May gallery with ATDML

Lots of punched circles layered in this quick page I made for the ATDML gallery this month to scrap one of my fave photos of my daughter and her friends in Central Park, NYC in March.

I was intending to add some real stitching on this page but chickened out at the last minute!! I do think it is a nice easy one to scraplift which is sometimes very much looked for by the shoppers at ATDML so it's a pleasure to knock out a quick colourful page which then gets lots of positive feedback. This could so easily be made with left overs from a kit or collection pack too (even though the circle paper I used was one sheet!)

Book Club 21/52 - Written in the Scars

The first time the local basketball star smiled at Elin, she was a goner. It was just so damn easy to fall for the dark-haired hometown hero with his charming smile and strong, athletic build. Thousands of sleepy smiles, aimless drives down country roads, and squeaks of the backdoor after a swing shift later, reality hits. And it hits hard. Falling in love was definitely the easy part. Watching it break apart was impossible.

Through the tears, the second-guesses, the memories of a life built together, the world keeps spinning. With each turn comes clarity and hope—sometimes in the form of a pair of muddy boots by the back door or from the words of a wise friend.

When Ty shows back up with a new found determination to put his family back together, Elin's torn between the fights of the past and the possibility of a new start. 

Yep, a good soppy romance novel that if it isn't going to be a cheesy romance movie already it should be. Mindless escape read which is sometime exactly what the doctor ordered when work is more full on than usual.

Coming up to half way on my 52 weeks of reading a book a week and whilst I am slightly ahead, not having shared all of the books I have read I fully intend on continuing to blog each read either the book I have read that week or one already read this year. Stay tuned! And do let me know if you have any recommendations.

ATDML May 18 Virtual Crop Day

Morning all and it's another Virtual Crop day with A Trip Down Memory Lane and I am up first with a travel themed class with the lovely Simple Stories You are Here.  I have created three layouts from the kit, two shown here.

I hope you will join in with the virtual crop today, either using the kits which were available to buy or using your own papers - maybe you even have this collection in your stash ready to use!.

Download your free instructions HERE and grab those scissors for a little fussy cutting today! 

Have a great scrappy day

May Mood Board with ATDML

As always on the night before ATDML's May Virtual Crop  we share a Mood Board inspiration challenge .What do you see when you look at this? Where do you get inspired and how will it translate to a layout? I think I sometimes have more fun finding these mood boards and trying to see a scrapping process/technique or idea when I look at them, which I hope will inspire others

Will you be inspired by the top left box containing the lacy overlay of a print not too dissimilar to damask, or the next image along of a garden - will this inspire you to scrap a photo or your garden or the Chelsea Flower show or another horticultural event? There are frames in the right middle image as well as bricks, a repeating pattern in the centre and stripes in the bottom right; all of these could inspire a page.  Alternatively you could be inspired by the green colours with the hint of teal and grey. 

For the mood board challenge, simply look at the board and let it inspire your layout, then share with ATDML on their Facebook Mood board gallery. 

Book Club 20/52 - House of Paine

Don't be put off by the front cover of this book, which when you are buying based on the synopsis you don't see anyway - this books had a great strong story line and yeah it's a bit naughty in places but that isn't the essence of the book and I really enjoyed it, free on Kindle unlimited.

AMAZON DESCRIBES IT AS FOLLOWS:
Paige Acosta's world is flipped upside down when she learns her brother Greg, a undercover NYPD cop has died from an accidental heroin overdose. Paige knows this was no 'ACCIDENT'. 

Greg was obsessed with bringing down the two largest crime rings in New York. The Paine and Kramer families. 

Paige is already familiar with the head of the Paine family...he was married to her mother for five years. To avenge her brother's death, she drops everything and finds herself immersed in a world filled with tension, terror and the threat of death. 

Paige learns just how far she’ll go to discover who murdered her brother…and questions how far she’s willing to go with the son of the man who started it all.

Book CLub 19/52 - Boxset by Kylie Walker

Technically as this was a box set of six books I should ramp up my reading numbers for 2018 but as I am so far ahead already and they weren't super long stories (I spent a glorious 10 days reading this 18+ set of books) I will count them as read 19/52.

Pain...Fear...Uncertainty... 

That pretty much sums up Kelly Ward's life in a nutshell. 

Surviving a childhood filled with horrific abuse and then at the hand of the one man 
that saved her... her first love that she trusted only to discover he was really a monster. Jesse Donovan will try and kill her again once he gets out of prison. 

On the run... New city...New identity is the new Chloe Green. Not the broken, scarred and frail Kelly Ward.   Trying to build a new life towards her life-long goal of becoming a teacher, she accepts a job at one of the most prestigious gentlemen clubs in Rhode Island as a pole dancer. Her goal - save as much money as she can...No Men...No Distractions. 

That is until she meets Derek Stark. Self-made Millionaire, dark haired, blue-eyed and a body of a gladiator. He wants Chloe...but does he have an ulterior motive? Is he connected to her old life somehow - Kelly Wards life? She soon discovers that Derek does have secrets of his own, secrets that will change her life forever...right before Jesse is released from prison and is ready to start hunting her. 

There were a couple of times when I felt like my heart was racing, when I held my breath, when I exclaimed out louand several when I cried. Emotional roller coaster and a half which I enjoyed and would recommend. 

Awesome rugby tour

Back from an amazing weekend away with my boys on rugby tour with their local OGs team and we could not have asked for better weather down on the south west coast.

The U11s had a great tour even if my youngest ended up with a cracking knock to the face (of which he is very proud!). I tried to take lots of photos but in the end the adrenaline of the games got away with me and I just watched. Sometimes I think as scrapbookers we are so keen to capture that perfect shot that on occasions such as these we need to remind ourselves to step out from behind the camera and enjoy the moment.

Great memories and a team photo of our U11s

The U13s whilst not formally part of the tour matches did get to play a couple of games both of which they won but my eldest having sustained a minor injury in training on day two had to be content to support his teammates from the sidelines and watch his brother play.

Book Club 18/52 - Good Me, Bad me

Another thriller this week, picked this one up from Tesco having been drawn to the cover and my interest maintained having read the cover sleeve blurb. I did find this took me a little longer to read as my kindle app on my phone is easier to navigate on a crowded tube!

Good Me Bad Me is dark, compelling, voice-driven psychological suspense by debut author Ali Land.

How far does the apple really fall from the tree?  Milly's mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school. 

But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother's trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all. 

Hell of an ending that is all I can say!! Don't want to spoil it and whilst I did feel the book was a bit flat and slow at times, the ending made up for it!