The Start of Something New

Oooops.......

2008-06-04T10:19:00.005Z

I keep forgetting to show off my Circle of Friends award from the lovely Gertie. Not sure which one is me, so I'll let you decide!!

I need to pass this on to 4 peeps, so (struggling to think of 4 people who read this lol) I nominate:
Sue
Eleni
Paula
Maria

Got attitude

2008-05-31T10:16:00.003Z

Little Miss Danielle pulls some funny faces but she was really not impressed when I shoved the camera in her face & this is the look I got from her. Some of her friends at school have been on the receiving end of 'the look' too lol, if they say something she disapproves of. She says and does whats he thinks.... in some ways I admire her, but I can't wait for her to learn to be a little tactful haha.

Pp ~ K&Co Amy Butler Belle, Hambly, Pink Paislee
Alphas ~ HS chipboard, MM Tiny Type
AC chipboard photo corners, MM metal tab thingymajig, Pink Paislee die cuts, HS gems, Hambly rub on, magic mesh.

I might not get much more done for a while. Weekends are always a bit rushed and my mojo is only on loan from the lovely Sue and has to go back to her on Monday.

Colour Combo #73

2008-05-29T07:09:00.004Z

I've been admiring all the lovely work from the Colour Combos Galore challenge blog for several weeks & I finally got round to playing along. It's odd because, out of all the combos I've seen, this is the one that appealed to me the least (primary colours and yellow especially are not really my thing) but I had just the photo and it was just the incentive I needed to get it scrapped. And I like the end result, so it just shows that I shouldn't be so stuck in my ways and should be more adventurous with colour. Btw, apologies for yet another dodgy scan - the LO was quite lumpy because I layered up my chipboard alpha and my scanner absolutely hates lumps. And I absolutely hate my scanner lol.

Pp ~ Scenic Route Laurel,
Chipboard photo corner, heart embellie & alpha ~ Scenic Route,
7 Gypsies flower stamp,
KI Memories red rub on alpha,
Love Elsie ribbon,
HS index tab.

And there's more....

2008-05-29T06:52:00.003Z

.... I'm on a roll. :D There's no stopping me now.

I love digging out some of the older photos, it brings it home just how much the kids are changing and growing up. I still remember taking this photo of my little heartbreaker & it's hard to believe that he'll be starting school in September. I have to say that I love the look of the fuzzy alpha but I had to stick each letter down with Glossy Accents because they weren't actually sticky at all! Grrr!

Pp ~ Scenic Route Metropolis + Prima Marketing
Photo corner, index tab + white fuzzy star rub ons ~ Heidi Swapp
Title ~ dymo tape, American Crafts fuzzy stickers + MM Tiny Type alpha.

The first pic I've scrapped from our recent weekend away to Warwick. This one is of Guy's Tower at Warwick Castle. 39m high, 500 odd steps and the walk was a killer! Needless to say it's prompted me to go on a diet & do some exercise because it made me realise how unfit I am, lol. The plastic flowers were a bit of an afterthought & I'm still not overkeen on them but I'll just stick it in my album and not look at it for a while and hope it grows on me.

Pink Paislee pp's, alpha stickers, index tab + arrow
American Crafts plastic flowers with Doodlebug glitter brads
Hambly journaling rub on.

I scrapped this photo of me a couple of years ago, but when I took this photo of Danielle sulking I knew that I had to scrap it together with the old pic of me. It's only taken about a year to actually get round to it though lol. I'm not sure what happened with this one; it started off very simple & then I came over all funny and just started throwing more stuff on the page till it ended up like this. I like the end result very much, but it's not what I had planned at all lol.

Pp + alpha stickers ~ Pink Paislee
Creative Cafe felt trim
Love Elsie chipboard buttons
Doodlebug blossom
Prima birdie
AC chipboard photo corner (white flower cut from Prima ribbon trim)
Gin X Rub ons
Prima birdie

Bank holiday boredom

2008-05-27T06:47:00.002Z

We had some really stinky weather over the weekend and I was that bored that I actually scrapped. Hope I get bored more often!

Don't faint....

2008-05-21T12:11:00.003Z

.... not only am I bogging but I also have a LO to share. Mind you, I did the page a while ago now but it was for a blog challenge so it's only just been uploaded. I was privileged (sp?) to be asked to do a guest spot on the A True Friend blog & you can see what it's all about here. I don't scrap my furry friends (past and present) half as much as I should do, so at least this means that there are now a couple of photos out of the to-be-scrapped box and in my album.

Lots of pp strips: KI Memories, Scenic Route, Hambly, Prima. Scalloped pp behind title is a page from MM Noteworthy journal pad.
Felt bookplate ~ Fancy Pants;
Felt alpha ~ KI Memories;
MM Tiny Type alpha;
Chipboard photo corners and plastic flowers ~ American Crafts;
Velvet flowers ~ Maya Road.

Remember me??

2008-04-30T18:28:00.006Z

I haven't had much time for blogging recently but just wanted to share some pics of the weekend that John and I spent (without the kids!!!) in Warwick a couple of weeks ago. The weekend was absolutely amazing; it was lovely to be without the kids for a while for a start, lol, but also Warwick was such a beautiful olde-worlde place. We visited Warwick Castle on the Saturday, then popped into Coventry in the evening to see my aunt and uncle & we spent the Sunday morning in Stratford-upon-Avon before heading home.

The water mill at the (appropriately named) Saxon Mill pub in Warwick.

Warwick Castle

I climbed this tower!!!! All 530 steps (and it nearly killed me pmsl, I'm so unfit!)

Lord Leycester Hospital, Warwick

Shakespeare's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon

I can highly recommend the Holiday Inn in Warwick too - only £55 a night including a huuuuge continental breakfast buffet. Yummo!

Happy Mother's Day.......

2008-03-01T17:23:00.003Z

.....for Sunday. At preschool, Charlie made me some tissue paper flowers, a card and gave me some choccies (which he then told me I had to share with him lol). Danielle sent her card through the post and it arrived yesterday - both reception classes walked to the post office Thursday afternoon as a 'surprise' for the mums. Oh and she made me a little box and filled it with tealights.

I made some fridge magnets for my mum using BG chipboard frames, along with a very simple book full of some recent pics. I loved how the fridge magnets turned out so I made myself a set too!

Story time

2008-02-27T18:53:00.003Z

Danielle has written a lovely story all about rabbits - she did it all by herself with help from me to spell just a couple of the words (cuddly and holes). Enid Blyton had better watch out lol. (And she can aready draw better than me - not hard mind you - I love how she did the rabbit's ears and the carrot)

And I'm sure this one by Charlie needs no explanation - it's Ben 10 turning into an alien of course. It's funny how all of a sudden kids seem to take a great leap - about 2 months ago, Charlie couldn't draw anything that looked remotely like anything (iyswim) and it doesn't seem long ago since Danielle's drawings looked exactly like Charlie's.

Design Collective news

2008-02-26T14:15:00.006Z

As of 31st March, the Design Collective will be closing its doors. *sob*

The last year has been absolutely brilliant, although very hard work at times, and I've had a lot of laughs. We have a fantastic bunch of regular subbers and I have loved getting to know them. We've been bombarding them with classes for the last 12 months, so many that they couldn't keep up lol, so I'm hoping that we still see the classes being used for many months to come.

I would like to say a huge thank you to everybody who put faith in us and supported us. I'm going to take a break from "scrapping on demand" and will be doing it all 'just for me' for a little while.

I'm going to share a few pics of some of my most favourite projects from the last year (my classes try to focus on design rather than techniques, so the pictures alone do not really give anything away about the classes themselves). Without the Design Collective, half of these would almost certainly never have been created so, in a roundabout way I have our subscribers to thank for helping to fill up my albums too.

Pink Paislee yumminess.....

2008-02-26T11:29:00.003Z

....... Sarah's Cards already have the Pink Paislee Office Lingo in stock, so I splashed out and bought me some. It is absolutely gorgeous in real life I'm happy to say, and I decided it was too good to hide away in my album, so I made this for my wall instead. (Apologies for the glare on the pic - it's too sunny today - there's no winning eh?)

It started life as a leftover piece of mdf - size is approx 9x9. I painted the edges using some Tim Holtz Crackle Paint, but the colour didn't go with the pink, so I splodged some pink paint over the top, wiping away the excess before it dried so that it still showed all the cracks.

The photo was mounted onto some scrap chipboard, as was the Scenic Route Loveland circle sticker.

I also used some Magic Mesh (inspired by this blog, to use old products, which can only be a good thing right?) - I layered it over my chipboard photo corner & also on the 7 Gypsies flower stamp (top right of photo) plus a thin strip underneath my photo. I went for the subtle approach when using it because I'm still not sure I really like it lol, but I think it's ok in small doses. It's strange stuff because it doesn't feel very sticky to the touch and I was worried I was going to wake up this morning and find it had all peeled off but it's still there!

This is me.....

2008-02-24T08:49:00.004Z

...... all made out of beads. Danielle made it for me and I think the likeness is uncanny; I had to take a photo because Danielle (ever the neat freak) wanted to hurry up and put all the beads away in case she lost any (or more likely, in case Max ate them lol).

Danielle had her appointment with the consultant on Thursday, to check her eyes. She had to have drops (cue lots of screaming) but got 2 lollipops to make up for it. I think she scared the wits out of the poor boy who had to go in after her though, because he ran off up the corridor when they called his name lol. We were in there for a very long 2 hours all in all and the room was so hot my eyes were completely dried out by the time we left, so I don't know what poor Danielle's eyes must have felt like. Anyhow, all is fine and the hospital is happy to let our optician manage the squint from now on.

Have a good weekend; it's a lovely sunny day today so I'm going to sunbathe.......

Happy birthday Charlie

2008-02-20T13:05:00.003Z

My baby was 4 yesterday, I haven't a clue where the time's gone. He's all grown up now and every conversation revolves around Spiderman and Power Rangers! Last night we went to Harvester for dinner because that's what Charlie chose, although he said before we went that he wasn't planning to eat dinner, he just wanted the ice cream lol. But, we went and he actually ate lots of pasta, then chose jelly over ice cream, so go figure.

Puddy Tat

2008-02-17T07:56:00.002Z

Just a very quick post because I'm supposed to be doing food shopping online instead!!

Friday's bargain buy....

2008-02-15T11:49:00.006Z

.... (just for Gertie) is something that will keep the kids quiet for hours. Apply generously to mouth area!

Just kidding, although I've been tempted at times this week.

Danielle had an appointment at the hospital this morning with the orthoptist. The lady was lovely, there was no queueing and (best of all) no eye drops needed. Phew! She carried out quite a few tests and confirmed what the optician had already told us. The squint is very sight and her glasses give her perfect vision, so she is happy for Danielle to be managed by the optician. We need to see the consultant next week, who will confirm that she has the right prescrption lenses and, if all is well, no more hospital. The orthoptist advised that we also get Charlie checked just as a precaution, and said that if there were any problems getting him tested because of his age (or more likely his stubbornness -sp?) that we can ask to be referred to the hospital for the test, whch is nice to know.

Oooh, and I managed two LO's last night, both for next month's DC class. Go me! Btw, Paula, you asked where I keep the photo blocks - at the moment they're on a shelf in front of all my cropper hoppers till I find somewhere safe, away from the kids' mucky fingers!

Tuesday's Bargain Buy.......

2008-02-13T09:25:00.002Z

...... animal masks and ears from Ikea - 50p per set. Danielle can't wear the mask for long because it doesn't fit over her glasses but those ears only came off her head at bedtime last night and were back on this morning as soon as she woke up. Charlie prefers to wear the mask like a hat instead of over his eyes pmsl.

Friday's bargain buy....

2008-02-09T14:07:00.000Z

..... was this lovely set of blocks from Tesco for the grand sum of £1 from those bins they seem to have at the end of the aisles (most of them full of tat, but these little babies just jumped out and said "Buy me"). To give you an idea of size, each square is approx 1.75 inches wide.

I sanded them first (the pictures were quite shiny but came off really easily) and then mod podged paper and photos on. In hindsight, maybe I should have chosen a pic of the 3 of them that didn't involve cutting Casey's head in half lol. I finished off with some BG rub ons (postmarks and such like) that I've had for yonks and have never used plus some Heidi Swapp fuzzy rub ons. The papers are all scraps and I was a very brave little girl and even managed to mix up ranges and manufacturers. Off the top of my head, I think I used:
BG Lollipop Shoppe;
SR Brighton, Metropolis, Laurel & Charlotte;
MME Kaleidoscope (I'm not sure which line it was from but it was something very bright and a bit flowery lol).

I think they're looking good but Charlie says he prefers the originals!! Have a good weekend. :)

Btw, Maria, I have to tell you that your blog doesn't like me any more - I've been trying to leave a comment for days now. *sulk*

Doing it digi style

2008-02-07T13:14:00.001Z

I've finally got myself started on digi scrapping. I had a bash ages ago, but couldn't even figure out how to get the papers onto my blank canvas, doh! I've used page templates for now, just so that I can get the hang of things quickly - I give up very easily if I can't get things right.

Template ~ Designer Digital
Papers & grunge border ~ Aja Abney & 2 Peas Future Rock Star kit by Chris Ford

Template ~ Heather Ann Designs
Papers ~ Kellie Mize, Designer Digitals
Quote ~ Katie Pertiet, Designer Digitals
Swirly Overlay ~ by Kim Liddiard from dsp
Blue swirl ~ Aja Abney

I also did a paper version using the pics of Charlie. I saw the quote on a t-shirt a long while ago and thought it suited the pics. (Please imagine a thin border of Kraft cardstock all the way round the edge of the LO - my scanner chopped it off, grrrrr!)

Products used:
SR pp;
GinX Seaver rub ons;
AC chipboard stars;
7 Gypsies stamp.

I also want to add a few pics of some of the cha releases I'm drooling over already:
Cosmo Cricket:

Heidi Swapp:

Prima:

And, I'm also loving everything by Pink Paislee. I gotta start saving me some pennies!!

Remember Me ?

2008-01-15T14:09:00.000Z

It's been a while. I wish I could say that I have been scrapping my butt off 24/7 or even doing anything worthwhile but I'm not completely sure what I've been doing to excuse my absence lol.

Below are pics of just a few things I've been up to since I last posted. The first was for the sketch challenge for last month's SI mag - btw Danielle came home from school one day just before Christmas and told me that her dinner lady had spotted her in the mag; Danielle was so made up.

You would think that, after being awol so long that I would have lots to say, but nah. I'll leave you with some pics of Danielle from Saturday when we picked up her new glasses - I told her I wanted a nice photo of her wearing them so that I could scrap it. To be fair, I didn't actually tell her that her eyes had to be open or that she should be looking at the camera pmsl. She's decided that she wants to grow her fringe out too, so she'll be sporting this very attractive clipped-back spam for a couple of months. The good news is that it looks as though the glasses alone should correct the squint, but Danielle has been referred to the hospital just to be on the safe side and to see if anything can be done to improve the muscles in her weaker eye.

O Christmas Tree

2007-12-16T13:06:00.000Z

O Christmas Tree
How cluttered are your branches??

I bought lots of new tree decs in the sale last year, but didn't realise just how many I'd bought till we came to put them on the tree last week lol. The kids love it though - especially all the cute felt snowmen, teddy bears etc (and of course I had to rearrange half the decs because they were all put on the lower half of the tree as the littlies couldn't reach any higher).

Don't faint but I actually took these pics on manual - not the best technically but, for me, they're brilliant pmsl especially as I didn't have a clue what I was doing. For some reason, my tree looks like the leaning tower of pisa, but it's not like that irl.

Christmas at Collectively Yours....

2007-12-15T16:24:00.000Z

.... and I'm doing a headless chicken impression (where has the first half of December gone already!!) so my project was a very quick and simple one. One bauble, a photo, some SR paper, dymo tape and some Prima velvet flower ribbon.

Check out the other bits and pieces on the blog.

Dare #73 - Childhood Favourites

2007-11-29T18:59:00.000Z

I knew immediately what my subject was going to be for this one; it's something I've been wanting to scrap for a while before it gets forgotten & is one of those corkers that little kids come out with, that just leave you gawping. Hopefully you can read the journaling, but in case you can't, the LO is about a pony that Danielle named herself - "Strawberry Heartburn". Journaling was done on the pc and printed straight onto the background cardstock - first time I've done it (I think) and my LO came out slightly different to how I'd planned because of it but it's all good. The title looks wonky but it's all straight irl - another of my rubbish scans lol.

Materials: SR Papers, KI Memories lace cardstock, AC chipboard photo corners and a couple of other bits and bobs.

As always, check the rest out on the blog - there are some crackers. ;)

Below are a couple more very quick pages using older photos. I keep finding more that I want to scrap though so my "to scrap" pile is getting bigger instead of smaller. Ho Hum.

Happy birthday to Casey

2007-11-25T08:10:00.000Z

My little girl is 12 today.

I haven't posted in over a week, so am sharing everything I've done since my last post. First up is a 6x4 Bare Book made for me by the lovely Gertie - check out the links to the right if you want some. Mine's only taken me about 2 months to get round to doing lol.

Next up 3 pages that I managed to complete this week.

I think that's it. I've done a couple of things for upcoming DC projects but, of course, they're top secret.

Dare #71 ~ Chipboard in Abundance

2007-11-15T12:40:00.000Z

This week's theme was to use chipboard; I could have wimped out and just stuck to my usual chipboard title lol but I wanted to do something a bit different.

Sooooo, I used lots of chipboard circles (from a Fancy Pants pack) - I covered them in K&Co Amy Butler paper scraps and then sanded the edges. It was quite a labour intensive job, and I had RSI from all the sanding, but I like the finished effect. The LO itself is pretty simple; this was just a photo I really like and so there was no journaling to go with it. That might get the journaling police on my back, but in my opinion not every photo needs journaling. Check out the CY blog to see what the rest of the ladies did.

The next page was for the weekly challenge on UKS, and these are some older pics of Danielle scoffing her face. I used yummy SR Loveland papers for this one.

Dare #70 - Girls Aloud

2007-11-09T12:51:00.000Z

I can't believe it's dare #70 on the Collectively Yours blog already - where do all the weeks go? I used lots of Fancy Pants felt plus Prima & Scenic Route papers for my little dressing up queen.

The next one is Charlie, looking not-quite-so glamorous after Danielle had been cutting his hair. I probably should have been mad when I saw what she'd done but I couldn't help but giggle. I used sketch #27 from the Sketch This blog for this one.

Not speeding, but still going...

2007-11-04T08:47:00.000Z

Just one layout completed yesterday but that's good going, considering we had to go to the optician's in the morning, my mum was round half the afternoon and we went to Adventure Island in the evening.

The photo is of Casey and I've been wanting to scrap it for a long while but never really knew what papers etc, Plus, I couldn't think of a title so I asked my UKS team mates for help and Marja (who is the queen of great titles) came up with this one.

We picked up Danielle's new glasses yesterday and she's struggling a bit with them. After a change of opticians (we're with Boots now), the man there discovered that Danielle also has a very slight squint in her right eye. It's not noticeable enough to see when you look at her, but it needs to be corrected. He's hoping that the right prescription will do it, without the need for patching, but is going to monitor her regularly to assess. Anyhow, the upshot is these glasses are VERY strong (+5 in the right and +3-point-something in the left) and it's going to take her eyes a few days to adjust. I keep catching her with her head tipped right back so that she can see out from underneath the glasses rather than through the lenses.

We went to Adventure Island in Southend last night and the glasses were soon forgotten about though. Casey didn't want to come (??) so stayed with her nan but Danielle and Charlie loved it. We met up with friends there & they have a daughter 3 mths older than Dan, so the 3 girls had a blast - they felt very grown up because it was the first time they were tall enough to go on the rides without an adult. They were on all these various trains, elephants etc (going about a mile an hour if that) and they had their arms up in the air like they were on some really scary rollercoaster. The min waltzer was their definite fave and I think they would have just spent the whole few hours on that one ride.

Still speeding along.....

2007-11-02T22:33:00.000Z

..........and I managed another 4 pages. I abandoned the Scenic Route for most of these and finally used some of the Love Elsie stuff that I bought AGES ago. I love the embossed cardstock, especially when it's sanded back; I'm not so impressed with the alpha stickers though - STICKer is definitely not a good description because they keep lifting up off the page. *humph* I can't believe how much Danielle and Charlie have changed. *sob*

Dare 69 on Collectively Yours went live last night - check it out for lots of spooky Halloween themed delights. I swapped out (Halloween isn't my 'thang') so I'll be up next week instead; I'm so organised that I even did my page for it over a week ago lol!

Speeding up

2007-11-02T07:50:00.000Z

I decided that I need to speed up a little; I've gotten into the habit of faffing around for far too long, trying to make each page perfect. Choosing embellishments for just one page can sometimes take me half an hour or more, and I'm geting nowhere fast. My need for perfection has also meant that I've been putting off scrapping a lot of my less perfect photos, because I know that I can't 'do them justice.'

So, last night I just got out my box full of Scenic Route papers and decided to do the pages from that box alone (cutting down on paper selection time) & adding very simple embellishments to each. Most of the pages are pretty similar, I know, and that's fine. I managed to get a page done in the afternoon and the other 5 took about 2 1/2 hours last night.

Pony Mad

2007-11-01T10:02:00.000Z

I finally got round to scrapping some more older pics - these are from last year, when Danielle was still in her 'I'm a horse called Clippery' phase. Papers are SR Sumner, black alpha stickers are also SR and the blue alpha is vinyl, by AC. Journaling tag from Etsy.

I haven't scrapped anything else this week, but I've been working on a few bits and pieces for the Design Collective christmas extras. I'm just waiting for the SR Roxbury papers to arrive so that I can complete one more thing. We are entering another new month at the DC and we will be announcng the winner of our October prize draw very soon. ;)

I've been tagged by the lovely Maria so here goes:
(I wasn't hibernating, just didn't have anything to bore you with lol, but lots of love to you and Gertie for missing me)

1. If you could have £100 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose? I think I would go for papers - I have tons of embellies that would probably last me a lifetime because I use so few of them on each page.

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose? Rubons. (As long as money was no object lol) Stamps are cheaper in the long run but rub ons are so much less hassle to use.

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year...which would you do? Layouts, for definite.

4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home? My own scrapping room - I'm fed up of my little corner in the kitchen and squishing onto one small worktop space to scrap.

5. And last but not least, what is your CURRENT cardmaking or scrapping style? Non-existent lol. Joking aside, I'm always swinging between very plain, minimally embellished pages and those with ever so slightly more embellishment.

I will now tag:

Marja
Gertie
Gems
Eleni
Paula
Sharon
Sue

Sketch This #30

2007-10-19T11:46:00.000Z

Another old photo of Charlie. I'd forgotten just how long and messy his hair used to be (and it was usually full of food crumbs). This is sketch #30 on the Sketch This blog. Papers are Scenic Route Salem *slurp*, AC vinyl alpha stickers (love the smell of these almost as much as the foam ones but I got in a bit of a sticky mess with them lol), journaling tag from Etsy, GinX rub on doodles and I can't remember who made the arrow stamp. The doodling goes all the way round the outside edge irl.

Sketch This #29

2007-10-19T05:54:00.000Z

I've been following the Sketch This blog since it started, fully intending to tackle each sketch as it was posted, but things kept getting in the way. So, now I'm working my way backwards through the sketches, from most recent back to the beginning. I made a little boo boo with my LO for sketch #30, so will have to fix that before I scan, but here is #29 for now.

Background pp ~ Prima Steel Toe Mary Jane
Scalloped pp ~ MM Noteworthy
Index tab ~ HS
Chipboard circle ~SR

Productive day

2007-10-18T21:03:00.000Z

The page above was for a scraplift challenge. I chose to lift a page by Suzanne Torr, called Going Bananas (I hope she doesn't mind me posting hers below!) although I went for a less embellished page because I can never quite get the right effect when I do it. I'm trying to scrap some of my older pics - some of them aren't that great or inspiring, so I'm making it easier on myself by using sketches/scraplifts. It definitely speeds up the process as I don't have to faff about worrying about paper placement etc.

I also completed the latest two sketches from the Sketch This blog (go me!!) but will upload those in the morning. ;)

Forgot to add that Dare #67 is up on the Collectively Yours blog. Go have a lookie. :)

Here's hoping......

2007-10-18T09:57:00.000Z

..... that I didn't scare you all away with my random facts haha. Forgot to say about the drinking one - it was all highly embarassing as one of the partners (I worked in an accountants at the time) offered to drive me home that afternoon and I had to make polite conversation all the way home and try not to sound drunk.

I've got the scrapping bug so am making the most of the opportunity while it's here. I threw these together last night. The first was for a challenge on UKS to scrap yourself (which, pssssst, I do quite a bit anyway as I find it too much hard work to think up something new all the time lol).

This is the page that I lifted (and I *think* I probably originally lifted something else I'd done to create that one *snort*)

Finally, a very simple, page using MM Noteworthy goodies - I have to admit that, as much as I love the stuff, I struggled to use it. *sob*

I'm almost done with another page that's for a scraplift challenge on another forum, and then I have a whole batch of pics waiting to print. I'm going to start looking back on some of the Sketch This sketches I think, just so that I can start working my way through the photos pretty quickly. I've been buying a LOT lately but not really using any so it's time to make a dent in that stash pile.

I've been tagged.........

2007-10-15T20:10:00.000Z

......... by the lovely Eleni.

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

Ok, so here goes:

1. I can't cook a meal/bake without using up every single spoon in the cutlery drawer.

2. I also can't cook a meal/bake without washing my hands after touching every ingredient.

3. Having said that, I can't cook to save my life lol.

4. John calls me Pidge - I'm not quite sure if it's supposed to be a compliment or an insult lol.

5. (Inspired by Eleni's bee fact) I was stung on the bottom by a bee as a child. I've been scared of wasps/bees ever since.

6. I once walked into a fire door at work after a lunch time drinking session. I was sick very soon afterwards, but had to pretend it was possible concussion (and they took me to A&E) because I couldn't admit it was because I was drunk lol.

7. I find it very hard to smile without poking my tongue out - attractive eh?

Now, I'm going to tag:
Gertie
Gems
Paula
Maria
Tracey
Sharon
Sue

Beach Boy

2007-10-14T07:13:00.000Z

Just another page I managed from the UKS cc class; this one was by Shani. Papers are mainly Scenic Route, with some Christina Cole for the sun rays.

Hope you're having a good weekend. I had a fun (not) afternoon sorting out the shed as we're having the asbestos roof removed tomorrow; I didn't realise I'd kept so many cardboard boxes (most of them pizza boxes!!) so I was ruthless and broke them all down to be recycled. What's the bets I need one in a couple of days?

Ooops, forgot this...

2007-10-12T14:03:00.000Z

I *think* this is the first cc class I've ever got round to completing, so go me!! This is the Wishes class by the fabulously talented Emma Trout (sugar almond). The papers are Scenic Route (again!!!) and I used some ribbon from an SI freebie plus some HS ghost stars, which I painted round the edges, finished off with more Fancy Pants felt. Chipboard alpha is by American Crafts. I inked round the edges in blue & I love the effect, so I might be pinching that idea some more in the future. Thanks for the inspiration, Em. :)

Did ya miss me?

2007-10-12T11:57:00.000Z

Probably not, lol. I have a few things to share and first up is this week's Collectively Yours Dare (can you believe we're up to week 66 already!). The theme was to scrap someone other than family, so I chose the delicious Zac Efron, who Danielle loves like mad. The papers are all by Prima - Caliope and Steel Toe Mary Jane collections. I chucked on some Fancy Pants buttons and felt, then added various lettering for the title (HS and MM I think).

Next up is my Dare from last week, which I never got round to uploading here at the time. The prompt was Autumn Delights, but I don't really own any autumn coloured stash so I went for the non -traditional colours lol. Papers by Scenic Route, more Fancy Pants felt (lovely stuff) and chipboard alpha by American Crafts.

Thirdly, I was thrilled to be asked to write a class for the 5th Birthday cyber crop on UKS. *insert big cheesy grin smiley here* I'll admit that the nerves before the class went live was a killer - especially as I'd been seeing eveyone else's wonderful classes beforehand and wondered if everyone would look at mine and think "Urgh! I'm not doing that one!" Thankfully, quite a few people seemed to like it and it's been so inspiring to see how everybody's interpreted the class and added their own personal 'stamp' to the page.If you're one of the people that took the class, then thank you. :)

Lastly, my DC class for November is all written up and ready to roll. Below is a little peeky sneak (yes I meant to say that) at just one of the LO's I put together as a class example.

In the real world, Danielle has had yet more trouble with her specs. Charlie kicked her in the face when they were playing and managed to toally twist the frame in every which way you could imagine. Optical Express refused to try to straighten them in case they broke & sad we could have a new pair. But they were already unwearable so they had nothing to lose by trying - or maybe they were worried that they might fx them so well that they couldn't get more money from the nhs for a new pair? Cynical, me? Oh yes!!

Next up, they tell me the only frame they have in stock nationwide in the right size is a Beano pair for boys. We all know kids don't exactly like wearing glasses, and add to that for Danielle there is nothing worse than putting her in something boyish. She go upset on her first day of pe when she had to borrow some kit, because she thought it was boys stuff. The woman just said "Well, she needs to wear them. I thouhgt you'd just be relieved we found you a pair." Erm, nope!

So, we decided to go elsewhere. We popped into Boots and found a lovely woman who spent ages straightening up Danielle's specs, even though technically she could have refused to help as we didn't get them from there. She's booked us an appt to get Danielle's glasses made stronger in a couple of weeks and has already ordered in one of each frame so that we have a choice when we go in. So, big raspberries *pfffffffft* to Optical Express.

Have a good weekend. :D

A bit late but............

2007-09-27T18:00:00.000Z

here is my LO for Dare #63 over at Collectively Yours. We've split into two teams and a Thursday upload for dare 63 onwards, so I won't be uploading again till next week but remember that there will be a new upload later tonight.

I've had quite a productive day, managing to complete 2 LO's out of 3 that I've got planned for an upcoming Design Collective class. I'm including a very very teeny weeny sneaky peek of one of them. We've got lots planned for the christmas run up, more details will be released very soon.

Danielle went shopping last weekend, to spend her ELC voucher which was a prize in the Get Children Creating competition over at It's a Creative World. Thrifty me used a 20% off voucher and the books were 3 for 2 as well, so she got loads!! Thanks again ladies.

Back from our summer break

2007-09-15T08:43:00.000Z

Dare 62 is up at the Collectively Yours blog, with a back to school theme. I take pics every year and always struggle with what to do with them because I hate uniform colours, so I welcomed the little push to actually scrap some.

I used my current fave K&Co Amy Butler pp's because the black uniform needed a little brightening up. :D

Oooh, and for yet more Amy Butler papers, check out this little piece I did over at It's a Creative World.

Don't fall over......

2007-09-14T12:39:00.000Z

.......I scrapped! Just a few that I can share right now but one more to come later. ;)

Gertie - I wish I could pretend that you spotted my sneak peek on the CY blog because of my inimitable fabulously unique style but, alas, I think it was the little scalloped kraft tag that gave it away, hehe!! Thank you for sending me some hunny. :D

Yummy goodies for me

2007-09-08T11:30:00.000Z

I got a parcel yesterday, from the lovely Sarah and it contained some of her cute little Bare Books. She's faster than greased lightning that lady, I tell you. They were so scrumptiously packaged that I had to take a photo of the little babies. Now I just need to get off my backside and do something with them haha.

The Collectively Yours team are all refreshed after the summer holidays and we're raring to go from next week. Check out the blog for a few sneaky peeks of what's to come.

It's hard to believe the first week of school is over already; Casey had her school pics taken yesterday - early or what!! Have a good weekend, whatever you're up to.

Cakes and candles

2007-09-06T12:52:00.000Z

Just sharing a few pics from yesterday. None of them are that great - I'm always far too busy running round like a headless chicken on birthdays to make sure I take lots of photos lol. I need a large screen that I can put behind my subject and block out all the crap in the background too!! I had to include the last one - madam was bored with the photo taking and started prodding the cake instead. She's got her mother's pout haha.

We got into school this morning and Danielle's new friend, Dijana, had a little pressie for Danielle. Dijana gone home last night and begged her mum and dad to buy something, bless her, so they had to nip out to Asda. Danielle was upset when I left her this morning; I'm hoping she's just overtired afeter all the excitement yesterday.

Happy Birthday Dear Danielle...

2007-09-05T10:31:00.000Z

~~~~ my little girl is 5 today. She woke up with the grumps and told me off for singing to her lol, but she soon cheered up when she saw all the pressies. We spent the time before the school run feeding Barbie's dog, making it poop and then doing the whole thing all over again. What joy!

I have to share this photo of my little man too - he very rarely sits still and usually refuses to look at the camera, and (surprise surprise) I managed to catch him without his tongue out as well!

First Day Nerves....

2007-09-04T09:59:00.000Z

Well, me and Casey were both nervous. Danielle was as excited as anything and just went strolling into the classroom, found her name on the table and sat down to play with the playdoh. I didn't even get a goodbye lol. Danielle is so dinky - those trousers she's wearing are an age 3, and she's 5 tomorrow. Her fleece is a 3-4 and is huuuuge.

Casey was very nervous - first day at secondary school is a nerve-wracking business, so I don't envy her at all. She looked so grown up this morning, and so smart!! (Although I noticed this morning as she walked into the school gates that she had her shirt untucked underneath that blazer. Tut tut!!!) We had a laugh/panic this morning trying to do Casey's tie up. John's been trying to teach her for the last few days and, of course, this morning when we need him he was at work, pmsl. I haven't worn a tie since I was about 13 and the more I tried the more I was getting it wrong. Anyway, I eventually did it up on mysef, loosened it enough to slip off my head and over Casey's head, then I tightened it up again. That'll do for now lol.

Charlie went back to preschool this morning, but he had to get in on the photo action again today, but he's going through that stage of acting goofy in front of the camera. Oh, and can you see the scar on his head? The scab finally came off a few days ago, but his hair was attached to it lol, so now he has a little bald patch. Hopefuly, it'll grow back

Danielle's a winner

2007-09-03T12:07:00.000Z

She drew a picture for the children's competition that was held over on It's a Creative World.A winner was chosen at random last night and Danielle was it!! She was over the moon when she woke up this morning; she even had to ring John at work to tell him the good news lol. Her pic is below - it's a family portrait (I'm the short Rapunzel-esque one, second from left) but check out some of the other entries on their blog. And I'd like to say a big thanks to the Creative World ladies for making my daughter's day.

Charlie had his first morning back at preschool; it was very odd having to be out by 9am. I'm still not looking forward to the early start tomorrow (well 8.30 lol) - I know it's going to take me at least a week to get back into the routine.

Busy day tomorrow

2007-09-02T18:53:00.000Z

Charlie's back to preschool so we've got to be up, dressed and out by 9am. *gasp* Even worse, Danielle starts school on Tuesday and we'll have to be out by 8.30. I've been selling on Ebay, so once Charlie's in preschool we're going to spend about an hour in the post office getting the parcels on their way.

Tomorrow sees another mailing of Design Collective classes, and one of them is from moi. (Btw, I can't believe that we're entering our 6th month of classes!!). I'm attaching a very very sneaky peek which gives away absolutely nothing lol.

Btw, Danielle is kind of getting used to her glasses, while I'm getting peed off with having to clean them every 5 minutes hehe.

The zoo and other things

2007-08-31T12:20:00.000Z

We went to Colchester Zoo last Sunday so I'm just sharing some of may fave pics from the day. I've got quite a childish sense of humour so I like to take photos of the animals (and kids) doing silly things. Sadly I missed the photo op when the rhino did a wee and his friend drank it. What a LO that would have made heehee.

I've also been scrapping, well just two pages, but *shhhhh* nothing I can share right now. I also have a couple of things in the pipeline that are quite exciting and I'm feeling so flattered that my head can't fit through the door. That might have something to do with my Rapunzel-like hair though. Check out It's a Creative World. Danielle drew a family portrait as part of the comp they've been running to get children creating. The likeness is uncanny heehee.

Oh, and if you like minibooks and want some on the cheap, then look no further. Go to Gertie's blog and check the link on the right to her new little business 'Bare Books'. Prices so cheap you'll fall out of your chair.

I can't believe today's the last day of August - looking at the weather, it's more like October!! Danielle is 5 on September 5th and I've been out today buying her pressies - Littlest Pet Shop and the Barbie dog that poops were top of her list lol. She even tidied her bedroom yesterday and threw out lots of old Maccy D's toys to make room for the new stuff.

Something I just threw together

2007-08-24T13:20:00.000Z

And it only took me 10 mintues. Can you believe that? No? Well, I don't blame you lol. But it was pretty quick - especially because I'm the slowest scrapper in the South East; it took about 3/4 of an hour. I picked up a couple of little mini ring binders from Asda - bargain price of about £1.23 (ish) and that includes 80 odd record cards inside too. I used this pink one to make a little book for Danielle to practice her handwriting. So far, I've done a letter on each page, so that she can copy them. I'm also going to use the remainder of the record cards to help her learn the words she needs to know for Reception year, but haven't decided quite how to do that yet.

I used Love Elsie fabric to cover the front, and just cut a little notch in the front for the press stud. Photo corners by Heidi Swapp, 7 gypsies circle stamp, Love Elsie jelly heart & ribbon, AC plastic flower.

Making a very brief appearance...........

2007-08-21T07:09:00.001Z

.......is my mojo. I say brief, because I have a feeling it's going to run away again very soon. But, while it's here and now my printer has ink, I thought I should make the most of it. I splashed out and bought proper Epson inks this time and I have to say that there is a difference. Not a great deal, and probably not enough to warrant the extra cost, but I'm wondering how much better they will perform in the long term. The crazy thing is that the inks are almost as expensive as the printer itself - go figure!

Max had a little adventure after dinner last night. He'd been in the garden for ages, and we were just starting to wonder if he was out there digging a massive hole or something when Casey knocked on the front door. And, there with her was Max! Casey didn't really explain anything - just said that he came running out of the back alley and she grabbed him and brought him home. We checked out the back and the gate was shut, so then we were thinking that he must be a great escape artist to be able to scale a 6ft high fence lol, until Casey came home and explained that the gate had blown open and she shut it after he'd got out. Doh! I was quite relieved because I was wondering how were going to stop him scaling the fence again.

Typical....

2007-08-17T12:48:00.000Z

.........I decided last night that I want to scrap and the inks in my printer were being temperamental and refused to print, even though it was telling me they were all at least half full. So, I pinched this photo from an ongoing project (a piece of wall art that is nowhere near ready to go on my wall lol). I much prefer the colour version of this photo, so I'm going to print it (once my ink arrives) and scrap it again properly. For now, I was just playing around with my MM paper edger and some 7 Gypsies paper. The quote is from Dr Seuss, and I have to thank the lovely Tracey for giving me the idea because she used one of his quotes on a page a little while back.

You might just be able to read the quote but just in case: "Today you are you, that is truer than true, there is no one alive who is youer than you."

2 little monkeys......

2007-08-15T17:36:00.000Z

.....jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head..... 'One' being Charlie, my little clumsy man - he's already sporting a nice bruise on his forehead from falling down the stairs last week.

Danielle and Charlie have been bouncing off the walls all day long; the weather's been absolutely rubbish and they're so bored they both got a bit hyperactive after dinner. They were jumping on my bed (even though it's strictly off limits) and Charlie fell off and cut his head on the corner of the wardrobe. There was quite a bit of blood and there was a bit of skin flapping round, so John took him to minor injuries and the nurse pulled off the loose skin then glued it. Luckily, the hospital was empty so they were only gone about half an hour.

Well, now the drama is over, how shall I scrap the pics lol?

And I thought.............

2007-08-11T05:56:00.000Z

.......scrappers were a strange bunch. It seems like border terrier breeders are worse. The administrator of the forum I mentioned yesterday has removed all references to Spike's Disease from the thread (there was a big hoo-ha ages ago apparently and everybody knows it's now taboo), has banned me from sending pm's and also logged into my account to read the pm's I'd been sending. Charming eh?

Needless to say, she'll wake up to a snotty email from me and I've asked for my account to be deleted. I can't believe that people who claim to be lovers of the breed would knowingly try to keep info that could help from the owner of a suffering pet. Even worse, I can't believe anybody would stoop so low as to read somebody else's pm's. John told me I should air my grievances on the forum but I'm not into making a public scene, and with only 5 posts to my name I would be dismissed as a troll anyway.

On a lighter note, John is 40 today. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! We're having a fairly quiet day today and tomorrow we have family and friends round for a bbq.

A possible diagnosis....

2007-08-10T12:50:00.001Z

.....for Max's episodes. Over the last few months, Max has had several epileptic-type seizures and we were told that it was in fact epilepsy, although there were no tests that could be done to confirm it, just some tests to rule out other possibilities. The vet chose not to medicate since the fits were fairly infrequent and the medicine would do more harm to Max than good.

By chance, I came across a forum dedicated to Border Terrier chat a few days ago and mentioned Max's problem, just in the hope of finding people in the same boat to talk to really. I'm so glad I did, because one lady suggested that Max might actually be suffering from Spike's Disease (Canine Epileptoid Cramping Syndrome). Symptoms are very similar to epilepsy and the syndrome is common among Border Terriers. The good news is that it appears to be controllable in most cases by a change of diet. It's thought to be caused by a gluten intolerance, so we're going to change Max over to a gluten free dog food and see how it goes. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by at least trying it.

Max had a couple of episodes, about a week apart, just a couple of weeks ago; the second one was quite severe, so this news has come at just the right time and my little boy's future is looking a little brighter.

Fun in the sun......about time too!!

2007-08-05T18:49:00.000Z

After a totally crap June and July, it looks like summer might finally be on its way. The paddling pool was out for the first time since April (and we managed to pick up a puncture since we put it away but I'm not going to tempt fate by buying another one lol); we've also got the fan out of the loft for the first time since last summer because it's like an oven indoors today and we're all melting.

As usual, it ended in tears lol!

Max was feeling the heat, so he chilled on the sunbed with Casey - we chucked him in the pool but he hated it haha.

Danielle is getting more used to her glasses, hooray. She has the occasional rest, but it's not such a battle of wills now to get her to put them back on. As for me, I keep forgetting to put mine on at all, so I'm a fine one to talk.

The ompatician

2007-08-02T17:27:00.000Z

We went back to the ompatician (as Danielle so cutely calls it) this afternoon to pick up our glasses - well, all except John's because the glasses are rimless so the lenses need some special adjustment. Or some such crap, I don't really know lol, but they're taking about 2 weeks. Danielle's been excited all day and was constantly asking if it was time yet - anybody would think it was something really good, like a party. She's now had them on since about 3pm and the novelty's wearing off already, groan. She didn't want to wear them for dinner; she didn't want to wear them while she was eating an apple and she doesn't want to wear them round nanny's house tomorrow. Uh oh!! She's wearing them now, under protest, but I can tell that we're going to have some real struggles. I'm uploading a pic but it's not a great one. Madam really wasn't in the mood for posing and I now also have the challenge of how to take pics of someone in glasses without getting lots of glare.

Eventful day

2007-08-01T19:41:00.000Z

My mum and I took the kids to Canvey Island today. It's not the greatest beach in the world, far from it, but the kids had a great time and that's the main thing. The weather was a bit iffy this morning; bright sunshine one minute and dark clouds the next but after lunch it really brightened up. The sea air must have done wonders for Danielle and Charlie's appetites too - I've never seen either of them put away so much food lol.

Then, this afternoon it was optician's appts all round. Casey wears glasses for reading/computer work/tv and it's been 2 years since her last check up - she now needs new ones that are slightly stronger. She was over the moon because she had her eyes on a snazzy new pair lol. John needs a stonger prescription (he only wears them for reading etc too) and I now need glasses for similar things. Eeeeeek! While we were there, I asked whether we should get the younger kids tested and the optician (lovely lady who spoke in words that I could actually understand instead of overloading me with jargon) recommended that they could be tested from age 4 and that she would test Danielle there and then.

So, one very nervous little girl clambered into the huuuuge optician's chair and the fun began. The lady was brilliant and Danielle was soon at ease and found the whole thing a game. I did have to laugh (but was slightly embarassed) when she was wearing those big plastic glasses that they slip the lenses into and she said at the top of her voice "Do I look like a div in these?" Oooops - I blame Casey lol.

Anyway, the upshot is that she needs to wear glasses full time; I was completely shocked because we never had any clue that she was experiencing any problems. The optician was great and explained at great length the problem. In short, she is long sighted but her right eye is a lot weaker than her left. Her brain is compensating for that eye (hence Danielle notices no difference) but, if nothing is done, it will eventually stop bothering and she will have no vision at all in her right eye. That, of course, would be disastrous if, god forbid, anything happened to her left eye. They're starting her on a weak prescription, about half the strength she actually needs, and will see her every 3 mths to adjust the lenses so that, within a year (maybe less) it's up to full strength. The optician showed me just how strong the prescription is that she needs and I was shocked - the whole room was a blur. The brain can do such a good job of compensating that Danielle can see the same WITH the strong lenses as she can without - how bizarre!

Are you still awake? I said I would be brief, and believe it or not I have lol. I'm just so relieved that we decided to test her now because we hadn't planned to. So, a few words of advice if you've never got your child's eyes tested - do it, even if you think their sight is ok; you just never know.

We go to pick up her glasses tomorrow - thank heavens the nhs has come a long way since I was a kid. She's picked a coolio pair of Barbie glasses and she is soooooo pleased to be getting them. Let's hope it stays that way....... I will, naturally, be taking pics of them asap!!

All grown up

2007-07-27T06:44:00.000Z

I just wanted to share a couple of the photos I took of Casey while we were in Portugal. She's looking so grown up now; not a little girl any more and, although I'm totally biased, I think she's such a gorgeous young lady.

I also wanted to share a pic of something crafty but I've not done anything since before I went away - oops! So, this is just a little peek of my class for the Design Collective from last week.

Happy Friday everyone. The kids are going round my Mum's today so I can have my first couple of hours peace in 2 weeks, yeah!!! Maria, I meant to say that the kids wanted to bring home all the pebbles in their buckets but I think it would have blown our baggage allowance lol. They each chose a couple of their favourites to bring back. Oh, and Casey sneaked home a dead crab in my rucksack!!

Excuse the weeds!!!

2007-07-26T16:42:00.000Z

I took these pics of Danielle a couple of weeks ago but have only just got round to having a proper fiddle with them in Photoshop. We'd only just got back from 2 weeks away, and the grass was about 6ft high after all the rain. If I was a true Photoshop whizz, I'd clone all the weeds out, but I'm not, so they'll have to stay.

Danielle adores this dress (so do I!!) and insisted that I take some photos of her twirling in it. I might even get round to scrapping them sometime this century and my beloved SR papers would be the perfect choice.

Some more holiday pics

2007-07-26T06:51:00.000Z

We went to the beach for the first few days and then, all of a sudden, the kids decided that they hated the beach and we spent the rest of the fortnight around the pool instead. I love the look on the girls' faces in the last pic - they both look lke "wtf!" - I think they were getting bored of the camera lol.

My holiday

2007-07-25T06:50:00.000Z

Just a few of my fave holiday snaps. I didn't take that many pics because I think I spent most of the time in the pool keeping the kids amused. They all absolutely loved the water. Casey finally managed to swim more than a width of the pool on her own and, by the end of the fortnight, she was jumping in, putting her face under water, the lot. Danielle and Charlie have never been in a real pool and I thought they would be a bit apprehensive but they both just got right in and started splashing about. They had all kinds of inflatables because every time somebody went home they would pass on their lilo's/rubber rings etc on to us!!

I'm back.........and I rock

2007-07-25T06:22:00.000Z

I haven't blogged in absolutely forever. For anybody who doesn't know, we went on our hols to the Algarve, Portugal for the last week of June/first week of July. I got caught up in a mad rush of last minute preparations before we went, and life seems to have been manic since we got back.

Anyway, I woke up to a lovely surprise this morning - I've been tagged by the lovely Maria and Gertie who both wanted to make me a Rockin' Girl Blogger. The idea was originally started by Roberta.

I now need to tag 5 people - I would originally have tagged both Maria and Gertie but as they already officially rock, then I need to try and find 5 other friends lol. So, I choose:
Marja
Paula
Tracey
Eleni
Sharon

You all rock too - it's official!

Lazy blogger

2007-06-16T21:44:00.000Z

I'm not sure where the time has gone lately but my poor little bloggy is feeling very unloved. I was tagged by Paula about 6 years ago now, so finally:

10 FAVORITES

Favorite Color: pink
Favorite Food: cheesecake
Favorite Month: August
Favorite Song: Mariah Carey - Dream Lover (David Morales remix) - reminds me of my clubbing days
Favorite Movie: Dirty Dancing
Favorite Sport: surfing (the web)
Favorite Season: summer
Favorite Day of the week: Fridays (kids go round my mum's for the afternoon)
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: chocolate
Favorite Time of Day: erm bedtime :D

9 CURRENTS

Current Mood: bored
Current Taste: chocolate
Current Clothes: nightie and big knickers lol (tim maybe?)
Current Desktop: fire breathing dragon (John's choice)
Current Toenail Color: natural
Current Time: 10.50pm
Current Surroundings: home
Current Thoughts: why did I start typing this when I'm half asleep?

8 FIRSTS

First Best Friend: Melita
First Kiss: ugh, Tony Davs (I think) as a dare
First Screen Name: something almost as duumb as K3 lol
First Pet: dog - Baron, an afghan hound
First Piercing: ears at about 8 years old
First Crush: crikey, I've had so many I can't remember
First CD: Michael Jackson - Thriller. First LP would have been Grease I think.
First car: VW Beetle (purple)

7 LASTS

Last Cigarette: About 13 years ago - not that I smoked, just the odd puff when I was drunk
Last Drink: alcohol? Lots of beer and wine last weekend
Last Car Ride: this afternoon, coming back from the shops
Last Kiss: Danielle at bedtime
Last Movie Seen: Bridge to Terabithia - I cried
Last Phone Call: to John - to find out what he'd done with Danielle's toothbrush the night before lol
Last CD Played: Gabrielle

6 HAVE YOU EVERS

Have You Ever Dated One Of Your Best Guy/Girl Friends: no
Have You Ever Broken the Law: Nooo, of course not :P
Have You Ever Been Arrested: nope
Have You Ever Skinny Dipped: ooooh, no
Have You Ever Been on TV: nope
Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Oh yes, more than once *blushes*

5 THINGS

(Ooooops, I'm so dumb, I thought I had to list 5 things for each one, doh! Seeing as it took me so long to think of them all I'll leave them there haha)

Thing You're Wearing: nightie, big knickers, sleep bra, hair band and a smile (what on earth am I thinking being this honest?)
Thing You've Done Today: ate, drunk, ate some more, laughed till my stomach hurt, ate a ittle more
Thing You Can Hear Right Now: a Sly Stallone film on the tv, tapping on the keyobard, John snoring, Max snoring
Thing You Can't Live Without: John, Casey, Danielle, Charlie, chocolate
Thing You Do When You're Bored: surf the net, play music, scrap, take photos, bite my nails

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY
toilet (snigger), bathroom, bedroom, shops

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO
John, Max, Marja

2 CHOICES
1. Black or White: black
2. Hot or Cold: hot

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE: See my kids grow up

I'm not sure who's already been tagged, so I'll tag Maria, Gertie, Eleni and anybody else who reads this - don't pretend you didn't see this because I'll know. :P

Tell me why................

2007-06-11T10:14:00.000Z

.............I don't like Mondays. Especially when I have the worst hangover in about 12 years. We spent a lovely afternoon yesterday round my most favourite auntie's house. She really is the most beautiful, youthful, kindest, wittiest, most intelligent woman you could ever meet. Oh, and there's also a chance she'll read this, so I have to be nice. :P Anyways, I had a little too much to drink and don't remember much about the car journey home lol.

I'm leaving you all with this photo of Danielle from Saturday. It was a scorcher and there she was running round the garden in her sundress and wellies - don't adjust your set, her face really IS bright red.

Dare #56

2007-06-02T07:20:00.000Z

This week's challenge was to use felt. And it was most definitely a challenge! This is what I finally came up with on my third attempt lol. The background pp is Hambly Studios as is the rub on circle. Chipboard corner is Fancy Pants (I sprinkled the hearts in amongst the flowers). Everything else is the gorgeous KI Memories felt stickers (blooms and alphas).

I have a little grumble about those, as the stickers don't really stick. I have visions of looking at this page in my album in a month's time and finding the stickers in a pile at the bottom of the page protector.

I also want to point out that my scanner hated this page. The photo looks way too bright and washed out, and the bright colours are not right either. But, whichever I tried to correct, it made the other look worse.

As always lots of other yumminess on the blog.

In other news, something is terribly wrong with Casey. She's been begging and pleading with me to buy her some leggings and short skirts so she can thow out her football shirts and shorts. What's wrong?

A must see

2007-06-01T13:46:00.000Z

A new inspirational blog, with some of my fave people including the lovely Maria, who I've been hounding for days about her secret. I'll be checking back there regularly for lots of yummy inspiration. ;)

Check out the chunky thighs

2007-05-30T18:15:00.000Z

Maria posted a lovely 70's pic of herself on her blog, dressed in a divine mini dress and I promised I would share a pic of me and my chunky thighs. This is me, on holiday in May 1973 (aged about 18 mths). I wish I could say that I lost the chubby look but it'd be a big whopper of a lie lol. Don't laugh too hard!!

Still a bit miffed about the school uniform, but will just have to suffer. It might not sound a great deal of money but it's cash that I'd rather be spending on something else. Casey also needs to wear proper shoes (she's a trainers girl); she's found a pair she likes online - prices range from £38 to £43 depending on the size she'd need. Hmmmmmm, I think not lol.

A little Monday moan

2007-05-28T06:42:00.000Z

It was actually a little moan that started on Friday, but I'm still a teeny bit peeved. We got a letter from the secondary school Casey will be attending in September. They have an open day in about 3 weeks, so that we can buy uniform but the prices left my jaw on the floor. A PE top is about £8 (for the smallest size), they need 2 aprons, lots of various sports gear; the majority of which NEEDS to have the school crest on (and so can only be bought from the school shop). Don't get me wrong, I fully support the need to wear school uniform but I don't like the way that the school seem to have written their uniform policy so that they can make a ton of money out of us as well. For example, for the price of that one PE top, I could buy a pack of 3 plain white polo shirts. What difference does it really make if the top has the school emblem on, really? And that's just for starters. Still, what can I do? We'll just have to do a bank job on the way to the school.

Sneaky peek

2007-05-26T09:04:00.000Z

My class for the Design Collective went live at midnight; hopefully, people like it. I tried to write it so that everybody could take at least something from it, even if they didn't want to follow the whole class. I'm going to share a little snippet from just one of the LO's I did for it.

The kids are due back from my Mum's at around 11.30, so I need to get my backside off the chair and get to the Post Office. I've been saying I'll post something for 3 days in a row now and I never end up getting there, lol, but today's the day.

Have a good Bank Holiday weekend!!

Dare #55

2007-05-25T20:55:00.000Z

Just a quick post to share my LO for this week's dare on the CY blog. This week's theme was multi photo LO's. I tend to do a lot of single photo pages, but am forcing myself to try and use more photos on the page, so I loved this one. Pics are of Charlie earlier in the week, and a couple of them I shared on here a couple of days ago.

The papers are SR Metropolis - I distressed the right hand edge of both strips with an MM edge scraper.

Title ~ AC felt thickers and Doodlebug rub ons;
Photo corners, credit card slide (off limits) and chipboard stars ~ HS;
AL Journaling stamp;
Bazzill brads.

Not much else to add, apart from that we went to TGI Fridays this evening and had a huge meal (for the bargain price of £10.99 each) and, without a word of a lie, I swear I rolled out of the restaurant, I was that stuffed. I'm off to bed soon to sleep it off *nudge nudge wink wink*

11 years.............

2007-05-25T07:22:00.001Z

.....and, as John so kindly pointed out yesterday "You'd get less for murder". He was joking............I think. Yes, 11 years ago today, we got married. With Casey as bridesmaid, at the ripe old age of exactly 6 months old. Sadly (haha), I have no photos of the event on my hard drive to share with you right now.

The kids are sleeping round my Mum's tonight, so we get to have an evening of peace - our first since my birthday (just before Christmas). Can't wait!!

I'll leave you with this photo. I've been stalking Charlie for days, trying to catch a snap of him hitching his shorts up (inspired completely by the photo Gertie took of Lana and her knicker problem). He does it constantly when the camera's not on, and it looks hilarious, but it took me about an hour of waiting to grab this one and even that doesn't really show what he was doing. I WILL get it on camera one day if it kills me.

Oooh, I forgot to say that we have a challenge over on the Design Collective blog for the bank holiday weekend. Go, have a look. :)

No more taking photos, Mummy!

2007-05-24T05:54:00.000Z

Sometimes, my poor kids get annoyed with having a camera constantly thrust under their noses lol. Look at the moody face on this boy on Tuesday.

Coalhouse Fort

2007-05-21T05:49:00.000Z

Yesterday afternoon, we took a ride over to Coalhouse Fort. It only opens certain days a year, for special events but the kids enjoy the walk around the grounds outside, playing in the park and, of course, the ice cream from the van in the car park.

We found a pine tree and the kids had to pick up every single pine cone they could find on the floor and stuff them all in the pushchair. We 'lost' them all before we got back to the car though.

I got no photos of the fort itself because there's very little to see from outside but they have a couple of open days next weekend, so I think a return visit to see the inside might be in order.

What year do you belong in?

2007-05-19T06:58:00.000Z

3 posts from me in less than 12 hours - that's got to be a record, lol.I just saw this over on Eleni's blog and had to do it. I love silly quizzes. According to this, I'm stuck in 1993 and I think it's probably uncannily true. That was the year I met John and so a lot of the music/memories from that time are still very prominent in my mind. The picture looks a lot like me too.....I wished!

You Belong in 1993

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

If you're bored, give it a go and don't forget to tell me your results. :)

Photos

2007-05-19T06:32:00.000Z

The weather was against me for Module One of Cheryl's photo workshop, but I managed a couple of pics that fitted the brief. The first was taken from Charlie's bedroom window and is the chimney of the house opposite. I'd liked to have zoomed in a bit closer, but the camera had zoomed as far as it could on optical zoom, and digital zoom is pants. I couldn't hang around for long because I didn't want the neighbours over the road to see me lol.

Our house backs on to farmer's fields, and we have more fields to the right of the house, at the end of the road. I wanted to take the pic from our back bedroom window, because there's a great view of pylons going all the way across the field and on and on into the distance. But the sun was never in the right place when I was awake lol. So, I settled for this shot, taken at around 8pm last Sunday night and it meant me walking along the path at the edge of the farmer's field. It doesn't sound like much of a hardship, I know, but the path was really muddy thanks to all the rain we'd had and I was wearing Crocs. I can still feel the mud squidging between my toes. Ack!

Not the greatest of photos, but I'm learning and I'm aready starting to think more about my photos before I take them.

#54

2007-05-19T05:58:00.001Z

The lavish use of..................... a circle punch! Using lots of scraps from some of my fave papers, past and present. The list includes:

K&Co Amy Butler Belle
Scenic Route Laurel
Provocraft Christina Cole
Fancy Pants Chi Chi
AL French Twist

Here is a little sneaky peek. Full pic is on the Collectively Yours blog along with all the other wonderfully inspiring interpretations. :)

The words are a quote I came across ages ago on 2Peas. I thought they fitted Casey's personality perfectly - she's not a conventional girly girl; she's a tomboy and would much rather be kicking a football with the boys than talking make up with the girls. We've always supported her in that, and the quote is to remind her that she doesn't need to conform to other people's expectations, and she should just do her own thing.

Have a good weekend!

ETA: I'm not sure what happened (and I doubt anybody even noticed lol) but for some reason there was no way to leave comments on this post last night so I've had to repost.

Dare #53

2007-05-12T21:12:00.000Z

This week's theme was transparent, which coincidentally is very similar to the 2Peas challenge for this week, which is to Go Clear. Great minds think alike, eh...... I decided to go the whole hog and my whole page is clear. The papers and photos are sandwiched inside a laminated sheet, with the title & chipboard corners added on top. I've added 3 photos, none of which look totally like the real thing lol. It was so hard to photograph but if you imagine that it really looks something like a cross between these 3 pics, you'll be somewhere close. The papers are from the new yummy K&Co Amy Butler Belle pad.

Don't forget to check the rest on the Collectively Yours blog. I am in awe of these ladies every single week.

Toot for me!!

2007-05-11T18:17:00.000Z

I was absolutely delighted to be asked by Bev from Banana Frog to have a play with some of their yummy clear stamps, and you can see what I came up with on the Banana Frog blog. My most fave is the last LO, with the white background and brightly coloured stars. It was one of those ideas that trned out even better on paper than I imagined in my head. And that doesn't happen often lol.

The first module of Cheryl's photography workshop is up and my brain's ticking. Today, I was playing with my mum's new camera - only a cheap little point and shoot digi but it has a few auto settings (night time, portrait, fireworks etc). Well, one of them was self portrait, so I thought "what the heck", selected the setting and snapped a pic of myself. Wouldn't you know it? That one pic was better than the 200 shots I took of myself last week for the workshop lol. I shall have to borrow my mum's camera and steal the pic from her.

New Toy

2007-05-09T07:06:00.000Z

I've been playing with some yummy new papers from K&Co; I never thought I'd actually be buying any of their stuff but the new Amy Butler ranges (based on her gorgeous fabric lines) are to die for.

The photos were taken on Saturday while I was trying to get some practice in for a photography workshop I've enrolled in, run by the talented Cheryl Johnson of Feel Good Photos. As you can see, I've got a way to go lol but hopefully there'll be an improvement by the end of the course. If nothing else, I actually took some photos OFF auto (yes you read that right!) yesterday.

Preschool is shut all this week, due to more mindless vandalism, so I have the unenviable task of keeping 2 bored children entertained, when they'd much rather be playing with their preschool friends. Wish me luck!

Dare #52

2007-05-06T06:07:00.000Z

The Speshal Dares are on their 52nd week and, to celebrate its first birthday, it's had a revamp. More details and all this week's fabulous work here. You can see my layout on the blog; all the yummy goodies on the page are AL French Twist, mostly from Craft Obsessions. Do check out the blog because we've got some giveaways for you, just for leaving a comment. :)

I've been tagged

2007-05-06T05:46:00.000Z

About a hundred years ago now by the lovely Tracey. I've finally got round to doing it; I just hope she doesn't drop dead with shock when I tell her that I've finally answered lol.

Ok, so I need to list 7 random facts/habits about myself. I'll try to avoid the really weird ones because I did those in a different tag a while ago and I sounded very scary.

Random fact 1. My first car was a peach coloured VW Beetle. It was made sometime in 1971, which was the same year that I was born.

Random fact 2. I once lived next door to Melvyn Hayes (yes, very random I know!)

Random fact 3. I was born at home and lived there for the first 23 years of my life.

Random fact 4. Since leaving my first home (12 years ago), I've moved house 5 times in the space of 8 years.

Random fact 5. I once won a competition run by Walkers Crisps, which was to design a mythical monster. This was around the time of the release of the film Clash of the Titans (you know - that film with the film with the awesome special effects). I won a model Pegasus and Perseus; my brother hated me because he also entered and didn't win lol.

Random fact 6. I was once stuck on an underground train for about 4 hours (I've never been so bored or sweaty in my entire life) and we ended up having to walk down the tracks to the previous station.

Random fact 7. I've been struggling for 10 minutes now trying to think of a 7th fact so I'll leave it there lol.

I'm not sure who's already been tagged; probably most of the people I would have tagged have already been done by Tracey. So, I'll tag Maria, Gertie & Eleni and anybody else who's bored enough to have read this far)

Dare #51

2007-04-28T07:43:00.000Z

This week's theme is to compare ~ pick anything you like. :) I chose to compare Danielle's cheesy smiles. Papers are by Christina Cole and I used some of the yummy new MR velvet flowers.

As always, lots more weird and wonderful comparisons over on the blog.

Have a great weekend, whatever you're up to. We're putting the finishing touches to Casey and Danielle's new tidy bedroom (coat hooks & new storage), and then it's time to tackle Charlie's room. Eeeek!

Oh, Gertie, my minibook is currently stuck on the shelf next to my DW 2007 calendar. I'll stick it in the cupboard with others in a couple of week's time lol. ;)

Minibook on the cheap

2007-04-25T08:44:00.000Z

I picked up a packet of little kraft coloured index cards from Stationery Box in their closing down sale for about a pound (you can see the original colour on the left hand side of the cover). I used 5 of them to make a minibook and still have enough left over to make 4 similar books. Bargain! And at the rate I make minibooks, they'll be finished by about 2010. I went for a very simple approach; as much as I love clutter and layering, it's not really my thing.

The quotes on each page are from the Robert Palmer song "She Makes My Day"; I always struggle with meaningful quotes, so song lyrics are usually a good cheat. Lots of various goodies on the pages - MM Kraft papers & tiny type alphas, HS, AC, Prima, Queen & Co, Upsy Daisy stamps, Provocraft rolling stamp, GinX and MM rub ons, 7 Gypsies oval stamp & fabric hole reinforcers AND loads more but I'm getting bored now lol and you must all be asleep.

Well, that's about it for now but, before I go, I want to link to a new inspiration blog all about scrapping pets, and you can see it here. I take lots of pics of Max but never seem to get round to scrapping many of them, so I'm going to play along as often as I can.

We all need some bunny to love...

2007-04-24T10:19:00.000Z

.... that includes you! You all have to go and check out some gorgeous little bunnies on Andrea's blog that are all in need of a good home. Not only is she a talented scrapper, but she's a whizz with a sewing machine too. I want to win the lottery and buy a trillion of them.

Dare #50

2007-04-21T12:53:00.000Z

This week, we used some of our favourite quotes, sayings or proverbs. Mine is "The best things in life are free", because it's absolutely true. As always, check out the blog to see what everybody else has been up to.

This is a photo I took last week; I blogged about it at the time because I accidentally chopped half of Danielle's body out of the photo, but though it looked quite arty. I used quite a bit of old stash on this one, mixed in with some new.

Papers ~ Scenic Route Laurel (one day I will do a LO without using any SR.........or maybe I won't)

Chipboard strip, photo corners & circle ~ Scenic Route Laurel

Doodlebug acrylic letters

Pressed Petals Chip Chatter letters

AC Felt thickers

Dymo tape

Heidi Swapp fuzzy rub ons (flowers and word)

Heidi Swapp bloom

Hambly journaling bit rub on

I'm also sharing another couple of pages I finished off last night (I went a bit wild with the lime green/pale pink combo in both but I like it). The first is the wallaby from Tropical Wings last week. The title comes from a book that Casey used to love, and the idea for the index tabs is from DW 2007 a few days ago.

Mainly old KI Memories stuff on here, with a huuuuge HS photo corner and a Bazzill blossom (now I only have about 20 odd of those blossoms to try and use up lol).

The second one is a series of pics of Danielle from a couple of days ago; she can never look 'normal' for photos lol. The background and little strips of pp are Scenic Route Brighton (I have a little passion lately for patterned papers backgrounds - not good news for my pile of cardstock because it ain't getting any smaller!). The circle rub on is by BG; I've been saving it for ages for just the right page and thought it was about time I used it, smaller circle is an epoxy sticker by Christina Cole (it says "I am what I am"). Title is a mix of MM rubons and Banana Frog stamps. Flowers in the corner are rub ons by HS - they're absolutely pants and never rub on cleanly but it gives quite a cool effect here and they look distressed. Believe me, last night they were distressing me!!

In the real world, Casey has been tidying her room since about 8.30 this morning. It was an absolute tip and she's a hoarder. We now have one (almost) tidy room and about 10 bags of utter rubbish. Oh, and one bag for the charity shop. We've promised her that she can have her room decorated if she tidies up, and keeps it that way; I've got to say that I'm really proud of the way she's knuckled down today and got on with it. I wouldn't have done it lol. Now we just have to wait and see how long it takes to get messy again.

It's been a while..............

2007-04-19T19:01:00.000Z

.............as Cindy Campbell (Anna Faris) said in Scary Movie. Funny how little phrases remind you of certain films isn't it?

It's been another week that's just flown by. We went to Tropical Wings on Sunday. We went about the same time last year and the kids absolutely loved it; and even more so this year. There have been a few improvments since last year - some of the animals have new homes. The kids' fave (and mine!) was the wallaby enclosure; you can walk right into it and get to feed/stroke the wallabies. There were several babies and I got a great pic of one that was a little too big to squeeze into his mummy's pouch but he wasn't going to let that hold him back.

It's been a funny old week. Danielle and Charlie couldn't go to preschool on Monday because the premises had been vandalised over the holidays, so that's thrown my body clock out. I have no idea what day it is today lol. I've managed to bag Charlie an extra preschool session too, so he now goes 3 sessions a week and that's just confused the days in my head even more.

Danielle surprised me this afternoon by actually agreeing to pose for some pics in the garden. All was going really well and I got a few good shots. I'm sharing this one though because, even though it's not as good as some of the others, this is typical Danielle - the clown!!

Dare #49

2007-04-13T18:36:00.000Z

I ducked out last week because my mojo had deserted me, and I nearly didn't make this week either because I'd totally lost track of time after the Easter weekend and thought that today was Thursday lol. But I made it, just in the nick of time.

This week, we had a prompt "It makes it home". I chose this page all about Danielle's new pet turtle, Blossom (it looks very much like a stone, but it's really a turtle because Danielle said so!). Blossom came from the beach originally and stunk like smelly seaweed, so she's had a few bubble baths. Now she's smelling all beautiful, Danielle decided that she deserves a life of luxury in a new cardboard house, with huge garden (including a heated swimming pool). This was made with a lot of help from Casey, and some 'help' from Charlie too.

I have a little confession to make - the stone in the photo is not the real Blossom - it's a stunt double. I only decided this morning that this would be my subject, and Danielle had taken Blossom with her to my mum's house. Aaaaargh. Of course I panicked, and then used my noodle and decided that I could use a lookalike, & replace it with a photo of the real deal at a later date. So, that's what I've done. :)

The title is a play on words "A home of her stone (own)". The cardstock background is a sheet of Pizzazill; I thought it was about time I used some lol. The title is a mix of Doodlebug teeny tags, Junkitz alpha stickers, Doodlebug alpha stickers & MM Shimmer alphas. Graph paper and chipboard photo corner are by Scenic Route. The plastic stars are by American Crafts and the border strips are Doodlebug paper frills. Check out the blog here; it's crammed full of yummy inspiration.

The second mailing of Design Collective classes has been very popular, and it's great to see everybody's takes on them. It's always amazing how everybody starts off with the same layout, and yet everybody manages to put their own stamp on it. I had a go at Kirsty's class from last week - this is a follow on from a page I scrapped last summer called "My daughter, the horse". Danielle would run up and down the garden, pretending to be a horse called Clippery. And, this year, she's still doing it lol! This is the LO from Kirsty's class:

And, this is the page I did last year:

Welcome to the world Noemie

2007-04-12T19:05:00.000Z

Marja and Kirk's little girl made her appearance yesterday morning ~ Noemie Catherine. I'm so pleased for them both and still remember the excitement that a new born baby brings. You spend 9 months, imagining what he or she is going to look like, what being a parent will be like and nothing can prepare you for it when the time finally arrives. It's the biggest buzz. I'm feeling all broody. Yikes! Gotta snap out of it lol.

It's been another sunny day, so yet more time spent out in the garden. This first pic was taken a couple of days ago - Danielle is such a poser! I must remember to compose my photos; that digger in the background is an eyesore lol. Oh, and I didn't notice till I went to edit all the photos, but she'd tucked the front of her dress into her trousers lol. That's why I'm sharing a side view and not the front.

This next one was taken today. Danielle's hair needs cutting badly, and it looks even worse when she has her sunhat on, because it pushes her fringe even further into her eyes. I haven't cropped this at all - this was how I took it. It wasn't supposed to be missing half her body but I think it looks kind of arty pmsl. I ran Peta's colour pop action in Photoshop too and it doesn't look half bad for somebody that can't take photos.

I'll leave you with this one of Charlie - he was goofing around and pulled his hat down right over his eyes, so then he had to tilt his head right back to see where he was going lol. I'm not quite sure why, but his mouth had to be wide open too - adds to the gormless look I guess haha. I cropped this one slightly (that darn digger was trying to muscle in on the action again) and used the colour pop action. I'm gutted that you can't really see his eyes because I think I even managed catchlights.

Anxiously waiting

2007-04-11T07:06:00.000Z

Today's the day that Marja will be finally meeting her little bubba. We're team mates on UKS and I've been hearing all about her pregnancy on our team thread, and on her blog so it almost feels as though I've been pregnant with her (but without the heartburn and swollen ankles lol). I can't wait to finally see pics and find out Juju's real name.

We've had a few days of glorious sunshine, so we've spent a lot of time in the garden. It wears the little ones out a treat, and they seem to argue a lot less outside for some reason (which is just as well for the neighbours' sake lol). I'll share some pics later on - they're on my lappy and I'm typing this on the pc.

The Design Collective is now on its' second mailing (and I'm in it, yikes!). I'm going to share just a little peek for those who haven't subscribed. :D

Windswept

2007-04-07T08:01:00.000Z

Just sharing something I put together last night; this was a pretty quick page (by my standards anyway lol). All papers are the new Scenic Route Laurel - I can see me needing more of these because I've used loads already. They're double-sided, which is great in one way, but it also means that you always end up using a sheet, then wishing you had't because you love the pattern on the other side too much lol. I cut the circles out, then distressed the edges with my MM edge scraper, which I haven't used in absolutely ages! I used AC Felt Thickers for my title. The photo corner is one of those new Heidi Swapp XL ones - they're absolutely ginormous; I didn't know just how big they were going to be. Lots of brads round the edges of one of the circles, just because I have thousands of brads and I felt like using some up.

Danielle's jabs went pretty well. The nurse is very good - she did Casey's jabs 6 or so years ago now - very fast and doesn't really give the little 'un time to think about what she's doing. Takes 'em by surprise! I was dreading it because we got into her room and she told me that they now have to do 2 jabs (Casey only had one) and I was thinking there was NO WAY Danielle would let her stick a needle in twice lol. But she did, and she didn't even flinch. Danielle was more freaked out by the little bit of blood afterwards; she hates blood and usually screams like a banshee at the smallest cut. But, she consoled herself with the big pile of stickers the nurse gave her then went skipping off to the sweet shop to spend her pound; she wouldn't wear her jacket though in case she got blood on it lol. Then, all afternoon, she was milking it - she had to have her lunch first because she'd had an injection; she had to watch her programmes on tv because she'd had an injection; she had to choose dinner because she'd had an injection...... By the evening, one of her arms was a bit sore, but it was fine by morning. All in all, not half as bad as I was expecting!

Gong feet

2007-04-03T07:03:00.000Z

A very simple page I did over the weekend of Charlie in his sister's boots. Why do kids always manage to get them on the wrong feet? They've got a 50/50 chance of getting it right but it doesn't ever happen, lol. Paper is MM Kraft, rub on by Hambly, stars by American Crafts, as are the Felt Thickers.

I bought some of the AC black felt letters a few weeks back and, when I pull them off the backing sheet, the felt gets pulled out of shape and my letters end up stretched. A couple of weeks back, I got some white and blue felt letters and they're much more sturdy and hold their shape. Is it to do with the colours or are they a new and improved version I wonder? I haven't been able to sleep all week for wondering. ;)

All the lovely subscribers to the Design Collective will have woken up this morning to their first ever classes from us. Yes, at last, the classes are now live. And only 8 days before another set of classes hit the inboxes. :D

Danielle has her booster injections this morning, and John has given her a pound to spend at the sweet shop after the event. Wish me luck!

Waste not, want not

2007-04-01T11:53:00.000Z

I was sorting out some of my stash the other day, taking lots of stuff out of its packaging to save on space, and I was left with lots of leftover blister packaging. I used two matching packets to make some mini hanging photo frames. I thought I had a third somewhere, but do you think I could find it? Nope, but never fear because as I mentioned the other day I will have a 3rd to match very very soon. :)

Most of the bits and bobs on Charlie's frame were in my RibbonMad DT goodie bag for March:

Cactus Pink papers and ribbons. I then added some rubons and a plastic star.

To make Danielle's photo frame, I used Scenic Route Laurel paper scraps (my faves!). Ribbon and buttons were part of my RibbonMad DT dolly bag.

The pictures are not that great because no matter where I tried to take them, the plastic keeps reflecting. They're much cuter irl.

There are now only 2 days until the first Design Collective class. Parts of the forum are now for subscribers' eyes only, in preparation for the class discussions on Tuesday. Exciting!!

Have a good rest of the weekend, whatever you're up to.

Makeover

2007-03-31T06:35:00.000Z

This week's Speshal Dare is up and the prompt is "Makeover". I bought a set of A5 notebooks from Tesco a little while ago, that came with their own magazine file. I'd planned to leave them as they were because the colours were pretty funky anyway, but when I saw the prompt for this week, I decided that the little notebooks would be the subject of my makeover, and they are now a place for me to write down all my scrapping ideas ~ quotes, sketches, titles etc. 4 books might be a bit excessive mind you; I can't see me filling them all up EVER lol! I used Junkitz Salsa pp to cover the magazine file; Junkitz Salsa rub ons on the books, including flowers going across all 4 spines; Fancy Pants chipboard, painted with twinkling H2O's; BG rub ons; Primas and gems.

Check out the blog to see what everybody else got up to. :)

I spent yesterday afternoon playing around with some empty blister packaging from some of my old Doodlebug stuff. I'm turning them into hanging photo frames, with piccies of the kids in. Only I got started and realised I was one packet short; I know I definitely had 3 at some point but one's gone walkabouts (in the bin no doubt lol). Anyway, I went begging and the lovely Dawn is sending me one, so I can finish off my trio. I'll put pics up of the two I've done so far once the light is better. It was so gloomy yesterday that I couldn't get any decent pics. :(

Danielle's eyes are now much better btw, but she has a cold instead. I swear I should buy shares in Kleenex and Calpol.

Long time, no blog

2007-03-29T19:24:00.000Z

Where did the last week go? Can I have it back please? I've been working on my DC classes, my Speshal Dare for tomorrow and also making easter hats for Charlie and Danielle. Oh, and I've been doing aerobics too (don't laugh, especially you Maria!). I'm so unfit it's untrue. After the first time, I ached so much that I couldn't even sit down properly for two days afterwards lol. But I'm sticking with it because we're going on holiday in June and I don't want Greenpeace trying to get me back into the water when I'm sprawled out on the beach.

Danielle's a bit under the weather; she's got conjunctivitis and is sitting beside me right now trying to rub her eye right out of its socket. Try explaining to a 4 year old (who knows it all) that rubbing it will make it worse.

Tomorrow is the last day of term and then the kiddy winks will be at home for 2 whole weeks. It'll be nice not to have to get up early every morning, and I'm hoping for some nice-ish weather so we're not stuck indoors. I would check the weather forecast and see, but they're always wrong anyway lol.

The Design Collective classes are finally about to start, next Tuesday! It's finally here, we're all so excited and itching to get things rolling; the interest so far has been amazing. I can't wait to see what people think once they get their first class. So, that's something good to look forward to next Tuesday. Something not so good is that Danielle's got an appt for her pre-school booster injections that morning. She heard somebody at preschool mention the injections (her daughter was born a day after Danielle and has her appt 5 mins after us) and she says she doesn't know what injections are but she doesn't want one. I'm dreading it. I always feel so wicked and I always come out with a lump in my thoat and a tear in my eye, daft cow that I am.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz, are you still awake?

Another week, another dare....

2007-03-23T23:58:00.000Z

Friday's seem to come round so quickly these days. :) I spent the whole of this week completely stumped by this week's Speshal Dare theme. Yesterday, it finally all fell into place and I knew exactly what I was going to scrap, took the photos straight away and scrapped the page. Easy peasy. This week's theme is "The contents of......". Interpret that whichever way you choose, however weird and wonderful.

This is a page dedicated to Danielle's Dora the Explorer backpack. It's unbelievable what the little minx can fit in this bag - she's a modern day Mary Poppinz. I had to take the photos while she was out, because she would have had a fit if she'd seen me tipping her toot, oops I mean prized possessionz out all over the floor.

Lots of KI Memories tags for the background (I've had these babies for ages and never used them so thought I'd get rid of them all on one go)

Doodlebug paper frills

Scrapworks hugz

Bazzill blossom

MM Shimmer & Tiny Type alphas

Dymo tape

Papermania photo turns

Hambly journaling spot rub on

And, I know I say it every week, but you really have to check out what the other ladies have been up to this week - the diversity of talent never ceases to amaze me.

Have a good weekend.

Easter goodies

2007-03-22T19:37:00.000Z

I got a huuuge DT parcel from Carole at Ribbonmad this week and some of the contents were perfecto for a couple of little Easter projects I'd been planning.

The first is this little metal bucket full of Easter eggs. It started life as a metal planter (one of a set of 3 from a pound shop). I covered the pot with some of the lush Cactus Pink papers - they're double sided so I only used a single sheet - and I made a frill from another sheet of the patterned paper. I added some matching Cactus Pink ribbon to the centre of the frill and around the bottom of the pot to hide the edges of my papers.

The buttons and the flower brad were in my Ribbonmad dolly bag. The tag is a BG chipboard, painted pink, then covered in glitter glaze.

The second project was a little Easter basket (this is almost as old as Casey, and was from a poundshop) which I prettied up by tying lots of ribbons to the handle. Here I've used just a fraction of the ribbons in a lovely pink dolly bag.

Today has been super-productive because I also managed to get this week's speshal dare done. I'd been struggling with the theme and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. Phew!!

13

2007-03-19T18:36:00.000Z

This morning I set a challenge on the DC forum to use 13 elements on a page and as I never set challenges without playing along, here is my page. My 13 elements are:

1. Cardstock

2. Photos

3. Patterned paper (Scenic Route Cape Town)

4. Photo corner (Heidi Swapp)

5. Photo turn (7 Gypsies)

6. Tab (Heidi Swapp)

7. Title (Heidi Swapp rub ons)

8. Journaling

9. Ink

10. Chipboard stars (Heidi Swapp)

11. Brads

12. Ribbon (American Crafts)

13. Faux stitching (goes all the way round the edge in real life but my scanner doesn't want anybody to see it!!)

30 minutes

2007-03-18T13:59:00.000Z

That's how long AJ gave us to scrap a page on the DC forum. And here is my attempt; it only took me 30 mins too (oh and another 30 on top lol), but 60 mins is still really quick for me. The colours are a bit weird on here - it's a little brighter irl. I wanted to use the patterned paper (Scenic Route Laurel) as my background but it was very loud, so I toned it down by adding an oversized photo mat of orange Bazzill. The title is a chipboard embellie by Scenic Route too, as is the circle; I cut a slice out of the circle so that it would sit level with the title. ;) Eyelet brads are by Pebbles. I've had these for yonks, and have hardly used them but now I loves them and need more.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there. :) I got some perfume from the kids and haven't lifted a finger all day haha. I love it. Just to clarify because that reads a bit weird. The fact I've done nothing all day isn't related to the perfume I got - it didn't render me paralysed at first sniff or anything.

The ice cream van stopped outside a little while ago, so we've all had 99's. We've got to be flaming bonkers because it's absolutely freezing today and we have the heating on. But, it had to be done because I love ice cream from the van.

I've also been messing around with something in Photoshop, and am going to have my first crack at hybrid scrapping. It's very basic and I don't think I'll ever be a CS2 whizz, but at least I can say I've tried. I just won't mention how long it took me to suss out how to get the patterned paper across into my blank canvas. Let's just say it was more than 20 mins. Aaaaaargggghhh!!

Speshal Dare #45

2007-03-16T20:06:00.000Z

An interview with......

Charlie - as the journaling states, Charlie's answer to everything right now is Boohbahs. Aaaaaaargh!

Both the lined paper and green spotty paper are by Scenic Route. All the chipboard (numbers, stars and scalloped border) are by Fancy Pants. I painted them black and then covered in MM pearl glaze; they look like metal, which is not the effect I was hoping for lol but it looks quite cool. A happy accident. :) I added some doodling with my white pen, and filled the holes in the scalloped border with white brads. The title is made from American Craft felt thickers.

Be sure to check the speshals blog to have a lookie at all the other girlies work.

Mother's Day card

2007-03-15T14:26:00.000Z

Thanks to a pre-class challenge set by Debbie over on the Design Collective forum my mum will be getting a handmade Mother's Day card this weekend. I used my yummy Scenic Route Laurel papers and chipboard circle, a couple of HS blossoms, bit of stitching, the obligatory scalloping, HS alphas covered in glitter glaze for a bit of sparkle. And voila - one pants card! Just kidding; I think it turned out ok. My mum will love it anyway, she has no taste whatsoever. And, luckily for me, she doesn't read my blog or else I'd be getting a clip round the earhole.

Concentrate

2007-03-13T15:49:00.000Z

Charlie always, always sticks his tongue out when he concentrates. We were in the garden yesterday because it was another beautiful day (almost paddling pool weather here in Essex) and almost every photo I took of Charlie starred his tongue. So, of course the photos were begging to be scrapped and he is so going to thank me when he's older lol. I ditched my favourite white backgrounds in favour of this Doodlebug bright blue. I got a couple of sheets as part of a kit when I first started out, and forgot I had them - the colour is so not me and I never in my life expected to be actually using it. Turns out it was a perfect match for Charlie's top, so it had to be done. Btw, it doesn't say STIG on Charlie's top, which is what John thought, although after a hard day's play Charlie usually does look like Stig of the Dump! The 'I' isn't an 'I' but a bit of twill on the zipper. It actually says St G (as in St George by Duffer - love their stuff for boys, so funky in a world of boring boys clothes). Anyway, I digress.

The paper is Scenic Route Cape Town, and I added some chipboard pieces, painted black then doodled with a white pen. While I had the black paint out, I drybrushed round the edges of my papers, card & photos. The title is made from felt (yummy) - the AC felt thickers - does anybody else find them a pain to get off the backing sheet without losing the glue? The words (explore, play etc) are HS index tab inserts and I pinched the idea from yesterday's DW 2007 entry. Some staples, a Hambly journaling rub on and a few eyelet brads & job's done!

We've had a fantastic response to the DC launch and have some fun things planned to get you warmed up for the classes. If you registered and haven't got an email for any reason - go check the blog for details of what to do.