My Month in Numbers - May.

Here I am again with a round up of the past month using this great system devised by the wonderful Julie Kirk.

So hear goes...

May.

06-13 the years Dan has spent at Senior School before leaving this month.

4 new rescue chickens( Bailey, Apricots, Ninger & Schnapps ) we brought home to join Dr Pepper in our new chicken run :)

13 blog posts.

3 new recipes. Lemon drizzle tray bake & double choc cookies ( Mary Berry) plus Lamb kofte with couscous & greek salad from Jamies 15 minute meals.

100 years of Chelsea Flower Show which we visited for the day.

165 canals, 1281 bridges & 600,000 bikes - a wonderful few days spent in Amsterdam. I didn't do the counting :D numbers provided by the tourist board x

£29 well spent on a group on deal to go designing & making beads with my Bud Eileen x

7,305 days married, celebrated on our 20th wedding anniversary. 

Thanks for looking , hop on over to Julie's blog to see more months in numbers x

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cutting & sticking

Unfortunately I've not been well over the Bank Holiday weekend so instead of going out & about in the sunshine, I've been doing a little scrapping at home instead :)

Finally Home.

On the back of the Lo I've documented how I felt moving back to where our old house had been & the effects, both good & bad, this had on me.

For this page I took inspiration from Sarah's Cards may sketch, which I rotated 90degrees & CSI case file 73.

I used all 5 colours shown in the scheme.    Evidence - circles, clocks, tone on tone paper, architectural accents.

Testimony - round label with caption across centre.

I really enjoyed putting this together & the colour combo is certainly one I would use again.

I hope you had a good weekend x

Cover Girl ?! well only just!

I was very honoured to be asked to take part in a challenge feature for Scrap 365 magazine called Shake it Up & when I saw the cover of the issue, I'm on it, well not me but my page :)the second small square pic x

Anyway for this challenge you are provided with a Cocktail Recipe to inspire you & maybe stretch you scrapping wise by using colours or elements out of your comfort zone.

At the Car Wash.

This recipe was Tropical Punch featuring...

red, yellow, light blue

2 photos

a handful of chevrons

a little stitching

journaling spots

torn edges

I combined some of the elements by tearing my chevrons & sewing on my journalling spots.

I loved how it all turned out & will be using their recipes again.

Birthday Treat

What do you buy the man who needs nothing ?? Well this was the dilemma my brothers & I faced as our Dad turned 70 last month.So after a lot of head scratching we came up with a day at Chelsea Flower Show for both Dad & Mum, Paul & I tagged along to provide company & transport :)

We all had a marvellous day & here are some of the highlights...

 Gnomes allowed for the first time ever :)

 Finding our way around

 Mum & Dad

 The Australian garden

 more show gardens

 Inside the Pavilion

 stunning displays

my favourite with the wall panels made of appliqued leather.

 selfie

 gardener spotting!

The weather stayed dry albeit a little cold but we managed to see everything we wanted to see & came home with our heads buzzing with ideas & flower names for our back garden which really needs our attention this year.

Would I go again...oh yes :)

getting in a scrap...

Taking on some challenges is certainly firing up my mojo this week. I made the next page in super quick time by my standards & I'm really pleased with the result.

My daughter loves taking selfies & this is one of my most recent favourites :)

Snapshot.

I have a "thing" about sequins at the moment & this matt gold ones are a fave.

The journalling card is a cut file for the Silhouette.

This page is based on a Pagemap sketch the Solihull crop have set as this month's challenge for today.

Also this page is for the Onwards Recipe Challenge at the Onwards & upwards Blog weekend by Jennifer Grace. I followed her recipe of a small photo, uplifting words, 1 sticker, something shiny, 3 stars, yellow & a stamp.

...and the good news DD loves it too :D

Taking inspiration...

Over the past few weeks I've noticed I'm scrapping less & less & I'm sure there are loads of reasons why this is happening but to counteract this a little & give my mojo a bit of a kick I thought I'd try my hand at a few challenges...I've attempted 2 challenges in one page, which is a first for me.

Tulips in Amsterdam.

Bespoke background using watercolour paints! - I don't do uncontrolled messy but I quite like the finished result.

This page is using both CSI challenge & To be as free as a bird challenge over on the Onwards & Upwards weekend by Jennifer Grace.

For CSI 71, I have used all 5 colours, evidence- circles, birds & paint splatters. testimony- inspired by song title.

For as free as a bird,I experimented transferring paint splats off my messy mat, stuck every thing down with out a ruler( which is unheard of for me!) & added a bird.

Behind the middle photo is a tag with journalling relating to how different this trip was with just the two of us & how we were free to do just as we liked :)

Remembering Amsterdam

Here is a super quick overview of our city break to Amsterdam. We really enjoyed our trip . Despite only being there for 4 nights we took hundreds of photos & walked many miles. I've struggled to narrow down the photos to show you so apologies in advance x

The Royal Palace.

 Tulips.

Canals.

 Selfies!

 Cheese.

 More tulips.

 Windmill.

 Loads of bikes.

 The Red Light District.

 Chips & mayo :)

 Anne Frank Museum.

 Our padlock on a bridge.

 Really good weather.

 Canal trip at night.

 Anniversary gift x

Beautiful unique architecture.

If you are reading this, thanks for sticking with it x I'd really recommend it as a city to visit, we were there during the week but think it could be different place at weekends.