Oh My Goodness!

Just how long has it been since I have blogged!  The saga with my laptop has only just been resolved so I guess now that I am properley back online, I should get on with it and start blogging again!

So much has happened, Im loving my new school, its fab!  Lottie is now in Year 1 and loving that - well most of the time.

The weather has done a complete change and we have had snow and as for crafting, well there hasnt been that much I guess!  Will try and upload some pictures at some point.

Life seems to be on a more even keel at the moment, which I guess is good.  Its the cyber crop over on UKS this weekend, but to be fair the likelihood of me doing much is slim, have lost the will to live as far as pages are concerned, I can just about manage some xmas cards and crafty gifts!  Maybe my mojo will returneth now I am back blogging!

Gone again!!!!!!!!!!!

Remeber whe I said that I had no laptop as it had died and gone to laptop heaven, well medion revived it 3 times and Ive had it back since the end of july, guess what happened yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It died again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I am therefore waiting for a rep from Medion to ring me, fat chance that will happen I am sure, so I am mightily annoyed at the moment!!!!  Anyway thought I woud let you all know that posts wil lbe few and far between again!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And Jackie your stamp will be back in the post this week, sorry I ended up keeping it a lot longer than I anticipated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But and soooooo grateful that you let me borrow it!

Wedding postbox and guestbook!

So here it is, I do hope she likes it!!!!!!!!!!!!

And a guest book to match!

Oh what a day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had an emergency this morning (as I was making my mates wedding postbox) Lottie calls me mummy, mummy come quickly! So off I rush, mummy I just swallowed a sylvanian families orange! Then we had pandemonium when she realised what she had done and kept saying her throat hurt, so being the dutiful mother (who was more than prepared to just leave it and wait for it to come out!) and then rang NHS direct because I was worried that it may be stuck.

After being told to get her to calm down ( my daughter calm down she is neurotic!!!! Like her dad) and if she still had a pain in her throat to go to A&E. Well after 1/2 hour of trying to calm her down she still wasnt, but by that point I had turned the lounge upside down in haste hoping it may be somewhere I put my hand into her hoodie pocket and there low and behold was the flippin sylvanian orange!!!!!!!
So crisis averted, well sort of! Then my brother arrived to take her out this afternoon (we all know 5 year olds and shops do not mix, dont we????) well he took her shopping and said you can choose a toy (now we all know that kids that are told this think that they can have any toy be it £1 or £21) and thats what she was doing asking for every toy under the sun that was £15 or more, therefore the temper tantrums started and both my brother and his fiance got several temper tantrum whacks and kicks!!!! They promptly bought her home and we then had a barney as she was down right rude to me!!!!
So all in all as days go this one was pretty terrible, all remaining sylvanian mini things have been removed from the lounge and she knows that she must not touch them unless there is a grown up there, and the reason for this little crisis - she wanted to see how far she could spit it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
On the upside I did go to tk maxx and get some yummy adhesive badges and mini days of the week stamps, and I got the chance to make a loads of cupcakes and finish my mates wedding stuff, so am off to chill out this evening with a glass of wine and a cupcake or too, I guess it wasnt so bad after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Will post pics of the wedding PB later!
 
Thanks for stopping by!

Our Town!

So Gill over on Docrafts set this challenge to tell each other a bit about where we live so here goes!

I live in camberley! 

Camberley is a town in the Surrey Heath district in Surrey, England, situated 31 miles (50 km) southwest of central London, in the corridor between the M3 and M4 motorways. The town lies close to the borders of both Hampshire and Berkshire; the boundaries intersect on the western edge of the town where all three counties converge.

The town has a population of 30,155!

Before the 19th century, the area now occupied by Camberley was referred to as Bagshot Heath, which was known as a haunt of Highwaymen such as William Davies - known as the Golden Farmer - and Claude Duval.


The town as it now stands has its roots in the building of The Royal Military College, which later became the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in 1812. A settlement known as "New Town" grew in the area around the college which in 1831 was renamed Yorktown, after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany.[4] At this time, the population was 702.
Later, the Staff College was established to the east of the Academy, and a property speculator built the nearby Cambridge Hotel. The surrounding area became known as Cambridge Town, but was renamed "Camberley" in January 1877 due to avoid confusion by the General Post Office with Cambridge in Cambridgeshire. The renaming of Camberley was mentioned in the 1963 film adaptation of Lord of the Flies. The character Piggy states that the new name consisted of three parts; "Cam" taken from the original name of Cambridgetown, "ber" taken from the name of a nearby river (though in fact there is no river with this name), and "ley" because it is a common ending for English town names (as in neighbouring Frimley). Hugh Edwards, the child actor who played Piggy, attended Camberley Primary School which was demolished to make way for the town centre redevelopment.

Wow werent we lucky to be in that book!!!!!
So which weird and wonder people live/lived in Camberley!!!

Well we were home to some fantastic groups (well in their times!!!!)

5ive, boy band 1997-2001. They were the subject of the television programme 'Neighbours From Hell' whilst living in Camberley


Tony Barker-May, former journalist and advisor to two Leaders of the Opposition and to the Premier of Western Australia, and senior advisor to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, lived in Camberley from 1960 to 1971

Darren Barnard, former professional footballer currently playing for Camberley Town F.C.. Has also played football for Wales.

Bros, late-1980s boy band who attended Collingwood school. - delivered the local newspapers in their road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sam Brown, 1990s pop singer.

Five Star, 1980s pop group (this band live near Blackwater). Then they moved to Sunningdale to a very posh house!!!!
Brian McBride (Director) MD of Amazon UK and Director of Celtic FC

Tim Sills, professional footballer currently playing for Torquay United.
Spice Girls, who lived together in Camberley for a while.

Richard Stilgoe, lyricist and musician.

Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, started writing The Golden Legend whilst living in Camberley. The site of his house is now occupied by a McDonald's restaurant.

Bruce Woolley, writer of 'Video Killed The Radio Star'

Dame Ethel Smyth, lived as a child at Frimhurst, Frimley Green, and as an adult for some time on the Portsmouth Road, Camberley at the house that is now The One Oak pub.

Andrew Meechan, the champion bull fighter.

Arent we privilledged to have so many famour peeps in our town!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have extremely important landmarks in out town
 

The concrete elephant is extremely popular as a tourist feature - hmmmmmmmm well peeps like to graffitti and put antlers and a huge red nose on it at xmas!
 

The local donkey derby pulls crowds from not very far away!!!!!!!!!

and we trained the finest in the country!

Seriously our town and local area are home to some of the bravest men and women in the world who have been posted to many wars including the afghanistan war too.  In Yateley last weekend the streets were lined with hundreds showing their sympathy and respect for a young 25 year old lad who was killed out there, his grieving wife was a credit to him and a true tribute was paid!

RIP Adam Brown

A true hero for our country!

My Mojo doth returneth!!!!

Well after weeks of no scrapping, my mojo came back!!! 6 layouts I tell you 6!!! I had this little guilt trip when I looked at my credit card statement and then my ever growing mound of stash and kits and realised that actually, I would at some point have to make some headway on clearing and using them in order to be able to get more!!!!!

So here goes, the first is the Docrafts challenge which was to scrap in green!  Yep, def done that! and also to include the title 'Home Sweet Home' I played with the words for this one, but in my journalling there are the words, home sweet home, the pic is of my baby bro, when we were clearing out my nan and gramps house as they moved down here!  60 years of memories were in that house and about 5 layers of Linoleum, which took him and me hours to pull up and break up to go on the back of the dump truck!

Number 2, Lotties rainbow promise ceremony earlier this term, used an old scrapagogo kit which I thought that I would never use elements of, funny how your opinions and styles change over the years isnt it!

Again using the Scrapagogo kit for a layout with her and her first teacher who left at the end of the year, I wonder whether she met her match in Lottie and thats the reason that she went!!!!

This one is an old pic that we polsihed up of my grandad on a beach holiday, looking very young and handsome!  Ive use the Bo Bunny Mamma Razzi papers, from a Cleo Crafts kit earlier this year, I hated this kit the most when I got it, but funnily enough Ive managed to find pics that look good with it and have completely changed my view!

Now Shimelle had a weekend crop, to be honest I didnt have a lot of time over the weekend but I did manage to fo a couple of layouts.

The first being Shimelles saturday sketch challenge

and the second being another saturday challenge, scrapbooking with a little pink!  I used lots and som shocking orange to go with it!!!

So there you go a crafty weekend was had by all!!!

I do have a couple of other pages that I started for the crop and will try to get them done and finished today so that you can see them!

The hols are flying by!!!

Can't believe the weeks are flying by so fast for the summer hols, blink and you will miss the rest!  We have booked a week away for october this year, so are waiting patiently for that, even though we would rather have been away in the summer, but finances arent as such that we can afford a summer break!

So this is where I have been spending heaps of my time, my new classroom, looks a complete tip doesnt it, and after 3 days of being in there it still feels like it to be honest!  They arent deep cleaning till the end of next week so Im still quite limited as to what i can do in there at the moment, since these pics were taken I have managed to fill 3 display boards with bits and pieces that will stay as static boards, meaning I dont have to change them for the whole year, maybe just add some bits to them every so often!!!!  Yay!  I love boards like that!

What a tip!!!!!!!!!!

I have spent this week working on wedding orders and bits, my friend from work asked me to do her wedding stationary a while back and her invites were completed and delivered, but the order of services and table plan are on the cards for this week!

I also have my baby bro's wedding invites etc to do too, wedding season is upon us!

Today I went to the crem and sat chatting to grandad today on his bench, Im sure that everyone who was there must have thought I was crazy, but it does make me feel much better chatting to him there, I left some flowers and checked that everything had enough water and now feel at peace today.  They say time is a healer, I guess it is in some respects, however memories certainly live on!

Have done a little bit of scrapping this week including a mini book for MIL and a couple of pages, will upload them later in the week if I get a chance and am making more cupcakes this weekend for Emily!  She will enjoy them!

Some cards

Here are a few of the cards that I have put together to sell for charity.

Sorry none of the images are cropped properly!

Have a crafty day!

A busy weekend

So here are my cupcakes, and delicious they were too mostly all vanilla cupcapes with sprikles of glitters on them

but these little lovelies were coffee and walnut, yum!

So the past few days have been extremely busy we have:

been to birdworld where we watched the pengiun feeding, a bird show, petted mice rabbits and guinea pigs, chased chickens, ridden a pony (all time fav part of the W/e for Lottie) and had a fab time!

We also have:

been to a fun day at my old school where we got to brush donkeys'

play Indian drums!

and have panned gor gold at Paultons Park as well as a few roller coaster rides and splashes in water kingdom there!

Phew!  am a bit puffed out now!

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm

The house is filled with the smell of cupcakes, inspired by the ones we had last weekend at the music festival!  mine are better of course, both in look and taste!  i even went all professional and piped the icoing on and everything, topped them all of with a bit of glitter and well posh!  Will post a pic in the morning.

Havent scrapped for ages, but I am card making at the moment for the residential home that my nan is in and also for the forces out in afghanistan, so have 2 charity projects going on, but I want to do lots for both as they are both worthwhile causes!

Anyhow, Im off as Lottie is trying out her new bike - its not a new one - but a hand me down from some friends, but it looks good enough!

Where has the time gone!

Whoa, slow down!  Life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately, Ive had no laptop since the 3rd June, and I am finally back online now!!!!  I did get my laptop back from the dead, for 3 days, before it died again!  Never buy a medion!!!!  They have spent more on new motherboards than the computer is actually worth!!!  Each one costing £236.00 including the person to fit them!!!  Its had 2 in the space of a month! But never mind I am back!!!!

So what have I been up too... well I have a new job in an infant school, its a maternity contract but will do!  I have left my own school, which was good to do, but I shall miss some people like crazy, esp Steph, who will I laugh with about 'Rat' and the 'bear fruit' !  Long story, but bought tears to my eyes!

We scattered Grandad's ashes last week and I was very lucky to be able to go, I nearly wasnt!  It has helped quite a lot with the healing process, and I do like going to the crem to sit on his bench in the peace and quiet!

So the summer hols are upon us and we are going to enjoy them, hopfully my laptop wont give up the ghost in the next few days! 

Will be back soon!

Yum Yum!

I just found 3 mini selection boxes left over from xmas that i bought for my neighbours kids, I wonder whether I can eat all three tonight!!!!!!!!!!  I think NOT!

Im still not posting because of the depression Ive sunken into again, I was in the same place last year, but this time is worse, mainly because Im going for all these interviews and still not getting any job offers, I feel like a failure, ive never been for a job and not got it!  Now Ive been for 3 and not got any of those, Im hoping that something will turn up soon!

So this month we have:

Seen these very funny morris men at the yateley may fair.

Listened to these fabolous men and women, they are at the fair every year, this year there were less than normal, but they are a joy to listen too, and work really hard there!

and finally have made these little babies for my baby bro and his wife to be....

The weekend has landed!

So the weekend is here, Im not posting much at the moment as Im not in a happy place.  Im struggling to cope with much and even my usual crafting online haunts arent seeing me either.  Im struggling with uni work, preparing for my final assessment, preparing for my 80% teaching a week and still trying to find a job amongst all that!

I went for and interview this week for a job I really wanted and didnt get it, over one little thing!  However that does mean that my confidence is talking a huge knock and Im now struggling even more and despite what everyone thinks primary school teaching jobs in this area are pretty scarce, which is then causing me extra worry because there arent many that I can apply for!

Anyhow, Lottie is off on her rainbow sleepover tomorrow, not sure how she will be but hopefully she will enjoy it!  And it means that i can watch over the rainbow in peace - Sophie to win!!!!!!!!

Busy, busy, busy!

This week has been hectic beyond belief and it isnt getting any easier.  I have three job interviews over the next couple of day, which is very scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Wish me luck, there is one that I really want, and one that would come a close second!

My 80% placement is proving tough, and even harder work with interviews and job applications to sort!  Im snowed under, cant wait for the weekend!  Im hoping that I might have some good news by then on the job front!  We shall see!

A long ole week

This week has been a long one, I start my 80% teaching next week and Im totally exhausted before it is even happening.  Still busy job hunting, studying and teaching, its a full time job this job hunting malarkey isnt it.  I sooooooo can't wait to have half term.  My folks have finally agreed to take Lottie out 2 days for me to give em some study time and I feel that i will need it by then!

Last night I spent making my friends wedding invitations and we are still not done!  They are getting there tough, will show you a sneaky  of them later when I find my camera.

i did a couple more pages over the week, but again need to find my camera in order to photograph them.

Tomorrow we are off to see London Nights, Broadway Nights, a musical medely, with loads of songs from the musicals, I cant wait, Im going with mum, and my sister in law and my sister in law to be!  Should be a lovely night out!

Will be back later with some pics hopefully!

Another Lift!

Still in the scrapping mood at the moment, but not in the mood to design my own pages, so Ive lifted this one from clare33 over on UKS.  Its of Grandad and Lottie taken when he still lived in London and I love this pic!  Ive used some old papers from the Fancy Pants Sweetpea collection which were just sitting around gathering dust, and now they are no longer!   It does feel good cutting into all these papers and making things with them!

Anyway, off to look for more easy scraplift pages!  Thanks for stopping by!

Said I would be back, didnt I!

Well here are three of the layouts that I have done today, I didnt realise just how much stuff I really do have for scrapping with, its beyond a joke really!  Too many pretty papers to stroke and look at and not actually do anything with, I have 10 scrapagogo kits which have hardly been cut into and now a few others as well that I am beginning to accumulate and when I went under the bed today I found 3 huge pads of papers including a WRMK tiffany pad i bought from QVC months ago and had forgotten about, so Im going to  start using them!!!!

The first layout is made using a Scrapagogo kit from April 2008, Ive done a few layouts with this kit and their is still loads left!  Sorry the pic isnt fab, it looks completely skewwy, but thats just me and the angle that i have taken the photograph in!

This next page is a very young Lottie! from April's Gottacraft kit, its a total lift from their booklot, but I like it!  I used a few prima essentials and also my Martha Stewart corner punch.  The chipboard stems are from an ancient pack of cherryarte chipboard which I have inked in pinks and reds.

This final layout is from a set of MME Jack and Jill, from favourite thing and Life is good!  Ive used some of my QVC primas and a journalling card from etsy.   This page is a bit of a scraplife from Laura's blog here!

Im pleased with all of my layouts, I know that they are basic, but Im still happy!

Thank you for stopping by to look!

Its raining, it's pouring...

It must be bank holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, Im busy with uni work and planning, I cant wait for the year to be over and I can be qualified and think about uni again!  Won't that be nice!

I have been busy making Emily's wedding invitations this weekend and really enjoyed cutting and snipping whilst watching over the rainbow, the question is who will go tonight????

Anyway only a quick post for the minute, will be back later with any updates and hopefully a new scrap page too!

My UKS challenge!

So today was my turn to set the challenge over on UKS, Scrapdolly asked for volunteers a while back and Id forgotten that Id put my name down!  Anyhow so here is my challenge:

As today is the 26th April, there are 249 days left of the year, use 2, 4, or 9 of something on your layout,

Make and use your own paper - glimmer mists, stamping, doodling etc,

In 1993 The queen opened Buckingham Palace for the first time to the public, so use, red, white and/or blue on your layout somewhere.

and finally some bling!

So if anyone else wants to join in, please feel free and leave a link to wherever your work may be!

The UKS cybercrop has started...

and as I have learnt, you only do the classes that interest you!  Well thats true this time, I didnt do any of the mystery kits stuff as I have refused to buy one each year since the really nasty one!  It didnt look too bad from the work that peeps have done, but I have so many unused kits here, Im taking my chance and using them up on the crop myself.  I have tapped into 2 old scrapagogo kits this morning and am hoping to do more tomorrow!

So I did 2 classes, these were last nights ones, as todays havent grabbed me in the slightest or I dont have the materials!  so here they are:

This is the Angel Of Islington class, Ive used an old picture of my mum and her family on holiday, we hace the pic all cleaned up and reprinted!  Im quite pleased with it and I love using black and white.

And here is the second I completed - Bow Streeet, which was actually the first one, but I didnt have paint free so left it then realised that you didnt have to use paint anyway!  You are meant to have used the lettering as a mask and painted over it and around it then peeled them away, but I like it the way it is.

Its a pic of Lottie about 19 months old in nana's garden pulling up the freshly planted marigolds that nana had just popped in the ground!

So we shall see whether anything else grabs my fancy this weekend I feel, Im not too worried about  points but its nice to get a bit of scrapping done!

A bomb has hit...

my house, or so it looks!  I cant believe how messy it is, could be that I lost a really important letter yesterday and searched high and low for it turning out all the cupboards etc trying to find it!

Welll I did hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow, today I need to crack on with some work, so will drop by later!

Bye for now!

OMG What's happened to Docrafts

Now we all love craft forums dont we, Ive been a Docraft forum member for 6 years, but today they have turned it into a pay as you go type site, sure you can stay a member for free and have access to specific areas, or you can start paying £2.50 to acess 'special' bits of the site.  To me thats a slap in the face, I buy their magazines, I spend copious amounts of money on their products in their stockists stores and visit the site daily.

However it was ofline while they performed their changes and tonight I have been on and what am i faced with, advertsing banners that blink horribly at you from people like match.com, do they think all crafters are saddo's that need dating agencies????/  Or catalogue banners that people end up getting in debt when they are only going to visit a crafting site, to me its a complete disgrace, crafting is about crafting not finding a partner or encouraging you to spend money on crafting products, not junk.

Sorry Ill get off my soap box and off to scrapping, looks like UKS will be getting my vote now and not docrafts anymore!

A grey day

where has the sunshine gone? who stole it?  Well its hiding, some place that i can't find it anyhow!

So today we are having lunch with steve, at the moment Lottie is still in her pj's and Im lounging around thinking that I really must get on and do something, Ive written half of my response to the science article and not a lot more as I have been blog hopping and stash shopping, I have just ordered myself another kit, this time from Gottacraft, thought that I would check it out, its quite different to the one that I got from Cleocrafts this month, I feel like some scrapping so Im off, will be back later to show you what I have done and you never know I might get round to uploading some kittie pics too!

Kittens

well not for us, but my folks have picked up this week 2 of the cutest little kitties I ever did see, they are so tidgy!  Will put some pics on later, she has called them Teddy (after grandad - Edward) and Dolly (after my nan!)  How sweet they are.

So today I have spent doing some work, i got my second school file almost up to date, still have some annotations to make on the lesson plans, but Im pretty much there now, so thats all good!  Last night I did 2 ICT reviews/evaluations and today I have read and annotated my science article that I had to do and am about to start on my maths one, I feel like Im winning a little now!  Still have a mountain of work to do, but Im plowing through it, Im hoping that my folks will take Charlotte a few mornings or afternoons this week so I can crack on even more!

Right well Im off as I need to get on an do my maths article, will be back later with pics!!!!

Two posts in one day!

Well I never!

Here are some layouts Ive worked on recently, I dont think that you have seen them!

Here is one from Universal Studios, from the cat in the hat land!  It was the place we were very excited to go, but didnt prove to be the best place as she lost her favourite 'My Little Pony' baseball hat, and didnt she cry that she had lost that hat, well until I purchased her a minnie mouse one that was pink!

Peter Pan and Wendy, this was a classic photo that we didnt think that we would get as Lottie didnt want Peter in the photo because he is a boy and she didnt like boys, so, he hid on the window ledge behind her until the shot was about to be taken and then sat in the background so he got into it!

Here is Lottie with Ariel, this is th first character that she sat with, and swore that she would only have pics taken with the girls - that all changed!!!!

Not sure if I have posted this on here or not, I did this one quite a while ago, but thought that I'd stick it on here anyhow!

My final layout, this one was the first that I did in 2010, it signifys a year of change, I knew 2010 was going to be different and lots of changes were to happen but at that point I didint know what, Im glad that I didn't as I wouldnt have wanted to start the year I dont think!  Anyhow here we are in April and have already have had big changes, Nan and Grandad moved into the nursing home and then Grandad died!  A complete year of change with many more changes to come!!!

I made myself a layout...

now if I could only find the blasted camera I could upload it!

The boys are off to Nottingham tonight to get my car, so Im working flat out to tidy and sort the house out for Steve, seeing as he is doing me a huge favour by driving 3 hours there straight from work and then back!  So downstairs is hoovered and Im about to go find the mop and bucket and get on with that now. 

So today I have managed to complete a page, about Easter this year, we were determined with all the bad things that have happened so far this year, that we would get on and enjoy Easter, and we did, so my layout features my simnel cake, which  just gets better and better each year!!!!!!!  Even if I do say so myself!  I have used my Cleo Crafts kit from this month with a few additions, some cheap shop foam alpha's, some QVC glimmer gems which I picked up on a one time only price (they werent that much cheaper really!) but I love them and some primas flowers from the bigger bag and the big bag!  Im really pleased with it I have to say.   I have to say how much Im in love with these glimmer gems, and having realised that Sarahs Cards LTD stock them in other colours at a bargain price Im even more in love! So the handy little tubes they come in can be restocked at half the QVC price, I do like the jewel picker that you get with the QVC set!

So Im of to get on with my floor mopping and house tidying uping thingys that i need to do, I think I shall just leave my craft room door shut though as Im not brave enough to tidy that one up at the moment and then get tea a cooking so its ready for when Steve walks through the door so he can eat and go!  Have a lovely afternoon all, and thanks for stopping by!

A lazy sunday afternoon

has been spent at home doing very nothing!  I am still carless as the part that we ordered never arrived despite being told it would one more than 5 occaisions!  So a dispute has been opened with the credit card company and we have found somewhere in Nottingham that will fix it, so yesterday the tow truck picked it up and its arrived there, will be fixed tomorrow, then tomorrow evening there is a very long drive to be had there and back to pick it up!  But it will be fixed!!!!!  Its been so long Ive forgotten what it is like!

I have started doing an album from our spain holiday in 2003, pre Lottie!  Its been started for quite a while now, but I thought that I would get on with it as its a cheerful, bright colourful album and after all the gloom of the last few weeks I could do with some cheering up.  I bought some american craft mini albums from QVC last year and have a tonne of them still to use, you got something like 17 of the things!  And although I have tried making a dent in them there are still about 11 to use!

I have a mountain of coursework to plough through as well as hand in date for my subject knowledge files is 6th May and currently I have a shedload to do on them!!!!  So not funny, I want to get all my easter pics scrapped and do a grandad album too, I think that the chances of that are highly unlikely though this side of the summer!  Ah well I can dream!

I have a morning to myself on Tuesday as Lottie is going to a party, Im hoping that I can use that time to study and achieve something!  Who knows!!!!!!

Yesterday

was one of the sadest ever for me, it went well though, the flower garden that we chose looked fabulous done in red and white (Brentford Football Clubs colours and Grandads team!)  I stumbled with my poem and Steve had to take over, but when it got to my own words, I managed to compose myself and say what I needed, I was proud of myself!

A weight has been lifted and we had such a lovely sunny day, he would have pleased by that!  My folks are coping better and my nan, Im not sure about, her parkinsons seems to make her a little emotional and she has an infection which meant that she was not on good form yesterday.

One of the carers in the home came to the funeral, she is a lovely lady, Ive seen here there many a time, she told my mum that my grandad was waiting for my nan, he knew he was ill, but wanted nan with him.  We knew that all along, we knew he was just waiting for her to go into the home and be settled.  A sad revelation, but so true.  We appreciate the honesty of the carer, and thank her!

It was lovely to see the family united, and know that we all shared such good memories of him was lovely, both my dad and my brother spoke many true words and had lots of people in tears (so did I!) including my uncle, whom I didnt realise was so cut up!  Distance does that though doesnt it, you dont understand it sometimes, but distance isnt necessarily a healer.

I would like to thank all those who came yesterday, all those who sent special wishes to the family and to me and all those behind the scene that ensured the arrangements, service and wake went well.  It was a great send off for a great man!  I love you Gramps!  Sleep well with the angels.xxx

Goodbye Grandad!

So here we are, on one of the hardest days of my life so far, the day we say goodbye to grandad.  I found this lovely poem that Im going to read about grandad's garden and I have a few of my own memories to add.

I just hope that I am strong enough today!  Im really pleased with the order of services that I made, proud in fact, my last tribute to a wonderful Grandad!

My creations!

This is the picture that I have made of my grandparents.

This is the picture that I made for my Parents.

This is the picture that I have made for my nan.

Easter traditions

Every year we do pretty much the same for Easter and this one was no different!

Simnel cakes had to be baked, one for us and one for Grandma and Grandad too!

Rice crispie cakes with butter, dark chocolate, mini eggs and golden syrup had to be made

And finally that Easter Egg hunt in Nana's garden.

To top it all off we have a yummy roast dinner together and a high tea of little sandwiches, cakes and easter biscuits!  Yum!  Why can't it be Easter Sunday more often!

So what Easter Traditions are alive and kicking in your home?

Been and gone!

So Easter has come and gone, did you get lots of eggs?  I got one!  Thats enough though.  Today Im finishing off the funeral booklets for friday, gotta go and pick up the photo's for the front of them soon, Im really pleased with them, will post a piccie when they are done.

Ive also got to get around to posting some pics of the egg hunt that we did the other day and some of my creations that I have been working on!  Lets see if I can get round to doing this today!

And the winner is.....

There were 192 eggs in the tin - 79 mini eggs and 113 mini mini eggs!

I think that makes

                                      SUEBUBBLES

the closest, so send me your addy and Ill get your little prize in the post.

a little Easter competition

When I was out in the States last year I got hold of some yummy prima tins, so Ive filled them with mini eggs and mini, mini eggs and the person who guesses the correct number (or closest number) will win a little parcel of stash, including prima's, ribbons and buttons and whatever else I find, so leave your answers below!

Simnel cakes a cooking!

Well both cakes are in the oven now, one for us and one for my folks! Yum, Ive made round ones this year and Ill posta piccie when they are finished! Normally I make rectangular ones, but its all change this year and traditionally they are usually round arent they!

Check back later for a little Easter competition, if you fancy winning a little pile of stash, prima's, ribbons and buttons! Will be posting it as soon as I can find my sd card reader!!!!

I survived...

the second term of my GTP training, now all I have to do is finish this third and final term! So 2 down and 1 to go! The final term being the hardest though, 4 days teaching a week and a million and one other things to do!

Anyhow yesterday we chose flowers for Gramps funeral they are a little unconvetional anda little bit quirky but they hav so much meaning to my brothers and I that they were absolutley perfect! We wanted something that showed the main passions in his life,his garden and when we were younger it was all about a neatly mowed lawn and a well kept fishtank, I may see if I can find a garden gnome on ebay in the dolls house section as thats the only thing missing from this tribute that I would like!

I got my first Cleocrafts scrapbook sub kit this month and was pleased with it, there are some lovely papers that will be perfect for the annual easter egg hunt pages, I had to give up scrapagogo due to the cost, but wanted to keep a sub somewhere, and at £8.99 these are perfect, I also want to say how lovely Louise is to deal with! So thank you so much for all your help this month, promise i wont be such a pain next time!

Anyhow Im off to surf as I want a nice layout to lift for some box frames I bought from here.
They were fab value and extremely fast on their delivery too! Thank you!

My Grandfather...

passed away this morning, I went to see him and the scared look that I have seen over the past few days has disappeared, he was peaceful and at rest. I miss him so much already, we looked for the new star in the sky this evening, but its too cloudy for stars, we will keep looking till we find the one with his name on it.

The hospital staff were wonderful, we cannot fault them this time, a far cry from last time when we were swearing and cursing the poor care that he received at xmas, no this time they were wonderful and wish to thank the staff on MAU and F2 Fleming for everything they did for him.

Ill never forget his favourite saying when we were kids - put the wood in the hole! We always used to leave the lounge door ajar when we went out of it and it used to cause a right breeze on his bald head, and my brothers and I used to stand behind him blowing on his bald spot! The races we all used to have to be the first one to ring the doorbell and hear him shut, hang on, hang on Im coming - we used to hold the buzzer and keep pressing it in one loud and continuous buzz, must have been really annoying. I used to love it each year when he got out his paint and brushes and gave his gnomes a lick of paint - annual gnome painting season and feeding the fish in the pond, we would always be told off for putting in too much!

The look of joy on his face when I presented him with his first great grandchild, I will never forget that look, it was a picture! The proudness on his face, Ill dig it out later and put it up on here.

No Grandad you may be gone in body, but in spirit you live on, I have some of that Reed stubborness, I have the Reed lip when I want it, but I also have the many joyful memories of you and your love, which will carry on throughout future generations of the family. I will look after nan, mum and the rest of the family as best that I can and Im so glad I got to spend so much time with you in your last few days, I am a very proud grand daughter.

Rest in peace, Grandad and Ill see you one day in the future, look out for Uncle Oscar and Auntie Ivy wont you! I love you!

Grandad!

I have been trying recently to keep my blog cheerful and light, but its with a heavy heart that I write this post, Grandad is extremely poorly at the moment, on wednesday night we really thought that he wasnt going to survive much longer, but he has, he is fighting, but it will not do him much good.

My folks are down the hospital as I type waiting to see the consultant, but there is talk of him being transferred back to his nursing home to finish his days there, so sad! He turns 90 on monday if he makes it!

I want to cry, I have cried, but at the moment I cant cry any more, I keep thinking back to the lovely memories that I have of him from my childhood, the look on his face when I presented him with his great grand daughter and I can smile, although there are tears in my eyes when I think of those things.

God Bless you Grandad, I love you! Im praying for a miracle for you! Jx

A much more productive day!

Well having now put my stresses away from yesterday I can report that we had the most fabulous meal out last night at believe it...a local pub, we had fillet steaks to die for, with a dressed salad, sauted potatoes, baby tomatoes and mushrooms and the creme de la creme of blue cheese sauces! Dessert didnt disapoint either! Raspberry cheesecake with shortbeard, and Lottie and Steve had ice cream which was sheer luxury, and i should know as I polished off lots of the strawberry one and the vanilla one too!

So today I have been busy baking, Ive made a victoria sponge, fairy cakes - which need icing and a batch of scones, tomorrow Im going to make a fruit loaf too!

On top of that, remember the albums from QVC I mentioned yesterday, well I have painted 3 of them in gorgeous pearly paints and will be decorating them shortly...watch this space!

We have also been into the home to see Nan and Gramps, Gramps has really given up all hope of anything and he just sits falling asleep all the time, a far cry from the man he was 6 months ago. Its really sad, at the moment I am working on a mini book of the day they moved near to us, it shows all the grotty pics of where we were clearing out their house, we had to rip up all the carpets everything, not surprising that the council would have charged to do it themselves, what it did reveal under those carpet and linoleum mats was a wealth of old newspaper articles which we had so muc fun reading and reminiscing!

Someone chopped off my left arm....

or so it feels, my car is very poorly, and it dont work no more! Well it does but it judders and shakes worse than a jelly! Why is it when you have no car you feel like you have lost a limb! i miss it and its only been gone since 11.30am this morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It started off a lovely day, we drove to Basingstoke to get Lottie her Bear Factory Bear in celebration of finally getting rid of her dummies after 5 and a bit very long years of them (another story) and we were 2/3rds of the way there and the car began to quiver, which quickly then turned to a shake and a jolting feeling, it stopped then started again, then sort of sorted itself out.

So we toodled around doing bits in town and then came the drive home, it was quivering, shaking and shivering all over the place. SO we stopped at a little garage and they told us what was wrong with it and charged us a fabulous £33 for the pleasure of it - not bad for 15mins work, then told me that the part will be over £200 and then there is labour to go on top of that! Hmmmmmmmmmmm a little annoyed, I feel so!

Anyhow, on the bright side, it means that i cant get to my second school placement on monday as I have no way of getting there, hooray!!!! but need to spend the morning on the phone trying to arrange with uni what I need to do to make up the time!

Oh well, Im looking forward to being given a lift to tesco to get some photo's of my mum's birthday party and doing a bit of scrapping tonight. Last night I made 12 malteaster cupcake recipe cards and an ATC which will be winging its way to its recipient this week, I have gotten terribly behind this month with everything. I also need to think about a 90th card for my grandad, my brothers wedding stationery and someone at works stationery too! Just a little then to keep me busy, inbetween all my work too.

Oh, just have a craft delivery, some very yummy chipboard books from QVC see them here! Can't wait to get going on them! I also had some 'fly' stickers that I ordered from ebay too which are yummy! Just wish that I have more time to actually do stuff with them!

Some cards!

So here are some more of thos Dawn Bibby cupcake cards, I just love working with them, I know they are kanban, but when you need something quick and easy they are perfect, sorry the lighting wasnt brillain when I took these!