Dolly's Dreamings

FREE class - Totally Distressed

Here is another free class for you and this one is loaded with different techniques which you may or may not have tried.

One thing is for sure .... it is all very distressing!

That's the paper and elements, not the class of course.

The class would suit any theme and is about different techniques not the way the page is arranged so go on, download it and have a go.

If you download the class I would love to know what you think - just leave a comment here on the blog. Please tell your friends they too can download it totally for free.

You can download it HERE

Here at Scrapfever

Well, the lurgy abated a little and I made it here to Latimer - lovely as ever.

On the way we visited Cliveden which was lovely - the water garden especially.

Will upload photos properly later once I have sorted them and when I have power. I am sat in the crop room with no power supply and I am almost out of battery.

But here are two - one of the water garden and one of me in my smaller jeans

Little kitty key charm

Well, I climbed out of my sick bed and packed (never a nice job) for Scrapfever.

Tote packed, case packed and most ridiculously of all, food packed. I ask you - going to a nice hotel with great food and taking my own. How crazy is that!

Anyway - tis done and I am all ready.

When i was packing my tote I found a little key ring charm I bought last time at Scrapfever and hadn't done anything with it. I decided to rectify it. It was very quick and simple but looks cute on the tote and so much prettier than it did in just chipboard.

I also finally finished my proper up to date 365 pages. Yesterday was the end of week 43 and so week 43 page is now done, printed and in the album.

I have to say i am loving the album, looking back on it all. A whole year.

However, I was a little non-plussed when Nij said he loved it so much he hoped I'd do another one next year! Nooooooooo!

Bit of a non day

Today has sort of passed by in a bit of a blur.

Most of it has been spent in bed - sleeping, sneezing, coughing and being generally miserable and moany!

My temperature has finally come down to 38 which I am pleased about. My weight, however, is another matter. it is NOT falling according to our sclaes (although according to the wii I have lost 2 lb int he last 4 days) I think it is hanging around as apparently you need more calories when you are ill and so my body is probably in starvation mode now. We'll see.

I did manage to make another 365 page which means I am now up to date ... or at least i was LOL. As my week ends on a wednesday and I have just taken today's picture I now have another week to make to catch up.

Hey ho - life never was meant to be simple.

I have two photos of the day to add, yesterday at Clarks Village and today - my trusty thermometer!

What an exciting life I lead eh!

I shopped till I dropped .... quite literally

Today held a lot of promise.

It really did.

I am not sure how many of you know Clarke's Shopping Village in Street in deepest Somerset. Well it is fab. we have been going for years and years, from when there was very little there other than Clarke's. Now it is huge with loads of stores and I love visiting. we go at least once a year.

I had a lousy night with little sleep as I coughed and coughed and coughed. Then this morning someone turned my nose into a tap.

I struggled on. we managed to add to our Denby dinner service and I bought new per Una jeans from  the M and S outlet (£12 .... bargain) a t shirt, a new skirt and a couple of slinky tight fitting tops. But then enough was enough. I was whacked. My temperature is sky high, I ache everywhere and I am fed  up of being hill every holiday. I need to get good and recovered for ScrapFever on Friday.

The page here is one of my weekly pages - almost up to date again.

It's about all I can manage.

95%

OK - maybe not even 95%

Maybe only 75%

Total health value I mean.

Why is it that teachers are so often hit with being poorly in school holidays. I am figuring it is because term is so hard that adrenalin keeps you going and then when it is time to relax the body goes into total collapse.

Had a nasty tickly cough yesterday, which is worse today, and was very very chilled. Now I have a high temperature, a throbbing head and a nasty cold brewing nicely. Fabulous!

Managed a walk across the heath this morning in the warm sunlight - just to get to the chemist really.  I took a photo of the brick path. This is an anomaly that runs across the end of the heath connecting different developments and it makes a beautiful walk even though it is not on the heath proper as it were.

I managed a bit of digi scrapping - just a quick picture of my little chap at his most adorable.

and apart from that I have been snoozing in bed, trying to keep warm and stop my head pounding.

Oh, and thanks to Sara I found out the field of poppies I saw yesterday were quite famous.  Take a look HERE   and HERE

Wonderful Westonbirt

 
We have had the most wonderful day out today.

Rather cold and I am still chilled through, but wonderful.

Someone recommended we went to Westonbirt if we wanted to see fall colours and boy were they right.

We set off really early - the clocks going back helped us a lot - and had a real gift on the way.

We went the top road to Shaftesbury and saw the most amazingly gorgeous poppy field literally radiant in the early morning sun. I love poppies and this was gorgeous. - All I needed was a box of watercolours and a flake!

 
  

 

We had a few showers at Westonbirt and it was very very cold, but the colours were incredible. The camera seemed to struggle they were so bright. Siome of them look to bright to be real ... but I promise .... they were awesome.

It truly was an amazing sight.

No scrapping pages from me today .... I mean how could anything anyone creates compare with God's praintbrush over the lanscape at Autumn!

One final bit of news - last night we went to see the last night of the Southampton performances of Sound Of Music.

It was fabulous - really well done, terrific staging and Connie Fisher, who I think really is one of the nation's sweethearts, was superb as everyone knew she would be.

Three wise monkeys

This was one of those photos that, as soon as you took it, you wanted to scrap.

I just knew I would have fun with it.

The picture was taken when Jakki, Gary, Nij and I went for a lovely evening walk and reminds me of the really nice evening we had.

I made it for one of my design team pages at A Trip Down Memory Lane last month.

I loved making the paper flowers to go with it - all scruffy and roughed up.

 I have been making DT pages today as well - not that I can share them yet - and have also been shopping.

Having been a 'blob' for more years than I care to remember, and always hating myself in whatever I wore, I went out today feeling good about myself. I am sure I still looked like a blob to most people, but I had smaller tighter jeans on that showed my legs are much thinner (yes still reminiscent of tree trunks but perhaps a scots pine now rather than a giant sequoia) .

We had a bit of a clothes fest whilst out with Nigel buying three new sewatshirts and two new pairs of skinny jeans that he looks FAB in and I got 2 blouses, 2 t shirts, a cardigan and a long sleeved top. All of them very different to things I usually wear and also smaller!

I have also 'autumnised' (now that is a real George Bush phrase) my blog.

I ate my first real food in 8 weeks last night - we went to Pizza Express for Nigel's birthday. I had promised fromt he oitset that I would and was very very nervous about it. It was fine. I managed most of my pizza - and boy was it delicious - and I am back in ketosis again. I did have a headache this morning - a carbs overdose I think.

The two photos are from Thursday (a rainbow outside the lounge window) and the birthday boy from yesterday (not a fab picture actually)

Happy Birthday Nigel

This is a special blog post because it is dedicated to a very special man. My darling husband Nigel.

If you have popped in for a dose of craft I am sorry - today is not the day. I do always try and have something crafty on my blog, but it is not always possible and, at the end of the day, it is my blog and it serves the need I have to do something each day. And today I want to write a tribute to Nigel.

I am really one of the lucjiest people alive because I got to marry my soul mate. I married my best friend and someone who, too put not too fine a point on, I had fancied for years.

I met Nij when I was just 15 and we quickly became good friends .... and got engaged to other people!  We finally realised we needed to be together and started dating in 1983 and married in 1986 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nigel has been the most important influence in my life and apart from being someone I still fancy (and his new washboard tummy makes it even better) he is someone I not only trust 100% but also a person I admire, respect and aspire to be like. He never speaks ill of others, he is always fair and calm and understanding, (and it drives me mad as hell sometimes) he has the patience of a saint (just as well as I am not easy to be with at times) and he is totally and utterly wonderful. He can always see the good and the positive in any situation and has a very balanced view on everything. However, if he believes passionately in something there is no stopping him. Nothing is too much trouble for him and he is so kind to everyone he ever encounters. He has an incredible sense of humour and we spend a lot of our time together laughing and giggling like a pair of kids. He also has amazing courage and great faith which never wavers.

He has had a bit of a tough time in the past year. His job, which he always loved and took great pride in, soured and became utterly horrible and miserable, culminating in his redundancy and the subsequent closure of the company after he left. He has dealt well with that dramatic change in his situation and, as ever, looks for the positives and tries to remain upbeat about it all. He had the world's worst case of chickenpox this year and also had to deal with a lot of stress. But he works through it and always manages to come out the other side with a smile and the view that he has learnt something.

If I am making him sound like a saint that is becasue, in my eyes at least, he is. He is a much better person than I could ever hope to be and than anyone else I have ever met and I thank God every day for blessing my life by having him in it.

As we mark another year, my darling, I wish you a wonderful birthday and pray that you receive the blessings you so richly deserve.

Simply Red

No - not my best mate's favourite band but a stunning new kit.

I love it.

It is the latest creation by dawn Inskip and is lush.

I had fun creating with it earlier in the week and came up with two pages which are very different kinds of love.

The first page is a friend's wedding photo

The second one is a whole different sort of love. the love of a little fur boy for his beloved daddy. Nigel and Fiki are so close since Nij is at home with him all day. I love this picture of them together.

The kit is for sale at The Digi Chick so do go check it out.

Now I do have a photo of the day but to be honest it is still firmly inside the camera and my tummy is rumbling and I have to go and eat. And that is the best excuse I can come up with right now LOL