302/365+1 : Dark

I had a flash of inspiration for this prompt when I was in Sainsburys today and spotted these beauties. They were half price so it would have been rude not to! The things we have to do for our art :)

303/365+1 : Statue

We were in Aberdeen today for another orthodontists appointment for Callum - luckily we don't have another one for 10 weeks as they can't fit us in before Christmas. I don't like Aberdeen much at the best of times but when the streets are packed with Christmas shoppers I would soon lose the will to live I'm sure.

This statue is one of three halfway along Union Street - not sure who they are or what they are supposed to represent - but they were covered with pigeon droppings!!

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

I absolutely loved last weeks book Night Road by Kristin Hannah and can't wait to read more by this author. I am off to Aberdeen today so will have a look in the Waterstones there as it is quite a bit bigger than our one. On looking on Amazon though it appears most of her books are only availbale in the US (either in book or Kindle format) so I might not get very far.

I am reading 2 books at the moment. The first one is The House of Dust and Dreams by Brenda Reid. It is part of the reading relay which is running in Scottish libraries at the moment. The idea thare are 6 books which you can read and then award it with either a gold, silver or bronze medal and then recommend it and pass it on to someone lese. The 6 books are -

Spies of the Balkans    by Alan Furst

The Bomber by Liz Marklund

Master of Rome by John Stack

The House of Dust and Dreams  by Brenda Reid

Olympos  by Dan Simmons

The Midas Code by Boyd Morrison

As you can see they all have a Greek theme to tie in with the Olympics. 

The blurb on the back made me think this would really be my cup of tea but I have to say I am finding it a bit slow going, I think maybe it is because the main characters have yet to grab me and not knowing anything about the history and politics of Greece. But I will try to persevere with it.

Greece 1936.

A young British diplomat and his wife have been posted to Athens. Hugh loves the life there but his spirited and unconventional wife, Evadne, finds it hard to fit in with the whirl of endless parties and socialising.

When Hugh is sent to Crete to sort out a problem, they stay in a rundown house owned by his family. His wife falls in love with the place and the people, and stays on when Hugh returns to his duties. As she tries to rebuild the ramshackle home, Evadne - known as Heavenly by the locals - makes firm friends with Anthi, a young woman from the village and Christo, the handsome and charismatic young builder.

But the dark clouds of war are gathering and the island will become a crucible of violence and bloodshed in the days to come. For Heavenly, her friends and family, it will be the greatest test they have ever known.

So as a bit of light relief I have picked up What I Did On My Holidays by Chrissie Manby. It's a bit daft but I am enjoying it - perfect to take with me on my train journey today.

Sophie Sturgeon can't wait for her annual summer holiday. Not only will it be a week away from work, it will be a chance to reconnect with her boyfriend Callum.

So this upcoming trip to Majorca is a big deal. Sophie's spent a lot of time getting ready. She's bought a new wardrobe. She's been waxed to within an inch of her life. She's determined she and Callum will have the best time ever.

Then Callum dumps her, the night before they're due to leave. In a show of bravery and independence, Sophie says she'll go to Majorca alone - but in fact, she hides in her London flat. But when her friends, family, and even Callum seem so surprised and delighted at her single girl courage, Sophie decides to go all out and recreate the ultimate 'fake break' . . . with hilarious results.

Pop over to The Book Journey and see what everyone else is reading today.

Next I want to start reading some of the Christmas titles that are hitting the shelves this month.

Scrapbook Remix : Prompt 1

(Sorry - this is a bit picture heavy)

I have signed up for Shimelle's new class called Scrapbook Remix - whether this turns out to be a good idea or not remains to be seen as I'm not great at finishing her classes - but I have to say I'm off to a flying start - even if the class started on Monday and I have only just completed the first prompt!

Shimelle describes Scrapbook Remix as a four week adventure in mixing and matching patterned pape. And patterned paper is one thing I have no shortage of.

In the first prompt Shimelle started with one particular paper collection and then added to it for each of her 4 pages. I went with a different collection for each page - I managed to mix the patterns up but not the collections. that is something I have always found quite tricky so I am hoping this class will teach me how to do this.

We had to look at colour and produce a monochrome page:
(Using October Afternoon Fly A Kite papers and Banana Frog alphabet stamps)

A page using just two colours:
(Using Cosmo Cricket papers and American Crafts puffy Thickers)

A page using three colours:
(Using My Mind's Eye penny Lane papers and American Crafts puffy Thickers)

And finally a page with lots of colours:
(Using Cosmo Cricket Early Bird papers and American Crafts puffy Thickers)

I have enjoyed this prompt - it has made me use up papers that I have had for several years - I have found some that I cannot for the life of me remember why exactly I bought it. Maybe during this class I will be able to use them up.  

301/365+1 : Crooked

When I saw today's prompt the first thing that popped into my head was the following rhyme:



There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile,
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse.
And they all lived together in a little crooked house

And it reminded me that everytime we go for a walk Callum has to find a stick - and he wither uses it as a gun or as a walking stick and gives us his very best Yoda impersonation!!  Talking of Yoda we saw a Corgi dog last night who also look remarkably like the afore mentioned Star Wars character - bizarre.

300/365+1 : Orange

Only 66 days to go!!!

I could have taken a photo of the pumpkins in Tesco this evening (thankfully the boys are now old enough to show no interest in Halloween and trick or treating, and very few kids locally to come knocking on the door so no pumpkins or copious amount of chocolate required.) I could have taken a photo of an orange from the fruit bowl but out of the two nets of oranges I bought on Monday the boys have eaten them all. Or I could have taken a photo of Sam's bedroom as one wall is a lovely shade of orange - but I wouldn't want to subject you to seeing the mess that he lives in!!

So here is Andy's brand new shed, delivered and assembled this afternoon. It is his pride and joy (probably because I have made him wait almost 4 years for it) and isn't it a fetching shade of orange???? Luckily it is down the side of the house so I don't have to see it. All it needs is a little bed, camping stove and some nets at the window and it could be his home from home!!

A room with a view?

Skywatch Friday

Findhorn Beach looking towards the Black Isle.

See more skies from around the world on Skywatch Friday.

299/365+1 : Black & White Heartwarming

No words required.

298/365+1 : Black & White Free Choice

Not much time for looking for subject matter for today's prompt so here are a couple of recent shots that have had the black and white treatment.

My gorgeous new car - I'm not usually a car person and view them simply as a method of getting from A to B but after not having my own car for a couple of years I love her to pieces (look at that face - it's got to be a girl!!) - it is so much fun to drive :-)

And my little garden companion.

WOYWW 24th October

I have signed up for Shimelles new class Scrapbook Remix and so far 3 prompts have arrived in my inbox but nothing is happening on my desk. The class is described as an adventure in mixing and matching patterned papers - something which I'm not great about doing and the first prompt asked us to find bright and happy papers.

And this is what I came up with. Not my usual kind of thing - in fact I probably only bought them because they were October Afternoon! The inspiration contained in the prompts is great - I just need to put them into action.

There is also a little pile of new goodies after my trip into the new Hobbycraft in Inverness waiting to be played with.

Please pop over and say hi to Julia and see what everyone else is up to this Wednesday.

Planking

I still have quite a lot of photos to scrap from our US road trip last year and after seeing the Sketch 154 over on Let's Capture These Sketches I have another page completed for my album. Here is the sketch:

I have quite a few photos similar to this one all taken at different locations by various members of the family! Planking was a craze that was doing the rounds last summer and it was a new one on the boys American cousins. This photo of Sam was taken in a native american village in North Carolina. I have October Afternoon Night Light papers - not really sure why I bought them as the bright colours aren't really me. And the firework stamps and title are both Banana Frog stamps (such a shame they are no longer trading as I loved their stuff.)

A Sunny Sunday Afternoon

Sunday was a glorious day so I took myself off to Findhorn for a walk around the beach and harbour.

The first thing I saw when I walked onto the beach was lots of people all looking out to sea - there was quite a large pod of dolphins in the bay putting on an amazing show. It was the best I have ever seen them and amazing to see. I didn't take any photos as I was too busy watching but here is a clip from YouTube of the same pod of dolphins later in the day slightly further up the coast. The ones I saw were closer to the shore than these.



Apart from the dolphins I also spotted a microlight flying over the beach, a couple of horses and about half a dozen people on Segways - which was quite a bizarre sight on the beach!!

here are a few of my photos from my walk.

297/365+1 : Black & White Family Portrait

With one family member away and 2 unwilling to have a group photo taken I have had to resort to a photo taken back in the Summer on a trip to Lossie Beach. This family shot consists of Andy, Cal, Nanny and Clive - I am sensibly behind the camera!!

296/365+1 : Black & White Repeating Pattern

You can get inspiration anywhere - this is the surface of the car park outside my local library!

Garden Visitor

You know Winter is on it's way when you see this little chap in your garden. He has been around for several weeks now sitting on one of the fences - I always hear him singing before I see him. Hopefully he will be around all winter - especially after watching last night's Countryfile weather forecast - getting colder and colder by the end of the week with plenty of snow showing up on that weather map :-)