Boys, Bugs and.....

Garden of Eden

2012-02-17T10:00:00.000Z

Flowers and Red or Pink.....

...keep these in mind when you create your next layout....

.....then you can enter

this months challenge over at SJ Crafts blog.

and a close up

Looking forward to seeing what you create.

Lets go fly a kite.....

2012-02-15T14:33:00.000Z

......and then spend ages trying to untangle all the string!

Oh yes three kites, three boys and one huge mass of tangled string.

Inspired by A Month of Sunrays I used my only yellow patterned 12x12 sheet of paper. Good enough reason to buy some more papers me thinks!

A terrible photo but this might give you an idea of the tangled mess they got themselves into :)

It's half term here this week - if you are on half term too I hope it is a good one.

Gimme Gimme Gimme.....

2012-02-12T18:59:00.000Z

Kirsty's just one sketch challenge - to shrink down our chosen design.

12x12 crate paper random collection with MME lost and found two papers. Full story of this night is on the tag.

These photos were taken nearly ten years ago when we were one half of Abba for a fancy dress party. If you read my blog you'll know from photos that my darling husband is a little limited in the hair department.

Given a choice (even now when he's had no hair longer than he had hair) he would most definitely choose to have hair. The photos from this night still make me smile, he loved his wig and reckons that these photo's prove that hair would suit him!!!

Even with hair...... he wondered.....

......do blondes really have more fun?

Yep you guessed... ......by the end of the night he was donning my blonde wig!!

January - my month in numbers layout

2012-02-07T10:00:00.000Z

Julie Kirk hosts My Month in Numbers. I posted here about my numbers and today I'm sharing the page created to go with it.

If you read Julie's blog you'll know that right now she's blogging a Month of Sunrays. After reading her first post on the colour yellow I found myself reaching for (a shade of ) yellow card for this page.

I do wonder how long I would have spent choosing a card had I not read this post!

Taking inspiration from others - love it.

I hope you are all staying warm and if you have snow it hasn't caused you too many problems.

Zoom Burst

2012-02-05T16:25:00.003Z

Karen's photo challenge this week is Zoom Burst. I left the challenge until the last minute, mainly due to the weather. I kept thinking it would brighten up!

When we woke up this morning we had lots of snow, so out we all went and I took my trusted camera. My attempt at zoom burst photos in the snow just didn't work out.

So this afternoon I've been all over the house trying out different subjects. From Vases to Guitars and Rocks to Pictures nothing seemed to work for me. Until I tried it on my kitchen clock.

I most definitely like the effect and from all the photos taken this one is my favourite. The black frame and the numbers look sharp. This photo is straight out of the camera with no cropping and you can see the top of bottom of the reflection have been chopped off. It took me ages to work out why I kept doing this.

I'm still chopping the top and bottom off.... with this photo though I managed to get a larger burst but with a washed out look. I think I moved the camera too - the number are blurred!

Eventually I worked out that I was starting off with the zoom too close, after zooming out a little I did manage to get the whole clock and burst in. Again this is straight out of the camera with a slight crop. A small reflection can also be seen in this one which is a shame.

All in all this was a good learning curve and I'm looking forward to mastering this one over the year. Imagine the scrapping possibilities!

Story Telling Sunday

2012-02-05T09:30:00.000Z

Amazingly I've made it to the second month of Story Telling Sunday.

This is the one about the Duck and the Stag Beetle.

One sunny summers day in 2007..... while we were on holiday, we paid a visit to a friend of mine and to her and our surprise a duck was found roaming her garden.

The boys thought this was great and watched as their dad eventually caught the duck and returned it to it's rightful owner.

Whilst we sat soaking up the sun, catching up, the boys messed around in the pond. After a while they hooked out a Stag Beetle. (According to my Journaling at the time I thought it was a plastic toy - the boys have one in their animal collection and it looked exactly the same.)

They carried the dead stag beetle all the way back to the caravan in a plastic cup, were it was placed on the table and examined at great length. Their pinchers are massive.

After a while Harry said "it moved". So everyone sat in silence and watched as this "dead as a doornail" Stag Beetle slowly come back to life.

When we arrived home, after our holiday Harry spent ages searching the internet to see if Stag Beetles hibernate. He couldn't find an answer so I wondered.....could this beetle have fallen into the pond and been luckily enough to have had three inquisitive boys digging around and fish him out.

After the Stag Beetle had made a full recovery a search for a safe place to release him was found.

Our 2007 holiday was scrapped in a mini book, made using my then new Bind-it-all.

Looking back on older scrapbooks does make me smile!

Fiskars Bracket Border Punch......

2012-02-03T09:50:00.004Z

......I love it.

Each month one of the SJ Crafts design team members will be posting a tutorial over at
SJ Papercraft's blog. I am first up....Sarah asked me to create a tutorial and some examples using the Fiskars Bracket Border punch. I have to say I am partial to a punch and this has become my "must use" punch of the moment.

Pink Paislee - Phantom Collection

Halloween is a huge occasion in our village (even lots of parents dress up) and I have taken many photos over the years. These are the first and only Halloween layouts I have ever scrapped (if my memory serves me right!!). I'm sure that's all down to this gorgeous kit I purchased.

For this layout I wanted the emphasis to be on their painted faces - although I do think a mask is preferable, especially as it took forever to scrub their faces not too mention their hands, their clothes and....... my walls. The stuff seemed to get everywhere!

I used the border punch to make some birthday cards too.

Also used Martha Stewart's Butterfly and Scallop Punch

Including a card for a friends engagement.

My January Month in Numbers

2012-01-31T19:43:00.001Z

As part of Julies Month in Numbers January has been a month of keeping count with....

2012 the year of the London Olympics.

22 The number of years we have now been together.

6 Rugby training sessions attended.

3 Rugby matches watched and cheered (screamed, shouted and jumped up and down like a mad woman) at.

2 Rugby matches cancelled due to frozen pitches.

1 School trip to Cadbury world (Stan)

118 photos taken

What did you count in the month of January?

P.S Layout to follow.

Grandad Started It.....

2012-01-29T16:17:00.002Z

This week I found some time for a fun layout and used Shimelle's starting point.

Overnight this layout had no title. Then I saw Shimelle had posted her starting point layout and knew that her title placement would work for me too.

Once again it is Sunday Afternoon - why on earth does the weekend fly by?

Hope to be back soon.

Just one Sketch

2012-01-27T16:23:00.000Z

Kirsty's sketch class started over a week ago now and I've only just got around to scrapping the first two challenges.

After looking at some previous layouts and lots of sketches, I picked this one from PageMaps . I chose this one because it seems, from looking at some recent layouts, that I like the square block look.

Most of the papers used in both layouts were from MME Lost and Found Two - Breeze

It does bare a resemblance to the sketch........sort off.

A close up

Challenge two - to spin the sketch. I had to laugh I thought I had spun the sketch only to find that I think I spun the top half a different way to the bottom half and then the flags ended up in the same place....Hey Ho!!

ooops a little light reflection on this photo!

A close up.

Challenge three coming up - reflection. I wonder what i'll come up with this time!!

If you're taking part in Just One Sketch, how are you getting on?

Christmas Journal

2012-01-22T17:31:00.004Z

My Christmas Journal is finally finished....

Have you finished yours?

December 1st - Christmas officially starts today.


A5 folder and protectors from Paperchase with Lost and Found Christmas papers.

December 2nd - A Luscious Spa day with the girls - a great way to start December. There was six of us but Kay is missing from the top photo because she is a fitness fanatic and while we were getting ourselves ready and enjoying a nice coffee, Kay was in a Zumba class. That was after her six mile run before school and her spin class!! I do admire her energy.

December 3 - buying the tree (late one evening)

Day 4 - Decorating the tree

December 5 - Advent

December 6 - Christmas Lists

December 7 - Christmas Dinner Set

December 8 - Cards

December 9 - School concert

December 10 - Father Christmas float outside our front door

December11 - decorating SJ's owls

December 12 - Pantomine

December 13 - Karen's Photo Challenge

December 14 - Christmas Dinner

December 15 - Handmade pressies

December 16 - Christmas past

December 17- Star of Jack

December 18 - Rugby

December 19 - Cinema

December 20 - Stockings

December 21 - Breakfast in Ikea - This is what they get up too when i'm at work!

December 22 - Buying a surprise Christmas present with the boys

December 23 - Making a (last minute) Christmas Cake

December 24 - Christmas Eve

December 25

A summary of December

I couldn't move on knowing I needed to finish it.. so it's quite a relief to know its done...

.....silly really.

Next up

is to catch up

on Kirsty's Just One Sketch class.

Happiness is.....

2012-01-19T18:21:00.001Z

.........being together.

Sarah at SJ Papercrafts has started a new monthly challenge - if you take part you could win yourself £10 to spend in the shop please pop across to see the 1st monthly challenge details.

I used some leftover scraps for this layout and my recently purchased Friskars Border punch which is being put to good use decorating my Christmas Journal........I'm nearly there now, on day 17 so all being well it "will" be finished before the end of January :)

Right Now

2012-01-14T20:00:00.003Z

In keeping with my new year goals here is the first layout of yours truly and I............

Each month I intend to complete one layout a month of our time together . The intention is to put an album together of the past 22 years, to include our early days together, holidays, days out, wedding etc. So you may in the future see some terribly photos and big permed hair!

I hope to get some blog hoping done later to see what you have all been up too.

Hope you are all having a restful weekend,

One Lens

2012-01-08T19:08:00.001Z

To use one lens for two weeks was the photo challenge set by Karen.

Not a hard decision for me to make - I only have two lens, the kit lens and the zoom lens 70-300mm (which I use mainly when the boys are playing rugby). I haven't taken specific photos for this challenge, so I've chosen three pictures I took Christmas Day.

These were all taken at 6.30 am Christmas morning with my standard kit lens, in automatic using the built in flash...........Sometimes you have to just use what's quick and easy and doesn't need any thinking power....especially at 6.30 in the morning!!

The first two photos show the boys after they each opened a present (not really a Christmas present, but we thought it might add to the magic!) giving them a clue as to where we were going on holiday this year......

.....think I was more excited telling them........as Harry's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he said

"For Real?" and "Really" over and over........

It was so lovely to see the excitement on their faces - they were all quiet for a few..... seconds, lost in thought!

S and J are modelling their new hats, the first present they opened and wore throughout the morning.

The next photo is my favourite and I have cropped it just to show a close up of Jack......I think it's safe to say he liked this present :)

There it is, a snapshot of our Christmas morning.

Oh... in case you might be wondering, we are off to Florida this year. We have never taken the boys on such a big holiday and think that they are all now at the right ages to enjoy themselves and remember the experience.

Please pop across to see Karen's Eggcellent photo and to check out who else joined in.

Have a lovely week.

New Year...New Goals

2012-01-05T14:33:00.001Z

How do you start off a New Year?

As a ~~compulsive~~ list maker (my list writing seems to be more compulsive as my brain remembers less, I do like to think though that there is just too much going on for me to remember it all - even if i'm only kidding myself lol!) I like to start a New Year with a list, so I have some idea of where I'm heading and to set some goals. The obvious ones involving the boys, being more organised and loosing weight. This year I've started off too by jotting down some notes and a list of things I'd like to do.

As a reminder for when I loose my way (you see there are occasions when I spend more time surfing the blogging world and Pinterest than creating and surely I've got it the wrong way around) I thought I'd share the things I'd like to do with you here.

So in 2012 I intend to

continue with my bi-weekly photography challenges hosted by the lovely Karen
try each month to join in with Sian's Story Telling Sundays.
complete a layout each month in numbers....Julie I have already started counting.
complete Kirsty's new class Just one Sketch
make the majority of all my cards....see, I've made a start already
crochet more, after the success of my mug warmers came the apple jackets....what next I wonder!
Finish my Christmas Journal
possibly join in with Shimelle's monthly challenge over on UKS
create a layout each month, of me and hubby, through the years....the album is waiting ready to be filled.
and to take part in the challenges Sarah will be setting over at SJ Papercrafts.

ummmm....something tells me that this little lot will keep me busy for some time yet!

What are you plans for this year - have you set yourself any goals?

Story Telling......

2012-01-02T20:56:00.000Z

.....~~Sunday~~

Monday.

Happy New Year to you all.

I have just been blog hoping and playing catch up after a break from the PC over New Year....and have been inspired by all your stories.... so I am going to make a conscious effort in 2012 to join in with Sian's Story Telling Sunday. Before I turn the laptop off for the evening I will tell my first story of the year.

This story will feature in my Christmas Journal - which I am still working on so I thought I'd share it here too.

Freckles at Christmas

Many Christmases ago when I was a around 12 years old, we...that's my two sisters, my brother and I attended a Christmas party at my dad's work. My dad was a fireman until a few years ago when he retired and the Christmas party was held in the Fire Station.

At most Christmas parties, Father Christmas makes an appearance and this party was no exception.

The Fire bells rang and the Fire Engine started up.....there was lots of commotion as the Fire Engine with lights flashing pulled up at the Training Tower in the yard. Smoke was billowing out of the top of the tower, but there through the smoke we could make out a man in a red suite.

The ladder on the fire engine extended and up went the firemen to rescue Father Christmas from the towering inferno. Luckily Father Christmas and his sack full of goodies were saved.

As Father Christmas walked through the children, he greeted each of us. When he reached my brother, who was probably about five/six years old, my brother exclaimed...

"you're not Father Christmas........you're my dad........you've got a freckle on your lip!"

Christmas challenge

2011-12-28T10:07:00.001Z

For the past two weeks Karen's photographic challenge was Christmas and in particular Bokeh.

Here are my offerings, my focus was our Christmas tree.
A tripod was used for each of these photos.

Manual - Focal Length 20mm f8 2s ISO200

Manual - Focal Length 32mm f4.5 1.3s ISO200

This was my best effort with bokeh. It is a little dark.

Manual - Focal Length 18mm f3.5 2s ISO200

this one is my ~~very~~ creative shot. I turned the lens while shooting and focused on the school-made Christmas ornament that craftily got placed on the tree. I'm not sentimental when it comes to tree decorations, however when this face was found in the decoration box and placed on the tree I didn't have the heart to remove it....

.......and it so happens that this next photo is my favourite.

Manual - Focal Length 55.4mm f4.5 1/5 ISO400

Christmas here has been fantastic,we have exchanged presents, seen most of the family.....still some more days with family planned.......eaten lots and drunk even more. This morning i've slopped away to post these photos in case I don't get another chance.

I'm looking forward now to entering 2012 so all that's left for me to say is Happy New Year to you all xx

Winter Warmers

2011-12-22T17:41:00.002Z

Last week I had the girls for lunch and we got talking about Christmas pressies. I happened to mention the mug warmers that I see appearing everywhere and joked that I should have made them all one for Christmas..........they all laughed...... they think I'm mad......with all my messing around with paper and such! So I showed them a photo of the mug warmers in the Mollie Makes Magazine.

Now they all awwwwwed!!

I can crochet but I haven't crocheted anything since I made this bag which I finished in February. That night I looked through my wool collection - the collection you can see in the bag in the photo.....not a massive decision to make....pink or Green? The pink looked a little gaudy so I opted for Green. I had a look at the mollie makes pattern and then didn't follow it at all.......maybe that's the reason a lot of my things don't quite turn out right :) After measuring my mug, with a Christmas film on the telly, I got to work.

The first two, the one on the left I used a treble stitch and the one on the right a double crochet.

A little plain...... I thought it might be nice to add some dimension..........oh and the gaudy pink!!

So bobble stitch all the way around and a little cream trim.

Bobble stitch took more time than the plainer ones so the next one had bobbles....... top, middle or and bottom (wasn't that a game show - what was it called? anyone remember? oh that will be nagging at me all evening now!)....... with cream stripes.

Even less bobbles on the next one, a strip around the middle!

A photo of the button to fasten them around your mug

The next evening I was looking at them all together and decided that I really liked the all over bobble so I made another in Green.

At the next lunch I'll present them all with there winter mug warmer! lol!! and there may be one or two extra pressies for family members too........any excuse to make some more!

Pattern

For all you crocheters I measured a chain of 35 around my mug.

Row 1. Make 35 chain, ss together.

Row 2. dc all the way around the cirlce.

Row 3. turn work around and work back around the circle in desired stitch - do not join at end, leave 2 stitches and turn.

Row 4. work to desired height following row 3.

To make button fastener, when get to desired height, do not fasten off - 15 chain (length of chain will depend on how big your button is) ss to top edge, turn and dc back along chain....fasten off.

Thank you

This may well be my last post before Christmas - so if it is I'd like to thank you all now for stopping by over the year and to the kind words you leave me....I enjoy them all.

Wishing you all a fantastic Christmas xxx

I got my eyes on you...

2011-12-15T18:41:00.000Z

....is what Stan would say if you caught him looking at you.

Who knows where he got it from......

....but he kept us all amused this summer with his saying and action.

caught in action

Today I've done a couple of pages in my Christmas journal working around the photos I've taken so far. You see last week I sent off for some photos to be printed and I must have clicked the wrong box *doh* .......the photos arrived a few days ago and have parts missing and heads chopped off......I must have been having a ~~*Der*~~ moment!!

So now I need to get them re-printed and I think I'll try somewhere else..........is it me or are these photo places trying to save money by printing on thinner photo paper? The photos I've just received are *wafer thin*.

How are all your Christmas plans coming together?...all my list writing has paid off, I now have everything ticked off. Just the food shopping list is left!!

Self Portrait

2011-12-11T12:55:00.001Z

It doesn't seem that long ago that I had to take a dreaded self portrait photo for my weekly photo challenge.

Still I find taking a photo of myself cheesey.......whilst trying to concentrate on taking a photo, balancing the camera and not showing 10 chins.....they are not the most flattering photos!

But hey ho a challenge is a challenge so it had to be done. I'd just walked in the door from the school Christmas concert and grabbed the camera quick before I could change my mind!

For ages I've liked the self portrait's taken in a mirror so this is what I tried.

All photos are taken in Manual and I had to up the ISO, which has given the photos more of a grainier look than I would have liked. No flash was used.

Focal Length 79.6mm f5.6 1/10 ISO1600

Photo 1. from this challenge i've noticed that all mirrors in my house seem to face a door. In case you wonder why I still got my coat and gloves on.....i was freezing!! This mirror gave the best light advantage.

Focal Length 18mm f3.5 1/25 ISO1600

Photo 2. A photo holding the camera rather than looking through it - this is not as easy as it looks.... I found!

Focal Length 44.1mm f4 1/25 ISO1600

Then later on in the evening we were getting ready for a Christmas night out with friends when I thought I'd give it another go. You can see the difference in the colour of the photo - daylight vs artificial light!

If you would like to see more - pop across to Karens to find out who joined in!

It's not often I find myself sitting at my laptop on a Sunday Morning.....we had to cancel Rugby this morning as I couldn't get my handbrake off my car....apparently the handbrake cable has broken....so once I've posted we will have a crafty morning here instead. I'll let you know how we get on.

Christmas Journal

2011-12-08T16:37:00.001Z

I've made a start!

The front page is done and I've sent the first weeks photos for printing.

Gosh I feel so much better now!

After last years journal where I used a 8x6 photo I've gone for a mixture this year. There will be some full size photos pages mixed with 4x6.

Today I should have written about the weather - it is awful here - so so windy. Hoping that where ever you are you are safe and warm.

Lists galore

2011-12-06T20:51:00.001Z

We are now in December and I have done nothing but write lists.

a to do list,
a left to buy list,
a what I've brought list, and
a what's happening this week list

Usually I write lists because I keep forgetting to do/buy something, then there are occasions when I have that overwhelming....lots to do......feeling.... and I excessively write lists and rewrite them.

Between my list writing I have managed to hop around and see all the gorgeous Christmas journal entries - I've been taking photos and making notes but really need to start my book *big sigh*

Needless to say the only crafting going on here is the doodling on my lists!!

I wanted to share something so here are two cards, crafty but not at all Christmassy, that I've recently made using leftovers from Sarah's Kit.

My friend's son passed his driving test

and my nephew is 15 next week - I must get this in the post!

Have a lovely week and if you are crafting....enjoy.

Photographing Light

2011-11-27T19:10:00.001Z

This week Karen set us the challenge to photograph the light. The aim was not to photograph 'lights' but what the light does, ie creates shadows, contrast, reflections, the rays themselves.

Unfortunately I haven't been lucky enough to see much sun this past two weeks, its dark when I leave the house in the mornings and dark when I arrive home. On the days i've not worked it's been mainly dull and dreary. At the last knockings this is what I came up with.

It's all about Jack.

ISO 100 f5 1/160 focal length 44m

My first photo shows Jack's shadowed profile.

Karen did ask us to have a go at using Aperture Priority mode. Sorry Karen I completely forgot and shot in manual.

ISO100 f5 1/60 focal length 39mm

My second photo shows the sun shinning through the bird watching gap, lighting up the side of Jack.

ISO100 f5.6 1/160 focal length 55mm

My last and favourite photo. I love how the sun is shinning across his face, illuminating it.

It's now time for a cuppa and a blog hop to see what the others have done for this challenge.

O Christmas Tree....O Christmas Tree

2011-11-25T12:00:00.000Z

I think I'm on a roll.

It has been a very busy week and to unwind one evening I took my Scalloped Nestability Circles and cut out lots of different sizes .....

Still in with the purple....I have to blame Julie and all her purple posts........it's even been a huge influence when deciding on Christmas Presents this year. If there was one in purple then that's what I brought. Do you think I've just not taken much notice of purple before or is there so much of it about in the shops?

Anyway I digress, with all the scalloped circles I made a Christmas Tree and after I finished it I had a grin on my face for a while.......it does look really pretty on my side and I think I might make another so they can have pride of place on the mantel piece.

It was so easy to make you can find all the details here.

I inked the edges of each scallop to bring all the colours together and used a glue gun to glue around the kebab stick between each scallop. The star was stamped twice from the banana frog Christmas Elegance set and scored to give a 3D shape, a little stickles bling and volia..........

These trees would be so easy to dress up too, I did think about hanging some decorations or adding some beads......oh the possibilities.

Christmas Cards

2011-11-24T09:00:00.000Z

Earlier on this week, or was it last week, I mentioned the love hate relationship I have with card making.........after making a few tester Christmas cards, (which I haaaaaaated!) I search pinterest for some inspiration and came across this one.

I had a look at my stamps and found that if I used my Banana frog sets Winter Wonderland and Christmas Elegance then I might be able to make something similar! am I allowed to say that these I like.......they look nicer in real life than in these awful photos - .when I'm at home now I never seem to see daylight.....a downside to the winter weather!

So using my Banana frog stamps............. some kraft cards...... and a few coloured scraps (bazzill bling) here they are.

When I ran out of Green I used Blue

.....and when I ran out of Blue I turned to my purple scrap....inspired by Julies Purple Phase no less!

Still using the Banana frog sets I quickly stamped a ton of Kraft tags with Mr Snowman....I'm thinking that J and S might like to colour these in for me!

Thank you for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week.

White Space

2011-11-22T21:29:00.001Z

I have to admire the white space scrappers amongst us........

I've often start out with a layout and think "lots of space"....I do like the look.... but somehow I move papers around my page and end up filling the whole page.

So when I came across this layout by Tessa Buys.....I scrap lifted it (I hope Tessa doesn't mind!)....and tried to keep it just so!

The photo was taken back in the summer, there's not many of Harry and me together now.....he's getting to that age!!

It's taking a while but today I am feeling in the Christmas mood...... I have started my shopping, I always feel better when the present buying is under way, and last night I finished making my

christmas cards and tags. We have my mum's 60th birthday celebrations at the weekend and my sisters too (not 60th celebrations- oh my I hope she doesn't read this! :) ) after then it will be full steam ahead with all the Christmas preparations......

ho ho ho don't you just love Christmas?...

...I know I do!!

Birthday Cards

2011-11-19T07:30:00.000Z

I have a few birthday's in November ......so amazingly I made a couple of (simple) cards. I say amazingly, as I kinda have a love hate relationship with cards. I absolutely love the idea of a making them but hate the fact that making them always seems to be a bit of a struggle. I'm sure it's because there is no photo to take inspiration from.

After I made these I got into the "card making" mood.......and made a start on my Christmas cards!! Next year I think I will make a conscious effort to make a card a week!! .......or ~~more like it~~ a month!!

Felt flowers

2011-11-17T21:08:00.001Z

I needed a tag or two for some birthday presents this month.....so I hooked out my felt scraps and cut out lots of circles with my nestabilities.

The idea was to use flowers and in the end after much playing around this is what I came up with.

There was only enough pink/purple felt to make one flower so I guess I'll be shopping for more felt soon.

Remember....

2011-11-16T21:41:00.001Z

Following on from my last post, this is the second layout created with the gorgeous Echo Park paper

This past week Stan and Jack have asked many a question about why we wear poppies. They have spoken about it at school and observed the 2 minute silence twice. We've had lots of discussions about the world wars too. To help put words into pictures I searched through all my photos and found this photo of my great grandfather and great grandmother.

........What we know......

.......is that my great grandfather was in the Welsh Regiment and on the 12 July 1916, age 29, he lost his life at the Battle of the Somme. He left behind his wife and two daughters (all shown in the photo). Less than one month later on the 8 August 1916 my grandmother (Nan) was born.

Shortly after having my Nan, my great grandmother passed away too, so my Nan grew up without ever knowing her parents.

There is so much I'd like to know about my Nan's young life but sadly she passed away when I was a young child so I know very little about her only what my mum had told me!

.....Before I go I'd like to share the full layout from my previous post.

"Potato"

2011-11-14T22:06:00.001Z

Sarah sent me my second DT parcel full of the lovely Echo Park Times and Seasons collection.

Here's a sneek peak of one of the layouts I created from the kit, please pop across to SJ Crafts if you would like to see more.

I'll be back soon with another Times and Seasons layout......

Thank you to Sarah for putting together a fantastic kit.

The Backyard

2011-11-13T09:00:00.000Z

Today is the first day of a brand new photo challenge. Hosted by Karen, we are given a theme and over two weeks we take a minimum of fourteen photos and then post our first, last and best or favourite photo.

This made me smile because my first photo is usually my worst. When I pick up my camera I pretty much take a photo straight away...........without checking my camera settings. A quick look at my viewfinder then tells me that there is something wrong.

True to form this is what happened when I started to take photos is my backyard, this weeks theme. Although I took more than one before I realised on this warm, autumn afternoon my ISO was set at 400.

My first and worst photo.....

f5.6 1/200 ISO 400

I was trying to focus on the flower and the old brown stems kept springing back and getting in my way.

My favourite/best photo......

f4.5 1/13 ISO100

and my last photo.........

f8 1/13 ISO 100

There's not much going on in my garden at this time of year, lots of shrubs and ferns and the odd pink flower, so I started to look for other things and saw this little lot piled up waiting to be placed back in the garage ready for next year.

Scrapbookers make the best photographers

2011-11-10T23:10:00.001Z

I’ve always loved taking photos and maybe my love comes frommy nan, who always and I mean always had her camera with her and took photosall the time. She would stop a party or gathering to take a photo and spend ages organising everyone.……very similarto me nowadays!!

Unlike my nan who more often than not had no film in hercamera or flat batteries ((bless))……my camera is digital. Oh for the love oftechnology, digital really does allow you to take as many photos as you wish.Like last month when I ended up with 1528 photos.

Now after my last photo post I think I should clarify thatathough I did take tons of photos last month, many are not good at all, some in fact are pants……..especially whenI forget to check my camera settings!! The great thing about digital is that it allows me to make mistakes..... many many times over.

This post today is to say thank you to everyone who has commented, throughout the photo challenges, each comment really does make me smile, and to:-

· Alexa who asked me what I do with them all……....So a little insight..... Afteruploading them I go through them andpick out my favourites, I save these into a separate “to print” folder ....most of these will be scrapped. Lots of the rugby photos arecopied to a disk and given to the rugby club to upload to their website. So notall of the 867 photos I took last month are of my three!! Eventually when I understanddigi (if ever, and PSE) I’d like to complete aphoto book for each for them.

· Sian who suggested a post on photo opportunities……you had methinking. I looked back through all the photos I’ve taken this year and foundthat my biggest source of inspiration came from the photo a week challenge.Setting a theme makes you look outside of your normal photographic subjects (for me the boys!).Some of my most favourite photos from this year came about because of thechallenges. Especially the ones using techniques (is that the right word?) that i'd never tried before:-

Like High Key

So to everyone who wishes to have more photographic opportunities or to take more photos why notchallenge yourself to take ten photosthis month, (to post on the 10th December as part of Shimelle's 10 things on the 10....

......maybe!!!

Lists of photo challenges can be found, I've pinned some here, have a look throughthem and find ten things that you think you’d like to try this month….andrememeber “scrapbookers make the bestphotographers”….it says so here.

There might be something here that inspires you also.

As Christmas is on its way, here is a list of possible photo opportunities

Good subjects if you are doing a christmas journal too.

If you’d like to take on a longer project (with no pressure)then maybe I’ve persuaded you to join Karen in her new 26 wk challenge. I’msure that after 26 weeks you will certainly have more photos to scrap.

.....and finally, if you need more supplies to scrap these photos, pop across to SJ Crafts to see the launch of her November Kit.

If you've made it this far, this is a really long post for me, have a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Sunday with my first photo for the 26 week challenge.

What will it be?

2011-11-02T19:22:00.000Z

This time of year we are all thinking about Christmas. There are plans to make, presents to buy and a Christmas journal to think about.

2007 was the first year I signed up for Shimelle's Christmas Journal Class.

An 8x8 book where I pretty much stuck to Shimelle's prompts.

For 2008 I upsized to a 12x12 album

This size I loved, I'd felt restricted the year before so moving up a size or two was great.

In September 2009 I returned to work after a six year career break, so I moved back down to a more manageable size.

This album was from Paperchase and based on black pages......I love it!

My Christmas journal has become a diary of our family events during the month of December. At this time last year I toyed with the idea of not doing the journal.....but how could I not do a journal, it is now become something of a tradition.

For a few years I'd admired Ali Edwards December Daily and after watching her tutorial on the digital overlays I considered a journal based on large photos for 2010. This turned out to be a great alternative.

The book was 8x6, the size of each photo....and again I love it! Although I'd have to watch the tutorials again to see how it's done.

So this year what will it be?? Any suggestions??

If any of you have any ideas based on something you've either made or would like to make please do leave a comment or link I'd love to hear.

I just love Christmas!!

Thank you all for stopping by.

Photo of the Week

2011-10-30T18:53:00.000Z

This week the weather here has been mostly dry and bright

This weeks photo on the subject of weather completes my 52 week challenge.

Over a year ago Karen asked me if I'd be interested in joining her on a weekly photographic journey, apprehensively I agreed. A year on I am very glad that I took part. As I've said before Karen is a fantastic photographer and has encouraged me throughout, with help, advise and even taking the time to look at individual photos for me.

Interestingly enough I have decided to join in again - the challenge this time is one theme for a two week period. This should give us more time to decide on a subject. If you would like to know more then please pop across to Karen to check out all the details.

When I started this project the thing I wanted to do the most was ensure that I used my camera every week. After a little blog hopping this afternoon I noticed that Julie had posted her month in numbers. So to join in, I'm going to share with you the number of photos I've taken this month:-

867 of the boys playing rugby....wow I get awfully carried away but I didn't realise I took this many?

51 of the girls at the All Day Crop

54 Moustache photos.....messing around with the Keith Lemon download application

62 of Stanley and his buddy in the garden playing with the leaves

57 of my nephews at his birthday party

63 at my Dads 60th birthday meal...not many I know I was too busy enjoying the festivities

156 of a stroll along the river

107 pumpkin carving

91 Scrapbook/layout related photos

That is a grand total of 1508 (if my maths is right!) photographs in the month of October.....and the months not over yet, tomorrow is Halloween so I'm sure there will be more photo opportunities.

I think it is safe to say that this year I definitely used my camera every week.

Shimelle Starting Point

2011-10-29T20:26:00.000+01:00

After finishing the paper bag album I needed some quick inspiration. I had this layout from Shimelle's starting point in mind.

I find it hard to move back to a full 12x12 after working on a small project....does anyone else find that or is it just me?

This was just what I needed to get back into the swing of things.

I'll be back tomorrow with my photo of the week.

Spread your wings...

2011-10-26T22:38:00.000+01:00

Already we are in the middle of half term week. It has so far been a week of rest, so much so that I completely forgot Wednesday night is rugby training for number one son. At half past six this evening when we sat down to eat dinner, he asked me what day it was......and then reminded me he had training. Training that started at six o'clock! Boys eh!

On a crafty note, I have been able to spend a little time here and there finishing off my paper bag book and here it is.

I used three bags and after a you tube search I found this video tutorial and decided to make the book so I didn't need to fasten it together by binding or with rings.

It's a little book for H using photos and memories from 2011 his last year before he enters the ~~dreaded~~ teenage years.

There is a lot of journaling (more than I'm used to) and little notes and quotes from me to him. Along with some wise motherly words.

Page one

with some quotes on tags.

page two

all about his love of rugby

page three
The small page on the left holds two photos from the summer....

....messing around in the garden, they had stopped for a rest when number three son says to number one son.....

"you smell"

so in true boy style (and I really have no idea where they get it from!)

he lifts his arm....

sniffs his armpit......and blows.

Gross!!!

The photo on the right was taken at the same time and from his expression I do wonder what he was thinking.

Between each page is the middle/opening of the paper bag and in these are cards with photos and journaling.

Trying to find the best angle to photograph the pockets.

So there it is.

A huge thank you to Sian for the bags and the inspiration.

I now have a little book to treasure.

Thank you for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your week.

PS. I mostly used papers from Lily Bee Memorandum 6x6 paper pad...perfect for this project.

Photo of the Week

2011-10-23T21:47:00.002+01:00

This weeks subject is sport.....sorry to subject you to more rugby photos.

....some of you may know that I have three boys and they all play rugby. Today they were paying in two different places.....miles apart. I took No.3 son to his match while the other two were training at home. It was lovely to actually just focus on one of them instead of pacing between three games.

Stan played five tag games, I completely loss track of the score but I did get a few action shots.

I chose each of these photos for the facial expression! I'm pleased to see that his tongue wasn't hanging out the whole time!!!

Karen has been on top of the world this week, pop across to see why. She's also mentioned that next weeks subject is our last. 52 weeks complete, give or take one or two.

It has been quite a journey.... over the year I've taken some awful photos and some not so awful photos.....I remember the first few weeks when I felt so out of my depth, now I think it will feel very strange not to pick up my camera each week with a subject in mind...........so I've therefore made the decision to join Karen for the next 52 weeks!

2011-10-18T21:50:00.001+01:00

Last week the lovely Sian blogged about her paper bag album.

She had a plan! She kindly offered to give away some of her paper bags, her only requirement was that you had to make a book with the bags she sent you.

After making sure there was no deadline (me and pressure don't go well together!).....I took up Sian's challenge.

The book isn't finished........but it's made and has a front cover.

I just need to get some photos printed to finish it off.

Here's a little peek.

My book has pockets and a small page and it's been made so that it doesn't need binding or rings to hold it together.

I'll be back to show you more soon.

Photo of the week

2011-10-16T16:07:00.001+01:00

This weeks challenge was flash photography. I always associate flash photography with inside photos so this week I'd been thinking about an indoor subject.

Yesterday the boys were at my nephews 10th birthday party and although it was outside, it was quite dark in the woods, too dark to get a decent photo. So I had to use the flash.

My eldest nephew and my three.

I thought that they very much resembled dalek's!!

Karen is off-line at the moment and will be posting her photo as soon as she's connected to the internet again.

Captured in a card #4

2011-10-13T22:50:00.001+01:00

England VS Argentina

Rugby World Cup 2011

Jonny Wilkinson is lined up ready to take a penalty.

Jack is sitting on the edge of his seat and shouts...

"COME ON......JONNY....

.....WILK......SKIN"

one card. one memory. one conversation. captured.

thanks to Sian for the Captured in a Card Idea

......and you know he sounded so gorgeously cute that I didn't have the heart to correct him!

Have a lovely weekend and I hope to be back soon to show you a sneak peak of my paper bag book.

Photo of the week

2011-10-09T21:52:00.004+01:00

This weeks subject was Abandoned. Unfortunately I never managed to complete the challenge, instead as we're in the middle of the rugby world cup I thought I'd share a few photos of the boys at training last week.

No 1 son

No 2 son - and he got his try!

Not the greatest photo...the I like how you can see the movement in this one.......

and No 3 son.

This is one of my fave photos from No 1 son's training game. Tom just about to lay down his try!!

Is the sun in your eyes?

2011-10-07T21:09:00.000+01:00

Ruby is well and truly Stan's dog, he's the one who lays on the floor makes a fuss of her, plays hide the ball with her, likes to brush her and spends ages getting them sticky balls out off the fur on her ears when she's been running around in the fields.

This particular day Stan came in from school and laid in the garden with her......(the photos are not too good as they were taken from indoors - so as not to disturb them) he was chatting away and sheilding her eyes from the sun.

I used mainly scraps and thought I'd have another go with the mists. Can you tell I only have one mist and its blue! (not strictly true, I do have another, diamond, but it doesn't show up in photos) I absolutely love the effect of mists but am so relutant to buy any more...because I make such a mess and I never squirt with an even look. I mean you can guess how many quirts I done on this layout? lol!

What ever you are up too this weekend, I hope it's a good one!

All day crop

2011-10-03T18:05:00.000+01:00

I spent Saturday with these lovely ladies.

you'd never know these are all scrapbookers - not one of them posed for a photograph for me lol!

and these lovely young ladies.

Recently I was very much inspired by Julie Kirk's postal series and was also very fortunate to win her postal themed giveaway.

Before the crop I prepared these money envelopes using the postal stamp punches.

There were two challenges were the punches and stamps were used over and over...

....the first one was to create six 4x6 postcards, here are my ones......the front....

and the back.


(postcards by Jackie, Ruth, Charlene and Tracy)

Some joined in and this is what they came up with. Ruth's postcards were fantastic, she has recently purchased an DSLR camera and her very autumnal photos were fabulous. Jackie went with a Christmas theme and has decided to use these for her Christmas Journal this year, when she will add a 4 x6 photo on the reverse. Tracy and Charlene created postcards to show a holiday and a day out!

Well done to Tracy who won the challenge and received a page kit.

The second challenge was to create a 12x12 page to sit with the postcards. Here is my one....

and here is what the ladies created...

Gitte, Sally, Tracy and Charlene......


Sam, Jackie and Ruth.

Congratulations to Sally who received a page kit for winning this challenge.....

......and a HUGE thank you to everyone who came along for the day.
I'm looking forward to the next one.

Photo of the Week

2011-10-02T16:18:00.002+01:00

My photo for this weeks challenge.....

The subject is vehicles. So my photo may not strictly be classed as a vehicle, but I consider them a mode of transport........(wouldn't you say?)....especially when I sometimes scoot back from school on one!!

Does anyone else have children that have been hit with the MGP craze?

I'm looking forward to seeing what Karen comes up with this week and to see if anyone else has joined in.

Now I'm off to enjoy a little of this mad October sunshine, before I have to think about feeding the brood!! Enjoy your week!

My very first design team layout

2011-09-28T19:20:00.000+01:00

I never imagined this would be so difficult. I think panic set in a little, it's one thing messing about with papers and putting together a layout, its another to use someone else's supplies and come up with something that you hope they will like!!

My parcel arrived with a lovely little note from Sarah.....
and I settled down with a glass of wine.....

My parcel was filled with the new Fancy Pants Summers End paper Collection. The designs and colours were fantastic and very much what I like. Neither girlie or boyish, the papers are perfect for all subjects.

This layout is my very own photo shoot with a seven year old. I thought maybe my first layout should be of me - I have no idea why!! Do you ever get an idea in your head and just go with it, without reason?

The Fall Frames were perfect for all the journaling these photos required.....I mean it's not very often us scrapbookers pose for photos!

Pop across to SJ Crafts to see my layout there too - with more details on the products I used.

I found this Fancy Pants range very versatile and managed a beach layout as well. If you do purchase this range you should check out the chipboard banners-they add so much depth and dimension to a layout.

In celebtation of her design team SJ Crafts is offering 2 FOR 1 on selected paper ranges including the range used here! So be quick before they all go.

Thank you to Sarah for my box of goodies, I really enjoyed working with them.

Photo of the week

2011-09-25T17:49:00.001+01:00

This weeks challenge was "family portrait".

So I rounded everyone up and I found a wall for the back drop.

No formal poses for me, just a relaxed photo of us all was the aim.

I took tons of photos, as you do, and when I viewed them, Stanley (number 3 son) had a face like this in every single photo. Anyone would think we forced him...........telling him I wouldn't take him to rugby today if he didn't do something for me isn't actually forcing him.......is it??

The second batch of photos looked something like this one

Oh my........when this boy doesn't want to do something, we all know about it!

eventually after much persuasion I managed to get some half decent photos.

Still no smile though...........

You can check out Karen's photo here. Thank you for hopping by and have a lovely week.

Converse...All Star

2011-09-22T14:55:00.001+01:00

Have you something in your scrap stash that you've saved for years and years?

Well last night I was trying to work out how long I've had this chipboard Converse boot. The boot came on a pair of converse boots I brought Col years and years ago....he only wore them once or twice and eventually sold them on Ebay. So I reckon the boot must be at least 8 years old, if not older.

A little paint, splash of mist, some jean fabric and some scraps of paper and this is what I came up with.

Jack picked some Converse All Stars in the summer holidays and they were a perfect match for the boot I'd been harboring all these years. I used the chipboard circle for the title and journaled about Jacks determination to lace up the shoes even though the laces were so short there was hardly anything to grab to tie.

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments on the post below. I'll be sure to share my very first DT layout with you very very soon.

In the meantime Sarah is celebrating her new DT by offering you 15% of all orders placed between now and 11pm tomorrow evening Friday 23 at SJ Crafts. Just enter Team5 in the discount code box and remember there is free postage on all orders over £15......happy shopping.

SJ Crafts

2011-09-20T19:27:00.001+01:00

I have some exiting news.........Sarah from SJ Crafts posted about putting a Design Team together for her shop!!

I read her post, typed an email and hit the send button.........before I really had time to think about what I was doing!!!If I stopped to think about it I know I'd never have sent the email!

Sarah emailed me a few days ago to say that she would love me to be one of the design members........I was totally gobsmaked!!

Sarah is based in Bournemouth and has her own on-line shop, she also holds regular open days and crops, so if you are in/near the area then check out the dates of the Events, Crops and Classes on her website.

So.... please if you haven't already, pop across to Sarah's shop to have a perusal and follow her shop blog so you can find out what the new DT are up too.

The new DT members are

Lisa-Jane

Jenny

Jennifer

and of course me.

and I look forward to getting to know these ladies......i'll be off to say hello to them this evening!!

Photo of the Week

2011-09-18T20:17:00.000+01:00

Before I share my photos from this weeks photograph challenge I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed yesterday's blog hop and wish to thank everyone of you who took the time to look at my post and leave a comment. I was overwhelmed with all your comments, each and every one brought a smile to my face......so thank you very, very much!

Last weeks photo challenge was Documentary/Decay. Had me puzzled for a while to photograph something you wish to document which could be pretty much any subject, or to photograph something old, decrepit or run down.

I chose to document an item that I've been meaning to for a while. Many years ago, when we lived in London, we were burgled. For insurance purposes we had to try to produce photographs of certain items, a tricky job when you don't actually take photos of individual items. This was a good lesson to take on board for any future purchases...........hence todays photography subject......

Guitars!!

My husband has a fetish for guitars, he can play ~~in a fashion~~, and drives us all mad when he's learning a new song....so I tell him!! His first guitar was an acoustic, followed closely by an electric (far far too loud for indoors - although he says I'm just getting old!!). Having three boys he wasn't happy with just two guitars so he purchased an electro acoustic guitar. Three guitars, three boys......perfect!!! Oh no no no.....he now needed one for himself!!! Bearing in mind you can only play one guitar at a time and they are far far too precious for the boys to play we now have four ~~precious~~ guitars hanging around the house!!

I have chosen my favourite photo of each guitar to share with you this evening.

you can see me taking the photo in this one!

This photo looked so much nicer (I think) in black and white.

I feel so much happier now knowing I have them documented, should they ever go astray!!

Now pop across to Karen's who chose Decay as her photographic subject this week!

Have a lovely week and I'll be back soon with a layout.

Blog Hop

2011-09-17T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hello and Welcome.

If you've arrived here from Beki's blog, for today's blog hop, a very warm welcome to you.

When Kirsty from Journal of Curious Things, first posted about joining in on her blog hop........it meant using one of her handmade embellishments on a layout to mark her 200th blog post. Her work is fantastic so the embellishments had to be too - right.

Well she didn't disappoint they were gorgeous and fitted in perfectly with a holiday layout I had planned. I have tons of photos from the Eden Project and wanted to include a few odd photos that just won't get scrapped on their own.

Keeping in with the holiday postal theme, pretty pretty stamps were added and Kirsty's embellishments were mounted onto black card so they'd stand out on the patterned papers.

The embellishments were beautifully created, they included a postage stamp card, paper clip, tag, lace and butterflies.

You may notice that the top right photo states The Eden Project, so it felt right not to include a title.

The journaling reads "Ten years ago the Eden Project opened, so I guess for ten year I've wanted to visit this place.We had a great day walking around the Biomes, you all made it to the top of the suspended platform where the temperature reached 43 degrees"

Thank you for stopping by and if you're following the blog hop you're next stop is the very talented, young and crafty Hannah.

A big thanks to Kirsty for organising the hop and wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

Giant times

2011-09-15T20:49:00.002+01:00

Earlier this year we had a day trip to london. We arrived at London Bridge tube station with the intention of visiting The London Dungeons. We stepped outside the station and was greeted by this rather tall chap. The boys were in awe.

Well I couldn't help myself when he got down on his knees to speak to us and was still taller than me (5ft 4) I had to ask him.

He was 7 foot 1inch tall!!!! with size 19 feet............yes you did hear correct........ size 19 feet!!

....and you know what they say about men with big feet.............

......they have big shoes!!!

Come on then......what were you thinking??! lol!!

This man was so nice and as it was H's birthday, he gave us a great family deal for entrance into the London Bridge Experience. I have to say everyone thoroughly enjoyed their history trip through london.

We saved the London Dungeons for another day.........the queue to get in was (allegedly) over three hours long. There's far too much to see in London to spend time queuing for that long!!

This layout was inspired by a Lily bee design blog post pinned to Pinterest.

Photo of the week

2011-09-11T20:47:00.002+01:00

How hard can it be to take photographs of food do you think? Extremely hard it seems! This was one subject that I thought would be rather straight forward and I never gave any thought to forward planning.

I mean food.....it's vibrant in colour (mostly)......it doesn't move......it can't answer back.......give you gip or moan at you to hurry up.....a perfect subject wouldn't you say!!!

After many trials I googled "How to take a picture of food" and came up with this article, its opening sentence read:-

"Taking pictures of food is one of the most difficult skills a photographer can master."

You don't say!!!

So what i'm going to do is share a selection of photos I took, I won't include the Sunday roast....you'd never want to come here for dinner again!!.....these photos are simply of cupcakes.

Please bear in mind I took photos from every angle, it was a drab day so there was very little natural light....my ISO was high, 800 in some of these photos, this makes them very grainy looking!

Squashed cupcake cakes after my man-handling, lifting, carrying from room to room to try and get the best light (it was raining outside!) and all the repositioning didn't help. The idea was to get the first one in focus and the others out of focus.

a close up, with the blue cupcake the main focus.

Only a small element of the green cupcake case is in focus in this one.

and one I messed about editing, to see if I could make an improvement.

If I was taking part in LSNED *sigh* you can imagine my lesson for today!

Please pop across to check out Karen's photo this week. I wonder how she managed this weeks subject!

In crafting news I have been working on some stuff ready for an all day crop I'm hosting in a few weeks, as soon as I can I'll share them with you. In the meantime a lovely lady who comes to my crops (and happens to live opposite me) started a blog a few months ago, yesterday she posted a fantastic heart frame made up of tons of butterflies. It's here if you would like to have a look.

Thanks for stopping by.

2011-09-08T22:56:00.001+01:00

Well it feels like the summer holidays never happened *laugh*.

It's been all systems go, three of them back to school, me back to work and can you beleive it homework on his second day back for number 3 son!!

This week I'm enjoying Shimelle's camera school posts. I love being behind a camera but find the technical side baffles me at times, (Karen is always on hand to give me some advise thankfully). So after reading Shimelle's post tonight I thought 1'd share some photos I took one day in the holidays when we were out.

I need to explain that when I take a bunch of photos, there are always ones that are out of focus, ones that are too light, too dark, washed out....and so. From 100 photos there is only ever a handful that I like and maybe only one that I really like!! May this be because I have the wrong settings on the camera....so so guilty of this one....or because I'm trying to get a creative shot......This particular day I was in experimenting mood.

Out of focus, over exposed and no heads....good start.....this was the first photo of the bunch. Further adjustments were made. Camera settings checked and cool bag moved, repositioned and camera precariously balanced.

Oddly I rather like this one........still no heads though!!

and then there's this one. This was after much faffing around and the amused looks on their faces from laughing at me running from the camera's timer so I could ~~try to~~ be in the photos. Eventually I was reminded that I have a remote control!!!! say no more!!!

My photo challenge this week is food.....so I need to get my thinking cap on.

Before I go I wonder if you have seen the giveaway over on Sarah's blog.

and they lived happily ever after!

2011-09-04T20:49:00.000+01:00

It's time for my photo of the week - this weeks subject was Bokeh and would you be surprised if I said I hadn't managed to complete the challenge.....my apologies to Karen.

In case you fancy having a go, I found this great tutorial.

In the absence of photos I have managed a layout, based (loosely) on Shimelle's sketch of the week and in keeping with her wedding week.

Not the best photo of us, but the best of a bad bunch......taken by H at a family wedding earlier in the year.

The journaling is on the back and refers to our 13 years of marriage and 22 years of togetherness. Attending a wedding is certainly a reminder of my own day and you know the best thing about a wedding is that you know "everyone loves a wedding"........ well at least I do!!

I'm loving this blogger makeover, it seems a lot easier to navigate and says I can have extra large photos.....will they be nice and clear I wonder!?

It's all back to normality this week, with both school and work....huh...and I'm not looking forward to either!

love you guys

2011-08-31T09:38:00.005+01:00

A quick post to share a layout of H and my nephew on holiday.
We're trying to make the most of the last week of the holidays so enjoy your week and i'll catch up with you all soon!

P.S.Today is the last day to let Kirsty know you wish to take part in her giveaway with a twist.