Carry On Scrapping....

Parental Visitation and Father's Day...

This weekend was a whirlwind of DIY and city drives. Ma and Pa were down to visit, and this neatly coincided with Father's Day. My dad is a dab hand at putting up shelves, fixing things and generally making himself useful, so I'd saved up a few jobs for him. I *can* do it, but he has a better drill than me, and it's fun working with him anyway. TheChap isn't quite as gifted in the DIY department.... And he conveniently managed to be away this weekend anyway.

Anyway - the house is looking amazing, and Dad did sterling work. So after a meal in a local Turkish restaurant, I took them on a drive round London. They love doing this. This time the route was East London, The City, West End, Bloomsbury, The river, Westminster and home. Fab.

This morning, a few more jobs, with a Father's Day card as reward....

Quite pleased with it actually, and I cheated and made an identical one for my Father in Law. Why are mens cards *so* difficult?!

Rounded off with a trip to the Chelsea Physic Garden, and a drive back via some stops around Westminster - it's been a fabulous weekend.

The Good Life...

This weekend has been sucked up with planting and primping the garden. I'd already planted potatoes and onions a couple of months ago, and they've gone simply INSANE.

Now, I'm the proud planter of 6 varieties of tomato, a sweet pepper, and my friend Uschi has provided me with a spare summer squash plant, a courgette plant, dwarf peas and sweetcorn. 

I'll have a veritable banquet of veg, all being well. 

And the tomatoes - 6 heritage varieties. Lovely lovely.

And the corn is there at the bottom. I've left some space for some runner beans (when I can get some plants) and then I'm sorted. 

One day, I'll get myself a greenhouse so I can bring stuff on from seed. And then I should get some chickens. Hmm.... 

Now that's done, I'm going to get back to scrapping!

Busy couple of weeks...

Phew! 

Last weekend, I was up in Derby at my parents, leaving Himself at home almost crippled with pain with a freshly diagnosed slipped disc. Poor thing. Sadly, there is not a lot for me to do to help him (apart from assisting with sock donning!), so I was shooed off to spend a couple of nights with Ma and Pa. 

Well... more Ma than Pa really, as we spent the weekend attacking the Donna Downey Fabric Album we both bought when we were in Florida.

It's not finished yet - when it is, I'll put the results here. I'm pleased with the progress though!

This week was a blur of work, more work, chores, sorting all my layouts into American Crafts albums (yay!) and erm.... getting a pedicure. I adore pedicures. I'm not your archetypal girly girl, and makeup mostly leaves me looking bemused, and a bit stupid. But a spa pedicure? Oh my. They are just too delicious. My pal T and I are something of experts on them now, and have tried many in the North London (and Tooting!) area. But we've decided that the best are Kats Klaws (gotta love that name) on Turnpike Lane. A handy stroll from home... 

Anyway, this time I opted for turquoise toes, and love it! 

In, fact I love it so much, I've spent last night doing a layout. About my feet. 

Hmmm. Ah well - here it is.

And the statutory gratuitous detail shots....

 

It was really good fun actually! Using old stash (MOD paper, and some Skate Shoppe BG), and a truck load of crystal things, flowers, chipboard things, my first ever Thickers use, brads and what's that? Yes... doodling and my actual handwriting. Holy crap. It was also a lovely time to get my sewing machine out and do some stitching. Always fun.

I don't often do single page layouts, and I forget how much I like it! 

And The Mother In Law's birthday is on Wednesday, so used the layout as inspiration for the card:

I love using leftovers! And I got to use my lovely new Circle Cookie Cutters on my bargainous QK Revolution. My, but it's easy to use. I've fallen back in love with Quickutz.

Now.... what to do next..... 

Kx

Utter chaos....

When I came to put away recent layouts, I realised what a mess my albums were in. There was no order to them, and they were nonsensical. Some of my postbound albums were also not *that* great quality, and weren't standing the test of time. So a Plan was formed...

And chaos now reigns. All my layouts were emptied from albums, and stacked by theme (Nephew and Nieces, Family, M&K, Landscape/Gardens etc etc) and then D Ring albums are to be utilised.

I already have a couple of D-Ring albums, but a few more are required. So, an online shopping trip is on the cards. What a shame!...

A taste of Italy...

Finally I've got round to scrapping some photos from our trip to Tuscany last summer. It's always a nice change to use 8.5x11, and it fitted these photos nicely. As per usual, I took bloody thousands of shots of architectural details and buildings in general. So this layout is a small selection of some more recognisable landmarks in all the major towns we visited.

I'm really pleased to have started using my set of Periphery papers, which have sat untouched for about a year. I've got the bug now, and will be scrapping a few more photos from the Tuscany trip with more Periphery stuff, I think...

Send in the clowns...

Since it was the Bank Holiday, I sat down and did some scrapping. Unfortunately, this meant sorting out the piles of stuff on the sofa before anything could be done... Still - all done now, and recent purchases from the US have been tucked away, and a bit of a mental stocktake has been done.

But nevertheless, scrapping WAS done! Exactly a year ago to the day, I was at my pal Sian's wedding in Ludlow. So, what better time to wheel out the silly photos of me and my friends at the reception.

Materials: Bo-Bunny Paper (red), Creative Imaginations Paper (Cream), Making memories journal paper. Prima flowers, K&Co brads. Cardstock. AL Charisma font.

Nice to use that BoBunny paper that's been kicking a while for a while, and that cream Creative Impressions shaped paper is just lovely (a recent US purchase!). After the recent enormo-sort of my scrap stuff, I've fallen back in love with my stash, and am determined to use it...

Now, I have to make a birthday card and I've got Plans for another layout....

A little more choke and she'll start...

OK. I'll hold my hands up and declare myself the worlds worst person at updating a blog. 

2 years is a little long. So - fresh new start at blogging for me! I'm going to promise once a week at least. Feel free to kick me up the arse if I don't.

Has anything changed since my last post? Yes and no! Still happily married, the house purchase fell through and apart (phew, quite frankly), I changed job twice, and life has generally been content and super. I've got fatter, but I'm blaming that on contentment. I like pie, what can I say?

Anyhoo... Lots of stuff to upload, but now it's half eleven, and I need to go to my basket.

But in the meantime, here's Him and me, looking quite simple...

And me and my pal T at a party on Saturday. It was a 30s theme party. She went as Ollie Hardy (her fiance was Stan Laurel) and I went as Tallulah the Speakeasy Floozy. 

This photo MUST be scrapped, and is definitely on the cards for a project this coming weekend...

Right - bedtime. I've turned into a lightweight. No more 2 am scrapping exploits for me. No, it's tucked in bed with my cocoa by 11.30 usually. I'm running late now...

Kx

Success!

Hurray!

We found a flat, and put an offer in. And it's been accepted! It's a 3-bed place (which we never really dreamt of finding) - so Bedroom 3 is going to be annexed by my scrapping things pronto! It's ground floor - with a small garden/patio at the back, 2 BIG double bedrooms, a massive reception room...

It needs some work doing to it, but the potential is huge. As is the flat. It's all very exciting, and I have to be prised away from the Ikea kitchen planner these days.

Not the worlds most exciting photo, but that's hopefully going to be our new home! Well... the ground floor bit anyway...

Just waiting on the survey results now. Please chew your nails in synch with me.

Kx

Plans, plans, plans, plans....

Ach, life is boring if you having got different plates spinning at any one time!

Kirsty's Florida Crop Mk II is going ahead this November. We had such a fabulous time last May, that I really couldn't NOT do it again. I have such enormous fun planning and arranging it all, that I will keep doing them whilst I have takers!
So far - flights are booked, villa is booked and I am trying to beat down prices on car (well... Van!) rental. Next stop is arranging the crops, lessons and shopping...

Anyway... we will be staying in Terra Verde on Poinciana in a MASSIVE 7 bedroom villa... Just a wee sneaky peek for those going -

 

Check out the spa pool Natty! I can *just* see us floating about with our Bailey's again....

House purchasing: Waiting to hear about a very hefty mortgage, as soon as we hear, I think we will be hitting the estate agents of North London with a vengeance. Properties go so damn quickly, and more worryingly, for the asking price or above. It's a bunfight out there... I saw the perfect place on a website the other day - 2 beds and a study - utterly perfect. Sold - of course - but at least we know stuff is out there.

I suppose my other plates spinnning are more like teaplates... decorative and not that practical...

A fair few scrapping projects on the go currently - most importantly is a gift for my pal Helen's birthday on Thursday. A sneaky transfer of some photo files from her other half and I am good to go. And I am FINALLY using an entire room of Chatterbox paper. Heavens! I will photograph it before I pass it on.

Unlike the engagement present I made for my pals Sian and Reg. They loved their layout and album (blank and empty for Sian to start scrapping!) but I failed to photograph it. I'm an eejit!

I also have plans for a birthday pressie another pal. Her birthday is AGES away, but still... the cogs are turning.

Kx

My favourite photo...

A picture tells a thousand words....

It just sums up our relationship so well. And possibly is my favourite photo of the wedding. I'd love to scrap it, and then submit it to say, CK, for - as Michael says - "Sh*ts and Giggles".
I'm so evil.

We met with Bob the IFA Mortgage Man last night, and are going to take the big scary step of buying a flat in London. Obscenely expensive, but needs to be done. We were pleasantly surprised at the amount we could borrow - although we are NOT going to break the high Stamp Duty mark. I just can't do it! It's too damn scary!

So - for the next few months, we shall be walking through the minefield of house purchasing.