Dolly's Dreamings

One month complete

Well, the first month of the 365 project is complete - well sort of! I have taken pictures every day this month - though some have been a reall challenge.

I have scrapped weeks 1, 2 and 3 and just need to scrap week 4 and then a whole of January page.

The odd thing is that it doesn't quite work. Week 4 is January but week 5 is going to be jan and feb combined. I guess it doesn't matter but I do so like things to be neat.

My final picture for January shows you one of the things I have been up to today.

Having had my hair cut on Tuesday it needed a bit of a lift to colour the silver highlights!

I have also been scrapping. I am getting back into scrapping just for me for the sheer hell of it.

For a while the only paper scrapping I did was DT work. But now I am also scrapping using my own stash .... goodness knows I need to.

The SLYMI challenge on UKS this week was black and white.

I had every intention of doing a monochromatic layout but it didn't quite pan out that way LOL.

The photo is our beautiful Boo. I love the fact that we have two pedigree bengals, who are stunning, but that our little rescue tabby is a real show stopper.

She is so beautiful (and such a devoted girl to her Daddy as well) She loves me but I am afraid it is a case of I will do whilst her beloved Daddy isn't there.

Didn't Princess Diana say there were three people in her marriage. Well - there are certainly three in ours, except Boo thinks I am the one who shouldn't be there!!!!

 As I sit here typing Nigel is perched on the very edge of his chair at his computer because Boo likes to share the chair with him - and she doesn't share well.

She insists on sitting there and he is so soft hearted he won't move her.

If he ever does -w hich is rare - she simply walks across his keyboard until he can't stand it any longer and relents and lets her sit on the chair again.

Spoilt? Boo? Of course not!!!

An old fashioned trunk

My show and tell today - posted thanks toKelli's House and Kelli who hosts show and tell - is a very special post today.

the item I am sharing doesn't look much.

It is old

 

It is battered

 

But it is so special.

 

The trunk was my Daddy's. It was his trunk when he was in the army. It travelled round the world with him. It spent a long time in Egypt with him.

He had so,eone paint his name and rank and number so nicely on it. (The other writing is not quite so good LOL)

For as long as I can remember this box was in his workshed at home. It was fixed to the wall of his shed and held all sorts of tools and bits and pieces. Every house he moved to the trunk went and so did his workbench. My Daddy was a wonderful handyman, a great carpenter, a plumber, an electrician. His worshop or shed was so important to him.

Even when he was very poorly and quite elderly, the shed was kept in tact. He could no longer easily walk out to it because he didn't have oxygen piped in there, but he knew it was there, all his tools were there; it was OK.

When Daddy passed away many of his tools were taken home by Nigel - but the two more important things were brought home - his workbench - now fitted in Nigel's workshop and used lovingly by him, and his trunk.  He would have been so proud that Nigel used his tools. He would be so proud he fitted his workbench in his own shed.

The trunk just seems to sum it all up.

My photo of the day is of some new bulbs I saw sprouting.

It is cold with a bitter wind but these little daffodil bulbs are forcing their way through the frozen ground ready to brighten our spring.

  

I will take another picture when they come into bud and into flower.

Snow days and love cards

I made another card with my new stamps last night. I am so loving them and I know I really need to get scrapping, but I am just enjoying the cards at the moment.

I am loving making valentine's cards (no - not all for me to send LOL) and this was a real quick one to do.

I used a threading water punch, some very old chatterbox papers, SU stamps and some ribbon.

I am also sharing this and the page below as part of papercrafting Thursday which is hosted over at Kelli's House on her fab blog.

I am also posting this page which was made as a design team piece for ATDML last month.
We almost never get snow here and I really would love to - just a little, just once in a while.

these photos were taken when i was on a scrapping retreat in April last year. Having gone to bed on a normal evening we woke to this - totally unexpected and totally wonderful.

The hotel staff were fascinated. It was a scrapbooking retreat and so they watched in awe and disbelief as inappropriately dressed women rushed for their cameras, braved the cold and took as many photos as they could! Nothing like scrappers eh!

The table and chairs int he bottom picture was wherr we were sat enjoying spring sunshine with our coffee the day before. the transformation in such a short time was amazing.

The close up shows there is a lot of sewing on the page

The letters were digital letters by Pat Christensen that I printed and cut out, mounted on card and 3D foam.

My photo for the day today is footwear again I am afraid - though I guess quite different than my red boots!

They are my interview shoes LOL

No I wasn't being interviewed but was doiing the interviewing.

They look very smart and business like - and hurt like hell!!!

Miscellaneous bits

I will start with another card made for the SU challenge - it is very simple but Icouldn't wait to play with the stamp.

I plan on buying some new watercolour pencils and an aqua brush and playing with those too.

I know I was not buying any stash but this was a club I joined ages ago, long before the stash embargo, so it really doesn't count!!!

I finished my latest book last night - A Charming Man by Mmarian Keyes. It was a bit slow to get started but I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. The characters were well developed and one in particular - no spilers - really gripped me.

The Pad has started a book club and so I am looking forward to reading some different books that I may well not have chosen myself.

 The first one arrived the otther day so i am going to make a start on it tonight.

The page here is a page from my calendar. I made a calendar for Sam which I posted but I never posted our calendar pictures so here are the first two.

I was going to make traditional scrapbook pages for it but int he end I decided to go digital as less lumpy was the better option.

I have decided I will blog each page in the month it appears. 

So this is what is on the calendar at the moment.

I find that some days i am really dredging the barrel for a photo to take, but sometimes I come up with one I am really pleased with.

Pleased in the sense it will tell a good story in years to come rather than pleased artistically I might add.

Today was one of those days.

I had to fill the car up and thought it would be nice to record the cost etc.

So here it is - my picture of the day today.

A Photo a day week 3

I haven't taken my photo for today yet. I know exactly what I am going to take but i can't take it till later!!!

I have, however, made my photo a day week 3 page.

This time I used all products from the Weeds and Wildflowers collection designed specially for this project.

I have to say I think it was the most boring week of photos ever - but I was ill!!! I guess, if nothing else, it will serve as a reminder of that week.

OK so I am ready to add my photo for today and can I say it is nothing like I thought it would be. I imagined something sort of arty but instead got a pile of hair and a broom and nothing arty at all.

We have both just had our hair cut and so I thought it would be apt for today.

The same girl has cut my hair for the last 25 years and she is very patient. i HATE having my hair cut, combed, fiddled with etc so she comes round to the house and does us both and she is a real friend. Notice how some of the hair is very black (mine) and some is very very grey (Nigel's) Ha!

I have been loving my new stamps. I was a hostess for this months SU 10 club and so I had loads of stamps.

I got stamps I bought, stamps for beingt he hostess, stamps from sale-abration. Fabulous. I was thrilled.

The gorgeous Jo who does all this organised a challenge to make cards with the new stamps so here are two of mine I made really quickly this evening.

I used some scrasps of chatterbox papers and ribbon and I am quite pleased with them.

smile word art

So sorry

link and image removed as apparently this is in breach of copyright.

I am sos orry for the wasted visit :(

CPR

I have been on a first aid course today. I was not lookin forward to it as I felt I had been there, done that. But it was a great course. As always when you do these things, lots had changed since the last time I did it, but the guy teaching it had just the right mix of fun, info and advice and it was good.

My picture of the day is using Little Anne - not my hands but Jakki's but serves as a good reminder of the day.

The digi page here is one I made last night for the Scrap Like You Mean it challenge on UKS. It was to use a sketch and this is just what came to mind - and I am kind of pleased with how it worked out.

I used papers from Dawn Inskip's My Gift, the letters are from her Personality alphabet, the paint from balance is Beautiful and title is word art from C Borgfield.

The picture is himself sunning himself in the kitchen. He is SUCH a pleasure seeker.

Card challenges

I had loads - I mean loads - of new stamps on Friday. I haven't had a chance to play with any of the new SU stamps yet as I was doing DT work yesterday (and I managed 4 pages)

I also managed Debbie's Hero Arts card challenge and it was also made for the Daring Cardmakers challenge as well.

The Daring Cardmakers challenge was a heart/valentine themed card and Debbie's was to use only the new Hero Arts stamps and no patterned paper, other stamps etc.

We were wed t use ribbon and I didnt use any on this card so hope my teeny bit of wire might pass muster!

I was inspired to make the valentine spinner card by the fab tutorial by Louise on the Dottie's World blog.

Louise designs for Dotties World and Charmed Cards and Crafts and her tutorial was so inspiring I just had to try it. Mine hasn't turned out anything like as slick at hers but I can see I will be making more spinner cards.

They are very simple following her tutorial and great fun to make.

I also used my Cuttlebug - which I have to say I am loving.

The second card used the other set of Hero Arts stamps I had on Friday.

I used versamark ink ont he background and pink chalk and then used various stamped images and raised loads up on foam squares.

The light is awful here today but I guess you get the idea.

I stuck to the rules of the challenge - no patterned paper, no other stamps and a bit of ribbon.

I will be back with my picture for today and my usual round up of the day later. It is the 25th today and so I need to take a lot of pictures.

I can see a page full of me ironing, me cleaning, me cooking, me washing etc - I bet that will be sooooooo exciting.

Well we had a fun day taking motion pictures and maybe have 2 I can use LOL

Still it was fun trying.

we have both had more energy today and so the band reformed and we have rocked our way through Sunday.

We also popped out so I could christen my new boots and they are my photo for today.

I have to share a few more though - as it was 25th today it meant I took more pictures.

It was a dull dreary day and so the pictures all look dull and dreary but heck - such is life.

The picture of Fiki with the new boots was too good to resist and the one of us was taken by Nij ..... he has longer arms than me LOL.

Neither of us look well still but boy we look a lot better than we did!

the red boots are significant. I have wanted a pair of red boots for years - never found any I liked or that were comfy. I am in 7th heaven

I NEEDED a Starbucks

Now we haven't been well. Both feeling very wiped out, very down and so went to get the best lift ever - a Starbucks!!!

I mean it wasn't like we just WANTED one - we NEEDED one! A lovely vente frapaccino. And we shared a cinnamon whirl.

It was a real pick me up.

I also managed to buy a pair of boots I have been searching for for over 18 months since my beloved Hush Puppy boots fell apart. i have enver managed to find a pair I loved and found them today in the most unlikely of places.

They are soooooo comfortable and funky and I will take a picture of them for my photo tomorrow or the next day.

For the first time I have felt like scrapping. I have made two pages for a DT assignment this morning plus a digital page with some cute new stuff I just had to buy this morning. I bought some new mandabean word art. I just adore her word art and use it so much.

This was a quick 20 minute page made with some of the new things I nabbed this morning.

I want to go make some cards now as I had a bumper bumper parcel of new Stamping Up stamps from Jo (I have more rubber stamps than I ever thought I would have and they are so cute) plus my Hero Arts order came from Debbie and they are lush.

Have a fab Saturday everyone x

Kitchen show and tell

We recently remodelled our kitchen and every day it brings me such joy. I love being in there as it is so bright and airy now.

Today for show and tell I  wanted to share some of the little details of the kitchen. Show and tell is a great idea hosted on Kelli's blog at Kelli's House. Do pop over and have a look.

Needless to say, just as you would expect, there are lots of catty things in my kitchen - real and other

This little cat was a present Nigel bought me at a craft fair a few years ago.

I can't think what made him buy it - I mean ... as if I shop!

I loved it because it was very cute and it is stood ont he windowsill.

This cat picture was made by Nigel. A long time ago he was really into decoupage. The chunky stuff with silicone glue.

I think it came from his love of models and model making. he has made many pictures, some of which are unbelievably details with literally hundreds of pieces. He doesn't make them from kits but used to buy greetings cards and make them from that. This was one he made me for an anniversary.

We both enjoy homemade things around the house and we have almost no bought pictures in our home. In fact, I can think of only 1 in the whole house.

These two little plates were made by me years and years ago. They just went so well with the tiles in the kitchen that it seemed the perfect place to hang them.

They were made from a kit which came with the frames and the pictures to embroider.

The frames have such a lot of detail at the bottom - really delicate and dimensional.

 

I used to have several cross stitch pictures in the kitchen but when we changed it I didn't put them back up.

I have still kept them as I like them but have bowhere for them to go.

One was a beautiful welsh dresser picture ... with cats amongst the plates of course.

We wanted some new pictures to go in the kicthen when it was changed and so we finally got round to assembling this picture frame - we had purchsed it over a year earlier but had never filled it.

You will probably need to click on it to enlarge it. It features some of the places we have visited in recent years and have loved.

The final picture I want to share today is one I made specially for the kitchen featuring the colours of the room.

I used photos of the house (I have covered this one for posting on the blog) us, the cats and the word HOME.

I cherish my home and the people (and cats) in it.

Thank you for looking at my kitchen bits and pieces - I am now off to see what you have all shared.

Dawn Inskip has two new kits released today. they are called Hopelessly devoted and Lizards return and they are lush. You can buy them at both PBP and NDISB in her stores there.

This is a page I made with the new kits.

The Hopelessly devoted kit is realy good value too as it has two alphas in the kit as well as loads of word art and papers and embellishments.

It's another one of those kits you know you will use over and over again.

Finally, my picture of the day. It might not be very imaginative, but it is very refreshing.

I gave up Diet Coke in November as I had read so much stuff that was bad about Aspartame so Diet Coke and any other diet drink went out of my diet.

Although drinking no aspartame hasn't brought the benefits I hoped for, I am glad I have cut something bad out of my diet and now I find them all too sweet and cloying.

I now live on soda water served with lots of ice (I couldn't live without our big American fridge and ice dispenser) and with a wedge of lime.

CHEERS everyone!