The weekend at Scrap-a-mia

I got to spend Saturday at this amazing property. I love all the dark beamed ceiling and the beautiful glass windows ( make me miss our old village! ). We were in the new modern annexe for most of the day but I did go the main building for dinner. Thank you for letting me join you all, Cleo, scrapelephant, the lady who is a nanny, the expert with Morse Code from the Force, the lady who makes prosthetic legs...what a mixed bunch you were! Then Kirsty joined us whilst she waited for her next photo shoot. Big wave to you all. Sorry if I didn't get your name.

Here are some photos of the ladies who were in my first class. It was due to start at ten but I was delayed due to TomTom sending us to the wrong place! At 9.30, she (the TomTom lady) proudly announced, "You have reached your destination!" and I could have sworn, this couldn't be the location of a country house, on the side of a very big dual carriageway! A quick reentering of location shows that we are 25 miles away...eek! Anyway, we made it, and these ladies patiently waited for me. They were just picking out photos and thinking of colourways at this stage. Claire and Margaret have provided a few different colourways for people to choose from.









I was sent a black and red kit. This is my sample for the class. I still have some journalling to do.
The photos are of us going around in this "thing", a carriage pulled by a motorbike, in Angkor. If you know what the "thing" is called, please let me know.



I also did this layout way back in January this year, when I make a proposal of what I could teach at the retreat. The photos are of a male elephant ( they wander alone whereas the females and young male travels in family group ) who was spooked by us and looked like he wanted to charge at us. In the end, we drove and hid in a bush before he went away.

My apron is finished

Or is it ? I am not decided! If I see a nice brooch, I might buy one to pin to it. And I might even get the bejeweller out...we'll see. I've downed tools for now.
Here it is again, modelled by me.

And a little close up.

In the end, I found a stash of fabric under the bed ( is that a surprise ? What would be surprising is the fact that I didn't go out and got some more! ). I am quite sure I will have to cut on the bias for the frill and I didn't have enough scrap for that sort of thing. Instead, the frill got a few patches to match the pocket. What do you think ? Am I sorted ?

Scrap-a-mia is drawing closer

Less than 2 weeks to go! The initial email about Scrap-a-mia arrived many months ago. Ok, that was not good! I should go check.

Claire from Your Creative Moments asked me to teach at this event in September 2009 but the "exploratory" emails started much earlier than that. In my mind, it has always been is some distance future. Then, this arrived!


Well, not exactly that, but I can imagine, right ? All the teachers at Scrap-a-mia have been sent a canvas Donna Downey apron to decorate. I think I am going to copy the fabric frill at the bottom but not sure what else. What's that ? Do you think I should go fabric shopping ? Now you're talking!

If you've missed the chance of attending Scrap-a-mia, I am also teaching at Scrap Revolution on 13th June followed by Claire's and Tracie's Exhall crop on 27th June. I look forward to seeing you there.

Because he talks...

A lot!

My dear H has never been short of something to say, ever since he started talking aged 18 months, he hasn't stopped. I remember a conversation that went along the line of, "bla, bla, bla", more "bla, bla, bla" followed by mine,"you haven't stopped talking!" which got this retort, "well, I have a lot of words inside me" when he was just a toddler.

I must say I am grateful for this. It means I get a full ( a very full! ) report of what went on at school.I decided to capture one of these conversations in a layout. Why this one ? This was a rather unusual conversation!

H is in the last year of primary school, and finds most things boring or stupid or {insert any negative word here}. I think he is definitely ready to move up to secondary! Anyway, science week was a departure from the norm. No disparaging remarks, AT ALL! Everything was wonderful, interesting, amazing, etc.

Here he is, extracting DNA from a strawberry! Do you think he is going to be a scientist ?