UKS Summer Snap Challenge

I have been joining in with UKS Summer Snap Challenge which gave us a list of prompts and two months to snap em.

1. Vapour trails

From the Bandstand, Ilfracombe

From Grexy Combe, Exmoor 

2. A Horse Drawn Vehicle

St James' Place, Ilfracombe.

3. Flowers in bloom

Runnymede Gardens, Ilfracombe.

4. A Summer Job In The Garden

My harvest of sugar snap peas from my new allotment ☺️

5. Staycation

Ilfracombe Harbour

6. Play (sub)

Alex and spade, High Tide, Woolacombe Beach

7. Ice Cream

Gelato Mondo Cherry Bakewell and Clotted Cream from Carlucci's Ilfracombe Quay.

8. Balloons

For five minutes, I really wanted a unicorn one. Ilfracombe Carnival.

9. Bubbles

High Tide, Woolacombe Beach

10. Seabirds

Rocks north of Ilfracombe Pier

11. Summer Sunrise or Sunset

Sunrise viewed from the top of Ilfracombe near Lynton Cross.

Sunset viewed from Marine Drive, Woolacombe

12. Eating Al-Fresco

This was a last minute effort, I did eat al fresco a couple of times but I forgot to take photos! So this was the penultimate day, hot soup isn't very summery I know!

13. Somewhere you would only visit when the sun shines

South Molton Brass Band, Bandstand, Runnymede Gardens, Ilfracombe

14. Flags or Bunting

St James' Place, Ilfracombe

15. Summer Shoes

Time for another trip to Animal, these have had it.

16. Fruit growing in the hedgerow.

On the South West Coast Path above The Landmark Theatre Ilfracombe

17. Water

The MS Oldenburg, Ilfracombe Harbour.

18. Favourite colour

Blue Sky and Turquoise Sea

19. Something that made you smile.

The start of the South West Coast Path at Minehead :-)

20. Fete, Fair or Festival

Ilfracombe Sea Front, Carnival Night

Selfie

Westward Ho! Beach
With thumb and everyfink. Not my thumb, he's such a noob, I would never make a selfie mistake like that 🙄 otherwise I would have been allowed to take it, of course.

Part of the challenge was to scrap the selfie, a minimum of six photos on a layout and a larger photo.

I used one kit for this, my friends pointed me in the direction of Cocoa Vanilla which was new to me. It shows how busy I have been this last twelve months with the DIY that I don't even know this brand. I love them already 😊 This range is Hello Sunshine. Perfect for the summer snap challenge.

The selfie layout, I scrap-lifted this layout I found on Pinterest from Scrapbook.com.

I used my stamping' up hexagon punch and stamps, circle punches and sewed it down. Stamped a background and embellished with the kit, lovely puffy stickers and veneers. The cute little puffy sticker animals 🐱🐰🐭 are from Crate Paper.

The larger photo challenge was tricky as I am out of ink for my big printer, so I printed a panorama out on my canon selphy out of two shots of the same carnival squad. I could have used a few that came out better but I wanted to use this one as it was a tribute to and to raise funds in his memory for, a little boy Diesel that died suddenly of an aneurysm suddenly in his sleep just at the end of last term. It was undiagnosed so neither he nor his family knew about it so at least he lived his life right up until he went to sleep. 

I went on a bit of a sticker sneeze here, which isn't my normal style AND no white card stock! Shock horror, call the layout police. Or at least alert the white cs suppliers.

I 💙 it. I learned that sometimes I need to scrap all day so that I try new things, when I only do one, I revert to my go to scrapping. 

The last one is back to type with white cs backed onto a full sheet ✅

I promise there is some kit left, but, yeah, I put most of the rest of it on here. I tried to fill the white space for a challenge to myself but i'm not sure I succeeded, there is a bit left 😀

Sooo, typing this at 23:12 on Bank Holiday Monday 29th August I guess this is my summer in a post. 

It started with a manic amount of work, destructing the bathroom, digging the allotment out, spending a load of money to improve all these things, starting a new job (same position, new store) and investing a lot of time and emotion in so many things my head was pretty scrambled. I tried to make sure that the time I was at work was invested there and the time away from it was clear of it, concentrating on pushing forward on the home projects and any other time was devoted to sleep and rest. I had no energy left for creativity though so I really missed scrapping. I made a few layouts but nothing I loved or was interested in. So this week has been about getting back to that as it feels like therapy. I get a lovely feeling of well-being when I have sat crafting for a while.

And paraphrasing Roald Dahl, If that wasn't nice, I don't know what is.

Sue's Monthly Sketch Challenge.

Hello 😊


I have scrapped for Sue's challenge over at her inspirational blog Me & Mine.
I entered last month with a page that I scrapped of a cinema trip to see The BFG. So good, I love Mark Rylance even more now.

This was last months page.

I apologise for the awful photos. 

And I did this one yesterday for this months challenge.

Papers are Fancy Pants Life Is Beautiful. I stitched the circle which was a nice way to occupy my hands while watching the Women's Triathlon at Copacabana Beach. What a race.

Thanks Sue for great challenges 😘 

Week In The Life Saturday Photos

Despite being so tired on Friday evening and going to bed early, I didn't feel awesome on saturday morning. I knew I would be out all day so was trying to use a fuddled brain to pack everything that was needed. One piece of documentation I forgot to pack would be needed later...*sigh*

I felt a bit scattered trying to get my thoughts together and the drive in through the valley was just the thing. Beautiful trees with their new leaves and the sun shining through them. Past the bluebell wood, the beautiful shining river. I listened to my audio book, chuckling, such great writing about such a familiar cast of characters.
I love Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Gamache novels.

At work I was so happy to have a day pottering about the shop. Fixing details, moving trade areas about, collaborating with the team to get their ideas on what we could do differently and getting some great ideas. Serving customers (also in a great mood with the weather) 
I love Saturdays at work, although I would much rather be home at the weekend with the children, it is generally a good day at work. I have not prepped any lunch and I am cross that I didn't bring the rest of my chicken, potato salad and corn on the cob. I resort to the dreaded sandwich, crisps and chocolate.

After work Danni (my deputy manager) and I got a lift from Ricky (one of my team leaders) over to Bideford to start the Nightwalk, a charity fundraising walk for our local hospice. It was 11 miles through the evening and into the late night. Neither of us had done it before so we didn't know what to expect. We were really impressed with the organisation and everyone was very friendly. 
The theme was Let Yourself Glow and we all dressed up, Danni did a great job of getting us tutus and neon face paint. Clearly we need to up our game for next year as there were women lit up from head to toe with fairy lights, glowing clothes, flashing headgear 

I finally got home about 00:30 and fell exhausted into bed 

I love trying something new.
I love long walks.
I love leg warmers. I am bringing them back for the over forties 

A very good Saturday 

Week In The Life Friday Photos

A slow day for photos, It was a full-on work day and then more or less straight to bed day after my late shift on Thursday.

I drink a mocha this morning while getting ready for work.

I love them, but they are so sugary and I am trying to cut sugar so I try not to have too many. Some weeks I utterly fail at this.

I talk to Louis before school and he brings out a report from his ICT GCSE. With one module left to do he is at 75%. As long as he does well on the last one he should get at least a C Grade.

I love that he feels proud. 

I feel both tired and excited for work. There is so much I want to achieve today. Everyone else is in a great mood. We have some delivery issues which are a major irritant for our customers so we get that dealt with, I make pay adjustments, run payroll, check my forecasting and adjust budgets for the remainder of the quarter accordingly and then spend the rest of the day briefing the team. It's a values based session and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank them, celebrate success and tell them how proud I am of them.

I love how that felt.

I drag home, I neglected to eat anything except a few grapes although I did drink a couple of litres of water. I am so hungry when I get home that I have a few crackers and butter whilst dinner is cooking. I have chicken, potato salad and corn on the cobs. It was delicious. Mum and I wandered around the garden amazed all over again at how it grows at this time of year. I must get some detail photos on Sunday when I'm home.

Bedtime at 8:30pm.

I love how comfortable that felt.

It was a great Friday