Mad Martha!

Martha is loving the sunny weather, especially when it's not too hot! Here's a few pics of her having a mad sprint around the garden last night! I don't want to catch anyone looking at my long grass though!!

Communcation is Key

I’ve been thinking about how a lack of communication is probably the one thing that is most responsible on a daily basis for making my life more difficult. People who don’t ring you back, people who keep information to themselves. I’m sure sometimes it’s just a lack of thought but that in itself can be rather frustrating. So rather than (just) moaning about it I suppose the only way to effect change is to strive to do better yourself, so I’m pledging to attempt to be as open and helpful as possible to enable other to see that communication is key.

Promise i'll be back with something pretty later!!

You can't fight fate!

Ali Edwards is always inspiring, but today's AEzine really struck a chord - I've been chatting with Emma about scrapping everyday life including how works affects us all, so Ali's prompt to create a little something each day, telling a story about that day came just at the right time. For me the best way to get these stories down is to blog them as they happen, so that's what i'm going to do. Here's the first of many!!

I don’t hold much for horoscopes, only when they tell me what I want to hear – so when I read today’s I was so up for a day of playing!

'Even with the current conflict between your head and your heart, you can still feel a deep sense of well-being that is most welcome in your life now. It doesn't matter what you should be doing today; self-indulgence may win out over your responsibilities. So, why bother fighting the inevitable? Go ahead and play today; life's too short not to enjoy it.'

It’s the start of the UKS mini summer cyber crop today and I’m a bit bitter about being at work.. do you think I can squeeze all three classes in when I get home?? If Martha has anything to do with it, it’s unlikely!!

Finally Summer!

I think it's finally summer! I was able to get out in the garden yesterday and take a couple of pics with my lovely new Tamron 28-75mm. I was quite pleased with these especially the gorgeous Monbretia, which seem to grow like weeds in our garden!!

One or two...

Just a couple more pages to share!!

More Elsie!

Received my delivery of the Lola line of Love Elsie last week and have already done about half a dozen pages using it!! Adore the colours and designs so much! While I get round to scanning those here's a few pages using the othe lines.... I especially love the embossed papers that look really fab when sanded back.

Spoilt Rotten

The new challenge has just gone up at A True Friend - and this weeks is perfect for Martha! The journalling on the page is all about her huge array of toys. She's only 7 months and has over 35!!

This week we have a fantastic guest designer!! It's one of my favourite designers, Martha Bonneau - Not only does she create wonderful art and have gorgeous pugs, she's got a pretty wicked name as well!

Spent another day at work creating Christmas projects for the September/October Goody Bag - I'm 'so over' Christmas already! It seems so weird making Christmas cards in such gorgeous weather!

I'm officially Rockin!!

The lovely Laurie has tagged me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger!! It all started here, so in turn I'm tagging Paula aka Polly! She really does rock! Fab blog (and updated much more often than mine!!!!!) and some rather inspiring work too!

Updating..

I've had a rather stressful coule of weeks so apologies for not updating - it's only now I'm feeling able to write this all down. On the 4th July Lola was scheduled for her second TPLO operation for her cruciate injury - after a very long and stressful wait we received the news that all had gone to plan. However during the long wait Chloe became rather poorly and in the evening we had to let her go. It all just seemed so difficult, particularly as we were also waiting to hear Lola had come round from her anaesetic. Chloe was such a lovely dog and we'll miss her so much. It seems so fitting now that it was the week she was proudly peeking out from my page on the Mojo Blog! I think she would have appreciated going out on that high!

Lola's initial recovery has been rather stressful too. This time she had a lot of swelling and fluid which of course has to drain (sorry to be graphic!) and only now has it stopped - she's also needed to be watched 24/7! She didn't really help herself either by extracting some of the staples from the wound! Now we start the long road to recovery - fingers crossed that it all goes smoothly from here on in!

On happier news the new challenge is up at A True Friend - This time the challenge was to scrap 'The Face I Love". An easy challenge for me as I adore taking portrait shots of my girls! I've chosen to 'do' Martha with her silly floppy jowls and huge hairy ears that she still needs to grow into!

There are some fantastic pages as always by the rest of the Design Team - I especially love Debbies gorgeous ratty page! Brings back great memories of Ratties in my past!

Honoured to be mojo'd!

Woke up to a fantastic surprise this morning, the wonderful team over at Mojo Holder have lifted one of my pages! It's extra special because it's one of my pages of Chloe. Poor Chloe doesn't get as much of a look in as Lola and Martha because she's the least compliant model! She's 11 now and getting much slower and creaky so it's great to see her looking so gorge!

As well as the regular team, their guest DT member this month is Ally - my old Sunset Scrappers teamie! Hi Ally! The pages all look great and I can't wait to see what others come up with! Thanks so much for this great treat girls! It's especially nice as i'm feeling a bit poorly at the mo.

I've been a bit of a scrapping demon this month! I'm on course for doing about 60 pages! Truly scary! I think i need to get out and take a few more pictures, or i'll be struggling next month! Here's just a couple of them.

Martha was 6 months this week and as of today officially weighs 46.4kg! Thanks 102lb in old money! I think she's gonna be a whopper, she's as tall as Lola already!

Top ten!

Today saw the new challenge on A True Friend This time the challenge was to record ten reasons why you love your pet. Quite a challenge with a naughty puppy! - Only kidding!! I took this as the perfect excuse to break out the Love Elsie - Betty collection, I even used the fabric paper!! Most impressed with myself for using it!
There are some awesome pages on there this time (again!) including Corenna's fab mini book about Simba.

Lola's now had her second dose of hydrotherapy - very scary for us cause i'm so scared of her hurting her leg! It's all very dramatic - because we can't risk her slipping so she has to be winched in! Very scary! The hydrotherapy centre, Dorset Aqua Dogs are totally fantastic - hugely knowledgeable and incredibly efficient and caring - Just right for fussy owners like me!

Guerilla Bagging

What a fantastic concept this is... Not only creating fantastic bags, but helping to prevent marine life being harmed by discarded carrier bags. I've got a huge amount of fabric, and have been meaning to learn to make a fancy lined tote. But this concept sits much more comfortably with me. Please visit the site and join in!!

My space

Ok.... i've resisted this long, but a prompt of 'furry' on Her Space My Space can't be ignored, so here it is! Just need to find some cheese for yesterdays' and i'm all caught up!

Grateful for...

I'm a bit late, but better late than never! I'm finally getting round to uploading my 'I'm grateful' page for the Scrapbooking The Secret blog. There's obviously so many things that i'm grateful for, my family, my gorgeous Newfies, my job, health etc etc, but I wanted to recognise the one person who keeps me sane all day! (I've even used my new Love Elsie papes etc! Now that's friendship!) Wuv you mate!!
Not only is she hilarious, a fantastic listener and so much fun, she's even getting over her nervousness of dogs around my beasts. Check out Emma's blog here too!

Love Elsie!

I knew I would.... but it deseves to be said anyway! I love 'Love Elsie'! I'd only had my bits for about 10 minutes before I started this page, I acually thought this would be the last of the papers I would use, although I love it, travel isn't really my thing, but surprisingly it was the first! Thanks Elsie and KI memories!

Typical Bank Holiday!

Well true to form a lovely wet bank holiday as usual! However it did just clear up enough to get out in the garden with my lovely new Canon 50mm f1.8 lens - best 60quid I've ever spent! This is one of the first I took of Martha, she's getting so big now and looks rather grown up!

Spotted...

We have a lot of newts... so many I think the frogs feel a bit out of place! I rarely ever see a frog in the garden but in the last few days I've seen quite a lot of this little guy! So after I got home from work I shot a few frames of him. He sat motionless for ages so he clearly wasn't bothered!

Pic of the day!

Just a nice pic and my contribution to the Funky Photo Friday blog is this Dandilion clock. I only managed a couple of frames before Martha munched it!

Funky Photo Friday

I'm looking forward to the photo challenges on the Funky Photo Friday blog. The first challenge is flowers, so weather allowing i'm hopingto get a nice shot or two. That's if Martha doesn't get to the flowers first!

Resistance is futile!

I resisted for a while, but I eventually caved!

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

One Little Word

It's not a secret that I like a good challenge, so the launch of the new One Little Word blog, is rather exciting! Inspired by Ali Edwards each challenge will revolve around just one word. I created this page last night with a rather cute picture of Martha and Lola.

Spot obsessed....

I've finally had to admit i'm obsessed with spotty papers. There was a time not very long ago that i wouldn't have touched them with a barge pole, but now it seems to be my first choice. Here's another example! This is my page for the UKS May Week 3 challenge, also continuing my personal crusade to bring back metal rimmed tags! Check out the Scrapping Frenzy blog for more on this!

Get a life!!

I found this fun film questionaire on a blog, but now i've filled it in I can't remeber whose!..... Anyway.... It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up........if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

(x) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(x) Grease
(x) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
(x) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
(x) Airplane
( ) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(x) Labyrinth
(x) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 7 out of 22.
(x) Scream
(x) Scream 2
(x) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
( ) Harry Potter 1
( ) Harry Potter 2
( ) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
(x) Resident Evil 1
(x) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
(x) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 13 out of 43
( ) Finding Nemo
(x) Finding Neverland
(x) Signs
( ) The Grinch
(x) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( ) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(x) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(x) Along Came Polly
(x) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong
Total so far: 19 out of 66
( ) A Cinderella Story
(x) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(x) Final Destination
(x) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
(x) Halloween
(x) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
(x) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(x) The Whole Nine Yards
(x) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 27 out of 90
(x) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(x) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
(x) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Seven
(x) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(x) Predator I
(x) Predator II
( ) The Fog
( ) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 34 out of 121.
(x) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
(x) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(x) E.T.
(x) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
( ) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(x) Mars Attacks
(x) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(x) Wizard of Oz
( ) Forrest Gump
(x) Big Trouble in Little China
(x) The Terminator
(x) The Terminator 2
(x) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 44 out of 147.
(x) X-Men
(x) X-2
( ) X3
(x) Spider-Man
(x) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
(x) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
( ) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
(x) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(x) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
( ) Shrek
( ) Shrek 2
Total so far: 51 out of 165
( ) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street*
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(x) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
(x) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(x) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(x) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(x) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(x) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 57 out of 181
( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(x) Highlander
(x) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
( ) Monsters Inc
( ) Titanic
(x) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(x) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 61 out of 200.
( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(x) Hulk
(x) Dawn Of the Dead
(x) Hook
(x) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(x) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(x) Waterworld
(x) Kill Bill Vol. 1
(x) Kill Bill Vol. 2
(x) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 71 out of 220
(x) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(x) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(x) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(x) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(x) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(x) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
(x) The Matrix
(x) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(x) Silence of the Lambs
(x) Hannibal
Total: 81 out of 239

Phew! That was close!!

Monday!

Had a really productive weekend, particularly loving my new Bampop! stamps. Lola continues to amaze with her total resiliance! She's convinced that 3 weeks is more than enough recuperating after serious orthpaedic surgery and now thinks i'm just being mean for not taking her out! Here's a few pages from the weekend....

Rainy Days

Depressing rainy day here, not helped by a jobsworth bank teller locking the bank door dead on the dot of 5pm! However life is a bit sunnier because of this fun page created for a challenge on Shimelle's blog. The big heart is a Heidi Swapp giant ghost heart shape - I adore these! The page features baby Martha enjoying her very festive squeeky ball! Definately her favourite at the moment! But then she is a Christmas baby so shouldn't be a surprise! She's getting so huge, she's only just gone 4 months and already weighs 70lb!

The second challenge went up today on the A True Friend Challenge blog, some fantastically inspiring pages... and mine! My page is yet another 6x12 page.. I may be becoming a tad obsessed with this size! It also features something that had become rather rare to be seen on one of my pages - a metal rimmed tag! I'm making it my personal crusade to bring these back!!

A True Friend

Delighted to be part of a new pet-only challenge blog - A True Friend, A Priceless Treasure is the perfect excuse (as if I need one) to do more pages with my gorgeous girls! The other girls have produced some fantastic work and it's great to see some really unusual pets too! I've used yummy yum BG - Perhaps, Prima Flowers, Heidi Swapp and Fancy Pants chipboard, Doodlebug alpha stickers and Papermania brads.

I was printing some pics for the Cyber Crop on UKS last night and this was one of my favourites.

What Katy Needs -

Spotted this on Elsie's blog and couldn't resist for a Friday...

Katy needs a pony! - I've got massive doggies - does that count?

Katy needs every ounce of her courage - At the moment... oh yes!

Katy needs a new liver - Oi!!! I don't drink that much! - Do I?

Katy needs check up’s less frequently - Thank god!

Katy needs your help - Or needs help... fullstop?

Katy needs a level table or surface to put papermaking equipment on and a source of electricity - Ironic

Katy needs significant. attention before pricing - Wha!!?

Katy needs: to get home, and get home soon - It's Friday! Damn right!

Katy needs an assistant - Have I mentioned this??

Katy needs to wear a ball gown - I really don't... although it might be good preparation for Emma's wedding!!!

katy needs a skatepark - Not sure what i'd do with one? Rent it out for an extortionate fee?

katy needs a hug - See second on list...

Now good news!! I was thrilled to be one of the winners of a Tee from the Effer Dare last week! I never win anything so am a little bit excited! Hurrah!

Dare to scrap...

I've finally gotten round to doing one of the Effer Dares The challenge of using a T-shirt slogan was too much to resist! As you may or may not know I'm a little bit obsessed with Threadless T-Shirts and have quite a collection, so that was my first stop to find something suitable. I thought it was quite fun to use a fun pic of Martha. Because every single day is her oldest! By the way... Martha is now 13weeks and weighs 45lbs!!!

Mojo Holder...

Was so please to be asked to be guest designer this week on the fab challenge blog Mojo Holder. The girls (Kelly Mel and Dougie) are hosting a weekly scraplift challenge. Pop over and have a look at all the great work!

and...... relax!

Wasn't long till Martha took up one of the standard Newf poses... crashed out on her back with her wares on display for all to see! So far she's been a little star, eating well and asking to go out in the garden... she's such a sweetie!

Happy to introduce....

I'm pleased to introduce my new addition.... Martha! She arrived today and has well and truly made herself at home! She's a Newfie (of course!), and yes, she is brown! I'm so in love with her already! Lots more pics to follow soon!

Counting the days....

Haven't blogged in an age.... been busy with my crop blog and other things.... Can't wait till Saturday! Check back here then to find out my news!