Smile

Another busy day! Took the kids up town to buy bits for the Christmas shoebox appeal. Basically you fill a shoebox with toys and little bits and it's sent to a child who is in need. Usually coming up to Christmas we go through the kids rooms and donate toys and clothes to charity, but we did this at the end of Summer so doubt there will be much yet so thought this would be a good alternative.
Of course it was difficuilt. Everything we found seems to either be tat, really expencive, made of tiny bits that will break in moments or takes batteries. Caitlin also had her heart set on getting a skipping rope to put in. Easy enough you would think? Nope, took us AGES to find one!
So 4 hours of shopping later we were home and time to chill out. Or in my case, paying bills online and doing questionnaires. Tomorrow is babysitting and cleaning. Rock and roll!
Managing to do a little scrapping too, not this one granted but still lol. I love layouts that let me use lots of scraps and little embellishments and this one was perfect.

I'm making quick progress on my Christmas projects so hopefully will have time for more scrapping, woohoo!

Forever and ever

I'm a very lucky girl, look what I got!!!!!! Very early Christmas gift from my very sweet and generous family :) I was sooooooooo excited!

Amazed at how idiot proof it is. I'm dreadful with technology but I've managed to download patterns from the shop, make my own designs, woohoo! Still lots to learn but I've loving playing with it at the moment :)
This layout does use a diecut but its one my friend sent me not one I did myself. May try and find it and use it again though :)

The photo my Mum took with her phone when we were in Disney. Was a simple shot but ended up being one of my fave from the weekend. The die cut was such a focus I didn't really do much else but love this layout.

Picture perfect

Well today was over as soon as it began lol. One of Caitlins friends came to play, then my Gran came for dinner, time to walk the dog, then baths, movie, and before I know it its 10pm!
So no scrapping today :( Almost finished the kids Christmas eve boxes though so plodding on with those. :)
The is a layout I did for a challenge on a facebook group. You had to scrap in a different size than usual so as I only usually do 12x12 I did 8 1/2 by 11. Less space to work with so slightly plainer layout.

I used the City break kit from Like for ever here, and a photo of Caitlin from Disneyland last year. For some reason she loves the popcorn there, doesn't like it anywhere else, just there lol. I was teasing her and saying I would take it so she was shoving as much as she could in her mouth to stop me when she just burst out laughing and I caught this photo. :) Dignified, no, adorable, yes :)

Hi Santa

Its Monday isn't it? and we're still in October? I swear I have no idea anymore. On one hand this month has sped by, days are blurring into each other with appointments, bills, jobs to do etc, but on the other hand it seems like its been October for a loooooooooong time.
I think not working, staying home with mark daily and basically basing the days of he week on the kids activities and whats on TV that night really messes up my internal calender. That said I'm not the brightest bulb in the box at times so could be that too, hehe.
So its half term here! We had a few appointments Saturday and the kids were very patient so we took them to the cinema Sunday as a treat. A friend had given us free tickets to go see Storks so bonus :) OK film, kids liked it but didn't gush about it like they do sometimes when we see a film. Think it was a bit silly at times.
Today Cam had one of his friends round to play. We'd never met him before so was a little nervous as I've met some of the kids in his class and well, they're not the nicest kids. This little boy though was so sweet and polite, thrilled he's found such a nice kids to be friends with. Cameron doesn't have the easiest time making friends as there are a lot of social situations he struggles with, so huge weight off my mind he's found a nice new friend. :)
Tomorrow is Caitlins turn to have a friend over but Lucy we have known for years so no surprises there. Well prepared for lots of giggling, screaming, probably glitter or paint being spilled, the usual girly stuff ;)
So I know we're still in October but I've almost finished my Christmas shopping, yey! In my defense as the kids are getting older they're asking for pricier things, which is fine but obviously means they don't get as much so shopping is done much quicker.
To make the pennies stretch further I bought a lot in the 3 for 2 Argos sale at the start of the month, cashed in a ton of vouchers for Amazon and ordered a few bits from China which take an AGE to come but are pennies compared to UK prices. I love my bargains!
So I'm still working on some of the many, many Christmas photos I've taken and not scrapped. This one is a good 4/5 years old.

Journaling reads:
You guys had a great time at my Homestart Christmas party. The DJ was seriously loud, and the queue to see Santa was huge, but you were all so well behaved and patient. Mollie was not a big fan of Santa so she waited outside but we still got her a gift. I'm so proud of you all.'
I'll be taking new Christmas photos soon!!!!!! *excited squeal!*

90s weekend!

Well this time last week I was just arriving down at Camber Sands with my Mum. We always go away for a weekend near Christmas, usually shopping at Milton keynes, but when I saw a Groupon for a 90s weekend we picked that instead.
As anyone who knows me knows, I'm not great at geography, I thought Russia was America until I couple of years ago, so imagine my surprise when I found out that Camber Sands was NOT in Great Yarmouth like I thought, but almost 4 hours away, woops!
Was a bit of a drive down, we stopped off at Milton keynes on the way and did a bit of shopping (obviously) and we got there just in time to have a quick bite to eat and go to the bar to watch Damage and S club party! Was actually a great night lol, very retro and fun. We're both lightweights so were back and in bed by 12:30!
The next morning we went for breakfast then a nice long walk along the beach. The beach is stunning there and though it was windy it was dry and a great start to the morning.

Mum was wiped so we went back to the room where I relaxed with a glass of wine, large bar of chocolate and a new book (started and finished the same day lol) while Mum slept. Heaven!

We had planned to go see a show in the afternoon but Mum slept ALL day so I sat and happily read while she slept. She was up just in time for dinner and getting ready before the show that night.
I admit the main reason I wanted to go was the Saturday night show, 911!!! I LOVED them growing up! I've seen them in concert loads but obviously they were all at huge arenas so was so weird to be right at the front. Jimmy and Lee actually caught my eye a few times and I giggled like a 5 year old pmsl.
Was a great night :) My Mum had to be home Sunday morning for a christening so we left at 1am to drive home. Quite glad we did as I randomly set the satnav and just drove. Wasn't until I was looking around and thought 'That looks like the O2? OMG ITS THE O2!!! I'M DRIVING THROUGH LONDON!!!!!' If it was day time I think I'd have just parked the car and rung my Dad to come get me lol. Even though it was still pretty busy at 3am I managed it and was pretty bloody proud of myself!!!
Was a fun weekend, more memories made with my Mum and more photos taken to scrap. Perfect.
Ending with a layout I did a while ago but found again the other day. We were at Wicksteed park looking for conkers and Cameron was VERY excited to find one!

Love this PL card, perfect title for the photo.

Is it luck or is it skill?

Another super old photo scrapped here! Had a load developed but still trying to use up the older ones first.
This was taken in one of the Haven parks, I think it was in Skegness but not positive. Cameron loved watching me play on the crane machines but as we all known they're fixed so winning is very rare. He asked me lots of times if he could have a go but knowing he could be disappointed I convinced him not to play; then we found a 'prize every time' machine ;)

Obviously I didn't tell him that, lol. He had a great time and thought he was the best player ever!

Soooo behind on scrapping and blogging, this month has seriously just run away with me :( Hoping to get a bit more on top of things now rather than letting them get on top of me.

September recap

OK so we're in October now and I'm starting to think I was very optimistic in my aims for the year.
Oh well, will keep trying lol.

Games to complete
- Professor layton, The lost future
- Silent hill origins
- Yoshis wooly world
- Uncharted
- Silent hill the room
- Pikmin 2
- Tomb radier rises
Yes I started a new one lol

Layouts done - 25
155/365

Cross stitch done - none. *hangs head* *again*

Books read:
Before I wake - c. l. taylor
Before I go to sleep - S. J watson
26/52

So not too badly on games or books, I'm accepting that I won't finish the cross stitch lol, but I'm surprised at the amount of layouts I've done, I honestly thought I did more than that usually. With Christmas coming up I'll probably get very little done so sadly don't think I'll hit any of my targets for the year. Woops!

Challenge YOUrself

Little late in posting this, but I seem to be running late with everything this month.
Been a bit much around here. Few legal issues, few health issues, doing some work in the house etc. Days are filling up very quickly!
But new month means new challenge over at Challenge YOUrself. This months was a nice easy colour challenge. I have a lot of kits made up from my stash so it's pretty simple to grab one based on theme or colour, such as Autumn in this case.

Picking a photo however was a little trickier. I've just had a huge amount of photos developed but most of those are from our Summer holiday so very bright, sunny photos. Then I found this selfie I took when we picked Caitlin up from her brownie camp. Her uniform goes perfectly with these colours so despite it only having half my and Marks face in it I decided to use it.

Journaling reads:
A whole day, one whole day with no contact with my baby girl. Dropping you off at Brownie camp on Friday was so hard! But you loved it! All the activities, the games, you were buzzing when we picked you up on Sunday.'

I suppose I better get used to her being away from me, shes signed up to go on a 3 day residential with her school next March!