Dolly's Dreamings

Glorious - spring is here

It has been beautiful the last couple of days and it really is like spring is here. The crocuses and snowdrops are blooming and even a few early daffodils.

 

I have lots to share too.

 

First - I liked the digital page I made so much I wanted to replicate it in paper and this is what I came up with

 

 

I was pleased to get so many layers in and like the white space which is unusual for me.

 

And here are a couple of pages from our visit to Carlo's Bakery meeting Mauro and Grace.

 

 

This was made as part of my Design Team work for A Trip Down memory Lane and uses the gorgeous Prima Midnight Garden with lots of fussy cutting

 

 

 

 

And yesterday was Art and we have been working on Benningfield paintings and this is so very very different to my normal style - I am not sure I like it but I did persevere and finish it

 

 

and finally a few photos from lovely walks on the beach - first as Branksome and second this morning at Hammworthy were there was a mist that was so ethereal and where there wasn't a ripple ont he sea at all until a small boat went through - it was glorious.

 

 

today ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An evening of history

We were thrilled yesterday to get the opportunity to go to our townhall/civic centre and meet with the mayor of Poole (A wonderful man called Sean Gabriel and he is just exactly the sort of person you would want for a mayor)  and sit in the council chamber and hear him speak about being mayor and then see all of the wonderful items the council hold dating back from so long ago. Poole is an exceptionally old town with charters going back as far as the 1300s and a borough charter from Queen Elizabeth 1st.  It was fascinating to hear the history of some of the pieces and apologies for unedited photos. It's been a bit of a day and we have also had no internet until now.

 

This is the very special silver oar pinned to mayoral robes when he is on board a ship as he is admiral of the post of Poole. It features on the crest on every street sign in the town - yes even on my street

 

 

 

This solid gold medal was presented so long ago for services rendered to the crown scuppering a  French ship

 

 

These very rare Elizabethan spoons had a really funny story attached about how they were 'lost' and re-discovered.

 

 

 

 

This is one of the pair of Mayoral maces (and we learnt the history of the mace too which was fascinating)  and they are very rare furnace gilding with mercury and gold and date from 1776 .... amazing. The details on them after all this time are exceptional with the town crest prominently displayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a beautiful silver ceremonial spade

This is one of a pair of much smaller maces that date from Charles 2nds reign in the 1600s and survived the English Civil War because someone removed the royal crest and it was then replaced after the Commonwealth with the crest of William and Mary. They are absolutely priceless and exceptional.

 

 

 

 

Behind Sean, you can see the borough naval flag flown on every ship or boat the mayor boards whilst he is on it.

 

It was such an interesting evening and made me even more proud to live in such an historic town. I hope, when Poole merges with Bournemouth and Christchurch next year they don't 'steal our stuff' and take our identity. Bournemouth is a 'new' town dating from Victorian times. They have nothing like the heritage of Poole. And yes, of course, I am biased. 

 

I also have new scrapping to share today made with new Pickleberrypop releases.

 

This one was made with Sweet Elves by Jen Yurko and features the ever lovely Alice and my bestie, her Mom

 

 

And this is a holiday page because it is wet and horrible here and who doesn't need a bit of bright and a bit of Minnie - it is made with Merry and Bright by Sherwood Studios.

 

 

No trip report today because - well because I am tired and I have a mess of things to do. Sorry - I will be back tomorrow!!!

 

Today I am thankful for

• living in a town with heritage
• special evenings
• the internet - boy do you miss it when it is gone.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas is here

Apologies for the lack of blogging. I (yes the lady who said when she retired she was not going to do anything) have been working such a lot recently and so yesterday we had a day off. A day of Christmas shopping - very productive and most gifts bought, and of going into the adjacent town of Bournemouth, having a lovely meal at prezzo and seeing their fabulous Christmas lights. I am a Poole girl at heart, but I have to admit the illuminated trees in Bournemouth gardens were quite spectatular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barb you asked if I buy Starbucks mugs from where we travel. In a way I kind of wish I had started doingt hat a long time ago as we would have a pretty amazing collection now, but as I don't really drink hot drinks we haven't any, other than one from Pike Place, the first Starbucks every opened. I also learned my lesson from the Hard Rock Cafe. we used to collect their glasses and have a lot of them from all over the world but they are so special I don't like to use them in case I break them and that is utterly stupid. I have all these glasses that never get used. Mmmmm - maybe I will make a new year resolution to use them.

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day off
• getting several big jobs finished at home
• Christmas -I love it. Our lights get switched on tonight

 

Thursday 25th October

The One Where I Met the Newest Member of the Family

 

It was another early start but that is nothing new this holiday ... places to go things to see. However, we did delay a little as we knew that on the east coast it would be the sunrise, not the sunset that would be fantastic. And oh boy it was. Just to go outside on our balcony and see such wonders was amazing, I ended up singing ‘come and see what God has done’ for the rest of the day. Island Vista had proved to be one of our best hotels.

There was no breakfast provided and so we forced ourselves to go have a Denny’s breakfast and wonderful it was too. I had my very favourites French slam. We drove out of Myrtle Beach and were fascinated to pass not one, not five not ten but 14 mini crazy golf places ... most pirate themed. Clearly if one wants to vacation at the crazy golf Capitol of the world it is Myrtle Beach ... who knew!

 

 

Our plan was to visit Charleston today. It wasn’t a bad drive, just a few hours, but we knew we were u sure of what to see and do when we got there. Our Sat Nav had a very interesting route to take us in ... our second time driving around cruise liner docks this week! However, we were again very lucky and found somewhere to park on the street right by the waterfront for just a couple of dollars.

 

We walked along the waterfront, saw Rainbow Row, which was very disappointing, and then wandered some side streets and soaked up, the beauty of Charleston.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It had some very very old sections and some beautiful churches. We then returned to the car and drove round so let more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Charleston seemed to be the city of BIG architecture and I really enjoyed visiting it. It had something of the feel or New Orleans without the music and the bustle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, we headed back out of town to the Hobby Lobby which was amazing. They had 50% off all Paper Studio and I went a bit made. I was able to pick up D ring albums for just $10 each and refills and vinyl and paper and stuff! The car is pretty full now. It was at this point I realised I wasn’t feeling well at all. Things were not right in the bladder department and it became clear that things were getting steadily worse. I was visiting the loo every quarter of an hour and still bursting to go. We called it a day and headed to Beaufort, our next stop.

 

We had selected Beaufort as my cousin (well second cousin if you want to be technical) lives very near there, but we had no idea when we booked that it was such a beautiful and historic town. sadly the weather was against us and alongside the fact that I just wanted to lie down, we saw little of this beautiful town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lie down before we went over to see my second cousin Abbie, her husband Lee and their three gorgeous children. I stopped at Walgreens on the way to try and get something to help. How bizarre was that? In the UK I would have k own where to go, what to get, but in the US I had no clue. I had to ask the pharmacist who was very helpful and pills bought, the first one taken, we headed to Abbie’s.

 

 

It was wonderful to see them all and I was so thrilled to meet Benjamin Lovatt, named after my grandfather and his great great grandfather. He was so tiny, just a few days old, and so utterly adorable. It was great to see them all and I even got special goodnight hugs from Penelope. Pizza eaten, stories swapped and gifts given ... I had made a special book for Benjamin about his namesakes and also given him his great-great grandfathers watch ... it was time to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Now if you are faint-hearted skip this. The pills I was taking said that it might make your wee bright yellow/orange. Oh my goodness... I could have illuminated Broadway. It wasn’t bright it was luminous and lurid. However, joking about the colour aside I really wasn’t very well. I was up and down dozens of times in the night and when I was in bed I was shivering so badly with a high temperature that every part of me aches as I was so tensed up with the cold. It wasn’t a great night and we were both a little worried. Part of it was due to me not drinking enough I am sure. On an average day at home, I drink only mint tea and about three litres of water. I had not been drinking nearly enough out of fear of needing the loo at inappropriate times and I had also had a lot of diet soda which I don’t drink at home. We hoped this was the cause and that water would fix it.

 

Testing out the new camera

It has been an absolutely glorious day here today and so we headed out to test my new camera. I am not great with it yet but I will get there.

 

The reason for the new camera - mine suffered a fatal accident on holiday. I have loved my little Panasonic Lumix. It has a mega zoom and takes great shots. I rarely take it off automatic and it copes with most things. So I was really sad when it suffered a broken LCD screen when we were away. Thankfully it was at Disney where I have already got the odd photo or two. You could still use it - you just couldn't see what you were taking, which was kind of fun. We figured it would cost almost as much as a replacement to have the screen fixed so I went for the same again just the updated model which has a few more bells and whistles which I probably won't use.

We tried it out today int he New Forest as it was a gorgeous day

 

 

 

 

 

Wery busy on the roads as you can see, with some very slow moving 'traffic'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this is the view from my garden ... not bad eh!

 

 

I also have some scrapping to share - and lots of fab digi stuff coming during the week too.

 

I am thrilled to be on the DT for ATDML and had the most gorgeous box of goodies to welcome me home. This is made with Simple Stories Simple Vintage Halloween which they have in store.

 

 

 

 

I will catch up with the holiday journal tomorrow. I am a little behind as I have been off enjoying myself! Normal service will be resumed next week.

 

Today I am thankful for

• living in England - all too easy to forget. I love love love America but actually, England is pretty cool too.
• my new camera - I think
• quiet days at home

 

 

 

Friends of Poole Park

Today has been gorgeous - really sunny and warm and lovely and we got out and about. We were up early to take my car in for its first service. They were so nice at the garage but can you possibly explain why they have to change every single setting on a car. I am surprised they had time to do the service by the time they had altered the mirrors, the seat, the steering wheel, the temperature, the vent direction, the map size and the radio. I mean seriously!

Anyway, from there we went to do our stint at Poole Park. We are proud to be Friends of Poole Park and today was the Poole Park Count so we volunteered. It is once a year when they audit who is in the park, the demographic and the way the park is used with tally charts and questionnaires.

Armed with tally charts and six different coloured felt tip pens (I did feel I wanted to say that Nigel wasn't really allowed different colour pens as he has a history with covering himself not in glory but in ink ... but I let it go ... silly as he ended up with colours all over his hands!)

It's actually a reasonable challenge as you have to tally everyone, identify male/female/age group/ ethnicity/dog walker/pedestrian/buggy/cyclist/sport etc etc It was reasonably hectic early int he morning. It's a good job they don't do it on a busy Saturday. But we had fun in the sun 

 

 

 

We then did a few questionnaires each and I ended up talking to a fabulous couple. They were both 93, sharp as tacks and wonderful to talk to. The lady had been born in Poole and was telling me fascinating stories of how the park was years ago and how she used to go scrumping int he orchards which have long gone and are all housing. Such an enjoyable morning.

We then went to visit Elfin and she was out of bed which was marvellous news.  She has walked a couple of steps, with support, and was sat in a chair. She was in good spirits, assured us she had no pain at all and whilst still quite vague and confused we can see progress on the medical side of things

Yesterday 

 

 

 

Today

 

I have a new page to share today made for a UKS challenge and also for a journalling prompt over at Created by ATDML

 

More baby photos of me - this time in my Dad's paratroopers red beret

 

 

Speedway news, Helen and I had great fun watching the first leg of the British League finals last night and Poole did really well ... everything crossed for Wednesday now.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a lovely day in the sunshine
• a well-serviced car
• Poole Park - one of my favourite places in the world - we are so lucky to have it on our doorstep.
• Elfin getting better every day

I remain eternally garateful that I used to have the best job in the world but even more eternally grateful that I dont have it any more and am retured. Some teacher humour follows ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 wasted trip

Today we went to have my glaucoma follow up appointmentat the hospital in the next town. Sadly the hospital didn't tell us that the appointment had been cancelled .A wasted trip and £2.20 for parking for 10 minutes!!! 

However we did get to go to a different Poundland and I got the Winnie the Pooh papers I hadn't been able to get. I hadn't realised there were three different lots - result.

 

I also scrapped a page for the weekly challenge on UKS

 

 

I spent way too long inking book papers white then printing on them then re mounting them on other book papers.

 

 

 

Other than that it's been a quiet day - quiet days are nice.

 

I forgot to blog on Sunday and we had been out to Weymouth for the day and I even managed to scrap a page the same day - unusual for me.

 

Today I am thankful for

• a re-arranged appointment
• Poundland bargains
• simple days

 

 

 

 

all at 6's and 7's

I wonder how long you have to be retired for days NOT to have a specific meaning?

 

I don't work often and I certainly don't work full time but it felt very odd to be working on a Saturday. Saturdays have never been work days for me. It is stupid. I haven't worked since July yet it felt odd to be doing to work on a Saturday. saturday is the weekend. I am meant to be playing at the weekend! 

Anyway, I was invigilating for Year 6 pupils doing CAT tests today. That is something more in my comfort zone. I 'get' Year 6 and I know all about CAT assessments. I also clocked 7500 steps int he assessment so it meant I could chill and scrap when I got home.

I have made a couple of pages so far about our day at Friendsfestbut I do feel a mini book coming on 

This is the iconic couch scene and yes, we were shouting PIVOT!

 

 

and I really really struggled with this page as I found the strong yellow and purplish blue very hard to match and work with

 

 

 

Both pages were made for GoGo challenges. I only have one more challenge left to do so am quite chuffed with that.

Yesterday we went to see King of Thieves - the film about the Hatton Garden Robbery. It was just about OK but I don't think it was the finest hour for any of the actors. Michael Gambon was poor, Michael Caine is always the same in my eyes no matter what the film, don't like Paul Whitehouse but Jim Broadbent and Ray Winstone were better. I can't say I recommend it - one to wait for the TV to show it I think.

 

Today I am thankful for

• lunch on the balcony when I came home
• scrappy time
• painkillers - no idea what is going on with my body at the moment but everything aches - hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, wrists and fingers. My fingers are actually quite swollen on the joints!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The One Where we Went to Friendsfest - totally awesome

 

I am a massive Friends Fan and have been for years and years.

 

At one point Nigel used to joke that he never came into the house when Friends wasn’t playing. And I guess that is kind of truth. It was always on, either on the TV or on videos and then DVDs. I remember the year Nigel bought me the Friends Suitcase set of videos and I cried. We went on to buy all of the others on video and then, when video became all but obsolete, he bought me the box set of all 10 series on DVD and they just ran on a constant loop in our house. And Nigel would still say, with alarming regularity, I haven’t seen this one. Rubbish.

 

 

We have friends board games, friends books and I had a beloved Friends huge cappuccino cup that sadly broke that came from Warner Brothers. I have a gorgeous Friends notebook ... no, of course, I haven’t written in it. I have a friends t-shirt ... wore it with pride to the festival ... and new ... Primark finest .. Friends PJs. Yes, I am an addict.

 

 

Last year we heard about Friendsfest but there were no tickets left and so we registered for an advance warning for 2018 and bought tickets for Brighton the day they went on sale.

We were so thrilled but as the day dawned ...and sadly after the wonderful summer,  of a great weather day ...we were worried. We thought it may be a big cheap, a lot tacky and full of hype and ways to take more money off you. We could not have been more wrong.

 

 

We arrived at 11.30 and the only negative was the poor parking. We were lucky but no idea how they cope with busy days. There was hardly anyone there on our day.

 

Anyway, it was well laid out and brilliantly organised. They had loads of places set up for prop shots like the frame, the pivot sofa, the wedding chapel, and as it was quiet, no lines. The staff just took your phone or camera and snapped away for you.  No attempt to take ‘pro’ shots for you and then try and sell them to you for vast sums. Just took loads for you on your phone. You could go as many times as you wanted. You got to sit in Central Perk and even sing with a Phoebe tribute to her best-known song ... smelly cat of course. The actual tour part was also well organised. You saw loads of original props and went on the sets for Joey and Chandler's apartment, Monica’s apartment and Ross’s apartment. You could sit on the seats, pose etc and then at the end of each section they got everyone out of the set so everyone could take the photos of it empty. Well organised. Even the food outlets were themed. The only thing I was a little disappointed by was the merchandise shop which didn’t have that much of real interest

 

It was such a wonderful experience and great fun. Cue the endless pictures .. I make no apology.

 

If you are a Friends fan you will enjoy these. If you are not ... um, skip to the end????

 

 

Just arrived and yes, of course I wore the shirt

 

 

 

 

 

All good episodes start witht he title sequence shots

 

 

 

 

 

Ros and Rachel's wedding chapel in Vegas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ross's apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNAGI!!!!!

 

The boys' apartment

 

Pat the dog

 

 

 

 

Quick game of fooseball

 

 

 

 

In the doldrums sans canoe

 

 

cuddles with Huggsie

 

Monica's apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on to Central Perk complete with Phoebe tribute act

 

 

Singing Smelly Cat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and the most iconic door of them all

 

 

Fabulous fabulous day

 

 

I have some new scrapping to share today - totally not friends related

 

 This is using a new collection by Heather T Called My Garden

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• an utterly wonderful day
• Friends - both the TV series and the real life ones - saw my Bestie today.

 

And finally

thoughts and prayers for all who lie in the path of Hurricane Florence. It sounds like it is going to be awful. My cousin's daughter who is 8 months pregnant and her husband and two small children are evacuating as we speak. I pray they and everyone else are OK and that their home is Ok when they return.  Love you guys xx

 

 

Where do the days go?

However did I have time to work? I guess part of the issue is I used to get up at 6 am and now it is rarely before 9, but still. The days just fly by and when I look back I can't quite work out where the time has gone. There is usually a Starbucks visit, always some scrapping, occasionally some housework, often the cinema and a picnic but they just fly.

 

Yesterday was art - that takes a chunk out of my day and it is a chunk I absolutely love. I love the people there, I love the creativity, I love the chatter and it is a highlight of my week. We also went to see the red arrows late yesterday afternoon. A very pleasant walk down to the cliff top at Alum Chine and a perfect display. Oftent hey perform at midday and the sun is in yoru eyes. This was at 5 pm and so the light was perfect. Gotta love the arrows and the finale - a special 100 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of WW1 was terrific - everyone clapped.

 

 

 

 

 

Today we walked, we scrapped, we pressure washed the front (OK oneof us scrapped and one of us pressure washed!) and we saw an amazing film. It is a film I have heard nothing about and it was terrific. A very different concept, a good story and should win awards, but I bet it won't as no-one os talking about it and the big names are not in it. It is called Searching

This is the trailer - not the best of trailers - the film was excellent

 

 

This is new scrapping today made for a challenge at A Trip Down Memory Lane  ... and how sad that my childhood is now officially vintage/retro. That's a genuine 1960's caravan my friends!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• days that vanish in a haze of loveliness
• gentle reminders that my ribs are not yet healed