Stamping Ground

We cropped on Saturday. It included our now-to-be-regular pot-luck lunch. I know, and at the risk of gushing, it really was one of the most fun, noisy and for some, productive days. Of course, not all of that statement applies to me! I did manage 3 layouts which I put away without even thinking about photographing. Huh? I probably could have done at least two more, but I was too busy gosspiping and admiring Mary Anne's works - her albums are amazing. And she can work back to front too -by which I mean that she can make a whole mini album based on an idea and not have photos for it just yet. Now that's a skill.

Crop preparation is today's subject. Bear in mind whilst I whinge, that I am the hall booker. So I know sooner than almost anyone else when the next crop is. OK, so usually it's the first saturday of the month and that's no secret of course, but you take my point. So how come on the preceeding Monday I'm desperately searching photo files and praying that Snapfish can turn a miracle and get my pictures to me by the time I need to choose papers etc? Yes, I have about a million unscrapped photos which I could get on with if Snapfish can't deliver, but you get an urge to do something in particular don't you, and I really like to scrap the present. So much so that even at a January crop, I have never managed a Christmas LO! Miss Dunnit's albums look as though she had a great life, but without Christmas!

I spend the Friday before the crop whining to get home early enough for a daylight paper choosing session. That rarely works out...lets face it, non scrappers, especially men, just don't get how important the right shades are. For them it's well, black and white! Then I have supper and frankly, that's fatal. Once in the post supper armchair....oh how hard it is to move. Especially when the body knows it's going to sit - because kneeling is physically impossible for more than about 4 minutes (Helen -you reading this?!!) - on a nice but cold laminate floor in front of a cupboard where the papers that will not match my photos live. It takes ages. By which time of course, I'm stiff from sitting on the floor like some rubbery teen, and I still have punches, alphabets, gems, chipboard, dies, folders, stamps, inks and consumables to decide on and pack. And I just know I can't leave it until the morning because like most Saturday mornings, I cannot trust myself not to oversleep. See, Mr Dunnit goes out early on Saturdays and never ever has the heart to wake me or set the alarm. So I soldier on. My bag packed, the blood rush as I stagger to the armchair is incredible if not a bit of a worry. And as I settle in, Mr Dunnit returns from his well deserved Friday night darts-and-a-pint and says it's time for bed. OK, so it may be 11.30, but I just sat down! Oh man, it would be easier to stay at home. No doubt. Except for a couple of teeny details. I would never make LOs at home, just wouldn't get round to it. And it's just such a fun day.