such a bad blogger... but who cares... who reads...? lol

The weather's been LOVELY! well, the last couple of days anyway, and the sun's out again... Yay! Love it!

Today i'll be doing tubs and pots of pretty flowers - and maybe some donkey work too, as I want a patio at the top of the garden and as we've no money, we'll have to do it all ourselves. We've been claiming bits and bobs from fellow freecyclers, like slabs and stones etc as it's really really got to be done on the cheap and we're hoping to pick up a few more slabs this weekend, fingers crossed. Then maybe we'll have enough for the job.

My mojoholder LO this week is a bit mad, but I love it!
Wild colour and brilliant doodles from my fave digi queen, Kate Hadfield. I've used bits from a brand new collab kit by Kate, Gina Miller and Rachel Young called Backyard Bliss, and you can see it at the Lilypad. It's a massive kit and perfect for all your splashy paddling pool type pics... and I hope we all get HUNDREDS of those shots this year!!!! ;-)

Bring on that sunshine, eh girls!


Right, got a big bag of compost calling my name! Hope you all have a gorgeous sunny day and brilliant weekend!
hugs from me!
jk xxxxx

good day sunshine!

Yay! At last a bit of sun!

I do feel it's been a pretty dark old road lately, but at last we've got a break in the clouds, metaphorically and for real. Things are looking better! :-) hoo bloody rah!

I even managed to get this week's mojoholder challenge completed in the nick of time because I wasn't at the hospital yesterday for as long as I thought i'd be - and the news was better than expected :-) so it was a pretty good day all in all. All I need now is for a few of my other problems to resolve and hopefully life will pick up again. Fingers crossed!

My LO


Sarah's sketch



If you want to see the original layout - a lovely design by Marix Marte, you can see it on the blog, along with the rest of the DT's interpretations.

Oh, just before I go I wanted to pop this on here even though I haven't managed to find the photo i'm looking for yet to use it myself... and don't you hate it when you know you have the perfect photo - yet the darned thing refuses to be found?? Grr! Anyway - anyone looking to scrap potty training pics might like this:

Big Kid Now


I would say our Kate's come up trumps again but i'm not sure trump is a particularly good choice of word in this instance! lol!

Thanks for popping by - got to dash now as we have a million things to do, some slabs for the garden to be picked up ... and later we're off to a barbi - don't you just love sunny days?
hugs all
jkxx

Magistical Memories challenge - to use the word MOM in a creative way.

So, a layout about my lovely Mum, who I miss everyday...

'...to have just one more 'mom'ent with you...


JOURNALING:

If we had one more day together what would we do? Would we go somewhere…assuming you were well enough? Or would we get a film, get some picknmix, a little tinny and watch the telly? Laugh at your fave shows... all the silly one’s you loved. I can see you now, rolling up at Father Ted, or Mrs Bouquet, or whatever her name was… you loved them all. Perhaps we’d go on an outing. Take a boat trip maybe… feed the customers? You always enjoyed that… we’d get some shrimp, break up bread and bask in the sun…Or would we just sit together, play games, talk… reminisce… I don’t know Ma… I don’t know what we’d do.
I’d do whatever you wanted to do. Whatever made you smile, listen to Bob Segar, sing along… I’d do anything to avoid playing that famous final scene.

But listen to me… "if we had one more day together!"

One more day…?
I’d do anything for one more moment.

I’ll never stop missing you, my little ma. Not for a day, not for a year…Not even for a moment.

I highlighted the letters 'mom' in moment with a metal snap. Not that I use the word MOM - to me it's an American term and in our family it's MUM, but my own mum was always Ma, or little Moshie to me.

tfl

New Spring release MM chippies used too! Check out the store to buy these :-)

blooming heck!

blooming the garden ain't.... the few flowers that have braved their way out have been dashed by the wind and battered by the rain. My baby plantlets are dying coz it's too cold to pot them up for the big outdoors. Don't think I can face another non summer! Come on blue skies... come on sunshiney days... come on flower tubs bursting with colour and scent...

So in an attempt to cheer myself up and chase the grey skies away I scrapped a pic of flowers for mojoholder :-)


This week we scraplifted Lizzie Wurman who is one of my favourite scrappers. Lizzie's work is always fresh and outstanding, and she's a lovely lady too! See more of her stuff here.

The team produced some very different layouts - I love how we all interpret the lifts in our own way, some taking the whole thing - like me this week, and some just the idea, colour or odd element. Come and join us and do your own thing!

Sarah's sketch


I got a lovely package in the post yesterday from Crystle and Michael at Magistical Memories. Just what I needed, loads of lovely chippies and some new products too, like their gorgeous felt flowers. More on that soon - i'm itching to play!

Have a nice weekend doing things you enjoy :-)
hugs
jkxx

Lord of the Rings.. and other things...

Today we'll be having Grandson no 1 round to watch Lord Of The Rings. Hot dogs and popcorn and coke... just him, Vin and Grandad... A 'we are mens' day. Grandson no 2 got wind of it recently when he was over visiting and decided he might like to join in.... coz he's not scared of monsters and stuff... and the hot dogs sound good... Bless him, he's only four, and in my book, far too young for LOTR - far from being scared of monsters - he'd be terrified. I was terrified! lol! But anyway, it's not an option.. he's four hours on a plane away... back in sunny Lanzarote where he lives - lucky boy.

So, today it's the big guy. He's just turned 10, and my men think he'd enjoy it. I hope so, because he's staying with his other Grandparents tonight, and they won't thank me for a sleepless night if he has nightmares!

And... this leaves me free of course, to craft.... ;-)
ha ha, I'm not as stupid as I look... but you knew that anyway :-)

Last night's Mojoholder challenge was to scraplift a lovely LO by Chris Millar
and you can check out her layout and the DT's interpretations on the mojo blog.

My hybrid LO - featuring my grandkids, all together for once at a local farm recently. The cousins LOVE being together and have so much fun. It's great how well they get on considering they see each other so rarely. I wish we could all live together in the sunshine somewhere but there you go.... you can't always have everything you want, can you?


And Sarah's sketch:


And these are the elements I used to embellish my LO.
Harvest Hayride by Kate Hadfield at the Lilypad. Gotta LOVE those chooks!! :-)


If, like us, you enjoy visiting local farms have a look at Kate's store - loads of farmy vehicles, tractors, animals etc.

Anyway - gotta run. Need to prepare the cinema and treats ;-)

have a great day!
jkxxx

how much is too much.....?

......Sometimes not a lot it seems. Sometimes even a little bit is way too much lately. Just like the straw and the camel I feel i'm in danger of serious overload... like when you pickle your computer by having all these windows open and giving it too many commands... and it just freezes up on you and refuses to do anything - even shut down. Yeah, that's me, data overload of the first order. Wish I could just reboot myself or restore my system to a previous time when I had less worry, less probs and less crap going on in my life. Now that would be good. Really good. I used to tease Jazz she was an android. Too often lately I wish her mother really was.

In an attempt to cut off the other day I sat quietly by myself and made a few cards. Sadly, two are for people in my family battling serious illness, and the other I madejust because. The first two I used a template to cut a flower shape in acetate and lined one and doodle dotted both with sharpie pen. Nice effect I think.





And this last one is purely scraps but I like it - I love flowlies of any kind.


I don't know why I don't make more cards, I love using up scraps and bit and bobs and while i'll never win any awards I do enjoy it, and lord knows there's no room in this house for any more scrapbook pages that never get looked at - at least a card will be viewed by the recipient on arrival and hopefully enjoyed - if only briefly.

Anyway - gotta go, still got my mojoholder LO to do for tonight and it's gone three already.

love me.xx

clearly can't leave the paint alone....

... however much trouble I get into with it.

I made this for It's A Creative World - great fun and completed the whole thing in less than an hour. Okay, I cheated - I'd already cut the ballerina's out, but you could maybe cut them while waiting for the paint to dry if you got a wiggle on.

Jazzing up a plain picture frame is a doddle using digital doodles, printed and cut out.

Images by Kate Hadfield.
Ballet slippers

by Jacque and Kate available from the Lilypad.

Related product:

Ballet Slippers Painted Papers

I decorated this frame in less than an hour - cutting the digi images takes a little while - and some patience, but you can do this while you wait for the paint to dry on the frame to save time.

The plain pine frames cost next to nothing in Ikea, I think a set of three was under 2 quid.

First paint your frame. I used a pale pink, so I only needed one coat. A darker colour might need two. And no... I didn't squirt it all over the room this time... I have learnt! ;-)

Then I dry brushed the frame all over with a deeper shade of pink.

(*note to self* messy bottles - what a slob)

When dry, I used a Krylon leafing pen in silver to outline all the edges. Don’t try to make this too neat, a randon line looks better I think – and takes way less time!

Next attach your images using sticky pads for dimension, and finish the frame with some stickers and perhaps rubon’s. I used the word precious…. Coz that's what she is!! :-)

Apologies for poor photographs, it was late - I was late, and I hate my camera. ok?

Ohhhhhhh........ and I have a WINNER for my goody pack for the
NSD Magistical Memories Blog Hop!!

I really just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who joined in, hopped around, left lovely comments on my blog (never had so many before.... lol) and generally had some fun with us over the weekend at Magistical :-) I know I and all the DT, enjoyed reading your messages, and I believe most of us have picked our winners now - and you will ALL be entered into the GRAND DRAW for the ipod nano! Crystle has a mammoth task ahead, compiling her list from all our lists, so bear with us... might take a few days... lol!

Anyway - here on my blog I used a random number generator and came up with unlucky for some number 13.... unlucky for some - but not for JO - Congrats Jo! - i'll be contacting you shortly for your addy hon to get your kit out to you.



thanks everyone - and don't be a stranger!
jkxxx

right... there's this thing about blue paint...

...and the thing, is this. you shouldn't ever, ever, look down the nozzle of a bottle of clogged acrylic paint while squeezing it....right? You have to trust me on this. You just shouldn't. Okay?

So, I was extremely lucky in this instance.
It didn't ruin my LO - but nearly....
.... soooo bloody nearly!

Anyway - as you can see - the LO escaped unscathed, even if I didn't.


This has been a completely fun LO to make (paint incident notwithstanding) . I just LUUUURVE kate's alpha - it comes in green and blue, and I love the wishy washyness of it. I can see me using it a lot. If you want it, it's on sale at the lilypad - here.

Other than getting plastered this weekend - last night at the Berry's ;-) and today in my own scraproom... nothing much has happened. So, it's goodnight from me... and goodnight from them - the one's who snigger each time they pass me.... blue is a hard colour to wash out, y'know.

Spring is Sprung....

and don't the crowd love it....!

The sun's out - we're off to a barbi later. Life is good.

I'm feeling a bit better lately - amazing what a few rays can do. I've been more productive on the scrapping front too and i'm working hard to catch up with some stuff which unfortunately had to slide while I worked through some other things... in the real world.

Anyway - here's a LO I did yesterday for mojoholder. This week we scraplifted a gorgeous layout by a super talented lady who's work I admire very much - Sherry Steveson. Sherry's LO and links to her work and books can be seen on the blog along with the DT's interpretations, and we hope some of you will be inspired to join us and post a link to your own.

Sarah's sketch



My LO, featuring magistical memories circle and art deco stems.


Oooh.... and.... my favourite doodling queen has a fantastic offer on for NSD - check her out at the lilypad. Who doesn't love kate's FAB stuff, huh??


Have a gorgeous Spring day everyone - hope you're all enjoying the bank hol weekend!

Oh, and don't forget the Magistical Memories blog hop this weekend!
Lots of things to be won!

MAGISTICAL MEMORIES - BLOG HOP HERE!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!
As a member of Magistical Memories DT I am proud to be taking part in our first ever BLOG HOP! My little blog here is just one blog in the MAGISTICAL MEMORIES BLOG HOP! :-)
Don't worry if you're new to blog hopping - here are the rules to help you win prizes!

1. Leave a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS here on this post and you will be entered into a drawing by ME for a prize kit. I will draw one winner from all comments (on this post) from May 1st - May 3rd. MY personal prize will include coordinating patterned papers, card stock, MM chippies, ribbons, an alpha, embellies and more!

2. Then I will forward all comments from here on my blog to be entered into the GRAND prize draw at Magistical Memories. And there is MORE THAN ONE WAY TO WIN so keep reading!!

3. You need to start at the Magistical Memories blog. Go there to leave a comment for another chance to win AND if you SIGN UP to FOLLOW the Magistical Memories Chipboard blog you get yet ANOTHER chance to win. Cool yeah? But don't forget - here is the starting blog if you arrived on just-jake from somewhere else: http://magisticalmemories.blogspot.com

4. You will next "hop" from my blog over to Amy's

Then from Amy's blog you keep on hopping because the more blogs you make it to the greater your chances of winning. EACH one of the design team members (there are 15 of us) is offering a prize or gift certificate on their blog. So, you have 15 chances of winning from each designer and then a shot at the GRAND prize.

Ohh... and wait for it - THIS IS THE GRAND PRIZE YOU MIGHT WIN.....!!!!!!


Yes really!
You actually have a chance to win a 8GB Ipod Nano *you will be given a choice of your top 3 colors, we will do out best to accommodate, Item will be engraved with Magistical Memories.

To make room for the NEW products coming out though, some old favourites must retire. You can see what is about to go forever right here and bag them for a really great sale price!


And if that's not enough for ya's you will also GET A FREE GIFT WITH EVERY PURCHASE over $25.

Back there I said there is more than one way to get entered into the drawing for the GRAND prize? Well there is, and it's a doddle! All you have to do is upload any layouts/ projects to our BLOG HOP Gallery. These don't need to be new, they might a project or layout you love/choose from your gallery that you would like to showcase - it's really up to you. Obviously we love to see how you use your chippies, but it's not a requirement! ;-) Just load them in our gallery by midnight on May 3rd and have another chance to win.

Here is one of my latest projects made with Magistical Memories Chipboard.





I'm desperately hoping for a Chihuahua Puppy this year and I've made this book to record her early days. You can see the chipboard one i've used here or the Crystle Clear one at the store

Have fun blog hopping with us this weekend!
and GOOD LUCK!

hugs
jk xx