Upcycling

I had never heard the term 'upcycling' before, but it turns out that it means to recycle something and turn it into something better. I already do this quite a lot so when I saw that the card challenge on the 'Lets capture our memories' blog was to make a card by upcycling I thought I should definitely have a go.

My card is for Jonathan and I'm calling it 'pizza and diet coke' (two of his favourite things) - because it's made from pizza box cardboard and cut out bits of a diet coke can...

I used the 'Tim Holtz grungepaper flowers' idea that I learned from Jill at the last Trip down memory lane retreat plus flowers of my own design. What's amazing is that I didn't cut myself on the can once!

Anyway - I hope you like my upcycled card...

Blog hopping, bog hopping and rock hopping...

Well, as usual we have had an amazing time here at the Isle of Eriska and big thanks to Beppo and his team for looking after us (and to Jonathan for paying!!). We love the Sage and Chive spa suites and this time we stayed in Sage. It's great because as well as the lovely big bedroom and bathroom we have a living room with a table I can scrap on, a conservatory and a Jacuzzi in the yard. The food here is amazing (thank you chef) and every night is 'Movie night' - so far we have watched 'Deja Vu', 'Dorian Gray' and 'Next' and tonight it's 'The girl with the dragon tattoo (I managed to read the last 300 pages of the book today in preparation!).

So back to the title of my blog - the weekend when we got here started off with me having fun taking part in my first blog hop with the design dollies web site and I am delighted that I won a prize from the superbly talented Karen (it's a shame she has to pay postage all the way from Australia - she's obviously very kind and nice as well as talented). I also had a go at their colour challenge which is here and this is my LO... (I thought I’d do a LO about Jonathan since I always seem to be saying thank you to him for things in my blog)… Hopping over to the Chicken Soup challenge blog their challenge for this week was to use yellow/black/white/ grunge style and I altered this cheap notebook as my 'entry'...

Ok, so the 'bog hop and rock hop' part of the blog... actually this entry could have been called 'a not entirely fruitless exercise' or 'slim pickings' because yesterday I decided to throw on my waterproof coat don my new walking boots and head down to shell point on Eriska to scour the scrub for bilberries. Having had so much rain on Monday the going underfoot was very wet and I ended up on my knees in the bog on more than one occasion (I'm better at blog hopping than bog hopping). I did manage to find a few bilberries but I think the birds had beaten me to it as all the ones I found were hidden down inside the bushes - so after two and a half hours of picking all I ended up with was a small sandwich bag of berries. But to be honest with a view like this you don't mind spending that amount of time out picking berries...

My bilberry 'haul' (by the way they are NOT the same as blueberries!!)... Oh and wait till you see them in the pie..!!

When I heard the air-sea rescue helicopter overhead, I looked in panic at my watch but I was still ok for time (Jonathan had said "If you're not back by 6.30 I'll call air-sea rescue!). However I decided that the best route back would be along the rocky coastline and that rock hopping would be preferable to bog hopping. After half an hour of rock climbing with the tide rapidly coming in I made it back. I didn't slip once and thanks to my absolutely fantastic new walking boots (thanks Jonathan! - I seem to say that a lot!) my feet stayed warm and dry even though I was wet up to my knees on the outside. I was delighted (once back on the path) to see one of Eriska's deer bounding in front of me and even more delighted to climb into the Jacuzzi when I finally made it back to our suite. The therapist at the spa massaged away the remaining aches and pains from all the jumping, climbing, crawling and reaching for berries!

My absolutely fabulous Salomon ortholite boots after their first real 'trial'!

Hello from Eriska!

Today has been very rainy here at Eriska - no bilberry picking today (sorry Mum!) - but at least I got all my Design Team work done (4 LOs and some cards), leaving me a little time to play with the design dollies again...this time it was the sketch challenge...

So, another Sophie LO - well I did buy a few sheets from the 'So Sophie' range and since I had her photos out I thought I might use them!

Off for dinner now - hmmm I love being on holiday, no cooking or washing up!

A Mad day out!

Yesterday was birthday treat no.3 and we headed down on the train to York. After checking in to the Cedar Court Grand hotel (which was lovely!) we took a taxi to the racecourse. After some wandering round to see the different facilities we decided that the champagne 'enclosure' would be our best bet. A bottle of pink fizz later and the whole place really was looking rosy. We had a little unsuccessful flutter on the horses - the closest we came was 'Bossy Kitty' who we had an each way bet on and came in 3rd. We accompanied the second bottle of pink fizz with a very good burger (the sandwich on the train seemed a long time ago by now!) and enjoyed the spectacle of ladies in glam frocks sipping pimms and champagne and the excitement as each race took place - we really were at the posh end of the racecourse and it was a lovely balmy evening.

Then when the racing finished we decided to take a walk to find the stage. It turned out to be right at the other end of the course, but we made it there with only a couple of minutes to spare before the horns blasted out the start of 'One step beyond!' and then the Madness really started - literally.

Madness were amazing and the concert flew by so fast with song after song and no breaks. The highlights were the old favourites: Our House, Baggy Trousers, House of Fun, Wings of a Dove and It Must be Love, plus countless others - I think I sang along and danced and clapped along with most of it.

The crowd were wild - down at the 'less expensive' part of the course it was jeans and t-shirts and a lot of beer being drunk and thrown around. Strangely enough I didn't mind it (could be something to do with having consumed an entire bottle of champagne?) and I loved that the crowd were so into the music, singing along and dancing 'nutty boy' style.

I got one or two good photos and a lot of blurred ones - but they were worth it to get the couple that turned out ok!

I have loved Madness for so long and always wanted to go and see them live and I wasn't disappointed. For me singing and dancing along to Nightboat to Cairo amongst a crowd of fans with Suggs only 20 or 30 feet away was about as perfect a moment in life as you get.

Definitely another 10/10 experience

So Sophie!

When I saw the 'So Sophie' range from My Minds Eye, I of course thought immediately of our Sophie, who we lost three years ago. I also knew it would be perfect for this week's colour challenge at the Design dollies doll house!

So here is is, teal, brown, cream and a 'pop' of red.

The culprit...

Ok so I'm fairly sure who was responsible for the treat jar disaster, so in her honour, here is my LO for the design dollies elements challenge - use a vintage movie as inspiration for a LO.

Claudia - my little pink panther!

Destruction and creativity weekend...

To start with, the destruction - remember my treat jar that was part of my DT work on the ATDML July gallery? Here it is...

And here it is after 3 Bengals decide that they don't want anything to come between them and their Go-cat!

Ah well...I still love them!

But the creativity continues, This weekend I managed to get a few things done - amazing since I also got my i-pad on Saturday, and I love it (thank you Jonathan!).

The creativity started with my entry in the art journal I'm in. The theme was 'journey' and I decided to use some of my stamps and inks to create a Chinese page based on the saying 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step'. Appropriate for me having lived in Hong Kong and travelled in China.

I then spent some time assembling and painting a birdcage which I got from A Trip Down Memory Lane - but no photos yet since I'll be blogging about it on the ATDML blog at the end of the month.

I then decided to do a bit of felting and made a handful of black felted balls. I then sat lastnight while we watched a film and turned them into a necklace, sewing little beads onto each ball. I just have to add a clasp of some kind then it's done.

Anyway, today I'm off with Mum to check out a new craft shop in Kirkcaldy called The Crafty Bite...will let you know how we get on!