Quite a quote!

Animals are reliable, many full of love, true in their affections, predictable in their actions, grateful and loyal. Difficult standards for people to live up to.

...you should have seen Kate's face yesterday as she cuddled her friend's new Springer Spaniel puppy called Flossie.. the puppy snuggled into her, all 8 weeks worth of her, and Kate looked at me in turn with puppy dog eyes!

I did tell her though, that if I bought her every animal she asked for, then this month alone we'd be proud owners of a hamster, a horse and a puppy!

Family heirloom.

It's half term and I took a few hours off this afternoon to bake with Kate.. we made a whole batch of buns, (some with Rolos melted inside...!), flapjacks, apple cake and Mum's favourite Coffee cake.

I have my Mum's old scales too.. a 1946 wedding present, used and loved for over 60 years, with an enamel pan and original Imperial weights. In fact the 16oz weight went missing and the replacement, if it were to be returned to rightful owners, would be down Penberth Cove on the fish weigh scales!

Jordan has earmarked the scales for her kitchen of the future, guess dating back to her grandparent's wedding, they will be quite a point of interest for her kids too!

At last!

So Jordan got a layout at last.. she is so often behind the camera, and a pic of us together is even harder to find!

This offering for a Scrap a Film Challenge I set on twitter.. just in case anyone who reads this doesn't follow our sister blog at www.justusscrapbooking.blogspot.com

Sorry the pic is so rubbish.. taken indoors, bad light and acetate!

Sunshine sister.

A bit of a rave from the grave...When we were challenged to Scrap the Big Picture I knew this great picture of Lisa & Jordan would be perfect.  Lisa was about 10 years old and such a great big sister to the other 3, guess it holds in good stead now she's a Mum herself.

My Mum took the photos and in her things I found a batch of other photos from the same day, back in August 1998, they make a great layout, and I used some of the words Mum wrote on the backs for journalling bullet points.

Parent highs.

Had a lovely thought provoking email from our friend Will in the US on Friday. I love to get his family chat emails, and have even saved some of the priceless emails he sent me when Ross  was staying with Will & Michele after his time with Camp America .

Will said he was having what he called a 'Parent High' .....he had been asked by his son to go along with him to his former college where he was giving a career talk. Will had taken Ben to Thailand once on business and now he was joining his son on a similar 'journey'.  (Had had to promise not to do the overtly proud Dad thing, but I'm sure body language would have said it all, and Will's big smile!)


I know exactly what he means about Parent Highs, sadly I guess by nature of the title you have to have some lows to appreciate the highs!  But at least with 5 kids you can generally glean some high moments from amongst the less good!


Zac takes his driving test tomorrow and we're hoping all goes brilliant for him!

Lucky!

My mind was still on the layout with a Film Title and this photo is one I had planned to scrap sometime for Tayla, Zac's girlfriend...so I was telling her how I thought 'Mr & Mrs Smith' might be a fun title, (like incognito names for when you'e staying in a hotel)...and this picture was taken when we spent a week at Centre Parks earlier this year.

Luckily Tayla said she thinks it's a bit of a cheesy picture.. and hey! isn't that the film where the couple were always trying to kill each other..!!

Back to the drawing board! Looking forward to seeing some of the girls for scrapping on Weds..x

Film Titles.

....it was my turn to set a scrapping Twitter challenge, though I didn't realise when Linda set hers that it would turn into a rotating challenge in itself to set the challenge each month.. though happy to step up to the plate!

Find or take a photo and make the layout title a Film Name.. at first I thought maybe it was too hard and toyed with things like The Remains of the Day and Apocalypse Now, wondering what we could all do....but overnight I have had a few great ideas.. I owe Jordan several layouts and could offer her 'A Grand Day Out' for her birthday skate at Eden last year or maybe Waterworld' for some of her fishing pics? 

We'll see. All I need now is the time allocated...

Star in the sky!

In the office til 10.30pm last evening sending out quotes and letters... all in a good cause.. to stop the phone ringing off the wall this morning while we took time off to make the most of a chilly but clear and windless morning.

We went as far as the Runnelstone, fishing was not great (we left fishing mascot Kate home to go to school) but did get a few pollock and Pops caught our first bass!
The sun shone and the sky was blue, save for the vapour trails over Land's End..almost a star shape!

In by 1pm and an afternoon at work, that's what living and working in Cornwall is meant to be about!

One for Karen?

I often keep a note on here of the quotes which feature at random with one of the gadgets attached to the blog.. for tomorrow they will be gone..today's is one for Karen, our scrapbooking photographer..

Life is like a good black and white photograph, there's black, there's white, and lots of shades in between...George Harrison
(Not sure when he said / wrote that but I guess there were a good few psychadelic colours in his view too!)

After the great weekend, doing what you love best with the people you like, it's certainly a grey day to have to chug back into routine of packed lunches / work / more meals / more washing / ironing eh?

On a roll now..

.. so I may as well post the Paintball layout I did, again using beads, but on ribbons and using some of the Autumn stash Linda had supplied, but the colours fitted real well with the beads I took with Zac's paintball pics in mind!

I had a great Superdry bag which is bright orange outside with a camoflage pattern inside, and I was able to use this for matting and making the journal pocket....all in the essence of true SCRAPbooking! 

Wet, Wild & a bit of a Fluke!

This was my first layout of the weekend, quite untidy and grungy for me, but I really like it now!  The idea was to work with wire, beads & passport size photos and I had just the set ready, Kate out on the boat after a knee boarding session! (She wasn't well pleased at the prospect, but loves it now.. obviously 'hip' enough!)  

We all started with white 'bumpy / pimply' paper and worked up some chalking / inking for colour.  Whilst getting a nice bracket chalked on I managed to stick the frame to the lower part of the bottom photos and when I peeled them off half the image went too... thus the 'distressed' sepia effect on all the photos as I had to follow through and make it seem intentional! 

I do love the bead fish I bought specially.. oh and homage to K8, but we will have to wait to see some trendy shots of D+ (D..add..Dad!)

Weekend scrapbooking!

Just had my third coffee since getting in, dragged my sorry ass off the sofa and thought I'd have a peek at the pics I took of my layouts I did yesterday and this morning at Linda's weekend at Polurrian Hotel in Mullion.
(needed couple of hours to blob after getting home as it was pretty busy, scrapping from 10am til past 11 last evening... oh, with great food, lovely company and lots of laughs along the way)

So pleased with the layouts and the photos of them I couldn't resist putting them on here. I did a couple which were quite in my usual style, quite square and neat...a single photo, or way too many..and of photos which are long overdue for a layout, it was now or never. 

Both use transparencies and this one of Kate last year at Truro on a Christmas Shopping night has silver embossed letters and I used some great pink papers, even an old favourite which has been lurking in my special papers box for over a year!


I had a whole lot of snow photos from last February and made a double spread below.. the whitewash core papers put through the Cuttlebug with snowflake design and then sandpapered was perfect for under the acetates.

Weekend wishes..

Well it's the weekend... and I'm off to spend a day and a half at Linda's Scrapbook Weekend at the Polurrian Hotel, Mullion. Hope the mizzle which has descended on us today is not in for the weekend , otherwise I may not be able to see the Island from the hotel. Years ago we went to Mullion with Ross when he was about 5 years old, he saw Mullion Island and some other bits of rock off the coast and promptly asked 'Which one is the Brison's?'  We laughed, mainly as he sounded so knowledgable and also 'cos it reflected just how often he had stood at Cape Cornwall or Sennen with his Dad peering out to the Brison's wishing he could see the treasure which might have awaited an avid diver!

It's been a while since I blogged, been a bit preoccupied with my 'sister-blog' which I have created with the girls from the Just Scrapbooking classes. http://www.justusscrapbooking.blogspot.com/  Now I'm not sure where to post stuff, as wouldn't want to bore readers of both! But here's a big picture page I did last week, playing with Castaway Inks and stamps.

Funny to see me with Zac, he's like the grown-up when we go snorkelling, hard to believe he was my little Zac-man just a few years ago!

Weekend thoughts should go to three of our close friends... Frans.. who celebrates his birthday on Tuesday (I think), remembering his visit last year and how it was that Mum had worked her magic putting us in touch again at such a poignant time.  Have a great day Frans, I guess you may have something special planned for the weekend?

Secondly to Will & Michele in the US, who have close friends needing some TLC, I am thinking of you guys x

Worth keeping!

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.   Thomas Szasz

Think I'm really turning into a jaded old woman!

Sad and beautiful.

Not sure when it started but I just LOVE anemones!  You never seem to see them in a florists window or a special bouquet, more often than not they are crowded together in a plastic bucket outside the shop or at a farm stall on the road, all closed up and rather overlooked.

Those of us who know, buy them, take them home and marvel at the fantastic colours as they open up, pinks, purples, reds.  After a day or two the flowers seem to turn inside out until the petals fall off, they seem to be straining for your attention, until the effort is too much. Sad but beautiful.