Well that was a bit of a palaver this morning. Good news is my man is home! Drove up to Exeter with miss illuminous snot (that's her superhero name don't cha know) for company. Got there fine, few hariy moments as Mazda Bongo's don't like strong winds! Coming back was horrendous though, the wind got stronger...then came the rain, at one stage i was doing 40 on the A38 (VERY unusual for me!).

So to try and tell you all about yesterday...well i wanted to get my weekly challenge on UKS done so the team could get as many points as possible and so i did this

It's bad enough admitting that you're old enough to have had to make do with tin baths when you were a kid, but what the diddly balls is going on with my masssheeeeve knickers!?! Obviously we must have been too poor when i was a kid to buy the elasticated variety. Well hope it's given you a bit of a giggle anyways.

OK just spent ages doing a post for it to fail on me, give me an error code and lose my post....aaarrgghhhh! Happy Blogging? NOT. No time to do it all again now as i have to leave to get pete from the airport soon with illuminous snot girl (that's her superhero name) Natasha by my side. Will repost it all later!

Finished a DLO today, my first DLO in A4. This was the scraplift challenge in the latest copy of Scrapbook Magazine and i thought i'd give it a go even though the original in the mag was a 12x12 so heres my attemptIt's the first time i've done a complete scraplift and i must admit it was harder than i thought it would be. Don't get me wrong i've used sketches...the pencilines ones are particularly fabby. But with sketches you have a lot of room to interpret other things and quite often what you end up with is something very different to the original sketch. I like that though, it's a starting block and then you expand. I'd say to any other beginners out there to really look around for sketch sites as they can be a great way of getting going, even an experienced scrapper who may be having 'scrappers block' i would think a sketch may be the kick up the arris that can be needed to get the creative juices flowing again. WEll off to finish a couple more things before i retire for the evening dreaming of hubby coming home tomorrow....ahhhhhhh

So Pete will be home tomorrow, only for 8 days but hey, better than nothing and certainly better than last year. I always go into panic mode the day before he comes home just trying to get the house just right, although he never really notices but i guess it's more to keep my mind occupied. I have to drive to Exeter to pick him up from the airport tomorrow lunch time and we've got a really busy week. So many jobs get put off til he comes home as it's often difficult to find the time when the kids are running around like lunatics. We had a conservatory built before xmas, well it's been one disaster after another with it and we're still waiting for the rendering on the outside to be done and they've only just sealed the air conditioning unit on the inside. So it needs painting this week.

We had it built as a playroom for the kids...one thing this house doesn't have is space. It's sometimes so cramped that i find it really gets me down. WE were going to move last summer but the whopping price jump between our 3 bedroom mid terrace and a four bedroom semi was so huge we decided it really wouldn't be worth the lifestyle changes we had to make. It's not really the sleeping space that's the issue, it's that if it's rainy there's nowhere where the kids can play and let off steam. So we took the house off the market and decided to have a conservatory built instead. It's a nice big extension and since i started scrapping it's becomming more and more tempting to kick the kids out and have the holy grail in there instead (mummy's scrap room) but oh well, just a few years til i can kick them all out!

Early night for me tonight as i can't stop yawning but i know i'll still be dusting and tidying at 2am getting ready for my sweetie to come home. Oh i miss him, not long now though.

Oscar Night Speech

Well as it's oscars night (do we not show it on tele cos i can't find it on the listings anywhere) i thought i'd do the little thank you speech....

Thank you to anyone who reads this and a big thanks to people who have left kind comments for me, it's nice to feel a part of the 'blogging' community! Thank you to my darling husband for putting up with my moodswings, my endless stash shopping (although it's been a week since i bought anything but glue) and my hours spent trying to 'glue bits of paper'! Thank you to my kids for reminding me every now and then that there is more to life than scrapping....and for putting up with me when i don't believe that. Thank you to Tracie Hudson for being a real inspiration and encouraging me to go to that LCC Workshop in December, i blame my stash spending on you!

Thank you Scrapwitches (you know who you are) for listening to my endless ramblings about...well ...nothing usually! Thank you Marion for giving me the chance to show off my work, I hope i do your kits justice....and a big big thank you to all at UKS, i can't imagine i would have the enthusiasm i do without being 'surrounded' by so much of it, it's just infectious isn't it?

Scrappers of the world......this one is for you.....

Thank you and goodnight!

Good evening all and how are you tonight? I've just finished a cute little book that i got with my January Modscraps kit. It's a little keepsake book for Pete to take with him when he's away, it's got little pics in of us being 'in lurve' and just saying how i feel when he's not with me. This is the first kit i'd ever subscribed to, purely because i loved the colour combinations. I must admit that i'm now completely sold on the idea of kits. I was a little hesitant at first....what if i didn't like what came with it etc etc but it's been fun to look at all the things that i would never have popped into my basket on their own. I did wonder if i would use all of it and apart from a few small scraps, i have!

For someone who hasn't been scrapping very long, i have a huge stash collection and yet that sometimes seems to be more daunting than anything else. I like the idea of page kits and that someone else has spent all the hours that i would normally do trying to work out what would go best with what. It's also great to do something that you normally wouldn't do. I would never have had any interest in doing an exploding box EVER if i hadn't have seen one at the Little Cottage Crafts Workshop that i went to in December...I would never have tried a Lippy Chick Book if i hadn't have done the UKScrappers Cyber Crop last November and i certainly didn't think i would ever want to do a matchbook or minibook until i did them because they came as part of a kit...as far as i was concerned all i wanted to do was layouts! How shortsighted i feel now.

So for now, i've decided (which has been helped along by one of my credit cards being maxed out) that i'm going to stick with kits...I have my modscraps kit and my DT kit for Sugar and Spice and when i start to get to the stage where that isn't enough, i've seen some gorgeous kits from the states which i feel like i MUST HAVE! But all in good time.

I did another first last night, I scrapped my first A4 Layout. I've been doing 12x12's since i started and was so in awe of some lovely layouts created by Little Miss Gem that i thought i'd give it a go. Well, i've had the album about 6 weeks but carried on in my trusty 12x12 until i finally ran out of room in my ever expanding albums so an enforced move happened last night. I think it's going to take some time to get used to it but so far so good.

Got Scrapbook Magazine in the post this morning (bit odd considering that the website says it goes on sale on the 1st March?), I took out a subscription on the 28th December and this is the first one that has arrived (edition 22 and not 21 as i was told). Lots of stuff in there to get my teeth into and some good articles aswell...and i always love it when i see pics and recognise their names from the forums, makes me feel so privilleged to be amongst such wonderful talent.

It's absolutely hammering it down at the moment and i'm debating with myself whether i should get myself a chinese....i keep talking myself out of it but a king prawn curry would go down rather nicely at the moment. Kiddiwinks are in bed, although, as always not without incident...natasha managed to trip over her PJ bottoms and conked her mouth on the coffee table. Boy does a split lip bleed?! So now the house is deadly silent (apart from Amy Winehouse and myself singing our little lungs out - dunno about rehab, but certainly need therapy). How are you spending your weekend?

Well as i'm feeling a bit down about missing Pete i'll put a nice pic of him here, as usual during camera moments he's squiffy!

It's been a really quiet night on the forums so i've managed to get some scrapping done. I used the K&Co Scrapad that i got a subscription gift from Scrapbook Inspirations to scrap some really old family photos. It's not the kind of paper that i would pick up and buy but i've actually enjoyed using them. They fit the photos i've chosen quite well. One page was of my nan, the most important woman that has ever been in my life and a truly amazing woman, the other was of my dad. I must admit that i really welled up doing the journalling for the one for my nan as i mentioned how much she meant to me and how her death had hit me really strongly. So it's been an emotional night to say the least.

The kids are all tucked up in bed, Emily and Natasha were whacked out after a full day at nursery and after Tash went down at 6, emily fell asleep on the sofa at 6.30! Thought i'd add a little pic of emily (the 'spirited' one of the family)

I got an email from Marion at Sugar and Spice earlier, saying that she would be sending me the new monthly kit as soon as she puts it together so i guess I am a part of a design team now! Fabby dosey and i want to tell my darling Pete but can't. At the moment the boat is being refitted in Faslane in Scotland, even though it's a Devonport based boat (BTW boat means submarine, don't ever refer to a ship as a boat.....that's my advice for the evening). It's going to be there until at least October so from now until then i have to make do with Pete coming home every few weeks for a week or so. At least he can phone me (when the reception isn't too bad) which is far better than last year.

2006 was a really hard year. The boat was away for 8 months of the year and Pete was away for 6 of them. In February he went away for four months, was home for two and then away for another 2. Unfortunately the nature of the beast with submarines is that contact when they're at sea is extremely limited. Postal service is rubbish, they can't phone and there's no email facility....only if they're classed as operational (hardly ever) and even then it's one there and one back a week. Still mustn't complain as it pays the mortgage!

Zzzzz's

Well i didn't manage to get a load of scrapping done last night after all, by the time i'd got the kiddies to bed which last night was quite difficult, had a long phone conversation with the fanatbulous Tracie Hudson and had a good old natter on the forums.....i was propping my eyes open with matchsticks. I think it was about 2am i got to bed. I did manage to get my weekly challenge done for UKS though.

I couldn't quite get my teeth into it so i did use a lot of stuff i'd bought before i knew what i was doing! Funny how when you get started you think you need this, that and the other, spend a fortune and then turn your nose up at it only 6 months later! This 6 months of scrapping has been one almighty steep learning curve. You think it's one thing and it's another entirely. I hear people talk about so-and-so's style etc but i think only 6 months down the line i still have so much experimenting ahead of me, it's so confusing as you think you don't like something (in my case it was flowers) then you really give it a go, begrudgingly at first and they turn into an obsession! At least for a while....!

You see there are so many things to try and so many 'way's to scrap.....do you start with a photo, a memory, a quote, the papers, a certain flower that you're just 'dying' to use? Does getting published mean you often neglect to leave a bit of your soul off the layout? The reason i started scrapping was because i love photos....loved them even more when i got my first camera and didn't have to worry any more about the cost of my poor David Bailey impressions. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a photographer....i'm a mother. I would love to know how to take decent pics, i can appreciate a beautiful photograph but i have no idea what all the buttons on my camera do and probably never will do. A lot of my photos are out of focus, unbalanced, too much background stuff, i don't THINK when i take a picture, I just DO. It's something that i want to learn but if i go into it too deeply will i then start thinking TOO much and miss that one moment, which once gone, can't be created again.

I don't really want to knock out layouts for the sake of it, i want to take time over them, make them feel right to ME, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I have some beautiful papers, gorgeous flowers, fantastic embellishments.......but will you even know what those papers are or even care 20 years down the line......when you look at the Layout then, it's the photographs and the journalling that ignite the memories ........ i think sometimes i'm guilty of losing site of that.... Note to self: must try harder! Right, rambled on enough, must now go get ready to pick ickles up from nursery.

Look at ME!

So chuffed! Magnificent Marion from Sugar and Spice Crafts liked the LO's that she'd seen of mine on UKS and asked if she could send me one of her delightful monthly kits to play with....for FREE! Well of course i begrudgingly *cough cough* obliged and got some layouts done, a mini maze book, (thanks Tinks for the link on that one) and a rather agent provocateur looking valentines card for hubby. Emailed rather dreadful pics of said items to Marion (Pete has the nice camera in Scotland with him) and she loved them. Go Me! So she's put them on the shops gallery page which you can see here http://www.sugarandspicecrafts.co.uk/ ( the web link button isn't working for some reason so sorry about the long address!).

Never know maybe she'll be looking for a full time DT member, today Sugar and Spice Craft....tomorrow....the world! (Evil laugh unnecessary).

Just got back from my mums. I've dropped Freya off as she's staying the night and i'll pick her up in the morning after i take Emily and Natasha to nursery. Once she's back home i aim to get some sleep.....one major fall back about 4 kids and a naval husband is that you are constantly on the go and there's no chance of a lie in! I miss my Sunday lie in when Pete's home, i'm sure if i didn't have the kids i would be able to hibernate as i love my sleep.
So that means i can have a late night tonight, or should i say later than usual...i'm going to get all my gear ready so that when the ickle ones go to bed i can scrap to my hearts content. I've got a load of challenges left to do for the UK Scrappers Team. We came top for points last month so i guess this month we have a reputation to uphold. I'm a scrapwitch don't you know!

It's a great group of girls in there and we all seem to gel quite well, it certainly helped to be part of a small group when i first joined UKS as it's so massshiiiive that i found it really difficult to find my way around, work out what all the scrapping jargon meant and not get too intimidated by it all. It's such a wonderful source of inspiration and help but i've really taken to the scrapstars forum because it is far less formal and less serious. I love spending time on the scrapstars forum purely because it is a lot smaller, it may not have as much technical information and such but the girls there are more like one big team and noone seems to be more important than anyone else (although WWoW is a force to be reckoned with!). Don't get me wrong, i love both forums but sometimes a smaller group is a lot cosier than a bigger one.

Heard that Sarah (aka Monroegirl) has got all sorted after moving back to Plymouth from deepest darkest Cornwall. I know she was desperate to get her stash unpacked so she could start scrapping again. I can't wait to meet up with her for a coffee and a chat although it's so hard the next two weeks what with Pete due home, various hospital appointments and builders and engineers coming and going. I'm sure i'll mention at some point my issues with conservatories and the companies that run them....! Sure i'm not alone there.

Hello anyone?!

I'm sat here wondering what the HELL i'm doing and even WHY i'm doing this...it's not as though i have an exciting life....it's quite monotonous in fact, but hey, everyone else is doing it so better keep up with the Jones'.

I don't know how to personlise the site so this is going to be a steep learning curve and as i can go months without updating my diary, this may languish along with that but you can't blame a girl for trying.

I've put all the personal bits in my profile, i guess they tell you a bit about what makes me tick, i'm quite an emotional person so it may be tempting to 'bare my soul' on this as it feels a bit like a diary but i guess some things aren't for the public domain so i'll try and keep it all in - i promise.

Managed to upload a piccie but will have to work out how to do multiple pics and to add some kind of gallery on here for my scrapping work.....right, short but sweet i think, will write a bit more later but right now....some scrapping (oh what a surprise!)