Two more sleeps

I can't believe there are only 2 sleeps until Christmas Day. I think everything is ready. Cards written and sent, presents bought and wrapped, holiday food all bought and reindeer food all ready for scattering on the lawn. Going to hopefully make mince pies tomorrow with the children (as has become the tradition on Christmas Eve), track Santa on NORAD and of course leave the customary mince pie and drink (sometimes milk, sometimes beer and sometimes wine) for the big man.

Only thing spoiling the season is that we have poorly people in the house again. Wayne & I stayed up Friday night to watch The Thomas Crown Affair on TV which didn't finish until 1.20am. Half an hour before it finished Lara woke up and started being sick and did so until 4am. Needless to say none of us slept. Steven has a sore throat and is definitely not 100% but is soldiering on and Christopher woke up this morning with a sore throat and feels sick. I've got another sore throat too! We were supposed to be going out to look at the lights in a nearby town tonight and then to KFC for tea but that has had to be cancelled. Really hope everyone is better by Tuesday.

Friday was Mojo Challenge night. We got to lift the mega talented Keisha Campbell a Garden Girl for Two Peas as well as a DT member for Making Memories. We decided to give our LOs a Christmas twist. Here's Keisha's LO and here's mine - Lara as usual. (New Year Resolution : Scrap more photos of the boys)

Oh nearly forgot to say, Lara's party was a huge success and here's a few of photos from the big day.

Amazing What Some Buttercream And Betty Crocker Ready Made Fudge Topping Can Do

Well, after yesterdays trauma of baking the cake I have now spent the morning decorating it! After piping copious amounts of butter cream and Betty Crocker's ready made fudge topping on it and adding details with ready-to-roll regal icing it now looks fab (If I do say so myself)! I am actually really pleased with it - although I dread to think what it will taste like.

The decorating wasn't without problems though! It took ages to get the butter cream to the right consistency, I used the wrong size nozzle to start with and then my piping bag decided to split! Luckily my Mum came to the rescue with some Lakeland Disposable Icing Bags. They were great and did the job. So here's the finished cake all ready for the party. (Must make mental note next year to get Mr Tesco to make the cake)

Last night's scraplift on Mojo Holder was a lift of a LO by Jane aka Emnol . I used photos of Lara with her Halloween Pumpkin. Here's Jane and my LO

So very busy

Sorry, I've been so very busy recently that I've not had chance to update my blog since the beginning of the month. It's Lara's birthday on Sunday and what with organising her party and getting ready for Christmas I just don't know which way I'm turning.

This afternoon I've been baking the birthday cake. I have never baked a birthday cake for the children before preferring instead to buy one. Anyway, I had a mad-brain idea a few weeks to make the cake this year and bought off of Ebay one of those pre-formed cake tins in the shape of a dog.

So I set about making the cake this afternoon. Firstly I should say that the cake tin called for 1kg of cake mixture! 1kg!?! My little electric mixer really worked hard, so much so that it overheated. Anyway, cake mixture got mixed, eventually, cake mixture was put in cake tin and tin was put in the oven. Well after the stated 25 mins it still wasn't cooked. After 30 mins it still wasn't cooked. After 35 mins it appeared cooked only to be put back into the over for another ten minutes when I discovered the middle wasn't cooked! Finally it was cooked right through but when I went to get it out of the tin it had stuck in several places and has had to be pieced together. I'm sure when I've covered it in butter cream tomorrow it will look fab. Although what it will taste like I don't know! Christopher walked into house, sniffed the air and said " Ewww what's that smell? Smells like burnt toast!" Aghhhhhhhhhh, having convinced myself it would be OK I'm now having doubts, but can't face making another one so it will have to do. I'm sure the teeny tiny party guest won't complain. But the words 'Never again' spring to mind.

Despite being so busy I have managed to keep on top of my Mojo Holder LOs and did one last night which goes on the web site tomorrow. Last week we scraplifted Julia (hippo2go). Here's Julias and my LO. I loved Julia's LO. I'm not sure if the patterned background is fabric but if I had had suitable fabric I would have tried to incorporate a fabric background in my LO, but I didn't, so I couldn't. My LO was of the gorgeous trees and grounds at Wrest Park. I have so many photos from our afternoons spent there.

My LO on Mojo Holder tonight is called 'My Nosey Pumpkin'. That's all I'm saying so you'll have to pop over to Mojo Holder later to have a look.

Pinch Punch First of the Month

Pinch punch first of the month ............... but gosh, was I a bad blogger last month? Over a month without a single post! Life just seems to have got in the way of blogging and I've hardly been online at all over the last few weeks.

I'll start with Mojo Holder. I've done 4 LOs since last blogging.

Mojo #36 I didn't manage to do! I was really disappointed because it was lift of a Jane Dean LO. I really admire Jane Dean's work but life just got in the way and I couldn't complete the LO on time.

Mojo #37 was a lift of a great LO by Nura Keif . Nura's LO is on the top and mine below. I've scrapped this picture of Lara dressed as an angel before with these papers but love the papers so much I thought I'd use them again. The papers are Scenic Route and the scan doesn't do them justice - they are really gold and lush IRL.

Mojo #38, a lift a page by Carrie Harville. I used Scenic Route papers again and scrapped photos of Steven rolling down a slope at Wrest Park. Don't know why but whenever the children see a grassy bank they have to roll down it!

Mojo #39 was a page by Terrie Farrell . I tried to use some older supplies on this LO so pulled out some Urban Lily papers that I've had for a while. I will be on a serious stash-diet in the New Year.

And finally, Mojo #40 which only went live last night was lift of a LO by Anita Mundt. I've wanted to scrap this picture of Lara on her first ever trip to a beach for ages (well since the photo was taken four years ago actually) and this gave me the opportunity.

Apart from the Mojo Holder LOs I've not done much scrapping but I did put this LO together at my local crop. I really, really, REALLY like these BasicGrey 'Mellow' papers. they scream 'Autumn' and had to use them straight away.

What else is new? I've signed up for Shimelle's 'Journal your Christmas'. I have no idea when I will do this or even if I will do it, but it seemed a good idea to sign up at the time!

I'm taking part in the UKScrappers advent swap again this year. I opened my first parcel today - and nice it was too - but I'll leave photos of that until another day.

I promise to update this more regularly this month - wouldn't want you logging off.

Did you miss me? Did you noticed I'd gone?

We spent last week at our usual haunt in Norfolk. We had a great week walking on the beach, spending time together and just chillin'. I took loads of photos and I'll try and post some of them later in the week when I've sorted them out.

Whilst I was away I was tagged by Kelly. I've never been tagged before - it's a bit scary! The rules are that if you are tagged you must: 1. Link to your tagger and post these rules. 2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird. 3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them). 4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs. Hmm, so here are my facts:

1. I used to work for a high street bank, and on one occasion the branch I was working at was raided by armed gunmen.
2. I used to teach line dancing
3. I love the smell of two stroke engine oil - conjures up memories of holidays at Skegness when I was a child and afternoons spent on the motor boats on the boating lake.
4. I don't drink tea or coffee.
5. When I met my husband he was in drag - it was a fancy dress party.
6. I suffer from mild claustrophobia - The Dartford Tunnel - aghhhhhhh
7. I can not live without chocolate.

I don't know 7 bloggers well enough to tag and the few that I do know have already been tagged so if you have read this consider yourself tagged.

Whilst we were away 2 Mojo Challenges went live. Challenge #34 was a lift of a great LO by Fiona Beckman . This was Fiona's fabby LO:

and this was mine:

Challenge #35 was a lift of a LO by Candice Reszko. This was Candy's cute LO:

and this was mine:
I am really, really enjoying Mojo and discovering lots of scrapbookers each week whose work I've never seen before. They are so inspiring. Please have a look at the Mojo Holder blog - you'll be glad you did.

Where has time gone?

I can't believe that it will be school half term holiday next week. Have the children really been back at school that long? Lara came home the other day with a laminated picture of an apple on which was printed 'This apple award is awarded to Lara for Team Work'. Each month the school teaches the children about a certain value and children who demonstrate that value get given an apple award in assembly. Lara and one of her class mates had worked so hard together to tidy up a mess which they hadn't themselves created that they had been presented with apple awards - the first children in the reception class to get one. How proud am I?

Not a lot else has been happening here. So far I've not taken part in much of the UKScrappers cyber crop. The cyber crop this time has been spread over three weekends with this coming weekend being the last. There have been loads of inspiring classes but I've only managed two - both of them designed by my Mojo Holder team mates - Emma and Angie.

I really loved doing Emma's class which used ribbon. I've got so much ribbon but can never think of interesting ways to use it (there are only so many bows you can tie - right?) and this class gave me the opportunity to dig into the mountain and actually use some of it. This was my LO:

Angie's class let me use up loads, and loads, and loads .......... and loads of buttons. I bought a box of Papermania buttons a couple of years ago and have been gradually using them but this LO really ate into them. But, as I love using buttons I didn't mind at all. This was my LO:

It was also Mojo Challenge night on Friday. We lifted a LO by Emine Pala - not a scrapper I had come across before but one whose work is fabulous. She's one heck of a great scrapper. This was Emine's LO:

and this, was mine using scrummy Scenic Route:

Think that's it - bye bye from Blog Land - come back soon.

Did you guess who the UKScrapper that Mojo Holder lifted last week was going to be? It was the mega talented Scrapdolly aka Karen. This was Karen's beautiful LO:

and this was my LO:

I know my LO lacks the sophistication of Karen's LO but I was reasonably happy with my effort.

Sunday afternoon we decided to go for a walk at Wrest Park. It's an English Heritage property with gorgeous gardens where you can walk, the children can let off steam and you can explore hidden corners. Some of the trees had started to loose their autumn leaves and the children had great fun playing amongst them and finding conkers. Of course I took some photos! I was really please with these photos and will be scrapping them soon:

Well, I think that's all from Blog Land today, catch you another day.

I managed to complete this weeks weekly challenge on UKScrappers today. I think I've mentioned that one of my New Years resolutions was to do more of the weekly challenges and up until we went away in August, I had managed to do them all. Unfortunately from then until today I hadn't done any more. Well I've decided I better start again, so I did this LO of Lara dressed and posing as "Snow White" ready for a firends fancy dress birthday party.


The challenge was to (a) use a Disney song or film as your title, (b) use fancy edge scissors or a stamp, (c) use Autumn Colours and (d) use 4 of something eg papers, brads, photos etc. I managed to include all the elements and upload before the deadline of Sunday evening.

Tonight is the start of the Birthday Cyber Crop on UKScrappers. I'm hoping to join in with some of the classes, etc..

Tonight is also challenge night on Mojo Holder. Don't forget to pop along and have a look at the LOs that us on the DT have come up with and perhaps have a go yourself. Mojo Holder now has a forum too where anyone can join in with chat - why not check it out.

All About Eve

I was really thrilled this week to be asked to be a guest on the All About Eve Blog and yesterday my LO went live. The Eves are such a super talented group of ladies and two of my fav scrappers - Maria (Ria) and Jakey are amongst them. I was really nervous at first about accepting the invite because I very, very, very rarely (I mean 1 maybe 2 LOs in the last 4+ years) scrap myself. However the theme this week was music and I was able to scrap about my love of iTunes without actually needing to include a photo of me. This was my LO.



There is actually a sheet of BG Obscure lurking behind that transparency although you'd never know.

Friday was new challenge day on Mojo Holder. We were able to lift a page by Emily Falconbridge . This was Emily's page

and this was my effort - not entirely happy with it. Think I should have added something else to the right hand side in particular.

Next week we're lifting a very talented UKScrapper who I had the pleasure of spending a weekend scrapping with a couple of years ago. Not only is she an innovative scrapper but such a lovely lady too.

I had plans this week of getting a lot of LO done - Mojo LOs, UKScrappers cybercrop mystery kit and starting the UKS weekly challenges again but I can't seem to get my butt in gear. Hope the mojos not gone walkies again!! :(

Steven makes the grade!

Today was Steven's karate grading. He is now a 4th kyu and the proud wearer of a purple and white belt. I was so proud of him. He really takes the gradings in his stride and doesn't appear to be at all nervous. I would be if I had to stand up in front of 50-60 people and perform. Here's a couple of photos - they're not great because I was quite a way away from the action and we weren't allowed to use flash photography. Here he is doing his stuff,


and here he is collecting his freshly stamped license from the examiner.

Last night was challenge night on mojoholder. We lifted a page by Kimmy Sonksen. This was Kimmy's LO

and this was my version.

Please pop along to Mojo Holder and look at all the teams LOs.

Mojo Challenge #29 went live on Friday. We got to scraplift a LO by Kimber McGray . Yet again I wasn't particularly happy with my LO (I think my mojo is playing hide 'n' seek - Huh, but I'm a MojoHolder !!??!!). Anyway, this was Kimbers LO,

and this was my version. The photo is of Steven and was taken at Weymouth last month.

I've just finished my LO for this weeks challenge (#30) and am pleased to report that I'm much happier with the result this week. We got to lift a great page from a scrapper from the UK this time so please pop along to Mojo Holder this Friday to see all the design teams LOs, and don't forget to have a look at last Friday's LOs too.

My little girls gone to school!

Lara started school today. She seems so little in her uniform and I wonder where the last four years or so have gone. She didn't seem at all worried about going and happily went off to sit on the carpet for registration after giving me a quick kiss and a hug. There were twelve little ones started today, then another six at the beginning of next week and another six a few days later. 24 in total - a nice number - not to many. When I collected her she wasn't bursting with enthusiasm to tell me what she'd been up to but I did manage to find out that she's played in the sand (and had been allowed to take her shoes and socks off to do so), done some painting, played with the dough, ridden on the trikes and been read a story about someone who had lots of vegetables! I asked her if she was looking forward to going again tomorrow and she said she was so everything seems good.

Last night was new challenge night on Mojoholder . We lifted a LO by Jamie Harper - a CK Hall of Fame winner. I really struggled with my LO this week (even though the LO we were lifting was stunning) and nearly didn't submit it 'cos I really wasn't happy with it. But I did, and here it is. The photos were taken at Portland Bill during our recent holiday to Dorset. Wayne, Steven and Lara climbed the 153 steps to the top of the lighthouse! Chris and I decided instead to stay at ground level and take in the view ........... and of course take lots of photos!

This was Jamie's gorgeous original LO.

It's a new challenge day on Mojoholder tomorrow and I realised I never uploaded last weeks LO. We scraplifted a beautiful LO by Cheryl Mezzetti . This was my version.

20 Years ago today

20 years ago today Wayne and I were married. I know it's a cliché but it really does only seem like yesterday - well perhaps not yesterday, more like a couple of years ago - certainly not 20years ago!

I can remember the day so well. How the youngest pageboy, Mark, who admittedly was only about 18mths old, threw a tantrum on the morning of the wedding and refused to wear his outfit and ended up going to Church in the black velvet suit trousers and a T-shirt. How the photographer turned up half an hour early and I wasn't dressed. How the sun streamed in through the church windows when we were saying our vows and the sweat was pouring off Wayne's forehead. How it poured with rain when we were having the group photos taken and everyone had to make a mad dash back into the church to shelter until it stopped. How my childhood best fried Mar was there all the was from Oz. How my Nan despite not being in the best of health did all the flowers in the Church and at the reception and even grew some flowers from seed especially for the day. How we had our first dance at the reception to Hughie Lewis & the News' 'Happy to be Stuck with you'! LOL. How we got to the hotel on our wedding night trying desperately not to look like newly weds and as I lent over to sign the book a shower of confetti fell from my head onto the open pages! It was definitely the best day of my life but over all too quickly.

So Wayne, thank you for the last 20years. The next 20 are going to be just as good - if not better. I love you with all my heart and always will. x x x x

Back to School

Today was the boys first day back at school and the first day at their new schools. We have a three tier school system here - lower, middle and upper schools and in our rural area they are all located in different nearby towns or villages. So today Christopher started at the Upper School in one village and Steven at the Middle School in a neighbouring town. They were both obviously slightly nervous but I was really pleased when they got home to find that they had both had a good day - in fact Steven was positively euphoric! I hope they are both as happy this time next week!


Next week it will be Lara's turn. She starts in the reception class at the Lower School next week and is so looking forward to it - she keeps asking me "how many sleeps is it 'til I go to school". Whilst I know she's ready to start school and know she's going to make lots of new friends and discovering lots of new things. I know I'm going to miss her like crazy. It's going to be hard to get used to not having a child at home during the day after always having a child here for the last 13yrs. However, If one more person asks me what I'll do when all the children are at school, I'm gonna' thump them! What do they think I'm going to do? The same as I do now only quicker and bit easier! Just because I work from home people forget I do actually have a job too (albeit part-time) and think that when the children are at school I'll be sitting around all day twiddling my thumbs!!! I ask you?