Let the scrapbooking begin

I've wanted to do scrapbooking for a while now. Over the past few months I've been gathering materials and albums in order to make a start. Sometimes, you need a boot up the butt to make you start, and I got that!
I have a few people I need to thank who gave the much needed boots! All are from the Cara Craft Supply forum. Lynda, both of us were LO virgins, and we "dared" each other to start. Lynda started with a fab LO of her twins and we did a materials swap, so I ended up with a fab album and papers and embellishments to start.
Kate then sent me more gorgeous papers and today, a massive package arrived from Niamh. It has gorgeous papers,metal embellishments and flowers.
The girls on the CS forum are so supportive and soooooooooo generous. Real pals.
So, I decided to start. I took a few pictures of my niece, Alison, while on holiday in Italy. We might only get to see her once or twice a year, so I was snap happy!
I did the first LO and then found I couldn't stop, so I immediately launched into a second one, and if I could have, I would have done a third, but alas, a family night out at the movies beckons.
I like this "scrapping" business. I'm planning a mini scrapbook for Rob's birth mother and some sort of family themed one.
Anyhooooo, these are my first 2 LO's

My niece Alison - cheesy feet!

Not easy to get a photo of this cheeky monkey. She pulls faces if you ask her to smile.
She couldn't wait for us to visit. She had a birthday cake organised for Robert and did 3 pictures for us - all wrapped in ribbon.
Thankfully, she decided to speak english to us. She spoke only Italian when Dad was there a few weeks back.
We call her cheesy feet. She loves to play cheesy feet telephone. I pretend her foot is a phone and tell her ,her feet are cheesy smelly - she belly laughs at this.
This pic doesn't really look like her - don't know why - but I love it anyway.



Had to take 5 shots of her before I got one with a normal face.


This is her "say cheese" look!


A water baby if ever I saw one. She can't swim just yet, but has no fear of water.

She taught me how to say "Hello, how are you" and "Can I help you" in Italian, but only because we were playing a "McDonalds Game". We played it for hours. I never want to see plastic chips,a red and yellow bleeping cash-register or fake burgers again!
But really hoping we'll see her before her 5th birthday in December.

I'm planning to do some LO's with the pics I've taken. I got two new albums and lots of papers and stuff to make a start.

Italy - the holiday

another view from the balcony.

The view from the Balcony (Lake Garda in the distance)

The house at Polpenazza

Just spent 8 glorious days with Annette, Piero and Alison in Italy. It's great having a sister who lives in one of my favourite places to holiday.

Things didn't get off to a great start. Robert broke his arm but we didn't realise it until we got there. So, it was hospital A&E for the 1st two days. His arm is now in plaster for 4 weeks. He couldn't use the swimming pool and our trip to Garda Land was cancelled. He wouldn't have been able to go on any of the rides. Gerry too ended up at the hospital with a nasty mossie bite. So he got tetenus shots and anti-biotics. Big thanks to Roberto for organising prompt attention at the hospital.

Alison has gotten so big and she spoke english to us all the time and taught me some Italian. For a four year old, I think she has been here before!

We got our usual invitation to Polpenazza for dinner. Angelo and Santina laid on a beautiful meal and we took a tour of his fantastic orchard and garden. It's hard to believe they just spend weekends and holidays here. Angelo did steak and ribs on a massive barbeque and Santina made her "to-die-for" lasagne.

More thanks go to Luigi (Gigi) for his running around from Pharmacy to Pharmacy.

The food as always was fantastic. I am forever jealous of the range they have on offer at the supermarkets. And the wine...............5.00 euro for 1.5 litres of Chianti !!! So, lots of that consumed. Brought back some rissotto and a lovely bean,porchini mushroom and onion mixture which Dad devoured half of when he came yesterday.And of course..shoes. Bought 4 pairs and got a pair from Annette - so not bad.

Didn't get to see Marino this trip. His mother is not in the best, so he doesn't visit as much.

Sad to leave behind the 30 degree heat and sunshine, expecially coming back to the dreary weather here.

We'll plan another holiday later in the year to make it up to Robert.