Day out in Torquay

Oh my goodness, we have just had a week of SUNSHINE!!!  Yes, it has been absolutely beautiful weather for at least a whole week.  And it has been HOT and there have been BLUE skies ... yes, BLUE skies, AND not a cloud in sight, no grey skies and no more rain.  Truly it's been miraculous.

And so we planned a day out to Torquay ... yippee!  I've never been to Torquay so I was very excited.  Torquay is a town in the area of Torbay and county of Devon.  It is a tourist resort by the sea, 22 miles east of Exeter in the South West of England and during the peak of summer, it's population can swell to 200,000.

Andy took most of the pictures I've used.  He is so much better at photography for one thing and for the other, I couldn't see my screen most of the time because it was so sunny.  

Here we are at Taunton station, waiting for our train

Which arrived perfectly on time .... thank you Great Western Railways :)

This time we sat on the opposite side of the carriage to the one with spectacular views of the sea so I took a picture of Andy instead

and he took one of me

The journey was around 50 minutes and before we knew it we had arrived in Torquay.  I smelt the delicious smell of the ozone as soon as we got out of the train.  And in the bright sunshine, even the train looks cheerful.

We are walking alongside the sea on our right, towards the Marina area

It almost feels like we are abroad.  Torquay is also known as the English Riviera because it is warm here and sheltered so much so that Palm Trees grow here.   The tide was in but there are plenty of people sunbathing right by it on the concrete walkway.

I feel like I'm in heaven.  The weather conditions are perfect and check out the BLUEness of it all.

This building ahead had a large shopping area inside it.

Love the architecture and wish I was up there on the roof

There are some really nice hotels and buildings on top of the hill overlooking the marina.

The sea was amazingly clear and we saw fish.  Lots of them but this was the best photo.  I don't know what kind of fish it was.  We also saw plenty of jellyfish and also a large crab clinging to a boat's rope.  It was difficult to take pictures because it was so bright and sunny we couldn't see our smartphone's screens that well.  Andy did a great job though.  

You might have to click on the photo for a closer look.  In this picture below there are loads of fish

Torquay really is a picturesque place.

I started having fantasies about owning a boat ... and living a millionaire lifestyle ***sweet dreaming****

We had a lovely lunch (I've forgotten the name of the place now!).  Andy had feta and walnut in a warm bagette (that wasn't warm) with salad and a bowl of chips and I had Lemon and Chilli Glazed chicken with salad.  I was trying hard to be good with my food and not order anything too fattening but the salad had oil all over it.  But hey I still managed to lose 1 and a half lbs this week .... yay!  We saw a lot of fat people in Torquay which helped me stay on the straight and narrow :)

We visited two really nice shops.  One was a gift shop called SeaBreeze with nautically themed giftware and houseware .... I've gotta go back there, I saw a lovely starfish necklace :).  The other place was Haddon Galleries which had some fantastic art work and limited edition prints for sale.  And a lot of Sam Toft paintings (we are big fans of his work).

On the way back to our train, the tide had gone out and there were a lot of people on the beach

And in the sea

We liked this cute ticketing office/building outside what looked like some kind of sports park.

Finally we returned to Torquay railway station.  We had a very friendly guard at Torquay railway station and he kindly took this lovely photo of us both

We were very lucky to get back on the train to Newton Abbot (where we had to change trains to get back to Taunton) because there were only 2 carriages and it was absolutely full.  We had booked our train and so squeezed on but we were squeezed like sardines in a can.  Why only 2 carriages when the school holidays had just begun?  Common sense lacking Great Western Railway?

Once we had got onto our Taunton Train we had room to relax.  And Andy could take artistic photos of our return journey

And I could take really bad photos, then give up and play 'bubble shooter' :)

Thanks for stopping by .....

Seahorse card with Gutsy and Greedy

Another seaside themed card using more clear stamps from Hero Arts.  First I sponged on Salty Ocean and Squeezed Lemonade distress inks, making sure I edged the card with more Salty Ocean to give a nice edge. Then I dropped water from a dropper to get some nice droplet effects.  The seahorse, starfish and little sea flowers (?) I stamped with Salty Ocean.  And then added black glossy accent for the seahorse's eye.

I love the seaside and would love to live there.  I hear it is a lot healthier to live by the sea than inland and O can well believe it.  Andy and I are taking a trip to Torquay next week so I will be showing pictures of our day out soon.

And now I want to show pictures of  'Gutsy' and 'Greedy' our beautiful fantail goldfish.  Although they are just goldfish they seem to have personalities and are quite the greediest little fish you ever did see.  They love eating just about anything I give them.  I feed them mainly fish pellets, bloodworms, peas, broccoli, cucumber and lettuce.

They've come a long way since I got them (August 2011). These two pictures were taken last year whereas the picture above was taken today.   See, they love their broccoli

I've noticed how much they've changed.  The gold coloured one is now totally gold whereas when I got him he was nearly all black with some gold bits as in this picture below.  

The calico fish is a lot bigger now and has a beautiful fantail

We walked up to Watermarque (an aquarium shop) on Sunday.  We saw some beautiful goldfish ...

These are all coldwater fancy goldfish and I love these so much.  Especially the high head Orandas and the little lionhead in the far right corner, sweet.

Oh well, that's enough about fish.  I haven't made any cards in awhile.  I'm just not in a creative mood at the moment.  It'll come back soon enough.

Thanks for stopping by ....

Fishy scene

Have been having computer glitches this morning and almost gave up hope of a blog post.  But eventually I got things working. Phew!

I used Hero Arts clear stamps for this card and I'm going to have to come back and re-edit this post with the name of the stamps because I can't remember and haven't got time to look for them to let you know. I stamped the fish onto the base card and then stamped them again, cut them up and stuck them on with foam pads to give a 3d effect.  I used black glossy accents on their eyes and clear glossy accents on the little spiky sea flowers.

This mini card is made with a mixture of distress inks .... Squeezed Lemonade, Broken China, Salty Ocean and Peacock Feather .... I like these colours smudged together .... and dropped some water over it to give the nice splodgy effect.

I'm so cold today .... another July day in the UK and no sign of summer.  Just continual rain, grey skies and cold, damp weather.   Apparently we are going to have a dry day on Sunday, I hope so.  Actually we have been lucky the last few Sundays so I'm hoping it will be a day sat in Andy's garden catching some rays.

Thanks for stopping by ....

Sparkle Bird

For this card I made another bird using the Memory Box forest bird die ..... smudged with distress inks and then splattered with water to give that cool speckley effect which I also used on the background.  Distress inks used were Shaded Lilac, Mown Lawn and Picked Rasberry.  


The 'wing' of the bird is smudged with Peeled Paint distress stickles.  Black glossy accent is used for his eye. The willow leaves on the background are from Lavinia Stamps.

Just a short post today.  I'm hoping to be making more cards this week so will have more to show soon.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Just a Note

At last I'm back with a new card to show ....

I haven't been in a card making mood so haven't had a wealth of ideas.  But thought I'd have a go with the new summer seasonal distress inks Salty Ocean and Mown Lawn which I blended onto this card.  And then simply added 'Just a Note' label stamp by Hero Arts.  I added glossy accent onto the bird and heart to give it added pizzazz.

Meanwhile I've been playing with my new super phone the Samsung Galaxy 3 which I LOVE.  And more importantly, I LOVE the camera on it so have been taking a lot of pictures.  I took this picture of a fucshia in Andy's garden and was amazed at how well it came out.

And then who else did I take a picture of?

Why, of course, Miss Miaowski.  That little beauty, upstaging the freesias, like she does.  The light levels weren't great and I haven't learnt how to make adjustments for that yet so that's why it looks a bit subdued.  And Miaowski would like it to be known that she is anything but subdued ... infact while I was messing with the camera she tried smacking the camera out of my hand!

Andy and I had a lovely day in his garden and had lunch followed by these peaches.  These are 'donut' peaches and they are sweet, juicy and delicious.

And talking of delicious ... yes Andy :)

Also, did you notice the blue sky in the background?  Yes we had some sunshine .......... YES, SUNSHINE in England!!!!!! The first really pleasant day in DAYS!!!! Yes I know, don't pass out with the shock!!!!   It was gorgeous  And is it now the start of summer?  NOOOOOOOO .... because we are now forecast another week of COLD, rainy weather ...... 'sighhhhhhh'.  

Anyway I am not one for NOT taking advantage of sunny weather....

Well you have to don't you????

It wasn't all relaxation in the sun, someone had a leaky roof to fix....

While I carried on practising with my camera and took this picture of a bee on lavender

Okay, that's enough pictures for now.

I will be back with another card some time this week.  I have one already made but it's just knowing when I'm going to get the time on my computer.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Sending Love

Happy 1st July!  Ha ha just joking ... it's the 2nd :-), actually I just nipped in here to re-edit this ha ha!

I made this card for my lovely Andy ... hopefully he won't see this before I give him his card tomorrow :).

I masked off the edges of the white card with masking tape.  And then sponged on Squeezed Lemonade and Spiced Marmalade distress inks.  Then added Barn Door distress ink around the edges.

I really love Memory Box products so was pleased when they bought out their dies.  This bird (Forest Bird) die is so cute I had to have it.  I sponged Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade, Barn Door and Aged Mahogany distress inks onto the birds and then flicked some water droplets over to give a nice speckley effect.  And then used some black glossy accents for their eyes.  The heart (CL582) and sentiment (clear stamp from a set I can't remember, sorry!) are both by Hero Arts.

We have been having even more awful weather here in the UK.  You'd think I would have made a zillion cards by now seeing as I can't get out with all the rain.  Well other things have been cropping up.  I hope to have more cards made soon but it all depends what is happening this week.

For one thing I'm getting my phone upgraded tomorrow to the new Samsung Galaxy 3 - yippeeeeeee!!  Can't wait but it will mean I have to work out how to use it over the next few days so I'm afraid my blog might go quiet for a bit.  I will be back soon though.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Miaowski Therapy

Well I haven't made any cards in awhile so it's time for a return of beautiful pictures of Miaowski.  And here she is looking exceptionally cute.

As she isn't a cat who is the most affectionate of felines, Andy decided she needs picking up more often.  So she is going to have to get used to being held.  That is, if Andy can bear having her claws digging in as she tries to leap out of his grasp ...

Looks like she isn't going stay put too long.  And sure enough I just managed to take this picture before she escapes.

Hope to be back soon with some cards soon.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Day out in Teignmouth

And so the day begins with blue skies, puffy clouds and sunny sunshine.  It looks a great day to be going to the seaside.

The train whizzes by some nice scenic English countryside.

These train journey pictures are not in any particular order.

Andy looking nautical :)

 A church I noticed while we sped past Exeter ....

  

And then the River Exe was in sight.  We sped past the seaside town of Exmouth which is at the east side of the estuary mouth and Dawlish Warren which is at the west, with it's long sand spit extending across ...

 

And then ... major excitement when we could see the sea from the train!!!!

And I haven't seen the sea for around 10 years so I was really excited.

We are almost at Teignmouth

Just arriving now

I feel like I'm looking out a cruise ship window

And here is Teignmouth....

I liked it a lot.  It's a pretty seaside town

Notice the BLUE skies ........... such a rarity for us this year (and it was a one off sunny day this week).

Well, the sea air made us ravenous.  So we headed for the Beachcomber cafe.  Andy chose a full vegetarian fry up.  Ooops chopped off the top of Andy's head!

 And very tasty it looked too

 And I had a panini with brie, bacon and cranberry sauce.  With some chips and a side salad.  Yummylicious!

Didn't manage to get a picture, but after our lunch, I'd left a few chips and bacon behind and a couple of ravenous seagulls swooped down onto the plate (scraping Andy's head in the process) and stole the rest of the food!  Would've been a great picture!

After lunch we got onto the pier to take even more pictures

And for Andy to fulfill his dream of becoming a deep sea diver

  

This was right at the far end of the pier overlooking the beautiful sea

 I like the seahorse railings

 So glad I didn't drop my phone :)

 And here is Andy and my shadows .... he's taking the picture and I'm waving

After the photo session at the pier, we developed another hungry appetite.  So it was back to the Beachcomber to check out the menu

Andy chose a delicious hot apple pie and clotted cream

And I chose a knickerbocker glory which wasn't a great idea because it was sooooo cold I had to put my coat on afterwards!

We were so full when we headed back to Teignmouth railway station.

We're on our way home 

The blue skies in the photos were on Tuesday and today it is Thursday and all we have today is grey skies and plenty of rain.  Not to mention the very cool temperatures of 14C.  It is midsummer's day today and holy crap it's frikkin freezing!!!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by ...