Thursday Thoughts

Ooops! Seems like I've been so focussed on not blogging every day that I forgot all about posting my ten on the tenth. So here I go a few days late.

My theme this month is Autumn changes.

1. Holly berries just beginning to ripen and turn red.

2. Trees turning colour at Belton House.

3. And a closer look at those leaves.

4. Cob nuts grabbed before the squirrels found them.

5. Conkers all shiny and bursting from their prickly shells.

6. A dandelion clock glistening with early morning dew. I took this photo on my walk round to my dad's, by the time I walked back early afternoon the grass had been cut and the clock had gone. Really brought home to me the importance of catching it while you can.

7. I tracked these toadstools over three days to capture how quickly they changed.

 

8. Autumn wouldn't be complete without pumpkins. Was very tempted by the pottery ones at a local garden centre.

9. The days get shorter and my early evening visit to my dad is now done in that beautiful twilight hour.

10. And best of all for me I get my boots out again!

 

Well that's my Autumn offering complete, hope you enjoyed looking. Thanks for visiting today.

Friday Focus & Ten On The Tenth

CASology want splatters for their new challenge. Well couldn't be more up my street - another excuse to get out that Gorgeous Grunge stamp set again!

So I decided to go for a Christmas card and turn the splatters into falling snow. I can see this card becoming one of those I wonder what it would look like in all white or embossed or .....

I just added a sparkly gem to highlight the deer's eye and some wink of stella on the antlers.

I'm quite smitten by this reindeer stamp, hope you like it too.

Supplies:
Stamps: Honey Doo Crafts, Snowflake Reindeer; SU, Gorgeous Grunge; Uniko Studio, All Occasion Sentiments #4
Inks: SU, cherry cobbler, whisper white, baked brown sugar
Embellishments: adhesive gem  from my stash; Wink of Stella, clear 

And now for my monthly ten on the tenth photo slot.  This month the theme is my late Summer garden. I posted about my early Summer garden here and it's interesting to make comparisons.

1.  A favourite corner beginning to reflect the colours of Autumn.

2.  Some purple, of course!

3.  The leaves just beginning to turn.

4.  More purple!

5.  Just reminds me of a plant that should have come from another planet - find it interesting and intriguing.

6.  The last of my tomatoes.

7. That same papery flower that also featured in my early Summer garden - good long bloomer and great value.

8. Berries - sign of a hard Winter to come? Hope not!

9. Cosmos still blooming and another brilliant long flowering plant. Will definitely plant these again next year.

10. The seed head of my climbing clematis - the flower was featured in my early Summer garden photos.

Well that's all for today. Thanks you so much for dropping by my blog. Hope to see you again tomorrow when the next Unscripted Sketches game goes live.

Wednesday Words & Ten On The Tenth

Back to scrapbooking today, still working my way through all the photos from the visit of my grandsons in August. And then I found this one and knew it was far too precious to disappear into a project life page - it just had to be a whole page completely devoted to it.

Luckily the first September sketch at The Memory Nest fitted the bill perfectly and in no time at all my page was finished.

Such a sweet tender moment wanting to talk to his new baby cousin.

And a little closer look at those bottoms accents which helped to make this page flow.

Supplies:
Papers: Bazzill Basics, cardstock; AC, chap; lilybeedesign, picnic basket
Alphas: Websters, storytellers
Stamps: Clearly Besotted, Journal It; SU, Gorgeous Grunge
Inks: Memento, tuxedo black; SU, whisper white; Staz On, jet black
Punch: Martha Stewart, heart
Embellishments: Scrap 365, wooden shapes mini hearts

Oh just thought I'd mention the new Unscripted Sketches challenge that is perfect for project life and scrapbook pages. Pop over and check it out!

Now for my ten things on the tenth.  This month I decided to share some random facts about myself, accompanied as always by photographic evidence, although mainly taken with my little panasonic point and shoot instead of my trusty phone camera.

1.  I eat far too much chocolate! And not the dark supposedly better for you kind. No, not me, I'm into the sweet milky definitely a pound a mouthful kind - that's pounds in weight not money. And worse than that my current craze is for those little bars filled with coconut bought by the bagful at Lidl.

2. I'm totally addicted to playing games on my phone - that's when I'm not taking photos, catching up with facebook & instagram or reading my emails. Maybe I should say I'm totally addicted to my phone!

3.  My favourite Winter pastime for those long dark cold days - jigsaws.  This is just one stash hidden in the spare room wardrobe, there are other places too! I do try to only keep favourites that I know I'll do again - and I've done most at least three times - but the pile seems to have drunk some 'grow me' potion.

4.  Surprisingly I do find time to read too. Often on my kindle, but these are a few books that just jumped into my supermarket trolley last month. I've read two and another not in this photo, so I'm onto it.

5.  I have two piercings in each ear, but am currently wearing odd sets in each ear.  No one has noticed, or maybe they're just too polite to say, but there is a reason for this madness and it's not because I'm stylish or trendsetting.  I just keep losing or breaking one earring from a set and end up with a box full of expensive misfits, so I decided just to go with it and give them some love.

6.  When I first retired from my full time career as a school teacher I found myself a Saturday job in a wedding dress shop. Such bliss after the stresses of such a life consuming job to just turn up in the morning, chat to happy people all day and then return home in the evening and forget all about it until the next week.  And that was my inspiration for my dolls house bridal shop.

7.  Although I loathe the everyday task of cooking meals I do like to dabble with baking.  Not that my cakes usually look like these - they were made on a cupcake decorating course I went on a couple of years ago.  The only downside of baking is that nothing lasts for more than two seconds in my house!

8.  I keep a gratitude journal - well I do in fits and starts. Even on the days I don't write I always mull over three things before going to sleep.  Recently I was challenged on facebook to post three things I was thankful for on five consecutive days. This is one of the posts I shared.

 

9. My all time favourite holiday destination is Portugal. Love the clear sea, brilliant blue sky and interesting coves, cliffs and rock formations.

10.  Now please don't be scared by this last image. This is my childhood teddy that has obviously seen better days. I don't think he ever recovered from our puppy finding him one day when we were out and also the fact that I slept with him just about every night until I got married at the age of 23 might have something to do with his looks.

Well thank you for sticking with me to the end, hope this share has given you a little bit more of an insight into what makes me tick. Next Monday, 15th, I'm taking part in an Unique Blog Hop which concentrates more on my creative processes. Check out Kimberly's post here for her slant on all things creative.

Bye for now, hope to see you again tomorrow.

Jane
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AAA Cards Game 15 ENJOY & Ten on the Tenth

Well last week's watercolour challenge was really popular again and it's looking like it could well be a regular feature for the next few months' PLAY games. Great news!

This week we're asking you to ENJOY creating something with the theme of Summer Foods.  For me it had to be ice-cream - although it doesn't have to be Summer for me to enjoy eating ice cream!

 

This weeks winner 
will be offered an appearance 
as a Guest Team Designer for our next ENJOY game!

So out came stamps from one of my favourite companies - Clearly Besotted. They seem to have stamps suitable for just about any occasion and theme.

I started with a die cut banner and stamped the ice cream cone, ice cream and chocolate flake.  I then sparkled up the flake with Wink of Stella and glammed up the ice cream with micro beads. The micro beads and the stripy paper were both freebies from a magazine.

 

A couple of sentiment flags and sprinkles and my card was finished. Nice and easy, but I think bright, summery and eye catching.

Supplies:

Stamps: Clearly Besotted, So Sweet

Inks: SU, melon mambo; Memento, toffee crunch, rich cocoa

Dies: Clearly Besotted, Tag Along; Lawn Fawn, stitched party banner

Embellishments: doodlebug sprinkles, cupcake asst; Wink of Stella, clear; Micro beads from Ppaercraft Inspirations mag.

As today's challenge happens to fall on the 10th and I always share ten things each month I hope all you AAA Cards players will indulge me.  This month my theme is Summer - quite appropriate for the AAA challenge don't you think?

1.  Keeping with the Summer foods theme I was forced to eat this lolly so that I could get a photo - such a hardship!

2.  And of course eating outside is occasionally possible!

3.  My toenails get painted and manage to match the geraniums.

4.  My hanging baskets bloom and it becomes a daily task to keep then hydrated.

5.  Skies are blue

6.  And butterflies abound.

7. Sunglasses and hats are needed.

8. Sea, sun and sand.

9. Beach huts always fascinate me.

10. And for some reason I associate fair rides with the Summer - something to do with my hometown carnival and fair being in July I'm thinking.

Thank you so much for getting down here to the end of today's lengthy post.  Good luck and hope you ENJOY playing along with AAA Cards this week.  Can't wait to see what you all come up with.

Jane

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