what a weekend!

Sorry its been a while.... lots to do, people to see and all that

Elsie Moo's first birthday! what could be more important than that?!?!?! nothing in my book.... 

we had a birthday party at home for her with friends and family, and on sunday we went out for lunch and a nice long walk along the waterfront at Portishead. 

wanna see a couple of pics???

the birthday girl after opening presents

a birthday kiss

these are a couple of my have pics from the day and heres a couple from our sunday adventure:

Lola looking cool!

Happy after being taken out of the buggy with Daddy!

it was a lovely weekend, the sun was shining and every one was happy :)

now onto the crafty stuff that you've missed out on.... not that its very exciting I'm afraid!

this first page I did late saturday night after a very long day:

the prompt for this one was I feel like I'm......... it was supposed to be about me but you know I hate those pages, so I found some pics of Lola from last year on the trampoline and chose flying to end the sentence.

I also couldn't be bothered to think about it either so followed s layout by shimelle which site made as a starting point. 

the next is a bit rubbish so i won't show you it. it was a quirky so doesn't have a lot on it, maybe i will play with it  bait and let you see it in a better state xxxxx

numbers numbers everywhere!!!

Today is the 24th February 2012..... I have counted up my layouts for this month and including the one I am about to show you I have done 30 since the 1st Feb!!! how amazing is that!!!! Im very pleased with myself and surprised that I am still going, but I am, and eager too. 

Also more numbers.... Elsie will be 1 tomorrow!!! how scary is that, it seems only yesterday that I was upset and devastated over the trauma we went through with her arm and yet today she is up there with all the rest. and damn quick, cheeky and naughty with it too :)

The prompt for today was also numbers, which got me thinking about all of these things, I chose to do a page about my boys and the magic number 10. There is 10 months, 10 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes between them!! Dan was born on 9th March 2001 at 4:05pm...Mike was born on January 19th 2002 at 2:15 am.... I'm sure if I do the math properly it doesn't work out to be all the tens but it sounds right when you say it. 

so here is my page:

I have always loved this picture, it was taken in Feb 2002 so Mike was maybe a month old if that and Dan 11 months. I love the love between them already, Daniel has always been a cuddly, loving boy and this shows from a very early age.

I chose these colours from a design seeds post called lime tones, as anything would have worked really with a black and white pic. 

thanks for looking today xxxx

what a lovely day :)

It started off very chilled, after I dropped Lola to Zoes for the day I came back and put the kettle on. Elsie was playing really nicely with her toys in the front room and I decided to upload some of my really old photos from discs onto my mac.

for one because I was looking for a certain picture which isn't on my mac, and secondly just because I wanted to broaden my choice of photos over the last remaining days of LOAD.

Elsie went to bed at about 10am and I had a lovely visit from Louisa at half past.

We haven't had a chinwag for weeks, so it was lovely to kick back with a few mugs of tea, natter about crap and not stress about anything. She had also bought us some weight watchers bagels for lunch, they were very yummy and you left the other 2 here babe if you want them :)

after Lou left I chose which pictures I was going to scrap today and printed them off, I found some lovely ones on my discs so expect some oldie photos for a while lol

then I had to collect Lola from Zoe's, and come home to put dinner on. on the way back from Zoes we came across Grandad who was hiding behind the lamp post..... lola found that a great game lol, so we had a cup of tea and a little chat about what had gone on during the day.

after grandad left I started my page as dinner cooked.... we had lemon and herb chicken with roasted carrots and potatoes, with a side of broccoli, it was scrumptious!!! I really enjoyed it and it was healthy too!!

here is my finished page:

Its of Dan when he was just 1, in his new car that Nanny and Grandad bought him, in their back garden.

the prompt today was road trip, I had been looking for photos of myself and Paul on a train to watch the rugby final in Twickenham but I came across these first, maybe I will load more on tomorrow and do another one.

Also this morning I signed up for a new class by Shimelle Laine, called hitch hikers guide to scrapbooking. 

The first chapter talks about papers and how to put them together, whether you use packs as put together by the manufacturer, or mixing kits, or just by randomly choosing colours which is what I always do. 

we also had a challenge which was to show before and after photos of our supplies. This was a challenge for me as its now how I normally work. I can't pick things out and use them for a page, usually I start with my photo, then find a background card stock, then add bits as I go along... choosing title letters and embellishments last. however for this challenge I had to decide what I was going to use before I had done anything..... but I did it...you know me, always up for a challenge!

just incase you are interested this is what the before picture looked like:

See how I missed loads of it off??? I added extra bits incase I did need them, but I did use the blue card stock, its just really hard to see as it only mats the photos, i did use the wash tape, i mean why wouldn't i!!?? I did use a couple of the thickers and def the title letters and I was very good and didn't add any extras too it once I had chosen my stuff. it might look a little plain, and it probably needs a button or 2 but I might add that later on. its done and looking ok, plus I used 5 photos on one layout...go me!!!!! :)

wednesday = craft day :)

So after dropping Lola off at school, doing the food shop and then making lasagne I got down to do some crafting.

I was joined today by Carole and Daphne for our own little online crop. all in separate locations, working on different projects but chatting along as we did it. 

here is what I did today:

Scrap lifted the design from here, as i was completely clueless as to what to do with this photo.

the theme of the day was Holidays, which being American actually meant christmas, valentines, easter etc etc etc ...

I had this picture of Elsie from just before christmas, I went to Phil and mandys to drop off the girls presents and Phil took a photo of Elsie and started messing with it on his iPhone. he later showed me this and I asked him to mail it to me. love how cute she looks as santa

I quite like that I managed to sneak in a few layers of embellishment which is unlike me, but I am sad because on the back of this patterned paper, which i think matches well.... is a golden chevron paper which i was also really looking forward to using, may have to purchase another sheet :(

its a late one!

By my book anyways :)

I have been busy watching (and ordering a little) on qvc... who could resist with mr Timmy on the set??

not that I am obsessed like some of you but I do like his stuff, and actually didn't end up ordering his stuff but did bag myself a martha stewart round the edge punch, another to add to my collection...ooops!!!!

and with a lovely visit from my Grandad and my Aunty Jan, who we haven't seen in ages... I didn't have much time to scrap, plus I had the extra chore today of making pancakes!!1 yum yum yum

So I put the girls to bed and sat down to scrap with my online friend Carole.. (waves) 

I had already chosen a photograph to go with the prompt for today which was My home town... a hard prompt as I didn't have a clue initially, but when I thought about it , things became clear.

I decided to scrap about my mum, my grandparents and their parents and how we were all born in Bristol and still remain here.

I had to find a photo which represented Bristol to me, without being one that I hadn't taken myself, or one that I didn't like and was just scrapping for the sake of it, I really do hate forced pages. 

I found a lovely one taken last year early one morning before school, a beautiful rainbow appeared outside our front door so I managed to get a pic or 2. 

anyways heres the page:

I asked Carole, butterfly or no.... luckily she said yes because by the time she'd replied I had already stuck it with glossy accents lol.... then I told her i was putting clouds along the bottom and she didn't sound too convinced!?!?!? which again was too late as I had already stuck one of those too lol... I don't hang about you know, its almost bed time :)

As usual its not a page overloaded with embellishment, I don't think thats me, and I will have to get used to that but I think its cute and I'm pleased with the colours and how they look together. I wrote the story straight onto the photo, which you probably can't see too well here but its there in white pen honest :)

anyways.... nearly time to go to sleep... ready for a full day of crafting tomorrow when the littlies go to mums :) yay xxxxxx

well that was easier than expected!

I have been to the bank, I've made white chocolate brownies and I've managed a scrap page, as well as eating lunch and playing some iPad games with Lola. 

When I heard the prompt this morning I was worried as it was relating to fashion, I don't do fashion, never have.... I hate old photos, even if I were to find some of myself as a kid in a shell suit, can't believe they were EVER in fashion!!! yuck!!!

So instead I looked through my small photo box to see if anything leapt out at me. 

heres what I came up with:

The photo is of Elsie at maybe a week or 2 old, and as soon as I saw it the title sprang to mind, so that was my decision made for me. 

I have seen a few layouts lately with stacks behind them so I knew I wanted to do that on this page and I knew I wanted quite a bit of 'white space' around it so as to focus on the picture.

I started by diving into my creamy coloured scrap bag and pulled out all the pieces that were about the right size to use, then I knew I wanted a light pink background paper, but as I was looking I remembered this one that came in my studio Calico kit this month, its by basic grey and is lovely!!!!

I got to work distressing some edges, screwing up other pieces of paper and hacking at others with my knife, I actually really like how well it all came together and how quickly it took me to do.

thanks for looking, be back tomorrow with day 21..... don't worry not too long now and it will all be over :)

real quick!!

just a real quick post to show you my page for yesterdays prompt, which I only got to finish this morning.

Its not the best page in the world, my head wasn't really in it, as i still felt rough and my eyes were still sore, and are still hurting today. but tis done, onto the next as I don't want to fall behind anymore.

the prompt for this one was friends old and new. 

I chose to use a picture from my 30th birthday which was also a crop day, a very special crop day at that. 

thanks for stopping by this morning, I've got some running around to do but will hopefully be back later xxxxx