New Game!

Anita and Kirsty at HSMS are off on their jollies for a month so have left us with a game to play while they are away, it's a bit like that old drinking game, Drink While You Think, where you have to think of a word using the last letter of the last persons word as the first letter of your own. I do believe alcohol is strictly optional in this version though! I followed on from Fiona's "GAP", with this lovely Purse I bought yesterday.Spent yesterday in town shopping, been treating myself to bits and bobs ready for uni, like new shoes and clothes, as obviously money will be tight then and I don't want to look like a total scruff bag when I go! There was a thread which made me laugh over on UKS, about all the bird and owl motifs in current scrapbook paper lines and whether you liked them or not. I must admit, I was a bit wary of them at first, as although I'm not superstitious myself, a lot of my family are, and regard birds (well, pictures, ornaments of them etc,) as very bad luck to have in the house and even salute magpies and other daft things like that, and I guess it had rubbed off on me a bit! But I was soon swayed into liking the designs, more really because of the lovely bright colours I think, and now I'm seeing bird motifs everywhere! From having disliked the look, I must have had a complete personality over-hall because one of my "for uni" purchases last week was this:

It's a fab length for a t-shirt, comes right over my bum!

Talking of those owl designs, I was quite upset to have to cover up the cute French Twist Owl on this patterned paper, but I just couldn't work it into the LO. The page is based on the sketch that Pencil Lines put out for their DT search, I didn't enter but pinched the sketch to work from as I'd been unsure of how to work these three photos on to one page, and the sketch provided the ideal solution. I made the page for the challenge at the Swansea Crop based on the theme "Time". My journalling is really corny so if you can't read it in the pic I'm afraid you'll never know what a total sop Lee is!! The crop was great, it was our first birthday as a group and we had a buffet, cake and even sang happy birthday! It was especially fab as I managed to persuade my little sis to come along too. She's just getting into scrapbooking as she obviously wants to preserve memories for her daughter, and she enjoyed the crop so much she's sworn to become a regular!!It was my mum's birthday yesterday! We'd booked a table at a restaurant as a surprise, but poor mum was unwell, so we were resolved to having a chinese take away at her house instead. She also refused to have her pic taken as she felt so manky, but I caught this cute shot of her peeping over the birthday hat we bought her. She still looks gorgeous to me, poorly or not!!Ellie also had great fun with the Birthday hat (which was shaped like a big cake with candles on top), although was less than happy to have it plonked on her head!Here's Ellie in a rare shot playing with her daddy! My brother-in-law Andrew has got to be the most photo-phobic person I have EVER met!We spent last Saturday night at their house (to play on their Wii and for yet another takeway!! my diet is going down the pan this week!), and after a couple of bottles of wine my sis and I got a bit silly. We don't really drink all that often anymore, and it showed! Here we are looking giggly and flushed!At one point she squished her feet in my face, and I thought she'd stepped in something disgusting, but it was in fact a weird freckle she's developed over the last couple of years! How bizarre is that?! I've never known anyone to have freckles on the sole of their feet!Last Friday was the long awaited and much anticipated Bowling Night at work. I was dreading it, and had commited myself to being the drinks hostess all evening rather than bowling. This sport and I just don't mix!! It had been arranged for three teams of five, however, one of the team members had to drop out last minute and so I was roped in to making the team numbers even again! And I'm glad to say I quite literally had an absolute ball! I really surprised myself and did alright, even getting a strike at one point!! Go me and my unsporty butt!!! Here are a couple of shots of the night and the nuts I work with!

xxx

Snap Happy!

Woah! Missed a whole load of HSMS prompts while I was missing in action, so here's a little catch up on the one's which I could interpret quickly without too much hard work for my poor little brain :)
Here we go.......

Bowl: A round, deep dish. Show us a bowl in your space today
I love this bowl, it's a huge glass ornamental one we bought a few years ago when our lounge was a deep aubergine colour scheme. It's beautiful; it's metallic purple shot with silver at the bottom, and it's transclucent so the light comes through it beautifully. It's Portmeirion, which is especially special to us as we visited the village a few years ago at a turning point in my life so it holds some lovely associations, even though we did not actually buy it whilst there.
Sit: A position in which we relax. Who is sitting in your space today?
Another one of our motley crew, Millie. I do wish that either a) our sofas were another colour, or b) cats and dogs had more exciting fur (I'm thinking pink poodles here!), as the brown on brown combination doesn't half make for boring shots! She is a lovely girlie though :) Soap: A product we use to help us clean. Find soap in your space today.

I've got loads of boxes these lovely looking rose soap petal things, but due to my silly billy sensitive skin, sadly I can't pop them in the bath water :(

Write: To make marks with a pencil , paint or ink. Show us writing in your space.Straight: Moving or extending in only one direction. Show us straight in your space today. Ah! Essential pieces of equipment here that keep us crafty peeps on the straight and narrow!
And an even older one I've finally got around to doing:Hat: A cover for the head to keep it dry and warm. Find one in your space todayThis foxy little number keeps my lovely all safe and protected whilst he's at work :)

Thanks for looking, be back tomorrow with.................wait for it..........you'll never believe it ..........a SCRAPBOOK PAGE!!! Cripes! There's no stopping me now xxxx

Yooo hoooo!

I am here - promise! Just been one of those weeks where everything has been a mile a minute. If I've not been working I've been running about all over the place!

Normal transmission will, hopefully, resume tomorrow....'kay?!!

xxx

Press

Press: To compress, extract, squeeze, urge and manufacture. How do you see Press in your space?
Ooh I really enjoyed this one today! xxx

Berry

Berry: A small fruit with a stone or seeds. Show us a berry in your space today
A snap of some wintery berries I took last Autumn whilst walking through the woodland where I grew up.
Thanks for looking, as always xxx

Boat

Boat: A small vessel propelled by water. Find one in your space today
My catch up for Thursday's prompt.
It's my first blogging Birthday today......join me in chorus please.......
Happy birthday dear Blog,
Happy birthday dear Blog...................

:) Catch you soon xxx

Ellie Belly

Haven't had a chance to catch up on the HS:MS photo prompts yet, but whizzed by today to check what prompts I've missed and instantly knew I had the perfect photo for todays'. So I've cheated an incy bit as it's an old one, I it took to use on a LO about how much I love to sleep, but it's one of my faves - so much so it's been my screensaver since I took it! Hope you like it too :) The prompt is rather funny given my recent state of affairs!

Tired: In need of rest. Show us tired in your space

Had a wonderful day yesterday with Ellie-boo! She's such a happy, sweet, delightful little thing, even when she's teething! I didn't get to see her toothypegs, but certainly got to feel them a few times! Ouch! How very nice of her! I was really disappointed about my photos - first of all, I'd mistakingly left both my memory cards at home, so was restricted to the limited internal memory on my camera, and then when I came home and viewed them on my PC realised something wasn't right as she was very out of focus in all of them. Checked my camera only to find that some how the settings had been set to landscape, so no good for upclose portraits! I tried to make the best of a bad situation by adding some soft focus and spot colour filters over them, to try and keep Ellie's face the main subject rather than the distracting backgrounds (which were perfectly in focus.....grrrr!). Still, at least she was happy to play and pose for me to mark her seven months in our lives! Love her so much xxx

Thought I should add that the blue thing behind her in the photos is not a potty!! It's her Bumbo seat!!

The Swansea Crop is celebrating it's 1st birthday this Friday! How quickly a year has flown. Looking forward to the evening and meeting up with all the fab people who come together there each month, it's such a lovely group. I've made some fabby friends through the crop - people who I feel I've known for years, rather than just months - you know who you are!! It will also be nice to actually sit down and do some scrapbooking - I really haven't done anything in aaaages now and I've got a creative itch that needs it some scratching!!

My parcel arrived yesterday afternoon! Yay! I've managed to convince Lee that it was from a magazine for using my LO as a solution on the Q&A page last month - yeah right!!!! Big thanks must go to my mum for assisting me in this devious ploy by sitting there and exclaiming excidedly "Ooooh that's a lovely lot of freebies", "they are very generous with what they give aren't they", "you're very lucky to be given all that" and the such like as I showed her my goodies when Lee came in from work this afternoon. Awww mums are just the best! They'll get you out of just about anything!!! Love ya Mummy xxx

Weekend Warblings

Allo!

Thought I could do with a little photo-free catch up!

Not been up to too much, I seem to be going through one of those waves where my body if giving up the ghost against the night shifts again! I’m fine for the three days I have to work nights; I have no problem staying awake for the 12 hour shifts what so ever. The problem comes when my days off arrive and I just can’t get back in to a “normal” routine. So my days off this week have mostly been spent sleeping and feeling totally crap and run down, but then waking up at 4 am and having to get up as there’s no hope of returning to sleep. It’s driving me nuts to say the least! By three in the afternoon I’m totally pooped again, fall asleep until about eight, and then, of course can’t sleep properly through the night. It’s such a vicious circle, but I just can’t seem to break it. I can’t fight the tiredness – it’s so overwhelming.

Oooh, I had an email with a tracker thing for my stash order I was worried about– and it would appear that it did in fact hit British shores on Friday afternoon so it should be here soon. I’ve also read a few other blogs where people are waiting for over due orders from the US, so at least I’m not alone and not too worried now. At least it didn’t turn up over the weekend when Lee was home! Haha!

Due to my weird sleeping habits of late, Lee and I took Rocky for a moonlit walk along the Mumbles promenade on Friday night. I’m not sure if it was the lovely summery, balmy climate at 1.30 am, or the lack of appropriate sleep – but I dragged Lee in to the kiddies play park on the seafront, and spent about half an hour on the swings, slides, roundabout and climbing frames releasing my inner child! I have never laughed so much in my life. I’ve got a hefty frame at the best of times – so just picture that squeezing around play equipment designed for eight year olds. Fun times! I’m so glad the village was pretty deserted by that time – even the dog was giving us looks of disapproval!

Been busy today in the garden – it’ so exciting seeing things growing from the seeds we planted! I was up and out there by 4.30 am, as I couldn’t sleep and was totally restless, but given the scorching temps we’ve had today it was just as well as I couldn’t have got much done in that. The little thermometer I use to check my plants will still be happy was reading 37 degrees centigrade at one point. Scorchio!

Over the past couple of days, we’ve been able to have a really decent sized bowl of strawberries, more radish, we’ve just about got enough lettuce for a few decent bowls of salad and I can finally spot some tiny little sprouts which will be courgettes (in time) on the plants. I sew some more radish, lettuce and spring onion today too, to make sure we have a succession of crops to last the season. The tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and aubergines are all far off providing any crops as of yet – we’ve been set back a bit as our PVC greenhouse was severely mangled in the bad weather and is now unusable. I’ve made some make shift cloches for the aubergines from pop bottles, but once they out grow them I’m not sure what we’ll do. They really love the heat and I don’t think I’m going to be able to provide it for them. I’m stalking ebay, freecycle, and the freeads/adtrader for a proper greenhouse, but no luck as of yet.

We’ve also got some fruit trees – we’re waiting on some cherries to ripen (yumm!), and even our new little apple tree has some apples-to-be on it which I was really surprised at; as it’s in its first year they really should be removed so that the tree can concentrate on establishing it’s roots, but I’m enjoying watching them develop, it’s so rewarding! I may just leave two on there, there are four at the moment having already taken one away. Another thing I did today was take some cuttings from my rosemary bush as I’d love to grow it on and plant some more about the garden because I just love the smell!

‘Ark at me! I sound like a right Charlie Dimmock!! I really haven’t got a clue, it’s mostly trial and error and going on information form the fabby people over on The Grape Vine. It’s fun trying it all out anyway, an if we get some fruit or veg in the process, it will be a bonus!

So, despite the sleep interruptions, it’s been a pretty relaxing weekend. I’m looking after Ellie tomorrow as my sister has to do some overtime at work, so I’m really looking forward to some quality aunty-niece time, with lots of photos as I’ve not snapped her for a while! Her second tooth has come through so I’m hoping to catch a shot of her new toothy grin :) Also will be catching up on the HS:MS prompts from over the weekend, enjoying those so much, they really make you look closely at your surroundings. Fab.

Righty-oh then blogeroonies, catch up with you tomorrow. Here’s to a good week :)

Cheese

Cheese:A food made of milk curds. Show us cheese in your space.
Happy Friday everyone! Yay! I'm so happy to be off work this weekend and have no formal plans what so ever! I hope that I can have a little scrapping time somewhere along the way, I haven't done anything in ages, but this is due to having no photos to work with. My photos are always my starting point; it's from these which my ideas and inspiration develop. I have loads of ideas flying around my head that accompany photos stuck here on my hard drive, but I have no means of printing them for the time being as ye olde photo printer is all out of yellow, so naturally doesn't wanna go at all. Bad printer! I can't even coax it into letting me have a couple of b&w prints from the large reserve of black ink.Very frustrating!

Another mini frustration I have at the mo is that I have the increasing dread that a stash order from overseas has gone missing en route. I thought it may have got here Wednesday. So surely by Thursday. Most definately by today! But no show. It's taking way too long to arrive. I can't even remember what I actually ordered it seems that long ago. Either it is lost - or it will arrive tomorrow when Lee is home - and I won't be able to hide it amongst my other goodies without him knowing, as per usual! Yikes! I'll be in trouble if he finds out I've had a little splurge as we're supposed to be making drastic cutbacks ready for September. Do you think the fact that so far this morning I have managed to save us £22 a month my switching my car insurance and bank account will compensate for my scrapping treats in my lovely other-halfs' sweet little mind?

No. Me neither!!

But.....it's Friday afternoon and the sun is shining, so no worries in this household!! Have a lovely weekend bloggers! xxx

Furry Bread?!!

Furry: Something that is covered in fur or has a fur like appearance. Find something furry in your space today
Well, with four cats, a dog and Lee, there's furriness a-plenty in this household. But I chose this furry little kissy snout which excitedly greeted me when I crawled in from work this morning :) Here's that snout in its' context - awww our lovely old boy!! Don't for one minute be fooled by those sad looking eyes - his tail was thumping a hundred miles an hour when I was taking these shots, as he knows he's not usually allowed on the sofas so was enjoying every second of it! He's such a poser, and certainly knows when he's on to a good thing :)
Bread:A simple food of brown or white colour. Show us bread in your space today
Well, I bought a lovely fresh, warm bloomer for this prompt but my photos were unbelievably boring - there was simply no jazzing that loaf up!! And now there are crumbs and crusts all over my kitchen!! So I had a flash of inspiration and took some shots of......my dough!!! :) Now I wish it was this sort of bread strewn across the kitchen work tops!!!!!

xxxx

Roll up, Roll up!!!!!!

Now for that news I was on about...............

Remember the fantastic Scrappers Unlimited retreat I went on in April and had an absolute ball?

Chrissie has asked me if I can teach at the upcoming Summer Time Out here in Swansea!! I'm very excited at the prospect of attending another one of these smashing weekends, and hope that my little part in it will help make the break as wonderful for the delegates as Brecons was for me, especially as I know there will quite a few retreat newbies in attendance!

It's going to be a really relaxed and chilled summery affair, with plenty of laid back classes, scrapping time, excellent stash shopping opportunities, some time spent on the beautiful Gower coastline and, of course, a trip to Joes, the home of simply the best ice-cream known to mankind.

I do believe there are still some very limited places available, so take a peep here and come along and join the fun :) xxx

Basket

Basket: A woven container. Find one in your space today

Piccy Catch Up!

Quick round up of the HS:MS prompts from over the weekend! I'm really enjoying playing along with these! I'd love to say that a photo a day keeps the doctor away (or something equally as corny) but my recent state of health clearly proves this to be untrue!!!
Fruit:A sweet product from a tree or plant to eat. Show us fruit in your space.
And yes - this juicy strawb really is ripening in my garden! Can't wait!!
Vegetable: A plant or part of a plant that is used for food. Show us a vegetable in your space today. And these were freshly plucked from our garden this morning!!
Peg: A small piece of wood, metal or plastic used for holding things together or marking a position. Find one in your space today. Aye - pegs have some interesting jobs to do in our household!
Lid: A removable cover for the top of a container. Find a lid in your space today. I couldn't find a beautifully decorated lid, so choose this one. It's special because it's the lid of a beautiful candle one of my most wonderful friends, Ali, bought for me a couple of Christmases ago. I can't bring myself to burn it as it smells tooo good - just like cookies, and even has cute little sugar sprinkles on top! I tasted it once but it didn't taste that hot!!! A bit waxy and perfume-like!!! So now I just stic to taking the lid of and having a good whiff whenever I need a bit of sunshine in my life :) Love you Ali xxx
Thanks for looking, as always xxx

Sniffle sniffle! Cough cough!!

Thought I better have a mini-catch up before you all think I've desserted my blog!! Truth is, for the fourth time in two months, I've come down with another yucky lurgy and have been pretty worn out the last two days. I just don't know what is going on with my body and it's lack of resilliance to bugs at the moment!

Speaking of which, I switched on my camera to upload the picture below, only to find a sneaky little pic Lee had taken of me yesterday, deep in flu-enduced sleep on the sofa, with a tissue stuffed up my nose to save me constantly wiping it!! It's a tecnhique I find most handy when trying sleep with a runny nose!! I toyed with the idea of sharing the pic with you all, but decided the world is not ready to see the vision of my greasy-haired, sweaty-faced, snotty, tissue-stuffed, cold-ridden sleeping self!!

Anyway, what I have managed to get up to through the sniffles and in the short time I've managed to stay awake is a card for my brother in laws' birthday today. I used the freebie Cherry Arte papers from a recent copy of Scrapbook Inspirations, and it's based on a sketch from the Card Positioning Systems site - so you could quite easily call me a cheap skate and a cheat, lol, but all in all it was a quick and easy way to bang together a card when I was feeling lousy!! It looked ok in real life, the pic,as usual, makes it look a bit naffer than it really was :)
Looking forward to catching up tomorrow with all the HS:MS photo prompts that I've missed over the weekend, especially as two of the prompts are starting to be found amoungst all our recent hard work in the garden!!! We ate our first home grown produce this week!! Ok - so it was only one tiny radish, and one strawberry, but it was so exciting and satisfying to know that we'd grown these ourselves!!! And they were delicious - I don't usually like radish and grew it at Lee's insistance, but I must admit, it tasted lovely!!

It's a big relief that the word is now out at work that I'll be leaving in September; I had a lovely appraisal and my team leader was very supportive of my decision to head to higher education.

I have also had an amazing offer/news this week which I'm excited about and hopefully can share with you really soon! Stay tuned bloggeroonies!!!

xxxx