a good mix

morning!

a quick blog before the house turns crazy again, yesterday was a bit of a nightmare day for me so hoping today will be quieter but not too quiet :)

I had a dreaded smear test yesterday morning, I am very naughty probably like most of you and avoid them as much as possible, however we shouldn't do it really as its not good for us, so i bit the bullet and went. yes they are embarrassing and not very nice but they don't last long and are the best thing to do in the long run.

so if you have been avoiding yours, book it now!!!!

I usually have my free day on a wednesday, where i meet with my online friends and we have a mini crop, but my mum had to work so I could only watch from the sidelines. as Elsie and crafting aren't a very good mix, then more trouble came as Lola finished at half day, as she always does on a wednesday and was very poorly when she got back. 

she had a high temperature, was complaining of a headache and sore eyes and that her back and neck were also aching... after seeing her go downhill i took her to the docs, the only appointment I could get was over dinner time, so we didn't have the roast i was planning either. 

thankfully its just a virus, she's still not too good this morning so is at home again but she is playing and has moved off of the sofa so she must be getting better. 

My nice normal peaceful wednesday off, was the complete opposite with 2 doctor visits, poorly girl a clingy baby who didn't want to sleep and no crafting... I was not the happiest of people but thats life I guess. Im looking forward to monday when we are doing it again :)

I can show you a page i finished first thing yesterday, I started it tuesday night as i knew I wouldn't get a lot done yesterday, and its quite nice.

the pictures are pretty disgusting but I love them anyways, here it is:

This is elsie sneezing!

The journalling tells you how i had got the camera out to take pics of her surrounded by wet wipes, which is her favourite game at the moment, and as I was taking these she started to sneeze so I couldn't resist, it wasn't till i uploaded them to the mac that I saw exactly how detailed these photos were.... snot , dribble and all!!!

Im sorry but i had to scrap them, wouldn't be much of a scrapper if I left them to the side now would I!!!!!

so now onto how the page came around, the sketch is form my new favourite place scrapbookchallenges.com

if you click the link it will take you direct to the sketch page. 

I also used a challenge from scrap happy.org, i won't link this page up as you have to be a member to view but march inspiration piece was a colour combo from design seeds:

So i used these colours with that sketch and came up with this page... the embellishments include very little but thats just how i like it... I included a crochet flower that I received for my birthday from my very crafty friend Emm Gee.... I was happy to find these as i thought I had used them all :)

I also used some Dear Lizzie epoxy stickers and a die cut from the claire range from SEI.

Im quite pleased with how it turned out but would like to know what you think?!?!?!

thanks fro popping over today, hope to see you soon xxxx

perfect day

Good morning!

im in such a good mood this morning, the sun is shining, i've made soup for my dinner tonight (minestrone!!! and it smells delicious)

I've already done some food shopping and dropped Elsie at Zoes for the day so its just me and Lola.... 

the washing is out blowing on the line and all the housework got done yesterday so today I am relaxing with my girl.

do you wanna see what we had for brunch???

looks lush doesn't it?!?!? it tasted pretty darn good too!!! its called honey cloud pancakes and its from a recipe that I found on Pinterest, yup theres that place again, and its good for everything!!!

if you get a chance for a lazy sunday brekkie you should make these, they are delicious!!!

So now onto weekend news.... happy belated mothers day to all those yummy mummys out there!

I had a lovely day, breakfast made for me, a handmade card from Lola and the new twilight dvd too. 

we did have to do a bit of food shopping first thing, but then we took a drive down to cadbury to see my mum and surprise her at work with her mothers day presents, and so the girls could see the animals down there.... we then went to my brothers in the afternoon to meet my new niece.

things haven't always been peachy between myself and my dads side of the family, but despite it al I have always been closest to my brother. and as he had his first baby a couple of weeks ago how could I not go visit??? 

it was lovely, things were relaxed and lovely and baby Brooke was just gorgeous, heres a pic of Lola with her new cousin

Aren't they both soo cute!! 

I daren't let Elsie too close to her as she pokes the eyes of all the dollys in this house so I didn't risk it.

then we had friends visit in the evening and the boys came home so it was all in all a fabby day!!!

plus over the weekend I managed to do this page:

After LOAD I signed up for a website called Scraphappy, its a forum and challenge site etc etc so this came from the march sketch challenge over there. 

the journalling tells about how Lola used to have a number 2, in a corner between my sofa and a cabinet, so it got called pooh corner, we always knew what she was doing when she hid here. its quite funny because its a very pretty girly page and yet its all about poop!!!

a bit gross but it had to be done, if only for the embarrassment factor when she grows up :)

thanks for looking today, see you soon xxxxxx

getting kinda lazy!!

oops its been 5 days since i blogged last! sorry ladies.... in my defence it was Lola's birthday monday, we all had a fab time at soft play and then McDonalds, got back later than we should have on a school night but oh well... it was only once!

Then tuesday we had a hospital visit for Lola, something that I was really worried about but again, it was just a complete waste of time. We waited there for 2 hours to be ASKED how she was doing.... and then told to just come back in a couple of years!!! I could have analysed myself that she was fine and saved myself some time!

He did say that if we wanted to he could do an op on her little arm to make the end a lot smoother, as from birth she has a little finger there and a crease where the arm didn't form properly....it has been cousin her a few issues as she is crawling around on it all the time, its gotten sore a few times which i have treated with cream.... but Im hoping it won't be too long until she walks and then that problem will be behind us. 

I don't see the point in putting her through more pain and agony when its not really doing her much harm. 

He did say we could decide but I already decided no....  she's been through enough. 

that afternoon, she had another appointment, this time with the health visitor to do her 1 year check. 

she thinks she is doing great, she now weighs 21lbs and is already 2ft 6.5 tall!!! thats half the size of me already and she is only 1!!! both of them are gonna tower over me when they are teens, something I'm not looking forward to!

Then Wednesday I was poorly, had a nice girly lunch planned, but that all went out the window, Thursday was another big day for Elsie as she had her injections.... at least its all over with now, she cried her little heart out, but lots of mummy cuddles and a bottle of milk soon soothed her.

She is a bit out of sorts today, and is currently in bed sleeping...hence how I have time to write this :)

I haven't had time to do too much scrapping, as you can imagine with my busy week, but I have sneaked a couple of pages in whilst they have been asleep, or I've snapped a quiet 5 minutes:)

here they are;

the first was finished on monday and is a bit girly and faffy even tho it is a photo of the family:

I used the basis of Shimelle Laines starting point, for as much as I used 4 patterned papers to create a larger square at the base of my page. I then added more and more until I couldn't take it anymore :)

I also made those gorgeous rosette flowers with my new Tim Holtz die and hand cut the floral background from a paper that I had in my scrap box. 

I think it is quite feminine but the blue patches stop it from being too over the top for having the boys in the photo too. 

I also wanetd a quote about families and found this one on the internet to be just perfect as this picture was taken on Elsie's first birthday.

This next one I absolutely love!

The pictures are of Lola and her bezie Georgia at Elsie's birthday party the other week. its funny how they are so different and yet still really good friends.

Georgia must be a saint for putting up with Lola and how she pulls her about, makes her have photos when Georgia's actually quite shy, but she never complains, just goes along with it, poor girl lol. 

And as you can see , once again I have used those stunning wooden letters, can't get enough of them...they seem to suit every type of page.

The sketch for this came from sketchbook challenges, check them out here

that link will take you straight to the sketch that I used.... its lush!

I did my usual and tinkered with it a little but thats what sketches are for right?

then my last page:

I have finished this morning, whilst having a cup of tea with Bamps... I had started it last night but it was getting late, and I was tired so left it until today...it was starting to annoy me if I'm honest. it just looked a bit wrong, but I have moved some bits around and its woking a lot better for me :)

Those newspaper print flowers I made myself from a pinterest pin that I added to my boards a while back. 

yopu actually make them by using a circle punch or die, and a corner rounder...love how these look!!!

the wash tape is my newest purchase thanks to Mrs G!!! she came home from shopping on the weekend and told me all about what she had been buying in John Lewis.... this Cath Kidson wash tape!! how could I resist!!! if you're interested its £7 for the 3 rolls, and you will find it in the cards and stationary section...not in the craft section...not that the customer service ladies in our craft section know anything  about craft whatsoever as when I asked her she didn't even know what wash tape was!!! and you call yourself a crafter!!!! tut!!!

anyways these pics are of Elsie moo and were again taken on her first birthday as the sun was shining, she could play on the trampoline for the first time, she loved it so much that we had a job to get her off!!!

right really must be going now, my home made tomato soup is ready and smelling gorgeous, and I can also hear moomin starting to stir!!! 

see you all soon xxxxxxx

what a weekend!

Good afternoon!

and what a lovely one it is... the sun is shining, the tunes are on and everybody in the house is happy. can't ask for more so I'm a happy bunny.

today we have been tidying up some rubbish around the house, we've also been shopping as its Lolas 4th birthday tomorrow, she wanted a princess my little pony, but neither I or Paul had seen it advertised so we took her shopping to find it, she'd only be devastated if I got the wrong one, she has had it a day early but don't worry, she's got plenty of little surprises for the morning :)

Yesterday was crop day, can you believe its 3 years since Lollicrop started! I still can't get over it being that long, I'm so grateful to everyone for coming, my regulars and those who only make it now and then as they are the people that have kept it going so long. 

As a treat and a special thank you I got a chocolate cake to celebrate and also gave them a challenge with a prize, Geri won again!!! this is the second time in a row, so she was chuffed.

I never vote, nor does Ali, I leave it down to the girls who come to choose their favourite as it seems the fairest way.... there was a close second, but Geri came out on top. 

i also sent round a piece of paper requesting ideas for classes that the girls want to take, Leighs suggestion!! :)

I love giving them new things to try but its sometimes hard to think of things that they might want to learn, so I let them do a little bit of work. 

i had some great feedback and lovely ideas of what I could teach them so watch out for these in upcoming months!!!

I managed to complete 1 page yesterday, time seemed to fly by even tho I didn't do a class! 

and have finished the second page I started this afternoon, do you wanna see???

I didn't know what i was gonna do when i first got there so I asked Ali to choose me some photos, I often do this when i have no clue what to do..just to kick start myself

she chose these photos of the boys, it was after our sunday lunch outing for Elsie's birthday, they went wandering down on the rocks, whilst we sensibly stayed on the path, and typically for him, Michael slipped in, he was covered in yucky stinky mud.... disgusting!!!

the papers and button came out of my new studio calico kit, how i love them so!!!

the journalling spots came from my shop, they are lush aren't they?!!?! maya road ones, i couldn't help myself so bought one for myself.

Its not one of my favourite pages but its a finished page so I'm happy!

onto the next:

and now for the one I like.... I took this picture of Lola on our way out for sunday lunch, the day after Elsie's birthday. 

the sun was shining in her eyes so daddy gave her his sunglasses, the way she looked around at me just made me think of a movie star, i had to take a photo.

i used pieces from this months studio calico kit, the brown pleated piece is from an old kit too, I'm not sure what I'm gonna put inside the polkadot pocket, maybe a letter to Lola if I get around to it at some point. 

I often struggle to fill my pages with faff, as we've been calling it lately. so I tried real hard this time to faff it up a bit. the die cut star that I did myself looked a bit plain and boring on its own so i added some sunday funday circle bunting to it, think it makes it stand out more. the glitzy ribbon fits in really well with the glamourous side of the page, a little bit of twinkle never hurt anyone!

Also notice the wooden letters on both of my pages..... these are new in stock to me and have sold out, plus i have a few extra orders for them too..... they are gorgeous and suitable for so many different pages, shout me if you NEED them too :)

signing off for now, things to do and all that,

see you soon xxxxx

surprised myself!

ok so after saying how much i struggled with that last double page I did another today. 

I used pictures from Elsies birthday party, and as she was wearing had to incorporate the 2 colours into my page, the dots were a bit crazy, so I tamed it down with the kraft, take a look:

the banners fitted perfectly with our decorations, and altho I didn't follow the sketch properly I like how it ended up.

forgot to say it was another sketch from www.scrapbookchallenges.com

if you get chance do look, they are very cool. 

They have the sketch in all formats, and even show i as a double, bot that I did their double but i flipped the single page over to make it symmetrical, not to be difficult but i had the photos to do it. 

i got stuff to do this evening so might not be able to do more but will update you when I can xxxxxx

oooh its a big one!!! :O

and by BIG ONE I obviously mean double layout! :)

I have found a new site that I have fallen in love with its called scrapbook challenges and has a forum, weekly sketches, and other challenge pieces ...enough to make an eager beaver like me happy :)

my double page comes from their sketch 284 which was the latest when I joined and you can find that here

if you can get on because you need to sign up, I suggest you just sign up as its free and an endless supply of inspiration! plus they seem very lovely over there, you never know you might make a new friend :)

anyways enough gassing here is my page:

I must admit, doing a double page is really out of the ordinary for me, I struggled hard with it...pulling the pages together was difficult for me, but i think it works now. 

the thing that made it work was that circle of patterned paper, that I had only moved into my main paper box last week after it had been giving in my scrap bag!??!?! 

I just think having the 2 ends on separate pages makes it more like one? what do you think?!?!?!

Pics are of Elsie the day before her first birthday, she was getting up to mischief with my scrap bag, saying ah ah ahhh as she did it too, little minx! who can resist that cute smile and cheeky grin tho!!! definitely not me.

and see those flower embellishments?!?!? guess who made those little beauties!!!! only me!!! :) 

I added a pinterest board to my account called flowers that Carole sends: my friend Carole is determined to make me add more faff to my pages and to make them more girly, to do so she was linking me up to a load of paper flower embellishment links so I mad amy own board and have given her access to pin on there. she has found some lovely ones.... and some not so lovely ones lol but I am trying to work through them and add them to my pages. these area  couple I tried the other day!!!

no if only she would do more of my challenges to her :)

see you tomorrow as tomorrow is SCRAP DAY!!!!!!!

unsure!?!?!

hello there!

I've been playing these past couple of days, with some different ideas on what I can teach my beginner ladies at crop. they aren't beginners anymore really but lets say the less adventurous.

I also have lots of distress stickles and distress inks in stock which look lovely on pages but rarely get used by my girls so i thought I'd try and combine the 2 this month. my first attempt didn't go so well.... I'm not the best at grunge but I tried. it didn't quite end up as i had hoped and went into the bin.

m second attempt was more successful and has ended up being a page which will go into my album but I don't think I will do it for a class, as its not amazing.

here it is:

I only used a distress ink pad and distress stickles of the same colour. faded jeans in my case. 

it doesn't show much, and if i was to do it from start to finish it would take very long either so thats why I'm not doing it as a class, but I don't think it looks horrendous, but not good enough to expect people to pay to learn. 

more news form today.... its Sunday so we are being lazy, Elsie had ear infection but is better now, Lola has a virus and is on antibiotics but she's getting better slowly and Paul has a lung infection!!! so exciting in this place I tell you, if you come to visit don't forget your mask!!!

I also ordered more photos from photo box this morning (for free) if you want me to recommend you please shout as you will get free photos and so will I!! bargain!!! :)

can't believe crop is only a week away, this month is special as its out third birthday, that means cake and a competition!! there are also a lot of us this month, which is nice after last months mini disaster!! so 21 people so far will eb a great atmosphere I'm sure. can't wait!!

have already written up the newsletters, ordered new stock which should be here by thursday and i've planned the competition..... 

go me!!!

swotty knickers!

So yesterday we got our next instalments for the chinese whispers group that I'm in... you know the one where we follow the persons layout and interpret it in our own way, then forward to the person in front of us at the 1st of every month!?!?!!

well if you didn't know, thats what happened, so yesterday being the first I got my email from Judy with her lovely page on and I was immediately inspired to do it.

here is what I did: sssshhh obviously!! ")

pics are of Elsioe last week after she decided that her cheese and crackers was much better off on her head than in her mouth! I'm sure she's cottoned on that if she makes this much mess then she has a bath afterwards lol. she does love her baths!!!

I cheekily borrowed mums new cricut 2 machine that she left here from Wednesday, I didn't ask her to leave it but she was going out and forgot to take ti as has my Grandad every day since, so I thought why not, its just sat there staring at me!!! :0 I'm sure you don't mind do you mum????

that new alphabet looks great doesn't it!?!?! :)

the original had a banner on it, butt hat didn't work for me so I exchanged it for buttons going across my page, what do you think?!!??!

in other news... we got our letter today for Elsie's 1 year review at the hospital, you know with that guy from last year who told us to get on with it?!?!?  its next week, and I'm definitely not looking forward to sitting in hi waiting room again for 2 hours just so he can say she's fine, right now I know she's fine and to be honest I don't see the point in sitting there for that long just to be told by him. but we have to go, just incase there may be something else, I know there won't but its our duty as parents to take her, so we will. if it was for myself theres no chance i'd be going!!!!

also some more good news yesterday as Daniel got the place in the senior school that we wanted, which is good as its the closest one to us and he can get there himself and more importantly i can get there quick should there be any problems. just waiting now to hear about lolls place.

xxxx

proud!!

So February is over.... all 29 days of it!!

In this time I completed 32 layouts thats more than 1 a day which was the aim of LOAD, and altho I didn't follow the prompts towards the end I completed it and am happy with what I did.

I think I lasted until day 25. Elsies birthday before the prompts weren't exciting me any more, probably because I had new, gorgeous photos of my birthday girl that I really wanted to get started on and I'm not the most patient person in the world so just had to do it.

I did do prompt 25, 26 and 27 but couldn't finish 28 and 29 because my heart wasn't in it. instead and to compensate I did this page with the help and persuasive guidance from Carole!!!!

I asked for her help when it needed more faffiness.... yes thats my technical term, as you know I'm not great at embellishing and have real trouble with girly stuff so I sent her a few pics and she made a few suggestions.... some went really well, some not so well (concertina flowers, need I say more!)

but here is the end product, one of my favourite photos from Elsie's birthed, her eyes are beautiful and big, don't know where she gets it from but they are stunning. all poofed up and made special by the lollipop flowers and extra ones that i punched!!! who'd have guessed I owned a flower punch lol

the next is more manly..... and was taken from a Pinterest the link is here

I loved the cut out stars, and how the bits taken from it were used as frames. mine isn't quite the same but this was the direction that I wanted it to head in.

here it is:

I used papers from the basic grey Picadilly Range, only because... I had been giving one of my mums friends, Anne, a tutorial in the morning about how to use her new cricut 2 that she bought from me, and to test it I grabbed a piece of scrap from my bag and it happened to be this orange colour (see the doily shape bottom left) this is what we cut and I didn't want to waste it so incorporated it in my page, the rest just worked around it. 

the picture here is of Paul making fingers behind Michaels head on my birthday 2009 (i think) when we visited Noahs ark with all the kids. 

Now at the moment I'm living in a poorly house, Paul is off work with some sort of man flu.... Lola has a cough but was ok for Zoes this morning..... and Elsie has an ear infection, yet our really stupid doctors won't let her have any antibiotics until it gets worse??? surely if you're a doctor you become so to make people better, not to make them suffer before you decide that they are poorly enough to be made better again??? she was up all night last night screaming in agony, so none of us got any sleep, and she's miserable, tired and still in pain this morning. 

all of this doesn't make for an easy day scrapping, so I may be able to make a few roses!!! :) or i might not get anything done, lets see how she is, if she goes back to bed for an hour then i might do something if I don't fall asleep first :)

oooh before I go did you know its world book day???? I know its ST Davids day too, just saw that on the calendar, but its also world book day so the kids got to dress up for school as their favourite book character.

both the boys went as Harry Potter, one in a quidditch outfit and the other in school robes, I was up early making sure they were ready, scars and all.... and obviously taking pics before they left.

here are a couple:

the 2 of them posing!! 

mike as Quidditch captain!

of course Lola wanted to join in too!!!!

And finally Dan.... don't you like how i made their wands magic!!!! :)

so thats all I have to tell you about for today, hopefully I will get something done today but probably not...altho I have already made dinner for tonight and flowers won't take too long, or so Im told;)

see you soon xxxx