Our first time....

The kids have far too much energy at the moment. It must be something I'm feeding them but I've promised to stop as soon as I work out what it is, so to burn off some of that energy we did our first geocache. It's something we've been meaning to do for a while (I joined the geocache site in September). So after lunch today off we went for a walk along the local canal in search of the illusive cache. We even made friends with some swans along the way.

Here is the evidence - one cache box. The kids loved where it was hidden as we disappeared behind a hedge away from all the walkers. We took something with us to swap over but the kids decided that they didn't want to in the end. I think they didn't like the look of anything in the box, but they are up for doing another one, and I suspect sooner rather than later. Maybe next time we'll even manage it on a day when there isn't an ice cold wind blowing whilst raining.

I think I could be hooked already as I've just spent half an hour looking for caches in and around York. Might need to get a gps gadget!

just because...

Sometimes Chris buys me flowers for no other reason than "just because". He came home from the school run a couple of days ago via a trip to the florists and today the roses were open and looking gorgeous.

And now, I have an even bigger shopping list.....

...and this is why!

Now, it's not often I watch QVC, honest, it really isn't, but I spotted a note on Dyan's blog about Sir Tim being on. So I popped and had a look and noticed the "thing of the day" (see I'm not even sure what they call it) was a bucket full of goodies with his new book. So, as one of no doubt hundreds, I ordered it and it came today.

The book came with a mini mister, a pot of perfect pearls, a distress ink pad, rock candy crackle paint and stickles, a blending tool with two pads (as seen in most stores) and two small bottles - one of glossy accents (of which you can never have enough) and one sepia accents. All this for £25 - plus p&p but even so it made it worth while.

Flicking through the books I've seen and tried a number of the techniques, most on his blog but I love just having it to hand for inspiration. The main inspiration at the moment is to spend money (not so good). On the flip side I have tons of Tim's products, such as the fragments, which I had forgotten I'd got until I looked in the book. So I feel inspired to use some on my father-in-laws birthday card, or just play and keep somewhere to look at.

That's it from me for now. We're in the middle of a snow storm here with big fat juicy flakes. Chris is "down south" today so I do hope it doesn't cock up the trains. Either way I fancy a snuggle in front of the fire with the kids and my new book, maybe even a cup of hot chocolate.

Stay warm and thanks for stopping by!

Just a quick sneak...

There just aren't enough hours in the day at the moment. I know that's a common compliant, but it's not one I often come out with, so here I am with a very quick post to share some sneak peeks of my designs using the upcoming March kit from SBK Club.

As always, thanks for looking!

Half term and a cold day...

It's been a while since I've shared any photo's with you so I thought it really was about I did. Today we had our second ever visit to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster. It was bitter cold and I thought I wasn't going to get any photo's at all. Primarily because my hands turned to ice if I took my gloves off, but also because it was so busy when we got there and having 2 and 4 year old with us we went round to cries of "lets see something else..."

They have recently rescued a pride of 13 lions from a Romanian Zoo, but they are still in quarantine. You can't see them, but we did hear them. A lions roar certainly lets you know it's not a timid animal. The park is currently constructing an area for them and I think we'll be visiting again to see them. I have a thing about big cats, I like little one's as well mind.

Some Scrappy News

I have been lucky enough to be invited to join the design team for the Scrapbook Kit Club for six months. Whats more, I now have a box of kits to play with that contain some scrummy stash, including the current kit which you can see the DT layouts for here.

Wish me luck and I hope to be back soon with creations.

Right then...

Here, finally are those ATC's I promised I'd share with you. I thought I'd 'better do it now as it being half term this week I'll probably be nodding off by the time the kids are in bed. Having said that I'll probably find time to play Vampire Wars on Facebook! My current obsession which I'm finding is great for stress relief. Relief I need after having this blooming awful cold for just over four weeks now. I must have had two together, it can't just be one cold. Either way I getting more than a bit fed up with it and beating up a few vampires helps.

I digress, here are those ATC's. Hope you like them.

I've started....

I now have a small pile of pages with backgrounds prepared for my art journal and some I'm leaving with just a coat of gesso so that I can just make it up on the spot. Over time I'll make some more pages as I have a desire to get all sticky and love the process of making them. I love the feel of multi medium on my fingers, real hands on creating...oh loveliness, and the smell...awwww. If you haven't already - go sniff some!

So far I have finished two pages in my journal, and I'm wondering how it's going to progress as they are very different styles.

This is the first page. Can you tell I was in a slightly dark mood when I did it? Hmmmm... I was tired and just felt the need to sit down and take a break from everything, and that's what the journaling tells you.

This second page I was in a mood to get the multi medium and make a pretty page. Lots of playing with paint, stamps, gold pens (not the norm for me) images and pencils.

I loved the end result so much I made a set of ATC's in the same way. Question is do I want to swap them? Maybe, but not just yet. I'll be back later to share those with you as blogger is taking far too long to upload photo's today and I am losing the will...

mini monsters....

The BIA is out and the pogo printer is winking at you. You then discover an almost forgotten kit, in to this case Indigo Mill's Monster Mash kit from October '09 . Put it together and what do you get? In my case a 2x4 inch mini book of my little monsters.

The size of the book was dictated by the covers as they were made from off cuts from the travel journal I made last week. Waste not want not! Makes it an idea size for all those off cuts of paper piling up.

I've only added photo's to one side of the pages, and the book will happily stand up so you can always have those adorable monster faces looking at you while you work. The other sides have all been decorated using the monstrosity cardstock stickers.

Thanks for looking!