Autumn has arrived :)

Finally the damp and drizzle have disappeared and today we have had gorgeous sunshine :)

Yesterday we went to the farm shop to go to the pumpkin field.Sadly, it wasn't as good as last year :( Although I did phone and check they still had pumpkins in the field ,when we got there, they'd already picked and packed most of them :( (Much much earlier than last year!)I managed to find a few good ones to roll together for Holly to sit on though ! I'm glad we didn't leave going there til half term though,it would have been really disappointing!

This afternoon we went conker collecting again, this time with mum & dad. We also did a bit of leaf throwing :)

I will admit to still fighting with my new camera ,hopefully I'll start improving soon!

To help, I have invested in this book, the sooner it arrives the better! I also manged to lose my lense cap today so I've had to order a new one -doh!Thankfully the replacement one comes with a cord to attach it.

Last weeks scrapping :)

I meant to put these on here sooner ,but what with the rubbish weather we've had for most of the week it wasn't that easy to get decent photos.They're not great pics but I'm still learning with the new camera so bear with me!
For this one I used the new Jillibean soup papers, as well as the bakers twine and corrugted flower.The big brown flower shape is part of the packaging from the corrugated shapes.Love these photos that Anna took :)

For this one I used Echo Park Walk in the Park papers, and more bakers twine :) The colours of the photo aren't quite true as I printed it out on the wrong sort of photo paper -oops!.I will bet round to pe-printing it when I have more ink!

I have a couple more to share,but I'll pace myself as I don't seem to scrap that often these days !
As mentioned earlier ,the weather has been pretty dire this past week.I usually love Autumn ,but I love the bright ,crunchy days, not the damp and drizzly ones which is mainly what we've had!
This week is a busy one, Holly has her Harvest Festival assembly, where she actually has a speaking part (it's a whole school assembly and there aren't places parts up for grabs!) and another Victorian themed day on Thursday.Em has started dancing classes again as well as swimming with friends :)
Yesterday morning I had the house to myself ,which is rare for a Saturday so I had a giggle watching the out takes on the Friends DVDs :)
And for Lucy, this is the farm shop where I took my pumpkin photos last year :) http://www.pearcesfarmshop.com/ Hopefully we'll go again this year :)

Getting there...

I am slowly learning about my camera :) Since deciding which one I was getting I have been reading this great guide on the Canon website. To be honest, I find manuals a bit heavy going.This is much more useful as it has lots of photos showing the effect changing the settings has, perfect for a slow learner like me! This weekend I had a go at depth of field,and I finally got the sort of photo I have wanted to take for ages :)

Please excuse the dust on my Momiji, it will be removed by tomorrow afternoon! I dread dusting them as they tend to have a domino effect,I knock one and the whole lot are likely to follow suit!

Today was crop day:) It was lovely to catch up with people and actually do some scrapping :) I did three Lo's, though two still need titles - watch this space :) Plus it was a good excuse to stay indoors on such a miserable day!

Victorian Day

Today was Victorian Day for Holly's year at school :) They had to dress accordingly and went to vist a schools museum in Hitchin, taking with them a Victorian style lunch.Holly took a chunk of bread (!!), carrot,an apple and I made some scones last night, so one of those too :)She looked so sweet, like one of the Railway Children! The lovely pinafore & skirt were borrowed from my neighbour who had raided the costume department of her Amateur Dramatics group! The mop cap is a very old one I made for Em when she was in Year 5.

Oh dear!

I seem to be failing miserably on the blogging front :( Trouble is, I know if I don't carry on I will miss being being able to look back and use it as a reference as to when stuff happens!
So, trying to remember back three weeks...
The girls are back in the swing of school now.I did take some first day photos but they weren't great and I somehow managed to not take any of Holly on her own- whoops!
Em has now started her GCSE courses.a year earlier than many schools.She is enjoying her choices though and a day when she has Drama is always a good day! Holly has started having clarinet lesons this term, at last someone is making use of the family clarinet! Her learning topic this term is the Victorians,including a trip to a schools museum this week, in Victorian dress.
Last week saw my birthday, I was very spoiled and got my long awaited new camera :) This is a present carried over over from my big 4 0 ) last year, I think it was worth the wait! I am slowly learning what all the buttons do, and hopefully will soon start being a bit braver and leaving that auto function unused!I have found a really useful guide to using a DSLR on the Canon site with I have been reading gradually over the past week or so :) So please Mrs B, stop nagging me!!
I also got a couple of Momiji's ,a DVD and some spending money :)The day was rounded off nicely with a trip to the pub with friends :)My birthday was also the same day as my mum & dad's 50th wedding anniversary.So on Saturday (which happened to be our 17th anniversary !) we all headed to my sisters for a 'family do' to celebrate :) Despite really bad traffic, we managed to get there before Mum & Dad and get everything set up in time (we had most of the food with us!) :) As well as having a proper cake, I made some cupcakes .They weren't my best attempt (the first batch went in the bin!) but they did look pretty :)
On Sunday we went to see if there were any conkers to collect ,as we went this time last year, but there weren't many down,so we'll be going back :) And luckily, Mum has had been given lots of flowers for me to practice taking photos of :)

Whoosh...

that how it feels the last six weeks have gone :(Tomorrow we are back in the land of packed lunches and homework :(
We were busy last week though :) Em had her kneee looked at and redressed on Tuesday.Although it was still open a bit (yugh!) ,it is healing ok (so the nurse says!) She will have one big scar there though once it's all dreid up!
In the afternoon we went to the Butterfly Farm.My photos of butterflies weren't great, as they flew around too much!

There are lots of designer gardens to walk round, including these walls which were filled with...well, just about anything really!

As is always the way, the weather turned gorgeous last week,just as many schools went back ! Typical!Luckily for us though it meant we had perfect weather on Thursday & Friday when we went to Legoland for two days :) There were times when it did feel like we were back in Florida...in a theme park, all wearing our summer clothes and spending ages in queues!
Here's a couple of photos, I'll write more in my next post :)

Catch up part 2!

So to carry on where I left off on Friday (I know my last post says Weds ,but that's when I first started writing it and saved it as a draft!)
On Friday,we finally managed to catch up Ann & the girls - better late than never! Check out the photos on Anna's blog,I love them :)I kept out of the way while Anna was taking them as sometimes when we are boith taking photos ,neither of us end up with any of them looking in the sme direction! I was also having a play with Anna's camera as I am hoping for a new one for my birthday...I need more practice though! We had taken a trip to the Dr's about Em's knee in the morning, and it didn't look too good so she wasn't feeling full of beans :( So although we were treated to a show by the others, it was definitely missing something!

On Saturday we finally got to see Toy Story 3 in 3D.If I'm honest, I didn't like it as much as the first two,I still managed to cry though !Loved the trailers we saw too and am really looking forward to the new Disney film 'Tangled' :)
Saturday evening saw Holly have a friend over for a sleepover and Em go to my Mum & Dad's for a sleepover.She was going to stay in Holly's room (Holly has to 'borrow' hers for sleepovers as hers is too small!)but climbimg up the ladder to the bed was a no no ,with her knee! Anyway, Holly & her friend eventually fell asleep about 12.30am, after Holly lost her third tooth this week!
And after saying I wasn't in the mood to do any scrapping, I now have a pile of five (yes,5!) waiting to go in my album :) Three are 'brand new' whilst two are ones that I had done at crops but were waiting for dates or that 'special' something ,to make them complete.Two of then I won't share though as they have Holly's friends in.
The pumpkin one is one that was waiting to be finished, thought I'd better get a move on as we're rapidly approaching pumpkin season again! And the bottom Lo is a new one, though I made a mistake on it and put the date as April when it should be August...doh!

Right, that si me all caught up for now.Tomorrow we are back at the Dr's with Em, depending on how we get on there kind of decides what we're doing the rest of the week....

Oh dear...

I don't think I'll be winning any awards for regular blogger of the year somehow ! I've had a bit of a 'switch off' recently...I haven't felt like blogging and seem pretty incapable of scrapping :( I've spent a couple of evenings pushing bits of paper & photos round a page, but nothing and has worked and I've given up in the end.Shame as I have tons of Disney stuff I want to start using.Maybe once the holidays are over I'll be back in more of a routine...

So a quick round up of what we've been doing the last couple of weeks....

The guinea pigs ended up staying a bit longer than originally planned for various reasons.It's lucky I didn't lose them all though ,as when I went to clean their hutch out one morning ,I discovered the bottom of the hutch was hanging off by about 2 inches!

Last week we did the dreaded school shoe shop,which should have been followed by a trip to see Toy Story 3.Except the cinema was closed due to an electrical problem :( But we got passes to another showing, upgraded to 3D.We just need to find time to go back!I actually went for a night out last week,for a lovely meal with some mum's from school :) And the folllowing day we took all the kids out to Fairlands Valley park in Stevenage.It was a lovely relaxed day and everyone had a good catch up :)

Last Sunday the girls and I went over to see Pitstone Windmill with my Dad.It's somewhere we used to go as kids so took me back a bit :) Realising that it was 20 yrs since I'd last been there made me feel a bit old though!

On Tuesday we went for our annual trip to Whipsnade Zoo.The day didn't go quite according to plan though :( Em fell over and ripped her knee open, requiring a trip to A&E and stitches :( We did see the little baby cheetahs before we came though :) (They are 4 weeks old!)

Anyway, as this has turned into a huge post, I'll carry on tomorrow :)

It will be...

...big! My Florida album,that is :) I went into John Lewis the other day and found the perfect book to use for the 'diary style' album I want to do of what we did each day :) With 80 pages, it's big enough to do a double page of each day,and as it's 12" by 16 1/2 ", large enough to get a few photos on each page :)I'm not going to make it lumpy & bumpy, it will just have maps,photos and journalling in it :) The front cover is as far as I've got ,but I still need to add something else to it, I'm not sure what though.

The guinea pigs seem happy so far and are getting lots of cuddles (weather permitting!)

Pencil Lines :)

This week I joined in at Pencil Lines :) I loved this sketch as soon as I opened the email from Anna :) (I still get the sketches sent to me for each week :) ) The photo I was used was my original choice,but then I tried to do a Florida layout.After faffing for a while I gave up and went back to my original choice of photo!



I used mix from October Afternoon papers from the Cherry Hill, Thrift Shop and Fly a Kite ranges, love how they all match so well :)I also used ribbon roses from Sarahs Cards,Doodlebug Loopy Lou stickers and AC glitter Thickers. I always find Kraft Bazzill difficult to photofraph, it tands to come out looking 'dirty'! The layout does look better if you click on the photo to enlarge it :)


On Friday Geoff was home so we went to Dunstable Downs for a bit of kite flying.Typically, the kids cheapy £3 kites performed far better than the huge stunt kite that Geoff had!

Holly doing a bit of lazy kite-ing! Yesterday morning the girls went to see Shrek 4 at the cheapy cinema in town ,whilst I went for a wander round the shops. I went into the British Herat Foudation shop and bought myself a bargain book to read whilst waiting for the girls :) I've done this a lot recently and have a huge pile of books under the bed at the moment,waiting for me to read them!

And Friday night we had some visitors arrive who will be staying with us for the next 10 days :) But I'll share photos of then tomorrow otherwise this post will be over loaded!

This weekend was a good one :)
Saturday was spent food shopping and mooching about the house (well us girls spent the afternoon bathing,nail painting & hair washing!) before heading over to Anna's for their annual barbecue :) The girls met Suki and loved her ,no photos though as she moves too fast! My camera had a very lucky escape,when I managed to embarrass myself by tripping and falling flat on my face,dropping it very hard.Luckily it survived and I love this photo of Holly's new hair band :)

The yesterday afternoon, we went to Hitchin Lavender,lavender fields and sunflowers together :) Although I kept hoping the sun would come out, I think my photos were probably better with it being fairly dull (note, my camera is qite old and I haven't photoshopped or 'popped' any of these!) I took loads of photos so I won't bore you with too many :)

The whole place smells gorgeous and you can hear the humming of the bees in the lavender :) We came home with three big bags full and five huge sunflowers :)

The first week

Yep, the first week of the holidays is almost over, and typically the glorious weather has vanished and we've had showers ,grey skies with just the odd bit of sunshine :( Oh well! Holly has been the busiest out of all of us ,with trips to friends and parties, how I wish I had the social life of a nine year old! Yesterday she went in to town with Geoff and had her ears pierced,she was more excited than nervous!


This morning we went down the lakes ,taking the tennis raquets & balls with us.This was to save losing all the balls over our hedges or smashing our neighbours new conservatory windows! I got some photos of the girls which I'm really pleased with (shame about the parched brown grass!)


This weekend we are off to the Bowkis Family bash ,the girls are really looking forward to meeting Suki :)
No more scrapping done, though I have finally tried out my lovely pink Bind It All and made asmall mini book :) (Which still needs photos !)

The second one :)

Yep, I have done my 2nd holiday layout ,it's a miracle! I have loads of different ways that I want to do my Florida albums,but as I can't decide where to start first I've been doing pretty much nothing so far :( I'm hoping to do a diary type album of what we did each day,another one with the maps and ride details etc and character meet ones for the girls...eventually! This is the one I did on Wednesday, strangely enough not using any of the Disney scrapping stuff I have just bought here or in the US! I used Echo Park paper (the yellow piece) and mixed it with some old Scenic Route Salem papers (the circles reminded me of Tigger!)I added some Kaisercraft pearls (the orange ones were coloured with a Sharpie as I didn't have the right colour ),some old Love Elsie ribbon and stamped some random bees :) The title is done using Junkitz and Scenic Route rub-ons (because I didn't have an alphabet with 3 g's in it!) Both girls have now finished school for the summer - yipee! Holly has had a friend round this afternoon ,whilst Em has been in hairdressers having some deep red streaks put in :) I will share a photo when I've has chance to look at them .
This weekend is Anna's crop so I might have some more scrapping to share next week :)

Almost the end of term...

and I can't wait :) Holly finishes on Wednesday and Em finishes Friday.It seems like this school year has gone on forever and I will be glad to see the back of it ,for Holly's sake...
Just trying to remember what we've been doing the last two weeks...!
Last weekend Holly and I put together the small green house that we'd bought her,I'm quite surprised at how sturdy it is! She has been busying herself planting sunflower seeds :)

Last week I finally did a layout :) The orange piece of paper lifts up and there's some journalling underneath, about some of the stuff Holly has been going through recently.It tucks under the big photo corner to keep it in place :) I used the lovely new Walk In The Park papers by Echo Park,which I got from 3 Jolly Scrappers :)I bought the collection pack, so I have loads more to play with still...watch this space :)
Last week Holly has her sports day at school.No photo taking allowed though :( We also had a bit of a 'surprise' in her school report ,as it stated how much she'd enjoyed her school residential trip..erm, hardly, we were delayed in Florida and she missed it!We now have a new report...
Well it must have been a pretty boring two weeks as I can't think of anything else we've done!
This weekend I've been suffering from the 'want to go back to Florida' blues :( It's not going to happen for a few years yet so I need to get over it! I think it was brought on by buying some bargain scrapping Disney stuff this weekend (mainly for Holly )!So I may just have to use some of it myself :)

One I prepared earlier!

Or at last weeks crop anyway! This is the one that needed the photo replacing on it as I'm so clumsy! I used lots of October Afternoon papers which I love,but I can never decide which side to use!

We are still enjoying a bit of a heatwave here, though to be honest ,last week was far too hot and sticky for my liking! Today and yesterday have been much more bearable though ,with lots of breeze :)

Yesterday was another day for sitting in the sun as we went to watch Holly take part in the Herts Folk Dance festival at Hatfield House. Needless to say, I have now have some annoying suntan stripes over my shoulders! It was a lovely day even if it was very hot! And I feel very left out that I am the only one without a fancy picnic bag so I'm hoping to remedy that this week!

This week is open evening at Holly's school, as well as meeting her new teacher.Anything will be an improvement on this years...though I can't believe another school year is almost over.It's two years since Em left junior school and two years till Holly leaves- scary thought!

Today I finally caught up and tackled the ironing mountain that has been growing in the kitchen since the weather turned really hot.I have been doing it on 'when iit's neded 'basis' recently!I also did a bit of tidyng up in the garden ,whilst Holly played 'London's Burning' in her tent,on the recorder :)The girls were going to have a picnic lunch in there too,but then Holly twisted her ankle and they ended up staying indoors!The old Princess tent has been very handy recently as there is very little shade in our garden until later in the day :)