A weekend away.........................................

Ever since I began my blog properly with Shimelle's class ''Blogging for Scrapbookers'', I have soooooooooooo hoped for a get together. And last weekend it happened, squeal of excitement. Ten brave, or alternatively  read mad, scrapbookers and crafters arranged to meet at a Youth Hostel in darkest Shropshire for a weekend of fun, eating, friendship and crafting. And that is exactly what we got.
Here are a few pictures of what we got up to and I will tell more of our antics later.

The front cover of my Christmas journal...............

 A beautiful card made by Jimjams................

 K, Lizzie and Alexa......................

 One of the old pottery kilns.......................

Our gorgeous youth hostel.........................

a surprise parcel................................

my surprise............................

Clair's wrapping class.....................

things I made...........................

the bracelet Clair is making for me (it snapped when she had almost finished it naughty wire.............)

and the beautiful Mel writing secret letters shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...................

In other news, I am off to be Mary Poppins to the cutest twins next week. Journal Your Christmas begins tomorrow with Shimelle and I am meeting my 2 girlfriends for a trip to London. Plenty to talk about if the twins let me have a minute off.

Hello again hello!

Oh my goodness, having dropped over to see what Lizzie was up to on her blogiversary today I thought I'd see when I last blogged myself. Nearly 2 months ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoops and sorry.

So what have I been doing in those weeks away?

1. I have returned to work as a health visitor after nearly 6 months off sick and I can honestly say I am soooooooooooo pleased to be back. I feel so well, confident, love my work and the new and inspiring team we have got. Altogether things are great work wise
2. I have been on a diet using Slimming World partly for my blood pressure and also myself worth. To date I have lost 1 stone and 5 lbs in 7 weeks. Awesome. People are starting to notice the change in size and I am feeling so much better. I was carrying my friend's baby the other day and realised he weighed as much as I had lost. He was really heavy and I thought to myself, wow how did you carry that extra weight around.
3. I have joined the gym under the GP referral scheme and have been going twice a week. Not being a gym bunny at all I have to be perfectly honest and say I am feeling really motivated and glad to go. It doesnt hurt that the instructors are easy on the eye.
4. Luke came down to visit and we went to see The Feeling in Bristol who were brilliant as always. He has his graduation ceremony in 2 weeks and I feel so proud of him. I've made some new friends in Bristol one of whom is an artist and performance artist, very talented and more on him another time.
5. I have been bad with the crafting, not done much at all. But excited to meet some blogfriends at the end of this month in Coalbrookdale for a weekend of fun, relaxation, skyping, blogging and craft.
6. Watching Downton Abbey..........................how will it end? Please let M and M get together.

 What have you been doing?

Happy Dance in Wells today..................................

So today dawned beautifully sunny like yesterday and I knew it was gonna be a good day? Want to know why ? Weeeeeeeeeeeell I had a friend coming to visit who I have talked to loads but never face-to-face.
Here are a few clues:

1. the title of her blog includes her name,
2. although she is a scrapbooker, she also makes amazing handmade items,
3. she sometimes can be found sitting in her garden with a very lucky cat,
4. she has 2 cute furry creatures living in her dining room,
5. she has a pet named after a famous criminal private detective!

Guessed yet? It's................................
Lizzie from Lizzie made

Lizzie had emailed me a few weeks ago saying she, D and J were coming to visit nearby and could we meet. I of course said yes even though I wasn't sure how my mental would be. Anyway we arranged to meet today at midday outside WH Smiths, really classy eh? Well being it was market day and rather busy we dispensed with that idea and I walked round to the car park to meet 3 lovely peeps waving madly at me. We went off to have to lunch in a local teashop and chatted, and chatted, and chatted. It was fabulous.

 This is the handsome D and the terrific teen J who were really fun and let me and Lizzie talk about scrapbooking and blogging for ages........................

 Here is the beautiful Lizzie, yes she is exactly how she seems on her blog, honest, cheerful, funny and clever,. It was like we knew each other already which I suppose we did in a weird way.

And of course we needed a shot of the glamorous ladies of blogland together. So once we'd lunched we split up and Lizzie and I went into some of my fave nicnac shops. We walked around the moat of the Bishop's Palace and then around the back of the cathedral via a beautiful pottery shop.

Then we ambled around the market, drank and cooling drink, and before we knew it, it was time for the gang to head home. I t was a gorgeous day but very short. Next time Lizzie has promised to teach me bookbinding.

Oh I forgot to mention she made me this .......................

 and brought me the stained glass owls, you know I love my owls.

here's a close-up of the stitched detail on the album and the paper she used which is peacock blue and then gold detailing and blue glitter. She's so clever.

So what a fab day. Could it get any better? Yes it could cos as I was reading my blogroll I saw this from Heather at Heather Scraps.................

And the winner is .........

...... Jo Sowerby!! You are going to be in reciept of this fabulous book just as soon as you let me know your postal address :)
I get the Pass the Book this month from Heather.


Oh I almost forgot I have got another Rinda's Scavenger hunt picture of our local museum..............

Jo xxxxx

Owl mail..........................

The other day this lovely blog friend sent me a mysterious email saying she had sent something to me. It got even more mysterious when she wrote a second time saying it was coming via someone else. Being abit of a sleuth I put on my best Miss Marple knitted cardi and hat and wondered what could it be. Well today,  a lovely parcel arrived and this is what it was......

 A lil note from Fiona with what Lizzie said..........................aww bless her.

It's a notebook with a fabric book cover. It is I think linene or calico with appliqued owls (which I adore), which have then been embroidered. The book cover is beautifully made, very neat stitches (much better than mine) and the lady who designed and made it is called Fiona T. You can find her work here and here. Now for the purposes of not seeing how much my lovely gift was I havent visited yet, so you'll have to pop over and see for yourselves. I'll check it out later. If Fiona's work is anything like this it will be a beautiful site.


As today is not one of my best so far, it put a lovely smile on my face and made me so glad I have my blog and the amazing friends I have had the privilege to make during my blogging time. You certainly know how to make me feel special.

Thank you...............