Very pleased with myself !!

I am indeed very pleased with myself. I have made a new page for Pencil Lines and I really like it ! I am biased obviously and I know it isn't very nice to blow your own trumpets but I am very pleased with the lay out so I will !!. I like the colours, the pictures and the memories. I like the bunting and the embellishments. I just like it all !! This was the sketch..

And here is my page...

And a few details...

It is the first time I make a bunting and I am sure it won't be the last. It is a little fiddly to cut all these triangles and thread through them but it is definitely worth the effort.

Anyway, should really do some work !

Take care

Anne

Lucky me !!

First of all, I feel so lucky, I won the random pick on Sketchy Thursday last week !! I never win anything ! honest ! never ! and this time I will get a bag of goodies sent to my home, I can't wait!

Last Friday, I went on a shopping trip with three of my anonymous friends. We went to a shop called Crafts You Love in Dorking. I bought lots of very nice papers and we had a really funny day gossipping ! We stopped in a very traditional pub for lunch. The food was scrumptious but the service was less than perfect to say the least. Although the staff was very friendly, they just couldn't cope, so in a very French way, I complained to the manager and got us all a free drink !! It was Gin and Tonic for me !!

The weekend was lovely, sunny weather all round. It makes me want to move out to Australia where I know the weather would be nice most of the year. We can do so much more when the sun is shinning. Kids played outside all day, we had our first BBQ of the year, we went on a family cycle ( with no drama !! Yehoo ! ) and just enjoyed being outside while we can !. I also managed to create a page for Sketchy Thursdays using the pictures I took of Harry playing with Andrew's old action men a couple of weekends ago.

Here is the sketch :

And here is my version...

and a closer look...

I would really like Andrew to write something on this page as he felt kind of emotional to see Harry enjoying his old toys but I know it will be a while until I persuade him to do so !!

We also went to see one of our local gardens yesterday. I told you I walk past a wonderful field full of daffodils every day as we walk to school, well, the owner of the house, a lovely lady called Pat, has opened her garden to the public for the month of April and is offering afternoon tea to all of those who take the time to visit. If you live locally, it is really worth the visit. I have never seen anything as beautiful as her garden in full bloom and the scones were also well worth the visit !!I took lots of pictures of Amelie in the daffodils, I will have to sort them out here are a few...

I also let Amelie use my camera to take some pictures for a photo competition she is doing at school and here is the result.. I know.. I have got competition .. call it beginners luck but her pictures are pretty amazing !!

Well I hope you all have a great week ahead. enjoy the sunshine while it lasts..

Anne

Keep on running !!

What a gorgeous day out there !! Probably the best day of the year so far. I have already been for a run and a cycle !! ( I know I am so good !! ) and this afternoon, my friend is coming to help me with my garden.
Last night my adult class was cancelled and Andrew was out so it was the perfect opportunity to scrap !! I made this page for These Are A Few Of My Favorite thing Challenge Blog. I really like this site. No sketch, just a little imagination. This month the challenge is to scrap your past times.

I am here today to share our latest challenge!! *These are a Few of My Favorite Pastimes*.... Soooooooo FUN!! This can go in soooooo many different directions and that is one of the things that I love about our challenges and our DT...the way you all have different views on our challenges! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

I decided to take a picture of my very well travelled ( that's another way of saying very dirty !! ) trainers !! I spend a lot of time running. But in fact, I don't actually like it that much. I just feel this is something that I should do. It is part of my life and weekly routine and strangely enough, I miss it when I don't do it. I don't enjoy running on a treadmill. I like to be outside, smell the air and hear all the sounds. I sometimes take my ipod but most of the time, it is just me and the birdies ! I like to use my running time thinking about stuff, shopping list, things to do.. ( nothing like the legitimacy of wars or anything important, just stuff !! ). Anyway, here is my page.

I was inspired by a French lady, I can't remember her name but I will look it up. She often works with a black background and funky colours. I like the result as it is a little different from what I normally do in terms of colours. I also like the fact that it has a story attached to it. When I first started scrapbooking, the journaling side of it is what attracted me. I like the fact that my grandchildren will be able to read about us, what we did and liked.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy this gorgeous weather. And HAAAAPPPYYYY BIIRRTHHADDAYYY Claire, you know, the anonymous one !!

Anne

A little tired.

I am feeling a little tired today. May be the result of two sleepovers in a row or more because of all the hard work in the garden yesterday. We are redesigning the back garden at the moment and that has involved a lot of back breaking efforts to turn grass over, bring in manure and rake new top soil on. Now all the hard work is done. I just have to wait for the brick layer to turn up and build the new border and the real fun job of choosing new plants and buy some bulbs and seeds can start. Yehoo. At the moment it is looking like this...

But I am hoping that in time for summer it will be all nice and colorful and the grass will have grown around.

Talking about garden, I have decided to try and make a page every month to remind myself what is happening in the garden. ( Obviously I will forget next month about my resolution, but here is the first page anyway !! )

Shame about the flash !! the picture is really pretty with vibrant colours. The picture is of my front border and the little crocuses are always the first signs of spring so I just love them.

Anyway got a huge pile of ironing to do ( glamorous life of a woman who works from home!) But in fact in won't be too bad as a friend of mine has sent me a copy of a French concert I used to watch every year when I was young !!

Speak to you soon. And if anybody is local and wants to join our next village crop, it will be on the 7th of May.

Anne

Crop Day !

What a lovely I have just had.
Today was our local crop in the village hall. About 14 ladies doing crafty things ranging from painting to cross stitching, card making and scrapbooking. One lovely coffee and walnut cake, dozens of chocolate cookies and lots and lots of cups of teas !! Thank you all of you, I have had a very relaxing day !

I did manage to make two layouts ( which is good for me !! I am rather slow !! ) but I haven't had a chance to take any pictures yet so I thought I would show you something that I made last night instead ! I really like to scrap pictures that I have just taken and that are still very fresh in my memory so I thought I would use the pictures I took of Mad March Hair Day and try to enter the Sketchy Thursday challenge. I like the sketch but I especially like my friend's Lisa's interpretation of it ! ( if you have never seen Lisa's work, go and visit her blog at scrappy fairies, she is amazing !! ) So anyway, I took the sketch and turned it over...( like Lisa !! )

Here is the sketch...



And here is my version...

I tried to be as messy as I could to reflect the MAD. I find it really hard not to put the pictures straight and use paint randomly but I like the result, and the pictures really make me laugh.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the weekend. Half Marathon day here where I live so we will be spending the day outside, handing out sweets to the brave runners who need an extra little help !! ( well that is if the kids don't eat them all before the runners arrive !! )

Take care

Anne

Mad March Hair day

Hello,

I know, I know, I haven't been blogging recently !  I have so much to do in the garden at the moment, I haven't got much time for anything else. But... We are having a scrapbooking day tomorrow, all day, in our village hall so I have got lots of pictures ready to use.

Today is Mad March Hair day at school. All the children can make their hair as mad as they dare in exchange of a small gift for charity. I love this day, I always go to school early to see all the children and yes, I do also make my hair mad, but there isn't any picture to prove it !! Although I am sure someone will post them on face book later !!

Any way, here is how Amelie and Harry looked. they don't actually need the hair to be mad, they are barmy anyway !!

Have a nice day !!

Anne



50p ? That's far too much !!

Hello everybody. I hope that you all had a nice weekend. It was cold but sunny here, we can't complain. I can't quite remember what we did on Saturday so it can't have been that exciting but we went to a car boot sale on Sunday. We got up early, very early, packed up the car and set off to sale all of our unwanted ( but still gorgeous !! ) items !! It was such an experience. I love car boot sales and it was lovely to be able to do it with the family. Kids were happy to sale their old stuff, and Andrew sold lots of his toys ( don't feel sad, he has still got a loft full of them !) and I was happy to sale other people's stuff!! It did make me laugh when people argued that good quality items were 50p and could they have it for 20p !! I love bargains but some people were just comical and if anything, car boot sales are a good way to have a laugh !!

I didn't have much chance to scrap but I did take some nice pictures of Harry playing with Andrew's old action men that we found it the loft. They smell so old and look kind of weird but Harry loves them. And I guess it must be nice for Andrew to see his little boy enjoying his old toys.

I did make a page last week for Sketchy Thursdays. I used some pictures I took walking to school. We are so lucky we can walk to school ( although, kids would probably not think themselves lucky everyday !! ). And at the moment we pass a few beautiful gardens on the way. One of the garden looks like my idea of Heaven ( if there is such a thing ) ( but that's another discussion topic ! ). It is truly the most beautiful thing with little crocus, iris and daffodils growing randomly in a meadow. Believe me, it is very special. Anyway, here is the sketch:

 


And here is my page:

And some close ups !!

I really like the result and it is probably thanks to the kind help of all my anonymous friends and especially anonymous Sue who gave me the back paper. You will also recognise the little flowers that my mum's friend Jeanne made for me.

Anyway, got to go and teach.

See you later


Anne

Cool hair dude !!

Did I say it was a shame I had a lesson last night !! Well I did have a lesson but decided to then stay up, for far too long and make a page with my new pictures of Harry. I put a French Cd on ( Axelle Red for those who want to know !! yes, I know that's not many of you !! ) and I scrapped for a couple of hours.
There is a challenge on These Are a Few Of My favorite Things that had caught my eyes about Features. Here is the brief:

What a FUN challenge we have today! "These are a Few of My Favorite Features!"... this can be taken in sooooooo many different ways!!  Do you love your nose? Your eyebrows? Your hands? Your painted toenails? OR... is it something about your kid(s) that is your FAVE? Or what feature about your pet do you love? Whatever the feature is ... we wanna see it!!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

 

And I thought it would be perfect to scrap Harry's new haircut. So here is the result of my late night  !!

 

 

The writing is quite small for the journaling but in fact I like it that way as Harry gets embarrassed when I speak about him so it is little more discreet that way. Well it was until I put in the web blown up !!

 I love the colours on this page and the little embellishments I bought last weekend work well with the Basic Grey paper.

Anyway, better get ready for my next lesson.

Have a nice day.

Anne

 

 

Lucky me !!

Today I received a little parcel from France !! I love receiving parcels !! I get so excited !! It was from my mum, I knew straight away as the stamp was beautiful and my mum always makes sure she puts nice stamps on for my dad's collection !! ( That's a hint for all you readers who throw their stamps away !! keep them for my dad ! ) Anyway, in the little parcel, were 22 gorgeous little hand made flowers. A very generous friend of my mum called Jeanne crocheted me these little beauties. Now, I don't even know Jeannne, she is a patchwork friend of my mum, so you can imagine how kind this lady is. So Merci Jeanne pour les jolies fleurs, elles sont magnifiques et elles vont faire bien des envieuses !! and here they are...

I have a French lesson tonight, which is a shame because I have just been to the hairdresser's for Harry and took some good pictures. Harry has been worried about his hair for a few days and is spending quite a lot of time combing it and putting water on it and trying to make it longer every morning ! ( sweet, he is only 6 !!). So today I took him to have his hair cut and when the young lady asked him what he wanted, he answered that he wanted to look like Mathew!! ( Don't you know, Mathew, from school !! ). Mathew is a really nice lad, trendy and very popular. I guess he looks a bit like Justine Beiber, only with black hair. So my little Harry now looks very trendy and very grown up and I can already imagine that it won't be long before I am asked if I can buy hair gel !!

Have a nice evening.

Anne

Inset day, rainy day !!

Why are all inset days on a Monday when I have 5 lessons and never on a Friday when I only have one ! Kids have been great, despite this horrible weather outside. They have now gone for a play at some friends which gives me a few minutes to sit down and surf the web!!
We had a lovely weekend. Well, that is if we don't talk about the rugby !!. We went to the pub on Sunday for a very nice Sunday lunch and played some board games in the afternoon. I should really spend some time gardening, but the weather is far from great so I keep finding new excuses, it is far too boggy right now !
Anyway, I said I would show you the page I made for the new Sketchy Thursday sketch so here was the sketch

And here is my take on it. !!

Harry wasn't too impressed I had used one of his stickers but I think it was worth it !! Now, considering this page took me three hours to finish, I am not sure it was time constructively well spent !! As someone I know will say ! But never mind, I like the result !!

But I'd better go, I have another lesson in a few minutes and now I have just had a whole packet of Liquorice Allsorts, I feel rather sick !!

Take care

Anne

Shopping Trip !!

First of all thank you for all the team in Sketchy Thursday for choosing me, yes ME ME ME !! as one of your favorite. I feel so honoured. Some ladies on this site are really good, I mean fantastically talented so I feel very proud I have been selected, thank you !
This morning I had a chance to go to the show MAKE IT in Farnborough. I went with a friend who likes cross stitching and unfortunately there wasn't much for her there. It was mostly for people who like to make cards and decoupage. There wasn't that much for me neither, but still, I managed to find a few bits in two stores I liked.

I don't often work with pink but these ribbons are gorgeous and I can feel a bright pink and lime green page coming up. I took Amelie to the shop American Girl Place in New York and it was full of pink frilly girls and dolls in there so I am sure I will find a nice sketch somewhere to use my new purchases !

On Thursday, my anonymous friend Rachel come over to scrapbook. She came at 20.00 and left around 23.00 and in all that time, we only managed to create one page each !! We are so slow !! We kept laughing at how slow and unproductive we are, moving one button here and one paper there ! No wonder my husband thinks it is a waste of time, sometimes it is, and yet, I love it !! Rachel's page came out really beautiful and I wish I had taken a picture to show you but I am sure she will have her own blog soon !! ( wink wink !! ).
The page I did is for Sketchy Thursday's new challenge, it is nearly finished and I will try to upload it in the next few days.

Anyway, time to warm up, it is war in this household this afternoon. France is playing England at Twickenham later. May the best win, let's just hope it is France !! Kids have been busy making flags, mostly English, I will have to make my own !!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend

Anne

Busy page for a busy day !

It is a wonder how I get any time for scrap booking during the holiday, between having friends over, picking up other friends, going ice skating, going to the cinema, having friends for sleepovers and dropping kids off for sleepovers ! Still, managed to make this page last night after going to a meeting to organise a street party for the Royal Wedding ! ( getting excited yet ! ?)
I got the sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. It is a good sketch for me since I have a lot of pictures to use from our trip to New York. The page I made is very busy, but I like it that way as it reminds me what chaos that shop was, full of very excited kids, Legos and colourful stuff everywhere.

This is the sketch:

And this is my version of it !!

No stitching this time, didn't have enough time !! But lots of cute little stickers.

I hope you are enjoying you half term break.

Anne

New York, New York

Back from a great trip to New York. We decided to take the children to America for a long weekend. It was very tiring but a fantastic and memorable experience. Kids really enjoyed the whole trip and adjusted fairly well to the time change. Well, Amelie did, Harry struggled a bit more, waking up at the crack of dawn, ( or even before !! ) and falling asleep in every taxi !! Still, the weather was brilliant, the food plentiful and it was just really nice to share the adventure with the family.
I did try to go shopping but I don't think New Yorkers have got much time to do crafty things and on that point it was a bit disappointing but I have now got a whole new load of pictures to scrapbook, so hey, I can't complain.
Yesterday, we were all trying to recover from jet lag, (apart from Andrew, bless, who had to go to work ! ) so I got a chance to make a page. I was feeling rather tired and thoughtful, hence the title and the mood of the page. I decided to follow a sketch from Creative Scrappers

And since I had quite a lot of time on my hands and very quiet children, I did a fair bit of sewing. So here is the result.

I really like the paper. It is from Basic grey and it is called Olivia. I think I might have to get the whole book !

Well, I should really get going with all my washing and cleaning the fish tank ! ( who said fish were easy to look after !!)

Nice to be back at home and online !

Anne



Happy Valentine!

Happy Valentine every body. I hope you all have a nice day.

We had a lovely weekend. Again a great weekend for rugby as England and France both won their matches. I wonder who I will support in two weeks when France and England are playing against each other !! hmm, let me think !! I could say I will support the winners but really I will support France !!

On Sunday, Andrew cooked this amazing Moroccan lamb for lunch and mussels for dinner. What a treat ! Andrew cooks mussels like no one else does. Last night he added pear cider and bacon and it was scrumptious. Tonight, I am cooking, lamb again !! ( we both went shopping separately and came back with quite similar shopping bags ! ). Kids are eating early and we should have a nice evening. Although, One Born Every Minute is on, not sure this is very romantic !!

Talking about romance I made a page for Shimmelle.com. I really liked the sketch and remembered a picture we took last year in France on our 10 year Anniversary. The setting was beautiful, really one of the most beautiful places in the world, a little village in the Ardeche called Labeaume. The food was really delicious. All sounds perfect but in fact the kids were misbehaving and the service was appalling !! hey, this is France !!. Never mind it was still a great day to remember !!
The tittle is La Vie Est un long Fleuve Tranquille. Which means, life is a long calm river. I am know I am very lucky but I have always had a very happy and easy life. I remember my childhood with very fond memories of my parents and grand parents. My job has always been rewarding and stress free and I am grateful for a lovely family.
Anyway, here is the sketch:

And here is my page ...

And from a bit closer...

Well I hope you all have a very nice evening.

Anne  XXX



A bit of colour !

Just a quick one as I promised to visit a friend who has just had a baby boy.

The weather is still not great, although it did stop raining for a couple of minutes today ! So I decided to bring the sunshine in and try a challenge for the studio. You have to use only these colours.

I used a picture of Amelie and I that Andrew took in Spain. Looking at the picture makes me laugh. She is such a character, she is always pulling funny faces, she has a grin that would warm anybody's heart and when we were on holiday one year, the nannies ( that makes it sound like we go to some posh places, doesn't it !! Not really but there were nannies !!) named her "sunshine smile". So anyway, here is my page !

And a bit closer ! Note the little frog as she is half a frog after all !! The photo makes the page look a lot more orange than it is. I guess the lack of sunshine doesn't help.

The title says "je t'aime a la folie " which is what you say when you take a daisy and pull the petals one by one.

So now, time for a cuddle with a new born !!

Have a lovely weekend

Anne

Rain, rain, go away !

The weather was so nice at the beginning of the week, and spring looked so close. But today it is drizzling again, probably because I had set myself to go for  a run, oh, well, I will have to go shopping instead!!.
After a busy first half of the week, I managed to find some time last night to scrap a picture I took when we had to go to hospital with Harry a few weeks ago. I found a sketch on Creative Scrappers that I liked. I used my favorite papers of the moment from October Afternoon and decided to add a few hand made flowers !! Yes, aren't you proud I made them and sewn them myself !! ( et de toutes facons si j'avais dit que c'etait Marie, on ne m'aurait pas cru !! ). I like the page, I even managed a bit of misting !! Here is the sketch:

And here is my version.

My mum made this little teddy for Christmas for Harry and he fell in love with him. He even asked for another one, so he actually has two of them and you will often find Harry playing in his bedroom with them. They go on all kind of adventures !! I have a close up of one of the flowers.

I think I am going to invest in a sewing machine soon as I really like to add sewing on my pages but it is sometimes quite hard to go through so many layers of papers and keep going straight.
Anyway, I have a lesson in a minute so better go and prepare my props.

Anne

Allez les bleus!!

What a lovely weekend !! It started well with England winning at rugby on Friday but got even better when France won on Saturday !! We are not actually big sport fans as we would much rather be outside ourselves but we do like watching a good match of rugby ! And this inspired me to do a sketch for A Few of My Favorite Things, where you have to say what is your favorite game. I am pretty sure they meant board game, but never mind ! We got the opportunity to go to Twikenham last year with the children to watch England vs Australia and witness a great victory. We had such a nice day out, kids loved it and the atmosphere in the village was fantastic. I would love to go again to watch a 6 nations match, but it is very difficult to get tickets these days so I think we might just have to watch it on TV instead. Admittedly a lot warmer ! So anyway, here is my lay out.

I have cut a few bits and pieces from one of Andrew's magazine to make this page and had a go at using paint. I still find it hard to be messy ! (although, my friends would laugh because I am a very messy scrapper, I just don't like my pages messy !! )

On Sunday I went to visit a friend in Teddington. I hadn't seen her for three years and it was really lovely to catch up. Kids were very pleased to meet up again and we had a lovely day. My friend is very crafty too, her house is beautiful, decorated with lots of little ornaments and gorgeous pictures of her family. I know she would love scrapbooking, I will just have to convince her !!

Anyway, house work is calling me, better go !

Anne

It's Friday !!

Hey, hey, it is Friday and I am getting my hair cut. Could life get any better? !

Yesterday I received a parcel. well, I am lying, I didn't really receive a parcel, it was actually addressed to Amelie but I opened it anyway! . I knew it was a present from my very talented sister. She had made Amelie a sketch book. Amelie loves drawing wedding dresses you see, so it was the perfect present. It is so cute and lovely, I really wanted to keep it for myself. Well, except for the drawing of the lady inside, which was a bit freaky !! ( my sister will understand!! ) but Amelie loved it, and especially the lady !! She said that Gwen (that's my sister !!) should really be an artist !! That made me laugh, because as much as she is the greatest seamstress in the world ( I have to say that or she will never sew me cushions ever again !! ) and the world's fastest knitter, she has still got some progress to make until she can open a gallery of self portraits !!

Anyway, this is what the little book looks like and if you would like to see what a great knitter Gwen is, check out her blog at scrappyangelquilts.blogspot.com .

Last night a friend of mine came to do some scrapbooking. You know, the anonymous one who I call Rachel ! I keep telling her she should have a blog because she is really talented and she creates quite a lot of pages ! Anyway, I decided to make a page for Sketchy Thursdays again.I like the sketch this week but this time I have decided to think outside the box. Here is the sketch:

and here is what I made:

I like how it has turned out. I had seen a page in a French magazine where the lady had put three pictures on top of each other. I think you could probably do it on the computer but I am not that great with my PC so I had to print the picture three times and then cut and mount them on white paper. I bought the embellishments in TK Maxx and I made the tire print with some old Christmas decorations as a stencil.

This is what it looks like a bit closer.

The picture was taken in the Ardeche last summer. Harry loved going on the Kart. He was so focus and determined. He got the gist of it very quickly and gained speed and accuracy in minutes. Amelie also gave it a go and to be fair, although it took her a little longer to get the hang of it, once she got a bit more confident, the desire to beat her brother made her go a lot faster than she had probably bargained for !!

So I hope you enjoy your weekend.
Take care

Anne

Sweet oranges

I haven't got much time for scrapbooking at the moment, not sure why, may be the desire to clean my bathroom with a toothbrush and go on a bike ride in freezing cold weather might have something to do with it !
So I decided to scrap another picture I took in Spain a few weekends ago. It was taken on the same day as the picture of Amelie under the umbrella so I thought I would use the same lay out. The colours are a lot brighter in real and I only wish I could have captured the smell of these oranges when I took the picture. We were in this little square in Marbella and Fred, my father in law made it his mission to collect oranges for the kids to take to school for show and tell. I am not sure you are allowed to pick them but I am certain you were not allowed to go right in the border to get the biggest fruit! I should have called the page Orange Nicking !

Still, the kids were super proud to hand out fresh oranges to their teachers when they got back from Spain !

Anne