Double Chins

It's that time again, the first Sunday of the month, and that only means one thing........it's time for Storytelling Sunday!  I'm so pleased that Sian started this and I'm disappointed with myself for letting it run for a year before joining in because I love telling stories.

Today's story is a quicky but one that makes me chuckle.  It all happened  on Christmas Day 2011.  I was taking loads of pictures, snapping away at the family, when both of my sisters ended up in front of the lens.  I had to get a picture of them together and, as is usual in the digital age, they wanted to see the picture almost before the camera had captured the image.  They didn't like the first picture because "look at our chins" they said.  So back to pose and this time with heads thrown back so the chins were gone!

The one on the left is take one, the one on the right is take two.  I quickly snapped a picture on my phone of the unfinished layout and sent it to my sisters.  Jemma, on the right of the shots, insisted I took the layout in to work the next day so that she could see it in the flesh and show it to our work colleagues. She was so insistent that I take it in that I had to stay up and finish it off.  I wonder if she would have been so keen to see it if one of the finishing touches hadn't been the title:

I thought it was a nice surprise for her the following morning when she got to work.

If you haven't already then please tell your story and share the link over at Sian's place.  I'm off now to read everyone else's stories now.

I hope you've had a good weekend.
Thanks for stopping by
Jo x

Time Has Flown!

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed but I think it's because I have been a busy bee :)

Last Monday I went down to Paul's to spend Valentine's day with him. I made him some heart shaped cupcakes:


And a card:




Thursday saw me leaving my old job :( I got some amazing presents, had too much to drink and a strange lunch:

On Saturday I went to my monthly crop. It was the sixth anniversary so Gaye made us each one of these:



A honey candle in a cup! I can't tell you how amazing they smell.

I even managed to get a couple of layouts done! I used the gorgeous February kit from Gotta Craft.



I love this picture of Maddie.



A very rare picture of me and my sisters!

On Sunday I met Paul in London and it really was a beautiful day:



We had a lovely lunch on the Tattershall Castle:



With gorgeous views of the Thames:



While I was sitting on Embankment who should walk past me? None other than Tom Jones! Did I grab my camera and get a picture? NO! Epic fail :(

On Monday I started my new job and I'm loving it :)

I hope your week is going well.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx


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Remember This?

I recently showed you this picture of some lovely stash I received from S J Crafts:

Well here's what I did with it:

I inked the edges of all of the tags with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then stamped the tag with a music score background stamp. I cut the sentiment from the MME Lost and Found 'Fun Day' title, because the blue just didn't seem to work, and used that for the front page.

And yes, the book does feature my birthday! I used my Pogo to print the pictures because I think it's perfect for little projects.

Although I did use some of the Lost & Found label stickers with the sentiment on I also used them as accents and layers. I think it's a great way to use up the labels that have a sentiment on them that you know just won't go with anything else you have.

I LOVE swirls and the "Sweet" one was too nice to use on just one page so I cut it up and used a piece on each tag.

I finished off with some pearls and crystals.

And then bound it all together with twine.

It was fun to make and everyone seems to be enjoying having a look at it.

Well I'm dashing off to the seaside tonight because I'm spending Valentine's Day with Paul who, I might add, just spent the weekend in the romantic city of Paris!

I hope your week has started well.

Thanks for stopping by

Jo xx

A Challenge

I had intended to be back sooner with a post but time has been flying past!

I was very proud of myself yesterday because I upgraded my phone and managed to transfer all the data from my old one to the shiny new one.  The is probably easy for most people but for me, iTunes, sync, restore to previous back up are a foreign language.  When the lovely sales assistant in the shop was telling me what to do all I could hear was blah, blah, blah.  But I came home and did it; ok, so it took ALL night, but I DID IT!

What I was going to do last night was blog about the weekly challenge that my team have set over at UKScrappers.  The challenge is to scrap a photo of a woman/women, do some sewing and celebrate an achievement.  Here's my take on it:

Me and my BFF celebrating our 40th birthday.  I was going to machine sew on the layout but couldn't get the machine to play nicely so I decided to hand stitch a border. I think the achievement is that we've stayed friends since nursery school!

I loved last month's Sarah's Cards kit so much that I had to layer up lots of the papers because it was too hard to pick just a few!

Now I am off to be crafty, which I was hoping to be last night, and pray that we don't have any more snow!

Thank you for stopping by
Jo xx

He's Back!!!

I thought this might make a humorous story for Sian's Storytelling Sunday.

My youngest brother, Jamie, lives in Thailand. He came home for a visit on Tuesday, it was the first time I'd seen him for over a year and it was great to see him:

When Jamie lived at home he spent a lot of time on the sofa when he wasn't working.  All of my nieces and nephews knew it as Jamie's sofa.  I can remember once when he got off of the sofa to go to another room and me and the kids all jumped in his place, they couldn't stop giggling because they knew he would throw them off, and he did!  I remember another time when he was in situ on the sofa and asked my sister to pass him his drink.  Not a terrible request really until you realise the drink was on the floor next to the sofa less than a foot from his hand!

When the kids knew he was back for a holiday they had a little sweepstake to see how long it would take him to take up position on the sofa with the remote in his hand.....

Not long kids, not long!

Hop over to Sian's and tell your story now.  I shall be reading all of the stories tomorrow because I've just driven back from Paul's through the snow and ice and need a nice soak :)

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Thought It Was About Time....

I showed you that January wasn't all about parties, pressies and dining out, I actually did some scrapping too!

In January I managed to get 17 layouts completed, yes I'm very pleased with myself :) Here are just a few of the layouts that I did:

I thought these papers were perfect for the pictures I took at the Vintage Fair on Southbank last year.

And the cotton reel top really went well with the vintage feel.

Next up is a layout I did using a photo I took at Christmas, yes very quick off the mark for me!  It's my nephew Ryan and his beautiful daughter Charlotte:

I really like the effect of the positive and negative of the butterfly punch.

And finally another Christmas one:

Even though we were all dancing, singing and laughing around him my nephew Jack was far too tired to stay awake after a long Christmas Day :)

I am loving the camera stamp at the moment but taking care not to over use it.

This evening has not been a good one, Tesco have run out of dog food, Maddie needs new shoes and I can't find any she likes anywhere and then my handbag broke :( I came home to find this on the doormat though:

Some gorgeous stash from Sarah at SJ Crafts for me to play with!  I'm off to Paul's for the weekend because it's his birthday on Friday so will make some beautiful things to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Hey Ho the Big Four O

I said I would share my birthday and here it is.  It's more for a record for me because, now that I'm forty I'm sure the memory will start to go :)

The morning started off with a call from Paul wishing me a happy birthday which was lovely.  But then he said he might not get to see me because he was working the next day; he'd told me earlier in the week that he had the next day off, so I was very upset.  Best friend, Sarah, called and I told her how upset I was.  Went to see my Mum and burst into tears because of the possibility I wouldn't see Paul - thought it was strange that she wasn't that concerned but only had a chance to see her for a few minutes and then I was going to my crop.

Arrived at the crop and Sandra came out to the car park to sing Happy Birthday to me, I burst into tears - at this point I must assure you that it was not her singing that caused the tears! Calmed down and went into the crop where I was greeted with this:

 All the girls at the crop had bought me presents and Sandra had baked me a beautiful cake - more tears!

While I was sitting scrapping my brother, sister in law and nephews walked past so I ran - yes, actually ran - out to see them, but they had to rush off so I was left feeling a bit down.  Basically I was tearful and feeling a bit sorry for myself all morning, no fun on your birthday :(

I went outside for some fresh air just after lunch and who should drive into the car park.....Paul!  I was so pleased, it really made my day and yes there were more tears :)

In the evening me, Paul and Sam were going out to dinner with my friend Sarah, her hubby Chris and her daughter Emily and I was really looking forward to it now.  I was just going to wear jeans and a t-shirt but Paul convinced me to dress up a bit, boy am I glad I did! 

We went over to Sarah's where I opened some more presents before walking to the restaurant.  When I went into the restaurant I was greeted by this:

 My whole family were already there! More tears because I was so happy and they really fooled me, I didn't have a clue.

 Paul had been in on the surprise the whole time! I also found out that my Mum was worried my surprise would be spoilt because when she saw me so upset she wanted to tell me all about it. Sarah was worried I would drop everything and drive down to Paul's and never find out about the surprise.  My brother, Jon, and sister in law, Lisa, had been worried that my nephews would spoil the surprise when they saw me earlier in the day. My sister, Jessica, was worried that they wouldn't get from the pub to the restaurant before I drove past and spotted them!

 Sam was a bit concerned about having to use chopsticks, Emily thought it very funny.

 Me with my lovely Mum.

And all of the balloons I was bought so that nobody had any doubt what the celebrations were about!

Such an emotional but happy day and I know I am so lucky to have such great family and friends.  Thank you all xx

Jo