Late Summer...

We seem to be fast approaching the end of the summer though the weather this weekend was glorious.

No.1 son has relocated to Germany with his girlfriend, they are staying with my Mum at the moment and are hoping to carve out a life for themselves over there. They have both just finished Uni and are very excited at the prospect of living together and I fervently hope that things will work out for them.

No.2 son is back at Uni in his second year, he moved into his first house with friends last weekend, also a big step. My boys are truly flying the nest. It was lovely having them both home for the summer and I miss them.

Today I am feeling a bit sorry for myself as I am full of cold and my throat feels like it is full of barbed wire. I'm having trouble concentrating and my head feels all fuzzy so I decided to try and distract myself with a bit of blogging. I have managed to do a little bit of scrapbooking over the last few weeks but my photography skills still leave plenty of room for improvement, at least when it comes to trying to photograph LOs in an attractive way!

I got the train to Bluewater on Saturday as the house was empty and had a look at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show at their new events venue. I was a little bit disappointed as almost everything was Christmas orientated (which I suppose was only to be expected at this time of year) but it's still good to know that a show like this will hopefully be on fairly regularly from now on, not too far from home.

And at least I got to indulge my love of Starbucks Soya Almond Cappuccino and a Salted Caramel and Pecan Bar. Oh my goodness how I love that little square of complete yumminess!

My OH is currently travelling the country for work and we are going to meet up in York later on in the week, which I'm insalely excited about as I have never been to York but have always wanted to go! I love visiting any place with a history and York has been on the list forever.

In the meantime I think I will go and find another packet of tissues and some more Cold & Flu tablets!

Much love,

Angie x

A little crafting at last...

I came across a lovely design for a mini book by Kim Woods in the July Issue of Scrap365 Magazine and was desperate to have a go at making my own. I was fortunate to have the Tim Holtz dressform die used for the project, and finally got round to making my version of the album last week.
I am absolutely in love with the slightly shabby and distressed look - and have been for a long time- it's definitely my style. I have actually had the papers for a long time, they were part of a whole kit but I can't remember what they were!
 I almost always slightly ink the edges of everything I do because I think it gives depth to the overall look. I was really pleased with the result and just need some photos to complete the album. With all these visitors passing through our house at the moment I am sure there will be some photo opportunities over the next two weeks or so! It's also our wedding anniversary this weekend, so another good reason for taking some piccies.
Aaaaanyway, it's time for me to go and have a lovely soak in the bath before retiring for the night, much love to you all.
Angie x

Summer Days

We managed to spend another lovely afternoon/evening by the seaside (in Whitstable, naturally), my OH went for a long run and I took myself off for a slightly more leisurely walk. First through the High Street - though (probably thankfully!) the shops were just closing- then for a coffee and a read in Costa, and then for a walk along the beach. I am always looking for treasure, whether walking in the woods, along the beach or anywhere else, which stems from the fact that I've dreamt of being an Archaeologist for most of my life but never got round to the studying bit! I didn't find any treasure on this particular day though.
All this was followed by finding a bench in the evening sun and more reading whilst waiting for OH - he goes for fairly long runs by the way - just in case you were wondering! We both had Fish and Chips by the beach, accompanied by the most delicious and refreshing glass (plastic cup) of Shandy, just perfect.
On the way home we stopped to watch the most beautiful sunset, which was simply breathtaking.

Tonight No 1 son and his girlfriend from Barcelona will return from their trip to Hungary (how cosmopolitan are they??) and will both stay with us for a week. Then on Monday my Mum and niece will be flying over from Germany to stay with us for a week so we will have a very full house for a few days. No doubt there will be trips to London, Whitstable and possibly Bluewater as teenage niece wants to go clothes shopping! Maybe I should get back to getting the house ready...?

Until next time! Much love. Angie x

The beginning of August...really?

I can't believe it. 3 months have gone by without me blogging. I have been procrastinating about blogging, but not actually blogging...I suppose it hasn't become a habit yet, and I really would like it to. But instead of beating myself up about having to try and catch up on the last 3 months I think I will just carry on from where I am now.
The weather hasn't been too kind to us so far this summer and there has been an enormous amount of rain as well as a couple of hot days - not many of those though. We have, however, had some spectacular rainbows as a result of this odd weather!

 All the rain and cloudy skies are not good for the mood though, as I do seem to be affected by the seasons but I don't expect my winter mood to rear it's ugly head in July!
In other news, we are looking to move house in the not too distant future, hopefully to Whitstable, which is about half an hours drive from where we live now, but all that's dependent on getting planning permission on our current house.
 That was turned down last month, which was quite disappointing, especially as we had found a house that we liked already. Anyway, new plans will be drawn up and a new planning application made so fingers crossed...In the meantime we will keep visiting Whitstable as much as we can and dream of the future!

A new hookey project is in progress, I decided that I need to have a little picnic blanket and as I have a lovely selection of Stylecraft yarn it will be a colourful, flowery granny square blanket.

It will be similar to one I already have (which I made a couple of years ago) and always want to take outside to sit on, but then I don't want to ruin it for indoor use. So a new one was called for.
The last one I finished was this one, I made it for No.2 son and called it his "Jubilee Blanket", for obvious reasons.

I think he liked it!
Anyway, must go as I have a ton of things to do, will try to be a better blogger from now on! ;)

The Beginning of May...

The weather in our little corner of Kent continues to be fairly miserable (my OH tells me that weather can't be miserable as it doesn't have any emotions but it certainly makes me feel miserable!) and this has been the view from my backdoor a lot of the time.


We did have a few hours of sun on Monday though so we decided that in the afternoon we would sneak a couple of hours to go to Whitstable, just long enough for OH to go for a run along the beach (I walked instead!) and to have Fish & Chips afterwards.

The sun didn't last too long and by the time we left it had started to rain again.
Our planned trip to Penshurst Place DID take place, we had a lovely day with our friends and although most of the art and craft was beyond our price range we enjoyed looking around, trying loads of different foods in the food tents, having lunch together and just generally spending time together.
As my friend is a recently qualified Falconer we were particularly excited to see some birds of prey at the show.

This little Peregrin Falcon was just too cute for words!

I can't remember what type of owl this little guy was but he was very vocal.

I have always had a thing about vultures (I think it's ever since the first time I watched "Jungle Book" - go figure! :)
In other news, as the weather is generally preventing a lot of outdoor activities this means that there is always a little time for crafting so I have been making some progress with what I call my "Domestic Album". It doesn't contain any photos at the moment but I think I will use it for photos from our upcoming (as in next week) trip to Germany for my Mum's 70th.

And that's all for today as there are a gazillion other things I should be doing! Bye for now!x