London!

So an early start this morning and we were off! I'd made a goodie bag for each of the boys to keep them entertained, and to save me a ton of money at the gift shop. ;)
One thing I bought was some magnetic putty from ebay. £6 for both tubs, I think it was a highlight of their day! They played with it pretty much the whole train journey there and home.

We arrived in London and took the tube down to the science museum. It was pretty much empty so we went up to the wonderlab. The kids loved it! It was a huge room with loads of interactive experiments. Seriously there were kids climbing on things, running riot, it was all kid proof. We let the boys do their own thing for a bit while Mark recovered from the train journey.
We took the boys for ice cream for lunch, Cams birthday badge paid off as he was given 4 scoops instead of 2. Think I might wear one next time ;)

Cam was in his element. He loves anything to do with learning so watching the demonstrations was fascinating to him. I'd read a lot of reviews beforehand which warned us the museum didn't have enough to do for a whole day visit but honestly if we had more time I think Cam could have happily spent two days there lol.

But soon we had to get the tube back to catch the train. We had just enough time to pop into Piccadilly Square to grab the boys a McDonalds and some Cinnabons for Caitlin at home. Some pain in the butt also tried to help himself to my handbag but only managed to snap the strap before I grabbed hold of it and he ran off. Glad I took my old bag with me!
So home, shattered and have a very happy Cameron, 10th birthday a success I think!

Movie time

With our Limitless card we try and go cinema at least once a week. Most of the time it's the only day Mark actually leaves the house lol. We hadn't been able to go for a while because the kids had been of (well besides Boss Baby) so we were looking forward to this week :) A couple of hours to chill out with a coffee and escape into another world. Bliss :)
It's a bit like reading, except in the cinema the kids or the dog arn't constantly bugging me for things ;)

Calm before the storm here really. I've got Camerons 10th Birthday Saturday and we're going to London for the day, then Sunday the family are coming up for a mini party. Next Friday is Caitlins 9th birthday with a much less quiet sleepover with her friends. Wish me luck on that one!
Still scrapping for the 100 day project :)
Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Managed a few 12x12 too but not photograped them yet :)

100 day project

SO at the start of April I joined in with something called the '100 day project'. The idea is that you pick a project,a blanket, a piece of artwork ect, and do a bit towards this project every day for 100 days.
Rather than plan to do a layout a day, which I know I'd end up quitting on, I've decided on a photo a day. This way on busy days I can do a pocket style layout and still finish one of the photos out of the 'to do' pile.
It's supposed to be done on instagram, and you use a unique hashtag to keep track of your progress, but as my phone is useless and has no storage I've had to remove it so decided to keep track here instead :)
This is very photo heavy so feel free to scroll on by :)
Day one

Day two

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Catch up.

Well the kids are back at school. God that was a LONG Easter break. Don't get me wrong, it was fun :)
It was a chilling out at a caravan park after a 3 and a half hour drive kind of holiday.

A paddling in the sea even though it was freezing kind of holiday.

A climbing chedder gorge, smashing my previous fitbit record kind of holiday (this ended on just under 20k steps)

A learning about rock pools, lots of laughs, 'No Scamp don't pull Mummy I'll fall!' kind of holiday.

A car boot sale bargains, £5 for heelies AND much wanted twinkle toe sketchers, OMG that codex I bought for 20p is signed! kind of holiday.

A dragging Camerons old mattress out of the garage, thank goodness we haven't been to the tip yet it makes a perfect gymnastics mat, kind of holiday.

It was perfect. :) Now to get organised for the upcoming birthdays!

Challenge YOUrself

Welcome to April! Besides December this is the most expencive month of the year for me, the perils of having babies born so close together.
Luckily I have plenty of stash to be using up, as I certainly can't afford more!
So this months challenge over at Challenge YOUrself was to use the word 'inspire'.

I took this is two ways really. First I decided scrapped my family and do hidden journaling about how they inspire me, easy enough.
Before I started the layout however I found out that the kit club I was part of, Like for ever, was shutting down :( The cost of importing products, along with shipping problems from suppliers meant that it was just not an option to continue.
I was gutted, not only were the kits beautiful but the lady who run them, Nicola, is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She had left her job as a teacher to build her own business and had also built a wonderful little community of people in the process. Seriously I've made some amazing friends though the kit, it's like a little family.
So to honor Nicola and how much she has inspired me, I decided to scrap lift one of her layouts, after much deliberation (she has done some amazing projects) I picked this one.

So this was my take. My layouts are a little less minimalist than hers ;)

Fittingly enough I used the very last Like for ever kit to do this layout too :(

100 day project

So considering how well I'm doing with my other challenges, I decided to try another one :)
I saw on facebook about the 100 day project (here) and thought it was worth a shot. I wasn't ambitious enough to do 100 layouts a day so I picked 100 photos, #100photosscrapped this way on busy days I can do a simple pocket page and still scrap a photo.
The project started on April 4th but I didn't see it until the 5th, luckily I had finished a page the day before anyway so yey that one was done. :)
Day one

Day 2 was a really busy day as I took my Gran into hospital for a minor op, so just a pocket page for yesterday.

Day 3 was crazy too lol. I had double booked on playdates so house was full of kids, poor Mark was having a bad day so super hectic! Another pl style page done and another photo in.

So I'm doing ok so far, but 3 days in is hardly far lol.

March round up

Wow March was busy! Blogging completley went out of my head but instagram, Facebook and other social media meant memories were still recorded, yey!
So this months round up:

Books read
The lure - S.W Hubbard
The devil on my doorstep - Annabelle forest
Betrayed - Rosie lewis
15/52 - Little less than usual this month but still on track.

Layouts done
27! Had 2 retreats this month and a weekend cyber crop so lots done. I have realised however that my 365 target was a little ambititious so I've decided that a layout every two days is much more reasonable.
60/183

Pokemon caught
31! We had a few days away and the area we went to had loads of new Pokemon. Scamp enjoyed LOTS of walks ;)
189/200

Been a very fun and busy month :)

Christmas pjs

I was catching up on tivo the other day and some Christmas ads came on, it honestly took me a few moments of panic before I realised they were just old ads and it wasn't Christmas!
I admit I was a little sad when the logical part of my brain remembered it was March. I miss Christmas, all the traditions and events, Spring is nowhere near as fun.
The good thing about scrapbooking though is that I can have a little bit of Christmas all year round :) Yey!
One of our biggest traditions is the Christmas eve pjs. My Mum did it before I can remember and I've done the same with my kids. Each year on Christmas eve we they get a new pair of pjs, some popcorn or sweets and a book or dvd.
Its a good way to calm things down before bed, and of course means nice new pjs on all Christmas morning photos ;)

I used an old Like for ever kit for this layout called 'Wish list'. It was one of my fave ever ones with lots of muted colours and beautiful embellishments.
It also included some lovely textured cardstock which I used as a background here. I didn't think you could make out the pattern very well leaving it which so I added mist which I don't do often but I love the affect here. :)
Added sparkled, vellum, a pretty bow, love this layout :)
Only 291 days until Christmas!

Keepin it real

OK I know it's Wednesday but lets be honest, my blogging takes ages these days.
So I had a brilliant weekend :) Every year a group of us rent a beautiful cottage on the welsh boarder and drink, eat, scrap and have a great laugh.
How pretty is this view!

Seriously hoping to rent this later on in the year for a family getaway too.

I haven't photographed any of the 9 layouts I did over the weekend but still have old ones to share lol.
This photo was taken at Disneyland paris a couple of years ago. For one of the meals we went to the New York hotel for a buffet, it was really weird lol. There were lots of meats, but nothing to go with it iykwim, meatballs, but no pasta, chicken, but no chips or rice or anything. There was nothing that Caitlin would really eat so all she had was bread rolls, doughnuts and yogurt, as you can see in the photo lol. Thank goodness for the sandwhich shop near the hotel!

Hoping this will work, never put a video on a blog before I don't think. This year my baby boy turns 10, 10! We want to make a big deal out of such a milestone so we bought him a big gift in the form on a Nintendo switch :)
Me being me and having no patience however we gave it to him 2 months early lol. It was more of a surprise that way too!

I rarely take videos but I love this one :)

Challenge YOUrself!

So this morning finds me in a cranky mood. I've just spilled a whole mug of coffee on a craft project I'm doing and my dog seems determined to bark, scratch, climb everywhere he shouldn't be! Grrr.
On a happier note, its time for another challenge over at Challenge YOUrself

What is negative space you might ask? In design terms, negative space refers to an empty block of space on your page. And in the scrapbook world, negative space doesn't just happen by chance - it is a planned part of your design! This month we want to see your pages using negative space . . . we are looking forward to seeing what YOU create.
**Please don't forget, your page must include photos with YOU in them!**
I'm not the best with white space, I've seen some which looks beautiful but mine always looks unfinished. This was my best attempt lol.

The photo is from Christmas when we first got Scamp, look how teeny he was!!
Right, better go restart my project, and maybe find a lid for my coffee mug.....

February round up

Books read
Casey Watson - Daddys boy
Cathy Glass - Girl alone
Ruth Ware - The woman in cabin 10
Amanda Prowse - Perfect daughter
Chrissy Olinger - My boyfriends back
Richard Herley - The penal colony
Eleanor Moran - In a new york minute
12/52 - Doing well on reading :)

Layouts done
12 - Thinking I'm going to have to lower my aim a little this year.
33/365

Pokemon caught
Ok theres a bit of a change here, rather than catching 150 I've put my aim up to 200. There's 80 new pokemon added and I managed to beat 150 within a day or two of those coming out lol.
158/200

Lucky try

Wow today has been busy. After dropping the kids off we went right into town with a long to do list. Managed to get quite a lot done as well as finding this little cutie in a charity shop for Caitlin.

She want to dress up as Fern from Charlottes web for world book day so obviously we needed a little Wilbur to go with it. We lucked out finding this one in a charity shop :)
Picked up breakfast at town so home to start die cutting. I'm making little presents for everyone on the retreat I'm going to next weekend. Taking longer than I planned but it gives me the chance to catch up on tv, or youtube in this case :)

So halfway through that I got bored (as you do) and decided to cut a load of backgrounds and files for my retreat this weekend. Yep, two retreats back to back!
I only go on two a year but typically they run right next to each other lol.
I also decided to reoranise all my shillouette cut files, as you do. 3 hours later I had 6 different cuts and a nicely ordered folder system. I class that as a success!
Haven't done any scrapping, obviously, but I love this one I did a few months back.
Before I got my machine I was lucky enough that my friend Jacqui sent me a selection she cut for me, including this one.

The photo is from Spain a few years back. There was a tiny fair type thing next to our hotel where all the rides were 1 euro each. While waiting for a bus trip I gave the kids one euro each to have a turn on a ride. Caitlin wanted to spend hers on a teddy crane machine. I said she wouldn't win, they were rip offs etc etc but she insisted.
Little begger won on her first try didn't she.
She still has that teddy, and STILL tells the story where she was right lol.

You are crazy

So much for blogging on Monday lol. When I was away with my Mum at the weekend we popped into Hobbycraft. They had albums, and boxes of 60 page protectors reduced down to £15, bargain! I decided Monday would be spent organising my layouts and putting them into albums. A few hours at most I thought.

It took me 3 freaking days!! 32 albums and I still have a huge pile of layouts needing homes. I need to scrap less.
As well as that and sorting out the house I didn't have a spare moment this week, so I was very grateful that the girls wanted to see some god awful film on Saturday morning. I got to sit in the new Costa coffee and chill for a bit while they went in. Perfect :)

Speaking of crafting, I did this layout for a sketch challenge a while ago. I cut the trees on my machine and used the for another layout but stuck glittery brown cardstock on the back to do this one. :)
For Christmas a couple of years ago we went to a stately home, it was dreadful but they did have gingerbread decorating. I love how different each one is Marks is the first, its a gingerbread zombie (of course) Camerons is next, an attempt at a traditional design but ends up covered in sweets, then Caitlin, very organised and detailed.

I thought this title was pretty apt.

Will hopefully remember to take a photo of my new car to share tomorrow!