The furry foursome

It was a usual Saturday, no expectation of anything world shattering about to occur, other than the fact that I was off for the day to do part 2 of my first aid course, and let's be honest that isn't really "up there" in terms of global events . However I was looking forward to it. When I returned home 6 hours later the house was quiet except for my canine reception committee who were very eager to see me. After settling down to a cup of tea and getting lost in the story of my recently purchased Dean Koontz book, my reverie was interrupted by an ebullient daughter bounding in to inform me that her father had just bought four alpacas. Just for an instant, I believed her and then I laughed and said "as if your Dad would do that without discussing it with me" (we always discuss things, so I was pretty confident). However she plowed on with the story of how they picked out the ones she wanted and how we had two females who were pregnant and two more 5 weeks old females. This story was starting to have legs (four of them as it happened) too much detail to be made up, then his lordship finally put in an appearance and confirmed that he had in fact made said purchase.Talk about gobsmacked! When I arose from my metaphorical heap on the floor, I fumed, not at the actual purchase ( they are pretty cute after all) but at the lack of discussion and investigation prior to such a big commitment - monetarily. That said I have come to quite like their little faces peering at me from the paddock, they are so nosey.

The two pregnant females were already named but their 5 week old offspring (wow, they don't get much time to recover do they?) were monikerless. Holly decided in her wisdom to call them Scrambled and Eggs, it is now on their birth certificates so no changing it.
Here is Scrambled
and her Mum Amber.
Here are Mum Evita and Eggs
The little furry foursome altogether.

I dedicate this long post to my friend Christine, because she has complained that my posts are too short. Don't get used to it my friend, it is not a guaranteed trend.

It's arrived

At last, after languishing in customs for over a week, my PTI order is finally in my hot little stickies and I can't wait to use it. I really went to town on the die purchasing, they are so lovely and relatively cheap compared to other brands. I had my stamping buddies come over at the weekend (we did a group order to save on postage) so they had plenty to play with too. They arrived around 10.30am and didn't leave till gone 5pm but what with examining each others purchases, chatting and eating we really didn't seem to make much and before we knew it, it was time for them to leave and go and feed their families.

I am very pleased with how the button dies punch out of the coasters, almost giving the depth of a real button. No worries about sewing these little babies on to your layout or card, the cotton won't pull through.

Choccy Monster

Here is our little guy, happy and smiling after eating chocolate pudding. We are a family of chocoholics, so it was only natural that Josh would follow suit.

The vast majority of the papers and embellishments on this layout are from -the Fine and Dandy collection by My Minds Eye.

Exceptions:

Brown letter stickers: Cosmo Cricket

Heart: Sorry don't know the make it was from a $2 shop

Laughter and So Adored tags - Old SEI

Journalling Tag - Echo Park

Pearls - Kaiser

More inspiration

This time from here. Jackie always creates lovely cards but it was the last one in this post that caught my eye, just a card and stamping nothing extra required, yet so stylish. Quick and easy to make, just stamp, round the corners and it is ready to post off to the lucky recipient.

First card: Large flower - Daisy Bucket, small flower - Basic Grey

Second Card: Large flower - sorry, don't know, Small flower - Technique Tuesday.

Sentiments and the leaf stamp in the second card - Paper Trey Ink

I am Lauren, hear me roar

This was Lauren's first year at school and during the summer they always have a fete and surprisingly for England they usually managed a sunny Saturday most years. This year was no exception and Lauren had a whale of a time and had her face painted. How cute does she look?

The lion punch art was from a template purchased on line from Jo Hope here

The papers are:

Collage Press (repeat pattern red), Daisy D (floral red) and Kaiser craft (floral green).

Shaped green journalling panel - Bo Bunny

Stickers - Bo Bunny

Border punch - Stampin Up

Letter stickers - Cosmo Cricket

CASED

Here is a card that was totally inspired by Chat here. I just loved the blocks of colour behind the image. Chat makes fabulous cards, always clean and simple but so stylish.

Pucker Up buttercup

Here is a rather bright layout of my oldest daughter Lauren when she was 2, playing with her best friend Claire. They were inseparable until they were almost 5, when sadly they went off to different schools. We still met each other regularly and of course as teenagers they kept in touch via the computer.

The flourish stamp is an old one by Collage Press

Glitter letters and heart and alphabet paper(very old) - Doodlebug

Small letter stickers - My little shoebox

Border punch, crochet flowers and shaped journalling panel - Stampin Up

Leaf Die - Sizzix

Year 8 camp

This is half of a double paged layout ( I don't feel I can show the other page because it has clear photos of Holly's friend and I don't have their permission to display them). I wanted you to see it because I just love the image of the boys wave jumping that Holly took, catching them in mid air. She had a great time and her group teacher turned out to be a lot of fun, despite Holly's reservations prior to the trip.