Taking in the view...

Some self-timer pics. A much needed pit stop from the sweaty car. Mara was asleep and feeling sorry for herself in the car. Check out those hills. Inland San Diego on the way to Julian was the hottest and most desert like weather we encountered.
Completed using Shimelle's sketch of the week. I like circles.

This week looked like...

Searching and pinning lots of exciting halloween treats for the party I am organising in the half term holiday. It will involve a spook alley, trunk n treat and apple bobbing. Cannot wait! It seems the shops have got really into it this year.

Finally getting round to cooking some of the meals I have been pinning of pinterest. Our fav so far was this yummy macaroni and butternut squash bake. Also the no bake and no butter macaroni cheese worked really well when we made it.

Due to a mix up with dates I ended up being observed TWICE this week two days in row. You only have to be observed three times a year at my school and you get given a rating between 1 - 4, it then goes in your PDR folder and is considered for pay rises and stuff. I had put so much into planning the first lesson that I didn't want to cancel it and Thursdays observation was non-negotiable as a lady was in teaching another colleague how to observe - phew! But the outcome was a good one and I got a 1 - OUTSTANDING for both lessons overall. I was very pleased with myself. Now I am lying in bed drinking lucozade and reading Heat magazine and I only usually save those two activities for when I am ill so I think it has knocked the wind out of me.
Here is a very cheesy pic of me in action (teaching not convalescing) which went into our school mag (much to my delight!) It is on my to-scrap list as I don't have many layouts about teaching and it's a big part of who I am...

Then (ever the glutton for punishment) I took 18 students to see Dr.Faustus last night in York. It was a hilarious, odd and quirky performance but I think it would really help them to understand the story and the comic elements. It was interesting as last year we took the other group to see one in Manchester and it was very intense and serious - I preferred this one and the kids were in stitches throughout!

What has YOUR week looked like?

10 favourite presents...

As a weekend filled with cake, shakes and pressies draws to a close I felt it a good time to share with you all my ten favourite birthday pressies (in no particular order!)...

1) So comfy pj's from my mom - with apples on and everything

2) A recipe book with one batter and 100 different variations for pancakes and waffles

The cupcake adorned water bottle in the middle to keep me hydrated at school from a fellow teacher

A fisheye lens for my SLR from the boy

Perfume from my mom I was very put off by the naff name - Womanality, but it actually smells lush

Flowers from my friend Sally

Some crafty goodness from little sis

How cute are these shimmer eyeshadows? Thanks mom!

I'm dotty about these! Wore them to work on Friday and got lots of compliments!

With this gorgeous book I plan to make some of these....

Red velvet whoopie pies

So there you have it, are you 'well jell'? I am linking this up to Shimelle's ten on the tenth. Come and join in!

Santa Cruz scrapping...

As the rain drizzles down bleakly in West Yorkshire this colour pallet stood out to me. Summer beckoning from afar. It reminded me of lemon tops, candy floss and fun fairs. So perfect for scrapping our day out at Santa Cruz Pier.

The studio October challenge

My summer layout

 Now play the spot the difference with the below layout from October Afternoon I pinterested it about  month ago and have been gagging to scraplift it ever since. Just check out that cute patchwork grid and the splatters. I had to watch a youtube (I have lost the link) vid to learn how to do it. I ended up using paint and an eyeshadow brush then did the splatters with glimmer mist - just flicking the wand.
Before our holiday I swatted up on my slr reading mags, blogs etc to see how to get really good pics and I was really impressed with the composition, angle and colour of the above pic of the ferris wheel.

The October Afternoon inspiration layout

I hope you like it as much as I do.

My birthday week...

So I have been super busy celebrating my birthday over three seperate nights. The boy really spoilt me and even organised a (not so surprise) surprise party.
So the week looked like this -

• A one year old's birthday party
• A girly night at the Cheerful Chilli in Otley (my fav place to eat)
• A romantic birthday meal at the Prashad (my new fav place to eat) it was even featured on Gordon Ramsey's best restaurants
• A surprise milkshake party (check out the cool cups below) we tried some pretty cool combos. My fav is nutella and peanut butter - like a Reese's peanut butter cup.

.
This is my fav picture from the week:

I got a new fish eye lens for my slr but we are having some problems using it, I need to have another play I think.
Some layouts will be coming later, they are photographed just need to blog it.

San Diego Zoo - going wild for photo love!

How do you fit nine whole photos on one layout?
With a little (or rather a lot) of help from Shimelle I have accomplished it.
 I will show you the steps towards it...

1) Pick a base cardstock and then staple, sew or double sided tape half a transparency

Then back up your photos so that you have two on each side and top them with some embellishment

These animal pics would have been too bland for a layout on their own

 The finished page with the little pull outs peeking out...

The staged final layout. Don't you love the little monkeys?

I will definitely be using this idea for future layouts as I always take too many pics and needed a technique to include them, but still have the best shot as the main focal point.

P.S San Diego Zoo is a fab day out and I would totally recommend it if you find yourself with a free day in S.D!

Malibu! Or was that Santa Monica...?

Today in our car it was 30 degrees. It was hot enough for shorts, a drink in the pub beer garden and a walk along the river. So it is the perfect day to showcase this layout from our California road trip. We loved Malibu and hired bikes for the day to explore it even more.

Okay, okay this was how the post was going to go a few days ago....then I had a skype convo with two of my sisters. Turns out this trip we never went to Malibu. I mean Santa Monica - ooopps! We all found this very amusing - my sisters like to laugh at me.

I tried to turn it back on Mara who asked as we left Santa Monica for Santa Barbara - "are we driving through Miami today?" It would have been a very long detour methinks.

So I will amend the title on this page. But for now I thought that I would share it for the amusement factor!

Tonight we are off to a murder mystery party.. My costume is very random...I will share pics this weekend.

Lastly, congrats to Jeannie she won my imromptu giveaway with this comment:

Oh, that's got to be (Santa)Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys! - love the Beach Boys, classic summer music! Great layout BTW! 

So Jeannie send me an email on melide18@gmail.com to claim your prize. 


Happy Friday blogland!

Nectar of the God's...

Best Belgian biscuit...

 It's like Christmas in a biscuit, but also nutty with caramel overtones. All my fav flavours. So when the Belgian told me they make it in a spread I had to try some. Luckily he went home for a week in the holidays and brought me back two jars.

I was keen to get my bake on and so I scanned the net for recipes. I found this on The Tasty Retreat blog for some speculoos blondies. I am all brownied out as I often have to bake them for the kids at church and so I wanted to try something new. We were off to our friends house for family night with three other couples - yay for the new influx of young marrieds!! So I tried them. But was in such a rush I didn't take a pic so will nick the pic off the other blog...but I am crediting it to her.

I adjusted the recipe slightly and added chopped pecans. It was delicious. I overcooked it slightly and so the middle was fudgey and gooey and gorgeous and the edges were more like cake. It says 25 mins on the recipe but I would do it for 20.
So if any of you are planning a mini break (or maxi break for the American and Australian and other non-European bloggers) to Brussells or Brugges pick up a jar of this and let me know what you think.
Back later with more scrapping...

21 days of Summer...

Completed for Show us your Stuff

Some of which were spent in Balboa park in San Diego. We loved this place. (See above)
The first layout resulted in lots of red prints around the house. Looked like there had been a murder. I didn't realise how difficult it was to shift acrylic paint. Must get thinners for next time. I do like the texture of stamping with paint. The stamps are a little care worn now!
Some were spent in the less salubrious Salinas and I even scrapped with out of focus pics, but it was a story I really wanted to tell. I also had a good title in mind. The portions really were xxxxl. Just check out my expression. (See above)

Wordless Wednesday...

Missing the summer...

Summer scrappin' had me a blast....

A lot of the sixth formers I teach tease me about my scrapbooking and some even follow my blog (hi guys!!) so I have started calling it art journalling as I think scrapbooking sounds geeky and amateur. I basically scrapbook so I can moon over all of my travels and relive the trip over again when I make the layout.
I have a California layout to share with you.
So the first thing....inspired by this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch... pictures of my sister, Mara, and I in Santa Cruz. We LOVED it here and found a delish bakery (layout to come later) and chilled on the beach and spent the evening on the Pier where they have a huge amusement park. I love this backing paper and the colours all came together really well. I love the sunset picture too - I think Mara is responsible for this!

In other news our good friends the Bensons have moved to our town after a year in Germany - whoop! She was my housemate for a year, the year I first met Arne and we got married two weeks apart from one another - to make sure that she didn't miss my wedding! We took them to the Yorkshire Dales Ice-cream farm today and had a delish lunch, the best part of which was the thick milkshakes - mine was chocolate fudge brownie - hello!

 This is their cute daughter enjoying the milkshake too!

 Here she is on the swing loving it too!

 And we met another friend of ours from church who enjoyed pushing the baby on the swing. She is such a cutie!

So we are excited to have them around and to do lots of fun things with them!

Hello Big Sur!

So the kids were back into school today - only Year 7 and Sixth Form. I was with my new year 7 form all day and they were asking so many questions and looking a little like rabbits in the headlights - bless! I am looking forward to actually teaching soon and meeting my new classes.
I made the most of a free evening as I don't have a busy day at school tomorrow and am still with my form doing admin things most of the day so I got my scrap on.
Please excuse the rubbish pics - light wasn't great but I was keen to blog it. Also we finally got our own laptop on Saturday - yay! To end all the squabbles over my school one and let him play Champ Manager in peace whilst I can use the laptop to watch DVDs and listen to music whilst I scrap in the scrap room - bliss! However, it doesn't seem to have photoshop so I couldn't crop or enhance them.

The pic was taken along the Big Sur and is a fav of mine as we both look nice and it's a good pose I think.
This layout is loosely based around Shimelle's Sketch of the week. I misted round the mat rather than doing the spray paint line.
Hope everyone elses back to school was stress free!

Sitting on a gold mine?

This was the trickiest 4 by 6 yet, I cannot see how the next three months will go with even more pics!
I decided it was time to scrap my pics of our overnight stay at the cute little town of Julian. We were using Lonely Planet and whilst in San Deigo read about an inland detour we could take. We thought that this sounded like a good idea as we had mainly been staying on the coast. When we first arrived in Julian we thought it was a real one horse town and not worth the two hour detour , we also struggled to find accomodation for the night.
Luckily we found a cute inn called Apple Tree Inn and had al fresco stone baked pizzas across the road with a live country / blue grass band. It felt really authentic.
The next day after browsing the farmers market we found a cute little ranch that offered lots of activities. We went for gold panning and spent a few hours at it. This is what I have scrapped about.
We went to Ikea on Wednesday and I finally got me an easel for staging my layouts. I struggled to think of a colour scheme as we were all wearing different colours etc but went for green, gold and read. I stamped the title and bordered it in gold spotted ribbon. Then I matted the photo with gold acrylic paint. I rewrote my journalling three times - first on the original layout, then on a brown paper bag but it was only once it was written on white paper that it stood out enough. I was getting really bored of writing the same thing over again!

 The first inside secret section. A close-up of the panning and a medium shot of me panning for gold. I painted the chipboard embellishments gold to go with the theme.

 The inside page. I used more close-ups of the panning and cut the advert for the ranch out from a little booklet I picked up. I also journalled about the guy who taught us how to pan.

 Overall I am *quite* pleased with this layout. I think I would use this idea again if I had lots of pictures of one event.

Happy weekend! Back to school Monday - boo!

Sugar dusted passion cake...

Been doing a spot of baking.

At the weekend my sister Mara was set the task of going through all her old cooking mags and cutting out recipes she wanted to keep then getting rid of them. She still had them from Christmas 2005 and suchlike!

In Good Food Magazine I found this little gem and decided I wanted to have a go. However in this digital age I have just found it online.

I like the doilie style decoration and even cut my own heart mask out for the middle. It does start to melt though as you can see in the bottom left hand corner. So work quickly. And take a pic even quicker!

It's one of those cakes that is tastier when it has cooled down and even better the day after.

With all the fruit and veg in it, it is possibly saintly. So go try it and enjoy!