Ok, while you’re waiting for something crafty from me (I’m in a bit of a scrapping lull at the mo), here are some photos for your entertainment .

I took part in the Norwich 100/50 charity bike ride a couple of weeks ago, needless to say it was the 50 mile ride that I did, and not the 100!  But still 50 miles!!  Never thought I would actually really do it, but Lindsey, Jo and I made it round in about 4 hours, and even enjoyed it .  I’m so pleased with myself that I made it, it’s a real personal achievement for me.  Here we are coming in to the finish at Norwich Cathedral:

and proudly posing with bikes and medals:

This is my latest cupcake adventure – I was intending to frost in green and purple, but I tipped up the red food colouring a bit enthusiastically, and ended up with a strange dark maroon, oops!  Still went down well with the boys, though :

And lastly a photo I think I will treasure forever.  Sam and Max are great friends and get on so well together, but they’re not very physically affectionate, just the occasional pat on the head from Sam (!) and always a goodnight hug.  But Paul happened to find them snuggled together on the sofa one Sunday, watching a DVD.  One of those heart-melting moments!

xx

Well, real life has just got in the way of blogging lately, there’s been an awful lot going on!  Most of it has been social, I’ve also been working a bit more at the playgroup (covering holiday and sickness), and then half term of course.  I’ve finally got some bits to share though, for those of you that were thinking I’d given up crafting .

First some piccies……..

We went to Duxford Imperial War Museum a couple of weeks ago, for Paul’s birthday, at his request – aeroplanes were not my first choice for a day out, LOL, but his birthday, his choice……and I had to eat my words, I had a great time!  The boys (all 3) loved it, of course.  We struck lucky actually, because on looking up entry times, we found it was their Spring Air Show day, with Battle Of Britain flights for the 70th anniversary, so P was in spotter’s heaven

Then just before half term, I indulged in a girlie trip to London with my friend Helen, to go to the Chelsea Flower Show.  We went down the day before, and spent the afternoon at the Tate Gallery.  I’ve only ever been to one London gallery before, and that was in my teens, so I thought it was about time I got a bit more cultured!  It was fascinating, I’m not an art fan in any way, but the paintings were very impressive – and some of the modern ‘art’ was utterly ludicrous, LOL.  Helen and I also stumbled across the Sex & The City premiere in Leicester Square, and saw Kylie Minogue going up the red carpet, that was quite exciting.

Chelsea was a day for more celebs, within 15 mins of arriving we saw Alan Titchmarsh:

and ended up having a quick chat with James Wong, from BBC2’s ‘Grow Your Own Drugs’ series, he was just lovely:

and me, of course :

We walked ourselves off our feet, but it really was a top day, the show gardens were incredible.

Right, scrappy stuff…….I did this page a few weeks ago now, but I’ve only just made the time to take a photo – it’s one of our favourite pics:

and the journalling:

Here’s another one for Paul’s 40th birthday album (which was scarily a year ago now *gasp*), drunk again……

And last but not least, a couple of baking endeavours, I made these blueberry and choc chip muffins recently, I can highly recommend the combo!

Then today this lovely book was delivered, I’ve been wondering about getting it for a while and I’m so glad I did:

I couldn’t resist getting stuck in, and made the chocolate brownies – they are to die for!

Watch this space for cupcakes, coming your way soon……

xx

Just realised I haven’t blogged this LO I did for one of the Cocoa Daisy spring crop challenges.  The lovely and talented Ronda provided us with a great sketch, which involved finding a way to ‘hang’ your photo, I really enjoyed this one:

My goofy boys!!  Gotta love ‘em .  I love the stamp that came with the CD April kit, it’s a two-step stamp where you stamp the outline first, the ‘fill in’ the flowers, I used ink then paint, love the effect.

I dug out an old kit for this next one. It seems a bit odd scrapping snow now spring is well and truly here!  But it was a little story I wanted to document, especially as the situation has vastly improved, read on……

Max is well and truly fully into Daddy again now.  Much to Mummy’s relief!!  Kids, eh?

xx

We had a lovely day out for May Day yesterday, it was darned chilly with the odd downpour of rain, but we made the best of it .  We headed out to Holt, near the North Norfolk coast, where there is my favourite coffee shop ever – if I owned a coffee shop, it would be exactly like this!  Byfords is all wood and brick, rustic and wholesome, full of nooks and crannies to hide in, and has some very posh B&B rooms which, should Paul ever feel inclined to whisk me away for a romantic weekend, I would really rather like to stay in……..

We had brunch there, it was just lovely:

After a mooch around the shops, we hit the woods, at Holt Country Park nearby, and had a barrel of fun, playing the wooden xylophone:

…..hugging on a tree stump:

…..climbing the look-out tower (or posing on it in my case ):

…..enjoying the wooden sculptures

…..and giving eskimo kisses when the sun came out:

My favourite spring flowers:

and my fabulous offspring!

Happy May to you – actually, can I just say May the 4th be with you?  Sorry……

xx

PS: I should really point out that I can in no way take any credit for these gorgeous photos, I carry my personal photographer with me at all times. LOL.

Well, what can I say?  It was the Cocoa Daisy Spring Crop this weekend, and what a laugh!  It lived up to all expectations, with amazing inspiration from the design team, and a barrel of fun with the chat.  I managed 3 LO’s across the weekend, interspersed with some family time, some party time, and some party-recovery time……… he he ;o)

The challenge here was to use butterflies on a page without using a spring theme.  I scrapped this pic that I love of Paul and Sam, Sam just loves his downtime, and loves it even more if he has a handy parent to drape himself over!

I used the CD April kit for the first time here, I totally love the papers in this one, it’s such a gorgeous kit.

Next up was a recipe challenge with fairly simple ‘ingredients’.  We had such a laugh watching the 3D film at the Legoland Discovery Centre, I loved my 3 boys in their silly specs

This is the April kit again, I love the different looks out of the same kit!

And lastly, I took part in the one-hour challenge.  It had a great twist this time, we had to come up with a sketch first, and then had an hour to scrap using either your own sketch or someone else’s.  I found Lis’s really inspiring and went with that, for this photo of Sam and his much-beloved Lego:

I’d just treated myself to some of the very lovely Fly A Kite collection from October Afternoon *love, love*, so broke into that for this one.  Somehow in one hour I managed to use paint and let it dry, and handstitch the lines, no idea how I made it on time!

And now just for Lisa (who’s asked a couple of times and I haven’t obliged, oops), here’s a few pics from our little trip to Manchester, to go to the Legoland Discovery Centre…….

Entrance:

Earthquake testing (erm, who’s having more fun??):

Sam worked so hard and for so long perfecting his vehicle in the Build and Test section, it was the fastest in the room for quite a while and he was having a blast winning every race!

The 3D film pic from the LO above:

We also took a ride on the big wheel in Manchester city centre, the boys loved it:

At the Lego shop I picked up this rather nifty Lego brick cookie cutter,

and last week I made these:

Cool, aren’t they?!?

And just to finish off, I made apple spice muffins yesterday, completely yum if I do say so myself

Don’t worry, that’s it, I’m done.

xx