And the winner is...

.. well i'm ashamed to admit that Kev and I were joint winners (i did want the kids to win!), but Hannah won for best starter, my was the best main course, and Kevs was the best pudding. I think Katie did amazingly well (especially her pudding, a baked cheesecake with almost no help at all) and although Harry did get lots of help, he was so keen to get involved in the cooking it was a joy to behold!

So although Kev and I won, it lets me off the hook, as i don't have to come up with a prize! Kev wants to try Ready Steady Cook next.. watch this space :)

I do have a lot of scrapbooking to do, i can't believe it's the last day of August and i haven't scrapped any holiday photos yet.

Another lovely award!

Caroline (aka Country/Canny Crafter) who was one of the Scrapbook Apprentices and is a fab scrapbooker and Susie J have both given me a lovely award. CC has a really inspirational blog, and i always find something to read as she posts so regularly, and Susie is always kind enough to leave me lovely comments !

To receive the award i need to nominate 5 others (a bit tricky as i have one this recently, so i might not get to 5!!)

and tell you 5 things about me you might not know.

1. I hate hard cheeses like cheddar (Brie and Camembert are OK!)

2. I wish i was a bit thinner (14 not 16)

3. Even when my career was going well i always suffered from self doubt about my ability to teach.

4. I always wanted to be a teacher.

5. I love the smell of hydrocarbons (petrol, tar etc... weird i know, but a fellow chemistry teacher i know is the same!)

So to my nominations.

1. Grace, who is a young cardmaker and has just started her own blog.

2. Sue Bubbles who always makes me laugh out loud!

3. Julia who writes an amazing blog!

4. Dyan who has the ability to make you laugh and cry in one post (and produces gorgeous altered art.

5. Sheena, a fellow Coventry scrapper, and super talented!

Last day of Come Dine with Me today, Kev is busy in the kitchen as i type..... and Harry is crying after cutting up the onions for his soup :(

And although it's a competition i don't think there is a prize... i might need to come up with something!

A Day off today...

...eating like royalty, and i think my poor digestive system needs a rest! As we are going out to a party tonight (a ruby wedding) where we will be fed, Kev's contribution to Come Dine With Me (and the result!!) will have to wait until tomorrow.

I scrapbooked under my own steam .. ie not a class, for the first time in ages last night with my Coventry scrapping friend Anna. She produced a beautiful LO of her lovely daughter covered in ice cream, and i was a bit more self indulgent with a very girly LO. It meets one of the SLYMI challenges i was behind with (scrap a square within a square) and uses both old and new stash, stamping, stitching, and photos of shoes, what more could a girl want!

The background paper is Imaganisce, with the rest being a BG range from a couple of years ago. Stamps (as ever) are Unity including the fabulous tiara i picked up at Stampeezee. To make this even more girly i played about with lots of tiny stones (Papermania) and oversprayed the lot with a lovely new Cosmic Shimmer mist i picked up, again at Stampeezee.

I saw a grid of photos separated by stitched lines in this months Creating Keepsakes, never one to bother lugging out my sewing machine (it weighs a ton!) i just stitched the lines by hand. Title is Thickers and Doodlebug stickers with added Glossy Accents.

Not much time today...

... as it's my turn to cook!

Hannah's meal was a total triumph yesterday, she made various houmous dips with crusty bread and tortilla chips to start (these were so good that even Harry has now decided he will eat houmous, the lime and coriander one was fabulous) and the very clever girl even decided to include some mini chicken kebabs to keep the carnivores happy!

Main course was a gorgeous ratatouille, with lentil fritters. I think Hannah could be the one to beat!!

I'm doing comfort food, bruschetta with roasted vegetables to start, and beef and ale pie or fennel and roasted baby tomato pie for the main course. Harry is doing the pudding, chocolate fondue!

I made the fatal error of going to Unitys blog link, and as a final splurge before being poor bought myself a couple of half price stamp sets in the sale. I have had my eye on the eco chic ones for a while, with Hannah interest in all things environmental i am sure i can put them to good use.

Come Dine With Me

This week we have been playing Come Dine With Me at home (based on the Channel 4 programme) an idea shamelessly pinched from Michelle who runs the Nuneaton crop... she tried this with her family at the start of the school holidays.! I broached playing the game with the family last week, to cook a 2 course meal for the rest of the family (Harry is helping Kev and I prepare a third course, so he gets to cook 2 courses with a bit of advice on hand) and we vote on the food provided. The lovely thing is how keen the kids have been to take part, i even cleaned the dining room in honour of the occasion!!!

Todays chef was Katie, she made us spaghetti with sweet cherry tomatoes, marjoram and olive oil, and a home made white chocolate baked cheesecake with raspberry coulis for pudding!!!!!!!!

Yum, yum! Needless to say the camera was out (Kev said 'there was a time when just just ate your food, not took it's picture first!') and a scrapbook page is being planned!

Some more holiday photos here; first a couple from Cerne Abbas, a lovely one of Kev, and one of the giant himself.

And finally some fun photos of the family playing rounders on the beach, including Grandad!

Hannahs turn to cook tomorrow, so that's veggie food for us all! Glad she's not a vegan!

First Crop page...

Here is one of two pages made at the Exhall crop yesterday. Thanks to Tracie for the fab class, it's a photo I've had knocking about for a while waiting to be scrapped, and I'm pleased with how it's turned out. I love the way the boys look so serious in the shot, over a pint (of coke!) One of the things i love about a crop is that i can spend much longer on a LO than i normally would without being disturbed by household tasks, and i get to try things i wouldn't have considered before. I love the little flowers made from a circle punch, a bit of doodling and an added drop of bling, and the concertina effect on the scalloped border at the bottom.

On this page we used lovely American Crafts papers, these are great as there are lots of details that can be cut out (but if i never see another scalloped edge border again, i think it will be too soon!) The title is a fab Quickutz font, nice and big for a 12x12 page. I added the sun stamp in the corner for some extra journalling space (Unity) and the journalling strips to tell the story of the LO.

Still no sign of the inkcartridges i ordered.. getting a little impatient now. Am going to spend time this morning sorting the rest of my holiday photos. At over 400 still to go I may be some time.........

70th birthday party.

We went to a surprise birthday party last night for a friend of ours. Kathleen was a teacher and Head at the children's primary school, and ran the Folk group i sing in for over 20 years, before retiring gracefully around 4 years ago. We still see her regularly, and it was fantastic to see her face as she came into the room. For someone so well known in my local parish it was amazing that she had no idea that the party was being arranged, and she was totally overwhelmed by it all.

I made her a quick card yesterday, as she is so musical i used a cuttlebug musical score embossing folder, the rest was made using Unity stamps, a bit of paper piecing, and some ribbon.

Have been to a crop today, will post my pages tomorrow.

Finally, many thanks to Jazzy for giving me this lovely blog award. Take a look at her blog here for some amazing photos, i did a couple of online photography courses with her earlier this year.

Rule for the award are that i must pass it on to 5 others, so here are my choices:

Julia, who's blog is always worth a read

Caroline, for an varied and inspirational blog

Sue, for inspiring me and making me laugh

Katrina for her fabulous cards

and for SusieJ who is kind enough to read my drivel here, and leave me a comment :)

...and list 5 things i am addicted to (no surprises for regular readers here!)

Shoes (LO to follow!)

Chocolate

Setting stuff on fire (well i am a scientist!)

Stash

Star Trek ( and most Sci Fi)

Scrapping again...

I've felt a bit odd this week, i think i'm just worried about not finding work in September, but i can tell i'm not right as i didn't feel like scrapping at all. (Ink update.. still waiting for a delivery, so no holiday pics yet )

So last night i made myself complete the SLYMI challenge from UKS, i find that challenges are always useful to get me started again when i lose my desire to scrap.

Not sure if i'm too happy with the page, but at least it's done. I have card to make for a 70th birthday tonight, and then i might do some more scrapping. Crop tomorrow, maybe i will come back feeling more inspired.

On the page i used another acetate (Papermania, painted on the rear) DCWV cardstock, Stamps, Unity for the journalling and my fave calendar stamp makes another appearance, and Autumn Leaves for the title, and a bit of AC ribbon stitched on.

Still no ink...

...so no scrapping of holiday photos yet. But i have got around to ordering some cartridges today, so i hope i can print some off by the weekend.

Hannah picked up her AS exam results today, 4 Cs and 1 B grade. She seems really happy with these, as are we, not sure we can afford our usual trip out to celebrate at Pizza Hut, which is annoying her.

So, as i have no pics of scrapping projects to share here are the first of my holiday photos, taken right at the end of the holiday.

Firstly are some taken on the beach...

A shot of Max and Harry, Harry not co-operating as usual! This was to be a re-shoot of the photo here, to show how much the boys had grown.... not the success I had hoped for!

Next is a photo of all the grandkids on the beach, as requested by Grandma!

And finally for the beach shots one of Kev and Colin... Kev sporting the beard he grew over the 3 weeks. He still has it, i don't think it will last long into term though!

The next shots were taken on the journey home, visiting 2 English Heritage sites.

Firstly Old Wardour Castle, lots to see here, and fab views from high up on the Ramparts. Unusually for an EH place it was not too ruined, lots of stairs to climb and rooms to still see.

And now Stonehenge, a shot of Harry looking fairly normal for a change, and a silhouetted view of the site, I like how this one captures the timeless quality of the place (and hides the millions of people who were there!)

Alas, no ink...

I tried to print off some holiday photos yesterday for the crop i sneaked out to ( between washing loads!) yesterday. Alas, i am out of one colour, so i had to use some older pics, these of Harry on sports day.

I'm pleased with the page, it can be tricky to use so many photos, but as these all showed the progress of the novelty race i wanted to include as many as possible. Papers and embellishments are Basic Grey Archaic, love these for boy layouts, title Autumn Leaves stamps.

I have just discovered that my team is hosting the weekly challenge on UKS, and as i did much of the research for the challenge, i need to make a page for it too! Between washing.

Home at Last

After 3 lovely weeks, as ever, on the south coast in Dorset, we got back tonight at the unusually early hour of 7.45pm. As the weather was poor this morning we meandered our way home through Wiltshire, visiting a castle, Salisbury for lunch, and the amazing (but very busy) Stonehenge before we headed north.

Even though we have been to Dorset over 15 times with the kids (And i had been visiting since i was about 5 or 6 with my own Parents) we still found new things to do. More about these over the next few days. I'll have to spend a lot of time sorting my photos tomorrow, so I'll post a few of these too.... in the meantime here is a lovely shot i found on the net of one of the places we visited, Worbarrow Bay.

Nice to be back in my own comfy bed tonight though!