Cardinal Colours Retreat

Phew!  Back online!  Nicholas has been upgrading our server and I have not been able to get online for a couple of days, EEK!  On the one hand, I love it as I am able to get so much done (sewing and housework this week), but hate it because I miss chatting to all my online friends!

Anyway, I’ve been dying to blog about my fabulous weekend at the Cardinal Colours Retreat in Eastbourne.

I love the seaside town of Eastbourne!  I took the opportunity late on Saturday afternoon to take a little walk with my camera, and just look at these starlings taking off to roost for the night!

This year, Lorna and I persuaded Janet and Sara from our Brighton crop to come along too (not that they needed much persuasion!)

It was lovely to meet with old and new friends:

That’s Sue and Jan, Chris and Debbie, another Debbie and Juliette, and new friends, Ann and Linda.

Come back for part 2 later, where I’ll show you some of the things we made.

Mama’s taking me to the zoo…..

What a beautiful early autumn day it has been!  Sunny, warm, but clear and not a breath of wind or humidity!  So I went to the zoo with Mum.  Marwell Zoo near Southampton to be exact.  I hadn’t been there for years!  last time we went my children were small.  It was nice to go round and focus on the animals and try to take some good pictures!

But the best story of the day was about this little joey and his mother:

We noticed him (or her?) poking out of his mother’s pouch

Look here he comes for some fresh air!

Here he is finding his feet!  He seemed a little wobbly.  Then the keeper arrived round the back of their pen, and made a crashing noise.  All the kangaroos looked startled, we watched as the little joey disappeared back into the pouch!  Completely out of sight.  So sweet!

Stormy Weather

Here’s what it looks like today here on the South Coast of England:

The remains of Hurricane Katia have hit our shores.  It’s not too bad here on the South Coast, worse up north and in Scotland!  But thank goodness it waited until this morning and didn’t disrupt the fantastic concert we went to on Hyde Park yesterday afternoon and evening!  It was organised by BBC Radio 2, a ‘Festival in a Day’.  WOW!  What an amazing experience! 

We arrived in Hyde Park about 4.45pm, and sadly  missed the first 2 acts but managed to see most of  Beverly Knight's set (UK's greatest soul singer) Wow!

 

Next up was Caro Emerald who had never played to such a big audience but did really well.

Will Young had a bit of a sore throat so did a shorter set, but still wowed us! He is such a nice bloke!

Jonathan Jeramiah played over our side of the stage, and he looks so cool with long floppy hair! Love his laid back almost surf dude style.

Next up was Lenny Kravitz, and boy! Did he blow us away!!! I am ashamed to admit that I didn't really know who he was before, but of course knew his big hits. He was fantastic, and really got the audience going.

Imelda May was brilliant, full of energy!

James Blunt was awesome! I don't really like his voice, bit squeaky for me, but his show was absolutely brilliant, very impressive live act.

I love the Pierces! They are from Alabama, USA, and a bit hippy, country, and very beautiful. I already have their CD. They too had not performed to such a big audience (about 40,00).

 

The headline act was due to be Lionel Ritchie, and to be honest it was because of him that I booked the tickets.  So imagine my disappointment when he pulled out due to ill health!  So instead we were treated to Chic, who absolutely blew us away with 'Everybody Dance', 'Le Freak', 'We are Family' and 'Good Times', such great dance numbers! They were on the other side of the stage, so no pics from me I am afraid.  But DH took some fabulous photos with his much longer zoom, so I’ll post some more later.

Finally Gary Barlow wowed us with singing Lionel Ritchie's 'Hello' plus lots of Take That songs.
So although I still feel disappointed that we didn't see Lionel Ritchie, we had a fabulous time!

Each act was introduced by a different DJ from my favourite radio station (I listen throughout the day).  So it was great to see them too!  As you can tell from these pictures, we were pretty close to the stage, only about 6 people back, but over to one side.  Nevertheless it was a good position and as DH said, it was nice to actually ‘see’ the real people! 

Mostly people were having a great time, the atmosphere was brilliant!  But 2 small things that irritated: The number of really drunk people!  This was a Radio 2 concert not Glastonbury!  And the amount of litter people left behind!

The concert finished on the dot at 10pm, with an encore from Gary Barlow.  Unfortunately our train wasn’t leaving until 11.17pm, so we had a bit of a wait, and we didn’t get home until 1.30am!!  EEK!  That’s very late for us!  This morning my legs and feet ache from 7 hours dancing, and my voice is croaky from singing!  Woohoo!

10 photos of Internet Friends

This summer I have had the privilege to meet in person 2 friends I have made on the internet.  This got me thinking, how many friends have I met via the internet?

 

Top Row are my 2 latest friends, Lau and Nancy, met this summer through www.simplify101.com

Second Row:

The last Scrapettes team over on www.ukscrappers.co.uk.  Sadly we seemed to run out of steam earlier this year.  This photo taken at The Craft barn, where we met for a crafty outing in September 2009.  That’s Karen, Sara, Pat, Geraldine and me

I was lucky to go to a real life class run by Shimelle!  It was ‘Everyone has a Story’ in Portsmouth in November 2009.  Actually, I have only recently finished this album!

Third Row:

www.tandastamps.co.uk forum used to be my ‘go-to’ place everyday!  Burnice, Tash and I went down to Exeter to stay with Lesley in January 2008.  We met the people who run Tanda stamps at the Exeter craft show.

More Scrapettes!  This is me with Jan and her neice at Jan’s 60th birthday party in June 2007.  Sadly Jan passed away nearly 4 years ago.

Fourth Row:

Both pictures are Scrapettes, the first one is at MJ’s crop near Newbury, in May 2006!  Gosh, was it that loing ago!  I used to drive 2 hours to get to this crop!  But it was worth it. Maria, Geraldine, and Dawn in the back row, with MJ and me sitting down.  The second one was taken when we met at a craft sale down in the New Forest in April 2006. Alys, me, Jan, MJ and Maria.

 

Fifth Row:

First photo was taken at a Scrappers Paradise weekend retreat in Guildford in October 2007.  I got to know these girls when I went to the Crawley Crop.  It was Monday nights, once a month.  Burnice started to come with me after a while.

Second photo is the first time I met Burnice and Tash, at the Brighton Centre craft show in February 2007.  We are now really good friends and meet once a month in Burnice’s craft cabin.  Nowadays we sew rather than paper craft.

 

These photos make me feel even more excited for my scrapbooking retreat coming up this weekend!  I’m off to Eastbourne for the Cardinal Colours Annual Retreat!  Woohoo!

Move like Jagger

Is a song I’m listening to at the moment by Maroon 5 feat Christine Alguilera, but here’s the real thing:

Little signs….

that summer is drawing to a close.  Pictures taken Sunday morning on our dog walk along the river Rife in Ferring.

 

I feel quite sad about that. I have enjoyed the summer and have endeavoured to live an ‘outdoor life’, being outside as much as possible. Sadly the weather has been indifferent during August, so I’ve not been outside as much as I was in July.  I even swam in the sea several times this summer!

So September rolls in, and the sun is shining!  The grey overcast weather has gone, at least for today.  Of course, we always say that the weather turns good once the schools go back, which is next week some time, right?  (Now I have grown up children I don’t know what date school begins!)  But September still brings that ‘back to school’ feeling,  new pencil cases, new stationery, new school uniforms, all bringing a sense of starting again, another chance to do well.  Good luck especially to all those starting a new school.

Reflecting on this reminds me how hard it has been to start something new in August.  This August I began training to be an assessor for Citizens Advice Bureau.  What has surprised me most, is how hard it is to study in August, when I am still in holiday mode! However, the training is going well, there’s lots to learn, but it is all incredibly interesting.  I have completed the first stage of my training, now it’s observing assessments in a bureau and doing supervised assessments myself.

These shoes are made for walking!

It’s time for some new walking shoes!  I have had these walking shoes since Summer 2005, just about 6 years, and I have worn them most days during that time.  They have been on the beach, and got wet and sandy, up on the downs, and got wet and muddy, and have very worn down soles.

For a bit of fun, we tried to estimate how many miles I have walked in them:

6 years

40 weeks per year(I don’t usually wear them in the summer)

7 days per week (dog walks)

1.5 hours per day @ 2mph

= approx 5,000 miles!!!

Au Revoir, old friends!  See you in the garden.

We visited Peglars, in my new favourite town, Arundel.  It’s a specialist ‘expedition’ shop (actually 3 shops) and is worth a visit just because the shop assistants really know their stuff and always have an anecdote about walking in the Lake District or Snowdonia!  These were the first pair I put on, and I was bowled over by the comfort and fit!  They feel like they are giving my feet a hug!  I’ve already road tested them, a walk up the downs yesterday morning, and into Worthing town centre last night.  Wonder if these will last 5,000 miles?