Crop night

Last night was the Cheadle crop. It was not a particularly productive one for me though... I have caught man flu! Ok so I only have a sore throat, but if Rob can call his flu then so can I!
I got 3/4 of a LO done, but forgot my stamps so had to finish the LO this morning whilst Harry had his nap.
Last Saturday we went to see Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs at the theatre. We went with our friends Jackie and Elijah, and met Jen and James there. The show was 'interesting', especially as Nanna was a lot younger and more sprightly than she should have been, Harry was the same size as Nanna, had bright orange hair, and was played by a woman.... shhhhhhhhh, don't tell Oliver, he has no idea bless him. When Rob asked about Harry being a woman, Oliver soon corrected him and told him that Harry is a boy. However, Oliver is at that stage where he does question quite a lot of things. He asked why Patsy was behind the bush and not on the stage... I told him it was because she was too big to be on the stage. He then asked why Trike wasn't Pterence were not on the stage, before I had chance to answer, he said very loudly 'because they aren't too big to be on the stage'. So how do you answer that! Then when Sid's head fell out of the bucket, strangely he didn't question why there was only a head... he wanted to know why he wasn't in the bucket. I said maybe there wasn't much room and the others had pushed him out... BIG mistake, because he then kept asking why the others wouldn't let him in the bucket!!! Sometimes I think you are best ignoring kids questions...LOL!!!
Anyway, here is the LO that I did... using photos taken by Jen (thank you). I did take photos, but as I was there earlier than Jen I heard the 'no photography allowed' announcement, so was discreet in taking mine... which resulted in photos of the big hairy man in front of me, and not much of the stage! Jen on the other hand missed the announcement so was quite brazen in getting her fabby pics:) We are still in the morning, and Harry has already had 2 changes of clothes *rolls eyes*. First thing he decided that the kitchen bin made a good baby walker... fine, no problem... let him push it around, he's doing no harm. I did think that maybe licking the bin was a little bit wrong, but still it kept him quiet so let him be.....then he worked out how to get in the bin and pulled out loads of yak rubbish and wiped it all over his clothes!!! So a wash and a clothes change later, and he decides to empty his changing bag. No problem I foolishly thought... forgetting about the large tub of sudocrem!!! So a little while later, and I come downstairs from a quick nip to the loo, and he is smearing cream all over the floor and the chair, and himself!!! So now we are on the third lot of clothes, and he is being watched like a hawk...LOL!!! Anyone want a Harry bear for a day/week/month/until he is 18???

Onto HS:MS and the prompt today is 'cup'. The grown up cups in this house are mainly plain white, we have the usual mix and match of cups too (the ones you give tradesmen). We have baby cups of every spout variety, all bought in a bid to get Harry to drink water or juice. We also have this cup... bought for Oliver when everything had to be Thomas. He still uses it to have his hot chocolate in... although not when his friends are round, as that would be far too uncool! Tonight I am a single parent as Rob is out with his work colleagues. They are going to see Dave Spikey at the Plaza, which is all well and good, but means that he will be quoting from him for the next few days, which is fine if you were there and can share the humour... but is really blimmin annoying if you weren't there!!! I was planning to get some scrapping done, and now I definitely will be as the DIVINE scarlet Lime kit arrived this morning. It has to be the best yet in my opinion, and will be perfect for a class I have to do... will post pics when I am allowed to share:)

Catch Up

I'm back, I'm playing, and I'm loving my camera.

We didn't have to be up this morning... no school run to do, no minded children being dropped off, no where to be... so I didn't set my alarm. The doorbell woke us up at 8:11am which would normally have annoyed me... but it was my camera being delivered so I really don't mind at all. It is sooooooo good to have it back. So I have had a bit of a play, and with the exception of a couple... I have caught up with the HS:MS prompts I have missed over the past couple of weeks.

Still with me? Sorry for the ton of photos. I have also replaced the blurry LO picks in the last few posts so you can see the LOs a lot clearer. I have also added a close up of the piccie of me on the potty, for those of you that wanted to see it!
Right, off to prepare for crop night tonight... I will be round your blogs this afternoon:)

Business will resume as normal tomorrow:)

My camera is coming home tomorrow:)

I have to wait in for it to be delivered, so I am hoping it will be a morning delivery:) HS:MSers... I'll be back playing and visiting your blogs:)

I did this cute little mini book for my best friend Annie a couple of weeks ago. It's from Carolinez Craftz and was a lot of fun to play with. There are tons of mini books available in a choice of chipboard, black chipboard and plasma, all at great prices too.

Don't forget that there is a points competition over on the Carolinez Craftz forum too.... the more you participate on the forum the more points you get... the more points you get the greater the chance you have of winning a fabby prize at the end of the year.

Late night lifting

Last night I went for a mooch around a few blogs. On Willow's blog I fell in love with the Angel at Bedtime LO. I asked if I could scraplift and was given permission. Here is my effort, and although it is not as stunning as the original I am pleased that I finally got round to using the embossed Love Elsie card and the chipboard fairy cakes... available at Scrapfairies. Just a quickie post as I need to go and pack Oliver's things for his week away. This afternoon we are going to see Harry and Bucket Full of Dinosaurs at the Tameside Hippodrome... bet you're jealous aren't you...LOL!!

Good Friday

I have to keep reminding myself that it is Friday and not Saturday. Having Rob and Oliver at home today has really confused me...LOL!!! We haven't done anything at all Eastery today, in fact I haven't even been out of the house! I had a ton of ironing to do, so that Oliver's clothes are all ready to be packed as he is going to spend the week at my mum and dad's... and she wouldn't be impressed if I sent him with creased clothes. We also had the last few bits to finish off in the bathroom before the floor goes down tomorrow morning:)

Harry bear hasn't been a very well little boy today... he had his MMR and another jab yesterday and it has knocked him a bit. He has a temperature and is so upset. He wants to be held, he doesn't want to be held, he wants to sleep, he doesn't want to sleep... poor little thing doesn't know what he wants. Good job mummy knows that he wants neurofen! I tell you it has been a god send since yesterday afternoon. Hopefully he will sleep better tonight and it will be out of his system tomorrow. It's not much fun when you have a poorly sick baby, and a 4 year old that thinks he has to be naughty to get attention!!!

I managed a little scrapping time this afternoon, and I scrapped old photos... well photos from last summer. A kind of mix and match LO, using scraps of papers, so I have no idea what makes they are. I used a few Love Elsie Toby rub ons, a couple of dovecraft brads, Amuse and Fontwerks stamps. The photos were taken in Mablethorpe last August. This was the first time Harry Had been on a swing on his own... how pleased does he look with himself!

Have you been over to the Carolinez Craftz forum recently??? you should, it's a great place to chat, share ideas, pick up a few tips and buy lovely stash. Not to mention that there is now a points scheme, so the more you participate the more points you earn... and the person at the end of the year with the most points will win a fabby prize... so what are you waiting for??? go over, log in and join the fun... it won't cost you a penny, you have nothing to lose, and you could make yourself a winner:)

Right off to drown myself in a lovely bottle of rioja.

Aaaaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!

Hurricane Harry has struck again!!!

All was going well this morning until approximately 8am, when Harry decided that it would be a really good idea to drop a can of paint, causing the lid to pop off, resulting not only in him being covered in paint but also the cream landing carpet!!! As if it wasn't bad enough to have a puddle of paint on the carpet, Harry decided that it would be a good idea to have a crawl around... just to add to the artistic effect!!!
So this morning didn't go according to plan. Rob stayed at home, to get Oliver ready for school whilst I peeled Harry out of his sodden pjs. I had to shower him down but as we have no radiator in the bathroom yet he was shivering so I didn't get all of the paint off. An emergency call to Rob's work, and half an hour later a couple of his colleagues turned up to get the van and brought us an industrial carpet cleaner to try and save the carpet. 6 refills later and we now have a really clean landing carpet, with really obvious blue stains!!! Another thing to add on to the shopping list which seems to be growing daily!!!

Does it look as bad from this angle?

What about from this angle?

The paint is in that shape as there was loads of stuff piled up on the landing, which I moved to clean the carpet... just imagine the mess he could have made had he have had the whole landing to crawl about on :o

Not had any opportunity to play along with HS:MS today, but hope to back playing tomorrow.

Celine birthday challenge.

It is the birthday of my favourite scrapper Celine Navarro.... oh and it is also my uncle's 50th and my MIL's birthday too.... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY wishes all round. Celine has put a birthday challenge up on her blog to create a LO using products from American Crafts, Rouge De Garance and Prima. I had a bash at this last night and am really quite pleased with it. The photo was taken during Oliver's last week at private daycare... it wasn't a photo I ever intended to scrap, but no matter how many times the photo is stored away it crops up in the unlikeliest of places. Rob found it lurking somewhere the other day and asked why it was always lying around.... so I decided to scrap it so it would be lying around no more!!!
I used 3 RdG papers, 2 AC papers and 1 by Prima designs... which I love and definitely need more of. I also used a journal tag from Etsy, some MM chipboard buttons, some Love Elsie chipboard buttons and ribbon, and a couple of scraps of velvet wrapping paper... just because I love it. I also did a spot of doodling.

Rubbish photo... but I'm not going there... ok I am, Pentax contacted me this morning to say that the problem had been caused by an impact and therefore was not covered by warranty. The cost to repair the usb port will be £141.75 :o And they have me over a barrel, I have to pay it, or they will return the camera in its dismantled state. I am not a happy bunny. Anyway I will try and scan later if I find time... the tiler has just turned up so it's all systems go here.... again!!!

I am missing playing along with HS:MS so much, so i have decided to carry on playing... even though the pics won't be up to much for the next few days/weeks (it better not be the latter).

This blanket is Harry bears... it's the one that wraps around him when he goes in his buggy. Will blog visit later after my weigh in:)

Bathroom Hell

I am still here... honest! Not much going on in the way of scrapping as the house is a tip and I am feeling less than creative as a result. Not much going on in the way of photo taking either, as the camera is still in the hospital:( In fact I haven't heard anything from them, so I really hope the camera got there!

I did manage to get this LO done the other night for the weekly challenge on UKS. It was a scraplift of a LO by Jems. I had wanted to scrap these photos for ages, but didn't want to do a DLO. Not a great piccie as I had to use the point and press, but you get the idea.

Today has been spent painting the blimmin bathroom. Who ever thought it was a good idea to put pine cladding on a ceiling?!?!?!? It has taken 5 coats to cover the stuff, and I reckon it will still take another couple of coats to make it look finished. I have also painted the walls that are not going to be tiled. The tiler is coming tomorrow, then the plumber is coming back to put a new radiator in and plumb the sink in. Yesterday we went accessory shopping so all the bits and pieces are ready to be put into place... hopefully soon.

Not that you will be interested, but I will share a couple of pics with you as to what the bathroom looked like before and what we were left with once the tiles came off. Now I know you will be wondering why on earth we wanted to get rid of the lovely gold edging and taps, and how could we not be happy with the beautiful glass screen....

Quick post

Just a quickie to post the LO I finished last night... not a great pic as it is scanned so it looks a bit bright.... when the poorly sick camera comes home I will take a better picture.

I found this photo of me the other day... it's one of the few that I have that I really like. It's not a great photo, and it is faded as it used to be in one of those 1980s photo cubes, but I love the cheeky look on my face... I also love the fact that I can see how much harry looks like me when I was ickle. Just wish my bum was still small enough to fit on a little potty.... LOL!!!

I fell in love with the Scenic Route paper after seeing it used in a mag. I tracked some down to MJ's shop, Every Moment Matters.... and even though I bought 2 sheets of each, I think I am going to need more.... tis gorgeous.

Bathroom update.... plasterer has been and gone, and after a few hours cleaning up after him, all is looking good

Poo pants!!!

My camera has broken:( It's nothing serious, the bit that you plug your pc cable into has pushed into the camera body, so although I can still take pics I can't upload them! So my poor little baby has been wrapped up and sent off to the camera hospital... lordy knows how long it will be away. I have tried to take a couple of pics for the HS:MS prompts, but the point and press is soooooooo bad I had a paddy, and deleted the images... LOL!!!
I will have a go again tomorrow, although to be honest taking pics will be the last thing on my mind as we have various tradesmen in and out at the moment. As I type we have a plumber upstairs removing the old bathroom suite... the plasterer comes tomorrow to make the bathroom look a little less like a war torn country. We will be without facilities until Friday when the new suite will be going in... then the tiler will be coming on Monday/Tuesday. So I just need to arrange for the floor fitter to come and then we will have a finished bathroom!

So another post with no piccies... but I am half way through a LO, and will scan it and share it tomorrow.

Thanks for the messages of support I have received through blog comments and PMs on UKS and phone calls. It's good to know that I have good friends.

My side of the story

Ok so although names haven't been mentioned, there is a post over on UKS about me. It seems that I have upset someone so much by taking the P that they are unable to sleep or eat. Now I could have ignored this 'feel sorry for me' post as my name hasn't been mentioned, but knowing that the PM system could be being used to spread the word, I have decided to give my side of the story. I have chosen to do this on my personal blog, as if I do it on UKS it will open the floodgates for a full on bitchfest, which will do no one any good.

The thread starter used to be on the same team as me, way back in the day when we were squirrels. It soon became clear to me that I wasn't going to gel with this person, and we were very different in character. We stayed on the same team for months, but the posts being made by others dwindled and dwindled, until there were only a few made a day. All of the posts made by the person in question were moaning about this that and the other.... seriously, ALL of them. It came to a point where I dreaded going on to the team thread, to be confronted with more depressing posts. I for one use UKS and other forums as a kind of escape from the hum drum of real life. We all have our problems, and whilst teamies are there to offer support, you really do not want to be hearing about someone else's moans continually. I have been through a really shocking time in the past couple of years, and whilst my online friends know about what I am going through, I wouldn't dream of inflicting my misery on them in my posts. I decided to leave the squirrels as I really couldn't face any more doom and gloom posts. It was at this point that the person in question sent me a PM asking if I was leaving because of them. I sent a PM back and told it straight. It wasn't a nasty reply, just one that stated clearly why I no longer felt that I wanted to be on the same team. My fellow squirrels sent me lovely messages of support, and we decided that we would start a new team, now that everything had been aired, and hopefully sorted. So came the Invaders... new team, new start. BUT, the person in question soon fell back into her old ways. Post after post of misery and moaning and not much else. Now I know that I am not the only person that this annoyed the living daylights out of... and so the sarcasm and teasing started. At no point was the person in question personally attacked, and neither was I the only person to be taking the P... as the UKS post would suggest. Once again it got to a stage where I felt as though I needed to take a step away from the team, for the sake of my sanity. So I started a chat thread where myself and a couple of others went to chat, away from the team.
It is at this point that I feel I should explain the form that the 'teasing' took, just so there are no misunderstandings. The person in question used to post a lot about the weather,and that was it... not a bit about the weather then move on to talk about something else... just a short statement of what the weather was doing there. So we all started to make weather reports in our posts.
In the 'none team' thread, I made a comment to the others that went along the lines of 'no weather reports today, do you think she realised we were taking the mess'. And it is that comment that made her spit her dummy out and leave the team. Now I am not upset at all that she has left the team. However, I do think that it is a tad hypocritical to post that you are so upset and affected by what was 'teasing'. Think back to the praise-a-thon saga, as a team we all took part in teasing and taking the mess out of the praise hoggers... YOU did too. YOU took part in the blatant P taking of others. So if you read a post in a thread that you weren't invited into, a post that didn't even mention your name, and saw your arse over it... think again. The teasing this time was no different to last time. And you had so many hints dropped over the past few months about being more cheerful, upbeat and jolly... You may well be upset by the comments that I made... but think how upset you would have been if I, and the others you p*ssed off, had sent you a PM telling you that we had had enough of you... maybe I should have done that... they say honesty is always the best policy!

I do not consider myself to be a bully, a cruel person or nasty in anyway. I don't however suffer fools gladly, and being the person that I am, I can be sarcastic. If this situation had arisen in real life, as in not online, I would have behaved in the same way, and it would have come across as sacastic teasing. I have a dry sense of humour, as do many of my online friends... although this may get lost in translation.
And to all those people who feel sorry for the said person... please remember that this situation has resulted from months and months of miserable posts. It would take a saint or someone else as miserable not to have responded in some way!

Bad blogger!!!

I have such good intentions about blogging everyday... I log on to HS:MS to see the prompt, take my photo, and then don't get round to actually blogging!!! Mind you, I haven't done much of anything this week. It has been a week of smiles for me though... the biggest being because Harry took his first faltering steps on Wednesday. He now thinks it is really clever to stand unaided and hold toys above his head... he can stand for ages on his own, nut has only managed 5 little steps... I can't believe my baby is growing so fast. Another smile came from a lovely surprise present from my best friend Annie. A gorgeous Momiji note book and some Momiji body lotion. Mwah Mwah Mwah... hugs and kisses to you.

I really need to get a wriggle on so this is going to be a quickie post... I plan to have a nice long soak in the bath, de fuzz my wolf legs (yes they really are that bad), then I am going to scrap the night away. Tomorrow I am taking the boys to Slide and Seek in Hyde, whilst Rob removes the tiles from the minging bathroom. Tonight I want to get some scrapping done... and I have a mini book I need to get done urgently for Carolinezcraftz. So on to my HS:MS catch up.

Fluff... we have plenty of the stuff!!! This bit came out of my belly button

Only joking!!!! It is actually off the dogs bed, but found it's way into the living room, where Harry had great fun blowing it across the floor... he was most upset when I put it in the bin to stop Freya from eating it!

Jar... we are a love it house. Marmite is divine and goes with everything. I seriously love marmite... none of this squeezy rubbish... proper gloopy, make the knife sticky marmite... yummmy!!!

Badge... well, we have no 'badge of honour' in this house (sorry Jen I couldn't resist), so my badge is one on Oliver's denim jacket. I wouldn't have even thought of this had the jacket been on the peg where it should have been. It obviously fell off the peg when he was getting his school coat, and being (a) a boy and (b) like his dad, the coat stayed where it fell!!!

Righty ho then, off I go... I will be back later to catch up with all the blogs:) Have a great evening.

*happy dancing*

Work on the bathroom starts next Friday.... WOOOOHOOOOO!!!! So by Wednesday of the following week we will have a new brand spanking new, sparkly white bathroom.... oh happy day!!! Can you tell I am excited about having this done? It is the last room in the house that has the previous owners stamped all over it, and considering we have been here 4 years it has been a long time to live with someone else's yak taste. The garage conversion is due to start first week of May, which Rob is very excited about.

A downer from today is that I have the appointment through to have my wisdom teeth removed :( I have to go to Tameside hospital, which I thought was a good thing as I'd be sedated... but it seems not. The woman I spoke to today laughed at me and said that they don't sedate for tooth removal. PAH! we'll see the look on her face when they try and get any kind of instrument in my mouth with me awake... it's not going to happen!

On to today's HS:MS prompt which is 'calm'. In this mad house calm is a rarity! But this morning I got half an hour of peace and quiet whilst Harry bear had his morning nap. I didn't dare sneak in to take a piccie of him asleep in case the click of the camera woke him up... so I took a piccie of the monitor downstairs. The unlit red lights show that all is calm in the bedroom above... just a pity it never lasts long!

Whilst Harry slept I finished the LO started at the crop on Sunday. I actually only stamped the word birthday on to it, and thought I'd leave it as it is. I hate doing birthday/Christmas LOs, I don't know why... so i decided to tackle this as though it wasn't a birthday LO. Nothing special or clever on this LO, but I like the way the papers work together, and I finally used some of my chipboard numbers.... I have so many mounting up, but now I have 6 less... I feel a stash spend coming on...LOL!!!

Mother's Day Crop

Today has been a fantastic day... it started off with Thing 1 presenting me with 3 gorgeous Momiji dolls to add Then it was off to pick Jen up and go to the Northwest Warrington crop run by Sarah, rebecca and Lianne. It's the first time I have been to this crop and it won't be the last. It was a whole day of being looked after, cheered up (thanks Jen and Paul), a bit of shopping and a bit of scrapping... well it would be rude not to do a bit of scrapping at a crop wouldn't it! It was lovely to see so many of the Cheadle croppers there, and to see UKS faces that always make me smile online. Then home to find that Rob had bathed the kids and had his and their tea all sorted. Bless him, he said he didn't know what I wanted but would rustle something up for me... I said it didn't matter as I wasn't hungry.... I left out the fact that I am still on a sugar high from the toblerone that Miss Jen bought for me....LOL!!!

I managed to get 1 and 3/4 LOs done... so here is the first to share... I'll finish the other tonight, and blog it tomorrow. I used a mix of papers, some out of the SL kits and Tinkering Inks from Sarahscards. The chipboard alphas are a mix from Sarah and some from Rebecca... I am loving my alphas at the moment. The cute little keyrings were a bargain buy from Halfords... I got them last summer when we bought the roofbox knowing that they would be perfect for a LO one day.

Yesterday my class went live on Carolinezcraftz. If you like any of the LOs, the instructions can be seen here. The kit was lovely to work with and it was nice to actually use some BG papers, rather than stroke them and stash them away for months....

I have been tagged by the lovely Jems. You have to give a fact for each letter of your middle name... and if you don't have a middle name use your maiden name. Nice short one for me.

A - ambitious... when I do something, I always want to be the best I can at it. When I go back to teaching, I know it won't be long before I want to be head of year again.

N - noisy... I know, not what you thought right? you though i'd be a quiet person... oh no no no... I am loud.

N - nosey... I do like a good ole gossip it has to be said...

E - eclectic... this sums up my tastes, I don't have any particular style... I like what I like, old new, kitsch, unique.... anything goes

Right I tag, the 2 HS:MS Rachels, Shannon and Suzy B.

I am now in a fabby mood after being in a bit of a lull the past couple of days. Spending time away from people who p*ss me off has really helped... I must take time out more often, it is clearly good for the soul.