Dolly's Dreamings

Quite an eventful day

Today has been quite an eventful one, one way and another.

 

I was up super early as I had a lot of work to do. It was the sort of work that makes my head ache. I am not a numbers girl, but it had to be done and I THINK it is finished ... for now.

Tough, but nice to know it is completed.

 

Then I did some scrapping work, finishing up design team stuff, and I am now just to complete the write-ups.

But apart from that a few events here.

Nigel baked a cake. No idea why - he just wanted to. It is a Mary Berry recipe for a fruit cake. He isn't a cook and so it was a real thrill. He just went and bought all the ingredients and get on with it. And jolly nice it is too. A girl could get used to it.

The other event was fascinating and horrifying all at once.

Whilst washing up Nigel saw a large bird drag something off tot he bushes. we watched him for ages and are fairly sure it was a Goshawk - never seen one before. Quite big, orange eyes, a very stripped breast and leg feathers.

He was at the far end of the garden so the picture is very very poor.

 

The meal took him an hour and we knew it was a pigeon. That was the horrific bit. I know nature is cruel but we have both been so upset. We usually have 2 pigeons in the garden. They are not my favourite birds - they gobble up so much from the bird table and knock stuff over. But they are birds and deserve food too. Anyway, one of our pic=geons has been in the garden all afternoon. Sat ont he fence, sat on the trees, sat on the wall. Just looking. Constantly. I know we can be very guilty of putting human emotions on anumals but we are both convinced he is looking for his mate. Pigeons mate for life and we saw a pigeon caight and eaten today. And we feel very very sad.

 

I have news of another scrapping sale - this time a mega sale with loads of designers. It is Pickleberrypops sale for International Digital Scrapping day. Check it out HERE

 

 

There are also loads of new products launched today too.

I was lucky enough to scrap with quite a few of them, but one to share today is a collection called Capturing memories by Lorie M

 

 

It is a gorgeous soft toned palette - I love ot.

 

Today I am thankful for

• seeing an unusual bird but not witnessing the loss of life and the loss of a life-mate
• Nigel baking a cake
• jobs completed

 

Busy day of two halves

Today has been a busy day - but I guess I deserved that after 2 days of really just enjoying myself.

This morning I started work - school work - very early and put in almost 5 hours, but I am pleased with what I achieved. It had to be done and now it is.

This afternoon I worked on DT stuff for Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts. It has been a long time since I have done paper DT work and I have found it quite scary - but I am pleased with what I have achieved so far and I hope Karen will be too.

 

I have new things to share of a digital nature though.

First of all it is International Digital Scrapbook Day soon and everywhere is getting geared up for sales.

I don't know about the rest of you but I plan on shopping.

 

If you do shop then I suggest you check out Dawn Inskip's sale.

 

She also has a very poignant new collection out that went on sale today called Miss Me

 

 

I love the fact that Dawn often makes products that deal witht he less fluffy side of life. Life isn't always fun and happy and smiles for the camera. Life comes in all flavours, including sad and challenging

 

Today I am thankful for

• time to work and time to play
• Being home with the cats from hell - we love them

 

 

 

 And finally, Nigel's friend sent him this link.

Very very bizarre. HOW do they do it!

 

 

A Black Country break

Well we survived the storm and we even managed to go away. We were a bit worried that the storm might have scuppered our half term plans, but thankfully it didn’t.

Thank you so much for your good wishes and Joyce, your message was lovely, thank you x

 

We got up to just one fence panel down (our neighbours not ours) and so we were able to go away.

We headed first to Swindon for a little shopping at the outlet mall. It isn’t really us, as we don’t do designer stuff, but it has a Starbucks so, well … you know! My goodness did it ever rain whilst we were in there. Everyone just stopped and listened … it was deafening. We bought a couple of Christmas presents and a lovely pair of leopard print boots (not nearly as tacky as they sound) and we were off.

Christmas was very much on the agenda when we stopped in Lechlade at the Christmas shop. It is very reasonably priced and we bought a couple of tree decorations (we try and buy something new every year) and a lovely illuminated scene we fell in love with.

Then we headed into the Cotswolds proper.

 

The aim of this trip was to see Bourton-on-the-water in the dry! We had tried twice before and on both occasions it rained and so we didn’t really get to see it.

 

We stopped, en route, ay another Cotswold town we hadn’t been to before … Burford. The sun came out and it was lovely. We ambled around, just enjoying the beautiful buildings, the rich Cotswold stone in the sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

I guess it is not much more than a 15 minute trip to Bourton-on-the-water and in those 15 minutes the clouds bubbled up and just as we parked (that in itself was a wonder) it began to rain. We both roared with laughter. It was just uncanny that it would rain again.

 

 

We went into a hotel … this one

 

 

… and had a very light lunch and whilst in there the sun came out, the sky became blue and, finally, we saw Bourton-on-the-water in all of its beauty. And it was so worth the wait and the previous thwarted visits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was very photogenic and I haven’t really looked at the pictures properly yet and Nigel hasn’t even downloaded his – and his will be way better.

We drove through Broadway, but by then we were tired.

 

From there we headed to our hotel – yes a Premier Inn … we know how to live – in West Brom and then headed out for dinner. A quiet night in the hotel and we were ready for the real reason we stay at Premier Inns … breakfast. And lush it was too.

 

Then, and this was the other reason for the trip, we headed to The Black Country Museum. It was somewhere we had wanted to visit for a long time.

 

I am a true Black Country girl … and proud of it. I have long tried to explain to Nigel how the Black Country accent is unique and very different to the Birmingham accent. I have long tried to explain how I am not a ‘Brummie’, I am Black Country. The museum explained it beautifully … and subsumed in the accent, mine came back like it had never really been away.

 

 

 

 

We arrived early – well that is so US – and were able to enjoy the museum virtually empty which made for good photos and great experience. They have people dressed in keeping throughout, able to give you lots of information.

 

I loved this display in the drapers - I still have some hooks and eyes in this packaging!

 

It was great to go into the shops, to see the back to backs, the ‘luxurious’ 2 up 2 downs, the canals (I tried to explain to Nigel they were cuts) the pub, the school and to even learn to use a hoop.

 

It was smaller than we imagined – I think we were thinking Beamish – but it was very well done and really nice morning.

 

 

 

We even came home via Wolverhampton and the Stafford Road and Ford Houses and took pictures of my childhood home and school.

 

 

It was a lovely couple of days and we feel we have had a break. We came home to a trashed house. The cats are not keen on us being away. Our neighbours are fab and look after them so well, but Fiki (yes I know it was him) had had cupboards and drawers open in bedrooms and clothes were strewn everywhere, the bed was a mess, having been slept on and disarrayed, but they were so adorable we couldn’t be VERY cross.

 

It's been a great couple of days but it is good to be home

Getting ready - batten down the hatches

So we have been warned.

 

Unlike 1987 when Michael Fish uttered the immortal words that there was NOT going to be a hurricane ... this time we have been warned.

There is a big storm in the offing and whilst they won't call it a hurricane they are sayingt he winds are likely to be 12 on the Beaufort Scale which is hurricane force!

So we have brought in all the garden furniture so it doesn't blow away, we have cleared everything we can and we have, as a precaution, said a fond farewell to our fence panels which will no doubt be winging their way across the heath by tomorrow.

 

I remember the hurricane of 1987 very clearly - we lost roof tiles in our first home.

But I remember even more clearly the storm in 1989 which I think was worse. The 1987 storm hit in the middle of the night. In 1989 it was in the day. I remember it well. It was a Friday - I know because it was bin day. In those days I lived just around the corner from school. We had what was whimsically called a conservatory at our first house. It was actually a lean too buildt ont he back of the house where the cats, the washing machine and the boiler lived. (The cats only lived in there when we were at work as they had a cat flap in there ... not all the time!)

It has a corrugated plastic roof.

The winds were so strong that Friday that I dashed home at lunchtime to bring the cats into the house as we feared the plastic roof would go. The reason I know it was Friday was I played dodge the empty bins ont he way home as they were being blown everywhere.

I almost didn't get back onto campus as several trees had come down, almost blocking the drive. By the end of the afternoon all three drives were blocked with fallen trees.

I remember having to keep everyone inside as it was so dangerous. Our campus is large and wooded and in those days there were not tree surveys to make sure the trees were all safe. Over the two storms we lost 102 trees on site.

We had to walk the children over fallen trees to get them out at the end of the day Parents couldn't get on campus. Plus, most tragically of all, we lost a parent, hit in her car by a falling tree out on a country road on her way to collect her children.No wonder THAT is the storm I never forget.

 

Let's hope what is in store tonoght and tomorrow morning is not so bad. Let's hope they are erring on the side of caution. We are VERY exposed here - it could get rough.

 

 

I havea page I made a while ago to share today. It is that little Kira monkey - the purrfect Mum to her little froggie.

 

 

 

I was quite pleased with the lace and paper flowers.

 

 

 

 

I was even brave enough to mist - and I hate misting.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• being inside whilst it is blowy
• a garage big enough to bring everything inside

 

 

 

 

Such a relaxed day

I love the first day of any holiday - I really do.

I lazed in bed reading then managed to force myself up to have a mooch round a craft fair in New Milton before coming home and scrapping.

 

Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts sent me a lush Design Team box of goodies that I am really enjoying playing with. I am so pleased Istill get to design for her - she is so good about understanding that I can only do things in holidays.

 

I look forward to making lost of lovely things for her. Go check out her websit at all the lush new stuff she has on there.

 

I have another page to share made with Dawn's new Petrified collection today.

If I am absolutely honest .... one of the reasons that I bought the pumpkin and then we carved it was that I wanted to use the pumpkins in Dawn's collection.

So here was what I came up with.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• relaxation
• mooching
• new stuff to play with

 

YEY

I can't even begin to tell you how I feel today.

It is here.

Finally

After what seems like forever.

Half term!

 

YEY!

 

I cannot remember ever being this tired or totally worn out, this stressed, this exhausted and this relieved that it is half term.

 

Really really really excited - about doing NOTHING.

 

I came home to a clean house, the smell of feresh baked bread and to Nigel and the cats. Praise the Lord.

 

I have a new page to share made with a new collection by Seatrout Scraps at Pickleberrypop.

 

It is called Adventure is out there.

 

I couldn't wait to use it with some of our Utah pictures as it was like it was made for them.

 

 

I still think that was one of our best holidays ever. 9 states, 3000 miles and a million memories.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Half term - nuff said.

 

She's back

I am blessed to have so many good tings in my life. Sometimes it is easy to forget that. We need to always remember.  One of them is the joy that digital scrapping brings me.

I would never ever give my paper and glue up, but I do love creating digitally. And I am so lucky that for an amazing 5 years I have been creating for Dawn Inskip.

 

I made my first page for her in April 2008 and it has been an incredibly 5 years with so many lush goodies to play with.

 

Don't panic ... this isn't a farewell at all. Just highlighting how lucky I am.

Dawn has been off enjoying Florida (green with envy .... me? Of course I am!) and she is back and has new lush goodies out too (and I can't wait to see what she makes with them)

 

This is her new collection called Petrified.

 

 

Like all of her collections it is absolutely

stuffed with goodness. Nigel and I don’t celebrate Halloween, but I can do petrified alright.

 

I am a lifelong arachnophobe. I really am. And so this picture is amazing. I was on a school trip and wanted to make sure the children were not scared. There was a chance to hold a tarantula and I wanted to encourage the girls to face their fears and have a go. I am a great believer in leading by example. So I did.

I got one of them to capture the moment.

 

 

I was so proud of myself. I also thought it would cure the fear, but sadly I was wrong. It was so big and furry it was more like holding a mouse or gerbil and so I am still terrified of spiders.

 

It was worth a try though!

I have something else to share today. We went to Paris for our 25^th wedding anniversary and stayed in an amazing hotel. I don’t think we knew what a good choice we had made really and we picked it because it was just off the Champs Elysees and because the name was American. (We don’t really ‘do’ Europe very well. )

We booked the cheapest room and were upgraded to a two story Duplex Suite that has to be the most amazing room/suite/apartment we have ever stayed in (and we still only paid the cheap price … one night in the suite was actually dearer than we paid for all 4 nights)

Anyway I digress.

They send me regular e mails and it is nice to reminisce. But they now have a video on the web site and it is fabulous. I didn’t realise how special the hotel was. Do click THIS LINK and check out the video and I highly recommend the hotel if you ever go to Paris. The video is towards the left under the main image.

 

Today I am thankful for

 

• Being on Dawn’s team
• Being home
• Having stayed at Hotel California
• Supportive men in my life

 

 

 

 

The storm has stopped

Boy did we have storms last night. The thunder was pretty short lived but the rain was like Florida rain - but colder and less pretty - and the lightning went on for hours.

I am sure we only used to get thunder storms in the summer.

Ah, the good old days.

And thinking of old ...

...

well there had to be a connection

 

It's a happy birthday to my man who is another year older. And good he looks on it too.

 

I guess it is only right to share a page all about him - as he really is pretty special and I know how lucky I am.

 

He had already has his present on saturday - an I Pad - so was thrilled but I did stop off after work and buy a birthday cake.

No of course I didn't bake one myself. I love him ... I don't want to punish him.

And as it happened even the bought one looked a lot nicer than it tasted.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Nigel. I don't say it every day but I do think it every day. He really is a special guy and I really am very lucky.

 

Too big for its own good

I never really make very lumpy pages. They may have lots of layers but they are still quite flat.

However, thanks to Pinterest (I HAVE to get off that site) I have been dablling with flowers - fat flowers.

There was the Vindolanda page that had hand made felt flowers that looked fine until I tried to add it to an album and then - well then there is this one.

 

 

The title was the perfect storm as it was perfect in that it was over before we arrived. We didn't get wet ... we were not caught in it, but it meant the flowers had gorgeous photogenic raindrops on them.

 

I loved the two photos - they were two of the best from our trip to Alnwick Gardens - one from eachof us.

 

 

How better to showcase two glorious roses than by usimg some lovely flowers.

Some thick fat lumpy flowers.

 

That mean not only will the page not scan but the page wont under any circumstances go in an album. Pretty pointless eh! I don't keep my pages anywhere other than in albums and so this one has got to be redone.

 

I guess you live and learn.

 

Today I am thankful for

• tollerance and patience
• the opportunity to meet colleagues from further afield
• new useful gadgets

 

and finally - some more of those fab food pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are so cool!

Losing it ....

OK so you know I love my crafting.

But recently CRAFT has a whole different meaning for me

 

CRAFT is an acronym and very very me at the moment.

Can'r Remember A Flipping Thing!

 

That's me.

 

Or actually, more to the point, can't FIND a flipping thing.

 

I keep putting things down in my craft room and they vanish.. I swear to goodness that the Bermuda Triangle has moved and is based here.

How can a whole set of stamps I have JUST USED vanish.

I mean seriously .... but they have.

 

Anyway, I did manage to scrap a page for the weekly challenge on UKS at the weekend.

 

 

 

It is another for the tour album and I love love love my new silhouette. One 12 x 12 sheet and I cut the circle, theflourishes, the title, the key. Fabulous.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• finding at least SOME of the things I lose.