Its beginning to feel a lot like....................

........2011 is running out fast!!Seriously where has this year gone?This time last year I was at the French Market in Lille and uber excited at going to be going to the USA on Monday!!In comparison, this week this year I have gotten very drunk on mulled wine at the bavarian Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, and spent the most amazing 24 hours with my USA Marshall on his flying trip to London!
I have put up my little tree and hung some decs up around the flat and am sat snuggled on my sofa with yummy candles burning looking forward to the Strictly semi final!Sadly no crafting for months!!Life has been pretty busy and hectic but sooo much fun. Burning the candle at both ends for weeks and for once its not all work work work although of course that has featured too :)On Thursday night I even spent an hour directing traffic in the pouring rain as there had been an accident in my road and there was no-one to help. Barney, who has had the sniffles, and I were on our way back from the vet. Poor little dude, sat in my car surrounded by flashy lights while mummy got soaked to the skin, he didn't really understand what was going on!!

Yesterday I spent the day as tourist guide and thoroughly enjoying the city, showing my US friend around. We had a lovely day and finished it off with a visit to the ballet. The tickets have been booked for months and I was going with the girls, but one dropped out last minute so my guy was able to come along. Matthew Bourne is a fantastic choreographer, quite modern and this version of the Nutcracker was fabulous as always. Not the usual choice for my rufty tufty American hunkster, but he is into music and the arts too and so thoroughly enjoyed himself!!


Bless him though, he wasn't quite prepared for the cold despite me telling him to pack a warm coat, and spend the day clutching at hot chocs and me for warmth!! Obviously I wasn't complaining :)

Sadly crafting has fallen by the wayside. I am soooo behind with scrapping and getting my photos sorted its not funny!! Maybe that will be my New Year resolution to get back into it and stop forgetting my blog!!??? I am sure that come cold January that will all change as I sit snuggly indoors and look for things to do?
Promise I won't be away so long next time  :)

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At last some craft!!!

Ha ha, I've been absent again after all my good intentions :(
I really don't know where the time has gone ??

I have been busy nesting and sorting out my flat - will share some pics when I am next home and able to photograph the 'after' ones!

I have been getting fed up with my poppy crumpling up on my coat this week so decided to emboss it with different pink red and gold utee this evening!!
Am quite pleased with the result, What do you think??


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Still catching up!!

Hi All, still trying to catch up with sorting and organising my photos to share my recent adventures with you. I just don't know where this year has flown too - it's Halloween already this weekend and I am still back in the summer in my head!!!

Another couple of art journal pages to share with you in the meantime. I went off the page a little and used some fab artwork I found which I added to my backgrounds and then journalled on.

For some reason I found making the backgrounds the most enjoyable, as I can be expressive with colour and shape. I'm not so good when it comes to writing down my thoughts and feelings, but then I guess I'm like that in real life too??

You can't really see in this one but it is full of texture too as I found some fab granular stuff and micro bead gesso in an art shop in Clapham!!

So, what am I up to at the moment??

As if I don't have enough to do I find myself in a nesting mood and have just started to reorganise and decorate my lounge! It must be something about the time of year, I feel the need to make my home comfy and cosy, and if I'm honest, as much as I love my craft area it has taken over somewhat and I need to tidy it all away and spend time in a grown-ups lounge not a play room!!!

I have taken some before photos and will share when the transformation is over, although with all the crafty stash to sort through it may take me all weekend!!!

Happy Halloween!

xxx

Seriously? How long???

I am a terrible blogger!!

I am a terrible scrapper!

I am a terrible artist!!

I have not indulged in any of the things I love doing for absolute eons, and that's because I have just been so damn busy!!!

:)

I have done loads and photographed loads and not even started to upload my pics let alone sort them out to share with you or send them off to be printed, and now there are sooooo many I don't know where to start!!

Life is good - don't let my art journal page make you think otherwise, although I did have a minor blip and it did rain. For a while.

But now the sun is out and Autumn is here with cosy woollies and comfort food and Merlin and Strictly on the tv, well at least when I am home long enough to watch them!!

Will organise myself and share my adventures soon.

xxx

Bad blogger!

Thats me!!!

Haven't been around for ages since my trip and have been so busy busy with both work and play but just haven't had time to stop and photograph and blog anything along the way!

I know, I know, shocking and not like me at all!!

To make amends I will share two more of my art journal pages. 

I haven't even had a chance to make any more of these either for a while and I am beginning to feel like I left my mojo in the USA!!??? 

There was certainly lots of inspiration whilst there, but now I have to order some photos to scrap and of course find the time to actually do some scrapping!!

That's assuming I can shift these post holiday blues.................

xx

Back to reality (part two)

Welcome back to part two of my adventure, we're still at the Yankees game in NYC!

Before the game started some of the players meet n greet the fans. We ran down to see this guy, Mariano Rivera, and got soooo close, spoke to him but didn't get his autograph as he had to go get ready for the game. Remember this guy - he is very important!!

We watched the big screen and saw all the players and instantly fell in love with A-Rod!! I think he and Cameron Diaz have broken up now and he can give me a call anytime!!

The big screen was great when something happened and did lots of crowd scanning - sadly we didn't make it into any of the shots! Those Americans sure know how to celebrate stuff and with all the music it was like being at a giant fair!

Annoyingly I didn't take my zoom lens with me that day!! Doh!!

At half time they came and swept the field for the players, all in time to YMCA which the whole stadium got up and were dancing too - awesome and very very funny!!!

And then history was made!!!

Now I don't really get this part, but the guy we didn't quite meet - remember him? Well he won the game for the Yankees and it was a really BIG deal!!! Had we managed to actually get his autograph on our tickets it would be worth a fortune now!!! 

Never mind the game was fantastic and Sue and I are now avid fans!! (We both wore our souvenir t-shirts at home yesterday, feeling sad and reminiscing about our holiday!!)

After the game we headed back into the city and made our way to Little Italy where the San Genaro festival was on. Obviously we stopped and made friends along the way  :)

We watched the parade and walked round the streets checking out the fair and the stalls.

Then sat down for a meal in one of the many Italian street restaurants and watched the world go by. The food was delicious!!

Every year they have a freak show and this year was - The Headless Woman. Now at $1 to get in we knew it was going to be a scam, but we still couldn't resist checking out how this woman had survived without her head for all this time.

 We paid our money and were told we had to wait while she had her daiper (nappy) changed. Eventually we were allowed up the stairs to view her and just as we got there all the power went out and we were in darkness!! 

Ha Ha - they didn't count on Andrea having a torch in her bag and we burst out laughing as the torch light shone on the headless women and she waved us away in the dark!! "How can you see, you have no head???" we shrieked, and she continued to wave at us!! It was so funny but I guess you had to be there

Without giving too much away, this was pretty much how she looked (although obviously this is me), sat in her wheelchair with a neck brace on! We giggled for about half an hour at this!!

Still laughing we headed off to catch the last ferry home.

Tuesday saw a change in the weather and as Sue and I got up early again to make our way back to NYC, we were gutted to find it grey and rainy!

It is sooooo very hard to balance an umbrella, a camera and dodge all the people in the city, so yet again I didn't take too many pictures - oh well will just have to go back!!

I had a couple of things on my checklist for NYC that day - Central Park and Liberty. As we made our way to the park we took a few more pics as the weather brightened and dried up a bit.

We met a typically grumpy and rude New York cabbie but at least it ticked off 'ride in a NY cab' from my list!!!

 and we made some more friends, 

This was where I wanted to visit - Belvedere castle. Its not really a castle but a nature observatory. It looked so pretty and the views from the top were lovely!

Took some great shots of Sue but sadly the ones taken of me were a bit blurry :(

Then after some more subway travel and lots of walking we headed past the financial district, Empire State building and Rockefeller plaza. Obama was in town too that day and there was lots of security about.

we made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge and walked all the way across

and back. The views of the city were stunning!

We quickly ran out of time and didn't make it as far as the Staten island ferry to visit Liberty this trip - it was time to head back to Andrea's and our last night out! 

On our last day we popped into her work and said goodbye to the guys, did some last minute shopping for a present for Andrea and visited a shooting gallery to try our hands! Not something I'd done before but the cops there are obsessed by the fact that we don't carry guns  - we didn't want to let the side down so very nervously at first Sue and I had a go!! It was an interesting experience but as you will see when I scrap the targets we did really well and no-one could believe we hadn't done it before!!

We ended the trip with a photo shoot of us  - Charlie's Angels!!

It was an amazing action packed trip - yet again the guys were so hospitable and friendly and we are already planning a return visit next year!! Both Sue and I want to move there permanently!!

Now of course it is back to reality, work and British weather. It already seems like a lifetime ago that we  were in the US. Just have to get on with scrapping it all now and the other million things I have to do.

Toodlepip!

xxx

The one where I return to reality!! (part one)

Ok so you may have noticed that I've been absent for awhile, and I did say a few weeks ago that I had another adventure looming, so it's only fair that I share it with you now that I am home!!

This a picture heavy post - you know how many photos I take when I go away, so it will be a post in two parts!! Grab yourself a cuppa and enjoy the ride.......

Since I went for work in Dec '10, I have been saying that I wanted to go back to New Jersey. I kept putting it off co's of the work thing, but eventually after not much persuasion from my NJ friends, I booked a kinda last minute trip and dragged my chum Sue (from the Nice adventure) to come along with me. The day of the trip came came round very quickly and soon we were there - enjoying the Jersey Shore at Belmar!!

After a long flight and a few beers on the back porch at our host Andrea's house, we drove along the coast for the view and a relaxing walk.

The next day was spent shopping for great deals at the Mall and an evening at the bar catching up with old chums from my last trip.

On Friday we made a road trip to Atlantic City!

As we drove down on the freeway we had the top on the jeep down and we sang and laughed as the wind blew through our hair. 

We played our favourite songs which will now relate to great memories forever! Katie Perry's "Last Friday night" has a special place in our hearts!!

Andrea had some great songs on her Ipod and I now am addicted to a group called Finger Eleven - another great trip anthem!

Soon we were there and checked into our hotel. After a walk along the boardwalk and some time getting prettied up we went for a great dinner and then partied the night away! It was an awesome night!!!

The next day after a solemn and hungover drive home, we stopped by to meet ma and pa then loafed at Andrea's, played with her gorgeous kittycats and then had a siesta before heading out to a local bar  with a live band that night!

Sunday we visited Red Bank, the town I stayed in last trip. There was a food fair in town and it was very different to the snow covered visit I made in December.

We met some interesting people

and enjoyed the stalls and food on display at the fair.

Later on we visited another seaside town, Pier Village and after a look round some cute shops stopped by the beach for a cocktail or two?

Monday we were up and out early to head up into New York.

We had tickets for the Yankees game as they were playing at home.

After some fun navigating the subway, 

we headed to the Bronx and the Yankees Stadium. It was HUGE!!

Again there were some strange and interesting people on the way

and inside the stadium we weren't disappointed!

We had great seats and settled down with a hotdog and a beer waiting for the game to start, taking a few pictures while we waited.

Charlie's Angels on tour!!!

Andrea spent a long time explaining the game to me - I kinda picked it up by the end - it only took about four hours!!!  

Right, thats enough for now, pop back and I will post part two soon!

xxx