Walking the Regent's Canal

I went out with DS and a good friend today for a rescheduled walk from Camden Lock to Paddington via Little Venice along the Regent's Canal. The day was gloriously warm and sunny and the walk was as lovely as I had hoped. We saw exotic birds as we walked past the zoo, admired the house boats with all their little adornments, gardens and sun traps, we saw ducks and moorhens and a good sprinkling of very nice houses.

We followed this up with lunch in Sheldon Square - duck with salad and lentils - yum! and a wander down to Paddington - as you come under the West Way the whole landscape changes and you feel as if you have changed cities - that's the wonder of London - things change so quickly from district to district.

We ended up on South Molton street having a delicious ice cream, and I found a gorgeous material and trimmings shop called macculloch-wallis which I will have to revisit soon. I did manage a little purchase of trimmings though!

Glorious Wildlife

With DH having a new camera with a great 12 x optical zoom, taking photos has once more become a pleasure and we made the most of it, taking endless pictures of the wildlife that came up to our door at Elveden.

I will definitely be scrapping some of these photos, well at least a selected few, but for now I'm just enjoying looking at them. They may not be the big 5, but up close and personal they are so interesting and beautiful.

Baby Shower

I had an awesome afternoon with my crop friends yesterday, with a baby shower for one of them - our 3rd crop baby!! We all took presents and were treated to an amazing array of delicious cakes and tea - yum! The rooms were beautifully decorated with streams of pompoms, babygro and normal bunting and even a door decoration.

We decorated onesies (or babygros as they are known on this side of the Atlantic) - tradition which MA has introduced to us - and all made a different design for Baby Bunting as he or she is known affectionately. Mine is the star and stripes one on the left (above)

We played some very silly games, the sock game in miniature with baby accessories and tried to drain 4oz of squash from a baby bottle - almost impossible - how do they do it? We also did the guess the distance round the bump - as ever my guess was way too big - keep forgetting not all babies were as big as mine!

A really nice ending to a manically busy week - thank you ladies!

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I really liked the look of Jillibeans Bean Blossoms, and dug out my fibre collection (much neglected as you can imaging) to have a play. With two sizes of round punch to cut scraps of cardstock for the background, a pritt stick and a button for the centre, they are a simple, highly satisfying, quick and cheap alternative, and can be made in whatever colour you want. Not to mention the fact that the real thing, gorgeous though they are, cost £3.99 for 3. Cheapskate? Definitely, sometimes!!

Grrrrrr!

I'm supposed to be on a stash diet, and I've been trying really hard and quite successfully to use up my stash, particularly those sheets of must-have pp which trill their siren call to you in the shop but then I don't know what to do with.

Anyway, I decided to invest in a little pick-me-up stash parcel, nothing extravagant mind you, of the oh so tempting LYB Sweet Summertime. I had a reason: I have plans for at least two LOs, possible even 3, which in my mind was justification enough to purchase - so I did!!

It arrived! It is beautiful, but I only purchased 2 sheets of pp (using the logic that I'm trying not to accumulate pp!) - why why why?? Having seen it, I 'need' at least a couple more, if only because the reverse of one I have to use is just gorgeous, so I should have got 2!! The chipboard, stickers and journalling tags will definitely be used up, as they are just cute, but I NEED MORE PP. But I cannot possibly justify paying the postage for just 2 sheets of pp, so now I'm sitting on my hands, trying to ward off the temptation of buying!!

Have I learned my lesson? Oh yes, either don't buy, or think more carefully and buy at least 4 pps in a collection!! I'm going away now, before I go shopping!

Finishing Layouts

I am a great sinner when it comes to unfinished LOs - time and time again I leave a crop with several to finish, having lost the inspiration, forgotten the relevant stash, or needing to journal and I have a pizza box sitting looking reproachful at me of all the LOs I have never finished over my 6 years of scrapbooking!! Every so often I feel guilty and try to finish off a handful, but on the whole they are a lost cause.

You can imagine how pleased I am to blog the LO which I began a few weeks ago and took to the crop on Saturday and FINISHED, without it being consigned to the dreaded pizza box!!

Also been inspired to try an embellishment cluster, after the Crafty Templates course. I still find it hard but I'm persevering.

PS. I've been hovering round the WOYWWW world for a while, and finally decided to join in, only to realise that my workdesk is folded up in the car!! DS had a party at the weekend at a friends' house and it had to double as a buffet! So there is absolutely nothing on my workdesk this Wednesday!

Twisted Sketches at the Crop

I used this week's Twisted Sketch as an inspiration for a couple of my LOs at the North Cheam Crop last Saturday. In line with my mission to use up old stash, I brought the remains of some kits or collections, and some old photos - some 20 years old - help!! I managed 4 altogether, including a double LO and made a sizeable hole in the stash pile I had taken - mission accomplished :) - terrible photos though!!