Bourton, Cheltenham, and now we're in Norfolk ........

Happy Sunday!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend.

We're still on our travels and currently making the most of this gorgeous weather, although it's a little bit too warm for me today so I'm sat in the shade!

Since my last blog post we've done a few more miles, and I must confess my craft bag has not been looked at, apart from moving it from one end of the van to the other, each time we pitch up!  There's still time though, we're not back home for another two weeks!

  

From Somer's Wood in Birmingham (my last blog post), we hit the road again and travelled to Bourton-on-the-Water (aka the Venice of the Cotswolds and still one of our all time favourite places)

We spent 4 nights on a lovely little site, Cotswolds Carp Farm.  

Set around numerous lakes, with woodland walks and whole host of wildlife.  And, it's only a short walk from the centre of the village ....... perfect!

We do love this place .......

On a nice evening you can't beat a nice glass of wine and dinner by the river ......

Followed by an evening stroll just as the sun is going down.....

From there we went to Cheltenham, the town where hubby lost his sense of direction (for the first time ever!!!) I got soaking wet as a result, and our love of the Cotswolds began, all those years ago! 

We stayed 2 nights on a club campsite at Cheltenham Racecourse.  Nothing fancy, all the usual facilities, great views of the course though ..... pity there was no racing meeting, I quite enjoy a flutter on the horses now and then!

We stayed here purely for the location ...... right by the Park & Ride into the centre of Cheltenham ...... you see, we had tickets for the Cheltenham Food & Drink Festival!  We've visited this many times when we've stayed in Bourton.

We ate too much, drank too much, and definitely spent too much!  A great day out.

We even saw these guys ..... the Hare and the Minotaur

From there, we set off again and drove across the country to Norfolk.  

We're currently on another 'new to us' campsite (our 4th one this trip!) ..... a little place called the Old Brick Kilns. 

I say little, it's actually quite a large campsite, not far from the north Norfolk coast, in a place called Barney.   It's lovely, nice large pitches, a fishing lake in the centre, and a restaurant and bar on site ...... we had live music last night too which was great.

We're only here for a couple of nights though, then we're off the next part of our adventure.  We're heading to the Norfolk Broads tomorrow ....... that's going to be weird, we're usually there on a boat!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Think I'm actually cooking this evening ....... bad planning on my part I think, it doesn't seem to be cooling down any.  Salad anyone!?

Cheerio until next time .......

We're on the road again .........

Happy weekend .......

How's your June going?

It's been a busy couple of weeks on the island, and we had an absolutely fabulous TT!!  

The sun shone everyday, and the racing was amazing!!!  So many records were broken ...... those boys are fast!!!! 

We had our annual trip to Bushey's for a cheeky beer or two (have to go at least once during TT) 

The Red Arrows gave us a great display .......

And Senior Race Day was on the Saturday, which meant there was an extra day of racing

We were up and the Grandstand, and had a great view of the start.

And on top of all that, I had to get the van ready for our latest adventure.

Yes, we're on the road again ........ I know, we've only been back for a little over three weeks but, we're trying to make the most of the motorhome and fit in as many trips as we can this year.  Plus, the weather is too nice to miss.

We came across to the UK yesterday and drove down to Birmingham.   Not very glamorous I hear you say but, we're staying on a lovely campsite called Somer's Wood Caravan Park, about three miles from the NEC (National Exhibition Centre)

What a little gem!  Not far from the motorway, located next to Stonebridge Golf Course and is so quiet and peaceful.  It was the perfect spot for us as we've started our trip with a visit to the Good Food Show today at the NEC.

We've walked miles, my 10,000 steps were done well before lunchtime!  

It got very busy.  We've tasted all sorts of goodies,  stocked up the van for the trip, bought a new gadget for the BBQ and,  we went to see James Martin in action creating a lovely summer meal ...... will be trying out those recipes  when we get home.

We also bought his gin, which is very nice ....... we were trying that at 10 this morning!!!  Well, it was 5 o'clock somewhere 🍸

We're back at the van now and, it's just started to rain ...... yeah!!  You could almost hear the grass sigh with relief.  Hopefully a good downpour will clear the air.

We're off on our travels again tomorrow, heading for one of our favourite places.  

We usually stay there with the family, in a cottage, but this time we're taking Remi.  We're off to lovely Bourton-on-the-Water in the Cotswolds ..... it's been a while!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your weekend

I think it's time to open that bottle of gin don't you ......... cheers!

Cheerio until next time .......

 

Welcome to June .......

Happy weekend ........

Welcome to June!   Can you believe we're almost half way through 2023 ....... it's crazy!

I hope you've had a good week.  It's been absolutely glorious here.  We've had beautiful blue skies, and warm sunny days all week, it's been great!! 

Perfect weather for all the islands TT visitors.  

We were up at the Grandstand earlier in the week, to soak up a little bit of the atmosphere ......

grab a cheeky beer, or two, in the Trackside bar .......

and of course, pick up this years stash from the Merchandise tent!

Just need to catch some actual racing now!

Because the sun's been shining I haven't spent any time in the craft room this week ..... naughty of me I know, especially as I should be in there ........... deadlines are approaching!!  Dare I say it ..... Christmas is coming!!!!!  More on all that later.

I have got a little something to share with you though, a journal spread I did before we went away.

This was an online workshop with the lovely JOFY (Jo Firth-Young), started way back in the days of lockdown, and I've only just got around to finishing it (I've actually got a few of those!!)

That's the good thing about the online workshops, once you've signed up to them, the content is always there.  So, if you don't get chance to do them live, you can go back and finish them whenever you like.

I really enjoyed playing around with this, spending a few hours using paints and stencils, and pretty patterned papers, which is something I don't use very often these days (maybe that will all change now!)

creating my little garden of flowers.

 

The flower heads are all hand drawn onto the papers, and then fussy cut and layered together, in true JOFY style, to create these bold, funky styled, blooms ...... love them!

To make them stand out, each one was finished with some penwork, outlining each of the petals and adding little doodled details here and there.

I finished off my pages with some paint splatters and a couple of stamped words and I also added a little ladybug, stamped onto a snippet of card and layered onto one of the leaves ..... so cute!

You can see in the background that some of the stencil work has also been highlighted using a white gel pen ....... small detail but so effective.  Helps to create the look of more layers which is what this workshop was about.

This really was so much fun to do, and what a great way of using up all those pretty patterned papers!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy your weekend.

I can just about hear the roar of the bikes ........ time to start the racing!

Cheerio until next time ......

Flowers, flowers and more flowers ...........

Happy Bank Holiday weekend .......

And what a lovely weekend we're having, the weather is glorious!  Just in time for the start of this years IOM TT Races.  

Yes, it's that time of year when the island welcomes visitors from all over the world, and the roar of motorbikes can be heard everywhere ...... we've even got the funfair coming back this year!  It's going to be a busy couple of weeks.

Did you get to see Lucy on Wednesday?  

She was back on TV with the gorgeous new range of Sweet Poppy stamps ..... Beautiful Botanicals.  Everyone loves flowers, and I've been sharing a few of my favourites over the last couple of posts.

So far I've used each of the stamps on their own for easy Clean and Simple (CAS) cards through to pretty all over designs.  But what if, you can't choose a favourite, you just want them all.  

Then, you can't make up your mind which one to use first so ......... why not use more than one on your cards, they all look so pretty together

This is a 7x7 inch finished card, and I stamped a whole bunch of the flowers to cover the front

 

and coloured them using Brush Markers

I added a simple foiled, die cut sentiment to finish off.

Colouring not your thing, then don't .......

Simply colour a background and then stamp the images using black ink

Coloured panels painted freehand, using Distress Oxide inks mixed with water, onto watercolour cardstock.

I then used a little bit of masking tape around the edge of each panel before stamping the flowers 

To finish, I added a few splatters of gold ink 

and a sentiment on the bottom

If you love these new stamps, this is just the first release.  There will be more coming over the next few months ...... watch this space!

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your weekend.

I'm off to enjoy the sunshine, and get the BBQ ready for later.   

Cheerio until next time .......

Sweet Poppy Stencils are back on the TV ..........

Happy Tuesday ........

Well, our trip is over and we're back on the island ....... it is nice to be home!

It's going to be a busy few weeks though, we're off on our travels again on the 16th June.  

The van desperately needs cleaning, inside and out (Remi is covered in Scottish midges!!),  and I've a mountain of stuff to do at home. We've got this years TT starting at the weekend, looking forward to that.  The weather's not looking too bad either, at the moment, so fingers crossed we have a good one.

And, I have some DT stuff to squeeze in before we go away again so, the craft room is going to get some use.

Speaking of DT stuff, all you Sweet Poppy fans might like to know that Lucy is back on our TV screens tomorrow, 24th May at 12 noon on the usual channels ..... Sky 673, Virgin 748, Freesat 813 and Freeview 85.

She'll be showcasing gorgeous stencils and, those amazing new stamps from the Beautiful Botanicals range.  What a nice way to spend your lunch break.

It's so hard to choose a favourite from this latest stamp release, they're all so pretty.

I've already shared the Tulip with you, the Daffodil and the beautiful Sweet Pea so, how about ...... Foxgloves

I used black Versafine Clair ink,and the Sweet Poppy Postcard stencil to create the frame around the edge.

I then used low tack tape around the edge and added a touch of colour to the inside of the frame using Distress Ink

With the masking tape still in place, I stamped the Foxglove image three times onto the postcard and used the little bee that comes in the set as the stamp

I coloured the flowers using Brush Markers and added some ink splatters onto the background, finishing off with a few dots of glitter glue here and there and a simple sentiment

If you don't like colouring in your stamped images, these stamps can work just as well simply stamped onto a coloured background

For this card, I handpainted the background using Distress Inks and Oxides onto watercolour card ...... a technique I saw the lovely Julie Hickey do on Facebook

Once the ink was dry, I then stamped the Foxglove a couple of times and also added the little bee.

I added some gold splatters to the background and coloured the bee using a gold sparkle pen

To add a bit more interest to my card I took another piece of white card, larger than my piece of watercolour card, and stamped the Foxglove across the bottom edge using a black Versafine Clair ink

I then mounted the water-coloured panel over the top and added a simple sentiment. 

Another version of one of my favourite colour combinations ....... black and white, with a pop of colour!

Don't forget ...... tune in at12 noon tomorrow (24th May) and see more ways to use these gorgeous new Sweet Poppy stamps from the new Beautiful Botanicals Range

Thank you for popping by ....... enjoy the rest of your day.

I'm off to climb, sorry, I mean make a start on the mountain of laundry that we've brought home with us!

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