Helper cat?

Seems like someone wants to give me a helping hand with my crafts...

Well....I say 'help'...

How is it

When you go out shopping for someone else you end buying something for yourself too? I'm sure it can't just be me!

My phone was getting clogged with pics so I dumped a few onto my comp today here's a selection of my month so far -

A trip to Poole to buy for my Secret Santa (which of course required a stop at Starbucks) -

Pussy Cat No Name hiding under the stool while I'm crafting (yup he's still here and still adorable!)

Warning - there's a spider in this next shot! This lady was living on my window for a while then vanished. Turns out she'd moved above my window and tripled in size - super...then she vanished again.

Turns out she moved round the side of the house and built the biggest spider nest I've ever seen. Double super! *shudder*

The day before I took this pic she'd started to cover it up with leaves and bits, there's even a chunk of plastic under one of those leaves - very well protected! But still...shudder!

Here's my stack of holiday/doc 2011 pics with a nice screen grab of Howard from Big Bang Theory. I'm telling you, when you're adding 217 pics to print off it does *not* seem as big as it ends up!!!

Well, wasn't that a nice a boring/pointless post. Can you tell I'm bored!?

Is anyone else ready for Christmas to be here already? I don't like wishing the year away but there's something about the nights drawing in that makes me yearn for twinkle lights and glitter. Sigh. Probably doesn't help with all the Christmas bits and bobs in shops and on TV already. They just showed another one of those sofa store adverts promising that you'll have your new sofa before Christmas - it's October 23rd, I should blimmin' hope it'll be with you buy Christmas! How long do they normally take to deliver!?!

I realised yesterday that I still haven't finished last years Dec. Daily!!! Eek!! Better get that done before it's time to start this years! Still need to decide how I'm going to do it. I still love how my one from 09 turned out so I might try to replicate it somehow (diff. papers and embellies obv!). I'm hoping this year I'll be up to making a bit more of the month/season. I was so ill last year and only left the house twice and that was the 23rd & 24th!

I've eyeing up Studio Calicos kit for the Dec. Daily (they've joined up with Ali Edwards) but for $79.99 I'm not sure it's the best thing for me to do! Particularly when you look how many Christmas bits and bobs I already have...*I must resist...I must resist...*

There you go, rambly photos and rambly words, wasn't that a treat! Must go find something to entertain my brain!

Can you feel the tension?

The growling at first sight has slowed down a bit but it's each cat for himself come feeding time. Thing is Pip has this habit of eating half, going out then finishing the rest off later. Yeah, not for the past couple of days!

It was so cute earlier though, Pip had his usual sniff of The Newbie's feet (not sure what that's about) but didn't growl. He did this twice so Newbie takes this as his cue that he's friends now and bounds after him to play...yeah...not the best plan buddy! Still no phone calls about him. I hate the thought of someone missing him, but I hate the idea of giving him up! Dilemma!

Here's my answer to this weeks challenge on UKS. (ignore the apparent spelling mistake. It wasn't, but it looked like it so I tried to 'correct' it and it made it worse! Stupid! It's annoying me, I may have to cover it up lol)

This one is one of my favourite photos from the holiday. Funny the things the camera captures that the eye doesn't see!

Anyhoo, challenge was -

* Use a photo other than 'standard' size (6x4) - Used 5x7 on an 8x8 page

* Use Halloween colours - well, I think so!

* Use a hardly used stamp - I was just going to use the AC Amy Tangerine's feather (tag top left) but after my new grey ink wasn't all that obvious on the kraft card I also stamped the 'oh snap!' that was in SC's September Glee Club kit.

In other news, I'm hating this auto spell check thing on my browser! I mean, it's handy for the most part but stop telling me I'm spelling things wrong when I put the U in colour and put an S instead of a Z in realise! I'm not American!! Sigh.

House Guest

So yesterday afternoon this little guy followed mum into the house, ate some of Pips food and promptly curled up on the sofa and fell asleep.

He was taken to the vets to see if he was chipped so we would know where to take him home. He isn't chipped (side note - grrr).

He then fell asleep on my lap.

Darn it, I'm in love.

He has the loudest purr I've ever heard.

We've put up posters round the area so we'll leave them up for a couple of weeks and see if we get any calls. (our theory is he's a house cat, my theory is they might be on holiday and the person who's feeding didn't notice/care he got out).

Pip's mildly tolerating him. As long as he doesn't eat his food. He seems to have set up a 5 yard exclusion zone, I think that's because it's the limit of his eyesight.

There's been a little sniffing, a lot of growling and 2 hisses. Other than that, I think we're ok. In fact, the neighbour cat Hugo seems to hate him more than Pip does.

Wonder how long he'll be here for?...

Funny old time of it

Lately I seem to be having a day on then a day off health wise. I suppose I should be grateful for the days on but I really wish the days off would vanish!

Here are a couple of layouts from my I.O.W album. Managed to dig out an old 8x8 album that I was planning on using for something else but never got around to it. It's odd doing things on a smaller scale than usual but it's fun putting the layouts together!

This first one is for this weeks challenge on UKS -

Bling - check (though it's hard to see in pic - it's on bottom left of the photo), Different shapes - check (square, circle, rectangle, heart, feather...), Journalling - check (why can I never keep to the box I pick?!) And a 'mum' theme. Technically this is a mum theme as far as I overheard a conversation at Seaview where a group of people seemed very confused as to who the little fluffy yellow ducklings mummy really was. For some reason they were of the opinion that they were baby flamingos (as they were in the flamingo aviary). Never mind the big grey fluffy baby flamingos that were all beak and legs, nope. I actually heard them wondering at what point they turn pink...bless...

This next one's about something very dear to my heart...

Banoffee pie! (the big letters are actually very glittery but they haven't come up well in the photo.) My question of the holiday - is it still called banoffee without any toffee? Is it?! There wasn't a hint of it in the slice I had at seaview but the slice I had the next day (as you can see) had more than enough to make up for it - yum!

(it wasn't until I uploaded the pics that I realised I caught a bit of the ep. of Bones I was watching - thankfully it was just Brennan and Booth and not a body otherwise I would have had to retake them!)

Anyhoo, that's enough rambling for one post. TFL!

xxx

What were you doing last week?

I was sunning myself on the Isle of Wight (can you believe this weather? I know we Brits have a bit of a weather obsession rep. - I don't usually - but seriously, the third hottest day of the year was Oct 1st. Fun!)

Anyhoo, here's some of my week (back to front of course, thank you blogger!)

Pulling in to dock at Lymington-

Slinky little lizards at Ventnor Botanical Gardens -

Quick snap of the fab view through the windshield

Cool beach huts at St Helens

Curious robin at Rylstone Gardens in Shanklin

Mum and dad fed the penguins at Seaview - I didn't yet got wet as I was in my chair and couldn't run when they got a bit carried away! Seriously, you think penguins are cute? Try feeding them! Argh!

This little dude was sunbathing while the watchmeercat was busy keeping his eye on the passing planes and butterflies (so cute!)

There was a bit of a scrap for the leftover lettuce dad threw between this chicken and a guinea fowl - it was hilarious. Chicken went to walk over to it (different piece, this story happened too quick for me to get any pics!) and out of nowhere the guinea fowl stormed in grabbed the lettuce and legged it with the chicken in hot pursuit. Probably funnier to watch than read about!

Baby flamingoes!!!

The mist made it an interesting drive home in the dark...(took this through the car window on the way)

Appldurcombe house - it's in ruins but it appears to be being restored. It's stunning though - part of me hopes they keep at least a bit of it looking ruin-y.

Dad's mission for this holiday - see a red squirrel (in the wild). Ta-dah!

On our way-

So there you go. Fun times! I could have shared about 100 pics but I think you get the general idea - great weather and beautiful things to look at!

Hope you all enjoyed the lovely weather too, thank you for stopping by!xx

Mojo

Oo, blogger appears to be back to normal - photos are in the order I uploaded them just back to front. Yay.

Anyhoo, here's my mojo prompt layout for this month. It was one of Claire's and it needed to include lots of circles or spirals. Guess which one I went for?

I used Studio Calico's Boardwalk kit (again! how is it still available for sale?!) from august. I love how easily it combined with the add ons which I then split back into 3 different kits (yes I splurged with 2 add-ons - I had a birthday voucher!) Grungy pastels for July, summery colours for August and that lovely turquoise shade (see previous post) for one off layouts that are yet to be decided.

Oh and in other news - I've gone red! Woo! (ignore how ill I look, I'm currently recovering from a bad bout of labyrinthitis. Dizzy joy. I've spent the past few days feeling like I'm on a boat. Eurgh.)

Mum loves it. She instantly demanded photos. What with my swaying and her lack of ability to focus on her subject I'm amazed we got some that are usable!

I quite like it. I was a bit shocked at first (it seems a bit brighter than the box!) but it's growing on me. We'll see how it goes once I can see straight!

xxx

So I've come to a conclusion

I'm not doing a Doc 2012. Well, at least not in the style that I've done for the past 2 years (2 focal events and a multi pocket page with smaller pics in). I've seen some wonderful albums that others have made but I think it's a style that suits a life of activity. A life that's lived. Not that I'm not alive of course (creepy), but I don't leave the house very often and several of my months are a bit lacking in the photo/focal page department. For example - I had a focal page on the runner beans that ideally should have been a little photo but I had *nothing* for that month. And now there's this month - a freakishly busy one for me. So many things that I can't decide what should go on focal pages - I want them all to be focal pages!

There's the dinner we had for Mum's birthday (check out the size of that burger! It was huuuge!)

An afternoon with 3 gorgeous little giggly creatures


A trip to a farm to pick beans (yes, I'm aware the pictures are of apple trees. Turns out apple trees photograph better than bean plants.)

The tale of the fish ninja. (which leads to a painful tale of discovery that the fish shop batter has paprika in. Oh pepper allergy how I hate you with a passion)

A lion hunt. Well, two lion hunts. We managed the upper gardens at the beginning of the month and lower gardens on Monday. As I was in my mob. scooter we made it up to St Peters Church to check out my favourite one - 'Frankenlion' (Mary Shelley is buried there, if you're wondering about the name). Oh, and FYI I *hate* crossing roads in that bloody scooter. You need speed to get up the curbs but if the pavements aren't very deep you'll hit the wall/fence/shop on the other side. And if there's someone else crossing too?! Argh! How I haven't hit anyone yet astounds me.

Can't forget this - here's what I took on Monday and next is how it looked 2 weeks ago -

Flash floods! (photo taken from the Daily Mail website). I'm annoyed as I could have sworn I'd been in the right spot to take an after pic but oh well, it's not too far off...

Another bean farm shot. Ahh the joy of photo editing...

And of course the dreadful tragedy of the loss of Red Arrow pilot Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, Red 4. (The lion outside the town hall where people have left tributes. I'm not ashamed to admit I cried when I saw it.) The crash happened not far from here. I feel I should document the absolute shock that was felt. Would that be odd? It feels odder to not mention, in an album that documents events of my year, something that shocked me (and many others) so much.
And of course there are my photos from the air festival. I didn't go, but I saw a lot of planes fly over the garden while mum and dad were down there.
Also, another one that doesn't directly affect me but I feel it should be mentioned, the riots. Again how could you have a document of the year that didn't mention it?

Wow I've rambled on a bit in this one. Did you like my re-cap of my august?!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that next year I'll definitely just be doing a regular album to document the year. That way I don't have to worry about focal pages, or multi pocket pages that are only full of photos from the garden. I'll finish this one though - I've kept up with it far better than last year. (I still haven't finished last years!!!!!)

*photo heavy*

Realised I haven't really shared any layouts for a while. Now these photos suck, but you get the idea...

This is one of my July focal pages for Doc 2011. A nice bunch of hand cutting (used Studio Calico's kit for August 'Boardwalk')

One of June's focus pages for doc 2011. This one took for-flippin'-ever. It was a lift of this one (scroll down a bit) from the very talented Geralyn (check out her whole blog, every time she posts something new I want to change over to 8.5x11 layouts and as for her mini books? Wow!)
I hand measured/cut all the chevron shapes. The photo was a bit dull so I figured the background needed a bit of oomph. (the colours are a bit brighter in real life.) I used Studio Calico's July kit 'Mind the Gap'.

Here's one I made for one of the Magpies Mojo prompts - scrap using a blurred photo you wouldn't normally use from Emma. I used Studio Calico Kit 'Lawn Party'.


(ignore the bunched up twine - I've only just noticed it myself!)
This one's a lift from Nicole Samuels (scroll down a little - she's also giving away the Studio Calico kit 'Boardwalk' that I used here and above. You absolutely must enter - this kit is just gorgeous up close!).
The minute she showed a sneak peek with the hand cut chevrons I knew I was going to lift at least that. When the DT gallery was released and I saw the whole layout then bam, scraplift here I come. Had to change it a fraction just so I could feel like a put a little effort into the design (yeah, changed the 3 photos to a strip of PP and woodgrain overlay - major thinking going on there!!). Also it rather handily tied in with the Magpie mojo prompt I'd already picked out from Stacey - use monochrome or a B&W photo.

Here's another one using Mind the Gap. the other one of June's Doc 2011. These are the photos I took at the hotel after my aunts funeral. I've always liked the quote 'don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened'. It seemed to fit with the feel of the day and made use of the lovely hand embroidered tag that was in the kit.

Here's one I made for May's Doc 2011. I used yet another Studio Calico kit - June's Paper Moon. Really trying to use these yummy kits up!

The other focal page for May - Pip's accident. When I first did the paint splatters I just used the orange but it ended up a bit darker than I anticipated a looked a little too much like blood for my liking - normally wouldn't bother me but considering the subject...!? So out came the yellow, blue and green - whoops!

And this one was a weekly challenge. Can't remember which one...last weeks? Anyway, used the sketch provided, a group of photos and the letter 'H' in the title. Full points for the Magpies, hurrah!

Anyway, there you go, here's some of what I've been upto. Thank you for looking! xx

Final day

A little bit brighter and finally a hint of a breeze.









Oh I swear - I tried posting this and it cut out on me - I'm too tired to re-write everything so you'll miss my rambling. Sorry about that!
Lets see what I can remember?...the jeans shot above? Mum picked them up for me when she was out last...Friday?...she saw them on sale and thought they'd fit me and turns out she was right! She's magic that woman, every time I've picked up jeans to try on they either don't do up or gape at the back. Yay, I have jeans again!
Anyhoo, that's all I can manage. I wrote quite a long summery of this week but I can't find it in me to type it all up again, I'll come back this week and try again!
xxx