Does Kraft = Lack of Sunshine ?

I looks like that for me! I did 2 layouts last week and ended up using Kraft as the background to both.

I printed some photos for H to put in his minibook and had a couple left over from his ski trip...that went into "First Ski Trip". H had a great time and will probably want to go again ( as opposed to J who vowed never again! ). Everything was great except the monotonous meals at the hotel, soup for lunch and pasta for dinner. H usually loves pasta and soup but, everyday ? He had enough by the end of the week.


Next, a layout with a photo. I wanted to record my musical milestone but didn't have a photo of me handy so I opted to go without. I am scrabbling about on the piano trying to play a jazz piece that was a grade 5 exam piece a couple of years ago. It is marked "easy relaxed tempo", 1 crochet = 76 beats/minute. Eeek...if I could play it at 50/minute I would be happy. I am so struggling moving my left hand up and down the keys and finding big chords. I am also playing a Rondo, "this is proper Mozart", said Jenny but that ended up being ok. Well, I have all holiday to practise.

and Sevilla completed our trip...

We also had to do Sevilla. We set off early one morning. As we drove pass Gibraltar, I couldn't help commenting on how grey the sky always is, over this little spot on the Costa del Sol. Actually, to begin with, it was a slightly grey day over Sevilla too.


This is a view from the Giralda. It was a long way up. Fortunately you walk up ramps rather than steps. Can you see the river ? Do you know that Christopher Columbus ( Christobel Colon ...cue the laughter from my guys! ) set sail down this river on his journey to discover the Americas.


I didn't like the cathedral very much. Apparently it is in the Guiness Book as being the largest cathedral in the world. That is is but it is also squat and unattractive. I am not sure Columbus was even buried there! I think, this is a rare attractive angle to the cathedral showing the Giralda. I thought the Giralda looks remarkably similar to the minaret at the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakesh. It turned out, they had the same architect.


After the cathedral, we walked around the shops, had coffee, stopped at a pastry shop ( though I elected to forego as I had too much churros in Marbella yesterday ) before visiting the Alcazar. I like this place better.


Can you spot the fake frontage ? Quite remarkable.


But those churros thought me a lesson in not to be too greedy...my boys are getting thoroughly fed up waiting for me LOL.

We finally did Alhambra

We have been visiting A's M&D on the Costa Del Sol for a number of years now. We usually stayed quite local in terms of the places we visited whilst we were there. So we've done Gibraltar, Marbella, Jerez, Ronda and many, many white hilltop villages ( the roads to which usually make me very sick ). A couple of years ago, we made the effort to go to Cordoba so that's another tick on my must see Andalucia.
A's M&D are in the process of emmigrating to Australia. This summer might be our last trip to Andalucia. So my other must see ?

First is Granada and the Alhambra. (Did you know Granada means pomegranate in Arabic ? I didn't ).

We flew to Madrid and picked up our hire car. They definitely have a better class of cars at Madrid compared to Malaga but I am not sure why we decided to start from Madrid when Malaga is closer to Granada.

We arrived in Granada and it was a scorching 41C. I nearly melted walking up to the Alhambra that first evening. We wanted to pick up our tickets but it turns out the ticket machines were closed. Luckily we spotted the Alhambra bus so we took this on the way down. The next morning was an early start. We have booked the 8.30 entrance to the palace. We took the sensible way up was on the bus, queued for the ticket machine, queue to go in and after a short walk, got to the castle. We were one of the first in so the palace was still very quiet. If you are going to visit Alhambra, I recommend you book your tickets and try to go early to avoid the crowd.

Have you been ? What do you think ? Was it what you thought it might be ? I like it, but it wasn't as great as I thought but then, I have seen the "originals" in Morocco. I have also been to smaller Alcazars in Spain which are similar. My favourite Moorish building is still the Mezquita in Cordoba...now that is truly something ( and different! )

My son is leaving primary

H has just finished primary school and is excitedly waiting for September. In the mean time, he was set "homework" to present his autobiography. He has decided to make a mini book ( wow, what a surprised ? We reckon it could be one of the most original presentation at school! ). He asked me ( I am blessed! ) to take a photo of him on his last day at prep school so I get to make a layout too.

Next up are some elephants photos from Kenya. I am always amazed to spot a family of elephants, moving gracefully through the plain, hardly making a sound...practically gliding for an animal so large. And yet, if you spot giraffes or zebras, the sound of their hooves...I didn't expect that.

I have just noticed that I have made two layouts on yellow cardstock! The sun must have some effect on me.

Island adventure

This is another layout I made with the left over from Exhall. When I cut out the motifs from the Webster's papers, I saved the boats. I also had a spare map paper unused from which I cut out the legend. I had to pull out a sheet of cream cardstock from my stash and with the addition of Webster's lace and alphabets, here is one very co-ordinated Webster's layout.

J was quite brave, posing within snapping distance of these stuffed crocodiles whilst H was a bit unsure. There was also another photo where a couple of crocodiles were pulling a carriage. H was definitely worried in this setup but then he was only 3 years old.


The photos were taken many years ago, in the pre-digital camera years and were scanned, hence the patchy quality.

Challenge for The Studio

I forgot I was due to join in this challenge at The Studio. The last couple of weeks have been a bit manic but luckily I did the layout way back when Rebekah asked me. Here it is.

It is called "Listen to your dad". My boys didn't want to play nice when this photo was taken...hence the long face when A said, "You might as well look nice as she is going to use it anyway". Actually he might have said it on another occassion but hey-ho...that advice would have been perfect here too! This photo was taken in front of the John Lennon wall in Prague last year.

Exhall Summer Workshop layouts.

Sorry, I have been busy with end of term activities, I have neglected to post these layouts that I did for Claire and Tracie for the Exhall Summer Workshop.