Dolly's Dreamings

Let's go disco

Ok so I am humming things like Let's Go  Disco, Boogie wonderland etc etc as we have out Year 6 leavers disco tonight. Well actually it is tomorrow night as I am typing this but tonight as you are reading it, as I won't be home to blog so I figured I would do it in advance.

The girls love the evening and have so much fun - but it is hot hot hot.

I have some new work to share tonight - dawn Inskip has a new kit called Pet's collection revisited. It is full of the most lush papers and elements and the cutest little animals.

And you are readingt his thinking - bet it is another cat page. Bet it is.

Ha

It's not

It's a pair of bunnies.

 
I am not sure what I will be thankful for tomorrow, which will be today.

But I am sure I will be thankful for

• disco divas and dancing delights

 

Fun fun fun

The sun shone. I decided to do no work this afternoon as I had no desk to work on - well none that I could see. So I spent the afternoon clearing my desk, filing and sorting and now tomorrow I will go in to a clear space where I can then actually do something productive.

 Here is a page I really enjoyed making last night. I was so tired I just needed to do something creative.

 

Today I am thankful for

• sunshine and serenity

 

Let me be brief

Let me be brief.

Long day -Wrong sort of food all day but I guess I needed the starch and the sugar hits LOL

No time for scrapping

No time for blogging

BUT

My mother in law came back from America yesterday and I do have lots - and I mean lots - of new papertrey ink dies and stamps. One day I'll even get to use them!

I have a very funny video to share

A cat would never do this

Today I am thankful for

• Flapjack! (oh yes)
• A successful sports day
• Nursery tea.

 

 

A lack of pattern

The challenge last week for Scrapfactor play along was to make sure you used no patterned paper - I LIKE not using patterned paper. It is actually the patterned paper I find the challenge not the plain.

I decided to make a digital page for the challenge and went with a picture of two of the three brother lions who live so happily together. I just love the series of photos I have of them.

 

I used only plain paper and card but did use some flourishes and edges to add a bit of design - just like stamping in real life would have done.

I am looking forward to Nigel gettingf hgome later. My mother in law has been to America to stay with her other son for a couple of weeks and is bringing me back some lovely scrapping things that I ordered and had delivered to his house over there as it was free postage. So I am expecting lots of scrummy papertrey ink goodies.

Today has been another mad day at school as it was St Margaret's birthday which involved a special service, a yummy chocolate cake, some strawberries and an afternoon of games and general frivolity. Tomorrow is sports' day so I am hoping it stays dry.

Today I am thankful for

• choclate cake and strawberries actually

 

Summer came!

Wow

Just all of a sudden

With very little warning

Summer came .... all day!

It has been glorious here so I have sat and baked in the garden. I so needed to do that. I worked so hard yesterday and I needed some off time before the mammoth week I have a head hits hard. And it was wonderful and I should have put sun cream on earlier!

I also finished off a mirror I was making for a gift.

It is one of the small Ikea mirrors and I apologise for the fact that the colours are way off. If I used the flash it was too bright and if I didn't it was too dull and because it is a mirror you can either see me (in my leopard dressing down) or the door gate which stops the CFH coming into the study.

 
It is a little lighter and brighter than the one above but a little less bright than the one below.

 
The flowers and butterflies are very subtly glazed and glittered

 

 

 

 

Basically it looks a lot nicer in real life. It was really easy to make. I used a pateerned paper withthe flowers on then cut butterflies, printed off the quote and made the roses rom plain paper inked pink and then stamped with a text stamp.

It just makes a cheap and pretty little gift.

Today I am thankful for

• SUMMER in the garden

 
And today's words of wisdom from Sara.

ONE. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully. 

TWO. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other. 

THREE. Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want. 

FOUR. When you say, 'I love you,' mean it. 

FIVE. When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye. 

SIX. Be engaged at least six months before you get married. 

SEVEN. Believe in love at first sight. 

EIGHT. Never laugh at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much. 

NINE. Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only way to live life completely. 

TEN... In disagreements, fight fairly. No name calling. 

ELEVEN. Don't judge people by their relatives. 

TWELVE. Talk slowly but think quickly. 

THIRTEEN! ..... When someone asks you a question you don't want to answer, smile and ask, 'Why do you want to know?' 

FOURTEEN. Remember that great love and great achievements involve great risk. 

FIFTEEN. Say 'bless you' when you hear someone sneeze. 

SIXTEEN. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.. 

SEVENTEEN. Remember the three R's: Respect for self; Respect for others; and Responsibility for all your actions. 

EIGHTEEN.. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship. 

NINETEEN. When you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. 

TWENTY. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will hear it in your voice 

TWENTY- ONE. Spend some time alone. 

Deceptive

Lots of thngs can be deceptive. It is deceptive to call today a weekend off work - I have worked LOL.

It is deceptive to say when I go out for an hour in the afternoon I am not gong to shop - as clearly I am!

It is deceptive to say that we are going to have fab weather this weeknd as, untl about 10 minutes ago when the sky cleared and the sun finally popped out, we didn't.

And the fact that cheetahs have a teddy bear face is also deceptive. Try and cuddle a cheetah and you'll never play the piano again. They have claws even sharper than Fiki and Kira's were today. We have just cut them, as we do every couple of weeks and they were like needles. (They are such good little things and hold their paws out nicely to have their claws clipped bless them!)

Anyway - the deceptive page - made with the new Balance is Beautiful collection by Dawn Inskip.

 
The photo s Pepo, my favourite big cat ever. He looks so lovely.

We did go shopping today and bought carpet for the library we are re-doing next month. We wanted an offcut and bought a really nice carpet for just £112 so  am thrilled with that. We also went to Home Sense and I bought 6 gorgeous boxes. Thay are quite big and assorted designs and shapes. Very shabby chc and are for the open shelves in the library so  I am really pleased.

Today I am thankful for

• pretty things for storage
• the prospect of some time off and some sun tomorrow

 

A ittle bit of Wimbledon

The page I share today I made at the weekend with a new kit by Dawn Inskip called Deuce, just in time for Wimbledon.

I love tennis and Borg was always my favourite. I remember we watched his fifth final in a tiny bar in Brittany France where we were the only English speakers. It was that day that I learnt the French really do say 'Ooh la la' rather a lot.

 

Today I am thankful for

• the courage to be honest with someone even though it was very difficult
• Nigel taking away a stress from the weekend as I have so much work to do

 

An amazing challenge

Actually life is a bit of an amazing challenge at the moment. There is a lot to fit in and the powers that be seem dis-inclined to extend the number of hours in the day. Consequently it is a little bit manic.

I am actually posting this in advance as I know I won't have time to post Wednesday evening as I have a mad mad day. It is our transition day at school followed by hectic meetings and then finally New Parents information evening. So mad mad mad.

However, these events do all mean we are drawing ever closer to the end of term and the H word. The holidays.

I had such fun taking part in ATDML cyber crop at the weekend and this was one of the classes.

It was meant to be an in real life paper class but I thought I would try and replicate the idea digitally and - of course - thought it might be easier.

Big mistake. Huge. It was very very memory heavy and the computer kept crashing as it was in overload.

The finished result is a reasonable copy of the class, though mine somehow looks far busier and less coordinated.

The elements are from so many different places but the dragonfly is included as I always use a dragonfly of some sort when I scrap Mommy or Daddy. The butterflies are there because I am very into butterflies at the moment and the birthday cake and bunting as two of the photos are of my 5th birthday. And, in case you didn't recognise them, the photos are me .... a loooooooong time ago.

The class was designed by Jane whose work rocks and it was an awesome challenge.

Today I am sure I will be thankful for

•  a successful transition day ... well let's hope so.

 

Another challenge

So today we have another challenge. Well actually today in itself was a challenge - much alongt he lines of 'can you cope with everything we throw at you?' that sort of challenge.

But actually that isn't what I meant. I am talking about nice challenges. ATDML challenges.

This page is another challenge that was set over the weekend which was to use a sketch - I tackled this one digitally.

Boo tends to be the poor relation really in that she doesn't get as much press as the CFH. However, I think she is a beautiful cat. Her temper is not what it could be - I think she feels she is auditioning from Grumpy Old Ladies and believe me she would get the part. But she is beautiful. So this is a Boo page.

 

I love that she really does look so indignant. And apologies for the earlier typos. She is ALL girl.

Today I am thankful for making it to 4.30 and only having 3 or 4 hours work to do tonight!!!!

 

ATrip Down Memory Lane cybercrop

I have had a lovely fun day just scrapping and card making.

I needed to make a few cards and the cybercrop challenges were just perfect.

Plus I have managed a few pages too - and am expecting to do a couple more of the classes today if I can.

The cyber crop has been brilliant. Do make sure you check out ATDML blog with all the classes and - when you find you need new stash to complete some of them like I did - head off to their store. It is packed with luscious goodness and you will be hard pressed to find friendlier more efficient service anywhere.

So what did I manage so far. Well there was the amazing class page from yesterday.

Today I completed the tag challenge - I made the little tag and popped it on a card - made for a friend who is almost as crazy about cats asI am.

 

 

 

Then there was the material challenge. Oh dear. I don't really 'do' material, but I hooked out some cotton I bought a while back and made some fabric flowers for a card.

 

 

 

The third card was a class in Vintage cards. I will be making more of these. They were so pretty and I got to sew a lot too. Plus I used up my scraps from the class yesterday so a  win all round.

 

 

 

 

Then this was a challenge to go for it with journalling. So I did. The photos were from Harry Paye day yesterday and the page is for my 2011 album.

  
 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• time to scrap
• Generous people like Mel and Jill who give us such fun