So Tired

Well i was supposed to go stash shopping with Sarah this morning but as i looked like hell when i woke up i decided it wouldn't be for the best...dropped the girls off at nursery and then came home and crashed so not much to update you with, now i have to avoid the temptation of being up til 3 or 4 in the morning.

So here's my quick take on todays prompt before i go and get the girls from nursery. Cushion. I love these cushions they're battered and old but i still love the colours and won't get rid of them.

Just when you think...

...all the sickness is over i woke at 4am to find Freya clinging to the Porcelain God and crying her eyes out. Seems like she also had the lurgy although i think it may also be due to a massive nosebleed she seems to have had during the night. She wasn't ACTUALLY sick although the bathroom was WWAYYYY off limits for at least half an hour after her visit this morning and all now seems to have calmed down so I kicked her butt into school. She doesn't get ill that often and as she seemed not too bad i thought i'd rather have her sent home than keep her home.

She did have some good news yesterday when she came home. She got through her audition for the Drama Club, although she was more concerned that bessie mate Shannon didn't....she does think so much of others and it's a lovely quality to have. So rehearsals start on Friday.

I'm getting so excited about ScrapCamp now which is only just over a week away...not prepared in the slightest so i'm going to aim to have everything ready by the end of the weekend even though i STILL haven't looked at the OU stuff.

So i'm not going to be lurking on the net today.....done my HSMS prompt, going to catch up on one Forum and then it's OU here I come!

JUGS

Well they're certainly something i wish i had more of and we're not talking ceramic or glass here either. I never worked out how my sister ended up with Dolly Parton wangers and i ended up with pimples! It just seemed so unfair.

After puberty it wasn't an issue, i was happy with my body and as an ex dancer it was common to be small up top, plus i got to wear little vest tops and things and never had to worry about bras.

Unfortunately after three hungry breastfeeding little blighters my jugs have now been renamed my dairlylea triangles.....

I've never thought about cosmetic surgery before but now i definately would....i don't even want them bigger...just somewhere around my chest would be nice!

So heres my OTHER jug today. This is a lovely ceramic jug which came as a mulled wine set that Pete got me last Xmas from Waitrose......i only ever made one batch last xmas and kept the leftovers cos it looked pretty...well for a while...then it got used to host my ever expanding stash of Tesco's vouchers....but with the cinnamon sticks in there i have the nicest smelling vouchers in the world!

Was aiming for a night of scrapping today but i've been told there's a lot of stuff to do on the OU Photography course which i haven't even managed to glimpse at yet so i'm going to do that today now instead and then fingers crossed start my pre scrap camp stuff before the weekend or else i'm going to be up against it timewise. When god built human beings why didn't he just make us able to resist sleep completely........mind you, then i wouldn't get sweet pictures like this

This is Natasha worn out after a hard day at Butlins last week.

She certainly is a girl who loves her comforts, one pacifier, one bottle of milk and that purple thing you see behind her head is her 'silky'. Actually it's a pair of my old pyjama bottoms that were commendered by Emily to get her to sleep when she was a baby.

We used the excuse that Natasha would need it when she was born just to stop Emily using it....however now Natasha won't stop using it either. Woah betide we go anywhere and leave silky behind!

Birthday Blues

Well some kind of sickness bug seemed to have swept through the house yesterday. I put Emily being sick on Saturday night down to overindulgence at her cousins birthday party, however from the moment i woke up yesterday i felt rough.

By the time emily finished nursery in the morning, i had been sick and by the afternoon it was natasha too! Not a great way to spend your birthday.....running to the bathroom and trying to contain the ever growing mountain of sick bedding and towels and scrubbing carpets and mattresses!


I did ring Pete to wish him a happy birthday and he opened all his cards. I hate not being able to share it with him when he's not here.


This morning seems far more peaceful and although i don't have the stomach back to normal at the moment and can feel things not being the best at least i'm up and about. I'm going to try to have a look through the OU photography course bits and bobs this afternoon and then this evening i have my good friend Liam coming around to try and fix the kids PC which is refusing to turn on...instead just flashing an angry red blinking light at me as if to see naaaah naaaah and pulling faces at me....that's what happens four months after your warranty finishes....it does it on purpose you know.


I'm having a real want to scrap as i've done nothing now for two weeks. It's finding the time that's hard though. I have a load of personal bits to do before i go to scrapcamp plus i want to tear open all the bits i got from Bad Girls and then I also have the new Scrap Studio kit being shipped tomorrow so all the bits are there for a fabby weekend of scrapping! The Scrap Studio kit this month is full of Daisy D's papers and bits....not used this range before so i'll see how i get on with it.


I was over the moon to get my subscription for the Bad girls kit after being on the waiting list for what seemed like forever (exaggeration, see i have no patience when it comes to things i want...i just have to have them yesterday!). So i'll be getting the October kit when it comes out but in the meantime aswell as the bits i ordered last month and recieved i've also ordered the September project kit which looks amazing! I can't wait to get to grips with it.



Just look at all those goodies! I have noticed my taste in papers changing, which i guess is a given after almost 12 months scrapping...but the kind of things i thought were twee back then are the kind of things i'm going 'aahhhh' at now. Are you like that......did you hate using something and now love it?





I also want to say a big thanks to Debby for such a lush card that arrived this morning. Thanks so much for all the little goodies in the envelope too, i'm certainly going to make use of it all once i get to grips with a few other things this week. Luckily after today the rest of the week should be a bit quieter.




As for award for top birthday card...it has to go to my dad for this amazing effort! When i told Pete about it on the phone and explained that it sang 'Glory Glory' everytime you opened it he said he was glad he wasn't home as the girls would keep opening it!



Note how my dad still refuses to call me 'Terrie' even though it is LEGALLY my bloody name! And why he's signed it from Barry instead of Dad (which he added as an after thought obviously just incase i didn't know it was from him!!!)?





So the HSMS prompt today is sponge and unfortuantely i can't seem to find any of your typical sponges as i use loofahs and stuff, nothing like rubbing your skin so hard it almost bleeds eh?! So here is one of the other types of 'sponges' i have in the house. Natasha. She is just like a sponge and absorbs everything she can. When Freya is practicing her keyboard, Natasha wants to get involved too (usually to Freya's annoyance). So here is my smallest sponge having a boogie and play whilst Freya slipped out of the room, don't you just dig her DJ hat! There was so little light in the room when i took this but i love that the blur is her dancing, shows what a nutjob she really is!

Happy Birthday!

Another year older for both me and Pete today. Happy Birthday darling if you're reading and i'll ring you tonight. So here is pic of the lovely new silver beads i got for my Troll bracelet. All the silver 'initials' representing each of my girls and Pete are my new ones and I think i can say that this bracelet is now well and truly full! So guess what's on my wish list now? ANOTHER bracelet LOL. If you click the image you can see the beads a little clearer by the way.

I've had several renditions of Happy Birthday this morning from the girls and my niece and nephew, opened all my cards including a great one from my dad which sings 'Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur' when you open it......i did like that one!

It's thrown right back into reality today though, Pete is back at work...Freya is at school, Emily is at nursery, Natasha is sulking because she isn't at nursery....and all normal routines resume.

Theres still a few days left to vote in the first round of Scrapbooker of the Year over at Docrafts so if you haven't registered yet you still have time.

I recieved all my gumf from the Open University on Saturday for the Photography course I'm starting next week although i haven't even looked at it yet so hopefully i'll get a chance tonight. I know it's going to be tough fitting it all in with Scrapcamp just around the corner and another Cyber Crop coming up on UKScrappers but rather be busy than bored. Thing is i'm feeling slightly sicky today although i have no idea why, I certainly didn't over indulge last night. Maybe i just need an early night.

HSMS Prompt today was dog. Well i don't have one or know a neighbour who has one so hunted around in the jungle which is the girls bedroom and found this. This is a TOTO snowstorm which now is very old and battered. One of Freyas' fave films when she was younger was The Wizard of Oz.

She would often be dressed as Dorothy with ribbons in her hair and sparkly red jazz shoes (which i spent a whole afternoon running round dance shops trying to get hold of) an singing 'Over the Rainbow' at the top of her lungs.

The movie might change...it's now High School Musical and Grease...,but the imagination and desire to perform is most certainly there. She had an audition for the schools drama club before we went on holiday so she's just waiting now to find out whether or not she got in.

So a busy holiday followed by some major busy few weeks......what are you all up to?

Only a few hours left til Pete goes back to Scotland and we seem to be on a go slow this morning. Last night was spent with a few bottles, a lush chinese take out and a sort of celebrating our birthdays early! We caught up with My Name Is Earl, watched SAW III and then cried with laughter with some Phoenix Nights DVD's. I hadn't watched these before even though i bought them for Pete a few months back and i was in hysterics. I think it just reminds Pete of being oooop norf.


I had my birthday pressie from Pete last night which were some silver beads for my Troll bracelet which is now well and truly full so will have to put a new bracelet on the list for Xmas. I'll take a photo later when the light isn't so pants but i have an initial of each of the girls and a P for Pete. They look so cute so i'll definately share them with you later.


I think Emily indulged a little too much at her cousins birthday party yesterday as she was sick during the night the poor poppet. None of the girls have ever really been that sicky before so it's not nice to see them when they're not well.



My dad and step mum came out to see the video footage of Butlins and were amazed with Natasha's dancing skills. I really wish i knew how to put footage on YouTube so i could share it with you but I haven't got the foggiest how to do it so if anyone wants to email me instructions?!






So here's my show off sunday pic for todays' HSMS prompt. One of many random pics i took on holiday. I wanted to practice with the shutter speed which isn't easy when you have the shakiest hands in the world but this one came out quite well with the spinning wheel on a games machine.

The kids all had a fantastic time at Butlins and there was endless things for them to do. They loved the parks, swimming, shows, dancing, bowling and wasting vast amounts of coins on the machines. Heres Natasha on the swings which is probably her favourite thing to do other than dancing.

Freya really came into her own on the holiday as she was old enough to just go off with Shannon and do whatever so that meant lots of swimming, bungee jumping, archery, tennis and general tomfoolery.......

and of course this also meant spending a ridiculous amount of time putting on lip gloss for the evening!

Taking her best mate Shannon on hols with us was also a stroke of genius. It meant that she was never too shy to go and do something for the worry of having to make new friends. These two girls are like two peas in a pod and Shannon is such a funny girl.....they were so lucky to have each other.

Emily on the other hand has become a bit camera shy over the past few months, maybe something to do with mummy trying to think she's David Bailey at every given opportunity. But i did manage a few of her in the park and several when she wasn't looking!

I love this pic of Natasha waiting with Pete to go on the train ride as it was just so natural.


And after waaaaaay too much alcohol.....I even let Pete take my photo!

So now it's a mountain of washing and ironing still and trying to get the house back together after a 'sling it all in the corner' sort of weekend. Hope everyone else is well. X

SPS Saturday!

Well i'm back from my hols feeling still hungover and tired. I really could do with another couple of migraleve and an extra day in bed but such is the life of a mother that isn't really going to happen. Instead i have my niece and nephews birthday party today so i have to try and find some nice clothes for the girls to wear even though most of them are still in the wash from the holiday!

It's the start of the silly season for birthdays now. As mine and Petes are on Monday and he will be back in Faslane, I've already given him his pressie although not his cards which i'll slip in his rucksack before he goes. We got him one of those electric shavers that oooozes stuff out of it...I don't understand the terminology of shavers so you'll just have to trust me that it's supposed to be a good one!

I already know what i have although i haven't opened it yet. Theres a packet from Trollbeads so i'll open that tonight along with a bottle of wine and we'll have our birthday this evening when the kids go to bed. So i'll update properly tomorrow but leave you with the HSMS prompt which as always on a saturday is self portrait day.

Off on Hols!

So i'm off......just about packed, pete has gone out to find some speakers for the car dvd players cos they're not working properly, kids pc has gone kaput but i don't care cos tomorrow all the stress will be behind us and a different sort of stress will take it's place.

Voting is now underway in the Docrafts competition i entered......you can vote here, all layouts in the Scrapbooking section are anonymous and the top 30 will go through to the next round.

Everyone have a great week and i'll be back with loads next week i'm sure. X

Still too much to do!

Running around like a headless chicken is something i used to enjoy doing. I used to love the feeling of constantly being busy and never having time to think but lately it's been getting a bit grating. Oh well, three days and counting til I'm off to Butlins with the kids and my man and i really can't wait for a semi break (it's never quite a holiday when they're this young as you spend most of your time as shepherd trying to round them up and stop them running off completely!).

I got most of the girls stuff together last night so tomorrow night will be major ironing night so that most of it gets there and is wearable straight away. I DO NOT IRON....isn't that why god invented the tumble dryer? So will have to find a film to watch whilst i'm doing that.

The lovely people at the Eye Infirmary have ordered Emily a new pair of glasses for her missing ones and when i turned up off spec yesterday they also mended her spare pair which had been chewed to bits on the end! Luckily this isn't something she's still doing, i think it was just the novelty of having glasses and seeing how destructive she could be. So i come home and whilst clearing out the car find her 'lost' glasses so now she'll have three pairs. Mind you, with a three year old you can never have too many pairs.

I had my first ever waxing session last night and my god it stang....or is that stung? Even now my legs look like i've contracted measles. So apparently i have to exfoliate now and my skin should then be baby soft....but probably still sore. Oh the things we women do for vanity! So today i'm packing up my things, cleaning the house from top to bottom, picking the girls up from nursery, picking up my sister and neice and nephew, coming home, exfoliating, plucking, grooming and fake tanning, dropping freya off to her dads, dropping sister and kids home, picking up Robert for the weekend, coming home again....dinner, bed for the kids, getting the house straight then driving to Exeter to pick beloved Pete up from the airport and back again so should get home around half eleven tonight! I would like to think i've got a lie in tomorrow but as i've got hairdressers at 9.30 that isn't really going to happen. Then i have to go Tesco and then it's the ironing mountain.......how come preparing for a holiday is so blooming stressful!

So i can't stand here gas bagging all day! Will leave you with my HSMS prompt which today was tweezers.......ignore the greying hair (will be gone tomorrow)! X

Too much to do!

Well i have a mountain of work to do, packing to do etc and it's not easy with two wrist splints on! I was going to try and get the girls stuff packed for the holiday last night but my dad and step mum made an unexpected vistit, cue lots of kids running around excitedly and chaos as the aftermath! Today i have to get emily from nursery at 11.30, take her to the eye infirmary to get her glasses fixed (she managed to chew the plastic bit on the arm right off!) as her spare pair have gone AWOL. Then i have to get home, pack the girls things, list everything else that needs to be packed, clean upstairs, go to my sisters to get waxed (that is something i am DREADING), pop to Tesco, come home and do the girls dinner, have freya's keyboard practice, pack freya's stuff, bag up a load of gear to take to the nursery tomorrow and then try and get them all to sleep! Oh well, no rest for the wicked.

On top of that i have a major dilema....i have to have my wisdom teeth out and have been waiting for an appointment for it for ages (15 months long enough?) as i have to have them done under sedation. So when the appointment came through it was during my holiday so i called to cancel, the next appointment has come through and it's four days before I go to Bristol for Scrap Camp. How long does it take for you to be alright after having your wisdom teeth out? I have no idea but i've heard it's about a week. Now i don't know whether or not to cancel it again but that may mean another three months waiting. Anyone know if i'll be alright? Anyway comments on that will be gratefully recieved.

So heres todays HSMS Prompt, Curious. Well with an almost two year old in the house, she's curious about everything so here she is trying to work out why the chalk doesn't mark her hand anywhere near as well as it does the walls!

KISS!

Oh i like this prompt today.....i'm fortunate that the girls are all still young enough to enjoy a good snog with each other or get a wet slobbery one from me..however Freya has got to stage where she goes 'euuuuwwee' if me and Pete dare to kiss! I love this pic of Freya and Natasha.....there was lots of 'yucks' from Freya after this one (note Natasha's tongue!).

Well it seems that i overcompensated with my right hand for my left hand and not both are strapped up, not easy when caring for four kids on your own. It's meant no scrapping and having to try and do internet things on the PDA which has a handwriting recognition thing on it but it hates my writing! LOL

It's a busy week with getting the house straight and packing for the holiday..hair appointments, back to schools etc. I'm off into Plymouth in a bit to get Natasha some shoes and her sister a pair of trainers plus a few odds and ends for the holiday. Sorry no layouts to share but just updating this is hard enough at the moment. Will get around everyones gallery this afternoon after lugging round town! Have a great day!

Cakes

Well one thing that isn't in my space is cakes. I'm supposed to be on a diet, although the halo has kind of slipped lately and i must say i enjoyed the most gorgeous slice of lemon cheesecake from Waitrose on Friday morning. But this is the only cake i can safely be around at the moment....the kids 'cake'.

with the wrist still a little sore i've been getting into the digi scrapping a bit more and was sent to a website with some great tutorials here....I've only worked through the first two but it was certainly more fun than struggling with a paper layout and a dodgy wrist.

The first one is purely a template so it was just add a photo and text and the second was a layered template so you add the embellishments and papers etc to it. If you haven't tried digi before these tutorials cover Photoshop and Elements and there's some great mini tutorials on how to make your pages look more realistic.

I think i'll always be a paper scrapper but i'm loving some of the digi stuff you can get hold of especially for free so maybe this would be good for all those photos that i had no intention of scrapping and putting into albums, i could do this instead

It's certainly not as daunting as i thought it was going to be.

I have a really busy day today. The girls went back to nursery and school today, its been a long old seven weeks and it's probably going to take me another week to get used to the change in routine....just in time for us to go on hols! LOL

I'm certainly not a morning person but i have to get back into going to bed at a reasonable time and NOT 3.30 in the morning! So Freya is at school, i have to finish the housework, have a shower, bath the girls (who got a bit overexcited over breakfast!), drop them into nursery...go off to the salon and have my hair done (yippee!), come home, rush tea, take Freya to her keyboard lesson, come home and then i think i'll be fit to crash! Oh the life of a stay at home mum! Will give you a peak at the hair when it's done but expect it to look very different....actually if you think of me as the blog title it won't actually look very different at all as it's probably going to be the same as that but the last six months it has been VERY short and VERY straight and i can't wait to have my hair back as it should be! Have a good day everyone! X

Happy Scrapper

Well the wrist has eased off enough for me to finish the two layouts last night that i was working on and if i sit really high at the keyboard it doesn't hurt too much to type but blimey...holding down a ruler when i cut with the craft knife.....BOY THAT HURT! So at least i know it's just a pressure thing now like pushing up with my hand to get off the floor, that kind of thing.

So here's one of the layouts i finished last night.

This was really hard as i loved this Basic Grey Phoebe paper but couldn't bear to cut it up so i handcut tiny pics of my mum and Freya taken at my sisters wedding 8 years ago and put those on with a hambly overlay. Thing is i got so carried away with the Ice Stickles. Whenever they come out i go OTT with them as i just love the sparkly effect they give. I just like adding a little extra to the papers and it also gives a little dimension too....oh heck...i just love stickles!

Freya made the sweetest little bridesmaid that day and everyone was cooing over her. At the reception she was running around in nappy and ballet pumps with a champagne balloon!

I also finished another layout which i'm not sure i can share yet....will have to check and get back to you on that one. I'm entering into the Docrafts competition and i know the layouts for it are live on the gallery there but i'm not sure if i'm allowed to put them anywhere else so i'll double check on the rules for it.

You may recognise the pic below which is for the HSMS prompt. It's a pic i took whilst pretending to be David Bailey when we went down Looe last month. It's the first time that i'd been out and about with the DSLR and had consciously tried to take some 'serious' photos. I was really pleased with how this turned out and added it to a minibook i also made last month. I think i may have a bit too much of the sky in the photo so the composition isn't as good as it could've been but still i am only a beginner and I'm hoping that i'll get a few more tips online and with the OU course which starts next month (although not heard that they've recieved my registration for it yet!).

..

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and i'll see you all tomorrow! X

Ow!

By the time i actually upload this i will probably have been typing for an hour! Reason: this bloody wrist just will not mend. Granted i have had a lot to do where i've had to take off my splint (including taking down a cotbed and moving 2 wardrobes) which probably haven't helped matters, but to be honest its not big things like that or even weight that really hurts. It can be the slightest movement and typing is definately the worst.

Having spent about the last 15 years with a keyboard as a natural extension to my wrist has certainly taken it's toll. When i gave up work five years ago, i couldn't believe the difference it made to my wrists...i went from wearing the splint a couple days a week to wearing it a couple times a month and i guess i'm lucky that i haven't really had any troubles now for a few months...certainly not enough to warrant the dreaded splints. I guess i should be greatful that it's just one wrist at the moment but i'm just hoping that it eases off before the holiday next Monday.

I could say it was an easy way to get out of the HSMS self portrait but as you can see i still did it.....do you think it makes me look fat LOL! Not exactly a stunning fashionable accessory though is it?!

So enough of my woes. I've had a great couple of packages in the post these past couple of days from Craft Obsessions. The first was a tote for the upcoming scrapcamp and the other which is a bit more exciting is a bind it all.

At the moment i can't do much with it cos of my wrist but i can't wait to get to grips with it and try out a few books.

Freya is staying at her nans this weekend along with her cousin Paige who she doesn't get to see that often. Freya doesn't know Paige will be there so that'll be a great surprise for her. Then on Monday it's back to normality as they're all back to school and nursery again. I've managed to cram a hair appointment in on Monday to get back to my curly wurly self before the holiday.

So tonight i want to try and finish one of my layouts and possibly do another digi. But all in all i think it will be a quiet weekend, fingers crossed (well on my left hand anyway!) X

poor pic today but still doen to one wrist - sorry! pic is of freya ringing up all the relatives about an hour after i gave birth to Natasha. She was so proud but moaned about having another sister (this was her fourth)!

Hoping my wrist will feel a bit better over the weekend as i have so much to catch up on. As i can't craft with one hand i've been having a bit of a play with some digi stuff and did this one last night. fingers crossed i'll be able to do a little tomorrow as i have two almost completed layouts to finish. X

FEAST

HAVE A RECURRENT RSI PROB AND ONE OF MY WRISTS HAS GIVEN UP ON ME SO VERY DIFFICULT TO TYP. THIS IS NATASHA MAKING A FEAST OUT OF A FROZEN AUNTIE BESSIE AND THEN REALISING IT IS FROZEN. SPLINT ON WRIST NOW SO FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF, WILL TRY TO USE PDA LATER TO CATCH UP ON GALLERIES AS I CAN WRITE WITH ONE HAND BUT I JUST CANT TYPE! SORRY!

CJ returned.

I picked this up from the posty on Saturday...it's the CJ that left me 9 or so months ago and the first one i've ever done and it's nice that it's back. For the cover and my entry i used Autumn Leaves Red, black and cream papers and twill...this was all from the January Scrap Studio kit and is still my favourite kit ever. My confession was that i sing loudly and dance very badly around the house when noone is there. I mean i actually BELIEVE i'm in 'Stars In Their Eyes!'




Caroline, i love the torn paper in your layout
and even though i'm not a cat person i can appreciate how much they mean to you. I know this entry must've been difficult having lost one of the cats you had but this is a lovely testament to Domino and thanks for sharing= X



Amanda, I think we all have a guilty secret like this one, i lay in bed at night thinking that I'm some famous pop star and one day Sean Pertwee will whisk me away and marry me in a lavis wedding featured in Hello Magazine.....you're never too old to have your little fantasies!



Kelly, you're layout made me laugh so much....i've been to so many pubs where there have been strange animals walking round but i have to say if one had a goat in i wouldn't be there again! I dunno what it is about them but i truly believe goats to be evil! I won't go anywhere near them when we go to farms or the like!


As for Claires entry, well that just made me swoon......ah, that perfect dreamy look in Gary's eyes eh? And whilst on the phone to another man aswell, tut tut!


Well Rosie, what can i say......gorgeous layout as has been all your work that's passed through my hands. I think you're the girl i need to spend a night on the tiles with.


Chloe, i think i loved yours the best as for me it brought back so many feelings from only a few short years ago. I was touched by your honesty and obviously heartfelt journalling and the envelope you made was lovely.

As for Lizzyanns' well what a double take i did on this entry...that's some confession eh? Not many people would own up to that one.

Next up was Lis'. Oooh what can i say what a sumptuous layout, i too am a big choccie fan and have to dragged off the window of hotel chocolate in Plymouth but i don't know these choccies. Stunning layout on stunning papers.

And last but not least, Helen. I have a confession too......I also have the same confession! The photos on this were fantastic and this was the perfect finishing page. BTW i lurve your painted toenails, very funky!

I really can't wait to get our next CJ rolling and it's been fantastic to see all your work, thank you so much.