Embellish your World

BOO!!

Happy Halloween to you all!

We had great fun carving up some pumpkins last night with our friends! Why then do I have an urge to go buy even more pumpkins and carve away again later today!!!

House should look pretty cool this evening what with our four carved pumpkins and this cute haunted house I made at Pickleberry Papercrafts this week (thanks Kate!). We also smell nice and spicey at the moment having just removed from the oven 2 baked pumpkin pies! My first attempt and I am impressed so far (hope they taste as good!) I followed this recipe off the BBC if anyone else fancies making one.

And now I shall return to tidying my house which has been a little neglected this week! Hallway to finish painting and a tonne of laundry too - boo! (and not the spooky kind!!)

Have fun today, whatever you do xx

Doing a little happy dance

Found out today I have been selected to join a bunch of fab talented ladies over the pond in Canada on a sketch design team!! The new DT is a mix of Canadian, American, Japanese and lil ole me from the UK! Exciting times ahead, pop over and see what we are up to! Congrats to my fellow DT ladies!

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Other findings today - my first puzzle geocache, located with Clare and my mini-trekkers along with another 2 caches nearby in Forty Hall. The kids seem to be getting really into this hide and seek game, though we have yet to hide any, maybe in the new year. They do get just a little adventurous during the quest, almost no telling them the cache wasn't likely to require this!!

With several hours spent outdoors today the kids all fell asleep nice and early this evening giving me some time to sort through some photographs to prepare for a forthcoming scrapbooking retreat I am off to (can't wait) and also to get a couple of diaries printed for next year as Photobox has an offer on at the moment bogof!

Tomorrow (or rather today as it has gone midnight as I type) I am off to see Kate and Jane and Pickleberry for some spooky creating, watch this space!!

Greenday

Who would you most like to be stuck in an elevator with? Well after the Greenday concert at the O2 last night I would say the lead singer from Greenday - What a voice!! and what a performer! Totally awesome, totally rocked the house, the whole band were amazing!!

One more sleep...

One more sleep til Greenday at the O2 in Greenwich (which just happens to be surrounded by 20 or so geocaches!!) Work in the morning, a few Piccadilly Line caches en route to Greenwich, pub lunch, bit more seeking, maybe a touch of photography, another pub stop or two, or three and then meeting Ally & Nicki under the balls!! What a pleasant start to the weekend, and indeed to 5 days off work! "Can I hear another Amen?"

A little bit of sunshine

After yesterdays blog post I thought perhaps something a little brighter today, a little more colourful - something to bring a smile to my crafty friends faces, a little bit of cheer-up eye candy... So what better than to share these happy coloured beauties from Prima?

Time

I haven't blogged for a while, it has been one of those things I go to do, but then don't know what to say as the events going on in the background of my life could not have been put into words very easily, least not for me, and to not speak of them whilst I shared photos of my children, or of the latest scrapping project I was working on seemed wrong also. But I find it helps me to write things down, heals, almost like downloading to relieve the burden, so forgive me if the following isn't the happiest of posts x

Last weekend I visited my two remaining grandparents in their respective care homes.

My Nan turned 88 last Tuesday and having progressive dementia it can be difficult at times going to see her, especially with the children, but she loves to see them and I adore my Nan and so any time with her is precious, even if she maybe doesn't know who we are. After a few hours, a nice slice of sponge cake and a cuppa with her to celebrate her birthday and we set off to visit my dad's dad in his care home. He too did not recognise me, although he knew my Roberts straight away, his "mate" he called him as Robert to him was a shining star. Sadly on Saturday my beloved grandad passed away, an end to his suffering from that awful disease that took my nan earlier this year. I take huge comfort in knowing he is no longer in pain and everything is now as it should be with him reunited with the love of his life in heaven - but that does not detract from the fact that I will miss him and am grief stricken for my dad.

It has been a rotten year watching three grandparents battle with their health, having to see the hurt it has caused my parents, and then to loose both nan and grandad barely 6 months apart seems so cruel. It puts things into perspective though, time is a healer I know, I still miss my grandad who died in 2003 but have such fond memories of how much he made me laugh. I will surely never forget the love my late grandparents bestowed upon me and my children, a love that I was brought up surrounding in. I only hope my children are able to say the very same thing when they are my age.

RIP Grandad John xx

Seek, and ye shall find!

Tiny, small, diddy and very hard to find, but I now have 2 nano geocaches under my belt, not too bad for a cacher of less than a week. This photo makes me smile, not the greatest of pictures, but I like the illusion that I could fit one of my boys in the cache! Have even discovered today that there is a 5-mile roundtrip route along a river close to where I am scrapping in November nr Colchester and I am hoping to try and get a cache expedition in with Jane (who is teaching that weekend for ATDML) - fingers crossed she can get away in time to join me x

Nearly the end of another week, and with a visit to 2 care homes to see my grandparents, a childrens party for 2 hours on Saturday, delivery of election voting forms for work and the laundry and other home tasks to be undertaken it would seem the weekend will be just as busy as the week! No rest for the wicked eh?

How much do I ache?

Oh my word do I ache after the Go Ape activity of Sunday morning!! Think my shoulders feel twice the size they were before and rock solid! Don't get me wrong, I'd do it all again tomorrow - it was awesome fun, but I do know that I have muscles now I never knew existed!
More photos (thanks to Clare!) of me on one of the hardest activities, the rings!

And as promised a images of the layouts created over the weekend.

Other news, found my first Geocache today, having discovered there are quite a number nearby. The spent best part of half an hour in soggy rhoddedran(spl?) bushes looking for another - to no avail before we had to return to the office. Rematch tomorrow!! For those of you who haven't heard of this Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. Figure it'll get me out exploring, the kids can join in and you help keep the environment clean and tidy at the same time - all good!

what a weekend!!

On Friday I travelled with 5 friends and one daughter down to Faversham in Kent to join Jane and Kate at Pickleberry papercrafts for a Friday evening crop. Very productive evening I had too, five layouts, ordered fish and chip supper, no saveloy for me, but otherwise a great start to a weekend away.

Saturday morning Jane and her daughter meet us at the travelodge to escort us to a very nice cafe where we start the day on a hearty breakfast before heading back to Pickleberry to crop some more. We were joined by the very lovely Debbie J who I got to catch up with while the rest of our group went exploring pumpkin fields and the such! Another 4 layouts managed (will share pics in the coming days) before we packed away and set of for food. Dinner was fantastic if not a long time coming (we were waiting well over an hour for our food and subsequently missed sunset on the beach), and then we returned to the travelodge for some zzzzzzzzzzz before the exciting Go Ape adventure at Leeds Castle.

A quick breakfast at the Little Chef and we set off for Leeds Castle with Erin, our offical photographer for the morning!! Strapped into our harnesses and duly trained on course 1, we then set off on our 3 hour adventure comprising of 5 sections in total, 38 crossings (the longest of which was 25 metres), a tallest point of 12m at the Spider's Web/Jungle Crossing, and the longest of 5 zip wires to finish on at 250m in length!
What a ride!!

Next venue currently being investigated, but for now, I need a long hot bath to soak my weary bones!!