Wasn't it grand ??

Isn't it nice to have blogs nowadays where we can record things for posterity? I'm posting this as a nice memory for myself and for anyone else who enjoyed the day.I know everywhere is saturated with photos at the moment -but I will have my own little blog memory to look back on .They are only pics from my tv - but a nice memory of a grand day.

watched in the company of two of the men in my life ...

oh and a certain little fluffy bundle ...

enjoy your Saturday whatever you are up to .

A Special Day

I'm feeling a tiny bit  emotional today, for two reasons..

One is for the wonderful pomp and ceremony that is the Royal Wedding - how lovely to see so many happy faces for once - there are so many miserable and gloomy news items on the news nowadays with wars and horrible things going on .How nice to have something happy to celebrate and bring the people together..

Photo -Courtesy of Google images .

The other reason for feeling a tad emotional is the wonderful friendships and bonds that have been made via Blogland make me feel really really good.

I've just read some wonderful posts from lovely people- one from my dear friend Deb and others from people who I like to count as friends although we have never actually 'met'- in person.

They are all part of 'team teal' and they are all wishing Deb Turtle's mum  Marti -who is fighting a battle with cancer at the moment  a very hapy birthday today via a circle of blogs from places all over the world.

I hope it's okay to join in the circle- hopefully ,the more the merrier and the stronger that bond of love and prayers and positive feelings for her can only be good ?

I don't have a teal bracelet but I will be thinking very positive thoughts all day and wishing you a lovely day Marti .

Here's to you Mummy Turtle - Happy Birthday from me  and love to you  Deb and your family ;-) x x x

My Day in Photos

See more days here

Afternoon Tea - Somerset style!

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that this year has and will be 'the' year for afternoon teas for me- I've had a lovely Tea at The Ritz for a Christmas pressie, tea at Betty's Tea Room in Harrogate when I did Tim Holtz's class - a very exciting invitation to -ahem- Buckingham Palace for one of the Queen's garden parties to accompany my Dad.(Which is creeping up quickly now -must sort a hat and outfit out !) ....but undoubtedly one of the prettiest places to have tea must be Periwinkle Cottage down in Selworthy,Somerset - oh and the cake what a huge portion !!! Bang goes my being good !! It was yum though - I took half of it back to the hotel and ate it in the evening ...

and this was the gift shop ...

.

one of the prettiest gift shops I've ever been to.....

and these are some of the things we saw as we were travelling around and about...it made me feel extra good especially as we know that our ancestors right back to the 1700s all lived around and about here..

Exmoor Ponies

                                           Lorna Doone church....and Lorna Doone Farm.....

Yours Truly at Porlock Weir

and Grandad at Porlock Weir ...

Blimey,I've got a bit carried away with photos again. I really enjoyed my time there and it made it so much better seeing it in the lovely sunshine- no doubt if it had been raining it wouldn't have seemed so magical!

Have a lovely Bank Holiday Monday - who's looking forward to the Royal Wedding ? I am !

Teddy grabbing

I'm back into the swing of everyday life now,I had such a relaxing time down in Somerset,it was like going back in time. It did make me realise how busy and stressy my life is though.It was very refreshing to see those old style petrol stations and go into little village shops- it was just like Postman Pat land!

One of the things that was fun was when we went to Minehead and had an ice cream sitting on the seafront,opposite was a line of those 'grab' machines-the ones where you put a coin in and have a few goes to get a toy....well my Dad always had a fierce reputation on those things and could always get a teddy or three.He didn't disappoint this time either.I casually mentioned I might like a 'William and Kate' teddy and we were off..He got one - then another- then another-

We ended up with quite a haul - he virtually cleared the machine !

I got a bit embarrassed holding all those teddies!..It was lovely to see him smiling so much though. We sat them all in the back of the car.

So- now Ive been catching up on posts for the blog hop last week of Mel's - wasn't it great, I thoroughly enjoyed hopping to everyone and meeting new blogfriends.

♥ ♥

I've downloaded the prompts for the next installment of Shimelle's class- Beyond blogging for scrapbookers-and installed the Google analytical thingy and I haven't looked or checked it either !-which leads me on to a question and actually it's a question I've often wanted to ask..

Do you like it when I blog about things like I have today, as well as crafty bits - or do you prefer it when I just post crafty projects ? I really enjoy reading about other people's lives and recipes and things -so I'd be interested to know what you think.

Back from ' ooh arrr' country

Just to say that I'm back from a lovely break with my Dad down in Somerset.Cutting a long story short, I traced my family tree a while back and we found that all our ancestors from my Dad's side came from Somerset.They were all from an area where my Mum and Dad used to go to regularly a few years back. When I traced the ancestors - it was a real wish of my Dad's to go back and try to find details/graves of any of them from some of the churches down there. It was quite an emotional trip for both of us without mum but we've had a really lovely time..Unfortunately we were in a small village in a tiny but lovely B&B but there was no Wifi  access so although my scheduled post worked on Sunday I haven't been able to comment and catch up on the blog hop....and Dads of 83 don't quite get the neccessity of the internet!!
Anyway- am back now and I shall be catching up with you all very soon !
We saw lots of these ......

just been born....

and quite a lot of these ...!

be back soon to catch up with you all xx

Alphanumeric Blog Hop

Good Sunday afternoon to you,welcome to my little part of Blogland where we are all enjoying a hop skip and a jump all over the world celebrating letters and numbers,all courtesy of the lovely Mel of ispeakmelsh fame who came up with the idea.
Here is a full list of links for all the lovely people who are playing today.....

I Speak Melsh: http://ispeakmelsh.blogspot.com/

BE Glorious: http://beglorious.blogspot.com/
Captured On Film: http://mrsbeee.blogspot.com/
Chatty Crafty Arty Pig: http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com/
Creating Room: http://creatingroom.blogspot.com/
Curiouser and Curiouser: http://journalofcuriousthings.blogspot.com/
Daily Life - Bits and Pieces: http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com/
Deb's World: http://debs14.blogspot.com/
Den's Crafty Diary: http://deecie.blogspot.com/
From High In The Sky: http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.com/
Gallo Organico: http://gallorganico.blogspot.com//
Ginger's Life Of Spice: http://gingerslifeofspice.blogspot.com/
Handmade By Kirsty: http://handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com/
Havoc and Mayhem: http://www.havocandmayhem.com/
Heather's Scraps: http://heathers-scraps.blogspot.com/
Helena's Creative Maven: http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.com/
Holaday's Happy Hearts: http://holadayshappyhearts.blogspot.com/
Jeant-Jinnag: http://jeant-jinnag.blogspot.com/
Just Jimjams: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/
K's Crafty Corner: http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Life...As I See It: http://jillconyers.blogspot.com/
{Life Behind The Purple Door}: http://www.lifebehindthepurpledoor.com/
Lisa E Design Blog: http://lisae-design.blogspot.com/
Living Life One Blessing At A Time: http://livinglifeoneblessingatatime.blogspot.com/
Mary's Musings: http://craftycreation.blogspot.com/
Michelle Loves...: http://michellelovesallsorts.blogspot.com/
Obstinate Pursuit: http://obstinatepursuit.blogspot.com/
Over At Our Place: http://overatourplace.blogspot.com/
Paper Turtle: http://paperturtle.blogspot.com/
Peonies and Pennies: http://peoniesandpennies.blogspot.com//
Random Reflections: http://www.kbwalker.blogs.com/
Rosalind Revival: http://rosalindrevival.blogspot.com/
Scrap Dreams: http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com/
Scrappyjacky: http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.com/
Scrapworthy Lives: http://www.scrapworthylives.com/
Staring At The Sea: http://fiona-staringatthesea.blogspot.com/
Surefiredaisy Says: http://surefiredaisysays.blogspot.com/
This Kalil Life: http://www.kimberlykalil.com/
This Little Life Of Mine: http://tracyscraftycorner.blogspot.com/
Xnomads' Blog: http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/

What a lovely compliment to Mel that so many of us want to participate ;-)
Now,hopefully you have had a nice visit with Deb and have linked from her to me ..
So on to the reason you are here.We are here to celebrate the number ♥  9  ♥
Now let me tell you a few random silly (and some may say spooky) facts about John Lennon and the number 9 
If you are a Beatles fan you will probably know these - if not you might just find them interesting.....

John Lennon's lucky number was 9. Everything in his life revolved around the number 9. He was born on October 9th, met Yoko Ono on November 9th . His son was also born on the ninth.
 When he was shot, on December, 8th 1980, it was already December 9th in his hometown of Liverpool, England. He was pronounced dead at 11:07. Add those numbers up: 1+1+7=9.
 Liverpool has nine letters

John Ono Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon's combined names contain nine O's
 John's elementary school bus number happened to be 72. 7 + 2 = 9  
 He even lived in apartment 72 in New York. Yet another 9.
 McCartney, his best friend through most of his life, is spelled with 9 letters.
Coincidence? maybe but I thought it was interesting and fun!

 I hope you enjoyed that little insight into some facts including the number 9 - and here are a couple of projects I made specially for this blog hop - a configurations box - yep it's got nine spaces and a layout with nine little photos of yours truly through the ages - makes me sound prehistoric

So without further ado, next up is someone whose blog I know you all love - and if you've not been before - you will love it and go back for more !

Over to you -Sian

Letters and numbers......

....and a bit of hopping,some friendly banter,maybe some crafty projects,maybe some photos,a bit of bloggy togetherness-all arranged by Mel,and it all happens tomorrow.....see you then....

Sunday 17th April 2.00pm BST..

Mother's Day revisited

After spending Mother's day on my own and feeling a bit sorry for myself,this Sunday was much more like it!
Youngest son was back from Uni, eldest son was back from Vegas and middle son was back from spending a weekend with his girlfriend.
The sun was shining all day Saturday and the forecast was good for Sunday so off we went to Tescos and stocked up with barbie food.

We had a lovely day all together so it made up for the weekend before..These will probably be Photoboxed and on a layout pretty soon- AND I managed to get them alltogether and nearly all smiling too ;)

Someone else was pleased to see them as well.

and I didn't even get too cross when they insisted on playing cricket in the garden.

and while they were out in the garden playing board games I made a layout.....Perfect day!

My idea  for Mel's alphanumeric blog hop on Sunday is coming together now -  I think !!!

Guest Designer

Warning- photo heavy!!

I was extremely chuffed when the ladies from A Trip Down Memory Lane  contacted me and asked if I would be a guest designer for them for April.

I waited for my surprise box of goodies they were going to send me to arrive and I was so thrilled to see that it was all right up my street. They sent me the latest releases in from CHA- Bo Bunny Gabrielle range and they are absolutely beautiful.

Luckily I love butterflies and flowers so got to work ...The gallery is up now so I can at last show you what I came up with..If you want to see the other projects from the design team you can see them here.

The colours of these  papers are gorgeous..

 On the first browny toned one I punched the butterflies from some tissue paper that one of the boys had his shirt wrapped in from one of those American shops they all get their stuff from nowadays. When he unwrapped it I whipped it quick before he screwed it all up - what are us crafters like !!

I used some of Tim Holtz's tissue tape to make a rosettey flower.

Did a bit of stamping on this one.Good old tissue tape again!

Last but not least a mini concertina book and a card...

This was all  new to me but I thoroughly enjoyed it!