Well look who it is ....

Hello
I am so sorry I haven't been blogging recently.  Can you imagine my horror to find I haven't blogged since May !!  Where on earth has the time gone and I have done lots of things.  I don't know where to start!  Actually I do - I am going to start as at now and maybe work backwards later, as the feeling grabs me!

My big news is that I am a grandmother, again!!  My daughter, Kate and her husband Danny have had a little boy called Archie.  Kate already has two girls, Chloe and Emily, and Archie is Danny's first child, so we are all tickled pink with a boy.  That makes me grandma to five!!  Two boys and three girls.  How lucky am I?

Bit blurry but never mind.  These pictures were taken yesterday, his first day home.

With big sister Chloe - not sure he quite knows what he's looking at !!!

 And here's little big sister, Emily who doesn't look quite sure yet!!

And here's mummy, looking a little weary!

It all happened quite quickly, eventually.  Archie was 11 days late and Kate was due to go in to hospital to be induced late Sunday evening.  Her pains started lunchtime Sunday and she and Danny got to the hospital by 2.30pm whilst the girls and I ate the Sunday lunch!!  By 4.50 pm Archie was born!!  Pretty quick hey?  I had taken the girls back to my house in Langney, only to turn straight back to go and see everyone in hospital at Conquest!!  We were all very excited but weary. 

Right, that's my first blog done.  I'll be back later! x

Wild life around Langney

There is a footpath which goes around the pond at Langney.  Every year a pair of swans come and nest and have their babies on the pond.  They used to build their nest right in the middle of the pond but over the last two years they have built their nest right next to the footpath.  The footpath is quite busy as it is the direct link to the shops, to the school and for dog walkers.  I walked up to the shops a couple of weeks ago and this is what I saw:

The wire fence is all that separates the swans from the footpath and they don't seem to bother at all!

Last week I walked round the pond and the cygnets were out and about with mum.

.

Dad was obviously feeling a bit left out as he kept chasing the ducks and their babies - he really had got out of bed on the wrong side - well actually he couldn't have cos of the fence, but lets not quibble!!

 

Mum and babies just sailed serenely away with not a care in the world.

 

They've all gone now - perhaps its was something I said!

Then blow me down.  Friday evening I glanced out of my kitchen window and look what was walking around my hammock!

We haven't had hedgehogs for years so I was very pleased to see this one.  He didn't seem at all bothered that I was there and it was still daylight.  He let me get quite close to him as you can see.

 

He popped back again last night but I haven't seen him yet today.

Aren't we so lucky to have nature right on our doorstep? x

2nd Mother's Day

One of the few advantages of having part of your family living abroad is that you get Mother's Day twice!  In Australia Mother's Day is 8 May so my son always celebrates it then as he lives in Australia.

This is what greeted me when I answered the door on Saturday 7 May - what a lovely surprise!

Aren't they beautiful?  So I took some more photos of them as they die so quickly.  I shall bore you with some more pictures, but hopefully I shall scrap some of them too.

Last one but they really were so gorgeous.

Thank you and I hope I didn't bore you too much. x

Thank you cards for Scrapology

Mornin' all

Here are my entries for the Scrapology card challenge which was for a Thank you card.  I made the first one at the beginning of the month then forgot and made a second one yesterday!  Hey ho.

This one was made from a topper I found in my scrap box together with some cute buttons and bows.  The card was a variation on an easel card which I think I found on a Cute Companions CD.  Apologies if I'm wrong - anyway it wasn't my original idea!!

My second card uses the free Nitwit papers from Simply Homemade magazine and a favourite image of mine from the Double Sprinkles Kraft CD which I have coloured using Promarkers.  The pink flower I made using single petals from my flower box and a button.  The Thank you button is using a stamp from Woodware.  I finished it off with Craftwork Cards Card Candy, a little bow and brad button.

Just realised the first card doesn't meet the criteria for the Scrapology card challenge - I knew there was a reason why I had to do another one!!!  The one below is the one for the Challenge.  Sorry - what a numpty!!

Thank you for looking. x

Catch up time

Hello I can't believe I haven't blogged for the whole of May!  And I've been busy.  Well I shall bore you all now with a blog every hour or so!!  No perhaps not every hour but there is such a lot of catch up to do.

First of all a card I made for my friend's mum whose birthday was the same day as the Royal Wedding.  I used my Polka Doodles Stamp Doodles and built up the picture and then coloured in with water colours and put Glossy Accents on the house and glittered the dandelion heads.  The frame was made using Marianne die and the paper was from my stash.

Sandie had very kindly invited me to hers for the Royal Wedding with her mother, sister, daughter and grand-daughter as she didn't want me to be on my own!  How nice was that?  She had decorated the house both inside and out. 

Look at the make believe road set Sandie got from the Early Learning Centre - Holly put every single toy she could find along the road to cheer the happy couple in their carriage.  Don't ask why the diver was in the middle - we never did find out!

Right, that's my first bit of news and pictures.  Believe me there's lots more.  Thank you for looking. x

Some more cards ...

Hello

The other day I was flicking though the second copy of 'Simply Homemade'.  One of the 'giveaways' was a Dots and Spots Hearts print (www.dotsandspots.co.uk).  The picture is very plain, just of punched out hearts and a button.  I thought it would make an unusual card, so here's my take on it.

I recently bought the Polka Doodles Double Sprinkles Kraft CD.  I really love it.  Here's my first card I made with it.  Believe me it won't be the last!

Thank you for looking. x

What I've been doing .....

Hello again

Although I haven't blogged for a while, I have been making cards, but some I can't really show you yet.  Jill at Cardinal Colours has asked me to demonstrate some cards at her shop next Wednesday showing embossing, glitter, decoupage and stamping, so I've been preparing the cards.  I don't think I should show you yet, do you?  But I promise I will after I've done the demonstration (provided I survive!!).

However I have done some things I can show you.  My friends Linda (see her blog at Linda's Cards and Pages) and Lynn (A Moment in Time) who run Scrapology asked me to be a guest DT for month of April so I proudly prepared a page which has still to be shown.  A week later I received an email from Linda asking me if I wanted to try a challenge from Quixotic Paperie using charms, so I did.  I was very pleased with my layout and finished it quite quickly.  I emailed it off to Linda asking if it was OK.  Linda came back straight away saying it was fine but could I stand it up and take a picture so it didn't look like a layout!!!!  I emailed back saying wasn't it meant to be a layout and ......... no, it should have been a card!  Ooops!  Still I've now got an additional layout I hadn't been planning to do.  And this is the layout I shouldn't have done!!  Its a picture of my grand daughter at the Bluebell Walk in Arlington.

Anyway when I went to our crop that weekend Lynn very kindly gave me some more charms (I'd used them all up on my layout!!) and so I made these two cards for Linda's challenge!!

Both the cards used decoupage from the Crafter's Companion Flower Fairy CDs with their backing paper.  The butterfly charms on the above card actually were from a pair of earrings and necklace I had bought a while ago and couldn't wear them.

These are the two charms Lynn kindly gave me.

Thank you for looking. x



Arlington

Hi

This weekend my daughter, grand-daughters and I decided to go to see the bluebells at Arlington.  The farm had only opened the day before and the bluebells were out but not in full bloom yet.  We'll probably go again over the Easter weekend as the sunshine should bring them out fully.

However we had a chance to look at the animals - there were some lambs and ewes, one ewe particularly with curled horns just wanted her face stroked and tickled.  She was so gorgeous, but I forgot to take a picture!!  Anyway I did take a picture of the lambs.

However, as you can see, I am a lousy photographer and they either turned away from the camera or went back to sleep!!  Hey ho.  There were also some little chicks under the light which were cute, but the pictures didn't come out very well.

We went on a longer walk this time, the Yellow Walk and this took us up into the open fields and onto the livery stables and the cow shed. I remembered to take a picture of some calves though.  This time the calf was looking at me!

The weather was beautiful and it was lovely walking through the woods - the bluebells smell so fresh.  Anyway, if we do go again I promise I'll take some more pictures.

Now I know spring is here!!

Look what I've just seen.  I was woken up this morning by some very loud sqwarking and high pitched squeaking - it sounded horrific.  Up I jumped to see who was being slaughtered and saw this:

There was mother duck and about 15 ducklings on a walk about!  I have a school to the left of my house and a largish pond over on the right.  It seems mummy duck took her babies for a walk.  When I first looked out the babies seemed to be committing 'hari kari' by throwing themselves off the top of a 7 foot hedge surrounding the school.  How they got up there I really don't know.  Hence the terrible noise!

 Once mother duck had checked everyone was there, off she set shepherding them across my garden towards the pond, in single file!

 Originally when all the noise first started two more ducks flew in but only seemed to be watching, not helping mother duck at all.  However once she had set off with her brood, I noticed there was one baby left.  How on earth she knew that one wasn't hers, I don't know!  Anyway these two ducks then took charge of their baby.  The mother duck pecking and encouraging the baby to hurry up and father keeping an eye out for danger!

 Come on, stop dawdling!  Scuse my patched grass!!

Now how on earth do we get through this lot?

How cute was that?  I'll bet not many people get nature brought right to their doorsteps!!

See ya!! x

Look what I've done !!

Last weekend I went to a brilliant place in Debden for a crafting weekend.  We had so much fun, good food, lots of laughter and time to do several scrapbooking pages.  I've been carrying on working may way through all the many half finished projects I started at my friend's Anita (Inky Blossom's blog) scrapping workshops held at my other friend Jill's (Cardinal Colours) shop.  So here are a few more:

This is a recent page that Anita showed us.  The flowers are pieces of gauze, cut in circles and then singed round a night light, very carefully!    We then stuck seed beeds in the centre.  Anita gave us a doilly and we used Cosmic Shimmer Mist (obtained from Jilly's Cardinal Colours shop) and sprayed through the doilly.  That made the negative and then we used the actual doily as an overlay.  We also used some of Anita's flourish stamps and she cut the title.  Isn't it effective?

Now this layout is an older one of Anita's and unfortunately I didn't keep a record of the name of the papers.  This time Anita got us to weave papers which are under the photograph.  We cut out the embellishment and there you go!!!

This is a more recent page and uses ribbon threading around the circle and we cut out the flowers and placed them around.  Again, very effective, isn't it?  Anita's a clever lady. 

For some reason my pictures aren't showing - but if you click on the little box the picture pops up.  Anyone know what I've done wrong please? xx

Addendum (!)  Been back in and pictures showed up fine.  I think Blogger was having a 'moody' day yesterday.  Thanks for the advice ladies. xx

Happy Birthday Jill and Anita!

Happy birthday Jill.  It was Jill's birthday on St Patrick's day but as I didn't see her I gave her her card at Debden this weekend. 

Here is the card I made for Jill.

I used the Jayne Netley Mayhew CD for the picture and the matting, Papermania Lemon Sorbet backing paper, flowers and ribbons and Craftwork Cards sentiment.

Here's Jill opening her presents and talking on the phone, like Lady Muck!!!

Because it was also Anita's birthday on Monday we decided to celebrate Jill's birthday on the Friday we were at Debden and Anita's a bit early on the Saturday. Any excuse for celebrations!

Happy Birthday Anita.  I hope you're having a lovely day today with your family.  This is the card I made for Anita's birthday.

I also used Jayne Netley Mayhew CD and backing paper with some of my own cardstock and the card candy and sentiment were from Craftwork Cards.

We had a lovely weekend at Debden, with lots of food, laughter and plenty of creativity.  Brilliant time.

x

Appley Dapply card

Me again!

One of my girls at work is celebrating the 1st birthday of her daughter, Emily.  I have just bought the Crafters Companion Appley Dapply CD Rom and stamps and needed an excuse to use them, so I decided to make Emily a card.  This was actually one of the projects on the CD but I was very pleased with how it came out.  I shall certainly make it again.

It is a gatefold A5 card with a decoupage plate in front which then becomes an easel card to make it stand up.  Clever, isn't it?

This is the decoupage plate which has five or six layers.  Fairly easy to cut out, except for the tails!!

I printed out the alphabet from the CD Rom which is different from the project, but I thought it made the card more personal.

And finally the insert also matches.  I hope she likes it. x

I got a Valentine card .....

Hello
Look what I received in the post on Monday - a Valentine card! 

And I know who it is from - it is from my cat!  Millie.

Isn't that sweet?  My daughter sent it to me, bless her, although she denies all knowledge of doing so, I know it has to be her - it could hardly be from the cat, could it?

Everyone who knows me knows that the cat and I have a love / hate relationship.  Cats are not my favourite animal; I am more a dog person, but my children decided I needed someone to look after! (Which I don't).   Millie is a rescue cat, and did have both eyes when I got her, but she had a disagreement with either a fox or another cat and lost her eye.  She doesn't seem that bothered about it, but it is funny watching her trying to find her balance on a very thin fence!!  She's not a lap cat, which is probably just as well but she will sometimes permit my lap to be her cushion, just for a short time though!

Anyway - I was tickled pink and thought you might like to see too.  xx