Some cards.

I don't often make cards - but when I do, I like to make them in batches - which is perfect, because Ben's cousin Cathy owns a beautiful gift shop in Suffolk called the Shiny Bow.

It is jam packed full of gorgeousness and she commissions my cards.

I made this teacup collection to sit next to some gorgeous china she is selling there at the moment. I like the fact that they are all different - more a case of the rub-on sentiments than out of choice though. I hope they look good together displayed!

eee.. I wish I was there today, it feels like the perfect day to hang out in a gorgeous gift shop.

Every card I make for her has a Birdcage & Butterfly on - as that is what I called the ranges of cards I make for her, "Butterflies and Birdcages"

If you live near Bures in Suffolk - pop in, and say "SJ sent you!"

with Iphone apps only, the weekend looked like.......

This, thanks to MPhotobooth App for Iphone...

And this - thanks to hipstamatic iphone App.

and the beach (8 mins walk from my house!)

And this... thanks to the SWANKOLAB iphone app.

Suddenly.. the normal camera app seems like such a yawnfest lol!

despite it taking a photo of a crab that Ben found in the rock pool!

It worries me how much it looks like Sebastian from the little mermaid.

I made him put it back somewhere safe and hidden.

Anyone else just burst into a random verse of "Under the sea" ?

love your pictures..........

Being a scrapbooker - having a camera in my hand is a done deal.

I take a LOT of photographs - but - every so often a particular photo happens that makes my heart flutter...

This is one of them.

Finlay didn't draw that heart *obviously* , I did.

BUT I didn't suggest he trace it - nore did I even ask him to enter into the frame (lol.. I wanted a photo of the heart in the sand) BUT the two together have made a photo that makes me go "awwwwwwwww!!!" and if I am honest, I want it blown up large for the house.

There is something so unique and personal about capturing moments like these. I will look back at the set of pictures that day from the beach with warm fuzzies as it meant a lot to be there.

I want to have a stack of photos that are creative, thoughtful and mean something to me.

Wouldn't it be cool to be able to think about this more when you are out with the camera, to think creatively and it become a matter of course, to naturally think "What would be awesome?" as well as "quick lets get that on film!"

Well.

Shimelle is running a new class called:

I think this online class will be one not to miss - mixing photo hints and tips with cool projects.. something that we all do and love!

It's not a technical class - it's a class designed to get you LOVING your images and loving what you create with them!

Awesome huh?

So... want win a place?

I am lucky enough to have a place to give away!!

All you gotta do is leave me a comment with what photographic tool you could not be without. Be it the make of your camera, or your iphone & Hipstamatic App, or your point and shoot - what gets your photo pulse racing? - Or if you could have ANY photographic tool what would it be?

(Please leave an email address if you don't list it in your profile already)

ALL ENTRIES TO BE IN BY WEDNESDAY -MIDNIGHT GMT

Shimelle's classes are always awesome, and always value for money - so if you cannot wait and want to sign up now..

log on

HERE

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Friday Freebie - Derek dinosaur - digi stamp.

Morning all.

I hope you are well and have had a good weekend - and, I hope you are having a goodly dose of the Friday feeling!

This week is the last animal week.

Next month will be a mixed bag of designs, it's going to be Miscellaneous July.

Till then, meet Derek!

Derek is a dinosaur - he lives in dinosaur times, however, he has a flair for party throwing and is never far from a celebration scene. If there is a party to be thrown, Derek is the dinosaur you want to know. He likes trifle, but always takes more than he can eat. He loves playing pinata, but can't always get a good grip on the stick, but he does hold the prehistoric record for Twister.

Our gorgeous as always example this week comes from Caroline Sears - who teamed up Derek with some awesome blues and reds and stars to boot (I know he would appreciate the stars!!)

Anyway - if you like him..

download him

HERE

If you make anything using Derek this week (aka before the next freebie) I would love to add it to this blog post - so be sure to email me!

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29 and counting.

356 days till I am 30.

Maybe I am suffering from Peter Pan syndrome - but seriously, I don't feel 30.

However..I don't feel 18 either.

I am somewhere between, to be found wandering lost among the moisturisers in the skin care section, wondering what to buy.

Apparently according to the woman behind the No7 counter I should be using a day and night cream which fight the first signs of ageing.

This would all be fine and well, if I hadn't gained two spots the size of Mount Vesuvius on my face this week. I mean, seriously - how am I meant to grow up with spots that rival a greasy teenage boy? I have pale pale skin too - I like to say "English rose complexion" but really I am just sun starved. So when I do get a spot - it shines like a beacon, practically pulsing.

But. Turning 29 has made me realise that I need to do a few things extra every day (not just skin care)

1: Moisturise daily. AM & PM

2: Make sure I actually remove all traces of make up before bed.

3:Moisturise my neck in UPWARDS strokes. My mum has done this for years (since she was my age in fact) - and her skin looks 10 years younger than it is, and I want this for my skin too!

4: Exfoliate

5: Take plenty of photos with ME and Finlay in. I am all too often hiding behind the camera.

6: Become a better housewife (and not for anyone else - but for me)

7: To care less what thoughtless people say - as they are thoughtless, and I should care less.

8: To trust in life more. Just recently I am not trusting life so much - I constantly worry about aspects if life I have no control over - and it takes up space in my soul :-(

9: To keep on losing this weight for good.

10: Exercise

11: Consider more children? - this is something that is never far from my mind. But not in the broody "I want a baby now" way.. in the "It's ok to have one child right??!" kinda way..

12: Drink more water - I sometimes go a whole day only drinking diet coke! AWFUL. So I am planning on drinking at least two glasses of water a day. I know this may not seem much, but its a big change for me.

13: To read more.

14: To enjoy the last year of being a twenty-something.

I wonder how much of this I will do... I will reflect in a years time! (lol)

Scrapping...

I haven't scrapped for 21 days.

I used to scrap a LOT more than that - but of late - I have become a "here and then" scrapper. Not quite only at crops - but certainly not an every day scrapper.

I do however, because of this, enjoy crops a lot more - and even they are rare!

I haven't come across a crop in my local area that I feel comfortable in - and travelling is awkward when you don't drive!

Actually, when I sat down today to scrap for a moment I was like "ok.. so.. how do I do this again?" I guess that happens when you scrap less and less.

Anyway - I digress!

What I meant to write was "I scrapped!"

It does help though, when you return home to find a photobox photo order waiting on the doorstep!

I ordered some 12x8 matt finish photos. I love matt photos, always have always will. I think it comes from my photography course at college - developing my own photos and choosing matt photo paper even back then (um.. 11 years ago eeeeeep!)

And - 12x8 photos are HUGE... so they take well over half the page -which leaves only a little room to embellish and journal.

Of course - you know, this won't be the first layout featuring tea party photos - I pre-warn you of that lol!

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Just a quick post

To wish all the fathers in blog land a happy Fathers day!

And to offer the little musings fans another freebie this week!!

A fathers day free pass!

Print onto 6x4 (or whatever size) and hand over to the fathers in your house hold today..

A free pass! To be used once.. for example.. when he wants the remote - he'll hand you the free pass and you have to relinquish the right to the TV for one night!

*eeep.. do you dare?*

File includes:

Colour musing

Free pass

and Three outlines (different hair styles)

So - have fun and download him

HERE

Technical help!

ok - this post is to direct people to the new tecnhical help page for the little musings.
It is a quick tutorial of how to download - save and unzip the files.
It is not desiged to patronise people who are computer savy - it is designed to enable those who have problems with the downloads, and I thought a little tutorial would be the best way to help.
So if you are having problems - please click the link on the left of the screen called TECHNICAL HELP. which can also be found
HERE
thank you
x

Gizelle - Friday Freebie digital stamp.

Hello everyone! The last two days I have spent with my little family - recovering from having some great news, then awful news then complicated news.. and finally no news.

Which - in the grand scheme of news is one hell of a rollercoaster! (more on that lot of nonsense on a non-freebie day) Talking of nonsense.. this weeks freebie is GIZELLE. A giraffe in a tutu.
Of course.
Animal June is going down very well - with more downloads than ever - which does make me aware that mixing it up for you guys is the way to go in the future!
Till then - meet Gizelle....

Leann made us this really simple pretty card - which would make a cute notecard for those times when less is more. I love the way Leann always sews her designs on - cute!

And to show that Gizelle doesn't mind being coloured blue, Caroline made this cute Baby Boy card for a friend. Cute huh!Listen - I need to seriously warn you about how rad the next project is..
so sit down..
relax...
clear your thoughts and prepare for your mind for a serious drench of awesome...
Kylie took the image - used photoshop (with the help of her patient hubby - lol - she'll kill me for saying that) to edit the PNG image around a photo of her son.. and then print onto fabric paper before making a scatter cushion!!!!!!!!
Aparently their home is Giraffe mad - so this weeks musing spoke to her. I laughed out loud with jealous awe when I saw this - how fun!!! I really really really want to use the teacup freebie to create something like this for my sofa!I just smiled out loud looking at it again!
I bet you did too!
If you want to make something as cute as the CT did this week - log on and download the freebie HERE
Before I go - I would like to take a minute to show you this card that Caroline Sears made last Friday as a follow on from the freebie elephant...

Pink elephants!
(who just sung "And Lemonade" ??)
She also went one step further and edited them in photo shop to create a family!
I love this... and just goes to show you - what you can do with the freebies - making some really cute art work aswell as drop dead STUNNING cards.

You should pop by her blog HERE and share in some of her talent for an hour or two!

Birthday Haul!

Well well well.. It's almost Thursday - and I haven't blogged my birthday gifts!! *slapped wrist*
So - the next lot of photos will be birthday presents! wooooooooooo!
First up - my amazing glass dome! Pretty huh? I think so!

Next up is my new llama bag - most of you don't know - but me and my closest buds are slightly obsessed with all things llama - except for llama wool clothing... *itchy*

a whole bag of mixed goodness! Including FLUFF (Liquid marshmallow! I KNOW!)

The tall thing in the photo is a tube of vintage classic sweets.. cool huh!

The most amazing haul of Japanese stationary, so much so I did a squeel!

The cutest cut and sew owl puppets! (which... I think should go on a cushion as they are so pretty!)

My favourite range of candles - which I truly love and smell every time I go into a gift shop in Bexhill... yum!

And Cath Kidston goodies - which was so generous that I am sure I blushed... there are tea towels that go with this photo - but we used ALL the tea towels we own over the weekend party and needed to crack into them on Sunday (much to my HORROR as I was intending to never touch anything dirty or wet with them ever!!!)

Beach hut themed pretties - look at those mugs...
bunting - check
polka dots - check
beach huts - check
awesome? - check!

Check out the Moda Fabric! Whooooooop..I feel a sewing special coming on....
the bird design is a pretty jewellery box that I plan to fill full of the glittery treasures that I own.. (I wish I could say Diamonds... but that would be a lie lol!)

And Ben was naughty and bought me a Link of London Sweetie Charm bracelet..

I bought the star charm with some birthday spends - my first choice was the silver button charm but they were out of stock of it - and impatient that I am, I went for the next best one (imo) and because I adore stars, it seemed the natural choice (It represents Finlay!)
I have more photos to come - including knitted pretties and a cute home sign that was already hanging up and not in the present box when I took photos...
AND... I promise I will do some crafting soon!!!!
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WOW........ picture heavy

What a weekend. On Saturday it started out looking like this......

and pretty soon the white queen and rabbit turned up...

So did the Queen of hearts, the knave and the doormouse...

we drank "tea"

and ate the most amazing cake of all time.......

your eyes do not deceive you - that is indeed a rainbow cake!

pretty soon we were in the mood for photos...

we wore stripes and lace....

There was bottles (and bottles) of fizz....

And if there had been a prize for best costume... Shim & The Boy, aka -Alice and the Hatter- would have won it hands down for the awesome outfits they wore!

These next two photos I borrowed, from Laura's photos...
There were small boys with beer

Just after that last picture was taken a Limo arrived and whisked me off for my "Mother of the year award". (I jest... it was empty)
*******
There were cupcakes with pretty toppers......

(These next photos are totally stolen from Shimelle!)
There were peonies with quotes.....

Instax camera sessions... caught on normal camera...

And I got to spend it with my own Knave of hearts..

and have a cuddle with this beauty of a little boy.... and his mummy & daddy...

whilst the White queen did nothing to dispel the rumours that she and her Knave have been carrying on a secret romance......... (seriously how beautiful was Jen? I can't wait to meet that bump!

And these two never fail to make me laugh till I hurt...

The day was awesome... till we all felt like this.... and had to go to bed!