Friday Night in with the kitties & muffins!

So who says you have to go out and party on Fridays? I had a great Friday night in with my little furry pals and some muffins.....ok that sounds dumb, but basically i spent my night baking some yummy muffins, which i find very theraputic when i'm stressed, and spent some quality time with my cats, how can that be bad?

They are funny little creatures, and entertaining for sure!! I decided to take out ALL of their toys(they have their own Toy Chest full o' them) and have a cull of them, and Wow!! They do have a LOT of toys for being cats. More toys then i have, ok so i'm an adult, but you are never too old for toys! So i decided that some of their toys had seen better days and after months of being drooled on and dragged around the floor the only kind thing to do for them was to put them outta their misery, so i threw some away to get ready for x-mas when, of course, they get spoiled with new ones!!! Gotta make sure there's plenty of room for the new toys! Hahah!

Tea Party

Continuing on from the previous Belsay Hall post, i've been playing with more of the photos from that visit. It was a great exhibit! As you can tell it was most inspiring for taking photos! hahaha!

Everyone likes the idea of a teaparty.....this one got a bit out of hand i think, ha!

Belsay Hall

One great thing about England is all the historical things to visit & see. I visited a stately home called Belsay Hall near Newcastle which had amazing gardens and a crumbling castle on the grounds, but it also had the unique idea to host an art exhibit in which the artists used the stately home as inspiration for a piece.

There were some amazing things, and some weird things and it was fantastic inspiration for taking snaps! So here are some of them(manipulated a tiny bit, yay!!)!

York

York is very beautiful......it's so quaint and cobblestoney and just a nice place to wander around - even if it's raining. And of course it always helps if you have someone to wander around with that is enthusiastic about showing you the coolest places York has to offer. Such as the shop where they make home made fudge(yummmmm!) and the cutest cosiest pubs around, and the ruins of a stone wall that goes almost around the whole city(which even in the rain is nice to meander along) .....and if that person happens to be super patient and doesn't mind when you decide to take detailed photos of barbed wire, and other random stuff that isn't on the list of must-see's for any other tourist, then they deserve a big gold star!!!! (and maybe a nice hot cup of cocoa from the 'Buck) hehehe

So yeah, York is great and I thoroughly enjoyed my brief visit there, even if it was raining, and I think it was mainly the company that helped with that enjoyment :)

An unexpected surprise....

Gorgeous flowers arrive unexpectedly on an average yet stressful Monday....all I can say is "Wow!"

That makes for a total change in the mood of the day, that's for sure, and a huge grin as well.

And of course, me being me, i have to take a million zillion pics and play with them on Photoshop.....so here they are for you to peek at as well, maybe you will have a seemingly neverending grin plastered across your face too??

Alton Towers

I love rollercoasters! So going to Alton Towers was a great idea....at first. Ha!

When we found out we had to catch a bus at 5:30am just to get us there, our smiley faces turned to angry teeth-baring faces! So yeah, we were up at 4:30am to ensure we got to the bus collection point on time.......the bus took 6 HOURS to get somewhere that should only take 2 1/2 hours......FUN STUFF! Then we had only 5 1/2 hours of fun time at the theme park, only to have to board the bus again for another 6 HOURS back home - hehehehe!

In the words of the great Homer Simpson: D'oh!

Ok, so that's the negative side of it.... the positive side was that we had fun! We rode 5 rides(great roller coasters!), it was a gorgeous sunny day(totally unexpected!), got to eat tasty junk food, mmmmmmm, and got to have the Alton Towers experience, so all in all.....thumbs up!!

Just for next time i'm going to drive myself!!!!! hahahah

Photoshop - silhouettes!!!

Ok, so another little trick cracked......well, the very basics of it only, and not that i'm some expert or nuthin, just had a dabble and managed to make it work! My friend Andi asked if i could do a silhouette style image of a picture she has, so i was determined to find out how to do it......and here are my first attempts at it!

Now, they may not be that impressive to the naked eye, but anyone who is familair with my lack of knowledge on Photoshop will be impressed!!!(and of course my Mom will be proud o' me, cuz she's cool like that, heheheh) There's two methods that i've found, with two totally different results really......both cool looking i think.

So yeah, gold star for meeeeeee!!!

It was like a little treasure hunt, I hunted some web tutorials out and even learned how to mask a layer in the process, yay me!!!

So let's hope Andi is liking what she sees??? heheheh

Before & After....the Bedroom....

Well, the yellow/lime green version is the "before"...and actually it's not even a great depiction of the HIDEOUSNOUS of it.....the carpet was mangy, tired and BRIGHT lime green all at the same time(how is that possible?!?) but it was ugly, and we lived with it for over two years, since we bought this house, maybe it had a strange hypnotic effect on us....heheheh.....but it is only now that we are trying to sell the house that we decided it has to go! We've painted the walls a neutral magnolia and got a lovely tan carpet to replace the green-ugliness!!! And WOW it looks different and very nice and i actually like sleeping in it now......heheheh

You can even see Zoot on the corner of the bed.....awwww...he likes it too!

What do you think?

More photos from camping.....

A few more camping photos from Scarborough & Whitby, but jazzed up a lil bit.......wish it really was summery here! It was one day of sun! hahahah then rain, rain, rain!