Hobby change :)

Last night Mark was at his friends, usually I scrapbook but my back was killing me so really just wanted to curl up in my bed and watch tv. Problem is I can never just sit and watch tv, lol. I need something else to do to keep me occupied so I pulled out my cross stiching. :) Havent done any in I dont know how long but was nice to sit and relax with it. Even though mark made fun of me when he came in to find me fast asleep in bed holding it. lol. He's calling me granny now.
Look what I got this morning! A very nice girl called Emilie on UK scrappers was clearing out her stash and kindly offered it to a lucky person simply for the price of postage and I was the very lucky person who got it. :)

Is a much needed pick me up today as problems with my sister are getting worse (more on that tomorrow hopefully) and my grand dad is going for his first course of radiotherapy today. Going for mental health training this afternoon so looking forward to that. I miss studying so will be nice to do something productive. Right lots to do before I go so better head off!

This parenting is fun isnt it. lol

One thing parenting never is is predictable lol. One moment the kids can be laughing and having fun, the next crying their eyes out. Go figure. Sometimes its good surprises though, Cameron for example HATED school after Christmas, cried every time we went and screamed he wanted to stay home. It was horrible :( Was dreading taking him back after half term as I figured another week off would just make him want to stay home more. However the opposite seems to have happened! Smiles every morning, off to play as soon as he gets to the play ground, its a weight off my shoulders I tel you. He seems to have calmed down a lot at home too, he was going though a shouting and hitting phase when he was upset but we told him to scream into a pillow instead which seems to be working well. :) He still makes angry faces though. This is his 'You're not being fair!' face. One to show the girlfriends when hes older I think!

Hopefully he wont make this face when he sees his new blue room though. :) Finally finished painting it blue to go with his blue curtains/carpet/wardrobe/bed/lampshade. Can you tell what Camerons favourite colour is? lol. Hes at my mums this morning so gives me time to sort out his toys etc before I put them all back in.
Oh almost forgot Marks op went fine. :) he got home late last night and is on painkillers still but nothing big. :) Caitlin made me cry though, lol. Whenever I say no for anything and shes in a bad mood she does the usual teenage type thing of 'I dont like you!' shouting and stamping feet. Then last night she said this as I put her to bed
Caitlin - I love you when you're nice to me mummy.
Me - I love you too
Caitlin - *hugs me* But even when you're nasty to me and say no, I still love you.
awwww!!!

Ohhhh goodies :)

Well bit stressed and worried this morning so was thrilled to have this be handed to me today :) For valintines we were skint but then sold some bits on ebay (got to love ebay) so spent a bit on ourselves as 'gifts'. I was torn between so many yummy new lines from CHA but decided on these two 'My little shoebox' lines.
Lovely day - http://www.sarahscardsltd.com/shop/346/997/2524/index.htm And
Up in the trees - http://www.sarahscardsltd.com/shop/346/997/2521/index.htm
Im not usually a big 'My little shoebox' fan but I LOVE these papers! Actually wish I bought 2 sets as the other sides are so nice too. lol

Plan for today is to finish painting Cams room, bake some cakes with Caitlin (might need to bribe her with the cakes and a dvd to finish the painting lol) basically anything to distract myself. lol

head gone somewhere

Well so far its been a scary but positive week. My granddad had an operation on Wednesday to remove a tumor from his arm. We were obviously worried about it but he did well and they think they got it all. :) He just needs to get a course of radiotherapy to be sure. Tomorrow its hubbys turn for an operation. Nothing serious but obviously with general anastetic and a not fully healthy patient there's always worries. :(
Well to keep my mind off fretting I've been painting Camerons room. :) OMG hes got so many more toys than I thought he did! Was moving them all out of the way, emptying his toybox etc just kept finding more. lol. Going to finish painting tomorrow then will sort out the toys before they go back in the room I think. While I was painting on Tuesday I also had craft day on qvc on in the background. I admit I havent watched one in ages but cant really watch Criminal minds while the kids are awake and it was better than cebeebies lol. To be honest there wasnt TOO much I saw I wanted, lol, a couple of good deals on punches and a few dies I liked but nothing I contemplated pulling the credit card out for. Just one thing:

I love my cuttlebug but never bought an alphabet as I only really like Bigz dies and an alphabet in them are SO expencive. This one was only £30 though!! Mothers day coming up, know what I'm asking for :)

Using it all up

Like most people, I have q number of hobbies. These include:
Reading
Scrapping
Jigsaws
Cross stitching
Now with only a small house the sheer amount of STUFF can be very over whelming. Particually with all the kids toys and all Marks warhammer stuff (which he never does anymore but dont get me started on that! lol) So I tend to feel quite under pressure to use up my bits. Jigsaws and books for example I very rarely use again once done so will sell on/donate once finished. I always feel good when I've finished with some books or whatever and they're all off to a new home. :) This week I seem to be going through a book/jigsaw phase. A carrier bag of books and a jigsaw have both been sold. :) Last night infact I couldnt sleep so finished this one in one night. lol.

So this will probably be on facebook for sale tomorrow. lol. Pretty much sold all the stuff I did have up so will be hunting for some more during the week. :) I find it strangly fun selling bits, plsu all adds up for the holiday :)
Adding to the pile of scrapping stuff though is this. :) I ran a kit swap on uks and this is what I received. How yummy is this paper!!! So thrilled with it, hoping I go through a scrapping phase next week to use it up :)

Feeding the ducks

On Thursday I took the kids to the boating lake to feed the ducks and play at the park. We didnt get to the park in the end thanks to the drunk teenagers there (at 10am! phoned the police, lol) but they enjoyed feeding the ducks anyway :) I didnt take my camera with me but took this with my phone.

It wasnt until i got home that I remembered Id took a very similar photo 2 years ago.

Amazes me how much Caitlins grown since then while Cameron looks about the same size lol. Think I'm going to edit the new one a bit so its black and white and landscape like the other and do a comparason layout. I love the way it shows that although 2 years has passed, not much has really changed :)

Psychic, spoooooky

I've been meaning to blog this for ages lol, but you know what I'm like. I went to see a psychic at my mums on Saturday, was pretty impressed! We all had individual readings done and it was strange how similar mine and my mums was at points. She went after me and the psychic didnt know we were related. (mum removed all photos from the house lol) While she was doing my 'reading' she wrote down her predictions, however I'm bound to lose the paper sometime during the year so thought I'd put it here to give me somewhere to look back on. Some have kinda already come true so I'll put notes next to it too :)

1 - Watch my car keys, dont go locking them in the boot! (yeah sounds very much like something I would do, lol, locked Caitlin in our old car once, had to smash the kitchen window to get the spare key lol)

2 - Lucky numbers 2, 3, 19, 28 (I turn 28 this year, Caitlins born on the 3rd, no idea about the rest)

3 - I will get surprising news in February.

4 - In March someone will get a cough. This will worry me badly as it seems a very bad cough but with antibiotics it will be fine.

5 - I will either move, or discuss moving this year (cant see that, spent a fortune on doing this place up and its right next to cams school)

6 - There will be words and a general unease between me and a selfish family member in March. (hmmm, wonder who that could be!? lol. She also told mum there will be family problems involving a solicitor this month.)

7 - My hours of work will change (I'm assuming my voluntary work, otherwise any hours of work would be a change lol)

8 - A nice, kind male from my life will have some bad news about someone close to him. This will lead to a very low time in his life but he will be ok. (Marks mum has been poorly recently :( )

9 - There will be wedding news, it will be a happy occasion (I think i made a face because I thought about my sister lol) The number 13 will be important (I was married on the 13th)

10 - I will take a journey in May. She can see I'm worried about it but it will be fine and the place I'm going is beautiful. (she told mum this too, we're going on holiday together)

11 - A female close to me is hating their job, tell her to hold on it will all change in summer. (told mum her job will change this summer, lol)

12 - Check the cooker, its a minor problem but could get much worse if not checked.

13 - There are health concerns regardning an M in my life. There will be ups and downs for a while but all will lift in the summer (Marks had some problems with his bloods recently)

14 - I have a good relationship, my partner has a kind heart and is a general good guy. Our kids are very different, the older loves their studies while the younger is more laid back (thats an understatement! lol) but will both grow up their own way and will do fine in life.

15 Now this is the big one, she started with this prediction and came back to it twice, adamant its going to happen. Yeah apprently Im having a baby late this year! Ok I SO cannot see this happening but everyone I've mentioned it to has said 'Yeah I think you'll have another one' lol. Well, we'll see.

Since the reading its weird how much has come true for the other girls. Katie was given a lucky number she put on the bonus ball at work and won £125, she was also told her daughters would be invited to a party short notice and she'd be travelling to leicester soon. Lorraine was told a close male friend would move over seas, one of her friends has just had an offer to work in america, she told my mum her dad had an illness in his arm (thats where his cancer is) and said plenty of accurate things about my sister. I think the strangest one is one of the girls was told she'd have a baby boy. After the reading she admitted shes already 7 weeks pregnant! lol. We're all waiting for the scan now to see if shes right. :) Bit of a way to go granted. lol

WOYWW

Been a while since Ive done one of these. :) Usually because Ive no idea what day it is, lol.
As usual my desk is a mess. Ive given up saying I'll tidy it and scrap on it rather than the floor because to be honest I know I wont. lol. Not only is it pretty dark under the stairs but I like to watch a film or something when I scrap, and since my pc gave up the ghost only option is our TV, which I obviously have my back to on my desk. lol.

These were also on my desk lol but just discovered half of them this morning. Because I don't have a huge amount of storage, all my spare alphas are kept in a box in the garage. As a result if the alphas I've put in the kit I'm using (I make all my papers and bits into kits)don't fit the layouts I've done, the layout gets put in a pile to finish later. This pile can get pretty big before 'later' comes along, theres actually one there from November. lol.

Well today is a bits and bobs day I think. Floor needs done, toys need sorted, but both kids are home so not like I can focus on one job and get it done! lol. Oh well, going to the cinema tonight to see Cronicle hopefully :) Not been out since before christmas so should be fun!

ohhhhh so excited :)

Tonight I'm going to my mums house, nothing too exciting there lol, except tonight she has a tarot reader coming. :) I LOVE all that psychic stuff and apprently shes really good so im so excited! Even if shes not that good will still be a good night out, :) A few of mums workmates and one of my friends are coming round too and we're all bringing a bottle so will be a good laugh either way. :) Really got loads to do today before I go and I've done none of it! wheres the morning gone?! I think I spent most of it uploading things for sale on facebook. Mum and I are clearing out garages and lofts to raise money for our holiday. Going ok so far though my mums got a bit of an inflated idea of how much people will pay for things. £15 for a second hand coat is a bit steep IMO even though it is still new. lol. Funnily enough when I convinced her to reduce it to £7 it sold right away.
On that note I still have these stamps for sale. Now £4 including post. :)

Hope everyones having a good weekend, will be back tomorrow to say how I got on. Think I could ask her for the lottery numbers? lol

Tummy bugs are no fun

Well yesterday I had that horrible winter tummy bug. :( Well I dont think it was the full blown one as only lasted 24 hours but what a horrible 24 hours it was! Ah well its good for the diet as still no appitite lol.
I managed a bit of scrapping the other night. :) My mojo was back and was really enjoying it, unfortunatly Cameron wasn't in a sleepy mood (sore legs, head, eyes etc) so that kinda interupted me. lol. It got to 9:30 and I'd had enough of going up and down the stairs every 2 minutes so I just brought him down and sat rocking him on my knee until he fell asleep. Which ment I couldnt scrap. :( Infact the only thing I could do was browse on the internet using only the mouse. Spent a couple of hours watching film clips on IMDb before I got bored and went to bed! lol. I did manage one though.

Took this photo 2 christmas' ago. It was the first time the kids were old enough to really understand the whole thing and put a snack out for santa. :) Made it all the more magic for me. lol.
Well Caitlin was supposed to stay at my mums tonight but didnt want to go as she'd miss me (awww) so both kids are tucked up in bed with a film each after playing games together. Not sure what I'm going to do tonight as its cold!!!!! might just curl up in bed and watch tv :)

Cakes never last long in this house

It never fails to amaze me how quick they get eaten. I did a batch bake yesterday of blueberry muffins, and strawberry fairy cakes. I let Caitlin put buttercream and sprinkles on the strawberry ones as I dont like them, lol. I think my floor was covered in the sprinkles more than the cakes granted but she had fun. :)

I think they look quite pretty considering a 3 year old did them. :) We had Camerons friend Zoe round for dinner which the kids loved. Was nice as she went to nursery with both Caitlin and Cameron so was happy to play with both of them. Tired poor Caitlin out I think as she fell asleep on my knee not long after Zoe went home. Was nice having her cuddled up fast asleep on my chest. :) Horrible part of the kids growing up, they grow up!

Feeling good. :)

Not sure why, not that I shouldn't feel good mind you but I've just woke up in a good mood this morning. Ready and raring to go, lol. I think I'm annoying Mark a bit as hes really not in the same mood lol. Poor guys walking about like a zombie yawning away and I'm singing and listing all the jobs I want to get done today, which unfortunately involves a trip up town. lol. Hoping the roads arnt too bad after yesterday, but will just take it slow. Caitlins home too as I think shes still ill. Her temperature is gone but shes sleeping loads, not eating much and crying at everything, so still not herself. Going to wrap her up warm and hopefully the fresh air will help.
Still havent done much crafting recently. its bad really as almost makes me feel bad that I have so much stash just sitting there. I will have to make my mum a mini book for mothers day though so my mojo better come back soon! lol. I did manage this one the other night though. Last christmas Cameron woke up way before Caitlin, after waiting nearly an hour we decided to wake her, much to her annoyance. lol. I love how these photos show her yawning and looking deeply unimpressed with the gifts in her stockings. She was happier when she got downstairs though :)

Love this felt stocking, so cut out a few gifts to go inside. :)

Right better get on and head into town. :)

Its snowing!!

Lol, pretty sure most people have snow today, amazing how yesterday there was none, then overnight its just everywhere! Must admit I was probably more excited than the kids, lol. So off we went with our sledges. :) Poor Caitlins still not too well so just wanted to walk with me and hold my hand but Cameron was quite happy to be pulled along. lol

We met up with my Mum, Dad and Mollie and Evie at the park. Caitlin and Evie decided sledging wasn't for them so built a snowman instead while the daredevil kids went down the hill. lol. I did try and help them but apprently I was doing it wrong. :s

We couldnt find any twigs or rocks to make a face so after a quick trip to my mums we decided to improvise with some mushrooms. lol I think they made our snowman look miserable but the girls were happy with it, lol.

Got to love my dad, he never just does what everyone else is doing and this time decided a snowman was boring, he was going to make 4 thrones. lol.

Unfortunatly Grandad was a little big for his throne.

Well after all the fun in the snow we're now home for lots of tea, tv and baking this afternoon. :) Hope everyones staying warm and safe!

New week, new start

New week, new start, no more moaning, time to get on with it. :) Had quite a nice weekend, didnt do much Saturday and went to a party Sunday. My 'work' homestart had a fun day for the kids so took my two along. They had a great time playing with all the craft stuff and games. There was a lady there doing circus tricks and teaching the kids too. Was nice to see them playing together and having fun. Cameron was so tired out from the day he was asleep on the floor by seven. lol.
Havent done any crafting yet, still reading and doing puzzles, lol. Did do this last week though, wasn't going to show it yet as its for an upcoming challenge on UKS, but decided I didnt like it and did another one. lol. So will show this one but won't tell you the rules. :p

Love these flowers. This is the newest Sarahs card kit and had a sheet of these in it. basically a sheet of pop out flowers you twirl up to make 3d ones.

Ironing to do today, then doimg a roast for dinner tonight as kids were so stuffed on party food yesterday they didnt want dinner! lol

Thank god this week is over. Last money post I promise

I said at the start of the week I had a bad feeling this week was going to be rubbish. Oh how right I was! As well as the number of problems we had with Cameorn and school, and my Grandad having scans to see how far the cancer has spread (Wont find out until the end of Febuary!) we got a letter from the benifits office yesterday cancellning marks disability, so we are now £740 a month down. :( We rang around and canceled some luxuries, cut down on what we could and it should be just about manageable, just nothing left for emergencies or treats. :( Mark can't work, all of his drs agree so looks like I'll be looking for a job! He can't deal with the housework either, really he should be on his own for too long as he does stupid things like leaving the oven on, or leaving the door wide open when he goes to the shops. So god knows how we're going to cope. :( We'll manage though I guess. we always do. lol

catch up

Ok, this did start as a post about my determination to catch up with all the bits and bobs I havent done recently, but now its a bit of a rant (yes another one) about modern technology. Ok I'm going to sound about 99 right now but I HATE all this new stuff! Take Marks new Christmas toy for example, I got him a external hard drive. We can store all the kids dvds on there he says, can stream them to the tv wirelessly so we don't have a big box of dvds beside the tv. Great, except sometimes the file isnt recognised, and if the internet drops out halfway through the film stops, and sometimes the sound isnt synced right to whoever is talking!!! He also suggested putting all our photos on there to keep as a back up. Now I'm really anal about my photos on my computer, all are organised into folders based on year taken, and all are titled with month and place of taking. Somewhere between copying from my computer and putting it on this thing half have got lost and the rest have lost all their titles and folders! They're still on my computer than goodness so will try and figure out how to fix it, lol. And these Ipods which download the whole flamming album when I just want one song, I miss cds!
Well back to my original blog post topic, lol. Recently I've been SO tired and drained, I think its been all the rubbish lately has taken it out of me, so a lot of little 'to dos' have fallen by the wayside. One thing on the list is to make notes of ideas to scrapbook about. Usually I just look at a photo and base it on that, but sometimes the kids will do something, or I'll think of something I want them to know should I not be around when they're older and I never remember it when it comes to scrapping as theres no photo to remind me iykwim. One thing I made a note of is how quick the kids grow, I know everyone says it but you really don't get it I think until you have kids of your own. Well it made me think of the photo I took of Cameron when he was 6 months old

Not a happy bunny is he, lol, but it was more the size of the 360 controller I thought of, compared there to here

Much more happy with it now playing with Daddy last week, lol. So much has changed between those two photos, but honestly doesn't seem that long. They grow up so fast! lol.
Well didnt get anything done today, Cameron was off school again so made some blueberry muffins at home with Caitlin as obviously missed the cooking class. Were a bit doughy as Cait was a bit heavy handed with the milk but most have been eaten so cant be that bad, lol. He WILL be going tomorrow though so hopefully will be able to do a lot of the little run around bits I need to do. Fingers crossed!

bleh, moany post, feel free to ignore

Sunday night I told my mum I had a bad feeling about this week. So far I've been proved right, lol. Cameron was ill yesterday with a sore throat and temp so he stayed home, this morning he went to school but not without a few tears, the social services meeting was a COMPLETE waste of time, sister had a big hissy fit at me as I said I wasn't prepared to babysit her kids anymore if it involved contact with mine. OK sounds harsh on the surface but last Saturday I was supposed to be babysitting Lillie. She was supposed to be here at 12pm and my two were so excited! 1pm still no sign so I rang my sister to find out I was no longer needed. I was pissed off she hadn't even told me and Camerons was gutted he wasn't seeing Lillie. Wednesday we were supposed to be going to cooking groups with caitlin and Evie. Another last minute cancellation from sister, though she did txt me this time so improvement I guess. Then Saturday, she begged me to bring the kids round hers as she last saw cameron in July. Again cancelled last minute, two gutted kids. So kinda had enough now. My two see the girls quite often as when my mum has them I take them round, and we go swimming with them every Wednesday, so no harm for them, just sister. Mark discovered another health worry to add to the pile and then Cameron was sent home early from school feeling ill. :( Tomorrow is busy but hopefully better. I've got a cooking class with Caitlin first thing in the morning, volunteer work then town with and drs with Mark. eugh ignore me in tired and cranky, lol.

Nice relaxing days. :)

Yesterday I was supposed to go to my sisters but she had to go to town. The weather was dreadful but wanted the kids to have some fresh air so thought we'd take them to the shops/library on their scooters. Its only a 30 minute round trip walking so didn't think would take too long. Oh how wrong I was, 2 hours and many many puddles later 4 very wet but happy members of the household came home. lol. We'd got lots of books and some chocolate biscuits from the shop so changed into comfy jammies and settled down to a relaxing afternoon reading and playing games with the kids. :) As the day had been so nice we decided to get a Chinese as a treat. We always order a bit more than we need so it usually does Mark for lunch the next day. We ordered it at 5, an hour later it shows up freezing cold. So we complained and they sent out a second order for free! Mark was a very happy bunny, his pile of food was stupidly huge, lol plus plenty of leftovers for dinner tonight :)
All this chilling out seems to have done my mojo the world of good too. lol. Managed 3 layouts last night, can only show you two though as one if for an upcoming challenge on UKS.
This is the first one I did from my new SC kit. I was going to save them up for the retreat but I loved this one so had to use it lol.

I loved this title and thought it went well with most of my photos but picked this one. lol. It doesn't show up too well in this photo but all of the papers used are embossed. I loved how textured the papers were in this kit, I admit I often find it hard to get texture on my layouts without ripping or distressing so this makes it so much easier. lol.

This is the layout I started the other night. Its from a kit I got in a kit swap ages ago and as I'm hosting a new one I thought it would be nice to use up my old one. :) The photo is of Cameron playing on a huge sheet of bubble wrap. I ordered something around Christmas, cant remember what, and he spent ages just jumping about on it. lol

I used up loads of little bits on this layout. There is a whole sheet of rub ons used on the blue paper at the bottom, and lots of diecuts to frame the photo. I love how bright it all is.

Not doing much today. Have to clean the kitchen cupboards but other than that more chilling is needed! I got lots of books yesterday much to marks annoyance as I still have a big pile beside the bed I've not read, not to mention the ones on my kindle lol. but what can I say, I just love books! lol I do read fast which helps, couldnt sleep last night so read one of them then, lol. A few more days of insomnia and I'll be done im sure. lol

More scrapping. :)

Well a little bit anyway, lol. As I enjoyed it the night before I decided to do some more last night. Got all my stuff out, picked a photo, put a layout together, then went to bed. lol. Honestly was 9pm and I couldn't keep my eyes open! its all still on the floor so just needs gluing together then done. lol Won't be doing it tonight though as out for an Italian with my mum and some of her friends from work. Should be nice. :)

Also this came this morning. This months sc kit and I LOVE it! Kinda want to stay home tonight and use it, lol. Its got a textured pink woodgrain paper in which I think might join my 'too pretty to use' pile.

Had a nice morning this morning. I admit I'm usually one of those 'I'll play with you in a moment' mums. Unless I've set aside some time to do an activity with the kids I don't often play with them on the spur of the moment iykwim. If I do its usually only for 10 minutes or so before I have to rush off and do the washing or something. Yesterday though I hurt my back, it felt a bit better this morning so I did the cleaning including the floors which obviously put it back to square one. lol. As I result I was stuck lying in bed. Caitlin decided to join me to read books and watch a dvd. Was really nice! I couldn't get up to do anything so all my attention was on just time with her, made me realise I dont do the simple things enough. We go to the park, swimming, childrens centers often, but sometimes they just need some quiet time with Mummy.

Ive actually scrapped, and liked it!

While I have done some scrapping since Christmas, I didn't really like the layouts I'd done. I think i made the mistake of using my 'odd bits' while I didn't really have much mojo. So last night I sat down with a few kits and used those instead. :) Granted I only got one done as poor Cameron was up a lot with sore legs (growing pains we're thinking) but like the one I did. :)

This is me on our 'honeymoon' years ago. A few weeks before we were supposed to be married Mark was very very ill and we were told he wouldn't survive the week; so we cancelled our big wedding and honeymoon and just had a rush job at our local register office. Obviously he pulled through lol but by that point we'd lost thousands. We'd also been trying for a baby for a while, we knew from Marks previous marriage it would be difficult as his illness had caused problems for him, but apparently it had got so bad we had a less than 1% chance of ever conceiving naturally. Obviously this was all a big shock so we decided to blow the last of our savings and have a late honeymoon to get away for a bit and take stock of the past few months. This is me on the balcony of our hotel. If I look a bit green its because I was ill the whole time we were away. I thought I had food poisoning. Mum thought different and the day after we returned I took a pregnancy test and discovered I was pregnant with Cameron. :) To say I was shocked was an understatement! So love this title, as I really had no clue how much my life was already changing when this photo was taken :)