Whizzing by at 70mph

This weeks Pencil Lines sketch #162 Guest Designer is one of my personal all time favourite scrapbookers - Malin Dahlström - I love her work and feel privileged to work alongside her on the Prima DT. Malins LO for the sketch is beautiful - go take a look.

Michelle designed the sketch - with a digi template available here for those of you who prefer to play with your mouse instead of pretty papers and herma :D

I downloaded the digi template and had every intention of attempting a digi page, but I gave up after about 15 minutes - I'd love to be able to digi scrap but have to admit to being totally useless in that department, so here is my paper version of the sketch -


I used some older product I found lurking at the bottom of a box - Heidi Grace Velvet Flocked Die Cuts, a couple of chipboard arrows which I painted with acrylic paint, an off cut of Hambly, Basic Grey buttons and 3 Bugs in a Rug rubons.


The photographs are of my friends little girl, Poppy....she was so busy crawling around and exploring the garden that it was impossible to get her to sit still long enough for me to get a photograph of her face!!


This weekend the South West was bashed with high winds and rain - lots of rain - but thankfully we are on high ground and managed to avoid any flooding issues, unlike the poor folks up north in Cumbria. Its horrific to see how water can cause so much destruction in such a short space of time - my heart goes out to the families who have had their homes destroyed by the deluge which cascaded from the skies above.
With the weather being so awful, we battened down the hatches and did very little apart from potter around and snuggle in front of the fire to watch DVD's and TV.....we LOVE our daily fix of "I'm a Celeb" and the weekend double dose of X Factor - sad eh?

Bored from watching yet another "fast car - shoot 'em up" movie with the guys, I ventured into my scrap room and had a little tidy up.
I found 4 spare Prima kits from a class I taught in Norway.


If anyone is interested in purchasing one of the kits, then please drop me an email using the "Email Me" link in the side bar - I'll then mail you back with payment and shipping details.


The kit contains all of the product and instructions you need to complete two layouts....with enough product left over to whizz up another or even a couple of cards.

The winds are still gusting at 70mph today - it is sooo dark outside that I have to have the lights on in the house - I'm certainly no fan of the winter months and long to see the sun again....*sigh*

Poor J has gone down with a horrid cold and is home from school - I best go and top up his Lucozade and mop his fevered brow.

Thanks for popping by.
T.x.

Choices are the hinges of destiny

Real life has invaded my time in more ways than one over the past few days.....Ive been juggling life as best I can to keep on top of things (as well as keeping sane!)

First off - did you take part in the Charity Extravaganza over at Studio One?
Thanks to everyone who took part as over $600's was raised towards Cathy Zileskes Scrapbookers for Clean water campaign :D

I set a challenge to use "magpie finds" from around the home to create a page.
This was the page I put together -





- using a Starbucks coffee cup holder, button badges, buttons retrieved from old clothing, a bottle cap and a clip from the office....scrapbooking supplies from Jenni Bowlin, Hambly, Junkitz, Rusty Pickle, 7 Gypsies and Love Elsie, Ki Memories.

Secondly - Did you see who was this weeks Guest Designer over on Pencil Lines?
I loved the sketch which was designed by Anna and here is my interpretation.


I used a photograph of one of the Shanty Towns I passed by whilst in Cape Town.
Patterned papers - from South Africa's Art from the Heart designed by Tracy Schimper and Making Memories Great Escape collection, with ribbon from Prima Marketing

and thirdly - a page I created for Sassafras -



- using mainly Monstrosity {i heart}, with a little Sweet Marmalade too :D

Like I said earlier, family stuff has taken over this week - ill health has kept one of my extended family members very close in my thoughts and prayers, and to be honest I have been on tender hooks all week - staying positive is all one can do when the proverbial starts to hit the fan.

Bobs has reached that stage in his life when he needs to make some pretty big choices - choices that will determine his destiny - its A level selection time!


He is adamant that life in either the Police Force or British Army is the path he wants to follow.
Our local constabulary do not recruit below the age of 24, so he needs to get out there and experience life as best he can for the next eight years or so.
Bobs thinks that joining the British Army is looking more favourable and whilst I have no reservations in him doing so, I will confess to having put my foot down and telling him that at 16 he is too young to "join up".....there have been ructions, we have argued and spent days not talking - which upset me more than I'd care to admit.

Finally after lots of huffing and puffing, plus intervention from his Careers Master, we have rationally talked things through and Bobs has decided to go to college to take his A's.....I feel happier that he will spend the next couple of years experiencing college life - he knows its going to be hard work, but it will be worth it in the end.
Once he has completed his A's, if a life serving "Queen and Country" is what he wants, then so be it - at least it will be a man making that decision and not a sixteen year old teenager who spends his time BMXing, playing Xbox games and still enjoys to snuggle up on the sofa with his Mom, whilst munching on a bag of Haribos - he'll be miffed with me for disclosing that. LOL!

Maybe I am being an over protective Mom???? All I know is that from talking to friends, who have boys the same age as Bobs, they are all feeling the same a I do.

At 16 did you really know what you wanted to do with your life?

T.x.

Scrapping Charity Extravaganza

Are you looking for something to occupy yourself with over this weekend?
Do you like to do your bit to help this world that we live in?

If so then why not check out The Charity Extravaganza that's taking place over at The Studio this weekend.

The weekend long event, which has been lovingly put together by The Studio owner, Amanda, is inspired by Cathy Zielskes "Scrapbookers for Clean Water" appeal.....which has so far raised an amazing $8,265 towards providing clean water to the one billion people in this world who have no facility to drink a glass of clean water each and every day.

Throughout the weekend there will be challenges set by scrapbookers from right across the globe.....including Cathy Zielske herself.
The event has been sponsored by so many companies including American Crafts, Cosmo Cricket, Cocoa Daisy, Studio Calico, Bad Girls Kits, Paper Trunk, Papermania, Unity stamp Co, Graphic 45 plus many many more - which means the prizes up for grabs are sure to be amazing....all you need to do is make a small donation to Cathys charity pot, join in the challenges and maybe you could bag yourself a prize :D

Amanda invited me take part in setting a challenge and of course I couldn't turn down the opportunity to help raise funds for this worthwhile cause.

Here's a sneaky peep of my page -



Please do join in the amazing challenge, to help us, help a billion people enjoy the one thing so many people take for granted - a glass of clean drinking water.

Thanks for popping by.
T.x.

Up, Up and away

The past week has whizzed by as Ive been busy scrapping, cleaning house, tackling the mountain of ironing - just normal run of the mill stuff that has kept me on my toes and away from the 'puta.

As much as I'd love to share what kept me busy - I cant - not even sneaky peeps - and that's how it will have to be for another couple of months at least ;D
Being tied up completing the projects meant I didn't have time to take part in this weeks Pencil Lines sketch :( - I love the sketch so much that I plan to tackle it later on this week.
Being on such a scrapping mission last week meant I didn't have time to share sketch 159 - so here it is....


I used Prima packaging as the background and strips, clouds and circles are cut from Prima's Animal Bable {*loves* it LOTS} - the alphas are Prima too.
The photograph isn't the best, but Ive wanted to scrap it for such a long time as it was taken on a day when we had so much fun flying kites on Exmoor.

The weather has been truly awful over the past few days, so we had to postpone our annual fireworks get together until last night....

It was a perfect evening - especially as it was spent with a great bunch of pals.

Thanks for dropping by.
T.x.

Happy Halloween

So are you trick or treating tonight?

We aren't :(

Bobs is working at the local pub - J is feeling yack after "face planting" the concrete when he came off his bike - he grazed the skin off his top lip and its sooooo sore. Its making him rather grumpy and miserable because he cant eat or drink without his lip hurting - so I tried to take his mind off things by giving him the job of carving this years pumpkin....a task he thoroughly took on board and really enjoyed.

The local farmer grew a field full of pumpkins this year and told us to go help ourselves - but I think J may have slightly over done it as we now have a small army of pumpkins scattered around our garden!

Not a lot else to share - its been a mad week as Ive been finalising and titivating a few projects - one of which has turned out to be my favourite LO ever - I cant share it fully as its for an assignment.....

Lots of Prima, lace, velvet and vintage bits and pieces - yummy.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your evening Trick or Treating.

T.x.x.

Spooky!

Whilst the guys sat watching a movie I took myself off to my scrapping space and put together a couple of Halloween projects.

Click on photo's to enlarge images

I used a piece of corrugated cardboard to create this Spooky wall hanging.
The top layers of the cardboard were peeled away before being painted with white acrylic paint.
Patterned papers from Prima Marketings Rebellious collection were distressed and then layered to form the base before I popped a journaling tag on top.
With a lack of Halloween embellies at hand, I decided to print a couple of clip art images of a Skeleton on to white cardstock - which I then cut out.

To add a little sparkle to the project I used a spray of Prima's Galaxy Stars.

When the kids in our village knock on our door on Halloween Night I'll be handing out Sweet Treat Cones filled with choccies and other sweet delights.
The cones are really easy to make and take just a few minutes to put together - just roll patterned paper into a cone shape, secure and decorate.
I distressed and rolled the edges of the paper before I formed the cone shape as I wanted the pattern of the double sided papers to be visible.

Recycled Prima flower cans are ideal to use for some many different things - I decorated one with a "Spooky Pink" theme to give to a friends daughters for their own Halloween celebrations.


I wrapped a piece of paper from Prima's Rebellious collection around the can before decorating with handcut images from other papers in the range....so simple yet effective, especially when you add some black crystal bling.

Have you made anything spooky?
Care to share?

Thanks for popping by.

T.x.

A Day Off!

Hubs took the day off from work today so we could enjoy some family time together.
The past couple of months have been rather hectic, what with me shooting off all over the place to go teach - so we decided that today would be a good day to take "a day off" from the norm and go catch up with some friends.


We had thought that maybe we would pay a visit to one of the local restaurants and "do lunch" together - but we couldn't decide where to go - so instead we hit our pals home and just chilled out whilst filling our faces and catching up on each others news. The guys all busied themselves playing on the X-Box, whilst the adults sat making plans for Christmas.

Linz "did lunch", with me providing the "afters" - Malva Pudding - which is a pud I feel in love with whilst in South Africa.
Almost every restaurant in Cape Town has Malva Pudding on its dessert menu. Its is a rather homely baked cakey pudding that is so rich, very delicious and extremely indulgent (but has to be tasted at least once in your lifetime!)

My pal from South Africa, Glenda, shared her recipe for Malva Pudding with me - and so this morning I set to work and rustled up my version to take with us to share.....I guess you could say it was a success because there is none left and the guys are asking me to bake some more!!!



Malva Pudding
1 teaspoon of 5ml bicarbonate of soda
125ml milk (½ cup)
200g self raising flour
100g white sugar
2 eggs
6 teaspoons of apricot jam
20g soft margarine or butter
1 teaspoon of salt

* Preheat oven to 180oC or 350oF
* Grease oven proof dish
* Mix the bicarbonate of soda in the milk
* Mix the remaining ingredients together
* Combine milk mixture with the flour mixture and stir well
* Pour into the greased dish and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown on the top

Malva Sauce
250ml water
250ml fresh cream or 410g tin of evaporated milk
230g butter
150g sugar
5ml vanilla essence

* Boil the ingredients for the sauce together in a pot
* Stir well
* Pour the sauce over the hot pudding when it comes out of the oven
* Serve with fresh cream or vanilla ice cream - ( I prefer it on its own :D )

Enjoy!!!

T.x.