Say hello.

You may recall last month I won some lovely Portobello Road goodies  - you can read about it here.

So here's a layout I created using the lovely goodies;

It tells the story of how on a day out in London last year, we discovered a line of pink telephone boxes.  The girls of course wanted photos and being of the mobile phone generation a little explanation was required as to why such things could be useful!

I still have loads left which will be great for the photos taken during this years jubilee celebrations!

My first 2012 page!

So its May and I've scrapped my first photo of 2012.  You may recognise the photo - it got a mention in my January month in numbers post here.

It tells the story of how the youngest decided one Sunday morning that her farm animals needed to have plaster casts applied.  This involved tearing up tissues, spraying with water and slapping on the animal! You gotta love her style!

I have been pondering for a while whether to do 2012 album along the same lines as 2011.  I was reluctant to commit to a format until the 2011 album was complete.  Whilst pondering I have been taking Shimelle's Cover to Cover" online class which has given me lots of food for thought in terms of album organisation.  As I wrote the other day, the 2011 album did become a chore towards the end.

So after all this deliberating I have decided to let my 2012 album run without any set format.  It will probably contain a whole mix of page formats etc but will run chronologically.  Because I have now organised my photos by month and am going to print them each month, I will not "worry" that I am going to miss anything - it may take me a few(?) years to get all the stories down but that doesn't phase me like it used to.  It makes me happy to know where I am going, however long it takes.

Some interesting bits

A few weeks ago I purchased some "interesting bits" from Julie Kirk - you can read about them here and find them in her etsy shop here.  Mine were on a yellow and green theme.  So anyway the other day I pulled them out and decided to make a layout.

The only things on the layout that are not from the kit are the alpha's on the title, the tag to the right of the photo, the stamped grid and ink splashes!  The photo has been in the "to scrap" pile for some time.  It is from a visit my children made with my brother in law and partner to the Roald Dahl museum, which I have blogged about before.

There are still loads of the kit left for me to create some more "interesting bits"

In need of an energy boost!

Not much happening around these parts at the moment.  I have had a virus for over a week now, which has zapped all my energy and booted my mojo out of the window. Just about fed up with it now and counting the days down to Easter as we are going away.

However before the lurgy descended, I did do this layout using Shimelles 4x6 photo love  April prompt which uses four photos.

Now I'm not a huge fan of lots of photos on layouts - you will probably have noticed two photos are about my limit.  However I did want to record my oldest daughter's endevours  as she learnt to sail.  My in laws run a sailing school and so are obviously quite keen for my girls to learn.  The oldest has been quite reluctant but last summer decided to give it a go and thoroughly enjoyed herself.  I'm so glad she managed to overcome her fears and give it a go.

If you lift the flap, it reveals a further photo and the journalling.   These are photos from the last day, when they have to do a compulsory capsize in order to get their certificate!

Hopefully my mojo will return soon and normal craftiness will be resumed shortly!

Awol again

Yes another week has passed and I have not managed to squeeze in any blogging time!  It is now that last week of term and I am counting down the days - I need to rest from all this end of term madness.  From what I have read on the few blogs I have managed to visit recently, I think many people are feeling a little squeezed.  Anyway whilst away from my blogging corner, I have managed some crafty things and hope to share later in the week.  That is if the rain stops for long enough to get some decent pictures.

However as I have popped in I thought I would show you my oldest daughters Birthday cake.  Her birthday is at the end of July, falling in the school holidays.  Therefore we always have her party at the beginning of July before all her friends have disappeared off on holiday.  This year she had 9 friends round for a pizza and film evening.  Anyway I am not the worlds greatest cake decorator, so I normally buy but this year she had different ideas.  She had seen this cake tin in the Lakeland catalogue and wanted to make and decorate her own.  So thats what we did - I made  and she decorated.  On the first attempt I filled the tin up too much, so it overcooked on the outside as I tried to get it too fully cook in the middle.  Anyway after a few adjustments, the second attempt was much more successful. I think she did a pretty good job - in the words of her friends "awesome".

Dressing up for Science week.

Last week was science week at the oldest's school and on Friday they could dress up as something/somebody science related!  Now this one proved a tough one - how to stand out from the crowd.  Simply putting on a white coat and being a scientist just wasn't going to cut it.  Anyway as a passing joke my Dad said "why not be a Bunsen burner?"  After we all stopped laughing, I realised it was actually a good idea.  So that is what she went as - all in black, a flame headdress and the on/off knob around her middle. Simple but effective.  And guess what - she won the prize for the best costume in her year - she was dead chuffed and so was my Dad!

We have a hectic weekend ahead of us, involving two summer fayres, dance performances by both girls, the eldest's birthday party and sleepover and I am going to a friends ordination!

Don't forget that tomorrow is "Storytelling Sunday" over at Sian's Blog, where you'll find all manner of interesting tales, including how your's truly was once a recording star!

Here comes the sun?

As I sit and write this, we seem to be enjoying some June sunshine and I managed to eat my lunch outside.  However as this post is sheduled I'm not sure if it will be the case by the time you read it! Lets hope so.

Anyway a sunny day, deserves a summer layout.

Now I had intended to use yellows, pinks and reds but some how the bright papers I picked to start with didn't seem to work so I ending up with the greens and the browns. My starting point was this sketch of the week by Shimelle.  

These photos were taken during a trip to the park in July 2009.  The journalling reads "One night after school, it was such lovely weather that Daddy and I took you round to the park.  You went on your bikes.  It was about 6.00pm so you had the place to yourselves.  You certainely had fun on the bucket swing."  The park is just round the corner to us and is known as 'Punt Hill', however the youngest has always called it 'Punk Hill' so I made a little note at the top to remind us. 

I hope the weather is kind to you what ever you are doing today.

Hello!

Yes - I'm back from our holiday in Ireland.  Did you miss me?  I certainly missed blogging and hopping around to see all my blog friends.  Anyway we had a lovely week away - lots of fresh air and visiting new places and so lots of photos to show and scrap.

Anyway to ease me back into the weekday routine, here is the photo on my calendar this week.

It's another one taken by Frederick at the Roald Dahl museum - I posted about it here.  As I was not present during their visit, I do not know what the oldest is drawing/writing but I just love how he has captured the moment and that look on the youngests face!

Celebrating Success

On Saturday my eldest daughter took part in a local interschool netball tournament and was thrilled when her team won!

Each team member got a medal and they have got a cup that will go on display at school.  It was also the first time they had worn their new sports kit.  The old school PE kit was quite dated, and did not have the school logo on it - this one does.  I think they all felt proud to wear it and of course they all decided that it was the new kit that bought them luck.  My husband went to watch and took loads of actions shots - I can't show them because of all the other children in them but I'm thinking maybe a mini book is in order!

I think you can see in her face how pleased she was and so are we!

Also don't foget to pop over to Amy's blog to see all the pages scrapped when she threw down the challenge to scrap a story from our week.