When I was little I had a phobia about wetting the bed. I never did, but I was always afraid that I would. Even into my adult years if I had a dream that involved (even in passing) going to the loo I would wake up at the moment when my dream self sat on the toilet.

Last night I had a dream that should have woken me up in terrors but didn’t. I wasn’t even slightly frightened although I surely should have been. Last night I got executed.

I don’t know what it was that I had done, but I found myself on an execution stage (like where they used to carry out public hangings). I was sat on a block and there were two men with executioner’s masks, each carrying a very large axe. There was a crowd there to watch but they weren’t making a sound. I had a conversation with the executioners about what was going to happen, they were very matter of fact and not unkind, rather like a police officer is when he’s breathalysing you after you run over a ninja cyclist (a story for another day). Then as I just sat there quite calm, bolt upright, they each swung their axes and cut my head off.

After the execution I was wandering around as a normal person again, but not the person I was before. It was as if whatever I had done to get myself executed was now washed away, nobody remembered it, nobody even recognised me. I was quite happy. Overall quite a nice dream.

Is this to do with the bank crisis and bail-out bringing absolution and rubbing away the world’s financial black marks of the past few years? Or perhaps something closer to home. I don’t feel like a catharsis has happened, but somehow feel that it needs to. Now all I have to do is figure out what it is I am meant to take from this dream, which somehow speaks to me like the Death card from a tarot deck. Curious.

Well it has been an unproductive last couple of months thanks to vacation, hard drive failure, problems at the ‘day job’ and the usual run-of-the-mill day-to-day emergencies, catastrophes and general chaos that are my life. But finally we have a new kit. And just because I am feeling like it’s probably a good idea to build up a bit of karma one way or another, I’m handing out a freebie addon, and also giving my loyal blog chums a 30% discount on the full kit (this weekend only). I love gratuitous bolding.

The kit is called Chez Mamie (literally, At Grandma’s House), and here it is:

You can pick up Chez Mamie this weekend at Divine Digital with 30% off if you quote code LoveUGrandma

Or if you’d like to check out the goods first, you can grab this freebie addon:

It’s that time of year when the sunshine is giving way to cooler, wetter, greyer days. I find this time of year something of a battle to get the mojo front and center, although I do LOVE the autumn it doesn’t do much for my creative health. If you are similar, maybe these tips can help get the sap rising again despite the inclement weather outside.

1. Do something creative. Cook, sew, draw, write, take photographs, look through a gardening catalogue, plan a redecoration (just for the fun of it). The more you look at colours and shapes and get your creative side up to speed the quicker your mojo will be back.
2. Don’t sweat it. Speed scrap to get rid of the backlog. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the results, just clear the pile - you can always rescrap photos! You’ll feel better that you don’t have a backlog any more, you’ll make some beautiful mistakes along the way that you can use (on purpose) another time, and the sheer practice will get you back on track.
3. If you don’t have photos but you want to scrap, make yourself some QPs for another time. Scrap the whole layout but leave a ‘hole’ for photos. You may find you can knock up four or five pages from one kit, and that’s halfway to an album! You’ll also get lots of practice which will speed up your scrapping and spark off some new ideas.
4. Sort your stash. Remind yourself why you just love your baubles and bits. Use the time to back up all your digital goodies! Burn things you won’t be using onto CD and file them away so you can delete the originals from your drive and create some space, sort the rest by colour, store, theme, designer, or whatever suits you best. You’ll find that just taking a good look at what you actually have will start the ideas coming.
5. Play with your alphas and make some word art! Just pick a title, word or phrase that seems appropriate for the alpha and create with it. Save the art for a layout down the line, or maybe just making it will spark a layout idea right there!
6. Go shop at Amazon or visit the library. There are loads of really fantastic altered art and creative books on the market that can really give you some ideas. I particularly recommend ‘Kaleidoscope’ by Suzanne Simanaitis - it’s wonderful for inspiration. And there many others you will love browsing through for inspiration.
7. Trawl your scrap mags and make sketches of layout ideas. You can do this is front of the TV, great for subliminal reinforcement of your creative urges without interrupting Coronation Street
8. Watch TV, read a book, get your ironing done. Forbid yourself from going anywhere near your scrapping for a week. You’ll quickly find that what you can’t have you really want, and get more ideas than ever. This is a frustrating but very effective tactic. Keep a notebook handy though, to jot down the inspiration you get whilst you’re on Cold Turkey - there will be plenty of it!
9. Learn to do something new, whether scrap related or not. The sense of achievement will help get your confidence back and your mojo will love you for it.
10. Break all your tasks down into smaller chunks. If you stress yourself out about having to get that album done for Aunt Maud’s birthday, or the three gazillion holiday photos that need scrapping, you won’t feel motivated to start. Like the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Set yourself a very low target. eg One page or One photo or One line of journalling. The smaller the better. As you complete each tiny task, set the next one. Keep tackling the elephant in small bites and you’ll find yourself with a ‘clean plate’ much quicker than you thought.

Somebody asked for this recipe, I hope you enjoy it.

This is my speciality, I make it every time we have people stop for dinner (and I haven’t had time to prepare something), and practically once a week through the winter as it’s such a comfort food. This recipe serves four, or in our case two plus a second helping for me and a portion to freeze as a quick lunch for another day.

Boil a big pan of water, add some salt and some garlic puree if you have it. If you don’t have garlic puree, a clove of garlic ’smashed’ under the flat of a blade will do. Just let it boil in the water. When the water is boiling, add about 1lb of pasta shapes of your choice. The more surface area the better, but be aware that tube types need to be more carefully drained after boiling to make sure your sauce doesn’t get too watery. Bring back to the boil and let simmer for around 8 minutes (or as directed on the packet, don’t use quick-cook pasta if possible, the regular hard egg pasta is better for flavour and doesn’t go soggy). Drain the cooked pasta and set aside.

Meanwhile, chop and gently fry off an onion til it starts to go transparent, and set aside.

Make the sauce. Either do this the old fashioned way (below) or use a packet white sauce as a base. Add half a teaspon of dry mustard powder and a half teaspoon of mixed herbs at the dry stage for additional flavour.

For a traditional white sauce, start with a small pan and melt a quarter stick of butter over a low heat. Remove from heat, and sprinkle in a large spoonful of plain white flour and mix. Keep adding flour a spoon at a time until you have a consistency like thick paste. Mash out any lumps. Now add milk, a little at a time, and stir to incorporate into the flour and butter mixture. Keep adding and stirring until you have a pan full of milk and no sign of the paste left. Return to the heat and slowly bring up towards the boil, stirring constantly to stop it sticking. Don’t use a high heat, let it take it’s time. The sauce will thicken as it heats. Don’t worry if the sauce is not quite as thick as you want it to be in the finished dish, it will thicken more when you add the cheese. If you are really concerned that it’s too runny you may not have used enough flour in the ‘roux’ (paste) stage. It’s too late to add more now, but I always keep a can of McDougalls thickening granules on my counter for such occasions, and it’s an instant fix I would recommend.

Now grate your cheese. I use a strong English cheddar, but you can use any strongly flavoured hard cheese. Ask at your local Italian delicatessen for a suggestion if you aren’t sure what might be suitable. I use about 4-5oz in the sauce and another 2-3oz for the topping, so you will want about half a pound. But you can add more if you love cheese

Add the grated cheese to the white sauce, reserving some for the topping, and stir through to coat all the pasta. Season very well with black pepper. Then add the fried onions and stir through.

Now take a Pyrex or similar overnproof dish, a lasagne pan is ideal, and tip the pasta and sauce in. Smooth out so it’s even, and sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top. Pop under a hot grill for about 5 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown. Serve!

Mac and cheese keeps really well and tastes even better the next day if refrigerated overnight. You can also freeze it and reheat in the microwave if you have any left over.

Bon appetit

OK, so he mis-spells the title (he can’t help it, he’s American), but this book by Danny Gregory is great. I am really enjoying it. Those of us that continually question whether what we are doing is actual creative or only the pathetic stumblings of a talentless egotist need to read this book. It was this paragraph from page 4 that got me thinking, he’s right you know, we ARE all creative, whether we like it or not.

What is we treated driving like we treat the arts? We’d assume that people were either born to drive or not. We’d wait and see if, as children, they started driving on their own, if they had talent and a calling. If they did, we would be careful not to interfere with their talent and possibly supress it. We would make sure to encourage only those who seemed they’d be able to drive professionally. We’d pay some of the millions of dollars to drive and lavish them with fame: others we would refuse to support, encouraging them to do something more useful for society. Everyone else would assume that they would never be able to drive, and would just stand on the sidewalk and watch the traffic.

Most of us learn to drive (eventually). So why don’t most of us learn to be creative? And why don’t most of us accept that what we DO create is worthy, even if it’s not what we had envisioned before we began? It’s the artist’s dilemma perhaps.

The Creative License, by Danny Gregory is available at Amazon.

Now revealed, here’s what was in my July grab bag at Divine Digital!

This was a $3 grab bag for the first week - just 50 cents per item! The products will retail for a total of $19.50 (or 20% less in my blog store on this website), but you can still grab the whole bag for just $5 at Divine Digital only until Friday.

My August grab bag will be in store soon, grab it quick to get the best price!

For July only, spend $10 at Art & Scrap and get a fabulous Summertime megakit free!

Grab this fantastic Summertime collab kit from the Art & Scrap designers FREE with your $10 purchase from the store!

Just add the megakit to your cart, and quote coupon SUM-PC8G9-31105 at checkout.

Over 60 papers, two full alphas and more than 85 versatile elements will keep you scrapping in sunshine colours for months!

Includes contributions by: Babette (LBCreations), Brandi West, Lynn Griffin, Marion Goris (Sisters Designs), Scrap Carli, Stellarific, Val Gouveia, Celly O’Neill, Ruby Rynne, Cari Lopez and Clohie Watkins.

Click here to go shopping and grab your Summertime megakit FREE!

Here are four of the five products that were in my June 2008 grab bag at Divine Digital, all now for sale at Art & Scrap - or buy them from this blog and save 20%!.

Here’s a new Keyplate QP album that was my NSD freebie. The freebie promotion is over now, but you can still grab this lovely album for just $4 from Art&Scrap, Divine Digital or Candy Tree. Enjoy!

New kit released today! And for NSD (National Scrapbooking Day) weekend it’s 60% off!

You can pick it up at any of my stores (see links on the right), but it’s only $2 til Sunday night, so don’t wait too long!