Basic Grey Sketch Challenge

Thursday night is crop night once a fortnight but tonight Simon had a lad's night out so I stayed at home and decided I would still do some scrapping. Ive done two layouts. One for a design team Ive been doing some work for - more of that on a seperate post and another Basic Grey challenge.

The challenge was a sketch this time - you can see it here.

I used some papers from the Indie Bloom collection and this lovely photo of one of Matthew's little friends. I stole the title because it was just perfect for this layout. I love pink and dont get to use it as much with my Matthew layouts ( although it has been known) , so it was a great chance to getting pretty with pink. I love a sketch!

Basic Grey Challenges

I love the Basic Grey Challenges. I love that they help me use up my old stash and I love that they get my creative juices flowing.

Over the weekend I did one of their recent challenges. The challenge was to use your punches to create a background. What a great idea - not something I do very often. You can see the challenge here.

This actually inpsired me to complete two layouts.

The first was using my circle punches to create bubbles of water behind a photo of Matthew and Simon swimming. I used some of the Basic Grey Lauderdale collection - mainly picking out the blues and greens.

The second layout uses the Ambrosia collection and my square stamp punch. This photo was taken at Chessington Zoo in January and I must say Im very proud of the photo. These papers show off the colours of the tiger perfectly.

Im really pleased with how this challenge made me do something a bit different with my scrapbooking. Thanks Basic Grey

Scrapbooking Starting Points

I can't believe I'm posting twice in one day. Of course I only have a handful of followers so I cant annoy too many people with loads of posts, but I hope those people who do read will allow me this indulgence.

Im trying to do a bit more scrapping at home and in the evenings. Challenges are very helpful for speed scrapping and of course I have thousands of photos to get through. Tonight I have had a go at Shimelle's Scrapbooking Starting Point. I used some new papers from Simple Stories which is called Awesome - perfect for boys and a photo taken of Matthew at Chessington Zoo in January. He just loves to be behind a steering wheel!

I switched the page around to put my photo on the left and of course made a few other changes but overall pleased with the final layout. Thanks Shimelle!

10 on the 10th

Ok, so I know I'm two days late but Matthew has been a bit under the weather and sleep has been a bit of an issue - especially on Saturday night when he decided that instead of going to sleep beautifully about 7.45 ( thats the norm), that he was going to have a bit of a paddy and not sleep till 9.30. Think he was practising to be a terrible two! Last night was back to normal so Im hoping it was a one off and not a new phase! Anyway to cut a long story short it means that I didnt get a chance to do my 10 list on the 10th.

My 10 is Matthew orientated. As many of you know having kids is expensive. On Saturday we went on a little shopping trip and bought a few bits for Matthew. I thought I would make a list as it will be interesting to look back and see what we were buying for him at 22 months.

10 on the 10th - Shopping for Matthew

1. Calpol
2. Junior Nurofen
3. Calpol plug ins ( can you tell he has a cold!)
4. A booster seat - I dont think it will be long before he uses this instead of a high chair and easier to take to friends and family than a high chair
5. Play doh - a current favourite
6. Finger paints - on my to do list!
7. Some trousers - to wear to a family christening this weekend
8. A new toothbrush  ( honestly we spent a fortune in Boots)
9. A bargain t-shirt in TKMaxx - its a bit big for him yet but its lovely.
10. Lunch in starbucks - Matthew had some of both our paninis!

And here is a picture of what we didnt buy him - a huge car from Toys R Us - I cant believe anyone really has a house big enough for one of these!

With his birthday coming up and him growing out of his size 18-24 month clothes , im sure we will be spending even more money in the next few weeks. My husband wont be happy!

Shimelle's Scrapbook Starting Points

For one reason or another I wont be able to attend any of my crops this month. So therefore Im really trying to get a little scrapping done at home.

A couple of days ago I had a go at Shimelle's Scrapbook Starting Points. This is where the start of the design is done but what you do next is up to you.

I used this design to scrapbook some photos of Matthew and two of his little play date friends. I used some of my new Cavallini washi tape and some lovely Basic Grey Picadilly papers and embellishments.

Here are my efforts:

Friends Reunited

Yesterday was a very special day. I consider my university friends to be some of my best friends and yet of course our lives have all taken different routes and we dont get to see each other as often as we like. There have been some weddings, some reunions, some occasional meetings but some of our group havent managed to see each since graudation ( which is coming up to 19 year ago).  Yesterday 6 of us from our old group, 5 spouses and 8 children got together. It was lovely to see everyone again,  fantastic to slip into our old conversations, amazing to see all the little ones together and quite simply just one of those really fantastic days we will never forget!

Here are some photos and some who's who!

Our lovely hosts for the day Warren and Louisa. Warren was one of the 'old' Reading geographers. I haven't seen them for five years.  

Warren, Jeremy, Phil and his wife Nora.

Jeremy. Im lucky enough to see Jeremy on a regular bases. He was my 'best man' as our wedding.

Ok - everyone is actually in this shot!!! Not quite what we had planned when we set the timers on our cameras.

Phil and Nora. I havent seen Phil for about 7 years. He has been in New Zealand for some time but is now working in Edinburgh for two years with his lovely wife Nora.

The girls from the Geography group. Caroline, myself and Chris. Again, I havent seen them for five years.

Chris and Ben and their daughter. Son running around the field somewhere.

Caroline and Chris

The oldest 6 children. What a bunch of blondes. Hard work getting this photo!

Matthew getting to grips with the piano and Caroline's little one looking on.

Matthew loved the dogs!

Another picture of the oldest 6 children. With Matthew being supported by Simon ( who I cropped out!)

Jeremy with Warren's youngest. I must sign him up for babysitting!

So I think that includes a shot of everyone - even me and Simon.

So thank you to all of these people for being my friends. Special friends, special memories. Let's not leave it so long next time. I promise to organise something at our house next summer.

Photo 365+1 - February Highlights

Two months in and Im still achieving my photo a day. Some of them are not great photos but they will help remind me of the little things in day to day life. You can see all my Jan/Feb photos here.  But here are some of my February highlights.

5th Feb -  Some snow at last and Matthew gets to make a snowman. Or Daddy did while Matthew watched!

13th Feb - Valentine's tea for the little ones

12th Feb - Blueberry muffins for the Valentine's tea

14th Feb - Valentines pic

19th Feb - my boys at swimming

20th Feb - A trip to Wisley and the butterfly exhibition in the glasshouse

21st Feb - Pancake day

26th Feb - Musical statues - very Michael Jackson

I win £5 on facebook to spend at Sarahscards - not life changing amounts but just nice to win something.