Dolly's Dreamings

Busy week and art of all sorts

It's been a lovely week with lots of art of all sorts. Working at our art exhibition, creating my own art and helping children create art for themselves.

And in that vein, I have to share a post someone made on facebook today which made me cry. It is SO important to allow children to be creative in their own way and so easy to destroy that creativity. I hope you enjoy this

 

I have been busy scrapping mixed media pages and I don't DO mixed media. I don't like the paper warping, I don't like the mess, and it is not me. I paint on my paintings not on my pages. But it was the challenge this week and so I have embraced it

 

This is another Graphic 45 Bloom page and our beautiful Boo, our rescue cat we gave a forever home too and she did indeed bloom where she was planted and grew with love.

 

 

 

 

Nigel and his outrageous toy tiger.

 

 

and me as a little girl.

 

Lots of cut files and mixed media and now I think I am going to just use paper.

 

We had a lovely picnic in the park today - amazing when I look out of my window now as it is bleak and cold and very very wet.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely arty week
• picnics in the park
• feeling healthier and less terrified

 

 

 

The worry about GPs

We have always been very lucky at our GPs - and we have the most wonderful GP too - as it is a large practice and so you can usually get to see someone. 

 

We have heard the horror stories from friends even in a close-by area of month-long waits but, until this week, had never experienced it. That was until I phoned on Thursday 8th August and was told that to see my own GP would mean a wait until at least the 20th September and to see any GP would mean a wait until the end of August. I was staggered. But I guess I ought not to be surprised. When we last went to the GP he told us they had been recruiting for a GP for 3 months and we are in a  really nice part of the country where the weather is always good, it is pretty, affluent, relatively trouble-free, a great place to locate to etc,  and in 3 months they had had no applicants. I was staggered. Anyway, I digress. I was advised to phone the next day - no idea why - and I have an appointment for next week. The sad thing is that I think our NHS is collapsing before our eyes. The people who work in it are all wonderful. They do an amazing job and we are still so lucky that we get treated for free (well not for free if we work and pay tax as we have paid for it all of our lives) but it is stretched to breaking point and yes, we are victims of health tourists too. There are simply too many people for it to cope with, with people living longer, numbers in the country rising due to immigration, longevity, fewer people dying of disease etc and it is at capacity and it worries me what will happen in the future. It worries me that conditions are often so bad and stressful for people working in the NHS that they cannot continue. It worries me that when we need it I think it will be gone. I genuinely think the doctors, the nurses, the phlebotomists, the radiographers, the physios, the ... every specialism and aspect you can think of ... are all wonderful, but they are trying to shore up a broken system and the government need to do something to help. No governmental party in particular but the government, all of them. Stop focussing on only Brexit and get on with fixing our NHS please. Rant over! 

 

I haven't been just grouchy - I have been scrapping too, in between bad bouts with my IBS which is starting to become a little wearing and is now stopping me doing things on occasions. 

At least scrapping takes place at home where toilets are plentiful and private! TMI!

 

I have been doing my Design Team work for ATDML and they always send the most wonderful goodies to work with. This month I was sent the Graphic 45 collection Bloom

 

This was a page which also worked for the summer scrapping challenges I am playing along with.

 

 

The photo was taken at Portland Bill last month

 

 

This picture was taken at Holmsley Tea rooms also last month. I had fun cutting out the little summer house and the fence.

 

 

 

 

I loved this picture of Fiona and her bridesmaids and really wanted to scrap it. The colours in the bloom collection worked perfectly for the colour theme of her wedding.

 

 

and finally - a fussy cutting marathon for a photo of us with our niece - the very beautiful bride.

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• our NHS - we are very lucky and I hope we continue to be very lucky
• Wonderful things to work with from A Trip Down Memory Lane

 

 

 

 

A bit of a square moment

It's been a busy few days just catching up on the everyday things of life but, of course, I have managed to slot in some scrapping too and have a couple of pages to share.

This is one I made this morning. I am taking part in a summer holidays challenge and this week one of the aspects is using square photos, which I am loving. However, this page was a bit of a square frenzy.

 

 

I used some much loved Lily Kate Basic grey but - and this was a good but - I used the supply sheet which has small blocks of all of the papers and just cut out squares from that (so I didn't have to use the actual Basic Grey - I can keep it and continue to stroke it!)

It took ages to glue them all on and then faux stitch but I was quite pleased with it in the end. 

I also uploaded this which was another page made for the challenges at ATDML

 

My little boy - studying!

 

Today I am thankful for

• catching up on things I needed to do
• Quiet times
• Kindle Unlimited - enjoying the extra reading.

 

I shared some beautiful embroidery style tattoos the other day - these are not so pretty but my goodness you can appreciate the artistic talent that has gone into them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little cooler

Thankfully it is a little cooler than it was - but I could stand it a heck of a lot colder to be honest.

 

I planned a scrappy weekend but didn't quite manage it as I was too flollopy and so spent more time reading than scrapping. Oh, and making t-shirts with lots of logos. That was fun! The iron was at full pelt and it was like a veritable sweat shop. 

We also found time to watch Horrible Histories the Romans, which was good, to have a meal at Frankie and Benny's (well they gave me a voucher for my birthday so it would have been rude not to) and to meet up with an old school friend for an evening of chatter and laughter.

But some scrapping did happen.

This was for a challenge at ATDML - and it shows the duo Aphrodite at Poole Vintage Fair - they are amazing singers.

 

 

 

 

Gotts love me a bit of Minnie.

 

 

A page about my birthday boat trip

Another ATDML challenge page - this time a he said she said page. Nigel and I both journalled about things we remembered from our wedding day.

 

 

and we had the girls page so only right to have the boys

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• just relaxing and not stressing
• finally putting away a whole mess of pages into albums

 

 

 

Messing about on the river

Funny isn't it. I have gone for years and not been on a river and now twice in a week.

When I was a little girl my parents owned a hotel and so I could never have a birthday party as the summer was the busiest time of the year. So on Sunday closest to my birthday, I would be allowed to pick one friend and we would go on a 'birthday treat'. I would almost always pick the same thing. Go to Tucton and go for a small boat ride where you could hire the boats down the Tucton river and to Christchurch and then have dinner at the Copper Skillet in Christchurch.

Nigel took me back to my childhood for my birthday this year. It has been unbroken sunshine and almost 30 degrees today so we were pleased of the breeze on the water. We hired a little motorboat and pootled around on the river and it was lovely.

 

 

 

 

 our little number 6

 

Unlike the last time Nigel took me on a boat - this went well. The last time was in the '80s when he took me out on a rowing boat at Blenheim Palace and we got stuck. Turned out he was not a rower! This one had a motor so we were fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Copper Skillet has long gone so he took me to Prezzo instead which was lovely and we enjoyed a walk int he sunshine. Glad my car has cooled seats though!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such a lovely day and I am glad to be a year older as I dreaded last year, putting me at the same age as my Mom when she died suddenly. I had a real phobia about it so, for once, I am happy to be a year older.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• being very spoilt
• a lovely day out
• the fan currently blowing on my face.

 

Messing about on the River

I didn't get round to uploading this the other day - but we had a terrific day out this week. For years - seriously years - we have said we wanted to do the local Wareham River Cruise. We have been out round the harbour countless times, but never sailed down the river to Wareham and so we finally got to do it. 

We could not have picked a better day to be tourists in our own town. It was hot and sunny but a breeze too and it was just perfect.

I am afraid this post is very photo heavy but they are cute pictures of our home town, of the harbour, of the river, of boats and of having a fabulous day with lunch at Wareham sat by the river and dinner on Poole Quay.

 

The boat heading off to Brownsea Island

 

 

I love that Poole is such a mix of the proper old harbour with working ships and fishermen as well as the sunseekers and luxury yachts (more of them later)

 

The small square house in the middle on Hamworthy beach - just the small one - is new and still being finished. The land alone went for £1,500,000. Goodness knows the cost of the house when it is finished.

 

These apartments on Hamworthy beach are gorgeous - we looked at them and maybe one day, when we downsize, we will live in one with a view over the harbour. It is also just where the cousins stayed when they visited - they rented an Airbnb there.

 

Moriconium Quay - I have looked there at apartments too

 

 

And beautiful Lake Pier where we so often sit and have lunch - lovely to see it from the other side.

 

and into the River Frome towards Wareham

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gorgeous summer house overlooking the water

 

 

 

 

 

Our boat tied up

 

 

Where we sat for our lunch

 

 

Beautiful church with the most glorious stained glass windows ... old and new

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw lots of birds, little egrets, gulls, cormorants, sparrowhawks and - most thrilling of all - we saw HARBOUR SEALS!

 

 

 

This house is open two days a year (we need to find out when) as some of the rooms are furnished as cabins from the Mauretania as they bought the furniture and fittings and fixtured when it was decommissioned

 

Back into the harbour

 

 

And back into the quay - which I love

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A rare shot of both bridges - just in the distance at the top right you can see the twin sails bridge sails going down

 

 

 

Sunseeker is one of the biggest employers in our town - building luxury yachts many of which are for export.

 

 

 

This one - not their biggest but big - estimated value approx £11,000,000

 

 and finally our dinner venue.

 

 

We are terribly proud of our home town, of the harbour, the quay, the natural beauty we have and the fact you are never far from the water.

 

 

Tourists in our own town

We live in a dream destination. People come from all over to enjoy our town and we know we are very lucky and we often don't make enough of it - but we have had two days of being tourists in our own town.

Yesterday we went down tot he vintage fair on the quay - always such a good event 

A few snaps to keep you going!

Beautiful old typewriter - wish I had kept mine now

 

Why does Nigel look a cardboard cutout

 

 

 

 

Aphrodite again - loved them last year too. Great great singers

 

 

 

 

 

when picnics were taken in style!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today -w ell today will have to wait for tomorrow as I am shattered but oh what a day we had on the water!

 

And to finish - a page made yesterday for a challenge over on FTLOPP. We watched this 'funny house' made of scraps develop over the years visiting Jim in Concord.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

Living here - and it being such an utterly beautiful and amazing part of the world.

 

Family time

Now they are all safely back home in the US I can share what a wonderful time we had when my family from America came over. It is the first time they have ever been to the UK (but I am fairly sure that it won't be the last!) We were so thrilled that they came over and that we got to spend some quality time with them and show them around our part of the world and beyond.

They are my Dad's side of the family. His sister, younger than him by 2 years and the baby of the family, married a GI at the end of the war and relocated to America at just 16 years old. That was in the days when people didn't travel and going to America was like going to the other side of the world.  Photo is with my grandad - her Daddy.

 

She and her husband Ricky had two children, my cousins Rick and Shirley and sadly Aunty Phylis was widowed very young, but she had made her life in America and there she stayed. She did come back to England once in 1985 and my Daddy was so thrilled.

We had the joy of meeting Rick and Shirley when we visited them all in Macon in 1989 and we met up again in the '90s at the beach and saw them all again in 2017 at Thanksgiving and in 2018.  We were so excited that many of them were coming over, though sadly Shirley couldn't make this trip and even more sadly my cousin Rick passed a few years ago and my how we would have loved to have him here. However, his wife Lynne and two of their three children came over with their families and we had such fun showing them around. Lots of good times, laughs, way too much food and a good time had by all.

Cue selection of photos - just a few of a heck of a lot more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was so wonderful to see them and here's to the next time - either here or there. And as Abbie, Lee and Family couldn't come we were doubly glad we got to visit them in South Carolina last fall.

 

And yes, of course, I have started scrapping the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely time with my family - we had such fun and we both enjoyed it enormously.
• perfect weather for enjoying showing them the UK

 

 

 

 

So THOSE are muscles

I went to a pilates class today - very different - not too strenuous but i did discover a couple of new muscles I wasn't sure I had had before! Nice to spend time with a friend though!

It has been a quiet few days here. We went out on Sunday to Portland as Nigel had a job to do over there. It was a glorious afternoon and we enjoyed going down to see the lighthouse and to see St George's Church which was fascinating and apparently one of the best Georgian churches int he country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have also been sorting in the garage. I have made the decision I am never going to be teaching again - I am just too lazy really - and so am slowly getting rid of all of my resources. And boy do I have a lot. I am passing quite a lot onto a colleague but the recycling bin and the regular bin are doing well so far. 34 years of teaching resources amount to quite a lot in the scheme of things.

I am not having trouble getting rid of the resources it is all the little things, the scrapbooks and circle journals, the poems and cards, and the photos. Those are harder. Plus it is hard parting with some of my more successful things like all the paperwork I produced when I proposed starting at 7, starting a pre-prep department, building up a school, launching three new prospectuses. They are things I am still proud of. They will take longer to ditch.

There has been scrapping of course.

I can't share a lot of it as it for a weekend of fun - the ATDML Cyber Crop which si the last weekend in July and is going to be MEGA! Toy Story themed - though you certainly will not have to scrap Disney pages. There are 16 class kits for sale here

 

Even if you don't have the kits you can still do the classes and the challenges - there are nearly 30 of them over the weekend

 

This was made for a monthly challenge I am hosting at UK SCrappers.

 

The photo is my cousin and her husband at Sutton Poyntz.

 

 

This one is also for a UKS challenge - this time to scraplift and I am still working my way through old photos - this is me about 3 years old.

 

 

and finally us girls! My cousin's wife and her daughter and daughter in law. We had such fun. This was in Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds.

 

Today I am thankful for

• more lovely days out
• Nigel's job taking us to nice places (his job was just a 10-minute one!)
• having my hair cut later today - it is LONG
• the cats having a clean bill of health - it was annual vaccination day yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank goodness for a great health service

It was quite a day yesterday.

First thing in the morning Nigel just casually dropped into conversation that he thought he might get his eye checked out! He said he had developed a huge floater like a spider's web in his right eye yesterday and it hadn't gone overnight and so he thought he might like to get it checked.

Um -yes!

We both knew that a change like that, a sudden increase in floaters etc, was a warning sign of something like a torn retina or even worse a risk of a detached retina. We got up straight away and went to Poole.

We figured, rightly, our best shot was the optician where Nigel knows the manager at Specsavers well. He was fab and booked us in for a couple of hours later with one of the specialists there. We went back and Nigel was dilated and examined and yes, he had a possible tear and so they phoned the hospital and checked us in there. A drive across from Poole to the Eye Hospital in Bournemouth (highlighting the fact that when the two hospitals merge and Poole loses its A and E department people are NOT going to survive that journey if they are critically ill - but that is another story)

The hospital was fabulous and we were seen within the hour. They confirmed a small tear which had taken a bit off the disc at the back and so it would need to be lasered which acts as a sort of welded seal to stop any more fluid leaking and stop a detached retina. It sounded horrible but Nigel said it wasn't bad. It was a bit scary but it didn't hurt. His eye is safe now but the big floater is still there and whilst it might lessen a little it is unlikely to go away however his brain should learn to compensate for it.

Once again we are left amazed by the quality of our NHS, the service we received, the care of everyone involved, their kindness and their expertise. We are truly lucky in this country and yet again we cannot speak highly enough of the NHS. 

No scrapping yesterday but I do have new things to share

 

This is a page documenting the amazing PATH station at World Trade Centre - it looked like a dove of peace

It was breathtaking

 

 

This is a page about St Augustine and how pretty the huge number of B and Bs were

 

and this is another page made for A Trip Down Memory Lane using Simple Stories Simply Vintage Botanical and shows Thomas Hardy's cottage in our home county. Love Dorset!

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• a happy and positive resolution yesterday
• great stuff to play with from such super people at A Trip Down memory Lane
• retirement - we were able to deal with yesterday without any letting people down at work. For that we are both so grateful.