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

Wet Wednseday

I think we may have already had our summer here because it's been cold, grey and a bit wet since the weekend.

So, I was sitting in the office today feeling a little bit down when my friend emailed me this, it really brought a smile to my face and I think it's just so cute. I was also quite surprised that Paul didn't suggest it was a picture of me in the shower when I showed him!:

I'm afraid I can't give credit where it's due because I don't know its origins but, if somebody does then let me know and I'll make sure they get a mention.

I have very nearly finished my long list of chores for the evening so I'm hoping to get a bit creative with this:

The title has been in my head for a few days now so I'm just gonna build from that, if you're lucky I might actually have it finished in a few weeks!

Happy Wednesday

Jo x

Summer's Started

It has been a glorious weekend here and I've had such a lovely time.  Yesterday was spent with Paul just pottering about and enjoying each other's company and today I have been scrapping.

Now I was going to cut the grass today but when I went in the garden this morning I saw these:

My favourite flower, the daisy.  Now they weren't there yesterday and only just appeared today when I went out to cut the grass, I took it as a huge sign to leave the lawnmower in the shed and find something else to do while the little daisies enjoyed the sunshine..................that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! :)

I went indoors and decided to do a bit of scrapping, I did this layout using Shimelle's weekly sketch:

A very recent picture taken last week while I was staying with Paul.  The weather was so nice that we decided to take Pippy (his gorgeous dog) down to the beach.  I used the October Afternoon Seaside range because it's so lush and so perfect for these pictures.

These beach huts were built last year so they are only slightly weathered and certainly not battered by the elements.  Just when I thought the layout was finished I found this little gem:

I know it's a bit early but I'm hoping it's a sign of things to come and we're all going to have a great summer to enjoy.

The clocks leaping forward today has made my routine go out of the window, not only did we lose an hour (maybe it was the grass cutting hour that was lost and the long lawn has nothing to do with the daisies) but today has flown by.

Time to get myself back in work mode for tomorrow morning :(

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

Waves on the Shore

Good evening and welcome to everyone who's found me via Blogging For Scrapbookers.  I'm Jo, one of 7 J's. Two brothers, two sisters and both parents all have names beginning with J.  I think my mum did it so she could open all of the post and just innocently proclaim that she thought it was for her!

I love the sea and being near the sea but live somewhere totally landlocked, we can all dream and my dream is to one day live near the sea.  Especially I love the movement of the sea and the waves and the way this week has gone made me think of just that very thing.

My week has raced by, it's felt like giant waves crashing all around me and I've been caught up in the current.  It's been a nice week though and I just went with the flow and let those big ole rolling waves crash around me, I relaxed into them, didn't stress and arrived at the weekend.  Now that the weekend is here I would like my waves to be much more gentle, I would like them to feel like they don't have the energy to make their way up the beach but when they eventually do they want to hang around for a second, feeling the sun on them before slowly slipping back into the wash.............in other words I don't want my weekend to go as quickly as my week :)

I also love sunsets and yesterday when I got home from work I was treated to this:

 Granted it's not a sunset over the sea but I thought it was beautiful.

Today I was far too busy too look at the sunset because I had some fantastic news. Paul, my partner who live 107 miles away from me (BY THE SEA!!!) is coming to see me for the day tomorrow.  I wasn't expecting to see him for another 3 weeks so I was over the moon and happy to do a full day in the office and then come home and scrub the whole place to within an inch of it's life!

Other plans this weekend are to catch up on everyone's blogs, follow new ones, make lots of comments, scrap - yes I have waited until very nearly the end of March before deciding I would like to do a Document 2011 album! and cut the grass.

Keeping with the theme of beaches, I'll leave you with this layout of Maddie building castles in the sand:

Another layout I managed from the Gotta Craft monthly kit.

We rented a house on Sandbanks of all places (no I didn't see any rich footballers or Harry Rednap) but this was our garden, our own private bit of beach!

Enjoy your weekend
Jo x