Daffodils and blossom trees:)

So the gorgeous weather is still with us,yipee! I dragged the lawn mower out of the shed on Sunday and cut the grass - in March! It's slightly mad but we'll make the most of it! I'm hoping it lasts til the Easter holidays anyway!
On Saturday afternoon Holly and I went out with the camera :) To be honest, she was still pretty much full of cold,so as you can imagine a lot of her smiles were more like grimaces! And as expected I couldn't prise Em away from her homework!
I seem to be doing even more walking than normal at the moment and am admiring all the different types of blossom trees round here. This one is my favourite so far I think :)

Today I went to see Holly singing in a an Easter concert at one of the local churches,with some others from her school :) Not quite sure why they went to the church as it seemed to be just parents and not church goers watching them...!
Yesterday I bought us a new dinner service:) Now that may not sound very exciting but...the one we have now is the one we got as wedding presents nearly 19 (!!) years ago.To be honest there's not a lot wrong with it and in all that time we've only managed to break two dinner plates! But it was getting a bit boring! So we are now the proud owners of a lovely pink ,hand painted Sainsburys set which was on offer at half price - bargain! Actually I really need to stop going in Sainsburys as there are so many lovely things in their home section!Next on my wish list is the pink clothes airer which is currently on offer too....

One of those weeks

..when I don't feel like I've got much done...! Holly has been off school sick for a couple of days (nothing serious,sore throat and a snotty nose!),she seems ok now though :)
On Wednesday evening I went to watch Em take part in her school House Music evening.She didn't really want any of us to go and watch her as she wasn't happy that it was really under rehearsed and unorganised (she was singing as part of a group).However she relented and let me go! Honestly,I was so proud of her I nearly cried.She is the first to admit that her voice isn't 'perfect', but she put so much into it and was really really good.There is no way I would ever have got up on a stage and sung to an audience that size at her age (or even now!)Her house didn't win,but I am still in awe of her :)
Last weekend I got a layout done :) I had seen the green and yellow October Afternoon papers on a LO earlier in the week and liked the look of them.Then when I was looking through my OA Christmas papers,I found I had ordered them back in January!Very handy :) They were perfect for these photos of Holly in her new dungarees :)
I also used some of the new Dear Lizzy paper,a very old Love Elsie chipboard frame and lots of other odd bits and pieces from my stash :)

Last Sunday was Mother's DAy :) I usually try and get some photos of me with the girls,some years they are better than others! I don't think I've ever scrapped them though! The girls had gone into town the week before with Geoff to choose my presents :) Holly gave me the Making Cupcakes With Lola book ,as well as a candle and a photo frame she had made me at Guides,and gave me a black glittery Jessica nail varnish :)In the afternoon we had Mum & Dad round for tea.The weather was pretty rubbish for most of the day so I didn't get any nice outdoor photos of me and Mum :(
I am off to bed, the weather is supposed to be lovely again tomorrow and Holly has agreed to come out with me and have her photo taken amongst the daffodils again like last year :) (Some how though I don't think Em will oblige!)

Dozy me...

I really should be showing you a photo of what I made at the Ambi Pur craft workshop but....I was very dozy and left it behind at the shop, along with my glasses!
The workshop was held at the gorgeous Homemade London premises,not far from Marble Arch.Despite leaving the house in thick fog first thing,an hour later in London,the sun was out and the sky was blue :)

The lovely Jo was our was tutor for the morning project ,which was embroidering a tea towel.I used to do lots of cross stitch but it's a long time since I have done any sewing.It was really lovely to just sit and stitch again for a while,and I even remembered how to do french knots and gave Danielle a lesson in how to do them :) I'm tempted to dig out all my my unfinished and untouched sewing kits again...! (Maybe when I've got my glases back though!!)

After a lovely lunch in the sewing cafe area of the shop Anna and I headed home (no time for a cup cake in Selfridges :( ),armed with our our lovely gift of a picnic hamper full of craft items (Cath Kidston sewing kit, mosaic kit, clock making kit...which Geoff has claimed!!)and Ambi Pur 3volution's new scent Seaside Breezes' (which is currently making my living room smell very nice!)

:)

Day out :)

Tomorrow I am off to London with Anna :) We are going to a home decor workshop with Danielle Proud and if we have time, a cup cake in Selfridges afterwards :)

I must remember to pack my glasses as we are doing embroidery and I won't be able to see anything with out them!

That's better :)

Yesterday I got round to doing some scrapping,the first in a while! I have actually seen lots of new scrapping stuff that I like this season and have done a little bit of shopping :) There is still a heap of stuff on my wish list though!

I did this layout using a photo taken of Holly yesterday afternoon :) I ended up using a mix of papers ,October Afternoon, Crate Paper and Jillibean Soup :) There's also some Studio Calico,Kaisercraft,American Crafts and Jenni Bowlin on there too :) And I used my much sought after Martha Stewart starburst punch :)

The photo isn't that dark in real life though.I feel better now have done something ! Problem is though my printer is about to run out of three different colour inks and I think I have one sheet of photo paper left !I may be taking a trip down to Boots to use the photo kiosk until payday!

This morning I have rememberd to accept Holly's secondary school place! She got the school we wanted :) Looking forward to buying a whole new school uniform and having both girls wearing the same for just one year before Em goes in to sixth form (yikes!)
Em has something very exciting booked for the Easter holidays :) She has got a place on a four day theatre workshop in London :) She will be working behind the scenes and getting lots of expereince which will be great as this is the area she is hoping to go into in the future :)And it means that I might just have to go and see the show at the theatre where she is based so she's not coming home on her own - shame!

Erm...March?!

Whoops,blogging has fallen by the wayside again :( Possibly because I've not been up to any thing interesting?! Last months crop was cancelled so I haven't even got any scrapping to share :(
Today was World Book Day ,Holly's last at junior school :( Last year she missed it due to her school trip so she wsa really looking forward to today:) She decided a while ago that she wsa going to go as Hermione from Harry Potter :) Em dressed uo as her many moons ago so we pretty much had an outfit already :) We plaited Holly's hair last night whilst it wsa damp to make it even wavier than normal and I printed her off a Gryffindor badge late last night :)
Today was also Secondary School Allocations day....yikes!We weren't supposed to get emails until after 6pm,we were one of the lucky ones though who got ours much earlier! Some of Holly's friends were still waiting two hours later! As expected Holly got her first choice, but it still feels a bit scary now that it is getting nearer :(
Tomorrow we are helping Holly's friend in support of Big Yellow Friday,raising money and awareness of Children's Liver Disease.So far I have madeRocky Road (and resisted eating it all!) and tomorrow I will be making cookies and muffins for the cake sale :)

January pages :)

I have finally got rounfd to finishing off my January pages :) I decided to go with a main layout as I really wanted to do a page about our Wicked trip :) I've also done a calender page but I'm not sure I'll share those as everything is on them, from parties (the girls, not me!) to dentist appoinments!

I've got lots of smaller page protecters if I want to add extra photos and want to vary it from month to month.Saying that though,I don't seem to have many Feb photos yet....other than lots of the snow!!

Last week we wnet to see Em's school show .which was great,she really enjoyed herself :) She was sad that it was over though after six months of preparing for it! When we left the house it was snowing lightly, by the time we came home three hours later we had two or three inches! Luckily it wasn't bad enough to close the schools on Friday though, as Holly had her last year assembly.

I have some gorgeous snow photos to put up here that I took late afternoon at the weekend when the sun was starting to set,so i will be back soon hopefully :)

A layout

I finished this layout the other night, having started it at the crop. I pinched the idea of the black border with the pink paper from Claire's Lo here :) I'm aware that mine is very wonky - those scalloped scissors are not easy to cut straight with!I am also trying to put a bit more 'info' on my layouts ie dates, story etc.I need to go back through all my old albums at some point and at least date the photos on layouts where I haven't ,or they will mean nothing to the girls in the future (if they decide to keep them!)

It is still freezing cold here :( Yesterday we had blue skies and sunshine, melting a lot of the snow but it is back to being an ice rink out there now having frozen again last night.

Yesterday I went on a little shopping trip to Hemel Hempstead with a friend.It is years since I last went and it has changed totally from the fond memories I have of going there with my Mum ,Dad and sister when I was small! I found the coolest t-shirt in Primark :) I'm not sure about the colour but the words and photo?? I love them :) Sadly it has a hole in the seam ,but if I can't change it at another branch I will just mend it as I want it so much!

I am off to go and attempt to warm my cold hands up by doing a huge pile of ironing!

Our patience was rewarded :)

As forecast, it snowed!It started about 6pm -ish and I'm not sure when it stopped! Em had a dress rehearsal all day for her school musical later this week,so she didn't come out sledging with us :(
This year was the longest we have stayed out I think, thanks to the new gloves and waterproof trousers! Holly didn't complain about being cold once,wish we'd bought them before now! As per usual most of Holly's school were also out sledging and we had a really lovely morning (although my feet were frozen!)

Although she was not really in the mood,I persuaded Em to come out in to the garden once she was home,just for a little while!

Holly spent spent ages out in the garden making a very cute igloo (probably just about big enough for a cat!) but the photos aren't great as it was a bit dark by the time she finished it :( There was also a bit of angry snow throwing when part of it collapsed!

Although there we are not forecast any more ,there is still lots of snow every where.Hopefully both schools will be open tomorrow !

Waiting ...impatiently...

...for the snow! We are supposedly forecast it from 6pm this evening and through the night,so we could wake up tomorrow to a winter wonderland : D.AS we have had heavy snow the last couple of years, we have gradually got more 'prepared'! We all (except Geoff !)have wellies,we have two sledges and today I have bought us waterproof ski gloves :) That way we can make snowmen and throw snowballs without cold wet hands and a million pairs of mittens drying on the radiators! Bring it on....!

Last week we had a our family trip to see Wicked,courtesy of some Christmas money and cheap tickets from Get In To London Theatre :)We had tea in Pizza Hut first -yum! And yes, it was the third time I've seen it, but I would still go again! Holly absolutely loved it and laughed,danced and sang throughout it :) And Em was just pleased it was the same actress playing Elphaba as when we went before as she really likes her (and she was supposed to be on holiday!)

Last week was crop week :) I spent most of the time doing my January pages .They are nearly done,I just needed a photo of Holly in her Guide uniform to complete them. I have seen lots of lovely Project Life pages on other peoples blogs but I really don't think our life is interesting enough to fill a page each week (and everyone else would be sick of my camera in their faces !) so I'll stick with the current plan of monthly pages!

This afternoon Holly wanted to go for a walk at the lakes.It was freezing so we didn't stay out too long!

This is the new 'epic' hat (as one of Holly's friends called it!)that Holly and Em share! They spotted it in Claires at a ridiculous price that I refused to pay,and then a few weeks later we found one on the sale rack for £3 - bargain!They only had one left though, hence the sharing!

Catching up

As I have said before ,I still have some catching up to do on my Document 2011 album. Part of me thinks I should finish it before I start the 2012 one.But I'm thinking if I don't start that this weekend I will never start it! So I think I will take my December pages to finish off and start on my Jan 2012 ones.I'm still working out how to do this years album.Last year some of my pocket pages were really full whilst others were practically empty.I also wasn't great at doing a main layout for each month so I may give that a miss...still undecided!
Anyway, these are my August pages.




The paper for my Instax camera arrived on Friday (bit gutted as I had hoped to use it on Thursday :( ),so yesterday I used it for the first time.I don't think Em quite got my excitement ('So it's not quick then?'!), but Holly was quite impressed!

Bits and bobs

I am trying to finish off a few things and do jobs that have been on the 'to do' list for a while,at the moment.Last week I finally got round to putting some Florida holiday photos in frames and up in the hallway - better late than never.I also replaced a very old layout in a box frame with a new(ish) four frames-in-one frame with my favourite photos from Autumn :) This actually two frames,one hung right under the other.I'm really pleased with it:) I did have a photo of all of us that i was going to put in it, but I look so huge in it that I really didn't want to walk past it several times a day! Funny how this time last year the same photo didn't bother me as much, amazing what a difference weight loss can do!
This morning I finished off a Disney layout that has been hanging around for ages waiting to be finished :) Thanks to Holly being very eagle eyed in Claire's the other week I bought some cute rings with teacups, cupcakes and teapots on.One has now been dismantled and added to this LO :)
I am still finishing off my 2012 album,before I start this years at next weeks crop! I've taken photos of August and Septembers pages so I will be back with them soon :)

Ebay buy :)

This weekend just gone I won something on E Bay :) I go through phases with E-Bay,I either don't go on it for ages or spend hours on there!Currently I have lots of nail laquers on my watch list... Anyway,Christmas before last (2010) I really wanted a Fuji Instax camera.Geoff was not impressed as I'd only recently got my Canon and he couldn't understand why I also wanted an instant camera! All the ones I looked at then were fairly expensive so I just sort of forgot about them in the New Year.I don't know what made me start looking again a couple of weeks back,but after missing out on one after I forgot to put in a bid before I went to work I am now the proud owner of this :)
Polaroid instant photos remind me going to birthday parties (when I was at junior school!)and going home with a photo of myself in my fancy party dress:) I still need to order some paper for this one before I can start using it.The girls think it's fab but I have warned them it's not a cheap way to take photos and will be used sparingly!

New arrivals...

Over the last couple of weeks, the girls have been reading this blog :) They fell slightly in love with the monkeys! Luckily for them I found a couple on E Bay looking for new homes....so yesterday they met Eric and Ernie for the first time :) I dread to think what they will get up to...!



I don't really know where this weekend has gone :( Today I sorted the DVD shelves out and had a a bit of a chuck out :)This weeks job is to update some of the photo frames we have up (and use some of the many un-used ones I have!)Hence I spent ages looking through our Florida photos whilst choosing some to order:)

Whoops,I have just remembered what we did yesterday! We finally had Holly's very late birthday 'do'in the morning, a cinema trip with seven friends to see Puss In Boots!It wasn't as good as we were expecting but I think they enjoyed it :)

He's finished :)

This afternoon when she got in from school Holly finished off her sock hedgehog :) He's quite quirky and a bit of an individual! It didn't really help that there is no photo with the kit and the finished hedgehog is nothing like the drawing on the bag the kits comes in! Having found an actual picture on the John Lewis website we were a bit more reassured that he looked as he was supposed to! Holly did it all herself, I had to step away and let her get on with it.When it comes to sewing I am a neat freak,my cross stitch used to be as neat on the back as it was on the front ! I think her wonky sewing gives him a bit of character!

Next project is the the felt monster kit that she got for Christmas ...!

Em is currently studying hard for her assessments and exams :( Not helped by being told that an exam she was told she was having in three weeks in now next week! Not what you'd call organised! Next week we are going back to the Orthodontist with her too.Since finishing wearing her braces three and a half years ago her teeth have moved back to where they were .She was never given a retainer which always seemed a bit strange...anyway, we will wait and see what they say.

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 :)