Merry Christmas To Everyone I Know...

and also to those of you who read this blog and I don't know :D

Just Not Feeling It

I'm trying to but it's just not happening for me this year. I'm fairly sure I know why but knowing why doesn't help me to deal with things and start to get in to Christmas.

I think it's in large part due to this being the first Christmas without my brother. I don't need to expand on that I know. This feeling of moroseness hasn't been helped by the sudden death of my cousin last weekend either.

Apart from that I'm tired. We're all tired. The children are in varying stages of illness, Noah being the worst hit at the moment. Seemingly fine(ish) during the day but very high temperatures at night (around the 39.7 mark), he was almost delirious the night before last. This has meant getting up in the night to see to him, dose him up with Calpol, cool him down with cold flannels and generally just spend some time calming him. It scares me. Which means I can't then sleep afterwards. Which means that basically that from whatever time he wakes up in the middle of the night until morning comes around, I'm not sleeping. At all. I'm just laying there, imagining all the worse case scenarios. I know. It's ridiculous. Some would even say stupid but with the year I've had I just can't help it. I tell myself surely nothing else can happen? That I know in my head he'll be fine but then I lie there sick to my stomach, heart pounding and the fear just grips me. Until the morning comes around and I see that he's picked up again. Hopefully I'll sleep better tonight.

Then there's all the visitors. This is the main drawback of living away from family. When they come they don't (they can't really) just come for a day, they come for longer. Now this isn't normally a problem but in the last three weeks, I've had 2 different sets of visitors, both staying for around a week at a time and it's hard work. The last visitor, Richard's dad, went back home to Germany today but I only have tomorrow to do a turn around, laundry wise, and then my mum and step-dad arrive on Thursday to spend a few days or so with us. So by the end of this week I will have had visitors, each staying for around a week, for 3 weeks out of a 4 week period.

On a positive note I'm done with Christmas shopping. Both presents and food. On another down note I've not wrapped one single item yet. I've hardly sent out any cards, around a handful. Partly because I put the pressure on myself to make them and partly because I've either been too busy (with work etc.) or too tired or just not motivated to actually sit down and write them. I'm hoping to maybe do this tomorrow. Yes, they will be late but at least they will get sent - eventually!

I'm sure on Christmas morning on seeing the happy faces of my beautiful family I will start to feel it but not now. Not yet. Still too much to do.

Sorry, it's a miserable post but I need to get it off my chest.

I'm going to bed soon, please pray that we all get a good nights sleep and are all well and on the road to health come morning.

OK, off now to try and do something about reclaiming my joy!

JYC 2008: Prompt 3

Still playing catch up but as I was enjoying doing this before I was interrupted (I would say rudely but my mum may read this :D ) I'm determined to take back that enjoyment and carrying on with my journal this year.

Prompt 3 is all about christmas cards. Hmmm.... another thing on my to do list!

JYC 2008: Prompt 2 (Mark II)

OK, so I couldn't leave it alone and yes, I'm now significantly playing catch up on the JYC 2008. In my defense this is NOT because I've been pfaffing with improving/changing/revising Prompt 2 (Mark II) but because I've had my mum staying with me for the last week and I've been busy. Very. Very. Busy.

But I have improved/changed/revised my JYC 2008: Prompt 2 entry and it is below for your perusal. Comments welcome :D

Noah's Christmas List

Well, his first draft anyway, he's working on the revised version.

For those of you who can't read six-ese it reads:

• My Sims Kingdom on Wii


• A real wand


• A black robe


• Wizards glasses


• £400,000


• A shop

Now there's a boy with an agenda although I can't help thinking that if he manages to get hold of no.2 on his list he'll be able to acquire all of the rest with no problems!

JYC 2008: Prompt 2

So I'm managing to keep up. I know, I know, it shouldn't be too difficult as it's only day 2 but it's twice as long as I managed last year!



And yes, I still need to upload the credits for yesterdays and I haven't had time to do the credits for todays either but I will... OK?

JYC 2008: Prompt 1

So as I said in my last post it's Journal Your Christmas time again - and this year I plan to give it 100% and try and get more than just one page done! And I'm off to a good start as I've already completed the prompt 1 page (click on the image for a closer look):



I'll update this page with the relevant credits tomorrow, it's too late now I'm off to bed.

It's Christmas Journal Time Again

So if you aren't signed up for this class yet then get yourself over to Shimelle's and do it - pronto!

This is an absolutely fab-u-lous class and great value for money. Not only do you get a daily prompt, every day from 1st December to 6th January (Shim takes you right up to include the 12 days of Christmas!), in the form of a superbly put together, fully illustrated pdf file, access to an online forum to post questions/chat with others, but you get to participate in the class every year afterwards AT NO EXTRA COST!!!

This year there will also be some extra little things thrown in, like some fabulous photographers who are going to share their secrets for taking our holiday photos to the next level...

Can't wait...

Layout Share

I've actually managed to find some time to do some digital scrapbooking so thought I would share them with you here:

 

Full credits can be found here

 

Full credits can be found here

Hello and Welcome

If you are reading this you've made it over from my old Typepad blog, so hello and welcome!

I don't have time to write much today as I must, must, must get on with some work. I'm suffering from P&P: prevarication and procrastination! And if I don't put a stop to  it right now past history has taught me it could go on for days, perhaps weeks!

It's not completely ready yet, I definitely need to sort out links and the sidebars but I was, once again, suffering from P&P in trying to get it started so yesterday just decided to go for an off the peg theme, not mess around with it and just get it out there! Hopefully in the next few days I'll tidy it up a little and then make a start on making it my own.

Pain, Pain, Go Away

I am in agony! I've torn a muscle in my left thigh...

To cut a long story short I had a bit of a back injury last Monday night so I took one of the muscle relaxants my mother-in-law gave me (don't worry she is a doctor and knows what she's doing!!!) before I went to bed. I woke up, to the sound of the front door ringing, got out of bed and took one step at which point I promptly fell to the ground... weird, thinks I, pull myself up to standing (I can stand) and thought no more of it until I took my next step and whooommmmp! Straight down to the ground. By this time the doorbell is ringing persistently, the children, Hettie in particular as she knows it's her birthday present, are shouting to tell me "it's the POSTMAN!!!" and I end up having to crawl to the top of the stairs on my hands and knees, pull myself up using the bannisters and manage, somehow, to reach the front door. At this point I am managing to walk, if a little hesistantly.

That was on the Tuesday. Wednesday meant back to work for me and a round trip drive of an hour and a half which played havoc with my left thigh and that evening I found it painful to get up and sit down so I cancelled work for the rest of the week as the thought of driving again (all that clutch changing) filled me with dread.

So today rolls around and guess what? I feel good and healthy for the first time in what seems like weeks (probably about 3 weeks at the least), no cough, no cold, no viral anything and so go back to work. Got home around 2:30pm with a long list of phone calls to make and knelt down to pick up my phone from the charger and rrriiiiiiiippppppp, pain so bad went searing up my thigh - it was so bad I almost passed out and felt physically sick...

Turns out I have badly torn one of my thigh muscles. I suspect I did at least some damage when I collapsed last week (due to an adverse reaction to the muscle relaxant I feel) and it was starting to get better when I did something it didn't like...

So no work for about 7 to 10 days... don't know whether to feel pleased or not about that...

A Missed Marketing Opportunity?

So I wonder if there is/has been a missed marketing opportunity in the world of digital scrapbooking?

This gap in the market has come to my attention because I have been looking for one: a square digital photo frame. Not a portrait or a landscape digital frame but a square one, perfect for displaying all my digital photo layouts.

Why can't I find one? Does one exist? And if it doesn't, should it? I'm sure there must be lots of other digi-scrappers out there who would like one too... 

And if there is one, where can I buy one?

Christmas Has Come Early

In the form of the arrival of my new MacBook! How beautiful is she? And something so beautiful needs something equally beautiful to be carried around in so look what arrived with it! I can't wait to unpack it and start to play. Yes, I know it's a christmas present but I'm not a patient sort of person and Richard knows this so I was allowed to get it early :D Oh, he so spoils me...

And if that wasn't enough to spoil a girl then today also saw the arrival of the shoes I decided to treat myself too with all the hard work I've been doing. Aren't they lush?

Today...

would have been my brother's 36th birthday. It's hard not to think about you most days but today more so. I'm trying not to think about all the negatives but concentrate on the positives and with that in mind I'm going to post a photo of your beautiful baby girl. I was blessed with being able to spend a whole day with her a few weeks ago when we were in Plymouth for the weekend.

Isn't she beautiful?

It's Been A Long Time

Probably too long and no-one reads my blog at all anymore... I imagine I can hear an echo... echo... echo...

However this is not a problem as I blog for myself anyway so even if I'm the only person reading it that's OK. Life has been busy. Too busy to blog. So for a brief catch up on life todate:

• My brothers funeral: so hard and I'm still going through the grieving process (do we ever stop?) but my faith has been a huge help


• School holidays: 5 weeks which seemed to go by in a blur


• Have seen my eldest child choose to be baptised: amazing! 


• 2 additional new clients (I am now at full capacity and actually work more than I initially planned on working)


• Work, work, work: too much, 12 days straight (including Saturdays and Sundays) at one point about which I have decided enough is enough and I will set working hours/days and that will be that! No more, no less, if it can't get done in that time it will either have to wait or they will have to go elsewhere!


• Richard's 40th birthday: he is aging very, very well :-) 


• A trip to Germany: great (apart from the next bullet point), we got to meet Richard's sisters or the first time and they are absolutely so cute and lovely - although at one point Richard and I realised that we are old enough to be their parents


• Sick: I'm sick of being sick. It seems as soon as I stopped to go on holiday my body just gave up and has decided to give my immune system a break and go on holiday itself.


• My baby girl turned 10 yesterday: Harriet is a whole decade old!  

  I have some photos to post once I've uploaded them, hopefully in the next couple of days, until then :D

An Amazing Sunday

I know, I haven't posted in a long time but the summer holidays have a way of keeping you occupied like no other.

I have lots to say and photos to post but will keep it brief for now. The most important and exciting thing to share is that Katarina got baptised yesterday! How amazing! It is hard to express how overjoyed Richard and I were when Kat told us last week that she wanted to be baptised on Sunday. There is no greater joy than to not only see one of your children commit to being one of God's children but to also be involved in actually baptising them (apart from the fact that the water was a 'little' cold!!!).

I will have some photos to post at some point.

The service was an amazing one. Yes, it is always good but yesterday was better than good. Some of our church members put on a dance for us which just blew everyone away. I'm hoping it has been recorded so that I can post it here but in the mean time this is the same dance but performed by another church just so you can get a small idea of how truly inspiring and thought provoking it is:

Treasures Found

I looked after the daughter of a friend on Tuesday and the children all decided to put on a fashion show. The only slight problem was that they asked if I would video it.

Yes, we do have a camcorder but the problems arose because firstly, I had no idea where it was, secondly, it would definitely have a flat battery and thirdly, did we have any mini-tapes for it?

The problems were all solved very quickly when firstly, I found it within 2 minutes of looking for it, secondly, yes, it was flat but I also found the mains charger within 1 minute of looking for it and thirdly, it had a tape stored next to it, one stored inside it and, whilst looking for the thing itself, I found a brand new unopened mini-tape somewhere else. We were set and ready to go.

The next hurdle I hit was trying to get the video from the handycam (very old now, well, in terms of ne technology) on to my Mac. After much trying I gave up on the Mac, installed the software for the handycam (which I also found - wonders will never cease!) and started to upload it to the old pc. But then, guess what? I found yet another cable and this one was the usb dv cable and lo and behold I connected one end to the handycam, the other to my Mac and voila! Instant movies.

After I had sorted out 'The Fashion Show' I turned my attention to the two other opened and looking used tapes. And I found a veritable treasure chest of memories from the early half of 2005. Wow! How my children have grown. Obviously I do know they are growing but they do it so slowly in front of you. These videos were in your face 'look how much I've changed, mum!'. We were living in Nova Scotia at that time and the videos were such a fab reminder of some of the great times we had. The snow, which I loved, the children quickly developing canadian accents, our home, such a fantastic house.

We've watched these videos over and over since, wallowing in the beauty of their littleness. Especially Noah. Noah was not quite 2 years old when we moved over and the cuteness (and tantrum) factor is off the scale. Here's one little clip I'll share with you:

Recipe: Homemade Lemonade

You will need:

• 6 lemons



• 200g sugar



• 2 1/2 pints of boiling water

Pare the outer zest from the six lemons and place in a large bowl (large enough to hold 2 1/2 pints of water!). Next squeeze all the juice out of the lemons and add to the zest, don't worry about pips and stuff at this point. Finally add the sugar and then the boiling water. Mix well until all the sugar has dissolved and then cover bowl with a tea towel and leave someplace cool overnight. Put the liquid through a rough sieve, to filter out the zest and the pips but still allow some of the 'fleshy bits' to go through. Voila! Tasty, yummy, full of vitamins, homemade lemonade. Great served with ice on a hot summers day (although probably not today as it is tipping down with rain!).

You can add more or less sugar according to taste, only remember if you try it when it is still hot it will taste quite sweet but by the time it is cool and ready to strain it will be nowhere near as sweet as when it was hot - if you kwim? I've experimented a little and find 200g of sugar, in the words of Goldilocks, to be just right! Not too sour to give you a pucker face, but not too sweet either, just a little bit of a zesty twang.

Oh, and for pink lemonade? Add a splash or two of pomegranate or cranberry or something red juice. Alternatively whizz it up with a few fresh strawberries.

I Am A Domestic Goddess

OK, so that may be pushing things a little too far but hey, I can have my little fantasies, can't I?

Anyway, I'm lately I've been feeling like I've just stepped out of an Enid Blyton book - I've been making lashings and lashings of homemade lemonade:

{click for larger image and just look at that cool bottle}

The children are drinking it as fast as I can make it. In fact earlier this week I made a double batch, 5 pints, yes, that's 5 whole pints, and they drank it - all within an hour (maybe less!).

I'm not complaining though. They get a healthy dose of vitamin C and I get to feel like a traditional mum, providing 'old fashioned' homemade treats for her brood and feeling not a little smug!

6 Years Ago Today

God gave us this:

I can't believe that my baby is now 6 years old! We took him and 4 friends to see Wall E at the cinema and to PizzaHut afterwards. His verdict? "It was the best day of my life!"

Yesterday

The funeral for my brother was held yesterday. It went as well as can be expected but was a very difficult day for us all. The last 2 weeks have been very difficult with a lot of questions, 'what-ifs' and replaying of scenarios going around and around in my mind.

For some things I will probably never have any answers. I will never know exactly what events contributed to him finally feeling he had no other option but to take his own life. I will never know whether if I had called him more often it would have made a difference. He was troubled, he never really did come to terms with my dad's death, he did make choices in his life that weren't good for him. This was so final though.

It does seem that some weeks prior he had taken steps to try to turn his life around. He did make an appointment with a doctor. Said he needed help. Said he needed counselling. Said he wanted to stop the drugs. But the system failed him. 12 weeks later he had still heard nothing. Would it have made a difference? I'd like to think so. I know that I didn't see him as often as I should. But I miss him, miss knowing that he was there, however much in the background. I wish I had one more chance to hug him. To tell him that I love him no matter what.

I remember the cheeky little boy he was (I was 5 and a half when he was born). The accident prone little monkey, always up to something, who insisted that his full name was Matthew Mortlock Brett, not accepting the Brett should be in the middle. The boy who when his mates would use bad language in front of me would tell them off for doing so. The man he turned in to, the one who was not ashamed to kiss his mum, dad or sisters and tell them he loved them - not caring even if his mates were watching. A man who loved his daughters, his little princesses, and no matter what he was going through himself made sure to keep in touch with.

Time heals, I know. I've lived through this before when my dad died. But it doesn't take away the loss, you still feel it, it just becomes something you learn to live with.

Matt - My Brother

3rd November 1972 - 18th June 2008.

Charity Begins At Home?

The old adage seems true... at least it does in our house according to Noah.

It was my birthday yesterday (thanks for the birthday cards and wishes, I had a lovely day) and the children woke me with cards and presents and singing.

All except Noah that is who came, literally with 'cup in hand', and announced that as of yesterday he was starting a charity. For himself!!! He is an avid collector of coins... he doesn't feel as if he has enough... and apparently he needs more.

The things this not quite 6 year old comes out with never ceases to amaze me.

Happy Father's Day

To Richard. Hope you had a great day and just one more 'little' thing:

Milk Rap

We both just LOVED this advert which used to be shown lots whilst we were living in Canada. Enjoy...

(Love the line 'We got the big bad Bessie with the M-I-L-K')

Weekend Before Last

OK, so I'm behind - tell me something new :D

So weekend before last we went back to my home town (or should that be city?) of Plymouth. Partly because it seems like ages since we went to stay at mums but, I have to admit, mostly so that we could see my cousin perform in the live final of the FX Factor on the Saturday night.

I am so proud of him, of what a great guy he is and of how he's turned his life around.

The evening was great, not necessarily because of the acts in the final (more on this later) but because it was so nice to get together with family. Something that I don't get to do a lot of having moved away when I got married.

To be honest there were some terrible, truly awful, 'how on earth did they make it to the final?' acts but Sam was worth the wait. He came third. Not a bad result but I do think he should have won - and that from a completely unbiased point of view (OK, I admit maybe slightly the biased - but only slightly!). The winner did have a good voice but she only did a cover version, likewise the girl who came second, Sam on the other hand was true to himself and who he is as an artist and performed one of his own songs - that makes him the winner in my mind.

You can check his stuff out on his MySpace site (linked above) but I just want to post this video recently uploaded onto YouTube. It's a video directed by a Jeremy Ngatho Cole and is the final part of a Music Video Trilogy, starring Andy Douglas (don't ask, I have no idea...). The most important thing is that music used for the video is Sam's. His vocals, his song, him singing it on the video!

And my favourite line from the song?

"I know what kinda of man I want to be, the man who when my children look and see, they are proud of all I am"

He came around to mum's on the Sunday, brought his guitar and gave an inpromptu performance of some of his songs. He sang this then, the first time I've heard it and this line brought tears to my eyes.

Enjoy:

 

Rocket Envy

I know, I'm being a bad blogger (again!). In fact writing that I'm a bad blogger is starting to become a habit, so I suppose I should just accept the fact that I am a bad blogger, live with it and get over it. I am though going to commit myself to posting something at least once a week, that way I can feel that once I've posted once during a week I can forget about it and stop agonising over the fact that I haven't posted in over a week because I will have... if you get what I mean? LOL...

Anyway, not much of anything happening at the moment. It's a school holiday this week and wouldn't you know it? The weather, which up until recently has been pretty gorgeous has now turned not so gorgeous! I do though have plenty to do: Noah has decided to hold an Invention Competition:

Contestants: Mummy and Daddy
Aim: To invent something (make a model)
Judge: Either Kat or Hettie, he hasn't quite decided yet but he can't do it because he is busy...
Prize: To be made by Noah

Now, I have some stiff competition because, unbeknownst (don't you just love that word?) to me, Daddy was given the 'heads up' yesterday and has already submitted his entry - a rocket! Now, not to make me feel inferior or anything but I've already had it pointed out by my dear son that "Daddy's rocket is amazing! Look at the detail, mum!".

Not to be out done, I had to come up with something pretty quick, I promptly said that I was going to make a car. With moving wheels and everything.

Now, I'm not sure whether Noah's living under the illusion that I am so much better than I am or if, in fact, I should be flattered that he feels I am capable of achieving what he thinks I can because his next comment was "Whoah, can you make it with a remote control?"... What?... With a remote control? I don't think so darling...

Just A Quick One

I do have a couple of digi layouts to post but just need to resize them for web first.

But I just wanted to say that the people at Dolce Gusto have been at it again and have now come out with the Mocha variety! They've probably been around for ages but as I'm very rarely in a supermarket nowadays (I do nearly all my grocery shopping online don'cha know! LOL) I didn't know. but Sunday we popped in to pick up some bits after church and there they were, boxes of Mocha, calling to me. So I bought a box, brought it home and then... promptly forgot to have one!

But I have now remedied this, after just getting back from the gym and feeling like I deserve one :D

It was good! I have to say though that the Latte Macchiato is still my favourite. OK, enough about that I'm even boring myself now :D

Will endeavour to post some crafty stuff, and something more interesting, shortly.

It's Back!

And that's all I'll say... well, that and the fact that we nearly missed it!!! Thank goodness for BBC3 is all I can say. That and Sky+ so I could tape the repeat of episode 1 and also manage to pick up episode 2 - so guess what we'll be watching tonight?

Week 3 - Digi: In Deep

So, I'm behind. So, what's new? Work has been getting in the way of all my fun. Lately whenever I'm on the computer it just seems to be all about the work.

However, I, along with many other parents in England, had a child home from school today because of the teacher's strike and so... I couldn't work - yay!

And so... I got to play and this was the result of week 3 of Jessica Sprague's Digi: In Deep class:

Click on it for a bigger version. I am so pleased with this LO. I learnt so much. If you ever want to learn more about digital scrapbooking then you can't go far wrong than taking one of Jessica's classes - they are just fab!

So what did I learn? I learnt how to create a photo cluster - something I've seen on lots of digi LOs but didn't know how to do. I learnt how to manipulate the photo cluster to show only colour inside the frames but black and white outside. I learnt how to take a photo with just the focal point on my finger and the rest of me out of focus - cool!

And yes - that fingerprint is mine - we learnt how to do that too!

I'm most pleased with my ghost flowers - that was self taught... I'm so clever... LOL...

Another Noah Gem

In future to just be referred to as ANG!

Driving back from his swimming lesson yesterday, it was a glorious early Spring evening and the sun was shining: "Hey, Hettie, if you look at the sun and then blink, then look outside the car, all around and blink, it's like painting with your eyes. It's really cool!".

A Couple of Digi Layouts

I've just realised that I didn't post the last LO of my Jessica Sprague online digital scrapbooking class, Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop, so here it is:

As I learnt so much from this class I enrolled on the follow up one. Jessica is fab and gave all those who signed up in the previous class not only a heads up on enrollment (releasing enrollment to us a couple of days early) so that we could be guaranteed a place but also gave us a discount!

Anyway, here are the two LOs I have done using the week 1 lesson. The first is a basic follow of the video tutorials she gives and the second one is our 'assignment' based on the things we learned. Not overly happy with the second one and I don't know why... any thoughts appreciated.

As usual just click on the images for a closer view.

 

Rumpus

Conversation with Noah last Friday:

Me: So did you have a good day at school today?
Noah: Yes, it was bring a game day
[Last day of term before Spring break so the children had an easy day]
Me: I see you took Robodoc, did you have fun playing it?
Noah: Well, not really the other children didn't listen very well as there was such a rumpus going on!

Rumpus? What 5 year old uses the word rumpus?

I decided to see if he really knew what the word meant. Hey, in our family it's ok to use your extended vocabulary but you've got to know what it means.

Rumpus definition according to Noah: Yeah, well it's like when you have a party and there's lots of noise and stuff and things going on. That's a rumpus!

Probably not the dictionary definition but close enough for me.

He makes me smile...

I Know, I Know...

... I'm a bad, bad blogger!

But in my defense I have been very, very busy. Here's a brief catch up of the last few weeks (in no particular order):

• Work has really taken off. I've got lots to do and to be honest we haven't as a family yet adjusted to the fact that I now work. This means that I've still been trying to do all the things I was doing before I started work and work... hmmmm... something needs to change. Shall I give up work? LOL...



• The Thursday before the Easter my mum and step-dad arrived. They stayed until the following Tuesday. We all know what it's like having visitors don't we? All go...



• We've bought 2 new cars. I hasten to add they aren't brand new, second-hand cars, but we are really pleased to not only move up to having a second car (we so needed it) but to downsize from the Chrysler Voyager. We just didn't need such a large family car anymore, not now that Kat and Hettie aren't in child seats any longer. So we are the owners of a small little Renault Clio and a not so small (but smaller than the Voyager) Renault Grand Scenic. We're a Renault family!



• I'm in the middle of decorating my office (photos once it's completed). Awful 1980s dado rail removed, walls sanded, repairs made to where the dado rail once was, walls painted, shelves erected, now just need to sort out my stash which is currently taking over the conservatory and I'll be all set. I MUST be strict with myself over what I will or won't keep. My rule? To only keep what I absolutely LOVE.



• Hettie was off school for a couple of days. Some sort of viral thing which brought her out in spots. We thought for a moment (and so did the nurse) that it was a second occurring of chicken spots but thankfully I don't think it was.



• More work.



• And Linsay came!!! I had an email from her a couple of months ago saying that her parents were coming over to visit and stay with her brother in March, oh, and would I be home on the day they arrive as she wanted to send over a little parcel full of canadian goodies (yes, I do miss somethings!!!)? How shocked was I to open the door on Good Friday to not just find Linsay's parents but Linsay herself???!!! I was so, so happy to see her as I've missed her so much. We talk and email but it's not the same as one on one chatting. She stayed briefly for a quick coffee but then left to go visit her brother. However, I was able to pick her up from Somerset on the following Saturday and she stayed with us until the Monday. You'd think we would 'do the sights' wouldn't you? No, we chatted, drank coffee at Starbucks, had roast on Sunday and went to the cinema. And you know what? It was great, we were right back to just chilling with friends. It was fab but oh, too short.



• Lots of driving... down to Somerset and back (one and a half hours either way), up to Heathrow airport and back (a similar length of driving time).

There's probably more but my brain is frazzled just thinking about that. Have some digi LOs to post and will try and get around to them in the next day or so.

Back From A Great Weekend

What a great weekend. The perfect combination of good friends, lots of chatting, lots of eating, not a small amount of drinking and some much appreciated time in the spa and a swedish massage!

Thanks to my villa buddies for such great company (Cherry, Dani, Jackie, Janina, Julie and Mary Anne - sorry you couldn't make it Kirsty - next time eh?). Special thanks to Mary Anne for being patient with my first stumblings in to the art of crochet! But thanks also to Carole (my very own crochet guru). Loved my time with my pineapple gin buddies - thanks for the 'time out', the albatross sanctuary and well, you know what else! LOL...

I LOVED the spa. When can I go again? I want to particularly point out the Japanese Salt Bath, the Laconium, the Turkish Hammam and the Tepidarium - my personal faves!

I just have to go again so I'm going to look in to going to either the gorgeous spa at Bath (maybe a girly day out with Katarina) or I also know that Center Parcs do day visitor pamper days and feel a regular visit is in order... I never thought I was the 'spa' sort but what do you know? I was wrong!

OK, so tired now. The drive back was awful, weather (as we all in the UK are aware of) is particularly bad today, what with all the severe weather warnings and storms, so I'm in much need of some further rest and an early night.

Mothering Sunday

Last Sunday was Mother's Day here in the UK. And I had a great day.

The children brought me breakfast in bed (toast and marmalade) and the excitement on their faces as they gave me their cards was priceless. Katarina had made me some bubble bath! Don't you just love gifts like that? Handmade from the heart. Apparently she found the 'recipe' in one of her many books - it explains her nagging me every time we went shopping for red food colouring!!! She took great delight in telling me this ("see mum THAT'S why I needed it, not for me but for you) - I just hope that my using it doesn't turn my skin red!

And Richard bought me a new bead for my troll bracelet. It was the scroll bead and he had engraved on it: 'You are so beautiful my beloved, so perfect in every part' (from Songs of Solomon 4 v7).

How lovely is that?

This, That and the Other

OK, so it's been a while but life has a way of just taking over sometimes and lately that's how it's been. Lately it seems that any time I get near the computer it's for business and never pleasure. Hence the neglect of blog, digital scrapbooking and well, pretty much everything else I do connected with access to the www!

So, what has been happening? Actually for someone who's very busy, not much really. Just stuff.

The school holidays were pretty much taken up with illnesses in one shape or form. So, last week turned in to being more about survival than anything else. Noah we've discussed in a previous post. Katarina finally ended up on antibiotics for her cough (which is still going, 4 weeks later but she is slooowwwwwlllllly recovering from). I had whatever it was that Noah had and Harriet seemed to be the only one who escaped lurgy free. But that's probably for the good because she had other 'things' to keep her occupied - namely Giant African Snails... don't ask! You could see the 'envy' on all the other mums' faces when I was the 'lucky' mother seen taking these gorgeous snails out to my car at the end of term! They are HUGE. The biggest one measures about 5-6" in length:

Work is great. Too great in fact. I imagined that it would take me some time to build up my client base, that I would probably have months ahead with not much to do. But no. Apparently there is a big need out there for management accountants and bookkeepers who know what they are doing! I've been working pretty much flat out and work is coming in at a more than steady rate. And you know what? I'm enjoying it - mostly :D

What else?

Yesterday some very good friends of ours, you know who you are, came and took all three of our children off our hands for a few hours. They are not only good friends but weirdly seem to actually like all our children. They are keepers obviously.

I know that they intended for us to have some 'us' time but we couldn't resist the urge to actually do something and so we did. Richard literally cleared/gutted my office. It is now echoing as there is no longer any Basic Grey/KI/Urban Lily etc. etc. to absorb any noise. This is the first stage of the office/scraproom clear out. Oh, yes, I'm 'doing' my scraproom out. I have far, far too much stuff,
embarrassingly so it feels. Some friends and I have been talking and
discussing why we don't scrap so much nowadays. Are we tiring of our
hobby? Is the industry taking all the joy out of it? Do we put too much
pressure on ourselves to create a masterpiece each time. But do you
what? We think it's because we have too much stuff. We scrapped so much
more, and enjoyed it more, when all our stash was kept in a single
drawer in the dining room! So that, and the fact that I digi-scrap more
and more, has given me the incentive to finally get around to cleaning
out my space, decorating the room and thinning out my stash. Some I
will sell, some I will give away but I am determined to hold on to only
the stuff I love. Really love.

And what was I doing whilst Richard was putting in the hard graft? (It was so much better for him to do it as I KNOW that I would only have taken 3 times as long as I would have been distracted at every door opening!!!). Well firstly I made a killer chilli con carne (Jamie Olivers' recipe, yum, yum, and the best in the world in my opinion) and then I made these:

After Eight Mint cupcakes. How scrumptious do they look? And this picture doesn't do them justice. The icing is 'Wicked' green.

And on that note I'll stop. Till next time...

 

Update on the Cupcakeinator

Well, he slept for 2 hours and when he woke he was a veritable furnace! No kidding - he was hotter than a radiator - even down to the soles of his tiny, still cute, feet.

Took his temperature and it was 39.8 - too hot. However, he was more perky, and after a shot of Ibuprofen perked up for the afternoon, enough to play Cars on the Wii at least.

Still didn't want to eat very much but I nagged him to drink some water at least. Told him I was going to be the 'Water Nagger' to which he replied that I wasn't and added, to quote, "Mum, you're the greatest!".

<<<I'll remind him of that when he's feeling better and decides that maybe I am a pain in the proverbial...!>>>

The Cupcakeinator is Sick

Yesterday Noah and I made cupcakes. Oreo cookie cupcakes.

Yes, it took far longer than if I was just making them by myself. And yes, they took so long I had to wait to ice them until this morning but look at our results. Look at those cute mini Oreos:

Of course he had to call himself "The Cupcakeinator" (The Cat in the Hat movie has influenced our family greatly...).

But sadly the Cupcakeinator is poorly today. In fact as I type this, at 12:42pm, he is in bed with a headache, a reasonably high temperature (38.8) and fast asleep. And for all of you with 5 year old boys you will know how unusual this is. As a mum, I'm trying not to worry and enjoy the relative peace and quiet, but the worry is always there...

So, sadly the Cupcakeinator has not even had a cupcake yet! Although I have to admit that this is probably not such a bad thing - that icing is soooo sweet. Reminder to self 'use less icing sugar next time'!

Learning...

... lots of new things.

I recently signed up to do a Jessica Sprague online digital scrapbooking class, Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop, and I am learning so much, you wouldn't believe it. Now, I don't by any means consider myself an expert in PS but neither do I consider myself a complete beginner. But I have been amazed by how much I have learnt by doing this course. It's worth it for the short cuts alone!

Here are the class layouts for the first 3 weeks (it's a 4 week course):

       

I love Jessica's use of brushes, not something I've used a lot of on my previous experimenting with digi-scrapping, but something I think I will use more of in the future. Can't wait for next week's lesson and will definitely be signing up for the next course (Digi: In Deep).

The other thing I've been learning (apart from how to exercise patience when Noah is involved in the equation) is web design. I signed up last September to do a course in basic web design at the local college and even though I did learn something, to be honest the course was just too slow for my liking and I didn't learn anywhere near as much as I would have liked to. The course was due to go on and develop further and I was considering enrolling but decided against it, which is lucky because not long after I received an email from the course tutor saying the course had been cancelled as he was ill.

Buy boy am I glad that I did decide not to sign up because I got pointed in the direction of Lynda.com - and cool is that site! There is so much there to get your teeth into and learn. I feel a little like a kid in a sweet shop: where to start, where to start? so much to learn, so little time.

I've taken on the web maintenance of a local church (NS Church). So far I've only tidied things up a little (created a template, done a bit of CSS to create a more uniform look to the site etc.) but do have some ideas about bringing up to date and giving it a bit more of a 'wow' factor. I feel it is far too wordy at the moment and looks slightly outdated but I don't want to run before I can walk and also I need to be a little sensitive and not just start out by saying too many negative things. The code was all over the place though, hardly any CSS used (mainly just setting out fonts used etc.) so it has taken a lot of time and effort to even make the small improvements I've made but at least now the maintenance of it is much quicker and easier.

OK, that's all for now, my brain hurts.

I'm back!

So, iWeb just didn't work out for me. I don't know why.

Whether it had to do with it being different that I just wasn't in the habit of using it.

Or if I was just so bowled over with my fantastic new Mac that I spent too much time playing with it doing other things to actually spend time doing the blog.

Whatever, I've decided to come back to the tried and trusted Typepad. For me at least, it just seems to work.

Lots of things to tell, lots have happened in the past few months and lots of stuff to show you. I'm big in to the whole digi scene at the moment. Have been doing some web design stuff. Have gone back to work, to the sort of work I swore never to do again (wouldn't you just know it). Have a second car (as of today) now. And, well, lots...

... I'll catch you all up over the next few days.

Oh, it feels good to be back :D