Next sale!!

And what does that mean? 6am start! lol. I used to say that people who got up that early and queued in the cold were mad. Then I had kids and every penny counted!
Was really pleased his morning as got lots of really nice bits for Caitlin and also some bits for me which NEVER happens. lol. Wasn't much for boys or men at all so Cameron got a jumper and Mark a t-shirt. Mum wasn't too pleased as she got some new cushions for her living room. I got a txt later that day saying 'Your dads broke the cushions, I'm sending him to live with you.' Woops! So think dads in the dog house now. lol
So onto layouts. This one is actually called 'lets go crabbing' but the C doesn't show up too well. Theres a funny story behind this one. On our first holiday together I suggested to Mark we go looking for crabs at the beach. When we get there though its all that sludgy stuff, not proper sand. Now I've got new trainers on so Mark kindly gave me a piggy back so as not to ruin them. He ended up knee deep in the stuff. Then the coast guard drove past, shouted 'You are in danger! Get out off the beach!' And drove off! Thanks! lol. Well we managed to get back to the edge, I was spotless, Mark filthy and we had to throw his shoes away and get a new pair. lol

This one was for a challenge on UKS. Rules were:
Use several different fonts - Done
Take inspiration from nature - Flowers, rain, and nature colours (blues and greens)
Make your own embellishment - The flowers.
This is a photo taken in Greece years ago. Mark is terrified of heights, and theres a huge fortress on a VERY high hill I wanted to visit. I think theres something like 800 steps to get to the top. Bless him he tried to do it but was a bit much. Not surprising really as there was no hand rail and just a sheer drop!

This is for the Twilight challenge. Rules were:
3 or more different manufacturers papers - Pretty sure I've done this. I THINK the shiny pink one is DCWV, the circle is some random rubbish one, bazzil cardstock. :)
Black and White - Black and white dotty flower
Edges - Ive got crinkly cut edges on my title, and sanded the edges of the photo.
This is a scraplift from a LO on uks but cant for the life of me find it again. Its about snow though so thanks to whoever did it. :)

And this, ah this is whats taking over my life at the moment. :) I love mission games, and games where you can hack the heads of things all the better! I played the first when I was pregnant with Cameron and killing hundreds of zombies is a brill way of dealing with pregnancy hormones. Now its a brill way of dealing with the stresses of 'but mum I want it!!!!' lol

Hubby hopefully getting my computer fixed tomorrow, so hopefully will be blogging from a pc rather than a VERY slow laptop!

WOYWW

A great big cup of coffee! Thats whats on my desk today. lol. SO tired! Been doing lots of day trips with the kids latly, making the most of whats left of summer. Then dismantaling Camerons room and putting it all back together has killed me off almost. lol. The lo on the desk has been there since monday waiting for a title but not done it. WILL do it tonight!

On a good note Cameron adores his room. :) Have a hard time getting him out of it, its great really as he liked his own space and now has enough room to build his track and play properly. Will try and get a picture tomorrow. Not been tidy enough to photograph since he came home and saw it all done!
Sunday we went to a local farm and picked berries. Caitlin loves the farm though isn't too fond of animals touching her. lol She loves the park, digging in mud and it all. Not so girly my girl.

See, this goat came too close, shes squealing here and smacking her hands together. lol

Cameron loved the berry picking. Caitlin is sat on a bale of hay behind us eating a bag of berries, lol. Going to take them again soon as didnt realise they would enjoy it that much.

So berry picking, rabbits, park. good day out really!

Made the berries into jam. Was very pleased with myself as turned out really well! Kids and hubby like it so thats good. :)
Will share some layouts tomorrow after dancing, town, nursery and shopping. I dont know how working mums do it!

I thought I got a cat?

Rather than a dog/elephant/parrot? Bella is So strange, lol. She runs about the house running into things/falling off things/chasing her tail! She makes such a loud noise running too, lol, sounds like an elephant. Also her favourite place to be right now is also curled up on ether my or marks shoulder. See, strange.
Well on Friday we did a sponsored walk called 'The big toddle' in aid of Bernardo's. The kids did really well and it was so much fun. We walked around a Park then they were given a medal and a cupcake. :) This is them relaxing after their hard work.

They also had a magician afterwards and Cameron loved it! Was really surprised as hes not usually the show off one (that's Caitlins job, lol) but he took part in all the tricks and did really well. Caitlin was more content to just play in the park. lol

Well as I said before I've been doing more scrapping lately. Did a few challenges which I'm SO behind on. This is Amanda marys challenge on uks
Use a photo/s that represents someone/thing or how something has changed - From me playing 2p machines as a child, to playing them with my child!
Use journalling - across the bottom
Stripes to represent the fetes of childhood tents, any of the ice cream shades - in the background
I loved this one as made me have a different take on this photo than I probably would have otherwise. Journalling reads about how I don't see it when people say Cameron looks like me, but in this picture we have the exact same smile. And we also both love 2p machines! The $ in the corner is actually the first keyring he won while playing. Dread to think what it cost me. lol

This is the SAS scrappers weekly challenge. Rules being
Guilty pleasure/Obsession – hubby obsessed with star wars, guilty pleasure, holidays!
Chocolate brown – done
Circle - done
The title so much love has lots of meanings. The obvious being the father and son love, then my husbands LOVE of star wars (seriously, he used to recite the script to my stomach when I was pregnant) and our love of family holidays.

This wasn't done for a challenge. I just love the photo. lol

Well we went berry picking today. The kids were covered in blackberry juice and I now have a bowl full of blackberries and sloes I've been ordered to make into jam. Think my son actually expects it for his breakfast tomorrow. Oh well, he can have strawberry and see if he notices. lol

LISTS!!!

Ok latly I've been a bad blogger/scrapper/forum chatter. But things seem to be on the up. :) With the kids, Mark, other commitments and housework to deal with, I don't mind admitting its a very fine balance. lol. Well latly the balance has been heavily towards other commitments so everything else is all over the place! I hate when its like that as I feel so overwhelmed and can't seem to get anything right. Well last night hubby delt with the kids while I put my headphones on, music blaring and made a list of everything I need to do and when I need to do it. So feel MUCH more in control now. :) Managed to get quite a bit done today and the calenders full for the next couple of weeks but feel a lot better. :)
Anyway, I missed whats on your workdesk Wednesday but I did take a photo of my workdesk last night. And this is what was on it. lol.

I love this martini glass. I got it in spain years ago. Amazed it's not broken yet. lol
This is whats on my desk right now. Much cuter. lol

Also it was Caitlins first dance lesson today. :) She LOVES dancing and though she is young she is really good at copying simple steps, the The wiggles or redcoats at butlins, so took her along. Was thrilled at how well she did! The instructor even commented on how quick she took to it and wasn't scared at all. So proud!!!!

I also managed some scrapping. :) But will show that tomorrow. :)

Stop and smell the roses

I seriously need to do some of that sometime soon! Keep planning to have a relaxing evenign then by the time kids go bed and the bomb site is tidied up I'm too tired to do anything else!
Had some good news yesterday though, :) I'll be starting training in October to do volunteer work with homestart. I'm SO excited about this as it's the kind of thing I love to do and really miss doing since I became a stay home mum. Will only be a few hours a week but hopefully will make me feel like I'm doing something. Don't get me wrong I adore my kids but as most stay home mums will know the second you tell someone thats what you are their eyes glaze over and they say 'Oh so you just stay home then?' Yes, I sit on my fat arse all day doing nothing. Oh, and your taxes pay for it, haha.
Sorry, bit of a touchy subject. lol. Just bothers me that as soon as you're on benifits a lot of people think you're the type on Jeramy Kyle, not working for the choice if you know what I mean. I loved working, but childcare for two babies would have bankrupted me so wasn't worth it. lol
OK less heavy subjects, took the kids out to dinner monday night to the harvester. Was their first dinner out that wasnt McDonalds so was nice. Was one of the funniest meals of my life! First Mark took the whole lid off the vinigar thinking it was a screw lid one and managed to soak his chips, then he got told off for filling up the kids fruit shoot bottles from the coke refill tap. Honestly, I was worried the kids would play up!! lol. They were actually stars, Cameron had all the staff charmed by telling them a step by step who we were 'This is my sister Caitlin, shes my little sister, she likes Peppa pig' and both did really well eating their dinner. Though Cameron was much more impressed with the bread rolls and kept asking for more. No idea why, give him a bread roll at home he picks it apart and makes a mess!
Taking Caitlin to have her hair cut tomorrow, then she starts dance lessons Thursday! Shes getting too big, not impressed. :( Thank goodness I've got baby Bella now, lol, he and Caitlin are firm friends. It's so cute, Bella will lie on her pillow and caitlin will lie next to her with their noses touching. And they'll just lie there! Think it's the only time Caitlins still. lol
Right I've waffled on enough, fingers crossed for me Caitlin sits still getting her hair done tomorrow!

Its not sunday already is it?!

Where on earth is time going recently!? I think because I wasn't well (cold on my chest) it's knocked me for 6 regarding days. lol.
Didn't do much Friday besides sleep and go to a dr appointment with my sister. not for me for her, we think shes bi-polar and since I know about that type of stuff, and I'm not scared to stand up to drs I went along with her. She's being reffered to a psychiatic hospital in the next town so hopwfully get that sorted soon. :)
Saturday was much more fun, lol. Dragged myself to my crop where we had a 'Stampin up' demonstrator come and show us a few cards. Managed to get some stamps I've wanted for a while with 50% off! So was very pleased. :) Did a couple of los but felt rough so needed to leave early. :(
Today hubby went round his friends for a bit so I've took the opportunity to clear out kids clothes/toys and gut the house a bit. Very bloody confused as chucked out 3 binbags of stuff, and put another 4 on freecycle and house doesnt look any cleaner?!
going to chill with a cuppa and a good book now so will leave you with some super cute photos of Bella and family. :)

Hectic!!!

In a word thats how life has been latly. lol. Eveery day I say 'got to blog today' but then other things get in the way. Good and bad. so though I'd make a point of it tonight. Can't belive how quick time has passed latly. Not done any scrapping!
On Saturday we went to a local fete. Wasn't a huge amount to do really but kids ate ice cream and went on a few fair rides so they loved it. Was a dog show there too which really fueled my desire to get a puppy. :( Know I cant have one though.

How cute. lol

Sunday we went to our usual car boot sale. Got the usual bits and bobs then spotted a scrapbooking book on a stall, went to look and next to it were a pile of sizzix dies!!!! Now you never find stuff like this, been going car boots for 5 years now and never found any, lol. So snapped them up. :) Got a flower, bear, lamb, mini cards, etc. Was thrilled to say the least. :)
Afterwards took the kids down to the park. Cameron made me laugh in the sand pit, he put his bucket down on one side, then walked to the other, got a spadeful of sand, took it back over and dumped it in his bucket. Tried to explain would be quicker just o take the bucketover. Nope, wanted to do it his way. lol. Fair enough.

Had to share this photo. lol. Our tin opener died so went and got a new one. It didn't work! So this was Marks solution. pmsl. Yes, a hammer and screwdriver. In his defence it did work, lol.

Now this little cutie was another car boot bargain. lol. We were walking about and saw a stall rasing money for stray animals. Her mum was abondoned while pregnant and they were looking for homes for the kittens. Well how could I say no! Cant have a puppy, kitten next best thing. :) Her name is Bella, and she fits in really well. Kids love her and shes happy to play for ages. Feels like shes been in the family forever. :)

Bound to have more photos of her soon. :) Got my crop Saturday so hopefully will do some scrapping then!

Bind it all simple stamp book

Well I know I promised this a couple of days back but life has an amazing way of getting in the way! lol. So here it is, better late than never!

You will need:
- 2 Pages of chipboard/thick card for the front and back
- x amount of cardstock for the pages (depends how many pages you want)
- Bind it all
- bind it all wire
- Acetate

This is SO easy to make. I bought some sheets of acetate ages ago with he idea of printing on it and making apeture cards (think thats what they're called) But never bothered with it. Then recently noticed stamps stuck to them so though, worth a shot!

1 - Ok so first cut your chipboard to size for your cover and back pages.
2 - Cut cardstock to size for your inner pages. However many you want.
3 - Decorate your front and back pages to taste

4 - Cut acetate to the same size as your pages.
5 - Punch holes in all pages and acetate using your bind it all.

6 - Organise pages in following order
Cover page
Acetate page
Cardstock page
Acetate page
Carstock page
And so on untill you wish to end with back cover.
7 - Stamp images you wish to store on each page, onto the next carstock page. As shown below (dont bind yet!)

8 - Bind pages together in your bind it all
9 - Put stamps into your book onto the acetate pages.

10 - Enjoy your book!

WOYWW

Whats on my work desk today? In a word, Chaos! Been scrapping today and yesterday so everythings kinda shoved about all over the place. in this picture I'm working on a lo for a sketch challenge. Been meaning to do it for weeks but keep forgetting! The finished product is at the bottom of the page.

Well look what came today!!!!

Im not big on dies but saw this a while ago and LOVED it! I love how you can layer the flowers and it cuts though fabric and metal as well. So good to make things like this hair clip for Caitlin. :)

One idea Im looking forward to is making flowers from their old clothes, then using the flower in a layout of them wearing the clothes if you see what I mean. :)
Well other than cutting flowers from everything we did a lot of painting today! As it was so nice I suggested park but kids weren't interested and wanted to paint. Fair enough, lol. So got all the paints and paper out and let them go mad. Cameron made me laugh:
Cameron - I painted Thomas
Me - Where is he?
Cameron (with a naughty grin) - Hes hiding
Me - um, where?
Cameron then lifts his top to show his whole stomach is blue! Shouting 'Here he is!!'
lol. oh well, as long as they had fun.

This is the layout I did for the sketch challenge on uks. Really lke this one, getting into using embossing in my layouts now thanks to my Cuttlebug.
This shows Cameron at cheeky monkeys on his birthday. He loves the cherry iceblasts there but always calls them fluffy drinks. lol.

Thanks to all who asked about my stamp book. Not finished it yet but will do tomorrow then do a step by step. :)

MY corner :)

Was planning to blog last night but started watching Sex in the city 2 and got distracted. lol. To be honest wasn't really impressed with the film. Was a bit like porn in places and was really daft. But I LOVE putting my headphones on, putting a film on the laptop and sitting scrapping. :)
Being a mum and wife in a house with desperate need for DIY means I don't get too much 'me' time, so blocking out the outside world and doing something I love means SO much to me. :)
Well last night I was halfway through a layout then discovered I've lost two of my favorite stamps. :( At the moment all my stamps are stuffed into a little bag, so vowing to sort them out I started making a book to keep them in. :)
Not finished yet but heres an idea of what I've done so far.

Quite pleased with it. :) Was planning on finishing tonight but been up since 6 after going bed at 2 so hitting me now. lol. Couldn't sleep so got up early, did lots of cleaning and made everyone their fave brekkies. Cameron had jam, toast and cereal, Caitlin porridge and Mark home made chocolate chip pancakes. Felt very Martha Stuart shouting everyone down for breakfast. lol

Being a mum means feeling guilty all the time

When I fell pregnant with my son it prompted a chat at work about what it means to be a mum. One thing that was said is that being a mum means feeling guilty all the time. 3 years on and it is so true! lol. Do I not do enough? do I spoil them? do I play with them enough? should I let them be more independent? You just can't win! As I;ve said on previous posts we're trying to get sorted for christmas and it is impossible not to feel guilty. Caitlin is having more spent on her as she is getting a bike plus little gifts, while Cameron is just getting the little gifts, but hes got more gifts in number than Caitlin will. AHHHH!!!! lol. Never mind that logically Cameron already has a bike and everything he'll ever need, I still feel bad I'm spending more on Caitlin, and I'm determined not to do what I did 2 xmas's ago, which was just buy things for the sake of it. As they were still opening gifts come new year and I swear some never even got touched. Just going to have to be logical about it I suppose, lol. Not like they're gonna notice, they play with each others stuff anyway! lol. Nobody said motherhood was easy!
One thing that is easy is buying craft stuff! Went into the range today to look for wellies for Caitlin, they didn't have any in her size but they did have these adorable stamps! I'm getting into stamping and card making a bit more so love these. :)

Well as there were no wellies in The range needed to go into Next. Well as the weathers been horrendous lately, I've got all the winter clothes out and discovered that while Camerons wardrobe is literally stuffed with clothes, Caitlins is much more empty (cue another guilt trip!) So I said to Caitlin she could pick one pretty outfit. Now while Caitlin can count, obviously this knowledge went out the window and she ran about pulling clothes off the walls and handing me them saying 'pretty mummy pretty!' God help me when shes a teenager is all I can say!!!! Well finally got it narrowed down to 2 and she picked this one.

Good taste. :) She likes bright colours. Hope everyones enjoying the bank holiday. Meant to be nice tomorrow, fingers crossed!!

Its not still friday is it? Must be sunday at least!!

OMG today has dragged! I think because I didn't sleep too well last night today and yesterday has kinda blurred. lol. Poor Caitlin was up all night with a tummy bug (fx tonight is better) then my sister rang me at 7am, silly girl had fell down the stairs so needed to take her to get checked out. Shes fine though, just very bruised!!
Kids have been happy enough, Camerons been building huge train tracks across my livingroom floor

Did this all by himself! Was quite proud, lol. Also to cheer her up we bought Caitlin a new jacket. Shes SUCH a girly girl when it comes to clothes, lovs them! Not like her Mummy at all. lol

This was for a challenge on UKS, not done one for a while but liked this one. Rules were:
Something old - Papers
Somthing new - flower in corner
Something with circles - The paper. :)
These los are all pictures from Camerons 2nd birthday. :)

Really like this one of Caitlin. First time she had cake. lol

This was for a challenge on twilight board. Rules were:
Photos of a celebration - Camerons birthday
Use more then one photo - Done
Do some sewing - Didnt manage this bit. Sorry Ali!

Hoping to relax a bit tonight. Have a dvd 'The Jones' to watch so hoping kids sleep and let me chill out a bit!

WOYWW

Wow, this is gonna be a long post as I've started it for the past 3 nights then never got around to posting. lol. But first things first!
Well yesterday I started scrapping again. I've done a few los lately but to be honest my heart wasn't in it. Then I dug out some American crafts 'everyday' papers I bought an age ago but never touched. These seemed to have woke up my mojo a bit and I'm enjoying it again. :) So that's pretty much hats on my desk at the moment. lol.

Also today I took Lillie down to my grans for a visit. Nobody is talking to my sister at the moment after a disagreement so she hadn't seen Lilly in over a month. She was thrilled to see her and was amazing to see how big she's getting. Shes smiling often now and makes noises to respond when you talk to her. :)

At the car boot on Sunday I bought this wildcats outfit for Caitlin. She loves it and runs around with her pom poms. Does make her look far too grown up I think though.

Ah this box, this flaming box! Some of you may remember I bought plain wooden toy boxes for my nieces for Christmas, then painted and decorated them. Well as Caitlins dress up clothes are getting too many to fit in her drawers I got one for her. Bloody nightmare! Had the wrong screws and holes weren't drilled in some place, so had to piece it together as best I could. Kids had a great time 'helping' though.

Layouts! This was the first I did with the AC paper. Love how bright and fun it is. :) I think it goes great with the picture.

These I dont love so much. I did these when my heart wasn't in it really but hey, I did them and its a bit more stash used up! lol



This is the result of Cameron getting a hold of my camera. lol

This is the box built. Dont think its too bad considering, lol. Plan to paint it and decorate it a bit but not as much as the girls ones were.

Hope to be on a bit more regularly, lol. Had a lot going on recently (including someone getting a hold of my bank details. grrrrr) so not been about much but miss blogging; and need all the good cheer I can get at the moment! lol