Dolly's Dreamings

Interesting times

I had neglected my digital scrapping for a week or so as I have been fascinated with paper again. I tend to go through phases. Most times I like paper and digital equally but there are some times when paper definitely has the draw and others when it is digital. I guess that is good - it keeps it fresh.

 

I have caught up on things for both Dawn and for Pickleberrypop and have a new Pickleberrypop page to share made for the mojo challenge with the use it all kit. This is a free mini kit that anyone can download this month for the challenge so do go over tot he forum HERE and have a look

 

 

 

The picture is from a  recent trip to Milton Abbas - the venue of our first ever date 34 years ago. It is still as pretty today.

 

I have also done by LSNED pages for yesterday and today

 

 

Our thoughts today are with friends and family in the US. Apart from the awful flooding and damage in Texas, our family in Oregon are experiencing so many wild fires. At the moment the beautiful Columbia River Gorge we explored just a year ago is under threat with hundreds and hundreds of acres being destroyed. Coupled with that we have friends in Florida facing the threat of what is potentially the most severe hurricane since records began. Currently wreaking havoc in the Caribbean, it still looks headed for Florida and even if it veers north we have family in Georgia and South Carolina too. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of those suffering natural disasters or facing them. It makes English weather seem very gentle by comparison.

 

Today I am thankful for

• gentler weather
• interesting opportunities

and these just made me smile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Unexpected

Some days are predictable - predictable is good ... it's safe ... it's normal .... it's .... well it's predictable. Some days bring the unexpected.

we went out today to get a Starbucks - as you do - and the low pressure warning light came on. Nigel thought that was concerning as it had come on last week and he had put air in the tyres and one was quite low. This second alert would seem it was low again and, thus, a slow puncture. Thankfully Nigel works in motor sport and so has good friends in all sorts of vehicle related businesses and we popped into one company. Sure enough - a screw through the rear tyre in a place not able to be mended. New tyre requested and back in the afternoon to drop the car off to be fixed. Unexpected.

We were a bit sad about the additional cost and so Nigel made a very unexpected lush lunch to lift us. Unexpected again. And our third unexpected was a trip to the cinema. We decided as it was a wet afternoon and we had to hang around for the car to see a film and opted for Everything Everything. I did think Nigel odd suggesting such an obvious chick flick and of the 20 people in there there were only two males and the rest were largely teenage girls. However, despite the low expectations it was a cute little film and a nice way to spend the afternoon.

 

Unexpected is good some times. It keeps us fresh and on our toes and I am MUCH better at unexpected than I used to be. But in truth - I like predictable.

 

I have my next pair of LSNED which reflects the past two days.

 

 

I have also done the sketch challenge for this week and that was kind of unexpected too. I planned a more simple page that happened in fairness. I wanted to scrap the firework photo I liked. I decided to sew some circles and flares to represent the firework bursts but it took longer than I thought, as did the very tiny stars that I decided to stick on all over the place. In fairness, if I hadn't dropped the box with some 50th birthday confetti in I wouldn't have seen them all over the carpet and decided to add them onto the page.

 

 

 

 

The teeny stars are silver and very sparkly in real life

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• having the funds to replace the tyre and having two cars to make taking it in easier
• being better at dealing with the unexpected
• film club membership - we have seen 39 films in our first 6 months and only two of them have been poor, so not bad odds.

 

 

and these pictures show was fun graffiti can be sometimes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn something new revisited

Oh how the weather in the UK is changeable. Yesterday burning int he sun - not able to sit our for more than half an hour (I am awfully careful these days) - today shades of winter. Much cooler and wet wet wet. I feel very sorry for the people who organised the air show as all displays were cancelled today due to the weather. However, they had glorious weather for the other three days and I have known years where every day has been bad weather.

What better to do on a cool wet Sunday than go to the cinema for the first of our Septmeber trips. We went to see the Limehouse Golem and were surprisingly impressed. We did not have high hopes for it and it was much better than expected, well filmed and a good watch. The part was originally intended for Alan Rickman and whilst Bill Nighy was very good as always, I was waiting for the odd sardonic comment and so I feel Rickman would have been better - tragic that he is lost to us now.

 

I have also decided to do Learn Something New Everyday again - largely as it is such a lovely way of recording September and I have done it so many times now it is lovely to compare them. My first was in 2009 and I missed last year as we were away for most of September on our WOW America tour.

This year I have opted just to keep a digital journal which I may well not get printed off at all. It is really just a blog record this time (there is a limit to how many LSNED albums I can store)

 

I am using an amazing collection called Flip Book Fundamentals by Dawn Inskip to keep this super simple.

 

This is my intro and Day 1

 

 

  and this is Day 2 and 3

 

 

 

 

Yesterday we attended a 40th wedding party for two very good friends - love endures ... a good lesson. we also took a quite literal trip down memory lane visiting Throop and Holdenhurst villages - little oases in the hubub of Bournemouth that we hadn't visited for many many years (we were early for the party!)

Today I am thankful for

• a great way to spend a rainy Sunday
• a September without work - love love love that. I didn't really get to appreciate that in the same way last year as we were away. This year I am soaking it up!

 

and I found three more of those photos showing how determined nature is

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Save

Save

Shattered already I'm afraid

I think I am getting too old for this - two days in and I am exhausted.

However, I think I always feel like this. The days before the children come back are always some of the most frantic with so many preparations and so much to organise and think about. I have lists of things to do everywhere and someone has swapped them for magic lists that just keep growing. 

 

Roll on Friday - it's a bit more normal.

 

I have new work to share today with a brand new collection by Dawn Inskip - Art and Style Bundle #2

 

 

The collage stacked papers are simply superb and it is a great value bundle.

 

I couldn't wait to use the photo I had just taken of Fiki - my little kitten at heart boy.

 

 

I know I am biased - but he is so darned handsome!

 

I am thinking of the other 'boy' in my life. Nigel has a hard job today as he has to present to a stadium of people and talk about Darcy Ward. And that is going to be hard. He has taken Darcy's accident badly and has tried to do things to help everyone like starting a book of friendship for everyone to sign.

But standing in front of a hard crowd and speaking about Darcy is going to be hard for him. I know he is strong and brave and will do it wonderfully but being the man in the middle on the mike isn't always easy.

 

Today I have learnt

• there are more stairs than I care for at work
• I get tired quickly these days
• getting back into a routine is hard

 

Today I am thankful for

• a great team
• a lovely furry welcome home

 

 

 

 

And we are back

Well - I survived one day. All good so far eh!

Still tis only one day and there are a few more to go.

Schools always feel unreal without children. After all, a school is just an empty building with classrooms until there are children there. I think we all feel better when there are children rather than empty classrooms, echoing corridors and a sense of emptiness ... and blind panic!

 

Obviously no new scrapping but I do have scrapping made in the holidays to share.

 

This was another made from photos from our trip to Mottisfont just over a week ago.

The light was so perfect that photos of me look like I have been airbrushed. Not a wrinkle or a blemish! Truly - not doctored in photoshop - just good light. I think I am going to refuse to have my picture taken in anything other than good light in future.

 

 

 

Today is the starts of Learn Something New Everyday and whilst I don't have the time to do the class this year - though I will be watching - I will post something each day.

 

My LSNED today

• When you are under pressure of time and you are trying to print things out, that is when the printer will have a problem. It will work fine when it is just doing ordinary things but won't when it is urgent.
• I also have that a walk in the sunshine in the midst of business is the perfect mind clearer and restores the soul.

 

Today I am thankful for

• back to normality - of sorts
• sunshine - even though I was inside at work
• a lovely fruit salad my hubby made

 

Mixed fortunes

Today has been a very mixed day.

There have been some hard bits - making it really hard at times.

There have been some funny bits - it os good to laugh ... it keeps your sanity

There have been some uncertain bits - actually the uncertain bit is still ongoing as the weather is poor and I am not sure if the semi final is going to go ahead.

And there have been some good news bits ... a new and unexpected scrapping opportunity I am really very thrilled about ... and no I can't share yet.

There is also a certain amount of satisfaction as today brings the end of another LSNED

 

I am proud that with everything else going on I have been able to complete the project in the 30 days.

And that I have enjoyed it.

It has been a very good discipline and a good focus.

 

Today I am thankful that

• the good bits outweighed the challenging
• laughter
• support
• good news and new opportunities

Celebrating

Today has been a day of celebration.

 

No, not a birthday or anniversary

 

Rather a turning point I hope.

 

For the first time since June I suggested we went out for a walk. Now of course we have walked since June, but on many occasions it has been an ordeal thanks to the ankle damage. Whilst we have been on many walks, they have been a means to an end rather than an end in themselves.

Today I suggested a walk just for a walk's sake. And I wasn't nervous or worried.

And we did the whole walk pain free.

It was gorgeous.

 

We walked just ont he heath next door, which is one of our favourite places to walk. we never ever take for granted where we live. People come from all round to enjoyt he heath; to walk, to cycle, to take dogs. And it is just the other side of our fence. A real treat.

 

Needless to say my penultimate page of LSNED record that fact.

 

The other cause for celebration - og yes we have two - is that I caved. My Robo died another death ... it has been on its last legs for years to be honest. Every time I use it there is a wish and a prayer.

Last night it acted up big time and so bearing in mind I bought one of the first robos, way back in 2005 when they were the latest thing (the Bonanza Babes and I struggled with it across acres of car parks at the NEC) it was time to replace.

So I have a new Silhouette Cameo on the way - and I can't wait.

 

Today I am thankful for

• walking well
• the heath next door
• new gadgets to look forward to

 

 

and finally an attempt at a zentangle. I figured rather than just pinning them I should try and do one. I need better pens though

 

Where on earth do they go?

Where on earth do they go?

I guess you wonder what? Cats? Hours? Calories? So many things

But in this instance cutlery.

Well more specifically teaspoons.

Where do they go? 

After work today ... yes today a Saturday ... one of the things we did was buy teaspoons as the 'nice ones' we like have vanished, again.

I use this ... the text from my LSNED page today .

Today we bought teaspoons ... again. Where on earth do they go. We never take them out of the house but they vanish. They are too small to go down the plughole. They are too solid to melt. The cats, to our knowledge, don’t steal them ... though in fairness anything is possible. Mugs seem to breed, plates and bowl appear to remain fairly constant. We have plenty of knives and forks ... it is just the teaspoons we seem incapable of holding on to. Perhaps the teaspoons are metamorphosing into plates and bowls, presumably to have a more pleasant experience when it comes to meal times. Being dunked daily in boiling hot liquids must violate cutlery and crockery rights. Perhaps the teaspoons are committing teaspoon suicide to escape such torture. However, on surfingt he net I find this is not a problem unique to us. Plenty of others suffer from teaspoon loss - there was even a scientific study about it - seriously ... I kid you not. Check out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3349255/OK-whos-got-all-the-teaspoons.html
It seems, however, that where Science has failed history has the answer in one  of the older nursery rhymes
  that forms my quote for today.

A mystery indeed

It was actually quite interesting googling as it seems to be a phenomenon that isn't unique to us.

I even found a poem about it.

 

Missing Teaspoons

I've a sorry tale to tell
Its a tale of loss and woe
Its a table top tragedy
One you may already know

Yes, it's very sad
But please, don't shed a tear
It's just that somehow, gradually
All my teaspoons disappear

So often I've come home brandishing
A gleaming carousel of tools for eating
Knowing that the smallest will soon be vanishing
And that my possession of them will be fleeting

I always start with six
Apparently that's the number for a feast
And nothing seems amiss
For a month or two at least

Then without any kind of warning
They start to leave me one by one
Until I wake one morning
To find that I have none

I can keep a whole set of knives
And forks present no problem
My dessert spoons have nine lives
But teaspoons? I always need more of them

I don't know where they go
They're all missing in action
And it casts a gloomy shadow
On my scooping satisfaction

Now I know just what you're thinking
It's something round about:
'When he clears up after his tea drinking
He accidentally throws them out'
Well that's not the root of my conundrum
I can say with certainty
You see the worst thing about my problem
Is that I never, ever drink tea

So perhaps my kitchen has a small black hole
That attracts only spoons meant for tea
Suddenly sucking them in and swallowing them whole
While ignoring all other cutlery

Or maybe my attic has a nocturnal creature
With a teaspoon predeliction
It's habit having the fearsome feature
Of being my kitchen affliction

I've sought them here, I've sought them there
I've sought my darned teaspoons everywhere
I've dowsed with rods, I've consulted runes
But still I am eluded by those Scarlet Pimperspoons

So should you ever see a hirsute man, rummaging about
Please, don't lable him a loon
It's probably me, why not help me out?
In my hunt for a missing teaspoon.

Mike Michaels

OK enough about spoons - that has to be one of the most bizarre blog posts I have done.

I have another page to share made with Dawn's fabulous new Coffee Break Collection. It is seriosuly scary how many photos we have of us with fraps.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• new teaspoons ... long may they last
• finding almost as good as Asda-now-discontinued-freshly-baked- healthy granola bars

 

 

 

Crickey - what a week

It's been a heck of a week ... totally crazy in so many ways and not feeling quite up to par.

It's not over yet - I have to be in work tomorrow as well.

BUT

there is really good news in that Nigel's car which has had a problem no-one could identify is now fixed.

The beauty of the internet.

He searched for solutions, found what he thought it was and told the mechanic and now it is done. He is happy and I am thrilled as he loves his car so much and it was really getting him down.

 

TGI to celebrate it is then

 

Two pages of LSNED to catch up on - and they are self-evident really

 

 

drowning in a sea of paperwork. I can think of nicer ways to go!

 

 

and todays - a phone day - I loved the quote (so true for me) and I loved the image

 

Have a great weekend everyone

Today I am thankful for

• TGI - Fabulous
• Generosity
• People in the world that are just full of compassion and kindness it made me quite tearful

 

And the hits just keep on coming

I was dreading today - I really was.

I have been dreading it for weeks.

And it wasn't helped as I was also still not feeling brilliant.

 

I had had a dental appointment booked and I knew it was no check up trip.

It was to have the hour long prep work done for a crown.

Now those of you who know me well know I am verging on dental phobic. My dentist is lovely. She is so kind and so gentle but I am still terrified. 18 months ago I had an extraction (at a special clinic as I am way too phobic to have had the tooth out int he chair ... I needed sedating ) and it ended up with a septic socket. I have never ever been in so much pain. Shattering my leg hurt less - it truly did.

So I was dreading today.

Poor Nigel has to take me as I would never walk through the door on my own.

However, the work was done and it didn't hurt at all (mind you I had so much novacane in there I don't think much would have got through) It is tender now but not painful (mind you I am dosed up on painkillers to ward off the TMJ porblem which will happen.)

So thus far all is well that ends well.

Two weeks to wait for the real crown now.

 

 

Today I am thankful for

• The dentist going OK and the pain being minimal
• Nigel for being so supportive
• My dentist for being so understanding