Grudge...

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

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

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

And these totally cute Canada Goslings...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Weird?...

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?

Bittersweet...

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!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Despite my December Studio Calico arriving i've been so busy getting bits sorted for Christmas I haven't had a chance to craft all week - that's going to change today though!

I've nearly finished my wrapping and try as I might I can't resist paper that errs on the side of cheese - it would be a whole lot less fun to have perfectly elegant gifts each with a coordinating topper, for me Christmas is about tradition and for me wrapping needs to be a bit more fun!

I had a wonderful little (ok... giant) helper this year getting everything wrapped, but i'm not sure stomping on the paper as you cut it is that helpful... in any case every bit of sticky tape has the odd stray brown hair trapped beneath and most likely a few dribbly spots for good measure...inevitable when this... is about two inches from your arm!

I want to get on and take a few pics of each of my favourite tree ornaments - this cute little chick decked out in hat and scarf is a fave so thought I share... I'm going to break out the tripod again later and take some nice long exposures to avoid flash, but this is one to keep me going in case I never get round to it!

Of course with all the festive preparations some things can't be forgotton, doglets still need entertaining and and Martha doesn't care how cold it is... she still needs a paddle, although I'm sure I ended up wetter than her!

Famous smells.... in a good way!

I love it when you are browsing your old photos on your hard-drive and come across a really cute one that you missed scrapping at the time - i guess when you have a puppy, pretty much everything gets missed!

This page (which is all November Studio Calico) features baby Martha helping to sort our paper recycling into the special bag... I think the term 'help' is relative...

Today saw the wonderful experience of new carpet! It's one of those iconic yummy smells, along with new car, baking bread and dog conditioner (you had to be there!) and I can't stop wandering around in bare feet over it! Of course it's not one of those fancy shag-pile affairs... by necessity it has to be hard wearing, easy clean and a fetching beigy-brown tone to disguise dusty doggy footprints between vacuums! But it's a great finish and I love the warm colour and the open and spacious look it's given the room! The girls love it too!

Seven little things...

The lovely Emma has tagged me to list 7 random facts about myself... most of what I ramble on about is pretty random,  but i'll give it a go!

1. I've never seen Titanic - and have no desire to! Leonardo DiCaprio makes me a little nauseous!
2. When I was a child I used to have a dream about a Giant Caterpillar chasing me... and the only way to be safe from it was to make sure you had your coat buttoned all the way up! Clearly I've been scarred for life!
3. I have the Irish bloke (Sean!) on my Sat-nav... he's soothing!
4. Chris Packham once picked my dog as the second one he'd most like to take home at a fun dog show. - I've never forgiven him!
5. 'My' Karaoke song is Paint it Black by The Stones.
6. I quote Monty Python almost daily.
7. I'm proud to be a geek... i love a bit of Sci-fi and i'm not afraid to admit a fan-girl crush on Joe Flanigan! Swoon!

And to finish i get to tag 7 more people! I pick... Emma, Jo, Laurie, Laura, Paula, Beckie and Clare!

It's a Hard Life...

I think i've scrapped this pic before, but it's so cute I couldn't resist it again! I've teamed it up with some of my favourite pages of the moment - BasicGrey Offbeat and Rose Moka. I'm also on a bit of a stash-busting kick to use a few of my mountain of flowers! I really love layering them along with papers and other embellishments so I hope you don't get bored with flowery layouts for a while!

I know a few of the girls are suffering a few sleepless nights at the moment (nothing earth-shattering in the greater scheme of things but enough to play on your mind) so wanted to give a big shout out to you all! You know who you are!! It's great to bond in the face of adversity though!!

Genius...

It's been one of those days where this would have been very welcome... just one of those weary days...

And wouldn't the world be a nicer place if everyone had one of these.... oh how I miss consideration...

Pretty in Pink

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

The obligatory paddle followed of course!

Happy Birthday to Meeee!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dotty.... you were surprised?

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

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

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

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