All things October!

10.10.2010 - A lucky day for those who believe in the power of numbers, but for me, it marks my 1st wedding anniversary!  I can't believe how quickly this year has blown by and all the things I have set out to do this year I have almost achieved so I am feeling proud of myself and thankful for my fabulous husband!  The last leg now is to complete my secondment next week and pass my assessment for my PTC level 3 teaching awards...  I have been trying to complete my lesson plan today and started to get butterfly's so I thought I would take a break and write a blog post instead.  What do you think of the picture above?  I love it I took it 2 weeks ago at Alexandra Palace when I was going to the Stampers Exhibition.  The palace was once a weekend home of Henry the 8th and its one of my favorite spots in London.  The other thing I love about the picture is the beauty of Autumn that it shows and it's my favorite season I love the bright blue sky, the warmth of the sun with a bite of wind on your cheeks and the leaves turning their rainbow of colours! 

Volunteers needed!

Blue Peter Whizz Kidz Appeal

Volunteers are needed to work at the Blue Peter Whizz Kidz

Go Cardz Appeal fulfilment Centre in Victoria.

Whizz-Kidz have devised an innovative and creative project.

They will ask Blue Peter viewers to design and create handmade

Christmas cards which will then be sold in Tesco

stores throughout the UK on Whizz-Kidz’ behalf. The Cards

will be sold for a minimum donation of £1 for 2 cards. The

money raised by the appeal will fund a revolutionary new

project for Whizz-Kidz. Whizz-Kidz aims to establish a network

of clinics around the UK where a disabled child will

have their assessment and fitting with a therapist and can

take home their chair on the same day.

They are looking for volunteers to help man their Go-

Cardz fulfilment centre from the beginning of September

2010, when they will begin putting together card making materials

for Blue Peter viewers, right through to December

2010, when the handmade cards will be distributed to Tesco

stores nationwide. The fulfilment centre will operate 7 days

a week from 9am - 1pm & 2pm - 6pm.

They estimate they will need over 1500 volunteers to help

man the fulfilment centre. The fulfilment centre will be

based at Whizz Kidz HQ at Elliot House, 10-12 Allington

Street, Victoria, SW1E 5EH.

A volunteer diary planner has been set up with Volunteer

spot, where volunteers can choose and book online the

dates that are most convenient for them. Please follow this

link to sign up to volunteer:-

http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/119-62820606862

 

 

The dates I have volunteered for are:

2nd October, 6th November & 4th December 2010 (morning shift).

Creative Design Team call!!

So my favorite hybrid site are looking for people to join their creative design team - I couldn't belive what I was reading!  I'm so excited!  These are my entries let me know what you think....

Holiday review part 2

The 80's Rewind Festival was fabulous and quite surreal at times.  Henley on Thames is very very pretty and I could easily live there as well but would need to be a higher earner to fit into that lifestyle - but one can dream? The whole weekend played music from that era including all the food stands, bars and the fun fair.  All the live music was pretty good but my highlights would be 10cc, Level 42, The beat, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Odyssey, The weather Girls.  The collaboration between Go West , ABC and Tony Hadley was pretty smooth Tony Hadley as a young man I has a crush on him but what young girl didn't? As an older man he reminds me a bit of a Tom Jones in the making he can still belt out the tunes and I was very impressed that he sang a hit record of his nemesis Duran Duran's Rio he also did covers of songs by The Killers, King of Leon and the Hives. He was very personable and got the crowd going even when it started to pour with rain for the last 2 hours! Damon loved it, we popped his cherry so to speak as he is a festival virgin!  But we didn't camp we stayed in a hotel.  This is definitely a very grown up festival as you would expect from somewhere like Henley - There were people mooring their boats and yachts then coming in to join the fun...
Lots of families and lots of people dressed up!  Damon said to me "Only you could stand in the middle of a field eating a cupcake and drink champagne"  Well of course dahling!  Is there any other way to do festival??

Holiday review part 1

Well It has been a crazy busy with work since I have been back and I haven't had a minute to myself really!  So last night I loaded up all the photos that I wanted to share and I am now at my dest at work blogging!  Shhh don't tell anyone - but I think it's the only way I will get to blog.

So I had a lovely break in France but it rained most of the time so it prevented us from doing the tours my Mother in Law had planned so the following pictures were taken when the sun peeped out!  The house is just lovely it is an old stone barn that they have renovated over the years and they have kept the decor in keeping with the age of the barn.  There is also a stream that runs along the edge of the garden and Opium the horse lives next door in the paddock.  The other neighbour is Monsuir Le Reddet the wine producer and lovely it is too! The bedrooms are all decorated in true french vintage style that I LOVE I could easily live here all the time and I cannot wait to go again next year, its so peaceful and the sky at night is dark and with no street light and you can see all the stars.  I didn't get to stop in Paris in the end as Shelia (MIL) seamlessly corodinated the journey so that there was minimal waiting time between tansport changes - thats how fab she is! I want to do a 1 day stop next visit, it went so fast but I hope you like the pictures.

Off to France!

 It's finally time for my summer holiday!  I tell you I cannot wait to go to sleep to night, then wake up and know I am on my way to France!  Damon and I are off to Sancerre in the Loire Valley to stay at his parents house for a few days.  I have never been but I have been looking at pictures of it on the Internet and it looks sooo pretty!  Lots of country side, its an old town with lots of history plus its a famous wine region, we will be visiting the wine tasting caves I'm sure!  So to commemorate this holiday I made a mini book with a french theme, its from a free kit designed by Vinnie Pearce.  Its available from http://www.2peasinabucket.com/

Check back for pictures,  I'm going to try and blog from my blackberry......

1st digi LO

So this is my 1st digital layout of my beloved Damon I am going to put it in a frame for him for his birthday next week so he knows how much I love him...altogether now arhhhhh!

What's wrong with people?

What's wrong with people? I have joined a 6 month card swap on http://www.2peasinabucket.com/ and June's theme was "friends" me being the over achiever that I am had my batch done, dusted and posted by 4th June!  They weren't due until the 15th - so when I hadn't heard from the hostess to say she had received them, I emailed her last week she said she didn't have them and could I chase it up?  The next day I get an email from her say that my package had arrived and the contents were MISSING! MISSING can you believe that someone took my cards but then had the cheek to post the empty package on? Honestly!

Well I hope if someone receives a card made by me they like it!  So here are the replacement 7 that I had to make.....

Father's Day

So Father's day is next weekend so I thought I would try something new.  This card I made with the new Tim Holtz's die range from Sizzix actually the whole card is made with Sizzix stuff I love it all and have all the die machines - what can I say I can't get enough of it! The backing card  (core'ordinations)I used two of the embossing plates and then sanded it a bit so the colour came through.  I also used Ranger's crackle paint on the angels wings for the first time I think it turned out ok.  I love the bling on the crown and the cute red patterned paper that is just showing through the die cut heart, who says that you can't have bling on a male card???

New Stuff

So this is my first set of Trinchies, they are a bit like Inchies but 3x3.  I made them as part of my swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. I have to say I really like taking part in swaps and its a good way to push yourself creatively. I'm not really a bright colour girl but I like the turn out, so something I may need to try again. The backing paper came from a freebie in a magazine from about 3 years ago that I came across when I was having a clear out, I knew I would use them one day!! The stamp is Hero Arts.  I made the tiny banner and used my smallest stickers to decorate it also I used Doodlebug flock on the cupcakes a bit of glitter, the paper I embossed with an embossing plate from Sizzix and the 'enjoy' was cut from my trusty steed the Silhouette.  So it just goes to show you don't always have to buy loads of new stuff to get a result and stay on trend.

1st 12x12 Layout

 This is my first 12x12 layout, I'm really pleased with the colour combination, the dimension it reflects this celebration well. I have always been a bit daunted by creating layouts and scrapbooking I think that's why I have always made cards and the odd book, the scrapbooking side is always orders for other people. Mind you this is no different, its for my swap that I am taking part in on 2peas for my partners pictures of the dishes she makes for this years Thanksgiving celebrations... But I think I may have to start doing my own it wasn't so scary!!

New Beginnings!

Well the sun is finally out and everyone is feeling good.  So with that in mind I have decided to take the plunge and open an Etsy shop, have ordered my business cards today and have registered my intent with the Tax Office!  ahhh it feels good, now we will see where this new journey is going to take me.

So another good reason to blog is that its my sister in laws birthday (Happy Birthday Carly!)  I made her this lovely banner using the Spring Junque banner collection from House of 3 desgins - get soo much inspiration from them.  Hope she likes it.  Enjoy!