That's not my name...

The latest challenge at A True Friend went live over the weekend - this time it's all about your pets as parents or yourself as a 'parent' - my page follows but the rest of the DT have some fab pages so it's definately worth a visit!! My page features something I've not done for a long while... Die Cutting!! I just couldn't resist these cute little Quickutz clouds and toadstools!!

Be back later with some pics of the weekend!

I promise.... no spoilers!

Well I finally did it, embraced my Trekkie side and popped to my local Empire to watch the new Star Trek film, and it was well worth a watch, amazing CG, stunning cinematography and a great story... but enough of the pleasantries... It was TOTALLY awesome!!!!! With re-makes (or re-inventions) you never know if it's going to be fantastic or a disappointing pile of dross... and thankfully it was the former! The cast were fantastic (Zachary Quinto especially!) and not once was I disappointed with the choices JJ Abrams (who it seems can do no wrong!) made. I loved Chekov's oh so terrible accent in homage to TOS, had a great time spotting the cast before they were properly revealed (spotted Bones a mile off!) and enjoyed enough obscure fan-friendly references (inc Admiral Archer's beagle) to keep any Trekkie happy. All in all a great night out...!

  

So enough of the fan girl squee..... here's another page in my continuing mission (get it?) to use my Sassafras numbers... This one was easy using a ''#1'. It also includes a yimmy cork deer from Chatterbox - their latest stuff is pretty good!!

My pic of the day last night was a bit of a last minute thing... I'm ashamed to say I'd nearly forgotton all about it! However I did of course have my camera in my bag on the way home from the film last night and grabbed this quick pic of the sun setting over the heath.

What's your number?

The latest Studio Calico kit includes this pack of Chipboard numbers from Sassafras, while I initially loved the look of them, I'm one of those people who has endless sheets of Thickers with a full selection of numbers left over forlornly on the sheet. My gut reaction when I opened the kit was 'what the hell am I going to do with a shed load of numbers??'

But being the cheery optimist that I am (haha) I decided to embrace the challenge and pledge to attempt to use at least one number on each page with the kit... and here's the first!

It features a cute donkey from a couple of weeks ago - the fun coffee mug ring stamp is also from the SC kit - I love their quirky stamps! If you've got the it why not have a go at this challenge too? Link me to your pages in the comments so I can go and have a peek!

Not what you'd call subtle...

The new BG LIme Rickey isn't what you'd call subtle, but I still love it! The cute birds are a bonus of course! I grabbed some yummy green Prima alphas in felt that I had sitting around and created this page featuring Martha and one of her favourite toys. Maybe this page says more about my throwing skills though... her doys do end up in the pond quite often!

I dashed out between the showers over the weekend to walk the doglets and do a quick recee of the forest for any likely subjects - Martha is an obvious choice...

 

But even better was my first Donkey Foal of the year! This little girl was less than a day old, as her mum was pretty darn pregnant the day before!

 

Amongst all the rain a couple of bright periods snuck up on me - just in time to get out and about in the garden (latest additions are Aspargus Peas, Kohl Rabi and the planting out of all my beans) and to grab a few pictures of the girls in soem early evening sunshine.

 

And when the rain did come down I wasn't even that sad as I had a lovely new Studio Calico kit to play with including this lovely addition! (Pages to share soon!)

Together....

The new Scrap Schemes challenge is now live - I'm loving vibrant summery shades at the moment and we hope the new Scheme inspires you too!

The page is using more Studio Calico and features a pic of both my girlies playing in the garden - they are such a soppy great pair!!

Tempting...

A very exciting thing has occured out in my veg patch this week... my spuds are starting to come up! They are a salad type so I'm looking forward to munching on these with the glut of salad that is sprouting up! Rather than slave over back breaking digging, the potatoes are growing in a couple of giant pink trugs! I love the colour against the lucious green leaves!

Talking of sprouting... Martha has decided that now is the time to 'blow' her winter coat - it's obviously far too hot for Newfies already! I've been giving her a blast in the garden every couple of days and the lawn (hahahaha! - the mud!) looks like it has a generous coating of fluff! Martha tends to chuck all her coat out over the course of about a fortnight and for those couple of weeks generous swathes of blond fluff rises to the surface and erupts out of her coat! It all means that the hoover is almost permanently operational as the fur literally comes out in handfuls! Thankfully though there is a gorgeous thick Galaxy chocolate coloured coat lurking underneath so it won't be more than a week or so till she's back on top form!

A little page today of my favourite variety - the quick and easy kind! It's using last months Studio Calico kit which I love!

Adorable!

It's that time again - another challenge at A True Friend! This time we want you to use an animal picture that isn't a pet! We all love our pets, so of course we ove lots of other critters too! My page feature two of my favourite things at the moment, a cute little Canada Gosling and some BasicGrey Lime Rickey! Who could resist this range?? Cute little birdies and the stamps are just to die for! I picked mine up at Craft Obsessions and it looks like the lovely David and Brenda have some in stock again!!

The dotty background is a Spring Burst acetate overlay by Papermania and the scallopy (is that a word?) bit on the right hand side is a bit of raw chipboard that I've coated in Colorbox Pigment ink - I've got loads of these and don't use them that often as I seem to get drawn towards their chalk inks for distressing and I don't do a lot of embossing, but I needed a bright colour so grabbed my Petal Point inkpad...

and swiped it over... I'd forgotton how fab they are and it covered in just the one coat - even better because the chipboard is quite absorbant it dried pretty quick too, which is just as well as I'm VERY impatient! I think I feel a little order coming on - the metallic shades would be fab!

We were so lucky to get another fabulous weekend and I of course was out and about in the Forest.

Martha (and Lola of course!) got nice and wet and muddy...

The goslings and ducklings were out in force again - a few tourists chucking bread in the water always draws them nearer and makes getting a nice shot easier!

 

  

  

 There are also a LOT of VERY pregnant donkeys around too... so it won't be long till the foals start appearing. A bit of hot weather is a strain too, so plenty were having a kip in the sun!

 

And I'm pretty sure this guy is a Mule with a little Shetland tapping along!

 

And talking of Shetlands, one of THE cutest sights at this time of year are the Shetland Foals! They are simply adorable!

Grudge...

Gosh it's been a while! I've been stupidly busy the last few days, working, knocking the garden into shape and of course getting out and about in the sun over the weekend! The girlies had fun in the sun too...

And you can really tell Spring is here with all the wildlife that was out and about... there are now dozens of New Forest foals...

And there is plenty of waterfowl about including this gorgeous Mandarin duck...

And these totally cute Canada Goslings...

And with the arrival of chicks in the garden SURELY it's time for BBC Springwatch?

I'm pretty gutted that Bill Oddie won't be presenting this year (sadly he's suffering from depression) and although I'm sure his stand-in Chris Packham will be fine I can't quite bring myself to be pleased... You see I still hold a bit of a grude about him from a few (ok.. ok... about 12) years ago. The occasion was at a fun dog show held up near Winchester - my girls (Bella and Chloe at the time) had done well in the pedigree classes and we thought we'd do our bit for charity and enter a few more of the fun classes. Sometimes at these shows they get a 'celebrity' judge to officiate over the fun classes, and this time it was Mr Packham...

One of the classes we entered was 'Dog the Judge would most like to take home'. When you own a Newfy you only really enter this as a joke... after all, no matter how gorgeous Newfies look, you never expect the average punter to want a dog that spends most of it's time, wet, slobbery and is as big as you are! Anyhoo... Chris came down the line-up and dutifully patted all the dogs, and asked a few questions etc. Then of course he deliberates to build the suspense and selects his winners... If I recall correctly first place was a Springer Spaniel - good choice I thought, we all know Chris is keen on the great outdoors so this all made sense!

Then, shock of shocks, Bella is selected second!! We trot forward into the winners line-up. After the rest of the places were determined Chris comes down the line-up to award rosettes and dog-chew prizes. All was well with the world!

As Chris gets to me he says well done and then surreptitiously mutters - 'Your dog is great... If I didn't live in a flat I'd have placed her first!'........ 'WHAT!!!' I think to myself!!! I don't think Monsieur Packham had quite got the idea of the whole premise... you don't actually HAVE to take her home... there is plenty of room for an IMAGINARY Newf in even the smallest flat!

Anyway... we all had a good ol' chuckle after, but I can't help feeling just a tad cheated!!!

So enough of my crazy rantings... and onto another pic... this is one of my rows of Oriental Salad merrily growing in my raised veg-bed... I am loving having totally fresh salad on hand - it makes a real difference to the taste.

And in a similar vein, I have a page to share today also - it features my sprout plants, which by the way are MUCH bigger now!

I've got some more pages to share this week so with a bit of luck I won't leave it so long the next time!