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!