Joy Ride anyone...?

Last week Steph over at Indigo Mill sent me a box of Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride papers..... swoon. I love them and thought I'd share a sneaky peek of the layout I have created with them. You can see the full thing over on The Mill Pond.

Where to start...

It's only Wednesday but this week seems to be flying by and I've had lots of fun as well which has led to one abandoned blog... sorry about that.

I just wanted to share a couple of things with you that are getting me excited. Firstly a question though. If you're on a stash diet do you just apply that to pretty paper, or to all things crafty? I'm finding it hard not buying stuff, especially when I keep bumping into Steph over at Indigo Mill on Facebook and she keeps telling me about the new stock she has coming in. You're not being fair lady!

Talking of Indigo Mill though, have you seen some of the goodies that are on the way. Pretty, but not paper (fits in with a stash diet nicely I think), and oh how I want these.... Gillian Gladrag felt making kits....swoon.

I know Rosie would love this Ickle Pickle bag.

Now I don't have a tea cosy, I don't have need for one, but I lurve this one. I may even buy a teapot for it...LOL.

Just because I want to have a go. Another hobby on the cards? I think we need a bigger house.

Bunting... well, we are at the point of Rosie's room needing to be redecorated. She is three soon and needs a more "grown up" room. I think this would look super cute along her wall.

The other thing I am excited about is; Rebekah Brumby is holding a birthday {blog} bash which starts on Friday 19th March. She has a huge list of designers involved and there will be prizes along the way. Check out her blog to get the details and join in the fun!

Now I must dash. The geocaching bug has caught me and there is a GPS with my name on it that needs to be ordered and something for another hobby of mine that needs to be ordered, this time for my jewellery making, that and a box of goodies Steph sent me the other day that keep winking at me. Now all I need is peace, quiet, time and an extension!

I'll be back to share some crafty stuff soon!

Red sky at night

I felt so tranquil when I looked out of the window this evening and my eyes met with this sky. I immediately felt the stress of the day melt away.

Oh sooo tired

I went to bed last night feeling like pooh and have woken up this morning with a stiff neck courtesy of swollen glands. I now have hot eyes and a runny nose. It's beyond funny, I've only just got rid of the last "cold" which lasted the best part of six weeks.

I'm weak, and this confirms it.

Onwards and upwards eh.

On Saturday I'm teaching a class and between you and me, I'm a tad nervous. I have 10 ladies making a BIA 4x4 mini book, all of them new to the world of mini books (I know - imagine that!) so that also means they have never had a go with a BIA either. I gave a mini book demo - well, lecture really, last month with lots of question and laughter along the way. The crop organiser came back and asked if I would put a kit together and teach a class. I feel very honored to have been asked. I must have done something right!

I already have everything packed and ready to go. I've chosen the lovely 7Gypsies Notting Hill papers for them to use. I do hope they like them. Fingers crossed my BIA will come back in one piece and nobody will lose any fingers along the way (there are a couple of care in the community amongst them...LOL). Either way I'm sure there will be just as many laughs as last month.

That's my in progress version in the middle. Not the wire it will have on it as I'm recycling one I used to demonstrate how the BIA works.

I've also decided that today is as good as any day to start my "Week in the Life" project of Ali E fame. I was sat flicking through my copy of Life Artist last night and thought - why not, what are you waiting for? It's not as if life is going to change much and it is all about recording the day to day things. I've taken a couple of photo's so far for today and my diary will serve to take notes. Then all I need to do is get an album sorted out, a scrummy AC one with lots of those new page protectors they do to hold photo's in.

While I'm sitting here uploading images and typing away, Rosie is downstairs watching her latest obsession. That is her obsession for today, to which she was introduced by Chris last night. Danger Mouse! Love it, after all he's fantastic, he's amazing, where ever there is danger he'll be there......

Got the theme running through your head now...LOL. I have.

It'll stick

but only if the wind blows!

I've had a copy of this photo of Rosie pinned to the wall by the PC for ages and keep meaning to scrap it, so with a the kids free day disappearing faster than I care for, I printed out a copy and did a fast scrap. When I say fast it actually took me just over an hour.

Lots of distressing and inking going on, some Maya Road pins and an idea pinched from the extremely talented Rachael - a little piece of lace tucked behind a rip in the paper (hers is much nicer though).

Right, that's it from me for today. I've been a right little blogger the last few days. There will probably be tumbleweed rolling by next time you visit!

Thanks for stopping by.

Feeling a bit sneaky today....

I know it's irritating for some, but hey, I thought I would share two sneak peeks with you this morning.

First up, it's CJ time again. This month I have Sarah's journal, "If I were"... a chance to fantasise about who or what you would be if you weren't you right now. Does that make a word of sense? LOL. Answers on a postcard if you can guess what fantasy I have.....

Secondly another sneak from the SBK Club layout which I've now finally managed to get a decent shot of. I know once the summer comes I'll be complaining about light reflections on the photo's. Ah but we complain so well, and as I always say; have talent - use it!

Oh - and don't forget, you have until Saturday to join in the challenge set by Nicola over on the Indigo Mill blog!

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!