Two posts in one day !!

But this one will be a quickie !! I did manage to put a page together for Sketchy Thursdays. I had this idea in mind. I am not sure it has worked well but yeh, all your pages can't be your favorite !! This lay out is about how uncomfortable I am with my naturally curly hair. I always straighten it, I am just used to it that way ! But sometimes, when I am on holidays, and there isn't anybody I know around, I leave it to dry naturally !! I still think it looks weird but I guess, it is the real me !!

Here was the sketch...



and here is my rather colourful page !!

  The colours do match in real, promise!!

Anne

Drink, anyone?

Busy busy with our summer fair at school coming up on Saturday. Not much time to scrap with all that needs doing !! ( although I have got an idea for Sketchy Thursdays sketch this week but it will have to be a very last minute thing !! ). In the mean time, my lounge looks like a toy shop, combined with a wine merchant !! My car is full of toys and garden stuff for the plant stall. My fridge is full of chilled beers and my freezer full of chop onions ( for the BBQ ) ! Anyone for a party !!

Speak to you soon !! ( if I haven't been buried under the amount of stuff coming in to my house over the next few days !!)

Anne

PS: And if you have ever thought about putting your day down for the PTA... don't !! You won't have time to scrapbook, get your priorities right !!

Bring me sunshine.

It is lashing out again today, I need to immigrate !! Funnily enough, I know for sure that last year, at this time, the weather was glorious. I remember being in Wimbledon, on centre court, watching the ladies semi final. ( So if I am accurate, it wasn't exactly last year, it was last year and a week !!) Today, the weather is terrible, it is good thing they have a new roof on center court or not much would have happened again today !!
Anyway, Andrew took a picture of me with his phone while we were there. The picture isn't great quality but it still shows how nice the weather was and the colours just cheer me up. I was waiting for the right moment to scrap this picture and now is perfect ! I wanted a girly girl page, full of flowers and bling to match the dress I was wearing. This dress is not really me and yet, it is my ultimate favorite. I have had it for years and I even wore it for a wedding when I was pregnant. It is one of these feel good outfits, do you also have one ?

Anyway here was the sketch from Design Dollies. I have never entered their challenges so I hope they like me !!


And here is my page ...

And a few close ups...

It is the Apprentice on tonight on Tv, so I shall go and make myself a cup of tea and relax !!
Take care

Anne

Happy Father's day !

Nice and quiet weekend for a change with lots of gardening between the showers. The garden now looks lovely and tidy. Andrew has also spent his father's day weekend putting the swing back up ! Bless, but he did get a "Thank you daddy you are just the best daddy in the world !!" so I guess it was all worth it !! And here it is together with a few more pictures of the garden...

Andrew was out Friday so I got a chance to scrapbook a bit. I had seen a page in a French magazine a while ago that I really liked. the artist is  Marie-Laure Bollinger. Her blog is mlbcreation.blogspot.com. If you have never seen her work, go and check it out. She is an amazing woman, she has four children if I remember well, she works and still has time to take stunning pictures and create fabulous pieces of art. 

My page is not half as nice as the original but I still love it. I love the colours of it and the simplicity of it. I am thinking about framing it and putting it in Amelie's room as the colours would match all her bedding and decorations and I got a big kiss and "I love you" when I showed it to her. !! Ahhh. But enough talking, here is the masterpiece !

I hope that you all had a lovely weekend, pretty busy week coming up so not sure how much scraping I will get to do.

Take care

Anne

Deja Vu !!

Nothing new, still raining !!
Saw the new sketch over at Once upon a sketch and decided I might be able to use my Summer Treat page. The ladies at Sketchy Thursdays liked it and choose me as one of their favorite ( yes me !! ) so I thought I would try and see if they also like it over at Once upon a sketch. The ladies who enter are all ever so talented I don't think I have got much chance to figure amongst the few selected but we will give it a go anyway !!

Here is the sketch...

June 15th Challenge

Journalling Criteria: The theme 'A Moment In Time'. You can interpret this any way you like, but you must journal at least 4 sentences on why your pictures are memorable. 

and once more, here is my page with my little man !!

I hope you all have a nice weekend. Father's day here this weekend in the UK. Not much planed apart from cooking and baking and looking after the garden ! Well, providing this rain stops !!

Anne

Perfect day for...

It is raining, it is windy and cold, it is a perfect day to stay at home and do crafty things !! First of all I decided to make a page for Sketchy Thursdays. I don't normally get a chance to play until Tuesday when I have some time off so it was a real treat. Another multi photo lay out this week. I just love them. Here is the sketch...



When I first saw it, I must admit, I wasn't really keen but as I looked through my computer file, I found some pictures that I took when we were in Gibraltar. Andrew was really keen to take us bowling there, and before we went, I really couldn't understand why !! You go to Gibraltar to see the monkeys and the dolphins right, but to go and play bowling, that wouldn't have been my priority !! However the bowling alley was in a old building that had been lovingly and carefully restored and it was pretty special so, it was a good idea after all. Well, it was a good idea until we started playing and I lost ! I hate losing, I am the worst looser ever. I would never let the kids purposely win, but this time, they beat me fair and square !! ( well, I didn't have the little barriers on the side to stop the ball disappearing in the gutter !! but still ! ) And Andrew beat me too ahhhhha ahhh !!. So here is my page...

I thought I would also enter this page for The Paper Variety that encourages you to use different alphas.

And since I had spare time on my hands, I decided to do some work for our school summer fair. For those who know me, I  get quite heavily involve in the school and end up doing lots of little jobs. This year, like last year, and the year before, I am in charge of the raffle, collecting prizes and begging for goodies. This is a painstakingly long job but to make my work harder I decided to present the prizes in pretty envelopes !! Silly me, I really need another job !! Still, theylook nice now !! and I know, some people ( well, I can name three !! ) will appreciate the work involved !!

I hope you enjoy the rest of your week,

Anne

Getting good at this !!

Here is a page I made in only two and a bit hours !! Call me super speedy !! It is for Sketchy Thursdays.

Here was the sketch...




And here is my take...

No time for a chat today, millions of things to do !

Take care

Anne



Cute tags and busy weekend !

I have celebrated a few birthdays this week including the big 40 for Cathy. I am sure she would be pleased to know that it is now official and on the web !! Her husband cooked for us and a couple of girl friends. It was such a good idea, a dinner between girls and cooked and served by a man. And it was delicious !
And today, Harry was invited to a Laser Run party. I had a bit of time, and had forgotten to by some cards so I decided to make pretty gift tags for the presents. They worked out better than I expected and only took me around 10 minutes to make so I will definitely do that again.

This week I also got time to make a page for the Sketchy Thursday July Guest Designer call. Here were the sketch and the brief:

This month your GDT layout must not only be based on the sketch above but must incorporate at least two aspects from the following bits of inspiration.

The approach of summer brings to mind...

juicy fruits...

We Heart It - Ola

cool popsicles...

We Heart It - Symptom

and patriotic treats.

We Heart It - Rachel Brandt

I struggled a bit with the three requirements. First I thought I would use the strawberries from SRM Stickers that I had won, but they were dipped in chocolate, so I had to carefully hide the chocolate bits under the pictures and then the patriotic treat... well, I know this is bit far fetched but these pictures were taken in Hyde Park, London, and it is a treat to go to the park, so " London " and "Park " is my Patriotic Treat !!

I really like the page, I like the colours and the pictures, I think it well balanced ( even if I say so myself !! ) and I love to see the kids being silly together, which they are very good at !! So anyway, here is my page..

Today Amelie took part in the Hampshire Junior Olympics. We had such a wonderful day. It was really well organised and we all had a fantastic time. Amelie's school was chosen to represent Hart for the swimming competition. The pool was packed and the atmosphere was electric. I was so great to see the kids competing and cheering friends along. Hart came a respectable 5th out of 10 teams which is good considering we are such a small village school. I just hope all the kids remember this day because it was pretty special and they all made us proud !! And Amelie didn't even stopped half way through or finished last but one !! She did really well and arrived it the top three in a couple of races. Go girl !!

She really enjoyed the opening ceremony and was waving like a pro !!

I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Anne XXX

Tres British

I am back !! I know you have all missed me and my posts ! ( hmm, may be not ! )

We had a very busy half term, spending a week in Spain with Andrew's parents and a weekend in London.

Spain was hot as you expect and the highlight of the trip was definitely a boat trip to see the dolphins. Although ask the kids and they will tell you that the day in Aqua Land was their best day ever and specifically the "kamikaze slide " ( Don't ask! I still have nightmares about it ! ). But to come back to the dolphins, it was really special and unforgettable. It is hard to capture the magic on camera but Andrew, who was in charge of the camera that day got some pretty good shots.

And last weekend we went to London to watch Trooping the Colours. A very British tradition when hundreds of soldiers and musicians march on Horse Guards Parade to celebrate the Queen's birthday. Her birthday isn't actually until next weekend so what we saw was a rehearsal but still, it was pretty spectacular. The kids also enjoyed it and hopefully they will remember it as it is very hard to get tickets and we were extremely lucky to have front row seats.

I decided to use the sketch on Sketchy Thursdays to display my colourful takes of the day. As soon as I saw the sketch, I knew I would cut the picture into quarters so I could show more pictures and thought I was being quite clever, until I saw what the original designer did and it was exactly what she had done !! Great minds think alike !!

Anyway, here is the sketch...

And here is my colourful take...

It took me a long time to choose the colours. I usually like things that match and find it hard to use bold and opposite colours but this time, i had no choice. I had nothing that match and everything that was sightly resembling made the pictures look dull. So I followed my friend Lisa's advise ( scrappyfairies ) and used bold colours. I think it works and the page looks as colourful and bright as the ceremony.

Now for another British day. Remember the Royal Wedding. I know, it seems a long time ago ! We had a fantastic street party here and I decided to make a mini book. I started a long time a ago and I was very enthusiastic about it a first but as the days went by, I got a bt bored with it ( story of my life !! )! Recently a very good friend of mine made me a little hand stitched button that I knew would look great on the side of my mini book. So I found all my bit and pieces again and finished it. The last pages aren't half as beautiful as the middle pages but at least, it is done and I can start something else !! So as promised, here is the longest mini book ever ! ( not by its size but the time it took me to finish it ! )

Well, I think that's it for today. hopefully I will get a chance to do a bit more this week !

Take care

Anne