Dolly's Dreamings

Belated walking

Nij and I had a lovely walk down the Castlemain Trail - not today you understand.

I have been doing my end of month back up and sort of files and realised that I hadn't uploaded the page about it. It was one of my 52 walks pages - page 11 to be precise.

So here it is.

I have had a kind of sad day in a way today. Work has been so manic that i have had to re-asses my commintments. I have worked on Mel and Jill's design team since they started it in February 2006. That is 4 years and I have loved every minute of it. However, work has been so manic that I have asked if I can take a break. If work sorts itself out I would love to go back to the team as it is an incredible team to be a part of. Mel and Jill are so nice to work with and they send such awesome stuff. They have been very understanding about it all and we will see how things go at work.

However, I have just finished my last DT commitment and whilstIi am thrilled about the work I have done this time, it is kind of sad to have submitted what will be my last pieces for at least a while.

Obviously I can't share the things yet.

However I can share this quick little Easter card I made today. I used a new kit I bought from Nitwits.

 
My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• time at home to sort out all I needed to do
• The cats - even when they are utter nightmares

There's no place like home

I was in such a rush yesterday (mmmm and a little bit today too actually) that I didnt' share my 5210 page for prompt 13.

It was a really important week for me as home is incredibly important to me. I am a cancerian and I think that is part of my problem. But obviously not all of it. Not all cancerians are as home obsessed as I am I am sure!

I could become a recluse very easily and not leave home. I mean you can get shopping delivered right!

Seriously - I love my home. I hate leaving it. One of the things I am most happy about is that Nigel is home all day with the cats so home is not empty. I love decorating, I love accessorising, I love just being at home.

However, home is not just a building - it is the people who make a home. In my case they are not all technically people LOL.

For my page I wanted to show my home and also what makes it home, so it is a heart which opens.

This is the page closed.

It has pictures of our home, of Nij and of the three fur babies alll merged together.

The heart opens (the two brads act as door knobs.)

I don't post pictures of the house on the web but you get the general idea.

I am ashamed to say i did a little more shopping today - but I am done ... i swear.

It was my most expensive bit - but I love what I bought. Some stores just seem to work don't they. I must just be in tune with whatever sizes they use for Per Una because they just fit me perfectly. I bought the most gorgeous skirt and blouse ever and I also bought two pair of per una jeans - denim and black and if I say so myself they look awesome. They are skinny leg and are just what i wanted for the new floaty tops I have bought.

I have a couple of cute pictures - with great meaning LOL - to share today.

 
 

 

My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• Per Una
• Cooking together with Nigel
• My mojo - which I rediscovered today

That's just ideal

Had a fabuloud day today.

We have just got back from the Ideal Home exhibition at Earls Court.

We have been once before about 20 years ago and loved it but remember how we came back with a totally not needed deep fat fryer - an all singing all dancing one that we used about half a dozen times.

We went determined to be sensible and restrained. Mmmmm - not so successful there then.

Apart from a new peeler (don't you just love those demos ..... but i really did need a new peeler and this one .... of course .... is all singing and dancing) I bought a pair of fit flops (I will try anything once and I had been thinking of a pair for ages as I live in flip flops in the summer) and a gorgeous light for the lounge. We had wanted one for ages and this one was truly lovely so it sort of got bought.

Excuse the poor photo - rushed to add it on here.

 
Quite restrained you are thinking. mmmmm -sort of.

......  except we sort of bought a bed. An all singing all dancing bed - made to order, built in massager and one of those in two parts where you tilt the head up feet up as you want and independently etc.

We had been thinking of one for ages and it was an incredibly good deal and nicer than any we have ever seen

But OK - I am prepared to agree it was an pretty big and pretty expensive impulse buy!  Nij was very keen as it will help with my bad back and haitus hernia - apparently!

I loved this picture that I just happened to take as it was on the big screen and I didn't notice till I had taken the photo.

I did like this photo that Nij took of me - he spotted the sign and said - go and stand there and I will take a picture.

Nice to know I am his ideal.

Such a laugh

Too tired to share scrapping today but will do it tomorrow

I also haven't typed today's quote!

But today I am thankful for

• A fabulous day out
• Some special new purchases
• Time with Nigel

52 in 10 Prompt 13

 

It's a whole new topic this week which we will be exploring for the next few weeks in my usual diverse ways LOL.

For those of you in the UK you may be watching Dorothy at the moment on TV - Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest search for a star - someone to play Dorothy in the new stage show of The Wizard of Oz. That film has to be a favourite of mine and seemed to be on TV every Christmas and we would sit and watch it when I was growing up.  

You are probably thinking - has she lost the plot? Why is she talking about a film this week. Is the topic films?

No - it's not. But you will understand the relevance as soon as you download the prompt.

 

My walk yesterday was not as picturesque as many I have taken this year  - it was a walk round Southampton shopping centre.

But this is the next page for my book.

 

I have also just finished (yes I behind LOL) The flowers prompt for my Celebrate Life album

 

Flowers I have ..... in abundance LOL

It doesn't show so well but lots have little gems as the centres and I used Shimelle's butterfly frame

  
 

My champ and me

I have had an incredible day - I really have. But more of that later.

I have a page I want to share today which i made for ATDML last month and it is my Nij a long time ago. It was a picture taken back in 1982, the first time Poole Cycle Speedway club won the british Championship. Everyone got to have the massive cup for a few weeks during the year - and this is Nij. He has always been my champ but this picture is fab.

The photo was taken around three or four months before we started dating so at the time of the picture he was just a very good friend.

I really enjoyed making a ruffled border for the page and a flower that was almost a rosette to show it was a champs page.

 
 So - back to my day.

Now you have to appreciate that I have changed. i never used to like shopping and shopping trips int his country were swift. I never understood why people would spend a whole day shopping. I was usually in and out of town in an hour. But you have to see that in context.

I was a size 22 - 24 and so there were generally only a couple of shops I could visit. I would shop at Evans and Ann Harvey and that was me about done. occasionally I could cram into a 20 top and some stores carried them, but there was never any real choice.

Today we arrived early at West Quay in Southampton (a place I never really liked shopping) and didn't leave till late. And the difference - I could shop anywhere I chose.

I wandered round John Lewis and in every department the clothes fit me. OK so i still didn't buy stuff from there but I have changed size not bank balance. I still think their clothes are awfully expensive and I am afraid I am still the sort of person who would rather buy a T shirt for £10 rather than £40.

Anyway - when I left home this morning I owned one pair of jeans that fit me properly and no summer tops. I wanted to look for summer tops, a straight black skirt and some new jeans. I came home with two new pairs of jeans (both size 16 I may add) black cords, beige cords, black linen trousers (which are the nicest trousers I have ever ever seen) two pencil skirts which i still can't believe fit me as they look tiny on the hanger) and I think 15 tops (Oh and a pair of shoes I really didn't need but I am shoe girl at heart and some things never change) I am really really thrilled and for the first time in my life I actually feel good about my body image. OK I am not thin - I am always going to have what Nij mistakenly called an egg timer figure (I did tell him I thought he meant hour glass!!!!) but today I am actually proud of what I have done. 

When I came home I sorted out my wardrobe and packed away in the loft every single t shirt i owned (and there were a lot as remember you acquire stuff over years) and hung all my new clothes up in my wardrobes. I am shattered but happy.

Lunch was in Burger King and I wasn't even tempted. I ate my apple and 6 of Nij's fries and was totally happy.

I have - however - just been out to TGI Friday for a meal (Oh come on - I can't change everything!) though these days I have chicken and a salad out of choice.

I took my camera as my walk was a walk round Southampton shopping centre and i will do a page later.

This is me walking (I didn't have all the bags at this point LOL )

My quote today hasn't been typed out yet - and I am too tired and need to go cuddle the fur family.

Today I am thankful for

• Wonderful new clothes and the fact I had a choice
• A very patient helpful husband who egged me on to buy more stuff
• A delicious dinner
• Holidays!

Picture of Innocence

They say the camera never lies ..... but oh how wrong that is.

If this picture is to be believed the Fiki monster is a cute innocent little poppet.

Mmmmmmm - well I guess he is at times. Just rare times. Most of the time he is Trouble with a capital T and busy looking to see what he can do damage to and with.

This was a picture of him washing in our bath (he loves our bath as he knows that is where he gets groomed and then showered. )Yes ... I KNOW cats are not meant to like that, and his sister would run a mile. But then he IS a Fiki and therefore entitled to be odd!

It was another page made with dawn's Pets Rejuvenated kit available at PBP and Catscrap.

So - today is the day. My life is officially better as of today. I am on holiday and can relax, enjoy being at home, chill out and scrap.

I love my job ..... truly I do .... but I love my holidays too and boy have I earned this one. I feel old and tired.

However I also feel proud as I am now in the weight bracket I always dreamed of being. No-where near where the Wii says I should be but heck - I am so happy.

My quote for today is

One of my resolutions was to try and make the most of every moment and treasure it and I really have been trying to.

Today i am thankful for

• well let's face it - it's got to be Easter Holidays hasn't it!
• It's also no longer being obese

Pet scrapping

So I guess you all know one of my fave things to scrap has to be the fur family.

I guess you kind of noticed!

So the new kit by dawn Inskip called pets rejuvenated was just up my street and a joy to scrap with.

I honestly intended to scrap all of the fur kids, but it didn't quite work out that way.

Fiki sort of took over.

This is my fave of the pages I made - and the journalling is very heartfelt.

 

 

He was the runt .... the one you should never buy. he was small, sickly, feeble and irresistable.

He is still by no means perfect (though he is a big strong healthy boy .... it's just his behaviour that is wrong) but he is still irresistable.

He then also featured in this page - just because he did LOL

and I have another special page to share tomorrow.

Sara sent me an e mail witht he these amazing hummingbird pictures I want to share. I have only ever seen them in the wild once and that was on our perfect evening in capitol reef where they were feeding on the sugared water lanterns.

These pictures are amazing

 

 

 

The lady had been putting out sugar water for them and one day held the container in her hand and they were used to it enough to feed from her hands directly. How special is that.

I have also finsihed another page for my celebrate Life page. The prompt was to make headway int hat stash of stickers. i tried LOL.

I used a whole load of travel word stickers for the page celebrating travel.

My quote today is

and oh don't those castle make the best homes eh!

Today I am thankful for

• The gorgeous Easter nest I ate at tea time made by Kindergarten (well actually, safer than that as it was made by the Kindergarten TA's and untouched by 3 year olds hands LOL)

Oh Boy! and a little girl.

Do you ever have the sort of day where you feel you are on a treadmill and it is speeding up. You clutch the support rail and hold on for dear life and gradually it slows, you regain your balance and composure and just when you are stable again it speeds up only this time it starts undulating.

Know what i mean!

Well that's my day in a nutshell. One of those days where you seem to lurch from problem to problem and just as you get one sorted out another arises and another and another. Heck i KNOW that's my job - as head my job is to deal with the problems and resolve them but hey - if anyone is listening - spread them out more evenly please rather than giving me the whole darned lot in one day! That way maybe I wouldn't be so ratty and stressed that I come home andtake out my stress on Nij because it really wasn't his fault and he got the brunt of it. Thank the Lord i am married to the world's most patient man because a lesser man would probably be doing time for murder right now.

I have a cute page to share today - with a cute little girlie on. The page was made for mel and Jill at ATDML last month and features the little cutie pie Emily.

Norma sent me some Maxine cartoon yesterday and they seemed kind of apt in some ways today - plus I just love the humour.

My quote today is

Today I am thankful for

• a patient man who didn't kill me for being beastly
• That I survived today
• That God gave me lots of fires to put out today but actually gave me all the water I needed

Springtime Basic and negative strips

I am love love loving being one of a Baker's Dozen (and still don't really know how the heck i managed to get onto Shimelle's team (momentary lapse of judgement from her I think!)

The girls on the team are so incredibly talented (and so incredibly nice as well I have to say) and we have all got together today to have a little blog hop so you can see how awesome Shimelle's latest new releases are and how versatile they are.

This is my page made with her new things

To play the train you need to hop over to Elisa HERE

These are the new kits by Shimelle

and you can buy them for yourself at Two Peas here

 Go on have a look and see what everyone has created.

And in case you get lost here is the full train

 SHIMELLE

KATE

 TALY

 KAREN M

 SJ 

RANI

 ALLISON

SHERI

 DOLLY ... that's me LOL

ELISA

Have fun!

My quote for today is

and today I am thankful for

• a completed appraisal
• resolving some staffing issues
• yummy yummy yummy new stash (not bought new stash for ages) will share tomorrow.

Butterflies and dinner guests

Today has been slightly less manic .... thank goodness. It was almost a normal day LOL.

I did remember to take photos of the butterflies my class made using Dan99's templates. They made them as part of the holocaust museum'sButterfly project. We had touched on the holocaust at school, although not in any depth as they are too young to do too much about it. But it is something i am very keen on raising awareness about. I feel it is important that children do know about it, albeit ont heir level. I remember being so unbelievably moved when we had the chance to visitYad Vashem in Israel and how we felt when we stood in the children's memorial. It remembered the 1,500,000 children who died and we were both reduced to silent tears.

The project is very special and very moving. I wish I was still teaching GCSE pupils because I would follow the lesson plans ont here - they are very deep and the children would certainly understand the message, but it is far too traumatic for my children.

We did share the poem and discuss it though.

The last, the very last, So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow. Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow Is carried lightly ’way up high. It went away I’m sure because it wished to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here, Penned up inside this ghetto. But I have found what I love here. The dandelions call to me And the white chestnut branches in the court. Only I never saw another butterfly.

That butterfly was the last one. Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921. Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942. Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944.

This is a selection of their butterflies.

Do check out the museum and the links to the lessons here

 I have a page to share today - and apologies for the serious first half and the frivolous second part of the post today.

This is my page for Prompt 12 from yesterday.

I decided I would keep mine purely frivolous. I thought about doing Mommy and daddy but I wasn't in a strong enough place at the time and so it ended up being for fun.

I would invite Michael Palin because I think he is utterly fascinating, so well travelled, so interesting to listen to and also very amusing.

I would invite Billy Conoley (except the Billy from about 10 years ago) and I think he is so funny, his laughter is so infectious, he has that naughty little boy aspect and his humour would take everyone's mind off the poor cooking (assuming i had cooked)

I would invite Marylin because I am fascinated by her (thanks to the obsession of an ex of mine) and there is so much i would love to ask her.

Finally Mel - always Mel! There purely because I have been loyal to him as my fantasy dream date for years and years. It's the eyes and the smile. Always the eyes and the smile.

Today my quote is

Apologies for the spelling error - well typo actually but you get what I mean. Can't be bothered to go back and correct it now!

Today I am thankful for

• The opportunity to teach and hopefully make a difference
• The fact that I live at a time and in a country where we have great freedom from persecution