Embellish your World

Posh new Eglu

After battling red mite infestation in my lovely hen house that hubby and father-in-law had built I have bitten the bullet and decided, after a year of keeping hens and loving every minute, to invest in an Eglu. Not cheap by any means and I only purchased after much consideration and some unexpected money, but I have had my girls long enough now to know I will keep chickens for as long as I am able. This home for them is far more practical for egg collection, cleaning and hygiene, mainenance and much more. I was warned the girls may not lay for a few days after unsettling them by shifting their home but we have had eggs every day as usual since they moved. They happily leave and enter the run when allowed and take themselves up the ladder to roost each evening at dusk happy as can be. A good investment I feel!

As for me well I am not fairing as well having twisted my ankle whilst out walking on a debris laden path and am unable to run/cycle or indeed exercise other than swimming for 6 weeks! So my Couch to 5k is on hold til mid October now - not happy about that and I am assuming my weightloss rate which is slow enough as it is (another 1/2lb off this week) may slow even further. I will have to be super focused on what I am eating and drinking and hope the swimming is enough. It does however mean I get plenty of crafting time which is just as well with the new ATDML Thirsty Thursday's starting tomorrow as well as Shimelle's LSNED class. I have ordered some new Prima Printery papers from ATDML to make my project this year and am off to have a look through last years gallery to decide what format I may do this year.  I have also completed my layouts for the September Eclectic Keepsakes crop in Marks Tey, Colchester which I am teaching at a week on Saturday using these yummy papers - Lost & Found2 from My Minds Eye!

If you are interested in coming to the crop let me know as I believe there are a handful of places left available and it would be great to see you!

June & July Project 12 pages

As mentioned in my last blog post I am playing catchup with project 12 and finished June's page this evening and did July's too. Project 12 for those who don't know is simply scrapbooking 12 double layouts per year from a double layout sketch provided on the SCT blog each month.  I choose to follow along to compile an entire album summarising the year for me and my family and this is the second year I have played along.  I still haven't completed a page for January this year yet (I spent most of it in America dealing with my late father's affairs so it wasn't the best of months) but I think I am close to knowing what I am going to do for this page that compensates for the lack of photos I took that month.

Anyhow, I have done Feb - July now, and here is June's page and the sketch on which it was based.

Working with the square photos was fun on this one, although as I have chosen to work in an 8.5x11 format for this project I always have to adjust my measurements - indeed I should own up to actually NOT measuring a thing!!  I just go by eye and what looks right to me. One thing I love about this page is that is uses up lots of bits and pieces I have in a draw I affectionately named "Use it or lose it!". I throw odd bits and pieces into the draw and then when I am looking for something to finish off a page, or maybe add to an embellishment cluster I go to this draw. 

My July layout actually uses the August sketch as I knew I would have many more photos in August and the July sketch has space for more images so I swapped them around. Saying that I then replaced where one photo should be with 9 mini ones -of the same event! Apologies for the star over my nieces face but my sister doesn't like me to share pictures of her on the internet and I have to respect that (but I still want her in my albums of course x) 

 
Finally got a chance to use my RiffRaff designs chipboard dragonfly on this page, and the black circular die-cut I have had for several years too - both out of my "Use it or lose it" draw! And the background patterned paper (KI Memories I think) is another ancient product among my collection - can you tell I tidyed my craft room?!!

I have most of my August photos all printed off ready to scrap, and of course the July sketch I will be using, so I should have that double page finished in no time at all, which will then mean I can focus on the next project on the horizon Thirsty Thursdays over at ATDML starting September 1st on a weekly basis! This along with Shimelle's LSNED class will have me super scrappy next month and of course I will have plenty to share here on my blog!

A few days off

Bit of a nightmare few days off, initially intended for the seaside the great british weather soon put pay to that! We ventured down to Whitstable all the same, with the rain pouring down most of the way there.  It had thankfully eased off a little by the time we arrived, had fish and chips on the seafront and then a wander round the shops and to the park.   Jamie decided to learn to hopscotch having watched a slightly older girl do it super-fast!

LOVING THESE PHOTOS!!

A while later we travelled to nearby Canterbury and got the dreaded buying of new school shoes out of the way, had an ice-cream (despite the lack of sunshine!) then a bit more of a wander about. We then collected Eloise who had been spending time with a friend from the area we went and checked in at the local Travelodge. After dinner in the Little Chef we had a early night, or rather attempted to but the excitement of a hotel room was a little too much for my boys and I think I fell asleep before they did!! 

The following day was also cut short due to the weather (check out that storm cloud!) so after a visit to Pickleberry Papercrafts, to say hello to the lovely Kate and Jane, we set off home only to be caught in a traffic jam (read standstill not jam!) for several hours and an hour and half journey home took almost four!  To say I was glad to get home was an understatement! What should have been a nice couple of days enjoying the coast, mooching around having fun in the sun was anything but that, and the rest of the bank holiday weekend looks no better :(

No reason not to stay indoors and play with pretty paper then have I? I can finish my June Project 12 layout and hopefully complete the July page too by the 28th deadline. I have missed the last couple as I have had other projects on the go, but I always catch up (eventually!) So here is my double layout for May and the sketch it was based upon.

Whilst I already have a double layout featuring some of these photos I am happy to include them again in my Project 12 2011 album as they were the highlight of our month.

Right, time for bed now me thinks, the hour is late!

Jogging on

Proud to say I have progressed to week 2 of the plan and undertook my first session at the gym yesterday. I managed the alternating of 90 seconds running with 2min strong walking for twenty minutes with 5 min warm and cool down and covered just over 3.5k. My legs were complaining a little afterwards but I DID IT!

I am not sure i could have maintained my pace on the road and felt the benefit of the speed control on the treadmill forcing myself not to slow it down any. Weather depending I will attempt week 2 session 2 tomorrow on the roads, but if it is a wet a dreary as today I'll head back to the gym. Maybe I should get myself one of these soon?

 

Even more layouts to share

Having spent virtually all of yesterday tidying my craft room, half filling the recycling bin and now being able to see both my craft desk AND the carpet, I have managed another couple of layouts kickstarted by Shimelles on-line crop of last weekend.

Using October Afternoon Thrift shop (mainly) for my layout based on the sketch of August 12th which I rotated 180 and shifted the title slightly.

I did this weeks sketch too having found lots of layout kits I had put together ages ago and forgotten about. The patterned papers are Cosmo Cricket from a few years back, the background from Basic Grey's Basic White collection and a few other bits and pieces found whilst tidying up including some stitching rub-ons.

My last layout meets two challenges, the Stickery one and the Bingo cards & Butterflies challenge and again uses up lots of odds and ends located whilst tidying, Better on a page than in the bin thought, although I am still not 100% sure I am happy with the final page. Stickers used are from 7G 97% complete (Teen) collection, the 7G apothecary stickers and Cosmo cricket alpha/tiny words.

 

Other news, I start C25K Week 2 tomorrow having completed my third week 1 session yesterday. I covered 3.6k this time, an improvement on my last two sessions so I guess I must be getting slightly better at it! Week 2 increases the running portions to 90seconds and I'm hoping this won't be too tough. Only a three day week in the office to endure as well this week as I have a nice long bank holiday weekend off with the children. Off to google where we can go visit, ttfn x

A productive week of crafting

I need to say a huge thank you to Shimelle who has, thanks to the challenges from her on-line crop last weekend, got me scrapping just because! I have been crafting don't get me wrong, but usually for design team work, birthday card commissions or magazine assignments. Having a nice fresh batch of photographs from our holiday helped too, and I have even ordered some more papers this week - haven't done that in a while as I have been trying to use up the hoard that I have!

Anyway, without further ado, my layouts for some of the challenges. First up the Chop your paper challenge where I used Sassafrass papers to go with this 11 year old photo of my now teenage daughter.

Sorry about the 'not so great photo' but my youngest has damaged my camera lense and it is being a little temperamental at the moment - do think I may have to replace it :(

Next my layout for the From the Heart challenge where I started my layout title "I heart". I have used Echo Park "For the Record" again for this layout, there isn't much left in my collection pack now!

The next layout is for the Three is a magic number challenge. I started this layout towards the end of a crop I attended a month or so back and this challenge helped to finish the page off, adding the the three arrows, a title and my journalling.

My Half Page layout was the toughest to do. This is the first time I have scrapped a photograph of my dad since he passed away at the end of last year. The envelope embellishments contains my journalling in the form of a letter to him that he will never read, but which explains my loss since he died.  It is a very old photo of him, but one of my favourites.

Last up for today is my Signature Accent Challenge layout. I have a bit of a thing for tickets on my pages this year, used one on the layout above, on my colour challenge layout posted a few days back and together with staples, and possibly small punched butterflies (also on my colour challenge layout) they do make frequent appearances on my pages.  The layout below using Sassafrass again needed very little adding to it and the ticke, puched heart and button do just the job.

Here are some more close-ups of my tickets use on pages including the layout above and my Half Page layout too. 

I think there are a couple more challenges I have left to do including the new one posted today, another starting point challenge, but I will see how I get on for time. I have to balance my crafting this weekend with family neglect!!

Retro challenge and more

Sharing a couple more layouts inspired by the lovely Shimelle's on line crop this weekend.  First up my Retro Challenge layout where we were challenged to scrap a photo <2011, I think I went far enough back scrapping original retro photos of my christening from 1972!! I have scanned these images into my pc but prefer the originals in my album than tucked away somewhere else, they even have authentic pin marks from where they were once hung!

This layout uses a mixture of items from Echo Park "For the Record" collection and Bo Bunny  "Timepiece".

I also created this page last night inspired by the HotPinkHoopla  post although as you can see, not a stitch of pink in sight! The layout was inspired by the 7" square concept and layering out from there as a base, and primarily uses Echo Park "For the Record" (I am using up the last of the bits in my collection pack!)

  

I never did manage my C25K Week 1.2 yesterday but am happy to report I did this evening (just), covering 3.4km. I did the reverse route  from Monday which meant most was uphill which I know slowed me and the penultimate run session was exhausting! Still I did it, and trust in the programme to have me running my 5k by the end of October. 

Think I shall now snuggle under the duvet with my Kindle for the evening, I am reading about a 40 year old struggling with lifes challenges at the moment....sound familiar?!

Rising to the challenge

Rather aptly following on from yesterdays post where I talked of my motivated Monday today I am rising to the challenge. That should probably read plural as today I've been challenged to stay awake at work after a late night and an interupted one at that. I scrapped into the wee hours having been motivated by Shimelle's online crop challenges from the weekend. I managed the colour challenge - Red, White and Aqua and I'm loving my finished page!

I undertook the grid challenge using the October Afternoon papers in my latest ATDML kit (so I can only show you a sneaky peak).  I dug out some Hambley grid rub-ones for this challenge and also arranged my photos in grid strips.

And as I was so motivated to scrap I completed the starting point challenge - to start a page from a given point then continue on from there. I'm interested to browse the pages other crafters made in this challenge as I am always in awe of how different the end products turn out to be. Again I used my October Afternoon kit so another sneak peak being shared.

Final challenge to rise to today is to complete Week 1 - Session 2 of C25k which I'm all dressed ready for - just waiting for the rain to die off a bit and hoping my achy legs can withstand the punnishment!

As all three of these pages are currently on my scrap desk  I am sharing for WOYWW as well (which I haven't managed to do in a while as I have had nothing of interest to really share having had my head in my Kindle since I got it!)

Motivated Monday

I meant to update my blog yesterday evening but after a troublesome few hours with my youngest with a poorly ear and cough I run out of time so here I am today!

I had the day off with my kids and we had plenty to do and decided we would have a motivated monday!  After popping to the hairdressers first thing I came home and made play dough (from scratch!) for the kids to play with whilst I set about tidying up my bedroom which always seems to be the last room in the house to get done. We then went to McDonalds before heading to the cinema to see Cars 2 which was very good and I loved that Eddie Izzard voiced one of the cars! Returning home we cleaned out the hens - an industrial clean which took forever, and then whilst the boys played play dough again with their big sister watching them I set off for the first session on Couch to 5k.

C25k consists of  3 workouts per week which alternating running and walking. Each week the amount of running increases while the walking decreases. The goal of the 9-week plan is to enable the runner to build up enough endurance to complete a 5k in around 30 minutes without stopping. So I managed Week 1 session 1 which was a 5 minute warm up and then 60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking alternated for 20 minutes and then a further 5 min cool down. I covered 3.6km and I didn't feel too bad doing it surprisingly although having spend the last 6 months frequenting the gym my fitness levels have vastly improved and it can only get easier the more weight I lose. Today is a rest day then I am all set for session 2 of week 1 tomorrow.

These are a few of my favourite...

I am so grateful to my friends Chris and Dave for inviting us to stay at their caravan in Scratby, near Great Yarmouth. We had a wonderful week there, explored the surrounding areas, played on the beaches, swam in the pool, indulged in the slot machines, had a family bbq (in the rain under a golf umbrella) and much, much more! Fingers crossed we are able to go back for a return visit before the year is through. In the meantime, some of my favourite photos from our week away in Norfolk.

Photo #1 - The kids on the boat ride at Bewilderwood

Photo #2 - Jamie on the beach 

Photo #3 -Taken by Jamie (aged 4) of me wave jumping - I love that my head is missing! 

Photo #4 - Jamie loving his real life Mario Kart racing! 

Photo #5 -The boys at Yarmouth SeaLife Centre 

Photo #6 -The five of us at the Caister Lifeboat station 

Photo #7 -The boys on Britannia Pier, Gt Yarmouth

Photo #8 -  Ellie beating Dad at Air Hockey!

So now my dilema is which scrapbook papers to choose to scrap each of these photos? Can you help? If you think you know of the perfect paper for one or more of these image, please let me know by leaving a comment to this post! Of course I could use up some of what I already have, but where would the fun in that be?