Snacking!

Not sure if I have shared this one with you, and am running out of new LO's to share as I haven't made any new ones lately!!
The elephants I cut out on Sunday are still parading across the table in the Zone, as it seems I cut far too many and now I can't choose which ones to use and how to use them on the LO!!
The idea I originally had in my head seems to have flown, or melted away in the lovely weather we are still having!??

Harry and Wills are not enjoying the heat so much I think? It seems to make Wills sleepier and Harry is now running riot around the flat trying to find new cool not-allowed spots to hide in! The picket fence is all but decoration now as he has learnt to either head butt it and crawl underneath or just run at it and jump over the top!!
The latest casualty is my NEW set of fairy lights that I bought to replace the last ones he chomped!!!

I have a little paddling pool for them which Harry loves to fish frozen peas and sweetcorn out of but Wills runs back behind a cushion to hide from it!! We tried it in the garden when visiting Grannywen and it seemed a good idea at the time? We've tried it indoors but it's not so much fun!!

Enjoy whatever you are doing to keep cool
:)
xx

A slow roast!

By which I mean me, sat in the garden and desperately trying to turn my legs the same rich brown that my arms seem to be at the moment!! I was very good and wasn't sat doing nothing, I've been cutting out elephants all day!!
Cutting what? I hear you ask.
Well yesterday my chum invited me along to the Royal Chelsea Hospital where the Elephant parade herd are squatting for the weekend. He knew I wanted to get some pics of them and so off we went, camera in hand and shot away! They looked fabulous on parade....

although there were a lot of people there so it was quite hard to get a shot of all of them as they were hidden behind the people. 

I didn't photograph them all as to be honest I didn't like the way some of them painted, but these have got to be some of my faves....

Just need a bowl of cream??

Need I say more???

This little cutie came all the way from Poole, near where I grew up and I followed her progress on her blog!

So colorful and happy!

I even got to whizzy trip to Westfield shopping centre where all the indoor elies are grazing and got a few pics of those too. I have now cut out about 40 of them and they are coming to a LO near you soon!!

The LO today is another of me as a littley, always had matching shoes and handbag - still do!! Enjoy!

                                              ***************************************

As a final point, if YOU are still reading this blog to be nosey about my life (and YOU know who YOU are) please go away and stop leaving me sarcastic comments which I have to delete.
Isn't it about time you got on with your own life!!!?

Nesting, and from the garden!!

Isn't wifi wonderful??

I love that I can sit in the garden and squint at the screen of my laptop and reach out to you lovely people whilst enjoying this heatwave !

And...for once I can actually enjoy is as I am NOT working, have nowhere particular to be and can just........sit!!

It's rather fab!

Having said that, I was off yesterday too and had the urge to get down to Homebase to purchase some little plants for pots on my patio. I bought some lavender, a small pink rose , some begonias and a lily - they look lovely and the lavender smells divine! 

 I also got the urge to buy some little tester pots and have now painted a wall in my lounge green - as a feature. It's only a small wall so it only took 3 tester pots to do it but it looks fab! I am going to re arrange some of my pictures, add some new green cushions to my sofa to replace the ones that Harry n Wills have munched, and voila - new lounge!

I decided that if I am going to spend so much time in it due to lack of vehicle I would have a revamp as I have been here nearly 4 years and magnolia is just so dull.........feeling that merging into blandivity again!!

I also ended up buying a new bookcase, which involved moving furniture around to fit it in, and a serious tidy up of the Zone!! It was much needed, both as a measure to stop all my stash oozing across the floor and also to prevent young Harry frolicking in it on his evening adventures!?

I am very pleased with the end result, makes the room look huge, but that may be because you no longer have to carefully step between the mounds of paper and stash on the floor, the picket fence and other ratty toys!!

I now have two days to just sit and relax.

Enjoy your weekend too

xxxx

Another wedding!

Apologies for my lack of blogging but to be honest there is not much to say at the moment and I just feel really down. Work is busy and gets me through the days and little Wills and Harry make it all seem ok when I get home, but that's as far as it goes!

I haven't done anything crafty co's I haven't been in the mood, although I did make these as one of the girls at work is getting married on Saturday and wanted some help with her table names. She wanted to use photos of places that she regularly runs with her hubby to be, so I came up with these.
Excuse the terrible pics, they were made very late last night and photographed very quickly this morning.

There are nine in total, all equally as pretty and the ribbons are the colours of her wedding - I even managed quite by chance to match her flowers. I am quite pleased with my effort and I think she was too. I hope she has a lovely day on Saturday  - she deserves it!!

The card is also based on the one I made for my little bro's wedding but much much simpler - at two o'clock this morning I was all crafted out and couldn't manage much more. I was going for the simple elegant look?

On a lighter note - I did manage to struggle to get them in to work today to give them to her - don't forget I cycle in - in the end I packaged the place cards up in a Shreddies box so they didn't get bent or squashed, hung it across my chest in a drawstring type sport bag whilst my usual work stuff filled rucksack bulged on my back and headed off - you'd have laughed if you saw me, I looked like a bag lady!!!

New Beginnings and Sad Endings!

Everyone seems to have had a great weekend, especially Sj and the gang - have you seen that tea party? Brilliant!!

After a few computer hitches I can finally share my weekend, excuse the long post but I am a few days behind.....

Well, my little bruv got married and it went a little something like this.......................

........he arrived in style, roof down as the weather was glorious!

.....although Grannywen had a spot of bird poo removing to do!!!  

I got the other side of the lens for a brief moment - just to prove I was there!!!!!

The button holes arrived and were affixed to the right people.

And we sat and waited nervously (no, not really) in the church for the Bride to arrive.

She was only slightly late and the ceremony passed without a hitch.

 and they all lived happily ever after so we danced for joy at such a happy day!!

The Bride and Groom travelled to the reception at the country house hotel in style and my enjoyment of the day was enhanced with a ride in this too

We enjoyed champagne and canapes on the lawn and larked about for photos

some of us more than others - really got into the swing of things!!!

There were some sweet, romantic moments

And it was all rounded off nicely with delicious food, speeches, new friends, good company, dancing and best of all......cake!!! (the little choccy ones were yummy!)

It was the perfect day for a lovely couple and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Sadly my weekend did not stay so jolly!
Beloved little Wondercar was booked in for some repair work to get her through her MOT

Everything looked good and it seemed that it wouldn't cost as much as I had dreaded to get the work done.

But then, shock, horror, the phonecall came through that said she was beyond help and was to be written off! 

I cried and cried - I love little Wondercar!

To many people this will seem an over reaction beyond all proportion, but to me this is devastating news!!

  Wondercar is my pride and joy and one of the few things in my life that give me joy and make it seem bearable when I'm alone and trying to get through the day. I don't have anyone to hug me at the end of a crappy day, or a cute cottage in the country, but I had my Wondercar and she and I had some great adventures. She is part of what makes me - me, and now without her, aside from the fact that I am now stranded without wheels, (with no funds to replace them in any shape or form) and my independance gone, I feel like another part of me has been stripped away. I can't really describe it, but those who know me will know how gutted I am!

Grannywen kindly lent me her car to come home, but I felt numb driving up the M3 as I melted into the bland drone of normal-car-ness and felt myself blend into nothing amongst the other road users. With all that has happened this year I am not sure I know who I am anymore? There's really not much of the old me left??!

Forgive me - I am still in mourning and will be for some time!

The night before

Quick post today cos I'm down at Grannywens for the weekend, my stepbrother is getting married tomorrow!

Here is the card I made for him and his future wife inspired by a gorgeous but simple one that the talented Lisa had made! I confess to not being very good at cards but the simplicity of this one meant that not even I could mess it up!!

Hopefully the weather will hold, it's been lovely here this afternoon even if I did sleep through most of it with a hideous migraine?

Will share some pics afterwards. Enjoy your weekend xx

Posted from my iPhone

A trip down memory lane

After twittering on about nothing much in yesterdays post cos nothing much had happened, I then got a phone call from a super fun chum and we popped out for a quick spin in this......



We popped to Waitrose for some end of the day bargains and then had a cruise up town and along the river. It was a lovely evening after the earlier rain and we posed in sunglasses with the roof off to visit this




a super cute elly at the Chelsea Pensioners home and then after waving at Liz and cruising down the Mall where there were flags a plenty for trooping the colour and even several horses as they did a practice run, we waved at Ben before toodling back home.

London really is a fab city you know - I love living here!





It was great fun and we drove past places that I hadn't been to for years, a real trip down memory lane!

Speaking of which, I don't know why I had the sudden urge to scrap this photo - it popped into my head after rediscovering this yellow floral paper in my stash and it instantly made me think of it - something to do with my little yellow dress I think, but the photo, yes is me, when I was quite small as you can see, and a family friend gave me a Black Jack - remember those?

Well I do - never forgotten it, co's I didn't like it then (hence the black sticky mess I was in) and I don't now!!??

Still can't believe I was once blonde!!

Enjoy! xx

Double trouble!

I am being extra generous tonight and sharing both of these because I have been so productive of late and made many new layouts and because I have nothing very exciting to write about!!!

Can't really scrap one without feeling like I've left the other out, but as all Willie does is sleep most of the time there are only so many cute sleepy pages I can make!! Harry on the other hand has many small adventures so be sure to watch out for the upcoming pages featuring his antics!!

It is only Tuesday but feels like it should be at least Thursday by now and work has been busy but not too exciting. Tomorrow I have to go to Hendon for some ELS - emergency life support training, which I hate and also can't understand why we can't do it locally rather than sit/sleep on the Northern Line for at least an hour to get there!!! Hummph!

Today I got absolutely soaked cycling home and had to console myself with several ginger cream biscuits, but my newly repaired bike is super whizzy and it took less time than it normally does despite the downpour!

Have some super LO's to share over the next few days and shock horror - they don't all feature ratties!! I had a decidedly vintage theme running briefly this weekend, so prepare to laugh at some pics of me as a littl'un !!?

Toodlepip!

xxx

Sunshine and rain!

Hope you've all had a good weekend?

Looking round your blogs it seems that we've all been pretty productive in one way or another.

This weekend I have managed to complete a few little layouts, get my hair cut, finally sort out and cure my chiminea so that I can use it, sit in the garden albeit briefly, hoover the flat, wash the sofa cushions and even have a fitness session on the common!

Phew!

Sounds exhausting but has in fact been a quite relaxing weekend!

There has also been some of this stuff too - rain - quite suddenly and unexpectedly at times, but happily equal amounts of sun as well!

This LO was made with the May showers kit from Gogo, and I scraplifted the idea of the glass gems on the raindrops from someone else's layout, but I really liked how they looked!

Kevin Costner is about to remove his Robin Hood tights so am off to bed now!

Night night

xxx

'Spensive!!!

Expensive month for me that is!!

:(

It's a good job that my job gives me the (frequent) opportunity to earn some overtime!

But then boy do I work for it, double shifts, quick changes, no sleep, it's not at all how the media report that we get paid for 4 hours for making a phone call 5 mins after our shift ends!

I wish!!

Anyhoo, asides from MOT being due for the wondercar in two weeks and lots of welding needing to be done to keep her on the road for another year - ouch! Trusty bike also had to go to the cycle doctor today, and ended up needed a new gear cartridge thingy and a new chain!

Another ouch!

I can't grumble co's it was hideous having to go to work on the bus this morning and even worse coming home, three hours later than planned as a new job had come in! If it hadn't been for having to leave to collect my bike this evening I would probably still be at work now at half past ten!! I so love cycling to work these days - it's worth the money!

As it was, I spent an hour on the phone dealing with another job whilst I looked forlornly on as my fresh Terriyaki chicken slowly cooled on my kitchen worktop!!!!

All I can say is that Harry and Wills enjoyed the cold beans!!

I lost my appetite after that and had to console myself with some Colin the Caterpillars!! Luckily Harry doesn't like those and Wills was half asleep by then, stuffed full of green beans!

Am planning a lazy weekend in the garden and some scrapping, a few more Mojitos to keep me cool and those creative juices flowing!!

I daren't go out - can't afford to now!

xxx

The early bird........

.......catches the worm or so they say................that would be great if you liked Tequila, but as my current addiction is for the Mojito that's not quite so good, and "The early bird catches the lime", doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it???

I have to say, the only, the ONLY good thing about getting up at sparrow fart for a frosty cycle to work is that it means on lush sunny days like today I get to come home at 3pm and sit in the garden and enjoy said quickly put together Mojito whilst lapping up the last few hours of sunny rays - yummy!

All I needs now is an ice crusher and a cocktail shaker, (yep 70's girl thru and thru!!) and my Mojito on the patio would be perfect.

Maybe I could add them to my wedding list if I ever make one??

:(

Anyways, todays toil passed uneventfully and now here I sit, having managed to photograph my mini scrapathon, and am enjoy the birdsong, yummy cheesy profiterole nibbly things from Waitrose, aforementioned cocktail and I feel like I am Queen of the world - shame I have to go to work tomorrow really?

This LO was made rather hastily last night after Grannywen sent me the pic in response to my Busy Bee LO the other day.

Didn't realise I'd been caught in action, but will repay the compliment in LO form as soon as I have thought of a suitable title!!

By the way, do you like my little pencil case?

Part of my stash from Paperchase the other week but it rather niftily now houses all my camera extras - batteries and memory cards etc.

Fab don't you think?

Well enjoy the rest of your evening, am off to refill my glass!

hugs xxx

Overflowing with creativity!

You may recall this photo from the other week after I visited Batemans with Grannywen and Papajohn. I got round to scrapping it along with several others during my mini scrapathon this weekend.

I just love that Rudyard Kipling's rubbish bin looks like mine - overflowing!!

I now feel suitably creatively stuffed and even managed a couple of quick layouts this evening too.

So, how's your week going?

Having worked the BH Monday I feel knackered already and can't wait for the weekend - I hear that the weather should be better so hope to get out in the garden and catch some vitamin D rays? I hope too that it will mean I can photograph all the pages I have been making so I can share them with you!

Toodlepip!