I do love...

...having visiters.

I have been very lucky since I started this blog. I have met lots of fab folk and had some lovely visiters - thank you for your lovely comments c",)

New Crop at...

...Craftily Creative.

We have a small craft shop locally and the owner Helen has been very receptive to stocking scrapbooking bits even though she is mainly a 'card' person. She has done daytime classes for card making for some time now but we have been trying to convince her to venture into the world of evening crops - last night was the first :o)

We didn't know what to expect as far as class projects and at first glance the LO shown seemed a bit basic but the PPs were very pretty...chocolate & cream...so we all got stuck in.

Here is my finished LO. I think the PPs are HOTP Chocolate collection.



With hidden bits...........



My LO doesn't look very much like the original but then that's the fun of scrapping, isn't it LOL we each adapt what we see to meet our needs and tastes.

There were 16 in the class (very cosy cos it is quite a small shop) and a mix of complete Newbies and some very experienced scrappers. Helen was concerned about catering for such a wide range of skills but I think it worked out well and everyone enjoyed the evening.

Two weeks to wait 'til the next...I wonder if we can pursuade her to 'go weekly'?...................................LOL

Motorway...

...madness.

My niece asked ever so nicely if I would pick her up from Uni and take her to her Mum's (Uni is in Leicester, Mum is in Essex). So this morning I set off round the M25 to pick up the M1. At the approach to the M1 exit was where the problems started...

Traffic was queuing back onto the M25 because of the roadworks between junctions 6 & 10 on the M1 it seemed to take for ever but once passed the roadworks things picked up and we were going great guns until J11. Speed restrictions, but no indication why - then I saw the tailbacks on the other side of the road (can only assume the speed restrictions on our side were to try and prevent problems with folk slowing down sharply to look at the accident on the other side). Once clear of there it was plain sailing until J17. Things slowed right down and got progressively worse - turned out there had been a car overturn between J19 & J20 closing off two lanes. When I finally reached that point I can only say that there wasn't a lot of the car left...a real mangled mess.

It hasn't been the best day for driving as it has been very hot and humid but I got to Leicester, collected niece and set off on the return.

The return journey wasn't much better and I really can't believe the idiots that were out and about...lane hopping, bumper hugging, undertaking, overtaking...complete and utter madness - is it something to do with the heat and sunshine, do you thing (hummmmmmmm).

All I can say is, boy am I glad that I'm not doing the return run next week LOL........................

There's not...

...mushroom, around here (yes you are allowed to groan LOL).




I was blog hopping earlier and I found some lovely cards over on Hysteri-Cal's blog. They had the cutest little mushrooms on them :o)

I like mushrooms...and I thought you all might like to see some that I made a few years ago when I used to attend ceramic art classes.

Our tutor had arranged for a teacher from the USA to come and do some all-day classes using a new range of paints. There were 3 days of classes (Fri/Sat/Sun) and Mum treated me to them as my birthday present. Day one and two consisted of decorating 4 pieces each day - they were long days and it took some doing to get the pieces finished. The Sunday was just one huge piece, a Christmas lamp shaped like a bowling ball with a snowman sat on the top (sadly it got broken last year and I don't have any pics).

The mushroom piece was also a lamp and I really love it even though the only bulbs that will fit into the globe in the centre cost an arm and a leg to buy :o(.......

The 25th has...

...arrived!

Slept in later this morning as I had a bit of a restless night :o( so my day started later than normal. Got the usual pic of the time - 8.20ish (good grief, day almost gone LOL), took a pic from the bedroom window - boy does the Elder tree need cutting back, and remembered to get photos of breakfast before most of it had been eaten LOL

The photo prompt from Shimelle this month is to look at what makes up the whole (not very good at macro photography) so I took a pic of the kitchen worktop with the whole of my brekkie on view and then zoomed in to various bits - I'll have to see what the pics look like when printed off as to whether I can use them or not.

The weather is not playing nice so I think I'll have to get outside fairly quickly if I'm to get any outside shots today....................

This month...

...has flown.



It doesn't seem possible that a whole month has passed and tomorrow is the 25th - the day for taking loads of pics from morn 'til night LOL

Camera should be fine cos I treated myself to some new batteries last week and I have downloaded a load of pics to make space on the memory card.

So, I think I'm all set for the August "Scrap your Day"...................

Awards...

...awards, loads of awards.



There seem to be so many different little icons appearing all over blogland. The lovely Debbie has advised all those that visit her blog that they may help themselves to this one...a lovely gesture as I always have problems coming up with just the number of folk suggested by the award rules. So continuing in the spirit of generosity - feel free to grab this if you like it. There are so many fab blogs out there that I could spend all day every day just blog-hopping but that would never do.

Perhaps there should be a competition to see just how many different awards are out there at the moment, what do you think..............