A Little Bit of Loveland...

...yes, my adoration of Scenic Route continues with Loveland!

This is the layout I did at the crop yesterday ,featuring Holly wearing her two favourite Christmas presents- her Minnie Mouse ears and the pink jumper from Izzy & Lilly :)

The black background is the table runner as mentioned in yesterday's post - thanks again Louise! And thanks to Kerry too for the title help! See, I am no good at this lark...I have to get other people to help me! The close up shows the Heidi Swapp giant ghost heart which doesn't show up much in the big photo.I didn't realise when I ordered these that you get an 'outline' as well as the solid heart,fab added bonus! Papers are Scenic Route and Making Memories Noteworthy,and I added a pile of Angel Kiss blooms,various brads and Scenic Route letter stickers for the title.I did sit and push a couple of other photos around on various bits of paper yesterday but they haven't materialised into layouts yet!

Sandie, I haven't forgotten your tag, will try and do it tomorrow!

Been cropping....

...twice!!And I still didn't get much done! Am coming to the conclusion that I am rubbish at crops ! I can't take the whole house as I travel by train to Anna's so I end up half doing things because I 'know I have something at home' that will go with it! Every time I tell myself that next time I will go prepared and organised..I never quite manage it! It was lovely to see everyone though and huge huge thanks to Louise for that gorgeous table runner! And guess who forgot the memory card for her camera ...again !! So if she forgets to credit me, the photos of Anna's Pencil Lines layout this week were taken by me ;)!! On Friday I went cropping with Lyzzy & co, and mananged to do my Pencil Lines layout...and spend money in the shop!


Talking of Pencil Lines, new sketch is now live! And a very rare occurence, I actually did a double layout...only the second one I've ever done I think!

I used the Scrapping Angels January kit plus Autumn leaves Journalling stamps,Queen & Co stamps, AC Thickers and Heidi Swapp bling and photos of the big snowfall we had last year.
I am off to unpack my scrapping bags!

Ta Da!

Woohoo, I scrapped! And not only that ...I scrapped without a sketch and manged to cram 10 photos onto one layout :) I feel much better now...I've seem to have got so used to using a sketch that I find it difficult trying to scrap without one! Anyway, this is a layout I have been meaning to do for ages ,before I forgot the whole 'feeling' of the day. Once I had all the photos down, the journalling came quite easily...something else that hasn't happened in a while! I am really pleased with how it turned out...I wasn't keen halfway through doing it but by the end I was more than happy! So this is my little tribute to Anna and her amazing race last September...

Click on the picture to see it bigger!

Just mooching...

Yep, we have spent the weekend just mooching about due to the rubbish weather here at the moment!
I was treated to my breakfast in bed by the girls this morning though as Geoff had gone into work!Em also decided that she was going to 'do everything around the house' today...she did do her and Holly's tea anyway!
Holly was hoping to go for a walk down to the lakes this afternoon 'to walk in the mud' but it was raining again by then so we gave it a miss! Probably just as well as I'm sure one of us would have ended up on our bottoms in it!So instead the girls did some painting whist I waded through the ironing! And I suddenly realised how they are growing up too fast...Holly used to churn out loads of 'big handed' people paintings...today she did just two paintings ,but took ages over all the little details on them.But at least I didn't have to spread them all over the floor waiting for them to dry out!
Pencil Lines is live with a new sketch! Our GDT this week is Sasha who is an amazing scrapper and a regular contributor to the readers gallery:)
I had a set idea in my head of what I was going to scrap this week, but all the photos turned out pants so I had to change ideas yet again!I still plan on doing my original idea at some point,just need for wait for better weather !

So I used
Scenic Route papers (yet again!)
American Crafts felt Thickers
Doodlebug Simply Sweet & Loopy Lou stickers
Heidi Swapp block alpha stickers
Angel Kiss blooms
Bazzill/Imaginesce rub-on
The photos are of Holly last year during one of our many trips to the small park near us :)

Huge thanks to Annie for the little package of scrapping goodness that arrived on Saturday - thanks hun!
I have just ages resizing and printing lots of photos for a layout so hopefully I will be scrapping tomorrow night!At last we have sussed out how to print different size photos out at the same time on one sheet of paper!

bang bang thud

Yes, that would be the sound of me hitting my head against a brick wall whilst trying to get the council to sort out the never-ending problem of my garden shed.I am sick of nothing being done unless I ring up and chase them and now just as it was getting close to being sorted we have gone three steps back again.Yes, I know there are worse things going on in the world but I am still allowed to get annoyed about it. Thank you and good night.

Make your own sunshine....

This is the sight that greeted me this morning when I came downstairs,Holly 'sunbathing' under the 'parasols' with Mickey...love her imagination.And I love her Charlie & Lola pyjamas :) She makes me smile on miserable rainy days like today !
And it's just as well I'm not superstitious about umbrellas being open indoors isn't it?!

Cool feet....

Are these cool wellies or what?!These are Holly's new boots...a snip at £3! Yes Lyzzy, we do still need wellies...what do you mean summer is round the corner, have you seen the weather forecast for this week?!
The trip to the Orthodontist went well and Em is brace free for the next four months so that they can see if there is any movement - she is one happy girl!
Other than that, not much to report here!

Oh...my...ears!!

So this afternoon Geoff discovered an 'on demand' karaoke channel on the TV....ouch!! Now I love my children to bits, but they really don't have the best voices sometimes! Anyway, much wailing and dancing followed this discovery...so I took myself off into the kitchen to prepare the roast for tea and start on a CJ!!

Bit of a quiet day here...I'm sure I won't sleep tonight as I've not even stepped out of the door today! I still seem to be lacking any get up & go...I'm not ill...just feel ..flat for want of another word!I think I just need some sunshine...shame there doesn't seem to be any on the horizon!

Tomorrow I have to take Em for an Orthodontist check up to see how her brace is getting on,and whilst over there I need to go wellie shopping or Holly!

Let's have another go at showing my layouts...!! There's no point in showing the sneak of my Pencil Lines as it's now live! The layout was done using a sponsored kit from Fresh Pages...so I have a good reason for using Scenice Route again this week - I had to!The photos are of Holly a couple years agao after she'd been told off (I have no idea what for!).I love them because she has her'summer hair' - it dries really wavy when she gets it wet in the paddling pool!

It's the weekend!

Well, okay it's almost halfway through now as I'm posting this so late!
I have been so bored this week and grumpy,it was nice not to have to do the schoool/work routine today.And the added bonus was that it didn't rain...well not while it was daylight anyway!
Today we went out for a walk to the lakes...lets just say it was ....muddy! Luckily no-one slipped over but I'm pretty sure one of Holly's wellies has a hole in it somewhere...
We've almost spent a bit of time of the Wii :) The girls (well Holly mainly, she adores this game!) have unlocked all the extras (Ithink!) on the Olympics game so we have been doing a bit of skydiving along with some dream fencing!
Yesterday when the sun made another brief appearance I scrapped...I forced myself! *no photo as Blogger won't let me upload !*I always take ages finding photos so I just pulled out one from some spares I had printed out at Christmas.I used Scenic Route Loveland papers...I am so in love with Scenic Route at the moment (does it show?!) and end up buying mot of them twice so I can use both sides! The only other thing I used was some pink Heidi Swapp bling.I couldn't think of a title but I like it without one.And if I do think of one,there's still plenty of space!
I also got my pencil Lines layout done last night too :)
This morning I picked up two CJ's from the PO depot.They are both absolutely gorgeous so I hope I do them justice!

Still here..

..but not much to share!

Today I went over to Anna's ,alas not to play today but to work instead.We got the January kits packed up(helped by Lilly!) and rather nice they are too :) I have some ideas whizzing round my head as to what to do with it .Which is good as the last week or so I have had trouble scrapping.I just can't and I don't know why! Also sorted out some of the retreat admin and the next kit too - which is very nice :)

The girls are now back at school but Geoff has been home off sick the last few days so normality has not quite returned yet!

Hmm, so no scrapping to share I'm afraid so I'll share a pic of Anna's kit!

Almost over...

Yep, the girls have one more day of their holidays left before they go back to school on Tuesday.Whilst I will miss them, I'm also itching to get on with some serious sorting out around here! The Christmas decs were all taken down and put away today (yes, I know we are a day late but we were otherwise engaged yesterday!)so whilst I am so glad to have daylight back in here again it does look a bit bare and empty....
So yesterday...hmm...what did we do? Oh yes..went to the Bowkis's...:)Poor Anna apparently had lots of kitchen disasters before we arrived,not that you'd know though by the most edible chocolate cake,sauce-to-die for and strawberries she dished up!If that's what she calls an accident Lord knows what she'd call my baking attempts!We sang tunelessly along to High School Musical on the Wii (yes, even me & Anna...I think we probably curdled a few pints of milk;) !! We knackered ourselves at the Olympics and yes, the Deacons narrowly beat the Bowkis clan at tennis...don't you love the Wii?!At one point the kids went upstairs leaving just the adults fiercely competing against each other...do you think they got bored?! Anyway, with so much excitement I kind of forgot to use the camera (plus the men complained that Anna's flash was putting them of their stride whilst they were Wii-ing it!)We had such a good time but sadly we had to come home...cannot wait til the next time!Thank you so much for having us!
So today has been spent tidying up the final traces of Christmas etc and Geoff doing some nifty improvemants in the kitchen :)

Pencil Lines has gone live with a new sketch (well, it's Sunday!)If you like multi photo layouts go and check out this weeks GDT!
Here's mine :)
I used
Creative Imaginations paper
Rhonna Farrer swirl stamps
Doodlebug sugar coated chipboard alphas
Doodlebug Simply Sweet alpha stickers

I need to catch up !!

On everything!

Thank you for the comments about 365 journal :) Sadly I haven't got any further and it's still lacking a title! I am keeping up with making my notes though and will start filling the journal in next week once the girls are back in school.The fab thing about this is that you can do as much or as little as you want :) I doubt I will do a layout every week but I am hoping to put photos in the journal along with my notes.Todays prompt is about a normal day...well my normal day consists of lots of Diet Coke and at some point a phone call to Anna!So photos will addded of a can and the phone! It did make me think though...a normal day is full of routine,which I admit I get bored with.But then we have the holidays, after a while I start to miss that routine ,and the guarantee of two walks in the fresh air doing the school run.So maybe I should maon less about the routine days?!

Tomorrow we are off to the Bowkis residence to be wined and dined by the Domestic Goddess herself ;) I have a list of 'to take's which includes Mario & Sonic at the Olympics and a rather gorgeous red metal cake stand...I'm sure Anna will post pics once she has assembled it (which she will probably do five minutes after we walk through the door!)

No new photos to share I'm afraid as the weather is just so dark here the last couple of days, so I'll share one of Holly using her Golden Coin maker last weekend (a much wanted Christmas present!)

So after feeling a bit down and grumpy yesterday today has been a bit better :) I must admit that the kids were driving me slightly mad this morning so I shut myself in the kitchen and did some ironing.They got to make as much noise as they wanted for half an hour and I came out of the kitchen much calmer so peace all round!

This afternoon we met the lovely Lyzzy and Beth for hot chocolate at Costas.As Beth had Christmas money burning a hole in her pocket we also took a trip to Toys R Us and Dunelm Mill, which saw both Lyzzy and I buying new duvets!

I also got a book to start my 365/366 journal in.I have decided I definitely won't be doing it as self portraits.If I try and look serious in the photos I end up looking gormless and if I smile I look false! So I give up! This evening I've made a start decorating the book,though it's not finished and I'm not sure about it.I haven't even dared to look at what everyone else has done with theirs yet,which would probably make me condemn mine to the bin!

It's getting colder and colder here and the girls are hoping for snow tomorrow.We're forecast light snow so I've warned them not to get their hopes up.Wouldn't it be fab though?!

Happy New Year!

Now,if I'm honest, I don't really get that excited about New Year...today doesn't feel any different from yesterday!
But I will admit to setting myself a few goals for this year, which I won't bore you with!I've also decided to have stab at Ann's 365 day challenge.I'm not doing it the self portrait way - I hate photos of me and am rubbish at taking them!I don't have my book yet either , so today I have just made some notes which I will keep safely somewhere!
Last night and today I have done something quite refreshing...I read a book! I used to read quite a lot but it's kind of fallen by the wayside in recent years.Then last night I was fed up of watching the film Geoff had put on and remembered a book a friend had lent me a few weeks back.I started last night and finished it this evening,all 410 pages! Incase you're wondering, yes, I am a fast reader and no I haven't had my bum glued to the couch all day!
Tomorrow we are meeeting Lyzzy & Beth in town for a hot chocolate , before the diets kick in for this year!
Oh , and out of curiosity....I've had loads of hits on my blog today....anyone know why and want to enlighten me?! (And no, Lyzzy, I don't want to hear your theories!)
No new photos from today so I'll share this one of Holly from Boxing Day, wearing her favourite present on her head!