Dolly's Dreamings

Bengal princess and exciting news

I wanted to share this page of Kira made for Charmed Cards and Cards last month. Again it uses the beautiful Blue Awnings papers from K and Co. I honestly don't think there has ever been a range I have loved so utterly completely as this range. It is just me. Closest was probably Basic Grey Urban Coture or Skate shoppe.

Anyway, there were some sheets which I was scared of ... the glitter sheets.

Those of you who know me know I don't DO glitter. Glitter scares me.

But I was determined to use some of the glitter paper and so cut out one of the designs. It had a sort of Indian feel and so it seemed apt to use it for my very own Bengal princess, Kira!

I think she looks very regal sat on there and although the colours are not some I would naturally have reached for for a girlie page, I feelt hey work.

Now I have some exciting news I can share - though not completely yet. My very good friend Heather, who most of you will know as the super talented cutnpaste, is oppening a wonderful new company tomorrow. She has been planning it for months and I was lucky enough to have been told a little while ago and it has been so so hard keeping it quiet as it is so fab I wanted to shout it out to everyone.

Apart from incredibly lush goodies she has some truly wonderful and innovative ideas on the site. You are so going to want to visit it.

I will post a link tomorrow and you can be part of her grand opening celebration and see for yourselves what I mean.

Heather - you don't need luck but here's wishing you all the success in the world. You so deserve it. xxxx

Now we're rocking

I am soooooooooo excited. The class I have been waiting for for ages started today.

It is Jessica Spragues Now We're Rocking class with PSE.

I so want to learn to be a proper digi scrapper, able to use PSE instead of having to do everything on good old simple old Microsoft digi pro.

I was so excited I couldn't wait to get started this evening and so sat and finished the first page. Loads of new techniques and I will have to go through it again before it sinks in properly but loved it.

This is my first page, made with all elements that were free with the class.

Loving, loving, loving the class.

Thank you so much Jessica

Free Autumn Leaves Upper case Alphabet

This is the first of three downloads that will be coming this week.

The downloadable file has uppercase letters with an Autumn Leaves theme.

They are all separate png files

I love making these alphas but it would be SO NICE to get a little feedback. Please take the time to pop a comment in

You can download the file HERE

A REALLY lazy day

It would appear that I have not only lost my mojo but have lost any urge to scrap, to think about scrapping, to plan to scrap and actually any urge to do anything at all really.

I think this virus has wiped me out and I can't even be bothered to read. I went and sat in the garden - it has been utterly gorgeous - and did just that. Sat in the garden. i never ever ever do that. I have to be doing soemthing at all times. But today I can't summon up the energy. I managed the ironing and had to have a rest!

I can't even blame it on not sleeping. I managed almost 12 hours yesterday!

I am hoping, as I have loads of DT stuff I need to get done, that I pick up soon. I hate feeling like this. So tired and shaky.

So, needless to say, nothing new to share today.

The two cards here are two cards I made with the lush Blue Awning papers for Charmed Cards and Crafts last month. Now maybe that is what I need to do. Look at Blue Awning things as that is sure to inspire me.

I am starting my second Jessica Sprague course tomorrow and I THINK I am looking forward to it, though I think everything I learnt int he first one had evaporated now. Might need to do a refresher a little.

Pooped but proud

I think the virus I have had has taken its toll as I am absolutely pooped. I am sleeping for England - which is good really as the cough have subsided enough to actually sleep now which is brilliant.

We went into town today and I managed to get a new pair of low boots (my poor old knee means wearing most of the boots I own is not an option) and we were going to do the Tesco shop on the way home! I was too pooped and came home and slept for an hour whilst Nigel did it.

Our neighbours, who are planning a new kicthen with the same company, came in to officially cut the red tape on our new kitchen LOl and loved it. They are the first people who have seen it in real life so I was pleased someone else thought it was as lovely as we do.

I am dead proud that I had an e mail earlier in the week from bengal Illustrated asking me to do an article on scrapping and crafting the cats. I love my cats so much and it has always been a thrill to be in scrapping magazine and write articles but this will be the second time I have been featured in a cat magazine and am dead chuffed.

I made my catty christmas card today as well. Very simple, using bits from Nitwits and Dawn Inskip. I know that in reality I am not going to get to make my own Christmas cards and so having these printed is as close as I am likely to get this year.

The page here is another made for ATDML which didn't get into the gallery but will later. It was such a lovely picture of Kira. You don't often get pictures of Kira asleep as she hates the very thought that she might miss a tenny second of anything going on. So the whole idea of her fighting it seemed appropriate.  We will often watch her when she really wants to be asleep but she can't quite bring herself to miss out on nosing about everything.

Autumn word art 1

I am starting to feel all autumnal and have a whole series of alphabets, word art and embellishments in the offing.

This is the first

You can download it here

Kitchen complete and a new 'spooky' kit

  Dawn has brought out a new kit called Boo. No - not dedicated to Boushka, but a kit that would work well with lots of themes but most of all halloween.

It has loads of bits in it and some really nice papers and was great fun to work with.

I don't celebrate halloween at all (though I did find a picture of a little girl dressed up as a witch who you might recognise!!!) but if you do and have halloween parties it would be great for hybrid invitation cards etc. The haunted house is so lovely it even makes me tempted to make on just for the hell of it LOL.

The page is Emily of course. I bought her the little outfit to wear to a pumpkin farm but it was a very cold day hence the jumper underneath and it was too muddy to go see the pumpkins when we got there. She did look adorable though.

So the news today - apart from the fact that I am still functioning on 2 hours sleep a day and am more tired than I have ever been in my life and am planning on sleeping the ENTIRE weekend - is that the kitchen is now officially finished.

Units done, floor done, sills done. Complete and done and dusted (Oh yes ..... very dusted)

Actually even that isn't true as we do still have to have the windows replaced but I am not planning that for the winter and I am glad we have no more workmen in the house for a very very long time!!!!!

It is hard to photograph as the kitchen - thankfully - is a room that is always full of sunlight. I love the light and one of the things I most love about our house is the bright sunlight all day long. Makes photography a toughie though.

But you get the idea.

Born an original 12 x 12 word art overlay

  This is the last of the set

This is a 12 x 12 overlay with a doodle as well and is again a png file

You can download it here

25th September

Well this double page in the album is going to be fabulous. It's the 25th and I have done very very badly!!!!

No photos of meals .... forgot them all. No photos that are pretty. No photos that are fun. Um not a good day really.  Still I guess it will show that some months the 25th is fairly deadly!

The picture is of the new floor! Once the skirting is done tomorrow I will atke a photo of the whole thing. The cats love the floor as it is so much nicer and softer and warmer. I love it to as I always have bare feet.

This page is one I made for ATDML but didn't manage to get into the gallery. It will appear later.

It is Emily just being Emily! Love her.

It is also the first (and I might add only) time I made something akin to a Prima beauty mark.

I bought a BeJeweller last month and have only used it the once but I did love doing it.

R is for

Forgot that I didn't upload this. I did it a while ago.

I used the Blue Awnings papers again and it is my boy. Everyone knows him as Fiki but his name is actually Rafiki (well actually it is Mustafa Rafiki to be precise but we are on R so Rafiki will do)

We chose their names to reflect their heritage and Rafiki means friend. I don't think Fiki reads too well though as I think he thinks it means fiend (he has lost the R somehwere along the line)

But no matter -we love him

Short post today as my brand new kitchen is in a mess. Can't believe that the flooring people made so much mess - thick whits powder everywhere so we are cleaning cleaning cleaning. I am hoping it doesn't make Kira bad with her dust allergy and it is doing my cough the power of good!

I just want the whole home makeover thing to be over now!