Before I go......

on a little break away, I will leave you with this layout I have made from this months Scrapagogo kit which as usual is just lush. The photo of Charlotte I have had for quite some time, we were off to Worcester woods to look at the bluebells, the day after we went of to Weymouth for a week were she came down with chicken pox. It's funny the things that stick in your memory.

I love these blossoms. The colours look a bit wishy washy on here but are quite vibrant in real life.

I have been busy packing and making sure we have everything for holiday, I just hope the warmer weather comes back. I did manage to make this banana bread which our Crafty Magpie leader gave us the receipe for, it's really handy if you have ripe bananas, and with the kind of weather we have been having just recently they go off really quickly. Both Les and Charlotte aren't that keen on bananas, but they love the bread. Soon after taking this photo the end piece accidentally fell into my mouth, oops.

Righto I'm off to collect Charlotte from school.

Thanks as always for the lovely comments received on the previous posts. Just love your views.

Cx

Just because....

I could, I scrapped this layout a couple of weeks ago just for me. This is one of my favourite photos taken at Christmas with Mum and Charlotte. I have inherited being crafty from my Mum although when I sit and think about it my Dad is good at making things, so it stands to reason that I'm going to be creative.

Little close up shot I love these embellishments.

So have you all been enjoying this glorious weather? Charlotte has been loving the weather and has had the paddling pool out for the past three days, it's a lot cooler today and really need jumpers back on. I like this photo of Charlotte I know she isn't looking at the camera but just love the concentration on her face, she only normally has her hair up for school but allowed me to put it up so it's away from her neck and tried to keep it dry..

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Cx

Never to old to have fun.

That was my title for my layout for Twisted Sketches this week, the twist was 'old', check out the rest of the design teams work here. The first photo on this layout was of me on the carousel at Southport last year (which I'm hoping to go on again in August). The second is of me on another carousel at Bressingham, Norfolk aged about 8. This is one of my mum's favourite photo's of me growing up so I hope I have done it justice.

Not much else to share at the moment, as usual I'm playing catch up and my list of things to do is growing constantly. I just can't wait for next Friday to come, so we can have a week off from the everyday routine and just relax.

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Cx

5 years ago.......

we got hitched. It was a sunny day with a gorgeous blue sky with not a cloud in sight. We don't normally tend to celebrate our anniversary but it feels as though we have reached a little mile stone. Les did try to organise lunch at the place where we got married but when he went to book a table, the Hotel was closed for maintenance.



This was taken 5 years ago, don't I look young??. I had managed to slim down a bit as I only had Charlotte less than 5 months earlier.

So today we fancied doing something a little different, I have always wanted to go to Batsford Arboretum which is only a few miles away to see all the blossom and magnolia trees in bloom. We wasn't disappointment it was a lovely morning to walk and see all the different trees and plants.



Notice the gap in Charlotte's teeth? Yep she lost her first tooth on Thursday afternoon, very upset about it but was quite happy yesterday morning to find that the tooth fairy had came.



Charlotte sitting amongst the bluebells and wild garlic.



The views were fantastic, with all the different colour of the trees.



We noticed this little fellow sitting on some stone, I don't think he was too well as I managed to get up really close to it. Is it some sort of vole?? If anyone knows leave me an email.

And finally this is my layout for this weeks weekly challenge over on UKS.



Hope you having a lovely weekend.

Cx

P.S I've just had a look to see what the little mousey thing was and I think he's a field mouse.

Happy Birthday........

Dad, hope you have a smashing day. Just wish I was with you today to share your special day with you. Since having Charlotte we have managed to have a short break away around Dad's Birthday, but with Charlotte now at school that's just not possible. We have booked a cottage in Devon for half term week with Mum and Dad plus my brother and his wife. I can't wait, we all need a break from the routine of everyday life. So we have that to look forward too.

This is a layout I created last week for the weekly challenge on UKS.

A little close up shot. One of the things was to intertwine some ribbon which made me think outside the box for once.

It's the third week on the photography course with CJ and I'm finding it really useful and again making you think about how you want your finished photographs to look. This week it's all about light and not using a flash and to use reflectors. Really interesting and for £15 for 4 weeks it's pretty good value for money. I just love this shot of Charlotte. It's certainly not perfect and it's a bit blurry, and if I raised the ISO on my camera it would have turned out better. This was taken in the bathroom as it's probably the brightest room of the house!!.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cx

I'm like a bus.....

you wait for one to arrive and then two come at once!!. It's a bit like me and blogging really, haven't posted in a while and then when I do, I do it two days in a row.

The Twisted Sketch #48 has gone live click here to check out the layouts the rest of the team have created. This weeks twist was handmade. I made the flowers on this layout and really enjoyed making this one. Especially the paint, really like the effect it gives and on patterned paper I just feel that it softens the paper and doesn't feel as busy.



We have friends coming for a Sunday lunch in a couple of weeks time, and I never really know what to cook. The pressure is on as Anne is a really good cook and she never disappoints us when we go to there house. I was talking to my Magpie friends on UKS the other day when Karen our team leader suggested that I try a lemon meringue pie for desert, so as I had most of the ingredients in the house I thought I would have a go. Now I love lemon meringue pie (I think it's one of my favourites) and have only used those packet mixes which are okay, but sometimes they can taste a bit chemically. I have to confess that I didn't make the pastry case as I really didn't have time yesterday afternoon, but if I'm honest it didn't taste to bad. Here it is anyway, very impressed the way it turned out and think I will be making another one for when Anne and Matt come. Thanks Karen for the receipe.



I know that when my dad sees this he is going to say 'can you make one when I come to stay in June'. The answer is 'yes' Dad I will.

Thanks for all your lovely comments.

Take care.

Cx

I'm all behind!!.

It's true I'm all behind this week with things in the home as well as crafting. As we had the Bank Holiday Monday off, and tomorrow I have Charlotte at home as they are using her school for voting. It really throws you but I kind of like all these days off! :)

So I have just completed last weeks weekly challenge over on UKS. So here it is, to gain the points you had to create your own patterned paper, so I used a Heidi Swapp butterfly mask and my glimmer mists. It looks very pale on this photo but it is darker in real life. We also had to use bling, the colours blue, red or white, and to either use the number 2, 4 or 9.



Just a really quick post as I have loads to do before I head off to school to do my lunchtime bit.

Take care all.

Cx

Spring clean

So are you all enjoying your long weekend? We are so far it's been very relaxing doing lots of sorting out and clearing cupboards. It feels really good to clear out the clutter. The weather hasn't been great today and we had lots of rain last night, the temperature has dropped so much that we have put our heating back on.

I have been playing with my camera quite a bit and really looking at things and objects differently now I've been taking part in Cheryl's Basic Photography course. I got inspiration from one of the ladies on the forum who took the most fantastic photo of a dandelion clock, which spurred me on yesterday afternoon to go and find some to take pictures of. Love this one as you can see the individual seeds, which will eventually blow away and re-seed.



Not much scrapbooking has been done, only layouts that I can't share just yet. I did make this Tilda card for my Mum, which Charlotte put her mark on it too. I took inspiration from the Just Magnolia's blog and Denise with her card.





Anyway I will be back with some layouts to share really soon.

Take care and as always thanks for your comments they are so appreciated.

Cx