Cambridge Croppers September Workshop

Are you coming ?  I have made these for this Saturday.

We are using a mixture of Studio Calico Heyday and Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go...love those Bits!

You need 1 6"x4" photo in landscape for "Awesome Photo Soc". Mine is a black and white school photo of the photo society committee when I was actually at school too long ago. You also need a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" photo for "Sixth Form". Mine is a headshot of my eldest. There is a lot of scope to tailor the layouts to suit your own photos, different sizes of photos or even go your own way.

You will need normal tools such as scissors or trimmers, double sided tape or glue, foam pads. You can expect to get messy fingers.

So see you Saturday, 29th September at Trumpington Pavillion from 10-4.

September Scrap365

Did you see me ? I was in September Scrap365 with my first article.  I was jumping up and down when the magazine landed on the door mat...I guess the thrill of being published will always be my main motivation! I said to H, "Do you want to see a layout about you ?".  "Huh, NO!", was the reply.

H went to sailing school a few years ago and I've just got my new 400mm lens...I had fun observing the little ones from far. We had a week of outstanding weather too! Love those flat bottom boats against the beautiful sky.

You know what I did this Summer ?

 

The summer holiday started off with a camping trip. This is a layout about how I don't like late night campfires.

 

 

We were at Alton Towers.  This is our favourite ride but we have a few others ( very gentle ) rides that we always go on.

The following weekend, we went to the "Best 80's party ever" at Audley End. There were plenty of pink leotards and tutus but I was in fleece and boots, fearing the mightest downpour.  We were lucky, the sun shone throughout before a full moon took over.

Rocking the 80's was done using a sketch by Sian Fair for Sketchbook 365.

This is followed by the trip to the Olympics.  We started our Olympic adventure in Hyde Park, watching the Triathlon ( I always struggle to spell this word! ). Weren't we lucky to see the Brownlee brothers win ?  I am particularly proud on my swimming man cut out on this layout. What do you think ?

The triathlon layout was done for Sarah's Card's Challenge. Why don't you have a go for a chance to win £20 e-voucher to spend in store ?

ps:  I am sorry to report, the low slung suit trousers made its appearance on day 2 of school!

Back to School

I've just dropped the boys off at school.  They went on Monday for a half day induction, stayed home yesterday and after that false start, school in definitely back on!

I snapped these photos of the boys on Monday.

H was acting up and refusing to smile. A said, "How come you managed to make them smile ?" LOL. I was shouting out to H, "Say cheese, Happy Monday, Come on" whilst he was adamant, "No". So when I was jumping up and down to make him laugh, he thought I couldn't possibly be ready to take a shot. That's when it went "SNAP".  He conceded a half smile.

 

J is in the sixth form this year which means they get to choose what they wear.  He is wearing his suit this week but no doubt the smartness will degrade over the year. Can you ever wear a suit trousers low slung, I wonder ?

 

 

So what have you got planned for the day ? I have some scrappy projects brewing in my head so let's see how they translate to paper. Whatever you do, enjoy yourself.

Incidentally, I have something to let you know.  I am having a one day workshop in Cambridge on Saturday 29th September 10-4. Maybe you'd like to spend a day with some lovely Cambridge Croppers ? Why don't you look our group up on Facebook.

GCSE Results

The first installment of J's results came last Thursday and we heard about the rest yesterday.  It came in two batches because IGCSE results were published the same time as A Levels.  He scored 390/400 for Greek.  It is over 400 because they had 4 papers with 100 mark each. I am one proud mummy.

I made this layout, with a photo of him on the last day of school to celebrate.  The journalling is in the little brown envelope. I went a bit mad with all my old back-to-school supply. More details on how I made this will follow on IACW next week.

Are you ready for school ? My young man is going to be in the sixth form at school.  No more uniform for him and no sewing of name tapes for me...yay.  He went shopping for suits with his dad, I wonder what he looks like with a suit on ?  Watch this space.  Roll on 3rd September.

We were there, at the Summer Games

Wow, what a fortnight it has been!  Did you enjoy it ?

We spent a couple of days in London last week.  The crowd was unbelieveable. 

We started at Hyde Park, watching the Brownlee brothers and Hayes at the head of the pack, cycling for the Triathlon.

Then we head up to Wembley for some football. We stopped off at our hotel to drop our bags before going to the stadium. At the hotel, we spotted the badminton contingent from Indonesia. 

 

We watched the soon to be Olympic champions, Mexico play Japan in the semi-final.  There were plenty of Mexicans and Japanese holding up signs asking to buy tickets and I was tempted!

The Mexicans won a convincing 3-1, as predicted by H early on in the match. Sadly our Oracle couldn't "see" any more outcomes after that match.

Early next morning, we made our way to Stratford. Yay, we've arrived!

The Stadium is impressive (though not as big as it appeared on tv! ) and you get a very good view of everything.

We saw Mo Farah ran and qualified for the 5000m.

After the morning session at the Stadium finished, we explored the park. I love the large mirrored letters in front of the Copperbox. The wildflower meadow was quite impressive but I won't and can't be persuaded  to have wildflower in my own garden.

We queued to shop at the Megastore, worked out our route to the Basketball arena, sat by the river bank , walked back to the Orbit and sat some more to kill time before our alloted time to go up the Orbit.



We went up the lift, 80m to the top of the Orbit.  Look at all those people! The park was absolutely heaving at this point as the Stadium evening session has not started.

We looked at some weird mirrors up in the viewing platform.

Then we walked down.

And walked very fast back to the Basketball Arena for a Handball quarter final match between the Scandinavians, Denmark and Sweden. I think a lot of neutral spectators were secretly rooting for Denmark but sadly, Sweden won.

When we got out, it was time to go home. 

They were announcing asking people to go to West Ham for the fastest route into Central London.  We were part of a very small group to take this advice. The tube might have been fast but what they didn't tell you was it is over 30 walk minutes away from the gate of the Olympic Park. Very sore and very tired, 3 hours later, we were home.

What an amazing experience.  I wonder how this small patch of East London will fare once the crowd has departed and the temporary stadiums and arena dismantled. It will be interesting to see how the woodland and meadows mature.  I wonder if we can visit next year ? If not, we can get a good view from Westfield.

Sian's Storytelling Sunday - We rode on Air

I have been going to Alton Towers for over 20 years. I started going when I was a sixth former at boarding school. Does anyone remember The Beast ?  I remember that ride, I used to ride it but never the Black Hole. Fast forward a few years...I went on Nemesis quite early on but then...never again. Thunder Looper was always being repaired when I visisted and when I managed to summon up enough courage to ride it, it promptly broke down.  No wonder they replaced it!

The kids arrived and we didn't go for a few years.  When we did, our own courage was seriously depleted.

Last autumn, H reached the permissible height to ride these big boys ride and he ended up going on Air alone. Last weekend, we went back on our annual visit. I said I will accompany H this time. Bravely, we went on Nemesis Sub-Terra ( psml...this is of the calibre of Haunted House at fairgrounds ), Nemesis which wasn't as scary as I remembered followed by Air which was truly enjoyable.

All those done, I wasn't brave enough to follow H on the ride to Oblivion.  Maybe next time!  Are you a roller coaster rider ?  Or don't you subscribe to these artificial adrenaline pumping moments ?

Are you storytelling with Sian ?  Come and read more stories here.