The Gumstool Inn - Part 2

What do you do for dinner when dinner was so good the night before. You go back to the same place of course!! I'm not sure the guys that worked there were ready for another night of Anna and Ginger madness. But they were and were waiting for us and for some unknown reason chose table 69 for us!

So what did we have tonight. Anna had sausage and mash and I had the calves liver with mash and peas - they do great peas there. Then onto dessert. Tonight we did have the Sticky (stiffy!) toffee pudding to share and then the cheese board.

With coffee to finish we asked why there were no chocolates. So off he goes and comes back with these - we were totally spoilt.

All the boys were delightful but a special thank you to Jack for looking after us and understanding our madness.

The Gumstool Inn

I'm out and about visiting some of the Garden & Leisure Centres. As some of them are around Birmingham and Bristol I've been lucky enough to stay with my wonderful friend Anna. What could be better than that? A meal out at the Gumstool Inn at Calcot Inn.

A beautiful setting, totally delicious food and superb service. We skipped starters and went straight for the main courses. Anna had the belly pork and I had the rib of beef. The hardest decision was choosing which extra side dish to have with it - thank goodness our waiter had a sense of humour!



So as we hadn't had starters it was only polite to have dessert. After some difficult decision making and a slight gaff from me - it's not called stiffy tockee pudding is it!!Anna had the bread and butter pudding and I had some of the best crumble I've ever had - well I couldn't order the sticky toffee pudding for giggling and blushing! I was supposed to make a choice between ice cream or clotted cream but I got spoilt and got both.

The Banner

A you can see our new banner is quite large - so how then did Michelle and I manage to leave it behind, when we left Aintree!! Oops. All is well though and the organisers have it and we'll get it back ... phew.

Aintree

Welcome to Aintree

But we weren't there to see the horses we were there for the Creative Stitches & Hobbycrafts show.

Brimstage

Yesterday I had the pleasure to go to the Craft Place at Brimstage Hall on the Wirral, to see Kerry and Rhiannon. They have a great shop with lots of great products. Although they're open now they're having a grand opening on the 24th, 25th and 26th May. I'm going to be their demonstrating for Crafter's Companion on 26th May which is Bank Holiday Monday, so please come along and say Hi.

Here's Kerry

And just a tiny part of their shop

Also as you drive there pop by Thornton Hough as it's just such a pretty village, just down the road.

I've been tagged

The lovely Heather has tagged me, so here goes:

1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself? And why?
Somebody funny - so Cameron Diaz, yep I know she's much taller and prettier than me!
2. You are spending a whole month on a desert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?
ooo tough one! Ewan McGregor, I'm sure he could find a way to entertain me as for least favourite the list is endless!
3. What are your three favourite crafting products?
Rubber stamps, rock-a-blocks and anything sparkly
4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
A magic machine so I could visit my frineds anywhere in the world in an instant
5. What are the last three books that you read?
Do you read my blog!! I don't have time to read!
6. Qvc or create & Craft?
Create & Craft
7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?
DCWV
8. What is your claim to fame?
Had my photo taken with the mayor of Solihull wearing a cat hat

Now I have to tag 3 friends, so the lucky recipients are Lyzzy, Jaffers and Lemon

Merry Christmas

No I haven't lost my marbles - well no more than usual!! We had 2nd Christmas Day today - so it was goose with all the trimmings. We didn't have Christmas pudding but I'm not complaining as Dad made sticky toffee pudding, delicious.

Jo and Annie, raising a glass or two!

Dad Me (having a bad hair day - that's what Sundays are for) and Stevie

Dad - please get some new slippers!!

Altrincham Crop

What a fab day. For the first time this year I went to the Altrincham crop for the whole day. It was lovely to catch up with everyone - I've missed you all.

As usual I didn't get much done, although I did teach a minibook class in the morning and Gwyneth taught a starbook class in the afternoon. Which I didn't do as I was doing some Cute Companion cards for Quick Cards Made Easy. I can't show you those but I can share with you some other Cute Companion cards. These are made with both the Cute Companions CD and the rubber stamps designed by Jayne Nestorenko.

More Reminisce and Doodlebug

More gorgeous goodies from Scrapdoodles. I'm loving the ranges from Reminisce, here I have some Coastal Passion and Graduation Celebration, they're great quality and lovely designs. I'm looking forward to making some lovely cards with them.



And also here is some very precious brand new Doodlebug - this range isn't in the UK yet! The photo doesn't do it justice - it's so bright and zesty and the plain pink is the new range of velvet paper - very touchable. Thank you Debbie x

Easily led

I blame the girls at Coleman's Craft Warehouse for talking me into buying this gorgeous bag! It's padded inside and has plenty of different areas to keep your scrapping/card making bits in it. And just look at the colours, I didn't take much persuading at all. Did anything else fall into my bag ... maybe!! It was lovely to see you all and I can't wait until I come and visit you in July.

Because you have to!

Well you do, don't you! Yep, have meatballs when you go IKEA. I popped in to pick up an additional glass shelf for my unit. They were out of stock when I went in the other week, but I filled a form in and they've rung me nearly every day to keep me informed of when the stock was coming in. Great service - thank IKEA.

So as Steve is away in Scotland it made sense for me to have my dinner there, so meatballs, chips, berries and gravy it was. It doesn't take much to keep me happy!

I was good though I didn't buy any random goods which is the other thing that normally happens!

Ally Pally

It was the first time I've been to the show at Ally Pally or to give it it's proper name The big stamp and scrapbook show at Alexandra Palace. A busy weekend but I did get to see a few of my favourite people. It's so nice that they come and say hello whilst they're busy shopping. Unfortunately my camera wasn't out enough and when it was the photos aren't the best, but it's the thought that counts. So here's the role call:

Lins - thank you for my stamps - cheque will be in the post (must find cheque book!)

Mel and Gladys - so lovely to see you both (thank you for the cheque Gladys - not long now). Can't wait to spend a whole weekend with you both.

Charlotte and family - so lovely to meet your gorgeous family and thanks for you know what!

Darling Dougie and the gorgeous Rich - so pleased to see you my wonderful friend - it's been too long. Look after yourself. Love to the girls xx

Train journeys are fun

After our second day at Ally Pally and packing everything up I headed home on the train. I had a lovely journey home and got to meet some really interesting people. As it was the London Marathon today there were two successful marathon runners sitting near me. I felt proud just meeting them - I can't even begin to think how much pain you go through to run a marathon. I hope they're both nursing their aches and pains for only a short time.

I also met a lovely lady who'd gone down to London to watch her son run. She was talking about her interesting family history and how she was a refugee in Germany in the war and how she'd like to record it. Hopefully she'll contact me and I can put her in contact with a scrapbook club near her house.

It's amazing what doing cutting out toppers on a train can start!

Lord of the Rings

Straight after we finished for the day at the Big Stamp and Scrapbook Show, at Alexander Palace, we rushed back to the hotel for a quick change before heading out to Covent Garden. We had an early dinner at Oops, a lovely Spanish restaurant just opposite the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, then it was over the road to watch Lord of the Rings. As I haven't see the films or read the books I was a bit unsure as to whether I'd enjoy it or not. All I can say is wow! I was totally mesmerised and loved every minute of it.

It's a complete spectacular from start to finish. The theatre is done out to look like middle earth (see I'm into the terminology and everything now) and the stage is a magical feat of engineering. Combine that with an amazing cast that not only sing but many of them are acrobats too.



The Orks were scary but you couldn't help but be amazed at the way they moved around the stage.



Thank you for organising such a great night out girls - I loved it.

Beautiful Cards

I thought I'd share these with you - some of my cards that were in the recent copy of Beautiful Cards (issue 22 - April 2008). All details of the products can be found in the magazine but just a few quick thank yous:
Crafter's Companion
MeiFlower
Hobbyhorsecrafts
Craftycarrot - hurry they're having a closing down sale, loving the Smoochie Manoochie stamps

Pebbles inc

Look at these lovelies that arrived in the post from Debbie at Scrapdoodles. I can't wait to use them on some cards I'm doing for Beautiful Cards. Even better the patterned cardstock is double sided - so even more choice.

I've also got 2 of the share & tell journalling card sets from Pebbles inc. I think I'm going to have to get one of their albums - just to do some really quick scrapbooking. The idea is that there are journallling cards and small pages but mixed in whithin standard size pages - looks like great fun and some gorgeous papers in the range.