Friendship

When I was at Middle school (which was a while ago) friendship bracelets were all the rage. I can always remember that a friend of mine could make them and I was fascinated to find out how to make them. Well at the age of 30 I finally found out. lol. Charlotte saw the book and said would I make her one. So when she got in from school yesterday I asked her to choose 3 colours from my embroidery silks. Luckily she picked the easy ones to make.



The layout below is my take on this weeks Pencil Lines sketch #157. Not a particularly good photo as the light isn't great today. Most of the stuff used was from this months Scrapagogo kit. Lovely photo of me and my girly.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cx

Were did the week go?

Another week gone in a flash. Charlotte has done her first term at school. I think she is looking forward to having a break, I know I am, especially not having to make sandwiches in the morning I really don't like that job at all. Anyway I'm trying to get everything sorted for next week. We have decided to go to my parents on Sunday so we can all spend a day together on Monday before we fly off to Amsterdam on Tuesday. I have to admit I do feel a little guilty leaving Charlotte behind, I know she will be well cared for and will have lots and lots of fun but I feel selfish going without her. We have only left her twice before, once on our wedding night and another was for a special Birthday treat in London for Les.

I have managed some scrapbooking this week, in fact the layouts I have done are the best I think I have ever created. I love following sketches but sometimes it's just nice to let the paper flow without being restricted. I've really enjoyed it and so I'm not going to share them just yet ;). This layout below I started last week I love the vibrant colours of it, but it just didn't happen as well as I thought it was going to. I'm still loving these pictures of Charlotte I had so many copies made that I'm working my way through them. I'm using lots of brads at the moment which is a good thing as I have hundreds of them. lol The little heart charm threaded through the ribbon was from Vinegar Hill a shop in Stratford, it's not a craft shop but sells really lovely stuff.

I'll pop by tomorrow hopefully with another finished layout ;)

Take it easy.
Cx

Mother Nature...

is a wonderful thing. This is my take on the twisted sketch #19 from last week. For this one you had to use ink on the layout which I have done on the corrugated alphabets to brighten them up slightly. I couldn't hold myself back any more I just had to use the new October Afternoon papers. I was waiting for the diecuts to arrive but I just couldn't wait any longer!. I know I just have no will power! haha For once I put some journalling on, which is fairly rare for me, I don't normally write on my layouts, sometime you just don't need it. If there is a story to be told I normally write it on the back of the layout.

Loving those alphabets.

My brother is coming to stay tonight, I'm looking forward to seeing him, it's been a while. I'm cooking lasagne tonight although I've been told that it won't be as good as mum's. The cheek of it!

We had parents evening last night and got on very well. Charlotte has settled in really well (which is what they say to most parents). Generally she is doing really well and her willingness to learn is wonderful so that's all we can ask for. She does get a little apprehensive when they do things that she's not used to, but she's good and always has a go. I'm so proud of her she has coped so well and has exceeded our expectations.

I'm off to school this afternoon to listen to some more children read. I'm really enjoying it and I manage to get a little look at Charlotte in her classroom at the same time, so I'm a happy momma!.

Right I'm off to do that massive pile of ironing that's waiting for me. sigh

Thanks for popping by.

Cx

Autumn's in the air

I know I always say it, but didn't the weekend whizz by again? All in all it was a good weekend, we even managed some chill out time to. So on Saturday we went to Stratford-upon-avon and managed to get Charlotte some boots. Now I know she said she wanted shoes but what helped to sway it was that these boots had little dolls under the inserts!. They are really nice, I just wish they done them in adult sizes, minus the little dolls!.

On Sunday we went for a lovely walk along the river and down to the ferry. I took my camera along and took some pictures. It's such a pretty time of year.



Charlotte throwing leaves.



Me and my girl.



That's about all my news. I am finishing off the twisted sketch from last week and will post it tomorrow.

Take Care

Cx

Yey it's Friday

I'm so glad it's Friday I had a real problem getting out of bed this morning, in the end I had to drag myself out if not I think I would have still been there!. So tomorrow we are planning to go to Stratford to try and get Charlotte some shoes. Whilst we were in Solihull last week we couldn't see anything special, I would like her to have some boots, but oh no she wants shoes. A certain shoe shop is very limited and are becoming very old fashioned in my opinion.

I have a few things on next week. Monday we have parents evening at the school to see how Charlotte has settled in, I'm hoping everything is okay, I'm sure it is. Tuesday afternoon I have school, then my big bro is coming up and staying with us for the evening. He occasionally works in Cheltenham and rather than booking a hotel he comes and stays with us, I really enjoy it and we catch up with our news. It's rather strange when we were growing up we couldn't stand each other, but now we are older we actually get on and enjoy one another's company (as long as it's in short bursts haha). I admire him and wish I was more like him, we are like chalk and cheese. I could worry for Britain and Paul well he's so laid back he's almost horizontal!

Still not much happening on the scrapbooking front. Have been playing around with a few things but nothing really constructive going on, I'm hoping that I will have some time over the weekend to create.



Scrapbook Inspirations was out today and this layout was in the Readers Gallery. You can't really make it out from this photo but the flowers are curled and layered. Not a particularly good photo of me, but Fiona looks stunning.

Have a good weekend.

Cx

We are up and running!

Here I am up and running under a different broadband provider and I must admit that it was very easy. Well what have I been up to over the past couple of days, certainly not much scrapbooking boohoo. Sorted the house out yesterday (yeah I know boring) collected Charlotte from school and then went to the dentist. My dentist wants me to have my wisdom teeth out as one of them maybe starting to erode into a good tooth. The thing is that I have seen the consultant at the hospital and she said that there is no sign of erosion, but my dentist seems to think there is. Now bearing in mind this tooth isn't hurting or playing me up, I'm thinking if it's not broke don't fix it.

Anyway on a lighter note, I had a little visitor today, oh and she was gorgeous. I haven't seen Kate for ages and it was so nice to sit and catch up on our news together. Her little girl Evie is just so sweet, just look those big blue eyes and tell me that they don't melt your heart.

Please don't disturb me whilst I work. hehee

Anyway just a quicky post as I'm running out of time today.

Look out for me in Scrapbook Inspirations readers gallery. There is a layout in there of me and my mate Fi.

See ya.

Cx

Grandad's love

Here is my take on the twisted sketch #18. The photos were taken whilst away on holiday in Scarborough back in May. Charlotte and Grandad were mucking around as usual, but after a while Grandad needed a sit down!. So here they both are having snuggle time together. She is one lucky little girl to have such wonderful Grandparents, forever playing around and generally being daft!.



I done a really exciting thing last night. I received an email from Scrapagogo saying that they are holding a day retreat in Coventry next February. I have booked my place and I'm so excited I can't wait, it should be fun fun fun :) Let me know if any of you out there have booked there place too.

Just a note that on Thursday I will be changing my broadband provider so I might be missing for a few days, I really hope it will go smoothly but you just never know. I'm still waiting for the router to turn up so it could be interesting.

Off to school this afternoon to listen to some more children read. Looking forward to meeting the other half of the group today.

Anyway I hope to be back in a few days.

Cx

Were did the weekend go?

Wow the weekend went really quickly. We went to Solihull shopping on Saturday and dare I say it but I started my Christmas shopping. With so many Birthday's in November (mainly kids) and Charlotte's and my Brother's Birthday (hello Paul) in December on top of Christmas it can be a little expensive, so we are trying to spread the cost over the next few months. On the way back from Solihull we did call in at the girls at BeeCrafty, by all accounts they are waiting for a whole load of new stock which is going to be there really soon, they are getting the shelves ready as we speak. I'm definitely gonna pay them a visit over the next few weeks!. A couple of months back I had some yummy 7Gypsies paper to play around with for them. I can't remember if I posted these before so here they are below.



This is of my late Nan and Grandad, celebrating 50 years of marriage. There is quite a lot of detail on this, I enjoyed doing this layout as the papers seemed to go perfectly with the photo.





I made a mini book using some of the 7Gypsies papers and embellishments. These photos are of my Paternal Grandparents. The book was made using brown paper bags and tags, the bags were stuck back to back and then decorated. I think I worried the ladies at BeeCrafty as I said I had used original photos, but the way I see it is that I'm preserving these pictures for generations to come. By using acid and lignin papers and embellishments they should last a lot longer than if they stayed stored in the original box.





My Nan as a young woman. The button used here was out of my Nan's button tin.



Grandad, such a character. I wish I had got to know him more, he died when I was 6, but what I do remember is having fun with him, lots of tickles! Used Fancy Pants rub-ons but as you can see they were flaking off, it adds to the vintage feel I guess.



Nan with Dad on the back of her bike. Dad would fall asleep on the bike which made riding it very difficult, she would tap his legs to wake him so he sat up straight!.



Love this picture of Dad what a little sweetie!. I used Hambly rub-ons on this one.

Anyway I really must do some housework.

Thanks for stopping by.
Cx

Pencil Lines

Here is this weeks Pencil Lines sketch #155. I have used some of the new Sassafrass Lass papers that I purchased at the Bellaboo crop last weekend. For once I haven't bought the whole range as I get rather swamped with the very busy patterns. This time I just picked out the ones I really liked and it worked quite well so I will bear that in mind for next time. I'm still waiting for the die-cuts to come in for the new October Afternoon ranges, I've got the papers but I'm not touching them until I have the die-cuts!.



Charlotte has got through the first week of school and has done really well. Everybody warned me that she would be really tired at the end of the day, not Charlotte she has been full of beans and wanting to play or do something when we have got home. I must say that I have really enjoyed my week too, I have caught up on a few bits and pieces that have been wanting to be done for a while.

Anyway I'd better fly, it will soon be time to collect Charlotte from school.

Cx

Live and Learn

Well I done it I made tomato soup last night, and it turned out really well, with only a few other ingredients other than the tomatoes it was a really cheap meal and it was really healthy. It's nice to eat something that you know where the ingredients have come from. Now before I declare that I'm a domestic goddess I did have a few problems mainly with the mixer, I don't own a hand held one just a food mixer that I've made smoothies in before. Everything was going really well until I turned the mixer on, I really should have allowed the soup to cool as there was so much steam that when I turned on the machine it shot out everywhere and I mean everywhere. I had a lovely orange tinge to my once nice white kitchen ceiling!. To do this once was silly, to do it twice was just stupidity!!. I've said before I was prone to blond moments and this was definitely one of those times!



Anyway I will post some layouts tomorrow.

Take Care
Cx

School

So I went to school yesterday afternoon and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The children and teachers were so friendly, one little boy came running over to me and threw his arms around my waist, what a welcome!. Another child came and showed me his special things he had bought in for show and tell. It really was a great feeling. The children are mixed abilities which is what you would expect but all have there own little characters. I'm really hoping this will be long term so I can see them grow and progress, especially in there reading. I'm seriously thinking about going back to College and get a qualification so I could at least be a teaching assistant. It would mean a complete career change for me, but that's just fine, I'm not even sure I want to go back to what I was doing before having Charlotte. Anyway just a thought at the moment, let's see how things go.

Anyway onto scrapbooking. On Saturday Debbie handed around a sketch that we could follow if we wanted. Well I didn't manage to do much at the crop except cut out the papers (I'm quite a slow scrapbooker). This is my take on the sketch. Really enjoyed messing around with the paint, I went a little heavy handed in one place but it's okay, I like the effect it's made. I had so much of the Cosmo Cricket paper left over from doing the layout the other day I decided to use it up.



Les and I are planning a few days in Amsterdam in the half term holiday which I'm really looking forward to. Nearly everything is sorted, we booked the hotel last night just the car park now to do. My Mum and Dad are going to look after Charlotte for the duration, I'm not sure who's more excited, my parents or Charlotte!

Anyway I'm gonna try and make some tomato soup for tonight's tea, we've had loads and loads from our plants this year so I'm trying to put them to good use. Wish me luck!.

Thanks for popping by.

Cx

If you go down to the woods today.

Well what a great weekend I've had. On Saturday I met up with Debbie and then drove to Bromsgrove for the monthly crop. I only managed one layout from scratch which I'm pleased with, Jackie and Debbie created nearly 10 layouts between them, pretty impressive ay? Cleo was there with the Bellaboo shop, with some very scrummy things indeed, and naturally I purchased one or two papers it would have been rude not to ;) I'm really enjoying going to the crop they are such a lovely bunch of ladies and we always have a giggle. My layout is based on last weeks Twisted sketch #017, I've had these papers for ages now they are so pretty I think they are BG porcelain range. Picture quality is not particularly good as the light isn't great today.


Yesterday was spent running around a little, but we did manage to go to Worcester woods. We went for a lovely walk and took some great photos, the light this time of year is wonderful and the colours of the changing trees is just beautiful.



I took the below photo from the same place as the above picture, but just moving slightly to allow the light to shine through the trees it looks completely different.



I found this little woodland friend grinning at me! I wonder who she could be?



I love this photo, I know she has her eyes closed, but it just shows how mischievous she can be. She was throwing leaves at me, the little rascal.



I didn't realise my head was that big!



Have a good day.

Cx

Lost

I'm feeling really lost today. Charlotte is staying for lunch and meeting the rest of the children in her class. It's suddenly dawned on me that this is it now, my little mate will no longer be coming out at 12pm so we can have lunch together. How ever I tried to prepare myself for this it is much harder than I ever thought it would be, I feel like the last five years have whizzed before my eyes. Anyway I really hope she is having a good time it's a really lovely school and I am very impressed with it so far. She came out yesterday with a biscuit that she had made, with every colour under the rainbow of food colouring on it!. She was really proud of it, but it didn't hang around for long!


Below is this weeks Pencil Lines sketch. I've had these papers for quite a while now they are really sweet with all the little animals on them, I enjoyed doing this layout alot.





I better start thinking about what I'm taking to the Bromsgrove crop tomorrow. Looking forward to it as I missed last months, due to Les being away on business. I think the Bellaboo shop will be there too! Great retail therapy is just what I need at the moment.


Have a good weekend.

Cx