Oliver and Olivia
Anonymous
Well these two Basic Grey collections have arrived - 2 weeks before the expected date. That has to be a first lol.

I don't know how they keep churning out these collections but I have to say some of the papers are reminicent of older collections. But again these are double sided papers which does give an option.

Oliver is mostly dark reds, blues and greens witha couple of the papers with trains on it and others with monkeys and other cartoony animals and plaids, stripes and dots.




Olivia is pinks and greens and blues. Quite flowery but again with stripes and dots.




 I only now stock the collection packs as lack of room limits what I can stock But if you are interested in them and you haven't already got yours you can find them on the site. Just look in Whats new for speed lol
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Bird of Paradise
Anonymous
Several years ago, after a holiday in Madeira, I bought a Strelitzia plant (Bird of Paradise) as I was so taken with them on the island as they were everywhere. I put it in the conservatory but to my disappointment  it never did much until last year when it produced a flower. This year it has produced 3 flowers and I am over the moon. Sadly the flowers don't last that long and they seem to be secreting a sticky substance as if they are crying - but they are still beautiful

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Nellie the Elephant?
Anonymous
Richard had to go and look at a job in Kent during the week so we thought we would carry on and go to Howletts Park. I like Port Lympne much better, but it was very quiet as we got there in the early afternoon and we could have been the only people there as we saw very few pweople.
There wasn't a lot to photograph but I did get these pictures of a little baby elephant. She was so cute.
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Well That's A-May-zing
Anonymous
We went to our local restaurant last Wednesday and Anita Dobson came in. She was appearing at the Devonshire Theatre. Helen, the owner, was beside herself and said to Richard 'Look, It's Angie' 'Angie who?' Angie from Eastenders' Richard said he would be nmore impressed if it was Brian May. lol Anyway she is really tiny, not as big as she appears on TV.


The next night we were fast asleep when the phone rang at 11pm. It was Helen saying that Brian May was in the restaurant with Anita Dobson and would we like to come for coffee with them. We declined politely but the next morning she said that she had Brian May's autograph for Richard.

He found an old photo frame and I downloaded a picture of Brian May and gave him some cardstock and he chose a paper from the DCWV Rockstar pack and with a little bit of guidance came up with this. I think he was quite pleased with his achievement. Perhaps a scrapping convert after all of these years?

The downside is that we took it to show Helen and she wants me to do some for her as she has signed photographs.

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A Jane Gill Workshop - Saturday 10 July
Anonymous
You may have seen some of the beautiful cards that are made by Jane Gill. She makes all sorts of flowers from coloured paper and punches. Some of the everyday punches she uses you wouldn't believe make such fantastic flowers.

She is holding 2 workshops here on Staurday 10 July.

The beginners from 10.00 - 12.00 at £8.00 per person

And

A Step Further from 1.00 -3.00 again at £8.00

All materials provided, and the classes are very technique orientated and you will take home some well made flowers. You will not actually make a card but will learn how to make roses, cornflowers, lilies, daisies and leaves plus a few other flowers.

Jane will have examples of how to place these flowers on a card to make a stunning card for someone special.

I have been to one of her flower making classes and thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the little daisies that we made.

If you would like to do both classes I can do the usual lunch for £2.00 per person.
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Debden Again
Anonymous
I am certainly a glutton for punishment. I went to Debden again last weekend, for the second time in 4 weeks.

As usual the weather was good although a little chilly this time. We had some good laughs and although I felt that the food wasn't up to the usual standard there was still plenty to eat.

For a change I thought I might have a go at card making. I borrowed some CD's from my friend Liz, and wore it out printing off loads of images. In all I made 25 cards, but I didn't take any photos.

I belong to a little cyberspace group called the GOGs, and there are 10 of us in all, and we try to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Charity. I sent the cards off to another friend, Val, who sells them in her Police Station and any proceeds go to our charity. I think we have raised in excess of £2500 in the last 4 years.

So if anyone has any cards that they have made and that are hanging around and you are prepared to donate them to a good cause we would be pleased to have them.
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The Biscuit Tin
Anonymous
As you will have noticed I've not been around much recently. But there is a reason.

Richard was getting bored so we looked at the local auctions to see if there was a cheap place he could do up as a project through the winter. We started to look last August and anything that we liked went way above our price range. But he was talking to a friend at the High Beech Chalet park in St Leonards and he said there were several chalets for sale. So we had a look and the wooden chalets were too expensive. Then we found this little tin chalet. There are 10 in the middle of the site, a total of 100 chalets in all, and they have a nice outlook, and to our surprise we got it very cheaply.

But when we started to work on it we found it had a lot more work than anticipated. We had to basically gut it. We put in a new double glazed frontage, took down the ceilings and put insulation in the roof space. There were 2 tinmy bedrooms so we took half the space of one bedroom and made the other bigger and the other half of the bedroom became a decent sized bathroom. We did away with the wall into the kitchen area and made it all open plan with a breakfast bar, to make the room look more light and airy. A new cooker, fridge and washing machine and this is the finished reult.

Here are some before and after pictures.















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