Last day :(

Today has been my last day off before returning to work tomorrow :( This is the longest time I've had off in ages!
Holly and I got up at 'normal' time to prepare ourselves for tomorrow!Last night I actually slept like a log which is a good sign.
As predicted, the weather was pretty wild today,with very strong winds and heavy rain! First thing we made some cereal bars using a cereal maker which Holly had for a while.The 'recipes' were all a bit vague,so we opted for Cheerios,strawberry fruit flakes and used strawberry jelly crystals as the 'setting agent'.Just realised though that I forgot to take any photos of the finished bars, and they have both now been eaten.
I then tackled the 3ft high pile of ironing, whilst Holly carried on making a sock hedgehog from a kit that she got as a birthday present :)After lunch the sun came out and the clouds disappeared so we made the most of it and went out for a quick walk to get some fresh air :)A bit later we settled down with a (big) bowl of popcorn and watched The Lion King ,and waited for Em to come home from school :)It was a really nice day getting lots of stuff done:)

It's a miracle!

...that I am blogging two days in a row and that I have done a layout :) I hadn't ordered any new scrapping stuff at all since last July,so I decided to order some new October Afternoon with some of my Christmas photos.Although I still need to finish my 2011 album I really just wanted to do a layout so I printed off a few different photos to choose from. I used the OA Farm House range and some very old bits from my stash (Making Memories journal page,Heidi Swapp tape) It's not exactly elaborate, but I still like it :)

The weather here has been beautiful today,blue skies and sunshine though a little chilly.As Em goes back to school tomorrow we went out for a walk at the lakes this morning, something we haven't done in a while (she either has loads of homework or the weather is rubbish).Holly went for a wade in the river ,just as well Em didn't join her as we realised on the way home that her wellies have a huge split in the back!

Holly is still home tomorrow and as the weather is forecast to be rotten we are planning on a crafty day along with popcorn and a DVD :) Much as I have loved being at home the past week I'm hoping a return to our normal routine on Wednesday will also mean the return of my sleep ! I have been awake until at approx 2am or later for most of this past week :(

Happy New Year :)

To be honest,I don't get that excited about New Year and this year was no different! I just about managed to stay awake until midnight...!!


Thought I would share this photo of our home made Mickey Mouse bauble :) Last year some time we were in Hobby Craft and spotted some polystyrene balls.This prompted me to have the idea that we could make our own Mickey bauble, seeing as we didn't buy one when we went to Florida. The idea was to cover them is glue and then sprinkle them with black glitter.The first attempt was a bit a bit of a disaster, as the weight of the glue caused it all to slide off and there were lots of bald patches! However , after a patch up attempt using less glue,it turned out pretty well :) The ears were pushed on to cocktail sticks which were then pushed into the head and secured witha bit of superglue :) We're quite pleased with it:) Might even make a snowy version with all the snowballs we got from the John Lewis Christmas window displays!
I haven't really made any resolutions for this year.Having lost almost three stone last year I would like to keep it off,other than that I am hoping to start scrapping a bit more and take more photos.I think my camera has been a bit neglected recently and at times my photos seem to be getting worse rather than better!

December round up!

Well,2011 and is nearly over so I will do a quick round up of what happened this month :)

Holly had a her last school Christmas show,her year did a version of A Christmas Carol (quite how they managed to incorporate Thriller I'm still not sure!) Whilst part of me felt very sad that it was her last one (I had to look away from watching her in the final song as I was sure she was about to cry!)I will not miss the ridiculously early queing up to get a decent seat !The last day of term saw her last Christmas carol service at which she did a reading which was lovely (and yes, I got there early enough for a front row seat for that!) We also went to the Christingle Service again on Christmas Eve.


Em and I enjoyed an impromptu trip to see the local panto thanks to a very kind friend and had a lovely evening :) I haven't been to a panto in years and Em hasn't been since leaving junior school (hence why I took her instead of Holly) so we really enjoyed ourselves :)


This year the Coca Cola Christmas Trucks have been on a tour of the UK.The nearest stop to us was Asda in Watford (yes, very magical!) Now I really wasn't expecting it to be a lovely as it had looked on other people's blogs as it was only there in the morning so we wouldn't see the lights on it. But Asda is really not the best place to see it ! The truck was parked up right outside the store so it was almost impossible to get any photos without the Wal Mart/Asda sign or a row of shopping trolleys in :( They were also running very late setting up, we left there at about 11.30 and the photographer was almost set up to start taking pics - they were supposed to be there from 9am 1pm !

I've missed having any snow before Christmas this year, which is maybe why my Christmas spirit seemed to a bit lacking? The girls loved all their presents though which is always the main thing we look forward to :) Most popular presents for Holly were her chef's hat, and some M&S panda pj's which came with a panda eye mask which she wears every night! Mum & dad came round for Christmas lunch and as is tradition, we all went to theirs on Boxing day :)

This week I have done a fair bit of tidying up and clearing out,still lots to do though!

Over the past few months I have finally managed to grow my nails back (yes, I am a biter and work doesn't help either :( ) and have re-acquainted myself with my lovely OPI nail polishes :) I got lots of lovely new ones for Christmas as well :) Only problem is I have become slightly addicted to looking up colour swatches on the net !I wish I'd done that years ago as I have lots of similar ones which I probably wouldn't have bought if I'd known how close they were to ones I already had !

Another birthday....

Last week saw the last birthday in our 'lots of birthdays' month of November,Holly's 11th . She was very happy that the teachers decided to strike on the same day meaning no school! She had a lovely day, going bowling with her best friend and then lunch at Pizza Hut afterwards :) She was also very happy with her presents, a polar bear adoption, DS game and clarinet music books among other things - her pleasures are simple! Holly had no idea of what sort of cake she wanted so decided to let me surprise her! I bought a silicone mold for a giant cup cake earlier in the year so decided to give that a whirl...not easy as there is no recommended recipe in the instructions, just use your favourite cake mixture...I decided to use the Hummimgbird cup cake recipe,it took three batches to fill the mold and could probably have done with another! Anyway, despite taking ages to cook, it turn out ok, and I managed to stick the crumbly bits together with jam and icing!



Halfway through blowing out the candles

And as I forgot to but her a badge with 11 on it, we went for the trusty Thickers instead :)

And there goes November...

...almost! Oh well, blogging has not been my strongest point this year! Then again I don't know what is as I don't seem to get time to anything I mean to!

Anyway, I thought I'd share the two layouts I did at the October crop:) I haven't seen any nice Autumny papers thsi year, so I went back to my old faves Earth Love by Cosmo Cricket.In fact ,everything on the first layout is pretty old! The leaf stickers have been waiting to be used for about five years and the chipboard words are very old Scenic Route.

And this one was made using a mix of very old Bo Bunny paper,Basic Grey and October Afternoon:)
I say it evry year but Autumn photos are definitely my favourite to scrap:)

I also did a lot of my 2011 album, finishing September and almost all of Octobers pages :) I still need to go back and fill in a lot of gaps though from earlier in the year!

Since I last blogged lots has been going on so a quick round up! Emma and I went to London for the day as her birthday treat and we finished the day by going to see Wicked :) Needless to say she loved it and wants to go again! The following week I went back to London again with my Mum for Tea at The Ritz for her birthday :) Holly has had Evacuee day at school as well another Science Night trip .

It's now that time of the year though when I don't know whether I'm coming or going! This week sees Holly turn 11 (yikes!) ,and getting the day off school for her birthday and next week is her school Christmas show and pantomime trip. Her last time for both ...:( Hopefully I will make it back here before the year is out....!!

Birthdays and school trips....

...are just two things that have happened since my last post :) Holly went away on a school trip to Wales for four nights ,a couple of weeks ago.After a very tearful farewell on the Monday morning I spent the week worrying about her,until we got letters from her on the Thursday telling us that the journey had been fine (she was worried about getting travel sick on the way:( )and that she was enjoying herself :) She returned on Friday evening with a heap of stinky damp washing and was out like a light at bedtime!


While Holly was away Em turned 15 ...yikes! It was a bit weird not having Holly here and Em got a bit teary at one point, but she had a good day :) This weekend just gone she had her party here at home.It's become a bit of a tradition the last few years,they have pizza,watch a bit of X Factor ,have a dance / sing a long before the doughnut game :)



A couple of weeks ago I went to the crop and did some scrapping :) I rarely seem to get any done at home these days so I really enjoy my one Sunday a month catching up :) Sadly our numbers are a bit low at the moment but I am hoping we can keep going next year.So if you know anyone who would like to join us in Southoe ,give me a shout !

You can't have too many...

...leaf throwing photos in my opinion :) I have lots of Holly doing this, but she is often pulling all manner of strange faces! She tends to shut her eyes and screw her face up when the leaves fall back down incase any bits go in her eyes (so she's being quite sensible really!) The weather continued to be gorgeous last Monday so we went back up to Ayot to try for some photos with her eyes open :) Bingo :) The light was beautiful up there,I love the glow of the leaves on the ground :)

After the heatwave of last week,it has turned much chillier in the last few days. This means I am having a slight wardrobe problem....nothing fits! No, not because I have grown in size,but the opposite :) Since January I have lost just over 2 stone :) And all my warm clothes are too big :( And I can't find any new clothes in the shops that I like either :( A trip to a huge Primark is needed I think!On the upside,today I am wearing a skirt I haven't worn in two years so I can't complain really :)

This weekend we are packing Holly's case as she is off to Wales on a school trip on Monday.Four nights away seems like a very long time,I am going to miss her a lot :(But I am sure she'll have fun quad biking,doing archery and all sorts of other things!

Pumpkins and a heatwave...

...yep, a pretty strange combination !
Since last week we have been having a heatwave here in the UK :) Tomorrow will be October the 2nd and the temp will be 25 degrees....mad! But it has been nice to be able to trust a weather report as they have all been saying the same thing !
So today we went to the pumpkin field...yes,I know it probably seems too early but there is a method to my madness,honestly! The place we go is not a pick your own pumpkin place.They grow them and then harvest them to sell in their farm shop. A couple of years ago we went just at the right time,they were harvesting them so they were in lots of convenient piles around the field. Last year when we went, they had finished harvesting them and there were just a few squashy ones left :( So this year I planned ahead and rang them last week to ask if the pumpkins were still in the field and when they would be harvesting them (and could I come and take photos!) All was well, they were still in the field and would be picking them sometime in the next couple of weeks :) So off we went today in search of pumpkins.On the hottest 1st of October,ever. Due to the crop rotation, the pumpkins were not just down the road from the farm shop as they have been before but instead were about a mile and a half up the road ! The very nice farmer offered to show us the way,so off we went following his landrover :) Now in reality,taking photos in a un-harvested,un-trampled pumpkin field is a bit of a nightmare! Add to that boiling hot sunshine and you get the picture! I did get a few nice photos .But I don't think I will ever get any I love as much the ones from two years ago,so maybe I should give up trying?!





And this afternoon,in total contrast to the weather we are having I took Holly shopping to buy her waterproof trousers and a new waterproof coat for her school trip next week!

Sneaking in...

....to make at least one post in September!!
So since last blogging lots has happened. ...

Geoff and I had the last week of the school holidays off so we all went bowling and did a day trip to London :)
The girls went back to school (I am so not ready for Holly to be in year 6 :( )
I had my birthday :)
We have collected huge amounts of conkers!
We went to see Em get two Achievment awards at school :)
We have been to senior school open evenings for Holly :(

Hopefully I will get round to uploading a few photos of what's been going on!

But to start off with these are a couple from last weekend :) The wea ther has been gorgeous,the conkers have fallen down and there are crunchy leaves everywhere.These photos were taken at Ayot St Lawrence,just up the road from us.It really is my favourite place to go at this time of year :) Holly is modelling her new hat :)

Tomorrow we are off in search of pumpkins (which seems totally barmy considering the weather!) so I may be back soon with photos :)

Oh well...

...that mad spate of blogging didn't last long ! Possibly because I haven't done much scrapping again re cently :( Though last night I dug out a 'not sure what to do with it next' Disney layout that had been hanging around a while, and finished the title on it :) Better than nothing! I should really start sorting out my August photos for documnet 2011,though I can hardly believe August is nearly over already :( Not to worry though as we are heading towards Autumn, my fave time of the year :) Conkers, crunchy leaves..what's not to like ?!

So, I am just trying to remember what we have been doing the last couple of weeks...last week we went for our annual trip to Whipsnade Zoo , with no accidents this time :) We were very lucky with the weather and it was a very sunny warm day :)


On Saturday we had made arrangements to meet Anna at car scrapyard in Hitchin for a photo shoot with Em and her friend. Anna left home in sunshine, we left in white cloud and by the time we met at Hitchin it was chucking it down with rain :( Anna did what she could but we had to call it quits early :(Such a shame as there were amazing backdrops for photos there,old rusty buses ,piles of cars(!!) and lots more . The place is absolutely huge,I would love to go back and have a really good wander round there one day :) On Sunday we went to Thurrock and had our favourite Pizza Hut Express meal for lunch -yum!


True to form the weather was rubbish yesterday on my day off :( We went out to Stevenage in the morning to get school stuff for Em and played Scrabble in the afternoon :)

This afternoon after rubbish weather in the morning,the sun came out :) So we paid another trip to Hitchin Lavender as the sunflowers have finally strated to come out :) It may have been best to go next week when more are out but we went while the sun was out! Trouble was, once again the bright sunshine meant lots of squinting and Em pulling a strange face every time she took her sunglasses off!




They have started to harvest the lavender now, but it is still worth a visit :)

More Disney...sorry!

Yep,another one for the holiday album! I am getting there slowly! I finished this one a while ago though :) No Echo Park this time (!!) but more My Little Shoebox and October Afternoon :)

I cut the centre out of the shaped paper and replaced it with another sheet of MLS,so if you go looking for a sheet that looks like the above , you won't find it! None of my Disney layouts are very lumpy and bumpy .This is because I bought a lovely album from walt Disney World but it's only postbound so there's not much room for lumps!

Tomorow we have a visit from the Bowkis girls,if it stays dry the cameras may come out ....!

Another layout and lavender...

This is the layout I did yesterday, another one for the Disney album :) I seem to be using the same things at the moment, Echo Park papers and My Little Shoebox alphas,they are definately my 'go to' supplies! You can hyst see that the date currently says 'nd', as I have run out of 2's and need to but another packet! The title is very glittery in real life ,and it also covers the splodge where I accidentally squashed a bug on the white background....!! I am definately buying more of these papers as I am down to just scraps of my favourite sheets and want to make some holiday mini books with it :)



And this is one of the better photos from the lavender field last week.I think I should have checked which sunglasses Holly had picked up before we left as she chose the hugest pair possible (bought a few years back as the height of High School Musical fever,they are her Sharpay glasses!) As the kids have got taller I found it really difficult to get a lot of purple background and they're not keen on sitting down amongst the bees!

It's a miracle...

I have actually done some scrapping over the last couple of days :) I have finished off my Document 2011 pages for July, just need to finish March,April ,May & June...oh dear!I will gt there though as they are all sort of half done! Last night I finished off this layout that has been sat in a drawer unfinished for the last four months.

I used the Echo Park Springtime papers ,which to be honest I'm not too keen on,they are a bit too wishy washy.But I had bought them so I had to use them! I found a very old sheet of Sassafrass stickers which brightened it up a bit and used a mix of My Little Shoebox alphas and Thickers for the title.I like it a bit more now it's finished,though it will never be one of my faves! I also did another holiday layout this afternoon which I still need to take a photo of.
This week is the third week of the holidays, it's going by too fast! The pool is now up and the girls have been in it a fair bit so far :)Last week we made a return trip to the Lavender field in Hitchin.In all honesty though my photos are pretty rubbish :( It was a really bright sunny day so every photo that the girls aren't wearing their sun glasses in, they are squinting! Oh well...there's always next year ! Yesterday we went to Dunstable Downs for a bit of kite flying.Our kites are a bit rubbish though :( But at least we got some fresh air!
On Thursday night Geoff and Em went to see Harry Potter so Holly and I had a girly night watching Tangled and Pocahontas (I don't know why but it was Holly's fave Disney film when she wwas younger!)accompanied by a huge bowl of popcorn:)
I will be back once I have taken some photos of my scrapping :)

Catching up and finishing off...

So any attempts to blog regularly in July failed! The girls have now finished school for another year and it looks like summer has done a runner...!
Holly finally left Brownies a couple of weeks back :( The guide group that she wants to attend is over subscribed though so I don't think she'll be starting there until after Christmas. I made her leader a Thank You album with all the photos that I'd taken at various activities they had done.I made a page from each of Holly's friends who had recently left ,with their photo on which they then wrote a Thank You note on the back of.I think she liked it...she cried! Which wasn't the intention but I did want her to know how much they have all enjoyed their time with her and how much they all liked her :)
Sunday was cropping day, with me being in charge as Anna was otherwise occupied! I didn't do any full layouts but made an attempt at catching up on my Document 2011 pages. I'd forgotten how long they take me! But I did pretty much get July's done (just need to do the family photo for the month :) ) as well as getting some of April's done. I managed to do a bit more this afternoon too whilst Holly had a friend round and Em was doing homework.I finally finished this layout too that I did at the crop two months ago but needed a title.I decided not to go with the character names as it would have been way too long,so settled for the fac t that they were the first ones that we metr, on our way to find Mickey :)
Oh dear,just realised what an awful photo that is...it looks nice in real life - really!(Just checked and if you click on it, it is in focus after all!) I used Echo Park Summer Days papers which are fab and bright and perfect for Disney photos...I need to buy some more!

At the lavender field...

Yesterday I went for my photo workshop at Hitchin Lavender field :) We got there really early as we weren't sure how bad the traffic would be by Knebworth,but the roads were clear.It meant that I had time to wander on my own for a bit as well as having a chat with Rachael Warne who was teaching the course.She was really lovely, with loads of experience (proved by the gorgeous magazine articles featuring her photographs!) First of all she gave us a talk through the basics ie apertures,shutter speeds . She showed us examples of her work ,explaining what a difference changing depth of field or focal points can make.We then took a walk around the farm and field looking at different ways to photograph the scenery etc. After lunch (which was lovely!) we then went off to take photos wherever we wanted. I won't bore you too much,but here a few that I took.

When the girls and Geoff came to pick me up afterwards they picked a couple of bags of lavender (which is currently drying out on trays in the living room!) It was very sunny by then though so they were squinting in most of the photos I took :( Love this one though,even if you can't see much lavender!
Sadly, there are no sunflowers this year :( They didn't survive May when there was very little rain.Much as I like the lavender, the sunflowers were gorgeous last year so I'm really disappointed :(

I'm hoping to go back in a couple of weeks maybe when the lavender is out a bit more as the rows weren't as full as when we went last year at the end of July.And maybe the girls will be more in the mood to have their photos taken...!!

Anyway, I did come home feeling that I'd learnt quite a bit,and it drummed into me a few things which I sort of knew but kept forgetting!I just have to remember to put it into practice!

At least we can say we went....

Yesterday ,as probably the whole world was aware,was the final Harry Potter premiere in London.I didn't realise it was so soon although I knew it was due sometime in July. Unfortunately yesterday was also Holly's school open evening when we get to go and have a look at all the work she has done this year.Having been into London for the previous one,I knew Em was hoping to go to this one too.So we settled for a juggling act of a quick visit to school before Em and I whizzed off to London.By the time we got there it was much later than when we went before and a totally different set up.So we pretty much missed everything! But we did get to see the screen...and the hoardings blocking everything off!
Anyway, we hung around Trafalgar square for a bit before having a bit of a wander (where we could!) and also visited the M&M shop... At least being daylight we could walk a bit further out and not feel quite so lost!
Apparently the weather for Sunday is looking good (or it was last time I checked!) I'm now just wondering how long it will take to get there as the traffic is awful due to the Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth Park....

Message for Claire C (if you read this!!) I keep trying to leave a message on your blog but it keeps asking me to sign into my Google Account over and over again :( This is the website for Hitchin Lavender .The sunflowers are due out soon too,and are also beautiful:) Their blog is usually updated as to when the flowers are in bloom :)
http://www.hitchinlavender.com/

Busy busy busy

The last few weeks of summer term seen to be like the last couple of weeks before Christmas,with lots going on!

We had a beautiful day on Saturday watching the Maypole dancing :) It's a really lovely day as it's not competitive and the girls can dance as and when they want.We all take picnics and have a great time :) The sun shone most of the time and I now have a lovely tan ! This coming Thursday is open evening,which for some reason is really late this year! I'm looking forward to seeing what Holly has been growing at gardening club and her work on display in her classroom :) She is off Hatfield House again on Friday to take in a Guinness Book Of records largest History Lesson :)

Last week on Thursday both girls' schools were closed due to teacher strikes so I left Em in charge whilst I went to work for a couple of hours.I came home to the lovely smell of fresh baked cookies ! We went out for a walk to the lakes ,taking my camera with me as it doesn't seem to get much use these days! Love this one of both of them :)

I am very excited to be going on a photography workshop this coming weekend at Hitchin Lavender. It's the first time I have been to something like this and I am slightly worried about going on my own and not knowing anyone ! However,I am really looking forward to learning how to use more features on my camera.And as I can stay on as long as want once the workshop ends I am hoping to get some photos of the girls amongst the lavender again.Though hopefully I will go back again once the sunflowers are out too :)

What happened there?!

I know I'm not the best blogger but I did an update on Friday which has mysteriously disappeared somewhere! Okay, so it wasn't very interesting and had no photos, but it was still an update!
This weekend we have been struck down with a not-very-nice bug, to put it politely :( Holly and I got off more lightly than Geoff and Em ,but it was not a good weekend.I was supposed to be cropping,but had already cancelled in fear that I might be 'struck down' whilst on the train on the way there! Just as well really! It does mean that I really to get my bum in gear though as I only seem to scrap at crops and am not getting anything done at home at all :(
This weekend Holly is due to do Maypole dancing at Hatfield House...I'm hoping the weather improves before then! Today we have had downpours and thunderstorms....I'm hoping it will be easier to sleep tonight than last night!
Holly 's has a good couple of weeks at Brownies,last week was pond dipping and the week before she got soaked at Ringos's.This involves whizzing down on small ski slope in a huge inflatable ring !It's amazing how loud a bunch of girls can scream when they're enjoying themseleves!

Yikes

I can't quite believe in June already?! This means we are in the month of Maypole dancing at the school fete,Fathers day and a million and one birthdays on Geoff's side of the family! Due to the many aforementioned birthdays,we went up to the in-laws last weekend.Unfortunately Holly was very badly travel sick all the way there,which pretty much wiped her out for a day :( She was fine all the journey home though which was a relief! Anyway,both girls had a lovely weekend playing with Nando the dog and meeting their new six month old cousin for the first time :)
Last week Holly did some planting with my mum & dad,finally finding a use for her old High School Musical wellies (which I knew she didn't want to get rid of!)We also have some strawberries from last year which are re-flowering, runner beans,carrots and more sunflowers :)


The week before half term Holly had her yearly school disco.Last year she sat outside for most of it as it was too loud but she seemed to really enjoy herself this year:)
This is another of the LO's I did at the crop :) I used a mix of Echo Park and Crate paper, Maya Road doilies and my lovely Jenni Bowlin butterfly stamp :)

And the today the kitchen is finally ready to be painted :) The last bits of work were done today - yippee! Cupboard wise I still have a lot of sorting and chucking out to do but as it's hidden it's not too bad!