Dolly's Dreamings

Catching up and Florida Day 3

I have finally got everything away and have even scrapped today - not the page I thought I would make first but it came to us when we were away.

One of the things we love to do is play the licence plate game - seeing how many different state plates we can see.

We are armed with a list of states in the car and tick them off when found. Florida is always the best place to do this as so many people country wide drive to Disney World. This year we managed 39 states.

 

 

I had great fun finding and printing off the licence plates

 

 

and even used a brand new piece of paper and some journalling blocks and die cuts bought on holiday.

 

 

I found a licence plate site where I could design my own plate and so I did and it acts as the title for the page - Hunting Licences.

 

 

Boy it felt good to have that glue out again!

Val, you said you are Florida bound but are not sure where to stay. If you are doing the whole Disney bit I can whole-heartedly and without reservation recommend the Caribbean Beach resort. we have been to see most of the other resorts and apart from Wilderness Lodge - which is a lot more expensive - I wouldn't personally put any of them, Grand Floridian included, above the aribbean Beach for a whole host of reasons. Feel free to ask if there are any questions I can answer.

 

Anyway, on to the next day of the holiday, along with copious pictures.

 

Thursday 17^th July 2014

 

Today was to be the first full day of parks and we were bot worried how my ankle would cope. Last visit it had been awful and I was convinced it was because of the torn ligament couple of months before we travelled. Nigel was convinced the heat affected the already damaged joint. I was determined to walk this time and walk I did.

We started our day off with breakfast at Port Royale. It was a great package we had again. We paid $420 each for 14 day park tickets and 14 days on the Quick Service dining plan… a total of $840. This meant two full meals and a snack were included for each of us, plus resort mugs giving unlimited drinks. We sat an added up what we had had one day and it came to around $40 a day each. That meant $480 dollars over our 12 night stay each –a  whopping total of $960 in food. Now bear in mind park passes were advertised at all the parks at $444 for 7 day park hopper passes with water parks too and you can see were up on the deal. And no – we didn’t pay more for our hotel room either! It also came with a whole load of vouchers for different things and a $100 free, no strings attached, Disney gift card. All in all an amazing deal. With food, gift card and passes adding up to somewhere in the region of $1948 you can see we were over $1000 better off. If only you could have real silverware it would be perfection, but I guess I can use disposable crockery and cutlery for a $1000 dollar saving.

Anyway I digress. Meals were included on property and so we had breakfast each day at Port Royale.

They did an Adult Bounty Platter which we really enjoyed each day and which more than set us up for the whole day so we didn’t eat again until the evening. I never ate the potatoes (Nigel and I traded potatoes for biscuits as he hated the biscuit … which is just like a scone … and I hated the potatoes)   and used to have mine with all bacon and no sausage.

 

 

 

Coupled with unlimited free drinks with a huge choice from every type of soda, iced tea, hot tea and coffee plus an additional bottle of drink to take away (water for me and always chocolate milk for Nigel) we were well set up for the day.

It was also the first time we had a chance to really see the beautiful resort in the daylight and so here are some pictures from that first morning from the patio and boardwalk. Having chilled out we were ready for the off and so hit Epcot before it even opened. How amazing was that! (the benefits of our time clocks not fully adjusting I think!)

 

 

 

 

 

We were kitted out well this trip as the cancer scare had been a true scare. I was under orders from the hospital to not be in the sun. Now that is almost impossible in Florida. I was told to wear long sleeves and trousers, a hat, wear factor 50 applied every 1 ½ hours and absolutely no sun at all between 11 and 3. Well we did try. The long sleeves and pants were always going to be a no no. It was 94 degrees most of the time and very humid. I’d have died. But we had purchased proper expensive UVA Factor 50 hats at great expense and we did wear Factor 50 all the time regularly applied and we did stay out of the sun as much as possible, but we still came home quite tanned.

 

We had our picture taken as soon as we arrived at the park.  Proof we were wearing our hats. We didn’t have as many photos taken this year as it was very hot and there is a limit to the number of shiny sweaty pictures one can enjoy, but the one of us with the frame at Epcot was our favourite.

 

It was very quiet as we entered and so we went onto Spaceship Earth first – no wait at all. It has always been one of my favourite rides and they have changed it in recent years and – thankfully – it is still as good, just more up to date, making use of technology at the end which was kind of fun.

 Epcot is perhaps a more adult based park and we love it, but it is also very beautiful and very restful. Not often you can say that about a theme park!

 

 

As it was still quiet we rode The Land before our soarin' fast pass kicked in. It is a cute ride and I love the bit through the greenhouses showing off the new technologies for growing food.

We also saw one of my all time favourite attractions, the Circle of Life. It is an amazing film that has, again, been brought up to date. It used to be called symbiosis and they have kept much of the footage, but to sustain the interest from families they have added a Lion King story line with Timon and Pumba wanting to build Hakuna Matata Village and Simba explaining how we have to respect the land and live in harmony with it. I always come out of the film very moved and feeling it should be the THE LAW for every single child to watch the film so they grow up understanding why we have to look after the world and how important conservation is and that it begins right in our own backyard.

 

 

 

By the time we had done all of that – again with no wait at all, we were ready to use our very first fast pass. Now we had a read a fair bit of negative feedback about the fast passes and it is true that some of the less visited attractions developed longer lines because of fast pass, but we found it to be great. We booked our fast passes before we left home – though we did tinker with them when we were there. We never had one that didn’t work and all of our fast passes took us pretty much straight onto the ride.  Worst case scenario was a five minute wait. When you consider that when we did Soaring it was going to be a 70 minute wait and The 7 dwarves mine train was 120 minutes and we just walked straight on it shows how valuable it was.

Anyway, we did Soarin' and enjoyed it very much. You ‘soar’ over California and it is very cute (though there is no way I would wait 70 minutes for it and I have no idea why it is SO popular.) We enjoyed it as, of all of the places in America, California is the state we have explored most of, from San Fran, Sacramento and San Jose to LA, San Diego, Newport Beach, Death Valley, Yosemite, Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe, the Napa Valley and so on.

 

After Soarin' we did somethingw e had been very very excited about doing. We had our first - of many - Disney Starbucks. It was a match made in heaven for us. Disney and Starbucks together! And the venti Frap - even though it was $5 - counted as just one snack credit. Free Fraps! What's not to like?

 

It was a glorious day and so we decided we’d take the boat over to Morocco. The ankle was holding up well, but why walk when you can sail!

We enjoyed Morocco, always beautiful with the red stone against the blue sky, and passed through Japan onto America.  You can see how quiet it was…. Almost deserted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed quickly through Japan.

 

And then on to America.

We loved watching the fife and drum band play and then we caught one of our all time favourites, the Liberty Bell singers. The acoustics in the dome are fabulous and this acapella group are awesome.

 

 

 

 

 

and these are the first two videos I have ever taken with my phone (daft I know ..

I just never use the video ) 

 

so it is a bit shaky but you get the general idea

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loved the American Adventure. It is so well done, tells such a great story and we always cry at the film at the end. We have also been ‘behind the scenes’ and seen the underground workings of the attraction… which are of course not underground but in ground floor level as everything else is on the first floor. You don’t get underground in Florida as the water table is so high.

 I am sure this shouldn't have been filmed but it was - and here it is. If you have never been but are planning to go DO NOT watch these videos as it will spoil it. If you have been or are never planning to visit - do watch and enjoy ... part 2 has the film. I hasten to add I didn't film this - it was just on You Tube.

 

 

 

 

From there we wandered through Italy – more interesting to see as we have now been to the real Venice – and then on to Germany before visiting China for a snack at the Lotus Blossom Café which was lovely . The sticky orange chicken is delicious and finished off with ginger ice-cream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norway was very busy as it is where the Frozen things are based and Frozen is very much the film of the moment – so we headed on to Mexico and took the boat ride as there was no wait.

 

 

 

We debated staying for the evening but the weather looked like rain was coming in – it never did – and so we opted to leave early. We had to claim our $100 gift card from The World of Disney in the Disney Village Marketplace and, quite frankly, we were dreading it.

 

The marketplace area and Downtown Disney is all being remodelled. There was never enough car parking and now the remodelling has taken a lot of what little they had. It will be great when finished, with huge parking garages and the area is doubling in size but quite frankly it is HELL at the moment and not somewhere we were keen to visit. However, the lure of $100 was quite strong. We were very lucky and parked quickly and went to claim our voucher, meeting a very helpful cast member called Alan. Gift card in hand we went to spend it – largely on gifts for others – the girls have had their wish list largely filled!

 

 

We ate at Port Royal that night – I had been hankering after their grilled cheese – and we were treated to an almost perfect sunset. I have always wanted to be there for sunset and we have never managed it. If we have been there at dusk it has always been cloudy. I thought the sunset was perfect till we saw an even better one in our second week!

It was wonderful watching the colours change and also seeing the many turtles – sadly hard to capture on photos.  It was the end of a pretty perfect day and we were pooped!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Today I am thankful for

• a place for everything and everything in its place

 

 

 

 

Shattered but happy - Florida Day 1 and 2

I bailed out early last night and went to bed at 8 and slept through until 8 this morning. Nigel wouldn't allow me to sleep any later as he knew I'd regret it and needed to re-set my body clock.

Thankfully the hot dry weather has made the endless loads of washing a breeze. sadly it doesn't help the ironing.

I have spent most of today trying to re-organise and put away my new stash of supplies. I had a seriously seriously good trip from a shopping point of view and had some amazing bargains. More of that another day.

Apologies in advance if you get bored easily with holiday accounts and photos. There are a fair few days ahead you are not going to like.

Once I have done some scrapping there will be some to share but meanwhile today reverts to a holiday blog. I like to keep a record for my own purpose on my blog so I can refer back to it partly just for the sheer fun of remembering it and alaso as it helps with journalling for pages.

So be prepared ... might be boring for everyone but Nigel and I but there should be some pretty pictures to look at.

 

 

Tuesday 15^th July 2014

I don’t think we had ever looked forward to a holiday more or feared more that we would not be going – yet it was finally here.

With all of the health issues I doubted I would be able to go, but Nigel was far more positive, insisting it WOULD happen. Even in the two days prior when I was literally crippled with toothache he insisted it was just a flare up of the TMJ and was stress related and would pass – and it did. So 7 am, we were collected by s friend and we were off.

Once again we had been lucky enough to accrue sufficient air miles to go Upper Class and the check in was a dream. We flew Heathrow Miami for two reasons. Orlando free tickets are like hens’ teeth plus the benefit of flying to Miami is you go from Heathrow which is not only a much nicer journey to and from the airport but means using their upper class check in which makes you feel so special. We drove up and staff came out to take our cases. We never even touched them. We were checked in within just a few minutes and then went through their own private security – no line, five minutes tops, and we were done. We did a little light shopping first – both selecting a new fragrance having stuck with the same for years – and we were up to the Virgin lounge where we had a delicious breakfast, a glass of champagne to celebrate it was finally happening and then boarding and …wait for it … leaving EARLY!

 

 

 

The flight was lovely and smooth and very relaxing. We enjoyed great meals and I have no idea how they can cook steak that thick and yet it is perfectly cooked, perfectly moist but cooked through. Yes I took pictures!

 

 

– gotta love the fact you get afternoon tea –

 

 

 

but it still drags. I am sorry but there is nothing enjoyable about sitting on a  plane for 9 hours. The first 2 go quite quickly, the last hour is exciting but – no matter how you look at it – there are 6 hours of tedium.

Last visit Miami airport was hell. We were an hour and a half waiting in immigration in their emergency extra area – with no air – and then another hour and a half at the car hire. Consequently it was a part of the trip we had spent some time dreading.

However, despite the 5000 steps (yes it si a LONG LONG walk to immigration in Miami) there was minimal wait in immigration (would have been no wait if the immigration officer hadn’t said, as we arrived at the window, he was just having to take a bathroom break) and no wait in the car rental at all. The bottom line was we landed at 4.55 and were in our  hire car by 6.00. Amazing.

The car was a Kia Sportage. We hoped we would get the slightly larger Kia Sorrento, but the car was fine and served us well.

Last visit we had stayed at the Marriot near the airport and when we arrived after our three hours in the  airport had been furious they no longer had our room. They had put us up at the Courtyard by Marriott. We had also struggled finding it – taking a good half an hour to get there though it was only 5 minutes from the airport. This year Nigel had practiced the route on Google Earth and we went straight to it. We had opted for the third hotel in the group, the Fairfield Inn and Suites and it was brilliant. The rooms are all suites and it was less than $100 for the night. It was a super room – obviously we didn’t make much use of it, but it would have been a good place to set up camp for one of our road trips and we will remember the chain for future use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed for dinner at the Champions Sport’s Bar and had a reasonably early night after a very successful first day.

 

 

Wednesday 16^th July 2014

 

We were up with the larks – the benefit of jet lag and also – funnily enough – the benefit of the hotel clock being wrong and us believing it. We thought we would get up at 5.30, have breakfast at 6.00 and get on the road. We set the alarm for 5.30 but were both awake. Sadly the clock was almost an hour fast. Mmmm.

We were sorted and ready waiting for the free breakfast to open at 6. Now for the price we paid, to have a free breakfast was a huge bonus and in fairness the cereal and the toast were good. However they had something they referred to as Scrambled egg. It was a very unusual dish. Granular and yet sloppy is dissolved to water on touch. Like I said, the cereal and toast was good!

We headed off to drive across the edge of the Everglades – a place we had never been – and also along a very ‘inspiring’ named road, Alligator Alley. Although I kept my eyes peeled we saw not a single gator but the evergaldes were kind of cool to say. I have to say, however, we both felt we had seen as much of them as we ever wanted to see.

 

 

 

We headed to Naples for a very brief trip to the beach. As it happened it wasn’t as nice a beach as we hoped – we had opted for a state park and it was a little wilder than we hoped – including seeing a very cute snake.

 

 

 

We paddled and I collected some shells and then, as the weather was drawing in rapidly, we headed off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This trip we were really really lucky as we had almost no rain and the rain we did have happened when we were indoors. That is apart from the first day. The drive from Naples to Disney was pretty pants. It started well butt he air was heavy with moisture and we kept seeing rainbows in the clouds though there was no rain. A cute phenomenon we had never seen before.

 

 

Then the heavens opened and of course, Southern Florida is tropical and when they open they really open. We went through some very severe storms and they were quite scary on a freeway.

We headed to Lakeland where we planned to go to a Hobby Lobby and the only Scrapbook store we could find – Violetta’s in Lakeland. The store was amazing. It was the biggest most well laid out store for scrapping I have ever seen. However, I think designated scrapbook stores in America are very expensive and this was no exception. I only spent $50 of my $100 birthday gift. To be honest I was a bit over-whelmed. There was so much stuff, beautifully themed and displayed, it was all a little too much.

It was raining so heavily when we left that even though our car was just outside the store we had to put the papers into a bin liner to keep them dry.

We were both keen to head ‘home’ to our Floridian home for the next 12 nights – Disney’s Caribbean Beach resort. We have been so lucky to stay there so many times and we couldn’t wait to be back. As we neared Disney and onto all too familiar roads, the rain stopped and the sun shone weakly.

 

We pulled up to the Custom House and checked in, being given a room in the newly refurbished Jamaica (4142) We were so excited to get our Magic Bands at last. And despite some of the things they were saying on various forums, our bands were fabulous the whole holiday. They got us into our room, into parks, got us free food and snacks and worked like a dream. The fast pass system was also a huge hit in our books.

 

 

 

 

 

The room makeover was lovely – much nicer than the old Nemo décor – and we unpacked and felt right at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We headed to ‘our’ Pizza Hut for dinner and then went into MGM for the evening. We had used fast passes for Tower of Terror and Fantasmic.

We walked straight on to Tower of Terror and it was so good. We always forget how many drops there are and they are all so smooth. The weightlessness is great and as it happened it would be our very first rise – and at the end of the stay also our last.

As we waited for Fantasmic I bumped into a family from school who were having a great time. Fantasmic was as amazing as ever. It really is an amazing show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to see the video of the show - not mine ... from You Tube ... have a look below. It is really here for me to view over and over, but you may enjoy it too. It records a classic good over evil story on a vast scale. 

 

 

We planned leaving straight away, not realising the summer special Frozen show was at 9.45 so we stayed and saw that too and it was amazing. The live action was a bit tedious in places, though the flat Olaf pictures were cute and yes … we have a flat Olaf  but the fireworks were fabulous and at the end, when it snowed and it was everywhere – well yes, I had my first Disney tears. A true magical moment.

I didn’t take a photo of it but check out this You Tube video which captures it really well. Only it doesn’t show the snow and for us that was the most magical bit of all.

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• being home
• safe cats
• no more operations needed for a while - it's official after my hospital trip today
• nearly being organised in my scrap room

 

And we are home

Apologies for service being a bit patchy but - as you may have guessed -w e have been away for two weeks.

It was Disney Baby!

We returned home this afternoon and have had an amazing holiday - possibly one of the very best we have had in Florida.

We have had so much fun, walked our legs off, shoopped till we dropped and relaxed and unwound.

I will be posting about the holiday properly over the next few days - so feel free to skip to the scrapping folks - but now food, fuss with the fur babies and sleep is high on the agenda.

 

A little light digital

One of the lovely things about the summer holiday is the joy of being able to paper scrap. Often in the term I am reduced to only digital scrapping as it is less to get out. That doesn't mean I like it less, it just means that givent he choice I would do both in equal measur.e

Don't get me wrong, I love both - possibly equally. But I scrap the two ways for different reasons.

I scrap on paper for the pure joy of scrapping, sticking, cutting, adding and making tactile books to look at and enjoy. I scrap digitally because it is a pure creative outlet. I don't always print off digital pages. I scrap because the very act of creating is enjoyable and theraputic.

Anyway - I was busy today and so I digi scrapped.

I used a collection called Daisy Chain by LouCee Creations and it was just so darned pretty and springlike. And yes - I do know it is summer - really I do.

 

Anyway I had some pictures sent from Sam and Chris of their Florida trip and this also happened to be on there and they were such a super cute series of photos I just had to use them.

 

 

Emily and Elinor have both been brought up with animals and have such a respect for them - they are always very tender with them.

 Now I also have some amazing pictures from a French artist, Gilbert Legrand,  who paints and transforms everyday objects and I think they are really clever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• the amazing cool stuff you can fin on the internet (and the hours of your life you can lose surfing it)
• Both art forms, paper and digital, that are the best therapy money can buy

 

 

Iconic structure

OK so nice as it was to wander of the Belgium theme, I really dow ant to get my album finished so I forced myself to scrap Belgium again today and did a page I am truly disappointed with.

Typical isn't it.

Just goes to show you should scrap what you want not what you think you ought to do.

The trouble is I knew the look I was going for and it simply did not work.

 

I wanted to scrap the atomium.

We were so determined to see it as it is such an iconic structure and I wanted a sort of shiny aluminium feel to the page - and I didn't really get it.

However, I guess it does what a scrapbook page needs to do. It records a visit, a moment and a memory.

 

 

It looks even worse ont he scan than it does in reality. The large picture is printed as a faded image on canvas cardstock and in reality that works.

The journaling block and the pictures are mounted on very shiny silver holographic card so they have that metalic look and feel - but the scanner has just blacked them .

There are also shiny circles of different sizes sprinkled across and you can barely see them on the scan. But I guess you get teh general idea.

 

Today I am thankful for

• some of the things I do working out - this was not one of them
• a hobby where, if you really mess up , all you have lost is a bit of paper, some home printed photos and some glue. Things could be far worse.

and I have some images by the french artist Gilbery Legrand who transforms very mundane objects into little works of art that I think are so clever. There isn't a lot of quirky modern art I would like to own, but I love these.

 

 

 

 

 

Brings new meaning to the phrase a running tap

 

Wouldn't this make cleaning a whole lot more fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally to answer your question Barb we do many of the same things each time we visit Florida but there are also always new things to do too. We LOVED Yellowstone and would love to go back. I can't wait to hear about your trip. It's a beautiful national park. I hope you are going to Teton too ... We loved that park.

Refreshingly different - a non-mini mini book

I set myself a target this holiday of finishing the Belgium album but actually I am just a bit fed up of Belgium at the moment and so yesterday I started doing a new mini book. Well it was meant to be a mini book, but ended up being just over 6 x 6

 

I wanted to scrap the great sculptures we saw at Sculpture byt he Lakes last month. I had made one full size page but there were so many wonderful pictures of the sculptures and the whole ambiance that I figured a mini book would be better to showcase them all together.

So I started it and quickly 'lost my desk'.

I can only manage mini books by having everything I need out on my desk - the papers, the stamps, the embellishments, the letters etc. And the desk gets full really quickly. It is not a good place for me. I am a very tidy scrapper and clear the desk completely after every page.

 

So having started it I needed to finish it before I could ever do anything else.

 

Here is the cover

 

 

I went with aquas and greens as they were the colours of the venue. It is a lot more dimensional than it looks

 

 

The leaves were cut from felt and then re-coloured with ink and pens that never dried. I suppose the green will come off my fingers and nails one day - clearly not today though.

 

 

There were so many pictures I ended up with loads of flaps and pickets and folds to get everything in

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not a lot to show for almost 2 days work really is it. Mind you - I think it took me three hours to chose and print the photos.

 

I work at such a slower pace when I am on holiday. I am sure when I retire ... one day .... I will never get anything done!

 

Today I am thankful for

• my desk being clear again
• a completed project
• time to faff around

 

 

 

Bon Voyage

I guess it is THAT time of year when everyone's thoughts turn to holidays. I know mine do.

Last year we didn't get to go to our beloved America. We did a 'stay-cation' and holidayed in the UK.

 

I would like to say I was sad and miserable and wished we had gone abroad - but the bottom line is I don't. I loved it. I loved being int he UK. I loved that it was still a road trip. I loved that we saw so many wonderful places and I loved that we were accessible and if the cats had needed us we were never more than 7 hours away.

And with sights like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

what was not to like.  It was fab but this year - well I am afraid we are lookimg forward to a 'proper' American holiday in a 'proper' country - America.

Yes this year it is Florida all the way and we will be in heaven.

 

Anyway I digress.

Today I wanted to make a hybrid bon voyage card for someone going away on holiday and so this is what I came up with

 

Looks a bit flat like that but it is very dimensional

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Orange Cream and Cabanas by Jumpstart Designs at Pickleberrypop - just the perfect collection for a bon voyage card

 

Today I am thankful for

• The fun of making different things
• so many holidays we have been blessed to enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Bruges

Now I am on holiday I am trying really hard to finish things I wanted to finish but never gor around to, so expect a few more Bruges pages as I am keen to try and get the album completed.

The place we stayed was really near the central Markt of the old town and we walked that way every day. However, ont he last day as we drove back tot he hotel we realised there was a lovely view the other way and so as it was a glorious late afternoon we went to see.

There was a beautiful canal with traditional houses all along the side and we stood taking pictures when Nigel realised we were also in the pictures, in the reflection over the bridge.

 

So we consciously took the photo with us in. It was to be the last picture we took in Belgium after a wonderful holiday and so it was a very apt farewell page.

 

 

If you look closely you can see a mini 'us' in the small inset picture, peering over the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• reflections. I am always drawn to water and have so many pictures of refelctions.
• unexpected bonuses ... they come along when you least expect them.

 

 

 

 

 

The Djiver

OK I did warn you - now I am off on holiday I have scrap time and that means time to catch up. I want to get my Bruges album finished before I have another holiday to scrap and so I am frantically scrapping photos from our April trip.

 

When we went to Bruges I did the sort of research I have never done before. I actually researched where some of the most photogenic places were and one - of course - was the wonderful Djiver that runs through the heart of Bruges Old town.

 

When we first arrived the sun was in totally the wrong direction and we looked at 'The view' and thought 'mmmmm .....OK' as it was not like the wonderful pictures we had seen. Then we saw it the following morning with the sun in the right direction and loved it.

 

This page is the view in the other direction, looking down the Djiver towards the cathedral and St John's Hospital as well

 

The only sad thing was that due to the direction the sky looks a bit of a white out - in reality it was lovely and blue int he other direction.

 

 

 

 

I plundered one of my little boxes of 'bits' all sorts of embellishments for the cluster at the bottom.

 

 

I even used some old rub ons too

 

 

and dragged out some old stamps. It was a very satisfying page to make.

 

Today I am thankful for

• the daily frap. OK there is the odd day we miss, but it is a real luxury for us
• time to rummage
• boxed of bits - it is always such fun to go through them and find odd little bits you had forgotten.

 

 

 

Back to Bruges

No - not away on holiday in Bruges again - just revising my Bruges album now I have time to do so.

I really wanted to finish the album much earlier - but life and term got int he way and so it had to wait until I was on holiday.

 

This page hasn't turned out at all as I expected. I know that is a daft thing to say as it was me who made it so presumably me who had control over it.

 

I was looking at echoing the shape of the very distinctive gables but it sort of developed a life of its own.

 

 

 

I thinkt he gables and the colours were things we will walys remember about our Bruge vacation and so it is only right they feature here

 

 

I loved the fancy borders which echoes the lage and gables postcards on sale everywhere (if I could find the postcard I bought I would scrap that too!) It is actually a Prima notecard I just cut up to use.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• time to get on and do some things I want to do

• Holidays - love 'em. I think I could get used to an idle lifestyle - I really do. People tell me I would get bored. I say give me the chance please!
• The chance to explore other countries