Sorting and scrapping...

Last night I made a start trying to sort out my scrapping, abandoned card making stuff and general crafty 'junk'.This needs to be done over the next month before the overhaul of the kitchen (fingers crossed...)Having started with some boxes of scrapping paper I had a few Lo ideas which are currently whizzing round my head. This morning I did a layout that has been on the to do list a while...Holly's first meeting with Mickey last year :) (We ended up meeting him three times in total!)
I bought the Echo Park paper especially for this LO(from 3 Jolly Scrappers) and then used some Queen & Co papers I already had in my 'holiday scrapping' box :) I also used a few of my Disney embellies but too many that it looks over the top hopefully ?! The lovely black Believe sticker is a KI Memories Scribble sticker,from Paper Arts (these seem to be like gold dust in this country, I bought the white versions from US EBay in the end!) I still need to add the date to the journalling sticker as I forgot to set the date on my camera for the first few days of the holiday and need to double check it. I think it could do with a few more of the stars but I used all the ones I had left over from the mini book I made a while back.
I'm thinking I might make this layout again for Holly's room as The Range now stock 12 x 12 box frames :)

A little bit of Disney..

does you good!

On Sunday me and the girls went to Wembley Arena to see Disney on Ice :) Needless to say we all loved it and came home happy and with Disney songs stuck in our head :)

Almost spring like :)

This week we have finally had some fairly nice weather and some sunshine :) I have actually ventured out without my coat on a couple of occasions!
So whilst the sun was shining today Holly & I had a bit of a tidy up in the garden.We cleared out her little green house and planted the daffodil bulbs that we has forgotten about(!!),and some Rocket.We also attempted to do some digging in the front garden which was pretty impossible as the ground was so rock hard!

I finished off this layout last weekend that I did at a crop way back in November! I have come to the conclusion that my favourite layouts are generally Autumn themed ones simply because of the colours :) I used Cosmo Cricket Earth Love for this one.This is one of my favourite paper ranges ,I;ll be sad when I run out of it!

I finally got round to seeing The Kings Speech at the cinema this week .I did enjoy it but I have also come to the conclusion that having got used to usually going to the cinema with the kids, I find grown up films a bit heavy going! Being really tired probably didn't help either! I'm glad I went though as I did enjoy it really!

And finally we are very excited here as tomorrow we are off to see this :) :) I love Lastminute.com :)
Oops, that's a bit tiny!

What I did last Sunday

...whilst I was cropping was my Feb pages :) I was a bit more organised this time though and cut out all my photos and put them in the relevant pockets before I went :) I also got time to start my Feb feature page about Em's Madrid trip, but that isn't finished yet as I needed some info from Em about what they did when :) I also started another Disney LO but I'm on the verge of taking that apart as I don't really like it ! (I have to work out how to do it without wasting too much paper first though!)

So Feb's pocket page...


Probably a bit boring to look at but it has got quite a few bits in it :) I've decided not to bother with an envelope as well though as I didn't put much in the one on January's page!

Divided pages....

There are a few blanked bits on these as there are people in the photos that I haven't asked if they mind me putting their photos on here.So fear not, I wasn't sat in a a restaurant on my own with three wine glasses and an empty bottle! And the title on the Momiji page is now complete (it should say Lillan!) as I ordered some more letter stickers this week!

Last week Em was off school with what was probably an allergic reaction to something.She has few spots and as the girl she shared a room with in Madrid has chicken pox we had to be safe.She was not impressed at missing four days of school...

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip on my ownsome to the Galleria.I never used to like TK Max,but now I have worked out which bits I like I quite enjoy rummaging in there :)Yesterday I got a couple of packs of WRMK papers ,plus a D Ring album with divided page protectors & papers for...£11...bargain!

I can't think of anything else interesting we've done to be honest! I will be back soon with another layout from a crop last year that I have just finished off :)

She's home :)

This evening we picked up a very tired and sore footed Em from the airport :) I had plans to take some photos around the airport whilst we were waiting for her to arrive, but it turned out they were ready to be picked up earlier than we had originally been told and I ended up dashing up to pick her up whilst Geoff waited at the pick up point (saving us £6 on the parking charge!) Sounds like she has had a great time but I think she'll be sleeping in tomorrow!

Yesterday afternoon I took Holly and one of her friends to see Mega Mind at the cheapy cinema.It was ok, but I wouldn't rush to see it again. Today we went out for a bit of food shopping and then treated Holly to lunch in McDonalds :) I was very good and had...nothing!But oh how I enjoyed my weight watchers bagel when I got home...!

Last night I got another Disney layout done :) I'm quite pleased with how my character LO's are turning out so far.I'm not using much of my Disney stash but I think I prefer them that way! I still have plans to make lots of smaller mini books too so it will all get used up somehow!
I used new Echo Park Springtime papers which I ordered from Bellaboo last week with a very nice 10% off :)

It's been a loooong day...

This morning Em went on her school trip to Madrid.We had to be at Luton Airport for 4.30 am so were up at 2.00am...! I am off to bed very shortly! On the way home we decided to go into Tesco's and get the food shop done...never again! The place was a complete tip with rubbish and spilt stuff everywhere ,the aisles were full of cages and we had to use the stupid self service tills which seem to hate us - lesson learnt! When we got home I did try going back to bed as it was still dark but although my eyes were happy to close my 'head' was still wide awake so I gave up after an hour! The weather has been pants all day so Holly and I had a pyjama day watching DVD's and playing Scrabble :) We had a phone call just after lunchtime from Em to say she had arrived safely :)
I am off to bed in the hope that I will sleep!

Meet Lillan :)

My very cute Valentine Momiji :) I think she wins the award for being the cutest Momiji I own,even if Geoff does think she looks like Florence from the Magic Roundabout!
We had a pre-Valentines meal at home on Saturday night ,followed by...two games of Scrabble! Do you think it's our age?!

A weekend at the Movies!

We are lucky enough to have a theatre in town which doubles up as a cinema with cheap family films on at weekends and during school holidays.This weekend I took the girls and one of Holly's friends to see Ramona and Beezus.
I'd never heard of the books but the girls liked the look of the film when they saw the trailer for it.And I have to say that it was a really sweet film and I really enjoyed it :)

Then today we had a treat and went to the full price cinema to see Tangled in 3D :) Needless to say I absolutely loved it.I am a Disney girl at heart, I could watch them over and over in preference to a 'real' film ! The animation is just brilliant in Tangled ,I think they pulled out all the stops for the 5oth animated movie :) Oh and the girls enjoyed it too!

In other news,this week we had the info meeting for Em's school trip to Madrid next weekend.Should be fun ,they are just allowed hand luggage! Just need to get our small suitcase down and check the measurements ,get her Euros and we are all set :) Not looking forward to the early strat though.she has to be at the airport for 4.30am!

On Friday night Holly went for a sleepover at her friends after Brownies. There was much excitement & planning beforehand and I think she had a good time.She's certainly been a little tired and grumpy since!

The weather has been pretty rubbish ,and typical that I got locked out on the day it poured with rain! My poor camera isn't getting much use other than at least one photo a day! So when the sun shone yesterday afternoon I persuaded the girls outside as I'll need photos for calendars next year!

Love this one of Em :)

And then I found this one that Em took whilst I was trying to find something in my bag this morning while we were waiting for the cinema to open:)

And how could I forget, this week I also went for a very long overdue visit to The Waffle House for one of these - yum :)

Another one for the Disney album :)

Last night I actually felt like scrapping (I tend to only get anything done at crops these days!) I finally got theis Mulan layout done.The photo has been in the bag with the papers for ages, I've sat and pushed it around a couple of times at crops so I was quite glad I finally got it done last night!Everything on it is My Little Shoe Box except the white Thickers and the butterflies & pearls :)Now it's done I feel like I can move on the enxt one!
For Christmas Holly got a cute book called Made By Me which has lots of hand sewing projects in it.While we were in Stevenage yesterday we went to the indoor market which has a great fabric/haberdashery stall.We got her a couple of pieces of fabric and this afternoon she made herself a sweet draw string bag :)
This week Holly has played in her second school netball match.They lost but are getting much better and braver at trying to get the ball!
Today we went for a walk into town and bought the girls a Subway for lunch, for the first time!It's been really windy here the last few days, so much so that my head and ears hurt when we got home today!The rest of the day was spent sewing, playing Scrabble and we even had a quick go on Wii Sports (very out of practice on that!)
I have ideas for a couple more layouts in my head at the moment, so who knows, I may be back sooner rather than later!

And then it was February..!

Not sure where the last couple of weeks have gone,I keep meaning to blog but never quite made it!
But as Sunday was crop day at least I have some scrapping to share :)As I mentioned a couple of posts ago I'm doing a document 2011 album this year :) This fits in well with crop day as it's usually on the last Sunday of the month ,when the month is pretty much done :)These are the pages I have done for January so far.I haven't filled the 'pocket'page yet, i have lots more bits & pieces to go in it, plus some more photos which I ran out of room for in the divided pages.

I just need to fill in the top right section on the page below,about our new bedroom (well, new bed and wallpaper!) I really enjoyed doing these,and it was a good way of using up all the scraps of my October Afternoon papers! I just need to do my feature ' page :)

The girls often watch the American cake programmes on the Food channel and Holly decided last weekend that she wanted to make her own cake :) On Saturday she and Em made the sponges and I helped her make the shape of the cake.I left them to ice it with Geoff whilst I was out on Sunday, and this is what I came home to :)

Cute, eh? Not bad for a first attempt :)

All change :)

This weekend just gone we had a bit of a move around in our room :) Last week our new sale gargain bed was delivered so on Sunday afternoon Geoff dismantled the old one and put the new one together :) We also decided to move things around so the bed is now up against a wall instead of under the window and it makes the room look so much better :) We have also decided to wallpaper one wall with some very gorgeous wallpaper,a joint decision made surprisingly quickly for us! :) Picture wise it is proving more difficult to find what I really want :( Many moons ago when I first left home, I had some gorgeous Norman Parkinson posters in my flat.I still have those posters but they are pretty creased and damaged after 20 years...can I replace them?!It's not looking likely at the moment :( I am going to try the Covent Garden Poster shop as I am pretty sure I got at least one of them from there .If I have no joy we'll have to find something else :( (But I'm still not chucking out my posters !!)

On Saturday Holly and I made meatballs for the first time :) For some reason Holly was convinced she didn't like them though I thought if she helped make them she'd know there was nothing in them she didn't like! I think her favourite bit was smashing up the cream crackers! This weekend we'll be making meatloaf (can you guess we're using a Jamie Oliver book?!)

Eoday we have been to Ikea to get a couple of things for around the house:) Sadly though I couldn't bet one of the main things I needed though, new bulbs for my Stranne lamp :(
Apparently they have updated the design so that they now use LED's. And they don't sell the replacement bulbs to go in my 'old' version :( Not happy and I think I will write and complain as once the rest of my bulbs blow my lamp will be useless :(

Making things with new things!

At the weekend we set about doing one of my 'aims' for this year and that was using things! I have had a Crock Pot slow cooker sitting out in the kitchen for the past year,new in its box.So on Sunday I made a sausage casserole.It did actually taste ok, though I think I will teak the recipe a bit next time.I am really not keen on tinned/chopped tomatoes so I will probably swap them for some tomato puree and add a bit more stock.The girls ate it though which is the main thing ! (Though Holly did leave the 'bits' like the pepper and mushrooms!)
Next thing to use was my new mixer that we got for Christmas.What is it with me and mixers? This one still doesn't seem to know the meaning of low speed and I still ended up with a cloud of flour and icing suger in the kitchen!Anyway, I made Hazelnut & Chocolate cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery book(bang goes any attempt at healthy eating!)They are lovely but even I found the combination of the filling (a dollop of Nutella type spread - we used Asda's own)and the frosting (flavoured with the choc/hazelnut spread) a bit too sickly and that is saying something!

I am still taking a photo a day, though most of them are pretty random and not really worth sharing on here!
To help with my aim of doing Document 2011 I have gone out and bought myself a diary and am making notes each day :) I haven't kept a diary in years ,but as it's small enough to keep in my handbag and won't be hidden in a drawer by my bed I'm hoping I will make use of it!

I'll leave you with this photo of the gorgeous sky yesterday morning :)

Random post!

I am just waiting for the bread maker to finish so I thought I'd do a quick late night post!


There are so many photo challenges etc that seem to pop up at this time of year that it's hard to ignore them! I haven't actually told myself that I'm doing any of them, but I thought I would try and use my camera a bit more! I so much prefer indoor photos now that I've learnt a bit more about my camera settings (I still have a looong way to go but at least I've almost lost the flash!) so I have been taking a few snaps of the girls in the evenings.Here are a couple from the last couple of nights :)
Em in between dances on Just Dance 2 last night

And Holly making Angel Delight for pudding tonight :)

My bread maker is beeping so I am off to bed now it's finished :)

Pencil Lines

Loved this weeks sketch so I made sure I joined in at Pencil Lines this week :) I used some lovely Echo Park papers from the Winter Time range.Although we did eventually have a huge snowfall we sadly didn't go out in it much :( This photo was taken when we went out for a walk to enjoy the last day of a fairly decent amount lying around (although the sledging mound was pretty much just a mud slide!)

A lot of my scrapping stuff is a bit all over the place at the moment as we had some work done in the kitchen before Christmas and I had to empty my stuff out completely.I have started going through and getting rid of a lot of things that I am unlikely to use :) I also use up quite a bit of paper in the run up to Christmas making calendars for presents,which has helped :)
Today we took the tree and all the decorations down.It was good to have a tidy up but it does look a bit empty in the bay window where the tree was :( We are thinking of getting a bean bag for the girls and maybe a floor lamp to make it look a bit better.For some reason I always take a photot of the tree baubles when they are piled up waiting to be put away!

We found a couple of bargains in Asda this morning:) I got a gorgeous sequinned bag for Christmas in black ,they had both colours marked down to half price today so I treated myself to the silver version and we found some half price Minnie Mouse pj's for Holly :)

I have decided to do a document 2011 album this year.I didn't follow the class/prompts at all last year but have seen some fab pages on other peoples blogs (mainly Lauras !) so I am going to try this year :) I have my divided page protectors on order and if all else fails, I can do my pages at Anna's crop :)

Disney mini album

So having been told off for my sad post yesterday, I thought I'd better come back soon with a more cheerful one!
This is the small mini album I made a a little while back.I used a chipboard Papermania album (£2.99 in The Range )It came with bookrings but was of them was too loose and kept coming undone so I swapped them for ribbon.The whole thing is very,very simple! I bought lots of Disney stash when I came home fronm Florida in a great half price sale and used a couple of packs of it on this :)The spotty papers are Jillibean Soup and the alphabet stickers are from October Afternoon.



I won't bore you with all the pages, as the layout is the same on each one , character name in stickers and a bottle cap along with either a Mickey head icon or stars.The album was just the right size to do pages of both girls with all the characters they met at Epcot's Character spot :) I'm still not 100% sure about those epoxy stickers but I think they do the job ok :)
I hope you've had a good start to the New Year :) We went out this morning and I got a few bits from Hobbycraft :)We have also ordered a new bed which force me to do a major tidy up under our current one! Tomorrow the tree and decs will be coming down and we are going out to look for beanbags.Yes, it's all go here ....!!

farewell 2010...

If I am honest, I'm not really that big on New Year (well actually I am big all year!!) .We rarely go out and I'll be surprised if I can keep my eyes open til midnight tonight!

However, I thought I'd better do some kind of end of year post :)

The main reason we will remember 2010 is of course our almost month long stay in Florida,which now sadly seems ages ago :( Hard to believe that this time last year we were just about to book our flights. I will admit that it did take much longer than I expected for the holiday blues to pass...

At the ,moment I seem very aware at how much time is ticking by...I'm guessing one of the main reasons is that as from tomorrow I will be able to say that Holly will be going to secondary school next year.I know it will still be 18 months away,but it will still be next year.There is something about my youngest leaving junior school that really makes me sad.No more assemblies, sports days or Christmas shows.Sigh.

I have set myself a couple of 'scrapping' things I would like to do in 2011,but I haven't chosen a word for the year or made any hard and fast resolutions.If I end up at the end 2011 lighter and fitter than I start it ,that would be good but if not...there's always the next year ;)

I will leave you with a bit of fancy bokeh, another of the 12 Days of Christmas assignments .and wish you a very hapy 2011 :)

It's been and gone!

Christmas that is, since my last post! Three weeks...I think that has to be a record period neglect for my poor blog :(
So a quick round up of what's happened...
Holly's school show was fab (I will take photos of her costume once the tree is gone and I have a blank background for her to stand in front of!), Em's House Drama production came second .which means that we get to go ansd see her perform it :) The day after term ended we finally had a decent snow fall...and it's still hanging around now, though only in a mucky slushy form :( We did go out with the sledge a couple of times, but Holly wasn't really in the mood and it was really cold!
Christmas Eve saw us slip and slide our way to the Christingle service :) The walk home through the snow, admiring all the pretty lights got us in the mood for Christmas :)
Christmas Day was good,lots of lovely and much longed for presents were given and received :) I was lucky enough to get a new lense for my camera which finally saw me find my Bokeh! This was one the assignments on Cheryls photo course, and I just couldn't suss it with my other lense.


The present that made me laugh the most was the gift of three huge bags of Reese's Pieces -yum!
Boxing day was spent at my mum's and the last two days we have been enjoying lie ins and a lack of routine :) Except for Geoff that is who went back to work yesterday :(
This morning we went for a wander into town as I wanted to get a few things in the John Lewis Clearance.
We also got Holly a hat from Claire's in the sale :) I bought her a different one before Christmas but it was a bit small ,result then that Claires had marked theirs down to half price today :)

I will be back soon hopefully as I have some scrapping to share as well as the Disney mini album I made a few weeks back :)

So far I am keeping up with the 12 Days of Christmas workshop :)Yesterday's assignment was to take a festive photo walk.Sadly the weather was horrible here yesterday, cold ,damp and by late afternoon pouring with rain :(These are a couple of the photos I took despite the dullness! I loved how cool the fountain looked where it was frozen :)
Todays assignment was called Get in Shape and involved taking photos of people -shock horror! I had a perfect image in my head of the photo I wanted but it was not to be! Grumpy models didn't help but I love this shot that I got instead :)

I've also had fun making my own star filter but I'll share the effects of that another day!

This is one of the layouts I did last weekend :) Not a great photo but better than nothing!I know the title doesn't stand out that much but with fourteen being quite a long word,I had trouble finding letters small enough to squeeze it in!

Today we went to Milton Keynes to see the Christmas displays and get a few bits of shopping (think Paperchase!).I don't think the decs were as good as past years sadly :( The girls had their traditional go on the carousel though :)

This week is a busy one, Holly has three performances of her school play and a panto trip and Em is also busy with drama rehearsals :)

10th birthdays and busy-ness!

As always in December ,things have started to get a litle bit busy!
Tuesday saw Holly celebrate her 10th birthday :) She got her birthday wish which was snow on her birthday, although we didn't get a great deal.Shockingly though, they were actually allowed out for a snowball fight at school unlike last year when they were kept under lock and key when the bead weather hit! She is having her birthday 'do' in a couple of weeks,a trip to the cinema with a few friends and we had tea at Frankie & Bennys :)

One thing done off my to do list is Holly's costume for her christmas play :)I have no idea what the complete outfit looks like as I sent her mask, hat and tutu in after the main part!Fingers crossed she brings it all home in one piece so I can take some photos!
AS well as signing up for Journal Your Christmas this year I am taking Cheryl Johnson's 12 Days of Christmas photography workshop :)Yesterdays task was to experiment with the different white balance settings on our cameras.Whilst I know my photos aren't perfectly in focus, I'm really pleased at how 'glowy' they are :) I have yet to do todays assignment as it was pretty dark by the time we got back from school so I needed to have a re-think on my original idea.

We seem to be the only part of the UK that doesn't have a decent covering of snow,despite being forecast it :( Bah humbug! We were thinking of putting the tree up this wekend, but it feels a bit too early.Plus I really wanted to paint the living room first, so that is my job next Tuesday!

In the mood for Christmas :)

This mornming I am feeling very christmassy! We have a light sprinkling of snow outside and I am all signed up for this :)
Over the last few years I have admired lots of beautiful journals on peoples blogs so this year I have taken the plunge :) I am still waiting for some supplies to arrive before I can get started :) Let's hope I stick with it :)