Nearly the weekend :)

And I am really looking forward to having a lie-in! That said, I have been going to bed early (well,for me anyway!!) so far this week and I'm nearly caught up on all my missed sleep.It's also a bit scary that tomorrow it'll be a week since I went over to Anna's to set up the retreat...who keeps making time go faster?!
The rain forcast the last two days hasn't materialised thankfully and I'm hoping it stays that way over the weekend :)

Yesterday afternoon Holly and I went out into the garden with the camera.I hardly seem to use it these days for some reason!Anyway,I managed to get some photos that I'm really pleased with (and not a wall in sight Lyzzy,you'll be glad to hear!)
This weekend is my dad's birthday and I've been put in charge of icing the cake...hmm,not sure how that one will work out! We are having a small family get-together on Sunday,hence the need for sunshine :)Other than that,we don't have much planned other than sorting stuff out in the garden a bit more and food shopping.
And if you're on Facebook,have you tried changing your language to English Pirate?! Well worth it just for the fact that I now have a 'bottle of messages' instead of an inbox!!

Still tired...

but today it was back into the routine of school run and housework ...shame!
Anyway, I think the retreat went well and lots of people want to come back next year,which was really good to hear!Not surprisingly,I didn't do any scrapping other than a couple of quick stitching samples for a make & take.Hmm, I say quick,but they weren't really and I spent a long time sat on the floor,ending up with dead legs and pin & needles! I also took hardly any photos either.Oh well, I did drink lots of (free) diet coke,meets lots of lovely people and spend lots of money :) This year we had the 3 Jolly Scrappers shop,run by the very lovely Kim & Jo and I think lots of us returned home which gorgeous new goodies!A huge thank you to Kerry for the lift on Friday,to everybody who came and made it such fun and for letting me be first to the pudding counter each mealtime ;)Oh,and also to Anna for letting me help out!Roll on next year!
School clubs start up again tomorrow so Holly is back at Country Dancing,while Em is over the moon as she is going to a preview showing of Hannah Montana the movie with a freind.To say Holly is envious would be putting it mildy! Not doubt I'll end up taking her at some point too :)
Right, I am off for a glass of wine before I head off for an early night.

So tired...

after a weekend at Wyboston with the Scrapping Angels retreat :) My feet ache ,my eyes are ready to close but I'm sure I'll be doing it all again next year!

So just a quick post tonight,with my Pencil Lines layout for this week.

I used

My Little Shoebox papers

Pink Paislee shaped paper

Queen & Co felt

AC puffy thickers

Doodlebug letter stickers

Love Elsie epoxy stickers

KI Memories softies

Maya Road sheer

Prima crystals

Back tomorrow hopefully!

Packing up..

lots of kits!
Last night I headed off to Anna's to spend today getting things ready for the retreat :) I was treated to a yummy Domino's pizza for tea (I'm easily pleased!) before watching Hell's Kitchen.We then left 'to do' notes with my instructions on for today on all the piles of boxes!
I was woken by Peter slamming the front door on his way to work at 6.15am,though I was half asleep and thought my watch said 8.15am at first and nearly got up! After winning the battle to turn off the shower (long story!) ,I was was ready to start packing.Izzy kindly left the tv on for me so I endured the 'delights' of Jeremy Kyle and This Morning, which I haven't watched in ages (and I obviously haven't been missing much either!)
Although I was sort of working, it was nice to have a night away, I feel like I've had a mid-week break :)
Tomorrow I need to catch up on the dreaded housework and make myself lots of lists of stuff I need to get out,tidy up and pack up before the weekend.

Sunny days

..are happy days :) It's still staying dry and warm here which means the girls are spending lots of time outside :)As well as abit more practice on the skateboards,today they've been bouncing around on my (yes,mine!!) space hopper.We got rid of their kiddy sized ones earlier in the week as they were way too small. So now we need to get them another 'full size'one then there'll be two between them.

Pencil Lines has gone live with a great sketch,one of my favourites I think,and perfect for all the round papers that are out at the moment!


I used

My Little Shoebox papers
KI Memories Sheer Delights
Heidi Swapp ghost butterflies
AC Sprinkles thickers coloured with a Sharpie pen
My Little Shoebox tiny letter stickers
My Little Shoebox die cuts
Prima swirl
Bazzill dotted swiss
Creative Imaginations Holey cardstock
I cut out the middle of the circle paper and the middle (the black polka dots) is the KI Memories Sheer Delight.
Tomorrow evening I am going over to Anna's to do retreat preparations, which means I get to see all the kits,before I head back home again on Tuesday afternoon .I'm looking forward to unpacking the boxes and packing the goody bags !
Still on my 'to do' list are finding my apron and tidying out my tote....hmm,last minute job methinks!!

Making progress

After the rubbish weather of the last two days ,we have spent today getting on with stuff that had to wait for a dry day :) Geoff ,along with a little help from Holly,has painted the shed and also the fence panels.Whilst I have mowed the front grass and dug & weeded three of the four borders in the front garden.Tomorrow Geoff is heading off to the tip with a pile of stuff that we sorted out the other day.I will admit to taking a few things back off the dumping pile though...like the castle shaped sand bucket that was mine was a kid...why do I find it sdo hard to let go of stuff like that? That said ,it was actually my mum & dad that kept it and gave it to the kids to use last year! So maybe that's where I get it from?!

Whilst in Asda today we spotted skateboards...and ended up coming home one each for the girls...what have we let ourselves in for?! Holly has already had her first accident falling off and scraping her elbow,no doubt it will get worse!Other bargains bought included funky Camp Rock raincoats for Holly,Izzy & Lilly at the bargain price of...£5 each!

The girls have spent the last couple of days seeing friends,though I can't believe the holidays are almost over and they'll be back to school next week :( Still , only five weeks and they're off again!

I am panicking slightly at the huge list (in my head!) of things that I need to do before next weekend! Eeek!

We're back:)

Well,we were back yesterday but I didn't get round to blogging then.

So,cue some photos of the girls new love...

Meet Nando (named after the Liverpool player Torres!)

After being a little wary at first (Em more so than Holly),both girls came round very quickly though neither of them are keen on being licked (totally with them on that score!) We had tears when it was time to come home...

The weather stayed nice the whole time we were up there and the sun shone here today too:) I mowed the grass and we got lots of sorting out done in the garden this afternoon,shame I still have the weeding and the digging to do!

Enjoying the sunshine:)

We are away for a few days visiting Geoff's family ,and luckily for us we are missing miserable weather at home! Today the weather has been beautiful,sunshine and blue skies all day :)
The girls are currently on a sleep over at their Aunty's which means a lie in for us tomorrow!That said,we had one this morning too - bliss :)

We will be going home with a car loaded with the kids eggs ,they never get this many as they don't usually see so much family at Easter!
The girls are coping really well at being around dogs all the time here (three at one point today!),but are not succeeding in their requests for us to get one too...
As I'm not on my PC I can't add my Pencil Lines layout but I'm sure you know where to find it!I used some very old scanned photos of Holly that I found earlier in the week :)
I used Scenic Route Sonoma & Loveline papers ,Creative imaginations holey cardtsock and AC puffy thickers .
I'll be back soon with some photos!

The Very Wet Egg Hunt!

Today we attempted the yearly egg hunt at my mum & dad's with my sister and her girls :) It nearly didn't happen as well as it throwing it down with rain,both Em and Holly were fsat asleep come 2pm! They are both full of cold ,so Em went back to bed ,whilst Holly fell asleep on Geoff in the recliner.I would have taken a photo,but she was doing that scary eyes-half-open type sleeping,and I didn't want to wake her!Anyway, we eventually made it round there in the rain.Mum & I ventured out and hid the eggs around the garden ,getting soaked in the process.Most of my photos are rubbish as the camera was covered in rain spots but here's one of Holly in her ears!

And here's a photo of our Easter tree.Which as you can see,really is just a branch in a vase!

Early Easter :)

Yesterday we had a early visit from the Easter Bunny aka Anna who came with bulging carriers of Easter cakes,crackers and gifts for the kids :) I'd completely forgotten about my Easter decs until I saw Kerry H mention her tree,so I hastily asked my Mum for a branch from her garden yesterday morning! So it was done in time for our guests ,and just as well as we are away at Easter anyway!

As per usual Holly and Izzy were happy enough to play around in front of the camera :) The fab thing about them though is that they really don't take much prompting and even grabbed their own props like the hula hoop! We thought we'd put the old armchair to good use too before it goes to the tip,can't beat a piece of council house garden chic eh?!

It's that time of year when we are gearing up for the retreat in a couple of weeks (yikes!),so there are lots of 'must do's ' whizzing round in my head at the moment! The classes are looking fab this year aand I'm really looking forward to catching up with Kerry and Louise (and the infamous pudding counter !!) I need to hunt out my faithful Scrapping Angels apron which is never to be found when I need it!

Spring is springing!

Well, it has been for the last few days anyway!

Friday afternoon was really warm and the girls spent the afternoon playing with their cousins in my mum & dad's garden...lots of digging was done!

On Saturday Em and I went out in the hope of doing a bit of girly shopping, but we didn't really find much to be honest! I wasn't really in the mood either as I was still full of cold and feeling miserable!The only busy shop was Primark...no surprise there! Walking round,I was so envious of all the girls wearing their trendy skinny jeans...I remember mine the first time round! I distinctly remember being dragged across the living room floor by my Mum whilst she tried to yank a pair of jeans off me that I'd asked her to take in ...they were too tight around my ankles! Sadly ,I am no longer young enough or skinny enough (not that I ever was,but it's amazing what a long black cardy covered!) to wear skinny jeans this time round,boo hoo :(

Yesterday we decided to be vultures and go and see if we could get Geoff a bargain chair in the Land of Leather sell off.His armchair was absolutley wrecked , he was practically sitting on the floor it was so low! Anyway, we found a bargain recliner which is what he has been after for ages.It worked out far cheaper to drive home with the chair and then Geoff drive back to pick us up than pay out for delivery so that's what we did :) So the girls and I had an unexpected lunch out and a wander round Lakeside too.We braved the huge Primark which makes the one in Stevenage look tiny! And Holly is now saving for a Hello Kitty toy from the Build a Bear Factory after spotting them and falling in love!

This is my Pencil Lines layout from last night.I used another old photo which I love as it shows how blonde Holly used to be!

I used

Little Yellow Bicycle paper

KI Lace cardstock

Scenic Route chipboard word

Prima crystal corner

Felt flowers from John Lewis

The girls have plenty to keep them amused this week :) Today Holly went to a friends and is off to another one tomorrow ,whilst Em has one of her friends here.Then on Wednesday we're expecting the Bowkis' ladies,which is fab as we weren't expecting to see them for ages yet :)

Right ,I am off to try catch up on the sleep that seems to be evading me at the moment! Three nights of still being awake at 2.30am is enough now...

Bits and bobs

Yesterday I got some cute new 'bits' ,having seen the lists on Laura's blog, when I was blog hopping a few weeks ago (as you do!) Watch out for them on a layout soon :)

And this is the layout I did a couple of weeks back using an old scanned photo of the girls when they were small :) I still haven't checked the date on the original so I'll add it to the layout when I get round to it! Oh and it's not that wonly in real life,i'm just rubbish at getting decent photos!

Not much else going on here really, just looking forward to Friday and the beginning of the holidays :)