When words are not enough

I've been a bit down in the dumps this week, only mainly because there seems to be so much to organise, so many phone calls to make-lots of clearing of old memories -and then yesterday morning - this arrived- and really,really made me smile ....... and it is all the more poignant after reading this post 
 Ruth had very kindly sent me some happy mail - Thank You Ruth so very much, it was just the tonic I needed

I've been subscribing to Scrapagogo's monthly scrapbooking kits for quite a few years now.The ladies have just revamped the kit and this is one of the layouts I've made with it...

I've got a severe shortage (well- not really) of photos - recent ones - at the moment as I've not been taking many so I scrapped a photo of himself in the snow in Germany when we went a couple fo years ago.

Keeping it simple

The next challenge from Kirsty on Just one sketch was to take the sketch back to the simplest form - and I certainly did that!
I rotated it and slanted the photo.This is a favourite photo of mine-normally I would have embellished it a lot more but the challenge was to keep it simple - so I did!
I went back to my stash of Kaisercraft Bonjour and used a page from the 6x6 pad and a couple of other bits I cut out, and punched the little heart out of some odd paper.

Not my normal colours & tennis anyone?

I'm on to number 5 now - Kirsty's idea for 5 was to use colours you normally wouldn't use.
Hmmm - I do normally use quite a variety - or do I ? One thing I do know is that i don't 'do' green - I don't mind pale and aqua sort of greens but I'm not a lover of dark greens and I'm also a bit superstitious of green too.
We don't have a lot of red in our house - mainly because they are all 'Spurs' fans ( football ) and red is the colour of their arch rival - so it's frowned upon.Daft I know - but that's the way it is! Weird really isn't it - what seems normal here is probably totally ridiculous to others!
Anyway, I decided on red and came up with this....

and now it's on to happy post time. Look what arrived yesterday

How exciting- two tickets for Wimbledon- I've tried before and not been lucky,but this year I have. It will be something nice to look forward to - a nice day out.They are on number two court which isn't as good as one or centre but a good day out nonetheless.Let's hope the sun shines.

Playing catch up and Just one sketch - 4

I'm playing catch up now- it was a harrowing week for me last week - there was lots to organise and I was on edge that all would go well- thankfully it did and I feel that Dad would have approved..
It wasn't really a day for taking lots of photographs- but we did get one lovely one of the boys next to their Grandad's car which went to the service and I thought I would share it with you ..

I know he would have loved this and we tried to make the day warm and friendly and it felt like a community coming together to show their love and respect for him - which was lovely......

and now on to some scrappy stuff - 

I'm on to number 4 now on Kirsty's 'Just one sketch' which was to use monochrome colours.

I decided on brown and black and hope it worked - I did a quite a bit of stamping on the layout as I hadn't got lots of black embellishments.I used some more of the last Gottacraft kit papers.

There is a bit of a story behind this jumper. We actually bought it for our youngest for Christmas but true to form - they had a swap around - so it ended up belonging to eldest son instead!

Just one sketch 3- mirror image

Well,things here at Den's towers are slowly becoming less scary and frantic.I hope I have organised everything -just 'that day''to get through now - I would like to once again thank everyone for sending me such lovely emails and cards- I truly treasure your friendship and kind words..
and now on to Just one sketch - number three,mirror image. Am I the only one who sat for ages making sure I'd got it totally correct -AND then went and got a mirror just to make sure ??? Yes - oh well !!
Here's my mirror image - I love these Kaisercraft Bonjour papers

                                  On to number four this evening - back soon

Just one sketch - 2

Here's my number two sketch after rotating the original. For some reason lately I'm in grungey mode - don't you go through phases like that? Sometimes I'm all flowery and flouncy -then I get' Holtzey 'inky moods -weird?- maybe!
Here's the original sketch I'm working from - I forgot to show it last post..

and here is the rotated version

 

I used paper from a Tim Holtz Kraft Resist pad for the background which I inked with a mix of faded jeans and vintage photo inks.

Things are pretty crazy around here at the moment,so so many things to do and organise and so so many phone calls to make and receive.

I just needed to shut myself away this evening and forget everything for an hour or so -scrapping is good therapy..

Just one sketch -1

First of all I'd like to say thank you - I'm overwhelmed with all the kind comments and emails I've received from everyone - it warms my heart to know there are so many lovely people out there..
I've had a lovely day today, yesterday was filled with going up to London to the registrar's office and dealing with lots of stuff - so today I decided to go and join the ladies at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop.
I didn't stay that long as I was a bit worried about the snow descending upon us but while I was there Karen convinced me to have a go at Just one Sketch. I've duly signed up and have managed to find a sketch to work from - thanks to the very lovely Janice.

Here's the layout I came up with... I rused Kaisercraft papers and a Wendy Vecchi stamp

As usual we had lovely cupcakes and lovely company, and I really enjoyed it.It was nice to be back!

Unspeakable heartache

Today I lost one of the most important people in my life and I will miss him more than words can say.......

but we had some happy times last year and for that I am grateful.....