Saturday 26 September 2015

Pass the Page 2015 x



Hello, today I am joining in with the Pass the Page 2015 blog hop.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of joining with 15 lovely ladies, and a seriously gorgeous baby, for our annual scrapbooking/crafting weekend away. As a part of the weekend, we all take part in a scrapbooking activity known as Pass the Page.

The idea is that the first person creates a beautiful layout and sends it to the second person on the list of people taking part. The second person then scraplifts that layout and creates a page which she sends on to the third person and so on until the final person gets their page completed. At the weekend, all the layouts are laid out in order and we all get to see all those lovely pages we haven't seen.

The fun part is seeing what people pick out from the layouts and how much they are similar or different.

In order to get the full effect of the pages, you need to firstly go to Julie's blog where the whole process began.



This year I received my page from the lovely Jackie.


And here is my take on that layout..........................




I loved the paper Jackie used with the bunting decoration and I knew I had a paper covered in pink bunting so I used that as my main background paper. I cut small strips off the edges and matted it onto a grey cardstock.



I knew I wanted to use this picture of my paretns, and to keep some of the yellow from Jackie's original, I matted the picture on a light lemon background paper, but left only a thin edging.



I loved Jackie's arrows, so I scraplifted those to point to my photograph, then added embellishments and journalling.




I then sent my page to Mrs Wookie so do hop on over to see what she made of my page.

If you get lost on this hop then here is the full list of hoppers in the correct order...............

Julie: https://jsquaredscrapspot.wordpress.com
Kirsty: http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk
Jacky: http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.co.uk
Jo: http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.co.uk
Mrs Wookie: http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.co.uk
Fay: http://www.beautifullilysramblings.blogspot.co.uk
Alexa: http://simplyalexa.typepad.com/trimmingthesails/
Alison: http://alisonslife-in-the-slow-lane.blogspot.co.uk
Lizzie: http://lizziemade.blogspot.co.uk
Ruth: http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.co.uk
Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk







Monday 10 August 2015

Me on Monday x


Blimey it's August and this weekend it was HOT!

Saturday was an early start because it was the annual village show. I went all Kirsty Allsopp and decided to put in a few little things for some of the creative classes.

I entered three photographs into the photography classes. And my crocheted poncho and felt kitty cat for the sewing and crochet sections.


The parents came over in the afternoon and we wandered around looking at all the fabulous vegetables, flowers and floral artistry. And we looked at the beautiful creativity of all the handmade items. Then we had tea and cake.


Look at this lovely display of flowers................


Loads of beautiful fruit and flowers...................


And delightful cakes and breads, plus wines and liqueurs................


Imagine my surprise, and delight, when my poncho won a prize......................



Yep, that is a First in the category. What a chuffed girl I was and still am. My mum was unable to speak!

It was all a lot quieter yesterday. The clouds came out and so I sat and crocheted a little, blogged and read, and cooked something yummy for tea.

What did you all do?






Tuesday 4 August 2015

Two on Tuesday x




This weeks post kind of segways neatly on from last weeks where I described how I feel about scrapbooking, photography and quilting. You can read the full post here.



I had shared a very poignant blogpost from Heidi Swapp who's son had died suddenly a couple of weeks ago. Yesterday Heidi posted a new challenge to encourage us all to start from anywhere and get creative every day in August and to share our pictures on Instagram. Called Capture Life, Heidi will post a daily photo prompt on her Instagram account which you can find here. Use the hashtag  #HSCAPTURELIFE

By the end of the month, you should have been able to create an album of pictures and memories. For some it may be a new beginning after time away, for others a new craft to try whilst for some it will be part of their creativity already begun. Whatever your current status creatively please join in if you can I'm sure it will show Heidi and her family great support and apparently there might be a giveaway at the end too.

My first picture was this one.


This little bee was busy, busy one day in my aquilegias and you can see the pollen collected.

My second share is the incredible good news which popped up on my Facebook page yesterday during my lunch break.

I recently shared how my beautiful friend and fellow blogger Abi had graduated with First class Honours from Durham University. Now she has trumped that and wait for it..............................


SHE GOT ENGAGED!!!!!!!!



This is one of the happiest things I could have wished for her and her lovely fiancee Tim. They've been together since they were at school together and I am above and beyond thrilled that they are now getting married. Abi has written a post with details here.

I hope you will join me in wishing them both the very best of love and God's blessings over them as they plan their wedding for Summer 2016.


Saturday 1 August 2015

Rinda's Photography Summer scavenger hunt 2015 part 1 x


Every Summer for the past few years, Rinda has set a fun photography scavenger hunt on her blog. This years list can be found here. It is normally 21 pictures with some substitutions just in case you can't find one and people across the world take part.

This year I'm being a bit slow and haven't found as many as I thought I would, primarily because I tend to see things when I'm driving and there's no where to stop and park. Anyway, Rinda is having a link up so here are my pictures so far.


1. A bouquet of flowers



These were sent to my mum from all of us for her birthday.


3. A person walking a dog



This kind lady posed for me in Wells.


8. A person plugged into social media.



It had to be my friend Dale, he is permanently plugged in lol.


13. A merry-go-round or carousel



This one resides in Clarke's Village and even has a horse called Joanna on board


19. A ticket booth



This is one I have visited since the mid 1980s when I lived in London. You queue up for seats available from theatres in the West End and pay half price for top shows.


20. A natural body of water



The water in The Bishop's Palace rises from springs and wells hidden beneath the ground and give Wells City it's name.

How is your hunt going?


Tuesday 28 July 2015

Two on Tuesday x


Good day and welcome to another Two on Tuesday.




When I started this blogpost idea, I thought it would just be a lovely way of sharing things I enjoyed or found on the Internet, but today I want to share something a little more deeply.

One of the reasons I became a scrapbooker was to recover from the nervous breakdown I had back over 14 years ago now. My friend Teresa has been introduced to scrapbooking via Creative Memories and she invited me one Sunday afternoon to play in her house with a few pictures. I became hooked and it really helped me to rediscover my creativity. I know that like me many people came back to crafting from illness, loneliness, life changing events e.g. weddings and births. Creativity for me has been a real anchor, even when I'm unwell I can really appreciate the importance of making something for my personal well being to improve.

So today's Two on Tuesday are a little more central to what I have just briefly explored.


My first link is to the incredibly talented Heidi Swapp. Two weeks ago, this loving wife and mother, and truly gifted crafter faced one of the worst experiences anyone can go through. One of her sons died very suddenly. He was 16. For anyone to face bereavement is a truly tough process but Heidi being the incredible individual she is chose to share just a little of her personal grief on her blog yesterday. This is an incredibly personal post as I am sure you can imagine but it says some amazingly well thought out issues for us as memory keepers.

Heidi stresses the importance of photos. How she wishes she had taken so many more. People laugh at me for taking so many but I always say "I'm a memory keeper and that is how I save my memories and use them to remind me of my life". It is such an important part of life these days, photography and we are so lucky to be able to take pictures and see them instantaneously. To alter then to make them more beautiful. We can store them online and share them in so many ways which weren't available to our families in days gone by. I truly treasure my photographs and would be so sad to lose them.



When I was staff nurse on Neonatal Intensive Care, we always took Polaroids of the babies for parents because we knew that often parents would be unable to visit their baby for several hours. I constantly said to them to make sure they had pictures copied so they would have a negative to keep because over time these Polaroids can fade. We were also advised to get parents who's baby had died, to store the photographs which were taken on their behalf by the hospital in a safe storage box away from fire and flood because they were just so precious. On one occasion, a mum phoned me to ask if I could check if the photos taken of her baby were still in the file. At the time of her baby's death, she hadn't wanted them but it was hospital policy to take the pictures and retain them in the baby's file. That mother was able to received pictures of her baby who would had died over ten years previously.

What I am trying to say is to keep your photographs safely and to take so many that you never run out.

If you would like to read Heidi's post, and I advise everyone to do so, you can find it here. She has shared a number of very personal photographs from her sons funeral and so just for clarity, be aware that some of the photographs show Cory's open coffin.

My second link is to my amazing friend Abi. She blogged over the weekend about her latest quilt. She explained how it had taken 2 years to complete and shared her final masterpeice, complete with modelling by her very attractive mum.

One of the things which struck me from Abi's piece was the fact that as crafters we don't always complete projects or they just take much longer to finish because life gets in the way. Abi's been completing her degree so she's had rather a lot of course work, but she has got there in the end.

What I shared in my comment to her was that I too have a quilt I'm still working on and it is still in pieces over 30 years since I began. I started it when I was at school and remember cutting out hexagon shapes from old envelopes and hand stitching them together. My family gave me lots of lovely fabrics from their own sewing projects so it truly is a memory project. Some of the materials came from dresses I remember my mum stitching for me and my sister.



For me crafting, and certainly quilt making is about love. Each piece of fabric is lovingly cut, pinned and stitched together. It has a love for sewing stitched into every piece. In my case there is blood in there probably from stabbing my fingers with the needle when I sew the pieces together. There are memories of summer dresses, learning to sew, listening to my family chatter as I stitched and also my own personal love for stitching. One day I will finish that project and I will feel pride and joy in it's completion. To me it matters not if I finish it when I'm 80 because the end is that it tell my story.





If you want to see what I mean, then watch the film "How to make an American Quilt" which weaves the story of several women quilters together through their quilt making for one of the women's granddaughter's wedding quilt.



I would love to know your feelings on my little post.





Monday 27 July 2015

Me on Monday x



It was very much a garden weekend. Firstly I spent a lot of time sitting in it on Saturday as the weather was beautiful. I read my latest book on my Summer Bingo reading pile and relaxed whilst smelling the scent of the roses, listening to the birds and the bees and the sun shone.



 It was also a wash your hair, put lots of conditioner in and plait it neatly and gosh hasn't it got long kind of day. It doesn't look like it but when it's wet my hair nearly reaches my waist now.



Sadly on Sunday it rained all day so I spent my day doing other things like repotting Peace Lily plants which had certainly outgrown their pots and needed the next size up.



I took some lavender cuttings and planted those up as per Monty Don's instructions on Fridays Gardener's World programme.



It was also a day for realising that some people in this house are gestating babies. Yes, the spider plant which I bought 3 months ago now as a wee plant has had to be repotted twice and is now having twins. This is just one of them. I do like a happy ending, don't you?

And furthermore, it was a day for planning big birthday fun in December because I am 50!!!!!!!! The sister had a fab idea the other week which I will share nearer the time. But suffice to say, the family will be enjoying the sea air at Christmas this year.

I also sat and caught up on blog reading and watched a little Sherlock.

All in all it was a weekend of change and growth.

How was yours?








Tuesday 14 July 2015

Two on Tuesday x


Hello and welcome to another week of Two on Tuesday. Sorry about last week, it quite got away from me.




Anyway, I know alot of us on here love Etsy and I wanted share a couple of lovely sites which I've bought items from recently.

The first is Ceridwen Hazelchild Design

"At Ceridwen Hazelchild Design we believe that by expressing creativity and encouraging eco-friendly behaviour, we can make our world more beautiful"

She has an interest in rural Britain and also in the folk tales surrounding this country, as well as looking to the central importance of caring for our planet.  Ceridwen has a degree in Contemporary Fine Art and uses her hand drawn illustrations to produce beautiful individual pieces of work including tote bags, handmade accessories and gifts.

I was looking to purchase some new tote bags and after looking through the shop, I decided on these two, aren't they beautiful?



Both images from Ceridwen Hazelchild Design's Esty shop site


Each bag is fair trade and is made from 100% natural 5oz cotton. They are both beautifully made and hold lots of bits and pieces. There are so many lovely designs including foxes, bees, mushrooms and all sorts of other wonderful images. Even better she is based fairly locally to me as well so I'm supporting a local artisan.

My second lovely shop is Lizzie May Design. Lizzie says about herself the following.............

Hi, I’m Lizzie-May, an illustrator based in sunny Cornwall! My sketchbook and camera follow me around, here and there, as I wander and admire pretty flowers in hedgerows, our four-legged furry friends, and snippets of lovely scenic views. Cornwall has its perks, as does home sweet home - the place where my illustrations really come together, and where the patterns begin to emerge …

I loved all her beautiful designs but just one jumped out and say Buy Me!! 



It is a notebook with illustrations inspired by my favourite place Lyme Regis. How could I say no? It is a lovely notebook and I'm going to use it for writing memories and trips there because it is just such a very special place to me. In the illustration you can see the lamps which are designed to replicate the ammonite fossils so frequently found in the Jurassic coastline around Lyme.

What have you been purchasing recently? Anything I might love too?