Invasion of the Scarecrows

This weekend has been the Annual Scarecrow Festival in our village. Over 50 scarecrows have been on display in gardens all round the village and hundreds of people have been touring the village looking at the scarecrows, voting for their favourites and generally enjoying the sunshine. It's great to see the community come together to put on such an event and it always raises loads of money for the village Church. So while the washing machine continued chugging along dealing with all that holiday washing, we got out and did the tour ourselves.

He's a few piccies of some of our favourite scarecrows.

Spiderman outside the Post Office

Bill & Ben (and weed too)

Elves created by a couple of paramedics

A 'Crow Bar'!

and finally a witch confused by Sat Nav!

Back To Life - Back To Reality

Returning home from a holiday is never fun but bringing the sunshine home with us certainly made it easier. We had glorious weather most of the time we were away, whereas back home I've been told the weather was pretty grim ......... until that is yesterday! Today has been gorgeous - hot, sunny and just what summer should be like. We even had a BBQ earlier. Only about the third or fourth we've managed this summer. I really hope this lovely weather lasts, at least until the children go back to school.

We popped out this afternoon to get the last of the 'back to school' gear - two pairs of new football boots. You wouldn't believe how difficult it was to get a size 3 pair of boots for Steven - I think every other size 3 child had gotten there before us and bought them all! Anyway, all three children are now fully kitted out. With them all starting new schools this year it's meant lots to buy.

I've started going through the holiday photos. Amongst the hundreds I took there are several that are priceless and I'm already planning in my head LOs using them. There were lots of 'firsts' during the holiday - Lara's first ride on a bus, Steven's first proper 'swim' in the sea (he only learnt to swim last month), first time seeing a meteor shower (we watched the Perseid meteor shower on the night of Wayne's birthday - didn't get any photos but may download some form the web for a LO about it). So many memories.

Whilst I was away, there were three new scraplift challenges on Mojo Holder plus a class page by Kylie . I managed to get my challenge LOs done before I went away so these were posted along with the other girls LOs. This was my #24 challenge lift of a LO by UKScrapper Mei Lye

This was my #25 challenge lift of a LO by the extremely talented Jlyne Hanback.

And this was last weeks #26 challenge lift of a LO by the infamous Elsie Flannigan.

Please pop along to Mojo Holder to see all the LOs from the DT.

This week is going to be manic! The children have trips to the dentist and haircuts planned. I have to catch up on all the council work I've gotten behind on whilst being away, and I've LOs to get done for Mojo Holder and a couple of other projects (hush hush at the moment). Then there are school trousers to shorten and name tapes to sew into clothes plus the mountain of post-holiday laundry to get through! Hmmmmmmmm........ I think I'll need another holiday, so if any of you are planning on going away (preferably somewhere hot and sunny) and had have room in your suitcase for me, just let me know!

Five have fun in Dorset

Sorry if you thought I'd gone AWOL! We've been to the coast on our annual summer holiday. Here's a few photos from our two week break in Dorset. I'll fill you in on our adventures over the next few days but will leave you with these photos for now. Oh, forgot to ask.......... anyone want to do the laundry?

Naughty Blogger!!!

Sorry, I've not blogged this week. It's been really busy around here with trips to the optometrist, orthodontist, library, birthday parties............

My third LO for Mojo Holder goes live tonight. I loved the LO we have lifted this week and was quiet pleased with my version. Please have a peep at the website.

A whole day scrapping!

I've been to my local monthly crop today at Stamp Addicts . There were only 6 of us there because a lot of the others were on holiday or ill but we still had a good time. I had prepared loads of page kits before I went and managed to complete 5 LOs! I even managed to get ahead with my Mojo Holder DT LOs.

Last night my second LO for Mojo Holder went live. It was a scraplift of a LO by Suzanne Torr aka Fruitysuet and the team came up with some super LOs. This was my effort - Steven dressed at Harry Potter for World Book day a couple fo years ago complete with golden snitch and 'Firebolt' broomstick.

I can't show you many of the new LOs I did at the crop today because they are for Mojo Holder but I can show you my UKScrappers Weekly Challenge LO. The challenge was to use a sketch provided, use a musical term or musical symbol, create a piece of art using (for example) stamping, direct to paper, chalks, inchies or serendipity squares, use 11 of something and finally use threads, fibres or something fluffy. Here's my LO. For some reason earlier this year Steven decided he wanted some Pan Pipes so some were bought on Ebay and here he is trying to get a melodious tune from them, which isn't easy (my ears can vouch for that!).

Mmmmm........ Chocolate Cake!

Pinch Punch first of the month. etc. etc. etc............. August already! Where has the year gone?

Steven comes back from camp tomorrow (not soon enough) so this afternoon we decided to bake his favourite chocolate cake for his return. Steven LOVES chocolate cake but especially homemade chocolate cake. We used a fool proof recipe for 'Sunday Best Chocolate Fudge Cake' (substituting butter cream for the fudge icing and OK so it's not Sunday, but hey chocolate cake is good any day of the week) from Mary Berry's Ultimate Cake Book - so easy to make and yummy every time!

The only problem now is finding somewhere cool to keep it until tomorrow so that the cream doesn't all flop and also trying to stop anyone sampling it beforehand!

My boys gone to camp!

My youngest son has gone camping with the cubs today. It's his first time away from home and I'm missing him already. We drove him to the camp site (got held up terribly in roadworks on the M1 and traffic on the M25) and he seemed happy, and I'm sure he will have a great time..... but I'm still gonna' be counting down the days 'til he comes home again. Think I'll have to do lots of scrapping this week to stop me worrying about him.

My first Mojo LO is now live! There is some truly amazing talent amongst the DT and I'm so proud to be part of it. This was my LO. It was a scrap lift of this LO by Annie Hafferman.

Today I managed to finish another LO that I started last night for the UKScrappers weekly challenge. At the beginning of the year I made a New Years resolution to try and do every weekly challenge! I have been struggling lately to get them done, but have so far managed every week to come up with a LO. This is the LO I completed this morning. The elements to include were (1) Neapolitan ice-cream colours - brown, pink and cream, (2) circles, (3) a photo bigger than 7x5 and (4) chipboard or bling. OK, so my circles were only brads, but they are still circles, right? The good thing about the weekly challenge is that it gives me the push to scrapbook every week although now I'm involved with Mojo Holder I guess that will give me the push.

First LO for Mojo Holder Design Team goes live tonight!

My first LO for the Mojo Holder Design Team goes live tonight. I'm so excited and can't wait to see the rest of the teams LOs. Obviously I can't show you my LO yet, but I'll let you into a secret - it's called 'Tree Hugger'. Do have a look at Mojo Holder, there are some great ideas on there.

Well that wasn't too difficult

Well that wasn't too difficult. The format isn't as arty as I would like but I can always change it when I find out how!!!

I was really chuffed at the weekend to be invited to join the Mojo Holder Blog Design Team. There was a DT call a few weeks ago and we were asked to submit two LOs scraplifted from the existing DT. I choose LOs by Jakey and Mel.

This was Jakeys stunning LO. And this was my version.


This was Mels gorgeous LO. And this was my version.

About time I got a blog I think!

Having spent lots of time reading everyone elses blogs, I thought it was about time I started my own! Not sure what I'm going to post but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Here is my latest LO. It was for the weekly challenge on http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/. Not my usual style but I quite like the simplicity of it - and it was really quick to put together. The photo is of my daughter - she features a lot in my scrapbooking!