Remember me?

I feel very sheepish, I have not kept to my word and have been very lax at blogging and I am sure what followers I did have will have left by now, well except my pal KathB who has been reminding me for quite some time to update my blog. Sorry to any followers who do still check in on the off chance.

So here goes with the update .....................

Sam had his first outing to the beach in March. KathB, her children, her puppy Selby (henceforth called MadDog), Sam and I went to Formby Point for a run. I'd never been before but heard Kath talk about it and what a treat. A National Trust owned bit of coast between Liverpool and Formby, stunning woodlands to walk through and then miles and miles of beautiful beach. Sam and MadDog had a great time and I think the rest of us enjoyed it nearly as much.

April saw some lovely weather and lots of nice walks with Sam. I think it was about this time we discovered Watergrove reservoir, which is only about 15 minutes drive from us and another treasure. A 2 1/2 ish mile walk around what used to be Watergrove village before it was flooded to make a reservoir. It's got some areas where you can walk down to the water, woodland paths and bird hides for the twitchers. We love it and Sam soon overcame his fear of water and is now a seasoned swimmer, in fact it's hard to keep him out of the water and great for hot days to cool him down.

In the walls around the reservoir are the key stones from the properties that were demolished to make way for the water. Wall behind Sam here.

So apart from walking Sam, which constitutes the majority of our time, MP and I haven't done an awful lot. We did have a week off together in July and luckily the weather was good so we arranged with KathB to have another trip to Formby Point, this time taking MP and my Dad for a bit of exercise too.

It was scorching on the beach and half of Liverpool was out in their skimpy swim wear, oh we saw some sights! We had a good walk, the dogs and the kids ran themselves ragged whilst the grown ups ambled along. Back to the car for a picnic and going well until my Dad got stung in the mouth by a wasp who was also enjoying his sandwich! Luckily I had anti histamines in my bag and there was an ice cream van nearby to provide ice lolly compresses. A good day over all though.

My water baby

MP and Dad putting the world to rights

Selby (MadDog) on her lead in disgrace for not coming back when called

Skipping to September ......... MP went off on a tour of France for 10 days with some friends from work. This was his birthday present as he had a BIG birthday in January. So I took the time off work and looked after Sam. Whilst MP basked in the sunshine and complained about the 33 degree heat we had nothing but rain and Sam and I got soaked twice a day without fail.

I did however give the house a really good clean, not that you'd know it 10 minutes after MP returned.

On a crafting front .......... I have done a bit of scrapping but haven't taken any photos which I will remedy this week and have done a little bit of art journalling but I have been busy on a couple of projects.

I went to Art From The Heart in July to do one of Dyans fabulous classes, a unique piece of art class and this is what I came home with ............

Fab isn't it. We got to choose our own colour schemes and I chose, well as you can see cream, brown and red to match my lounge and it now hangs with pride at the top of the stairs as you enter the lounge.

The project I have been working on for quite some time is this ...........

It was made as a present for my friend Fiona or Top Totty as we like to call her. The canvas has a Scarlet Lime type background of paper, paints and stamps and the other characters are all from the Alice range by the amazingly talented Lily at Octopode stamps. They are all stamped onto water colour paper and painted with Tim Holtz distress inks. Took quite some hours but I and Top Totty are well pleased with the result.

If you haven't come across the Octopode factory yet then you don't know what you are missing. Lily does this awesome quirky rubber and digital stamps, Alice, Wizard of Oz, Steampunk, Christmas, I could go on but go and have a look. You can find Octopode from here, happy shopping :o)

Right enough for now. MP is just out of bed for his night shift tonight and I need to take Sam out again and guess what, it's raining again ho hum.

Till next time