Monday, May 31, 2010

Scrapping challenges





May bank holiday, Martin at work, girls doing who know what (well I hope Kelly is revising for her exams) so a hunt round the challenge sites (thanks for the links Suzanne) and I came up with this.

It hits the mark for quite a few challenges.

Scrapping the music has a challenge enspired by a beautiful song from Sting called Fragile.

The ribbons in both the 'treasure' and the middle of the turquise flower meet the May challenge for Atdml
The scumpy Webster's pages kinda match those on the Colour combo blog




And the sketch is one from
Twisted sketches

Monday, May 24, 2010

Long post

I have been a bit lapse at updating poor bloggie, so this is likely to be a long post. And possibly a boring post at that.

This past weekend the sun finally came out in force and was a scorcher. Of course Martin had to work and then was off round the 18 holes of the golf course sunday morning.

Meanwhile I was supposedly catching up with housework after spending 4 days house/dog sitting for Mum and Dad. Whilst there I had intended doing a whole heap of crafting, but it didnt pan out like that.

Day 1 (monday) I discovered that despite all the stuff I had taken down there to crop with, I really couldnt manage without my baby bug. Eventually I gave up, came back home to feed the cat, and grabbed the cricut at the same time.

Day 2 After a rotten nights sleep (sorry mum but your bed is really uncomfortable compared to my own) I decided I deserved a day off crafting. Thats when I discovered I had left the usb lead for the cricut at home. Thats when I discovered my dad's printer is so old (over 2 years) it doesnt have any drivers available on line and I spent an hour looking for his original printer disc. Then when I finally got my laptop to recognise his HP, the stupid thing chewed up my bit of photopaper and after, refused to feed any more through, or worst still, cancel the unwanted print job.

Day 3 Food poisoning/a bug meant I didnt have to worry too much about the uncomfortable bed as I spent most of the night in the bathroom being sick. When morning eventually came I discovered there to be no healing drugs or suitable painkillers in my parent's medicine cabinette so had to stagger home where I collapsed into my own bed for the day. I did remember when I returned to some semblance of normality and went back to look after the dog's evening meal, to take the cricut usb lead with me but still felt too rough to craft

Day 4 I felt a little better and thought I would spend part of the day out in the sunshine at the shops. I needed a new baggie for my holiday and for the first time ever actually managed to find and buy something in TKMax (I am sure I am not the only person who keeps going in there hoping for a bargin and coming out empty handed). Martin was playing a pro-am golf match in North Kingsdown which for some odd reason 3G recognised as an address in France so I couldnt contact him to let him know I had been ill, so to cheer myself up I went for a bit of a spend in Hobycraft (only managed to get some paper flowers) and Dunelem (where the DCWD stacks were reduced) I did finally come back and do a bit of crafting but couldnt finish the LO with no printer.

Day 5 I got paid to spend the day with a great bunch of kids, mostly playing on the field in the sunshine.


Come the weekend - back home and ready for a rest but the housework and washing had piled up. The greenhouse plants were in need of lots of attention too, but I had run out of compost. Off to B&Q to stock up, but by the time I got there the whole world and his wife had bought up every bag of compost and every growbag so much time was taken up driving round trying to find some left somewhere.

However that did focus me on getting round to ordering my new greenhouse. With a slightly bigger, and structually sound one I could plant more in the ground inside it, rather than having to put everything into pots outside. I was really annoyed to find that the one Argos was selling (and I never got round to ordering) on offer, had gone back up to full price, but in the end there is a reason for everything because after more extensive net searching I discovered Homebase had an even bigger greenhouse with glass rather than polycarbonate for the same price as the Argos one!! Result! So ordered and awaiting delivery.
We spent a pleasant evening at Laura's as Wayne, encouraged by the hot weather, had also been to B&Q to purchase a BBQ and wanted to try it out.


Thursday, May 06, 2010

Cricut cutting....or not.


I love my cricut, I really do, and try to use it as much as I can. But this week it has been driving me nutty. I only want to make a bit of lace edging but will it play ball? I have downloaded the updated cutting guide, I have altered all the settings, I have given it a lovely new clean sticky mat to play with, but no! Nothing but confetti and torn bits of paper.

So I have left it to sulk, gone up and put my cross on my ballot paper for today's general election (no not telling, it is a secret ballot after all) and now I am sitting here giving the silly thing paddington bear stares whilst it has its final chance on a nice bit of Basic Grey to cut my lace border, and updating my blog at the same time. So blame the machine for lack of crafted eyecandy. Instead its the final photos of Cyprus.

Cyprus.
Most of Friday we spent around the pool, soaking up more rays and just generally chillin'.
We had decided we had had enough of the restaurants on the strip so we dressed up that evening and drove into Paphos to see what the choices were there.

Those on the harbour didnt tempt us much so we walked the other way into town.

We had a little play in the seaside shops! We loved these trees, many of the street cafes had them in a variety of different colours. Both Wayne and I wanted a couple for our own front gardens, just to really annoy the neighbours. We had practically run out of places to eat bar the Macdonalds or the Pizza hut, when we spotted what looked from the outside like a large internet coffee shop. We looked at the prices on the menu in astonishment, they were half the price of everywhere else. We thought we would give it a go, but were expecting really naff food or really small portions. We were more than pleasantly surprised, isnt it always the way, you find the best places to go right at the end of your holidays. We were actually quite stuffed by the end of the first course but how could you resist these deserts? I was trying to take a photo of the desert when the waiter came and asked for my camera, without thinking I automatically gave it to him, only to look really shocked when he walked off with it. He was only teasing and came back to take this photo of all us together.


As you can see it was a fairly trendy place with lots of low sofa's and small tables. In fact the staff were really taken aback when we asked for another table as they had tried to sit all four of us around just one of those little tables. I have no idea how they expected us to all fit, and get our drinks and food on. Guess what? We were back in time to watch yet another game of footie in our favourite bar. Laura wasnt too impressed about this so treated me to another cocktail. No idea which one it was but it was quite nice.


Oue final day before catching the plane home, and the weather closed in. Overcast, windy, cold and spots of rain, drove us inside the villa for most of the day, to pack, clear up and watch tv. I think we were all glad when the evening came to get out and find somewhere to have our final meal.

We ended up in a smaller sports bar, watching.... oh yeah another game of football, and having a bit of a burger theme. This bar had a pool table so we had a couple of games before we run out of small change,


and everyone tried a new cocktail.

Wayne especially enjoyed his lager cocktail which Laura and I invented,


and we developed a new game, join the giant straws together

and then see if you can get your joined fingers all the way around the loop without touching the straw.



May be it was a good job this was our final day, although coming home did involve getting up at half 5 to drive back to the airport.