so excited

i was asked last week to become part of the iacw desgin team. i was really chuffed as it is somewhere i go most days as i think the girls are really talented. this was my first week in the art journal and i am busy catching up on the weeks that i have missed and trying to finish off another project.

the weather....

has been very strange this week. snow on sunday, bright sunshine yesterday and then back to rain today....i cant keep up.
its the easter holidays here this week and next and weve been busy with visitors most days.
ive been busy creating and there will be an announcement tomorrow which i am very excited about....now back to my craft desk.

at last

ive finally finished my christmas journal. i never intended to go to the 6th of jan as i had cover those thoughts in previous years and i decided to finish on christmas day but then i had a rethink and finished on new years eve instead.
so thats 3 projects in 2 weeks that i have finished...lets i hope i can carry on the good work!

busy busy busy

i finished 2 projects last weekend...yeeeehaaaaaaa
the first one is a tardis from when we wnet to the dr who exhibition in october. okay so the cover is not exactly finished but thats coz of the craft robo...see my tech difficulties post! i used lots of stickers that raena had collected from the magazines that are out including a fab set of post it notes.



the second is a christmas album. i was dithering in november about what to use for shimelles xmas class and remembered that the first time we went to trinidad it was christmas...so i started it then. i used my 7gypsies birthday pressie off jill to do it...well what else would she have bought me lol

progress

as you can see below we are getting there with the vegetable plot. its been dug over, manure added and the raised beds are now in place.
weve already started on the seeds .... we had the beds widened as well so we will be able to get more flowers in this year...... so we will be doing a lot more this year with the veg ones as well. at the moment they are taking over the kitchen top and the bedroom window sill as we had to take down the cover on the greenhouse due to the storms.

technical difficulties

first off i noticed that my lovely blue banner had the wrong title on it..once upon a time!!....where did i get that from..note to self...dont make another banner at 3am!

blogger has been acting up as it wont let me change my background, finally did it...decided it needs tweaking...and it wont let me.

downloaded an action which i know was not for elements but it hasnt stopped me before...havent a clue what i had done previously but spent hours on it on saturday to no avail.

my craft robo rollers wont turn properly...i now need a large magnifying glass to remove debris off the rollers so that i can finish 2 projects.

my word for this year was "finish"...do you think i chose the wrong word?

it's been two years

since i became a widow, a single parent.... i hate that phrase.
it only seems like yesterday when our world fell apart
its not been easy trying to do all the jobs that were andrews role in this family.... i still hate putting the bins out, especially when i forget and i am hopeless at being a father.
i miss him so much...his wicked sense of humour...he was always winding me up....just someone to talk to at night while watching tv...dancing in bed....and all the other daft things we used to do.

the vegetable patch

i had a gardener here earlier this week to take up part of the lawn and dig out the new vegetable patch, widen the existing beds and add manure...this garden has had nothing added for years..although i did add chicken manure last year. we had the lavetera taken out as it really took over the bed it was in last year.
ive already started on the seeds....peas, marigolds, tomatoes and begamot have gone in this week. its too cold for them outside at the moment so they are taking over the kitchen. i got some duck tape today to patch up the plastic greenhouse as it took a battering last year. i also got 2 40 litre yellow...and i mean yellow.... buckets today from wicks for the potatoes to go in, as i think they will be better than the compost bags that i was going to use, they were only £3.99 each...bargain.
i ordered a compost bin from recyclenow.com my council partakes in a scheme where you get cheap compost bins...so £11 was spent on a compost bin and a small blue kitchen worktop bin for the peelings etc.
i'm saving my empty plastic milk bottles as i am going to cut them down and use them for cloches for the peas.

4 more left

well 5 actually as i still have to do page 4...just cant get my head round it and we didnt do anything special that day. i need to hand cut 1 more page...just need to make sure i cut the correct side!!

pages 20 to 24!!

the hospital messed up with raena's scan appointment so we are back there again next week
sonja was here on wednesday and we had a great time scrapping and chatting while the girls played on the wii. we were both cracking on with our christmas journals.
close ups of the journal pages will be on my slide once blogger stops messing me about...for some reason it will only show me half of the templates page!!

money and more

i bought a euro millions ticket last week and then forgot all about it. i remembered yesterday and checked it...i got 3 number and won the grand sum of £16.20

i bought a few bits of food, treated myself to a chinese and bought another ticket lol. i did offer raena a treat but she didnt want to know!!

at work we have changed from weekly to monthly pay and from the way the letter was worded i thought i wouldnt get any money after the end of jan till i got paid on the 15th of feb...i was wrong and i'm now 2 weeks wages better off......thats why i bought another ticket...i'm hoping 3rd time lucky.

the scrapologie blog has a fab rak on at the moment so go and have a look at yesterdays post and leave a comment.

this is my 100th post...... its taken me a while to get here but i made it at last lol.

ive managed 4 more pages to my journal and i'll get them photographed over weekend and upload them...i can finally see the end i sight...phew!

this journal

is just taking sooo long! we were both ill at the begining of december with a sever cough and cold...my cough eased off but it still lingered so that at the begining of this month i ended up with pleurisy....finally recovered from that and raena was taken into hospital on tuesday with suspected apendisitis, which eventually turned out to be a cist...and she has a uti as well. she was discharged on saturday and is still in some pain and we are due back at the hospital next month for another scan. it never rains but pours!
so i am determined to do some more of the journal this week...just not sure when lol

a new year a new look

but i'm not too sure if i like the blue banner. i will leave it a few days and if still dont like it i will revert back to my black and white one.

my new blade arrived from graphtec today so ive been cutting lace numbers and gingerbreadmen for my journal...yes thats why some were missing from my journa... i really should have cut them all at the begining but with hindsight its a good job i didnt coz i had to use a scalpel to free them all, the ones i did today just peeled away with ease so the blade must have been going for a while!

i'm still working away on my journal and have just finished page 20 but its too dark here now to take a photo. i was only going to go upto boxing day but ive changed my mind and i'm goint to new years day instead...watch me change my mind again lol.

we got up this morning and it was snowing...well ok it was very very fine and didnt stick but it was snow, maybe we'll have more luck tomorrow.

i'll leave you for now with pages 16 to 19 of my journal and i'd like to wish you all a happy new year

journal entries and more

first off let me wish everyone a merry christmas especially those that are missing loved ones at this time of year.


the lovely boo has finally got a blog and you can find it here ...nice to see you in the blogging world boo.


many thanks to my lovely friends for their fantastic crimbo pressies...you know who you are and how much i really appreciate them all.



finally catching up on my journal entries...i'm still way behind but at least i'm catching up...you can see more detailed pics on my slide.

things are quite here at the moment. i have andrews sister over on new years day and weve got lots of games planned so it should be fun.

8,9 and 10

finally got the chance to upload these but still havent done anymore!

we are now ready for the big day bar the cooking. were going to a panto at the manchester opera house tomorrow to see cinderella which should be good. weve had lots of visitors today dropping off pressies and another 3 lots are due in the morning.
wishing everyone a merry christmas

6 days to go!!!

and i am nowhere near ready! still making teachers pressies..tho i should finish those tonight...if i dont then i dont know when i will coz i am too busy tomorrow!
only done upto page 9 of my journal.. i cant believe i am so far behind, i wasnt last year. no i know i havent taken pics yet but i will when ive got some time ...yeah right time!
house is a wreck and i keep meeting myself coming backwards...oh well if its not done by sunday then forget it...asfter all ...what harm will it do!

behind as usual!

with my christmas journal. i managed to do 3 at weekend but now i am too busy making reindeer food for school and lets not mention the 3 events that we are doing next week!!

here some more of my journal....i know that 4 is missing...just cant get my head round that one at the moment.

sad times

jan finally lost her battle with cancer at weekend. jan's attitude to life and her fantastic sense of humour will be sorely missed. rest in peace jan.

pages 1 and 2 of my journal finshed...i am now back on track..wonder how long that will last lol. theres no date on them yet as i am still fiddling with how i want the dates on..at the moment little gingerbread men are fave but i dither so much it could be just a date stamp in the end!

its december already!!

wow that came around fast lol.
as usual for december its mad busy here. we put the tree up yesterday but ive still to dress the room! ive started shimelles journal and i'm just waiting for day 1 to dry and i'm part way through day 2. i'm also making a cookie advent sheet like teresa mcfaydens and i signed up for her 12 days of christmas, so its going to be a very busy month... and then theres all the activities going on at school that i help out with!

see you later of to do some more scrapping