some crafty stuff

Here's a CJ entry I did for Jenny's CJ 'Childhood Holidays'. It's me as a 2 year old!! LOL on my very first holiday in Cornwall. I think the photos are cute! I know however, that the holiday wasn't a great success for Mum and dad. They went with some close friends (that's their son in the photo with me), but at the last minute another couple came too, and Mum and dad gave up thier room for them for some reason. I don't think they all got on very well.

We went down to Cornwall on motorbikes. My dad and his friend had big motorbikes and sidecars! I don't know if the weather was good all the time, but it looks Ok in these photos!


Papers are BG Blush, I think they go very well with the b&w photos. Stamps from Tandastamps. I knew I would get loads of use out of these!












Here's my 2 ATCs for the Tandastamps ATC swap for November. Theme, Snow and Snowmen. The cut out snowmen on the first ATC are from a pack of ATC sized Christmas papers from lakeland. The big snowflakes on the 2nd one are die cuts from a Christmas embellie swap ages ago! Just proves you should never throw anything away!




Feeling much better today. Still not sure how much I want to do, but am going tokepp my lunch date with some friends (only 5 mins drive away) and if I can have anap this afternoon, I will be able to make tonight! Our anuual Christmas Dinner with our old motorcycling friends. We have knwh each other for 30+ years, but only get together once per year now. So it would be a shame to miss it. Dare I take my camera? (I always feel a bit embarrassed taking people shots!)

recovering

Well, the op went well, but boy have I been knocked for six by the after effects of the anaesthetic! Whenever I have had an op before I have felt absolutely fine straight away. Not this time! Maybe I was out for longer? Who knows? Anyway, I spent Tues pm in bed dozing, and yesterday on the settee watching awful daytime tv and dozing. Tried to watch my Sense and Sensibility DVD but feel asleep half way through! Today I really don't feel any better, very woolly headed and a bit wobbly, in fact, worse than last night!!

One frustration is that my book has got the wrong pages in it! It's Jodi Picoult's Plain Truth - just got to the best bit when it jumped back from p 232 to p 195! Then 195-232 are repeated, and the proper pages are missing! Just sent DD into town with somw money to buy me another one! The book has been in my reading pile for ages, so I don't know where I got it from to take it back! It's a fab book, really enjoying the juxtaposition of the modern world on the Amish community in Pensylvannia.

Just waiting for Mum and Dad to come and cheer me up!

findng colour in the garden in November

I went out in the garden yesterday and took these surprisingly colourful plants! There si colour in my garden in November!

























































One thing is on mind today! That is the operation I am having tomorrow. I am sooo nervous! Silly really cos I have never had aproblem with anaesthetic before, so not likely to now. It is day surgery, and only a minor op. (Gynaecological - endometrial ablation, which means they burn away the lining of the womb. It is to get rid of fibroids)
I am hoping to have a couple of days on the sofa watching day time telly! LOLOLOLOL

November

It's been a bit wet lately! This is the car park at Ferring beach where I like to walk with Merlin! I love the reflections!










Decided I would enter the photo competition on UKS this month! The problem is, the subject is 'What I love about November'! Not sure there is anything I love about Nov, except that December comes next! Anyway, here's a couple of photos I have entered because of the dramatic skies.



























Sad time atm. I keep hearing bad news.

My best friend's 18 year old son has had meningitis! He has been really poorly in hospital for 2 weeks. I don't have all the details cos we've only texted each other, but hope to meet up tomorrow (although he is coming out of hospital tomorrow). They have lived through a nightmare!

A friend on UKS is very very poorly. Big HUGS to her.

Several people on forums have recently lost parents and prents-in-law. It reminds me that Dad is not too good. He has very very low white blood cell count, and this doesn't seem to be improving. He is not doing too well on the chemo this month. Bit worried about him really.

Some good news!!! Some friends of ours have just become grandparents! (They seem too young to us!!) Congratulations to Bob and Jan, and love to Laura and partner and their new daughter!

Well, the sun is shining now, I am waiting for my shopping to be delivered, and am going to do a bit more on my book of Rolo!

RAP PARTY

I have finished my PWL photography course now. Just as well, cos I need to get busy with Christmas now. (And it's that time of year for Shimelle's Christmas Journal see www.shimelle.com) We had a RAP Party on Saturday eve, which was great fun. We had 3 photo challenges, which I got Nicholas to help me with, and a scavenger hunt which I got so carried away with, I missed the deadline! But we won the prize for the best photo of yourself reading your camera manual - in the style of one of the modules. Here I am speed reading!

It was great, there we were with the tripod, choosing speeds, apertures, uploading, changing to B&W etc, all in the space of a few minutes! Proves how much I have learnt.

Roll on the next course! Ma=eanwhile, I must look out for more photogrpahy competitions, and visit http://herspace-myspace.blogspot.com/ more often!

This week's craft

Here's my entry in Shakespeare's women, an art doll CJ. Bit nervous about this, becasue I don't think I am arty enoughLOL! But, I am quite pleased with how it turned out. It is Juliet aka Maria in West Side Story. I printed out the lyrics for 'I feel Pretty' for thr RHS. The backing paper to Juliet has love words all over it, including 'dollface', which unfortunately has slipped off the bottom a bit. The lyrics are printed onto the same paper, and it says 'honey' LOL. The whole thing is supposed to be Juliet in love.

This Lo won 'Page of the Day' competition at my Brighton and Hove crop. The challenge was 'sweet moments'. I was going to find a pic of Lucy as a little girl, and do a pretty LO. But then I saw this LO (off to find out where I saw it so I can acknowledge it!) and thought about doing a LO with some of the pics i have been taking of the family lately. The journalling reads

I said 'What is your favourite sweet?

Maurice said a big box of chocolotaes

I said chocoalte bar

Nicholas said bar of chocolate or jelly babies

Lucy said Mars Bar or Haribo'

Paper is BG Blush.

Christmas cards

Here are some Christmas cards I made with the Anna Griffin kit from QVC. Although the kit seemed expensive, I have made the 40 cards in the kit, and I have loads of embellies, card and tags left to make a whole load more! So each card will have cost well under £1 each - you'd pay much more for this quality in the shops. S I am pleased!

Goodness, after not blogging for ages, I am blogging two days in a row!! I have some spare time becasue I didn't see Mum and dad like I usually do on Weds, because of DD being unwell. (took her to Drs this morning for penicillin- hopefully she will start feeling better now)

Off to make a start on a LO - think I will have a go at this weeks challenge on UKS. We did the challenge last week, and it was great! Over 20 people uploaded their LOs, and it was great fun seeing what everyone made of our challenge!

catching up!

Xmas baking! Here's my puddings just going on to steam for 6 hours!!

















RHS Wisley with Mum and Dad. In front of the new big greenhouse.


















National Trust - Standen. Note the framing! A little trick I learned on the course.












A pic I took up at Highdown this week.













Again, I have not kept up to date! A quick resume of what has been going on in my life: We had half-term off (well I worked Mon and Tues, and M worked Wed!) Highlights were going to NT Standen with Angela on Wednesday and RHS Wisley on Friday! A few photos here.

My photography course has finished. Quite sad, missing the little prompts each week in my eamil box! I came in the top 10 5 times (I think!) and the top 5 twice - not so bad. We're having a RAP PARTY on Sat evening - not sure what that entails, but sounds like fun. Met some great people on Cheryl's forum, and looking forward to doing her next course in the new year. I also want to do a scrapbook of the course.

Work is OK. We're having one of those weeks where everyone is sick! Everyone has a nasty throat infection - in fact, DD has gone down with it too. Bit worried whether I should see Mum and Dad tomorrow as Dad is on chemo and very low on white blood cells atm.

Weather has been good, lots of gorgeous Autumnal colours about as there has been no wind to blow the leaves down! I've taken a few pics, but really want to go to Wakehurst Place for photos, but it doesn't look like I've got the time. Been for some lovely walks with Merlin.

Planning for Christmas has started. Mum and Dad and A&L are coming, so cooking for 10 Christmas dinner! Can't wait! I am quite excited because I will have something to go to town a bit with. More deccies, more food, more pressies etc! Already started Christmas shopping, and I made cake, pudding and mincemeat last weekend.

Scrapping has taken a bit of a back seat. I ran out of steam a bit when I got home from SP! I didn't manage any of the other 2 weekends cc on UKScrappers. I did buy some kits though, so must do them. I did complete a really nice one by Vanessa from Paper Arts at the weekend. I am also frantically making Christmas cards with my Anna Griffin kit from QVC. They are dead easy to make, and look really good. But now I am drowning in s/b kits though! Having subscribed to Scrapagogo, Little Red Scrapbook Co (who both btw sent the same papers last month, luckily they are scrummy - October Afternoon) and Scrapping Angels. I have loads of kits I haven't used. I think I must do a mega scrap after Christmas to use them up! And to use up the billions of photogrpahs I have taken lately! Might sadly have to give one of them up -trouble is, which one? I don't want to miss a really nice kit LOL