And it's all over...

Christmas, that is! We had a quiet one,(busy-ness wise, not volume wise!!) with my mum & dad here for Christmas lunch, and then going to my mum & dad's on Boxing Day. Father Christmas was very generous and the girls loved their presents :)Lots of New Monn /Twilight stuff for Em and lots of Gogos and Hello Kitty stuff for Holly :) They were also lucky enough to get Rockband with the Beatles software from their other Nan & Grandy, so it's been a bit noisy round here! Em also got the Just Dance game which is great :)This present from Anna got an extra loud scream though ;)

This Sunday was my last official week at Pencil Lines.I'm sure I will be back now & again in the future :) Keep your eye on the blog for the announcement of the new DT.

This is my Lo, photographed very badly as the light was so bad :( Very simple, using Prima E Line flowers,Basic Grey brads and a mix of American Crafts and Doodlebug letters.

And as I have no idea how long it will be before I have any scrapping to share, I thought I'd be a bit self indulgent and share a couple of my faves from the last three years :)

Happy Christmas :)

Hope you have a good one :)
We have spent the day walking like penguins to avoid slipping on the ice we have every where!
We made it safely to the Christingle service though.Once home we delivered presents and cards before the girls sat and laughed their heads off at the panto on TV!
Snacks and letters have been left out for Father Christmas and we are now off to bed before anybody decides to wake up again!

One more day...

and I can't wait, I need a rest!
Sadly we may not get the much longed for white christmas, as it's currently raining and everything is turning very slushy :(
Anyway, while everything was still looking lovely, I took my camera everywhere :)









I still have a pile of wrapping to do, but the main part is done. I went to start on the final calendar I have to make this evening...only to discover there is no September page!!So now I am presentless for someone as there seems no point in doing it if I can exchange it for a complete one.
Yesterday Anna braved the weather and came over for for a pre-Christmas meet up :).We were treated to (yet another) show from the girls,ate cookies and rocky road and had crackers :) Sadly, I forgot about the hot chocolate sitting in the cupboard!

My eyes are closing so I am off to bed...I'm hoping for a lie in on Christmas Day!

Loving it :)

So the snow did settle, froze and then we had a load more last night :) so it's still looking gorgeous here.Keeping my fingers crossed some of the snow might last til the end of the week and Christmas Day as that would be just fab :)
Both schools were shut on Friday so once we were back home, we went down the lakes for some sledging fun.We are so lucky living almost next door to such a fab place :)By the time we got there it wasn't really that busy.We went back again yesterday afternoon as well as going for a walk round the lakes :)It was so cold though,and we went home with our feet totally frozen!

This is my Pencil Lines Lo for this week, probably my last 'official' one ,as I don't think I'm going to make it next week :
I used October Afternoon Very Merry papers (yum!) & stickers
May Arts ribbon
Heidi swapp bling circle
Pink Paislee letter stickers
Chatterbox felt heart
Tim Holtz tag


This week ...tomorrow we are doing some tidying up and some cooking :), Tuesday we are off to see Father Christmas and hopefully seeing Anna & the girls:) and Christmas Eve we will be going to the Christingle service.I also still need to make two calendars...so we're busy busy busy :)

White Christmas?!

So, outside it currently looks like this!
We've had weird weather all day, rain,sleet,snow and hail,with some blue skies and sunshine mixed in too.The snow started at about 8pm and is still coming down.Trouble is, it's also blowing a gale so it's like a blizzard out there!School finishes tomorrow, and I'm guessing if it carries on like this they'll probably close anyway!

The Birthday girl

Today I went to visit the Birthday Girl from yesterday :) Yes, Mrs Bowkis has finally caught up with us and had her big '40' :) Now I know she wasn't looking forward to it hence why I didn't do a blog post post about it before now.
Anyway, my pressies have now been delivered ,and although they made her both laugh and cry ,I think they were liked!I forgot to take photos first but hopefully Anna has come to share :)
It has been flippin' freezing here today and I have my fingers crossed that we will actually get the snow that we're forcast for tomorrow :)
Right I am off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep, feel like I am running on empty at the moment!

Ooops!!

Yep, long time no blog...yet again! So I thought I'd better do a catch up just so that I can remind myself what's been going on!

Last weekend we went to the Christmas Tree festival in town,mailnly to see the tree Holly had helped decorate at Brownies.And also because we always go, I remember going when Holly was about a week old and wearing her very cute cow print fleecy body suit:)These days it's a lot easier without the big bulky pram!

Holly's school show took place last week for two evenings.After a few tears and lots of nerves ,she was fine (and she only one line!) The whole school then went to a pantomime the following day :)

Em has been busy with rehearsals for her house drama play,though we don't get to go and see it yet :( She also did a work shadowing day at the local hairdressers last week.Not sure that she is planning on being a hairdresser in future but trying to find her a work placement was a bit of a nightmare due to insurance !

I am all done on the Christmas shopping front - woohoo! Just need to sort everything out and get wrapping :) I also need to wrap pressies for a certain person's 'big' birthday tomorrow :) I am off to Anna's on Tuesday afternoon to deliver her birthday card and maybe a couple of other things...!

This weekend we have just hung around at home.I ventured out yesterday for the last few presents and this morning we went to Stevenage for a couple of bits & pieces.I came home with something that I have been longing for for ages.It's one of those things that you don't need, you just 'want', so perfect as a Christmas present :)

Our decs are all up and it's looking lovely and cosy in here :) I just need to put some more lights outside :)

This is my Pencil Lines LO this week, using the sponsorship from Kaisercraft :) It hasn't photographed that well, but my usual photo-taking spot is taken up by the Christmas tree at the moment!

All products are from the Kaisercraft Lilac Grove range.I used two old photos of the girls which are Geoff's favourites, hence the title :)

Right ,I am off to bed, very thankful that it's the last week of school for the girls !

Ist of December and first frost :)

Yep, December is here already...am I organised yet? Nope! Still lots to make and lots to order....
One job I must get done today though is the kids advent calendars :)
This morning we woke up to blue skies and a sprinkling of frost .I love this kind of weather, give me ice and snow over wind and rain any time!
Yetsrerday was Holly's birthday :) Her main pressie was a pair of much longed for pink roller skates ,and a matching pink crash helmet :) Other presents included LOTS of Hello Kitty bits and pieces,Having had her 'do' the other weekend, we had had tea and cake here with her Nan & Grandad.

So now Holly's birthday is gone, I know we are hurtling towards Christmas! Next week Holly has her school show for two nights and then a trip to the panto.This weekend sees the Christmas Tree festival taking place in town,so we will be off to the see the tree that Holly's brownie pack have decorated :) It's one of our traditions to go, I remember taking Holly when she was about a week old!
I'll leave you with a photo of our trees all lined up (not that mine has anything to go in it!!) These were from M7S and Tesco's a couple of years ago.I have bought one of the wooden tesco houses this year but I think I'll get round to doing something with it next year!