A little message just for you...

Just a little early morning prettiness for you. Kaisercraft Bonjour papers are so pretty it's hard to make a bad card from it. Looks like another lovely day here in Hertfordshire. Hope its sunny for you too. Enjoy:)

This week....

I have been mostly getting hot and bothered, building seaside scenery, wearing sandals, late afternoon walking, jelly and peach eating, Instagram photo taking and avoiding looking at my sons new piercing:0
A busy week so far but hopefully I will get busy with the crafting at the weekend. If you are a Instagram member and would like to follow or just take a peek at my photos, my member name is Gingerscraps. Have a good weekend everyone. X

Mid week pretties

Just a little mid-week prettiness for you...

Unusual colour combination for me but I thought it worked well with the craft style card. 

Thinking thoughts of summer days, warm sunshine, buttercups and buzzy bees....*sigh*

Magical mystery tour...

Last Sunday was wet AGAIN but instead of miserably staying indoors Nigel and I decided to get in the car and go on a little mystery tour.

....Wait! Lets go back to the beginning of the story...

When I married Nigel I soon found out that he has a soft spot for old 60's and 70's television programmes.  The cheesier the better.  Though some of the programmes I have been introduced to over the years I have also grown to like.  

For example, The Avengers (Diana Rigg version)I even dressed up as her at a fancy dress party. Then there is Department 'S'....brilliant if slightly naff characters in this one especially Jason King, author/special agent/ladies man.  Randall and Hopkirk may be one you may of heard of? No? Why am I not surprised? Two detectives...one of which is a ghost!

Now don't even get me started on the weird and wonderful world of children's TV...Anyway, back to the tour...

We decided to go and find the locations dotted around the countryside of Elstree Studios where they were filmed.  We found gates, houses, hotels, ponds and roads that looked familiar but now overgrown, some of which buildings have been changed over the years.

One of the places we stopped by was a pub which just so happened to be where my nan used to work.  As a child I used to stay with her in the summer holidays and help her in the kitchen of the pub.  Cutting up the french bread, shouting out the orders to the bar staff when they were ready to go.

I think we will visit some more locations soon and when the weather improves I want to go inside the pub and see how it's changed...or not.

Happy memories...

Rain, rain, go away...

It feels like it has rained for forty days and forty nights. So much so that I had began to see sets of two of every garden critter..., two squirrels, two robins, two collard doves, two foxes... When finally it stopped, the sun came out, albeit briefly, we paddled and squelched our way around the woodland and newly made ponds.

A brief respite to the rain...

If it's still raining where you are and fancy reading some more stories then head over to Sian's Storytelling Sunday.

Changes...

Thank you for the positive comments regarding the impromptu makeover of the blog.  I had seen this style on another blog and the clean, modern look appealed to me.  So I decided to update and change there and then.  It looks a bit odd on the mobile and I had a few teething problems with accessing it on the itouch (which I overcame by downloading the free blogger app). But I think it will stay for a while.  A change is as good as a rest so they say.

Anywho, thought I would just update you on what's happening round here crafty wise.  I still have a few cards to show...

A simple card with a stamped Octopode Alice, cardboard Spellbinders die cut waste and a little red colour on the ribbon and butchers string to jazz it up a bit.  

Regrettably I have decided not to carry on with the 'Photo365' challenge or Julie Kirk's 'Month in Numbers'.  What with the bereavement and other life happenings I found I was just so far behind that I was worrying about catching up.  Since deciding to abandon them I feel much better.  I am still gong to show my week in photos....but only if there is something interesting to show.

I'm still joining in 'Storytelling Sunday' over on Sian's blog, High in the Sky, which just so happens to be this Sunday.  It's something I can commit easily to without preparation.

On a final note, after a pretty depressing week, Rob came home with an armful of college artwork which renewed my faith in his arty abilities.  Quite impressive stuff:)  Oh, and he greatly appreciated his birthday cake after a three hour evening maths session...

See you Sunday with a few photos and a line or two...

They rode pink elephants...

Since my dads death earlier this year, I have been trying to find these jolly photos of him and Robert riding the pink elephants at Southend.

I used a sketch from the latest copy of Scrap365 for this layout.

Photos of happier times, when dad was healthy and well.  A moment in time that I will treasure in my memories.

To be honest I haven't been my usual happy self these past few weeks, life has been hard for various reasons.  So I decided to scrap these 'colourful and happy' photos to try and bring myself out of my dark mood a bit.

I have also been thinking that my layouts have been a bit flat and too graphic for my liking so pin wheels and bunting seemed the way to go.

The journalling reads...

Once upon a time there was a grandad who loved his grandson very much.  They rode pink elephants and waved to their family, laughing as they flew.

A mix of patterns, colours and card stock helped make the layout fun and jolly.

The journalling reminded me of a fairy tale, although it wasn't fiction, it was all true.  Robert was the apple of his eye.  

Which brings me to today, Rob's 17th birthday.  At times I moan  about him (OK, I moan a lot) but at the end of the day he isn't a bad kid.  He loves being with his family, is caring and polite and although his life is changing fast (piercings...eek!) he still expects a homemade birthday cake:)