A night out with the girls!

Last night a group of us girls met up to go for a meal at International Starters, Leith, Edinburgh. You had a choice of starters from around the world in these categories: Mediterranean, Asian, The Americas and Scotland. From these categories we all chose differnt foods from these categories. I was Americas and picked the loaded potato skins here is the menu which will be easier to understand rather than my daft explanation! It's a fabby idea I think! The meal was delicious as was the company!

The desserts looked scrummy - I didn't try any because I was too stuffed with what I'd already eaten!

Congratulations to Leanne!

All wrapped up with bow and gift card:

Almost complete - as you can almost see, some of the "ingredients" which are
discreetly hidden by nappies and muslin squares:Yay - the satin ribbon/bows + ribbon teddy topper in situ:

A close-up of hand made ribbon bow + Sizzix baby carriage die-cut gift tag:

Gift tag only with Sizzix Sizzlet "Cherish" alphabet used:

I'd received a phone call last Friday from the secretary from Alwynne's primary school with a request to make a nappy cake for one their members of staff, Leanne. Leanne has a lot of patience and is indeed a lovely lady who normally cares for a special needs kiddy at the school. The nappy cake was to be made in time for her finishing up work to go on maternity leave today [which is also our end of term]! Usually I prefer at least 2 week's notice but I made an exception seeing as I had been all organised with making the teachers end of term thank you gifts.

Instead of the usual "neutral" colours such as pastel yellow. mint, cream tones, I wanted something a little more modern and used chocolate brown and a pale mint shade.

Now, there is an error here [which has now been rectified], I wonder if any of you will have noticed it?!

The Teachers Thank You Cards

Both Miss Marr's and Mrs Mistlebrook's "Thank You" cards:

Mrs Mistlebrook's card - a combination of scalloped and layerd edges + machine stitching:
[sentiment from Stampin' Up!]

Miss Marr's "Thank You" card - close-up of dimensional adhesive pads in use:

Both Teachers gifts side by side

Miss Marr's Altered Tissue Box

I'd bought these fabric flowers some time ago for cardmaking classes I used to host and knew they would eventually become of use!! The only colours I'd bought were white flowers and pink flowers. I'd pondered on whether inking the white flower using the Dew Drop ink pads ...... and it turned out not too bad!! Papers were from a DCWV pad. Sizzix font used is "Cherish".

Miss Marr's Memo Note Block

At the beach

Yesterday [Saturday] was pretty overcast during the day and from time to time, we had droplets of rain visiting us. We met up with my sister Laura and her 2 kiddies at Portobello beach and the kids had a ball even with this kind of weather. We finished off our visit to the chippy :o) and bid our farewell after we sat down on benches to eat them. When we got home the sun decided to show up and my word it was a particularly gorgeous evening. It warmed up again with having the sun coming out and I decided to take my 2 youngest kids down to Longniddry beach along with our neighbours 2 kids. Armed with folding canvas chair and book etc, the kids just played down at the sea a little distance away as the tide was going out, and then amongst the rock pools etc. Again, they had a ball.

Look at this sunset:

The designers of this sand castle had not long vacated the beach:

Ali looking for shells:

Friday 25th June - Kai and Lou's Play Date

I'm impressed! Look at me with the Kai and Lou either side of me!
[photo courtesy of L.Davies]

Lou exhausted:

My sister and I arranged a play date for our dogs to get acquainted as Lou hasn't really been up close running solo without lead with another dog. Kai is a little over 1 yr old and Lou is a little over 10 months old. They are both at the 'mouthing' stage when playing so it was good to see them both get on eventually in the park to the rear of our house. The got on well together so much so they played constantly in our back garden on our return! Their heads and necks were soaking with saliva. Lou is constantly casting his coat at the minute and Kai seems to have acquired some of them LOL!! Lou was totally exhausted afterwards.

Altered Tissue Box & Altered Memo Block for Mrs Mistlebrook

Angled view of tissue box with 2 flowers + brads:

Side close-up of Sizzix flower and brad on box side panel:

Both tissue box and memo block showing Sizzix font [Nouveau]:

Close-up of layered Sizzix flower and brad on box lid:

To decorate both items, I've used PP from both these 6x6 pad from Paper Mania:

Altered Memo Paper Block for Teachers

I came across these memo blocks in Lidls the other day when I was in doing some shopping. I bought 3 of them - 1 for myself [of course!] and the other 2 for Alwynne's teachers, Miss Marr and Mrs Mistlebrook.Now altered, this is side 1 complete with paper:

Side 2:

I thought this memo block is more suited for Mrs Mistlebrook :o) as she doesn't strike me as a girly girl if you get my meaning.