It's the little things

It really is the little things in life that make me smile like this sign which we have been driving past for a good month or more now and which I had to stop and take a photo of. And which I have been inspired by Julie Kirk at Notes on Paper to blog about.

 I'm not sure whether it is the imagination of the artist who decided to turn a go into an elephant or the idea of elephants crossing the road in the little village where this is situated that amuses me the most but I love it. It isn't so obvious as you drive past that it has been altered and you do have to wonder if you saw right the frst time you go past.

I'm still working on the scrappy album project and have lots more pages to share but that would require me to get the camera out so today's crafty moment is a card I made for my mum's birthday earlier this month.

It happens to be the first easel card I have actually made and sent, those I experimented with previously never made it into the big wide world let alone onto the web!

Happy Crafting!

I thought it was supposed to be summer?

Someone should try telling that to the weather gods! It has done nothing but rain here for what seems like months (and almost is), but it has also been hot enough to confuse the heck out of me. If I wanted tropical monsoons I would go live somewhere tropical rather than here. And of course we don't have the tropical lushness to go with the heat rather we have mud and a very wintery greyness. It's certainly felt wintery around here because this week I have had a cold that was almost boardering on flu. Oh yes I had a good dose of sneezing, shaking and spluttering while of course for the first time this week outside the sun came out. Typical!

Is it any wonder then that when I saw this

 this morning I just had to buy it? I mean who could resist a pink heart shaped melamine bowl? I couldn't that's for sure! It is going to live in my craft room and I have thoughts of it becoming useful as storage for something, I just don't know what yet so I have popped these new buttons from Dovecraft (Garden Party & Back To Basics III) in until I can sort them into their correct colour jars.

I have been busily crafting away at a large pile of photos to create a surprise album for Mum-in-law's birthday next month. And because I know that none of the family come on here I am going to share a few pages.

This is Mum-in-law and her older sister. I love those matching dresses and would love to know what colour they were.
 

 This is a more grown up shot that I had trouble coming up with a title for. When someone suggested young and beautiful it just seemed fitting. This was a difficult LO to because I started putting it together (at craft club) before I got the photos and although I love the colours I might not have used the big embellishment piece had I not already stuck it down.

Finally we have crazy nite, thus titled because that was what had been noted on the back of the original shot. I'm not sure why they were showing their knees and I can't wait to be able to ask. This LO is made using the new Happy Days range from Papermania. I brought it home determined not to use it, put it away determined to carry on using the supplies I had already pulled out and lasted a full twenty minutes before it was on my desk and in use LOL.
I love the colours and the retro patterns and have not only used it for several pages for this project but for a 12x12 for one of my own albums. And I have had to put it away again to stop me from using it for all of mum-in-law's remaining pics!
Isn't it great when you find papers that you really enjoy working with?