Better night

Eric rang last night and was a lot happier, good campsite in fact from his tent he has a super position to watch the practice and racing without even having to move. He held the telephone up so I could here the bikes roaring past ..... oh boy was I jealous! and the weather has improved a lot so all round he's much happier and having a good time.

We had a much better night, went to bed quite early and had all the dogs settled by 10pm, usually Jim and Rulu sleep in our room and the other three sleep in the lounge, study and dining room. Last night they decided they would all sleep with me, probably because they all feel a bit unsettled. So there we were all of us tucked up and asleep by 10pm BLISS..... even better no one had me up until 4.26am to be precise LOL ....course by 6.ooam I had had my breakfast and showered, beautiful sunrise this morning but it has already clouded over with yet more rain on the way.

Going to pick Vikki and Ben up from the train station at 10.00am then pop to the Dr's to collect my pills and get him to check out a odd looking freckle/spot/mole on my arm which is worrying Eric, then back here for lunch and Dawn is going to join us. Tonight Marc is coming over to take the bin out for me and unblock the kitchen drain which is overflowing everywhere despite Eric doing it at the weekend. Guess all the rain has sent debris into it.

I have apologies to make .... unknown to me my outgoing emails although showing as sent are not reaching anyone, and it appears it could have been going on for several day. Can't figure out what is wrong as incoming mail is fine, so sorry guys if you think I'm ignoring you all I'm not. Which is the reason I've updated my blog early today as several people have been a bit worried.

Dawn's coming tomorrow for a scrap day yay !!!!! finally I'll get to do some scrapping this week.

They're off

Eric and his two friends, Simon and Chris have today set sail for the Isle of Mann to watch the TT racing. Last year was the 30th anniversary of their very first motorbike holiday together as teenagers. They had hoped to go away last year but men being men didn’t get organised in time and then when they realised this year was the centenary year of the TT they decided that this would be their big holiday. Chris up until last February had spent the previous 20 years living in Australia with his family and unknown to any of us had decided it was time to return to England to live, which seemed to be the signal they needed to make the much talked about anniversary holiday a reality. So since the autumn they have been planning their big adventure. Ferry places and campsite were booked well in advance and there followed lots of meetings to plan their adventure. All three ride how shall I say it, I know “Classic bikes” … LOL. Yesterday morning saw them all ready with tents and sleeping bags etc, the poor bikes were weighed down, obviously with creeping years they don’t travel as light as the original holiday. Apparently 30 years ago they had one tent between them and no real destination in mind but with the optimism of youth off they set. Bit different this time round I can tell you. The weather yesterday morning was horrendous heavy rain and very windy. I was really quite anxious for them travelling in such abysmal conditions with the heavily laden bikes (I was a tad naughty after they had layered up with thermals, leathers and waterproofs I tongue in cheek enquired if they needed the loo – lets just they they all screamed at me hehehehe). They had decided to take a scenic route and stay in Liverpool last night ready to board the ferry this morning. The journey with pit stops took about 7 hours !!!!!!

Eric was/ is very worried about leaving me on my own. , And apart from numerous stays in hospital and a short weekend away last year with Dawn we haven’t spent anytime apart. I’ve had to promise everyone I’ll wear my mobile at all times in case I fall or get sick (Mum has made me a super little pouch for the mobile), which I can wear comfortably. I think in true Suzy ostrich style I was the only one not concerned. We had lots of offers for dog walking but in the end decided, people whilst generous in their offers don’t really understand how different it is to walk greyhounds, so the dogs are grounded for 10 days eek !!!! Mind you they do have nearly ½ acre of garden to roar around it. Well I have to admit yesterday was just awful, Mac from 5pm spent the entire evening AND night looking for Eric, Lucky was bouncing off the walls because she hadn’t been exercised, Jim was very sad and confused, Sandy “miss I’m not bothered” demanded lots of bones and attention whilst Rulu just shadowed me so much she nearly had me over. I’d likes to say our first night went smoothly BUT it didn’t. Mac got me up at 12.30am, thinking he needed to go out, I let him into the garden, but oh no he was looking for Eric, so there I am in my coat and boots in the pouring rain frog marching him indoors and then drying us both off. Rulu needed to go out at 1am, 2am and 3.30am (well us older ladies to have a few problems in that department) and then Sandy as usual sounded the early morning roll call at 5.50 am … Jeez I’ve spent the day absolutely shattered.

Eric sent me a text last night asking if he could come home yet…so I replied no you can’t you’re on holiday and it’s supposed to be FUN. Honestly he’d only been gone 10 hours. I know he’s going to miss us all and be worried silly about me, as he said seemed like a good idea 10 months ago LOL.. Anyway after all the kit he’s bought, tent, panniers, tank bank, cooking stove etc etc etc he’d better enjoy himself.

So far from thinking I would have all this time to scrapbook, all I’ve done is walk round like a zombie wondering how early I can go to bed LOL….

Here’s hoping the boys have pitched their (separate tents) and watched some practise racing and I have a quieter night.

Collectively Yours Challenge

The challenge this week is to do a LO using multiple photo's ... so here's mine. It's a layout of Dill our second greyhound who sadly passed away two years ago aged only 7 from bone cancer. I wanted to create a simple LO so the focus was on the photo's and journeling. I usually use just one photo on my layouts and yet I've done two this week using multiple's .... and enjoyed it!

Well it's been raining since 10am YESTERDAY with no sign of it stopping... Dogs are pretty darn fed up I can tell you.

Just been speaking to my brother and family in America via the webcam, don't think I'll ever get used to being able to see them and speak to them when they are so far away. The first time we did it I cried buckets. It's lovely to be able to see my little neice Katie and somehow it doesn't seem quite so bad with them being over there when you can see and talk. Katie was only 2 when they left and is now 4 and sounds like a real little American, she has a lovely accent and has just graduated from Kindergarten ..We used to use MSN but the quality of the picture and the time lag were a pain, now we use skype which has a much better picture quality with hardly any time lag in the speech.

I'm all on my own for reason to be divulged tomorrow (don't want to jinx anything)... watch this space.

The Design Collective Bank Holiday Challenge

We have been challenged to do a layout using clear stamps... I had already picked these photo's out to have a go at using multiple photo's on a layout. Usually I stick to one, so maybe that's the reason I've actually finished the page in one day!!!! or more like as Scrapdolly said on her blog "It's perfect scrapbooking weather" ie it's been raining hard all day, so all outdoor jobs are rained off leaving me to scrap guilt free yay!!!! The photo's are of me and grandson Ben and hounds (of course) playing in the garden. Eric was taking the photo's and I forgot to take some of him playing with Ben. Ben much prefers to play with Eric and will happily follow him around outside for ages. Yesterday as it was Vikki's birthday we managed to have a family lunch with Marc (son) joining us, unfortunately Vikki's husband had to work but it was still lovely for us all to get together. Ben had been grumpy all morning (guess at 17 months he already hates shopping) but as soon as we arrived home and he saw his Grandad he was all smiles and laughter !!! Vikki loved her Flyflots we got her and we had a good day.

Marc has gone to Wembley today to watch Blackpool in the playoff's. I really hope they win and gain promotion otherwise someone is going to be very unhappy...

Poor dogs are fed up today, only 1 walk so far, apparently we are set to get a whole months worth of rain day and tommorrow. Muddy paws x 20 oh deep joy......

Transparency class ....

Finished off my layout today based on this weeks classes from the Design Collective. Had great fun yesterday playing with the inks and had it all ready last night, just needed to be stuck down today. Oh what a hash I made of it, everything that could go wrong duly did so plus more. A tiny piece of glue seeped out from under the M in Jim so I tried wiping it off with a wet wipe, well you've never seen anything like it, the tiny drop just got bigger and bigger spreading out until it reached the text, what a mess!!!! ended up having to reprint the whole thing. The light when taking the photo of the LO has unfortunatley caught the transparency so it partially shows which is a shame and in real life it doesn't show at all. The flowers are cut out from the mixed up inks as is the title and the frame laying over the photo is cut using my craft robo from a design by silene shared out on UKScrappers.I'll definatley being using this medium again. If you want to see a close up click on the photo and you'll get a bigger image. Tomorrow we get a new set of classes which I really look forward to and head for the PC first thing. DC have also just announced there are to be some some Bank Holiday challengers using stamps. Not sure if I'll have time but will try and squeeze something in.

Tomorrow is also my daughters birthday so we're meeting up for a wander round town then back here for lunch and hopefully son will also make it. Can't wait to see my grandson Ben as they didn't come over Wednesday as planned becauuse they both had rotten colds. Talking of the son the tickets for Wembley arrived this morning so I'm the bees knees at the moment LOL... phew !!!

Today we had some news that we were dreading. Eric's sister and brother-in-law in Wales who lost their precious greyhound Holly last week have now had to have their youngest grey Moss put down today. Poor Moss was only 3 and a couple of days ago he lost the use of his rear legs. After two days staying in the vets it was decided because of the dreadful pain he was suffering and not responding to any treatment the kindest thing to do was to let him go. I just can't begin to imagine how terrible they must be feeling to have lost two of their beloved dogs in 10 days....My heart is just so darn sad tonight for them...

Sleep tight little man and run free again with Holly xxxx

Playtime

This is a layout of a very young Rocky and Rulu, they used to love playing tough and rumble (as we called it) which is what the title of the page was supposed to be but I stuck it down wrong and ended up with rough and tumble darn it. I'm going to put it on A true Friend blog as their challenge this week is to showcase your pets at play. This is a fab site for showing off your pet layouts.... and as everyone who knows me will tell you I am a complete dog bore so finally somewhere to show them off without boring everyone. Check out their blog http://a-true-friend.blogspot.com/2007/04/welcome.html

It's been playtime for me as well today because as hoped the postie finally brought my parcels so I have spent the day experimenting with alcohol inks on transparencies. The last set of classes from the Design Collective is all about transparencies so I can now finally start my layout.

Still no word from Blackpool website about the tickets I requested on my son's behalf and the latest news says all sold out!!!! hope I got it before they all went. I could be in deep poop eek !!!!

Scanning Layouts

Well I've tried really I have but scanning and stitching is both tedious and the results as seen on yesterdays layout of Rocky are rubbish. Now I know some people get fantastic results but obviously not me..... So Eric kindly photographed my layouts and I'm much happier with them. Bet you're wondering why I don't do it myself.... simple you need to be up high and lean over the layout and I simply can't get up on the chair and that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. So here's Rocky again only this time photographed and not scanned. LOL

I've bought a couple of files in the vain attempt at getting more organised with my sketches and Design Collective classes. A little (who am I kidding) project for next week.

Talking of the Design Collective, this week classes are all about using transparencies, something I've been wanting to try for ages. Ordered some Monday and they still haven't arrived !! also ordered some alcohol inks to use on them ... Hope the postman comes with parcels tomorrow.