buttons and doodles

Kew Gardens

2011-06-17T11:11:00.006+01:00

Last week my sister, hubby and I visited Kew Gardens for the day. I've planned lots of days out his summer so that I make good use of my days off and don't just end up spending my free time doing the laundry and hoovering!

We got the train Kew Gardens and didn't realise until it was too late that the weather had taken a turn for the worst and we had no rain coats! Whoops!

There's 3 large greenhouses, all with different climates. They included, the tropics, the desert and temperate environments.

There were lots of sunny intervals during the day so we managed to enjoy most of the outside features too.

The Roman Arches

The Japanese pagoda

A replica of a real Japanese Gate

The Rose Gardens

I created a mini album using loo rolls and inserted tags inside each one. It only took a couple of hours and I really enjoyed making it.

I used my new 'Love Elsie' stamps from the 'Forrest' range which were perfect for this book :)

Th album is a mixture of journalling, photos, maps of the gardens, tickets and embellishments. A helpful hint if you're thinking of doing an album like this: 3" x 2" photos are the perfect size (although photos on the tag inserts may need a bit of trimming). Hope you like it!

New stash and mini album...

2011-05-13T19:59:00.000+01:00

I got some more stash to add to my collection...most of it is Love Elsie (so predicatable!). There's also a Maya Road chipboard mini book which I may use to do a Royal Wedding album.

Another idea for a mini book (which my best scrappy friend told me about- thanks Kara) is using a toilet roll tube, squashing it flat and inserting tags inside for journalling, so cool.

Here's the video:

I made another mini book recently of our birthday trip to St. David's bay in Wales. Our birthdays are only two days apart so we usually go away for a little trip together to celebrate :)

This is a picture of my hubby changing the wheel on our car and the story goes like this:

we're driving along the M4 at 70mph

Abby: " Baby the car feels like it's shaking alot."

Hubby: " Oh, don't worry it's just cos it's old and we're going fast."

Abby: "But it feels like its wobbling, much more than on the journey out here!"

Hubby: "Are you sure?"

Abby: "Yeah I really think we should pull over and check what's wrong!"

So we pull over and I drive the car around the forecourt of the petrol station a couple of times....

Hubby: "Yeah actually that back wheel looks very wobbly!"

Abby: "Let's look at it....."

Turns out the tyre rubber had split and the metal wire(s) was sticking out! The tyre was now twisting on the rim (hence the wobbling!). So, out comes the car jack, spare tyre and Hayes manual....15 mins later we're wobble-free down the M4!

Last but not least, as promised, here are some photos of our chickens in their little palace:

What is that strange creature in the run??

home improvements...

2011-05-04T11:15:00.000+01:00

I'm currently working on a mini book all about growing a little vegetable patch and getting two new chickens for our back garden. The vegetable patch was going to be in one section of our front garden so we cleared out all the rubble and weeds in preparation. My hubby then came up with the idea that a bike shed would be a much better use of the space!

So I needed to think of a new plan for my veggies. After some re-arranging of plants in the back garden and getting a couple of patio tubs, I now have the same amount of space :) We also wanted to make use of the dead space at the bottom of our back garden so decided to build a chicken hutch/run. My dad worked really hard at building a super duper hutch complete with ladder, perches, two egg laying boxes and an easy open side for cleaning them out. My dad and hubby then built a fully enclosed run around the hutch.

Photos to follow with the completed run and our two new chickens...'Will and Kate' enjoying their new home.

Also completed a layout of our trip to the Ideal Home Show at Earls Court in London. We went with a couple of mates and had a great day out. There was SO much to see that we barely got round it all but loved looking at all the goodies and clever little gadgets and sampling some yummy food :)

That's about it, will leave you with a pic of a wooden love word that i customised with my favourite October Afternoon paper. Its sitting proudly on one of my scrapbook shelves :)

Love my 'Love Elsie' stash!

2011-03-31T11:17:00.000+01:00

I have a mild obsession with all things from the 'Love, Elsie' brand and have been building my stash for a long time now. I love the funky colours, free hand style, doodling and range of themes :)

The collection has everything from chipboard frames, to gel stickers, to rubber charms to albums and idea books....a never ending supply of creative fun!

Whilst browsing the internet recently, I came upon an online shop that was having a Love Elsie sale (50% off!) so bought loads of stuff!! The recipe box (in the top left corner) was my most recent e-bay purchase. I won it from a lady in Florida for only $5, total bargain and it has tons of ideas in it. There's over 100 'recipe' cards which each have a layout idea and how to make it :)

Anyway, the brand came out in 2007 and alot of online shops are now permanently out-of-stock so i'll be using my stash sparingly.

I was recently browsing my local pound-land and they've got some great craft supplies in there....

Packets of self adhesive bling, I got 3 packs, this stuff is quite expensive in scrapbook shops. Also got glue dots which are identical to the expensive ones in craft shops and also got 3 packs of foam adhesive which comes in a roll and pre-cut mini rectangles, so handy :)

So that's all my recent stash purchases, will update with some recent layouts in the next post x x

my new scrapbook space

2011-03-25T14:39:00.000Z

I only have a small area of our bedroom for my scrapbooking space so I had to use it wisely. I got the desk off e-bay for a bargain £21, it's so great as a scrapbook desk because it's got lots of storage :) Also the table isn't very deep so it doesn't impose much into our room.

I bought the CD racks (the towers at either end of the desk) from Argos and my dad helped me assemble them :) The shelving unit in the middle was from a furniture charity shop for the bargain price of £6! I painted it the same colour as our bedroom wall so it was all nice and uniform. My hubby then screwed some battoning onto the back of the unit and screwed it into the wall through the backboard. I had to hold it up there whilst he screwed it in place and my arms were burning and shaking from the weight of it!

It was really fun orgainsing all my stuff onto it. It looks so pretty and inspiring with all my stash on display! I made a little banner using a Maya Road chipboard coaster album. I then lined up all my Cosmo Cricket 12x12 chipboard element pages at the back of the desk. My most prized possesion at the moment is my Love Elsie recipe box then I won off e-bay from a lady in Florida :)

My little lamp was a cast off from my sister and it co-ordinates perfectly but this area of the room is flooded with light all afternoon which is lovely. Anyway just wanted to show how much could be done with a small amount of space. I've been looking at you-tube videos of women in America that have entire rooms devoted to their hobby and have floor to ceiling storage for their thousands of stamps and posh gizzmos and gadgets and machines. Don't know where they find the time to use it all! Not that i'm jealous in any way!

wedding scrapbook...loved making this :)

2010-09-27T17:29:00.000+01:00

This is the front cover. I used a polaroid camera image from Nancy and Betty (so fabulous!) and some delicious fabric paper from the Love Elsie range, can't get enough of her stuff! The title is made up of my new Thickers from Hobbycraft, thought they looked quite Cinderella-ry :)

My beautiful bridesmaids! I don't think i'm going to ever get bored of the shade of green that their dresses were. The embellishments down the side are a mixture of Jillibean Soup, October Afternoon. Love Elsie and Making Memories.

This was David's face as he watched me walk down the aisle. Thankyou Kara for getting some pics of him in this unforgettable moment :)

The Order of Services, a labour of love but these jobs always seem easier when done infront of a good TV programme :)

Our families...quite a size difference!

It was pretty fun having photos taken after the service, the weather just about held!

Our reception location. It was a complete miracle that we found this place but it was perfect for us :)

Who doesn't love apple printed paper?!

The funkiest cake ever!

Some mates from curch :) Was fun making this paper bunting, much less hassle than the real stuff!

This is the back cover. There is a tiny button on the car and when it is pressed, the whole embellishment lights up and flashes, so tacky but very appealing!

Hope you liked. I've done a ton of scrapbooking during my mahussivly extended summer holiday! I fear that when I go back to work it's going to be a bit neglected :(

Succulents

2010-09-22T10:39:00.000+01:00

In keeping with the out-doorsy, natural theme of the wedding, my Mum had the genious idea of making up little succulent pots for guests name places. Thankfully, she had this brain wave in the very early stages of wedding planning so that gave us 11 months to collect baked bean tins...95 of them! I roped in relatives to start eating baked beans from the smaller tins and the old ladies at church started collecting them as well.

Mum started collecting lots of varieties of succulents and taking cuttings from them so that they'd multiply. By July, the conservatory window sill was covered in trays of succulents, ready for planting. About 3 weeks before the wedding, we painted all the tins, tied rafia around them, filled them with soil and planted the little succulents. It was tedious and time consuming but this was a repetitive job that mum was actually looking forward to!

On the day, they looked great, all lined up together at the entrance of the marquee.

Everyone took theirs home as a little momento of the day :) Some people thought I chose each succulent to represent them (i.e short and fat, tall and prickly, wide and hairy!) but I can assure you this was not the case!

Our honeymoon in Slovenia :)

2010-09-16T10:18:00.000+01:00

I bought Elsie Flannigans book '52 scrapbook challenges' off Amazon a while ago and have used some of her pages as inspiration to do this scrapbook. Alot of her pages are made up of circular backgrounds using different elements which is a great way use those tricky embellishments.

We stayed at Lake Bled for the week. This page is mainly made up of a customised chipboard arrow, a jillibean soup fabric flower and some yummy thickers :)

I used a masking technique on this page and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I have hundreds of little diamantes left over from making our wedding invitations so i've put a few on every page. Have also used some obligatory 'Love, Elsie' embellishments!

This was a very cool day out. We went on a long walk through a few Slovenian villages before reaching this gorge which has a long wooden walkway through it. We took loads of pictures and mini movies which was fun. The force of the water was incredible!

A few more DIY projects..........

2010-06-23T10:50:00.000+01:00

My Aunt's dad restores sewing machines and he'd set this one aside for me as a wedding present from my two younger sisters. However, i've been using it already and think it's quite sentimental that the order of services were bound using it. The machine is 100 years old this year and was made in a factory in Scotland (which at the time was the biggest producer of sewing machines in the world!). The Singer company has a website where you can type in the sewing machines serial number and it tells you all about it's production date etc. I wonder who originally owned this machine? It must have made alot of items of clothing and cushion covers and aprons etc, a piece of history..........

This is my mum doing another repetitive job! I had to turn the handle for her :)

This is all the favours that mum and I made, we bought the jars and lids months ago and cut the toppers out of the scrap bridesmaid dress material and some other fabric that we bought in John Lewis. We also made all the jams ourselves and only had one disaster where a pot slipped out my hand (with no lid on) and jam went everywhere! oops!

A close up of our personalised labels complete with the phrase 'David and Abby's wedding, 7th of August 2010'.

I won a bargain on e-bay, a chunky solid pine dining table and four chairs complete with cushions. We sanded back the table and Dad re-waxed and buffed it :)

A cute photo to finish.....David always has his head in a book except this one is a kids book about dinasours :)

More wedding prep!

2010-06-03T15:29:00.000+01:00

David helping Dad construct the photo-booth that will be at our reception. It will be medically themed and contain props and posters :)

David posting our precious invitations, a great moment!! Just have to wait for all the RSVP's now :)

hand made block letters x x x

2010-05-06T18:35:00.000+01:00

So these are the blocks that we made to go along the front of the top table. My mum, fiance and I painted these blocks with two layers of different coloured paint, sanded them to make them look rustic and then I hand painted these letters on......cool hey :)

And the wedding planning continues.......

2010-03-16T16:50:00.000Z

So there are less than 150 days to go until the wedding! Everyone tells me it will fly by but at the moment it feels like time is slowing down and I just can't wait for the summer.. The international invitations have been sent out and the rest will be sent out at the beginning of May (have mini party!) Then the next phase of planning (i.e. table plans etc) will swing into action :)

I decided to create a massive sign which will slip over the current sign outside our reception entrance. However, once i started this little project, i realised it would take much longer than previously anticipated! Had to cut out a template for all the letters, pin them onto coloured fabric, cut that out, size up the background fabric, pin the letters onto this, stitch all the letters on with sewing machine, phew! I stuck at it though and am pleased with the final result (although i wont be getting an A* for craftsmanship!).

And here's Dad putting together a mock up of our centre pieces, i love them! There's going to be cute little butterflies nestling on a couple of the apples :) Very rustic (and cheap to make)

Wedding prep scrapbook x x x x

2010-02-17T12:25:00.000Z

Here's Mum assembling the invitations, the final stage in a very very long process! I thought these would never get finished but all that's left to do is stick a photo of David and I in there and write the guests names, I think we're going to have a little party when they go down to the postbox!

These are the little 3" figures that are going on the front of our order of services. A little brown boy and a little beige girl with a mini diamante on her left hand, cute :) They were all cut out on Auntie Gillies 'Slice machine', perfect!

And finally, painting the numbers that will make up part of the centre pieces, I love doing all the little crafty bits for the wedding, my old bedroom is now the wedding storage room.

I love the brown, pink and green combination :)

2010-01-21T11:07:00.000Z

I've decided to create a 'mini album' to chart the journey from now until our wedding day which is 199 days away, woop woop! It will include photos of the wedding dress fitting (although these photos wont go in until the wedding itself, obviously). It will have photos from rehearsals, appointments with the florist, making the bridesmaid dresses, stitching the ring cushion etc etc, so excited x

This is a layout I put together from the christmas holidays. I've used a few of the bargains I got in the sale and an antelope sticker from a set I bought at paperchase for only £1 :) Also love the little pearls.

This is a simple layout that shows one of the cutest things David has said to me, so romantic :) I love you baby x x x x

Norway scrapbook with my January sale bargains!

2009-12-31T18:08:00.000Z

A view from up the T.V tower, we could see across the whole of Stavanger and out into the fjord. There was plenty of wind chill!

The mini letters were 10p for a big sheet with hundreds of letters on it! An absolute bargain and perfect for mini books :) Need to add the journalling when I've got a quiet moment.

The tabs are by October Afternoon and are really easy and effective to use, love them :) Pulpit rock is a three hour hike up steep and slippery rocks but it gives stunning views out over the fjord and you can dangle your legs over the edge because the rock is as flat as a table :)

This photo was taken at dusk hence the poor lighting. It's of the four Canadian girls who did a semester of nursing placement in Norway and wanted a picture in front of the towns famous three swords monument.

My December ...........

2009-12-23T12:12:00.000Z

Went for a frosty festive walk in the local forest, I love living near the countryside :)

Quite pleased with the framing of this photo :)

Making gingerbread men with my little sister for christmas eve :)

At the end of November I went on a mini break to Norway to visit one of my bridesmaids, we had a great time hanging out, as usual! She's Canadian and spent four months out there on a nursing placement.

We went on a boat trip up one of the fjords and were treated to some fresh mountain water straight off a waterfall, cool! When I've caught up on my Norway (and the rest of December!) scrapbooking, I'll post all the pages/layouts up here :)

Battersea and Ben Hur!

2009-11-23T15:46:00.000Z

David had planned a suprise for me and I knew several months before that we were going somewhere exciting! I had no idea what I was about to be treated to but when we arrived at the O2 he told me we were going to watch the world premier of Ben Hur live and it was incredible!! The chariot race was amazing and the music and number of actors made for a spectacular show, I had a great night, thanks gorgeous :)

The O2 arena is amazing and we had great seats. I used the tickets packet at the top of the page and some of my thickers to creat the title. The journalling card is by October Afternoon and is framed by Making Memories paint and some bling.

We celebrated bonfire night at Battersea Park where the theme was love. All the fireworks exploded in time with the music and the songs included 'Kings of Leon' and 'Westlife'. It was so cool. We also had sparklers and after the display, went to Tooting Common to release a wish lantern :) A great evening.

I love this tree paper by 'Crate Paper' and have been waiting to use this this 'firework' embellishment for ages!

My new recipe book...............

2009-11-06T20:08:00.000Z

Thinking ahead to married life i know it will be important to have a good supply of recipes for dinner parties, when family come round or just for a nice night in. And of course i had to have a handmade scrapbook one for all my favourite recipes that i'm going to gather over the next few months :)

(sorry about the poor lighting on the photo but i was at uni today and it's getting dark so early in the evening now!)

I've got chapter cover pages for all food areas such as seafood, meat, starters, desserts and bread, well excited!! Alot of the papers are from October afternoon and i used lots of my new 'thickers' so i'm really pleased with how it all looks :)

I really wanted to do a layout yesterday but had no new photo's to scrapbook so i dug out this one from months ago. I made David a massive poster with a little story on it and substituted some of the words with chocolate bars, for example 'I love it when you wispa in my ear'.

Here's a very autumnal layout and i love the background paper which is from the Nutmeg range by Cosmo Cricket, there stuff is so cool!!! The little photo in the bottom left corner is a message i wrote in the condensation of Davids window and reads 'I love David more than scrapbooking'.

Looking forward to fireworks in London tomorrow but will sadly miss the x-factor (which is where You Tube comes in handy :)

Green and grey layouts...

2009-10-28T07:57:00.000Z

I got engaged two weeks before my cousins wedding and because i live with my auntie, the excitement in her house had reached fever pitch!! There has been non stop talk about flowers, dresses, invite designs, rings, reception decorations etc etc. I've learnt a few lessons by observing the build up to my cousins big day such as.... don't bother you're fiance with decisions about minor details, keep your mum on board with all the plans, decide what is a priority in the budget because you can't have it all (sadly), look at lots of wedding blogs with a notebook close to hand and above all have lots of fun with all the planning :) The polaroid picture is from Nancy and Betty stationery.

I recently went to Malawi for a couple of weeks for a university project and whilst there, my friend and i went to a Wildlife Park along the Shire River. Our hosts son took us in his (temperamental) car. Whilst driving through the park we came across a big herd of elephants. We naughtily got out of the vehicle to take better photos and after a few minutes made the decision to drive on but the car wouldn't start!! After a quick push the car rumbled into life and we made our hilariously panicked getaway!

I love the American Thickers that i bought in a recent supplies splurge and i think these brown puffy ones are my favourite. I also really like the swirly green paper from 'Crate Paper' and have used it on a couple of layouts. These are my favourite colours at the moment, hence the green and grey inspired wedding invitations.

Autumn fun!

2009-10-25T15:18:00.000Z

How cute is this pumpkin that I made for David!! It's now taking pride of place next to his plastic skull (they look like a very odd couple!)

As part of my wedding day countdown chart i've planned little fun things for us to do together and having an autumny picnic in the park was one of them. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and is so nice to just chat and eat outdoors :)

We collected lots of conkers at the common and made this seasonally romantic heart. Love conkers all eh!

I was so gutted to read that Scrapbook Inspirations magazine is going to cease publication :( I loved the magazine and all the features and inspiration and new products and techniques. I read the magazine at work, sitting in the ambulance between jobs, it was perfect escapism and i'm going to really miss it. I was proud to have some of my layouts featured in the Readers Gallery and will miss the thrill of seeing my layouts in print!

Sneaky peak..................

2009-10-20T12:20:00.000+01:00

Well here is a glimpse of part of our mini- book wedding invitation. There'll be a few little alterations such as ivory ribbon rather than brown but it's pretty much ready to go into mass production, so excited!! Just need to choose a bible verse and a decent photo of the two of us. I bought the stripy paper about 6 months ago (before we were engaged!) because i loved it and thought it would be perfect for our wedding stationary and it was the last 10 sheets on the shop (with no guarantee of a re-order), had to have it! Let me know what you think.....

Scrapbook party!

2009-10-12T11:50:00.000+01:00

My auntie was treated to a scrapbook party, by her daughter, at our local scrapbook store. Six of us went and we made this gorgeous mini-album. It was a great evening where we were treated to cheese and biscuits, wine and chocolate dipped strawberries, yummy! I also bought myself a glitter pen. Thanks for organising it Susie :)

Rough and Tumble!

2009-10-09T19:27:00.000+01:00

My fiance loves doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and he's got natural talent for it! His instructor is really impressed with his progression and hardwork, i'm proud :) I went along to the class one week and got some action shots! This layout is quite boyish and funky, i love the novelty cardstock by Crate Paper and added my own favourite things......buttons and doodles!

The letters are American Thickers (black vinyl) and i got them in the sale from a recent on-line order, bargain find!! I've also had a big splurge on 'October Afternoon' goodies, they're so gorgeous so expect to see their products in some layouts coming soon :)

Back from Africa :)

2009-10-06T07:47:00.000+01:00

Just got back from a two week trip to Malawi, had a great time!! Went with my Uni friend Ella and had a few 'behind the scenes' tours of the local hospitals as part of a research project for uni. Stayed with some family friends, this is our hosts grand-daughter, 5 year old Lauren, she is the cutest kid :) Took these photos during one of the many power cuts, i dressed her up in ALL my jewellery, she loved it and was strutting around like a little princess :)

On one of the Saturdays we went to an engagement party, it was quite the experience! The day started with the ring giving ceremony then we had bioled rice and goat for lunch (which Ella couldn't stomach so palmed it off to the village kids who were more than happy to help her eat it!) In the afternoon there was the gift giving ceremony which basically involved dancing around the couple and throwing money (notes) at them which they use for the wedding and starting married life. The couple got a total of the equivalent of 10 months of a teachers wages out there, nice! Below is a picture of the goat being cooked on outdoor fires.

Had to do all our washing by hand, Primark clothes do not stand up well to this tough scrubbing!!

Went to a wildlife park and this was the sign by the entrance. Thought it was very funny that they felt the need to clarify that hunting was prohibited and removing animals was not allowed!

Well i'll be doing some scrapbooking today in between my uni lectures so will update with my new layouts tomorrow :) Is good to be back on British soil.

Ireland mini book, so cool........

2009-09-02T11:58:00.001+01:00

And here is the beautiful ring!!! the mini photo is the location where he proposed, it was lovely and sunny with the waves loudly crashing on the cliffs below, perfect :)

David got his feet soggy on one of our walks so when we stopped at an old volcanic lake he styled out some poi to get them dry, so funny!

The dingle dolphin gets his very own bronze statue on the harbour front, there is kids climbing over it all day long.

I wrote our happy news on the wooden slats of the bunk beds in the hostel. There was lots of messages from other previous travellers from around the world.

more Ireland mini book, love it!

2009-09-02T11:38:00.000+01:00

My king of the castle!!

Had an amazing time in Ireland and had to make an 8"x8" mini book to show off all the cool photo's we took :) Fungi is the name of a lone dolphin who lives in Dingle bay and we went out on a boat to see him. He was chasing the boat and leaping out of the water, fun times!

When the owner of the hostel heard that we had got engaged she said we could stay there for free as her present to us :) such a blessing. will send her a photo of the big day next year :)

Love this photo. I'm really into photo's that fill the page, with a few cool embellishments and lovely patterened paper around it :)

weddings, weddings, weddings!! woop woop :)

2009-08-14T16:08:00.000+01:00

Well here's an idea for our wedding invites! obviously it's only quite rough but it incorporates my love of doodling, bling and butterflies :) the title stamp is my aunties which she used for her daughters wedding so that'll come in very handy! haven't completely finalised the colour scheme but definately want a strong fresh green in there :)

I'm continuing to do layouts for the album i've been commisioned for. It's definately a challenge sticking to the minimalistic brief but means i can get 4 pages done in an hour, feels good!

Did this layout below in a class at 'Imagine That' scrapbook shop. Really enjoyed myself and learnt some cool new techniques like using sequin waste as a stencil and bubble wrap as a stamp; I love getting messy with paint and it adds a cost effective texture to the page:

My fiance and I had great fun at my cousins wedding and got some ideas for our own next year! The groom and ushers wore top hats so took some funny pictures of our swapped headgear :)

I love this picture of us, thinks it's one of my new favourites and want to get it enlarged for my bedroom wall, looking gorgeous baby......

The other day at work I got called to a lady who had fainted in a scrapbook shop; it was a challenge to not get distracted and to act professional at all times, but the owner said that people who work for the NHS get a 10% discount, score! The lady was fine by the way!

Guest Blogger: David Jones

2009-08-04T17:18:00.000+01:00

Had a great trip in Dingle, Ireland - I can't believe you haven't shown off any photos! I had to come and show off the best xxx :-P

And a few more of the beautiful onion-head! :D teehee x

As you can see it was STUNNING.

I love Abby so much and love reading your blog - You're so talented (and I'm so biased!!! hehe).
Byeee

I'm engaged!!!!

2009-07-23T15:02:00.000+01:00

My gorgeous boyfriend proposed to me on our recent trip to the Dingle Penninsula in south west Ireland and of course i said yes. We were sitting out on some cliff tops in the sunshine during a break from our bike ride when he popped the question :) i'm so excited!! i went wedding dress shopping with my mum and two of my sisters yesterday and found my absolute dream dress, it is so gorgeous, i wish i could post a photo here but you'll have to wait over a year until after the wedding, sorry.

However one photo that i can show you is the style of wedding cake i want (ignore the colours). I think it looks quite scrapbooky and definately has that cool twist that we want!

I've been away for a couple of weeks so haven't been in the scraparium for ages (i'm getting withdrawal symptoms) but i'll be back into the swing of regular layouts and posts soon :)

Guest blogger: from Nancy & Betty

2009-07-20T18:42:00.001+01:00

Why hello there. I'm (Hannah) Abby's sister and from Nancy & Betty - we design and make stationery with influences from around England, vintage finds and the simple and the quirky from the everyday. We are rather find of Polaroid cameras, typewriters, retro dial phones and Noddy to name a few. Other things that tickle our fancy is the British seaside.

Above is a selection of our collection to give you a tease - to shop online and see lots more information about us visit http://www.nancyandbetty.com/ In case you were wondering, the name comes from my/Abby's grandma, Nancy and her twin sister, Betty.

Other things that we like the look of are; Frank (A place for British alternative applied arts and contemporary craft) - it's down the road to us in Whitstable, so if you are in the area, go and visit. We also like the look of is Treacle in London - selling homemade cupcakes and other edible delights. Lastly, a blog that makes us want to have flowers everyday (and who wouldn't?!) is Miss Pickering. I have so many blogs and places I would love to show you, it definitely needs another post though, hint hint.

Also, Abby has some very exciting news which involves plenty of stationery (hooray!) and lots of flowers.

Thanks for having me Abby, I had a ball. xx

In the cool of the night :)

2009-06-30T19:43:00.000+01:00

Just finished two night shifts and despite feeling like i was just taking drunk people to hospital, it was nice working when the temperature had dropped :) also at this time of year it's only dark for about 6 hours so is easier to get through a 12 hour shift.

It was my brother-in-laws 30th birthday at the weekend and my sister did a brilliant job of hosting the BBQ and looking after 50 guests, she's a great house wife! Dad was the BBQ chef and everyone had a great time :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY!! the next time the whole family is together is at my cousins wedding in 4 weeks time, very excited.

I had hoped that the following layout would get into the scrapbook magazine but because they've decided not to publish it, i can post the layout here:

I finished my boyfriends album for his first year at med' school. I'm pleased with how it's all turned out and to see how my style has changed even in this last year! Below is a couple of pages showing him and his class mates practicing their clinical skills.

Went to the cinema with grandma this afternoon to watch 'My Sister's Keeper'. It was a really lovely movie but was such a tear-jerker, i definately recommend it :)

Published and Commissioned!

2009-06-22T10:04:00.000+01:00

The scrapbook magazine arrived in the post this morning with my layout printed in the reader gallery, so excited!! The theme was 'dreams and milestones' so the blurb next to my layout is a bit cheesy but i'm pleased with how it all looks :)

I've also been commissioned to put together an album for the wedding present of a family friends daughter. She has given me a heap of photo's and memorabilia so i'm looking forward to putting it altogether :) however she prefers a more minimalistic style so i'm going to have to really restrain myself when it comes to the amount of embellishments and colours i use! i guess it's like renovating a house to sell, you need to put the buyers taste above your own. will be a fun project though :)

Below is a closeup shot of the main layout further down. The patterned paper (cars and trucks) came through the post a couple of days ago. I ordered a few sheets of patterened paper online when i was at my boyfriend's house and he treated me to them (thanks baby :)

Been at work the last couple of days, nothing too exciting, on a late shift today then got three days off, woop woop!

Back to work and some random layouts....

2009-06-15T21:42:00.000+01:00

Back to work today and what a day it was..... kids having asthma attacks, a lady having a heart attack, a pregnant lady having contractions very prematurely :( and a man who had passed out because he was laughing so hard that he couldn't breath properly!! and then the thunderstorm started. It was like a tropical monsoon and was causing havoc within minutes! One ambulance got struck by lightning which caused water to pour in through the hole in the roof, a fast response car got stuck in deep water in a tunnel which created a rather large tailback and i was off work an hour late but hey ho, my job is rarely dull!

Anyway i haven't had alot of spare time to chill out in the scraparium so below are a few layouts from earlier this year (hopefully there'll be some fresh layouts to show you soon :)

Chilling out in the park. We love playing frisbee and have one of those fancy flying rings that David teaches himself tricks with :) The sentence under the photo is one of david's funny one liners but is related to medical terminology so therefore can't be enjoyed by everyone, sorry.

Coming home from California. I scraplifted the idea of using three photos in a row with a whole line of embellishments above, quite like the simplicity of it but still with detail to enjoy :)

And finally.... a page about my trip to the 'Body World' exhibition at the O2. It was fascinating and wierd and very educational. My favourite section was that of 11 tiny embryos from 2 to 12 weeks of development after conception. It's so incredible to see the rapid level of growth and tiny arm and leg buds developing so early in the embryos life, very cool :)

The annual family gathering for Grandad's BBQ!

2009-06-15T21:15:00.000+01:00

From left to right: my brother-in-law, my sister, me and David :) What a good looking bunch!

Grandad was game for a laugh and let his posse of granchildren show him what we're made of!

The granchildren (in age order) looking gorgeous :) the trampoline was by far the best toy investment my parents made!

So yesterday was the big annual family gathering for my grandad's birthday BBQ. It's great to get together with everyone and play in the garden, chat, indulge and mess around on the trampoline :) The weather was gorgeous and the food was delicious, a nice day all round :)

Travels with Beth :)

2009-06-08T10:57:00.000+01:00

Four years ago I went to India for four months (as part of my gap year) and had the pleasure of the company of Beth (from Canada) :) We clicked immediately and were inseperable! Since then we've been on more world travels including Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and touring around Paris. We are brilliant friends and great travel buddies. We plan on still travelling the world when we're old and wrinkly, with our husbands in tow!

Next week Beth is coming to England for a 24 hour stop over on her way to Africa and i can't wait to see her! These are some layouts of our adventures together :)

I wonder how many engagement rings have been dropped from the top of the Eiffel Tower!
We visited the tower in the evening and it was lit up with thousands of sparkling lights, so cool ;)

You'll need to click on the photo to read the text. We went through so many emotions together in India but had an unforgettable time in the school and on our two week trip to Darjeeling with the crazy public transport!

Arabian Princesses....in contrast to our accommodation in India we stayed in a seriously luxurious hotel and it was a bit of a shock to the system! The snorkelling and trip to Cairo were the highlights (and making a movie by the hotel swimming pool, which i dont think the other guests appreciated!)

A mini book of memory verses :)

2009-06-04T09:58:00.000+01:00

Well here's my latest creation.... a mini book to write down some of the best verses from the New Testament. I read a small section of the bible each morning and wanted to record (scrapbook stylie!) the bits i enjoyed the most (will write the verses in over the next couple of weeks :) The basic mini book is by Maya Road, i love their chunky products which are really easy to alter and have a tin of the sheer journalling cards which seem to be lasting forever! I've also used some cosmo cricket paper (girl friday range) and paper by Daisy Bucket (that has some yummy colour combinations!). The mini rubber frame and pink chipboard letters are by Love, Elsie (who's book '52 scrapbook challenges' is one of my favourite sources of ideas :)

Got lots of jobs on my list today but they're all a bit dull (stuff like tidying and emails) so am going to put on some loud power ballads by beyonce and whitney houston to liven things up! Went shoe shopping yesterday to look for something suitable for my cousins wedding. Was looking for some funky brown wedges to match my green (ebay) dress and after dragging around the shops with my sympathetic auntie i found the perfect pair in Primark which were dicounted to £6! so chuffed, good old primark eh :)

swimming and chilling :)

2009-06-02T19:17:00.000+01:00

Had a chilled out day, went swimming with my cousins although all the fun stuff like the flumes and rapids were shut so we ended up just floating about and having a girly chat. Have also been trying to organise a day in the maternity department of my local hospital (as part of my paramedic course!) so that i can shadow a midwife and hopefully see a cesarean section but have so far just been passed from pillar to post, will be more pesistant tomorrow!

Whenever i travel to another country i try and get a photo of a local ambulance there and have been working on a scrapbook over the last couple of years to compile all these pictures. So far i've got photos of the river ambulance in venice, the bicycle and stretcher-trailer ambulance in rural malawi and ambulances from Argentina, Ireland, the USA, Italy and Poland. I am therefore always on the lookout for medical themed embellishments ('Me and my big ideas' and 'Sandylion' offer a good selection :) these also double up as good embellishments for pages in the scrapbook i'm making for my boyfriend (who is at medical school) and for thankyou cards when i've been on a hospital placement.

Here goes ............

2009-06-01T20:42:00.001+01:00

hi everyone, so this is my first post, venturing into the vast world of all things technological (i am about as a computer literate as your average 99 year old!) but hey ho i'm very willing to learn and absorb things quickly so lets hope it all goes well :)
i love browsing other peoples blogs and now that i've had a one of my layouts published, i thought i'd join the gang and share some of my creations with you.

some recent layouts....

2009-06-01T17:40:00.000+01:00

here's a small sample of some of my recent layouts. The skeletons page was recently published in Scrapbook Inspirations and i have another layout featuring in next months issue which is rather exciting! there's also a layout of my 'chance meeting' with some fellow paramedics on a recent trip to California. My mum and i were walking along the high street of a small town and came across a minor road accident. The driver didn't want to go to hospital so i took the chance to chat with the paramedics and find out some trans-Atlantic similarities and differences in our jobs!

In my layouts i like using one large photo that fills most of the page and then adding embellishments down one side. I also love using lots of different textures in my pages such as plastic, wood, metal and card which add dimension and that touchy-feely element :)