Flower Pot Men!

I have just finished another layout with some gorgeous October Afternoon papers. This is one I have been wanting to do for ages now, it turned out nothing like I originally imagined it but I like it anyway. It is another double of course because I have serious problems deciding what photos to use for a layout as I love them all! The fact that I take so many doesn't help of course, there were 48 photos for this one little play session (though not my fault this time!) and I probably had 20 of them printed and then had to narrow that down as to which ones to scrap. Not an easy task for me!




I saw this layered flower in the Creating Keepsakes a couple of months ago and really wanted to try them so had a play and added it to this layout. I couldn't resist and did sneak a little bit of glitter glue onto the butterflies ;)




I have wanted to learn how to crochet for years now and decided the other day that I was going to finally learn how to do it. I got some books out of the library and bought myself a hook and a couple of balls of wool and started playing. This is just little pieces I have been practising with....ahem, the blue and brown item is supposed to be a 5 petal 'flower' but I somehow ran out of space and it is now a 3 leaf clover! I think I have a problem seeing where each chain is so I miss a few! The top right item was supposed to have been a heart but that went very wrong and I gave up on it. Paul says maybe I am just not meant to crochet and I should find something else to try! I told him to stop being rude, I have only been doing it for 2 days so I am sure I will improve! Here's hoping anyway... So for now I am going to just persevere and do a few squares and learn all the stitches and how to read all the goggledygook abbreviations!

Yummy New Book!

Look what I just bought!


Besides one monthly magazine I don't often buy scrapbooking books as I think styles and tastes just change too quickly for it to be worth paying out the price of the books as some of them are so expensive. However I jumped at the chance of getting this one, not only because I just love Elizabeth Kartchner's work but also because of the fact that it is based on challenges so even if the current (or just mine!) styles change from any of the examples used in the book the challenges can still be used. Having said that I do find most of Elizabeth's designs quite timeless anyway and will probably still love them in 2 years time and the work of the other scrapbookers in the book looks really great so far too. I haven't looked through all of it yet as I am trying to savour it (does anyone else do that?) but it looks really good so far and I am looking forward to starting some of the challenges, I just need to finish the layout I am currently working on (and because it is me it takes ages...) and then I will start with the first challenge!

We are covered in snow again. I had to pull over on the bottom of our street to let a school bus go past and I then got stuck! The kids wanted me to just leave the car and we could walk home so they could have another snow day, because they have not just had a week of holiday! Anyway I eventually managed to move but then had to park miles away from the school once I got there because I wasn't even going to attempt those roads...

I am still here!

Unfortunately it has been a while since I posted again so I have another picture heavy post! I will start off with some scrapping. I seem to only be doing doubles at the moment, probably because I have so many that need to be done because I prefer doing single pages so tend to let the doubles build up...Anyway here are the latest two I have done and I am busy working on another and then I have promised myself I will do a single just for the sake of scrapping and enjoying it! ;) The first is Kierans first (and only so far) sports day in Reception! I do wish they did it as a regular thing here as I always loved sports days when I was a kid and he thoroughly enjoyed his, but alas they don't....


My April 2008 page, I am only almost 2 years behind ;)


Paul had his 43rd birthday the other day and is suddenly complaining that he is looking old and considering shaving all the gray hair off, but I told him he wasn't allowed!


The kiddiewinkles are dog obsessed so whenever we go to Michael and Leanne's house they almost spend more time playing with the puppy than their cousins! We went and spent the night there as they were actually reasonably free for a change as Michael has broken his foot playing football.

This is my new Twilight puzzle I got to replace the one with missing pieces. I now have 2 because they sent me the wrong replacement so Paul said I should just keep it and order another of the original one! He really is just the sweetest thing sometimes! So this is the finished replacement and it was so much easier than the other one but I am really looking forward to building the other one again now that it has all the pieces (we checked!).


Christopher has had a busy month with lots on. He won the award at Beavers and was pleased as punch.

They had a Circus skills workshop at school so they all had to go in dressed as a clown for the day and learnt things like juggling, plate spinning etc. His favourite was unicycle riding.



He went to his first school disco as well, they start them in reception but we always just thought he was a bit young. It was a dress up one so Christopher insisted on going as Dracula (albeit a kind of toothless one!) he also won a prize for his outfit. They have separate discos for the infants and juniors but Kieran didn't get to go to this one as he had a cricket match. As the school is so far away and I wasn't 'allowed' to stay I had to sit in the car with a DS and a blanket because it was freezing and too dark to read a book. The things we do for out kids....


Less photos of Kieran unfortunately as I wasn't at the cricket match and Paul doesn't like to take the camera with, but he is very pleased with himself as with moving up to the next age group he is now using the proper bats and corky balls so he got a new bat, shin pads, arm pads, gloves and all the other paraphernalia you need and a bag on wheels to keep it all in. He also moved up to the next colour cap for swimming and got his 50m badge. This is him riding his new bike that he got for Christmas, at least his knees don't almost touch his ears anymore :)


This is what I am currently reading and I am really enjoying it. It flows really nicely and is very easy reading. I seem to be very into these 'teen' reads at the moment, as I have also just ordered Hush, hush from Amazon and have Fallen on my birthday list, maybe I am trying to re-capture my teenage years ;)

Christmas pics

Ok here are some Christmas photos as promised, only a little late ;) The first one is Christmas eve of the kids in their new pyjamas they get every year on Christmas eve so they can look nice for Santa and Christmas morning photos!

This is the lounge before the kids can raid it with all the presents etc still intact. The games table was a joint present from Santa .


This is the kids letters to Santa, the reindeer's and the elves, complete with a joke from Christopher where you have to lift the flap to get the answer and a piece of paper for Santa to reply to them....and of course the usual cookies and milk. There was also a chair with an extra cushion on so Santa could be comfortable while he wrote back to them, if he had the time as per their piece of paper.

This is the kids when they got found the letter that Santa had written back to them. They immediately sat down on the couch and read it, they did not even go to their presents until they had read it, not even the big games table!


One of Kierans favourite presents from Santa.


This was another joint present from Santa that the kids both wanted and they have had lots of fun with it since Christmas, it is actually pretty amazing.


This was Christopher's favourite present from Santa which he desperately wanted and kept telling everyone about, he has built it and loves it, it gets carried around everywhere with him and the thing is huge!

Christopher's other favourite present, from us, GOLD gogos in a gold tin (Christopher loves gold anything, never mind gogos!) they were the second most wanted on his Christmas list.


Paul being forced to smile for a picture with all his presents and stocking.


No I did not add a picture of me, bloggers prerogative! This is however a picture of all my presents. I was totally spoiled again, loads of scrapbooking things including quite a few stamps and thickers sets, an ATG gun and tapes and a scalloped edge punch. A New Moon puzzle and calendar, my usual Christmas cd's which now seems to have grown to 2 every time loaded with all my latest favourite songs and some other bits and bobs. Christopher got me the kitty dairy and address book and made me the little snowflake snow globe at Beavers. Kieran got me the little Teddy car fresheners for my new car and then used the last of his Christmas fair money to buy me the little hand made gold tea light holder. :)

We are just swamped with snow again, it snowed on Sunday, a couple of times yesterday and when I woke up this morning it was snowing and continued to do so for the rest of the day without stopping once! The roof of the car is just from today and yesterday, we just cleared the back off to show how high it is! We went out with the kids earlier to play and build an igloo and the snow in the field out the back was up to my knees! Paul has worked from home the last two days as first the roads over the Pennines were closed and this morning he just could not even get out. Apparently it is supposed to continue and Thursday is going to be the worst. Oh well at least the kids are enjoying it!

Lots of pictures!

Well it really has been ages since I have blogged so I have loads of photos to put up! I will put up some Christmas photos later but there were just way to many photos for one post! Of course we have been having loads of snow, more than we have ever had before so here are a few pics of the snow and the kids sledding. We found a really good hill for them to sled down and Paul took them there everyday for a few days, they just loved it. This was the week before Christmas, although as I am sitting here typing this the snow is bucketing down outside and has been for the last few hours so the snow is just building up....






Even Paul and I had a few goes and I almost knocked my poor child flying! He suddenly ran down in front of me and then fell, I think I pulled a tummy muscle trying to avoid him and he winded himself quite badly so we had to go home after that! Parents on sleds.....
This is Paul's new car that he had to wait so long for and then the idiot driver crashed into it because of all the snow, on the very first day he owned it! We will wait to see what they do with it after they evaluate it on the 11th. It is one of the shiniest cars I have ever seen! Paul says it is because it has an extra clear lacquer over it.



And this is my most gorgeousist, cutest car ever! My first ever new car! See it is just gorgeous and because it is so small, it is only £35 road tax a year, cheaper insurance (although the mag wheels and spoiler up it a bit!) and less petrol. I also don't have to hassle with MOT's for a few years! Unfortunately I have only got to drive it once due to all the snow, we just don't want to risk taking it out, especially after what happened to Paul's car and that was at least on his work insurance this would be on ours. So I just have to go outside and say hello to it everyday ;).

These are my prizes from the cybercrop. Sarahs cards gave me a £20 voucher to spend in her shop and this is what I chose. I was going to order an album but as usual I just cant resist pretty paper! I had to get the MME stomp for Christopher's dinosaur obsession which I have wanted to scrap for ages. I just adore the Bella Blvd Honey I am home range so had to get those which I want to do a 'week in the life' type mini book and that stamp that goes with it is adorable! I also got some extra super stud to go with what is left of my mystery kit!

These are all the gorgeous flowers I got from Creative Treasures, I just love blooms, and I really love the embossed ones. My flowers were starting to get low so this one came at the perfect time!


Will try (but probably won't knowing me!) to put the Christmas pictures up later.

More scrapping goodies

This is a very picture heavy post! This is my pre-crop challenge and mystery kit which I was lucky enough to win prizes for both! First is my pre-crop challenge which was what home means to us. I had such fun doing this layout and I am going to put it in a 12x12 frame and put it up in my scraproom/dining room.


This was my mystery kit which was from Sarah's crafts. I just loved this kit and was so excited when I saw it as I think usually the papers tend to be very generic so that most people can work with them but these were so fun and perfect for me. I am so glad Sarah's cards was my teams supplier as I definitely think our kit was the best and I love her monthly kits too. So anyway I loved it so much I made loads and still have a bit over too!

This is for Christopher's door and he just loves it, it goes with his new bed!


Kieran winning his bounce-athon at school. He had the highest number of bounces in a minute so he won a prize which was a 'Little Robot' and he was very pleased with himself!

I made the mini book by just cutting it out of the pizza box and then covering in black card. I stitched the inner pages in like a book.

Will post some pics of the kids at Gulliver's for Halloween soon. Only 4 more sleeps til New moon!

Very busy

Oooops surprise, surprise it has been a while again! Well things have been busy recently but had a wonderful weekend cybercropping! Of course I am so slow that even though I spent most of the weekend just scrapping I did only complete 4 things! This one was a challenge to use sewing on a layout.


This one was a gorgeous class by Tracie Oakes which I just adore, I just have to still think of a title I want and then put the title block in. It is a dreadful photo because we have had such miserable weather and this was at about 4:45pm.

This was a fab class by Rachel Millington which I really enjoyed doing except for the fact that my sewing machine decided to break in the middle of it and Paul could not fix it so I had to leave off all sorts of stitching and I love sewing on my layouts, I think I will have to go and get a new machine quickly!

And this yummy class was by Di Oliver and I had a ball doing this one. It was a very time consuming class because you make the box frame from scratch and then have to paint it etc but it was well worth the effort. I was literally covered in glue and paint but I have the lovely finished item to hang up in my home this Christmas so I am very pleased!

I still have my precrop challenge and mystery kit which I will upload tomorrow but this is one I finished a little while ago and is my month in review layout for erm March 2008! I am only a little bit behind ;)

Oh Jessica Sprague has a free class starting here today I think. I do love her work.

Only 5 more sleeps till I get to go and see New Moon with Leanne! (it is more exciting than Christmas!)