Dolly's Dreamings

Annual check ups

It was time for the fur babies to go for their annual check up and vaccination. We were quite looking forward to our vet, Tom, seeing Kira looking less battled scarred than he had seen her in recent visits.

Fiki is as good as gold when you take him to the vets. Now it is not very often phrases like good as gold and Fiki go together is it! He sits nicely and quietly in his carrier all the way there and back. Mouth of the South, however, (Nigel's new name for little princess Kira) doesn't like travelling and lets you know. I carry her in my arms and she screams the place down. They hear us in the car park and know we have arrived.

I am pleased to say they both had a clean bill of health and had their annual jabs done with no fuss at all. Tom was pleased to see Kira looking so well and, despite Nigel's warnings, he was not unduly worried that our little girl is once again a tad on the chunky side. He said it was, in part, due to the steroids. He is also happy to keep her on one steroid a day and she hasn't got to go back, God willing, for 6 months. I am also pleased Tom knows us so well and didn't baulk when I said I needed a photo of Fiki having his jabs for my page today! It's nice to have a picture with Tom in it too - we are very lucky to have such a fabulous vet.

Shimelle posted a link to some great free digi kits at Two Peas and used them in her first ever digital layout.

The kits were lovely, one by Rhonna Farrer and one by Tia Bennett. I used largely the Rhonna Farrer kit and had fun whilst waiting to go to the vets making a  very quick digital page about time. I am thinking I now want to do a digital page about each prompt and make a digital album as well. More work for me eh!

The pace of life

I love the blog prompt today from Shimelle - the pace of life. I love the prompt but probably won't love my answer.

I live life at a million miles an hour. I should be wraith thin the speed I do things. Truly! But it is not always a plus. My Daddy's favourite thing to say to me - Ok to yell at me - was 'THINK!' See, I don't. It's because I don't have TIME to think. I am to busy doing to think about what I am doing. A classic example. Nigel and I newly married. In those days I hadn't yet come to the realisation that not in a million years would I ever ever make a garrdner. In those days I still had hope! We spent hours in the garden making a  herb wheel. Bricks sunk in to form a wheel to be planted with herbs.

It was going to look fantastic. I'd grow every lush herb imaginable, saunter down to the garden in my pure cotton goddess outfits, lightly skipping across the dew covered grass to pick herbs to garnish my cullinary feats. I would be Nigella before Nigella was! Well - 'tis nice to dream eh!

The reality was that we went to the garden centre and bought a load of herbs which, let's face it were not only never going to grow but I wouldn't ever use them in cooking either.  Now we get to the part of the tale that illustrates my point. We came home, unloaded the car and by the time Nigel came out I had planted most of the herbs.

 'What are you doing?' the casual question came.

'Duh! Planting the herb garden!' I replied.

'Um, which ones are you putting where?'

Well I clearly didn't see the point of the question. I mean I was putting them all in the herb garden. Nigel calmly (we were newly married then ... he didn't realise this would be a daily problem!) explained that what I really needed to do was plan. I needed to think which were the tallest and would grow fastest and which would remain quite low growing and then plant accodingly. Don't you just hate it when someone is that sensible and you are quite clearly so dumb! We never did have a proper herb garden.

Anyway, my point is I am a do-er not a planner. I am too impatient by far and never learn my lesson. I am the same with crafting. I just have to get on and do it. I am not a planner. I do a lot of journalling - big time (what do you mean you have already spotted I am a tad verbose!) but I never plan it, I just write it, there and then, from the heart.

So Shimelle, you need to be really proud of yourself because this week you have succeeded where both Daddy and Nigel failed. You made me slow down, think and plan!

The two pages here are my two pages for the first page in My Freedom album. I might not use them as the first pages, because I am not very proud of them. Not the pages so much but the concept. When I started pouring it all down on the journalling strips I realised I do have quite an issue with time and it is a hurdle I want to try and get over. The hours I spend worrying about lost minutes are graduallys having hours of my life span. The worry about time is so stress inducing I NEED to address it so, if nothing else, maybe this page will become a foucs for that.

The small page here is my page for today for the Month in my Life. It is a bit of a cheat as the photo was from last night but I had done my page by then. Living in a holiday town we have great things to go see, Poole have fireworks - and stunning fireworks - every week from June - September. the quay is a buzz with live music, shows and thent he fireworks so we went down last night and it was lovely. I love my home town.

Lunch with a friend and blog prompt 4

Jakki and I had planned to go out somewhere for the day but the weather forecast wasn't fab and so we decided to just do lunch - very civilised.

She picked me up and we went to a cute little pub for what turned out to be a very average lunch. Still, the food wasn't the main focus, the company was what mattered.

I even remembered to take a picture or two and I have both of us girlies on the page for today for the Month in my Life.

A visit to Hobbycraft and the Range and a leisurely coffee made the day complete.

I had time to scrap - doinga  DT piece for next month (no of course I can't share it) and to get my thoughts together for my Shimelle page.

I managed to get the album I wanted (How worrying is it that I have bought 4 albums int he last 24 hours! I have at least 7 new 12 x 12 albums and I just don't scrap that size any more. Well not often anyway)

The two pages here are from the 9th and 10th for my month album.

Now Shimelle's blog prompt was about poetry and if there has ever been a poem that has inspired you. I love poetry - all sorts of poetry and one of my favourite things to teach the children at school is poetry. They are so free and uninhibited when they are young and come up with such amazing things. My Mom used to recite poetry to me when I was little and my Nana wrote poetry, beautiful poetry, and one of the most precious things I have is her handwritten notebook of poems. I must take pictures of it and scrap that one day.

There are so many poems I love and I have thought about what I want to include here and have gone for two very different ones. One is From a Railway Carriage by R. L. Stevenson It was a poem Mom used to recite often and as I learnt it we would say it together. I love the rythm in it, the images and to me is shouts childhood and memories and excitement and love. It is very special to me. I know perhaps I could have gone for something so much more profound, but this is such a special memory it had to be here.

The second is quite different. I came across it when I was doing my O Level (yes that is how old I am - no GCSE's then) Religious Studies. We had an ethics paper and one of the essys was on the pros and cons of abortion. I worked so hard on that essay - and yes of course I still have it ... I told you, I don't throw ANYTHING away.) I was so proud of it. 15 and I thought I knew it all. I had sourced leaflets and poems and documents and I got a D grade. I had never had a D grade before. Ever. And I had worked harder on this than anything. The reason for the D - it was supposed to be a balanced point of view and I had only presented one side of the argument. I may have failed the essay but I learnt a very valuable life lesson. There are always two sides to everything and you need to look for both and try to understand them both, even if you don't always agree with both.

The poem is Unto Us by Spike Milligan and I hope many of you will click the link and read it. I didn't want to post it here as, unlike my 15 year old self, I am well aware that there are different view points, each valid for the people who hold them, and the last thing I would want to do would be upset anyone.

Thrilled with the response - and nervous

Two posts in one day - this is becoming a habit.

Ladies I have to say a huge thank you for the response to the announcement of the on line class starting tomorrow. Gosh - I hope you are not disappointed!

Remember. it will start easy and hopefully flow from there. Thank you for at least saying you will have a look and hopefully play along. It should be a fun journey to share together.

So that people who don't do Disney can play I am thinking of doing two albums for this - one Disney and one not. We'll see eh!

I have been to a colleagues retirement do this lunch time so am pleasantly relaxed from the wine (Jakki drove) and ready for a chilled afternoon. As it is going to be so chilled I thought I may as well do the page for today as it won't have much more happening LOL so here are the pages from yesterday and today.

Fiki learnt a new trick today - He can now open the kitchen bin (but not close it again after him) and deposit toy mice in there. I can see this one is going to be a problem. I always figure that we lose no toy mice - they are always somewhere in the house. Now we could face a whole different problem. I guess the bin is yet another thing that is going to have to move/change to become Fiki proof. Story of our lives I'm afraid.

On line classes galore

Well I am up for a busy busy time ahead. And I am LOVING IT!

I signed up for Shimelle's new class My Freedom and that started today. I am really looking forward to it.

The first prompt is about time and travel. Two things very dear to my heart. I love to travel - I will come to that later - but time is very sugnificant in my life. I live by time. It is very important. I think, in part, it was growing up in a hotel (my parents owned and ran a hotel) where things happened at set times. And then going from school, to university and back to schools with no breaks. Schools run on bells and timetables. So do I!

It is one of the few areas of tension between Nigel and I. He works on 'ish'. Things happen at 7 ish for example. I work on exact minutes. I will say things like 'we will meet at 7.10' and my goodness we will. He, of course, works on his own ish clock!

One of the things to do today was to take pictures of the way we measure time in the house. Oh my! I have so many clocks. There is no room without a clock (well apart from the bathrooms) and some have several when you think of the microwave, the cooker, the time switches for lights, the video etc etc. And quite a few clocks in my house run on Karen time! That is a different time than the rest of the universe. I can't bear to be late so many of the clocks are set fast so I have time in hand. OK - so you have to be me to toally get it!

This is one of my favourite clocks - the Disney clock in my scrap room. His lttle leg swings as a pendulum and he is just darned quirky and cheerful. I guess, if he had to, he could even make being a minute late quite fun!

Apart from Shimelle's class I am also working my way through 25 days (a brief respite from that one for a couple more weeks), a month in my life and also the A - Z album, in my case a fur babies album.

The pages here are the last two to upload of the month in my life album, which I have to say I am loving.

I have been very disiplined with these two. I was starting to fall into the trap of doing a double page for each day and would end up with a totally enourmous album, so I have kept these two to singles, hence they are very simple.

I rarely get good pictures of Kira and she was just in the right place int he right light yesterday to snap some sleepy girl shots and I was so pleased I had to include it as my photo of the day.

The other class that I am planning on doing this summer is extra special to me

I have decided to run another class on here like I did last year. A lot of people joined in with my All My Own Work project last year and I hope lots of people will play along with this one this year.

  

It is a free class, lasting 10 weeks and will hoepfully give you the encouragement to join me in making a travel album.

Disney lovers ... this has you written all over it.

I was going to do it purely Disney based - and it will be heavily Disney inspired and linked to Disney. However, several people said they would like to play and didn't do Disney so there will be alternative ideas and suggestions. So whatever holiday you have enjoyed, you can play along.

The class will start on Wednesday this week so please, shout it from the rooftops - or from your blogs and in your forums - and lets get lots of people playing in a free summer fun class.  If you want to snag the blinkie for it you can. There are two sizes as I am not sure which poeple would prefer.

If you think you might join in, please post in this blog entry. I might even have little random digital prizes up for grabs for posters.

Like a cat out of hell

I hadn't posted this page and today seemed a good day to post it as he has confirmed his status again!!!

The A True Friend blog challenge was to scrap the theme tune/music to your pet's life. (It was me set the challenge this time LOL. I did two pages but this was the most pertinent. Many of you will know my Fave album is Meatloaf Bat out of Hell - so this page was just perfect.

What did he do to confirm his status this time? I was given a very nice very expensive bottle of red wine on Wednesday. I rarely drink red but fancied this one. He knocked it out of the cupboard when he was playing open the kitchen cupboard doors. It was on the bottom shelf so only fell about 4 inches. It smashed.... red wine and glass everywhere.

We could quite cheerfully have killed him. It took ages to clean everything up and we lost a perfectly nice bottle of wine. It's coming out of his pocket money .... I swear!

I have been keeping up to date with the month in my life and have done and finished pages for 5th and 6th but have not scanned them yet so here are the pages from 4th July.

We have been out for the afternoona nd had a late lunch, early tea at Frankie and Benny's so am stuffed and ready for a quiet evening inf ront of the telly.

Talking of Telly - was everyone as hooked as I was on Dr Who yesterday? And surely I wasn't the only one to cry!

Our little cupcake

This was another page I made for Charmed Cards and Crafts last month using the Basic Grey cupcake collection. Emily eating the little cupcake (why did the name change - why aren't they fairy cakes any more!) was just too perfect a picture to not use.

I used lots of cut out cupcakes from the paper, plus the confetti paper and some of the chipboard, letter stickers and fibres all from the same range.

Had a lovely day today. It was the Crafts show at Broadlands near Romsey and we always go to that one. I have to say it was a little disappointing this year, though we managed to buy bits and pieces. I bought a new leather belt and bought Nigel a new leather credit card wallet as I can stand the broken one no longer.

I also bought some hand made creams and some exotic crystalised fruits which were yummy. I bought a ceramic nail file too. I ouldn't see how it would work but it did and was lovely. A lot less harsh than an emery board and very pretty.

On the way back we were so close to Just a memory it would have been criminal not to visit and so we did. A visit to the newly refurbished Pizza Hut (very smart and upmarket now) finished the day off a treat and still home in time to see Dr Who. I am going to be gutted if we lose David Tennant.

The other pages sprinkled round here are some of the pages from the  'a month in my life' challenge which I have to say I am loving so much.

I am going to try and do a few days at single pages else I am going to have a massive book at the end of it if I do them all as doubles.

Will upload days 3 and 4 tomorrow and I am just off to do day 5 now!

Have a great rest of Saturday

He's got cat-ittude

My little boy had so much cattitude it's bad for my health.

He does such naughty things and then looks you straight in the eye, cocks his head on one side and you forgive him anything.

Just as well really - he'd be long gone if he couldn't win out hearts like that.

The page here was another made usingt he Patricia Christensen new kit Shabby Cottage by the Sea from Weeds and Wildflowers. Although it is very sea and nautical themed, it also lends itself to pages which are just plain fun, like this one.

I did however make another nautical themed page with the picture of Nij that just cracks us up. Nigel hates water, the sea, sailing etc. He is scared to death of water and doesn't really swim. This picture was taken years ago when he was on a customer's boat and it is so funny as he looks like he lives on the ocean ..... nothing could be further fromt he truth.

Everything is from the Shabby Cottage by the Sea again, except for the alpha which was by Gina Marie Huff from the Cherished set, also at Weeds and Wildflowers.

Caz is hosting a new challenge - A Month in Your Life - challenging everyone to scrap the month of July is simple format. I don't do that LOL - so I am going to try and make a mini album of the month of July, trying to do a page a day - though some days are going to be tough I guess. We'll see how it pans out. I have in my mind that I might make a mini page with photos for each day - but then I might not

I have made the pages - though that wasn't simple as it involved cutting cardstock to 6 x 4! I have made the cover and I am using several K and Co ranges all in blues, creams and greens. I bought the new Blue Awning papers and journalling cards - which may well be useful for the days when I run out of steam.