Alphabet Photography

An article in a local paper caught my eye this week about alphabet photography.



Isn't the pic neat? It's made up of photos of letters and objects in the town. What a great idea!

You can read the full story here.

~A

It's A Boy Card

Inspired by the beautiful scrapbook pages on my sister-in-law's blog I made this card for friends whose first baby arrived over the weekend.



I stamped a postage mark onto the envelope and am really pleased with how it came out.



I wanted to make my own wrapping paper so I stamped onto brown paper. Unfortunately the ink turned really dark on the brown paper. Here's the card and gift almost ready to go.



~A

A Day in London

We went to London on Saturday. Whilst there we visited


Ripley's Believe it or Not

The bizarre artifacts didn't interest me much, I was drawn to the more 'creative' displays




Now there's a girl who knows how to save money!

This picture


made from


used postage stamps


Now there's someone with lots of time on their hands!

This duck made from junk


Now there's someone who knows how to recycle!

Here are a few of my other favorites


a simple poem written on fabric (another keen recycler?)


painting on a leaf.

This really got to me

Below the sign was this tank of FREEZING cold water

Into which we each put a finger. In less than 10 seconds our fingers were aching from the cold. Those poor folk on the Titanic. (My finger continued to ache for ages afterwards.)

After Ripley's, as it was such a lovely sunny day, we took a slow walk along the Thames





as far as St Paul's Cathedral



then over the Millennium Bridge



everyone was out and about.



Final stop


Imperial War Museum

then home!

~A

Easter Treat

I love these South African Easter eggs



They have an outer candy shell (similar to Smarties) and inside they have a layer of chocolate. They look just like hens eggs from the outside!

Using a small terracotta flower pot, one of the above eggs and a stamped image from Elzybells, I made this



Side view



Which I wrapped up like this






Happy Easter!

P.S. Eggs bought from here

~A

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day here in the UK. My lovely family surprised me with a box of my favorite chocolates



What, no picture of the whole box?? No way!!!Because then you would see just how many I have already eaten!!

I love this hand made sign hanging in a shop window in town. I couldn't get the whole thing into one pic and it was really difficult to take with the shiny glass but I'm sure you get the idea



Here's a closeup



Happy Mother's Day!


~A

A Walk in the Woods

I've discovered another new, local place to go walking! The road to the woods is lined with tall redwood trees



Trees......lots of trees



We weren't expecting this



Isn't it beautiful?



Wildlife too



More trees



Interesting sights





And still more trees.......but look carefully



Did you spot this... blending in perfectly in the hazy blue sunshine



Isn't it beautiful?



~A

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope you have had a good day! Each year I like to surprise my family at the breakfast table and this year I decided to cut a very sparkly piece of gift wrap into 4 'place mats'.



I also bought each member of the family a small gift - heart shaped pencils for my son who is crazy about pencils (!!)



a tiny teddy for my daughter (sorry about the bad pic)



and for my husband a box of his favorite chocolates.



And for me I hear you ask? Well, I originally bought Hubby a very small box of his favorite chocolates but then I saw the same chocolates in special Valentine's packaging, so I got him those instead and I got the small box.

He's already eaten the whole box!!!!

~A

*Love* Cupcakes

Yesterday my son had cooking at school, they were going to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake. We measured out the ingredients the night before, all ready for him to take to school in the morning but both he and I forgot about the butter in the fridge! He went ahead and baked without telling the teacher about the missing butter (smart kid!) The end result looked very good despite being a little hard and flat. When he got home, feeling disappointed with his flopped cake (I know that feeling well!) he decided to bake cupcakes.

A few weeks ago I bought these lovely baking cases and edible heart sprinkles, planning to use them on Valentine's Day.



Knowing that my shares were down, there was only one way to save the day...



~A

Footprints in the Snow

I am pleased to report that the snow has now all melted and life has returned to normal. Before the snow melted I noticed these prints in the snow



I wonder who they belong to???

Aah, could this be the culprit?



~A

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone - it's been a while since I last posted. I hope you had a good Christmas and are ready to face the year ahead.

Life in the UK has slowed down somewhat after the deluge of snow we received earlier in the week. The children had one day back at school and then schools were closed for the rest of the week - much to the delight of my kids.



The neighborhood kids made this fine fellow



The view up my road - what road??



The sun was out today and some snow managed to melt despite the low temperature. I noticed these on a neighbors house



~A