Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and brrrrrrr!!!!

Ok so I've been a blog neglector again! But I am going to make an effort this year... really I am. Tis one of my resolutions for 2010!
2009 was a good year in so many ways.... Drewpot Stewpot arrived safe and well, but with him he brought a whole new load of problems.... mainly the fact that from day one he has been the most demanding little so an so! As a result a part of me kind of went in to hibernation. The part of me that dealt with the everyday stuff continued functioning, but the part of me that makes me me, stopped. As a result I did very little creating, stopped going on forums and basically stopped being me.
2010 is going to be different.... this is the year I am going to be somewhat selfish. Obviously the children are the main priority in my life and I love them to pieces, but I am determined to start doing more things for me. Which brings me on to my resolutions.

1. To play the piano everyday that I am in the house.

I played the piano years ago but had basically given it up once I left home. I decided to buy a second hand piano just before Christmas.... as you do, and now that it is tuned I am loving playing again.... although it is taking some getting back in to as my mind and fingers are clearly not as quick as they once were!

2. To scrap every week, and share the LOs.

Over the past few months I have only scrapped when I've had to, as in DT work. Even though I still enjoy it, I have stopped thinking in 12x12 like I once used to and this makes me sad. So I am going to get back into scrapping which will no doubt see the bank balance go down and the dining room become more messy!!!
The sharing part brings me back to the blog... I will try and post at least once a week, I'm not promising any more, but once a week should be doable.

3. To get back in the swing of things with online friends.

I am so lucky to have made some really great friends over the past few years, and we have shared way too many hours on the pooter laughing at and with each other and having many DC moments.
I am not prepared to let these friendships fall by the wayside due to basically neglecting to post on team threads. Already we seem to be getting back into our groove.... I like it a lot.

4. To draw something every week.

I'm an art teacher, so obviously I can draw. I used to draw and sketch all the time... BC. Now all I draw is the silly things the kids ask me to do, usually on the aqua draw or the megasketcher...lol!!!
I got some lovely pencils and cartridge paper off Santa and I am going to start drawing again...

There are obviously the usual resolutions about eating less and exercising more blah blah blah... and I am taking those into hand. Jen is my motivation.... I want to be a skinny minny too ;)

So there you go, my promises to myself for this year.

A great start to the year was getting back to cropping at Warrington. I was lucky to make it off the reserves list due to the snow... got to love the bad weather sometimes;) It was so great to catch up with friends again and to scrap outside of the house... although to be fair, not a lot of scrapping got done... but it was tres cold to be fair!!!
Yes there is a mistake on this LO... but I quite like it and I'm certainly not going to un-thread all the beads just to turn one round!!!

The second LO was just a thrown together one... I'm still not sure if I like it... I don't find Christmassy or birthday LOs easy to do... I don't know why?!?!?!

I started this LO at the crop, in that I chose the papers and the photos but that was it... does that count? I finished it this morning after using this weeks Twisted sketch as inspiration. I rotated the sketch and moved the title, but apart from that kept pretty close to the original ;) The twist was 'white' and what's more white than snow.... and at the moment we've got a lot of it!

Drewpot loved Christmas... he thought the wrapping paper was a lot of fun, and still has shown little interest in the toys he got! Oliver and Harry were very excited about seeing Santa.... and this year we got a good photo.... I'll scan and share later. They too were very pleased with their presents, but I typically don't have many pics from Christmas... will have to see what mum has on her camera! All in all it was a lovely Christmas holiday, then all ready to go back to school... one day there and then the schools close due to the snow!!! What's all that about, I'm sure we went to school when it snowed!!! It was ok the first day... yesterday was a bit strained with Things 1 & 2 constantly bickering with each other, so we shall what today brings... could be two mounds under the snow... one a 6 year old size and the other a soon to be 3 year old size.... lol!!!