Back to normal :)

After a very quiet week Holly came home on Friday evening :) Em and I went to meet her and I'm not sure which one of us was more excited to see her :) Anyway, she had a great time, they did so much in just a few days I'm surprised she didn't fall asleep on the way home! I did mange to make some progress in her room in the end...at least you can see the carpet now anyway! There is lots more clearing out to be done still but it's a start!
Today was crop day and I had a really lovely day :) Although I fully intebded to start catching up on my Document 2011 pages I did four 12 x 12 layouts instead :) Feeling very pleased with myself as I have finished them all but one which just need the title (I know what it will be but it's very long so I need to plan it!) I love this Lo that I did using the crop kit.The kit was designed by Anna and can also be brought from 3 Jolly Scrappers.I didn't do the class pages,but there is enough in the kit to do two pages and a mini book :)

The only things I've added are the crystal bling swirl and a plastic rose button (from a pair of Primark earrings!)
I will get round to taking photos of the other layouts this week :)
Just this week and then it's half term again....:)

Oh so quiet...

This morning (very bright and early!) Holly set off with the rest of her year for a three night trip to York. I was quite prepared to cry my eyes out once we'd waved her off,but as she went off happy and smiling I was much calmer than I'd expected :) In the past she has got herself in a bit of a state before going away which in turn has me worrying about her the whole time she is gone. I think though she is over that now which makes saying goodbye that much easier . The school are updating their blog regularly too letting us know what they have been up to, I'm quite envious of their fish & chips for tea! This evening they are off on a ghost walk round York ,having visited the Jorvik centre and the Shambles this afternoon.

Whilst she is away I thought I'd try and sort out Holly's room....I wish I hadn't started! I knew it wouldn't be a one day job but at this rate I could be there til Christmas! I have no idea how she ends up with so many 'bits'. In reality I'm guessing she will naturally grow out of a lot the stuff in there soon,bearing in mind she'll be starting senior school next year (although I'm still in denial about that!) ,so I'm trying to thin it out a bit now to give her more room.

As Anna has now put up some of her photos from the weekend I will post a couple more of her fabulous finishing touches..and that cake !!

Oops...long time no blog!

So I thought I'd better do an update! Life has seemed a bit upside down what with all the bank holidays and short days.There also seems to be lots going on :)


Last weekend Holly went away on a two night Brownie holiday and had a fab time kayaking,canoeing and lots of other things.She is so lucky to be part of such a great pack ,her leader has arranged so many great things for them to do over the past three years.It was also a bit sad as most of the girls she joined with have moved up to guides and it was their last activity altogether. This week she is away again ,on a three night school trip...yikes! This will be the longest she has been away from home so I'm hoping she is okay. I know I will be so pleased to pick her up on Friday evening!


Today we went over to Anna's to take the girls to Lilly's birthday party - A Mad Hatter's Tea Party! I will share a couple of photos now and some more once Anna has blogged too as it was all her hard work :)



Who'd have thought a very old Cinderella dress would be fab as an Alice dress too ?! (Note it's now at her knees, not full length!)


In other news, the kitchen is getting there :) We now have the proper work top in, so that makes a big difference and it's starting to look a bit more 'pretty', with some added 'knick knacks' :)
Hopefully I may have some scrapping to share soon as it's crop day next Sunday :) I haven't scrapped since the last one in March so I'm hoping to catch up on my 2011 album at least!

Look...photos!!

Yes, I know there quite a few of them but I wasn't quite sure where to start ! The main pc is still out of action so Geoff has put my photos on his netbook and discs for me.I am currently using his netbook which scares me slightly as I am worried I will do something irreparable to it!
These first three photos were taken over at Moneyhole Woods (Lyzzy's place apparently!) We had never been there before until a couple of weeks ago which is a shame because it is absolutely beautiful ! The bluebells were out (as you may have noticed!) ,the sun was shining and the light was amazing.I have many more photos but thought I would bore you in small doeses :)

These two photos are a couple that I took when we went over to Anna's for the afternoon :) Anna took lots of beautiful ones whilst I hovered around behind her getting in the way!

The kitchen is getting there! All the units are in,just waiting for a couple of replacement doors as a couple of wrong ones were delivered.The worktop is being fitted in the next couple of weeks sometime and then we will almost be done :) I will share photos in another post :)

Yesterday we ,along with most of the nation I think sat down and watched the Royal Wedding :) I loved it, it just seems so long since there was an event like it, I'd forgotten what it felt like! Holly was mesmerised and sat through the whole thing, waving her flag :) We put some bunting up and had mum and dad round for afternoon tea :) Oh, just one last photo :) Cupcakes with homemade Union Jack toppers made from cocktail sticks and paperchains!

Taking shape :)

No, not me !! The new kitchen :) Despite huge chunks of plaster falling off the walls yesterday progress has been made and we have lots of units up :) I'm surprised at how much bigger it looks and am really lookig forward to it being finished (not least so that we can have the rest of the house back to normal!
Stil no main computer which is a shame as we have been out and about a bit recently taking advantage of the weather and lots of photos have been taken :) Think woodland ,bluebells and a blossom tree :)
Tomorrow I am taking the girls to see Hop (I'm hoping I can ignore the fact that Russell Brand does the voice of the bunny as I can't stnd him!) Then on Thursday we are hopping on a train and going to visit Anna :) We are cramming lots in the last few days of the holidays! I think Friday will be spent moving stuff back into the kitchen (fingers crossed) and then we will have our annual Easter Egg Hunt at mum & dad's on Saturday :)

It still says no...

but I am managing on my laptop for now :) Just missing looking through my photos and being able to upload the ones I've taken recently! This time last year we were in florida and preparing ourselves for the fact that we had to return home in a couple of days...little did we know at the time! I still have trouble believing our luck at having such an extended break :) I'm looking forward to receiving my order of Echo Park's new Summer Days papers as they will be perfect for scrapping some more of my Disney and beach photos :) Though all scrapping is on hold for now until the kitchen is done. Tomorrow the new boiler and water tank are being fitted and then next Monday work begins on the kitchen. The house is already pretty much upside down as we have already started removing the old units... Last weekend I went to Ally Pally for the first time in a few years :) I met up with Kerry who I haven't seen since our cottage getaway weekend two years ! We had a great time browsing ,shopping and chatting.I saw lots of familiar faces including lots that I just recognised from on line but would feel pretty daft saying hello to as they wouldn't know me from Adam! The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed lunch outside and then sat and watched the world go by for a bit once we were all shopped out :) We're almost at the end of the first week of the Easter hols already :( Holly has been on a three part wall climbing course, not sure that it was really her thing though!At least she tried and at least I won't have to pay out for her to go again! She is really pleased to be staying on at Brownies until the summer as she hasn't yet been offered a Guide place. Tomorrow we will be leaving Geoff to deal with the boiler chaos and will be going to my mum & dad's and then off to the woods in search of bluebells :) Which reminds me, I need to charge up my camera battery.... Apologies for a non -photo post again...I will make up for it at some point I'm sure!

Computer says no :(

So I am on my creaky old laptop ,which means no photos and no Bejewelled :( I can surf (slowly!) and get emails though so all is not lost! The main PC suddenly decided it didn't like what I was doing last weekend and has been in a strop ever since .All my photos are on the external hard drive so they are safe :) I don't really like doing blog posts without photos hance lack of updates! Last Sunday was crop day .I had just started sorting and resizing my photos for my Document 2011 pages when the PC shut down so I couldn't print any photos to take with me :( I faffed around a bit, took apart and finished a Lo I started last month ,started another one and completed one I have since decided I don't like ! So not the most productive day! On Monday evening Holly's school took part in a local schools Dance Festival, performing at the local theatre .They danced to Glee's version of Singing In the Rain/Umbrella :) Thirty kids all with pop -up umbrellas....very brave but really good! This morning we went to see Gnomeo & Juliet (Em's request!) and it turned out to be one of those films that Holly giggled at the whole way through :) Whilst we were out Geoff strated taking the tiles off the kitchen walls...we are in a for a messy few weeks ...!

The things she does for me....:)

Every day on our way to and from school (or my mum &dad's or into town!) ,year after year,we pass a huge patch of daffodils on the green.I always mean to take photos but never get round to it.And usually on the way home from school there are way too many other people around for me to ask Holly to sit there! This evening though we had to go back for Holly's teacher consultation so as it was quiet I asked her if she'd mind sitting in amongst them for me....



Don't worry, there are little 'walkways 'amongst the flowers so she didn't flatten any by walking through them or sitting down!

Red Nose Day and cooking...

As it was Red Nose Day on friday, Holly went in wearing her favourite pjs,deely boppers & red nose :)The deely boppers are a nightmare to take a photo of as they boing around so much! On Sunday afternoon Holly made a very nice chocolate sponge :) AS you may have guessed she does love Mickey Mouse and wanted the cake to have a Mickey on somewhere! So we melted some chocolate into the Mickey Mouse cookie cutter we got last year and put that on the top :)

Not the best photo of the cake, but you can see the idea :) As the weather was nice we also went out for a walk,taking the camera as it has had so little use outside this year so far!

Note to self...get Holly's fringe cut more often!

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 :(