Happy Halloween!

Just wanted to stop by and share our Halloween prep photos.

First it started with pumpkin gathering, as explained in more detail in my last post...




And then on Saturday we got busy carving designs into them...




Five pumpkins and some free online templates later it looked like this...







Yes I know there are only four there, the fifth was done later as my hands hurt so bad!

And today our fireplace looks like this...




The skeleton garland was a bargain 89p at a local home bargain-type store, the sign too.

Sadly I'm working til 9pm tonight, so hubby is taking the boys Trick or Treating. Hope he takes some photos of their outfits for me!

xXx

Pumpkin patch picking

Today hubby and his brother (visiting from Bath) decide to take a hike (quite literally) up to Bolton Abbey, leaving my sister-in-law, my two boys, her two girls and I to our own devices. So we went pumpkin picking!

We went to a place called Copleys Farm, near Featherstone, West Yorkshire, and it was fab! Apparently this is the first time they have had a pumpkin patch, which didn't surprise me as I have been trying to find one locally for the last few years and always failed. Then this autumn, this place finally turned up during a Google search. 

The rule was, if you could lift and carry it, you could take it home - hence the six pumpkins we bought not being too huge lol! But still big and heavy enough to need to borrow a wheelbarrow!

We wandered around the amazing farm shop, and had lunch in the Moo Cafe first, and then after picking our pumpkins stopped by the cafe again for coffee and cake- and free bambinocinos for the kids. It's basically a mini cup of the warm frothy milk they put in adult hot drinks, and they definitely went down a treat!

We also stopped by the farm...

and the indoor children's play area...

... and met up with the men folk at Junction 32 shopping outlet on the way home for a playground trip, new shoes for my niece Nancy and a new PS3 for hubby (groan!).

Oh, and how rude of me, I have not introduced you to this lovely little lady yet...

This is sweet baby Iris. And she is totally gorgeous! Today was the first time I met her, because of the distance between us and my stupid work shifts, but she was worth the wait.

So, if anyone is bored this weekend, or next week during half term, and the weather is reasonable, I would highly recommend a visit to Copleys - click here for the website. It has a corn maze too (I think that would require a day to visit in itself knowing my sense of direction lol!)

Oh, and if anyone has any good pumpkin recipes, let me know, because I'm gonna have a whole load of pumpkin insides to use up!

xXx

How did that happen?!

I didn't realise I hadn't blogged for three weeks until I logged on just now to share this post. Time has flown, although I'm not surprised it has been a while, I've barely had time to craft anything lately never mind actually blog about it thanks to the insanity that is September at my work place.

But, it's a new month (hello October!) and seeing as I missed all the sunshine, and it rained on my only day off yesterday, I got some scrapping (and some knitting) done. Here are the recent layouts I have to share with you...

This was done using Shimelle's most recent sketch. The idea was to use a photo strip, which was my original intention, but once I'd stuck down the papers this picture just seemed to work better. I'm so pleased with the title and the fact I could actually be bothered to machine stitch around the border and to matt the photo.

This was another Shimelle inspiration - started using her new 'starting point' feature, which I am really loving as that's the part I always get stuck on! And I just love this photo of the boys, it's going to have to go in yet another frame on the landing!

This layout is of our summer visit to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I had wanted to go see Jaume Plensa's work there for months, and finally we went - and it was just amazing. This piece, entitled 'Twenty-nine Psalms' was my total favourite, probably because not only could you look at it, but you could also touch and hear it too. If you live near the park, you have to go see it - and best of all entrance to the park is free (you just pay a small amount for parking). This was also the ideal layout for diving straight into my new Studio Calico kit (not that I really needed any excuse!)

And finally, this quick vintage-inspired layout was done using photos I was allowed to take home from my grandma's 90th birthday party on Saturday. My granddad was a keen amateur photographer, and I just love all the photos he took of her and their children throughout the decades. She was so smart and glamorous, and pretty, and the photos have a lovely vintage feel to them. This one ended up being first because the papers caught my eye while rummaging through my most recent SC kits, and I knew they would match up with this photo. It's not very often I scrap old photos, but I just couldn't resist this.

Right, better get sorted, get Alex to his childminder and me to work - yep, I'm on the late shift yet again. But I don't mind too much as I'm only working 4 days this week, and have Wednesday off to finally get to knit night and catch up properly with the girls, yay!

xXx