Finished at last!

Well Cameron - GCSEs all done - phew!  You have worked really hard and that is all I could ask of you.  I am proud of you and you never cease to amaze me.  I find it amusing that you yourself do not realise your ability but that is part of your charm.  Your feet are firmly on the ground and your sense of humour are a wonderful asset - except when I am at the butt of your jokes (accents etc etc), ha! ha!  You have a good, long Summer to look forward to.  Well done son!

Coming Home I've Done My Time!!!!

My shnooks is home tomorrow - yipee!  I'll be on that tarmac at Heathrow 10.30 am sharp waving like mad!!  Looking back now the time has just flown by but I will be so glad to have Stephanie back in the UK again.  I am really proud of Stephanie and appreciate the huge hurdle she has climbed over the last year.  She has done herself and all of us really proud -well done shnooks!

Back to the old!!!!

Ah well!  It's been four weeks since I started back at my old job and hey - good times!!  What a lovely class, parents and staff.  So far so good!  The time has whizzed passed and as usual have not been able to do much in the way of papercrafting.  Roll on the half term - though am away in Wales, camping!!! Pray for dry weather!!  Will take some stuff with me though to play with!

Managing to keep up with the class scrapbooking kits and made a couple of cards (quickies) with the leftovers. 

My Stephanie will be home from California on 20 June, arriving Heathrow at 10.30 am - yipee doo dah!!

Making a card from a sketch!

Whiff of Joy! Yes I stumbled onto this blog after purchasing some of their stamps! I love the images and just had to have some! As I am a practising scrapbooker and keen on using up my excess leftover papers from my pages, what better way than to make some cards! Our fantastic scrapbook teacher has been encouraging us for a long time to use up our scrap paper in this way - kind of think of a card as a mini scrapbook page!!

Well guess what - a whole new world has evolved! I have seen friends make beautiful cards using various techniques. I have grown to love stamping and "colouring in" and although I'm not a natural I thoroughly enjoy it - so there we have it - that is a good enough reason to "mess around" with paper, pencils and beautiful stamps and embellishments!!

My first set of stamps that I used were the Sugar Nellies - they are so cute and some of them have a Scottish theme - so how could I resist? I also purchased some Magnolias - wonderfully addictive images all a joy to colour. I then stumbled onto Whiff of Joy stamps and fell in love with the delightful images - I especially love Willow - she has such a cute face!

This morning I was looking at the Whiff of Joy Challenge and from their sketch I decided to make a card using my leftover scraps! I am quite pleased with the result and even though this is a bit of a cheek - the picture does not do it justice - I need to brush up on my photography skills. Anyway I did enjoy messing around making the card and have to say that as much as I adore scrapbooking, I'm kinda liking making cards too!

California, Nevada and Arizona!

Three states in a week! What a brilliant week it was - Santa Cruz, Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Los Angeles and fabulous San Francisco. It was super duper and it was brill to spend the weekend with Stephanie (thanks to good old Presidents Day). Las Vegas was just something to behold basically. The hotels were just amazing and had to be seen to be believed. Hoover Dam was something that I had been wanting to see for years and it did not let me down - I was transfixed. It was easy to see where the water level had been and how dramatically it has dropped. We took a stroll into Arizona at this point!

Off to Los Angeles (Hollywood) for a couple of days, spending a whole day at Universal Studios. We saw the famous HOLLYWOOD sign though I thought I would be able to stand right next to it rather than view it from a distance. Even though it was quite exciting!

On to Santa Cruz again to see Stephanie and then on to San Francisco. OMG what a brilliant city. We did the little Duck Tours around the streets and in the water and we joined in on the cheesy actions too! The Golden Gate Bridge was fab and indeed so were all the other bridges!! I had a look for Burt Lancaster and Clint Eastwood over in Alcatraz but didn't see them! The Fisherman's Wharf was so nice - as was the Clam Chowder in the bread bowl! We spent the whole day wandering around and made it up to the Cition Tower which gave fantastic views across the bay and bridges. The sunset was just magic!

Oh and the weather was good too! Great time had by all. Any negatives? Well I'm just getting over the jet lag now!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!!!!

Happy Diamond Anniversary (60 years) WOW!!

DATE: 22nd December 1949

PLACE: Govan, Glasgow

EVENT: My mum and dad's wedding

Happy Anniversary to my special mater and pater. I love you both and it was great to have the family altogether again. xxxxxxxxx