Word up!

I love OLW. I rarely play along as I can never find the time, but every once in a while a word comes up that totally grabs me and is so relevant to something in my life right now that I just have to create with it. This fortnight's word was "imagine" - and was just perfect for something which I say and think almost daily. Believe it or not, it had never occurred to me to scrap it either, so I am so pleased that the girls provided me with this inspiration.

It's for my niece, and the journalling reads:

I'm just your Aunty, but the immense, overwhelming, endless love I feel for you makes it impossible hard to imagine how much love a mother must have for her child. Surely it can't be more than this?

Love that lil kiddo so much. I can hardly believe she will be two in just a couple of weeks. She is so beautiful (and stubborn and independent!), and makes me laugh with all the little phrases she is developing every day. At the moment she is obsessed with Biders. That's spiders to you and me, and apparently they are everywhere. In the bath, on the ceiling, behind the door and on her clothes! *wacko* Today she demanded that I "Shhhhhhh!" with her fingers to her lips. When I asked why, she told me it was because "baby bider's hiding behind the door", and then started laughing and screaming with hilarious excitement.

Love her to bits xxx

The Graveyard shift....

...ack, I can't sleep at all. My body clock seems to be all over the place for some reason unbeknown to me. This is the second time in a fortnight where I just have not been able to sleep at all, and so I guess tomorrow will be the second day I take off from uni for that reason (can't see me getting up at 7.30 now!). Not good, have to sort this out! Any (legal!) suggestions?

The weirdest part is that I am actually shattered! Had a very long and exhausting weekend taking a pack of 30 Brownies on their Pack Holiday by the sea front in Swansea. The girls were impeccably behaved and great to be with, but they were up at 7 and in bed at 11 - a very long day indeed, especially when you factor in the miles and miles we hiked about too! I must say, my friend and I only had to organise a trail for the girls, and then facilitate the planned activities, but just that exhausted us and I totally take my hat off to the two senior leaders who organised everything, the work it must have taken is immense - there was not a second of the day where there was not an activity for the girls to be getting on with, and they really enjoyed themselves.

Anyway, other news.....our cousins from London are down in Mumbles this week, so lovely to see them as always! This year is particularly lovely as they've brought their son, daughter in law and grand children who we very very rarely see so it's lovely to catch up with them.

Made a couple more cards....

Not sure about the chrimbo ones, but at least I'm using up some of those scraps:

But really like this one. The middle one says "butterflies" across it. Now, seriously, that was a total random act of nature. Complete fluke. It was so weird how that punch happened to have that across it that I hardly believe it myself, you probably won't either if I told you the full story, so I shan't!I've had a lil treat and got myself one of these.... and can't wait to start sticking crystals over everything in sight! I'm also planning on scrapping this prompt here, so hope to be back soon with some pretty things to share with you :)

xxx

Been gone....

.... but hopefully not forgotten!

Woah, has time flied since my last post. Reasons being? Mainly a lovely fortnight in Tenerife, followed by the recommencement (did I just make that word up?) of my degree the day after we got back!

Anyway, the holiday was absolutely lovely and just what we needed. Lee was well for the majority of it, and seems to have stabilised a little now. He went back to work last week anyway, so fingers crossed everything is on the up. Still no sign of an appointment with the consultant though, apparently we are now looking at December - and that's an emergency referral!

Have not had much time to sort out my holiday pics as of yet, what with being thrown straight back in the course and continuing with my summer job at the weekend (bleugh!!), but here are a couple to give you a taster of the lovely time we had.

Sangria!

These were everywhere around the hotel - growing like weeds!

Lee found the largest of the three pools was best for bobbing around on a lilo!

The smaller pool at sunset

I'm sure more pics will follow as I work through them!

Not had much time for scrapping :( I feel that I've lost my mojo but hopefully once my holiday pics are organised I'll find the inspiration I need to get creative.

I did however organise all my stash, out of necessity rather than choice as my study-come craft room had turned into a dumping ground over the last couple of months. I'd developed the tendency to open the door just enough to dump stuff in and then shut it again without having to face the chaos that lied within! But getting back to uni has meant I needed a clear space to work and access my files and books, so it had to be sorted.

As a result I found that three quarters of my scrapping papers are no longer my taste, so relegated them to a huge storage box which is now almost full of paper and scraps which, whilst I no longer want to scrap with, thought they may come in handy for other things. So I've started making some cards to use them up.

Now this is scary! I am not a cardmaker. If I had a picture of my old cards I'd post one, but they're all on disk somewhere - probably best never to be seen again! They were pretty basic, and it's hard to believe I actually used to get orders to make them and people paid for them!! So, showing my new cards is a bit nerve wracking really cos I'm not very confident at it, but I've tested them on an audience of close friends and family, who think they are ok (course they would though eh?!). I mean I don't think they are amazing or anything, but a little better than the crap I used to make!

So, I decided to use some teeny scraps to make these little geisha-inspired girls (and a boy!), they seem to be everywhere at the moment and I think the bright coloured dresses are so lovely and lend themselves well to my scraps!! I made a few, I don't have a pic of the girls on their own, but have used them to make a couple of cards. The first one is the wedding card I made for Lee's sister and her husband in July (never had a thank you but there you go! She must have thought it was crap!).

Next on my agenda is making some little girls in the style of Russian nestling dolls, seeing those everywhere at the mo too.
Off now to catch up with six weeks worth of blogs!! Catch you soon xxx