Oui oui and other such French phrases!

I had a very relaxing and productive weekend of scrapbooking last week, with an evening spent at Wendy's and then a free afternoon on Sunday. I am still working my way through our French holidays photos.

I just love this layout and love the title too. Hugh is actually in a urinal having a wee! They are so open about these things in France!

I really wanted to include all three of these photos and was pleased that I was able to cut down the vertical ones to make them fit above the horizontal photo. 

And my last one for today - using some of Shimelle's True Story papers and some bits and pieces on my desk. 

Have you been watching the new Glitter Girl videos? Have you got any other scrapbookers who video to recommend? I also love watching Nicole Jones - she has a really good YouTube channel, well worth checking out. 

Goodbye 2015. Hello 2016!

And so 2015 draws to a close. It has had good parts and bad parts as all years seem to have, but I have to say, that on the whole there has been more good than bad. The two best things that happened this year are leaving a job which was basically making me ill and losing 3 ½ stone. These two things have made me so much happier and healthier. I loved retraining as a medical secretary and although I have not achieved that goal yet, for the moment I am loving being a medical typist. Some may find the job boring and repetitive, but for me, at the moment, it is a job I can go to, do the work where there are no hidden surprises, and then put it completely behind me when I go home with no worries or stresses.

Joining Slimming World with Hugh has had HUGE benefits. Losing the weight has given us both so much more energy and we are much healthier too. We eat an incredibly varied diet and I am always trying out new recipes. On top of that we both joined the social team and love chatting with everyone and giving and receiving encouragement each Saturday. Linda, our consultant, is such a lovely and supportive lady and we have made many friends in our group.

Other highlights of 2015? Well of course Penny graduating with a 1^st class honours degree; Ben and Amy buying their first house together; the holiday to France with Mum and Dad; Hugh’s 60^th birthday and the trip to Minehead; spending time with Hugh’s Mum and getting the lounge and Penny’s bedroom decorated!

So, what will 2016 bring? Well for a start I will be 50! I plan to do a post on that in a week or so as I have some goals I definitely want to achieve during my 50^th year. Hugh and I have already booked a cottage in Lincoln for a holiday with Penny and we are looking at booking a week in Majorca towards the end of the summer. I have the ballet to look forward to on Sunday – The Nutcracker. That is the first thing on my 50^th year list!

I hope that you have all had more ups than downs in 2015. Thank you again for being such lovely readers. I would love to meet up with some of you in 2016 if that is possible – I think I might make that another goal! Wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2016 from the Gotch family!

Hugh's birthday and a few days away

So, Hugh celebrated a big birthday last Monday. And big birthdays deserve big celebrations!

So we started with a family meal last Saturday evening - my Mum and Dad joined us, as did Ben, Amy and Penny.

We had a lovely and fun meal together and embarrassed Hugh when we sang 'happy birthday' and the whole restaurant joined in!

Monday was actually his birthday and we celebrated in the evening with his favourite meal of 'party pork chops' (a family recipe) followed by a cake made by Penny of course!

The cake was shaped like 2 pasties as Hugh said that the food he was missing most from doing Slimming World was pasties! However, he was thrilled with a coffee walnut flavour shaped pasty cake! (And he got to have a pasty on our trip away!)

On Wednesday Hugh and I set off for him to partake of his birthday present from me - a two day Steam Engineman Course at the West Somerset Railway in Minehead.

We arrived Wednesday evening and had a lovely meal out before retiring to our B&B which I can highly recommend- Glendower House - it was spotlessly clean, had a lovely tea tray with a wide assortment of drinks on it plus Fairtrade biscuits, super toiletries in the bathroom and a full cooked English breakfast to die for! The owners were incredibly welcoming too.

So, on to Hugh's course! The first day he spent on the theory side and got to visit the engine sheds, signal box etc. The second day was an early start at 7.30am to prepare the engine they would be using. There were 5 of them on the course and they spent the morning learning how to control the engine, shunting up and down the yard.

After lunch they each took it in turns to drive the 3 miles to Blue Anchor and then be the fireman on the return journey. Hugh thoroughly enjoyed both roles! And I was lucky enough to get to ride in one of the coaches on his journey - the line is not open to the public when these courses are running and they don't always let accompanying family travel. 

And so what did I do? Well on the first day I found a guided tour of Higher Minehead which impound download to my phone. It started at the beginning of the South West Coast Parh where there was this splendid sculpture. 

The climb was quite steep but with it for the views and also to see The Church which had some 14th century chained Bibles in. I took LOADS of photos, these are just a taster!

View from the Church door.

Looking back up at the Church. I met another wife on the second day and we just clicked and ended up spending the day together, having lunch, taking photos of our husbands, exploring the shops and having our ride behind the train. The course ended at 6pm so Hugh and I then jumped into the car and drove to Cornwall as we were only a couple of hours away. That meant that on Saturday morning we were able to go and visit Hugh's Mum who had also just celebrated a birthday 96 years young! Sh was thrilled to see us both and we stayed for a few hours before returning home. 

Hugh said that his present exceeded all expectations which made me really happy. He wants to go and do the next course now!

A quick catch up!

Last weekend went by super fast! Ben arrived home Friday evening for the weekend, so I had both children in the house which was lovely.

First thing Saturday found Hugh and me up at Slimming World. I am now on the 'social team' and log everyone in and take their money as they arrive. Hugh runs the 'corner shop' selling recipe books, the magazine and HiFi Bars! We also help set up and put away. I was thrilled to get my 2 stone award - Hugh was 1lb off his!

After lunch Ben had promised to take us out for the afternoon as an early Father's Day treat for Hugh. We went to Tropical Wings in South Woodham Ferrers. Ben, Penny and I had been there before, but it was a first for Hugh. We had a wonderful afternoon, even though it ended up raining! Here are a few photos.

Saturday evening saw us entertaining our friends Gillian and Andrew from Southend. We get together a couple of times a year for a meal and a catch up. I prepared a full Slimming World meal (not going to waste all that effort I've put in!) and thankfully they thoroughly enjoyed it!

Sunday morning we had a relaxed time - Hugh had his presents and cards from Ben and Penny and took it easy. Just before lunch Penny went off to watch one of her wrestling matches. Ben stayed for lunch and then Amy collected him at 3pm to take him back to Reading. Hugh and I then settled down to spend some time on our hobbies. I completed a layout I had started at my crop earlier in the week and did a couple more for my five faves. Here are the two I did at my crop.

I made up a couple of kits from old stash and am quite pleased with the results. The 'rings' of gold on the bottom layout are one of my favourite things, which resulted from a mistake! I was intending to do a light misting of spray and held the container too close! As I liked what I got I repeated it!

Monday and Tuesday I was back to college. It is getting quite heavy going now, like a crash course in GCSE Biology!

And today? Well today is my birthday, so I am taking the day off and Penny and I are going out for lunch. Hugh should be home at a reasonable time, so Penny is cooking me a birthday supper and I shall open my presents and cards then.

I hope that you had a good weekend and that you are having an enjoyable week!

Using up some older kits

I haven't had time to do much scrapbooking lately, although yesterday afternoon I got a couple of hours. However, these layouts I made a while ago and haven't got around to sharing.

This layout was made with a Noel Mignon kit and a Shimelle sketch. It's a good way of using up smaller scraps of paper or paper from a 6x6 pad.

When I dug through the kit and found this black and white paper I realised it was perfect for Yvonne's retirement layout as it goes with her top!

Had a bit of an oops moment with the gold mist on the journaling, but as you can still read it I am not too worried!

I forgot to share these!

I thought that I had shared these pages I made back at the beginning of March, but looking back I only shared them on the Noel Mignon Facebook page!

I used her kits to create these and actually scraplifted this layout from .... oh, I can’t remember! If it was you, please let me know in the comments below!

The photo on this page was also taken at Penny’s birthday celebrations at my Mum’s last year. Ben and my Dad get on so well and are always messing around together and this perfectly captures their relationship.

These last photos were taken on our holiday to Wales last year. We really felt as if we were walking in Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings!

I am sorry that the quality of the photos isn’t great. I took them using my phone as I didn’t have my camera handy. At least I have been able to share them though!

 

 

Weekend catch up

Friday afternoon saw Hugh driving to Cornwall to visit his Mum in hospital, Penny returning home from uni for the holidays and Ben arriving home to spend the weekend with us.

Ben's home! Bag, shoes and clothes dropped in the hall!

Saturday morning first thing was Slimming World. Unfortunately Hugh couldn't be there, but I went along and was thrilled with another 2.5lb loss and to be Slimmer of the Week.

The fruit I won for being Slimmer of the Week

Saturday afternoon Ben, Penny and I watched films together. Penny then went off to a wrestling event and Hugh arrived home. His Mum was a little better, so that was good news.

Sunday morning we rushed around doing jobs and dropping Penny at the station so she could meet friends in London. Hugh, Ben and I then made our way to Hemel to see my parents as it was my Mum's birthday.

After a lovely afternoon with them and my sister and her family, Ben returned to Reading and Hugh and I returned home. A healthy Slimming World tea of homemade soup followed by fruit and yoghurt and then we collapsed to watch some tv!

I hope that you had a lovely weekend - what did you get up to?

Three layouts to share

Quite a while back I made up a kit with bits and pieces I had and made one layout from it and then promptly forgot I had made it! Whilst looking through my stash the other day I rediscovered it and decided to use it to make some layouts. It is a real mish mash of manufacturers and includes some of Shimelle's line.

The first two layouts will be a double page spread about Ben moving into his new house last year. By the time I have got around to scrapping about this event he is just about ready to move out as the lease has run out and he is moving again! Oh well, that will give me more to scrap about!

 

When I was doing this last layout I wanted some blue patterned paper which I didn't have in the kit, so I raided my stash and found this shaped piece which is ages old! I was really pleased to use it up!

The funny thing with some of the embellishments in this pack is that I bought them for the holiday in 2013 as the forecast for the week had not been good and most of them seem to be about rain, rainbows, always look on the bright side of life etc, and then each holiday we have had in the UK the weather has been fine and I have not been able to use them lol! Anyway, I managed to find enough ones about sun to complete this layout.

Weekend Scrapbooking

After finishing my chores nice and early Saturday morning it meant that I had ALL of Saurday afternoon to play!

I knew that I wanted to create a page for New Years Day 2014 to start that section of my chronological album. I still had a few pieces left from my Cable Knit kit and was very pleased with the layout I came up with. It was based on a Shimelle layout from way back!

I then scrapped the monthly photo which Wendy and I do. I can't share that here just in case she reads my blog as we do a year's worth and then share with each other to see how differently we scrap! Another thing I can't share is the birthday card I then made for my Mum! I will take photos of it though and share after her birthday!

What I can share are two layouts I made at Sue's on Tuesday when she, Wendy and I got together. 

Again I used up some more of those Websters Pages papers.

These are from our holiday to Wales last year.

I also completed another three pages on Sunday afternoon, but will share them another day!

I am hopping about scrapping photos from the past 14 months or so, but I then file them chronologically. I may even scrap old family photos from time to time and then these go in their own special album. There has been a lot of discussion recently on Facebook and various blogs on how people scrapbook their photos and it has made fascinating reading! How about you - how do you scrap/store photos?

And so that was Christmas!

And wishing you a very Happy New Year!

We had a quiet Christmas Day this year, although Christmas Eve afternoon was spent at my sister's. Penny and I worked in the morning and then came home, collected Hugh, Ben and Amy and drove the hour over to Hemel. My Mum and Dad were also over there, and so was Henry's girlfriend, so it was a full house! I didn't manage to get any photos of Del and Pippa, or Henry, so am hoping that my Mum has!

Penny and Emily

Ben and Amy

Penny and Grandma

Grandad and Ben

Olivia and Penny

Mum and Me

Hugh and Dad

We returned home around 8pm and collapsed, watching some tv and looking at our tree.

Christmas morning I was downstairs putting the turkey in the oven at 8am! Santa had visited me and Hugh again, so once Penny woke up, she and Ben came and sat on our bed and we all opened our stocking presents. Lots of silliness ensued!

After breakfast of fresh bread (we always put the breadmaker on to cook bread overnight on Christmas Eve) we showered and dressed and then it was present opening time.

This contained a 'Lush' voucher from Ben!

Whilst I was cooking the dinner I had my Christmas snowball...

and Hugh and I had our dance round the kitchen

Even though I say it myself, Christmas dinner was yummy! (Hugh prepared all the veg - I ought to mention that!)

After dinner, Ben went over to Amy's house for a while and we watched television and let our meal digest!

When Ben returned, he brought Amy with him and Father Christmas turned up too!

Boxing Day was quiet and just the four of us. Ben had an old school friend round for the afternoon and Hugh, Penny and I went for a walk in our local park.

Saturday saw us all (including Amy) travelling to Cornwall to visit Hugh's family. It was the first time we had been down since Hugh's father had passed away, so it was quite strange. Although Hugh and I both felt that he was still there in a way - it just seemed as if he was in another room. His presence there is so strong that it was quite comforting to be there. We had booked into the Premier Inn for the night and after breakfast on Sunday all popped back to see the family before returning Ben and Amy to Reading and us to Wickford.

Today I have my parents coming over to have New Year's Day dinner with us. Dad doesn't like driving in the dark any more, so they will arrive about midday and leave us about 3.30pm to be home before the light goes completely.

We have quite a few plans in place for 2015, which I will share as the year goes on. I hope that you have had a great Christmas and wish all my lovely blog readers a very Happy New Year.