Dolphin Watch

This summer, the family went to Scotland. We based ourselves on the Black Isle, about an hours drive north of Inverness. We chose our location as it was only a few miles from Chanonry Point as this is the meant to be the best place in Europe to observe Bottlenose Dolphins.

We spent many hours on the pebble covered beach, in a variety of weather conditions including the obligatory Scottich rain (on more than one occasion!) But the dolphins did not disappoint, it was amazing to watch them catching fish just yards off the shore. The frustration lay in trying to capture on camera those majestic creatures gliding through the waves, jumping out the water and performing their aquatic acrobatics . We took hundreds of pictures and most of them are either just water or a fin disappearing into the water! Those dolphins are fast!!

There were several 'professional' wildlife photographers on the shoreline with us and wow did they have some amazing kit with them! They wurred and clicked away and took so many snaps, I would love to see the results, I bet they managed to catch some of the magic moments I witnessed.

This is one of my favourite images of the day, our last whole day, and I love it. The sun was shining and the dolphins were playing, a perfect combination.

Book review Cleo, how a small black cat helped heal a family by helen Brown

I have just read this book and thought I would share the review I have published for an online bookstore......

''I have already recommended this book to several friends and will be buying it for others as it really is a great read. This book made me cry at times and had moments in it where I laughed out loud!
I was touched by Helen's very honest account of her experiences around the death of her 9 year old son (the same age my son is now). She has a really easy writing style that makes the words flow and enables the reader to get totally absorbed by the story. I wish I could access Helen's newspaper columns as she is certainly very entertaining and has many wise anecdotes. My favourite words of wisdom are found on page 110 where she talks about the important role of Mothers, the power we possess and the miracle of birth. I wrote it down as it is so inspirational.

Cleo is an amazing cat, who has an amazing life with Helen and her family. In fact Cleo is an extremely important member of the family and is involved in all the major events that happen (I think she is a major event!!). I have a cat and I am certain he is not as wise as Cleo, but he is just as amusing at times.

I loved this book and recommend it to those who have lost, those who have loved, those who are mothers, those who have family and those who have a cat in their lives. You will not be disappointed.''

So what have you read recently? I love reading but have spent most of my time reading books around pharmacology and nurse prescribing so it came as a welcome change to read Cleo. As you can see I really loved it and look forward to having more time to read the growing pile of books I have at home. Do let me know your favourite books as I am always interested in what other people like or loathe!

Scrapping with I did it creations fonts challenge LSNED page!

The current challenge over at Scrapping with IDIC is to use fonts only and no photographs. We were given the fab fonts from Floppy Latte to work with called 'fun and funky' and they can be purchased here for only $1.50. Initially I wasn't sure what to do on a layout without a photograph but then realised I could create a picture with the letters and could use it for one of the LSNED pages that I am trying to do.

I simply printed and cut out the letters then attached them to the gorgeous Echo Park paper as if they were hanging on a washing line (popped up with foam pads)... I even used string to make it look more realistic! Please visit the Fonts challenge here and join in for your chance to win $5 to spend on Floppy Latte papers and digi stamps.


This is taken from day 20 when we had sunshine and I managed to dry 2 loads of washing outside. The journalling says 'I love the smell of line dried washing'. Hopefully I will manage to make a few more LSNED pages soon as I have written stuff in a little notepad as I have gone along so the ideas and lessons learnt are all there.

Blogtoberfest

I have been shockingly awful at blogging recently as you will be well aware, I think I have been shockingly awful at life too as have been feeling completely exhausted! I have gone to bed with the 9 year old for the last 3 nights and been asleep by 9pm and today I had an afternoon nap... what's that all about!? I was putting it down to side effects from the b.c.c. treatment but that finished last week so not so sure now??!!

Anyway I was just reading one of my fave blogs I Speak Melsh and came across Oktoberfest and think it may be just what I need to get me doing daily posts in October which is a month that I love as there is so much happening!

That said not a lot has happened today, school run, DS's class assembley about Shakespeare (he was one of Macbeth's witches!!), work, afternoon nap and up in time for dinner eaten in front of 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' wot a treat!!

Hopefully October will contain some things more worthy of a blog post and if I find my missing energy and enthusiasm, I might even manage some crafting.... I was trying to do LSNED but have posted no evidence of it yet!!!

Scrappin' Silhouettes Challenge 14

Another wonderful sketch by the ever talented Jennipher can be found over at Scrappin Silhouettes. I love these sketches soooo much and am so glad to be a part of the design team as they are such an amazing group of ladies. Please go over to the website to see what everyone else has created there is loads of INSPIRATION over there!!

This is the sketch
and this is what I did with it

I used 4 photographs and cropped them to roughly fit the sketch. We had a great day walking in the 'Bluebell woods' in May but it was late in the season so most of the bluebells had died but I managed to find a few for my snaps! It is a pretty simple LO with just card, paper. photographs letters and the only embellishment is a few flowers that you can just about see.

Please join in this week as it is a fab sketch to use xxx

It's a Guy thing

This weeks challenge over at Scrapping with I did it Creations is all masculine. We were given gorgeous 'Dungerees' digi papers from Toucan Scraps to work with and I fell in love with the realistic denim affect.

I cropped a photograph of my son (in typical pose with the largest 'stick' he could find) and matted it with 2 of the denim affect papers. I used papers from the set to produce the words 'boy' and 'stick' in the title (cut and drawn by hand) and created a simple tree and grass scene to show how versitile the papers can be.

Toucan Scraps is sponsoring the challenge this week and the winner will receive $5 to spend in the online store.

So go over here to check out all the fantastic DT layouts and please join in for your chance to win!

Where have I been.......??

Well it's a long story! I got sidetracked by the summer holidays to begin with... we went away to Ashburnham Place with my parents, a beautiful house in wonderful grounds in Sussex nr Battle. Then we went to Scotland for 10 wonderful days staying in a stunning rural location and spending hours watching dolphin in their natural habitat and the best place to spot them in Europe! (I have lotsa phoptographs and may get round to sorting, blogging and scrapping them at some point!)

Then we returned to work/school routines and it took me a while to get into the swing of things again...can't believe this is the third week back already! I really miss the relaxed days of summer spent with the children with no set places to be by a specific time... thank goodness for weekends!

I have fallen behind with all my crafting, I owe about 30 cards (no exageration!) and need to catch up on DT work too. I am back at Uni and the work is piling up, I have lots of assignments to complete and not enough time as per usual! Hubby is still working away but his contract ends next week, it'll be great to have him home but need him to get another job. This is the last week of treatment for my basal cell carcinoma which I am so pleased about as I have had a fantastic response to the home treatment (cream 5 x per week for 6 weeks) but that also meant I have had every single side effect going!! I have felt really run down most of the time but I think it means my immune system has been stimulated into action so I should clear the skin cancer...yipee!

So I am back and going to try harder to keep up with you all there is so much to say...I'm off to Ally Pally this weekend for the craft show there and sooo looking forward to it. Hopefully I will report back here on all I see and spend!!