Dolly's Dreamings

Coping well

Well as Meatloaf says - two out of three ain't bad.

We are coping with no boiler. It's OK - the weather is lovely and things are fine

My leg is so much better which is awesome

 

Just the cats tummies to sort again! It's not awful but it's not right and we can't get it right.

Anyway - we have been enjoying the balcony which is good and the sunshine - though not the pollen - is most welcome.

I have a little new scrapping to share - made for challenges of course - I do find they inspire me to get scrapping.

 

I couldn't wait to scrap the cottage picture and I used a flower stencil for the background

 

 

This was another photo from the same day too. I am pleased I scrapped them both within a couple of days of taking them

 

This was a Scrap Squad sketch and records the book club we started on UKS. This is our first book - which I raced through because I really loved it. Very good book. Can't wait till we all discuss it.

 

 

and finally a tiny tired tiger yesterday morning

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely picnic out
• hot water and sunshine
• a healed leg
• my boys no matter what their tummies are like

 

 

 

well it has been interesting

We have had a couple of interesting days here.

I have done something to my leg. Not sure what but dreadful pain like the most severe calf cramp ever. It was so bad I spoke to the GP as I was worried it was a DVT. Looks like it isn't. Prescribed rest and keep an eye on it to watch for DVT signs.

Then Nigel got up yesterday and notices water all over the worktop in the utility room. The boiler was leaking - a lot!

The man we have used for years came out within three hours which was brilliant and he condemned the boiler. It is cracked and so the system had to be drained and we have no boiler now for between 7 and 14 days. We are lucky it is nice and warm and thankfully we have an immersion heater for hot water.

Oh and the cats had upset tummies again and were so stressed by the noise and work again!

 

However, in true Dolly style, I am thankful for the fact we were here not away, that the plumber came quickly, that the cats seem better today and that my leg seems less painful. So on balance, all is pretty good.

We had a lovely walk two days ago at another part of the stour and saw this utterly picture perfect view as well as other views

 

 

 

 

 

I was so down yesterday I bought myself flowers - a terrific triple bunch for £5 ... looks lovely in my new jug  - and I won a pencil from Scrap Squad for making lots of nice comments on people's pages

 

 

 

 

 

And some scrapping with a new collection by Bellisae called Seize the Day at Pickleberrypop

 

 

and another with a new collection by Carol W called Hot Mess

so from a boilerless home - have a great bank holiday weekend

Today I am thankful for

a prompt and efficient heating engineer

being here when the leak started

a healing leg

the river stour

 

Socialising - surely not

We had a very quiet weekend because the weather was utter rubbish with heavy winds and torrential rain. The winds dropped today but there were some very heavy showers.

We were, however, thrilled that we had visitors today as Sarah and Richard were down for the weekend and we got to spend some time with them. we went out for coffee and cake and then took them on a  very wet tour of the Purbecks.  It was just lovely to see them and it felt so normal which was amazing after a year of not normal. We usually only see them on our weekly zoom meet up so to see them 'for real' was fab.

 

Other than that nothing much to report except a bit of scrapping - much of which I can't share yet.

These two are for a challenge I am going o be hosting at Pickleberrypop

 

 

 

 

This was for a UKS challenge

and this was for a Lottie Loves Paper challenge

 

and - I have finally started my American Icons album but I haven't taken pictures yet.

 

So just a very quick blog post for today.

Today I am thankful for

• seeing Sarah and Richard - it was lovely
• a little bit of normal
• yummy carrot cake

AND i JUST LOVE THESE - mOMMIES AND BABIES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sat here like winter

Happy May eh! It's been quite the month for weather and the past two days we have had gale force winds and even more rain. We have had a lot of rain and a lot of cold and a lot of wind throughout glorious May. You'd think it was winter.

Hey ho - rain means nice cosy day indoors (with the heating on) and scrapping and jigsaws.

We did have glorious weather on Wednesday though - and we had the most normal day we have had for ages. Nigel found a new walk at Stanpit marshes and we booked to go to Prezzo - we are now allowed to eat inside.

We had a super walk enjoying very different scenery on the salt marshes and seeing wildlife and the bailey bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got to the restaurant they asked if we wanted to sit outside and it was gloriously sunny and a really pretty garden so even though we had steeled ourselves to sit inside for the first time since August we sat outside and the food was utterly delicious

 

 

 

I have a little scrapping to share

 

 

 

 

 

They were all made for Scrap Squad challenges

 

I also had a gorgeous box of happiness arrive from Adam Westwood at Dotty About Flair

 

 

and I organised them all into a new storage box

 I also went back to Art on Tuesday and it was lovely to see everyone

This is what I painted - best seen from  long way away really though there is lots of detailed work

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• being indoors int he warm and dry
• scrappy days
• eating out but being in too

 

 

Lush new releases

Morning everyone and - contrary to the rest of May - it is glorious today - beautiful sunshine and the washing is OUT

It's new release day at Pickleberrypop and it is Berry Big Deal week. You know the drill by now - the designers work with the same basic palette but add their own twist on to it and then offer coordinating collections at amazing prices for two days. So go check out the new deals and nab yourself a bargain.

I was lucky to work with 5 collections this week-

 

Chunlin Designs Lavender and co using one of my paintings

 

 

 

 

Love you bunches BBD by Heartrings Scrap Art

 

My three favourite girlies

 

 

Big Memories BBD bundle by Palvinka Designs

l

 

 

Spring Mood BBD by TirAmisu Designs

 

 

 

 

Journey BBD by Natali Designs

 

 

Do go and check things out in store.

 

Mary you asked what paints I use for my watercolours. I have a set of White Knights which I love but I also use Winsor and Newton professional. Indy was painted with the Winsor and Newton.

 

I love Paul Clark tutorials too - you will see the lavender fields in a page today - that was using white knights I think

 

Today I am thankful for

• sunshine
• the prospect of a meal out
• beautiful digital kits to play with

 

Ooops - been forgetting

Apologies if anyone is still reading this on a regular basis (apart from Barb - I love that you still visit)

I have been very bad at updating - no reason - just been forgetting

I will aim to do better as my blog is my record for me of our life. In fairness the last few days we have done little - possibly why I forgot to blog.

 

I have a mess of new scrapping to share

Bluebells a couple of weeks ago

 

 

A bridge photo from last month that I liked

 

Our first meet up with neighbours for a picnic in the garden - it felt good to get back together

 

 

a couple of digital pages using collections by Indigo Designs by Anna

 

 

 

 

 

Nigel had a massive bruise from his second vaccination (though no side effects thankfully) and he let me decorate it like the stickers (neither of us got a sticker )

 

More of the bluebell walk

A photo from Hamworthy where we love to walk

 

 

 

another of Route 66 using new stamps and papers

 

 

 

Plus I painted yesterday and did this painting of Indy

 

Today I am thankful for

• a walk on the beach this morning
• scrapping and painting time

 

Busy walking and scrapping and painting and enjoying life

I have to say - I highly recommend retirement though I have no idea how I ever managed to do anything when I worked.

The days - and weeks - just fly by these days but it is all good.

We have had a few long walks the past few days (my knees and hips want a rest) but that is good.

I have been scrapping for Design Team things

 

These are three pages made using Simple Stories Vintage Travel for A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

This one documents how we are missing our road trips so much

 

 

 

 

This is the iconic El Rancho Motel in Gallup New Mexico

 

and this is the very bizarre Leaning Tower of Zoom which shows they will make a route 66 attraction of just about anything.

 

 

and this was a Pickleberrypop CT page using Together by Dita B

 

 

 

 

 

 

and other scrapping has included

 

A page for a challenge ... Indy and Skinny (a skinny mouse toy he adores)

 and another with my JAC Scrapbox and an Ann Freeman class 

 

Oh and painting too

 

Today I am thankful for

• lovely days of just nice things to do
• Indy having solid poo for two weeks  and trying some chicken
• retirement - always

and these are amazing sculptures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely to have zoom

I think there ARE some good things that have come out of the awfulness of the pandemic. They don't outweigh the bad with so many awful losses, but there are some good things and we need to embrace them because if we only dwell not the awful we will spiral down and down.

One of the good things for me is zoom. I'd never heard of zoom before and it has become a bit of a lifeline to be honest.

We zoom every week with the family who are spread across the country and in fairness I see more of them - virtually - than I did in real life as the distances made it tricky. I value our zoom evenings so good - a chance for a quiz or just a natter is lovely.

I haven't been to real crops in a long long time and so going to zoom crops is great fun. I get to chat sometimes to my scrappy team mates from UKS and I get to crop with the scrapmates lead by the lovely Ann and where some of the people I have been online friends with for years go. And it is lovely.

It was family zoom night last night and it was crop day today, although I only tend to join in after lunch.

 

I have made a lot of pages today but three of them I cannot share as they are class pages for ATDML but oh my - I do love the collection I was working with - really really lush

This is a page devised by Ann that I made at the crop

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a lush box of goodies this month - as always

 

and here are a few other pages

This was for a Lottie Loves Paper challenge

 

This for Scrap Squad

 

and another for Lottie Loves Paper

Today I am thankful for

• zoom - bringing people together
• scrappy time
• new stash to play with

and I share these because, in the most part, they are dreadful ways to serve food to people. I don't get the quirky arty - use a plate for goodness sake

 

 

Stupid but I'd go along with it

nope

 

 

nope - can you imagine that ever being washed properly!

 

nope

 

Stupid but I guess the plastic would at least be washable

 

 

why????

 

hell no

why???

 

never ever ever

 

oh for goodness sake

 

I have refused food before served on wood

 

what goes through their minds?

 

nope

madness, utter madness

 

 

runs away screaming

 

seriously!

 

 

not fit for animals to be fair

I think they call is 'a mixed bag'

Today said there might be showers later on so we headed off in the morning for our walk. And oh my what a day.

We walked in bright sunshine and then we noticed the sky had gone a deep indigo colour which looked quite threatening so we turned around and hoped we would make it back to the car in time. we did - just before the most incredible hail storm. Then it was beautiful again, then dark as night and more hail. A cycle that has repeated over the course of the day.

But these were photos BEFORE the hail

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are new releases at Pickleberrypop today and I have a couple of pages from that and from the mojo challenges to share

 

 

 

 

This was the mystery box this month - you can grab it for free if you do the challenge

 

 

and this was the use it all - a mini kit by Chunlin Designs, again free if you do the challenge

 

 

 and these were for challenges

and yes I scrapped the pictures from this morning

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• challenges - such fun
• a lovely walk
• missing the hail

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Scrapbook Day(s)

It has been National Scrapbook day this weekend and the celebrations are lasting all week - and more.

I have had such fun playing on various sites and facebook groups, making pages, completing challenges and hosting challenges too. It has been fun and I have a fair few pages to share.  I won't share them all today - I don't want to go into overload.

 

This was a fun one to make as it recalls how the goose decided to accompany Nigel on his walk last week in the park

 

and this one remembers walking along the Cobb at Lyme Regis

 

I was really pleased with his one. I don't do grid pages but I had fun with his and made my own project life style cards too (and Koda is beautiful)

 

 

 

enjoying an ice-cream in Christchurch last week

 

and yesterday we went for a walk through the park and along the quay. Some very naughty people had added some sort of detergent to the fountain - very very naughty but it looked absolutely beautiful.

 

This was made by printing out some new elements I bought for National Scrapbook Day - well I am sure I read somewhere it was meant to be shopping as well as scrapping.

 

I really liked the colours on this one

 

 

 

 

And this one was a very different sketch for me

 

I have to say I have loved the challenges on Scrap Squad which have really stretched me - and the challenged at Hey Little Magpie too.

 

I will leave the pages there for now but I have scrapped 15 pages in 3 days which I am really quite pleased with.

 

Today I am thankful for

• being back indoors as the wind and rain is not nice. We are forecast 60mph winds all day
• national scrapbook Day
• the talented people who share their creativity around the scrapping world
• my boys being better ... we have no idea why but they had 24 hours of terribly upset tummies - both of them - for no known reason - and now they are all better. Very odd but we are just glad they are OK now.

And I just loved these fake things to buy - so clever.

well they amused me