Simple Doodles Challenge 17 - Thinking of You

Time for another Simple Doodles challenge! These are such lovely challenges and you can use anything from your stash to enter, although if you have a look on the blog, there are loads of freebies you could use!

The challenge for this fortnight is:

Thinking of You

I've used this freebie ice cream cone image which I've coloured with Promarkers and added a bit of glitter glue to the dollops of ice cream and also the cherry. I've cut the image and layers with my only set of Spellbinder Nestabilities (I really must get some more but can never decide which ones to get!)

The red card is from my stash and it is a lovely textured thick card. The printed paper is from The Big One stack from the Clare Curd Signature Range. And the ribbon is from my stash.

Hope you can enter the challenge - deadline is midnight PST time (about 6 hours behind the UK) on 20 May. Good luck!

• Backing papers: Red card from my stash, printed from the Clare Curd Signature Range
• Image: Simple Doodles freebie coloured with Promarkers
• Dies: Spellbinder Nestabilities
• Ribbon: My stash
  

Another Sneak Preview!

I really am going to get my behind kicked by Nikky for showing two cards that I've made from the brand new cd All Around and Everywhere - it's so brand new that its not launched until Friday 23 April at 10am on Create and Craft!!

Ah well, but in my defense, I could not resist this sketch from Crazy 4 Challenges and it fitted the image so well!

All the printed elements you see on the card (spotty backing paper and ice cream treat) are from the cd. I've simply dotted some silver 3d paint around the edge of the backing paper, added some spotty chocolate brown ribbon with bows on the ends and used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder over the Nesties shape.

Although you can't really see it, I've added a bit of sparkle to the ice cream. So if you see the card on telly, you can say you saw it on here first!

• All printed elements including image: All Around and Everywhere from Polkadoodles
• Dies: Spellbinder Nestabilities and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder
• Everything else: My stash
  

What We Did Over The Weekend

Didn't get much crafting done over the Bank Holiday weekend as we spent most of it out of the house! I did start on 105 Wedding place cards which I will show later in the week, and that's about it!

On Sunday we decided to go to the Lakeland Wildlife Oasis, not far from Lancaster on the M6. It's not a huge place - not on the scale of Chester Zoo but you can get to see the animals really close! Such as these leaf cutter ants - Jacob was fascinated!

I actually thought there were little birds flying around inside the exhibit, but they were butterflies! I managed to take this photo of a butterfly feeding on part of a banana. I did attempt to take a photo of a much more brightly coloured butterfly, literally inches away from me but some great oaf knocked the branch it was on and it flew off (husband to blame!)

And here is a poisonous blue frog which looked really funny trying to climb up the side of the tank!

And this, apparently, according to the sign on the door is a young and stupid hand reared pheasant! Which, sat very patiently for me whilst I took his photo. And then hopped off the fence! As the Wildlife Oasis was not a big place, we'd been round it in just over and hour and a half. So we ate our butties in the car and worked out where to go next. Simon and I fancied going to the Lakeland Motor Museum as it has a replica of Bluebird and its all sited at Holker Hall, around 30 mins drive from the Oasis.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that both boys got free entry as they were under 6! We had a good mooch around the Motor Museum (didn't take any photos as not allowed!) and tried to explain to Samuel that the lump of twisted metal was once held the world water speed record. I don't think he could work out why the 'car' was all fixed and where the lump of metal fitted in. It helped a little with some photos of the wreck being lifted from the bottom of Coniston Water.

The obligatory ice cream was bought (orange and chocolate chip - yum!) as it was the local producers Market and we just had to have a look!

Because of the ice-cream and potential to drip, we walked around the gardens. Well, Simon and I walked, the boys ran! We decided, that if we won the £110 million on the Euro Millions, we could see ourselves living somewhere quite similar! The gardens were beautiful and very well kept.

Because it was a little windy, when walking around the side of the huge fountain, the boys got a little wet. The wind was a bit more gusty by the time we had walked to the top of the water feature and down again, and the little devils were fairly damp - giggling like imps but decidedly damp!


If you like spectacular colour then the rhododendrons are for you - beautiful fuchsia pinks and the purest of white. I did take some photos but they look pants - you really had to be there to appreciate it!

I was not allowed to take any photos inside the Hall, but Samuel asked a lot of questions of the tour guides (there was one in each room) much to their amusement!

A great day out!

Spring has Sprung!

It's offical! Spring is here! We visited the Botanical Gardens in Southport on Sunday as its been around 2 years since our last visit and the fact that Samuel has to go on a walk and spot the signs of spring for one of his homework excercises. So here are some of the photos from Sunday.

This dragon has been carved from a fallen tree. Here you see Samuel being a bit posey!

Jacob refused to have his photo taken, but Samuel was only too willing to stop and smile! Jacob is actually stood behind him (you can see his shadow) sulking.

Of course the boys had to play on the swings and climbing frames!

And later on, we went on the minature steam train on the front in Southport. And we had ice cream! Samuel enjoyed his and if you are thinking he's relatively clean - he wasn't by the time he finished - it was everywhere!

Ear Gobbles and Ice Creams....

Well, I'm back from a week at Watermouth Castle. And what a great week it was! Fantastic place for the kids and we had sun most of the time (apart from the thunder & lightening and huge downpour on Thursday afternoon!)

So why ear gobbles and ice creams?

Well, the 6 apartments at the Castle had use of an indoor heated pool which we certainly used - twice a day! It opened at 7:30am and closed at 9pm and generally used it at 7:30am and mid afternoon.

Samuel has swimming lessons at the moment and keeps asking for some 'ear gobbles' as some of the kids use them. He actually means eye goggles....

And you can't go on holiday without having ice cream every day. Jacob stuck to chocolate flavour every day (what a surprise!) but Samuel was quite adventurous and had a daily change - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and mint choc chip (my favourite!)

Samuel looked particularly fetching after his chocolate ice cream - he was impressed when I told him he looked like a pirate!

More pics to come over the next week of our holiday and of where we visited. Just don't want to do too much too soon!!

Ice Cream Beards

Hmmmmmm......ice cream!!!! Especially good with sherbet!

Taken on the first Bank Holiday Monday in May just before the weather got really warm. And no, none dropped on the floor (although I held Jacobs whilst he ran across some grass and 'tidied' it up a little!)