Dolly's Dreamings

Food Glorious Food

b This page ws made for the previous A True Friend challenge. The theme was food and treats and it was fun to record this. The page was made using a kit called Fruit Fool by Dawn Inskip over at Natural Designs in Scrapbooking and also her embossed alpha set 1 int he same store

There is a new challenge up now - do check it out as there is a fabulous prize (wish I could enter LOL) and there is still a call for a new design team member. You still have until 4th May to enter. Check it out here.

The page is quite nostalgic actually as it recalls a time - pre-allergy - when the cats had loads of different foods and lots of choice. Now they are all stuck with one make of dry cat food every day and the occassional (actually quite frequent) fresh chicken or turkey.

I mentioned Dawn and her work just now and you have to - absolutely have to - kee your eyes open for the release of this awesome new kit. I am a very lucky girl as I have already been able to have a sneaky play with it as part of Dawn's CT. It is due to be released on Friday so watch out for it.  I can't say more now - other than show you the picture to tantalise and tease.

The sneak here should whet your appetite and guess what - you can win the kit free of charge by joining in our little game.

DETAILS HERE

Serial Reader

I really enjoyed making this page for Craft Obsessions last month. It was fun tor ecord soemthing so mundane and yet so important.

I am a real book addict. I love buying my stash but my other great love is buying books. There is nothing like a brand new paperback book (and I am so anal that even when I have read them they look like a brand new book!) I read - a LOT. I spend a fortune on books. I am not keen on library books - I do like my own. It's an extravagence but I love it.

One of my favourite series of book is the earth's Children series by Jean Auel starting with Clan of the Cave Bear,

I have read a lot of others in a similar vein but none so good. So I was thrilled when I found a new possible series by William Sarabande. I asked Nigel for the first book for Christmas and I loved it. I then went and ordered all of them from Amazon (sadly except book 5 which I am still unable to get) and they were fabulous. It is a great series. Not quite as good as Jean Auel but not half bad. A little more gory than I would have chosen but still filled with the life and folklore of ancient man. Brilliant. So this page documents it.

Surprise prize

I had fun at the cyber crop yesterday - nice just to take things at a slower pace. I did almost everything digitally as I am still having great problems sitting. I just can't do it for any length of time.

I have terrible sciatica at the moment plus my knees have been dreadful. I know weight is an issue and am trying, but I also know it is not the only cause. I just feel so debilitated for so much of the time. Up and down countless stairs each day is the killer too.

However, digital or not, I enjoyed the cyber crop and was thrilled to have received a prize. I know they are random prized but I was still thrilled. It was the simplest page I made at the weekend too - this one of Kira. It was for a challenge where the page had to be black and gold, so it was. Some of the pages took me an age. I know people think it is a cop out to do digital pages but it really isn't. I put an awful lot of effort intot hem and they have layers and layers.

The Up close and personal one took forever - and wasn't helped by the fact there was so much there it kept crashing.

This other page of our day out at Ringstead Bay - the challenge sketch - also took a little while, but I really enjoyed that one. The only reasont hat took time was I couldn't for the life of me find papers I was happy with.

I am now off - yet again - to lie flat on my back with my legs elevated to try and aleviate the pain ready for the next onslaught of stairs!

Cyber crop fun

Having a fun morning playing in the UKS Cyber crop.

I was worried I would feel very out of the loop this year as I haven't been involved in any of the pre-crop fun, haven't been in a single chat thread and haven't been around until last night. I missed everything Friday and Saturday really.

Last night I started to play, just doing a couple of the classes and mostly doingt he challenges. They are so much easier when you have limited time. The classes this time are superb. really really top class. They asked UKS members who they would like to see and it has brought out so many really talented people who have never done CC classes before (and bot I hope they are doing them again) The classes are so fab I want to save them for my leisure and today I have little time.

I did the class Weetabix set as I couldn't resist (Up Close and Personal)  - it was gorgeous and one I could translate to digital. I was really pleased with the finished page and one of the things I liked was the desaturated photo which just worked with the page.

I added some pink into the class design as I wanted it to work witht he photo which had a pink tinge.

The other page that was fun to make was the challenge - All..... I did All I want for Christmas and couldn't resist the two front teeth joke. I had both of my front teeth - thankfully my baby teeth, knocked out with a cricket bat in an accident. (approached two kids playing, one facing me and one with his back to me who happened to be holdingt he cricket bat. Boy one shouts ... Oh here is Karen .... boy two turns round swinging bat, straight in the face. First time .... of many ... that an accident I had made my Mom faint. There was sooooooo much blood) Anyway - I was front toothless for a long time, including Christmas day!

Another challenge was to scrap soemthing glamerous. I don't really ever get glamerous. Not me really. But this was at the ball last year and we didn't scrib up bad really. It was funny really as the picture also appeared in the local society magazine. I had no idea how many people would see it - but loads did. I must scrap the magazine picture at some point!

H is for Hell

No - this is not a depressing post - just a CFH post

In making the A - Z fur babies journal there was never any doubt about what H would be.

We have always used it for the Bengal babes. When they were little they were the KFH and now they are the CFH. You will have seen me often refer to them as this.

It stands for THE CATS FROM HELL ..... cos they are!

It stems fromt he say we bought them home as 12 week old babies and Nigel said, 'On my command, unleash hell' .... and we did. we opened that small cat carrier with two little scraps in and our lives have never been the same since. But i wouldn't part with them for the world.

So H is the cats from HELL.

Had a lovely day today. Went to Southampton to see Half a Sixpence ... and no ... Tommy Steele wasn't in it. It was very good - an enjoyable afternoon and it also have us a chance to see the massive Independence of the Sea. The biggest cruise liner ever built. And it defies description. It is enormous. The poor Old QE2 was still in and looked old and tired and very very small. Can't say I would fancy it myself - it was too big, lacked any sense of being elegant but it was nice to see her.

Journey quote word art

I love this quote and wanted to use it on a Canada page (yes I am STILL scrapping Canada)

So here it is if you want to use it too. there are 4 versions, some with and some without borders.

If you would like it you can snag it here

So it begins!!!

Well I have had great fun today so far, taking my camera with me everywhere.

It was the first thing I did this morning - take a picture as instructed of the alarm clock when you wake up.

HOW EARLY WAS THAT!!!

I have tried to take loads of pictures and will share them all properly once they are downloaded and once they are also put into some semblance of order. 

I thought I would take one of the car radio as it has the date and time and thankfully NOT the speed.

Shimelle, I am so not sure about the food photos. Is this just a cunning ploy to make us think about what we eat.

Do you think seeing it in a photo will make us change and make sure that, for one day a month at least, we will eat healthily!!! The 25th fell on a Friday and is one of only 2 days a week I have a proper lunch. I was going to try and make it a good healthy lunch for the sake of art - but you see, they had Dorset Apple cake and custard so, not even for art could I do it.

I think it is a fascinating concept to do this class. I am not sure where she comes up with such great ideas. being a genius I guess.

I am really looking forward to making the album now I have an idea of where I want to go witht his and of putting one day a month into it.

thanks for even more fun Shimelle.

I am not going to count how many pictures I have taken ... it's a little scary - but I am loving it.

I received the post telling me it was time to do my I page for its a creative world. I haven't uploaded my G and H pages yet although I did them the same day as I did F. (I was on a roll)

So here is the G page.

G is for my girly girl - my little Kira.

If she was a child she'd only ever wear pink, would have long blonde ringlets and be a ballerina. As it is she is a cat but she is my little girly girl.

This is her showing how tall she can be by really stretching.

She likes this pose as it makes her look slim and she is - in reality - a chunky monkey! But I am glad she is overweight as I remember all too vividly how thin and skeletal she was when she was ill.

Digi Doings and ready to go

I have been guest designer on the Di Hickman blog this month and this is the card I made using the sketch this week.

I have to say i have really enjoyed doing these cards and was quite sad when my term ended. BUT I will keep making the cards from the weekly sketches anyway - just not as a designer IYSWIM.

Well - that's the plan eh!

I have also made another page using Dawn Inskip's gorgeous weather station kit available at NDISB

It is a massive kit and suits so many different ideas. there is the cutest little umbrella in it too, but search as I may I can't find a picture to use it .... YET. Next time I see Emily I can see a photo shoot coming on just so I can use it.

This is another picture from ScrapFever when we had the gorgeous snow. I know I know, it is Spring and pages should be warm and fuzzy but I don't care. (Stamps feet!) I never see snow and I am making the most of it.

Tomorrow is the 25th

Yes - that's important.

The reason

This picture is a clue.

Shimelle is working her magic again.

Check it our - come and play

want to know more ?

Check THIS out    It's gonna be fab

Angels in my Life

I wanted to share this little tag book I made for the Design Team this month at Craft Obsessions.

I was struck by one of the word blocks in the design team kit about angels - the bit you can see ont he front that said 'My Angel' and also the quote that I also used ont he front of the tag book cover which said, 'Look for the angels in your life ... they are everywhere'.

Those words really struck me and got me thinking about the angels in my life.

I don't mean necessarily people who we no longer have, although in my tag book there are quite a few who I no longer have with my physically. I was really thinking about all the special people in my life who watch out for me in so many ways and who make my life all the better for being a part of it.

I think we all have angels who fill our lives and there were more people that I could have included .... but I did want to be able to lift the book! I actually made it as a small tag book to fit in my handbag.

I included my Mom and Dad, of course. No longer with me I know they are with me spiritually and still looking out for me. Not a day goes by when I don't miss them and ache for them. I was blessed with a perfect childhood and perfect parents and only wish they could have lived to see me pay the tributes to them that I love doing.

I included both of my grandmothers. One I never met. She died just after I was born but my parents always told me that she was my guardian angel. When I was very very tiny I had whooping cough and was very sick. My Dad, who was the world's biggest cynic about anything spiritual, and Mom both were sat in the lounge, the door opened on its own and they both clearly heard my nana say not to worry, I would be fine because she was watching over me. Dad hated that he couldn't deny it had happened. So I know she really IS a guardian angel. My other Nanny was a very special person in my life and, oddly, I share a birthday with one of them and am one day later than the other one.

I included Sam and her Mom Pauline of course. They have both been angels all my life. Pauline has always been a second mother to me, since I was 4 years old, but was also my nearly sister as my parents became her legal guardians when she was goingt o emigrate to Australia with us. Her daughter, Sam, my god-daughter is like a sister and a daughter all rolled into one. My life would be so much poorer without the blessing of either of them.

I am cat crazy so my angel cat had to be in too - Pebble. The only one of our 6 fur babies who was ever truly mine. The others are all daddy cats at heart, though I do as a substitute!

Jakki, my best friend, my confidante, the person I can tell anything and about whom I know more secrets than anyone, of course features. I couldn't imagine never having Jakki. I know that I am blessed to have a friend like her and that few people get to share the friendship we do. She is the sister God forgot to give me.

And finally - well of course, my soul mate (though he is quite seriously in my bad books today .... but that's another story) my darling Nigel.

It was such a fun book to make and gave me - and indeed gives me whenever I look at it - that real feelgood feeling.

Missing Disney digital elements

I just wanted to clarify what is happening about my Disney themed digital work.

I have not been able to find a definitive answer but it would appear likely that I am not in breach of copyright if using my own photos. They were all made with my own photos.  I have temporarily removed all but the most recent of my Disney themed downloads and may put the others back at a later date if I feel comfortable with the whole idea and am sure I am not doing anything illegal.

I have one more set which I have made which I hope to finish and upload tomorrow but then I plan on moving on to something new whilst I try and reconcile this in my own mind.

It's funny isn't it - you try and do something fun and to be generous and it all ends up backfiring a little.

I would welcome any comments about this dilemma as I really would like to resolve it, even though I think I have exhausted my Disney ideas for now.

I would like to thank all of you who have left comments and feedback both here and at 4 shared - it's been fun doing this but I don't want to carry on if it is the wrong thing to be doing.