my scrap blog

Had enough!

2009-06-21T20:33:00.002+01:00

I have had enough of feeling like this, had enough of not wanting to do anything, had enough of being so very tired, had enough of it all.
I thought that I would be feeling better by now, I went to the doctors and was prescribed tablets for my depression and have been on them for 3 weeks now, but the feelings won't go away. I am sick of pretending that I feel ok, sick of having to pretend to people that I feel fine, because they just doesn't understand why I feel so shite, to be honest I don't understand why I feel like this, but I can't stop it, I try to fight it, I try to think positively, but the feelings of hopelessness come back and I just can't shake them. I am so tired, but can't sleep, I lie awake worrying about things that I know I can't change, my mind is buzzing with dark thoughts, if only I could sleep!
I have the doctors again next week, I so hope she will tell me I will be ok soon, I need to find me again, the old me where I was happy and content.

I am hoping that the next time I write here I will be feeling better, but for now I will stop.

life is crap.

2009-05-27T15:22:00.002+01:00

crap, crap, crap.

I have done some crafting, finally!

2009-05-17T22:16:00.003+01:00

After not having any time to do any crafting for what feels like ages, I spent all afternoon and most of this evening making crafty stuff for a work colleague who is leaving on Friday.
I made a note book for Big notes, a post it note book for small notes and decorated a gift bag for them to go in.
The top picture is the gift bag, next is the inside of the post it note holder, then the outside of the holder, next is the inside of the big note book and finally the outside of the note book. I used my new cricut cart, home decor for the birds, papermania papers, prima flowers and some cheap blossoms. I am really pleased with the gifts and hope that the recipetent likes them as well!

promarker blog :-)

2009-05-15T22:17:00.002+01:00

I have just found a blog that is dedicated to promarkers and wow it is great. The blog is called passion for promarkers. If you are interested in promarkers please go and have a looksie. they are also giving away candy:)

I have given myself the weekend off from anything related to university and will be finishing off a leaving gift nd card for a work colleague. I will put pics of them here when Iahev finished them.
For now, I am going to give myself an early night, so goodnight all.x

What a wonderful day.

2009-05-09T22:04:00.009+01:00

It so was a great day today. My sister called and asked if I would like to go to a craft vilage in Billericky called Barleylands with her, of course I said yes!

Well, what a lovely place, full of fantastic crafts. We went into Pinnacle crafts to start with and OH, what a lovelky shop full of gorgeous stash. This is what I bought there:

Grungeboard, fiskars punch, cricut cart, 3 sets of Kars stamps, Kelly panachi clock stamps

handmade paper.

2 cuttlebug embossing borders, 2 large Cuttlebug embossing folders, 4 small folders. and a cut and emboss set.

Prima 6x6 papers.

We then went into a little shop called Primitive Treasure, My God, I had a field day in there:) There was tons of lovely stuff everywhere you looked. I was looking for lovely bits to go in my craft room and I found loads in this little shop.

Here is everything I bought in there:

I just love these plaques and they will be going in my craft room. I also bought some decorative bits to have in my craft room. The owner also gave me a turning display stand that is about 14" high and an acrylic 2 tiered stand (2 of my new plaques are siting on it and it is about 12" long) that I will have in my craft room to display thing.

I couldn't resist this coffee mug! I will be taking this to uni with me on monday:)

We then popped in Sugar and Spice and I bought a tim holtz mini mask, a papercraft magazine, another Fiskars border punch and some Jenny Bowlin bingo cards:)

We then went to Ikea where I bought some more lovely bits for my craft room including a cushion, a little red patterned bag, a set of three red fabric boxes, a red leather effect desk tidy and 2 sets of metal filing drawers.

All in all I spent a fortune, but had the best day. I will be sorting my craft room out tomorrow and making it look lovely with all my new stuff:)

Big Thanks to my sister Kath for taking me :-)

What a mess!

2009-05-04T14:37:00.007+01:00

After having a shopping spree on Saturday and seeing Jane Dean's ribbons in storage jars I thought I would sort my room out. I have not long moved it back into the lounge and an happier in here, but all my stash was just moved in, not sorted out.So yesterday evening I started the mammoth task of sorting it all out. I was happily sitting on the floor sorting my ribbons by colour into tubs I had bought from Poundland when I noticed something moving just in front of me. I got up and looked onto the floor and saw the biggest spider I have ever seen. After screaming and running from the room Tony caught it in one of my ribbon tubs and took it outside, but before he did I got Becky to take a photo of it.

Here is the invader of my craft room:

Now, in case anyone thinks I like spiders let me tell you, I have a complete and utter phobia of these horrible things. I told Tony when he came back in that I didn't want my craft room in here anymore, but he said I have to keep it here as he has already put all the shelving up! I had to leave the room last night after moving the ribbon tubs.

This morning I decided to carry on with my sorting and this is the mess I have around me now:

As you can see it's a bit of a mess and I am wishing I didn't start now, but I have to get it finished today as am back at work tomorrow.

You may also have noticed my ironing board laying on it's side in the bottom picture, the reason that is there is because it is the only thing that will stop my dog coming in here when I have stuff on the floor. Bless him he lays the other side, but won't jump over it to come in LOL.

I also bought a cushion for my craft chair, it is lovely and I bought it from The merchant Chandler along with a decorative hanging hook thing. It did originally have a picture of jams in it, but i managed to take that out an put one in I made for it. It is going to go up in my craft room.

Well, I can't stay on here all day, I must get this room sorted out and just hope that no more spiders come for a visit!
Thanks for popping by. x

Choc's away!

2009-05-02T20:06:00.004+01:00

I have made a leaving album for someone at work and the people who asked me to make it gave me these.

Now, can anyone guess what I was more excited about? ...................................

Yes, you guessed it I was more excited about the ribbon and the pattern on the box, not really interested in the chocs inside. I also saw a great idea for a LO using the box lid as inspiration. Will have a go at using this inspiration tomorrow and will post it here when it's done:)

2nd May, National Scrapbooking Day

2009-05-02T18:59:00.007+01:00

What a perfect day to go stash shopping:-)

I went, with my sister to the new scrapbook shop that is situated in Faversham (just outside Faversham to be exact) today and WOW, what a lovely shop and in such a gorgeous setting. The shop is called Pickleberry Papercrafts. We were offered coffee or tea as soon as we went inside and also the most gorgeous cupcakes, well it would have been rude to say no wouldn't it:-) Me and my sister had a good wander around the shop buying stash, then sat and took part in a free make and take, Thanks Girls that was great:) We then did a second sweep of the shop and found even more stash to buy. We also had a look in Jane Dean's studio, How amazing a place is that, I so wish my craft room looked like that!

Here is all the stash I bought while I was there.

Here is a couple of pictures of the free make and take session, sorry about the blurryness of the first picture.

We both had a great time and I can't wait to go back again soon:)

After leaving Faversham we popped to Scrapbook sisters where I spent a few more pennies on these. I can't believe how much ric rac I bought, but i love it:) The little pack at the top of the photo is a pack of playing cards with lovely japanese pictures on them, I couldn't resist:)

We then popped into Bybrook Barn on the way home and I bought these:

I don't usually buy the goody bags, but I had just paid £10 for a pack of 12x12 and a pack of handmade 8x8 when I noticed the same paper packs in the goody bag along with lots of other stash, so I swapped the paper packs for the goody bag, and for an extra fiver I got lots of stuff in the bag. The transparancies I just love, first time I have seen these, so had to buy both of them.

We also stopped and Kath took some photo's of the Bluebell Woods, what a lovely sight. I, of course had forgotten my camera, but Kath took a couple of photo's for me. Thanks Kath:-)

I had a great day, spent loads of money and really enjoyed going out after being indoors for the best part of a month, firstly due to feeling very down then due to my son needing someone to care for him after having an operation. I am now going to go and stroke all my new stash:)
bye for now.
Niki

I'm blogging again.

2009-04-27T21:53:00.002+01:00

Just a quick entry tonight, more to see how my text comes out than anything. I have added a lovely border to my blog, but the link to it is hanging over my title to my entries, boo hoo.

Been gone so long!

2009-04-16T22:47:00.002+01:00

I haven't blogged on here for so long. The last entry I made was when I was feeling so down, I have had a couple more episodes of feeling like that since then, but at the moment I feel o.k, just o.k mind, nothing great!
I have no idea where the feelings come from and I promised myself that I would go and see the doctor about it, but now that I feel o.k, I can't see the point in wasting his time and when I feel bad I just don't want to leave the house!
It is half term here and for most of it I have been feeling pretty bad, not wanting to go outside, not wanting to talk to anyone and not having any energy at all, but since Tuesday I have been feeling o.k, so hopefully it will be a long time before the next episode and then I will force myself to go and see the doc!

Anyway, onto better stuff:-)
I am half way through my last assignment for uni, only the dreaded portfolio to get done, I have some stuff to include in it, but it's gonna be hard to get anything substantial to put in it.

I moved my craft room around yesterday, it is now in the lounge at the back (luckily we have a huge lounge). I have found stash that I completely forgot about, all I need to do now is find time to actually put it to good use!
The kids have been great, I am going to Nottingham uni with Craig on wednesday and Tony is going to Hertfordshire Uni the following Wednesday with him so he can decide which uni he wants to go to, I have a feeling it will be Hertfordshire or Nottingham, hopefully Hertfordshire will be his first choice as it is a bit closer to us!

Becky has ben on a church youth group holiday and she loved it,. The best thing is that she actually went and stayed there and didn't phone us to say she wanted to come home on the first night. I had loads of late night texts from her asking me to phone her, but she was fine and stayed the whole time:) What a feat for her, I am so proud of her for taking that huge step:-)

Tony has spent his whole week off work helpnig me move my craft room and re-decorating the downstairs of the house, bless him, he has had backache and a sore throat, but still carried on.

The dog has been as nutty as usual, barking at non existent people at the door and pinching stuff that isn't his to chew to bits, nothing new there then, LOL.

Anyway, better get going now, will try to get some sleep now.

Bad, bad, day.

2009-01-27T22:41:00.003Z

Depression is a horrible thing, it creeps up on you and grabs you without giving you time to think. I knew I hadn't been happy for a while, but today I realised that this horrible thing has me in it's grip again and I just don't have the strength to fight it off. I took the dog out for a walk this evening, to clear my head and think things over, but all I ended up doing was sitting on a bench crying. My head is thumping, my body wants to just shut down and I feel so very tired.
You know what the worst thing is? Its the fact that I know I have this, but just can't summon the energy to fight it, what's the point anyway?
One word is all it takes to tip someone over the edge.
The little bit of self confidence that I managed to build up has been shot down in flames at work today, thanks to some thoughtless bastard who probably just thought he was having a laugh. The thing is, it's only ever a laugh if it doesn't cause pain to anyone. He will never know how much he hurt me, he has known my family for years, he has known me for years and yet he still hurt me, a real stabbing hurt that shattered every part of me. I can't even think about it without crying, there is no way I could mention it to anyone a work, even to lodge a formal complaint, I would just end up getting so over emotional about it again and I really haven't got the strength to be like that now.
I will just drag myself out of bed tomorrow and go to work, make out I am o.k and hope the day goes quickly, so I can get home and stop thinking and just switch off till the next day. That is the only way I can cope when it hits me like this, I pretend, I am good at pretending, I have learnt that pretending is better than facing the shit that goes with depression. I smile, I say I am fine when people ask me how I am, but if they just looked into my eyes surely they would see the intense pain i am feeling inside, this pain that eats away at my self esteem, my self confidence, my happiness, my soul and my mind.

Half term nearly over:-(

2008-10-31T14:42:00.004Z

With half term very nearly over I decided to day to have a go at stamping onto candles. Fi told me how to do it and sent me over to splitcoaststampers where they have a tutorial about it.

So, I went into town this morning and bought some cheapie candles, greaseproof paper, and tissue paper. Got home and dug out my heat gun that has been lurking in my craft room unused for over a year and started to play! I chose the PSX robins on a branch stamp as the stamp I was going to use and this is the result.

I am really pleased with how it came out and can't wait for Fi to see it. I am sure she will love the fact that her instructions worked first time.
I now want to go and buy loads more candles, I think they will make great presents for friends. Just a piece of festive ribbon round the bottom and voila, one very snazzy present.

2008-10-29T22:26:00.010Z

I am just doing this to help out a friend :) Hi Fi
i want the photo of my card here >

that's worked out ok.

My God, it's very nearly November!!

2008-10-28T19:55:00.003Z

And I haven't written a thing since August!
Got some catching up to do haven't I.
To start with I have started university and have nearly finished my first assignment. I have spent a small fortune on books for the first year of my degree, I don't mind though, I love books:-)

On the scrapping front, I have finally bought myself a cricut machine, only the baby one. I have now got 12 cartridges for it and there are still loads more that I want, but they will have to wait till christmas now. All I need to do now is find time to actually use them in my scrapping; which has been a bit hit and miss lately, actually if I am honest its been more miss than hit!!
Work has had me so busy I haven't had time to breathe let alone scrap and with uni it's like I have had no real 'me' time, but if I get this last piece of work done this week I will have at least 2 weeks before I get the next lot, plenty of time to play with the cricut LOL.
I have got to make a wedding mini book for a friend who got married during the summer holidays, I started it on Saturday, but my Zutter 'round it all' broke and now I am stuck until my sister comes down and lends me her one on Thursday.

Tony bought me a book on Sunday. Don't laugh, but it's a Jeremy Clarkson book LOL. It's called 'For crying out loud' and it's so funny. If you ever read his column in the paper then go and buy this book, preferrably from Asda as they are the cheapest!

Anyway, I will write on here again very soon, OK, but I won't leave it as long as last time LOL.

I am a bad, bad blogger!!

2008-08-12T22:12:00.002+01:00

I don't know without looking when i last posted here, but i know it was a long time ago now!!
Well, in the last few weeks i have been really busy, making 3 leavers books for 2 staff and one pupil who left where i work, all greatly received and loved!!!
I have been doing a scrapbook about our holiday to wales in 2000 (yeah I know it was a long time ago) and only have 5 pages left to do, thank god!
I have also, and most interestingly of all, started researching my family history on Ancestry.co.uk.
I am now in contact with 2 relatives I didn't know i had, one of them is a scrapper as well!!!:)
I am loving finding out about my relatives, reading old birth and marraige certificates, letters, looking at old photo's, etc and I have now even got a copy of my Granddads will (my dad's side), in it he states that he is leaving all of his tools to his son, now i know where my Dad got all the tools that filled the shed up!!!
The only down side to this family history research lark is that i now have a craft room full of bits of paper with scribbled notes and workings out on and i am up till the early hours every night trying to find that elusive relation!!! I have no idea how long T will put up with having to do dinner and all the housework, but i hear him tutting and sighing now and again!!!!!

I have now enrolled at University and need to register and pick up my student ID card in september then the hard work starts!!! oh, i am so looking forward to it!! No, really, I am!!

I would put some pics up of my latest layouts, but i haven't done any over the last 2 weeks, so nothing new really to show you.
I have been asked by a friend to amke a book for her son, he starts uni in sept, he is going to Bangor Uni and so she wants a book for him that his family and friends can write their messages for him in. She brought the photo's round yesterday and all i need to do now is get the book made before next Monday!!!!!
Better get it started then eh!!!
I will keep this updated slightly more often than i have been doing and I will post some pics of my crafting, i promise!
bye for now.
x

A great Day!

2008-06-30T17:26:00.002+01:00

It has been a great day today, my stamps have arrived today that I won on ebay, 2 of them are penny black stamps that I got for a really good price:-)
I spent Sunday playing with my new prisma pencils and I am in love with those pencils :-)
I had a good day at work today, no snidey comments so far, lets just hope it lasts.

The best thing is I have just been on a blog called Spiral Whisper, they are a new company dedicated to stamps, at the moment they are running a competition to name 2 of their lovely stamps, the winner will win some blog candy, but most importantly they will use the winners chosen names for the stamps:) Go and check it out. The launch of their website is 14th July for pre-orders and the site opens proper on the 21st July. Count me in on the pre-ordering ladies, thsoe stamps are just gorgeous:-)

B is doing work experience at my place of work this week and she likes it at the moment, C has now finished school, but he has seen his teachers and asked if he can stay on for another year to make sure he gets the grades he needs to go to university to study astronomy and astrophysics!!!!!!
T has been lovely lately, not sure why, but if he finds out just how much i have spent on ebay lately i am sure he will change his tune VERY quickly!!!! Oh well, it's only money and you can't take it with ya, can you now??
Better go and get the dreaded ironing started.
have a lovely one:-)
Niki

The weekend at last:-)

2008-06-27T21:31:00.002+01:00

Thank Crunchie it's Friday.
Firstly, I must correct a typo in my last post- I stupidly put the name of a great site as glittergirlz but in fact it is called GutterGirlz!!! Don't know why I put glitter in place of Gutter, must have been using glitter that evening:-)

I have found these amazing things that I must tell you all about!! Prismacolor pencils:-) OK, so you have probably heard about these fantastic little sticks of colour, but it was only this last week that I found out just how gorgeous they really are, they colour like a dream, blend so well it's almost unbelievable and are just the most super colouring medium that I have ever come across!

Anyway, tomorrow I am going to my sisters house for the day and we are going to be crafting in peace, no kids, no husbands, no annoying but lovable dog asking to be stroked, just me and my sister, a pile of patterned paper and loads of craft stuff to play with, pure bliss:-)

I haven't really got a lot to write about today, could carry on letting off steam about work, but what's the point?? I am sure things will pan out eventually, one way or the other!!
One thing though, I have been asked by a friend to make 3 memory books, I just need to know what sort of budget i have to work with then i can get them started. I have also been asked to be editor of our works monthly in-house social newsletter starting in September and I have accepted the position:)
I will keep this updated a bit more regularly, see you all soon. X

oh Bugger it!

2008-06-21T00:01:00.002+01:00

WARNING: there is some swearing in the following post, please do not bother reading it if you have an aversion to swearing!

I have had the crappiest last few days ever at work this week. I so felt like not going in today due to someone making a snide comment yesterday, but went in anyway and then today she does the same bloody thing. If the comment came from anyone else i wouldn't have thought anything about it, but coming from this person made me really angry. I have had just about enough now and I can see me getting into big trouble at work becasue of her if she carries on this way.
I feel like shit anyway, feeling really down at the moment, but trying to hide it at work because i don't like getting sympathy anyway, but worse is from people who are just being sympathetic on the surface but really couldn't give a shit about you, they just give it to look good in front of others. So to be honest i could really do without this rubbish just now!
It's a good job no-one from work knows i have a blog, but just in case anyone does see this from work, "bugger off, this is my space not yours and what i write here has nothing to do with you" LOL.

Anyway, sorry about the swearing, I can't help it, i am still so angry and I have decided that this blog is not only for the stuff i make, but also a place where i can let off steam and say the things that i want to say!
I am just so glad it's the weekend, gives me a couple of days to calm down.

I'm not going to bother writing anymore tonight, probably said too much anway!

But i will say one thing crafty... you have got to check out the GlitterGirlz blog, it is full of great inspiration and challenges, I have put a link into my side bar, go click on it and see what i mean, fanatstic work there:-)

whoa! so long ago!!

2008-06-08T22:40:00.002+01:00

It's been ages since I have blogged, my excuse being that I have a fractured elbow!! I fractured it back in February, but it's still really painful, I am now back at work though, thank god for that, I got sooo bored being at home. (I haven't been off work since I did it though, just the last 5 weeks!!)

My best news is that in October I start University, I am so excited about it. I am sure i ahve already written about it, but now it's all sorted and final. I am taking a 3 yr honors Degree in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I have all my note books, pens, files and folders at the ready, may buy a laptop if I feel that I will need one.

On the crafting side of my life I have been busy getting my Wales holiday album done, only 8 more pages to do then it will finally be done and dusted, thankfully, I am getting fed up with doing it now and can't wait till it's all done.

C has been taking his A levels this last week and in his spare time he has been playing rock band on his Xbox, my god that drum kit is soo loud and he insists on playing it at stupid o' clock at night!!
B has been getting her course work done for her GCSE's, weird, she is in year 10 and already getting course work done for next year.

I have done Aprils pages for the save the day by Shimelle and have the photo's ready to scrap for May, I will need to get a wriggle on to get then scrapped in the book before the 25th of June hits me at full pelt. This year seems to be going so fast, it's already half way through, not long till Christmas now, HA HA HA HA!!

Well, I feel better for getting this blog up to date, don't think I have missed anything, oh, apart from I have found that I am starting to buy from Ebay again, I haven't bought anything from there in years, but the last couple of weeks has found me winning some crafty goodies at stupid prices, so I am a happy bunny at the moment:)

I will try to keep this updated, but i can't promise, ha ha! Life has a habit of getting in the way sometimes!
bye for now,
Niki

Today is the Day

2008-04-25T14:11:00.003+01:00

As anyone who 'lives' over at UKS knows, today is the start of the cyber crop and how excited are we all:)

It is also the first day of Shimelle's challenge called 'Save the day' in which you take photo's on the 25th of each month for a year and at the end you have a record of one day in each month to look back on.

I have completed the pages and the front cover for the book and have been busy snapping away with the camera, weird, I never thought I would take a photo of my ironing pile or the washing hanging on the line, but hey!!!

Here are some photo's of my book and some of the ones I have taken today so far:-

The photo's are- in order from top to bottom- the front cover- the inside pages- a shot of my alarm clocks (yes I have 2) and a shot from my bedroom window (this will change drastically over the year as they are going to be building houses there:(

I am going to be spending tomorrow at my sisters, we are going to be cyber cropping together, so I need to get my kits ready for the challenges and classes, no idea what I will take for the challenges, but luckily she has said I can borrow anything I need. Love you dear twin of mine:)

Well, the dog is asleep on the sofa, Tony is at work, Becky and Craig are both at school and I am wasting time on here when I should be in my craft room getting ready for tonight and tomorrow!!

I will try and get back on here over the weekend, anyway, hope everyone at UKS has a great time at the cyber crop and one last thing........

GO DRAMA QUEENS!!!! ra-ra-ra!

Scrap your day

2008-04-24T20:37:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow; the 25th April; is the first day of Scrap your life, a challenge from Shimelle over on UKS that will be running for a year.

I am so looking forward to this challenge, my book is getting there, my batteries are charged, my camera is upstairs ready and waiting till the morning.

The idea of this challenge is to record a day in my life every month, the same day every month, namely the 25th of each month, some days will show the good, some days will show the bad, but all of these days make up a year in my life.

People are going mad over at UKS about this challenge and are at this moment working up to fever pitch about it:)

The other thing that will be going on this weekend is the cyber crop at UKS, actually the Scrap your life challenge is part of the cyber crop, I have completed the sketch pre crop challenge and here it is:)

sorry about the bad picture lol

Others over on UKS have been a lot more organised than me and most have completed all of the pre crop challenges, and what fantastic work they have all put into them:)

Away from scrapping for a moment I had some great news last night:) I went onto UCAS to see if my application for University has been accepted and My God it has, I have been accepted to the University of Kent, in Canterbury. In October I will be starting Uni life and will be there for three years, studying Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. I am so excited and just so happy about it.

Another thing I need to say is that for the past 9 weeks I have been living and working with a fractured elbow wityhout knowing it. I fell over In February and landed heavily onto my elbow, went to hospital and had xrays, they said that nothing was broken it was just swollen and bruised. OK I thought, so I carried on as normal, carrrying stuff around, working etc. Well, the pain just wouldn't go away so two weeks ago I went back to hospital to get it checked again, more xrays were taken and again a nurse said that he couldn't see any break, but he would get the xrays checked. I came away from there in agony because of the way he pulled my arm about, but again thinking ok so it's still just bruised. But, OH NO!! When I got back from a day out to Rye with my sister last Monday I get told that the hospital had phoned and I need to phone them back. It turns out that I have a fracture in my elbow, so at this moment I am off work, but luckily the consultant says I can go back on Monday, just have to be careful with my arm. I didn't get to have a plaster cast put on as i fractured it so long ago now and it wouldn't do any good.

Damn, this is the first time in my life i have ever broken any of my bones and I don't get a cast, how sad am I to want a cast LOL.

Anyway, I had better get this book finished for the Scrap your life challenge, as soon as it is finished I will put pics here.

later. x

Such a BAD blogger!!!

2008-04-13T21:38:00.005+01:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged for ages, I knew this would happen when I started this blog:)

Anyway, lots has happened since I last blogged, some good, some not so good.

The not so good is that my eldest sister had a bleed in her brain and was rushed to hospital after collapsing at home, she had to have surgery to stop the bleed and after 2 weeks was allowed home, she is now recovering well, thankfully:)

The good news is that I have decided to go to university and study for a degree in Intellectual and developmental disabilities, I have sent off my application and am now waiting to hear if I have a place. I am so keeping my fingers crossed that I get in. I also have a new PC, I am getting used to Vista, but prefer XP, but I am loving having a PC that my daughter can't go on, she has the old one and now we don't fight over who's turn it it. All that needs to be done now is to set up the network with the printer, at the moment if I want to print anything I have to load it onto my memory stick and then go to the other PC to load and print off from there (a right pain if dear daughter is on it at the time).

I am on Easter break at the moment, only 1 week left now though and I have so much to do before I go back to work. I have managed to only get 4 Layouts done this month so far, I feel like I need a kick up the backside to get me scrapping again.

We started re-decorating the kitchen yeterday, Tony plastered part of the wall, I filled in the cracks around the walls that surfaced after the earthquake last year! then we both set about painting the walls a lovely chocolate latte colour. We noticed in B&Q that all their kitchen doors were half price so we measured up and went and bought lovely walnut doors today, only to find when we went to fix the first one to the cabinet that the hinges didn't line up with the drilled holes in the cabinets! Well, after 3 hours Tony had had enough, he had drilled new holes in the cabinet for the hinges and they still didnt meet up, so needless to say the doors will be going back to B&Q tomorrow and I will be painting the existing doors with the chocolate brown paint I originally bought to do them with. I need to take some photo's to go in the kitchen and Tony is getting some small shelves for one wall for all of my cookery books anf then that room will be done, thank goodness!!

Tomorrow I am going to Rye and Hastings with my twin sister for the day, we are going on a photography day out, just us two! Hopefully we will also find a craft shop of some sort to buy a few 'essentials' in, like you do on a day out!!

I loved the snow we had last week and so did Skip, it was his first sight of snow and he wasn't quite sure about it but loved catching snowballs, I managed to get some photo's before it melted.

This is skip catching his first snowball!!

The view from my front window, a lovely sight.
That sight will soon change though as we have workmen buildng new houses opposite us, they make great alarm clocks, making a hell of a racket at 7am!!!! Not nice when I am on holiday!

Well, anyway I have better go and get my camera batteries charged up ready for tomorrow.
I promise that I will keep this blog updated from now on:)

2008-02-20T10:08:00.003Z

Oop's!! Not only have I not been keeping this blog updated but I haven't done any real scrapping either!

I have been busy at work, taking a Braille course and finding it so interesting, I have now finished the course and passed! YEY!. I can read Braille and Moon through sight.

I have also had a bit of a hard time at work from a member of staff who doesn't share my passion for Pec's (a form of communication) and the whole thing upset me for a while, but I am over that now.

I now also have a new Grand daughter called Nola Marie and we met her last saturday, she is the most gorgeous baby i have ever seen with a thick mop of black hair and the cutest little face.

Isn't she just the cutest!!

I had a surprise on Valentines day as well, my dear husband of nearly 20 years finally bought me not only a card, but also a ring, flowers and chocolates, he decided to buy them for me because apparently I always moan about not getting anything from him!! Bless him, I really do love that man :-)

On Sunday he also told me that I can have a new PC and so we took a trip to currys and found one I liked, but he didn't really like the price of!! I finally talked him round explaining that his game would play on it as it had the right graphics card already installed. I am now trying to find my way round vista after being used to xp for years!!

I am now on half term and so should have the time to get all the backlogged scrapping done, including the overlooked challenge and the A-Z journal and any challenges on UKS that i have missed recently!
The weekly challenge on Ukscrappers; which is set by my team this week is now up and I can't believe how many people are taking part in it, there are some fantastic LO's on there, well done to everyone who has taken part so far.

I will upload some LO's during this week; as soon as I get them done!! I think I will start with a LO about my darling Granddaughter.
I also really need to get out and about with my camera, hopefully going to Rye and Hastings on Friday with my twin sister and our daughters for a day out, so loads of opportunities to take some photo's there!! As long as the rain stays away!!
Well, time for housework now, but I promise I will be back on here before the end of the week!

I'm back!!

2008-01-20T00:18:00.000Z

After not posting for what seems like ages I am finally back. Only after being reminded that I do have a blog though. This blogging thing is all new to me and I have been treating it too much like a paper diary, I always say every year that I will keep a proper diary, but after 2 weeks I forget what I should be doing and it then sits there unused for the rest of the year.

Well, not this blog, I AM going to keep it up-to-date.

I have been busy at work, well, until I caught the flu bug that is. I have been off work since Tuesday last week and have only been properly back online since today. I have managed to get a couple of LO's done though and I have taken a few photo's of a friend's 1-32 scale tractor, just so I could have a play with my camera as the weather has been miserable outside for the last couple of weeks.

Today I have been trying to find a venue for my darling son's 18th birthday party in March. He decided that he wants a party; I did ask if he wanted jelly and ice-cream at the party, but strangely enough he didn't take me seriously!!! I have been quoted anything from £185-£300 for the venues!! The cheapest includes a disco, the most expensive doesn't!! How do they work that out then???

I am tempted to join my local conservative club though, because if I join then I can hold the party there for a returnable deposit of only £50; which includes music. My Dad would turn in his grave if I joined though! He was a staunch Labour supporter, whereas I have no real political leanings.

Anyway, onto what this blog is mainly about: scrapbooking!

I have received my email about the 'B' page for my 'About me' journal and will get that page done tomorrow, not sure which word/s to use for 'B' yet, but I have a list of words I can choose from, so will sort those out tomorrow.

I have also got the journalling prompt for the 'overlooked' challenge I have joined, I have jotted down my thoughts for the journalling, just need to wait for the LO prompt on Monday then I can get the first LO done. I have decided to do this using a 6x6 album; two reasons for this choice:
1. I think I will have trouble filling a 12x12 page.
2. I have loads of 6x6 albums and papers that need using:)

Also, I have completed my LO for my Crafty Magpies team February challenge on UKScrappers, I won't upload it here until after the challenge has started in February, don't want to give the game away before the event do I!!!

I had better get to bed now, before I go here are a couple of LO's I have done this week, plus a photo of the tractor I took. The 'The cowardly lion' layout is for this week's challenge on UKS; this challenge was from the Ruby Snippers team and I really enjoyed their challenge:)

Same old, same old!!

2008-01-08T20:19:00.001Z

I have been back at work for 2 days now, after having the christmas holidays off and it's the same old routine again- get up at 6.30am, wake Becky up, get showered and dressed, shout at Becky to get up and ready for school, go downstairs to let dog out and make coffee, shout at Becky again, get Becky's lunch ready, load washing machine, feed dog, shout at Becky yet again, have coffee and a ciggie, wake Craig up, walk out of door at 8.05am (after making sure Becky is now ready for school) and get lift to work, arrive at work at 8.15am.
I had a good day at work, luckily all the children came back to school happy after their holiday:) I took down the christmas art displays, after taking photo's of them for my portfolios of work- ready for new art displays to go in their place. This term we are working on texture, so i need to start thinking about what sort of things the children can make and do during art and DT.

Got home from work and had dinner ready by 6pm when Tony came home from work, to be told that he is now thinking about getting a new job, he has had enough of his current job and wants a totally different career, not helping that his new boss is a right pain and everyone has already had a snotty letter from him about their working practises. When i read the letter i was shocked to think that anyone who is new to the post, even a boss, can be this harsh, he obviously doesn't have a clue what his branch can acheive and just what his staff have sacrificed for the company!!
Today has been better though, Tony came home and said that he will stick it out until he finds another job rather than jumping at the first one that comes along (he was offered a landscape gardening job yesterday). I didn't mean to put him off that job, but i must admit that when he said that he wouldn't be taking it I was so relieved, we have too many commitments for him to be jumping into something he knows nothing about and a job that is probably more seasonal than most. How many people want their gardens landscaped in the middle of winter???

I had every intention of doing some scrapbooking tonight, even printed out a couple of photo's, but i am feeling tired and just want to go to bed at 8.30pm?????
Might have to go and have a coffee to try to keep myself awake for another hour!!I will get a LO done tomorrow and I will upload it here when it's done, I promise!!