The Golden Olympics and my giveaway

The 2012 Olympics came to a close on Sunday and what an incredible games it was. I am so very proud of how GB hosted the games and also how our amazing athletes came away with so many medals.

 29 gold
 17 silver
 19 bronze.

What an achievement this was and we came 3rd overall in the medals table.

Well done team GB, your performance will not be forgotten. There is a victory parade planned in London is September and rightly so. I am glad you all enjoyed my visit to the games in my last post.
We have a local girl, Joanna Rowsell who is one of the gold medallist cyclists. She was born at our local hospital. This young lady is a particular inspiration as she has alopecia and lost all her hair around the age of  11. My son's girlfriend knows her as they both used to swim for Surrey. She really is a most remarkable girl and a huge inspiration to people who suffer from such a distressing condition.

To honour all our team GB medallists the Post Office decided to paint a post box gold where these champions were born. So we have a  local post box  which has been painted gold in honour of  Joanna's gold medal.

How cool is that! It has caused quite a stir and many people have stopped to take a photo of it.

Those of you who were unable to visit the Olympics liked the "inside" photos I shared last week.  I promised that I would show you the mementos I bought there.

I  bought a new mug which was only available inside the Olympic Park. It reads "I was at the London 2012 Olympics" and is made by Royal Doulton so is lovely quality too. I actually have a cup of tea in it as I type this!

I also have my tickets which I treasure. I am thinking of making a small scrapbook if I get time to put these things in as they are so lovely to look back on. I even have a special "Olympic" travel ticket which was included with the ticket cost.

As you know I do like pin badges and I found a couple of beauties. One is 1 of 1 as it was made from a photo that was taken of me.....holding no less than a real Olympic torch. Coca Cola ran this shop within the Olympic park

The photo was taken and then I handed it in. The badge only took a few moments to make. It was so impressive as unlike most handmade badges it is a proper enamel one.

How about that for a rather unique badge. I have worn this lots and had lots of double takes where people see it is me on the badge! This really is one to keep.








I also bought another limited edition Coca Cola 2012 Olympics badge

and 2 Venue only badges from the Aquatics Centre where we saw the springboard semi finals last Tuesday. So you may be asking why 2 badges...as they were hard to find.

Well.....one of them is the first prize for my promised 2nd Bloggerversary giveaway. This is a little overdue as it happened on 26 July but with the wedding etc I did not have a chance to sort this out.


As it is 2 years since I started blogging I am offering a 2nd prize too. The 2nd prize winner will win a bag charm of their choice! Just leave a comment at the bottom of this post and let me know the colour/theme you would like and I will try to make something appropriate. There are lots of "sold" or for sale bag charms in my  Etsy shop here and here are a couple of recent commissions to wet your appetite;

A pair for an owl lover...

and one for a Sewing Queen!!

Yes I have even started on my Christmas stock ;0)
















My giveaways are always open to everyone.
You do not need to be a follower but it is really lovely to see how many new friends have joined me recently.  You are all so welcome here.

So for my card challenge today; again I wanted something joyful to sing out the happiness that I have experienced during the Olympics and also for 2 wonderful years of blogging.

This is one of my all time favourite Lili of the Valley stamps called Dandelion Clock. This card is up for sale in my Etsy shop here

I love using blue and pink together. I coloured her using my Promarker pens and highlighted using my Prismacolor pencils. I used papers from my stash.All the sentiments including the tags are from Lili of the Valley. I also used blue ribbon and a pink bow. There are 2 Prima paper flowers secured with a brad and I add some bling to her headdress and flower with Stickles glitter glue.

I would like to enter my card in the following challenges;

Divas by Design #47 for a female
Papercrafting Journey anything goes
Make it Monday Linky party #102
4 Crafty chicks #102 up, up and away
Cute Card Thursday #229 tag you're it
Whimsy Stamps Inspirations Challenge #49 summer fun
Penny Black and more August challenge, whiskers and/or wings



There is lots of treasure here in my post and I hope to share some of it with you too. Remember to add in your comment what colour and theme you would like to have for your bag charm if you would like to enter my giveaway. It will close on the last day of the month, 31 August. Do feel free to come back and leave a choice as a second comment once you have had a think about it. I am a "names in the hat girl" so it will not affect the numbers as I will put one name in for each person who wants to enter.Just make sure you do this by 31 August.

Thank you everyone who visits me here at Jane's Journal  for 2 wonderful years of blogging fun. I really love reading your comments and visiting you too and I have made some really great friends. People who do not blog never ever understand how and why people blog but I know just how much love there is out there ;0)

Bye for now,

Jane x

Our Olympic Adventure

What a day we had yesterday at the Olympics. We were so looking forward to finally experiencing the 2012 Olympic Games in person. I don't know about you but I have been glued to the television since they started. Saturday night was a night I will never forget. Team GB won us no less than 3 golds in the athletics. My Hb and I were screaming at the TV by the end of Mo Farrow's 10,000km run, how amazing was that? I am just so proud of our staging of the games; I really think they are world class and team GB must be buoyed up by all the support everyone is giving them. As I type we have beaten  our previous medal record set in Beijing and now have 22 golds, 13 silver and 13 bronze. How incredible for such a small country. The cyclists and rowers have also swept the boards; what an achievement. The motto of these games has been "Inspiring a Generation". As a physiotherapist I truly hope these games do. The general public really do need to wake up to the dangers of a lack of activity and exercise. So many diseases are caused by us being far too sedentary. I really hope youngsters do get on their bikes, run, jump and feel they want to continue this magical experience. I hope the legacy is to inspire them to as physically fit as they can possibly be.  Enough of my preaching...I am sure you want to hear all about "Inside the Games" ;0)

The day started for us quite early as we intended to get to the Olympic Park by 8am so that we could get through security quickly and explore a little before our event. We had seats for the mens' 3m springboard diving semi finals which started at 10am. We had no problems getting there and we were actually inside the Park only 1 1/2 hours after leaving home!

We were amazed by the sheer size of the park...it was huge. It took more than half an hour to walk from one side to the other!


The Aquatics Centre was near the entrance and at 9am we walked across the bridge to take some photos.

It was day 11 of the Olympics and we bought a copy of the Daily Record. This is full of great stats and a super souvenir of the games.


The Aquatics Centre is a gorgeous building both from the inside and outside.

We were lucky to get this photo before the hoards of spectators arrived.

Above is the amazing view back towards the Olympic Stadium and The Orbit. We were very lucky with the weather, its was warm but overcast in the morning and brightened up during the day.Perfect for spending 13 hours on our feet! At 9.30am we were able to go inside the Aquatics Center and wow how impressive were the swimming and diving pools.

Diving pool, the competitors were warming up.

The swimming pool where Phelps made swimming history.

The atmosphere was amazing and as the divers began the excitement could really be felt. Each diver had 6 dives and those who achieved the top 12 scores went through to the finals in the evening.

 Their dives were astounding.

I cannot imagine how they remember
where the water is. It was such a fun 1 1/2 hours watching these semi finals.
At the end the scores were all calculated and it was so good to see that our GB lad got through to the next round, he came 9th. The applause for him was deafening.

At 1.30pm we had tickets to ride The Orbit. This is the tall structure next to the Stadium. A lift takes you up to a viewing platform high above the Olympic Park. You can take the lift down our walk..we did..all 400+ steps! The viewing platform is the large rounded part to the left and the walk down is the "helta skelter" part.
The lift runs up the middle.There were only limited tickets sold in advance for this so were were so lucky to have got them.

From the viewing platform we had extraordinary views into the Olympic Stadium, we were able to see the track, seating etc. We could also see out across the rest of the Olympic Park; in the distance was the Velodrome. We could also see a 360o view of the whole of the London Skyline...it was breath taking.

I had fun zooming in on what was going on down below!

After our Orbit experience we explored the whole of the park and wore our little legs down. There were great shops too and of course I came home with a souvenir or too ;0)

Everywhere had been planted up so beautifully, all very natural planting with swathes of wild flowers everywhere and plenty of places to sit and relax if you wanted to. I thought it strange that tickets were sold for the Olympic Park only but really it was a lovely place to be with or without tickets to the events.
Everyone was so pleased to be there, it was such a positive atmosphere.

There was lots of water everywhere too so there was a feeling of this being an oasis in the heart of such a busy city.

How incredible that this was just waste land when we won the bid just 7 years ago.

A really remarkable transformation.

I will come back to show you some of my treasures I bought in my next post and yes , I have not forgotten my promised giveaway. Watch this space.






So my challenge card for today had to be something to celebrate such a fantastic day. I think this fits perfectly.

This fun stamp is a digi stamp which was one of my very first winnings some months ago. I coloured it in with my Promarkers and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils.

I used some bold backing papers featuring ladybirds and spots and used the super Lili of the Valley tag stamps to add my sentiments.I finished off with a polka dot black satin ribbon.

Yesterday really was a time to "celebrate happy times".







I would like to enter my card into the following challenges.

Cupcake Craftroom Fresh and summery August Challenge
Papertake Weekly Anything Goes
Make it Monday Weekly linky party
Crafting for all seasons Bright colours #33
Sir Stampalot Take flight
Ladybug Crafts Ink summer fun

I am getting ready for another evening of excitement on the TV watching the Games...Usain Bolt starts his quest  for the 200m gold by running the semi finals. He hopes to add to his 100m victory. He really is the fastest man on earth and so compelling to watch. Brenda has also reminded me that Mo ran the 5,000m heat and won. GO MO!!

I also want to mention here that the Ribbon Girl are having a great giveaway of some fab GOLD ribbons on their blog. Do pop over and join the fun. They feel just as I do, so proud of team GB and the medals they have won. We may even add a few more before the closing ceremony this weekend.

I shall be back next week with details of my 2nd bloggerversary giveaway so do come back. Can I also thank you all for the wonderful wishes you sent me and my family for Milly and Tom's recent wedding. They are staying at the Bellagio in Las Vegas on their honeymoon at the moment, having been out to the see the Grand and Bryce Canyons. Next stop Death Valley ;0) They are having a ball.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

The Olympic Flame and Summer arrive in a blaze

Wow..what a difference a week end makes. The promised summer weather certainly arrived and since Saturday the sun has been shining from dawn to dusk. Today was a rather special day as the Olympic flame was coming to my neighbourhood. I had decided to take the day off and I am so glad I did as I really loved seeing the torch being carried right in front of me. Matt's girlfriend and I decided to walk down to the ponds a couple of hours earlier as we thought that there would be crowds. This was a good plan as I have never seen so many people in our High Street!. As we walked down the sun was blazing.

There was a big festival also being held in front of the newly opened Honeywood and we were amazed to see a swan ship on the ponds ready for a band to play.

We decided to find a less busy vantage point and chose the mini roundabout which is just up past the Greyhound pub you can see on the left of this photo.

This was our viewing point at 12.45





and at 2pm when the flame arrived this was the view........

Just a bit busier isn't it. Once the police outriders moved on we had a perfect view back down towards the High Street and ponds.




First the sponsors drove through.

and finally the bus in front of the torch runner appeared.


Everyone was clapping, cheering and flag waving and I really felt quite choked. There was a feeling of total joy and community spirit!

And behind this was the one thing we had all waited for...............................

Hooraaaaaaay! The 2012 Olympic flame being held by the torch bearer. Yes we stood this near and everyone was just cheering so loudly. It was an awesome moment. And as quickly as he arrived .......

he ran on. Afterwards all the crowds walked back towards the pond to enjoy the bands playing and the festival spirit.

It was funny being able to walk down the middle of the road. Everyone was in such a great mood and yes the weather really did help ;0)

Yes I really did, with my own eyes and I shall always remember that momentous occasion for ever. I am so glad we went. I enjoyed a cup of tea with C afterwards and then she made her way home. The Olympics are only 4 days away and The Wedding is now just 5....yes 5 days away. There is so much excitement in my life at the moment that I am trying to put on a cool head. Today's card is how I would like to think I am in these last precious days...LOL!

This is a brilliant stamp made by my great blogging buddy Kerry's company Ladybug Crafts Ink. She is such a cool stamp called Martini Nicci. Perhaps I can call it Martini Jane for today ;0)

I have had coloured her with my Promarker Pens and highlighted with my Prismacolor pencils. I have used papers from my stash and the cute Lili of the Valley tag stamps. I finished off with a gorgeous green shimmery organza ribbon and some pearls.

I would like to enter my card into the the following challenges;
Dream Valley #37 Summer
Joanna Sheen Animal antics
MIM linky party #99
Brenda  from Floral Inspirations Photo Inspiration- I have used the colours from her photo as inspiration, greens and red Poppy photo inspiration




Now as I say I hope my card shows me how I am trying to behave in this run up to my darling Daughter's wedding this Saturday. Cool, calm and collected ;0) Everything is ready and I am off on Friday to spend the day with her, her last day as a single woman. The Wedding is at 3pm on Saturday and if blogger scheduling behaves I have a little surprise post planned so do tune in then for some very special sneek peeps. This is my last post before this most momentous day. I would like to thank you all for your wonderful kind messages. I am going to inhale and treasure every single moment of my day as The Mother of The Bride.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x