My week in pictures :)

In all honesty its been a pretty boring week, lol. One of the main reasons I havent blogged much, but here we go anyway :)
Saturday - Saturday was a, well interesting day. Weather was rubbish, kids were moody and house was a mess. As soon as I cleaned one room they'd trashed the next! So Saturday night this was certinly called for :) Yummy Martini and lemonade :)

Sunday we woke up and there was this strange yellow thing in the sky. Took us a while to work out it was the sun! Thought we'd make the most of it so packed a picnic and went to the park. :) To make a day of it we went out to dinner afterwards :) There was a bit of a wait so I thought the kids how to make houses from the coasters. Cameron, like always, took it very seriously lol.

Monday was the football! Cameron was so excited about watching his first football game with daddy and insisted they both wear their football shirts. I made hot dogs and doughnuts and they really enjoyed it. :) I was surprised that Cameron actually watched the whole thing, I thought he'd get bored but he loved it. Was funny watching him shout at the tv along with Mark, he even shouted at the ref for 'telling off the blue man, he knocked down the white man and that's cheating!'

Tuesday i convinced Mark to add this to our virgin package, :) We had it before but got rid of it to save money but tbh I missed it. Not just the films but the kids are a bit old for playhouse disney now, but too young for 'wizards of wavery place' and all the bits on the general disney channel. So 'Lilo and stitch' the series and all that are perfect for them. :) Plus more Disney films for me/them. lol.

Wednesday i usually work but as the Queen was coming to visit most of the roads in our town was shut off so stayed home. Made the most of the time though doing housework and putting photos in my new frame for the wall. :)

Thursday, keeping up with the whole improving the living room idea I decided to repaint the banister. Its one of those things where you dont realise how shabby it looks until you repaint it iykwim. Poor caitlin though, I said to her it was wet so dont touch it, what does she do? Put her hand right on it and promptly start screaming! I told her she wasn't in trouble, it wouldnt hurt her etc but she didnt calm down until I washed it off. lol.

Frida, well today is going to be mainly about ironing and sorting out the kids toys (again). Now they have lego and dolls houses and all this stuff with tiny bits it drives me mad finding them everywhere. SO need to sort it out every now and again and put it back where it belongs. But thats gonna be a dull photo so thought I'd share a layout I finished last night :)

Right well better get started. Caitlins watching tv so good time to start it!

Scrapping :)

Yey I've actually scrapped :) None of them have titles yet though so thought I'd share some older ones I finally finished last night too, lol. They just needed journalling really but I have a tendency to abandon journalling and titles and start another layout istead.
This was one I did to use up lots of leftover letters. It was the first sheet of letters cameron brought home from school so thought it would be nice to keep :)

I had originally planned to put more on this layout but I really liked it with all the white space, few sprits of blue mist and I thought it was done. :) Love this photo of Caitlin, was at Peppa pig world in the water area which she loved. I love how happy she looks running away from the fountains.

Bit of blue misting to make the background a little less plain. :)

Last one, using up the last scraps from an old kit. While we were in the queue to see Santa a couple of years ago Mark decided to teach Caitlin to wink to keep her occupied, they all found it hilarious for some reason lol.

So quite a productive night last night :) Finished these and a few more and did 3 new ones. I think the problem with my mojo was that I was trying to force myself to finish a kit before I started a new one, but I'd get bored of the kit and not want to go back to it. However I've seriously started to run out of paper! Which is good and bad at the same time, lol, so adopting a more 'use what I want to use' approach. :)

The sun was out!

Well yesterday was the last day of the kids holidays and luckily the sun made an apperance :) We made the most of it and packed a picnic for East Carlton park. The kids had a great time and I got some good photos too :) We all love the park because theres a playground area and also huge woods for the kids to run around and get lost in, :) With us obviously lol. Cameron loves being the leader and showing everyone where to go lol.



But back to normal today :) Cameron was quite happy to get back to school. Seemed quite excited about the rain as apprently they watch a film during indoor play so fingers crossed it continues. Doing my grass the world of good too :) Planning on housework today, then making hot dogs and chips for dinner. Marks all excited because its englands first euro 2012 match tonight and Cameron wants to watch :) Probably wont last until half time but its nice they can share it for a bit. Think I might bribe caitlin with sweets and a dvd in her room so I can watch too! lol

my week in pictures

Look at me, managed it two weeks in a row lol. Don't think I'd do it without my phone camera though.
Saturday was very relaxing :) Didnt really do much, just pottered about doing housework and they kids played at home. They also played computer games with Mark which I'm not thrilled at but there you go, lol.

Sunday was all about Lego! As I said in my other post I spent the whole day sorting out Camerons unplayed with lego to sell and he suddenly decides he loves it. Typical. lol

Monday was another relaxing day. Actually managed to do some scrapping in the daytime too :)

Tuesday was a nice day :) Thought I'd better get the kids out after not doing much so took them to a friends house in the morning. She's recently moved home so went to see her new house which was really nice :) Cameron goes to school with her daughter so the kids had a great time playing too :) In the afternoon we went to my mums house and baked jam tarts. Well some were jam tarts, some had chocolate spread, some had kiwi, some weren't even tarts they were just rolls of pastry the kids had done. lol. But all good fun :)

Wednesday was a loooooong day. Caitlin hates having her hair tied up in any way, which is annoying as her hair tangles easily and then she cries when its brushed (she refuses to see the connection) On wednesday her hair seemed to take on a life of its own and decided to get tangled onto items as well! She got it caught on the washing basket, Marks shirt, and then when I was relaxing in the bath she comes up crying. holding this car which had attached itself to her hair *sigh* To be honest this isnt new, lol, last year I heard a tearing sound, turned around to see caitlin holding one of Camerons trains with a big chunk of her hair attached to the wheel She actually jad a bald spot but didnt seem to hurt her!

Thursday was the best day of the week! Like most other people I often have a battle in my head of what I want to do, and what I should do. I've always wanted to take the kids to Florida. However at 6k its just way out of our price range, :( I did all the reserch I could trying to find a way but no chance. So, as a compromise between my head and heart (and with mark too lol) we will now be spending the kids birthdays next year here! For those of you who dont recognise this picture its hotel cheyane in disneyland paris :) OK we really cant afford it but to hell with it I'll figure it out later Lol.

Friday was all about his. My poorly baby girl. In all honesty I feel like hell myself but you know what its like kids come first. Glad mark was feeling ok today though and could help out. Wouldnt have managed if he was having a bad day.

Tomorrow we have a plumber apprently coming to give us a quote to do the bathroom (cant afford that either but hey ho lol) and going to sort out a few bits to sell too :) Hmmm wonder if those two things are related. lol

its still half term

Remind me never to book a holiday just before half term again! lol. The kids had just started getting back into a routine and calming down and then half term starts *sigh* Cameron literally ran into a wall yesterday lol. Caitlins back at nursery this morning though so just the one child to deal with and Marks keeping him occupied by playing Mario, lol.
Just waiting for a phonecall and getting very tense (I don't DO waiting!!) but more on that tomorrow :)
I did manage some scrapping the other day, to be honest reading more than scrapping lately. Think with the kids home I've no energy to scrap by the end of the day lol.

Ok being honest I've no idea what I'm putting down on here while waiting for the call back (its not bad news dont worry) so will say bye now! lol

Bank holiday, doing nothing lol

Well today is bank holiday and we are doing.......nothing lol. My facebook is full of people having parties, going away etc but my plans for today are sorting washing and maybe taking the kids for a walk. Sounds dull but it's actually what the kids picked. :) Think they've had enough action with the holiday and all the activities at school last week.
Anyway yesterday I decided to sort out Camerons room a bit, he has toys in there that actually have dust on they're so neglected so wanted to get rid of a few to make some more room. One bit thing was a huge box of Duplo we got at a car boot about a year ago, was a good buy as was a RUB box filled with cars/Thomas duplo for £5. In all honesty I've never actually built up the individual sets which in retrospect is probably why Camerons never bothered with it. So with the plan to sell them I spent ALL day yesterday figuring out what sets were in there, finding pictures of them online, sorting out the bits, building them and photographing them. What happens? Cameron comes in 'Oh those are SO cool Mummy! Can I keep them? I love them!' *sigh* So we made a deal, I got to tidy his room and put some toys in the garage (4 large boxes worth!) he wasn't allowed to see what I'd removed and if he asked for it between now and Christmas he could keep it, otherwise I'm selling it. :) Was impressed with all the duplo though, £5 for a RUB box and what turned out to be over £100 worth of sets. lol.
Well it's been a while since I've done any scrapping and I really need to get back into it. Don't want the kits and papers to build up again! lol.
These are OLD photos of Caitlin and my Gran, was trying to get a nice photo of the two of them but Caitlin was in a giggle mood and would not stay still, lol.

These little tags were ideal for these photos :)

This photo was taken by Mark on his phone last summer. Caitlin had ice cream all over her mouth so not the most dignified of pictures, lol.

Love these little sentiments, thought the 'show me your smile' one went with the picture very well. lol

Well hopefully will be able to do some more tonight, or maybe even this afternoon if the kids are busy enough :)

My week in photos

I've often seen this on other blogs but never remembered to do it myself, but this week somehow I managed! lol. So this was my week, :) Saturday we got back from Turkey so unfortunatly was all about this. Washing and ironing, bah, never been so glad for sun though as ment I was able to wash and dry 6 loads in one day!

Sunday we were all a bit more refreshed and on top of the washing so I sorted out the stuff we'd bought while away. :) To be honest we didnt get that much, few bits to go on the walls in the garden and some clothes from the market. Oh and 2 handbags :) This was Caitlins souvenir she picked (Camerons was a truck, lol) she loves it because when she swishes the skirt the metal bits all make a tinkle noise.

Monday and back to school and nursery! I think Cameron was quite happy to go back to be honest to tell everyone about his holiday. It didnt last he was crying this morning saying he didnt want to go lol.

Tuesday was Marks 35th birthday, since we'd just come back from turkey we were pretty skint so a quiet night in was on the cards lol. He got the new sherlock holmes dvd so we just stayed in and watched that :)

Wednesday was my 'work' day, the mum I work with is Italian and she kindly gave some cakes to the kids. As you can see Caitlin enjoyed hers. :)

Thursday was garden/garage work. Granted it would have been a better idea to do it earlier in the week when it was sunnier but live and learn lol. Front garden is all full of flowers again now :)

Today! Well this morning we have a little visitor, lol. My sister has a meeting so we're babysitting Lillie. Tonight Camerons at my mum and Marks out so some girly time needed I think :)

Hope everyones looking forward to the long weekend. We're doing absolutly nothing, lol.

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 :)