OMG - what a wonderful thing to do!

A while back I took part in an online photography course when I first got my bridge camera, it was with a lady called Cheryl Johnson.  Some scrappers [ie scrap bookers] who were also members of Scrappers.co.uk site where Cheryl [also a fellow scrapbooker] progressed and concentrated on her love for photography which became a business for her.  I have just discovered that she no longer keeps her blog,  which is sad as she has some excellent work there.  I have discovered she is on facebook and has branched into neonatal photography, specialising in still births or where parents are aware their baby won't survive and prepare for the sad outcome.  Cheryl took an interest in this particularly where she recalls her close friend gave birth to a still born on Christmas Day 25 years ago.  The one and only photograph her friend had of her baby was on a polaroid and it wasnt a particularly good one but it was still a precious photograph.  The lady went on to have other babies and over time she wanted to enlarge the only photograph she had and put it on display.  

"Remember My Baby" was created and lots of professional photographers volunteer to take photos of the families and babies to create lasting and treasured memories of their little loved ones.  Take a look here.  Stunning work and memories for the families....... 

Easter Bunny has been....

One of our managers sneakily placed a chocolate rabbit on everyone's desk last night - I hate to say but the unwrapped bunny didn't have a long life span...

Cove, East Lothian Aug 2015

This was a lovely wee place Mr A and I discovered on one of our road trip on the east coast in August 2015.  One of my colleagues who lives in Dunbar had mentioned it and although I have lived in East Lothian for 20+ years, I had never known about this wee gem of a place.  There is an actual website which has some amazing photography and interesting information.   Did you you know that Dame Judi Dench visited this place once?  The site has also been used on photography shoots etc.....  

Here is the website that provides more information here

Sunday Road Trip to Queensferry, Limekiln and Charlestown

As it was such a beautiful day on Sunday, even though I am still hobbling about with a crutch just now.... the weather was just too good to be sat couped up at home.  Mr A and I started off at South Queensferry which very very busy with the usual tourists, some who had their dogs [who, incidentally, were taking their humans for a walk!] and loads of bikers, we decided to take ourselves off to the other side.  There are 3 bridges in the above shot [albeit one of them in construction stages...].

As you can see from this image, there is not a huge distance between the north end and this cantilever:

We drove to Limekiln:  

.  

who pulled the plug out?

And we travelled on to Charlestown which was an enchanting wee place: 

When we started off our wee walk down into the residential area [lovely huge houses with verandas and some overlooking the sea.......  when we discovered this:

Even with my limited knowledge of rail tracks etc [thank you dad], this enticed us to keep on walking to find some sort of rail track and we were not disappointed as you can see:

 Some of the views from the waterfront down by the rail tracks.

one of the harbours in Charlestown:

We had discovered the kilns here just as we were about to exit the West Harbour Road

  

Mr Grouse/Pheasant and his brothers were fair strutting their stuff all over the place:

 On our walk back to the car, I spotted some lovely flourishing purple heather and lots of bee activity:

My gift

Alwynne left this in my bedroom with a lovely wee note.  I've brought it to work with me........

Nom nom! 

Nom nom

My colleague, Anne treated us to a wee cake from the bakers today - thank you Anne! 

Whoop whoop Pam's back at work!

My friend and colleague Pam has been on long term sick from work and is now on a phased return.  Pam started back on Monday but I was off recovering from what I thought was a dislocated knee and now getting around with crutches! 

Anyways, I made these last week and completed the finishing touches such as the bunting to put on her double computer screens and the pocket to keep it in. 

The bunting:

This is a jar I picked up and thought it was different - I suppose it's meant for the kitchen but I thought it would be ideal for filling with some goodies....

I handcrafted a gift bag using the rolls of artists paper you get for kids arts n crafts.  It is a little flimsy but I managed to reinforce with some stronger cardstock on the block base. I brought out the "Fascinator" craft stapler and used the fancy staples as anchors for the ribbon handles.  The "Just for You" sentiment and ink used are both Stampin Up. Cardstock from my own supplies and patterned paper from a now disbanded TLC scrapbooking company.  

The bunting all packaged in concertina fashion and co-ordinating storage pouch to store it in, behind it. 

Happy Friday!! 

Old blogs of interest

I took time last night to take a look at the blogs that I used to visit in the early days of running this blog and oh my goodness - I've culled quite a lot of links to blogs!  A real shame too as there were very interesting and very inspirational blogs out there!  But having said that, life and work and perhaps change of circumstances has a habit of getting in the way of things and keeping on top of a blog is one of the things to go by the way side.  That's what's happened to me.  Despite the hours I work, I seem to be more determined in fitting some crafting in.  I suppose too, people's interests in crafts may have taken a different turn for peeps - scrapbooking is another hobby I love but I haven't done that for sooooo long.  BUT I am guilty of buying scrap pads of paper or cardstock and new dies or embellishments without truly having the time to do anything with them except admire them.......

Oh how I do long for my craft shed in the garden but ho hum once again, the finances I managed to ear mark for initiating the project ie groundworks prepared etc, something else has come along and knocked my karma into need the funds to pay for other important things in life.  

The Kelpies, Falkirk

Here's looking at you, kid

Just how magnificent are these creatures?

Mr A and I paid a visit to the Kelpies on a rare annual leave day in February for me.  Although we had visited the Kelpies together before, I did not have my DLSR with me and the visitor centre had not yet been built at that time.  However, the visit this year I remembered to bring the camera and lenses.  I only regretted not having the tripod for the evening shots too.