Blog Makeover

Oh my! Oh my!! Isn't it lovely?? Shimelle has done such a brilliant job on this for me and I'm so honoured to be one of only 5 people from the 'Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers' class that got a makeover like this. For once I was quick off the mark for putting my name down for stuff. Unlike normal, when I'm usually about 3 weeks too late!

So, I asked Shimelle to make it look more 'website-y' and less 'bloggy' and I think she has managed to do that really well. I wanted nice clean lines and a not-too-cluttered look. Lovely, lovely, lovely!! Now you can see my 'about page' and my 'fat to fit' page tabs on the Right hand side, along with ways to contact and connect with me. I'm mostly on Facebook but just recently joined this thing they call Twitter. So I'm still getting to grips with that! Also, Shimelle has handily (and very neatly) listed all the classes, meme's and communities that I'm involved in. I'll be adding more as I join and take-part too.... if I can find out how to resize all the little logo's.

I am soooo happy with the end result! A big "Thank you!" to Shimelle for working so hard and putting up with my rather large amount of questions and modifications. It's brilliant!!

So what do you think?? Come on, be honest!!

100!!

Welcome to my 100th post! Ok, so I don't really have a reason to post today.... other than the fact that this IS the 100th post and I figured you might want to have a look at this:

Fancy this?? It's got some retired Stampin' Up! papers (double sided), some random cardstock, Rouge de Garance rub-ons, an 8x8 album, a random selection of buttons, some retired Stampin' Up! ribbon, 3 packs of letters, a brand new and unopened pack of American Crafts papers, a Stampin' Up! ink pad in Soft Suede and a set of Stampin' Up! stamps from this year's Sale-a-bration. I tried to coordinate colours, but I can't guarantee it's a good match as I'm useless at matching colours properly. However, I thought that the colours mostly matched what was in the American Crafts paper pack. So hopefully you can find some use for it!!

Entries for this giveaway will close on Sunday 8th May and I'll announce the winner on Monday 9th.

So if you'd like to get your hands on this pile of yummy stuff then here's what you have to do.... Click on 'Follow' and then leave a comment. Well actually, comments are optional but as I love reading them it would be nice!! Tell me what you would do with these items. Anything specific you can see yourself creating? Would this challenge you at all, or is it what you would normally pick out for a crafting session??

Good luck!

Do's and Don'ts of blog writing

Over on Shimelle's class yesterday the prompt was all about what NOT to post on your blog. Reading the prompt this morning I found it to be highly informative and I was pleased to see that for the most part I don't do most of the stuff she was warning about. Things like:

Don't make your readers nod off
Don't turn your blog into a whingefest
Don't forget to credit your inspiration or sources
Don't post just for the sake of posting. Rambling on about nothing in particular does not make great reading.
Don't write with your emotions in control. You could regret it later.

etc, etc.

 I thought I was doing ok with all of them as for the most part I'm only posting when it's important (to me) or if I think my readers would be interested. I read on a bit further.... and then it hit me. One of the final points was "Having too much to write" and subsequently making multiple uses of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!! LOL. Oh dear, this is where I fail completely. I am a serial !!! user. I got the bug baaaaaaad. I sometimes look at what I'm typing and think "oh my!!!! I'm on the happy juice again!!". LOL.

I think my problem is that typing just doesn't have the vocal nuances that speech has. It's difficult to stress certain words or get the inflection and intonation absolutely correct. Other than higlighting specific words in bold, but then I'd be highlighting my whole post because I'm just super-excited about everything. Which wouldn't work. At. All. And so, I hide in the refuge of the exclamation mark. A little too much.

So the question I have for you today.... how do you get off Cloud Extra-Extra-Happy!!!!! and back to the real world where people talk normally without going Extra-Extra-Boring?? There's got to be a way of reducing the !!!'s without reducing my sense of excitement (or stress) in the post. I've got to find a way because if I don't my SHIFT and 1 buttons are going to stop working soon!

Top 5.... posts!

Ok, today I'm going to start with saying "Today Shimelle has asked us to look at...." Only because it's difficult to introduce this topic any other way. At least I can't think of any other way to introduce it! Anyway, I'm having a little catch up session with the class because I'm procrastinating with the masses of photos I'm supposed to be Scrapbooking for the album I have been commissioned to do. Let me say this, as much as I enjoy scrapping.... it is a completely different kipper when you have to do it 'to order' or 'to a deadline'. Suddenly my mojo has fled the building and taken inspiration with it. I'm worried the the whole album is going to be plain, boring and very dull. So here I am, procrastinating! I am very very very good at procrastinating. Ask my Mother. So....

Today (okay a couple of days ago, actually.... but I'm good at procrastinating aren't I?!) Shimelle asked us to look at our blog and analyse which 5 posts we loved. Which ones got the creative juices flowing? Which ones got the comments going and discussion happening? Five. Hmmmm, I'm not sure I'd come up with that many!! Let me go back over the blog posts and see what I can come up with....

Oh yes, here's one! Handbag Envy. It was one of my early posts when I first started blogging. It very accurately described my view on handbags at the time! However, a while later I revisited the topic and blogged this post. This is my current handbag. A bit bright and in your face, but I luuuurve it!

I'm still amazed at how my life has changed soooo much in the past few years! And I'm loving the fact that this blog has charted that change even though I only blogged sporadically during that time.

Another post I did was inspired by a prompt from the last time I did a class by Shimelle. She knows how to get the most out of you! In fact, I think I need to hire her as my personal inspiration. Hmmm, that might be a little expensive! Still, I love the results when she gets me thinking about the mundane!

I love blog hops, don't you? Being able to see everyone's posts on a particular topic or crafting technique? I'm not sure if blog hops are something just crafters do or not. Afterall, I don't ever recall having seen a blog hop on the topic of  "Far Left politics and it's effect on today's society". I took part in a blog hop to commemorate Elvis' birthday. Not that I'm an Elvis fan, but I am a musician... or rather I was!

Lastly, in a blog full of really random posts... nothing is more random than LEGO. Or rather my husband's love of all things building-blocky and multicoloured!

Hmmm, 5 posts that I enjoyed writing. They're all.. completely. random. Does that say something about me? For someone who started off blogging to keep friends and family in the loop and then progressed to blogging about crafting; it seems weird to me that not one of those posts are about crafting or family life. Is it weird?

Leave me comment please! I need some pepping up and love how special comments make me feel. (I'm not going to go into WHY I need pepping up... that would just open up a whole can of worms!!)

WOYWW and thinking about blogoversaries

Gooooooooood Moooorrrrrning Wednesday! Yup, WOYWW is back again and I'm playing along with Julia at the Stamping Ground. Sorry I didn't do so last week, but although there was lots on my Workdesk, I just didn't have time to share. Sometimes that happens I guess. Mind you, I don't really have time today either but I didn't want to miss it again... last week felt wrong. Really really wrong.

So, today on my desk is my preparation for tonight's class. I'm so excited! Granted, I haven't had the uptake I was hoping for but still, it's started! And we all know that from small acorns, mighty oaks grow! Here, have a look....

I'm loving the colour combo. It's Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red... both Stampin' Up colours. Well, what else would it be? D'oh! I *think* in Stampin' Up! colours nowdays. In fact, a while ago I was trying to describe the colour of a car to Himself. I'd seen it driving on the motorway and thought it was really fab and I quite fancy having one in that colour myself. The only problem was that when he asked me to describe it, all I could come up with was 'Pear Pizzazz'!! The blank look that crossed his face was pure class and I ended up getting out a piece of cardstock just to show him what I meant. Comprehension Dawned. Am I sad or just sad? LOL.

Yesterday I was discussing Blogoversaries with someone in Shimelle's 'Beyond Blogging' class and realised that I'm coming up for my One Hundredth post. It's taken ages to get to that figure because I've always been such a sporadic blogger. So, as I'm blogging more regularly now, I'm expecting to get to that magic 100 sometime later this week or early next week. What would you think to having a Giveaway for that post? I'm going to have a rummage in my vast collection of stash and I'll come up with a goodie bag for a lucky commenter. Does that sound like a good idea? Any particular sort of stash that would appeal to you? I'm sure I've got papers, ink, ribbon and maybe some stamps that could go to a good home. Anything else that you'd like to see in there?? Let me know and I'll have a look to see if I've got it!!

Leave a comment please so I can feel special! Who doesn't like to feel special? Nope, I can't think of anyone... so leave me one and I'll pop round to your blog tomorrow (remember I said I don't have much time today??) and leave a wee comment for you too. Because we're worth it!

A very important question for you!

Remember last week I said I'd signed up for Shimelle's Blogging for Scrapbookers class? Well this is the next one! I'm hoping that it will help me with the whole design of my blog, what I'm writing about, how it looks, how we interact with each other etc. So over the next three weeks there will probably be quite a number of changes here on this blog... and probably over on my business blog too! Is there anything you'd like to see happen or change? I'm open to suggestions! After all, that is the whole reason for taking this class!!

Like a lot of scrapbookers I started my first blog (dont' worry all the stuff I wrote then is now on this blog!) with the aim of keeping in touch with family and friends who live far away. Then I discovered that none of them were reading it... but my crafting friends were! So my focus changed to show more of crafting projects that I'd completed. However, then life got in the way and needed to be blogged about - with the full intention of scrapbooking it at a later date of course! -  and then slowly this blog morphed into a "life, the universe and everything" type of blog instead. Lately most of the "everything" stuff has been about my weightloss journey. So now, I'll admit that I am confused what this blog's general topic is supposed to be. It's not really a crafting blog anymore, but I'd still like to include that if I ever get any crafting done that I can actually show you! It's a little bit about life, kids and holidays... but it's also a little bit about weightloss. Oh and perhaps a touch about my faith?? Basically it's a confused mess. LOL. So as we're making changes over the next three weeks I'd like to ask you a question... what would YOU prefer to read about?

Is there anything else that you would prefer? Granted, I'm not going to turn into a pro-blogger overnight but I'm hoping that this class will bring about a few improvements over the next three weeks.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me your opinion and comments! I always love reading them. In fact, I was thinking of doing a post in response to some of the comments I've had lately. Would you like to read that or would it be too boring??

See you soon!

One Little Word 2011 and other such online classes!

You know what? I'm a complete sucker for online classes. I love the idea of signing up to learn something new and that I can be delivered directly to my inbox. I don't have to pack up bags of books, drop the kids off anywhere and I can do it when it suits me. My idea of Utopia. Except...... when the emails start coming, I get behind. And then I get frustrated, and depressed and cross with myself because I've shelled out good money for something that I'm not actually getting any benefit from! Still, sometimes one or two come along that say "hey, it doesn't matter if you're not keeping up with the prompts right now, just do it when you can!" I love that. Which is one of the reasons that I love classes by Shimelle and Ali! They're both like that. Which is why I don't have any regrets signing up for Shimelle's latest class, which is called 'Blogging for Scrapbookers'. I've done this one before but it's great to have a refresher course in preparation for her next class 'Beyond Blogging for Scrapbookers'. I've been re-learning a lot and I'm hoping to learn a lot more! This time round I've been a bit behind on this class, but I'm not stressing... because unbeknownst to you all I've been following her prompts! I just wasn't starting with 'Today Shimelle has asked us to blog about...' Which is good.

My other class that I signed up for this year is being taught by Ali over on BigPictureClasses. It's called 'One Little Word'. Although this is my first time taking the class, you might still recognise the title as I have played along unofficially several times before. Last year my word for the year was 'Self-Discipline'. A rather tricky word for most people but I needed it and saw great results from it. A few years ago my word was 'Create'. That year I created loads, including my second child! I love that the words start off with one intention in your head and then as you live them loads of other things start happening as a result too. So this year, I decided to sign up with the class that runs through the year. It's more for creative ideas on how to document the word and the results. I signed up late because I was umming and ahhing about whether I should or not. So I started out behind! However, I'm taking photo's and pondering and mulling and in the meantime I'm trying to live my word for the year. This year my word is 'Reclaim'. Tricky, I know but I think it will be interesting to see how it all pans out at the end of the year!

Things I want to reclaim:

• My weightloss
• My self-discipline
• My self-confidence
• My creativity
• My kids
• My husband
• My home
• My faith
• My fitness

Amongst other things!!

We've been set a task to take photo's of things/people/places that would encapsulate your word or things you associate with your word. I'm struggling a little on that one!!

So far, I have only got a few photographs including this one.

Have you got anymore ideas on how I would photograph the word 'Reclaim'? Any suggestions would be gratefully received!! Thanks for your comments!

Redefining our Family

When I started this blog... ok, not THIS exact blog - the previous one: Creating Space- I realised fairly quickly that although I didn't mind showing pictures of my family I still didn't want to include their names. In this day and age of identity fraud, web-savvy criminals and internet paedophile rings, I just didn't want that sort of information floating about. I figured that as the main reason for my blog was to keep friends and family up-to-date with our happenings that it wasn't really necessary to mention names either. Simply because anyone who might need to know that information... well, already knew it! So I settled on calling us Myself, Himself and Herself.

Easy enough to remember. Just a little bit confusing to write!

But then this one arrived!

Now, for a while my blog just referred to her as 'the Baby'... not a problem! But babies have a habit of growing up like this:

Can you believe that is the same child in both pictures? They just refuse to stay small!!

Now, this presents me with a problem. I can't really call her 'the Baby' anymore, can I? She's determined to be 'a big girl' and I feel I ought to honour that. So what do I call her here in blogland?

Myself, Himself, Herself and ..... and?... and? Nothing rolls off the tongue at all! I'm thinking that I might have to redefine ALL our blogland names, but that presents further complications!

Any ideas would be most welcome please!

For all those people out there that think I have completely lost the plot... you may just be right! LOL.

Blog Features and Introducting WOYWW

I read a lot of blogs. Lots and lots of blogs. The best thing I found since I got my lovely HTC Hero mobile phone last year is that I now have an app that connects with my Google Reader account and sends all those lovely blogs straight to my phone! Which means that I can keep up on my blog reading while I'm waiting for Herself at the bus stop, or at the dance class, or at swimming lessons. I can read blog posts while I'm eating my breakfast! With an app this handy I have discovered that reading blogs is about the *only* thing I actually manage to keep up with in my life right now. Everything else is behind and running late..... sometimes by several months!

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of these blogs that I read, follow and subscribe to have regular features. For example I've just started participating at For the Love of Blogs (see sidebar button) and one of their many features is Tasty Tuesday which considering how yummy our dinner was last night I'm really considering joining in on.

The other blog I follow is Stamping Ground with Julia Dunnit. She started a feature nearly two years ago called WOYWW or What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. It's become hugely popular with loads of people joining in and sharing the scary mess or freaky tidyness that is their workdesk on a Wednesday. I figure after nearly two years of reading and hopping around other people's blogs to check out their desks I might finally make the leap and join in. The sad thing is that, in this, I am yet again late to the party! Some things never change do they??

So, here's my workdesk this morning....

Basically, it's a mess! I don't have a large space to work on so I really should keep it a bit tidier. However, this is how I left it after I had to run out the door on my way to an appointment I was late for. As usual! So, today I shall be picking up this project and hopefully get it finished. Or else it might join all the other projects I've got waiting in the wings or half done... mostly they live UNDER the desk and as you can see...

..... that's not any better either!! I have spared you the horror of seeing the rest of the room. It's not untidy (anymore) but it is a bit crowded.  I think that I need to stop buying stash and start using it all. Ha! I think it will take me at least 8 years to use up the stuff I've collected in the past 5 years.

Shall I continue with WOYWW? Make it a regular feature? (or about as regular as I can be considering my lack of organisation!) Would you come back? I dare you! It will be interesting to see if my desk ever improves or if it stays this messy.

I did promise you some news on my One Little Word didn't I? Let me finish the project on the desk and then I'll get my pages finished and photographed and then I'll show you! Please don't hold your breath as it might be a while and I wouldn't want you to pass out! One thing you *can* come back for later today is an update on the Weightloss issue and a little change I've made to my person. 

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me a comment! Even in my disorganised state reading the comments you leave for me is definitely one thing I keep up with!

My new Venture!

In my last post I promised you that I would update you on a new venture as time had run out on that post. It really ended up as War & Peace didn't it?! I'm sorry if I was whinging that day.... the whole (lack of) weightloss was really getting me down. I'm so glad that a whole load of you guys were there to pick me up with your comments and spur me on to getting back on track! I'm not completely there but I am working on it and am feeling a lot more positive about it all.

Anyway, I've gone off topic haven't I? Typical me! LOL.... now back to the subject.

Last May I was looking at a friends crafting blog and saw that there was a special offer on Starter Kits for Stampin' Up! which really got me thinking. I had been looking for a way to help the household finances and thought that this would be a good way of contributing while indulging my passion for all things crafty. After having a rather in-depth discussion with Himself we decided that I should go for it..... and so my new business "Stampin' Diva's" was created. Here's my business blog if you want to go have a look!

I'm happy to report that it's going quite well so far, although not really enough to contribute to the family bank account.... yet! However, it's paying a little bit so far and as I've had a fairly slow build up I don't think that's too bad. Himself is happy though as I haven't spent anything out of the family bank account on crafting in quite a while now! So that's at least a million pounds saved from the current account each month (I wish!).

The only downside - if it can be called that - is that I'm so busy making samples, swaps, demo pieces, make & take items etc. that I haven't had an awful lot for my own personal crafting lately. It's not all a bad thing though as I'm still having fun and getting to craft a lot.... just not on personal stuff. I'm hoping to remedy that soon as I have a couple of non-Stampin' Up projects in the pipeline at the moment.

More of that another day though as I've just realised what the time is! I shall have to rush off and get a couple of things done before I retire to bed. Thanks for popping by and leaving a comment. They really lifted my mood last time and I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts again!

Part 1: The girls

I promised you an update on all our comings and goings during 2010, however, it's been harder to put together than I anticipated! Firstly, I'm so out of practise with this whole blogging thing that the words dont seem to flow very well. Secondly, I wanted to include some photo's but then realised that, along with blogging, organising my photo's isn't one of my forté's so I felt the need to sort and organise first! (Procrastination, however, IS one of my strong points!) However, being the numpty that I am I somehow managed to delete almost my whole Picture folder!! So I have spent ages using various free programmes off the web to restore all those memories that I lost... and then because the programme just dumped it all in once place I've had to go through and sort it all out again! Methinks I should just have posted the update and ignored the mess on my hard-drive!

Anyway, now that photo's have been recovered and restored and reorganised and re-sorted I shall finally do this blogging thing again! Thanks for all your patience!!

So in January 2010 - which is about the last time I mentioned either of them in a blog post - Herself was 4½ years old and still at nursery. She was very much looking forward to her birthday in July and starting 'big school' in August although she was still rather enjoying nursery!

The Little One was only 16 months old and had only just gotten the hang of walking!

In May the girls enjoyed having Grandma and Grandad around for a visit from Down South. Especially as Grandad is always up for a bit of this:

In June Herself performed in the nursery 'end of year' play and did really well! Never the shy, retiring type she was very pleased to be given a 'solo' part!

As the weather improved we all spent more time out in the garden, which Himself and my Little Bro had childproofed for the girls.

We also went on holiday where Herself started learning to ride the bicycle ....

..... and so did the Little One!

In July, my pre-schooler turned 5!!

.... and so she officially became old enough for 'big school' which she duly started in August. There was quite a bit of excitement from Herself on the big day (and a fair few tears from myself!)...

Meanwhile the Little One had progressed to running everywhere and talking ten-to-the-dozen. She turned 2 in September!

In October we had a lovely (if somewhat chilly!) day picking apples in the back garden.

With all the snow bringing so much disruption in November, we ended up staying at home a lot! We tried building a snowman but the Little One didn't enjoy the experience!!

Gosh, I can't believe what a fun year we've had with our two growing girls! It has been fun, frantic and very special. I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

Finally, I leave you with this image. The Little One has been brushing up on her computer skills so she can take over the blogging from her mother. Perhaps this way you might get more regular updates!!

Thanks for your patience and thanks for dropping by! Later this week I shall be updating about my weight loss progress. It will be significantly LESS photo-heavy I promise!!

Coming soon....

Watch this space! I'm currently putting together a series of update posts for 2010. It won't be too much longer I promise!!

In the meantime here's a random picture that I took in my back garden this autumn.

2011 already!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great time? Were you sensible or are you still feeling the ill effects of too little blood in your alcohol stream?

Our new year's celebration took a last minute change of course this year. We were all set to go to Derby to ring in the bells with our usual set of friends only to receive a phonecall from our hostess to say that they were having to cancel as both her and hubby were ill with a nasty bug. So, after a chance phonecall to another friend we we found ourselves on our way to Bradford instead!! I must say that for an impromptu party is was rather well attended and better organised than I would have managed!!

We headed back up to Cumbernauld on New Years Day and have so far spent our time running around like headless chickens... all in the name of trying to get back into the swing of things! For some reason I have found it really difficult to get back into a routine. Consequently my sleeping habits have gone down the hewey and I'm oversleeping in the mornings and then finding I'm late for EVERYTHING for the rest of the day. It's not good.

Anyway, I hope it's not too late to wish you all a very happy, prosperous and healthy 2011?

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to blog more often.... so pop back in a bit!

PS. I think I shall have to bite the bullet and do a massive (or maybe a couple of large) blogpost(s) to fill you all in on the events of 2010. What do you think?

PPS. Do you like the new look of the blog? I'm still trying to get used to it!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! If you've come over from my old Creating Space blog then please leave me a comment. It would be great to know that you're here!

I will be posting a catch up post next week sometime so keep checking back! Thanks for dropping by!!

The future of Blogging

So I'm seriously considering my position on blogging. Time is short and there's so much other stuff going on at the moment that I haven't actually been able to sit down and blog for ages! Is it worth keeping going or do I pack it all in? What do YOU think?

New Years resolutions and just one word....

Happy New Year to all my friends, family and random readers! I hope that 2010 is a year of peace, happiness and prosperity for you and your families. I don't know about you, but I'm actually looking forward to 2010 and everything its going to bring with it. I can't believe that we are already a full week into the new year. See? Only 51 more weeks to go until we do it all again!

Seeing as there has been so much snow around this week, I've not been doing a lot of rushing around like I normally would. This forced inactivity gets a person thinking and this week there has been an awful lot to think about. Two things have been the focus of my thinking.... firstly, New Years Resolutions. OK, so if you're anything like me these are a nightmare. I make a looooong list of things that I want to change and by the time the end of January comes along they've all fallen by the wayside and are long forgotten. The last few years I tried not to make any resolutions at all, which was okay-ish, but I felt I was lacking something to work towards. Not really a problem for two years or so as I was too busy dealing with being pregnant, renovating a house, putting said house on the market, packing up, moving, finding a new house to rent, starting eldest daughter in new nursery, moving in and unpacking lots of boxes, having new baby, having too many sleepless nights, finding a new house to buy, organising 4th birthday parties for the same day we got our new house keys, decorating and flooring the new house before we moved in, packing and moving in loads of boxes, changing eldest daughters nursery again to be closer to the new house, having a first birthday 'party' for youngest daughter, getting stuff fixed on the new house that the previous owners had bodged, my own birthday, preparing for Christmas.... and trying to remember to breathe in amongst all that lot! But this year I don't forsee any babies or moving or renovating. In fact, other than the eldest daughter starting 'big school' I don't actually forsee much happening at all. Ah! Bliss! Ok, there will still be the usual day-to-day stuff and routine maintenance on the house... but this year I would like a challenge of some sort. So I'm resorting to New Years Resolutions again! So here they are....

1. Lose weight. My excess weight is really affecting my health and mobility now. I've had enough of it all and am going to make the change to get rid of it.
2. Get fitter. 
3. Create more. I love being creative, but with all that I've been doing over the last two years its taken a bit of a backseat. I would love to increase my creativity... including the painting and sewing I used to do before eldest was born!
4. Learn a new skill. I still have to decide what I would like to learn. Something creative that I haven't tried yet? Or maybe a new language?
5. Be more involved at Church. 
6. Improve my relationship with my kids... basically, yell less and hug more!
7. Improve my relationship with God... basically, yell less and listen more!

Are these impossible? I don't think so. The key to all of these things is self-discipline. Something I'm not terribly good at. Will they last? I hope so, but only time will tell. Check back at the end of January for that one!
Part of the New Year Resolutions thing for a lot of people, including Ali Edwards , is to choose one word to live by for the whole year. Just one word that will guide your thoughts, actions, goals and dreams for the year. I participated in this a few years ago and found it to be really inspiring. I chose the word Create for that year. And boy did I? It was a great year for creativity, not just in scrapbooking or artistic stuff... but also for creating a home out of a building site, creating a second daughter, creating a calmer environment for all of us as a family etc. This past week I've been thinking about choosing another word for the year. Create came to me easily, but this time I was really struggling. Then, a couple of days ago I suddenly struck on the word Seek. No, its not a generic, feel-good factor sort of word... but I think it will work! It came with a couple of Scriptures attached too....

"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" Matthew 7:7


"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well" Matthew 6:33 

(source: http://elegantwordart2.blogspot.com/ )


So this year I believe that if I seek God in all these things then I will be able to accomplish the goals I have set myself. This year I'm going to Seek a slimmer, fitter body; A more creative life; A new skill; Greater involvement; and Better relationships. 


I don't think they're bad things to strive for... do you? What resolutions have you made?

Revisiting....

Since having started blogging again just recently, I have been reading back on some of my old posts and marvelling at how much has changed in such a relatively short time. Its amazing to see how my perspective has changed on events, how my hopes and dreams have changed and how even small things have morphed into something completely different. This post  ,for example, was inspired by a blog prompt that was shared on UKScrappers - an event that no longer happens due to people going their seperate ways. The topic? Handbag envy... lol.

What a change three years can make! I'm still a jeans girl, but the trainers have gone out the window. Crocs, Birkenstocks, walking boots and a lovely pair of leather mules are in. My pockets are currently empty, and have been for quite a while now. Mostly because they've been well and truly been replaced by.... a handbag! Oh My gosh! Having two kids now I find I have far too many things to carry, especially as there is usually a baby who also needs carrying at the same time. So, its easier to have a bag hanging off my arm while the baby sits on my hip, the keys are carried in the same hand and the 4 year old is being controlled with the other hand. Yes, I've become SUPER-MUM! Well, not quite... What I am tho', is a mum who now does school runs and toddler group on the same day followed by baby swimming lessons the day after and various other groups throughout the week. Not forgetting the nursery open day, parent-teacher conferences, play dates, birthday parties and school concerts.

The contents of my pockets are still present... the bank cards that used to sit in my pocket now line themselves up neatly in my wallet; the reciepts overflow and the change keeps escaping - but the wallet is being used. However, wallets dont fit conveniently into pockets - so into the handbag it goes. The mobile phone has also migrated to the handbag too, except now I can never find it. Somehow it always escapes from the specially designed mobile phone pocket (which was my whole inspiration for buying this particular handbag!) and makes its way down to the bottom of the bag. And its never in the section I'm looking in when its ringing, so consequently I usually find it a few seconds after it has transferred my caller to voicemail. The keys are usually to be found at the bottom of the bag too, usually making mad attempts at scratching the mobile phone's screen or grabbing at the fabric lining of the bag in a ,usually, successful attempt at ripping it all to shreds. The one thing though that really has changed, and which really sparked the purchase of a handbag... is the PDA. Yup, I've gone all electronic. My poor mushed baby-brain can no longer cope with having to remember all the appointments on its own and I have given up and resorted to using an electronic nagging device to remember it all for me. Its very handy as it keeps all my appointments, contact details, birthday reminders, notes, shopping lists etc. all in one handy place and it beeps at me when I need to remember things. Well, it should do.... unless you let the battery go completely flat as I did last week! In which case, you will find that it loses every last piece of data you had ever entered into it and you are left with a useless lump of plastic that has reverted to default factory settings, thus making you miss one very important appointment, several birthdays and leaves you having to rewrite your whole Christmas list. Unfortunately this wonderful piece of technology is too large for pockets which means that I ended up buying a handbag... and finding that actually, I can make it work for me!  Its just all the stuff inside the handbag that overwhelms me now!!

I love comments.... but

As you can see I have this little blinkie on the side of my page. It doesn't do anything special really, its just there to draw your attention to the fact that I looooooove comments. I'm a comment addict, in fact if there was a 'Comments Anonymous' I would have to sign up and follow the 12 step programme. BUT, and here is the big BUT, I have noticed when hopping and reading other blogs that it can be quite difficult to leave a comment on some of them. Mostly because of the millions of security questions that you have to answer. Granted, nobody likes spam... after all why would I want to buy viagra, slimming pills or an e-book that promises to give me the secret to becoming an instant millionaire? However, having to fill in what my date of birth is, my favourite colour and my first pets name is a bit ridiculous. This got me thinking about my own blog. Now when I comment on my blog I don't have to do any security questions, because it already recognises me as the owner of this blog. I'm wondering tho', does it make you fill in security questions to leave me a comment? If it does.... can anybody tell me how to disable this facility or make it easier for people to leave me comments? Please let me know! I'd love to hear your opinion... it would make this comment addicts day!

I'm back!

Wow, doesn't time fly? Over a year ago I had a new babe in my arms, sleepless nights were in progress and we were just getting used to having a new member in our family. Now I find that we are finally more settled and I realise I haven't updated the blog at all in 14 months! Ouch. In fact, I had actually let my subscription go rather than keep paying for something I wasn't using. However, I'm back on my feet again... life is getting to be as normal as its ever going to be, and I feel the need to share it with you!

So, In order to get myself back into blogging mode, I've signed up for a class with  Shimelle (love her classes!) all about Blogging. Feel free to take part too, as its not too late yet to sign up! As part of this class we're being provided with 3 weeks worth of blogging prompts and technical know-how to make our blogs more reader friendly. I hope that you will come back and share this experience with me? I'm hoping to blog at least two or three times a week as a minimum. Hopefully, I'll be able to do more tho'... it just depends on how inspiring I find the daily prompts! 

Also, as part of my return to blogging, I'm going to be looking at the possibilities of moving the blog to an alternate site. This all depends on how much I can manage to do with this one as I would love to have a blog that looks a little more 'me' rather than having the bog standard template as provided by TypePad!

So, hopefully I'll see you over the next three weeks!

(image source)

Approximately 5 weeks ago....

... we finally moved house! Having lived with my parents for nearly 10 weeks and with no sign of our house in Bradford selling we decided that our best option would be to rent a house. We managed to find ourselves a lovely house in Chryston near Glasgow at the beginning of August and moved in less that two weeks later. Unfortunately it has taken us nearly 5 weeks to get ourselves unpacked and sorted and reconnected to all the various means of communication that we've become accustomed to. Can you believe how long it takes BT to get broadband and TV sorted? Even now we're not fully connected as we're having to use himself's work laptop to connect to the internet wirelessly. This is due to our PC not being wireless enabled. My Little Bro tried to get it set up for wireless connection, but despite him being an IT whizzkid it has not proved to be the easiest of tasks. So, we've now got to figure out an alternative means of getting broadband connection from one side of the house to t'other. Hopefully it won't be much longer before I can actually sit at the PC and post updates on here that have photo's included!

Herself has started nursery during this time too and is thoroughly enjoying herself. It seems that she has made quite a few friends and is actually having a go at the 'Miss Popularity' contest too! I lose count of the number of knee-high people that rush up to her or shout "Hello" at her across the room when she arrives. Its lovely to see that she has settled in there so well already and that she is enthusiastic about going to school. I only hope it continues when she has to start 'big school'!

Anyway, I'm off now to go deal with her and get some more done on the unpacking and sorting out. It won't be too long before I post again! I promise!