Dolly's Dreamings

What a change

Was it really only yesterday that I was moaning about the rotten weather? Well today it has been fab. We sat in the garden, we went for a drive with the roof down. Lovely. You'd almost think it was summer.

My diet is going well and I am thrilled that I am losing weight already. I confess to being hungry mind! And the amount of water I am drinking means I am close friends with the loo. But most important of all I am re-educating my way of thinking not to go for the endless snack. Nice as they are - they are the killers. And what is the odd two minutes of pleasure compared to a thinner body! mmmm - maybe not the right time for me to think of that one!

I have been scrapping but DT stuff so I can't share that yet. But I can share soemthing else I made for Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts earlier this month.

I had had this little clipbaord for ages and it was begging to be prettied up. So I prettied it.

I used lots of the June Bug papers and embellishments that Karen sent and it looks so cute now.

These are two cards I made with the same awesome kit she sent.

The little doggy was cute he really didn't need anything adding to him.

The pinwheel card was such fun to make and I had great fun deciding how I could make the vase curved.

I have exciting news today as well.

I have been asked to be a guest on Lyndsay Riches creative team this month. I am thrilled she asked  me and I am so looking forward to creating.

And there is more good news on that front. Her store is at Scrap Orchard and they have a sale and some of her fab kits are in it.

FREE class page and sketch

What a miserable Sunday - typical British Bank Holiday weather.

I hope this class and sketch brightens your day a little.

The class page has two examples - one digital and one paper and also a sketch to work with as well.

Only the paper page is shown here.

Please remember that these classes are provided free because I like making them, but please don't share them with others or call them your own. I would also love to know what you think of them and to see what you create with them if possible.

You can download the PDF class HERE

I forgot to upload my picture of the day yesterday so here it is

Nij fitted a garage door opener the day after we moved in here. that was 20 years ago and last week it finally died. So he bought a new one and fitted it yesterday. He knows that if I have to get out of the car to open the garage, get back in etc I would never bother doing it. Electric is the way to go.

Today we went to Upton House Craft fair. As it seemed a shame to be there for just the 10 minutes it took to go round the fair  (seriously .... I kid you not) we also went for a walk in the gloom of a drizzly day so that is my photo for today.

Now - do I sound a bit depressed? really?

Yup - that is the effect of not only a drizzly (and freezing cold I might add) day but also of my diet.

I am on a day three low. Not a happy bunny today. I should be happy as I have lost some weight (not sharing how much till I have done a whole week) but I miss nice things to eat. I truly do.

Lucky with my friends

I often talk about Jakki (and if she ever visited she'd know .... yest that was a dig matey!!!!) but I really am very lucky to have such a supportive friend.

We don't always agree about things but we do always support each other no matter what, and that is rare, I can tell you.

We share much of the same sense of humour, many of the same interests and lots of secrets.

The page that is here is one I made for ATDML last month and hadn't uploaded it. I had forgotten until today when I was busy making the new DT pages for Mel and Jill.

The scary thing is how long we have been friends for. 30 years. How can that be possible?

I mean we are scarecly more than 30!!!!! We actually met at university .... but clearly we must have been there years before we were meant to be LOL.

 I stamped the butterflies with a Basic Grey stamp and used water colour pencils to colour them to match the page. They are fixed on with foam pads to give lots of dimension.

I haven't taken my photo of the day yet - will update when I have.

If you go down to the woods today

Well you might have met us in the woods.

We went for a lovely walk in Delph Woods this morning after a brief trip to Wimborne Market where I bought a gorgeous cardigan (will take a photo another day for a POD)

My picture of the day is of Nij on the rope swing across the stream.

Sadly the ones of him swinging didn't really come out as the light was very odd - sort of dappled and variable. But I have to say i kind of like the picture as it is.

Still on a wooded - or outdoor theme - I have finished my final page of my Go To Press class.

The theme today was peace and I knew just what I wanted to scrap (although I was tempted just to scrap my bed which is the only place I get peace from the CFH) Poole Park is my happy place - my refuge from bistle - a place to just sit and think. So it had to be a picture of the park.

I love this spot most of all - it is away from the main part of the park and one day I will have my very own bench there. I know that sounds morbid and I truly don't think of it as morbid at all,but I have said that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil I don't want a gravestone etc. I want a bench at poole Park so other people can sit and enjoy what i have always enjoyed. Maybe it will become someone else's happy place.

I used the printables from the class, though just didn't want to print on t shirt paper and iron it on.

It took me ages to cut the large scallop border and it is not terribly even, but it was fun trying.

Still on a wild outdoor theme Dawn Inskip has a new kit released today at Pickleberrypop. It is called wild adventure and like all of her kits it is stuffed full of things to use including a whole load of cute doodled outdoor critters.

I  made two pages and one is this page about Canada.

We saw such a range of wildlife, some of which we managed to photograph like the ground squirrels, chipmunks, moose, elk, deer and, best of all, the bear. I hadn't realised how hard it was to see bear in the Rockies. I thought they were everywhere but actually there had been such a good programme to keep them away from places where people are that it is hard to see them. We spoke to lots of locals who had lived there years and had never seen a bear. So we were very very lucky that one sauntered out in front of us on the road on our last day. It was amazing.

The other page I made with the kit was showin my little CFH playing in their furry tunnel, which they love.

They hide, play chase, hide toys in it and it keeps them quiet for a little while.

Exciting postal goodies

Nij and I had just popped out and when we came home a car was on the drive.  It was a lady trying to deliver a parcel. I am so glad we were there.

It was my Cosmo Cricket set from QVC (Tuesday was Craft Day and Nij really shouldn't have left me alone LOL) I bought it because I like Cosmo and it is stuffed .... and I mean stuffed .... with all sorts of goodies.

There are more than a dozen alphabets (actually quite a few more than a dozen) loads of chipboard, 48 double sided papers, 2 albums and a slip case, ribbons and brads and foam pads and magnets and frames and cards and envelopes and embellishments and chipbaord and more chipboard and it is wonderful.

You can't really see it but it had to be my photo of the day.

I made my penuntimate page for my Go To Press class today. The theme was fashion and I don't really do fashion. I am very old fashioned in my dress I guess. Size doesn't help - more ont  hat later.  I am not into accessories or make up so I decided to go with home decor fashion and scrapped a page about some of the finishing touches I put to the bedroom and bathroom.

The task was to produce some tape borders so I made my own to match the page and printed it on transparencies. It was really easy to do. I made the borders in Elements using digital elements from kits and then printed it onto ink jet transparency sheets. I then ran them through a xyron and they acted just like the decorated sticky tape.

I am actually very pleased to have scrapped something of the bedroom and bathroom as it was such a huge thing and I haven't scrapped any of it yet.

Fiki is going through a funny stage again. He has been hiding under the sofa pretty much all the time for the past 2 days. Something has obviously freaked him out. We have no idea what but he is all nervy. Even when he does come out he freezes and stares at the door as if afraid something is going to come and get him. I hate to see him like this - poor thing. He also has a sore by his ear which i am trying to be calm about but it looks awfully like the sores Kira had when she developed her allergies. I am trying not to think about it too much. All I need now is a third allergic cat ... I already have two of those.

Finally I have re-evaluated my life and I need to take charge of my body. I am going on a proper serious grown up diet starting tomorrow. I need to loose A LOT of weight ....  maybe as much as 5 stone. Wish me luck.

Grotty old day

It's been miserable weather here today - so miserabe that Speedway has just been called off and Nij has a night off.

I saw my MIL today and had to fight back the tears. She looked so frail and the bottom half of her face and jaw is completely purple. Both hands are black and blue, her ear was full of dried blood, she has lost two fillings and can only eat soft food for a week. And all of this for an 84 year old very fragile lady.

But she is a fighter and set off to America to visit her other son today. I am full of admiration for her.

I made my next page for my Shimelle Go To Press project. The topic today was friends.

No surprise who featured her then LOL

Jakki of course. It was hard to find pictures of the two of us I have not scrapped but found a couple of scrapping related ones. We actually have very few pictures of us together other than in fancy dress.

I also had fun today making the cover for my Learn Something New Everyday class which starts in september.

It is very different for me. They are thick chipboard covers and I used daisy Bucket papers in shades I don't normally use. i mean ..... orange! I don't 'do' orange, but I love this.

It doesn't look much like a book as I don't plan on binding it all till it completely finished. I hate pages that are not completely covered so it will get bound last thing. But you can see I have already punched the holes ready.

Having had a love hate relationship with the original bind it all, I have to say I love my little pink wonder. It takes much thicker stuff and I have far more confidence with it now. Because the bling on the cover didn't show when scanned I had to take a picture of it, so it is also my photo of the day today.

An odd sort of day

It has seemed very strange here today as I have been without Nigel for the first time in a long time.

I hadn't realised quite how much I would miss him. It was horrible.

He has spent the day at the hospital with his Mom. She had another fall yesterday and was taken to A and E by ambulance. Nij picked her up but had to take her back today and they went from pillar to post and even to two different hospitals.

She fell on her face (a worry in itself as it is unusual and it is possible she blacked out like she did two years ago and this is what caused her to fall) and has a small fracture in her jaw, More cause for concern was that she was bleeding from her ear. In light of the fact she is due to fly to America tomorrow to stay with my brother-in-law this was all a great concern.

They have x rayed and she has seen specialists and they have cleared her for flying. She has chipped a couple of teeth, is black and blue, has a swollen lip and the ear bleeding was a small tear int he ear (thankfully nothing like we feared that is was a skull fracture or something) She is 83 and usually very sprightly and agile but this is another set back after quite a difficult few months.

We can now only hope that the journey to Boston goes well and that a holiday with Jim restores her.

I occupied my time scrapping and did my next page for the Go To Press class. I have to say it is one of my favourites in the album so far.  The task was to print patterned paper and use it as paper and embellishments and the theme was a perfect  moment.

The photos were taken on a very impromptu day out to Ringstead bay.

we had never been before and I just love even the sound of the name. It sounds straight out of Famous Five.

 

It is a lovely drive to the beach and a beautiful walk. I am not a great beach lover in the summer but I adore the beach in the winter and this was a gorgeous day.

 

We snapped photos, we played Dare at the water's edge, we walked, we chatted, we cuddled and we just had one of those perfect moments.

 

 

I love the soft muted colours and I am quite chuffed with the title which was a Jessica Sprague digital word art set that I hand cut.

 

My photo of the day today was washing LOL

It has been a gorgeous day and Nigel's socks looked fab against the blue sky

 

And yes - he is an Angels fan!

Indulgence

The theme of my page today - as per the prompt - is indulgence.

Now goodness knows I like to indulge. In all sorts of things.

Shimelle's page was cupcakes - and i do attest to the fact she is the cupcake queen and her cakes are delicious - but I am not a cupcake girl so veered off and did my own things.

I love strawberries - but I confess to being very very choosy about them. I like English strawberries. No others seem to taste the same - so sweet and full of flavour. Their season is short lived and so I indulge in as many as I can whilst I can.

And they are healthy.

I don't put sugar on - just love the fruit.

And the cream - well that is just for decoration LOL (OK so I have cream witht hem a lot of the time! But it was called indulgence!!!)

I didn't have dotted swiss cardstock - or at least not any I was prepared to cut up LOL - so I printed the strawberries on white card and ran them and some paper through a cuttlebug using a dotty embossing folder. Then I sanded them.

My picture of the day is of gorgeous sparkling mineral water. It is about the only thing I drink these days (apart from the wine of course)

Bournemouth Air Festival Finale

Having spent the past three days watching glimpses of the festival we saw it all today.

We set off early to Bournemouth University (sorry - no local can say that without laughing ... it is at Wallisdown and for years was the Wally Poly before it gained its esteemed university status) and the park and ride.

The air festival is free but getting into Bournemouth anywhere near and parking is rarer than hen's teeth so the park and ride is sensible and very well organised.

We were equipped with chairs, a cool bag stuffed full, cameras and, most of all plenty of sun screen.

One of the first things to fly was the air ambulance.

 

Thankfully it was display only and not needed.

We took our place exactly where we had been last year, on the cliff top by a speaker - fab view.

There was a royal marines beach assault which was brilliant to watch.

The armada of boats grew and grew and the sun was full on.

We saw so many wonderful planes and displays. Many are not featured here -I just chose a few of our favourites.

The Lancaster was a big hit

 

and they also flew a spitfire and mustang

and a Flying Fortress in Memphis Belle colours

The chinook flew and did things no helicopter should be able to do.

The blades and the Yakovlevs were awesome.

 

 

There were wing walkers

 

 

The Red Bull Matadors

 

 

 

and then the big three we had allbeen waiting for at the end of the festival.

The Typhoon (I have lots of pictures of where the Typhoon had just been LOL and a couple of teeny images in softfocus. Boy is that baby fast and loud!)

My favourite, the beautiful, special, unique and saved Vulcan, being flown by the pilot who flew her in the Falklands

 

 

 

 

And the final act - which sadly was a little spoilt by a lot of low cloud so they had to do a flat display and finish it early ... The Red Arrows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Watching from the cliff gave the perfect view, the perfect height and what an awesome day.

 

I am so sorry I forgot to do a class this week. Think how much more you will look forward to it next week LOL

 

 

 

 

 

Decorated clock and an air show

I want to share a clock I decorated a while ago for Charmed cards and Crafts Design team.

Karen sent me the June Bug range of Basic Grey to work with and it was an awesome set of papers and embellishments.

There was such a mix in there from real bright colours that just popped and were so lush to really subtle tones.

I saw the blues and knew I wanted to use them for something for the new room. I had a clock I had bought way back in the january sales with a view to decorating it. I can't remember if it was from the Range or Dunelm .... I do tend to be a regular visitor to both LOL. It was only a couple of pounds and was begging to be decorated.

I used papers from the June Bug Range, I also used Creative Imaginations rub ons, lots of little crystals to make it sparkle and Technique Tuesday stamps.

The flowers were stamped with a Hero Arts stamp onto plain blue paper from the collection and then I used my water colour pencils to colour and shade them.

I am really pleased with it and it looks fab in the bedroom.

The Bournemouth Air Festval is on at the moment and it is always such a wonderful event and all the more amazing because it s free. 

Last night we went into Bournemouth for a special show that wasn't free. 

It was organised by the Round Table Children's Wish organisation and was an evening with the Red Arrows. 

It took place in the theatre at the end of the pier and everything was for charity. The Theatre was leant for free and the Red Arrows gave their time for free and so all of the proceeds from the ticket sales went to the chairty.

There were two pilots there for the evening - red 2 and red 7 - and they gave a really informative talk, showed films and answered questions. It was a fascinating insight into the lives of the most daring of men in their flying machines.

So my photo of the day yesterday was a very poor picture of them on stage.

I am also adding a picture of the baloons in the Lower gardens which were part of the air show and looked great at night as we walked home.

My photo of today is of a really nice decorated pavement in Bournemouth Squaremade up of lots of stones into fish mosaics. pretty neat.