Sunday 22nd November 2009

David and I had the privilege of having our youngest nephew round in the morning. A mix of fun, play and Jaffa Cakes!! I just love the sound of a young child playing and laughing, but why is it they stop making any noise at all and play silently as soon as you start videoing them?

James and Mansura

Congratulations to my mum's cousin's son (James) and his new wife (Mansura) on their wedding this last Saturday. I was honoured to be asked and was lucky enough to be able to attend as it was being held at The Glasshouse, Mussleburgh, Scotland. What a spectacular range of buildings there.

A huge thank you to all those who organised the day especially Mansura and her father who I understand worked tirelessly to make sure the day went as well as it possibly could. It was amazing and I had an awesome time. Here's a selection of photos from their day.

Couple with Groom's family

Mum and Groom's Mum (Cousins)

Starter: Vegetable Samosa, Mixed Salad and Chutney

Main Course: Chana Dhal, Mixed Veg Curry, Pilau Rice, Naan Bread

Dessert: (Mango and ice-cream not photographed) This is Gujar Halwa

Thanks for looking

Love to you all, Sarah C xoxoxo

BASB #17 Part 2

I've started decorating and re-organising my craft/bedroom. So far I've concentrated on the craft side of the room. I've painted the walls in a light cream colour and had a shifty round of the furniture adding a couple of things. This fits in well with part 2 of challenge #17 on BASB which is to show an organisational item you have re-fashioned for crafting storage. What have I re-fashioned? Well ......................

First off, with money at a minimum, I've stacked 2 old pine shoe racks together securing them with metal plates. My desk (a 1mtr piece of conti-board soon to be changed to a piece of kitchen worktop) is screwed to one of the shelves and supported at the other end by another piece of the same board.

Secondly, I'm actually splashing out on a CD/DVD cupboard (thank goodness for Mums with catalogues eh?)and am using that to store loads of bits and pieces including my inks, stamps, paints, die-cut alphas, mini-albums, beads, punches, 6x6 paper pads ..... list goes on. On the top, I have my tag-a-long, mini-sewing machine and small Klip-Lock boxes.

Thirdly, the wooden 12x12 paper rack I have was made from wood rescued from an old bed!

The only storage I have that was made specifically for crafting is my Papermania carry tote, trolley case and the plastic 12x12 paper trays which were given to me by a friend. And yes, you do see one of those 'helping hands' used by the elderly hanging off the trays. It's very handy for picking up my craft knife and paper that falls to the floor and goes where I can't reach, plus it has a magnet ~ very handy at times!!!

I've even got someone altering another wooden set of shelves (very similar to the shoe racks) to make me a computer/print.er/Craft ROBO station on wheels.

One day all the wood except the CD/DVD cupboard will be painted cream to help keep that side of the room as light as possible. The cupboard is behind me and fairly light, so that's ok.

Here's the piccies as proof of what's been done so far:

Shoe-rack shelves

The drawers you can see hold my buttons/blooms/printed digi-images/toppers. I have larger ones on the top holding ribbons, material, larger die-cuts and more. Underneath are photos, cards I've made and envelopes. There's just enough room between my worktop and the shelf to put my brush markers, journaling pens, crop-a-dile and set of knives/paper prickers.

Another view of my shelves/desk

Proof that the shelves are 2 stacked together

Bottom left: Wooden paper storage made from an old bed

Top left: Woohoo, shop bought paper storage (thanks to my friend who gave me this. Luv ya)

Right: CD/DVD cupboard holding more than I thought it would and is the perfect platform for my tag-a-long, mini-sewing machine (thanks to another friend for the pressie. Luv ya too) and Klip-Lock boxes

More photos to follow as and when I get things done. I'll be away next week, so you won't see anything now for about a fortnight I'm guessing.

Thanks for looking.

A Few Minutes Is All It Takes

I went to a school fete today and there were fire fighters doing a display, turning this:

into this:

by doing this:

A few minutes is all it takes. Reassuring if you're ever in need of your car being ripped into several pieces isn't it? I'm sure the fire service have to do this more than put out fires nowadays. I can only hope that neither you nor myself are ever in that position.

Alexander Palace

Photos of Alexander Palace, September 2008

Just testing

Alexandra Palace Sept 2008. Meeting up withthe Ruby Snippers for the first time.

Aargh..... With A Happy Ending

Some of you already know that I've had a saga with my camera. I took the SIM card out to use in the card reader (as usual) and it wouldn't lock into place once I put it back. Thankfully, I'd had the camera exactly 51 weeks, so was just inside the guarantee. I was told by Kodak to take it back to Argos and they'd arrange for it to be picked up and taken to be mended within 2-3 weeks. So I did. I decided to ring Kodak on Monday (just over 2 weeks later) to see how it was doing. Just as well I did because the didn't even have it. After a call to Argos, it turned out that they had my camera still. A few (carefully chosen polite) words from me and they offered me a voucher to the value of what I paid for it. I added some birthday money to it (that I was sent early) and got myself a new 10MPX Hitachi HDC-1086E digital camera. Ok, I know it's still basic compared to what several people have nowadays, but I'm not used to having anything that's the latest hi-tech, all-singing, all-dancing, expensive piece of gadget around, but to me it's brilliant.

I had a little play with the buttons, then decided to test it out. Here's the first photo I took with it yesterday afternoon.

I'm guessing there'll be many more to come. Watch this space.

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

Daisy, Daisy

Are any of you like me and just love this time of year? Spring, new life, birds building nests, flowers budding, grass growing and hayfever!! Well, we can't have it all can we? So, I bring you this post surrounded by tissues and I type between sneezes. LOL

I love seeing daisies growing in the grass and hate the fact that they get chopped every time the grass is mowed. Last month's photography challenge on UKScrappers was to photograph flowers, so I went into our garden with my camera and here's a couple of shots I took.

Yes, the grass needs cutting, but you're meant to be looking at the daisies!! lol

Thanks for looking

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxoxo

Talk About Random!!!!!

I was photographing some cards I'd made a little earlier and adjusting the setting on my camera when my finger hit the trigger and I'd taken a random shot. What of, I had no idea until I looked in the screen. Some of you will have seen photographs of my craft area already, but here's a shot of it from a view that only my desk usually sees. I did tell you it was random!!!!!

Love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Ooh Look, A Wedding

Are you sitting comfortably? You'll need to because I'm about to bore you with wedding photos :D

My youngest sister Jo got married Saturday 14th March to Mark and; as always, I had my camera at the ready. One of my friends has e-mailed me to ask if I have photos on my blog, so here they are. I've managed to choose just a few from the 350 I took!!! Even the newly-weds haven't seen any photos yet as they're on honeymoon and don't get home until this Friday night.

We all had an absolutely wonderful day. Everyone looked amazing, the flowers were beautiful,  the weather was warm and dry, the food delicious and there were smiles all round from beginning to end. Ok, Jo had a tear just as they were setting off on honeymoon, but it was more from sheer exhaustion than anything else.

Before any of you ask, the bridesmaids are not related. The eldest is our niece and the youngest is the daughter of a friend of Jo & Mark's from their church.

Our eldest nephew walking his Nanny (Bride's Mum) down the aisle

Mark (groom) watching Jo (bride) walk down the aisle

(He's half Scottish hence the kilt)

at the alter before the vows

Bride & Groom with bridesmaids, Groom's Dad and Bride's Mum

Our family

The rest of the Scottish clan

The alter flowers arranged by ladies from their church

Church window dressings

Jo had been a bride as one half of a fancy dress couple as a child.

Mum enlisted my help to enlarge the photos ready for her speech.

They worked a treat as you can see by Jo's very quickly hidden face! LOL

Proof of Jo & Mark dancing at the ceildh in the evening

Jo & Mark cutting the cake that a friend of our family had made.

They wanted a chocolate cake and even the icing was chocolate flavoured

Our niece posing with the cake

Some of the detail on the back of Jo's dress

Detail on the back of the bridesmaids dresses

Thanks for looking and making it to the end.

Take care, love and hugs

Sarah C xoxo

Being Almost Vegan

Yep, I've come to realise that by choosing to be vegetarian and then becoming lactose intolerant, I am all but vegan now. The only things that stop me being completely vegan are the fact that I still eat eggs, goats cheese and fish (as long as it's in batter or breadcrumbs).

It was my youngest sister's birthday on the 19th and she's vegetarian too, so we went to the Rainbow in Cambridge. We'd never been to a vegetarian restaurant before and were quite looking forward to sitting down to a meal out and not be surrounded by the smell and sight of meat and fish. When we got there, it was so quaint and there was so much choice for us. Much better than the pasta that vegetarians usually get offered. What to have was a decision and a half. In the end we both went for tomato and lentil soup and tajine a'lgerienne, then Jo had chocolate cola cake and I had vegan lemon and blackberry cheesecake. What was an even nicer surprise, was that I was given the sliver of leftover cheesecake to bring home. We never thought to take photos of our meal, but the photos on this post are of the restaurant sign and Jo after we'd eaten. Unfortunately it was raining quite hard, so the shots aren't as good as they could have been.

A big thumbs upto the people who run and work there. It's open from 10am to 10pm and they're happy for people to sit in there just with a drink. We're certainly earmarking it for future visits.

Thanks for looking and if you're in Cambridge wanting food or drink, why not check them out yourself?

Take care, Love and hugs
Sarah C xoxo