I'm Back!!

I had the best time with my Twinnee and BIL (brother-in-law) over in England.  Time flew by but I think we did just about everything we'd planned on doing.  We wanted to do a couple of projects in our Dylusions Art Journals, spending time with our parents, playing games and doing a little sewing.

We found a video on Pinterest (no surprise there!) by MixedMedia Jenn and followed that.  It was a good first project as it was quick and easy.  Mine is the first picture and Twinnee's is second,

Our next art project is not quite finished, mainly because we think it looks awful, but we have plans to work on that in the not too distant future so I'll hold off showing that pic at the moment.  Again we found our tutorial on Pinterest but when we work on them next, we'll be on our own!!  More on that in another post.

In between our art projects we began our vacation journals.  Twinnee chose to do hers in a mini Smash book and I was making mine as I went.  I took photos at the airport, on the plane and everywhere we went.  Picked up ephemera along the way and had planned on putting it all together so that when I got home all I had to do was to get my photos developed and put them in the journal in the appropriate place.  Let's just say it didn't quite happen that way!  I'm slowly working on the entire journal at home but I'm really enjoying putting it together.  I did journal most days in a small notebook that I'd bought from TJMaxx a long time ago (I have a love for notebooks) and that is a great reference for all my photos and stuff.  We also did some Zentangles in our composition notebooks.  I'd like to do more of that but have a bit too much going on right now so I'll look forward to that soon.

Over the first three days at Twinnee's we enjoyed a delicious home cooked meal the first night as I was a little tired from lack of sleep on the plane, a traditional English dinner the next night of good ol' Fish & Chips, a yummy Indian buffet the night after that, breakfast in bed each morning consisting of a cuppa (tea) and toasted hot cross buns, a trip to Hobby Craft and a follow-up appointment to the doctors for Twinnee's back surgery.  We then headed down to Mum and Dad's to spend a week or so with them.

Our plan at Mum and Dad's was to go out for coffee and cake in the mornings and browse some shops.  Come home and spend the afternoon up in Mum's sewing room making our bucket bags,

                                       

our aprons,

I made mine from a Crate & Barrel napkin - they have the best selection of napkins and dishtowels! and our leather journals - another from Crate & Barrel (leather swatches!!)

The journals aren't quite finished yet but they look pretty good so far!  And then in the evenings playing board and card games after eating delicious meals that Mum had prepared ahead of time.  We even got to spend some time with Big Brother and his family and Twinnee's best friend from school.  It was a busy time but we had the BEST time and were sad to leave to go back up to Twinnee's.

Once back at Twinnee's we did another Pinterest found art project - a cupcake collage inspired by a pin of a cupcake by Nancy Standlee.  I don't have a completed pic of Twinnee's but here's mine

I have to say this is my favourite so far.  I love it.  We tore pages out of my magazine I took from the plane and one I'd picked up when we met up with Twinnee's best friend.  I watercoloured the background and did a little stamping and that was about it.  The photography is not the best as you can see my shadow to the left but oh well!

Another trip out to the Indian Restaurant - Table 27,  lunch with my niece at Prezzo followed by cocktails at The Alchemist, a little shopping and then my vacation was over.  It went by so fast but we had so much fun being able to spend all that time together.  I can't wait until we can do it again!

So now that I'm home and back into my routine I'd like to get back to taking my photo-a-day and posting them here.  I also need to finish knitting my fox.  So for the remainder of this month I'm going to CHALLENGE myself to do just that!  So until next time...