30/08/2010

More Chicken Soup

I thought I'd have a play at the Chicken Soup girls' recipe again today - I loved the colour combination Clare chose so have used those for inspiration...
I've got a set of pictures for each of us combining old and new and this seemed to work ok. I used the De Lovely papers which are really bright I know but were good for the colours.
I stamped a grungepaper butterfly and painted it with some Perfect Pearls,then added a couple of jewels.
Bit of a wonky picture though!

Proud Grandad ...

Some of you may know that my Dad has an old car,I've blogged it a couple of times before. Well on Saturday he was going to take it down to the local village green where he lives as there was a 'Bank Holiday Festival'- one that was run by the church. I said I would go over and give him some moral support and have a wander round.
When I arrived, I walked up to where he was and caught sight of him with a man with a notepad and a camera he was asking all about how Dad aquired the car and how long it took to restore it etc etc .......anyway it turned out that he was from the local paper and Grandad might be in there...It might not happen but keep your fingers crossed ! Then Dad and I  left the car for a while - the man next to him watched his car for him to have a look round the stalls. The church had the usual stalls - handmade cards, cakes and jams,tombola etc etc.
Anyway - we wandered into the church and it was amazing,there were some beautiful exhibits I suppose you'd call them. In each alcove of the church was an arrangement of flowers on a theme. The one that took my eye was the 'Mayflower' one. It was stunning. On the wall behind it was a gorgeous patchwork quilt that had been made by 28 different women and was being raffled. How much would I have loved to have won that...I entered but haven't heard so I guess I haven't won! One of the ladies who made it was chatting and said she had become quite attached to it and hoped it went to a nice home - well so would I If I'd have made it !....I wish I'd have taken more photos now but as it was a quiet church I felt a bit awkward and conspicuous taking lots of pics.
There was also a display by a Dutch lady who lives in the village of lacy creations, I took a close up of the butterfies but sadly it's out of focus but this one isn't bad...So all in all - it wasn't a bad afternoon , and at least the weather was kind and Grandad's car didn't get wet!..Hope you are all enjoying your weekends...

27/08/2010

A Cherry on Top

The lovely Karen  who is one of the two ladies who run the Eclectic Keepsakes crop has given me this award, what a lovely surprise - she is a very talented lady and not only does some amazing scrapping but makes gorgeous cards too-thanks Karen.
So on to the  5 conditions to accepting the award..

  1. Thank the person who gave you the award - done.
  2. Receiver places award on their blog- done. 
 3.The receiver lists 3 things about themselves ....

 I hate hate hate spiders.. I'd love to go and see Donny Osmond in Las Vegas..... I love Candy Floss ....

4.Receiver posts a picture that they love

    Nowadays they aren't together at home very often - and to get a photo  when they are all (nearly ) smiling is quite an achievement...
      5.Tag five more people to pass on the award to and keep it going..

      I don't think these ladies have  already received this award and I'd like to pass it on to them..

      Jacky- She is a very talented lady and I love seeing her creations..
      Karen- Her blog always cheers me up-she takes some brilliant phots and her comments make me smile.She is also a very talented scrapper.

      Suz  This lady makes some wonderful crochet creations and she is so speedy with them it amazes me. She also has an amazing talent for picking brilliant colour combinations .

      Sandi.  Another very talented lady, her scrapping and cards she makes are beautiful.

      Lucy   A crochet blog again...Lucy has  quite a following in crochet blogland and I love the stuff she makes and I love reading her blog.

      So there you have it, and thanks again to Karen for giving me the award..







      23/08/2010

      Busy Busy

      It's been a busy time here lately - the last couple of weeks have flown by.
      We had a really nice meal out the other evening with  two of my cousins which was lovely.Two of us were celebrating our 30th wedding anniversaries so it was a good excuse to get together for a meal.
      When we get together we always have a  good time and come up with some family traits that we share  and  end up laughing about them..
      Like we were talking about teeth and dentists and my cousin was telling me about her allergy to penicillin and amoxil and blow me down I am exactly the same ...so is my dad and so is her mum (they are brother and sister)...anyway I digress ... then I have been busily hooking away finishing the blanket for my friend for her little dog...it's now all finished ..
      and now I'm back onto Granny Stripe, 39 stripes so far ..quite a few still to go ....
      and finally a layout I did over the weekend - not one of my best photos but it was when we went out for our middle son's birthday. It's nice to get pics with all of us in them. for a change..I can't believe how dark it is already this evening, only 8.15 and it's like night time out there.
      Anyone else looking forward to the Big Brother final tomorrow evening ? -I am.:-)

      18/08/2010

      A potato for Anniversaries

      So anyway, there I was at work this afternoon when my phone went off, it was himself declaring he was in Tescos and we were going to have a barbeque for dinner this evening.....'Are you sure' ?came my reply as it looked a tad grey outside. 'I've bought the potatoes, sausages and steak,do we need anything else ? ' he was so enthusiastic, I decided to go with it and after all - I wouldn't have to cook.......

      .........'nuff said !


       
      ...and while doing the potatoes I came across a nice romantic one ..
      ...well, sort of!
      .......and here is that card I made for Brother In Law ..now I'm off to hopefully do a bit of scrapping..



      16/08/2010

      My Sunday


      Was spent doing lots of odd things,I took the dog  for a walk down by the river, he was a bit lost as we walked along the towpath as it was the first time I'd taken him, I had to stop him going too near to the water as he was fascinated by the ducks and geese....
      It was lovely wandering along with some nice weather for a while,very relaxing in this busy life..Then it was home,and as I was home alone,I took the opportunity to have some 'hooky time'with the dog curled in the crook of my knee on the sofa ..... starting on the third square of my friend's blanket....
      and I'm getting there with it,three squares made and the fourth well on the way now ,just loads of ends to sew in -boo!. I decided to do it in four squares as I'm using oddments - as they go a bit further if the squares aren't so big. I'm itching to get back to my Granny Stripe blanket now...and then in the evening I made a birthday card for Brother In Law but won't blog it yet just in case it gets seen!... so not so much  scrapping  to show but it was a nice Sunday..

      12/08/2010

      My first Haiku

      I love the way blogland introduces new ideas and things and brings people together and on my  regular blog hop early this morning I saw this on Sian's blog-this was in response to a post by Rinda  on her blog
      I'd never heard of Haiku .....so decided I wanted to have a go ........


      Boys and dad at play
      Having fun at  bowling lanes
      A nice birthday treat.

      Chicken Soup - Recipe 6

      The new recipe is up over on the Chicken Soup blog,so I thought I would play along again.As I made a card last time I've done a layout this time.
      Here's my layout based loosely on the design..



      News on the hooky front is that work on the ripple and the stripe has come to a temporary halt.  My friend at work has just got  a gorgeous little dog -  and she wants me to make a blanket for her to snuggle into - so that's been my project this week. Nothing too fussy, I decided to make four squares and join them together. She asked for mainly pink in colour. I'm getting there with it- one square made and second one started -I'm quite liking just doing the old fashioned squares again..

      Thank you everyone for the lovely good wishes comments for our anniversary.We had a nice meal out and guess who forgot the camera - and I had some lovely flowers too
      .

      09/08/2010

      To have and to hold

      On this day 30 years ago - I got married !

      HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Mr H .

      07/08/2010

      'Lovely Day'

      As in the words of that brilliant Bill Withers song - I've had such a 'lovely day' today.
      It was the monthly crop day run by the two lovely Karens who are Eclectic Keepsakes. This month the class was a brilliant mini book based on the theme of Alice in Wonderland designed by Karen Cole. It really appealed to me as there were so many bits of embellishments and tags and lots of stamping - (If you wanted to do lots) which I love and roses to paint and vellum to stamp ,etc etc. We started off in the morning doing our own thing - I actually got a layout done - it's more or less the same as another one I did a week or so ago for Camp Scrap but I love this Girls Paperie so much I wanted to use it again.
      ...and then we moved on to the mini book. I've got the book constructed, the cover done and a couple of the pages so I can show you what I've done so far ...
      this page was made from two pages with the front one having the middle cut out and then vellum inserted and a playing card under the vellum...and the two then stuck together.
      So as you can see a fun day indeed - and now we are going to have a nice Indian take away - himself has gone to pick up a take away for us and two boys - yum can't wait !

      02/08/2010

      Granny's Growing

      I've been hooking away this weekend,and at work today in my lunch hour.This granny stripe is growing very nicely and I am really loving it. Eldest son and his girlfriend want a blanket for snuggling into on their sofa so I think this is gonna be the one for them.The  ripple is still a work in progress but is getting so big now- it's not so easy  to take it to work and bring home every day to work on at lunch time.I so wanted to start on the granny stripe too...I started off with 240 chains and it is looking like it will be a good size when it's done.
      It's a nice pattern as once you get going you can sit and watch the tv and hook away nicely.It's amazing - when I was younger - all those years ago -and lived at home and when I was first married I was always crocheting but only the normal squares joined up or a big square that just grew and grew until you needed more than a ball to get right round. I did the occasional cottony thing but not that much.Now - there are so many great ideas out there on the net to find and so much inspiration it's great to be really back into it again..
      and then on to one of the last layouts from Camp Scrap....this is using Girls Paperie again, my cousin and his wife and me and other half went out for a curry for aour burthdays.His is the day before mine. We'd had a  really fun evening, the Indian restaurant always plays 70's music and creates a great atmosphere. We  went back to their house for a cuppa and it was a cold evening so we got her blanket out and sat there with our cups of tea  gossipping and giggling like Maud and Mavis !



      01/08/2010

      Chicken Soup

      There is a new challenge blog in blogland called Chicken Soup which has been set up by a very talented group of ladies, some of whom I know via going to the wonderful ATDML retreat over the last two years.
      Anyway,they are already on recipe 5 and here is my take on the challenge.
      I thought I'd make a card for a change - middle son's girlfriend has her 21st this weekend so I had a good excuse to make a couple of 'pinky' cards.I used the gorgeous new Girl's Paperie range and an odd ribbon I had...off to do all the Sunday things now, take son to work,do the shopping ,etc etc..have a good day all .