P.Y.O. and a little sneak peek.

This is a layout of my eldest Nephew, Oliver. We all went to our local PYO Farm on our annual Strawberry Picking day out....(you know the kind,one for the punnet, one for our mouth....just for quality control purposes obviously).......and it was Olivers first time at properly picking them for himself and he really enjoyed it! And I have to say the strawbs at Sharnfold Farm ARE delicious!

I used some papers from an old Pink Paislee collection ( I think its Spring Fling) and also some PP alpha Stickers. The blossoms are Prima and the stickers are Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

The red edged star is cut from some Scenic Route paper and I added the little gingham bow and strawb charm to finish it off. The gold swirls that are scattered here and there are made using some Pebeo Gold Outliner( I used to use this for outlining work on glass and ceramics)

I will leave you with a little sneak peek of something coming soon.....I hope you might like to come back in a few days to see the rest of it :)

Warmest Wishes

Anita..xxxx

Cheeky Chicks and Cute Kids!

Well yesterday saw Easter Monday trundle through and we always, ALWAYS have an egg and chick hunt at my parents house for the kidlets. Several of these fluffy little yellow critters were to be found scattered around the back and front garden along with eggs, easter figures and little baskets.

Heck, we even had a 'Stunt Chick'! We hired him in special....he was going 'cheap' ;)

Just a few of the pics of the kids. I think Lauren had the right idea and just take the WHOLE cake stand......forget hunting round for some puny little eggs or chicks....straight into the hard stuff for her!

Oliver had eagle eyes and good climbing skills!
Joshy was quite content to play with his basket full of goodies he found along the way....not realising there would be some yummy goodies at the end for him.
He did however need a heloping hand for one of the lambs that was hanging in the tree!
I was really pleased to see this pretty little butterfly in the back garden, I *think* its a Common Blue. I remember as kids we used to see these everywhere....and the tawny brown ones, Peacocks, Red Admirals and lots of Cabbage Whites. But in recent years I can't recall seeing hardly, if any, of the Common Blues.
Here they are at the end of the hunt, counting their finds and hoping for a biiiiiig egg!
I hope you had a lovely Easter too?

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxx

Chocolate Nests and Layouts!

Happy Easter Everyone!

I hope you are having a really lovely day today, it's certainly another corker isn't it!

I made some Devils Food Cake choccy nests and took some to our picnic with friends the other day...and we have finished the rest today ;), they were rather yummy.
This morning we went to a huuuuuuuge boot sale. i got a lovely skirt, brand new with the tags still on for Lauren....for the pricely sum of £1!!!!!! I bought 4 rolls of pretty wallpaper for......wait for it.........£1 for all of them!!!!!!! And I bought 2 punnets of strawbs, a bag of grapes and 3 mangoes for....yep....£1!!!!!!! So a lovely fresh fruit bowl will be on the menu later.



I had forgotten that I hadn't posted a couple of my layouts that I made at our Blossoms retreat last month. This first one was made using a paper from Websters pages and is really simple and basic, but i really like it. It shows Chloe picking Blueberries, Loganberries and Strawberries in my Aunt and Uncle's lovely garden in Devon where we were lucky enough to spend a weeks holiday last year.
Here is the other page....another basic one. I used some of the lush papers from Echo Park collection, which i purchased at Cardinal Colours, along with the cardstock. The yellow letters are AC Thickers and the larger doily of the 2 was made by cutting a circle then clipping round the edge with a MS punch, the small doily was made with a MS punch and I also used a MS punch to create the yellow strips down both sides. The photo is of our 2 girlies and their cousins when they were ready to go to my youngest nephews Christening last year....check out that car!!!

Right, thats me done I think, just off to nibble some chocolate.....enjoy the rest of the Easter Weekend everyone

Warmest wishes

Anita..xxx

Seaside Shenanigans

Ooops, just catching up on a few pics. We asked Chloe to pick something that she would really like to do for the day....and she REALLY wanted to go to Hastings seafront....so thats what we did!
Chloe is MAAAAD about the arcades and couldn't wait to get out of the shops, along the seafront and into the fun! She had great fun on 'Splat the Meerkat' and managed to get quite a high score!
Then she changed up a couple of pounds into 2p's and spent a looooooooong time on this machine in particular

but it was all worthwhile because she managed to win a fair few of the little prickly critters!

We went for a lovely stroll down through Old Town area and in a little open area we found these wonderful creations.

The detail on them was incredible and they looked stunning in the sunshine.

It always makes me feel sad though when we drive past what is left of the pier. We have many happy memories of trips out on there over the years and now that it has been almost totally destroyed by fire think it will be a few years again probably before it is rebuilt and re- opened.

Hope you are having a lovely Easter Weekend so far.....and that the Easter Bunny visits you with some lovliness tommorrow..xxx

How Charming! A new challenge....for card makers!

Hello there :) I hope you have had a beautiful weekend and had chance to enjoy the amazing weather we seem to have been blessed with! Long may it continue. Over at Scrapology we have just launched a new challenge....alongside our monthly Scrapping challenge there will now also be a card making challenge.....some months there will also be prizes to be won. This month we have had a fab challenge set by Elaine of Quixotic Paperie, she has a fabulous online shop that sells the most fabulous stamps, papers and lots and lots of lovely charms, please do go and have a looky at her goodies, you will not be dissapointed! Elaine has set the Challenge 'Be Charmed'and all you have to do is incorporate a charm on your card....so what are you waiting for? Go and create and leave us a comment with a link to your card....there is a voucher to be won for Elaine's shop up for grabs Here are the 2 cards I have made for the DT posting. This first one was for my daughter's Birthday. The image is the 'Birthday Fairy' by Lili of the Valley and I have popped her onto some Papermania papers and embellished with various blossoms, a bit of sparkly Papermania Ribbon, I used my LeoneM punch, Perfect Pearls, Stickles and added a charm. The image is coloured with Promarkers. My 2nd card is using a Penny Black stamp, called Flutter-Bye and I have coloured it with Promarkers, the butterfly is coated with Glossy accents. The papers are from a small pad by K&Co and I have also used some Stickles, half pearls, daisy punch, CC sentiment and of course a charm. So, why not come and join us on this challenge and create a card....you have got to be 'in it' to 'win it!' Warmest wishes Anita.xxx

Aaaarrrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Who can honestly....HONESTLY say that they enjoy painting and decorating????? I can 'honestly' say I ache in places I didn't know i had now. With Lauren away in Italy I am taking the chance to decorate her 'pit'....I mean bedroom! After seeing her off on the coach yesterday I returned to start on her walls. Her room was a shade of purple and she wanted it a pale creamy white.....easy I thought....so I gave it a good coating....and another one....AND another one.....and today I bought ANOTHER tin of the same paint and gave it a 4th coat...and its finally not showing the faintest hint of purple anymore...YAY me! So thats one wall and the ceiling all done and the start of wall number 2!



Next time I have THE stupid idea of doing anything like this I must remember to book some days holiday from work....3.30am get ups, mornings at work and then all day paintings and sorting out into the evenings do NOT make a happy bunny....ain't THAT the truth!!!!!

Still, I guess it will be worth it in the end....she says....trying desperately to convince herself...whilst walking away picking paint from her hair and reeling from paint fumes..............................................
good job I love my girly eh :)

Ciao Bella!

Well today is the day that see's our eldest girly heading off to Italy! It's her first time abroad ( gulp!) and she is going with her school, for 8 days, to stay at the beautiful Lake Garda.

They have lots of excursions to look forward to whilst they are there including
Gardaland ( biiiig theme park!), Milan, Venice, Mount Baldo and Verona so will be kept very busy.....and no doubt come home absolutely worn out.I just hope she gets some good photos to show us ( and for me to scrap ;) )

Wishing you THE most fantastic time Sweetheart....be good, but have a blast!xxxx

B is for Bunting....over at Scrapology.

For April, over at Scrapology we have chosen to scraplift a jolly layout celebrating the Queen's Silver Jubilee by the brilliant scrapper Sarah Youde (see further down this post for a pic of her original) Here is my take on the sketch. I have used some of the lush new prima papers from the Reflections range, I used a sheet of Meadowlark and a sheet of Goldsboro, these and the rest of each of the new ranges are all available at Cardinal Colours

I cut some bunting shapes using fancy edged scissors, inked the edges and added some pearls and Scenic route numbers. I always like to add a little dimension to my pages if I can and cut out some butterflies, Stickled them and raised the wings on pads.

The title was alaso made using Scenic Route alphas and I finished the page by adding more butterflies, lace and a button which a 'grubbied up' with some brown ink. The photo is of me as a little girl, back in 1971, on a trip to Leonardslee gardens

This is the original by Sarah....lovely isn't it.( gosh i soooo remember the silver jubilee and the street party........and the souvenier mugs etc....showing my age now...so I shall stop LOL)

And here is the sketch.

Why not have a go yourself, its a lovely page to lift. Dealine for entries is May 5th so, you have plenty of time....and don't forget, as always at Scrapology, there will be a super prize you could win.

Don;t forget to pop over to Scrapology and see what beautiful layouts the DT have created.

Hope to see you there :)

Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Happy Mothers Day! ( photo heavy!)

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely Mummy's out there :) I hope you have all had a wonderful day today. Warning now, this is a VERY photo heavy post so you may want to drift away now lol. It starts off with the card I made for my own lovely Mum. It was inspired by a design ( which was MUCH more elegant than mine lol) by Jak Heath. I used my die from Marriane Creatbles and then made the rose myself( after seeing so many lovely ones all over the web) using the retro daisy punches....I am really pleased how it turned out.

And this is my super duper card made especially for me by my very own little crafting herbert,Chloe. I think she made a lovely job of it...don't you?

We popped to see my lovely Mum and then, as it was such a lovely day, we thought we would go to Bexhill seafront for a stroll. I took my camera as i wanted some new photos. I took this one in my parents front garden just before we set off.

Once we were on the promenade at Bexhill...and after chloe had skated for a while, I asked the girls to let me take some shots of them......I SAID I would like some NICE photos of them........

this is what happened!

and again!!!!!!!.........little minx's!

so then I thought the only thing to do was to grab em and smile too! And get Dale to stand behind the camera with a stern 'do as you are told' face...he!he!he!

Then thought a 'just the 2 of us' photo might be quite nice :)

Dale and Lauren then decided they were a bit chilly and sat in the car, whilst Chloe and myself strolled further long the seafront and found the beach huts and chalets.

I loved the peeling paint in this one....and Chloe's smiling face....of course!

Chloe decided to take a turn behind the camera....I have cropped quite a 'chunk' of me out of this piccy( and believe me...i AM a big ol chunk!!) lol.

I loved this one of her and know JUST the perfect paper that I shall scrap her on.

We then turned round and headed back along the front towards the car. The huts and chalets really need a new lick of paint and some repair work, but I have to say I think it added more character to them seeing all the worn, distressed areas on them. We shall definately go back down there again on a warmer day for some more photos.

Yep, she just couldn't resist the chance to prance about and pull funny faces again....she just cracks me up!

We ended up having an ice cream, which nicely rounded up a lovely afternoon.

I hope your day has been a lovely one too!

Warmest wishes Anita..xxxxx

45 years!!! Happy Anniversary.xxx

To Our Wonderful Mum and Dad....Nanna and Grandad... Wishing you both a very Happy Anniversary, filled with love and laughter...

We never know

Or fully realize

How sweet and kind our parents are,

How gentle and how wise

We simply take for granted,

From day to passing day,

Each sacrifice they make for us

In their own loving way.

But then we grow and finally learn,

The way that children do,

How much their love has really meant,

How thoughtful they've been, too -

And so this comes with all the thanks

You both deserve and more.

For there aren't two dearer parents

Than the one this post is for

All our love Anita, Dale, lauren and Chloe...xxxxx