SCR@P Retreat - November 2013

Well what a weekend it was, after al the negative from what happen we ladies were determine to put it all behind us and enjoy the weekend.

Tracie had done an amazing job in organising this at such short noticed and she more than delivered.

Ansty Hall, Coventry

 Where the event was held.

When the event opened we where greeted with this stall full of sweets, it was totally yummy!

As a centre piece of each table there was this display of chocolate.

And a welcome box for everyone

A table full of raffle goodies - one for each delegate.

Our welcome drink was buck fizz

As I wake early I took a walk around the ground and got this amazing sunrise.

Lydia  had made those lovely cupcakes - which were a complete hit and were gone in seconds.

My lovely friend, Morag was teaching a class on the Saturday, and we was able to grab 10 minutes before she started to take a few snaps.

I had taken my Selphy to print off the appropriate photos for each class, but I couldn't get it to connect to the Wifi so I've not completed projects to share just yet, so some more items that are WIP (work in Progress).

Thanks for stopping by.

Negative to Positive - can only be a good thing - right

Out of every negative there has to be a positive - right ! well this is one of those situations.

I know a lot of people are well aware of what has happened here in the UK and even over  in the US, and I hadn't commented about it on here, partially due to not wanting to add flames to the fire and partially because it knocked me and left me feeling gutted.

Basically, I and others had booked onto a Retreat and it has been cancelled and we lost all our money, that said there is a refund package set up that we will be getting our money back over a period of time - it will take 28 months for me to receive a full refund.  So you can image how I felt when receiving the email late one evening and having to go to bed with this on my mind.  The following days where awful, finding out how many people where effected! how much money was involved! how much others had lost! and generally feeling completely crap - I will not add having to tell my hubby about the lost - well he was mad ! to say the least.

I do try not to dwell on the past and what has happened and try and look forward, sometimes this is really hard, other times I'm like 'OK ! done with that - let's move on'.

So that was the negative …. now for the positive ...

Mrs Tracie Hudson stepped in and has done herself proud, I really don't know how she managed it … but a salvaged retreat has been set up … this had nothing to do with the one that was cancelled only that it is being held at the same place (due to the hotel being so understanding of the situation), with the same people attending … everything else is like its a brand new retreat.  It had to be a 'closed retreat' with only people who had lost out attending, and we had to pays small fee before it could go ahead.

From what I can gathered a few manufactures/companies have stepped in and found out about the cancellation and all the hard work that Tracie has done and given products, prizes etc - so very kind of them.

I am very grateful to Tracie for putting herself out and making this happen, for getting talented UK designers -  Jane Dean & Morag Cutts - two designers I love - to come and teach, for getting Jen Gallacher from the US to get back onboard and come over - my God - ain't crafters lovely - but I'm also grateful for the fellow retreaters who have rallied round and are keen to put this negative situation into a  positive one and move forward.

Looking forward to meeting up with some old friends and most definitely making some new ones.

Here's to a fantastic weekend of crafting and laughing.

Watch out for a couple of blog post when I return.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Project Life August 2013 - Part 2

I'm back with more August pages.

You will have noticed that I don't keep to the traditional design of project life, but I tend to do my own thing, yes it has become more of a photo journal and it doesn't bother me that I have several pages some months, and other months only have 4 page protectors.  I mix my page protectors up, especially when I know I will be doing something different throughout that month,    I love going through my albums and seeing the different designs and how it all looks and I know my family does.  You can see the mixture of page protector on this post.

Anyway, let get on with my August pages.

For this month, has it was a jammed pack month I decided to type the journalling cards, which worked out really well and differently speeded up the process.


We had another week in Sheringham, Norfolk.  The journey down was different this time has James had chosen to travel with his Grandma.

We had arrived in Sheringham for the end of the Towns Carnival Week so there was a fantastic fire eating display over the boating lake,

as well as a amazing firework display over the golf course

Sheringham has it own Lifeboat and on the Sunday they had a 'open day' where the lifeboat crew did a demonstration of what they do, it also involved the Lifeboats coming from Cromer to join in.

On the afternoon they had a Lifeboat service, honouring the crew who had serviced in the past and the present crew.
Later in the evening my and my mother in law when to the open air church service on the prom and watch the sunset on a beautiful day.

Just a few snaps of around the town, and James enjoying his Fish & Chip tea.

I love the effect of the chalkboard designs, so I made a collection of my own.

I visited Blakeney Point to do bait of seal watching, I've been serval time before but this was the first time I got to see them so clearly, and it was lovely to see the cute pups.

On the way back I stopped off at Cley - which is famous for it smoke house, where I purchased a few items for our tea - which was yummy!   I also stopped off at the famous Cley Windmill for a break.

 Then we spent time of the beach

Then we had a 2nd visit to London, this time with Jon, and we managed to fit in a visit to Paddington to get a photo of the Gromit, then it was off to Greenwich to the Maritime Museum - what a great place and one I will going back to, before too long.

We even took a cruise down the Thames and a quick walk to Buckingham Palace before heading home.  Again another fanatics day in London.

I then visited Chatsworth County Fair, my first visit and one that I would highly recommend and one I will be returning to in the future.

I watch the 'Dancing Diggers' display in awe - one definitely to see, watched how the tine ponies moved so quickly around the arena, got up close to some lovely birds.

Another chalkboard stamp - stamp Ali Edwards

Watch a cooking demonstration by Mary Berry & Alan Titchmarch, walked around the fairground, watched the hot air balloons being inflated - they couldn't take off has it was the wrong air!: watch the bands doing they displays and go an autograph from Sir Seb Coe.

So that was our August, we had a fantastic month and loved every minutes of our various days out.

Thanks for stopping by.

Project Life August 2013 - Part 1

I really didn't think I had got so little to finish off for this month, I had taken it on holiday with me over half term and only spent about 1or 2 hours on it.

I've split it into two parts has we had a very active month.

Apologies for the poor quality of the photos, low light and glare from the page protectors.

So our August started with another check up for James, and a list of all the things we wanted to do over the Summer - I will update you with my September pages with how we got on with this list: then every thought it was the start of the holiday we had to prepare for the return back to school so it was shoe shopping.

A trip to the cinema; new Aston Villa Top, and James 1st visit to Nandos.

Our 2nd visit to the cinema, having James cousins visit Birmingham:

Going to see the 'once in a lifetime' flowering of a plant at the Botanical Gardens: 2nd visit to Nandos; baking; visiting the International Food Festival in Birmingham.

We had a few full days out and I wanted to document each day separately, so at the back of August main pages I've added extra pages protectors documenting each day.

Our 1st visit of the month to London, we had a fantastic time, James wanted to go back mainly so he could go on the tour bus that we missed out on when we visited London earlier this year, we ended up walking most of the day, 

but we did manage the bus.

We had such a great day, we where tried but happy.


Then we made our 1st visit to Bristol to do the Gromit Unleashed Trail.  We meet the lovely Beki, who I meet way back in 2010 at a retreat and have talked to her on line every since.  I contacted her and said we where coming to Bristol and if she wanted to meet up for a coffee, not only did she want to meet up she wanted to spend the day with us, what a superstar she was the perfect host and showed us around the city, James loved her and it was great to spend time with her on a social basis.

We returned to Bristol at the end of August with Claire and the kids, and again had a fantastic day.

These are a selection of the Gromits we found over the 2 days - before anyone says some of the photos are duplicated, which I only noticed after I'd printed them off.  But in total we found 50. 

A close up of one of the inserts

I  had the Gromit App and after finding a certain amount we were reward with these - showing us what a cracking good job we where doing !!!

I will upload the 2nd part in a few days.

Thanks for stopping by.

Half Term Break

Yes, we returned back to our usual place, Sheringham, Norfolk for another week walking along the beach, eating fresh crabs, lobsters and generally relaxing with the family.

Here are a few snaps.

Watched the lifeboat launch

love seeing the stream train

Went for walk along the sands, even when the tide was in.

with James stopping ever so often to throw stones

Enjoyed spending time with family 

Went for a walk around Beeston Priory

Visited Cromer Pier

and the Zoo in Cromer

stopped some ducklings

beautiful Jaguar 

baby Mara - these where just wandering around the zoo

Got up early to capture the sun rise.

Had the beach to ourselves

Feed the birds - and stood in the middle so I could get some photos - mad I know !

After the rain came a rainbow

Had one or two coffees

Love that my niece always finds me to hold my hand !

Then it was time to go home and this was the sky - not a fantastic photo has it was taken on my phone, from the backseat of the car !

So that was my week in Norfolk, hope you all had a great half term.

I'm busy getting myself sorted for my retreat - (the retreat that was cancelled then was salvaged) which I'm hoping will give me a kick start and get my mojo flowing - I really need to get my PL pages finished.  That said, its coming up to Christmas the I know that I've got a lot planned so again they might be left till over the Christmas holidays - but who knows - if I can sneak a few inserts in over the coming weeks might get at least finish August - fingers crossed eh!

Have a good weekend and thanks for stopping by.