Oh My Good Golly Gosh!!!!!

I logged on at lunchtime today, to check my emails etc & found I had two from friends sending congratulations on my ‘being famous’!!! I was a puzzled…had I missed something? Was I on the front page of the ‘Sun’ in a compromising position?!!!

Then I noticed I had TWO emails from Shimelle…one the expected ‘Something From {Almost} Nothing’ prompt for Friday…& the second telling me she had chosen me, along with two other class participants to feature in today’s prompt!!!  How about that!!!  I can’t post a link to it here, because the prompts are for members only, but I was blown away by the kind words she had to say!

I am sooo enjoying this class & am managing to keep up…without the household chores backing up!!!  We have a challenge for the weekend, to use all four of the elements covered so far on one LO…meanwhile, here’s what I did for Wednesday’s prompt 4…Cardstock…I twitched a bit…wanting to reach for some PP, but decided…’NO’ Just Cardstock!!!…OK so a couple of gems, an embellie or two & a bit of doodling snuck in…but that’s OK!!!  I love this photo, taken by Hilary on our recent trip to Bennington Lordship Gardens…it’s Karen & I taking a photo of Hilary, taking a photo of us!!!

So…apart from being famous!!! What have I been up to since my last post on Wednesday? Well…I had to go into work for my quarterly performance appraisal on Thursday morning…no nasty surprises there thank goodness, but on the way home I called into my favourite garden centre & spent a very enjoyable hour choosing plants.

It’s amazing how much energy a bit of sunshine can generate! I mentioned earlier that I had been digging & planting ‘out front’...we have a strip of grass & a border that marks our boundary & I have gravelled it & planted it with ‘ground cover’ Alpines & a few daffodil clumps. I’m hoping that as time goes by they’ll spread a bit & it won’t look so bare…although I have to admit I do like the neatness of it!! The plants that were there before had got too ‘leggy’ & untidy, so I was ruthless & dug them up!!!

So, with my purchases yesterday, I have replanted the two pots that sit either side of our front door.  The pansies were still in flower, but after such a hard winter looked so scruffy, so had to go!  This time I chose some dwarf perennials along with some Daffs & a white Primula. This should all see the year through, although once the daffs have gone over I’ll fill the gap with a Petunia..or maybe a Nicotina…we’ll see! For now they look so much better!!

I also replaced the hanging basket that hangs above the Study window…I had a discount voucher which meant it only cost £5…the plants themselves would cost more…so the front of the house is looking quite pretty!

Long may the sunshine continue…but I think I’ll be disappointed..we have rain forecast for later today & over the weekend too…{Sigh}  Although…if that is the case I will be quite happy to be indoors scrapping…I have to get to work on the ‘BIA 101’ course, so that I’m ready for the next lesson on Monday…it never rains, but it pours!!!

Also at the garden centre I picked up a bird nesting box…another discount voucher meant it cost me just £2.99…I am hoping to encourage the Robin that visits our garden so regularly to take up residence! Now all I have to do is get Lee to put it up for me…I know just where it needs to go but am not confident using power tools, or I’d put it up myself!

I love to see wild birds in the garden…our feeding station is in front of my kitchen window & over the years we have seen an increased number of different breeds visiting. I put out seed & fat balls all through the winter, along with bread crusts from the boys breakfast toast (they’ll never have curly hair…the boys that is, not the birds!!) & I keep the bird bath topped up & ice free.

The RSPB has it’s HQ just down the road from us & I had read recently that following the harsh winter, our garden birds still need feeding, as the bugs & insects that normally make up their diet at this time of year are not yet plentiful. So with that in mind, I set to melting down some lard & suet & mixing in seed to stuff half a dozen coconut
shells. After a couple of hours in the fridge they were ready to be put out & are now in situ, ready for the hoards to feed!!!    

So that’s been my busy & productive 48 hours! I am still grinning like a Cheshire Cat at my lovely surprise this morning & I’m looking forward to a scrappy evening & a scrappy Saturday too…as long as I can get the washing done & dry throughout the day tomorrow, it’ll be guilt free too!!


Thanks so much for dropping by…I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whatever your plans & I’ll see some of you in the forum on Monday morning. I can’t wait to see what creations will be there for Shimelle’s Friday Challenge!!