Oops I did it again!!

Oops I did it again!! Is that song in your head now? ... sorry ;) So I knew it had been a while since I had been here but cannot believe how long that while has been, again! .... Where does time go? Oh I know it’s called life LOL

Life’s been a little busy since I was here last so I am going to attempt a whistle stop tour of what I have been up to. Don’t worry I have split up my posts into chunks so I won’t hit you with a month and a half in one go! So shall we start from where I left?

We were off to the Rewind 80’s festival last you heard and attempting a weekend under canvas for the first time! Well we went, we had a fab time and we survived

 

The weather couldn’t have been better after all the rain we had had up until then, it ended up being the weekend of the summer and temperatures reached 30 where we were in Henley, in fact the sun was so fierce it was like being back in the Amazon and it actually burnt me through my cut off jeans on the Sunday!!

The Pimms flowed freely and the bands were great my faves were Adam Ant, Midge Ure, Tony Hadley, Rick Astley (yep that’s a surprise to me too!) Jimmy Somerville, Sinita rocked it and looked amazing! Marc Almond (how I wish I could bottle the joy that oozed from that man!) and OMD closed the weekend in style.

And the Glamping? Well the cloudhouse was brilliant be decked with a double bed already made up for us and festooned with fairy lights and I think we coped really well, I enjoyed it lots but don’t think Hubs is over convinced to be running out and buying a tent just yet LOL and the saving grace of the weekend were the posh loos we paid for run by a company called ‘When Nature calls’ worth every single penny and more!!

The next thing, once were home, was we built an instant garden

No kidding! 4 days of hard graft and buying plants et voila ;) The border had turned to jungle, the point of no return and the weeds had loved the wet summer so hero hubs did some man gardening and cleared it all out, weed control material was laid followed by many bags of gravel and confused woofs, plants in pots, Angelina in place and the new addition, a present from hubs, our happy little Buddha! I am very proud of our little garden area and even more proud that the plants have actually been growing and I haven’t managed to kill any....yet! I was not blessed with green fingers although I do believe there is a gardener somewhere in me trying to get out LOL

We then had the girls to stay

Our lovely nieces! My sister and the girls visited mum and dad near the end of August and I took great pleasure in having them all round for a family Sunday lunch to christen the house. The girls stayed with us for a couple of days, we visited Flamingo Land, as you can see the weather was ‘fresh’ but we had a great time and we visited the Maritime experience in Hartlepool, well worth a visit!

Just  before the girls came to stay I went to the Serif offices for training on the new Craft artist 2 software (that’s for another post) and I was prepping for a 4 day deal on Create and craft TV with the Daisy Trail Aviary kits from Serif

 

Aviary English garden digi kit

Aviary Exotic digi kit

 

Aviary Fables digi kit

 And kits from the Lovely Angie Hinksman

Created with the Cool Britannia kit from Angies collection, That's my friend playing behind Robbie, Colour Sgt Beckett MBE, so proud of him and the blended photo in the background is the band playing at the Jubilee concert.

So that takes us into the beginning of September and the end of this post that kind of grew with my waffle ... sorry but I can’t help myself once I get chatting ;)

I’ll leave you in peace now with this little thought

created with Angi Hinksman true Romantics digi kit

I hope you’re well and happy, thanks for stopping by and hopefully see you soon for the rest of my ‘little’ catch up (and the posts will be there, I am scheduling them now LOL)

As ever until soon

Happy Crafting

Love MJM x

Time flies as usual!

Well hello again!

Ok I know a week has passed already.... how? I don’t know but at least I am here again with only 7 days to catch up on .... I count that as a small miracle ;) Actually talking of time I read a fabulous quote today which sums up me and my nemesis

‘Time sometimes flies like a bird, sometimes crawls like a snail; but a man is happiest when he does not even notice whether it passes swiftly or slowly’
Ivan Turgenev

Right now it seems time has flown since last I sat here to write but looking back I think I haven’t noticed the passing of time as I’ve been happy in my pottering so that’s a good thing right?

So what do I have to share? Well I have been happy reading the books recently acquired from mum and dad and getting those creative juices flowing again, this one

As ever has made me smile, think and start getting messy again. I find Claudine Hellmuth a real inspiration and can tell you she is a lovely lady after being lucky enough to meet her at CHA a couple of years ago :)

I created this in ‘Michelle style’ after leafing through this fab book. Its part of something I’ve been creating this week that I can’t share yet but will soon.... promise! I urge you, if you like to dabble in different techniques, to snag a Claudine book or two and get playing.... it will make you happy ... it has me!

Lots of you have been asking about the Serif craft artist samples I’ve had on TV and where you can see them ... I will be putting them in my website gallery when I get the website ship shape again but will share this one with you

One of my favourites from the recent Paula Philips 4 day deal it uses Love in the air digi kit and is a layout showing the 2 grandchildren ... soon to be 3!

There is something special happening in cyber space too that I want to share. It’s called

And is the brain child of the lovely BerniceHopper. It’s a celebration of British scrappers, altered artists, art journallers and artists ... a great idea and some great British talent to get to know if you don’t know them already! (Yours truly will be interviewed on there at the end of September) Go and check it out when you’ve finished visiting here and be inspired!

Talking of being inspired, being excited about being home in the North East still hasn’t worn off and I am inspired daily

Enough said!

Back to the time thing (again!) I don’t know where the last year has gone but I am again on countdown for the Rewind 80’sfestival this weekend. This was last year

Created with Serif Photo projects, lifestyle kit. We had THE BEST time and know we will again this year, although this year we have opted to go glamping instead of taking an hotel room.... 1^st time ‘under canvas’ for us both although it is a cloudhouse and not a tent and is supplied with a bed, bedding, fluffy rugs and tea lights ... but it’s still ‘camping’ right? I don’t think we’ll be very good at it but we’ll have a blast along the way.... please feel free to start doing sun dances for us now ... I’m dancing like fury LOL!

And finally, my boys.....

Settling in and purveying all that they own!

Enjoying the TORRENTIAL downpours we have had and thinking I’ve installed their own private swimming pool as the patio flooded!!

And one soggy, happy Stanley dog, Ollie wouldn’t stay still for a decent pic :D

Well that’s it I think, oh we got 2 new sofas delivered finally this week (don’t ask!) and the old one taken away today so a new chapter now really begins :) I'll leave you with this

made with Paula Phillips digi kit and Serif craft artist

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you’re well and happy and as ever until soon

Happy Crafting
Love
M x

A new look at last!

Hi all

Well finally I got round to some redecorating, what do you think? I think I quite like it but need to 'live in it' a while to decide :) So along with the new look comes the new intention to pop in more for a chat .... well that's the intention .... time will tell!

As I'm here I thought I'd stay for a little catch up. At the moment life really is crazy busy but all good. These past few days I've been playing with some of the new Glitz Designs goodies creating 3 workshop classes for 3 Jolly Scrappers next weekend ...


....what you doing next Sunday? Fancy coming along to play?

Last week I was published in Hebrew on an Israeli scrapbook site with this...






A pop up family tree!

Last month me and hubby went to the Rewind festival (I think I mentioned that in my last Glitz post, on face book and to anyone who will listen to me LOL) We had the BEST time and I did promise to share some pics so here we go ... hold on to your leg warmers there's a few :)


The sun shone, it was a great atmosphere


But it did rain a little!! Look at those spotty wellies I LOVE them!


We dried out eventually ... from the rain anyway ;)


There were some fab costumes, lots of madonnas, Adam ants and village people and so much neon!


As well as fairies .... Love this pic!


Hmmm there's that Pimms again! Followed by Moscow Mules;) Note the chairs match the wellies LOL


Hubby getting down to the average white band!


Saturdays top of the bill the AMAZING Holly Johnson ... better than ever!


And Sundays top of the bill the legend that is the Human League!


We're so going back next year just waiting for those tickets to go on sale, don't care who's on it'll be great ... heh it's the 80's!

Random picture alert! Just taken this off of hubby's phone ....


How idyllic is that pic, it was a perfect blue sky one afternoon when we were walking the boys and corn fields for miles ... bliss!

Talking of the boys let's talk ... and finally


This is the park in Stratford - Upon - Avon where we walk the boys sometimes by the river ... look at the haircut on those trees, weird huh!


Stanley Dervish ready for the off


Joined by Oliver Pickles not to be left out!

I think that's enough of a catch up for now :) It's been nice to chat ... I'll try and do it again soon .... honest guv! I do know however that I will definitely be back on Thursday night with a rather special post .... please pop in and see me :)

I hope you're all well and happy, thanks for dropping into the new gaff and I'll *see you* soon.
Until then as ever HAPPY CRAFTING!
Love
M x