spoonful of sugar

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Petite Gourmande !

Just a quick post today. Amidst the millions of things I should be doing, I got the chance to make a page for sketchy Thursdays !! Here is the sketch....

4.21 sketch challenge

And here is my take...


I tried to be a little messy as the kids are at school and I hadn't use my new cheap Gesso yet !! I like the page although I am not sure about my hand writing. I had to do it twice as the first pen turned out to be blue in the light. The story is about Amelie the greediest child you will ever meet !! Put vegetable on her plate and she will look at them for hours before pushing them round her plate but give her anything sweet and she will suddenly be very hungry !! The funny thing with the raspberry tart is that she never ever finishes them !! They look lovely but I don't think she is keen on the custard. She will always choose that same tart though. Oh, what a shame, I end up having to eat it !!

Take care

Anne


Monday 25 April 2011

I am back !!

Yes I am back and as much as I like holidays, it is lovely to be home ! I can't wait to get scrapping but unfortunately there is a quite a lot to do !! My husband was very kind and did a big spring cleaning before we came back but the garden needs desperate attention and the ironing basket looks more like a mountain !


Anyway, I had a fantastic time at my parents in Brittany. The weather was wonderful and believe it or not, the kids had their first swim of the year. It must a be a record to go swimming in April ! We had a very special time with our friends in Belle Ile and I have come back with hundreds of pictures to scrap. We all enjoyed walking and fishing, we went on boat trips and Marcel's quad. We did some sewing ( even I and I have a picture to prove it !! ) My mum even let me use her precious sewing machine so I could make a bunting !



The bunting is already up and looks really pretty around the patio.

I also got the chance to make some slate hearts with some old roof tiles my had had kept. It was quite a messy affair but I enjoyed using the millstone and I like the result. Although I am not too sure what I am going to do with them !!!


I guess I should go and pack the kids bags for tomorrow and attack the iron mountain before it attacks me !.

I will be back soon with some scrapbooking. I hope !!

Take care

Anne

Saturday 9 April 2011

Vive le printemps !!

Oh, today was such a nice day, so warm and lovely. It felt like summer and it was great to see the kids play outside all day. I pottered around the garden, which is coming on nicely and I can't wait for the brick layer to come over next week and finish off the new borders. I have planted lots of little seeds in the play house ( my green house !! ) and they will soon be ready to be planted outside. I know I might sound sad, but I am getting really excited. I can already imagine all the colours and smell the sweet fragrances. I can't wait !

Last week was my friend's Mariska's birthday. I won't say how old she was or she will get upset with me but she invited me to her tea party and it was very lady like !! Strawberries and cakes, cupcakes and yummy biscuits, sitting around a nice pot of tea in the garden. ( well it was lady like until I tried to get on her new hammock with my skirt !! ). I had prepared her a card and some of her favorite biscuits. I don't often make cards these days. ( I used to before kids !! ) but I enjoyed making this one and it was super quick compare to a 12x12 page !! Mariska is Dutch so I was adamant I was going to put a bicycle on the card !! and she loved it ( or so she said !! She probably thought it was a really childish joke but kept quiet !! ) ( Mind you she might give me a card that smells of garlic for my birthday ! ) . So anyway, here it was .


Last night I had a chance to finish off a page I started at the beginning of the week. The lay out is from Once Upon A ... Sketch, a new challenge blog that encourages you to write on your pages. I really like the idea and the sketch reminded me of a page I done a couple of months earlier about Amelie in new York so I thought I would give it a try. Here is the sketch.




And here is my page .



I choose the back paper as it looks like something straight out of the seventies and is very similar to the wall paper we had in our dining room when I was little. The journaling is about how privileged I feel to have had such a happy, stress free childhood. No drama, just a happy simple life with two working parents quite strict but looking back very fair, lovely caring grandparents, good friends, good education and good values. Until you have kids yourself, you don't quite appreciate how hard it is to make the right decisions sometimes but when I look at my brother and my sister, I think my parents did a pretty good job raising us.
I must admit I struggled a little to coordinate all the papers and I would really have like to sew the blue circle but I didn't have any blue that matched so I had to borrow one of the kids' felt tips. The picture makes me laugh as everybody comments that Harry looks the spitting image of me.

Anyway, enough of me talking. I would like to try and my a page for Sketchy Thursday again this week. They have a lay out with 4 pictures this week but I am running out of pictures !!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Anne
XXX

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Sketchy Thursdays

I finally get a chance ( or the motivation !! ) to sit down and write on my blog !! A lovely weekend with the family and far too many nights out (and too many headaches ! ) don't all add up to much time on the computer or scrapping !

Anyway, last week I got too parcels ( whououhh I hear you say !). I got one from my sister, full of lovely goodies that she had bought at the Creativa exhibition. I should really have taken a picture of all the lovely things she got me but I forgot ! But trust me, it was really nice.
And then I got my winning prize from Sketchy Thursdays. They are clear stickers, really truly great but at the moment I am just looking at them thinking I can't possibly use them or they will be gone ! but I did manage to take a picture.


Talking about Sketchy Thursdays, they have another great sketch this week.







So I decided to give it a try. I had to turn it upside down to make it work for me but I am pleased with the result. I wish I had aligned the days of the week to the picture now, but too late. I blanket stitched the little bird, which I thought was a good idea at the time but worked out to be quite tricky ! I had to find a little sticker for the tail as I got that bit a bit wrong ! The page is about Amelie growing up everyday. I know it sounds silly but at the moment I look at her every morning and think, oh, no, you have grown again ! She is growing up physically but also as a person. she is becoming more independant and she is starting to spend much more time on her own in her bedroom. After years of me saying to the kids, " can't you go and play in your room for a bit instead of hanging around me all the time !! ", I am not sure I like it ! I like their mess and the awful amount of noise they make ( well I don't really but I miss them when they aren't there ). I wanted to write something on the page about how I feel, but I am not sure where to put it so I will write the journaling at the back instead and it will be for Amelie's eyes only ! Anyway, enough of me talking and here is the page ...




Well, I should stop eating all the mini Easter eggs I have bought for my students and get on with the housework. Weather is pooh today so can't even pretend I have to be in the garden, the cob webs are calling me !!

Have a nice week.

Anne