Nuts About Sketches week 341 - Bang bang

Another new sketch today up at Nuts About Sketches. Here is my layout for this week.

These photos were taken at a shooting range by my husband. They went with a friend and his daughter on Father's Day 2012. It was the first time the kids had ever fired a real firearm - our gun control laws in the UK are much more restrictive than those here in the US.

They had a blast. Firing pistols, rifles, and anything else that they got a chance to. It was certainly an experience that they could only really get here in the US.

Head over to the blog to see what the rest of the DT have done with this sketch!

Sarah x

Nuts Aboout Sketches week 340 - Superheroes

Today I'm sharing my layout for this weeks sketch over at Nuts About Sketches. Its a two page sketch this week, but I just used the left hand side of the sketch to do a one page layout.

We are a family of geeks. I mainly keep my inner geek under wraps - as it's not cool to have a geeky Mum when you are a teenager apparently ;) - but we got tickets to see the new live action superhero show Marvel Universe Live! on it's opening weekend down in Tampa. This show is touring the US and Canada over the next couple of years, but seeing as we are not sure when we are leaving the US, we decided to get tickets right at the start of its run.

We all wore Marvel comic t-shirts, and had a great time watching the show. It was a bit like a circus, bit like one of the stunt shows you see in the theme parks, but with superheroes. The costumes were amazing, the stunts and fight scenes were very well done, and there were some great special effects. We had a blast :)

Head over to the sketch blog to see what the rest of the design team have done with the sketch this week :)

Sarah x

Nuts About Sketches week 339 - Smile

Monday again, and that means another new sketch from Shawn over at the Nuts About Sketches blog. This is my layout based on the sketch :)

Our first trip out on a boat in Florida :) We are very lucky in that we have a couple of friends who own or rent boats out, and they are kind enough to invite us to join them from time to time. The kids had a great time, and it wasn't hard to get them to smile for the camera!

I used a Christmas line of papers on this layout - honestly!!! This is the Snow Day collection from Crate paper - they are so colourful, that it was easy to use them on a summer page. I had a lot of fun doing this page ;)

Head over to the blog to see what the rest of the team did with this sketch!

Sarah x

Better late than never - Nuts About Sketches week 338 - Tubing

Yeah. I'm a little bit late in posting my layout for this weeks sketch over at Nuts About Sketches. I am just back from visiting my family in the UK, and although I did the layout and sent it off to Shawn well in advance, I forgot to schedule a post for it! But, like I said, better late than never.

This layout uses the left hand side of the 2 page sketch posted this week.

I really enjoyed using this sketch, and actually liked the circle photos - usually I am reticent to cut photos into shapes LOL. This is us on the Ichetucknee River in Florida. We have visited here every summer that we have lived here, we don't tire of floating down the river in a rubber ring ;) These photos were from our first visit there. We took a waterproof camera with us, and we got some really fun shots. Neither of us dared to take our phones or a normal camera on to the river!

Nuts About Sketches week 337 - School Days

This is my latest layout for the Design team over at Nuts About Sketches. 

These photos are of my Mum, as a school girl. I don't know why the photos were taken, whether it was for a school newspaper or magazine, or as a project, or for a local newspaper. But I love them. I love seeing my Mum as a girl, and seeing her at her school is just priceless. The school she went to - Henry Cavendish School - no longer exists, either in name or as a building. 

My Nana kept these photos - as she did with many others, and a tons of other things useful or not - and we found them when we were going through her house after she had died. I don't even think Mum can remember why they were taken, or who that other girl is with her. But to have a snapshot of her school day is more than I have of my own school days. 

Check out what the rest of the Design Team has done with the sketch at the Nuts About Sketches blog.

TTFN

Sarah x

Nuts About Sketches week 336 - Baby's Day Out

It's Monday again, so time to share my latest layout using this week's sketch over at Nuts About Sketches. This week is a two page sketch, but I chose to do the left hand side of the sketch as a single layout.

These pictures are of my grandparents and the baby is my Mum :) I'm not too sure about who the other two women are, but I think they are my Nana's "half nieces" - the daughters of a couple of my Nana's half sisters. I'm not sure where the photos are taken either, it could be Leicestershire, or Derbyshire or anywhere really. Just looks like an afternoon out with the baby to get some fresh air LOL.

Take a look over on the Nuts About Sketches blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have been up to with this sketch!


TTFN

Sarah x

Nuts About Sketches week 335 - Whirlwind D.C.

Here is my layout based on this week's sketch over at Nuts About Sketches. A two pager, that was just perfect for a recap layout about our first weekend in the US.

We really had a whirlwind visit to the capital. We were jetlagged, and really wanted to see as much as we could out and about in Washington DC. We got in all the major sights, a couple of museums at the Smithsonian, riding the Metro all over - from Arlington to the Zoo LOL.

I loved adding a bit of handstitching to this layout - those arrows on the top border were so much fun to do :)

And that margarita? Yes, it was as amazing as it looked!

Don't forget to head over to the Nuts About Sketches blog to see what the other Design Team members have done with the sketch :)


TTFN


Sarah x

Nuts About Sketches week 334 - Sgt Harris

This is my layout for this week's sketch over at Nuts About Sketches. 

Another clean and simple layout, heavy on the journalling ;) I adapted the sketch to a 8.5 x 11 page, mainly because I wanted to use a 4x6 photo instead of the 5x7 on the sketch.

This is my Papa. He was a Sgt in the Royal Army Medical Corp during World War Two. This photo, I think was taken in Burma (now known as Myanmar) where he was stationed from 1941. He was blind in one eye from childhood polio, but this didn't stop him being drafted into the Army - he was assigned to a clerical/admin job instead of being a front line soldier. His own father was a gunner during World War 1, and was proud to follow his footsteps into the Army.

He loved telling Mark stories about his service days, although he always stuck to the same humorous stories - having his drinks spiked and waking up to find half his moustache had been shaved off, letting his pet monkey loose to collect up all the shaving brushes and lick them, his monkey getting loose and ripping all the cigarettes in the stores apart and my Papa had to re roll every single one. He never told us about the horrors he saw - he was in Coventry during the Blitz in 1940, and was sent as part of a search and rescue team to a maternity hospital that had suffered a direct hit.

I hope to get a copy of his service record one day, to find out exactly where he was and what he did. But I'm glad there are a few photos that I can tell his stories with - both the humorous and the not so humorous.

Pop on over to the Nuts About Sketches blog to see what the rest of the Design Team have done with this weeks sketch :)


TTFN


Sarah x

Nuts About Sketches week 333 - Jags vs Bears

My first layout as DT for Nuts About Sketches. I'm so happy to be back on the team. Shawn's sketches are such fun to work with, and I feel so comfortable working with them - they are like a pair of comfy slippers LOL. 

This layout is pretty much my MO - clean and simple, with a ton of journalling. One of my personal goals for myself this year is to write more - I have a diary I write in every night, I also have a gratitude journal, and I also have a journal that I use as a brain dump. Writing has always been therapeutic for me, a way to deal with emotions caught up in my head. This layout, although not emotional at first glance, was actually bitter sweet for me to do.

In October 2012, my parents visited us in Florida for the first time. My Dad had just retired, and was about to have his 65th birthday. He has been a long time football fan - American Football to the Brits out there - and has watched the Superbowl in the wee hours of the morning for the past 25 years or so. As he was visiting during football season, I bought 2 tickets to see a Jacksonville Jaguars NFL game for his birthday. We were the very last row of the stadium - the only thing behind us was the stadium wall. But Dad loved it. He stood the whole game, scanning the whole field of play, checking the big screens. The whole circus that comes with an NFL game annoyed him a little - no fast forwarding the adverts available in real life ;) - but it was an experience he'll never forget.

And now the bitter part. Dad was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (ALS) in June 2014. My parents visited in March this year, and I saw what my Mum had been describing to me all too clear - there was something wrong. His left arm had no strength, he couldn't lift a cup of coffee to his mouth without holding the cup with 2 hands. Even a forkful of food was too much. I told him he needed to see his doctor when he got home. He did, They sent him to a neurology ward for testing, and the diagnosis was made. I don't know how long my Dad has before he loses control of all his muscles. I do know that he probably won't make it back to Florida to visit. Or get another chance to watch a live NFL game in a football stadium. 

Getting to do this layout was cathartic for me. I'm so glad I have an outlet to write these stories about my Dad. 

Head on over to the Nuts About Sketches blog to see what the rest of the team have done with the sketch :)

TTFN

Sarah x

NAS week 252 - Christmas '12

 

This weeks sketch over at Nuts About Sketches, is a great 2 pager with lots of photos - perfect for a Christmas round-up layout!

 

I used photos from all of December, not just Christmas Day, as long as they had a Christmas theme.  We had fun with a set of chocolates that spelled out Merry Christmas - trying to find as many anagrams as we could. We didn't in fact eat the chocolates, as they had been completely man-handled!!! I included the teacher's gifts, some mince pies I made, and the contents of our fridge, as well as photos from Christmas Day - the presents and our dinner ;)

I suppose it just goes to show, that wherever in the world we are, Christmas is always a great celebration!

TTFN


Sarah x

NAS weeks 247, 248 and 249

Back again, with more Design Team layouts from Nuts about Sketches

 

Week 247 - The Capitol

 

 

 

This is about as closse as we got to the Capitol building when we were in DC. We tried to keep to our plan, and not get sidetracked to going places we hadn't planned. So we just took photos instead lol. I have really enjoyed doing these photos, but I am finding I revert to red, white and blue for alot of them hahaha...

 

 

Week 248 - Family captured

These are more photos from our family photoshoot in May.  And I used one of my favourite collections - Echo Park, For the Record 2 - Documented. I am having a love affair with all things teal/aqua/turquoise...

Week 249 - Jax

This is the view from Hooters (yeah, don't judge ;) ) at Jacksonville Landing, looking across the St John's River to Downtown Jacksonville. The thundery skies made the light amazing, and when the bridge lit up it looked almost surreal. Jacksonville, although a sprawling metropolis (it is the largest city in the USA in area) also can be hauntingly beautiful.
I used the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic collection on this layout, and added a few brads to finish it off ;)

I think that is me all caught up with DT layouts ;)

TTFN

Sarah x

NAS 243, 245 and 246

As promised, I am doing a catch up with my Nuts About Sketches Design Team layouts. I decided not to re-apply for my place on the team, purely because I felt I wasn't giving it the dedication it deserves, which is really unfair to Shawn and the rest of the team. Life is good, but life is also busy - we have a much more active social life over here, which is great, but it also means I am finding that I need to juggle more. I am making the memories, but not always finding the time to record them, which is not a bad thing I suppose, but when you have obligations - yeah, not so good. I am also delving back into crafts I haven't worked on in ages - my sewing machine got an outing this week, and also I am knitting up a storm lol...

So, without further ado, here are some of my layouts

Week 243 - Snow and Shorts

Another Hogwarts layout. It was very odd walking around a theme park, in shorts, when there appeared to be snow on the rooftops. 

Week 245 - Not so super dry

Another Island of Adventure layout.  We went on back to back water rides - Dudley Doo right, and then Popeye and Bluto. We got slightly damp on the first one, but absolutely drenched on the second ride. We were even wringing out our socks we were that wet!! Jemma was dripping, and I took a photo of her to stick onto FaceBook.... It wasn't until after I had got the photos printed, that I realised she was wearing her SuperDry T-shirt - and the irony hit me... So that is where the title came from :)
I enjoyed pulling out my Autumn Leaves journalling stamps again, to make the journalling spots for the bottom of the layout. Sometimes I forget what things I actually own...

Week 246 - Iwo Jima

One of the places I really wanted to visit in Washington, DC was Arlington Cemetery.  I wanted to go and see the Kennedy plot and the Eternal flame. I wanted to see all the monuments celebrating the sacrifices the US Armed Forces have made for their country. I thought it would be a good introduction to the whole ethos the US has about its treatment of it's military personnel - whether they be active duty, retired or a veteran. It had to be one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I have photos of the rows and rows and rows of white headstones. Of the flames at the Kennedy plot. But the most awe inspiring sight, is the Marines memorial - otherwise known as the Iwo Jima memorial. The statue is a copy of the iconic photograph taken on Iwo Jima, when the Marines capture the island and raised the Stars and Stripes. It was amazing. And the cloudless blue skies behind it made it even more outstanding.

TTFN

Sarah x

Hey, where did January go?

Um, yeah, and December too...

So here we are, February 2013. Happy New Year! A bit belated I know, but sincere all the same :)

Christmas and New Year are just a blur now, we had a blast! We were invited to several parties, some of which will become new traditions for us. And we hosted a small gathering for fellow Brits on Boxing Day - we need to keep our traditions alive too!!!

Anyhow, I am planning on doing a bit of a catch up with my Nuts About Sketches Design Team layouts, but I will start with the latest one which went live on the blog this past Monday...

These photos were taken on the last day we were in the UK before we flew out to start our Florida Adventure... 

My daughter looks so pale, and her hair looks so red hahahaha. Tom was still slightly co-operative with the whole picture taking thing. Um, yeah, the boy has become camera shy. Or if he does let me take a photo, then he has forgotten how to smile. He had another Picture Day at school this week, and I am praying that the photos are better than the sullen faced pre-teen that we got last time...

Anyway, the papers I used here are from Echo Park - Everyday Eclectic collection. I love the hot air balloons, and the sentiment is so perfect for how we were feeling. Although we only had 4 months between being told and actually leaving, it felt like a lifetime, and to actually be flying out was a bit surreal...

But it is a distant memory now (well it was 8 months ago!!!) and we are thoroughly enjoying this great opportunity in a wonderful state with so much to offer :)

TTFN

Sarah x

NAS - week 242 : Hogwarts

Happy December everyone!!

I'm back today with my layout for week 242 at Nuts About Sketches.  I am slowly making my way through the photos from our first trip to Orlando - very slowly...!!!

I was blown away by Hogwarts Castle. Especially with the bright blue Orlando sky behind it. It didn't seem quite as forboding as it looks in the films....

I chose a monochrome scheme, and the papers I used were all from Halloween collections. And I finally got to use my Martha Stewart cobweb border punch!

Again, quite a simple layout, with the holidays and holiday preparations, I am really liking simple these days...!!!

NAS - week 241 :Cheers!

You know, I really don't know where the time is just now. It feels like I blink, and another week has passed by...

 

So, I'm late in posting my layout using sketch 241 over at Nuts About Sketches. This weeks sketch was a 2 pager, but I decided to just use one side of the sketch - the right hand side.

 

This is Mark enjoying the frozen ButterBeer we bought on our visit to Harry Potter world at Universal Islands of Adventure.  I must admit, it was very tasty, but I am glad we decided to share a glass as it was very sickly after a couple of mouthfuls.

I went clean and simple with this layout, with lots of white space. But I got in the essentials - title, photos and journalling :)

This weekend we are heading back to Orlando again. We have an extra day's ticket to use up at Universal, and then we are going to Sea World on Sunday with a free Hero's pass :) So it's a freebie weekend apart from a night in a motel and food. And possibly another glass of ButterBeer.....

Monumental fun

Happy weekend!

Carrying on with my Nuts About Sketches layout catch-up...this is my layout for week 235. You can find the original sketch here along with other examples from the rest of the Design Team :)

Ugh, I'd forgotten what a pain scanning in a layout with a white background was... It looks better on the Nuts About Sketches blog, I promise ;)

Anyway, this photo is from the first weekend we stayed in the USA. We went to Arlington Cemetary on the Sunday, and then walked from their to the Marines memorial - a.k.a the Iwo Jima memorial. On our way, we stopped to look at the view over Washington, D.C, and Mark thought it would be fun to play about with perspective and the scenery. Hence Jemma appearing to be holding the Washington Memorial by it's point...

I used papers from a 6x6 PaperMania pad - Portobello Road. I bought this before we left the UK, as I knew I would want some Union Jack and British-ness type papers, and with the Jubilee and Olympics, there was British pride bursting out all over the place!!! On this layout, I used more of the subtle papers in the pack - I just wanted to pick up the colours on Jemma's t-shirt :)  I coloured the Thickers in the title with a ProMarker, and added some clear glitter glue for a bit of sparkle.
I changed my layout size to 8.5 x 11, so the photo took centre stage on the page, but there was still enough room for some white space.

Bunny Girl

Back again with another of my layouts for Nuts About Sketches. This was my layout for week 234, and you can find the original sketch here along with layouts from the other DT members.

 

 

 

For her 13th birthday, Jemma was very specific about what she wanted for presents - a purple and pink Superdry t-shirt, and a onesie...  Now the t-shirt was relatively simple to order online, but the onesie....well that was another matter. We couldn't find anything online, and being spring time, all the winter clothing in stores was being replaced by summer stuff. Even though it felt far from summery in the far north of Scotland, but that is another thing....
Mark and I took one last look, and went to Primark - or Primarni as my dear sister-in-law calls it - and *ta-daaaaaaaaa* there was a rack of onesies. And they had the right size. And it was a pink bunny. Perfect.
Jemma loved it. In fact she wore it everyday. If she could have gone to school in it, she would. So, there she is, on her birthday - a teenager in a bunny onesie...

I went monochrome on this layout, and used My Mind's Eye's papers. I fussy cut a few flowers and added them with brads, and also made some lollipop flowers for embellishments. A clean and simple layout :)

2 of a kind

 

First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! This will be our first ever Thanksgiving holiday, as we don't celebrate it in the UK. Although we have no links to the origin of the holiday, being here during the preparations and build up has made me pause to think about the whole idea of being thankful.

I am thankful for the opportunity we have been given - both us as a family, and Mark professionally - by the military, and being allowed to live in the USA for 3 years. It bears no thinking what the alternative may have been - most likely redundancy and uncertainty.

I am thankful that the family has settled into the US systems - school for the kids, and the US Navy for Mark. Things are so very different over here, and the way that the kids have transitioned has made me a very proud mama :) They have worked so very hard, and are determined to continue to do so.

I am thankful for our friends - new and old. Old friends keeping in touch. New friends welcoming us into their homes and into the community. Showing us around, helping us out in times of need.

I am thankful for so many other things - our home, our family and our health. And Skype. And Facebook. And our SatNav (especially when she pronounces things wrong..)  And technology in general.

Thankful for so much, so many blessings. Sigh. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside....

 

 

And thankful for being given the opportunity to work with amazing sketches on the Nuts About Sketches blog :) This was my layout for week 233 - you can find the original sketch and the other DT members layouts here

 

 



 

These were photos taken by the nauseatingly uber-talented Mandy Hunter at a family photo shoot we had done before we left Scotland. She took some great shots of the kiddos, and when I saw the sketch, I knew I wanted to use some of them.

 

I used up more of the BoBunny "Winter Joy" collection. I do love purple, aqua and lime together...  I used green stickles on my Thickers title to link it into the colour scheme. A few buttons, and a bit of soppy journalling, and the layout was complete...

 

So, I leave you now to experience the eat-a-thon that is Thanksgiving... Happy Turkey Day - Gobble Gobble Gobble!!!!!



Mulberry Cove

 

I thought I would do a catch up over the next fews days, with the layouts I have done recently for Nuts About Sketches. This layout is from week 231, and you can find the sketch and the rest of the DT's pages here

 

 

These are photos from an afternoon's kayaking at the Naval Air Station's marina - Mulberry Cove. On a Thursday, kayak rental is free to all service personnel and their dependants, and an opportunity too good to pass up!

I used up some scraps on this 2 pager - mainly My Mind's Eye - plus some Studio Calico thrown in. I used my "dripping goo" border punch from Martha Stewart - one of my bargain finds at TJ Maxx - as I thought it looked like dripping water.... A smattering of buttons finished it all off :)

NAS sketch 240 - Oct '12

This is my layout using this week's sketch over at Nuts About Sketches.

We finally made it down to Orlando in October - when it started to cool down a bit. We spent the weekend at the Universal theme parks - Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. We had a blast. The kids are both tall enough to ride the big rollercoasters now, so we did the lot. Well, they did the lot. I sat a few out.... This is us beside the huge revolving globe outside Universal Studios.

I used Echo Park Everday Eclectic for this layout. I love the muted colours of it. The title is American Craft Thickers (which have once again become an obsession). I layered a couple of buttons and tied them with baker's twine as a small embellishment.

I will be back soon!!!!