Jubilee Day

So today at Charlotte's school they are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee. They have had to go dressed up for the occasion.  Charlotte isn't really into dressing up so she opted for dressing in red, white and blue.  We bought her a lovely t-shirt with the union jack on with the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye on. She looked sweet. I asked her to stand straight like a soldier and this is what I got!!

I took one with my Polaroid and then asked her to hold it, again it took several goes as she seemed to have had silly cereal for breakfast!!!!

So on the crafting front, not much has been happening on the scrapbooking front.  I've been wanting to crochet something for a while and to put to good use all the wool I have bought. So whilst blog hopping I saw that Sheena was crocheting a bloom cushion, I wasn't sure whether I could do it, but thought I would have a go.  I pulled the pattern from Lucy at Attic24's blog (she's amazing), it was a challenge, but once I got the hang of it I loved it.  I may make another one in my bedroom colours. 

This weather has been glorious and we have been making the most of it, we have been eating our evening meal outside which has been great. Charlotte has been enjoying the weather too, she wanted her swimming goggles on in the paddling pool, I did tried to persuade her that she really didn't need them for an inch of water!

We have been visiting some National Trust properties in the area, Snowshill Manor, Hidcote Gardens (which is beautiful) and Charlecote Park.  I'll share some photos really soon, once I've edited them.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cx

7 years ago....

Les and I got married.  It was a beautiful sunny and warm day with not a cloud in the sky.  It was a fairly small affair with family and close friends only.  Thinking back I wouldn't of changed anything other than having a professional photographer, but at the time Charlotte was only 6 months old and as you know babies are very expensive!!.  So the only photos I have are from my film camera and disposables which were on the table.  I made this layout last year when I was following Shimelle's 4x6 photo love.  The layout contains 7 photos, which was from the month of July.

It makes me giggle but on every photo you look at, my Dad is holding Charlotte, no one else got a look in!!

So here we are 7 years on, still very much in love.  Thanks Charlotte for the photo!!

Thanks for letting me share with you all our special day.

Cx

10 things on the 10th

I haven't done 10 things on the 10th for a couple of months.  As it was Bank Holiday last weekend I managed to take some photos of some things that are really special to me.  So here are my 10 favourite possessions.

1.  This box belonged to my Grandmother and contains things from her life.  There are Birthday cards, telegrams, my Dad's first pay packet, photos of family, school work from when my Dad was at school, letters, appointment cards, identity cards, ration books as well as her arm band and badge from when she was a fire watcher in WWII.  I love this little Christmas box, sadly she is no longer with us but I feel close to her when I look through and smile at some of the things that she kept.

2.  My orange teddy is as old as me if a little older.  I recently found him again in the loft at my parents house.  My older cousin won this ted at the fair and gave it to my Mum for me.

3. My iPod, I love music, and think the world would be a lonely place with out it.  I love the way a certain song you may hear, triggers feelings, memories and emotions.

4. I've always admired the ladies jade bangles at our local Chinese restaurant.  So when Les went to Hong Kong a few years ago, he bought me one back.

5. My scan photos of baby C, what else can I say other than precious!  She's even waving at you all!!

6. Disney cards, yep we had them too, but not from a supermarket but from P.G Tips.  I love this little book, I just wished I had all of the cards.  Does anyone else remember these?  How about the toys in cereal boxes?, my Brother always seemed to find them first without even eating any cereal, hmm strange!!!

7. This necklace and bracelet was made by Charlotte.  Quite frankly you can't buy this can you? Very special and 'yes I would wear them out'.  The blue sweetie wrapper is apparently the cleaning cloth!!!

8. My Roberts Radio, I've had this for about 9 years and can honestly say that it's been used every day.

9. This was my first watch, bought by my Grandad when I was around 6 or 7. I loved this watch, it still works as well as still fitting on my wrist.

10. I recently found my Twinkle annual from 1985.  As soon as I started flicking through the book I instantly knew the story and the pictures and which story was my favourite.

I hope you have enjoyed my 10 most treasured items today.  Go check out shimelle's blog to see what other people have put up for there 10 things.

Thanks for stopping by.

Cx

Sunburst

I've seen some lovely work using the sunburst technique and knew I had to have a go and try to interpret my own version.  I've been working on it all week, due to all the hand stitching on each piece of patterned paper, I know I'm mad for doing it by hand but I just don't trust myself with my sewing machine, I need more practice I guess.  I did find it quite restricting on what embellishments to put on the layout as I didn't want anything that was going to distract away from the sunburst so decided on using some words which best represent Charlotte.  This photo of her was taken exactly a year ago, you can just make out that she was wearing a summer dress and a little cardi, hmm couldn't do that today.  I shan't complain about the weather we all know how terrible it has been over the past 2 weeks, here in the UK.

Whatever you are up to this Bank holiday, enjoy.

As usual thanks for stopping by, it is appreciated.

Cx

I must share this

My Sister-in-law is an amazing artist and whilst we visited her over Easter she was completing a picture of some elephants.  She has just recently started to do portraits of family members in pastels and she asked whether I could email across some photos of Charlotte so she could have a go.  I chose a few so she could pick which one was going to be best.  Now I had no idea which one she had picked until the postie came yesterday.  My hands were shaking as I opened the large envelope as I was so excited to see the finished picture. 

Go check out her website she really is a remarkable lady and I'm proud to call her my Sister-in-law.

Les has been away for the past 10 days on business visiting Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand it's been a long trip and I'm looking forward to seeing him tomorrow night.  Thankfully Mum and Dad came up last week which helped the time go more quickly.

I ordered some photos from Photobox last week, now I normally order from Snapfish but I thought I would have a change to see what the quality was like.  I have to say that I like the different size prints that you can order.  I ordered a few 5x5 photos and really like the size, so I created this layout last week with one of them.

Right I'd better run, thank you for dropping by.

Cx

Easter visits

So the past 10 days have been spent visiting family members as well as catching up with friends.  Last week was spent at Mum and Dad's going out and about, I visited a couple of craft shops in the area  Scrap Revolution and It's Crafting Time they are equally very good and picked up a few bits and pieces.  Thursday was spent helping to sort out my parents loft, oh my have they got loads of stuff, admittedly some of it is mine and my brothers.  You would never believe the stuff they have up there that they really don't need but keep it just in case they may need it one day!!!.  I have been storing quite a lot of Charlotte's baby toys and some clothes there, but have decided to give them away to my Mum's friend who has two small granddaughters, I'm really not likely to ever need them again. Good Friday Les joined us and we took Mum and my Sister-in-Law out for lunch to a local pub.  Then in the evening we met up with Suze and Huw and went for a curry.  One thing you are guaranteed when you go out with these guys is plenty of laughs, and laugh we did. 

Saturday we travelled north to Leeds to see Les's Sister and Brother-in-Law to spend a few days with them.  On Sunday they took us along the Leeds and Liverpool canal (just a small section of it!!).  Their daughter and two small Grandsons live a short walk away so they joined us which was great.  Along the way we stopped off at a little tea rooms for a cuppa and a chat I couldn't quite believe that it was open on Easter Sunday and doing a roaring trade.  Really beautiful place, I just love the dark brick of the houses in Yorkshire.

Monday we travelled home, as Les was back to work on the Tuesday.  So for the past few days we have been catching up on the chores, as well as going to the dentist yesterday, replenishing food stocks all the usual stuff, it's amazing how quickly you fall back into domesticated life again!!!.  I am quite pleased with myself though as I have managed to do some jobs that I have been meaning to do for a while like cleaning the wood burner and backing up all my photo's onto a separate driver (Paul if you are reading this I hope you are impressed!!).

I have also been able to create 2 layouts and a 'thank you' card.  My layout was inspired by Glitter Girl: Three scrap strategies back on March 21st.  I sorted the papers out for this layout before I went to Mum's so I could use the Cuttlebug whilst I was there.



Anyway this post seems to of taken me ages to do, my brain doesn't want to function today!!

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Cx

On a Scrapbooking roll

I really am loving Scrapbooking at the moment and seem to be creating at least 2 layouts a week, which is good for me.  I know I have mentioned this before but Shimelle really does inspire me especially with the Glitter Girl series as well as 'The Hitchhikers Guide to Scrapbooking' which I enrolled on a few weeks back.  She has made me think about how I scrapbook and has made me realise that a layout doesn't have to be complicated or timely.  A layout can be made quickly and easily and still look great and which I'm proud to have in my album.

So these are my layouts this week, I've used holiday snaps from last summer which have been waiting to be scrapped.  We really did have a good summer last year, we done and saw some pretty ace stuff.

As today was the last day of term the children could create an Easter scene using hard boiled eggs.  We decided on making our eggs into chicks and using an egg carton for it's nest.  So I set about boiling some eggs, dyeing the eggs yellow, painted the egg carton and drawing a template for the chicks beaks and wings.  These are our cheeky chicks.

**Excuse the state of her hands she had been playing in the garden, digging in the dirt with her fingers by looks of it!!!!!Lol**

Sunday we are off to spend a few day down at my parents house.  I'm looking forward to catching up with everybody.  Then next Saturday we are off to Leeds to see Les's Sister for a few days, well that is assuming that we can get petrol for the journey.  I can't believe all the panic there has been over this fuel.

Right I'd better think about making some tea.

Have a fab weekend.
Cx