Lazy Sunday afternoon.......

Not for me!!
I have just got back from work and am trying desperately not to be ill and to stay awake til 9pm for Downton Abbey!!
Hope you've all had a great weekend, mine has passed fairly uneventfully for a work one but I just feel really cack! Am trying not to let a raspy sore throat turn into anything worse.

Here is another LO from the Getaway except that I have altered it quite a bit upon returning home as I didn't like the one we made (sorry Sheena). We learnt how to make waterfall cards (useful later for cards) but we used it as a place for hidden journalling on the LO and I just thought it looked too bulky so pulled it off and just used one of the journalling shapes instead. This is now much more my style but will use what I learnt on something else so it wasn't wasted!

The photograph is from my walk on Hampstead Heath (hi Brenda) back in September. Gosh that seems like a long time ago now........... I showed it to Kirsty Wiseman and she didn't believe me that it was a random old man on the heath and not my grandad or someone I knew!! I tried to explain that all my photos are either scenery or ratties but I'm not sure she was convinced!!?

Anyway am off now as I think my lamb casserole is burning in the oven.
Toodlepip!
xx

Not for the feint hearted!!

I am not usually one to be concerned over nothing which is why the following tale should not be treated lightly. I also lived in a haunted pub for three and half years and despite the strange happenings going on there was never terrified in the way that I was on Friday night!!!

To set the scene........I was at my first GogoGetaway, thrilled and excited to meet old friends and new and nothing in my head other than layouts and new stash and the hope of winning spare class kits!!!

I went to bed quite late - about 12ish and although I didn't get off to sleep straight away due to the noise from a party and people smoking and chatting in the nearby fire exit, the bed was comfy and I was fine and cosy!

I had a hideous dream, I was in a room and one by one the other occupants disappeared and I knew had been horribly murdered. I couldn't move, I was paralyzed with fear and knew I would be next.  As my turn came to be taken away I was aware that I felt suddenly freezing cold and thought about getting an extra blanket from the wardrobe. I then heard, or screamed,  or dreamt I screamed a name and woke up instantly.
I was absolutely terrified!! I put the light on and lay in bed with my heart pounding in my chest! I realised that I was no longer freezing cold but a normal temperature.  It was about 3.30am. After about ten minutes I had to leave the light on whilst I tried to go back to sleep.

The following morning when I told the other girls they scoffed at me somewhat, and asked me if had known that a Paranormal Group had stayed at the Hotel the previous night?
No!

That night when I went to bed I googled the name that I had heard  - Mary Kelly - and was very shocked to find that she had been murdered in a very brutal way in 1888 and was in fact Jack the Rippers last victim!!! I did not know this but it fitted with all that had happened in my dream!! I had never heard this name before though and don't know anything about her.

How spooky is that?

Now I don't know why Mary Kelly would be in Cheshunt of all places - a bit of a long way away from Whitechapel where she met her brutal end, but then I don't know about these things! Maybe the paranormal group were meddling in those other realms and she was inadvertantly caught up in the spiritual summons? Who knows - all I know is that it freaked the hell out of me and I know the bits that I dreamt and the bits I didn't, and I have never been so scared in all my life!!

Theobalds Park where we stayed is well known to Ghost Hunters, and it was nearly Halloween, but I have no idea why this happened. The following day I spooked myself when I went to my car and thought someone was sat in it in the dark as I had left the seat forward when I unloaded the previous day - it was dark and I ran back indoors giggling at myself but spooked nonetheless!!

How was your Hallows Eve???
Night night!
xx

All treats and no trick!!!

Hello peeps! Hope you are all well?
Apologies that I've been away for so long but I have been really really busy doing stuff and of course working and so there has been no scrapping time, my internet played up so no blogging either, and of course when you are so busy doing stuff there is no time to stop and tell anyone about it all!!

Until this weekend that is!
I have returned from my first GogoGetaway here

and I have to say it was absolutely fab!!
I met so many lovely people, made some super new scrapbook pages and generally had a scraptacular time! I did have a rather spooky halloween style experience, but I will save that tale until I have scrapped it!

The old part of the hotel was stunning and quite spooky too, and the lovely Kirsty Wiseman did a little photo shoot of me and some of the others in here which I can't wait to see the results of. She also had her own spooky moments in the boardroom with some of the ladies, but nothing to do with Lord Sugar and no-one got fired!!

My LO today is from the Getaway - everyone was given a little treat box full of goodies and also a template for making one yourself. Obviously I have no-one to make a goody box for so I used mine to make this, using a photo I had taken the previous weekend while out and about with Grannywen!

Oh so much to share with you I don't know where to start...............will have a look back over my last few weeks for you over the next few days. It's gotta make a change from moaning about work and rat stories???
xxx

:(

Sorry I seem to be having Internet problems at the moment!!!

All is well, been busy, just can't get on to post about it. :(


will leave you with a pic of Barney. Fred looks pretty similar but a little darker! They are both settling in fine and getting along with Harry ok I am pleased to report!!!
Catch up with you all soon I hope?

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone!!!

Autumn watch

Hello peeps!

Sorry, I seem to have been away for longer than planned this week but have just been such a social butterfly and of course manic at work as usual that I haven't had a chance to visit blogland!!!

After a very successful shopping trip last weekend, I paid a visit to Grannywen and along with a school chum of hers we set off into the countryside to explore and appreciate the autumnal colours!

Except that everything was still quite green as Autumn hadn't quite hit yet.
Buttercup enjoyed her trip to see the Cerne Giant, but more about her in another post!
We visited Shaftesbury and Sherborne and the famous "Hovis" hill, and generally had a wonderful day.

The girls!

 I vaguely remember visiting here as a child but the hill seemed so much bigger then! Without spoiling it - what you see is what you get, and luckily it doesn't carry on too much further so it wasn't too hard to climb back up.

Larking about with Grannywen!

Work has been very busy as usual, I worked this weekend and I am about to embark on yet another set of night shifts tonight, so I felt the need to get some fresh air and chase the autumn some more. I headed off quite locally to Dulwich Park and had a very pleasant hour or so, mooching about with my camera.

 It was still quite green but there were some stunning golds and ambers  dotted about here and there.

 The lake was very beautiful and the ducks very amusing but I didn't manage to photograph them too well, so resorted to beautiful reflections instead.

 

The sun was low in the sky and made spooky shadows in amongst the trees.

And apart from a few yummy mummies, the park was empty and mine to explore.

 I had a brief chat with this little chap, who seemed very disappointed that I didn't have any food for him. He came right up to me and I am sure he would have taken it out of my hand if I had some.

I hadn't been here before today and it was quite lovely! Afterwards I headed into the village and treated myself to a new top from Whitestuff and fish n chips for tea - yummy!

A lovely day - shame it has to end with a trip into work!!?

I love this photo - I'm not sure why blogger chose to put it here instead of earlier but it was taken in Cerne village, home of the giant and on a path leading down to the well and hermits grotto. There was something magical about the light and atmosphere here and you could almost believe the myths and legends of the area.

I will try not to leave it so long next time but with night shifts you never know.

Toodlepip for now!

xxxx

Busy weekend!

Well I seem to be on the go go go at the moment. No sooner have I got back to work and it's the weekend already and I had loads to do!! Friday night was a birthday drinking party for one of my girlfriends, am happy to report that we were good and had a lovely meal but didn't disgrace ourselves at any point!






As you can see I have managed to make a good start on my Amsterdam journal. I love love love the cover, made with some magnets that I bought whist there.



The book is the one that I mentioned the other day - from TKMAXX. I am quite pleased with it as a base but with about fifty photos and postcards stuck in it now the spine is not holding up too well and the pages are starting to come out!  :(  Not good!
 Needs to be handled with care but at least I have done it - just need to go back through and add all my journalling!



As usual I have included napkins, tickets and other trivia I collected on the day.





And finally a not too good phone pic of me and the girls - cool cats huh? Some 'bloke' at the bar offered to take our photo, which we agreed to - it would have been a real good one too except that it is so blurrry its not funny!! We had to resort to some arms length self portraits instead!


Speaking of cool cats, is anyone else loving the current Ikea advert at the moment? All those kitty cats running loose in the shop - so cute!!Have had a fab girly shopping day today and off to see Grannywen tomorrow, it's all go go go!!!Toodlepip!xxx

Stroopwafles (travelogue part two)

Welcome back to part two of my day trip to Amsterdam.

There were only two places that I really wanted to visit whilst there, one was Anne Frank's house and the other the Van Gogh exhibition - I am a fan of his work so to see it in real life in his home country was quite something to me.............I had no real plans for the rest of my trip - I just wanted to explore and see what there was to see. Not far into my wandering I came across this chap and we had a little chat about what to see and do........

he explained where Anne Frank's house was and I took a slow meander there, marvelling at the sights on the way. I took lots of photos but you would be here all day if I uploaded everything........for example this HUGE three storey bike rack...................

......so I just walked and snapped away......... and soon I found it.

Well, this was it - Anne Franks house! It has a museum attached which documents her life, diary and persecution...............unfortunately the queue to get in was enormous and as I only had one day I decided not to join it but went for a coffee and continental breakfast next door instead!

This is only half the queue, it stretches back further than you can see..........!!!

Once refreshed I set off again, snapping things that caught my eye, lots and lots of bicycles...

and then this cutie lying in the pavement begging to be tickled.

Interesting graffitti on odd corners and walls.....

and beautiful canal side streets, lined with houseboats and trees....

more bicycles........everywhere you looked bicycles...........

and then on to the famous flower market.

I was looking forward to seeing some famous tulips in Amsterdam, but alas it was not to be...

lots of stunning flowers  and lillies in a variety of colours

but the only tulips I saw were these....................!!!

As I walked further around the city the architecture and adornments were everywhere and the buildings, mostly converted warehouse were stunning and beautifully furnished.

If there weren't bikes in racks or locked to posts they were being ridden, by families, couples, with dogs in baskets and by tourists. I did think about hiring one , but bikes and cameras and busy roads are not a good mix and anyway, I cycle all the time at home!!

Beautiful canal side homes..............

and finally after a few hours, my second on the list. 

Obviously there were no photos allowed inside but to sit and absorb the Sunflowers in real life and see the use of brush and colour  by the master himself - magical!!

After a good hour in the museum I headed to a nearby park for a change of scene....

and met more friends along the way............

Another hour passed interrupted only by a few short heavy rainfalls, which happened on and off all day and then back into the city where I stumbled across a garden filled with stone lizards and this outsized outdoor chess game in full swing.

As the heavens opened again I headed into a pancake house for some stroopwafles and a coffee. I needed the sugar rush as I was beginning to flag and still had a few more hours to fill.....

Of course as much as I wanted to avoid it, (busmans holiday and all that)  you cannot visit Amsterdam without going to the famous red light district.

I have to say that it was a lot more tame than I expected and the groups of men/boys giggling amongst themselves began to get on my nerves. Have they never seen an ugly-ish woman in her undies in a shop window before???

The Moulin Rouge wasn't even a windmill for heaven's sake - at least they got that right in Paris!!

looking at it from the bridge here you would never guess what was going on behind those closed, sometimes open doors.....................

With an hour and half to go before making my way back to the coach I mooched round the shops, but have to say I didnt stop to buy very much! By now I had a real headache from all the cannabis that was being smoked throughout the city and was also pretty tired.

I stopped for a quick beer and just wished I was at home already!

Aside from the awful journey to get there and back, I am glad I went to Amsterdam. As a city it is an awesome mix of architecture and styles, and an artists delight, but the hype that goes along with it is far over rated and really not my cup of tea!! I think that for this adventure it is a case of been there, done that, don't really need to go back!!!

It didn't cost much to go thankfully and I would have spent far more if I'd gone to Ally Pally instead, just wouldn't have such great photos!!

Right, off to surf the web to see where to go next................??

xxx