a few new pages.....

morning peeps....

need to keep myself occupied this morning as I'm waiting to hear from my nan who is very poorly. I wont go into details but after speaking to her this morning I feel she needs to go into hospital but shes very stubborn and wont go, Im just waiting for the call to say she has given in and is going in. Not that I want her in hospital at all, but at the moment I think it will be the best place for her. 

Over the past week I have done a few pages, I've also had another amazing delivery of new stock to launch at the 12 hour crop, its getting kinda close now, I cant wait.

I did have to make a few little purchases of my own from the shop stock as there were obviously things in there that I NEEDED!!! and I have used a couple of bits and pieces from that already.

Im one of those people who when they get something new I have to use it on a page straight away, I find it really hard to understand how people can buy new things and then put them away still in their packaging, without even taking it out to play with, and then forget that they have it?!?!?! why would you bother to buy something if you didn't want to rip it open and use it something immediately???? but who knows, maybe I'm the weird one?!?!?! lol

So today I thought I would share with you a couple of the pages I have done... and explain the process of thought that went into them.

a page with no name!!!

Ok so here's the first... and weirdly for me it has no title..... with such a nice picture of my sons I didn't think it needed a title, so stuck with a quote that I was given in a pack from the lovely Rosie Guthrie! thanks babe xxx

it says if you cant read it

"to the world you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world."

this is a perfect quote for my boys as they are always there for each other no matter what, there is only 10 months between them so they were never really aware of not being together, they still share a room, they share clothes, games everything they even have the same friends. 

I understand that one day this will change and they will branch off to do their own thing but I am sure they will always have each others backs. its lovely to see.

anyways, I started this page knowing that I wanted to use a large picture.... and knowing that I wanted my page in black and white.... then when I pulled it together just black and white looked a bit boring so I introduced the orange to it which I love.

I used my new heart punch on a scrap of black paper and played about with where it could go, then it ended up where it is now, then it need some journalling space on, so I actually tried drawing some lines on in black pen, but I hated it, so this is actually the reverse of the white paper piece that it started on :) ssshhh!!!

then I decided to use orange strips, so I cut very thin strips from the paper that I was already using (which was also a scrap piece.)

I stuck them on, and they looked a bit wonky where they were cut so thin, but I think this kind of adds to the messy non perfectionist look of the page. 

then whilst I was wondering what other elements I could add to the page I found the quotes sheet, it actually began life with a frame around it but the frame didn't work with my page so I cut it off and just went with what I had.... it must have been fate as the lines I had already stuck down were in the perfect place for the quote lines. AMAZING!

It actually sat on my table, staring at me for a few days then because it needed something extra but I couldn't put my finger on what it was...then on Tuesday when my friend Paula came to visit, I was showing her my newest stock delivery and I pulled out the overlays...as soon as this one caught my eye I knew I had finished the layout. and I think it finishes it wonderfully even if I do say so myself :)

I wonder how long it would have sat there looking if Paula hadn't of been brave that morning..... very proud of you babe for getting on that motorway and conquering your fear xxxx

Explore!

Then there is this page.... the second and last of the pages im gonna show you today.

I came across a fab sketch on the pencil lines blog see here :

pencil lines sketch 235

 I was looking for some inspiration and just thought I'd have a nosy, although the sketch itself didn't shout at me, when I looked through the designers pages and what they had done with it I instantly knew I had to do a page like this.

I chose elements from a few of the designer pages, and was inspired to use my spray inks aka glimmer mists!

and also to do some stamping, which is unheard of for me.... and also sneaked a bit of journalling in there too. 

I am always asked by people at the crop how I come up with different pages all the time.... well I guess I cheat!!! sketches are a great way to get inspiration when you're mind goes blank, and lets face it we all get those times. I wont even say days cause mine can last for months!!!

I guess I usually always scrap in the same way tho, I mostly start with a photo first..... if a picture really NEEDS to be done then it comes to the top of my list.... then I pick out colours from in my photo to choose papers. I generally use a plain card stock as a base and add patterned papers to it. this involves getting out the range of papers etc that I have in the colours that I think will work and choosing ones out that I think might look good, then I narrow it down to a few to choose my final ones from.

it helps that im quite anal and have my box of papers sorted into colour ranges.... and my plain card stock separate to my patterned papers. makes life so easy tho that I can just pull a handful out and know that they are all one colour.

then I play about with where my pics will go etc etc, obviously sketches help make this process easier.

and then I go to my embellishment bags and boxes and go through to see what I have in there that might finish it off nicely. this usually involves the same process as the papers, where I get everything out that might look OK then I push them around the page until it works for me. it might take a while but its fun and it usually works.

lastly I do my title or journalling.... my alphabets are also sorted, but not into colours, just into what they are, size, if they are glittery etc as I usually know what kind of letter I ma looking for.

I must admit I have a bit of an alphabet obsession and have tonnes of them, a girl needs to have them all incase there is something you NEED to put on!!!!

anyways I think I have babbled enough.... my washing machine has finished so time to get back to the housework before I can enter my scrap room and get playing!!!!

have a fab day xxxxx

33 days til 12 hour!!!!

As my ticker over there >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

states we now have only 33 days until 12 hour crop kicks off, how exciting!

there are only 4 places left so book now if you want to join us. 

I have already made up a beginners class which will focus mainly on doodling with a little bit of hand cutting thrown in for good measure :) its a very bright summery page, and will be fab for photos of kids in the pool, or ice cream munching or just anything happy :)

just a tiny sneak peak as I don't want to give too much away.

I am in the middle of designing another class also.... am thinking maybe a page using Stickles or some ink blending, definitely something messy tho. any particular requests tho just let me know :)

this week brings the start of the shopping lists and prepping for the competitions...... think I may do something different this time, last time we had a sketch challenge which Ange and Geri both won prizes for. Tehy made amazing pages!!!!

thinking this time I might pick some things to use on the page, or techniques etc.... not too sure yet but it will be something to make you think :)

also have to put together some prize packs...... love making people smile with surprise packages I wonder who will win this time?!?!?!?!

This week I also received my new stock for the shop....lots of lovely strokable papers, inks, a million and one new alphabets (im really not joking) :) thinking of putting some 12 hour only offers on..... so dont forget your cash girls lol

right.... im off out into the garden to draw up some sketches for this new class whilst topping up my tan. 

have a fabby bank holiday Monday

xxxxxxxx

what a week :)

good morning :)

well as the title says, what a week I have had..... now im gonna have to work backwards so I remember everything that we have done lol...my brain doesn't work at the best of times and its only 8am.

so today..... today is gonna hopefully be a quite chilled out and relaxed one, gotta pop up to my nans this morning to see her for a little while, she's really ill so I don't see her very often now as apposed to every day when she was well... I do what I can to help her but wont stay for long with all the kids cause we all know what kids can be like...especially mine it may seem lol ...also got to pick up my mans Easter egg ready for tomorrow, we are like big kids and have to get each other an egg every year...his is very special and I hope hes going to love it...fingers crossed 

then this afternoon (if the thunderstorm holds off) we are going over to my cousins and his girlfriends house for a moving in party/barbecue.... should be fun. 

yesterday.....  the morning was horrendous.... I woke up in the same mood as I went to bed in, AN AWFUL ONE!!!

the boys and Paul had spent the night in the tent in the garden.... don't ask me why it must be a man thing, myself I'd rather be tucked up in my nice cosy bed than led on the very uncomfortable grass without my quilt and having to go outside for the toilet..... um no thanks!!! anyways.... I was not in a great mood but my lovely hubby, bless him, did everything he could to make me feel better, he wanted to make me breakfast in bed but I didn't want anything (not sure if that was cause I wasn't hungry or cause I was being stubborn) by the time I came downstairs he had already done the dishwasher, and put the recycling out and was doing the ironing. all the jobs that I normally have to do myself. so I was very grateful for that.

I made the decision to try and drag my ass out with the kids to shake off the feeling that I wanted to scream, so we made the decision and went to the zoo. 

It ended up being a very cool day.... the sun was shining, the kids were quite well behaved, even Elsie moo didn't mind being in her buggy instead of being carried all the time, I had a lovely time. here are my favourite pics from the day.

my best animals ever..... the lions...... shame the cubs were hiding

the bats had a big fight....... it was quite scary actually

this one lost..... he fell off, didn't fly and then dragged himself across the floor.... hope it was ok

the beautiful flowers in the garden

love Michael's face in this picture, the domes are great for the kids getting close to the Meerkats

a very brave moment for me.... I am so scared of butterflies.... but forced myself to go into the butterfly house so I could get some amazing pictures, I'm glad I did

feeding the Lorikeets..... was great fun.... Lola loved it a lot

the family xxx

so this was our day at the zoo..... after this we went out for a very late lunch, then came home stuffed and tired :)

Thursday..... after dropping Lola to Zoe's, myself and the boys took a quick stroll to the post office to post off another class kit, love the powers of the internet :)

then to allow them to burn off some energy we carried on walking and ended up at Blaise park, we were there at about 9:30am so it was very busy but still quite warm as the sun was beginning to wake up. the perfect time to go to Blaise park if you hate crowds and the kids wanna actually go on something. 

Elsie was asleep, so I sat on a nearby bench and the boys went off to play.... when they came back they found a fallen tree behind where I had parked myself so I managed to get some cool photos of them messing around in the tree. it was lovely actually as usually Lola manages to get in all the pictures so to have some time for just the boys was fab. here are a couple.

a Robin friend that I made whilst quietly enjoying the sun

a rare picture of Daniel alone

the stunning tree x

shame about Michael's funny face!

my big boys.... growing up too quickly

right.... I think I have said enough today... maybe I will inform you of my other days another time.... as you can see I have many lovely pics now so might just have to squeeze in a bit of scrapping.... have a fab day xxxxx

good thoughts from Thursday :)

good morning....

I was advised by a friend to take each day as it comes and focus on good things that happen each day and overlook the bad stuff. so everyday when possible I will be writing a post about the good things that have happened in my day. its bound to bore you sooner or later tho :)

So good things that happened in the Clark house yesterday...... 

1: Michael and me made yummy chocolate cakes. (pics below) it was really nice as Michael doesn't usually  like to do anything apart from  play a computer, so to spend some time with him alone in the kitchen was great. and his enthusiasm was amazing, when we got the muffins out and they were enormous he was so excited. there is only one left and I didn't have one so they must have been good!!!!

2: Lola went to Zoe's (the childminder). which was nice for all of us. Nice for Lola because she loves Zoe and has some time to herself, and actually gets the attention she craves when she is there as its difficult for me to do things with her when she wants to here. It also gives me and the boys a break. Lola is amazing, she's funny and intelligent (as well as gorgeous, with her crazy hair) but she can be a handful..... she loves to play with the boys but they need their time to do what they want, I cant expect them to do what she wants all the time. and the same with me.... having 4 children and a house to run isn't easy and its impossible to give one child your undivided attention all the time so for her to get out and interact with someone on this level for a long periond of time is very beneficial to her.

3: I scrapped!!!!! I had some me time..... Elsie was asleep., the boys were playing the kinect so I had an hour to work on my next class which I will be using at the 12 hour crop. It relaxes me, I can escape for just a tiny bit into my own world where paper, glue and shiny things are all that matter, and I love it. 

below is a sneak peek of part of my class!!!!!

right Elsie Moo is stirring....... best get a move on..... Im hoping to see my little brother later today, I havent seen him in a couple of years so its a bit scary but something to look forward too.

be back tomorrow with my good things about today :)

have a good one xxxxx

on a lighter note......

I have had my moan, my down time..... gotta pick myself back up dust myself down and try to slowly move on.... I have made myself feel better with some retail therapy :)

and it will benefit you guys as I have placed a mahoosive new Lollicrop order.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!!!!!!

today I plan to upload a few more items onto my blog shop, and try and get a bit of scrapping done. I can today as Lola Lou is at the childminders, the boys tend to do what they want without me... although me and Mike have just finished making chocolate muffins, they are huge too, so pics to follow!!! and Elsie Moo well she mostly sleeps so I can have some me time in between.

wanna say a big thankyou to all of my friends for the support you have given me , today and yesterday. its so nice to know im not alone and that I can share these bad times with you as well as good times. you're all amazing. much love to you all xxxxxx

Time to face facts......

uuugghhh..... I seem to be riding an emotional roller coaster at the moment, one minute I feel fine and am enjoying the sun, my children, my hobby, hubby and life..... the next I want to run away from it all. So don't read this if you don't want , I just need to get a few things off my chest and by writing them down they might sink into my head a bit better too.

1: I have depression....... sometimes hard to admit, especially to myself. and this time has been no different. It's not the first time I have found myself here. I have suffered with PND after each of my children apart from my first and it never gets any easier to deal with. Since Elsie was born I have found myself in floods of tears most days.... but lately, I'd say over the past week or so, I've found myself becoming angry over nothing too, this is when its time to do something about it as my family don't deserve the monster that I become.

I took myself to the doctor last week.... I filled out one of those 'are you gonna kill yourself??' forms.... and as I know the symptoms of depression well enough by now my score was relatively low (which is a good thing) the doc kind of looked at me as if to say ' why did you bother coming in to see me???' ....... No I'm not as bad as I have been before..... but my words to her was I know how it starts and I don't wanna wait to go back to that horrible place before I do something about it.

she prescribed me vitamin B!!!! WTF is that meant to do???? as you can tell it has had no affect on me whatsoever I still cry at the drop of a hat, I still tell my kids off for doing nothing and I still blame my hubby for things that don't mean a thing. and im fed up with being fed up!!!

My plan....... doc said she was going to phone my health visitor when I left, so I am going to call my hv this morning to find out what she had said. I get on really well with her so I know she will tell me, and I can find out what bloody vitamin B's are meant to be doing???

2:My baby girl has an arm missing....... yes I have known this since she was born and people keep asking me how I felt when she was born and I found out..... well the answer..... Horrible. how else am I meant to feel???

I love Elsie Moo as much as I love my other children, she is a special girl, my special girl, and I will always be here for her. But... I need to face facts, she will never have an arm, im not gonna wake up one day and its gonna have grown. she will always need help with things, people will always look at her when we are out and nudge each other like they have already.and it will probably always affect me more than it affects her!

After speaking to Jayne the other day I know that these are all my problems, and that Elsie will more than likely be oblivious to half of my concerns as she finds her own way of doing things. but right now its hard to imagine how she will be, I need to get over the fact that she only has one arm and be thankful for the fact that it was only her arm that was missing. there are parents who don't even get to hold their baby alive.... whose babies are born with serious conditions.... with no legs or downs syndrome compared to them just having one  arm missing would be a godsend.

I should be more grateful for what I have ... I have a beautiful baby girl who will grow up with the love and support of her family and friends. I have a strong family who will make Elsie into a strong person, who will shrug off anything that comes her way and overcome all challenges that life throws at her. but at the moment I cant see past it. I hope it happens soon cause I want to enjoy my time with her as she is to be our last :(

3: Something needs to be done......... yesterday morning I sent Paul to have our meeting with the head of sonography at Southmead Hospital. I couldn't bear to go with him as I knew I'd be sat there crying the whole time and that would have got us no where so I made the choice to take myself out of that situation and let him handle things.

He says that things went better than we both expected, we thought he'd either be so stuck up his own ass that he would try and wriggle his way out of taking any responsibility for Elsie's arm going unnoticed. Or he would be so over the top nice that it would be obviously fake. Instead Paul said he seemed genuinely sorry that it had been over looked, he took full responsibility on behalf of the hospital for it being over looked and apologized also for the way we were introduced to Elsie in the delivery suite.

he basically gave us 3 options which we now need to think about.....

the first is to walk away form the whole situation.... take on board the fact that yes Elsie has an arm missing, it was no fault of ours or theirs and these things happen and just accept his apology for them not seeing it at the scans. This would be the easiest option for me to do cause I just wanna get on with life.

the second is to write a letter of complaint to him, which will then get passed onwards and upwards through the chain of command and in return we'd get a letter back from the hospital which had probably been written by someones receptionist and not even looked at by anyone who cares. what a waste of time this would be!

or lastly we could sue the hospital for missing the fact that she has no left forearm in the scan. 

this is the scariest option for me, having to have the ordeal dragged up over and over again, the whole experience was bad enough the first time around and having to explain it to new people makes me upset every time so dragging it out ad having to go to court etc would be horrendous.

but on the other hand if we get some sort of compensation for Elsie's future it might be worth it?!?!?!?

She is gonna need special stuff when she's older, she might even want a prosthetic arm at some point, who knows what she will decide but money would help us to help her.  

but I don't wanna look like im out for the money cause im really not but then if it helps Elsie in the future what sort of mother would I be not to try???

I'm torn, I don't really want to be reminded of the birth for months to come, maybe even years and I don't want to think about it longer than I have to but can I afford , for Elsie's sake, not to????

we are gonna wait for the letter from the top dog before we make any decisions, I hope we choose what is best for us as a family. 

what a horrible depresing post this has been but I have needed to write all of this down to figure out how to move on.

thanks for listening xxxx

what a weekend!!!!!

well what a fabulous few days I have had :)..... the weekend started for me on Friday and although it was a very busy day, and I started it off in a can't be bothered kinda mood it turned out really good.

To start the day we had a home visit from Lola's new school teachers, they were lovely... and Lola took to them very well. she wasn't shy at all and was telling stories about this and that and before they left she even invited herself to one of their houses!!! I have no worries at all about her starting nursery, her first day will be on the 4th May.... I cant wait and I know she is desperate to go also. I think daddy's feeling the worst about it as he is realizing that his little girl is growing up, but I know that she is ready for it and needs to go and socialize with other kids. it will be good for her.

After they left I had the docs, which was not a successful trip but hey ho, im changing surgeries soon as ours is really really rubbish.... but the sun was shining so it was all good :)

we rushed back to have lunch.... then met up with Jayne.... she is a mum that I was introduced to via our health visitors, Jayne has a daughter like Elsie, who was born without her left forearm. Evelyn is 7 now and it has been an amazing help for me to see the pictures of her on facebook doing absolutely everything that a 'normal' child her age would be doing. and it was even nicer to finally meet up with Jayne and be able to talk face to face about questions that I had and for her to tell me her experiences with it all. Jayne was lovely, I'm not a very good talker and yet I felt I could talk to her as if we had known each other a while. we ended up in Blaise park so Lola had fun too, we all had ice creams and had a lovely afternoon enjoying the weather.

I definitely left Jayne feeling a lot happier about Elsie and her future.... I wouldn't change her for the world but I do have worries for how she will get on at school, how she will be accepted and what she will be able to do for herself. but I have definitely been helped by Jayne's words..... I hope that if this happens to anyone in the future that maybe I can pay the favor forward and help someone else as Jayne has helped me.

Saturday was crop day....... LOVE CROP DAYS :)....... they are my escape.... my chance to do something that I want to do and I don't have to feel guilty for not putting out the washing, or not making dinner because there I don't have to.

there were a few special people missing this month as they had other commitments but it was a lovely day none the less.... we had 4 new starters which was amazing and they were all lovely. its so fab to have people come along for their first time and fit straight in as if they had been there always. 

I was made to teach my class standing up in front of all the people that wanted to learn..... I HATE PUBLIC SPEAKING!.... but they didn't care, they actually put me at ease as they were all friends. I still don't like doing it tho.I was actually amazed that so many people took part in it. 9 of them did the class which I hoped maybe 4 might do, so that made me happy..... and the fact that all of the pages produced were stunning made me even happier. I was soooo pleased when a few of them went against the grain and used colours and papers that THEY wanted.... I am not the sort of person that thinks that my way is the best way.... I believe that scrapping is a personal thing and should be done how the scrapper wants to do it. I am there merely to advise and point in the right direction. below are few of the pages created on the day. the others are on my mums camera, luckily it died half way through so I have a couple to show you :)

The original class page that I created using stock from my shop

Mummy Ange's page..... I love it a lot, not only does it have pics of cutie pie Isabelle but the colours make it look so calm and mellow.

Keryn's page. more pics of gorgeous baby Isabelle and I think it looks almost vintage in style. particularly love the swirly bit down the side which myself and Keryn had great fun trying to cut out on the cricut! :)

when the day came to an end I was a tired little bunny, but it was well worth it. I had made some great new friends and I gained a little bit of confidence teaching my girls... I thank you all for making crop days so special xxx

Then Sunday came around..... what a SCORCHER!!!

the sun was soooo hot..... so naturally when the sun is out the vodka is too :)

as well as the traditional BBQ, complete with burnt burgers and salad that doesn't get eaten :)

I was actually very good and stuck within my diet allowance AND I lost weight this morning so im pleased.

I had great fun playing with the water with Lola, whilst trying to avoid being drowned in the amounts that she was flicking at me! Elsie moo struggled to sleep as she love to be swaddled up in her blankets but it was far too hot so she had to settle (in the end) for being led next to her soft fluffy blanket.... it did the job for a little while. 

and I managed to catch a few rays and chill out. it couldn't have been more perfect....everyone was happy xxx

Elsie Moo finally asleep!

Chillaxing!

happy playing with the water

I hope your weekend was as good as mine..... be back soon xxxxxx

well that was fun :)

evening all....

I just had really good fun playing along with Kirsty Wisemans Wednesday night online crop. she is amazing and to watch her on ustream was just fab. it was my first time tonight playing along live and I will definitely be doing it again. Kirsty is so funny to watch and when she broke her cuttlebug plate it was hilarious.... along with other moments that made me chuckle. you also get to see her create perfect pieces of art....tonight she made a layout and a card and they were both fab!!! she is a great inspiration.

wanna see what I created as I played alongside her???? 

this is my page...... no where near as good as Kirsty's and it needs some extra work doing to it but for now it is fine.and the scan is quite blurry.... big apologies xxx

Its been a bit of a weird day today.... some good times and some not so good times which I wont bore you with now.. but now it is time for me to go to bed.... ooooh after I share a couple more piccys with you

 these are pics of my bezie mate Ali talking to Elsie Moo this morning during our (like the good old days) Wednesday coffee, lunch and chat days

and heres when Elsie got bored :) lmao

see you all soon, take it steady xxxxxxx

They do say it comes in 3's!

Morning lovely people....

its a very dull and yucky start to the day here in rainy Bristol! not very nice outside at all... and to top it off I feel rubbish too :( My tummy and insides are feeling very tender and sore at the moment, I don't know why its hurting now as my c section was 5 and a half weeks ago and its only just starting?!?!?! very odd, but I guess that's me all over :)

anyways.... I came on to tell another tragic story of life in my household this past week.... lol I make it sound so horrendous and dramatic, when really all that's happened is lots of appliances have inconveniently stopped working!

first our boiler stopped producing hot water, that was about 2 weeks ago and only got fixed on Saturday.... you can imagine how easy that was with 6 of us in the house!! 2 of whom normally have baths over showers!!! must say Elsie was not impressed with the shower at all, and liked it even less than she likes the bath and that's saying something!!! then this past Thursday our dishwasher door broke so it wouldn't close at all meaning we had no hot water and no dishwasher.... I refused to boil the kettle a gazillion times to do the washing up so I sent hubby straight out to buy a new one.... then you can imagine how annoyed I was when I came down Friday morning to find the kitchen flooded out by our brand spanking new dishwasher!! I was not a happy bunny at all :( that went straight back to the shop and we got a different one, a cheaper one but it seems a lot sturdier and hasn't leaked yet (touch wood), just goes to show that you dont always get what you pay for!!  now for number 3.... whilst sterilizing Elsie Moo's bottles last night our microwave died..... no explosion, no popping noise, no warning it just died! not great when you're 5 week old baby only likes warm milk and there's no way in the middle of the night I have time to wait for a boiling kettle to cool down!!! so you can imagine my hubby's happiness when I sent him back out at half 8 last night to go find a new microwave. luckily our Asda is 24 hour , there wasn't much choice but we have a microwave and it works. the kids love it because its black and shiny and the timer is RED.... the fact that it cost about £20 more than I would have liked is not an issue to them lol.

So fingers crossed that is our appliance nightmare over and done with for a few years, cant take any more bad luck in this house, not for a little while anyway, a girl deserves a break sometimes right????

Ooooh before I go I must share this with you.... I received it on mothering Sunday from my girls (well hubby really as I'm sure he has alternative motives) but its lovely, just a shame im on a diet and cant enjoy it as much as I would like. Like I say tho I'm sure Hubby will oblige in helping me out.

lessons learned!

OMG..... what a nightmare I just had. Over the weekend I hired a very large skip to empty our shed of all of its rubbish in time for a nice tidy garden for the summer. Well men being men, my hubby didnt empty it completely and there was still lots of annoying rubbish in there so I took it upon myself to throw out more junk. (there is still masses of room in our huge skip as the metal man who lives across the road pinched half of our scrap!!!)

anyways..... there was me happily throwing stuff away, carrying armfuls of junk through the house, the back door was open so I could get in and out, the front door was open so I could get in and out and the porch door too.... I was doing really well and feeling really pleased with myself until the third trip.....BANG! the blooming front door slammed shut.
little Elsie Moo was sound asleep in her pram, Lola is at Zoe's (the childminder), the boys at school and Paul at work. I had no keys..... no phone (leggings inconveniently for me don't come with pockets) and my baby was stuck inside all on her own, not that I'd imagine she noticed but I knew!!!

I tried knocking on next door, but no one answered.... so panic set in.... I'd have to run around the street knocking on doors til someone was in so I could borrow their phone to call my grandad who has keys to get in.... and keep fingers crossed that Elsie didn't wake up screaming before he got here! It was probably only 30 seconds but felt like hours before (lucky for me) the 2 men from next door came walking down the road. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see them lol, poor guys bet they thought I was a right weirdo!!!

thankfully he let me in the side door, im so grateful for joined alley ways :) and I could get back into my kitchen and check Elsie Moo was OK. she obviously was and had no idea of the trauma her poor mother had just been through. lets just say, the kitchen door is now closed and locked and I wont be doing that again in a hurry. And definitely not when no one else is in the house. See what happens when I try to be a good housewife!!! lesson learned.... drink tea and nurse babies all day, its for the best :)

On a better note tho I managed to sort out a school place for Lola... its all go in this house.
On Friday night I found a letter in Micheal's bag which had been there for about a week.... relating to Lola's school place and giving us information of a meeting about it on Friday, yup I had missed the meeting and was keeping fingers crossed all weekend that she hadn't lost her chance to start nursery early!
I know you are all wondering why I wouldn't empty my kids school bags everyday to check for things like this, but my boys are 9 and 10.... I try to teach them responsibility by making them pack and unpack their own bags, I even asked them to do it on the Thursday night as they had an inset day on the Friday but Michael (the lazy one) only took out his lunch box!!! lets just say I was slightly upset to find this letter late and Michael was not my favourite person in the world at that time.... but all is OK again now as I spoke to the receptionists at school this morning who are asking the nursery teachers to ring me. thankfully Lola will still be able to go to nursery after Easter and Michael wont be in as much trouble!! another lesson learned today.... make sure empty bags means empty!! I will be checking from now on.

right enough from me..... I am supposed to be doing the ironing whilst Elsie is still dozing..... and I need to think about adding my stock lists to this blog?!?!?! mmmm..... I wonder which sounds more interesting?!?!?! watch this space :)

xxxxx

Happy mothers day xxx

hello....

happy mothers day to all of my yummy mummy friends, I hope you have been totally spoiled already! I have, I had a bunch of flowers, 2 pairs of pj's (my very favourite item of clothing :) ) and  a pot plant which Lola made with Zoe the childminder. I haven't had a card yet but I'm told that its coming later when the boys get home from their dads :)
Lola also brought me breakfast in bed.... OK so it was only an apple as im on a diet but it's the thought that counts lol, it was the best tasting apple ever I can tell you :)

I am very excited that I have added a new item to my blog today....>>>>>>>>>> have a look this way and you will see my new countdown clock, showing you all how long it is until the 12 hour crop. I saw one on Karens blog page and just had to have one too :)

I have been doing a few pages over the past week or so, using some pics of my new baby girl Elsie. I say new she's actually 5 weeks old now, how time flies!!! let me know what you think???

For both of them I have used my new stock....oops....  a Tim Holtz paper pad, this one is Shabby Vintage and I love it. and for the one with my grandad in it I used some pink embellishments from a making memories gift embellishment box. its so cute, I wasn't going to have one for myself but the things in it seemed to work perfectly so I was naughty once again, gotta have perks tho right?!?!?!? :)

Hubby is taking Lola out shopping in a bit and little Elsie is sleeping for a bit so I get to scrap some more, if I can make my mind up which photo to use, I have so many..... so you might see me again later... if not have a fab day xxxxx

2 in one day?!?!?

afternoon.... or nearly evening :)

I just wanted to share a bit of stuff with you, don't get used to me blogging so often, im sure it wont happen everyday lol I. bet you're glad to hear that :)

today I finalized and finished a little project I have been working on for my crop. I get asked by some of my crop ladies to teach them certain things about scrapping. its all basic stuff which everyone can do but some of them, (yes Ange you included) are capable but maybe lack confidence in what they are doing?!?!? so I decided I wanted to help them, but I'm not good at standing up in front of people telling them what to do... I lack people skills, confidence levels are suffering lots and im not a great talker, so I decided I would try a new way that would allow me to help people who want it, without putting myself as centre of attention... but at the same time it isn't in the face of people who are so much better than me at scrapping who come to crop also :)

so I have designed a class, this one is about easy distressing techniques, i made a page using stash available from my shop... which people can choose to use or not.... and I have typed up an instruction sheet with photos!!! how good am I!!!! lol im hoping it is easily understandable but I am gonna be on hand to help out if people need it.

here are a few sneak peeks of the page that I have designed, let me know what you think xxx

Hello there :)

Well Good Morning bloggers.....

I decided to do this blog about a week ago, and have been worrying all week about what to write.Will I bore people to death, will I just ramble on and on about useless rubbish, the answer is simple.... yeah probably but never mind lol :)

I'm not gonna base my blog around one specific part of my life but combine everything I do in one place.

On a day to day basis I'm a mother of 4. I have 2 boys aged 10 and 9, and 2 girls aged 3 and 5 weeks, so life as you can imagine is never boring, always loud and often stressful :)
My days consist of changing nappies, walking up and back from school, cooking and cleaning, attempting to diet and trying to keep everyone happy.... and will do for a long time. All pretty normal, pretty boring tasks that us women are often left with :)

Once a month, to cheer myself up lol, I run a crop.... a scrap booking haven for like minded, crafty people (who I am so lucky to call friends). we all meet up in the scout hut on a Saturday and craft together. Well I say craft but usually we are far too busy laughing, eating or shopping to craft but we do our best!
Not everyone scraps some make jewelery or make cards, some knit. Its amazing the talent that you can fit into one room at any given time. I take a long my little shop too so that if anyone NEEDS anything nice new and pretty or simply wants to build their stash collection they can with my help :) we always have a laugh, sometimes there are tears but most of all we all know we are surrounded by people who care... about us as people and about our passion for crafting, it's fab and I couldn't be without it.

Other than being a mum and a crafter im also a dieter!!!!! or I try my best at it anyways :) After I had my 2 sons I stuck to weight watchers and managed to lose over 4 stone....now that I have had my 2 girls I aim to do the same thing. I'm back on the ever loyal weight watchers bus and at the moment I am loving it. it's changed a bit since the last time, you get more points everyday and a weekly allowance on top which all sounds amazing... but most of the food points have gone up also so it balances itself out. Im the type of girl who likes making lists, following rules ( occasionally!) etc etc so its perfect for me. I can weigh stuff without thinking about it, do food lists and shopping lists so I don't go off track, create a weeks worth of food menus which also saves on my shopping bills and still enjoy the food I eat and the weight im losing. I am on week 3 and in the 2 weeks that I have been doing it I have lost half a stone which is fab.... just a few more stone to go until im happy :)

well I think that's enough about me for now. I will be back very soon with a sneak preview of a new idea that im planning for this months crop. ssshhhhh :)