Stressed...

I really am feeling stressed. It's been a funny weekend. Not "haha" funny - just "not great" funny.
Sometimes it's so tempting to just come here and vent, but it's really not something I want to do, at least not about anything specific. Today however, I definitely just needed somewhere to go and SCREAM! So here I am. 

Life definitely seems to move in cycles, and more often than not I seem to plod along quite happily just living  my life and doing my thing. But then little things start to annoy me, storm clouds begin to gather and they begin to accumulate...until I finally feel that I am totally being taken for granted, not listened to and that my opinion doesn't count for anything. Which is how I am feeling today. 
I know it will blow over and the sun will come out from behind the clouds. (See what I've done there?) I know that I will most probably laugh at myself in a few days but when you are in the moment you start to question everything.
Does anyone else feel like this?

Coffee

I love coffee. Any excuse for a coffee. Especially a pretty one like the one above.

 

 I enjoy going for a coffee with my OH, catching up with a friend over coffee, or having one by myself after I've finished the weekly shop - this one is usually accompanied by a magazine, preferably a crafting magazine. But I also enjoy people watching while having a coffee.

 

 It also has to be a frothy coffee, but only if it's soya milk - dairy products don't really agree with me. Having said that - I always say yes to chocolate sprinkles!! ;)

There you are - I thought that was something you all might like to know about me!

Late Summer...

We seem to be fast approaching the end of the summer though the weather this weekend was glorious.

No.1 son has relocated to Germany with his girlfriend, they are staying with my Mum at the moment and are hoping to carve out a life for themselves over there. They have both just finished Uni and are very excited at the prospect of living together and I fervently hope that things will work out for them.

No.2 son is back at Uni in his second year, he moved into his first house with friends last weekend, also a big step. My boys are truly flying the nest. It was lovely having them both home for the summer and I miss them.

Today I am feeling a bit sorry for myself as I am full of cold and my throat feels like it is full of barbed wire. I'm having trouble concentrating and my head feels all fuzzy so I decided to try and distract myself with a bit of blogging. I have managed to do a little bit of scrapbooking over the last few weeks but my photography skills still leave plenty of room for improvement, at least when it comes to trying to photograph LOs in an attractive way!

I got the train to Bluewater on Saturday as the house was empty and had a look at the Creative Stitches and Hobbycraft Show at their new events venue. I was a little bit disappointed as almost everything was Christmas orientated (which I suppose was only to be expected at this time of year) but it's still good to know that a show like this will hopefully be on fairly regularly from now on, not too far from home.

And at least I got to indulge my love of Starbucks Soya Almond Cappuccino and a Salted Caramel and Pecan Bar. Oh my goodness how I love that little square of complete yumminess!

My OH is currently travelling the country for work and we are going to meet up in York later on in the week, which I'm insalely excited about as I have never been to York but have always wanted to go! I love visiting any place with a history and York has been on the list forever.

In the meantime I think I will go and find another packet of tissues and some more Cold & Flu tablets!

Much love,

Angie x

A little crafting at last...

I came across a lovely design for a mini book by Kim Woods in the July Issue of Scrap365 Magazine and was desperate to have a go at making my own. I was fortunate to have the Tim Holtz dressform die used for the project, and finally got round to making my version of the album last week.
I am absolutely in love with the slightly shabby and distressed look - and have been for a long time- it's definitely my style. I have actually had the papers for a long time, they were part of a whole kit but I can't remember what they were!
 I almost always slightly ink the edges of everything I do because I think it gives depth to the overall look. I was really pleased with the result and just need some photos to complete the album. With all these visitors passing through our house at the moment I am sure there will be some photo opportunities over the next two weeks or so! It's also our wedding anniversary this weekend, so another good reason for taking some piccies.
Aaaaanyway, it's time for me to go and have a lovely soak in the bath before retiring for the night, much love to you all.
Angie x

Summer Days

We managed to spend another lovely afternoon/evening by the seaside (in Whitstable, naturally), my OH went for a long run and I took myself off for a slightly more leisurely walk. First through the High Street - though (probably thankfully!) the shops were just closing- then for a coffee and a read in Costa, and then for a walk along the beach. I am always looking for treasure, whether walking in the woods, along the beach or anywhere else, which stems from the fact that I've dreamt of being an Archaeologist for most of my life but never got round to the studying bit! I didn't find any treasure on this particular day though.
All this was followed by finding a bench in the evening sun and more reading whilst waiting for OH - he goes for fairly long runs by the way - just in case you were wondering! We both had Fish and Chips by the beach, accompanied by the most delicious and refreshing glass (plastic cup) of Shandy, just perfect.
On the way home we stopped to watch the most beautiful sunset, which was simply breathtaking.

Tonight No 1 son and his girlfriend from Barcelona will return from their trip to Hungary (how cosmopolitan are they??) and will both stay with us for a week. Then on Monday my Mum and niece will be flying over from Germany to stay with us for a week so we will have a very full house for a few days. No doubt there will be trips to London, Whitstable and possibly Bluewater as teenage niece wants to go clothes shopping! Maybe I should get back to getting the house ready...?

Until next time! Much love. Angie x

The beginning of August...really?

I can't believe it. 3 months have gone by without me blogging. I have been procrastinating about blogging, but not actually blogging...I suppose it hasn't become a habit yet, and I really would like it to. But instead of beating myself up about having to try and catch up on the last 3 months I think I will just carry on from where I am now.
The weather hasn't been too kind to us so far this summer and there has been an enormous amount of rain as well as a couple of hot days - not many of those though. We have, however, had some spectacular rainbows as a result of this odd weather!

 All the rain and cloudy skies are not good for the mood though, as I do seem to be affected by the seasons but I don't expect my winter mood to rear it's ugly head in July!
In other news, we are looking to move house in the not too distant future, hopefully to Whitstable, which is about half an hours drive from where we live now, but all that's dependent on getting planning permission on our current house.
 That was turned down last month, which was quite disappointing, especially as we had found a house that we liked already. Anyway, new plans will be drawn up and a new planning application made so fingers crossed...In the meantime we will keep visiting Whitstable as much as we can and dream of the future!

A new hookey project is in progress, I decided that I need to have a little picnic blanket and as I have a lovely selection of Stylecraft yarn it will be a colourful, flowery granny square blanket.

It will be similar to one I already have (which I made a couple of years ago) and always want to take outside to sit on, but then I don't want to ruin it for indoor use. So a new one was called for.
The last one I finished was this one, I made it for No.2 son and called it his "Jubilee Blanket", for obvious reasons.

I think he liked it!
Anyway, must go as I have a ton of things to do, will try to be a better blogger from now on! ;)

The Beginning of May...

The weather in our little corner of Kent continues to be fairly miserable (my OH tells me that weather can't be miserable as it doesn't have any emotions but it certainly makes me feel miserable!) and this has been the view from my backdoor a lot of the time.


We did have a few hours of sun on Monday though so we decided that in the afternoon we would sneak a couple of hours to go to Whitstable, just long enough for OH to go for a run along the beach (I walked instead!) and to have Fish & Chips afterwards.

The sun didn't last too long and by the time we left it had started to rain again.
Our planned trip to Penshurst Place DID take place, we had a lovely day with our friends and although most of the art and craft was beyond our price range we enjoyed looking around, trying loads of different foods in the food tents, having lunch together and just generally spending time together.
As my friend is a recently qualified Falconer we were particularly excited to see some birds of prey at the show.

This little Peregrin Falcon was just too cute for words!

I can't remember what type of owl this little guy was but he was very vocal.

I have always had a thing about vultures (I think it's ever since the first time I watched "Jungle Book" - go figure! :)
In other news, as the weather is generally preventing a lot of outdoor activities this means that there is always a little time for crafting so I have been making some progress with what I call my "Domestic Album". It doesn't contain any photos at the moment but I think I will use it for photos from our upcoming (as in next week) trip to Germany for my Mum's 70th.

And that's all for today as there are a gazillion other things I should be doing! Bye for now!x

Bluebells

So on Sunday we finally managed to go and find some bluebells in the woods!

For a start I absolutely love the woods (I think that, being from Germany originally, I must have that Brothers-Grimm-Fairytale-Mentality in the blood!) and I love nothing more than being beneath those tall trees with beams of light coming through the foliage. Not that there is a great deal of sunlight to be found at the moment with all the downpours we are having. We did somehow manage to avoid the showers though.

It took us a couple of attempts to find some bluebells but we persevered and were richly rewarded.

I also had a little play with a Tando frame I bought at a crop a while ago, I was in the mood to create something girly and pretty and ended up with something that really made me feel quite happy and cheerful. I get totally lost in my own little world when I work on something like this.

If only every day could be a crafting day! But at least we have a long weekend to look forward to this week, although the weather doesn't look too promising at the moment! We are hoping to catch up with some lovely friends on Saturday and the plan was to go to a craft fair but the weather will dictate whether we go there or somewhere more indoor-sy. And if the weather stays as it is there will definitely some crafting on the Sunday or Monday! ;)

Weekend Catch-Up

We went to visit some very very good friends on Saturday as we had arranged to go out for an Indian meal with them at lunchtime. The boys were both a bit bleary-eyed, as one of them had been out the night before and the other one just doesn't do getting up before lunchtime! Needless to say we made the most of ribbing them!
Lunch was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and it was so nice to spend time with our friends, I do treasure times like these as they are all too rare.

My friend has also recently become a falconer and took us to see the Harris Hawk she is working with at the moment, what a privilege. We had such a lovely day.
Other than that I am desperate to do some scrapping but but the house has been quite full and busy with the boys being home from uni, but I am not complaining as I love having them home. No. 2 son has left this morning, OH is taking him back to uni and No.1 son is leaving on Friday.

April

Here we are well into April already with all it's unpredictable weather - cold, sunny, rainy, windy, grey, bright - we are experiencing them all.
April also brings with it my other half's and both my sons' birthdays, and usually Easter too.
My family from Germany have visited over Easter for the last few years but decided this year that for a variety of reasons they would be unable to do so this year, which made it a bit of a strange Easter. We spent Easter Sunday in our pyjamas (unheard of!) lounging around. OH and me had decided to go to Brands Hatch on Sunday to watch British Superbike Racing but then he realised that he would have to work all day Monday to meet a deadline on Tuesday. He did work all day and I helped from 5pm until 1am and for a couple more hours Tuesday morning, we were both absolutely shattered as we hadn't slept well either. What a bank holiday weekend!

I have been able to bring my Project Life Album up to date over the last week or so which I've thoroughly enjoyed and it gives me lots of pleasure. I just keep forgetting to take pictures of it!
I have also been working on an album for myself using kraft cardstock and some of my Tim Holtz bits and pieces.

I'm still looking for a good background to take pictures of my layouts on!

I'm very pleased with the way the pages are turning out and I've been losing myself in the process of getting sticky, inky hands! I would love nothing more than to spend every day doing this.

I would happily get up early in the morning, travel if I had to and work all day if this was my job - not something I would say about my current job or any other jobs I can think of for that matter!
Well, I think it's time for a lovely long bubble bath as my men have gone to the pub to celebrate No1 son's birthday so I am having a little bit of me time.
Much love to everyone in Blogland! :)





Hope

I've had a strange old day today and have ended up feeling a little bit sorry for myself.
My Mum phoned this morning to let me know that the family can't come over for Easter for a variety of reasons, she sounded quite sad about it and I'm sad about it too. There was a little bit more to it than that, suffice it to say that I felt quite dumbstruck after the phonecall and took myself off for a wander round the local shops and a coffee to distract myself for a while, because I didn't feel like sitting at home going round and round in circles in my head.
Whilst out I started to feel a bit headachey and generally yucky, so I came home but then had to pop out again to run some errands, which I really didn't feel like doing but at least they're out of the way now.
All this, for some reason, made me think of the photo above which I took in Holyhead last week. I spotted this little cluster of emerging spring flowers in an otherwise still quite dry and wintery looking patch of ground. To me it symbolises hope and the fact that there's always something to look forward to even when things seem don't seem all that great. And some of the not so good news I had this morning also made me realise that I've got a lot to be thankful for. Which is nice. I think we need that reminder sometimes.

A little break

My other half has been working on Angelsey for a week, and as I am lucky enought to work part time from home, and my work is pretty much all done on a laptop, I have been able to join him. I have had quite a bit of time to myself and I made sure I brought some crafting stuff and some hookey, so in truth it's been a bit of a holiday for me really.
The weather has been a pretty mixed bag, windy more than anything and here is a picture of me out on a little stroll along the beach!

It was also veeery sunny, so the rays of light in the picture weren't deliberate - but I actually quite like them!

We are staying in a nice B&B in a huge room so I've been able to come and go as I please and spread out my craft stuff etc, read, watch a bit of TV - it has been quite blissful...

I brought a couple of chipboard books, an Easter paper pad and stickers with me and managed to make two Easter albums. All my family come over from Germany each Easter and I decided that I would prepare some albums as presents for them, which I will hopefully be able to fill with this year's photos of their stay before they go back so these albums aren't quite the finished article yet.

Not the best pictures in the world as they were taken with my I Phone by the window!

Now the weekend is nearly upon us, which the other half is very happy about, he has just got in from work very tired after a long week and now also full of cold so I'm off to administer some TLC. Hope you all have a great weekend.





Catch up

So, my laptop has been playing up and will not connect to the Internet anymore which is one of the main reasons why I have not updated my blog in ages. I am writing this on my I pad but I think the last time I did that the font didn't come out right which is why I have not tried to blog on here since, although using the I pad would be very handy a lot of the time. The days are slowly ticking by and it finally looks like spring might be on the way, the temperature is up and it is bright and sunny outside which always seems to lift my mood no end, I am definitely not a winter person. Dark, grey days really seem to get me down. I have been busy creating a supply of scrapbook albums which I am hoping to start selling at some point as well as scouring the net, books, magazines and so on for inspiration. I had a lovely day yesterday with my best friends at the Scrapbook Sisters crop, where in between the chatting, laughing, drinking coffee and eating (as always) the delicious carrot cake on offer I managed to bring my "Project Life" up to date. I also managed to make a little layout in a frame featuring my sis and her boyfriend, an idea that had been developing in my mind for some time. Now, I was trying to add a picture here but I don't seem to be able to do this on the I pad....aargh! Every time you think you've conquered a piece of technology another obstacle throws itself into your path. I will post this for now and continue to try and sort out my laptop, I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing and sunny weekend!

I know Christmas is over but I took this picture of my little angel tealight holder on my mantelpiece with my phone at the beginning of December and although I've used it as a screensaver on my laptop and on my I-pad over the Christmas period I still can't get enough of it. It is so atmospheric and I find it so calming to look at. It also reminds me of my Mum as she gave it to me a few years ago because it doesn't suit the style of her home but I think it fits perfectly in mine.
My poor little brain is still racing with ideas for the new year, one of them of course is to get stuck into this blog, maybe partly to straighen out things in my own head! I'm not sure that the world needs my crazy ramblings but I think I am going to enjoy this journey, and if others want to join me on it that would be an absolute pleasure.
And I figure all the time I'm sitting here pondering and typing I'm not munching on any naughty foods, which is a bonus. However, I might have to indulge my love for a nice cup of coffee whilst blogging if it's to become a regular feature in my life!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all you lovely bloggers out there!
We had a lovely quiet NYE last night, just the two of us, just how I like it. We went to the cinema to watch the new "Sherlock Holmes", then went for a bite to eat and back home around 22.00 for a few quiet drinks for the rest of the evening.
We had a lazy day today as the weather in our neck of the woods was appalling, very wet and grey, yuk. I managed to get in a little teensy bit of crafting in the form of card making just to satisfy the worst of the urge, I need a full blown scrapbooking session really but can't get to my stash as No 2 son is using my craft - oops, I mean his bed-room. I have ordered some prints online though ready for when I get round to scrapping again. Yay!
Now the first day of the new year is almost over, my lovely hubby is running me a lovely bath so off for a soak shortly - I do looove a soak in the bath! I hope all of you out there in blog land have had a great start to 2012 and I wish you all a happy, prosperous, worry-free and enjoyable new year. Much love!x