Longer journeys contd.....

The 2nd week of my 'longer journey' holiday was spent in St Pete's Beach and after a week of non-stop early starts and theme parks, boy were we ready for the beach part of our holiday. This was our chill out time. It was a special week too as my penfriend Cindy joined us for a few days along with her daughter and niece. I was introduced to Cindy through the Monkees Fan Club back in 1968 when we were 10. (Don't laugh, I was so in love with Davey Jones) She lived in Chicago and prior to this meeting, we had only met once, when we were 20 and she came over to England to stay for a couple of weeks. It was amazing to meet up again and while we were there she arranged for us all to go to a baseball game. That was quite an experience, and I've included a picture of it on my layout.


The big coincidence that I mentioned yesterday is that on Monday I came home from work to find a message on my answerphone to say that Cindy and her husband Ray are going on a Mediterranean cruise in May, flying into Heathrow and joining the cruise at Southampton the next day. So we have a brief 24 hours to meet up again and for them to stay with us overnight. I am so excited! This will be only the 3rd time we have met in 41 years and after this, it must surely be my turn to go over and visit her .... I think I just found the theme for my 'Everywhere' pages!

Longer journeys

The journey I have chosen for the 2nd part of my 'there' pages is one that took place over 10 years ago now. It was my first 'long haul' holiday and an exciting trip for us as a family. We went to Orlando, Florida. Spent a week in Disneyland and then relaxed for a week in St Pete's Beach. It was such an amazing holiday, Disneyland spoils you for any other theme parks and it was so memorable. The kids had an amazing time. This holiday really was something for us to look forward to as my mum had died just before Christmas and we all needed something nice to focus on and planning it took my mind off things.

This is the first page of a double page layout- the 2nd one will concentrate on the 2nd week of our stay in St Pete's Beach. Which has become quite spookily appropriate when I tell you about the news I have had this week. More of that later (or tomorrow depending on whether or not I finish it this afternoon!)

Perfect Day

I had the most amazing Mother's Day yesterday. My daughter had planned a whole day of lovely things for us to do together. From making me breakfast, to a beautiful walk in the sunshine up to the church and around the lake, doing some scrapbooking together (I think I have a convert!), delicious lunch, tickets to see Marley and Me at the cinema, and then she cooked a delicious dinner and made the most amazing lemon curd cake (I LOVE lemon flavoured desserts!). She had also bought me a beautiful Thomas Sabo bracelet with a silver heart charm on it which she had had engraved with our initials and she had also had the same charm made for her own bracelet. So thoughtful and so very much appreciated. I am such a lucky mum.

Our scrapping morning meant that I have now done the pages for short trips layouts of HTE.

Southwold is about an hour and three quarters away from us and is such a traditional, old fashioned British seaside town. So pretty and quaint. We went at the end of Summer last year (Paul was on crutches at the time following a badminton related incident)

Cornwall is not so close in distance, but we flew from Stansted which took less than an hour so I hope that fits the 'close to home' category! We picked up a car at Newquay and travelled around the south coast, such a beautiful part of the country.

Friday night at the theatre

Every time I meet Paul in London after work we both say 'We really should do this more often'. It's not that difficult to arrange and it's so nice to do something different.
Last night I had the last part of my birthday present - tickets to see The Jersey Boys Musical. It was so good! I had forgotten just how many hits Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons had over the years and how many have gone on to be covered by other artists. The singer taking the lead role had the most amazing voice. It was such a good evening.
We really ought to do things like that more often ;-)

Timeline for HTE

Oh dear, I am falling behind with the prompts for the HTE project but I'm not too bothered as it really doesn't matter if it takes a while to do, there's no time limit.

But there is now a time line!

These pages took a long time to do, not because they were difficult but because it involved getting old pictures out of albums, scanned into the computer, saved and printed off. That part of the process wasn't the time consuming part, it was the fact that at 6pm one day I found myself sitting on the floor of the bedroom, surrounded by old photo albums, reminiscing about old holidays and remembering funny things that happened, watching the children going from toddlers to teenagers to adults. I was so engrossed - dinner was late that night! It was great to have a reason to get the old pictures out and it reminded me how lovely it is to flick through a photo album. It's great to have the photos stored on the computer but somehow it still isn't the same as sitting with an album on your lap, I guess these scrapbooks are kind of an extension to a photo album!

Crop pages and winnings

I decided the only way to explain all that was in my winnings was to take a photo so here is what I won:

Isn't it lovely? The photo doesn't do the colours of the album and papers justice, they are just so lovely and exactly the colours I love at the moment. Thank you Sue from Crafty Stash

So - onto the pages we did. I was really pleased with the first one, despite it involving an awful lot of cutting out of leaves. Very fiddly for an impatient little scrapper such as myself but the finished effect was lovely so worth all the scissor work.

I'm not sure my son will be pleased to see that the background paper used for the 2nd layout was floral but hey - if no one tells him about it, he will never know ....
Today I am definitely going to get my timeline done for HTE. There really is no excuse. It is my day off, the only other thing to do is housework - yuk! I had my innoculations for my trip to Tunisia this morning and I am sure the nurse told me I was supposed to rest for the remainder of the day ;-)

Lucky Numbers

It's been a busy weekend here. It was my birthday yesterday and I am pleased to say that I did absolutely nothing all day except open presents, have people drop round for drinks and chats and enjoy food and drink that someone else had prepared. Paul cooked an amazing meal last night and the champagne and wine flowed. I could get used to this!
Today I went to the Welwyn Garden City crop where we did two lovely layouts (photos to follow tomorrow) and I won first prize in the raffle. I've only been to two of these events and both times I've won prizes! This time it was a beautiful K&Co Album with 12 lovely sheets of paper and lots of embellishments. My little stash of supplies is growing nicely ..... Watch out Denise, I'm catching you up ;-)

Good days

Today has a lot of good things in its favour. Firstly, my little Egyptian princess is coming home from her holiday. I've spoken to her a few times and she sounded like she was having a good time. We redecorated her room while she was away (well, only wallpapered one wall but the room looks TOTALLY different!) so I hope she likes it.
Secondly, my political correspondent in the North (is Sheffield considered 'north'? well it is north to where I live so I vote 'yes') passed his January exams. Brilliantly in one, really well in another and by a whisker for the third. But hey! All passes count!
Thirdly, it's sunny! Yay! Looks so lovely out there. And as we all know, Wednesday is Walk day so I am just waiting for the call to say my walking buddy is home from work and we will be off. A million calories burnt off by tea time ;-) which will compensate for the maltesers I have just eaten ...
Fourthly, it's my day off. No work for me on a Wednesday. Got a busy day tomorrow I expect as it is AS / A level January module results day and guess what? I work in the exams office on a Thursday. All the more reason to make the most of my leisure time today.
I've been busy printing off a few photos ready for a crop day on Sunday. The theme is outdoors so I have been going through my pictures. I've printed off a few in black and white and it's amazing how different the same picture can look when you change it that way. I need to be well organised in advance as there is a big event happening on Saturday ......

Digi Download Done and Dusted

Well I did two things today that I said I wouldn't.
1. I wasn't going to download the digikit (didn't realise what goodies it included)
2. I wasn't going to do a divider page (but having downloaded the HT&E scripts thought it was too good to not use)


So, here is my divider for the Here pages

I now obviously need to rethink things I say I am not going to do as I could be missing out!

Deb Didn't Do Digital Download ...

... because I thought it was only for people doing their project digitally - doh!
I kept wondering where people were getting their lovely H T & Es from - and now I know.
It was such a large file to download that I thought it was unecessary if you weren't digiscrapping but then my lovely friend Denise downloaded it and pointed me in the right direction. Once again, thank you Denise!
Now a dilemma, how do I incorporate this into the pages I have already done. Hmmm. I enjoy a challenge! Time for a cup of coffee and a biscuit I think while I try to stimulate those creative juices.
Such a glorious day today, the sun is really shining and it just makes you feel good. Amazing how the weather can affect your mood. The bulbs are coming up in the garden, and it really feels as if Spring is on its way.

Landmarks

Phew! I've finished my Landmark pages for the last of the 'here' part of the project. Just in time to start on the 'there' part!

Our town has some very old bits (remains of Roman castle) and some very new bits (new shopping centre area) so I have tried to mix it up a bit and show a variety. I've also included some facts about 'famous' people that have been associated with the town. I never knew Russell Brand once went to Hockerill College - albeit briefly as he was expelled! And as a Strictly Come Dancing fan, I had to include a little fact about Austin Healy as he was my favourite! I actually saw him play for our local rugby team last year. The one and only rugby match I have watched from the side lines!

Let them eat quiche

In a moment of madness, we offered to host my in-laws 60th wedding anniversary in April. It was done on the understanding that we could cater for a similar amount of people to that when we celebrated their 80th birthdays, 5 years ago and last year. That was for 22 people and to be honest, that was pushing things a little. I do vaguely remember saying 'Never again'! Quite apart from plates, cutlery and glasses, as the older relatives get, well, older - they need to sit down rather than stand at these 'dos' and we simply don't have that much seating. Anyhow, I digress. Yesterday we asked for a final headcount of who was coming. We made a list. And just like Santa Claus, we checked it twice. THIRTY! How could they have invited 30? We said 22 - aaarghhhh!
So, yesterday I defrosted my little freezer to prepare for incoming food and today I have made a start. So here are the fruits of my labour, one traditional Quiche Lorraine and a smaller tuna, cheese and onion quiche. It may not be much, but at least I feel like I have made a start!

Commuting

Can you really call a journey of about 3 miles a commute? Well it is the journey I take from home to work so I guess you can! Slightly different to my husband and daughter's commute to London and most definitely quicker. Although the instructions I printed off come from Google, I made the map of my actual route from a website called http://www.mapmyrun.co.uk/ and before anyone who doesn't know me personally thinks that by me knowing websites like that I am some super fit marathon runner - let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth! I am however an enthusastic Wednesday Power Walker and I've used this website to work out how far me and my friend Lynda have walked when we try a new route. We always finish by saying 'that must have been at least 8 miles' when in fact it is nearer 3 or 4 when I check it out!

Anyhow, let me now direct you on my route to work ...

The crest on the bottom is the school crest which says 'sic itur ad astra' - Reach for the Stars which is our school motto. (Kind of appropriate that we are a Specialist Science College eh?) It also combines the town crests for Hertfordshire & Essex because ... that's the name of the school!