L.A Galaxy - the craziest supporters ever!

Although the supporters were few at the L.A Galaxy match we went to see the volume was high. They had a small band in the supporters stand, a conductor to regulate the chants (how American is that?!) and a laminated song card with all of their chants. I am not the biggest footie fan but had promised the H that we could go and see a game in return for all the hours he spent in scrapbook stores and cupcakeries. Also my sister Mara, who was travelling with us, is a huge fan, but I did enjoy watching the crazy supporters jump around in the stands and singing.
Of course watching Beckham run around the pitch didn't hurt.
I know the staging for this layout is a bit cheesy and doesn't even co-ordinate. But I like it.
I love this starting point sketch from Shimelle and filled the envelope with more pics, my ticket and the laminated song sheet.

Half page challenge...Monterey style

I have been an errant blogger but creative things have been happening every day. You may recall I was waiting on a bumper delivery from snapfish and was trying to scrap without the photos. It wasn't totally successful as some of the layouts didn't quite gel with the pics. One of the more successful attempts was completed (or started at least!) using Shimelle's half page challenge. I know I am too late for the prizes, she did a fab list of challenges but I was only just back from California when the challenges were due in. I may work backwards on a few more though as I am struggling to start my layouts at the mo.

Sorry the picture is a bit blurred - I think it would be better if you clicked on it. Quite a simple layout. I love map paper and got a bunch of it at Michael's in the US - my sister and I loved the scrap shops and found the funniest one where they have this section for husbands with television, car manuals and mags and big comfy chairs - Arne loved it in there!
How cute is my new lettering and mini doilies - also US purchases!

Wedding dress layout...

This layout has been a long time coming, even since I saw this gorgeous layout I have wanted to get my hands on the hambly overlay. It took me a year, a trip across the Atlantic and I chanced upon it in a cute stationary boutiqe in Santa Monica. Then Shimelle decided it was wedding week and so I couldn't resist.

Here it is...

I love it. It's every bit as lovely as I envisaged. It captures a really special moment perfectly. The final dress fitting. I wanted to stitch the tissue paper on as Sharmaine did as it fits well with the dress making theme but the sewing machine was playing up. I think I need lessons.

California slideshow part two...

Hey bloggers!

I have made some progress with my slideshow and have added my own music, pan and scan and a fade effect. It is roughly the last ten days of the trip - although some of the photos are a bit muddled.

Highlights of the second part of the trip:
* Monterey Aquarium
* San Diego zoo - such cute polar bears and pandas
* Balboa Park
* Lots of shopping
* A really tasty Italian meal at Guiseppe's on Pismo beach
* Driving along route 1 to our California soundtrack and snapping lots of pics of the gorgeous views
* Five Guys Burgers and Fries
* Seeing Beckham play for L.A Galaxy
* Eating some of Julian's famous apple pie
* Gold panning
* Eating delicious stone baked pizza outside whilst listening to a blue grass band
* Gayle's bakery in Santa Cruz

The scrapbooking stores were immense and I have been stroking my new papers all day. Lots of maps, stars and stripes and papers with California related pics and titles. I can't believe that you can even get local high schools and football teams cardstock and supplies - craziness!

It's pretty quiet on blogger - I think a lot of people must still be on holiday. I have been trying to catch up with visiting all your lovely blogs and seeing what projects you are busy with and where you've all been on holiday.

Thanks for looking!

California slideshow...

Still struggling to kick the jet lag. Can't sleep till at least 2 a.m every morning, perhaps if I wasn't still on holidays I could shake it. Oh well, I won't complain! 

So as promised I have made (and it's my first so don't laugh!) a slideshow of our first ten days in California to share some of our happy memories with you all. I have ordered a HUGE stack of pics from snapfish but am losing patience waiting for it to arrive. Think of all the scrapping I could be doing? I have made four pages ready for pics but have never worked this way before, do any of you guys scrap this way? I'm a tactile scrapper and always feel the need to see my photos on the layout and worry it won't work when they come. 

So without further ado...I present our roadtrip...California 2011...the first ten days...

Highlights of the first ten days:

* Hiring bikes and exploring Santa Monica and Venice beach

* Mexican food - yum!

* The cool food courts

* Lots of root beer - love that stuff!

* Wodelicious in Santa Barbara the cutest cupcakerie ever, it was just like wonka land

* Steinbeck museum

* Monterey - such a cute little seaside town

* San Luis Obisbo and the infamous bubblegum alley

* The wedding of course (may do a seperate slide show on that!)

* San Fran (it was just as amazing second time round)

* Jelly Belly Factory FREE tour and sample bar - yum!

So fingers crossed it will work and if those darn pics turn up tomorrow you will have some layouts to see.
The last ten days will be up soon too.

Come Dine with Me Champions

So you may remember my earlier post about our Gastro Pub night. Before that our friend Mike hosted a Greek food night and before that our friends the Flinn's hosted a tapas night where I forgot to take pics as there was so much good food distracting me!
We had soooo much fun and it was just like having a free posh restaurant meal out, I would totally recommend you guys have a go with some friends. We enjoyed it cos we're real foodies and were loving the chance to try lots of new and exciting recipes. We now make the bread used in our starter often and it's still as delicious and we have tried different variations like adding sun dried tomotoes too.
So Saturday night was the last evening and the one where we would add all the scores together. Esther and Jared put on a Thai feast and named their night - "Come Thai'n with me!" which I thought was a great name! The food was delish and they won for their starters. I didn't take any pics as we took so many on holiday and just wanted to enjoy the evening.
We were voted the overall winners with an average score of 8.7. Our dessert also won overall for that category. We were pleased, but also found it a bit awkward to have to score each other and place someone last when we had all tried so hard.

Guess whose back...?

Well we are back and the house looks like a mess now I have exploded our bags and started on the laundry. Was an amazing trip but I will tell you ALL about it soon, I am trying to beat the jet lag so must head to bed. Will leave you with a pic...

A silly pose on the Big Sur!

California here we come...

Excitement is at fever pitch. Tomorrow we head down to London on the train...then we board a plane to California.
Check out my new board on pinterest...love it!
So I will not be blogging for around 20 days, but then expect great things with all my sexy new stash and hot pics of the Sunshine state. I may even do a giveaway to thank you all for your loyal following!
Have a fabulous summer holidays fellow bloggers!

Two year anniversary...

His present to me? A photoshoot with very scrappable pics! I even planned props too. We tried out our new tripod that we got at a car boot sale. A great find.

Dinner and a movie too. A relaxing and fun day.

Letters from the Inside

 In my teen years one of the books which really resonated with me was this one - Letters from the Inside. It was a series of letters between two pen friends, seemlingly two normal teenage girls, however one of them had a big secret. I loved it so much cos I was all about the pen friends and had them in Jordan, Hong Kong, America, Germany, France and the list goes on. My fav one was Jason from Hong Kong who used to write me on cool Garfield and Snoopy stationary. I think it was all about the excitement of happy mail and cute stationary. I do love good stationary - hence why I became a scrapper I guess.
My pen friends weren't only international two of them were in the very same town and school as me -Kim and Susannah. We used to write notes about boys, with illustrations and crazy schemes of how we were going to get them to notice us. On a recent visit home I discovered a box in the attic full of them and had a really amusing afternoon reading. So I decided to scrap about it...

I had to scan through all my old post to find stamps to work as a border. Of course most of these letters were hand delivered by bike or by hand in school, however I wanted the layout to reflect pen friends. I also stuck the envelope on to host all the little notes and show some of the pictures and handwriting.

Below is a close-up of the journalling, which is all about the contents of these letters.

I used bright and bold colours to reflect the silly glasses we are wearing in the pic. This layout is just about my letters with Suz and I may well complete one all about Kim too - soon! Perhaps post-California as this is creeping up on us. In fact - less than a week to go - ahhhh!

Post inspired by Julie Kirk's Going Postal project. Get on over to her blog and take part.

Do you have pinterest?

Well I managed to avoid joining up till school was *almost* over as I can see how addictive and time consumming it could be, but I have joined up to pinterest. I am using it to pin recipes, scrap pages, pictures of my teenage crushes (hello Joshua Jackson!!) and of course to post pics of California (just one week to go - CANNOT WAIT!!!)

So follow me and I will follow you.

An actual layout to be posted later - yay!

Come Dine with me - Gastro Pub Night

So it was our turn to host the Come Dine with Me contest we are holding with five of our friends. We'd had tapas night, Greek night and so we chose Gastro Pub due to a convo we had at the last event about Britain lacking a specific cuisine. Although I must admit our menu was inspired by lots of French cooking, however they are the type of dishes you would find at a gastro pub (that was our disclaimer anyway!)

Here was the menu we sent out - we had a lot of fun thinking of creative names for the dishes:-

Aperitif: Ploughman’s crunch & Wimbledon cooler 

Starter: Anglophile Avocado soup with hunky homemade pumpkin bread

Main: Frank Spencer’s Fruity pork steaks (ohhh Betty!)

Pesto and goats cheese summer tartlet

Romford’s own Ratatouille

Princely Potatoes’ Dauphinoise

Ministry of Mushy Peas

Dessert: Trio of summer treats…

Pink panther cupcakes

Luscious Lemon roulade

Yorkshire Raspberry Ripper ice-cream

Union Jack flowers

Parsnip Crisps - a real success

Homemade pumpkin bread was my fav

Minty mushy peas and tartlets

Potatoe Dauphinoise

Romford's own ratatoille

Fruity pork steaks

One of the trio of deserts - Pink Lemonade cupcakes

All of these recipes were so simple and really delicious. Some we had tried before and are becoming dinner party staples - such as the fruity pork steaks and the lemon roulade (I will post this recipe later as it is on paper.) Unfortunately due to being busy hosting I didn't get a picture of the trio of deserts - only the cupcake above. I added a slice of lemon roulade and a scoop of homemade raspberry ripple icecream. The ice-cream was so tasty and so easy as I borrowed an ice-cream maker from my friend Sally at work, but now we want one! I knew that would happen!
We don't know the outcome yet as everyone scored us for each course, but the scores will only be revealed on the last one in August. We are definately going to carry it on next year as it's really good to have an opportunity to try out some new recipes and it's a real feast to look forward to for foodies like us.
The parsnip crisps are a bit faffy as you have to cook them in batches, but they are so tasty and a lot cheaper than the ones you buy in shops.
I notice I have lost a follower and feel this may be related to the lack of scrap stuff recently - life has really just taken over and I keep thinking of all the pretty stash I will get in California and the great pics I will have to scrap - watch this space!!!

IRON Cupcake Summer Berries...

My somewhat 'wilted' cupcakes with their straw hearts

With my scrapbooked sign - they used to do a prize for signage - wish they still did!

Wimbledon inspired Eaton Mess cupcakes - I was thinking of this kind of idea

Don't these look summery?

These rasberry cuties came second I think

These came third but were alcoholic so I didn't try them.

Well Iron Cupcake it had been too long. I enjoy meeting up with all my baking pals. I was even true to my diet and didn't indulge much. My recipe is from this blog.  I can highly recommend it, it is very dense though and without the strawberry extract the curd was creamy rather than strawberryish. I was a little bit in love with the lemon cream cheese frosting and did lick the bowl!
How do you stop cream cheese frosting being so gloopy and unable to pipe??

Banana and Peanut Butter Muffins

Lethargy has kicked in...I have managed to lose half a stone (yay!) with my militant gym routine and then this week it's gone downhill. Last night we both made our excuses and this afternoon he couldn't be bothered and then we both ended up napping. I have only left the sofa to make these bad boys....

 Banana muffin recipe is found here but I added two tablespoons of peanut butter at the wet stage and a good sprinkling of cinammon with the dry ingredients. I can't seem to have banana without cinammon - it's surely a must? The worked well and I do believe they will be even better tomorrow for school - yum!
In other news...we are busy (last minute) planning our road trip to California. In 22 days we will be boarding our plane for LA. Cannot wait! Had a sudden urge to hire a camper van as felt this would save us on accomodation. I got really into the idea as I found cuties like this to travel in. However they were all booked out :( Gutted! Maybe next time...if there will be one.
So I came up with idea of making a little book of ideas, plans and places to see. I am planning to make it prettier by covering it in a collage of old maps and retro pics.

So guys, any tips, hints or ideas for places to see or things to do in California? Especially ideas for good cupcakeries, diners and scrapbook stores would be much appreciated.
Thanks!

Strawberry picking, retro tint and a sneak peek...

So firstly proof that I DO scrapbook. My scraproom is very neglected with all this lush weather and gym going, but I have been working on this layout for Scrap it with a Song. I can't reveal the whole thing now though. See if you can guess the song?

 Our family used to love going strawberry picking every summer and so I thought I'd educate the Belgian in this British tradition. I have played around with the colours and filters on photoshop to try to make the pics look retro.

 We picked raspberries too and they were juicy, juicy and we enjoyed them with fluffy pancakes and natural yogurt.

 The strawbs were so big and juicy. They had a sign telling you not to try before you buy and I heard this mum telling her kids exactly what to say when the owners asked if they had tried some!! How funny! Surely part of the fun is sneaking a few before they make the punnet??

What have YOU all been up to in this sunny weather??