Girl About Town!

Gee whizz! August has flown by and just one day to go. What a busy month it has been. I am feeling rather dizzy!

My big sister and I went to see The Jersey Boys in Leicester Square, London last Tuesday - FAB music and interesting story line but I felt that there was soo much swearing (effing at least 2 dozen times) and it really spoiled it for me. I was rather surprised - not shocked but surprised that it was even allowed. We attended the matinee performance which would be more inclined to have children in the audience! How sad that I now question as to whether I would go see another musical - or live show for that matter, let alone take one of my grandchildren. Perhaps the shows need to be rated just as films are. If that is the case, The JB would definately be an 18 in my opinion!

I met up with my 3 girlfriends on Wednesday of last week. Joan and I have been friends for 52 years and I have known Rita - J's cousin almost as long. Pam is a friend of Joan from school days. We had a lovely day at Rita's...relaxing and chilling in the late August sunshine.  

The Bank Holiday weekend was spent with father in law. He has Alzheimers so a lot of what was said was repeated - either by us or him! We did take him out on 3 out of 4 days, so he did get to enjoy his surroundings.

So peeps...did you enjoy your Bank Holiday weekend? It's amost time for the children to go back to school, so for you mums, it's routine time again. Enjoy your last days of the holidays.
Toots for now.

It's A Family Affair! **DT**

My latest DT kit from Hobbysew is made up with My Mind's Eye - Lost and Found collection of papers and embellishments which had lots of sparkle and glitter on. *Ü* This first layout has photos that were taken of my family recently and I changed the colour to 'selenium' to better co-ordinate with the papers. I love to see my 6 grandchildren together. *Ü* They all get on so well and have fun together despite their age differences.

I used my Martha Stewart 'daisy fan' punch to cut the edge of the dark paper and I added red gems from my stash. The lace ribbon ( I think by Prima), was from my previous DT kit and matches well with the dark patterned paper. I cut the 'Happy' portion from one of the papers and used the alphas. As they were pink, I wrote over them with a glue pen and glittered them with red to match. Then I added one of the buttons in the kit to the Penny Farthing bicycle before writing the journalling strips with the red sparkly pen, also in my kit.

I love spots and striped papers and the following card was fun to make. I used a scalloped punch for the circles and here's the tricky bit - to get the greeting onto the circle! I used 2 fonts here. First I printed the 'happy birthday' circular greeting onto paper. Then I placed the circle over the greeting and attached it with sticky tape and re ran it through the printer. The next bit was tricky. I typed 'Happy Birthday' onto the same paper as previously done, then attached the same circle (with sticky tape) over the exact type and again, ran the paper through the printer. I cut a strip of paper and attached it across the card, placed the scalloped circles on pop dots, stitched on a button from the kit and made a bow from black netting.

Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving me lovely comments. I really appreciate it.

Toots for now,

Out of the loop!

Argh! Don't you just hate it when your internet dies on you?!  I do and I haven't been online for almost a week... and I have to admit to being thoroughly miserable! Now, that is not in my nature but when I don't have contact with my family and friends or am unable to get my regular exercise (surfing), it's just not worth speaking to me! We had a power cut last Saturday and it blew my router - AND microwave oven. I thought it may be the fuse in each plug but replacing fuses didn't work on either, so I had to order another router. I spoke with the lady about 6pm Tuesday and it arrived on Thursday morning - whilst I was out! It took almost 2 hours to get back on line though! *Sigh*.

So...I have not been idle I can tell you. August has been and will be the busiest month of the year so far and there's more to come. The first week in August, I had a clean up....it took the whole week just to clean the stairs of the result of my wire shelf unit which had collapsed and I had used the upper flight of stairs to store it all. I intended to organise my scrap room but it's going to be a very long job as life interupts my flow! I helped my husband out with work - 4 days this past week and inbetween we had a family BBQ at my niece's with all of my daughters, son-in-laws and 6 grandchildren! Ooo..it was such a lovely day and I am always so happy when we are altogether. There was much eating, laughing and chatting and the weather was very kind to us - an added bonus. *Ü* I made a Strawberry Pavlova and Tiramisu both favourite desserts of my sister in law and brother in law as a thank you for their generosity in paying for our stay in their apartment in Menorca in June.

They paid for our meals out in restaurants every day! I also painted a canvas last week for them. Karin had seen a canvas of a boat on the sea shore in a sunset and I tried to replicate it. It turned out pretty good in my opinion!

Last week saw one of my grandsons turn into a teenager! Eek! Cameron is now 13 - unbelievable. I remember cutting his cord when he was born! I took him for a ride on the High Speed train to London where we spent some time together.

He got to sit in the driver's seat which he enjoyed.

The rest of the month, I shall have a trip to see the Jersey Boys in London with my eldest sister, a meet up with my 3 girlfriends - always a fun day, a visit to father in law's and then a visit to my sister in Devon. I'm really looking forward to all of the events. Ohh...and I fitted in a visit to the boot fair this morning. Always a bargain to be had. I bought a brand new-still-in-the-box Gino D'Acampo pasta machine, a lovely lime green cardigan, a black wire basket and a real leather jewellery box. *Ü* There is always a bargain to be found. Last time, I bought a lovely wooden jewellery box with an orange velvet interior. Watch this space for a Halloween makeover nearer October. *Wink*.

Can you believe we are almost through August and it will soon be time to get out the Halloween decorations! LOL. I have been gathering yet more ideas as I am hosting a BIG Halloween party for all of my family. Ohh...I am really looking forward to THAT! *Ü*

So peeps, I must heed my own advice - Keep Calm and Keep Blogging! LOL.

Toots for now,

Chicken, cheese, chips and chocolate!

That's what I had for dinner tonight! All of my favourite foods beginning with 'ch'! *Ü* I baked chicken legs - deskinned, with a mix of grated wholemeal breadcrumbs and equal amount of grated cheese - seasoned to taste and I covered the chicken legs with the mix and baked in the oven at gas # 6 for about 40 minutes. I cooked homemade chips and accompanied with baked beans...yummy. To follow, I made a raspberry trifle, topped with grated chocolate on the cream! I'm now feeling rather full! *Ü* I didn't even think to take photos - sorry peeps...but then you wouldn't want to be jealous of my meal, would you?! *Ü*

LAZY SUNDAY AFTERNOON...is what I have had today. After a long week of cleaning and de-cluttering, I am pooped but I am pleased with my efforts.  I spent some time on Skype this afternoon being entertained by my 5 year old granddaughter - Miss Ashley and her 'fashion show' as she called it! LOL.  Then my eldest granddaughter Yasmin called me this evening for a 'chit chat'. *Ü* I can't wait to see my babies next weekend...all of them at my niece's family BBQ! *Squeal*

Have a good week yourselves and thank you for visiting my blog.

Who do I think I am?!

I was having a telephone conversation with my sister yesterday and the subject of death came up! I guess the time will come soon when our 97 year old mum will depart this life and even though it's to be expected....and I am of the ripe age of 60...yes I am...it will still be hard to accept - for me.

My sister sent me a cd several years ago by Anthony & The Johnsons and one of the tracks is 'My Sister'! It is sooo us and every time I hear it, it makes me cry. I played it last night and ... I was in tears.

Our conversation brought us to discuss the things that we remember about our childhood, our lives -growing up together and some of the things that we have been through - and we talked about the relationships we have with our respective families. I consider it important to find out who my ancestors are and what they were like. I have managed to go back to 1760 on my mother's side and not quite so far on my father's.

I have been a crafter throughout my life and our conversation gave me cause to consider some of the things that I have done/made for my family and friends. One thing that comes to mind inparticular, is the dresses that I made for my three daughters and myself when we went on holiday to Butlins in August 1976. Now....first, you have to promise not to laugh at the platforms! *Ü* Here we are in a family contest - not sure which one though....

...and here is another contest that we entered - a  line up of babies with their mums in a 'Bonny Baby' competition. That's me on the left with Keeley. *Ü*

 Keeley was just 5 months old and she came 2nd! *Ü* Awww...I can remember the day very clearly.

I've been 'home alone' this week and have had time to reflect on the past whilst my husband and grandson are on the youth camp in Wales! I've been having a clean up and putting all of my photos into one place. Nostalgia and sentiment set in and I got distracted....LOL.....back to work! *Ü*

Toots for now.  Poof...gone!