Playing catch up

I am still feeling pretty rough and still hacking and coughing over everthing but I have managed two more of Tim's tags (although not of best quality as I cant seem to concentrate for that long). I am still pondering a work-around day 4 tag but I do have a bit of an idea which I want to work on. However here are tags 5 and 6. Tag 5 was done more or less as perscribed, except I used a different stamp and ordinary embossing powder. I did try using gold acrylic paint but even though I dried it, once I started to distress, it all got washed off, so I ended up embossing the swirls as well.




Tag 6 was a little harder. I found an .svg file on the net for both the car and the tree (yes I did cut them a little too small but didnt feel up to starting again. I then embossed both the car (black) and the tree (Golden Ocean), then to replace the fluffy soft stuff, I used Personal Impressions Puff White embossing powder. The background is an old sheet of Daisy D which I rubbed over with Tea Dye distress ink, because I really do feel guilty about damaging books, and just cant bring myself to use the pages in scrapping. The sentiment again I have printed out onto transparancy and glued on using the xyron machine.

Chest infection

I have started tag 4 and have plans for day 5 tag but right now my chest is too tight and coughing over embossing powder is not really helpful to making beautiful creations so tags are on hold for the mo.

Old hat!

As much as I love love love what Tim Holtz does with his wonderful Ranger's products as we all know there really isnt anything new under the sun, and so it goes with his Day three tag. I had seen this plaid technique many years ago at a demo stand at Ally Pally, The lady there was using a Kaleidacolor pad and a rubber brayer to achieve much the same result.

But hey! For once I did actually own some Alcohol Inks giving me the opportunity to try out both ways. As I said yesterday, I dont have a blending tool, but I got round that by taping a bit of ordinary felt onto an acrylic blog, which worked well enough.

My first attempts, where I used all of the 8 colours of alcohol ink turned out a bit of a disaaarster (Said in best Craig Revel Hallwood voice)

so I tried with my Kaleidacolor Calyspos pad and breyer. I was much happier with this but felt it was too dark for printing straight onto and will use it later to try some cut out silhoettes
I finally got closer to what I wanted by using only three Alcoholic inks - butterscotch, bottle and terracota. I used a Black Impress dual marker to draw in the black lines, the trees (I didnt have the stamp) and the spatters.




I have to say, I dont like this tag anywhere near as much as the first two, although it is a fun technique to have under your belt, which is probably why it hasnt turned out so brilliantly. I think if I did it again I would use a stamp and black embossing powder to get the picture onto the background and I am not at all happy with the drawn black lines, but I am pleased I still managed to find a 'get-around' for one more of Tim's tags without spending a huge fortune on new products.

In other news.
The supply agency is still providing very little work - yesterday I agreed (as a PR exercise) to work as a Nursery nurse over on the island. It seemed the agency had messed up the booking and couldnt get anyone to cover the day. As it turned out I wasnt really needed. I was helping in a KCC run creche while mum's were on a cookery course. I dont know if it was the cold weather or the proximity to christmas but as it was they ended up with only 5 children in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, and well overstaffed! I was also dead bored as it is really little more than a baby sitting exercise. As I said though I hope it was good PR.

Tags without Tim

Well really its tags without Tim's products. I have now had a go at Tim Holtz's day two tag and again managed something on very limited Ranger products.

Tim's second tag involved firstly stamping a frame image from his stamp collection but of course I didnt have a frame - infact the only frame I own is a really old one by Anna Griffin that is in a set I bought from QVC on a whim and then never used they never would stick to the acrylic blocks. It turned out there was a fault in the rubber of that batch but by the time that was discovered, I couldnt find my QVC reciept so they never did get returned.

Tim embossed his frame stamp with distressed embossing powder - I of course had to settle for ordinary gold embossing powder.

Surprise, the background that Tim colour washed with blended distress inks? I actually owned 2 of the 3 colours he used, and only had to sub the green with SU! garden green, and I blended the whole lot using a baby wipe as, you guessed it, I dont have a blending applicator and felts. (Are you all feeling sorry for me yet?)

I ended up printing the Seasons Greetings sentiment (Rosewood font) as I didnt have any rubber stamp fonts I liked. The swirls are the edge of SU!'s Baroque Motifs swirl, stamped with more Garden Green ink.

The splatters posed a bit of a problem until I remembered I had some Tesco Craft Metalic silver which I mixed with some white acrylic paint, and I am fairly pleased with the results. I will admit that despite Sir Tim's warnings to cover anything not to be splattered I still ended up with a snow flecked key board!!

Finally I finished with the only bit of metal I could find and then remember those snowflakes I used as masks yesterday? Now covered in black embossing powder they gave just the right finishing touch.

Sir Tim's Tags

Let me apolgise for the poor photos in advance.

Yesterday Sir Tim started his annual '12 tags for Christmas' classes and as usual the two we have had so far are lush. The trouble is in order to duplicate them he suggests a very long list of his Ranger products, none of which I own. So I thought I would have a go using what I had to hand.

I do own 5 distress ink pads but none the colour I wanted. However long before distress inks it was possible to produce the inky background effects that Tim is so brilliant at using watercolour paints so having used my baby Cricut (and the George cart) to cut out a suitable tag I nabbed my blue watercolours and set to work.



Ok not so good as it could have been but I was fairly pleased with the results.I used exactly the same technique as described on Tim's blog just mixed in paint instead of ink.





Once I had dried off the paint I used studio G snowflake stamps and Stazon ink, while the swirls are Heidi Grace, stamped on using SU! Ballet Blue. I used Ranger Crackle Glaze as a sub for new rang of but it did a similar job, and I love the cracking sound it made as I gently heated it to dry.

I couldnt find a snowman ,svg online that I liked, and none of my existing snowmen stamps were of a suitable size but this reindeer svg from Wanda's blog which, with its swirly antlers I thought would fit the bill. In order to get the background effect I cut out a few snowflakes and used them as masks, so that I could ink the reindeer all over with versimark and emboss with black powder.



For the rest of the tag I used similar techniques but substituted a few more products - white paint was Reeves (cheap from Tesco), which I rubbed over both the die cut and the tag, I made the icicles with pva glue and Glamour dust. At least the ribbon was a-la-Tim!




No where near as good as the talented man but at least it inspired me and I am really pleased with it.

Christmas - is it coming or on hold?

Mainly because my family cant get their acts together and make a decision over what they are planning on doing Christmas day, and partly because my mum has been so ill (she had to be rushed back into hospital again last week. They tested all her blood for clots and now she is back home but has to have a pile more tests yet before they can tell what is wrong) Christmas is taking a slow time to arrive with us this year.

I have been making some cards - but since inspiration is lacking I have been doing quite a few scraplifts.

I have already missed out on the Christmas Fair held at The County Show Grounds since I usually go with mum and dad, and this weekend I had hoped to use our key tickets for a free entry into the Christmas Market and Fair being held at Leeds Castle, but Martin had scheduled himself in for a Sunday work day. There is little left to go to now as come December most of the fairs are over and I have yet to persuade anyone to come to the Dickens Festival (so brilliant last year) with me yet. I do intend getting the decorations up next weekend even though the two days Martin has off this week are the two that I am booked to work! Oh well.

Some good news. The people who own the house that Ollie and Kelly have put an offer on have finally found a place to move to themselves. It is empty so completing the chain meaning all systems go for their move. Kelly also finally got the pay rise promised to her two years ago for her exam passes so well done babe and that will make the move less painful financially.

Yes I know I said

I wouldnt neglect my poor little blog again, but life just gets in the way doesn't it. This time it was my poor mum who having had a small minor op, came home for a few days only to be rushed back in again with a suspected heart attack.

Thankfully tests showed it was not an attack but she still has to go back for further tests to find out exactly what did happen. Whatever it was involved her being kept in until 3 the following day, and then a further 4 hour wait for her perscription to be filled by the hospital pharmacy, 100m away!!! Still she is home now and slowly getting better.

The kids all came over on Saturday to let off some fireworks in the garden and stuff themselves full of traditional bonfire night grub. I put my new camera onto 'firework' mode but it still took rather naff photos We had a great time and the kids (plus Auzzie visitors) didnt go home until gone midnight.

I have also done a fair bit of teaching at the lovely village school that I really love teaching in, and have a few more days booked there this week too.

I spent all my birthday money on a new hard drive - it is taking forever to persuade many of my discs to run long enough to copy the data over onto it but it is going to be great to have all my digi kits, photos and music in one place instead of hunting through heaps of cd backups so will be well worth it in the end.

And I have been busy making Christmas cards, using a mix of my old stamps, my new SU! stamps my cuttlebug embossing folders and my cricut.



Baubles cut on cricut using SCAL and a downloaded free SVG file off the net. Fronds cut using a punch

Snowflakes cut on crucut using a snowflake dingbat, covered in snowy glitter and then layered onto card.

Finished card, ,I think thats an old Hero Arts stamp.

Poor little blog, its been a bit neglected of late. And since loads of folk are now following and DOING Shimmelle's blog prompt class, all the blogs but mine are full of fun and exciting blog posts whilst mine languishes in loneliness.

Soory blog, I promise to visit you more often with news, and visions of wonderful craftiness.

So what has bloggie missed...

We finally managed to book tickets to the ballet. I have always wanted to go to see The Nutcracker as I love the music, but have never plucked up the courage to persuade Martin to come along with me. This year though, as part of the Canterbury Festival, a special production was being shown locally. I tentively asked if we could go, and surprisingly he said OK. Mind he had to check he was on the right shift and by the time I remembered to ask if he had done that, all the tickets had sold out. I was really dissappointed. So I spent a quiet (and sulky) afternoon searching the big wide web until I found that there were a few other local theatres also showing it this year. The only problem is that the nearest venue (Herne Bay Kings Hall) is not a proper theatre but was the nearest and most sensible option (with the best dates). The King's Hall is one of those old fashioned seaside town halls, you know, like the ones you used to find on the end of beach piers, where there is a small stage but no fixed seats. The seating arrangements will depend on the number of tickets sold. If it is a full house then the chairs will be arranged theatre style (although not banked obviously) if not they will be around the edge of the hall and will come with their own table. It should therefore be quite an interesting night.

Mum went in and had a small biopsy. She seems to have come through the general anaesthetic ok and the quack reckons all is ok.

And yesterday it was MY BIRTHDAY!!!

I had to work but it was at the really nice tiny village school where all the staff are so friendly so I made up a batch of fairy cakes which went down a treat with everyone, and had a fun day with the children playing with autogiros (paper spinners).

When I got home Martin, who had been up since three as he had to go in to work early for a petrol forecourt cleaning, was really tired. Kelly was coming to visit later for tea, and we had already had some debate about what to feed her. I asked him why we had been trying to decide between chops and sausages when, since it was my birthday we should be having the traditional steak and chips supper? In that case he replied, lets just cross the road and have it in the Hungry Horse. Before I knew it we were sitting at a pub table with not only Kelly but Laura and Wayne too. The food had improved immensly since our last visit and we were very stuffed when we finally got home, and climbed into the hot tub.

I had heaps and heaps of birthday well wishes from my web mates and my rl mates, a good bit of money which is going to buy a new external hard drive for backup and storage, and a new gardening journal all ready for me to start gardening again in January. Oh and two large bags of skittles from the cat.

Thank you guys for a lovely day.

SU! Blog Candy Prize

There was a bit of a problem in that my original prize from SU! didnt turn up. Lousette emailed the wonderful Jo who was organising it, and she has sent me goodies out of her own supplies as replacement!!!

She apparently added a little something extra as she felt bad about my prize taking so long. She is one wonderful lady. My packet arrived today and I am totally blown away by how genourous she has been. This is what she sent...ove £100 of wonderful SU goodies!!!

Abandoned blog?

No, its not been abandoned, I just havent had much to blog about. I havent been doing much crafting as I am slowly getting sucked into cross stitching - and I havent finished anything yet ready to show on here.

However I do need to update so here are all the things that have been happening to me and mine:-

• Kelly and Ollie finished doing up their house, put it on the market on a wednesday, sold it on a saturday and put an offer on another house on the Monday. They are hoping to be in their new house in New Allington by christmas
  
• Our real hot tub arrived and is fantastic, we have enjoyed being in it every day. The weather is still very mild so we havnt worried about getting out of it into the cold yet.
• Laura and Wayne's new build is fast approaching second fitting stage so they also hope to be in by christmas.
• We were invited to tea with Martin's two brothers and their respective other halves. Martin's dad has been discovered to have a heart murmer and has to go for ongoing tests. He is going to be 90 next January so the meet up was to discuss plans for a celebration. Dad however only wants a very small affair - dinner at Chris's for just the 8 of us, no grandchildren no friends or extended family.
• We went up to town to see Calander Girls at the Noel Coward theatre. Our cheapo 3rd balconly tickets were upgraded to third row circle for free, Martin was one of only about 5 men in the audience and it was so funny we both litterally cried with laughter.
  

Winning streak

I must be on a bit of a roll at the moment because as well as winning the Sketch challenge for last month on the Pad, and the SU! blog candy, I found out last night I have also won another Sketch challenge over on Pickleberry Crafts blog. !!!!!!

OMG!!! I won

I am still a bit stunned but after blogging about it and encouraging everyone to go to Suzanne's , Lousette's and Jenny's blog to see all the wonderful new SU! goodies, my name was actually picked on Lousettes sit and I won the blog candy!!!

My prize should be here by the end of the week and I will be able to share what I get.

Wow!!

Ok in other news. It has been super quiet work wise with only 2 days supply in the 4 weeks the children have been back at school. Out of bordom I decided to sand down the table in my craftroom and re-stain it in a much lighter colour. It is actually the dinning room table we bought back in 1985, a treat to us both after spending 3 years waiting for something to be done about the house we were living in, which was subsiding. When we finally moved we lashed out on a rather expensive dining room suite, a solid wood table and 6 solid wood chairs. Trouble is back in the 80's dark stained wood was all the rage but now it is just too dark for the small room. We bought a pine and glass replacement table a few years ago and the old table was placed in the craft room where it has slowly become covered in ink and pain and glue.

Sanding it down has been a horrible job, with dust everywhere - its going to be fun cleaning up all my craft stuff afterwards, I had to do it in situ as the weather has been too wet to take it outside. I have managed to finish the top surface though and now need Martin to take it apart so I can do the legs.

On Saturday I got a call from mum ..... dad had been knocked over by the dog while they were playing ball together, and had ended up in the pond. He was a bit shaken up, but managed to get to two parties that evening so I think he was ok in the end.

I also went over to help Kelly clear up her house after all the decorating in order for the carpet man to come lay the carpets. Their house is looking really good now it is nearly finished. Ollie came over on Sunday and collected the spare bed so that they can now present it as a proper 3 bedroom house.

Oh and in final news, we have booked tickets to go and see Calendar Girls in London next week.

New SU! catty launch

The new Stamping Up! Catalogue was launched yesterday, and alongside lots of the previous catty's stamps and goodies there are a whole heap of new toys for stampers, cardmakers and scrappers to play with.

Suzanne, Lousette, and Jenny were chosen to help the launch, they had to make some cards, layouts or altered projects to showcase on their blogs at the stroke of midnight, all from a surprise package of products sent to their homes yesterday. A very tight timescale. The girls have come up with some amazing stuff and the eyecandy alone is worth visiting their blogs, but there is also a few SU! goodies up for grabs in a prize draw if you go make some comments.

As always the three girl's work is amazing, and well worth taking a look at.

A bit of crafting

A card for the wedding we went to.




This was from a sketch but I cant remember where from. I did it about a month ago and it has been sitting on my camera eversince.

Lots

of missed blog posts that is. I kinda got stuck because I needed to download the photos to go with the posts and couldnt find the lead for the camera.

Now I have to relly on my poor little brain to remember all the stuff we have been up to. Oh well.

First off, a hot tub arrived!




Not ours, not the one we have ordered and paid a deposit on. No this is the one normally sent out for hire. Ours is still (apparently) in the middle of the Atlantic, making its way here from Texas. The company making them had run out of the colour interior we had ordered but forgot to tell our supplier. As a gesture of good will, our supplier have let us have the hire tub for free until ours is finally delivered. Hopefully within the next two weeks.



Ours is way better, ours is bigger, square, has a waterfall, more jets, a better light system, diverting power and heaps more extras. Still this is still fun. It took a day to heat to temp, and I am having fun playing with the chemistry set to keep the water clean and clear, and we have been in it every day (sometimes more than twice and sometimes very late into the evenings.

That was even with me spending 3 nights at my parent's house sitting and dog watching while they went to Woburn on their Tesco vouchers. They didnt have a really good time as mum was ill and the hotel was pretty dire.

I also got two days work at a new school to me, with lovely staff and a delightful class.

Last Saturday we had been invited to one of Laura's mate's wedding reception. Suddenly we are the cool parents and getting invites left right and centre. Very odd. We had a great time though. (I think the kids were kinda dissappointed they didnt get me drunk this time).

Wayne having fun at the reception

We scrub up ok for old wrinklies!


Not as well as Gemma and Laura though!

I invited the kids over for a play in the hot tub and dinner on Sunday. The two Auzzies, Mike and Gemma opted out completely, not even bringing their togs, Wayne had bought his but after sticking his hand in the water, claimed it was too cold and wouldnt get changed. I did finally persuade Laura to get in but she didnt really enjoy it, claiming she couldnt see the point and that she was cold. Mmm, yet already Martin and I are feeling the benifits, aching backs and knees way better and a new energy seeping into our old bodies. Maybe its an age thing?

Kelly and Ollie are still busy readying their house to sale. They had the outside painted (all the previous owner's rendering was flaking and falling off) and they were doing a final push on the painting inside when I went over yesterday to help out in the garden. I got a fair bit cleared but they are not gardeners the pair of them, the garden is like nearly 150 yards long and it is totally overrun with weeds. I managed to sting my hand on a rather vicious stinger nettle hiding in the lawn and had to call a stop to my efforts after 3 hours work.

New? Maybe not .....

Saturday our new(ish, they have been there 4 months now) neighbours invited us round for their housewarming party.

Now you know what its like, you dont get any social life for months and then you get heaps of invites and they are all for the same day? Kelly had also invited her dad up to hers to watch his team play on the new replacement channel for Sananta.

I quick chat with our neighbour (Dave) and it was agreed that there was no need for us to turn up at 4 pm when the 'do' started, we could easily do both and attend the party after the footie. Infact the couple seemed really keen for us to go, asking us several times, and even at one point inviting Wayne and Laura who had popped in for a cup of tea with the dog.

After the footie (which we wont talk too much about since Spurs lost) we took a stroll around the wall into the neighbours garden. They had a brilliant set up, fairy lights in the trees, a tent at the end of the garden for the kids, a wheelbarrow full of ice and water for the beers, and enough food to feed an army. Strangely there didnt seem to be many people there, only about a dozen or so. Even more strange - and maybe even freaky, were the number of co-incidences we incurred. . . .

As we walked in, the first person I met I knew, she had been a parent of three children who went to the school I used to teach at, and had even done some part time mid-day supervising. I knew her by sight and to talk to but still dont recall her name. She remembered me though and we chatted pleasantly for a bit.

Then a young girl came up to me and said 'you dont remember me do you' But I did, she had been good friends with Laura when she was at Primary school and had even had sleepovers in a tent in my garden, something she recalled with joy. So we chatted aimably and I asked about her sister, Caroline, who had been good friends with Kelly.

I was already blown away by how small the world was really, when Liane, the lady of the house, overheard us talking to Dave about our previous address, and suddenly declared that she had grown up in the self-same road, and that her parents lived there still!!

Then to cap it all, it turns out Lianne is a card maker and stamper!! Happy days!

Dave and Lianne are lovely people and although younger than us, we hope to get to know them well.

Catching up

I couldnt be bothered to unload my camera and so I have got behind on blogging. The photos are of the BBQ we had a week ago last Sunday to celebrate a joint Happy Birthday to Kelly, a congratulations to Kelly on passing 3 more of her accountancy exams, and a bit of a belated Happy Wedding Anniversary to us.

Kelly had invited a few of her friends - the ones who would never come to us for her parties as she was growing up as they were scared of me. This was because of an incident when she was fairly young and had dissappeared into the funfair with her friends instead of meeting back up with me as arranged. I thought I had lost her and after an hour and a half of searching was on the verge of phoning the police. So when I did finally spot her, I over-reacted and shouted at her very loudly in public. Since then though her friends have finally got to know me better and agreed to come over. That meant we were 13 adults and 2 small children. We had heaps and heaps of food, and a really good afternoon.




We only have 2 months left on our English Heritage membership before it runs out, so we decided to try Dover Castle one more time. The last two attempts at visiting had been only half successful and they had just finished refurbishing the main tower, so we were expecting the last attempt to finally get it right, we were expecting great things.

It was with trepidation that we arrived to discover the car park was shut then, and that we had to park further away and catch a minivan to the visitors centre. However since this went smoothly our hopes again were raised.

Sadly I was not impressed with the new tone of the castle tower. Before, the interior had been an atmospheric walk through darkened rooms lit at intervales by interactive videos explaining the history of the castle. With our free audio guides we had quite enjoyed it. This time, the whole tower has been given over to the medieval period, and the rooms have been lit with modern lighting to reveal Ikea type furniture painted in glaring medieval colours (and I am pretty sure medieval beds were not painted garish colours of red, yellow and blue, and were heavy peices not lightweight Ikea rip offs. I guess I will be paying more attention to the new series of Merlin to see what the BBC think.

They also supplied very little in the way of historical facts. One short vid and a wall display in a seperate part of the castle was it. The only other thing they did include were three second rate actors who took the part of Alys (Richard I betrothed) Richard's brother John and an obscure french poet. Part of the show was to drag two blokes out of the audience and subject them to stupid tests of love - with no prize other than to be allowed to kiss Alys' hem!! Of course Martin totally embarrassed me by being one to the two blokes on show. Thank goodness I had not taken my camera and so was not obliged to take photos!

The redeeming feature of the day was that on the way back we stopped at Elham for a lovely ploughman's lunch in a pub.

Kelly and Ollie had been off all week to do a final push on their house decorating before putting it on the market. On Friday Mum Dad and I went over for a cuppa and to see how they were doing.Really well we were impressed to see, so we carried on a little further up the road to visit my cousin and his wife. We sat chatting in the sunshine in his garden and before we knew it three hours had passed. I really must meet up with my cousins more often so we dont have so much catching up to do each time.

News on our hot tub - it has got held up for another two weeks so the company supplying are letting us have one of their hire tubs for free - it is arriving on Friday.

Hop Fest

Normally we go to the Hop Festival with our friends but this year everyone was otherwise occupied. There was a change in the format this year anyway, 3 big stages were being set up for daytime gigs rather than squeezing into pubs in the evening to hear local bands. I wasn't so sure on this, as part of the atmosphere is squeezing in the pubs, but I suspect it is in an effort to cut the binge drinking - as if!

So I wasn't going, until Mum and Dad called round to collect me.

It was rather strange holding the hop festival in the day and in brilliant sunshine but the Indian Summer has hit Kent hard and temps were hot enough that we could have all done with our sun hats. Instead we purchased hop hats!



The smell of hops took us right back to the '60's when we used to go hop picking.



The bands were still all setting up, but there were plenty of street walkers to keep us entertained, and some of the stalls were quite interesting.






Dad liked the look of the hog roast but we felt £4 for some pork meat in a small bap rather expensive.

I would have liked to have gone back in the evening, the last couple of times we have been have been really good, but by the time Martin came home and we had eaten we were both too tired.

Midnight crop

.
Last night Kelly and I went to Pickleberry Crafts for what was advertised as a Midnight Crop - well obviously us lightweights couldnt manage until midnight but we did get home pretty late, because we had such a fun time. It even included fish and cheaps (way too much for us to eat) and cup cakes (supplied by Kate's lovely husband - thank you)

I spent the entire day making up kits although I only managed one complete LO and had just started on my second when Kelly said it was time to get going.

Its from this fortnights sketch on their blog. Please ignore the really bad photo. Its from Kelly and Ollie's engagement party, and my camera was really being stubborn about taking flash photography that evening. I didnt get one even half decent photo and even this one, the best of the bunch is appauling - I have done my best in photoshop but its still pretty naff. The trouble was, I was the ONLY one with a camera that evening and I so wanted to scrap the occassion as I was so happy for the two of them.

I also got to spend my £10 voucher that I had won in the Pickleberry Sketch competition. I bought a complete set of My Minds Eye Bloom and Grow stamps so there will be loads of LO's in the future with fluttery birds, leaves and beautifully designed floweres on them.

Its a fab place to go for a crop, in a brand new unit, beautifully decorated, tons of free supplies to dip into, a very well stocked shop to browse and spend in, and the company of either the lovely Kate, Jane or Jan to enjoy.

'My parents are legend!'

This is a scraplift of a digi LO by and continues our adventures in Yorkshire. Its not like me to do a whole series of photos but I am so enoying using my blog to do the journalling that I have even cracked open a Boots album to fill with the LO's!

A small toot before I go on, I won the Pickleberry Crafts sketch challenge for week 3 and now have £10 voucher to spend on new goodies when I go to the midnight crop on Friday.

Of course this is a small drop in the ocean compared with our recent spending, and our poor friendly plastic is about on its knees. On Tuesday, as we sat quietly perusing the pages of our English Heritage book, contemplating where to spend Martin's day off, a horrible sound rent the air. It was the washing machine in its final death throws.

Martin did a quick post-mortem but there was no hope, and so it was off round the electrical shops again for the second time in a week to purchase a new washing machine. I admit it wasnt difficult (despite the mirade of models to choose from) since cost was our only real consideration, and an hour later we had a promise of a next day delivery from the lovely man at Curry's.

It arrived, Martin plumbed it in last night when he got back from golf and this morning I am going to try its first ever load to see how a modern cold fill washer does.

And all that has absolutely nothing with being legend parents. That happened on Sunday. The Old Etonians made their annual coach trip down from North London to play cricket with the club. As usual we went down towards late afternoon to see the end of the friendly and join in the fun. In past years this has been hit and miss, the first time we went,the Londoners make a day of it, hiring a coach, sending the rest of the family down the coast for a day on the beach, picnics, the whole shooting match. It wasn't quite the 'birds singing' 'sun shining' 'oh well played' afternoon you would expect as Bob Marley blared out across the pitch and those wonderful West African accents shouted out encouragingly with that wonderful humour these people have, the whole afternoon was magic.

Last year didnt have the same atmosphere, in fact we were a little bored, so we werent going to go, but we had a phone call from Laura to say that she had had a couple of drinks so couldnt drive home to let the dog out, would we do it for her. Well I couldnt as I had to go feed Kelly's cats, a journey in the opposite direction. Kelly and Ollie had gone off camping with Helen and Alan. Not a good move as Helen usually feeds the cats when they are away, so she had roped me into doing it for her. The upshot was that I would go feed the cats, Martin would see to the dog and we would meet back at the club house where someone could buy us a drink for our wedding anniversary!!

The plan worked a little too well, and soon one drink had become many and now there were 4 cars and only one sober driver. Martin and I were happy to walk home, but Wayne then invited us to go for a curry with them, and then to kip at their place, so Laura, the two lovely Australians living with them at the moment and Martin and I piled into the car.

After the meal, Laura and the other girls (Gemma and Colleen) skipped off without saying a word to go to the nightclub, leaving Martin and I to follow Wayne. We ended up at another cricket friend's house where the lads talked cricket until 3 in the morning (we would have left earlier but desperate to get to bed, since he had to go to work the next morning, Martin had finally decided to order a taxi home rather than wait for Wayne. However the taxi didnt turn up, then when it finally did, they didnt knock the door, so when we didnt come out, they drove off again and we had to re-order and start the wait all over again).

I think the kids were very impressed when the next day they spent the whole day in bed recovering but Martin was up at 8 to go reclaim his car, and I was on MSM to Laura not much after that, as I had left my handbag in Wayne's car the night before. I needed my keys from it to get my car. We are legend, the kids are lightweights Mwaamaaama!!

Another busy couple of weeks

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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





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

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

Another sketch

This week's Pickleberry Craft sketch.

sketch Layouts

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

Photography course

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

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

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

Its for free so what have you got to loose?

Cropping

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

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

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

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

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

LO's to follow once I have photographed them.

Scrapping

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

Sorry the photos are pretty naff!.