Life has once again been very busy! I have spent the last 3 years tracing our family history and on Saturday we decided to go out to Tarrant Gunville and see if we could find the graves of my great x 4 grandparents grave (a bit of a weird thing to do some might think!!) Anyway we had a lovely drive out there with my parents and after much searching Rebecca found them both half hidden under a tree. I have always found it strangely emotional when I find the grave of one of my ancestors. We found a lovely little farm shop and tea room in what looked like a shed, we had lunch there and it was gorgeous. Outside there were lots of ducks and chickens, Rebecca went out armed with my camera and took this photo.

Mum, Rebecca and I at the graves of John and Ann Hayter
I bet the family never thought that over 150 years after they had died they would be getting a visit from their grandchildren!!!!

I have been really enjoying my scrapping over the last week, I have bought so much new stash from Sarah's Cards as she has had the most wonderful selection of new stash from CHA. I just haven't been able to resist!!!

I have scrapped this photo before but when I was very new to scrapping, I was going through my old albums and decided that it needed scrapping again. I thought it was perfect for these papers from the Sassafras Lass anthem collection, very retro. I love this photo of my sister and I on my 5th birthday, for as long as I can remember I have wanted to become a nurse and my Aunty made me this outfit for my 5th birthday. I still have the apron!

I have been very busy playing with the gorgeous stash that Sarah sent me as well, here is a little sneak of one of the layouts that I have put together for the shop blog.

I recieved this layout back in the post the other day, so thougth I would add it onto here. I love this photo of Emily, she took it herself at our annual family picnic in the New Forset. If I try and get a photo of her she complains so I just leave her to mess around with the camera now and see what is on there at the end of the day!

I was very naughty and ordered the March Gotta Craft kit this month, it was lovely MME Penny Lane papers, there seem to be so many in the range and I have to say I was very impressed with the quality of the few that I have. Justin is on nights at the moment so I can't possibly do any house work so I have been scrapping with the kit this morning!!

I took this photo on our weekend away in Saunton Sands in September, it was so lovely down on the beach although I think Josh forgot he was fully dressed and got absolutley soaked bless him.

Emily's best friend Jacqui was 14 on Sunday and Emily wanted to arrange a suprise party for her on Friday night which I thought was really lovely so I had 5 children sleeping on my dining room floor! I managed to get a few good photos of them all, this one will find its way onto a layout at some point.

Thanks for looking.

Better Late Than Never!

I know that I say this nearly everytime but I really don't know where the time goes!

Justin is back from China, he had a amazing time and did as was requested which was to take lots of photos for me to scrap. He went to some amazing places and ate some disgusting things which just the thought of makes my stomach heave. He is very game to get stuck into the culture though which is great.

Justin at the rice fields

He missed valentines day while he was away but I had a lovely surprise on the Saturday morning a lovely boquet of roses and a me to your bear, he is a romantic after all!

I have been quite productive on the scrapping front. Sarah and Lianne over at Sarahs cards went over to America in January to CHA and have been having some of the most gorgeous stash delivered into the shop!! I have been tempted by quite a lot of it I'm afraid to say (well my bank balance is!!) I was sent some gorgeous papers to play with, My Minds Eye Bloom. They are just gorgeous so much lovelier in real life than they look on line.

I also got tempted by some of the new Cosmo Cricket papers, particularly the girl friday range and I have been playing with them over the last few days. I am a sucker for pinks which is good job as I have two girls!

Emily and my Mum a few years ago, Emily looks just so cute

My two little angels.

Rebecca has been doing some scrapping with me lately and she made a gorgeous little book for her Grandad who was in hospital after a major operation a few weeks ago. She did such a good job and he absolutley loved it.

Rebecca putting together her mini book for her Grandad

I finally managed to cut into my January gogo kit as well which had a lovely mix of papers really bright. I did a LO of Emily looking very fed up at our old neighbours 88 birthday meal. Poor thing it is a really hard life being a teenager!

I also decided to try using some different papers, I know when I first started scrapping I was drawn to papers that were in muted tones but I have certainly moved away from them over time. So I thought it was time to revisit old favourites!

When I looked out of the window yesterday morning I was amazed to see heavy snow, we very rarely get snow as we are so close to the sea if it does snow it doesn't settle. Not yesterday, it was heavy and it settled. So much so that the Sister (who also lives here) and myself couldn't get to work as so many roads were closed. That has never happened to me before. The kids were really dissappointed though as there school was one of the only ones in the area to open and as we only live down the road they had no excuse for not getting there. Poor things by the time school was out it had turned to slush!

Right off to browse online.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Rachael

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