Dolly's Dreamings

It's done

At last - the lounge is finished and the house is back to normal.

I just don't do upheaval. I really don't. The house has been a mess for two weeks and it has been awful, but now it is complte. Well almost - we still need to have the blinds hung.

The carpet was fitted today and now everything is back in the lounge and tonight we are having a bottle of champagne to celebrate. I can't wait to see the carpet in the light - it was dark by the time I got home, but it feels fab.

I am adding a few poor pictures so that family across the pond can see it! Jim these are for you really. They are either too dark without the flash or too garrish with it. But you get the idea. The whole thing looks pinkish and it isn't. The carpet is much lighter than it looks on the pictures and not pinkish - nor are the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

On to my 5210 page this week.

The theme was celebration and I went for celebrations in general. We do like to celebrate things - both big and small.

The photo is one I love of us which was taken this summer just as we were off to a ball all poshed up.

 

It is the first handcut title I have done in a long long time and was actually quite theraputic.

My quote for today is

 

Today I am thankful for

• a better day than I expected
• Tranquility and order restored at home

 
 

5210 prompt 44

I wonder how many of you have ever been into stores and seen abstreact canvases and thought how easy it would be to do that yourself.

Surely it can't only be us!

Well, piece of Dolly wisdom for you today. . . .  it's not that easy!!!

We bought a hge canvas and a mess of paint and the bin is now very happy and full.

Mmmmmm - not a successful day eh.

But we tried - that's the main thing.

I am back to work tomorrow, and feel like I haven't really had a rest at all. And I am really looking forward to emptying th lunge - again - before i go to bed as the carpet is being laid tomorrow.

Anyway here we go with 44.

 

The project is nearing its end now and I can see the finish line. Much as I have enjoyed the album, I am tired now and running out of ideas. Plus the committment of a prompt a week has been quite a big task - bigger than i had anticipated. And I have just about had enough. I am glad it is almost done and I can relax.

 

 

 

Riverside

It has been a glorious day here today - cold but sunny and beautiful. After a slow start due to a bad cold and being shattered after decorating, we headed out to the Stour and a walk along iford to Tuckton.

 

 
 
 

It was lovely meandering along by the river and we sat and had a lovely picnic.

Back home and decorating again now. Wish it was all done as I ache and just want to lie down really, but Nij has his whip out and insists we finish the painting.

I now have the two pages I made for my 5210 birthday prompt.

 

 
I used a whole load of rub ons that just went with the look I was trying to create.

Today I am thankful for

• Finding lampshades and vases
• The decorating almost done
• Alice not being in a bad accident - just a car hiccup

 
 

5210 Prompt 43 - the BIG ONE

 

Apolgies for the lateness of the prompt today. I have been very busy.

Yesterday was Nigel's birthday and we went up to London for the day. We had a wonderful time looking round the Imperial war Museum.

 

I think we spent the longest part of the visit in the Holocaust exhibition, a subject dear to both our hearts. The exhibition was very well done and very moving. we looked round at many of the other areas and then headed off to the Hard Rock cafe for Nij's birthday meal. Getting there was not nice.

 

I hate the undergrounds - hate being underground, hate feeling trapped, hate crowds etc. But I do try and brave it and lately have been doing better. Till yesterday. They had problems on the Jubilee Line and the trip from Picadilly to Green Park was so awful. I have never been on a train so crowded, so hot, so awful. When we got tot he station no-one could get off for a while as everyone was so tightly packed no-one could move at all. It was hideous and brought back all my fears and I felt quite ill.

However, we had a fabulous lunch and then did a little shopping including spending time in Fortnum and Mason which I love. It was already decked for Christmas and looked beautiful and we bought some Christmas goodies including our Christmas pudding.

 
 
Then we headed off to Waterloo for his present - the new production of The Rainlway Children at Waterloo Station. It was stunning. It takes place in the old Eurostar station and the whole setting and production was magical. Louis Clein (one of my e pupils) was playing Phyllis and we thought she stole the show (we may have been a little biased) You may recognise her from Judge John Deed and Island at War. She is a lovely girl and was stunning last night.

 

I would recommend this innovative retelling the classic story as it really was first class - very unusual and with a real steam train too.

We didn't get home until very very late and so slept in. Consequently we didn't start the decorating until 11.00 am.

However I am really proud of us. We have a huge lounge and we wallpapered three walls (the complex three walls with doors, windows and fireplaces) in 4 hours. Shettered but happy. I think it is going to look lovely when it is finished.

 
So, on to 5210.

This week is what it was all about. Those of you who have journeyed with me throughout the year know that the reason I started this was because I had a big birthday this year - one I was dreading. (Actually I can now say I like being 50 - it is pretty OK actually)

So this week is THE PROMPT. The one it was all about. The big birthday. Now it is OK if you didn't have a big birthday this year. Just take the idea and run with it. But for me it is a key page (so it ended up as a double page of course) This week is what it was all about.

 
I was dreading making these pages as I knew they had to be important.

As it happens they came together quicklya nd are very simple.

 

I will share them properly tomorrow. meanwhile I have a schoking cold, several blister from wallpaper pasting and am shattered so I am off for a relax.

 

Prompt 42 pages

Boy was it dark this morning. i went to work in what seemed like blackest night. And jolly nippy it was too.

Still, as I said to the children in assembly this morning - without the rain you'd never get any rainbows and it is the challenges in life that make us the people we are and make us appreciate the good and the wondrous. If we didn't have the darker mornings we wouldn't have the beauty of the fall.

Anyway - here is my own page for my 5210 prompt 42

 

 
The photo is one of my favourite ever pictures of Nigel. I just really like everything about it and so i am thrilled that I had the chance to use it in my album.

I have been very very lucky to have been married to a wonderful man who has always shared the chores with me. When we first got married he said I would never have to wash a dish so long as I did the cooking. Perfect! Plus he always did the manly jobs of bins and loos and has always done all the hoovering. He worked on the principle that we were both out at work full time and so jobs should be shared.

 
Now he is no longer out at work all day - though he still works, just from home, he has taken on the lion's share of the chores.

I don't do the weekly supermarket shop, I don't cook, I don't do the washing and I come home every friday to a clean house with all the work done. I am blessed indeed and our quality of life is much nicer as we now have the weekends to actually enjoy being together and relaxing. And do you know what? I think he does the jobs better than i used to. He doesn't 'see' what needs doing and has needed the odd prompt like 'you do have to clean the windows once in a while' and 'cleaning the bathroom also includes the mirror' type thing. But once he knows what he needs to do he is way more thorough than I ever was.

So my page is a real tribute to my wonderful hubby.

 

There was a lot of dark space on the photo so I printed quite a bit of text onto it.

My quote of the day today is

 

Today I am thankful for

• Nigel (as I am every day)
• the fact he didn't freak out when he saw how much came out of the lounge cupboards as we start decorating.

 
and I love this one - yet another Bengal by the looks of it.

 

 

5210 prompt 42

The weather continues to be utterly glorious here. It is awfully cold but clear blue skies and wonderful autumn colours.

We went for a really brisk cycle ride this morning and I was quite proud of myself. I am not a confident cyclist and so I struggled not with the fitness - I managed that - but with the stress of being on a bike. I wobble and I grip the handlebars so tightly my hands go into spasm. I am sure I will get better It is just nerves.

I came home and scrapped this page for a challenge Nij had set me - to scrap a page withthe colours we are using for the lounge refurbishment. Actually i failed as we are using mostly cream with accents in chocolate and green and I only used the accent colours - but heck - that is fine.

 
It is another for our holiday album.

 
So onto prompt 42 - only 10 more prompts left to go. That's amazing.

 

I love this page - the whole concept and the photo and the journaling.

I hope you enjoy scrapping yours too.

 

 

Prompt 41 page and other ramblings

The weather continues to be glorious - lots of sunshine, but a fair old breeze today as i was buffeted around.

I have a digital page to share today which was made with Shimelle's goodies.

I used one of her templates and it is another for our holiday album - this time Red Rock.

I also have my 5210 page to share - which i have to say i really don't like.

It was a nice idea but i am really unhappy with it and can see it being re-made.

Mind you, one of the reasons I don't like it is it is about cooking and I REALLY don't like that.

Before we were married my darling Nigel bought me a poster. See - he KNEW what he was getting into. The poster (seen in the middle of the page) has always been stuck ont he inside of a kitchen cupboard door and is used often. If he came home to a particularly spectacular cullinary disaster (and there have been quite a few) he'd find me standing behind said open door, poster displayed for the associated hug. If he saw me stressed whilst cooking (my usual cooking mood) he'd open in and call me for a hug. It's been very well used and sums me up a treat.

 

My quote for today is

 

And yes there is a type there - it should say eludes not elused  - see spelling 9well typing) eludes me!

Today I am thankful for

• The fact that my knees and ankles don't ache all the time (they are bad today but it is the first time for ages and so I decided that I needed that pain to make sure I was grateful it wasn't more often that the arthritis is bad.

 

 

 

5210 prompt 41 and renovations .... again

It's been glorious weather this weekend.

yesterday we went to the beach to see Jakki and Gary's new Pod.  The pods are very upmarket luxurious beach huts at Boscombe and I have to say it was lovely. You can read about them and the area here

So just a few pictures from yesterday of the walk down there, ordinary beach huts and the pod.

 

 
 

 

 

 
its a great view from the patio on the front of the Pod as you are raised up. Lovely.

Today we have been shopping with attitude. We have bought wallpaper, curtains, cushions, accessories, lights and carpet for the lounge refurbishment. I think it is going to look fabulous and is destined to be cream, chocolate and green. Sounds vile but I THINK it will look OK. Let's see.

I have also done some scrapping. I was quite pleased with this page.

 
it's another one for the holiday album.

 

 

 

 

OK on to 5210

This week was a prompt NOT dear to my heart. It had to be in the album but mine is a very tongue in cheek take on it this week.

 

I am sure that for a lot of you it will be a prompt you will love.

 

 

Paper scrapping and prompt 40 page

I have actually forced myself to paper scrap this weekend. And I loved it. I do love paper scrapping but these days I am so darned tired that all i can face is the laptop. But I miss the glue and the pretty patterned papers, I miss the way they smell. I miss getting sticky. I miss it all.

The Green Buttons had a mini cyber crop and so I did a few things for that which was great fun and I also paper scrapped 2 more pages for my 5210 album (I think they were prompts 43 and 44 in readiness) and made another page for my holiday album (plus the mini book I shared yesterday of course)

This si the page I made for the cyber crop which was all about using scraps. (and is also for the holiday album)

I also made quite a few digital pages (its a good night on TV and so I scrap on the lap top LOL)

I  need to share my page for prompt 40 - restaurants and places to eat and drink. Not surprisingly starbucks came top - I just love that place.

But I also had to include Outback Steakhouse in America, TGI (Yes I went there friday) and Pizza express. I could have continued of course!

My quote for today is

Ties in beautifully today actually as my assembly theme was optical illusions and making hasty judgements.

Today I am thankful for

• The pain in my neck being a little better (it's been agony)
• A meeting I needed to be resheduled being resheduled
• A lunchtime stroll, instead of eating

and a special thing i am thankful for

Scrappyjen thank you so much for the lovely comments you left on my blog on Saturday. They quite made my day. Thank you x

And finally - I wish my darling Nij well. as I type he is at the stadium getting ready to present one of the most important matches of the year. Poole are racing Coventry tonight in the second leg of the league final. They lost last Monday away at Coventry but could still be overall champions if they win convincingly tonight.

Lovely crafting day

Do you know - I am actually really glad it rained today. I have had a wonderful crafty day and for the first time in 40 days have not done my steps. And do you know what - it feels good now I am over the guilt.

I have made another couple of 5210 pages in readiness and have just finished a cute little mini book thanks to a class - and I have to say a stunning class - by Jemma (jimjams on UKS) to make a mini book with one sheet of paper and one sheet of card. The isntructions were so clear and I loved the class.

I made a little book about Death Valley

 

The front is nicer than it looks. I used the Tim Holtz die and the support looks like metal thanks to glimmer mists and the sign part hangs and swings. Take my word for it LOl

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had such fun. Thank you Jemma

I have also made a heap of digital pages catching up on DT things and my walks, but i will share them another day.

 

So here is prompt 40 - and I really really really enjoyed doing this one. It touched my heart LOL - you'll soon see why.

Now do you see why? LOL