Dolly's Dreamings

Belated 4th July Independence Day

Happy belated 4th July and a special place in our hearts not only because we love America and all of our family and friends over there but also it is now my own independence day anniversary. 4th July 2016 I walked out of school for the last time and it was walking into the unknown and it has been, quite honestly, the best 6 years of my life. Yes I know we have had a pandemic too, but still.

 

I had my second art class to teach this afternoon and I am really pleased because it went well. It was simple but everyone said they really enjoyed it and have asked if I will teach again so I am very happy.

I have been enjoying scrapping along with the 12 days of summer over at Scrap Squad and these are my latest two days

 

 

 

 

That was yesterday's and this is today's

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a successful art class
• scrapping fun
• watching baby foxes - I have a video with 6 of them in!

 

And these from the internet were fun and appropriate to share on an art day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A busy weekend

We seem to have been busy this weekend. Some of that was being busy sitting, but still.

 

I have finally completed all the challenges in the Dotty About Flair facebook group for their cyber crop. One was a 5, 4 3 2 1 challenge and this was my page

 

 

 

and this was the challenge I knew I would struggle with. It was Adam's grab 9 and I find these hard as I am not a more is more scrapper but a less is less scrapper. But I managed it and I still kept white space.

 

 

 

 

I also managed to finish my March pages for my annual journal which is amazing as I finished them in April. Of course, I haven't tarted any April pages yet, though the photos are printed.

 

Oher than that I have been busy with digital pages for Pickleberrypop in readiness for International Scrapbook Day

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely weekend
• scrap time
• chill time
• new outdoor cushions.

and these were too cool not to share ... some people are awfully clever

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Productive day

Well today has been - albeit slowly - productive.

We left early to go and visit our new stairs. They look fab even in their raw state and are now off to be powder coated and the decking installed on the platform and the steps themselves. It will make a tremendous difference to the patio.

 

We then went to look at artificial grass as the grass we have down will need to be replaced and eventually bought some of that but it is going to take longer than expected to come.

 

Finally we bought - only a year late - new kitchen flooring that we have wanted to sort out since last March when the kitchen was replaced. It was a lot more expensive than we thought but heck - it will see us out we hope.

And we even managed to install the new rotary dryer (my old dryer had more broken lines than good ones) and still found time to sit on the new patio furniture. Today was a good day.

 

Consequently very minimal scrapping took place - just one paper page and it was from a more is more challenge s I really struggled

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a very productive day
• jobs done
• excitement (till the workmen come then it will be dread.)

and these were too cute not to share

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proper chilly

I have no idea why today feels so cold. It is currently 2 degrees and it has been below zero other days but it is that bitter sort of chill that eats through you.

Had a lovely time at art and have started a tiger but I think it could take weeks to complete! I am thinking pencils may not be for me and I might return to my first love of water colours.

 

I had a pleasant morning making embellishments

 

 

 

 

 

 

and I have this to share made as part of my design team work for A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• double glazing and central heating
• being indoors
• art club

 

and these just made me smile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enforced rest

Today has seen enforced rest from walking as my knees have been playing up. The Apple watch is driving me harder than my body can deal with so today was cycling not walking - gentler on the knees.

But that has also meant scrap time which is always good.

Before I share the scrapping Jackey you asked about where it was that we went for a meal that was quiet. That was Prezzo in Ringwood but we find if we have just one meal the day we go out and have that about 2.30 - 3 we are pretty much guaranteed an empty restaurant. We did that even pre Covid to be honest - we like the quiet.

 

So scrapping today I tackles a DAF challenge which was to interpret a sketch two different ways

 

 

I spent way too long cutting bits of die cut foliage for this - but I do like the finished effect

 

 

 

and this is the second take on it - I made this as part of my DT work for A Trip Down Memory Lane as this was my DT kit this month - Simple Stories Hearth and Home

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing more to report today so I will leave you with some internet marvels at the end.

 

Have a good week ahead.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a quiet day
• contentedness at home
• audio books

I am in awe of the handwriting of these pople

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bless you all

Well, I wasn't expecting so many comments on my blog when I was musing about stopping. But thank you - all of you. It makes me very happy to know there are people reading my random ramblings and enjoying our very boring lives - it really does. So thank you for commenting and for  emailing and I will continue to ramble on here.

 

Yesterday I had a further specialist eye appointment and hoped they would say to stop fussing there was nothing wrong. sadly I am apparently an anomaly as people who are very short-sighted usually have 'stretched' eyes and so drainage channels are rarely narrow. Mine are apparently very narrow. They are going to refer me to a consultant at the hospital who will decide if I need laser surgery to make a hole in my iris to help the drainage. In addition I have severe dry eye syndrome. I had a very bad infection that caused ulcers on my cornea when I was 18. This has left my cornea very scarred and pitted (which is why the vision is so bad in my left eye as the light just refracts everywhere and doesn't focus) and so my corneas are rough making regular dry eye much worse. So I now have drops and gel to use every two hours! I am falling apart bit by bit! However, I have two eyes that work - my biggest dread in the whole world is going blind because everything I love requires sight. Nigel's cousin went blind over a period of years about 20 years ago and for blind awareness month his daughter has been posting an observation about his daily life every day and it is heart-breaking to read. I know any disability is dreadful but for me I think being blind is the worst thing of all.

 

We have had a couple of lovely walks and we also fitted in a visit to IKEA - and remarkably came away having spent just £6. I have also - of course - been scrapping

 

 

I used two of my new flair from Dotty About Flair which arrived yesterday - a signature box and an awesome prize too - I was in flair heaven

 

 

 

 

 

and I made this today as well - he is such a little poppet

 

 

Today's view

 

Nigel is chocolate heaven in Hotel Chocolat

 

Today I am thankful for

 

• opticians, optometrists, ophthalmologists - everyone who works with eyes.
• drops (I think)
• people who enjoy my silly ramblings on here

  and I thought these were just so clever and amusing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A day out and scrapping too

I am debating whether or not to keep the blog going as the number of visitors have fallen a great deal and I think people use facebook (I do) and Instragram (I don't) a lot more. Am going to keep it going for the next two months and then review. I will still keep it for me, but just may not publish it to the world anymore. I always said that the blog was primarily for me, my record of what we do and when we do it, and we do both look back at things. But it might be time to keep it purely for us. We will see.

 

We had a trip out to Southampton today to visit the Apple store and also visited - quite extensively - Hotel Chocolat. We watched the TV series avidly but it's the first time we have been into one of the stores - and we loved it. We were so excited and chatted to such a lovely salesman and he made us fresh hot chocolate to try. The credit cards took a bit of a hammering. It was also noticeable - and I told the young man who was so lovely - that we went into the Apple store with the potential to spend over £1000 on a new phone and the salesman could not have been less interested or any more off hand than he was. We went into a chocolate shop to spend a few pounds and other service was incredible. Although we are both apple users through and through I think the attitude today was one of utter conceit. It was 'we are the best, we know we are the best, people will queue up to buy from us so why make the effort!' Such a shame Apple.Your staff today let you down.

 

Anyway - it was a lovely trip out and we even called into Ikea too.

 

And then there had been scrapping of course.

I made this for a mojo challenge at Pickleberrypop

 

 

 

 

and I made these paper pages yesterday and today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• sunshine - again
• a lovely trip out
• chocolate - yum
• good service - and poor that acted as a stark contrast

and some internet cuteness ... street art with a difference

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

The joy of space

I am loving being in my little craft room as I now have so much space and it is tidy and organised. I have even managed to be creative and made two pages yesterday

 

 

My little boy cat who has a very short to do list - largely play, chill out and look cute - and he manages it all every day

 

 

and a bit of silliness with filters.

 

Both pages were made using Lottie Loves Paper sketches.

 

It is also release day at Pickleberrypop and I was gifted some lovely collections to work with this week. As always the picture of the kit is a link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and I made this with the Berry Blends kit this month which is free with a $10 spend and is absolutely lovely

 

 

Today I amt thankful for

• space
• tidiness
• a lovely walk
• scrapping time

And these are billed as some of the most amazing bridges in the world - wow ... there's a few I'd love t see and some I most certainly would not!