Its been another of those weeks.......

Its been a busy one again!
The guys are off from school/work and we have had a house full of teenage kids......one of the the joys of living beside the sea is that our home becomes the stop gap between the village and the beach - not that we mind at all....its always great to see the guys with their friends :D
With places to go and people to meet I haven't had chance to update my blog and I'm starting to miss my blogging time - I'll be kinda glad to get back to normal next week.

During the past week we have met up with friends for drinks/barbies and just generally enjoyed touching base with folk....its always good to catch up...especially when the weather has been so glorious and you can escape from the house and enjoy the great outdoors. :D

When Ive not been out and about...or chained to the washing machine - Ive been scrapping :D

I created this page for Banana Frog - see the Frog Blog for more details.

This page is also for Banana Frog - details of this months Colour Focus can be found here.

My layout for Pencil Lines Sketch #136 features a photograph of J and I having a little cuddle....I love times like this when he comes and snuggles in to me and asks to be hugged.....as Mom to a child with ASD I haven't experienced many cuddles from J, so this really is a rare occurrence and certainly a moment to be treasured.

A sneak of this weeks Pencil Lines LO - ummmm I adore these papers.

and a couple of Prima projects I whizzed up earlier this week.

The guys are back to school/work on Monday so we plan to spend the remainder of our break doing very little at all....lots of chilling out sessions, enjoying the sunshine and pottering around the garden. We have friends coming to spend Saturday evening with us and we plan to stoke up the barbie and pop a few bottles :D

Hope your weekend is fun.
Thanks for popping by.

T.x.x.

Flying by...

Time has flown by so quickly over the past 10 days and I've been sooo busy that I have had no spare time to update my blog.

I've been scrapping lots as I've been busy finalising classes for the Crafty Stash Summer Workshops, which are now sold out :D

I've been playing lots with Prima products -

Paintables
Signs of Spring PP's

A box of yumminess arrived from Sassafras and I couldn't resist playing with the new Felties, brads and blossoms.


and finally a sneak of my page for this week Pencil Lines sketch which goes live on Sunday at 8pm.


OK - so apart from being a busy scrapper I've been a busy Mom too!

J has gone in to overdrive and is now officially in training and preparation for the Youth Games.....which means I have been toing and froing from the BMX track almost daily.
Bobs got a call the day after J, to say he had made the team too :D
So both boys are practicing their biking skills and I've a plentiful supply of band aids always on hand!

Bobs started his week long work experience on Monday of this week - he has been working at a local gym and really enjoyed his time there - well apart from when he had to hoover the floor! LOL!

I had a really lovely surprise at the beginning of this week.
A postcard arrived from J's teacher to say she really wanted to drop me a quick note to say how well J has been doing in school :D
Apparently his English Poetry/Art project was amazing?????

J and Hubs had worked on the project whilst I had been away and I didn't get to see it before he handed it in, but she kindly let J bring it home so I could see for myself just how well he had done :D
I think I had better hide my supplies - what do you think?

J's also been doing really well in is Home Ed classes and has really taken to cooking - he cooked Spag Bol this week and got an A* - I won't deny that it was indeed a proud Mommy moment :D

J's new love of cooking has kick my rear in to gear and we have finally put together a herb garden.....
J is in complete charge of looking after it and he is really enjoying picking the fresh herbs for his cooking sessions in the kitchen.

Our family "Birdie Watch" has now ended :(
We had a terrible rain storm during the week and we were all really concerned that the chicks would be no more.
I'm not sure how it happened but one disappeared earlier in the week leaving us with just two "babies" to fret over.
After the rain subsided Hubs went out to do a nest check and,well, it had basically collapsed under the torrents of rain and the birdies had vanished from sight :(
The guys had really enjoyed taking a daily peep to see how quickly the chicks were growing, so to hear that the nest was no more was kinda sad.

The next morning Bobs went to investigate and there they were - two chick hiding in between the crevices in the wall :D

They stayed hidden in the wall for three more days, with their parents tending to their every need and feed - on Wednesday the biggest of the chicks made its first attempt at flying - I'm glad the guys got to see the chicks hopping about and then fluttering their wings until they took flight.....the biggest of the chicks left home yesterday morning, with the smallest flying off in to the sunset last night - neither have been seen since and their Mom and Dad have cleared off too...I hope they make it to where ever they need to go.

So that's it - my update done.
Have a great Bank Holiday weekend....lets hope the sun shines eh?
Thanks for dropping by.

T.x.x

Tweet

After a rather busy weekend its been kinda nice to kick back a little, relax and enjoy some quiet time.

Saturday saw J up and out bright and early as he was off to try out for this years County Youth BMX Team.
Last year he competed in the Youth Games and came away with a couple of shiny medals - one being a gold :D
He was pretty nervous competing for a spot on this years team, but he tried his best and stayed true to his ability - he didn't push himself too far for fear of messing up and jeopardising his chances.

He got the call late on Sunday night to say he had made it to the team and will be representing our County in July :D Yippety Skips :D

Sunday I decided to attempt a little gardening and wanted to tidy up a rather wild and neglected area of the garden - I didn't get very far as I came across these three little mites and didn't want to upset their Momma.

The nest is balancing in between wild flowers and a large rock, in a rather exposed fashion....I just hope the local cat doesn't make an appearance!!

Pencil Lines sketch 134 went live on Sunday night with Kazue MacDonald as this weeks guest designer.

I used papers from My Little Shoe Box (which I love love love)to create my interpretation of the sketch.

Thanks for dropping by.

T.x.x.

The love of a family is life's greatest blessing

Home Sweet Home :D

I've spent the last few days enjoying being back home with the guys and its been wonderful to be able to just hug and snuggle them when I wanted - two weeks away from home was just toooo long - although it was an amazing trip and I have no regrets in going, I just don't think I'd do a two week stint away again....not unless the guys came too!!!

During the days, whilst the guys have been at work/school Ive been busy catching up on assignments and prepping for future classes.

I'm off in June to teach for the day at Crafty Stash Summer Workshop in Exhall, Coventry.....there is just one space remaining if you want to come along and join in the fun. Check out the details here
Whilst away I managed to grab me some new papers to play with and I used some of them to whizz up this weeks Pencil Lines LO which will go live at 8pm on Sunday - its a great sketch so don't forget to check it out and play along too :D

Ive also been playing with some of the lush stamps from Banana Frog too.

If you love stamps then you really need to check out the Banana Frog blog because there is a set of these beauties up for grabs :D

Mr Postie will deliver one lucky scrapper a set of these stamps for FREE - all you need to do is go and leave a comment! What are you waiting for - GO!

Here are a couple of pages I created for Pencil Lines which went live whilst I was away.

PP's - Crate Paper

PP's Fancy Pants; Prima Blooms and Voila Felt; American Crafts Thickers alpha.

I'll leave you with one of my Prima Tour LO's that I taught whilst away -

"Mommy and Me"patterned papers and chipboard alphas from Prima Marketing.

Thanks for popping by.
Have a great weekend - whats left of it.
T.x.x.x

Tour- part deux

Warning - this is a LONG post and picture heavy too!

Week two of the tour kicked off with Jen and I battling our way across from Helsinborg to Copenhagen, by train....it was such a fight as we were loaded up with so much baggage and to make life even more difficult for ourselves, we hopped on to the wrong train!! Opppps!
After one stop we were booted off by the ticket inspector and found ourselves in Lund, not really 100% sure where we were, or how we should make it to Copenhagen - anyways I spotted a friendly face in the crowd and thankfully for us he was an English guy who set us straight and finally Jen and I arrived in Copenhagen - tired but happy.

Copenhagen is such a beautiful place that no matter how tired we were we knew we had to go explore. We jumped in to a taxi and the driver (Dan) took us on a guided tour of the city.



We saw the Palace, Stock Exchange, the Opera House and a whole variety of other buildings before stopping off to see the Little Mermaid before she makes her departure to China in just a few weeks time.

Dan drove us over to the new harbour and there we sat and ate whilst we watched the world pass us by.

The next morning we had some spare time, so we took a canal tour of the city.....

before heading off to go teach at Jeans Scrapstue for the rest of the day.


The next morning we woke early to jump on a flight to Norway, where we taught at Hobby Norge Steffens in Oslo.

We were only at the store for a few minutes when the streets were filled with the Royal Procession of the King and Queens Soldiers.



It was a pretty amazing sight to be seen and of course Jen and I couldn't resist taking a few photographs. The King waved as he passed by the gathering outside the store....it really made our day.

Our classes were full and we both really enjoyed our time at the store thanks to Siv and her amazing team of staff.

The following morning we were meant to take a quick tour around the city - but tiredness beat us down and we spent the morning relaxing in our Pj's before we headed off to another store for the day.

Bikuben has to be every scrapbookers shopping dream - the store is set over three levels and I have never ever seen so much product in one place - it was quite overwhelming to see just how many papers and embellies there were sitting under one roof...I could have spent a small fortune, but as my case was already bursting at its seams I had to resist!




Our classes went well and we had fun meeting up with so many new faces.

Thursday saw another early start, as we took a flight over to Amsterdam, where we were greeted at the airport by Jen's friends, Hetty and Lida. These two very special ladies gave me so many happy memories of Amsterdam....memories I shall treasure always - thanks you two.x.x.x.x.

As it was Queens Day in Amsterdam, the air was alive with a festival atmosphere and with a free day, Hetty and Lida took us on a sight seeing adventure - we became tourists for the afternoon as we tip toed through the tulips and took a trip to see the windmills.



And so finally the last day of the tour arrived and we headed over to teach at Scrap Art. The owners, Henk, Petra and Linda were wonderful hosts and made both Jen and I feel very at home in their store.
As my last class of the tour came to an end, I couldn't help getting a little emotional as the realisation that Jen and I would be soon parting began to hit home.....we had bonded so well over the past two weeks and in her I know I have found a friend for all time. Loves ya Jen - you are just "so lovely" ;)

With our classes over we packed up our bags and headed to another hotel for the night - opting to sleep in for a while on Saturday before Hetty and Lida collected us at noon for another afternoon of sight seeing.

As a small child I remember my Dad sharing with me his experiences of the time he spent in Amsterdam during the second world war - he told me of a story about the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the Dyke to stop the town from flooding - Hetty and Lida took me to see the statue of the boy and for me it was quite an emotional experience.


We ate traditional Dutch food whilst sitting beside the canal - then headed off to a small Dutch village where we tried on clogs and then took some time to enjoy a little sight seeing and shopping in the city.

To end our day, we took to the water as we enjoyed a canal trip around Amsterdam.

Jen's flight left early on Sunday morning - *sniff **sniff* - with me leaving late afternoon meant that Hetty and Lida took me off for the morning to see even more sights....


as well as having a fun time playing dress up!



Hetty and Lida drove me to the airport and I waved goodbye to Amsterdam late afternoon to begin my journey home. I was greeted by the guys at the airport.....its been a fun tour - Ive learnt lots about the countries we have visited and even more about myself.
Its really great to be back home - I have missed the guys sooo much and am so happy its a bank holiday here, as I am enjoying an afternoon cuddled up on the sofa with them all, before the daily routine of life kicks in tomorrow.

Thanks for popping by.
T.x.x