Bank holiday

Today has been one of those uneventful days - it started with a lay-in, which is always a good way to start a Sunday. I woke to a note from Ben saying Finlay had woken early, so he had taken him to the boot fair. I sleep with earplugs in at the moment, Ben snores. He will not appreciate me telling blogland this, but its true. I am used to the artificial silence of ear plugs now, and don't know how I would sleep without them anymore. All of this is irrelevant though, apart from the fact that I didn't hear them leave! So, I woke up, noticed they were gone, and decided to wrap the duvet round me like a kingdom of clouds and snuggle back down for a coveted "proper lay in"
It was bliss. I must admit, sleeping in is the main thing I miss since having Finlay.
So, I get up, await the return of my men, have lunch together and now Finlay is off with his Nanna (Ben's mum) Which left me free to finish a layout I started yesterday.
Despite having a a load of new releases in my hands, hambly, cosmo, American crafts (which I LOVE) I still reverted back to EARLY BIRD. It will take a lot for this range to loose favour with me. I seriously adore. it, I can't help it - it just calls to me when I am paper choosing.

I made up for it though, but scrapping a photo taken at the Getaway with cutest piece of American crafts paper from the BLUE SKIES range. (Ok, technically, Its only a border, but it still counts!!) I also stencilled the butterflies on with a Heidi mask. I used a quote that makes me smile every time I read or hear it.
"Remember, well behaved women rarely make history"
The olive and white butterfly is one I printed onto canvas paper and trimmed round.
And no, for the record, I don't think I will ever "get over butterflies"

Yesterday - mum and dad took me, Ben and Finlay to BLACKBERRY FARM
We had the best time, Finlay made friends with two Llamas called Dick and Dom and that pretty much made my whole year. If you have kids and are ever in the area, go! Its a real must. Its small, but well put together and the play areas are amazing. They have four kittens too, just pouncing around and being all gorgeous. I have some photos to sort through, and will upload later. I am thinking it will become a regular haunt of Finlay's. He loves the chickens (or "chinkins" as he calls them!) and riding on the mini tractors ("tacters") He went down a slide for the first time on his own too - which was one of those moments that as a mum, I will never forget! (the second I saw him at the top of the slide and knowing I wouldn't get there in time was scary.. but sometimes you just gotta let the situations play out! = it was only about 4ft off the floor, so I didn't panic too much!!!)
Anyway - Happy Bank Holiday to all you UK girlies (and gents if there are any who read this!!!) I hope you are all having chilled Sundays.
xxxxxxxxx

September GoGo & The Academy

I don't know how many of you who read my little blog are kit subbers at Scrapagogo, but even if you are not, you can take part in a free year course called the Academy, it started in April, but all the PDF's are there to download. I am this semesters tutor, and started with August. The PDF can be found here: I would love it if you could take part - as I am a bit nervous about the classes and would love to see some of you beautiful crafters joining in with it! (Plus, the GoGo forum is a lovely place to hang out too!)
(please read the rules about uploading to the gallery if you are not a kit subber)

Septembers kit is a butterfly infused package of wonder. The colours are really strong, but somehow, GoGo have pulled it out the bag once more to make the kit perfect for male and female photos! Here are my sneaks......
If you want to see the DT gallery, look here!

Where do I start??!?

Right - I warn you this is a picture heavy LONG post.
I start with last Friday - which was an awesome day - I travelled to London, somewhere I rarely go, especially shopping *in fact, I cannot remember the last time I went shopping there!* And spent some time with these two lovely girls.....
They showed me the sights of "town" including, the most amazing little Japanese gift shop. I loved it long time, and hope to visit it again to quench any further hello kitty, funky little Japanese note book thirsts that I may suffer from! I was also introduced to Muji.. CUTE!
We ate cake - we wandered (and I blistered!) and we paperchased (THREE FLOORS!!) and we Japanese stored, and we munched on falafel before seeing Harry Potter at the IMAX cinema (I was literally like a country bumpkin deer caught in the headlights when I saw the size of the screen... I don't think I've felt quite so niaeve in a long time) But all in all, I had an awesome day, and loved every second if it, blistered tiny toe and all!

This little blue I HEART LONDON snow globe was my gift to Ben. Classy and pretty. *ahem*

The trees on the South bank have all been covered in polka dot fabric, and I {hearted} them lots - little messages adorn them, some messages of love, some offering rude obscenities, all equal in their right to be there,... and Shim matched the trees in her polka dress, (well planned!!). We were so lucky, the sun was warm and the glow of the sun setting looked great in the photos.

mmmmmmmmm A cake from "Candy Cakes" in covent garden...

Some cute Japanese tab stickers...

Muji joy - a mini folder and metal rings...

Artbox notebooks are AMAZINGLY cute.

After London, I spent the weekend with the girls from GOGO at a day meet for the design team. I didn't get photos *(shame on me)* but it was a great day - bonding and eating more cake (ok.. so the cake eating stopped today thank goodness, my body was crying out for veg!)
***
Monday came around, and Lorraine from Scrapagogo and family came down our way for a couple of days. Day one saw us on the beach, looking for marine life in the rock pools, when suddenly, the rain came down so hard that we were all wet through to our underpants!!! *gross* Luckily I had spare changes of clothes for the girls, so we came home to dryness (and now I think about it, even more cake!!!!)
Today we went to Battle, and I came home with some of these pretties...
Cute 95p folders, just right for cutting up, binding and filling with memories...

A Cath Kidston bag - I have coveted the cowboy fabric change bag for years, but never ever had £60 "spare" for such an extravagance. I made my peace with that today, and purchased the mini bag to placate my inner longing!

East of India Ribbon - mmmmm polka dotty prettiness!

MORE polka dot pegs (as I literally never run out of things to peg up!!!)

A metal butterfly hook.... which I have NO idea where it will go, but one day it will find a home.

Onto craftier things........ I forgot to blog these little letters the other day. Oh my I love them.

And I finally got round to altering the large peg I bought..... the Cosmo boyfriend line was perfect with its little washing line design,

I also decorated our bedroom door with some Campy and butterflies in an ikea wall decal.

I tried to make a ribbon board... but the frame keeps falling off! I need to work out a better way of adhering!

Well - Really - thats about all I have for you today... I apologise about my bad blogging skills this last week, and promise ill be better!
Scrap layouts next post!!

Oh hello Cosmo! and such

There is literally no end to my love for wood grain vinyl. I love it so much.
So, today I caved in and covered my paperchase album in it.
I would do it again in a second, and love how it looks.
This marks the start of my Devon holiday album, all that remains is to order the photos..
*actually, that is kinda important to the project so I'd better do that asap*
but for now, I can bask in the glory that is wood grain and marvel at how smoothly it adheres.

cute little page protectors, A5 ones and ones for photos.

Kraft pages for journalling and random holiday memories.

Which - FYI will be also adorned with the following......
OH HELLO COSMO!!
pretty pretty pretty - how I love thee, pretty cosmo. mmmmmmmm Earth love indeed!

And BOYFRIEND range - sooooo unusual but funky to scrap "the men in your life"

And last but not least - Hambly (ok,... so not CHA 2009 releases, but even so) Baby onesies!
IN GREEN! Be still my heart......

And.... if all of that wasn't enough - this also surround me and make me smile...
Oh yeah! Pears all over a handbag and little bag! Cute and mine!

Before I go... these little fellas wanted to say hi.

I have to go - cosmo is calling my name, and I dare not ignore!....

Home sweet home.

Well - usually that is the case, but when you are coming home to a 'garden less flat' from a week away in the deepest Devon countryside, "sweet" is not the word!

But home I guess is where the heart is.. and I am glad that Finlay is already back in his old routine.
The holiday was beautifully perfect, we were blessed with the sunshine, and laughter, patience, understanding and family unity. I do feel very lucky with my family, we genuinely get on, and enjoy being around each other - which made for a lovely week. I can tell that Finlay already misses it - today we got a toy out of a bag we bought for him there, that he played with alot in the garden, and he started to cry :-( And, on the way home, we bought him a little book about cows (as he LOVED the cows that were there) and he started to cry in the car when we gave it to him. Sad times for my little man. I have never seen him so happy, and I am filled with regret at our current living situation. Don't get me wrong, as flats go, ours is nice, its half a house on a tree lined road by the sea. But we sooooo long for a garden. Oh well - no point wishing for things that are out of our grasp at the moment. We have even considered selling up and renting!!...but stepping off the ladder is a 'risky little game' Anyway - onto nicer things.. ( I promise my next blog post will be craft related for all the crafty peeps who read this!!!)
Instead - till then, you can have a peek at what we spent some of our holiday pennies on! Woooo!
A set of four pretty PRETTY cake/pie plates. Don't you just love that fluted edge! So cute. Now imagine serving a fancy cupcake on one - Oooooh yeah.. cool.

I wish I had bought the full set of eight now... Oh well!

I know "Paper chase" doesn't really have anything to do with Devon - but you know we all love that shop, and how can we resist the kraft section? I will be making a mini holiday album in this beauty. Its A5 and begging to be cosmo'd up. Oh pretty Cosmo Cricket - your fate looks sweet.

This enormous wooden peg asked me politely take it home and alter it - so I complied and will be altering it this week.

This is sooooooo cool = its about 20" long - and is magnetic - with mini magnets. I think I will hang it where I bake and it can hold recipes and notes etc.

So what else is new? Well - today we browsed our local afternoon bootfair - and I found this wooden tray - which I love. It was only £1. I also managed to grab big thick pine frame for a £1 too, which I may paint white to go in my hall.

Some one else obviously had had enough of planning their family life, and sold me this planner pad for £1. It was a good day for bootfairing today.And this dog also somehow made it home with us. I am unsure of his fate yet, I think he needs a little bit of bringing to life, but I don't know how. I will think on that one (Suggestions welcome!!)

And that's about all I have to say about that......
Right - the holiday photos are on the lap top (doh) So I can't show you any of my favs till they are all sorted out, but there are some cute photos coming to your screen soon.
Happy Saturday folks.
xxxxxxxxxxx

today I have been.....

mostly day dreaming - about a life in the country, about how beautiful the night sky can be when you are in the middle of no-where... how blue the skies are, and as a result of this, I am feeling very lucky indeed for a lot of things today; I guess being surrounded by blissful tranquility can make you feel highly contemplative.

I am thankful for my amazing friends, for a little boy who constantly amazes me, for the sunshine and grass that surrounds me, for my family, whom I adore, and get to spend the whole week with... here..... with these beautiful bovines...

and messing around in here....

and wandering around with in these.......

and feeling all English, and very bloated after devouring some of this.. (and when I say "some of" I mean every last crumb!!)