Suction?! Can we get some suction please?!

Cripes!! A whole week since my last blog! I really cannot believe how fast this year is speeding me by – it’s been a haze and here we are in October! Not that you would have thought it by the glorious weather we had today mind you! I wish I could say I’d sent the last week gathering witty and entertaining stories to amuse and enthral you, or that I’d been tucked away with an awe inspiring load of scrapbooking stash and produced hundreds of artistic and pleasing pages to excite and titillate you all……but sadly it’s not the case.

It’s just been another one of those weeks. Work. More work. Checking out Katrina’s new house and getting more excited about the impending arrival of bebe, now that they can finally prepare properly. Providing emotional (and transportational) support for friends attending important job interviews. Toothache. Terrible, pusstulent face outbreak. Exhaustion. I was, in fact, too exhausted to even attend the fabby Swansea crop and check out the snazzy new location (even the rumour that there would possibly be take-out pizza and a home-baked cake was not enough to tempt me out from under my duvet, where I lay all motionless and overwhelmed by the hyper-paced blur that is my life).

But there have been some highlights to the week that wasn’t.

We got a new hoover. Hurrah!!!

Ok, those of you who know me may be astounded to hear me whipped into such a frenzy over anything remotely domesticated……………however, those of you who know my dastardly Dyson will know what a truly momentous occasion getting a replacement really is for our household. I’d longed for a Dyson for ages, and we spent nearly three hundred of our hard earned quiddies on one. And it was a dream for a couple of months – it was a whiz over our wooden floors and left the rugs all nice and fluffy….I even recommended it to my mum who went out and snapped one up (which – just in case Mr Dyson himself is reading – does in fact work like a dream and live up to the Dyson reputation. Ahem – hopefully that’s enough to get me out of any law suits!!)

But then, piece by piece, my machine started to fall apart. And stopped sucking up. Not even a hair from my head could be slurped up by the cumbersome and racket-producing machine. In fact – I could do a better job on my hands and knees with a drinking straw if it wasn’t for the fact dogs’ hair ain’t too grand for ones chest. Seen their advertising campaign about the Dysons’ suction – and how it “won’t loose a sausage”?! Sausage my boobaloobs!!! I’ll tell you what I did nearly loose – my bloomin’ sanity. Ok, I know hurling the thing along the lounge on a regular basis when it wouldn’t do its’ job probably didn’t help much, but the last straw came when even the 10th layer of industrial strength gaffa tape I had holding together the trusses of the “magic wand” tube gave up the ghost. Pah! Finito! Me and Dyson – finished!

So – much to my domestic excitement this week (whoop whoop!!), we are now proud owners of a Morphy Richards something or other. There’s a pic for your perusal. It’s bagless and has cyclonic power, just like the other one – but muuuuuch stronger, I thought it was going to take up my stair carpet at one point! For gadget value, it has all these nifty setting depending on what you’re doing and lots of tools. Lovely. And it’s silver and blue and curvy. Nice. Best bit though- it was 40 odd quid in Makro!!

Right, before this blog starts to sound like a "Which? Guide to Household Cleaning Appliances" – what other exciting shenanigans have gone on this week?!

After four years, we’ve finally started doing some meaningful work on our garden. Now when I say garden, I use the term quite loosely as in fact, it’s a cliff side….but Lee has been hard at work levelling out the top area so we can at least have some use of it.

We had a nice little trip to Wyevale to look at our options with regards to fencing and what not – and came away with some bushy-hedge-tree like things – which turn out to be the only thing in the whole of the garden centre which I was allergic to. Within hours my skin was red, blotchy and itchy, and my eyes were streaming. Good laugh eh?! Well, they’re planted now, and the advisor at the store advised us (as he would – that being his job role and all) that they would surprise us – I’m still waiting for them to bare five pound notes or Belgian choccies and vino, but apparently he meant they’d surprise us by the rate “at which they’d become established”.

I also bought a bay tree, some different herbs and some nice big glazed pots, and a bamboo screen, and our previously cold, grey, concrete balcony area by the kitchen has now been transformed in to a tranquil and sweet smelling area that would be the envy of any respectable cook or potted plant enthusiast – well, ok, not quite, but it did look rather sweet this evening under the golden glow of the setting sun. If we have as lovely weather tomorrow I’ll try to grab a few quick snaps to share the magic with you……bet you can’t wait!!!

And finally, before I bore you all to death with a total non-scrapping blog entry - I must give an articulated-lorry sized toot for my mukka Gems – who has had a double whammy of fab news this week! Not only did she rightly win a place on one design team via their team call and competition, but she was also emailed by a second retailer, on the strength of her UKS gallery, to replace the incredibly talented to Fiona Beckman. What a way to join a design team eh folks?! It couldn’t go to a more talented and funky scrapper – well done Gems – way to go chicky!!!

I do actually have two scrapping ideas on the back burner which I hope to fire up this week, the first being a sample for my UKS team as we’re hosting the weekly challenge in a couple of weeks, and secondly I’ve got hold of some scrumptious Scenic Route papers (including some from the new Cape Town collection), which I hope to put to use, finally, on the photos I took at our day at Buryport harbour. I’ve got a few pics to use – so I’m planning on a double layout – which is a scrapping rarity for me – so hold on to your hats ladies and gents – it may be a bumpy ride!!!

Catch you all soon xxx