Worth every penny

I ummed and ahhed over whether to buy a pool for the garden. Will it get used? Will the water be too cold? Will it be a pain to keep clean and healthy? Will the children be safe? What about Noah?

But you know, it was the best £125 (plus postage and packaging) I've ever spent. The children LOVE it. Forget the children, Richard and I LOVE it. It's got a heater so the water is never too cold, sometimes too hot but not so much now we've worked out the best temperature for it to be at. Yes, we have to keep the chemicals topped up but to be honest it really only takes about 10 minutes to do that. The biggest pain is the scooping out of all the leaves and stuff that falls in to it but I'm currently trying to sort out some sort of alternative to the net system.

Kat is a mermaid anyway, loves the water, can't get her out of it if ever we go near some. Harriet has come on leaps and bounds with the pool, even to the point where she swims under the water! And Noah has so much confidence. The only problem is he thinks he can swim. Just the other day he was refusing to put on his armbands and said 'look, see, I can swim, mummy!" followed by a glug, glug, glug as he disappeared under!

And most importantly my safety concerns have been fine. I am vigilant. I am careful. I wouldn't let Noah go out in the garden by himself, well not with the pool now anyway and I've watched him and he doesn't take much notice of it when we aren't all in it.

It is such fun and worth every penny. And at the end of a long, hot day, a dip in the pool is just what you need.

Too hot to scrap

Uggh. I'm hot, I'm sticky and I just don't want to do anything.

Getting in to the car over the weekend was like getting in to an oven. The car showed a temperature constantly over 30º all weekend, going up as high as 35º.

I know, I know, you can never please some people but I have to be honest and say I've never really liked it hot. Probably why I loved the winter in Canada so much. All that lovely cold snow!

I had to scrap yesterday though as I needed to get a LO finished ready for submission to the Scrapbook Inspirations magazine. It seemed really strange doing an autumn LO in the heat and I really didn't enjoy the process as I kept sticking to every surface I touched. Yuk.

I finished it though and have to say even though it's simple I really like it. And guess what? I used peel-offs too!!!

To all my Canadian friends

HAPPY CANADA DAY

Hope you all have a great day today and enjoy all the celebrations.

Here are some pictures of our first Canada Day celebrations in 2004. When we first arrived we were renting a gorgeous cottage just 5 minutes from the beach in a little place (and I mean little) called East River. Our landlords set up a weiner roast on the beach, some ice cold beer, it was fab.

One fish, two fish, red fish, noooo fish!

So, I've been thinking about buying a fish tank for absolutely ages. I love fish. We had fish when I was a child. Tropical fish. I can still remember the beautiful angelfish, the little bright neons, the Siamese fighting fish, the boring guppies, and of course our albino catfish. Loved that catfish, could have spent all day just watching him clean up and down the tank and of course he was pink!

Anyway, just over a week or so ago some friends had posted about how they were buying a BiOrb, a new type of low maintenance fish tank. Sounds good I think and knowing them the way I do I know they would have researched this thoroughly, looked at all the options and so I thought why not capitalise on their hard work? I'm not stupid!

I'd also just sold a whole load of scrapbooking stash on UKS and decided that I really didn't need to replace it with yet more stash as the whole idea is to reduce my stock not replace it with yet more. The idea floated in to my mind to use the money and buy something we can all enjoy. So I did.

I ordered a BiÜbe. Very stylish, I think, and it duly arrived last Friday. Now all of you who know me know that patience is not one of my virtues (I'm working on it...) so I immediately set to the task of setting it up, which involved cleaning all of the little ceramic stones that sit on the bottom, hand sorting through them and picking out anything under the size of a pea (what size is a pea? Are we talking garden or marrowfat processed?) and then filling it, all 35 litres. I'd also at the time ordered some greenery for it and so put that in, Katarina then wants to add her beautiful shell. I'm thinking will there be room for the fish?

The instructions say you need to leave it for 24 hours before adding your fish and as I'm not going to be available to go and buy one on the Saturday and hey, I bought the fish tank I want to go with the children to buy the fish! So I rang our local, and reportedly good, aquatics shop only to be told I should leave it a whole week before adding fish. A whole week, no fish, my patience???

However, I bow to their superior knowledge in these matters and, as requested, with children in tow took along a sample from my tank today for them to test it and confirm whether my tank is 'ready'. Apparently it's not. And yes I could go and buy a fish but not from their shop as they wouldn't sell me one on the basis of my water test results (what is it with me and water test results - old blogging history will shed light on this old wound).

So, I've come away armed with some de-chlorinating treatment, instructions to remove and replace 15% of the water, de-chlorinate today and once again on Tuesday next week and then take another sample back next Thursday. Oh, the agony of waiting. I want fish. I want them now. But I also want them to live and be healthy so I'm playing the waiting game. Apparently when the assistant in the shop was setting up her tank (not a BiOrb but a 'proper' big tank) it took 2 months for the water to be correct.

Tank is looking good though, if fish-less:

(Second picture taken just because I was playing with my camera and was the point at which I discovered that nifty colour isolating button! Can you imagine trying to isolate all those little fronds in PSE?)

Playing with my new camera

Wow, I am impressed with my new baby, the Canon IXUS 800 IS, and am only just starting to get to grips with all the things it can do.

Like take today when I suddenly discovered at just the push of a button it will take photos in black and white BUT you can choose to highlight and include one colour. You know, those shots where everything is black and white but, you say leave the hat the person is wearing in blue. Now, I can do this in PSE but it's a little more complicated than just clicking a button! Now I can do it anytime and anywhere...

So, here is a photo of the beautiful lillies I have in my living room, first with only the green tones picked out, second with the pink tones - and you choose the exact tones with just a point and click. It's easier to see the effect on the pink one as there is less colour chosen. Love it!

Music I'm currently loving...

Just checked out my iTunes and my top ten most played tunes:

• Weather With You - Crowded House



• Bad Day - Daniel Powter



• Take You Back - Jeremy Camp



• Morning Song - Jewel



• Dry Your Eyes - The Street



• The Scientist - Coldplay



• Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae



• I Can Only Imagine - Mercy Me



• Naive - The Kooks



• Fill My Little World - The Feeling

So, what's your current top 10 playlist?

Music Video Codes By Musicjesus.com                                                                                        

Another fab weekend

Scrapbooking and two baptisms.

First the scrapbooking.

Date: Saturday
Venue: PaperArts
Class Taught by: Me(!)
Topic: Creative Journalling

I had a great time, the class seemed to be well received, spent time with some good friends, had a gossip (like you do) and even managed one LO! (I'll try and scan and upload it later). I always have a good time at PaperArts, the girls are all so friendly, the banter flows and of course I can always find something new to buy.

Next the two baptisms. And they just happen to be mine and Richards! It was amazing, so personal and yet not, what with a congregation of over 150 people.

I've been wanting to be baptised ever since I became a Christian, nearly 5 years ago, but the church we were going to at the time wouldn't do it as I had already been baptised as a baby. My personal point of view is that this wasn't MY choice but my parents, neither of which were Christians at the time either.

Since moving back to Swindon we have started going to the Swindon Family Church who are part of the Newfrontiers family of churches. We recently did a foundation course, a sort of introduction in to the church, their beliefs and views and during this our pastor, Mark, talked about baptism. More specifically believers baptism. His view, that any baptism you have before you become a christian is basically nothing more than taking a bath, pretty much tied in with my view point. He then said that they were going to be doing a couple of baptisms in a few weeks and any of us were welcome to take part too. I jumped at the chance and then to my surprise so did Richard.

They have a huge baptistry(it's not called a font, apparently), in the corner of the converted warehouse, which functions as our church, and Richard even went along to re-fibreglass it in preparation of Sunday.

It was ever so slightly daunting, not least because they set up a video camera and broad casted the proceedings on a huge screen so that everyone could see but also because we all had to stand up and give a small testimony. Me and public speaking are not a match made in heaven. I was shaking like a leaf once I'd finished and didn't think I'd have the strength in my legs to walk over to the baptistry.

There are, apparently, photos. Taken by my mum, sort of 'before' and 'after' shots but I was so focused I didn't even see her. Once she has sent them to me I will post them. The event was made even more special as Richard baptised me and I baptised him in return. This was all followed off with a hog roast for the whole church. Fantastic.