Home again...

...with aching feet and a very fat tummy after a weekend at the Scrapping Angels retreat :) As per usual I have hardly any photos but came home with a whole load of happy memories!
Thank you for having me Anna...when's the next one?!;)
I will be back tomorrow after a full nights sleep (the first for a while!)a proper post and my Pencil Lines layout which went live earlier this evening.

So, so envious...

of whoever gets to take home this sweetie at the weekend!I have a feeling there won't be enough pennies in my pocket to secure her a place in my home,so whoever wins her will be one lucky person!Verity has been very very kindly donated to the auction by Little Cotton Rabbits.Go and check out Anna's blog to see the other fab items up for auction at the retreat .We are hoping to beat last years amazing total of £700 for the very worthy cause of MS, in memory of Anna's dear Dad.So, retreat girls, empty out your penny pots and bank accounts and come with your purses full!I am waiting on a very special 'item' for the auction from an amazing person, fingers crossed it arrives by Friday.If not, I will take along a photo so the girls can bid on it and I will post it straight on to its new home when it arrives :)
I'm starting to get excited now, though as per usual I'm not at all organised!
Today I have made cookies for Holly's school year cake sale, and this evening made a batch of fairy cakes which I will turn into butterfly cakes tomorrow morning!I have also caught up o some hoovering as well as shifting lots of boxes out of the kitchen & living room - hurray, it's starting to look better by the day!
After the retreat I will be having a clear out/sort out of my stash and re-storing it all !Then maybe I will start using it more!
And to cap it all..it's been sunny and warm today!!
Still on my to-do list for this week are...make name badge, sort paperwork for the weekend,tidy house before I leave..oh, and dye my hair.Yep, I am going play it unsafe and do it the day before I go,will probably leave it on too long and turn up looking like a Goth! Nah, hardly likely...but if it goes wrong I won't have time to re-do it!

Phooey

I don't know why, but that is how I am feeling at the mo...phooey! This miserable weather isn't helping and neither is the fact that the house is still stacked high with shed junk & stuff.Tomorrow they are coming to take it down again (!!) and then put it back up on the right base,Talk about a waste of time & money! I will just be glad when the house is free of tools ,ladders & 'stuff'.
I have to make myself lots of lists of to do's this week before I head off to Anna's on Friday.This includes my PL layout for next Sunday and two CJ entries!
I am seriously unimpressed with the photo of my layout for this week -it looks so much 'zingier' in real life!
I used the Scrapping angels April kit,using Pink Paislee papers.

I also used Doodlebug sugar coated lettters
I love these old photos of Holly from three years ago,she looks so small!
Yesrterday we decided to brave the 21% sale at Ikea....never again will I trust RAC directions!! We normally go to Thurrock as although it's further away, it's the most straightforward to get to.But yesterday we thought we'd try the Edmonton store (22 miles away) as we thought we'd be in there a while so it was best not to have to drive too far.Let's just say we could have driven to Thurrock and back in the time it took us to find the place after a couple of tours of Enfield....!Almost two hours it took us!Once in there , it wasn't as busy crowd wise as I'd expected...but I've never seen so many people arguing whilst shopping! Oh and then we had to wait about 20 mins for a trolley....and typically we joined the queue at the till where there was a problem with someones payment...In future,we will stick to Thurrock...and will only visit at quiet times (That's if I'm ever allowed to go back again!)

A day out..

..or at least a trip 40mins down the railway line anyway! Today I went over to Anna's to work work work! Really we could have done with a few more hours but those things like real life and children get in the way!Anyway, we got a lot of kit packing done ,paperwork sorted and Galaxy eaten :) The weather was gorgeous so we ate lunch outside , a first this year! And on the one ocassion I actually managed to remember to charge up and take with me an Ipod shuffle -what do I do? (No, not just pick up the headphones like last time!) I pick up a 'spare one' (NOT mine) which only had three double albums of Christmas songs on...and the soundtrack to Dirty Dancing! I was not impressed!By the time I'd found the Dirty Dancing songs I'd almost reached Anna's...

Yesterday I finally got round to ordering a proper 8.5 x 11 album so hopefully it might be here tomorrow and tidy up the drawer where my Lo's and albums are (the small LO's are in ab ag at the moment!) I think I should be getting 2 cj's in the post too, making that 3 to do by next Friday...mission impossible maybe?!

This is the only photo taken today,a rush job as we dashed off back to the station!

Scratch that last blog post title...

...it seems summer isn't coming yet after all :( Today we have returned to it being cold and very wet again :( I'm now glad I spent most of yesterday afternoon out in the garden doing loads of digging,ready for the next sunny day.Whenever that may be.We dragged the kids over to B&Q (Holly was most put out at such torture...)where I bought lots of pansies, sweet peas.lobelias and some petunias.I admit to being stingey and generally buy B&Q value plants! Okay, so they may not look much at first, but they generally seem to grow perfectly well once they've been planted /potted up.The girls wore themselves out (again!) having space hopper races and setting up an obstacle course to manouvre!
We ended the day by settling down to watch Enchanted :)
A new sketch is now live over at Pencil Lines :)

I used KI Lace cardstock
Bo Bunny Teen Chic paper
Doodlebug sugar coated alpha & paper frill
Ac Velvet Thickers
Cosmo Cricket chipboard
Maya Road journalling sheer
Heidi Swapp brads & bling & ghost heart
Prima birdie

I really need to do more layouts of Em, so I made a start with this one! At the moment she is really revising hard for her Stats and spends so much time with her nose in a revision book! We're not putting any pressure on her but I'm surprised at much she's knuckled down as we've always had to nag her to do her homework in the past!I think she's just realised that by putting in a bit more time, she can actually make a difference to what marks she gets.
This week I am off to Anna's to help sort out retreat stuff...eek, it's come round quick!I also need to get the next couple of PL sketches done so I'm not running around at the last miunte right before the retreat!

Summer is a coming...

or it feels a bit that way anyway as I have done my first lawn mowing of the year!Actaually, I use the term lawn in the loosest possible meaning..it's like trying to mow the Himalayas it's so lumpy & bumpy.I finally resorted to using the strimmer after hitting a pile of stones half buried in the grass by Holly,thus snapping the belt on the mower...I'm hoping (weather permitting) to start digging out the beds in the front garden soon and begin planting up the hanging baskets ,plus putting in some sweet peas again.Funny to think that this last time last year we had planted all the seeds in the veggie patches! Might attempt them again this year but one of them needs to made a bit smaller first. With the weather being nice the last few days the girls have been spending lots of time out in the garden after school wearing themselves out.As a result Holly has been sleeping in til about 7.15 in the mornings - a miracle!
No scrapping being done here I'm afaraid..house is still like a tip with stuff all over the place :(
But..look out for these on a layout very soon! I was going to share these Maya Road sheers with Anna, but sorry hun, they're so gorgeous I think I'm going to keep them all to myself! I'll give you some Galaxy instead!
Tomorrow Holly starts at Brownies, she's looking forward to it as she'll be with several of her friends from school :)
Lots of boring house stuff to do this weekend ie food shopping, run to the tip etc etc.Geoff is working on Sunday so weather depending ,us girls will be going out for a walk or making cookies! I'm also hoping we'll be getting Enchanted so I'm sure that will be watched too ( anything to break the non-stop High school Musical marathon we seem to be stuck in at the moment!

But on a brighter note

Go Liverpooooooool!!!

It's official

Whilst I am eternally grateful for the roof over my head...there are days when I hate being a council tenant.I am off to eat chocolate and drink wine before I start crying out of pure frustration again.It's been one of them days....

More barmy weather

Today I should have be cropping over at Anna's,but after waking up to a couple of inches of snow I decided not to go as it's quite a long journey in dodgy weather and hopped back into bed for a bit longer!I missed seeing everyone though and having a bit of 'me' time...roll on the end of the month!

So after a quick trip to Tesco's, we all went out into the garden and built a snow lady called Emily! We used almost all the snow from the ground and the garden is now nice and muddy! It actually wasn't that cold out, though by the afternoon it was flippin' freezing!

The house is a tip due to boxes and bits & pieces of shed stuff all over the place. I feel like I haven't stopped all day..having cleaned the bathroom, hoovered everywhere,ironed and then slaved over a hot oven.Yep, I am desperately trying to find the domestic goddess within me so today I made Cottage pie for the kids tea (they were very suspicious as to why the recipe had celery on it!).And yippee, it went down well! Even Geoff sat and ate a plate full!

On Thursday Holly spent most of the day at a friends house so Em I had some fun in the kitchen making 'healthy' ice cream (well it's gone rock hard so I don't know when we'll ever eat it!!) and then making burgers :)

On Friday we finally had a lovely day for the Easter egg hunt - better late than never! Em went in a bit of a grump but I still managed to get the photo that I used on my PL layout this week:)


Talking of which,here it is.

I used papers from the Scrapmuse kit again as I have so much left!

I also added Rhonna Farrer swirl stamps

Maya Road felt bird

Angel Kiss blooms

Scenic Route chipboard letters

Tomorrow is finally d-day for the dreaded shed...I'll believe it when I see it!

*will add other pics when I can get to grips with new technology - say no more*

I saw a mouse...

...and I don't mean Holly's favourite Mickey Mouse either... We've noticed mouse pooh in the shed recently but never managed to find them - until today.As the weather was dry I decided to try and move out and re-pack into new boxes some of the stuff piled up in there.I moved a bag from on top of the kids old carrycot (it was being used to store stuff as it has a plastic base and keeps things dry)and oh yuck, I was hit by the smell of mouse wee!! They'd chewed a bin liner up and nested in there :( I dragged the carry cot into the garden and with being disturbed, a little furry face peeped out at me resulting in a very loud scream from me!With Geoff typically being at work when I needed him, I rang my Dad! Whilst waiting for him to arrive I thought I'd pull said cot into the middle of the garden...prompting one mouse to jump ship and run into next doors garden!When my Dad arrived he bravely moved the bag that was on top...and the second occupant hopped out and legged it back into the shed!!Yes, we'd forgotten to shut it! We eventually managed to chase it back out again and have now boarded up all the gaps until the whole thing is replaced next week - not a day too soon!I'm just glad we got them out, I really didn't want to have to kill them, as despite stinking the place out they were actually quite sweet looking and I am a bit of a softy!


This morning we went down for a walk by the lakes for a bit of fresh air and to give my camera a bit of use! As both girls were wearing their wellies they decided to go for a paddle in the river :) They had wanted to do it during the summer but it was always packed - today they had the place almost to themselves!It was ctually quite warm and summer like today at times - at long last!

Not much else planned for this week.Holly is sleeping over at my Mum & Dad's tonight and on Friday we're having a second attempt at an Easter Egg hunt with their cousins! At some point I guess I need to do some scrapping too...haven't touched anything for a week now.

The Scrapping Angels retreat is fast approaching too...I can't believe it's been almost a year since the last one!Am looking forward to seeing some old faces again plus the new ones too!

Yawn

Just a quick post before I head off to the comfort of my own bed!The one I had last night was comfy but the room as hot as a sauna and my pillow as flat as a pancake!I came home from Olympia with some lovely new bits to keep me busy!
Here is my Pencil Lines layout for this week.I realised after emailing it that I meant to add some journalling, so I need to do that still!Photos are of Holly's talking poseable Charlie & Lola toys that she got last weekend as an Easter present.They are currently tucked up in her egg collecting basket!
I used the box that the dolls came in on the layout,chopping it up to use the walllpaper pattern for the circle and the wide strip.The square C & L tag is from tha tag from the pyjamas she got for Christmas,and the hearts are C& L table sprinkles :) I also chucked on a load of random buttons .
Back tomorrow hopefully!

Ahoy there!

Yep, the pirate pictures are back :) This is the layout I did using the kit from Scrapmuse,crammed full of papers in red,white and black.I have loads left over and have a few more layout ideas in my head - just need to actually do them!

Half term has been fairly quiet so far.Hollly spent a couple of afternoons earlier in the week doing some scrapping :) She did three pages about her cousins ,using up some of my 'reject' papers that were stashed away in a 'give away' box of stuff!

Tomorrow we are going out to Frankie & Benny's as a late Christmas treat ! Yum !

The weather looks like being rotten till after the weekend so a trip to Willows looks to be off the agenda :(

I am off to help Anna at Olympia on Saturday and Sunday.I treated myself to a funky new overnight bag yesterday,a snip at £5! Let's just hope the handles don't break!

Mad weather....

Yesterday was the day for absolutely bonkers weather! We had everything, hail, snow,rain winds plus beautiful sunshine! The girls were pretty disappointed it didn't settle.They got a surprise this morning though when we awoke to a covering of the white stuff! I thought it looked a bit wet to try and build anything,so we had a family snow fight.Not impressed though as all my photos were pants (should I blame the camera or the fact that my kids cannot stay still or smile when I tell them too?!)
The planned Easter Egg hunt as my Mum & Dad's was changed slightly due to the girls cousins not being to make it due to illness and the fact that it was freezing cold (by that time, there was no snow left either :( )The girls hunted for a couple of eggs in the garden ,with Holly falling flat on her bum in the process,before going back indoors to find another couple (we're talking tiny mini eggs here by the way, not huge ones!)We tend not to buy the girls eggs as they're not huge sweet eaters and I usually end up finishing them off.So Holly was happy with her Hannah Montana t-shirt and Em with her copy of Stardust :)

We have a new sketch live over at Pencil Lines :)
This is mine.
I used
Papers by Scenic Route,Making Memories, KI Memories & Creative Imaginations
Queen & Co felt & brads
Doodlebug buttons & rub-ons
Scenic Route letter stickers
MM 5th Avenue Journalling page
Heidi Swapp flowers & block alpha stickers
The girls and Geoff are both home this wek so hopefully we will do some stuff in the afternoons - weather permitting of course!

Quick sneak..

..yes, yes,I know plenty of people hate sneaks...but as I have no other scrapping to share and I don't know when this layout goes live a sneak is all I can show :) And yes, I scrapped the pirate photos yet again...but they went so well with the papers in the kit!

School breaks up tomorrow and I'm feeling totally unorganised and unprepared ! Apparently we are forecast snow over the weekend,so slightly different from the Easter holidays last year when we had hot sunshine and the kids spent the whole two weeks out in the garden !

Plans for the removal of the 'damn shed' (that's it's polite name) look likely to be on hold....what a surprise! So having already made arrangements for the kids to go out for the day we could end up with a rare day to ourselves!

I doubt I'll be blogging tomorrow....Greys Anantomy is back on Channel 5 at 10pm...say no more....!

Loved it!!

The film Enchanted,that is!I love all the old Disney Clasics and used to watch them over and over before I had the kids (I don't get much of a look in on the TV these days...)Enchanted followed on from these, whilst totally taking the mickey out of them :)Plus it has Patrick Dempsey in it ;)So if you want to watch a 'happy ever after' film, this is one to watch.And guess what,the men enjoyed it too!It will definitely be on my shopping list in three weeks when it comes out :)
The weather here has been totally miserable today, yet more wind and rain:( So no going out for a walk anywhere as I'd hoped :(
A new sketch is now live over at Pencil Lines :)
I turned the sketch on it's head to do my layout.
I used
Dunhelm blooms,chopped down
K & Co brad
KI Lace cardstock
American Crafts foam thickers
Various ribbons
Heidi Swapp ghost butterflies
The journalling around the flowers reads 'I dream of one day owning a house with a porch and a swing.'It'll probably never happen as you don't really get houses like that over here...but I can dream!

Two Scoops

Just popping on to share a layout done with this months Scrapping Angels kit :) Not much other scrapping going here at the moment :( I don't seem to be taking many photo seither...roll on some decent weather!
If I am lucky, the postie may bring me two parcels tomorrow...I can't remember the last time I got some nice post! One parcel will hopefully be a Scrapmuse kit which I am looking forward to seeing :)
This weekend we are off to see Enchanted at the local theatre on Saturday morning,along with the Bowkis clan ! Be warned Anna, the girls have been making you all a little present each :)(yep,even Peter!)!Geoff is working on Sunday but I'm sure Holly will have lots of ideas to keep me & Em busy!
I have slowly started to wade through the stuff in the house (and shed!)that needs to be sorted, chucked etc.It's a slow and boring experience,believe me!There's a couple of big bagfuls on their way to the charity shop tomorrow with more to follow...

E numbers a -plenty...

Yesterday whilst it was raining the girls did a little cake icing :) Now I have to admit that we cheated.....I completely forgot to check the cupboards before we went food shopping and could not remember what ingredeients we already had.So as I was trying to stick to the shopping list as much as possible and not buy what we could live without,we grabbed a pack of ready make fairy cakes.And ready made icing.I hold my hands up and amit that I am no domestic goddess!But at the end of the day, the kids enjoyed themselves and love the cakes.Holly decorated one for her new teacher, which she carefully took into school today for her,bless!

Today has been spent sorting through paperwork (ie my wonderful system of carrier bags until I can be bothered filing it properly!) and shredding said paperwork,coupled with a little bit of housework (yawn!)

I took this photo (and several others) yesterday of Holly wearing her new hat.Love her attempt at an 'attitude 'face!And we discovered that the hat is reversible...black & pink stripes on the other side,very funky!

Grumpy & grouchy

Are the reasons I haven't blogged for a while! Not a brilliant week and I'm sure no-one wants to read my moanings,so generally when I'm in a grump, I don't blog!


Hmmm...so what's been happening...errr...mmmm...not much really! Today we went for a quick walk round the block between rain showers! Though once we were back home, it brightened up (as it does!) and the girls spent the rest of the afternoon having an 'adventure' in the garden, making soup and mud pies! Someone please reassure me that this won't all stop come September when Em goes up to Senior school....!
And you know what..I really can't remember what else I've done this week!
New Pencil Lines sketch is now up, with Corinne Delis as our guest DT this week :)

I have been meaning to scrap this photo of Holly for ages,though I'm still not sure I've done it justice!
I used
Scenic Route Loveland papers,stickers & die-cuts
Heidi Swapp bling
Large circle made by glueing diamantes on indiviually
Creative Cafe scalloped velvet
Queen & Co felt Fusion

Don't think I have anything interesting going on this week either,so who knows ,I may not be back till next Sunday again!

Ooh la la!!

Sorry, I couldn't think of a better title !
I was lucky enough to have a layout put up on a French Sketch blog ,Scrap Idees last night :)Thank you Michou for inviting us to play along!
You can see the original sketch and the design teams layouts here,This is my layout:).

I used
black Bazzill
Ki Memories Lace cardtsock
Ki Memories paper
Various brads
American Crafts Thickers
Heidi Swapp bling

Good news today, Em has got into her first choice of Senior school :)We were pretty hopeful that she would as it is just round the corner from us, but there is always a niggling doubt! Sob, can't believe she will be off to senior school in September :(

Back again :)

We have been away the last couple of days in Widnes for a family wedding.Although it was a small 'do' there were still a few last minute arrangements fort us to help out with! After a problem with the flowers ,I spent yesterday morning making a bouquet for the bride,one for the maid of honour and 15 button holes! Now, bear in mind we had one mixed bunch of flowers, two bunches of tulips and a bunch of flowers Geoff had bought for his Mum for Mothers Day to work with, I am quite pleased with what I made up,especially for a first attempt at this kind of thing! We ended up going out for supplies for the button holes yesterday morning, and whilst we were totally ripped off by one florist, we found another fab one just down the road! Although the weather stayed dry, it was blowing a gale so pretty impossible to get photos without people's hair all over their faces!
This morning we travelled back home again.Once the case was all unapcked and the washing machine was on (!!),the girls gave me my Mothers Day cards and pressies.Yep, two more Momiji Dolls :) I may be entering a lean period now though....no 'occasions' til my birthday in September!

New sketch is now live over at Pencil Lines :)

I used

Scenic Route paper

Creative Imaginations paper

Heidi Swapp tape,bling and ghost stars

KI Memories Lace cardstock

Doodlebug All Mixed Up rub-ons

Doodlebug buttons

American Crafts felt corners

letter stickers from ELC

I know ,I seem to be back in a green & pink phase, this looks similar to my layout from a couple of weeks back! I love how the photos look on these papers though :) The tiny letter stickers about the buttons say 'wannabe' !