Another busy couple of weeks

This weeks pencil lines sketch, Junkitz Pastel paperz and lots of cricut shapes.

Sometimes after big events that take lots of planning such as weddings and holidays, things can fall a bit flat. I thought that with the kids on honeymoon, and Martin back at work I would feel a bit low, but to be honest I really haven't had time.

This week, has flown by, on Monday Wayne and Laura came over, fresh from their fortnight away, to regale us with their adventures. They had a great time but were rather jet lagged.

As Martin had worked on Sunday, he got to have two full days off in the week. Wednesday was predicted to be the 'hottest day of the year' so we decided to give housework a miss, forget about visiting castles, and mossy on down to the beach for the day. Broadstairs were having their annual water gala so that was where we headed out to.

Of course everyone else and his wife had had the same idea, so when we found ourselves in an unusual traffic jam, working our way into Thanet we knew a parking place in town was going to be out of the question.

No problem, we were locals and knew where to find out of the way off street parking.... except so had all the other locals too. We finally found ourselves way out of town on the top of the cliffs above Bleak house. Nearly all the way back to North Forelands.

Ok it was too far to walk all the way back to Broadstairs bay, but right next to where we had ended up parking was a sign saying Stoney Bay and a set of steps down to a lovely sandy beach, complete with life guards, beach huts and a cafe. Even though we have both lived in the local area for most of our lives, neither of us knew this beach was here. We had a lovely time swimming and chilling out. At the time we didn't realise how lucky we had been, forced to use this unknown beach. Not having had any bread for packing a picnic, we strolled along the prom into town (way easier now we didn't have to carry all our beach gear and cooler from our dip in the sea) for some lunch. As we turned the corner and saw this we realised our good fortune!!



We ate salad rolls fresh from the bakery, sitting on the cliff top prom overlooking the bay, walked round the fair, bought an ice-cream and strolled back to the car in time for Martin to shoot off to the golf club for his match.

I hadnt been in the craft room long before I got an invite via facebook from the lovely Jane Dean inviting me to join her and her neighbour on my local nearby bit of beach where they were having a BBQ. I was really pleased to join them as it really was as predicted, the hottest day of the year so far, and there was a cooling breeze on the seashore, as we sat and chatted and laughing into the evening, and took photos of the famous Turner sunset over Whitstable flats.





It was a good job Martin had had such a good Wednesday as Thursday opened with a telly with no sound. As could only be predicted it was 2 months out of warrenty so it was a morning spent going round trying to get hold of a reasonably priced replacement. Mind the picture is way better quality on the new one and whats more we can use one remote handset for both sky and tv control. Bonus since the last telly was not recognised by sky and needed 2 handsets just to turn the sound up and down.

We finished the week off at Kelly and Ollie's house by watching Tottenham Hotspur beat Westham United to top the league and home again to watch England beating Australia for the Ashes. A great week to stop us going flat after the wedding.

Another sketch

This week's Pickleberry Craft sketch.

sketch Layouts

The wonderful Debbie is running a sketch challenge on the pad. So far this month, as well as the 4 pages I put in Laura's mini book, I have done 3 from sketches across the net. A pretty good total for me!
It includes this LO at I did at the crop on Saturday. Kelly and I used the same sketch, the same papers from My Minds Eye Grow and Bloom, and the same photos to come up with our own totally different LO's.

Photography course

I have just signed up for this free 10 week photography course.

I have no idea if I will be able to stick with it, but since I am having so much difficulty getting to grips with my new TZ6 point and shoot, I thought it might get me using my poor old S5500 and get me a bit more enthused about taking photos again.

They need 1000 people signed up for it to be viable so if you fancy having a go please nip over to the site and take a look. I know lots of the folk on UKScrappers did the last 4 week course and found it really really good.

Its for free so what have you got to loose?

Cropping

I had a wonderful two days and a rather spoilt day this weekend

On Friday Kelly and Ollie had said they would stay on the train home from London and come join us at the Harvester for dinner. So we collected them from the station and had a very pleasant time, munching from the all-you-can-eat salad bar since our table was right next to it, and chatting and laughing with them.

On Saturday I started the day by meeting up with Kelly again to go to the crop at Pickleberry Crafts. The place for doing our crafting is fabulous, everything is all new and sparkly, there is a very well stocked shop on site and we get to borrow a huge amount of tools and stamps from the workroom. The three ladies who run the crops and classes are really lovey, talented and knowledgeable, so we cant quite understand why we were the only two there. I guess most people must be on holiday or out shopping, but I hope that the place does take off a bit more for Kate's sake. We had a fantastic morning since it was just the two of us and Jan the lady in charge, and got to spread out and use all the goodies without having to share, but it would be nice to see a few more people joining in.

Once home again it was a quick tidy up as my cousin was coming down from Dartford for a visit. I don't get to see him very often so this was a bit of a treat, and we had a very pleasant afternoon sitting in the garden in glorious sunshine, putting the world to rights, and reminiscing. Then once they had departed, as it was still such summery weather, I took myself off to the beach and had a swim.

With Martin at work on Sunday I did get to do another LO so with 2 under my belt in one weekend I am feeling a little smug with myself!

LO's to follow once I have photographed them.

Scrapping

With the wedding well and truly over I can finally get back to doing some scrapping. I have been making a mini book of photos of Laura's hen night. The Pad have been running a sketch challenge and I used sketches from Page Maps, altering their half-maps to fit the 7x4 mini-book size. Its an old freebie book off a mag (I've had it so long I cant remember which) but I used SU! Tea Garden papers to recover it and make the LO's

Sorry the photos are pretty naff!.

Wedding Day

Sorry this entry has taken so long, seems I used up all my photo storage and as I am pretty sure its the wedding photos everyone wants to see, I needed to get that sorted out!!

I have been collecting photos taken by some of the guests as obviously until Wayne and Laura come back from honeymoon I dont have any of the official photos to share. I, of course was far too busy to take many of my own photos.

We had been listening to various weather reports all week, the predictions wavering between torrential downpours, through howling gales to sunny and hot. So we were overjoyed to wake up to a morning that wasnt too bad, and no rain in sight.

Laura had stayed over the night before and was leaving from our house but she and Hayley nipped off for hair and make-up appointments really early, at 8.30. Martin was despatched to Sainsbury for some coisants to go with our bucks fizz and not long after Katherine turned up to play hairdressers and makeup with me.

Back with the coisants we once more despatched Martin off with a long list of jobs to do at the reception and settled in for a lovely peaceful morning getting ready.

Everything went to plan, although I had to sew Katherine into her dress and despite all our efforts she was still very uncomfortable in the ill fitting dress. The girls returned from their make-overs, the bucks fizz was sipped, make up was finished, nails were done, jewellry was adorned.

The photographer turned up, followed by the car and chauffer.

Then things turned nasty!

We started to get Laura into her dress, and then I realised I probably didnt have as much time as I should since it was 11.20 am and the car was supposed to leave with the bridesmaids and myself at 11.30. I pulled my dress over my head and asked Laura to zip it up.............

and .....

the zip stuck half way.

Paniced I got her to pull it up harder ... I couldnt take the dress off again, the zip was too high up, but there was no way I could wear it with the zip half undone. We tugged harder .... and the zip came apart altogether!!!

Well at least now I could take the thing off, but what was I to do now? Laura and the girls were still getting themselves ready,


then Laura had to go for a photo call in the garden. There was no time for repairs or even to sew the bloody thing on me.

Very close to tears, but knowing I couldnt spoil my makeup as well, I stood bemused. Well I did have the gold skirt I had originally bought for the wedding, but the top didnt quite match, and it was too big anyway. The hat, shoes and bag really didnt match. But I really had no alternative. I ripped off all the labels, found the lacey bolero that was really for the evening and rushed down for my photo to be done.




Then just as I wanted to give my baby her last hug and motherly words of wisdom, Martin shut me in the porch and left me stood there while they took the photos of Laura pretending to get in the car!!! I was devastated. Men really have no idea do they.


Finally frNo time to even glance in the mirror, we were whisked away in the car and dropped at the church. I had to get Kelly to give me the once over to check I had no labels left on.

This was not how I had wanted to arrive at the church.

Everyone was already sat down and I had to do a solo walk up the aisle (embarrassingly falling off my shoe on the way).

The wedding ceremony - well infact the whole day, flew past in a whirlwind. Laura looked amazing, the service was so special, and despite feeling really conspicuous in my dredged together outfit, I really enjoyed the day.

All Laura's ideas that she had worked so long and hard on came together perfectly and as far as I am aware everyone had a brilliant day.

After the photos (which we got through really quickly as Laura had worked out a list with the photographer, which the ushers all had a copy of,


and which we stuck to, (getting each person ready and in the shot at speed),



we headed off to Howfield Manor in Canterbury for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

I can not praise or recommend Howfield and its staff enough. They had told us from the start that 'nothing' was impossible and had gone along with every single idea we had come up with. We had hired the whole hotel and grounds, giving us lots of freedom.

We started round the back in the new extention, with canopees and a wonderful 'red' drink which turned everyone's tongue a lovely shade. A very talented harpist played modern songs to us as we all chatted and got to know each other's new family members and friends. Well at least those in flat shoes did, those of us in high stillettos had to stand still in fear of our heels catching on the wide gaps in the decking planks.

I am told the canapees were really tasty but I was far too excited to taste them.

The red welcoming drink did have an unusual ice-breaking effect!




Despite having been up all night driving down for the event, Chas, Laura's childhood friend did a fantastic job of being toast master, and in his red jacket, got all the wedding party lined up for the formal walk through into the marquee.




All the work of the previous day had paid off, and with the florists additions, the tables looked stunning. And the fish were a fantastic talking point!



Everyone settled down happily ready for the meal.

Tough luck though because in a bit of a buck towards the usual tradition, Laura and Wayne had decided to do the speeches first in order to allow everyone to relax after and enjoy the meal. There was a sweepstake on each table but I am not too sure anyone worked out how it worked.

Anyway all three guys made funny and amusing speeches, with some serious messages being put across at the same time. Well done guys. The meal could not be faulted and the final course, the apple pie was to die for!!


So coffee, some more chatting, the cutting of the cake, and Laura went off to change into her evening (more dance friendly) second wedding dress. I also took the opportunity to slip out of my outfit because there were quite a few bones that had decided to leave their placement in the seams and stick into me. I only had my summer skirt and a tee-shirt but it was soooo much more comfy and Laura said it was ok. I just wish I had waited until after the first dance, as Wayne's dad is so much taller than me. In my flats conversation was impossible.

The evening was fab. The band, Gin and Tonic were outstanding, playing a selection of 80's music that got everyone up on the dance floor. Note Laura's second 'wedding dress' for the evenings fun.

Although the heavens opened later in the evening, people still made it down to the BBQ tent for the evening grub or continued down a little further into the grounds for some fun on the bucking bronco machine!!!




A fantastic brilliant day, congratulations to Laura and Wayne!!

Preparations

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were hectic but still calm, the payoff for being so organised.

We took Zoe with us to pick up the wedding dress, and to buy a few last minute bits on Wednesday, Martin started work on the Father of the Bride speech and Laura went to play hair dress ups at the hairdressers with her veil. We even found time to take Zoe to the beach at Long Rock for another paddle in the mud (tide still out).

Wayne and Laura wanted us to do lunch around our house on the sunday after the wedding, so Thursday was the day for all the food shopping, followed by the house cleaning to be done, while Martin worked on his speech some more. Laura even found time to chill out with a few friends!

Friday was a really busy day though. Kathy, one of the bridesmaids with the worst fitting dress, had arranged to take the thing back to the dressmaker, but wanted Laura's moral support. Laura wanted my moral support so 9 o'clock found us winding our way through the countryside once more to get this dress refitted. A bit of a wasted hour followed because it was obvious when I saw the dress on that there was little that could be done short of a complete remake, there was hardly any match between Kathy's body shape and size to the dress at all. Still we were given a few pin guides and I was told to sew her in on the day!

Next we loaded up the car with all the bits and bobs that had been stored in my room for months and took them over to the wedding reception venue.

Thats when the hard work started. The marquee had been closed up, and by now the sun was up in earnest. It must have been 50 degrees, and in the heat we had to lay up all the tables with favours, matchbooks, theme labels, bubbles and a host of other exciting goodies.




We had to check the seating, make the layout guides, and then put 86 covers and tie-backs on the chairs! Wayne and Martin joined us in time to put the seat covers on, but it seemed despite my bestest teaching methods, no one but me (and a bit towards the end, one really helpful waitress) had any idea of how to tie the bows on the tie-backs. 50 odd bows in that heat, just about keeled me over. Blowing up a 7 ft champagne bottle balloon just about did the same to Wayne!


We finished just in time to get to the church for the wedding rehersal by the skin of our teeth!! The vicar (a lady) was a really lovely funny lady and had us all at our ease. Kath was doing a reading, (Corinthians) but really wasnt pleased to be upstaged by 8 year old Robbie who followed her with his rendition of I married my best friend today'.

Finally though everything was ready.... well apart from the 1..or maybe 2 ... or actually a whole list of things Laura started to remember needed doing, including a rush change of name label as we had called Uncle Stan's wife Jean instead of Doreen .... not a huge mistake until you realise that was his first wife's name!! Looked like Martin was taking a trip out to shops and venue early in the morning, but right then, it was a steak supper, some chocolate and fizzy for the girlies while the men had a bit of a gathering in the pub - one last quiet sherbert for the groom, then an early bath and bed ready for the big day!!!