Life Scrap

And we're off....

2012-01-24T10:45:00.003Z

Jumped on the scales yesterday to view the damage and although it wasn't great, it certainly could have been worse. 50lb in 30 weeks. Sounds rather huge when you look at it that way so I've set a little target of losing 21lb by our wedding anniversary in April.

I always take a couple weeks to get back into the healthy way of eating, maybe I shouldn't deviate so much when I decide to go mad really. Money being what it is for the moment, I'm not in a SW class so I'm doing it at home with my mountain of books and the Slimming World magazine.

Being back at the start means I'm sticking with basics for a while so that I can get stable before starting to experiment a bit more.

Today's breakfast was a SW classic. Bacon, grilled tomato, mushrooms and scrambled eggs. I do love having this when I've got time in the mornings as it's all free food if you're on red or extra easy. I never do green days as I'm pretty controlled when it comes to carbs (well, the healthier ones anyway).

For lunch I'm having a ham and cheese sandwich with fruit and a yogurt so pretty basic.

Then for evening meal it's Stew. Everyone loves stew and it's so healthy, especially now that stock cubes are free. Bearing in mind that I first did Slimming World about 18 years ago, it's funny to see some of the things that have become free over the years.

So anyway, Stew. Easy to do and all syn free. Get some lean casserole or braising steak cubes and fry them in a heavy saucepan with seasoning. Obviously you're going to use fry light or some other low fat oil spray to do that adding salt and pepper. Once the meat is browned, remove it with a slotted spoon and put to one side. I chop leek, onion, carrots, and parsnips. These I then add to the pan to pick up the flavour of the beef, just fry the veg for about 10 minutes, fully coating it in all the pan juices from the meat.

I then add a couple of dried bay leaves, pop the meat back in and add as much beef stock as need to completely cover the ingredients. Let this simmer away whilst you peel and chop some potatoes. Don't cut them too small or they'll break up completely with the slow cooking. I'd say I cut mine so that each one is half the size of a (woman's) fist. Once the pan has been on simmer for about half an hour, add the potatoes and if neccessary, more stock.

I then leave mine as long as possible. Normally a couple of hours with the lid on. I'll taste it after an hour and then add stuff to taste. It could be a little soy sauce (yup that's right!) some mixed herbs, some more seasoning,

Most people have their own preferences for stew so just add little bits, stir and taste. Just remember that dumplings aren't really an option this time!

2012-01-23T09:01:00.000Z

So long since I blogged I don't know where to begin to be honest. Had inspiration over the weekend to start again as I'm back on Slimming World and thought it may be motivation to keep going. Also stopped smoking so this could be the kind of blog that is very depressing for a while LOL! Lets see if I can keep this up. Right off to do first weigh in because just dipped a toe in the water this weekend and stayed off the bad stuff. Going to weigh in today but shopping coming tomorrow so that's when I properly get back into it.

MIA

2010-07-18T00:02:00.003+01:00

Yup I have been, truth be told the nightmare with the uploading and placement of photos has kind of put me off using the blog for a while now so I haven't bothered to come back to it. Thinking of having a play with it tomorrow and see where that takes me. Night all!

Time to say goodbye...again

2010-02-18T12:37:00.003Z

Well once again I don't seem able to work this photo thing out so the very few photos i've put on are on here backwards but hey...who will know!

So yesterday the RN kidnapped Pete for the first time this year and he disappeared off not to be seen again for a few months. I'm in a strange place with it this trip as I'm happier than I've been for such a long time which makes me more relaxed and in a more chilled out place and at the same time, I'm going to miss him more than ever. It's not a massively long trip and by the time he comes back we'll be close to going away together.

Nowhere fancy as we're still on a tight budget but we decided to put the extra cash from a council tax and water rate free Feb and March down on a holiday park get away. Will be the first time we've gone away for so long and it will be nice just to have a change of scenery. Just have to hope that it won't be the third holiday on the trot cancelled because of Pete going away. This time I've decided that if he can't come I'll take the girls on my own......if that happens I could need a holiday after to recuperate!

One thing that we did manage to squeeze into Pete's time home was the little ones baptisms. We had been trying to do this since shortly after Emily was born and it's nice that finally we got there. In a way, them being older was a bit more special as they got to hold their baptismal candles themselves and understood more of what was happening.

I must admit, I didn't wash the girls hair for about three days afterwards because there is something so beautiful and peaceful about snuggling up and smelling the Chrism oil on their heads. Thanks to everyone that made it a great occasion. Father Tim did a fantastic job, especially as all the paperwork didn't make it to him in time and so he didn't have all the details that were needed.

We had the baptisms after the Vigil Mass so there were only a few close friends present, but at the end of the Mass before everyone went, Father Tim called the girls up to the alter to let them parade around in their dresses and everyone gave them a round of applause. You should have seen the delight on Emily and Natashas faces.

Right, as Mr F has now gone, the clean up begins. The slipping into the sea routine happens which starts with sorting this house out...why is it always a mess when he's home? At least he managed to get the hallway finished before he left so a little more glossing and that baby is waiting for a new carpet. Only taken three years............x

Dipping a toe in gently

2010-02-17T22:03:00.000Z

OK, I'm officially a crap blogger. Real life triumphs again and has been getting in the way of down time plus I have tried to blog before but for some strange reason I can't drag and drop photos in blogger anymore and have given up several times when trying to post because the page no longer scrolls when you drag your photo....sort it out blogger, not all of us are HTML buffs cos if I was my blog would obviously look far more exciting! Anyway,

we survived Xmas (just) and here we are in a New Year. What will 2010 hold? Well, the last year was a bit of an annus horibilus or however the Queen put it (never did latin at school). I have so many hopes for this year, it's a year to start afresh, a new decade and a new chapter. They say sometimes you have to get to the darkest depths to get a better perspective and the year hasn't started particularly well, but things can only get better and the last week has been one of the best weeks of my life.....no kidding!

This is a time for making changes and planning for the future. The benefits won't be reaped for some time yet, but feeling as though you're on the right path and that your head is clear of clutter certainly helps.

Xmas was small and cozy. The kids got a great array of presents and were well and truly spoilt again. Although we couldn't get loads this year they got everything they really really wanted and luckily they aren't the most demanding of kids.

Freya was mostly clothes, her phone, smellies and a leather biker jacket that she really wanted. Personally I hate it but she loves it and it's better than the bloody neon green tutu she came back with last time she went in town on a spending spree. Just look at the grubby finger marks all over it within five minutes. Within 2 days she'd lost the stylus for it as well. Kids eh?

Emily really wanted a guitar and telescope, she also got loads of shark bits and bobs as she has been obsessed with sharks for about the last year now. She also got some clothes and a new build a bear plus loads of drawing and painting stuff...she really could spend hours at the table drawing sharks of all descriptions.

Natasha got lots of Ponyville and Peppa Pig stuff but what she really wanted was a Hello Kitty so we got one from Build a Bear complete with pretty outfit and she hasn't let it go since. Pete was duty on Christmas day which meant he had to go in for 9 in the morning and didn't come home til Boxing Day morning. Thinking it would be too strange to be home with just the kids, we went down to the boat for Christmas Dinner. Not many women can say they've had Xmas dinner on a submarine. Funniest thing was when Freya had to check in her brand new swish phone that she'd got that morning before she could go below deck....you'd have thought they wanted to cut off the white knuckled hand that was attached to it.

So we had the biggest plate of Xmas dinner and as it was Natashas first experience on a sub, she got a tour of Pete's bunk space and seemed to think that it was funny that her dad still sleeps in a bunk bed in his early 40's! Freya also had the oxygen mask strapped to her which was hilarious as she sounded like Darth Vader and looked petrified!

We survived onboard for about 3 hours before the girls started getting itchy feet (or in Freyas case, itchy texting finger) and then popped round to see my little sis so all the cousins together could wreck their house. It's always fun to watch my OCD sister trembling with fear at the mess the kids are going to make.

Well, was going to do a fuller update but as this has taken me so long to rearrange the photos I'll have to leave the rest for another day. Possibly tomorrow. Night all.

2009-11-30T12:24:00.003Z

Not quite a calendar month since my last entry but running a little late never the less! At least I can blame it on the time of year, 3 birthdays and Xmas makes a rather manic last couple of months of the year.

Life has been a bit strained lately, physically and emotionally draining and I'm hoping that the end of the year may bring some closure, whilst the new year will bring some clarity. I have a lot to think about between now and then for sure but I'm confident things will be easier then. At the moment I seem to have so much on my plate that sometime I just feel like doing nothing but hide away and this week is certainly one of those times.

Once again, the Navy interrupted Petes leave. We got a call telling him that he was to fly out and meet the boat. It's only a few weeks and they're currently on their way back home for Xmas (fingers crossed) but the timing is a bit shitty. It's the second time he's tried to get the hallway decorated and been called back early. Hopefully I'll get the painting done before he comes home but the wallpaper will have to wait....again! Such a shame because it's the first opportunity that he's had to take his untaken leave for four years and once again it's interrupted. Oh well, life in a blue suit eh? The other drawback though is missing Emilys birthday.

....my little Einstein is six today (or 'almost seven' if you listen to her). We have a little party planned for this evening with a few family members coming round but nothing too crazy. Luckily none of the little ones are home til 6 so i've got plenty of prep time for it. It's been a mad rush of it today as everything was put on hold for pay day and so today it's been sorting bills, getting presents, food, road tax and starting to switch my attention toward Christmas.

With money tight, the kids won't be getting much, although that doesn't worry them in the least but I'm hoping that this time next year we'll be in a much better position although we will have to get a new car next year as Billy Bongo is becoming more unreliable.

It also looks like Pete will be working Xmas day which means he will probably leave here at about 8 on xmas morning and won't be home til around 9ish on Boxing day. That is going to feel a bit strange. I'm in two minds as to whether to postpone everything by a day although I don't think the girls will let me get away with that one.

I started pulling my scrap stuff out last night. I made a few simple cards for Christmas just to ease myself back into things. I remember how it was a way of helping me unwind so I'm hoping to do a bit more over the coming weeks. I'll post some bits hopefully this week.

The girls all seem to be doing well though. I had my first brief meeting with Freyas form tutor at school which was just an informal five minute thing to see how they had settled and when I walked in he said 'Freya really stands out'. He could tell by the fiery look in my eyes that he then needed to add...'in a good way'! She's enjoying it (although not the amount of homework), has made great friends and is generally loving being at the comp. Her work has been excellent and she's got a bronze commendation for the amount of commendation slips she's received so far plus a postcard sent home from one teacher praising her work she's done in her lessons. I'm really proud of her as I set the rule before she went that during the week she gets her head down and keeps on top of things leaving the weekends mostly free and she's stuck to that.

She has been going out weeknights if she's up to date with her homework and has been darting between the two youth clubs, talking about boys constantly and explaining to me what's cool and what's not (although purely by me saying 'cool' is probably 'uncool'!) She certainly had a good weekend last week as I took her and a friend to watch Lily Allen in the Pavilions. Considering Ms Allen was suffering from laryngitis she gave a top notch performance. Then on Sunday she went with her friend to watch New Moon or whatever it's called.....I dunno, I haven't even watched Twilight!

A couple weekends ago we went to the China Fleet for a HMS Torbay family get together. My friend Kath was a star and took the girls in the swimming pool for me (bathing suits aren't something you'll see me in in the near future). Natasha managed half an hour before deciding she wanted out, Emily lasted a half hour after that which surprised me as she's a real water babe.

Whilst I got the little ones dried and changed, Kath made Freya swim lengths using only her legs and that seemed to push her somewhat....she'll do it again if I tell her it will give her buns of steel! After all that hard work it was a gorgeous carvery and the kids cleaned their plates. Then off to work off some more calories at the park and on the bouncy castles.

So off I go to get the food and decs ready for tonight...who knows, maybe even squeeze in a couple more cards?!

OMG!

2009-11-01T15:53:00.002Z

You know the blog that I found the other day where I entered a photo of Emily in her Little Miss Sunshine outfit? Well I got placed 9th out of over 300 and among that are professional photographers too!

How pleased am I? I'm gonna grab myself one of the girls sticky stars and wear it all day! I even get a special blinkie to put on my blog! COOOOOOOOOL

The hangover...

2009-11-01T14:39:00.007Z

not just from last night (and to be honest thats more to do with tiredness than alcohol as I behaved impecibly again) but from the whole half term. It's been a crazy one certainly.

There has been so much going on what with birthdays etc. Freya had Paige down to sleep the middle of the week for a couple nights. They both went to the local youth club...a different one from where Freya normally goes but they enjoyed themselves and seemed to have fun catching up. Watching them get all dolled up to go out was quite amusing too.

Shame they seemed to have a bit of a barny before she left though when they were coming out of swimming which I didn't find out until after I'd dropped Paige off. What is it with girls?

Then of course it was all prep for the Halloween bash. Myself and Pete (well, mostly Pete) did our pumpkins on Friday afternoon and then Freya did another on Friday night. It's Petes first go at carving as he's missed the last few halloweens but I loved them all...hidden talent there I think.

Freya did the vampire biting the womans neck one, although you have to get your eyes to go lazy to see it...or at least I do. Cracking job though and I know she was really proud of it.

We stayed up on Friday night to get the playroom 'spookified' and did a great job. We had all sorts of nastiness hanging from the ceiling, cobwebs, spiders, spooky music, smoke machine, gravestones and stuff and went to bed happy knowing the kids were going to love it. I also covered the walls of the hallway in fake blood....luckily we're decorating it next week so it wasn't really an issue...just a moment of madness.

I did take plenty of photos but don't like to upload ones of the girls friends unless their parents are ok with it and as I haven't asked permission i'll err on the side of caution. But we had a fab time with Emily saying 'This is the best halloween party EVER' several hundred times during the course of the evening.

Myself and Pete were a zombie bride and Death. Pete did have a voice changer thing but it was absolute pants and we disposed of that pretty quickly. I even relented and had my photo taken......urrghhhhh!

The girls all looked great and I'm so pleased I got decent facepaint as it was so much easier to do. Not that I'm an artistic genius...far from it, but it certainly looked better than previous years efforts. Freya just wanted to look a bit dark, so we kind of did her make up like Pink in the 'Please Don't Leave Me' video where she goes all weird! She looked very dark but funky.

Emilys facepaint was probably the best though. I was really pleased with hers and she looked great.......at least until the apple bobbing where it all came off and she looked a bit streaky.

Natasha on the other hand had to be a 'beautiful witch' and refused to have green facepaint...it had to be pink, white and glittery! I just do as I'm told. She did look adorable though and the night has certainly taken it out of her as she's currently next to me zonked out and snoring on my bed.

We played hangmans donuts, dress the mummy, balls in a cup and apple bobbing. The kids all made their own toffee apples and decorated them to take home with them along with their goody bags of gruesomeness.

My sister, Sheree and her chap Jay turned up with the neice and nephew. Sheree looked a little too sexy to be scary and she lost her wig later in the night to Natasha.

As for Jay......I'm still trying to work out what his painted face reminds me of....i'm sure it's some character from a computer game...some kind of weird ghost ghoul thing! Mind you, he looks better here than he did first thing this morning!

Freyas friend Kate arrived and they took the younger ones trick or treating whilst we cleared up after the school friends had all gone home. When I say 'clear up' I mean that in the loosest possible way as I'm still dealing with the fallout now. They returned with stocked up goody bags and enough sweets to see them through at least til Xmas.

Come 7.30, it was just us, my sis, the cousins and Freya's mate. Sheree brought over a pinatta (not sure of the spelling but as this is something completely alien to Europeans I'll assume you'll let that one slip!) This was apparently going to be a sedate pinatta as you pull strings rather than bash the poor thing to bits with big sticks......

....however, that did not go to plan as as soon as the sweets started raining from the skies there was the inevitable scramble of kids on the floor, diving into them as if they hadn't seen a sweet in their life! Flailing arms, legs, bumped heads and tears later it was time to open the bottles and fire up the PS3 with the singstar.

The house today is eerily quiet. Everyone is knackered. The rest of the family have gone home and although most of the mess is gone, I'm sure to be finding Halloween confetti for the next week or so. Freya is finishing off some homework for the week and Pete is probably mentally preparing himself for the amount of decorating he has to do over the next few weeks. The headache is starting to kick in and so it's definately an early night here tonight.

So it's off to get the uniforms pressed for the morning and finish the last of the housework (at least downstairs anyway) and hide the mountain of sweets so that the kids don't try to eat them all in one go.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. x

Happy Halloween from the Farrells......enjoy!

2009-10-27T16:21:00.000Z

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Party number 1.....

2009-10-27T13:19:00.004Z

...of this week is over. Natasha turned 4 yesterday and we had a lovely little tea party. Was only a small affair this year what with the big Halloween bash coming up on Saturday and another 2 birthdays in the next four weeks. Saying that, little Miss Mayhem (for that should be her new name) had a fantastic time, with some great presents, me butchering her with facepaint and the cake that she wanted (even if the mermaid WAS blonde).

She did a great job on the candles though and blew those out in a oner. Not the greatest photos I know, but I just love the expression on her face in the second one!

She seems to have taken a shine to the little Ponyz toys that she played with at her cousins house so she got some of those and a Barney DVD (what is it with that purple monstrosity that kids love so?). She also got a barage of gifts from the family......her toy Dyson being a favourite although I didn't manage to get a photo of that last night as it was a bit chaotic but will take some more later.

I bought proper facepaints for the first time last week in prep for Halloween but thought it would be a good chance to have a little play before the party. What was confirmed was my complete lack of artistic ability! A very wonky butterfly on poor Natashas face. Stupidly i'd done the outline first and then managed to smudge everything doing the rest. But I guess it'll take practice......and anyway, Natasha thought she looked great ..... possibly only because of the glitter.

Emily's wasn't as hard to do as she just wanted some trailing flowers so there was at least a little more room for error. Thank goodness that I don't have to be quite so precise with the Halloween face painting! Again though, kids are luckily easily pleased and Emily loved it.......in her eyes I am Michaelangelo!

So another birthday over, Robs in a fortnight, Emilys in 4 weeks and then Xmas! Credit card is about to take a hammering I think.

Half term has started and again it's no let up of activity. Today is a bit of a slow one although Em has a friends party to go to this afternoon. Tomorrow I'm picking up Paige who's coming to stay for a couple of days. It's been a while since she stayed, a couple years I think and now that Freya has a little more of an outside social life she can't wait to show Paige around and introduce her to some of her friends.

She wanted me to take some photos of her yesterday as she didn't like the profile pic she had on MSN so I took a couple shots and I adore this one. I'm definately going to get this one blown up and put on the wall. It's strange how she suddenly looks so much older than she is. Scary in some ways. All she has is a little mascara on and yet she looks about 16! Or is that just me panicking?

It's been a nice few days here. Pete and I managed to escape the kids on Sunday to go to the cinema to see the new Saw movie. It's been slated a bit although I still enjoyed it, then we went for a bite to eat in Old Orleans where my eyes were definately bigger than my stomach. Now that the girls are a little older, it's nice that babysitting isn't so hard to come by. The last few years have meant very little home time for Pete and we seem to be making the most of this 10 weeks home so far. I know it won't be too long til he's back at sea again......life in the armed forces eh?

Talking of which.......has everyone got their poppies yet?

A new challenge......

2009-10-26T22:04:00.004Z

that I thought I would give a go. Can't even remember where I saw this blog but as it's portraiture photography that I'd like to learn, I thought this would prove a very helpful little website!

Well, the challenge for this week (week 42) is Halloween or some kind of dressing up photo where the emphasis is on the face. Well, as our Halloween bash isn't until Saturday, I thought about this photograph of Emily that I took for World Book Day last year. Seemed like a contradiction at the time....Em going as Little Miss Sunshine, however her little sister has taken over the title of 'Farrell Household Resident Misery Arse' so it's a little more apt now!

Anyway, today was Natasha's birthday so I will be back on tomorrow to add some photos taken today. Finally got the camera out which hasn't seen the light of day for the past few weeks!

Half Term madness begins....

2009-10-25T12:43:00.005Z

...and there is so much to do! It's been so nice having Pete home though as this time of year is so hectic. Tomorrow is Natasha's birthday and the cake is bought. I'm running out of original cakes from Waitrose though unless I start buying the £50 ones which, let's face it...isn't going to happen. Not with 3 birthdays in the space of 4 weeks on top of hurtling towards Christmas.

So this year, Natasha has picked the mermaid one but when we went to pick it up yesterday, all hell broke lose because the mermaid was blonde....oh well, can't please them all. If I had a penny for everytime i've told her that her birthday this year will be cancelled in the last week i'd have at least 20p. OK so that's not a lot in monetary value....but you get my drift. She's just become such a whingebag over the past month or so that I'm glad she's still at nursery this week!

Tonight, I'm leaving the brady bunch in the hands of my sister as myself and Pete are off to watch Saw VI, which by all accounts has been slated by all that have watched it so far. However, as going out to watch it means having a bite to eat afterwards (and no doubt several cocktails) and being child free for at least four hours, I wouldn't care if I was watching a wall dry for two hours first.

We seem to have gotten everything ready for the big Halloween Party next weekend. It's the first time in three years that Petes been home so we've pushed the boat out a bit with it this year. Perfect that it's on a Saturday night so we've got the kids party til 7...then the adults take over. Not only drunken singstar...but drunken scary singstar courtesy of the voice changer that comes with Pete's costume.....should be an interesting night.

I've managed to do a little crafting, although all in the cause of Halloween. Got all the bits out to make the invitations and i've got a few other titbits to make before next weekend. I'm hoping it may give me the buzz again that's been missing for a while.

Of course, I'm also trying to get stuff planned for Xmas, and not being the kind of girl who likes trawling through Plymouth in the cold (am I female?) that means being cosy and warm, infront of a PC, placing orders with various establishments online (and smiling as I rack up the airmiles which someday I may get round to using!).

Freya's drama production was a massive hit and (biased or not) she certainly stole the show. A couple years ago she was a very shy and quiet girl and now she looks completely at home on the stage. During the interval everyone was talking about her performance....it's the second comedic role she's had and she was really funny. I can't wait now for the DVD to come out.

Talking DVD's, the new Pink concert comes out in the next couple of weeks so thats on pre-order for Freya for Xmas although I may have to check it out first....obviously only as a responsible parent! I've also ordered her some living dead dolls although one won't be available til after Xmas so I'll put that back for her birthday. It was a must buy though as she played the Mad Hatter in her production

......Living Dead Dolls eh? Think my daughter is turning Emo! I blame my creepy sister. Mind you saying that, she went to her youth club on wednesday in fishnet three quarter length tights, black shorts and a neon green tutu......I thought i'd fallen asleep and woken back up in the mid 80's staring at myself....she even had lacy fingerless gloves and loads of bangles....all she needed was a fake mole and blonde hair ala Madonna circa 'Get Into The Groove'.

So not too photo heavy today. Although I will leave you with a little collage done by the talented photographer that was Emily. Packed with her dads old instant, she had to photograph her journey to school for Walk To School Week and then submit it for a competition...shame the email address for the competition didn't work but I was really proud of her efforts so am thinking of letting her have the old camera anyway. Believe me when I say that every photo turned out better than Freya's efforts when she took the same camera to her Isles Of Scilly Trip and not one photo was comprehensible!

Life getting hectic.....

2009-10-06T11:59:00.016+01:00

....but then again at this time of year I suppose it's to be expected. But if I didn't have my diary (or several of them if truth be told) then I wouldn't be able to tell you whether or not I was coming or going. Hopefully my auntie Susan will wrestle with her technophobic demons and get on here to see some of the photos from her daughters wedding last weekend so excuse me for having a photo overload but it's just incase she gets to see them here and tell me if she wants any emailed up to her to print off.

Emily also had a first last weekend (guess it was a weekend of big firsts!). She lost her first tooth. As it was quite late on the Saturday and I had little change left I told her to keep it safe until the following night when we'd leave it out for the tooth fairy. Well, that night never came as Emily (and I'm sure it is ONLY Em that could do this)......swallowed it! Yup, she decided she'd try to put it back in and swallowed it instead. Well, I couldn't imagine the tooth fairy would want to go anywhere near it if it did make an appearance (and I decided not to wait for the appearance either) so she has been warned that swallowing her teeth will not make her wealthy and has promised not to try the same trick again.

I did mention that it was my birthday last week and I had a lush chocolate cake from the girls in the morning (yup chocolate cake at 7am......good eh?) and a new bead for my troll bracelet along with slabs of chocolate everywhere I looked.

Later in the day I also had a nice delivery from Interflora of some gorgeous flowers and yet more chocolate (needless to say there hasn't been much weight loss in the last couple of weeks).

Sunday was a bit of a blur, with getting all ready for Pete's homecoming. He came home late Monday afternoon and was surrounded by girls demanding hugs and kisses. The jet lag certainly kicked in though and he was a gonner til gone midday on Tuesday. Strange to think that he's literally home now for about 10 weeks but having been given a 'to do' list as long as his arm it'll keep him out of mischief (and the beer fridge).

So we celebrated his first weekend home with a lush meal at Yukisan and pushed the boat out with some oysters thrown in. I realy should take my camera next time I go as the way they present the food is gorgeous. I've always resisted the authentic Japanese sit down tables though as I'd never get up again. I do love this place and it's so special. We're blessed to have two Japanese restaurants now in Plymouth and I've eaten at both. Koishii is really good too and the food was delicious but the menu is less extensive. I will however say that the staff at Koishii were so friendly when we went.

This weekend we also had the sponsored Pom Pom walk to raise money for Devonstar Twirlers. Despite it being a bit on the windy and chilly side, the girls did themselves proud and the rain only first appeared after we'd finished and ended up in the park. Can't wait to see how much we raised.

We had our first training session since moving to the new hall in Ernesettle and what a difference. We now have a great hall with loads of space and plenty of height. I took advantage a little too enthusiastically and have only now begun to be able to walk properly again but each week I do hurt a little less. I'm going to take the camera along with me this week and get some more shots of the girls for the web page. I also got my troupe tracksuit which looks great and I've bought one to put back for Emilys birthday next month.

The onslaught of birthdays began last month and now we have Natashas, Robs and Emilys all before Xmas.........me thinks it's going to be an expensive couple of months. Especially as I'm now saving madly for course fees.

Freya is up to her eyeballs at the moment with drama rehearsals. She has a full dress rehearsal infront of a couple local schools today and then the big performances are tomorrow and Thursday night. So I'm off to see her tomorrow and to be honest I can't wait for it to be over and done with as this has taken a hell of a lot of time in rehearsals.....I'm beginning to think of Freya as some strange ghost type figure who occasionally occupies the front bedroom...we hear her but never see her!

A long emotional week....

2009-09-26T22:30:00.004+01:00

....which ended with my cousins wedding. This was a day of very very mixed emotions. My girlie being Bridesmaid, looking all grown up and knowing that she has grown up more in one night than she would have wanted to cope with. Seeing Freya with Paige is always a joy....they don't get to see each other very often but there is a very special bond between them. As I was proud of Freya, I know that Emma would have been looking down on Paige filled with pride at just how beautiful her daughter had become and how wonderful her little sister Louise looked.

They really do make a special couple and the love was there for everyone to see. I'm so grateful to my friend Kath for sitting for me with the little ones today so I could go to the wedding. Was nice to see a lot of the family had come over from Guernsey with a lot of promises made before I left to keep in touch that bit more.

It's been a tiring end to a tiring week. I've been poorly since before last weekend and am only just now coming out the other end with it and yet I've had so much to do with prep for the wedding today, getting ready for the imminent arrival of Mr F on Monday and major stuff going on with twirling, drama, swimming and mountains of homework.

The car has once again been freaking me out. It conked out three times on the way from South Brent to Saltash last night, once on Carkeel roundabout at rush hour...luckily I'd cleared the roundabout just about or I would have definately had a car up my arse!

It was also my birthday this week although with the really bad cold i've had it did take the shine off slightly. However, my little beauties welcomed me in the morning with a chocolate birthday cake, copious amounts of chocolate and a new bead for my troll bracelet which is a silver heart. Then I had a little interflora delivery of some beautiful flowers and yet more chocolate from Mr F. I was a happy snotty bunny. Will post the photos of that when I'm stuck for some photos!

XXX

Spreading the love....

2009-09-18T12:18:00.001+01:00

love this video...so feel good.

Kevin the Teenager strikes again!

2009-09-15T12:06:00.003+01:00

I remember watching that first episode where Kevin from the Harry Enfield show turned into a teenager for the first time...a dramatic transformation that lasted seconds and yet was so profound. No gradual change, just whooooosh and the teenage years and all that entailed was evident.

Well in the space of a couple of weeks I've gone from 'cool mum' to 'embarressing mum' apparently. Such is the changing opinion when my darling first born comes of age in secondary education! The first hint was a couple weeks ago when one of her friends stayed over and before we picked her up I was told not to embarress her.....that's my job, take that away and I have nothing.

But for me, this weekend summed up the transformation perfectly. Freya finished school on Friday afternoon, went straight to rehearsals, came home, ate (enough to sustain a herd of wildebeast) spoke to her dad on the phone, then disappeared doing what hormonal girls do (i.e messing with hair, texting mates, msning...probably the same mates she was texting) and then went to bed. Saturday morning, once out of bed, showered and groomed (which seems to have gone from taking 10 minutes to at least an hour and a half), then disappeared off swimming with her mate, then rang to ask to stay there for tea. Finally she comes home.....but only to collect some stuff to go stay at her friends house!

Sunday morning she came home, ate....then off to 4 hours of rehearsals again! By the time she came home, did her homework, spoke to her dad and ate again it was time for bed! Mind you, could be worse.....at least I know she's doing stuff and not sat around waiting for things to happen or sat in front of a screen for 14 hours at a time!

Only a couple of weeks til the man is home....at least that's the last plan I heard. It'll be the first time in a couple years that he's been here for Em, Robs and Natashas birthdays. He's never been home for all four in a year though! Talking of birthdays, we went round to my sisters on Thursday for Edens birthday.

A thousand cupcakes later it was time to go but a good time was had by all! Anyway, twirling tonight so no rest for today at least...got to go a print a million brochures (50% of which will be back to front if my previous experience is anything to go by!). Later!

Back to the routine.....

2009-09-11T14:52:00.005+01:00

I wish I was a spontaneous person sometimes, just do something different at the drop of a hat...but I am a creature of habit. I like routine, I like to be in control...not in a dominating way but I like to feel as if I can vaguely plan my life. Funny then how I end up with an other half who's life is far from routine and who's career is at present driving my little brain even crazier than ever. Oh well, at least the little cherubs are back at school!

Freya has started at the comp well and has already identified most of the 'scary' teachers. The homework seems to be being drip fed to them at the moment but God help them come the next term as it will probably be very full on by then. She seems to be enjoying herself though and you can sense this feeling she has of 'I'm a grown up now' which I willno doubt beat out of her shortly as she is becomming a little cheeky at times. But then I remember what I was like at that age and rejoice in the fact that she doesn't know what a devious little minx her mother was! Yup, I'll be fine aslong as she doesn't take after me.

The week before going back was a mass of sorting uniform and equipment..the usual beginning of September chaos really that all mothers dread. Luckily, I am a fairly organised woman (diaries in every room, goes back to the control thing) and the only thing I realised I had forgotten was a pair of appropriately coloured rugby socks (she had white but needed black) so in that respect it wasn't too chaotic.

I've got the cooking bug back again. Partly through necessity. Tight budget means more and more homemade meals. Usually when Petes away we only have cooked meals in the evening about three times a weeks as the girls all have hot lunches at school but I'm immersing myself in frugal cook books and ideas. Some are of more nutritional value than others (some of which are downright scary) but as long as it's a balanced diet (and i'm lucky i have kids who love their fruit, veg and sensible cereal) I'm not overly sensitive to the odd fat ladden dish. I suppose my thought is that almost anything home made must be infinitely better for you than any shop bought ready meal or jar of sauce.

So there has been plenty of cooking going on in the house. From homemade smoothies (watching the kids put their fingers in their ears when the smoothie maker goes on is the best bit) to cakes, to meals, soups and desserts....I've even made a few new nibbly things which when left around tends to stop the kids from saying 'can I have some sweets?' Of course, when it comes to cakes there are plenty of 'lick the bowl' moments to be had. I remember as a kid argueing with my sister over who got the bowl first after we'd been baking with my nan.

Although I've always been a keen cook, I've never been someone to get involved in baking or anything to do with pastry....well not home made pastry anyway. But I decided to try to make pasties for the first time EVER! Crazy considering my mum owns a bloody pasty shop but there ya go and I went for a lamb and mint combination rather than the obvious.

I need to work on my crimping skills a little but the results were very delish and got eaten in about an hour. Tonight I'm making some bog standard steak ones instead. Oggy oggy oggy indeed!

So the girls have been back to school just over a week now. Emily is apparently running for school council. I have to help her with some application form which could be interesting work. That girl is most certainly a leader and not a follower as any one of her hen pecked friends will tell you. Natasha has settled back into nursery life and is wishing away the year to get to Primary School and even re 'reads' Emilys school book each night. The applications online open tomorrow so I'll be hopefully getting her into the same school as Emily as I've been so impressed over the past year.

The twirling is coming along nicely. We seem to have a great group of girls there now that have been there since we started and they're even starting to look the part. There's a while to go before we're ready for competitions but if nothing they're enthusiastic. We are doing a sponsored Pom Pom walk along Plymouth Hoe Promenade on Saturday 3rd October between 10 and 11 am so anyone who would like to sponsor us do please get in touch. You'll find our weblog here.

The hardest part for any new troupe is getting started and we've already met and overcome a few obstacles along the way but we're raising funds to enable us to start competing next year. It's so nice to be part of it again although my muscles are feeling the strain...must remember i'm not 18 anymore.

Good news is that the car managed to escape being damaged last week whilst being fixed. I still have running problems but I'm going to leave that for Pete to sort out when he comes back the end of the month. Right, off to make the most of the last couple hours before the end of after school clubs and drama clubs....now what to cook tonight?

Twice in one week eh?

2009-08-29T21:25:00.003+01:00

There must be something wrong with me....or something right depending on how you see things I suppose. Well, due to the photo heavy post on Thursday, I've decided to keep this one short and sweet so no interesting things to view I'm afraid. Actually, the truth is that I don't really have any new photos to share so will just have to wait til I have.

This weekend is a big spring clean...yes I know it's the end of summer but there are a lot of things to get in order on the home front with the new school year peaking eagerly around the corner. Uniform to label and check, stationary to sort, new budget for the year (mostly based around British Gas' inability to manage a simple account...more on that later) meal planners to plan, diaries to update, to do lists coming out of my ears both for the family and Devonstar Twirlers and all this has left no time for scrapping.

I must admit I did think of stopping it all for a while and just selling all my stuff, but I also know how sane it can keep me when Pete is away and how when I'm really pissed off with the kids...sitting in front of a photo of them for a few hours whilst I make pretty pages makes me view things in a different light so I guess i'm just happy now to scrap when I can...or when I need to.

So anyway...British Gas. Well, Pete (in his infinite wisdom which must NEVER be questioned) decided to get paperless billing, not so much for the 'green' reason (he believes it's a complete falicy) more so that it saves a quid or so on each bill. This is great if in fact he had either a - set it up so that the bill is emailed to me....or b - actually READ the email when it comes to his inbox. In this case he did neither. Two years ago, after paying a direct debit of £85 a month, BG (yes believe me we are such good friends now that I address them only as initials) send a letter to inform me that we've overpaid our bill for the past twelve months and they want to drop it to £5!

I call them and give them a right earful about how on earth they can overcharge by such a huge amount for it to drop so drastically and announce that I will infact prefer to pay £20 just so I felt a little more assured that they won't cock up the other way. All is well and then about eight months ago they suddenly change the direct debit to £39. At this point I didn't think much of it, assuming that they really do need to get someone working there that can add up and do averages better but if that's what needs to be paid then fine.

Then I get a call.....completely out of the blue to inform me that we've underpaid our electricity bill by £900 over the past year. Well, I almost reached down the phone to strangle them! Can you imagine how much it would have been if i'd actually paid the £5 a month that they originally asked me for? So now they want the direct debit to be ammended from £39 to......wait for it....£210 A MONTH! Crazy days eh?!

So that has thrown everything into dissaray for the hundredth time this year (ok, slight exaggeration but is beginning to feel like that). Budgets must be redrawn....belts tightened even more to the point of cutting off any circulation that was left to be honest. On top of which the car issue has not gone away. The thing is still spluttering as if to say 'help me' however as noone seems to be able to give a definitive answer as to what's wrong with the thing without costing me and arm and a leg it's a case of keep paying the AA for roadside assistance and hope for the best.

I was panicking about the MOT last week...the guy at the garage could see the fear in my face as they hoisted it into the air......I did at one point just imagine it may do that thing you see on old black and white films where there are lots of bangs, the wheels fall off, doors fall off and then it collapses in on itself. However, it didn't. Of course it didn't pass (that would have been a miracle) however, it was just wheel bearings....nothing major...just over £100 with labour and the MOT price. Unfortunately they couldn't book it to be done there and then so i return a few days later to get it done.

Quick job they said so brought the kids with me (not silly though...made sure they all brough their trusty Nintendo DS's just incase). Two and a half hours later, I leave with a car not fixed and a warning that this could be a problem. Now, I know very little about cars so excuse me if you do and think 'what the hell is she on about' but.....apparently the bearings are inside some housing thing which is attatched on a driveshaft which goes through the wheel. Well the housing thing is completely seized and will not budge. Two hours of pulling, banging, using some sort of pulling machine with a zillion psi or something on it and it still won't budge.

The guy from the garage says that it has happened once before and old matey (for i know not his name) down the road has a bigger machine (maybe 20 zillion psi's worth) that he used and all was fine. The worrying thing is though that apparently this machine could solve the problem of getting this housing thing off....but in doing so could also snap the drive shaft.......and he can't take responsibility for that. So i now have a car which has a simple MOT flaw, however...it ISN'T simple, can't be fixed unless i subject it to the possibility of breaking it more.....and none of this has any bearing on the fact that the bloody thing still doesn't work properly. Cars eh? Love 'em!

Anyway, needed a whinge after the last post........it was far too sickly sweet!

About bloody time!

2009-08-27T21:03:00.017+01:00

...is what people would say if they read this, however I doubt they still do....think even my mother-in-law has given up on me updated this by now. You know what it's like, you have the best of intentions however life, (as it often does) gets in the way. Actually in my case it's more like the Navy gets in the way as they seem hell bent on destroying any sort of normality in the Farrell household. Pete has been home, gone, been home,gone again...home again...and hopefully now gone. Does that sound harsh?

It's not that I don't want him here, it's just that he wasn't supposed to be here and for someone like me who relies on being in control of what's going on, it's difficult to have any sort of family routine with constant coming and going. Even Emily has been feeling it with never knowing if daddy is gone for the day, the weekend or for good and there have been so many tearful goodbyes over the past month that i'm glad it's finally over and he's off somewhere, deep in the ocean...doing....well, doing things deep in the ocean (of course i'd have to kill you if I actually told you what they were doing...you do know that don't you?!)

Far too much has happened since the last post to catch up on now to be honest. Mother in Law made a brief trip down and was lovely for her to spend some time with the girls (must give myself a slap for being lapse on the photo front whilst she was with us though).

Pete came home from sea just about in time for the Saltash Mayfair which was really good this year. It coincided with the celebrations to mark the 150th anniversary of the Brunel Bridge and there was a great firework display that evening. Although by that time we were home and tired and just sat in the back garden and watched it from there!

I did find a decent video clip from YOUTUBE though that someone had added of the display, not bad for a town with under 15,000 residents!

Freya also got a 2nd prize for her charcoal painting of the bridge in a local competition. Plus we had our photo taken for another newspaper whilst wondering around. That was twice in one week!

I was really looking forward to the Hog Roast and it did smell wonderful when we got there but at £5 a time for the smallest bit of meat sandwiched between two small baps they could take a run and jump!

We made the most of the early (and only) summer weather in May and June with plenty of evenings and afternoons spent down the waterfront watching the girls chase swans, eat, play in the park, eat etc. At one small summer fayre at the college we had the kids learning circus skills (using equipment that is...they are already well versed in the clowning stakes), learning african drumming and plate painting...

.......then off to the waterfront (again) for a kick about with the kids (well that was the dads pretending they could play football still, very funny to watch after they've been drinking all day by this point) whilst me and my sis supped our pints, although Sheree did venture into the playground to try and recapture her youth much to her five year olds sons disgust.

I must say that I really do love where I live (even though I've defected to the wrong side of the water!) and I truly can't imagine living anywhere other than the south-west. We may be thought of as a bit backward but who cares when you have all you could want? MSN recently did a poll and apparently the PL12 postcode is the most sought after in Britain.....

.......although I can't quite fathom out exactly why it's here (amenities in Saltash are well and truly lacking for the growing size of the town believe me) I can't imagine living anywhere but the south-west of England.

I love living by the sea so much and would hate to up sticks, although with Pete's naval career coming very close to it's end it's a prospect that I may at some time have to face. But for now I make the most of it.....weather permitting.

All the usual end of term stuff....various sports days, presentations, concerts, summer fayres (one of which was the wettest ever imagined). Emilys first sports day was one to remember, bloody hell that girl puts 100% effort into absolutely bloody everything (notice I said 100%, am I the only one who wants to strangle people who flippantly say 150% when describing effort.....I am? Oh well....) They did lots of little activity games like dribbling the ball and scoring, bean bag and hoop races, balancing on your head races and then finished with the main sprints.

That girl ran like her life depended on it, it was like Forrest Gump all over again. I was so surprised that even the reception year ran the whole track in their race and was worried that if she didn't win she's have a right cob on but she came 2nd in her class race and 2nd in her school year race and loved it. I just love the photo below because although she was running so bloody fast she had this great big smile on her face.

We also had the odd BBQ. What is it with men and BBQ's that bring out the testosterone in them?

I love it when the cousins get together...it can be manic at times as they're all quite strong willed characters but they really are best mates (when they're not trying to kill each other obviously).

And if there's drinking involved then there is always the wonder that is singstar and the kids aren't immune from it's charms either (the singstar of course, not the booze.....bloody hell I'm not THAT bad!).

One major thing was Freya's final primary school concert where she was recognised for her helpfulness to others. We had a semi posh do garden party and Freya insisted that Pete went in uniform and then moaned at him cos he took his hat off during the presentation (good god, what is it with 11 year old girls; they moan about everything).

I am part of a new venture also. I'm helping to run a new twirling troupe in Plymouth. We started the beginning of this month and things are going really well and i'm loving being involved in twirling again. No chance of me squeezing my ample behind back into tight lycra *the world breathes a sigh of relief* but getting involved with teaching loads of youngsters has given me some sort of focus.

So I am now a part of Devonstar Twirlers! Anyone interested in joining? We're currently training in Woolwell but hoping to move to Ernesettle shortly which is great for me as Saltash to Woolwell during rush hour is particularly horrendous!

Freya had all her hair chopped again and is starting to spend time playing with it (or fannying around as it's lovingly called in this house....actually i say 'fannying around' quite a lot). It really suits her. She's just come back from three weeks at her dads (minus any contribution towards her uniform or school supplies again) and has the most gorgeous tan. The kind of tan my sister pays a fortune for! Scary knowing in a weeks time she'll be starting at the comp. I'll be feeling that my baby is all grown up as she becomes the 'baby' of the school again!

Uniform is just about there, just one more pair of black trousers and she's done....well, at least unitl i hear otherwise. Only a few weeks til she's a bridesmaid for the third time....isn't it three times and you don't get married or something like that. Her dress is stunning and I know i'll be in tears when I see her in it....got the last fitting in a couple of weeks and I can't wait to photograph her on the day.

We've had a few outings over the holidays, normal stuff like faithful favourite Jump. Last weeks visit did leave a legacy behind though. We went as a large party of HMS Torbay friends and family so had all the party stuff and facepainting. Well by the time we got home, late and (in the girls cases) cranky....they went to bed in their facepaint and it's left quite a reaction on Emilys face. Even now she has these massive spots although it's gone down a lot in the last day or two.

Oh well, they looked good at the time...well, apart from Natasha who just doesn't understand the concept of keeping still ......she keeps her eyeballs fixed and then moves her head around...not exactly helpful to the poor facepainting girl!

I've been getting really frustrated with the camera lately, I really need a new lens but the one i want is about £300 and with the car becomming some bottomless money pit where there is no light at the end of the tunnel, that just isn't gonna happen anytime soon. I really need something that's gonna take fairly decent pics indoors.....any suggestions for a decent portrait lens with a canon fitting?

MMmm I did say this wasn't going to be a catch up but I guess that's what it's turned into. Oh well, mother in law will be glad to see loads of new photos anyway (and we have tried calling you Rosie but assuming you're off on your jollies to Scotland!)

Itchy fingers

2009-05-10T11:12:00.000+01:00

Had them for a while now, been weeks since I did any crafting and months since I've done a serious scrapbooking session. Pete is duty again on Monday so I've decided that that is what I'm going to do, get all my gear out and in preparation I've been looking at the ever expanding list of blogs in my favourites for inspiration. Some of the blogs I read to look at the pretty pictures, some to be nosey and others for a good laugh. There are some bloggers who make me laugh so much, they have such a way with words. I love sarcasm and a little black humour....especially when people say things where I know I feel exactly the same. One blog I really enjoy that makes me laugh is Choice Words and Tasteful Doings. I have no idea about the author but enjoy her little musings on life, especially the blog post about her husbands choice of birthday gifts.

Another I really enjoy is Sarah Heaps blog. I can actually take the credit for her starting a blog, although hers is far more entertaining and the photos much nicer. Pete was on a boat with her husband and that's how we got to know each other and I really wish we lived a little closer at times as we've only physically met the once at a posh frock do with the Navy, less than a week after I'd been sterilised and wasn't really in the best party mood. It's not a crafty blog but she takes some amazing photos and she's always good for a giggle.

It was through Sarahs blog that I found Cake Wrecks which seems to have become a kind of underground cult! Whoever thought that a blog about peoples cake mishaps could be that entertaining!

So tonight I'm off meet some old friends and raise a glass (or five) to Chris and arrange a collection to get some flowers for the funeral. I'm half looking forward to it, and half not, being the emotional mess that I turn into when I've had a few so will probably come home looking like a cross between Alice Cooper and Baby Jane and then try to seduce Pete.......yer average sunday then!

2009-05-09T11:21:00.003+01:00

The news about Chris' death is still taking a while to sink in. This time last week we were chatting about the new Windows Beta he was testing and this week I know I'll never be able to do that again. Tomorrow I'm off to meet up with some people who worked with him when we were at PC World, some of whom I haven't seen for years also. As one of my friends said, it's so sad that it takes something like this for us to get together. I'm so fortunate to have Pete home at the moment and to be surrounded by good friends.

On a positive note, I did manage to get hold of the photos that appeared in the Herald last week.

It's strange seeing the beard now that it's a distant memory....and strangely part of me is missing it a little....never thought i'd say that.

Sad sad news

2009-05-08T09:27:00.002+01:00

Coming home after the school run yesterday I notice a missed call from my friend Chris. Thinking it an odd time of the day for him to call, I call back thinking maybe he was finally coming over to have a look at my crappy network set up and have a general chit chat and catch up....I'd given him a hard time of it online on Saturday bemoaning the fact that he hasn't been over for an age.

When his dad answered the phone I knew there was something wrong. I was then told that Chris had died the night before, suddenly. I felt absolutely numb knowing that someone that meant so much to me, was always there for me, helped me through some tough times and was always first port of call with my constant random PC queries.......was suddenly not there anymore. My thoughts go to his family who I know are very close. I was honoured to call Chris a true friend and will forever remember all those road trips ..... especially up and down to Barnstaple with me constantly whinging about his crappy musical tastes and telling him to put on something less 'dreary'.

I'll miss you big man. XXX

A weekend to remember

2009-05-04T13:27:00.007+01:00

I cannot gush too much about this weekend. It has been absolutely immense and I've been surrounded by everyone who means so much to me. Thursday night was spent excitedly running around like a headless chickens getting ready for the big homecoming, even the littlies got in on the act with Natasha wanting curly hair like mummy and getting the bendy roller treatment.

Up early the next morning to get ready for the grand homecoming. This is something rarely done for the subs on this kind of scale and I wasn't going to miss it for the world. We met coaches at the Dockyard to take us up onto Devil's Point where you get a great view of Plymouth Sound.

As we came up the sun was shining on the boat making it look silver. There were around 200 people there, shivering in the wind but kept warm with a constant flow of coffee, pastries and the immenent promise of seeing their loved ones shortly. I think the ever growing mass of seagulls were appreciative of the amount of pastries on offer too judging by the swarm of them that arrived and settled around us. Poor Natasha didn't know which way to run.

We watched as the boat moved from the buoy around Drakes Island and having never watched them before I was surprised at just how fast they were travelling.

The sail past was far more emotional than I'd bargained for and at one point I was close to tears, especially as Emily was waving so enthusiastically thinking that her dad was one of the guys on the casing. She later said, 'mummy, i had tears in my eyes seeing daddy's boat'. It was a gorgeous thing to say. The tugs that followed the boat in had their water cannons tured on which was a really nice touch too.

I had taken my zoom lens with me and luckily the railings provided some much needed support against camera shake as i'm usually hopeless with the big zoom unless i've got a tripod. It was lovely to watch all the families getting more and more excited, especially as we've all formed some great bonds over the past few months.

So after the guys sailed past it was a short ride back to the yard to meet the boat. This usually takes ages but entertainment and MORE food was laid on for the kids. With them all amused it was the adults who were chomping at the bit to get a glimpse of heads popping up out of hatches. The girls busied themselves with facepaints and a free ice cream van, plus entertainment from Jungle Jim (who's PA system was a little overbearing for a small marquee and who left me wondering if my hearing would ever fully return), whilst I paced up and down for around an hour wondering if I'd get to see by beardy baby.

When he finally emerged to people around me going, 'oh my god Terrie, have you SEEN how long it is?' I was jumping up and down and complaining that I was too short to see him above the bloody flag that he was behind. Luckily he was easy to pick out, not many wear white overrals and fewer have beards that have been grown to his standard! We ran around to where the gangway was assembled and as soon as the girls saw him, all three legged it towards him screaming 'daddy!'. It was amazing to watch, and to be honest, not a time where i was wondering about the camera. Despite the many people around us, everyone else seemed to disappear. There was Pete, crouched down with three girlies hanging off his neck and as I came up I saw him well up and that just got me. There's always the glassy eyes when he goes, but it was the first time I'd seen such emotion on a homecoming. You could sense the relief and joy of just being home and being surrounded by the people that you know are waiting for you and thinking of you everyday.

Luckily there was a photographer there from the Navy who managed to get this lovely photo of us just after Pete came off. It appeared in the paper on Saturday so I'm hoping that I can get a proper copy of it when the offices reopen tomorrow as I absolutely love it.

So off home we go, the distinctive submarine smell was more of a comfort than anything and after catching up with photos, news and hugs and kisses, the kids went to bed and left myself and Pete to let loose, open a couple bottles of wine and fool around on Singstar.

After waking up in the morning with my guy beside me, I left him to catch up on some much needed shut eye and readied the girls for a day packed with May Day celebrations. We got a few phone calls about the article in the paper and I was so pleased with the photo in it. After emerging from bed, we all walked down to the town to check out the celebrations. This year it's been coupled with the 150 year anniversary of Brunel bridge.

Freya loves this statue on the way down to the waterfront of Isambard K. Brunel and is convinced it was life size.....if it is, then I guess we can see why he made such bloody huge structures because he would have had a SERIOUS case of small man complex!

We ate, we laughed, we hugged, the girls bounced on bouncy things, span on spinny things and generally ran themselves ragged.

We ended up down at the waterfront where we went in to see Freya's entry into the Brunel painting exhibition and cast our vote for the winner. The girls ran along the waterfront and watched the parades but it was clear that not all of them would make it til gone 9 when the fireworks would start so we decided to take the long hike back early and watch the display from our house instead.

The beard was then ceremoniously cut and shaved....it was nice to see my husband still there under all that fuzz! Then yesterday we had family over for a BBQ and singstar night. A few bevvies and good company and now a lazyish bank holiday Monday.......this weekend has been perfect....and it's so nice to feel complete again.

Tomorrow everyone is back to school, nursery and in the case of Pete, work. It feels like so long ago that Pete was coming home in the evenings so i'm going to make the most of him not having duties this week and feel like a normal family for a bit. I'm trying to resist the countdown to the next deployment as it isn't far away at all, but instead make the most of the short time that we've got together.

Last weekend alone for a while

2009-04-26T12:28:00.002+01:00

So it's the homestraight now before Pete comes home and I just can't wait. I'm busy busy busy doing all the things that I've inevitably put off to the last minute but it's slowly getting there. I'm looking less poodle like than I was last weekend and the grey is getting it's cover up tomorrow morning followed by an intense major spring clean and getting the jobs done and out of the way so that the bank holiday weekend can be spent purely enjoying the company of the family....once again complete...if only for a few weeks.

Usually, onboard, the guys tend not to shave until they hit ports and I've never seen Pete with a beard so told him to keep his til he got home just so that me and the girls could have a giggle about it. I really didn't want to see what it looked like before but someone tagged Pete in a photo on facebook, taken when they were alongside in Fujairah. It took me about three minutes to actually realise it was him as I was convinced that someone had tagged the foot in the foreground as him! Even though I recognised the t-shirt, I was convinced it was my friends husband and although I wondered what Paddy was doing wearing Petes t-shirt...I didn't even give the furry monstrosity another thought.......then it hit me! Scary thing is that this photo was taken about four or five weeks ago now so God only knows how long it is now. Emily told him on the phone 'mummy said you'll be all itchy and scratchy when you kiss me' to which Pete replied 'no, i'll be all soft like a giant build a bear!'. Nice answer!

So this week, all is back to school and nursery and the couple of weeks off have seen some major drops in standards that I haven't been too pleased with. The girls rooms are back to being a health and safety issue with either biological breeding (in the case of Freya's room) or trip hazards (in the case of the littlies) so a massive row has now scared the crap out of them! They've also been banned from the playroom until which time they decide to KEEP their rooms tidy (god, i'm such a tyrant).

We went off to the Radford Centre in Plymstock yesterday for another family of Torbay get together. This time we were treated to a performance by Elfic the Juggler, which was great. I'd really recommend him for parties and stuff and his prices are really good too. After the buffet the kids got a chance to do the circus workshop and have a play with the props.

Emilys' face as she skated along with a spinning plate was brilliant...i've never seen her concentrate so hard! Natasha loved the show but was more interested in the bouncy castle when that was up and Freya spent most of the time running between the stilts and food.......food is definately her 'thing'.

The only downside to Pete being home is that the avalanche of family events will stop for a few months but the group are already organising a full event list for when the boat goes back to sea. I've never been one for getting involved in a social way with other naval families, thinking it to be a little clicky and a bit 'everyone wanting to know everyone's business' but it's been lovely to get out and meet a load of new people and be able to provide a bit of support for one another. Plus the kids have had a great time too.

So off I totter to try and get the rest of the house in order, beat Freya to encourage her to finish her homework and prise apart Natasha and Emily who seem to be constantly bickering at the moment......oh the joys of parenthood.

Happy Anniversary!

2009-04-19T20:14:00.003+01:00

Although Interflora decided to wrestle me from my bed yesterday, I decided not to share my delivery until today as today is our wedding anniversary. Spoilt? I should cocoa! The most beautiful pink bouquet of flowers, a lush and cuddly teddy and six helium ballons...one for each year (if he keep that up it could be scary before long). The nicest thing though is the fact that he's alongside in Crete for a few days so we actually got to talk to each other. I have no idea what it has been with this trip but there's been a lot of soul searching in our relationship over the past couple years and I'm now at a place where I didn't think i'd be. I know marriages have their rough patches but I kind of always thought that a rough patch spelt 'the end', guess it's just because my first marriage ended completely out of the blue with no preceeding issues.

I'm so lucky to be with someone who, like me, believes that marriages can be hard work, especially when you spend FAR less than half your time together. It's that time that either brings you much closer together or drives a huge bloody great wedge between you. In our case, it's definately the former. Neither of us are perfect and we accept our faults and love in each other because of them rather than love each other in spite of them. Only eight years ago, I remember breaking down in tears to my dad, who by the way has never been the one to speak to about 'emotional stuff'. What worried me wasn't being on my own, it was not being physically able to love anyone again. I genuinely didn't feel like I would ever allow someone to become close to me again and a couple of relationships I dabbled with just proved my point. When someone once told me they loved me I told them, 'shut up, you couldn't possibly love me this early'. It spelt the end of one quite promising relationship at the time.

I guess that when Pete came into my life, I was in a completely different place. I'd just got to the stage where I was convinced that I would spend the rest of my life with my daughter...not like some hermit crab as I had a great social life and a really great bunch of friends, but I wasn't looking for a relationship at all, just some fun nights out and maybe meeting some new people and having a laugh. I think that's why everyone was so shocked that after only six weeks of meeting, Pete and I were engaged to be married. I guess we just knew. People thought (either quietly or loudly) that we were making a mistake and being rash, but I think that by now we've proved them wrong.

Even when we've had our bad times, the truth is we've never imagined our lives without each other and never could. I can't imagine my life without my soul mate. We can be like chalk and cheese with some things, but I know that noone will ever understand me the way he does. So happy anniversary honey. XXX

BAD BLOGGER!

2009-04-18T11:09:00.003+01:00

The easter holidays have whizzed by in a blur of activity, which when you're counting down days til homecoming is somewhat welcome. Strange though how it feels like forever ago that the girls were at school. I've had poor Natasha burn her hands on a saucepan and had to go to not one but two casualties. Luckily it was nothing serious and the blisters and now well and truly gone. To be honest she was only upset til they put the burn cream on her hands at the first minor injuries unit..by the time she got to Derriford she was fine. Think it was more difficult for her with the bandages on, especially as on her left hand she had a big ET finger style dressing...resisted the temptation to paint the tip red though.

Just thought i'd include this photo though which was taken just before they broke up, with Emily wearing some comical glasses and pulling her usual silly face. Talking comical glasses, I finally got my new ones yesterday, lovely pair of Tommy Hilfigers that I just know Pete will hate....told him yesterday that i'd got them and he said, 'what do they look like?' to which i replied, 'think TWO RONNIES'......think he got the point! I love them though which is good seeing as they are generally a permenant fixture on my face. Think even a few of the staff at specsavers were a little taken aback by my prescription......meet the real life Mr Magoo! Would take a photo but seeing as I had my perm yesterday I will wait til the inevitable 'frizzy poodle' phase has died down first.

Lil 'sis ended up OK in the end which is good. That week she had an operation on her foot to reset the bones in her toes and is now hobbling around in some weird kind of black japanese style wedge thing. She's gonna be out from work for about two months so we're all doing our bit to try and make sure she's managing with the kids.

I did have my 'night off' and it was lovely although i shouldn't have stayed up til 5am scrapping! Do have a little project I finished but still haven't taken photos so will add that tomorrow. Pete has finally been paid all of his outstanding back pay which has certainly made life easier. It has meant that yesterday i could get on with preparations for the homecoming, hairdresser, new outfit, trip to town for goodies, booked the waxing (ouch) etc. I don't get into the city much to be honest now I'm over the 'other side' but when I do, I make up for it!

Natasha enjoying the bubbles....if only the WHOLE easter holiday had been so easily solved!

I still have a few more things to sort out before the big day and I'm starting to get really excited now and less of a misery arse. Unusually for the submarine service, they've organised quite a homecoming. We'll all be going out to Devils Point to watch the boat come into Plymouth Sound and then off to Devonport Dockyard to meet them. They've laid on food and entertainment so we're all going this time. Normally I don't wait and meet the boat as it normally takes hours once it gets alongside for the guys to get off, not quite as straighforward as a ship! So usually i wait for the call to pick him up from outside the yard so this is going to be a first for me.

Freya is back tomorrow from visiting her dad in France, can't wait for her to see what I bought yesterday. We're all big fans of singstar in this house, despite most of us being either tone deaf or not having enough lung capacity to hold a note. Apart from Freya of course who has a gorgeous voice! So yesterday they had a deal on at GAME and I picked up the Queen Singstar for PS3 which she's going to love (she's currently doing Alice in Wonderland which has Queen songs as the score) and no doubt we'll have that out with the new wireless microphones which had a tenner off when bought with the disc. Nice idea for the wireless, no tripping over when we have our drunken singstar nights with the family, bit concerned though that they'll end up lost down the sofa during those nights!

Do have a few other things to talk about but the girls are begging me to get the paints out so must obey! Back tomorrow with more of an update.

Best Laid Plans......

2009-03-28T14:39:00.005Z

It's been a busy, happy, sad, productive and manic couple of weeks. The best thing has been being able to hear from Pete as he's had some time alongside in Fujairah. The joy on the girls faces as they spoke to their dad was brilliant to see (although the constant arguing as to who was going to speak next wasn't as brilliant). It's just so nice to hear his voice although I must admit to being slightly jealous over the huge suite he has in his five star hotel! Mind you, I guess after spending the last couple months crammed into a tin of sardines he does kind of deserve it. Just wish I was there to share it with him....oh well, maybe next time.

Sunday of course was Mothers Day and with a little help from Nanny the girls pulled off a lovely card and chocolate cake for me. I was thrilled with the card especially as they'd got so creative.....haven't checked out how much of my yummy making memories lime acrylic Natasha managed to use for her handprint but as it was for such a worthy cause I've decided to overlook said stash robbing!

I was so good and managed to get my three mothers day cards done in time. Unfortunately one went off before I got a chance to take a photo, one wasn't sent in time (sorry Rose, will save it for next year!) and the other I'm going to give my mum when i see her later tonight.....It's weird how I used to be so organised when it came to birthdays, anniversaries and the like and now I have difficulty in knowing what day it is (infact i've even been known to forget what year we're in lately).

I've quite enjoyed making cards lately although I'm not the greatest at it. I've found it's a good way of using up some of the vellum quotes pads that i've had lurking around from my early days of buying unnecessary stash! It's also a way of using up scraps and trying to refind my mojo. I have some great photos to scrap but just can't find the right frame of mind at the moment. May have a look at Pencilines and see if that inspires me!

Tuesday was one of those days that left me a little deflated. It was parent teacher consultations at Emilys school and a few issues came up about her behaviour. Nothing too serious but enough to need to take action. Academically she is very gifted and working a year ahead of her age but she tends to be bossy and want to be the centre of attention. To try and get the attention she will act as if she's about to do something naughty (eating plastacine was the latest). She won't actually do the naughty thing but will look straight at the teacher with a smirk on her face just willing to be told off. As Pete said, there's no point in being clever if you're going to be disruptive. So we had a long chat and it seems to have paid off as she got a certificate in assembly on Friday for her improved behaviour during the week.

It's been a strange journey watching how Emily has grown the last few years. I did wonder when she was between the age of 2 and 3 whether or not I'd be able to handle her as she was constantly on the go and could get really tantrummy. It wasn't something I ever experienced with Freya who was laid back, calm and quite introvert (no idea what happened to that little girl cos it's certainly not a description which holds true with her now).

Since turning 3 though, she has completely mellowed and has become so utterly loving. At times she can be manic and whingy but the tantrums are certainly gone. I do wonder if it is middle child syndrome. I don't know a great deal about this having come from a family of only one other sibling but it does make sense. Emily is certainly the one that generally has to shout the loudest at home so I guess that aswell as her learning from this experience we need to aswell.

So that kind of brings me to this weekend. I'd managed to farm all the kiddiwinks out tonight for a much needed night of R&R (typical that i chose the night when i'll lose sleep with the clocks changing!). However, that seems to be in the air at the moment. Sheree (my lil sis) has gone into hospital. Hopefully nothing too serious but as she's not suffered a relapse with her Lupus for years the last few weeks have shown that her blood is so thin at the moment that she could start bleeding out. It's a scary thought and I'm praying that everything will be ok. Sheree is one of these people who is straight as a die, has never let her Lupus become an obstacle and doesn't drip every five minutes about how ill she is. But I could hear in her voice this morning how worried she was. Hopefully it's nothing more than blood leaking into her joints (which has been something that's happened before) and she'll be home soon.

So my Sainsbury meal for a fiver and bottle of Rose may have to wait for another night as instead of getting rid of my lot, i'm stuck with most of mine plus the niece and nephew. Fingers crossed eh?

Burst my bubble

2009-03-19T08:43:00.003Z

I have no idea why I spent last night with my head shoved in a bucket but it wasn't pleasant! Everyone else in the house seems fine and I'm much better, just have that washing machine feeling in my stomach. I was fine til I went to bed....even decided on an early one for a change and about half hour after laying down I just felt awful. It just so happened to be a night when Emily decided that she'd had a bad dream and crept in with me at 1am, only to leave again about 6am and wake everyone up whilst the only thing I wanted to do was die. Wonder if it's anything to do with the huge amount of chocolates i've consummed in the last few days....surely not...cocoa is one of my five a day.

These are the cards I made yesterday although the photo isn't great but was trying to get it done before the kids started school. I was determined to use up some of my old stash and this BG kit still had several pages left. I also had some DCWV vellum and rub on sentiments which I bought when I first started scrapping that I would probably never buy now so I thought I'd use some of them up too. These are all for little notes to send to Pete when he's away although may keep one back for valentines next year....just on the off chance that he'll be home although at the moment I've got the feeling that for the next three years at least i'll be single far more than married.

A lot of the WAGS are flying out to see the guys this weekend but unfortunately I won't be going. With the kids going it would have been far too expensive and I didn't have anyone that could look after them for a few days either so I think this port visit will be especially hard to hear from him. Fingers crossed though that I should get an email today or tomorrow and I've sent off the one i've been compiling for the last five or six weeks. It will probably take him all day to read it.

Still in happy land!

2009-03-18T20:34:00.003Z

The weather is continuing to bring out the best in me and I am in the most glorious mood. I think the kids are starting to worry about why their mother appears to be so happy! Should hear from Pete for the first time in several weeks in the next few days and I just can't wait to hear his voice. I know that after the call i'll be down in the dumps but for that briefest of moments the world will be put to rights and I'll feel on top of the world. The girls are really looking forward to speaking to Daddy so i'm hoping the time difference will work itself out alright, to be honest I haven't checked what it is.

Freya's birthday present arrived yesterday and she looked like an impatient spoilt brat waiting for it to charge up but she's been having a little play today....customising the wallpaper and setting up all her contacts and email. It's a nifty piece of kit, lovely and sturdy so fingers crossed she'll look after it.

Been digging out old photos recently and getting them scanned into Photoshop Organiser. Still wish i was slim.....guess that's what childbirth and chocolate addiction does for ya. I so wish I enjoyed working out but truth is I don't. Now if I could twirl again that would be a different story. I still miss it, even after all these years and I still have a baton in the house.

I'm going to try and get hold of some of the videos of some of the performances, would especially love a copy of the Euro championships in 89. Oh the memories!

Another reason for the happy mood? I got some stash out yesterday and made some cards so will share some photos of them tomorrow. Better make some mothers day ones tomorrow!

Life is sweet

2009-03-17T09:49:00.003Z

Isn't it funny how when the sun shines, life never seems so bad! Despite all the pitfalls of the last couple of months, everything in the Farrell household seems relaxed and calm. I don't think I even screamed at the girls once this morning whilst getting them ready for school and usually it's every 30 seconds. I'm sleeping better, the house is tidy (although my bedroom is resembling Aladdins Cave) and I even made some cards last night. Even Freya asked me yesterday morning 'Mum why are you in such a good mood?' which translated into honest mood would probably sound like 'Mum why are you usually such a mardy cow!?'. I didn't even retort with sarcasm but just smiled as a bluebird landed on my shoulder....ok, the last bit MAY be a slight exaggeration, but it's how I feel. In a few days I'll be speaking to the love of my life, the girls are all in their happy places and life is wonderful.......what more could i ask for? Well, if anyone has a couple grand going spare.........

The current subject on the smackblog is about the credit crunch and to how this has affected your scrapping. Well I must admit to being virtually saintly in the stash spending department having bought nothing at all for six months and even then, that was my first spend of last year. My Bad Girls kit subscription ended in October and I didn't renew and my magazine subscriptions ended last summer so stash spending is nil. And yet I have a cupboard full of stuff. Plenty to use and plenty to do with it. I'm not on DT's and I don't submit work, therefore it doesn't matter that I don't have the latest stash or embellishments. As someone who scraps for me and my family, I can't see that future generations who look at my work will think anymore of the pages than they do at the photos and they certainly won't be thinking....oooh nice use of felt, that was bang on trend when this page was made! If it's not going to bother them then why should it bother lil ol me. By the time it reaches them...ALL the papers will be dated so who cares......to prove a point, i'm now using up scraps from the Basic Grey range Blush range which i just 'had to have' as soon as it came out.....two years or so ago!

Now don't get me wrong, I ooooh and ahhhh at the latest CHA releases but I just can't see the justification when i've already got enough paper to decorate the house with........I even have a fall back stash of herma......now if we were talking shoes.........

Sweet Like Chocolate

2009-03-15T10:45:00.005Z

OK, so I love chocolate, in fact I'll admit to being a little obsessed with the stuff and although I don't eat as much of it as I would like anymore (the old metabolism isn't quite what it used to be) I could still happily walk around Hotel Chocolat for an hour just dreaming. However, I had mixed feelings before I went to the chocolate making night because I couldn't see it being a 'fun' thing to do. HOW WRONG WAS I? Well, i'll tell you I was VERY wrong!

Chocochinos is just down from the Distillery on the Barbican and a small chocolatier come coffee shop although they do chocolate cream teas rather than your standard ones! The evening started with a chocolate fondue, bowls of warm white, dark and milk chocolate with strawberries, cake, oranges, marshmallows and the like and a great chance to catch up on everything with the girls as we waited for everyone to arrive......I was very happy waiting. Then we went off in two groups. I didn't take any pictures of the chocolate making as I was far too busy trying to impress with my amazing chocolate skills and auditioning for a job because who needs teaching when they can work in a chocolate shop eh?

The shop was full of giggles and chatter and it was such a nice evening. Before I went, I had no idea how much we would actually be doing but three hours later we'd made about 30 chocolates each and I also made 10 lollies. And there was me saying to Freya that I would only save her a chocolate if I made more than four....so do i lie and hide them or share? LOL. Actually, I made several lollies for the kids and a big one in the shape of a treble clef for Freya...not the neatest looking treble clef mind you but I bet it's the tastiest!

The only downside to the night was listening to some of the girls talking excitedly about flying out to meet the guys next weekend. Not easy to be happy for them when you want to be going to. Hearing from Pete is going to be hard enough when they get into port, but knowing he's there for 10 days and I could be there is going to be a horrible so just hoping I can hold it together for the next couple of weeks. Of course, unless anyone wants to come and look after my kids for a week for me so I can go.........anyone?

But anyway......I would recommend this chocolate night to anyone, great idea for hen nights and other girly nights out...not sure what the minimum number was but at £30 a head it sounds expensive until you realise what you come home with! The staff were wonderful and provided drinks of the soft or hot variety throughout but you could take your own alcohol. With the boat away for another five months before the end of the year I'm hoping we can arrange another little visit......don't tell the kids, but it beat Butlins hands down!

Busy weekend

2009-03-13T19:34:00.005Z

So much to cram into a few days, firstly a mass of paperwork, accounting (probably of the creative kind to try and work out what the hell is going on ...... i'm sure that Pete doesn't realise that you can't take more away than is there to start with) a mass clean of the house as i don't want the sitter to realise what squalor I subject my kids to living in tomorrow night, dropping Freya off to go shop for bridesmaid dresses, food shop as my cupboards resemble mother hubbard very literally apart from a lone pizza for the sitter tomorrow, decide what the hell i'm wearing to chocolate heaven tomorrow!

Its a 'do' for the ladies of HMS Torbay tomorrow, we're off to Chocochino's on the Barbican. Never been before so should be an experience, apparently we're having chocolate fondue and then making our own box of chocolates which i'm not shy of saying I will not be sharing with anyone!

Had a lovely night last night for Freya's birthday. Despite her present not being here, she's patient if nothing else so wasn't worried about it and spent the night trying to guess what it may be. I said that i'd tell her if she wanted to know but she said she just wanted to ask questions and for me to answer yes or no to see if she could work it out. Think she may now know as she's stopped asking now and when I got my PDA out to find out some dates she said 'I think i know what it is' so either she HAS worked it out or she thinks she has a PDA which isn't true. What she actually has is this.

We had nanny over for a little birthday tea consisting of sushi and crab and salmon, all Freya's faves and this oh so cute cake from Waitrose.

And she never managed to puff them out in one go either!

Still can't believe how time is flying by. I hate seeing her grow up as I seem to become more and more protective. Funny how when you first have children you think you're going to be some 'right on' parent, relaxed about everything and then when puberty hits you want to find out who still stocks chastity belts! Biased i know but ain't she gorgeous? Although she'll have to blame her dad for her eyebrows!

She's had money, new football boots and kit, some gorgeous clothes from three sets of grandparents, earrings and is having her hair done at a lush salon at the end of the month. Bloody hell, i get far too emotional on birthdays!

I've been really missing Pete this week, guess it's because I know that we're roughly half way through the trip and with him being alongside next week it's the anitcipation of some contact. So will have to busy myself with some other projects that are on the go which hopefully I can share next week. For now it's off to do the bedtime battle.

Happy Birthday Freya!

2009-03-12T15:54:00.002Z

Can you believe this little little hairy monster is 11 today cos I can't! Off to have a little tea party and contemplate how fast time is passing by.......secondary school this year......WAY TOO SCARY!

RANT!

2009-03-10T08:53:00.002Z

OK, so ...... broken hose...fixed, blown head gasket...fixed, radiator replaced, new set of glow plugs done......back to fix the cigarette lighter and windows that were working and then weren't...done. So tell me.....after 5 visits to the garage and another by the AA....WHY MY BASTARD CAR NOW WILL NOT WORK AT ALL! AA coming again...if it turns out after all this to be a flat battery...someones f***ing head WILL ROLL!

The Long Good Sunday

2009-03-09T11:14:00.003Z

Anyone that knows me, knows fully well that I don't 'do' mornings. In fact I hate mornings. I wish I was one of these people that can get out of bed with a spring in their step, however it takes me at least an hour to get out of grumpy, snappy and downright miserable mood in the morning. I can't remember the last time I was awake at 5.45am and it wasn't easy.....especially as the heating doesn't come on til 6.30 and opening the bathroom door it felt like I was stepping into an ice box.

However, we managed to get the car full of everything we needed to take (far too much in retrospect) and met the coach and after three hours headed into the gates at Butlins, Minehead. The most beautiful sight I had ever seen greeted us. I love the sight of a rainbow but had never seen anything like this one. Over the sea front and disappearing into the sea at both ends, you could really see both ends of the rainbow.....of course, stupid me had packed the camera away in the hold of the coach and therefore didn't get to take a snap of it, but trust me when i say it was stunning.
The kids didn't take as long as me to feel with it and after an hour of humpting around bags (why doesn't Butlins have a locker for day guests....maybe should've filled out a suggestion card...or maybe should not have attempted to be some freaky human buckaroo just waiting for one of the kids to pull me in a direction which resulted in me falling in a heap on the floor) we settled down in the Skyline and watched some of the entertainment going on.

Bob the Builder, Pingu, Billy Bear and Friends and the Skyline Gang certainly kept the little ones entertained whilst Rob and Freya buggared off to the pool and go crazy on the go karts. Seven hours passed incredibly quickly. Inbetween shows on the stage there were the visits to the Puppet Castle, which was definately Emily's favourite as she was going on about it from the moment we arrived.

We then went into the little ones amusement park to attack the rides there. One thing I've learnt is that I really have to practice a bit more with the settings on the camera as I didn't manage to get many action shots, most were really blurred or the focus was in completely the wrong place. That'll teach me for ignoring the poor camera for such a long time. Will have to brush up again on the manual settings......and put a new lens down on the wish list for Xmas!

It was lovely to meet some more family members from HMS Torbay and have more cuddles with babies to satisfy my ever broody womb! The kids were non stop and loved it and I reverted back to headless chicken mode trying to figure out where they all were and rounding them up like some demented shepherd......really I have to learn to chill out a bit more I think.

The hardest part was being there without Pete. It's been a place for family holidays over the past five years and part of me kept expecting him to come over to the table where I was sat carrying a coffee and diet coke and ask where the kids had disappeared to now! A part of me kept looking over my shoulder hoping to see him, which of course wasn't going to happen but I made the most of it and by the time we got onto the coach at 6pm (wet and very cold) I was wishing I was in bed snuggled up to him watching Sky Sports News before disappearing off to the land of Nod.

The girls were asleep before their heads hit the pillows and now it's back to having a deep clean in the house ready for another week. Another week closer to hearing from Pete, another week closer to him coming home and another week closer to him going away again.......ever the pessimist me!

One last thing

2009-03-07T22:33:00.006Z

ignore the screaming bits or whatever as this is a clip i've just got from YOUTUBE. I'm a big fan of P!nk and have been lucky enough to see her in concert a couple of times but unfortunately the new tour won't be heading down this way (mind you when you see the size of the set you can understand that there's no way they were going to get that in the piddly Pavillions!).

But this.....is simply beautiful.

Have you ever fed a lover with just your hands?
Closed your eyes and trusted, just trusted
Have you ever thrown a fist full of glitter in the air?
Have you ever looked fear in the face
And said I just don’t care

It’s only half past the point of no return
The tip of the iceberg
The sun before the burn
The thunder before lightning
The breathe before the phrase
Have you ever felt thIs way?

Have you ever hated yourself for staring at the phone?
You’re whole life waiting on the ring to prove you’re not alone
Have you ever been touched so gently you had to cry?
Have you ever invited a stranger to come inside?

It’s only half past the point of oblivion
The hourglass on the table
The walk before the run
The breathe before the kiss
And the fear before the flames
Have you ever felt this way?

There you are, sitting in the garden
Clutching my coffee,
Calling me sugar
You called me sugar

Have you ever wished for an endless night?
Lassoed the moon and the stars and pulled that rope tight
Have you ever held your breathe and asked yourself will it ever get better than tonight?

If you don't have anything good to say........

2009-03-07T22:20:00.000Z

The last month has been somewhat of a stress inducing blur. I was beginning to think that the 'big man' has it in for me for some reason as everything that could go wrong has (oops tempting fate there i think!) and the world seems to be falling down around my ears. I seem to spend most of the day in tears or in a foul mood, hence no update as even I was beginning to get pissed off with hearing me moaning.

Don't want to bore everyone with the details but suffice to say that when Pete comes home he will have to seriously take some weight off my rather broad shoulders. Theres been damage, illness, breakdown (both mechanically and emotionally) and those feelings of despair that nothing will ever go right. But i'm determined to draw a line under it all and battle on.....at least til Pete is home. Even the good old RN has managed to completely balls everything up as per usual. Pete was originally away at sea until mid June, now he's coming home early......so that he can go back to sea a few weeks later for another five months. I'm beginning to think my marriage is a figment of my imagination. That's over nine months seperation this year alone ontop of the nine months last year and that doesn't even include the two sometimes three duties he does when they're alongside!

It's also ballsed up holiday plans and for the second year on the trot we've lost a holiday because of date changes.

At least there has been so much going on that i've not had too much time to sit down and let it get to me THAT much. There has been a few fabulous trips organised for the families of the boat this time, even one just for the ladies which will be next Saturday and i can't wait to let off some steam at that one.

The girls have been the usual mix of gorgeous, tiring, loud, loving and downright pain in the arses and i adore them for it. Even at the stage where i'm losing patience with them, they manage to make me feel like there's a reason for all the hassle.

On Valentines Day, to keep our minds off being alone, the ladies of Torbay with a mountain of kids descended on Jump to knacker out said kids and it was great to meet so many new faces and just have a chill and moan about the good old 'silent service'. The kids were bushed when they got back and a good time was had by all. I also received a lovely delivery from interflora which made me smile as i pushed the credit card statement out of my mind!

I'm saving the champers til he gets back though!

The following week we went to the Plymstock Naval Families Centre. It's the first time i've ever been anywhere like that. Ive always shyed away from getting involved in the naval family community as it's always struck me as a bit clicky and although it can be, i made some more new friends and the girls enjoyed a critter demonstration from one of the workers at Sparkwell Zoo, a disco and buffet. Giant snails, hissing cockroaches, millipeeds and giant stick insects....Emily was in her element! Dancing and Music...well that was Natasha sorted and the buffet......well, i think Freya was trying to work through the tables rather than her plate...how that girl is not 100 stone is beyond me! Unfortunately i didn't get any great photos as it was difficult trying to herd the little ones and take loads of photos.

Freya has joined a new drama group as i just could no longer afford Stagecoach, so she's joined a local group who put on performances each xmas and new year. It was her first time this week and she really enjoyed it. She's also in the district schools production of Alice in Wonderland and will aptly play the Mad Hatter although that isn't until sometime in the early summer and she hasn't even got her lines for that yet. She's also had confirmation about her secondary school and is nervously looking forward to it....she probably thinks it's going to be like High School Musical. Dreading how much the uniform is going to cost especially as it's all got the school logo on.

Emilys school had a 'come to school dressed as a book character' on Thursday as part of World Book Day and we managed to get this bargain of a costume in ASDA for £8. I knew that virtually every girl would go as a Disney Princess of some sort so decided she should do something different and go as Little Miss Sunshine. She was so chuffed that she was the only person with that costume on!

I have been busy doing some scrapping this week believe it or not. I'm working on a few projects at the moment for something but thought i could share one of them seeing as i haven't put any work on here for ages. Its a digi for a change, I don't often do digi work but i'm trying to get to grips with some new techniques on there and having fun playing around in PSE. I've found some lovely freebie kits. This one was made using Foxy Lady by Peppermint Creative, I would link it but unfortunately their website is down at the moment.

Been doing a lot of browsing through blogs lately as i lost all my favourites when the hard drive died on this thing before christmas and i've found some great ones that i've not had the pleasure to come across before.

Although i'm not a big card person, I adore these on this blog called LilyBeans Paperie. No idea what the lady is called but some of them are stunning. Another site is a kit site with some gorgeous step by step projects on which is Scrap Magie. Again some lovely stuff on there.

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things again on the scrapping front although I very rarely go on UKS anymore, not since they changed the software......i find the new forum too confusing...doesn't take much does it! I had a little catch up on the Smack Blog though over the past few weeks. I can completely understand why people would be upset if they were smacked on there, especially as some of the comments can get quite personal but I do fully understand the need for the blog. UKS has become more and more like Big Brother where you are always worried about what you can and can't say. It can be a great source of inspiration and a great place to make 'friends' however it can also be very false.

The smackblog on the other hand is NOT a place to make friends LOL! I do find some of the discussions interesting on there and some good info on non UKS sponsors, sponsors to avoid, retreats to avoid etc. It's hard though when you know someone getting smacked especially when you don't feel what's being said is right. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though and i've seen some very well deserved 'smacks'.

Anyway, i'm off to the land of nod as I have a ridiculously early morning ahead of me as me and the whole tribe are off to Butlins for the day some of the other families from the boat....packed lunches done, camera batteries charged and dvd recorder charged....let's see how long it is before i lose at least one of the four kids!

It's getting better!

2009-02-03T09:39:00.009Z

The last few weeks have been the hardest that I've been through in an awful long time. With Pete due to sail, there seemed to be no end of problems keeping them from doing so. For those of you who don't have the pleasure of being a submariners wife, you may be thinking 'oh well, a few more days home'. But i can assure you that it isn't a good feeling. When it comes to long trips, the hardest thing is saying goodbye...it's both physically and mentally exhausting. Really hard. You prepare for a few weeks before hand and when it comes it's like someone punching you in the stomach. Well, imagine doing that three times in the space of a week. It starts to feel like the world has spun off it's axis! Thankfully they've now gone and are hard at work doing 8 on, 8 off and as they settle into their routine, so I must settle back into the 'away' routine. Got this proof of one of the other wives that they'd actually managed to get out this last time. Have no idea how some people can watch the boat go out.....would break my heart even more!

The first week that they're gone you're down and moody, but once you get to grips with that, you throw yourself into everything else and try not to think about him. Unfortunately the past two weeks have thrown up some crap that hasn't enabled me to do that though. After being without the car for two weeks, I was then informed that not only was the headgasket gone, so was the radiator! In total, sorting the car out cost me £847 and man, was that £847 we just didn't have.

It's been beg, steal and borrow as Pete managed to well and truly balls up the bank account before leaving. Problem was, i'm not on the account and can't do anything about it. Over £400 of bank charges which is going to mean that the account isn't going to clear all the direct debits again this month, probably leading to more of the same every month until he comes back. At the moment I'm panicking that he may not even have a bloody house to come back to! I'm just praying that his back pay will go in the end of February to avoid complete disaster. Doesn't help when the 3 week old PS3 that the kids bought with their Xmas money was broken by Natasha last week. With the power off, she couldn't understand why the game wasn't loading that she'd put in....so she put in another....and another.....and another. Yup, four discs rammed into the disc drive does not a happy PS3 make! It's knackered the drive anyway. Luckily my household insurance has covered that little gem, however with £100 excess to find, the girls may find themselves without that baby for a while.

All of this going from pillar to post, credit car company to bank, NPFS to SSAFA, has taken it's toll and I've been really down. It's not the greatest feeling though to have family services come round to drop off an emergency £100 loan just so you can feed the kids! However, i've now done all that I can do, the rest is out of my hands.

So things are starting to settle down and I'm just getting by on an exceedingly tight budget for the next few months. One good thing to happen though is that when I put my memory card from my camera in the PC this morning, I found a few more photos that I thought had been lost after the great PC hardrive failure. This included some photos from Emilys first Nativity where she was a donkey! Funny how no matter how loud the kids sang in reception.....her voice could be heard above EVERYONES!

She absolutely thriving at school and loves it there. She's even managed to read 57 books since she started, not including ones that she reads at home. Tonight she's going to try and write her first ever letter to daddy! Next Friday, she has the valentines disco and will probably be hanging out with Christopher. I'm not allowed to call Christopher her 'friend', it HAS to be 'Boyfriend' or else I get told off.

He came round for tea last week and Emily just wouldn't leave him alone! Think I'm gonna have to watch this girl of mine with the boys.

Natasha is now at nursery three half days and one full day a week. I've got to say it's such a relief to get some time to wind down from it all, especially with Pete away. Just as Emily's whinging phase has finished, Natasha takes up the baton. They are all such loving girls but blimey Natasha is manic at the moment. She did manage to do her first 'letter' to daddy though....what a work of art eh?

Freya seems to have settled down a lot more since Christmas, at least she's starting to buck her ideas up after a rather frustrating six months. Whether it be hormones, the fall out from her dad not going, or just being scared of me killing her (a distinct possibility a couple months back) she's starting to take more responsibility for her actions. She's just joined a new joint schools drama class and they're putting on Alice in Wonderland in the Summer, she's got a school trip to the Scilly Isles to look forward to this year and has just started playing rugby for which her grandad took her into town on Sunday and got her boots. I know when she starts at the secondary school in September she's probably going to be trying to do every club under the sun.

Talking of sun....after an aptly timed snow fall at 8 this morning, it's now beautiful outside. With all the snow chaos everywhere else in the country, I was hoping for at least a full days snow.....or at least the girls were. But they made the most of it by running around like loons for an hour before school. It had already started to disappear by the time they all got off to their respective school gates though.

Still haven't done any scrapping though. Keep saying i'll do it this weekend, and never get round to it but with everything going on i've had a good excuse. So, i'm definately going to do some tonight.......just have to do the shopping first.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse.....

2009-01-09T20:21:00.003Z

.......i shouldn't have opened my mouth! There I was, all excited at having the PC back...true, it took three days to reinstall all the software and drivers but I'd 'only' lost a months worth of photos so I was thankful for the mercy of that one. But then yesterday I get a call from Pete who by that time should have been home saying that the car had broken down again. Luckily (or unluckily, depends on glass half empty/full type of thing) he managed to get it to the garage who fixed it last time just as they were closing.

Well, they called this afternoon and it's the head gasket.....which to be honest...once it's gone, it'll probably go again. With an estimate of 'at least £600' we're now in a quandry. The last MOT cost over £400, it cost another £150 to get it mended before Xmas and now this. We don't have £600 to fix it, let alone thousands to buy a new car so it looks likely that we're gonna have to see if we can find a Bongo dealer who'll take it off our hands with a knackered head gasket.

Now that the girls are at school and nursery most days, it's not a major problem being without wheels except for getting to church. Bus routes over here are notoriously bad and the thought of dragging four kids on the bus with me isn't one that I relish. So tomorrow when Pete gets home from work there will be a lot of thinking to do about what to do. Thing is, with Pete just about to go away for five odd months it's easier for him to say we can go without without him actually realising the hassle it causes.

On a strange note though, i was asked for ID in the local Spar shop this morning to buy cigarettes........I laughed at the woman behind the counter.....she didn't laugh back. Luckily, I had my driving licence with me, however I did make a remark about the fact that I was almost twice the legal age limit!

So it's not been a good week here in the Farrell household....the only thing making me laugh is this.....

For the unfamiliar among you, this is my sister and my husband at 4 am New Years Day after welcoming in the new year. In their defence, they were hammered by this point!

I have a good excuse

2009-01-02T21:21:00.003Z

for such a long abscence as i don't currently have a PC and trying to wrestle either the kids or pete's laptop isn't easy! A few days before Xmas the PC went pop along with over a months worth of photos which to me was the worst bit. This was on top of the car breaking down so it wasn't really the best thing to happen. But just to put the icing on the cake, the following day the monitor on the girls PC also gave up the ghost!

It has however been a wonderful Xmas although i'm suffering big time with sleep deprivation. It's been one celebration after another, one party followed by another and one drunken night on the sing star after another! I'm surprised at the moment that i can even talk. I'm going to try to work out how to upload video to you tube and show some embarressing clips from New year. Anyway, I hope that you all had a lovely Xmas and a wonderful new year. God Bless and heres to a fantastic 2009!

Ooops!

2008-12-04T09:49:00.005Z

Well i didn't think it had been THIS long since I last blogged but to be honest the past few weeks have been a complete blur, not really what you want when the time I have with Pete home is as precious as it currently is. The main reason for the strange time vacuum i've been in is Pete's board. Building up for the last nine months and culminating in having to physically check that he did actually come home from sea over the past few weeks because he'd been buried under reams of paper and stuck to his laptop. However, all the work was worth it as he passed his board last week. He looks at least five years younger than he has done over the past year just through finally letting go of the stress!

It's funny to think that he's now addressed onboard as Mr Farrell or 'Sir'....sounds so bloody formal doesn't it. I did try it at home for a few days but got bored quite quickly! And now the rush that is Xmas begins. Doesn't help with different kids at different schools as there seems to be no time to breathe! Freya had a concert last night with her choir, another for the district choir and orchestra tonight and her school performance next week aswell as her one for Stagecoach coming up. Emily also has one at school next week (she plays a donkey! LOL) and I'm sure Natasha will have one with the nursery so it's keeping us all really busy. Thank goodness Pete is on leave next weekend.

We had our first parents evening with Emily and the girl is a genius, which we kind of knew already LOL! She's doing work with the year one children and whilst some of the other reception class kids are still practicing their names, she's writing sentences! Although they aren't grammatically correct, they make sense when you read them. Her entry in her school weekend diary after the remembrance service said 'my mummy took me to see the dead soldiers!' which raised a few eyebrows! I can't believe how well she's thriving at school and she has this constant demand to be learning all the time. I guess you just have to encourage it to continue.

Talking of Em, it was her fifth birthday last weekend. She had also been invited to a birthday party down at Tamar Valley Donkey Park in the afternoon so that saved a few pennies on a party! We did however, splash out on a cake and had some family round later in the evening. I just love the cakes at Waitrose and with four kids I don't think it'll be long til I've had everyone in the catalogue.

She loved her cake and her new bike without stabilisers......daddy will finally get a chance to get her out on it this evening if it isn't too dark. I'm hoping he can get her comfortable on it before he returns to sea because i'm useless at that sort of stuff!

I've got the dates for next year now and it's going to be a harder trip than i first thought..... 5 and a half months at sea! With Natasha starting her funded nursery sessions in January that should help me get a little escape time but it's certainly going to be hard, especially with so little contact. I'm still umming and ahhhing about flying out to Dubai where they have an extended port visit about half way through, but the costs involved may prohibit that, plus it would be so difficult to get on a plane to come home with the kids wondering why daddy can't come back with us.

So the house is now getting back to normal and Pete is duty tomorrow night so i'm hoping to get some papers and scissors out. It will be the first time over two months and i'm looking forward to it. Freya wants to make some cards for Xmas too so there will probably be glue and paint everywhere....YIPPEE!

Busy busy busy!

2008-11-09T18:11:00.003Z

Daddy is finally home! Well, he's actually been home for almost a week now, but there's been hardly any time to do anything in that week! He got back to Plymouth on Tuesday night....I was going to lie to the girls and say he'd be home in the morning as I knew that once they saw him i'd struggle to get them into bed....not great for a school day! However, I had a change of heart and we drove down to Devonport Dockyard and all three girls ran at him as soon as he got off the coach!

Must have been a bit of a culture shock to come home from hot, hot, hot Dubai to wet and windy Cornwall. It looks quite funny that he's walking around with peeling skin! NICE! Wednesday night we went to the Fireworks display at HMS Raleigh and luckily the rain held off. Turns out Natasha isn't as much a fan of the fireworks as the rest of us and kept huddling against Pete when they looked like they were coming straight for us. Friday I had a girls night out, Saturday was the High School Musical stage show in Plymouth with Freya and then yesterday, Pete and a few others home from the boat took part in the Remembrance Day service in Torquay.

It was an early morning to get up there and bloody hell was it windy? However, the boys did us proud and for a bunch of matelots their marching wasn't as bad as we all thought it would be......helped that they were marching along some of the cadets which kind of made them look better!

Despite the weather and the huge black clouds that loomed overhead, the turnout was huge and the rain held off until we were on our way back home. The service was as emotional as expected and the kids were proud to see their dad in his finery. You can't help but love a man in uniform!

First thing most of them did once they'd finished the service and the march along Torquay seafront was get the fags out! LOL

So Pete is now gripped with studying for his board in a couple weeks. It's going to be a pretty stressful time for him but i've every faith that he can do it. Not done any scrapping at all, too much else on. But i'm hoping that I can get the house straight enough to do so guilt free by the weekend.

Welcome to the FUNHOUSE!

2008-10-28T11:25:00.003Z

Finally my new P!nk CD arrived this morning and just having a first listen through I know I'm going to love it. So I'm just getting it put on the iPods now. She's announced some gigs in the UK for next year but as of yet nothing in Plymouth where she has played twice before so i'm really keeping my fingers crossed as Birmingham is out of the question because Pete will be away and it's hard enough to get a sitter but for an overnight it's even harder.

What a weekend....I remembered to put the clocks back, well, most of them....and just before I went to bed on Saturday night, i thought i'd flick on Sky Sports News to catch some reaction for the days matches to find out about Ramos being sacked and Harry Redknapp taking over at Spurs. I literally sat there open mouthed. It was just gone midnight so too late to call anyone so instead I went on a few Spurs forums and ended up chatting online til gone 3 in the morning. Therefore, the extra hour didn't really give me an extra hour at all! Oh well, at least we took our first 3 points of the season on Sunday. COYS!

Sunday was of course Natasha's 3rd birthday and she was was over the moon with her bike, in fact she said 'Wow' as we came down the stairs with it singing Happy Birthday to her. Now I'm waiting for her to start peddaling forwards instead of backwards! My mum was poorly so couldn't come over but Sheree and her brood came so the cousins all ran around like lunatics demolishing everything in their wake.

It was a great evening and I'm still tidying now! Watching Natasha trying to blow out her candles on the cake was hilarious as all she did was manage to keep blowing her fringe.....after half a dozen or so attempts, Freya gave her a helping hand and everyone stuffed themselves stupid! Oh, well, one birthday down, another in two weeks and another two weeks after that.....then Xmas.....oh my god, Xmas....I was trying to forget that one!

Looks like Pete won't be home earlier than I'd thought after all which is a bit of a downer, but only a week to go and he should be here. It's been two months now since he left and you do get to a stage where all you want is to hold him again. From my reckoning he's got a week alongside in a very nice part of the world so in exchange for that, I'd better be getting some goodies brought back.......and not a bloody T shirt this time! I'm hoping I may get a phone call tonight or tomorrow, going off in a sec to work out the time difference just incase i need to glue to the phone to the bedside tonight. Can't wait to just hear his voice.

So now i'm off to spring(?) clean. I'm hoping they announce the BG Designer winner today. The altering work done over there last week was amazing. I especially love the chess set which was altered into an Xmas Advent calender....it really is stunning. Who knows, I may even get some scrapping done tonight!

Counting down

2008-10-25T19:07:00.004+01:00

....thought i'd add a song which just about sums up our relationship so I've added a new song to the sidebar and want to dedicate it to my special man. I think that after spending huge periods of time on my own I've got to enjoy my own company sometimes....but not ALL the time. I'm missing Pete like mad at the moment, more so because I know it's less than two weeks til he's home. I know however that probably within about two weeks, i'll be counting down the days to him going to sea again after bemoaning for the 100th time that I can't find something that I've put down, that he keeps moving things, that he leaves a wake of chaos behind him wherever he goes etc etc........no wonder so many forces marriages can't take the strain when they come out and into civvy street! It's kind of nice to be in a relationship where you don't live in each others pockets, because it makes you feel that you want to.....keeps the time we are together a bit more special.....that is of course until the snoring starts!

Put together the bike for Natashas birthday tomorrow (thanks dad) and picked up a cute cake from Waitrose yesterday. My sis and her brood, plus my mum are coming over tomorrow evening for a little birthday tea so will have loads of photos to share then. And Rosie....I tried calling but i think you're screening again! Got Natasha's card and will try and call again tomorrow. Well, i'm off to do a little (and i MEAN little) housework and then veg with a bottle of rose and the X Factor!

Write off!

2008-10-24T09:10:00.003+01:00

That's what i've had to do with the past two weeks. I haven't felt good at all and i'm still not right but at least I don't feel just like collapsing on the sofa and doing nothing like I have done. The house is upside down and it's going to take all weekend to get it right again but at least I've got some energy back. The girls are all at nursery and school today which gives me the whole day to start catching up. Then I've got a gym induction at 4.....dreading it to be honest but needs must. I hate gyms and would rather do exercise classes but they don't fit in with the kids so will just have to stick the gym out and get some classes in when Pete is home, which could be sooner rather than later, fingers crossed.

So as i've done nothing.....there isn't really anything to share but a photo of Natasha that I took this week. It's her birthday on Sunday though so no doubt there'll be lots of piccies then.

Sack of shit

2008-10-13T09:35:00.002+01:00

Thats how i'm feeling right now.....and I know it's only going to get worse. I went to bed at
9 last night but just tossed and turned all night and this morning I can't stop shivering. Freya took Emily to school for me and Natasha is off to nursery at 11am so I'm going to try and get a couple hours shut eye but everytime I cough it feels like my head will explode and my eyes pop out.

I checked the Honor Roll this morning for Bad Girls Top Designer and I haven't made the next round which is no surprise to me. The gallery was amazing and there are some that I thought would definately get picked that didn't so shows what I know LOL! Fingers crossed I'll start to feel a bit better by the end of the weeks as i'm definately going to carry on playing with the next class, they've been really inspirational.

Checked the prompt for todays HSMSHS which is autumnal. I have to drag my arse to pick Emily and Natasha up from school and nursery later and the walk includes a small wooded area so will take the camera with me and see if I can find anything but other than scrapbooking goodies, the only autumnal thing i have in the immediate vicinity is Natasha, I think she'll count as autumnal if all else fails!

Almost forgot

2008-10-12T12:10:00.003+01:00

HSMSHS (still trying to get used to an extra 2 letters on the end LOL). Taken at the park a couple weeks back, the reason I'm proud of this photo is that it just represents that I'm thinking about what I capture a little more and this photo of Emily desperately trying to balance on the rope captures that for me. I'm looking more at shapes and odd angles and stuff......hopefully that translates!

Coming down....

2008-10-12T11:46:00.003+01:00

.....with flu most likely. I've felt a little rough the past couple of days but as a heavy smoker, I put it down to my thrice yearly lung purge that I always seem to get. However, last night it took a turn for the worst and I now feel that build up in my throat so I'm hoping for an early night tonight, although there's some scrapping that I want to do so I doubt that I'll end up with some rest.

I spent the night finishing my Bad Girls layout. What a palaver, first the fuse blew the lights in the kitchen. The switch box is high on the wall on the opposite side of the kitchen table. After clambering over the table in the dark, I turned the lights back on to find that I'd knocked over my bottle of Coke onto the layout so then had to start from scratch and this was at around 10.30.

I still had scraps of the paper I'd used but not as much as was in the original layout as I had more of the hand cut circle flowers on the original but had to make do with what I had. I did think maybe the coke would dry by the morning and possibly have given it an antiquated look! However, I didn't want to take the chance LOL!

I had this week purchased the Basic Grey file tool kit as I was desperate for one of those little circular files for when you cover chipboard in paper. It's not my forte. I look at layouts where they have paper covered chipboard and the results are stunning, however, mine always look really ragged! I think I managed a better job with the files but still, I'm not entirely happy with my technique for this so i'm hoping an 'expert' can help me out with that one.

Well, Emily and Freya have gone swimming with my mum, leaving me, Natasha and a Snowdonia sized pile of ironing. So that's my afternoon sorted! The sun is still shining and it's a gorgeous day out there but I just can't face it with my chest the way it is. Oh well, maybe the sun will last a little longer.

2008-10-11T13:36:00.003+01:00

It's been a hectic, but enjoyable week so far and there's still so much to do over the weekend. One thing that wasn't enjoyable was the amount of sick cleaning I had to do at the start of the week. I'd already not felt too well last Saturday, but then Freya and Natasha came down with some sort of stomach but. Freya moaned and whinged but wasn't sick, Natasha ran around like the loony she is, seemed fine, went to bed, sicked up all over herself and the bed and then went back to sleep. No noise...nothing. Infact, when I saw what had happened and raised her from her slumber to strip off the jammies and bedding, I was met with the most evil look as if to say, 'Bloody hell mum i just want to sleep!'.

I've been working hard on my Bad Girls entry, although i'm getting more and more scared to upload after looking at what's been submitted so far over there. I think i've definately come to the end of the road on it and can't see me making the last class but hey, it's been a great ride. I'm going to finish it all and assemble it tonight whilst I watch the England match.

Thursday morning was Emily's Harvest Festival Service. We shuffled off to church to watch her perform 'Jingle Jangle Scarecrow' and you could see how chuffed she was to see us there watching her. Unfortunately, wherever we sat there were bloody great big columns obstructing our view so I couldn't get any photos of her. Then it was off to town to prepare for the upcoming rush of birthdays. I spied a bike for Emilys next month, and picked up a scooter and a skateboard / scooter to put away for Xmas too. The main thing I had to get was Natashas birthday present which is in two weeks time. She's been trying to get on Emily's bike which is much too big for her, so she now has a Dora the Explorer bike, hiding in her sisters room until the big day. It's such a shame that Pete will miss her birthday.

Hers is just before Halloween which we make a big fuss of in the house. Well, me and the kids do anyway, this will be the third on the trot that Pete has missed. We have more Halloween decorations than Xmas ones I think! I couldn't resist picking this tealight holder up Waitrose last night. It's gorgeous, in a spooky kind of way! We're having a little Halloween bash the following day but this year at my sisters in her new house. I'll still end up decorating the house though!

Thursday evening (not Tuesday as i thought!), Emily had a friends birthday party to attend. She rushed home from School to get changed and pick up her present (thanks Sarah, the Ben 10 thing I bought went down a treat) and write out her card. As we got to the car to set off, I grabbed my camera. My girls rarely look like little girls, more like scruffy, filth covered monsters.....so I just had to capture a few pics of Emily looking almost angelic....to top it all off, she actually stared right at the camera....a rarity to be honest.

I finally got to pay a visit to Totally Crafty in Plymouth. BAD IDEA! We used to have a craft shop in Saltash but it closed many moons ago, not that it was a scrappers delight anyway. I have always bought my supplies online but having been a good girl and bought nothing but my kits really for the past 12 months, I thought I could trust myself to have a beakers inside. It's much bigger than I thought it would be and I've got to say it was nice to look around. I bought a few titbits but then spied some papers which caught my eye. Now i'm in no ways a papermania girl but I've got to say that these Xmas bits really caught my eye. The papers aren't the thickest in the world, but i'm a sucker for hot pinks teamed with browns and green. They should make me some great cards. I loved that they did some transparency sheets aswell, so I'm going to be getting my Xmas cards done before the month is out.

Well, I was going to do the HSMS prompt today which would have been self portrait day, however, the new site is now up and running as HSMSHS (yup confusing!) and for a change it is pet portraits and although our bunny Toffee, is currently running around in the run in the garden, I'm up to my eyes in it to be honest as I've only got half an hour til i have to take Freya to stagecoach so will have to add that in later!

It's such a gorgeous day here today. The sun is baking hot so the heating has been turned off and all the doors and windows reopened. We started the day with some scrummy pancakes and fruit, smoothered in maple syrup. I do love a nice pancake stack, unfortunately my ass doesn't! I still have a ton of batter mix left over so I guess it'll be the same tomorrow morning. Driving over Tamar Bridge just now, all the yachts are out and loads are moored up for pub lunches. If it stays like this tomorrow, I think that's what we'll be doing. Nothing like sitting by the sea with a steak and ale pie, a half of cider and watching the boats go up and down the Tamar.

BLOODY HELL!

2008-10-06T18:56:00.004+01:00

Honestly that's all I could think when I checked out the Honour List for the Bad Girls Top Designer. I thought I was really fortunate to get through last week but thought I was definately a gonner this week. I know people who do these things often say, 'Wow I didn't think I'd get through' when they really have an inkling, but I can honestly say, that to get through to the last 50 is a big big shock. I've mentioned before that I think most of the entrants on there (and this is most certainly true now) are on Design Teams or teach and things. And then theres little ol' me. No DT, never been published and here I am on Class Five!

It's certainly been a confidence boost, especially after I've only recently been scrapping again. So knowing the next cut will be about half again, I've pulled my finger out my arse and started this weeks class. This week class is presented by Heidi Sonboul and is concerned with Colour Psychology. Very interesting and develops a little further from the brieft mention about colour in the first class. I've chosen my photo, papers and some of my embellishments and now i'm covered in paint and am tinkering with all the elements getting the balance and stuff the way I want it.

So today I've been busy scrapping, tomorrow it's more the same and then I've got to take Emily to a birthday party after school. It's a friend of hers birthday..... a boy......what do you buy for boys cos I have absolutely NO idea! I'm useless with the male species, even my nephew tends to get money of gift vouchers! This week luckily is a little quieter than last week, or at least it hopes to be. Oh and I haven't quite given up the smoking yet, that's going to be as soon as I've organised my gym induction.....any bloody excuse eh?

Going Straight

2008-10-05T17:22:00.004+01:00

I'm still not quite ready for my close up (Mr Demille) but last night I showed off a radical new hair style. I didn't go to the hairdressers on Friday after all as I really needed to catch up on some sleep but that's been rebooked for this Friday instead. No, instead, I wrestled for the first time with hair straightners. My fringe just would not do anything but stick straight up in the air in a weird 'There's Something About Mary' moment and I remembered that I'd bought a pair of hair straightners a couple years ago that were hidden around the house somewhere so i'd use them. Then i decided to try my hair straight.

I have had straight hair before but always when it's been really short, something I only used to do when I hadn't been to the hairdressers in a while and had 16 inch long hair but with 10inches of split ends. So i'd walk in and just say, 'cut the lot off' and deal with having straight hair for a couple months before going wild and curly again. Well last night it was long AND straight and everyone seemed to like it. So now I'm having a dilema as to whether or not I should stick with it for a while (although I doubt I'll be doing an hour of straightening every day so I'll stick with the hat most days) or to have a new perm.....decisions, decisions.....especially as Pete really likes me with curly hair, but then he's never seen it straight and long.....bloody hell I sound like such a GIRL!!!!!

So I've uploaded my Bad Girls entry for Class Four. This was a major rush job. I'd dug out the papers and embellies that I was going to use on Friday but not had a chance to work on it since then. I'd printed out my photos too. However, Friday night was party night next door and then I was out on the beer (with my new straight hair) last night and as I had a wonderful lie in this morning at my mums, I didn't get home til gone 1 with nothing done on it! Panic stations! Well, I'd bought the girls back some of those dummy lollies with the silly mouths on and took some photos of them. So at the last minute I decided to print some of these off as the colours seemed to work well with the papers. It was gone 2ish by the time I actually started, so I was really pleased that I managed to finish it, be happy with it, photo it and get it uploaded with an hour to spare before deadline. I really must try to start it earlier though!

The top paper is from Autumn Leaves as are the buttons. The pale pink paper used for the embellishment on the right was of the photo block (the little circular one) is Fancy Pants I believe, however, these were just some paper scraps I had laying around so don't quote me on that. A bit of Doodlebug bling, some junkitz letter stickers backed with more Autumn Leaves paper and some hand journalling. Oh and the big layered flower on the left is a Prima Flower from one of the last few Bad Girls kits. I love these and I just added a button on top and a bit of bling on top of that.

Do you think I added enough butons??????!!!!!! Just thought after last weeks uncluttered and simple layout I could go a little mental! Well the girls are all in the shit at the moment through not doing as they're told and wrecking the front room. The last straw came when i found writing on the wall and the guilty party was obviously passing the buck.......lets face it Emily, Freya is too old to be writing on the wall and Natasha can't co-ordinate felt tip kisses! So banishing the girls upstairs gave me the opportunity to get on with the layout and also calm myself down as it's the first major blow up I've had for a couple weeks. If I just keep looking at the photos of them then I'll just think nice thoughts right?

Well that's the plan anyway! I had a great night last night even though it didn't quite go to plan. After cancelling my night out last week, I was expecting it just to be me and Roz out for a boogie. However, just before we left, Liam called to say he'd be there so I was expecting an uncrowded threesome. Then some of the other guys I used to work with turned up. And then I met up with two ex school chums, one of whom was my first crush at Primary School! I must admit, I'm a right one for reminiscing of the past, ex teachers, pupils, jolly and not so jolly scrapes that I used to find myself in! I also bumped into another two old friends both out with seperate parties of friends. On the down side, I felt ill from the moment I jumped into the cab to get there. Probably something I'd eaten, or rather hadn't as I haven't really been eating much apart from the odd bit of crap off the kids plates or rubbish snack food on the go. Think it finally caught up with me. So this weeks aim is to eat much better. I've promised myself not to buy any more ciggies after the last 23 I have in the house at the moment (which will onlyprobably last me through til tomorrow morning anyway if truth be told). With the savings on that I'm back at the gym next week.......and if I don't lose at least a stone before Xmas I need a good whacking!

Her Space My Space

2008-09-29T21:00:00.005+01:00

Well as I've neglected the photo side of things for a while, I decided to try to get back into doing the daily prompt on her space my space. The prompt today is 'Landmark'. Well, not able to go out shooting tonight so i've had to pull something from the archive.

This is the Statue of Atlas, outside the Rockerfella Centre in New York. I was really pleased how this photo came out, especially with a bog standard point and shoot and also because I really didn't have a clue at this stage how to use a camera at all! Another reminder of my honeymoon means I'll probably spend the night wallowing in self pity about Pete being away ....... only about a month to go though.

Absolutely thrilled to find I'm through to class 4 over on Bad Girls, especially seeing as it's down to about 90 girls now. This weeks class is concerned with creating unity, harmony, balance and texture through the use of embellishments. I think this is the hardest, or at least the most in depth class so far so it remains to be seen how I'll fair at this challenge, especially as i have a pretty hectic weekend coming up.

I was supposed to be going out for my birthday last weekend but that had to be postponed as I wasn't really up to it, but I'm going out this Saturday instead, plus I've just received an invite for my neighbours 50th on Friday so really I have to get cracking on this assignment tonight. If nothing else I'm going to get all the bits together that I want to use.

I've been toying with the idea of a new hair do for ages now. The grey is getting a little out of hand which is prompting me to consider going blonde again. I tried really dark brown but the grey is more obvious. I feel like a complete change and wondered about having a fringe for the first time in about 15 years! Unsure what it would look like I sat in front of the mirror last night, trying desperately to fold the approximately 14 inches of hair at the front of my head to get an idea as to whether or not it would suit me. Didn't work.....either i couldn't see because my hand was in the way or I was having to peer over the top of my glasses to get the angle right. Most sensible people would have probably put their contacts in and undergripped their hair to weigh up the pros and cons of a drastic new hairstyle.....oh no, not me.....grabbed a pair of craft scissors and just lopped off the front of my hair!

My confidence was dented this morning ever so slightly when Emily, in all her 4 year old innocence, came into the bathroom, looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face and said, 'What's wrong with your hair mum?'. Ummmmmmm. A fringe would hide my exceedingly crooked hairline, however, when you don't have a natural fringe fall, a double crown, and a cow's lick on one side of your hair.....it's going to need some taming. I guess that's why I've always stuck with curly and unruly.....Pete always says he likes my hair best when it looks like i've been dragged through a hedge backwards......says it's that post sex 'ruffled' look or something!?

So anyhow, I have booked a hair appointment for Friday lunch time. I know what will happen, it happens about every three years. I walk into a salon, they ask me 'what do you want done' and I just say, ' blank canvas, do what you want as long as it's not straight!'. I could be pink with a mullet this time on Saturday night.

A week is a looooong time!

2008-09-28T13:18:00.008+01:00

It's been one of those weeks where there seems to have been a whirlwind around me and yet I've remained pretty calm the whole time. Best laid plans fell by the wayside and still I managed not to throw a paddy about anything. The kids probably are loving the new calm mummy that they've found and all without the aid of any drugs! I don't even know how I'm managing it at the moment!

So before I tell you about my week, here is the next layout I've done for Bad Girls. I didn't do as planned and do it at the beginning of the week but started and finished it last night. This morning when i came down though I realised that where I had initially put the dymo tape which was leading off the middle of the journal paper and overlapping the photo slightly, just didn't work. Usually I'm not one for messing round with a layout, once it's done it's done. But I've noticed on the last two that in the cold light of day there are things that I would change and when viewed with a fresh pair of eyes (or rather foggy ones the morning after) you can see how something would work better.

So this morning I did what I never do and changed it. I'm pleased because the layout now seems to flow much better than it had done. I have scrapped this picture before, but the class for this was to make sure that the photo stood out and this is one of the better photos that I've taken. I used a Hambly transparency frame on the photo which looks lovely but is a right pig to try and photo. Get enough light to take the photo without the flash and you just get so much reflection that it makes it almost impossible to do. In the end I ended up taking it in a darker room and then had to adjust the light levels in PSE.

I've uploaded to the Bad Girls gallery but there are so many gorgeous layouts there this week that I doubt very much that I'll get through this next round. The best thing for me though is that I'm back scrapping and enjoying it. I can't wait for the next class to go live tomorrow as even if i don't get through, there is a seperate gallery for 'expelled pupils' so I can still play along and upload my layouts and I'll definately be doing that if I get kicked out the competition.

So anyway, to my week! Firstly some more photos from the park last sunday as I promised I would upload some more so my mother in law can see how big these grandaughters of hers are getting! I had mentioned the 'ghost' photo in my last post. Well this is what Freya was driving herself dizzy on last sunday.

The idea was to try a longer exposure to get her 'spinning' in the photo. The first attempt seemed to get her doing that but she's missing her head!

And as for my third attempt........heres the ghost of Freya!
I was a bit more successful getting Emily on the rocker though despite very noticeable camera shake on the background. Although I'm not as self concious carrying my DSLR around these days I'm not at the stage yet where I could quite happily carry around my tripod aswell!

I was aiming to get all scrappy on Tuesday night, however a phone call from best bud Liam put stop to that. He was 'popping round' for a quick coffee on his way back from seeing someone and ended up leaving at gone midnight. It was a nice catch up though, just yapping and watching tattoo shows! My new addiction is London Ink and Miami Ink. Some of the artwork these guys do is amazing, puts tattooing into a completely new perspective.

She can't NOT pull a face!

Wednesday was mine and Pete's birthday. After school we went to waitrose to pick up some nibbly goodies and a tiny little cake. My dad and stepmum came around and we ate and played for a bit. Once they'd gone we lit the cake and the girls took great delight on blowing out my ONE candle. Emily asked why I hadn't put 33 candles on there but after explaining that it would melt the cake she was happy that I hadn't! I then relit the candle and asked the girls to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Daddy. Again, they sang and blew out the candles. I said to Freya, 'right i'm just going upstairs for 10 minutes', came up and cried for the first time since the day he sailed. Generally, day to day, I get by. I do this by deliberately NOT thinking about him. Even when I talk about him to the kids, I don't attach any other emotion to him in my head, other than him being their dad. But little cry over and I'm back to 'get on with it'. One month gone, another to go.....

I can't remember what i did on Thursday (see, another year older and the senility is setting in already!) and Friday was pretty much a wasted day as I haven't been feeling too good, so took the opportunity of the girls being out to grab some shut eye.

Yesterday we popped round to see my sister for the first time since her moving day and she done so well to get the house looking more and more like a home. The biggest job for her is the garden which needs a LOT of work, especially as a load of trees needed to be cut down. At least the last couple of weekends she's had the chance to get out there whilst the weather has been so good.
So whilst the girls are out playing, I'm off to catch up on some housework and get ready for the week ahead. Enjoy what's left of the weekend and I'll catch up again soon. x

I made class 3!

2008-09-23T10:23:00.005+01:00

So chuffed to have got through to the next round at Bad Girls, about 40 people were cut out this time round so I know I'm lucky to have made it through especially when you have a look at what everyone has created in the gallery. There are quite a lot of entrants who are on DT's so the competition is very fierce and I think I'll probably get cut on the next round but I've learnt so many things about balancing pages in the first three classes that I'll be carrying on regardless.

Class three is by Sri Sams and is all about the use of white space and the less is more approach. More great tips about tying a layout together so do check the classes out if you haven't already, don't forget it doesn't cost a penny.

The girls all had a great time at the park on Sunday afternoon. I grabbed my camera and made the most of some nice natural sunlight which has been a bit of a rarity lately. Our local park has really undergone a miraculous make-over in the past 12 months. Before there was just a crappy slide and 2 swings and they were even so far away from each other...down one path, out one gate, around another! One thing about living in a fast growing town is that the kids facilities don't seem to keep up with the pace of development.

Finally though we do have a decent park with a football and basketball court to one side and a tennis court to the other. The park itself has some great little features and the girls really love it so I don't have to go for a seven mile drive now into Plymouth just for a few hours in the park.

I took a ton of photos so I'll share more tomorrow as I know family will want to see a few more but just didn't want to overload everything..........can't wait to show you my photo of a ghost whizzing around the park......(lets just say I overdid it a bit too much with an excessively long exposure!).

This bucket swing has to be the girls favourite though. Especially Natasha as at one stage she laid back and was on the verge of drifting off to sleep.......truly, when that girl is tired she can sleep just about anywhere. I managed to get a few pics of all the girls in the same spot. This doesn't happen very often as usually they are all chasing each other, running away from each other or just off doing other things. As for a posed 'together' shot, well you can see my problem.....can never get them to look in the right direction!

I love these little flowers which are dotted around there. You can speak into one at one end of the park and have a conversation with someone at the other end of the park, although trying to get the girls to synchonise when they talk and when they listen is another thing entirely. Oh, and don't ask me what's going on with the sky in this photo, I swear i haven't done anything to it, but the colour is really wierd......
So following on from the park we went to Burger King and stuffed ourselves with half a cow, literally in Freya's case. Not knowing quite how big an XL Bacon double cheeseburger was we ordered one each.....they were almost as big as our heads. Freya finished her meal, then ate about a quarter of my burger, finished off a few of my fries, Emilys fries and then Natashas drink. Bloody hell that girl can eat.

I didn't get round to scrapping last night, I'd bought the latest expansion pack for Sims 2 and once I'd installed it, the temptation was just too much. So tonight i'm going to work on my layout for class three and get it uploaded in plenty of time as it's going to be a busy week. It's my birthday tomorrow, which I share with Pete. I just wish I could say happy birthday to him, especially considering that it's his 40th. So to cheer myself up and make sure I don't mope around, I am off for a boozy night out on Saturday, my first in god knows how long and I'm really looking forward to it. Anyway, have a great day everyone and i'll be back tomorrow with some more photos and hopefully my layout.

Class Two - DONE!

2008-09-21T10:32:00.003+01:00

Managed not to have to run around this morning finishing off my layout for class 2 at Bad Girls. In fact, I was done by midnight and only had to do the photos this morning to upload and that's completed and over in the gallery. The principles of the class were concerned with mixing patterns and using colour from your photos as the basis.

It was pretty obvious that the colours to pick out would be pink and blue for Freya's dress and her eyes. The background of the photos were a sort of beige which i thought would also lend a little neutral to the quite dominant shades of pink and blue. The ledger paper I found also had a blue trim....BONUS!

So then it was onto picking out the papers and bloody hell was THAT hard work. Going through six pizza boxes of random papers was not my idea of fun initially. Especially as I kept getting sidetracked and thinking 'Oh, I forgot I had these' and 'Ah, I could use these on...'. I was lucky enough to find some scraps I could use too. Most of the stash is from previous Bad Girls kits although I think the little heart on a chain came from something the kids had, probably a Bratz doll or something!

I have promised myself that I will start the next class earlier though. Class Three goes live tomorrow at 6pm UK time, so the aim is to have a good housework tidy today and tomorrow daytime and then get busy with the class tomorrow night once the kids are in bed. After having an about an eight month break from scrapping I've realised that I've become a rather slow and dithery scrapper but like all things I guess with a little more practice I'll be up to speed again.

It's been a beautiful weekend down here in Cornwall. The sun has been shining and making everyone feel happy again. Today promises more of the same by the looks of it so i'm going to take the little ones down the park this afternoon to let off some steam. This time I'll take my camera and try and get some much needed new photos as I've sadly not only neglected scrapping but also the camera lately.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the weekend.

A mized bag

2008-09-20T19:11:00.003+01:00

It's been an up and down week. Mostly up to be honest but today i've been seething with Freya. Let's just say that I'm close to burning down her bedroom before condemning it. You would have thought that the girl had already hit 14. It's been a struggle with her for a while and after months of idle threats on my part, she has now been banned from everything. So today, instead of the planned Stagecoach and sleeping at her nans, she's had to stay in. She is also now having to sleep in with Natasha and Emily. If she can't look after her bloody bedroom then she won't have it! Cruel, maybe......but if you knew me then you'd know i'm not a hard or stern mother...but there comes a time when it's either that or just ignore her and as it is literally becomming a health hazard in there, I've plumped for the former.

With Emily at School now, the house has been so different. I've managed to catch up on a lot of stuff that generally gets neglected and feel so much more relaxed. I've also grabbed myself a couple of early nights which have helped. The football however is making me bloody miserable! Just hoping for a win tomorrow.

Well I made it through to the next round of the Bad Girls designer. However, it's no big whoop as the vast majority did! The new class was posted on Tuesday. This class by Emilie Ahern is all about mixing patterns. There is some more great hints in class about the best way to mix patterned papers. Again i've left things a little late and have only just started.....well, i've printed out my photos! So in a few minutes i'm going to start my layout. Better go get busy.

2008-09-14T13:42:00.004+01:00

Well I didn't get my butt into gear with this layout til last night and even then, after an hour and a half of staring, moving, readjusting, pulling everything out and putting everything away again.....I still hadn't gotten very far with it.

Well, it's my entry for the 1st class over at the Bad Girls Designer 2008 which has to be uploaded by 6pm today which meant in effect that I would need to get it completed this morning. Not the easiest thing to do on a Sunday when all the kids are running around like lunatics and I'm trying to wrestle prima bling out of the hands of my two year old. I did however, manage to refrain from stabbing them all with the vast array of sharp instruments immediately at my disposal; and as Gordon Ramsey would say.......DONE!

If you haven't gotten over to do the classes yet, registration has finished for the competition itself, but the classes are still live and free to all. If the next class (which goes up tomorrow) is anything like this one then I'm sure you'll enjoy it and learn something new. Class 1 was by Cari Fennell and was focused on layering.

It's certainly something that I've been doing more of lately, really inspired by the galleries over on the forum. Most of the stuff on the layouts has come from previous Bad Girls kits. I just love the chipboard tree on this.

Yesterday was spent trying to catch up on housework and the like. Although truthfully I didn't get very far. I did get a call from Pete though who was alongside for a few hours to fix a defect with the boat. With them now off again, it'll be another 8 weeks before I hear from him and sometimes it's easier that way.

Well, I'm off to pop some tablets for my stress induced migraine and sort some stash for tomorrows class. I may even have a play around after the girls go to bed tonight if I I've managed to at least clear the playroom out today.

It's starting to dawn on me......

2008-09-12T20:21:00.004+01:00

.....about Pete being away. Yesterday was a bit emotional. With the anniversary of 9/11, I watched a couple of documetaries and I remember that day so vividly and watched in horror the live news on BBCNews 24. For me, the scariest and most brutal images were of those people who jumped to their death......the thought scares me even now. Thinking of New York made me think of Pete and our Honeymoon.

Although Pete had been before 9/11 and visited the Twin Towers, I hadn't. We were there less than 18 months after and going to ground zero was still a very eery experience. I looked back over our honeymoon photos and then started missing Pete more. Thing is if i don't think about him, I can kind of block it out. Sounds a horrible way to deal with it but it works for me. I just act like a single mum and get on with it.

I had hoped for a phone call but it looks like that won't be happening now. So by the time I speak to him, nine weeks will have passed and he should be about to fly back to the UK.

So tonight i'm gonna hit the scrapping as I'm trying to get a layout done for the first design class over at Bad Girls and I haven't made a start yet. On the up side, this is one that I finished on Monday although i'm not greatly happy with it. Oh well, maybe I'll have more luck tonight!

An almost empty house......

2008-09-10T14:29:00.007+01:00

By 9am I was in my living room, staring at Natasha and trying to make head or tail of the quietness........ok, so it didn't last long as Tash can very easily make the noise of at least four or five toddlers, but just for a moment.......

Em couldn't wait to get into her uniform this morning and stick her oar in when I was making her first ever packed lunch. I'd let her pick out her own lunch box and she had to pick the only 'tin' one there didn't she. Yup looks lovely and far nicer than a plastic one but you just know that it will be dented with all the paint scratched off by half term, if not before. Ham sandwich, yogurt, a bowl of strawberries and a rice cake.....exactly the same as Freya apart from sliced peppers which Emily hates. So she was wearnig a uniform and having a lunch just like her big sister and you could tell she was happy about it.

There were lots of 'come on mum's' on the walk to school. She went into the classroom, found her peg, handed in her book bag, put her lunch away and then went and sat in front of teacher on the floor as if she'd done it before. I did have a wee smile on my face as I left. No tears from either her or myself. I guess you could say that both of us were really needed this day. I think Emily has needed school for a while now and I need a little more peace!

By the time we picked her up, her shoes were scuffed, trousers under the back of her shoes and worn, crutch of trousers covered in yogurt and a nice big unidentifiable stain on her jumper! So the uniform is in the wash after day one. Now I'm thinking how stupid of me to only have bought one sweatshirt.

It seems I may get a call from Pete in the next couple of days....unexpected to say the least, but most welcome. It's been 10 days since he went and luckily I'm still quite chipper. Throwing myself into other things anyway. I'm going to settle down now to watch the England match and play with some papers for the first Bad Girls design class. The first one is on layering and it's something that I've tried to do a lot more of recently so I'm attacking this one with gusto.

Will leave with one photo of Natasha that I took today before it gets a little 'Emily heavy!'.

Feeling Good!

2008-09-09T15:23:00.002+01:00

Oh yeah so Freya went back to school on Monday and Emily starts tomorrow. I had a great weekend, even though the house was overrun with over excited kids! Everyone had a great time and on Sunday, the sun even made an appearance which meant the kids all got kicked outside to let off all that pent up energy. I feel so much more relaxed and chilled than I have for ages and that's with Pete away. So I thought i'd share my current fave video with everyone. I came across this late one night on MTV and fell in love with the video. Maybe I'm getting prudish in my old age but I get hacked off with all the videos these days which seem to have some unwritten rule about having scantily clad women in the video.....it seems almost soft core porn sometimes....(Jealous? Of course I am!). So I was wetting myself with this video......go the whole hog and strip off! I've always loved a bit of Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) and his new project delivers another fab video.

I've just signed up for the first class over at Bad Girls. Lucky really cos I didn't realise that I had to sign in for each class and would have missed it if it hadn't been for a shove in the right direction (cheers Tracie!). So tonight after whisking the girls into bed for an early night, that's what I'm working on.

A hard day's night.....

2008-09-05T09:49:00.009+01:00

After less than a week I've hit the 'brick wall'. It's the place I get to after Pete has been away a while, lack of sleep and over enthusiastic behaviour of the girls. It normally takes a couple of weeks to get to this point, however, with the girls home from school and the weather swinging from one extreme to another......well, lets just say that Pete is probably not experiencing cabin fever as high as this. I'm pretty shattered, the house is even messier than usual and I'm thinking....'I really can't be arsed!'.

The young ones are at nursery today so I'm going to try and get the house back in some sort of order, just to have it wrecked tomorrow when I find myself surrounded by five hyperactive kids to deal with until Sunday lunch time. Yup the niece and nephew are staying over as my little sisters birthday and she's going out with her fella. I'm trying to get her to bite about the fact that she's just hit 30 but she doesn't seem to be that bothered. For me, it was a huge thing. It's not that I got really down about ageing or anything, but I think i hit an early mid life crisis. It was, for me at least, a time to take stock and get to grips with things. I'm still a way off being 'there' but it's slowly happening and at least I've put things into perspective a lot more now. So thinking about my sisters birthday I decided to finish do something that's been sat on the back burner for some time now.

The project was a very personal album. The class was from Maria Grace Abuzman. I hadn't actually heard of her before she taught a class at last years Scrapcamp. She is (or at least was) one of the garden peas girls at 2peas and her classes were certainly different than anything else I'd done before. This was a journal class using the bind it all but unfortunately I didn't get time to do anything other than some painting and inking at the time so it's been sat in a plastic baggie in the cupboard. Well, Wednesday night I was up til 4am finishing it (and haven't caught up with any sleep since!).

The concept of the class was to make a very honest journal about how you felt on certain aspects of your life at that moment using prompt words all starting with 're-' such as re-member etc.......as it's a snapshot I was kind of glad that I hadn't started any of the journalling so I could make it relevant to now. The covers were painted with acrylic and decorated with fontworks stickers, rub ons and some papers which I'm not sure of, in fact I don't know much about the supplies apart from some jenni bowlin rub ons, scenic route chipboard sentiments and lots of heidi swapp masks and ranger spray inks.

I love the concept and the album was very different from anything I've done in the past. I'm not someone who uses mixed media a lot so all this inking and painting was a bit baffling for me but I'm really happy with the results. I've never spent so much time thinking about the journalling. I mean I've religiously kept a diary since I was about 11 and it's always been very frank and honest...but to document on prompts was very different for me. It's given me the push I think I need to finally start work on my BOM though.

The prompts (spurred on by a few glasses of wine) certainly had me thinking. I suppose I'm in a place right now where I'm still looking for some answers, but I've stopped questionning every bloody thing that goes on and just accept things more without looking for hidden meanings and agendas. I am less tolerant of people though. If they piss me off, I'm not as afraid as I used to be to let go or at least let them know about it. Believe me, if I had learnt that a lot sooner than I have my life would have been very very different.
The regret section was a hard one to do. I don't feel like I can truly regret things, as to regret something would mean that you hadn't learnt from it. There are things I wish I had done differently or at least had the courage to go through with, however if I had done then, what I would do now then maybe I wouldn't be the person I am today.......I could be even worse! LOL

I really do have to get some more family photos done though......think a trip to the woods is in order, try out taking pics of the girls together for the first time in ages now that they tend to be a unit a lot more often than when Freya was off to her dads every weekend.

One thing I'm still not particulary fond of though is the butterfly.....just dunno about that bit!

I enjoyed using different sized pages, different types of papers including the transparencies, library cards and ledger paper. It just made the album more interesting. I really didn't think I'd enjoy the end product, but before i managed to massacre the covers at the end, I really liked it when I finished.
I did however, manage to completely balls up the bind it all. By the time I'd completed the covers, they were really thick to try and get in the bloody machine. I just about managed it only to find that the bind was crap and then i ballsed up the wires aswell. Think i may need a bit more practice with it! (By the way I have no idea why this is underlined and can't work out how to change that either.....I'm not great at this blogging lark am I?)

I do have another layout on the go at the moment which I'm hoping to finish tonight and then two books aswell. I want to make up most of the book for Emilys first term at school. Freya goes back on Monday and Emily starts on Wednesday. That just leaves Natasha who attends a nursery for one full day and one half day a week although that will be bumped up after xmas when she starts to get a funded place.......I may even be able to do a little housework then!

Emily went into town with my mum on Wednesday to get her nice new school shoes which she is forbade from wearing.....she wants to wear her uniform every day. She also got a nice new pair of pink boots which she picked out herself.....will have to take some photos of them before she wrecks them. The two little ones also have new coats each. I'm not usually into getting them the same clothes but my dad picked out such a nice coat for Emily that I had to have the same one for Natasha. However, she just will not part with a pink jacket that her cousin gave her........wait til it really is pissing down with rain and see if she swaps then.......on reflection, she probably won't do it then either.

PM post!

2008-09-02T14:25:00.005+01:00

The ceiling has fortunately dried out although the bathroom carpet is still damp. All the windows are open and fortunately it's a lovely day (although we had the meanest downpour which lasted all of five minutes and then buggared off again).

But the joy was short lived after the garage called about the MOT. It's gonna be a couple hundred which we can ill afford at the moment after the nightmare of the corsa....(long story that i REALLY don't want to go into or I may lose the plot completely.) Upside though is that the car should be ready for tomorrow so I can get Emily's school shoes which will then see everything bought and ready for tagging over the weekend.

So I said I was scrapping last night, well I finished this layout which I'm not entirely happy with but if I stare at it anymore I'm likely just to scribble all over it so I'm just going to put it in the album. I can't believe how much Rob has changed in the last six years.....pretty scary that he's now onto doing his GCSE's! The papers are various scraps that i'm using up like a good girl.....Prima paper for the background and the Love Elsie Journalling card were from a Bad Girls kit as was the lace ribbon. The other patterned papers are all Scenic Route. I used the rest of the scraps on the following project.

This Lippy Chick book has been sat in my cupboard for over a year, infact, I have another two in there and I'm going to start another tonight. This one I've done for me and Pete. We've had a pretty hard time the past couple of years and I won't share all that I've done as it's deeply personal but the general gist is that love and marriage is hard bloody work and especially so when you see each other less 4 months a year. But you have to work hard and remember what brought you together in the first place.

Inside the flaps are mostly journalling because there aren't that many photos of us together. I'm starting to get to grips with being in photos now but it's always me behind the camera, really must get some shots of the two of us.....just to prove we do spend SOME time together.

Right off to kick the kids out to play before they glue themselves to the Wii, do a little housework (only a little though) and get my bits and bobs ready for a night of scrapping.

And it's all gone wrong again!

2008-09-02T09:24:00.002+01:00

Well I should have taken it as a sign, on the day Pete was supposed to have sailed and didn't last Thursday, the toilet backed up. The toilet didn't back up this morning, but we have a bathroom flood as natasha turned on the tap and left it running in the sink. The water is now dripping through the ceiling in the kitchen and I'm taking a break from the clean up operation to take a deep breath. This is the second time it's happened in the space of about two years. Luckily this time it doesn't look as bad and at least the ceiling (which all had to be redone after the last time) isn't bulging plaster this time so I've opened all the windows and doors, mopped up all that I can and now I just have to keep my fingers crossed. Doesn't help that we have a carpeted bathroom floor.

One saving grace is that last time this happened I'd be up scrapping til the wee hours and had left all my stuff on the dining table, directly under where all the water came through and lost a lot of stuff that I then stupidly forgot to claim for on the insurance. Although I was up last night, after learning from the last time I now clear the table at nights and the only thing I leave out is my whopping great craft mat. And now I have to drop the Bongo in for it's MOT, so the day could possibly get worse yet........watch this space!

Zippedee do dah

2008-08-30T16:27:00.004+01:00

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....

2008-08-27T11:23:00.004+01:00

...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.....

2008-08-26T18:41:00.006+01:00

....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........

2008-08-23T15:27:00.007+01:00

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...

2008-08-20T19:13:00.003+01:00

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!

2008-08-18T19:42:00.004+01:00

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!

2008-08-15T21:28:00.004+01:00

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?

2008-08-15T17:32:00.004+01:00

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!

A rather tipsy weekend!

2008-07-21T10:50:00.004+01:00

OK, so it's been a while....I'm going to promise to check in at least once a week whilst I try to get my life back on track after the craziness of life and where it's taken me over the past year!

Coming back home on the Friday and trying to recover from the week at Newquay, the following weekend passed in a bit of a blur!

Freya had her first performance for Stagecoach on Saturday afternoon and she really did herself proud. It was great to watch and we were all so proud of her. The musical was called EVA Kids and was written by one of the teachers and centred around a group of kids from London who were sent to live with families in the country during WWII. Some great songs and performances. I can't wait to see the video of it which apparently comes out in September.

Being her first performance I was stoked that she was given a speaking part. Her report for her first term was glowing too. She was apparently a 'delight' to teach and have in class, was totally focused.....if only she was as focused on tidying her room eh? Her best report was for her singing though for which she got all 'excellents'. Of course as a mum your always going to be biased and think the sun shines out of your kids whatsits but it's nice to hear how well she's doing. I wish i could carry on sending her but after next term i'm going to have to look for an alternative as the cost involved is hideous, especially seeing as her dad has now dropped his child maintainance contributions to a pitiful amount. I've been looking into a few other places for her to go and she's on the waiting list with one which is only up the road so fingers crossed she may get a place there next year.

It was HMS Torbays Ladies Night on the day after we got back from Newquay. With such a manic few weeks I'd not managed to get a new dress for the occasion. I really didn't want to wear the one I had as I've worn it to the last two functions for the same boat so in desperation I looked down the local town centre......believe me when I say Saltash is not a hubbub of activity! Theres a shop I always take the mick out of for looking like an old granny shop but as it was a full gown I had to buy I thought i may just brave the musty smell and have a quick look. To be honest i was really surprised and managed to find myself a lovely dress with 20% off. The fact that it was red was a little scary as both hubs and myself both hate Liverpool and Arsn*l respectively and although wearing a red top or having a few red accesories for me is fine, the thought of wearing ALL red (or ever driving a red car for that matter) goes against my principles. So principles were put aside for the evening!

Well, after attending several of these mess functions, i've got to say that the night was one of the best organised I'd seen. Not least for the amount of little pressies us poor wives got. Not only did we get the obligatory little box of thorntons, but we also got a cute little teddy with a rose and a gorgeous keep sake tin with our names and the event details printed on the back. Certainly beats the crystal clock from the last one. The centrepieces on the table were divine and I managed to swipe one of those for the kitchen table LOL!

The evening was held at Borringdon Hall which for anyone that's ever been there will know it has tons of character. As with any Mess Dinner, it was quite a formal affair until the speeches when everyone has had a mountain of port and it becomes exactly what it truly is.......a mass of drunken matelots behaving how a mass of drunken matelots ALWAYS behave....much banter, much dad dancing, many passed out sailors slumped on chairs....although unusually there was little nakedness as often happens at these kinds of do's.

We also won on the raffle again. The first mess dinner for Torbay we won half a dozen bottles of wine, 3 bottles of spirit, a vase, something else and the top prize of £200 cash. The second we won £100 Dixons vouchers and last night we won an iPod! Well as this house is MP3'd up to the eyeballs I've given the new one to Freya to replace hers and she's chuffed to bits.

Since then we've had a couple of weeks to sort things in the house....screw this, mend that etc before Pete went back to work. He sails again at the end of the month though so no time as such to get his feet under the table.

Still not done any scrapping which is shameful to say as I've had some of the most gorgeous Bad Girls kits come through. So tonight, as Pete is duty, I'm playing with paper and deciding what photos to print out so that i can start with gusto on Monday when he's duty next. Poor sod has to help my sister move tomorrow so i'll probably be nursing his legs tomorrow.

2008-07-18T19:35:00.007+01:00

They say you should try to learn something every day....well having just spent the last five days in Newquay, here are five things i've learnt.....

1. Don't believe the weather forecasts - If they say overcast, expect to come back with sunburnt legs.

2. If you don't rub your suntan lotion in properly, expect not only burnt legs...but BLOTCHY burnt legs which looks even more ridiculous.

3. If you burn said legs, do make sure that when you rub in your after sun......it is actually aftersun and not fake tan, which if applied in same manner as point 2, will make your legs look even more ridiculous, very like pork and chilli sausages.

4. Never start potty training just before a holiday........going to the toilet every seven minutes isn't the ideal way to spend a holiday, especially when the toilet is a five minute walk from the beach.

5. Get over this stupid complex about having your photo taken and you may not come home with 150 photos of which you are in the grand total of 0!

So there you go, lessons learnt for the week. Having said that the girls seemed to have a great time. It was only one of those Sun Holidays for £15 a head so i wasn't expecting much, especially as we didn't get into any of the parks we requested but we went to Trevelgue by Porth beach and I must say I was very impressed. There wasn't a huge amount to do during the day, just a little kids club from 10-12 and a large indoor swimming pool but that was more than enough coupled with the beach. The staff that laid on the evening entertainment were really friendly and engaging with everyone and if there's one thing that all the girls love doing, it's dancing and there was plenty of that.

Last night, Emily and Freya both had their faces painted....they are still a funny colour now.....much like my poor legs.

The beach there wasn't the greatest in Newquay as it was really thin and long which meant that if you wanted to get near the water there was a good ten minute hike, plus as the tide seemed to come in really quickly it did mean having a panic stations moment and hoiking it all up to the top again.

We did bury pete and made a fool out of him with crocs as ears and a bucket hat, we then put bread all around him hoping that the seagulls would come and have a peck whilst he was incapacitated but they didn't seem that interested to be honest.

Natasha had a good paddle and run around with her fishing net but then it all got too tiring after the late nights and she fell asleep for two hours! She wouldn't even be roused for ice cream.

So I got to dust down the camera, which i've really neglected lately. Infact, i've neglected most things lately.....wallowing in self pity i suppose, something that i've got to snap out of. Pete's home, although not for long (is he EVER???) so that helps relieve a bit of the pressure. We're going to a mess dinner tomorrow night. It's being held at Borringdon Hall which is where we had our first official date as a couple so i'm hoping it may stimulate a few fond memories and rekindle a little magic. At least having to wear a floor length gown means that I won't have to flash around my burnt sausage legs.

But the diary for next week looks good. Petes home on leave for another week, the girls aren't at nursery til Friday when Freya breaks up and leaves to go and spend three weeks with her dad in France (who may be able to knock a bit of pre teen attitude out of her whilst she's there). So i'm going to scrap to my hearts content next week. I've done a load of jobs recently so I've not really had the time, or to be honest the inclination but now armed with some new photos I'm going to get at least two layouts done next week, maybe even dust off the bind it all and do a book of Trevelgue. Hope everyone else is enjoying our crappy summer weather!

2008-06-15T17:07:00.003+01:00

Yup it's been a few weeks now since Pete went and i've been keeping myself busy with a few things. I'm lucky in that this time i've got a lot more friends around to relieve the boredom and drag me out of my cocoom which invariably i usually fall into when hes not around....it's like a type of hibernation, doing all that i need to sustain myself and usually put my life on hold but this time I've got far more to keep me amused. Shameful thing is that I haven't done much in the way of scrapping and once i've managed to clear all the washing off the breakfast bar in the kitchen i'm ready to go!

Loved the Indianna Jones movie, he is creaking a bit when he runs now but when that hat is on his head he does still kind of have it. Something about the rough and ready look, never was really into conventionally 'sexy' men.......with of course the exception being Johnny Depp.....

The kids seem to be going from one extreme to the other, one day they're absolute ratbags and yet today, for instance, they have been the joy of my life. No tears, tantrums or rumblings...however it's not quite bedtime yet so there is still the chance of a nuclear explosion around 7ish. So fathers day today, bit of a strange one, what with Pete away, Freya's dad in France and my own dad in the states til the end of this week I've saved a fortune on cards! Will leave you with a little cake that Emily made for her dad, just a pity he isn't here to eat it. X

2008-05-26T19:27:00.003+01:00

So it's only been three days since Pete left and i've spent the last six months only seeing him at weekends anyway so this is nothing unusual. Does feel a bi strange though, I guess it's the KNOWING that he's away until mid July that gets me. I know things will ease off next week once a routine kicks in again (as much as anything in this house is routine) but over a bank holiday and half term where it's peeing down with rain and the kids aren't exactly on their best behaviour it's a bit of a hair tearer......and is it gospel that it will piss down on bank holidays.....just wondering?

So at least with pete out the picture I can scrap to my hearts content. I've done three layouts so far since Friday and completed a minibook for Freya to record her deepest darkest secrets (which at 10 years old is usually.....'mums on my case again cos my room is messy!'. I just thought that with the pyschotherapist sessions about to end, she may like a little book to record her feelings in so we can discuss them afterwards. I think she's going to miss the sessions. She's come to terms with all the stuff about her dad moving abroad but she still has so many questions that I can't answer for her.

Things always start going wrong when Pete is away, day one the toilet started to overflow....only ever does it when he's not here and I've flooded the bathroom twice because of that thing.....once even going through the ceiling. I'm a dab hand with the plunger now though so fingers crossed it won't rear it's ugly head again.

Then tonight the worst of all....ugly hairy massive black spider in the living room. Well as i won't go within 10 feet of one and it was crawling up the curtains, I decided that the only way to tackle it was to stand from afar and spray whatever household aerosols I had at it. One tin of Glade Vanilla and half an aerosol of spray starch later, the bloody thing was still crawling and when it moved and i jumped i couldn't find the damned thing. Now I don't know if it's alive or dead so i'm trying to get drunk enough to re-enter the living room in the vain hope that if I then do see it or it jumps at me with it's blood sucking fangs, I just won't care!

Still not got to mass. Was going to go this weekend but as Pete has disappeared that's out of the question. Going to see if someone will look after the little squibs for me next Sunday instead. I really have to go and Pete even offered to go again once he came back. I don't want to take the kids until I feel comfortable going again and that may take a few months yet.

So seeing as Freya is doing an Indiana Jones night in prep for going to see the new film on Friday...(can't wait....he may be ancient but Dr Jones can enter my temple of Doom anytime!) the ickles are watching Spongebob Movie and that leaves me free to do a little scrapping. XXX

Very sad today.

2008-05-23T10:11:00.002+01:00

With Pete supposedly rejoining the submarine in 3 weeks time, I was really looking forward to half term next week as he was having a weeks leave. Then he got a call yesterday whilst working in dockyard to say, 'go home and get your stuff ready because you're either sailing tonight or tomorrow'. Wow, what a bombshell that was. I really hate how they can do this with no warning whatsoever. It didn't give us anytime to say proper goodbyes, to prepapre the kids for daddy going away. He didn't even get to see his son Robert. Totally pissed off with being a Naval wife at the moment. Don't even know for sure if they've sailed so just waiting to see what happens tonight. So what follows is two months of scrapping to get my head around it all!

Hate to sound like a killjoy but.....

2008-05-08T17:52:00.002+01:00

...can we have some thunder and lightening please? I am sweltering at the moment and it must surely be too early for the 'change'! I love the weather to be hot when i'm out, but when i'm stuck in with a thousand and one things to do this house is unbearable! Even with a fan in every main room and an air con unit in the playroom I feel like i'm melting!

Been a busy week sorting the house out. As it turns out, Pete won't be back at sea til early next month, away for six weeks, home for about four and then away for three months. So other than a couple nights back in Gosport he'll be home evenings for the next few weeks which will make a nice change. I can't even remember the last time that happened!

I have had a lot of work on the last week and tomorrow have four jobs, another on Saturday and another on Sunday so I'm hoping to get some relief by doing some scrapping this weekend. Of course if the weather stays like this I may just have to get my lard arse into a pair of shorts and brave the beach with the kids instead!

Yippee!

2008-05-02T10:56:00.003+01:00

Last month I won a prize draw that i'd entered. I got some cute fluffy toys in the shape (believe it or not) of certain bacteria. Sounds odd but they were so cool, you can see a full list of the ones they do here. Well this morning, I had another package out of the blue and it seems like I've won another draw.....and these are even cooler. It's a set from Relax Kids and I won a full meditation CD, a box of 52 'Mood Cards' and personality reward stickers. They are fantastic and couldn't have come at a better time!

I'm having a few issues with all the girls at the moment. Freya is obviously having a tough time with her dad moving away and is still having problems getting to sleep, plus the pre hormones are kicking in and making her a bit of a moody cow at times! Emily is starting to whinge and moan at the slightest thing and has become really clingy of her dad, possibly because she knows he's about to go to sea again. It's not only causing her to be a bit aggressive towards Natasha whilst fighting for attention, but she's also not doing as she's told which drives me up the wall! This is then having a knock on effect on Tash as she just copies everything her big sister does and if she's told 'No'.........well what does a two year old do but of course have a tantrum. So there is very little harmony in the house at the moment and the last three weeks have been a nightmare. I think a little meditation may go a long way. Thing is, I know that when they play up, I get stressed, when i get stressed, they get worse ...... so unless I take a deep breath and calm down, they won't either. So I think all the girls (including Mummy) may be in for a little meditation and relaxation session this weekend.

The cards are great. The idea is you take out one at the start of each day and think about it for a minute. What the card means, what it's asking you to do.....and then during the day if you feel upset or angry, you think back to your card. So today's card (which will only apply to me today as there's noone else here til 3.30!) is this one!

And that can only mean one thing........SCRAPPING!

The Sun is shining!

2008-05-01T11:19:00.004+01:00

But i've still put the heating on. It's a glorious day out there but where is the heat, can we at least turn it up a little please? Still absolutely knackered and I'm thinking of having a sleep after the girls go to nursery tomorrow for a catch up, just depends on how much housework I get done today I suppose.

Was a busy day yesterday though scrapping wise. I didn't have time over the weekend to take part in the Cyber Crop over at UKS so I printed the classes off on Sunday night and began sifting through them to see what grabbed my fancy. I really wanted to do Cleo's class because I enjoyed doing her classes at Scrap Camp last year. Mine is a little different, partly due to a cock up on my part and partly because after struggling with the instructions for the mini book I was rapidly losing the will to live. No idea why but I have this inbuilt inability to follow folding instructions from a piece of paper. Can't get my head around it at all. Visualisation isn't my strong point as my scores on Wii Brain Academy testify!

Having done Cleo's classes before, the technique of 'cheeseholing' is nothing new to me.......great phrase that isn't it...cheeseholing, still makes me giggle now. I used some Piggy Tales papers which I think were the Ba Ba Black Sheep range. These are great papers and of course the super dooper talented Tracie is on their DT too which makes me think they're even more super!

The second class I did was Gerties . I can't say that I'm familiar with her work but I did enjoy this class and after looking out her rather funky looking blog (I just can't resist anything that has a photo of Frank Gallagher on it) I'm definately going to make myself more familiar with the rest of her work as it looks really good. For my interpretation I used 7 Gypsies papers which have been gathering dust forever. I had a really good clear out last night and can't believe the stuff I have and have had ever since I started crafting 18 months ago.

So i'm hoping to do a little more scrapping this afternoon. Depends if the kids will let me.

What is it....

2008-04-29T18:24:00.003+01:00

...with the weather. This morning it was peeing down and this evening it's glorious! I take the kids to nursery in summer dresses only for them to come home in winter coat and furry hat! The weekend felt like it didn't exist. Pete wasn't well, I was tired and the house was full of exciteable kids and therefore me and Pete seemed to pass each other like ships in the night. Not fun when you only have a couple weeks left to spend together. So off he went back to Gosport on Sunday night and to be honest it didn't feel as though he'd been home. Luckily this is last week of course and although we don't really know whats happening next as to when he rejoins the boat, as far as we know that's him off work now until the 13th and 14th May.

I have done a little more scrapping but really have to get to bed early tonight as it was 4am and 3am respectively that I went to bed the last two nights and that ISN'T healthy. I did manage this layout. It's pretty simple really but I love the way the photo pops off the black cardstock. Plus I really love this photo of Freya. Sorry about the flashlight getting in on the action but the light at the back of the house isn't too great. I've been working on some unfinished projects too which I hope to share over the coming week.

We did have an unexpected visitor this evening. One of the neighbours kids knocked to say there was a hedgehog asleep in our front garden and there the little fella was, rightout in the open having a snooze. It lasted just long enough for me to grab my memory card (why do I never put it back in the damned camera) and get a shot. All the commotion of the kids in the street coming over to check out what we were looking at woke him up though and he's now scuttled under some brambles (must get Pete to chop them down this weekend!).

So that's it for today really, hoping to get ontop of the housework tonight and get a little scrapping time done after the kids go off to bed.......don't think it will be that straightforward though.....it NEVER is!

2008-04-25T12:37:00.005+01:00

Not been feeling the best the past few days. I don't know if it's extreme tiredness or what but I've had lots of dizzy spells and constant migraines. It's been a busy old week though. On Wednesday, just when i felt at my worst, I went to the school that Emily will be starting in September for a 'shared learning' experience. It was the first time that Em had been to the school and she didn't want to come home. She loved the amount of space for them to play in, lush green fields, a 'reflection' area, balance beams, monkey bars, climbing frames, slides, little houses....it was fantastic to see her run around like a loon. When we got back into the car she asked when she would be getting her new uniform. They were given a choice of bags, each with a book and an activity in. Each Monday, between now and the summer holidays, they will go in and exchange it for another at lunch times to get them used to going into school. She's already asking every day if it's time to go and change it yet.

I'm definately getting my scrapping bug back again, especially knowing that Pete will be going away again soon. I only discovered it just before he came home from his last big trip so I'm definately going to make more of the opportunity for guilt free scrapping while he's gone. It keeps my mind focused and helps me get through each day at a time.

I've kind of mixed up all the Bad Girls kits that have been sat waiting for my lust for papers to come back. I completed a layout this week though which i'll share with you.

I have scrapped this photo in a different format before but it's one of my all time faves of Emily. It's quite basic but i'm building up my confidence again so will be hacking into it all a bit more after the weekend.

I also did a couple of 7 gypsies projects. A portfolio and a file folder for recording and documenting Xmas stuff. I've not done these before but i've kept the template and I'm going to make a few more for gifts with the vast amounts of scraps that have accumulated which now fill seven pizza boxes brimming with left overs

This morning was Freya's counselling appointment. It really helps Freya to open up to someone completely neutral although I'd love her to be more open and honest about her feelings with her dad as this is now the only sticking point in the whole 'dad moving to France' saga. She was told today that it's alright to feel angry sometimes and it seemed to sink a bit more when it was coming from someone else other than me as i've been telling her this for weeks now. There is such a maturity about her now though and everyday she's changing into a young lady which has brought about a lot of other changes that are sometimes quite hard to get my head around. It still seems like only yesterday she was colouring in and now she's experimenting with make up and stuff. Scary really how fast they grow.

So this weekend will be a manic one. I've got my neice and nephew staying tomorrow night which will mean six kids in the house........nothing two large pizzas and a few disney DVD's can't solve i'm hoping. Freya has her first Stagecoach session tomorrow too. I was planning on going to Mass tomorrow evening as it's been something that i've been working up to for some time now but I don't think Pete will cope with all the kids on his own so I've managed to put off the scariness for another week at least! Hope everyone has a good weekend. X

Time flies!

2008-04-21T11:51:00.006+01:00

Yup it's been a VERY long time from someone who promised to blog more regularly but things swing from chaotic to manic in the Farrell household and there is rarely time to chill. When that time does occasionally come along it's more a case of making the most of every minute because it never lasts long! The news that I had been dreading reared it's unwelcome face again. Pete rejoins the sub next month and goes away to sea immediately afterwards for two months, home for a month and then away for another three months. I knew it was coming but it didn't make it any easier when i heard it. In the past six years he's only had 12 months alongside in Plymouth, and that was over three years ago now. The girls have never known daddy to come home for tea after work so it's what they're used to I suppose, but having just had Pete home on leave for two weeks it's kind of spoilt them a bit and there were lots of tears when he went back to Gosport last night.

I'm trying to console myself with thinking that at least he'll be home for some of the school holidays, plus I'll have lots of scrapping time. I'm gutted that he won't be home for our birthday (especially seeing as it's the big 4-0 this year!) so I'm hoping we can do something when he gets back at the end of the year.

The past two weeks of him being home has been lovely. We had loads of plans to decorate the hallway but in the end didn't touch it. I guess I just wanted to make the use of some down time and spend it chilling as a family. We've spent a few afternoons sat down on the waterfront with the kids, splashing in the water, watching the boats, finding shells, and in Emily's case...scaring the crap out of the swans! I don't think I could ever not live by the sea, I just love it down here so much that it would be a major blow to move away. The girls shell collection in the playroom seems to get bigger every week.

So it's been a busy month. Last time I blogged it was just before Freya's 10th birthday. We had a tea party and most of the evening was spent singing along to High School Musical on the Wii and gorgeing ourselves with cake and sushi. Our easter holidays were early this year compared to a lot of the country and unfortunately it didn't coincide with Pete's leave so Easter was fairly quiet and yes, there are still eggs left (as there is EVERY year). I've also had a lot of work on which has kept me so busy.

Freya spent most of the holidays with her dad in France. It was her first chance to see him and the rest of her extended family since he moved in February and it's really done her the world of good to understand that it isn't a million miles away and actually takes less time than going up to Wigan to see all Pete's family. It's made her feel a lot happier with the situation now and if she's happy, then so am I. She's a busy girl at the moment, doing some extra work to see if it's worth trying out for the 11+ exam, keyboard lessons, school trips, football practice, choir and then this weekend she starts at Stagecoach. She's really excited about it all though. Plus she got a super new haircut this weekend which she loves. Photos are a little blurry but then I'm well out of practice at the moment, not having picked up a camera really since Xmas.

It's shocking just how quickly she is growing up. I was completely on edge when she flew out along to see her dad (although they have a chaperone to get them on and off the flight until they meet their alloted family member). She, on the other hand, thinks this makes her super cool and grown up.........

This past weekend was one to celebrate as it was mine and Pete's wedding anniversary. We managed to get all the kids elsewhere for the night and make the most of it. A gorgeous meal at Yukisan again and we really pushed the boat out. Lobster and Oysters, scallops, steak and plenty of saki! A few more drinks on the Barbican and then it was home for several nightcaps. The wierd sense of coming back to an empty house though.......and not have to listen to the girls stirring at some ungodly hour of the morning on Sunday.

I was rather stunned to be given a gorgeous present before we went out. It's unusual for Pete to be home for our anniversary and as we were having a major night of it, a present wasn't really on my mind and I certainly hadn't got one for Pete so I was choked when he gave me this beauty. I adore Amethysts and this bracelet is beautiful.

So as Pete is back to work now, it's time to get my scrapping head back on. I have played with a few things lately, mostly little projects that I can't share incase of prying eyes but I'm hoping to share a couple projects with you tomorrow. That's if I can get the playroom tidy enough tonight to fit in a new sofa bed tomorrow........i have NO idea how the thing will even fit through the door but I can only try......could mean that we have an extra sofa in the living room and just have to climb everywhere until Pete comes back at the weekend.

2008-03-11T09:18:00.002Z

Ummm....not blogging very well am I? Well, life is pretty hectic in the Farrell family household. There's been a lot of TLC that's needed to go around and as the only adult here most of the time, that's my job alone! Things are beginning to settle down but i now have a lot of work coming in from various little projects (non scrapping - i'm not that lucky!!). It's keeping me mega busy and i'm juggling all sorts of things.

It's Freya's 10th birthday tomorrow and i'm really wondering where the time has gone. That and some other personal stuff has meant a lot of reflection over the past weeks, there are a lot of anniversaries around, it's a year since Pete's father passed, 10 years since my first daughter was born which was a very difficult time as my exhusband had just left me, just over 10 years since I lost another baby, five years since me and Pete got married, a week to go til I find out if Emily has got into the school we've applied for plus only a month since Freya's dad moved to France. So you can see there's been a hell of a lot to take stock of. It's meant a time of refocussing on whats important to me. I hope the person will know who i'm talking about but T, if you read this I want to say a big thank you..........what you said in our last call really made a lot of sense. Sometimes you have to strip things down to their bare basics and forget all that other stuff to realise what makes you happy in the first place. I've done that to a very large degree and even though it's been a difficult few months emotionally, I can honestly say that I haven't been this happy or content with my lot in years. I'm hopeful of the future and grateful that I can love and be loved without question anymore. Thank you T. X

WEll we took a battering down here from the wind yesterday. I almost lost the car door on two occasions. It was the kind of wind that you couldn't even stand up in. It's still really nasty out there today but thankfully the wind has died down. Please don't let it be like this when the kids are off....they'll go crackers!

Yummy!

2008-02-29T10:40:00.004Z

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!

2008-02-28T13:09:00.003Z

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?????

2008-02-27T09:40:00.002Z

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!

2008-02-26T11:41:00.003Z

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......

2008-02-25T11:46:00.005Z

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!

2008-02-24T22:00:00.004Z

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!