Half Term Holiday

Last week was the school half term holiday so we took our usual autumn trip to the coast. For the last few years we've gone to Norfolk but this year we had a change and went over the border into Suffolk. The weather wasn't great but we had a good time and came back refreshed and relaxed.

We went out and about a lot whilst we were away. We visited three English Heritage properties - Leiston Abbey, Framlingham Castle and Orford Castle. Believe me, we aren't on a mission to try and visit every English Heritage property in the UK, nor are we on a mission to bore the children (LOL), but as they were all fairly close to where we were stying we thought we may as well take advantage of our membership.

We also had some long but chilly walks on the beach, a shopping trip to Ipswich and a day at Jimmy's Farm. We had followed the goings on at Jimmy's Farm on TV so it was nice to go and see the place for real. It wasn't as big as we thought it would be but the children enjoyed seeing all the animals as well as exploring the Woodland Walk (with den building) and the adventure playground.

Whilst we were away it was Halloween. The children were initially quite disappointed to find that they wouldn't be at home for Halloween and wouldn't be able to go trick or treating with their friends, but we promised them that we would have our own little Halloween party while we were away. So we took Halloween costumes with us and on Friday night we carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, watched 'Winnie The Pooh - Pooh's Heffalump Halloween' DVD ( LOL - as scary as we dare go for Lara! ) and gave the children bags of halloween novelties and sweets. They were more than happy. The apple bobbing went down particularly well!

While we were away 2 challenges went live on Mojo Holder. Challenge #87 on October 24th was to lift a LO by the wonderful Janna Wilson. Her LO was gorgeous! I scrapped photos of Wayne on his Driving Day in June.

October 31st, Challenge #88 was a scraplift of Teresa Collins.

There are some lovely scrap lifts coming up in November so do make sure to stop by Mojo Holder.

One last thing, while I was away I bought this book. It's by Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge fame. I had seen him plugging the book on TV and thought it sounded interesting. I'm half way through reading it and it certainly is very thought provoking and also at times funny. It is about how after a long and painful Christmas shopping expedition, Robert Llewellyn had a revelation. He realised he had enough stuff; he'd had enough of rampant consumerism; he would simply stop shopping for a whole year. Hmmm, now I wonder if I could manage that ??? .......... Nah, but it's a good read anyway.

Autumn

Autumn - au·tumn n. 1. The
season of the year between
summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall. 2. A period of maturity verging on decline.

Don't you just love Autumn? I do. Maybe it's the colours. Maybe it's the light. Maybe it's the crisp, chill in the air. Maybe it's because I was born in the autumn but what ever it is I love it. After summer it has to be my favourite season. The only thing I don't like is the damp weather. But that I can put up with.

We went out at the weekend to Wrest Park. I was hoping to get some nice photos of the children playing in the leaves but they weren't obliging and the photos I took were nothing to write home about. But whilst we were out we did collect some autumn leaves (like you do) and when I got home I decided to take some photos of them. i was really pleased how they came out and may just blow some up to put on the walls.

Remember me telling you Mojo Holder challenges were going to be on a Thursday in future? Well ......... they aren't LOL. We have decided to stick with Fridays so check out Mojo Holder every FRIDAY for a new challenge.

Last week we lifted the amazing Michelle Lanning. Her LO was stunning - so bright and it used four photos. I love multi-photo LOs. Here's Michelle's Lo and my version which shows photos of Lara at Easter.



Don't forget to check out Mojo Holder this Friday. We will be lifting yet another utterly fab scrapper.

Forgot to say - I have a new blog header courtesy of digitalscrapbookpages.com. Let me know what you think.

Woods, Wheels and Wellies

I know the title is very tenuous but hey ........ it is Friday!

Have you been over to Mojo Holder today? Last night challenge #85 went live and our NEW design team was also revealed. We have said goodbye to Candy, Nicki and Sandie who because of other commitments have decided to leave the design team but joining us are Jamie, Maria (who some of you will know as Ria979902), Paula and Sheena. I'm really pleased to welcome the new girls on board and look forward to working alongside them in future.

Last nights challenge was to lift a LO by Martha Bonneau. Martha is a designer for Sassafras Lass and Sistv. Martha's LO featured a chipboard house. Mine didn't! I tried (honestly) to incorporate a chipboard house but the LO but it just wasn't working so the chipboard went in the bin and I used another photo in it's place. LOL.

My LO used photos taken at BeWILDerwood in Norfolk. They describe it as "A curious tree house adventure park" and is based around the fantasy book 'A Boggle at BeWILDerwood' by Tom Blofeld. Tom Blofeld is the land owner of the 50-acre which has a natural,healthy and back-to-basics ethos to natural play. The 'Theme Park' has amazing tree houses, a sky high broken bridge, zip wires and slippery slides plus opportunities to build dens in the wood and a maze. It's great for children and my three really enjoyed it when we visited last October.

Whilst sorting out yesterday I came across some LOs I did earlier in the year but never uploaded. they were really simple LOs but used some really challenging papers from CherryArte. I bought the papers on a bit of an impulse and took ages to use them! Don't tell me I'm the only one who does that? Because the Los were of my boys and to prove to everyone that I do scrap my boys I'm uploading them.

Today, was Harvest Festival at Lara's school. As well as taking in produce which would go to a local mother and baby home, they had a visit from a chap from the Fisherman's Mission to talk about the 'harvest of the sea' and he organised a competition to decorate a welly boot! So earlier this week out came my retro flower punch and a circle punch and a sheet of dotty stickers and Lara set to work decorating her welly. She didn't win but she was happy with her entry.

Have a great day. Be back soon.

Mojo Thursday/Friday???

LOL after telling you Mojo Holder challenges would be on Thursday in future, we had a few hiccups last week and the challenge didn't actually go live until Friday. LOL. Oh well ....... just check the site Thursdays ...... or maybe Fridays ......... the challenges will be there one day or another. LOL

So, challenge #84 (which went live on FRIDAY) was a lift of a LO by Michelle Clements. It was a LO with a clear acetate background and not at all within my comfort zone. I've never created a LO with a clear background and Michelle's LO also included paint!! Shock horror! PAINT!!! Agh. When I'm scrapping I am not at all patient. I hate waiting and anything that doesn't dry instantly really irritates me. I usually end up poking them with my finger to see if they are dry and leaving finger prints because they aren't. So most of my LOs are really very simple. But, I took this weeks challenge by the horns and dug out some black acrylic paint and splodged it round the edges of my acetate, and you know what? I actually quite enjoyed the process! I didn't like waiting for it to dry mind you but I may just be tempted to dabble more with 'wet' stash in future. LOL.

So back to the challenge, Michelle's LO was gorgeous and had real rustic feel to it and I used some Halloween photos of Lara on mine.

This weeks challenge should be live on Thursday so do check it out. There may also be some exciting news announcements.

Mojo Thursday

Mojo Holder challenges have now moved to Thursday evenings so last weeks challenge, to scraplift a LO by Linda Albrecht went live a day earlier than usual. Linda Albrecht is a Designer for Pink Paislee, Melissa Francis and Art Warehouse and the LO the team lifted was gorgeous. I used a photo of Lara in the snow and threw loads of lace and ribbon onto the LO to create a really pink, feminine LO.




Linda has some stunning creations on her blog . Pop along and have a look - you will be amazed at how talented she is.

As I said before Mojo Holder challenges will now be on Thursdays. I've already completed my LO for this Thursday and all I can say at this stage is that it took me way out of my comfort zone. Have a look at Mojo Holder on Thursday evening when all will be revealed.

Oh my word ........ 2 posts in less than a week!!! Well, I've got a few minutes spare this afternoon so thought I'd update the blog now rather than in a months time as is the norm. LOL Mind you, I don't actually have much to update. LOL.

A new challenge on Mojo Holder went live on Friday. We scrap lifted the fantastic Ronda Palazzari. Ronda's LO was fabulous but oh boy did I struggle to come up with a LO! I think the rest of the team struggled with this one too. The majority of us LOVED Ronda's LO when we saw it and really wanted to lift it but actually putting our own spin on it was way hard. Pop over to Mojo Holder to see the team's efforts and here (as always) is Rondas and mine.





Apart from my Mojo LO I've not managed any other scrapbooking but hey........ the weeks still young.

Sunshine

Something very strange has happened this week! The sun has shone! Summer in the UK this year seemed to last just one week - well we only had one week of real summer weather. The rest of the time the weather was, to put it bluntly .... awful. Wet and windy! But this week the sun has honoured us with it's presence and it is so welcome. Wonder how long it will last.

Since I last blogged three more weekly challenges have been posted on Mojo Holder with another due tonight. And tonights is a cracker - a real challenge though so please go and have a look.

On August 29th we scraplifted a layout by Rita Weiss. Rita is a designer for Prima and Jenni Bowlin. I used a cute photo of Lara in the garden. She gave me such a cheeky grin that day - I had to scrap it.

September 5th (which just happened to be Wayne & my 21st Wedding Anniversary) was a scrap lift of a layout by Kelly Purkey. Kelly is a designer for American Crafts, Fiskars, as well as part of the 2008 Creating Keepsake dream team and a Two Peas Garden Girl. I scrapped a rare photo of Christopher.

And, last week September 12th we lifted Lea Lawson. Lea is a previous Creating Keepsakes Hall of Famer who has been published numerous times. I love the title of Lea's blog - Leascupcakesandsunshine - cute. I used photos of Lara on the beach at Northam Burrows, North Devon.

I have also created three more layouts - just for fun. They are all scrap lifts. The first two were lifts from my favourite ever scrapper, Kelly Goree and the third from Nic Howard.

Bad Blogger - Very Bad Blogger!

OMG! It's been over 2 months since I last updated this blog! How did that happen? Several times I've thought "I must update my blog" but something has cropped up and it never was updated. So, sorry to anyone who checks out my blog and has found me AWOL.

Sadly, apart from my weekly LOs for Mojo Holder I haven't really done a lot of scrapping. For one reason or another I had to miss two of my regular monthly crops and with me preparing my portfolio for my CiLCA qualification, the children being on school holidays, us away on our family holiday for a couple of weeks and all the usual chaos before the children actually finished school, scrapping has had to take a bit of a back seat. But the children go back to school next week and I've booked my place at next months crop and so hopefully I shall be a more active scrapper soon.

I did over the summer miss a few Mojo Holder challenges but managed more than I missed.

Challenge #69 on 20th June was a lift of a LO by Delphine Millereau. I used a photo of Lara ... no surprise there!!!

Challenge #70 on 27th June was a scrap lift of a LO by the mega talented Karen Day. I used photos from our trip to Framlingham Castle, Suffolk in May which we hope to visit again in October.

Challenge #71 on 4th July was to lift a page by Shannon Montez. I used a photo of Lara ...... again! ( I really am going to try and scrap more photos of the boys but Lara is so photogenic and far more obliging when I'm taking photos that she is often the subject of my pages)

Challenge #72 on 11th July I missed but do hop along to Mojo Holder and see what the rest of the team did when they scrap lifted a LO by Sarah-Jane Dowsett.

Challenge #73 on 18th July was to lift a LO by the multi talented Christine Middlecamp. I used photos of Lara at Wrest Park. I really enjoyed creating this LO.

Challenge #74 was also good fun. A lift of a LO by the amazing Nic Howard. I scrapped photos of Lara on the beach at Westward Ho!, North Devon.

Challenge #75 on 1st August was a LO from the amazing Stephanie Howell. It was a lift of a fabulous multi photo LO and I used photos of Lara in the pool on one of the very, very few hot sunny days we had this summer.

Unfortunately I missed Challenges #76, 77 and 78 because we were away but my LO for Challenge #79 goes live tonight. Please do have a look at Mojo Holder. My team mates are amazing and their LOs are always so stunning. Do also check out the blogs and galleries of the scrappers who allow us to lift their LOs. They are all amazingly talented scrapbookers and so inspiring.

Right gotta go finish making a chocolate cake with the children. We made the actual cake earlier and hopefully it is now cool enough to sandwich together. Yummy. Be back soon......... I promise!

Its been a busy few weeks here. Lots going on work wise and hectic social life too.

Last weekend we went to Bruntingthorpe for Wayne's Aston Martin driving experience. He got the experience voucher for a Christmas present a couple of Christmases ago but because of the trouble he's had with his back he hadn't been able to use it until now. So last Saturday we all went off to Leicestershire to watch him. He had a great time and got to drive an Aston Martin V8 Vantage and also ride as a passenger in a Lamborghini Spyder. He was in his element wizzing along at 170mph! Cars are his thing and he loved every minute of it. One of my friends asked me if after driving the Aston Martin was he thinking of getting one - I wish!!!! Gotta win the lottery first.

Sunday was Father's Day we decided to spend a leisurely afternoon at Wrest Park. despite the weatherman's forecast, it stayed quite sunny and the kids had a great time playing Frisbee and running around. They were surprisingly happy to have me take their photos too!

Mojoholder challenges #66, #67 and #68 have gone live since I last posted (bad blogger!).

Challenge #66 was a scraplift of a LO by Yvette Adams. I was really pleased with my LO - not something I have been able to say very often lately. It was outside of my comfort zone but I loved the finished effect. I used a cute photo of Wayne & Lara at Southwold last month.

Challenge #67 was a challenge with a difference. We had to scraplift a LO by another member of the Design team. I choose to lift Angie. I LOVE Angie's LOs and again I was pleased with my effort. I must be on a roll! I had scrapped this photo of Lara before - It's one of my favs.

Last weeks Challenge, #68 was to lift a LO by Alison Shearer. This was quite a challenge because although I loved Alison's LO the huge photo scared me! Anyway I did the LO - and yep, I liked it! LOL. The photo I used was of Steven in Dorset - the finished effect of the photo was a total fluke. I could have tried for ages to get such an effect but it just happened by accident.

Don't forget to check out MojoHolder tomorrow night for another great scraplift idea. We've got some new design team members whose work is awesome and truly inspiring.