Ten on the Tenth - June 2012

In this season of Jubilee, here are my ten favourite things about Britain.

1) History and heritage - so many museums, the National Trust etc.
2) Tea in bone china cups
3) Afternoon tea with scones
4) Understatement
5) Old phone boxes and red pillar boxes
6) Castles

7) Royal Occasions like the Trooping of the Colour and the Changing of the Guard

8) the British Seaside - especially piers and beach huts
9) Queuing without talking to anyone!
10) the Proms

It appeals to a scrapper!

I went to Liverpool this week, as something to do on a wet holiday in Wales! It was brilliant and more of it another day, but I found this piece of art as part of an exhibition of old doors in the Museum of Liverpool and, as someone who has endless part used alphas, it appealed to me no end!!

I've used mixed alpha titles before but this takes it to a whole new level - watch this space - it's on my inspiration list.

More travel scrapping.

Now I've dug out some of my old travel albums, I've been motivated to start scrapping them and this one was a fortunate find just as I had a little splurge on Studio Calico papers from Sarah's Cards - not a big splurge you understand!!  I wish I had bought a second sheet of this paper as it's lovely on the back as well, but I did rescue a small strip for another layout, because I cut out the skyline.

I loved my visit to Hong Kong and the view, even on a cloudy day, was breathtaking.  We took the cable car/train thingy up to the top and spent ages just looking around, spotting planes going into the old Kai Tak Airport - runway sticking out into sea job - so fairly exciting on a jumbo, and looking for swimming pools on the roof of tower blocks - plentiful, even in 1985.

I splashed out on another strip of my Out of Print pp - used up some old travel rubons and a couple of 7Gypsies brads, a strip of washi from my generous friend Jo, Studio Calico Alphas and some clouds from an American Crafts sheet of paper I bought at the crop from Sandra at Gottacraft, who always has loads of delicious goodies for us, including the camera stamp which I had to have.  I also managed to put my donut punch to good use.

And now for something girly....

It's not often I scrap in pink, but sometimes the urge overtakes me to do something a little more girly than my usual.  The photo was taken on DD's birthday when most of the pictures were of her happily opening presents, but at one point younger brother made some typically crass 11-year old boy comment and I managed to snap 'that look'!  You know, the one they develop as teenagers to express their disapproval of everything that fails to match up to their idea of cool, acceptable and definitely including little brothers.  Oh I was happy to have camera to hand to capture something that occurs every day in our household, and to scrap it for posterity as, hopefully, she might grow out of it one day - or maybe just come to appreciate her darling little, soon to be taller than her, brother!

I couldn't make it stay flat to photograph, hence the wonky appearance of the black border but it's better irl!  The papers are BG Out of Print, which I had from Emma for my Advent Swap and have been stroking ever since :)  I 'borrowed' from Ronda Palazzari in sewing around some of the petals, but I'm not nearly as patient as her, so I stopped after a while!  The scalloped border is from Crate Paper, and the title is black glitter thickers, which coordinate with the Bazzill Bling Cardstock in Black around the layout and the photo.  I was gutted to find that I had no 'O's but butchered some other letters and then found that serendipity had made them look like a pair of eyes - so I'm happy - although I can't decide whether to put 'quotation marks on the title or not.

Only time will tell.

Try something new - May week 4

Another new experience.  DS1 and I went to BBC Broadcasting House to hear the recording of a radio play for Radio 4.  It had a fairly well-known cast and the inside of the building is wonderful.  There was a big crowd waiting to get into the Radio Theatre and there weren't enough seats so we were directed to a pile of 'wine boxes' stacked up against a wall which turned out to be funky foam cubes to sit on - loved it!

The play was by Jack Docherty, who's written for many comic shows, like Spitting Image and Lenny Henry, and was funny. We enjoyed ourselves and it was great to spend some time with DS who is so busy all the time with his Brit School projects that we hardly ever have time for a really good chat without interruptions.

Obviously no photos of the show (strictly forbidden)!

Try something new every week - May week 3

I've had some good fun doing new things these past couple of weeks.  These are the highlights.

A friend invited me to visit an exhibition at Lambeth Palace - a place I've never been, to an exhibition called 'Royal Devotion - Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer'.

http://www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/content/royaldevotion

After a wonderful walk along the river - isn't London gorgeous in the sunshine? - we entered a side gate of Lambeth Palace and visited the exhibition.

So many treasures - of course you aren't allowed to take photographs, but it took place in a library full of ancient books - I never knew 'opera' meant a collection of works, not just the musical kind!  We saw a book belonging to Elizabeth I (see above), the gloves in which Charles I was executed and a host of beautiful books, illuminated, some very ancient, and all with highly interesting information alongside, filling in the history around the book itself. I learned loads.

It was just the right size exhibition, not so big you got information overload, and small enough that you didn't freeze in a very chilly room, but so magnificent that it was worth it.

Lambeth Palace was an interesting place too - they are resiting the Library so that the books can be better preserved and above the flood line of the Thames should it spill over, but I was glad to see the old version and would definitely like to return and see more of the Palace and hear about its history.

Try something new every week...

Well a bit of a catch up this week as I realised I've not actually blogged some of my new experiences recently. This is from April - as a birthday celebration for one of my friends - a trip to Fanny's Farm.

This place is legendary in our locality for its quirky approach to life and we thoroughly enjoyed our meanderings past chimney pots in the style of famous houses, blue eggs for sale and seasonal jollity for the jubilee.

We ended our visit with delicious scones and tea, on vintage assorted plates and cups - and resolved to return to the tree house on another day for more indulgence.