More furry faces

How could you resist this little face? This was the dilemma I faced when we went to visit the Alpaca farm during Alpaca month. Having given his lordship grief when he bought the first batch, here I was wanting more. Well I caved and had to have little "Ronnie" as I have nicknamed him. His real name is Geronimo. He was too young to come on his own so his mother Anaconda (Connie to her friends) came in tow.My only saving grace was I got a better deal than HL, my four (yes, there are more) came to considerably less than his. Ronnie also has a better quality coat than the others we have, so his fleece should elicit a bit more cash on sale.

Here are Ronnie and Connie
This was Holly's choice, real name Guilia but renamed as Gracie.
Joanne (Mum) and Gracie.
Joanne seems to be vying with Evita for the post of herd leader. HL now has trouble telling them apart as we have three adult white females, to be truthful he isn't much better with the babies even though they are vastly different. Holly and I of course know them all.

Better late than never

This is Lauren's 21st and she will be 23 in July so it has taken a while for me to get around to scrapping the photos. It was very quiet affair, Lauren had only recently settled here in Australia after her sojourn to South Africa so didn't have any friends to invite making the evening an intimate family meal. She even made her own cake as she had sought out a recipe while trolling the internet cookery sites. If she is bored,Lauren loves to cook, however she prefers to have her day jam packed with activities and is through choice perpetually on the go thus earning her nickname of Energiser Bunny ( from friends).

Paper - Kaiser party Animals

Ticket die and stamps - Paper Trey ink

Die Cut letters Sizzix - Twang

21 - American Crafts Thickers

Bowl and Yummy Stickers - K and Co

Beautiful memories

This photo is from a series we had taken just before we emigrated to Australia. I wanted some of the girls with my Mum and some of all of us together. I met the photographer through her scrapbooking work on one the the English magazines, she was exhibiting at a craft show and we got talking and she said that she ran a photography studio from her home only half and hour from our house. I booked us in right away and it was her suggestion that we all wore similar colours and I must say she was right it made for some really great shots. At the session, she had us bouncing on space hoppers (remember them from the late 60's), dressing up, wearing hats etc, she even featured Mum ( then 84) on her own blog with a picture of her on said space hopper, all in all it was a very fun day. I have scrapped all of these photos before but put them in an album I made for my Mum and some for myself. However this poor photo has been hanging around for a long while waiting for just the right paper and when Kaiser brought out the Chapter one collection and I knew I had found it.

Leaves and flourishes - Paper Trey ink stamps

Butterfly - Stamping Up

Black flowers - Maya Road ribbon

Epoxy "Laugh" circle - Cloud 9

Family Fun and Remember when - Purchased from K Mart (sorry I don't know the brand name)

Like Mother Like Daughter

Here is a layout featuring me in the black and white photos and Holly in the coloured one, both of us riding donkeys on the same beach but almost 40 years apart. When I was little, my family would often holiday on the Kent coast not that far from our home in Essex. My Nan and Grandad would come too. One of the highlights for me was a donkey ride on Margate beach. Now with the passage of time the roads are so much better that it was a day trip to take Holly there and when I saw the donkeys again it brought back many happy memories. Holly of course wanted to have a ride like her Mum before her.

When you think about it, those poor donkeys must have been bored stiff with the repetitive nature of their day and having to put up with over enthusiastic kids all day long to boot.

Papers: Kaiser - Chapter one collection and American Crafts - City Park range

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