Happy Friday all! I hope you've had a good week and are all set for the weekend! I've just about recovered from a fun fun fun few days last weekend.... can I share a few pics with you?!

So Friday we set off on the Eurostar from London to Paris:

 

Wandered around Montmatre, and visited the Sacre-Coeur:

Then headed to...





... to see The Foo Fighters who were amazing!!




What a night! (well apart from being trapped in a broken lift for an hour back at the hotel!!!)

Saturday was spent exploring the beautiful city - I just love to walk, walk and walk some more when I visit cities. I also made a pilgrimage to...

...home of the best macaroons in the world. Oh and the prettiest, hmmm and probably the most expensive but hey look at this beauty:

.. I stared at it for way too long before I could bring myself to eat it!!

On Sunday we hopped back on the Eurostar (ok, missed the Eurostar but caught the next one!!) back to London, and headed for Reading Festival. Those who know me will know that I am just a bit of a Muse fan, so by this time was getting (unbearably so I'm told lol!) excited!

And finally - the highlight of my weekend, my beloved Muse live at Reading!!!!

Amazing, amazing, AMAZING!!!!!

Ok, deep breath!!!


...and finished off the weekend with a trip to the Notting Hill Carnival:

 

This weekend is going to be a bit quieter! Whatever you're doing have fun!!

Hugs,

Unpacked...

Happy Saturday all! It seems longer than a week ago that I moved house, thank goodness it's over for a while. Tell me I'm not the only one who is astounded by how much 'stuff' they own when you pack it all up! So I'm being ruthless and having a good clear-out, it's very cathartic isn't it? Bags of clothes ready to go to the charity shop (why do I hang on to stuff that I haven't worn for years?!) and boxes of craft stuff to sell... more on that soon;)

The property we've moved to is just down the road from where we were; a very sweet cottage with a lovely atmosphere, and look at some of the beautiful flowers we've inherited in our new garden:



Oh and good news... I've unpacked my stamping supplies so hoping to get inky this weekend:) Happy weekend folks!

Birthday lady!

Today is my dear friend Aimes' birthday. We met on a stamping forum a few years ago, got chatting and sharing stamped images and I'm blessed that we became good friends. Here is a pic of us getting inky earlier this year on a girls weekend with Caryn (who took the pic!) - what a fun weekend that was!

Happy Birthday lovely lady! I hope you have a wonderful day (even if you are working!) and can't wait to catch up with you soon. I hope your parcel arrives soon!

Hugs Kate x

Tennis anyone?

Ah, it's the start of my favourite fortnight of the year. Pour yourself a glass of Pimms, dish yourself some strawberries and cream, grab your raincoat.. it's Wimbledon time again! (If I could embed music into this post you'd be listening to the theme tune right now!)

www.wimbledon.com

These two weeks remind me so much of my dear late Grandad who was such an avid tennis fan that he would take his annual leave over these two weeks so he could watch every second. I also had a great (and rather eccentric!) Aunt who used to hide behind the sofa if anyone called at the front door during the fortnight.... no time for visitors when Wimbledon is on!! Will you be watching? Who do you want to win? Will we have British champion for the first time in about a thousand years?!

Hugs,
Kate x

Friends...

Hi peeps! How is your week so far? This is the first chance I've had to sit down and blog after my fabulous girly weekend with my best blogging buddies Aimes, Caryn and Steph. It was the first time we'd met up since last November so there was much excitement in the air!

As a group of Twilight-obsessed gals we planned our weekend around a trip to see Eclipse:




.. can you believe I managed to wait two whole weeks after the release to see it so I could see it for the first time with them haha!

Here we are after watching (or rather drooling over!) the film at Bluewater:




..and after having the best ice creams ever!



More shopping on Sunday - Aimes and I trying on the same top in Karen Millen!




Caryn giving a cookery demonstration!




...and Caryn, Aimes and myself in matching t-shirts haha!




What more could you ask for from a girly weekend than shopping, cocktails, a good dose of Edward and Jacob and lots and lots of laughing! Thanks for a great weekend gals, love ya!

In honour of our weekend, Aimes and I decided to give Monday's new challenge on A Passion for Papertrey a friendship theme. I used the adorable car image from Enjoy the Ride, paper piecing parts of the car with Beautiful Blooms papers - very flower power don't you think?!



Recipe:

Stamps: Enjoy the Ride, Friends til the End
Ink: Memento black
Card: Stamper's Select White/Hawaiin Shores/Pure Poppy
Papers: Beautiful Blooms
Other: Enjoy the Ride die/Rik Rack die/Copic Sketch markers

Thanks for stopping by today - I hope your week is filled with fun and friendship!

Kate xx

Easter tidings

Easter is one of my favourite times of year - hope and expectancy for the rest of the year, spring flowers in bloom, warmth in the air and perfectly shaped and irresistibly tactile Easter eggs :)

I hope everyone had a good Easter Sunday - after a big lunch I still had room to feast on chocolate and the simnel cake I'd made on good Friday :)




My dear friend Emma has some fabulous bog candy on offer at the moment - she's celebrating her blog's 1st anniversary, if you don't have her on your favourites list you should have!! She's one of the most original crafters I know, and a wonderful friend to boot!





Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful Bank Holiday Monday!
Kate x

Boats and dancing

Happy Monday people! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a belated Happy Mother's Day to all you mummies for yesterday!

I had a fabulous time at the end of last week feeding two of my favourite hobbies (other than stamping of course!) - photography and dance. On Thursday I started a two day landscape course based in Whitstable, North Kent. Such a picturesque seaside town. On Friday we were based at the White Cliffs of Dover and, of course, it poured with rain but we couldn't complain as we were there the same day that Christine Bleakley was water ski-ing the channel - bbbrrr! Just looking at the water made me shiver!


I was with a group of lovely people, had a fun few days and learned a lot from the tutors and the rest of the group. I took A LOT (!) of pictures but will only bore you with a few :)




































Early Saturday morning I left North Kent and drove across London to Olympia for Move It 2010 - a buzzing three day dance exhibition. They ran an amazing selection of classes every day in every dance style possible - I took Ballet, Argentine Tango, Sequence Dance and a double Salsa class, at the end of which my feet were killing me!

In between classes I watched some of the AMAZING showcase dances on the main stage, including Matthew Cutler from Strictly and one of the most beautiful: Sarah Lamb, The Royal Ballet's prima ballerina performing The Dying Swan. Isn't she stunning!



Enough of my babble.... onto a card! Yesterday's Stamp With Us challenge was to make a male card so I immediately reached for the Cheers To You set. Can't go wrong with a few pint glasses for a fella can you?!




Recipe:

Stamps - Cheers to You
Ink - Memento Black
Card - Whisper White/More Mustard/Close to Cocoa
Other - Copic Sketch Markers/Circle Nestabilities

Don't forget to check out the rest of the DT team's cards over at the Stamp With Us blog.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Hugs Kate xx

Wonderful weekend!

Hello and Happy Monday everyone! I had such a fabulous weekend with Steph, Aimes and Caryn -I can't believe it's over already! We all met at Steph's on Friday evening, and from the very first second got on like a house on fire!

Friday evening we all stayed up late putting the finishing touches to the packages for Steph's Papertrey Make and Take - here's me, Aimes and Caryn doing some last minute stamping in Steph's AMAZING craft room!


Then Saturday morning came (after not much sleep lol!) and we were out the door early for some last minute food shopping for the afternoon, and on to the hall to prep for all our stamping guests!

There was 29 of us in total - here we all are raring to go!!


It was so fabulous to meet so many familiar faces from blogland!

Here's Claire:


Alex:


Judith:


Ally and Jeanette:


Kim (right) and my lovely friend Jo (a fellow West Country girl!), who I've had the pleasure of previously meeting and hope to meet up with again soon {hugs!}!


And finally Steph, Aimes and I with our lovely friend Dawn - poor Dawn has been ill for several weeks so it was fabulous she could make it!


I'm sorry we weren't able to get pics of everyone but we were running around so much and just didn't get around to it! Steph and Caryn both have lots more pictures on their blogs too!

Steph had prepared some fabulous projects using Papertrey Ink products for the Make and Take - here's what we made:







The afternoon went way too quickly and sadly we had to say goodbye to everyone - thank you so much to everyone who came, especially those who made long journeys, hopefully you all enjoyed your afternoon!

But for Steph, Caryn, Aimes and myself the weekend was still young! On Saturday evening we had a girls night in - PJs, chocolate, champagne and chatting into the early hours!


On Sunday we were up early again to head to Bluewater for breakfast, a touch of shopping and .... NEW MOON!!! We are all HUGE Twilight fans (although the girls don't seem to understand that Edward is ALL MINE lol!) having read the books very recently and had been bursting with excitement about it for weeks!

Here we are at breakfast:

(left to right: Aimes, Steph, Caryn and myself)

Aimes and myself!


Aimes, myself and Steph


Needless to say the film was amazing, and we all reverted to being hysterical teenage girls! It's team Edward for me all the way, and I had to have a stiff drink at the bar afterwards to calm my emotions lol!!!

Phew, what a wonderful weekend! Thank you so much Steph for being such a wonderful host and for all your hard work and generosity; and to Aimes and Caryn for being such wonderful company, I feel so blessed to have made three such wonderful friends thanks to this fabulous hobby of ours!

OK, slush fest over lol!

Kate xx

Switzerland...

I thought I'd share a few pics of my hols in Switzerland - it's such a beautiful country, full of exquisite architecture:


Picturesque lakes:



Fabulous shopping (how funky are these!)


Spectacular mountains and cows that actually do wear bells lol!


Not to forget the chocolate...mmm the chocolate! This was in the Lindt factory shop - where shoppers walk round with trolleys...just for chocolate! That's my kinda shop!



And I was lucky to share it with some fabulous friends, this is me with Susie (who I blame my stamping addiction on!) - seems after spending a week with a group of Aussies turned me into one!



Thanks for visiting !

Kate x