Cyber Cropping

For those of you who are not aware, which I bet most of you are... there is a cyber crop on over at UKS. A weekend crammed full of classes, challenges and frantic uploading to the gallery to claim points for your team.

A while ago Scrapbunny aka Fi, asked if I would put together a class for the cc. Obviously I said yes, and today it has gone live.

A LO using the gorgeous papers from the March Scarlet Lime kit, which caused a bit of a shopping frenzy as people tried to get hold of them in time for the crop. I tried to consider my friends when putting the LO together... so there are no flowers, and I didn't use any photos of children! So you got a piccie of me instead... oh how I wish I was still that size, although as I remember I was on a diet then and very unhappy with myself!

The PDF instructions can be found here. Hope you enjoy the class and can't wait to see what you create.

Back to Scrapping

Today was Cheadle crop day and it felt so good to get back to scrapping. I haven't felt like scrapping much just lately, but today I got 2 LOs done... so hopefully I may have found my mojo again. I now have 4 cjs in my possession which I am planning to get done and passed on this week... I am, I am, I am! No, really I am! You don't believe me do you...LOL!!!

Watch out Monika... they will be landing on your door mat soon... ready for you to scrap between night feeds ;)

The LOs I scrapped today were made up mainly from the April Scarlet Lime kit. The fifth kit in our subscription, and another bag crammed full of beautifulness... if you are looking for a kit that is good value for money, you will not be disappointed with this one, and if you are interested we have a place in the sub starting with the June kit. Send me an email if you are interested or a PM on UKS and I will let you know the details.

The first LO is of Harry about to poke his finger into Rex the hamster's cage. he does it most days, even though we tell him not to, and most days he gets bitten by Rex. Yesterday the camera was to hand and I got this shot... before you start thinking I am a cruel mummy taking a photo whilst my baby gets savaged by the pet rodent... I was telling him 'no' whilst snapping away... LOL!!!

I loooooooove the flowers that came in the kit... they are made uo with layers of fabric and paper and held together with a brad, simple but effective, and really touchy feely. The only things I added not from the kit was the lace cardstock and the Bazzill edges which were from Sarahscards... looooove this shop... perhaps a little too much when I am supposed to be on a stash diet *oops*

The second LO was using photos of Harry taken on the same day. I went to hang the washing out and Harry followed. I kept telling him to stay of the grass because it was wet. Not one to be told what to do, he crawled down the lawn, then along the bottom of the lawn to get to the sandpit, on his hands and feet. When he got to the sandpit he sat and clapped his hands in a 'look mum, no wet jeans' kind of way! That boy is just too darn cheeky for his own good!

This LO was based on this sketch by the lovely Jems over at Scrapbook Star. To the SL kit I added chipboard alphas from Sarahscards... painted with crackle glaze, also from Sarah, the background paper was also from Sarah although not purchased today! and a Hambly overlay from I don't know where! The yellow panel is the gorgeous packaging from the rub-ons in the kit... it actually has very subtle flowers on it and you just couldn't let something so lush get thrown in the bin.

OMG!!! This post has taken me over 2 hours to type! I have been distracted by Britain's Got Talent, and now Phoenix Nights... the latter being due to a rather lovely bottle of Rioja... can't beat a bit of Peter Kay when you have had a slurp!

Right off to blog hop, then to bed before the builder knocks on at 10 am to finish the brickwork on the garage!

Missing in Action

WOW, I can't believe I haven't blogged for over a week :o I haven't been feeling too clever, and have been a bit up and down so decided to stay off the pooter for a while. Don't want to get smacked for moaning about how poorly I am now do we...LOL!!!

The boys and I went to my parent's for the weekend. We had a great time. Harry is a lot of fun at the moment as he is doing the odd toddle here and there. He is climbing ALL the time, and his new party trick is to get on the tv!!! He has fallen down the back of the tv, getting trapped upside down, but it still doesn't stop him.... part boy part mountain goat!!!

Oliver has been surprisingly good of late too, although we are a little worried about him at the moment as he seems to get very anxious about the smallest of things. He is quite a sensitive little soul, and is struggling with some of the routines/sanctions at school. He can't understand why he doesn't get 'happy lion' stickers when he is good and does his work, so then he gets upset that his work isn't any good, which starts the finger picking, shaking, nail biting and crying. try explaining to a four year old that the teacher can't give awards to everyone all of the time... it's not easy.

We have now started our own award system at home especially for Oliver. Each time he gets his words right or gets a happy face in his planner we put a well done stamp on his chart. 5 stamps means he gets a bag of gogos crazy bones. We'll see if it helps to boost his confidence... any one with any better idea please let me know... it's awful to see someone so young getting so anxious.

Talking of crazy bones, I did this LO last night based on a sketch by Jems over at Scrapbook Star. This is the first LO I have done for a while... glandular fever is a killer of creativity:(

It was so easy to choose papers to match, as the toys come in so many bright colours and patterns... anything goes. I have put a post over at UKS to see if anyone with collectors in their family has any swapsies... let me know if you want to swap any... 80 to collect and in 5 different colour ways... it could be a very expensive and long road to a complete set!!!

Over at HS:MS the prompt for today is yellow. This photo is a total cheat as it was taken last year at Eureka. It is Oliver in a yellow hoody climbing in a yellow honeycomb... not a great pic, but as the camera is packed up ready to be posted back to Pentax... again, it's the best I can muster today.

I love sketches

Over at Scrapbook Star the lovely Jems has put another lovely sketch together as part of the daily inspiration. Last night I forced myself to get off my fat bum and do some scrapping, and I feel much better for it. I get quite stressed about not scrapping, because I feel I should be doing it, that my mojo ups and does one so I can't scrap anyway... does that make sense?!?!?! I had a lot of fun last night rearranging my overflowing stash area, so I have decided that I will do something creative everyday for the next week... I didn't say any longer as I so know that I would fail miserably!

Anyway... I worked with Jems sketch, and did this LO of Oliver on the beach last summer. It's one of those photos that isn't fantastic, but the memory associated with it needs remembering. He kept sifting through the sand, digging with his spade, saying he was looking for treasure. When I asked him if it was pirate treasure he was looking for he said, very matter of fact, 'Don't be silly mummy, pirates don't come to Mablethorpe for their holiday'. Of course... how silly of me!

Yesterday I did do the HS:MS prompt, which was 'recycle', I just didn't get around to posting it. I braved the miserable Manchester rain to go into the garden to take a piccie of the recycling bin. We live in an area full of winos I swear. All you hear on a Sunday morning from the back garden is the sound of bottle being dropped into the bins... in fact the neighbour always comments on how heavy our bin is compared to theirs.... oooeerrrr, time to cut back methinks...LOL!!! Although in our defense we do use a lot of jars in a week, and they are VERY heavy!

Today's prompt is to take a piccie of someone else... well already this morning Thing 2 has broken a cup, tipped the dog's water over, opened one of the freezers and tipped frozen peas everywhere, and here we can see him trying to pull the blind down!!! As I type this he is trying to rip into a pizza box full of goodies that has just been delivered!!! And he has another nice bruise on the side of his head after falling over the back of the sofa yesterday... his new favourite past time!!!

Rob is out djing again tonight so I will have a night to myself... as soon as the kiddos are in bed I will visit blogs, then plan to do another LO.

How Behind Am I???

With my A-Z journal..... I have only just done my 'b' page *hangs head in shame*
So now I am up to C... and I think everyone else is up to G, well Paul has done his G page, but is he up to date???
Any way, it's no crafting spectacular, but it is done. I have another page to do for 'b' too, as my journal will have pages added where necessary... so some letters my have more entries than others.
I included the letter, but didn't make it into a title as I didn't think it was needed... it's fairly obvious that it is about the bathroom! The left hand side is cream and gold, and I used some minging rub ons I got in a kit. I didn't intend for this side to look nice, as the old bathroom didn't look at all nice. The right hand side is white and black with a flash of turquoisey blue... no fancy bits, nice clean lines... just like my beautiful new bathroom. The tag that hangs between the two pages has been decorated with a couple of lavvies from Carolinezcraftz... we have these stuck on the bathroom door and they look fabby do! and an absolute bargain at 50p the pair.

Onto HS:MS, yesterday's prompt was 'post', normally we get lots of post in this house... but yesterday this was the only thing we got. It is an advertisement for a play written and performed by Rob's cousin Sophie Woolley. She has a couple of dates in Manchester later this month, so we are planning to off load the kiddos and go and see it.
Today's prompt is 'secure'. What can be more secure than a locked door? This is the back door lock and the key is usually left in so that we don't have to faff when we let the dog out/go to put rubbish in the bin/have to run out to get the washing in because it's raining.... again! The front door keys we don't leave in, as Harry Houdini can turn them and get out!
Right off to do some scrapping... I waste far too much time on the pooter, so tonight I am going to switch it off and do something productive:)

HS:MSers, I will catch up with your blogs tomorrow.

I hate Pentax!!!

Ok so I got my camera back this morning... so time wise I cannot complain, they had it less than a week. It came with a letter saying that it had had a standard PCB repair... whatever that means! So in go some freshly charged batteries... snap snap snap, and we have a couple of crystal clear photos and more with red banding!!!! It is at times like this I wish blogger came with emoticons as I would insert a big red angry face one right here!!! So what the bloody hell have they repaired??? and if they repaired it, why is it still doing the same thing!!! So I guess this afternoon will be spent trying to speak to a person and not a robot... again!!!

My advice... DO NOT buy Pentax!

I did manage to get a photo to play along with the HS:MS gang. Today's prompt is 'lever' and you can always rely on there being a toy somewhere in the house that is perfect for a HS:MS prompt, when you can't think of anything else to fit! This police car is pretty cool.. you pull the lever down and a big claw thing comes out of the front and it zooms off to catch whatever gets in its way... in this house that is usually the dog! Harry has learnt very quickly that there is hours of fun to be had tormenting the dog... balancing things on him whilst he is asleep, putting socks on to him, throwing balls for him and watching him do a scooby doo on the laminate, then pulling his whiskers trying to get the ball out of his mouth! I swear if the dog wasn't already white he would have gone grey a long time ago!

Right off to put the bear in his box, aka his cot, then on to tackle the ironing... I know there are better ways to spend baby free time, but if I get it done this afternoon, I can play tonight:)

Things are a changing on the Sprinkles blog and the Carolinez Craftz forum. The DT are going to be adding bits more often, and as of today, Tuesday is my day. We know lots of people visit Sprinkles but not many people leave comments or links to their work that has been inpired by what they see on there. For the blog to get better and better we need your input... what would you like to see more of?

Happy Anniversary

To us! Well we've made it this far... next year is our big anniversary... the 7 year itch one!!! In true Rob and Louise style we spent our 'special' day with friends... none of this spending romantic time together as a couple. Who better to spend the day with than best friend Annie (after all she was with us on our kind of honeymoon in Cornwall) her Rob and their beautiful girlie Lola... and not forgetting Blu the dog. We went to Chatsworth House, to spend the day in the farm and adventure park. OMG oh to be a child again... that place is fantastic. Seriously, I would have loved to have gone on the play equipment myself, normally I do but today I didn't see any other adults climbing or bouncing, so thought maybe one of the workers in red would come running out at me if I dared!

Isn't it just typical though... lots of photos taken and none of Annie, only a fleeting shot of Rob, and none of all three kiddos together, looking in the same direction at the same time! oh well... next time:)

We were really lucky with the weather too... a few light snow flurries, but mainly sunshine (oh no... am I sounding like you know who?!?!?!) It only decided to proper snow when we packing the cars up, which made the drive home very pretty... until Oliver decided to throw up all over the back of the car... nice!!! So we had to pull over on a busy road, tip puke off the booster seat, and roll up the blanket and the coats which had been covered... *note to self to pack sick bucket next time we go on a day out*

So we now have two very tired little bears in bed, although baby bear is fighting deep sleep and keeps screaming for attention... if he does it again, I swear he is going to be drugged!!!

My very good friend Miss Jemma has only gone and gotten herself on a fabby DT. She is a member of the Scrapbook Star team, which has a fantastic forum with lots of challenges and inspiration. Jems put up this sketch for the daily inspiration, and last night I had a bash at it. I rotated the sketch and changed the direction of the scallops. I have to say that I think Scenic Route are my new favourite papers... I love them.

Go and check out the forum... you get 'star bucks' for each post you write and for taking part in the challenges... the star bucks can be saved up and used to buy lottery tickets to win prizes... how good is that!

Anyway... been a great day, but a tiring one after a late night and a too early Harry bear alarm call, so better go and catch some zzzzzzzzz.... I have the hospital in the morning to discuss the removal of my wisdom teeth... eeeek!!!

Cameraless.... again!!!

Not a happy bunny! When I got the camera back last Wednesday, I noticed that a couple of the photos had red horizontal banding on them. I contacted Pentax, who pointed the finger at me, saying it could be a sign of misuse. They wouldn't take any responsibility that the problem had been caused by them... the camera had never had banding on before, yet it was my fault that this has happened whilst the camera was in their possession?!?!?! go figure!!!
Yesterday I tried ringing again to speak to someone else... after been passed from one automated robot to another, I finally got the option to speak to customer services... they picked up the phone and put it straight down.... ggggrrrrrrrrr!!!
So the camera has been packaged up and sent off... again. I even bought a new memory card this morning thinking maybe it was a problem with the card and not the camera, but oh no... we still have banding and it is getting worse.
So here I am again... no camera:( It makes me wish I had paid the couple hundred pounds extra to get a Canon.

Not much to report really... been a strange few days.... I have been considering returning to work as a position has become available in a school where a very good friend works. I have struggled for a few days to write a strong letter of application, but now that is done I have no excuse not to apply... apart from the sinking feeling in my heart that I really do not feel ready to go back to full time teaching just yet. I really am torn between the thought of leaving Harry with someone else, and someone else picking Oliver up from school, and the fact that we would be £30,000+ better off a year if I did go back to work.... it's a head versus heart dilemma. Not sure what the outcome will be yet.

I have some new chipboard bits and bobs from Carolinezcraftz to play with today, so hopefully I will find some scrapping time tonight... maybe whilst the apprentice is on in a bid to stop me shouting at the idiots with over inflated egos. These people are meant to be the best in the business world... you are kidding right! Is there anyone else who watches and cringes and knows that they could most definitely do a better job at some of the tasks?

I also need to go and buy a 35mm film.... my dear friend Jems sent me a fish eye camera, and I sooooo need to get playing with it.... the photos on my LOs may never be normal again...LOL!!!