was like a light bulb seeing those sketch designs! They guided me through my first steps into page design, and pretty soon I was doing my own rough little sketches in my sketch book. As Becky said, 'that was what worked for you at the time!'

Of course, now I've come full circle and get to see my sketches come to life at the Dizzy Izzy Crafternoons & Retreats. It's always such a thrill to see how others interpret something I've created!

I took along my copies of Becky's Sketches books for her to sign. These books were like my scrapping bibles, and are now quite well used/loved. It was so exciting to sit next to Becky, and chat with her about my scrapping journey, and about Dizzy Izzy Scrapbooking.

I love this! A pic of Ness taking a pic of Becky & Kell

Kell & Ness were also there, and I got to meet some other lovely scrappers, including Ruth from Polly! Scrap Kits.  Becky was gracious enough to answer all of our questions, and then she got stuck into signing goodies like journal cards and core kits.

The first of many days of signing for Becky on this trip

Ruth from Polly! Scrap Kits

I had seen her on Creative Live, and I'm familiar with her mantra of 'Cultivate A Good Life & Record It', but I was pretty blown away. With Becky, what you see is what you get. One question I asked, as a scrapping entrepreneur myself, was how many hours a day does she work on the business. She spoke about when they first started the business, and the kids were smaller, that they would put them to bed, and she & David would be working until 3am. Every Night.  Now, she said, she has a bigger network and support team, but she still feels like she puts in hours & hours. Every Day.

 Becky also mentioned there were some big announcements coming in April and then in a few months - I can't wait to see what she has planned next!

As a scrapper, and as a woman, I completely admire Becky for both her business sense and also her work/life balance. It's something that I hope to work on and I definitely aim to be more like Becky.

Here is to Cultivating a Good Life, and Recording It.

Tracey xox