Back to normal

The Easter holidays have flown by, I guess it helps when they are jam packed. As for crafting my prediction was right, I didn't do any. So as I sit at my worktop looking down at a layout I started before Easter, I can't remember where I was going with it. Oh well let's hope some inspiration returns.

The End of March

The last week of March has been glorious this year and I have spent much of it outside. We are sorting out the bottom of our garden, which has involved us deepening the ditch so that we can put in some pipes and then covering with tonnes and tonnes of soil, all of which needed to be shifted by hand. It will be worth all the hard work once it is finished.

This is our garden before we started work.

I also managed to have a day off from working in the garden to go to Cambridge for the day, as I have never been. It is a lovely place and I will definitely be going back. Relaxing by the river was a great way to spend my birthday in the sunshine. This is me and my lovely husband enjoying a boat ride on the River Cam.

 

With all the above going on I surprised myself by managing to complete three layouts. Funnily enough they are all winter themed which feels a little strange with all this gorgeous weather. As always my DD is the feature. I used sketches from My Little Sketch Blook, Creative Scrappers and ATDML, all of which are a great source for ideas and sketches.

I have dusted of some of my very many stamps to stamp a boarder on this layout. I had forgotten how much I enjoy stamping, I love how it adds just a little extra to a page.

The layout below is my first attempt of using embossed card, which I sanded a little to bring out the snowflakes. I also used some rub ons from my sale stash.

More stamping on the layout below and the odd rub on, I even managed some bling.

So Easter holidays have started, so not sure how much crafting I will get done. Am hoping that the sunshine sticks around and that it continues to be warm (I am not holding my breath though). Hope the Easter bunny brings you lots of eggs x

Do you still craft Mummy?

On the way to school today my DD asked me if I still craft. "Of course I do" came my reply, but it got me thinking, I haven't spent much time in my room recently. To me the evenings that I have spent doing crochet is still being crafty, but obviously not to my nearly eight year old, if I am not scrapbooking I am not being crafty.

Well today I thought I would change that, and new photos always help. There is so much new stash coming onto the market, but I really do need to use some of the huge stash that I have already. Admittedly the papers I have used are on the newer end.

DD had a school trip to the Chelmsford ice rink this week. I had no trouble getting her to school on Monday morning, she loved every minute of it. I took the photo on the way to school, she has a new bag that she just had to take.

The second layout is using a photo that was taken in 2010. We all like to try and get together for my Dad's birthday every year. In 2010 the weather was gorgeous and we went down to the beach. The photo is of my Dad and my Sister, I love that they are in the same pose.

So this weekend is Mother's Day, church parade is on the calendar and cooking dinner for my Mum. Hope all the Mum's out there have a lovely day.

First Day of spring?

Today is the first day of March and it is gorgeous outside, could this be the start of spring? I hope so, I love feeling the sun's warmth on my face.

With it being the beginning of the month that usually means crop day. I had planned to go, but I have the chance to go out with my lovely husband and that is an opportunity not to be missed. So after school drop off tomorrow I will be child free until sunday, woo hoo! Thank you Mum & Dad for looking after DD, she is very excited to be having a sleepover with Nanny and Grandad. I am very excited at having some grownup time, not only are we going out tomorrow night, we are going out on Saturday too. This is definitely the opportunity to wear the gorgeous new red high heels that I bought the other week.

So I just thought I would post my last layouts for February.
This layout shows DD pretending to be a parachuting elf, we had gone to see the film Arthur Christmas. I love that she it was her idea to use the bag as a parachute.

My second layout has been scrap lifted from the lovely Ann Freeman, I really enjoy Ann's classes when she teaches at crop and I would love to attend the crop that she runs in Enfield. Ann has introduced me to Simple Stories papers, which I love, they make scrapping so easy that anyone could do it.

I think that I will be using this idea of scrapping a whole year again, it rounds off the year nicely and is a great conclusion to the 2011 album that I have of DD.

So I am off to enjoy some more of the lovely sunshine. I hope that the lovely ladies at the Eclectic Keepsakes Crop have a lovely day on Saturday, I do miss them.

I have a dream

Every now and then I have a moment where I think anything is possible, admittedly it doesn't happen very often, just every now and then. Last week I had a moment, it didn't last long, just a brief twenty four hours.

My friend Vicky took me to a place in Chelmsford called Make, Do & Mend, this is such an amazing idea and I have since found out that there is something similar in Bath called The Makery. Now my little adventure got me thinking, wouldn't it be great to have something like this in Colchester. So this is where I get all excited and start looking at empty shops in Colchester, thinking what I would have in there, what classes we could run, what furniture we would have. This lasted twenty four hours, until my lovely husband brought me down to earth with business rates, insurance, oh and that nasty word profit. So for now my dream has been put away until I win the lottery.

I am still ploughing away with my Christmas album. Sorry about the quality of the photos, I used my phone as I have had a couple of computer blips that I have not been able to sort out on my own (nothing like a technical problem to show that you still require adult supervision).

This is an old photo of my DD. I did have a tradition of taking her photo for our family christmas card. This is the first year that I haven't done it and I am not sure if I will be still allowed next christmas as she is growing up so fast.

So that I didn't have left over squares I used the same papers to do the layout below. I can't believe how much a a layout can change just by using a different background colour.

Finally another layout for the Just One Sketch class. I am plodding along with the class, I will get there in the end.

February has been a little slower on the layout front and I am again missing crop this weekend. I need to get my scrapping act together.

Monochrome

I had a fab half term, it was jammed full of ice skating, sight seeing & eating out. So I didn't get any crafting done, just lots of photo taking.

Just before half term I managed to finish my monochrome Just One Sketch layout. I am really behind now, but I like that it doesn't matter what pace you go at. The prompts are still there on the blog for you to keep returning too.

I have blurred two prompts into one, monochrome and also using a colour that I don't normally use. As my main muse is my DD, I tend to use colour a lot. So my monochrome page is the complete opposite.

I have used just black & white and I am really happy with the result, it is a completely different look for me. At first I was tempted to use a hint of colour, but I stuck with it.

A first

I have completed my first crochet hat. Lily is now the proud owner of a new hat. It is by no means perfect, but DD is very pleased with it, so much so that she wants one.

There will be no stopping me now.