Not all of the seaside towns are dead.

Yesterday was the official opening of HerneBay Festival.Undaunted by our recent experiences at Margate, Ramsgate and Whitstable I phoned up mum and dad and they agreed to come with me (Martin being at golf). Dad was a little reluctant - Whitstable really had been a sad affair - but agreed to come pick me up.

An aside while we wait for him to turn up LOL - Whitstable local papers had been full of complaints about how the Oyster Festival and Regatta had been handled. It appeared that it had been decided somewhere to double up the two events and the result was

• Overcrowding, there simply was no where to park, literally, making the whole town a nightmare. Many more popular pubs had no room at the inn, etc etc
• Tankerton (where the regatta is held) got left off all publicity and no one knew there were events going on up there. Everything was centered around the town
• Many traders said trade was down because visitors to the town would have come twice or those who normally come for the regatta didnt come as they didnt know about the move of date - true since my cousin who lives in Dartford was one of them, who phoned me up a week later to see if the regatta was on
  
• The carnival ended up getting left out of the mix altogether and with no planned events on carnival day many traders had no extra trade

Anyway back to HerneBay. We parked on the seafront, no problem with parking as Herne Bay has 4 big car parks and plenty of off street availablilty. We walked along the sea front. There was obviously going to be lots going on but we had arrived a little early as the planned events all started after the Parade of the Giants. In the town the Classic cars and bikes were parked available for all the guys to have a squint at, so we whiled away a pleasant 20 mins remembering the ones my dad had first driven when I was a kid.


The one we owned when I was small,



The one dad admired (because he is in to Mercs at the mo)



And the one I wish I had had (although I really wanted a Triumph spitfire or MGB GT)

The town was packed but there was nothing that looked like the official route so it took us a bit of time to choose the ideal spot to stand. In the end we watched from the very beginning. It wasnt a long parade, only 3 giants and a couple of bands - this is a recent event and I guess its to make up for the fact that we cant have street walkers at the carnivals any more (Health and Safety dont 'cha know). But it did look like all were having a great time and there was a good community atmosphere.

Herne Bay's giantess

The biggish bloke at the back is Whitstable's town giant.

Music to dance to

Sea creatures

This week

Since coming back from Dorset we have been very busy enjoying the rest of the time that Martin has had off on holiday. A bit of a run down on what we have been up to - just to show we can have just as much fun holidaying at home.

Friday - washing, shopping, gardening, ironing, ...

Saturday - popped out to buy me a new pair of trainers (£15 for a pair of Rebok Classics!!) and then went to see Kelly (who was not doing her kitchen as it was raining and they needed to get outside to cut wood) The neighbours had a domestic ending with the police being called.

Sunday - Martin played golf for most of the morning and saw his dad in the afternoon. We were going to have the kids over for a BBQ but ...it rained.

Monday - We live right on the coast so I wanted a day at the seaside doing all the seaside things, candy floss, fish and chips, ice-creams, sandcastles, paddling etc. I also wanted to give Mart a go at pitch and putt golf so we headed out to Margate. What a huge huge dissappointment. The pitch and putt had long been shut down (although it is a public park and the council still own it so we couldnt see why, since they need little upkeep), the dreamland site was a building site/car park, most if not nearly all of the shops on the seafront had been boarded up and then covered in grafitti, there was rubbish blowing down the street, and the place, which is usually heaving in August was all but deserted. We couldnt believe how a place could deteriate in such a short time. Dreamland going can not be the only cause as many of the seaside towns we had visited lately do not have that attraction, but it did seam as if the local council had just given up on the place.

Disgusted we continued around the coast line to Palm Bay were a new (to us) pitch and putt had sprung up. It prooved fairly popular too and although the wind was blowing in off the sea, the rain clouds meneced overhead and I was pretty useless, we had a brilliant time.

It wasn't the right place to get the fish and chips though, being practically all there was there was a few beach huts and a pitch and putt course so we got in the car and drove on to Broadstairs. We hadn't realised that last week was the Folk Week in Broadstairs, so this was one seaside town that was packed to the gills with hippy types and those enjoying the Morris men and folky music. We had some really tasty fish and chips on the prom looking out to sea, walked round the craft stalls on the cliff, ate an ice cream and then decided to complete the coast line by buying our doughnuts in Ramsgate.

Encouraged by Broadstairs we were devastated to discover Ramsgate was in much the same state as Margate. The huge arcade and fun fair on the front had been knocked down to make way for apartment and luxury hotel development but was nothing but a pile of rubble, the casino now replaced by two others in the nearby locality, was boarded up and looking very sad - a beautiful Victorian building going to rack and ruin.

Tuesday - we were going to go out for a picnic with Laura but she wasnt feeling too good. Not liking the look of the weather we decided to stay home. I scrapped all day and Martin watched cricket and football and the olympics.

Wednesday - Ollie had given us a new shower head for the shower but when I put it on we discovered the old shower did have a leak and we needed a new one after all. I was off to the flicks with mum and Laura to see Mamma mia although Laura was still ill so didnt come in the end) so left dad and Martin putting it in. They were still putting it in when we came home 3 hours later, only to discover it was faulty and they had to take it off, take it back and start all over again.

Thursday - Again Laura was feeling too ill to join us on a picnic so we decided to go pick up some leaflets from our threatened Tourist Information Center to see where we could go. (Please go sign the petition on the prime minister's web site to sav e our TI centre). Biddenden Vineyard looked good on the leaflet and was free. It wasnt that brilliant when we got there, as there was no tour, you had to walk round the vines on your own, no information notices, only the names of some of the grapes and when they were planted, and no promised look at the cider making or bottling. The woman in the shop, although helpful was not really interested in her customers, most of the stuff in the shop was bought in and not made on the premises, and as we turned to leave and eat our lunch the heavens opened.




No good for a picnic because even when the rain eventually stopped, the ground was way too wet. We drove for nearly an hour round the countryside looking for a place to stop. Not that many years back you could stop anywhere to take a picnic but not so nowadays. Anyway eventually the sun came out, and we stopped in Beneden by the church

and sat in the car eating our goodies and watching the learner car drivers practice their three point turns.

Today - another doing nothing day, as we bought Laura, still feeling ill, over to us just to get her out the house and to get some food in her, and sortedout most of the 'Save the date' cards for the wedding, ready to be posted.

Looks like little effort spent

.... but this weeks Pencil Lines sketch LO had taken the best part of a day. Mainly because I have made most of the elements from scratch.

Here is what I did;

Supplies

BG Lolipop
Valerie Brown digi kit - 'A good Life'
Chipboard sheets
Ellison qk alpha Curlie Girl
Bazille cardstock
MM Notelette (thankyou Mel)
Scraps of cs
glitter
shimmer paints
sheet of transparancy

One of the examples on Pencil lines this week was a LO by Janine which had used several photos instead of one large one. I wanted to do the same, but am usu ally hopeless at croping them to fit. This time I decided that while I was cleaning the photos up in photoshop I would use a layering technique to fit them all into the larger space. This took a while but did mean I could change the pattern and size of the photos until I was happy with the spacing, something you cant do when you are cutting with scissors. I flattened the image and printed it out as one photo.

I gutted the sheet of bazille so that I could double mat photo. Thats when the fun started.

I wanted to match the colours in the BG cs but didnt have anything to hand so I decided to use some of my digi elements as hybrid stash. The flower is from 'A good life'kit although I altered the colour and flood filled the middle with blue. I printed it out and glued on to chipboard to provide some texture. The 'remember this' tag was part of the kit but the summer fun I had to make myself in photoshop. The Butlin book plate was also a digi element printed out onto white cs, glued onto chipboard and then chalks were used to give a fawn appearance. This was glued on using foam pads.

The other chipboard elements I cut from a variety of dies on my zipemate, and either covered in paper, painted with cosmic shimmer or glittered. The title was cut from the curlie girl die cuts in chipboard and blue paper scraps, which were glued over the top of each other and stuck on.



The journalling is computer printed onto transparency.

The florishes on the flower are rub ons from the French twist kit from Scrummy Cafe.

Waiting for glue to dry

While waiting for the glue to dry on the letters for my latest layout, I thought I would write up what I did to make it again, as it prooved so popular last time.




This layout was done as part of the Summer Stash Bash being run on UKS throuhout August. This one uses a Becky Fleck Page map and is part of the Tuesday Technique challenge - to use stamps somewhere.

Supplies

Fancy pants Floral Chic My sweetie paper
Autumn Leaves florish stamps
MM alphabet stamps
glitter
Some chipboard or back of notepad
Green and white acyrlic paint
Cosmic shimmer powder (blue, green, red, yellow)
Transparency
Doodlepack digi kit by Iona Havenaar
Sheet of transparency
G;ossy accents glue

The sketch called for four photos but I didnt have four in a 'set' so as last time, I had to mess around in photoshop before I could get started. Having picked these photos they seem to match the paper so well I just couldnt resist. And the paper was way too prrruudy to cover up, so instead of using the sketch as it stood I changed things a bit. In order to use ALL the pretty pattern I used my snap off craft knife and a glass cutting mat to cut out the flowers and swirls in the pattern just enough to slip the photos underneath.

I gutted the back of the top photo in order to use the back of the double sided cs as the journalling block.

For the stamping part of the challenge I used the swirl stamp on the naked chipboard, using stazon black ink after painting the chipboard with acrylic paint using a sponge brush. I dabbed white paint into the green to match the green paper. When dry I carefully cut the swirls out and glued on to make the journal frame.

Still using black stazon I stamped the title with the MM foam alpha (gosh its a while since I used those) and then using the same technique as before, smeared glue over them and then glittered with pee wee glitter.

Finally, the bubbles are printed out from a rather old digi kit by Iona Havenaar, called Doodlepack. I resizes some of the round tags which looked a bit like bubbles, printed them out onto a transparency, then used red, yellow, blue and green cosmic shimmer powder to paint a rainbow effect. Once glued onto the LO I added a 'bubble' of rangers glossy accents to make them 3D.

Watch out, the Griswolds are out and about.

Yes I went and booked a few days away and as usual it turned into somewhat of another Griswold story. We weren't going anywhere having spent so much on our USA trip, but Laura put me onto Laterooms.com a site listing all the hotels/B&B's with cheap late availability, so since they were going to Cornwall, I settled for 3 nights in Bournemouth.

With my multimap directions all printed out, off we set. The journey down was not too bad, despite the rain we did really good time until we got right to the turn off for Bournemouth. The police had shut the road!! And we had no other directions! Martin did what any red blooded male in that situation would do - took the next turn off. And then for an hour we sat in a traffic jam, as everyone else did the same thing.

Thanks to my brilliant navigational skills we did find our B&B and although rather basic it was comfortable enough and had a wonderful panoramic view from the window. Of course our room was on the 2nd floor, and of course the lift was broken so we did have to climb 6 flights of stairs every time we went up to our room, but Martin was chuffed to get a front door key to the pub!!!

We had soon dumped our bags and went out to have a short look round - we were based about 6 miles from the centre of Bournemouth, and about 1.5 miles from Boscombe Pier. We had intending only a quick recky as it was rather damp and very windy but we seemed to keep walking, wanting to catch the land train that we never saw, and ended up walking all the way to the pier, up through the chine and back again!!!! We did treat ourselves to a MR Whippy ice cream for our troubles though.

One advantage of our long sit in traffic was that we had spotted all the best eating chains on the way so we opted for the Harvester, arriving just in time to catch the end of the half price early bird menu. The portions were so big, I had a large chicken quarter left to put towards the next days picnic.

Our first full day dawned just as predicted by the weather people - chucking it down with rain. But we had our wet weather gear, it wasn't cold, and we were determined. We set out for Lolworth Cove but soon decided it might be better to save that treat for the following promised dryer day, and choose something with indoor opportunities, we then opted for Dorchester which advertised a Tutankhamen exhibition. It may well have but everyone else had a similar idea and the queue for the converted church snaked around the courner. Hmm, and at £8 per person perhaps not. OK we had seen a beautiful flower and plant strewn river walk advertised and it wasn't raining.

We passed the town museum on the way down to the river, where we were enticed by the promise of a 'Toys of the past' presentation .... until we got to the door and were shocked to see the town council demanded £6.50 per person to get in there too. The Teddy Bear Museum and The Terracotta People Exhibition were equally as expensive, and the river walk when we eventually found it was nothing more than an alley between the foundry and small stream on one side, and some corrugated sheds on the other. So we left Dorchester and headed for Weymouth. Weymouth was not quite as I remembered it from when we had taken the girls soon after Laura was born, but it is still the typical British seaside resort, and I took heaps of photos of it before all those traditions disappear for good, including the deckchair hire - not doing any trade in the rain, the flag strewn B&B houses, and one of the trampolines as featured in a very early photo of Kelly 22 years earlier. Alas there were no donkeys though. When we last visited, Laura was but a few months old and I needed a new bra. I went into this M&S where the assistant embarrassed both herself and me by asking when the baby was to be born!!After walking along the seafront and back we got in the car and headed towards Brewers Quay which a leaflet drop had promised held lots of fun and discover. Trouble was, although we found it easily enough, there was no where to park. We finally found atop a large hill, a place to leave the car, have our picnic and walk along the coastal path back to the quay. We had to laugh, as we ate our grub, a lady walking a large dog came by. She was happy to walk past but the dog had other ideas. Having seen our sausage rolls, he was having none of it, refusing to walk on to the extend that he actually dug his claws in and lay down in the grass. He wouldn't even move when she threw his toy. It was only when another puppy appeared that he forgot us (and food) and continued on his way.

Brewery Quay was not as interesting as we had hoped, lots of craft and gift shops but many of them shut. The science exhibition and the time walk were packed but the town museum was free and very interesting.

It was getting late but we were determined to use our newly acquired English Heritage membership so once back in the car we rushed on to Portland for a wander around Portland Castle, which was quite interesting if not a bit bare of character. After that a quick dash to see Portland Bill lighthouse before dusk set in (early because of the rainy and changeable weather).

Day two and another hearty breakfast before setting off for Lulworth cove and castle. It wasn't until we pulled into Lulworth village that we both remembered there is only one car park where you HAVE to park and it cost £2.50 for 2 hours!

Unfortunately the tide was up so it was not possible to get onto the beach (especially since I had forgotten my trainers) and we couldn't do the hikes for the same reason (although looking at the size of the hills I dont think trainers would have helped much there). A few interesting things did catch our eye though.. something strange was happening on the firring range as ever so often the bay would fill with smoke......



the typical Dorset thatched houses and

this strange tree!!

I think we only used about half hour of our car park time, even walking round the rock shop, before heading to the Castle. I had been looking forward to this as they were having jousting shows all through August. Now I admit the horsemanship was very good

but we had both been privileged to watch an enactment group hold a full day of jousting at Chilham castle and this was nothing like an enactment group. It was very obvious that lances were plastic

and this was only acting - not very good acting at that. I was totally gutted as I had been looking forward to this part, I couldn't stand and watch much (the kids were all having fun though).

Our next stop was the children's farm where we got to pet some of the (very few) animals including this little sweetheart, an angora goat.

At the danger of sounding a right misery, I have to also say the castle was a huge let down too - we had paid a hefty entrance fee, so were amazed to find the castle itself had been gutted by a fire in 1929, restoration mearly ensuring it was safe for the public. No attempt at putting back what was lost, the flooring was modern laminate, the stairs metal, the roof the bare minimum. What a lost opportunity. The audio - free in English Heritage places, had to be paid for (I hadn't even noticed it at the entrance but Martin said it was there), and little in the way of posters, pictures or information. We had our picnic in the car park and after a short lay enjoying the little bit of sun, we left to explore the nearby countryside. We recognised that this area was close to where we had camped in Dorset with our friends Jan and Trev and family back in the mid 90's, spotting the pub we had waited for them to meet us on our way down, and the pub we had walked across fields and train tracks to get to. We headed onto the MOD firing range and suddenly found this view. We passed Corfe castle - it was so packed the cars were blocking the whole of the grass verge so I just took a passing photo, and then as we followed the coast line to Swanage and Wareham, we saw this sign! A toll ferry, we hadn't been on one in years.
We were on it a matter of minutes but we reckon it saved us about 20 miles journey and who alone knows how much time. It was also great fun, I got to watch all the big ferry boats crossing to the Chanel Isles right up close while we waited to board.



As if we hadnt packed enough into two days, I desperately wanted to go see the Festival of Candles being held in Bournemouth gardens every wednesday in August. When we got there it was way too early - no time had been mentioned, just that it started at dusk. On the bandstand though the Poole Brass Band were playing. The atmosphere was amazing. Despite the downpour the place was popular, people were happily sitting under umbrellas or trees listening and enjoying.

I didnt see one badly behaved child, they were all bopping away to the music. It really was fantastic. One pair of little girls, abandoned to their own divises sat on the edge of the stream paddling their toes and bouncing up and down to the William Tell overture. We were totally amazed when the band finished their set to see all the children's faces, they were so dissappointed that the music was over, they had all been having so much of a good time.

The Candle festival works this way. On stands ( a bit like those they use for fireworks that are going to give a message) all round the park are little jar tea light holders, arranged in the shapes of various symbols and icons, - a union jack, a butterfly ets. Tapers are free, and as soon as the park keepers have finished on the ladders lighting the top most candles,

it is a free-for-all as both children and adults get to light all the candles.

Again the atmospher was great and soon the whole park was lit up. Saddly the light wasnt good for taking pictures but I did my best.

What a fantastic end to our three nights away.

Popular

Wow, my 'class' was popular, my visitor count has gone up in leaps and bounds. Maybe I should do a few more?

I am just wadding through the pictures on my camera to remind me what I have been up to of late. Summer holidays, with no work to demark days, are always difficult to keep track of, even more so than when I was working full time. Then, the first week or so was spent in a daze as adrenaline washed away and I tried to catch up on all the HW jobs I had not been able to do during the term. Now I am only working two or three days a week that is not the case, as all those jobs are done so its more trying to find things to fill the days and enjoy life.

Last week was Whitstable Oyster Festival, much publisided on the telly. Mum and Dad offered to take me to Harbour Day and the Landing of the Oysters Parade. It was a total nightmare!!!!

Parking, which is never brilliant in Whitstable as you have to wiggle round lots of side roads or pay exorbitant charges for one of the four car parks, was nigh on impossible, especially as Dad reckoned he couldnt walk further than 400 yards. Eventually we found one though and walked to the Harbour. It was totally bumper to bumper packed and I dont do crowds well.

The Harbour Day consisted of lots of local 'producers' selling stuff at really really high prices. A small punnet of cherries were £2 (only £1.80 in Tescos), none of the hand made crafty stuff appealed (alot of it I wouldnt have given house room to) and the artist's paintings, many could have been done better by some of my reception children. No I wasnt impressed. I was less impressed by the rude ignorant people who thought it ok to walk straight through me, push me to one side or just generally knock me around without so much as a word.

These were the only redeeming feature, even though some people thought it was ok to get infront of my camera and stand there. I had alot of photos of some guy in a check shirt!!!!








The Oysters were traditionally landed at the Horsebride, so called because it was where the horse carts would back up to the water to be loaded with crustaicians. So when the town resurrected the festival, it was started from the Horsebridge with street musicians, entertainment and the first catch being bought in there. There would then be a bit of a ceremony and the first oysters eaten by some dignatory. Then the actual tasting sessions would radiate out from there as the oysters were transported around the town.

The whole thing has taken on a much more commercial air now. No way were the oysters bought in the first catch as already people on the harbour were stuffing their faces and buying bags full of the shell fish.


Anyway having dragged my dad away from the punch and judy show (which he loves)

we started out the Harbour gate. At which point another bump from a tourist and my camera fell off my shoulder hitting the ground very very hard. When I picked it up it still worked (once put back together) but the UV filter was completely smashed. This had not turned out a good outing.

Really fed up I turned towards the Horsebridge only to see my parents turn in the other direction. Apparently oysters no longer come in at the traditional point to start the Parade. Oh no. You cant make enough money down there because the space is too small. Now they come in on the beach by Whitstable Brewery. Years of tradition blown because of money!! So that was it, I stamped my feet, refused to walk down there, and we came home.

Want a giggle, well in the evening the festival week is opened with a firework show from off shore - well actually tradionally Whistable Regatta is finished with fireworks but the Oyster people stole the idea. I said I wouldnt go because I would go to the ones after the regatta as I always did. Well a lot of people did go, but some idjitt forgot to shut the hold keeping the fireworks safe from wave surges, the boat got caught in a large wave which washed over the side, filled the hold, sinking the boat and ruining the fireworks. It wasnt really funny as a lot of money was wasted and people were dissappointed. I only laughed because I felt it was payback when I discovered that the Oyster festival people hadnt just borrowed the firework idea, but that they had actually taken over the regatta and that as well as moving the landing of the oysters, had moved the date of the regatta (ALWAYS held the week before the carnival). With NO advertising!! So no one knew it WAS the regatta. So comeupance I thinks.

During the week I started my diet again and a keep fit regieme (started by dragging Martin out on Sunday which he turned into a long sea walk). I even got my bike out and cycled along the sea front one day. Mind by Wednesday the weather was far too hot and sticky to do that anymore and the rest of the week was spent mainly having showers to cool down and sitting about reading.

On Monday mum and Laura and I went to see Caspian. We had to do a matinee because it is now only showing in a few places around here, but we really enjoyed it. We are hoping for a girlie day out to Mama Mia when Laura comes back from her holiday.

Sunday I thought to have another go at the Oyster week events so again I dragged Martin reluctantly down into town. It didnt start well, with a bit of a row about parking, but eventually I did find a space even though it was right across town from the Harbour. And it was quite fun walking the roads we had walked as teenagers on our way to the pub ( a young courting couple lol).

We started on the West Beach near to what had used to be our local and the pub that Martin had played football for for years. There was supposed to be a display and workshop of willow seabirds. I'm not sure 6 counts as a display but they were very good.



It was just a shame there was no one there to talk to about them as promised in the program, and no sign of any workshops. There were three women messing about with willow in the shelter but they made no attempt to speak to passers by, in fact they were very secular, not even talking to each other and turning their backs to the public passing. So if that was the workshop it was very intimidating.

It did not really get better. The walk along the beach was not really pleasant as again there were way too many people being ignorant and walking into you with not so much as a word of apology. There was not really anything going on to do with the promised events, when we got to the Harbour it was still the same producers selling rather tired looking produce now, and again no specail events. We walked (well I was starting to stagger now, it was really hot and I was very thirsty) around to the Brewery on the beach for the promised beer festival. In the paper and on the web it had given the impression this was going on all day and into the evening, but a sign on the pub said it had finished an hour before we got there. No matter we still needed a drink so I found a not too crowded spot on the beach and Martin went in to get refreshments. He was soon back empty handed. Apparently you had to queue to buy tokens (a long queue) followed by an equally long queue to get the drinks. His trouble was he didnt know how many tokens he would need. He didnt want to get too many as they were £1 a token and we would be left with handfuls of them never using them again, or equally so he didnt want to queue for the beers only to find he didnt have enough and have to start the system all over again.

We left the beach, walked up the highstreet, went into a pub we had used before and knew to be good (which also was nothing to do with the festival, oysters or all that) and had a really pleasant drink.

It was a long walk back to the car. We were really not amused.

I was given a questionairre to fill in about the festival, I lost it before I did but I dont think it would have been big enough to cover all I would want to say! We didnt bother with the carnival this week.

We have booked 3 nights in Bournemouth as of tomorrow. May be their festival events will be better.

Loads more catch up and tieing up ends

Pheeeeewww!!

Its so hot I have really not felt like sitting on the computer blogging. So I have not been keeping my blog 'diary that up to date. Thank goodness for cameras! Mind - mine has been through the mill a little lately, but I will come to that later.

As well as all the every day stuff I still have two days of our USA trip - so long ago now - to record. Lets get that out the way first.

Thursday 4th June 2008
Still in San Francisco

This morning we chose the ihop for breakfast as we had seen the new pancakes advertised on the telly the night before. We hadn't realised that they actually came free with a main cooked, so with more bottomless coffee cups we came out fully stuffed again.

It was our last full day so time to mop up all the sights we hadn't seen. A bus took us to Pier 39, which on first sight seemed nothing more than a tourist trap, full of souvenir shops and restaurants.
Then, as we were looking out to sea at the island of Alcatraz we heard this strange noise. Following our ears around the corner we saw ......

This is what comes of not reading the tour book - well lets face it, the thing had led us wrong several times. These darling treasures are a landmark of the city and we were totally ignorant of the fact.


We stood for quite a while watching their antics, the males were very territorial and there was lots of fun as each pushed other males off each platoon to gain the upper footing in the colony.





Surprisingly San Fran is a very windy city and even though it was our final day, I didn't want to go home not having bought anything at all, so we walked back to Fisherman's Wharf where we bought a (pink) fleece for me complete with matching (pink) baseball cap. Martin got a hat too, and I am glad we did because we ended up out in the sun all day and would have been very burnt without them.

We finally got to walk round Boudin's and enjoyed a pleasant time looking round some of the small art galleries too - not really our scene but it was out of the wind and sun and very restful.

We realised that we could use the F line bus route on our Muni cards as well as the street and cable cars, and overhearing someone say that the shopping was good on the Haight, grabbed one to take the long trip out there. The trouble was you had to change buses and as we stood at the bus stop waiting for the final leg bus to arrive we both remembered something that had happened in the square a couple of days before.

We had been on our way back to the hotel and were changing cable cars. As we stood on the corner deciding which way to go a lovely black guy called Lamont had started to chat to us. At first we thought he was drunk or selling stuff but it turns out that he had come to SF from New Orleans after loosing his home and every thing else in Hurricane Katrina. He had come to live here as he had a lady friend living here, but that had not worked out (he told us) so he was making a living 'selling' information to tourists - I have to say there was no hard sell, he gave us all the info and only asked that if we thought the info worth anything it was up to us to decide. Anyway through out the talk, he had insisted that we didn't go further in 'that' direction as it was a bad place. Lamont was a lovely guy and he didn't steer us wrong. Guess where the bus change point was? Yes, and I tell you standing there was pretty scary. Consequently we grabbed the bus going back the other way, just enjoying the sights from the window.

We got off to take a look at this building though -
in sharp contrast to the refugees, unemployed and homeless only a couple of blocks away, San Francisco city hall is very imposing and opulent.

Back safe in Union Square we enjoyed a drink before going back to our hotel to finish up the last of any goodies we had bought (muffins, coke, crisps etc), and an afternoon nap in the hopes of being awake enough to see some nightlife.



It didnt work though. After a steak in Jack's bar we were still tired and ended up returning early still worn out from sun and touring.

Friday 5th June

Determined not to go home empty handed I asked Martin if we could go find some shops on our way out to the airport. Our plane did not leave until 5 so we had quite a while to do this, it was just a case of finding where the shops I wanted were. Our room contained a telephone book and although I had not found any listed I was undetered.

So another huge brekkie in ihop again (pancakes still free as a side) and then took a leisurly time to pack and book out. We set off finding our way out and then managed to find ourselves on the I-101 again, this time heading south. It wasnt a bit we had travelled on before, and finally we got to see some of the beautiful coast line. No shops, but some lovely little villages and sweeping beaches.





Of course I could see Martin had abandoned all idea of any shopping, and the further he explored the coast line the further from the airport (and any chance of a road going in that direction) became. After a few heated words, he turned inland and we eventually ended up at the airport waaaay too early. A lovely Texan lady showed us how to ignore all the one way signs and get to the checking in taking only half the time and distance. As we had found throughout our trip, our accent made Americans stop and talk to us.

Although it had seemed like we had arrived way too early for our plane it passed quickly and soon we were taking our final look out the plane window as we left USA behind.

Make do and mend - the process of a Layout

Back in the 'good old days' scrapping supplies were no where near as plentiful, varied or as easily attainable as they are nowadays. Looking at all the new CHA stuff being previewed on various sites and forums made me think back to when I first started scrapping. There were NO bricks and mortar shops selling craft goodies anywhere within a 100 mile radius of where I lived - come to think on it there still are very few. Internet shopping was very new and scary, international Internet shopping virtually non-existent or something someone else (who was rich and clever) did. About the only three ways to get stash were a) get someone you knew and trusted to post it from the USA, buy from QVC or Ideal World, or c)go to trade shows.

Even at shows, the choice was limited, you were lucky if there was much more than cardstock, a few sheets of pattern paper, and eyelets or snaps. Well that's what I came away with on my first visit anyways.

So in order to make a half decent page, you had to be very adept at making your own embellishments. Paper piecing was all the rage, loads of eyelets threaded with ribbon, that sort of thing. Even when all those things we love to use on our layouts now started to reach us from across the pond, I was still proud of the way I could usually make my own version - shrink plastic, hand cut titles, I even once made a very ornate key using nothing but cardstock, my computer and a ton of glitter. I layered cardstock to make my own chipboard letters. I scorned those that used pre-made items as 'cheating' and taking the easy way out.

I still don't have loads of the latest up to the minute, money and an overwhelming choice often stopping my hand on the buy now button. So I thought I would share the process of this LO that uses so little in the way of modern fancy bits and much of my very old stock.

Oh and my other problem is lack of photos - in the '80's before the advent of cheap digital cameras, processing film was expensive, cameras were for high days and holidays, one film often having to last for nearly 6 months!

So for this layout I only had two very poor quality photos to work with. Thank goodness for photoshop! It took me quite a few hours of cleaning up, enhancing and cropping, enlarging to get these three alternative looking pictures, but I wanted to do Sketch 87 on Pencil lines so I persevered.

Supplies
1 sheet of steel blue bazille
1 sheet light blue bazille
1 sheet of (old) Chatterbox scrapbook walls courtyard blossoms
half sheet of (old) Chatterbox scrapbook walls sky lilac
Black floss (very old reel from when I was at school!)
blue cotton (from a mixed pack bought in sainsbury)
Stickles - star dust
Peewee glitter, light blue (bought in 2000 at that first show!)
Set of chipboard letters (possibly HS but not sure as have had for over a year,) Staedtler triplus fineliner pen black (bought cheap in Sainsbury)
Foam pads bought in poundland
Black stayzon ink
White reeves acylic paint (in Tesco sale)

Tools
Corner punch large and small sewing needles
Herma
PVA glue
Autumn leaves stamp circle jounal/scroll
Chatterbox doodlegenie twitterpated

I double matted the large photo onto light blue cs and then onto the chatterbox courtyard, rounding all the corners as I went on both photo and layers. I matted the smaller photos once onto light blue cs. I positioned and stuck down.

I found a flower on google which I printed out and used in two sizes as a template for the flower (I am hopeless at free hand drawing) I matted both onto the light blue cs and then positioned and using foam squares, made into the 3D flower. At this point the flowers didnt stand out enough so I doodled some stitching around them with the black pen. It seemed logical to follow the stitching around the frames on the photos.







I knew I wanted a florish but wasnt sure how to go about it. I needed a thinking stage, so I left it on my desk and came back the following evening. I used the doodlegenie sheet as a guide and using my coluzzle pad underneath, and the larger needle, I punched out the holes to embrodier the swirls. I really wanted blue floss for the sewing but had to make do with black as that was all there was in my sewing box. When I had finished one swirl though, it was far too harsh against the blue so to tone it down I sewed the light blue cotton around each stitch. Happier I did the second swirl, but I was still not convinced it was right.

In an experimental mood, I used the stickle to run a thin layer of glitter along the threads.

Sewing took another evening up.

Stamping the journalling block took only a minute, finding a quote to go on it that I liked took up another whole evening, and then I hand journalled as by now I really didnt want the fuss of trying to print it and line up all the lines on the stamp.

I came away for another evening to think on how to do the title. I knew I wanted to use chipboard but I only had one pink set the correct size, everything else I had was too big for the proportions. In the end I carefully peeled the pink layer off and then used white paint to colour the letters. This still was too harsh so I used my finger to smear a thin layer of pva glue over each letter and sprinkled with peewee glitter.




I finished off the title with some Heidi Swapp rub ons and I am quite pleased with a LO made mostly from old stock and scraps.

Tieing up ends

Lots of bits that havent made it to my blog but should have. Photos of my weekend with my pad mates:-

The beatiful setting

Ginger giving out the secret santa gifts - I was gutted not to win the glass handbag.

We did scrap, honest. From front to back - SarahK, Louweasel, Jenrig, Valj, Fee, Annette and Angela Dougie, Suzanne, Fran, Izzy, Jafffne Then photos from Walmer Castle:-

Taken using timer after three attemps!