Me on a Monday

It was an Irish night enjoying, up early for food shopping (with a sneaky Costa coffee) and back out agin for a trip to the a opticians kind of weekend. It was a cute baby outfit buying (a new cousin in the family and the next generation kicked off!) and a prom dress purchasing kind of weekend.

It was a hunting on eBay for the perfect bureau to upcycle, finishing a gift for a friend and taking Alex to another meeting about her India trip kind of weekend. It was also a pick up from scout camp and let's miss Sunday night Ju Jitsu class kind of weekend which meant Alex baked (and baked some more) and we all settled down to watch the Muskateers and Tony and I Poldark with a bottle of red.

That's me up there on a Monday with my new reading glasses - feeling quite the librarian now! Except I'm not one and will be nervous about taking them out and putting them on in public but it's got to be done!

I'm joining in with Sian for her weekly meme for the first time this Monday. Determined to make more effort to blog more!

Meadow Barn - Part 2

While away the talented Jess introduced me to the Challenge YOUrself blog which she is a member of the design team for and as I had the ideal picture with me I gave it a go!

Tell us... what's on your bucket list?

I've not scrapped a full bucket list for this challenge but one of the things that is pretty much in the Top 3!  The photo is of me at the Vodafone stand at the British Grand Prix a few years back.  As a huge F1 fan (I blame my two older brothers who got me into it!  They are 10 and 8 years older than me so I had no choice as a 7 year old but to sit and endure it.  But I found I loved it!) I have been to Silverstone several times and also Germany and Spa but the one I would dearly love to visit is Monaco...preferably on a yacht in the harbour sipping champagne!!

I also managed this layout without any patterned paper!  Instead I just threw a ton of embellishments at it and borrowed a stamping up stamp off the lovely Tara.  Quite pleased with how it came out :)

You have until 4th April to take part in the challenge and win a voucher so why not give it a go?

Meadow Barn Pages

2 weekends ago I spent a fantastic weekend away at a barn in Herefordshire with a lovely group of crafting ladies.  We drank tea and ate cake, we had tea cooked for us by two lovely husbands, we chatted and crafted, we did a little Voice watching, we drank wine and we laughed until we cried!

It was a weekend that was good for the soul.  And good for my albums too as I managed 6 layouts and 3 cards over the weekend plus a framed gift a friend asked me to make.

Here are a few of the pages...(and I promise they are all straight in real life!)

First is Strawberry Tea.

I made a kit from anything pink I had in my stash and I love the result,  The Good Times tab behind the papers holds the journalling which describes how I was the main organiser for Strawberry Tea in Josh's last year at Primary School.  This is an annual event by the school and all the mums back strawberry cakes, the choir sings, there are a few readings by the children and parents and grandparents come to watch, drink tea and eat cake.  We raise a lovely amount of money for Breast Cancer Care and have fun doing it!  Alex was on an inset day from high school so joined in the fun too!

Melissani cave - This next one was made from a Gossamer blue kit and a sketch set by Gemma for our Sketchy Scrappers FB group.  I used a lovely, but rare, photo of all 4 of us on holiday in Kefalonia last year.  This was the sketch;

My Guys - The photo was taken in the early eve when the light was perfect outside the Millenium Centre while we were on a break in Cardiff. I love this picture so much.  It's such a great photo even thought they are all looking in different directions!  

This was also from a Gossamer Blue kit and I managed to kill 2 kits whilst I was away!  I need to keep up the momentum as I would dearly love to subscribe again but need to use the old stuff up first (insert determined smiley!)

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment,  I'll share the rest of my pages as soon as possible.

Final page share from last year!

I promised to come back a few weeks back (eek!) and share another page.  Well, I am later than planned (that darn thing called life getting in the way again!) but I found not one but 3 pages I made before the close of 2014 that I still haven't blogged.

First up is Reunited, using up the rest of my home made kit...

The journalling reads "After more than 20 years we were finally all in the same place for a family photo at City Road having spent the day celebrating Dad's 85th".  A family rift meant one of my brothers lost touch with the family for over 18 years,  It was a lovely day when we were all back together again.

Next, something unusual for me - a page without a sketch as a starting point!  I looked at the scraps I had left in one of my Gossamer Blue kits and moved them around to see what I could create.  I love this photo of A&J.  Alex is teaching her brother how to do a selfie and the expressions on their faces are priceless.

Finally a sketch challenge using even more scraps from the same kit!  Jess set this challenge on the Sketchy Scrappers FB group for January and it was great to use the leftovers for.  I'd seen a page Mercy Tiara had made detailing all her cats nicknames.  I can't find the specific process video but you can check out Tracy's work here on You Tube and she has hundreds of fab videos to watch :)

Anyway, I took this idea and made a page about one of our cats, Bruce, now 18 months old he has been given several nick names by us all!

Thanks for looking and leaving comments.  I do love to hear what people think and your feedback always make my day.