Moving out... Moving on



The day we left our ould house in 2010. It really was the end of an era. The challenge was to use a grid

Baby Elephant

We went to Chester Zoo on Wednesday to see the new baby elephant. He was only 2 days old. It was quite difficult to get any photos, as his proud parents were keeping him safely in between them, so we just managed to catch a few glimpses as they all plodded along.

We also saw a real rhino!

West Kirby

Recently we had to drop off a geocoin that was after a seaview, so took the opportunity to go for a wander on the beach at West Kirby on the Wirral. Jacob collected a lot of shells

Look at my new sign

Hope you have had a lovely weekend.

A bit nervous

Our house is now sale agreed. We are in a complete chain of 6. We've been to arrange our mortgage this afternoon and now there is nothing we can do. We just have to wait on everyone else in the chain and respective solicitors.

I feel a bit sick and nervous. Can't wait to move though.

A Sunny Sunday

Spurred on by my friend having her baby this morning we decided to walk into Chester today and buy all things pink. Which is not something I get to do very often, as I have two boys. Mike suggested we do some more rhino hunting while we were there. I was quick to agree, as this is my new favourite hobby.

Hope you enjoy the latest rhino installment.

10 - Romeo the Rhino

Artist: Isobel Kershaw and Community Friends, Sponsor: His Grace, The Duke of Westminster KG CB OBE TD CD DL, Donated to Chester Aid to the Homeless, Community Day Services and Volunteer Centre, Chester, Location: Frosham Square, Frodsham Street

9 - Blossom

Artist: Sarah Jane Richards, Sponsor: Cheshire's Gardens of Distinction, Location: Eastgate Street/Foregate Street

100 - Dee Rhino (mini)

School: Dee Banks School, Location: Marks and Spencer, Foregate Street, Chester

Inspiration: The winning design was created by our key stage 2 class of children with severe learning difficulties. The blue background with fish, trees and 'finger print' flowers depicts the nearby River Dee. This design allowed al of the pupils to participate in the decoration of the rhino.

22 - Rhinopedia

School: Waverton Community Primary School, Location: Marks and Spencer, Chester

Inspiration: After all the pupils were given the opportunity to design a Rhino, their results were very imaginative and impossible to choose from! The finished artwork incorporates most of these designs as flowing bands of knowledge wrapping around the rhino. He is a topical, historical, musical, geographical rhino and a whole lot more!

 

7 - Rhino Romano

Artist: Anthony Braniff, Sponsor: Bank of America, Location: The Ampitheatre

43 - Precious Commodity

Artist: Tracie Marshall, Sponsor: ITV Granada Reports, Location: The Roman Gardens

42 - Otis

Artist: Designed by Bob Berridge, painted by Angela Brady, Sponsor: Hickory's Smokehouse, Location: Hickory's Smokehouse, The Groves

41 - Cestrianocerous

Artist: Sarah Jane Richards, Sponsor: Chester Area Partnership Board, Location: The Groves, Souter's Lane

40 - LAWrence

Artist: Designed by Rachel Bernie, painted by Stacey Sumner, Sponsor: The College of Law, Location: The Groves, Souter's Lane

39 - Charity

Artist: Julie Dodd, Sponsor: Virgin Money Giving, Location: The Groves, Queens Park Bridge

37 - Unioceros

Artist: Samantha Quigley, Georgina Thomas, Nathan Tomlinson, Julia Elpers, Helen Coupland, John Renshaw, Sponsor: Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Chester, Location: Bridge Gate, Lower Bridge Street

32 - The Bulk

Artist: Angela Brady, Sponsor: Land Recovery and Enviro Skips, Location: HQ Nun's Road/Grosvenor Road

33 - Armour Plated

Artist: Groves Artist Mary Saifelden, Sponsor: ABode Hotels & Liberty Properties, Location HQ Piazza, Grosvenor Road

34 - Think

Artist: Sam Jones, Sponsor: Cheshire West and Chester Council, Location: HQ, Nicholas Street

24 - Roman Gladiator (mini)

School: Eccleston Church of England Primary School, Location: Grosvenor Museum, Chester

Inspiration: A member of staff from the Grosvenor Museum visited Eccleston Primary with Roman artefacts to stimulate the children's imagination. One class accompanied a Centurion in a walk around Chester before creating designs that featured a range of different aspects of Roman life such as mosaics and legionaries.

46 - Lurking in the Leaves (mini)

School: Overleigh St Mary's Church of England Primary School, Location: Grosvenor Museum, Chester

Inspiration: The children were fortunate enough to have worked with an artist from Grosvenor Museum to create their 'Roman Chester' rhino, reflecting beautifully the city's rich heritage.

36 - Deeno

Artist: Andy Harrington, Sponsor: Dee 106.3, Location: Grosvenor Street/Bridge Street

21 - Shocklach Patch (mini)

School: Shocklatch Oviatt Church of England Primary School, Location: Olio & Farina, Bridge Street, Chester

Inspiration: This interestingly named Rhino was created by pupils working with local artist Frances Connor. His name derives from his patchwork jacket of children's drawings. He bears the symbol of the school - the bell tower - and words that represent the children's thoughts after their visit to Chester Zoo.

115 - Chuck (mini)

School: Helsby High School, Location P&A Davies, Bridge Street, Chester

Inspiration: The environmental theme represents its designers concern about the environment and our responsibility to take care of it and look after the rhino. Chuck's jeans represent the young people of Helsby High and his abstract patterns show the school's creativity and and their link with the charity Afritwin.

It was much sunnier today than it has been all week, hence lots of window reflection for the mini rhino's. If I get chance I shall replace those photos with better ones.

A Bit Spotty

We have had Chicken Pox in our house for the last two weeks. There seems to have been a bit of an epidemic in our area. Nearly all of the children at Jacob's nursery have had it including his two best friends. I'm still waiting for Daniel's spots to come out though. My husband never had it as a child though so we are wondering whether he will get it too.

Don't be fooled by the smiles in this photo, Jacob has been grumpy, irritable, stubborn and whingy. Glad he's back to normal, which means he'll be back in nursery on Tuesday.

A Weekend in the Dales

Mike and I spent a weekend in the Yorkshire Dales recently for our 5th Wedding Anniversary. We had beautiful weather and stayed in the lovely town of Hawes. It was great to get away and do some walking without Jacob and Daniel. We visited some beautiful places and managed to find several geocaches in the area, can't wait to do it again.

Time to Party - 10pm Saturday Challenge

This has got to be the most difficult challenge of the weekend! After careful deliberation I've managed to come up with five layouts that I love. Here we go.....

1. I love this layout. I don't know about you but I have been known to have some brilliant ideas (at the time) that then become a labour of love. This was one such thing.  

"I know I'll put some music on the paper" This entailed finding some music for Half a pound of tupenny rice and copying it into powerpoint with musical notes found somewhere else and resized. I then printed it out on vellum.

"Wouldn't it be great to have a drum" Couldn't find any stickers so decided to make my own. Found some shiny paper, drew out drum by hand (I am aware it is a little lopsided). I bought some black elastic. Then put it all together, using eyelets to thread the elastic. It took hours, but I love it.

2. I think this layout is my favourite favourite. I love the photos, I love that is just a normal day doing normal stuff. Most of all I love the paper. This sheet of paper is one I received in a pack of American Craft Metropolitan. I remember thinking, wow that is bright, I don't think I'll ever find a use for that. It just goes so well with the pattern on the highchair.

3. This next layout is from out Honeymoon in Iceland. The most amazing place on Earth. One of our favourite stays was a night in  Akureyri. We loved the atmosphere of this town. I took a series of pictures from the road on the way out. I was so pleased when they all joined together so well.

It took me ages to pick the letters for the title. In the end I picked these, sanded the shiny green paint off them and embossed them silver. That was a bit of an experiment, Although not how I planned them to look, I was pleased with the slightly mottled effect.

4. A slightly newer layout. It just seemed to all come together. It is such a happy memory of Jacob's 2nd birthday. I love how all the colours from his t-shirt match the papers. I love the use of space on the page, normally I like to fill, but this just seemed right.

5. A really recent layout. The beginning of a new geocaching adventure for us, it has become our new favourite hobby. I really like the sassafrass paper at the bottom cut into a scallop edge (another sheet of paper I never thought I'd use) I really like the journalling mats too, they were just right for that layout.

There you have it my top 5. Mind you, ask me in a couple of months and I'm sure it would be different!

Time to Party - 6pm Saturday Challenge

Today has been super busy in our house. Had a little lie in this morning and then I went to church with Daniel and Mike took Jacob to the park. We both got back about 1pm and then got everything ready for some geocaching near to Beeston Castle (and the Ice Cream Farm). In a nutshell, didn't manage to do any scrapping until 8pm. There was quite a bit of hand cutting so it was quite a time consuming layout.

This challenge was about handwriting. Quite an easy one for me, as I can never be bothered to faff around on the computer with fonts and margins and printing. So, although I'm not in love with my own handwriting it is just much more practical and means I can get more scrapping done. You can read about the challenge here

Time to Party - 8pm Saturday Challenge

Not too bad. I've managed to complete three challenges so far. I'm determined to do one more before I go to bed. Part of me wants to get cracking right away and part of wants to wait ten minutes to find out what the next challenge will be!

So, here is my layout for the 8pm challenge. I already had these photos printed off and a plan for them. That plan was sketch #31 from Capture these sketches. So I've combined the two challenges. I've decided to enter this on Shimelle's blog and just to use the sketch as inspiration.

(For some reason blogger has decided that it should be sideways. As I took this picture with the flash I shall replace it in the morning anyway.)

Time to Party - 8pm Friday Challenge

Shimelle is hosting her first online crop party this weekend. It started last night and there is a new challenge every two hours. I have three main obstacles to a whole uninterrupted weekend of scrapping - Mike, Jacob and Daniel. So, although it would be nice to do them all, I'll just dip in and out.

I managed 1 out of 3 of Friday nights challenges, which was a scraplift of a Shimelle layout with a bonus for woodgrain. You may not be able to see it too well, but my journalling tag is woodgrain.

Hopefully I'll be back really soon with some more completed challenges.

Getting back to normal

Well, I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. Life has been a little overwhelming so far this year. I think with pretty much everything changing in our world made me just want to hide away for a bit. I don't think the terrible wintry weather helped much. I took a break from lots of things for a couple of months, including scrapbooking. However the last few weeks I have been feeling much more like my normal self and the paper trimmer and double-sided tape has come out again.

Here are my layouts from the last couple of weeks. I have used a combination of Capture these Sketches and Pencillines sketches as a basis. Enjoy.