Gardens

Woohoo, blogging 2 days in a row, will I manage to keep it up though?

On Sunday Martin had to work straight after his golf so I persuaded Mum and Dad that they did want to go to St Nicolas at Wade where the residents were opening their gardens in order to raise money for their church. The weather was a bit miserable so Dad wasnt all that keen but Mum was eager to get out of the house as a falling out with the next door neighbour was causing a bit of tension.

There were 18 open gardens in the village, we managed to miss both parking areas despite following the signs to the letter so pulled up in front of garden 16. There was a one off payment of £3 to visit all of the gardens and we thought it was a real bargin since the first one we walked round was so beautiful.
The guy who owned the place was really friendly, and after we had tramped all over his plot, admired his bridge and 'moat' (really a long narrow pond, fully stocked and with a proper plank bridge across the middle) told us the best way to see the rest of the gardens was to walk the short circular route around the nearer ones and then move the car to the other end of the village to see the rest.

Despite being grey and overcast it wasnt cold so we left our coats in the car and walked to the next garden. This one was much smaller but the lady was obviously a plantsperson and knowledgably chatted to us, giving me the names of the plants I had recently admired in Yalding garden (Allium Christophii).

The next garden was close and although it didnt have much in the way of planting, had some impressive trees used imaginatively to create breaks in the lawn area. We spent a great deal of time in the stunning garden of the lady in the ex council house. It had been a labour of love for three years but had an unbelievable amount of flowers in it, and most of them in bloom too.

So a great start and although it had by now started to spit with rain, we were having a great time, so started off for the last two gardens on this part of the circit. Of course they were way further than it appeared they were on the map, so after quite a slog to get to them we were rather dissappointed that the next garden had little more than gravel with a small flower border around it, and most of the garden given over to a shed where an elderly lady was to all intent and purpose holding a garage sale.

The next garden totally made up for it though. These last two gardens were those of semi-detached chalet houses, and the contrast between what was extensively identical plots was amazing. Where one had been virtually barren, the second was stuffed full of both flowers and vegs, a riot of cottage gardenness. It was also a bit like a maze in the way the garden had been broken up into a series of little gardens by large plants and hedges. But the biggest surprise came at the end of the garden where an old gun armoury had been converted into an underground eating area.





We still had to find our way back to the car. From the map it looked like we were just half way round so we had the choice of going back the way we had come or continuing round. We decided to continue round, and set off. No sooner had we done so then the rain started to come down a bit more in ernest, it also turned out to be a tad further than we thought, in fact for two old age pensioners and their totally unfit daughter it was quite a trek.

By the time we finally got back to the car we were rather damp, very cold as the wind had got up, and in need of a comfort break.
The church advertised facilities so we moved the car up the village, and went into the church. Once we were warm and more comfortable we treated ourselves to a cuppa before planning our route to see some more gardens.

It would seem that we had seen the best of the bunch though, as some of the next 4 gardens were either not gardens at all (one was a front room emptied of furniture but hung with a few local artists paintings mostly of a Picasso nature, and art by the local Y2 school children), or were little more than a large bit of parkland type garden set to grass,
a few hedges and an unfenced swimming pool.



It was now raining very hard,

we were cold, and wet despite getting our coats out the car for the second half of our tour, so we decided mum would sit in the car while dad and I took in one last garden, and then we would call it a day.

The final garden we visited was huge and wrapped round an extremly large and expensive looking house - the front drive was bigger than my house and garden put together. There wasnt actually much to see in the garden as a portion was set aside with tables for cream teas (we were accosted three times asking us if we wanted one) and the rest of the huge area contained a full sized tennis court, a swimming pool (fenced this time) 3 trampolines, a climbing frame and a table tennis table. Dad and I had a bit of a game in the pouring rain, but neither of us was much good, so we called it a day and went home to the warm and dry.

It was a shame about the weather but we still had a laugh, enjoyed most of the gardens and had a really good day. Thank you residents of St Nicks!

Out of the habit

I seem to have got out of the habit of blogging, but I want to put that right, so here is a very long catch up post!


Lets work backwards!

Yesterday was one of those perfect days. Despite a wind, it was hot and sunny. Kelly, and Ollie recently returned from an unsuccessful 4 days in Ireland with her in-laws and a more successful 2 days camping in the New Forest with Helen, Alan and kids, had persuaded us to go up and give them a hand putting their new shed up. Since it was one ofi Martin's rare Saturdays off we weren't that keen but Kelly is good at getting her dad to agree to stuff and so we were all ready to set off to help. We were more than happy when she phoned to say they had overlayed, hadnt had time to do the prep work, and now there wasnt enough time to do the job before the start of the England footie game (which they all wanted to watch and which had been the carrot to get her dad helping!).

So instead we used the morning to do a few other little jobs before going up to Croydon for the football and a BBQ.

In the event we ended up going to visit my mum and dad to collect the 30 year old high chair and cot out of their attic. It used to be mine for my two girlies, and since I dont recall giving it to them I can only believe their complicated tale of how it got to be in their attic. Never the less, I intended to clean it up to use for the new addition who is now only 6 weeks away from joining the family properly. Laura went for her 34 week scan on Friday, everything is progressing ok and baby is all the right measurements and right places. Everyone is getting excited as we all start gathering equipment and baby stuff together.

In fact as we arrived back home, it was to find Laura and Wayne's car on our driveway, they had come to collect the crib and other bits that had been being stored in our spare room. She wasnt impressed much with my cot and insists she is going to look on ebay for a cheap cot to put in our 'nursery' but I still reckon with a lick of paint, new hardware, mattress and bedding, it will be stunning. I am off to do the 'drinks can' test on the strutts later today to see.

It was gloriously hot and sunny in Kelly and Ol's back garden, the lads tackled a couple of jobs involving drilling and Kelly and I had a go at the flower bed. The neighbour had just had a new fence put up, and most of the flowers had been trampled by the contractors, the rest totally unsuitable for the narrow flowerbed and smallish garden so we pulled most of it out ready to start from scratch. I wasnt much help since the day before I had managed to stitch through my own finger trying to 'sew-in-the-ditch' of my quilt though.

Martin managed to break the prongs off the fork, digging rubble out of the flower bed!

We then watched the footie and finished with a scrummy BBQ meal (huge steaks, home made kebabs, prawns and sausages followed with home grown strawberries and icecream) and I arrived home full, and happy having seen all the members of my family in one day.

We have done well for meals too this week, on a whim I asked Martin when he got home from work on Friday if he fancied going out for tea with Laura and Wayne (who have also both had the week off). I had meant a quick eat in somewhere like the Harvester, but in the end (after a few false tries) we ended up in the Red Lion at Herne and had a huge two course scrummy home cooked meal, great company and rolled home just after 10!!!

Martin had been off on Thursday, and I was eager to try out my 2 for 1 garden entry ticket I had got from Gardener's World mag. I wrote down 3 gardens I thought were worth the trip, but then gave the book to Martin and let him choose. Amazingly he came up with two of the three I had written down, so we set out to Yalding.

Most of the drive is motorway but the other side of Maidstone you are in the heart of the Kentish countryside with some pretty amazing houses (a few of which were up for sale and I would have happily bought with a couple of large lottery wins!)


Yalding is divided up into lots of little garden plots to dipict gardens through the ages from the Medieval Apocathery to modern day organic, and was a lovely place to visit.

The gardening is mostly done by volunteers and there is also a small cafe doing amazing and cheap food. We werent hungry enough to eat but we had a huge pot of tea for the small price of £1.80, drinking while watching other people tuck into huge scones or home made pasties.

Me, sporting my new hair cut, and trying to train Martin to take a half decent photo - this is the fourth attempt to get me in the shot!

It was still only mid day so we decided to give the second garden a go, the 2for1 ticket having saved us a small fortune. Merle Place Gardens are tucked even further back in the countryside, but we were safe in the hands of Mrs SatNav. That is until we found Merle Place Road blocked by road works and according to the workman, the gardens were just the other side with a very long wait. Much to Mrs SatNav's disgust we turned around and despite her insistance in trying to steer us back to the blocked road we managed to find another way in.

Merle Gardens are the gardens of a private residence - well a huge manor type house really, and has

woodlands,

ponds

formal beds, as well as parkland, tennis courts and a swimming pool. The people from the house work the visitors but the children, home for school hols were having a terrific time in the pool - much to the envy of all the hot visitors. We had a delightful time wandering around and only left when tired leggies and hunger forced us to look for a country pub to enjoy a pint and a packet of crisps.

We hadnt had any lunch but there was meat waiting in our fridge to be cooked so I was happy to settle for a packet of crisps to tide me over. We pulled up at a likely looking pub, then as we got out something prompted me to say to Martin 'I bet they dont have any crisps'. He fooied the idea, saying all pubs have crisps. He ordered our drinks then requested the crisps - 'We doont do bar snacks' said the barmaid. Too late to leave as we had our pints, we sat in the garden sorrowfully. Martin did nip down the road into the village to look for a shop but he only found an estate agent so mornfully we finished our drinks and set off home. Still it didnt mare our day and we enjoyed our day out.

The beginning of the week off had seen me spring cleaning the house, washing curtains and such, plus getting the garden a bit straighter. Everything is growing at an amazing rate due to the unseasonal good weather. I think we are now into our 11th week with no significant rain, and I am having to do lots of watering to keep everything alive. On Wednesday Ann came over for the day, we had a lovely time catching up on each other's news, only spoilt by the times I had to run up the garden and chase off the seagull that kept landing in my pond and attacking my fish.

I have lost over half the livestock most of it the gold fish from Laura's wedding. The weekend before last I borrowed dad's pump and while he supervised (mainly shouted at) me, I emptied the pond, cleaned it all up and put everything back straight. I was pleased to find I had 6 newtons and 2 frogs, so glad the frogs are finally coming back after the red leg virus attacked the colony 2 years ago. I had thought it to be the Heron eating the fish as Laura and Wayne, walking over here from their place because they had locked themselves out, had spotted one down by the Brook, but it now appears it is a seagull and I dont really know how to defend against it short of a BB gun!

So thats how my half term has gone, more stuff tomorrow (I promise)

Playing along with Scrapfactor UKS

The layout I posted in my last post was chosen by ScrapDolly as the winner for week 6 of Play along with Scrapfactor!!!! Wow! Thank you Karen, and thank you to Suzanne (Fruitsuet) for giving me some of the inspiration for tying the photo frames together.

Here are a few more of my entries that didnt win. All are in the digi catagory to try and promote digi scrapping.

Challenge: To use just one photo

Challenge; To use a paper advert as inspiration

This weeks challenge was a sketch with lots of circles which I hated!

Play along with Scrapfactor

My UKS Play along with Scrapfactor entry for week 6. HoneyBeeDesigns kits.

Updates

I thought taking the lappie away with me might mean this got done on time, but instead the updates have been sitting in the editing posts box waiting for me to download the camera, oh well!!!

The last day of our few days away, and after another stuffed to the brim breakie we sat in the car listening to the travel reports. The M1 section in to London had been shut for 4 days due to a fire under one of the arches, and with 2 big footie matches and the London Marathon it didnt look like the journey back was going to be easy.

Kelly and Ol had invited us for dinner but it wasnt until 6 so to avoid both the traffic and arriving way too early we decided to go to Woborn. We were dithering over the Abbey or the Park right up until we got to the gate of the Park, but we knew in our hearts the animals were always going to win.

We had been to the Safari Park way back in the 70's and I have to say it hasnt really changed that much. There were far fewer animals to be sure, and way more cars but it was still fun. The first section drives you through the Savana type plain where there are rhino, zebra, deer and ostritch wandering around.

I wasnt sure how they managed to keep all the animals in their own sections but they all seemed to follow the stripy orange and black jeeps carrying the rangers about so I guess they were kinda trained to it.

I did get a tad cross with the idjitt two cars up who, despite all the signs, was feeding the ostritch through the window, causing it to attack the windows of all the following cars expecting more food.

And I got really annoyed with the bloke in the car in the bear enclosure who parked and stopped everyone from moving forward, and had a lovely view of the bear himself but by the time he finally moved on, the bear had moved off leaving me with little more than his backside to take photos of.



The monkeys were good and only one baby monkey took off with a car ariel and that was the bloke's own fault as we were all clearly told to take off our ariels before entering the park, so I had no sympathy for him.


You can drive round the park as many times as you want but it had taken so long that all we really wanted was a drink and a comfort break. The part of the park where you can get out and walk round, seeing some of the smaller petting animals is now looking very tired and old, despite only being opened for 3 days this season. I felt so sorry for the poor penguins who's enclosure had obviously seen better days.

The animals are well cared for, but I suspect economics have hit the park hard.

When we got back to the car, the family of Muslims in the three cars parked in front of us were having a huge domestic. It was so funny to see all the men folk cowering behind the cars as the women tore stripes out of each other. Eventually one of the other ladies told them all to get in their cars and shut up, and then she looked across at me and mouthed an apology!!

In the end traffic was light and we had a good run down to the kids where we spent a couple of hours chatting and then a lovely meal before heading off for home.

Here is my entry for week 1 of play along with UKS scrapfactor. I didnt get picked as a winner but I did get some lovely comments, not least one on Smackblog (and it wasnt a smack!!!!)

Peg bag

I finally finished my peg bag. It was inspired by one I saw in a shop for £14!

Its the first time I have tried machine applique and it was lots of fun. I hand drew the little clothes and chalked all the rest straight onto the fabric to machine sew. I dont have an embrodery machine but the button hole stitch turned out to be just about right!

The pattern was free of the net and the material was from a bundle of fat quarters half price in the hobbycraft sale. Aside from the applique bits I only used 1 fat quater for the bag and half of another to make the bias binding. The lining was an old bit of sofa cushion material.

Knebworth without the music

We were both looking forward to the English Food Festival at Knebworth house, and although we turned up before the crowds, and were unindated with foodie samples, we were too stuffed full of breakie to try all the mouthwatering freebies, so we headed to the gardens to look round first.



The gardens were beautiful even though they weren't in full bloom yet.

I loved all the characters carved from old tree trunks.


The dinosaur garden was interesting too. However, my wrecked kneee, and now a sore foot (a large lump had decided to develop just below the ankle) put us off walking round the house so, slightly peckish by now we hobbled back to the food tents.

Suddenly, as if from no-where, hoards of people toting young children in buggies and dogs on leads seemed to appear. The tents were jammed packed, and the food samples dissapeared very quickly. I was run over twice by people pushing buggies (on my hurtie foot both times) and then when we sat on the grass for a coffee (the seats were all full from the coach loads of people that had now arrived) a woman in a wheelchair run straight over the same foot!!!!

So fed up with it all, we went back to the hotel. Martin took himself over to the driving range and I read my book until tea time when we took another outing, this time to the local Toby to have our roastie dinner before falling into bed.

I entered the uks Scrap factor contest before we left home, not because I wanted to win or anything, I hoped and prayed I wouldnt actually get into the full rounds, but Scrapdolly sounded so desperate to get enough people to enter, I decided to booster up the numbers. Here are some of my audition entries.

This was the hardest, a LO without a photo. In the end I found an old LO that I liked and redoing it from scratch because I never remember to save as a photoshop file, I replaced the photo with a quote.

I dont do LO's about me usually, and this is the only 'bump' picture I ever had taken. It was all pre-Demi More so 'bumps' were more for hidding than being proud of.

Just to prove I can do journaling when I try

Oxford or Cambridge

Another not so great start to the day when Martin, attempting to shower in the shower-above-the-bath (I have to say our hotel is lovely but the bathrooms really let it down) slipped over and hurt his arm and leg. Still my inventory was not to be tampered with, and after a very hearty full english, we set off for ... Morrisons!!

Yes despite there being a perfectly good 24 hour Tesco garage a stone's throw from the hotel, Martin had insisted I find out via the net where the nearest Morrison petrol station was so we could tank!!

After that it was on to Cambridge. We decided to use the Park and Ride, but were astonished at the price. Unlike Canterbury where they charge per car and up to 4 passengers, here they charged per person and whats more they charged more if you paid on the bus rather than use the ticket machine, and to add insult to injury the machine didnt give out change.

Unlike our visit to Oxford, where we had a long list of places we wanted to go see, Cambridge didnt seem to have any focal points so we grabbed a free map from off a stand in the shopping centre and just wandered around,....... and then wandered some more .... and then wondered just what there was to see.


Oxford teams with little shops, huge interesting architecture, narrow alleys, and best of all, a bustling atmosphere. Cambridge just felt tired, was all bitty with no main shopping centre or high street, was a mix of mainly newish (60's and 70's) type buildings with the odd older type historic building thrown in.

Of course there are the punts down the river Cam and we spent a few entertaining moments watching a guy who was totally pants at punting attempting to take his wife up the river. This wasn't easy as she was at the front of the boat with one oar rowing in totally the opposite direction to him!

According to the guide map there are more than enough museums, so we tried the first one we found open. It wasnt very intereactive, in fact all we could see on shelf after shelf were stones and bones!



So we had a coffee in the park and listened to a busker playing some pretty cool blues numbers, and then decided to head back to the hotel. Of course only we could get sidetracked by a spot of shopping. As we searched for the Park and Ride bus stop we passed a shop selling suit cases. Ours gave up the ghost last year and we had used my scrapping tote for this holiday but that was only meant as a 1 off, so thats how we ended up dragging two large empty cases round most of Cambridge before finally finding the bus back to our car!

Back at the hotel we decided we would try out the free leisure facilities but it seemed that you had to have booked a spot early in the morning if you wanted to go swimming between 4 oclock and 7, so we lazed in our room for the rest of the afternoon before heading off across the road for a swim. Then we has a drink in the bar before off to bed as an early start was needed for our day at Knebworth in the morning.

Day at the races

We are off on our hols again, all be it a short break. A couple of nights in a Spa hotel in Bedford, chosen because it wasnt too far to go on only a 4 day break and because having enjoyed the delights of Oxford a few years back we felt it only fair to do a tour of Cambridge to keep things even.

It wasnt an auspicious start this morning when, the weather turning to another cold snap, I checked to see if my coat was in the car. It was then I realised that whilst on a training course on Eco and natural activities for the Foundation Stage, in a little wooden hut in the wilds of the woods around Ashford, I must have left my coat there.

We were driving up to Newmarket, only about 30 miles from our hotel, to enjoy the first big meet of the flat racing season. With no coat, I had to wear my more scruffier looking sweat jacket, (we forgot how everyone usually boots and suits for the races) and even so I was frozen by the thrid race. We stuck it out to the 6th race ending 20p up on the afternoon, before calling it a day and heading off to Bedford, catching the rush hour on the way.

Tomorrow we are off to explore the city (and hopefully find me a very thick coat).

Allly Pally and the BSBSS

Yesterday Kelly and I took ourselves off for a mother and daughter day at the Big Scrapbooking and Stamping Show at Alexandra Palace. I got to travel up on the high speed train which was fast and comfortable (and I wish they would update the rest of the rolling stock to this standard) as well as reasonably priced. I did have to park in a rather dodgy looking place in Faversham (but more on that later), as the road to the all new, all singing (and looking little different from the old) steps and subwalk to the station has now become 2 hour parking zone. A ploy I am sure to make you pay the extortionate prices in the station car park.

Anyway one starbuck latte on St Panc's station later, I had met with Kelly and we were on our way. Unlike all the other times we have been (and there have been many) it was a beautiful warm sunny day, we had our picnick and our money. We were looking forward to spending a little cash on some goodies and seeing lots of demos, so we could come home raring to go on our summer photos.

We were pleased to see they were stopping trollies from entering the hall, everyone had to leave them in the cloakroom. It was amazing the difference this made to walking round and getting in/out of the stands. Why they hadnt thought of this before I dont know, but for once there was little pushing and shoving, and most people moved aside quickly if you asked politely to be let through.

We overheard Barbara Grey of Clarity Stamps say she was demonstrating in the downstairs hall in half an hour. Now last time out both Kelly and I had bought one of the new speedball brayers, but had both had rubbish results with them, but we were both determined to get it right so were desperate for tips from the talented brayer lady herself. We rushed downstairs, and having sat through half a very boring template presentation by the create and craft lady (I'm sure she was fantastic but it wasnt our cup of tea and we hadnt really a clue what she was doing) we managed to grab two front row seats!

Barbara was brilliant. I highly recommend going to one of her demos if you can. I would love to do one of her workshops. As well as being ubber talented, she is a joy to listen to, and she gave us loads of ideas and tips, not just on how to use the brayer. And on returning home, I find I have more or less got the brayering sussed!!

I have to say that the rest of the show was somewhat of a dissapointment. There was stand after stand of Tim Holtz stuff. Although I bought 3 distress ink pads, and Kelly bought a distress stain, I really am fed up with the grunge look and after something a bit more uplifting and brighter. Not only that it seems that yesterday I was having senior moment after senior moment as I managed to grab a distress colour that I already had. An extremelly hard thing to do since I only own 6 colours!! Still it wasnt just me as Kelly picked out a shimmer stray colour we also owned (despite us only having 6 colours of those between us). My lovely friend Kate of Pickleberry Papercrafts has kindly offered to swap it for me though so not such a great disaster afterall.

Just after three we called it a day and left to come home. Again it was the high speed train (only marred by a group of young lads who, although well behaved, were rather noisy in their chatter, spoiling my concentration on my ebook. I was a tad worried about my car, but as I walked towards the corner of the road I had parked it in, I could see it was still there and looked sound enough on that side. It was only when I was close enough to draw round to the other side of it that I got a bit of a shock, as a large chicken, yes I did write chicken, was stood by the driver's door looking up at me. What's more she had two mates standing behind looking over her shoulder and making menacing chicken noises!!!!

It turned out that the three of them were escapees from the house across the road, and the owners had just that moment discovered them to be awol. All three were quickly rounded up and it was safe for me to drive home and play with my meagre haul. I bought:-

6 for £5 mister spray bottles
2 cosmic shimmer's (kelly bought 2 as well and we swapped our colours, filling the mister spray bottles
3 distress ink pads for £11 (bargin)
1 12x12 plastic storage box, these were 3 for £6 but Kez had the other two. We bought them to carry home the
£3 worth of Fancy Pants paper (double sided) at 20p a sheet
Lavinia stamps - 3 dancing fairies and the two sizes of hanging ivy.
10 reels of shiny thread for £10 which we are going to split

New/further attempts at using the brayer.

Wot I has been doing.

This really boils down to not a lot.

I have been working 4 days a week for the Children's centre and with a 56 mile round trip a day this is kinda wiping me out so my day off is usually a half hearted attempt at some show of housework, and the rest of the day chilling between the telly and the computer with a little bit of pottering in the garden (a half hearted attempt at weeding) or some sewing. I have half a quilt made, the start of some applique for a peg bag, and a sewing machine cover that still needs a hem on it.

I have made 3 digital Layouts which I cant share as they are entries for the UKS Scrapfactor competition. I have no intentions of winnning, I only entered because Scrap Dolly seemed desperate to get some digi scrappers joining in, and its so long since I uploaded anything to UKS I have probably stuck them in the wrong gallery anyways. We shall see.

Today I have to go have two fillings, go to the opticians to get my 10 day old glasses straightened and if time nip in the hairdressers and get them to chop some off my hair. Mmm my hair. lLast weekend I had a go at dying in for myself, Laura usually does this for me but being in week 26 of growing her bump doesnt want to be near the chemicals. I got a couple of the new mouse type ones as Tesco had them on offer for a £5 each. One was close to my own colour (Light Brown on the label) and the other was called Hot Brown and on the labels showed beautiful rich golden brown shades. What I got was orange!! A dark but spicy orange with purple type highlights when the light shines wrong on it. Its very different and I am still not sure I go much on it, but so many people at work and at home have said it looks good, so I am sticking with it for a while and may get used to it.

I do just want to congratulate my Kelly though as she got her official results and has obtained a first in her accountancy degree. She is rightly very proud of herself and I am very proud of her!

Long time no blog post

Things that have been happening in my life lately

1. Had my eyes tested, paid out over £580, and now have snazzy new glasses but more importantly can now see!
2. Manned up and went to the dentist, need two fillings, will have nice nashers but be too poor to eat as 'no hole' dentures come in at £280
3. Some unnamed git face scrapped the back of my car stripping the paint work down the metal. Car only 3 months old :(
4. Kelly came down and we had a lovely day crafting - I completed a double layout for one of the 2peas stamping challenges
5. RIP my mum's step brother Dave who passed away last week
6. Martin has had the week off to decorate. The front room now has new plaster, a new window ledge, a new light switch and is all freshly painted a soft Almond White colour. Just a few more bits and bobs to do to finish it off (photos will follow)
7. Quilt is slowly progressing but I need more fabric to ake the border.
8. The kids and Martin all went up to see Spurs v Milan. Martin, Wayne and Craig took nearly 4 hours to get there because a quarter mile stretch of road had been shut and they had to detour round the whole of London, but they arrived in time and enjoyed the match
9. We emptied, cleaned and refilled the hot tub
10. Seedlings in the greenhouse all died due to another cold snap.
11. We had all the radiators sorted, nice plumber man put new temp controlled valves on them all, replaced the shot rad in the lounge, sorted out the leak in the boiler and then flushed them all through (first time in 25 years!). We now have wonderfully warm rooms.
    

I think that about covers it.

Project 12

I did this last year but only got as far as Febrary. Lets hope I get a bit further this year. I loved the first sketch though. Please excuse photo, how do you manage to photograph a double LO and get it straight??

DCWV Nana's Kitchen stack, Core denations Cream and Sugar, Free digi calendar off net, rest from stash.

Quick template

Just a quick digi using a free template for the challenge over on 2peas.

I have used bits from digi kits all over my hard drive so please dont ask me to credit, but thank you to all the designers who helped me put this together.

Poor Kelly/stupid cars

Yesterday Kelly and I were booked into an all-day crop at Pickleberry Crafts. Both Kate and Jane were away to Stitches and to hold hands with Sir Tim while those of us left at home got to play in the shop and workshop. Both Kelly and I were really looking forward to it, mainly because it has been so long since we have seen each other but also because Kelly and Ol have been decorating again and all her scrap stuff has been packed away again.

At 9.45, just as I was about to leave for Faversham, she texted me to say she was stuck on the M25 with a flat tyre. They were not members of the AA but Ollie was trying to get them to turn out. Dissappointed I continued to the crop expecting her to still turn up, all be it a bit late.

Poor Kelly, it was chucking it down with rain and due to Health and Safety stupidity she had to sit on the bank in freezing wet weather, waiting not for a repair guy but for the flat truck to remove her car from the motorway. Apparently it is now illegal to change a tyre on the hard shoulder. (New one on all of us!). Then she had to wait for the second AA man to turn up with the tyre changing equipment because H&S now state they can not use the equipment supplied with the car (even though it is likely to be the stuff specific to that car) because they havent had training. Strike minus 1 for common sense. Infact since the most likely cause of breakdowns on the motorway are going to be blow-outs, strike minus 2 for common sense since the flat back truck driver doesnt carry basic equipment.

Eventually at 12.20 pm Kelly phoned me to say she now had to go and buy a new tyre as the spare was not safe for speeds over 50mph or for great distances, so she would not bother coming to the crop as aside from being soaked and frozen, she was also very grumpy and fed up, and broke to boot since they had had to pay full AA membership (no using Sainsbury Staff discounts for damsels in distress) and a new tyre for the stupid foriegn car with alloy wheels.

On the bright side, I did manage to get 2 and a half layouts finished. In the end there was only one other lovely girl and the lady keeping shop for Kate at the crop so although we did chat, there werent too many distractions - well apart from all the eye candy in the shop that we had to go look at and feel every once in a while.

Creative Scrappers sketch no.142 pp October Afternoon, Websters pages decorative stripe, lace and trim from Pickleberry Papercrafts, Prima flowers, Liquid Pearls Lemon Yellow, thickers, studio g stamps, journaling spot free from Karen Grunberg

I would also like to enter this Layout for Desert Island Crafts Srap challenge #2 as I used only 1 pattern paper (it was double sided so I cut the border in the middle from the same paper, the colour red, and sparkle in the liquid pearls.



Creative Scrappers sketch no 143
More October Afternoon, Jenny Bolin Butterfly, Lace from Pickleberry Papercrafts, Cosmic Shimmer mist

Again I would also like to enter this for Desert Island Crafts Srap challenge #2 My three things being; Movie or Book Inspired, Button, sparkle (both on the butterfly and the shimmer mist).

Just after Kelly phoned Louise who was holding the fort went out for a quick fag, the phone went and the answer phone picked up so we could all hear the lady on the other end. She left us in fits of giggles as she told us she was from Sittingbourne, all her family had gone away to Scotland, she had to go out to buy dogfood and she just wanted to know if the shop was open. If it was shut could someone ring her and say so. If not she was coming over for a visit!

The lady in question arrived at ten to two, with her poor husband in tow, talked the hind legs off a donkey, told her other half in no uncertain terms to go sit in the car and read his paper, and finally (after the poor guy had dragged her out the shop twice) left at twenty to four!!!

Martin was on a late shift so when I got home I got to complete two of the layouts I had started and play with my new Woodware fingerguard trimmer. Then I watched another of my Lovefilm dvd's - our aim is to get through as many films as we can during the free trial period, and then was pleasantly surprised by late guests when Laura and Wayne turned up at just after 9.

A mixed start to my week off for half term.

Fading away.....

Far from keeping up my blog this year it looks like it is slowly fading away .......

OK well lets get that put right with a really long and boring post!!

Firstly things I am not doing - I have given up with The Joy Of Love photos since none of my loved ones are ever about or willing to co-operate, but mainly because some of the suggestions simply were not things I wanted to take photos of (sorry KW).

Things I have done - I have read the class notes for the new free Big Picture class, Embrass perfection. Its all about how not to get hung up and slowed down in your scrap booking due to the need for perfection. Since this is not something I have ever worried about, knowing full well that no matter how hard I might try, nothing I ever stick down is ever going to end up straight, I am actually quite enjoying the fact that hopefully by the end of it, I will be the norm and not the acception! I love Karen's style and hopefully next week we will get some actual LO workshops too.

I have bought a new ATG gun (mine fell off the table and the hinges on the casing snapped) and spray painted it!! Not pink, like everyone else. I nearly did but then as I stood in B&Q about to pick up my purchase I suddenly thought why not choose the colour I want and not what is expected. Hence the lovely turquise!! There are a couple of places where the masking wasnt as good as it should have been and some of the glue from the masking tape still needs cleaning off properly but I am very pleased with the results. I may still add some personalised bling though.




I am now sharing my craft room with lots of up and coming veggie plants as the seeds I planted last week indoors to make a head start on the growing season germinated in a mater of mear days! I chose to ignore the bit that said keep them in the dark though and some of them are a bit leggy but I have shut the curtains now and hope they will be ok.




I have had a couple of trips to Hobbycraft to mop up what might be left in the sale. Yesterday I bought a decal for my lappie. Thanks to ebay Lappie is also happy with the new docking station and is no longer running as hot as it was when flat on the craft table. I am still waiting for a set of stickers to tart up the keys as the letters are all but gone now.



Things I have still to finish - I have now crocheted two sleeves and the bottom cable of my jacket. WOW a really big achievement for me. I am half way through making a Tilda Angel for the bathroom. I had to stop to go buy some felt to make the dressing gown but that is now cut out and half embroidered, watch this space. Things I am going to do - I have bought some more felt (well it was all on offer) to hopefully cover my new American Crafts albums. No idea how I am going to do it yet, so still in the planning stage. And finally things that are happening - Laura and Wayne have bought another plot to start their third self-build. So another round of painting and furniture moving to look forward to again.

On into February

There hasnt really been much to blog about - one of the reasons I hate January and February so much. Although I am quite happy at home hibernating and can find plenty to do to fill the time, it really isnt exciting and these two months do tend to drag on. And there is very little of interest to put on a blog entry.

We have been to the Pantomime though, as we did last year we went to the little Playhouse theatre in Whitstable to see the usual crew, or so we thought. Wayne was so impressed last year that he even dragged his parents along. Sadly lots of the old (and I mean old) favourite actors had retired this year and the scrip writters had taken the opportunity with the new blood to attempt a more polished, more musical approach which, while the girls and boys delivered it wonderfully with some great singing and acting, just didnt really hit the right spots with the small local audience. In jokes about our town gave way to more topical political jokes, the Dame was given a Gok makeover into more modern '80's style clothes, the villians couldnt make up their minds if they were meant to be comical or not, and most of the songs came straight out of the more recent pop charts meaning that they were over the head of the majority of people in the auditorium since the demographic average age was probably in the 45-65 bracket.

Other than that and joining Lovefilm and renting a film a night (trying to see as many as we can on our free trial month) life has been jogging along with work and housework. I have a few projects on the go, but none are finished so I have nothing to share.I have started to crochet (with my new set of crochet hooks) a cardigan for the summer, so far I have finished two sleeves that may have to be redone as they seem a bit short to me, and the start of the body of the garment. I am attempting to sort all my finished Layouts into chronological order and have ordered my first D ring album to help with the task. I have bought a latch hook kit in the Hobbycraft sale and have done a few rows, I have at least 2 sewing projects on the go,l and am still searching for some fabric to make a quilt for our room.

As well as all that I have joined the Joy of Love challenge which is a photo challenge to take a photo a day of someone you love.


The day 1 task was DOING. I toook loads last night of the cat asleep on the bedroom floor last night but the light was dismall (oh the wonder of energy saving lightbulbs) and an orange cat on a beige carpet doesnt really work in a colourful world. So this is him doing his second fav thing, looking out the window and was taken today. Trouble is now I have upset all the settings on my camera and the light is a bit blown out.



Today's topic was HOW THEY LOOK. Actually this is a bit wrong as it is Martin watching the telly but when he does this usually he is asleep and snoring!! This has had a few tweaks in photoshop as I still need to get the camera settings set correctly.