Bleurgh...

...woke up this morning feeling the roughest I have felt in a long time! Started to get the beginnings of a cold last night and hardly slept (or that's how it felt anyway!)When I woke up my face just hurt, which I have never had with a cold before ! It's got better as the day's gone on though and now I'm just snotty!
Holly is going back to school tomorrow .She is now looking forward to it after declaring last week that she wasn't going to go back again!Both girls have been allocated parts in the school show.Em is a milk maid in a scene from Oliver and Holly is the 'lady with the alligator purse' from said nursery rhyme - which I confess to never having heard of!I cannot believe it is nearly time for Christmas shows already.
Tomorrow Geoff and are I going to make more progress with the Christmas and Holly's birthday shopping.It's not even December yet but I'm feeling totally disorganised already!
I'll leave you with my Pencil Lines Lo this week.I was lucky to get this done, I managed to mislay the sketch and then had to use whatever 7 x5 photo I already printed due to an almost inkless printer!

Happy high...

is what I am on at the moment!
Went away on our own this weekend and had a fab time! The hotel was gorgeous with an excellent restaurant - posh but not intimidatingly so.The room was really spacious and comfy too, I would love to go back! Pic is of the canal , about 100ft from our room.We woke up on Sunday morning to a view of frosty fields and mist drifting along the Thames.Imagine how gutted I was 15 mins later when I went to take pics , only for the sun have risen higher and all the mist had disappeared!We had beautiful weather both days and it brought home to me just how much I love this time of year.
On Saturday we went into Oxford, kind of forgetting the fact that it's four weeks til Xmas and the shops would be heaving!It was manic and my feet were killing me by the time we got on the bus back to the Park & Ride!We had a lovely meal in the hotels restaurant that evening and I felt thoroughly spoilt!
The icing on the cake was coming home to find a message on the answerphone asking if I'd like to do some hours at a certain former work place , in the run up to Christmas!Okay, so it's just temporary but it will feel good to be earning money again!
Holly is a bit poorly at the moment, she's managed to pick up hand, foot & mouth from someone somewhere (NOT to be confused with foot & mouth that cows get!).She has has a mouthful of ulcers which have been making her miserable the last couple of nights. And I am so unused to broken nights that after just two I am shattered!
And as they went live on Sunday I can now share the full version of my Pencil Lines sketch this week!

Rain, rain ...and a bit more rain...

...is what we've had today!It has just thrown it down and been grey and miserable all day!
Here's a sneaky peek of my LO for Pencil Lines this week.Yep, I am all organised this week and am actually finished already!
Tomorrow Geoff and I are off to Abingdon and coming back Sunday. The kids are staying with my mum & dad, and are off to the zoo tomorrow.Lucky things!
Today the girls had non-uniform day in aid of Childern In Need.Holly took in a teddy bear , whilst Em took part in after school aerobics with Pudsey Bear!
Check out Anna's blog as she is doing some fab fundraising at the moment in aid of MS.
Lots of love goes to Annie too after her horrible accident yesterday xx
Right, I am off to finish packing and I will be back in a couple of days!

Week 6 is live!

Go check out www.pencillines.com for this weeks new sketch!
I have been pretty rubbish at posting my PL lo's so I'm uploading two this week!This weeks and the one from last week! Isn't it funny how a layout starts out as one thing...and ends up as something totally different? Take my layout of Holly for last weeks sketch, this was the third photo I tried to work with and about the fourth lot of paper! But I love the end result so I'm guessing the other attempts were seriously 'wrong' somewhere along the line. I kind of a get a 'feeling' when I'm done with a layout, does that sound daft?! It used to take me about three weeks to do a LO,I'd put them away and keep going back to them until it they complete.Now I'm working a bit quicker, but I still have to have that feeling before I feel done!
Y'know I have still haven't started any Christmas shopping, and it's starting to slightly freak me out at how busy the shops are already! I know, I could do it all on-line ..but it's just not as much fun as the 'real' thing is it? Trouble is, even the real shopping isn't as much as fun as it used to be! Gosh, I'm beginning to sound a right old Scrooge! No doubt Santa will be delivering an library's worth of books for Em and as yet Holly is undecided.Still we've got her birthday to get through first! Just a small do for her this year, she is happy just to have her two best friends round for tea .

See, now you know....

...why it took me so long to get a blog...because I knew I would be rubbish at updating it!!
Yes, I do sit there during quiet moments of the day composing thoughtful and witty (??!!) blog entries...but I never get round to actually typing them in a a key board!!
Okay...so my excuse for lack of blogging this time round? Decorating...and life in general! We've spent the last week re-decorating and rearranging the living room and I have to say...it's looking good! I dread this kind of thing cos having such totally different views on most things, it takes an absolute age for Geoff and I to agree on paint colours , new furniture etc.But it's all done and the room is now a lovely shade of Antique White instead of the grubby, greying white it was previously!
I attempted to make some cards this week to use up some of my humungous pile of card making stuff..and you know what, I hated it !! Probably because all my stuff is all over the place, I can never find what I'm looking for ...and I just prefer scrapping now! So, anyone want to buy some card blanks??!
Tomorrow we're off to a little party for my mum's birthday and straight after Holly is off to another party (oh to have the social life of a 5 yr old...!!) at the local sports park. Sunday she is off to my niece's party with Em and my mum & dad...any bets on how grumpy and tired she 'll be come bedtime tomorrow night?!
Hmm...well I guess you won't be happy if I finish without a picture so let me just go find something ....here you go, yummy leaf photo taken last week!
Oh, and PS..if no-one leaves me any comments...I assume nobody reads this and I'm not missed when I don't update!!

The witching hour....

So did you all have a good Halloween?! It was so quiet round here (thankfully!!) Just three lots of visitors and I think we knew all of them! Holly was so hyped up all day, though I'm not sure why! Em was at a dance class so didn't come out with us, just wore some flashing horns!!
I had a last minute attempt at a fancy pumpkin using a template from the internet! It should also have some bats but they were a little fiddly for my kitchen knife and got the chop (literally!!)Next year I will be more prepared and start earlier than 5pm!
Today (well tomorrow bearing in mind what I've munched my way through today!) I am back on the weight loss campaign.Managed a decent loss this week which I'm hoping will kick start my motivation again! That or the fact that I have one solitary pair of trousers that fit properly!!
Check out the Pencil Lines blog for fab sketches by Queen Geek this week! I am scrapping way out of my comfort zone with these sketches but that has to be a good thing right?!