Castles and Craft

I'll show the Accordion album I made for Aimee's 18th in a minute, but first another batch of pics from our recent trip to Northumberland - today is all about castles!

I love castles, I guess its not surprising as I grew up in Northumberland which is stuffed full of them! My most favourite is Warkworth Castle - I spent so much time there when I was little - being only a few miles from home it was the perfect playground for us kids - there's a fantastic, fairly intact Keep with lots of rooms to explore, there are towers and tunnels and all sorts of nooks and crannies - no trip "home" goes by without a visit to Warkworth - occasionally we don't even go inside - just sit in the car park and check on it from there -I know that sounds a bit mad, but I need my "fix" even if there's not time to head inside. We've been members of English Heritage since we got married so we get in all their properties for "free" and there are so many fab places to visit - especially "up north". Our holidays and weekend aways tend to start with checking out the EH guidebook to see whats on offer in the area.
Anyway, nop photos of Bamburgh Castle from this visit - we drove through the village a couple of times on our way up the coast and honestly, the place was STUFFED! I know it's lovely there, but who wants to be like a sardine in a tin when there's so much more coast and countryside that you can get pretty much to yourself? We didn't even stop the car....
First - and especially for Ruth, Prudhoe Castle;
Right up towards the borders is little Etal Castle - we had a picnic lunch here and it was soooo peaceful. Last time we were there, a guy was doing a falconry display and it was fab - he flew two birds at the same time and watching them swoop over the castle walls and down over our heads was amazing. This time Hubby and my Uncle spent ages trying to catch photos of the swallows that are roosting in the castle ruins
Even closer to the border (I think) we visited Norham Castle for the first time - hard to believe that there are still castles I've not been to up there! Norham's a bit TOO close to the Scottish border for my taste - I just don't go there - it ALWAYS, without fail, throws it down with rain whenever I do. I'm not exagerating either! lol

I saved the best for last - and I've managed to hold myself back - only three photos!
I'm preety sure that between us we've taken more photos at Warkworth than of any other single place - it's funny but nearly all of our Warkworth photos have fab skies too - a few years ago we were there in December - there was a thick frost on the ground and it was perishing cold - but the sky was beautiful and we took some of our favourite photos on that occasion.
As it's so close to "home" Warkworth tends to be our Sunday morning venue - just time to get there and back, and have a little explore while my aunt is cooking Sunday lunch! The other good thing about going then is that there are fewer other visitors and there's more chance of getting people-free photos!
Beautiful, isn't it?

I'm really struggling to get my crafty mojo going since we got home - and I really need to as I've got loads to do.
As I've failed to show the book I made for Aimee despite mentioning it a few times I'm going to do that now, before I forget again!
I made this for Beckie Dreyer's Bumbleberry Crafts Limited Edition kit - it's full of the bruight and funky 3 Bugs "Butterfly Kisses" papers, plus perfectly matching card (some is coredinations), ribbons, brads and buttons etc

It's an Accordion Album and sturdy enough to stand up on its own to display the photos Aimee will be able just to slot in under the flaps, corners and ribbons.
This is the front of the book
This is one side of pages
And this is the other side

The back of the book looks like this:

It's a really lovely kit and I think there are still a couple available - you can find out more HERE and contact Beckie there or via Bumbleberry Crafts.

Right, I've procrastinated long enough. I need to go and find that mojo.....or maybe I'll just make a coffee first....or I could do another load of washing.....or....