ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 44TH OF 2020

 Good morning lovely people tis Friday time for 

So as you will know from last week's post we were away last week, so this week you get the enjoyment of seeing what we got up to (as this week has been wall to wall work and trying to get back into the grove) 

So first up a trip to Brinkburn Priory, it surprised us as the church was intact despite Henry VIII dissolution of the monasteries, reading up afterwards it appears it was repaired in the Victorian era as it wasn't completely ruinous unlike some of the abbeys and monasteries around the country

The inside was beautiful and the stained glass absolutely gorgeous

The rear of the church and you can see the church on the left and the manor house built with some of the outbuildings on the left, although they used the original monastery footprint for the cellars.  The house is in ruins inside as they had a significant dry rot problem and I'll be honest, the church building and the half remaining cloisters were far prettier. 

then we toddled off to Newbiggin by the sea, to see their sea sculpture

The maquette to the statue is on the sea front, so we found that too

And managed to get a photo of the maquette and the statue in the shot, the artist is Sean Henry who did the man on the hill at Yorkshire Sculpture Park

The following day we went to Belsay Hall Castle and gardens, it was a lovely day, very peaceful walking through the quarry garden and we loved the smell of the candyfloss tree that is grown quite prolifically here and smells at this time of year of burnt sugar

The hall and castle are always a beautiful sight I love the warmth of the stone.  We couldn't climb the tower due to the times we live in, but we did enjoy the solace, the fresh air and time with each other. 

Tuesday saw us visiting Alnwick Castle, always a favourite as it was used for filming Harry Potter in the first two films.  This particular wall is the one the Ford Anglia flies over in the second film for anyone interested. 

We also went in search of Professor McGonagall's room as we wandered, not sure which one it is.  

Alnwick has also been used in the last transformers film as well as a key filming location for Downton Abbey and it is still lived in by the family that own it. 

Wednesday and we headed to Bamburgh Castle, despite the fact that it is one of the most iconic castles in the country we didn't actually get a photo of the exterior.  Again still lived in by its current owner, I must admit to admiring this amazing ceiling inside. 

We also were due to visit Dunstanburgh castle but as you can see the rain was pouring, we got half way along the path to it (as that's the only way to get there) and had to admit defeat and turn back, so this is as close as we got! 

Thursday was our penultimate trip out and we'd opted for the beautiful National Trust house of Cragside with its surrounding gardens, built during the Victorian era by an Industrialist, it is always such a delight, originally this was moorland which he planted out its hard to believe that it hasn't always been woods. 

Final day back to Alnwick but this time the gardens, designed and built in the year 2000 they really are amazing, we spotted this lego sculpture of the gardens on our way in

And here is the grand cascade in all its glory

Absolutely beautiful day just missing some blue skies but we managed to dodge the raindrops

So as you can see we had a lovely holiday away, thankfully it was last week and not this week, because had it been this week we'd have had to cancel as our local area is now in a local tier 3 lockdown, which means no moving in and out of the area amongst other things. 

We arrived home bright and early on Saturday, said 20 year old had been home alone all week working on his university stuff, so he was grateful for some company and it was fabulous to catch up. 

The rest of the week has been washing, drying, work etc but I'm definitely grateful for the break last week, it was very much needed! 

I hope you've had a good week too, if you fancy joining in, pop a post together, come back and link up and we can come and visit. 

BAMBURGH

Morning all and I find us at Wednesday morning already - where does the time go. 

I have had a busy old week up to now, mainly due to being back at work, being up at 6am to do a one and half mile walk and being utterly shattered of an evening, the crafting table is still being sadly neglected - sigh! 

However, I still have some layouts to share, this one was taken from the beach at Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland.  

The Castle can be seen for miles along the coastline, on this particular day - hubby decided to head down a dead-end street - which I thought was a dangerous move given how busy the road was with cars.  At the end we found a car park and meandered along the beach to get numerous photos of this imposing castle. 

I first heard of Bamburgh through scrapbook magazines, Jane Dean who was a regularly contributor and one of my favourite scrapbook designers who appeared to to holiday in the area and this Castle appeared on a good few of her layouts. 

I miss those magazines and I miss learning about the things other people did in their lives as it prompted us to do something different. 

Bamburgh is privately owned and still lived in and you can visit it, so win win.  It was recently the filming location of Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender!

Layouts wise it was simply a mix of blues and greens and 'using up' some of the papers I had lurking on my desk using my hexagon die!

I hope you are having an awesome day and thank you for popping by! 

GAMES

Morning all, another layout from our Northumberland holiday last year. 

The last room at Bamburgh Castle has some games from many moons ago, said 15 year old and my sister decided to try them out, thankfully there were instructions to help! 

I must admit I'm ever so slightly addicted to my new alphabet, the title 'GAMES' in the layout above uses a set of clear stamps from a certain discount book store, they cost £1 I wasn't expecting them to be great and they do vary in size so I've had to be mindful of that when using them on layouts - there are two heights for the letters - if you notice the 'S' isn't quite as tall as the 'E' - but they give a really crisp finish and I like them! 

Hope you are having a fab day! 

DUSK

Sometimes colours make me happy and that's what this layout and in particular this photo does for me. 

Bamburgh Castle is one of those iconic Castles, right on the edge of the beach, with the surrounding countryside being incredibly flat it can literally be seen from miles away.  We were treated to a beautiful sunset on a holiday there last year and the resulting photos and the scene itself was quite simply breathtaking, if you haven't had the privilege of visiting Bamburgh I can highly recommend.  Privately owned and still lived in it really is a fascinating castle.  

It also provided a great set piece for the most recent filming of Macbeth starting Michael Fassbender, we watched it over the weekend, for the first time, an amazing portrayal of a story that I've loved since my first introduction to Shakespeare in a live performance.  The film did not disappoint! 

The week is tripping along at a merry old pace at the moment, how is your week up to now - I hope it is being kind to you! 

UNIFORM AND HOLY ISLAND

Morning all, sharing some more layouts this morning.  The first one is a piece of art textile created by prisoners of war from their uniform, it can be seen hanging in Bamburgh Castle and really is the most intricate work of art made up of tiny pieces.

It was a thank you from the prisoners for their good treatment, an amazing piece of documented history. 

Then two shots of Holy Island (aka Lindisfarne), the first is the causeway across to the island - always an amazing journey.  The second is a of the large statue inside the priory. 

Hope you are having a happy scrapping day!

COUNTERFEIT KIT LAYOUTS 5 AND 6 - TIME AND LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE

I was asked recently why I particularly like the Counterfeit kits and it's down to the fact that I get to blend manufacturers.  It's always easy to buy a paper stack and make layouts as they are obviously designed to 'go together' but often you end up with sheets that at first glance you just don't think you'll use.  But with a kit you soon find you are blending all sorts of makes and papers and it's a great way to 'use up' papers that have sat dormant for a while.  This months kit is no different. 

So here is my 'time' layout documenting two sculptures from Chatsworth's Beyond Limits this year.  I love the head, book tree one with the roots from the tree intertwining the book and head - genius! 

Next up one of my favourite layouts from this month, I would never have put a pale grey with those colours, but how well do they work.  The photo is a panoramic shot taken on Seahouses beach of the coastline including the beautiful Bamburgh Castle (used in the new Macbeth film) to the left.  

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY

Good morning, afternoon, evening one and all, tis Friday which means it's...

This week has been a mighty strange one and one I thought I would be singing from the roof tops of how utterly fabulous and amazing life is, however, that isn't really the case and as I sit here on Thursday evening I really am going to have to dig awfully deep into the pockets to find those things.

Time with family at the weekend, having us all together was lovely

Hubby for just being pretty blinking awesome all the time

Said 13 year old for being fab too, I love him to pieces and hope he knows what an amazing young man he is, he's managed 71 achievement awards year to date and his end of term tracking shows good progress being made, his lovely wicked sense of humour makes me smile too!

My sister, she is totally and utterly amazing and I love her to the moon and back, we are so different and yet so similar it is wonderful to be able to chat to her about things and have a good old rant when we need to!

The local garage for sorting my clutch issues out at the beginning of the week (even though I did end up stalling the car several times to the bemusement of hubby as I've never had the clutch work as well as that LOL) and hopefully sorting out the brake light problem Friday morning (fingers and toes crossed if you would).

And that my lovely lovely people is going to be that for now.

Hope you've had a good week, I'll leave you with a layout (lack of photos again grrrr).  This one of the Lord Chamberlain's men in a production of As You Like it at Bamburgh Castle last year, twas a fab night!

 Up close you can just about make out the all male cast.

And the other side

Mr Linky

MONDAY MORNING POST - HOW ARE YOU FAIRING + CKCB LAYOUTS

Well that has to be one of the best weekends I've had in quite some time made up in one word - FAMILY!

Spending time with those closest to me over the last few days has been absolute bliss, it also means on a Monday morning that I'm absolutely shattered but hey that's the way things are!

I thought I'd share a few more counterfeit challenge kit layouts that I've done for March - see told you my kit ended up with a lot of pink in it.

First up the history project that said 13 year old did!

The Snow Queen in the library at Chatsworth a couple of years ago!

And a panoramic view off the top of Bamburgh Castle after we'd been to see a Shakespeare play!

 I hope you have a fabulous day today whatever you are up to!

COUNTERFEITING AWAY

Morning all, well this counterfeiting malarkey is such fun - I couldn't believe just how much fun I've been having, I'm gutted that my kit is almost fully depleted if I'm honest.

I might have to make a bigger kit next month!

This one incorporates some of the turquoise paper, based on the black card stock, I added buttons which I stitched to the paper.  I even managed a bit of stitching on the corner.

Up close you can see the hand stamped title; yes that does say Viking Flatpack.  This was the ultimate in DIY kit's when we were at Bamburgh Castle, apparently when the Vikings came over they brought furniture that could easily be put back together again, hence my title.