Our last mortgage payment.

What a fantastic feeling - this is Steven writing a cheque for our last mortgage payment!
We should get the final endowment payout at the end of July and after the cheque has cleared, we can pay off the mortgage in August. Of course that all depends on how much the endowment pays out - because of all the worry over these stupid mortgages, we have been paying extra each month to bring down the outstanding balance - so we are hoping that it will all be cleared and will give us a little bit extra left so that we can buy a desperately needed new car - it won't be brand new as there won't be that much over.
We will not be any better off as the mortgage money is now going to become his tax money, but at least we won't have the worry of the house being repossessed if he broke his leg and could not work.

And there is more good news - I have finished sorting my photos!! - well phase 1 of Stacey Julian's photo freedom. This has taken me months to do and my worktop has been covered in photos and albums so leaving me little room or time to scrap. But now it should be full throttle on creativity!

Just got to find somewhere to keep them as I have ended up with 9 albums. I actually could do with 1 more album as they are all very full (see photo below), but as the eventual point of this exercise is to get the photos OUT of these binder albums and onto scrapbook pages, so I will just have to get moving and scrapbook lots of these photos quickly!

I have all my photos in one safe archival place now, which was phase one - the next stage is taking them back out and putting them into category drawers - 'people we love', 'places we have been' etc. Her theory is that by doing this we can find connections and scrapbook differently rather than chronologically. I really can't face any more photo sorting and I am happy with the way I scrap so will not do phase 2 yet.

Wales geocaching

Thelma & I popped into Wales for some Geocaching today. We did 6 caches and found them all.

The first 5 took us to Kerry, in Powis - a beautiful village which I have never visited before but will definitely return to. Every where was very well maintained and this gorgeous old church had the most gentle church bells ever heard.
The 6th took us to Montgomery, again never been to before but was gorgeous so will go back.We did not have chance to explore the town itself but it appears that this central square is the hub of it.
Its hard to believe that this lovely house on the hill was once Montgomery gaol!

All 6 Geocaches were placed by Denise Revell, who I knew many moons ago and they were all very good.

The first 4 were a collection over Pennarron Hill which overlooks Kerry itself. It was a brisk & strenuous stroll but finished up next to a peaceful pond overlooking the Kerry Vale.

First find - Foot Of Penarron (Penarron Plod- Part 1) GC1AK2X Second find - Bridge Near The Mule (Penarron Plod-Part 2) GC1AK3Q - we took a short cut (following GPS) - which involved a lot of climbing over fallen trees!

third find - Halfway There? (Penarron Plod - Part 3) GC1AK41

Fourth find - Pool With No Name (Penarron Plod - Part 4) GC1AK4C
Number 5 - Treasure Of The Kerrybean GC182TR - was just outside the village and was hidden in a tree. It was a huge container yet somehow some people have not been able to find it - goodness knows how - it was practically shouting "here I am" at you!

The final one in Montgomery - War Memorial (Montgomery) GC1BB21 -was up at the War memorial on the top of a very tall hill which afforded beautiful views all around but I could not really enjoy them as a bull lives in the field and other geocachers have met and photographed him and he is huge, Not being an animal lover I was petrified that he was going to come & chase us, so rushed the cache so I could get back behind the gate and back to safety!

To round the evening off beautifully we found a chip shop open in Montgomery at 9.30 at night on a Sunday evening, so partook of some lovely fish & chips

second layout today!

Yes been busy scrapping, but I am still in my nightie and no housework or tea done yet.

This is a lyout of Eleanor, age 3, in the garden at Westbury Road, on her new bike. I have been very keen to use my new Nana's Kids range of papers by DCWV, so I was glad to get the chance with these photos. The yellow background paper is embossed and the green edging is glittered. The ladybirds are just some images from Google printed onto photo paper and raised with 3D foam - I am cutting back - before I would have dashed out and bought some buttons for this feature. The yellow acrylic frame behind the small photo is by Heidi Grace.

tender moment layout

Just made another quick layout using my Scrapagogo June 2008 kit which arrived on Wednesday. It is not a particularly good photo but when I saw the Scenic Routes love rub ons -this just seemed to be the right photo to use.

Cardstock - Bazzill midnight, PP -My Minds Eye : 'Everyday' fresh linens, Swirl from Nicklin Etsy shop, Jewells - Papermania, Hearts - Heidi Swapp, Rub on sentiments - Scenic Route: Family Time, date - Making Memories Heidi rub ons. Acetate. Font: Tempus Sans ITC.

The Esty shop swirl was much nicer before I decided to run it through my Zyron to make it sticky. It was a good idea at first but because it is so fine I had to prize of every little bit which pulled a lot of the swirls out of shape - note to self - don't do that again!

Plum & almond muffins

here are the remaining plum and almond muffins that I made for our trip out yesterday. They were delicious and looked gorgeous when bitten into because of the lovely plum colour scattered throughout. I had never made them before and in fact I only found the recipe on Tuesday in a Sainsbury's magazine that was delivered in the post.

I just want to write the recipe down here in case I loose it.

3 large eggs
150gm sugar
25gm butter - melted
175gm self - raising flour
25gm ground almonds
3 plums finely chopped
2 tablespoons flaked almonds.

preheat oven to gas 4
whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl until foaming
Stir in butter, then fold in flour, ground almonds and plums - being careful not to overmix.
Drop spoonfuls into 12 large muffin cases in a muffin tin.
Scatter the klaked almonds ontop onf the ixture.
Bake for 20-25 minutes until muffins spring back to the touch.

Llangollen canal - part 4

Deb showing her muscles - hauling the barge in single handedly!

Opps oh well perhaps it took 2 to pull the boat to one side - Here is Helen at the other end!

A view from the inside

and just gorgeous veiws where ever you looked.

Llangollen canal part 3!

The area was quite busy today - but it was nice to see lots of other barges.

Elieen and Jean.

Thelma at the helm

me with the first geocache - you can just see the barge disappearing in the background!