Barbara's Birthday - May 2016

In May, my lovely friend Barbara celebrated her 65th birthday, and the girls, who I went to New York with, and I decided to take her out for the day, and we chose Stratford.  the weather forecast didn't look very promising but we were determined to make the most of it.  We a walk around the town, which obviously meant we needed to take a few photos

Shakespeares House, which is right in the centre of the town (need to go back and actually go inside it the next time)

There had some lovely little shops, like this old fashioned sweet shop 

which had rows and rows of old fashioned sweets in jars along the shelves.

Even when it rained, we still continued to shop.

Then it was time for her next surprise, Afternoon Tea in the wonderful cafe on the High Street.

As it was a special birthday we did her an album, we each did 3 pages.

As you can see from this photograph she was overwhelmed and loved it.

 The Afternoon Tea was great, and there was so much that we couldn't finish it.

The we had a walk around to Butterfly Farm, again a lovely place that I need to go back to.

I think the butterfly through my top was part of the display, I was keen on it landing on me, but so glad I took a deep breath and got these photos - coming to a scrapbook pages soon.

And our final stop was for a coffee and cake, but I didn't fancy any cake so I had this yummy ice-cream instead.

We all had a fab day and Barbara loved it, which was just want we wanted to hear after all the planning.


These are my pages that I did for her album, I choose to do photos from our New York trip

This was a sketch, one of the many sketches I have on Pinterest.  I love how it turned out and I used Shimelle's Starshine collection and did some hand stitching.

I used another Pinterest sketch for this one, and my hexagon punch that I've had for a while and not used. These photos were taken shortly before we went on our evening cruise.

More hand-stitching, photographs taken at the Top of the Rock.

This design is a cut file from the silhouette cameo store, but instead of cutting it I used the 'perforation' feature, so instead of cutting the shape out, it makes perforation marks - allowing me to hand stitch the design.

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More layouts from my Retreat

These are a selection of layouts I did to add to my NY album.

using Crate Paper - Wonder Collection - here

 using  Seven paper (Studio Calico) - Golden Collection and Heidi Swapp Empherma pack.

I love how this one came out, simply but effective using the black cardstock as my background.  the cut file is from Kerri Bradford Design.  Paper are from Cocoa Vanilla - Free Spirit here

Another scrap lift, this time from one Julie did for one of her Cut Shoppe post.  Papers are a mixture of travel themed papers I had in my stash.


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Retreat Layouts

Here are some of my layouts I managed to do whilst away in April.

This was using a LFE kit - Pink Paislee - Cedar Lane Collection    There are a few of the sheets still available.

This was  a scraplift, I found on Pinterest - using Simple Stories - Lets Party collection - here

Another layout using a LFE kit -

I scrapliffted this from one Sheena was doing.  Using some papers from LFE Kit, April 2015.

and I did this in a 9x12 format, using a photographs that I had taken the same day, I can never remember ever scrapping a photograph so quickly.  Me and Sheena at Chatsworth, photograph taken by Sam.  Papers used My Minds Eye - On Trend 2 collection here.

A simple one using up bits from a kit that included Seven Paper (Studio Calico) Golden Collection.

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HLM Blogpost - June 2016

I'm up today on the HLM blogpost.  This month I've used stamps  from Pink Fresh Studio on my layouts.  Please hop over  here and  see what I've done.

Thanks for stopping by.

HLM Team Retreat 2016

As I said I'd organised a 10 day crafting break, it started with a long-weekend with the Solihull girls, then a few days in between with just me and Sam, then it was time for the HLM DT Team Retreat.

So the for days in-between, me and Sam decided to go out and about on each day and do some crafting or even relaxing at night.

We went to Buxton for the day, very cold but lovely to have a walk around.

then we had a Spa day - OMG! it was totally fab, we had 3 treatments during our stay as well as breakfast and lunch

My first Spa day experience and I'm hoping its not going to be my last - felt a bit strange to start with walking around the building in a fluffy dressing gown, but we soon got used to it.

The weather was lovely that we spent the time between are treatments and eating sitting outside on the patio in the sunshine.

The next day we visited Trentham Monkey Forest - lovely to have a walk around the forest amongst the monkeys and get some lovely shots of them at rest and play.

Then Sheena joined us for our visit to Chatsworths House and Gardens

As more of the team arrived, it was time to go into Ashbourne and get some food shopping done ...

well that was the main objective, but we couldn't resist doing a spot of shopping whilst there, and taking some photos.

We even managed brunch in the sunshine.

and us being scrapbookers, we just had to take loads of photographs of the Afternoon Tea we had prepared.

It was lovely getting together with the team and our bosses, some of the team couldn't make it and where missed the those who where there we had a great time.

Then I was home with my boy again, I think he missed me - lol x 

Thank you for staying with me with my catch - up.  My next couple of blogpost will be scrapbooking related, and less of my waffling.

See you soon

Condense 'April Madness" Post - Part 1

So here the a few photos from Malta and the rest of my 'April Madness".




Before we lifted me and one of my cousins went onto a bus tour, the island is just stunning, and the harbours are simply amazing
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I love how the water is so clear, that you can see the little fishes swimming

 Then on my return home,  it was time to treat my boy to lunch and have a much needed catch up and gather myself for my next trip in a few days time.

I went back to Preston for a much needed catch-up for my besties, but the main thing was to attend my School Re-union.

Another life-long friend, we lost touch when I moved the Birmingham and it was lovely to see her again, and have lunch, before the bug re-union.

And what a re-union it was, it was the best and OMG! it was lovely seeing everyone again

I posted this photograph on my Facebook page and seeing that we are all now in our 50's now, the compliments we got where amazing ... and very much appreciated.  One guy said we hadn't aged, which was lovely to hear.

The day after the night before, we felt very ropey but we had to get out and about.

But it wasn't long before we ended up back at the friends, lying on the floor having a giggle about the previous night and just being us - love these girls.  Yes we had our sun-glasses on inside.

Then home and packed for my 10 crafting break in Derbyshire.

The space is perfect for us crafters to spread out.

it didn't take us long to un-pack and get our scrap on.

and have a laugh.

I'll be back soon.

Malta - Part 3

I did say it would only be 2 post, but I wanted to share more photos, so it might even go over to 4 blog post.

So one of the day my family decided that they wanted to stay by the pool and relax, and me being me just needed to get up and go and explore, so that is what I did, all on my own.

Here I am at the bus stop.  The Maltese people are very friendly, and as the island is small it is easy to get around.  The bus journey was only about 10 minutes to Mdina - The Silence City.

What a beautiful place it is, its a city with a fortress, please actually live here, there was a few cars and tourist horse and carriages, but mainly people walked around.

It even had its own Police station.

Most of the side road looked like this 

There was about 3 maybe 4 churches, all beautifully decorated

and I even managed to see a wedding taking place.    I had good time having some time to myself to explore and visit this site, definitely recommended.

As Mdina was closely by,  it didn't take me long to get back which gave me time to relax by the pool

I'm still struggling to catch up with my blog, so instead of doing separate post for my 'April madness" I going to condense what I've done on my next blog post.

Thanks for bearing with me,  see you soon.