Autumnal walks along the river path

We decided to make the most of the dry autumnal weather to take a walk along the river to Keynsham this morning. The sun was burning it's way through the clouds so it was a perfect opportunity to get the camera out!

As we were following the footpath we had to walk under a pylon. This photo was taken looking up through the center, And this one was looking up from the corner.


The kids also had some fun with the leaves

Blogging Vacation!

I do seem to have taken quite a long time off from blogging, don't I?!
I must try to find more time and enthusiasm to keep up to date with my posts and also visiting other's blogs which I haven't done lately - oops!

Man of the match!

Luke played in his first football match today and was named man of the match! We were so proud of him beacause in the first half he got whacked in the face with the ball, but got back up and carried on. He's going to have a lovely shiner to show off in school tomorrow! Here is a pic of him on the pitch today.

My crafty bits!

2 more days to go!!

Only 2 more days at home then I'm back to school! These holidays have flown by, but I have enjoyed every minute of them. We've been to New York (I hear my friends saying "you don't say!"), St Austell in Cornwall for a week camping and Weymouth for the bank hols with our friends.



I took these photos at The Eden Project.






I have also signed up for an online photography course with Cheryl Johnson which I am getting to grips with a learning new things to do with my camera! This is my favourite photo so far!

Growing up!

My little girl is growing up so fast that it scares me! She goes back to school next Tuesday in year 8. I can still remember her first day in reception!!

For the last couple of months her taste in clothes and styles has changed so much that she has to be with me when buying clothes so that I don't get the wrong ones! Pink is definately OUT and doesn't exist in her wardrobe anymore, even if it's only a hint. She prefers to wear combats, jeans or skirts with leggings.

She has been on at me for ages to dye her hair black so yesterday we did it!! Here are some photos of before and after. The before pic was taken last week when we were camping in Cornwall.


Although it was a shock at first, I quite like it darker. Her friend thinks it's cool! Wonder what the kids at school will make of it?!

New York, New York!

What a fabulous place to visit! We had so much fun even though we walked our feet off! The sights, sounds and smells of the city will stay with me for a long time. I have put some of my pics into a slide show for you to see. These were taken with our little Nikon coolpix. Our Cannon was used a lot more for taking pics in RAW for Rob to mess around with. We took a 1gb memory card with us and by the middle of our second day Rob had used it up and had to buy a 4gb one!!

How Lazy?!

I can't believe it's nearly a month since I've posted on here!!

Rob and I have been experimenting a bit more with the camera and have followed some tutorials on the computer which have been very helpful. He has invested in a wide angle lens for our upcoming trip to New York in hope to have one of the photos blown up onto canvas to go on our front room wall.

Went to a crop yesterday with Molly and managed to finish off some altered notebooks for Luke's teachers and made a page of Luke from our last camping trip.




Will have so much to tell you when we get back, might need a couple of pages!!!

Another notebook!

I am so loving altering notebooks at the moment that I did one for the student teacher we had in our class as a leaving pressie!
I used an A4 book this time and lots of quotes about teachers!! The papers are Autumn Leaves French Twist and lots of bazzill card!!





I also made this mini maze book for the Alphabet Funk blog. Visit the blog for full instructions on how to make it!

Feeling arty!!

I've been altering a wall in the spare room!! The wall was rough and had a hole in it so I decided to decorate it in my own style! I borrowed an overhead projector from work and magnified stenciled images onto the wall then drew around them. I painted these using acrylics. I made the hanging pockets with a length of vinyl and some plastic pockets. Again, I stenciled shapes onto the material and painted them with acrylics.(not too confident hand drawing!!) The pockets were sewn on, then I added eyelets at the top to hang it. The nice thing about the pockets are I can change the photos/ pages in them when I want!
I made a page to go in the large one and mounted some photos of the family in the small ones, as shown.

Notebook swap

As usual, there is always another swap going on over at the Bubbly Funk forum!! This one is for an A6 sized notebook to be altered in the theme of "black and white". I enjoyed this project and am now making an A4 sized altered notebook as a colleague's leaving pressie!! Here are a few piccies of the black and white one.





I have even got the kids at school involved in altering notebooks for the school fete, it's such fun!!

Catch up time!

Life seems to be wizzing past at light speed these days and I sometimes wonder how we fit everything in! What's new since my last post?
- Luke competed in a gymnastic competion and won 3 gold medals
- Molly progressed up to the intermediate class in gym
- bought a new camera and am trying my best to learn how to take more creative photos
- Got a new tent and spent last week camping in Goodrington!!

Time to take a deep breath and show you some of the phots that Rob has taken with the new camera. I think they're brill and are great examples of what can be acheived when you come away from auto focus and play around with the settings!

Modern technology!!

It's not all it's hyped up to be!! We've been having so many problems with our computer restarting it's self at inappropriate times and then generally not working the way it should that we've now got a new one which is all singing, all dancing! I'm liking the windows vista and so far everything is working ok with it. Totally unrelated to the new computer, our modem, which was 5 years old packed up at the weekend so we had to wait 4 days for someone to replace it. Took them 5 minutes!!

So now I have no excuse not to keep up with my blog and other projects!!

Forest of Dean!

We got back last night from a weekend camping in the Forest of Dean. Apart from a few clouds, we had good weather. We took the bikes this time and did a 2.2 mile ride out to Symonds Yat Rock which has stunnings views down through the Wye valley. Here are some photos Rob took.


Yesterday morning we thought we'd have a go at mountain boarding and had such a laugh! Mountain boards are like over sized skatebords with tyres and places to strap your feet in. As it was a spur of the moment thing we all had on quite decent, new-ish clothes which ended up with lots of grass stains!! Luckily they have come out in the wash! Here are some pics of us on the boards and our bums!!




Tip: If you are trying for the first time, be prepared to spend a lot of time on your bum, back or knees!! It's something we will definately do as a family again. The aches I have today were worth it!!

Tagged!

Rosie has tagged me!! http://freycob.blogspot.com/

I have to give seven facts/ habits about myself. I'm not going to tag another seven people though as they are the same ones that have already been tagged!

Here goes:

1. I passed my direct access motorbike test first time in May 2005.

2. I was in the front row of Ant and Dec's Saturday night takeaway!

3. I collect Eeyores, and even have a tattoo of him on my back.

4. I met my husband, Rob when I was 18 at a Halloween night party !

5. I am stubborn and have to have the last word!

6. I love my job.

7. I am addicted to crafting!!

Sorry if they are a bit boring, couldn't think of anything else!!

Kayaking!

Here are the photos af Rob, Moly and Luke kayaking last weekend!!

Easter weekend!

What fabulous weather we've had, and during the first bank holiday of the year aswell!!
We've been making the most of it and have been out almost everyday. On Sunday Rob and the kids tried out their kayak on the river at Saltford and had a great time! I stayed on dry land taking photos of the whole thing (will have to post them later as computer needed reformatting and haven't put photoshop back on yet). We bought a 2 man kayak late last year to see how the kids got on going out with Rob to start with. They did a bit of kayaking at PGL last year and wanted to do more. Eventually Rob wants them to have individual ones so that they can go off for day trips with them. I'm quite happy to drive the landrover and follow them on terre ferme!!

1st Crop!

I went to my 1st crop on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed myself! The people there made me feel very welcome and I did the 2 classes that were on offer. The 1st one was for a layout using glossy accents, which I've never used. The 2nd class was to make a paper bag journal, which I found ingenious, and will be making more! Pics are in my gallery!





I was reminded the other night how out of date my blog was and when I looked 3 weeks have gone by just like that. What have I done in that time? I seem to have got quite a bit of crafting done, but not much else!





The kids bought me a lovely tin crammed full of hot chocolate ingredients for mother's day, and now all of the contents have been used I thought I might use it to store recipes in.

Crafting away!

This last week I have been busy with lots of craft projects. I made a mini maze book for my Mum for Mother's day, completed 3 layouts using papers from a kit, made a couple of cards and have been getting on with my friend's wedding invites!! Another friend is coming round this evening with her fiance to make a start on her wedding invites, so not a lot of time for much else at the mo!

I was really pleased to get the scrapbooking kit as it gave me the push I needed to make a proper start with my scrapping. I even did a page of me ( how brave!) Have a look!

What have I done!!

It was Molly's 12th birthday on Friday and like the fools we are, we said she could invite 2 friends for a sleep over( even though we always say "never again" after each one!) They arrived at 2 o'clock yesterday and the house was in chaos from the start!
Me and Rob watched CSI till 1 'clock and the girls were still chatting, and when I woke up at 8 they were chatting again. I wouldn't mind, if only they knew how to whisper!
Luke was being a typical stroppy little brother and kept saying "it's not fair, she gets to do this, that and the other" and the last straw was that they ate all of his cereal today - OOPS! I made him pancakes to smooth things over a bit.
I decided to get the girls out, so we went into Bath to wander around the shops. It was quite nice as I was able to let them go off on their own whilst I shopped for a birtday pressie for my friend. I also spoilt myself by having a malted hot chocolate from the Cadbury's cafe!
All is quiet now that they have gone home. Half term is over for me, so must have an early night to be ready for work tomorrow.

Busy, busy, busy!

I can't believe how long ago it is since I lasted posted on here!

I've been very busy finishing one cj to go back to it's owner next week and have started a new one to be posted at the end of next week! The theme for my new cj is "My favourite..." Here is a

sneak preview of the cover.

It's now half term for me and Luke, so I am trying to plan lots of things to keep him from getting bored. Molly is still at school as she goes to the local technology college which has it's half term in march. I'm thinking of taking him to the park one day with his skateboard and maybe ice skating aswell. He is very active and likes to be on the go all the time, which means crafting time will be at a minimum this week (frowning)! However, I am going craft shopping on Friday morning with my friend to get the bits to make her wedding invites, so that will make up for it!!

I also have to dig out some leggings and leg warmers for Friday night because I'm off to see Fame at the hippodrome! What a great night that's going to be!!

Spring is coming!

It was such a sunny day on Sunday that we donned our wellies and went for a walk around a local conservation area. Willsbridge mill is only 1/2 a mile from our house, but we tend to ignore it a lot of the time, which is a shame as it is set in woodlands with a river running through it that used to power the old mill. It is owned by the wildlife trust and is very keen on encouraging people to conserve energy and recycle.

On our walk we spotted some of the spring flowers starting to bloom, so I just had to play with the camera and I'm quite proud of the photos that I got.

We have had our camera for quite a few years now and I still don't know how to use it properly! I have given myself a stern talking to and am going to do my best to take more photos and play with the camera to see what it(and myself) can produce.

Happy Birthday to me!

It was my birthday on Monday and my family helped make it a good day, even though we were all feeling unwell. Rob bought me tickets to see Fame at the hippodrome, and when I asked my friend to go with me she went crazy!! The kids got me a box of 4 different jigsaws, the biggest one is 1000 pieces and is a picture of jellybeans! Have a look!

Instead of going out we treated ourselves to an Indian takeaway and thouroughly enjoyed it. The kids were a bit sceptical at first as they have only eaten a shop bought curry before, but they managed to clear away a whole portion of chicken korma and pilau rice between them. Luke (the fussiest eater in the house) has now said he wants to go to the Indian restaurant for his birthday!!

At the weekend I completed a cj entry entitled "Elements of me". I used my jigsaw maker that I had for Christmas and was really chuffed with the results(see piccies). This is a cj I'm taking part in through Bubblyfunk and we are now on our last entries before getting our own back. As this is my first one, I am so excited and

can't wait to see the pages filled up.

The rest of the

week has been a bit of a wash out as I have been too ill to do

anything more than sit on the sofa or lie on my bed reading books. The whole family

has had the same in varying strengths, but I just can't seem to shift it. I must have caught the male version!!