A Wonderful Walk on the Wildside

This morning, I drove about half of the way to work in thick fog and looking at the forecast, it's going to be much the same tomorrow. The weather, although quite cold at night, has given us some glorious Autumn days of late (once the fog burns off).

Sunday was one of these days. Although I had planned to work in the house all day, the call of the crisp autumn air and the wonderful watery sunlight beckoned in the afternoon and I couldn't resist it. I bundled my DH and Diesel, our German Shepherd into the car and we took off to Preston Park (camera attached to my hand of course).

We covered some ground! The trees are just turning and leaves are beginning to collect on the pathways. I love this time of year!

Having walked all through the park and stopping to look at the peacocks, ducks and fluffy bunnies in the viewing area we decided to go off-track and followed the River Tees that winds its way towards Yarm.

It was a truly beautiful afternoon. Diesel had a whale of a time in the fallen leaves and seemed hell bent on trying to get Stuart to join him 'on the floor'. He really was quite naughty - he usually walks well on the lead (after many expensive hours of obedience training HE SHOULD)!

But today, well? I think the autumn air had got to him too and he was full of it. Only on the way back to the car did he start to settle down. We will forgive him his moments of madness today as I think he's just letting off steam and in his own way, celebrating his 5th birthday which was on Wednesday. Happy Birthday Diesel! Now behave for the rest of the year!!!

Viva Venetian

What a strange but incredulous place Las Vegas is. This exquisite Venetian mask was in the window of Il Prato, an enchanting store housed within the ambiance of the Grand Canal Shoppes in the Venetian Hotel.

Il Prato is home to many beautiful things, Masks of all descriptions, elegant Murano Glass Pens, hand made beads and handsome hand bound books - just perfect for journalling your adventures in Las Vegas. I was fascinated by this shop and would have loved to bring one of these masks home with me but seeing as it probably would not have made it in one piece in the hold of an aircraft, a photograph was the next best thing.

Having taken the photo, I just had to preserve its beauty in a digi layout...... what fun! What a place!!!

Twice in 24 Hours - WOW!

Yeh! I'm posting twice in one 24 hour period, must be something wrong with me.

There is..... I have an addiction and it's called digi scrapping. I was so annoyed with Blogger last night for not publishing my LO that I decided to have another go this morning (I should be putting another pile of washing in the machine and cleaning the dressing room, but what's another 30 minutes with a cuppa).

Well, after two attempts I have finally got it to load. These photos were taken last Christmas and when I saw some of the background papers available on Memory Mixer I just knew what I was going to do with them.

Now I need to get to grips with the Las Vegas photos, just need to find the time. But that's the beauty of digi scrapping, I can snatch a few minutes here and there and if I use the lap top it can even be done on the run.

I shall keep this one brief and get back to the housework (gruntle gruntle).

Two Months..... Too Hectic!

Has it really been two months since I last made time to post an entry on my blog? Yes! it has!!!

Life has been so hectic in one way or another. Most things were geared to going away in September. Oh gosh, life's soooo hard, I HAD to go to Las Vegas, work of course. You understand that I would have much preferred to have stayed at home. (Well, that's what I told my DH).

We (Glenda, Glenda's husband Adrian and I) travelled out to Las Vegas to attend Memory Trends, a trade only show which features Scrapbooking as its main focus but has many wonderful crafty things to drool over. And drool I did - big time.

I also fell in love while I was there....... with Digi Scrapbooking. I have dabbled a little in the past with this form of scrapping, having bought pc programmes like Scrapbook Factory Deluxe. Then more recently I found a free download called Smilebox which I liked so much more than SFD and it was really very simple to use. Of course, I still love the good old hands on paper, adhesive and embellishment method too, there's room for all. But while we were away Glenda and I had the opportunity to meet a wonderful bunch of people who had travelled from some far-flung places to attend a lap top crop and that was it, it was hooked, lined and sunk.

Now, I don't profess to be anything like an expert where pc's are concerned. In fact the word 'expert' 'me' and 'pc' in the same sentence is somewhat of a joke. I am an absolute whizz at CAD (computer aided design) I used to do it for a living and can make 'Planet' sing sweetly for its living but most other applications on a pc are just pure hard work.

Enter a digital scrapbooking programme called Memory Mixer and I'm in seventh heaven. Since I got back I have been spending a lot of my free time getting to grips with what it can do and I am impressed. I really enjoy digi scrapping and think that I will combine digi with hands on in something called 'hybrid' scrapping, using the pc to do the basic LO and adding scrumptious embellishments by hand.

I will publish some of my finished LO soon but Blogger is playing silly beggars tonight and keeps coming up with an error notice instead of publishing my LO. I will also be back with more news on our Las Vegas adventure, it really was a fabulous action packed trip ......... just too much to tell you in one go.

Since arriving home it's been all systems go. In the same week that we flew back we had two open days at work which were great fun. Then Glenda's new CD ROM 'Season's Greetings' featured as the Pick of the Week on Create and Craft TV so it was super busy at the office, we had 'An Elusive Images Christmas' workshop last week and some very exciting plans in the pipeline which we're working on at the moment. In addition, there are two TV shows coming up in the next couple of weeks that have to be prepared for.

On the home front, my Mum goes in to hospital tomorrow for another eye operation. The last one went well so they are doing the other eye this time. Fingers crossed, she will be home the same day all being well. Our little four-legged boy Diesel has a birthday this week, he will be five on Wednesday - that's about 35 in our years I think! So, we will have to come up with something special for him. To top it all, Christmas is coming and all too quickly. I have a list as long as both arms of jobs that need doing in the house in preparation for the festive season and if I'm going to get everything done I will have to start now. No kidding... so I may not get as much play time for doing arty stuff and digi-scrapping as I would like unless I give up sleeping and I've done that before too.

Only in Las Vegas can you be in Paris (at the top) and Venice at the same time!