Celebrations

Yesterday was such a great day.  Watching the Royal Wedding on TV took up all of my morning but it was lovely and the bride certainly looked like a Princess.

One of my sisters was fortunate enough to have a street party in her road so I popped along there to take a few pictures because her kids always make great scrapping material :)  My other sister was there with her boys too so that was a bonus.

Lots of bunting about:

Elsie with just a touch of face paint:

And Jack fully loaded with paint!:

After the quick photo opportunity I went round to my friend Sarah's where she was holding a little party in her garden.

Flags this time:

And she had a bouncy castle to entertain the younger children:

She will hate me for sharing this one:

And then she found this wig:

It really was a great day, the weather was lovely and it made me proud to be British :)

I hope you enjoyed the extra Bank Holiday
Jo xx

Another Long One

Wow I could certainly get used to these 3 day working weeks we've been having!  I actually get more done in the office by having to cram 5 days work into those 3 days and there's more time left over for fun stuff :)

My weekend started in a great way with an evening at my local crop.  We always have a fantastic time, lots of laughing and chatting and sometimes I even manage to be a bit productive!  I was productive last night and managed to get a whole layout done, very good for me :)

It's a simple layout using a picture of me and one of my sisters taken probably about 30 years ago, I thought it was perfect for the papers that came with this weeks Gotta Craft crop kit:

I only ever scrap with original photos.  If I scan and reprint them then the originals just end up sitting in a drawer hardly ever looked at.  I love the texture and print of the older photos so why not put them on a layout and show them in all their glory and exactly as they were seen when the roll of film returned from the developers.

And here's me, aged about 9:

Such short hair and I'm not really sure why because my mum liked us girls to have long locks.

Obviously here at Buckingham's Palace we are watching the Royal Wedding, a little piece of history being made.  I saw a guest arrive, Earl Spencer, and it reminded me of the time I was invited to take tea with him at Althorp.  I had an amazing day and he was absolutely down to earth and so charming and the next day I received a lovely letter from him thanking me, yes little ole me, for visiting :)

Later I think there's a mini street party going on and I, of course, shall be attending.  I'm old enough to remember the Queen's Silver Jubilee street party (the year my sister in the above picture was born) and the street party we had when Charles married Diana.......such fun times.

I hope you all have a fabby weekend and thanks for stopping by.
Jo xx

I'm Back!

I have had a really busy time lately and not much time for sitting at the computer, it has been lovely though.  I had a few days off work before the long Bank Holiday weekend and spent them with Paul before he went off to spend Easter in the Black Forrest.  I also had 2 birthdays which involved BBQs to celebrate and an Easter Party.  Yesterday was a day of rest but I did spend some time in the sunshine with Alfie:

He loves ropes and could chew on them all day, unless he should hear a snail sneeze at the bottom of the garden and then he's on high alert!

Inbetween, shopping, cutting the grass, BBQs, parties and visiting Paul I did find the time to do a layout:

I started this one at a crop I went to a couple of weeks ago but just needed to put the finishing touches on it.

Me and Maddie went to a 25th Wedding Anniversary a few years ago, well it must have been about 9 years ago but it only feels like yesterday!  We had to dress up in 70s outfits so I made myself some flares and Maddie wore an original 70s outfit that used to be my sister's (my mum is a great hoarder!).

Lynne, the hostess, loves taking pictures and when we arrived the hall wall was covered in photos of 25 years of married life, it showed family and friends and was a fantastic idea.  I walked along looking at all the pictures and planning layouts in my head!

Today I'm planning a bit of a lazy day, I'll catch up on some blog reading, spend some time in the garden with Alfie, maybe do a layout or two, hopefully have a win at bingo and get myself and Maddie ready for work and school tomorrow.

The Easter bunny didn't visit me, I guess that's good for my hips though!  I hope you have had a great Easter break.

Thanks for stopping by

Jo xx

Yesterday Was Plain Awful

Let me set the scene for how great my Sunday started: I woke up at 8:30, which is a long lie in for me, got a cup of tea and took it back to bed for a while and did a bit of surfing the net.  Decided to see if there was any bread in the freezer because I really fancied an egg sandwich for breakfast.  There was bread  in the freezer and how handy it was for me that it was already defrosted!  Yes the fridge freezer had packed up so I had to get a new one.  Ordered it, went in the garden to cut the grass and halfway through the lawn mower packs up!  Arrghh. So now I have a half cut garden (when really it's me that wants to get half cut) and a flooded kitchen where the freezer is defrosting at a rate on knots on one of the hottest days of the year!  Fridge freezer delivered today, late, and delivery men helpfully ripped the carpet!

That's the bad new and here's a little interval where I show you another layout I did at the weekend:

This is the beautiful Maddie, modelling in the beautiful car that my sister had for her wedding.  I'd been meaning to scrap it for ages and this kit from Sarah's Cards was perfect.

I love the layering and the little embellishments and it went together surprisingly quickly for me.

The good news is that I won £107 at bingo tonight so that's half of the fridge freezer paid for :)  The other good news is that I only have one more day at work and then six whole days off to do as I please.

Thank you for all the lovely comments you keep leaving, I hope your weekend was better than mine.
Jo xx

Been Cropin'

I went to a new to me crop today and had a lovely time.  Everyone was so lovely and I managed to be quite productive considering I was sitting next to Sandra! :)

I found some tucked away photos the other day that were just ripe for scrapping.  The first one I used was from Maddie's Christening in 2003 and here's the title:

I knew I had to use this title because, unusually, Maddie only has Godmothers, a real bit of girl power.  The people I picked to be Godmothers were and still are my best friends and I knew I could count on all of them to guide and help Maddie as she grew.  I used a Gotta Craft crop kit for the layout, I thought the colours were an almost perfect match to our finery:

I remember the day like it was yesterday. It was the 21st December and these lovely ladies travelled many miles, one of them over 3000!, at a busy time of year to share this special day with us.

I finished another layout which I'll share soon and I managed to start a third one which I think I'll finish tonight because I'm still in the scrapping mood :)

I hope your weekend is going well
Jo xx

Is Summer Over?

The weather has certainly cooled off now and I'm wondering if we've had our summer already :) If we have I have a little piece of my summer to share with you.

On the 19th March I was staying down with Paul and the weather was so lovely we decided to take Pippy for a walk down to the beach.  The sun was shining and there were plenty of people down there, some of them even having a BBQ.  As I snapped away with my camera I knew those beach photos would be part of my feature page for March's Document 2011 and here's the layout I've done:

The papers are from the Gotta Craft April kit, which is gorgeous and then I added some stunning embellishments:

The embellishments are a tiny part of the April Kit from The Make and Create Shop.  If you have never bought one of Anna's kits then I can't recommend them enough.  The kits are loaded with a mixture of ready made and handmade pieces and they're also a bit of a bargain :)

The beach looked great and I wish I was there now, whatever the weather!

I've been given some great tips on making up page kits so I might give that a go later if I can shake of the headache I've got.  I'm going to two crops this week and, for once, I would like to be super productive :)

Take care
Jo xx

Sunny Days

I am loving this gorgeous weather we're having here at the moment and I had a fantastic time with Paul at the weekend.  The lovely weather and the long days do trick me though and I potter around in the evenings thinking that it's about 6ish and then it turns out it's 7:30 and I have to get a wiggle on to get ready for the next day!

I have been busy doing some scrapping and here's a layout I did from the latest sketch on Shimelle's blog:

I used a selection of Crate Paper from the April Gotta Craft kit and I think they're gorgeous.

These are my nephews, Jack and George and I didn't have a chance to share these great pictures because, for once, I scrapped them almost as soon as I'd taken them.  They are lovely boys and Jack is very protective of George which I think is so sweet.

Paul has been doing well in his new job and this is how smart he looked when I saw him on Saturday:

He's off to Italy at the weekend so I hope he has a safe journey, good weather and lovely passengers.......ooh and plenty of Euros to buy me something nice :)

I have an evening of nothing but blog reading and scrapping ahead of me, I love nights like this :)

Thank you for stopping by
Jo xx

Happy Memories

I have so many happy memories of my Dad who passed away 3 years ago after a 12 year battle with Alzheimer's.  This time of year is the memory that makes me laugh the most because it makes me remember an occasion when my dad couldn't speak for laughing.

I look up to the sky, see the blossom, chuckle and remember Dad.  I remember he came in from work one day with a joke to tell us, as he was telling it he was laughing more and more until he was doubled over and crying while we were waiting for the punchline.  Here's that very joke....

A man goes to a pet shop and buys a hamster, he takes it home and pops it in its little house.  In the morning the hamster is dead so the man returns to the pet shop and tells the owner that the hamster he had bought the day before had dropped dead.  The pet shop owner tells him to put the hamster in a pot and boil it up to make some jam.  The man goes home, gets the dead hamster and makes some jam, he tastes it and it's so awful he throws it out of the window.  In the morning he looks out of the window and there are daffodils growing everywhere he threw the jam.  He goes to the pet shop and tells the owner about the jam and the daffodils and the pet shop owner says................
................."Don't be silly, everyone knows you only get tulips from hamsterjam!" boom boom

I have to rush now because I'm off to the seaside to see Paul tomorrow so I need to pack, I was meant to be going next week but his new job means he's going to be in Spain for 7 days from next Saturday................some people get all the luck!  I have a crop tomorrow before I go to see him so I  guess I'm not short of luck myself :)

Have a great weekend

Jo xx

I've Finally Started

I know I've left it late, most people fly out of the starting blocks on the first day of the New Year all fired up with good intentions of masses of projects they're going to start with the fresh year.  Not me, nope, I'm more like the tortoise and ambled out and about and finally decided at the end of March that I was going to do a Document 2011 album!

Last week's sketch over on Shimelle's blog was perfect for the feature page for January and this is the photo I wanted to document:

Paul made me this for my birthday, it's pergamano and he cut, embossed and hand painted the beautiful picture.  This photo doesn't do it justice because, in real life, you look through the garland of flowers and see the rolling fields. And here's how it looks on a layout:

I wanted the layout to be bright and fun and show it was all about a celebration.

I wasn't surprised that I found ribbon to match the colour of the card he'd used because he pinched the cardstock from my stash!

In other news I had a lovely weekend, spent 2 hours sorting the garden out on Sunday but was rewarded with a beautiful card and a box of chocolates from Maddie for Mother's Day.  No bingo winnings to report which is a shame but I will try harder in future :) And finally, the best bit, Paul got a job today!!! I'm so pleased for him and proud of him and wish him lots of luck on his first day on Thursday.

Hope all is well in your world
Jo x

Fabby Friday

I have had such a good day today and I hope you have too.  I managed to get loads done at work, all of my housework done and still have time to share a bottle of wine in the pub with my friend Lauren. 

At the start of the day when it was grey and damp I had absolutely no intention of going to the pub after work but, when home time came, the sun was shining and in my head I had a vision.  I saw a glass of rose being poured, I saw the condensation sliding down the side of the glass, I could almost taste the crispness of the wine.....what could I do, I had to have one ok a couple alright, alright a few! :)

Last night I had the pleasure of joining lots of chatty, funny, creative women at a crop and for once it wasn't just my mouth that was working overtime!  Now the other day I told you I already had the title for a layout but just needed to work on the rest, here's the title:

And here's the rest:

And the proof that butterflies and flowers can work on a male layout.....well I think they can:

I am also loving today's prompt from Shimelle.  Wow, I have a free weekend and she's told me to read and comment on blogs.......I wish she'd been my teacher at school!  I'm really looking forward to having glimpse at what everyone's been getting up to and learning their stories.  One of my stories is that I always wanted to be a writer, I did write a book once that I let other read and they laughed and laughed which is exactly what I wanted.  I shall tell the full tale another time.

Anyone have any April fools jokes played on them?  We had an email from the MD saying he'd decided that we should all wear uniforms, a very fetching navy blue tabbard!

Have a fun weekend and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx