Chop Chop!

On Sunday I watched a video from Shimelle's Cover to Cover class and got to work straight away which makes a huge change for me-the world's biggest procrastinator!

The idea is to pull together a kit and then just cut the paper up, don't go looking for photos or embellishments just chop, chop, chop so I did.  I have to say I really enjoyed the process because I already felt like I was doing something and not just thinking about doing something.

I've managed to do a double layout, my first since 2005! And last night at the crop I completed a single page and started another.

Here's the double page (excuse the poor quality but it's been a long time since I 'stitched' a double layout together:

Another gap filled in the albums which is great.  The photos show Maddie playing on animal statues when we visited Detroit zoo in 1999.  I know it's taken an age to start scrapping our American holiday but I wanted to get it right and I'm really pleased with the layouts I've done so far.

My weekend has started already, I've got the day off and I'm going to see Paul for the weekend.  The sun is shining here and to say it's hot would be an understatement!  Poor Alfie doesn't know what to do with himself and trying to get him to lie out of the sun is proving mighty difficult.

I hope you have a great weekend
Thanks for stopping by
Jo x

I Did It!

The weather finally stayed dry enough for me to sort the garden out.  It took two days and the help of my beautiful assistant:

I was totally shocked when she agreed to come and help in the garden, she hates the garden.  I was even more shocked when, later in the day, I found her doing her homework without being told to!  Anyhow, we transformed the garden from this:

To this:

And this:

As soon as the garden was done the rain started again so I haven't really had a chance to sit in it and enjoy the efforts of our hard work.  I do love my garden and want to do something with it but I just don't know where to start!

I have managed to find some time for scrapping and thought I'd share this picture of my brother, Jon, with his beautiful grand-daughter, Charlotte:

It was taken on Christmas Day and, so far, none of my pictures of that day have been scrapped using Christmas papers, I will have to rectify that :)

I've been doing the Cover to Cover class with Shimelle.  I wasn't going to join in because I thought my albums were in a pretty decent order but after reading the first prompt I realised they weren't.  I have found a ton of gaps, one of the biggest gaps is a holiday in America that me and Maddie went on just after her dad left.  I've got a crop at the weekend and those holiday snaps will be scrapped :)

I hope you've had a good week.
Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Spare A Thought

For the thousands of women who are walking over 26 miles around London overnight tonight to raise money for breast cancer.

My friend Sarah is there tonight dressed like this:



I'll be joining her next year!

Please, if you're able to, click the link and make a donation: http://www.walkthewalk.org/Fundraising/Donations

Good luck to all the ladies taking part.

Thanks for popping in
Jo xx

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It's Been a Busy Week!

This week I have been such a social butterfly and I'm feeling the effects of it now!

Saturday I met up with some friends for lunch. It was great to catch up with them, even better was the Key Lime Pie made by Clare:

Sunday I headed down to Paul's and found the sun!

Bank Holiday Monday was a day for spending money, which was fun :)

I finally got a new TV, well two actually but I figured that I haven't had a new TV in 29 years so I deserved it.  The last new TV I had was for my 11th birthday, I still have it and, prior to the digital switch over it still worked!  Anyhoo I got this for the living room:

A very dark picture but it's because Maddie thinks she's a vampire and likes to shut the sun out!  I got this one for my room:

Tuesday saw my first date night with Maddie!  We went to the cinema to see The Avengers, which was great.

We enjoyed going out together so much that we've decided to do it more often, like once or twice a month.

I had my first hair cut in over a year!  Only one grey hair found which isn't bad for 40!

I started knitting more socks, these ones are for me.

I also managed to fit in coffee with friends, a visit to the pub and trying out this sarnie for lunch:

Tomorrow I would like to be scrapping but this will stop me:

Mine is the only garden out of the four in the cul-de-sac that's already had a cut this year but, as of today, I have the longest grass!

I don't think Alf is enjoying it much because it's so long it keeps tickling his bottom! Paul's away at Floriade (flower festival in Holland that only happens once every 10 years), so I have the weekend to myself to get the jungle sorted.

And the last thing to share is my new toy. After using a desktop that is past its sell by date and then using Maddie's old laptop I decided to treat myself to this:

My little notebook that I love :) I still feel a bit very guilty about getting in but I worked very hard for my bonus and thought I'd have a big treat for a change :)

I hope you have a great weekend, I will be back to show off the garden when I've finished it (if the rain holds off)

Thanks for stopping by

Jo x

The Royal Albert Hall

Good morning and happy Sunday to you!  It's the first Sunday of the month and that means only one thing, it's time for Storytelling Sunday with Sian.

Up until an hour ago I didn't have a story for today and thought I wouldn't be able to join in, which made me a little bit sad.  I decided to have a sort out of some layouts that I'd recently done and there it was, in the pile, my story for today!

I'd recently met Paul in London while he was doing a tour, taking some passengers to the Royal Albert Hall.  It was a beautiful night and I got a couple of nice pictures on my phone so I created this layout because I do have a few tales of the Royal Albert Hall:

Today's story is one of the funniest I have from the RAH.  Cliff Richard was doing a concert there and my company had bought every single ticket.  I was helping coordinate the arrival and departure of over five thousand passengers, on coaches!  My mum loves Cliff so I bought her a couple of tickets for her birthday so I was coordinating over five thousand passengers and Mum.

Everyone was there on time, in on time and at their seats ready to watch the show.  At the end of the evening everyone was out promptly, on their coaches promptly and back to their hotels for a good night's sleep.  There was only one problem that night, as I was on my way home at about 1am I got a call from a Tour Manager to say that one of her passengers had left the RAH with the wrong jacket.  I told them there was nothing I could do about it at the time and she would have to contact the office on the Monday morning to see if anyone had called in to say they also had the wrong coat, the passenger was happy to do that and I was happy that I'd only had one minor problem.

The next morning I went to see my mum to make sure she had enjoyed the concert.  I was sitting in her living room with a cup of coffee when something caught my eye.  "Mum" I asked "where did you get that jacket?"  "Oh" she says "someone took my jacket by mistake last night"

What are the odds of that? The only issue I had involved my mum, out of all those people!  Did the jackets ever get returned to the rightful owners?  No, my mum's jacket was quite expensive and the one she had come home with was not so we never heard from the passenger with the wrong jacket again.

Now it's your turn to head over to Sian's and tell your story.

Thanks for dropping by
Jo xx

I Have Returned

But I haven't really been anywhere! The weather here has been so bad, we were issued with a hosepipe ban because there was a drought and since then it hasn't stopped raining!  I love the rain but the battle to get to work through traffic and floods has been wearing me out.  So, I've been coming home and crashing on the sofa!

I have managed to get some scrapping in though and thought I'd share a layout or two now.

I've been slowly working through my photos from Christmas.  As yet I haven't actually used any Christmas papers, I'm concentrating more on the people rather than the time of the year.  This is a layout of my brother and his son.

And I'm really pleased with how I used up my scraps of paper.

Next up is a very rare photo of me and Maddie together!

I've been trying to come up with quick and simple layouts to get stash used up and the pictures in my albums.

And I've been pleased with my efforts so far.

I'm going to spend a lazy evening catching up on blog reading and looking forward to it being Friday tomorrow :)

Thank you for stopping by
Jo xx