Dolly's Dreamings

We survived Death Valley

Still jet lagged here and sleeping till 9 am which is unheard of for us. we are 6 am people - have to shake this off and reclaim my mornings.

We went for a little walk today and ended up walking for almost 2 hours. Still, it is good exercise and will help to burn off the calories for the Starbucks we carried round with us LOL.

I had a voucher from pat at school for my birthday and also popped into beales to spend it and bought something so perfect from her. I love Willow Tree angels and bought the Angel of Caring which is just such a perfect gift from Pat because she is such a carer, of everybody and is so good to me. There was also enough to but a lovely heart and dragonfly brooch so I am very happy.

I made another page of the holiday (am making a digi album as well as several paper mini books of different aspects)

I used this week's pencil lines sketch and the page explains how lovely the pool at the Hyatt was and how I swam each day at 6.30 am so I could then enjoy a guilt free breakfast.

 

Now - on to the next bit of my holiday.

We have wanted to go to death valley for a long time. We have been close but never been there and so this was the year.

I know - mad to go in the summer, but heck, that's us. I mean, if you are going to go to Death Valley you might as well go when it is warm, right!

We knew it would be hot – but boy were we unprepared.

I guess the realisation started to hit when we arrived at LAX and the imigration offer asked where we were going on our trip. Now I have to say we always feel the immigration officers in LA are the worst of anywhere in America. They never crack a smile and you always feel the gun is only a heartbeat away. We told him where we were staying for the first 5 days and then said we were off to Death Valley. ‘Really,’ he said, ‘Death valley …. In the summer? Really. You do know it will be hot right!’

Yeh – we knew.

Anyway, with plenty of water, a full tank of gas and not very high expectations, we set off for the valley itself.

 

 

We didn’t expect it to be very scenic, but we did want to see the hottest, driest, lowest place in the west. And we did.

The drive there was not terribly scenic and there were few cars once we passed Riverside.

We entered through the Panamint Springs entrance and were glad we were going down not up, as it was quite a descent. We stopped to take pictures in that first part of the valley of the dry sandbeds.

We then headed off to Stovepipe Wells. When we got out there it was HOT. The thermometer in the shade read 120 degrees so it was a fair bit more than that in the sun.

The thing we hadn’t been prepared for, which was so notable, was the wind. It was really really windy and it was scorching hot dry wind. It was like standing under a hairdryer on full heat. I don’t think I will ever forget the wind.  This is Nij in our car - which we loved - and was great for driving off road on the unpaved tracks.

 

We headed off to the mesquite sand dunes next. Now I have a word of advice for anyone foolish enough to visit Death Valley in the summer, at a time when even the locals are saying it is hotter than normal. If you to see the sand dunes, wear trainers. Seriously.

I didn’t and I regret it.

I was wearing my summer hiking sandals. Really comfy – I can walk for miles in them. They are tough and rugged and … well sandals. Open. Exposing bare feet. You get the picture!

The ground is considerably hotter than the air. The guide book said it could be as much as 20 degrees hotter than the air. That puts the sand at somewhere about 150 degrees. That’s hot. That’s very hot when you walk on it in sandals and it fills them and burns your feet.

I ran across those dunes so fast. It was scorching and very painful and unpleasant.

The sand was so soft. I tried doing a ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and treading where Nigel had compacted the sand a little but the sand was so soft and dry (well it would be in that heat and wind wouldn’t it) that there was little for me to tread into.

 

However, it was beautiful and we had never seen proper desert sand dunes before. We have been in the desert a lot, but it has tended to be dry high desert with scrubby creosote bushes and rocks and not the pure sand at mesquite. We loved it. But not the hasty run back across them to the car!

 

 

We drove around other parts of the National Park, including seeing Hell’s Gate  and Golden Canyon.

We then dropped down lower and lower and stopped at Devil’s Golf Course – so called because only the devil would play golf in such a crazy spot. There were calcified salt stack and as we were lower it was hotter. Really hard to be out of the car in the heat.

 

But we had a task to do there. There was no-one else around so it was the perfect place for our ‘mythbusters’ video. I can’t share the video yet – it’s not downloaded – but I can tell you what we did. I have no pride and so before we left the Hyatt in cold old Newport beach I asked if I could have 2 raw eggs. I explained why – saying I was a crazy English lady and off to Death Valley to see if you really can cook an egg on the pavement as it is so hot. So we took out one of the eggs and had a go and Nigel filmed our own episode of mythbusters.

 

What happened? Did it fry in that terrific heat? Did the egg cook? Well you will have to wait and see till the Nij Video episode is complete!

From there we headed off to Badwater, the lowest point in the US at 282 feet below sea level. (We have been lower as we have been to The Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley at over 1000 feet below sea level) It was an amazing landscape down there on the valley floor with dregs of water and acres and acres of salt crystals. Very bizarre and unbearably hot. It really wasn’t a place for hiking!

 

 

 

   

From there we did the very scenic and twisty turny Artist's Drive round Artist’s palette with the multi coloured rocks and then we made our way to our base for the night at Furnace Creek (how aptly named)

 

I will document Furnace Creek tomorrow LOL.

But here is a page I made for a challenge at PBP using a template about surviving Death Valley.

My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• My blog. I am pretty sure no-one but family reads it most days, but I love writing my on-line diary and looking back on it. It is the best therapy ever. And I have three years of memories stored away. Perfect.

 

 

 

 

Mrs Woos laundry

That's where I feel i have been today - I have washed and dried and ironed and am pooped. How do we generate so much iorning in such a short space of time!

I was going to change the bed today as well, but i just couldn't face more ironing. It will have to wait until tomorrow.

Consequently I haven't done as much scrapping as I would have liked, but I can now share two new pages I made last week whilst I was away. oh yes - the beauty of digital scrapping. have laptop, can scrap. i made one of them at the airport waiting for our flight.

They both use fabulous new goodies by Dawn Inskip. PickleberryPop is celebrating its 4th birthday and they have such awesome goody bags as amazing prices. I got to work with Dawn's (and then went and bought others LOL)

The first is a page from when we were away on holiday - Nigel and a Joshua tree. I love those weird looking trees.

and the second is a page about Emily and when she 'milked' a wooden cow! No I kid you not - she seriously did LOL

OK so more on the holiday. Sunday 18th was actually a quiet day for us. we were going to head to the beach but the marine layer - sea mist, fog, whatever you want to call it, rolled in. I gather it rolls in A LOT throughout the summer so we were lucky that it only scuppered our plans for one day.

We headed off to a shopping mall instead and mooched and bough some great clothes at fab prices (and the US sizes are such that most of what I bought - even trousers - were size 12. I think i will wear them with the label OUTSIDE!!! ) We lazed by the pool in the afternoon and then went for a fabulous meal at The Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Island which is just opposite the hotel. Now if you have never been to the Cheesecake factory - GO! It is awesome. i defy anyone not to find something they like ont he menu. their menu is like a novel - pages long and full of goodies. Here is a LINK to check it out. Makes for great reading.

So on to Monday 19th and a day at the beach.

We had only ever visited Venice Beach and Santa Monica fleetingly years and years ago and so as Nigel's brother is quite keen to go there we went to check it out.  We parked at Venice Beach and the cost was very reasonable. We planned to walk to santa Monica but it is a long way and was too hot so in the end we didn't.

Venice was everything I expected it to be - but actually nicer. My expectations were very low! It was a bit like stepping back into a time warp in the late 60's. A real atmosphere os free love, hippies, and so many places offering medicinal marijuana. The sidewalks were lined with quite bizarre shops and lots of street vendors and actually, in places, quite a lot of hustle to buy from them. It was the sort of place you felt you wanted to hold your bag tightly.

However, the beach was a typical Californian beach - acres and acres of sand with just a sprinkling of people quite close to the water. Coming from here I am used to avoiding the beach in the summer as it is always crowded and we have small beaches where most of the time a few steps take you to the water. In California you pack lunch to walk from the promenade to the sea! And the sand is just that - sand. Not stones and seaweed but sand!

We watched the skateboarders and also the guys at Muscle Beach and just ambled around. I am just so cross with myself that I ambled a lot in midday sun and there was a cool sea breeze and I was stupid enough and cocky enough to think I wouldn't burn .... and I did!

We headed back to the car after a couple of hours and drove out to Malibu to look at a very different coastline - far more rugged - and then back to Santa Monica. Again the parking lots were not full and the beach was busier by the water but loads and loads of pristine empty sand.

We walked along the pier, just soaking up the atmosphere and it was really very nice. Like stepping back in time again to a traditional seaside fairground atmosphere.

We drove home via Beverley Hills and Rodeo drive and packed for the next part of the trip.

Now I add this link here - not sure if it will work - but someone commented on it the other day and I was amazed as i had forgotten it even existed.

CAT'S SLIDESHOW

My quote for today will be added later as I haven't typed them up yet!

Today I am thankful for

• clean laundry DONE!

 

Nigel's Day - The California Angels

I am sat here typing feeling very noble.

I was at the gym by 9.30 this morning! Amazing I was anywhere by 9.30 as my body has seriously not adjusted. I couldn't sleep last night - wide awake at midnight and onwards (because my body thought it was early afternoon) and was dead as a dodo this morning but it was 'fur o'clock' and so we had to get up.

Anyway I feel quite noble having done a heck of a work out and been for an hours walk as well.

But to be honest - I have to do it to get the pounds off that I have put on whilst on holiday. I need to get them back off and fast. Having said that i did enjoy eating and drinking exactly what i wanted. I know I can't do it all the time, but once in a while it doesn't hurt and at least I am only having to shift a few pounds this time not 6 stone!

Today for my holiday post i am finishing off saturday 17th July. The rest of the day was a Nigel day - and quite right too.

Nigel has supported the Angels for almost 30 years. He is not a huge sports fan - he likes morot sport of all kinds (but especially speedway obviously) and baseball. he doesn't ever watch football or cricket or rugby, but he does like baseball and has always supported the Angels. They were, for years, a pretty poorly performing team, but he stuck with them through thick and thin. And he celebrated like mad when, in 2002, they really were the best team in the world when they won the World Series. he watched it live on TV and came to tell me the good news at about 5 am! I was thrilled!

Anyway, whenever we go to California we try to see them play and this year was no exception.

The last time we saw them live was in 2007 when they played an amazing game against the yankee and beat them 18 :9

This is a page celebratingt hat visit that I made a couple of weeks ago for a challenge.

After a fabulous dinner at Outback (I LOVE their food. Loads of salad and gorgeous steaks) we headed off to Angel Stadium in Anaheim.

Nigel shopped - always important - but in actual fact the store was quite disappointing. Their polo shirts are very expensive and yet poor quality and they didn't carry the socks he likes or any other nice souveniers. however, I did spot the jacket he had been looking for and he got that - and even put it on briefly despite the incredible heat. It was a 6 pm game and our seats were in the full sun and it was hot hot hot. I was so glad when the sun finally went down. Plus, baseball should only be watched under floodlights. It didn't seem right in daylight to be honest.

Anyway it was a great game, and a win for the Angels.

Here are some photos from that part of our first full day.

It was so hot I had to buy a hat (and me a Dodgers fan!!!!)

and just to prove I do still scrap - honest - here is a page I made last night for a challenge over at PBP

Apologies for the pun in the title but Angel in the Outfield just was so close to A Nigel it had to be done!

My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• the energy to go to the gym
• low fat foods that actually taste OK
• time to scrap

Jet lag and Freebies

Today has been a bit of a lazy day. We hit bed at around 9 pm - we fought to stay up that long having been up for about 31 hours by then and slept right through till 9 am and would have gone longer but the phone woke us up!

However, the washing is done, the unpacking is done, most of the things are put away and I seriously seriously never ever need to shop again. seriously.

The cats are so pleased to see us - they are stuck to us like glue - and they are also very tired. I don't think they slept well in the cattery.

Before I hit my report of the first day of our holidays I had a request to repost this free alphabet that you can download.

It is a chrome alphabet - each individual files.  Please feel free to use it but follow the TOU if you do. Thanks

You can download it HERE

I will add the add on kit next week.  

So - on to the report of saturday 17th July - yes I know this is going to be odd doing each day like this, but heck I need to record it and it is the only way I now how to.

I thought it best to include some shots of the hotel first. The Hyatt is lovely with massive grounds with a gold course and tennis courts and several pools and acres of beauty to wander in.

This was the lobby area of the building we were in

We were right across from the pool and most mornings there I was very good and went for a swim at 6 am so i could justify the breakfast LOL. I would do my early morning 30 laps alone in the gentle early morning californian sunshine. i could get used to that!

These are just some general views of the hotel - the valet check in (I love valet parking .... wish I could do it everywhere ever!) and around the hotel.

and this one is quite interesting .... me at breakfast the first morning and the second picture is me sat at almost the same table when we were there 3 years ago in 2007. The venue hasn't changed .... thankfully i have!

After breakfast we headed to one of my favourite stores in the area - a huge JoAnn near where we were staying. Last time we visited they had a massive sale on with 40% off all scrapping stuff. It was way cheaper than a scrapbook store.

this time ... Oh yes - 40% off everything again.

I spent a fortune but it came to a fraction of the cost it should have done. I bought loads of acryllic stamps and they were all reduced and worked at out at about £5 a set. Too good to miss. This was the first batch I bought then i went back to another joanns and bought another load as I was fantasising about the price LOL

I also bought paper stacks which I am not such a huge fan of but as they worked out at about £5 each for the 12 x 12 stacks i figured they represented a good deal.

I bought loads of inks too as they were on offer for about £4 for sets of 4 dewdrop inks.

If i had lived nearer and didn't have to worry about too many extra suitcases I would have bought enough staff to last the rest of my life. Oh - wait a minute .... I think I already did that!

 I will finish off Saturday when I post tomorrow as it was a very special end of the day and merits a post of  its own.

Now clearly I don't have any new scrapping for today to share, but I do have some pages I made for challenges before i went and even a couple I made whilst i was there LOL.

It seems appropriate to share this one today as I really did have a wonderful time with my special guy - just the two of us, chilling out and enjoying a holiday.

It was made for a challenge at MLAS and uses materials by natalie designs.

My quote for today is

Today I am thankful for

• Being home and having ALMOST enough cupboard space
• Sleep
• My photobox pictures ordered fromt he airport on Monday about midnight which arrived today

 

I'm Back!!

I’m back

Well, those of you who are observant may well have noticed my blog posts have been a little vaguer than normal …. No seriously … not just my usual vagueness.

I wrote them all two weeks ago and posted them ahead of time because ….

Big drum roll here ….

…..

I have been away on holiday!

Yes, the first holiday we have had in three years. We have been away away and it has been fab and I can say that with a happy heart now I am back home and safe and have my babies back.

I have had a seriously good time but I seriously hate being away from home and, more importantly, away from my fur babies. Last time we were away was in Canada in 2007 and Kira was so sick afterwards, so it was really hard plucking up the courage to leave them again.  But Kira is fine (LOUD but fine) and I am happy they are back where they belong and so are we.

I am afraid you are going to have to love my holiday day by day retrospectively as I do want to blog it now I am home – and share all the pictures of course.

Well it started, as always, with an early morning start to Heathrow. It can take anything from 1 ½ - 2 ½ hours depending on traffic. We were very lucky because we had absolutely no traffic hold ups at all. Tim so kindly fetched us and drove us up. What a gentleman.

We were using up air miles and so flying Upper Class to LA. The Virgin Clubhouse was, as ever, wonderful, and they provide a great meal, or two, lots of champagne and priority boarding. Just the 11 hour flight to get through eh!

The flight went as flights always do – slowly! However it was smooth and trouble free and we landed at 3.30 pm local time and were in our hire car driving away by 4.30. Amazing. We know our route to Newport Beach pretty well and so we drove down, stopping on the way for road trip essentials like water, diet coke and nibbles and then checked in to The Hyatt Regency Newport Beach. It was a lovely warm 82 degrees and we were in the Balboa building just across from the pool.

On our first morning we headed off to Balboa Island. If Newport Beach is the posh part of Southern California then Balboa is the posh part of Newport Beach LOL. It is a real millionaires boating community but totally lovely and with a very unassuming village feel. It was a glorious Californian morning and we parked in the small main street and just mooched and browsed and took pictures and enjoyed the real vacation feeling.

 

 

 

We had been to Balboa before on my very first trip to the States in 1983. I had been over-awed by America and on our first day Nij’s cousins took us to Balboa. The local speciality was frozen banana and it blew my mind as a new traveller. Consequently on this trip I had to take a picture of one of the stores.

The other pictures are of Balboa, the stores, the waterfront and so on.

It really was lovely.

 

 

 

 

I will catch up on more tomorrow as I am now seriously jet-lagged and need to sleep. As I type this the clocks here at home say it is just after 6 pm on Tuesday but my body clock says it is 10 am on Tuesday and I got up at 5.45 am Monday so I am pretty tired and hope to sleep well for something approaching 12 hours …. Soon!

My quote of the day is on the other computer but today I am thankful for

 

• being back home
• being back with my fur family
• a wonderful holiday
• loads of birthday cards waiting for me
• my own bed 

 

5210 Prompt 30 my pages

I hope you had fun yesterday witht he prompt.

I love outside - i really do. I love to be out int he garden. In the summer the sun loungers are a permanent feature and I am there every day i can be. I love the peace. no traffic sound just bird song and airplanes.

I love gazing out of my scraproom window as I am now and seeing the view of the garden which sort of blends into the heath. Wide open spaces all around.

Trouble is I am not much of a gardener. I like the garden to look nice but hate doing it.

Having tried many things here we have accepted the fact that our garden is really just an extension of the heath it was created from.

The only things that grow are pine trees, rhododendrons, azaleas and heathers (but the good news is they are all low maintenance)

I read a quote once that said gardening was the battle of cultivation over nature - well I have lost the war and nature has won.

Our garden looks better since Nigel is home all the time as he works hard to keep it up together.

But i love my garden.

My quote for today is

So the message is let go of those worries. easier said than done but we need to try.

Today I am thankful for

• the beauty of the outdoors
• my garden
• birdsong

5210 Prompt 30

Well - we are over half way through the project and about to start a whole new theme this week.

I don't know how everyone is getting on. I know some people are keeping up week by week but lots are saving prompts for when they have more time.

I said from the outset this was NOT a race and you couldn't 'fall behind' because you didn't have to do things at certain times etc. It doesn't matter if you have done all the prompts or none of them. Whatever works for you is what is important.

Me - well i have to keep up don't I LOL.

I have to say I am loving my album so much. It is very thick and chunky now and I need to try and be a bit more restrained and stop doing double pages or else it will not all fit in.

But it is looking good and is doing exactly what I want which is making a record of a year I was dreading. And actually, now the big 50 has happened - a couple of days ago actually - it is not so bad. It really isn't. The birthday was painless and actually good fun and when i have sorted out my pictures I will post a few of me as an 'old lady' hitting the 50 mark!

Anyway I digress.

Today i would like you to step outside with me.

Come on - outside int he fresh air - and lets have a look what we can see around us out there.

 

I hope you have fun witht his prompt - it starts a whole new theme for the albums or journals.

 

 

Achievement

OK - so I don't mean an achievement for me to have reached 50 - though I have  LOL and it wasn't as bad as I envisaged actually. the limbs still work, the hair is no greyer, the face is no more wrinkled.

But I am talking about the word achievement and what it means. I am taking part, as part of the Design team over at It's A Creative World, in the year long project all about simple things and words.

This was my entry for the challenge that went live last week. Do go and check out what the others have done because let me tell you, their work rocks.

I have been focusing on photos of plants and flowers for the entire album and linking these in with definitions and quotes and this month is no exception.

I started as usual by thinking about how this word - achievement - translated to the project and what it made me think of.

I have to say this one came pretty quickly. The photo of the the new leaves unfurling on a horse chestnut tree that I took back in April popped straight into my mind.

I love spring and one of the things that fascinates me is how seemingly dead twigs burst into life.

Now THAT has to be quite some achievement!

Here is the whole page

 

  
I used lots of blending both with masks and with the eraser to try and get the softness I was hoping for.

My quote today is

  

 

Today I am thankful for

• reaching 50 - it's better than not!

In celebration

No proper post today - too busy having fun (and burying my head in the sand and pretending that I am still 21 instead of a whole bigger number!)

I have had many many wonderful gifts and an incredible day which I will write about another time. meanwhile I have to share one of the gifts Nij gave me.

He has made me a dvd filled with so much love and this is one part of the DVD.

I will share the other part another day.

I may be old now, but I am a very very lucky lady to have spent half of my life married to such an incredible man.

Just some photographic memories from the past ... and there are some pretty dire pictures there!

July 1960

July 1963

 

July 1965

July 1968

 

July 1973

July 1981

 

 

July 1983

 

July 1991

  

July 2000

 

July 2005

July 2009

 

 

July 2010

A Tired little monster

I love my fur babies - i truly do.

But I have to say - and it is honestly true - they are hard work. With Kira and Boo having allergies requiring special food and pills and Fiki being Fiki, it's not like having 'normal cats'. Fiki in particular i onto everything all the time.

He is like the Duracell bunny - his batteries take ages before they run down. His latest - and it is driving us crazy - is biting the new lamp in the lounge. It is one of those fairy light and twig jobs - looks lovely. It is a Fiki magnet. He never touches it when we are not in there, but as soon as we go in he is at it constantly. It is just attention seeking and much as we try to resist rising to the bait, we do go for it. He is a little horro.

The fact he is a horror inspired this page I made.

The series of photos taken the other day when he was on the window-sill in my scrap room, show the transition as he gradually calmed down and finally, blissfully and mercifully, slept.

It's a good job he is handsome or he may have found himself on e bay!

I made the page as part of my CT work for Kate's Digital designs and it uses a template of hers from Designs in Digital and a kit called Tranquility from both Designs in Digital and My Life & Scrap.

I also made this poge as a CT page - but this one was for Dawn at her PBP store. It is the most gorgeous summer meadows kit and just begged to be used for pretty pretty things and so I scrapped some of the butterflies from Longleat. You can get the kit from her store at PBP.

My quote for today is

Mmmm - salient advice for a Fiki owner.

Today i am thankful for

• the fact Fiki's batteries do run down occasionally and he sleeps .... sometimes.