Dolly's Dreamings

Ooops - forgot again

No blogging for a few days - partly I was busy but largely because I just went and forgot!

Now trying to think what I have done int he past 5 days.

 

I went to see Dark Waters with Nigel. It was good - and a very sobering story, but a little too soft paced. I think it could have been edgier, but then the man who really fought the case was a very unassuming guy, so it kind of worked. I also went to see Emma with my bestie. It is one of her favourite books and we both really enjoyed the film. It was beautifully shot, faithful to the book and a nice way to spend an afternoon with my friend.

 

I have read a couple of books and, the last two days, I have worked. It is mock exam time again and I am only in a few hours every day but the early mornings are a killer. I am in school by 7.30 but the upside is I am back home between 10 and 11  which is when my day usually starts for real when I am not working, by the time we have had breakfast, read the papers, etc etc. So I feel I am not using 'my time' really, although today I was in in the afternoon too.

 

I have also done a fair bit of scrapping. There was a mini cyber crop at FTLOPP so I played along. . These are a few of the pages and the albums are coming along very nicely now.

 

This one celebrates the oldest continually serving McDonalds, opened in 1953 before Ray Kroc took over. It was actually the McDonald brothers #4 store. The first three are no longer still working restaurants. though we also visited #1 in san Bernadino which is now a fabulous museum. This one is in Downey CA and has the iconic twin golden arch architecture the first ones always had.

 

 

Nigel and Barry Briggs - once a great hero of Nigels and now a great friend. It was so lovely to visit him in Dana Point.

 

This was one of my favourite of the old motels - the Cactus Motel in McLean on Route 66

And Nigel in Iowa looking proud that he has been hunting and 'caught' two fraps!

 

Today I am thankful for

• gainful employment. What I earn is bonus money so I can use it for scrapping
• scrapping fun
• watertight pipes
• cinema fun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another month already

It seems to have been January for a long time and yet it seems so quickly that we are in another month - and a special month at that being a leap year.

 

We had a smashing day yesterday going to the cinema in the afternoon to see Richard Jewell - another true story and very good. (If you haven't seen Just Mercy please do go and see that one - one of the best films we have seen in ages - a hard watch but an important one) Then in the evening one of my old school friends (well of course she is NOT OLD because she is the same age as me and that is still young - most of the time) and her new hubby came over and we had a laugh, drank some wine and put the world to rights. It was great to catch up.

 

This morning I went to a craft destash sale and bought some lovely goodies for the princely sum of £2.50

 

and the amazing thing is I have used some already!!

Nigel also bought me a book on making crocheted dogs which is a bit scary but I am going to have a go. And finally I bought a gorgeous cabinet which I am going to alter for my scrap room. I have nowhere to put it but it was just so darned cute.

I have also scrapped. I did the ATDML scraplift from Tricia Sutherland which was gorgeous (You can find all the fun on the ATDML facebook page)

 

 

and I also coloured in my January scrappy day picture. We are having a challenge on UKS where we colour a segment in for every day we scrap. Clearly I had two very unusual days in January.

 

 

And this is another scrappy page I made and haven't shared here yet

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• craftiness of all kinds be it scrapping, sewing, crochet, painting (but not the sly sort of craftiness)
• bargains
• friendship over the years (spanning some 49 years!)

 

 

and these just made me laugh

 

 

 

Definitely Lighter

The days are definitely getting longer and as I type this at 4.30 it is still light - though there is a gorgeous pinky sunset developing. It has also turned much colder which I am happy about. Winter is meant to be cold and it has been impossibly mild. How am I supposed to get the use out of my coats and hats if it isn't cold!

Yesterday we seemed to be very busy. We popped out and ended up being out most of the day. We went to buy a new vacuum cleaner as we blew ours up this week. We intended to buy another Shark but in the store were advised against it as apparently they are known for being unreliable and they said they have more returns on Sharks than anything. So we ended up buying a cordless Dyson that I think might also make the tea! We have just tried it and bearing in mind we hoovered on Wednesday the amount of dust and dirt and cat hair that has come up is unbelievable. Clearly our Shark failed a long time before we thought it did!

We also went to the cinema yesterday to see Bombshell which had all the makings of a really good film but somehow just missed the mark for us.

 

I have new scrapping to share- make with the wonderful new PinkFresh Studio A Little Bit Lovely for A Trip Down Memory Lane.

 

I fussy cut the centre and outside of the wreath.

 

 

 

 

 

And then I used the inside I had cut out (plus made another 'splat' from white card and inked it for the bottom, ) and used it on this page

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a new vacuum cleaner (and the fact Nigel does floors!)
• cold weather - I love it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friends and Frozen

We had a lovely evening yesterday as we went out with friends. She is a colleague I miss very much - I loved working with her. She was insanely good at her job - and still is - and more importantly, was one of the nicest kindest most genuine people I worked with. It was a joy to spend the evening with her and her husband and we were thoroughly spoilt. Some people make the world a better place just by being in it.

Today we had a reasonably leisurely day after chores this morning. One of the things we had to do was buy a new toaster. We have had a spate of things packing up and as there have been three I hope that is it now. First, my desk lamp, which was 27 years old, went and so we both had new desk lamps - much needed actually.

Then Nigel's bedside lamp broke and he tried to mend it but it couldn;'t be fixed. I guess they had done good service. They were bought in 1993, making them 26 years old and had been painted a different colour over the years too. Not bad for lamps that were probably under a £5 new. Not sure I like the new ones yet - but I am sure they will grow on us.

Finally, our toaster went and he couldn't repair that either, and that was a youngster by comparison, being a mere 12 years old. But I guess things are not built to last these days! I was quite shocked at the price of some of the toasters. Serious money and they all just toast bread. Ours was cheap and cheerful.

This afternoon we went to see Frozen 2 which I really enjoyed, but then Olaf is my hero! I was cross though at how thin Anna and Elsa were, They will be idols of little girls so why they had to draw them so impossibly skinny in this day and age is beyond me. Seriously disappointed in Disney for that one.

I have scrapped too!

I have been itching to scrap some of the trip. This was the moment wew started on our Route 66 part of the trip at Elk City Oklahoma.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• special people in our lives
• no work today
• the longevity of most of our household goods
• a good Disney movie

Day 20 Los Angeles

3rd November  2019

Start miles 8.45

Start time 6347

End miles 6590

End time 6.45

The one with Hollywood

Breakfast was a bit of a zoo again, but we were prepared for it this time. It was a little hazy when we set off but by the time we reached our first stop in Downey it was a beautiful blue sky day again. We had gone to Downey as it was on our way up to Burbank and was the home of the longest continually and still serving McDonalds. It was beautiful and one of the iconic double arch architectural designs. And they were serving so we had to buy a diet coke there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful retro place to visit. After a slight disagreement about one of us vanishing of the face of the earth and the other one of us not knowing where HE was, we popped into the local Walmart for a few supplies we were out of, notably water and tea. Oh and a nice bottle of wine for the evening.

Our next stop was a tricky one to find. I am a huge fan of Grey’s anatomy and not much of it is Seattle based in reality. Nigel found out that the atrium which is such a feature of Grey’s, was actually the Ambulatory Care centre at Supulveda and was kind of on our way. Well, we found the hospital grounds but no joy on the atrium. In the end, we found someone – this campus was huge and was also deserted – and asked and we must almost have passed it on our way in. We stopped for the inevitable photos and felt a sense of achievement.

 

 

 

Finally, we headed to our real destination of the day – Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank where we had booked to do the StudioTour. We had done it before back in the early 90s but knew it would be very different these days. I was especially interested in the Friends and Big Bang Theory things.

We were very early – now come on … if you know me you can’t be surprised by that surely! And wit some persistence we managed to get on an earlier tour which was fabulous as we did make a bit of an error and booked a tour a little too late.

The tour was fascinating as always. You ride in a small tram with just 15 people and a guide. Our guide was exceptional – really enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. You never know quite what you will see as it depends on filming as it is very much a working studio, but she did say going on the weekend was the best time as there were more areas open since they were not usually filming. We drove round backlots and had their uses explained and we saw the two special sound stages where Friends and Big Bang Theory were filmed. They have names on the sound stages as there were so many episodes filmed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw lots of props areas with things from the Avengers, Aquaman, Harry Potter etc. Our tour also wasn’t meant to include the props stores but she said we had time and took us anyway  and they were huge and so interesting and absolutely stuffed with every prop imaginable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then went inside and saw things I had been waiting to see, namely Central Perk and the sets from Big Bang Theory. The Friends stuff was great but we have been to Friendsfest and so we had seen more there, but the Big Bang stuff was fabulous. I started watching Big Bang Theory in prep for this trip and binge watched all 12 series and loved them. So to knock on Penny’s door and sit on Sheldon’s spot was great. We also had the change to hold a real genuine Oscar (we even had to remove our rings if we wanted to hold it properly as it was so valuable which is why Nigel couldn’t grasp it – his rings don’t come off (well not without surgery anyway)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had been a great trip which we had really enjoyed. We grabbed a Starbucks (they have one on site of course) and headed off into Hollywood. We have read about the Hollywood Forever cemetery and decided to go take a look. In keeping with the theme of the trip, they had had a special event on and so the area was filled with crews taking down seating, lighting rigs etc. However, we did enjoy a walk in the sunshine. We didn’t buy the map so didn’t find all of the celebrities that were buried there though we did find Tonto and Douglas Fairbanks amongst others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove through Hollywood, cathing the sign and Graumanns and then headed to our final stop. This meant travelling all the way down St Monica Blvd to the beach and it wasn’t the easiest drive. We played counting sets of lights (all of them on red) but got bored and stopped at 40!

 

 

 

 

Eventually, lights not withstanding, we reached the beach and managed to pull up right by the end of the road Route 66 sign – a key point for us. The pulling up might not have been completely legal but it was right there. We had done it – more than half of Route 66 and all of it fun.

 

 

 

We decided on TGI Friday for dinner and we felt like we had robbed them. We always have the appetizer Sesame Jack strips each and fries each and it was happy hour and the chips were on silly price and we ended up paying less that $18 for the entire meal and drinks! We even stopped off at The Cheesecake Factory to buy take out dessert.

 

 

 

It had been a packed Hollywood kind of day and great fun.

 

 

 

 

Day three of the trip and even some scrapping!!!

OK let's start with some scrapping as this was originally meant to be a scrapping blog. Easy to forget at times and this is the first paper page I have made in 4 weeks. I have missed the feel of the paper and the crisp cut of the scissors, the stickiness of the glue and the very act of creating. (though I was creative on holiday but more of that later)

 

 

It was made for a challenge at UKS and uses a Paige Evans cut file for the leaf garland and I stamped, inked and cut out the other leaves in the clusters. The photo is from Presquite State Park on Lake Erie.

Today also saw the second cinema visit since we have been back. Last Friday - taking matchsticks with us - we saw Dr Sleep, which was OK. Today we saw the new Terminator which we both enjoyed, but then we are both Terminator fans.

 

Today I am thankful for

• getting back to a more normal sleep pattern
• the reassurance of the doctor that they WILL find out the source of my rib pain. He has ordered more blood tests and also a Liver scan next. He is being very supportive and reassuring and tells me this is to rule out what it is NOT even if it doesn't tell us what it IS.

Day 3 Montreal to Kingston

17th October 2019

Start miles 1260

Start time 6 and 8

End miles 1525

End time 6

The one with the Bomb Cyclone!

 

Poor Nigel didn’t sleep well and we were both jet lagged which was why we were up at 5.30 and went out to breakfast at 6. I had spotted the perfect restaurant for breakfast a block away and we were eager to try it. It opened at 6 ... perfect. When we stepped outside of the hotel, into the pitch black, we realised quite how bad the weather was. It was gale force winds and the sort of monsoon rain we are used to in Florida, except that rain is warm and stops after a while. This was cold and chilling. We battled our way through the rain to find the restaurant didn’t open until 7. We were not going to go back to the hotel and then out again. So egg McMuffin it was then. Three different people came in with broken umbrellas ... it was THAT bad. We paddled our way back to the hotel to dry off and Nigel, quite rightly, said he would rather not leave in the pitch black so we would wait a while. We did just that, but by 8 the sky was barely lightening so off we set. Oh my what a horrible journey out of the city. Dark, so windy it was blowing the van, torrential rain the wipers could barely cope with and serious traffic congestion. It was only later that evening we were to find out we had caught the tail end of what they called a bomb cyclone. It was a storm that was caused by exceptional low pressure and hit the east coast. I tell you ... America, and in this case Canada, has serious weather! It was extreme.

 

 

 

 

Obviously our planned stop at Mount Royal was pointless so we skipped that, though we did drive by the oratory, just visible in the downpour. It took ages to get out of the city and I confess we were not sorry to leave it behind. Montreal, for all sorts of reasons, was not a hit with us. I am prepared to concede that we didn’t see the best of it, but what we did see didn’t thrill us.

 

Our next stop was Ottawa and we were really disappointed the weather was so bad. We had planned to visit parliament hill, which looked gorgeous. The rain continued to pour, the winds continued to howl as we made our way west. Even though it was raining, the fall colours were beautiful and the rain made the trunks and branches jet black, a fabulous contrast with the leaves. Whilst it was hard to capture in the rain, we will never forget the beauty and the drive was very enjoyable. We stopped briefly at a Walmart on the outskirts to get medicine for Nigel... the pharmacist advised us on the medicine and we bought cough sweets that certainly cleared out the tubes ... my goodness they were powerful. However, when we exited the store the rain had dropped to a light drizzle which was promising.

 

 

We had researched this holiday well and so knew just which car park to aim for and it worked perfectly. Once outside, though very windy, the rain had pretty much stopped. We walked to the parliament buildings which were indeed impressive, but one of them was covered in scaffolding. We didn’t know then, but this was to be a bit of a feature of the trip. I bailed as the wind whistled and I had started to feel a bit groggy and was getting a temperature (now where could I have got that from!) and took refuge in a Starbucks ... Canada was indeed civilised ... and Nigel, being the trooper he is carried on to the canal to get photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hadn’t seen much of Ottowa but what we had we liked. Later that afternoon we drove over the Rideau canal bridge to get a view from the other side which was well worth it and then headed out again. The rain started back up, proving we had indeed been very lucky. It had stopped just at the right time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped just outside our base for the night in Kingston for proper comfort food at Denny’s. I did say we are not fancy people. Simple floats our boat and Denny’s offer food we both enjoy and at a reasonable price. When you are on the road for 23 days, not every meal can cost a fortune.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We then checked into our next hotel ... the Best Western Plus Fireside Inn. It was a real gem ... really lovely foyer and restaurant and our room was perfect. We had a gorgeous brick fireplace in the corner and it was cold enough to have the fire on. We enjoyed a relaxed evening and were out for the count by 8 again. Poor Nigel was really struggling and I had a sore throat and certainly didn’t want what he clearly had. It suits us well to go to bed early though. We like to make the most of daylight hours so leave early and sleep early.

 

 

A Good one at last and some art

Well - we have had a bad run at the cinema with films we have not enjoyed but BAM - a good one today.

 

I never did read The Goldfinch but the film was quite spectacular. Beautiful cinematography, great story - or course - and wonderful acting. The critics have slammed it but we loved it.

 

I have a new painting to share today - not any of it done in art group really - just a painting of a photo I took - actually that isn't true - it's a painting of dozens of photos. The phonebox on the beach at Studland, just as you get off the ferry is iconic and I take so many photos of it as I just love it. I have scrapped it too. So I decided to paint it and this is what I came up with. It is NOT perfect, but Nigel liked it and comsidering it was only finished yesterday, it is now up - in a frame and everything!

 

 

Just for comparisson so you can see how bad it is and why I should really stick to scrapping - this is a paper page of one of the many many photos 

 

  and another random page made recently

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• better health - almost a week without pain and problems
• cinema club and a good film
• art - brings me great joy

 

There's bound to be a good one soon!

We were at the cinema today again and another poor film we thought. The Farewell - why do they have such poor lighting in films? Why hadn't I appreciated it was subtitled before I went. Why did we go! We must hit a good one soon I guess!

In other news, my sunflowers at almost two weeks old are going strong and I love them.

 

 

 

and my first felting efforts at Robins (with clips on for the tree) and penguins

 

 

 

 

 

and finally, a scrapbook page as well made for the weekly challenge on UKS

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• feeling better the last couple of days - fingers crossed we have found the right formula for continued good days
• chilling out
• my new silhouette - I cut some files today and am thrilled

 

 

In news this week

So a bit of a catch up from this week.

We have been to the cinema three times - it was a bit of a catch-up time as lots of new films we wanted to see were out.

Last week we had seen IT 2 which I thought was quite good and Downton Abbey which we both enjoyed a lot. Not so lucky this week.

First up was The Informer which was just about OK but no more than that really. Next up was Hustlers which neither of us enjoyed and we almost left. The trailer had made it look quite good. It wasn't. I actively disliked Jennifer Lopez and it was just too sleazy and you had no empathy for any of the characters. And then we saw Ad Astra. Nigel is a space buff so it had promise... me I just went for the eye candy of Brad Pitt and yes he is older, so am I! It still works for me! The film was grim. Far too many long close-ups and pregnant pauses plus an unbelievable story. Nigel hated it. I was happy there was eye candy because the story did nothing. Hey ho! You win some you lose some.

The weather has been utterly gorgeous - truly gorgeous. Warm and brilliant sunshine, though today when we went to the beach there was a heck of breeze and quite choppy waters.

It was beautiful though. Whilst there we sipped our first - and last - Pumpkin Spice frappe. We were keen to try it but whilst it wasn't horrible, it wasn't for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 and this - my friends - is what an award-winning beach looks like and I am sorry to my friends in Bournemouth, but Poole beaches are so much better - the sand is gorgeous and quite different ... yes, I am biased - I love my home town.

 

 

In other news still, I have been making a mini-book. I was following a brilliant step by step tutorial by Cal Summers from Scraplab and it was an absolutely brilliant tutorial.

 I have made similar mini books before but the tips and guidance for this one were superb and it is a really strong, sturdy book, a good size taking full 6 x 4 pictures if you want and with space for literally dozens of photos. I can't wait to fill it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• living by the ocean
• cinema club even when they are not fab
• felting - a bit of a new craze

 

 

Yukky weather RAK Update and a little bit of crafting

I don't know what the weather had been like in your neck of the woods but the weather here is yucky - yes that is a proper weather term. Yucky. Rainy, very very strong winds and just good old British Grey. At least it is not cold.

Barb I lovved your links to the frozen pants in Minnesota - too funny.

I need to update on the RAK of papers. Who knew a hundred sheets of paper were so heavy. They are going to cost a lot to post and whilst I am really happy giving away stuff I didn't want it to also cost me quite so much money so please comment if you are happy to make a small contribution towards the postage. To compensate for that I have also stuck in some embellishments, tags, ribbon etc. Just a few bits for newcomers to try out. But I am offering 4 packs and the postage will come to over £24 for the four (just over £6 each) so a little help towards it from each recipient would be appreciated. I promise you will get a lot for a very little.

Today we went to see Escape Room at the cinema which was very good. I think possibly the worst film I could have gone to see as I am quite claustrophobic ... not so much of small places but of places which don't have an easy exit. I always know where every exit is wherever I am. So it was inevitable it was going to scre the pants off me. And it did.

I have been scrapping but some of it is Design Team work so I cannot share it yet, but I can share this.

 

This was the sunrise snapped from the car on the day we were finally driving to Disney. It was quite spectacular.

 

 

 

And this page celebrates that we discovered we love French Quarter this year. We loved the breakfast there, the ambiance, the food court. We were happy we were at Riverside but loved the benefit of having both resorts to use.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a scary movie from the safety of a cinema with a clearly marked exit
• staying warm and dry
• new DT things to play with.

and these just amused me

 

a scrapping good time

I cannot tell you how much I appreciate time to scrap. I used to squeeze my scrapping in between work commitments, often foregoing TV and sleep to scrap instead. Now I love the luxury of scrap time. Maybe I willeven get through some of the mountain of stash. I have joined a sort of self help group with fellow scrappers where we are supporting each other with using up stash and not buying new. I so need to do that. 

Even though I have so much and could never use it all up I find I still agonise about each piece of paper or sticker incase I use it and then find something better I should have used it on! How stupid is that!

I have been using though and here are a couple of new pages

 

This first was to use a sketch and it included bunting so I managed to use up some more ribbon. Ribbon is the stash busting focus this month so expect to see a lot of it on pages.

 

 

This one used a page by Sarah Kentzer - lifted pretty much entirely  - and it uses a lot of ribbon. I cut the heart out of  thick card and then I covered it with different ribbons

 

 

The jewel at the top is from a piece of costume jewellery of Nigel's mom so there is a  little piece of her ont he page too.

 

 

I loved these photos. We are both really good at navigating and have driven all over the states, but the visitor map at St Augustine flumoxed us entirely. It was fun to scrap these two photos.

 

 

We have seen a couple of films since I last blogged too. Green Book was fabulous - really enjoyed it and it brought home how awful segregation was. I would recommend it to everyone. The film we saw today - destroyer - I wouldn't recommend to anyone. It was a one star from me (Green Book was the full 5 star rating)

There are a lot of films out at the moment that we want to see - and we have been to the cinema 11 times so far this year. Well there is no point in having an unlimited cinema membership and not making the most of it is there!

Today I am thankful for

• time - so valuable
• new opportunities
• cinema membership

and these made me smile - clever inventions and the cleverness and politeness of the Japanese

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cases all stood up!