Dolly's Dreamings

Time for a Tea Party

I have very very little time today (I am so looking forward to the end of Friday when we break up and I will have oodles of time) so this is a quick little post about a new kit.

Dawn Inskip (in collab with Lorrie M) has a new kit out today called Tea Party.

This is one of the pages I made with Dawn's part of the collab.

 
Elinor looking a little bemused on her first birthday.

Today i am thankful for

• the end being in sight
• making it through another day - at 2.00 am this morning that seemed in doubt. Not really very well and look awful (judging by how many people have told me how ill I look!)

 

I think that is the cutest little kitten I have ever ever seen. I want one! Oh, wait, I have one almost just like that called Kira. She is not an ocelot, but is an oce-bit!

Limping to the end

The end of term is in sight and I am limping towards it ... quite literally as it happens.

My dodgy ankle (old injury - long story, reasonably serious ailment) has been acting up today and locking repeatedly which means my little bits of bone shrapnel are on the move again which is shame as they have stayed put for quite a while.

I wanted to flag up for everyone that there is a fabulous scrapping contest running on UKS and you still have time to enter.

You can find the details HERE and there are categories for paper scrappers, digital scrappers and hybrid scrappers. I hope lots of people will have a go and if you are digi scrappers I get to be the mentor for that category - which i am rather thrilled by actually.

One of the categories you have to submit a page for is the non picture category and so I thought I would share a non picture page I had made a while ago and never shared. It was made using the cute stick people by Dawn Inskip (and the papers are hers too) and was for a PBP challenge.

 
Today I am thankful for

• doing my thankful thing every day because there are some days when actually i am just not in a very thankful place and doing this post daily makes me stop and realise just how much I actually have to be thankful for. If it were not for this focus I would, at times, forget that!

 

 

 

More of the dining room

I know I say this often, but a head's job is a many and varied thing. It really is.

I think today I have been .....

 ......a head teacher, a PR agent, a landscape gardener, an interior designer, a trouble shooter, a nurse, a social worker, a strategist and a politician. The one thing i haven't been is a teacher! It sure keeps me on my toes - so much on my toes today that my feet are absolutely killing me!

Anyway, back tot he dining room .

This is the second page

 
The dining room is almost permanently in 'Christmas time'. The table is all laid out in its finst with ebtter china than i have on my real table! There are crystal glasses, tiny knives and forks and even crackers on the table.

There is a large Christmas tree and a veritable banquet laid out on the side board which really does look good enough to eat. The parquet floor was laid in individual strips of wood and took ages, but it was worth it.

The grandfather clock works, and like every room in the house it is lit with gorgeous handmade lights by Ray Storey.

I can't resist sharing some close ups

  
 
Bear in mind the dish of vegetables is under 1" long and you see how skilled the makers were.

 

Today I am thankful for

• taking my shoes off!!! (You have no idea)
• My very very exciting new book arriving. It is Jean Auel, Land of the Painted Caves ... the very last ever in the Earth's Children series that started with Clan of the Cave Bear published in 1980. It has been a long 31 year wait for the conclusion of the 6 book series. I can't wait to start reading it but almost don't want to as I then won't have it to look forward to (if that makes any sense)

  
 

Dolly's Little Dining room

The weather was meant to change but, thus far, it hasn't. I am really pleased. I'd be more pleased if I was off work, of course.

I am sat here typing listening to a new CD that i am already loving - it is Seasons of my Soul by Rumer. I have been going to buy it for ages and just didn't get around to it. I tend to buy music direct to my Ipod but i wanted this for the car as well - and at £5.99 I think it is a great buy. I actually think CDs are incredibly cheap. When I think how much an LP (Oh yes I am THAT old) cost relative to wages I think CDs are a steal. I am loving it because I was a huge Carpenters fan and the similarities in music, voice and style are unbelievable.

I have a new page  to share today. It is another page from my doll house album - this time of the dining room.

I think the dining room is my favourite room in the house. I love the many many tiny details (no pun intended) The dining room furniture was hand made by a local artisan and is a work of art. For example the sideboard drawers are lined with green baize and contain the minitaure cutlery. There is a corkscrew that is so perfect and so tiny. the food, by a company called Etcetera, it is so real it is not true. Not only the Christmas dinner, but the bowl of fruit is amazing. It is so real.

 
The front of the house has bay windows and I had curtains made for the main room and for the bay. They were made by a company called Reverie and they are so beautifully detailed.

 

 The flap lifts up for a closer picture of some of the details.

 
If you look really carefully you can just make out the tiny corkscrew (love love love that) in front of the minature Bonsai.

I will share the other page which has the whole room on tomorrow when I have scanned it.

Today I am thankful for

• music and musicians who brighten the soul

 

Sunday's are for scrapping and selling

Sundays are for scrapping - I said so, so it must be true.

Mind you, if I actually got on with it and scrapped it would be even more true! I seem to accomplish so much less these days as I have the attention span of a gnat. No- maybe that is unfair on gnats!

I have made a couple of pages, but needless to say i can't share them yet - but i can share one near the end of the week.

I have one week of term left and then I will, hopefully, have more time.

Sundays are for selling too. I have been gradually putting clothes on e bay and selling them. I am still on bin bag two and have another 15 to clear so i am likely to be doing this all year as I only put ten items a week on. And the rule is that if they don't sell that week they go to charity. Charity is doing well LOL

Trouble is when I get the momey in paypal I spend it and it has gone already on a new watch and on an anniversary present for Nigel.

This is the watch - I have the gold version with the white face too and it is just so comfortable and practical. I hunted for a watch I liked for years - literally. So when i saw this one - and at a very cheap price - it had to be.

 
 Nigel has worn a wooden bead necklace for the last 11 years. Not the same one - as they don't last forever. I think the one that broke last week was version number 3 or 4. However, it broke at just the right time because I convinced him he needed a leather troll bead necklace for his anniversary present and so we have not bought on. (I hadn't realised quite how expensive but heck - he is so worth it) He has the leather necklace, the silver lock and safety chain and a silver heart bead. he has picked two more silver beads (he will only ever have the three on there .... don't worry he isn't turning into Mr T) The beads I have ordered for him are the fortune bead and angel feathers (Poole Speedway and Angels MLB!) I am just pleased that he has had something silver for our upcoming silver wedding anniversary.

Apart from my gorgeous new platinum wedding ring and solitaire I also had this bead for my troll bracelet for our anniversary.

  It is actually two hearts that interlock so you can see why it was the perfect silver anniversary bead.

 
I have another pair of doll house pages to share today . This time they are of the second room we decorated - the gentleman's study. Actually the mythical gentleman who lives in my house does rather well as he has his own study and his own games room. But then I suppose the mythical lady doesn't do too badly as she has the music room and a rather lavish conservatory.

Anyway - here is the left hand side.

 
It is straight really - honest - and the edges are deliberately distressed - promise!

And this is the right hand side.

 
Today I am thankful for

• lazy days and not too much ironing!

 

Who'd have thought it!

Who would have thought that in March we would be walking in t shirts? Who'd have thought that in March we would be sat eating our lunch in the garden?

It's been lovely here. We went for a long walk from Evening Hill, all along the peninsular at sandbanks and alongt he beach and back. It was really warm and very lovely.

And to have done more than 10,000 steps by lunchtime was great.

 

 

 

we love this house here (just need the three or four million now!!! I kid you not. Sanbanks is one of the most expensive areas of real estate in the entire world. The houses are not massive and if the sea level rises they will be under water real quick, but the prices are out of this world. Most are very modern looking and futuristic and don't do a great deal for us. This one we love.

 

and this is the view it has. Poole harbour, Brownsea in the distance (not easy to see at it was hot but very very hazy today) and the Purbecks beyond. The tide was right out this morning.

  And this is the other side of the peninsular - the beach side.

Some of the houses have views both ways - harbour out of the front, beach out of the back. Me, I prefer the harbour side.

 

 
 
and to set it in context if you don't know the area

 
I have got new scrapping but I haven't scanned it so I am afraid you need to make do with the photos - sorry.

The sun has gone now and it is quite chilly so i am looking forward to a nice relax in front of the telly.

I have had a fab day (and even had a nap in the lounge this afternoon, supposedly reading my Kindle but actually just luxuriating in the fact that I had a Fiki on me knee (who is so much better) and no inspection to worry about.

Today I am thankful for

• Simple pleasures - always the best.

Have a great rest of saturday xx

  
 

and that last LOL cat has very special meaning - it was pretty much what happened when we tried - in vain - to teach Fiki to walk on a harness. No way!!!!

Happy Friday

 

Happy Friday everyone - the weekend is here - though it seemed a long time coming.

The weather has been glorious (though it has clouded over a little now of course!) The weekend stretches ahead and is much needed. My boss and I ended up giggling almost hysterically as pitfall after pitfall were thrown at us this week and we just jumped over each rolling obstacle and mostly landed on our feet. You have to laugh - tis the only way to deal with it sometimes.

I have a new page to share made with Dawn's new Heart and Soul kit again. The photo os sam and the girls and I love the picture. Emily's expression is so perfect and sam looks so proud of her two girls and I am proud of all three of them. Elinor is oblivious, but then she was only 1 day old.

 

I am planning a weekend of scrapping, relaxing, reading and just recovering after some manic periods at work. And maybe even a decent walk or two as well.

Today I am thankful for

• laughter - it sees us through some pretty difficult times.

 

 

A spring in my step

It is such gorgeous gorgeous weather at the moment. Crisp and clear in the morning and then days filled with warmth and sunshine.

My car temp gague read 17 degrees on the way home. How fab is that for March. The good weather makes you feel so happy too.

I have a new page made with an awesome new collection by Dawn Inskip from SBG called heart and Soul. It is the perfect collection as we move towards mother's day. I always find mother's day hard as I miss my Mom so very very much. I lost her 21 years ago last week and whilst the pain is less raw, I still miss her every single day and still frequently cry for her. It was also poignant for me that Elizabeth Taylor died yesterday as she was born the same year as my Mom and my Mom thought she was wonderful.

So the page below is a bitter sweet one for me.

 
 
I wish I had more pictures of Mommy and I wish I had had so much more time. I know no time would have been long enough but losing her so suddenly when she was still so young was way too harsh.

 Today I am thankful for

• Having had such a wonderful Mom even if it was for too short a time.

 
 

An 'interesting' day

Oh boy are some days interesting in all sorts of uunexpected ways. this one was.

I actually ended up laughing manically as it was just so crazy. I must try and address my time management a little better too as I keep missing lunch!

Anyway, I am home now, it is Wednesday and speedway season and so i have a quiet house, a long luxurious bath to look forward to and hopefully a night of quiet reading with the fur kids.

I have a new page to share - YEY - and it's another paper one.

I was inspired to scrap for this week's challenge and I used two of the photos of me on red nose day.

 

The challenge was about using scraps, which I did, and bunting (and I figured by the end of the page how to do that simply!)

 

I added the cute little stamped bird.

 

I haven't scrapped a 12" x 12" paper page in a long time. I do 8.5" x 11" now, but i really enjoyed this and who knows, I may fill those empty 12 x 12 albums yet! (To go with the 20 or so full ones LOL)

Today I am thankful for

• the lovely sunshine, made me smile a lot
• support and understanding - for which i am really truly grateful
• the fact a large school campus does mean plenty of exercise.

 
Typical cat - I swear mine try to kill me on the stairs on an almost daily basis.

 

Naughty cats - but smaller

Isn't there a phrase that art mimics real life. Well it sure does in my dolls' house.

The dolls' house doesn't actually have any dolls in it. I have never felt moved to add 'people' to the house. For me it has just never seemed like a necessity. There are 'people' who live there and each has their own story, but they exist only in my imagination. There are, however, plenty of inhabitants of the house.

One of the first things I bought for the house was a miniature cat - and that was kind of the start of an addiction. There are rather a lot of cats who live in the dolls' house. I can't resist them - they are so cute and each so different. however, most of them seem, very true to real life, to be very very naughty.

There are the cats who feel the need to climb on top of things (just like Fiki!), a cat who can open drawers and pull things out (just like Fiki), a cat who tries to steal food (just like Boo actually), and a very bad cat who is trying to snaffle a goldfish.

Seems that even in miniature I only have naughty cats. So needless to say they have their own place in the album. This is just the first of their pages.

 
Oh, did I foget to say, the house has a name .... it is called Catalina of course!

 
You will no doubt see more of the cats as the book takes a tour through the house.

In keeping with blogging for scrapbookers I made this page last night.

It documents why I blog.

I used a screen shot of my blog (Monday's post) as the image to support the text.

 

Today I haven't got my thankfulness sorted yet. truth to tell I am writing this on Monday - yesterday for uploading tomorrow which is today now! Got that! I am stuck at school for a governors' meeting until probably 7 pm (having been there since 6.30 am no doubt) so need to do this post ahead of time. But I am sure I will have been thankful for things. I am just not sure what they are yet.

 
and we have dog gates at home on the door to the study/scrap room and the door to the library where the dolls house is. Fiki scoffs on those too and when he feels so inclined can leap them. Invitation to the scrap room is by invite only. He is usually invited in, lasts about ten minutes before he irritates us to death and then has to watch from behind the gate. On rare occasions he will come in, create mayhem for a few minutes than sit nicely and go to sleep. We have tried reasoning with him that if he was good he could be in all the time but he pretends that, as he is a cat, he doesn't understand!

 

Updated to add I just got home and today I am thankful

• That I managed to keep my temper when insulted and didn't let rip till I got home (That was actually a miracle!)