Shhhhhhhhhhhh!

Im not here!

I really wanted a PC free weekend.....spending time with my guys is much more fun than sitting at the computer....but as they have all gone off for a couple of hours to do their thing, I thought I'd settle down with a cuppa, do the weekly grocery shop and catch up on a few blogs and forums!

Its my wedding anniversary today!
Hubs and I have been married 17 years....17 years of ups and dowms, round and rounds, battles, tears, laughter, we've seen sheer contentment wrecked by sorrow only to bounce back again to happy jolly times.....its been worth every minute and all the bad times, when we have struggled to get through the darkest days, have only made us stronger......thank goodness I listened to my heart and did what I did all those years ago when he asked me to marry him......he has made me the person I am today....a woman happy in her own skin......even if it is a bit wobblier and saggier than it was when we met! Thank you Hubs.x.x.

No scrapping for me last night.....instead I did a lil more beady practice!
I won a box full of glass rods on the Bay a couple of weeks ago and in it were these yummy colours......



Only problem I have is the seller has since left the Bay and I cant find out what make they are!

Lovin the bronze coloured glass....its so much nicer in RL.
Deffo getting more adventurous and the beads are taking a nicer shape.
I need to invest in a Dremmel to clean the cores of the beads so the are nice and shiny all the way through......as Hubs and I are off out shopping later maybe I can pursuade him to buy me one ;)

Have a spendid weekend all....enjoy the sunshine....and be happy.

T.x.x

The Sun is Shining

Im not going to let anything darken my mood today....the sun is shining and the weatherman forcasts a stonkingly good week for us all next week.....yippppeeeee summers on its way!

When the sun shines we all feel happier, brighter and nothing is going to stop me from feeling positive and upbeat about my life.

I received an email this morning that made me realise just how bloomin lucky I am. My poor friend was about to watch two young souls, who have been left alone in this big world, say their last goodbyes to their Mommy. I have kept those sweet young things in my thoughts today and pray that life is kind to them.

Give your littlies an extra hug tonight and remember that the messy bedrooms, the squabbles, the tears and tantrums....well they mean nothing......what is important is that you live and love your children every waking moment as if it was your last.

Whilst spending my day feeling blessed to have my guys I have been playing!
Last month I was given some rather scrummilicious papers that I know are not readily available in the UK yet....Im just waiting to hear back with a list of UK suppliers and once I receive it I'll let you know where you will be able to get your mitts on some of this for yourselves, cus you are going to want it....or rather need it in your stash box.

Here's a few snippets just to tempt you!






Have a good day, whats left of it, and dont forget to have an extra huggle with your loved ones tonight.

T.x.

Another Birthday!

March is such a busy month for my family....we have 5 birthdays and our wedding anniversary plus a couple other anniversaries which we like to commemorate.

Tomorrow my littlest sis will reach the grand old age of 36....I made her one of Shimelles fab long mini albums and fingers crossed she should receive it tomorrow now Mr Postie has stopped striking!





I used up loads of scraps of stash from Rusty Pickle Island Dreams paper range to complete this lil book.

Im a real hoarder and never throw away my scraps....the are far to precious and I can always find a use for them.



I made this LO in less than 30 minutes using scraps leftover from creating another LO....go on have a go....see what you can make using up your itty bits of paper...I dare you!
Dont forget I wanna see your creations so leave me a link back so I can come take a peep.

Bobs picked a name from the hat and Lythan you are the lucky scrapper who will get an envie of chipboard landing on your doorstep once you email me your addy.

Not a lot else to report....just catching up on housework.....grrrrrrr!

Have a couple of exciting bits of news to share very soon....final tweaks are being made and as soon as all the i's have been dotted I'll be sure to let you know.

Have a great day.

T.x.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Its my lil sis's birthday today!
Bagsie has reached the ripe old age of 37....tee hee hee she is catching me up.

Thanks to Mr Ploppy Postal Service she wont be getting her goodies from us until tomorrow.

This is the lil book I made her based upon the lil album I made for Hubs Grannie last summer.













I used Rusty Pickle Princess Bride papers, quotes, chipboard and ribbons plus extra Sister Quotes Ive collected over the last year, which were printed onto Safmat and adhered to the pages.
The piccies were taken when I went up to Staffs to spend Mothers Day with my family....I miss my looney sis's sooooo much...not long til Easter and we will be all together again....munching our way through loads of Easter yummies.

Catching up on a few blogs I found this on Kirsty's blog and had myslef a go!

Your Dominant Intelligence is Spatial Intelligence

You've got a good sense of space and how the world around you looks. You can close your eyes and "see" images. You have innate artistic talent. An eye for color and shapes, you're also a natural designer. Since you think in pictures, visual aids and demonstartions help you learn best. You would make a good navigator, sculptor, visual artist, inventor, architect, interior designer, or engineer.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

You can close your eyes and "see" images

Seeing them is no problem....getting em down on paper is!!

Dont forget Bobs will pull out a name tonight and one lucky lovely will get themselves a freebie pack of cheapo chipboard yummies I picked up last week.....just leave me a comment and your name will get popped into the hat!

Have fun.

T.x.x

Just messing!

Ive spent the day just messing about doing a little of this and a little bit of that.....decided that "nothing ventured - nothing gained" will be my moto for the rest of the year!






Back to my messing.....and boy have I made a mess!

Have a great day.

T.x.

DC - CD

Lurking over on the DC forum I spotted a rather lil nifty CD cover Kirsty had made using an old Heidi Swapp bloom packet....not having one to hand I whizzed up my own version of her fab lil project.



It'll hold my the class download pdf's which I plan to store safely and refer to when my Mojo goes on holiday again!

Talking of holidays....Hubs won the battle and we are heading off to Cala Ferrera in June....Hubs and I have been there before and it is lovely....but no Logger Head Turtles for me :( I guess spending a little and saving the rest for the conversion is the sensible option....boo hiss to being sensible I say!

Booking the holiday was a nightmare.... found the holiday via t'internet and printed off all the details....headed into town to the RL store to go book only to be told I couldnt book the holiday there....er s'cuse me???...you're the same company...why not????
Cus she couldnt find the holiday on their system and I must have made a mistake???
She could find it with an extra 500 quid added to the total costing but not for the price I had printed off??? Due to company rules she wasnt able to use the www addy I had gained the costing from....so do I want to book at the new inflated price???

Think not deary....tottled off to other shoppey and they found the holiday and matched the price and they gave us extra discount......whooooo hoooooo.....more spends for us.

Dont forget to leave a comment if you wanna freebie pack of the cheapo chipboard pieces I managed to grab last week....Bobs will draw a lucky winner Wednesday night.

Laterz.

T.x.

Mojo File

I lost my Mojo???

It had well and truly packed up and headed out the door! I searched down behind the back of the sofa and it wasnt lurking there! I searched the house from top to bottom but it appeared to have vanished into a black hole....heck I even went out for a late night drive to see if I could find it and nope....nothing....I went to bed a very unhappy bunny!

In my desperation Hubs suggested a wee walk this morning....maybe it would clear my head of the cobwebs and I would remember where my Mojo was!

We took the dogs to Braunton Burrows which run alongside Sauton Sands.
This is one of my "Heaven on Earth" places.
Miles and miles of open space. Little pathways which lead from one beautiful place to another.





In the summer, when the guys were small, we would pack up a picnic and spend the days enjoying the peace and quiet of the Burrows....Summertime is madness down here and the beaches get far too busy....our secret hideaway is a blissful retreat.



We walked back along Velator Quay and I was so pleased to see the Swans have returned. A couple of years ago some mindless thug decided to decapitate quite a number of these graceful creatures and those that escaped the masacre flew to safer ground.




The walk must have worked...I came home feeling refreshed and inspired. So much so that I actually found my Mojo....it wasnt lost....just resting!

The afternoon has been spent creating a file folder for the Design Collective class downloads which will be landing in my inbox in just over a weeks time.





Sheets of chipboard were cut to size.... I taped around the edges using gaffer tape and then covered each file with papers from Cherry Arte. The file cover was again cut from chipboard and covered. A mixture of Heidi Swapp and Cherry Arte chipboard letters form the title....I used a black marker pen to colour the alphas....it gives a great shiny finish. The ribbon is American Crafts and the chipboard flower to embellish is one from a pack of cheapo chipboard pieces I got from our local pound shop :)

If you fancy a pack of cheapo chipboard leave me a comment and Bobs will pick one lucky winner on Wednesday night.

As my Mojo is all fired up and ready to go Im going to settle dowm tonight and make a start on this weeks Speshals Dare......go have a look at the Speshals work...its amazing.....Im lovin Debs LO lots.

Have fun.

T.x.

Taxi!

Yesterday afternoon went something like this....

Collect Bobs from school at 3pm.....sit for 20 minutes in traffic gridlock b/c the school bus decided to hit an on coming car! Thankfully no one was hurt!
Arrive at SuperBowl at 3.30pm and wait for Hubs, J and his girlie to arrive.
Hubs dashed off to town with Bobs to go buy Gangsta styley clothing whilst I played gooseberry to the love birds!

My boys first date.....
I gave them the privacy they wanted and sat enjoying a cuppa and a read of my book....they did make me laugh....they seemed to be more interested in messing about on their phones instead of bowling!



J's girlie is very sweet.....she attends his school as she has mild learning difficulties but sitting chatting with her you would have never known.....she is so bright,articulate and blessed with an amazing sense of humor....I can understand why J likes her soo much....she is lubberly.
Bowling session finished and no sign of Hubs!
He was stuck in town trying to find the right thing for Bobs to wear!

Battled through the 5pm traffic and made it to town with just 30 mins to go before the shops closed their doors.
I persuaded the guys that they didnt want to drive to the out of town Mc Yukkies and that a town based Wimpy would be better?????? This meant Hubs could sit with the lovey dovey couple whilst I blasted around town to get Bobs sorted!

Top Man had all we needed and 50 quid lighter we left the store with just enough time to go join the rest of the clan for a spicy beanie.

Hubs left with Bobs whilst we waited for girlies Mom to come collect her....time was ticking on....no sign of girlies Mom??? A couple of failed mobile calls.....what was I to do? J was getting tetchy cus he wanted to go to youff club at 6.30!...."girlfriends suck cus they make you late for everything" he whispered.....boy he's learning early!

Finally at 6.15 girlies Mom arrived and we said our bye byes.

Dashed home with seconds to spare....quickly helped Bobs get Gansta looking and loaded J's bike into the car to whizz em off to their sepearte social events.




Returned home at 7.30 and collapsed in a pile....fit to do nothing!
9pm came around far too quickly and then it all began again....pick up the guys....drop mates off....arrange sleepovers and by 10pm when I finally walked into the kitchen I was ready for bed!

Today.....Its going to be just as bloomin busy with me taxing the guys around. At least with them out and about I'll have a couple of hours spare to do a lil scrapping :)

Ive managed to make a few beads this week....nothing spetacular but I like em :)





Ive ordered more glass rods in the yummiest of colours and really need to crack on and get some bedas made to finish off bracelets Ive made for each of my sisters birthdays......which are next weekend....yikes!

Have fun and dont forget to go check out the Design Collective....its a hive of activity over there with loads of yummy pre class challenges.....checkout the storage ideas.....they are fabbilicious.

Laterz.

T.x.

Beavering Away!

Wish I could say Ive been busy scrapping my heart out but I cant:(

Instead Ive been batling with mountains of paperwork and trying desperatly to get my house in order!
Im such a hoarder and decided it was time to clear out the junk!
I can actually see my work desk now :)

There have been lots of long telephone conversations to the LEA re J's proposed intigration back into mainstream schooling....not a happy bunny and feeling very deflated with all the red tape :(

Got really hacked off yesterday when I was out and about with J....he was having a mini meltdown and the looks I got.....corrrr I could have screamed at a couple of old ladies who stood looking at the "show".....speshally when one of them had the nerve to pass comment just loud enough for me to hear.....um well Mrs Zimmer Frame....I dont give my kids a good smack....never have and never will....grrrrrr! Just how a whack would solve J's problems is beyond me!

Anyways I finally got him home in one piece and he soon settled once he was sat in front of the TV watching Mr Bean!

Some good news to share......I have had a lil windfall come my way and we have decided to splash out on a holiday....I suggested Disney but the guys werent so keen??? I was surprised actually that they both instantly said "No way"! Maybe they are too old now for Mickey and Mini????



Last night we sat flicking through the holiday brochures and are pretty sold on The Cape Verde Islands.....it either Cape Verde for two weeks or we finish the loft conversion??? Hubs has suggested maybe we book a lil holiday to Majorrcca and save the leftovers for the conversion....he is so sensible at times....my reaction....blow the bloomin loft - I wanna go see the Logger Head Turtles......Im thinking of all the great photo's I can take for my scrappin....teee heee heee



Off to town later...Bobs is out partying tonight and didnt tell me till this morning that he needs a fancy dress costume! Great! I need to go find "Gangster Rapper" clothes for him to wear!
He wants to look like this!




J is off out tonight too! His first "date" with his girlie friend...Im going to play gooseberry whilst they have a couple of games of bowling followed by a meal at Mc Yuckies!

Hoping to get time this weekend to scrap....Ive got a couple of projects Ive been working on that I really wanna finish....sadly they have been pushed to one side because sometimes life just gets in the way!

T.x.

Busy Busy Busy

Why are there never enough hours in the day? Ive got so much I want to do and just not enough time!
Im taking a quick cuppa break whilst I update my blog and as soon as my cup is dry Im heading off out to go organise a few things!

Whilst snuggled in front of the fire yesterday afternoon I completed a couple of projects....one I cant share just yet.....the other was this weeks art journal card.
Emilys prompt this week was your Initial.

Emily has used her masking tape technique on her card....I love the effect it gives and have used it lots since I attended her workshop last year.
For my card I used a piece of cardboard which I tore the top layer off and painted with acrylic paint....added some snippets of papers and ribbons from We R Memory Keepers Diner collection.....the letters I cut from chipboard and again painted before I doodled white dots........




I remember with great fondness how my Dad would always call me by my nick name.

The only time he ever used my real name was when I was in trouble!

and talking of trouble....I'll be in it, if I dont get a move on....its a busy busy day!

Have a good one.

T.x.

A Very Happy Mothers Day!

There is nothing nicer than spending time surrounded by those you love.

Sunday started way too early for my liking considering I didn’t hit bed until way after 3am on Saturday night.....my fault! I had made my Mom a mini album for a ickle Mothers Day gift and put it away safely....so much so that I couldn’t find the lil pesky thing!
In a mad panic at 10pm on Saturday night I flicked on the comp looking for quick mini book inspiration and found this fab class via Shimelles blog.

So 15 pages and a fair few hours later this "quick" mini album took shape.






Crawling into bed I just knew the alarm was going to be hurled across the bedroom the next morning.....3 hours sleep was just not going to be enough!

Up we got and as I sat in my bed feeling very bleary eyed, the guys spoiled me rotten with my MD gifts of 2 cutie pie Momijis, CD’s, cards, flowers and a beautiful glass painted candle holder made by J's fair hand with the help of his class teacher :heart:

Quick showers all round and then into the car we hopped.
Driving across the Moor so early in the morning is such a wonderful experience.....it looks so still and peaceful......unlike the motorway which was bedlam considering it was Sunday morning!

250 miles later we arrived at my Sister’s farm, being greeted with screams of surprise from my Mom!
She didn’t know we were driving up to spend the day with the family! We had kept it a huge surprise which involved quite a few "white lie" telephone converstaions earlier this week.

Loads of kisses, cuddles, laughter and pressie giving took place....Mom loved her Troll bracelet and Buddy beads we had bought for her.

I got lots of cuddly kisses from my nephews and Hubs even managed to hold Wills without a tear from either!



There were even more cuddly moments as we ventured outside to just loon around.....I miss moments like this with my sisters :(






Mom sat inside watching us through the window....lordy knows what she thought of her girls!



My sis Bagsie is a terrible tease and whenever she sees the guys she just attacks em with Auntie hugs....much to their disgust!





Just before we settled down for lunch we headed off up to the maternity field to go check out the expectant Moms.
How fantastic it was that we were around at the right time to see the birth of twins.



David,( Bagsie’s partner), spends 9-5 Monday - Friday dressed in his whites asking patients to open wide as he drills and fills their teeth BUT the second he leaves his practice he becomes the real him....a Farmer. It’s such a contrast and given the choice he would love to quit his profession and spend the remainder of his days knee deep in dung!

He has such a passion for farming....he eats, sleeps and breathes his flock, so much so that whilst the likes of you and I are tucked up safely in our beds, he is out there in all weathers making sure his prized possessions are safe and well.

I was amazed as I watched David bring in the Mother and her babes. How on earth was he going to manage getting all three from the cold and blustery field into the safety and warmth of the lambing shed??????
David gently lifted a lamb in each hand and carried them slowly across the field. Of course the Mom wanted her babes so she followed.....it took all of 10 minutes to move them to the shelter and once there David carried out the necessary procedures to ensure the lil girlies would be getting a good start in life.




I really admire the compassion and affinity he has with his flock. He shows so much dedication and determination to keep the rejected lambs alive by bottle feeding them at silly o clock in the morning.....you can see him willing the sickest of lambs to fight the battle to survive....he really is a wonderful man and my sis is soooo lucky she has had him in her life for what seems like forever! They have been together since my sis was 16....20 years later their love for one another is quite possibly the strongest I have ever seen. It’s clearly evident to all those around that they are soul mates and I love them both so very dearly.

I really didn’t want to leave the cosy, warmth of their kitchen. The aga was deffo much more appealing than heading out into the snow, which had decided to fall so very quickly from the skies above. The guys were in snow heaven. Living so close to the beach means we never get proper snow here, maybe a slight dusting but nothing to WOW over! The guys were desperate to stay but Bobs has a huge Science test today so there was no way we could extend our visit to an overnighter.:(



We said our goodbyes and headed out in to the cold for the long and tiresome journey home. Parting is such sweet sorrow....


Arriving back very late to no electricity was not the warm home coming we had been anticipating!

Brrrr! Tis a cold and blustery day here…..thankfully the electricity is now up and running so I’m going to settle down in front of the log fire and do a lil crafting whilst listening to a the CD’s the guys bought me.

Have fun and stay warm!

T.x.x.