Lanzarote - Los Jameos del Agua

A Jameos refers to a cavity produced with the roof of a volcanic cave collapses. Los Jameos del Agua therefore translates as the caves of water. Here you can find tiny, blind white crabs in the subterranean lake which is salty but perfectly clear.

You descend some stairs to the tranquility of the lake within the cave.


From here you then climb the steps at the other end of the lake and find the most amazing, man made oasis which was once used as a swimming pool.



The gardens are planted with some beautiful plants, some exotic, others simple, bright and colourful geraniums like these...

Acrylic frame

I love acrylic!!! It is so versatile. I wanted to use these photographs of the four of us that I took last year and have been waiting for inspiration to hit. It only hit when I finally printed them out on my new photo printer on Thursday night and I coupled them up with a gorgeous Acrylic frame that I'd bought from the new Clever Cut shop near me.




I backed it with a Papermania transparency and then some black Bazzill. The photos are mounted onto Bazzil Bling and then sewn into place with black thread. I used Debbi Moore stamps for the sentiments and the definition. You have to have a bit of bling, don't you? Well mine came from Prima and the little pink metal flowers came from Papermania. Blooms from Dunelm and prima.

This will be gracing the wall of my new studio when Will finally gets round to converting the spare bedroom for me....... (I'm waiting VERY patiently - for now!)

Scrapbook Page

I've used this photo of Freya before, but I really love it!!!! It was taken when she was a bridesmaid at my sister's wedding last October. I've converted it to black and white and printed it out on my new Canon Selphy ES1. I then decided to make the background nice, bold and bright!



The card is from Bazzil; patterned paper is from Jenni Bowlin studio; black swirls from Cosmo Cricket, with a bit of embellishment from a trusty gold gel pen; lettering is from Scenic Route and Doodlebug; stamps from Autumn Leaves and Papermania (arrow); Felt ribbon is from a candle shop in Lanzarote bought when we were on holiday at the beginning of this month. Flowers from Prima; brads and ribbons from stash.

Lanzarote - Pool dudes!

A few pics of the peeps in the pool...

Spooky!

How's this for spooky / coincidence then...?

We fly 1800 miles from home to holiday in Lanzarote and 3 days before we fly home, Will comes in from sitting outside by the pool having a beer after dinner and says...

"Do you know, I'm sure that's a Corby accent from the people that moved into the villa next door today!"

We never really thought too much more about it until Saturday afternoon, the day before we flew home. We got speaking to them and passed on some bottles of water, beers and food etc. that we had left, when we asked (as you do) where they came from. The answer.....

Corby, Northants!!!!! Only the same bloody town that we live in LOL.

I have to add, that this isn't the first time that this has happened to us. We were in Tenerife and bumped into an old school friend of Wills.

We were in Barbados (4000 miles from home) and were talking to a couple on their honeymoon. Turned out that he gave our neighbour across the road a lift to work every day!

It really is a small world, isn't it?

Holiday snaps - the villa inside!

This is like home from home (except I don't have marble floors and walls, a swimming pool, a pool guy and a set of 3 cleaners a day, or even a jacuzzi bath) but you get my drift, I'm sure....????!!!!

Our room...

and our bathroom...

Jacob & Freya's bathroom...

Freya's bedroom (both beds!)...

Jacob's room...

The dining/living area...

The kitchen...

Utility room (complete with washing machine and tumble dryer which got very well used - no dirty washing brought home for a change!)

Will just chillin'!


Looking through these photos makes me realise that I look like some manic housewife!!! LOL! I took the piccies after the maids had made the beds though! I can't take the credit for the tidy beds I'm afraid.

Holiday photos

I've uploaded some holiday photos over on my other blog A Whole Lot of Rosie.


Feel free to pop over and have a peek. It would be lovely if you could leave me a comment too, as it's always nice to know that people take time out of their busy lives to catch up with what I'm doing.

Holiday snaps - the villa!

As promised over on Freycob, prepare to be bored with some holiday photos! LOL!!!!

The original 750+ were whittled down to the measly total of 431 after I'd binned the duplicates, variations and generally the crap photos.

Don't worry, you're not getting the whole 431 piccies.

These are general ones of our villa....

Got me a new toy!

If, like me, you're impatient and want your digi photos printed NOW!, you need one of these babies.....



We have an Argos clearance warehouse in Corby and these little beauties were selling for £39.99!!! I had been looking at buying one before we went on holiday, but I'm so glad that I resisted the temptation of parting with my wonga before we went now. I've found them for no less than about £55 on ebay and some places they're still over the £100 mark. So, all in all, a bargain I'm thinking!

It comes with a 10 sheet 6"x4" colour postcard cartridge (of which there are only 6 prints left). They also had the black and white (25 per pack) 6"x4" postcard cartridges reduced to half price so I bagged myself a couple of these too. Already there are 11 sheets less due to 'testing' the new toy!

This is going to make my scrapping so much quicker as my photos can be printed almost instantly when they're edited. YAY!!!!

Introducing...

My new blog!

I've decided to keep the Freycob blog for my craft / inspiration / projects and to start this one to contain all the other rubbish that I blog about!

I'll add the photos from my recent holiday in Lanzarote here and any scrapbook LOs that I make over on Freycob.

Debbi Moore - Christmas kit

I got an email from Debbi last Thursday inviting me to be a designer in her new magazine that she's launching!

The downside is that I had to send a photo (:-o) to appear in the mag along with a little bit of a bio on myself.

And then the crunch - if she sends me a Christmas kit out in that day's post, can I do 5/6 projects and get it back to her within about 5 days?????? Well... me being me said 'of course I can as it's a Bank Holiday coming up!' And what better excuse than I HAVE to craft as I have a deadline to meet, sorry Will!!!!!

The box of goodies duly arrives, and OH MY WORD!!! What a wonderful box of goodies there was too! I couldn't wait to get my grubby little mitts in there and start.

I managed to surpass the 5/6 requirement and posted a package of 15 goodies to Debbi yesterday (gawd help those posties if they lose them!). They're photographed and sitting on my memory card in my camera but hopefully I'll get a chance later to upload them.

You have to check out Debbi's shop - her stamps are soooooo gorgeous!

Hola!

Buenos diás to everone.

Guess who's just returned back from 2 weeks holiday in Lanzarote then? Yep!!! We have!

No more Spanish speak as it's just too bad and I don't want to insult them haha!

We had a wonderful time staying here in one of their gorgeous villas. Oh, how I wish I could have stayed forever.

Lanzarote: Sun, a lovely breeze blowing over the island, good food, FABULOUS villa with private pool......

On the other hand......

England: Wet, cold, raining, miserable, work.....

Oh, it's good to be back in old blighty! LOL

I have rather a lot of photos to go through (about 750 to be precise - and that's only on my camera, not to mention what Will and Freya took with theirs) so it may be a while before I can get some uploaded here to tempt you with...!

Until then.....

Adios! xx

Debbi Moore Designs - Part 2

As promised, I've edited and played with the other 5 photos of the cards I made for Debbi and here they are...

Debbi Moore Designs

I received a really lovely kit of goodies from Debbi which contained the most gorgeous clear, acrylic stamps as well as some vintage cameos with which to create some cards.

I DON'T DO VINTAGE and was pooping myself at what I could come up with. This took me so far out of my comfort zone that I can hardly remember how to get back there without a sat nav!

Anyhoo.... I had a think, and a worry, and a worry and a think and then I decided to just go for it and see what my hands came up with. And these are the first 5 cards that they produced...







I'll post the other 5 cards in a couple of days, when I get a chance.

Some cards...

Every year, those who are married have something called an anniversary. Will and I are no exception to that rule. And me being me, made his card the night before (as you do when you're a busy wife, mother and employee such as me!!) Mind you, after 20 years you'd think I'd be better prepared for it coming round, wouldn't you? No? Oh, ok!




This second card is for my boss to his wife, who like me, has a bit of fetish with Radley handbags. So, I made her one of her own. The paper is really lush and very strokeable, like gorgeous peach skin.



This last card was for a colleague of Will's who is a 'very nice lady' called Jackie who'll be celebrating a very special birthday very soon.




The template for these flowers was very kindly given to me by Kirsty Wiseman (thanks hun!) I scored the centre of each petal and folded it for added dimension.

Ouch!

After my wonderful weekend, what else could go wrong? Well a mozzie bite is what!!!

I woke up on Monday morning to find dried blood on the inside of my right ankle. I can't imaginen how I've managed to cut myself while lying in bed.... and then I find it - a mozzie bite!!!!! Bloody things! We never found the culprit - if I had the last thing on it's mind would have indeed been it's bum!!!!!!!!

Now, don't get me wrong here, I've had my fair share of mozzie bites in my youthful number years on this plante, but I've never had anything lie this one.

Over the day it itches, gets red and swells - and looks a bit like this:



I visit the chemist after work to be told that I need antihistamine tablets and cream and to keep a close eye on it as he's not sure it's not becoming infected - by this time it's become even more swollen, red and angry looking. To keep my feet up to help reduce the swelling became the best excuse I needed to leave the ironing to another day.

Through the evening and night it gets worse. Tuesday I couldn't bend my ankle with the swelling, I hobbled instead of walked and it itched like a good 'un! None of my shoes any longer fitted my foot and it looked... bad!

Another trip (the first being on Saturday with mum) to the local Minor Injuries Unit finds a very concerned Sister at how badly it has become infected and immediately prescribes 4 x 500mg penicillin daily. Have you seen the size of those babies? You could destroy a fully grown horse with the size of those capsules! And I'm not good at taking tablets let alone horse torpedos.

What is even more concerning is she said that over the weekend there had been loads of patients coming through with new and very infected mozzie bites, to the stage that they actually ran out of antibiotics!!! King-squitos indeed locally.

Thankfully after 48 hours when I had to return to the MIU to have it checked you could tell that the horse torpedos were doin' their thang and killin those buggies in my body. Phew! There was an awful lot riding on that decision, I can tell you, but that's for another blog post.

The antibiotics have just finished but the subsequent bruising will be here after I think.

We are now so paranoid at having the lights on in the house when the windows are open that we either live in the dark or swelter in the heat. HAHA! They don't know whether that is a one-off reaction or if it's going to be the norm for me and mozzies. I prefer the first offer myself!

Bubbly Funk - Mini Kit

You've seen the sneaky peek, now see the full monty! LOL

The following articles were made for Bubbly Funk







If you pop over to Caroline's fabby shoppie you'll be able to see how they were made and what they were made from. Go on then, off you pop! LOL

What a weekend!

I had so much planned for last weekend - crafting, sorting out clothes etc ready for our holiday, but none of it seemed to get done. The reason?

Jacob was away for the weekend with dad in Skegness, leaving mum home alone with Freya on Thursday and Friday and over the weekend.

I get this 'damsel in distress' text on Saturday afternoon while Freya and I were in town that mum had stood up and something had gone 'pop' in her knee and she was now in pain from her hip to her knee. I rang her straight up and said I was going down, but she insisted she was ok. I've known my mum for rather a lot of years and could tell she was in pain, so off we went to check up on her. We find her standing at the sink doing her dishes very clearly in a lot of pain. So, a call to our local emergency doctor later (much to her disgust at me!) we hobbled (in mum's case) to our local Minor Injuries Unit where we had to get a wheelchair for her to get her in. Turns out she has sprained her cruciate ligament which can be really nasty. Ouch!

The stubbon old bird insists that she can be on her own at home as dad would be back the following afternoon - yeah right! She's coming to our house and staying with us - no bloody question about that!!!! So Freya and I entertain her by playing on the Wii Fit (gawd, my muscles did ache!) andI sit and watch QVC with her. I really can't remember the last time that I watched it as I'm not a telly watcher at all.

Anyhoo... I hear her get up in the night and lay listening to make sure she doesn't lose her balance or become disorientated in a strange house in the dark and hear her get back into bed safely. Then I try once more to fall back into my slumber, until....

I feel a tap on my forehead, put my hand up and there's nothing! Then.... I feel a strange tickling sensation walking across my chest. Thinking it's only an itch, I put my hand up to scratch it, only to come into contact with something that rolls itself up into a ball the size of a pea!!! I hate creepy crawlies and promptly throw it across the bedroom.

I spend the next couple of hours imaging all kinds of creepy crawlies using my nakedness (it was hot, ok?!) as a public highway!!!!

I've come to the conclusion that my mother is an insomniac as she was up at 7.30 - ON A SUNDAY FOR GOODNESS SAKE!!!! So I get up with her as the wonderful baby daughter that I am (heehee!) and make her a cup of tea, sit in the garden and keep her company. Ahhh..... bless me! LOL.

The other worry wort and insomniac of a parent - aka dad - rings about 8am to check on how she is, to be assured that I'm looking after her well and that she's ok.

Dad and Jacob arrive home about 1pm and the fussing starts. Mum can no longer get up to have a wee without dad worrying where she is going! Echos of 'where's your walking stick?' ring out all to frequently for mum's liking me thinks. He may just find out where said walking stick is if he hassles her too much! Hehe!

Dinner was duly cooked and thank goodness that my Yorkshire Pudding rose - as mum is somewhat of a damn good cook - I have a high standard to live up to.

Entertainment was again forthcoming from myself and Freya and a very pleased Jacob to find that we are now the proud owners of a Wii Fit - getting hold of one of these babies is like finding rocking horse poo - and that's hard to find!!!!!

Pleased to say that mum is on the road to recovery, it may be slow and painful, but, fingers crossed, she'll be fine, dandy and dancin' the hoola pretty soon, I'm sure.