Monday, 9 November 2009

Just married!

As many of you know, a couple of weeks ago Dave and I flew off together to the beautiful island of Mauritius to get married. We wanted a very personal and private ceremony that focused on what was important to us rather than what we felt was all the nonsense of cars, wedding favours, table plans etc that seem to go along with the 'traditional' weddings here at home. So we booked a gorgeous hotel in a stunning part of the island and had a simple beach wedding that was incredibly romantic and very 'us'!
Just the two of us went which was lovely and romantic but I have to be honest, I really would have loved for our three children to have come along with us. Every day I thought about them and how much they would have loved everything but we had decided that if they couldn't all come then we would go alone (and Dave's children would not have been supported or encouraged to come). We missed them all terribly and to make things harder Dave could not even talk to his children while we were away. That said, this was the only black cloud in our otherwise sunny skies and my Jack was thrilled at the prospect of our wedding - in fact he sent me a text telling me to have a great time and to bring him a Step-Dad back!!
Planning and organising a wedding abroad was so relaxed and easy, I just had to come to terms with the laid-back attitude in Mauritius! We could have practically anything we wanted and so we were able to tailor-make our wedding to suit us individually rather than have a 'cookie-cutter' day. Plus, we were the only wedding to take place at the hotel in the entire fortnight we were there! I did have concerns about our wedding being one of many on a conveyor belt but one of the reasons for selecting our hotel was the fact that they only hold one wedding a day to make sure that they could put all of their effort into each wedding. But in the end we were the only wedding in a fortnight and so practically became mini celebrities amongst the staff and guests with everyone recognising us!
Dave looked so handsome on our wedding day, in fact I almost broke down when I caught my first glimpse of him waiting for me at the top of the steps to the beach - he took my breath away! I had an amazing day, I felt beautiful and was so proud to be marrying Dave, something that I can see that shining out of our wedding photos. I was smiling so widely I thought I was going to burst with happiness! I am happy to report that that feeling hasn't gone away since - I am carrying around my very own bubble of happiness and can't stop smiling!
We had an incredible honeymoon but the fun stuff didn't stop there. We had a beautiful blessing in my local church when we got home followed by a fab wedding reception! We planned things so well that we even managed to 'borrow' the huge firework display that night which just happened to be in front of our restaurant on the beach!
So many people commented to us that they had never been to such a great wedding reception - the venue was stunning, the food was phenomenal and our entertainer was brilliant and incredibly good fun (and what more could you ask for??). The highlight for me was my Jack's speech - he had come up with it all by himself and spoke from the heart and it was perfect (even if his impromptu singing wasn't!! LOL!!). We had a great time and just want to thank everyone who came for giving us one of the best night's of our lives!
So now its down to the business of settling into being Mrs Anderson - new wife and Step Mum! Who knows what the future holds for us but all I do know is that it will be filled with lots of love and laughter!

Anyway, does anyone have any idea how long it will take me to scrap 2000 photos??!!! I have a feeling it'll be a while!!

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

Kit #2 for November

Claire has designed a gorgeous second kit for November using the My Little Shoebox 'Imagine a Forest' line. I love how Claire isn't afraid to use unusual colours on boy pages and makes them work - so for those of us surrounded by guys we have no excuses this month!

The kit includes cardstock, 2 double sided patterned papers, a die-cut shaped paper, a 12x12 pack of die-cuts and a glaze pen. The design uses one 6" x 4" portrait photo and two 3"x4" potrait pics. You will also need to pop some 3d foam pads into your tool kit - but thats about all you will need!

Monday, 19 October 2009

Kit #1 for November

Kit 1 for November uses the new Earth Love line from Cosmo Cricket in soft greens, creams and browns with a touch of dusty pink. The gorgeous double page sample layout has been designed by Claire F who is an extremely popular teacher at our crops and we are very grateful that she has agreed to design both of the November kits for us!

The kit contains cardstock, 3 double sided patterned papers, a 12x12 sheet of double sided journaling cards & titles, a 12x12 sheet of double sided borders and title strips and a length of luxurious May Arts ribbon (this is definitely one for stroking!!). You will need a 5" x 7" and two 6" x 4" potrait photos for this design and you will need to pop a creamy brown inkpad and a scalloped border punch into your toolkit together with some double-sided tape and 3d foam pads.

Keep checking here for November's kit #2................................

Thursday, 15 October 2009

More for your money this month!

At the Kent club last night Claire B brought along not only the sample page that she had made with kit #2 but also this additional page which she had made using all of her leftovers from the kit. I loved it so much that I asked if she would mind sharing it with everyone and she very kindly agreed! With some careful positioning of her template in the centre of the cream cardstock when she made her first page she was able to make this gorgeous page with the addition of just a few scraps of ribbon and some flowers from her stash. She used some of the lush Martha Stewart punches to create the punched and embossed decorative strips and reused the chipboard leaves from kit #1 as a template. Now that is budget scrapping at its very best!!
Claire very proudly showed off the small handful of diecuts and bits of patterned paper she had left even after all this creativity, no doubt she will found something else to use them for by the time I see her next!!
Now I thought that our kits were fab value but with 2 meaty pages out of just one of the 2 kits available each month, this has to be one of the best ways to stretch the scrapbooking pennies!!

Sunday, 11 October 2009

Kit 2 for October

When Claire B chose this brand new paper line from Pink Paislee I was thrilled, I had had my eye on these papers too!! It's funny that we have the same taste in paper and we weren't the only ones - Claire F wanted these for one of her kits next month too!! In the end Claire F chose something else and equally yummy so watch this space to see what...
Back to kit #2 for this month, this one includes cardstock, 4 double sided patterned papers and a pack of two 12" x 6" sheets of die-cut titles, journaling boxes and embellishments. Claire's photo is a non-standard 10" x 5.5" landscape but she suggests that two 6" x 4" portrait photos would look really great side-by-side on this design too.
The only extra things you will need are some 3d foam pads and a creamy brown ink pad. Claire added some journaling to her page using Safmat - you can find packs of this in our shop at www.totalpapercrafts.co.uk

Sunday, 4 October 2009

The new member of our Kent club!

Just to let you know that after what seemed like a very long wait Maria finally had her baby girl! Chloe Louise was born on Tuesday 29th September 2009 at 4:34pm weighing 7lb 5 oz. That makes 3 new baby girls born to club members this year!
Congratulations to Maria and Tony and we hope to see Chloe at club very soon - I'll definitely be wanting a cuddle!

Thursday, 1 October 2009

Kit #1 for October

This month we are fortunate to have Claire B designing our two kits for us and this is the first of her stunning designs. The kit uses the new BasicGrey Indian Summer papers released this Summer at CHA - absolutely delish!!
The kit includes cardstock, 5 patterned papers, an ink pad, a pack of chipboard leaves and a sheet of 12x12 chipboard. Claire added a few flowers from her stash and used a Lime Pastel inkpad in addition to the ink colour in the kit. She has used five photos each of which is slightly smaller than 6" x 4" (they are actually 5.5" x 3.75"), three are portrait and two are landscape. The title letters are stickers from Claire's stash but there is ample paper left for you to cut your own out to fit with the theme of your photos.
Thanks Claire for this beautiful design - it is gorgeous!!