Thursday 30 August 2012

A Month Of Birthdays…

August is a busy time for me, with my own birthday &, on the same day, Alex’s. I also have four friends, Hilary, Kali, Donna & Sue to celebrate with! I also remember my Mum, sadly no longer with us, but who‘s birthday fell on the 6th.

August this year has also been a very lean creative month for me! I’ve been so involved in projects around the house (I’ll share more on that later!) that my (new) ‘scrap-room’ has stayed pristine!! But I did find time to put together a birthday card for Hilary…30 Hilary's Card

…there are only a handful of people that I make cards for now, those who I know appreciate the time & effort that goes into it! I used to hate the thought of my work ending up in someone else’s recycling bin, which is why scrapbooking appeals, I guess!

Hilary held a get together to celebrate her ‘Diamond’ birthday, but sadly it fell on the day we were at the Olympics, so we just had to get together later on in the week for afternoon tea…as you do!!

31 Birthday Tea

   We were joined by the
   lovely Karen & Hilary
   introduced us to a truly
   gorgeous, traditional tea
   shop in Shepreth called
   ‘Teacake’…if you’re in
   the area I would highly
   recommend calling in for
   a cuppa & a slice of home-made cake!! We ended up having a late lunch with sandwiches & cake & copious amounts of tea to wash it all down! It was a perfect summer day & so good to catch up with friends.

32 Alex @ 16On our ‘big’ day Alex turned sixteen…I can’t believe it!! It seems like the blink of an eye since I celebrated my thirty sixth birthday with his arrival!!

He starts at a local college in September & I’m still getting my head around him no longer being at school!! He’s now taller than me & in spite of all of the challenges he has to face daily, he’s growing up into what my Mum would have called ‘a nice young man’!!

33 My New Toy   I was well & truly spoiled
   for my birthday with so
   many gorgeous cards &
   thoughtful gifts. Lee
   totally surprised me with
   a Silhouette Cameo…to
   upgrade me from my
   Silhouette original!

The main difference is that it will cut designs up to 12” wide & 10 feet long!! It also cuts thicker materials & has the option to cut fabric too. So, if you know anyone who’s interested in buying a second hand Silhouette & Accessories, send them this way!!

34 Pat at Burwash Manor
Mum-In-Law Pat was down with us for our birthday week & she & I had some quality ‘girls only’ time with a trip to Burwash Manor near Cambridge, for a spot of retail therapy & …yes you’ve guessed it…more afternoon tea!!

 

Finally, we celebrated Kali’s 40th birthday with a party at her house.  All the usual suspects were there from our ‘Last Friday Of The Month’ girls nights out group!  A surprise announcement was made that she & the children will soon be moving to live 30 miles away so a few tears were shed & then we realised that in spite of not liking change, there was actually no reason why we can’t still get together on a regular basis & the party got going with a swing!!

35 Kali's 40th 
Good Luck with the move Kali & we’ll see you again very soon!

So, that’s it for today, I’m off to try & get my mojo working for a couple of LO’s I need to complete by Saturday!! No pressure then!!

Thanks for stopping by & come back soon! Open-mouthed smile

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Goal!

I finally found time to put together an entry for the ‘From Screen 2 Scrap’ birthday sketch challenge!

28 Jenn's sketch

I went with Jenn’s sketch…

 

…& using photographs from Nathan’s 9th Birthday party back in 2008, I put together my LO…

 

29 Goal!

It feels good to have used up that pack of football embellies that have been in my stash for the past four years, bought especially to scrap Nathan’s football party, & also the ‘bottle top’ which has been there even longer!!

You still have time to enter the birthday challenge yourself. The deadline is midnight on the 31st August…go on…you know you want to!! ;D

Thanks for stopping by & come back soon! Open-mouthed smile

Tuesday 28 August 2012

A Once In A Lifetime Experience….

After four attempts at buying Olympic tickets, Lee finally secured a pair for the Athletics, albeit at an obscene price!! I am not ashamed to admit that I am the least sport-minded person I know…I don’t even get excited about Wimbledon! But…even I could see that the Olympics in London was something special & wanted to experience it first hand.

We set off bright & early, even though our tickets were for the evening. Our journey could not have been simpler & it seemed as if the world & his wife were travelling to the Olympic Park! The ‘Javelin’ train from St Pancras to Stratford took just 7 minutes & then we were THERE!!

6 Olympics (2)

It was just as you’ve seen on TV & in the papers! Every volunteer ‘Games Maker’ was cheerful & happy to help. There was a total sense of enjoyment in the air.

7 Olympics


  
   Once in the park it was very busy
   but so many people had entered
   into the spirit of things & I really
   loved this father & daughter effort!

   We decided to take in as much as
   we could of the park before deciding
   where to eat our lunch!

8 Olympics 
  

I loved these giant mirror
letters in front of the ‘Copper Box’…it was quite cloudy during our visit & the reflections were wonderful!

9 Olympics

  

   The Coca Cola ‘Beat
   Box’…

 


 

10 Olympics

…Lee & the Velodrome!

The whole time we were walking around there were roars coming from the various locations. Especially from the main Athletic stadium when Usain Bolt was running in a qualifying race!

11 Olympics

There was a noticeable police presence throughout the park, but they all seemed to be enjoying the event as much as we were! The mounted police especially were getting a lot of attention & willingly posed for photographs!

12 Olympics

 

 


   Every so often this team
   of performance dancers
   would break into a sport
   themed routine…a bit like a flash mob but without the music!!

13 OlympicsAnd of course it had to be done! Lee striking a ‘Bolt’ pose outside the main stadium!!

14 Olympics

 

 


   Sadly we hadn’t been able to get
   tickets for the ‘Orbit’ on the day of
   our visit, but it was still impressive
   from ground level! There was a lift
   to the top where I hear the views
   were amazing, but you had to walk
   back down!!

15 Olympic 1

 
Then it was time to go into the Athletic Stadium! I cannot tell you how excited I was!!  In spite of there being eighty thousand people with tickets, the whole process was very civilised & we were soon inside!

 

16 Olympic 2  

 

   Our first view of the
   Olympic Cauldron was
   through an entrance &
   we stopped to take
   pictures, thinking we would not get such a good view again!

17 Olympic 7

But once we got to our seats we realised that we were sitting a stones throw away with an uninterrupted view!

The stadium is amazing, no pillars, no columns…nothing to obscure your view wherever you sit!

19 Olympic 4

 

 

   There was gentleman sat
   right in front of us who
   offered to take some
   photo’s of us together!

18 Olympic 6As you can see, I was overwhelmed by the cauldron…it really is breath-taking to see close up…

The position of our seats meant that we had a great view of the finishing line for all the track races & could clearly see all of the other events taking place too. We watched the volunteers setting up the hurdles with military precision…

20 Olympic 8

21 Olympic 11 

 

 

 


…& then cheered as the race was run!

22 Olympic 10

   This was the man we had
   been waiting to see…

   …Grabarz, Team GB!

   In Sixth Form College Lee
   had been County High
   Jump Champion, so this
   was the final he really
wanted to see. Grabarz had a good chance of winning Gold!

23 Olympic 14

24 Olympic 12He did well, but was beaten to the Gold by a very impressive performance from a Russian Jumper.

He did however get to do his lap of honour for winning the Bronze…

We also got to see three separate Award Ceremonies…some of those National Anthems are very long!!

25 Olympic 9  
   Then it was all over &
   time to leave the stadium
   To avoid the crush we
   popped into McDonalds
   for a bite of supper
   before heading off in the
   rain for home!


26 Olympic 13And that, you may think, is that! A once in a lifetime experience…but was it?!!

Well, Lee had very kindly bought me an official Olympic scarf from Next, to wear & wave during our visit.

27 Winning Photo

 

 

 

 

 

What he didn’t tell me was that he had posted a photo of me wearing it at the stadium on the Next Olympic Competition website….& guess what? He won a pair of tickets for the Paralympic Closing Ceremony on September 9th! So we get to do it all, all over again!! How cool is that?!!

Thanks for stopping by & come back soon! Open-mouthed smile

Monday 20 August 2012

Time Out….

It wasn’t planned….I didn’t just decide, as the school holidays arrived, to abandon Blog-land! It just worked out that way!!

I think we can all acknowledge that the internet can so easily eat up time & I do make a conscious effort not to log on if I have jobs pending…not always successfully…but this time it wasn’t a conscious effort at all…I just got caught up in the projects at hand & it all went from there!

So forgive me my absence of ONE WHOLE MONTH!!! A whole lot has been achieved & lots more ‘stuff’ has been done! Throw in a horrid eye infection, the Olympics & a couple of birthdays & you will see where the time went!! 

I feel a little guilty that I haven’t fulfilled my DT requirement for ‘From Screen 2 Scrap’ on time for August….but I guess it’ll have to be better late than never!

1 FS2S Birthday posterSo for today….August is birthday month over at ‘From Screen 2 Scrap’ & there is a choice of challenges to join in with this month. You can either create a LO/project inspired by this birthday themed movie poster, or you can choose one of the DT members sketches for inspiration! Either way there are some fabulous prizes up for grabs & excellent odds if you choose to play along! I do hope to see some familiar names in the entries this month…tell Shazza I sent you!

2 My Sketch for FS2S 

 

  My sketch looks like this…

 

 

 

 

…& my example LO looks like this…

3 Look Who's 15

It features Alex on his 15th birthday…so only a year out of date!! I loved that I managed to use so much out of my scraps box to put this LO together!

4 Jacky's LO to lift for August 1stI should also share my Chinese Whispers LO. We’re nearly at the end of our run with this most enjoyable project, organised by the lovely Dawn! I’ll miss it when it’s over! The LO I received from Jacky for August 1st was this one…


…& here’s my ‘lift’ from it…

5 LO from Jacky's July LO

This time it’s Nathan, earning some extra pocket money by taking over the role of chief lawn cutter for the summer! Yes, he lives in that ‘Dappy’ hat & hoodie even when it’s hot!! Boys!!

That’s me for now…I’ll be back soon to fill in the gaps of the last month & hopefully get to stopping by to visit with all of you to see what you’ve been up to, too!! Meanwhile, I hope everyone is enjoying some decent summer weather!

Thanks for stopping by & I do hope you’ll come back soon! Open-mouthed smile