Back from GoGo land

Wow- what a weekend it's been, I've snipped and misted, and made stones from special clay and distressed and guilded and glued everything to within  an inch of it's life- oh and there was a tiny bit of eating to do and (ahem) a couple of late night Baileys in the bar. Topped with a Paranormal investigation in the 'mansion' bit of the hotel going on too - which I wasn't staying in (not sure If I was pleased about that or not) but my friend Jane was - she didn't spot any funny ghouls or spirits though.

Sadly I could not get to sign in to Blogger last night, I was all ready on the hotel computer but it was taking SO long to load it was ridiculous - I gave up. Without further ado here are a few favourites from the weekend..

I'm shattered - but pleasantly shattered - it was lovely to catch up with some old friends and lovely to make lots of new ones too.

Off Scrapping

Well, here I am, just got in from work,so now for the packing - did the crafty stuff and photos last night -I've just found out that the laptop is going to cost an arm and a leg to put right, a new on/off switch and a new bit where the power lead plugs in - great! oh and the time to strip it and fit said parts...... so off we go - in about 3 hours time I shall be here...

Can't wait....have a great weekend all x

Seeing Red

Today is the first day of Nic Howard's Colour class over at Big Picture Classes (now renamed ).
How very apt that I should be wearing red today - not something that is approved of in our house because it is the colour of Tottenham football club's arch enemies - but hey ho I like red !!
Anyway , I've printed the colour wheel, the class intro and the other papers so am now ready to go. I'm not going to be able to do much tonight 'cos I'm packing all my stuff ready for the Scrapagogo weekend retreat- so I'm going to take it all with me .... hopefully I'll be able to get blogging tomorrow and Saturday somehow- might have to do a scheduled post (uh oh!!)

So- work in the morning, then a quick home - change- kiss and hug dog- hairwash and check of last minute bits then away.... busy busy busy - still just on track for Blogtoberfest - only a few days to go now !

Zilch,nothing,nada

That's exactly what is happening with my laptop at the moment,just when the internet /broadband has settled and is running nicely- the laptop decides to misbehave in a big way..not happy - all it is good for at the moment is reflecting an image of me taking a photo-it won't turn on ,have tried everything.... : -(

So anyway, I don't like to blog miserable things but had to get that off my chest..at least I am lucky enough to have another PC to use ...nothing exciting to blog today but I am really enjoying reading blogs of those who are doing Shimelle's new class 'True Stories' I'm reading with interest the prompts and hope to be blogging along with it very soon - lots coming up for me - a retreat this weekend - Nic Howard's Big Picture class starting tomorrow all about colour and another retreat the weekend after - am off to the mess that is my craft room now to try and organise tote and 'stuff 'for going away ......

 I know, I know,not good is it, but at least I have plenty of herma !

Scary stuff

A bit of a strange topic I know but I've just been looking through a few of 'film's scariest moments' and it got me thinking...as it's that time of year . I'm not one for any gory stuff and give all those type of blood and gore type films a very wide berth.. One of the films that spooked me out the most when Iwas younger was actually on tv a couple of weeks ago - it's called 'Don't look now' and is a story set in Venice with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in.I remember watching it when I was younger and it really really put me off ever going to Venice only because I thought I would see the little red coat running about in the side streets.... anyone else seen it ?
and what is the film that has spooked you the most ?I still get goosebumps when I see this....

oooh and what about the two sisters and one of them has those funny eyes ?? -Oh and 'The Omen' spooked me too - mind you,we are talking about quite a few years ago !

Printers Tray - so far

Well, I've managed to do a bit more on the tray this evening.I've got the base bits done and made some bunting. I used Tim Holtz's seasonal paper stash 12 x 12 papers. Some of the papers are little squares and are ideal for making bunting.After I'd cut them out I went round the edges with a gold leafing pen.I love the effect of that - not so messy as inking and heat embossing!

Anyway at least I've got the basis of it now - just need to see about a few embellishments and things .. bad head day again today - but at least it seems to be fading now,thank goodness.

Don't think the conkers work

So - the theory about the spiders and conkers has been thrown out of the window tonight- on the sideboard is a bunch of 6 conkers - beside the sideboard crawling nicely around is this......

yep,it's a bad photo but I had to use the zoom as I couldn't get that close to it.Imagine the scene, me in other room hand outstretched as far in front of me as possible, camera in hand-himself ready with plastic cup to catch it and me trying to take a photo from the other room in order to blog it.....
Anyway,on to nicer things - a photo from yesterday.....

my purchases.....

 

and now I am off to watch this......

hope you've all had a good weekend.

Proud Mum - only just!

M25- When it's good it's good but today it was BAD - probably the worst journey we have ever had down to Chichester.There was queue after queue after queue- we got to a point where we thought we were not going to get there even half way through the ceremony...anyway,we managed to do a journey that normally takes us 2 hours and fifteen minutes in three and three quarter hours.It rained so hard it was hard to see where I was going.Eventually we actually made it and were only five minutes late..thankfully we only missed the first few moments of the opening speech.

Looking at him in his robe and mortar board was one of those 'mum' moments when you remember them as tiny boys and the plays they did when they were little at school and all those times when they were in the school sports ....

After the ceremony and photographs we went for a nice meal with his girlfriend and as luck would have it,over dinner,Alex's girlfriend mentioned there was a 'Cath Kidston' shop in town- so we just had to go and have a wee look.

A new purse and phone cover later we were on our way home !

Apart from the rotten traffic holdups there and back it was a lovely day .

Busy weekend

Friday again and I shall be busy this evening sorting the final photos for the retreat next weekend and hopefully doing a bit more to my printers tray.. the grungepaper rose is all stuck now - hope it will look ok on the tray somewhere..

Tomorrow we are off down to Chichester to see something that involves one of these....and our middle son - so it will be proud mum time! Camera is all charged and ready so here's hoping I can get some good photos!

This is the first time we have experienced this so will be interesting to see the final result of all his hard work,and I hope it doesn't rain too much either. Hope you are having a nice Friday and catch you all tomorrow. 

Anyone fancy a carrot?

Hello everyone,have you ever seen such a fancy carrot?

Two of my sons have just come back from a trip to Milan to see their team Spurs play (and I must say I am very pleased they are home safe and sound).Anyway,they were walking round the square in Milan today and there was a man sitting on the pavement carving carrots . Apparently he had made a lobster,a cat,a shrimp,and lots of other little animals-just  sitting there passing the time of day carving carrots !So youngest son put a few coins on his plate and brought the carrot home all wrapped up.

A bit of a random post tonight ! Not much happening on the printer tray, I made a grungepaper rose - I really wanted to do a grungepaper poinsettia but my stamp is too big so might have to think again on that one ..Where has this week gone - I can't believe it's Friday again tomorrow.

7Gypsies Printer Tray

I've had one of these printer trays sitting on my shelf of ' bits to do' for quite a while now.Don't ask me why,but this evening I suddenly decided to do something with it. I'm going to make something Christmassy I think. I started by painting it wit a bronzy acrylic paint...

I've got some really vintagey Graphic 45 papers that are from last year - I think I might use them somehow. I just can't decide whether to use some photos or just make it ornamental ..hmmm...

Once the bronze was dry I decided to sponge it over with gold.

So now it's sitting in the craft room drying nicely.I'm going to settle down now and carry on with the rainbow cot blanket I'm making for someone.

Quite a nice evening tonight whilst they were watching football with not such a good result -oh dear !

Where's Wally

One of the ladies I work with was given a 1000 piece Where's Wally jigsaw puzzle,she was talking about doing it and was saying how difficult it was. Anyway to cut a long story short she finished it and brought it in to work for me to take home for himself to do. Whenever he was feeling poorly when we first got married, he would always want 'pastilles in a box' and  a puzzle to do. He won't mind me telling you cos he knows it makes me smile, I nearly always buy him a puzzle at Christmas and after lots of mickey taking by the boys - they all end up having just a little look to find some pieces...so this evening there he was .....

... and I must admit that we have allgiven a little helping hand as we passed by..

I've been going through photos over the past couple of evenings trying to sort some out  for classes at the upcoming retreats and came across some that I felt like scrapping tonight as they remind me of a lovely time I had meeting the Osmonds on their 50th Anniversary tour- so I did a simple layout with them -made me smile all over again !

I'm a late bird tonight, I 've actually missed a day of Blogtoberfest,I scheduled a post for last night and totally had the wrong time on it so I missed a day - what a wally ! Never mind, It's now five to 12 midnight and all is quiet here.I've spent this evening finishing the lovely project designed by Karen for our last  Eclectic Keepsakes class.
I've taken a leaf out of Karen't book and used a photo from our wedding collection.It was a lovely idea to learn so many ways of making flowers and I will certainly be using them again.

I hope you've all had a nice weekend. Are any of you watching the X Factor? I thought Matt was really good this week - I like him. It'd be really good if the tv programmers kept up the schedules so that the X Factor and Strictly don't clash wouldn't it ?

Only two weeks to go till the Scrapagogo retreat weekend - I can't wait ,I've nearly sorted all my photos and then it's another weekend away at the ATDML retreat the weekend after - whoopee !

Saturday

So starts the weekend, we had a lovely time last night - good company and good food what more could you ask?

Here's us just before we went out ...and I took delivery of these lovely envelope mini book kits the other day so am looking forward to playing with them and aren't the butterfly garlands lovely ?

I got them from a link to an Etsy shop from this site - they have some lovely little kits and things there..

Am off to go and visit Dad now so have a lovely Saturday everyone whatever you are up to.

T G I F

Hello bloggy friends, and those immortal words,thank goodness it's Friday ! - and my Friday is going to be spent having some of this......

....and some of this......

courtesy of the Tandoori restaurant in town.

We are going out with my cousin and his wife. We also have nearly a full house as youngest son is home from Uni for the weekend so all is busy - washing machine going already,steak cooking on the hob for boys -bathroom fully booked until 7 and dog walked and fed .........whatever you are up to - hope your Friday is a good one and see you tomorrow .

Late Blogger

I'm late tonight - we've had a bit of a busy evening here - lots going on and five a side football,then fish and chips and I worked late too so this evening has flown by. Anyway to carry on the Blogtoberfest here I am !
I hope you've all had a good day and those of us who love Shimelle's classes - did you see she has a new class starting very soon?

I made a card this evening, one I started last night - I used the Gotta Craft kit again with those lovely Crate papers.I stamped a butterfly and punched a little butterfly out of one of the yellow papers..

and......the countdown is on - lots to look forward to in November for me - a scrappy retreat and Lord of the  Dance- love that show..

Self portrait and spiders and conkers...

First of all, if anyone else is playing along with Blogtoberfest,Tinniegirl has declared today to be 'Self Portrait 'day so without further ado - here is a silly self portrait .....

...Now- this is something I would like to know about...... If anyone who reads this has a phobia of spiders like me ( I know it's totally irrational- but I cannot touch or bear to be near one of the little horrors),if there is one in the same room as me, I have to watch it until someone comes and removes it and I have to make sure it is deposited as far down the garden as possible if not put over the fence at the end. I couldn't possibly sleep in the bedroom if one is lurking and when himself used  to work nights I would sleep on the sofa or in another room ...many's the time when there has been an upside down bowl in the middle of the room with a spider inside waiting until someone gets home.

I digress, apparently if you put conkers in various places all over the house, spiders will not come in because they hate the smell or gas or whatever the conkers give off. When I first heard this I was sceptical but  has anyone else heard of this and more to the point has anyone used it or do they know of any other ways to put the hairy horrors off?it even gave me the creeps posting this photo...If  only you could see the face I am pulling !.....

Wedded bliss

When I borrowed my wedding photos from my dad a couple of weeks ago because ours are somewhere in our loft and couldn't be found,I got some printed at Photobox. They are only photos of photos so are not the best of quality.Anyway -I have had my name down for a subscription at Gotta Craft for their monthly kit for quite a while now and to my great delight I've now got one. I've always liked their kits but they seem to sell so quickly you have to be like lightning to get one when they go on sale.
Anyway I've spent this evening and some of last night making a layout with their October kit and one of my old wedding photos.

The ironic thing is that we have had 'words' this evening - he went out to a football meeting and was ' bewildered' (anyone who knows us will know that is one of himself's favoutite words) to see that I had the heating on  when he came back ..... a slight disagreement ensued -so it's quite amusing really that I should be scrapping that photo ! Still on track for  Blogtoberfest -12 days now :-)

Autumn has arrived

Not that much to report today really apart from the fact that as I was walking to work this morning the leaves bustling about under my feet and the 'helicopters' from the Sycamore trees blowing around are a sure sign it's edging towards Christmas and that Autumn is well and truly here. It struck me though how contrasting it can be as I walked along, the leaves were flying about and as I turned the corner the church looked lovely in the cold sun,the sky was really blue too..

and onto hooky things...

Years ago I used to make a double sided pram blanket and anyone who was going to have a baby used to have one from me as it was a pattern I loved to work from. Well I decided to make one for my friends daughter who is having a baby. Could I find my pattern- no way - I think it could even be at my mum and

dad's somewhere.

So I trawled the net after googling 'Double sided pram blanket -crochet' and to my amazement I found one !

I had a little practice last night and this is what I came up with. I shall be doing the real one in white one side and pink the other or white one side and blue the other depending on what the baby is going  to be ..

Itty Bitty day

I've had one of those 'can't make my mind up what to do days' today. I think I'm always like this after a 'bad head' day..You'll be pleased to know the meal with friends went well....just one small thing. I'm sure that mums of grown up boys will understand this. Our middle son said during the evening that his friend was coming over - was leaving his car here and they were going out and then coming back here and his friend was staying the night -but he wasn't sure what time they would be in - 12 midnight or It could be 2.30 ish after the club closed depending on where they went.. so friend arrived - they had a chat with us and our friends and off they went.
Well, I know they are grown up and I know that when they are at Uni you don't give it another thought but when I woke in the early hours at 4.am and they weren't home I was a tad nervous....so after debating whether to or not,I texted his number to see if all was ok. Well, that was it then,I could not get back to sleep and the more I tried the worse I was .I know it's daft but you can't help it can you?  I heard the birds, I heard the paperboy and finally got up at 6 o.clock.Anyway to cut a long story short - we got a text back at 8.30 to say they had stayed at my other son's after meeting him out last night .....honestly ....boys .
So ...all was well in the end but mum was tired !

I made a little card this afternoon, he is a 'Magnolia' snowman stamp. I coloured him with Promarkers .

......P.S. How good was Robbie Williams on Strictly tonight ?? Loved it .

Curry anyone ?

Just a quick post today.
We are having a couple of friends over this evening who we see a few times a year to catch up and I decided to make curry.
True to form I woke up with a banging head this morning but luckily after taking the pills straight away and a morning in bed it eased up.

So this is what we are having...a Chicken Mulligataani (a mild one) Lamb Sag Gosht (Lamb and Spinach). I found a brilliant place on the net called Rafi's Spice box and the spices come fresh and are fab to give you the base inredients...
Then himself requested Cheesy Peas so I've had a go at that ....and I've also made a mint raita too.

and after we are having this .....

..... and some of this ...

 another request from himself - fruit salad with cocktail sticks and a dippy bowl of Sambucca to dip his fruit in ..this originated from a Greek restaurant we used to go to who used to serve a fruit platter and a bowl of flaming Sambucca to dip it in - we won't be setting the Sambucca alight though !...Have a good evening _ I'm off to record Strictly and X Factor and get myself ready .