Happy but sleepy

Quick blog to thank all the lovely ladies for their messages and support yesterday :) been up since 6 with kids so spent the day doing the 3 c's, car booting, chilling and cleaning! So ready for bed now!!! Will be more awake and interesting tomorrow loo

Bad day

Ok yesterday was a bad day. I usually don't blog them but decided I'm gonna see if it might help. Started off well, went and got my hair don, feeling all relaxed, then come home to find mark stressed out of his mind, Cameron crying after being on the naughty step twice and generally an unhappy household. See, this is why i can't go out. I know mark does his best, and he's a great dad but he just can't handle both kids alone anymore. :( we were told when he had his transplant it obviously wouldn't last forever but I didn't expect things to start going downhill after just under 2 years. His memory is getting worse and he's finding it hard to deal with too much stimulation I guess, like if too many things are going on at once he can't follow and get frustrated. Which is pretty common with 2 demanding pre-schoolers. Plus I worry about accidents. He'll leave the oven on, or the fridge open, camerons at my mums tonight and marks just stood and asked 3 times if I checked on him before going to bed. :(
Which brings me to another issue today, my mum. I've mentioned before I don't get to really do anything without the kids, and time just me and mark is just unheard of. But my mum won't babysit so we can go out together. I can see her point a little as she'll have either one of my kids or one of my nieces every Friday on a rota, which is great for the kids but no help for grown up time, then she's too tired to watch them for a few hours any other night as she's had one Friday. So I tried to talk to her about maybe not doing that so babysitting wasn't such a big issue. Omg HOW bad do I feel now?! It blew up into a huge argument about how she does enough and the kids love going over. Ok they do but I take my kids all over the place, they want for nothing, I just want to exsist outside of being a mother! So it ended with my mum and dad both being mad at me, mark annoyed there's been more rows, me feeling like well what the hell do I do now?! I hate this. Plus I feel guilty as my sisters parter was apparently looking forward to coming round this weekend with my sister. Plans we made before she got herself arrested so now I'm obviously not talking to her are canceled. So I feel like a bitch there too. God sometimes I think I should just not leave the house and talk to nobody. Just stay home and clean. At least that way I can't let anybody down.

tips to make kits last, and stash shopping!!

As I've mentioned before we have been majorly skint lately. However we received a very welcome £300 payback from Npower. :) Most of it went onto bills but Mark insisted I spend a bit on myself as I didn't get much on my birthday. By a coincidence Craft superstore was selling some Martha Stewart bits on a good deal so I ordered those. :) I got two punch around the page sets, a circle cutter, some fringe scissors (which I'm not sure about) and a big pack of cardstock for just under £60. Bargain!

Anyway back to being skint. lol. Because of this I've been a bit more frugal with my kits and using bits I'd otherwise throw away. I've seen other frugal people do this before but I've never been bothered to. lol.
Anyway, things I've done:
1 - Use packaging. You can always rip up the pizza box and paint it or ink it. But here I've used the backing paper from the rub ons that came with the kit to mat my photo. Prima packaging is particularly great to use as its so pretty!

2 - Divide up a large embellishment. Now I admit I'd never have thought of this myself, seems sacrilege! lol. But I saw Rachael Elliot had taken this flower, which originally had pink and red layers, and made two flowers, one pink one red. They both still look striking as it was a big flower to start with, and now I have two :)

3 - Use sticker edges. There were two layouts I wanted to scraplift and both used the large cloud sticker which came with the kit. So I used the sticker on one, then used the edging to cut out some blue paper to make a second. i actually prefer this one as the edging makes it stand out. lol

4 - Make your own embellishments. In this months kit there were a set of little flags. Really sweet and SO simple to make with a toothpick and a bit of patterned paper. This wasn't my best attempt, was about 2 am when I did this one. lol

So I've actually decided I like being frugal. :) Also like stash shopping. lol. hopefully will be doing more of both in the future!

Layouts and proud mummy. :)

At the moment I'm a very proud Mummy. :) On Monday poor Mark was in a bad way from all the walking we did Sunday. Couldn't even get out of bed, so I let him sleep until gone 12. Kids were so quiet and well behaved when Mark woke and felt a bit better we decided to take them Pizza hut for lunch, then to see Cars 2 at the cinema. Never been Pizza hut with them before and with it being the summer holiday it was packed! kids climbing on tables, throwing napkins at the waitress. So I was so proud of my two sitting nicely and eating, and saying please and thank you. When Cameron asked the waitress 'May I have a glass of juice please' she looked so amazed. lol. Was funny when she asked him what he wanted to eat and he asked for 'Mcdonalds' though. He meant chicken nuggets. lol.
They were also great at the cinima, was a bit worried as caitlin never been before but she sat really well. So very proud mummy :)
I usually do a Whats on your workdesk Wednesday, but my desk is currently a mess as Im rearranging it, and I'm pretty sure you've all seen that before. lol. I do have some layouts to share though so I'll show these. :) All are scraplifts from the sarahs cards design team but I've now lost the booklet so can't give individual credit. Sorry!
Cameron at Thomas land. He was pretending to be asleep like James. lol

Some photos from the toy story area at disneyland. The title is 'time to be a toy' as everything there was huge to make you feel toy sized. :) Cameron particularly loved the the benches were all brio train track. lol

These were photos from the playhouse disney show. They weren't great as we weren't allowed to use flash but still wanted to include them. The blue journalling page at the side pulls down. I need to go over the title with a black pen but not got one yet. lol

Love this one. the photo is supposed to be of Caitlin with Mickey Mouse, but let my mum take it and this is what she took. NO idea how she did that the kid can use my camera easy. lol.

Having a big clearout today. Dont know why just woke up in spring clean mode. lol

stanwick lakes

I was planning to blog about this yesterday but was so tired I was in bed by 8:30. lol. As it was Mollies birthday we all went for a picnic at Stanwick lakes. I've never been before but my mum had and said it was great. I was really impressed. :) It was a huge park with lots of water play areas for the kids. Was only £3 parking and had a bbq you could buy food from or just take your own picnic (which we did) was an amazing weather day. My sholders were burtn and I had factor 50 on! Caitlin enjoying the park. :)

The picnic. We all brought lots of food thinking there might not be enough. Really wasnt an issue. lol. I made egg mayonaise sandwhiches and everyone loved them! Even the kids who usually hate eggs Will need to make those again. lol.

Adorable photo. Thats Mollie on the left, Lillie in the middle and Pauls son Rob on the right. :)

Mollie blowing the candles out on her cake. The candle was a large flower, which was supposed to sparkle and play music. Yeah it really didn't. lol. Thought it was a bit of a bargain at £1.

Kids playing. :)


Cameron had a great time playing with Pauls boys Kerion and Rob. They were really patient with him as they're both a fair bit older but played with Cam and included him in thier games. He loved it.

All in all was a great day. For £3 the place is a bargain with loads to do if its sunny. Hopefully will go back next month. :)

Layout and Happy birthday Mollie!!!

Ok so she can't read this blog (or even read lol) but I'd like to wish my neice Mollie a very happy 5th birthday today. :) Her mum was 'busy' yesterday (where it says busy read 'locked up') so I made her her birthday cake. :)

Its not the best photo, you cant see the pink sparkles all over the cake, or the fact theres three layers of pink sponge, strawberries and pink buttercream inside. :) Hopefully she'll like it. She usually likes anything pink so think I'm safe. lol.
I also managed another layout last night, This is another scraplift, this time from Lianne. I LOVE this photo. I took it on the eurostar as I loved the look of wonder on camerons face reflected in the window as he looks at the trains.

Right short post today but we're off for a picnic soon and I'm the only one not dressed!

A layout, yep thats right!

The past few days I've spent most of my time reading but did manage to do one layout. :) I used Sarahs Cards july kit and its a scraplift of one by Lou.

I usually scraplift with my kits as while I don't mind using random stash and the layout going wrong I would hate to waste my kits when they're so pretty! plus I love how even through they're similar, scraplifts can look so different even with the same stash. :)
Hoping to do at least one more tonight. Hubbys out and I'm watching After.life but to be honest its nearly over and its pretty rubbish. lol. its one of those 'is she, isnt she? oh I dont really care' films. lol. its miles better than 'Drive angry' though which Mark watched last night. omg what cheesy rubbish! He found it funny though and gave me a chance to finish one of my books so not all bad. :)

WOYWW and blog award :)

lol. Whats on my workdesk? A mess, as usual! The top drawer of my desk has become a dumping ground for the past few months and I took that it now won't close as a sign to sort it out! So it's currently dumped on my desk for me to sort through and organise.

Well this morning I found out I'd won a blog award. :) It's from Becky over at http://www.craftjar.com/ (I dont know how to do the neat links like she does. lol) Do pop over and have a read, she does lovely cards and layouts but also blogs about her everyday life as well. :)
So to accept this I need to tell you seven facts about myself. So here goes. :)
1 - My husband and I collect retro computer games. :) We have hundreds of mega drive, super nintendo, gameboy games and consoles. Even old commodore 64s and spectrum. In fact as we speak Mark is connecting the commodore to the tv for the kids to play with.
2 - I was told due to Marks illness we'd never have children. We were told in July 06 we had a less than 1 percent chance of ever falling pregnant naturally. September 06 I found out I was pregnant with Cameron, May 07 I found out I was pregnant with Caitlin. lol
3 - I cant stand tinned tomato soup. Even the smell makes my stomach turn!
4 - I LOVE roller coasters but hubby hates them. So when we went to disneyland for the first time I told him the Indiana Jones ride was a simple one. While waiting in the queue you couldn't see the ride because of the trees so it wasn't until we were on it he realised it had a big drop and two loop the loops. He wasn't impressed. lol
5 - Growing up I loved Enid Blyton books. Particularly 'The faraway tree' I love I can now read them to my daughter. :)
6 - I accidentally smashed one of Marks correctable figures worth around £200 when I swung my handbag over my shoulder one time. Woops.
7 - I HATE spiders. I scared the life out of Mark a few weeks back by going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, spotting a huge spider on the floor and screaming the place down. He thought someone had broke in. Kids didnt even wake up!

Lol, ok so I'm really not interesting. I asked Mark to think of an interesting fact about me and he couldn't think of one! Charming. So now for the 7 people I pass this award onto. :)

1 - Jo over at http://buckinghamspalace.blogspot.com/ Great layouts and always funny posts. :)

2 - Karen at http://kkfantasticplace.blogspot.com/ amazing cards and layouts.

3 - Ali at http://alisondj.blogspot.com/ Lots of baby post at the moment as shes just had beautiful twin boys. :)

4 - Claire at http://scrappymess.blogspot.com/ Great layouts and stories about her and her adorable girls.

5 - Lisa at http://life-with-me-lisa.blogspot.com/ Layouts, crafty posts and funny stories. :) What more could you want. lol

6 - Dee at http://deezkatz.blogspot.com/ Makes the most amazing things to buy from felt

7 - Carin at http://lifeloveandscrap.blogspot.com/ So much inspiration here. Love her layouts but never looks the same when I do it. lol

Ok so think thats a long enough post for today! Cold and wet here so taking kids to the library later. Get them some nice books to look at while I scrap a bit I think :)

Transfer day

Well last friday was Cameron transfer day at his new school. Obviously I made Daddy take photos of this momentous occasion. However Daddys not the best photographer so this was the only one in focus. lol

Well the morning went better than I expected. It was only 45 mins in his new class and there were no tears (from either of us) and he happily played with the other children. There was one little girl Zoe who was from his class at nursery so I think that helped. He was very proud of himself when he was one of two children who could write their own name. Hopefully will go this well in September!

Peppa pig world

Ok so we came back last week but been busy since then (nothing nice so I'll just gloss over it. lol) ell kids had a GREAT time at Peppa pig world. :) The drive down was horrendous. 4 and a half hours it took as we got stuck in traffic. Caitlin was a little sick bless her but was very brave. So we get there and obviously the first place we visit is Peppas house. :) Was actually quite realistic models telling a story about Daddy pig making pancakes and them sticking to the ceiling. Caitlin loved it here and we came back more than once.

Now before we went I was warned to take a change of clothes for the 'muddy puddles' section. To be honest I wasn't sure what it was but took the clothes anyway. Would have been better off with a swimming costume. lol. It was basically a big area with fountains and water toys. Each toy was controlled by a button, but not the one nearby. So you would press a button and a fountain would shoot up on the other side of the area if you know what I mean. Caitlin LOVED it!

Was really great, lots of things to do. She happily played here for most of the morning while Cameron played in Mr potatoes park next door. Which again was great with lots of peppa themed things to play on.

After drying Caitlin off and changing her clothes we went on a few rides. First was Grandad dogs boats, a simple ride which goes around in circles next to a duck pond (Not real ducks, yellow peppa pig ducks lol) then onto Grandad pigs train. The queues on all the rides were quite long, around 20 minutes, but there was lots to look at while waiting. The park had a great attention to detail, hills, flowers, building, all right out of the cartoon. Caitlin was in her element pointing everything out to me. One of Camerons favourite rides was georges dinosaur ride. Its similar to the horse race ride you get at most other theme parks. Was a nice relaxing ride showing lots more characters from the show.

In madame gazelles school house.

We went for lunch in Grandad pigs cafe. This is next to a big indoor play area which Cameron again loved. Now one thing about this park i cannot fault is how clean it was. I bought a coffee and walking from the counter to the table just outside I dropped the lid. In the seconds it took me to turn around to get it a member of staff had picked it up and put it in the bin. This was the same throughout the park. Despite its size and how busy it was I didnt see any rubbish lying around. After lunch we went into the main area of the park. This was MUCH quieter than Peppa pig world. The kids went on roller coasters, merry go rounds, the lot with no queues. But obviously its not Peppa pig. lol
Rather than drive back the same day we'd booked into a nearby hotel for the night. Cameron was very excited to see this desk and chair and made us all call him big man. God knows where that came from!

Back to the park the next day and more rides. :) These are some photos taken from Mrs Rabbits helicopters.



Cuddles in front of danny dog. :) At least I think it's Danny dog. lol.

All in all it was a great few days. The park is wonderful and plenty to do. :) If it was nearer I'd be back again in a heartbeat. :)

ok enough now.

Ok, I've been AWOL a while. To be honest things have been a bit crap. Well kinda. As most mums know when you have kids you struggle to still be a person. Theres the 'mummy Gemma' then theres just 'Gemma' and its been a LONG time since 'Gemma' existed. Honestly the last time I went out without the kids except for drs appointments or practical things was March for the Twilight retreat. And while I'm ok about it during the day, at night when the kids have gone to bed it gets me down. I honestly feel like I'm losing myself. I don't enjoy scrapping much anymore, and Mark (bless him) sold a load of his collectibles to give me £100 for my birthday. I took them all out for lunch then bought lots of toys for the kids Christmas. From that £100 I bought myself a bottle of water, I didn't even have lunch. lol. Not because I'm a selfless saint or because there was nothing I wanted (bubble bath punch comes to mind. lol) but because it just doesn't feel right buying things for myself. Theres no reason for it really. Not like the kids ever go without. Mark encourages me to go out all the time but I just don't have anyone to go anywhere with. When Mark first got sick so much of my time was taken up with caring for him and the kids (a baby and a newborn at the time) I just lost touch with them all. I did start going to a monthly crop but since crhsitmas one thing or another has come up and I've just not been back. Things came to a head on my birthday but I won't get into that as I've moaned enough really. Bottom line is I've had enough. I've got to try and get back into my hobbies and home and just get over the fact if I go out, I'm taking the kids. It's easier now they're older granted, and Caitlins starting to want to go cinema and places too, though wont't do me much good when new twilight film comes out but if needs be I'll go alone! lol. But I'll just have to accept this is my life, I'm a wife and mother and thats about it, women in the 60's did it, so can I, and it could be worse. I've just got to focus on what I do have. A loving husband and two wonderful, happy kids. :)
OK soul bared, lol, as it was nice yesterday we decided to 'clean' tha car. I say 'clean' because the kids insisted on helping, so it got about as washed as it would have done in a heavy rainstorm. lo. They had fun though and soaked everything in sight so I don't mind. :)

Love Mark in the background browsing his ebay. lol. Had a few bits ending last night so he was watching to see what they went for. Was gutted as he sold a HUGE star wars puzz 3d spaceship, took em bloody hours to build it to make sure all the bits were there and it went for £1.70. £1.70!! I think I should get a bar of chocolate and a magazine out of that. lol

Well Marks been told to force me to scrap tonight so hopefully will have some layouts to share tomorrow. :)

Wonderful news to wake up to. :)

Well this morning I woke up to a txt telling me my cousins girlfriend has given birth to their twins! So excited. Its a boy and a girl, 6lb each! Good weight really. Mum and babies both doing fine after a bit of a rough time, no names yet but can't wait to hear. :)
Thanks for comments yesterday about my holiday. :) The hotel we're going to is the 'Hotel tropical' it used to be the holiday village but is now split into two hotels rather than one huge one. Apprently still pretty big though. lol
Well managed a bit of scrapping last night. Mainly watched tv and did puzzles in magazines though. lol These two are of when we took the kids bike riding.
First time I've used my butterfly punch here. :)

ne of Cameron. Had no 's' left so used a 'z' lol. Still works I think. The wooden circle is actually off an old top but I threaded it onto a misted chipboard cog to make an embellishment. :)

Well today theres housework to be done in the morning, then helping out at a sure start fun day this afternoon. Hope the weather holds out as I'm giving out ice creams. Won't be too much to do if it rains! lol

ok no photos

its not often I do a no photo post but unless you want to see a photo of my freshly ironed clothes I've not got much to share. lol. Oh Wait I've got one thing. :)
LOOK WHERE I'M GOING!!!!!!!!

It's a hotel in Turkey. I'm SO stupidly excited and its not until next year. lol. I've had a bit of a rubbish time lately and we are skint, seriously skint for the next few months. Was so embarrassing last night getting the shopping in Asda and having to hand over a big pile of vouchers. Anyway. We haven't been abroad since our honeymoon when I was pregnant with Cameron (didn't know it yet though. lol) and I really miss the sun and the sea. Mum on the other hand goes away every year but was getting really bored just sitting around the pool and beach, so as a surprise she booked us all a holiday in Turkey next year! We have to pay the rest but she did the deposit which was a fair chunk of it, and was really cheap as both kids went free anyway. So I'm a very happy bunny. :) We've been busy getting more of Marks stuff ready to ebay to add to our dwindling funds so I spent most of last night building a Puzz 3d millennium Falcon. It was NOT easy! There were 800 odd bits and trying to get them to stay together when building it all up wasn't simple. It really was for someone with patience, god knows why I was doing it!