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with a little bit of something fun!! The UKScrappers Oscars Party Cybercrop - and we're all over to Ally's for a Friday night cropping extravaganza...
Several of us from a local ScrapMates crop ventured to the depths of Essex for cropping, laughing, snapping, drinking, munching and more... and the resulting scrapping so far is classes 1 and 2 - and a part completed challenge
Quick post tonight as I have much to do (as always!)
Sharing my layout inspired by last weeks Pencil Lines sketch which I rotated 90* Photobooth photos from the mid 90's of my sister and I, taken before I had any children, before marriage, before I had my hair cut! These pictures remind me of a crazy fun day trip we had in France with our Mum and Nan, and gave me the opportunity to put a dent in my hoard of brads!!
cor I feel like I haven't stopped for months, have sooooo much on at the moment, work is crazy busy (ok - to be expected given I am an Accountant and it's year end) but couple that with easter hols, forthcoming sats exams for daughter, immenant loft conversion and life, there seems little room for chilling (or scrapping) at the moment.
Hoping to address that this weekend with some Oscars cybercrop activity Friday night at Ally's with my fellow croppees "the ScrapMates", an oscar or two and a layout or two are certainly on the agenda. I have been playing with the scrummy MME Star Bright paper collection for ScrapGenie though - I just adore these papers, so much more like cardstock than paper and a divine texture too them too. Had great fun putting this layout together - took ages as I kept adding to it!!
Well the April ScrapAGoGo kit will be with it's subscribers by now, and I regret to say that April was the last month I will be featured as a GoGo designer, since taking up my position with ScrapGenie. I am still a kit subscriber however, and have itchy fingers waiting for my next delivery which seems so far away! But the consolation is that it will be swifty followed by the GoGo Getaway retreat in June - can't wait!
And what a cracking kit the April one was to end on - stunning papers from Making Memories among others, a delicious 5th Avenue notebook, Hambly overlay and an awesome stamp set - so very versatile (mine are very mucky already!!) April DT layouts below
Birthday wishes to my mum who turned 60 yesterday. We celebrated with a family meal at a carvery restaurant, rather than the usual big party celebration we usually do in our family - mum's choice. Our kids did us proud, behaving very well and eating very well, and Mum said she'd had the best time, which is what was most important of all. A few photos from the evening to share...
Other news - I didn't get the promotion at work, which they decided not to appoint to on this occasion, but to continue with the existing agency cover at this time, pending the full outcome of the immenant Council restructure. I did get alot of very positive feedback from the interview though and was told I scored highly on the tests and would most likley be successful at interview in 12-24 months time with a little more senior experience under my belt - so all is not lost, and I feel very positive about whole thing (having calmed down a little now from when I first was told!)
Hoping to get a little scrapbooking done this weekend, lots of new photographs to scrap from mums birthday, and of the garden which is coming along nicely, though I am sure it will take a bit of battering once the scaffolding etc goes up in a few weeks for the start of the loft conversions. We have plans in our grubby little mits - making it all VERY REAL now, and having parted with cash - the ball has most definately started rolling!
Hope you all have a superb weekend, hubby's first cricket match of the season on Sunday (weather permitting) so I doubt I'll be back with a blog update before Monday, until then enjoy xx
...and my seedlings are coming along nicely. Two weeks since planting though my mum and my father-in-law are both telling me my beans are too big too early (but they make me smile and I have more seeds so I can always plant some more!!)
Raised veggie beds are constructed and I managed between rain showers today to get my soil in them, so all things being well I can get my seed potatoes in next weekend, and then start getting my seedlings used to the outdoors in my cheapo plastic greenhouse from Argos!
My promotion interview went well on Friday. Still not sure I will get appointed as it is a very senior position but I can hold my head high when I go back into work tomorrow knowing I didn't totally humiliate myself in the interview - though my answer to the last question was very tongue in cheek!! It's not like I don't like my current job (most of the time) and I still can make a difference in the role, so all will not be lost if I don't get it.
Have managed some scrapping/retail therapy this weekend to reward myself for interview preparation and much stressing during the week. Went to Willow Tree Crafts crop on Saturday with Ally - great value at £10 for the day which included a £5 voucher off any purchase in the shop. They had been lucky enough to Have Karen Russel teach at their event the weekend before and her 
gorgeous class layouts were on the wall in the shop - will lead to my purchasing the papers to recreate them as they were sooooo lovely. Needless to say I was able to redeam my £5 voucher and then some! I still need to print the photographs off to go on the two layouts I did using the papers, but I managed to scrap this photograph of Eloise, using Prima Paintables paper (for the first time) and some scraps of material cut from the front of an old t-shirt!
Also created this wacky layout using the fantastic new Sassfrasslass papers currently being showcased on the Dreamie blog. I handdrew the 
buildings onto a piece of card, very randomly, adding some of the SFL paper for the odd roof (the jaggered strip edge of this paper gives even more to play with!), cut out the robots and a spaceship or two, plus a photo of my son Robert wearing his robot t-shirt (I cut round the image on the t-shirt and his head!) the added stars, a doodlebug strip for the road and a title glazed with Glossy accents along with teh building windows. Slightly off the wall, bnut the look on my Roberts face when he saw this page was priceless, almost wish I'd have had a camera to hand to capture the smile on his face, and he has asked that the layout be put up in his new room in the loft when it was built! No better praise than that in my book x
So the plans have been drawn up for the loft, we should see sight of them this week, with work due to start in 2-3 weeks, we still have plenty up there to get rid of (find a new temporary home for) and with weekends rapidly running out it should be fun!
And talking of fun, played a brief visit to the craft show at Ally Pally today, well by brief I mean 3 hours or so, where I finally manged to buy some Cut and dry foam and nibs (thanks Heather for showing me hers!), a sheet or two of KI memories lace cardstock (oooh how I love that stuff!), 12 wooden stamps for £5 (all ornate border/flourish type ones - bargain!), a sheet or two of Fancy Pants "True" papers, some Ten Second Studio bits for use with sheet metal and air drying clay to make flourish borders etc, a wooden book from Art from the Heart for my recipes and finally the software to go with my Cricut so I can play even more with fonts!! Had a good time mooching with Ally, Rach, Jude and Nicki (oh and my daughter of course!) and will no doubt be sharing more crafty creations over the coming week with my new bits!!
and sadly no, I am not talking of George Cloony!! (or whoever floats your boat!) But instead, as promised, images of what we've been up to here.
Starting with snowy photo of the oak tree in next doors garden - which looked amazing all covered in snow yesterday. Amazing how fast the snow came down and yet cleared almost straight away. I quite like it that way - all the prettyness without the yukky sludge lingering dangerously for days. I think the squirrels who live in this tree knew the snow was on its way, as instead of easting the nibbles stolen from the bird table in our garden, they chose to bury them in our lawn! "Oh joy", commented hubby, "More darn trees to dig up" (him having just cleared a chunk of the garden and installed raised vegetable beds for me!!
And these new veggie beds will be home to these little beauties at the end of the month - am so chuffed with my baby seedlings, just 7 days after they were planted, and the kids have been coming home each day to examine how much they have grown and how many new ones have come up. Infact, only this evening, hubs did the very same, so lets just hope they continue to grow and bare us tasty veggies in a few months time.
So Saturday was our ScrapMates crop, and here are the 2 pages I designed for the crop class, a kit which included alphabet stickers as requested by a number of our club. We were joined on-line by Lesley too, thanks to some techy linking up cour tesy of Gina (thanks hun) which was an original experience for us all - but great fun!!!
Also sharing my Pencil lines sketch from last week and can't wait to have a go with this weeks one which can be found here. The pencil line readers gallery has had some pretty darn awesome layouts in there of late, especially from the ladies from the Phillapeans - wonderful stuff, so if you need some eye candy - go pop by.
So what else?, oh here you go, funny photo of my cheeky kitten (well she's nearly 4 but acts like a kitten) detering the birds (and aforementioned squirrels!!) from visiting the bird table. I'm not sure, but I think they may be able to see her?!!
That's all for now - don't forget the ScrapDreamie Design Team call ends this week - go check it out here along with another week full of inspiring layouts and projects using the latest delicious and delectable products on the market!
