A Brand New Week

After a sad week last week and a busy weekend it feels good to start a new week. No huge plans except for going to watch Hollie perform with the school choir at The Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday.

I forgot all about the above LO I made last month. Another scrap lift contest at Cocoa Daisy.
I love doing these speedy LO's. I say I don't like working under pressure, but I often produce my fave LO's when I do.
A bit of spray misting and some photos from a fun afternoon at Richmond Park back in August. Seems like such a long time ago now.

Have a Happy Monday xx

Just Under a Week until......

The Studio kicks off with the Charity Extravaganza.
Have you signed up yet?
We start on Friday 13th November with challenges ongoing through to Sunday 15th November.
Not only is this a great cause but it will be heaps of fun too. Challenges every 2 hrs by the most amazing designers with the most amazing prizes to be won.
Don't miss out, go and sign up.

Better late than never, I did the Sketchy Thursday challenge this week and forgot to upload. Silly me. So here it is. Using the Cocoa Daisy kit and some 2006 photos.

Fireworks for us tonight. Fingers crossed it stays dry. Followed by X Factor when we get back.
Yay to Daniel and Booooo to Jedward : )

My latest Mini Book

First off, I'll start my blogging off with my happy news. We got tickets yesterday to Green Days Wembley gig next June. Yay!!! So excited already : )

I wanted to show my latest mini book make today.
I got sent the Road Map papers, stickers and little cards from Papermaze. Whenever I see the October Afternoon collections I instantly tune into a project rather than just a LO. It's almost a sin to split everything up as it all fits in so nicely together and to me they always scream out minibook.

I love where we live. I never fully appreciated it until just last year really when we got a little dog, so it's taken me 10 years to properly explore the area on foot. Our walks our now a regular family thing and we are lucky enough to have so many beautiful areas all surrounding us that are reached by foot.



So that's what I decided to make this book about. These are just a few pages.



For more details on how this was made, visit the papermaze blog.
All materials can be bought here.

It's a rainy day here again. I'm so bloody short that the back of my jeans get drenched whilst on the school run, so I end up stripping off when I get back home, hanging my jeans on the radiator to dry and putting a clean pair on whilst inside.

Think I will get a bunch of work out of the way today so maybe I can scrap gulit free later on : )
Have a good day xx

A Rollercoaster of a Week

What a week, that's all I can say. So many ups and downs in such a short time.
Dad arrived on the 24th Oct. We greeted him at Heathrow as a surprise. He didn't know we were going to be there. We met my sis at 7am in Terminal 4, we had my brother too, my hubby 2 kids and my sis with her hubby and 3 kids. Dad hadn't seen the baby of the family as my sis hadn't had her when Dad left last year and baby is now 13mth, so that was really special too.
The kids were very patient standing with their banners waiting : )
It was so good to see him arrive. We've all had the most amazing week together. We've visited our hometown Oxford, we had a Christmas Day, we've had nice walks, breakfast out, a visit to the zoo, been trick or treating, played loads of games, it's just been so so much fun. We were all devastated when Dad left on Sunday. Each year I'm sure it gets harder rather than easier and takes me longer to pull myself together.

Onto something more cheery now.....these gorgeous men : )


The middle one in particular. Billie Joe Armstrong. Isn't he just the most gorgeous man ever????
(Sorry Ade, but I know you understand) Ade and I went and saw Green Day at the O2 on 24th Oct and it was just the most amazing concert ever. I'm so pleased that Ade enjoyed it as it's me the one that's the big Green Day fan. I think Ade loves them almost as much as me now (maybe not entirely in the same way) It really was such a good show and we had great seats too. I feel even more besotted than before. I've been following this band since 1994. It was my first visit to USA. Dad had just moved there and Green Day were played loads on MTV. I ended up getting a copy of Dookie to bring home and have loved them ever since.
They announced a couple more gigs in UK next June. Presale tickets go on sale today at 3pm. We are so hoping to get tickets for the Wembley Stadium show. Fingers Crossed xx

And now onto scrapping. Something that I haven't done much of recently. I need to get myself back into it. It's only just been over a week, but feels longer.
In the meantime I have this LO to show that's the new challenge over on The Studio.



The lovely Shimelle is this months Special Guest. Pop along to join in with this months challenge which involves a sketch and some bling and see what everyone else has come up with.

Lots of Love xx

Cocoa Daisy Has Arrived

And I am so pleased : )
It arrived yesterday afternoon. Hollie went to a friends's for tea and Louis was happy playing in here whilst I scrapped. I managed to make these really quickly. In the space of 1hr30.


We love going to the panto before Christmas. It's a great way to start the festivities. In 2007 the kids dressed up to go to PeterPan. Last year Hollie felt too old to do that : (

I found this photo yesterday that's been in the 'to scrap' folder for some time. It was taken in 2007 whilst we were in Florida. Noticing her little round face made me realise how much she's changes since then.

I'm feeling pretty stressed out today. Lots of preparing ready for Dad on Saturday and a houseful too. Why did I offer for everyone to stay with me?????

Oh for the love of latte

Hi there !!!
Thank you so much for all your lovely comments, makes me smile : )
It's autumn now and I must say, I love this change of season. I feel so cozy and can't wait for Christmas. This is my fave time of year and I feel so happy.

I completely forgot to share with you what we did over at Cocoa Daisy recently.
Ronda organised a scraplift challenge. A bit like chinese whispers. We had 2 teams, both of which starts with the first person on the list being shown the same LO. They then go on to scraplift the LO and then email their LO to Ronda who then emails that second LO to the next person on the list. There are 7 players on each team. The first team to complete is the winning team. It was so much fun and such a laugh. My LO is above.

I got my email just minutes before doing the school run, typical. That's an hour gone, so came home and inbetween sorting out the kids and making tea etc.... I think I had my LO made and emailed within about 3hrs. Was quite pleased with that turn around. And our team went on to win...yay!! It did help though that a member on the other team went on holiday and didn't tell anyone, kinda caused a slight delay : )
If you want to see what both teams came up with visit here:
Scraplift reveal


This next LO was another that I made on my scrap retreat.
I just can't watch when they play in the playground. Makes me feel sick and I get wobbly knees. Didn't do stuff like that when I was little. Just too scary. Liked my feet firmly on the ground.
Ade on the other hand gets well in there and finds it funny. I'm sure they all do it to make me go wobbly.


And this one is the latest sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.
I quite liked it and then you know when you carry on adding and you wished you'd stopped. That's the feeling I get with this one.
Why did I add that stupid piece of red felty strip????? And that brad all alone???
What was I thinking???? Should've just left it as it was.


Went and got my nails done first thing today. Something else I can cross off this weeks to-do list.
I also stopped off at costa coffee before I headed back to the car. I'm really missing my latte. I bought a lovely posh coffee machine at the beginning of the year. I buy costa coffee and have that costa experience at least twice daily. I love it and have to admit, need it too. The bloody machine leaks though and has been making watery latte. Not good. Sent it off to get fixed, it got returned 2 weeks later to still produce pond loads of water over the work surface. So it's back being fixed again and we are now into week 2. I miss it soooooo much.
My nearest costa/starbucks is 4 miles away though and both in town centres. Not somewhere you can just drive by to pick up. So I asked for extra hot to take away today and was so pleased when I got home earlier that it was still lovely and hot. I just want another one now : (
I really am low maintence honest. Just need hugs, lattes and a hot water bottle in the evenings to keep me happy. That's not too much to ask is it?!!

Can't believe how much I've gone on today. Guess I better get back to work.
As my MIL would say 'this won't get the baby bathed'.
Lots of love xx

Bitten by the Bug

I just can't stop scrappin' again. After a busy summer with not much time for 'me' I've definitely got the bug again and find myself with a couple of LO's on the go constantly.

I had a lovely surprise on Friday when my Scarletlime kit arrived. It's never come this early in the month before. Naturally I cut straight into it and made the LO above.
It's the new challenge from Butterfly Crafts. 3 of my fave scrappy friends made the DT last month, Claire, Fay and Elina, so I can see myself doing more of these challenges now to support them.
The challenge is to scrap your life changing moment. I've scrapped my time just before I married Ade.


And here are 2 of the LO's that I made whilst on my scrappy weekend with the girls at the beggining of the month using last months Scarletlime kit.

Hollie is wanting more and more indepence these days. Silly little things like when we went to a packed Mcdonalds back in the May half term with my sis and her lot, we found a table for 2 at the window and let the 2 girls eat there whilst the rest of us sat on the ground outside. Now we were right there by them with the window between us, but this made them feel very grown up
: )


The novelty still hasn't worn off with my two being at the same school. I love it. Life feels so much easier now. No rushing from school to school, no more sitting in traffic, no more desperatley trying to find a non existing parking space, no more pinking Hollie up late from school everyday as Louis was let out late and it was impossible to get to Hollie in 5mins, no more 1 hr long stressed out school run....life is bliss. We are walking most days and it feels good : )
Here they are on their first day together.


It's been quite a peaceful weekend. Managed to get lots of sorting out done going through all my old kits. The kids thought they were in craft heaven. They were like little vulchers taking bits of papers, ribbons etc and ended up making some LO's themselves yesterday.

My Dad's arriving on Saturday from USA. It's been over a year since I last saw him, so lots of organising and preparing this week. I'm going to have my little brother, sister, her hubby and their 3 kids all staying with us for the week....am I crazy : )

A Nothingy Week

I can't seem to type above my photos anymore. Not sure why, but it's really annoying me.

Anyway, today is the 16th of the month, so this sees the 2nd challenge launch of the month at
The Studio. Being sponsored by Niki Sivils this month we used her papers again for this challenge.

Amanda has decided to make things easier for everyone to join in with. This is what she says:

We’ve made a little change to the rules so that it is easier for those of you with limited scrappy time to join in! We usually ask that you use all 3 parts of the challenge in your layout to enter, but we decided that some of you simply don’t have time for that! So from now on you can use as many (or as few) as you’d like. We’d love it if you use all 3, but you don’t have to!

and here is this months challenge:

1. You must use (at least) 1 new and 1 old sheet of patterned paper on your layout.
2. Use glimmer mist or a technique to get a similar effect on your layout.
3. The subject of your layout must be YOU!

I've used a piece of October Afternoon that I've had left over from an old kit and a piece of Niki's paper cut up. Lots of shimmer mists and the rest is self explanatory.



I managed to get the new colorcombo down yesterday. This weeks colours are the orangey yellow, pale blue, red and white.




Not much to tell this week. Nothing very interesting has happened.
I tell you what though, my dog stinks today. She's driving me mad. I always have oils burning in the kitchen anyway but the little madam has just come in here and now it stinks in here too. I have no idea whats with her today, but she's about to be kicked outside.

Have a lovely weekend. Lots of love xx

October LO's so far....

I am loving last months Cocoa Daisy kit just so so much. In fact, I could possibly be IN LOVE with it. I just adore it.
So this is what I made with it last week.
The above LO was using this weeks color combo challenge. A little message to Ade about what a good Dad he is. I love that photo taken on Ade's birthday in August, walking up to Windsor Castle.

And here we have another LO using the same kit. Louis and his 2 fave things, his DS and David his fox : ) This was inspired by the new challenge on The Creative Type which is to mask. Something I'm really enjoying doing lately. My collection of spray mists is growing nicely : )

And here is Louis and his cousin Charlie messing around when we went to Oxford for the day back in May. They are like a little double act.
I just love that viney stamp. I got sent it as a freebie from Unity Stamp co last week. I was well chuffed.

Just one more thing before I go, if you haven't heard. The Studio is holding a huge charity event starting November 13th for the whole weekend. Amanda has some huge names involved as sponsors and as designers all taking part in raising money for Water. This is a charity that Cathy Zielske is now involved in and it's really worth supporting. Come on over to see who's joining in and find out more at The Studio . As well as it being a great cause, it'll be a fun weekend and there are so many prizes up for grabs too.

TFL xx

Stretching the Stash

Todays LO's are all about stretching the Stash. I've done these for Papermaze.
Using papers, die cuts and mini alphas from the My Little Shoe Box collection. I love these colourful papers : )



And a card too.

For full info on how to stretch that stash visit the Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog.
I'm running out of time here. The sun is shining so I'm going to walk to school, but I've just noticed the time and I had a cheese and onion toastie for lunch, so much go brush my teeth before I head out.
See ya xx

Autumn has arrived

This was my car just before I left for the scrap weekend on Friday. I told Ade if I ever left home, this would be how the car would look. Scrap stuff and nothing else : )

Here's a piccie of our little group happily scrapping away. Lovely space to scrap isn't it?


And here's one of the mini books I made at the crop. It was a class that Audrey did with us. Really pleased with it and will definately make more.




I really think Autumn is here now. I'm actually loving the coziness of it even if the weather has been wet these last couple of days. It's my fave time of year and I quite like snuggling up in the evenings with the curtains drawn.
Not so looking forward to winter though.

TFL XX

A Full on Scrappy Weekend

I've just had the best scrappy weekend. A big barn out in the country, surrounded by scrap stuff, 5 fab and funny scrap girlies and yummy food. Can it really get any better????
I can't wait for us all to do it again now. Looks like it'll be next spring.
I managed 5 LO's and 3 mini books. I haven't photographed any yet, so will show later in the week.
I'll leave this recent LO with you for now.
A few girls got an email requesting a 2009 LO for Scrapbook Inspirations to go in a 2010 issue.
Mine didn't get picked, but I'm really pleased with it anyway. A nice one to go in the back of my 2009 album. Most of the supplies are from the latest Cocoa Daisy Kit.

I started giving the house a really good clean this morning, but after the lovely weekend, I can just think scrap : )
I think I'll carry on with the cleaning now though and maybe scrap later.

Bye xx

Ready for another Challenge????

It's challenge time again over at The Studio. Come and take a look at what we've all made and join in too.
The DT were kindly send some papers from this months sponsor Nikki Sivils. So we all got to play with them for this months challenges.
So Here I have used her Victoria Street range. Not one I would have picked out myself to be honest. I generally steer away from themed and large patterned papers, but I really enjoyed using them and the quality of the card is great, I was really impressed.

This challenge goes like this :

1. Your layout can ONLY use hand cutting. No trimmers, punches or die-cutters allowed!
2. Use at least 3 different patterned papers on your page
3. You must make a card and a handmade embellishment with the leftover supplies from your layout.

This is mine and Ade's favorite getaway. Brandshatch Place. We just love it here.

And I made a layered flower which I added to my card with some of the leftovers.


I'm going away on a scrappy retreat tomorrow.
I'm meeting up with Audrey, Claire, Fay, Emma and Steph. We are renting a big converted barn in Wiltshire for the weekend to scrap, scrap and scrap : )
So have a lovely weekend and watch this space next week for all my new creations xx

Sketchy Thursday and Yummy Stew

I've had a pretty scraptastic weekend. I've managed 3 LO's, finished 2 and made a card.
I'm am loving the latest Cocoa Daisy kit. It's just perfect in every way and form.

These two LO's are using the kit and I've used the latest Sketchy Thursday sketch for both of these LO's. If you haven't seen this challenge blog, it's new. Go take a look.

Louis on Charmouth Beach

And I just love this photo of Ade and Louis. This was teaching Louis how to tie his tie on his first day at juniors.


I feel so full. Mum came over for Sunday lunch yesterday so I tried out a Jamie Oliver stew recipe. I made it on Saturday as I prefer things like stews, curries, soups a day later. It was just so yummy. Probably the best stew I've ever had. And I've just had the leftovers for lunch : )
Now I feel too full to move.
TFL and have a happy Monday xx

Another Color Combo

From me today. I really enjoy the colorcombo challenges. I love looking at the colours of the week and then picking out PP and bellies to go with them.

I found these 3 photos under my diary on my desk last week. They are from last summer. I'd printed off aload of mini pics for the kids when my niece and nephew were visting in the holidays for them to make their own mini books and I must've missed these. So decided to use them all in the one LO.

Not so sure of the orange ribbon afterall, might remove it.

Feeling really tired today. I feel like watching Come Dine with Me. I think I'm addicted to it. xx

Being a Big Sister

I found some old photos under my desk a couple of days ago. So using the recent colorcombo (#132). I came up with this.

I've used some Scenic Route PP and cut out the flowers, Scenic Route letter stickers and Adornit mini alphas. My page has been spray misted and the butterfly has been too to make it a darker pink.

I like being the oldest of 3. We have big age gaps. My sister is 5 yrs younger than me and my brother 12 yrs. This was us when we lived in Germany in the late 80's. The photo really isn't great quailty but I really like it. I don't have many of where we lived out there and it was so nice. I was really chuffed as I noticed our dog Bonnie in the right hand corner of the photo too. Again, I don't really have any photos of her and I miss her still so much.

Life was so fun back then. (not that it isn't now of course) Happy Memories : )

Have a fun and happy day xx

Mini Books

It's all about mini books over at The Studio. If you fancy winning a Kaiser Craft mini wooden album then come take a look.
It's really easy to enter, you don't even have to make a new mini book just simply show us your favourite mini book you've made and link back. A winner will then be picked at random on 5th October. So visit The Studio to enter.
I made a new mini book on Friday. I love it's bright colours and simplicity.

Have fun xxx