Twisted sketch...

This week I made a start on my Book of Me... I know, I know, years after everyone else was raving about the importance of scrapping about yourself... but hey ho! I also decided to give 8.5 x 11 a go, and although it was quite daunting with such a small space I think I could get used to it! This LO ticks two boxes... I used this weeks Twisted sketch, and also covered the elements of the weekly challenge on UKS. I haven't done a challenge over there for a couple of years, but as it was set by the Twilight Addicts social group I thought I should play along. The theme had to be forbidden fuit, to be interpreted how you wish, and you had to include ribbon and bling. My forbidden fruit was the guilty pleasure of being able to listen to the Twilight saga whenever I want... especially whilst doing boring houseworky jobs, or more importantly to block out the noise of the kids when they are driving you to distraction!!! It doesn't make me a bad mum... it keeps me sane!

The Twist this week was to use stamps... I used the Fancy Schmancy tag stamps... perhaps one of the best buys from way back in the day when I used to buy everything!

I also did this LO using the sketch over on the Sarahscards blog... have a go and post a link to your work and be in with the chance of a prize.

This weekend we took the boys to the Manchester Museum to see Stan the T-Rex. Oliver has been a few times but Harry hasn't been since he was a baby... and he absolutely loved it! The noise of him shouting excitedly every time he saw something new echoed around the museum... it was great. Harry liked the 'big chicken'... commonly known as an Ostrich, but he didn't like the Egyptian mummy's toes. In fact these are his actual words.... 'She is caring me, I don't like her toes... I want her to put docks on'. awwwwww bless. Drew was very well behaved but not that impressed to be honest.
On Sunday Harry finally got to ride his bike outside. He has an interesting pedaling technique but true to form he will not be told or shown how to pedal properly!!! We didn't stay at the little park long as it was freezing but Oliver loved having Harry follow him round on his bike... of course both boys came off so ended up with mud up the back of their coats!!! Like I don't have enough washing to do...lol!!!

So it finally came to Sunday night bath time... all in together... sharing this photo just because it's cute!
Right... I am off to play with moon sand and dinosaur stickers with thing 2, who is currently stood at the side of me holding the moon sand case and tapping me on the head with the stickers!!!

Happy Birthday to Bear!

I cannot believe that my little ginger Bear is 3 today!!! Just where has the past 3 years gone? He wanted a bike for his birthday... a pink one actually, but we chose him a red one... in case he got fed up with the pink in a few weeks time!

He also got a glow station from Oliver and some more Disney Cars characters from Drewpot, and the monsters vs aliens dvd from Jaspa.... bought with his own doggy pennies ;)

Obviously we can't take him out on his bike with all the snow, so the dining room table is currently pushed up against the wall so he can ride it around in the house. He's not mastered the art of steering yet so I think my walls are going to suffer a little today!!!

Another fabulous person shares a birthday with Bear. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Natalie... hope you have a great one hun X

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!!!

Twisted sketch #23

Just a quickie post between nose wiping (mine, Bear's and Drew pot stew pot's). I started this LO at the DT retreat a couple of weekends ago... well I selected the papers and the photos to use but that was about it! I sat down this morning to actually get on with the LO and based it around the latest twisted sketch... a simple LO but sometimes photos don't need oodles of fuss. I used a notebook effect punch and a martha stewart 2 dot punch.

Back again soon...

Worlds Worst Blogger!!!

I am, it's true... I just never seem to have the time to blog anymore... or maybe it's the fact that I don't have anything interesting to blog about!

So what have I been up to since the last time I posted? Not much to be honest... although I did have a fabulous weekend away last weekend with the Sarahscards DT. We were treated all weekend by Sarah and Lianne and just got to chill and play with beautiful stash. The team are such a talented bunch of ladies... it was great to be able to see how others work, and to learn new techniques. We stayed in this stunning converted barn... how nice is that?

I got a few LOs done... probably not as many as I should have done considering I had the whole weekend... but to be honest, I made the most of being able to sleep in as there was not a child in sight...lol!

This LO was done as part of a speed scrap challenge we did. We all gave our photos to someone else who then chose at least 3 papers for us to use to scrap those photos. Then we only had an hour to get the LO done... quite a challenge for some of us slow scrappers! Rachel chose my papers for me... and I have to say even though I probably wouldn't have chosen these papers to go together myself, but I really, really like the LO.

These are the other LOs I did... I like them all apart from the pink one.... I guess I just don't feel that comfortable with so much pink!

The LOs are straight in real life... I just rushed to take the photos this morning!!!

Right I absolutely will make every effort to try and blog every week... and to visit the blogs I have been neglecting recently.

DT LOs to share.

I actually wrote a whole post yesterday went to upload and realised I had cleared all the photo from the pooter!!! Stupidly I also didn't save the post to draft so I am having to type again.... if I had a whole brain I'd be dangerous!!!Not really much to say to be honest. Not done any fun stuff, just same old same old, take some kids to school, stay at home with others, go and fetch kids from school, entertain children until the parents come to pick them up!

Pretty much sums up my Monday to Friday...lol!!!

Last night I did scrap which felt good. I played along with the Twisted sketch 16 the twist being to use stickers. I really like the LO and the use of stickers, even though stickers aren't usually my thing unless they are alphas. Rob pointed out last night that my LO doesn't really look like the sketch... he may have a point but it was used... honest it was. The photo was taken last weekend in the park over the road. I just have to get used to having pics of me taken... it's a bit strange scrapping pics with me on!

These LOs were done using the September Sarahscards kit. The colours were right up my street, although I thought I'd struggle using the kit as it was retro kitchen themed. As I didn't use the really kitcheny stickers and papers I have loads left to make a wall hanging thingy for my nearly finished kitchen.

I think I probably say it all the time, but this really was my favourite kit yet... gorgeous colours, gorgeous papers and lovely embellishments... and a few left over bits from previous kits were also perfect to be used too. There are a few kits left available to buy as a single purchase here. Or you could just sub here, you won't be disappointed.

We've spent quite a bit of time in the local park over the past couple of weeks since Oliver learned to ride his bike without stabilisers. The first thing he asks in the morning when he gets up is 'can we go out on my bike today'. I can see me getting fed up with Thornley Park very soon. Anyway here;s a pic of the boy on his bike... I might scrap this one tonight.

Right better go and do something boring like ironing so that I can justify playing tonight.

Upside down.... Inside out....

Well the title of this post pretty much sums up our house at the moment! We are in the middle of having a new kitchen fitted, so everything is in turmoil. It's looking good though, but is still a long way of finished as we have to have new floor put down and new tiles and a new blind... but it's mmmmmmm shiny with more cupboard space than you can shake a stick at. When I started to put things back we had a whole cupboard just for angel delight!!!

Because of the upheaval of things being everywhere and the kitchen fitter being here, and then having to clean up each day after he'd gone I have had pretty much no time to scrap... until last night. I actually made myself sit and do the latest Twisted sketch in an hour or less, and I really quite like the end result. I bought the Look at Me transparency way back in the day when I bought everything that was going, and found it hiding amongst some really bad dated papers... though it went pretty well with these photos.

Dinky isn't so dinky anymore but the name has stuck.... he's so going to hate it when he's 18...lol! He is really into everything at the moment and just loves playing with new things... well new to him things.

Oliver has learned to ride his bike with no stabilisers and we have gone from screaming at him to pedal, to screaming at him to slow down... it's scary how fast he whips round the park. Bear is still very 'bear like', probably the most awkward/defiant/grumpy but at the same time adorable/lovely/sweet 2 year old ever. At the moment fast asleep clutching a chocolate snowman.... yes the Christmas confectionery is on the shelves already!!!

Right, I am off to upload and sort some more photos, before I get tea in the oven for the boys.... because mummy is out tonight.... woooohooooo!!!