Kool Kitty Musings

So where were we....

December work and life kind of got in the way of my blogging... Here are the highlights!

Christmas cards all prepped inside:

Ready to write and send:

Some new wintry additions for the home came out of their box in time for me to start decorating:

I got the mantelpiece decorated - and the window bunting up:

Got the tree up:

The decorations are old and new:

Got almost all of my Christmas shopping done (there may be a gift to myself in there too):

Had an outing with my mum, super early so we could beat the queue at Bettys:

I stocked up on some more gorgeous Seasalt bags (the circus one was free with any purchase - result!):

I had a few moments of quiet reflection (aka don't really want to move, but must go do some work:

Enjoyed a few cosy nights by the fire:

My niece enjoyed her new bauble for this year:

And I made some progress with my highlighter pen and the Christmas RadioTimes:

So time has definitely flown by in the past week and a bit!

Photo catch-up

Just doing a little housekeeping on my PC and see there are quite a few pics I've not shared since the painting project was completed over the BH weekend.

Let's go back to my birthday....

It was definitely a Leslie Knope-style birthday celebration - Treat yo' self was definitely the motto that afternoon!

I also received some lovely bathtime treats from my Polish cousins - love this French range that you can get in Poland (but not here sadly). This new addition to the collection is lush!

So the repainted office/craft space was back in action by the end of BH Monday. Dulux Ocean Ripple is definitely a hard colour to capture nicely in all it's minty aqua glory, but here's my room back in use:

And then before you know it, September has arrived! And of course a trip to Paperchase was on the cards for a browse at the Back to School stationery. Thanks to my Birthday reward and 15% off on my loyalty card this pencil case came in at the grand total of 10 p! I'm using it as a make-up pouch instead:

Saturday I had a day out with my mum at a few retail stores in search of a new desk lamp, well we saw this rather eye-catching lamp:

But it's definitely not for my desk space. I did manage to get a desk lamp but it's just not bright enough to work and craft under (blooming E14 small Edison screw fitting!) so it may be moving into my bedroom instead.

But anyway, along with the window shopping there was also a tasty meal to be enjoyed in TGIF:

It's been a while since we'd been out for burgers and I had a voucher that needed to be redeemed so... any excuse right?

And well, something sinful happened today as well. When I went to Tesco this morning I saw the Krispy Kreme cabinet had been stocked with the new limited edition return of my favourite Krispy Kreme donut - one I've not had since Florida 2012! The Glazed Kreme filled donut:

There were only a few left on the tray so I wasn't alone in craving one of these today. :)

Procrastination is my nemesis

Well, this time last week I was optimistically thinking I'd have finished repainting my office and craft space by today.

Ha!

What planet was I on? lol

Nope, not even started. Things got a little busy with other things I needed to do before I moved everything else out and here we are and still not a drop of paint applied anywhere.

But, I am currently taking 10 minutes while finally clearing shelving units and moving equipment out.... on what has to be the warmest day of the week so far. Ugh.

I am yearning after being back in the serenity of Alnwick gardens...

I mean the weather was pretty stunning...

And it sure beats sorting and preparing for intensive painting time!

Hey ho.... Here's hoping once painting is under way it is not going to take an age to complete! ;)

Emerging from my office...

It's been a bit of a non-stop week so taking a little moment to share some of my Instagram photos.

Last week was all about getting my projects prepped and made for my May blog post over on the Hey Little Magpie blog.

It involved a trip to Hobby Craft armed with this piece of paper to try and match the colours for the PL pages I still wanted to make:

Well, an evening of catch-up telly followed and the paper I wanted to use for my PL page was all stitched and ready to go:

Naturally there were of course plenty of cards to go with the PL pages:

And I now have another pile of cards to sort into my card basket - I did very well the other week to get these all matched up with envelopes and baggies:

Friday night was dinner and movie night - Miss A joined us for dinner, she also brought her mad expressions too!

And was very happy with the pizza she insisted she wanted for her tea:

(thankfully Miss A's dad joined us in time to polish off what was left so us ladies of a more advanced age could get to our movie)

The weekend also involved a bit of an impulse purchase on ebay.

A Remington Holiday vintage typewriter from the 60s/70s that looked ok on the image and was described as having plenty of ribbon left and all the keys working.

He's not in the best of nick and came complete with a few dead spiders in the case and wrapped in with the machine - if it had been me, I'd have at least given it a hoover before sending it off. But hey ho - now I just need to find somewhere that sells compatible ribbon and get some compressed air to blast out what my vigorous hoovering and cleaning didn't shift last night.

Currently Mr Typewriter is out in the fresh air and sun where I am hoping some of the musty smell of the shed he was kept in will be blown out.

I only really wanted a typewriter for my journaling on PL cards, etc. - hopefully he will be up to the job, and I was never going to spend serious money on a typewriter so I'll see how it goes. Just rather miss my Tomy petite typewriter I had when I was little. He was fab!

A little crafty catch-up

I had a lovely crafty weekend away last week in Whitby - it started off with a very wintry Friday then we made the most of the sunshine come Saturday morning:

So sunny in fact that I didn't need to wear my coat until we hit the end of the pier:

It was all change on the walk back up the hill though, 15 minutes in and it was hail central followed by a lot of rain.

Sunday we managed a quick walk to the West Cliff end but it lashed it down much of the way - thank heavens for nice filters that made it look not so wet!

So in between all the food, chatting and walking I did manage to make a couple of things.

I caught up with some prompts.

Today's card is based on the main prompt for March:

{Pinterest pin}

I was wanting to create a card that featured a sketchy style of colouring with black outlines, and well time to revisit an old stamp set!

Paper: Crate Paper, Basic Grey
Stamps: WPlus9, PTI
Dies: WPlus9, PTI, MFT
Other: enamel dots, 3D foam tape

I was really wanting to make the most of the zingy ink colours I'd brought with me, so time for a combination of raspberry pinks and aqua! I really should use the pretty peonies stamp set more, I'd not used it yet with the black outlines, but I rather like them when paired with really vivid colours. Perhaps it's time for aqua next time! :)

 

Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes Styleboard - Inspiration	Basic Grey - Highline - Beautiful paper	Crate Paper - Love Notes - Sparked paper	WPlus9 - Pretty Peonies stamp set
WPlus9 - Pretty Peonies dies	My Favorite Things - Die-namics High Tea Doily die	Papertrey Ink - Graceful Greetings stamp set	Papertrey Ink - Graceful Greetings die set
My Mind's Eye - Just Sayin' - Enamel Dots

InLinkz.com

Here's hoping practice makes perfect

The other week I received delivery of something that has been on my wish list a while but which I left of buying until the price came down further on amazon:

Namely the 36-pan set of Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolours.

Oh they are very lush indeed.

But my painting skills leave a lot to be desired.

Before I did anything I painted each of the pans on the colour swatch that is included inside the lid. Then to get started I thought it would a good idea to do a simple watercolour wash + white embossing technique on a card to try things out:

Paper: Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp
Other: white embossing powder, Versamark, Gansai Tambi paints

My brush action definitely needs some work but I'm really happy with how the intense pinks came out inside the embossed heart. Oh and the Misti was great for making sure my sentiment was nicely lined up and stamped properly on the watercolour paper. I might need to invest in some new white embossing powder as I've had this Personal Impressions one for over 10 years now and it doesn't seem overly white, but we'll see!

I also snagged some of the Ranger pre-cut watercolour cardstock along with my paints from amazon and the piece I used is simply stuck onto the front of a 5x7 card.

It appears I might be needing practice in other areas involving a brush:

I finally got round to opening my lovely Naked Smoky palette by Urban Decay - still trying to perfect that perfect smoky eye! And also the fab set of blushes by Benefit - a blush for every occasion. I also got a pen liner in with my Christmas cosmetics and I am just no good at applying it. Practice makes perfect they say, but I just have not got the knack of it!

Oh well, I will persevere but think my Bobbi Brown gel liner is as close as I will get to a dramatic eye-lining look.

In other news, I had a doggy house guest this week. Little Cassie came to stay with me for the first time and we made the most of the park being rather quiet during the day time:

When not walking, Cassie slept while I worked:

But yes, the walks in the park with just us and the squirrels...

...hopefully helped to counteract some of the joys of "Fat Thursday" Polish style - aka lots of donuts!

Yum!

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy - Let's Party Paper

Simon Says Stamp - I See You stamp set

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolour paints (36 colour set)

InLinkz.com

Time for a flood of photos

I've been so bad at sharing photos on my blog of late - ever since things got so hectic last summer what with the family wedding and my change in job status to self-employed blogging took a bit of a back seat.

But I want to do better in 2016 and get back to regular posts.

So behold! Some photos from December that made it to my Instagram feed along with my crafty projects. :)

There was a new addition to my Christmas crockery collection:

This fab Santa plate from Next, perfect for holding some festive cupcakes!

The advent calendar was elevated to a new luxurious level:

The Simon Says Stamp kit arrived without delay, but I had zero time to properly play with it (I still hope to remedy that!).

My mantelpiece got a new look this year as I changed things about a bit to accommodate my new Marquee light:

I tried to make an early start on my wrapping:

In fact it was a gift for this little lady, my god daughter:

and the report back was fantastic - I managed to get the German-language version of an apple game I had when I was little and which was very popular in our house and it sounds like it's just as popular in theirs!

I also enjoyed an evening out at Saltwell Enchanted Park with Zoe and the girls - we did well as the event was cancelled the day before due to the snow, rain and windy weather:

 

It was an Alice in Wonderland theme complete with the Cheshire cat:

As Christmas cards started dropping through my letterbox some included some lovely surprises like these hand stitched felt decorations from my cousin's wife in Poland:

And before I knew it it was time for another festive weekend with Zoe and the girls which included a favourite card game I snapped up a couple of Christmases ago at M&S - it never gets old!

We had a very festive Saturday including carol singing, lunch out with the cheeky elves:

...gingerbread decorating and then Zoe and I went for a meal and move (Sisters - very funny!) in the evening.

Before too long Christmas parties were enjoyed and mulled wine flowed and then it was finally Christmas Eve:

Everything finally felt and smelt festive:

The Wigilia table was ready and waiting for us all:

The Prosecco was flowing:

And we enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve meal Polish style:

There was still room for some sweet treats:

A slice of poppy seed cake:

Made for some interesting dreams before bed and then Christmas day with my mum and dad, who quite excelled himself this year on the gift giving front!

My mum didn't do too bad either in her choice of gift for the resident Ron Swanson and Whiskey fan:

More food was of course enjoyed on Christmas day, including a slice of the fabulous cake my crafty friend Claire's mum made:

Yes I could quite fancy a slice of it now with a bit of cheese:

Boxing day was a very relaxed affair, I was in my PJs all day and we just ate leftovers!

The day after was finally time for Polish breakfast with my brother and SIL coming over to enjoy the full spread:

Including of course the homemade lemon vodka:

And then I had a little guest through to the New Year as Lola came to stay with me and then at my mum and dad's for NY:

We finally had a day of pretty awesome weather for December so me, ma, my brother and SIL and Lola hopped in my car for a jaunt to Redcar for a walk on the beach and a trip to Pacitos:

For a local treat - a good old lemon top - well a strawberry top in my case for a change!

The next morning I checked the weather at about 6 and saw that the stormy rainclouds weren't going to drift in until later in the morning. So Lola and I headed back to the beach for a good run - the sun was just out:

But after a short run on the beach the winds picked up and it was a veritable sandstorm out there, so Lola and I hit the promenade:

The winds had really picked up, but I have to say I was a tad surprised to find the remains of someone else's Christmas tree had flown into my garden when we got home.

And well, then it was NYE and Lola wasn't overly convinced of the new sleeping arrangements at my mum and dad's:

Definitely not as cozy as the spot by my fire:

But Lola was happy to snooze until it was time for her to go home.

A new year meant some new stationery! New diary (and matching phone cover) plus my new desk calendar:

I also had some happy mail in the form of the January card kit from Simon Says Stamp - just need the time for a proper play:

I did however manage to get my lovely Christmas craft gifts all organised and labelled ready for a crafty session:

Time is all that I need!

But I also enjoyed the spoils of some more happy mail - namely this lovely ginger gift set that I snagged in the Origins sale:

And so there we are - all up to date. I've been back to work since Monday and trying to sort out my weird sleep patterns I picked up over the break (ugh dead to the world by 9 and wide awake from 4). The battle continues!

You're the apple of my pie!

I recently took delivery of my November card kit from Simon Says Stamp.

And I thought with this change of weather we've just had (hard to believe this time last week it was 16 degrees C and I was wandering around the Metrocentre sweltering in a cardi!) it was time for a little autumnal detour before more Christmas cards.

Along with wanting to make my first card with the kit, I really wanted to use the sketch for this month's 2015 card challenge that I posted on the 1st, here's a reminder of what it was:

My card isn't an exact match, but it was definitely inspired by the sketch:

Paper: Pebbles Inc.
Cardstock: American Crafts
Die-cut ephemera: Pebbles Inc.
Dies: Lil' Inker Designs, Lawn Fawn
Stamp: Simon Says Stamp
Other: white embossing powder, 3D foam tape

 

I had this woodgrain cardstock lurking in my stash and it went so well with the other items in the kit that I had to use it. :)

I also seem to be moving towards using white embossing powder more often - OK, so it's been two cards in a row, but that's more than I made last year with white embossing powder. The one I have is by Personal Impressions and is over 10 years old now so wondering if I need to get a better one that is a bit more white... depends how much I use white embossing powder in the near future I guess!

I also have a few pics to share from Instagram, well I've not been up to much that's exciting and pic-worthy of late, but I did go out for cocktails and lunch a one Monday not so long ago - if all Mondays could be like that I wouldn't mind!

There was also a trip to the nearby illuminations on what had to have been the warmest October evening ever - I kinda wished I'd not been wearing a jumper under my coat.

I suggested a trip on the Ferris wheel.

And although it looked a lot bigger once we were stood in the queue, I didn't think my fear of heights would manifest itself - surely not when I only get uncomfortable when too near an edge or seeing a long drop under me...

Well I am kinda glad I had the view I had and not the one where you see how far you are going up and when you are about to reach the top. I'm happy to report others were much happier with the height, but I will stick to carousels as my adrenalin rush fairground ride of choice!

Also in the land of the bizarre, unicorns seem to be a real fixture in Christmas displays this year as well as Christmas decoration installations you can buy and take home.

This guy was first spotted in TK Maxx:

And I have since seen 3 other similarly life-sized unicorns in other stores since then.

All I was looking for was a new bauble to add to my collection this year (I have found one new decoration so far, after visiting 10 or so stores with no luck of finding something truly new and worthy of the price tag) - Mr Unicorn is no longer in TK Maxx so must have found a new home. I would have loved to have seen how his new family got him from the store to their front door!

Well that's it for now, best get off the PC and zoom round to my mum and dad's for Sunday dinner!

Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month November 2015	American Crafts - 12x12" Woodgrain Textured Cardstock - Chestnut	Pebbles - Front Porch - Breezy paper	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles die set
Lawn Fawn - Hearts dies

InLinkz.com

Over on the Hey Little Magpie blog - September projects

I shared some new card projects on the Hey Little Magpie blog using goodies in this box!

Full details can be found here - the Wonder collection from Crate is super lush and even nicer in real life if you can believe it!

Aside from a very hectic couple of weeks with work, I've also been out and about for some fun times with the ladies. :)

A week ago on Friday it was a theatre night in Newcastle with Zoe and her girls to see The Sound of Music - which was fantastic!

In preparation for the evening I wrapped up some treats in brown paper and tied with string - there were a few of their favourite (sweet) things inside:

We had time to get a snap in front of the poster:

And here are those packages being unwrapped:

Oh and before we headed of to the theatre there was time for some selfie antics, I didn't take this photo, but the amount of attempts it needed for us to be looking in the same direction was hilarious!

Then last Friday Kelly and I were all set to have a movie/dinner night after an afternoon with my little god daughter who's all set to turn three (where does the time go???) next week. As her birthday party coincides with my dad's 60th this year I wasn't going to make it, so I was all prepared with my gifts and it was another Friday morning spent wrapping up something! hehe

Let's just say there was a lot of time spent in the ELC last week staring at the display and deciding what to go with to build on last year's cash register and shop items! I hope she'll like what I picked!

Well, once Daddy-o was in from work there was time for a quick family photo before Kelly and I went out for the evening:

It ended up being a non-movie movie night as there was nothing on at the local cinema, so we just headed to Frankie & Bennies and ate a few items from the new menu, when we got back in we were too tired to watch a film on amazon as planned and instead watched the rest of Gogglebox before I set off for the drive home. Zzzzzzz...

Hopefully next time there will be some decent film choices out! It's been a tad quiet this month on the film front.

A little photo catch-up

There's not a lot been happening for me the past two weeks except for a lot of work - but August did feature some of the nicer things in life too:

Some new scents to ease us from summer into autumn thanks to M&S:

The best kind of Sunday morning breakfast:

Summer strawberries at their finest:

A walk down to town first thing Saturday morning - in the sunshine after a week of rain:

A little window shopping:

Very apt these were:

Some online shopping that included some Bath & Body restocks:

Beautiful summer sunsets where the sky stretched as far as the eye could see:

A little browsing in TK Maxx for the perfect notepads - I didn't get this one as it was a notebook, but they had some great stuff in - good job too as I am really using my notepads a lot for to-do lists each day:  

Some birthday-related online shopping:

So L'Occitane offered me a free candle for my birthday if I made a little order... well, I know it wasn't free but the items I got were on my wishlist, postage was free and there was that £25 candle thrown in for good measure:

And most recently, I enjoyed the MOST delicious lemon meringue cupcakes courtesy of my friend Claire and her mum's superb baking skills! Just amazing:

And here we are in September and I have finally finished the big project I was working on solidly the past however many weeks. I am hopeful for a work-free weekend - but there won't be much rest on the horizon as I have a long list of things that should have been done that still need doing! ;)

Altenew inks in action

Well I have no idea where the evenings have gone to this week!

I've been working on a couple of card projects - last weekend I just hit a total block creatively, very frustrating!

But Monday night I really wanted to just do a bit of fun experimenting so I finally got my new Altenew ink cubes out for a test run on actual layering stamps.

And here are the results:

Paper: Crate Paper, Dear Lizzy - Serendipity
Stamps: Altenew - Vintage Flowers, WPlus9
Dies: Altenew - Vintage Flowers, Lil' Inker Designs, MFT
Other: bling, 3D foam

I layered the inks for the flowers from darkest to lightest shade, but the leaves and lightest to darkest - I am not sure if it makes any difference to the intensity of the colours, but the ink colours really blend together:

The darker pink on the bottom of one of the petals above is where I had misaligned the lighter shades on the top and you can see that pink is a fraction darker than the where the other ink covers that layer. But yeah, those were the three lightest shades in the red set in action and all the greens in action as the other colour in the green set is a black cube.

Oh and I love that Altenew released 12 cubes in one go, it means they all fit in their own dedicated Tim Holtz mini cube storage tin. :D

Also I have been a tad silent on the blog, but it's that time of year when sitting at the PC on an evening isn't so fun. I forgot to blog about my brother's birthday last week:

The ace apple crumble cheesecake my mum baked - that got demolished!

Ma and I had a shopping mission to Newcastle last Friday for my last ditch attempt to find The Dress for my brother's wedding in July. Well, hurrah, hurrah I found it! But despite thinking my existing shoes, shrug, and accessories would work I ended up splurging on new shoes, jewellery and a shrug in the same exact shade I already have from Monsoon, but the cut and tailoring of it is much better suited to this new dress. And there is a 50s feel to the dress, and the shoes are gorgeous, gorgeous.

I'm sure this success was all down to how ma and I started our excursion...

With sugar for sustenance:

Seven hours later and we were ready to grab tea at the Metrocentre:

And of course no trip to the Metrocentre is complete without popping into Ikea for the essentials:

The strawberry tealights are absolutely divine!

WPlus9 - Strictly Sentiments 5 stamps	Altenew - Vintage Flowers stamps	Altenew - Vintage Flowers die set	MFT - Die-namics Fishtail Flags Layers STAX dies
Lil' Inker Designs - Instant Camera die	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes Confetti - Blast Paper	Crate Paper - Craft Market - Stitching Paper	American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Serendipity - Very Vanilla Paper
Versafine ink pad - Onyx black	Altenew - Red Cosmos ink set	Altenew - Green Fields ink set

InLinkz.com

May! Where did you go to??

I'm having a bit of an update and organizational fix with my phone photos and I realised although May passed in the blink of an eye I didn't take all that many photos that weren't craft related... but hey, why not have a little catch-up? ;)

I've had some fun times with Miss A in May - we even attempted our first selfie:

Miss A was quite taken with the taking of a selfie and tried to take some more but kept jumping out of shot! LOL

Selfie taking got old, especially when there was a scooter to move around on:

There were also some dining and cinema outings in May:

Sadly no cardboard cut-outs for the Spooks movie, wouldn't that have been nice with cardboard Kit? But that evening did start off nicely for a Tuesday evening:

There was some crafty behind-the-scenes antics in May - namely my big crafty clear-out. There is NO before photo as I just couldn't bring myself to record that. But this paper pile took 4 plus hours to sort through:

And then my Harry Potter craft cupboard (complete with bi-fold doors that close and hide it all away) was tidied and organised a bit better and there's now space for more - which is the important thing right?

Oh, and some crafty antics were required in preparation for my future sister-in-law's hen weekend in Edinburgh. There was a sea theme and so I got to work on a pirate badge to go with my pirate hat:

The weekend was definitely memorable - despite the sheer volume of vodka and cocktails enjoyed! :D

My brother was sure looking forward to a quiet weekend:

The less said about this the better:

But wowzers, after our spooky Mercat underground tour of Edinburgh (which included my watch stopping for 15 minutes) we headed to the Hard Rock café for one of my favourite activities of the weekend. A 2 hr cocktail making class (really educational and fun!) which included discovering my new favourite cocktail (I'm hoping I can still remember how to make it) called Island Spice (a fantastic rum, ginger and mint combo!) followed by more cocktail drinking over lunch:

This pineapple and roasted coconut mojito was lush! And it looked like we all enjoyed our cocktails to the max!

Anyway, we all made it home safe and sound on Sunday - a bit tired but all in one piece.

The weather was fab up north of the border except for Saturday night, but down here it's been stormy and temperamental ever since...

I'm still wondering if it's really June - it is still so cold!

Here's hoping the sun comes out and stays out for some actual summer capering!

Fun and games

It's been a week of work, lots of work, and more work through next week and probably next weekend with plenty of OT...

But it's been a week with a little play too.

Last Saturday we enjoyed a lovely meal out at Chiquitos as a group - complete with sombrero posing while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Unlike the food and cocktails the lighting is always shocking in there, but some pics had to be taken!

Not everyone got the memo for which pose we were going for!

But thankfully there were more important things to tackle:

In crafting news, I am hoping that this little guy is going to aid in making straighter cards - I am game for anything at this point!

Cats and boxes, no matter what their age, they revert to kittens as soon as a box appears:

Caption: "Don't judge me!"

Then Thursday night was officially Fat Thursday, the Polish Tlusty Czwartek celebrations were in full swing with donuts and Faworki - I have officially had my fill for 2015:

There were even left-over donuts for a certain little someone to get in on the action after her cheese sandwich:

And last night, while the rest of the world seemed to be at the cinema in order to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, Kelly and I went to see:

Great film and some exciting trailers for new films coming out. Oh and I am definitely in a Dire Straits music kinda head space after watching this. LOL

And February's cinema outing naturally had a new cardboard cut-out photo op:

I wonder who they'll have for Kelly to pose with next time!

Time for a little photo recap

{Pinterest pin}

Off round the parentals tonight to join in with my dad's Arrow binge watching - the above photo is very apt because....

This time last week he had only started Season 1! Well we're now into Season 2! The best moment was 5 minutes into episode 1 of season 1 when he asked how many episodes we could get through that night - answer 6! We'll see where we end up tonight - I believe we're picking up from Episode 3 - The Dollmaker. Goody! :D

Tonight on Sky 1 though it's one of the much anticipated episodes of Season 3 - The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak! Goody goody!!

{Link to original image}

But aside from the Arrow stuff, I have some pics to share from the last few weeks. :)

I had a lovely night in with friends and my God Daughter a couple of Fridays ago - guess who was in charge of cooking dinner for Auntie Nat? :)

I had a fair amount of happy mail, including a few new items from Origins that came nicely gift-wrapped:

Ma and I attempted some Christmas shopping at the Metrocentre, naturally this included a pit stop at Gourmet Burger Kitchen for sustenance:

I went with the festive Blitzen Burger and it was most delicious!

Then it was back to the shopping! TK Maxx had nothing we absolutely were desperate for, but took a snap of this year's miniature village winter scene (last year it was in a beer keg if you remember) presented in a vintage TV:

Last Friday night it was our last crop of the year - I packed a lot of stuff, including my festive goodies:

...but didn't get a whole lot done, oddly enough! I did manage to sing along to my festive tunes though. :D

I'm still definitely not there with my Christmas shopping, but at least we have some new decorations for all our trees - my brother took my mum and I for a little outing to some local garden centre's and we managed to score some Polish and Ukrainian glass baubles. :D Oh and take a few comical pics:

We enjoyed a nice lunch before heading onwards and back for the Christmas Fayre at my brother's school.

Sunday night was dinner at my mum and dad's, and my mum tried out a recipe for Polish baked Nutella cheesecake:

Needless to say it was a huge success! :D

This week has passed rather quickly, but I've been playing catch-up on some craft projects - including my card for tomorrow's Daring Cardmakers challenge. :D

And on that note, it's time to head over to the parentals for Arrow night: the revenge!

Weekend antics

Well it's been a nice Halloween weekend in these parts.

A good few treats to be enjoyed - they didn't all go to the trick-or-treaters:

Also some ice cream enjoyment:

Ben and Jerry's currently on offer at Tesco, so I got one of the new winter flavours and I'm going to try the other, Satisfy My Bowl, later this evening. :)

There were also some Halloween sights to behold on the high street, including a pumpkin Olaf:

November started off with a cute funny courtesy of my Caroline Gardner desktop calendar:

I had a lovely afternoon and evening with Zoe and the girls, including one very mellow Lola who was hogging the fire:

Some quality time with the Playmobil... in fact there was a Playmobil photo call that got photobombed by a certain Playmobil fan:

And said fan also managed to create another Playmobil photobomb incident as some hapless diver got in on the action at Playmobil diving practice - genius! hehe

Then it was pumpkin carving time, which took some time it has to be said - there were a lot of guts to scrape out:

Our evening was made complete by a rather huuuge Indian take-away (the remaining half of which I polished off for lunch today) whilst watching X-Factor (less said about that the better)...

Today, while catching up on some of the week's telly, I have been having a leisurely day of crafting, including finally opening and USING some of the Tim Holtz tinsel I picked up in Florida in 2012!

I knew it'd get used one day!

A great way to start your weekend...

So Friday was finally the day at work when I got my new computer/laptop setup all fully sorted and working - all e-mails, everything transferred over and the peripherals sorted so I could work off my big screen and just use the laptop as a CPU - it took some re-jigging and a lot of time spent under desks with cables to get the layout all correct but yay! It's done at last. :D

When I got home from work I came back to a great bit of happy post in the mail - my F@ck Cancer T-shirt from Stephen Amell's Represent campaign that ran last month. Yay!

Sinceriously, I was that happy I even took a selfie - a rare event indeed... Due to popular demand Captain Amell is running the campaign for a very limited 24 hr window this Thursday/Friday so I may also get myself a long-sleeved Tee to see me through winter. :) Check out his Facebook page for more info coming up. In fact, in general, his Facebook page is a seriously entertaining place to be - what with Fan Art Friday and Meme Monday... ;o) Well worth a like - even if you aren't an Arrow fangirl. :D

So after my quick selfie-ing I zoomed up to meet with Zoe and the girls for our meal out at the Italian:

Followed by the illuminations - I managed to test out my little Lumix in night conditions with flash - it wasn't too bad considering!

We even had time for more selfies while queuing for the model railway:

Then before we knew it they were off on the train!

And one last ride before home:

After all that fresh air we headed for a before bed stop for milkshakes and McFlurry's... :)

It was a great night and the weather was really kind to us. :D

I have to admit to enjoying a very lazy Saturday yesterday - but I did get my piece of seasonal artwork up on the fridge:

And today I have made full use of the clocks going back - it's midday and I am still in my PJs but not for long! Off out for lunch with ma so I'd best get ready. ;o)

Weekend hijinks

Well after the mammoth crafting session on Saturday, Sunday was spent out and about in the sunshine of York with friends.

It was so sunny in fact I had trouble getting some decent pics of our little group without blinding them:

After lunch (sadly not the Yorkshire pudding wraps we'd been looking forward to) we strolled up to the Minster - not that you can really see it, and I promise the sky was blue...

There may have been some sweet purchases at various fudge stops and the like...

And there may have been cake....

The good news is that Patisserie Valerie is coming to Newcastle - in a couple of months apparently! I wonder where it'll be located. :D

After the last cake and refreshments of the day it was time to go wait for the last Park and Ride bus to take us back to the car - good job we checked the time as we'd have been locked out otherwise!

A very nice day indeed. Let's hope this weather continues for a bit longer, especially around the 19th as I have a little visitor coming to stay for the weekend. ;o)

Time to share some pics...

I thought I'd finally share some of my Instagram snaps from my recent holiday to Poland with the parentals. :)

Lots of photos....

It all started after the most fraught departure from home (dropping my DSLR on a solid wood floor at 2 a.m. definitely hadn't helped with the calm and relaxing holiday mood - thankfully only the lens cap and filter seemed to be damaged and I had a spare one of each - but still not what you need!). Once we were on the ferry and waving England bye bye it was a lot easier to get in the holiday spirit!

Our first stop was with family friends we have known for 30+ years - everyone was there to greet us. :)

And there was a fine BBQ in the evening where the Dutch Speck went down very well:

The following evening our dining tastes went down under - and much the shock of my dad there was no vinegar for his chips in the Australian restaurant we went to, had to settle for good old Mayo as usual. ;) However have to say my squid starter was the best dish of the night:

It was soon time to hit the road again and our next stop en route to Poland was Halle...

After arriving at the hotel we ventured out and around the Altmarkt. Not the most happening place on a Sunday evening it has to be said. ;) It was a shame because we'd had the most wonderful time in Dresden a few years ago and having visited so many beautifully restored old squares in Poland we were a bit surprised at how little had changed in Halle.

Perhaps it had been livelier in Handel's day... but at least I got my requisite Rafaello Becker in:

Then we were back on the road again driving to Wroclaw (via Boleslawiec since it would have been rude not to with it being on the way! Ma and I did some shopping in the ceramic factory shops - will share spoils another time!), checked into our usual hotel and navigated directly to our favourite eating spot on the old market - Karczma Lwowska! The only place to get authentic traditional Lwow cuisine. It's like regular Polish cuisine, but in hyperdrive! Utterly delicious!

I think you can tell my dad had been looking forward to this!

It all started off with bread and smalec... and a round of Kwas (12 ltr bottles of which came back with us in the car):

It is the most delicious stuff... and great in a scorching heatwave. Then out came the dishes:

One man and his favourite Lwowskje jadło - including the best fried potatoes ever! Needless to say someone was very full after that! I had the dzieduszycki dish at last with my favourite kluski Lwowskje! Omg yummo! And ma had a chicken dish with the same kluski too:

And we all tucked in to a huuuge plate of beetroot - yum!

Then something miraculous happened, ma and I had room for half a slice each of the Torcik Pischinger - I kid you not, this was HALF a slice:

The next day we had chance to wanted around the square again before hitting the road, and for elevenses we decided we were definitely going to the Wedel drinking chocolate rooms.

Everyone was much more upbeat after a good shot of chocolate and sugar...

So many delicious things to try... just look at this ice cream I had...

Look at it!!! Huuuge and delicious...

And less expensive than Starbucks over here...

After that we walked around the square some more... the sun was properly out:

So beautiful....

A proper blue sky...

And this little fella was very popular - as you rub his tongue and nose for good luck:

After our wander, we were back in the car and headed for Katowice for the now annual gathering of the distantly-distant-related Tustanowski clan - I think you can tell this photo was taken the morning after the night before which included almost half a bottle of Baczewski vodka for me and the best part of a bottle of Johnnie Walker black label for the gentlemen...

After Katowice it was time to head north to family in Plock. My oh my was the weather hot there. It peaked at 39 degrees in the sun one day - so needless to say I wasn't out and about that much with heat like that!

But there were some highlights!

Got to see my Babcia...

We got to meet Baby Emilka before she went off on holiday:

There was the pilgrimage to Dolce Cafe for cake and coffee:

The walk around the old town and above the Vistula:

And against all odds my auntie, mum and I managed a day trip by bus to Warsaw just so I could finally visit a Bath and Bodyworks this side of the Atlantic!

So much has changed in Warsaw since I was last there, the Palac Kultury is absolutely dwarfed by the skyscrappers around it - almost looks like New York, but it's still a nightmare to navigate by car, there are still roadworks everywhere, and the bus to the bus station back to Plock is still jam packed whatever the time of day!

But it was worth it... especially as ma and I did quite well in BB&W.... can you guess which bag was mine?

Hm.... just a few essentials.

And before we knew it it was time to get our last few shopping outings for food and goodies done - ma came back with a new coffee grinder, Zelmer machine for mincing meat and prepping veg (I looooove it!), and a deli slicer for bread, cheese, cooked meats, etc. Fab! My dad had his selection of beers and Kwas, and I was just happy with my B&BW, Boleslawiec, and folky stuff!

The weather Gods were kind to us on our route home via Germany - on the way to friends near Dortmund my dad finally got his chance to visit the Schloss and gardens at Herrenhausen - plenty for the gardener to admire, including the huuuge hibiscus flowers:

There was even a wedding going on with the happy couple making their getaway in this fire engine!

The view from the first fountains...

There was even an Ancient Greek Elvis....

...and a rather surreal but bright and cheerful grotto.

So now we're back I finally got round the putting my holiday spoils from our little trip to Bath and Bodyworks in Warsaw away.

All of this....

...thankfully fit in my little shelf area devoted to B&BW sprees. Ma and I managed to spend a fair amount of money, but all my favourite scents were only available in handsoaps.

I also found some space to tuck in these lovely L'Occitane like shower gels - they are very popular in Poland but made by Johnson&Johnson so wonder if they will ever come to the UK:

I even enjoyed my first cup of tea from my new Boleslawiec birthday teapot - and am happy to report it's a great pourer. I have two other teapots (one British and one Chinese style) and both are now decorative as they are rubbish pourers, this one is not!

Also on the folk art front, my vintage Cepelia poster which I bought the same year I moved into my house is finally up on the wall above my desk - it's a non-standard size so difficult to find a framer who would take on the job!

It has taken a bit of getting used to as it is bigger than the picture that used to be up there, but she is lovely!

The last weekend of August was spent mostly cleaning the decking and conservatory and all windows with the aid of my dad and his pressure washer! Needless to say we were both pretty knackered after all that, but the results weren't too shabby:

And then the last day of August was a gloriously warm and sunny day spent in the park with my god daughter and her mum and dad:

Including a visit to the see the butterflies...

And a ride on the choochoo train:

And lo and behold it's almost the weekend again.

It's crop night with friends tomorrow night, so I suppose I'd best start thinking about what to pack - however I am most tempted to just go and soak in the bath with some of those new pampering treats and start a new book. ;o)

Crafting is on hold

I have a visitor staying with me this week...

She doesn't look like she wants much fuss... but having done 5 walks today I can safely say crafting is on hold until I can get a moment uninterrupted to complete a project from start to finish, otherwise there's just no point trying! ;o)

In the meantime there's nice new stash to drool over:

I'll probably get round to playing with it next week during my week off from work. :D

Happy Mother's Day!

I thought I would pop in with the last of the cards I made for someone else's mum, I'll share mine tomorrow. ;o)

Paper: Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Avery Elle
Stickers: Echo Park, Crate Paper
Dies: MFT, PTI
Other: resin flower, stickles, sewing machine, pearls

That Avery Elle Handwritten Notes stamp set has had a fair bit of use this week, eh? :)

And on the topic of Mother's Day - ma and I had a very nice but rather shattering outing to the Metrocentre and IKEA, polished off with a good old burger at Gourmet Burger Kitchen:

So good, but boy oh boy was the walk back to the car a difficult one!

Yet again we had spent something like 3 hours in IKEA, and left with the usual... serviettes, tea lights, washing up scrubby and zip lock bag restocks!

However, I did come away with a new storage container for my stamps, and the two smaller boxes in the set are great for storing 6x6 pads.

These Notudden baskets were in the bathroom section and are pretty durable compared to the cardboard CD storage boxes. They are those ones made from a durable fabric that zip diagonally at the bottom to assemble. I have some cream ones in my Hemnes chest of drawers in the bedroom, but I loved this print and they are really handy looking. The baskets will definitely do for now for my stamp collection, if it needs rehoming again I shall just move these baskets to my Hemnes drawers to store chargers, etc.

Well, I had best log off, as I think an early night is definitely in order after today's shenanigans!

Almost Monday and back to the grind

It's been a busy couple of weeks and this one looks to be the same, work has been really busy and I've been working from home plus working extra hours to get everything done, so I have neglected to blog and share what I've been up to when not working.

So I've been out a good few times to Chiquitos - yum!

Had a fun games night with Zoe and the girls:

Finished a book I started and have to say it's been the best book I've read so far this year (and probably will be for a bit... )

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty - big recommendation to try it!

Enjoyed a break from work last Thursday to go and celebrate Tlusty czwartek (Polish Mardi Gras) at the parentals:

Ma made the staple item of Tlusty czwarten enjoyment - Faworki, above is the before photo of plate one.

Here is ma with plate two.

Here is plate one ten minutes later....

And apart from that I've been watching some telly in the evenings - yay Silk is back!

Then there was the next gripping instalment of Line of Duty:

And I also enjoyed this week's episodes of The Taste, The Great British Sewing Bee, and Hair (on BBC3).

And at last it looks like Spring is coming around, the days are getting noticeably longer and the sun was actually shining and heating up the kitchen on Friday:

Today I've had a work-free day so it's meant I've been able to catch up with crafting for next week as well as my 2014 album, well I'd only had chance to get my January photos printed so have finished those now:

And now I'd best go and rescue my dinner in the oven!

Almost back to the everyday :(

Well Monday and the return to real life is just around the corner.

I was lucky enough to be able to work from home Thursday and yesterday, which meant that Lola and I could manage a last walk at lunchtime in the sun and very windy weather.

We had our final wander around the much visited bandstand:

Then wandered down to the lake where the ducks and geese plus a few cormorants were observing our progress around the path.

Alas we had no food for them.

Lola then was reunited Zoe and drove off home. :)

Today I've had a lazy day in fleecy PJs - it included unwrapping this lovely package:

Containing this!

Yep, my album for 2014 - it's official I am trying to hop on the PL-style bandwagon and get more recorded during the year rather than just keep photos on my computer and online.

Looking forward to seeing what photos from January make it in there as I'm hoping to do a monthly style catch-up and January is usually a quiet month of activities but if nothing else I'll be snapping away at random things with my phone.

And this evening I've got one more card to make before I go down and enjoy the Christmas tree for the last time, it all needs to come down tomorrow. :(

Happy New Year!

I know I'm a bit late in my wishes here in blogland, but I've not had the PC on for a couple of days and I find blogging much easier from there.

But before I go into that here are the last few snaps from my Deck the Halls photos:

On the 30th - a pic of my lovely wooden tree from John Lewis - definitely the centrepiece to the mantelpiece.

While I was over at mum and dad's on New Year's Eve to check on Kizia the cat I took a snap of yet another Matryoshka family. These were bought in Newcastle at the continental market and sit alongside many other authentic Russian sets. :)

So the reason I have been busier than usual is that I've had a house guest this week - Miss Lola is staying with me until tomorrow and we have been packing in quite a few walks despite the awful weather yesterday and before...

This has been a familiar sight so far this week:

We've been out in windy and wet weather that even the ducks avoided:

We've watched Mary Poppins - my seat was mysteriously taken after I returned from the kitchen:

We've given dirty looks to other dogs who have dared to use the park:

We have been around this bandstand God knows how many times now:

And we have seen in the new year together:

There was a party hat involved.... but it did not get worn - I rectified the matter:

That party hat didn't get worn in 2014 either!

Finally at 2 a.m. I relented and we took ourselves off to bed. I'd been enjoying a good Baileys buzz and some fine music.

New Year's Day was the day to go walking in wet and windy weather.

First off a walk near my mum and dad's after seeing to the cat:

We went right down by the river and managed to make it out the mud.

The High Street was pretty much deserted so I could take some nice window snaps while the festive displays were still in place.

Then we headed over to my brother's so we could enjoy an epic walk around the park in mud, rain, and wind - with the numerous other dog walking members of the public who had the same idea. Never seen so many muddy dogs in one place before!

We went right down and along the river....

Then back up the hill and around the museum grounds.

We watched... OK I watched the Sound of Music - Lola couldn't get close enough to that fire to warm up again!

Personally I felt as cold as this winter scene on the bauble. I couldn't get warm again all day.

And today...

Well it was back to work for me - got to have a fun work diary!

But Lola and I made it back to the same park as yesterday for our afternoon walk.

Despite the finer weather, she was still a bit of a mud magnet.

We wandered down to the river via an alternate route. Much calmer.

Up the hill again... yep...

This is what a winter's afternoon should look like.

And now we are off around to my mum and dad's so we can have a last walk for the day.

A trip down memory lane...

Can't believe it's almost a month ago that we were in Krakow enjoying that mini heatwave.

At last I thought it about time I shared some pics on my blog, not just my Instagram account!

So it's about to get image heavy here!

After checking into our hotel, we set off on our very short walk to the market square in search of something to eat.

The first night was definitely the night for something filling.

So down the steps we went into a cellar restaurant hoping for some traditional fayre and of course the first beer of the holiday for my brother:

Indeed my brother went for the whole shebang with his platter of food!

The next day we were headed down the Wieliczka Salt Mine - it was a seriously sunny day out, but very nice to spend all that time underground being wowed by the sights, even with all that walking down countless steps and tunnels. We were just very glad there was a lift back to the top - only took 20 seconds to reach the surface again, having spent 3 hours walking down as far as the tour went it was amazing how fast we got back to the top!

Have to say those miner's uniforms are very smart and perfect for a cheeky photo op, here's my brother down pit:

After we resurfaced we got dropped off at the square again so we could go and enjoy a bit of refreshment.

It was still gloriously sunny:

Refreshment came in the form of cake and ice cream:

It was just lovely sitting outside relaxing and enjoying the view around:

The love birds went with an ice cream to share which came with a gingerbread heart, ahhh:

I had an iced coffee and a slice of Black Forest, although "slice" doesn't do it justice!

And ma had a traditional slice of Polish apple cake - although I've never seen a slice as big as that before! hehe

After some more shopping and a freshen up at the hotel we hit the square again in the evening for dinner and a pre-bedtime trip to the Wedel chocolate cafe:

For the best hot chocolate I have ever had (oh man and there have been some good ones):

Kate went for a very seasonal spice bouquet infused tea:

The next morning it was time for more culture. We set off to the through the park:

This was really the only sign that it was October - you couldn't tell by the weather that's for sure:

Then it was up the hill...

And through the gates:

Then into the courtyard:

Off to wait for our tour of the private apartments to begin, but blimey it was so warm, you'd think we were in Italy!

Naturally we enjoyed a nice ice cream and a bit of cake at the cafe - a very nice Kremówka to be had at the Wawel cafe it must be said!

Then it was time to walk back to the square around the walls of the Wawel and do a bit more shopping - mainly window shopping at the L'Occitaine shop - and a few nice items at the Boleslawiec shop.

We passed Kredens again, a bit like the Krakow version of Lewis & Cooper, and they had a nice window display on again (last time we'd been in 2012 it was a vintage delivery bicycle) with a nice old samovar:

And there were some more photo ops:

Thursday was the only day it rained, ma and I had a little venture out to some places we wanted to pop into before heading off for the afternoon to family friends for a lovely catch up. By the time we got back to the hotel it had stopped raining and was lovely and warm, even though it was now dark. And yep, it was off out for our last evening meal in Krakow back to Max 18 - a fab restaurant for your favourites - plus, best of all, lots of fresh traditional salads (like grated carrot and sauerkraut, etc.) yummy!

After checking out the next morning and leaving our bags at the hotel we did one final tour of the square via a well trodden route.

It was time for our last eating adventure in Krakow, my brother was desperate to finally have his fill of street food, a sausage and beer followed by some black pudding:

Ma and I, on the other hand, were much more interested in having our last fill of cake!

Rafaello cake for me at the aptly named U-la-la - btw this was the BEST place for a Kremowka in the end, it's what ma had and was definitely 10 out of 10!

My brother tried to put a brave face on it when enjoying his last beer of the holiday, but he was glum:

And then it was bye-bye Krakow...

... and off to the airport.

Thankfully lots of nice things came home with us including a very nice array of Christmas items (alas no proper baubles this time as we couldn't find what we were looking for), but there's enough nice stuff here to keep me happy!

I also saw these and remembered how much we loved our own similar wooden ornaments as kids (which still go on the family tree) and bought this set for a certain little lady to enjoy in future years:

I also got my fill of the folk art I love so much:

Including that excellent round mouse mat on the top that I'm now using. Ironically designed in Poland and made in the UK! You don't hear that often!

And here are the Boleslawiec items added to the collection. For me a little spoon rest (I know it's for tea bags but I'm not a big tea drinker, I am a big stirring spoon user though!):

And for ma's name day coming up in December, this gorgeous cup and saucer:

Neither of us had seen this pattern and design combo before - unfortunately just the one in the shop, but I really wouldn't mind one for myself. ;o)

And I think that more or less covers it.

A little late posting...

But here's my card for our first challenge of our 8th year over on the DCM blog.

Miri picked a lovely colour palette for us to work with, since it's the first challenge of a new month:

Well, I am definitely swaying towards Christmas cards right now so I tried my hand at a festive number with these shades:

Paper: KI Memories, MME
Stamps: WPlus9, PTI
Dies: PTI, Marianne
Other: pearls, sewing machine, 3D foam, Stickles

It's a bit hard to tell, but the main pinecone and branches have had some Platinum Stickles applied. I also tried out my WPlus mini pinecone and branch stamps to do the border - they are really lovely to use. :)

And speaking of Christmas stuff... I am about to get further in the spirit. I was out for a festive crafty night with Becky last night and managed to make quite a few snowman inspired items, including this poor fellow who hasn't travelled home too well:

and today I am planning on tucking into my lovely delivery of Crate Paper's Bundled Up stash:

Yay indeed!

And before too much time passes, I'll quickly share some pics from this year's Halloween/birthday celebrations for a certain young lady.

I was crafting away on Wednesday night to get some treat bags made:

Eyeballs, pumpkins, brains... what's not to love?

I also cased a fab card I'd seen by Jess Witty earlier this year that had stuck in my head as a great Halloween number:

All to wish the gruesome twosome, and ok Lola, a happy Halloween:

We had a lovely afternoon out at a spooky cooking class, which included eyeball lemonade - quite tasty actually!

Followed by a lovely meal at the diner afterwards:

And back home for trick or treating (in the rain!), but alas Lola was not really rocking her stylish witches' hat by that time!

It looks like that Halloween weather is sticking around, the skies are gloomy outside and I really need to crack on with some card projects - looks like photography will be via desk lamp this week since all the lights are on right now as is!

World cardmaking day? Not in this house it ain't!

Quite ironic, I thought, of all the days in the year that I am not actually crafting away it would be this one...

Nope, instead I have been awake since 4 a.m. unable to sleep, yet able to finish off the new Mary Balogh book I started earlier this week and rather enjoyed.

Then Ma came over and we went for a walk to the new local deli so Ma could enjoy an Italian, ooer:

...Coffee that is.

And we could try some of the paninis on offer:

I have to say I do love a nice Gorgonzola and onion marmalade combo, this time with Parma ham. :)

After our meal which also included a sweet treat we went for a wander around the village, stopped off at a few shops then wandered over to the park for a stroll via this fella:

Who I am sure was hoping for some nice minty polos.

So... yes, not much creative stuff done and I have a long list to be getting on with. Best fire up the iPlayer and get to work!

A quick round up

So the blog's been a bit neglected this week - I've been rather busy this week with work, a bit of crafting, and a nice meal out.

In fact, let's go back to Friday when I had a rather long and tiring day at work and finally could rest and relax in the evening in the awful rainy weather with a warming hot choc and slice of cake:

Saturday morning I had a bit of work to do before an afternoon hair appt and a late lunch out with Ma at our favourite local Italian.

Glad to see our favourite drink was back on the menu:

Strawberry Pago juice cannot be beaten!

We decided to forgo our usual garlic bread starter (mmmmm) and have something a bit bigger for our main.

Ma went for a really filling Pork dish with Chirizio and some peppers, plus potatoes and salad on the side:

I went for the Pollo Speziale with a lovely salad and potatoes on the side - the caper, olive and cherry tomato salsa under the chicken was delicious and the chicken has to be one of the best grilled dishes I've ever had, so light and tender:

Sunday was a definite day of rest - or the day I did a bit more work and then got on with some cardmaking. ;o)

Monday evening was my only crafty time this week...

I got the inks out!

Tuesday night I was working right up until The Great British Bake Off.

Yesterday was a bit of a trying day but thankfully there was light at the end of a tunnel, a lovely meal at the Indian with Zoe - totally stuffed after polishing it off but it was sooooo good:

And off to the cinema we went to see We're the Millers. From the trailers at the cinema I am somewhat worried about the lack of comedy films coming our way this autumn and winter. :( We may get desperate when the SAD kicks in and have to go see Bad Grandpa:

But yes, I'm hoping there's at least a few more movies to go see this year!

Tonight I have managed to get my crop packing done in record time for tomorrow night, but I'd best double check I've actually got everything for this "light" packing malarkey.

It just doesn't seem right....

Not how I expected my week to go...

From the highs of last Friday's birthday celebrations I am now feeling my "advanced age" (:oP) and suffering with a rather uncomfortable and problematic trapped nerve down my left lower back into my thigh. Ugh, sitting has been a real problem ever since Tuesday morning when I must have jarred myself between getting dressed and arriving at work. I just couldn't handle sitting at my desk as it was so painful plus I overstretched when trying to (ironically) move my monitor to a more ergonomic position. Thankfully have managed do some work from home in my PJs between stretching on the floor and applying arnica, etc. I've managed to get some high strength anti-inflammatory tablets from Boots now and they really helped last night in addition to the pain killers and heat pad. I thank heaven that lying stretched out in bed is fine so I can at least get some sleep, but sitting at a desk isn't great... am hoping the weekend will help get me sorted as I don't need to drive anywhere or be seated a lot. If the lovely weather sticks around I could at least get some vitamin D therapy while I tackle my book pile...

But anyway, here's a look back at the halcyon days of last weekend.

Friday I enjoyed a lovely trip to Fountain's Abbey with my brother and Kate. The weather was nice for us and not overly warm as there ended up being a few hills to climb whilst trying to avoid the pheasant population.

We started off in the manor house which included a rather nice dressing up area that someone took advantage of:

There were some lovely dresses indeed:

We then set off for the abbey ruins:

Including a look at the rather formidable cellar:

I think my brother was getting ideas for how to store his beer collection...

Then we wandered further... lots of photo ops, especially for those who like to play hide-and-seek.

We then wandered to the lake to enjoy a nice scone with a view:

Before heading right back round on the other side and snapping a few more pics from across the river:

I think Kate and I were rather in need of a nana nap in the afternoon, but I managed to stay awake long enough to get ready to head on over to the parentals where ma had cooked up and prepared a veritable feast of Polish favourites for us all:

We started off with cold meats, cheeses, breads, salads, etc. Including my current favourite combination of very thinly sliced Polish yellow cheese (mmmmm) with tomato and sweet onion salad.

Naturally every course was accompanied by vodka, and we put one of the latest additions to the family collection to the test:

I'm afraid I much preferred Belvedere, but we got the job done... After my fave soup in the world - gherkin soup - we moved onto the main course. Not much left here, but ma had made Polish pork schnitzel, a roulade of pork in a lovely sauce, buttery grated beetroot (mmm), new potatoes, and French beans with lardons. All very lovely and very filling!

Naturally the vodka was rather low by this time:

So much so that by the end of the main course we'd finished the bottle and my dad had decided we needed to polish off the rest of another one so the bottle could be put to use in the making of home-made lemon vodka ready for Christmas. We were happy to oblige.

Last on the agenda was my birthday cake - a gorgeous triple chocolate mousse cake:

Saturday of course was mostly spent recovering from the food excesses of the previous day - no hangover - you don't get that with good vodka. ;o)

Sunday afternoon I had a nice trip out with Zoe and the girls, plus Lola:

Lola even perfected her mountain goat dog routine.

It's a good job we did all that walking - because we went for tea to The South Causey Inn near Beamish, and oh my word - if you want to get your money's worth in dining this is definitely the place to go. Very generous portions and I have never seen such a large dinner plate in my life - in fact it was larger than the clock on the wall:

So large I couldn't get it all in shot - and this was after I'd loaded up my plate with the veg I knew I could manage.

That's not to say of course that dessert was off limits... It would have been rude to ignore that aspect of the menu.

However I think I would have been just as happy with the Mr Whippy option the girls had on their menu:

BH Monday was definitely a day of rest! In fact I finished off a book and got a few things sorted at home, including putting my lovely gift from Zoe out in its new home:

My lovely Babushkups are now residing on what has become my folky shelf.

All was well Tuesday evening as I enjoyed the latest instalment of the Great British Bake Off.

The only bright side to Wednesday morning was receiving some lovely post from Ang over at Paper and Ribbons.

She'd very kindly swapped some die cuts from me for these handy PTI dye ink sample charts and a couple of cubes she no longer needed. And best of all, a gorgeous handmade card using her new PTI goodies accompanied these pretty items:

Anyway, I am just hoping my back and hip will be ok enough to enjoy a little craft activity this weekend as I am behind on making a get well card for my grandma in Poland who now has her wrist in plaster, and I have other thank you cards still to make and well... at this rate they will be Christmas thank you cards! Plus I want to do better for next week's DCM card since I have been out of action this week and couldn't craft in time.

Right, best go and apply some more arnica as I am feeling the need!

Before I get back to work

On this little project:

Complete with all photos now stitched last night into the late hours and awaiting the next stage of album assembly:

I thought it would be nice to look back on the past week that flew by so very quickly. I am really hoping this weekend won't be a repeat of some of the mishaps of last weekend.

Namely...

When the Hummingbird Bakery definition of a 23 cm pie dish is somewhat different from John Lewis' definition and you have to transfer the entire biscuit base for your Keylime Pie into a rather larger baking vessel!

When your washing line flies free from its moorings just as you've pinned up the last of your sizeable bedding wash and it promptly all collapses in a heap on the (wet-in-places) decking! Above the emergency solution still in place.

When quite by chance you see a little wasp disappearing into your shed when the door's closed and you go and investigate, only to find a small planet wasp next being built by the door. That's when you can't get your head out of there fast enough! Thankfully wasp man (aka father) came in with his basket of wasp-eliminating products to resolve the matter!

But in better news there have been some enjoyable moments:

The Keylime Pie turned out fine! Next time I will just halve the ingredients, then it should fit in my flipping pie dish. ;o)

The weather was great for the lovely BBQ we had on Sunday. In addition to dessert, I also dished up two of my favourite summer salads, Polish tomato and sweet onion (so simple but so satisfying), and Pear and Blue Cheese (St. Agur in this case) salad, with toasted mixed seeds and avocado for extra oomf:

All that food, sun, and sparkling conversation all proved too much for some:

And then it was Monday before you knew it. And by what a scorcher it was. The Coke truck was in town offering you the opportunity to finally get your name on a diddy Coke bottle - I am never going to see my name (the closest I ever got to personalised pencils or keyrings as a kid was Natalie or Natasha - never a Natalia to be found!) or my brother's on a bottle, so thought I'd go along after work and see what the queue was like:

At 29 degrees and spanning almost the entire length of two department stores I wasn't going to stand about for two teeny bottles. Instead I went in search of something cool and appropriate:

It hit just the spot!

Speaking of cool - I managed to get rid of share some Keylime pie on Tuesday night when I went round to Becky's for a catch-up and to try out her new Slushy cups. They were fab, so off I went and bought myself my own:

Alas mine isn't freezing fully in the freezer - despite it being on the lowest setting I can get. Need to test it in someone else's freezer and if it doesn't work there it's definitely going back. I can get slushy out of it even without it freezing fully, but it's nothing as spectacular and easy as the ones we made on Tuesday. At £13 a pop if it's not working (and I can't make frozen cocktails as easily as I'd envisaged) it'll go back.

As you can see I've also been playing with my apps and combining the various features.

I'm loving it, but one of the niggles I have is with the image size/resolution being saved post-processing. A lot of the pics that I've put through A Beautiful Mess are very small compared to the Instagram pics - I have seen that they are hoping to increase the resolution on the next update, which would be great as the photo printing rating on Photobox is usually medium (for a 6x4 shrink to fit print) compared to good for a full size Instagram image that hasn't been through A Beautiful Mess first.

Mind you I haven't felt the need for filters and doodles on some of the lovely pics I managed to get when round at the parentals on their tour through the David Austin back catalogue:

I too have had some spectacular blooms in my rose collection - but being at work have missed some of the best. But how lovely this one looked:

I'm hoping to get some more pics today once the sun is on the other side of the garden, but what state those blooms will be in today after all that sun I'm not sure. They got a very good watering last night, so hopefully they'll be thriving!

But now, it's back to work on the album I need to make.

(Plenty of mishaps occurred due to the combination of spray paint coating, drying issues due to the heat, and then Wilko clear enamel coating not being received too well by the spray painted surface - so having to rethink a few things and try and make the best of a bad case of pages having become stuck together and pulling paint off! Don't think I will ever buy a black annoyingly shaped chipboard album again! Too much trouble when it comes to actually decorating them!! LOL)

The temperature is already hotting up here, and tomorrow we're going to be on the big Ikea convoy so best crack on. Thankfully got this left-over "Christmas" body lotion from bath and body works to keep my legs and feet cool.

I do indeed smell like a stick of rock, but that's small price to pay!

Now this is definitely not going to become a regular blog feature...

...because I definitely cannot afford to keep up that habit!

But thanks to a nice conversation and swapping of info about apps last night with Zoe, I have a new recommendation to add to the list. The Rhonna Designs App by Rhonna Ferrar is the newest addition to my iPhone and iPad. Go follow that link to see what it's all about - there's a little promo vid too. There is soooo much jammed into this app - so many fantastic text elements, words, fonts, basically there is oodles to play with that at first you are going to spend ages playing away with all the various elements. I also love the colour sliders so if the colour you want to pick is a touch darker, too red or a smidgen off, you can use the sliders to get the colour you want. I'm sure it's an app you'll keep on discovering elements with, for instance I had no idea there were masks until I saw the vid! hehe

Also I think I will use this app much more on my iPad as the bigger size will make it easier to fiddle with all the elements than it would on my phone screen. We shall see! But I'm rather looking forward to discovering everything this app offers.

So yes, that is hopefully my last photo app purchase for a while, otherwise I will be so busy playing with pics I won't have time to take any!

With the aid of my various photo apps, here's a snapshot of yesterday:

The day was filled with blue skies and nary a cloud in the way - Hipstamatic

I picked up a couple of books from the library just in time for the weekend, weather I'll have chance to read them is another matter! - Instagram

I headed up to Zoe's for a delicious and bargainous (Groupon) meal out at a Thai restaurant, loved the subtle flavours of this dish, much smokier than the Chinese equivalent and the batter was very different too. First time I've ever done "proper" Thai food that wasn't lemongrass-based! - A Beautiful Mess + Instagram

Afterwards we went for a little pootle and finally found the secret beach - A Beautiful Mess

Caught the only type of beach sunset you'll ever see in the North East - Hipstamatic

On my way home I stopped off at 24 hr big Tesco to get the ingredients ready for this weekend's BBQ fodder - I am in charge of dessert (above + almost a full tray of Dangerous Cake), Pear and Stilton salad, Chicken and veg souvlaki and I bought myself some freezer cocktails for good measure. Alas the ice lollies were almost all sold out so nothing to tempt there really. How will I survive this hot weekend without ice lollies??? - Rhonna Designs

So, I'd best get on. It's going to be too hot to scrap this afternoon, and I think it might be a good idea to leave off work on my mini-album until the spray painting has definitely had 24+ hours to dry completely. At the moment all the mini-album pages are lined up in my dish drainer by the kitchen sink, as it was the only way to stack them without them touching something else and needing recoating! LOL

Enjoy the sun while you can folks!

At last a summer outing

Yesterday despite the awfully wet and cloudy start to the day - nixing the whole Alnwick Gardens trip for 2013 - we managed to make the best of the weather and headed up the coast to Warkworth for some bimbling, lunch and exploring.

We parked in a rather apt spot for this pic:

Just round the corner from a gorgeous house that gave me real gate envy - I am an admirer of pretty gates and doors on Pinterest it has to be said:

We enjoyed a lovely spot of lunch at the Hermitage Inn, couldn't pass up a fab roast:

We needed to walk it off a bit with a nice stroll down by the river:

Lots of lovely summer daisies on the banks:

We had a good gaze at the cottages and pretty homes:

Then went off exploring the signposted route to the coast. Well worth it!

I played about with my Hipstamatic options to see what came out:

The dunes... not as epic and gruelling to get through as at Bamburgh thank heavens!

It was just so empty and beautiful.

Not to mention we'd timed it well with the sun!

It got a very high rating!

Leaving the beach behind we went in search of ice cream!

Mmmm sea buckthorn is one my "foraged favourites" - really lovely flavour similar to a subtle apricot. Yum!

The ice cream was worthy of more giggles and smiles!

We had a little stroll round the harbour afterwards, then set off to Warkworth castle for a wander round:

It was definitely a bit cooler by the time we rolled up, but that didn't stop the bow and arrow action!

There was also a sighting of a ghostly apparitions through the walls of the keep:

Woooooo!

We had a walk down and around the castle and thankfully there is no photographic evidence of us making our way down the steep hill into the moat on our bums in order to get back to the car! <g>

On our way home we made a stop off at another gorgeous beach:

There was plenty of room to run:

Lots of sand - perfect for writing in:

A spot of hopscotch:

Rocks to climb like something straight out of an Enid Blyton book:

Beach as far as the eye could see:

You could even see Puffin island in the sun out in the distance:

Just lovely and plenty of opportunity for photo ops.

Just a truly, truly lovely day. :o)

There's always next year for Alnwick Gardens!