Another one finished :)

This LO is the one that had a title I wasn't happy with.I may have loads of alphabets, but I couldn't think of any that would match the green in this LO, until I got home and remembered the lovely green spotty October Afternoon ones.There is a full size copy of the letter inside the Maya Road envelope,and the papers are October Afternoon.The green paper clip is one from a cute set I found in WHSmiths,I just stick some pearls on it.Anyway, I am really pleased with this now it's all done :)
At this very moment,the sun is shining and I'm hoping the weekend is full of more sunshine:) WE have loads to do around the house and graden, but if the weather stays nice, I'm opting to stay in the garden! I did make a start on Holly's room but as I wasn't feeling well that day I sort of gave up half way through and threw everything back where it came from :( I did whittle her wardrobe down from being full to half though ,which is a start!
Our PC is going on a major go-slow at the moment so I may blog even less than usual as it takes so long to do anything!

A couple of layouts :)

Yesterday was crop day, and after faffing about with a Disney layout for ages, I gave up and actually got some scrapping done :)This Lo is one I did at the last crop, but still needed a title so I took it with me and made sure I finished it this time! And this second one is done using some lovely Colourbox papers & die cuts and bobble trim that I bought from J0-Ann's whilst we were on holiday :) The butterfly & star were from a bargain set from embellishments in the kids dept in Michaels.I also managed to use up yet another of those very old KI memories Ice Candy word tiles

I did do a couple of other LO's, but one needs something else on it,and I'm not happy with the title on the other one, so they need fixing before I class them as finished :)
I feel like I have spent the last week constantly ironing,and guess what...the ironing bin is still full! Tomorrow sees me venturing into Holly's room to try & and have a clear out and a tidy up.I may be gone some time...!!

I finished one :)

I've spent most of today doing really boring jobs that have been building up and put off for ages,like sorting out that big heap of 'stuff' at the end of the bed and sorting out the shoe rack - deep joy! Along with some hoovering,lots of washing and some paper shredding it's been one of those days...
But I did stop for five minutes to stick a title on this LO that I did at the crop in March.I used Basic Grey Green at Heart papers,stickers & ribbon doilies and Doodlebug letter stickers.

Before we went on holiday, I had noticed lots of 'things' sprouting up in the garden.Upon our return, bearing in mind we were gone nearly a month, we have a crop of conker trees growing all over the place!All courtesy of the cheeky squirrel who spent ages burying the girls conkers in various pots and mud patches last Autumn! I know they will take absolutely years to grow,but I'm not sure where to grow them 'safely' as the garden isn't that big compared to the size of a full grown conker tree!

So the last week has been a bit glum really :( I guess it is just post holiday blues,coupled with snotty school letters and various other stuff.And the miserable weather really doesn't help much.The girls went out in the garden this afternoon...wearing winter coats and mittens -it's May for goodness sake!!

I also manged to give myself a DIY trout pout on Tuesday - not a good look I can assure you! I reached up to get something from the high shelf in the bathroom and a full bottle of shampoo fell off and smacked me in the mouthmcutting my top lip on my front teeth.I will admit to swearing in a very high pitched voice before crying! Not for long though as I had five minutes before I needed to leave and pick Holly up from school.The first couple of days were the worst, I really did look like I'd been punched in the mouth,and I still have a delightful purple top lip - nice!

I feel like I should do some sort or re-cap on the holiday, but I don't really want to bore everyone!So I will doa few photos here & there :)

The higlight of the trip for Holly was meeting Mickey, while for Em it was probably being so close (and yet so far!) to seeing the Harry Potter part of Universal Studios.

I put away the new scrapping stuff that I bought in the US today...ok, that's a lie,I just sort of shoved most of it in to any gap I could find! I have no idea where to start with scrapping the holiday to be honest, although I have bought quite a lot of nice Disney/Mickey stuff already.I am cropping this weekend so I need to sort myself something to whilst there, so I may have some scrapping to share soon :)

Remember me?!

Yes, I was among those people who went on holiday for 14 days and ended up staying for a further 11 !!

Not that I am complaining! We looked on the bright side and saw it as an oppurtunity to have an almost month long holiday, which we would never had under normal circumstances :) After the mad dashing around of parks we did in the first planned two weels, it was good to have a rest during the extra days!

I have loads of photos ,but I won't bore you too many right now, just a few ;)...

Tomorrow sees life returning to normal,I'm just hoping we can drag ourselves out of bed in the morning!

It's Easter :)

Yesterday was a busy one :) We started the day off with a trip to the cinema,to see Disney's The Princess and the Frog.Needless to say I loved it as it was a real Disney film - lots of songs, a baddy and a sad bit!
After that we headed to my mum & dad's for the traditional egg hunt :) It proves impossible every year to get decent photos as it's always over and done so fast!Anyway, the girls have both come home with a basket full of eggs :) (Which is lucky really as we forgot their baskets and I had to whizz back home for them!)

My layouts from last weekend are sitting in a pile,title-less as this week seems to whizzed by in a blur.I may get round to finishing them soon!

Not a layout...

but it is a photo to make this a bit more interesting! Look at my new flip flops I got today.....

Momiji-like flip flops for a £1...what more could you want?!

Maybe tomorrow....

I will be able to update with some photos! I have been driven mad by our PC the past week as my internet and emails have even been crawling at snails pace or non existant for best part of the week...*scream*
This weekend has been another busy one.Saturday morning we went to see Chipmunks the Squeakuel at the cheapy cinema in town, Now I know it's cheap but that still doesn't excuse the stupid woman next to us who rang someone from her mobile after the film started and then got up and went out,squishing past us, about 3 times.
Late afternoon we went over to Anna's to tie up a few loose holiday ends :) :) .We dined (to Anna's dismay!) on Dominos and Em practised her driving skills on the X Box! I stayed over and we spent the evening chilling out in front of the TV and the laptop before realising what the time was taking into account the clock change!
Today we were cropping ,and I think I might stick to taking the minimum in future..Kerry, you'd be so proud of me,I got four LO's done! And all I took was three packs of paper , my photos ,tape, mat & a punch...rather than half the house as usual.
This week sees me running round like a headless chicken I think....yikes!
I'll be back with photos of the LO's once they have titles on them :)

Time for a catch up...

I know, it's been ages since I did a proper post so here goes...!
Holly had the privilege of wearing the golden 'G' badge to school every day last week,the G being for good, golden etc (or as some of the little charmers in her class called it 'Geek of the week'...)It promptly fell apart so I made new one,and although the safety pin has fallen of that too a few times at least all the glitter is still intact!

I can't for the life of me remember anything I did last week (!) other than a bit more holiday shopping and planning out a rough guide of what we plan to do each day :) Sadly there just aren't enough days for everything though :( This weekend we sat on Google Earth looking at 'real life' roads and marked out routes on the map :)And I highlighted various eating places and shopping malls :)
On Sunday I was woken up with breakfast in bed, a waffle with bananas and toffee sauce :)And I was lucky enough to get some very nice 'pink' presents :)
As the weather was so lovely (it's finally starting to feel a bit spring like!) we went for a walk at the lakes.The girls were not impressed to find their favourite climbing tree has been cut down though :(The day was finished off with a lovely roast dinner :)
On Monday I went over to Anna's to make a start on the Retreat 'stuff',which entailed lots of kit packing :)Not long now :)I think there are a couple of places left if you fancy a weekend of scrapping :) Check out the details here :)
And last but not least ,this is a layout I did at the crop a couple of weeks ago ,using lots of Niki Sivils Cherry Pie papers and accessories :)
I am off to listen to Glee soundtrack...very loudly :)

Pencil Lines

I joined in on Pencil Lines this week as Anna had some spare sponsorship for me :)
I used Raspberry Tea Prima papers ,all flowers and swirls are Prima too :) The brown swirls are actually a corner frame cut up into various pieces!
Great minds think alike so check out Anna's LO for our matching titles!
I will be back tomorrow with a proper update before I forget what I've been doing!
I am off to Anna'a tomorrow to sort out retreat bits & pieces...that came round quickly!

And the winner is...

I used the proper Random generator site which came up with number 6 :)

Which is Clare Crompton!

Clare, please email me with your address details :)

Thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a comment :)

A Little Give Away :)

As promised yesterday, I have something to post to one lucky poster :) Thanks to the generosity of Anna, I have a copy of the new Pencil Lines book to give away.


Just leave me a comment (on this post only, to be in with a chance to win the book) telling me what you are loving using at the moment on your LO's, be it new stuff ,old stuff or hand made!

I will leave the comments open until Saturday 8pm (GMT),and will announce the winner on Monday :)

*** Comments now closed ***

Ladies what lunch :)

Last Saturday the day finally dawned for our visit to London for Anna's belated birthday pressie :) Along with Karen, we went to London for tea at the Ritz,as well as a wander round Harrods.As you can imagine ,Anna was in her element in the food halls ,whilst Karen and I were pretty sure we'd lost her a few times! After browsing the horrendously priced Hello Kitty section (it had to be done!)and various other out of our price range departments,we went back to the food halls for Lola's cupcakes (pressies for the girls),posh cakes and breakfast yummies (ie huge croissants!)
We then made our way to the Ritz,where it can truly be said, we got our money's worth! I didn't realise that they would re-fill everything (more than once too!)

After eating a 'few' sandwiches each it dawned on us that maybe we had better leave some room for scones and cakes! Just as well we did as the scones were to die for,even better smothered with jam & cream :)By the time we'd polished off extra scones (!!)it was looking doubtful that we would manage the gorgeous cakes.However Anna and I forced ourselves to sample them ;)We had a wonderful time there, the atmosphere was lovely, not too formal and we weren't the only ones with cameras! (Though I think Anna was the only one with a fixed lense, so that the poor waiter had to disappear way over the other side off the lounge to take a photo of the three of us!)
Sadly the tube ride back was the most hideous I have ever experienced but we survived ! After arriving back at Anna's we finished the day with a 'few' glasses of vey nice wine:)Needless to say we were still stuffed from our tea & scones!
Sunday morning Karen & Kevin left for Newcastle and Anna & I went cropping .I'm glad we were inside for best part of the day as the weather was horrendous!I got a LO done, stated on an altered book thingy(whilst scaring Kerry with my knife weilding!:) )and half made the mini book that Anna taught :)When I got home I was welcomed with a tin of cookies the girls has made for me :)

We have had beautiful sunny weather the last couple of days which has made me feel so much brighter too :) I've have done lots of cleaning ,just need to get my head back round the holiday planning! I did go out and buy suntan lotion today though, so that's another thing to check off my list!

Pop back tomorrow when I will be having a little give away on my blog :)

Me time :)

Yesterday afternoon with Holly out all day and Em amusing her self and talking music with Geoff, I made the most of some daylight scrapping time :) I very rarely scrap during the day,I always feel a bit guilty when there is other stuff needs doing like ironing and housework!So this is the result :)

I've been wanting to use these papers for ages so I'm glad I finally did.The Lo was inspired by this one a I saw while back by the amazingly talented Karola.(note ,I said 'inspired by', I'm well aware that it's not a patch on hers!)Though it wasn't til I went off in search of a link to it that I realised I'd used a similar title too!
I used Pink Paislee papers, Pink Paislee chipboard & stickers,Doodlebug alphas, AC puffy thickers and Kaisercraft pearls.
This morning we went to the cinema and it's really time I remembered to take tissues with me! We went to see Where The Wild Things Are and even Holly was crying at the end!
Tomorrow sees us back in the school routine with some miserable weather forecast too :( I have a bit of housework to catch up on before I carry on with the holiday planning :)

I've got mine :)

Have you got yours yet? I'm talking about the Pencil Lines book :) You cannot imagine how happy I am that I was part of this :) The more I look through,it the more I love it :)

So, half term is almost over and I feel like I've hardly seen the kids properly:( I suppose it's to be expected as they're both growing up and spending more time with their friends but I've missed not doing much with them this week :( Tomorrow Em is off to the cinema in the morning with friends whilst Holly is out all day at Brownie meet up...see what I mean?!I think Sunday will be a day for doing nothing!
This afternoon Holly and I decided to go for a walk for some fesh air, and to give my camera a bit of trip out (though sods law that the girls flattened the batteries in it yesterday!)Once home ,Holly set about doing a bit scrapping :)

Having promised myself I'd 'do' something last week,I spent the weekend making the final 2010 Paper Mill calendar I had to do .(Yes, I know it's now Feb but the original had September missing so I couldn't use it!)Which was a good thing as it got me rummaging through lots of paper again :),and made me feel like doing a layout.I used this photo as I had it already printed out and I'm almost out of ink (sods law!).I used the lovely Kaisercraft papers from Anna's January crop kit.I am very bad at not using my kits so she'll very proud of me!The cute wooden star is actually a cake decoration (it was on a little wooden stick!) and the letters are my new love Doodlebug stickers.I have got through loads of their Loopy Love stickers but these ones are fab too, plus you get lots on a sheet :) Doh, I've just realised that I forgot to add on a date tag somewhere so I'll have to do that later!
Half term has started off pretty drearily with rain, grey clouds and more snow yesterday...I feel like I'm in desperate need of of some fresh air and sunshine!
We are on guines pig patrol this week for our neighbours, though they are staying at their 'own home' and we are just going over to feed them :)Though with the dark evenings I'm thinking it may have been easier to have them here!Lesson learnt :)
Anna has now taken delivery of the Pencil Lines book -woohoo! I think very few people will appreciate the blood ,sweat and (lots) of tears that have gone into getting this book published ,and I am so proud of her for persevering and realising her dream :) Okay, gush fest over ! I'm sure I will have a photo to share of the girls holding the book soon as they can't wait to see it :)

Whoops

I did mean to blog sooner but...life seems pretty un- interesting at the moment :( I have been getting into the whole holiday 'planning' thing (much to Anna's horror ;))and spending ages researching stuff,only to stay awake at night with so much whizzing round my head...cue one grumpy and tired me!
Scrapping is still non-existent, though I'm going make myself do something this weekend!Yeah right...;)
Last week I was lucky enough to get lots of flowers, all as thank you presents :) I have managed to keep the beautiful orchid alive so far, and how beautiful are those cream tulips? (which sadly have just about died now :( )


Earlier this week Holly has Australia Day at school.'Warm' costumes weren't exactly practical as it was freezing! Holly went doing a bbq,complete with plate of plastic food and tongs :) Not forgetting the huge koala bear she took too!

I am really looking forward to half term next week, no packed lunches to make :)!
And fingers crossed the Pencil Lines books will be with Anna very soon and I will have a copy in my hot little hands!
I will try and update again soon...but don't hold your breath!

Badly written blog!

Or just not written at all!!

And as I haven't written it for so long, I'm having trouble remembering what I've done!

I have lots whizzing round my head, mainly holiday planning :) This time last week I was filling in the passport forms,and today these arrived through the letterbox.

Now I would love to show you our photos ,but we look like a scary ASBO family so Idon't think I'll bother!

Our weekend was a busy one,Saturday morning we went to Thurrock to do a bit of shopping for 'warm weather' clothes! I know it may seem a bit early ,but we needed to go to a decent Primark and the Thurrock one is the nicest near here! Really pleased that I got us some bargain Crocs too, Mary Janes for Holly & Em and Caymans for me for a total of £29 :) That's one thing I can cross off my list then :)

Saturday afternoon Holly had a birthday party at the sports stadium doing fun rings, which is basically going down the ski slope on a huge inflatable ring! Then on Sunday afternoon we went to see the Bowkis family :) Em rocked out on Guitar Hero with Peter ,and I'm not quite sure what Holly and Izzy were up to!

Today has been back to the mundane, lots of hoovering,dusting and ironing...roll on next weekend! I have no crafty 'makes' to share,I'll need to scrap again soon before I forget how!

Felty things:)

For yesterdays crop,in an attempt to not take quite so much paper with me, I took a big bag of felt :) I put to use Anna's lovely new Hello Kitty die (hmm,wonder who sent her the link to that then?!) and made two of these Hello Kitty pencil cases for the girls.


I had to have a quick lesson from Kerry on how to do blanket stitch first though :) They still need buttons putting on, and I'll be the first to admit that are pretty basic! But it was nice to do omething a bit different :) I also attempted some felt flowers, but I think I need to practice them a bit more!

I also made this, finally using a board with a strut on it that Anna brought me back from Barcelona a couple of years back.You can basically use the back of any old photo frames as the base for a layout :)


I have been meaning to use it for ages and thought it would be perfect for using some of Anna's scrunched up flowers on :)I used Scenic Route Sonoma papers.I'm a bit sad that there will be no more papers from them as they're one of my favourite companies, I could use their papers over and over again (and I do!)

Ready for the weekend :)

I have to admit that these days I really look forward to the weekends and the possibility of a lie-in! Maybe it's the rotten dark weather we're having,but most mornings I would rather stay under my duvet :) No chance of a lie in on Sunday though as I need to be up bright and early to go cropping :)I still need to sort out some stuff but I am hoping to be a little bit more organised and not take half the house,simply because it's too heavy to take on the train!
Earlier in the week I did this layout,which I have to admit I love :) The photo was taken by Anna ,back in April last year.I know it's nothing special but it was nice to do layout because I wanted too :) When searching for something the other day (which I didn't find!),I had a rather big reminder of how much unused 'old' stash I have.I went mad buying Ki Memories embellishments when I first started scrapping.And I still have loads of them ! So in an effort to 'use it up' I made a point of using a couple of bits on this layout, the bookplate and the 'memories' tile.Hopefully now I've remembered I've got them I'll use a few more!I also need to remember to hunt through my chipboard more often as I tend to forget the alphabets in there and just reach for the Thickers or Doodlebug stickers.
On Tuesday Anna came over and we did a little bit of retail therapy in Dunhelms and Hobbycraft,just for essentials though you understand ;) We were pretty disappointed with Hobbycraft ,not that I ever spend loads in there, so we came out pretty much empty handed.Before going out , we had a go on Wii Just Dance and knackered ourselves! Two 40 somethings dancing to Hot 'n'Cold by Katy Perry is probably not the prettiest sight you'll ever see!