Dolly's Dreamings

Scrap a Sketch extravaganza

I am really really thrilled for the lovely Lisa Sikorski who launched her brand new website store Scrap a Sketch Prmium last month. You can find the website HERE

 

In addition to the free sketches every single week on her facebook group (if you haven't joined then please do so) you can now join her Premium collection and get additional awesomely good sketches each month. Lisa has worked tirelessly over the past two years to ensure there is a new sketch - with CT examples - every single week and more when there are special events. She does all of this free of charge just as a way of supporting and inspiring the scrapping community. It is incredibly generous and I know it inspires an awful lot of people. 

So I wanted to give her every support in her new venture which is NOT JUST ABOUT SKETCHES!

In addition to premium sketches alongside design team inspiration to inspire you further, she also makes and sells a gorgeous range of stencils (they really are gorgeous) and wonderful printables. The beauty of the printables is that you get them immediately you purchase them, just like digital supplies, and you print at home as many times as you want and you can also play with colour and desaturation.

Again go to the website HERE for stencils and HERE for printables

 

I do hope you will check it out and support this new venture by such a generous lady who has given so much for free to the scrapping community.

 

I was thrilled to be asked to create some inspiration for the premium sketches. Some have stuck to the sketch others have diverged a little but that is the beauty of her sketches - they are so flexible.

 

So here are my pages for June which also showcase her wonderful printables and stencils.

 

This first one I did in 12 x 12 because it was for my summer day trips album I am just starting

I used one of her gorgeous stencils and several different colours of ink as I was going with a lilac and purple scheme to match the stunning wisteria. Apart fromt he background card, title and flair, all the paper and embellishments are from her Rainbow Wishes set of printables

 

 

 

 

 

This was another from a different sketch again using Rainbow Wishes

 

 

 

 

And this was a third using a different sketch and this time using the wonderful Besides the Sea Printables ... I think she had me in mind when she made these!

 

 

 

 

 

And this one was made as a Designs Team page for A Trip Down Memory Lane using Simple Stories Simply Vintage Berry Fields in store here  which is such a gorgeous collection like all Simple Stories and I have been proud to design for A Trip Down Memory Lane for years and years and it is always a joy, but it uses another of Lisa's stencils

 

 

 

 

 

It is thrilling to be helping Lisa promote her new venture. Do go and visit and see what she has in store and you can check out her instagram at @sikoski  her facebook group at Scrap a Sketch and I don't think I have ever shared my instagram on here which you can find @scrapdolly (And I'd love a follow if you can please)

 

Today I am thankful for

• a productive morning at a committee meeting
• sunshine
• knowing such lovely people in the scrapping comminity

 

 

 

Beachy things

Just a quick post today to share a new release with a beachy theme

Credits

I need a beach day collection by Jen Yurko

 

and the next double page of my sketch book - I struggled with this one

 

 

And for anyone local - our art exhibition is on until Saturday 4 pm at St paul's church Canford Heath

 

And the weather continues

The weather here is glorious - but very very windy.

Yesterday we worked in the garden and we made a huge difference simply by trimming the bushes and mowing and strimming. We are NOT gardeners and we don't enjoy it so it is good it is relatively easy to maintain a couple of times a year.

To reward ourselves we had another lovely day out - this time to Furzey Gardens. The last time we went with Nigel's family it rained. Today was glorious. They have a new door trail which was very cute with 24 decorated doors through the gardens plus the original fairy doors, little follies, hidden birds etc. The colours were gorgeous, the sky was blue, the sun was warm and it was lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have new scrapping to share today this time using my new DT kit from A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

Simple Stories Simple Vintage Berry Fields  which can be found at A Trip Down Memory Lane   HERE

 

 

 

 

 

and a quick painting done yesterday

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day out
• work completed in the garden

 

A 'blue' day and happy times

The blue day was lovely - we went to The Blue Pool which really is a hidden gem near here. It is under new management and was beautifully kept and very lovely. I have seen it bvluer and also greener as it depends ont he light hitting the c;ay particles, but it was gorgeous

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved that the peacock was perfectly colour coordinated

 

Yesterday we went to meet my wonderful god-daughter and her husband. We meet half way between us and it is usually a two and bit hour drive. It took over three hours each way due to bank holiday traffic but was worth every minute

 

I have some scrapping to share

 

 

 

 

And a new painting too

 

Today I am thankful for

• seeing my god-daughter - I miss her a lot
• putting up an art exhibition
• beautiful days out
• better health

Interesting times

Well it has been an interesting couple of days here. I guess I kind of knew I was wrong to celebrate no more hospital.

Tuesday evening whilst doing incredible exercise of sitting on the sofa watching TV I started to feel really poorly. I had an incredible pain in my back that spread to my neck, ears and both sides of my jaw which was like nothing I have ever experienced. My heart was pounding and pulsing in my neck and I think it is fair to say we were both really scared. Dr Google - oh how we should not rely on him but do - said it could be heart attack symptoms in a woman. So at 9.15 off we went to the hospital. I was seriously frightened.

It's amazing how quickly you are triaged and seen for initial assessment when it is a suspected heart attack. By 10 am I was having an ECG and by 10.10 I had been moved to a bay in majors and was hooked up to machines. And there I lay having regular obs and blood taken. At one point it was scary when the alarm went off on my cardiac monitor but apparently, it was a glitch. I had a second ECG and then finally at about 3 am I saw a doctor. (I wasn't worried about the delay - they were incredibly busy with lots of ambulances waiting and I knew that if it was a heart attack they would come running) I was examined and then told The back pain coupled with the other symptoms was a worry as that could indicate aortic issues and so they needed to do a CT scan with colour dye. I was told the cannula I had in my arm was not big enough so needed another cannula in my hand. That's always an issue for me. I am notoriously bad for getting blood out of. Apparently I have veins that are wavy and that hide. It took a while but she managed to get one in and 15 minutes later I was in CT and injected and scanned and taken back. The doctor said the results often only took and hour and a half at night but they were very busy.

The doctor came back at about 5.30 am and said the first sample they sent off for blood to check had clotted before it reached the lab and so they needed another. She tried the arm cannula. Nope that had sealed up completely. She tried the hand cannula but she couldn't get blood out of there. So she tried my arm and the back of the other hand and she couldn't find veins in either. Just as well I never became an addict eh! In the end she got an ultra sound machine to find a vein and went from there. I confess that was the only point I cried. It is always such an issue for me.

She said that would take at least 2 hours and so Nigel finally agreed to go home.

At about 7.15 am they moved me to AAU where I had a lovely bed right by a window and some sunshine.

I have to say the NHS are brilliant. Everyone I met was lovely and patient and caring and efficient. Yes you wait a lot but so what. I was given breakfast, a menu to order lunch and dinner (and it looked nice), ice cold water to drink, toiletries so I could shower and clean my teeth.

At about 9 am the doctors started rounds and I was seen by a consultant cardiologist (I wonder how long I would have had to wait to see one if it hadn't been an emergency admission?) He was lovely and told me it wasn't a heart attack. The Contrast CT had shown that my aorta was fine, all the way down, that the arteries int he heart all looked fine and feee of calcification (though he is sending me for a specific cardiac ct scan as an outpatient) and the discharge report also showed results on all other internal organs. The only bad news was that it showed quite a few nodules on my right lunch and he will want another scan in 4 months to see if they have changed. I looked terrified and he said that they were nodules, lots of people have them and it's likely not a problem. With all of my recent experiences, you can understand why that didn't reassure me as my breast recall was likely nothing, the calcification was likely nothing and the DCIS was unlikely to become invasive. Mmmm.  I think I would be less concerned if it was the left lunch as it wouldn't be near my cancer site. They were unable to tell me what the problem was though which was the biggest disappointment. The pain had subsided and the pain killer they gave me helped but it didn't really go until today, some 40 hours later. It was a scary experience.

 

 

 

On to happier things

 

 

 

and scrapping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful - yet again - for our NHS. However, I'd like to not have to do anything with them for quite a while now please.

I think summer is coming

It would appear that summer is at last on its way - the sun is warm and we have had no rain but the wind still has a chill. Mind you, those who know me well know I do not like the hot weather. I like wrapping up warm but I do like the dry and the sunshine - just the crispness of autumn and spring.

I have some new scrapping to share

First a gorgeous new collection by et designs in store right now at Pickleberrypop

 

 

And these for various challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a pleasant afternoon with friends at art
• creativity
• sunshine
• my three boys

 

Gardening, painting, chilling

After a few days out we were ready for a quiet weekend. Mind you - it wasn't as quiet as we planned. We had a gorgeous beach walk yesterday where it was really warm and then - as it was so nice - we decided gardening was the order of the day. We are NOT gardeners. Not at all. We tend to do as little as possible. Our garden is big but mainly shrubs but we did have to weed the borders. We only did the front - we will tackle the back another day.

 

Our azaleas have been stunning this year though. This is one of the 10 we have in the garden.

 

I started a new project a few days ago. I decided I wanted to do a proper sketch book to try and loosen my art up - so quick sketches done fast and simple of our days out this summer.

This is page 1 from Barrington Court last Sunday and page two on Montacute and Tintinghull the same day

Be gentle - they are not meant to be great works of art but quick sketches

 

 

 

And I have scrapping to share too - more done for the NSD challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• some quieter days
• painting - it brings me great joy

 

London by the sea

We had a lovely day out yesterday. I had a yen to visit Brighton as we hadn't been for such a long time. Plus we have never been on the pier and wanted to do that too. We travelled there the fast way (how fast can it ever be going through all those interminable roundabouts at Chichester and Arundel!) and came home hugging the coast.

 

I had forgotten how close Brighton was to London. how close to London prices it was (2 hours in the car park £10.20, 4 hours £28!!!) and quite how dirty it was. I have to say it looked a bit shabby and a bit tired but we had a nice time walking on the pier, looking at the beach (goodness how blessed we are here to have sand - the beaches yesterday were just shingle and pebbles)

 

 

 

 

We went to the Royal Pavillion which is stunning (we didn't go in as we have done that before) and we wandered the Lanes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed to calmer coasts at Shoreham and Worthing. Never been to Worthing before and it was lovely.

 

 

 

And some scrapping to share

 

 

 

 

 

and it was my turn to do a CT page for this week's sketch at scrap a sketch

 

 

 

 

And talking of Scrap a Sketch Lisa has now started a scrap a sketch premium where you can become a member for an incredibly low price and have access to exclusive sketches each month AND she has launcher hew own range of gorgeous stencils and superb printables.

to celebrate our new website launch, a 72 hour discount is now live on stencils and printables i

If customers enter the code LAUNCH20 at checkout this gives 20% off ( excluding subscriptions/ memberships.

Valid until 11.59pm ( uk) on Monday 22nd May.

 

The website is HERE

 

I can't share my pages yet - but here are a couple of sneak peeks with the new printables

 

 

 

 

 

They are beautiful and so reasonably priced so please do check out the new group and use the discount code.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day out - again
• a new sketch book
• a good optician visit but my eyes are in a bit of a state and I am now on 2 hourly drops for the foreseeable future.

 

 

A bit of scrapping

We have been so busy going out that I haven't been scrapping as much but have worked with two of the gorgeous new releases at Pickleberrypop this week

Credits

Your Family bundle by Neia scraps

 

 

 

 

 

Credits

Do it for you Bundle by Tiramisu Designs

 

 

 

A National Trust Fest

We do like to get a bang for our buck and make the most of our National Trust membership. I think we covered the annual fee in one day today visiting three properties in Somerset - Barrington Court, Montacute House and Titinghull Gardens

Cue photo overload. The weather was less sunny than forecast - very misty - but very warm and still lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you made it this far - some scrapping!!

Another page made for NSD challenges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day out
• gardens with secret doors and walls