Antwerp

A quick trial of blogging from my phone. I'm bound to dislike the font but hey ho.

For now I'll just share a few shots of a recent trip to Antwerp.

Thanks for dropping by

Wendy xx

Another year ……… Another bad start to the blog ………

One day I will get there, I will be organised, I will blog (I will have something interesting to blog about – but maybe that’s a step too far) and I will enjoy it.  Not today (aka THIS year) though by the looks of it.  It’s the 10th of January 2011 and this is my first entry since early last month.  No point wittering on about everything that has happened since my last post – too much there.  But perhaps I can manage to take stock on a couple of things to get myself up to date.

I thoroughly enjoyed CJ’s 12 days of Christmas and I was really quite pleased with some of the shots I contributed. It really got me fired up to use my camera again, to such an extent that I requested extra bits and pieces for Christmas and I have to say that I’m really pleased with all of them.  Last week we had one final challenge – To put together our favourite six shots, either from the course or taken over the Christmas period.  As always, I found myself rushing it and I think that I could have done better but hey ho! Our family shot is a tad too ‘au naturel’ for my liking but as I nearly forgot to get one done at all before Anthony disappeared back off to Manchester, I guess I should just be thankful. Talking of Anthony, he’s only gone and managed to get himself booked on a holiday in June to Tulum!! My most lusted after destination that I have still to achieve, aaaarrrrggghhh – how come a child of mine gets there before me.

Ok, rant over, what else have we/I been up to. We did have a wonderful Christmas and over this last weekend Pete has also celebrated his birthday (at the cottage). So there seems to have been lots of present buying and wrapping for well over a month now (we started with my birthday on the 6th December).  Lots of gadgets, books, magazines etc etc to get stuck into still. Just before Christmas stove man did manage to get to the cottage (the snow thawed for a little while) long enough to install our multi fuel stove. However, with one thing and another it has taken us until this weekend just gone to get there and see it for ourselves. It is wonderful, I really can’t say more than that. We managed to get the cottage warmer than its ever been and I think that is just the start.

For his birthday, Pete wanted to walk Maisy along the beach at Barmouth. It was touch and go as to whether the weather would play ball or not but eventually as we neared our destination the rain stopped and the skies cleared.  It was so cold along that beach though, even Maisy stayed out of the sea more that she’d normally do. After our walk we deposited our backsides on the benches outside Dave’s Locker for a bite to eat before a quick shop at The Co-Op and then back to the cottage.

Back a the cottage we had a delicious two course meal, that Pete insisted upon cooking, followed by a lovely cosy evening. Pete’s asthma did flare up again – that’s almost every visit to the cottage I think – but it didn’t detract from a rather pleasant weekend. I took loads of photos of each room so that I can get down to some serious planning on how to decorate and move us forward.

Thanks for dropping by.
  Wendy x

Wet Wednesday

Yuck, I hate wet days, I’d rather it be cold than wet. It feels so dismal and dreary when its like this. Had a bit of an hiccup earlier with the car we’re supposed to be picking up later today. Pete’s hire car is due back today and so we can’t start messing about but the dealers called to say that we couldn’t have the car today because Pete’s signature was different on a couple of documents! Err, why didn’t they tell us last week when we had time to sort it. Anyhow, I ranted and fingers crossed with the help of a photocopier and fax machine we should still be on for later today. Also today I’ve tried raiding the British Heart Foundation shop again, this time for a wardrobe that I can use as a linen cabinet – I was out of luck this time. There was one that might be suitable but the old wood is just too gorgeous to paint over and as I want the furniture in the bedroom to be cream I won’t have much choice. I did pick up a set of slate coasters for the princely sum of one pound, just the right material for the cottage I think. I’m still looking for a couple of nice plates to make into a cake stand but so far these are eluding me too.

My baby girl had a bit of a time of it yesterday bless her, but after it was all done she didn’t complain once – quite the opposite to her big sister lol. Still no scrapping getting done, I am managing to get through some of the ever growing piles of novels I have so I guess that’s where my spare time is going at the moment. The only slightly crafty thing I have done is to prep some of this months photos (a couple have already been posted) and today’s picture is one of those. All along Amsterdam’s waterways, as well as bikes, you see houseboats – how I would love one of those.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Views of Amsterdam

This is one of my favourite photos of Amsterdam, well along with the fruit I posted last week, it sums up Amsterdam wonderfully I think. Boats, water and bikes. All that’s missing are the sex shops and the magic mushrooms! Now why didn’t I take any photos of the plethora of shops of this nature – I guess I was just too scared too lol.

We had a lovely weekend with Anthony’s brief visit, although he did spend most of the time out either catching up with old friends or at the Wolves match on Sunday. Pete spent Sunday taking the awning down, emptying the caravan of everything and moving it onto Alan’s forecourt to see if he can get us a sale. Pete doesn’t think that’s likely to happen where it is and that he’ll be back down in a few weeks to move it to Telford Caravans. We haven’t advertised it though so perhaps we ought to give that one go at least.

Most things are set for the coming weekend. The van has been hired, fridge/freezer purchased, a 2 seater sofa and 2 armchairs wait to be collected and finally, a scrummy bed and mattress due to be delivered here on Friday. I’m really looking forward to getting there and getting stuck in to making it feel homely. Before then though, Bex’ orthodontic treatment starts today with two extractions later this afternoon. There’s a long way to go and unfortunately Bex treatment isn’t as straightforward as Emily’s so I have to admit to being a tad concerned. Fingers crossed though that it’s not too bad for her. On a less stressful note (for now anyway) Ems and her friends have started the hunt for Prom dresses – Oh dear! We’ve not been to the shop yet but two of her friends have and the one has already chosen her dress! The Prom isn’t until May!! Interesting times ahead me thinks :-)

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

I need to change

Talking to my son yesterday it turns out that he feels the need to jot down random thoughts as he gets them, aiming for at least one per day. To this effect, last night, he created a new website for himself to do just that. He’s hoping to build up a following but currently I think it’s just me, and perhaps his girlfriend. He’s left it anonymous, thereby allowing him to say exactly what he wants – i wonder if he’ll regret giving his mum the url?

It has prompted me to turn to my own ramblings though and the acceptance that I have been very, very poor at keeping this up to date. So, here starts another try at being better organised and getting an update done. Actually organisation is needed throughout my life and I need to find my centre again. 

I toyed with posting a photo of the cottage (which is yummy by the way, but we’ve only managed to get there once so far) or our very recent trip to Amsterdam (one of the reasons we’ve only been the the cottage once). Apart from the very obvious sites of Amsterdam there were a couple of things that struck me – their shops had wonderful displays of both cakes and fruit. They almost look too good to eat!

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Les Chambres du Francais

Not sure I have the stamina for a full update so for now I’ll just post a piccie of my latest layout. Enjoyed doing this, I love the colour combo and the overall feel. Made with GoGo’s May kit, I’m really pleased with how it’s turned out.

ETA Ok, perhaps a super quick update on everything.  No news on the cottage but I suspect that’s all ok. The conservatory has today been plasterboarded and will be skimmed tomorrow. The first fix electrics and plumbing were done yesterday and we finalised the kitchen design and paid our deposit. We still need to finalise appliances and the colour for the glass worktops but it’s looking good so far.

We’ve sorted out what we’re doing with cars and it is with great reluctance that we’re trading in the MX5, along with the Mazda 5 for a new one of these:

We managed to get a better price by going to the lady who always services our cars for us and so the deal is set to be struck on Monday afternoon. Pete will be without a permanent car until September when he should have a spanking new, super low emissions Ford Focus Estate as a company car.

Now I just need to: organise a hire car for Pete, organise a hire car for Crete, decide on kitchen appliances, decide on lighting for the conservatory, choose and order the table, plan and order the built in seating, choose and buy a sofa, buy all the chrome light switches and sockets, choose outdoor lighting, choose our seats on the plane, chase the refund on the ash cloud Ibiza trip, bring the accounts up to date and worry how to pay for everything!! As is usual in our lives – we don’t do things by halves!

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Just a quickie

I have finally managed to get a little scrapping going. It started with me creating some photo collage template in Photoshop and then slotting photos of our recent trip into the them. I printed three out and have a layout on the go with one of them. For now I thought I’d post one of the collages here, it will feature at some point in a layout I hope. These are some of the snapshots I have from Richelieu and I love how they sit together in this collage.

I’ve also added another page to my blog. This one to record my ramblings about my latest readings. I think I've rushed it a little but hopefully now it’s there it will allow me to record my own thought, just for me, about each book I chose to mention.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

Much much later ……

Three weeks since my last entry, that seems such a very long time and so much to tell! Ok, first things first, I have done zero scrapping since the last lo I posted, I just don’t seem to have had the time and when I have I’ve not had the inclination. Need to get that sorted! Secondly – we didn’t get the cottage, sad to say that the owners decided to accept the offer from the folks who’d made it first. We’d both made the same offer you see and although it was tempting to play a little dirty and go back with a higher offer, we didn’t – we should have made the higher offer in the first place if we’d wanted to be sure we got it. So you live and learn.

So we put aside our disappointment and started to look forward to our little holiday in Ibiza. We were due to fly out on the 17th April, only we didn’t. Caught up in the closure of European Air Space we eventually received notification of the cancellation 12 hours before we were due to fly.  That was at 18:00 on the Friday, by 18:10 I’d booked us a ferry to France leaving the next morning. We hurriedly packed, took Maisy to the carers, grabbed a bit to eat and then hit the road. We drove down to Folkestone and stayed the night with Steve who very kindly put us up. Next morning we caught the 09:55 ferry to Calais. Clear blue skies greeted us and that’s the way it remained for the whole week. Pete had taken the roof down before we’d even embarked and there it stayed.

We had nowhere to stay booked and had decided to head for the centre of the country as that’s where the weather appeared best. We eventually chose to stay in the (new) town (17th Century) of Richelieu at Le Puits Dores.

As hotels go it wasn’t the best but the location was good and given that we’d done no research whatsoever it could have been far worse lol. We spent a very pleasant couple of days here strolling around Richelieu Park and visiting Chinon.

Then we headed to the coast, to Pornichet and The Regent Hotel. Once again the hotel was a little disappointing but that was more the fact the it was surrounded by apartments all facing gorgeous golden sands but packed none the less. From here though we still spent a couple of lovely days, again with clear blue skies and picnics on some wild rugged coastline.

We’d driven to Le Croix for this tranquillity and it really was quite beautiful.  The local ‘medieval cite’  proved interesting too and all in all it was a lovely stay.  For our last couple of day we' moved back inland near Alecon and the Chateau Monhoudou.

This beautiful house has been in the same family since the 14th Century. We were warmly welcomed by Madam, Marie Christine and were given the choice of rooms. Pete decided that a spot of luxury was called for and so we chose the best (The Blue) room. We had a large room plus separate bathroom plus a shower in the turret (on the right) How cool is that lol.

Fully equipped with it’s own pool, billiard room and landing strip, the Chateau was a wonderful ‘chilling’ way to end our break.

And so now I need to get my mojo back and scrap some of the lovely photos and memories I have.

Thanks for dropping by.

  Wendy x

The Blogger Template Designer

Woohoo, Bloggers new template designer is good. Have a look here at the info and then go have a play. I can see me losing more hours to this little improvement too. I still need to decide which font I like best for posting and I think it’ll be quite annoying to see constantly changing fonts each day. for now this is ‘Problem Secretary Normal’

As I really don’t like posting without a photo, here’s a close up from my last layout. I have one on the go but no photos yet.

Just updating this post to say that we have indeed finally chosen our little holiday, just waiting for confirmation before I book flights. We have shifted from one extreme to another and have looked at loads in between. So instead of the Exclusive little island in the Maldives we’re going self catering to Ibiza lol and do you know it looks absolutely lovely. Its away from the crowds (if there are any in April) and looks like it’ll be for Pete the ideal place to recharge his batteries. Can’t wait :-)

Still no holiday booked

Well we’re still ‘umming’ and ‘arrrring’ about what to do and so, as yet, we’ve not booked anything. The sensible bit of me (and Pete) says “lets book something less costly, especially as this is an ‘extra’ holiday” and the other bit keeps thinking “but how gorgeous does the other holiday look” And so it goes on. Our aim for this year was Crete for the family holiday in the summer and then a city break either spring or autumn and a trip to either Marrakesh or Jordon for the other. I quite fancy Dubrovnik but as it’s by the coast I just feel it needs to be warm when we go there lol. Marrakesh is a long time wish but I’ve been seduced by the thought of white sandy beaches. Aaaarrrgghh – what to do.

Parking that dilemma for a little while, I have managed to get some scrapping done and I am quite pleased with what I’ve done. This layout was inspired by one I saw in March edition of Scrapbook Magazine and was completed using March GoGo kit. I love the photo of Ems and Danni – it was taken at London Dungeons last November on a school trip, don’t they look all grown up? I altered the ‘friends’ chipboard and number of times before I was finally happy with the result lol and I just love the little flowers cut from the patterned paper.

Ok, back to my holiday shopping!!

So tempted by this location

What do you think, should we go? How gorgeous does it look, are we just being silly? There’s lots of places to go, this one wasn’t even on my list, I just came across it.  Should we be a little more sensible, but then perhaps not lol. I can ramble like this at the moment as we’ll make our minds up later tonight when Pete’s home and we’ve sat and looked through the pdf’s I have. Its called Coco Palm, what do you think?

Places I want to visit - Tulum, Mexico

I came across this extract in the 'Most incredible tropical paradises' section of '1000 Ultimate Experiences'.

Make no mistake, Tulum, on the Yucatan Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, is one of the world's premier beaches. It features 7km of the finest powder sand, perfect blue water ripped straight out of your dreams and the beach's famous, unpowered, cabana-style accommodation right along the coastline. Not enough for you? (Some people are hard to please) For added value, backing onto Tulum is something amazing: the ruins of a 6th-century Maya walled city (tulum is the Maya word for wall), possibly the most majestic backdrop of any beach in the world.

Now with a description like this, even without photos, I was sold. Unfortunately I forgot about it when booking our family holiday for this year and booked Crete. Now that's ok because Crete is somewhere else I've wanted to visit for a long time but I've since looked st some piccies of Tulum and Oh my, I NEED to go there.

Not for the faint hearted

I'm thinking of scrapping this little montage. They're photos from our outward journey from The Gambia to Senegal in January 2008 and 'not for the faint hearted' were the words used in the 'brochure' to describe the river crossing at Banjul! Somehow I've never quite got around to scrapping these photos and it's a real shame, especially as I have hundreds to choose from.  I think one of the reasons I've hesitated is because I always felt guilty taking folks photos, in some cases they shouted at you to stop. Nothing to do with being paid for it, I think they just didn't like have their images captured - captured - maybe that's the key word right there.

So I had another play with the template I used last week, just can't make my mind up if it's too busy or if I can counteract that with my choice of papers and embellishments.

Holiday booked

So we have our main holiday with the girls booked, well that is the Villa is booked, our flights are booked, Meet and Greet at the airport is booked BUT I must remember to book us a hire car otherwise we'll be left high and dry.  I have wanted to go to Crete for a good many years. It goes back to when I was a little girl and my Aunt Kath & Uncle Bill returned from a holiday there, my present was a small painting (water colour I think ) of a causeway leading to a beautiful small white church. I have no idea where my painting is, or indeed where I will find the church and causeway, but at least I will tick off one of the places I want to visit.  I have found a site with a small photo of a place that might be the one so I will do a little more digging.  Now to sort a European city break and the trip to either Marrakesh or Petra. That's the target for this year, my actual list is rather a lot longer lol

Poster plays

I'd forgotten how easy it is to create these posters like the one above.  I was messing about adding a gadget to my blog and followed an, almost forgotten, link to a small online gallery of mine.  It reminded me of the Photoshop templates I'd created to enable 'posters' of this nature to be created quickly with my photos.  So I thought I'd try this photo of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland.  On it's own (not in the template) it somehow doesn't stand out but like this I think it's quite effective.  I think I prefer the dark background but this just shows how the simple task of changing a colour can make a dramatic difference.

        

A lovely Weekend

I have spent this past weekend in the Lake District with some wonderful friends.

From left to right; Kim, Me, Giselle and Claire.

A favourite view

                                

One of my favourite views ever, in the French Alps during our summer holiday 2004.  We'd taken a few hours, and more than a few grumbles from the girls (at the time they were 7 & 8), to reach our destination.  Over the top then appeared this wonderful sight.  We ate lunch sat in an alpine, flowering, meadow with snow just 50 feet away. Pretty damn special - even the girls had to agree.

Catch up time

To catch up then – in brief. We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home, lots of family days, different visitors and food galore. Amongst some wonderful presents, Pete bought me an iPod Touch, this little gadget is sooooooo good, even enabling me to email back home recently whilst we were in The Gambia! It’s also brilliant for ‘carrying’ around lots of favourite photos, as well as the traditional music, videos and audio books.

New Years day saw us start taking our anti malaria tablets and the day after we packed Christmas away for another year, we left for Senegal. This was an absolutely wonderful holiday and because we travelled to and from Senegal via The Gambia we were able to experience (or perhaps witness) their way of life. So very different from ours, how can we ever think we have it tough!

Back home now to a newly converted garage (we cheated and had the workmen in whilst on holiday) that I need to get decorated and flooring laid etc. The new room is a decent size and will double as an office and crafting space – ooh I can’t wait to get all my stash back out of storage and get stuck in. Following on the heels of this work will be our new bedroom which is scheduled to be installed in a couple of weeks – There’s an awful lot to do between now and then.

Our company is fully set up, registered for VAT and all manner of other bits and bobs. Pete started our first contract this week but unfortunately it’s taking him away from home Monday to Friday so I am feeling that I have just a tad too much peace and quiet at the moment. I’ve not found my rhythm yet and so I find that although I have a great long list of things to do, motivation is severely lacking.

I’ve a digi layout in the current issue of Scrapbook Inspirations so it was nice to see it waiting in the pile of post upon our return. One of the (shall we call it) ‘downsides’ of having no-one here is that I have been easily distracted by various ideas for scrapping some of the numerous shots from holiday, so here’s another.

Credits for the two corner snippets of pp – Bungalow by Danielle Young.

Long time since .............

It’s been quite a while since my last post, months in fact. Lots has gone on, some worthy of note and some not. Now it’s a new year and it happens to coincide with the time that I will begin to decide/discover what direction I want to head in. For now I will post a layout completed last night, one of my favourite views from our recent holiday.

Credits are; Splendid Senegal - Overlay 'pure' from Dawn Inskip, quote from Miss Mint and little bird from Colour my World by Rhonna Farrer

Two weeks today ....

... we'll be getting ready to set off on our hols. We'll be packing up the last few things we need, loading the car and making sure that the house is spic and span for any viewers that the agents bring around whilst we are away. We are away for nearly 3 weeks which is why we need to leave a key with the agents as we can't afford to miss the potential buyers during that time.

Destination for our hols this year is France, again. It is just so very easy, laid back and relaxing - that's why we return. We don't go to the same place but we usually move around during the holiday so we can afford to spend a few days at some particular favourites. This year we have 3 locations we're visiting (I once did Luxembourg, Italy, French Alps and Paris in one trip - just me and my 2 girls. Now that one has a few tales worth telling sometime) We start off in the French Alps, which the girls and I love but Pete's not been to before. The photograph I've loaded today is a shot of our tent the last time we were there, it's typical of the whole site. After the Alps we move to the South of France (just south west of Montpelier) to a beach site that also has a large water complex - this is the main part of our hols, especially for the girls. Once we've sunned ourselves there we head back north to just south of Paris, destination being Euro Disney for a couple of days (20 mins drive away) Then we head home, almost 3 weeks later. You never know, we might arrive home to a SOLD board, but I doubt it somehow.

On that front, we had 3 estate agents around yesterday and I think we've chosen the one we'll use at least to start with. We've lots of 'stuff' we need to do around house moves etc at the moment and I know Pete is feeling quite frazzled by it all so the holiday is going to provide a well needed break for him. Between now and then I need to do an awful lot of de-cluttering. This should achieve 2 things. Firstly it will help with any viewing that goes on and it should also enable an easy move when we do actually move into our new house. I will be sad to move from here though and the girls have only ever known this house so they'll find that strange. I think it will do us all good though and that it will be an excellent new chapter.

Right, I need to get on with today - I have started to feel the pull of the 'stash', might even manage to get myself sat at my desk and have a little play. Toodles.