Will Men ever really get it?

So lets recap, 3 weeks ago tommorrow I had major surgery, 3 weeks ago today I gave up smoking, my hormones are currently on holiday somewhere near the bahamas and still I'm not allowed to get grouchy or even occasionally upset. Paul however is allowed to throw strops whenever and whereever he pleases and then it's usually my fault.

I wouldn't mind but I have been trying so hard to do as much around the house as possible, to be as happy and smiley as possible, to not moan too much about the pain that I'm still having, to get on with life and not worry that my hormones only occasionally send me a very hot postcard.

I never usually negatively blog about my hubby because he is generally wonderful but just like most of us sometimes he can be an utter Cad!

I love him more than life and I hope that we are together until death occurs, hopefully sometime in our mid 90's but just at the moment I wish I didn't have to apologise for everything and for his strops as well.

Photo is Looby trying to swallow my entire camera i suspect! LOL, myabe she's just got a face that says, no men probably won't ever get it!!

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SouthWest Coast - More piccies

Thought I would share a few more random images from yesterday.

Enjoy!
 

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Whacky wednesday!

Well it is if you live in our house :)

Don't you just hate feeling completely insane, most days I have some feelings of random insanity, some days I just feel like I have completely lost the plot, today I am grouchy, crabby and feeling just a little like I might be having one of those lost the plot type days.

Have you clicked my links yet?

You know if you haven't visited The Craft Kingdom yet why not stop by and join up today, joining is free and you can join in with all manner of challenges, swaps and competitions, we really do seem to give away stuff all the time and we're buiding up a really nice community of lovely crafters from all walks of life, go on give it a try, it's only a click of the mouse!!

Photo for the day in a mo, I'll upload directly from picasa as it's so much easier!

Have a great day dear readers and I'll be back later if I have a sudden urge to share any important news!!

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Southwest Coast of Scotland

Thats where we all ambled off to today and the weather was pretty good, the only thing wrong with today was the children who were pretty much horrid for most of the day, I don't know what is wrong with Abigail at the moment but since her birthday she has been such hard work. In the end Paul had a strop and decided we were giving up and going home, We did stop for tea on the way though which was just as awful, they were out of peas, they were out of mushrooms, they were out of vanilla ice-cream, you get the idea, we kept the receipt and Paul is complaining later!

I did manage to get a few good shots today, no really great ones but i have a few scrappable images atleast, I thought I would share these random shots from today.

From a very tired lady in Newcastle, I'll be back with a proper post tommorrow.

 

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If I were a rich man...

I would probably be out on the yacht somewhere sailing around the bahamas but sadly I'm not, I'm sitting here on the sofa listening to everyone shouting at each other, Paul is angry with the children as he's just found that they have been doing painting in their bedroom, who knows where the paint even came from, things are clearly not tickety boo today but then thats life, things are usually far from perfect.

The parents came earlier to drop the gamecube off for Iain, they stayed all of 20 mins which was quite long enough for me to want to kill myself atleast 6 times, it looks like mum hates Paul and Paul hates mum at the moment which is lovely for me as you can imagine, yes truly it's one of those days when I could quite happily crawl under a rock and not come out again for a very long time.

Hormones are obviously awry again today, I daresn't say anything though as Paul seems like he's on the verge of being mad already and i don't think I can deal with a whole day where everyone ends up mad with everyone else.

Argghhhhh, I hate school holidays.

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Bread!!!!

Ah, fresh bread there's nothing in the world like it, I have been making my own bread ever since my granny taught me how to, this photo I'm sure demonstrates the yummy qualities of bread, this however is not my bread and I'm not entirely capable of doing a big bread-making session at the moment.

We came up with the solution this morning though, we were ambling round the local boot sale when what did we spot but a Breadmaker, Paul went and haggled a little and voila we now have a breadmaker for the bargain price of £4.50, I hasten to add that if you bought one of these new it would cost £49.95, so I'm quite happy, my first loaf is busy doing its' thing and should be ready at 4pm! I think the best thing is that this is zero effort for maximum results as I was even lazy enough to buy a breadmix, instead of having to mix up and weigh out the ingredients myself!

Anyone coming round to my house for a nice cup of tea and some home-made bread and jam?

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Football for Charidy!!

Yes folks you find me mid-match of the celebrity football match on ITV, I have to say i don't like football, which is why I married a footballer, Go figure (to use the words of my welsh american friend Jane ) Anyway I see Robbie Williams, I saw Ewan Mcgregor at half time (yummascrummarooney) and Ant and Dec were presenting, very surreal but on the whole if they replaced real footie with celeb footie I would watch much more often!

Drinking Southern Comfort, I may yet live to regret that!!

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Hormonally Challenged!

OMG sorry I haven't blogged till now, I have been having the worst time with my hormones, 2 weeks after surgery and all was running smoothly till yesterday lunchtime when I just lost it big time and have basically cried and shouted and screamed my way through the last 24 hours, I have put my hubby through hell yet again and have a guilt complex the size of Mexico, yes it's pretty big, the thing is though that Paul thought I would be fixed after the Hysterectomy but it's not working like that, I'm on a fairly strong doseage of HRT at the moment and it could well be that I'm actually taking too much of the stuff so I need to go to the doctors first thing on Tuesday and get this sorted out because I fear if I don't it's going to be the end of my marraige, Paul feels he's gone through so much since we met and who could blame him, he genuinely doesn't know how to help and he's not the best in an emotional sense, when I am happy all is well, when I get depressed, all hell generally breaks loose as he's still only holding onto his mental health with a thread and we're not getting a lot of support so he feels like he has to do everything, i am doing as much as possible to help, I put all the clothes away this morning and tidied the girls bedroom etc.

By lunchtime we decided to take our son out for lunch so we went to a country pub and although the food was not the best for some strange reason, the large glass of sparkling Rose was lovely, Paul kept to the diet coke but I really chilled with that glass of wine, now I just have to make it till the doctors opening on Tuesday without destroying my entire relationship. Wish me luck!!

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House!

No Big Brother update from me this morning as I have to admit to not watching (WHAT????) but House already fills my 9-10pm slot on a Thursday and I can't desert lovely Hugh Lawrie 2 weeks in a row.

Is it just me or does anyone else find Gregory House strangely attractive? I have to admit to having a bit of thing for him, yes he may be older and he may be grumpy but he's genius and a little bit horny.

The thing is that I have always have a wee soft spot for Mr Lawrie but his transformation in House is amazing, i often forget that when he's not House he's this terribly polite quite posh englishman, I have seen a multitude of british actors who are wonderful simply destroy themselves with american accents, Ewan mcgregors awful american accent in "The Island" springs to mind, although I quite like his american accent in "Big Fish", I think it needed to be a bit stange for a Tim Burton movie though!

Anyway once again I diagress, I think that Our Hugh has done a wonderful job with "House" it's a drama which is everything that "The West Wing" used to be before the first director left, Aaron something, sorry brain not quite working bu I'm sure any WW fans will remember with fondness how the first 3 series were far superior, ahh those heady Rob Lowe moments!! :D

The thing is though, I love House, I still quite like The West Wing, Love Lost (although it frustrates me to death each and every week), adore Desperate Housewives but just don't really get Greys Anatomy, I have tried to get into that one but maybe they shouldn't have scheduled it straight after House as it really makes it look quite weak and trivial after so much drama, often I find myself on the edge of my seat the entire episode of House and for me thats the way drama should be, yes I know he never makes people better who have simple diseases which aren't going to kill them in the next hour but hey no one said drama had to realistic to be good (Again Look at Lost). Oh and did I forget to mention ER which I can kind of dip in and out of. I would say there is a pattern though have you noticed I haven't mentioned 1 English drama, could that be because we are useless at making them, I haven't seen a decent british drama series since last years "Afterlife" with the uniquely talented Andrew Lincoln (YUMMM) which BTW is scheduled to return later this year. I think when it comes to Drama we have to hand it to the US and say "you win, please keep entertaining us"!!

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Dawns Out and Big Smiles

Bless I wish I felt like this right now but sadly I am still in the world of the eveil lurgy, the family all deserted me lest they should catch such an evil bug! I have spent the afternoon in and out of my bed and not for any good reason I should hasten to add, I simply felt Carpo, In the half hours I have been up though I hear that Dawn has left the Big Brother house after communicating with the outside world, apparently she told her family that should she receive bad press her sister had to send a message to BB saying she was ill, this would then be passed on as the rules state that HM's are allowed to receive certain info, So anyway after less than a week and lots of bad press she gets the message, she asks to leave BB smell a bad fish, conspiracy unwound and she's chucked by lunchtime! Well you certainly can't say that the first week hasn't been eventful.

Jane, my welsh american friend rang me and we had a good old gossip about BB and then she gave me a tip for my schnozzle that I should have a steam inhalation using just some good old water and salt, luckily we have quite a lot of sea salt lying around so I did the steamy thing and for the first time today some of the pressure in my head has lifted, if only the decongestants had done the same thing! LOL

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Post Operative Virus!

Oh My Goodness me, I feel horrendous this morning, I have known for a few days that this would happen, Looby has had the snuffles for a couple of days and I said then that if I so much as looked at her being so fresh from surgery I would end up with a full blown virus and Boy have I got one, I have the cold from hell, I didn't sleep at all last night and this morning my face feels like it's going to fall off which is not a nice feeling I can tell you, I'm burning up and unfortunately my bedroom is like a sauna in the mornings and coupled with my hot flushes you can imagine i feel like I have just spent three days in the middle of a scorching desert with more to come.

I'm miserable and fed up, as if having major surgery wasn't enough!

I'll post again later if I can be bothered, oh and just 1 thing to say about Big Brother, is it possible that everyone will be coupled off by the end of the week because Grace was at it last night with that guy who thinks he's gods gift to the world, I have no idea of his name as he's so completely bland. Oh and can we get rid of Bunnah this week because she's already irritating me more than I can bear, I think she's the next scapegoat perhaps?!

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I'm a fraud!!

I'm sorry, I really am but I think I must come clean, you see the thing is, if you visit every day you may notice that I have jumped up the top 50 scrappers by about 30 places, wow you may be thinking, this Gal is popular, or Wow she must have some really great art and scrapping on that blog (which of course I have, It's all Fabulous Dahlinks!! TeehEEhEE) but alas it's all a bit of a fraud, you see I joined this thing called Blog explosion ages ago and I started using it a couple of days ago and then I joined blog mad and started this kind of surfing program, you know the kind of thing, or if you don't basically you click on a number it takes you to a random blog, you stay for 30 seconds or hopefully longer if you like it then you move on to the next random number.

I have actually found some hidden wonders on my surfing jouneys to check out those in my blogmarked column, but to be honest mostly all I have done is surfed and clicked, surfed and clicked and sometimes that 30 seconds has seemed like 3 years, I'm sure mine might have seemed like this to some, anyway I now find out I have an average rating of 6.0 which is just slightly above mediocre, oh well I suppose it could have been worse and you know what if it gets some more readers of the scrappy variety then thats not such a bad thing either!

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Money Box and Big Brother Update

My friend Cubby, an accomplished altered artist, challenged me to come up with a piece of art which thought outside the box so I'm hoping that this fits the brief.

I give you Money box, a box covered entirely in bank notes, there's a hole in the top which you can sort of see where the coin is sticking out, there's also coins in the bottom of the box, I achieved this by covering a box with old foreign currency and then distressing with a nail file and tim holtz ink pads, I added the slot for the coins and then added those with some diamond glaze, I love this because it's different.

In other news, I see Shabaz left the Big Brother house, probably for the best I would say considering he was slightly bonkers and probably went out of the BB door and straight into a very long session of therapy, quite frankly how they let someone in the house who then was heard to say on camera that he had come to die in the house and kill himself on camera I'll just never know.

It makes you wonder how the dynamics of the house will now change and who will be the next one to become the house scapegoat, I'll tell you one thing dear reader, I think they should all be very careful with Richard, because boy does that Cat have some sharp nails! 

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Delight!

The other layout I did last night using the new Prima papers, this paper is from the Odyssey collection and is called very cleverly (IMHO) Abbey Road, it's had me singing Beatles songs ever since it's arrival!

I also used some fabby vintage tortoiseshell buttons (plastic really!) and more of those Heidi Swapp Fuzzy Rub ons which I am completely in love with at the moment.

Both the rub-ons and the Prima Papers are available from HappyScrapper abd really how could you not resist them?! 

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Tuesday Ten! ;)

I have nothing really to report from over night in the Charlton house, nothing much really happened between my last post and now, well not that I can write about here LOL!! teeheehee!


So what I thought I would do is have one of those tributes to the biggy list bloggies which my hubby finds so infuriating, gives me a chance to aggravate him for a change.

So here's a list of 10 favourites in no particular order :-

Ben Folds
Dr Who
My hubby
Scrapbooking
Fajitas
The West Wing
Green Wing (Ah how I'll miss you till you return)
David Tennant
Ewan Mcgregor (seems like ages since I saw him last)
Wicked

and again in no particular order 10 pet peeves :-

Bogies
smelly pumps
fried eggs with runny yolks (euwwww)
nasty people
Pain
Yacky Sticky messes
conceitedness
dishonesty
ambiguity
My Scar

On that note, dear reader I am off to have a bath as my pain killers have kicked in!

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Meet Elliot and It's all About Concentration

Meet Elliot, mentioned in my earlier post, I thought he deserved to say hello to the world!

Next, remember the stash of Prima papers which arrived?

Blimey talk about tons of inspiration, I got 2 layouts scrapped tonight, the second I'll upload in the morning as it's getting too dark to take a photo without the light!

So another "It's all about" This was the other photo I really wanted to use with that title, because I took this photo with the camera on the floor in a macro setting when Looby was concentrating hard on creating a work of art.

For the layot i used the St Andrews Paper from the Stone rose collection (Prima) and cut out the flower, I added the bugs to give it that just flown in to get the nectar type of way and the ants marching along the bottom. Paul said he liked this layout, high praise indeed!  

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Lovely Monday!

It has been a super-d-duper Monday today, I feel completely spoiled, the Prima papers are just amazing and being all double sided I feel like I could use them twice, I love double-sided papers!

Sarah and her cutiepie cousin came this afternoon bearing gifts, a wee Elephant called Elliot, I think he's made by the same people who make the tatty teddies, I'll have to take a photo of him, he's super cute and tucked under my arm having a cuddle as I type!

I really appreciate the wonderful friends I have, from the posts on the blogs, to the cards through the door, to those few chosen words at just the right time, they all mean so much in different ways, gosh it's great to have friends.

I had a little nap when Sarah went home as I had some funny double vision going on, i'm guessing it was just tiredness as after I had been to bed for an hour or so and then Paul had cooked my tea, I'm feeling fine. There's just 1 thing which I can't do at the moment which I am really really looking forward to doing, I have another 17 days to go according to the list, I won't say what it is as this is not an over 18 blog IYKWIM ;) Oh and plus my parents are atlast on the internet, Heaven Help me if they discover my blog! LOL

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The best Surprise ever.

OMG, the postman just came with a very heavy parcel for me and to my surprise and bewilderment what should I find but the entire collection of Prima papers sent by two of my lovely online friends Jaqueline and Lyn, thank you so much Girls, I'm so lucky to have met so many wonderful ladies online, now all I need to do is move us all to the same location when I win the lottery and we can have big girly crops and chats and live in the best street in the world! :D

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Murky Monday!

It's so dull and rainy today and it's supposed to remain like this the entire week would you beleive, I thought I might have to cheer us all up with a sunny summer photograph, this one is Abigail taken a couple of summer ago, I think in 2004, it's in mum and dads gardens and yes I can almost feel the summery sunshine.

I hope dear reader that this morning it's sunny whereever you happen to be reading this from, I am assured that somebody somewhere does in fact read it, some people even come back *SHOCK*

Nothing very much to say this morning, it's Monday, it's raining, day 11 post operatively and still sore and tired, other than that all is relatively well, My friend Sarah (a real life one!!) is coming over to visit at lunchtime which will be so great. I must add the link to her blog actually, it's called forget me knot (she's more forgetful than I am), go visit and i'll add it to my links in a little while!

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It's all About..

I started the challenges off at the Craft Kingdom so I thought I better join in myself and also it's the first page I have done since my op and I'm glad to be back on the scrapping horse again.

I made the flowers myself using custom shapes in photoshop and then printing them out on Bazzill and layering them up and inserting a big brad through the middle, as for the corner border well thats the Heidi Swapp fuzzy rub ons and there is only one way to describe those, Totally flippin Lush!

I'm quite happy with this layout! :) 

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"We are the Winners" Euro-post

Oh yes the Lithuanian entry was actually the best song of Eurovision IMHO but alas although it got my vote and 10 points from the UK and 12 points from Ireland it failed to beat the finish rock group "Lordi" and their "Hard Rock Heaven" It's slightly refreshing that something other than Bland europop won the day, however I do think that if you have the Cheek to sing "We are the Winners, We are the winners, We are the winners of eurvision" then you should win without question, after all the poor Lithuanians are hardly going to be able to release it as a single now!

My parents are trying to connect to the internet at the moment, Argh, I can't even begin to tell you the grief I have had, I spent atleast a couple of hours on the phone with them last night and I've just spoken to them again this morning and tried sending them emails which I'm praying work, I just don't get it, they're both intelligent people, Dad is the master with photoshop, surely setting up an email addy cant be that difficult, I even went to the trouble of setting dad up with an MSN one which was fine and then just as I was setting mums up she had a tantrum saying that she wanted her Talk Talk one, so I had to get off the phone, if the saying no rest for the wicked is to be believed then I must surely be really really evil!

No big brother news this morning as I was watching Eurovision, I guess I'll catch up with all the happenings when it's repeated at lunchtime on Ch4.

The Random image today is of the Rue De Paris, Europes largest travelling big wheel, this photo was later played with just a little and featured on my first ever published layout!

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Super Sparkly Saturday

I know that title is not related at all and in any way to the post which I am about to write but the thing is dear reader, it's hard to come up with constantly new and interesting titles when lets face it, nothing much is really new and exciting at the moment.

The photo is Abigail and some goats last summer, self explanatory really! Goaty my goat loving friend will like this one! :)

I thought I would just finish todays post with 5 random thoughts.

Why does Looby know how to speak spanish but not use the potty? (maybe Dora hasn't used the potty yet!) Actually she refuses to use the potty!

Why do the flowers on my Rowan tree not smell half as nice as they look?

What is the point of tamagotchi?

I dreamt about Scrapbooking last night, oh and paypal too :D

Iain lost another tooth yesterday night, there can't be many to go now!

I challenge my hubby when he reads this to come up with his 5 random thoughts for the day, you can guarantee his will be far more interesting than mine!!

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Random Photo and Big Brother 7

I thought I would share another random photo from my collection as I have still to take even 1 since my return from my NHS holiday camp!

This is Abigail looking quite bored at Grandmas, she often gets this look, I would say on average she gets it atleats once every 30 seconds that she's not doing something or atleast every 5 minutes when she needs to change activity, Abigail has Pauls ADHD gene and is enough child for 1 whole entire family and I'm talking full time mum and dad. Iain and Looby together are a piece of cake compared with Abigail, as much as I love her she's the child who sends me to the edge of despair. She does luckily have some gorgeous qualities too which is just as well really!

So Big Brother 7, Day 1, Shabaz is possibly the most annoying Gay man ever, Of all the gay men I have met and beleive me there have been quite a few, I used to go out every Saturday night with a group of atleast 20 of us and going to the same club for 3 years straight (or not straight! LOL) means that we all ended up knowing just about everyone at the Club, If you were in the Powerhouse in Newcastle any time between 1998 and 2001, then I probably chatted with you, cos boy did I chat to everyone, I was talky talkerson Friday night till Sunday night, the good ol days of me being off the rails and a complete party animal! I might tell you all about it sometime but I think some of you might be a little bit on the shocked side!!

Anyway I hugely digress, BB7, quite liking Pete, Loving Richard and quite liking the welsh chick, lets see how it progresses over the weekend, sadly I am addicted already!

I was feeling top of the tower today and I helped around the house, then we went out and about and then to see Granny for an hour and then I came home with a sore head, sore tummy and sore throat, slept for 2 hours and have been shattered ever since, yes I know that it's all my own fault and I shall be trying to take it easier tommorrow but as no one has offered to have the children for even an hour over the weekend I can't see it happening, Paul of course says he will take the kids out when I need to rest but Blimey the poor guy is shattered and we had to sit the kids down and tell them that Grandad Norman doesn't want to see them anymore because they won't call Auntie Pat Grandma and that wasn't easy as they don't really understand, I should state that Auntie Pat has been with norm for the last 6 years, however they still live seperately and see each other on Wednesdays and the Weekends, hardly a committed grandma and grandad situation. If they ever live together or get married I may change my veiws but given that she has never even bough the kids sweeties in the last 6 years I don't think I'll be changing my opinions.

Thats it, Epistle and Rant over!!

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Feeling Fresh Friday

Aye Carumba to use words of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I'm feeling tired but well this morning even though I ended up staying up late working on a design team project, I think it was partly due to the fact that I was enjoying the company of this years housemates on Day 1 of Big Brother 7, i'm thinking that blogs around the country have gone into hyperdrive about BB7 so I won't go on too much about it at this point dear reader as if like me you're a bit of a blog surfer you may well be bored already, all I will say is, could you get a bigger bunch of nutters all in one house, Friction, I think there's going to be padded cells, strait jackets and large doses of Largactil by week 2 and thats just for us Viewers. To be quite honest I was expecting Car Crash TV but I didn't quite expect it to be a whole 13 car pile-up! LOL

The nurse is coming to check on me today but to be honest I am fine, still a wee bit tired and occasionally sore as well as feeling like I have just done 3 hours solid on an ab-trainer (without much success I have to add) I actually feel like I am healing at a super human rate, maybe my bloodline is actually connected with Superman. I even abandoned the Leisure wear this morning, there's only so long a girl can survive in tracksuits. No I have cleverly worn a super summery skirt with a fabulous knitted tank top, actually I think I don't look so bad for 8 days post surgery, my tummy still seems to be bigger than it was a week ago though so it's just as well I kept some of the larger clothes. I think paul appreciated the fact that I looked nice too, it's hard for our relationship when you have to care for someone, atleast if he is having to he might as well have a stylish patient! LOL

Sadly the only thing spoiling my look today is the yellow bruises which stretch from just under my thumbs to half way up my arms and then to add insult to injury I have more at the top of my arms, darn Heparin!

I just hope that if we do make it to the LSS today (thats Local Scrapbook Store for any non-scrappers) they don't think that he's given me the bruises.

One last thought for this morning :- Even when everyone leaves for school in the morning I never bother to turn off Nick Jnr, could this be that I'm just oblivious to the TV or could it actually be that I have a secret addiction to Fifi and her Flowertot adventures?!

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New banner!!

What do you think? do you like it, of course it occurs to me that to be able to see the whole thing you have to have a widescreen monitor as the banner is 1254 pixels by 350 pixels, which is roughly the size of my screen.

If you can see the whole of it, well you know one day I'll do something really clever but I'm not the best with photoshop so until then this is good enough for me!!

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Time to max out your credit cards again...

The Prima Paper collections have arrived at HappyScrapper today, get em whilst she's got em folks these are gonna fly out of the door quicker than you can say "Have some of that" She's also got a special offer on if you buy all 32 sheets which is not to be missed.

I really love them, they're gorgeous and really great quality cardstock, but then didn't we know that they would be, I can't wait for the arrival of all the flowers now, i am quite excited!!

I'm also quite excited about a new british company called Banana Frog who sell the scrummiest acrylic UM stamps I have ever seen!! I received some today and they are so high quality.

I also received today the Sugar lily papers from Happy Scrapper and also the Urban lily papers which didn't dissapoint, gosh isn't there some gorgeous stash around at the moment?!

In other news, nothing really occurred, still sore, still relatively inactive but Paul informs me of a trip to the LSS tommorrow, I can't decide whether to go to Scrapbook Village or the Scrapbook shop, I was only at the Scrapbook shop on the morning I went into hospital so i guess it will be Scrapbook Village in Sunderland which has quite a nice selection of embellies.

We finally sold that aquarium we won, mind you the lady who bought it stole it from us for £75 but it was better than it just sitting in a cupboard for the rest of our lives.

Well I guess I might just pop over to Happyscrapper to ponder over Prima papers again, I've checked a couple of times this afternoon and it looks like she's selling out fast so I guess I better stop procrastinating and just buy the ones I want!!

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Sick of being Sick

I'm so officially bored of being able to do nothing and the worst part of it is when I do try to do stuff, I end up in pain afterwards. I didn't sleep well last night again, this pain never goes away, even with medication it's still hurting A LOT! I would hate to think what it would be like without any meds!

On a lighter note, when I did sleep last night I dreamt that I had a doppleganger who was in "Lost" and kissed Harry Connick Jnr, except that it turned out it was actually me, I had just had an operation and lost my memory, Now you'll understand dear reader I'm not prone to cheating on my hubby even in my dreams, although Ewan Mcgregor often pops up but he knows about that, now it seems like I must have been watching too much "Will and Grace" on Living TV! I've always had a bit of thing for Harry Connick Jnr, he's quite gorgeous but not in the same way as Ewan Mcgregor or indeed my very own gorgeous hubby who I genuinely fancy more than "Flake pralines" If you have ever eaten one of those you'll understand quite how much I fancy my hubby, there's just something about that jawline, furrowed brow, deep blue eyes and scrumptuous bum which still makes me wobbly, even as I am now without my ovaries, something is tingling, I might not be able to do much but at least the veiw is nice whilst I am getting better!!

On another note which is absolutely different from all of the above I want to give a great big blogging mention to the wonderous publication which is Scrapbook Answers, even in my post operational recovery I have devoured the May issue which is wonderfully chocolaty, even the cover is a dark hue of Galaxy.

I think Scrapbook Answers is even better than Creating Keepsakes, British Editors of Scrapping mags should look at Scrapbook Answers as being the way top go with Scrapping Mag Publication in this country, the thing about SA is that it's not filled with just layouts, it's fresh, it's new, it has genuinely interesting and wordy articles, it's not just the how of scrapping it's the Who, the When and the Why also, I've not spoken to one scrapper (new or experienced) who didn't like this publication and I think if we could just get this kind of thing in a british publication then we could compete with some of the bigger mags worldwide.

On that note I'm going to go and finish watching the morning episode of Will and Grace on Ch4, Oohhhheeeeee YummmY Harry CJ

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Charity Shop Clearout

I'm in a bit of a grump today so I decided that we should sort out all my clothes, so I sat on the bed whilst Paul held them up for either bin, back in the wardrobe or charity shop, I think I was probably in the best mood for it as I haven't got much left. I had to tell him to keep a few things which are a size bigger just in case, as I am slightly inactive at the moment and I have given up smoking (1 whole week today) so there's always the chance I will put on weight, mind you that would be the end of me, I used to be a size 20 and now I am a 14 and I don't ever want to be heavier again, I would go running and swimming but alas... :D

The nurse came again and releived me of my prolene stitch and then stuck the biggest plaster in the world on the end which is a bit icky, the other nurse is going to come see me on Friday and check on it. Abigail is going to be so impressed though, she loves plasters and last night when I won the who's got the biggest bruise competition she was very impressed, strange child!! :D

We really need a new coffee table so I might pop out for one later with Paul, it says on my chart that I'm not allowed light walking but in my booklet it says I should walk every day increasing the distance and speed, who am I to believe I wonder, anyway I don't feel so bad and I need some fresh air so I guess we'll drive to Argos when the postman has delivered his daily dose of sunshine, actually he hasn't even delivered me a letter for days, on the upside Paul gets all the bills!! LOL

Random image for today (it has to be random, I haven't lifted my camera for days) is of Abigail last summer at Chillingham castle. It's one of dads photos as she was on her jollies but i think it's kind of cool.

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I've been tagged!!

Yes cubby tagged me so here goes:-

5 items in my fridge - camenbert in breadcrumbs with an cranberry and apple dip
large bag of fresh salad
Rainbow Stir Fry mix
Fresh cream from the isle of Jersey
Apple Pie

5 items in my closet - My favourite wrap around paisley dress
black jeans with sparkles
little black dress
Knicky Knacky Knoos
Jama-lama-ramas

5 items in my purse- (I interpreted this as handbag)

Trimethoprim (anti-biotic)
Tibolone (HRT)
Nicorette Microtabs (not even had 1 today, YAYAY)
Keys
Purse with about £1.20 in as hubby handles the cash in our house! :D

5 Items in my car - Dolly Dolleson
Teddy
Loose Coppers
petrol can
a pink raffia butterfly

As much as I would now love to tag people, all my friends have been tagged! LOL, however, I double tag my hubby just to make sure he completes this task!

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Blinkin NHS

So I left you just as the district nurse arrived this morning, she was shocked to learn that I had only had surgery on Thursday and said that she wouldn't even think about taking the stitch (which has a special name I can't remember) out until Thursday and that they had obviously discharged me because of needing the bed, ah the wonders of the NHS, anyway lovely nursey person that she is will be coming back to check up on me again tommorrow and then again on Thursday to hopefully release me without all my bits falling out (Cubby's words, not mine) can you imagine?! LOL

SO Paul has bought me a purple fleecy hotwater bottle to help with the pain which is lovely and I have spent the morning watching carp TV, busy watching Diagnosis Murder on th Hallmark channel at the moment so it must be bad!

I'm thinking of doing a little Cyber-shopping just so I have something to look forward to later in the week as I'm already bored, shattered and a little emotional.

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Ouch!

I feel a bit sore today, actually I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach a few times! Who knew that being so inactive could be so very tiring, I am so shattered, I didn't sleep very well last night, I needed my gel pressure remote control adjustable bed, one of the few things which I actually liked about hospital, blimey I could have brought one of those home with me, I was the only 1 on my part of the ward to have one and apparently most people think the Gel matteresses are very uncomfortable, well i think they're super and so do the astronauts for whom they were originally invented.

Goodness only knows when I'll be back to posting normally and taking photos.

right must go the nurse has arrived.

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I'm Back

Hello all, tis me :)

They let me out today, I couldn't bear to be away from home any longer, it's just a quick post and I'm a little disturbed to find that I have been spammed in my absence which is such a shame considering all of the lovely comments that you all left for me, some people really make me angry.

Anyway enough of that, the Op went well and I'm currently day 4 post operatively so quite sore and sitting here in bed, having gotten home and slept for about 3 hours, I'm bruised beyond belief on my wrists, arms, legs, and well we'll not go into the state of my tummy, it's at the moment somewhere between mid episode Casualty and 15 certificate horror!

I have an infection which was only discovered after they had decided I could come home which is fun so I have some anti-biotics which will probably change when they find out what the infection is! LOL

The District nurse has to come and remove my stitch tommorrow, now for you crafty folks I think you'll be proud to hear that i just have one enormous stitch with a bead at either end, maybe I should keep them for a scrapbook page, erm maybe not eh?

I'm shattered and emotional and crotchety, it's my subtle tip that anyone going in for the Op I just had shouldn't choose to give up smoking at the same time, great for your health, V V bad for your emotional state.

Right, I need some rest and then if I can summon a little energy a little light cyber shopping, real shopping is banned till week three, short walks are banned till atleast next week, in fact the only thing I am allowed to do is make a drink, Cyber shopping was not on the week by week list though so I take it that it's ok.

I have missed you all so much, I never knew how lonely it was without all of you lovelies, ooh and beofre I forget I must say thanks to :-

Kirsteen for the choccy and the photoshop mag, the kids ate the choccy when they came to see me! The card was so sweet.

Cubby, for the wonderful card which was admired by many many nurses on the ward

Jaqueline, for the most beautiful flowers I have ever received, and I mean that, who knew that you could get flowers in a vase, how lucky am I, even today they're still going strong.

Louise, for the yummily lovely card which I suspect may have been out Of Lisa B's kit, You chose well and I wish I had gotten that kit now!

right I really must go now, lotsa love and thank goodness for my blog and if you are the spammer I am going to come round your house and show you my wound, so beware!!

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Hubby posting

For all you out there who read Mandy's posts, sorry but this is hubby. Mandy asked me to post if i could but i'm not as prolific as her so here goes.

Mandy went into hospital yesterday and although she struggles around people by last night when i saw her she was settled in. She was told her surgery was at 9am today but as of now 12noon i have heard nothing, as soon as i do i will post.

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apologies for my bad spelling!

This is what I am having :-

Total hysterectomy with bilateral or unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy

Sounds like so much fun doesn't it?!

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Hospital Day

Yes folks, I'm siging off today as I go into hospital for my hysterectomy and saloo-opinghorotomy, yes so bad that they put three O's in it! LOL

I'm slightly terrified but I have just taking something to calm me down and should be feeling a little less angst ridden by the time the children arise.

I think I'll really miss my blog and of course all my on line friends, being an agoraphobic isn't so bad you know, I have made more online friends in 3 years than I made in real life my whole entire life.

I'm going to miss my kids and of course more than anything my gorgeous darling of a husband, you know after the op we're not allowed to have any marital FUN for 8 weeks ;) IYKWIM, so this week we have been stocking up on the FUN, I think Paul may be glad of the rest! LOL

More than anything though I'll miss Paul being the last person I see when I shut my eyes at night and the first person I see when I wake up, he's my whole world, my total eternity, I love him so much and without him I'm just an empty shell of a person.

I read a quote once which said that you should always love as if it were the last day of your life and I never knew what that meant till I met Paul, he changed my life for the better in so very many ways and I know that I may not show him that I appreciate that all of the time but I still tell him I love him every day and I really mean it. I would swim through shark infested waters just to get to him on the other side for one sweet kiss, he really is my earth, my moon, my everything.
My darling Paul if you are reading this, know that I love you and that bond that we have will not change, we are soul mates and however far apart we are we will always be next to each other.

We're such a funny couple, we think of the same things at the same times, often if I am at the shops whilst he waits in the car I'll come back having bought the very thing he was just thinking about. Sometimes in the past it's been freaky, but I think thats why I love the bond we have, it's the unspoken things which sometimes mean so much more.

Right I am going to sign off now as I have to ring the hospital at 7am just to check that my bed is still available (god help them if it's not)

If you pray then prey for me tommorrow, I wouldn't usually ask but I'm scared of not waking up again and although i'm not a great person and God has no reason to listen I would hope that he would answer the prayers for my hubby and my childrens sake. If you don't pray then just send a little positive energy my way.

I have asked Paul to update my blog on how it's going, he's going to try hard, it probably won't be any more than a line or two but if you read his blog and style of writing you'll notice he never writes more than that anyway! LOL

All my lovely online friends, I love you more than words can express and without your support I wouldn't be here today as the woman I am, you give me strength in times of need, sometimes you make me laugh and sometimes you make me cry. Quite often in this life we brits are carp with our emotions so today I say I care and love you all and I really mean that. Kirsteen, Celfy, Jane, Goaty,Cubby, Sarah, Louise, Jaqueline, Lyn, Rhona, Beverely, Kirstin, Angela, Alice, Carol,Sandie, Tracy, Ruth.... The list goes on, you are all very special, look after Paul and the kids for me. Forgive me if I have forgotten anyone, it's early and I am tired and angst filled! LOL

See you on the other side....

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New video clip

I changed the clip to "Defying Gravity" from the press reel again, this is later in the musical and very much when Elphie becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, however don't be fooled, not of it was her and that Madame Morrible should have been hung by now, ooh did you know that she is going to be played by Miriam Margoyles when it comes to London and the Wizard is going to be played by Nigel Planer of The Young Ones Fame.

You must watch this clip for the entirity of it, it's amazing and one of my most favourite clips from the whole of the musical!

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Early Morning... That can't be right!

I was going to share a photo of Newcastle early in the morning but I can't find any at the moment, so I thought I would share this one, this is Tynemouth Priory, or part of it anyway, it's a couple of miles from where we live right on the coast, one of my favourite places to go and chill and be by the sea. I might get there today, as I am definetly in need of chilling and thats with the chill pills I am taking at the moment. They are working, the first one knocked me for 6, the second one just kept me chilled and then I took another one when I got up at an insanely early time this morning, I'm not usually one for early mornings at all, usually I like to sleep until the last possible minute but my body and head is obviously so worried about tommorrow that it's affecting my sleep, the meds of course made me snore so I found poor hubby at 1am this morning on the settee, I dragged him to bed anyway as I didn't want to be in bed on my own.

We have nothing really planned for today, we were going to take granny shopping but we did that yesterday so I guess we'll have to come up with some plan to get through the next 24-36 hours, till my admission at 1pm tommorrow, I have to ring up at 7am in the morning to check that a bed is still available and OMG I will not be a happy bunny if there isn't one, can you imagine.

I do have to do all my packing still and I have a bag which is as big as a small childs room but a girl needs her stuff, I am not travelling lightly but then I refuse to look awful in hospital, even went for shoes which wouldn't look too bad with those awful DVT thrombosis socks they insist on making you wear after you have had surgery, knee high and nearly opaque white, the only person who would look good in those is Britney Spears!!, I did buy some rather attractive flat shoes as opposed to traditional slippers which I would not be seen in for hell or high water and as for a dressing gown well I have given that one a miss entirely. Some of my pyjamas are unable to go though, Paul likes them A LOT IYKWIM ;), and they're great for Eye Candy moments but yet I think I may do strange things to the doctors so they have to stay at home. I went for some shorts in the end, I could not under any circumstances be seen dead in those awful T-shirt nighties with bears and cutely things on the front, it aint me at home and it certainly won't be me in hospital, it's not that I'm a vain person dear reader I just think that just because you have to have major surgery doesn't mean you can't be stylish with it, I am only 32 after all.

News from granny yesterday was that Mum will not be visiting on account fo her still having what has now become a 3 month strop over nothing, who is the grown up in this situation I ask myself!

Granny is only coming when she can get a lift from Paul, so I guess I am going to be bored beyond belief during the daytimes, I do have one friend who said she would come see me which is nice, I have to say that she is the only RL friend I have and I met her online! LOL

Well I think that is enough rambling from me but Cubby over at the cubbycave sent me this link and to not share it would just be wrong I give you, Light up Slippers!!

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Dragged out

Yes it's true, before I even got the chance to blog this morning I was dragged to go shopping for all my supplies to take to hospital, I bought leisurewear by the pileful, I plan to be casual yet stylish, anxious yet calm and ill yet well!

I had to start on my course of tablets today which will hopefully get me to hospital without too much angst, I was going to start tommorrow night but Paul suggested that I start them this afternoon after the total mess I have been all day. I took the first one at 2pm and now I am feeling all calm and wavvy, it's quite a nice feeling as it goes and as long as I can stay like this till my operation on Thursday I should be fine!!

I still have to pack of course and that should be fun as I am not one for travelling light!!

Well thats just a quick update just to say I am alive, if I write anything else it will just be rambling nonsense so I'll not bother!!

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The party is over...

But we all had a fabulous time, My Scrappy friend sarah came and it was so good to see her, she brought a fabulous handmade mini album and some fabby disney princess stuff for Abigail who just adores it. I love having crafty friends.

All the little girls had a great time and Looby and Abigail have just gone off to bed as very tired but very happy little ladies.

Paul has just gone off to get us an indian takeout, Lamb pasanda, cashew pilau and a peshwari naan await me in about 20 mins, Yummeroony!! 

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More of today

Everything is coming along nicely today, I am for once really organised (SHOCK) so I have been capturing as many moments as I can get, this top one is taken on a macro setting, the camera is on the floor and Looby is testing out some new pens, you have no idea what angle I was at to get this shot! LOL

The second is a close up of lovely Abigail who is particularly angst ridden today! LOL, nice photo though and the bottom one is what happens when you buy stick on nail jewels and ear-rings ect, Looby now thinks everything should be stuck on your toes and et voila sticky foam pad on titchy tootsy!!
 

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Highlights of Birthday morning!

Here's just a few highlights so far today, can't wait for the party later!! :D 

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The Cake and the Panda

Here's a piccy of the Birthday cake we'll all be tucking into later on this afternoon, can you smell the additives?
Oh and here's Abigails new friend a panda cub which loves huggles and playing peek-a-boo, he's very sweet indeed, I would quite like one myself!!

Anyone in the vinicity of my house today, feel free to pop in for Jelly and Ice-cream, fruit salad, sausage rolls, mini pavlovas, pringles, 3 types of cupcakes, mini muffins, Pizza, garlic bread and a pink party bag for after.

I love proper parties, not the ones where the parents pay a kazillion pounds for a party to be better than everyone, no I love a proper party with proper food and party games, I can't wait to play pass the parcel, musical bumps, musical chairs, musical statues, OOh can you tell I am excited!! 

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Happy Birthday Abigail

The day of great birthing has arrived for Abigail Grabigail poppet chops of the mcdoodledoo, to give her the full and proper title! LOL.

Wasn't she a gorgeous little poppet?!

I'm so proud of my big girl, we're right in the middle of putting as much glitter glue on anything it will stick to!

Onwards to much partying!! 

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The class I taught!

It's been a great day for me, I have thoroughly enjoyed our first wee cyber croppy thingy on the Craft Kingdom, I think by this time next year, we'll have a great board, fabbo gallery, well we'll just be flying, anyway we have had great support today and I'm so happy that we have such a great bunch of members so soon. The layout and ATC were the projects I constructed to show the joys of distressing, something which I go through fads of, it's not something I want to do everyday but every now and then I enjoy the challenge.

You know I love Craft, so much I dream about it, I am completely passionate about the whole thing, I can't remember ever being excited about something so much as I am when doing layouts and altered art projects (well except with my hubby ;) ) or talking about craft with other enthusiasts, it's been nearly 3 years now since I made my first cards and I have never looked back. Look at me now, Co-owner of a forum, personal shopper and all round helper bunny for HappyScrapper, published scrapbooker, Design team member. My life has changed so much in the space of just a few years, I have almost conquered depression and all because of paper. Fabbo eh?

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Random Thoughts of a mother

I was doing the challenge on The Craft Kingdom and I thought I would share my page, it's my eldest Iain when he was just 2 months old in November 1996, life was so different then, i didn't even own a camera so this is a photo from my dads collection which has been scanned and then I have extracted it from a sheet of 4 and I don't think it's too bad a photo!

The journalling was my random thoughts whilst scrapping about it!

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Are you a little bored this afternoon?

Well why not come and join us in the Craft Kingdom where we have a couple of little things going on today.

We have a class "upset your paper" to help you get to grips with Distressing and all things altered, we also have a competition which finishes at 10pm tonight, more details on the Craft Kingdom, but if you choose to join up and enter the comp you can win a pizza box filled with over £30 of stash, now that can't be bad.

Don't worry if you are overseas, we welcome members from all over the globe and you still have a chance to win the prize!!

I'm officially shattered and I still haven't scrapped yet, I have wrapped and cleaned and packed and sorted and made a birthday card for Abigail, I am off to scrap now though!!

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Happy National Scrapbooking Day

Actually it's sort of more like international Scrapbooking day as most countries with scrappers seem to be celebrating it, any excuse for extra scrapping eh?!

More piccies celebrating Abigails 4 years on the planet, can't beleive that I didn't even have a digital camera or indeed a PC when she was born. Progress seems to quick these days, when you think my granny didn't even have a fridge when she was young.

She was a pretty little poppet dear readers but Oh my this girl has been full of angst since the day she was born, she could stop traffic with her screams, she still can! LOL

But for all of her moments she has given us 4 wonderful years of being a bright little girl, she's quick as a button and excelling even at this early stage of nursery, what she gives us in angst she makes up for with ultra cleverness, yes I know I am biased but this is a little girl who just did everything early and continues to impress us with her abilities.

I must remember to read this back whenever she is having one of her famous tantrums! LOL

So much to do today, we have to pick up the cake, the party bag presents, wrap her birthday gifts, make a card, buy all the food for her pink party, yes I think we're trying to get as much pink food in one sitting as possible. We also have to tidy the house, wrap presents for pass the parcel, and somewhere in the middle of all of that I have to teach a cyber class at the Craft Kingdom. I should get it uploaded around 2pm and Kirsteen came up with a challenge at 10.00 where you can win a pizzabox full of stash, if your reading this and wondering what to do today, you can either come round to my house and help me tidy and clean or you may want to join the Craft kingdom and try and bag yourself some new stash, I know which one I would choose!!

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Here comes the Sun!

It's been pretty much wall to wall sunshine here over the last couple of days and I have been making the most of it before my op next week, hopefully it will rain the entire time I am in hospital and for the next couple of weeks afterwards till i am well enough to get out again! We went to Morpeth for a couple of hours earlier today and all the ducks and ducklings were out in force, Looby wanted to catch them of course and take them home! Anyway it was nice to just get out and be somewhere sunny and peaceful again, I have had a huge headache all afternoon but I think it's just worrying about the impending op, atleast with Abigails Birthday on Sunday I shouldn't have a lot of time to worry over the weekend!

I went to the doctors this morning to get a couple of relaxants for Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, I doubt I would even get as far as the hospital without them! LOL

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Very nearly 4

Can you believe Abigail is going to be 4 on Sunday? I certainly can't, it seems just yesterday that she was a teeny weeny, well she was never that small but she was the smallest of all my babies, she weighed 8lb6.5 and I knew from the scan that she was a girl, i was so delighted I can tell you, as after having Iain, I always craved for a wee girl next. Sorry about the quality of the smaller photos, they were a scan from a film camera, all of them taken by my dad, I they she was probably about 7 months in the tartan dress and maybe about 4 months in last photo but Oh my look how she has blossomed, she may have her moments and believe me she does have moments but I am so proud of my gorgeous young lady, she's fiesty, zesty, funny and loves scrapbooking, she's getting good at it now, it can't be too long before she gets published more than me!!

Today I am thankful for my children, I may want to scream into a cupboard every now and then but mostly I am grateful that I have such wonderful poppets and a gorgeous, fabulous supportive hubby.

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Delish Doodlebug!!

Have you seen all the new stuff from Doodlebug, I just nearly passed out with excitement, you have to go and check out the silk flowers at HappyScrapper

All the stuff in this week is amazing and guess how lucky I am, I get to play with some for my design team gig, that makes the prospect of 8 days in hospital slightly more bearable, after all you can't stay unhappy when you are faced with a nice pile of doodlebug goodies! I think I am going to have to order some especially for my stay!!

We had a nice day today, the weather was gorgeous and we took the girls down to Jesmond dene for a big walk down to the old watermill and waterfall, it was so peaceful and serene and the girls collected feathers and ate ice-creams, we were only out for a couple of hours but it was so refreshing and relaxing, I'm so glad that the summer is coming!!

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It's all Happening...

at the Craft kingdom, I can't beleive it but thanks to ingenious hard-work by Kirsteen we have almost doubled our membership in the space of the day. Now really is the time to join as we have fabulous things planned for the months ahead, start small, aim high, work hard, I think is the motto. We now have some of my favourite retailers on the site, HappyScrapper (of course!!), The Scraporium, Scrapshed, Scrapbooking Castle (whom I haven't shopped with before but I have heard the most fabulous glowing reports), gosh I'm sure there were a couple more too, oh and a huge gaggle of lovely TLC peeps, Cubby if you are reading can you get back to me about what the correct term is for a group of TLC'ers!! ;) :D

So, lots and lots of things going on, don't forget we are having a Cyber Crop class and challenge on Saturday, I have still to write the class and it really doesn't help that I am now Uber nervous!!

In other news it's the local elections today so Abigail gets the day off nursery as they're using it as a polling station, Iain veiws this as very unfair as he still has to go to school!

Watched the Apprentice last night and for once I was shocked by the result, I really thought that Paul was going to win it or atleast get through to the final with Ruth, but no it's an all girl final and I'm hoping that I manage to watch it in hospital. I only just found out that my lovely hubby has been watching it with me every week and he doesn't even like it, 10 weeks of watching and he never said a thing till last night!!

Right, much to do and I already have a migraine coming on!

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Still Lost!!

I had to do a collage for the research thing I am going to today, I actually did 3 but I thought I would share one of them, I was actually far too lazy to do it with photoshop so I cheated and did it with a few smaller clicks in Picasa, gotta love that programme considering it's free!!

Oh yes and as for Lost, tell me why I stayed up till Midnight and watched the first 2 episodes when the second one was practically the same as the first.

I'm no further in having any answers at all and if it continues like this for the whole of the second series I may have to go and occasionally scream into cupboards, it's just sooo infuriating!!

It's my Mums birthday today, I know that she doesn't read this but you never know, my dad was waiting to get the internet installed the last time I spoke to him so maybe they have and they have found my wee space! If by some miracle you are reading this mum, Happy Birthday!!

I'm going to get the kids to call he in 15 mins and sing a big happy birthday to her, for some reason she likes being woken early by singing children, sounds like something out of "The Sound of Music" to me!!

It's beautifully bright and sunny here today, I have heard the forcasters say that it could get up to 25c tommorrow in certain parts, hurray for summer coming, it's been such a long and awfully cold winter, I hope that we get a hot summer in return!!

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