Sketchy scrappers

Sketchy scrappers is a group I'm in on UKS. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before but for those not paying attention it's a group where each month a sketch is put up which everyone does a layout based on. It is always great to see what everyone does :) This was this months sketch.

I actually did this ages ago lol but couldnt show you until now. Every year we make a christmas cake or somthing with the kids and this year we did a biscuit tree. The kids had a great time making it but Caitlins asked for a gingerbread house this year lol.

I actually really enjoyed this sketch, all the circles were really easy and I loved the layered effect it gave so decided to do it again on a double layout.

More Christmas cooking, lol. I saw an advert where a puff pastry roll was used to make mince pie wheels, great idea I thought but as none of us like mince pie filling we used marshmallows and chocolate spread. OMG it was discusting! The inside didnt cook quite right and the marhsmallows melted into a big cloying mess. So that ended that experiment, lol.

Oh well it was fun to make :)

Change

I realllllllly want to redo the living room! I get bored easy and now the holiday is over I've got nothing to distract me lol. We can't afford to do the whole thing again (furniture, paint etc) so think I'm just going to repaint the walls and maybe move things about a bit. We've managed to clear lots more space in the garage (not enough to put the car in but don't think that'll ever happen lol) so planning to move some of the kids toys in there to give more room in their rooms. I know I'm forever moving stuff about but this house is just so tiny! its literally half the size of our old house, which is nice as its cosy but by god theres never enough room, lol. Speaking of making room I haven't scrapped in ages! While we were away this months Sarahs cards kit arrived.

Along with my scrapbook magazine. Marks out tonight so maybe get a bit done then :) still have a few half finished layouts on my desk so hopefully finish those too, lol.

back to normal :)

Well three days since we got back from Turkey and the washings done, ironings almost done and food is restocked. :) Kids went back to school/nursery and think they're pleased to be getting back to normal too, lol. Wont last long though, half term next week! The holiday though was amazing! All my worries were groundless, the food was amazing (gained 9lbs, lol) and the kids had an amazing time. The weather was nice, not too hot, think it was hotter here tbh lol, so we spent most of the time by the pool. Was glad I brought the inflatables with me as they were never off them!

The staff were so nice too, couldnt do enough for us. They were a little too enamored with caitlin though, always ruffling her hair and talking to her, she wasnt impressed as she likes her own space but its her own fault for being so cute :p She did make a bit of a mess one night bless her, we were at dinner and the waiter had filled her water up too much, she picked it up carefully trying not to spill and he grabbed it to help her. Obviously at this point she pushed him away and hid in my arm, lol, but to make sure it didn't happen again as soon as he was gone she pushed the glass away, spilling it all over the table and mums food! Did stop him from coming back though lol.

On the subject of drinks, all were free, lol. Me and Mum would often go for cocktails after the kids club. There was free wifi in the lobby so kept us up to date with facebook too :) 

We went on a few trips while there too. The best by far was the kids 'sunsplash cruise' It was on a little boat where the adults relaxed on sunbeds on the top and the kids were entertained by the reps in the shaded bit downstairs. Caitlin met a lovely little boy called Archie there and they were pretty much joined at the hip the rest of the holiday :) Was nice to have her go and play and not get clingy to me. 

We also went to a local market which was SO cheap! Got loads of bits and only spent about £60.

Last one was the mudbaths, which in my opinion were pretty rubbish. I thought it was going to be all mud but it was really watery with all the mud at the bottom. They did have a hot springs pool there too which the kids loved. :)

Don't know if I mentioned it before I left but we went to the drs and Mark was given the OK to swim :) Was a good job really as had a hard time getting Caitlin out of the pool! Her friend Archie was a really good swimmer so obviously Caitlin was determined to be too :) She did really well, spending hours just swimming around in circles with her arm bands on :) Going to look at getting her swimming lessons along with Cameron. 

Quite sad its all over now. Probably won't be able to afford one next year so looking to the year after :) Any suggestions? lol

WOYWW

Not much blogging from me lately, but to be honest I've not really done much! lol. Went shopping with my mum for holiday clothes on Sunday. We shopped from 10am to 4pm and I got a bra and shoes, and she got a pair of shorts. What we did all day I have no idea, lol. Other than that just been cleaning, reading and sorting out the garage and garden when we've had a bit of sun, sporadic as thats been. Anyway back to WOYWW. :) I still can't share the layout I did for the sketch challenge on UKS but one element of it was lots of circles. I loved how this looked so have used it again on a double layout I'm doing.

I'm trying to use up all or most of a kit before resining the rest to the scraps box, so lots of Christmas layouts will be done in the next few days I think. lol. I've certainly got plenty of photos to use up anyway! Another kit I need to use is this one. :) Im hosting a kit swap on UKS and this is the one I got. Scrapping night tonight I think :)

Woo hoo theres some sun!

It's kinda sad how excited I am that I can put my washing out on the line, lol. Perfect timeing really as the last of the summer clothes have been brought out, sorted and washed. Now all hanging on the line getting dried :)Means a big ironing pile tonight but oh well. lol I've also been doing a bit of scrapping :) One I can't show you as its for a challenge but did a couple while watching Britains got talent that are ok. This is a picture of me, Caitlins and my mum at christmas. mum bought her a Peppa pig music set which she loves, but obviously we had to be a band too. lol. This did start out being coppied from a sketch but I wasn't paying attention when cutting the red paper and cut it too small so kinda made it up from then on lol.

I haven't added the journaling to this one yet, planning on doing it in the pink space on the right and side of the page, but it seems to take me ages to add journaling as I move on to another layout so thought I'd best photograph it now lol.

Can hear banging from upstairs *sigh* typically as soon as I'd gutted the kids rooms this morning and sorted out all their toys they wanted to play in there. Going to have to do a big clear out of Camerons room when we come back from holiday as he's got so many toys hes grown out of now. Theres a HUGE box of duplo under his bed he never touches anymore because he plays with the older, tiny lego (fun to stand on in the middle of the night I tell you!) Hes still got loads of Thomas track too which he rarely plays with as its more 'hot wheels' now. Caitlin however plays with everything she has so don;t heave the heart to get rid of her stuff. Though really a lot of hers are the bigger role play toys, like houses, farms and the toy shop and Cameron plays with those too. Caitlin made me laugh the other day, my mum and dad came round and dad was forced to be a customer at Caitlins shop. So he picks all his plastic food he wants, goes to her at her till and hands her some of her plastic pennies 'No Grandad reall money!' She demands! Dad didnt help the situation when he actually gave her some real money though, lol. Not daft is she!

I did a layout!! lol. First time I've scrapped for myself in ages. I spent so long sorting my desk and then doing a book for my sisters friend I can't remember the last time I did a layout for me. This was a layout for a sketch group I'm in on UKS. This was the sketch this month.

And this was the layout I did :) Most of the papers are from an old Sarahs Cards kit, but the blue is a christmas sheet to tie in with the christmas photos. Both are of the kids holding their christmas lists for santa. I love that they're old enough now to do those things with. :) Cameron wrote his by himself while Mark wrote caitlins and she drew pictures of them. Both were so proud to give them to santa when we visted.

I've now run out of all my bling swirls and shapes (cry!) so making lots of my own at the moment. lol. So I'm tending to make my own using Bazzil stiches templates and the single pearls and crystals I have. To be honest I've done so well using up my old stuff and not buying more I'm actually starting to run out of basic things! Scary. Better start making a list for my birthday now, lol

Well I have no idea what we're doing today, lol. Got to go to asda to get some shopping but other than that I've no idea. Weathers rubbish again so more indoor games I think, glad we still have things from their birthday they havent touched, keeps them busy!

Going green.

Now I consider myself to be quite a Eco-friendly person. I recycle where I can, used cloth nappies with both my kids and walk unless I need to. However I do admit I don't go out of my way to buy organic or Eco-friendly shopping. For two reasons, 1 - its usually nowhere near as good as the chemical filled stuff, 2 - its usually twice the price. So when I was given the opportunity to test a new product range called 'Naturally powered' I wasn't expecting much. Theres lots of cleaning items in the range, washing powders, washing up liquid and an anti-bacterial spray, which is what I was given to try and is described on the website as follows:
Be tough on germs and bugs in the home with our antibacterial multi-surface spray. Made from plant-derived cleaning ingredients, it kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses, including E.coli, MRSA and Influenza A-H1N1 – ensuring surfaces are safe for all the family. The spray leaves surfaces streak free and has been dermatologically tested. Plus it's been performance tested to make sure it has the outstanding results you expect.
Its available in a 500ml spray bottle like this.

Based on the description and bottle it sounds very similar to my usual Dettol spray. This is described on their website as follows:
Dettol Surface Cleanser spray kills 99.9% of bacteria, including E.coli, Salmonella, MRSA and the Flu virus. With non bleach, no taint, and no odour, it is suitable to be used around baby equipment and food preparation tool.
Furthermore, Dettol Surface Cleanser is the only household cleaner to be recommended by Allergy UK as it removes 90% of allergens, such as pollen particles, dust mites and pet dander

So for the sake of this review, I'll be comparing these two products on what I think is important. First off:

Smell - This is the first thing I notice when I use it obviously, and it's nice to have something to combat the garlic/burnt toast/curry smells I'm often cleaning up in the kitchen. The Dettol smell is subtle perfume ish smell. Nice enough really. Naturally powered is definitely citrus, again subtle but both are enough to get the smells off my counter :) Both good but I'll award first point to Naturally powered as it doesn't make my nose tingle. lol.

Dettol - 0 Natually powered - 1

Cleaning - Both seemed to clean my kitchen counter well, :) left it clean and shiny, so I decided to put it to a tougher test. Dried porridge. Now I maintain if we ever run out of concrete in the world, dried porridge will work just as well! Was a nice treat for the kids this morning as its usually a weekend breakfast lol, so this review works all round. :) Cameron was as neat as usual, Caitlin however still manages to get most of it on the table which never fails to amaze me. Anyway, left the mess while I did the dishes then came back with a spray bottle in each hand. Spray on, leave a moment, wipe. No more porridge! Have to admit I was pleasantly surprised that the eco spray worked just as well as its chemical cousin.

Dettol - 1 Natually powered - 2 (only fair to give one each as both worked well)

Killing bugs - Obviously I can't see this, and going by the information given both seem to kill the same bugs. However a slight edge goes to Dettol for killing allergens as well as bacteria.

Dettol - 2 Naturally powered - 2

Price - So we have a tie! Both seem to work well and smell nice, so the tie breaker will be price. Like I said before I usually find you pay through the nose for eco products so lets have a look.

Dettol anti-bacterial spray, 500ml - £2.02. Naturally powered anti-bacterial spray 500ml - £1.80. Its actually frigging cheaper!
So final score

Dettol - 2 Naturally powered - 3  



Think I'll be changing from now on :)

Birthdays all done :)

Sigh of relief, it's all over for another year lol. Just trying to find a place for all the toys now! Regretting buying her a Barbie fashionista castle, WAY bigger than I thought it was! Doesn't fit in her room so stuck in the living room, along with everything else the toys are now slowly taking over again. lol But Catilin had a great birthday :) We first went down my grans so she could get her gifts there. Was funny as she doesnt often go down without Cameron and she was really shy! Always amazes me how much she relys on him. She soon brightened up though and opened her gifts.

At her birthday party someone bought her a disney cd with some disney princess songs on and a book she could read the songs along with. Caitlin was SO excited about listening to it in the car, so we're driving along, she looks confused and asks 'when does the story start?' poor girls face just fell when I said it was just music. My heart bled for her! So my brilliant granny got her some books and cd storys for her birthday :)
I love this photo, Caitlins so expressive compared to her brother lol. Shes a huge fan of Hello Kitty stuff. No idea where shes never seen a programme or read a book of her, lol, but this is her opening a Hello Kitty jumper my mum got her.

See what I mean by expressive, lol, this is her new toy shop, another huge toy in my tiny living room, lol.

Recognise the charecter on the cake? lol The candles we used were sparkler ones, which while pretty are SO hard to blow out, lol. Ended up taking 3 of them to do it.

So this morning was immunisations. Cameron was fine as usual and caitlin was ok.Nurse was a lot nicer but chatted to her for ages first. I think she was trying to put her at ease but I just kept thinking 'get on with it woman!' lol, Camerons back at school now so onto the housework!

Having kids

Obviously this time of year I spend a lot of time thinking about the kids births, babyhoods and how things have changed since then. When I got pregnant everyone told me about the things I was giving up, free time, sleep, money etc but theres so much nobody even mentioned! How every sneeze and sniffle will have me worrying about killer bird flu, how I will NEVER feel I'm doing enough, how I will happily spend £120 on 4 UV resistant, sun safe costumes for the kids, but £18 for a bikini for me is just too much, how I never feel comeplete untill we're all under the same roof again. It just changes every aspect of your life. Its like this upcoming holiday, swear I'll be happier when we get back home, lol. before when i went away I'd worry about there being enough to do, having enough money, looking like a whale on the beach and thats it. Now its money, suncream, mosquito bites, stuff to do, food, hygine, dehydration, people who might want to kidnapp/assult/hurt the kids, plane crash, illneses, what if they get bored/scared/lost/sick/want to come home?! I'm so glad I'm going with my mum and dad, feels a lot safer and another 2 sets of eyes on the kids will keep me calm no end. Logically I know most of my worries are unfoundedmy mum certainly told me so when i shared my latest worry about what if the plane crashes in the water and camerons the only survivor and is stuck in the water all alone?! Granted her exact words were 'if the plane crashes we're all dead go get a drink and calm down' lol but OMG its so hard!! And the scary thing is, this is the easy part! God help me when tey grow up and go out in the world and make their own choices. How are more parents not alchoholics? And on that note I'm off to get a glass of wine and remember that this time 4 years ago I was just getting ready to go to hospital to have my wonderful baby girl :) But before Caitlins birthday fully starts heres some photos from Cams birthday

Birthday Party :)

Saturday was the long awaited, much anticipated birthday party. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Will anyone show up? Will there be enough food? Have I made enough party bags? It was bloody horrible! lol. Almost took one of the Vallium the dr prescribed me. Turned out I was worried about nothing :) Lots showed up, was plenty of food and lots of party bags left over so all in all a good night. :) The kids had a great time too, obviously I made them have some photos taken before they left. Camerons going through a phase where he just cannot smile like a normal person! He either smiles showing his teeth and looks like hes grimicing, or he sucks his lips in, and looking at the camera? Just doesnt happen! lol. So even though I took loads and bribed and begged, this was the best one. :) Still sucking his lips in but at least hes looking at the camera.

I didn't get many pictures at all at the party, the kids were never still for long enough. Dissapointing but shows what a great time they were having. was nice to meet so many of their friends and parents too as often hear about the kids but no idea who they are. lol. Cameron in particular had a little shadow in the form of a boy named Jack, who strangly isnt mentioned too much normally, lol, he spent most of the night hugging and holding Camerons hand. I was actually pretty impressed at how nice and well behaved the kids all were to be honest. Obviously working in schools before I've seen how nasty some kids are to each other but they were all playing nice, hugging and helping each other out. Makes me much happier to send him to school to be honest. :) This is the best photo I took all night, lol. As it was at a place called Cheeky monkees, the cake is brought out by a giant monkey. Caitlin is NOT fond of people in costumes so she is off somewhere with Mark while this was taken, but Camerons quite happy, and a normal smile for once!

Things are still going well with my sister, so she came along with the girls. Lillies going through the phase all the kids seem to go through where Mark is the best thing since sliced bread, I think it's because he just acts like a big clown, lol. my Gran calls him Mr tumble. SO many people have asked me since if shes mine as Mark had her for pretty much the whole night, lol. Shes a cutie though, :) Doesnt help with my broodyness!

Well off to town this afternoon, now the party is done focus has shifted to the holiday, so got to get some money out to exchange, and also get some shopping as the cupboards are very empty! lol