The Other Side Of Me

Much to my surprise, when we got in last night, John started moseying about on the internet and found a hotel in Folkestone, and promptly booked us in for 2 nights! We were up at the crack of dawn to set off, and had decided to go straight to Leeds Castle, as it's on the way down. I have been wanting to visit this castle for a very long time, as it looks absolutely beautiful.  It certainly didn't disappoint. Here are some pics: What a spectacular place! The Gatehouse Ooh, look, Henners! Long time, no see! The whole place was fascinating.  So many kings have owned the castle down through the centuries, then it was bought by Lady Baillie, who seems to have been quite a character.  Her private rooms were exactly like the ones in the Villa Ephrusi de Rothschild, and as lady Baillie lived in France as a child, it wouldn't surprise me if they were contemporaties. Lady Baillie died in 1974 (after 3 marriages!) and the Castle was put in trust for...

Hi there! We've had a fabulous day today. We've been to the Peak District to go to the Blue John Mine.  Had such an adventure getting there as dear old Satnav definitely preferred the scenic route! The cave is 115m deep and there are loads of steps.  Blue John is a semi-precious stone, which looks a bit like amethyst in the ground, but is a deep, dark blue when it's polished.  The jewellery's quite expensive though. I am actually scared of heights, so it amazes me that I can go down and down and not be bothered.  As far as I know, I'm claustrophobic, so I was pleased I was fine to be so far down in the ground.  It wasn't a warm day on the surface, but it was pretty cold down there, I have to say (around 7 degrees I think).  It is a fascinating place, though, and I'm so glad we went.  We haven't been since the children were quite young. After that, we drove on to Eyam plague village.  Basically this village was hit by the plague in 1665...

Today was Elyssa's birthday party.  She's four.  How the time has flown.  Being a grandmother is one of my favourite things in my entire life!  Why do we love them so much?  Why would we lay down our lives for these creatures? I know I'm biased, but I find these children very funny (and very cheeky!) and totally adorable.  Reece and Elyssa, in particular, are total characters.  Half an hour with Reece and you feel like the Artful Dodger has paid you a visit. These small people are constantly on the go, so capturing these pics is a miracle: She was really squeezing me here. I might make this my facebook profile picture. My eldest daughter's youngest son! I love days when the whole family gets together.  I must remember that this day was hot, too, as I don't think we've had a brilliant summer really.  Normally by the time the children break up for the summer, we've already had the best of it. Back soon Jane

I've realised one of my favourite things in life is to go to the cinema to see a really good film.  We've seen several over the summer.  This is today's offering, and I must say, I wasn't disappointed.  We've come a long way since Roddy McDowell played an ape (remember him?!) Once I'd got past the whole, 'this is a talking ape' thing, I was totally sucked into the action.  Plus of course Woody Harrelson is in it.  I really don't know why I like him, but I do, especially in The Hunger Games trilogy.  We might get this when it comes out on DVD.  Have you seen it?  What did you think? Back soon Jane x

I'm really loving how this turned out.  I love the bear.  Bears are a family thing for us because our surname, Orson, means bear.  Polar bears, especially, are quite a special thing too, but I do like this bear.  These stickers are such fun, they're a delight to use. It has dawned on me that I haven't done my OLW for this month, but you can't do everything, can you?  I've noticed from watching the tennis, that I feel guilty for only watching television, so I've been trying to do other things at the same time, and short-changing both of them.  When John comes home from work he sits and watches television until he falls asleep and doesn't feel guilty at all, because he knows he works hard.  So why do I feel I shouldn't do it because I only work part-time and constantly have to justify my existence?  Hmmm. Back soon Jane

Hi there! I decided to join in with Cori Spieker's Faithful Listers Club as well this month.  I've started making my own travelers notebooks and have actually bought a long arm stapler, which I think will make it a lot easier.  I think it will be a good way of using up some 12x12 paper as well, as I've still got far too much.  I've actually put a blanket ban on buying any more and I've been true to my word and not bought any for about 18 months, as I don't make cards any more and I don't scrapbook, so I have no excuse! I've seen so many ways of using a TN and I really like the look of them.  I've sort of ground to a halt with this though as I find the size is too big so that I spend ages decorating, when I don't really have that much time.  But here's how they're turning out: I've used the Simple Stories Cabin Fever range, picked out Stampin' Up inks that match, and the flowers are a set from Lawn Fawn, which I ...

I haven't joined in with LGL for a while, but I decided to give it a go this month, as the prompts had the Camp Reset theme (and doing it for the whole month would earn you a badge!  There's my motivation, right there!) For this month I've decided to use the Cabin Fever range from Simple Stories.  I've seen this around, and of course it's very American, so I never thought I'd have a reason to use it, but Camp Reset turned out to be the perfect opportunity.  Here we go: I am in love with this washi tape, and I loved putting the sticker that says 'Trail Head' at the top, as this is my beginning of Camp Reset, do you see what I mean?  It totally made me smile. I've really enjoyed filling this in.  I totally love the Carpe Diem horizontal pages because I want to decorate pages but I don't do long lists, so these are ideal. Hope you like it anyway. Back soon, I'm sure Jane x

We had to buy (or obtain!) a magazine for Camp and I went to W H Smiths to see what they sell.  I ended up being in there for an hour, as there are some fantastic publications around these days.  I knew roughly what I wanted, but some of them are quite expensive, so I had to choose carefully.  I did buy a copy of Daphne's Diary, which is also lovely, but this magazine turned out to be perfect: It's actually got articles on it about how to wander and a playlist for wandering.  I've been sitting in the garden in the sunshine reading this and it's been an absolute treat.  I will be buying another one, I just need somewhere cozy to sit and snuggle up and read it.  What's your favourite magazine? Back soon Jane x

Okay, the thing you don't really know is that for about the last 18 months I have become a total planner obsessive!  I don't know why I haven't really documented it in here, but just to bring you up to speed: I am a massive fan of everything Simple Stories make.  So when they brought out the Carpe Diem planner, it was love at first sight.  I got the Robin's Egg blue for my birthday last year.  But if you'd told me I'd end up with more than one, I'd have laughed.  But then this happened: From the bottom: My beautiful Kikki K. I love her.  She is now my Wellness planner.  I keep all my Slimming World notes and meal plans and anything connected to health in here. The pink one is my Reset Girl one.  She is actually in storage for use next year, but I knew if I didn't buy one I'd regret it for ever! Next is my original, my Robin's Egg blue.  She is my current day-to-day planner. And then, this year, I grabbed the Floral Dot planner. ...

Abby put this photo on facebook, and I absolutely love it.  These are my darling grandchildren, and the chances of getting them all to sit still and look in the same direction are minimal, let along smiling and looking happy! Elyssa is 3 (but it's her birthday soon) Reece is also 3 (yep!) and Ebony is 9.  They are so precious to me, I can't begin to tell you.  I think I was probably quite a strict mum, but as a grandmother I couldn't be more different.  I don't know what causes that change, but I love it!  "Do you want that darling?  Of course you can have it, have two!" "What?  You want to eat one of those?  Of course you can sweetheart, mummy won't mind!" (and nanny doesn't care!) Because they live quite a distance away, we don't see them as often as we'd like.  I wanted to be that granny round the corner who has the children every day after school, but sadly it's not to be.  However, it does mean that every moment with th...

So getting into the swing of things now with Camp Reset.  I asked at church if anyone could lend me a tent, and in fact they said yes, but John said, much to my astonishment, that we may as well buy one, so off we went to Argos, and got this: I'm having a ball sitting in here reading.  It's quite warm at the moment.  Camp Reset is all about having mindful moments and it's making me realise I don't go outdoors very often, even when it's warm.  Our garden is a surprisingly active place!  The beauty of having our own tent is that I can keep it up as long as I like and next year I can put it up in May if the weather is good enough.  I've even sat in it when it's been raining, and there's something very relaxing about reading a good book and listening to the rain drumming on the canvas. I dare say it's only a matter of time before I spill a cup of coffee in here! Back soon Jane

Hi there! For a while now I've felt the need to return to Blogland.  Why?  Because I seem to be putting a lot of posts on Instagram and Facebook, and they're out there for a matter of minutes and then they're gone (especially on Instagram!)  I need a place to co-ordinate everything I'm doing, and I've decided a blog is the perfect place to do it.   The other reason is that our house is too small and there just isn't room for files and files of paper. I love taking photos, and let's be honest, we're all taking a lot more than we used to, but what do you do with them afterwards?  I like making mini-albums and things like that, but there's no way I'd be able to print them all off and keep them. I started flicking through my blog and was amazed at the memories that are stored on there.  I didn't trust Blogger at first, and thought it might all disappear into the ether, but my blog is still on here from our days at the farm, and it's love...