What I've been doing lately

Well the children have broken up from school and in the last week we have all been to Devon to stay on a lovely farm for a week. We have seen, handled and played with these;











And had fun throwing pots on a potter's wheel.


Painting ceramics



Bouncing on Jumping Pillows.


Swimming in the outdoor pool.


Sliding down death slides

and horse riding.
We had a fab time and have booked to go again next year.

Bits and bobs.

Life has been a bit crazy around here for the last couple of weeks. The extension is well underway and last week I was out of the house for most of the day as the builders were digging up the patio using a huge drill and the house was literally shaking - the noise was totally unbearable so I spent most of my time at the gym and swimming with the obligatory stop for a cup of tea afterwards!




The foundations are now in and the bricklayers start in earnest tomorrow so hopefully we will see things moving along quite quickly now.




We have been and chosen our new kitchen and appliances so it's all systems go in that department too.


In other news I am reading quite a lot at the moment. I have been taking my Kindle with me wherever I go and so am reading constantly. I seem to be whizzing through books!

I have managed to do a little bit of scrapping - here is one of my recent layouts.



I have done a few others but haven't managed to take photos of them but I will do soon.

Let me know what you think.

Jo

Extension - Day 3

Building works and scrapping

I have managed to get some scrapping done lately but I'm tending to use similar designs on my layouts. This one I did of Jamie's 6th Birthday and used lots of layering and old bits and pieces including a red label I had cut off an old t-shirt of his and a badge from one of his birthday cards.

On the next layout I punched squares out from his cards and made a layout from them, this is something I do for all the family birthdays and Christmas cards and it is an idea with I got from Ali Edwards.

This layout is based on a sketch at Shimelle's blog for the week of the 22nd June.


It was so easy to put together and used up lots of die-cuts I have also used it on this layout:



and also on this layout;


I have also done this layout which was fun to do, using some of the Love Elsie Cody range. The more I use this range the more I like it. It is double sided and is really versatile as, although it is based around sports, it is double sided with lots of dots and stripes going on on the reverse.


In non-scrapping news we have started today on an extension to our house. We are making the kitchen larger, getting rid of the conservatory and having a proper roof put on it so we can use it as a den. I took photos this morning of how it looked which was this:


And now it looks like this:-







And from this:-

To this:-

I am planning to take photos every day to show how things are moving on so I'll post as often as I can.

More of my Lapland Album

Here are a few more photos of the Lapland album I am scrapping at the moment. I am really pleased with the way that it is coming together and has just sort of clicked into place. I am using white cardstock throughout the album and minimal paper and embellishments. I am using some old Basicgrey papers and putting strips of paper on the edges.

Whilst I am scrapping I am keeping in mind the way I want the album to flow through the days. These photos are of the 15 December.



I typed up my journalling in Photoshop and on the other side I added in more photos. When the album is finished I will cut the page protector and sew in the journalling using red thread.








I really like the next photo so blew it up and gave it a page all of its own.

Scrapping without photos

Scrapping without photos - not sure about this, what is the point? That's what I thought when I first came across the idea a few years ago, but the more I think about this I do think that scrapping without photos is ok - who says it's not? Since then I have been jotting things down stories I want to record, random thoughts etc. and then just typing them, adding a few embellishments and I'm good to go.

I think of all those stories that I have in my memory from when I was younger, holidays, relationships, details of when I went to school etc. and that I haven't got photos of but would like to share and so I pull out my computer and get typing and do you know what - I love them! I love the fact that the story is recorded for my children. Here is one story that I wanted to scrap which happened in April.


I used Bazzill cardstock, Scenic Route paper and the digital element from Ali Edwards.

Here is another one that I did last year - paper by Blonde Moments and again a element by Ali Edwards.


And another:


These kinds of layouts come together very quickly as I don't think about matching colour to the photo and what kind of embellishment would be suitable. I just add a little bit of paper and that's it.

Let me know what you think.

Jo

A bit of this and that.

Right now I'm listening to my IPod and Angel by Sarah Mclachen is playing - I love that song it's so haunting. Next it's Robbie Williams (Angels) followed by Lady Gaga (Bad Romance)! I think I may do a list of what's on there for an layout. I think it would be really interesting to know, what my parents and grandparents listened to and that is what I want to share with generations of my family to come. I'm sure IPods will be antiques by then!

I still haven't done my layout for how we celebrated the Royal Wedding and I want to get this done this weekend.

Those of you who follow my blog will know that way back in October I took part in a challenge set over on Elsie Flannigan's blog of 4 things to do before the end of the year. One of mine was to get my photographs for 2010 up to date. I got to October but then life got in the way and, of course, my December Daily.

Well, last week I sat in front of my computer and was determined to chose and upload my photos. I used Tesco as I hadn't used them before and there are 50 free prints of offer if you sign up. The quality isn't as good as if I had printed them at home but for my photo album they are great, although I will probably use my home printer when I scrap them.

I'm going to try and have some me time over the weekend and get some scrapping done.

Here's a layout I did about a fortnight ago. It's of my daughter when she was 18 months old and mobile telephones had just been banned for drivers - yet here she is in the car, talking on her mobile! I used Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock and papers from Little Yellow Bicycle.


Have a great weekend.

Jo