Perranporth sunset and a model train ride

Last week I met some of my friends from Inner Wheel for a look around a private garden a couple of miles from Perranporth. The owner has created over an acre of beautiful garden from just a field. As a model railway enthusiast he also decided to build his own railway in his backyard, so to speak!

The garden was amazing

and these little guys were the stars of the show!!

and the train was great fun

He even built a cob house from scratch!!

It was such a beautiful day and I wasn't working (which doesn't often happen together!) so I took a walk across the beach and snapped off a few photos of the sunset -

Surprise win at the village show (and a disappointment too)

It was the local village show on Saturday. I've not entered anything for a couple of years so I thought it would be fun to have a go.

It's only a small show but I like to support it as best I can as the school children all enjoy the party atmosphere and entering into the competitions. My boys have all entered in the past, art work, vegetable animals and wild flower arrangements in an egg cup (you know the sort of thing). Sometimes they got placed and even won a book token a couple of times.

So, anyway I entered a couple of cards I had made into the handicrafts section. Two years ago I was awarded a third place for my alcohol inked stepper card. So this year I thought I would go for a stepper again but with a bit more detail.  I also put in a Cath Kidston style card I made at a class last year.

Well I thought they looked pretty good but sadly neither got placed at all this year!

However...

I also entered some photos in the photography classes (always a good place to put them!! lol)
and this was the result

Two firsts, two seconds and four third places. Two silver medals, two cups and a shield.

This cup was for the best photo in the novice section.

and this shield is for the best photo in the show!!! WOWEE! what a surprise???

The winning photo is Truro cathedral on a lovely sunny day when there was not a cloud in the sky :)

And lastly this is the cup I will get for the 2nd six months of the year as it was a joint prize for the most points in the photography section

Still can't believe it really! :)

Proud Mummy Moment !

Not really scrap related and a few days late but hey! ho! ...

When I arrived in Kansas last Tuesday a very proud Will announced that he had won 'The Best of Lawrence's' Best Server Award. He has been voted for by his customers and beaten all the competition in a very restaurant heavy city.

Actually he was being quite blase about it but I think he was quite chuffed :)

Will's dad has a radio show on a Saturday morning called 'About the house' (he's a real estate agent) and he asked Will if he could interview him on the show. So we all trundled off to the station at the appointed time for a nosey around and to listen to the show. Every other week the show has a cooking spot where a local chef comes in and shares some tips and recipes. This week, by special request from Will's dad, was prawn (or shrimp if you are in the US!) week. We all got to taste the dishes chef had prepared ~ the best by far were the shrimps cooked in a herb butter with a breadcrumb topping - delicious! Anyway I digress - so Will talked to chef, on air, about his award and what he thinks makes a good server! He did an excellent job, I thought (but then I am biased, I suppose!!)

WOYWW #221

Good morning !

Well, it's morning here in Kansas (mid-afternoon at home in Cornwall!) A bit overcast this morning but a pleasant 74 degrees - that's 23 for those of you on the celsius scale :)

Can't believe it's Wednesday again already. Pop on over to Julia's blog here to find out more about What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday and lots of links to other bloggers around the world :)

I haven't had time to set up a proper workdesk, having only arrived yesterday evening. But I brought a few essentials from home! D/S tape is sooo much cheaper in England (which was surprising) and as I have loads of scissors and a spare ruler and knife I thought I might leave a few things here - just in case IYKWIM ! lol

Oh ! and a selection of the chocolate I am required to bring from England. This is only about 1/3 of the original haul as a fair bit seems to have been consumed already !!!!!

And in the top left corner a Victoria's Secret catalogue - now this would be very worrying as I have 3 sons but I am assuming it belongs to DS2's girlfriend !! I shall be having a sneaky peek later :)


And I just thought I would share this view of the sunset from my hotel room at Heathrow on Monday night - it was lovely (although apparently not as lovely as the one they had in Cornwall - as one of my Facebook friends was quick to point out !!lol)

View from DS1's bedroom window - I snuck in after he left for work!!

Happy Wednesday everyone :)

Me and Mine sketch challenge

My friend and UKS teamie set a sketch challenge this month.

This was her sketch

And here is my page

I flipped the sketch but otherwise did not change very much.

The inspiration for the sequins came from a blog I found when 'blog-hopping' the other night but I can't for the life of me remember where I saw it :( but whoever it was the LO was fab :D
If and when I find it I'll add a note here!

UKS weekly challenge

Hello ~

This week it is my UKScrappers team (The Bijoux Belles)'s turn to set the weekly challenge. It is our tradition to honour each of our team mates in our challenges and this time we are honouring our newest member Lindsay.

Lindsay loves VW camper vans (in fact she is a little obsessed with them! lol) so for this we chose to use an outdoor theme. Her favourite colour is blue so we asked for lots of blue. And finally Linds is very tall and thin so we asked for stripes to be used somewhere on the layouts. Each of the criteria will earn 10 points.

Here is my example, which will be shown alongside my fellow teamie's efforts, to help the other scrappers to rise to the challenge !!

 My 'outdoors theme' is eating outside at our fav restaurant in Turkey where a full english breakfast can be had for just 2 pounds!
I have also included blue and lots of stripes.

Have a great day :)

WOYWW #209

Good morning from a lovely sunny corner of Cornwall.

I have a very quick 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday' for you this week as I have just done a 12 hour night shift and I am heading to bed for some much needed zzzzzzzzzzzs!

For a look at many other workdesks from all around the world check out Julia's blog here :)

On MY workdesk today is :-

A Birth Congratulation card for a friend who does not 'do' baby pink!!! and yes, she had a girl !
I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of pink but I hope it is not too much. I quite like the finished card even though it would probably be just as happy being a birthday or anniversary card!

At the top of my desk are a couple of white flowers I tried to colour to go with a recent layout but which turned out completely and utterly the WRONG colour so they have stayed on the desk and will continue to do so until I get round to re-spritzing them to match something else ~ maybe...

Happy WOYWW everyone and I hope your day is as sunny as mine.
Goodnight xx

WOYWW # 207

or 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday' for anyone wondering what on earth that title is all about! :) 

Pop on over to Julia's blog here to find lots more lovely WOYWWs

Well, today on my workdesk is still my UKS weekly challenge from last week. I finished it on Sunday just before dashing off to do a night shift and have not had a chance to get back there yet - so it's still there waiting patiently to be photographed and unleashed upon the unsuspecting world!!

As you can see the desk is a tad untidy too as I have not had a chance to put anything away!

In the top right of the picture is some of the new lace I bought on Saturday when my UKS teamie MiniOwner (aka Sue) introduced me to a fabric shop I didn't know was there :o

Our challenge last week was to use this sketch -

also to use at least 5 different patterned papers (I think I used 7 not counting the little scraps behind the hearts on the tag) and add at least 5 lines of journalling.

and just in case anyone is interested ...the view from my window is misty today. Not so bad that I can't still see the dunes but not brilliant either !!

I think I need to clean my windows  !!! :(

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone and see you here again soon xxx

Creative Scrappers May sketch challenge

It's been a while since I did a layout for the Creative Scrappers monthly challenge so when I saw this month's sketch

I thought it was just up my street :)

And so...

this is what I came up with

Last September my friends Karen, Elaine and I went for a day trip on the river Thames. We took the hydrafoil from the O2 arena all the way up to the London Eye. It was a nice sunny day but it was just a tad windy on the river !!! We had lunch at Nando's on the south bank and then headed to the pub. We also stopped off at Greenwich when we seemed to find ourselves in another bar !!

All in all it was a fun day :)

(Inter)National Scrapbooking day - May the fourth be with you!!!

I just thought I would share a few pics and layouts of the fab day we had at ScrapAngels on Saturday. I took the 'on the day' photos on my phone and have only just worked out how to transfer them onto the netbook *shock/horror*

Kerry was hosting a 12 Scrap-a-thon. Unfortunately I had to work in the evening so I only managed 7 hours but many of them did the whole 12 !!

Of course a scrapping day would not be a scrapping day without cupcakes !!

 and coffee (or tea or even Baileys!!! Yes, Denise had bought some flavouring for her coffee ;)  )

some friends............Sue came all the way down from Bath!!!

and lots of pretty paper!

And here are the 2 LOs that I managed to finish

My BF Karen in Turkey last year (can't wait to get back there! :) )

This was the page I did for Kerry's sketch challenge.

and Will and Taryn at Oak Park Mall on a 'humour mum shopping trip'. We stopped for a spot of lunch at the food park - chinese, of course !!

And for this page the challenge was to use scraps of patterned paper.

I nearly finished a third LO but it needs a title and some tweeting, so that one will have to wait to be revealed !!

All in all a great May the 4th :)

New Layouts

Oooo! it's been a few weeks since I posted :(

So anyway, here are a couple of layouts I would like to share :-

This one is the finished page I started at a Scrap Angels crop last Saturday. I actually finished the page a few days ago but I've only just got round to photographing and uploading it.

This was the view from our hotel bar balcony in Gumbet, Turkey. Isn't it gorgeous??? The night life was equally gorgeous...more of that later...maybe!!!

I used Basic Grey Serenade papers. They are just so lovely and the colours matched the photo perfectly.

Then we have...

A layout done with lots of misting and stamping for the background. I have just purchased two new Bo Bunny stamp sets and wanted to use them (as you do!)

I chose some photos of Will and his friend, Ben, on their way to the end of school Prom. Ben's dad is a salesman at the local Jaguar dealership so a convertible Jag was order of the day! The boys looked soooo handsome and I thought the bold background and mish-mash of patterned papers complemented the photos.

Happy Easter and UKS March wk 4

A very happy Easter One and All

I found this pic on FB this morning - I can't believe someone tied all those eggs to a tree - a real labour of love if ever I saw one - so who ever took this pic - I hope you have a very Happy Easter :) xx

A very quick post today as I am on the hunt for a new-to-me car since my old jalopy has died a tragic death in a Haven holiday park car park on Friday!! :) The fuel pump has packed up which means it needs even more money spending on it and sadly it's just not worth it. It has served me very well for the last 10 years and I will miss it a lot.

At the moment I have this piece of gorgeousness outside my house. But it is only a hire car so it has to go back to Enterprise on Tuesday :(

I just want to show my page for UKS this week's challenge

Nick on his 8th birthday (he was 20 two weeks ago!!!)
He was so cute then :D
I have been putting off scrapping this photo because I didn't like all the clutter on the table and DS1's back view and the friend in the background!! but I needed a photo to go with primary colours (one of the challenge elements) and this one fitted the criteria.
So here it is - done!! :D
I am very 'into' banners and stars at the moment and I LOVE my washi tape. I also had a stash delivery on Thursday which included a lovely Amy Tangerine stamp set, so I managed to sneak in a bit of stamping too :)