Free To Be Me! {AAM Blog Hop}

Welcome to the First Ever All About Me Challenge Blog Hop! The All About Me Team are all revealing this month's first challenge; sharing a little bit more about themselves and, well, there's a few giveaways too! I'm a wee bit excited to be involved!

In fact, I'm still really excited to be involved in the All About Me Team at all! I am so grateful that I have had the chance to work alongside the amazing women that make up the rest of the team and inspire so many people to start scrapping about the one thing that's usually forgotten. Themselves. The idea is simple, but it's affects are quite astounding. Through scrapping about myself - my dreams, fears and emotions - I've been able to learn more about who I am, who I'm not and who I want to be. I feel more comfortable with myself. I am finally Free To Be Me!

And since so many of the team feel the same way this is our theme for the Blog Hop, we only hope that in some small way, taking part in our challenges helps you feel free to be yourself.

Now, from the serious to the ridiculous! One of the things that I am coming to love about scrapbooking is the conversations that I have with The Steve as a result of sharing my final layouts. This time around our conversation went a bit like this -

Me: What do you think of this layout?
The Steve: What was the theme?
Me: We had to do a layout based on the idea 'I Can't Live Without'.
The Steve: Oh
Me: What?
The Steve: Well, I'm just looking for me on there.
Me: I do serious layouts all the time, I wanted to do something 'fun'.
The Steve: (starting to smirk) Oh? So now I'm not fun?
Me: *sigh*

It always ends in a sigh!

Indisposable Camera - Layout Details: Most of the hard work has been done by the rather lovely handmade paper which was sent to me by the rather lovely Joyce! I've added a few scraps of paper and ribbon; some stitching and an image of my beloved Nikon D40.

Now, I know there's a lot to take in here today, but keep reading - there are prizes to be had people! Each of the All About Me Team has a questionnaire on their blogs and you can win a fabulous prize on the main site by answering questions about us so this is All About Me -

1. My Childhood Ambition - "Heal the world. Make it a better place." Okay, that's a little facetious, but it is true. All I have ever wanted to do is make the world a better place, little by little. I honestly believe that, no matter how small we may sometimes feel, we can each make a very real difference.
2. My Retreat - Books. What better way to escape from your own world than by immersing yourself in someone elses?
3. The Perfect Day - Morning sunshine; birds tweeting; pancakes; a walk in the country; a pub lunch; a village fete; hot tea and biscuits; dinner with friends; hugs before bedtime; my favourite bed; sleep.
4. My First Job - Ooh, it's not very exciting, but my first experience of working was as a Paper Girl. I had to convince my parents to let me have a go. They thought I wouldn't manage to stick the early hours and the heavy bags of papers, but I stuck with it for a year and a half before I found myself a weekend job instead. I loved the early mornings - so quiet and peaceful. It was like having the whole world all to myself!
5. My Wildest Dream - If I could have anything that I wanted - a true, 'in my wildest dreams' extravagance - it would be the opportunity to really explore Africa, working on voluntary projects; living with locals; travelling with other tourists. Oh! I could go on and on about this, so I'm going to stop. Right now.
6. If My Life Was A Musical It Would Be Called - The Procrastinator! See it today. Or possibly tomorrow..... :)
7. My Proudest Moment - It might sound really odd, but I don't think that I have one. I don't mean that there haven't been times when I've felt proud of myself but there isn't one moment that sticks out amongst the rest - only quiet, little periods of satisfaction and contentment - and I think I prefer it that way.
8. My Favourite Item Of Clothing - I have to pick one? Oh f**k! Um.....
9. I Feel Ready For The Day - Only after a cup of tea, toast and a bath.
10. I COULD Live Without - Big Brother, ironing and pigeons. Bleh. Pigeons!

Your Chance To Win!

What would a Blog Hop be without a fabulous giveaway? And, boy, have I got THE MOST FABULOUS GIVEAWAY! The cute and crafty ladies over at The Copy & Paste Project have organised a Twelve Days of Christmas Workshop full of the most amazing projects which use up your amazing crafty stash and leave you with some gorgeous goodies that you can give as gifts (or...um...keep for yourself. Not that you would. Obviously. Ahem!)

Julie and Kirsty are both fabulous instructors and have, between them, designed for Banana Frog, Scrapbook Inspirations, Quirky Kits, Gauche Alchemy, Kitschy Digitals, QTea Kits and The Creative Type. Blimey! Do you think they'll be inspiring enough?

The workshop kicks off tomorrow, November 5th and runs until November 20th. There's twelve days of downloadable instructions; access to a super secret workshop blog and a much, much more. For your chance to win a place in the class, you'll need to leave me a comment below telling me your favourite tune for Christmas crafting. That's it, nothing complicated! (But you must include your favourite tune for a chance to win, okay?)

Since, I'll be drawing the winner at the end of the Blog Hop on Saturday, 7th November, my advice is this - sign up for the class now so that you don't miss the buzz on the blog as the class starts - and, if you win, Julie and Kirsty will happily refund you!

What Now?

Phew! Did you get all that? I'd suggest getting yourself a cuppa and a biscuit or two before heading on to Janis's blog The Reluctant Scrapper for the next part of the All About Me Challenge Blog Hop. But do come back and visit again, okay?