Test run!

     

 

  I love my new camera! It's going to take some getting used to and there were a few rubbish shots taken this afternoon while I experimented and got used to the weight of such a huge zoom, but it's a very enjoyable learning curve.

I gave my old Fuji to big monkey and he too produced some great shots - mainly of me playing but some others too.

We wandered around by the river and then up into Chinatown - it's the eve of the chinese new year so lanterns and tourists galore! 

We couldn't resist a visit to Won Kei's for tea, then wandered back across the river towards Waterloo. The temperature had dropped considerably so apart from a quick photo stop on Hungerford Bridge we didn't really hang about.

Back home for a warming cup of tea and an upload to see what we had produced. I am very pleased with my shots but realise I need to read the manual a bit more to get the most out of this fab bit of kit! There are certainly a few scrap pages that will materialise from this afternoons adventure. In fact I'm off to start now................

Bubbley Monkey!

Hurrah - the weekend! 

Am off out shortly, big monkey and I are going to play grockles up town and try out my new camera. I just thought I'd leave you with this fun layout which I made last weekend in case it takes me a while to upload all my new style pics and scrap them!

Oh by the way - 1 more sleep til Stamperama!

xx

Treeeeeeeat!!

Hurrah!

It's finally in my sticky little mitts!

There are not many good sides to my job. I deal with some nasty people in some truly horrendous situations and it is not all laughs and fun - far from it. 

I work some weird and wonderful shifts and alongside some absolute muppets, but do you know what? 

I love my job!

 A plus point for tolerating all the above is a nice little bonus that the government deems fit to award us once a year, and believe me when I say we earn every penny! As this is the first year that I have qualified to receive it, I thought that aswell as clearing some debts I deserved a little treat - well, quite a big one really.

Here it is.

My lovely lovely lovely Canon DSLR.

AND a lovely Sigma 300mm lens to play with.

Ooooooooh!

I cannot describe how excited I am!  

Roll on saturday when I can go out and try it out properly.

Catch up with you soon..............I'm off to read some manuals!!!

xx

Weary Wednesday!

Nothing of note to report today, I'm tired, fed up of going to work and want to scrap instead! 

I miss my monkeys and can't wait til the weekend!

1 more sleep til my treat arrives!

1 more sleep til a monkey snuggle!

4 more sleeps til Stamperama!

Not overly happy with this layout and will probably end up scrapping this pic again with a different title and design cos I love it, but it was made with LOVE and fantastic PDQ paper! 

My new Scrapbook Magazine has arrived and I am itching to devour it from cover to cover, but will wait til the bus ride to work tomorrow and try to remember to get off the bus?

Lily Charlotte is very cute - saw a picture of her today, and her mommy liked the card I made. Also very cute is the latest pic of gorgeous Martha that Katy Godbeer has on her blog. I love those doggies, their faces are sooo expressive. Katy is a lucky girly! Go check out her stuff - it's fab!  xx

Welcome Lily Charlotte

Another uneventful day at work - hurrah!

Here's the decoupage card that I made for my friend's new baby, it went in the post today so I hope she likes it?

Two more sleeps til my treat arrives - woohoo!

Five more sleeps til Stamperama - never been before and am getting quite excited? Not that Stevenage is that exciting but I won't be looking outdoors will I?!

xx

Bring me sunshine...........

I don't often scrap me if I can help it, but scrolling through all my unscrapped pics at the weekend this little set jumped out at me whilst the rain pelted the window outside.

Ahhh the summer, warmth and sunshine. It won't be too long til it's here, and the sun did try to peak out at us today, but sadly I was at work so only got a squinting glimpse of it while on the bus on the way in! 

Don't get me wrong, I love my job - I just hate going to work. Sadly we are not rich enough for me to sit at home all day and scrap scrap scrap, neither am I a designer who gets lovely free stash and gets to sit at home all day and scrap scrap scrap. 

Maybe one day if I get good enough?

A girl can dream can't she?

Today was calm and uneventful, which is always good in my line of work, but coming home on the bus just now and boy has it gone cold again! The electric blanket is now firing up, (big monkey is at the country nest so not there to snuggle with) and I am catching up with everyone's blogs . I am quite excited as I have a little treat arriving tomorrow, well, quite a big treat really, but well deserved for all these unsociable hours I have to work and lack of scrapping time. I will show you what it is when I have unpacked it and lovingly stroked it for several hours.  It is my bit of sunshine in an otherwise grim week!  Take care xx

Inspirational words

I did it!

Many hours later I have produced three layouts to share with you, starting with this one.

Much to his delight, small monkey did get his Christmas wish of a Playstation and we have now lost him to  the cyber world of crashing cars ( Big Monkey likes the real thing). Last weekend was punctuated with the roar of wheels and crashing vehicles, only interupted by Big Monkeys groans of frustration as he lost yet again in the Demolition Derby game. 

"What are you playing?" I asked, knowing the answer full well but trying to be included in boys world.

 "Dabolition" responded small monkey, and a page was born! 

Also born yesterday, Lily Charlotte at 6lbs 14. Congratulations to Becky and Martin. You know what I am going to be doing this afternoon!!

I love to scrap..............

....................really I do, I just don't seem to have done any for ages!!!

That's all about to change!

I have a day off to myself, I've done the shopping, finished my chores, tidied the zone from all the card making I have done and I'm ready to scrap.

All my sale parcels have arrived, I have stash coming out of my ears ( even though there's always more lovely papers and rub ons that I want to buy) and I'm ready to go................

and here's the thing - I don't know what to scrap!

I have looked through my photos and am completely bereft of ideas for the moment - aaarrgh!!!

Have a look at some more of the cards I have made recently while I go off to surf for some inspiration! They don't have any sentiments on them as yet - will add them when they get sent to recipients so that they have the right wording on them! xx

xx

My cards

Made using Rachelle Anne Miller stamps and my new Nestabilities scalloped dies and Papermania cards.

Endless Love

Man Oh Man, it took me til Sunset today to get this to you and in a Round a Bout way I think you will agree it Rocks Boys!!

WoooHooo!

The long awaited Sizzix order came today, and I didn't even mind that the delivery man went to the wrong flat and woke me up in the middle of the day (my night)! It really was a tremendous sale with some huge bargains which is why I kinda went a bit mad. 

Now I really am desperate to do some scrapping, but with my new style night shifts this is not possible  so I consoled myself with some card making instead. I intend to make more of an effort with my cards this year and have even bought some new stamps in the sales, heck, if I make too many then I will flog them at the school fair!!

Whimsy!

Well she doesn't really live in a shoe, she was just visiting one!

I had to scrap these photos that a friend of Grannywen's sent to me. They are such great shots and I immediately thought of the nursery rhyme as a title. Obviously I had to alter the title as I don't think said friend is at all old! Hope you like it S ?

Funny day today - nothing happened as I was asleep after nights and although I did some rubber stamping last night and a bit of painting of them with my H2O's, I didn't get much done!

Will see what I can produce before I go to work tonight for you. xx

Blue Monday?

Hello! 

Apologies for being somewhat absent the last week, but have been working non-stop and frankly haven't been near the zone at all! 

On top of that have had a yukky head cold ( I think I caught it from Kirsty W sneezing on her monitor last week!!) and haven't been up to much at all.

The eagerly awaited Sizzix lettering DID NOT arrive on Friday as expected, it was a huge order of glue tape pens I had placed in a sale, so not very exciting at all, and really it was Blue Friday not the Monday that everyone is moaning about today!

 Have been at the country nest this weekend, so still no crafting, although I did manage to get to some great local craft shops and spent my Christmas vouchers and now have some gorgeous glimmer mist which I will take into work with me to play with tonight. Will post what I create later in the week. I had a few new L/outs to show you but they have now been submitted to Scrapbook Inspirations again so I cannot post them for now, also some recent one have been removed from the blog as I have sent them to help fill a gap in a chipboard layout request from the mag and I just had to help. Big monkey doesn't get it, but it gives me such a warm glow to see my work in print. I don't mind not having a prize!

Right, off to sort out my stash to take to work, I intend to glimmer mist the whole office, so maybe it will be a blue Monday after all? xx

Gone frosty?

What's going on with the weather?

From bitterly cold which was uncomfortable and froze my toes, to this dull grey wetness! 

Yuk!

Some people were lucky enough to have had some snow recently, and also got to take some fabby photos (CJ), but even if we had blessed with the great white stuff, I have been hard at work for 9 days on the trot now so wouldn't have been able to play in it anyway!

I did manage to rustle up this little number last night, was too tired really and my mojo was struggling, but am quite pleased with it. You can't see the sparkle I have added with Stickles which looks lovely in real life. I didn't want to overdo the frost topic either, and wanted childlike colours for small monkey. The ghost lettering is my fave though!

Roll on Friday - I have the whole weekend off and am looking forward to  some scrapping. Also my order from Ellison should be arriving. I went mad in their sale and should have lots of lovely new lettering to use in my new Cuttlebug landing on the doorstep. 

I still haven't seen my friend Oscar, but there are some lovely people out there with poorly pets at the moment and my heart goes out to them. I miss my best friend Ralph, who lives with his Grannywen now, and hope that he is feeling loved and well at the moment. Hopefully I will get to see him soon. Much love xx

Snuggles and cuddles

Ooh it's so cold outside.

 I'm snuggled under my Narnia blanket alone on the sofa. I haven't seen my little polish cat friend who I call Oscar for weeks now. I think his mummy caught him coming out of my flat and he's not been allowed out since? It's like having an affair, all this sneaking around, but we love our cuddles together.  It's all he comes round for! I'll be honest and say I miss him. All of you with your own moggies and babies out there - give them a hug from me on this cold night! xx

There was also a fair amount of corruption...............

which I am sure was increased by the low level of our wages.

Ha ha - this is sooo funny. A game I am playing from Kate Hadfield's blog - follow the rules below. People are going to wonder what books we are all reading?

I am sure I am going to have to try to come up with a layout to match it now!!!

Watch this space.....................................

Rules:

Pick up the nearest book, right now!

Go to page 56.

Find the 5th sentence.

Write that sentence in your title.

Copy these instructions as a comment on your title.

Don't get your favourite book or the best one, just the one nearest to you right now!

Play on xxx

Soggy tails from the past!

Whilst my printer was ink - less I played about with these snaps I had in a box. I'm not normally one for 'hidden' photos, but this layout required that they were included or lost forever!

The journalling, which is also hidden reads as follows;

" I can't even remember when these photos were taken, sometime around 2002 or 2003 I think. Ralph and I went for a weeks holiday in Devon. We (I) booked a cottage on a farm and spent the week on Dartmoor and along coastal paths enjoying the walking and just being together!

The weather wasn't great and neither of us minded, but this day was particularly awful. I vaguely remember driving near to the prison at Princetown, and having just hooked out my Dartmouth pathfinder walking maps book to double check, I see a handwritten entry on the page for this walk saying " Attempted 28/01/03 - Bad weather!!"

I remember that it was a bit damp when we set out that morning, but not enough to stop Ralph wanting to go exploring. We loaded up my rucksack with water, doggy bowl, camera, mars bars, waterproofs and scooby snacks and set off

According to the guide book this walk was supposed to take 5 hours to complete. I think we walked for about 3 before I decided to heed the guidebook warning that this route should not be attempted in bad weather without good experience of those conditions and a compass. Looking at the dark clouds rolling in I decided against being stranded on Dartmoor in a storm with no-one knowing where we were!

(The middle photo shows Ralph's reluctance to 'go back the way he had come'. He lagged behind for ages in a sulk!)

I do remember walking back to the car very very quickly with my sulky friend behind me, as the storm was closing in fast, and of course we got caught in it long before we reached the car park. I think we swam most of the last hour, and you can see from the photo that Ralph was indeed very soggy! We were both soaked to the skin but laughing and wagging our tails (eventually). It was a relief ( and a bribe) to sit in the car and eat our sandwiches whilst we dripped onto towels!"

The colours of the LO look a bit odd here, but blame my Fuji for that - common problem with it!! The dark clouds can clearly be seen and yes they were that dark xxx

Scrapbook Publication

Woohoo!

I am sooo excited!

For those of you who have followed my blog from the start (not that long really), you will know that it only came about because I was hoping to get published in a well known magazine and was sooo excited at the time.

Well, the time is now upon us.

Scrapbook Inspirations is just about out, issue number 49, and there on page 69 is my little layout. It was really a collaboration between big monkey and me - he made me a card and I scrapped it! I was thrilled to hear that it may get published in the mag, but even more excited when I knew the mag had arrived through the post this morning.

Wow! Something that I made, in print for the whole world to see. I am a very happy little scrapbunny! I may just have to go into the zone to scrap the magazine and how I am feeling right now!?

Couldn't resist!

I wasn't going to blog today, have been back in the zone and was just going to let you enjoy the last few layouts, but it's addictive this, and very theraputic!

This layout shouldn't really be shown here. I kind of had a request that the photo wouldn't be added to the blog, and it wasn't. Not as a photo anyway. No-one said anything about a whole layout???

Sorry Matt - couldn't resist!

Just like I couldn't resist not to go and run today after yesterdays spectacular effort, but the big monkey was awake and about before going to work night shift and I couldn't resist seeing him and then I couldn't resist going into the zone and then that chocolate orange that has survived since Christmas.......................!

Oh, temptation is a wicked thing! 

I will run tomorrow and have agreed to meet a chum to run with her on Thursday, so I will be good. These things need to be started slowly, but it's not a resolution for the new year, oh no, it's a return to the old me who slept well and didn't have a large cushion for a behind! I slept like a log last night!  Speaking of which, am off to bed. Nighty night xx

Lemon Zest!

I read in a magazine somewhere recently about a book called "When life gives you lemons". It's all about those photos that don't come out as well as you'd hoped, so they get left, unscrapped, and the event goes by without a layout to commemorate it.

Of course I bought the book -  I have a lot of those just not quite right photos - you know the ones where your 5 year old subject doesn't want to pose for you or you can't capture one of the candid shots that people like CJ always seem to manage?

Well - the book has changed my scrapping life!!!

I now look at all my photos with a different eye. They may not be the perfect shot, but they are still special and capture the moment even if in a slightly out of focus, head chopped off kind of way.  This layout is typical of that. The school play. Lots of small people running round, acting and singing their little hearts out, but not a decent photo taken of any of them. So what? You can still make a pleasing layout that will make you smile every time you look at it and remember the day! I now have a whole new set of layouts that I want to complete using my dodgy pics and they will all be absolutely fab!!!

Warming the cockles of your heart!

Monday morning, back to work, and freezing cold. Does January get any worse than this?

Probably!

I didn't sleep a wink last night, so am tired and grumpy, but when I got up at some unearthly hour to go to work this morning I looked out and it was a magical white wonderland outside! Sadly no time to take photos, and I remembered that I had left the camera in the car the night before anyway. Boy was it chilly sat on the bus. Even chillier atmosphere when I got to work - happy new year to you too guys - not!

The day passed quite unremarkably and without too much drama -  for me anyway, so I decided to get off my increasing butt and go for a run. The first in about 2 years. I didn't do too badly, ran for about 30 mins which wasn't too difficult but I nearly lost my ears to the cold! Am now back indoors, dinner in the oven, warming cup of tea on hand and reminiscing about happy times from last year and trying to decide how to scrap my end of 2008 layout? This layout was made in my scrapping frenzy last week, and just looking at it made me feel all warm and snuggly again.  xx

Important letters

I have been a busy little bee today, scrapping the last of the Christmas layouts, or at least trying to. My printer has now run out of ink and I don't have any spares, which is unlike me. This was my last day of play before returning to work on Monday, so to say I am not pleased is an understatement! 

I had some letters to write and some cards to make - not least a letter to complain to Parcel Force about the awol stash parcel from the US. Of course they didn't get done as I spent hours on t'internet looking for some replacement ink cartridges, and just happened to stumble on some online stash sales along the way!!

This layout is taken from our day at Hever, we sat in the little toadstool house and small monkey wrote to Santa. He is only five, but like all other little boys he wanted a Playstation, a Nintendo and a DS. One of his wishes came true, and we had a great game of monsters on Christmas morning. I was having too much fun myself to take any photos!!?

 I made the card, but haven't photographed it or my other layouts due to the poor lighting at this time of night. They will have to wait til the morning and I will upload them soon. We are off to the country nest tomorrow, via some errands, as we have a christening to go to on Sunday. Hope you enjoy your weekend, I'm off to bed. xx

Happy New Year!

What a great start to the New Year! 

We don't really do much, I'm not a big fan of this one night of the year, it's too expensive, too cold and I would much rather spend time with loved ones at Christmas.

Big monkey and I spent the perfect winter evening doing what we enjoy the most, some good wine, a great chinese takeaway, watching tv (big monkey) and scrapping (me). 

It may sound a bit naff but we were happy, just being together, singing along to Elton Johns New Year Party. Big monkey gave me a digi plus recorder and we finally got it to work yesterday (some problem with the signal at Crystal Palace), and to my delight I discovered what the red interactive button does - it gives you subtitles to sing-a-long programs like Top of the Pops! How cool is that?

We stayed up to watch the fireworks, which as usual weren't a patch on the Sydney ones and then went to bed. Well, I did for about two hours and then woke up again - strange noises in the garden (too much wine?) I peeked out of the window to find the 3 baby foxes, now teenagers, frolicking about and jumping on each other in the bushes outside my window. I was fascinated, and relieved as I thought the rent-o-kill man had found them last winter! I watched them for about an hour but sadly couldn't take any photos co's it was too dark. It was so lovely and peaceful, apart from the rustling of the bushes and I was thankful to be able to share the moment with them. Happy New Year!