Dolly's Dreamings

Happy iNSD

To all my scrapping friends - Happy iNSD ... International Scrapbooking day.

 

To my friends who are not scrappers, - May the 4th be with you.

 

I have had a scrapping day today and considering I didn't start until 8.30 am and it is only 5.30 now and I had an hour for lunch - I am amazed I have completed 9 pages - that is one an hour every hour.

That's fast even for me.

 

I won't bore you with them all but here are a few of them

This was a challenge to scrap a page from the '80s with a bonus if it was 1983. This is me in 1983 - a special picture of such a special time in my life. but oh my - look at those 80'sglasses. Wow. They could cover whole countries! 

 

 

This was a challenge to use multiple photos and also scraps my home resort of Port Orleans Riverside.

 

 

This was to scrap a first - and a Disney food page. Our first time eating at Chef De France which we absolutely loved.

 

 

And this was to use a star wars quote - Oh my friend, how I've missed you. And I do miss her. Every day. And at times it hits me like a sledgehammer that she has gone. Dawn Inskip - you are missed so much

 

Today I am thankful for

scrapping - it is more than a hobby for me. It is a creative outlet, a memory keeping miracle, a therapy and something I couldn't live without. I have been scrapping 16 years and have loved it. I don't care about what happens to the pages when I am gone. I just love the process. Oh and it has pretty papers and glue and flowers - what's not to like

 

• the friendships I made through this wonderful hobby
• the fact I finally have a hospital appointment but not until the end of next week

 

 

In Memory of My Friend

You will all remember that my good friend Dawn Inskip passed away suddenly last year. There are still many days when it just hits me and I think of her so often.

I wanted to scrap something special but couldn't think what and how and then I saw a page posted for inspiration on FTLOPP and I knew I had to scraplift it for Dawn.

 

The defining thing that always stood out with her designs was the colour. I am a vanilla person ... I fear bright colours (not that you'd believe it if you saw my car!) and Dawn's designs always made me explore so much more than I would have done. They were bright and vibrant and lush and so this was the perfect page for a tribute to her. 

 

It took an age to find and cut all the coloured petals, ink them, punch the stars and circles, but it was very therapeutic. The photo is Nigel and I on her bench on the day we went up with Paul and Carly to unveil the bench.

I think Dawn would have approved!

 

 

In addition, I have been painting today.

Our focus at art this month has been to look at pop art - not a genre I like or really understand.

I have had a couple of dabbles but this one - copied not my own design, but obviously painted myself and made my own a little - I was quite pleased with.

Works better if you are further away from it and squinting helps too.

 

Very interesting exercise in negative space. Doubly proud as I painted it in acrylics which I hate using. 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• the friendship I had with Dawn
• colour
• people who share inspiration so generously
• the scrapping community I am so proud to be a part of 
• time to be able to create

 

 

A Bench for Dawn Inskip

I promised I would update here for everyone who knew Dawn and also all the people who kindly donated to her memorial bench. Today was the day the bench was unveiled. 

 

A little bit of background for those who may not be aware. Dawn Inskip, an amazingly creative designer and scrapper, a good friend to so many and a good friend of mine, passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly in July. Everyone in our digital scrapping community was so shocked and saddened that I wanted to create something lasting as a tribute to the fact she was loved by so many, and so with the blessing of Paul, her husband, and Carly, her daughter, I launched a collection for a memorial bench for her.

You can read my original post about Dawn and how special she was HERE  and you can read about the bench here

We agreed with Paula nd Carly that the bench would go in at Paradise Wildlife Park, a place we had visited together often and that Dawn and her family loved. Dawn had such an affinity for all animals and birds and so it was very fitting that the bench should go there and we asked if it could go as close to the white lions she loved as possible. They said they could not guarentee where at that stage but they would do what they could.

 

Today was a very special day. Today Nigel and I went with her husband, Paul, and her daughter, Carly, to the unveiling of the bench. Paradise did us all proud ... a beautiful rustic bench with a large inscription and placed, not just near but in prime position at the white lion enclosure ... animals Dawn loved.  It was quite hard to photograph as it was a beautiful sunny day and the bench was in the shade (which Paul said Dawn would have loved as she always preferred the shade)

Photos as promised of the becnh and the inscription and us on it (we are all friends really - we were trying to leave the middle free so everyone could see the plaque)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not easy to see because of the contrast of the light and the shade but you can see the bench and the view of the lions and the male lion basking in the sun

 

 

We were treated like VIPs ... I think the park staff all knew it was lovely to do this but also very hard to do. They could not have been nicer. Carly Taylor who organised it all for us could not be there but her team were fabulous, and we had a private tour with Aaron, one of the keepers and we got to interact with various animals (corn snake, leopard gheko ... I fell a little in love ... a gorgeous tenrec  and even feed the camels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then enjoyed a meal in a nearby town before heading back home - a long three hour drive each way but so worth it to do what I set out to do. I came home with a beautiful picture Carly had drawn of Fiki. It was a commission by her mom, Dawn, for my birthday and thats hows just the sort of friend she was. She loved Fiki to bits, always asking after 'her boy'.   Sadly Dawn passed away just before my birthday and so it makes the gift even more poignant on both counts. I also have lots of Dawn's paper crafting supplies which will not only be things I will love to use but again doubly poignant as they were Dawn's.

It was sad to meet in such circumstances but I am so pleased we could do this for Dawn from everyone.

 

Rest in peace my friend and enjoy your lions xxx

A lovely week

I have been at art for most of the week this week, stewarding at our art exhibition and painting. It's been lovely. Lovely people, lovely atmosphere, lots of friends have dropped in. Happy lady.

Managed half a tiger LOL so clearly not a lot of painting going on, more chatting.

 

He is starting to be revealed.

I do have new scrapping to share though ... made for various challenges.

This was using Lara Burgers Lolly bag and for a challenge using mint green, circles and beaches. Nigel caught me getting wet at just the right minute 

 

 

This was to use stencils, and a geotag

 

This was the UKS weekly challenge. Nigel is such a good sport. He posed so nicely in the dinosaur egg outside the cinema.

 

and finally the monthly challenge on UKS

 

 

 

I have an update on the collection for Dawn's memorial bench

Carly and Paul felt it would be too intense to have a bench at the bird sanctuary where Carly would see it every day and so they suggested Paradise Wildlife Park where Dawn and her family loved visiting. We have spoken to Paradise and they have agreed and we are now finalising the details and the wording.

Once the bench is installed I will post here, hopefully with photos too.

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely art week
• being able to do something for a friend and her family
• all the people who so generously supported the collection for Dawn's bench

 

It's all a bit hit and miss

 I won't bore you with the details. Ribs are hit and miss. Good days and bad days.

 

I am so sorry that they stopped me from going to Dawn's funeral yesterday. It would have been more than 6 hours int he car and the car is still very uncomfortable at the moment and I just couldn't do it. I understand from Carly that it was a lovely service and a super turn out and she is kindly sending us an order of service. I sat quietly at the time of the funeral and held my own private little service for the loss of such a special friend.

The money raised for the bench was almost enough and we will top up the extra ourselves. Carly felt it would be too hard to have the bench where she would see it every day and so we are trying to get it erected at paradise Wildlife Park - a place they visited often and which Paul and Carly felt Dawn would like. Obviously when that happens I will post and let everyone know. 

It has been quite quiet here. Ribs again.

I have some new scrapping to share though - even though I can only sit for short periods

 

This was another challenge page and very different for me. The papers were so pretty - just from a pad of papers from the range. I couldn't resist cutting out some of the hearts

 

And get me - paint splatters even when I didn't have to

 

This page celebrates my little girl Kira. She has had loads and loads of toys, all of which she plays with, but she has three babies - toys she had when she first came home at 12 weeks. A frog and two dogs.  These three, Froggy and Doggie (1 and 2) are her babies. They go where she goes and as she foes where we go, they go wherever we are. They go down to the food bowl int he morning, they come up to the bedroom for breakfast, they come into the lounge int he evening. She flips them over so she carries them like kittens by the scruff of the neck and they have been mended more times than I can count. Froggy had to have a whole new panel sewn into his tummy. They are all considerably smaller than when they were new!

 

I loved it that it was cool one evening on the balcony and she enjoyed the respite from the heat, but she went back in to get her babies so they could be with us all int he cool of the evening too. Way too cute!!!

 

Today I am thankful for

• some respite. There are times the ribs feel much better. There are times they are bad. I am focussing on the better times
• my Kira (and Fiki of course)
• that Dawn is laid to rest and that so many people attended the service. My prayers for Paula nd Carly continue
• my wonderful husband who is being so kind and patient. I am not a good patient! 

slightly cooler

It has been slightly - very slightly - cooler today.

Thank goodness. The heat has been intense. It was 31 yesterday and so humid. And don't even get me started on my hair ... my hair is totally messed up - I could play Wurzle Gummage and not have to even wear a straw wig.

 

Yesterday we saught refuge at the beach where there was a little cool. Today we went for a walk to see birds at a local bird hide. We saw lapwing, godwits, egrets and spoonbills. Sadly no deer today but it was a nice walk and cool in the hide. 

I have new scrapping to share - paper pages made for the new Shimelle layering class. To be honest I haven't wanted to scrap much the past few days as I have been very sad, but actually, when I motivated myself, it did take my mind off loss for a while.

 

Who doesn't love Woody and Jess?

 

 

and those of youwho know me know I have a thing about Minnie

 

and finally - a page for a prompt to scrap magical. It didn't get more magical than this for us last year

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• slightly cooler air
• many people donating to Dawn - please see yesterdays post
• scrap therapy
• birds watching
• a successful vet trip yesterday - all vaccinated and checked again.

 

Finally - if you want to make a donation to Dawn's memorial bench click the picture below

 

 

 

Memorial for Dawn Inskip

 

 

There has been such an outpouring of love and support for Dawn Inskip that I felt as a scrapping community perhaps we ought to do something special as a lasting tribute to Dawn.

 

I have spoken with her daughter Carly and we think perhaps something like a bench with a plaque  about Dawn, hopefully placed at the bird sanctuary where Carly works and which Dawn loved so much.

 

I have started a Just Giving page and hope that members of the scrapping community who thought so much of Dawn and her creative talent will stand behind this project and enable this lasting reminder to become a reality.

 

Please pass this link on to others who were touched by Dawn, her friendship and her creativity so that, together, we can make this come true. Dawn was such an amazing lady and something tangible to reflect that from all of us would be marvellous.

 

I have set up a crowd funding page on Just Giving where people can make donations if they would like to.

 

This is the link to the Just Giving page for Dawn

Please leave a message too as Paul and Carly will be able to see these

 

 

Too many funerals

It hasn't been a good few months with losses to be honest.
We went to the funeral of a good friend's young daughter in May. Just 10 days ago saw the funeral of my cousin's young son who was only 24 and yesterday we buried my aunt. My cousin lost her mother and son in the space of just two weeks. So awful. Then there will be the funeral for Dawn too.

Life is short, my friends. We never know what is around each corner and we must, we absolutely must, make the most of each and every moment we have.

 

I feel very blessed. I said to Nigel only last week, if I were to die tomorrow he should know I have had a very very happy life. I don't WANT to go yet of course, but I am about to enter the year I have dreaded forever. In two weeks I will turn the same age as mu Mommy was when she died and I have always feared this year. It is totally irrational, but then aren't fears always.

 

My lovely cousin suggested that we took the flowers Nigel and I had brought for Aunty Betty onto Mommy and Daddy's grave. Aunty Betty and her sister - my Mom - were so close. It was a lovely thing for her to suggest and we were so proud to do it. I hope my parents and my cousins parents, who spent so much of their lives together doingt hings as a four, are all together now and that heaven is having one heck of a party they are all dancing in.

 

It is so unbearably hot - there seems nowhere to get cool. Thank goodness we have the balcony. It gets a bit of a breeze and we spend a lot of time there.

I did scrap this morning though as that is when my scrap room is coolest

 

This is a page made using a piece of paper I have had for more than 10 years and was inspired to use by the new layering class with Shimelle

 

 

I also have a digitial page that is very special ... it was made witht he last collection Dawn made before she passed away. It released yesterday and is on offer at the moment. I hope lots of people will feel they want to purchase it

It is called the Botanical Bundle and has a FWP too

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• the beautiful products Dawn created that we all loved so much
• family laid to rest in beautiful services ... never easy but we did them proud
• the blessed life I have had so far. Let me never forget how lucky I am
• shimmelle's new class inspiring me

 

 

Farewell to a friend - the loss of Dawn Inskip

It is with such a heavy heart that I post today.

Regular readers of my blog will know Dawn Inskip and her amazing work.

It is with great sadness and utter disbelief that I write that Dawn passed away in the early hours of this morning. I cannot believe it.

 

She e mailed me on Monday to say she had been admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties which they thought might be related to the extreme heat. Sadly they then identified she had had a small heart attack and they ended up putting her into an induced coma whilst they treated her. Her husband rang me this morning to tell me they had lost her.  I cannot believe it. It is too shocking to contemplate.

Dawn was an amazing lady. She was a fighter, fighting against adversity and was very much old school ... you put your big girl knickers on and get on with it. Whatever life chucks at you, you deal with it. She had a love of every living creature. She loved her pets and I will forever remember the adorable Marvin. She loved her birds and they were both so thrilled when Carly followed her dreams and works with birds of prey. They hand-reared many of the babies at home and they brought the whole family joy. She adored my cats and had a special affinity for Fiki - her little boy. Never a Christmas or birthday went by without them having presents from Aunty Dawn and they still sleep on the special snuggle blanket she bought them.

 

Dawn had a great sense of humour and we laughed a lot when we we were together. I first met her back in 2003 when we were the only people each of us knew at a national scrapbook event. We went on to work ont he same design teams for magazines and UKS and when Dawn started designing digitally she, of course, asked me to play along though my skills were not great.

 

She was incredibly talented. Years before scrapping she had designed knitwear and was a crochet superstar. She had an eye for design of all kinds and was an amazing artist. Her digital designs were truly like nothing else out there. She was unique and original. Her kits featured watercolour drawings, watercolour papers and elements, they were fun and quirky, they were filled with meaningful word art, they celebrated life and joy and animals and birds and fun and often celebrated overcoming life's lemons. I am so pleased that she got to live her dream and design because that was surely what she was meant to do and I hope her creativity will live on with so many people using her creations.

 

But all of that aside, Dawn was a family girl and her family was everything to her. She was devastated when she lost her mother recently. She and Paul were just an amazing couple. They were true soul mates and not everyone gets to experience that in their lives. I have been blessed to have that with Nigel, and Paul and Dawn were the same, which breaks my heart even more as poor Paul will be bereft without her. And then there was Carly. She was an exceptional, a truly exceptional girl. I have spent a lot of my life working with young people and there are few as special as Carly. A tribute to her upbringing and the love her parents had for her. Carly, like her mom, is allied closely to all things animal and bird and she is wonderful with them. We were privelidged to spend a private day at the bird sanctuary with her and the bond she has with those birds is like nothing we have ever seen. It was real love. They adored her. And Dawm was so very very proud of Carly - quite rightly so. She was the centre of their universe. Every time we spent time with them as a family we always left saying what an amzing family they were, so easy to be with, such good friends to have. It is wrong that Carly should have had to loose such a wonderful mom way too early.

 

Miles separated us and we didn't see each other as often as we would have liked. The last time we all met up was in February and I have to share what we didn't know then but was our final selfie. 4 older people not very good at selfies!!!  We would often meet up at zoos or animal parks ... or in Florida ... dear to both of our hearts.

 

 

I cannot believe you have gone, my friend. I hope you are at peace and I pray with all of my heart that God will give strength to Paul and Carly to help them through the next impossible months as they start to come to terms with this most awful of losses.

 

 

 

Happy 4th July everyone

OK so the 4th July ...

Independence Day  celebrated by all of my friends and family in America - and we usually celebrate with you but this year it is a work day and a speedway night so we will be celebrating later int he week.

However it is not just the anniversary of the Independence of America. It is also the anniversary of MY Independence.

I can scarcely believe it is two years, to the day, since I left work. And I can honsetlysay I haven't regreted it for a moment. I left very early - still only 55 when when I retired - but it was the best decision we could have made for all sorts of reasons. Not least of all for my mental and phusical health. Yes we have had to change our life style quite dramatically, but heck - that is good too. We delight far more int he simple (and free) pleasures of life. We have time to appreciate the small things, the every day. And I love being a housewife. 

 

Anyway I digress. Let's see some gorgeous Americana collections and pages today to celebrate

 

Dawn Inskip has her gorgeous Freedom Collection on at half price for today only -

 

 

and here are a couple of pages made with it - it is a gorgeous collection

 

 

Then there is a fab kit from Jen Yurko called American Spirit

 

 

 

and this page features my cousins adorable little boy

 

and finally a jam-packed collection from Cheryl Day Designs called Fun on the 4th

 

 

 

and I made this page of the fife and musketeers outside the American Adventure in Epcot. I still cannot believe they have gone. I used to love watching them so much

 

 

Whatever you are doing this 4th July I hope it is something that brings you happiness.

 

Today I am thankful for

• retirement
• my independence
• the time to scrap on so many creative teams, to paint, to design, to play
• the simple life - it means so much more