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...
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?
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.
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
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:
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:
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.
