I love to scrap and I love to stitch. I also love reading, eating and the odd glass of red wine! I only wish I had more time to do all the things I love. Most of my time is taken up looking after a couple of other things I love and they are my two gorgeous children Ben and Charlotte. They ARE gorgeous, I am not biased, I have been blessed with beautiful children which is a good thing because I have such wonderful subjects for my scrapbooking addiction.
I am married to Mark and we will celebrate our fifteenth wedding anniversary in July - we are just as happy now as when we first met. He would rather I didn't spend any money on scrapbooking or cross stitch stash but if I didn't do that I would be perfect and surely that would be really boring!
Anyway, this blog is a sort of diary / gallery and I enjoy updating my blog for myself and my family but any visitors are welcome :o)
I am really enjoying Cheryl Johnsons photograph course and we are only on week one. It has made me play with my camera and get it to do things that I would probably never had the time to read the manual for unless prompted like this - it is fab. I have been playing this week and these are a few of the photographs that I am happy with.
I made Chicken Ceasar Salad for tea last night which Mark and I love but I have never actually given the children just salad for their tea before (usually they have cucumber and tomato etc with lunch). Charlotte loved it as salad is some of her favourite food, as is chicken but Ben, well his face was such a picture that I had to grab the camera which was on the side and take a couple of photographs. Can you see the attitude in his face? He was NOT impressed and he had a complete strop about it. We stood our ground and said it was that or nothing for tea so he begrudgingly started to eat. Ten minutes later he was munching away dipping his salad in Marks ceasar dressing (which he wouldn't even taste to begin with) and asking me if he could have it every day as he liked it so much. The moral of this story? Persistence pays off lol. I have to add here that Ben is usually (and obviously still) a fantastic eater who would eat all day if he was allowed to!
I have made a big decision this week and I am even scared to say it out loud but in three weeks time I am going back to University!!!!!! I have only got my final year to do in BSc(hons) Computing Informatics at Plymouth Uni but I have had a three year break because of the kids and I am really nervous. My reckoning is that about 8/9 months of running around like a headless chicken is well worth the degree I will get at the end of it! Wish me luck.
It is so hard to keep up to date when the kids are on holiday, Mark is on leave and I have lots of DT stuff to do!! Especially when the weather is gorgeous and everyone would rather be outside!
First of all let me show you this layout that I did for this weeks challenge over at Mojoholder, we were permitted to lift a layout of Elsie Flannigan's this week and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed doing this layout.
Mark's baby sister moved to Leeds last weekend so his big sis Debbie had a little leaving do on Friday night where everyone congregated and ate some lovely chilli. The kids had a nice time too, they love it when they get to go and annoy all their cousins!
I had a bit of a organisation day yesterday and I think I pulled out virtually every cupboard in the house and rearranged it and then in the evening I sorted out the filing cabinet so everything is tip top now, just the way I like it!
Today we took the kids over the China Fleet Club and did the park, swimming, driving range (Mark - not me!) and then had our dinner there. After our dinner the kids ran around in the field for a little while and I collapsed on the grass all fat and full!
Tomorrow holds a whole day of scrapping for me - I want to finally get all the DT stuff done and also another top secret projoect that I need to do because I am absolutely dying to use a massive set of watercolours that Mark bought me last week and I am not going to touch them until I have got all my commitments sorted out!
Oh, and I started Her Space:My Space again today so if you want to see my picture for 'Self Portrait Saturday' click HERE!
I had a lovely evening out with my Mum and my sisters on Tuesday. It is not very often that we can all get together with Debbie living in South Africa so it was a really good evening. Firstly we went to see Hairspray which was so funny! I didn't even know that John Travolta was in it so when he turned up as Tracy's Mum it was hilarious. in fact, every time John Travolta was on the screen it was hilarious. The we went for something to eat but after all the popcorn and coke that had been devoured in the cinema I was not really very hungry so we just popped over the road to Pizza Hut and I had a small 'Hot Chick' pizza which was very nice!
Mark and I went into town this week and I got some plastic drawer units to store some of my scrapbooking stuff in. Obviously I then spent the afternoon trying to sort everything out. It has made a huge difference to my little scrap area. I haven't really go a scrap area I just had a little cupboard in the kitchen and I use the worktop to scrap on (standing up) - the rest of my stash was upstairs so scrapbooking involved a lot of trips up and down the stairs. Now I have a couple of drawer units under the worktop and I just pull them out when I want to scrap and I feel like I am creating a little area for myself. It's much better and no more running up the stairs for double sided tape or acrylic paint :o) So this is where I scrap:
I have done my layout for the Mojo Holder blog which will go live tonight and I have been scrapping for CL & H mag too. Here is a sneak peak of my Mojo layout.
We had such a great holiday that I don't think I can put it all into words! We went to the Seaview Haven at Weymouth and I have to say that it was worth every single penny. In fact, if I had more pennies I would go back again today!
On the first night Ben and Charlotte were chosen to go on stage for the kids gameshow and we spent all our time laughing our heads off. The kids were great and the compare was brilliant. The main compare there is called Lee and Charlotte took a real shine to him, she keeps saying that he is her boyfriend, ahhh first crush.
There were kids clubs everyday and they were making all things crafty most of the time so that suited Ben and Charlotte down to the ground. They made kites, spirals, pictures, postcards, hands on sticks and hats. The kids had so much to do that it was a little overwhelming. They saw a circus (twice) and took part in a circus workshop, there was a bouncy castle and pony rides, we saw caberet acts and pantomines, went swimming and used the flume hundreds of times. We spent time in the arcade and the kids loved the 2p machines. On the first day Mark won a cuddly toy from one of those grabber machines which is a feat in itself.
There was one afternoon where we went to watch the wrestling and Ben absolutely loved that, Ben was also called on stage to help out in the Mad Scientist show so he was beaming like a cheshire cat when he got his prize of funky glasses. Charlotte was called up to the stage one evening for a dancing competition and that was the highlight of the holiday. Although she didn't win (there was a 6 year old boy doing rock and roll and he was amazing) she was definitely the star of the show - she is so funny and her new boyfriend took a shine to her too (telling me the next day that she was gorgeous!) so she had a nice interview which went something like this:
Lee: Whats your name Charlotte: Charlotte Lee: How old are you? Charlotte: 4 Lee: Where do you come from? Charlotte: Yeah
lol - it was so funny. I am gutted that I didn't take my camcorder but I did get a little bit of video on my camera - it's not great quality but at least it is something.
If you have been to Haven you will know that they have their own characters, Ben and Charlotte liked Rory the Tiger and Anxious the Elephant best. Mark bought Charlotte a cuddly toy of Anxious which was bigger that her!! She had been particularly good that day and deserved a treat and she fell in love with this Anxious.
On the Thursday night we bought a raffle ticket and we won the prize which was loads of kids stuff so Ben and Charlotte went on the stage to collect that and Ben got a Rory the Tiger which was brilliant because they both have their favourite character now.
Mark's mate Jim lives in Weymouth and he owns a fire engine which he has had converted into a limosine so we got a free trip in that one evening. Ben and Charlotte took turns in the front and they both had fireman helments and jackets on. Jim was playing the Fireman Sam theme tune at full blast and pulling the horn - just great. I don't think the kids know how lucky they are. You can hire out the fire engine and if you live near Weymouth you must do it - it's great.
Jim invited us all around one evening for a barbecue and he has a swimming pool in his garden so Ben and Charlotte had another great day there. I think they want to move in with Fireman Jim as Charlotte calls him.
Some afternoons the kids went to sleep for an hour or so and I did a bit of scrapping - yeah!!! Nothing I can share though because it is all for the next Craft, Life and Home Magazine.
Needless to say, we did loads more than this I just can't take it all in myself and will keep remembering things. I am going to do a mini book diary of the events so I need to sit down and think about what we did each day - I did start doing this whilst we are there so I need to get it done soon before I forget as I have some commissioned scrapping to do before I can do the mini book.
Since we have been back I have been visiting my sister over at Mum's as she is only over from South Africa until Wednesday. We are going to the cinema tonight to see Hairspray with Mum and my other sister Carol so I am looking forward to that.
Phew! What a week. I am just trying to sort out all the washing etc and settle back down to normality.
We went to see the Simpson movie the other day and it was quite good. I wouldn't rave about it but I suppose it is worth seeing. I think sometimes you get hyped up about a film and it just doesn't live up to you expectations it will probably be better on a second viewing.
Also this week we went to the Barbican and had a little walk around and ate the obligitory bag of chips. Mark and I took some photographs of the Mayflower Steps so I could put them on my blog for any American readers could see where the Pilgrim Fathers sailed from. A lot of people who live in Plymouth moan about it and I agree that there are things to moan about but I love Plymouth. I think when you live in a place that is on the coast on one side, has moorland on another and is the gateway to Cornwall you can't complain about your location - it is only the weather that spoils it!
We are all getting excited about going on holiday on Saturday. I can't wait as I love staying in the big mobile home type caravans and Haven is such a good place for the kids (not that I have been before but I am sure it will be great fun for them). It is just nice to get away for a little while.
I had a lovely box of stash from Scrapgenie the other day. I am packing my tote express and taking it with me to the caravan, you never know I may get some scrapping done! I can't stop looking at all the goodies and I just don't want to leave it all at home.
I have completed my DT layout for Mojo Holder and the new layouts will go live tomorrow night so be sure to take a look at everyone's layouts. Here is a little sneaky peak of mine.
