I Spy

I didn't feel that this one needed any journaling really - the kids were messing around with the telescopes on Santa Monica pier. This layout will go with the other Santa Monica pages.

Crate Paper Farmhouse collection and Lily Bee, plus Thickers.

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

Humming Bird

I don't care that the photo is so blurry. Part of the reason for that is I took it through the fly-screen - and that helps to locate it and date it as part of our trip to California in August 2011. I was so excited to see hummingbirds and hoped to lure plenty into our garden by hanging up a feeder. It seemed to take a long time for them to show any interest but we did get a few visitors, and eventually I got one on camera - however fuzzily!

My Mind's Eye papers and - yup, Thickers!

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21st October: A friend came over for a drink and a chat :) (Her 6-month-old daughter played with the Russian dolls that show in the background of the shot!)

Detail: booked

Photo Ops with the Stars

We weren't sure whether the kids would be interested in the Disney characters, but The Tomboy was delighted to see Pluto wandering around and then decided it was worth queuing to meet Mickey too!

Papers from Cosmo Cricket, Sassafras Lass, Echo Park, American Crafts, My Minds Eye... AC alphas. And, um, Thickers.

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party

Koala

I've selected a few photos I like from our trip to LA Zoo. Some of them tell stories; others, like this one, only really need a title:

My Mind's Eye papers, and woodgrain pp that I've forgotten the provenance of! A few buttons, and the ubiquitous Thickers

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party

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20th October: Did some scrapping after work as part of Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party :)

Detail: autumn

Newport Beach

Another very simple 'title page':

A few leftover scraps from papers I now can't remember, some colourful buttons and more of those Thickers!

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party

Str-e-tch!

I love how tall I look in this shadow - how lo-o-ong my legs look! Got to love a shadow photo...

September 2010

Crate Paper Farmhouse collection and - what else? - Thickers!

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

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Imagine photo here!

19th October: The photo shows my diary on a particularly busy day! Here's what it included:

• Make sure The Boy has his tenor horn for his music lesson
• Take The Children to school
• Attend The Tomboy's class assembly
• Do Asda shop
• Phone Ruth to thank her for happy mail and arrange to meet up
• Put Asda shop away
• Remember to eat lunch!
• Tidy up before House Group
• Get The Children from school
• Take The Children to the dentist
• Attend The Tomboy's Parents' Evening
• Cook dinner
• Remember to eat dinner!
• Skype with The Children's The Cousin to wish him a happy birthday
• Host and lead House Group (while simultaneously getting The Children suppered and to bed)
• Skype with The Doctor, who was on a work trip to Paris

And I still managed to squeeze in making a layout for Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party!!

Detail: hi

Churro

Mexican-style doughnuts - long, piped strips of dough, deep fried then tossed in cinnamon sugar. Sometimes with a filling of caramel, though we didn't try that kind. Enough for 2!

Disneyland. 7th August 2011.

Just Crate Paper Farmhouse collection and Thickers!

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

Meeting Monica

Who: Monica, aka The Creative Beast

Where: The Huntington Library, nr Los Angeles

When: August 2011, during our trip to California

Why: Ideal opportunity to meet up with a blog friend!

How: So much fun :) I had such a wonderful time with my friend, and the kids just loved being silly with her! :)

Crate Paper Farmhouse collection, blooms and brads, Making Memories tiny alphas and - you guessed it - Thickers!

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

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18th October: I took a trip to the Post Office to send off a few special items!

Detail: scrappy

Seeing Stars

Took the Metro to Hollywood to explore the Walk of Fame. The kids were excited to come across some names they knew - Alice Cooper, David Bowie, The Simpsons, Kermit the Frog, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Houdini, Big Bird, Walt Disney, Rush, Dr Seuss, Lassie... But there was one particular star I was looking out for, and I was so pleased to find it. I knew it was one of the most recent, so I thought it might be stuck out of the way somewhere - came upon it suddenly in the end!

Colin Firth :)

Crate Paper, mostly Farmhouse collection, and a bit of Lily Bee. Chipboard stars and scraps of silver ribbon. Thickers, of course...

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

Santa Monica

A simple layout that will form the 'title page' of our trip to Santa Monica :)

Crate Paper Farmhouse collection, Lily Bee, Thickers and twine

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up

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17th October: I spent a bit of time creating master copies and answer sheets for some of my teaching resources.

Detail: classic

Venice Beach

The Doctor doesn't 'get' this photo, but I had lots of fun playing with my aperture settings to get a shot where the sand was in focus and the background wasn't :) It isn't a photo that tells a story, but I love how it came out so wanted to include it in my album - so here's a simple page to set it off:

Leftover scraps of Crate Paper Farmhouse collection and Lily Bee, and Thickers.

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up. The idea was already bubbling after seeing Kirsty's Challenge #6, to scraplift a page - I loved the page she showed by Kelly Purkey but can't find the original to link to, so please view it via Kirsty's blog! The circles were definitely inspired by that lovely layout as much as by Shimelle's prompt :)

The Tomboy v Vader

This just barely makes it into the Pretty Paper Party, on account of it not using much pp at all, but I had the photos and this lovely polka dot paper out because of Shimelle's class and the little photo booklet idea was inspired by one of her prompts so I snuck it in anyway :)

What photo booklet, do I hear you ask? Well, you see, that photo of The Tomboy squaring off against Darth Vader is actually the front cover of a mini album containing more photos of the occasion! It also contains the story of the battle, in her own words. And it's a long story. So it qualifies for Kirsty's Challenge #8, to tell a long story and to find a new way of including the words on the page.

Indeed, I made the story longer still - and found another new way of including it on the page - by making a double layout which follows immediately after the layout above, giving a few more details :)

And the story itself? Ah, you'll have to wait till Sian's next Storytelling Sunday to hear it. Sorry ;)

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16th October: The lady who runs the Christian book stall at our church asked me to borrow this book and see what The Children and I thought of it.

Detail: Enveloped

Eaton Canyon

I've got such a backlog of layouts to share that I'm going to start publishing an extra post each day for a while to catch up! If this is your first visit to my blog today, please do check out my earlier post to see a layout about my dear friend Deb :)

And here's the second layout of the day:

Crate Paper Farmhouse collection, October Afternoon label stickers, paint*, Thickers

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up . *And the paint qualifies it for Kirsty's Challenge #7 - even though I haven't exactly used my paint 'beautifully'!

I Love My Deb Turtle!

Everyone loves Deb. How could anyone not love Deb? But The Tomboy is pretty certain that she loves Deb the most, more than anyone else!

They hit it off as soon as they met (after a brief initial shyness on The Tomboy's part!) and were soon inseparable. Deb was lovely with her, and The Tomboy adored her 'Deb Turtle'.

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party and our fabby meeting with Deb and Carrie :) The layout was made with pieces from those papers Shimelle made me cut up! And it was based on a sketch I made from one of Shimelle's layouts in that bonus video, so it also meets Kirsty's Challenge #4 :)

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15th October: I'd tried a new Jamie Oliver curry recipe the night before, and deliberately made extra so it would last us for two nights! It was lovely :)

Detail: stamp

Look what Shimelle made me do!!

I'm not sure I've fully recovered yet! *hyperventilates*

As a bonus for those of us attending her party, Shimelle made a True Scrap video available to us for a couple of days. In this video, she instructs us to first gather together some co-ordinating papers (I can just about manage that - though most of them were from the Crate Paper Farmhouse collection!):

And then - *hyperventilates again* - she tells us to cut the papers up. Without much of a plan, without knowing how we're going to use them, without photos in mind.... Just cut them up.

I always do what Shimelle tells me.

But oh boy, it wasn't easy! At one point I started to wonder why my paper cutter was making an odd, high-pitched, whining noise - I realised it was me, keening softly under my breath!

The point of the exercise though is to get all these pieces ready for a full-on scrapping session. And you know what? With Shimelle's video guidance, that's just what I did :) Plenty of layouts to share with you all in the near future! So yes, I guess it was worth it....

This post was brought to you by Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party

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14th October: We invited the local children's librarian to talk to our monthly mothers' group - she gave us lots of information about the various activities available at the library, tips for reading with our children, recommendations of books for different age groups, and lots more! It was so interesting, and her enthusiasm was contagious :) We did have a little distraction with us though....

Detail: adore