You Are So Sweet.

Do you ever have those times when your craft area is such a mess that you can't even bear to go in there?  I'm having one of those times right now.  The craziness of the last couple of weeks has led to things being piled up in my room, both craft and otherwise, and I don't actually know where to start!  I know that I won't get a chance for any real crafting time until Wednesday at least but when I can grab a moment I am doing a few minutes of sorting at a time.  The last few months have been pretty chaotic generally with holidays, operations, birthdays and illness etc, and it will be nice to get back to some sort of normality.  Having said that, normality doesn't seem to be something my family can do very well.  My dear old Dad, after months of us plaguing him, has finally been to the doctors.  As we suspected, he has been diagnosed with Parkinsons which is awful of course but hasn't come as a shock.  His answer to everything is that he is getting old anyway, which makes me laugh as not many 77 year olds still work full time on a farm!  He is at least talking about slowing down and retiring now though... one day.

Of course the other thing adding to the recent craziness was the retreat I attended with Paula (who has just set up a blog, go see her, tell her I sent you).  I still have a few layouts from that weekend that I haven't shared so I've chosen a sunny one to cheer us up after the recent rains.  It features Miss Bella on the beach at Newport, Pembrokeshire, doing what both of my children love best.

Please excuse the funny angle, I think I mush have been slightly inebriated when I took this (I wish!) but I can promise you that the waves on bottom edge are actually straight...  I used This and That Graceful by Echo Park and the gorgeous blue doilies were a perfect match for the small amounts of blue in the collection (thank you Paula!)

I made a rosette flower using some washi tape which really adds interest to these wonderful embellishments. I also used some old flowers and gems for dimension.

More dimension in the shape of chipboard stickers and these groovy buttons which I've been saving for yonks.  Sometimes when you save stuff, you finally find the perfect place for it and this was one of those times.

I could actually lick these papers, they are so wonderful.

Time to catch up on some blog hopping I think!

Bye for now
xx