Bye Bye LA

Hello.
We are home again after the most amazing weeks ever.
We have sone and seen so much in the one week. It's felt like the honeymoon we never had and we got to meet the most wonderful group of ladies that I'm so happy to call my friends.

We started off on the 9th Jan with 2 nights in the quaintest B&B.
The Channel Inn in Santa Monica. 

We highly recommend this place and would go back just to stay here again. It was beyound perfect.
Each room is individual. This was ours. There was a cute desk under the window with a glimpse of the ocean.
There was always homemade cakes and cookies available.
A fridge with sodas, hot drinks, cheese and wine and nibbles table in the afternoon and the most amazing breakfast spread all complimentry. They could not do enough for you.

 
The first morning before breakfast we wandered down the to beach which was just 2mins away.
There is a big walkway within the beach that can take you for miles. After breakfast we walked a mile to Santa Monica Pier.

I was last in Santa Monica in 1996 and it's really improved since then. We loved the shopping. Stopped for lattes. I was thrilled to see an Anthropogie. I treated Hollie and myself to an apron each and bought some cute dishes too.

The following day we enjoyed the sunshine, put the roof down on the car and drove around Beverly Hills and Hollywood.

 

We then had the drive from hell to Anaheim (those LA roads are a nightmare). We met Ade's work collegue at our next hotel, The Sheriton in Anaheim. Him and his wife took us out for a lovely meal.

 They bought us back to the Sheriton where we settled in to our very big room before meeting up with the Cocoa Daisy girls.

 It was so good to meet the girls. We went for an Indian with Emily, Denise, Mandy and Sharmaine.

And the following morning we all met up for CHA.

I went around with Denise and Sharmaine. It was so much fun (despite the pounding headache that I had most of the day).

We met lots of people. I loved Elle from Elle's Studio. What a sweet lady!! She has some wonderful new things instore including paper lines : )

 

We loved Amy Tan and stopped to chat and do a make and take with her. I'm looking forward to her new book.

We stopped by to get messy with our lovely Ronda and admire and play with her new Crafters Workshop Masks.

We then all met up for a meal in the evening and had a good laugh back at the hotel together.

 

Ronda, Stephanie, Sharmaine, Mandy and Denise.

 Myself and Christine the owner of Cocoa Daisy.

The next day Christine, Mandy, Denise, Stephanie, Sharmaine and myself and Ade all had an IHOP breakfast together. The girls all then hit CHA again. It felt like even more fun this time.

 We did this in the photo booth.

And this with Dina Wakely.

 

We played with Claudine Hellmuth.

  

Then Denise, Stephanie, Sharmaine, Mandy, Ade and I went to Downtown Disney for some fun.

I have to say Ade fitted in so well with the girls and they seemed to love him too. He became one of us.

And I think after that evening none of us will ever look at lego in the same light again.
The lego store at Downtown Disney.

We had a lovely Italian meal whilst we were there and all came back for cocktails at our hotel.

Monday was then Denise's last day : (
We all had Starbucks together and a great Cocoa Daisy chat. We have just bonded so much and all had so many ideas that were bouncing between us. It felt like such a great team spirit.

We sadly saw Denise off and then breifly met Julie Tucker-Wolek. I can't find those photos right now, I think they were taken with the other camera. Julie was lovely just as I expected. Thanks for waiting for us Julie x

Ade and I went shopping for the rest of the afternoon and then met up at our hotel again in the evening for more drinks.

Starbucks again in the morning for our last time together. It was so sad having to say goodbye. I feel so close to these girls now : (
Ade and I had planned a day exploring the coast a little. It was roof down and lots of stop offs.

Newport Beach

 Laguna Beach

 Dana Point,

 We stopped at when Ade had worked a few years ago and went to the place he used to eat all the time and had ribs for lunch.

 

And we stopped off at the beach that was closest to him when he was out there. Aliso Beach.

The drive was really beautiful and this part of California was so much prettier.

And we loved our little Mustang.

We ended the day in the hot tub back at our hotel. It felt so strange with all the others gone.
In the morning it was time for us to leave too. Another hot tub (something that Ade and I had done every morning before meeting up with the others). We went to Starbucks for the last time and felt sad at our table without the others and then we headed out to Seal Beach for lunch before going to the airport.

There were dolphins swimming here near the pier.

And then the flight home which was easier than on the way out. We slept a little, it arrived an hour early and Matt le Blanc was on our flight and stood near us when we were waiting for the bags to arrive. Rather a pleasant ending : )

So as you can see it's been the perfect week and we have loved every minute.
Thank you to everyone who helped us do this. Parents who had our children, friends for helping after school, Christie and Simon for having Poppy Dog and to our lovely Cocoa Daisy friends.
Same again next year??????

Big hugs and love from
Lisa and Ade xxx

CHA Here I Come ....

Yes I am.. and I really can't believe it.
I am actually going to CHA!!!!

We leave for LA tomorrow morning. 
I'm so looking forward to meeting lots of my Cocoa Daisy girlies : ) 

Before I head off I wanted to share this LO I made for Louis who is turing 11 this month.
My baby boy.

I used my January Cocoa Daisy Kit. I love these colours.
I went into lots of detail on the process of how I like to make my LO's, you can see this blog post here at Cocoa Daisy if you fancy a look.

Well, we are packed and we've checked in online.
Ade is coming with me and we are starting with a couple of days in Santa Monica before we meet up with the others and then we plan to have a couple of days after CHA to explore a little further down the coast. Ade worked there quite a few years ago so wants to show me various places.
I haven't been to California since 1996, so it's been quite a while. Wow, I was 21 then. Such a long time ago : )

My inlaws are coming to look after the kids so they can continue their normal school routine and my Mum is coming to have them here over the weekend. We have lots of nice things planned for them but I still feel sick about leaving them : (
I love my babies.

Anyway, next time I check in here, I will hopefull have some lovely photos to show and tell.
Lots and lots of love
Lisa xxx

Happy Day - Cocoa Daisy

It's funny how sometimes looking back on a Happy Day can make you feel a little sad.
I scrapped booked this photo of the kids in Magic Kingdom.
The day was so perfect in everyway, I get butterflies just thinking about it.

We had a lazy morning and got to Magic Kingdom late morning. It was so so hot, early 90's.
We wanted to walk to Tomorrowland but stopped at The Aloha place for Dolewhips to cool us down so we could walk to the otherside of the park.
The rides were almost all walk ons, it was just so easy.
We left before the parade started and went for a swim at the resort and had a Disney dining reservation at Ohanas restaurant at the Disney Polynesian resort at 8.30pm where we saw the Magic Kingdom fireworks whilst we were eating.
A perfect day.

I used my January Cocoa Daisy kit again.
I got a new Crafters Workshop Stencil with the kit. This one here.
And this new Maya Mist.

Can you tell how much I am loving this kit???

River Adventure - Cocoa Daisy Sketch

Hello,

Are you ready for a scrappy challenge?
Have you scrapped much over the holidays?

Stephanie launched our Cocoa Daisy Sketch challenge yesterday.
I do love her sketches.

I made this LO last night using the sketch and my January CD kit.

I loved making all these layers with the bits and pieces mainly from the 'Elizabeth' addon.

I love the large foam Thickers, but grey was the wrong colour for this page so I brushed over them using a Prima Chalk Ink. I praise these inks so often. They really are wonderful and so so easy to use.

I also used the Prima Inks on some bubble wrap around the design along with the Raspberry Pie Ink on this grid background stamp.
 And lots of hand stitching whilst we sat watching 2 episodes of 24 last night.

We took these photos whilst we were in the Aquatica Water Park in Orlando.
We loved the rapid and the lazy river and kept going around and round. It was so much fun.

I really need to step away from this pc now.
I have so much work to do and a Christmas Tree to take down, which then means lots of cleaning : (
I love Christmas but don't like the clearing away after.

Don;t forget to check out Stephanie's sketch here.
You have until 14th Jan to play and the winner gets a $10 voucher to spend in store.

xxx

First Story of 2013 - Cocoa Daisy

It has to be a silly one, doesn't it?!!
: )

I was so pleased when my January Cocoa Daisy Kit finally arrived on 31st December.
Poor Christine, sent it out priority on the 12th : (
I was just relieved to get it though and have been happily scrapping since.
I LOVE this kit.
It's called 'Pemberley'. It has some beautiful soft tones with the added touch of spice.
I really do love it.

So when I got scrapping, I knew I wanted to use the October Afternoon sticker sheet for a story. I was thinking along the lines of a conversation, but couldn't think of one.
Then I thought it would be really fun to tell the story of the Christmas Morning Text.
Here it is:

It all gets a little crazy when my sister is around and I always end up reverting to my old childhood self. We have such a laugh together.

When I received a text from my sister early Christmas morning showing me a photo of Millie in her new leotard I instantly started laughing and ran upstairs to the kids dressing up box as I have the same leotard from when I did ballet. The leotard is age 8 but I still manged to squeeze in to it and Hollie photographed my doing the same pose and we text it straight back saying that I got the same leotard from Santa.

 Hollie and I were in fits of giggles, Louis though was just looking at me like ''what on earth are you doing now???''

There is lots of MME in this months kits which makes me very happy : )
And I got the 'Elizabeth' addon which has these Pink Paisley words and journal bits.
I love the word 'Seriously' that was in it. A word that Hollie uses all the time.

So there you go.
My first silly story of 2013.
Hopefully the first of many : )

I'm going to continue with this kit tonight. Stephanie set the new Sketch challenge today here.
So I've just printed some pics for this. I have another story to tell.

Thank you for the kind comments re my fave LO's of 2012.
I hope 2013 has been kind to you so far.
xxx

My 2012 Faves

Happy New to you.
I hope you've had a lovely Christmas and have been enjoying all the festivities.
Just a little note to say thank you for visiting my blog this year and I hope you have a wonderful 2013 : )

Here's my favourites from 2012.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Lots of love Lisa xxx