Due to arrive any day now....

Although I'm not one for gadgets, I am eagerly awaiting a camera that I decided to treat myself to with some of my birthday spending money!

The Fuji Instax 50 gives you instant images in a polaroid style mount but in a funky skinny size.... What could be better? Polaroid images the size of a moo card.

WARNING: There may be some serious overuse of this camera and its pictures in the foreseeable future!

Cheery layouts for a sad day!

There is a bit of a standing joke at work about me always keeping a couple of days holiday back in case I have to go to a funeral - morbid you might think, but it's something that's important to me!

Anyway, today was sadly one such funeral! A lovely local ex jockey sadly died last week, so today I have paid my respects and shared in the memories... he had the most infectious raspy laugh and for that I shall remember, along with his green round necked sweatshirt!

RIP Mr Paul Russell xxx

I wonder how I'll be remembered?

So to leave me smiling instead of sad, I thought I'd share some of my recent ScrapaGoGo layouts...

'Warning Love Bug' uses the gorgeous wood grained paper from Crate and although there is no red in the photo, the cutest ladybird pieces were perfect with the woodland themed image and so the introduction of red as an accent colour.

My second cheery layout has a predominant red theme and remembers our trip to Florida last year.

On the day we went to the Magic Kingdom, we all wore spotty red dresses and myself, Nina and Caitlin all co-ordinated our underwear too!

Before we left our villa, we flashed our pants at the camera... need I say more!

With a plethora of alphas in the June kit, I used a combination of them, along with the hybrids and rub-ons to create the longest title I think I've ever done on a layout!

7 weeks and 5 days

It's been a while since I showed any kitty photos, so as Harvey had his camera with him (he's been shooting the Aston Villa FC pitch today) I begged him to take a few snaps...

The first two were not taken by the professional, but by me - can you tell? LOL

I cannot believe that these two were still tucked inside only eight weeks ago - now look at the size of them.

Toupee (the white boy with the grey spot on his head - hence the name) is completely deaf - bless him xxx

Apparently about 65% of white cats with blue eyes are deaf?

And yes, he does have different coloured eyes! One has stayed brilliant blue and the other has turned greeny yellow.

Earlier today, after his long morning nap which they routinely have after their breakfast, he woke to find one eye completely stuck together.

So I took him upstairs to bathe it and remembered that we had some ointment in the cupboard for one of our other cats.

I popped him on the kitchen worksurface, and before I could blink he'd scampered off, across the hob, which had just been on! He leapt off the worksurface - I felt terrible and checked his feet - doused his paws in cold water and then looked to see the damage.

As I couldn't see anything, I let him down and he ran off to play, so I think it was more shock than burn. I don't think we'll have a problem with him jumping on the worksurface and I was worried how we'd teach a deaf cat! A bit too drastic action for my liking!

And here is Toulouse!

No photoshop played any part in this photo which Harvey took yesterday!

Toulouse was a perfect model - a bit of a poseur to be honest!

I think Harvey is going to take them to the studio to do a photoshoot with them!

Bonus, more photos to scrap! xxx

"Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose" Author unknown

Those of you who remember the Wonder Years on TV may remember this beautiful saying? It is a sentiment that we all relate to, especially being scrapbookers!

The story of Harvey Horse holds close to me one of those lovely memories, that up until now I've never really got round to scrapping... that is until the ScrapaGoGo June kit 'Things to make and do' came along! With its vintage quirkiness, older photographs, as well as new images are simply perfect to use with it!

It was taken on the same holiday as my previous post titled "my favourite ever photograph".

Browsing through a shop in Bridlington, probably on yet another rainy day, we came across a book called Harvey Horse, so it was an inevitable purchase!

Nina wanted that story read every night, luckily it was only a few pages long with a large cut out centre for a squeaky toy horse that was fixed to the back cover, so to read back to back really only took five minutes!

So I'm delving deep into my archive photo library, and by printing in black and white the grainy almost soft focus imagery becomes a bit more 21st century!

Tootsie treatment

What could be better than dipping your toes into a tank full of Garra Rufa (aka dead skin eating fish!)...

This was my treat last Saturday as I've had to work a couple of Sundays. I'm not moaning, but six day weeks working 7.30am until 6pm is taking its toll on my feet, especially in heels!

So you put your feet into the trough and then the fish swarm... a real funny sensation to begin with, almost like I'd expect acupuncture to feel. And although I don't have ticklish feet really, they certainly tickled me!

So once I was used to the sensation, these fish just carry on and exfoliate your skin. As well as feet you can have your hands done.

Like me, a few people thought that they'd focus more on your heels being the driest part, but perhaps our skin was a bit too tough to tackle as they tended to do the tops and soles of my feet.

Would I go again - you bet! The recommended sessions are every two weeks for 15mins and I can't wait to see these little fellas again soon!

The cutest picture ever!

Thought I'd share with you a recent layout that I created, using one of my all time favourite photos!

It was taken in Whitby when Nina was about two; she was a stocky little thing then and could have the most amazing strops! Apparently she has the Grandma Ball gene! She simply plonked herself on this step and pulled the most solemn little face.

Poor little thing, made to wear jelly sandals and socks - one for the 18th photo library!

Because it was taken a few years ago, it prints much better in black and white. I kept the colours in the layout muted to reflect both the black and white photo and the mood of the image.

I'm normally more a "tight" cluster of embellishments type of scrapper, but I do really like the way these are scattered and lead your eye around the page.

Right off to watch a bit of telly!

And the winner of the ScrapaGoGo blog hop....

.... which took place on National Scrapbooking Day is Julia.

The random number generator chose no 17.

Congratulations Julia.

Thank you to all who took part and left comments.

Please email mail@scrapagogo.co.uk so that they can get your prize to you.