Just thought I would share my first DT layout for Mojo Holder (see link in right hand menu). This is my first time using the Love, Elsie papers. I only bought three sheets but really wish I could have afforded the whole range, they are so gorgeous!!



I have been playing with felt lately and I made some flowers. The center of this flower is just one of the things I have ready to put on the appropriate layouts :o)

I have been crocheting again and playing around with the little flowers. I have adapted it to have a six petal flower and they look great. I haven't taken a picture yet but I am sure you will see them on a layout sometime soon!

Just watched Love, Honour and Obey with dh and really enjoyed it. We are going to the cinema tomorrow to watch The Simpson Movie with the kids - I can't wiat.

I am also getting really excited about going on holiday on Saturday. We are going to Haven in a caravan and I just know that I am going to love it :o)

I had a crochet lesson yesterday. Mum is brilliant at crochet having done it for years and when I was a kid she obviously taught me the stitches but it was just one of those things that just wasn’t fashionable at the time so I didn’t really pick up on it. Mum taught me loads of crafts as I was growing up such as knitting, calligraphy, dressmaking and basic sewing and I picked these up fine, but not crochet – there was just no interest there.

Anyway, yesterday was different my ever so multi talented mum showed me how to make a crochet flower and look what I did!! I am so excited as I have been wanting to put these on a layout but my lack of knowledge prevented me. If I put them on a layout I want to know that I made them all myself. Well, now I can.

I haven't sewn the ends in yet though!

Mum went into town the other day and came back with this gorgeous felt alphabet for me. Aren’t they cute?

I have done my first layout for the Mojo Blog, I can’t show it to you yet but it will go up this evening – here is a sneak peek.



The guest this week is a very talented lady who you will all know very well. In fact, this lady created one of my all time favourite layouts, it is the layout I always think of when people ask for your favourites – it was called ‘Honouring Dandelions’ – do you know who she is yet?

I am excited because my sister is coming over from South Africa to stay with Mum on Wednesday for two weeks. Unfortunately, we go on holiday for a week on the Saturday but I will still get to see a lot of her as she is only going to be across the road whilst I am home. I haven’t seen her since last year when she came all the way to Mullion to stay with me for a few days. I can’t wait to catch up with her properly :o) Ben and Charlotte are looking forward to seeing Mummy’s Auntie Debbie too (Mark has got a sister called Debbie as well and she is called Daddy’s Auntie Debbie!).

Fifteen years ago today I was marrying Mark! Where does the time go? I am sure some little imp has come along and stolen all those years because it honestly feels like it was yesterday! Well, maybe not yesterday but certainly not fifteen years ago.



I am sat typing this blog entry at the China Fleet Club in Saltash watching Mark and Charlotte in the swimming pool through the window – so cute, especially when he kisses her nose lol. Ben is in a club here running around the hall like a loony, he will be in the pool in half an hour with the rest of the club so I can watch him from here too. I am typing this in MS Word ready to copy and paste in my blog later because the promised wireless connection in this coffee shop doesn’t seem to be working today – typical!

I have been tagged - twice! Beckie and Gem think that my blog is rockin’ lol – Thanks! This was started by Roberta.



I am going to tag the following five ladies who I think rock:

Mum
Carol
Fiona
Tracie
Sandie


Today saw the second issue of Craft Life and Home magazine being issued. This is a fab magazine that you can read online, there are also paper copies that may be popped into your order at certain scrapbooking stores – did I mention that it is free!! This is my debut issue as part of the design team and I couldn’t be happier to be part of this gorgeous handbag sized magazine – it’s delicious. Click the link in the right hand menu to go and have a look ----->>>>>>>



I had a mad panic today because I just was not organised regarding last day of school cards and presents. I dropped the kids off at school and literally ran home to make two teacher cards, I then went to the shops to buy gifts, back to Mum’s to wrap them and down to school to pick Charlotte up and give her teachers card and present and give Ben (during his break time) his card and present for his teacher – all this by 11am. I am still whacked out from it lol. Anyhow, here are the VERY quickly made cards. The pencils and apple were hand drawn on watercolour paper and painted with my new watercolours that I really love at the moment. The word thanks on both cards was stamped with ‘lil Davis Bonnymede foam stamps.




I did this layout last night. The photos are old ones from our first foreign holiday with the kids in 2004. The pictures are of Ben and Mark walking through Torrevieja Market.



Well, I am going to go and ask someone if the wireless is working here. Mark and Charlotte seem to have left the pool now so they will be up here in a minute. Mark is going to the gym and I am sat beside a fun zone where Charlotte will be going to have some fun. It’s 5pm now and I think when we have finished here Mark is going to get us a Chinese for our tea :o)

I found out last night that I made the Mojo Holder design team. I am so excited, there are some truly great scrapbookers on the team (new and old members) so I can't wait to start creating stuff with them all. I love Mojo Holder because scraplifting someone elses layout is a brilliant way to get yourself motivated if you are stuck in a rut - if you haven't been over there to take part you should have a little look, you won't be disappointed. It really is a great inspo blog which is why I am so happy to be part of it.

Here are the two layouts that I submitted for the DT entry. The requirements were to scraplift two layouts by the current DT members so I have put those layouts on here as well to show you what I scraplifted (Kelly and Jakey please tell me if you don't want your work here).

Fairy Girl

You Rock

It was really welcome news as I spent most of yesterday feeling really bad with a stomach upset, I think it may have had something to do with a curry I had on Saturday night but I am not sure. I feel fine now though :o)

I started to stitch a little design last night that I have been wanting to do for ages. The design is by Judy Dixon of Sew to be Seen Designs - I love her stuff. It is going to be really pretty when it is finished with all the beads stitched on.

Judy Dixon Fairy Dust - Progress So Far

I can't wait to sit down and stitch a bit more tonight. Mind you, I kept stopping last night to play tennis on the Wii with Mark!

I can't believe I forgot to put this layout on my blog. it is a really different style for me but I had great fun doing it and I love the result.

What? No Patterned Paper!

I bought some really cheap watercolour paints the other day (£1.49 in WHSmith) and I decided to have a little play with them. I drew some flowers onto watercolour paper and then painted to my hearts content! It took ages to cut them all out so I was determined to do a layout with them. I also made the photo mats and title out of watercolour paper and painted them. The result is sort of cartoony with the black outlines and I just love how fresh and bright this layout looks.

Loving my watercolours!

Yesterday was a challenge day on SIStv and I really wanted to take part but family stuff happened and I didn't get around to it. I did manage to do this digi layout for the digi challenge in between everything else.

Digi Challenge on SiSTV

Mark was duty on Friday and someone in his mess brought in a Nintendo Wii, Mark was very taken with it!! So much so that we went out and got one yesterday morning and spent the afternoon and half the evening jumping around the lounge playing 'sport'. It is brilliant, so much fun and the kids love it nearly as much as we do lol. I will have to take a video of Ben playing the boxing, it is hilarious to watch. In this house we now have two playstations, a playstation 2, an xBox, a gameboy and a Wii! It's ridiculous.

It's our 15th wedding anniversary on Tuesday! Where does the time go?

As I said Mark brought me some presents back from his wanderings which were presents for our anniversary. Well, true to form, he couldn't wait until Tuesday to give them to me so I got them the day he came home. I love my rings, they are so chunky. They are white gold which a love as I am not really much of a yellow gold girl although I do have some beautiful pieces that I love. Ever since about 1993 Mark and I have wished that we had bought our wedding rings in White Gold and now for our 15th anniversary we finally have them (Mark bought himself one as well). The watch is a Gucci and there is a reason for this, Mark bought me a Gucci watch for the first Christmas we were married and last christmas I tried to get a new battery for it and the old battery had leaked into the movement and rendered my watch irrepairable so he has replaced it! Here are the photographs I promised to post, I took them in Mum's garden yesterday whilst playing around with the macro setting on my camera.

My beautiful rings

My New Gucci Watch

My sister Carol came over so it was nice to see her for a little while. The kids played in the garden with Grandad so Mum, Carol and I actually managed to have a bit of a chat for a change.

When Colin (Carol's dh) came to pick Carol up he brought with him a digital aerial for Mark and I so I am looking forward to Mark getting that set up this weekend. I may actually get a decent picture on the tv in the kitchen which is very important and that is the one that I put on when I scrap. I am going to do some scrapping out there tonight but I will have to make do with the fuzzy picture for now as Mark is duty today so he will not be home until tomorrow morning. I think Charlotte is a bit concerned that the 'big ship' is going to sail away again tonight - I keep telling her Daddy will be home tomorrow but she is a bit unsure about it all.

We are going to the China Fleet Club tomorrow. We became full members last week and it is absolutely fabulous for the kids, so many things for them to do. Mark and I also love it over there and I may even start going to the gym one day. There is a little fun zone for the kids which we took Charlotte to the other day whilst Mark went to the gym, I sat in the coffee shop and read my book with a nice coffee - it was heaven. Whilst I was there I noticed that they have wireless internet connection in the coffee shop so when we go tomorrow I am going to take the laptop and browse blogs and forums for an hour or so. When we were living in Hong Kong in 1992/3 we were invited to the closing down party of the China Fleet Club in Hong Kong along with all the rest of the Royal Navy there at the time. It was a great night and the proceeds from the sale of the Hong Kong Fleet Club financed the China Fleet Club that we now attend in Saltash, Cornwall.

China Fleet Club Hong Kong - 1950's

I have to pick Ben up from school in about three mins so this is a quickie post with a couple of layouts.

This layout of Ben 'The King that never was' tells how he refused to go on stage in his first school play!



This is just a layout of Charlotte at my desk. I love this picture.



Right, I had better go.......

Friday was a good day!! Mark came home from deployment and we all went down to the dockyard to watch the ship come in and collect him. The weather was horrendous and we all looked like drowned rats by the time Mark got off the ship but who cares he is home now and that is the main thing.

Whilst we were waiting Charlotte got interviewed by the BBC and had her photo taken by the local paper so that was exciting. However, neither made it into the media which was a shame. When the reporter was filming Charlotte she asked her what was the first thing she was going to say to him and Charlotte said 'I lub you Daddy' it was so cute.

I got a few (not so great) photos of the ship coming in and even though we were not sure which person was Mark as the ship was coming in I did manage to get a photo of him waving :o)







We came home and Mark dished out all the presents so we had very happy children. Also a very happy Mummy! Mark has brought home a new wedding and engagement ring for me, they are gorgeous. I haven't taken any photos yet but I will post them when I do. He also bought me a Gucci watch which is gorgeous and some shoes, perfume, jeans and camera cases - talk about spoiled and everything fits perfectly!

On Saturday we went into town and then on to Central Park to play baseball and have a general run around. I was shattered last night and spent most of the evening with Mark watching films but missing them because I was falling asleep lol.

Charlotte having a little sulk!





Mark has just taken Ben over to the driving range and I am going to pop over to see Mum with Charlotte because she hasn't left Mark alone since he got home and I think seeing Nanny will keep her happy for a while whilst Daddy has left her side!!

I wanted some way to store my 6 x 12 layouts. Well, I had only done one 6 x 12 layout but I wanted to make an album and I thought that this would be as good a size to make as any. So, from this:

The Supplies

I made this:

The Album

The Inside

The inside of the album is has strips of 3 x 12 inch card with holes punched in them so that the layout can be stuck straight to the card and is then in the album and the pages can be turned. I wasn't worried about page protectors or anything like that because I just want to use the 6 x 12 size for quick layouts or layouts where I want to try something out, you know what I mean. Anyway, I set out to achieve this tonight and I did.

Just showing how I am attaching the layouts

Also, I had to do a quick 6 x 12 layout to put in the album so that there was more than one layout in there so I did the All About Eve challenge to scrap your age - eeeeek.

Quickie Layout

I managed to get quite a bit done tonight considering I was yapping to the lovely Kirsty until about 8.30pm. She kindly remembered that her daughters now unwanted cuddly toy is the same as my daughters beloved and ragged cuddly toy and is going to send it to me as a spare (although I am sure it will be loved together with the current one!). The toys were both bought in Spain so I cannot get a spare, I had noticed it on Kirsty's blog in February and she remembered it and got in touch - I am flabergasted!! Thank you Kirsty, Charlotte is going to be beside herself with joy!

Congratulations to Beckie Dreyer and Kimmy Sonksen for making the Rusty Pickle DT!!!

Sooo excited that Mark comes home on Friday - it can't get here quick enough.

I just popped over the Tracie's blog and she had this little quiz on there. Apparently my soul is purple.... very strange as that is my favourite colour (well one of them lol).

What color is your soul painted? Purple Your soul is painted the color purple, which embodies the characteristics of sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, nobility, mystery, enlightenment, arrogance, gaudiness, mourning, confusion, pride, delicacy, power, meditation, religion, and ambition. Purple falls under the element of Earth, and was once a European symbol of royalty; today it symbolizes the divine. Click Here to Take This Quiz

Quizzes and Personality Tests

That is what is happening around here at the moment! But this time next week Mark will be home and life will be much more fun.

I haven't even done any scrapping for a few days, I just can't get motivated. I am determined to do some today because I made some gorgeous little felt flowers the other day which just need to be used on a lo. I have to find a photograph though.

Mum is still poorly but she is getting better.

The kids are currently in the hallway with a couple of those massive balloons and it is driving me mad. They are not being naughty, they are having great fun but I get absolutely driven mad by the noise of the balloons being banged around and their screeching!! Me thinks they will be confiscated in about 10 mins for a little while so that I can think straight!

We had a school fair yesterday - hence the balloons. Nightmare, why do kids always want more, more, more. I lasted 40 minutes at the fair because although they got two goes on the bouncy castle (amid massive tears from Charlotte for various reasons, none of which warranted any tears), a bun from the cake stall and a lollipop, a go on the win some bubbles thing and a massive balloon they weren't happy. They just wanted everything and went mad when I said no so I went home! Great fun, not. It was just hard to deal with at the same time as dealing with another problem in the school playground, that of the girl who was my friend before I moved to Mullion being there with her new friend (who she hated and bitched about pre-mullion). It has been a nightmare since I got back as she has been so rude and obnoxious to me and I just don't want anything to do with her now. We talk, it's civilised but quite frankly I would rather pretend she doesn't exist after the treatment I have had from her. Honestly, She is acting like we are 12. This is very difficult as Charlotte is best friends with her little girl. So you can see, I would rather have not gone to the fair at all, and I wish I hadn't.

On a better note, the mirrors are up! Yippeeee. We only had to wait 6 months for them to be delivered.

Yay, mirrors!!!

Right, off to have a better day than yesterday and forget about bitching playground Mums. I am a nice person, perhaps that is the problem.

My mum is poorly! I took her to the doctors yesterday and he said it was a virus. It has hit her hard and she was up being sick in the night and can hardly talk, lift her head today so pop over to her blog and wish her well!

I haven't got anything to say really lol. Just worried about Mum and trying to keep the kids in line! I did this layout a couple of days ago:



I am going to sit and watch the tv tonight and make some little flowers for a layout I have in mind :) I am having a computer free evening (Shock Horror!).