Pack Up Your Troubles!

It's been a funny couple of days, I feel as if I have been really busy but at the same time I haven't been feeling good at all (and sleeping badly) so have been resting a lot. I think its cos I have so much to think about and plan, with going away for a fortnight on Friday, that I feel I've been busy when I haven't (iykwim!).

After feeling so good for a couple of weeks and sleeping so well this set back left me feeling dissappointed but I had a smile put on my face when my Scrapbook Inspirations arrived. I knew I was going to be in the new 'Meet the Reader' feature but didn't know which issue it would be in, but the letter I had printed was a total surprise. To be honest it was so long ago I had forgotten I'd sent it! I am waiting excitedly now to see what will be in the goody bag I've won, although I'm not holding my breath cos I know Future publishing don't hurry these things!

I've been on a bit of a baking mission recently. I love to bake, my Mum has always said how important it is that children learn to cook so I was baking from an early age but although I can make a lovely tasting cake, the icing has always let it down a little. It didn't look horrible, but never looked as pretty as the cupcakes you see in magazines or books! So I bought an icing bag and a big nozzle and managed to create these little beauties.....

Complete with edible glitter. I've had a stamp for a little while that says 'A Litttle Yummy for your Tummy' and hadn't had a chance to use it yet so I made these for the teachers I work with when I volunteer at school...

I'm gonna take them in tomorrow, I really hope they like them.

So on Friday we are off on our annual Easter holiday. This year we are staying longer as we have our own caravan now so can come and go as we please (heaven!). The problem with this is packing. I HATE packing, for some reason I can just never get my head around what I need to take or how much. Add to this the complication that last year we had snow on the first day and up to 20 degrees of sunshine later in the week, and, the fact that we need walking gear and something smart for my cousins Christening! As you can see it doesn't make for travelling light. Luckily we are taking two cars but it's wearing me out just trying to plan it all. Oh and I forgot to mention the fact that I cannot possibly have a stash free fortnight, especially when I won't be able to go on all the walks so will be on my own from time to time, so have to pack that too! I'll need the holiday to recover from the packing

I'm in school tomorrow and we are off to the church for the Easter service which will be fun, trying to keep 29 four year olds quiet in a very echoey church! At least they are the smallest so we'll get to sit at the front!

I've just realised what a text heavy post this is so I'll be off now!

Night xx

Busy, Busy, Busy

Evening all, I've had a very busy but very lovely weekend. I had a leisurely morning on Saturday before going to see my nephews (although I spent most of the time looking at the backs of their heads as they prefer PS3 to talking to me!). Jake was very excited as his table top Cricket team has got through to the finals at Lords in May, we are very proud of him, he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy so making a sporting achievement is something we never thought he'd do, he's hoping to win as the prizes are presented by Eastenders cast members!

After I spent some time with them I had a wander round Hobbycraft didn't buy anything exciting just some glue. I then went to see my best friend, after helping her with ideas for a work thing (she's a Graphic Designer) we went out for a spot of shopping. As her partner was away for the weekend, we had a girly sleepover with a Sex and The City DVD fest complete with wine and Phish Food! Spent today scrapping and seeing various family members. So it's a relaxing evening in front of the telly and a quiet Monday for me!

So for some creativity! Firstly this LO I did of my mad little cousin Chloe.....

I love how at only 1 year old she has such a funny little sense of humour, she is always performing cos she just knows she can make everyone laugh! And I can't tell you how cute she was this morning giving her twin Edward kisses, adorable! The next LO is of my other cousin Mollie on her first birthday....
She spent the whole of her party wanting to go outside on her bike, Steve just had to push her up and down for AGES!I took the inspiration for this little embellishment from my lovely friend Rachael Elliott from her layout on the Sarahs Cards blog. Finally I made this card for my friends Emma and Dave who have just moved in together (hope she doesn't look at my blog!!)

The AC papers I had were just perfect!

It's a busy week ahead for me. Two school visits, one is a trip to the church for the Easter service so will take up lots of energy so there'll be lots of rest in between! Other than that I have lots of prep to do for going away on Friday, but I'm sure I will sneak in a few scrapping sessions.

Am off to get ready for bed, I did not appreciate losing an hour last night!!

B xxx

A Mini Adventure

Have been working today on a mini book that I started last night with my March GoGo kit. In the kit was some journalling tickets which came wrapped around a dolly peg and tied with string. I've already used the string on two LO's so really wanted to find a way of using the peg so I decided to make this book and use the peg as a sort of spine.

I made the pages quite small so I could use up lots of scraps. I used the acetate overlay to make two of the pages transparent and used the metal tabs on a couple of pages. I couldn't resist turning the lacy ribbon into a little flower for the front cover and used a mixture of letters for the title and throughout the book. I am really pleased with it as I've been trying to think of a way of displaying the rest of my snow pics cos I've already done a fair few LO's of them!

Have had a lovely restful day today in preparation for school tomorrow. We will be slightly out of routine as the teacher is being observed so I don't know what I'll be doing but I have no doubt they'll keep me busy!

Have just realised that the pics in the slide show are pretty small but if you click on them it will take you to Picasa where you can see them better.

TFL xx

A Photo a Day

So another week has gone by! Here they are:
19.3: The little statue that stands on our mantelpiece.
20.3: Spring flower by the caravan.

21.3: A little garden gnome hiding in the undergrowth!

22.3: Wes skimming stones in the river on the campsite.

23.3: The layout I was working on.

24.3: Ducks waddling around by my cousins house.

25.3: Stella looking so pretty! Believe me, butter WOULD melt!

Still keeping up with it, infact I'm quite impressed with myself, didn't think I'd still be going now! The weather is vile today so I am staying in the warm and dry, scrapping and catching up with The Apprentice that I missed last night!

Have a lovely day xx

He Wears a Dustman's Coat

I've had a lovely scrapping day today. Did a LO this morning, then this afternoon I helped out a friend who is fairly new to scrapping with a few ideas. Tonight I did another LO and started a mini book which I'm hoping is gonna work (it's a bit experimental!) So here is LO no. 1:

I did this LO for a sketch challenge on the Scrapagogo Clubhouse, all the materials were from the March kit. I also did this one:

Again using the March kit and hybrid elements. I took this photo of my Dad when he went out for a walk in the snow wearing his high vis jacket that he wears for cycle training, steel toe capped boots, fingerless gloves and wooly hat. He looked so like a bin man it was hilarious! I did lots of distressing, scrunching, inking and layering to make it look a little rubbishy (you won't find me saying that about many LO's!!)

It's Desperate Housewives time so I'd best be going, B xx

HONK

Here are the two LO's that I promised to show you. This one with photos taken at the weekend....

And this one of me learning to walk...

I still feel like this one isn't quite finish but I'm sure something will spring to mind soon.

Had a fab time in school today, we were in the hall watching Honk! all morning so it was nice and easy and I haven't come home in need of 4 hours complete rest! The children in it were brilliant and the children watching were mesmerized. If you are in the Bristol area look out for them in the evening post in the next few days.

Today I am feeling old as my baby neice is 22 years old today! Happy Birthday Hannah Rose xx

Anyway, my tea is smelling quite delicious so I'd better go

TFL xxx

Destination Inspiration

I'm back! Wanted to share with you a few photos of my weekend:
Pew Tor, check out the blue sky!
The river that runs through the camp site.
Me enjoyng a book by a stream in the sunshine.

I seriously missed my stash this weekend. I had a good few hours that I could have very happily filled by scrapping and boy is this place inspiring. On saturday night, rather than sitting and pining for my scrapping stuff, I thought I'd be more productive and spent the time reading SBM and SI and writing down LOADS of ideas. I also wrote a list of at least 20 LO's that I want to do, so I have no excuse for scrappers block for ages!

I have done some scrapping today although I haven't had chance to take photos yet. I finished one LO that I've been working on for ages (not like me!) and did the first one from my list with pics of the weekend. Will blog them tomorrow.

Am going into school tomorrow, it is the school production this week so I get to see the preview which will be nice. Their performances are always great, the high point was possibly The Wizard of Oz in 1994, if I remember rightly there was a particularly high standard of munchkin that year!!!! SOOO glad I don't have photos!

Anyway off for an early night

TFL xxx

Time Flies

This project is making me realise how quickly time goes. It only seems like yesterday I posted the last lot of photos and now I have another weeks worth! So here they are:

13.3: Wear Something Red day at school
14.3:Max basking in the spring sunshine

15.3: My delightful nephews who always know when to strike a model pose.

16.3: mmmmm Rolos

17.3: Display in our classroom that I helped to do.

18.3: These are not just slippers, they are my new most comfy pair in the world slippers!

I'm off for the weekend to my parents caravan tomorrow so this weekends photos should be good ones. Am a little worried about how I will cope without broadband (I will barely even have phone signal!). So have a lovely weekend and I will see you all back here in blogland on Sunday.

Bxxx

Happy St Patricks Day

I won't be celebrating St Pats this year like I used to, especially not like the year I only drank things that were green or Irish (believe me Guiness, Baileys and Green alchopops do not mix!!) When I was a dancer it was a big event, we use to go round the Irish bars dancing or doing big displays in all kinds of places and it was so much fun but not this year but hey, there will be plenty more.

To mark the occasion I thought I would do a LO of a photo of me in my dancing days. This months GoGo kit was just perfect colours so I managed to create this....

I had this photo taken at a competition where I did really well, the journalling says about how I wasn't expecting to do very well and was actually in another hall watching a friend when the results were read out and my Mum had to come and find me!

This LO is of when we went out for Curry last week, I managed to snap my Dad singing his head off! The title was partially inspired by a LO on Lauras's blog where she used a misheard song lyric as a title. My Dad is absolutely famous for this for example 'I think I better deep fry it now' by Will Young, and his very favourite 'Chicken Tikka' by Abba! So it tied the LO up perfectly. The photo doesn't show it very well but I even used the string that was packaging something on my page (just below the n of chicken.)

Anyway enjoy the rest of St Patricks Day!

Slainte! (Cheers)

Bxx

3rd Time Lucky

I know, 3 posts in one day, some kind of record but I just found a challenge on the October Afternoon blog to show all of your OA projects. So here they are.......

Night xx

Quirky

A few weeks ago I bought a lovely Quirky Kit from Crafty Templates and tonight I turned it into this...

Its for the Scrap Like You Mean It challenge over on UKS. I haven't been playing along with it so far but this grabbed my eye so I thought I'd give it a go. I kind of wish I had now so I might go back and have a go at a few of the prompts.

So the prompt was Scrap with Fabric and I decided to push it a little further by scrapping about fabric too! I have been thinking about some of the projects I did for my textiles A level and thought as it was probably the time in my life so far when I worked my very hardest, it was worth scrapping about. I chose this photo because it is of my final piece that secured me my A grade, I was so proud of it, I must dig it out and have another look at it!

I loved using this kit, doing lots of stitching and even stamping on fabric. I cut the title from the sheet of felt using my sizzix. I will definitely be buying more Quirky Kits and using fabric again.

TFL xx

It Was All Yellow

Yellow is not one of my favourite colours, infact I'd probably go as far as saying I don't like Yellow. Except that is for one day every month, when a lovely sunny yellow box arrives full of beautiful GoGo goodness like this.....

OOOOh so yummy, but more about that later.

Yesterday was Scrapaholix at Kim's. It was a lovely sunny kit for a lovely sunny day and I had a great time making these two layouts...

I was so pleased with these LO's especially the second one as I felt it did the photos justice (and it's yellow!!) I had enough time to do a third LO but didn't have any more photos that went with the papers so I used some of my own.

Just love this bird cage paper, so so pretty and perfect with my Birds Galore stamps.

So back to my March kit, called Wanderlust so kind of on a travel theme which is great as my travel album is the one that needs filling up a bit. I did this LO of Dad, Matt, Dan and Harry at the Beer Fest at the Trout, its another redo LO that I just wasn't happy with before.

I also bought the mini kit which was so gorgeous, especially as it had some sweet smelling Puffy Thickers in!! I based my Layout on one by Lisa Bond over at the GoGo Clubhouse.

So all in all a very successful scrapping day. Am very tired today though, think I've overdone it a bit, am gonna try and take it easy today.

Have a good day xx

GoGo is coming to Town

When I found out that Scrapagogo were possibly coming to do a day event in Bristol I was so excited. So now less than a week later I have bought my ticket and am counting the days til the 19th of September, I just can't believe how quickly it's all come about, those GoGo girls are super women!! They even chose one of the venues which I suggested which is just fab cos it means that I can save my precious energy for scrapping and don't have to worry about the travel, yay!!!

I had a lovely surprise this evening when I checked out the Indigo Mill blog and saw this infact I'm still blushing! I was so grateful for the fab service that the lovely Steph provided that I sent her a little thank you gift and was so proud to see that she loved them enough to blog them.

Here are my next four 365 pics:
9.3: We dog sat!
10.3: My new cutie Cup Cake socks!

11.3: My Cousin Danielle at our curry night last night, (which I thoroughly enjoyed, it's usually the way when you don't feel like going that you end up having a ball!)
12.3: Chloe saying her fave word: 'Hiya'

I have a new camera to get used to, I had to take mine back today as it was faulty. I was really gutted because I had really got to grips with it and was really happy with it, but I'm sure I'll get my head round the new one. I should get a chance to practice when I go away next weekend.

Am in school in the morning, I think we are doing something Red Nosey, so I'm looking forward to that, although I will be rushing home as its time to start stalking the Postman for my yellow box of GoGo sunshine and mini kits from Indigo Mill. So tomorrow night will hopefully be spent in front of Comic Relief scrapping the night away.

Will you be doing something Funny for Money??

B xx

Pimp Part 2

Have been a busy bunny! I did two LO's yesterday, one using my Gogo kit, this is number 8 and I still have enough for at least 1 more LO and the new kit is despatched tomorrow so this kit has lasted me a whole month which I'm so pleased about.

I used my new Bella Blvd papers to do this LO of Mollie on her first birthday. The papers were perfect cos they match her little stripey sleeves. (Sorry for the rubbish photo)

I was talking the other day about redoing some LO's. I took this one.......Removed the photos and created this LO using the top photo.
I love it, its just so much better than the old version. Wasn't I cute?! I'll put the other two LO's on another page.

Am going out for a curry tonight. We're spending our quiz team winnings that we've been saving up for a year, about £100 and 12 bottles of wine, between about 12 people, not bad! Typical though that I hardly ever go out and when I do, I don't feel like going. I'd love to snuggle up and watch corrie! Ah well better make the effort.

TFL xx

More 365

A quickie to bring you up to date with my 365, I will get better at this, I promise!!

1.3: My homemade storage
2.3: Magazine arrived

3.3: I finally get my Stampin Up stuff!

4.3: The now famous ATB tapes and storage

5.3: Went for Coffee at the local Garden Centre with my friend and made the most of the lovely weather to have a wander and take some snaps.

6.3: Chloe!!!!

7.3: Jake wanted to do his own photos like on photomylego.com

8.3: The 29 boxes I prepared for school

I had the whole day to play in the craft room today but just couldn't get inspired, I shuffled some papers around and achieved nothing! My friend is coming round to scrap tomorrow so I have prepared some page kits to hopefully stop this happening.

Off to bed now

Night xxx