Friday, 26 April 2013

LONDON... HARRY POTTER STUDIOS!

 
 
Off the family set to check out Harry Potter sets and by all means the general consensus is WOW!
They were sorted into 'Slytherin'!
 
Paige doing a 'stag jump' at Kings Cross... Platform 9 3/4
 

Paige and her photo from Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross Station (in the background) 

 

Front of the Warner Bros. Studios in Watford, England
 




Hannah, dh and Paige at the Gate to Hogwarts Set


Costuming





Leaky Cauldron (that's in London) Meaghan and Hannah.


 Rule Plaques set by Dolores Umbridge

 
 
Great Hall Staff table with Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, oh and Hannah and Paige
 
 
Paige in the Mirror of Erised


Meaghan at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets
 
 
The Knight Bus sign
 
 
Meaghan, Hannah and Paige on the Knight Bus 


 The inside of the Knight Bus


 Meaghan and Hannah on Hagrid's Motorbike
 
 
Meaghan, Hannah and Paige in the Weasley's Flying Car



 
 
 
Meaghan, Paige and Hannah at no. 4 Privet Drive
 
 
Knock and Run at number 4!! :P
 
 Meaghan on the bridge at Hogwarts
 
 
 Hannah and DH at the Potter's House in Godricks Hollows
 
Meaghan and the King from Wizards Chess
 
 
Paige and her favourite character Dobby the House Elf
 
 
Meaghan outside Olivanders Wand Shop
 
 
 
Paige and a painting of Dobby (and the head of a Death Eater to the right)
 
Hannah and Meaghan with Hogwarts Castle model
 
 Paige and the Hogwarts Castle model
 
 Hannah, Paige and just a small fraction of the wands from Olivanders
 
 
 
Paige and the Sorting Hat
 
 Hannah and the Triwizard Cup
 
The four cats used as Crookshanks (Hermione's cat) throughout the 8 movies
 All the owls used as Harry's owl Hedwig
 
The dogs used as Fang (Hagrid's sook of a dog)
 
 
 Paige on the way to the Ministry of Magic
 
 Hannah outside Olivanders Wand Shop
 
 
Hannah outside Flourish and Blotts,  the wizard book shop (for school supplies)
 
 
 
Quite a trip~!~
 
 
 


Thursday, 25 April 2013

Let's Get Shabby Challenge #45

 
 It's all about being inspired by


Confetti

Here's my DT sample...
Hope you can play along with our challenge
 

 


Wednesday, 24 April 2013

WE'VE BEEN TO LONDON!


 
 
Here we are in  LONDON!
 
We were all so tired from our flight from Beijing to London, that we just booked a room at the Hilton at Gatwick Airport even though it was only early morning.   Here we  flopped and re-organised ourselves for the coming days...
 
Booked 2 bed apartment next to Tower Bridge on the Thames for next two nights. Felt like a day of trains trying to get to it!  We caught the tube, lugging suitcases into London, then more trains linking here and there so we could get to our accommodation
 
 
 Dropped off luggage and caught more trains to meet family at Covent Gardens.  We had lots of laughs and a great English dinner!
 
It poured with rain and thundered so loud outside as we said goodbyes.   Then we looked around at the market, the girls recognised 'My Fair Lady' buildings in the  square

 
 
And the busking was amazing!!
 
 
Then back on trains/tube again to get to some very elderly relatives, Jack and Sheila.  Here’s a photo of them in their younger days…  I’m sure they wouldn’t like a pic of them now so frail, so lets look at this one!
 I stayed with them 21yrs ago when I was in London for ballet, and they ran me around everywhere I needed to go.   They were wonderful and after so much time has passed,  I remembered where to go to find their house from the train station.  Jack cried when he saw us, he had had aged so much, shuffling along with his frame.   Sheila is much better only uses a walking stick.  How they get up and down those stairs in their 'two up and two down' is beyond me.   They manage. Lots of chatting and reminiscing, Paige helped Jack get the cups of tea, he told her 'it was like having Mandy here all over again helping me'!   He's still pretty sharp mostly with his memory, just lapses every now and then, but pretty good.  Sheila had us in fits of laughter - ever the comic.    We had a Chinese meal together before saying our goodbyes.
 
Next morning we got out and about London….  and headed down to Leicester Square…





 Hannah in front of the fountain, and in the background – the National Art Gallery – we went inside and it was massive – and very impressive!  We could have spent ages in there and got lost amongst the paintings, room after room and architecture!
 
 
Then as luck would have it, we stumbled upon the ‘Changing of the Guards’
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Big Ben and Double Decker Bus (just happened to be going past Big Ben at the time!)

 
 and the impressive Westminster Abbey



Downing Street
 
 
 Paige wanted to do the 'Monopoly' thing so went to Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square,
White Hall, Regent Street; Piccadilly, Leister Square etc - a bit of fun but walked our
legs off! 
 
Buckingham Palace


 
 
 
 
ST James Park (in front of the Palace)




 
 
Then dh, Hannah and Paige set off to Watford to met Meaghan for their Hogwarts tour.  Aparently my family fit into the 'Slithering' team... and came back
with wands, maps, Hannah a slithering jacket, mugs, chocolate and god knows what else
we have to fit into our luggage!  They said it was fantastic (I couldn't think of
anything worse...but that is of no consequence because they think me mad).
 
 
Next post soon – will all be about Hogwarts!!  (need Paige andh Hannah’s help with this – would hate to get anything wrong!! LOL)
 


Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Weekly Project Album and The Studio Challenges!

 
Got a bit of work done before I went away....
here it is:
 
 
 
 
 
 I've been watching and reading all about Project Life, and thought it wasn't really for me, but the more I read, the more I blog hopped, the more I saw the products....

Weeeeeeeeeeeell, I thought I'd have a go. Let's see if I do like this whole idea of weekly page for the year of 2013.

Yes, yes, I know... its April already - but that's okay each page only needs to be a couple (could be more, could be less) of photos representing each week. So looking back through my pics since the start of the year... I can do that! I've printed them out, popped them in an envelope with the week number on it.

I've thought about the size - and I've gone 12x12 - one album - this one:
 
  
 You can find a wonderful choice of Albums (all sizes) and Inserts HERE

As soon as you turn the cover over, there's a little black plastic insert that helps hold all the pages in place when the album is full. I've adhered the year on the plastic insert. Its made from Tim Holtz 'Word Play' die (I think its sold out, but ask Lee-Anne about it)
 


I've made my Scrap Therapy Sketch LO for April , my cover page.... and used a picture of Paige recording Hannah with the camera - so it was perfect. Its a 12x12 LO
 
 


Which means, I've done another 12x12 LO with Week One's photos for the reverse side to put in the same 12x12 sleeve. And luckily this paper from Simple Stories has pretty much done the work for this particular project for us!
Image

I seem to need to come to the terms that the purpose of doing pages like this are to be basic, and refrain from wanting to add more product - keep the time down that I'd normally spend on a page so it remains a viable productive weekly project and still be happy visually with the outcome... might be a challenge - I'm not sure :lol:
Nope I don't think it will take long to catch up to April. So long as the photos are continually taken and uploaded to my computer, then there are plenty to choose from.

Here's Week One's page
WRMK's Simply Spring Raindrop Cardstock
Prima Lifetime Brads

I'm off and running!
And this is going to be a regular spot... so keep watching!

Oh and p.s....
If you are into this... then look over at the pink right hand bar and you will see a 'Great for PL Styles' heading.... and it can take you to all sorts of products
http://www.scraptherapy.com.au/categories.php?cat=726
 
WEEK 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 
 
is all about Masks...
 
Here's my Guest DT LO....
Loved playing with this...
Masked with some butterfly wings (off old barbies the girls had years ago!) with texture paint.  The little gumnut and leaves, are watercolour pastels I painted and cut out...
 
Hope you can join in, and see the dt's LO's - they are fabulous!
 
xx