Scrap Tag Reveal

This is the LO I made for the Scrap Tag last week. I used Crate Paper "Prudence" papers, alpha and rub-ons with buttons from stash.
I was second to last and it's amazing how the sketch developed from the original.
Same photo as for my Father's Day LO - this one is for my brother.


With regard to my last post and comments left....
Joanna, as far as I'm aware I won't be getting the Glastonbury washing (thank goodness). We're not expecting DS home until his b'day mid-July - by which time he'll have been to another festival in Serbia. 
The last para. of the post is a bit dodgy!lol
And Gill..I'll email you. :)

What's Rocking My World Friday

It is still Friday, so I'm not "really" late with this post...I do have a good reason though...I was waiting to try s'thing and report back (and please get your minds out of the gutter, it was nothing like that!!). 
And so....


First this week is the Goddess that is Delia Smith. Her strawberry pavlova has been a family favourite for over 30 years.It gets made between Christmas and New Year, using the egg whites left over from the custard in her trifle.
She's only gone and improved the recipe!! 
A recipe card idly picked up in Waitrose, all the ingredients handily in one place...and we had it for dessert tonight. It's now a strawberry and vanilla pavlova with mascarpone and creme fraiche instead of double cream and strawberry puree dribbled over the top. OMG - it was orgasmic. And there's more for tomorrow. :)
Note here that I did try Heston's lemon tart and I liked it but it was waaay too big for two people - def. one for when DS and his friends are home.


Next is the joy that comes from hearing from DS five times in as many days. Two were phone calls wishing David Happy Father's Day and Happy Birthday.
One was a phone call telling me not to expect any phone calls 'cos he was off to Glastonbury (very last minute). Next came a phone call asking to "borrow" some money (chances of us seeing it again - nil) as he was running low after paying for Glastonbury and still had the weekend to get through. Finally came a text message thanking me for said money and his battery was low so I wouldn't hear from him until next week. I've heard from him, I'm happy, he's only young once and he's having fun (plus I remember my Uni  days :)).


Then we have the surprise parcels in the post that shouldn't be surprises. I have certain authors that are more than favourites - I buy all their books - so as soon as I hear of a new one (often months in advance) I pre-order on Amazon. This week I received my fallen angels book "Passion" as expected and was all set to abandon Kindle and read it (before sending it up to Scotland and Gill) but I'd got another book the day before "Smokin' Seventeen" by Janet Evanovich and couldn't decide which to read...so, I'm back on Kindle for the moment.:) 
I'd completely forgotten about this one (probably ordered sometime last year) but I love the whole series. Would you be surprised to learn that this is  book 17 in the series? No?  What gave it away?  
Love all Janet's work - very funny and with characters you care about plus  a sarcastic streak that appeals to me.


Next is the joy that comes from no longer having any grey hair, even it is only temporary. Had highlights done today in three shades of blonde and feel brighter in myself - sad that I didn't get my red streak but it was going to cause too much fuss and waste time. Why, oh why, is it that you no sooner find a hairdresser who cuts it just how you like and knows all about its' quirks, than they up and leave and you've got to "train" another one.


I've even managed to do some scrapping but can't show it yet as it was for a scrap tag and I've got to wait for the reveal.


My final grateful is an example of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone" -  in this case pain inhibitors. Amongst the cocktail of meds I have to take every day is one that I've never been sure about, I've never really understood what it does...until I ran out last week. I now know that it inhibits pain. I do my prescription renewals online so timed the latest one for collection on Tuesday when I'd be at the health centre for my blood tests. That left me without said tablet for four days. Never again as I really noticed the difference. :( I'm grateful that I now have a supply of them. :0


Hope all my fellow rocker and rockettes have had a good week and I leave you with a message for Virginia and Carmen.


I've been studying the subject we talked about by visiting websites and blogs (purely in the interests of research you understand) and have come to the conclusion I'm not what I thought I was. I think I'm a switch (at the softer end of the spectrum). :)

A Thursday Funny

Many thanks to Valerie in Germany for posting this and making me laugh.:)


A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he floored it to 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left.

"Amazing!" he thought as he flew down I-75, pushing the pedal to the metal even more. Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw the highway patrol behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. "I can get away from him. No problem!" thought the elderly gent as he floored it to 100 mph, then 110, then 120 mph.

Suddenly, he thought, "What on earth am I doing? I'm too old for this nonsense and pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the trooper to catch up.

Pulling in behind him, the trooper walked up to the driver's side of 
the Corvette, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes. Today is Friday. If you can give me a good reason why you were speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."

The man, looking very seriously at the trooper, said, "Years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringing her back."


"Have a good day, sir," said the Trooper and left.

Another Crafty Post! Yay!!!!

These two projects took me all weekend but I did at least manage some crafting.


The first is a birthday card for David - he was 21 and a bit (quite a big bit!) yesterday:

Card and papers from stash. I used my new TH embossing folders and Nestie Labels 16. The image is from Crafty Individuals. Most of his cards were car related - wonder why?


The next is for a challenge on WeScrap. We had to use only black and white for the background.

This was a bittersweet LO to do. It was  the first Father's Day without my Dad and  I thought this was a fitting tribute.
Photo is of him in his 40's and the journalling will be attached to the back in the form of a letter to him, bringing him up to date and telling him how much and why I miss him.
Papers and rub-ons by Daisy Bucket "Little Black Dress", flowers by Making Memories "Sweets", heart button from stash.


I'm listening to music on my laptop at the moment - have discovered the shuffle button so it's a weird and wonderful selection. So far we've had JLo, Snoop Dogg, Russell Watson, Chicago,Foreigner,Elgar,Rumer,Take That , Satie and currently Carl Orff, "O Fortuna".
A slightly more "highbrow" selection than MTV. :0)

What's Rocking My World Friday

Sorry for the lateness of this - I'm not quite sure what happened to today, it sort of got away from me. Oh well, it is still Friday so on with the list...


#1 has to be DS for passing his second year exams - pleased and proud Mum here. :)


#2 MTV again. I must try and limit my viewing of this. Whilst the various chart shows do provide good background music they're having a bad effect on me.. I've found myself singing "I want to make you Sweat" on more than one occasion this week and joining in the arm waving on the "Beautiful People" video. Since Snoop Dogg and Chris Brown are not people I think of as role models (and the arm waving unsettles Max) I fear I may be losing it. Some would say I've lost it already.


#3 Good books that have kept me occupied during the rainy weather. This week I have been reading about vampires, fairies and shapeshifters. I can recommend "Black Swan Rising" (and many thanks to Gill for sending it to me) and can't wait for the follow up in August. Can also recommend the "Triple Trouble" series by Tymber Dalton - identical shapeshifting wolf triplets - yum!!
Next week it's fallen angels....


#4 Friends who left me some lovely supportive comments on my last post - I'm not looking forward to Sunday and they did help. Thank you all.


#5 the writers of Bones. I know the last episode of the current series went out last week but we only watched it tonight and what an ending! All nicely set up for the next series...I had to laugh  though, David had totally missed the sleeping together bit of the previous episode (how, I can't imagine as he watched it with me) and was therefore totally flabbergasted.
Same must be said for the writers of NCIS too. Can't wait for series 9


I think that's it for this week.
Hope you all have a good weekend.
No crafting to show you - I did make the two new home cards I needed but forgot to take pics before I sent them. :(

What am I doing right now?

Weds evening 23:15


listening: to my Amazon MP3 downloads - everything from Adele to Chicago to JLo to Snoop Dogg
eating:  nothing
drinking:  gin and orange (purely for the vitamin C of course!)
wearing:  black leggings and black "hanky hem" top and pink fluffy slippers - spoil the look but I have cold feet!
feeling:     sad but energised  (first Father's Day without a father)
wanting:  to dance
needing:  a weekend away to really relax and have "me" time                                                      thinking:  how proud I am of DS (he passed his Second Year exams and passed them well)
enjoying:  the music and being alone in the computer room
learning: to pace myself and not feel guilty if things don't get done
wondering:  when my mojo will come back
procrastinating:  clearing the "i*****g" mountain
loving:  MTV and TV5 Europe
anticipating:  new neighbours next door (after 16 years)

And finally....a Crafty Post! Yay!!!!

Some crafting has been done and it feels wonderful!


Scrap Club was great fun yesterday at A Maze of Memories...a lovely sketch to work from and fun photos of Nick, friends to chat with and show off my red, sparkly trainers to, a yummy lunch taken home from the farm shop.....an almost perfect Saturday (no football to watch, hence the "almost").

Sorry about the glare but it's so dark here (and wet and miserable) that the camera automatically used flash. I'm sure I must have done, but I don't remember doing a LO before with no patterned paper. 


The next LO is one I've been working on for a couple of days. This one is for my brother as it's the football team from his final year at Junior school. He's on the left (in "real life") of the Captain and my Dad is the teacher at the centre of the back row.

I used the Adorn It "Soccer Collection" again and added ribbon from my stash.


I was going to go to AMOM again today as Pat is working up there but I slept late (still not dressed) and it's still raining. I have some cards to make today so will snuggle at home instead.


Great motor racing weekend...the Le Mans 24 Hour race is almost over, we've had a double-header from the IRL and there's a F1 race this evening. David is a big fan, esp. of F1. I spent my year in France in Le Mans and have actually been to three races - spectacular at night. We used to go to Silverstone for the British GP but it became way too expensive....like most sporting events in the UK.


I really need to do some food shopping but can't face the thought of Waitrose today......might raid the freezer and see what I can come up with..probably not a lot as I'm running it down to defrost and clean it. Could be beans on toast for Sunday dinner.


I hope you're all having lovely,crafty weekends.
Hugs xx

What's Rocking My World Friday

Good Morning Rockers and Rockettes - can't believe it's Friday again.
So, what has rocked my world this week?


Books again, but"real" ones this time. Thanks to Carmen for recommending "The Sleeping Beauty Trilogy" by Anne Rice (and Amazon for delivering in 24 hrs even though I ordered them on a Sunday). Once I'd got over spitting my coffee out (don't ask!) I really, really enjoyed them. Read them all in 24 hrs - sadly that kept from doing any of the "h" and "i" words...oh, well, these things are sent to try us. :)
Thanks also to Gill for sending me "Black Swan Rising" -  more vampires - yay! Looking forward to reading this (when I can let go of my Kindle).


The joy of email, especially when you can make people laugh and giggle (you know who you are!!). That was a wonderful response to me revealing a somewhat hidden side of myself and it made me happy. Thanks girls. :)


Sky+ has been much used this week. David and I started watching "Injustice" on Monday - intriguing and a little convoluted. As David was away overnight on Weds. (trip to Colchester, Ipswich and Norwich) I set it to record the last three episodes using series link - we'll catch up over the weekend.
The link is also providing me with my lunchtime watching "Un Village Francais" from TV5 Europe. Two episodes a week and we're up to Oct 1941. I also discovered that even if you record with subtitles off you can play back with subtitles on and they appear as if by magic. Bliss for the hard of hearing.


MTV has provided the soundtrack to my week again. I'm wondering if anyone has thought of doing a course on the videos of Lady Gaga  - what a weird mix of imagery.


Max, who was wonderful company while David was away - some lovely hugs .


Waitrose for their latest must try recipe - Heston's Lemon Tart - will be trying that this weekend.
Delia Smith for her rock cake recipe. David has been muttering about rock cakes for a few weeks now and has been hunting for them every time we've been shopping - no-one sells them any more. I finally gave in and made him some..and yes, I ate some too - yummy but no good for healthy eating-- hello, the 2lbs I'd managed to lose, I see you're back!


The joy of finally getting around to booking an appointment with the hairdresser and having a decent cut again. Colours to follow in two weeks - including the return of my red streak (primary red not auburn).


And, finally, it's Scrap Club tomorrow. I'm hoping this will kick start my mojo. No crafting to show you this week. All I've managed is to download my collage courses and print off the images - no actual work done. :(
Oh, and I did tidy my craft table...sadly it's stayed tidy all week.


Hope you've all had rocking weeks.
Hugs xx

Sunday Funnies to Make You Smile.

 Thanks to my friend Valerie in Germany for the following funnies which made me laugh - no mean feat at this time on a Sunday! She also has some freebies available to  download, so please do visit her blog.



Women over 50 don't have babies because they would put them down and forget where they left them.



One of life's mysteries is how a 2-pound box of chocolates can make a woman gain 5lbs.



My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely.



The best way to forget your troubles is to wear tight shoes.



The nice part about living in a small town is that when you don't know what you are doing, someone else does.



Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.



Sometimes I think I understand everything, and then I regain consciousness.



I gave up jogging for my health when my thighs kept rubbing together and setting fire to my knickers.



Every 7 minutes of everyday, someone in an aerobics class pulls a hamstring.



Amazing! You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2 sizes!



Skinny people irritate me! Especially when they say things like..."You know, sometimes I forget to eat!" ......Now, I've forgotten my address, my mother's maiden name and my keys. But I have never forgotten to eat. You have to be a special kind of stupid to forget to eat!



A friend of mine confused her Valium with her birth control pills...she has 14 kids but doesn't really care.



My body is not all that communicative but I heard from it the other day after I said "Body, how would you like to go to the six o'clock class of vigorous toning?" Clear as a bell my body said "Listen bitch.....do it and die."



The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing and then they marry him.



I read this article that said the typical symptoms of stress are - eating too much; impulse buying and driving too fast. Are they kidding? That's my idea of a perfect day!

Hoping you all have a "perfect day" .

Hugs xx

Virginia!!!

Hi Virginia!
Just realised this is the only way I can contact you as Blogger won't let me leave comments on most of the blogs I follow. :(

Could you leave a comment with your email address (I won't publish it obviously) and I can give you the details of the "unmentionables" lol!
Hugs xx

What's Rocking My World Friday (and we have a winner!)

Yes, we have a winner for my last giveaway. The random # is 4 ,so congrats to Maria. I'll pop the book (and some scrappy goodness) in the post next week.

Blogger is still playing up so I'm not adding it to my list of gratefuls. :(

So, what did make it this week?

My Kindle..yes, again! I really must get back to reading books I can hold as I have a pile next to the bed that is feeling neglected. I keep discovering new authors on Kindle (so much for keeping costs. down!lol). I've read some quite powerful books this week - great characterisation that really draws you in. As the content might offend some people I'm not naming them here.

Cricket (not talking about the football :() has returned to TV and the England boys are doing well. The Durham boys are doing good too (apart  from T20)  - Dad would have been so pleased.

My mojo, which is slowly coming back - I managed a LO over the long weekend for a sketch challenge:

This is my Junior school football team from 1964/5, our last year before moving to Secondary school. My Dad is the teacher on the left. I used the Adorn It "Soccer Collection"  - love the colours.

I have another one to do (colour photo this time) of the team my brother played in four years later.

Not sure why blogger posted the picture twice but I can't delete the "spare".

And still with all things crafty...collage. The Claudine Hellmuth four week course has started and I'm about to do my first homework. :)

Max, who has been delightful this week and went quite happily to the vet yesterday for his annual check up and booster injections. Clean bill of health apart from..his weight. Poor boy is like his Mum, keeps losing/gaining the same couple of lbs.

The weather which has turned sunny and warm - much too warm to do the "h" and "i" words. :)

My DH, David who managed to rid my laptop of another virus without me losing it for a month. Something involving safe mode and restoring to a time before the virus infected it????

Must mention the Apprentice again. I actually thought the losing team did a better job (their TV advert was fun) . Question of the week: how long can Jedi Jim survive ???

And I think that's all for this week.

I will visit your blogs and read about your gratefuls but whether or not I can leave a comment is entirely up to Blogger. Come on guys, you've been working on this problem for over a week! Get it sorted!!

Hugs xx