Month in Numbers - May

Almost half way through June and here I am blogging my May numbers!  Do check out Julies blog to find out what its all about and her pinterest board which displays more number lovers!

2 birthdays celebrated in this house, this month.

  The Youngest was 8 - the eldest made and decorated her cake!

And the hubby was 43!  We celebrated with Krispy Creme donuts!

18 - the number of years we have lived in our house.  The Rhoddendrum bush below was in the Garden when we moved in.

11 - the number of moshi monsters that joined the youngest in the bath - the latest obsession.

Over 100 triangles of fabric sewn together to make Jubilee bunting - thanks Mum for helping out!

Another month gone by - is it me or has someone put the world on fast foward recently!

Catching Up

That's whats been happening today - catching up with all manner of things.  May was manic, even by my standards mainly as I was working an extra day a week.  Having just about survived I then entered half term with all manner of Jubilee celebrations, followed by more working and also the girls taking part in a dance show.  Today seems like the first day I've had to draw breath for a long time.  So apologies  blog friends for my lack of commenting - I have been visiting whilst commuting but find commenting on my iphone too much for my little fat fingers!

Anyway I thought you might like to see some photos from our little trip to London to see the Queen! 

First we saw some marching bands!

And some soldiers on horses.

We also did a fair amount of waiting and picnicking on the pavement.

And finally we saw the Queen!

And after all that flag waving and cheering we went home to enjoy a jubilee tea!

I hope to be back later in the week with my May numbers.



Story Telling Sunday - A Jubilee tale.

Arriving fashionably late to the party, I bring you a tale from a previous Jubilee celebration.  Back in 1977 when the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee I was 7.  My school celebrated with a summer fete that was Jubilee themed, including a children's fancy dress competition.  I don't remember who came up with the idea but it was decided that I would go as a Jubilee bag!  I suspect it may have been to do with the fact that my Dad worked in a factory that produced cardboard boxes so had access to large quantities of paper and card.

Apparently I came 2nd!  I don't recall much but do remember it was quite difficult to walk in. 

My younger brother also entered but he refused to play along with the Jubilee theme and so went as Robin (side-kick of Batman)

Dad created the card from a large cardboard box, built around my brothers trike!

This story was bought to you as part of Sian's story telling Sunday.  Do pop over to check out some other great tales.

I hope you have all had a relaxing Sunday and to those of you enjoying an extra long weekend, have a jubileetastic time!

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.

It is finished!

Yes my 2011 album is complete!  It was my aim for May and I glad its done.  I must admit it became a bit of a chore these last few months, however when I look through its great to see the year unfold.

Here are the final pages;

Now I do have one slight challenge - as you know the format of the album has been a single page followed by divided protectors and another single page.  To keep some sort of continuity I have used the same background paper for  each individual month  and either the same PP or from same range.  However I have also done further 2011 pages throughout the year that do not follow such "rules". Do I have a separate album or do I combine?  Because I have  recently sorted my layouts into albums by years, they are now all living together but when you move through you do loose the flow - however if I move them out, the album that is single layouts has big gaps. 

For the moment I am leaving them all together and will continue to mull!

Happy Mail

They always say be careful for what you wish for - we asked for the sun and now our cup runneth over!  As you read this I will be craming myself into a smelly train with many other fed up commuters!  Deep Friday joy.

Some of you may have taken part in the blog giveaway over at Notes on Paper and you may have seen that I was the lucky winner.   Well the parcel of lovely goodies arrived on Tuesday.  Do want to see?

I know I am a lucky girl - many thanks to Julie and the people at docrafts who donated the prize.  I already have a few ideas up my sleeve and of course it will be perfect for Jubilee and Olympic scrapping!

If you havn't ever  visited Julie at Notes in Paper, do pop and have a look - her recent vintage cards are rather amusing.  And also check out her "Going postal" pinboard.

Enjoy the sunshine!

A current trend

I've not only been organising my photos and albums, I have been scrapping too.  Organising my albums by year has enabled me to identify any gaps, so when I feel the urge to scrap I can pick up an album flick through and decide what to scrap.

So with that in mind, I decided to scrap this photo from 2010.  Its one of my favourite and was taken on my hubbys birthday.  We had been away for the weekend without the children and arrived back on his birthday - lots of smiles all around.

This is based on the May sketch on 'The Studio' challenges blog here.  Hexagons are very much a current trend and seem to pop up everwhere at the moment.  I cut mine using my slice.  I also managed to use some letters by using three different sets to do my title.  And don't worry I have journalled - its on the tag thats tucked behind the photo!