Aye it was a pure dead brilliant mini break...

So returned earlier from a brilliant little mini break in Glasgow. We always like to get away for a few days and chill out whilst exploring somewhere new and so headed for Scotland. We have tried country breaks, but seem to much prefer the city breaks. So where does every good city break start...? Cake of course. This parsnip and vanilla cake was divine and I am now devising some cupcakes from it - watch this space! The science museum was a big hit with us. It was full of kids, but then I always say if you can't beat em join em!! So here we are playing with the exhibits- it is a really interactive museum and I would highly recommend a visit.

The wheels on the bus...

Floating heads...all a trick with mirrors...

In our geeky hats at the museum....

My feet were killed and so we chilled out on the tour bus for a while and saw some interesting parts of Glasgow.

This was our hotel on the left. A great location and top rate facilities. We don't have cable or sky at home so always enjoy this luxury when away. We watched some old skool movies like Ten Things I Hate About You (still love it even tho I know every word!) and Dangerous Minds.

Arne was being camera shy and so here is a rare photo....which I tricked him with! I was soooo excited to find a South Indian restaurant as ever since a girly break in Notts I was desperate to try it again. It's really light, fruity and has lots of veggie dishes.

Me with my huge dopza. A rice pancake filled with curried potatoes and peas. Delish!

So there we go more scrap fodder. We also had a big shopping spree in Primark and now both have snuggly Christmasy jumpers for the winter months. I am wearing mine now and will post a pic of it soon - it is just too cute for words and so snuggly! Yum! Holidays are coming....

Winner....finally!

So I am a winner on so many levels... 1) It's half term. A week off from the kids, definately not a week off from marking though. I have piles and piles to do. Groan! 2) I am off on am mini break Sunday night to Glasgow with my lovely hubby. We always love getting away and find we actually spend time with each other. Unlike when we are at home and have so many distractions. 3) Because I finally won a challenge. I was getting a bit down about my scrapping and blogging recently and feeling like it was all for nothing and I didn't have as many comments anymore and i had still never won a challenge...boo hoo hoo! So thanks Mission to Create for restoring my faith in my scrapping. I know it is a bit melodramatic cos only four people entered, but still.... So hope your all having a lucky Friday too!

The one with the snickerdoodles...

So I finally found a bit of time to post some of the things I have been doing lately. Here are two pages I have been working on over the last few weeks. The first is pics of my sister and I in our gym gear. She is a complete gym buddy, but I am a bit lazier and was only in shape here as it is just before the wedding. I wish I was still this shape!! I plan to add some journalling to it later.

This second layout was inspired by Laura's title on her page. I had this pic of our rings and hasn't scrapped it - so felt it was time to do so. It came together well and I like the colour combo and use of paint and little letter stickers - cute!

So I was in need of a sugar rush as I am SERIOUSLY lacking energy this week. I can defo tell half term is just round the corner - this has been an intense half term with lots of difficult classes and heaps of marking and report writing to tip you over the edge.

I found this really easy recipe for snickerdoodle muffins packed with sugary, cinamony (sp??) goodness!! Don't you just love the cute little cases. My mom got them for me at Morrissons. I took a batch of these home with me at the weekend and they didn't last long.

We also saw Annie the musical on the Friday night and it was soooo amazing - I had to resist singing along to every song. It's such a fab story! The acting was top notch too, especially Sue Pollard as Miss Hannigan!

I am excited as we have just booked a little mini break to Glagow next week. Yay!

What are you guys excited about?

Sunshine...on a rainy day!

Get yourself over to scrapping the poetry to see the fab creations inspired by Emily Dickenson's poem. Here is my take on the challenge - so take part, there is a great prize up for grabs. This weekend I have mainly been: Obsessing over the X-Factor. Especially Matt Cardle's amazing performance - I have backed him from the start. How about yourselves?

Painting on pages...

So I have been getting messy and having fun with the paints. This layout is a few snaps I took with my new instax mini camera on my birthday. I love this AC hearts paper which is embossed and has sparkles in it too - v.pretty! The cupcake embellie was on my mom's pressie for me. Quite a plain layout for me. I thought it needed a border and added some hot pink paint -I am not convinced by the colour combo, I should have mixed the pink with some white paint to make it a bit more subtle. Next a very different layout for me. A pic of *most* of my family on Christmas day in the snow - yay! I thought the stripes contrasted well with the checks and then stapled a whole variety of ribbons onto the pic. My title is masked and then coloured in to make it stand out - I like the contrast with the red, glittery thickers.

I have a feeling this week is going to d-r-a-g. Last week flew by as it was my birthday and every day there was new surprise or something to look forward to. I am going to see my parents this weekend - I am super excitied as haven't seen them for literally months. Not even the whole six weeks holidays. They are feeling very neglected. Mom has mentioned the possibilty of watching Annie at the theatre is Shrewsbury friday night too - how exciting!

What are your plans for the weekend? Come on lurkers - reveal yourselves....

Come dine with me...

The hubster outdid himself this year - he organised a "surprise" birthday dinner party for me. He spent all Friday night and Saturday slaving over the oven preparing a delicious feast/ Starter: Spicy pumpkin soup Main: A whole variety of pasta and sauces like bolognase, spinach and walnut, lemon and roasted pumpkin Desert: Lemon roulade and ben and jerry's half baked My mom always got us fancy candles for our birthdays and without knowing this, this was my candle: Explosive hey?! Here is the spread:

A not very flattering pic of the two of us - sadly the only one we have. With my huge box of choccies from Thorntons (guess the diet starts tomorrow hey?!)

These cupcakes were a surprise pressy from my sister Gem's who is currently living it up in Turks and Caicos Island, but arranged to have these baked by a lady in Harrogate. How cool is the swirly icing - I can only dream of being able to pipe like that!

All in all a fabby birthday weekend. Some scrapping to show soon of pics from my actual birthday - so check back soon!

Rocking the weekend...

So Wednesday was my birthday and I was really spoilt. I will post the piccies of all my lovely pressies a little later. It's been a right week and so I am now gorging on my birthday chocs and watching How to Lose a guy in Ten Days - a real classic! I think Kate Hudson is a great comedy actress. I realised I hadn't posted my page for this weeks STP challenge. Skip on over to their blog as it is the anniversary and there is a yummy sketch to use and a poem with lots of possibilities. The poem is all about our strength and mine is my family. This picture is from our wedding day and is just my family - who did most of the planning and organising. I chose bright and funky cardstock to make the photo pop. My funky new fonts are from TK Maxx - a real bargain.

Have fun with the sketch and let me see what you created. Pop by later to see my lovely birthday pressies...including lots of cupcake stash!

Scraption time!!

So I was on a roll last weekend and have been v.busy all week and not managed to actually photograph them. My best scrap time is now Saturday night whilst MOTD is on. This page is a scraplift from this fab lady's blog...I picked an old photo as the style of the page is quite vintagey. I clashed more than I normally would, but as I was scraplifting I just went for it. The journalling reads: They dropped me on my head, slobbered on me and hugged me. Sisters! I completed this layout of one of our holiday pics of Malta using the challenge on Mission to Create. You had to include these concepts:- Deborah: Sheet Music - I put a strip in Jocie: Decorative Scissors or Edge Punch - my Martha Stewart butterfly punch Nicole: Shiny Things - glitter glue and a button Vanessa: Rub On Alpha's - the Lazy days title Leeann: At least 3 funky bright Cardstocks - the photo doesn't show it well, but I used orange, yellow, green and turquoise

Lastly, my fav of the three layouts, the lads at our wedding. I have had this page in various stages throughout the month and then ran out of glue and had to wait for the glimmer mist to dry. I wanted to include lots of layers and embellies. I did an acrylic paint edged border which makes it pop. I gutted the cardstock so that I could use it to border the picture. I even used a peg to attach some of the embellies to the layout. The mates title was stamped in acrylic paint too.

Well it is tipping it down with rain and we are off to Pizza Express in Leeds on a works night out - it should be fun but I am feeling quite shattered so hope I will be good company. Our work nights out are usually a really good laugh with lots of gossip shared and funny stories.

What are your plans...?

Thanks for stopping by. x

Party time....

So last night we went to a Mexican party at our church. I was impressed with Arne's costume, but they had run out of ponchos in Headingley - must be all the students who like to dress up for nights out. I was loving Arne's fake moustache and my freckles. Sadly we didn't win the prize as the "Mexican" Fiona and Shrek were too good!....

Our effort was little more low maintenance...

In scrapping news I have been wanting to make a double page from my nougat layout (see previous post) with the other pics from the Maltese festa we went to on our summer holiday. So here it is....

I tried to tie the two together by using the same border punch and colour scheme. I made it look as though an explosion of confetti was coming out of the main pic. I used this sketchy thursdays sketch to help me to scrap so many pics of a layout. I distressed all the pics as I am kinda obsessed with distressing pics! The journalling at the bottom describes what we got up to on the festa - like following the band, people watching and pondering in the beautiful church.

Hope you've all had a fab Saturday!

More Maltese memories...

I have been working on these layout the past few weeks and am glad that I was helped along by some great challenges. I am slowly working my way through our holiday pics. The page below is about the nougat stalls which lined the streets of the Maltese festa (it will be a double page - the other side will follow soon.) I have used all of the concepts for Mission to create the doily one had to be my Martha Stewart stamp as I didn't have any. Cream is not a colour I would usually scrap with but I enjoyed contrasting it with the bright red, sparkly thickers and the vibrant polka dot material. I enjoyed Deborah's prompt as I used to use envelopes a lot for hidden journalling, but had somehow forgotten about them. So thanks... My second layout is one of those rare holiday pics that actually features BOTH of us! It has the capital city Valetta in the background which makes a nice backdrop. I used my new turquoise glimmer mist and a mix of different alphas. I am loving my new grey thickers- it is the BEST font! I tried clashing prints which i am always a bit scared of. The twist was to use buttons and I was going to use them to corner my pics, but went for my new funky star brads instead.

In other news - I had my first skype conversation with my little sis yesterday. She is loving Turks and Caicos - although the mossies are loving her a bit too much! Luckily she is still pale as a vampire - so I am not too jealous!

Watch out for the cookie monster...

So I finally had some luck at Iron Cupcake Leeds. The theme was macho men and so my first idea was Mr Muscle Lemon Mousse cupcakes. However I saw the idea for the cookie monster on google and so went for that instead. Here i am with my scrapbooked sign: A close-up of the cakes. I initially made the top with food dyed dried coconut and it lookedl like the right texture, but it tasted awful! My sister and I couldn't even swallow it! So I kept that one for the photo op and then just did buttercream icing. The cupcakes were layered vanilla and cookie dough and then a nutella and coconut layer. I forgot to get a photo of the cross section of it.

The winner - he had actually made the burger from cupcakes and the chips were made from shortbread. His attention to detail was superb although the taste didn't deliver I didn't feel - too much icing and food dye.

I also liked the paintballing ones and felt they were cute and a good idea.

I didn't try these as it didn't appeal, but I liked the idea of them.

My sister Mara came up for the weekend (more on that and the Harrogate craft show later) and she made Yorkie ones.

Although I got no prize for coming third it was a lot better than when I came 15th out of 18 for my mint cupcakes. There were 21 entries so I was pleased with that. Next month's theme is halloween - any ideas?? I was thinking pumpkin maybe?!

Let the good times roll....

A long overdue page about my first car - Harry - the love of my life!! My cute little bubble car. The journalling is all about how I named him after my lovely driving instructor and about the few crashes I had after passing! I used several different papers and cut into them so they didn't overwhelm the finished layout.

Had to showcase something creative as I have been laminating little gold stars all night to try to coax some of the nightmare classes I am timetable to teach this year. Geroan!

A snapshot of my summer...

1) Making a farewell crumble with our freshly picked blackberries...this is the last time we will see Gem (my little sis) and her husband Byron as they have flown off to Turks and Caicos to work for a year. Check out her blog I am not jealous at all! 2) A lovely castle in Luxembourg where we were visiting the in-laws (always an interesting experience!!) This is where our camera came to its end!

3) My first ever football match I have been to...Club Brugges...the hubsters pride and joy. And they lost...booo!!! Or "ohhhhh!" as the Belgian do it!

4) How cool is this teapot?? We had high tea in Nottingham as I caught up with a friend who is teaching in Hong Kong this year.

5) The complete highlight of my summer was Malta - how cool are these buses?? I have made a layout already and will post it soon.

6) My drink of the summer...mint milkshakes! Yum!

7) I have been working on a mini book for my hubby. I know the pics are rubbish see no.5 for the reason why!

8) And these are some of the books I read this summer. Can you spot the ones I have to teach for a-level? I can thoroughly recommend all of them.

I am feeling nostalgic as it's back to school on Monday and another summer has slipped away...but not unnoticed...in fact I need a holiday just to recover from this one!

Summer specs...

Only in summer....do I wear spotty sunglasses! I had a lot of fun with this page with lots of layering and cutting and inking. How cute are the icecream brads? My fav new technique is rippling the ribbon to add more texture and dimension. Another magpie moment I used the fabric tag from a t.shirt and stamped on it and put an eyelet in the other side and then tied some twine through it.

Completed for this challenge about our summer reminders. Mine are icecreams and sunglasses...yum!

Show and tell...

I had a big scrap session last night when the hubster went to play footy. I put Grey's Anatomy Season 2 (I am totally addicted to this show, do any of you watch it??!) on my laptop and made a whole...4 layouts! I must have my mojo back!! I hadn't taken part in Scrapping the music recently and love their current song by The White Stripes. The line which caught my attention, and which reveals me as the geeky teacher that I am, was "show and tell." I felt it fitted well with this pic from our holiday in Malta when we took a tour bus round the Island. I used my American crafts kit that I got for a steal at TKMaxx (gotta love that place!!) and my new glittery thickers (swoon) I even used the map from our tour as I always horde all my holiday bits and bobs and forget to use them on a layout. Aren't the buttons cute I cut out a few of the circles and then glued them onto the buttons.

Sorry for the blurry pics - still using my camera phone. I think since we overindulged over the summer it will be a while till we get a new one :( So you may have to put up with blurry ones for a while!