Monday 21 November 2011

Missing In Action?!!….

It has been 19 days since my last post! Photo’s have been building up in my ‘To Blog’ file & scribbled notes now cover three pages of my ‘To Blog’ notepad!!! I have no excuses to offer other than ‘Life’ has just taken over & I’m only now able to pause for breath!!!

Car Damage! The main event to report has to have been a collision in my car! :(  I hasten to add that I was stationary at the time & the person who drove into me was an elderly lady…a mobility driver…who insisted on regaling me with the details of her previous accident, earlier this year…does she make a habit of it?!!  My poor ‘Ruby’ was left with a damaged headlight, shunted off centre bumper/skirt, a dented side panel & various bits of chrome trim short!!

She’s been with the repairers this past week & we’re having to pay the excess to get her back tomorrow! :(  To my mind there is no question at all that liability rests with the other party & that the excess will ultimately be refunded, but there are no guarantees either…just what we needed so close to Christmas!!  

flowers from Sue I seem to have spent so much time on phone calls recently, to insurers, solicitors, repairers etc & will just be glad when it’s all over!! 

The silver lining to all this though, is the support I have had from family & friends…facebook messages….emails….offers of loans to cover the excess…one even arrived with flowers!! 

It all overwhelmed me at one point!  Whatever did I do to deserve all this?!!  I am truly blessed!  Thank you to you all…you know who you are :)


I’ve also had three visits to the cinema…

Breaking_Dawn_Movie_Poster_by_Grodansnagel

Tower Hiest Movie Poster

The Rum Diary  
…’Tower Heist’ with Ben Stiller & Eddie Murphy is so funny & very clever!! I was a bit disappointed with ‘The Rum Diary’ (not with Johnny Depp…he could never disappoint!!!) as I’d expected a stronger storyline & it just sort of rambled!! Then of course part one of the final ‘Twilight’ episode ‘Breaking Dawn’…I’m surprised I’ve enjoyed all of the Twilight films as much as I have & this one was very engrossing!  It left me wishing that we didn’t have to wait till next year for part two!!! 

17 Trivia Journal

On the creative front, I took part in an online class over at ‘Get It Scrapped’ & put together a ‘Trivia Journal’ for 2012, using a paper weave technique & scrap PP’s!

 

In this same class, with the challenge of repurposing old bits of puzzle & toys I came up with this LO…




19 'Hoping For New Toys'!

I also liked the idea of using leftover alpha’s to create a tone-on-tone textured effect in one of the earlier lessons so I incorporated that technique into this LO as well!

As part of this class we looked at our stash storage systems & one thing that always bugs me is ribbon!!  How to store it so that I can see what I have, so it doesn’t get all creased & tangled & that I can grab & go if needs be??!!

Ribbon storeI’m happy to report my ‘Find Of The Week’!!! Taking a short cut through Primark, I spotted this in the accessory department…

...at only £2.00 & available in Pink or Lime Green, this velvet covered jewellery hanger, with it’s loops & hooks makes the perfect ribbon store!! Nothing Slips & it’s hung in plain sight at the end of my shelf unit so I can see what I have & grab it with no hassles!!!


On the subject of creativity, I attended my first ‘Merly Impressions’ crop on Saturday. It was a thoroughly enjoyable day spent with ‘old’ scrappy friends Dawn & Sharon…while making new ones…

New Scrappy Friends

Kirsty

 

 

 

 

 

 



Dawn Shopping

The shop was fabulous! Lots of Kaiser Kraft & Tim Holtz goodies!!

Here’s Dawn rummaging through the clear stamps…because of course she doesn’t have enough already!! :)

Merly Crop 

 

 


Although this crop is very local to me in Bedfordshire, there were ladies there from as far afield as Leicester & Watford!!  As it’s a new Saturday crop & there were to be 28 of us, Chrissy had set us a challenge  to make a name badge.  There were some fabulous entries…

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28 Badge!! I had great fun taking apart an old greeting card to repurpose the fibre optic light thingy so that my badge flashed!! 

You can’t really see it here, but trust me…those little blue dots on the dark background are indeed flashing fibre optic tips!!! :)


Merly Crop sneak peek The sneak peek for the two class LO’s in the fabulous kit was this…

Mainly featuring the new ‘Madame Boutique’ range from Kaiser Kraft & with the theme ‘Me’ I decided to go with sepia & use the photo that Karen took of me last month!

There was so much fussy cutting & using ‘glossy accents’ to create the beautiful rose embellishments, that I only completed the first one!!! (some of you won’t be surprised by that…I am, after all,  a self confessed ‘slow’ scrapper!!)


Simply Me   
The next ‘Merly Impressions’ Saturday crop is on 21st January 2012 & I highly recommend it!  Maybe I’ll see you there?!!!

So that’s me for today….I’ve a busy week ahead so I’ll be back soon to report on my adventures…they involve both coach & vintage rail travel as well as lots of Christmas retail opportunities!!!

I do hope everyone is keeping well & staying ahead of the festive preparations!! Only 34 more days!!  I’ll try to get round to visiting everyone very soon…I have neglected you all very badly these last three weeks…SORRY!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by & come back soon! :)

Wednesday 2 November 2011

A Little Homesickness!!

I left my childhood home in Hereford back in 1983…to move to Bletchley & set up home with Lee. We married soon after & have since lived in St Albans, London Colney, Brunei & Welwyn Garden City before ending up here in ‘Darkest’ Bedfordshire, but when I refer to Hereford, I still call it home!!

This weekend we made a rare trip ‘home’ to see Mum-In-Law on her 80th birthday. She has recently had knee surgery so there was to be no party, but we really wanted to see her ‘on the day’.  We set off after breakfast for the three hour journey & the closer we got to Hereford the more familiar the scenery became…

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I know it just looks like more English countryside, but every turn in the road holds a memory of growing up & venturing further afield once I’d learned to drive!! We passed the village church where I used to go bell ringing as a young teen…my boys were amazed…see, there’s a lot they don’t know about me!!  Before long we were coming into Hereford itself & along the road I grew up on…

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We passed my old school…& the pub where Lee took his last drink as a single man…& of course the house I grew up in.

I think part of me has always assumed that at some point in time we’d move back that way, but we never have & I have to say, I’ve not yet completely given up hope that one day we might!! I guess you can take the girl out of sleepy old Hereford (quite willingly at the time I might add!!) but Hereford will always be in the girl!!

Anyway…more on the reason for our visit home…

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…this lovely lady’s 80th birthday!!  I have been so lucky with my Mum-in-Law, when I listen to tales of friends relationships with theirs, I count my blessings!! Pat is amazing, she takes great care of herself & is in complete denial of her age…& very convincing she is too!!

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The boys were pleased to see Nanny, but soon settled themselves on the sofa with their laptops & left us to chat!!

Even Lee took some time out for a quick check of his emails…

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What is it with the male of the species & tech?!!! They can’t get through a day without it!!! But Pat didn’t mind in the least..I had taken my vintage copy of ‘Woman’ home for her to see & she was soon engrossed & enjoying all the memories!!

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We sat a little while on her balcony…she overlooks some allotments & it’s so peaceful & there’s always someone doing something, so perfect for her now she lives on her own.

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We did have one cause to laugh when Nathan reclined his seat & we caught sight of the soles of his feet…

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…now I know money is tight at the moment, but we’re not so strapped for cash that we can’t afford socks!!!

Pat said not to worry, it must run in the family & she lifted her feet to reveal…

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…but then hers are surgical stockings & are meant to have holes in the bottom!!

I’m pleased to report she is recovering well from her knee surgery & is walking short distances, albeit with a crutch, & having regular physio sessions. So we’re hoping she’ll be joining us here for Christmas as usual , this year.

We got back to our house that evening, tired from travelling both ways in one day, but glad to have shared Pat’s birthday & knowing we’d be getting an extra hour in bed that night too!!!!

4 The Help movie poster 
On Sunday I saw an amazing film…’The Help’

It saddens me that in such recent history, such prejudice was the norm, but this film presents the story frankly & with such good humour that the message comes across without  being too distressing, although I did shed a few tears & laughed out loud too!!

I’d recommend it!!


I’ll leave you with a little creativity…

1 home for the holidays
This month over at ‘From Screen To Scrap’ the movie poster inspiration comes from ‘Home For The Holidays’ & the added criteria is to 1. Use the word ‘Home’ in the title  2. A photo of a family gathering & 3. use white pen journaling. 

I’ve also been taking part in an online class this week over at ‘Get It Scrapped’ & wanted to try the mosaic technique on a LO, So with all that in mind this is what I came up with…

 

2 Auld Lang Syne 
The photo is of us all singing in the New Year/Decade 2010…I had fun using up all those bits & bobs to decorate the mosaic squares!!

So that’s it from me for today…I hope you all survived Halloween!! I’m glad to report that Karen is through her first phase of surgery & is posting on facebook, so check her comments out there if you’re a friend!!

Thanks for dropping by & do pop back soon! :)