I finished it!!

Happy Friday .......

We're almost a week into June already.  And what a week it's been!  I should have kept my mounth closed about the weather I think.  Shall we say ....... it's been a little mixed here this week!  

Not great seeing as it's been TT Race Week ..... well sort of.  There has been some racing but, the week has unfortunately been plagued with delays due to the weather and some races cancelled.  There's still the weekend though, so fingers crossed it all goes well.

The beginning of this week saw the end of the #100 Days Project ........ and I did it!!!  All 100 days.

A flower every day, inspirational words or a saying, and a little bit of love from a red heart.

My bits box has never been so empty ...... though I'm sure it won't be like that for long!

The project has been a great way of using up leftover bits, re-discovering my craft stash and exploring my stamp collection, although since my mahoosive clear out that's not as big as it once was!   

It's also been a nice way to re-visit favourite techniques and try a few new ones.   It's been fun, and it's definitely got me in the mood to spend more time in my craft room.  Hopefully you'll see a bit more of me now ......... not sure if that's a good thing or not!!  Watch this space.

Thanks for popping by.  Have a fabulous weekend.  I'm hopiong for a quiet one!

Cheerio until next time ......

It's that time of year again .......

Happy weekend to you .......

The weeks are flying by.  I can't believe we're almost in June already.

And yes, it's that time of year again ......... it's the IOM TT fortnight!!

Lots of visitors to our little island, the sound of motorbikes everywhere, and Practice Week has been glorious weather wise .....

I could get used to seeing this everyday but, here in the Isle of Man, the good weather is not always guarenteed to last.

Race Week was due to get underway today (Saturday) but, unfortunately it's a little quiet as that's not going to happen.

No blue skies and sunshine today I'm afraid.  Instead we have fog, mist, and a little rain, so we'll just have to wait for the racing until tomorrow.

One thing that is still on course is my #100 Days Project.  The finish line is within sight, only 3 days to go and I must confess, I am running out of ideas!

As you can see from the photos above, I cheated a little bit and did a 4 in 1 ...... they are all different though!

I must say, my craft room is looking a little messy, and I'm getting to the point where I can't find things on my workdesk now so, a good clean up will be needed next week, once all 100 days are done. 

Thanks for popping by, have a lovely weekend.  

Fingers crossed we get the sunshine back tomorrow.

Cheerio until next time ......

It's nice to be back ........

Hello ....... Happy Friday!

I hope you've have a good week.  Not quite sure where mine has gone but hey! here we are, it's the weekend again.

Thank you for the lovely comments on my last post.  So glad that there are still some of you reading my blog.  It is nice to be back.

I've spent a big part of the week in my craft room, mostly on my laptop, scrolling through my favourite craftshop websites, and stocking up on the essentials ....... cardstock, glue and adhesives, ink pads and re-inkers ........... all the boring stuff!  

I've also been checking out blogs, Pinterest and YouTube videos.  I need to get back up to speed on the current popular techniques, and all the lovely new stash releases out there.  

My head is spinning, I now have a to do list as long as my arm, and a shopping list that's not much different ..... things are back to normal then!

I've been busy with a couple of projects too ......... nothing that I can go into detail with you though, not  just yet anyway.   At least my crafty mojo is getting a work out.

What I can share with you though, is a few more of my #100 Days Project.  I'm still really enjoying playing along with this, but there's not that many days left now.

It's been a great way of using up all those left overs and pretty paper scraps.  It's been the perfect chance to revisit old favourite techniques too, ones that I haven't used in a while.  

You never know I may just carry on after the 100 days, there will still be a few empty pages in the notebook I'm using.

Thanks for popping by.  Have a lovely weekend.

It's the FA Cup Final tomorrow so that's my afternoon sorted.  Let's hope its a good outcome ...... come on Chelsea!!!

Cheerio until next time ........

Is there anybody out there ...........

Hello there, remember me!?

Well this feels weird!  And just a little bit scary.  

Is anyone still checking out my little old blog?   It's been such a long time since I posted anything on here, especially on the subject of craft.  

But .......... hopefully that's all about to change.

While we were travelling my intention was to blog more about the trip so we would have a record of it all but, van life is strange.  

We didn't really plan anything too far in advance.  We also got used to the idea of not having any real commitments, other than hubby was working for three days a week.   Even booking a restaurant went out the window, so blogging was something I soon got used to not doing ..... oops!

We do have pictures and a diary of where we got to on our travels.  And I keep a record of all the campsites we've been to so we can go back and recall it all.  I may just pop the odd thing on here every now and again, but don't worry, I won't bore you with all the details.  

I will say we had a great time.  We went to places we wouldn't have thought of going to if we hadn't been in the motorhome.  

Found new favourite places to go .....usually with a nice restaurant to visit (we do like good food and nice wine!)

And, we're not done yet!  

Remi (our motorhome) is back on the island (Isle of Man) with us.  We've found a nice place to store him, not far from us which is good, but, we are settled again ....... for the time being anyway!

My craft room is just about sorted, well the boxes are all empty.  

I can't actually find anything and, I had a HUGE clearout when I packed everything away, so I have nowhere near as much stash as I used to have, which could be a good thing.  At least I stand a chance of using everything ...... OK, maybe not everything, not right away anyway (I'm not going to count how many unused stamp sets I've put on my shelves!)

I'm not entirely sure what will come out of the craft room ..... fingers crossed I can remember what to do with that stash.  

There's always YouTube, and Pinterest I suppose for inspiration, and of course I will get back into the habit of checking out all my favourite Blogs.     

I did take a small craft stash in the van but, I must confess it didn't really see the light of day that often.  Since we got back I've made the odd birthday card here and there, a few Christmas cards at the end of last year, and did a few bits in one of my journals .......

 

Playing around with doodling on a page where I'd used left over paint.

This page was inspired by the fabulous Sarah Gray from Funky Fossil.  I watched one of her YouTube videos on paper weaving, it was so much fun to do

One thing I have been doing recently though, is the #100 Day Project.  A free, online, global art project built around the idea of doing something creative for 100 days.

I have followed it for a couple of years now and never got involved, but I thought this could be a way of getting the old mojo up and running again.  

I decided to keep things relatively simple and do a 100 days of Flowers. 

Mini projects, about ATC size (ish), making use of some of my favourite stamps (there's plenty of those), all those left over bits that I couldn't throw away 'just in case' (you know the ones I mean) ......... unfinished cards (I have a box full of those!), scraps of designer papers left over from past projects (again, boxes of those!), along with stamps and stencils that have never been used (oh dear, quite a few of those too!)

Well, it all started on February 22nd, so we're on Day 76, and guess what ..... I'm up to date.

I'm amazed that I've managed to keep it up. 

Each piece is numbered,  has a flower/flowers on it, along with a favourite quote or words of some kind, and a little red heart somewhere. 

I decided to keep them all in a notebook,  which is now at bursting point.  I obviously didn't think that through fully.  I have tried to keep the layers to a minimum but the whole thing will need re-binding when its full.

  

I haven't actually shared any of my makes on the official 100 Days social media pages, they're all just for me, but, seeing as it's you, here's a quick look at a few of my favourites .........

It does seem to be doing the trick though.  I am really enjoying just playing with stamps and inks and I definitely feel it's time to get back into the 'craft lane' again.  

I do hope you will join me.

Thanks for popping by, enjoy your weekend.

Fingers crossed the sun keeps shining.

Cheerio until next time .....

Van life continues .......

Happy Thursday to you ........

I hope you're all well.

I'm back again, with more updates from our vanlife adventure. 

I can't believe it's June already ....... time flies when you're having fun! 

Today is Day 87 in the van ....... Day 87!!!!!!!!!  and we're still here in the Scottish Highlands, although we are starting to make our way south again, slowly.

At then end of my last post we were getting ready to leave the beautiful Isle of Skye, and what a send off we got .......

even Remi stayed up late to watch the sun go down!

We headed off the following morning, and decided to re-visit the lovely little Caravan & Motorhome club site we'd discovered earlier in the week ......

Morvich is a lovely site, nestled amongst the hills in the Scottish highlands, it's so peaceful.  They even have a fresh fish van that calls every Tuesday so we had to check it out, would have been rude not to I think!

Caught that morning ....... monkfish tail with fresh, still in their shell, prawns ..... yum!

Unfortunately it hasn't all been blue shies and sunshine, far from it, but even with grey clouds and stormy skies this part of the world is just breathtaking .......

Our next destination was Inverness, and our first stop was at a place called Ardtower, not far from the Culloden Battlefield.

Lovely site, great facilities, and most of the pitches had views over the Moray Firth.  The clouds seemed to follow us there ......

very atmospheric in the evening .......

Being an 'Outlander' fan (TV series), Culloden is somewhere I've wanted to go for a while

Quite an eerie place to be .......

We're now just outside the city of Inverness and the weather has not been kind to us.  We've had some sunshine but it's been mainly wind, and rain, and even hailstones yesterday!  Flaming June eh!!!

We have had a few things that we needed to do whilst we've been here, housekeeping (van) stuff mainly, washing etc., so the weather hasn't been too much of a problem.

Hubby needed his regular B12 injection so we had to source how to get that which wasn't too bad, and would you believe ........ he's started a new job!  

Yes, you heard correct, he's working again.  Only part time though for now, and it's only a few hours per week (Monday and Tuesday) and it can all be done from the van so, no need to cut short our trip just yet.  Let's see how things go.

We did manage a lovely walk along the river, over to the Ness Islands.

A collection of natural islands sitting in the middle of the River Ness, connected by lovely Victorian footbridges

 

It's a lovely walk, through the trees, some of which are huge .....

There's plenty of carved benches and places to sit and watch the world go by, and there's even a Nessie sculpture, made from a fallen tree which is quite fun.

Once you're across the islands I think you can walk all the way into the city along the riverbank.  Maybe next time.

 

It's time to start packing up the van again as we're on the move tomorrow, heading further south to Pitlochry.

We've heard from quite a few people we've met on our travels that it's a really lovely place so we're looking forward to getting there.  And with hubby now working two days of the week, we're having to think more about good internet and Wi-Fi signals so fingers crossed it's OK.  Plus we need the internet to stream live coverage of the TT races that are going on back home.  We've been keeping up with all the action, and the delays due to the weather.  It's been making me a little bit homesick to be honest, I miss the island ...... and the family of course!

Thanks for popping by, enjoy the rest of your day.

There's actually a bit of blue sky outside, time for a stroll!

Cheerio until next time .....