happy days and the longest most full of pictures post EVER

Came home today after my mini retreat with the Exeter Scrapaholix girls. What a fabulous hotel - bursting with carved wooden stair cases, tall, tall windows and more nooks and crannies than you can shake a stick at. The gardens were so, so beautiful and tranquil - the sort of beauty that has been hundreds of years in the making - loads of history with this place. Had a brilliant time scrapping - did 5 layouts in all, pretty pleased with them on the whole. The best thing was actually feeling the value in time for me. Just me. I am not a great fan of the whole 'me time' bandwagon, but yesterday, walking alone in the gardens and having the unexpected revelation that I could sit in a deckchair if I wanted to - I did. I took some deep breaths, closed my eyes and also realised I could sit there for as long as I wanted to - and no-one was going to disturb me.

The Hotel main entrance:

The music room:

scrapping with a view:

So whilst I felt the absence of Oliver and home very keenly, I also became fully aware of the true value in time alone, and I will definitely be looking to do this at least annually, and be encouraging Mark to do the same. (not scrapbooking, obviously).

And the food - yumsters. Breakfast is soooo my favourite meal of the day when I stay anywhere. Everyone in front of me was asking for a smidgeon of scrambled egg and a sliver of bacon (wimps) but I was straight in there - 'I want everything, and I also want 2 eggs please' said greedy little me. And I had 4 rounds of toast. So there.

layouts:

Brrrr...

the joys of the British seas. Rachael lent me, well - gave me really (since I have no intention of returning them) three r's to complete my title for this one. Hereafter she shall be known as Rrrrachael. Ha ha.

Harvey

The first of many layouts methinks of the pooch. This one tells his story - found straying in Ireland, blah di blah. There were originally no buttons on this layout, but a sloppy smudge of pen forced my to seek a cover up. Many swear words and gnashing of teeth led me to the button solution.

Time out

Think this is my favourite of the weekend, I like the papers, and the ever present lovely lovely scallops. Also love this recent pic of Oliver. Clearly not one taken by me - it's in focus.

Looking back through history

Taken naughtily inside St Michael's Mount under the noses of the NT armed guard. (aka volunteers). Like to think it's a bit atmospheric - looking back through history - through the historic windows out to sea.... geddit?? There was some heated discussion on whether or not St Michael's Mount looks out over the Atlantic, or the English Channel..... my money was on the Channel, but since I seem to be finding as I get older that things I always believed to be set in stone are in fact absolute bollocks, I plumped for the 'I'll look it up later' option.

I didn't want you because

yes, yes, I know I'm a miserable hateful old cow, but this layout does in fact reflect on my wrongness in not wanting Harvey to start with....

And so to felines:

Think the two awake ones are girly cats, and the one snoring it's head off oblivious to the world is the boy. Hmm.

by the skin of my teeth

No change there then. I refer to the art journal I am committed to on UKS, where the first posting day is today, and I have just finished it to send. So crap at time management. After a few false starts, I have turned out this:

Not quite how I imagined it, but feel semi-pleased with its vague nod to artiness.

Quick kitty update:

oh, meeeOW!! Too sweet. Think we will probably keep ginger-face.

it's all about the animals

Here are some 'better' kitty pics. Quite difficult to photograph without freaking them out with a flash, so have turned the dial to the little moon and star on the camera, and that seemed to help. I really must read the manual and stop being so shit with my (aka Mark's) camera. You can actually see little gingery markings on a couple of them now all the birth goo has gone - one has a ginger face - how cute is that?

Last night on his walk, Harvey, who had been off the lead twice earlier in the day, took it into his head to just fuck off into the ether. Mark and Oliver came back sans pooch with long faces. Mark drove round for about an hour looking for him, I rang the dog warden and Oliver went off to bed miserable. At 10.30 I decided to walk up the road for a random search, and there he was, patiently sitting on the doorstep, not a care in the world. Whilst we think that's pretty clever for a partially blind little doggie who has only been here for two weeks, it didn't stop Mark calling him a little fucker and bemoaning his wasted evening.

raining cats and dogs

Two weeks ago today, we picked up Harvey. He seems to have settled in OK, and we are adjusting to the daily walks (bit of a shocker I can tell you). I have never stopped and spoken to so many strangers and petted so many unfamiliar dogs in my life. It's a whole new world. One which I think will make it a whole lot bigger though, so that's a good thing. Poppy, surprisingly seems to thoroughly dislike Harvey and has taken to lying in wait around corners for him. Truly if looks could kill - instant death to us all. Another of her tricks has been to lie across doorways in her vast pregnant state, like a big furry draught excluder, effectively trapping Harvey in whichever room he happens to be in as he dare not attempt to step over her.

This morning she popped out 3 kittens at the rather obliging hour of 9am. They are tiny, tiny little tabbies by the looks of things - not a ginger in sight, which is a surprise. Apart from the fact it is a true miracle of life that this cat, at less than a year old herself can give birth and suckle her young guided only by instinct, the whole business is a bit smelly and wet looking. I too was guided by instinct at 7am when I had to drag her out of a holdall on top of the wardrobe and hastily empty a cupboard in the dining room to prepare for the birth which I sensed may be quite imminent....

You can't really see much here, as she has conked out with exhaustion.

And here is sweet Harvey, settling in with Oliver. We let him off the lead for the first time yesterday in the park, and he loves tearing up and down. Have to have a pot of mature cheddar cubes at the ready though, for bribery purposes, lest he runneth off.

Will update with more kit pics soon.

another day, another dollar

Since the last post, we decided that maybe we should just bite the bullet, and get a puppy. Theory goes that rearing a puppy would be better for Oliver rather than a rescue dog with issues, BUT as it happened, the Blue Cross had a young lovely looking dog come in last Saturday, some collie thingy, so (without Oliver - he was cubbing it on a trip), Mark and I hot footed it out to Tivvy for a looksee. The dog was a nutter but Mark asked to see another dog, (one which we'd argued the toss over the previous week - a Jack Russell, blind in one eye) and in came Charlie. He put both paws up on Mark and laid his head in his lap. Sold.

Honestly, I ask you, a bloody one-eyed terrier. Still, he was very sweet, and we put a reserve on him. The next day we took Oliver out to see him - and it was love at first sight.

I thought he was OK too.

We are going to call him Harvey. Think he will be joining us shortly, just around the time Poppy will be having her kittens. Spiffing. Tranquilisers at the ready...

Scrapping; been doing these Scrappy Sunday sketches from Paper Craft Planet, which is getting me scrapping much faster I have to say. May have to revise my opinion of the whole using a sketch thing.

And finally, this is what happens when you put a seven year old boy in charge of his own camera for the day:

woof woof

A couple of drops of artiness;

For the ModScraps sketch challenge:

and for the Paper Craft Planet Scrappy Sunday Challenge:

AND: we are getting a dog! After years of banging on about how good a dog would be for Oliver, Mark just suddenly turned around today and announced we were going to the Blue Cross to look for a dog! Blimey, out of the blue or what. Anyhoo, the dog we chose to look at, although matching each other's criteria fairly well, was a right boisterous little bugger and scared the beejaysus out of me and Oliver. Tomorrow we will try the RSPCA. Lead on McDuff.

just a quickie...

...to post my layout for the Sarah's Cards Challenge....

This photo was taken on the Santa Express Train at Buckfastleigh, Christmas a few years ago. Yet another example of Oliver 'enjoying' himself on a 'fun' occasion...