It's coming

yes it really is, Kirsteen has worked incredibly hard to give our forum the general basics tonight so we're kind of in business, there's still a few things to work out, like the gallery, uploading images, avatars etc but you know we'll get there, we have a web master so we'll be working hard with them to make sure that this place is rocking in the shortest amount of time possible, so I kind of declare that we are open for business and I'll be adding loads of content tommorrow but now I am tired, over excited and on my way to bed!!

I went, I saw and it was all a little blue!

Yes so I clicked on the new forums expecting to see the little graphic which Kirst prepared to find our new forum just waiting to be tinkered with. The funniest bit was that within a minute of posting in my blog we had a member, LOL!

So if you go and you see it's all a bit blue and basic and actually has no forums as such yet, don't worry, hopefully it will very soon, there's a load of things which need doing to but they're all hiding just waiting to make an appearance so don't go diving in just yet, wait till it's a little more pink and swooshy and got some crafty bits and then give it a go, you never know you might find something you like there.

The vision is for a huge community of crafters, be they paper, or clay or mixed media there'll be a home for everyone, a home without boundaries, a home where you can be whoever you want to be. There's going to be crops and prizes and parties, I'm so excited I've practically passed myself on the way!!

Come with me...

To the emerald city, well no maybe not the emerald city but to a whole new place of learning and laughter at www.craftkingdom.co.uk

Ok so it's not quite ready yet but it should be getting there within about 24 to 48 hours. This is my new project, I must add it's not just mine it also belongs to two lovely ladies Kirsteen and Ann-Marie, we have this vision you see, of a non commercial forum which is the computing equivalent to a great magazine and a fabberoony forum. We have been working on this for some months now but we reached the point where all the techy bits are going to start to work, i.e. we paid them, they make it work, well sort of, once it's there it's still going to be tweaked by a team who are considerably cleverer than me, we have a web-master, a graphic designer, a full quota of clever helper elves who are going to bring this project to a point where I can go stamp my pretty little feet all over it.

I'll be keeping you up to date here with what's happening and when we are ready and set up for members so if you haven't bookmarked me already now is the time to do so!

OOOHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, I have just descended into hyperdrive!!!

Lushious Looby, yesterday afternoon, she wouldn't let me take her photo and kept giggling, this was the best one I got, I love my baby, she's a big bundle of funnyness! 

OOhhheeeeeeeee

It's Here, my new MP3 player, I'm now very excited about this as it means I have music when I am in hospital and in fact where ever and whenever I want! Yay, I'm kind of feeling I may be able to conquer the world with music by my side. So I'm sitting here listening to the Wicked sountrack just because I can! LOL 

Friday Cometh....

Oh yes it's Friday again and atlast we have some money in the bank, we can eat again, HURRAH :) :) :)

There's nothing like a week of being broke beyond belief to make you grateful for the things you do have.

I'm a bit like a caged animal this week though as I haven't managed it out of the house, i did try to go to grannys the other day but I got halfway along the street and had to come back again, I just couldn't do it, without the car for protection I am doubly agoraphobic, and you know the thing is when you have agoraphobia you can't just walk into your local agoraphobics anonymous meeting because no one ever turns up :D :D Sorry couldn't resist that one, it's my favourite joke about my own condition, I have to laugh or sometimes I would start to cry and I'm not sure how likely I would be to stop.

Anyway enough of the maudlin, I was going to order groceries online with Tesco but they charge £5.99 for delivery on a weekend which IMHO is slightly outrageous so Paul says he'll just do multiple walks to Morrisons which isn't so very far away, I may even attempt to go with him, we'll see how brave I feel later.

It's damp and dull again in Newcastle today, it feels like it has been damp the whole week, I suppose the more rain we get now though the better the flowers will be in the summer.

We are not amused!

Well it's clear why the cat's not amused but I'm not amused because I have flu, the car has more wrong with it than right and we have officially rasn out of nearly every edible thing in our house!

I have a sore throat, headache, temperature and feel just icky!

So please all link cyber hands and send me some healthiness, some psychic yakkult if you will, make me well before I lose all hope and stick pencils up my nose!

and now for something completely different...

ah yes the wonderful world of google images never fails to bring up a new and interesting craft, I probably won't be taking this one up but the little old mouse lady does seem to have a certain rustic charm, she belongs in the makers collection which you can veiw HERE

Now then how could you resist, go on go see the whole album :D

Exciting news

Ooh I have to share, I now have a link in my links section to another new and exciting blog, Cubby of Cubbycave designs have launched his own blog full of cubby snippets, I hope you'll go pay him a visit you can find him at the CUBBYCAVE

Back later with todays news :)

Another one bites the dust

Yes it's true Creative scrapbooking are ceasing production along with creative cardmaking ideas and creative beading. If you read my reveiw of the last issue you may think I kind of knew this was coming and yes it's true, I have said for a while that if they did not up their game then they would be another magazine which would not succeed. The magazine game is hard in any area but when you come to a specialised area with fewer readers you really have to up your game and offer something special something which Scrapbook Inspirations has tried to do from the start and TSBM sort of did till it's last issue which was just appauling. I wonder if the new editor of TSBM knew of the fate of CS when she left to take up that job.

Yes it is sad for all involved and I really truly am sad for them but will I miss the magazine, I subscribe after all, probably though I won't even notice when it doesn't arrive next month, however on a personal note this was the first mag which I was ever published in and I'll always have CS to thank for that. I hope now though that someone will take notes from the two mags which have ceased publication, I hope they will not sit back and cry over spilt mags, surely all these talented people can put their heads together right the wrongs and come back with the most fantasmagorical scrapping magazine ever, after all we only learn from our mistakes when we make them. I do believe there is room for 3 scrapping magazines but they all have to offer something wonderous and unique, I'm absolutely sure that there is the talent out there to do this and will wait and hope with baited breath that it does actually happen.

Scrapping myself

I scrapped the photo, sorry about the flashy bit but i wanted to get this on here tonight, what do you think? I'm sort of happy with it, if you want to know what the journalling reads well you'll just have to guess or manage to crane your neck or even read the whole version on UKS. 

Sometimes life is just a bit.....

Up and down, you know I go through more moods in one day that Imelda Marcos changes her shoes.

Today I have been up and down like a broken zipper. Car trouble has ruled our life today, Currently the car has been towed to the garage in time for it to open tommorrow so that the mechanic can give us a quote and we can decide when and if we can get the work done, I say if but I suppose it has to be done, it's just where we find the money. Still no bites on Ebay today at all, maybe it was all beginners luck and now I have fallen at the last hurdle. I'm stuck as well at the moment as I have no paperbags, no flowers and a severe lack of ribbon, however the flowers are ordered, the paperbags are on their way and hopefully the ribbon should get here tommorrow, so it's looking like it will be the weekend before I can get any more kits on, as for the aquarium, I reduced the price so that it will just cover the cost of the work on the car and the ebay fees, ah well such is life, why oh why could we not have won a plasma TV I'm sure they would be a lot easier to sell!

Looby and I both went for a nap this afternoon and I had a lovely restful hour, I'm still shattered but i missed my HRT this morning and only remembered at lunchtime so thats upset my system and the Daylight saving time means I have an hours jet-lag! Yes I know it's only an hour but it's really affecting me! LOL

Now I find out I can't even make it to the psychiatrists on Friday as we'll not have the car done till atleast Tuesday and my agoraphobia will not let me do public transport at the moment, i know this because I tried today and Paul and Looby were with me, I got halfway down the street, turned round and came home in a sweat.

Fingers crossed that tommorrow is a wholly better day!

A self portrait

Teeheehee, look it's me, guess who took that!! 

Have a look at these babies

Oh yes aren't these just a wee bit exciting? It looks like all the CHA stuff is finally here, loads of sponsors touting there wears already this morning on UKS but these babies really caught my eye. If your purse isn't full I would advise steering clear of Just A Memory

If you have got money to spend on beautiful things then I highly recommend the whole of the new Gin X collection, these piccies are the rub ons and the coasters but just wait until you see some of the papers, Wowee kazowee is all I can say, follow that linky thing to be transported to the very lovely Lorraines shop for fabulous service with a smile and more gorgeous new goodies than you can shake your leg at :D

I know you are thinking what did I buy but really I couldn't afford any of it, I didn't even buy 1 coaster. I am rather fiscally red-cheeked at the moment and my last couple of ebay sales have been cheques so no, I can't quite afford the goodies the noo but as soon as I have spare fundings I'll be running to get the whole collection, rub-ons, coasters the blinkin whole lot!

In other news the heating is broken AGAIN! just waiting for the engineer to come, I think it's the dodgy old thermostat this time, it looks like it was originally installed a gazillion years ago so I reckon it was about ready for a break-down.

My Happy Scrapper job continues to go very well, if you have been keeping up with my sponsor posting every afternoon you'll know how much fun they are, I have had several emails and comments about how funny they are, not sure how many products they are selling but they are certainly getting lots of page clicks, we'll have to see how well they have done when Lyn returns from her Jollies in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile Sarah at HappyScrapper is still giving fabulous service with a great big smile and remember no minimum order and free P&P on all orders over £5 forever. Just in case you haven't been to visit yet, here's the linky thing.

I hope you all have a great day today and remember "There's a worm at the bottom of the garden and his name is Wiggly Woo" Teeeeheeeeheeee :D

The plan of the week

No actually thats the plant of the week LOL

The plan of the week is slighty harder to achieve.

The car has decided it doesn't want to go anywhere again and it's going to cost over £100 to fix, £100 that we haven't got right now, Paul is stressed to bits poor lamb so this is my quest for the week, sell as many kits on Ebay this week as is humanly possible and then give the proceeds at the end of the week to Paul, yes it means no goodies for me for a couple of weeks but paul does stuff for me constantly, it's time to give a big bit back. So I popped 1 kit on this morning and it sold this afternoon and I have just put another 3 Rob and Bob paperbag book kits on and also a huge altered art book kit. We've also put on the aquarium set up that Paul won, the gameboy I bought him that he used once, and a brand new shaver that Auntie Vi bought him for Christmas, Paul doesn't do electric shaves!

I really want to get down to some serious crafting myself but I'm shattered, it's been a busy old day again with all the kids here and all in Caged animal form, you don't realise how much you miss your car till you don't have it. They all have the enormous treck to the bus for school tommorrow, since we moved we live quite a long way from the school, if you walked it would take atleast an hour to get there, so it's a hike to the bus stop and then a 20 min journey on said bus, pray for me that it doesn't rain or we'll have awfully wet poppets.

OOh I did get a bargain at the charity shop today, the most beautiful longsleeved lilac gingham shirt for Abigail, £1.50 and she loved it, she's going to look smart at nursery tommorrow :)

The Afternoon cometh at CubbyCave Designs

As yes it's afternoon again, and I just thought I would pop this quick post on. I have a friend who's little shop I want to tell you about, the shop is called CubbyCave designs and sells all manner of wonderous little gifts and cards and altered artworks. I know that the service is great as I have shopped there myself so If you have a couple of minutes, take time to pop along to the Cubbycave

Right, I'll be back later with all the news of today but wanted to make sure I got that one in :)

Oh my, this is going to end up costing me money

Have you seen this paper, it's by Rita Marie and called angele, I hadn't seen this paper before but I received an email from Carolinez when I opened my email box this morning and was directed to these beauties, I urge you to go and check them out http://www.carolinezcraftz.co.uk/catalog/index.php?osCsid=300ddba5baa86768ec3f4dc2510c8c9e>HERE

I know that this will end up costing me money! they have some fabby old things over at Carolinez at the moment and for anyone who hasn't shopped there before she's one of those internet stores who posts out as soon as is humanly possible and gives the most wonderful service.

Now then I have great news, all my kits I popped on Ebay have completely sold out, it's a bit unbeleiveable, I can't get my head round it, yesterday there were 8 of them on there, this morning not 1 remains, I think I'm going to have to spend the day making more kits up, only problem is that I have only just ordered some more paper bags from my supplier and I'm not entirely sure how quickly they're going to get here, I have enough I think to do about 4 kits, but if you are reading this and you would like one, just hang on in there, they're coming so keep checking back!

I am going to have to stop for a while soon anyway when I go off to the hospital as I think leaving it to Paul would be putting a bit too much stress on him, so for a couple of weeks, no kits :(

Also this morning dear readers you find me in a slight pickle, I just remembered that I forgot to go to see the nurse yesterday for my zoladex implant, thats the one which keeps me menapausal until my op, now then I have no wishes to have a suddern period of puberty so I'm going to have to ring up and beg as soon as I know that the doctors is open.

Yesterdays news was that I had a fabulous parenting day, I was supermum yesterday with the girls, we made robots out of old Primas of the month boxes in the morning and in the afternoon we cooked sultana scones, chocolate cake and lumpy bumpy cake (fruit cake which went a bot wrong) we had such a great day and there was flour and ingredients everywhere, however last night I was completely knackered. Being a Blue Peter mum is hard work, I think we may try something a little more sedate today.

We do infact have all the children off school today due to some pointless huge national strike by the unison union, it's the biggest industrial action we have seen in this country for years, it's affecting, public transport, government buildings, schools, car parks, the list goes on and on. I have never agreed with strikes as really it doesn't often work, thats enough from me on the subject, I'm off for some more coffee :)

Not Monday again!

Good grief it's Monday again, can someone please tell old father time that this year is going by far too quickly.

It's damp and rainy again today and I still have Abigail home from nursery. Both she and Looby have already set about doing their crafting and basically destroying my livingroom, only 9.45 and already it's a bombsite, piles of coloured papers and pens lying around next to smaller piles of cut up papers and endless pairs of kiddy scissors, that will teach me to try and bring up creative children.

Our car is putting up protest again, it now needs a new battery, new spark plugs, an oil change, a new air filter and I have just been informed maybe new front suspension, I suspend total disbelief that it passed it's MOT, surely it would be cheaper to buy a new car!

Not much on the scrappy bargain front at the moment, I bought some crate paper over the weekend and another bottle of primas, the fall ones but not really too much around to get excited about.

ATDML have a competition to win a goodie box if you pop your UKS name in the comments box, thats where I got my Crate paper from and it's blinkin gorgeous, linky thing is HERE

Have a great Monday everyone :)

Mp3 for me!!!!!

I cheered myself up this afternoon, I bought myself an MP3 player off Ebay, I had been wanting to get one for my upcoming week in hospital but I didn't want to pay a fortune for it, I managed to get a 512mb one for £20.99 including postage. It should be here within 7 days and you know what I just can;t wait to get all my favourite tracks on, based on my little flash drive I reckon you should be able to get about 60 tracks on which is plenty to keep me company on my hospital stay. I only needed one big enough to take the "Wicked" soundtrack so anything else is a bonus, I can now have Ben Folds, Daniel Powter and the "Rent" movie soundtrack all in hospital with me! LOL

Dad dropped Iain and Abigail off at 6pm and couldn't wait to tell me that he's on call the week of the op but I quickly told him, I would be fine I wouldn't be asking mum and him to look after any of the children and I didn't need them to visit. Why on earth would I want her to refuse to speak to me and then come visit me just because I am in hospital. Thats the kind of thing they do though, my family love a good hospital visit!!

Made up some more paperbag book kits and sold 1 five minutes after I popped it on so as you can imagine I was very chuffed indeed about that. All the Ebaying is starting to pay off, though it is quite a long prospect, it took 2 hours to make up 4 kits tonight but i want to make sure that they are just perfect.

Abigail still isn't well enough for nursery tommorrow, she's been up and down all day again at mums so I might as well keep her off, the schools and half the country are all on strike on Tuesday anyway, hopefully by Wednesday she'll be ok to have a short week at school. It must be nearly Easter soon, I know it's my 6th wedding anniversary on Good Friday but I really must find out when the schools break up.

Right must dash, off to watch next weeks Desperate housewives on E4!

Thank you Lovely Elfen one!

I just received an email from a little Elf who goes by the name of Celfyydyd (aka Olwen) and she had created this wonderful digi-layout for me, I'm a bit chuffed to mintballs, in fact I'm nearly speechless.

Thank you so much Magical Elfen one, you have just made my day! :D

Happy Mothers Day

I want to wish all of you who are mums and read my blog a very happy Mothers day, i hope that you are feeling loved and pampered and valued today, I hope that if you have a mum that you have spoken to her and told her that you love her today. I haven't spoken to mine yet and doubt I will, Paul took my present up for her yesterday and she didn't want to accept it but did begrudgingly in the end, I'm not ringing though as she quite blatently dislikes me, she's told me that enough over the years quote "You are our daughter, we just don't like you very much" and that was one of her nicer comments. I always find that I feel like I'm not a good enough parent and wife because of that, i guess if you spend your life being told how awful you are then you start to think it eventually.

I'm trying so har to be positive today but I wonder how it is that when we argue mum and granny gang together but she never sticks up for me, she and granny have a good relationship and granny would do anything for her (even though she says awful things about granny behind her back) but i have no mother daughter relationship and whenever I try she says she doesn't want one with me, it's days like this I feel sad about that, when things are fine I call her all the time just to chat and she often can;t get off the phone quick enough, she never of course calls in return. She said the ways she feels now that we wouldn't even be allowed in the house if it weren't for the children.

You know what I have so many problems with people and I think it might be me, I think it must be, I must upset them without knowing what I am doing. By my own admission I'm not that great at maintaining friendships because I won't go out on my own and I hate using the phone and some days I can't even get as far as picking the damned thing up. I do genuinely care about all of my friends very much, I'm just not very good at saying it, so if you are looking in and you know me personally, then those cyber flowers are for you my dearest friends, I'm far from perfect but I do have a good heart and I would never intentionally hurt anyone. Blimey I really need to see my psychiatrist again, I have an appointment on Friday and I have a feeling there might be an increase in my meds coming up, I'm sick of my own self at the moment, no wonder poor Paul is at his wits end with me. The thing is though for all his wonderful qualities he's not the most sensitive of souls and often when I need to hear things he says the opposite and i feel worse, i guess if I knew what I needed myself that would be a good start. I'm into my second year on the waiting list for Psychotherapy, hopefully only another year to go, I have soooo many issues!

Have a great day whatever you do and remember go tell someone you love them, they might really need to hear it.

Noel!

Yes i know it's an odd time to be watching Christmas movies but it was the next on the DVD rental list and it was date-night, oh and we also had Deuce Bigalow but they put the wrong DVD in the case so Pauls watching "Elektra" at the moment, not even going to pass comment on that one ;)

So Noel, well it's kind of got a star cast with Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, and Robin Williams. It's about miracles happening on Christmas but I have got to tell you, this is not a fun and laughter movie, this is quite heavy going, it was a nice movie though, it was heartwarming, well acted and some of the imagery used was indeed beautiful. I'm not sure it's the one you want to watch on Christmas eve, maybe a tad too depressing but the film does indeed offer many positive messages in it's own way so I do feel that this is one to hire, although if you are feeling sad and low, maybe leave it till a brighter day.

I'm pleased to say that Abigail has been a little better today but she was so tired that she fell asleep at 5.30pm, the illness is so exhausting for the wee ones. Iain is quite upset at the moment as he looks ill and feels ill but he knows he can;t go to grandmas unless he is well tommorrow so as you can imagine, he's not liking that idea. I'm pretty sure we'll have him up during the night and that he's got the bug. As for Looby, well she had a fab day with grandma and grandad, came home happy and bright at 6pm and went to bed with a story at 7pm, Looby rarely gets ill and even when she does it's not like the others, I have only once known her be really ill and OMG it was so scary, it was like she just stopped and the world stopped with her for a whole week. Lets pray that she doesn't get this awful bug.

I think I may have a touch of the flu, I have had a temperature since Thursday, I feel shattered, slept for 12 hours last night and today I feel like my joints are atleast 90!

Paul is off to footie again tommorrow, now that the season is over they are playing friendlies so joy of joys guess who gets the pleasure of looking after the sick children on Mothers day. I did get my presents this afternoon after they had all forgotten and rushed out to Asda and came back with 3 bunches of flowers, 1 from each child, I'm not complaining although the price of the flowers were scandalous considering they were only small bunches, I also had some crafty goodies during the week, it just makes me a little mad that they hike up the prices of flowers at certain times of the year, I really hate capitalism sometimes.

WOW

So I googled Wow in the images section and this was what came up, yes a set of maracas, well it did after all the World of War screenshots, hardly my idea of wow but I thought I would share, so lets all look at the maracas and say a big WOW!!

Still feeling low today, i went to bed at 8pm last night in a vain effort to sleep and it worked, I fell asleep straight away and slept for 12 hours! I must have needed it.

I had a huge arguement with mum yesterday, all because I asked he if she was speaking to me yet and she said that f she could ever think of anything civil to say to me she would, I asked her if she wanted her Mothers day present and card sending up today with Looby and she said, "Debateable, I don't think so" So as you can imagine I am slightly upset about the whole thing, i tolde her that at 54 she should know better than to behave like a child, after all, all we are trying to do is make sure that all of the children get exactly the same treatment from her and she doesn't make favourites. Sometimes you just feel like you are fighting an endless battle, she is the queen of emotional blackmail after all. I won't go in to all the things she has done to me over the years but lets just say the main reason I need therapy is due to my mother.

Right, I'll go now and stare at the maracas in awe again....

feeling blue

I'm having a depression day today, I slept on the settee last night trying to clear my head but it didn't work, it happens all the time, I can go from elated to mad depression all in one day. My mother always said I was Bi-polar, she would send me to the doctors to demand a psychiatrist so she could have confirmation, she did it a couple of times, the first occasion the doctor laughed at me and then referred me to the psychiatrist who said I had depression, the second time the doctor took me more seriously and referred me to my current psychiatrist who I don't see often enough because I forget to go or I can;t face going out the house on that day. When I went for my initial assessment the psychiatrist said that if I were in america he could probably diagnose me with mild bi-polar manic depression but in this country we only recognise the more severe form, i.e you either have it or you don't, i.e you have to paint your house purple in a manic creative state in the morning and try and kill yourself in the afternoon. I have never done that, I do however have many of the characteristics, my psychiatrist says they'll probably never reach an accurate diagnosis as I present different symptoms at different times, I have agoraphobia but only in so much as I won't go out on m own, sometimes I won't go out at all, it just depends. I have characteristics of Aspergers, my son has aspergers, I got diagnosed with that last year but since then he's not sure again, maybe I am in that category in the dmv4, you know the diagnostic thingy for mental illness, maybe I am in the other box, whatever though it doesn't really help me get better. I take anti-depressants, not your traditional SSRI's but the NSRI, thats a Noradrenaline selective re-uptake inhibitors, they make me feel more awake and they are supposed to make me want to do things more, I have been on them for about 3 and a half years now and they are the best anti-depressants I have taken except they don't deal with the very bad times or stop the manic times. I was tested for my suitability to take lithium but I can;t even go there, they put lithium in batteries you know, I may be many things but I'm not Duracell :D

So today I feel low, I have low self esteem, bad self image and Paul (who is not to blame) doesn't make me feel better. I guess I'll be back on the rollercoaster soon but who knows for how long, I was manic on Tuesday when I decided to take the doggy in, I was depressed and went to bed all afternoon on Wednesday, I was ok wednesday night and up high again yesterday and then back to being low again by last night.

Will I ever be completely better, I just don't know that, I have been this way for as long as I can remember, one the reasons I don'thave my own bank account is because I go mad and I spend all the money for bills on the kids, on craft stuff, on paul just to give me that feeling better thing, Paul took my bank account off me a year ago and he turned things around but then lately I spent from his account, I ended up in trouble again, hence i now try and sell stuff on ebay to fund paypal which in turn funds purchases for crafty stuff etc. On one hand I am so capable, I make things happen when I need to, I try and be a good mum but on the other hand some days I can barely look after myself and I am always a terrible housekeeper and wife, no wonder then that Paul just gets so despondant with me and of course it doesn't help that he has his own mental health issues.

Don't you just hate mental health, you look ok to everyone therefore you must be ok, I wish it was more visible sometimes, like a rash or something so that when I do have bad days I could say to the doctors or the government "hey look I have that rash again"

Todays slightly jumbled message is that if we all try and understand mental health a little more maybe it will be easier for those of use who have to face it on a daily basis. Just because someone doesn't look disabled or depressed on the outside doesn't mean they are not.

Gotta Love this paper

It's by sassfrass lass and I think it's just scrummy, I think I am gonna get me some of that. I'll have to make a list I think I want to get those Heidi Swapp Fuzzy rub-ons from Happy Scrapper later when I actually get long enough to myself to have a serious browse and a leisurely shop!

Talking of Happy scrapper I spoke to my new Boss Lyn today, what a lovely lady she is, she was so excited for her hols, I hope she comes back relaxed and refreshed. So I did my first post in the sponsor section and I managed to not blow it up and I got all the links in the places where they're supposed to go! LOL What fun I am having.

I have hardly anything on Ebay now after selling loads yesterday so I need to put my working boots on tonight and compile some more kits, I went out to get the ribbons and flowers for the kits today so I just need to pop them all together and decide which papers I am going to be using, I'm thinking 3 bugs in a rug for definite and I'll have to have a look in my extensive paper collection and see which other lovlies I can bear to part with, I got some zizion eyelets in large sizes today as well which are fabby, I really need some more big brads though, I think I might have to get those from Happy scrapper too as they come in the embellishabilities pack, which also reminds me if you have seen these packs of goodies but you're not too sure what you are going to do with all the stuff, take a look at the paper wishes weekly webisode HERE

Spring?

It looks like spring today, for the first time this year I could almost be convinced that spring has actually arrived. The sky is bright blue, the sunshine is positively pouring through the window and I can see all the buds just waiting to burst open on the tree outside the window. Hurrah for spring, although I say that and you can just imagine it will probably snow again before the weekend, in fact one of my team mates on UKS woke up to another winter-wonderland again this morning, I know she's getting a bit fed up of it now, I hope Spring comes soon for you Jaqueline!!

No shopping tips this week really, I think it's kind of the lull before the storm of all the products reaching us from CHA, it must be surely because even I have hardly made any purchases at all this week, with of course for the exception of W R memory keepers stuff from Happy Scrapper

I think by the time i am finished I will have everyone of those gorgeous cornstock alphabets lined up on a shelf somewhere, If you go visit Happy scrapper don't forget to check out the Heidi Swapp fuzzy rub-ons, I haven't bought these yet but OMG they look sensational, I may have to buy some today just so I have something to look forward to over the weekend.

I watched the apprentice last night in the hope (and total agreement with Cubbys comment) that they Sir Alan would get rid of Jo and Sayed, possible the two most annoying people on TV apart from Keith Chegwin. Please Sir Alan should you be reading my blog this morning, take note, fire them both in one go and save yourself a fortune!!

Right then must go, I have an Abigail off Nursery again today, she has an ear infection and yesterday she slept most of the day and was no bother, today however she is most definetly on the road to recovery and hasn't stopped for breath yet this morning!

If you think Scrapbooking is weird

Then you are going to want to check out this very ecclectic and diverse craft show, you can find it HERE

To borrow some lyrics from Wicked I quote "there are wonders like you've never seen, it's all grand and it's all green" Well maybe not green but some of it is kind of an aquired taste for instance take a look at this wonder

Not exactly to my taste but it is kind of wonderous that you can make something like that out of paper. You'll also see conceptual art created from old rusting ham cans, heads carved into coconut and many other interesting things that will probably make you go, ahh yes Hmmm.

Anyway, I would like to say I am feeling much better now, the dark cloud has lifted, I knew it would, it just takes me a while to get over stuff :)

only 20 mins till "The Apprentice" and then "Desperate Housewives" My favourite telly night of the week. Love Alan "Its a dog eat dog world" Sugar, he's obviously forgotten how many people he traumatised with his amstrad and Amiga computers :)

I'm entirely hurt

Paul completely changed his tune this morning, we gave Mr Barker a new collar and then Paul made him go, he said we couldn't keep him and that if I were worried I should phone the RSPCSA, he didn't listen to any of my reasoning and I am so mad and hurt, he just can't see why we should take the dog in, even though I believe that we could give him such a nice life just as we do with Poppy cat, of course Abigail and Looby were upset just as I was and we're not speaking now, I have told him that he has hurt me and it will be a while before I forgive his utter selfishness, he did say that maybe I could think about getting a puppy but that will probably never happen. I never even got to take a photo of lovely Mr Barker. He said we had done the right thing giving him a new collar and a bed for the night and food but that we had to let him go, well you know I think that God sent Mr Barker and now he's going to be mighty angry, so I'll now expect lots of bad luck to follow.

Shaggy Dog stories

Well not so much shaggy as small and shorthaired actually, you see there has been this little dog in a harness wandering our streets for a little while, the friendliest little doggy. So last night it was barking and barking, so remembering I had some dog food, I opened the door and in walked "Mr Barker" we looked at the harness and managed to remove it but it was clear that it had been wearing it for months and it has considerable graze marks on the back of it's legs, quite honestly it's sickening that people can treat animals like this. Iain even says he knows who it belongs to and they live quite far away but it's just left to roam the streets, this makes my heart ache and after seeing the state of it's legs I took the decision that it won't be returning there anymore. Paul is going to take him to the vets this morning and also get him a collar and lead, I'll try and take a photo of him later. He's just gorgeous and little and friendly and I am sure that the vet will agree that it should stay with us. As for Poppy's reaction, Mr Barker is scared of Poppy at the moment and Poppy just wants to play, she's keeping him in check for us! LOL

Happy days with a new addition to our household, as I said to Paul in this house 1 more makes no difference, we already have a menagerie!

A layout with Bling

So I did some scrapping tonight, still got the two week old headache but I was feeling quite energised and I had been wanting to try the Basic grey wholly cow rub ons and I came up with this

I'm really quite pleased with it, sorry about the carp photo but the lighting in my living room at night is not exactly optimum for photography.

It's been an ok sort of a day, went to the Scrapbook shop, got a few goodies and a couple of magazines and really that was about it, Abigail and Looby did layouts when Abigail came home from school and they had such fun, all they ever want to do these days is crafting, can't think where they get that from ;)

You know what, I really miss smileys, I might have to get some of those but maybe not from Smiley central as they're supposed to be full of spyware.

I really need the weather to start improving so I can take more photos, just to have 1 nice warm sunny day would be nice but it's not looking like that any day soon, ah well one can keep dreaming.

A very Funny Link

Just had to quickly pop on and post this link which my friend Carol sent to me (Thanks Carol, you really made me laugh) So for the talking Cats click HERE

I'll be back later with all the news from today. :)

arggghhhh again

Why is it that you try and keep up with your blog, you pop new and interesting posts on and then blogger sees fit to not actually publish them properly, I wrote my last post about half an hour ago and it still hasn't shown up, it's really starting to annoy me, anyone with suggestions for a great alternative blog would be greatly appreciated, also if anyone knows who i can complain to at blogger let me know that too!

More snow?

So, firstly I wrote this great entry this morning and did it through Picasa which then lost it when I tried to upload the photo, I'm grrrrr mad about that, the photo capabilities of blogger are just carp, it takes forever to upload a photo if and when it ever works and then you lose huge postings when you try and do it through picasa, I can't see me keeping this blog if thats what keeps happening, I may have to resort to paying for one through type-pad. Ok have now resorted to photobucket post this photo which was taken out my window at 7.40am this morning, we were in the middle of a snow storm would you beleive. To me it seems like the weather is a month behind, you know it was warm unil November and now it's more like february than March. The crocuses of course still refuse to be knocked and remain a little pot of sunshine outside the back door, I'm sure they smile at me whenever I pass them in a "Don't worry it's nearly spring" type of way. I can;t beleive the clocks go back at the weekend.

I had such a bad nights sleep because of pains in my neck and head again. I was in tears last night as I lost it with the girlies and put them to bed for being rowdy, I felt so awful afterward that I went and apologised to them both and explained I was just grouchy as I haven't had much fun with migraines lately and that I knew it wasn't an excuse and that I was really sorry. I think they forgeave me and this morning Abigail told me that she thought I was a star which was really sweet. I still feel awful though, it's just not like me to be shouty.

The postman came about 5 mins ago with a new parcel of goodies, some of those coloured crystal making memory brads that I ordered at the weekend, a bottle of the prima copper top daisies and 4 sheets of Junkitz paper, 2 from the flowerful collection and 2 from the rhythmz collection. I do love crafty goodies :)

I can now share my secret....

Another beautiful tropical plant from the winter gardens for todays post, it's still like winter outside so I thought it would cheer the place up a bit!!

I have such exciting news, I can now tell you my secret, I have been dying to share since I found out on Saturday. I have been offered a job as a personal shopper for Happy Scrapper, how excited and happy am I? Particularly as I'll get to browse cool products and select wonderful goodies from the manufacturers. So yay and toot toot for me!

Nothing else to tell you about today, I had my second migraine of the day and at the moment my head is not well but I daresn't take any more injections as I used 20 in a week.

Right, children are screamy and tetchy and I have to put them to bed before I lose my sanity.

Just a Quickie

Just a quickie update this morning as I had the biggest migraine ever and if it hadn't of been for my injection I would have ended up in hospital, I woke up with neck pain but then I do most days, anyway Paul had just left to take the kids to school and in the space of 5 mins I had an enormous migraine, lost the feeling in my fingers, couldn't see, couldn't speak, not exactly what you need when you have a 2 and a half year old to look after. Luckily Looby was fine and she knew I had my injection so she sat on the settee and very quietly watched doodle-do until it worked, it seemed to take ages but I suppose in reality it was probably about 20 minutes.

So, I'm just having a cup of tea, Pauls off at the Asthma clinic and I'm still feeling a bit ditzy and blurry. I have had some great stuff happening over the weekend but I can't reveal any of it at this point but suffice to say it's all fabby! :)

Lazy Sunday afternoon!

Yay I did a layout, I haven't managed a lot of scrapping lately as I have been so very busy doing the ebay thing and basically being ill, which can sometimes feel like a full time occupation ;) Anyway, I had this photo on my laptop for a couple of weeks and I had to scrap it, taken in one of Loobys impromptu naptimes, Paul saw fit to take advantage as per usual :)

Well it's still quiet, Paul and the kids went off to his dads about half past one and haven't returned yet. I popped 3 more kits on Ebay but they're premium ones using really great supplies so I'm trying to sell them at a fixed price, mind you I do think they're absolutely worth £3.99, I would pay that!

I'm feeling the urge to scrap some more now so I better strike whilst the iron is hot.

OOhhh stop my aching credit card

Now then I saw both of these things this morning and I have to admit to being more than just a little excited, have you seen all those goodies you get in the HOTP pack and OMG those pioneer albums just ooze sophistication and don't they look really expensive? They're not though they're only £16.99 you can go have a look at them HERE

I really really want them but I just bought those crystal brads that I was telling you about and some of those prima daisy's from scrapfairies, so I better not go happyscrapper mad just yet, maybe later in the week, it's mothers day next Sunday so hopefully if I drop enough hints and point my family in the direction of my blog, well you never know do you? :D

Pride and Prejudice

Our film of choice for date night last night was Pride and Prejudice with the divine Matthew Macfadyen and the glorious Keira Knightley. What a sumptuous and most beautiful movie this is, the mists, the sunshine, the colours, the acting was superb, Donald Sutherland was amazing in his role as was the ever wonderful Brenda Blethyn, the only slight disappointment for me was that Matthew, whilst being kind of brooding in a dark and handsome type of way is NOT Colin Firth a man for whom the role of Mr Darcy was written, probably by Jane Austen herself (LOL) No one plays Mr Darcy quite like Colin Firth. Anyway Paul enjoyed the movie much as I did so a pleasant evening was had by us both. Sleep would have been lovely but for another night migraine, I'm really becoming quite like a pin cushion this week, my thighs are one big mass of bruises from all of the injections, which at the last count had reached 18 in one week which surely can't be too good. sadly I think I must go and see my neurologist even if just for a little reassurance as I really don't fancy popping my clogs on the operating table in May, in fact I would rather not have any popping of my ruby slippers until I am atleast 126 thank you very much. Maybe the hint of witch in me will keep me around till then :D

I'm laughing at myself!!!

Oh yes I am because my items which went under the hammer at 7pm did fine so it was my own fault for making the mistake with the other ones, well that will teach me to double check next time won't it, thank goodness that I didn't lose too much money!

In the scrapping world it's all getting a bit exciting, there are so many new products on the verge of being launched over here and you know that I'll want them all, I can't beleive that this years hot things are Flowers, paisley and Bling, well OMG maybe they came and pinched some of my dreams because I couldn't be happier about that, I love all those things, I might end up with some fantastic pages if I ever get around to actually doing the scrapping, thats the thing though my crafting has been a little on the light side at the moment, I have just finished a card for a friends birthday but considering it's on Monday I wasn't exactly prompt, I'm just hoping that the little parcel will get there if we catch the Sunday post at Morrisons tommorrow. I also have another friend with a birthday soon so I must try and remember to get that one sorted too, the thing is though, I'm not much of a card maker, for some reason it always has me in a pickle, it's mothers day next week and I'm going to give her the card that I did for the HS design team, mind you she only throws them away and thinks made cards are so much less thoughtful than bought ones so I don't really care! LOL!

Arghhhhhhhh, stupid cow I am!

I'm sitting here with my head in my hands in disbelief of the losses I'm making on Ebay today, I slightly mis-timed my auctions by a couple of hours, I thought I had scheduled them to end at 7pm but no they ended now and I can't beleive my kits have gone for 99p, blimmin 2 lots of primas, bazzil really big brads, other goodies, I have now made losses on atleast 4 kits, I put so much time and love into the preparation and trying to give people something a little different, I think I need a drastic re-think, I can't afford to lose £3 and £4 on each kit, I don't have that kind of money to lose, I'm guessing that I'm just going to be concentrating on the paperbag book kits from now on as they seem to go really well, i just feel a little sore that those people selling the poundshop kits are doing well and I'm putting my heart and soul in and losing, Ok, I have my nicorette tab under my tongue and I'm taking deep breaths and praying that the remaining ones which close at 7pm do a little better, if not I'll pick myself up, scream a little and try again :) Big Rant over.....

Wow, Spring has arrived at the winter gardens in Sunderland, kind of a tropical spring I suppose and very lovely it is too! We had a lovely time this morning and as you can see from the motley crew on the second photo, my family are not the easiest people in the world to photograph.
 

Fun Family Saturday

Off here today, yes thats a photo of the Sunderland Winter gardens, a small botanical garden with over 1500 varieties of plant, bonus that it all happens to be free and after we have been there and taken half a memory card of photographs we'll be off to the Discovery Museum in Newcastle which is the largest free museum in our region, it's a science museum and seeing as this week is science week there is a special exhibition and plenty of things going on. Hopefully by the time we get home I'll have some decent photographs to scrap!

Had another awful nights sleep with another night-migraine, am getting slightly concerned by this so may have to go and request an appointment with my neurologist, I have had one and sometimes 2 of these every night this week. I'm hoping that it's nothing and that it's not going to interfere with plans for my op, I really need to be in the best of health by May 10th.

More auctions closing tonight, these ones aren't doing so well at the moment so if they don't close so well or indeed sell I may have to take them off and take a second look at them, can't specifically see anything wrong with them at present, they certainly received the same love, care and attention, oh well best ot worry too much they still have several hours to increase.

Right must go off and get dressed, Paul dressed the girls this morning in thick winter tights and shorts! LOL slightly eccelctic but thats my hubby!

BLING!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yes the bling is in, get your fabby making memories eyelets HERE

Thats a link to Scrapfaries, I ordered from them last week and I had fantastic service so I'm bigging them up to you all!

I also hear on the grapevine from a very good source ;) that for all you W R Memory Keepers fans, Happy Scrapper are getting a new delivery of goodies from them on Monday. Ooh it's all shopping tips tonight but I was informed by my lovely friend Tracy (Who I had a lovely on the phone chat to this morning :) ) about a US company who give great service and have fabby prices they're called a million little things and you can find them HERE

Oh and for all you fans of the making memories foam stamps who are having trouble finding them, I bought mine from that company this afternoon for the bargain price of 7$ I spent 11$ in total and I paid only 3$.30 for the postage so it's really worth checking them out and the best part is that they take Paypal (Wahey) just make sure you don't go overboard and then have to pay huge customs charges! She's apparently also one of those nice ladies who will take prima flowers out of bottles to make them cheaper for postage, they didn't seem to have any of those on site when I looked this afternoon though.

Right then, thats my day really, nothing much has happened, Paul is embarking on a new stage in his life and undertaking a project which means I'll be left with Looby for a couple of days a week, luckily only for a couple of hours though as I have trouble managing on my own when I am ill. Auctions closed well again on Ebay, so I'm really starting to feel positive that I am making money for myself and not having to rely on anyone or go vastly overdrawn.

I have had more cigarettes today but it's been a day with some stressful arguements in it, all resolved now I think and just silly really but I still think I have only had 3 full cigarettes today, will try harder tommorrow.

Goody Goody Yum Yum

Ooh yes everyone needs to drool over top totty to get the day off to a rip roaring start, so here is the very gorgeous and fabulously bespectacled David Tennant, it can't be long till the new series of Dr Who now can it? I do love Dr Who, I thought Christopher Ecclestone was good but Well you just can't get better than David Tennant in a suit with a Time-Machine can you, well maybe you could if it were Ewan Mcgregor, because lets face it stick the two of them beside each other, both wearing specs and David just looks a bit skinny and a little rough around the edges, probablyt best that we keep the two of them somewhat seperate and drool over them accordingly!

Well the funniest thing happened today, I had money in my paypal account, it's been there all night and I've still managed to not spend it, though of course inwardly I have spent it several times, I had a problem when I saw the prima milk crates and nearly gave in and again when I took a second look at the gorgeous Winnies Walls collection from SEI but for now I have pulled myself back, I'm really going to wait till I have a tidy sum and it's rainy and miserable and then spend the lot. I did promise Iain a new Playstation controller on account of the cat eating it, darn cat why can't she just eat upholstery like normal felines?! She does love a nice biscuit as well, if you dare to dunk one she can smell it from fifty paces, she'll leap upgrab the dunked biscuit in mid air and before you know it all your staring at is the undunked bit at the end, you know the bit you couldn't dunk for fear your fingers would become one large blister?!

Right then , must be off, important things to do (NOT!!) must go and update the music player with some new selections, or atleast Jiggle them around a little and maybe get rid of Barry manilow! I have gone off him lately, he's just looking a bit old and plastic.

No pics today :(

Aww I have no piccies for you today, I haven't really had time to search for any and I have been in the middle of a muscle spasm for most of the day!

Went off to see Granny and Uncle Jim for a couple of hours this afternoon and Jim was looking much brighter and happier than of late, it's good to see him making a recovery, Granny didn't seem so stressed or tired as well which is also brilliant news, it's been so hard for her running up and down the stairs every five minutes. So anyway we had a lovely relaxing afternoon and the kiddies had their tea there.

I haven't really eaten today, I have picked but I have just been unable to think about food for thinking about spasms and detoxification. I have only had 2 cigarettes today and I'll probably have one after this as a reward for not having one since 4pm, if I could cut the morning ones down I would only be smoking 1 a day as I smoke them in halves, I reckon though even if I just stay as I am I'll be smoking at a low enough level to not be too bothered when I am in hospital and will have completely given up by the time I get out.

Had an email off the lady from the company which dared to give me bad customer service, in the end it just happened to be a case of human error and she offered me a substantial discount on the stamps, I still refused that though as I want my stamps before the twelfth of never ;)

I haven't had any codeine at all today so it looks like I have knocked that one on the head, hopefully I won't have the killer migraine during the night tonight.

I did ok on Ebay tonight, it's not going to make me a million but I only had 5 kits closing and they all sold and with enough to make it worth doing this more often, I love doing it, I love sitting amongst stash and coming up with kits and thinking, OOh yes I would like that, my sewing machine is looking more like a definite and the bank may just be my friend by the end of the month if I am lucky :D

Snow again

Good morning, snow is upon us again, it's not settling but we keep having such great snowstorms with proper Christmas size flakes, it's so pretty when it falls it makes me want to leap outside and catch snowflakes on my tongue.

I'm in such pain this morning, one of my muscles has decided to throw itself into spasm and it isn't coming out again, I think it's in my shoulder blade and all down my back, Paul put the cold spray on before he left for school so I'm hoping either that or the diclofenac might sort it out. The thing is though I am trying to wean myself off legal but addictive substances and I think my body is in shock withdrawal. Yesterday I had 2 and a half cigarettes and 3 nicorette microtabs, almost halving my cigarette intake, I only had 1 cup of coffee, reducing my caffine intake by atleast 6 cups and only 2 co-proxamol tablets reducing my codeine intake by about 6 tablets, I only ever take them when I am in pain and i have been over the last couple of weeks but now I am hooked again so I'm trying to switch back to just paracetamol but it's the huge headaches which come from withdrawal that I can't stand, my muscle in my back is I suspect just another side effect, I am determined though that by the time I go into hospital I will no longer be a smoker, I'll only have 2 cups of coffee a day maxium and I will have stopped taking codeine forever, they're stopping co-proxamol anyway because of the above reasons, it's very addictive and in such a short space of time, I must add that it's my body which is addicted and not my mind. I have had 2 injections for migraines during the night and I'm really not feeling much like fun this morning.

I also want to tell you about the extraordinarily bad service I have received from a company which I ordered the Making memories foam stamps, the floral ones, I won't name and shame them just yet because I have sent them an email and I want to see what their response is first but so far here's the story, I ordered them last friday using Pauls bank card, i was starting to get a little dismayed when I still hadn't receieved them when I find an email in my box today, stating that the stamps were not even in stock yet when I placed my order they were showing as in-stock and there was no notice about it being a pre-order. they said that I hadn't been charged yet but that they may have some by the end of the month, for me this is shocking customer service. I'll BBL with an update!

My clever Abigail

Look at what Abigail made tonight when she came home from school, she was so excited that I was giving her a box of ribbons and fibres and asked if she could use a piece of my paper to make a picture on and this was what she came up with, she measured all her ribbons, cut them to size and stuck them on, Proud mummy I am.

I just had sucha promising sign from Ebay, got asked to make a male themed kit so I quickly panic'd, calmed down, raided my stash and popped a couple on, hopefully this will prove to be a positive move and the bank will start being my friend again soon! LOL!

More scrummy papers

I saw these papers and I think they're divine today, they're the SEI winnies walls collection, gorgeous, if you haven't seen them before and you have more money than I do at the moment then you can look out for them HERE

I have had a lovely afternoon with Looby making a collage picture, Looby loves cutting at the moment so we cut up loads of paper and ribbon and fibres and then made a lovely collage, I decided to donate a box of old fibres to her and Abigail for their crafty collection, Abigail hasn't seen them yet and I expect she will be on the verge of ultra excitement when she does as she loves pretty stash as much as I do, sh even keeps all her stuff in a 12x12 pizza box now.

I had a huge migraine earlier and so off I went to bed with my injection but with the house being so toasty warm, I was so warm and snuggly that I didn't want to get up even when it was gone, Looby was asleep anyway so it was nice to have a wonderful nap in peace, half expected paul to also be asleep when I got up but he was watching Mythbusters!

I really should be doing the chores but....

I couldn't resist sharing this paper with you all, it's from the new Scenic route range, i adore Scenic route but re my last post I really can't afford it at the moment, BTW I told my hubby about it and he didn't shout he just said he kind of knew as I always spend too much when I am down but not to worry we'll sort it , he's a rare gem to put up with me! Anyway if you have much more money than I have you can go and ogle this paper and the other ones from the range HERE

I love Scenic route they're one of my favourite paper companies.

Ooh one of my lovely email ladies asked me a question the other day about card-making, Alice if you are looking in, then this is for you, I don't make cards in advance, I like to think long and hard about the person that I am sending too and hopefully pop something of that persons personality in the card, of course what actually happens it that I panic because I leave it till the last minute and then they get the first card I come up with but the thought is there, if I ever really sort myself out early enough the the lucky recipient will truly have something to look forward to. Oh to be organised and sane and excitedly happy all of the time :)

Early Update

Yes it's earlier this morning but it was my morning to get up with the girlies today, they have had breakfast so I thought I would come update my blog before I attempt to get Iain up and make coffee for hubby. Just checked our bank account and it looks like we are overdrawn again, more bank charges, I daresn't tell Paul for fear it will send him completely over the edge and he'll kill me, of course it's all completely my fault, I just forget about people taking money out and if it's there to take I usually spend it, I'm going to have to stop this, it's getting beyond a joke, mind you you can always tell when I have been feeling down as it leaves a large dent in my bank account. Thank goodness for being able to auction some stuff on Ebay, I might just be able to recoup a little of the money, I think I need a plan, any suggestions, yes I know stop spending money, i only ever spend little bits at once but I suppose it all mounts up, blimmin Prima flowers. You kow i have never been one for material things like big kitchens, new bathrooms etc, I just like stuff, I buy the kids far too much, I hoarde goodies because it makes me feel better, Yes I know you are thinking "This woman needs therapy" LOL well I suppose you would all be right, I have been on the waiting list for a year but waiting lists for psychodynamic psychotherapy are currently 2 years. Not that I'm complaining but mostly I am fine it's just lately since we fell out with my parents life has just gotten a bit out of hand, It's great that Paul finally stood up to mum but at what cost, I'm not even sure we are allowed in her house and granny has been a bit off with me. The great matriarch speaks and everyone jumps, thats why I have never won an arguement yet, you say 1 word she doesn't agree with and you get banished, written to and texted on a daily basis, yes mum is good at texting her horridness now, I discovered that the last time she banned people from speaking to me. I don't think she'll try that this time as Paul won't stand for it but she already hinted we wouldn't be allowed in her house and all because we think Iain should be treat the same as his sisters, she says you can't possibly have 3 children at the same time and give Iain the attention she wants to give him, she wants to see the girls every other week and Iain every week, not exactly treating him the same is it?! Ohhh grrrrr, sorry to vent, I guess I woke up in a funny mood today, that will be the trying to give up smoking malarky, time for a nicorette micro-tab.

So I gave it a little friend, a left hand side and it was so much fun, I have writers cramp now though and I haven't had that for ages LOL! 

The Diva Challenge

So here it is, tha challenge I set yesterday, my doodle page, it's 6x6 and I used a sakura gelly roll pen and I like it because it's lots and lots of fun, it has just a little bit of me in it, I know it's not going to win any prizes but to be honest I'm not having so much luck getting published at the moment, I'm not sure whether it's just getting harder as more and more people get into the hobby or whether I have lost my Mojo, the pages I submitted lately have been IMHO quite good, better than the ones previously published, maybe I'm not using enough cool products though I have to admit past pages haven't really been about the product, or maybe I was just lucky, up until now I had only had 1 rejection, then 3 in one week, Grrr, I promised myself that I am not going to get down, I'll just work and work and work until something is good enough, and I always have the next issue of Scrapbook Inspirations to look forward to which has my page of Loobys 2nd Birthday in it. I hope that over the next couple of months I'm going to get my scrapping into top gear and then I'll start submitting again after I'm sure that I've got something great to offer

It's warm at last!

Well after a day of being freezing again, it looks as if the heating might be finally fixed, we had to get the engineer out again this afternoon and it's been so cold today that I have had on my thick opaque tights and then slipper socks on top of that :D

I'm not sure what he did when he came the last time but for the first time ever since we moved in, we have heating in the bedroom, the vent has never blown out hot in there and yay tonight I might not have to freeze my bottom off for a change.

Also I have just finished reading "The Scrapbook Magazine" and I have to say that with the new design and new editor I just don't like it, there was a submission guide but it didn't say what types of pages they were looking for and I couldn't actually find a READERS gallery in this months magazine just 3 designers gallery, why is it that scrapping magazines (with the exception of the wonderful Scrapbook Inspirations) are rapidly going down hill, I'm in dismay when I read them, they no longer excite me or inspire me, like Creative Scrapbooking where the most inspiring feature of last month was the Readers Gallery, now then could this be because one of the feature writers was in transition on her way to becoming the editor of TSBM. I'm just glad that I also received my copy of this months Creating Keepsakes, I have taken out a monthly subscription with Papermaze so that I don't have to worry about missing issues, I was delighted to see the wonderful smiley face of the gorgeous and amazingly talented Elsie Flannigan, thank goodness for CK and Memory Makers (and Scrapbooking Memories and For keeps from OZ). Please British editors of Scrapping mags, try and be more far-sighted, give us the things we want, new techniques, wonderful pages of inspiration, interesting features, things which challenge us, things which make us want to jump right up, put the mag down and scrap right now. Take a look at CK and Scrapbooking memories, see all that is wonderful in the world of the scrapping magazine and try some of that before we end up being a country which produces only 1 magazine. You know what though, maybe if there were only 1 magazine, then it would be brilliant, take all the best bits of all our publications, throw them together and you might just have something readable and enjoyable.

Ahhhhhh, Rant over, that feels so much better.

Brrrrrrrrrr

Blimey it's cold, we spent the entire night without any heating after the stupid heating system broke down again and the man who came out last night said he didn't carry the part, so last night we nearly froze to death, we had quilts, blankets, throws and I was sill blinkin cold, I nearly passed out with happiness when the engineer turned up at quarter to nine this morning :) So for now it's e fixed but this is about the 5th time in 6 months so I reckon it could well break down again before we get the new central heating put in either later this year or early next year.

Nothing else to tell really, I went to bed with a huge headache at 8pm last night and it's still there, blimmin flu, Looby is lying on the settee not very happy I think she is coming down with it too, the problem is that it took me a week before it completely floored me, it's funny, like a progressive thing, I hate it when she is ill though as she's such a happy bean normally it's even more noticeable when she's ill!

Good morning, here it is, Abigails own handwriting, what a clever fairy :)
Back with a full post in a Mo! 

Still Blinkin got the poorlies :(

yes I have and I'm not happy, I felt ok earlier on today and Looby was looking brighter and much happier after her morning nap so we went off to Dainty's in Washington, it's like the dark hole of crafting, a big warehouse with mostly rubbish and do-crafts type stuff but you can get occasional bargains. They have the biggest ribbon selection I have ever seen, you can buy it in rolls or by the metre but to be honest most of it is so cheap I just buy rolls, I bought two today but will probably keep some and put some in the kits which I am selling. I also got 2 huge gerbera flowers for 59p each which I have taken apart and now I have some identical to Heidi swapps, only difference is hers are so much more expensive. So after going for 2 rolls of ribbon I came out with a huge amount of stuff, mostly for the kids as they have a fabby selection of kids crafting things. When I got home I was back in temperature mode and since then I have deteriorated back to the fluey mess I was this time yesterday, I have a huge headache which is partly due to the flu and partly due to the fact that I smacked my head off the card door, LOL, I am so accident prone, some days I should just stay in a padded cell and play with cotton wool :D

So I was going to attempt my own challenge tonight but I'm feeling pretty carp so I'm just going to lie on the settee and watch corrie.

OOh I must tell you of my find of the day, in a cheapy shop next to the doctors I found peanut butter chunky kit-kats, wow now they're tasty, and they only cost £1 for 10 of them, all the kids loved them so I guess we'll be going for more tommorrow before they sell them all, the writing on the pack was french so I guess they have a penchant for peanut butter in Paris!

One last thought of the day, I am so proud of Abigail, she came home with the neatest version of her name today from nursery, she finally wrote it all by herself and I am so proud of her, Abigail is a hard word to write when you are 3, she's been writing words now for a while but it was difficult to spell and write her very own name, maybe if we had called her May or Aby! LOL, so I just want to tell the world how wonderful Abigail is, she can be monsterous at times but over all she's just wonderful, she asked me if I would be getting up in the morning, I promised her I would and let daddy have the lie in and asked her why she wanted me to get up so badly, she replied "because you are special and I can give you lots of kisses" Ahhhhh makes you melt!

Doodle-It!

Good Morning,

Still have the awful throat but my temperature seems to have dropped a little so I feel somewhat better than I did at this time yesterday.

Ok so it's Monday and I have just posted my challenge to my team on UKS, so I'm also going to post it here too -

Mandy's Marvellous Monday Challenge.

This weeks challenge is to create a 6x6 layout in either black or white which includes either doodling or handwritten journalling. If you need any inspiration you can check out 2peas or UKS for plenty of inspiration. I'm going to have a go tonight and see what I can come up with, I have doing the Heidi Swapp "love your Handwriting" assignments so hopefully I'll see some improvement in my own work.

Now then I like to post photos in my blog but as I have been ill, I haven't taken any and I haven't done any crafting so today's spot shall be filled by the lovely Ewan, have a great Monday!

Still ill, quick update

Just a quickie update as I haven't much to tell , mostly due to the fact that I am still ill, I think I have what the americans call Strep throat and you know what I can't ever remember my temperature being so high for so long. I'm off to the doctors tommorrow so I'll get her to check me out.

It's persistently snowed here today but would you believe that we still only have about half an inch lying, it's just been too wet and sticky. No crafty projects either as I haven't had the energy, I am planning on starting a weekly challenge on my UKS team tommorrow though all being well so I thought that I might just pop it up here on my blog too and if you all want to join in then thats just brilliant and if you produce anything fabulous don't forget to let me know, you can email me it and I'll pop it up on the blog for all to see.

Not entirely sure the details of it yet but all I'll say is we will be working in 6x6 as it doesn't take too long so it's not going to seem so scary and hopefully we will all pick up some new techniques along the way.

Revenge of the Bug - the big strikes back

Here I am writing this from bed with a temperature too high to measure, an outbreak of excema, spots on the inside of my throat, ulcers, a spot on my tongue and feeling quite fit to drop actually, yes I think the big has won, it's never a good sign when your hubby encourages you to stay in bed and offers to cook Sunday dinner and it's almost unheard of for the children to have a look at you and wander off shaking their heads and sit and watch a dvd quietly, oh yes for now it seems the bug has definetly got me and is attacking my body and winning. The only good thing is that I already have an appointment with the doctor tommorrow so I may be able to get Anti-biotics if needed, I hate taking them usually but it looks like they may actually be neccessary this time. Unbeleiveably Paul has actually stayed home from his semi final footie match which quite frankly means I must look as awful as I feel.

On the upside and trying to remain positive, it's actually snowing and has been since i woke up, I would take a photo but I haven't the energy, maybe later we'll see how it goes. Right now I must get paul to plug the laptop back into the power before my rubbish battery runs out.

The flu has won

Yes, my body finally gave in to the bugs this afternoon, I now have flu and I feel just awful, I have a really sore and yacky throat with spots in it, I have the shivers and I'm as hot as a hot watter bottle, except that I have freezing cold fingers and toes.

The girls and Iain all had a great day at Grandmas and came back full of the joys of spring, Iain has gone straight round to his friends and the girls have just popped off to bed, i wish I could have got a load of things done but I just feel awful, I put together about another 6 or so kits to sell on Ebay and I'm hoping prospective buyers will see the love thats gone into preparing them, I thought long and hard about each one and you know I think it shows, I think all you need to add is some photos and journalling or maybe a nice hand-cut title. Fingers tightly crossed then because I really want a sewing machine, abigails birthday is fast approaching and there are far more Primas in the world than I can afford. :D

It's forecast for heavy snow tommorrow, I'm hoping it will if I still feel like this and then I can watch out the window whilst Paul plays out in the snow with the kids, he said he would get up with the girls in the morning so that I can stay in bed and sleep if I'm feeling poorly, gotta love my hubby!

I'm off to read Scrapbooking memories :)

W R Gorgeous

Good Morning!

I have news! Yes i have just receieved the most amazing box of papers from happy scrapper of the new W R Memory keepers urban window collection, now I could be wrong but I beleive that Happy Scrapper are the only company in this country who have them in stock at present, they are amazing and IRL they are 10 times better, this one is my favourite, if you want to get these papers you can check them out HERE

They also have some of the embellies and I have it on good authority that the ribbons will be coming over here as soon as they are released.

In other news we had our family DVD night last night, complete with popcorn, ice-cream and chocolate fondue, we had such a great evening and I highly recommend Nanny Mcfee for all the family, Paul and I loved it and all the kids loved it and for 3 kids ranging in age from 2 to 9 and a half, that speaks volumes. It was such a nice family evening :)

I love my kids, they're just so sweet, I chortled to myself yesterday as Looby (2) popped teddy on the naughty stair and told him he had to stay there for 2 minutes and think about it. LOL They really make me giggle. W ebought Abigail some rubber stamps and she was sticking all manner of things to the case and she turned to me and said, do you like it mummy I'm altering the case, we got her a few more yesterday and gave her a tupperware tub to keep them in and then I watched her "Alter" another tub, I can't beleive how much they must pick up from Paul and I. when I gave them all their journals and pens I sort of expected Iain to think his was boring but he loved it and said he was going to carry it round with him and he could pop his pen in it just like daddy does. Thank goodness that we have no really awul things we do or no doubt they would be doing them too :)

Tesco Findings

So we went out to the book shop for coffee and carrot cake, Paul has really bad paranoia at the moment so we're trying to keep away from anywhere that fuels that. I really feel for him when his illness is bad because there is nothing I can do or say to make it better. Anyhoo thats by the by, so we wnt to Borders and I managed to spend around £20 in paperchase buying little books to alter, Easter stamps for the children, a pack of gel pens which has a white one in it, some luggage tags to alter, some stickers and a little notebook for each of the children to encourage them to keep a daily journal, yes I know that I have no chance with Looby and maybe it's a bit early for Abigail but for Iain I think it would really help him a lot with his writing.

So then we went off to Tesco to stock up on ice-cream and pop corn for our movie evening when I spotted an Antony Warrell Thompson chocolate fondue set for the bargain price of £1, yes that's right £1, now the chocolate may run out of date in a couple of weeks but to be quite frank it will be gone by tonight and the fabulous fondue bowl etc will last forever. I also got an AWT Cheeseboard with Cheesewire thingy and 3 AWT chutney set also for the bargain price of £1.

I do love a good bargain and although I detest supermarkets I have come back with a happy feeling today, how much fun are the kids going to have with chocolate fondue and marshmallows. I did miss the big postman though so I have a couple of parcels to pick up from the Depot tommorrow morning, still atleast I know I'll be getting treats tommorrow :)

Primatastic

Good morning and happy friday, I just bought another bottle of Primas, i couldn't help myself, it was all the fault of papermaze who had just gotten in all the scrummy seasonal ones in, if you havent seen the spring ones you must go check out Papermaze
If you have a passion for Primas then you are going to love them, I did want about 6 different types but I was being good as I had also just ordered the new Making Memories flower foam stamps which are in really short supply over here at the moment, I bagged mine from ScrapRevolution

So I now have spent all the spare pennies which I can afford at the moment without anyone noticing that they're having to eat jam and bread for a month :D

It's Grey Murky and Wet this morning, I'm feeling yucky, I have some kind of flu bug which is making me feel very hot, achy and dizzy, it started on tuesday and just keeps hanging around waiting to attack!

Was looking for leisure wear yesterday for my forthcoming hospital stay, it's hard to find something which is loose around the tummy area whilst still being stylish, I guess I am going to have to get tracksuits and trainers which are so not me, although paul always says he likes me in the sporty outfits, I fail to see that but as long as he's happy! LOL

Right, it's stalk the postie time, hopefully he will be bringing treats for moi and we surely must be due for a competition win as it's prize draw time of the month.

Paul has decided to sell the fish-tank set up that he won last week, we really don't have room for it so he said he would sell it and split the proceeds with me, OOOhh Goodeee.

We have Nanny Mcfee to watch on DVD tonight so I have promised the kids that we can have a movie type evening with ice-creams and pop and popcorn, hopefully we'll have a lovely family night!

I've hatched a cunning plan

The thing is, I could do with some spare cash, I want a sewing machine and there's so many fabulous new products coming over from CHA, I can't possibly buy them on my meagre income, well not without the children complaining about not getting fed or having shoes! LOL So I figured I might just do a little Ebaying, I did some last year with all of Pauls star wars collectibles and that pretty much paid for Christmas and some goodies for me too, however since I don't have any collectibles around I have had to come up with a plan B. So here's the plan, it just so happens I have a load of paper and some paperbags, an excess of ribbon and fibres and I'm even going to sacrifice some Prima flowers, I'm making up kits and going to see how they go, however I made just one up before tea-time and it took me half an hour before I was sure that I had a kit which I would want to buy. I haven't even begun to get as far as putting anything on Ebay yet, Wish me luck that I make it by the weekend!

Hot Stuff

Ok just 2 quickie things firstly here's the layout I did last night, it took me ages to get all those stickers in just the right formation and don't even get me started on the blasted stitching and that sewing machine GRRRRR

Also the new We R Memory Keepers have arrived on our shores and they are just to die for, the ribbons are released in spring so a while to wait but go check out happy scrapper and ogle those papers, I just spent money I didn't have, again!

Can't wait for them to arrive, they have also got the stickers too, you can go check them out HERE

Go on, you know you want to.

Oh did I tell you about my modern scrapbooking order, the one with no p&p 10% off and a free grab bag worth £10, well it arrived today and wasn't just any old rubbish, for free it was well worth it, the offer is on till the end of the week so if you haven't already go HERE
You just need to pop March2006 in the coupon bit to get your free delivery and the 10% off.

Loving Heidi Swapp

I bought the Heidi Swapp "Love your handwriting" book yesterday, OMG I am loving Heidi right now, the woman is up there on my list with Elsie Flannigan, they're both inspirational. Anyway last night I was browsing at Scrapbook Central and I found these frame kits which I had to order. I am going to be stalking the postie for the considerable future as I also ordered some Maya road chipboard flowers and other bits! LOL my bank balance is going to be nil again soon!

Bumps and bruises

So yesterday teatime we get a call from Granny (who's 81) Uncle Jim who has a learning disability and also physical disabilities has fallen over and can Paul come take him up to the doctors, so off Paul went to give her a hand, we later found out what had happened, apparently granny had been at the hairdressers, Jim was home on his own (he's nearly 60) he had been to the loo and couldn't get his belt done up so he got this idea to stand on a wobbly old kitchen chair to see if he could see his belt in the wall mirror, no he's not at all stable on his legs at the best of times, anyway he fell off the chair, smashed a solid wood (and I mean solid, he's a big old guy)table and ended up on the floor, when granny came home he was in a chair but looking bluey grey, it turns out that he's broken several ribs and he's not too well, even so she refused taking him to the hospital and is managing with him at home. So we're off to go and help out today as she can't lift him if he needs anything and to be honest I am a little worried about her too as she got a huge shock.

In other news, i bought a small provocraft sewing machine to do some stitching on my scrapbook pages, if you are thinking of buying one, don't they're completely carp and I have broken mine already, I really need to go and buy a proper sewing machine. Anyway i did achieve a fantastic layout but I need some batteries for my camera so I'll try and upload that when I get back tonight from Grannys.