Wow!

It's hard to believe how much life changes as the years go by.  Two years ago when I wrote my last blog post I was married, living a few doors from my folks and life was ticking along.  A week after that post my life turned upside down and I was a single mum struggling to cope with all manner of strange things going on!

I can now say, I'm happily divorced and believe me it was the best thing to happen for my own sanity and am starting to pick up the pieces of my life and move forward. 2016 has to be my year, I've said it too many times in the past, it has to be true sometime!

So I'm still teaching although now in a completely different year group, living a ten minute walk from my folks, own my own home (with a lovely big mortgage to go with it) but I can honestly say I'm happier. It's been a fair old trek and crafting hasn't even appeared on the horizon, however over this Xmas break I have actually started some scrapping again and hope to make sure that I build it into my daily routine somewhere, even if it's only to jot onto a journalling card. My aim this year is to finish my journal your Christmas, which has really turned into 'journal your Christmas elves' and begin my project life album so the girls and I build our new memories together and enjoy life together.

I'll add some pics in the morning of my new projects and hopefully a few more along the way too!

As tomorrow is New Years Eve, happy new year to you all!

Jx

Long time....

So much time has past since Ive last been here!  My beautiful baby girl arrived on halloween last year a little earlier than expected!!!!  Now she is nine months old and bouncing beautifully, and crawling beautifully and standing beautifully and causing complete chaos beautifully!

                                                          Cute and cuddly at the seaside!

                                                                                dude!!!

                                               here are my lovely two girlies, hasnt my big girl grown!!!!!

Me and my lovely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lots to get rid of!!!

Hi All

I have not been crafting much in a long time so have decided to sell off some of my stuff, this may be due to a new baby on the way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Baby girl is due to be delivered by c-section on the 13th November so this week i have been creating lots of space in the house and deconstructing my craft room that will be no longer in order to make room for the new baby!

So on that note...

These are a few of the things I have up for sale at the moment, if your interested then please leave me a message.

Cricut create machine, with 2 brand new cutting mats and 1 used but plenty of life in it still! Also with 2 cartridges, cuttin up and printing 101. There is no box for the machine but I will find one and ensure that it is sent well wrapped or collection from camberley. surrey. £130 inc postage.


I have the following cartridges to sell too - none have been linked to a gypsy and most havent even been used!

Serenade - £25 ( this is not boxed as its a solutions cartridge)

Walk in my garden - £25

Paper dolls dress up - £25.00

Disney Mickey font - £18.00

Christmas cheer - £15.00

Disney Pooh font - £18.00

Zooballoo - £15.00

Postage £3.00 each


I also have a blue bind it all machine with a selection of wires and a pair of binditall cutters, I would like £45.00 for the lot, it has been used 4 times since I bought it. Postage will be £10.00 Im guessing but I will get it checked before posting and refund any overpayment.

Clear stamps:
AL2625 Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps - Talking In Circles Moms - brand new

AL2618 - Stamp Sentiment Circles - 3 used

AL26272 Autumn Leaves Clear Stamps - For the Record 2 - brand new

AL3380 - Autumn Leaves Stampology - Quote This! - brand new

I would like £8.00 inc postage for each of these, currently selling at £13.80 at pollyannascrafts.co.uk

so thats just some of my things, I have them all listed on ebay - but buying from here will save you more money as ebay charge so much in fees, for pics take a look here. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180936782168&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

then hit the link on the right hand side saying 'view sellers other items'

2 Years on...

and we still remember you.

This is one of the last ever pics I have of my grandad and feelings are still as raw 2 years ago.

I have a secret I wish he was here to tell!   he would be so happy!

So where have I been????

Well now, that would be telling wouldnt it!  To be fair nowhere really!  Well nowhere with a camera!  We went away down to the caravan last week, got out my little friendly camera only to find that I had taken out the battery and forgotten to put it back in!  Cant believe that I did that - well ok maybe I can!

We got back wednesday and found some little visitors in our garden - which I will post pics of later but its too early in the morning to do that now!  They were baby hoglets, little known to us tha  these little critters should not be out in the day on their own!  After a bit of research we fed them then on friday found out that they shouldnt be out without their mummy at all.  So we rang Jayne at The Happy Hedgehog and took little Millie (as Lottie named her) down to Jayne, apparently she is eating a little now so fingers crossed.  She told us to be on the lookout for more!  So about 7.30pm we found bubba 2, down to Jayne that went too, unfortunatly he didnt survive long.  Well now yesterday morning, I just chanced to look outside and low and behold there was bubby number 3, again quite poorly, so Jayne is now looking after 2 of the hoglets.

Now Jayne is a wonderful lady, because she takes in these critters for nothing, she isnt a registered charity, so pays out for the care for these little animals herself/ So I have made her a stack of cards to start selling from her home, car boots or any other means she see's fit (and I will continue to in order to support her).  I have akso had a clear out and a little shopping spree in order to provide her with ramekin bowls, cotton wool, cotton buds, fleece blankets, poultry based cat food/biscuits and dioralyte, all of which are of huge use to her!  So any hedgehog fans living near Yateley can drop any of those items in to her at any time and I know that she will be ever so gratefully or if you prefer to make a donation to support her work then there is a dontate via paypal on her website http://www.happyhedgehog.org.uk/ she also has a facebook page too where you can read about their progress!

I have finally lost my 2 stone at slimming world, only another 3 stone to go till I am at my personal target!!!!

Anyhow will keep you updated on hoggy things over the next few days

Why does nothing go to plan!

Ok so today we were meant to be castless. but no we are now sporting a rather florescent (spelt wrongly Im sure!) pink cast for another 2 weeks.  When the took the shoulder height cast off, Lottie started crying, when the doctor examined it she cried more and told him it hurt.  So he said, back to the plaster room.  I suppose that at least this one is only up to just under the elbow.  Working it out the hospital has had over £20 in car park fees off us this time, you would think they could have the decency to at least sweep the cigarette butts out of if, bearing in mind how much money they must have had out of us including canteen and shop sales too!

So that was today gone!

The holidays have finally arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay. I finished work today, I have had a ball at my school and ma now very sad that I have to leave, but excited to be going on somewhere else.  Im with a very different catchment of children this coming year so will prove to be very interesting.

We are off to the hospital again tomorrow, fingers crossed that everything is ok and we may have no cast after tomorrow!!!!

The Wanderer returns

Been a while since I was last here again, Ive turned into one bad blogger, but to be fair life is just busy, busy, busy.  Ive started selling handmade cards on ebay again - so in need of the extra cash, so most nights I am churning out personalised cards leaving little time for anything else!

Lottie broke her arm in June so have spent the last few weeks back and forth to hospital appointement, Im hoping that when we go on wednesday the cast will be off for good and everything will be ok again!  Fingers crossed.

Well while most people have broken up from school we still have 2 days to go next week, so unfair, I need a holiday!

An Amazing day out!

Last weekend we visited this place. It was a totally amazing day!

If you ever get the chance to go to this scultpure park, then do, take  a picnic and enjoy the day!

Nearly Easter!

Well the wedding over thank fully, some of you will know that I amd sister in law arent the best of friends, so I was glad when the night ended and I could go home. The glasses of wine made the day more bearable. Anyway, the cake looked lovely the sky was blue and se looked like a Barbie Princess Doll. Enough said I feel!

Anyway, thats over and we can now get on with our lives!  Hooray!

So for the rest of the weekend there will be loads of chocolate and eggs so all will be well.

Wedding Day

Well today my baby Bro gets married, here are just some of the bits and bobs that I have prepared for them!

Popping in!

It's been a while again, Im not much good at this blogging stuff lately, life is soooo busy.  I found out that my contract at the school Im at will finish in August, there may be a post but no guarentees, however I have bagged myself a new job already, first one that I even went to an interview for, so Im well pleased, especially after last year and going for about a million interviews!  Its in a school that has just come out of special measures, so Im not completely convinced Im doing the right thing, however, I hope I am and I am looking forward to it!

Over the past 2 months I have been religiously going to slimming world and lost myself a whopping 1 stone and 4 lb.  I have a long way to go, but have set myself a target of loosing another 2 stone before the end of the year, and I will do it!

Its been a year since Gramps passed away and I did find the last month really hard.  I had a shocking day at work, where I felt so pressured that I just couldnt stop myself from crying, prompting my head to offer me a phone number for the LA counselling service, which I did decline, Im not into all that counselling stuff, had it years ago, it just messed with my head more I think!  What she didnt realise was that she had put my class assembly on the day that Gramps went into hospital, and I felt so pressured to perform and be on form that I just snapped and couldnt cope!  Anyhow, Im over that and spent some time down at the crem in the blazing sunshine on the anniversary of his death, which made me feel loads better.

Next thursday sees my baby brother getting married, big mistake, I keep telling him, but he is adament that he is going to, so good luck mate, you will need it, its a life sentence!!!  Shame gramps wont be there to see it, he would have been very proud!  Lottie will be a bridesmaid and is very excited to be one, she is on count down, only7 more sleeps to go now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyhow I am going to sign off, wont be around for a few days as off to see MIL!!!!  Big mistake after the last time, but going to be charitable, hopefully this time she wont throw us out after 1/2 hour of being there, you never know though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another postbox!

So I am finally getting around to finishing bits and bobs off for my baby bro's wedding in April, here is their postbox, yes it is meant to look a bit like a royal mail post box as he is a postie!

What do you think?

Time for a face lift!

What do you think of my new blog background then??  I thought it was about time I gave it a new lease of life ad a new colour!

So whats new then?

My goodness me, 2 posts in one month, I must be mad!!!!  Anyhow the painting in the bedroom still goes on, yes I know I wanted to be done by wednesday, but life never goes to plan, tomorrow I WILL be putting her room back together, complete with pink fairy curtain!!!!!!!!!!  Daddy will love it! or maybe NOT.

So today i visited Make-It at Farnborough, as I do most years, this year was more disappointing that last, but hey ho!  Saying that I did buy some bits and bobs, including, loads of glue roller refills - at 99p each would have been a crime not to, about 8 million rolls of DST - ok a lie, a bout 8, some fab templates for making yummy borders with for scrapping, I had seen someone at my crop on monday using these and tried everywhere online that I could think of to get some but to no avail, today I walk in and spotted them on the every crafts a £ stall, bargain!!  I snapped them up quickly!!!!

I also purchased a kit to make these roses:

 and these lovely flowers:

They are from personal touches with ribbon.

So I keep promising to show you stuff Ive been working on, so here are a few pages:

hope you like them!



Now where is it???

I am certain that my mojo hath left the building, and has been gone so long I really dont know what I am now looking for!  My camera has dissappeared to the far side of the earth never to be seen again too!

I have had loads of non scrapping projects on the go, but till I find that blinking camera I cannot post piccies of my latest hobby!

I am in progress of redecorating Lotties room at the moment, today was day 1, we gutted under the bed, and in the wardrobe too, I have filled my black wheelie bin and a bit more besides!  so tomorrow is the other side of the bedroom and hopefully a little bit of decorating too!   We are going for the same boring white colour that is throughout the house, DH does not do colour! The reason for the re decoration, well since my little Lottie turned 6 last month, she is no longer young enough for a cot bed!  As lovely as out Mamas and Papas one is, she needs a proper sized bed, so my half term holiday will now be spent decorating and re-organising the tiny room to cram all her stuff back into!  Good luck to me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year

to anyone who reads my blog, not that there has been much to read over the last 5/6 months.  Life is so busy, there barelt feels time to breathe sometimes.

We spent yesterday early evening at the panto, it was fab as ever and well worth the money then we trundled onto the local Chinese restaurant and had a even fabbier time.  Lottie was well behaved and excited to hand Grandma her card made with lots of love - for her birthday.   This year is the first year in a long time that I actually went into a shop and bought a card, to be fair it bought home to me why I now make all my cards - £3.39 for a printed card with a few words!  Will be making them in future I can tell you!  I did however manage to make her pressie which I shall post later when she actually has it!!!

So the rest of the day will be spent chillaxing with a video and a glass of wine I feel.  Ive not made New Years Resolutions because I can never keep them so dont see the point in bothering, I always say yo blog more, eat less and get fit none of which I manage!  So, leave me a comment and let me know, whats your resolution if you make one!

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!