Family Time

Hello : )
I hope you had a good weekend.
It's 8.15pm, I'm sat at my desk after a hot sunny day and the sun is now setting and the sky is a glorious red colour. It looks beautiful.

We've had a really nice day at a local park with friends. Picnic, play and lots of chatter.

Before heading out this morning, I set a new weekly challenge at Cocoa Daisy.
I used Anna's LO here this week as inspiration. I made a sketch and then I made this LO myself.



An older photo taken with my family and my Mum and Stepdad in Charmouth. We love our Easters down there. I used a mix of this months Cocoa Daisy kit along with the July kit.



It was Ade's birthday on Friday, so we had a long weekend doing nice things together. We are now planning for Dad's visit this weekend. Dad visits from USA once a year. My sister, her family and my brother will all come to us this weekend. I don;t feel so well organised, I seem to have so much going on right now in so many other areas. The weekend still seems so far away.
I now it's going to creep up rather suddenly.

Thanks for stopping by today xxx

Confused

I thought it was wednesday today.
I feel so confused.
I just popped over to Sketchy Thursdays to pick my fave LO this week and was shocked to see this weeks challenge up already. Doh!! Silly me. The days this summer are flying by.
Slow Down!!

So as it's Thursday here is my Sketchy Thursdays LO.
(click to enlarge)



Here's the sketch.
I used the 'to the moon' Fancy Pants papers







I've been working on a project for Ade's birthday this afternoon.
I'm rather pleased with how it's turned out. I hope he likes it. We'll find out tomorrow
: )

Have a lovely evening xxx

Taco Tuesday

Welcome : )

A couple of smallish projects to share today with you.
I made a small 8x8 canvas a few weeks ago with my Papermaze products.
I turned these bits and pieces from this...



...to this.

And some cards that I made for this weeks Cocoa Daisy summer challenge here.



My challenge this week is keeping it simple.
I used 7gypies 'Mykonos' papers from this months main kit.


One last thing, LESSology are looking for a new design teamie.
Fancy giving it a go? Take a look here.
Enjoy the rest of your day xxx

Weekend Creations

I love weekends like these.
Nothing major planned.
Spending time together as a family.
Seeing friends, baking and making.

I'm trying to make a little more time for my own scrapping. Not just DT scrapping.
So I saw this challenge at Sassfras and decided to play along. Use at least 3 different types of Sassafras alphas on the one page.
(click to enlarge)




A great way to use up some of my Sassafras stash, I have so much and I love these alphas sooooooo much. The perfect size. My Dad is due over from the States on the 26th and I have sent a package to him full of loads of these fpr him to bring over : )

I love this pic of Millie my neice. We'd just arrived at legoland earlier this month and she'd been asleep in the car. We wanted to see how tall she was before we entered the park. She really doesn't look impressed : )


I've layered up a whole combo of collections here.



These blues and oranges are such a happy combo I think.



And then yesterday I made these.
They have to be my most sucessful cupcakes to date.
Strawberry lemonade cupcakes. Don't they look so pretty??!!
I wanted to create something strawberryish and found inspiration on pinterest and then did my own thing.
I used the hummingbird lemon cupcake recipe.
Then made up my own frosting. I squished 3 strawberries through a sieve to make a puree. Then whipped up fresh cream with icing sugar til it was very thick. Folded in the puree and the decorated with a icing bag.
We took them to friends last night : )


Today was an early start (after a late night at friends) we had tabletennis booked at 9am for the 4 of us at the health club.

Now Hollie and I have been reating in the studio.
Hollie has been working on this art journal. I love how she's so into it.




We plan to watch a film together in a bit and a goulashy beef stew is in the crock which according to Louis is disgusting when he tried some : )

I love weekends like these.
What have you been up to?

xxx

Tis Party Time!!!

Hello Hello!!!

Wow what a busy week.
The kids have been away at their Nan's in Devon and I had a huge to-do list when they left. I still have loads on that list sadly. I think my eyes were bigger than my belly...if that makes sense?!!

I have my new page for the Sketchy Thursday blog.
Here you go.
(click to enlarge)



I am seriously loving these sketches, even more so lately. So much so that when I saw the next lot coming up I did all 3 last weekend. My mojo went into complete spasm and just wouldn't stop. Head on over to see this weeks DT pages and to play along.

If you fancy trying out for Septembers Guest Designer Spot, click here.

Some little close ups.
This was the day of our July 4th Party.


I used this months Cocoa Daisy kit.





Ade's just walked though the door which means dinner time!!!
Yay, I'm so hungry.
Off to reach for the wok now, it's noodles tonight.

See you soon xxx

For His Eyes Only

Hello!!
It's sunny today and I've spent the whole day behind this desk.
The kids are visting their Nan in Devon so it's a full on work week for me.
My to-do list is huge.

I've just taken a mini break whilst making some phone calls though to whip up some banana and choccie chip cake mixture to make some loaf cakes and now I have this new LO from the weekend to share.
(click on photo to enlarge)



I took inspiration from Lisa Pace's sketch at Cocoa Daisy and used the new August Kit to create with too. We have an exclusive stamp again this month which I've made the banner from.


And the twill here is in the main kit and I used some tattered angels mist to colour it.
And there is some hidden journaling in the kraft envelope.



If you want to join in, join us here. There's a $10 CD gift voucher up for grabs.

I have a venison and red wine casserole in the crock pot for dinner tonight and a lovely walk up the common is planned for Ade and I before we start back at work tonight. The joys of working for yourself : )
And lets hope it's a quieter and safer night in England tonight. It's so sad and scary to hear what's been going on : (

Lots of love xxx

Another Weekly Prompt

Week 7 of the Cocoa Daisy summer challenges.
This week I have a scraplift challenge.
Here's my page.



If you want to play along you can visit here.
You can lift any part of this page, it doesn't have to be the whole design, it could be the longer title, the chipboard cluster, the colours...
But it must include a list of some sorts on the page.

The challenge runs until Sunday 14th August, 10pm EST.
A winner will be picked and announced next Monday and will receive $5 voucher to spend in the Cocoa Daisy store.


And now for some exciting news.
My sweet friend Yvonne and also Angie are starting up a new challenge site.
I have been lucky enough to be asked to join them with this new venture.

The challenges are going to be dedicated to upcycling, recycling, and using LESS products. It’s all about the altered projects.

Come on over and take a peek here.
There's a pre-launch giveaway taking place right now.

xxx

Nine

Yesterdays was 'Twelve' todays is 'Nine'.

I've used this weeks 'Pencil lines' sketch as inspiration.
I check out these sketches every week and very rarely have time to do them.
I have such a scrap bug right now though and set my alarm for 5.45am this morning so I could have some uninterupted scrappy time.
(click on photo to enlarge)


I love this cheeky photo of Louis taken whilst we were strawberry picking last weekend.
I've used a combo of Echo Park and Fancy Pants 'Baby Mine' on this page.
I decided to document 9 facts about Louis right now at the age of 9.



I used a 6x6 crafters template down at the bottom. One I hadn't used before.
And the Echo Park papers were papers I picked up at 'Arty Crafty' last week (mentioned in my post below)


It's been a good day today.
I feel like I've managed to get loads done.
Scrapped 2 LO's, did some weeding out in the front garden, had a funeral for 'bunny' (thank you for all the sweet messages btw) took Louis out and we played footy with him, baked some blackberry cupcakes using the blackberries we picked this week and we watched one of the Harry Potters together whilst I worked in the lounge.
Now the 4 of us are about to have a chineese take away.
Not something we do very often as we tend to go to the eat all you can places, but Ade and I were talking about loving getting one when we were kids and sitting around the table with all this food infront of us, so we decided it would be fun tonight.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.
xxx

Twelve

This little girl is now twelve.
I took this photo of her on her birthday last month.
It needed a pretty page with pretty things and this weeks Sketchy Thursdays Sketch was perfect for it. It just felt girly to me.
(click photo to enlarge)


Here's the sketch. Pop on over to Sketchy Thursdays to see what my teamies came up with.
And if you fancy playing along this week take a look at this weeks prize too.

I visited a really lovely crafty store last week in Godalming, Surrey.
Arty Crafty.
My dear friend Anne has been telling me about this place and telling me to visit, so finally I did.
It was so good to visit a store in the UK that had decent stash. You UK girls will know what I mean when you read this.
So this LO has been made using the majority of things that can be bought from this store.
(the doilee was a thrifty ebay buy)


I picked up some scrummy Crate 'Emma's Shoppe' for this page. One of my fave Crate collections. And some beautiful fabric and Maya Road lace also fell into my basket (it was actually a proper wicker basket to shop with too...things like this make such a difference when you shop, don't they?!!)



I love these alphas. I picked up a big pack of these in Arty Crafty for just £1.80. Bargain!!
They are white and I painted them several times over with Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam. So they have a touch of sparkle now.


A pretty page needs pretty primas. The flat backed pearlies are Kaisercraft.
The punches are Martha Stewart and I also picked up these little lugguage tags and the mini keys in the store too.


I can't wait to back back to Arty Crafty now. There is so much in this store. It's a crafty heaven.
And look how quaint the town is....


And the road where Arty Crafty is.
If you fancy a visit here's their facebook page for more details.



Dinner time in this house now.
Not much going on this weekend. It's very needed after such a busy week.
A hole to be dug and a little funeral for 'bunny' who sadly passed yesterday. Poor bunny.
And swimming on Sunday followed by bbq chicken wings at the health club is on the cards.

Have a lovely weekend.
Love xxx

Something Old, Something New

Good Morning Blogland!!
The sun is shining, please may it do so all day.

Today I wanted to share a very new kind of hobby.
It's early days and I still feel a little unsure about it all.
It's thrifting.
Unfortunately we don't have any trendy cool thrifty stores around here.
What I would do to have somewhere like Elsie's Red Velvet Store around here.
But no we have the likes of Sue Ryder, British Heart Foundation Charity Shops.
Really not in the same league....AT ALL!!!
But I want to find fun things to transform.
So here's my recent findings.
Yesterday we were in a local town on the way home and I stopped for rabbit/guinea pig food. We pulled up outside a thrift store and was really drawn inside. It was so pretty. They actually had lovely things in there. Hollie seems to have a natural ability to this and seems to find the best stuff. Like this glass cake stand.
I have a thing for cake stands. This was only £3.50!! We also got some fab hardbacked books yesterday for art journals.



I recently bought this hand stitched tablecloth on Ebay with loads of pretty cotton doilees.
And I love this yarn. It's so big. I decided to use it as a door stop in the kitchen. A bargain at £3. Think of all the crafting I can do with that!!

So there you go. My new thifting hobby.
I just wish the feeling of ''I hope no one I know can see me'' would go away.
Some of my scrappy friends though seem to find the most amazing things and that's whats got me so inspired.
Anja for example. The longer I work alongside Anja at Cocoa Daisy the more this girl inpsires me. Look at her bedroom. I love this!
And this blogpost from Audrey. I love those baskets.


Now for something new.
This is brand new, but all I can tell you right now is this.

Need a fun new place to share your creative talents? Well, there's a BRAND NEW challenge site launching next week that will stand out from the crowd. There will be contests that will stretch your design imagination, a super cool design team, fabulous prizes, and much more. You don't want to miss this one! Tell your friends and be prepared for some CRAFTY FUN!

You will find out more next week : )

Now a day at home for us today.
I have so much work to do and we haven't had a day at home with nothing planned since last week.
Hollie and I started art journals last night so we need to work on those more too.
A very lengthy but fun project.

I will be back later with some pretty art.
See you then xxxxx

Oh So Quiet

Back to normal again.
Just the 4 of us.
Our little visitor Millie left last night and we are all missing her : (
It's been so lovely having a little one in the house again, I really miss these days.
It rained so hard in the night and I woke to check on her and remembered she wasn't there.
We had a really chilled day yesterday after a couple of very busy days.
We went to our local common with friends and picked blackberries.
Here's Louis with Millie.
I love how the kids have been so good with her especially as they don't have much to do with little ones. Hollie became a right little Mummy.

So this morning now I'm enjoying some peace and quiet.
Ade's gone back to work, Hollie is enjoying a lie in and Louis is on Club Penguin upstairs.
It's raining hard which is kind of adding to the cozy feel.
We are visiting friends later this morning that we haven't seen for some time and we are all looking forward to it. I need to bake a cake before we go. A lemon drizzle I'm thinking. You can't go wrong with a lemon drizzle, can you?

I wanted to share some ATC's.
I joined in with a swap for the second time at Cocoa Daisy. Really not my thing these ATC's but I have really enjoyed it. I think because it's swapping amongst friends it feels so different.
Here's what arrived last week.



I have one from Denise who kindly organised it, Nicky Noo, Asil and Marie.
And this was the first lot I received.
I've decided to put them all on a canvas.
I thought that would look really good in my studio, a mini piece of art from my scrappy friends.


Hollie and I made some more felt jewellery one evening last week. Another one of those moments when I just was so thankful for having a daughter. It's so much fun doing this together.
The flower has ribbon at the back so I tied it to my wrist, but I've also tied it to the straps on my top too.


I guess it's time to get sorted now.
I have so many photos to go through from Millie's visit.
I just started this morning but I've managed to bugger it all up. I have no idea what I've done so I think I will just need to shut everything down here and cross my fingers tightly that when I switch it back on it's all back to normal again.
I do hate techy stuff. It's just not in my blood.

Have a lovely day scrappy friends.
Hugs xxx

Summer Scrapping

I can't believe it's Wednesday already.
We are having a busy, but fun week with my 2yr old niece staying for a few days.

I have this weeks Cocoa Daisy Summer Challenge for you.
The challenge this week is to create a summer page.
Here's mine.



We went fruit picking at a local farm on Saturday.
Hollie then made shortcake biscuits in the afternoon and make these delicious Strawberry Shortcakes.

I have put together this summer inspiration board for this challenge.
Doesn't it just ooze summer?
I love these colours.


I used the colours when making my page, the pinks the aquas.
I used alot of the Cocoa Daisy June 'Cherry Soda' kit. I love these Lilybee stickers.

I started the page off with a good dollop of moulding paste. Spread thickly with an old credit card. I then used this prima 'brick wall' effect stamp that came in a Cocoa Daisy kit way back. I just pressed it several times into the paste to get this fab textured wall effect. The stamp had previously been used with red paint and there was still a little left in places. I love how this has been transferred into the paste. It goes so well with my page.


Once left to dry it looks like this.
If you want to play along with us this week. Check out here for more details and more inspiration.

Off for another busy day now.
Thanks for stopping by xxx