Another Great Weekend

This has been such a lovely, great weekend for me.  It started off with my monthly crop and, as I missed the last couple, it was great to catch up with all the girls.  I managed to be quite productive and get a couple of layouts done.

One of the layouts was for the monthly challenge over at UK Scrappers, the challenge was to use this sketch:

I love sketches, they're great if your mojo has done a runner!  I used the Fancy Pants Be You collection and came up with this:

I think the papers are perfect for this picture of my beautiful niece, Elsie.

After the crop I went to bingo where I was lucky enough to win £15, then a coffee (strange prize!) and then £320.  I went home to celebrate with Maddie and found out I'd won £460 on the lottery.  Having been a single parent for 13 years I can't tell you how grateful I am for this bit of luck, it certainly takes the pressure off of Christmas!

I hope that you've had a great weekend and have blessings to count too.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

It's Been a Hell of a Week

This week has been really awful and I haven't had a chance to be creative or blog.  Firstly I noticed a really bad smell of gas at work, then the boiler blew up! So we've been sitting chillin (literally) in the office.  Then the computer system went down closely followed by the phones.  Then yesterday, to top it all, my iPhone stopped working, it seems that if you don't sync or upgrade the software for 2 years then it will do that.  After 8 hours of it being hooked up to a life support machine, AKA iTunes, I managed to revive it. Whew.

Anyhoo, my last blog post talked of me having to do a layout for a deadline that had just whooshed past.  I did that layout and I did it in 45 minutes, not bad eh?

It tied in nicely with the spots and stripes prompt for the Pretty Paper Party and it's Maddie panning for gold, by the look on her face I'd say she was successful :) Terrible photo of the layout I know, it's the only thing I hate about winter - no good light to photo layouts.

Another trip down the motorway for me to see Paul later, can't wait because he's been in Bruges today and rumour has it that there's some chocolate heading its way back to me.

Hope you have a great weekend.
Jo xx

Another Weekend Fast Approaching!

I can't believe how quickly this week is going, I have a million things to do though so would appreciate it if my free time didn't go quite so quickly - I guess that's something we all wish for!

I have another layout I did at the weekend to share.  It was inspired by either prompt 2 or 3 from Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party - I've got a bit behind on the prompts but I am hoping to catch up soon.

I love this picture of Maddie, taken at a picnic in Windsor.  Every time my friend Lynne arranged a picnic we always seemed to get bad weather!

On this occasion Maddie was so cold that she wrapped the picnic blanket round her so we had nothing to sit on apart from damp grass, wouldn't be any good for my poor old bones nowadays :)

I had fun cutting the trees out of the Jillibean Soup, Apple Cheddar Soup range and although I wanted to screw the papers up and throw them away when I first started this layout over a week ago, I'm quite pleased with the end result now.

I now have to dash and try and get two layouts done that have a deadline of....erm......yesterday!

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Every Day's A School Day

Well yesterday kicked off Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day class and I'm signed up.

The first day was great, I'm off work this week so had the luxury of reading the prompt when it arrived.  After that I went for coffee with a good friend and, yes, I did learn my first lesson of the day.  We went to a lovely coffee shop that also sells a range of sweets from bygone days:

The decor was beautiful and everywhere I looked there was a reminder of my childhood:

The lesson learned ~ I am much happier when I'm a lady of leisure :)

Later that evening I went off to a crop.  I had a layout with a deadline, a scraplift.  The only trouble was I was uninspired by the layout I had to lift.  I thought long and hard and, with the help of the Gotta Craft crop kit I'd just bought, came up with this:

Lesson learned ~ Push yourself and you'll get there.

I also added a bit of texture to my layout:

Lesson learned ~ I love my crimper again.

Now on to my album.  Another thing I've thought long and hard about and this is what I've come up with.  I have an old Sizzix die of a pocket and, as I only intend to do a sentence a day and maybe include a small photo, I'm going to make this into my album.  I'll cut the pages from cardstock, add some patterned paper and embellishments to the front and write my sentence on the back.  When I'm finished I'll bind it together with ribbon and, voila, I'll have my pocket book :)

Probably won't be using yellow cardstock but just wanted to make sure the pocket would be big enough.  I may even stick some together so I do have an actual pocket to put things in :)

Can't wait to blog hop later and see what lessons everyone learnt yesterday but, for now, I'm off for another coffee morning :)

Have a good Friday
Jo xx

Explore

Well, I've signed up for another Shimelle class.  I always do because they are fun, good value for money, with no pressure and you can keep going back to the forum for reference.  All the class notes in one place is good for me because I can be one for putting something somewhere safe and never finding it again :)

The class is called Explore and, although I haven't had time to fully read the prompts, I knew there was a self portrait involved.  So, I woke up this morning and thought I would take said portrait.  Yes I know, stupid time of the day to do it when I'm trying to get Maddie out of the door for school and me out of the door for work but I thought it's the one time of the day when my make up is on and my hair is brushed and not being torn out of me head as it can be during the day when I'm dealing with, shall we say, awkward clients :)

So here's the first attempt:

Now I thought the picture of me was ok but then I noticed how dirty the mirror was.  So with the dog jumping up and getting excited and Maddie complaining we were going to be late I did the only thing I thought necessary at the time.........I cleaned the mirror:

Much better I think.  I shall read the rest of the prompts tonight and see what else I can do, I hope none of the other prompts will involve me doing housework!

I also have a layout to share.  I did this at the weekend for the House Challenge on UKScrappers.  We had to use a sketch and a juddery or not too good a photo:

Now I love this photo of Maddie, I love the look on her face and her bunches but I'd always dismissed it as "no good for scrapping" because of the awful shadowing on it.  I'm so pleased this challenge came up and I knew immediately the photo I would use.

She was sitting on the back of a horse and cart that travels between Brewers Quay and Weymouth and she thought it was great.  I used the papers and embellishments from this months Gotta Craft kit, absolutely gorgeous.

Right, off to do dinner and read my prompts.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

A Challenge

This week is my turn to set the weekly challenge over on UKScrappers.  If you want to have a go then here is what you need to do:

As it's Independence Day, in honour of our American friends I would like you to scrap one photo of one thing....animal, mineral, vegetable or person!

Children are getting ready for the long summer holidays, everyone seems to be planning days out and it's such a busy month I feel like I'm going round in circles so I would like to see some circles on your layout.

I sit at my desks all day drawing sketches and patterns when I should really be working so I would like you do include some doodling on your layout.

Finally I love a bit of stash busting so let's see some eyelets or brads on your layout.

Here is the layout I did:

Maddie in the garden just before her 4th birthday.  I thought the papers from the Sarah's Cards kit were perfect.

Let me know if you have a go so I can see what you've come up with.

Today I am off to spend the day in Windsor with Paul and I can't wait.

Happy Monday
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

Two Weekends in One

I had such a lovely weekend and thought I'd share a bit of what I'd done.

Om Saturday I woke up really early and got all of the boring housework, ironing and shopping out of the way, then it was time to scrap.  I decided to take part in the weekly challenge over on UKScrappers.  The challenge was to scrap an animal, use lots of embellishments, a concentrated area and the colour blue.....that's when the trouble started!  I had a blue glimmer mist explode over me and I looked like a Smurf:

Yes they stayed like that for SEVEN hours, I finished scrapping and cut the grass and still they were blue!  I was pleased with the finished layout though:

Our friend's puppy, Daisy, wearing one of Maddie's jackets :)  All so long ago because Daisy is about 9 now but this really was a photo I'd wanted to scrap for ages.

After a busy, busy day I jumped in the shower (washing my hair finally got rid of the blue on my hands) and headed down to Paul's.  He was working until 2 in the morning so I left home at 10 and didn't rush getting down there, I love driving at night anyway.

On Sunday I had a lovely day out with Paul and got some lovely presents (which I forgot to photo) then he took me to lunch.  I love, love, love this picture of him:

I can't tell if he looks so happy because he's with me or if it's because his starter had just arrived:

So a really great, fun packed weekend but boy am I tired now.

I hope you had a good weekend too.
Jo xx

What Would I Do Without Her?

We have been friends for about 36 years and I really don't know what I would do without her.  She's always there for me, always bailing me out, always a shoulder to cry on and always understanding.  Our birthdays are exactly a week apart, with me being the youngest!  We go to bingo every week together, chat on the phone nearly every day and, when she moved 3000 miles away from me to America our friendship just got even stronger, I'm glad she's home now though.  So, I thought it was about time she appeared on a layout:

Sarah, the most generous person I know.  She's always got time for everyone, she'll help anyone and I can't say how glad I am that she is in my life. We have the same sense of humour, like the same TV programmes and the same books.  She won't mollycoddle, she'll tell it like it is and she's the best kick up the pants you could ask for if you're feeling down.

She really is my BFF and I love her.

I hope you're all having a super weekend, mine has been great.  It started with free cocktails last night and then I had an all day crop today, can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Relaxing Evenings

Since my very hectic weekend I've had a couple of relaxing evenings and it's been great.  Yesterday it rained all day but it was great, we've hardly had any rain since March so it made a refreshing change.  It was also lovely to come home from work, close the door and curl up on the sofa with Alfie watching TV.

I thought I'd show you a quick layout I did the other day.  My style of actually scrapping has changed this year.  I find a photo, select some papers and embellishments and then stick it all down.  I've stopped looking at papers and thinking that I might find a better photo to go with it and saving it, after all the layouts and papers stay in my albums so it's not like I'll never see them again!

I love this picture of Maddie taken on the EuroTunnel in 1995, just after her first birthday.  It's been literally gathering dust for ages and I knew it would drive me mad if I didn't get it scrapped soon!

I used Echo Park - For the Record papers that came in the Sarah's Cards April kit and just threw a few other bits and pieces on.

All day at work I've been dreaming about the 6 layouts I want to do tonight, the magazines I bought today that I want to read and some knitting I want to get done, now that I'm home I'm too tired to do anything!  Work just gets in the way of all of the fun stuff :)

I hope you have a great evening
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

After....

....a lovely, long weekend going back to work was no fun.  Getting absolutely drenched at lunchtime was not fun but the thought of not having to get in and water my vegetable patch was a most welcome one :)

I had a great weekend playing on the Wii with friends, Wii Fit Plus and then just dance.  My friend filmed me and Maddie dancing and we were so in sync it was incredible....and very funny.

On Sunday we watched Saw IV, V and VI and Scream 2 and 3, yes me and Maddie love a good horror!

I did get some time for knitting and scrapping and here's a layout to share with you:

A boat trip to Brownsea Island many moons ago.  As we moored up the sea got really choppy and I was petrified she was going to fall overboard!

I thought the title was very apt :)

I used the lovely Bubblegum Hills kit I got from Bellaboo last month, I love the bright colours.

Tonight's plans are to what Britain's Got Talent and do a bit of knitting.

Hope your evening is good.
Jo xx