25th of the month

On Wednesday, the 25th of the month fell again, where I take lots of pictures for my scrapbook to record just one day of each month. This is the last one for my book, so I am undecided whether to take up the challenge again for the following year. I have enjoyed doing it,but I am two months behind on scrapping them, so I think I actually need to pull my finger out. I promise I will show them when they are complete.
I have cheated this time a bit, as I really didn't do a lot on Wednesday, as I was poorly. So instead I took my pictures on Thursday instead.

Here are the two books I was reading on that day, I have since finished The Tygrine Cat, which I will review tomorrow.
Here is my lovely cat, diving into my bag of goodies left on my desk. He has a habit of sitting in bags, so we can often carry him around in one.

Doodahs on his early morning walk, he loves to be outside. He is like a puppy when out, then puts on his old man walk on the way home.

Here he is relaxing on my bed, after his walk. A dog needs to get his beauty sleep! Please don't look at the huge pile of books ready to fall over behind him.

One of my favourite shops, it sells everything a crafter could ask for. From scrap booking to cross stitch, from knitting to art materials. It really is like an Aladdins cave.

My favourite charity shop for books. This is a boutique charity shop and all the money raised goes to the local hospitals to support diabetes. The books are always in fabulous condition and very cheap.

My very small supply of crafting buys. I had spent so much on the weekend, I thought I would be good.

Headed into Worthing to get hubby some birthday presents.

Our little pier, not very exciting but makes a nice walk when it is warm.

Worthing shopping centre.

On Doodahs second walk of the day, ( I often feel like all I do is walk the dog) I saw the beautiful bush blooming with spring flowers. Can anyone tell me what they are as I haven't a clue?

My daffodils and pansies still blooming beautifully.

On the way out to get the girlies. As you can see the weather has been a little bit cold.

Some little pressies for my hubby to open for his birthday.

All wrapped up and ready to be opened.

Dinner - how lazy am I and on a school night. Domino's pizza is the best, especially as we can have it half and half. I always go spicy, where as hubby like BBQ.

That is it, that is my day to be scrapped. Thanks for stopping by.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris

Pages 512

Publisher - Doubleday

Challenges - Chunkster, 100+, A to Z Titles.

Just by looking at the cover of this book, I really thought I was going to have to read an Inspector Morse type book, which has never appealed to me. I imagined an old Etonian type school, with all the teaching staff of the old style teaching, in cap and gowns, floating around beautiful grounds whilst students wore straw hats and striped jackets, casually putting the world to rights.

Well I definitely got the Etonian style school and the cap and gown teachers, but that is where the resemblance ends. This book was full of unexpected twists and turns, where I thought I knew what would happen next, only to be blown away by another cliff hangar.

The book is set in Oswalds, where the main narrator's father has taken a job and home as a school porter. From the start, this child hates the school, because they know they will never be able to attend. The book jumps backwards and forwards between the child's memories and the present day, where Straightly, a very old school teacher struggles with the changes occurring in the school. Straightly is convinced someone is bringing the school down and eventually is the only one to realise who it is. He is on the case of the Mole who starts with cruel practical jokes to upset the staff, leading to murder. You think from the beginning, you know who the culprit is, alas you will most certainly be wrong in your assumption.

The plot is mammoth and action packed, the book explodes in dramatic turns all the way through. Even though it was over five hundred words, I struggled to put the book down. I was constantly eager to find out what happened next.

You cannot help but feel for Straightly, who is struggling with all the new expectations of him. He is nearing retirement age and feels uncomfortable with all the younger staff coming in.

I am not going to give you too much of the plot, because it would really spoil it. I am so glad no one told me beforehand. From other reviews I have read on this book, the reviewers were sworn to secrecy, not to spoil the plot.

I found it strange that Joanne Harris wrote completely from the male perspective, which I find is a strange thing for a female writer to do. However, Joanne Harris does it with style. With every book of hers I read, I love her writing more. I am desperate to read another one soon.

It is quite obvious from reading the book that Joanne has teaching experience as there are a lot of references to things only a teacher would recall. It was nice to spend some time back in the school environment.

Joanne mentioned on her website, about how with each book release she causes a riot,because each book is different from the last, but that is what I love about her books. I never know what to expect with each one I read, they all deal with completely different subjects.

If you are a Joanne Harris fan, I would definitely recommend this book. If you are not, then I would still recommend it. I wouldn't tell you to read a specific Joanne Harris book first, as they are all so different. If you want a writer that will take you on a mystery tour, then hitch a ride on this bus, because you will be thrilled all the way.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday Salon

I am beginning to realise that my organisational skills need some tender reworking. I had such great plans for this year and I already fill my best laid plans are falling by the wayside. I don't think blogging and reading blogs helps my case at all here as they do take up a lot of time, but I feel they are two things I am not willing to sacrifice in order to do other things. Can anyone suggest any good organisational skills books that might help my life run smoothly?

Still I should be positive that only a quarter of the year has gone and there are still three other quarters to fill.

Our clocks went forward this morning, so I am suffering from an hour less sleep. I am not sure if reading will be much on the agenda today, but fingers crossed.

This week I finished reading The Marriage Bureau for Rich People, by Farahad Zama, which I loved and which is reviewed here. I also finished Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, which I will review tomorrow. I also read The Tygrine Cat,which I hope to review on Wednesday; this is the first book I have finished for the Once Upon a Time challenge.

I am a third way through Dead Witch Walking, by Kim Harrison, which I am enjoying. I have also read a couple of chapters of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden for my 1% read and hope to me some leeway with this.

This week I hope to read the following books too.

Fearless by Tim Lott, listed as a chilling and compelling fable of the future.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton, a vampire hunter book.

What are you reading this week?

Stitch and Craft Show.

Last Sunday was Mothers Day in England and usually I would spend this with my family, but this year a group of us decided to go the Stitch and Craft Show in Olympia to see what scrapbooking goodies we could buy.
It took us two hours to get there, which we didn't mind as it gave us time to catch up on the train.
Fiona (in the pink) set up a mission, whereby we were each given £10 to spend on the raffle. We also got a lovely chocolate bar too.

I have to say, I was rather tired as I had travelled back and forth to Cambridge the day before.

Olympia was an interesting place to visit, there were lots of unusual stalls which we don't normally get when we go to the scrap show. However as dedicated scrappers we were a bit disappointed with the amount of scrapping gear available, though we still managed to spend plenty of money!
The stalls were jammed packed with goodies, but I didn't buy anything that I had planned to. I am always attracted by paper and there wasn't a lot of it there.

We all learnt some new techniques at the show and Annie is going to master distress inks that she bought and hopefully show us what to do with them.

We ventured downstairs at the show and became surrounded by material, tapestry and cross stitch stalls, which was a bit of a new experience to some of us. The majority of our little group came back with a cross stitch picture to make. Here is Annie, buying some beautiful fabric to make some cushions.

I had to take a picture of this bag, because we all wanted one and nearly died at the price of the kit to make it. How much do you think it is worth?

£70 for the kit! Though it is made of alpaca wool, but still that is so expensive.

I was quite taken by these knitted necklaces and would love to be able to make one. As I can't knit, I am hoping it might be possible to crochet one. Naida - what do you think? Would it be possible?Here are some of the goodies I purchased on the day. I got some lovely kits which will allow me to sew on my scrap pages, a couple of new albums, lots of glitter and quite a few stamps. I was really pleased with the items I purchased.

I also purchased this cross stitch kit ( this is the picture off the packet, as I haven't even started it yet.) I have a thing about cupcakes and collect ornaments and pictures with them on. I cannot make them at all, they always taste disgusting when I do( and I am so not joking, feel free to ask my children or my husband, in fact, even the dog won't eat them.) So I make do with buying things with them on.

I had a lovely day at Olympia and although I missed spending time with my family, it was nice to spend time with friends I don't get to see very often.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

Pages - 274

Publisher - Abacus

Challenges - 100+, New Authors and A to Z Author.

One of my friends, Fiona, knew I might be struggling to find a Z author and she kindly lent me this delightful book. Knowing the type of books she likes to read, I should have guessed beforehand that I would love it.

If you are a fan of Precious Ramotswe in The No1 Ladies Detective Agency, then you will absolutely adore this book. It has the delightfulness and the simplicity of the Alexander McCall Smith books, yet instead of being set in Africa, we settle for a lovely story in the beautiful settings of India.

Mr Ali is recently retired and already getting under his wife's feet, so he decides he needs a pastime to keep him busy and sets up a marriage bureau to help families find suitable matches for their children to marry.

Right from the beginning the marriage bureau is successful and soon Mr Ali is desperate for an assistant. Mrs Ali finds Aruna on the street and soon she is efficiently helping Mr Ali to run his business.

Aruna herself, is unable to have an arranged marriage, as her father is financially ruined after severe illness and unable to pay a dowry for a wedding. Aruna has accepted that she will probably never marry, until a very rich, successful doctor enters the bureau with his family, in order to find him a bride. Certain situations bring Aruna and the doctor, Ramanujam, together and he eventually asks Aruna to marry him for love. Their families are very much against the union as a marriage for love is seen as a bad omen. Eventually with the help of Mr and Mrs Ali, the families consent to the marriage.

I found this book fascinating to read, the intricate details of how Asian marriages are arranged, the ceremonies that last for days, even down to the food served. I have a confession to make, I always love a book that includes lots of details about food, I just can't help myself. The characters are charming yet a little despondent, as they struggle with past traditions in a rapidly changing world. Mr Ali is a lovely gentle man, intent on seeing his customers happily married, Mrs Ali quietly rules her husband, without him even realising and Aruna is a traditional girl, who adores her family and will do anything to help them.

Within the book, you get a clear perspective of how the caste system works, which for me, was interesting as the last time I read about the caste system was for my Sociology O level, many years ago.

The books looks at serious issues too that I would believe would be common place in India, such as the lack of a National Health Service, which would leave families suffering from ill health in financial ruin. It also looks as how badly wives can be treated if something goes wrong within the marriage. However the books takes such serious issues and looks at them in a light hearted manner, each issue being solved in a fairytale fashion, which perhaps is a little too simple in it's problem solving, but beautifully written.

There was nothing I could say that I didn't like about the book, it was a lovely light hearted read, which really lifted my spirits.

This book was published in December 2008 and was Farahad's first book to be published. Farahad Zama has a sequel to this book called The Many Conditions of Love coming out in July 2009. I will definitely be adding this to my reading list, as I would love to know how Aruna's marriage turns out.

Has anyone else read this book? I would love to know what you thought of it.

Two book reviews for books by Catherine Fisher

Sorry to disappear for a couple of days, I think my life is now back on track. Both hubby and I have been really poorly all week, so we ended up just letting things go and chilling out for a few days. Lots of TV and reading, although my eyes have given me a bit of trouble as hay fever has set in and I want to scratch my eyes out. I am resembling a frog at the moment. I didn't even bother taking pictures on the 25th this month, so plan to cheat and take them today instead. The 25th's pictures would have just consisted of me sleeping and looking like a frog!

Thank you for all your kind comments, you all made me feel very wanted in the blogging community.

I am a little behind on my reviews, so I thought I would do these two in one post today, as I finished them last week. They will be very quick reviews as I am still playing catch up, but I wanted to share. The rest of the week will be a little bit book heavy in order for me to catch up on my reviews. So apologies to any of my scrapbooking bloggers.

So back to reviews.

The Candle Man and Fintan's Tower are two books that are in the volume The Glass Tower, along with The Conjuror's Game, which I reviewed last week.

Starting with The Candleman by Catherine Fisher

Pages - 132

Challenges - 100+ books

The Candle Man is set in Wales right by the river Severn. The story is about a convicted criminal called Meurig, who has returned to his hometown to take over the watch tower that keeps an eye on the sea levels. He is also on a mission to retrieve a candle that will end his life, if it ever allowed to burn to its end. With the help of Conor, the local landlady's son and Sara, his friend they set off to retrieve the candle. Firstly have to try and retrieve the candle from the old school teacher who collects antiques. They manage to do this successfully, but encounter problems on returning to the watch tower. Hafran, the goddess of the sea and the one who cursed Meurig in the first place, manages to get the candle from Conor, by dragging him into the sea. The group then set off on a dangerous journey into the sea to retrieve the candle from Hafran's lair.

I enjoyed this book the most out of the three I read by Catherine Fisher. I loved the setting, stories set by the water always grab my attention. The characters are well written and believable. The story is fast paced from the beginning and there is even a little romance.

This book was released in 1994 originally before being re released in The Glass Tower volume in 2004. The Candle Man won the TIR No nOg Prize when it was first released.


Fintans Tower - Pages 64

Challenges - 100+ books

Fintans Tower is a relatively short book and would be ideal for anyone struggling to complete the Once Upon A Time challenge.

A young boy called Jamie comes across a book in his local library which has his name on it. Within the pages of the book, it appears that the story has yet to be written. Jamie discovers that the book is magical and will answer questions concerning what it can be used for. Jamie realises that he is not the only one interested in the book. Three other people are now searching for him to help them get into Fintans Tower, which exists in a parallel world. Only Jamie can help them as it is his only his name that appears on the book and only he the book will speak to. Morgant and his aide, Gavan want to get to the tower to rescue the prisoner and warn Jamie about Cai who they believe is after the Cauldron, which would provide the owner of it with all the knowledge of the world.

So Jamie and his sister set out during an eclipse to help Morgant and Gavan pass through to the other land and search for the Tower. On their journey, Jamie realises that Morgant is not really telling him the truth and wishes to steal the Cauldron for himself. They escape from Morgant and run into Cai and aid him in rescuing the prisoner from the tower. which they do successful after a few dangerous encounters along the way.

This story was enjoyable and fast paced. The passing over from one land to another was believable and the characters were interesting.

I enjoyed reading the books in the The Glass Tower volume, however out of the three, the one I enjoyed the most was The Candle Man. If you are struggling to fulfil the Once Upon a Time challenge then I would recommend these three books as they are very quick to read.

Have you read anything by Catherine Fisher, please let me know if you have.

I hope to catch up with all your lovely blogs today, I feel terrible that I have missed out on reading them. Bye for now.

Time out

I am going to take a couple of days out from blogging, as life seems to have caught up and gone racing past me and there are a few things that really need my full attention.
I apologise for not getting round to reading all your lovely blogs and commenting, I know how nice it is feel acknowledged for the things we write. I will get back to them, hopefully in a few days.
I hope to be back blogging by the end of the week. Thanks for being there.

Once Upon a Time Challenge

I just couldn't resist taking up this challenge as these type of books are really a favourite of mine.

This challenge was set up by Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings. If you click on the picture it will tell you all about it.

I will give a brief overview of the challenge. The books that need to be read in order to complete the challenge have to fall into the following categories, fantasy, folklore, fairytale or mythology.

There are various ways in which you can participate in the challenge and if you click on the picture above you will see all the different ways.

I intend to follow the Quest the First challenge, where I have to read at least 5 books that fit somewhere within the Once Upon a Time III criteria. They might all be fantasy, or folklore, or fairy tales, or mythology…or the five books might be a combination from the four genres.

I have a few books lined up to read already that will come into this challenge. They are:

1) The Tygine Cat by Inbalis Iserles

2) Fearless by Tim Lott

3) Wicked by Gregory Maguire

4) Valiant by Holly Black

5) City of Ashes by Cassandra Clay

I may go over the five and will just keep recording how many I do.

I am really looking forward to taking part of this challenge. Anyone else joining me?

Sunday Salon - Happy Mothers Day

A very quick Sunday Salon today as it is Mothers Day and I have a very busy and exciting day planned,which I will blog about later on in the week. So, I doubt I will get around to many other Sunday Saloners today, but hope to have a good browse tomorrow.

Firstly a happy Mothers Day to all the mothers reading this today, I hope you are all doing something really nice today and this is your day to enjoy.

This week I have been reading two books which I have yet to finish.

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama. This book reminds me of The No1 Ladies Detective Agency, it is a simple story and yet so beautifully written. It is set in India and the agency helps parents finds a suitable partner for their children to marry. It is a lovely read, which I hope to review next week.

I am also half way through Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. I have really enjoyed the Joanne Harris books I have read previously and this one is a fantastic read too. It is set in a private boys school and all the main characters are male, which I find unusual for a female writer to write about, however, she manages to take the perspective of males with ease - a sign of a good writer I feel.

I finished reading three books by Catherine Fisher - The Conjuror's Game (which I reviewed this week) The Candle Man and Fintans Tower, which I will review briefly tomorrow.

This week, I also hope to read the following books.

Fearless by Tim Lott

Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison

The Tygrine Cat by Inbalis Iserles.

What are you going to read this week?

Mix and match

I wonder whether we are the only family in England to try this, somehow I doubt it very much.
Walkers Crisps have brought a new range of crisps with unusual flavours and the company are asking people to vote for their favourite ones. I couldn't resist buying them and getting the whole family to test them.
I wonder why I bothered though, because we all agreed that they were not very nice. The Builders Breakfast ones had the taste and smell of egg sandwiches that had been sitting in the warm all day - absolutely vile. I actually didn't mind the Cajun Squirrel and the Chilli and Chocolate ones. The Chilli and Chocolate ones had an instant taste of chocolate which changed into a chilli taste - quite bizarre. None of the flavours were really strong and to be honest we were quite disappointed, so it would not be a challenge I would recommend to others.
Before buying the crisps, I went for my weigh in and I am pleased to announce I have now lost 10% of my body weight since starting at Christmas. I got this lovely keyring in the shape of a 10 which I have put on my car key in order for me to stop losing them. I have a habit for losing things!
I am really sorry this picture isn't very clear, but I wanted to show you my die cut chipboard shapes. They are all white, which allows me to cover them with scrap paper and each one was only 99p - bargains galore! Just apologies for the photo.I haven't been into any of the charity shops to find any books as I have had so many lent to me and I am trying to complete my library challenge too. However, I couldn't resist these two books. I knew nothing about them and was completely attracted by the names and the covers. Do you ever buy books this way? Just because you like the title or the covers?

Once I got the books home, I realised that The Seventh Gate is a follow up to another book. As they both deal with the Kabbalah, I will try and get the first one too, as their whole belief system is of interest to me.

Here are my Library Loot books that I also picked up today. Now a lot of my American readers may be very familiar with these books as many of them came out in America up to ten years ago. However, most of these books have only recently been released here, so I am eager to catch up on all these paranormal books that I feel I have missed out on. After speaking to my favourite zany librarian ,I discovered that two companies bought all these sets of books and rather than releasing them in order, they released them all at the same time, so us poor Brits haven't a clue where to start. Luckily my librarian friend recommended the website Fantastic Fiction to help me decipher where to start. She also ordered a load of books for me that she thought I would like, free of charge.

That's me for today, I hope you all have a great Saturday and that the weather stays nice for you. See you tomorrow for Sunday Salon.

Scabbit Isle by Tom Pow

Scabbit Isle by Tom Pow
Pages 131

Challenges - 100+ books, New Author and A to Z Title


This book is aimed at teenagers and is about a boy called Sam. Sam and his family have recently moved to the area they live in, following the accidental death of his twin sister in a car accident. His family are struggling to come to terms with her death and are each dealing with it in their own way.

Due to the move, Sam has had to start a new secondary school, which he is finding hard, due to the constant nastiness of two boys, Lee and Shane.

During the lead up to the new millennium, the town are preparing for a great lantern procession. All local families gather together to make lanterns for the parade. During this time, Sam sees the girl, an unusually dressed girl wearing a shawl with bare feet. Sam's curiosity gets the better of him and he follows the girl, only to find that she disappears. Over the next few weeks, Sam continues to catch glimpses of the girl and follows her to Black Loch. Black Loch used to be known as Scabbit Isle in the 1800's and it was where people from the town were sent if they had the plague.
Sam begins to realise that this girl is a ghost, who needs his help. With the help of Mr Carruthers the local historian, he discovers the true identity of the girl and provides her with the help she needs to pass over to the other side.
Whilst at Black Loch, Sam begins a friendship with Lee, the boy who had previously bullied him and they end up being very good friends.

I enjoyed this book, but I felt there wasn't enough to it. I really felt that it could have been expanded greatly. The story line was really good and once I got into the story, I was desperate to find out what would happen, only to be disappointed by the very quick ending. I understand the story was resolved, but I felt there could have been more drama and suspense in the end.

I liked the character of Sam; still suffering from the lost of his sister, you could see why he was sympathetic to the ghostly girl Janet,who wanted to pass over. You felt sorry for his dad, who blamed himself for the loss of Sam's sister, however by the end of the book, when he became frightened that he might have lost Sam too, he realised what he had been putting his family through over the last year.

From reading his website, I have found that Tom Pow is more of a poet, than a fiction writer. He has four poetry books available and he has also written a couple of books for younger children.

I did enjoy this book and would say to others to read it i f you are looking for a quick read, but I was disappointed with the quick climax to the end. I really do feel it could have been stretched out further and more drama could have been added. It felt as if a dramatic story had been set up, but then not delivered.

I would love to know if anyone has read any of his poetry books and what they thought of them.

Thats all for today, folks, catch you tomorrow.

A favourite of mine!

Over the last year, I have found that my scrapping has moved away from what I used to scrap. I was forever trying to keep up with the photos I was printing, in order to record my children's every move. Then I stopped for awhile and realised that although I was leaving my children some lovely memories of their childhood, I wasn't actually leaving them anything about me. More often than not, I do not appear in photos, as I am usually the one taking them. So I came to the decision to create an album about me, so when my grandchildren and great grandchildren come along, they will get to know who I was. I think this decision came about through the recent death of my nan, which made me realise that I don't have anything left to show the children what she was actually like, then realised I don't show the real me either.

So here is another layout to be added to the album about me - which looks at my favourite film ever! I have to say I scrap lifted the idea from Annie over at Pretty - she always has such fabulous ideas for layouts.
I have no idea who the paper is made by as it seems to have no identification on the back. The lettering used consisted of thickers, Papermania felt letters and Making Memories Velvet Alphabet letters.

I also wanted to share with you some more books I have been lent. These were lent to me by Alison, who is lucky enough in her job, to receive lots of ARCs - the ones she lent are shown below and all deal with magic and fantasy, which I do like to read. So thanks again Alison, your a star.

That's all for today. Thanks for stopping by.

The Conjuror's Game by Catherine Fisher

The Conjuror's Game by Catherine Fisher

Pages - 93

Challenges - 100+ books, New Authors, A to Z Authors.

This was a relatively short book, easy to read and very enjoyable. This was Catherine Fisher's first book to be published. She has published many more since then, including well known titles such as Corbenic and Incarceron. It was shortlisted in 1990 for the Smarties award.

The story begins with Alick, a rather curious teenager, who has been fishing in the mysterious Halcombe woods. He arrives home with a strange fungal infection, which can only be cured by the strange customer to his father's book shop, Luke, known locally as the conjuror and oddly having six fingers on each hand.

Luke warns Alick to stay away from the woods, as they are dangerous.

Alick is nervous about returning but after being egged on by his friend they return to the woods. Both boys end up having to be saved from drowning by Luke, who takes them back to his unusual dwellings in the woods. Whilst in the house, Alick comes across a gameboard with strange creatures on it and a tree in the middle which changes colour from black and gold. Alick becomes curious about Luke and what he gets up to, so one night he follows him into a hill, where the game is set up to play.

By mistake, Alick takes the tree and puts it in his pocket and inadvertently begins the game which causes destruction through the woods. The pieces on the board come alive and fight viciously through the woods, both sides desperate to retrieve the tree to win the game. Alick, with the help of Luke must find a way to return the tree to the game board to stop the game.

This book was very fast paced from the beginning, there is no let up in the action and the story moves very quickly. I was drawn in from the first page and couldn't put it down. The story crosses over from reality to fantasy with ease. I like books that make you feel that it is believable to have other worlds existing within ours It made me want to visit the woods, to see if anything strange actually existed in it.

Luke is mysterious, yet helpful and stands by Alick as he desperately tries to put his wrongdoings right. You are rooting for Alick and Luke right from the beginning of the story.

The plot is unusual and unique to me, I haven't read anything similar to it, but I am sure my buddy bloggers may have come across something similar. If you have, I would be interested to know what books they are for future reading.

This novel was in a book, made up of three books entitled The Glass Tower, but can be read and purchased separately. Each book within The Glass Tower deals with door ways from this world into other worlds and I shall review the other two books later this week.

More information about Catherine Fisher can be found here.

I am thinking how bad I am now, I have just discovered that I have Incarceron in my collection and I had not realised. Another good book to look forward to reading.

Dancing Queens

I have been a busy scrapper lately! I have spent some time going through my ever growing collection of photos and decided to go back in time and scrap a couple of photos from about five years ago. I am always stuck between scrapping the present to stay up to date, or going back in the past, to use up all those outstanding photos, still not stuck in albums.

Here is a page that I made of my girls passing their first ballet exam.

I can't remember the name of the papers used, but the lettering was pink Thickers and Doodlebug lettering.

The journalling cards were the new ones I purchased made by October Afternoon. I also used some jumbo ric rac, which I love and will soon run out of.

I also popped to our local garden centre which has started selling scrapbook stickers. I got all these lot below for £8, which is a really good price. The letters are similar to thickers which normally cost about £3 a pack and I only paid 90p for these.

I hope you like my scrap page, I have lots to make this week and I still need to sort out the bookmarks I promised. Thanks for stopping by.