It was Wicked :)

I have been wanting to go and see Wicked for ages so you can imagine how excited I was when Anna told me she had got us tickets as part of my birthday pressie :) So last Thursday we headed off to London for a bit of retail therapy, food and the show.
First stop was Lola's Cupcake Bar in Selfridges :)

The cakes were gorgeous, though sadly they don't travel well round London, even in the lovely cardboard carton :( These are the ones I bought the girls!

After that we entered the hell hole that is Primark...the Oxford street store has to be the worst I have ever been in! We still managed to grab a few bits and pieces though :) Whilst wandering back down Oxford Street we were tempted by the smell of waffles from the Gourmet waffle bar..yum!Though believe me, there is nothing gourmet about trying to eat a waffle off a polystyrene tray with a plastic fork!
We carried on down Oxford Street and went down Regents Street where Anna had her first experience of Hamleys...hmm, maybe half term wasn't the best time to go there?!It was even worse than Primark! Enough was enough and we headed off to Victoria to pick up the show tickets and go to dinner. Dinner was at the very lovely Chez Gerrard restaurant in the Grosvenor Hotel. After that it was finally time for the highlight of the day :)
When we realised our tickets were in the stalls there was even more excitement ! All I can say is wow, the show was amazing and I can see why people go back to see it more than once.There is so much to take in, the scenery,the amazing costumes...I kept getting distracted and missed a few bits of the 'plot' so I think I need to read the book now!Thank you Anna for such a fab day :)

Whoosh...

So where did half term go?! I can't believe the girls are back at school again tomorrow & Tuesday and that we're in our mad month for family birthdays and heading for the countdown for Christmas already...time certainly seems to go quicker the older you get!
This is my Pencil Lines layout for this week.Thought I'd better strat scrapping the pumpkin photos straight away as I have so many I love :)

I used Scenic Route Salem papers & die cuts.Love love this paper,having used it on a couple of layouts a couple of years ago.It is so perfect for pumpkin pics :)
I will be back tomorrow with the rest of last weeks goings -on (including Wicked and very squashed cup cakes!)

I love Lyzzy :)

Because she told me where there was a pumpkin field!! Okay, so it was two years ago and this is the first year that I've remembered to ask her for directions before she headed off her for her hols!
We did have a trip to Willows planned ,the picnic was all packed ,when I realised that the kids go free vouchers all expired at the beginning of October -oops!So after a quick phone call to check we could actually go on to the pumpkin field ,we headed off to the PYO & farm shop :)I absolutely love pumpkins,don't know why ,they just make me fell really Autumn-y :) So, apologies to Anna, but photo overload of orange-ness coming up!







They had loads 'ready picked' but were happy for us to go round the field to hunt for our own...we came home with the smallest one on the field ,as chosen by Holly! Luckily the people working there had already coveniently arranged the picked pumpkins in big piles around the filed, perfect for getting the kids to sit on!! We will be heading back there next year :)
Tomorrow Em is off to a freinds for a sleepover and Holly has her friend coming here for a sleepover...it's like musical houses!
And Thursday I am so looking forward to as I'm off to London with Anna for a cupcake in Selfridges,dinner at Chez Gerard and then to see Wicked....I'm so excited !!
And Friday afternoon will be spent carving our pumpkins ready for Saturday :)
I'm off to scour the net for pumpkin papers....:)

It's half term :)

Woohoo!!
Today we have been on a pumpkin hunt but I'll share those photos later :)
This is my Pencil Lines Lo for this week, we joined up with The Next Step this week and also used sponsorship from May Arts ribbon.I used
My Minds Eye Breaking Free paper
May Arts ric ric & ribbon
KI Memories lace cardstock
Pink Paislee letter stickers

Prima crystal swirls

Sunday was crop day and as per usual I got very little done! Most of my time was spent talking to Karen and Kerry and eating brownies...ooops! I got two Lo's almost done though which is better than nothing!

Be back later with pumpkin pics!

Yum :)

I forgot that I said I'd add photos of Em's 'cake' display from Saturday :) Now, I am no domestic goddess, and believe me there was an awful lot of cursing whilst I made these cupcakes! The recipe said to use an electric mixer ,(which I don't have) or a whisk ,so I used the small handheld electric whisk...hence lots of flour floating around the kitchen and gunged up mixer blades once the mixture was thick!I'll be looking for an easier recipe next time!I decided to use some ready made icing for them and then stocked up on lots of different toppings, my favourite being the Waitrose 'balls' in really bright colours :)Once in the lovely new cupcake stand, I added a 13 birthday candle, no 13 sparklers and then added some other indoor sparklers as well.It looked really good and even her friends were impressed :)

Em is still recovering from her cold/flu whatever it was,having spent most of yesterday asleep :( She's been a bit more lively today and this afternnon we chilled out and watched Sleepless In Seattle together,she's normally more into Harry Potter,Twilight etc so I need to introduce her to a few chick flicks ;)!

Birthday Blog Hop winner

Okay, I have got my girls to pick a winner :)

Kazuko said...
Happy birthday Pencil Lines! This is so fun!
10:35 AM



Thank you once again to everyone for taking the time to join in the blog hop and for leaving so many comments:) I will try and get round as many of your blogs as possible in the near future!

Party on!

Thank you so much to everyone who's stopped by my blog during the blog hop and left such lovely comments :) You still have a couple of hours to leave a comment on the post below to be in with a chance of winning the My Little Shoebox goodies :)Tomorrow I will get one of my girls to pick a winner and post their name on here :)
So as well as the birthday cyber crop,we've still had time for a new sketch for you this evening :)This week we were very generously sponsored by Cosmo Cricket -swoon! I had planned to use Early Bird but in the end the the photo which jumped out at me went perfectly with Earth Love :)I can honestly say I am so pleased with this LO, though for some reason the colours don't look so great in the photo,it's much 'warmer' in real life.Anyway, this Lo basically tells the story of how every year I try and get the perfect leaf throwing photo and each year I fail! I have so many photos of the girls with their eyes shut, not a leaf in shot or just a huge blur!

All supplies from the Earth Love range.The leaves are cut out and raised up on foam pads.I also used American Crafts felt thickers.
Last night Em had her birthday sleepover.Just before her friends arrived she started to feel a bit flushed and dizzy.Although she made it ok through the night ,she promptly went back to bed once everyone had gone home this morning and has felt pretty rough ever since :( Looks like she will home tomorrow ,which she is not happy about as it will ruin her 100% attendance record at school, bless her! A valuable lesson was learnt last night though, twelve and thirteen year old girls cannot be trusted with popcorn...we spent ages this morning hoovering it up and picking the stuff off various throws and cushions!Yesterday I made proper big cupcakes to go in the fancy cupcake stand that we bought a couple of weeks ago,we added indoor sparklers and Em loved it :)Will share photos tomorrow :)

And make sure you check out Anna's announcement over on Pencil Lines too,below this weeks new sketch :) This is part of my contribution :)

I'll be back tomorrow with my RAK winner!

Birthday party blog hop :)

As part of our pass the parcel blog hop ,I'm ofering this RAK of My Little Shoebox goodies and a few co-ordinating flowers:) All you have to do is leave me a comment and I'll announce the winner on Monday:)

*blog comments now closed *

To unwrap the next layer of the pass the parcel over on over to Ania's blog :) Happy blog hopping!