Release and Let Go

The word this month over on the 'One Little Word' challenge blog, set by Jessica is :

RELEASE

This is something that Louis really struggles with.
Releasing and letting go.
He gets very attached to items, routines, schedules, traditions.

Take his Disney balloon as an example.
This is the story for my word this month and my LO.

 

We bought it early in the trip with the idea of releasing it on the last day. He's had it next to his bed and grown attached to it. So on the last day was upset about letting it go. We finally talked him around and we all stood and watched as he let it go and it floated up and up and up. Past the roof. Then it slowly came down and down and down, back in to his hands. You should have seen his face. What were we supposed to do???

We burst it and packed it and bought it home.

He's a lucky bunny!!

 

There are some amazing pieces of inspiration over on the OLW challenge blog here this month.

We'd love you to play along with us too.

 All you've got to do is scrap or make something using the word 'release'.

 

Have fun : )

 

ps.... I have another story similar to this but with a big green swim noodle.

I shall save that for another LO.

 

xxxx

 

 

 

Life Together Sometimes Looks Abit Like This

We found a photo booth in Magic Kingdom and spent quite some time making silly photos.
There was a screen on the outside of the booth so the ones that weren't in the booth could see what was going on. We had so much silliness and fun.

I used this months Cocoa Daisy sketch.

 

The challenge runs for another week, so there's plenty of time to play along. Check out the Cocoa Daisy post here for full details and to see how the other girls used the sketch.

 

 Life has been slowly getting back to normal this week.

My Mum had a knee replacement in November and I needed to help her out for a while as her hubby works away during the week. She lives an hour away though so it's been tricky balancing with work and the kids and I fell behind with work and then last week when I was hoping to catch up I got a really horrid cold. I lost my voice completely on Monday and it didn't start making a come back until Friday. I ached all over and just felt so lousy. I really wanted to call in sick. Not possible when you work for yourself though : (   So this week I feel so guilty that I'm not over in Swindon helping Mum but I'm trying to play catch up with work as I have so many deadlines before Christmas.

So that's what I'm about to do now....get back to work.

 

Thanks for stopping by xx 

 

What have Circles, a Pineapple, Houses and Blooms all got in Common?

That was my question over on the Cocoa Daisy Blog today.
And the answer is.....The Cocoa Daisy December Stamps.

They are so much fun this month and the dt shows a whole variety of ways in how to use them.
I made these little new home cards using the cute housie stamps from the main kit.

The full cd blog post is here and it's full of fun ideas.
Enjoy xx

He's our Story Teller

That's a nice way of putting it.
The child doesn't shut up.
That's the reality of it.
There is always a noise coming from him.
It's so draining. He talks for the sake of talking.

My sweet friend over in Sweden, Marie started up a challenge blog recently.
http://wordspaintery.blogspot.se/
I needed some scrappy time last night so thought it was the perfect opportunity to play along.

Here is the colour combo set for this challenge.

And here here is my LO.

 

My Story Teller

 

The challenge runs until the 15th Dec and I urge you to take a look at her blog.

It's so pretty and arty.

 

Thank you Marie. xxx

 

I also wanted to respond to Francesca's question regarding the alphas that I used on my LO yesterday.

They are acrylic alphas from Heidi Swapp.

 I got them in one of my Cocoa Daisy Kits. The only other place that I've found them over here is on Amazon here.

 

Thanks.

Have a lovely day xx

 

 

 

Baby It's Cold Outside

Hello.
Are you cozy and warm?

I got sent the Carta Bella 'All Bundled Up 'Collection from Papermaze recently.
I just love this collection.
I think it's my favourite Winter release this year.
Take a look here.
I love that it isn't overly themed and can be used all year round.

I made this LO here using it.

 

I documented a morning that was spent at a Disney Crazy Gold Course. It's called Winter Summerland. It's Christmas themed all year round. Christmas music and fake snow. We loved it 'snow' much that we went back the following day.

 

 

 

I have some tips on using these papers here over at Papermaze today.

 

Thanks xxx

 

 

 

A Day with Monterey Bay

The new Cocoa Daisy Kit is now up for sale.
You can view it here.
A few of the addons have sold out already but there are still some main kits and other bits for sale.

I documented a favourite day of our holiday using this kit.

It was quite an unplanned day.
Don't you find that these are often the best?!
We thought we'd head to Downtown Disney for a while.
We ended up spending the whole day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popping in and out of the stores, lunch at The Earl of Sandwich.

 

This was the best sandwich that we'd all ever eaten. All hot sandwiches.

I had the holiday sandwich. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry and gravy. It was so good.

 

 

We then stopped for ice cream sundaes at Ghiradellis.

 

 

Some water was spilt and this happened : )

 

 

Someone took some selfies.

 

 

The décor of some of the stores is just so fun.

 

 

Stitch spits water down on the walk way : )

 

 

We then finished in Disney Quest.

 

 

We spent much longer in here than we expected and had so much fun. 4 floors of games.

 

 

 

 The funniest bit was Cyber Space Mountain.

You get to design your own rollercoaster and then ride it. Two of you ride whilst the other two watch from outside on a screen. It actually goes upside down. It was so funny,

 

 

That's it from me today.

I'm full of cold and have lost my voice. Feeling a little sorry for myself : (

 

Happy Monday to you xxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Montery Bay Sneaks

It's that time again.
Ready for some cute Cocoa Daisy sneaks.
The full December Kit will be revealed tomorrow 28th Nov, 9pm EST.

Here are my sneaks.


I hope my lovely bloggy US friends are having a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Lots of love xxx

First Day Excitement

I love that first day excitement feeling on a holiday.
It's the best!!

I used this photo on my new LO that was taken our first morning.
We got up early and got to Magic Kingdom for 8am before it was open. We walked down an empty Main Street and had breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends at Crystal Palace. We could see the castle from our window. It was perfect.
We met this chap as soon as we arrived.

 

 

I played along with the new Cocoa Daisy challenge set by Martha.

You can view the full challenge details here.

We'd love you to play along with us.

 

xxx 

 

 

Monterey Bay Sneaks

I'm so looking forward to my December Cocoa Daisy Kit arriving.
The US girls have started receiving their's so hopefully mine won't be too much longer now.

For now, here are some sneaks.

Main Kit.

 

Day in the Life Kit.

 

 

Pacific Grove Add On

 

 

Carmel – Day in the Life Add On

 

 

 Napa – Patterned Paper Add On

 

 

Find out all the details here at www.cocoadaisy.com

 

Have a great day xx

 

 

 

 

I Love Pumkin Oh Yes I Do!!!!!

I feel like that title should be sung.
''I Love Pumpkin Oh Yes I do''.
''Tra la la la la la la la laaaaaaaaa''.

That's how much I love them!!!

So much so that I made a LO about them too.

 

Whilst in the US last month I had as many different pumpkin dishes as possible.

The Cheesecake Factory cheesecake was amazing. Lots of pecans and caramel. So Good!! But on our first ever visit to Dennys, they won best pancake dish. Hands down!!

 

 

 

Those pumpkin pancakes were just the best pancakes I've ever had. With pumpkin spice whipped cream and cinnamon sugar. Yum!!

I bought some pumpkin spice back with me and have been recreating my own and using it in cream for pumpkin cake. It's so good!!

 

  This LO is featured on the Cocoa Blog today with tips on how to use these free printables that come with each monthly kit. See here.

 

Happy Monday to you xxx

Fun with Stamps

Hello to you on this grey and rainy day.
To brighten this day up I have a really fun LO to share with you.

It's hard to believe that this was taken just a few weeks ago, 20th October to be exact. I can't imagine how hot it was that day. We were in Islands of Adventure and we happened to see storytime in Seuss Landing. Being big Dr Suess fans we stopped to watch. We were fortunate to find a brolly to sit under, it was so hot and it was still only 10am ish.

 

 

 

 

I love that they didn't care that they were the oldest kids there but instead just sat and listened to the Dr Suess stories.

 

 

 

I used my November Cocoa Daisy Stamps a fair bit on this LO. I created a border with the CD paper along with the large arrow stamps. And I used the DITL kit to layer up beneath my photo.

 

Take a look here for more projects using this months stamps. 

 

Enjoy your day xx

 

I wish I could wake up to this everyday

Every morning whilst away we would open up the blind of our balcony, lay in bed and watch the sunrise.
It was my favourite part of the day.
We'd put the kettle on and sit out there and enjoy the warmth and the morning sun.
The perfect start to any day.
I cried for that sunrise Saturday morning : (

I used my November Cocoa Daisy Kit.
I used the wood vaneer as a mask with Maya Mist and then used the blue wood vaneer and placed my photo on top.

I used this months Cocoa Daisy Sketch.

You have 2 weeks to play along if you wish.
You could win $10 to spend in the CD store.
See here for full details.

Enjoy!! x

Time for Hellos & Weathervane

Hello!!!
It's been a while.
We are now home from a 3 week trip to Orlando.
It's taken me a couple of days to settle and stop getting teary each time I think about it.
So I guess I should pre-warn you from now - Orlando photo overload for the next few months.
And yes, before you ask....the next trip is already being planned : )

Whilst I was away Cocoa Daisy launched the new November Kit 'Weathervane'.
It was waiting for me when I came home.

Lucky Me!!
Friday afternoon was unpacking, Saturday we went to Swindon to collect our doggie from Mum's, we went out for lunch and I spent the evening with my sister.
Sunday was catching up with the house and work and finally Sunday afternoon I opened my Cocoa Daisy box.

Here is my first Orlando LO of this trip using this beautiful kit.

 

 

That's it for now.

I will be back with lots of stories very soon.

Hugs xxx 

 

October Sketch Challenge

I love using sketches when I scrapbook.
Here is the October Cocoa Daisy sketch challenge.

And this is my LO.

 

I used my Main Cocoa Daisy Kit along with the 'Day in the Life Kit'.

 

This was such a funny day.
It was when all the family were staying and it was Ade's birthday too. We visited a local museum which is all inside but is set like it's outside and takes you back to the early 1900's and see's you through the years.
We thought this would be so much fun for Dad with all his grandchildren.

We had the biggest laughs of the trip.
There was so much silliness and lots of photo staging going on.
There are so many photos and stories for this page, so I added one of the glassine envelopes to hold all the extras.

 

 

 

I had to add the skeleton card.
There was a pretend pier in this musuem full of ald arcade games, fotune telling machines etc.. We swapped money for old English pennies to use these old machines. The adults enjoyed it as much as the kids.
My 27yr old brother decided to try one and have his xray taken and received this card. He was genuinely so disappointed. We found this so funny that he was behaving like a 5yr old. What on earth did he exepect for a penny??? And no, he wasn't wearing a hat or smoking a pipe.
It did make us laugh.

So that's my silly LO.

Not too much to tell here.
Busy getting work up together before we head off.
This time next week we will be waiting for the kids to come home from school and they we will be off to stay at Gatwick Airport over night before our flight : )

Hope you are having a good week xxx

Blue Ridge Reveal

Hello!!!
I hope you are well.
Thank you for reading and your messages.
I've been so quiet in the land of blog. What with work, kids and our Disney trip next week....yes next week : ) Life is rather busy.

I am however still scrapbooking and loving every minute that I get to scrap.
My October Cocoa Daisy kit came, Blue Ridge and I have loved this kit to bits.
There isn't much left already. Always a good sign I think.

The kit was revealed last night and has sold super fast. I understand that there is already a wait list for the main kit now. You can view the kit galleries here to see what we all made with the kit.

I made this first LO within 40mins of opening up the kit.

 

This photo was taken at the end of July when we went down to the coast (Mudeford) for a day. The kids were too cool to paddle. So we left them sat on a wall, kicked off our shoes and had fun in the sea without them. 

 

 I used the main kit here along with the 'Day in the Life' Kit.

I hope you have a happy Monday.
Thanks for stopping by xx