New kit ……….. again!

I bought a new digi kit yesterday called rainy days and mondays by Dawn Inskip, so in the evening I had a play. The top one was inspired by one of the design team layouts.

another card

 

My card for this weeks challenge over on susie and vikki's christmas blog.  

Ian and I went to our first quiz night with friends yesterday and came in fourth, which was not too bad I thought. It has made me aware however of my lack of artistic  knowledge, perhaps a visit to an art gallery should be planned!

scrapping and reading.

I thought it was about time I did some proper scrapping so I looked at the weekly challenge on UKS’s for inspiration. The challenge was to use the sketch provided, some bold papers, ribbon and stitching (faux stitching was allowed). I found an old Sarah’s Cards kit using itsy bitsy papers by piggytales and some photos of Alex and enjoyed myself!

Having finished Blacklands which I really enjoyed surprisingly, I am now about to start transgressions.

What made this?

Yesterday morning I looked out the window and saw this. What used to be a nice little rockery with a birdbath in the middle had been dug up to reveal a big tunnel. What sort of animal would make this? If anyone knows please tell me, hopefully it’s not mutant rats as suggested by my daughter!

Beach layout

Another seaside layout this time of Becca down on the beach last year. I’ve decided I really must give more credit to the designers I use as I am very lazy about that and they deserve better as they are so talented.

credits – dinskip date stitches, LivE- maskerade (mask for photo), jmccarthy papers and elements.

A good day.

I’ve been busy today making my card for this weeks challenge and also playing around with digi again. This is a photo of mum posing, I think it’s at Portland Bill. I used some elements from Jessica Sprague and blue rhapsody papers from Divine Digital.

I’ve also started reading this book as it was recommended on The TV Book Club as  I finished  Labyrinth yesterday.  That was an enjoyable read if a tad long. I would have liked a bit more of the modern story and slightly less of the earlier one but then I do like a good thriller.

menu

Another week, soon be March and hopefully spring will be on the way.

I received a lovely prize of digi stamps from Elephantastic cards yesterday which I am looking forward to using and some lovely comments on my blog for which I want to thank everyone.

I won!!!!

Having only started making cards for challenges this year, I was really thrilled to win Susie & Vikki’s Christmas Club Challenge this week. I now have to be a guest designer on their blog next week and get a free digi stamp to play with.

Visitors

I am taking it easy this morning as we have three visitors later for a sleepover.

That will mean there will be plenty of this

and perhaps a game of this

There will definitely be some of this.

I doubt if much of this will be going on however!!

Have a nice weekend everyone :)

Fruity pork steaks

Ingredients

• 4 boneless pork loin steaks , trimmed of any fat
• 2 tsp Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 large red onion, cut into thin wedges through the root
• 4 red apples, cored and cut into eighths
• 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar or cider vinegar
• 200ml chicken stock

 

Dust the pork steaks with the Chinese five-spice powder. Heat half the oil in a frying pan and fry the pork for about 3 mins on each side until browned and cooked through. Transfer to a plate.

Add the remaining oil to the frying pan, reduce the heat slightly, then fry the onion wedges for 2 mins. Add the apples and cook, stirring occasionally, for another 3 mins.

Add the redcurrant jelly to the pan, followed by the vinegar and then the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer rapidly, uncovered, for 8-10 mins until the sauce is slightly syrupy and the apples are tender. Gently reheat the pork in the sauce, turning to glaze each side.

This is the recipe I used from the Good Food magazine and I can tell you it was scrumptious. I did cook it for longer than they say though as I like my pork well done.

Another favourite

Another favourite layout, from a class by Lianne over on Sarah’s Cards. I always smile at the title as I know Jenny and Ed would not agree!

We are visiting mum today as she is having two teeth out, I hope I don’t have to go in with her as it makes me feel a bit squeamish. I know I have windows and curtains to clean so it will be a fun day, nice to see mum though.

Award

Just a quick post today as I had to show off my blinkie, my card was one of the top five!!!!!

I can recommend these challenges as they are fun to do and the girls that set them always find time to comment, which is nice.

Challenges

I did this layout for scrapdolly’s 52in10 class using her free template.
The theme was traditions and I scrapped a new tradition that seems to have started, my having to make several puddings whenever Ed comes to dinner!

This layout was for the weekly challenge over on UKS. We had to use 10 of something,I did stitches, something red, a fancy edge and change, I did about our new life by the sea. This was another digi layout and I really enjoyed the challenge.

It’s cold here again, please, please, no more snow!!

menu

A little late today as I have been looking after chickens and cat :)

Thought I’d do two of my new recipes, salmon and pork dishes, again as I really enjoyed them, apart from that I’m sticking to old favourites as I have a busy week.

Puddings will be icecream, yoghurt and perhaps a crumble if I’m feeling kind!

Challenge

Another Christmas card for two challenges.
Over on the passion for promarkers blog they wanted the colours Agean, Sky blue and Cool aqua to be used and on Suzie & Vikki's Christmas blog the challenge was a digital Christmas which I did by using this gorgeous digi stamp from DigiStamp Boutique.

family

The prompt for scrapdolly’s 52in10 class was to scrap similarities between you and a family member. I can’t really see any but perhaps my sisters can.

It’s been an odd sort of day. Ian was changing the handles on our doors and managed to get stuck in the bathroom, it’s a good job Andrew was here as all I could do was laugh. I did step in when I heard he was going to kick the door down though!

I made some soup, shortbread and an apple cake which is just what my diet needs, I think I felt guilty about laughing and thought I had better spoil Ian.

I’ve got to the sewing up part of my knitted bag and keep putting off doing it as I know it will go horribly wrong. Hopefully soon I will be able to put the finished item on my blog.

have a nice weekend everyone xx

The Beach

I’ve been looking at Jessica Sprague classes again and used some of her techniques for this layout and my new blue rhapsody kit

Not again!

We woke up to this again, several inches of snow, when will it end?

It does have it’s advantages, I now have time to read this which I’m really enjoying.

And I can also play around with this gorgeous kit I bought yesterday from Divine Digital.

I also have some pork and stilton burgers to prepare and ironing to do, oh well,you can’t have everything!

Card

 
I made this card for a couple of challenges. First over on Susie and Vikki's blog we had to make a card with a Christmas tree and on scrapweekly2010 we had to make any card, so this fits the bill!
I used a cute digistamp from the digistamp boutique again, some papers from a Sarah’s cards kit and my promarkers.

New kits again!!

I treated my self to 3 new kits over on pickleberrypop as they had been reduced to 99p each. The one I used for this layout is called organicartistry and I really loved the earthy colours.

I’ve also made a card which I hope to upload later so have been quite busy. There are not enough hours in the day!

Family

Prompt 4 of Scrapdolly’s class – family. My children have a great love of the camera, they see me get it out and they run a mile. I searched through all my photos to come up with these, oh well I guess it shows them in a true light, they don’t love me enough to pose!!!! Mind you Ian and I are just as bad. Although I hate photos of me I’m determined to scrap a few for this album so future generations can have a good laugh!

It rained all day yesterday which meant I had a happy hubby, he couldn’t go out in the garden, I’m sure I saw him offering up a little prayer.

weeks menu

Another week another menu!  Still trying hard to have everything homemade. I’m also now in the process of deciding what to grow in the garden this year. This week I’m going to tidy the greenhouse and possibly start some seeds growing. Ian and I have decided to spend an hour a day out in the garden, unless it’s raining, digging it all over and putting some compost around to help the veg grow as last year wasn’t very successful. There is so much to do in our garden and each year we say we will sort it, this year is THE YEAR!

Great - Grandma

Another heritage page using the Past Love kit, this time the photo is of Ian’s  Great-Grandma Bain. The collie dog was called Thuley.

Racer!

We all went to watch Alex  in a race today and he did very well. Here he is with a medal for taking part.

It’s been a lovely day here until now, just as I want to take a picture of a layout I’ve done, so that will have to wait.

I’ve also been busy making some bread and Peter cooked us a lovely risotto. Ian bought a Neil Diamond cd with some of his birthday money and no doubt we will hear it a lot over the next few days!

Challenge blogs

I thought I would make a card this week to cover several challenges.
The challenge on the Christmas blog was to use non-traditional colours. On the  promarker challenge blog we had to use an animal theme and on the sketch and stash blog we had to use their sketch.
I used a cute little free digi stamp from paper craft planet and some DCWV papers.

Ian’s side

Another layout using an old photo from Ian’s side of the family. The young girl is his mother and she is with her mum and Grandma.

Past Love

I treated myself to this kit yesterday it’s called Past Love by Sarah Designs. I thought it would be lovely to use with all my heritage photos. I had fun playing around with it but would really like to learn how to do extractions of photos as I saw some beautiful pages done by the design team. The next thing on my “to do” list!

The photo is of my parents wedding not mine by the way!!!

busy bees

Another digi layout using  papers and elements from various kits. I so need to get it all organised!

I made some really gorgeous soup yesterday, the recipe can be found here creative world. Will definitely do it again.

Book Club

I watched this programme last night http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-tv-book-club and quite enjoyed it. I do wish though that the more interesting people on there were given a chance to speak!!

It has however made me get out this journal, a present from Sue, and start a new page for the year. I’ve been on the library site and reserved a couple of their books,as had 14 people before me, and I’m going to try and broaden my reading.

This is the book I am reading at the moment and after a slow start I am really enjoying it.

week 5 challenge

This weeks challenge was to use three papers to form a background which I thought  was a fun idea. I’ve gone digi again and used a kit by Jessica Sprague from a class I took with her, I love her papers.

The photos are from a few years back when we all got together on the beach for the day. I love the one of Jamie helping his Great-Nan and have scrapped it before. We are so lucky to have several bays nearby with perfect sand for sandcastles.

weeks menu

Another weeks menu and apart from the odd occasion, usually involving Andrew, I am sticking to it. This weeks is a bit dull I’m afraid but sometimes dull can be good.

I really enjoyed the root vegetable mash I did yesterday so will definitely be doing that again