Dolly's Dreamings

Yey - long weekend

Not only is it Friday but it's a long weekend.

How fab is that.

Ok so the weather is likely to be pants but who cares.

It's been a lovely day. It was our 124th birthday at school. We have a special birthday service, the same service we have had for all 75 years on the current site and it is magical and very unique. It involves the whole school processing out of the hall whilst singing and assembling round the lily pond in the quadrangle. The rest of the service is outdoor and very special. the sun shone and it was extra special for me as Nij was there filming it for a school DVD. He has heard me talk about it for the last 23 years and I am so pleased he got to see it.

The children go home at 12.30 and the staff and sixth form stay for a special (and very delicious) leavers' lunch and we go home at about 2.30.
When i came home it was lovely and Nij and I went for a very long walk along the beach. It was incredibly windy on the way back though and I think we are wind and sunburnt!

 

Dawn Inskip has a wonderful new kit available today at her store at PickleberryPop and it is really really nice.

Here is one of the pages I made with it .... I will share others over the weekend.

My quote for today is

and aren't they just the best sort of dreams?

 

Today I am thankful for

• Traditions that are so important
• The fact Nij got to share the birthday
• A delicious lunch

And finally - some cuteness

 

This one here is a bengal - they do love water ....

 

 

Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend

 

 
 

  

A little bit of Florida Magic

I thought a little bit of Florida magic would brighten my day - and hopefully yours.

Dawn Inskip has two brand new templates available at PBP and they are gorgeous to work with.

I had a fiddle with one of them last night and made this sunny page

Lovely sunny Florida days. Unlike today. I think i have quickly become used to the nice bright weather. Today has been grey and damp. We've been spoilt. I hope it is a nice day tomorrow as it is school birthday and part of our brithday celebrations happen outside.

It's also chilly here which makes me appreciate the fact that our boiler is working at all. A while ago we noticed a pool of water in the boiler cupboard. No clue as to where it came from or anything and it didn't happen again - until last week. We had a much larger pool of oily water that had dripped over a while and stained.

The man who fitted it came out today and it was not good news. There is a crack in the boiler. It is only 4 years old and he has never known this to happen before.  Needless to say it is out of warranty.

However, he is a really nice guy and he phoned Potterton to see if they would meet us part way in replacing it as it is clearly a fault and not due to wear and tear. It is an actual crack int he boiler itself and not even at a seam. It looks like they may possibly meet some of the cost .... keep everything crossed as we can not really do with a £1000 bill right now.

Today my quote is

  and today I am thankful for

• a lovely new book that came today - the brand new Jodi Picoult
• a boiler that whilst cracked still works

and a couple of cute pics today

A different sort of day

I haven't been to school today (why does that make me sound about 5 ... maybe I should add .... to teach tot he end of that statement)

I have been on yet another Child Protection course. I know it is the most important training I do, but there are a LOT of them. I have another later in the month specifically on domestic violence. The venue is lovely, it is nice to be with different people and very interesting but I always come away feeling very depressed about the sort of lives some poor kids have. It's a horrid old world out there for some people.

However, the place where the training takes place is lovely. beautiful gardens to walk in, lovely lunch and only down the road from home. I had a lie in!

I am sharing a page made for mel and Jill at ATDML last month using My Little Shoebox again.

I love butterflies and they are really 'in' this year ... so I learnt even on GMTV this morning! Well scrappers are one step ahead of the trend as this gorgeous paper shows.

My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• having had a safe and very happy childhood when so many don't

Just sharing this one

I want to share the last of the template pages I made with dawn's fabulous templates today and it is a page of Nigel.

I want to make a paper page of the same photo as it is one of the nicest pictures I have ever taken to be honest.

The picture was taken on our wedding anniversary - 24 years married, 26 years a couple and friends for 36 years .... how about that.

Not much to report today other than I did a teeny bit of shopping today on the way home from school.

I bought a pair of shoes a couple of weeks ago and wore them for the first time today. they were so incredibly comfortable I went and bought another pair (and a skirt, top and pair of jogging bottoms for the gym fell into my basket too!)

I have a message for Luci who left a comment yesterday. please please do come over and visit with Katharine. It would be lovely to see the two of you and hear what you are doing. Nice for you two to see Junior School too. I love that a past pupil bothers to read my ancient ramblings on this blog. You are welcome any time.

My quote today is

How good a quote is that for a teacher!

Today I am thankful for

• comfy shoes

And today's cute pics

something different ... not cats!!!

 

 

very appropriate for this post

and

Feeling virtuous

Oh yes

feeling very virtuous today.

Not only did I go to the gym yesterday but I have been today as well.

Goodness me - i scarcely recognise myself as the slothful couch potato.

Actually it's only because I know I can't go again this week LOL. So it is guilt rather than virtue.

I came home today to a nice shiny garage door that Nigel had painted. See, nagging does work!

Today I want to share another page I made with My Little Shoebox papers from Mel and Jill at ATDML

The photo was taken at Exbury last year. It is almost azalea time again and so I guess we will be going back soon.

My quote for today is

and it is another of those very true quotes.

Today I am thankful for

• The fact I can still move after two gym sessions
• The new shiny garage door

And finally a couple of cute funnies for today

Nij identifies witht his one .... it is a game Fiki loves to play. More fool daddy I say, Mommy won't play it with him!

 
  

52 in 10 Prompt 17

Apologies for the lateness of the prompt.

I completely forgot it was Sunday LOL

So we are now at Prompt 17 and this year seems to be whizzing by so quickly.

The course works so that we look at a theme for approximately 4 weeks and then move on to another theme, so we are off to soemthing new today. Something which could be utterly fab or a little bit tedious and, in reality, probably a little bit of both depending on which day you were asked!

We are moving on to .......

.....ok

..... warning .......

.....there is a four letter word coming .....

we are moving on to ....

 

WORK!

Now that may not be an easy topic for some of you and you need to remember work is what you do each day ... it may be in your home or out of it, but we all work at something.

 

I decided to share my page withthe prompt today as I know many people seem to log in here on a Sunday only and don't come back any other time and heck ... I am like the rest of you ... I like people to see what I have done too.

Can I remind people that if you think the class is good and worth a donation you can give a donation at my Just Giving page HERE It is to help such a good cause. Thank you tot he people who have already given so generously.

 

 

I look so young in that photo ... but I was. I was only 26 when I was appointed as head of Junior School. Crazy or what!

 

Simple Saturdays

Don't you just love simple days?  Days where you sort of meander round and just have a nice time.

We were up early this morning .... thanks Boushka! .... and were in Poole just after 9. we did a reasonable walk (I am already on 8000 steps today) and it included a little light shopping. Nij actually did well today as he needed new short sleved shirts and got a whole bunch of them.

Came home, chilled in the sun in the garden. Actually i did chill because it is much hazier today and wasn't actually that warm.

I have planned some scrapping but not actually done any. Nij has sorted his wardrobe out. I am the lightest i have ever been in yeasrs and the world is good.

I am sharing another page made with one of Dawn's lush templates. It is a page from our big cat photo shoot last summer. Gosh I need to do that again!

I plan a leisurely late afternoon and a quiet evening digi scrapping in front of the telly.

I hope that whatever you all do you have fun.

My quote today is

Today I am thankful for

• gentle days and leisurely moments
• my home town .... which I love
• Frapuccinos

And my little glimpses of cuteness today .... more cats in boxes

You buy them bespoke comfy beds and they chose a box any time and twice on Sundays.

  

What a day

Every day throws new and exiting things at you doesn't it!

And not always in a good way.

 

I had fun this week playing with some lush new templates th dawn Inskip made and which have gone on sale today at PBP and catscrap.

Now when you think templates I bet you think of something black and white and quite plain.

Think again. Not with Dawn. Hers are detailed, so layerd, coloured and vibrant. Even just the template itself is a work of art. They have text paths and elements and are gorgeous. There are three different templates, each quite different and each a joy to use.

Here is a page I made with template 3.

The template and all of the papers and elements are all by Dawn from a whole heap of her kits.

I will share my other pages tomorrow.

 

Now I have kind of gotten into the habit of sharing cute pictures. This time I am sharing a video link of a sister act called the Ross Sisters from 1944. They sing a very unremarkable song but stick with it - sit through the song which is about 50 seconds and then prepare to be amazed as it is the most amazing acrobatics ever ever ever. I don't think it is a con - they are just very very bendy and very very strong. Let me know what you think!

 

Today my quote is

 

Today I am thankful for

• sunshine
• helpful people on the phone
• Friday!
• St. George

Another one bites the dust

mmmm - now what might I be referring to.

Could it be another day of term down?

Another chance to go to the gym missed?

Another problem solved?

Another beautiful day passed?

Yes all of the above. It was so lovely when I got home at a semi reasonable time that Nij and I went for a lovely walk. It was glorious and felt strangely like I was playing truant! I love my hubby being home. I used to have to wait for him to come in at 7 pm. This is a much nicer life.

This is a page I made for Mel and Jill at ATDML - one of my last pieces for the forseeable future.

Isn't she just such a pretty pretty little girl - our Emily.

The papers were lovely - My Little Shoebox. I loved them and yet they were bright for me.

I used lots of stitching and lots of cut out elements.

I loved the flowers and flutterbies and the little letters.

 I think Emily will love the page.

I had a lovely e mail today from my friend Meg, another cat lover. I won't share them all today butt hey are cute cute pictures of cats in boxes. What is it with cats and boxes that is the instant draw. Ours are all like it. Bring something in inside a box and you have barely got it out and they are in there.

Once in they go to sleep - no matter how ridiculously uncomfortable they look to us.

My quote today is

Oh I LOVE that quote

Today I am thankful for

• Late afternoon walks in the sunshine
• Holding hands all the way!

 

Honesty

I hope that lots of you will check out IACW - I hope you visit daily as there is new loveliness every day and the girls are so talented with fabric, altered art, gardening, home decor and everything. It inspires me daily.

The whole year project running over there is about simple things and focusing on a different word each month.

I am in awe of the things the girls do. Their projects are stunning and I actually feel quite ashamed that mine is a very simple book.

The word this month was honesty. I struggled with that one. i am trying to do all of my entries using flower photos I have taken. I mean, let's face it, I have hundreds of them and I ought to use them for soemthing, right!

Sadly I didn't have a photo of honesty seed pods. I wish I had, but I didn't. I debated using an image off the web, but that seemed like cheating as I was meant to be using my own photos and cheating didn't seem right when the prompt was honesty!!!!

Anyway, I went with one of the pictures I had taken on our recent trip to devon that was just pretty and honest!

Today has been a real yucky day. Work was manic. I had no lunch break ... drank my water and shake whilst on the phone and/or typing. Then I had to leave early for a big final appointment at the dentist. I tried to fit all the visits in in the holidays but couldn't. I am dental phobic anyway so it is always a problem for me but the work was right at the back of my mouth necessitating opening my mouth to its widest for a long time. I have quite severe tmj and my mouth does not do that well. The side of my face is still numb but the jaw pain is already starting and I know i will pay for the wide opening for the next few days. I have already doped myself up but it is always a problem after treatment.

My quote today is

Oh yes that is so true. inside I feel like a 20 year old. Outside ..... mmmmm ... double it and add some!

Today I am thankful for

well .... it was one of those days where I really had to look hard for this one

• my e mail at work being sorted out and the fact I survived the dentist

Lets end with a couple of nice pictures today