Catching Up

This morning I finally had a bit of time to craft and I caught up....a bit....on the Explore class.  I made my playbook:

I managed to get my favourite things on the cover...cherries :)

So after a little bit of crafting I headed over to my mum's for a BBQ to celebrate my nephew George's 2nd birthday:

He is such a cutie but, how about this for a cheesy grin:

Beautiful Bella, my niece.

Now I found out this week that I had received this:

from Gemma and I am honoured and delighted to accept it.  I now have to share 7 facts about me, it was hard though just to narrow it down to 7! :)

1. I have only one phobia, I hate receiving post!
2. When I was younger I trained with the Olympic swimming team and had coaching from Duncan Goodhew.
3. I love to make people laugh and would really like to write a book or a sitcom.
4. I have an IQ of 197 but I can't spell :)
5. I love a dare...saying no more :)
6. I love the rain, I love watching it, walking in it and listening to it.
7. Even with my rotund (yes I know it's shrinking) frame I can do the splits and get my feet behind my head :)

Now to pass the award on and these are all lovely ladies with great blogs:
Alison at Life in the Slow Lane
Sandra at I Love....All Things Pretty
Lynn at Crafty Pin Pin's Corner
Winnie at Winnitude
Ali at An Altered Life
Fiona at Staring at the Sea
Michelle at Scraps of Me

Now I'm off to scrap and watch TV.  I was meant to mow the lawn today, which is a foot high, but as I've burnt out the motors of two mowers and my mum's is locked in a shed with a missing key I'm taking it as a sign to just let the grass grow :)

Have a great weekend
Jo xx

Another Busy Week

This week has gone so quickly and I think that's because it's been so busy.

It was Maddie's 17th Birthday on Thursday.

The only picture she let me take on the morning of her birthday!  In the evening we went to my brother's house for a BBQ, it was a great night.

My sister Jess decided to have her picture taken with everyone, here she is with my brother Jon.

With my nephew Egg (I shall tell you the story about his name another time!)

With the birthday girl.

With my sister Jemma, highlighting her large chin, and my nephew Archie.

She didn't manage to get into this picture of my mum and nephew Jack.

We had such a fun night and I really have to thank Jon and his wife Lisa for a really great night.

Now a layout to show you.

One of my favourite photos of Maddie at Chesil Beach.

Today I'm going to meet up with some friends from my Tour Managing days.  We're having lunch in Wimbledon Village.  Sunday I'll be back at Wimbledon because Paul's bringing a coach party down for the tennis and then on Monday I'm spending the day in Windsor with him.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend.
Jo xx

A Very Busy Weekend

Wow this weekend has been so busy, but so much fun.  I had the day off work on Friday so headed down to Paul's to spend some time with him.  Traffic, accidents and roadwork meant that the trip took over 3 hours instead of just under two and then when I got there I found out his work schedule had changed and he had to be up at 5:00 the next morning!  Not to worry, I am go with the flow kind of gal and as he was taking a coach load of passengers to London I said I'd drive home and meet him there.

I met him at Embankment at lunchtime and the weather was glorious.  We had a quick coffee and a wander around Covent Garden, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square before heading back to Embankment and boarding a stationary boat for a late lunch.

 With amazing views:

After lunch we headed over to South Bank to have a look at the beach hut display.

Found this fantastic old camera:

And an amazing ice-cream van:

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this for Maddie, because she hates birds :)

I really had such a great day.

This morning was housework day, which is incredibly boring so I found a bit of time to make these:

I told Maddie the other day that I was going to look for a recipe for peanut butter cookies, I couldn't believe my luck when my friend Fiona posted a recipe for them on her blog! They are so easy to make and very, very tasty.

Finally I managed the Weekly Challenge over on UKScrappers.  We had to use punches, a 4x6 photo and a bit of history:

After being the only girl amongst lots of male cousins Maddie was so excited when Elsie came along.

I used plenty of my borders punches.

And made some flowers.

Well done if you got to the end of this epic post.

Hope you've had a great weekend.
Jo xx

A Fishy Tale

Today Paul tried something for the first time and absolutely loved it.  He wouldn't be upset if I told you he has manky feet, it's true, they are awful and they cause him a lot of pain so today he tried something to help them out a bit.

We went to Tickled Toes and he had a fish pedicure:

He said it did tickle at first:

But once he'd got used to it then it just felt like hundreds of tiny bubbles touching his feet:

There was nothing less than a feeding frenzy when he put his feet in and I honestly thought the fish would get so full that they'd end up looking like puffer fish!  The result is beautiful feet and him keep telling me my floor is too hard on his lovely soft toes!

His verdict is - go for it if you get the chance.

I apologise if you don't like feet, I'm going to have a go next time but I think my feet are quite beautiful anyway :)

Have a good weekend

Jo xx



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