Spring Fling - Scrap Our Stash April Challenge

Evening All,

I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the better weather now that spring really has sprung.

This month's challenge theme for Scrap Our Stash is Spring Fling. For some reason I found this a difficult topic ... I played around with several ideas but in the end settled for scrapping these little lambs.

Some of you will recognise this as the layout lying on my desk yesterday. All around us is sheep rearing country and so every spring I look out for the first newborn lambs of the season. Snowdrops might be the harbinger of spring but when the first lamb is spotted you know it's here at last.  I love to see them gamboling and frolicking in the fields nearby, makes me smile, but they are the very devil to photograph ... their mum's are very protective and one sight of me and my camera and they usually head for the hills, as you can see in the pic on the left :)

The papers are all from Daisy Bucket Designs, three sheets from the appropriately named In The Meadow collection, and one from Perfect Harmony, another aptly named paper. I've been hoarding them since 2010 so time they got an airing.  The curvy strips were created using Kiwi Lane Designs templates, as was the journaling bracket and the butterflies. The titles are computer generated and then fussy cut, as was the 'sun flower' and several of the other flowers - the others were punched, scrunched, hot glued together and finished off with card candy. The stamped sentiment, my winter mantra, is from Sheena Douglas.

No list of materials used ... I'm being lazy tonight, but if there is any information you want, you just have to ask :)  However, I can say that everything used came from my stash mountain so this project definitely qualifies for the Use-It-Up logo.

And finally, Ochiltree is a little country village not very far from Ayr, where I live, surrounded by farms and sheep. One of the the houses in the village Main Street is called the 'House with the Green Shutters', after the novel by George Douglas Brown, who was born there. The book, published 1901, is set in a fictitious village called Barbie, but it is believed by some that the story was clearly based on Ochiltree.

For most of you this will have been a short week after the long Easter break, and some of you will have the kids at home on holiday ... I only know this because the school playground on the other side of the road from my house has been oh so quiet, the car park is empty, and the chuck-wagon has been noticeable only by its absence, as have the scary seagulls that swoop around hoping for some fall-out of the fries and ice-cream variety. Whatever, I hope you have had a great time of it and that you've found lots of opportunity for crafting.

Before I go, a quick welcome to my newest follower, Cindy, your company is appreciated.

Happy Crafting,

A Fabulous Day at Culzean

Good Evening All,

Culzean (pronounced Kil-ain) Castle

What an absolutely fabulous day we have had here in South Ayrshire. It was so sunny and hot, 23C (about 74F I think) and not wanting to waste it we took a trip down the coast to Culzean Castle, the jewel in the crown of the Scottish National Trust. General Eisenhower came over to Scotland for talks during WWII and he stayed in the castle on the top floor. This is now known as the Eisenhower Suite and is a hotel - I can't think of a better place to stay! The position overlooking the sea is fantastic and the gardens are beautiful.

There are turrets everywhere, even the Gas Manager's cottage has two.



Polite Scottish notice concerning litter.

Translation:

Whether you are Man - or Child - or Woman,

Whether you are going - or whether you are coming,

For Scotland's Pride - not Scotland's shame,

Gather your litter - and take it Home!

This is just a little taster of Culzean. I took a ton of photographs round the garden and, once I've sorted them out, I'll do a post with a few as the gardens are just beautiful at this time of the year.

Hope you all had as brilliant a day as we have had. The weather forecast is that it is going to rain tomorrow and the temperature is going to drop - well plummet actually! Ah well, I'll just have to stay in and craft :)

Trip to Robert Burns Birthplace Museum + This Week's Bargain

Good Afternoon to You All

Apologies for being MIA for the last couple of days - I had been doing too much again, gadding about all over the place and even putting in a bit of gardening, and paid the price but rested yesterday and today and feeling able to get going again. The weather here is just gorgeous - the late afternoon sun is streaming into the craft space and lighting up the dust motes : )

The sculptured mouse above is Kenny Hunter's 'muckle, brazen beastie'!  So nothing like the mouse Burns (1759-1796) actually wrote about in his poem 'To A Mouse' then. He describes the mouse as a 'Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,' (the standard English translation is 'Small, sleek, cowering, timorous beast,') However, the sculpture commemorates the poem and is situated at the entrance to the Poet's Path which connects the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum to Burns Cottage, now owned and run by the Scottish National Trust.

This is the only time you will ever see me up close and comfortable with a mouse!

The entrance to the museum proper in Alloway, Ayr. We were not allowed to photograph inside but I can tell you that there is a terrific display with lots of opportunities to be interactive, both for adults and children, as well as displays of artefacts and manuscripts associated with Burns himself, and a cinematic experience every hour. There's also two shops, a restaurant and gardens featuring environmental art. For those of you who do not know who Robert Burns is, he is the Scottish National Bard, he was a poet, a lover, and an exciseman (the dreaded tax man). He wrote a vast number of poems - many of which have been set to music. Although a lot of the poems were romantic and written for his many women friends - he had several illegitimate children as well as a great many to his wife, Jean Armour - he also wrote, as a farmer, about his natural surroundings and several with a more political message. Not bad for one who died young at only 37 years.

These fabulous weathervanes, depicting scenes from the poem entitled 'Tam o' Shanter', can be seen on the Poet's Path which leads to the cottage that is Burns' birthplace.

We spent two afternoons down at Alloway taking in the Museum and the Poet's Path and still haven't seen everything so will be going back to go inside the cottage museum and then down to, the Auld Kirk, the Burns Monument and the Brig o' Doon - a humped bridge also depicted in 'Tam o' Shanter'.

One of the pieces of environmental art depicting the field where the mouse in it's nest was disturbed when Burns was ploughing.

Now for something completely different - my bargain of the week. These very useful boxes were going cheap at WH Smith so I grabbed a couple. The first is a place to keep all the craft knives I seemed to have amassed over the last year, and the second is full of glue pens, gold pens and an opaque white pen.

That's me caught up with what I've been up to recently. I hope you enjoyed the wee tour of Burns birthplace - and if you have never been to visit it is well worth the trip.

Now that my mojo has returned I'm off to do something crafty.

Happy crafting to you all,

Our Saturday Jaunt

Hi Everyone,

It seems a long time since Saturday and our jaunt out. The EM got the weather forecast right, it was sunny though still a bit nippy and he was right about today too - it's been dull and drizzly all day. Methinks he has missed his vocation, instead of being a scientist he should have been a meteorologist :)

So being sunny, we went about 5 miles down the coast from Ayr to the little fishing village of Dunure. Not the bustling  harbour it once was but there is still some fishing activity and it is well-kept to encourage tourists.

The ruined Dunure Castle is quite a visitor attraction in the summer.

Because I'm usually the one taking the photographs this is a rarity. The EM is testing out his new camera so all the photos here were taken by him for a change. My jacket looks yellow here but actually it is a very pretty light green. So much for the adage the camera never lies, here it definitely is lying because as you may remember from an earlier post I never wear yellow!

Sadly the little local shop closed a couple of years ago but the building is now a really cosy cafe. After we had walked around and trawled the shingle for shells we stopped in at the cafe for a panini and a latte - lovely. There is some really nice fishing related artwork adorning the walls and shelves in the cafe so if you ever get the opportunity please take a trip over to Dunure and take a look.

I hope to be back later to announce the winner of my giveaway and show a couple of hauls I got this weekend.

In the meantime happy crafting to you all,