stuff for sale!

One thing about me my poor hubby needs to deal with is that sometimes I'll get an idea in my head and will push and push and push until its done. This has led to carpets being pulled up the night before our honeymoon, the kitchen being re-painted the day after Marks transplant, and more recently clearing out the garage to sell things to get the hall floor re-done. lol.
Ive never liked the hall here, the whole house needed re-done when we moved in and we've slowly managed to redo it all except the hall and the bathroom (THATS going to be a job and a half, until then the door just stays closed. lol). I've lived with it until now, but suddenly decided I cant anymore, so ripped up the offcut carpet we'd put down, bought some paint and its getting there. :) Need new flooring though so selling lots to raise the money. hense the following.
Prices all include postage, open to offers on multiple items. :)
Sizzlet flower die £3

Sizzlet mixed die £3

Cuttlebug disney belle die and embossing folder £3

Cuttlebug disney Ariel die and embossing folder £3

American crafts papers, 23 sheets £7

Christmas papers including glittered and double sided, 24 sheets £7

Right off for a bath while kids are watching rugrats. Nice to have some peace, they were fighting over a stick earlier. Yes, a stick! lol

Fun weekend. :)

It really was. :) Saturday I went to the Next sale, think it was the first time since I was pregnant I've not bought anything for the kids. lol. Ended up getting a couple of shirts for Mark, and a jumper for me. Nothing big but to be honest was so little there. Sure I wont be saying that at the new year one! After that I popped next door to the range. Well would be rude not to. :) Was thrilled to find this paper pack there!

I'd seen it on QVC last week, but wasn't about to pay they're daft postage for it. Its really similar to an old Christmas range I love, 'colourful Christmas' by My minds eye. So snapped it up. :) Had a nice relaxing day with the kids, doing not much of anything until Mark came home from London that night. He brought dvds for the kids and this for me. :)

I LOVE Glee and was gutted didn't get to see them in concert but this is the next best thing. Had 'Dog days are over' blaring in the car today. lol.
Onto today we took the kids to east carlton park. We all love it there particularly at this time of year with all the trees and conkers etc. They've also made this treasure trail where you follow signs and find all these wood carvings which were really cool.

Cameron was less pleased though when he scraped his finger on the door. Hes usually not too much of a drama queen but honestly the blood! It just wouldn't stop bleeding even though it was a tiny scratch, luckily the lady at the cafe gave us a plaster and an ice lolly soon calmed cam down.

The owl, Caitlin loved and wanted to take home. lol

This was just beautiful. All carved out of a tree with great detail. There was a winding wooden staircase to climb up to get to the seat. Another thing Caitlin wanted to take home. lol

Well tomorrow Caitlins supposed to be going on a trip with mark. I say supposed to as she had a meltdown last week and doesn't seem any happier this week so god knows if she'll go. Cant wait for this clingy phase to end! I've got a big to do list for tomorrow so if she stays home she'll need to either help or play by herself, which she's not great at, lol. Fingers crossed for me!

More layouts

Cant believe I haven't blogged since Wednesday! Had a nice few days though. Thursday, well Thursday day was a bit rubbish. Picked up a very tearful Caitlin from nursery. After talking to her for a little while turns out a girl in her class wanted to sit on the seat Caitlin was on, so pushed Caitlin onto the floor and sat on her!! She says the girl was told off which i believe as it is a good nursery, but shes mentioned this girl a few times, saying shes been mean to her so having a word Tuesday i think. But anyway we picked Cameron up from school and took them both to Cheeky monkeys play center. Where I got to relax with some hot chocolate and they got to run around like loonies. :) So the day ended on a high note. lol
Friday saw mark leaving to go to London for the weekend with his mate. While I'm not thrilled about him going away his friend is aware of his problems and I can't wrap him in cotton wool so got to grin and bear it. He's been txting me lots though so that helps. I can imagine being this bad when the kids go away without me when they're older! lol
Still haven't shared the other layotus I did so here they are. These are all done with bits from my scrap box and odd bits of paper that won't go into a kit. Love using that stuff up, always feel proud. lol
This is one of Caitlin and Mollie on Caitlins birthday last year.

Love the colours on this one, seem to go together well. The photo was from when me and Caitlin stopped for lunch before starting the monthly shop at asda. Was just us two so the title 'Ladies that lunch' seemed fitting. :)

Still loving these flowers. Great way to use up teenie buttons.

This one looks a lot better in real life than it does on here. lol. I used up lots of odd thickers bits around the edge. Love using up bits and bobs i'd otherwise have thrown away. :)

Other than adding titles to these I haven't done much scrapping recently, I think when the weather gets cold I lose mojo and read instead. lol. Might try doing some tonight as running out of books!

layouts

Last night I sat down and forced myself to get some of the crafting 'to dos' done. So I made and filled a couple of boxes for swaps (had a mini spree in The Range yesterday lol) I titled some layouts I did ages ago plus managed to do a couple new ones. So quite pleased. :)
This is one of the ones I did last night. In order to use up my kits I've been using as much of it as I can, until its just scraps, before I more onto another one. This usually works but I've got SO many of these American crafts papers its certainly taking a while! lol. This is a photo of Mark and Cameron in Butlins a while back. Cameron had just got into the phase of 'I don't WANT my photo taken'. Still waiting for him to grow out of it, lol.

Using up bling still. lol. Thought it would make the cupcake stand out, plus give the look of black coffee rather than just an empty mug.

This is one of the layouts I did ages ago. Honestly don't remember when its been that long. Just sat there waiting for a title. Done now, lol. This is Caitlin and Lillie last October at my mums Halloween party. Caitlin didn't want to be anything scary so just dressed up as a fairy princess.

Another really old layout. lol. This is happy Caitlin tucking into Christmas dinner last year. lol

Another one from last night using more American crafts papers. I was really struggling with the house paper until I decided to use it with photos of us on the eurostar. Cameron and Caitlin loved watching all the houses speed past, and my mum enjoyed being nosey and looking in every ones gardens. lol. Was really busy paper and a long title so didn't put much else on this layout.

I did do more, and hope to finish more this afternoon but will share that tomorrow. Hopefully going cinema tonight too to see 'I dont know how she does it' so good day planned. :)

Nature trip

Well yesterday didn't go quite as planned, lol. Caitlin woke up at 4am and came into our room asking to sleep in our bed. She does this a lot, and I'll either be so tired I let her, or I put her back to bed where she complains for a bit then goes back to sleep. Neither happened yesterday. lol. i put her back to bed, thought she went back to sleep, then woke at 7am to find her surrounded by her toys. She'd actually been up the whole time playing! So we took Cameron to school, he was quite happy as usual. :) Then tried to drop Caitlin off for her nature trip with Daddy. Here is where it started to go pear shaped. Caitlin's attached to my hip at the best of times but by now she was getting sleepy so was 10 times as grumpy. So much crying, clinging and just hysterical sobbing later I just went along. So much for getting the housework done then relaxing!
It turned out to be ok though, we went to Rutland water, and Caitlin had a little pair of binoculars which she absolutely loved.


She was also given tomato soup for lunch. Now i HATE tomato soup, even the smell makes me queasy, but she loved it! Must take after her father there, lol.
Home and shopping, as I hadn't planned to go on the trip I hadn't had breakfast, and obviously didn't have the soup for lunch so by now I was starving! I'd always been told never to go shopping hungry but needed must and all that. Well I won't be doing it again! I spent £90 and I have NO idea what on!!! lol. I got some meat, so that was £10 and spent about £30 on cleaning and airwick stuff, but still!
Remember I said Caitlin hadn't slept. lol, this was her as soon as we got home.

Well Caitlin's at nursery today, and Mark wants to drive into the next town to get the new Gears of war 3 game. House is reasonably tidy so hoping to make a dent in my crafting to do list this afternoon. As I've currently done none of it. lol

I'm boring

Seriously I am, want to know what I've done over the past few days. So would I to be honest! lol. I know I've done cleaning, but the house is no tidier, I've done no scrapping, very little reading and I've not gone anywhere, so where have the days gone?! I honestly have no idea. lol. But today is Saturday, Cameron is with my mum, Caitlins watching the Mickey mouse movie marathon on tv, and Marks reading the paper. I've got a few things to do on my housework to do list but if I'm honest it's my crafty to do list which needs desperate attention! On it today are:
1 - Finish Christmas gravy pot swap for posting on Monday.
2 - Make boxes for Halloween and Christmas swap and fill (I went shopping the other day so have all the bits, just need to make boxes and decorate the tub now lol)
3 - Make mum lots of bookmarks for her recipe books
4 - Title some of the layouts I've done and are just sitting there from weeks ago.
5 - (just added) Use some of my new Sarahs cards kit. :)

So glad to be a subscriber again. :) I had to cancel it a few months back because I had no money, but my mum kindly took one up for me. :) Now things are a little more stable I've back to getting it myself. :) Off out tonight so doubt I'll be using it today but look forward to using it tomorrow.

Layouts

Well my desk is still a mess from coming home from the crop. haven't really unpacked my stuff yet, lol. Not sure what I have done to be honest as I know I've been busy lol. I think with Cameron starting school, Caitlin going nursery more days, and starting nature club, I spend more time in the car than anywhere else! Today is a bit quieter though, Caitlins home all day and Marks taking Cameron to school so I only have my homestart work to do out and about. Hopefully I'll make a fair old dent in the ironing pile! Anyway, since I've done nothing interesting since the weekend I thought i'd share some layouts I did at my crop. All are scraplifted from the sarahs cards dt booklet which came with the kit. I do honestly do my own layouts, lol, I just always scraplift from kits and that's all I've been using lately
Photo from disneyland. We'd gone out at night to see one of the light parades so got the kids a little treat while I had hot chocolate. Was really yummy, lol.

There were lots of little chipboard apples in this kit, I tried to use the ones which went with the theme of the layout. This one had a big bite form it so thought it went with the eating theme. They're so sweet!

Apple of my eye. Now while I love this title I feel really guilty as obviously I have two apples of my eye, lol. Might change the title or add (one of them) under it at some point. Note the apple with the love heart :)

Love these flowers. Think this die will be my most used.

I love these photos, Caitlin was playing with her little hermonica and decided to get into her baby cot. With the bars she just reminded me of a little prisinor sitting in a jail cell. The apple here does have a little bird on it but its hard to see.

Using up more bling still. :)

Photo of Caitlin at the park. I love the colours in this one and the little word tree. I think this is a great way to use up all the little word stickers I wouldn't usually bother with.

Couldn't find an apple to go with this layout, lol. But did find a sticker which goes with the title, which was good as I used my last S on 'slide' lol.

Right, better go start the ironing!

Crop

Saturday was my monthly crop[. Great fun as usual. :) Was interesting this time to see all the different crafts that are actually done there, Deanne who runs the crop took some pictures.
So we had Paper mache wall art (will be a lotus flower when done) Knitting, scrapbooking (mine)

embroidery, embellishments, knitting, cardmaking

sewing, scrapbooking decopatching. So lots of things going on! While I really only scrapbook it was really interesting to watch other things I normally wouldnt see. Decopatching for example I'd never have looked at twice but watching Deanne cover the chair and some of her sewing box I think it looks a great idea!

Also took some daft photos for you all to laugh at. lol

Right off to collect hubby and Caitlin. Camerons first full day at nursery today, he went in all by himself so bravely. :) Caitlin and Mark are off to nature club so had some time to do some housework. With all the winds I'm getting washing dry super quick!

Things I swore I'd never do as a parent. Untill I became one.

I was thinking about this last night while I was trying to get to sleep, there are so many things I swore I'd never do then usually end up doing, for example:
1 - I won't say 'Because I said so.' I do try not to do this, but after the 15th 'Why?' its an easy way out. lol
2 - They will not play computer games until they are 11 - Yeah, I did try on this one. I got them both Mobigos which while are computers they're educational. Problem is Camerons a brainy little boy and even the hard ones he finds too simple. So I let him play on the more educational games on our ds. Then Daddy got involved and let him play racing games. Slippery slope from there! I do limit it to 30 minutes a day however and they need to earn that, so I'm not too bad of a mother. lol
3 - I will not spoil my kids - Yeah, I think every parents is guilty of that one. :)
4 - I will treat both my kids the same - Now while I love them both the same, I never realised how impossible it was to treat them both the same. For example I take Caitlin out with me more often as she doesnt moan 'Are we done yet' half as much as Cameron, while I'm more likely to sit and play a board game with Cameron as he has much more attention for things like that.
5 - I won't push Cameron to play with his sister if he doesnt want to. - My mum always did that to me and I hated it, but I admit I find myself begging and bribing Cameron at times to play with his sister because she loves it. Oh it's hard at times! lol.
So there we go I'm not the best mum, but I'm not too bad, :) I did manage to think of some things I have stuck to.
1 - My kids won't eat loads of junk food - I was so proud when we were watching Jamie Olivers school dinner show and both kids knew all the vegtables, well except califlower but they dont usually see it with green leaves they usually see it just in the florets. lol
2 - I will teach my children manners - Yep, both of them say please, thank you and your welcome. Always proud when we go out to dinner and they sit nicely at the table. :)
3 - They will read!!!! - I was amazed to find out recently that 3 in 10 children dont own a book! That's madness! Me and Mark both love to read so were determined our kids will too. And working so far, both of them have loads of books, have a bedtime story every night (or two if they're good) and we visit the libery at least 3 times a week which they always love.
4 - They will not sit inside all day and watch tv - Given the choice both kids would rather be outside, running, playing at the park, anything. Mum often comments Cameron should have been born on a farm the amount of just running around outside he does. lol. They do watch tv, but like time on the DS that has to be earned too. :)
So see I'm not TOO bad of a mother. though saying that they're only 3 and 4. Lots of time for me to mess them up yet! lol. Oh, just a quick layout before I go pick up Caitlin. :)

First day at school!!!!

Well I've been dreading this day for a LONG time, thought I was prepared, thought I was ready. um, nope. lol. Look how smart my baby looks!

So today was his first day at school. He was fine, bravest of all of us. :) Went in quite happily, sat down on the mat, came out all excited and ready to go again tomorrow. Very proud mummy. :)

My mum thinks I look sad in this photo, like I don't want to let him go. Which is true but I thought I'd hid it well. lol. Mum was worse than me! We left to take him a little early and went round my mums and dads so they could see him. Both were crying before he even got to the door! At least I held out till I dropped him off. lol. Will be more crying later as found out this morning Caitlins going to nursery 3 mornings a week instead of two. The crying will be from her this time not me though, she hated going one! lol
Anyway on a less tearful note, on my desk at the moment is a pile of forms and bits and bobs I need to do, but this is more interesting. :)
Few weeks back I sold one of my dies I didn't use, along with a few other bits. So I used the money to buy the gadget gears die, and some pretty bling that was on sale. :) Also some thickers which I desperatly need as all mine either have no s' or e's lol.

Well off to pick Caitlin up from nursery and break the news shes going back tomorrow. Wish me luck! lol

Christmas

Well, Thursday went no better than Wednesday, in fact it was worse. I'd gone to a meeting with the council to try and get Kieron (oldest girls dad) a house so he could try and have them full time. Well Wednesday they were having none of it. Apparently a 2 bedroomed flat is fine for a couple, a baby and 2 girls. Unfortunately his partner disagreed and kicked him out Wednesday night. Thursday we returned to the council to be told by social services to just take the girls back. Kieron cried, I cried, Mollie cried. :( Oh it was horrible. :( So the girls went back that night. Not much else has happened since then. Im avoiding Nicola if I can as I'm just so angry but there you go. :(
Anyway, to cheer myself up I decided to wrap up the gifts I've got the kids for Christmas. I'm hiding them in my mums loft as no room here so will take them round all wrapped tomorrow. :) These are the ones I got for Caitlin.

This is her Hello Kitty Oven. I almost didnt buy this but so glad I did :)

This is Camerons pile.

Now looking at it I now realise Caitlins is smaller than camerons, so will need to buy her a few cheap bits to bulk hers up as we've spent roughly the same on each of them and don't want to go too over that. Oh the difficulties is getting things even!!! I don't envy those who have 3 or more! lol

Another day, another meeting

Well I said I'd tell you what I did yesterday depending on how well it went, well it went rubbish, lol, so having a second attempt today. I tell you what all this stress and worry is doing wonders for my diet, think last time I had breakfast was Sunday, don't have time to eat until I get home which usually is at night. lol.
Anyway, I said I'd post some more about layouts I've done so here they are, both from Disney again, and both scraplifted from the DT booklet. This one of the main street parade. I took loads of photos here but so hard to get good ones. Still wanted to scrap what I had though as was a big part of the holiday. The 2'11 in the corner is because we went in February 2011 and I didnt have a / in the alphas pack, lol.

More bling, lol

Not a disney one now, this was taken on my birthday last year when we went to Stamford. Was a great day out and kids had a great time. :)

Loved this word tree, such a great idea for using up the little bits I'd probably otherwise not use.

Well Camerons last day at nursery today (tissues at the ready!) He's excited to be starting school but I have a feeling that might dampen down a bit when he starts to miss his nursery friends but we'll see, can't believe hes getting so grown up!!