A Walk in The Park.......

In Sheffield Park Gardens to be precise! I have had 2 leiu days off work ( YAAAAY! Sleep ins!!) and today was the 2nd one. Dale also managed to book the day off and we went up to Sheffield Park, which is a National Trust Property.It is set over 300 acres of countryside and consists of stunning scenery set in gardens, lakes, woodlands and open grasslands.
We couldn't actually go into Sheffield Park House as it is not owned by the NT, but here is a photo of a small section of it from across the Ten Foot Pond ( how it got its name I do not know as it is WAAAAAY bigger than 10 foot across LOL)

here are some little wooden fellas we found along the way....they had such miserable faces bless em....looked a little 'sheepish' is you ask me ;)

I think these may have been some dried out rhododendron blooms....but not sure.

                                                  ......loved the patterns on the wood....

These little blooms were so, so pretty and looked like teeny, tiny orchids. Made me think of my Dad....he loved orchids xxx

                                .......Kalmia Latifolia......... so, so pretty and made me
                                             think of beautiful little fairy parasols

This Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron Giganteum)  tree was magnificent and the trunk was amazing. Such a shame the depth of colour hasn't picked up in the photo as it was a mix of rich reds and auburns.......beautiful.

             

A long distance shot of Pulham Falls taken across the opposite of Middle Lake. These falls are only active on Tues and Fridays for one hour....which seems really odd, but I guess they must just open some sluice gates for it. Lovely to see though in full flow and very peaceful to listen to.

                                     .............custard for the giant rhubarb anyone???..........

....................................don't panic! He is just pretending....cheeky blighter!.................

I tried setting the camera on timer delay to get a shot of us both.......it could have been better....but I quite like it.

I would recommend a visit to Sheffield Park if you are local....its really lovely. I think next year we will have to visit a bit earlier and try to catch the Rhododendrons in bloom, I would imagine they are stunning.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Taste of things to come......

thought I would share a teeny sneak of the new upcoming Scrapology challenge .......can you tell what it is yet??.........

It's Prom Night! **photo heavy**

Tonight is Prom night for Lauren and all her fellow students in year 11. She has been looking forward to this and planning it for as long as I can remember! Infact in her very first year at Secondary school she used to draw and design the dress she wanted! I made her a card to wish her a wonderful time tonight and tried to make it look as much like her and her dress as possible. I used this gorgeous digi stamp by Saturated Canary, she is called Nevaeh and was designed by *Krista Smith, Satuarted Canary LLC*. I coloured her with my Promarkers and added ribbon, blossoms, bling, liquid pearls and Stickles.I actually cut off her legs and feet!!! in the original image her dress is only 3 quarter length, but I wanted it to look full length like Lauren's dress ;)

So anyway, here is my gorgeous girlie ( sorry there are lots of pics lol). Thank goodness the rain held off for them, but it was truly a shame that is was just so, so windy and played havoc with hair and fly away dresses.

the little details....................................the shoes.............

                               ....................the beautiful beaded and crystal details.............

.......................the sparklies..........( thank you Jane for your kindness xxx).............

......................Her hair, which was carefully curled and pinned with love and care by her lovely friend Ellen xx..........thank you so much Ellen xx

                       
                               .......................*sigh*......so proud of my girl xxxxx............

                                 
                                             Lauren with 2 of her girlfriends, Jaye and Izi

                                  ...................here she is with her prom date, Albert..............

                      ....................all ready to go...........excited much????.....you betcha!.......

...                                      ................Here she is with her mate Fabio....................

                     
                    ......................and George.........a little chilly and windswept by this point!..........

...................and Dan, who she went all through infants, junior and now senior school with........

.........and this last photo should have been nearer the top as its the lovely group that of friends she went in the stretched limo to Prom with...........

Lauren, Sweetheart.....we hope you are having THE most wonderful evening, you so totally deserve it Darling. we are so very proud of you and all you have acheived so far....and all that you will still to come.   xxxxxxx

Missing you more than ever Daddy on our 1st Fathers Day without you.
This just hurts so much......xxxxx

These are the moments I want to remember. *Simple Stories*

This layout has been made using Simple Stories papers from the 'Documented' range and added black Bazzill. I have also used Tim Holtz Tattered florals and one of his swirly dies too.I used a swirly stamp around the edges of pale paper and added gold card candi to the centre of the flowers

All that's left to do is the journalling.....I can't do that at the moment.

Carnival capers and a new pet....meet Pikachu!

On Saturday evening we went along to Eastbourne seafront to see the carnival. Its the first time in several years that Eastbourne have held a carnival and although it was ok, it certainly didn't meet up to the standards that they used to when we were younger. I guess these days there are so many restrictions with health and safety, insurance etc...plus there were quite large gaps in the procession which didn't help. But anyway, there was a good turnout of people to support everyone involved and here are a few photos I managed to get.

There was a super Skate Crew that came along in a long line, with a vast age range. Every now and again a couple of the guys would lay down in the road....and someone else would jump over them....cool!

I am not sure, but I think he may have been Henry VIII...brilliant costumes though.

Meet the latest recruit for the local fire service....he even had a blue flashing light on his back!

On the trek back to the car, Chloe decided that 'planking' was a good idea and tried  HERE.....

................................................................and HERE.............

..............................................................and HERE! :)

After the carnival we went back to my Sister's house....and some of us got a little bit *jubilee-fied*
                                                         ......bless her xx

and now onto our new pet LOL......do you ever remember watching a programme called Pokemon ?

well we have a life sized one LOL. Lauren was invited to a fancy dress party and she was itching to use her Pikachu outfit. Unfortunately she couldn't find her face paints, so she had to resort to using eyeshadow.....I think she looks fantastic!

                                Pikachu with attitude.

She even painted her nails with the official Pokeball design ( and used my Sharpies to decorate her white bra in EXACTLY the same pattern LOL!) could have been worse I guess....it could have been my Promarkers!!!!

 

                     Needless to say she had a great time at the party ;)

Today we have been to Hastings for a few hours and enjoyed a stroll through Old Town, hit the arcades etc etc. Hope to pop back tomorrow with some photos.

nighty night all xxx

W is for Whitespace! June challenge at Scrapology.

Over at Scrapology this month the DT has set the challenge to create a lyout using White Space. We have lifted a lovely layout by a talented scrapper called Ro Philippsen.
It was created using a sketch from Page Maps.

I scrapped my smallest niece Maddie , we had taken all the children up to Wilderness Woods to do an Easter bunny hunt and have a picnic and I couldn't resist the title 'Hot Cross Bunny' for the page when i saw some of the photos.

 

This is the original and lovely layout by Ro that the DT had chance to lift.

And this is the page map sketch that we worked from too.

 A couple of close ups.

Why not pop over to Scrapology and see what the rest of the DT created for this month. Hopefully you will decide you would like to join in with us. All we ask is that you use the sketch and you create a layout with some white space. We look forward to seeing what you create....and dont forget, as always, there will be a super prize on offer for one lucky scrapper to win ( details to follow).