Scrapping and Newfs...

Calling Digi-Designers!

2012-01-16T08:39:00.000Z

We're rather proud at docrafts of our Digital Designer software which is a cutting edge (but oh-so-easy to get to grips with) digi-crafting tool for cardmakers and scrapbookers. So far it's featured some of the biggest names in craft including Forever Friends, Tatty Teddy and Papermania and now it could feature YOU!

We're on the lookout for some really cool digital scrap designers that could create cutting edge kits of on trend, hot elements for digi-scrapbooking! Your designs could be being used by thousands of digi-crafters and could even feature on Create and Craft and Ideal World!

If you think you are up for the task, leave me a comment with how I would get in touch with you or tweet me @katygodbeer

Catch Up Time...

2012-01-09T17:25:00.000Z

Let me get this ol' chestnut out of the way... I've been super busy. Hence zero blog updates. Sorry.

Now on with the fun stuff!

Recently I've been working on some printable downloads exclusively for members of the Creativity Club at docrafts.com and while you can't grab them directly from here I can tease you with them!

If you're a member (or would like to be) you can grab them right NOW!

In other news I've started contributing on a foodie blog! I'm quite excited about it and I hope you'll pop over to the Chicken Keeper's Kitchen and take a peek!

For updates of new posts you can of course follow the blog or follow the twitter feed @keeperskitchen

Scrapping with Scraps

2011-11-21T07:31:00.000Z

Continuing yesterday's themes of using scraps and my ongoing obsession with kraft cardstock, here's another page featuring plenty of both plus some pics of one of the gorgeous New Forest pigs that roam about at this time of year to munch all the fallen acorns.

This page is a perfect example of how you can really make the most of your smallest scraps. The central lined/striped panel looks to be about 7-8" but in reality is only about 4"tall. Simply by slicing it in two and hiding the join with more papers/photos you can get the illusion of a much larger piece of paper.

Just the Two of Us...

2011-11-20T10:19:00.001Z

You might say that I'm a little obsessed with kraft cardstock. Looking back at the last few pages I've created (promise to start sharing them here more often!) and it's glaringly apparent that it's become my cardstock of choice. This page uses some of the plain Papermania kraft as a base... it's perfect for inking spritzing, and of course goes with everything.

I knocked up this page at the last Crafty Moments crop (do come along if you are local!) to satisfy my own crop challenge to the girls. The challenge was to use JUST scraps (bar a base cardstock) to create a layout plus use the ol' chestnut 'just the two of use' for the title.

Some of the other crop-girlies had a go too... Daphne and Carole both made gorgeous pages!

Now I just need to come up with a challenge for next time!

Tatty Sneak Peek!

2011-11-18T14:51:00.001Z

One of the many things I love about my job is getting exclusive access to brand new products before anyone else! (it's a tough life eh?!) Today a brand new addition to the docrafts Digi Designer hit my desk and I didn't waste any time getting it installed!

So far I've only had a quick play and a browse through the adorable elements, but I can't resist showing off my favourite new character!!

I'll inevitably be back with more... If. You want to grab this new collection look out for more news coming soon about it's launch on Ideal World in a couple of weeks!

Wishing it was summer!

2011-11-17T08:43:00.001Z

You might say that I'm not a big fan of the winter... once the clocks go back I don't really see the light of day (and only first thing in the morning!) so it's no wonder that given some cheery and bright papers I couldn't resist breaking out some pictures from my summer break...

Back in July I had a week's stay-cation (hate that word!), bumbling about the New Forest with the dogs and just couldn't resist getting my feet wet for a nice paddle with the girls.

Most of the page is made using the Papermania 52 All Occasion Card Kit. It features some gorgeous plain and printed paper flowers, plus heaps of cute die-cuts and loads of A5 sheets of cheery papers.

Of course this kit is designed primarily to make loads of pretty cards, but being me I had to make a layout too! I grabbed the opportunity to use the smaller sized papers and sliced them up to make a chevron design across the page - just loving that look at the moment!

If you like to see more of the page or grab my full walk-thorough of how I made it pop on over to docrafts.com right now!

Ask the Team!

2011-11-15T14:17:00.001Z

This Friday will see the start of a new feature for Creativity Club members at docrafts.com Every week you can join Emma Collins, myself or some of the special guests from Creativity TV (and possibly all of us at once!) in a special live forum chat only for Club Members! If you are a member just pop onto the special Creativity Club forum at 10am to chat about Creativity TV, projects, downloads and more. Ask us your crafty questions, let us know what you want to see from your club or just join in for a good old chin-wag!

Hope to see you there!

Going clubbing...

2011-11-14T13:22:00.001Z

I've been a tad busy lately. As well as the biggest batch of DIY in the world ever, the more fun sort of 'work' has kept me well and truly out of mischief!

If you're a member of the docrafts Creativity Club you'll have no doubt seen me (and the lovely Emma Collins) presenting our webisodes of Creativity TV. Despite being paralytic with feat to start with we're actually starting to get into the swing of things and (shhh) enjoying it rather a lot!

This week in Creativity TV our lovely guest Jo Austin demo'd a really clever pop up card that I can only share a wee sneaky peek of!

And in homage I created a rather special layout with a cunning pop up element...

Another thing keeping me busy is that recently I've been donning my designery hat and creating a few exclusive printables, again for the Creativity Club.... this week I'm rather excited to share some fun and I hope really useful December number printables that would be perfect if you are planning on 'journalling your Christmas' and/or doing a 'December Daily'.

To grab these and to see the project above (plus one using the numbers) then pop over to docrafts right now! You do need to be a member of the club.... so if you'd like to join just click here.

It's crop night tonight and I can't wait!!! It'll make a lovely change to put the emulsion and gloss aside for some more crafty supplies! If you're local to me (Dorset/Bournemouth/Poole) we have spaces for some more crafty peeps... pop over to our facebook group for all the details! We'd love to see you there!

I Feel Like Crafting Tonight.

2011-09-12T09:24:00.000+01:00

I'm ashamed to say that at the moment it's a rare occurrence for me to actually get any crafting done at home. I'm so very lucky to be able to have crafting as a part of my day-job but somehow it's not the same as crafting just for the hell of it. Just for me. But somehow, even though the creative juices are willing my schedule seems to be conspiring against me and after ~~moaning~~ chatting about it with my lovely friend Emma, she's decided to do something about it!

So tonight sees the inaugural meeting of the Crafty Moments club. Based at the Barrington Centre in Ferndown, Dorset you can join us for a few hours of crafty fun from 6.30pm to 10.30pm (not sure I'll be there till the end, I like to be in bed by then!!) for just £3.50 to cover the room hire.

It's a total crafty free for all... no rules, no restrictions on what sort of craft you do. Just some crafty girls having a chat and doing their thing. Perfect!

So if you fancy a crafty night out, please leave me a comment or just rock on up this evening!

Disclaimer - It's possible that my lack of scrapping isn't the ONLY reason that Emma has started the club... I mean... she only has two children under three and busy job too... so I guess she might have the same problem. But I like to think it's mostly for me. Self involved? Moi? :)

Going digi...

2011-08-04T11:42:00.001+01:00

A few weeks back docrafts launched a fab new digi-crafting tool called the docrafts Digi-Designer on Ideal World - it's been a huge success so far! I'm very lucky to have been given access to all the discs created thus far and I'm championing the cause for some easy peasy digi-scrapping using the clever software. (It works much like photoshop, but without all the bits and pieces you never use!)

A couple of nights ago Becks and Sheila revealed the newest triple disc offering - the Papermania Christmas Past collection. I truly can't understate how much is on these discs!!! There are 10 full Christmas collections to choose from!

I spent a little bit of time having a play and am really loving the gorgeous non-Christmass papers that are included in many of the collections as well as the very-clever colourise tool that lets you change the colour of the papers etc to perfectly suit your pictures.

So here's my first page with the new discs... it features a picture of one of this years chicks (Katrina) who seems to spend her whole life trying to be bad!

Hope you like!

The nichest of niche posts...

2011-08-02T07:45:00.001+01:00

If you're a keeper of poultry AND a fan of mythology based fantasy tv or films you'll so get this....

So I'm out in the garden this morning sprinkling some bio-dri around the perimeter of the duck pond and water bowl and suddenly it occurs to me I'm one of the Winchesters.

Erm..... so if you're neither of the above you'll be forgiven for being a little confused and forgiven for thinking I've TOTALLY lost the plot. (And it's a fair assumption!)

So.... Bio-dri is a very clever powder disinfectant that both dries (hence the name) and sanitises. It also smells divine but I have definitely NEVER sniffed it while applying it. Honest. It's used to sprinkle around anywhere there might be a bit of moisture to keep the ducky/chook area nice and fresh and clean so the duck pond is the perfect place to sprinkle a nice ring of powder. (if by some amazing coincidence you ARE a chicken/duck keeper and want some of this lovely smelling (erm.... effective!) powder, I get mine from Flyte So Fancy...)

And all this takes us onto the Winchesters... (the irony that they too are hanging out by a pond isn't lost on me!)

The Winchesters (Sam and Dean from left to right... which is a bit like how Ant is always on the left of Dec so you can remember which of them is which) are travelling demon/vampire/werewolf battling brothers from the TV show Supernatural. One of the things they seem to do at least every other episode is try and keep indeterminate demons from entering a specific area (y'know... like a house). So the method of choice for this (apart from scrawling giant, intimidating pentagrams on the ceiling and floor) is to sprinkle a generous and unbroken perimeter of salt.

And so this morning while I was sprinkling a nice ring of white gritty powder in a circle around the duck pond it suddenly that I was JUST LIKE an american demon hunting traveller. But a girl. And without the 90s rock music. Or the car.

I guess we should all be reassured that there is absolutely no chance of any demon entering the ducks pond. Daphne is certainly relieved...

Talking TV

2011-07-29T19:28:00.000+01:00

So a couple of weeks ago Emma Collins and I had a mini road trip up to the studios of Creativity TV to film our premiere episodes presenting Creativity TV. The first episode goes live on Monday (exclusively for members of the Creativity Club) but in the meantime I'm allowed to share our teaser trailer of the new season of episodes!

Hope you like!

The Birthday Girl

2011-07-26T20:54:00.001+01:00

It was a tough choice as to which of the Honeybrook Farm photo-shoot pics to scrapbook first (it's lovely to have some new models to pose for me!) but little cutie Myla won the day, and not just because she's just had a very special birthday! It doesn't hurt that she's such a photogenic little person!

I created this page for the docrafts scrapbooking project of the week, and like all the best pages it's fun to create (with a nice bit of paint slappage) as well as pretty speedy to create!

There will almost certainly be more layouts to come featuring Mrs Collins' lovely girls - who could resist?

Down on the Farm!

2011-07-12T22:29:00.000+01:00

I'm on holiday this week (I think quite well deserved even if I do say so myself!) and among the blissfully relaxing walks with the furry girls and some quality time with the feathery girls and boys, I've ticked off a few holiday must haves. paddling on the beach, being a tourist on my own doorstep in the New Forest and the inevitable catching up on a few little jobs (the fish tank has never looked so sparkly!).

I'm lucky to live in a beautiful part of the world and that means half the world seems to come on holiday here, so the only chance to visit the touristy places (you know... the ones just round the corner that you never get round to visiting!) is a cheeky mid-week off season day! Last time I went to Marwell but this time around the animals were a little less exotic!

So yesterday I joined Erica Martyn and Emma Collins and their respective kiddies for a fun afternoon at Honeybrook Farm near Wimborne.

Of course there were the usual suspects....

Ducks...

Chickens...

Pigs...

etc...

But among the not so wild animals were some other cute little people, namely Harry, Nevie and Myla!

It was wonderful to be able to take a few photographs of such wonderful models! - Hope you like!

Zoo Time

2011-05-25T08:46:00.002+01:00

Life is busy. Like super-super busy. And it didn’t even really help having a week off work last week! Although I did manage a little trip to the zoo. I’ve not been to Marwell in an age and it’s still as great as I remember. Of course I took some camera gear and took 1 or 2 pics.

Most of these were with my Canon 7D and Sigma 150-500mm. You really appreciate the extra reach at Marwell. It’s essential with most of the animals living in lovely BIG enclosures. To see them all visit my Flickrstream, but here are a couple to whet your appetite.

While events have conspired against me to do much scrapping at home recently, I have been creating for my day-job. While I can't share any sneaks of projects for the July issue of Creativity, I can point you towards some bits and pieces on the website.

First up are some pages using the new May releases. The first features some of my favourite things! The pics are of some Mandarin ducks that live wild at one of my favourite places in the New Forest and they are merrily nestling in acres of PM Kraft cardstock. I seriously can't tell you how much I love this stuff. I'm not sure how I survived before it!

Next is a page with Mistress Martha and using the Me To You - Especially For You collection. Tatty Teddy is so adorable and for pages about kiddies (or my bear cub) it's just the right about of cute!

Lastly for today is a page explaining another thing that's been keeping me busy!

4 cute little ducklings hatched the week before Easter and they are already nearly as big as their parents! If you are a member of the Creativity Club you'll also have already seen my newest chicks featuring on a page. I can't share that here (It's exclusive don't you know!) but when I get a spare min, I'll share some more pics!

Design 101 for Newfie Owners.

2011-03-28T21:12:00.001+01:00

I’ve just been reminded (yet again) that Newfie’s aren’t normal dogs. Now, you might think that’s an obvious statement but it’s only when people indicate something is dog friendly that it becomes glaringly obvious that these big hairy beasts are nothing but ‘regular’.

I’m always on the look out for ‘dog friendly’ (see, there’s that phrase again) ideas for the home so when my FAVOURITE blog of all – Design Sponge tweeted a link to a ‘dog friendly’ home I couldn’t resist nipping over for a peek. The article is here in all its glory BTW.
So herein lies a couple of differences…

1. Easy clean tile/wood floors. Sounds like a great idea in principle, but this is a recipe for disaster for giant dogs with hairy paws. I’ve experienced a dog with Cruciate tears and don’t care to experience another thankyou!

2. Teeny weeny, wobbly glass bottles with leaves painstakingly arranged on a chest of drawers. Looks great but Newfies are TALL and their flappy tails reach even higher… I’m pretty sure these would last 30 seconds in my house.

3. White fabric sofas/fabric covers on dining chairs/white bed linen might look gorgeous but with dogs that resemble woolly mammoths plus gallons of dribble these would be grimy and grey in about 5 seconds flat.

4. Vintage skittles artfully arranged next to a fireplace - I predict these would be standing up for 30 seconds and outside as a new exciting chew toy in 30 mins.

5. Floor length white curtains - See point 3!

6. The Coffee Table. I don’t know anyone with a Newfie that owns a coffee table. First off it’s the perfect height for dribbling, ANYTHING on it would be flung aside with a huge head or flapping tail in seconds plus putting a cup/glass anywhere near a Newf is asking for trouble. A big hairy snout and giant tongue would be inside faster than you could ever imagine a Newf could move. Plus Newfs like to play rough. Leaping about and wrestling is an activity best saved for the middle of the living room (and ideally just when your family is sitting down to watch Glee. (I’m not bitter.) So the space is left empty.

7. Candles. No. Big hairy, wafting tail + naked flames = the towering inferno.

8. Sheepskin throws/cow hide rugs. I can’t be sure, never having owned one of these, but I’m pretty sure slobber and sheepskin isn’t a nice mix. I think the cow hide might just get eaten.

But apart from that.... it looks perfectly ‘dog’ if not Newf ‘friendly’. :)

Mud has a lot to answer for.

2011-03-14T11:10:00.000Z

So yesterday I was roaming through the woods at my favourite spot in the New Forest and like the clumsy dolt I am, managed to get myself stuck up to my knees in mud. In retrospect maybe I should have stayed in the mud and called for a flock of burly firemen to rescue me…. But as I had no idea where I was, having roamed randomly through the woods for a good half hour I decided to utilise my very own rescue squad (my lovely Newfies – Lola and Martha). So with the assistance of a pair of ‘trained’ rescue dogs and some handy nearly trees I managed to lever myself free.

So there I was… so giddy that I’d managed to avoid almost certain death due to quick-sand (quick mud?) drowning that I skipped gleefully on and pranced majestically over a ditchy stream thing.

Of course ‘prancing majestically’ is code for losing my footing on the opposite bank and face planting onto the muddy bank the other side.

As if that wasn’t enough I managed to land with my arm (and somehow my shoulder) right under me. I heard a crunchy sound that suggested I’d snapped my arm, but thankfully it seems to be a bad bone bruise and lots of lovely strained muscles/ligaments etc. Never have I been so glad for stupid amounts of mud and a flabby gut to cushion my fall and allow me to avert potential arm snappage.

How to Construct a 'Push 'N' Pull' Card

2011-02-01T18:53:00.000Z

I've got a little video to share this arvo. It's my first of this type so be gentle with me! Can't take any credit for the editing etc - just the crafting!

Crimes against Memories

2011-02-01T09:28:00.000Z

It occurred to me today that we are in danger of having a whole generation of children that their only photos of their childhood are taken with phones and only uploaded to facebook (where they get compressed to death BTW!). A whole generation whose key life moments are only immortalized in grainy and blurry images. Birthday parties, first steps and other milestone moments might be immediately broadcast around the globe for mass consumption on facebook , but these same publically heralded moments are seemingly treated with as little importance as a quick orange tinted and blurry snap taken of your new shoes to show off on twitter.

I’m grateful so often that I have family albums full of childhood photos. Photos of birthday parties, days out and holidays. Photos that are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and not taken with expensive kit, but they are real and they are ‘safely’ stored in albums for me to look at whenever I choose. (I say ‘safely’ because I’m guilty of not having liberated them all from the sticky photo albums.)

Of course if you’re a scrapbooker I’m already preaching to the converted. We embrace recording our family’s history (and those everyday little moments) with an almost obsessive vigor but I’m sure we all know someone who is guilty of crimes against memories.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not saying a camera phone doesn’t have a place. They are perfect for grabbing a once in a lifetime moment pic but for key moments take a second to get your camera (whether it’s a compact, or a slr) out and use it. Facebook won’t be here forever (I hope!) and with it will disappear the photos you’ve trusted them to keep safe.

Piled high

2011-01-07T19:31:00.001Z

7/365 2011 Damask
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

I'm notoriously bad at filing layouts away - i must have a pile about 12inches high of pages waiting to find a home, so I'm quite excited that I've just had a gorgeous pair of albums arrive! They are both this amazing damask print and are of course the essential D-ring. I just can't be bothered messing with post bound ones. Life is far too short!

If the rain carries on at least I have something to keep me busy indoors!

My own bear cub.

2011-01-07T08:28:00.001Z

6/365 2011 Sleepy Bear
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

The last few nights I've really enjoyed watching Gordan Buchanan's latest films about families of Black Bears in the woods of Minnesota (if you missed it it's on iplayer still). Perhaps unsurprisingly there were so many ways that they reminded me of the big black and brown furry creatures that share my home. The way the bears sit right back on their bums with their legs sticking out in front, their huge and mobile noses and the way they amble about in the woods but with the potential for super bursts of speed! I'm just glad Newfies can't climb trees!

So of course yesterdays picture had to be of one of the Newfs. Neither of the girls though wanted to be terribly obliging; Martha drew the short straw and refused to even open one eye! I'm sure she was channeling the bears with a spot of hibernation (she'd definitely be capable of digging the winter den!).

It's all over.

2011-01-05T21:38:00.001Z

5/365 2011 Festive Monkey
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

So tonight I took all the decorations down for another year. It always seems really sad and I wasn't even close to being sick of them. I guess that's one of the benefits of not putting them up too early!

Macbook Glow

2011-01-04T20:49:00.001Z

4/365 2011 Macbook Glow
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

This little fella arrived a few days ago to replace my ageing laptop and desktop. I love the glow from under the keys so it was the only choice for my first inside 365 shot.

Watch the Birdie!

2011-01-03T21:05:00.000Z

It's back to work tomorrow and for the last day of my hols I took a jaunt down to the coast with the girlies. After a quick dip in the sea (the dogs, not me I hasten to add I took the opportunity to spot a few birds and take a few pics! Being the winter there were plenty of seasonal visitors and everything I shot was a new species for me so quite exciting!

These are Brent Geese... they are small for a goose and very cute. They were merrily swimming and feeding in the water at Keyhaven...

And browsing the grass just down the road.

This little coot was in a hurry to come over and be photographed.

And these little people are Turnstones.

It's funny how wielding a nice big lens makes people desperate to get out of your way when you are taking pics, my 'little' Sigma 150-500 is definitely a significant beast and a couple of people nearly hurled themselves in the water to avoid crossing my sights or disturbing the wildlife! You don't get that with a camera phone!

Let there be light!

2011-01-02T20:20:00.001Z

2/365 2011 Martha
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

Now I don't want to shock you but two days into 2011 and I'm back for second time! Today was the first time in a very long time that we saw the smallest glimpse of sun from out of the thick dark cloud and it was the perfect chance for a lovely long walk with the girlies at out favourite spot in the New Forest.

Lola and Martha had a fabulous time snuffing about in the furrows created by the Forest Pigs while rooting out acorns and I took the opportunity to grab a quick pic of Martha Moo in some nearly reasonable light!

In other news I received a WII among my pressies this year and can confirm that I rule at both Boxing and Tennis... The golf is a whole other story!!! Any suggestions for more games gratefully received!

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T18:12:00.001Z

1/365 2011 Strolling
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

It's been a while. So as part of my attempt to blog a bit more often I've decided to start a 365 photo project. With my new Mac finally arrived (a very long story!) I'm inspired to get a shot taken and edited everyday and the cunning 'blog it' link on flickr might just make this all a but easier.

I only managed 98 days of photos last year, so hope to emulate my success of 2009 where I completed the whole project!

So here's number one. A lovely big pig strolling through the wintery New Forest. Here's to the next 364.

Not so Happy Eggs.

2010-10-07T09:55:00.000+01:00

When a company bases all their advertising and marketing around a moral principle, it’s all the more sickening when it’s revealed that they are guilty of abusing this principle. That’s the feeling I have today after viewing the Sky News story about the conditions that the laying hens from the Happy Egg company are kept in.

The picture of hens happily grazing green field and riding an a quad bike (which I’m sure my chickens would love!) couldn’t be further from the truth. From the footage it’s appears little better than the battery cages that are so well publicized as being cruel.

I’m so glad I can be totally sure where the eggs I eat come from. Please support your local garden hen keeper… it’s the only way you can know the truth.

Big Bang Theory - Love this!

2010-08-13T22:28:00.001+01:00

Size isn't everything!

2010-08-04T07:42:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I put a little order in with everyone’s favourite online retailer and order one of these babies!

It’s a Pogo Printer by Polaroid and with just a teeny tiny unit that’s barely bigger than my memory card holder (and waaaaay smaller that my camera!). It has a rechargeable battery and simply connects up to a pict-bridge enabled camera or blue tooth phone to print the pics. It doesn’t even take ink, instead it uses clever Polaroid paper with crystals inside! (if that doesn’t sound like alien technology, then I don’t know what does!)

At less than 20quid I couldn’t resist the opportunity to print cute little pics especially if they were going to have ‘that’ Polaroid feel to them. I wasn’t disappointed! The pics are only a coule of inches across, but are perfect for multi photo layouts and they do have that Polaroid retro quality.

I've done a couple of pages using them and they won't be the last!

It's been a while...

2010-08-02T21:00:00.000+01:00

I've had a bit of a busy few weeks.... some good, some not so good, but it all added up to no time to do much at all and certainly no time to scrapbook 'just for fun' or to blog.

I sadly lost a couple of my chicks in the last couple of weeks, but after a dose of medicine fingers crossed the rest are hopefully going to be fine... I hatched some Poland chicks a couple of weeks ago too and these are the latest pics of a couple of them - check out the link to my flickr over on the right for the baby pics!

I also had a stressful and worrying time with Martha too. She suddenly became quite ill and was diagnosed as having a closed Pyometra - this is a womb infection and is a potentially very dangerous condition. The only effective treatment is an emergency spay operation before it ruptures (like a hysterectomy) and within about 10 mins of a diagnosis my fabulous vets had her on the table and operated to save her. Thankfully all went smoothly and later that night she was home safe and sound all be it dosed up on prescription pain killers! Of course after an op one of the biggest dangers is pulling their own stitches out so I spent the next ten days sleeping on the sofa to baby-sit her, as well as getting up two or three times a night to take her for a pee!

Here is her ladyship relaxing in the garden a week or so after the op...

As well as a big bald tummy with a very neat wound!

Coming back up to date, I've just put the new challenge live over at A True Friend - we really would love it if you joined in with the challenges - while the blog is all about pets, we won't hold it against you if you use the themes for pages about any topic!! Here's my page - it's all about a day when Lola pulled out a dubious object from a local river... I was convinced I was going to be on the local news for finding some body bits! Thankfully it was only an old delfated dinghy! The journalling is under a great big flap on the left of the layout.

I think that's enough for now... promise I'll be back soon!

Raffia Obsessive

2010-06-23T12:02:00.001+01:00

I have to admit that at the moment I’m a little bit obsessed with Raffia. I hold my hands up and admit that when I got my first pack I poo-pooed it slightly, but after giving it a try, I’m totally converted. It can do everything ribbon and thread can do, but it’s more tactile, more versatile and generally more gorgeous! I’m also yet to find a project that doesn’t suit it and to that end you might be seeing quite a lot of it from me at the moment!

Notable examples are this page which was project of the week at docrafts last week (a nice simple knotted piece in lieu of ribbon)

And this one which is for the new challenge at A True Friend.

If you are a member of the Creativity Club at docrafts you'll have seen lots more, but I'm forbidden from sharing those here!

What's your must have item at the moment?

Chickwatch...

2010-05-26T19:04:00.024+01:00

While these little people continue to grow in their cosy brooder... (these were actually from the 20th so more shots soon!)

These even littler people hatched under clever broody-chook Dolly on Saturday. They ventured out of their house properly today and I managed to get a few pics!

They really are teeny weeny as they are bantam chickens and it's so lovely to see Dolly looking after them so carefully. I'm definitely a convert to the natural way of hatching!

Growing!

2010-05-11T09:08:00.000+01:00

Two posts in one week??? What going on with the world!? Of course little critters growing is the perfect reason to blog and I can't resist sharing these couple of pics. I thought I'd give the little girlies (checkout the optimism!) another test of flash photography and while they weren't thrilled they seemed ok with my firing off a couple of frames!

It never fails to amaze me how quickly they grow their feathers, some of them (particularly the Blue Hamburgh and getting pretty big wing feathers now! You can also see the start of some gorgeous Gold Laced colouring on the cute Orpington at the front of this first pic!

Arrivals...

2010-05-05T21:32:00.000+01:00

A couple of weeks ago I fired this up....

And a couple of weeks later, this happened...

And after several hours of agonising waiting... these emerged!

Apologies for the terrible chick pics, but my rather dull garage doesn't make for good photography conditions and chicks and flash don't really go together!! I'm sure I'll have more pics as they grow up though!

These girls (fingers crossed!) will grow up to be Gold Laced Orpingtons, Silver Laced and Gold Laced Wyandottes, Lavander Araucana, Salmon Favorelle and Blue Hamburgh.

A couple of weeks ago I met a totally different, but equally cute little person!

Meet Morris! A gorgeous little Maine Coon kitten owned by Carol and Alex who is certainly going to be a big lad!

Chooks about town...

2010-03-29T22:25:00.001+01:00

Chickens are everywhere on the highstreet at the moment, of course it doesn't hurt that it's Easter, but even putting that aside chooks are big news at the moment. As a chicken keeper it's quite a treat!

On a (rare) recent trip to Tesco I couldn't resist rummaging through their seasonal offerings and picked up this big girly! I also grabbed a gorgeous Easter mug, that's safely nestled on my desk at work!

The other chickeny bits and pieces out there haven't gone unnoticed, but so far I have managed to resist them!

I really love this gorgeous folk art style chicken from John Lewis, particularly its dangly legs!

And from the same store this tea cosy is rather tempting!

The next two are from M&S... a cute ceramic egg basket -

And a pair of fun egg cosies!

And it's not just chickens - eggs are big, and who could resist a purple spotty egg timer from Paperchase?

Sharing...

2010-03-28T22:36:00.003+01:00

As promised I'm back with a few pages to share from the last couple of months, there are more of course, but this is a sample of what I have in my 'waiting to go in albums' pile!

First up are a couple of Martha, who at three has just finished her last (I hope) growth spurt - she's shot up another inch and now weighs 72kg! She's currently going through her spring moult and it's like hair city round here! I fear for the dyson's life!
Next up are the chooks! My chicks that I hatched in the summer are now huge, particularly the three orpingtons! This is Roy my cuckoo orp, who had to go to live on a farm when he started to crow. He was such a big cuddly lad!

One of the other chicks is Prudence (a blue orp) who I think might be becoming my favourite (shhhh!).
The last page is from my first summer with the chooks - just a fave pic that was buried at the bottom of my photo-file and which was dug out recently!
And of course the end result - these are from my bantam hens (pics on my flickr) - the eggs are proudly stored on an egg-skelter which is exactly what it sounds like!
Most of the pages are using various Studio Calico kits as I've tried to regin in my spending a tad whilst I've been so busy recently and hate to see unused stash building up!!

I realise that I've failed to photograph a Lola page, but suffice to say she's safe and sound! After all the trauma of her cruciate injuries/surgery she's now almost at full fitness - there will always be a little uneveness in her gait, but she's able to gallop about with her sister so I can't complain!

As predicted the clocks going forward were a total treat! After a lovely sunny day the evening was marred with a bit of drizzle, but it certainly gave a hint of lovely long evenings to come!!

Has spring sprung?

2010-03-27T20:04:00.000Z

It's funny the things that can spurn you into action... a little email from blogger today telling me all about their new blog templates has been just the push I needed to fire up my blog! I've had a little tweak, but I think I need to spend a bit more time freshening things up around here with a new header etc, but if it gets me blogging it has to be a good thing.

As you can imagaine I'm full of excuses about being totally swamped at work and at home. At work we're furiously working on our new website (coming soon!) and signing off the next issue of the magazine and at home the critters are keeping me busy!

I had a laptop fail a little while back and while I managed to keep up with taking pictures for my 365, my editing and uploading to flickr have suffered. I've been squeezing a bit in here and there and it feels really good to say I've just finished uploading images to get me right up to date!

Tomorrow is traditionally my favourite day of the year... It's time to change the clocks!!! That extra hour of light that we get tomorrow is so uplifting (even though it might mean an extra hour of rain!). After a horrendously cold (for the soft south!) and wet winter which has resulted in a quagmire of a garden the few glimspes of sun haven't been ignored! I've grabbed my chances to snap a few pics of the first signs of spring!

I guess the only thing left ot catch up on are some layouts! But I'm saving that till tomorrow!

Three Things...

2009-11-06T18:12:00.001Z

Three things that I'm loving at the moment... the first is above!

1. A friend at work recommended the 'Joco Looks Back' album by the amazing Jonathan Coulton and I dutifully downloaded from iTunes... and I wasn't disappointed! The whole album is awesome, but with Christmas galloping towards us the track above seemed apt to share.. but you HAVE to check out Re: Brains as well!

2. Graze.com. I was lucky to get the heads up on a code for a free box from the Graze. Basically you sign up and once a week (or however often you like) you get a wonderful little box containing nuts, seeds, fresh and dried fruit in the post. I've signed up to get mine delivered to work and it certainly caused quite a stir in the office! The selection was wonderful and I wasn't even tempted to visit the office tuck box, instead tucking into dried raspberries, spicy almonds and more!

Even better, if you'd like to try a free box, I have a code to share too! Simply sign up and use code - DQHY7HHA to get your first box free!

3. How I met your Mother. E4's new comedy offering is pure class... I'd go so far as to say it's MUCH better than Friends (especially when you've seen all the episode 25 times!) The highlight has to be Neil Patrick Harris (he was Dooge Howser MD back in the day!) who is simply hilarious! I urge you to check it out

Bad, bad blogger...

2009-10-29T21:10:00.000Z

I'm trying my hardest to get up to date at the moment, I'm overwhelmed with things to do and just not finding the time to do the really fun stuff (like scrap or update my blog!), but I'm going to try! Ironically the clocks going back (which is my most hated time of year) is meaning I'm finding a bit of scrappy time!

After all this time without blogging I've got a few pages saved up to share so here goes!

There's a bit of Scrap Schemes in there as well as some True Friend layouts which I've just about managed to keep up to date with! I'm pretty sure I've got a few more banging about that with a bit of luck I'll share soon!

I'm happy to report that I'm still managing to keep up with my 365 photo project. All these can be found via the little Flickr gadget over on the right hand side. Of course the dark evenings are making this all the more challenging again now - today's pic of the gorgeous Acer in the front garden was taken in the pitch black!

With Halloween looming I'm hoping for some good weather on Saturday so I can get out in the garden to grab some pics of the girls with strategically placed Pumpkins! I managed to grow one of my own this year, so I'm especially proud! I definately need some up to date Halloween pics to use up some lovely themed stash that I just can't resist buying!

Until next time....

X-Factor Returns!

2009-08-22T22:44:00.001+01:00

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love the X-Factor and I think tonight (on the very first show) we may have seen the winner!

Dropped off the face of the earth!

2009-08-13T12:15:00.001+01:00

120809 Jowls
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

It's been a while, so in a vain attempt to get back to regular blogging I thought i'd share a pic of the Brown Bear. As usual Martha loves having her photo taken and gets quite excited hence a bit of barking and plenty of jowl flapping!

I've just had the September issue of Creativity magazine hit my desk and it looks fantastic in the flesh! It won't hit the shops for another couple of weeks yet, but keep an eye out then for it!

Went out for a much needed evening out with the team last night, we enjoyed a yummy mexican meal and plenty of raucous laughter to go along with it! Of course I forgot my camera so perhaps thankfully there is no evidence!

Movie Trash

2009-08-06T09:14:00.001+01:00

This has got the worst film ever... fantastic!!

Twit Twoo!

2009-07-09T09:02:00.001+01:00

Another new scheme at Scrap Schemes has rushed round and this is my page inspired this time around. It was funny how several chose to use this sort of decorative shape somewhere on our pages (does this shape have a name???) I guess great minds think alike!

I've been incredibly busy the last couple of weeks - getting stuck into writing/creating for the next issue of Creativity Life magazine (the current issue is just out BTW - now every other month inside the pages of Creativity Magazine) hence my sporadic blogging recently! I'm trying to fill the gaps with a bit of Twittering though (there is a link to follow me over in the side bar). Twitter is rather addictive and while I don't have the luxury of an iPhone (or the much lusted after Nokia G1 that my brother keeps tauntung me with!) the next best thing is Tweetdeck, a desktop application that manages your feeds a treat! I think my favourite Tweeter at the moment is James Moran who wrote last nights awesome third episode of Torchwood : Children of Earth. I won't post any spoilers here, but suffice to say if you've not seen it you NEED to get you bum over to iPlayer to catch up!

Feeling hot, hot, hot!

2009-07-03T16:00:00.000+01:00

I'm relieved to say that after several days of sweltering heat down here is deepest darkest Dorset, there is a bit of a breeze to be felt today. I know it's terribly British to moan about the heat (after moaning about the rain and cold the rest of the year) but that's just the way it goes. I guess if I was able to sit back at home and enjoy Wimbledon, it would all be ok, but as it is I'm in a VERY hot office so it's not so much fun! Although we did have a treat today with a mini company-BBQ for lunch! Yummy!

The girls have of course been feeling the heat too, they've been drifiting about either propped in front of the fan, or wingeing to have their paddling pool filled up!

The pic on the page below was from a couple of weeks ago, but you get the gist! (the page is new though! Yay for me for getting it scanned!)

Of course a bit of sun means I could get out in the garden for a few pictures!

And out in the Forest of course!

I've also got more news on the veg front! Since I last posted I've been enjoying homegrown new potatoes, carrots, turnip, peas, more mange tout, radishes and salad leaves! My cabbages are beginning to get to triffid proportions though, I'm a bit scared to go out and water! My pumpkin is also making a bid for world domination! Soon it wil cover most of the worlds' surface!

Not so deadly...

2009-06-25T08:54:00.000+01:00

There's all sorts going on the the garden at the mo... the potatos are in bloom and nearly ready to dig up... (but I am slightly alarmed how much like Deadly Nightshade they look!)

The pond is in bloom...

And of course some indeterminate shrubs...

And of course I grabbed a few pics of Martha Moo enjoying the sun...

Talking of which, her ladyship features on the docrafts site this week as Project of the Week. It features the scrummy yum WRM Madame Royale range that is now gracing the warehouse! Do pop on over and leave me a comment if you have a min... it makes it all worthwhile!!

There's another page of Martha at Scrap Schemes... the new challenge went live a little while ago and this is my offering...

Update Fail...

2009-06-22T14:03:00.001+01:00

The golden rule of blogging is to never apologise for a blogging break! It just draws attention to the fact that your posting has been lax of late.. but as I never take my own good advice, I humbly apologise!

I'm been on a week's holiday from work and I do have a couple of pages to share once I pull my finger out and get them scanned but in the meantime here's my page from the new challenge at A True Friend!

This time round I wangled sponsorship of the challenge from Papermania along with kits as prizes for two lucky participants! Do pop on over and join in for a chance to win! The challenge is about using a quote on your page... I'm afraid mine isn't terribly high-brow... it's a line from Monty Python - The Life of Brian!

A few photos to share also today from my week lounging (yeah right!) in the sun inlcuding a lovely lunch at a Forest pub!

A bit of sun also allowed some pics of the local flora and fauna... including some deadly nightshade!

a foxglove...

some new arrivals of the equine kind...

plus Mrs Mandarin...

And of course the girls... although I only seem to have Martha pics to share today! I promise Lola is fine too!

My veg is also going from strength to strength with Mange Tout and Strawberries being the stars of the moment!

I'll try my hardest to be back soon with some crafty offerings!!

Terrible Twos?

2009-06-10T09:37:00.000+01:00

A little while ago I invested in a small (honest!!) pile of the newest Sassafras papers and associated bits and I haven't really made any real efforts to get stuck in... so the last couple of pages I've created are using these scrummy ranges - this one being for the new ScrapSchemes that has just gone live.

The rows of plants/trees were just perfect for the scheme this time around.

I'm also continuing to make great in roads into the chipboard number pack that came with a Studio Calico kit recently as well as diggin out some ancient 7-Gypsies tapes!

Comic Book Hero

2009-06-09T07:40:00.000+01:00

The new challenge at A True Friend is a fabulous one! It's all about getting arty with your pet photos and using a photo manuipulation package to alter them. Of course you could alter them 'old school' with paints and inks... the choice is up to you!

My page was inspired by this fun comic book photoshop action from Deviant Art. It's totally free so even better! I've gone with comic-book shapes and colours to complement it. This clever action turned this....

into this with just a couple of clicks!

Do pop along and take a peek - the girls pages are fantastic!!

A few pics from the weekend also - I managed to avoid the rain, dashing out between the showers to let the girls have a dip.

And I took advantage of a bit of good light between the clouds to grab some pics of some Forest residents...

Fabulous Friday!

2009-06-05T09:06:00.000+01:00

I can't believe Friday has rushed round already, this week has gone super fast but I am glad the weekend is here! I've not done ANY scrapping this week, but have page or two planned tonight! I realise though that I haven't shared my page for last weeks times Scrap Schemes (smack wrists!) so here it is! I've used the yummy scrum WRM Tiffany's collection - and even though it's a terrible, terrible scan you can get the gist!

As yesterday was the local and Europena elections I popped down to my local polling station bright and early ( I suspect I was one of the first!). I strongly feel that voting is hugely important - people died for our right to vote (and people today, in some places are still dying for the right). I'm always surprised when there is apathy among people about voting - I spoke to lots of people yesterday who had 'no interest in politics' - a fact I find really sad and rather worrying. I realise there is a lot of mistrust with politicians at the moment (but then what's new?!) but by staying away from the polls as a protest seems a waste of our democratic rights and is likely to only let undesirable elements seize greater power. Only by voting do we have any right to complain about the system!

Rant over!

And so onto a few pics! I totally failed to get an election related picture yesterday... but instead I spotted this gorgeous canopy of leaves...

My veg (a lot of which is in colourful trugs) continues to grow at an ever increasing rate - these are the smaller of my potato batches...

And these are my cabbages, with some sprouts at the very back!

And of course a couple of newf pics for good measure!

Photo extravaganza!

2009-06-01T08:33:00.000+01:00

Well better late than never I'm back with a few pics, some are last weekend and some are the one just gone... it was a total scorcher yesterday, so much so that we just hung out in the garden and the girls played in their paddling pool to cool down. (the water started out sparkly and clean but turned 'Martha' brown in about a millisecond!)

On Saturday after a quick dip a recce of the Forest was in order - I jumped out the car to grab a few pics of a donkey family and of course they rushed straight over with the consolation that I could grab this cute pic of Martha meeting one of the donkeys!

And to finish a few randon shots from lst weekend... Paddling...

Beautiful locations...

More padlding... (yes I was knee deep in water to take this one!)

Chilling in the evening sunshine...

Grey Squidger...

Coot baby... (who have THE BIGGEST feet in the world!)

Gorgeous Lola...

Young...

And old...

And to top it all off... a gorgeous blue sky!

That's not my name...

2009-05-26T13:02:00.001+01:00

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!

2009-05-21T08:34:00.000+01:00

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?

2009-05-19T09:47:00.000+01:00

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...

2009-05-18T08:45:00.000+01:00

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....

2009-05-14T11:30:00.000+01:00

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...

2009-05-13T13:35:00.000+01:00

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!

2009-05-11T11:46:00.000+01:00

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...

2009-05-07T08:39:00.002+01:00

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!

Unpacked...

2009-04-29T23:23:00.000+01:00

There is a new challenge at Scrap Schemes - here's the scheme...

And here's my page... of course you'll need to visit the blog to see the rest of the DT's work (and to check out the DT call!!)

I finally got around to unpacking my new crafty aquisition... and very nice it is too! I especially love the SD function of it, which means it doesn't need to be hooked up to my computer in order to cut! Genius!

Old Friends and good friends...

2009-04-27T22:49:00.000+01:00

The new True Friend Challenge went live this morning - it's all about our pets friends, and of course Martha's best friend can only be Lola (and vice versa!)

My page is using mostly American Crafts - lots of it from last months Studio Calico kit.

Talking of friends I've got a few pictures to share from the last few days - the first of which is the two girlies having a cuddle!

The weather held over the weekend and it was great to get out and about (the rain has arrived with a vengance now though!) in the New Forest

Martha made friends with one of the cows in the Forest...

But not these ones... don't fancy those horns close up!

Much safer was this lovely textured bark I came across while having a wander...

Found this camera this evening, lurking at the back of a drawer. It's an old APS film camera and I suspect it has a half used roll inside it, but it's impossible to tell as the battery is dead. So I punted a quid or so on ebay for a new one and if it works I'll be trotting down the developers to investigate some lost prints I think I last used it in about 1997/8 so it'll be interesting to see...

I also found an empty film that might be worth a go if it all goes smoothly! I seem to remember the prints were pretty good from it so fingers crossed!

Weird?...

2009-04-22T23:19:00.000+01:00

So I was chatting to a fellow (self confessed) Sci-fi geek today and we came to a rather strange conclusion...

We were talking about the new Star Trek Film that stars Zachary Quinto (here he is for those who don't know him...enjoy!)

I admited that I had develoved a bit of a fan-girl crush on Mr Quinto's alter ego... Sylar (from Heroes) which is all well and good, except in the series he's a crazed murderer with wierd and violent special powers! I thought I must be a bit strange until she admitted that she saw the appeal of another TV murderer - Dexter Morgan (Michael C.Hall) from the series Dexter.... So are we the only two? Or is Bad really Good?

Scrap Schemes wants you!

2009-04-22T09:00:00.000+01:00

Yes.... that's right.... you! Scrap Schemes are looking for some new blood to join their merry band of scrappers and cardmakers - pop on over to check out the call! It could be you!

Happy Day...

2009-04-22T08:49:00.001+01:00

No matter what life/people throw at you a little bit of blue sky can't fail but to help just a little bit... so when I spotted this gorgeous Honesty plant in the garden AND realised the sky was still beautiful and blue, I knew I had to grab a few pictures before the critters squished it! You could almost believe this was somewhere much more exotic than Dorset!

And even though I've not had the time/inclination/energy to scrapbook at all for ages this combination of shades is pretty darn inspiring! These are the colours pulled out via photoshop...how scrummy do they look!?

Talking of gorgeous colours, here's Martha reclining on her favourite rug last night - is it wrong that I primarily picked red because it coordinated perfectly with both the dogs?

The weekend just passed saw some gorgeous weather - I was so happy to get out and about with the girls and in the garden - of course the girles got as wet as possible...

and it seems the Forest creatures had much the same idea...

I have actually completed one scrapbook page this week, but can't share as it's for 'A True Friend' - but I do have a cheeky close up on one yummy element -

These scrummy mesh flowers (and the papers ones...) are new 'Wild Flowers' from Imaginisce and have rekindled my long-standing love of flowers on layouts, especially when you paint a pretty ordinary plain wooden brad with Smooch inks to finish it off! Yum!

Discovery...

2009-04-17T08:42:00.000+01:00

My veggies are continuing to thrive - these are my runner beans peaking through the surface of the compost... won't be long till they are outside!

A friend has very kindly given me a Raspberry cane - I can't wait to get it in the ground and start willing it to fruit!

Of course once they come they'll be in danger of being scoffed straight off the cane by this 'little' person!

After my ramblings about the Smooch Inks, I thought they would make a perfect pic of the day! How scrummy do they look??

I've just found a little stash of quick pages using BasicGrey Archaic that I put together in one afternoon but never got round to uploading anywhere at the time! - I really do love this range and not just the cutie dinosaurs - although they are my favourites!!

Birthday Girl...

2009-04-15T21:28:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to let you know that there is a new challenge over at the Scrap Schemes - the fabulous thing about Scrap Schemes is that it's totally open how you use the inspiration to create a page and the varied pages from our DT show exactly that...

This was the Scheme...And this was my page...

The little trees at the bottom are coloured with a fabulous new shimmery ink from Clearsnap called Smooch - they come in cute little bottles and paint on like nail varnish, but with a fab fine nib for detail and highlighting... it's a great alternative to Glimmer Mists that I struggle to get on with due to their cloggy nature. Look out for soon in a store near you at the beginning of May.

Also today... this little girl (pictured at the weekend) was 5! Happy Birthday Lola!

Presidential Pup...

2009-04-15T12:03:00.000+01:00

Yesterday saw the official reveal of the new 'First Dog' that has moved into the White House with the Obama family.

Bo is a Portuguese Water Dog and I think he'll make a great friend for Malia and Sasha - it looks like he's already making himself at home in the White House.

Of course another breed of water dog has famous presidential links too... President Rutherford Hayes had a Newfy called Hector, President Ulysses Grant also had a Newf who was called Faithful, President James Buchanen's Newf was called Lara and Robert Kennedy's (John's brother) Newf was called Brumus.

I suspect that deep down that the Obama's wanted a Newf too... but with Malia's allergies, the non-shepping PWD was a safer choice!

First Harvest!

2009-04-14T09:44:00.000+01:00

It's only early days but i'm really getting into the whole 'grow your own' thing... I've now got Broad Beads, Oriental Salad, Sprouts and Purple Sprouting Broccoli happily residing in my lovely new raised bed - safely tucked away from big stompy Newfy feet - as well as Carrots, Beetroot and Spring Onions in tubs, plus Peas, Runner Beans, Tomatoes, Pumpkin, Peppers, Swiss Chard and more salad in the mini greenhouse! But most exciting of all was my very first harvest of the year! My first yummy scrummy mushroom!

Contrary to the predictions - the weather over the weekend was pretty respectable! I even managed a couple of walkies in shorts!

The girlies had a ball having a bit of a swim...

I snapped some pics of some of the New Forest residents including this adorable foal with his cute white face!

Of course there were the classic Easter moments... one or two chocolatey goodies...

The obligatory bunny ears on the dog... (will continue to try to get the perfect pic!)

But i'm not so sure Martha has REALLY 'got' which holiday it was... as festive penguin made a repeat appearance!!

Don't forget there is a new challenge over at 'A True Friend'... please do pop over and check out the pages and of course join in!!

Rain, rain, go away...

2009-04-09T09:32:00.001+01:00

I'm typing this hoping that the pouring rain outside is going to do the decent thing and ease off (or stop if it had any conscience!) for the Easter weekend... I know it's highly unlikely but a girl can hope!

So in the more likely scenario that it'll stay wet, I've made an effort to get up the Forest a few times when the sun WAS shining after work.

The girls have had some nice paddles...

and I spotted my first New Forest foal...

I also grabbed this shot of Martha in the garden - it's the result of my disasterous toy-throwing... poor furry mammoth ended up in the pond, but never fear because Martha embraced her water-rescue heritage and merrily fished him out.

I've got one of my pages as project of the week on the 'do crafts' site this week. I don't get the chance to 'play' as much as before at work but it's noce to do the odd bit of web/mag work here and there! This page features papers from a new Papermania dog-themed kit. I don't actually use themed papers often, but having said that this one has lots of papers that aren't necessarily doggy themed so are great for every day too. I've also used some of the gorgeous Chocolate Box Core'dinations and the scalloped edged PM cardstock - the scallopy frames are from a PM Birthday stamp set... it's definately my favourite at the moment! The next page is 'just for fun' - always the best excuse - lovely new Sassafras papers and a big wodge of scrummy Thickers!

Geek alert...

2009-04-06T08:54:00.007+01:00

I'm not ashamed to say I'm a total Sci-Fi fan - I adore Stargate, love BSG (Battlestar Galactica to the uninitiated) and live for Lost, so when the last ever series of Battlestar Galactica drew to a close a couple of weeks ago it was a bit of a trauma! No more weekly fix of cylons, Leoben Conoy (is it just me that remembers Callum Keith Rennie in Due South?) and maybe most importantly, no more Jamie Bamber on our screens (Apollo). But imagine my surprise when I spotted a trailer for UK Law and Order featuring the very same Mr Bamber!

Of course the series has been on for weeks already so I trotted over to the ITV site hoping they have a watch again feature and lo and behold they do! Tuning in, it was slightly disconcerting to start with to hear Jamie chatting away in a Kosha London accent! Turns out that it's not a London accent that he does really well, it the US accent! He actually born and bred in Hammersmith ('ammersmiff' if you prefer!). Shocker!

In another weird Sci-Fi connection one of the lawers is none other than Freema Agyeman - Martha Jones from Doctor Who... it's a small world!

So of course after one episode I'm hooked and now face a mammoth, eye-bleeding 6 episodes watching on the laptop before I catch up and can return to the 'proper' TV broadcast!

A little page to share today using the March Studio Calico kit - I love this one, especially all the scrummy new Sassafras bits and pieces.

The picture is Martha (of course) with the backdrop of one of the huge boxes that the dog food gets delivered in. I always feel sorry for the poor courier driver as he struggles up the path lugging these 20K monsters!

I've finally sucummed to the lurgy that's been circulating the office for the last week or so... but never say that I don't share... I'm sharing the love (and the germs) with the rest of the team anyway! My desk is now a shrine to Boots...

Bargains all round...

2009-04-03T08:27:00.001+01:00

There's a new challenge over at Scrap Schemes - pop on over and have a peek and please do join in if you have a spare min!

This was my page - the background on this one is die-cut from the Fancy Pants Krafty Kutz collection - I adore them! The rest of the papers are bits and pieces dug out of my scraps box.... I love, love, love using up bits and pieces!

There's also a mahoosive sale of BasicGrey papers on the 'do crafts' site all the single sheet papers are now only 25p!! Plus there are loads of embellishments to go with them!

I popped into Tesco the other night - they have an awesome Easter collection - I just couldn't resist this pair of cute egg cups for only a couple of quid!

I also picked up a pair of cute pink bunny ears for the obligatory 'Dog in Ears' Easter shot for next weekend!!

The obvious explanation?

2009-03-31T07:36:00.000+01:00

There has been a story in the news yesterday and today about 'sightings' of a bear in a wood in Suffolk. I truly can't believe that there are bears secretly roaming the UK... the explanation to me is obvious... it's clearly a Newfie! I remember a story of a Newfie in Canada who the owner had to dress in a hi-vis jacket during hunting season as people were forever reporting bear sightings in her town!

There was asimilar story a couple of years ago where a innocent Newfie was mistaken as the 'Beast of Dartmoor'. No wonder some people give us a wide berth on dog walks!!

A quick page of my own Brown Bear to share again today... it's a very serious looking Martha posing by the bookcase. It's mostly using the March Studio Calico kit.

I also knocked up a couple of bracelets over the weekend and grabbed a pic for my 365 yesterday, love the colours of these rich azure beads!

New Arrivals

2009-03-30T14:43:00.000+01:00

290309 Sunbathing
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

A couple of weeks ago I rescued some ex-battery farm hens via the Battery Hen Welfare Trust. They were such sad little souls to start with, having spent the whole of their lives imprisoned in tiny cages. They had never seen the sky, grass, or even experienced wind/rain or sun...

This weekend whilst having a little wander around the garden they suddenly discovered the joys of sun-bathing - they each settled down in a sunny spot and stretched out their very sparse wing feathers and basked in the lovely spring warmth...

I'll post more pics as they gradually regain their feathers!

dr seuss

2009-03-29T08:06:00.000+01:00

This week sees the new Challenge over at A True Friend - and this time Shelly has a fantastic challenge for us! It's a Dr Seuss themed one and you can be as lateral as you like to make it fit your pet... of course if you have a Cat in a Hat picture, then you are sorted!

After perusing a wiki list of titles I came across of 'I am NOT going to get up today' - perfect for some lazy pics of Martha. In their defence both my girls get up bright and early with me at 6am, but after the girls are sorted they go straight back into a deep sleep until someting worth getting up for - be that walks or lunch!

When they are young Newfs are pretty high-energy - always wanting to be entertained, but once they hit 2 they seem to magically transmute into a big lazy thing for most of the day - however they can still leap about with the best of them when the mood takes them!

It won't be long until baby New Forest Ponies start making an appearance - but it'll be quite a while longer until the donkey foals appear - however the grown up and yearling donkeys are just as cute...

Just for Dawn I think we'll nickname this one Geraldine...

Make a splash!

2009-03-27T11:02:00.000Z

I've had a manic week - organising a couple of days of visitors at work and generally running around like a mentalist to catch up after - but within the madness I had a chance to enjoy a couple of hours out to take part in a jewellery workshop - I've never really done any jewellery making before and quite honestly I wanted to hate it... I can't possibly find time/money/room for another stash hungry hobby. But as is almost inevitable I REALLY enjoyed it! Damn.

I don't have a pic of the finished articles neatly displayed (necklace, earrings and bracelet) but did snap a quick close up for my 365.

If anyone can recommend any inspiring jewellery makers blogs Id appreciate it! Although my bank balance may not! Leave me a link in the comments section below.

I've come to the conclusion that one of the best value things you can pick up for a quid at this time of year is lovely big bunch of daffs! These guys were just gagging to be my 365 pic earlier in the week and I love it so much it's also gracing my desktop at work - lovely to add a bit of cheer to a dreary day!

A quicky page to share today.. i've been told i'm rubbish at putting what I've used on my pages on this blog... promise i'll try harder... promise! This is mostly Cosmo Cricket - Girl Friday - taken from the March Studio Calico Kit - plus some Sassafras and AC Thickers alphas.

The sun has got his hat on...

2009-03-23T22:27:00.000Z

This weekend seemed to herald the start of Spring - with just a few days to go until the clocks change a couple of gorgeous warm days certainly makes the weekend go faster. Once a bit of sun appears the masses seem to descend on all those places that I've enjoyed peace and quiet at for the last several months - hoards of people with dogs who seem to have hibernated all year suddenly hit the Forest. But for my girls it's business as usual...

Even my little nemesis the Mandarin ducks were in a good mood - paddling demurely across the lake just nipping into range for a cute picture.

A little bit of sun is also the perfect chance to grab a few pictures of some colourful displays popping up in the garden - all of which seem to have survived being stomped by Newfie paws! Primroses... these ones grow wild in the garden...

The odd stray dandelion...

And a gorgeous Magnolia - this one is a Stellata.

Of course it all turned out too good to be true and this morning saw a return to dreary weather... which inturn sees the return of indoor photos taken this evening... hey ho!

In happier news though I've just found a batch re-size feature on Photoshop Elements that has just speeded up blogging no end!

I leave you with a quick page (mostly using last months Studio Calico kit)

Taking up the reigns...

2009-03-18T21:37:00.000Z

After much hard work Shawna from Scrap Schemes has decided to step back from the challenge blog due to other commitments so I've appily agreed to take over the day to day running - we have a great team so I'm sure it will be a breeze!

My first scheme has just gone live and the girls have come up with some fabulous pages!

This is my take on the scheme - the page is mostly BasicGrey Offbeat plus a few scrummy bits of American Crafts all nestling on some fabulous Core'dinations Whitewash - which I LOVE!!!

Keeping me sane.... ish.

2009-03-18T11:41:00.001Z

When multiple tasks pile upon you all at once a bit of Green Day always helps!

Oh Happy Day...

2009-03-15T22:01:00.000Z

It's been gorgeous this weekend, warn enough to go without a jacket and the perfect opportunity to spend some time out in the garden and in the New Forest with the girls... And to reflect the vibe of the day here's a page featuring Lola (I think from last weekend) having a lovely time splashing about in her favourite pond!

I've got a couple of days off at the beginning of this week, so i'm hoping to squeeze a bit of scrapping in - luxury!

She rules...

2009-03-14T21:06:00.000Z

There's a new challenge over at the fantastic True Friend challenge blog - if you've not played along before please do pop along and have a go! We have great fun challenges every fortnight and I think this month the girls have excelled themselves! This time Lori set us a fab challenge - to explain what life would be like if our pets ruled the world. My page is here - i've used the very subtle Teen range from American Crafts.

It occurs to me that you don't even need a pet to do these challenges! Why not create a page about how things would be if you (or one of your kids) ruled the world!

Red Nose Day...

2009-03-13T22:39:00.000Z

Not watched any of Red Nose Day so far... but Sky+ is merrily recording so i'll check it all out over the weekend! Of course the red nose itself was the perfect subject for my pic of the day!

And continuing the red theme is Martha making herself at home on my new Ikea rug - it's already a firm favourite, with both dogs wondering why they didn't have such an appropriate place for someone of their celebrity to lounge!

Surprising...

2009-03-12T08:43:00.000Z

Normally the arrival of Oriental themed papers would have been a total non-event (these are from last months Studio Calico kit) but this time I was over the moon! And it's all because of a little group of Mandarin ducks that frequent a local pond in the New Forest. This page features my favourite picture that I've managed so far and it works a treat with these papers!

It's just a shame capturing a good pic of him wasn't as easy as the page turned out to be!

Bittersweet...

2009-03-10T13:38:00.000Z

After three and a half years of sitting miles away from the nearest window, I recently moved to a different area of the office and now have a lovely big window right behind me. While it's fantastic to have a bit of natural light (peeking from behind piles of samples of course!) it's a little bit bittersweet. Now I can see when it's bright and sunny outside whilst we are hard at work indoors!

Recently though the weather has literally been taunting me... imagine the scene... The end of the day arrives and after a quick peek over my shoulder to confirm the sun is out and the birds are singing (yes... the office is clearly situated somewhere near Narnia !) I skip downstairs to jump in my little car... but in the 2 mins it has taken, somehow the weather turns and i'm greeted by hailstorms, blizzards and tornados (i've told you a million times I hate people who exaggerate!). Paranoia?? Quite probably...

But just to prove that I sometimes beat the odds and I do get to glimpse a bit of sun here's a page of Martha enjoying a quick dip. It's hard to see on the scan, but the flowers are accented by some Ranger Distressed Stickles - I quite like them... maybe a mini shopping spree is on the cards!

080309 Splash

2009-03-09T08:27:00.000Z

080309 Splash
Originally uploaded by *karlotta*

I might be a bit blond but I've finally realised that I can blog direct from Flickr... this has to be the perfect way to keep this blog updated!

Of course this is Martha - I'm doing a 365 of her and will try and keep blogging them! For the days already past pop on over to my Flickr!

Everyone's a winner!

2009-03-09T08:22:00.000Z

A bit of sunshine meant two very happy dogs this weekend, lots and lots of paddilng was to be had and I'm sure that I got nearly as wet as them!

Despite the BBC's shortsighted view to not screen Crufts this year I enjoyed a few snippets from their online coverage (I for one hopes that the Kennel Club look for an alternative broadcaster in future years even if the BBC come crawling back - I couldn't believe the hypocrisy of critisizing certain breeds like the St Bernard only to cast one on their flagship show - Eastenders!)

I was delighted to see a Sealyham take the top honours this year, it's one of the British Breeds that is at risk of disappearing due to low numbers. Hopefully it will encourage people to look beyone the obvious choices and enjoy this fun little breed. There is always a increase of people wanting a puppy just like the BIS winner and I can't help but be relieved that it's a breed that wouldn't be harmed by this with a bit of luck. Although I do have to admit to cheering for the Pharoah hound - he was totally stunning!

Back to my girls and a page featuring an extreme close up of Miss Martha's big snozz. The page looks decidely wonky here but I promise it's not in real life!

Let it snow...

2009-03-05T20:59:00.000Z

Woke up this morning to a surprising layer of the white stuff... lot's to scrape off the car and enough to pile high on the trees and a few quick pictures in the drive before rushing off to work.

Not a lot left once I got home and Martha paused to pose after tiring herself out with a good run around in the little bit that remained.

Today saw a new challenge go live at Scrap Schemes, it was based on a lovely black and white image and this was my take on it.

I loved the colour (or lack of) scheme and simply added some touches of red and grey to set it off. Most of the bit's i've used are from the last Studio Calico kit.

At long last...

2009-03-02T22:23:00.000Z

Just a quickie tonight as I'm cream crackered and am off to bed in a mo! But I can't go without sharing a page... When the last lot of BasicGrey papers came out I confidently proclaimed that this blue woodgrain one from the Granola pack (along with the pink woodgrain in Eva) was my favourite, but it's taken until now (and the arrival of another sheet in the Studio Calico kit) for me to actually get round to using it. I'm not precious about 'saving' papers - there is no such thing as one that's 'too good' to use, but it just never made it onto a page before.

The page features Lola mid paddle (terrible scan... the photo on this one is lovely in real life - check my flickr if you don't believe me!!!) having lots of fun on her favourite walkies.

Hair today... gone tomorrow?

2009-02-28T22:53:00.000Z

The new challenge has just gone live over at A True Friend. This time it's about about grooming... pop on over and see everyones pages and if you have a fur baby please do join in! We love seeing your pages!

My page actually features one of my Christmas cards photoshoot outtakes. I love Martha's big hairy ears flapping about (even though it's not 'proper' for Newfs... they are supposed to be trimmed so they sit much neater!). The page is using some Cosmo - My Campy which once you get past the bit's with Smores on (which after googling them sound rank!) it's pretty darn cool!

What's in a name?

2009-02-28T06:41:00.000Z

I'm pretty sure every dog gets called lots of silly nicknames, but I think Martha has more than most... i've been calling her pumpkin (and pumpkin pie) for a while now but it seems to have mutated (the name not Martha!) into Pumpernickel... and weirdly it seems to suit her!

This page was using last months Studio Calico which coincidentally is why i'm up early! It's reveal day on SC today and this months kit looks GORGEOUS... I've added in some American Crafts Stickers too..

Duckin' and Divin'

2009-02-26T23:08:00.000Z

Feeling rather virtuous today as I got out in the garden even after a long day at work to start organising in earnest for veg growing etc. I made a start on raking up a million twigs and leaves and already it's looking much smarter! Of course I had some little helpers trying to spread the gathered bits quicker than I could accumulate them!

A little page to share too... it features Martha playing with MY bath-duck! But it was such a cute photo-op that I couldn't resist letting her play for a bit!

Shrove Tuesday... er.... Monday.

2009-02-24T22:01:00.000Z

Shrove Tuesday brings the obligatory pancake and lemon shot... except I had mine yesterday but it's the thought that counts! And very yummy they were too!

Came home to a little delivery today -a big ol' pile of rechargable batteries to keep the Speedlite firing... i'm notoriously rubbish at charging batteries so in this case more is most definately more!

I've got a page to share again today - did this one ages ago and it's been sitting in a draft post waiting it's turn for weeks! So today is the day! It features one of my favourite Lola pics from last year, not to mention some yummy We R Memory Keepers papers and frills.

Spring is springing?

2009-02-22T20:10:00.000Z

This weekend really felt like spring was on it's way... it was time to cast off sweaters and get out and enjoy sunshine that had unseasonal warmth! After the girls enjoyed a paddle I took advantage of some sunshine to seek our some of the New Forest's residents.

It was a total fluke to spot these guys hiding in the wood as I was driving along, after a quick 3-point turn, I headed back in their direction before pulling off the road fully expecting them to have given it legs... but lo and behold they stayed stock still while I crept towards them up to the dark tree line.

In a different bit of the Forest I wanted to get a nice pic of the resident Mandarin ducks in the sunshine. I was in for a treat as the guys and girls were out in force.. (along with some Mallards) but a bit far away for my liking (must get on the 'bay for a 400mm!)...

But just as I was about to give up and head for home this little fella took pity on me and scuttled just a wee bit closer and I reeled of a few frames at 6.5fps! He was a right show off diving and then flapping to dry himself off!

The wonderful spring sights continued closer to home with a lovely display of crocuses on the driveway... I suspect my neighbours think I'm a bit mental kneeling on the gravel!

Back indoors and a quick page to share - I received these alpha rub-ons in a kit and they weren't really my cup of tea, but never one to be defeated I decided to use almost nearly the whole package as a background.

I think this picture and page pretty much sums Martha up... she really has got an opinion on everything!!!

Expedit...ion....

2009-02-22T09:19:00.000Z

A return visit to Ikea last night (seems to be a weekly event at the moment!) saw me finally snag one of the bargain £29 Expedit units! I've just finished putting it together and filling it up... it didn't take long, i've only put my albums on it and it's COMPLETELY full!!! Once I've tidies completely I'll tae some pics of it! I really feel like I want to rip the craft room apart and line one wall with them... it's fabulous storage!

Continuing my spate of quick pages with scraps here's one featuring Martha digging around in her toy box for her favourite toys! Yes... it's even pink! The papers on this are Sassafras again.

Cryptic...

2009-02-20T14:51:00.000Z

*Someone* who shall go unnamed challenged me to use a combination of bright pink and green (namely the Doodlebug colours - Bubblegum, Cupcake and Limeade) together... never one to turn down a challenge here are a couple of pages featuring those very shades that I knocked up in super quick time! So if my challenger is reading... 'In return I'm going to up the stakes with a challenge back at you mystery challenger! It's just a matter of wating for the *outline* of my master plan!'

Having a ball...

2009-02-19T21:58:00.000Z

The next challenge is up at Scrap Schemes - this time it was a fab vintage advert in shades of yellow, green and auburn... I've used some of the gorgeous Rose-Moka papers for my page - they reflected the colour scheme perfectly!

Just a quickie tonight as the second book in the Twilight series arrived today from Amazon so I HAVE to start it straight away!!

Go Shopping!

2009-02-19T09:32:00.002Z

I had a question from Lou about the speech bubble journalling blocks on my page from yesterday.

They are from Etsy, from a shop called The Paper Pixie - she has some awesome bits and pieces in her shop!

We love...

2009-02-18T22:39:00.001Z

My page today seems to follow on rather from yesterday... 4 scraps, 4 pics, some journalling blocks from my gargantuan stash of journalling spots and tags and one quick and easy page... As much as I love spending ages on a page sometimes the fast ones are the most gratifying. And I'm quite convinced that if you stick anything to Kraft card it'll look awesome!

Scrapping your scraps...

2009-02-17T22:23:00.001Z

I'm not precious about scraps, if they are teeny weeny, i'm happy to admit they are beyond being useful and consign them to the recycling bin. But some scraps I find a bit more difficult to part with - Scenic Route is one, and Sassafras is another. And i'm really glad about that. Sometimes a few little bits and pieces can be the perfect starting point to a page. Even better because somehow the smaller the scraps the quicker the page.

So if you have a nice selection of little scraps (maybe the left overs from a monthly kit) whip them out and create a fast page... link them here letting me know if you found scraps made you speedy too!

And so the big day arrived...

2009-02-16T16:35:00.000Z

Saturday night I decided to take my flu-raveged person off to visit the new Southampton Ikea which opened on Thursday - It's only a short pop up the motorway and was such a treat not having a two hour (each way) haul over to Croydon/Bristol. I was a very good girl and dutifully popped my camera in my bag, but I think I got a bit over excited and totally forgot to take any photos! Southampton had a new shopping centre a few years back (West Quay) which totally dominated the Southampton skyline but Ikea totally obiliterates it from view!

This is a artists impression and it totally doesn't do it justice! The store is over 4 floors and is truly massive!

I was quite well behaved and only picked up a few essential bits that I definately NEEDED - I think knowing I can pop along easily certainly helps the 'it's only a quid' panic buying - I did have my eye on a couple of nice 12x12 Expedit units but I couldn't lift the box so I had to go without! I'll try and find a likely helper to do the hard work before the amazing offer ends!

A page to share today featuring the Jan (i think?) Studio Calico kit - they now include some of their own exclusive papers which strike me as quite 'October Afternoon'. The pics are Martha enjoying some nice healthy fruit! I've just noticed the length of Doodlebug trim at the bottom was flopped rather!

I've decided to keep my various 365 pics on my Flickr account - it's seems a bit mental to upload them to two places so if you'd like to keep up with them you can get their via the Flickr widget on the right hand side - feel free to add me as a contact - i'd love to see your pics too!

Back to Reality...

2009-02-13T22:18:00.004Z

Thanks so much for all the messages and well-wishes. I've been laid low with Flu and only staggered back to reality today - i've been sharing my 365 pics over at Flickr still, but they aren't terribly thrilling... there's only so much photographic excitement that you can achieve sticking you lens out from under a duvet!

After a little break there is a new Challenge over at A True Friend - this time it's all about how your pet makes you laugh - here's my page!

Cough cough!

2009-02-08T21:52:00.000Z

I'm feeling pretty ropey this weekend so I've mostly stayed inside and joined in with a bit of the UKScrappers Cyber Crop - Now it's all over I can share one of my pre-crop challenge pages.

I need to catch up with a few pics too! Check out Flickr for all the info!