What I think about,,,,

The Beach.

I love the beach.
It's a great place to be.
So this week when I scrapped using the new Sketchy Thursdays sketch, I scrapped my beachy thoughts.

I used the Fancy Pants 'Baby Mine' collection.
I love the flocked 12x12 transparency. (the yellow strips) it's so soft to touch. I love adding texture to my pages.

The chipboard alphas were a creamy white so I painted over them using Tattered Angels Glimmer Glam, so they have a touch of sparkle too.

And here's this weeks sketch if you want to join in here.


No chit chat from me today.
I have a rotten cold and feel lousy.
Two busy days in a row, so right now, it's bath and bed time.
See ya xx

No Planning Required

This week at The Studio, we were asked to scrap a page about somthing we love about summer. Not the long days out, but the simple things.

This made me think of the evening walks I love with our little lot.
Last Monday we got home from Louis' golf lesson it was almost 7pm, but it was such a beautiful evening. Instead of getting home and getting into the usual bathtime/bedtime routine on a school night, we went home grabbed the dog and headed out for a walk to the common.
I love these evening walks.

The walks always have lots of silliness and giggles involved and usually a story to remember. This one was the dead bunny. I won't go into detail, it grosses me out. Yuk!!

I used the Cocoa Daisy 'Urban Loft' Kit. Along with some Mister Huey sprays.
If you fancy joining in with this challenge, then play along here.

Another long work day planned for me today. I have a super busy week with loads of deadlines.
Doesn't help that we have sportsday tomorrow and a teacher training day on Friday. *sigh*

Have a lovely day today xxx

My Girl

Hello Monday!!

It has been a FAB weekend.
This little girl turned 12 on Saturday. I don't think of it as just 'her' day, I think of it as 'our' day in many ways. It feels so special to me too.
I loved decorating the lounge with pretty fabric bunting and balloons and celebrating the day together.

I made this page last night. I love this photo that I took of us whilst out on a walk last Monday evening.



I used Alissa's sketch that she made for the Cocoa Daisy July sketch challenge.
You can see it here. Feel free to play along with us there.
I used some of this months and last months Cocoa Daisy kit.


So Saturday was spent in Basingstoke shopping mall. We started at Costa with coffee and cake. Always a good way to start a shopping trip. Then Hollie and I went off and the boys went off. Madam spent some of her birthday money and we all met up for lunch at Gourmet Burger.

I love shopping with Hollie now. She's so fun. We both go into the dressing rooms to try things on. We have pretty similar taste on quite alot of things these days.

I love this piece of ribbon that was in this months Cocoa Daisy kit. Perfect for this page.

This LO is my sample for this weeks challenge at CD.
I have a recipe challenge for you this week.
Take a look here.

Anyway, Hollie's day ended up with us having a quiet couple of hours at home late afternoon. She had a deep bath with a new bath fizzer and she frosted her birthday cake. She wanted to make her own this year and made a 2 layer red velvet cake. Yum.

We all them watched 'Grown Ups' whilst eating cake.

It was a lovely day : )

Thanks for stopping by today.
Hope you've had a good weekend xxx

Beach Babe

When asked to work with the Fancy Pants Beach Babe collection recently I went straight for our Easter Charmouth photos.
They aren't the sunniest pics but they have such happy memories attached to them.
I adore this whole paper collection. It's fun and fresh and I love all the bits and pieces that go with it.

I have to admit that I did struggle though. Not with the papers but the fact that I have enjoyed designing with the range so much and I don't have too much left. Not even 1 whole piece of 12x12. That must be a good sign eh?
So I had to get creative with how I made my page.

I've bulit up a block of the journal embellishments and added some brads, pom pom trimming, rub ons and chipboard.

The story of the page is about the little sock bunnies the kids made. We made them the night before in the holiday home. They loved making them so much they were still sewing at 10pm.
They were so proud of what they had made.
You can view my fellow DT'ers pages using the same collection on Fancy Pants here.


Today my baby girl is 12.
We've just come back from a shopping trip which involved starting with coffee and cake and ended up with a Gourmet Burger Meal.
I'm truely stuffed and shopped out now.
My belly is full and my feet ache.
Hollie has gone for a lie down and we all plan to sit round and watch a new dvd in a while. Adam Sandler in 'Grown Ups'. Should be funny.

Talking of funny, I went with some of the girls to watch 'Bridesmaids' last night. Such a laugh. A real scream out and laugh film. I recommend.

Off to unpack the shopping now.
Have a super weekend lovely scrappers xxxxx

Something to Share

I have something pretty to share today.
Something that was easy to make and a pleasure to do so too.
And this something I can see becoming a slight addiction.

The cute felt rings : )



I made the turquoise ring first (whilst sat with the kids after school yesterday with a latte and watching an old episode of Primeval) and it was so easy and quick to make that I ended up making all of these.


Aren't they adorable?
Hollie made one for herself too.
I'm going out tonight and have made one for each girlfriend as a lil' gifty, although deep down I do actually want to keep them all.

The rose ring is pretty using 2 shades.




And I love the buttons on these.



And it all started by this Mollie Makes Magazine.
A little kit (felt and instructions) came with this months.
I'm so pleased that Laura recommended this mag on her blog. Thank You Laura. You really are just lovely x



Sports day got cancelled today. Boo to the rain.
I have so much to do again though. I got up at 4.30am to make a good start but now seem to be getting nowhere fast.
Hollie has decided to make her own birthday cake, so that's one less thing to worry about today. A 3 layer red velvet is on the cards apparently.
I guess I should make her a card.

Enjoy your day xxx

Pencil Factory Canvas

Hello on this very rainy day.

Today I have my latest piece of wall art to share.
This little canvas using the 'pencil factory add-on' from Cocoa Daisy.



I knew when I saw the little tags that I wanted them kept for the one project rather than splitting them up.
I covered the canvas in gesso and attached the tags with some 3d foam.
I wanted to use the Pink Paislee tissue paper for my little butterflies and flowers, but it was too thin to punch out. So I stuck some onto white card and then punched out which worked a treat.
The twine also came with the addon and the flat backed pearls and mini cork pieces in the main kit.



There are still some of the main kits left a some addons too. But hurry they are starting to sell out now. See here.
Here's the Pencil Factory add-on for you to see.
This is my fave add-on this month.



Thank you for your sweet comments on our party pics yesterday.
And don't get too excited about the meeting yesterday. It was work related, not scrappy related.
That's why I didn't go into detail. Exciting for me, but boring for others : )

Lots of work lined up today.
I had a good sort out in the studio here earlier in the week which really helped my state of mind.
Just seeing the ribbon section all tidy does wonders for my mental state.
I do need to make some thank you cards and make Hollie a birthday card for Saturday too.

It's Louis' Sports Day tomorrow....if the rain clears up. Not looking too good right now.

Enjoy your day wherever you are.
Hugs xxx

4th July on the 2nd

Finally here are the party pics from the weekend when we had our American themed party.


My sis and I were High School Musical Cheerleaders.
We got id'd when we popped out to my local store. Not bad seeing as we are 31 and 36.

Ade decided to get this huge flagpole to welcome our guests.

I hung a large flag at the front window and made flags for all my flower pots front and back garden.


The back garden. I also made flag banners to go along the fence outside and everywhere inside the house.



Homemade Key Lime Pie

Ice Cream Cupcakes





And Red Velvet Cupcakes.



My adorable neice.

Ade came as a Mighty Ducks Player, we had some cowboys and girls, Elvis and Pricilla Presley, a mini Michael Jackson, some skater boys. It was soooooo much fun.
Ade and I put all our cd's together which either had 'America' in the title or an American City.
We had a bbq with homemade everything...pot salad, coleslaw, salsa, pasta salad, green salad. I made a huge pot of Jambalaya. Plus Missisippi Mudpie, Key Lime Pie, Toffee Apple Pie, Mini choffee pies, Ice Cream and Red Velvet Cupcakes.
Yum Yum Yum....lots of fun.

Now I'm hooked on party planning. I enjoyed the whole thing so much.
My next is to be Mexican themed : )

Have a great day.
I have an exciting meeting planned later. I have butterflies xxx

Urban Loft Love

Today I am sharing my July Cocoa Daisy Love.
I absolutely love this months kit.
Teals, yellow, gray, oodles of Sassafrass.
It's divine!!

My favourite DT page I made is this one. I love this Sassafras paper and love the story that I scrapped. It's just so Louis.
(click to enlarge)


And the very genuine story.


I love it when kids try to be serious and grown up and get it so wrong. Bless him : )


The next one is this story I scrapped about a rubbish day from our Easter holiday.
I made the sunshine from a piece of pp.


When I was making this page, in my mind the yellow was reflecting the bright sunny memories
I had from visiting this place as a child and the gray then is the day that we actually had.


It's funny how you can have memories and then when you go back it's so different.
They always say you should never go back, don't they?!


I've also made a canvas from this kit that is hanging in the hallway. I shall share that tomorrow.

Take a look at the kit in full here and all the temoting addons.

I feel like I'm really struggling right now.
You know when you get that panic feeling in your chest like you are under time pressure. I feel that everyday right now. I have so many deadlines with work right now, my studio is starting to feel really disorganised which really bothers me. My receipt tray is over flowing, paperwork is over flowing and my to-do list is so so long.
I have a long scrappy to-do list, I have Hollie's birthday this Saturday, Louis' sportsday on Friday, so another day off work and various other chores within the house that need doing although I have been keeping up to date with housey stuff. At least the house and garden are tidy.
I don't like this feeling : (
Not sure what to do first.
I still haven't looked at our party photos. I really must do that at some point today.

I guess I better go.
I plan to do some blog catching up today too. I've been really bad at that.
I need more hours in the day.

Have a good one and thanks for stopping by.
Lots of love xxx

July

I can't believe we are 4 days into July.
I should have shown my Cocoa Daisy makings last week but the days are flying away from me.

I need to head off to take the kids to golf so I'm going to quickly leave you with this first page that makes me laugh.



The papers in this kit are so pretty this month.



And there's lots of sassafras to oohhh and aaarrrr over too.



I set the weekly challenge at Cocoa Daisy this morning.
This week we are making cards.
Any style, any theme.
Come and join in here.




Must dash, but will share more of my kit with you tomorrow and I'm dying to tell you about our party we had at the weekend. It was the best!!

Happy 4th July
xxxxxxxxxxxxx