Dolly's Dreamings

Still playing catch up

I have yet more pages to share of my weekly drudge ... I mean joyous scrapping challenge of a page a week for a year!

I also have some new paper scrapping - but onto the weeklies first

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am happy they are getting done and I know I will enjoy the finished book when it is all printed up - sometimes things that are good seem like chores at the time but the pay off is worth it.

 

I also have a paper page to share ... I am still scrapping pages for our WOW tour trip last year to Washington, Oregon and California and this is another of California Adventures. I cannot explain how much I loved that park. We thought we wouldn't like it - but we loved it. It was exceptionally hot and we enjoying sitting o n he trolley for a while and riding round that park.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a hobby which brings me so much pleasure and safeguards our memories.

 

and I saw these on the internet - some outrageously amazing ... and strangely disturbing makeup photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Even more distracted

You see, I post  about how I have procrastinated with my weekly pages - I resolve to catch up and then I get distracted by something else.

It would appear that I will never learn.

 

However, I have been frantically making weekly pages and I can see a dim flicker of light at the end of a very long tunnel.

 

So here are the latest additions - be prepared - there are a few and I am well aware they are probably of no interest to anyone other than me ... oh and Nigel of course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really liked doing this one - brought back such happy memories

 

 

and finally - well more than half way through the year now.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

being able to accomplish tasks when I actually put my mind to it ... the trouble is the mind wanders all over the place and goes off and lives a little life all of its own at times!

 

 And I found these on T'internet  - they are amazing. Paper sculptures of places in Games of Thrones made from the Games of Thrones books  They are by Jamie Hannigan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A bit of a catch up

There isn't a great deal to report here other than to acknowledge I have done just what I said I wouldn't do. I said, after last December and the mad mad panic to try and complete some sort of year book, I would never do that again.

 

I KNOW it doesn't matter if I do a year book or not, but it matters to me. I like to have the essence of the year, mundane as it might be,  captured as a whole.

 

This was my 2016 book

 

 

It was a 6" x 12" book and was more work than I intended and doing it all in December was a bit crazy.  Every month had flaps and pockets and it was a labour of ... well not love actually!

 

 

In 2015 I also made a book but I didn't quite do it in one hit - it was the same size as 2016

 

 

 

If I am honest one of my favourites was the 2009 album which was also 6" x 12" but in portrait format with all shaped papers

 

anyway I digress. I am good at that ... kind of the theme of the post really. That and A levels in procrastination.

 

I said that this year it would be a digital book with a page for every week and I would be religious in completing each page at the end of each week. Mmmm. That didn't go quite so well.

 

 I started well. Week 1 and 2 were very timely. But it faded off and by the time I got to week 12 and 13 I was well behind. Thankfully I keep a simple factual diary on my iPad so I always had what had happened to look back on. Then I started to get lazy with photos so struggled to get any pictured for pages and that meant I delayed doing them and lost interest.

Well you get the picture.

So a mammoth task lay ahead and I have determined that this week ... who am I kidding it will be the next couple of weeks - I am going to catch up properly. I have made a good start today and have a few new pages to share from way way back in the year. They are not works of art - they were never meant to be that. They simple record our daily life for us to look back on, but as I HAVE made them they are GOING on here!

 

 

There is one good thing about doing so many from so long ago - it is nice looking back and realising that we had some lovely times.

 

 

 

I loved that week - it was art festival week at the church and it was so much fun.

 

and finally ... for today

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• finally motivating myself to get this task done
• perseverance - goodness I am going to need it in the next few days

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So Thankful ... I wish you enough

Although we are not American - though we would love to be - we do always celebrate thanksgiving, if nothing else in tribute to our many family and friends who live in the USA.

So to Mike in Florida, Gretta and Steve and family in Oregon, Cait and Chris in Oregon, Lynne and family in Georgia, Abbie and Lee and family in South Carolina, Richie and family in Tennessee, Deirdre, Maeve and Helen and family in California, Jim and Diane in Massachusetts and Barb and her husband in Minnesota ...Happy Thanksgiving! Wish we could be with you all.

 

We have so much to be thankful for this year - as we have every year. We are thankful that we have our health, our cats, our home, food on the table,  and money to deal with life's necessities and emergencies. We are thankful for easier days, for more leisure time, for technology (sorry but we are!) for successful ventures, for friends and experiences and most of all we are thankful for each other. We truly are blessed. Not everything in our lives is perfect - but without the rain, you would never have rainbows and you need to focus on the positives. If everything in life was perfect - how would you ever know? I have been keeping my thankfulness on here for more than 5 years now - some of the things I am thankful for might be huge and momentous, some are trivial and banal, but focusing on what I am thankful for each day keeps me grounded.

 

I need to remind you as well that there is still time to go grab a bargain at this month's Pickle Barrel. There are some truly wonderful things there to play with.

This is Home for Holidays by Lorie M which is just gorgeous and really traditional

 

 

 

 So to all of our friends and family and to anyone who pops by regularly and reads my ramblings .. I wish you enough. 

 

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It's that time again

It is Pickle Barrel time again and there are such gorgeous collections available at Pickleberrypop this month. 

remember all of the kits by all of the designers coordinate together and so you can mix and match and know it will all work.

 

The colours are beautiful this month and, in honour of the fact that so many are Christmassy in theme I have - hope you have noticed - changed my blog header early. OK so I did it a few days ago in all honesty. I am a definite Christmas-holic (yes I am sure it is a word) and so having a holiday themed header for longer seems like a good idea to me. We have not put any Christmas decorations up yet - but the day is imminent ... not the tree mind you - that is a Fiki issue and so that doesn't go up until much closer to the big day. (I have never gotten over the year that the tree came down - for the umpteenth and final time - on Christmas Eve one year.

Anyway, I digress.

 

The first collection I worked with was by Jumpstart Designs and called A Time of Wonder. Look at the gorgeous elements in it

 

I loved the word art so much it dictated what I made ... this is a picture of Emily and her Grandad and it just oozes family joy at Christmas 

 

 

Remember you can buy the 6 packs at just $6 and they usually have bonus things with them.

Do check it out - it's lovely every month but this month is stunning.

 

Today I am thankful for

• the holiday season - thanksgiving, Christmas, new year ... all lovely but I adore Christmas
• Pickle barrel lushness to work with

 

 

 

 

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A mix of scrappings

Some days I tend to stick to one theme and scrap several pages from one event and other - well I am all over the place. The last two days have been a bit of a mixed bag from a scrapping point of view and from a life point of view.

 

Today we got caught in an awful traffic jam and it was so needless. There is a road that leads to Poole that was having major roadworks resulting in shutting off the access to Poole with no alternative. It is a long road - a good couple of miles. Did they tell you before you set off on said road that there was no access. No. I couldn't believe it. It is a busy road and everyone - not just us ... everyone in the world so it seemed ... headed off down the road, travelled almost the whole way thinking ... goodness me there is a lot of traffic coming the other way nose to tail and not moving, before getting to the point where the road works were and being turned round to go back the way you came into the solid traffic we had been bemused by on the way down. Totally pointless. Why did they not post a sign at the start fo the road saying no access to Poole. I was so cross. Nigel of course was chilled ... as normal. 

 

Anyway - on to scrapping. Dawn has a new challenge at The Lily pad here and you can get a free template to play with - yes FREE

 

This is what I made with the template using her Weathered collection ... the three loves of my life.

 

I also did a bit of paper scrapping

 

 

As a child, Nigel always wanted to be a bus driver. Now he is a part time train driver. He occassionally drives the miniature train at Poole Park - and it is great great fun.

 

Today I am thankful for

• Tenable - Nigel and I love playing along witht his show.
• scrapping time
• Nigel's chilled out attitude - it does help calm me

 

 

It's all about the shows

I think it just might possibly be a bad thing that we got Now TV.

 

The trouble is there are great shows on it that we watch.... a lot

 

First, there is/was Game of Thrones. I kept my subscription because of that show and it so didn't disappoint.

Then there is my guilty pleasure of The Walking Dead which I don't so much enjoy as be fascinated by. It is such a study of humans and what they will do to survive ... and not always in a good way.

 

Then, of course, there is Grey's. Totally and utterly my favourite show of all - I binge watched all 13 series over the space of a couple of months - and know I will watch it again.

 

Now we have discovered The Good Doctor - which we are both enjoying - and the Frankenstein Chronicles.

Combined with the fact we are cinema members and have been to almost 60 films (including, against Nigel's better judgement, The Justice League today) I think we are turning square-eyed. In truth, we do also go out for long walks a lot and get plenty of fresh air so I am not too worried about our sanity as yet. 

 

On a theme of shows, there is also a new collection from Dawn Inskip called Showtime ... see what i did there.  These are the elements and there are papers and word arts too.

 

 

This is what I made with it - a page about the side show booth at Paradise Pier.

 

 

 

And my final thought - on Shows - we saw a great trailer for a film out next year that we want to see called The Greatest Showman about P.T.Barnum - looks fab. Hugh Jackman and Zac Efron ... what's not to like!

Today I am thankful for

• Now TV and the programmes we enjoy
• Our cineworld membership
• Helen transforming my old TH hoodie into something wonderfully new (pictures will follow)

 

And I spotted these amazing pictures by Japanese artist Kohei Ohmori - takes photorealistic drawing to a whole new level

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's new all round

Today has been a day of newness.

Much of it has been setting up my new iPhone. In fairness that works like a dream - all the apps copy over etc. The trouble is that to use them you have to re-log in. There by hangs a tale.

Oh my it has taken forever to figure out the passwords for everything, the login details etc but now, thankfully, all is sorted. There was one casualty of the new install. I use a programme called Day One and it no longer works with the new version of Ios. Needless to say, there is a new version but it's £31 a year and the reviews say that it doesn't transfer all the old stuff. I have kept the diary for four years on my devices and I will eb sad to lose it all. I have lost it on my phones and when I update the software on my iPad I will lose it there too. It's just such a shame. It was also a photo a day - every day - for the past four years. I guess I will  live with the loss but it is such a shame.

Other new things have been new Digital kits to work with which has been great fun.

 

The first is a kit called Kindred by Jennifer Labre Designs

 

I made this page of the ever gorgeous Alice and he partner. They are such a cute couple.

 

 

Then I also worked witht his collection calle look out of the window  by Dita B Designs

 

 

In addition to that Dawn has her Artsitry collection on special today only so go check that out in her store

 

and finally I even made a new card using the Countdown to Christmas post today - such a neat idea.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• all technology being set up now - phew. It's scary how much we rely on it all.

A frustrating rewarding satisfying day

We had work in Southampton today and so it was a chance to try and address my phone issue whilst we were there.

We completed our jobs first and then set about the phone issue. My battery is rubbish - even more rubbish than people often say about i phones. Don't get me wrong - I would never change from an iPhone(I know ... never say never but there are lots of benefits) 

Anyway, I had tried apple chat and they were very helpful but found the battery was Ok so something else was causing the problem. I held a beautiful iPhone 7 in my hand for a while but in all honesty, I could do without spending the £650 at the moment. So we got an appointment at the genius bar.

 

There is no other store quite like Apple. The store in Southampton looked more like a place of worship than a shop. It is clean and streamlined and actually was surprisingly quiet when we went in and they always have loads and loads of staff.

 

 

I did have my own photo but I lost that - you'll see why!

So - we went to the temple of Apple and I was very impressed that we had no appointment but they said they would see me today and sent me a text when they were ready. We managed a bit of a walk round before the text came (enough time to go to Sprinkles as it happened)

 

Back we went and I have to say they were very very helpful. We sat in one of the pews - sorry seats at the big table of technology and a very helpful young guy talked me through the possibilities. Diagnostics showed that software might be an issue and that the battery was OK so we agreed that the best recourse was a factory re-set. We stayed there whilst he did it - much quicker than us doing it on our own as he knew short cuts - and as we speak I am just waiting for everything to finsih downloading now I am on wifi. You see that's why I love Apple - it is all backed up and restored so smoothly.

We will wait and see if we have any imporved battery function when it has all settled down. I so hope so.

 

We grabbed a bit to eat - a delicious pizza at Prezzo - and then headed home via Sandbanks - what a glorious end to the day

 

 

 

 

No scrapping today as we were non stop busy - but hopefully I have a phone with a bettery that has a fightingc hance of lasting all day!

 

Today I am thankful for

• Apple and iPhones
• sunsets
• pizzas

 

 

OK so it is early

It's no good.

I can't stand it any longer.

I have been making Christmas themed CT pages today (can't share them yet)

and Christmas presents (can't share those yet either) and listening to Christmas music whilst I made them.

 

So I went and made a Christmas header and - yes I know it is early - but it is up.

 

It's my favourite time of year so what the heck. 

 

I have also made a page for the challenge on UKS and it couldn't be less Christmassy - it is really bright and summery.  Heck - let's mix it up a bit eh!

 

Yet another for the ever expanding Disney albums. There are a lot of them now. I need to stop!

 

We went out to enjoyt he sunshine for a wlak this morning - and it promptly rained so we had a sit by the sea instead.  Hence why I had time to come home early and scrap.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a happy day of crafting
• impending Christmas

 

 

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