Jen's World

{Ok, I Know It's Been A Long Time, But I'm Here Now]

Well it's only a month since I updated, but it seems like a very long month.  Loads has happened at home, but that's family stuff, and I'm not going into that here, but I'm busy rushing around here and there, and not spending much time on the computer.

Highlight of the last few weeks was going to The Gogo Getaway weekend.  I really needed the break it was fabulous.  Lovely to see some old friends, make new friends, attend some of the best classes I have ever done and meet some of the big names I have known in cyberland for a long time and finally met irl.  Scrapping into the small weenie hours...in fact it was light when I went to bed on the Friday night...was something I haven't done for a long time. I managed to finish a few pages and several mini books which are very close to finishing.

As a DT member I took part in a coupleof challenges, and took along an album of GoGo Create DT LOs that I had done over the last year or so for all to see.  That was scary, lotsof LOs I had forgotten about!!

I had some wonderful travel companions, Jen Hall and Vicky, our traveling home seem to take half the time of travelling there, and I managed to unpack the following day.  I promised myself I would continue scrapping as soon asI got home with all the inspiration I had picked upwhilst away, but it didn't happen, life has got in the way. 

I didn't ever show you my May Scrapagogo DT LOs, so I can show you those over the next few days, I actually did 5 LOs as I loved the kit so much.  My most favourite was this LO of Sophie. I don't often use just two photos, it's usually one or three, but my irregular circle cut completely freehand really worked for me, and I was chuffed it turned out so well with the first cut.  I didn't even trim it. The patterned paper was my most favourite from the kit, and I think the B&W photos went really well.

I am not sure Sophie is "My Angel" at the moment.  She has left school, has one more exam to do, and thinks she's going to lie in 'til lunch time between now and September, do nothing in the house, and spend all my money!!  I guess that sounds like most 16 year olds, and I know she'll scream at me when she reads this. Is there a stronger word than "moody", because that's an understatement for this yong lady at the moment.  Anyway she has her prom to look forward to still, and a leaver's assembly she is dancing in, and has to have the latest dress for!

The boys are doing well, al broken bones are healed and cooking seems to be flavour of the month ('scuse the pun!) at the moment.  They both love it, and are preparing apple crumble together as I type this. I hardly get involved, just the occasional question.

My camera is still broken, and I don't have much hope of getting it mended at the moment although I haven't enquired how much it willcost, but I miss it.  I had plenty of photos printed before I went to the GoGo Getaway, so I have no excuses now not to scrap.  Having received my July Scrapagogo kit today, I must find some precious spare time and scrap again.

Be Back Soon

Jx

{Hot and Busy Week}

Here I am again, ages after my last post.  So what have we been up to?

Firstly I broke my digi camera, although my Pa has lent me his.  I haven't tried it it yet.

I've worked hard for the May Scrapagogo kit, and I can't wait to show you my efforts. I was really pleased with them, the kit was really brilliant.

Having suffered the traumas of Justin breaking his elbow for a second time (the other side) a few weeks ago, my Pa in hospital, Elliott then decided to ride his bike up an awkward kerb, and went over the handlebars, banged his head on the grass  verge, and bent his whole wrist back.  It really swoll up and was pretty painful.  It was the bank holiday weekend, and none of us fancied sitting up in A&E for three hours, so we left it and hoped he would be ok. After two days, it didn't get any better, so Sam and Elliott decided to get up at 6am and drive over to A&E, hoping they would be first in the Q.  Elliott came home a couple of hours later with a cast on and 2 breaks in his wrist.  Wow I felt guilty, but to be honest, they had done nothing, and we still had to go back to the hospital the next day to the fracture clinic to have it looked at properly, and a more permanent cast put on.

We got to see the consultant pretty quickly.  He spent 10 seconds with us, and told us it was badly bruised but certainly not broken.  OH!  I questioned him, and he said, well you only see registrars in A&E, and that 's why you get sent to my clinic.  He was the most arrogant man/doctor I have ever met. He didn't even look at the X-ray while we were there, or show us where the breaks had been diagnosed.  I didn't argue, and Elliott was given a wrist support, that sort of Velcro'd around his wrist, and we were permanently dismissed.  I felt let down, and so did Elliott, but we got over it pretty quick. Elliott wore the splint support for two days at school and then gave it up.  He went to play water polo tonight (his new found sport) and was fine!!

My Pa is going great.he was discharged from hospital last week, he seems so much stronger, and I think the steroids seem to sort out a lot of things, but he looks fuller in the face, and much less a hanging skeleton!!  His sight seems fine now, and he's back driving.

I've been working way too hard at work, extra hours and am starting weekend working from next week, as and when I feel like it, but I have so much to fit in. I have finished all my staff appraisals, I wrote them in two days for 10 staff, and felt pretty cool with myself, and hardly stressed.  My staff are still performing well, and that makes me feel satisfied with my job (OMG, am I really enjoying it now!!)

I've probably been overdoing it recently and started to do some gardening in my overgrown garden.  I'm frightened of the toads/frogs and don't have enough strength in my wrists to pull out the weeds, but I spent three days of gardening, made half the garden look fab, and then paid for it all week.  I had to crawl into the house, and lay motionless for about two days.  I even had to take a day off work, I ached and hurt so much, but I look at my garden (Well half of it) and I can't believe I managed to clear it after about 4 years of neglect.  I managed to split lots of plants up, and fill empty spaces.  So far, I haven't bought any new plants, but that will be next, I guess!! I'm desperate to finish it off, and need to build up some energy. 

Today Sam took the boys and friends to the beach. and Sophie and I stayed at home.  I lied all day on the swing seat, and read a really trashy, but enjoyable book.  Sophie revised in the sun all day, she looks so brown now!  She's working so hard, and spent all day studying algebra, and extending brackets!!

I'm finding it hard to scrapbook in this gorgeous weather, so have given up until I get my new June Scrapagogo kit.  My JennieBowlin Kit sits there unused.

I really need to do a bulk order of printing photos to scrap, especially for the GogoGetaway weekend, I really really need some different photos to scrap, I'm fed up with the old ones. I don't have any of last year's photos printed yet.

Sorry I have no photos to show you, but with a broken camera, it's a bit tough.  I hope to get it fixed soon.

See ya !

{Lots to say!!}

I missed my fav Wyverstone crop today for the second month running.  My Pa was taken into hospital on Thursday suffering from a disease called My..(something)....Gravis. I think they have caught it quite quick, but it explains a lot and why he has been tiring so rapidly, had double vision, couldn't chew or raise his arms or have any upper body strength. They are very worried about his respiratory system, and he has to blow into a puffer 6 times a day.  With steroids and immune suppressant drugs, he's making progress.

It's just my luck that visiting at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital appears to have been temporarily suspended due to the Winter Vomiting Virus.  They don't have it on my Pa's ward. but they are preventing non essential visitors from entering the ward.  My sister Lisa, has travelled up from Sussex at a minute's notice to see him over the weekend (Hmm, sort of had to cancel the crop, drat!!) but we were turned away at the door, to our horror, so we went around to his ground floor window, knocked on the window, my Pa opened it, and shoved the phone into Lisa's hand to speak to my brother from OZ who was phoning from Melbourne at some extortionate rate, and we arranged to meet straight away in the cafe just outside his ward.

So Lisa and I had put together a whole bag of goodies from Top Gear Mag, to chocolate bars, Imperial Leather Soap bar, a box of tissues, some bottles of juice etc etc as a surprise, and we spent two hours chatting away in the cafe to our heart's delight.  He began to wane towards the end, and looked very tired.  Both he and my sister swapped notes on electric shock treatments, which sounded like something out of the Nazi war days and how it hurt so much, you felt like thumping the administrator.  My sister said, if it hurts, that's good, cos your nerves are feeling it.  Sounds a very painful way to find out, particularly when those nerves are around your cheekbones!!

Pa seems to be doing well, but he's staying in for quite a while yet, and we'll have to keep sneaking him out of the ward so we can see him.

So although I missed the Wyverstone crop, it was a very good excuse, and I am much happier tonight that Pa was so cheery.

I was really looking forward to doing the class at Wyverstone this week, it is a gorgeous mini book with scalloped edges made by Ifa. It looks really gorgeous, and hopefully I have still have mine reserved.

I have done loads of scrapping this week, and have been really inspired, and done at least 4 LOs for Scrapagogo May kit.  the papers and embellishments are just really really gorgeous.  I am on my 5th LO now,and will probably finish up the majority left of the kit. 

I have piles of Jennie Bowlin kits to start, and all her little monthly projects.  I just need to get photos sorted.  I really desperately need to get some wholesale printing done, especially for my Gogo Getaway weekend, where I will need lots of new ones printed.

The April Scrapagogo kit was very successful, and reached the subscribers last week.  I only managed two LOs for the DT last month, but I was pleased with them, and the first one involved snow!! Yep, it was the Easter Weekend, and we had piles of snow, and I managed some good photos of Sophie in the snow. I just loved the lacy cardstock placed on the black cardstock, it showed up so well.  I then intertwined some ribbon, to give a different effect, and create that black, white and pink colour scheme.  Hand journaling is always important to me, and it's taken me about three years to really get comfortable with it.  Now I don't bat an eyelid. I plan it, use pencilled ruled lies, a rubber, and my neatest writing, but if I make a mistake, I don't fret too much.  It can always be written again.

My second LO from the April Kit, was so different from the first.  It just shows you how versatile this kit is.

I love the colours in this LO. I don't often scrap with red and yellow, but this just seemed to work despite the rainy weather.  We were on our way to a fab day trip to London for Sophie's 16th birthday.  This was a quick snap taken of her friend Roxy and Sophie before boarding the bus.  I used the Gogo scalloped stamps to create the photo frame.  I was so pleased how easy it was to do with just a bit of paper to catch the end of each stamp from protruding beyond the photo.  I covered a chipboard bracket with red paper, and used it plus different scalloped line stamps to enclose my handwritten journalling.  To high light certain words, I drew an oblong around the word, and it just stands it out amongst the other words, and takes the emphasis of you style of writing, particularly if it's a bit scruffy.

I just love buttons and bling.  They have to have been my fav products for about two years now.  I collect buttons by colours, and store them in old Prima flower (milk) bottles, which I owe to the great generosity of two good friends (Thankyou) who sent me plenty of bottles, But I still haven't repaid them, and I owe them their expenses.  As I said buttons please me, and cheer me up, and I love ordering them in a line, and sewing them on one by one, with a great big thread.  I then added a few of the sticky tabs to include a bit of balance in that bottom right hand corner.

Sophie has finished all her practical CASE exams now, PE, dance, drama, French, and needs to buckle down to some serious revision for her more academic subjects.  She has had some fab results in her practicals, As and A*s, so she needs to refocus, and work hard.  She thoroughly enjoyed her drama CASE exam, actually making the examiner laugh so much, he fell off his chair!!  He was a man of senior years, and made it clear it was Sophie that caused it and not the glass of gin he had had for breakfast, so I think he lightened the mood for all the following groups, although many had uncontrollable giggles throughout their performances!!!

Spring has finally sprung, and we had our first BBQ of the year tonight. (We weren't the only ones either.)  The afternoon brought the sound of lawn mowers, wonderful cheers from Carrow Road, as they scored 3-0 against QPR wafting in the wind for the last game at home of the season, Sam scrubbing the BBQ,  and the squeak, squeak of our sun canopied swing lazily swinging while my sister and I chatted away about my Pa, and put the world to rights.  We absorbed some Vitamin D on our bare arms, supped some cold diet coke, and frowned at every boy who entered our garden on a bike and raced into our cabin to play pool with my sons.  It's at these moments that you go through 2 litres of orange squash in two minutes!!

OK.it's bed time for me now.  If you went to Wyverstone today, I hope you had a brill time, I'm jealous, but I did do some important family things, and won't miss the next one for anything, although I note I have stupidly booked hair appointments on that day, which I will need to postpone.

Goodnight.

{Me a Bad Blogger???}

It's a long time isn't it?  Since I last blogged!!  Sorry!

I've been ultra busy, and not particularly up to blogging either, to be quite honest.  Life has been very stressful recently.  Sharing a house with a prima donna who is doing drama, dance and PE practical GCSEs is not enjoyable. My Dining room table is constantly being moved across the floor to make space. I can cope with a French oral exam on Tuesday, that's more my scene.  Sophie has had other professional dance exams to do at her dance school, which have at last finished,and she got just fpour marks off an honours, it's equivalent to GCSE level and I think I heard Sophie say she has now totally finished her course work for her GCSEs, full stop. Thanks God, life has been soooooo stressful. Now we have a load of lines to learn for yet another GCSE drama exam on Thursday, and then she has auditions this Saturday at the Youth Theatre for Peter Pan.

Justin has broken his elbow again, the other side this time, but exactly the same break, it's mending well, and he has taken it in his stride. 

My work is getting very stressful, but I'm sort of enjoying it in a way, my team is performing well, but I hate doing their appraisals this time of year. I'm definately overworked and underpaid, but have done a couple of good courses recently, one in debt negotiation, which is probably the best course I have ever done, and really raised my confidence when trying to eek out £10,000 from a Non Resident Parent, when they haven't paid for their kids for some years. It's some how strangely very satisfying to have that power, but my staff are liking it too, so we are collecting lots of money in for the CSA!!

We have done tons of redecorating in the house over the last few weeks to smarten up the children's rooms ready for when my bro comes to stay.  The kids bathroom has really been poshed up, that I almost feel tempted to have a bath in there, well nearly, but still prefer my own!!

I 've done very little scrapbooking, only Scrapagogo DT work, and even that has ben sketchy, but since yesterday I have my mojo back again, and I did three LOs in one afternoon.  The May kit is just so fab, that I have nearly used it up already, and I am on my fifth LO! The April kit, I think has left the building, and I'll show you a couple of LOs I did with that kit later this week.

I have nothing to show you, not even any new photos, as my digi camera has broken, although I could show you a couple of photos of Sophie I took on her 16th BD.  My DH has agreed to pay for the cost of repair, so I am a very happy bunny!

I am so excited to be off to The GogoGetaway in June. It's in a fab, posh place.  I have a few bits to do as a DT member, which I am honoured to do, and I am really excited to be going.  I could really do with a weekend away, so I can't wait.

I have been spending quite a bit of time studying my family tree.  I've been doing it for years, but have recently had contact with some cousins, probably three times removed by generations.  they are mainly in Australia, or have derived from my Australian roots, and it has been very exciting to talk to them, and discover the same family rumours travel down the different branches of the family. I have accumulated some really fantastic photos of direct ancestors.  A couple of my 3 x greatgrandparents, and a charcloal drawing of my 4 x greatgrandparents.  They must be so much of a likeness in them, because I can really see my mother's brothers in the likeness, and my very distant cousins have said the same of their relatives.

I shall leave you know, still in shock that I have actually updated my blog, and in the unnerving tension and anticipation of when I will update again!!

Have a great weekend.

{Spring Forward, Fall Back}

Did you get it right?  Did you change your clocks forward?  I was good and changed all mine around the house last night before I went to bed.  I woke up this morning, to the sound of the lawnmower!!  My DH had got up very early despite losing an hours sleep, and was mowing the lawn as we had some sun.  After making him a cup of tea and investigating the inside of our large garden shed which has been strangely leaking over the last few weeks, and the snow didn't help, I started to poke around the edge of the felt on the edge of the roof and started criticising what a bad job he had done and no wonder it was leaking, when I actually saw my husband run and hurl himself up a ladder at lightening speed to only hear several expletives and realise that three quarters of the felt that he had nailed on last year had just totally ripped off and blown away!!  No wonder the poor old shed was leaking, we had a good old look for several yards of blown away felt in the surrounding gardens, but no one seemed to have it anywhere.  We had very very windy weather about a month ago, and that must be when it blew away.  So DH has had to abandon decorating and rush to the DIY shop to get more felt, and I am in his good books for discovering why the shed was mysteriously leaking!!

For Sophie's 16 birthday, we all went to London for the day, Sophie took her friend, and we managed spare seats on a coach that my work had organised for the show Dirty Dancing.  We just filled up the empty seats. It was raining while we waited for the coach and I snapped this photo of Sophie and Roxy.  They were so excited, because they were laden with birthday money and were aiming to hit Oxford Street. That wasn't the rest of ours idea of fun, so we decided to go for a pretty classy Lebanese meal on a street adjacent to Oxford Street, and walked into this most amazing underground cavern of a Lebanese come Moroccan Restaurant, it was called "Levant"  It was beautiful inside, there were just candles and cushions everywhere, and pots of water with gorgeous red Gerber flower heads and red rose petals floating in the water.  The boys were so excited, they have truly inherited their father's Lebanese culture of enjoying their food and tasting a little bit of everything and appreciating how food should be presented.  I spent most of my time worrying about the bill, but the food was gorgeous, we had a mezzes, they did a fab vegetarian one, and I was amazed at what the boys ate, and of course the olives went first.  They were served with a superb "Levant" mint cocktail, which contained things like rose water and 7 UP!  We came out of the restaurant with very full tummys and a very light wallet, but didn't regret it a bit.  Sam has wanted to take his family to a proper Lebanese restaurant in London for years.

The girls were still totally absorbed by Oxford Street shopping, so we rushed off to the Museum district in South Kensington, and it was at the point that I knew I had over done it, and would have gratefully sat in a wheelchair, but I carried on with Sam supporting me, tripping here and there, just so the boys could get to the IMAX cinema, and I would get an hour's sit down.   The rest of the day was just rushed, we'd been charging around on the tube left right and centre, and the boys thought cramming into a Central line train near Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon was fun!!!! They thought that being so squashed that you could actually lift your legs up and wiggle them because you were so squashed was fun!!!  I didn't.  We finally picked up the girls, who were by then spent out, and arrived back in Theatreland to pick up our coach early, and managed to spend plenty of time lounging around on the sofas in Costa Coffee!

The girls were restless and totally taken by the Dirty Dancing signs outside the theatre and posed loads, until one horrible little brother got in the way!! We were all pleased to get on the coach and have a three hour rest on the way home, my legs really needed it. Anyway a good day was had by all, and we must do it again, but stick to the free things like the museums and not the expensive restaurants.

I must get back to finishing off a scrapping LO.  It's two o'clock and no-one wants to eat lunch, everyone's stomach are confused by the hour change, and even the sun is higher and warmer.  Perhaps Spring really is here!.  I will get to show you the snow shots tomorrow, I promise!

{It's The Weekend}

A tough day for me today, because I missed going to my favourite crop, but it's a 50 min drive, and that is not a good idea at the moment.  So I had to just pretend it wasn't happening today.  I really gave my scraproom a clearout yesterday, it had been stacked full of bits and bobs from Justin's room while Sam had spent the week decorating it, and only the real easy nice stuff got put back in his room and the grot left in my scrap room!!  So that was soon swiftly removed byy me and rehoused, and I had to keep walking back into my scrap room to sense the cleaness and organisation in there.  This totally motivated me and tonight I have managed a DT LO for Scrapagogo April Kit, but I can't show you that for a while, but I can show you some LOs that I did a while ago.

March's Scrapagogo kit was all Spring trees and leaves, and me thinking about "growth", so poor Elliott, who feels shorter than his class mates got a Scrap page done about that, but on a positive note, that he will still grow and get taller ! I loved using the tree rubons over the photo, they went on like a dream, and the stickers I used for the title, I can't remember how many times I had to re - place them back on the page, because I couldn't get the positioning right, and with a pair of tweezers they were so easy to stick on and off several times.  I used lots of bits from the Go2pieces kit on this LO, all the little brass elements, which all help to make a boyish LO.

Trees and leaves, also remind me of my other great passion, my research into my family tree, and I often while a way a few hours in the library or family history centre checking up on my ancestors, and often forget about my immediate family tree. So I did this heritage page showing the beginning of my part of my "Alston"  Family Tree.  This is my parent's wedding, with my two twin cousins as their bridesmaids, they are 8 years older than me, Daphne, the bridesmaid on the right, was the friend that came with Mum from Australia in the 1950s both as trained nurses, and worked here, except Daphne went back home, and Mum didn't.  I'm still in contact with Daphne, and met her last time I was in Sydney, Australia in Jan 2005. The other photo, is 1967, at my brother's Christening, he is the one who has the burden of carrying on with the Alston name, and producing a son!  (Yes bro, if you are reading this!) I cut some of the patterned paper out to trail over the photo to give it that tree feel.  I must do more heritage photos, I have stacks of photos of my Mum coming over on the boat from Australia to England, and all the lovely 1950 ballgowns and parties she had.   

I then did another really quick one, using the sticky labels up to make my title, and a photo of me and the kids taken on Mother's Day 2007, on a cold windy day on the coast. I wanted to try cutting the patterned paper feestyle just with a pair of scissors, and I thought it worked quite well.

The last LO I did with the March Scrapagogo kit was a bright zesty LO of Sophie at just fifteen, it's spring like and was taken on Easter Monday 2007, which was a much more suitable time of year, and a pleasant warm and sunny one.  I used all the acrylic lime green flowers, and cut wavy strips of paper and cardstock.  The paper was double sided, so you get more for your money if you chop it up and use both sides, ijust cut it freehand, and copied some of the waves on the lime green paper.  Unfortunately, after I had assembled this LO, but not stuck it down, I spilt a cup of coffee over the bottom right corner. I eventually managed to replace the paper and cardstock, but had to rearrange the stripes.  I look at it now, and it doesn't matter but at the time, I was so annoyed that I couldn't put a certain bit of paper on the LO.  I cut the butterflies freehand, and decorated them with the most beautiful brads I have ever seen they are truly gorgeous.  I think I used three on this LO.

So that's all the LOs I have done with March's kit, but I have plenty of bits left to do several more.

OK, Good night.  Tomorrow I'll share my snowy pics, and some photos I took in London on a day trip for Sophie's BD.

{I'm Still Here}

I haven't abandoned my blog totally, I just needed to take some time out and rest following a minor op over Easter.  I feeling fine now, but have been a bit wobbly and very tired following the General Anaesthetic.  I'm getting over it now, but have felt particularly tired.

Lots has happened, Sophie celebrated her 16th birthday at the beginning of March.  She was so excited, but unfortunately had to spend all day at school and then at dancing all night,. but she did make her excuses and leave before the end of the class.  The boys and I spent most of the evening making her a chocolate biscuit cake, a family tradition at BDs, although we haven't done one for a while, so Sophie was totally shocked when she saw the cake and was so pleased when she got home so late to have further surprises.

So Easter came and went in this household, me being cooked for, after my op and lazying around, watching TV, and sleeping.  Easter weekend brought us loads of snow, the kids enjoyed it, and Sophie wanted me to do a photo shoot of her in the snow.  I manged some beautiful shots. But I need to sort through them, and hopefully show you a couple tomorrow.

I'm going to blog more regularly again now, and I am sure I have quite a few LOs to share, that I did last month, which I haven't shared with you yet, but I don't know who I'm talking to though, because you've probably all deserted my blog by now.

Goodnight if you are reading this.  It's 1.30 in the morning, and of course we lose an hour's sleep this weekend, but it's worth sacrificing for lighter weather in the evenings.

Talk to you tomorrow.

{Happy Mother's Day}

Firstly I actually fell asleep at the computer last night, and I couldn't go ahead with all my uploads on my blog. It was only just gone midnight, quite early for me, but I guess driving 80 miles or so yesterday really tired me out, it was a very sudden tiredness that just swept over me, quite scary really, I just wanted to type the last sentence of my blog entry last night, and I just could not keep my eyes open.

Today is Mother's day, firstly I was awoken with a cup of coffee, a large bunch of flowers and a large case of diet coke!  So thoughtful, as I am definitely not eating chocolates at the moment.  I was then dragged out of bed, had my makeup done by my daughter who also straightened my hair, and chose what clothes I was going to wear.  DH then took some great Mother's Day shots of me and the kids and then took us out for lunch.   We were all having a great laugh, and everyone was taking photos of each other, so I have a great bunch of new photos, which I must upload,  and get printed so I can finally scrap some new photos.  Sam was really acting the fool, so I have some great photos to bribe him with, and of course scrapbook.  I really enjoyed us all going out together As a family.  It happens less and less now the children are getting older, but today everyone was in a good mood, and we had great fun.  Sophie took a couple of photos of Sam and I outside the pub, and I thought this one was really good of us, even though I look very windswept!

An afternoon was then spent lying on the sofa watching High School Musical.  I wasn't over impressed with it, I think I prefer the second, which I saw previously.  It's very overacted, and I don't think I liked any of the songs in it.  Give me "Fame", anyday!

Sophie has a singing competition next week in which she is singing a song from Grease.  The one Rizzo sang.  She sings it very powerfully, and I can't wait to hear her sing it.  Her recent experience in her School musical has really boosted her confidence.  Unfortunately her group singing entry clashes with a drama assessment sh has on 8 March, and when we discovered this yesterday and she broke the news to her dance/singing teacher, it did not go down very well at all.  She was accused of letting everyone down.  I'm going to try and rush her from one to the other, if I can get exact times for each performance, but at the moment, both events start at 4.15!

So yesterday at the Wyverstone crop, we were challenged with a sketch. I did have to alter mine slightly, because I didn't have the photos to really go, but I was chuffed to use a Jenni Bowlin kit, which I hadn't used up until now, I love the papers all together, and the little month squares are fab to cut into a circle or scallop shape, as I did to show the date.  There were also daily scalloped shapes, but when I got home and checked on the calendar, Nov 5th in 2006, was actually a Sunday and not a Saturday, so I might have to change that, and my poor memory did not serve me right, when I was doing the LO. The chipboard letters are Scenic Route.

The class at the crop was just to use the Bazzill Cardstock with the perforated holes in it.  Sorry I can't remember what it's called, but Lorraine and Janice both did examples of how it could be used. I just backed mine with a bright pink cardstock, and decided to do a black, white, and pink LO.  I love this combo of colours.  I used a doodle template to do all the doodling.  I'm really pleased with this LO, it's going to be one of my favs, but my DH didn't like it as much as the "Big Hugs" one. 

{Something To Share}

Here are the three LOs I did today.  This Lo was influenced by Heather Keller, but a scraplift is how I get started when I haven't scrapped in a while, or have no inspiration.  Once I've done that LO, then I'm all fired up, and ready to do more. I've used some old Cherry Arte papers on this LO of my gorgeous and then, a new born baby.  I love how she is resting her head on her arms, and you can her little fingers.  So delicate.  I used another older bit of stash were Heidi Swapp's star Fuzzy rubons .  They helped to depict the dreaminess of the LO. I've managed to use lots of old sticker letters

I am feeling so tired now, that I'm going to upload the other two tomorrow.

{Wyverstone Crop}

Had a fantastic time at Wyverstone today.  I got three LOs done, lots of chatting and catching up, and did a tiny bit of shopping, scalloped card, bit of patterned paper (do I actually need anymore?) some Scenic Route Chipboard circles, that I already have, but I will actually use them, now I have a spare pack (such a crazy idea, but I am sure plenty of others are as crazy as me) and some all dressed up brads (which I already have a pack of, so now I can use them!!!!)

I picked Julie up on the way, and we talked loads about family trees, my favourite subject, and had a great conversation, so the journey seemed really quick, and I'm so pleased she didn't have to stand on railway platforms in this windy weather.

Janice and Lorraine of Scrapagogo run the crop so well, and they print a really fab monthly newsletter with sketches, challenges, and plenty of ideas to use your own stash.  I did spend quite a bit of time doing my LOs today, I seemed to struggle with speed, mainly becuse I am packing my bags in a different way, and a much better way, but I am not used to where I pack everything, and I get frustrated trying to think where I've put something.  I also forgot totake all my embellishments, bling etc, but was lucky enough to buy some in Lorraine's sale. I perhaps need to write down what to pack where in my bags so I always do it the same, and I would work much quicker.  I was frustrated that I still had to scrap photos that are old and I've scrapped before, I MUST order some new ink and do a big online order of photos, then I will be raring to go.

I finally managed to get on Jenni Bowlin's site tonight, after trying unsucessfully throughout the day, her papercrafting kit is gorgeous this month, but it sold out the first day, I managed to get the add on kit, and my paper kit and project kit are already reserved, so more stash on it's way.  I love the little project kit she did with a small accordian booklet with soft paster colours and B&W photos of all the women in her family, when they were young with a little explanation of who they were/are.  I love this idea, and I shall use it to show photos I have recently collected a lot of photos of my ancestors, and this would be a grand way for my children to get a bit familiar with their names, and their look, and learn something about their heritage, so I shall really look forward to doing that project, and sit it on the mantlepiece, or somewhere where they'll pick it up and read it.

I can't believe it's Mother's Day tomorrow, it sems way too early, I ve only just got over our anniversary in January, Valentine's in February, Now Mother's Day, and Easter in three weeks, it's crazy. but apparently we have to blame the "moon". I was ushered outof Sophie's room when I got home, so I guess something is planned for tomorrow, but I'll be happy with a cup of cofee in bed, and three wriggly teenagers snuggling up to me in our warm water bed, chatting about the day ahead, it's something they have started to do at the weekends and holidays, and I enjoy those moments with them.

I'll post this now, but I'll be back when I have scanned my three LOs I did today.