Layout scraplifted from Susan Weinwroth, (my absolute favourite designer) and uses Studio Calico's 'Lawn Party' kit and star buttons from my stash.
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Saturday Scrapping!
I have scrapped the photo I posted earlier! (edited as i've just noticed, I took 2 photos within a second of each other and it seems i've used the other photo for the layout!) It didn't really fit the theme of the layout but I don't care, it really needed to be scrapped, LOL! Charlie asks endless questions at the moment, he's such an inquisitive little boy and we love how much he enjoys learning! (Click on the layout to enlarge it, then you can read the journalling if you like!)
Layout scraplifted from Susan Weinwroth, (my absolute favourite designer) and uses Studio Calico's 'Lawn Party' kit and star buttons from my stash.
Layout scraplifted from Susan Weinwroth, (my absolute favourite designer) and uses Studio Calico's 'Lawn Party' kit and star buttons from my stash.
Cute!
It's not often we manage to get photos of our cats together......it's not often (in fact really quite rare) that Calico wants anything to do with the children.......and it's quite amazing that this picture, a real catch quick moment, was taken!
I don't think I've ever blogged about our cats, I might have briefly mentioned them, I don't know! Anyway, we have 2 very lovely cats. Gizzy, on the left is almost 13, we've had him 11 1/2 years, we got him the month before moved into our home. He is adorable, he's very soft and placid and will more or less let Charlie and Courtney do what they want with him!! He's very tolerant, LOL! If we ever settle down to watch TV he's always on our knee and he's the hunter! He kindly wakes me in the night if he's brought home a pressie! (yuk!) Calico has a very different personality but is adorable all the same. We've had her 9 years and got her as a tiny kitten! She has mellowed a lot in the last few years and likes to have a good cuddle and nuzzle up but it's very much on her terms, LOL! She is a beautiful cat, if only I could put eye liner on as perfectly as her markings!
So this afternoon I was taking some photos of Charlie for a layout I have planned to do this evening. Charlie was just sitting on the grass when Gizzy came over and flopped by his side! Calico seeing Gizzy get a cuddle must have momentarily forgot that it was Charlie giving it and came over for one herself, I quickly snapped away and am delighted (as it Charlie) with this photo!
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Happy Anniversary Tim & Elizabeth
At lunchtime today we were invited to a meal to celebrate with Tim and Elizabeth their Silver wedding Anniversary. It was at The County Hotel in Carnforth and we had a lovely carvery dinner. Tim and Elizabeth have been my friends since I was a young teenager, they are very special people and are Charlie's God-parents.
Happy Anniversary Tim and Elizabeth!
Craft Room updated (and garden)
I thought I'd just do a post updating about my lovely craft room as I feel I've properly moved in now and it has 'evolved' a little along the way! The original post is here On the whole it hasn't changed massively but has been tweaked in places. Now that it's in use I have found a few different ways of storing things, making them work better and just added a couple of cross stitches and little things. My original theme for the room was cupcakes but now it's 'things I love!' (and cupcakes.) I really enjoy looking around 'chintsy' type shops, I could spend ages in them. Many of my finds are in my craft room and in the end I just couldn't restrict myself to one theme, LOL!
I feel very lucky to have this room, I have waited a long time but think my wait has been worth it! I just love Saturday nights where I lock myself away and don't come out until at least midnight, LOL!
This is a quick video tour I made this afternoon, please excuse the amount of times I say 'bits and pieces' LOL!
Something that I don't think I did at the time was a before and after of the garden which was completed at the same time as the craft room being built. The whole area outside has been changed so much. When we were approached about buying the extra land we didn't quite know what a huge difference it would make! If you look at the before picture of the first photo you'll see a huge long concrete block. This was where our garden used to end, there was an old ugly looking wall built onto that slab but when we moved in we added some fence panels to improve the look. At Easter last year the panels and wall were removed to expose the new strip of garden and we lived with it like in the picture for about 6 months until we waited for the builder. The new land is about 10 feet wide and runs the whole length of the garden. Where the trampoline is in the first picture is where my craft room is now! We decided to go the whole hog and replace all the wall that ran along the back and side of our property, that was a lot of wall as our driveway easily fits 3 vehicles on it plus the back garden! Doing it though tidied it up completely, something that we've wanted to do since we moved in 11 years ago, buying the land gave us a very good reason to finally get it done! Once the concrete strip was removed the next job was to level off the garden, that took some doing! We also had the patio area replaced with lovely new flags. As you can see on the second photo we've had the trampoline sunk into the garden, this was Mark's (very good) idea! Charlie and Courtney can now get on and off the trampoline safely and we don't need to worry about them on it. Lastly the single photo just shows that we had a wall built to divide off the drive and garden, this makes it totally secure for Charlie and Courtney to play. (They don't play in the garden on their own yet but it's reassuring for when they're older and they do)
Edited 29.08.11 - Hello if you've popped by from the Crafty Storage blog, I am delighted to be featured on there! Thank you for visiting :D I just want to add in case you don't scroll back into my blog that I had wonderful help setting up my craft room from my lovely friend Jen. She designed my room for me and helped put it all together. I already had the Expedit in the spare room and bought the Antique plan chest so I set her a real challenge with my demands of wanting room for 2 people to scrap and as much storage as possible! She did a brilliant job, I'd have never thought of putting the table into the middle of the room! Thanks Jen
I feel very lucky to have this room, I have waited a long time but think my wait has been worth it! I just love Saturday nights where I lock myself away and don't come out until at least midnight, LOL!
This is a quick video tour I made this afternoon, please excuse the amount of times I say 'bits and pieces' LOL!
Something that I don't think I did at the time was a before and after of the garden which was completed at the same time as the craft room being built. The whole area outside has been changed so much. When we were approached about buying the extra land we didn't quite know what a huge difference it would make! If you look at the before picture of the first photo you'll see a huge long concrete block. This was where our garden used to end, there was an old ugly looking wall built onto that slab but when we moved in we added some fence panels to improve the look. At Easter last year the panels and wall were removed to expose the new strip of garden and we lived with it like in the picture for about 6 months until we waited for the builder. The new land is about 10 feet wide and runs the whole length of the garden. Where the trampoline is in the first picture is where my craft room is now! We decided to go the whole hog and replace all the wall that ran along the back and side of our property, that was a lot of wall as our driveway easily fits 3 vehicles on it plus the back garden! Doing it though tidied it up completely, something that we've wanted to do since we moved in 11 years ago, buying the land gave us a very good reason to finally get it done! Once the concrete strip was removed the next job was to level off the garden, that took some doing! We also had the patio area replaced with lovely new flags. As you can see on the second photo we've had the trampoline sunk into the garden, this was Mark's (very good) idea! Charlie and Courtney can now get on and off the trampoline safely and we don't need to worry about them on it. Lastly the single photo just shows that we had a wall built to divide off the drive and garden, this makes it totally secure for Charlie and Courtney to play. (They don't play in the garden on their own yet but it's reassuring for when they're older and they do)
Edited 29.08.11 - Hello if you've popped by from the Crafty Storage blog, I am delighted to be featured on there! Thank you for visiting :D I just want to add in case you don't scroll back into my blog that I had wonderful help setting up my craft room from my lovely friend Jen. She designed my room for me and helped put it all together. I already had the Expedit in the spare room and bought the Antique plan chest so I set her a real challenge with my demands of wanting room for 2 people to scrap and as much storage as possible! She did a brilliant job, I'd have never thought of putting the table into the middle of the room! Thanks Jen
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Saturday Scrapping!
I haven't scrapbooked for a little while as I haven't had any photos to scrap! (I have been cross stitching though!) But then I thought about doing some work in my BOM (Book of Me.) I generally scrapbook when I do the Race for life so did that layout tonight and then one about feeling blessed with my family.♥ The Race for Life is a hybrid. I created the general layout first on my computer using a digital template and papers from Echo Park Little girl series, printed it out 10.5" x 10.5" and matted it on purple then white cardstock and added my medal! (it hasn't scanned in very straight but it is in real life!)
Monday, 11 July 2011
Introducing.........
Miss Courtney Grace L. (Courtney is her birth name and Grace is the name we have given her.)
This morning Courtney became our little girl legally. We are over the moon and beyond! We have a celebratory hearing on the 12th of August that rubber stamps our parentage but from this day forward she is all ours!♥♥♥
Friday, 8 July 2011
Dum Dum De Dum!!
Congratulations to the new Mr & Mrs L! Mark's brother John got married to Amanda this afternoon at The Ashton Memorial, Williamsons Park in Lancaster. It was a lovely ceremony and we enjoyed a really nice reception at the Greaves Park hotel.
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Olympic Tour
At the moment there is a bus touring England promoting the Olympics and searching for flame bearers. I really enjoy the Olympics and am quite excited about it being hosted in London. We did apply for tickets but like many others we unfortunately didn't get any. So, when I saw this tour being promoted on Facebook and saw that it was coming to Liverpool I decided to have a little adventure out with Charlie and Courtney! When we first arrived the main photo booth was out of action so we tootled around the rest of the displays and I enjoyed a free mini can of Coke Zero! We were advised the problem with the booth could only be rectified in America so didn't hold out much hope of it working today. The staff were very accommodating though and as they'd seem me using my camera to take pics they suggested that we have a photo taken with the torch on my camera just in case the booth didn't work at all during our visit!
An hour or so later we went back and I was delighted to see the booth was indeed working so first of all Charlie and Courtney had their photos taken and then I did. I am very thankful that we did get the photo earlier as when I've come to download the photo tonight from the website he has completely messed up Charlie and Courtney's (you only see half of Charlie's head!) and with the display behind you can't really see them! Mine on the other hand I really like! Hey Ho, at least we've got the photo of the 3 of us together with the torch :D
An hour or so later we went back and I was delighted to see the booth was indeed working so first of all Charlie and Courtney had their photos taken and then I did. I am very thankful that we did get the photo earlier as when I've come to download the photo tonight from the website he has completely messed up Charlie and Courtney's (you only see half of Charlie's head!) and with the display behind you can't really see them! Mine on the other hand I really like! Hey Ho, at least we've got the photo of the 3 of us together with the torch :D
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Race for Life 2011
Taking part in the Race for Life is something that is very important to me, having lost my Dad to cancer in 2006. This was my 7th Race for life as I took part before my Dad became poorly. I lost my Grandad to cancer too when I was 14 so I take part in memory of him too. This year my mum did it with me.
Today was at a new venue, Lancaster University. I wasn't sure how it would be as it's quite hilly there! I was right to be unsure, golly the course was tough! Up and down quite steep hills, mostly walking on grass. But it was a challenge that I took with pride! We also had the most glorious day, not a cloud in the sky, when walking in the direct sun is was also tough but we did get shaded breathers every so often!! All in all though I truly enjoyed the experience! I saw quite a few people I knew and I was over the moon to see Mandy and Peter who I used to work for nannying their children, Jono and Hannah. Hannah was also taking part in the Race for Life, bless her, I can't believe she is 14 now (she was just under 1 when I started looking after her!) and as you can see from the photo she towers me now, LOL!
I didn't see any of my collegues this year, apparently there were only 3 there, such a shame as there was a big crowd of us last year. I missed them at the beginning and they'd all come together and one was actually going to work after so they had to go. My friend (and manager) Sarah came along to support us though and even had fruit juice at the end bless her!
with my Mum, I am so proud of her♥
with Mandy, Peter and Hannah
look at those gorgeous blue skies!
......at the end!!!!! Note my number, I was the very first to register this year, numbers 1 and 2 have to be applied for, usually local celebrities or charity people get them
Today was at a new venue, Lancaster University. I wasn't sure how it would be as it's quite hilly there! I was right to be unsure, golly the course was tough! Up and down quite steep hills, mostly walking on grass. But it was a challenge that I took with pride! We also had the most glorious day, not a cloud in the sky, when walking in the direct sun is was also tough but we did get shaded breathers every so often!! All in all though I truly enjoyed the experience! I saw quite a few people I knew and I was over the moon to see Mandy and Peter who I used to work for nannying their children, Jono and Hannah. Hannah was also taking part in the Race for Life, bless her, I can't believe she is 14 now (she was just under 1 when I started looking after her!) and as you can see from the photo she towers me now, LOL!
I didn't see any of my collegues this year, apparently there were only 3 there, such a shame as there was a big crowd of us last year. I missed them at the beginning and they'd all come together and one was actually going to work after so they had to go. My friend (and manager) Sarah came along to support us though and even had fruit juice at the end bless her!
with my Mum, I am so proud of her♥
with Mandy, Peter and Hannah
look at those gorgeous blue skies!
......at the end!!!!! Note my number, I was the very first to register this year, numbers 1 and 2 have to be applied for, usually local celebrities or charity people get them
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Maiden Voyage!
I have been keen to get a cycle trailer for a long time, even more so since we hired one on holiday last year! I really want to be able to ride around with Charlie and Courtney! For my birthday in May my very kind parents in law, Sylvia and Hughie, gave me half of the money for one! I shopped around and found one I really liked in Halfords and as a bonus it was on offer as it was Bank Holiday. I had to order it online as there was no stock at our local branch and it arrived the next day! Mark built it straight away and it has just been sitting in the garage for a few weeks! The weather has been hit and miss and on any nice days we usually had something planned! I had wanted to cycle to nursery with it on Friday but we couldn't work out quickly enough how to attach it to my bike. In the end I found the instructions online and today off we went! It was fantastic! I loved towing them, yes I can feel a very big difference pulling it with them in but they really enjoyed it and I got great pleasure out of that. We cycled along the promenade, which had stunning views today, to Happy Mount Park. We had an ice cream there before heading back. (we cycled approx 8.5 miles)
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