Heat wave!

The weather has been gorgeous the last week...though yesterday I spent most of the hottest day of the year indoors scrapping!
On Friday night I started the weekend with a very civilised 'picnic in the park' with three friends ,whilst our daughters were at Brownies.We did consider the pub, but as all the outside seats would be taken up by the smokers and the football would probably be on inside(and it was far too nice to sit indoors),so we settled for a couple of drinks sitting out on the grass instead :) I supplied the drinks while another mum supplied the Pringles, grapes, & strawberries..all produced from her very lovely picnic basket complete with pink tablecloth.I wish I'd taken photos but they would probably have thought I was mad!If the weather's as good again this Friday evening we may do the same again!
Saturday I went to watch Holly's girls kwik cricket team take part in the Herts Youth Games.Considering they have only been practising few weeks,they did really well ,only losing their matches by a few runs.It was a beautiful hot day,and the perfect excuse to sit out in the sun and do nothng for four hours!
Yesterday was crop day,and I got almost three LO's done.Well, two completed but one needs the photo replacing after I managed to drop a very sticky journaling sticker on it!This one still needs the date adding, as the sheet of letter stickers I used didn't have numbers on it - really annoys me when that happens!

We have strawberries!

Ok, so not loads (yet!) ,but it's more than we managed a couple of years ago when we first tried growing them.I think then,we got about one ripe one that the birds and slugs didn't get to first....

So far this year,we've picked three (I did warn you it wasn't loads!) and there are lots more that are nearly ready :) I never seem to be organised enough to have a whole veggie patch growing,so this year we have some potatoes in a tub as well as runner beans again.

I'm not sure how much of a success Holly's Brownie camp was ,to be honest :( She has become very 'anxious' about a couple of things over the last year or so,one of those things being, being away from home :( She gets herself really worked up ,eventually making herself ill.However, she did stay the night so that's something ,I was expecting a phone call to go and pick her up! She came home absolutely shattered and was out like a light on Sunday night.

The Maypole Dancing was as sweet as ever at the school fete, plus being a PTA run event,there is nothing to stop us taking photos :) (Wow, my photo editing is so professional!!)

Monday evening Em hurt herself whist playing basketball with Holly in the garden.Turns out that she has a splintered a bone in one of the fingers of her left hand -ouch! It needs to kept strapped up for the next two weeks and then we need to return to the fracture clinic.

Yesterday we got a letter from her school ,telling us that she has been chosen to study for all three science GCSE's,starting in September (her school start theirs a year early) She's worked really hard for this so we are very proud of her :)

Yesterday was also Geoff's birthday,but he spent the morning in A&E with Em getting her hand looked at.This meant that our original plan of a trip to Ikea was cancelled (see, we really know how to party!).We did make it to Frankie & Benny's for tea though :) And as Geoff doesn't really eat birthday cake, I made some cupcakes for me & the girls, letting him blow the candle out :)

Mad week....

...that isn't over yet!


Today Holly spent most the day doing this...



and ended it doing this!

She spent the day at 'Wind Day' learning two pieces of music to perform at a concert for the parents in the afternoon. And then at Brownies this evening they went bell boating down at the lakes.Although she was adamant that there was no way she was going to jump into the lake at the end again,like she did last year, she changed her mind and did a spectacular High School Musical style jump off the jetty!Needless to say she needed a warm bath and a shampoo when we got home!

Tomorrow she is maypole dancing at the school fete before heading off to Brownie District camp for the night and all day Sunday.They get to do fab stuff like archery, zip wires and abseiling.it wasn't like that in my day! And poor Em gets to spend her weekend doing homework and revising :(

I keep saying I'll do some scrapping soon, but somehow I don't think it's going to happen til the crop next week!

Another week

..has whizzed by,oops!I did make a point of being a bit lazy at the beginning of the week by doing nothing but the bare essentials!
Holly started at a girls cricket club this week and has been roped in to play at a match in a couple of weeks ,she's also halfway through a golf course at school:) She is a busy bee at the moment as she is also practising for a Country Dancing festival in a couple of weeks,as well as dancing at the school fete this coming weekend.I;m not surprised she's tired at night!
This weekensd I am lucky enough to be back on Pencil Lines and Anna had some gorgeous sponsorship from My Little Shoebox :) I love these papers :) I cut out the doors, and the door handle is a self adhesive pearl :)I also used one of the *ahem* few Disney gift cards that I picked up (literally!) whilst we were on holiday.Monsters Inc is one of my favourite Disney films :) I have now filled in the date details on the journalling die cut !) Today I have been helping Anna at the last Scrapping Angels retreat :) My feet ache and my purse is little lighter,but it was worth it :) I'm tempted to back through my photos and find pictures of us from the last five years,but that might be a little scary!
Geoff has been decorating the hallway since Friday and I arrived home this evening to find that he had managed to sand down our rubbishy hand rail back to plain wood, and it looks fab :)
I am off to rest my feet :)

A sneak ...and a farewell...

Much as I would love to be scrapping at the moment,I haven't had much chance.So here's a sneak of one for Pencil Lines next week,just to prove I do still do it!


Yesterday we had a bit of a farewell.I know there some people who think I'm absolutely barking about this,but we finally gave away the girls play kitchen and I am really sad :( !! It was Em's 'big' birthday pressie when she was 2,so it's been with us a while ,with lots of happy hours spent playing with it(the girls you understand, not me!) Sadly,we just don't have room in the house for it any more and it's spent the last couple of years feeling neglected in the shed,making brief appearances in the garden during warm school holidays.Luckily we have found a good home for it and Holly should still get a chance to play with it now and again .To me, it just kind of symbolises a end to part of my girls childhood,those days happily spent playing imaginary cafes with a wonderful menu of plastic chips! That said we still have a big box of plastic food which does still get played with now and then - long may it last!

Thankfully it's a bit cooler here today, though the rain meant we dashed indoors for the last five minutes of our BBQ last night! I am looking forward to having a few minutes peace & quiet to myself at some point this week :)

I'm still here!

Having had a dodgy modem and then managing to get a virus on the PC,I had an enforced break from blogging.And the longer I left it, the less I remembered to come back !
Last weekend we went to Thurrock as Em had some money to spend and wanted to go to Build A Bear.She came home with this sweet little friend.

I got some new things too :)
Last weekend saw me attempting ( and almost failing!) to be a domestic goddess by making cookies and lemon loaf from my Humming Bird Bakery book.Let's just say that cleaning the oven after the lemon loaf mixture dripped every where was not my idea of fun!
Half term seems to have whizzed by and luckily the weather has been beautiful since Tuesday.Holly has been on a Brownie trip to London,going to the House of Lords and the London Eye - I think most of the mum's wanted to go too!She came home very tired but managed to stay up late playing on Rock Band with her Aunty Sylv and Uncle Pete who were visiting for a couple of days :)Em spent the morning at mum & dad's and made a banana loaf cake from the Humming Bird book again,as well as with making the icing.Although it was supposed to be Aunty Sylv's birthday cake she was very reluctant to let her actually take any home with her!
Today Em has been out with her friend all day and then off to a sleep over.In turn Holly has had her best friend over and they are camped out in Em's room for the night :) They've been in the paddling pool, painted, read their Brownie handbook (sweet!) and finished the evening watching Disneys Peter Pan in bed :)Tomorrow they have plans to make bisciuts and photo frames :) I have actually done a bit of scrapping,though I can't show it as it's for Pencil Lines next week :) I have speny ages ordering loads of holiday photos so who knows,I might start scrapping some of those soon...! I have to admit that I am still missing Florida even though we've been back just over a month now :( I am still missing cheesecake,the Disney Parks and that huge villa.Plus I'm on my last huge bag of Reeses's Pieces....:( !!

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 :)