Special assignment

I'm delighted to be able to show you this layout, which I scrapped up pretty much as soon I got an e-mail from the lovely Shimelle yesterday.

As I'm sure most of you will have already seen on Shimelle's blog today, she is featuring an ideas post about scrapbooking girl-themed layouts, with a few others, including me and the fabulous SJ and Sally, joining in by showcasing examples on our blogs.

My example is another photo taken on our recent girly getaway to the country, and I finally managed to sneak in lots of my lovely new washi tape, yay!

Better still, all the layouts are inspired by a campaign from Plan-UK called 'Because I Am A Girl', which aims to build schools in Africa and to help girls in areas where women are not educated or given any choices in life. Makes you realise how lucky we are huh?

And for 24 hours, Shimelle is generously going to donate 100% of her class sales to the charity - so if there's a class you have been eyeing up or meaning to buy for a while, well now there's no better time because your fees will help give disadvantaged children in the third world a better future. Win win!

You can also join in by bagging a bargain or two in the first batch of my eBay craft listings, which will be ending just click here to see what's on offer. And for shamelessly pimping this on my blog, again, I will donate 25% of the sales to Plan-UK. :)

xXx

Photo love

Hi y'all,
Hope you are enjoying the bank holiday weekend. We are having a lazy Sunday, mostly because the weather can't seem to make its mind up, so we are mostly alternating between tidying and chilling.

Thought as I had a spare moment I'd pop on to share a couple more layouts I've completed this week:









This is another shot taken on our recent girly weekend away, and another I just love.









This is of Alex playing at a friend's house last year. I love this photo, although I can't believe how much he has grown since then!

I also found time to make a quick photo montage for the landing wall, it's looking lovely and bright up the stairs now, happy happy :)




Ok, gonna pick up my knitting seeing as there's not much else going on round here! I've started a cute little summer top and I really want to finish it soon so I can wear it while it's still warm. It's 4-ply though and the first time I've used such slim yarn so we will see!

xXx

Spring Clean-out

A clear-out of my hoard of craft stuff was long overdue. I have accumulated far too much over the years, and a lot of it has sat unused and even unopened for too long. So, I thought, with it being spring and all, and seeing how Alex was having a very rare afternoon nap, it was time to shift it and so slowly but surely it's all working its way onto good old eBay, where I hope it might make me a few pennies for our holiday spending money when we go away for a few days in July.

Here's a peek of some of the items I have listed:

You can find all these listings and more by clicking here - most have 99p starting prices, and make sure you keep watching as I have loads more items to add including lots of lovely clear stamps :)

P.S. Sorry for the blatant pimping, normal service will resume shortly lol!

Just a quick blog post from my iPhone to let you know I'm still here and to apologise for my absence. No change there then I guess.

I also wanted to share a layout I scrapped the other evening. It's of one of the cute group photos taken during our girls weekend away in the country cottage. I used mainly the contents of my latest Studio Calico kit on this, with some other bits and pieces, and I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, particular with the mix of bright colours and use of pink, which is something I don't get to do very often having only boys!




I can't wait to get scrapping again now that these little gems have landed on my doorstep. These were such a bargain at £1 each, plus one free with this my first order, and I'm itching to use them on a layout having seen my good friend Sally's nest examples. These are available from www.washitapes.co.uk (which is the bit you really wanted to know, isn't it?!)




Hope you've all had a good week. I've been mad busy at work, lunching with my lovely gran, mum and sister and last night was girls night, which meant dinner, drinks and a karaoke booth - oh yeah! I can't sing for toffee, but it didn't matter and we all had a blast!

And now it's back to reality, so a spot of knitting, an early night and back to the daily grind in the morning. Ho hum.

xXx

Best of the rest

Just popping on quickly to share the last remaining layouts that I scrapped during our girly weekend away.

This is of me and Alex, enjoying lunch while shopping on one of our weekdays off together. I'm loving my new shifts that allow me some one-to-one time with him at this gorgeous age.

This is another layout born out of the blissful day me and hubby spent together last month, as I detailed in yesterday's post. I spent a while capturing some 'us' shots on my iPhone, including this one of my reflection in his sunglasses. I think I'm going to add a little journaling to this one, to make the title make sense if nothing else!

This one's of Alex playing on the slide in our local park - his favourite past-time!

I don't seem to like these ones as much as the layouts I shared yesterday, I'm not sure why, but I guess you can't win them all eh?

Hope you had a great weekend. :)

xXx

Layouts galore

Ok, so it seems quite apt that on (inter)National Scrapbooking Day I log on and show you some of the layouts I created while staying with 10 fabulous scrappers at this gorgeous country house last weekend.

I'd actually meant to share these photos, and my layout photos, much earlier, but technical difficulties put a stop to that - just don't even ask!

Ok, so here are the first half (the second half I'll share with you tomorrow, otherwise this post may be a little too photo heavy!):

I love this layout of Alex playing with the hose pipe and watering can at my grandma's house - it's mostly made using the April Studio Calico kit, which I just adore!

Another Studio Calico-inpsired layout. This one's of Alex playing in the school yard while waiting for his big brother.

And this last layout is of a photo taken during the fab free day me and hubby had recently, with the kids spending the day at their grandparents' house and us heading straight for the nearest beer garden, Chinese buffet and park for a blissful day together, just the two of us. I loved that day, it was a very rare but much-needed treat.

I'll be back tomorrow with the other layouts - in the mean time I think a little scrapbooking is in order. My Photobox order has arrived and with it being a special occasion, well, it would be rude not to wouldn't it?!

Catcha soon :)

xXx

Country cottage weekend

What a fantastic bank holiday weekend it has been!

Three days I spent partly travelling but mostly having a ball with ten fabulous ladies; scrapping, chatting, lounging, eating, drinking, socialising, walking, taking photos and enjoying the gorgeous weather. Here's a sneak peek of some of the group's photos, and one or two from the house website to help build the picture lol:

Lots of fun had as you can see! The cottage was absolutely lovely, so homely and it was so good to have separate spaces to scrap, eat, socialise, chill and sleep. Oh, and indoor toilets and hot, bug-free showers, always a plus! I had an amazing time and can't wait to go back with these lovely girlies, very soon I hope.

Check out their blogs here for more photos and gossip: Laura, Leanne, Shimelle, Rachel, SJ, Sally, Katherine, Chloe, Jen and Katy (no blog to mention, but didn't want to leave her out!) :)

And if you're reading this ladies, thank you for a wonderful weekend and for inviting me again, I am so lucky to have you all as friends :)

Everyone else, I shall be back very soon to share some photos of the layouts I made during our weekend away, so stay tuned.

xXx