Friday Rocks!

Welcome to a very wet Friday, steady rain has been falling all day, wonderful for my garden, the ground is very dry and really in need of a good soaking, but not such good news as far as our family of cats and dogs are concerned, the cats do not do rain and sit by the door, looking accusingly at me from time to time, as if I can do anything to improve the weather for them....the dogs on the other hand seem oblivious to the rain and want the door left open so that they can seemingly bring most of the garden in to the house, in the form of muddy footprints all over the laminate floors and the sofas......grrrrrr! Still it is funny to see them skittering about, and I should be grateful that the floors are laminate and not carpet.... and the sofas are leather and not fabric......lol.

This week has been quite an unusual one in lots of ways, and unusually relaxing, I am off to Brittany on Tuesday for our annual family holiday, two weeks away from our normal routines and commitments, normally I am fairly stressed at this stage, writing lists of things to pack, things to buy, worrying about how it will all fit in the car, dreading the 7 hours in the car to the ferry etc etc ....but not this year, it's all done and dusted, and was actually all done last Sunday!! I've had the luxury of finishing off various work and crafting commitments at a leisurely pace, and time to plan and prep for up and coming events when I get back from holiday ..... all I have to do is get me, four teenage girls (DD plus 3 friends) my friends Kate and Nora (Jim's 89 year old Mum) to the airport on Tuesday, phew.... I am so grateful that my OH had to be in Plymouth all this week, for work, and is now at the docks waiting to board the ferry accompanied by our friend Jim who travelled down to Plymouth today to join him, along with a car loaded to the roof with bags, books, craft stuff etc, etc. and they will be at the airport to collect us all on Tuesday, having enjoyed a few quiet days before the rest of us arrive.

My eldest daughter is coming home to house sit and look after the menagerie whilst we are away, arriving tomorrow, I am really looking forward to spending a little time with her and her partner before we leave for France, I don't see nearly as much of them as I would like to, and I am grateful that I can enjoy this weekend with them, as the packing etc for France is all done.

I won't be blogging whilst I'm away, the part of Brittany where we stay is very remote and does not have broadband coverage, in fact it is hard to get mobile phones to work as the signal strength is very poor, and we don't have a TV where we stay. I am grateful for the opportunity that this lack of mod cons gives us each year to talk, play games, eat leisurely meals and share real quality time without distractions, simple pleasures such as beachcombing and visiting the amazing rock pools exposed at low tide on the rose grantite coast are ones we look forward to every year, and are priceless and free.

Bye for now everyone, see you all on here when I get back.

Bee xx

Sunshine at Tuesday Taggers.

Hi Everyone,
I can't believe that it's already Tuesday again, time is just flying so fast. I'm off on holiday to Brittany soon and just can't wait, but I've got plenty to do between now and then, to get ready.
This week at Tuesday Taggers the theme is SUNSHINE, and perhaps it's because I'm in holiday mode but it put me in mind of all those hot summer days by the sea when I was a child. Summers always seemed longer, hotter and sunnier then, but maybe it was just that as a child I had more time to notice and enjoy the really good days.

Because I'm trying hard to get all my crafting commitments done before I go on holiday my ATCs have been made with an ATC swap that I belong to in mind as well as this week's Tuesday Taggers Challenge. For the ATC swap the Theme is childhood, and "The Summer by The Sea" Stamp set from Stampin' Up! has some really lovely images and sentiments. I have simply stamped the images onto rough watercolour paper with Dove Gray Stayz-on and the coloured the images in with reinkers and a watercolour brush. I stamped the sentiment afterwards, using a Stamp-a-ma-jig stamp positioner from Stampin' Up! to make sure everything fitted inside the 2inch x 3inch frame I had allowed myself, so that I could then double mat the images and still keep to the 3.5 x 2.5 inch dimensions of my ATCs.

Bye for now.

Bee xx

Black Is Back at Tuesday Taggers

Thanks to my teamie Lyn, the theme at Tuesday Taggers is Lots of Lovely Black. As I had recently made a card using just black and white I decided to go with one more colour this time and added a beautiful turquoise blue. This card was inspired by one made by a good friend of mine called Tracey, I just loved the colour combo. I hope you like it too.

This card is winging it's way to my eldest daughter to wish her good luck in her driving test later this week. I really hope she passes, so fingers crossed.

Bye for now

Bee xx