Yummy!

Got to say I love cakes, although my waistline doesn't....that's something that i'm going to HAVE to do something about shortly as I managed to pile on a stone and a half over Xmas...not good! I was supposed to be having a sleep this morning, but as always haven't done so. I got a new job offer last night so i'm working through an induction at the moment. It's a busy weekend all round as I have two jobs today, two tomorrow and one on Sunday aswell as this induction to do. Still I'm hoping to get a little crafting done this weekend, although as my preorder copy of The Sims Freetime has arrived I have a feeling I'll be parking my (ever expanding) butt in front of the PC all weekend!

Pete should be home this afternoon. He has another exam this morning before driving down and all four kids are home this weekend so I've got a feeling it's going to be a hectic one. It's only two months left on Pete's course now and when he's finished he'll have a degree in Nuclear Physics, no mean feat that one. I look at some of the formulae that he works on and it means absolutely nothing to me.........funny sometimes to think that the man I love who gets drunk at Xmas drinking booze from a vase is a reactor engineer! My dad glanced at some of his revision notes the other week and even he said, 'bloody hell, I never realised you were THAT bright'.....my dad, as tactful as ever!

Thought i'd include this pic of Natasha, sneaking a go on Emily's DS whilst she was at nursery. I'm currently having to wrestle them out of the girls hands at the dinner table! Almost as soon as the girls are home they're sat together on the sofa all playing different games on their DS's with Emily screaming for help on Super Mario!

SURPRISE!

Had to use an old pic for this one but it is one that I love. This is Em scaring the bejesus out of her poor little sister who was just minding her own business before Emily flung open the doors of the little house shouting 'BOO'!

Was a bit of a night last night. For some reason Natasha woke up on the one night where I managed to get my sorry butt in bed before 10.30pm. She was really tearful and I've no idea why. I tried settling her in her own bed and ended up bringing her in with me but after about an hour of whispering 'twinkle twinkle' she sat bolt upright and thought it was time to get up. Needless to say that I wasn't feeling so charitable at thatpoint and promptly marched her back to her bed instead. I think it's just the snotarama she has going on at the moment, we're talking illuminous and very very sticky!

So as tomorrow I have no work on apart from a major reorganisation of the play room, i'm going to have a nap in the morning after the girls go into nursery. I didn't manage it yesterday but I feel like a dead woman walking at the moment. If I don't get some sleep soon I may never again! Pete is definately back on Torbay after he finished his course in May. That means he's probably away for the whole of the summer.......shall I order my prozac now?????

Today's prompt is tower so here's my falling down tower! Well it was a late night last night and as i've dropped the girlies off to nursery I'm off to the land of nod for a couple hours! Short and sweet!

The sun is shining!

The weather isn't too bad, definately blow about in the park weather so that's where we're off to toodle pip in a bit but here's my HSMS for today....the word is Fungus!

On a roll......

Yup I've started and I'm keeping on going! The first two layouts I actually started months ago and they just needed some finishing touches added. I can't even remember the papers on the one above....I think everything was from a Scrapstudio kit. Shame these aren't around any more. Couldn't get a great photo of 'sleepy' as the transparency over it was reflecting everywhere I put it!

As for the second layout, I used bits from a mystery kit which I bought during a cybercrop on UKS. I think it was the 'love' kit or something, although again I have no idea of the papers or anything! Good aren't I?! Loved the little butterfly that came with it though.

And the layout last night was done from scratch using the latest Bad Girls kit. I really wasn't sure of the kit at first, I loved the elements but couldn't get my head around what I was going to do with it. Luckily the forum and blog were full of suggestions from the DT over there. I love this photograph of Freya. You may wonder why I would have a seemingly obscure title but there is method in my madness. This one has some hidden journalling. You see, Freya's father left when she was two weeks old and bringing her up on my own and working full time and studying part time was a pretty hard job. Luckily for Freya, she's always still maintained regular contact with her dad and her new extended family and it's always been something that I've completely encouraged.

This year however, he decided to move to France. It's caused a lot of stress, anger, sadness and upset and these are all emotions that are harder to take when there is nothing you can do about it. It's hard to see a 9 year old girl act as though nothing is wrong, smile, laugh and joke......and then as soon as she shuts the door she burst into tears and breaks down, which is what happened a fortnight ago when she said 'Au Revoir' for the first time. She has hidden so many emotions for fear of upsetting anyone that it's been such a rough ride. The hardest job has been to get her to be honest about her emotions and encourage her to speak openly. She's off for her first visit to France in just four weeks and I'm hoping that with the constant phone and web contact she has, she'll realise that he's not a million miles away and things aren't going to change as dramatically as she first feared. That's the hardest job.

Well, on a lighter note I went to Her Space My Space but the prompt for today wasn't up yet so i've done yesterdays. It's the show off sunday slot. Well, as I haven't taken many photos recently, (and certainly not any to 'show off' about) I've decided to include a photo which reminds me to look for something different when I have a camera in my hand and not just shoot at the face! These are Emilys new Dora skates.

HA! Just been back on HSMS and the prompt for today is cuddle.....how come Emily always looks like she's throttling Natasha when she gives cuddles?! I assure you she's not. Have a great day everyone......even if it is a Monday!

Yeah baby!

We did it! Against the odds, we did it! And the joy for me was seeing Robbie Keane almost in tears as he ran onto the pitch after the final whistle. So much is said of Berbatov that Keano is often not fully recognised for the talent that he is. Not since Gary Mabbut have I seen a Spurs player put in so much game in, game out for Tottenham and for me at least, this victory is his. It's been a long time coming, but to do over Ar***al AND Chelsea in ONE season is sweet, sweet, SWEET!

So I'm sat here with a bottle of wine, kids are in bed and Pete is now probably back in his cabin in Portsmouth. Poor Emily has a really bad reaction to her pre school booster that she had last Tuesday (she didn't even flinch at the time but now her arm is really swollen and she has a mental rash on her arm). I'm now sat watching Lost and fingering through my Bad Girls kit and thinking of what i'm going to do with it........after over four months of not scrapping from scratch i'm thinking i may give pencilines a look!

More photos for nana!

Well the weather here is completely pants so it's not possible to do any photos today. Where did the lovely weather go that we'd been having the past couple of weeks. It's become a bit of a routine the last few weeks that Pete takes the girls for a nice long walk through the woods down to Saltash passage at the weekends. They're normally gone for about 3 hours which lets me get on with dinner and housework. I get a little peace from the madness, the girls get some fresh air and Pete gets a pint when he gets down to the waterfront! Can't see it happening tomorrow though if it stays like this and i've got the Carling Cup Final to watch so want everyone out of remote control throwing range (I'm not great company when my team are being hammered and I do expect to be hammered tomorrow.....eternal optimist me!).

So today is taking the house apart to put it back together again. The girls all had a catch up on the webcam with Nana Rose and I'm putting up some more piccies that i've taken over the past couple of months.

Most of the photos were taken at Crealy just before Halloween (yes i've been absent THAT long!).

Emily said that she liked the log fume.....but then didn't want to go on it again SURPRISE!

She did however think that the pony ride was fantastic and asked for (but didn't get) one for her birthday!

We didn't have a massive Halloween party last year after a rather distressing incident last year. Freya went to a friends party and the girls got dressed up in their costumes to give out sweets. Natashas ghost costume didn't look quite the same after delving into the goodies tin though.

And one last pic of the smallest of the Farrell clan, here's little Tash on her second birthday. It was nice that daddy was home for this one so I let him do the honours!

I Love photos!

I just wish I could take better ones. I had signed up for the OU course but things just got too manic at home and I had to drop out. Shame because it looked such a great course but somethings are more important. Hopefully i'll have a little more time on my hands in 12 months time and will have another bite at the cherry.

So what do you think of the new blog? Rather bold isn't it? Very Elsie Flannigan! It's been so nice to get so many comments from people welcoming me back to world of blogging and scrapbooking....plus I know that the mother in law is happy to be seeing some more recent pics of the kids! I love this pic of Emily taken a few days after Xmas. She was being made over by the rest of the girls with a new hairstyle and a ton of glitter on!

I have finished another two layouts but it's too dark to photograph them now so i'll do that tomorrow. Hope you all have a good weekend. X

MUSIC!

Great night for music last night, watched the Brits with my mate and a bottle of wine (oh and the hugest lasagne in the world). One of my great loves is live music and if I can't be there in person it's nice to see an awards ceremony but only if they are singing live, not lip synching like Britney! I really enjoyed Amy Winehouse's performances last night although she still has a long way to go and was obviously on something last night, she does look cleaner, healthier and more with it than she did at the fated Eden concert last year.

So I finished another layout yesterday which I'd started at Scrapcamp last year and not finished. This was from a class by Jane Dean. I'd never done a class with her before and she was wonderful. What a mental sense of humour. It was so nice to meet a designer with no illusions of gradeur and the most down to earth person who seems completely unaffected by all the politics that seems to go on behind the scenes in the scrapbooking industry. The papers aren't my kind of papers but I enjoyed the class and was so gutted that I didn't get in on the transparency class she did as that looked fab. The papers are Rusty Pickle by the way.

So now i'm back to scrapping i've got two layouts which i'll finish whilst watching the Spurs continue marching through Europe tonight (well, actually they're at home......but you know what I mean!)

I've scrapped!

Yup, last night I blew the dust off my craft knife and got my fingers inky and gluey! I actually have three other layouts on the go, two of which I started ages ago and need finishing which I'm hoping to do this afternoon but here is one that I finished last night.

I was supposed to be going to a retreat at Tracies just before Xmas which unfortunately I had to cancel, but she kindly sent me down the kits so I could play along at home and they've been sat in the pizza box ever since! So last night I thought i'd do one of the classes and was immediately drawn to the one above which was by made by Sarah. So big thanks to Sarah for the class and I love these Piggy Tales papers and the chipboard is fab quality. Once again I've done a layout with stitching (and i LOATHE stitching). It took me half an hour to thread the floss, so I went to Tesco and have now bought myself a bloody needle threader! I just don't sew.......wish I could but I can't!

Went to join in with Her Space My Space today but the prompts are a lot more cryptic than when I was taking part before so will have to think a bit more carefully about it, I have an idea but it will involve a dangerous journey into the land that time forgot (i.e my eldest daughters bedroom) and I may not appear again for several days!

I also recieved my latest Bad Girls kit this morning. Ummmmm, not sure about this months but I'm yet to look on the site and see what the DT did with it so I'm hoping for a little inspiration before I even start with that one. I do however have four other Bad Girls kits still in the packages so I guess I have a lot of catching up to do!

Spent a nice day with my sister and her two kids yesterday. They came over to reek havoc and mayhem and the kids all really enjoyed themselves. Emily also had her pre school booster jabs in the afternoon. I was dreading it as it involves one injection in each arm but the girl didn't even flinch! She really puts her mother to shame.........i'm a definate needle phobic!

Tonight I have my mate Liam coming around for Lasange and DVD's. He's one of those people that I can't imagine ever having coped with life unless he was in it. A true friend that has seen me at my lowest and always offered either the right words of wisdom, or the complete distraction to enable me to carry on. How many nights we would spend up til 5 in the morning watching one Friends DVD after another! When all is said and done, these are the kinds of friends that will last for eternity and i'm so thankful that for that.

A late new year and a late new start!

So we're half way through February already and this is my first post this year. It's been a tough and busy few months, hence the lack of posts. It's not just posts that have been lacking though. I've not done any scrapping for months and apart from a few photos of Xmas, the camera has been gathering dust. I've not meant to leave things this long but sometimes life gets in the way and interupts everything.

(Natasha With the Dora Kitchen)

There have been a lot of downs in the past few months, with a little light relief at Xmas. Most of my Xmas pics were hopeless, well with four kids it is a bit chaotic and noone wants to stand still for long enough but here are a few pics.

Freya with her fave DS!

Hopefully, things are now back on the up but I know that there a few more tough times to come yet and a lot of major decisions to make. My hope is that we're now a stronger family, with a greater bond and that together we can tough out the next few months. I'm also lucky enough to have a great family who know me well, and know when I need a shoulder to lean on......sometimes they know it before I do.

Emily becomes Stephanie from Lazytown! Oh and giving the Wii a good hammering!

So clink glasses for the rest of the year. The house is almost tidy, I'm getting my head around some important stuff, I have three gorgeous daughters who keep me on my toes and always entertained. I have a husband that I love and would do anything for. I have a craft cupboard filled to the brim aching to be used again......so i'm settling down to some sorting out and will try to see if I can kickstart my mojo tomorrow night. When I told Pete I was going to be crafting he begged me not to stay up too late so I'm going to be a good girl and go to bed at a reasonable time.....I PROMISE X

Just a little pic to break up the text, Freya with one of her many cheques for Xmas!