Zippedee do dah

Yup it's a wonderful day, the sun hasn't stopped shining. So befitting Pete's last day home....yup I know I said that in my last post but as with the submarine service....never expect things to run smoothly......a bit of bother meant that the boat now isn't sailing til Monday, although Pete will be gone from tomorrow afternoon.

So the kids are out playing.....Pete has literally dumped our back garden in the street much to the kids amusement. Bouncy castle, trampoline, bikes and scooters......surprise surprise my little blighters are now very popular with the other kids in the street and they haven't fallen out with anyone all afternoon! There's a leg of lamb slowly roasting in the oven which will be slavered with mint sauce in a couple hours too and washed down with a lot of wine.

Sorted out the stash orders I placed. My order from a Trip Down Memory Lane arrived yesterday and although they were minus a pack of Thickers that I'd ordered they followed today. Must say the service was fantastic and they were full of apologies over the missing letters. Definately a place to buy from again. I've also heard that their retreats are good and I'm dying for a retreat. Only thing is I would hate to drive anywhere around London. I'll go up to Manchester, Liverpool and Wales, but the thought of driving to Essex terrifies me!

The order I'd placed with Bellaboo says to pick up because it's going to be free delivery......I thought it may be something like that. So there is more stash to come to have a play with. I went to bed at 4 in the morning on Thursday night, just sorting stash and seeing what I had hiding away. I now know what I've got, have some ideas for projects and I'll get started tomorrow night once Pete has gone.

Freya has gone to stay at her cousins in Kingsbridge for a few days although she's back tomorrow evening. I'm just hoping that Spurs don't get stuffed tomorrow afternoon....not that I'll probably get much chance to watch it with me at home with the little ones but I'll give it a damned good try.

Rythmn is gonna get ya....

...well it always gets me anyway...but 'scrapping is gonna get ya' just isn't as catchy as it....hardly rolls off the tongue! Last night I did something that I haven't done in ages....I bought new stash! I had looked into some new stuff over the past few weeks as I've been planning a minibook for Emilys forthcoming first day of school. Daddys not going to be here so i've been instructed to record the whole thing for when he comes back. The papers that I really want are the Smarty range from CI but from a request on UKS It seems that they're not available here yet. The delightful David and brilliant Brenda from Craft Obsessions are going to give me a shout though when they come in which I've been told should be sometime in the next few weeks. Really can't wait to get started on that little project.

I also like a doodlebug range that I've seen but that seems really difficult to get hold of other than some stickers. I did say to Pete, 'What if I'm too busy crying to take photos?'.....he laughed and said 'You'll be running up and down Fore Street (our main street) crying and whooping for joy'.......to be honest he kind of has a point!

She's not been the easiest of girls lately and has suddenly become very whingy and stroppy. I think school is REALLY what she needs right now. I may also have to do a school inspired book for Freya who will be going into her last year at Primary. I thought I could get her something she could take with her and get signed by her friends and teachers when she leaves.

I've always been a Craft Obsessions junkie to be honest. Before I found them, I shopped all over the web for my craft stuff and bloody hell, I did a lot of shopping using the excuse that I was new and needed EVERYTHING! But I've not bought anything new since before Xmas apart from my regular kit so decided to have a wee splurge last night. Not much of what i've ordered is new though to be honest as I've been so out of the loop that I now no longer know what are current ranges and what has been out for a while....thing is....will anyone ever know when they look back at the albums and minibooks...and more importantly....will they even care? I think not!

I wanted to get some Sassafrass Lass papers and also some Love Elsie Toby. Yup I know Toby is ancient now but I won a prize of a Toby album, rub ons and epoxy's and stuff at Scrap Camp last year and wanted to make an album for my nephew but didn't have any of the papers.....don't forget I live in a particularly girlie house!

So I've found two stockists that I haven't used before and whether it was something conspiring against me I don't know.......Bellaboo had a good range of Sassafrass reduced along with some KI Memories papers that I wanted......put in a nice order and then it tells me that I can only collect??? I'm hoping that it's a website problem but I'm waiting for some kind of confirmation from my enquiry. Then I went to A Trip Down Memory Lane and got loads of the Toby bits and bobs and some Sassafras that wasn't available in Bellaboo and guess what.....at checkout the website crashed......gonna have to try again in a moment I think.

So it's the last day of Pete being home which means I'm not going to be doing much tonight but hold onto him and get two months worth of hugs. It's the knowing that I won't even speak to him until he's about to fly back. He went in to work last night to flash up the reactors and stuff ready for Thursday. I thought he'd get home about 10pm or something but he came home at 1.30am and had to be back in again for 7.30 so unfortunately we don't get to spend the day together. I just hope he isn't home late tonight.

A New Dawn, A New Day, A New Life....for me.....

....and I'm feeling good! Oh yes I am. The sun is struggling to shine and life is good. Even though Pete only has a couple more days til he goes to sea....I'm more at peace with my life than I have been for a long time. No matter how much I love my kids, I am so looking forward to the new term especially as Pete will be away so I can indulge in some much needed 'me' time. The past four years have thrown up some issues that I've found hard to cope with although I've kept them quite close to my chest but I'm starting to get to grips with things again. Now I just have to hold it together and get to Xmas without cracking and then I think I've got it all under control.

And there's more scrapping. Both the layouts were lifts from Tracie Hudson from the July Bad Girls kit. I adore her work and am so lucky to have someone like that to look up to who is never short of advice. Funnily enough though, I've never attempted to copy anything that Tracie has ever done before but I took a deep breath and hoped for the best. I'm really pleased with the results too. The first layout uses some really old photos of Freya.....I can't believe that she wasn't even two when these were taken. I'm a bit gutted that the photo doesn't show the 3d layering but it was hard enough to get these pics in the light as it was. Everything used was from the kit.

The second layout is a great photo of Emily throwing a tantrum. She doesn't like this one at all, especially since I told her the title! She went off in the usual sulk, so in that respect....JOB DONE! Most of the stuff I used was from the kit apart from some Rob and Bob rubon letters, Heidi Swapp Chipboard shapes, an old brad stashed away and some American Craft Thickers. I love the Sassafrass papers in the kit and was having a look at Tracie's website when I read that she'd just got onto the DT team. So a big up for her, I'm sure she'll do the UK proud. They do have some stunning papers there.

I was pleased as punch to find a comment on my last blog entry from Cheryl Mezzetti. To me this is like being visited by Scrap Royalty! I first came across her blog a little over a year ago after going goo goo gaa gaa over the Lovestruck and Caution Girl ranges by Creative Imaginations. So thank you for the comment Cheryl.

I had said in my last entry that I'd used my scraps for the layout of Freya from the Caution Girl range but realised that I hadn't actually put up any photos of the book I made for Freya. So here are some snaps.

I made this about four months ago as a journal for Freya to document her feelings and thoughts at a really difficult time for her. I can't show too much of it now as it contains some very personal thoughts in it, but there are still a few blank pages for her to use up. I did all the decorating of it and added journalling pages for her to use. The covers were done using Mod Podge (?) and it was the first time i'd ever used it and it really is great stuff. Makes the paper glossy and more resilient to use as covers. I just love the lttle heart padlock on the front.

We had a great bank holiday Monday. Once Pete had come home from work we had a visit from my dad and step mum, it's the first time they'd seen Freya since she'd come back from France and they were admiring her beautiful tan (me, jealous.......OF COURSE!). In the evening we had a huge buffet tea as the BBQ would have been too hit and miss...copious amounts of dips, crudites, pitta bread, pizza, cheeses, meats and pates. After the kids went up to bed, me and Pete played Mario Party 8 on the Wii. Now it's funny enough to watch someone on the Wii when they're sober....however, watching them after a bottle of red and a jug (yup....i DID say jug) of vodka and coke is pant wettingly hilarious. I haven't laughed so much in ages...to the point where i was crying and very literally letting out a drop of wee wee at the same time...well, women with kids will know that your bladder never really is the same after the third one pops out!

Luckily, I could have a lie in this morning, but Pete went off to work this afternoon looking non too healthy! He has to go in to get things ready for the off on Thursday. Fingers crossed he won't be back home too late tonight and may even be off work tomorrow. If so, it's final supper time, which traditionally means an Indian takeout and lots of silly jokes before the sad farewells.....not looking forward to that bit at all.

Here's one I did earlier........

Haven't really felt much like blogging the last few days. The Navy has done it's usual and buggared up our last weekend together so at the moment I'm walking around like a bear with a sore head. We were part way painting the hallway aswell when the call came through yesterday for Pete to go onboard and that was the only free day to do the painting whilst the girls weren't running around the house so now i'll have a half painted hallway at least until November.

Yesterday the girls all had a great time. Whilst I was dropping the little ones in nursery I noticed a stage had been erected in the field and several marquees. Turned out that there was a summer concert on. The main attraction was Flava, apparently a dance troupe from Cornwall who were on Britains Got Talent (although I don't watch any of these talent shows which means i watch very little tele anymore). I did You tube them to find out who they were and was very impressed. When Freya got up, I told her and she was itching to get up there so off she tottered with two of her friends and I picked them up when the girls finished nursery. The girls had gone on the stage with the dancers and got all hysterical telling me about how they'd signed their t-shirts....it was just like me and New Kids On The Block all over again!

By the time I got there it was pretty quiet even though there was a band playing plus bouncy castles and the usual bumpf. Mind you, it didn't seem to be that well advertised. Hardly surprising as Saltash council can't organise a piss up in a brewery. Honestly you can tell that you've hit Cornwall when you get here. In Plymouth, they advertise massively stuff that's going on like the fireworks championships, festivals and stuff.....even crappy events seem to get loads of publicity...this little festival could really have had a lot more people coming.

So here's the layout that I've done so far this week. It's a scraplift from one that Alison Schubert has done with the July Bad Girls kit and I love love love it. REally pleased with how it turned out although i did buggar up with some of the measurements (I've never been one for rulers). I'm now working on another scraplift of a layout done by Tracie. All I seem to be able to do at the moment are lifts but I guess i've been so out of mojo lately that at least I'm glad that i'm finally scrapping again.

I had done a few more layouts over the past couple of months and not got around to sharing them for one reason or another, probably because I haven't really been blogging. The second is from the June kit and was a lift from Iris Babao Uy who's work is always gorgeous. Mine doesn't do it justice at all, but after I started I realised I needed a few bits from the addons which I've refused to buy because I'm creaking under the weight of unused stash as it is.

Then the last lift was also from the June kit and from a layout done by Allison Schubert. I have no idea why I have such a shadow over the photo on this layout, it's not like that in real life I can assure you. With hindsight, I think I would have stickled the letters a different colour and also may have used a sepia filter for the photo but I do love the layout and the Prima papers were beautiful.

The last layout was just using some left over scraps from the mountain of Creative Imaginations bits I had lying around after making a book for Freya a couple of months ago. Quite plain and simple to be honest but she thinks it's fab!

I got my August Bad Girls kit this week and it's the first one that i've been disappointed with. WEll, not with the whole kit as I love the embellishments and the stamp which is a mermaid is perfect for me but the papers aren't my bag at all. So it may be lifts again this month. I am itching though to start experimenting again and I think I'll do that once Pete is back at sea.

I got talking to a friend of mine on Facebook the other day and even though we've not caught up properly, I just wanna thank Sarah for inspiring me again to get a bit more creative with the photography. I think she found the Her Space My Space website from my blog ages ago and since then she's really kept up with it (and her blog) whereas I've lapsed sooooo much. When I see Sarahs photos I am blown away with how good they are.....now off to save for a decent macro lens!

....and the british summer just keeps on coming...

So it was BBQ time. Organised by the boat as a kind of pre deployment family get together it's a real shame that it was a bit of a wash out. Luckily entertainment had been laid on for the little ones in a small hut on the field which was supplied by a lady doing facepainting and a magician called Emazdad. Freya had the same magician at a party when she was younger and he's definately one of the best in Plymouth. His balloon making was amazing and not a giraffe in sight!

The girls spent most of the time running up and down the bouncy castle slide thingy but now that they're home, Emily is driving me up the wall with her tantrums, seems like they're getting so much worse over the past six months....ummmm, just what I need as Pete goes to sea eh? I am soooo looking forward to September because I'm hoping that she just may HAVE to improve in the discipline stakes. Oh well, parenthood eh?

The last couple of days haven't been great. Emily was sick on Saturday night and then we all came down with it over the past two days. Natasha and Freya were throwing up on Monday night and then me and Pete had the trots. So the last 48 hours have gone by in a daze. The house is upside down and I can't find anything under piles of stuff that need to be dealt with so I'll have to have a real clean tomorrow plus I've got Friday to do some bits and bobs whilst the girls are at nursery. I don't really want to plan too much this weekend as it's Pete's last weekend home.

I did manage to do some scrapping last night though. Finished one layout and have done a load of handcutting for a second one so I'll show those on here tomorrow.

And she's back!

My eldest babe is back! Back from spending three weeks in France with her dad and bloody hell i've missed her! She flew in yesterday and we had a lovely roast duck dinner...although all she was going on about was when she could have a pasty (and we're talking proper cornish pasty not those bastard Ginster things that try and pass themselves off as pasties!).

She still hasn't even unpacked her cases yet but you could see in her face that she was happy to be home again and sleep in her own bed too. Yesterday was her first chance to get on the Wii fit too as it arrived on the day she flew out so she managed to clock up a few hours on that yesterday whilst I busied myself in the kitchen slaving over the roast. Her sisters were over the moon to see her and I, as always, was jealous of her tan! That girl just has to be in the sun for five minutes and goes a beautiful golden shade......5 minutes for me has me bordering on beetroot.

So we took things fairly easy yesterday and then today completely demolished the kitchen by making various cakes and buns as the weather was pants again. Lots of flour and icing sugar everywhere but the girls were so interested in what they were doing that there was hardly a squabble, moan or whinge all afternoon.

Freya also got a chance to mess around with her iPod for the first time which I've packed with tunes for her.......and the Scott Mills Podcasts which keep me from losing my head whilst I'm doing the humdrum of cleaning. Now i'm about to print off some photos for a layout...and I'm going to do it TONIGHT!

Postcards from Porth!

OK, I know, two blogs in one, I'm a bit like a bloody bus in that sense. Been playing in Photoshop this evening and just learnt to do this.......

From a flat image that I took on Porth Beach in Newquay last month.....

To this postcard stroke polaroid version....all courtesy of Scott Kelbys 'The Photoshop Elements 5 Book for Digital Photographers'. Great book packed with little tips and perfect for beginners. I'm going back to it to have a further play.

Oh and by the way.....just having the most divine icecream....Waitrose Seriously Creamy Malaysian Coconut and Lime........deeeeelisssshhhhh. x

Regular blogging?

Well it's more regular than it has been! Still not done any scrapping although I do have a layout planned....I'm just waiting for a window of opportunity where i'm husband and childless. With Pete back off to sea in less than two weeks that should happen sooner rather than later. One good thing over the last couple of weeks though is that i've started to get the camera bug back again. I found a fantastic website called All Things Photography where you can find some fantastic tips and hints, especially when it comes to flash photography. I'm dying to get myself a decent wide angle lens for my canon but that may have to wait some time yet after I almost choked when i saw how much a 16-35mm lens was.....ummmmm may be asking for Jessop vouchers for the next six years!

I have been preparing a disc of photos to send to Freyas dad in France so thought i'd have a little play in Elements whilst i was changing them from RAW to JPEG images. I've just been playing with different filters and effects to do something a little different and I'm quite pleased with the results. RAW is such a godsend to those of us that are still getting our heads round exposures and ISO's and white balance.......all hail the DSLR!

The photo above was of Freya pratting around with my cap on when she was at the disco in Newquay. There were lots of flashy lights and weird colour casts on her face so I decided to emphasise the colour rather than trying to hide it by adding a neon filter and playing around. She looks like a right little raver!

It's been a fairly normal week here though, loads of rain...so no different from the usual British summer. We did however get a free holiday to Pontins. They were running a promotion to give something like a thousand free holidays to forces personnel and their families. I supplied our details and we've got a free midweek break to Prestatyn (spelling?) next May when Pete gets back from sea. No idea whether or not he'll be on leave then so just have to hope for the best. The idea is to team it up with a trip oooop norf to see the relatives....and if I've lost all the weight i hope to lose between now and then...an excuse for shopping wildly in Liverpool and Manchester which I've never done before without being on a tight rein!

So I'm looking forward to the start of the new football season tomorrow and hoping for a winning first day....if not, beware!