Learning to Walk

Erin-Rose is growing up far too quickly and at 8 months is trying to walk using her walker and I thought this picture was perfect for the weekly challenge on UKs - part of the criteria was to scrapbook about new beginnings and I am sure that her walking is the start of a new chapter in her short life :)

If you scan the QR code (below) there is a very short video of her walking which I am hoping in years to come she will enjoy looking back at.

You are my sunshine

I like to use a sketch - it saves me such a lot of faffing around and the first place I turn to is Miniowner's blog for her monthly sketch - not only are the sketches brilliant, but there are prizes on offer too :)

April's sketch:-

and this is what I came up with.

Pop over to Sue's blog for all the details on how you could be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Beat the Christmas Rush cards - March

This months cards are in a similar vein to last months but look more grungy than elegant - I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not!

Anyway, very simple to make using dies (I'm loving the word die from Stampin Up) and another 5 to add to my total.

Do you want to join in with this challenge and have loads of Christmas cards ready to write at the beginning of December?  Pop over to Sue's blog for all the details.

Playing catch up

Just a few things I wanted to share on my blog today:

Some birthday cards - simple and quick which is unusual for me :)

and a few layouts I made at my recent scrapbooking retreat.

A very small visitor

I had a small visitor last week called Flat Susan.  She has been travelling around the world over the last few months experiencing different ways of life and now it’s my turn to show her my little corner of England.  She arrived just before I was going on my annual girly scrapbooking retreat to Olney (famous for its annual pancake race) so was thrown in at the deep ending meeting all my friends.

The pancake race has been going since the 1400s and is the oldest in the world - only ladies who live in Olney are allowed to take part.  There are some wicker ladies carrying pancakes in one of the gardens in the market place where the race starts and Susan wanted to have her photo taken here.

Here she is outside the house we stayed in.

 The house is quite quirky – two sets of stairs, a shower in the laundry room and two bathrooms half way up the stairs.  Half the time Flat Susan ended up going in to the crockery cupboard instead of going up the stairs as there are two doors next to each other and it was very easy to get confused.  She enjoyed the garden with all the lovely spring flowers and one day I found her hiding beneath some pretty primulas.

An enormous amount of chocolate is consumed on our retreat and Flat Susan certainly took a shine to some Cadbury Creme Eggs.

I had to keep my eye on her as she always seemed to be up to some mischief - I found her in one of my bags 

on the top of my water bottle

and playing on a tractor which was waiting to go on a scrapbook layout.

She enjoyed the company of Tuppenny Wee, my little dog who goes everywhere with me.

We don't tend to venture very far while we are away but we did take a trip to Milton Keynes and had a cup of coffee in Costas

before going in to Hobbycraft to replenish our supplies and here I handed Flat Susan over to my friend Sue, who was going to be her host for the next few days.

I am going to be okay

I've got one or two pages to show you over the next few days and today  I will start with Sue's sketch for her March challenge.

I couldn't resist using these photos of Erin-Rose although I'm sure she's going to hate me when she's older!

Beat the Christmas Rush

It time to start thinking about Christmas, making a few cards each month so that by the end of November, there will be a nice big stack ready just to write.  This is a challenge started by my lovely friend Sue and one that I really am glad I take part in :)

I've kept my cards very simple this month but I do actually like them -

and here are all 5 together.

Why not join in - come December, you will be so glad you did!