Friday 29 February 2008

Some "Simple" cards

Not been the best of weeks this week - in my two days off work I have been to a funeral one of the days (my dad's closest friend - it was difficult watching my dad stand up and give the eulogy. I felt so sad for him) and then today I was at the dentist...and not just for a check-up! Even had to miss my usual Friday lunch with the girls as my mouth was too numb to eat anything until later.

Anyway one bright spot was that my kit arrived on Wednesday and I had a chance to play with my lovely new stamps. Here are a couple of the cards I made using the Simply Said set.


Sunday 24 February 2008

Stamping again

I've spent a lot of time these last few days over at Splitcoast Stampers - there are so many fantastic tutorials to follow and the gallery is just stuffed full of fantastic work.

I followed this tutorial to learn how to transfer a stamped image onto a candle. It was so easy and I was pretty happy with the way they turned out.

This was my first attempt using stamps from Stampin' Up!'s Heartfelt Thanks set.


And then one using a Sugar Nellie stamp - I can't wait until my Sugar Nellie bunny stamps arrive in a couple of weeks. I think they would make a lovely new baby gift if stamped on to a candle.


A simple card and again I used my new Heartfelt Thanks set. I randomly stamped one of the images using white ink on black cardstock to make the background image.

And for this one I painted Twinkling H2Os directly onto the base stamp then stamped the second stamp (as shown in the card above) on top of the first image. I was pretty pleased with the way my first attempt at Two Step Stamping turned out.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Spring already!

K&K have been off school for their mid-term break this week and the weather couldn't have been any better. We have been for walks up the hill and along the front. Kirsten and her friends spent yesterday afternoon playing down the beach!

View from the sun dial over the town

First ice-cream cone of the year


When we have weather like this I truly appreciate how lucky I am to live where I do.
All photos taken this week

London baby!

I make no apologies for not updating this for a while. Work was completely manic up until the end of January then we were away to London on 1 February. We flew down on the Friday morning (Kenny & Kirsten got to miss a day of school) and got to our hotel about 12 noon. Luckily they let us do an early check-in for a tenner so we dropped the bags off and headed over to the British Museum for a while.

Robert having fun in Eqyptian room!
Had a quick look on Blade Rubber stamps on the way back but didn't buy anything as most things I could get cheaper online.

Back to the hotel to get changed and then wandered down to Leicester Square. Went to Chiquitita's or something like that for dinner. Food was not bad but the service was atrocious! Caught a number 9 bus (one of the old routemaster style buses) along to Kensington to the Royal Albert hall where we had tickets for Cirque Du Soleil. The show we went to see was Varekai which was reallyt excellent but maybe just not quite as good as La Nouba in Florida.

Day 2 - we spent most of the day on the open top tour buses and on a boat trip down the river (something neither Robert nor I had ever done in the seven years we lived in London!).

Kenneth, Kirsten & Lula at the Houses of parliament
London Eye (look out for alien's underneath!)Had a mooch about Covent Garden later on and stopped to watch one of the entertainers who was juggling some sharp knifes and eating an apple whilst riding a 10ft tall unicycle - the kids enjoyed that one!

Kirsten and I had a quick trip to the bead shop in Earlham Street then we met up with the boys and wandered all around Covent Garden area looking for Ed's Diner. We gave up and walked back over to Leicester Square then luckily found another brand of Ed's that we didn't even know existed. Nothing much on at the cinema so we spent the evening what used to be the Trocadero (not sure if it's still called that) where the kids went on the dodgems etc and Kenny even had a shot on a Buckin Bronco!

Day 3 - Back on the open top buses again (the ticket was valid for 48 hours - thank you Mr Tesco and your Clubcard Deals tokens :D ) We stopped at Downing Street although the street is barricaded off now. If you stand at one spot, on your tip toes, close one eye and squint slightly you can just about make out the door of number 10! Kirsten didn't want to see this for political reasons you understand...it was because it had been on Dr Who! LOL

We then walked over to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard (again something neither Robert nor I had ever done during our time in London) and then back up for a wander round Chinatown before we picked up our bags for the flight home.

Note Kirsten's new hat!!!