My first blog!!

I should start this blog by introducing myself - sounds reasonable eh?

My name is Sandie, although I go by the name of Tigermum on several boards and groups I belong to. I've been married to my DH (Mike) for 36 years next February, and all that time we've lived in the same house. I recently celebrated my 60th birthday.

My daughter (Erika) and her husband (Tony) presented us with our first grand daughter (Jessica) in August, and I am rapidly becoming besotted with her!

My Background?When I left college I started working in public and school libraries. That's all I've ever done all my working life (apart from brief spells as a cleaner and a bar person when Erika was pre-school). I worked in London, Ipswich and Colchester, mainly in schools, but the later part of my work was spent with people with disabilities - a field I thoroughly enjoyed as I realy felt I was making a difference to people's lives.

My Interests?

• Reading - well it had to be didn't it? Although I still borrow things from my local public library, I've discovered the joys of my Sony e-Reader - the thrill of taking 300+ books on holiday with me never leaves me!
• Cross stitch - I started when Erika was born and apart from a few periods when my mojo deserted me, I've never stopped! I've even designed samplers and pictures for work colleagues which I persuaded others to stitch along with me - one piece was worked on by over 30 people!
• Sewing - my parents were both employed in a Shirt Manufacturer's so maybe sewing machines are in my blood? A couple of years ago I bought a Bernina 630, complete with the embroidery module. Now I need more hours in the day to use it to its full advantage!
• Papercrafts - I make all of my own cards for family and friends, using PC and sometimes my CraftRobo. I've recently started to scrapbook - inspired perhaps by my family and our travels.
• Travel - although Mike and I had holidays while we were working, since we've retired we've become more adventurous! In the last two years we've been on four cruises (Auckland to Sydney; Singapore to Sydney; LA and around the Hawaiian Islands and the Western Med), Germany, Austria (my FAVOURITE country), Devon, and other places too.
• Photography - I now have 2 cameras! A Fuji HS10 which is fabulous and a pocket Panasonic TZ-7. So I'll have NO excuse for NOT taking photos of my finshed projects in future. I find I'm soooo bad about documenting what I've done! Many things I've done and given away before I realise that I didn't take a picture - maybe this blog will help me with that ambition too?

And now??
Well I'm about to start on this - my first blog. Although I've never religiously filled in a diary, I'm going to try and do this as regularly as I can. It will be a record of all the things I accomplish during the year (and maybe a few that fall by the wayside?). I'll also post photos of SOME of my activities!!

Thanks for reading!