Sunday 26 July 2009

Sphinx Cake

After being sent to Mr Ts for fondant icing, I was banished from the kitchen so Miss Lucy could bake a secret cake (she's very bossy sometimes. I don't know where she gets that from...). The result was a very artistic (and extremely delicious) Sphinx cake. We weren't sure if a Sphinx should have a tail or not, so she added one anyway!



I'm not quite sure why it needed candles - it just did :-)



I love it's happy little face.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Twilight Mini Book

Miss Lucy is a big fan of the Twilight books so I thought I'd make a little keepsake for her. It was a lot of fun to do and she really loves it, so I'm pleased. I thought you might like to see it - but please excuse the photos, they are a bit fuzzy.













This page below was a little flowery for the genre really, but I couldn't resist that floral black red and white combination!




This page below is my favourite - it looks a lot better in real life, the colours are actually really nice together.



I must admit I do love to make mini-books and journals - there's something about all things compact that appeals to me. It's inspired me to get back to doing more in my art journal - I love working on that - I think it's the freedom to express yourself and create pages without restriction or boundaries. Where did I put that gesso...?

Monday 20 July 2009

Last week...

My second post in one day - miracle!

I have to be honest. Last week was pretty boring. After being camping we were out of cash, car-less (Dave being back at work) and a bit stir crazy. Well, I was stir crazy - the children were quite content to play on the playstation or the computer or go to the local park which has been renovated and has a zip slide! By Friday I had had enough and we headed for the local town where I enjoyed with great delight, a large cappucino in M&S. Bliss.



There were some developments at the bottom of the garden. A new gang hut was under construction, and with some useful bits of wood and two different coloured tarpaulins and a bit of string, it was soon built and looking good.

Under construction...



Inside...



Looking out...



I'm just wondering how long till they want to sleep in there...

Camping It Up near Killin

It's been so long since I blogged on a regular basis, I think I've forgotten how. I've been feeling a bit guilty reading everyones lovely posts and writing nothing myself. So, I challenge myself to blog on a regular basis again - it may not be very interesting, but I will try to do it once a week at least. We'll see...

So, we went camping recently for a few days. Headed off to a campsite near Killin, which is by Loch Tay. We'd visited this site last year for a night to test out the tent and as we couldn't get into the site we were originally planning to visit, we headed back to this one. Miss Lucy and Mr Adam were so excited (I was slightly less so, I confess) and we managed to get there and erect the tent with no major incidents!

Lucy couldn't wait to get to bed that first evening!



Cooking facilities.



We visited a country park one day and Adam was not impressed at the size of field this coo was in - it wasn't big enough he said and 'what if the coo wanted to visit somewhere else in the park?'. Oh dear.



Ahem. Not my best side. We stopped by the side of a stream one day and cooked up our lunch on the wee stove. Dave and the kids thought it would be fun to take pics of me washing up without me noticing. Grrrrr.



The view from inside looking out. The first night was pretty noisy as a load of people were drinking and making a lot of noise and generally being a pain but by the next day (Sunday) they were all leaving and the rest of the week was lovely and peaceful.



I love this picture of Lucy at Loch Tay. It was a 5 minute walk through the forest to the shore and it was absolutely scorching on this morning. So much so, that the children ended up with their swimwear on, paddling about in the water - which was freezing!



Adam is very fond of Highland Coos and this one is rather famous in these parts - he is called Hamish and weighs in at 1 ton! It was absolutely pouring with rain when I took this photo - Hamish looked quite unperturbed.



The same day we visited Hamish we also stopped at the Queen's View near Pitlochry - gorgeous view.
Back at the campsite, Miss Lucy showed off her Girl Guide skills in Barbequeing (yes, there is a badge...) and wouldn't let anyone else help. It was delicious.

The weather alternated between really hot and both types of rain - horizontal and vertical. In the end, I really enjoyed it (even though I swear I was sleeping on concrete and the midgies liked me best) and I was the one who wanted to stay on longer! I just love waking up to peace and quiet and the sounds of nature - you just can't beat it.