Organisation Celebration at Jennifer's Jumbles

Over at Jennifer's Jumbles last weekend Organisation Celebration was happening.  Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to view most of the posts until this week and I even got the answer to the blog hop wrong as I did it too quickly lol!
There were so many interesting posts and I picked up lots of cool ideas including these:-

• cooking 
• I need to use my slow cooker more
• I must think about quick go to meals for when I am short of time
• there is nothing wrong with a take away!
• blogging
• I need to plan (say no more!)
• positive planning
• I answered all the questions and have a few areas to look at
• how to use
• I have a Fiskars shape cutter and templates unused and unloved how do I use it???
• use more scraps
• This brings me nicely to Jennifer's sketch

I am a huge sketch fan as you probably already know, so I had to use this one as well as using my scraps and I completed another page from the pile of Antigua photos

the picture isn't great as it has been so dark here but everything on the LO is from my scraps pile.  The little green piece that says Love it is from the edge border that gets cut from co-ordinations card stock and the green journalling is from the same source.  Nothing wasted here!

Thanks Jennifer for all the hard work you put into last weekend.  I am looking forward to the next one already.

Family x 12 July Blog Hop

Wow where did the time go???  July already, 2012 is just whizzing by and there are still so many things to come....
so today I am part of Margie's family photo blog hop where a bunch of us try and take a pic of our 'family' each month and share on our blogs.  I love the fact that it reminds me to capture the 4 of us together on a monthly basis as I am rarely in photos and we are rarely in photos together.  Think about joining in as it is really simple yet really worthwhile and it is open to anyone and everyone.

This month I took the photo really early on Sunday June 3rd, which was the day the wider family gathered together to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  This month was a lot of fun with the props.  This month the kids weren't as fussy about posing ....

You can see why... they were hiding behind the masks!  We were dressed in red, white and blue and I had bought these mad masks and it was such brilliant fun getting everyone to pose as a different Royal.  The only downside was the weather so all the photos were taken inside on a wet, grey day and there wasn't quite enough room for a group mask photo!  I hope this brings a smile to your face!

Today you should have come form our host Margie's blog and your next stop is Monica's blog here is the full list of participants in case you get lost:

Margie         http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog

Ruth           http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com

Monica         http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com

Jo             http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com

Patricia       http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/

story telling Sunday June 2012

At this time of year my mind begins to think about holidays,  Past, present or future holidays with all the memories or all the plans!  We have recently booked our break abroad for this summer hoping to find some Sunshine.

My husband often reminisces whilst watching television, his favourite phrase is 'I've been there'.  We could be watching a news report form London, a wildlife documentary in Mull, a holiday programme set in New Zealand and frequently, all the wonderful shows we watch set in numerous cities in the USA, it doesn't matter if 'I've been there'!

A few years ago Hubby and I were lucky enough to spend a long weekend in New York to celebrate my birthday.  Our hotel was literally round the corner from the Empire State building and we loved exploring the city recognising so many familiar landmarks as seen in magazines, films or tv.

We took one of the guided bus tours and came across a film crew in action on the bridge just outside Grand Central Station

I know it is really difficult to see but there is a group of people fighting and Will Smith the star of the film is there.  The film is I am Legend and my husband and I have seen the film and really can say 'I've been there'!!

'I've been there' is now a joke between our family and I keep making to make a scrap book page or even a mini album about this phrase and the places it may respond to so this post is the start and hopefully it will motivate me to craft about it.

This post has been brought to you courtesy of Sian's story telling Sunday please visit her blog here to read many more tales.

ATDML Challenge 2

Challenge 2 at ATDML was all about jubilee bunting.  Although I made a layout about my son celebrating his birthday with a jubilee party I didn't add any bunting,  I was inspired however to make some jubilee cards with bunting

The bunting was actually made using a triangle punch and left over jubilee paper chains in red, white and blue. Another piece of bunting was attached to a cocktail stick to make the flag used on most of the cards.  I used some Portobello Road papers, some freebie ones and some colour appropriate ones from my stash. A stamped and embossed gold crown on gold paper completed the card.

 I decided to send these cards as 'Happy Mail inspired by the wonderful Ginger and her Mail Art Exchange  so they have been sent out mostly to America, one to Spain and one to the UK (which I know has arrived!) So watch your mail boxes ladies as there could be a little package arriving any day now!