Boys will be boys

Here is a lovely layout I have just managed to do using the Love Elsie - Toby papers.

It shows Liam sitting on the John Lennon Superlambanana in Liverpool, when we visited earlier this year. I was not sure what to call this layout until I found some quotes "boys will be boys" & "caught red handed" -so decided to go along the route of there being signs saying do not climb on these structures - and him ignoring this instruction. He is not impressed that I have chosen to show a criminal side of him - when he does not have a rebellious bone in his body! But all the scallys in Liverpool were climbing all over them so whats good for them is good for us!

The striped backing paper is the fabric paper called Cabana, the squares cut from the Toby paper. Domed embellishment all from Love Elsie. The chipboard journalling block is from Buzz & Bloom painted with acrylic paint and the 2 quotes are DCWV clear stickers.

It is layout 86 in my 104 target for 2008.

Normal service will be resumed - shortly!

Apologies for lack of blogging lately - we are living in chaos and am finding it difficult to do anything constructive in the house. Here is the reason why:-

The kitchen has been taken apart and trying to live like this is very difficult. My dinning table has become my make do kitchen.

My craft room work top is covered in more boxes of food and crockery. However the new kitchen has still not been ordered and I can see me struggling on like this for a while. On a positive not though the ceiling and coving have been painted!

So unfortunately scrapbooking has had to take a back seat - I do not have anything to share with you at the moment.

So this blog is taking a few weeks off until we are sorted. I hope to have a fantastic new kitchen to show you at some stage!

I am so glad this layout is finished..

Well its finished but I don't like it at all!

I thought it would be a good way to use the terrible photos we took with film cameras when the children were little, as they are too bad to be used on a traditional layout.

It is made from a Buzz & Bloom chipboard frame but what hassle I have had with it - it seems to have dragged on for weeks! First I tried to emboss it - spent one morning making a mess - but it looked yuck. So painted over it with white acrylic paint - that looked ghastly as well but stupidly I left it on newspaper to dry and then it stuck to the paper which took me ages to peel off. So then I painted it with twinkling H20's. I only had 6 colours so had to use what I had, but still did not like it - but could not think what else to do with it and did not want to throw it away - so just decided to make the best of a bad job and get it finished as it was.

Its done now - just looking for a sliver no.6 which I know I have somewhere - but where? to put on the large purple box at the bottom.

No. 86 in my 104 target for the year.

First Time Lucky layout

This is the layout I started at the crop last Saturday and I have only just finished it today! Don't seem to have had much time or inclination to scrap lately, but Ross's contact finishes at PGL in 3 weeks so he will be home then for 3 months, so my craft room (his bedroom!) will be out of use - so I had better get going in the 3 weeks of scrapping freedom that I have left.

The positioning of some elements on this layout are rather random but they are to cover up the ripped paper from where I took off some letter stickers that did not work! I am a bit fed up of my straight liner style so tried to angle the photos which looked nice but that did not leave enough room for all the journalling I wanted - so I had to start again. My challenge to myself is to try something different - because they are all getting a bit samey and learn to use more elements and papers to jazz things up a bit.

Spontaneous pressie!

Steven surprised me the other day with this little present he had bought me:-He heard Idina Menzel being interviewed on the radio the other day and remembered how much I liked her from when she was the original green witch in Wicked the musical. He thought that I might like this CD so he bought it for me! He does not usually buy me gifts so this was a lovely surprise and the CD is actually very nice!

Gorgeous Rocky Road

At the crop on Saturday we were discussing recipes and I said that I really wanted a recipe for Rocky Road - as I used to be able to buy it in Lakeland but they have stopped selling it. Well Ann kindly forwarded this recipe to me - thank you Anne!

I made them yesterday and they are just gorgeous - even nicer than the shop bought one - I can see me making these again and again.

Recipe ( from a real Aussie cookbook!)

INGREDIENTS

375gm of milk chocolate

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1 cup unsalted peanuts ( I could not find any of these so substituted Brazil nuts chopped instead)

200gm glace cherries

250gm pink & white marshmallows chopped in half.

METHOD

Line a 28 x 18 shallow oblong tin with greaseproof paper.

Place chocolate in large bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

Add coconut, nuts and cherries and stir until all combined. Then add marshmallows and stir well until combined. Spread mixture into baking tray and place in fridge to set .

Cut into small squares and eat!

Back to Aberystwyth again!

The sun was shining and the forecast said it should stay out all day so we made plans for a day out in Mid Wales - first going to a geocache at Pistal Rhyader waterfall and the walking up the mountain behind it, following a route from Country Walking magazine. We were all prepared and just about to leave the house when Liam rang to say that he would like to come out with us and would we pick him up from the sleep over he was at.

The problem was that Liam wanted to go to the seaside and Steven said that as Liam had actually asked to come out with us ( unheard of!) we should do as he wanted - so the trip to the waterfall was put on hold and back to Aberystwyth we went.
We managed to do one geocache by Clarach Bay - up a very steep hill! (Allt Glais GCZB7H). It was a very cany hide and worth the steep climb to get to it. Sorry for the topless shot - it was the only one I got of the cache!

It was arrivals day in Aberystwyth for the new university students - so there were lots of parents and students unloading cars and moving into accomodation overlooking the sea. We did not see any tears though - which is a usual feature of the Taylor family dropping off our children at University!