My new timetable

Moving to new churches means working out what you do, when. This week I arranged meetings in Church A when there was something to attend in Church B and vice versa. We still have to work out the puzzle of the Elders Meetings on the same night (not my fault they both moved them without consultation with each other!). But it will all work out in the wash. And on Friday at Babbacombe I have to be out at a 9:30 prayer meeting followed by a coffee morning. Coffee mornings are a great place to catch up with everyone so it is a must really. But that means either I have to be super organised on Thursday and have a blog post ready for when DCM launches (unlikely) or find time afterwards to do the post. Sometimes I have still been making my card at 9:30 so that will have to change as well.

9:30 at Babbacombe is fine as I live across the road from the church, I'll be attempting to go to Brixham for 10 on Tuesday which will be interesting as it can take 40 minutes to get there. Slightly less if you don't get lost (I have discovered that Brixham is rather unforgiving if you lose concentration and take a wrong turning). This is the fun of a new posting and everyone is very understanding!

So onto cards wot I have made this week
Zuzana chose the Daring Cardmakers dare this week - Fun with Pictograms
I knew straightaway that I had to find some old American Crafts papers that I had and it was fingers crossed that I hadn't tossed them
Result!

I had bought two bargain scrap paper packs from T K Maxx and was so disappointed to find it was flimsy paper rather than the usual lovely heavyweight American Crafts. So most of it has been recycled. Fortunately I hadn't been able to let go of this light and bright set so the pictograms were still there. I don't like this card though. I wish that I had gone for something more clean and simple. Ah well.
I used 4 papers from the pack and one of the stickers. I also added glitter ribbon and stamps from Imagine That, some Doodlebug embossed black paper, Nestabilities and some Enamel Accents.

This weekend it is my parents Golden Wedding - which will probably feature in future posts. Here is the card I have made. Parents, look away now!

 

It is VERY sparkly. This is helped by the MME glitter embossed paper - I managed to die cut the numbers from another of those golden swirls, but also from liberal use of golden glitter dust. I used my new paper chain die (there are only 4 in a row but I am quite proud of the fact that you can't see the join. Little things please little minds). The sentiment is one of the new Imagine That stamps

And finally a just because I have some time to create card. This uses a 6 x6 MME paper pack, lots of different dies and some fussy cutting. I wondered why it took so long but there are 7 laters, not including the sentiment. But it is flat enough to post!

I don't think I have mentioned my MA results on the blog. My dissertation arrived through the post this week and looks most posh (I had it bound in green with gold writing!). I received a 67 for the dissertation which means that I have a Merit award in total. My first year I scraped through and did wonder if this was all for me but I am glad I persisted. It still feels strange not to have to work towards it, that 5 years of study are finally over (and no more cinema and clothes shops reductions any more!) but that is it! I'll be swanking around in cap and gown for my graduation in October.

And..... I'm back

and now just about settled in Babbacombe. Home of the Model Village and Cliff Railway. Have now visited them both (although the fact of having 3 kids over 16 i.e. all paying as adults means I didn't enjoy the model village as much as I might have done as the thought of how much it was costing put a bit of a dampener on it. It was still fun though)

Look it was sunny!

This has proved to be rare since we moved. The bad news is this was our summer holiday and we were going to take unpacking slowly whilst taking time every day to explore the area. Some days we could not even see the garden. The good news is that due to the weather  and lack of broadband for the first week, everyone worked really hard and the house is 95% completed.

My craft space is even up and running

I have managed to cram what was spread out in a whole room into a corner of a fairly large bedroom. Result! The little welsh dresser will not stay pink. I painted it that colour when Carys was little but I have it back now (it was mine when I was a child) and it will be white and the little treasures that survived her childhood will be returned to its shelves. Oh yes.

And when I sit at the table, if the weather is fair, this is what I can see

The brown thing is the speaker for my radio. The dark blue strip next to the house? That is sea, that is. And the tiny darker strip just above it? That is land. Probably Dorset. Babbacombe faces Portland which I find totally discombobulating as it should face out to France or Spain or something in my head. My head is wrong though.

And here is the sight we see less than 5 minutes walk from the house

 This was taken on a day following a rain storm when we had a double rainbow (more of that later). It takes longer than 5 minutes to walk down to the beach and I suspect even longer to walk up again (we took the cliff railway on the one really balmy day we have had) but Oddicombe beach is lovely. We didn't move because of the location, but I won't deny that it is a lovely place to live. Even in the rain!

I've dipped my toe back into crafting with two layouts

This one is all about the move. The photos were actually taken on day 1 where they just packed and loaded. There were two vans although all our stuff fitted into one. The journalling details the highlights of the move (!) - the fact that someone crashed into the back of one of the lorries parked outside our house (still can't work out how you can fail to spot a removal van); watching Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (fun but v. gory for a 15 in my opinion) and then going back to clean until late on the Monday night; me setting off nervously with the trailer on the back of the car with Phil following on his bike and then rashly turning right at the first traffic lights at the last minute to avoid a hold up and promptly losing him which led me to complete panic (although I stopped worrying about the trailer) - he was actually ahead of us at Clacket Lane services where we were reunited. I am a Muppet, frankly; how one of the chickens made a break for it out of her box, fortunately when we had stopped at Stonehenge services and a few other details that it is good to get down on paper before you forget them.

 The papers are all MME and I used some v. old brads, red gems and some Studio Calico wooden stars and this little Nikki Sivils flag as well. Letters are Thickers and Papermania.

On the day of the double rainbow I first tried photographing it from the bedroom,

then rushed and told everyone about it. By the time we got out side to see it in all its glory, some of the rainbow had been obscured but it still looked beautiful over the water. And we stopped for some more photos

The rainbow over sparkling sea with a little tiny boat was just lovely. Phil took this photo of Carys and me. Not necessarily flattering of either of us but hey, that is what we look like!
I used loads of old stuff here - some K and Co and Scenic Route papers, lots of Doodlebug alphabet stickers (look how many colours I have thanks to working with Docraft in the past!), some Fancy Pants acetates and Christina Cole domed stickers (overlooking the american spelling of "color" on the left hand side one). Also used a sunburst flower punch, and some random odds and ends from the embellishment drawer along with a Martha Stewart border punch and a new(ish) border stamp that I have already lost the cover for so don't know who made it. Helpfully.

And now I am in Induction time - meeting people and trying to work out who is who in the churches and the community, ready for "proper" work after the Induction Service which is a week on Saturday. Hopefully there will still be time for a little exploring as well.

Dismantling

is the theme of our lives at the moment.
Last weekend was very tough but lovely too as we did lots of goodbyes.

A final choir concert with a visit from Britannia, songs written especially for us (one sung during the concert and two at the after party) and being given some gorgeous pictures to hang on our walls. An "at home" last Saturday with guest around from 4-10. Really nice and relaxing though. Two final services at the churches that I have been at for 13 years (this Sunday I have one service at the church I have been Minister of for the shortest time) followed by an afternoon celebration of Ministry which meant more gifts - including our own Mike Hill chapel painting which I will photograph once in situ and lots of tearfull farewells.

And this week has mostly been sorting and removing. Freecycle is awesome as we are able to pass on goodies we can no longer use to others. And we also live near the tip which is useful for those things that are in no fit state to be passed on. During the celebration on Sunday we used a Litany of Farewell which has helped with the feeling that we are dismantling our lives here as well as the flat pack furniture. Of course, that is all because we are going to rebuild in a new, rather lovely place, but that doesn't make the letting go of lives and churches and stories (and disgusting old yet oh so comfy recliner chairs) any the easier. So I am allowing myself a few maudlin moments as the next time I can blog it will be from my new seaside residence. Don't know when that will be as we will be at the mercy of Mr BT and his trusty broadband engineer.

Anyway before getting back to the sorting out lets talk crafty for a while! I wasn't going to join in the Daring Cardmakers challenge this week but needed a thank you card for the choir last Friday and as I was making it realised that it would fit for this Friday's dare! Leo wanted us to use a minimum of 6 different patterned papers. I managed 7!

The secret is layering. Almost all of these come from an Echo Park 6x6 pad where the papers are double sided making choosing so much easier as they all blend together. The musical note is cut using a Cuttlebug die and is from a Heidi Swapp pad. It is patterned but you can't tell in the photo. I also used 4 Nestability dies, a Cuttlebug embossing folder, Martha Stewart punch, Imagine That stamps and a sharpie pen for outlining. As it was being hand delivered it also has several layers of foam pads. Oh I miss using them for posted cards!

I've nearly finished my stint as Guest Designer for Quirky Kits. I've been sharing the layouts that I have made using the Footnote Lite Kit

The how to details are on the Quirky Kits Inspiration blog
I've got one layout left to reveal but that won't appear here until I live less than 5 minutes walk from the view on the layout above! By then Carys and I will have celebrated our joint birthday - we are 63 together which must mean I will be 31.5. Which is odd as she was born on my 31st birthday. Oh well. Maths don't lie. 31 it is. We are going to the Harry Potter Studios and to see Top Hat. Making the most of London while we can!

We'll meet again, do know where, don't know wheeeeeeeeen!
But I know we'll meet again some sunny day (or not so sunny as the weather has been terrible for ages)

Surprise!

not for you, but for the rest of the Daring Cardmakers team. You see I had told them this week that I wasn't going to be participating again until after we move and have broadband up and running. (A life without the internet, how will we cope?). However I needed to make a birthday card for a lovely boy at church and when I had finished it I realised that it fitted the dare requirements for this week. Samm asked us to make a "Hole in One" using a reverse die cut technique. I didn't do this deliberately but obviously my crafting subconscious was at work. Here is my card

 

I used an old Basic Grey pad - archaic. I've never really known what to do with the dinosaur papers but figured that 7 year olds love 'em. The central section is mounted on foam pads. The "7" is a PTI die cut, stuck on top with glossy accents as there weren't many parts of the number that touched the edge of the cut out star (star is a nestability die). I really like this look so will use it again - but obviously only with cards I can hand deliver. The hike in postal costs really cramps my style. It was so lovely to use foam pads again!

 

I've been scrapping away with the Quirky Kit - Observations. It is amazing how far everything has stretched. I'm out of embellishments apart from a few journalling tags and a smidge of ribbon but still have some of the papers and alphabet left - after 5 layouts and a tag. Here are more of the layouts that I have revealed on the Inspirations blog - you can read how I created them there.

The last one features my new house. Two weeks today Operation Removal begins. Ulp! It is very hard to leave. There are some people that I will never see again and that is tough. There are jobs that are not quite finished. There are things I wish I had done better. There are lots of goodbyes. I've managed not to cry yet but next Sunday is the big farewell do and I am dreading it. It is part of life and ministry - we are supposed to walk with people for a while and then move on to allow others to walk with them, or for them to find a different way of travelling (to stretch a metaphor). Doesn't make it easy though

A lovely staycation

is what I have been enjoying this week :)
It hasn't been filled with anything much - a couple of movie nights (Lincoln Lawyer - better than I thought it would be, maybe a tad above average and the Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - the Swedish made for tv version. Which was gripping. They had to cut chunks out of it  - I loved the "so you're emancipated - which if I recall takes about 100 pages of the book. I just can't see a US version working if it will be less than 3 hours... ); a lot of ironing; a load of bin bag filling. And some crafting.
But no running.
Have you noticed I went quiet about that?
I spent a really rough couple of weeks at below par and somehow haven't got the hywl to start again. I think it will come but perhaps not until we move and I might do a bit of Couch25k to get me back to 5k (was on 6.5)

Anyway here is some of what I have been doing...

this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge was set by the lovely Nat
and the challenge is Resin Inspiration - to use some resin somewhere on the card.

this card was inspired by a sketch - but I can't remember where I got the sketch from (sorry. I know its not a current one). There is some of yer actual sewing maching stitching on here. I still panic while I am stitching which makes the machine go faster than I want it to. I have a fair bit of this lovely variegated thread so I might do some pre stitching of card bases again.
The papers are all from a MME 6x6 pad. MME pads are just so lush, lovely thick paper. So I chose a few that would tone together with my Prima resin flower. I also used a doily punch, leaf punch and  loads of nestability dies. The sentiment is an Imagine That one. The cream layer has some embossing done with a Nestability folder. Which didn't like going through my cuttlebug. When i read the instructions it turned out that this is because I was using the wrong sandwich and could have wrecked folder and/or machine. READ first, use second. When will I learn?

I've also been super early with my Father's Day card. Turns out Dad will be out of the country so it doesn't need to be ready yet! This time I know where the inspiration is from - Tracie Claiborne's card as seen on Two Peas.

Another day, another MME pad of paper. I am so pleased with this so thank you Tracie for the inspiration!

And I want to use stamps a bit more so dug out my Imagine That balloons

Guess where the paper is from? You are right.

I wrote another blog post on the Quirky Kits inspiration site yesterday. The layout is all about the Tithe barn in Upminster that is only open once a month and we keep not getting round to it. Last Sunday was our final opportunity and it is such a fun (and free) place to visit! The Quirky kit had lots of eclectic goodies to use that brought out the eccentric nature of the museum.(See that blog for more details on the page)

We've got a Sunday off this week. Only we are going to church to hear Carys sing in the morning, then Phil is doing a worship planning seminar and we are both taking our (final) evening service. We've planned it together and haven't argued. Yet. Its a miracle!

Hugging myself with joy

why? I hear you ask?
Well,
I have had a splendidly crafty day with Sue H today. Sadly it is our last crafting session together before the big move although we do have plans to get together with another crafting pal next week so it wasn't goodbye
BUT
why am I only now thinking that I should have taken a photo? bah.

And also
I am the current guest designer for Quirky Kits
Soooo cool. I've been sent both the big kit and the small kit. My plan is to use the larger one for as many layouts as possible before using the small one and then merging them afterwards. Currently I have made 4 layouts and 1 tag and there is at least one layout left in the kit. I've only revealed two on the blog so far. I'll show them here but if you want details and close ups then pop over to the Quirky blog for more. I love the Quirky!

I also love the layout of the Quirky blog which means you can make your work extra large without covering over a side bar. One day I will summon up the courage to mess around with my template as this is a bit tired now. (Still like my plain, no frills header though so that will have to stay. Probably)

It has also been a good day in that my fabby husband has done oodles of work on the house in terms of tidying boxes up. He has discovered the joy of vacuum packing duvets and pillows. Unfortunately we are going to need some of them before we move. I suspect anything that keeps still is going to be vacuum packed in the near future. I'm not complaining. He is a man worth more than rubies as Proverbs 31:1O meant to say

Quite another week

I had hopes of blogging at least twice this week. But no.
So what did I do?
Saturday - contact centre in the morning. Church Quiz in the evening - my table won (we were shocked!)
Sunday - 2services plus a BBQ at a third church
Monday - wedding anniversary - which included a meal out and a trip to Sweeney Todd in the evening which was fab, fab, fab (Michael Ball is so good at being eeevil and misunderstood)
Tuesday - trip to Doncaster to meet up with my pastoral triad. We talk over issues and support each other. Also fab, fab, fab but with a lot less eeeevil.
Wednesday - left Doncaster and travelled up to Middlesbrough to pick up Hywel at the end of the second year of Uni
Thursday - included travelling into London for an exit interview with our moderator (sort of like a Bishop but not so eeeev - no, that won't work)
and Friday   work.
Saturday - a mixture of work rest and play including singing with the Kingsley Choral Group at Eastbury House in Barking (we ended with a bigger audience than we began which is always reassuring)

I did have time to sit and stare and do other things too but it does seem a bit of a blur now!
On Monday I made my Daring Card. It's another colour challenge and what else could it be but red, white and blue for the Jubilee weekend?

The papers are all from Junebug by Basic Grey. I traced round a die cut cup I had. The scotty (ish) dog was already on one of the papers. I added an embossed Heidi Swapp crown stamp, a sizzix die swirl, half a doily, Imagine That "celebrate" stamp and a flower with Craft Candi in the middle

I've made a few more cards this week. One uses a new Martha Stewart punch. I ordered a punch from Oyster Stamps and there was a little mix up with the order, but they sorted it out promptly and generously so I wanted to say a public thank you. This punch is a new doily border punch - isn't it lovely? (it is the blue layer)

Almost everything else is from a very old Crafty Template card kit. I adore that silver and cream paper. And the dull silver sequins. And the cream card lace. So I have been hoarding them. time to let go I think. I also used Imagine That stamps, with black and blue ink and some sticky backed gems.

Last week my prize for winning the Scrap 365 sketch competition arrived. It was an Echo Park kit from Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn. I leapt straight in to using it

The words come from one of the papers. Other bits come from that same Crafty Template kit, a Prima mask, Tim Holtz heart (sprayed with the same colour ink as used on the cardstock but it looks so different), an EK success punch, a butterfly punch and some glitter thickers

Thanks to the Queen moving half term, we have to preach tomorrow on Trinity Sunday - a Sunday that Ministers often try to avoid because it is hard (said in a moany voice). Let's see if I can explain that it is just another way of trying to understand God in a meaningful and worshipful manner.
For one of the sermons I am using this quote from Romans 5 as translated in the Message. Eugene Peterson has a wonderful way with words and there is so much love in this. I love the picture of doors opening, so I shall leave this epic post with his take on a quite difficult passage

 ^1-2By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

Its been quite a week

A fair part of it has involved me whinging around the house saying "I've got a co-oooooold". But apart from a little bit of a cough I am all better now. And I did fabulously well on my Christian Aid collecting (50% of the road gave me something and only 20% said no) so i think being poorly gave me some sypmathy cash there!

A part of it has involved going to meetings for the last time. One meeting was quite good in that there was a sense of "our work is done and now it is over to you". Although some of the other faces looked a bit glum at that. That is the hard bit of leaving somewhere

A part of it has involved going to a recording of a radio programme in order to score QI tickets. PHil and I went to hear Rufus Hound doing an episode of "My teenage diaries". Phil had never heard of the show which I have listened to a fair few times on Radio 4. "You'll have heard of the guest" I said airily, and named all the ones I could remember. Usually funny people. Then Rufus said "Welcome to my guest - Jackie Kay". At first I thought - did he say Jackie Clune, the comedienne? Then she came out and no it wasn't Clune. Then the words "Poet?" "Lesbian?" "Bet Phil has NEVER heard of her" came into my head. Turned out I was right on all counts
and
she was fabulous. It was an amazing hour  - she was funny, warm, thought provoking. Honestly I wouldn't have necessarily gone along if I had known who it would be (I suspect that is why we were bribed withQI tickets) but I wouldn't have missed it for anything and it has taught me that it is worth trying things just to see. It will be interesting to hear what makes it through the cut to the 30 minutes on Radio 4 at 6:30 pm....

I've also managed a little crafting this week. And I was actuallly first to reveal my Daring Cardmakers card this week (faints). Rein suggested the theme of Locks and Keys and as it is our wedding anniversary on the Monday coming up (24 years!) I knew what I wanted to do.
Phil look away now...

I used a large square card form Craft Creations and Echo Park Victoria Gardens 6x6 papers. I painted a grungeboard lock and key. Also used: Cuttlebug embossing folder; Martha Stewart punch; Sizzix heart, Nestabilities tiny label (18?) and Quickutz corner dies; Lilybee, Making Memories and Cosmo Cricket letter stickers; Sharpie pen and Distress Ink

It's my mum's birthday on Sunday so she needed a card too.
Mum look away now...

 

This card uses Echo Park This and That Graceful 6x6 papers and stickers. The card has a cream base so I swooshed some Vintage Photo over the flower sticker to make it less white looking. Lots of faux stitching going on and I embossed a little bit of vellum as part of the base label for the flower. I was about to give away the vellum when I saw some embossed on a blog and have now retrieved it for personal use! The sentiment is an Imagine That stamp - from the Wish upon a Star set. I love that font so expect to see this used a lot in the future!

Here are two more quick cards. I couldn't resist this set of Artemio chicken stamps - which will mostly go on labels with the eggs we give away

 

There are loads of little cuties in the set. I coloured them with Distress Inks and found the perfect pad of papers to make backgrounds with - Basic Grey Obscure - which is quite an obscure choice really! 

And finally for now - I am trying to make more use of my Quickutz dies and this card uses some tiny circles

again I used the Obscure pad. I inked round the edges of all the circles with a Sharpie pen and added Liquid Pearls and black Enamel accent spots. Its an easy to replicate card and is nice and flat for UK posting

It is Pentecost this Sunday - a big event in the Church year - but one without all the traditions of Easter and Christmas. I'm hoping that by Sunday I can think of a creative way to celebrate!

We've (almost) grown two men

When H became 18 Phil and I kept saying "we've grown a man". And now it is happening for the second time as Em hits adulthood tomorrow. So where did the last 18 years go?

Here he is at about 8 weeks old. I remember him as an easy going baby. And he didn't cry much because, having had one already I think, I tended to know what he needed. This photo was taken on holiday in Canada. I wouldn't take Hywel out of Hartlepool for the first three months just in case. Emrys was on a plane at 7 weeks! He and H always had a strong bond and when he could talk (which was fairly late because H would tell us what Emrys wanted) often it would just be to add "and me, and me" to whatever Hywel had asked for.

He was a very photogenic child and in my opinion could have been a Milky Bar Kid. If we weren't boycotting Nestle at the time

He was very fond of his capes. If he couldn't find one a tea towel would do.

All the girls in year 2 loved him when he was in reception and they would wait for him to arrive at school so they could care for him!

This picutre pretty much sums up how my three still are. They love to torment each other and spend a lot of time laughing

 

Now he hates having his photo taken and so they are usually shot with a long range lens. He is intensely private and very shy, but has a fabulous sense of humour, a keen mind, winces at bad grammar. And likes to keep us guessing. For example, Phil has (probably) managed to get some QI screening tickets and now that Emrys is 18 he could go along. We thought he would be delighted.

His response

"Why sit and watch hours of it when you can see the best bits from the comfort of your own sofa?" Fair point.

When I asked him (out of politeness as I was sure he would say no) if he wanted to come on a tour of the Harry Potter studios he said "Of course". I asked again as I was so surprised. I'm still not sure of his motives - might be just to tease his sister....

Emrys the enigma, Emrys the man who knows his own mind, Emrys who kindly allows us to find it hysterically funny when his name comes up on tv (Merlin and Being Human), Emrys with the dryest sense of humour ever, Emrys with a keen sense of right and wrong, we love you and salute you.

To celebrate my geeky boy (sorry, man) it was my turn to choose the dare for Daring Cardmakers this week so I went with the Geek theme. As ever, it proved more difficult to work out what to do for a card for my own dare than for any other! In the end I went Big Bang Theory - a geek classic in my opinion. I could have just used the printed photo that I cut Sheldon from but that of course would be too easy. I did however allow myself not to have to ink or outline all the little balls!

This is the card as it will come out of the envelope

 

and this is what happens when you pull

 

I used Marion Emberson and Banana Frog stamps, an old Daisy D's kit (which had several die cut words like "Smile" and "Birthday" from which I plundered the letters for the name. Strangely enough they didn't include the name Emrys in the kit). The papers are Daisy D and Bazzill and I used my favourite enamel accents to dot round the outside.

I thought I would be able to give you a Christian Aid collection update today but I have been laid low with a rather nasty cold and cough this week so have only delivered so far. I will do an evening collection tonight and try again in the morning (Emrys won't want to start his birthday too early!) so hopefully it won't be too bad

After the ball was over...

Well the wedding on Saturday
And three services on Sunday
I am wrecked and Phil has given me the gift of his cold.
So today I have no voice. Which is rather annoying as I actually need to use the phone.
(I hate using the phone).

The wedding was great, the bride looked beautiful and the celebrations were good. I don't have any photos as I didn't take my camera - kind of felt I had enough to do as the Minister! As I was going to the reception, as soon as the service was over I changed into a dress and jacket and was amused by all the double takes from people :) I could have danced all night - I love to dance and don't have many opportunities these days. But I managed to drag myself away with the knowledge that I would be leading worship at 9:30 in the morning!

The services all went well. Two were parade all age worship services which are not my favourite style to do. They are a fine balance between keeping lots of youngsters occupied and learning something whilst also being meaningful acts of worship for everyone else. Who knows if I truly managed it and although one is to avoid the "stunt at the front" apparently, the memory of a scout gamely trying to open a tin of peaches with a mallet still makes me smile! (I think the wooden chair is alright but I do apologise to Trinity church if not. I leave this as my lasting legacy - the chair that Lythan dented. Well the scout did it but I was supervising). Choosing to do the same service twice in quick succession I was intrigued to note that neither young lad picked to open said tin can, knew how to use a tin opener. This actually worked in my favour as I was able to comment that Christian Aid does not just provide the right tools for people to help themselves (tin opener rather than over gloves or mallet) but also teaches them how to use those tools.

Maybe it was last night that helped me lose my voice. The United Reformed Church were invited to join the Church of England local deanery session to hear Lee Gattiss talk about "1662: the triumph and the tragedy". 1662 is when 20% of the Anglican clergy were chucked out for refusing to conform to the Book of Common Prayer. This is where many URC's can trace their roots back to - including Romford URC who are celebrating being 350 this year. Although we knew we were about as old as you could be, why the church began then we had been (ok I had been ) a little hazy about. I now understand it all. We had communion from the Book of Common Prayer which was good to share together but it did all cement for me why I am glad to be non-conformist. I suspect it may have cemented for some of my Anglican colleagues why they are glad to be C of E. So it's all good!

Oooh that was all a bit long. Probably because I can't really talk!
Now for some pictures. I did some scrapping last week.

This was the last layout inspired by Shimelle's crop. It was to make a page based on this layout



I managed tocrop my photos too small. Sigh. Still the white border around them is fine by me. I used a mix of papers including the very first Cosmo Cricket ever on the sides. Why are the sides uneven? Maybe because I stuck down the wrong piece on the left. But went with it anyway. I also used some October Afternoon, MME and Echo Park papers along with some washi tape and Thickers. I thought I should add some cross stitches as well.
Here is a close up (slightly blurry) of said WIP

I have now finished the thin column on the right hand side top to bottom. I have started moving to the left, rather handicapped by the fact that I managed to turn to the wrong page and now have to stitch over the mistakes as it is too fine and complicated to unpick (most of the work is made up of stitches with  two different colour threads together). Big sigh. And I have managed to leave the pattern book next to some baby wipes which means part of the colour has leached out and the pages are delicate...

 And here is the other offering for my Tenby scrapbook - still a few more pages to do!

 

This one uses one of my new Crafters Workshop templates and lots of Echo Park. Instead of a banner I decided to punch out lots of labels and layer them under the photo. The lovely denim rose ribbon i bought from Imagine That, which has a fab new website. This will definately be the last layout in the album as the journalling reflects the end of the holiday. As it happens the photos were taken on our last full day as well. The sea and sky were so so blue! 

 Right, time for a Lemsip....