Macro Monday!

I spent a few minutes out in the garden today looking for likely candidates to try out my new 100mm Macro lens, i got a little closer than I generally like to, to a spider and took and oportunistic snap of a hover fly who landed on a handy leaf. I love the last flower pic, if only i'd rearranged that front petal!

They were all taken at f11 so not a lot of ambient light, so i used my speedlight off the camera to get the right exposure. What do you reckon to my first attempt?

They've landed!

I have a couple of new feathery arrivals! These gorgeous girls are bantam chickens called Pekins and have the cutest short feathery legs! They are a little shy just now, but i'm sure they'll come out of their shells soon!(gettit???) So I introduce to you...

Dolly

Jolene

Mabel

Maggie

and .Noelle

Wassail and Embossed Letters Tutorial

I'm loving the new BG Wassail range and even though it's a Christmas line, i'm sure it's going to be excellent for all sorts of themes, but for my first page I went for something inbetween! It's snow, but it was nowhere near Christmas!! For the lettering i've embossed some Doodlebug sticker letters - a really fun and easy technique that i thought i'd share here too!

1. Select your chosen letters, i've used Doodlebug Hopscotch sticker alphas, but you could use an that are cardstock based - BasicGrey monograms would be awesome for this!

2. Cut out the letters you need for your title and put them inside your chosen Cuttelbug embossing folder. I love dots so this one is perfect!

3. Run through your Cuttlebug.

4. Use your chosen sanding tool (I love my BasicGrey Precision File Set) to sand back some of the raised areas.

5. And voila! Your finished letters....

6. I think they look pretty cool in situe too!

Blast from the past!

I'll freely admit that back in the day I was a New Kids fan, and like every other old band they are having a comeback! I kinda like Summertime - but after a few watches I still can't fully get my head around the fact that Joey Macintyre isn't still 15!

Pretty in Pink

I don't know how I do it... someone or something must be looking out for me where weather is concerned. Every time i've had time of this year i've been mostly rewarded with glorious weather (at least comparatively speaking!) And this time is no exception - it was gorgeous today, basking in the sun while enjoying a pub lunch at the Red Shoot Inn at Linwood in the New Forest. If you're ever in the area, a visit is essential, they are the most welcoming pub and well loved by ramblers, dog walkers, horse riders, cyclists and motorcyclists as well as tourists of course! It's especially dog friendly with a bowl of dog biscuits on the bar for canine patrons. Martha tagged along with us today and modelled her bib to soak up most of her drool! Very fetching I think you'll agree!

The obligatory paddle followed of course!

Harness the power!

Sometimes a girl loves water a bit too much, and as i'm less keen and don't always fancy wading in to retrieve a Newfy who refuses to come out of the water, sometimes Martha just has to stay on-lead! On a collar there is always the problem of the lead getting a bit wrapped round an excitable 'puppy' so I invested in a harness from Canine Spirit (a great active-dog supplies shop) - it has a ring on the top so the lead is safely out of the way of big newfy legs! It also has a handle that makes it perfect for future water-rescue training!!

Martha loves it!

Happy Birthday to Meeee!

I had a fantastic Birthday yesterday, after taking a half day off to start a few days off work, I had a lovely relaxing stroll in the forest and watched the girls free range for ages!!

I'm very lucky to know a lot of very clever people, so received lots of gorgeous handmade cards! This first one is a Nick Mercer original (from the guys and gals at work)  - it's all hand cut (from Core'dinations and BasicGrey), and I love it!

This one is from lovely Emma, who's definately a star cardmaker in the making!

This one's from Jenny P - she nabbed the pic of Martha from my blog and embellished it with our standard answer about age! She's the same age as me, although she always mentions that she's a couple of weeks younger!

A gorgeous butterfly card from Mum, with an added row of teeny chicken feet!

Sandie made this funky tree card - loe the velvet paper and the birdy!

And finally this flowery masterpiece from Anita, isn't this a gorgeous card!!

Teeny cakes were the order of the day and for me they have to be chocolate with more chocolate, topped with Cadbury's Buttons - Yummy!

I was very, very lucky to receive some wonderful gifts, including a gorgeous chocolate cord American Crafts d-ring album from Anita - thanks hunny! Many more of my pressies had a noticable theme.... no prizes for guessing it from these pics!

Flowers are always lovely too.... thanks to Becks for some gorgeous citrus hued roses and freesias. They smell gorgeous and are currently a welcome brightener for my scrapping area. I feel inspired to scrap in yellow all of a sudden!

Another AMAZINGLY geneous pressie was this fantastic 100mm Macro Lens... you'll have to watch this space for evidence of me getting to grips with it!

So all in all a fantastic day! Thanks so much for all the kind Birthday wishes via email, text, and via Facebook etc. Love you all! xxx

Everybody be cool.... you, be cool....

It's like whoever schedules the Channel 4 movies on a Monday night has been browsing my DVD collection - they seem to be showing all those classic (nay cult) movies that you can watch over and over - so much so that you know it nearly word for word, but that 90% of people you know have never seen... Last week was the classic - The Fifth Element which I adore! Bruce Willis before he was too old to be an action hero and Chris Tucker in possibly the funniest role ever!

This week i've just sat down and I can't belive my luck.... it's From Dusk till Dawn! Gorgeous George as the most appealing ciminal known to man (er.... to woman).... i remember seeing it at the cinema with a friend... whom I didn't tell the twist before hand! I love this film so much I even have the soundtrack!

My picture today is Martha in her new favourite watering hole. It's a lovely big lake in the New Forest which is deep enough for her to have a proper swim, not just a paddle... Perfect!

I have a perfectly good silver laptop.... but still....

I love my Dell laptop.... it does everything it says on the can, but at the end of the day i'm a girl so still find myself yearning for a pretty pink or scrummy lime green version... I'd managed to make peace with myself that I don't *need* a coloured computer and all was good with the world.... until today.

You know those irritating flyers that come tumbling out of magazines, littering the floor and generally getting in the way? Well I was taking a peek at the new Digital Camera magazine when about a million bits and pieces dropped out... of course they went straight in the box that lives under my desk for recycling.... but then a few minutes later, something pretty caught my eye... peeking out from among the 'match the symbols to win' cards and book club leaflets was a flyer from Dell.... Now as I said at the top of this post, I don't need a new laptop but Dell have come up with yet another way to tempt the vibrant, young (ahem!) scrapbooker about town.... and here for your viewing pleasure they are....

I defy you to not *want* nay *need* one of these..... To see more and to read about the artist, Mike Ming, click here...

Dotty.... you were surprised?

I have a longstanding passion for dots.. if there is a spotty sheet in a paper pack, it's always the first one i go for... i love them so much that I often can't resist cutting into them... that full 12x12 vista of polka dots is often far too good to hack into... so much so that these spotty sheets end up as a background to my page. Like this one and these ones.

It's also the reason this is my favourite Cath Kidston  bag! (Tesco Value Daaaarling!)

But on this occasions I was very well behaved.... using about a third of this gorgeous October Afternoon paper on this page - if i'm honest I couldn't bring myself to use it all as I wanted to use some of the other side on this page too! It's the cool leafy one if you were wondering....

I love this picture of Martha and Lola, so very, very cute with their big kissy noses!!

A Rare Treat!

Wanted to share a couple of pictures from the last couple of days - we've been so very, very lucky to be having a glimpse of an Indian Summer (i hope!) - it's been gorgeous the last couple of days and when that coincides with the weekend it's a rare treat!

A couple of classic Martha poses...

A snorkling Martha... even including bubbles!!

I have no idea what's going on with Martha's tongue in this one! Check out the weird reflection!

And who can resist a teeny weeny baby Belted Galloway!

Mellow Goodness

Sometimes you just need something sweet and mellow... i've been enjoying this on my iPod this week.

Adoration!

More lovely Studio Calico goodness today, the little retro ad at the bottom is from an October Afternoon sheet - I adore it!! They are all pretty random but there seems so far to be one for every occasion!!

Champion!

While the rest of the girls got busy with theirs kits last night I also managed to squeeze in a couple of pages! For this one I used the September Studio Calico kit and added in my favorite 'coming soon' addition to Papermania - these funky lime green alphas aren't out until January, but are so worth the wait!

The picture is one of Martha at our local 'Rustic Fayre' with a very impressive string of dribble!!