Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk

Posted on | May 26, 2011 | 2 Comments

Hiya!! I have a few travel photos that I want to share with you all. This set was from our trip to Norfolk a few weekends ago. On our way to the beach we stopped at this old house maintained by the National Trust, Felbrigg Hall, and while I couldn’t get a photo of the outside, under maintenance, the inside was just beautiful. I think of all the old places I’ve seen this is my favorite. The house isn’t big compared to the many we’ve seen but was well decorated and if I had that much money I really wouldn’t need anything bigger than this! While richly decorated the house was very cozy. Loved it!!

You can browse through the gallery below. The above is also in the gallery but I wanted to highlight above because there’s a neat story behind it. See those two pink screens right in front of the fireplace (there’s a decorative embroidery piece in between the two). From our little visit we learned that the pink screens were placed in front of the women’s face. Back in the days the women wore very thick make-up and the screen helped to not melt the make-up off the women’s face. Interesting, huh? I thought so!

If you’ve been visiting my blog you’d have noticed the other National Trust home that we visited, Blickling Hall. These two home were from the same era and so like Blickling Hall, Felbrigg also has a Chinese room and the odd pointy ceiling.

I love the kitchen too! I haven’t gone to too many kitchens and this one was nice. I absolutely loved all the pots and pans. Copper – SHINY copper! Delish!!! I wish my kitchen wall looks like this! {::SMILES}.

Like many NT sites this house has a huge garden/park area and dogs are welcomed. The cafe, while simple, was pretty good and filling. We enjoyed our lunch here – it was beautiful too and felt so nice sitting outside.

Can you feel the richness of the home? I love all the colors in there. The owners did a great job of decorating it back in the days!

Have a great one and I’ll share some projects on the next post!

Still “In Love”

Posted on | April 1, 2011 | 4 Comments

Some of you were wondering if M’s still “in love”. So far yes and yesterday at the mother’s day luncheon I saw who this little guy was. I told M that yes he’s cute but he most likely has cooties, there’s a good possibility he stinks, and that he would chase her around the playground with a long dangly eeky worm. In the typical M fashion she rolled her eyes, smirked and said, “Oh mommy, he’s nice.”

For a split second Ramona Quimby came to mind. Didn’t she have a crush on some guy at about M’s age. Ahhh… children!!

I know I posted earlier but there are a few things I want to highlight from different manufacturers and didn’t want to just dump everything onto one post. For this one I want to share a Pebbles card that I did using the Mr & Mrs line. If you haven’t seen this in person let me tell you, it’s A LOT nicer in person than in photographs! I honestly thought it’d be dull to work with but was I wrong. Mr & Mrs is elegant and classy. It is easy to mix and match with other colors too, e.g. yellow. I really did have fun creating this card and really like how it turned out.

IF you like this line or want to see more, do visit Pebbles blog and see what the other DT did. Do comment too because there’s a giveaway for one lucky winner!

Now let me share some details pictures… LOVE the felt flowers. Oh my! It just gives the card the extra dimension. I love the stamp that came with this line too. This is just one of them.

Here’s an acrylic stamp tip: Before you use them grab a super soft sandpaper, or a craft sandpaper block like the one Stampin’ Up! has, and rub it gently on the stamp. Stamp with it a few times and your stamp results should be crispy clear.

I did some sewing too. For some reason since I changed the spool last my machine has been working better. I haven’t gotten bunched up thread on the bottom of the card. I’m not sure what I did but sure happy about it!!

Here’s another view from the top. LOVE the little rose!

Alright, that’s it for now. Have a great one and more later!!

New Year

Posted on | December 16, 2010 | 7 Comments

New anything is always exciting. A new date, a new house, a new baby, a new page, or a new year. To some it’s a chance to start over again, a new beginning. After the newness fades we’d struggle, get bored, get steady, or still be very excited about it.

Those who’s followed my blog for a few years probably remember that I don’t do resolutions. I just have goals. On Jan. 1st this year I listed the below goals. I have 15 more days until 2011 and I need to see what I haven’t done…

~~Keep my sanity throughout our big move to the UK~~
~~Keep a positive attitude while trying to adjust to our new home (and the military)~~
~~Adjust well to unemployment~~
Be a good housewife if it comes to me staying at home
~~Try to see if I can get my Ph.D. while in the UK~~
Craft more varieties of things if I end up staying at home
~~Keep up with my technical skills if I end up not working in my field~~
Take more naps if I end up staying at home
~~Cook more food from scratch~~
~~Be a better photographer~~
Be less sarcastic and ~~more sweet~~
Try to learn to beat around the bush more
Try not to be online while in the bathroom

Hmm… The housewife thing… uhm yeah… a housekeeper for my Christmas present, please!! On crafting… ha! Some high hopes there {::SMILES}. Naps… I think I’ve taken four naps since I’ve been here. Sarcasm… well, it’s just me and between it and my bluntness, I’m special. No bushes for me! And last… come on, you all do it too!!! The housewife thing is the hardest for me; I just hate housework. SUCKS! I had a hard time adjusting to being at home too but now all’s great.

2011 is just around the corner and for some reason I am very excited about it. It’s a new year and a new beginning for new goals. I also want to pick a new one little word. This year’s word is journey. Perfect, right? This year has been a gigantic journey and I, we, love every bit of it. Last, project 365. I’ve been keeping up with this, it’s been esp. easier since I got a new smartphone with a camera but sometimes it’s a struggle because we didn’t do anything interesting that day in my opinion. Due to the many different cameras I gave up sharing, plus there were some personal pics, e.g. bathtub pics of the girls, and I quit that half way through it. For 2011 I want to use something else instead of the blog.

Nuff rambling about 2010/2011 goals… on to the page…

Ok, so it was REAAAALLY hard to scrap with just three colors. Even though I had other pretty pattern paper I had no embellishments that’d fit really well with the pictures. I think though, when it’s scrapbooking and doing a color challenge it’s ok to cheat a bit here and there because sometimes it’s very hard to avoid colors outside the required ones, e.g. a bit of green on leaves.

Here’s a close-up of the pics. All were my attempts to capture her different expressions that she made for the camera. All but the butterfl came from a Crate Paper kit. The butterfly was created using an SU die and sparkled up with some Stickles.

Alright, that’s it. Off to think of my 2011 word and some goals. Until next time!

WPlus9 Release Day!

Posted on | December 1, 2010 | 8 Comments

It’s launch day for WPlus9 and we each have a little something to show you. Do check out Dawn’s blog to see what all the DT did with this month’s releases! As for mine, I used three stamp sets for this card: So 80s, Sweet Nothing and Woodgrain Silhouette. See the center sentiment and background stamping? Looks familiar? Yup, they’re from yesterday’s post!! With a few more stamped images and embellishments you can spruce up the card a tad bit more. It’s still simple and clean but with more to see and touch.

Gotta go help M get ready for school. Til later!!

Thanksgiving

Posted on | November 25, 2010 | 8 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving day everyone!! I hope all of you celebrating will have a wonderful time with their loved ones!!! I know we will be. Today our little family will have a small feast of duck and different side dishes. While doing a project for M’s school on this topic we learned that the pilgrims and indians didn’t sit down for a turkey meal, the turkey came later, but most likely it was duck and other animals that they hunted back then.

I hope that today we’ll all be thankful for each other and the time that we have together.

I hope you also enjoy the little card that I have to share with you today. It’s a very clean and one layered card using Clear and Simple’s Happy Fall set. I love this card because it’s clean AND I won’t have to pay an extra $.17 to mail it off {::SMILES}.

You all have a great one and if you are one of them Black Friday early morning shopper, stay safe!!!