House Guest

We have this lil Lady staying with us for a couple of days. The outlaws have headed out to Cyprus for the big wedding, however there was a mix up at the kennels and Lady was not booked in until Thursday, so she's staying chez nous until they can take her. She is a complete nut job of a dog, and I was dreading her coming here and ripping up my house, pooping where she shouldn't and terrorising the cats, however she's been very well behaved (so far) and I'm feeling a little guilty that we'll be shipping her down to the kennels for her hols tomorrow. She's actually being a little spoilt here, she seems to think she is at the Hilton as usually she is mostly kept outdoors (due to her mafia-boss nature), but here she is lording (or should that be ladying?) it up snug and warm on the sofa's with regular treats and belly rubs, seems she wants nothing more than a bit of love and fuss. Rocky is also enjoying her company. Will she make it to the kennels I wonder?!

I'd promised to share some of the photos from Craig y Nos, so here they are.

I thought these little sign posts marking the paths were adorable!
The titanic scale of the trees made Lee look positively wee and diddy-man like!
These trees were eerily like twisted and knotted fingers, I took this one at an angle, but they actually formed a canopy over our heads (see the second shot)The eerie pathway led us to this little house. I couldn't decide whether it's inhabitant would be of the likes of Cinderella; bound to a life of slavery and injustice; or the Blair Witch!!! I have a feeling it would be the latter *eek*
I borrowed Gem's longer lens for this last shot of the interesting spires, chimneys and vanes of a wing of Craig Y Nos Castle just before we packed off in the car.
Other news is that we seem to be having a run of bad health luck around here. As if both my grandparents being ill was not enough, Lee has also been very unwell. It's been on going for almost two months now and he's seen doctor after doctor, had three sets of bloods and investigations and still no answer or sign of him getting better. He had two and a half weeks off work with it, and went back last week cos no work = no pay, however he had to come home early yesterday and I was so frightened by the state that he was in that I wanted to take him off to the hospital but he refused. So another GP appointment and set of bloods at the hospital today along with a referral to a specialist, and big fingers crossed that they will find what ever is making him so ill and get it sorted. I'm so worried that I burst into tears at his GP appointment this morning and I think his doctor was unsure whether she should have been examining Lee or consoling me, bless her!

My gran is still in hospital and will be for some time but I must say is making a slow but sure recovery from her stroke. No change for my poor old gramps, and all he wants is for my nan to come home :(

I've (possibly selfishly) been quite busy craft wise to try to take my mind off things so will share them with you as soon as I take the pics! One of my projects was a present for my sisters birthday, and she loved it, will post some pics soon :)

Catch you soon xxxx

Back to my roots...

...well of a craft sort any way. I've had a brief flirt with making a few cards again, that's what got me in to the whole scrapbooking thing. I'm no good at card making though so usually stay well clear nowadays, but have had occasion to make a couple this month.

These are both the same design, but I used different papers to create the right feel for the individual recipients. The stitched grid effect was inspired by Gem's "JOES" page.

I'm loving my scalloped circle punch right now! Ta for looking xxx

Take a peep...

I had a lovely email a little while ago from Wendy, the very talented lassie behind the blog for one of my favourite stash shops, Papermaze. She asked if I would like a little box of stash to have a play with, and sent me a bundle of goodies including scalloped and regular cardstock, the new doodlebug papers, some BG rub-ons, a crystal border, some blossoms and a 7gypsies journalling card.

Admittedly, the papers were very bright compared to the usual ones I choose, but I soon set about giving them the "Nat" treatment and really enjoyed working with them :)

For the full lowdown on what I got up to with them, take a hop over to the Scrap, Paper Scissors blog, but here are a few snaps of the finished pages to give you an idea.


Other news, we're having a bit of a tough old time in this family :( Both of my grandparents have been taken ill, each in different ways. You never want anything like these to happen to the people you love, but quite honestly their timings could not be more cruel. I don't really want to go in to details as it's still raw and hard for me to talk about at the moment (despite having spent four years encouraging people to talk about their problems and difficult times, I'm the world's worst person for bottling things up until it's too late!) But any positive vibes that you can send their way will be much appreciated right now.

Thanks for looking as always xxx

Been Papping!

Hola!

Ooh I've been having some right problems with ye olde blogger! It hasn't always been letting me leave comments on blogs (they take forever to load and then freeze), and even when I've come to create a post on my own blog, the screen hasn't been loading up properly and anything I type has just looked like little lines and shapes.

Grrrr! Well, at least I'm here now eh?! :)

Been a busy girlie! Started my summer job (urgh!) where Lee works, and been making wedding invites and stationary for Lee's sister (thousands of 'em! I swear, this wedding is going to be bigger than The Rooney's last week!), and even got some scrapping in.
Also had time for a few nights out, and a few exciting photo shoots "on location" with Gems (be sure to check out her new bloggy if you haven't already!).

Ooh we laughed! She really cracks me up :) Our first shoot was at Craig Y Nos Country Park, and the second one on some of the gorgeous beaches we are lucky enough to have here on our doorstep! We had intended to shoot some cracking silhouettes and sunsets, however not only was is drizzly and cloudy all day, we also kind of forgot that to see the sun setting over the sea you kind of HAVE to be facing west - whoops! Our chosen beaches were facing the completely wrong direction, but we still got some cool lighting effects (and a little helping hand from editing software of course!)

Here are a couple of my fave shots from the Beach shoot. That's not to say they are actually any good (out of about 300 shots any about ten were barely passable, getting to grips with this camera is going to be a loooooong process me thinks!), but I like them for one reason or another.








I also learned a valuable photographic lesson too: if you're planning on going out on a shoot, make sure you charge your battery first. In the words of the great man, Homer Simpson; DOH!
Crikey, they took ages to upload, I'll post the park ones again as I don't want to be responsible for blowing up blogger!
Edited to add: Just visited Cee's blog and was reminded that we've been blogging for two years. Cor blimey! I'm celebrating by adorning my blog with a new banner rofl!!! :D
Catch ya soon xxx