Let us entertain you!

The Monkey Players are proud to present...........Credit Crunch Panto!

A tale of night duties and fairy dust,  sleep deprivation and good souls and of course lashings of chocolate!

Starring :

Big Monkey as The Reindeer King

Sarah Monkey as Art the Elf

Fopsy Monkey as the pantomime Dame

Small Monkey as The Sheriff

Tiny Monkey as Santa's Little Helper

and

Miss Monkey as Glitterfairy

Credits to:

 Miss K Hadfield for her designs.

The Commissioner's paper, photocopier and Time

Big Monkey for titles.

 

Feel free to enjoy!

xx

Farewell my summer love

So far so good, it's been quiet at work so I have had a bit of a scrapping frenzy and caught up on some of our summer holiday pics. It's seems quite strange scrapping in the cold and the dark in the wee hours when summer seems so long ago. The memories didn't warm me up though - had to rely on a cup of tea and a chocolate Freddo for that. 

I feel like scrapping some winter pics but don't have any new ones of the monkeys just yet, so am rummaging back through iphoto to see what I have missed out on from this year before we get to next year and a whole new set of adventures. I have been naughty though and been online shopping at a fab American store and ordered some goodies - why do they have so much more choice than we do, and half the price generally too?? Oops, now I feel guilty - it's a good job I got paid lots of overtime last month, sadly won't be in the paypacket til next month. I'd better glue my paypal account up until January, and keep scrapping to clear some space for all this new stash!!

In need of festive cheer!!

As soon as I saw these gorgeous digital designs by Katie Hadfield I just knew that I would use them somewhere. Now I don't do digital scrapping - I love the cutting and glueing far too much and I am also a techno nerd - I wouldn't know where to start with a digi page, so I had to resort to the good old printer and scissors technique!!

 Apart from cutting out all the characters and letters this is probably the quickest layout I've done in a long time and I love it! My monkeys in true festive spirit - doing what they do best - dressing up in silly hats for me and my camera, while we were shopping for crimbo decs!!!

Gotta love em!!

Scary Monsters!

Ahh - not the best weekend, a few old demons came out of the woodwork and raised their ugly heads. After one fun filled day of stash and Christmas dec window shopping, a bottle of wine and it all went down the pan! ( The wine was yummy though)

Onwards and upwards, here we are again at the start of another set of night shifts and I am hoping that the cold weather, (and boy is it cold out there), will keep the work gremlins indoors so I don't get called out! I have a couple of half finished layouts to complete and a whole new one about to materialise in front of my eyes.

The fun family day out didn't happen - it has been postponed until the 6th, so you will have to check back to see what capers the monkeys get up to next!

Winter Wonderland

Another week draws to a close and the weekend is here - hurrah!!!

It's going to be cold, very cold and our woolly hats are at the ready, although we may not make it out anywhere too exciting to play in them. 

The fair in the park is open from today and we will be sure to end up visiting it again, but probably one evening next week. There is nothing more Christmassy than a glass of mulled wine watching all those clever people who can ice skate!!

I for one intend to settle down quietly this evening, in the warm with a  bottle of wine and my  feet up, watching all the catch up tv that I have missed this week and sketching little ideas in my notebook ready to scrap next week!!!

Living in the fast lane

Sometimes life just seems to whizz by you like a fast car, that certainly seems the way at the moment. I don't know where the time is going, but it's nearly time for another week of nights and hopefully lots of scrapping. This week has flown by, and leaving work tonight and seeing all the lights on along Oxford Street it has dawned on me that is also nearly Christmas and I haven't bought or organised a thing yet. Don't know where to start if I'm honest! 

Although we have the weekend off, I really fancy a family day out somewhere, so the Christmas shopping will have to wait another week or so. I have some little woolly hats that came with some smoothies and I can't wait to scrap them -  I have plans for them, but you will have to wait and see. 

Sunshine and love

Due to the lack of any sunshine just recently I got all nostalgic for the summer and the fun we had on our holidays. I must have been feeling all loved up too as I have scrapped a couple of layouts just recently that have been about big monkey and how wonderful he is? He never says much about them but I think he is quite chuffed, especially when he sees himself grinning back from my computer screen. 

He finds all this scrapping business a bit bemusing, and while he will happily follow me round the craft shops oooohing and aaahing with me when I find something exciting, he really only goes along to see what the other scrappers look like to see if they too behave like I do and sparkle with excess glitter 365 days of the year?Bless him, I do love him!!!

Pet vegetables??

Don't ask me where this one came from - I had some very odd dreams in the night!!

Continuing the pet names theme though - as  small monkey is nicknamed spud, (don't ask why) and what with him and his dad being so alike (2 peas in a pod) and both being carrot tops I am well on my way to my five a day. All I need is a banana and an apple in my lunchbox and I am there!!

This layout is my substitute autumn page, ( think Harvest Festival) as I never found those lovely golden trees to photograph. I did receive a lovely new cutting die in the post today though - see the 2 peas, and just had to try it out somewhere.

 The photo is of the monkeys larking about on a slide at the end of the summer, but don't believe for a moment that either of them was the least bit quiet and sleepy for long! That would really be a strange dream?

Pet names

We all have pet names for those we love, my monkeys are no exception. Sometimes the sources of those names are unexplainable, but if you have looked at my pages you will probably understand the reason for my lovely Orange-U-Tang's name.

Sometimes we do not always let our pets know how much we appreciate and love them. We do not always thank them for their patience and understanding, or tell them how much we miss them when they are not there.

 Sometimes they need a special page just for them, reams of journalling is not required, and a simple title will convey a little of what you feel for them.

Cute little bears!

Just time to make a few more before the new Martin Shaw drama starts tonight. Check out Jane Dean's blog for some yummy pics of him in costume!

Don't speak too soon.....?

As my days off draw to a close I finally managed to go and float - check out the London Float Centre if you want to give it a go.                       (It's fabulous!! ) That and a good catch-up with an old chum over a glass of wine and today there was no stopping me. I'm not entirely convinced my mojo has returned, but it is certainly spluttering slowly back to life. 

Just in time for a weekend back at work? Typical!

I have finally managed to scrap another page for big Monkeys' racing day - something I have been struggling with for weeks, and have also made a batch of Christmas cards. I know most of you probably made yours weeks ago, but November is about right in my hectic schedule!

No responses for Autumnal trees - does that mean they have all gone??

All the leaves are brown

Is it Autumn or is it Winter?

Can anyone help me please?

 Last time I had a weekend free I headed off to Dorset, camera in my sticky mitt, determined to take oodles of lovely photos of Autumnal trees begging to be scrapped.

 Could I find any? Not that weekend, everything was still gloriously green!!! 

This weekend the trees were waiting for me, glorious golds and oranges, ambers and browns - beautiful! Sadly, the weather was not camera friendly, although I did consider some rainy atmospheric shots along the M3 yesterday. Not really what I had in mind for an Autumn page, certainly not that picturesque either.

The weather then turned foul and was a real winter hit with cold and torrential rain, although today is again quite sunny and mellow - I even ventured out to wash my car and it is gleaming as the sun sets this evening.

Does anyone know where I could go to take some photos before all the trees are bare? 

Answers in the comments box please?

Waterlogged?

Look at the weather!!!

We drove back from a lovely weekend in Bournemouth today, did I say drove, sorry I meant to say hoverplaned!  The rain was so heavy and there was so much water on the road that we felt as if we were underwater at times.  We did manage to get home safely in the end, via parents evening, at which small monkey got a glowing report. (We were very proud of him). But still the rain is pouring and I am glad that I don't have to go to work in it in the morning. I am going to stay indoors in the warm and either finish making my Christmas cards or scrap, scrap, scrap to my hearts content.

Bonfire Night

We've just got back from watching the fireworks on the common. The finale was quite good but the general display was a bit disappointing. Luckily we didn't have far to go. As usual I took loads of photos, but only a handful of them came out and I have been quite ruthless in deleting them. If you have been to a display this week I hope you enjoyed it.

Grumbly Monkey!

The week of nights ended in a frenzy, as always seems to be the way, and I am exhausted! Finishing late on Monday always has a knock on effect, but I consoled myself that after visiting my local 'Do-Crafts' stockist, I would spend my day off devouring the new Creativity magazines that came out at the weekend.

I have been all over South London this morning, big monkey in tow - (grumbling co's it was raining but after being bribed, and with a McD's breakfast in his tummy a wee bit happier), but could we find a copy anywhere? They were either sold out or hadn't been delivered yet? How disappointed am I? - I didn't even buy any stash!!! How unimpressed was the monkey?

Usually I go for a 'float' to recover my senses and my mojo, once a month is generally enough, but I may have to book a double session this time round? You will find me in a warm, dark tank, dreaming of new layouts to make.............

Rewind

No time to scrap tonight, but I did see loads of leftover ghouls from yesterday still roaming the streets of London, so I thought I would share our Halloween pics from last year - when work didn't interfere with our fun!

If you look down to the slideshow - assuming you haven't already, you will find a little wizard lurking amongst the magic, and some funny pumpkin heads too I think. 

Please feel free to leave comments - about anything you see here - I see my counter is going up but I don't know what any of you think???

PDQ ( Pretty darn quick!! )

PDQ papers are fab! I bought some eons ago because the colour mixes on them were beautiful and I thought they would inspire me. I didn't realise at the time what PDQ stood for!

So with a slowly returning mojo, I turned to my online photo cache to see what magic I could invoke.

 You'll know what I mean if I say too many photos, too little time?

As much as I enjoy photography, my passion vastly outgrows my ability to scrap, and I am often faced with the daunting task of which photos are actually to be used on the final layouts - there are just far too many to choose from!

That's why these papers are a godsend. I decided to scrap these shots with no idea about what to actually  do with them, but PDQ papers made it so darn easy! Another night duty, another layout. Enjoy.

Pumpkin 2008

 I didn't get much help with carving the pumpkin - in fact this is the only photo of me doing it. All the others were of funny faces being pulled, with me carving in the background? It managed to ward off something though, as I have had no ghoulish encounters so far this evening!!!