April WW Round-up

Wow, this is such a late post. I completely forgot to do a WeightWatchers round-up for April, although I did remember to take photo's. So it was obviously on my mind to do it and then life must have gotten in the way as it usually does.

So here are the photo's I took...

Strike the normal poses... LOL. As far as weight loss goes April was not great. I was still really struggling with the new ProPoints plan and getting my head in the right place. So my overall weightloss for the whole month of April was 1lb. As I said, not great. However at the end of April things started clicking into place for me and I managed to get my head together too... so I'm hoping for a decent overall loss in May!!

While I was taking these photo's this happened... and I thought you'd find it amusing.

... and then she insisted on having her photo taken....

What is it with my kids and always wanting to pose for the camera? At this rate they'll both end up as models when they're older!

Anyway, it's a lovely day here so I'm going to take them to the park. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with them lately due to being extremely busy with prepping for workshops etc. So today is going to be a Mummy and Daughters day and with the sunshine finally making an appearance I'm thinking that a trip to the park might be a good call.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving me a comment. See you soon!

WOYWW 18th May '11

Wow, what a busy day I've had today!! My apologies for not posting my WOYWW earlier today but it really has been manic today and this is the first time I've managed to have two minutes to even think about posting. Actually, I had actually decided not to post as it was so late but then had second thoughts about that too. I'm so decisive, aren't I?! However, since Julia takes the time to host it and I've not joined in for a few weeks I figured I just had to!

Anyway, I'll stop chattering now and show you this:

Oh yes, I've been getting creative again! This time, however, it's been personal stuff not business related! It's been such a long time since I last did any scrapbooking just for me! I nearly forgot what it felt like actually. Anywho, I don't know how much you can actually see here.... there are a few random things dotted about as I had to quickly make a birthday card this morning to put in with a gift that was being posted. The birthday 'girl's big day is tomorrow so I thought I'd better get my butt in gear! So I hauled out my SU inks and stamps to get that done, but they've already been cleared away. The open printer is because I had to print off directions to get to someone's house last night and the rest of the stuff is what I've been using to scrapbook with!

There's still my trusty SU Stampin' Scrub for cleaning my stamps, grid paper for being messy on and punches for adding lovely handmade elements... but the rest is all from my stash!! OH MY! I've actually managed to cut up one of those Scrapagogo kits that have been hanging around in yellow pizza boxes for the last 2½ years! Yes, 2½!! I went to a charity crop last weekend in aid of Arthritis Care Scotland and took along a whole load of  'Beach holiday' pictures, masses of tools and one Scrapagogo kit. I completed all of one double page spread for a Paperbag minibook during the whole day and I really thought I would end up unpacking it and shoving it underneath my desk and forget about it. However, for some reason the Mojo has really got going with this one and I'm really enjoying it again. Yay!

On the grid paper you can see the results of my only Non-SU purchase in the past 12 months. At the crop I got my hands on two bottles of Mica Mist. I've never seen or used this stuff before so I was intruiged. Wow. It's gorgeous.... even if a little messy. I'm normally a very clean lines, crisp edges sort of crafter so it's been refreshing to get really inky and shimmery with these. You can see a little bit of the front cover for the minibook on the desk and it's well and truly covered in Mica Mist! Oh and ribbon, lace, chipboard letters, stickers, papers and...... a beautiful rose that I made using 2 punches and a pair of scissors. I'm really rather pleased with that rose because it came out so beautifully!

Anyway, none of that has been played with at all today (although I'm considering a late night session tonight!) as I was out and about all day. This morning started late for me and then proceeded to be a headlong rush all day. Took Herself (aka TwirlPower) to school, rushed back and gave Weeself (aka DestructoGirl) her breakfast. Changed nappies, got dressed, made a birthday card, grabbed present, rushed to train station, caught the train to Edinburgh, found friend, strolled down to her house, kids played, kids had lunch, unpacked wardrobe, moved wardrobe, held baby, had lunch, ordered taxi, got into taxi (forgetting changing bag at friends house), got to the train station, walked 2 million miles to get to the correct platform, ended up running for the train whilst pushing Weeself in manic pushchair dash, got on train, entertained Weeself in order to stop her getting killed by grumpy businessman, got in car, dashed to bus stop to pick up Herself, went to Tesco to buy wrapping paper, wrapped present, posted present, rushed home, helped Herself with homework, greeted hubby, helped cook tea, ate tea, helped bath kids, attended screaming child after she fell off the changing station, calmed distraught hubby down, calmed screaming child down, convinced distraught hubby that it wasn't his fault, got kids dressed and into bed, read bedtime stories, did some business adminy stuff, surfed Facebook, blogged and collapsed! Phew!

Any chance I can have a quieter day tomorrow please? Mind you, it's been good to get out of the house and see some real people again so I'm not complaining too loudly. PLUS, I got to hold my friend's new baby which is always well worth any rushing around that was done to get there in the first place!! Shhh.... dont tell hubby I said that! LOL.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now. I know now why the chinese curse is "may you live in interesting times"..... Right now a quiet life sounds like a good idea to me!

All advise on how not to run around like a headless chicken would be gratefully received!

Photography A-Z Challenge

I chat on quite a few forums here on this wonderful web of ours but one of my favourites has to be UKScrappers. It's full of wonderful like-minded crafty gals (and guys!) who inspire me and challenge me to do better, go further and create more.

Each year they come up with a variety of challenges to keep us creative through the year focussing on various media and techniques. Last year I was reading my team mate Jo's blog an awful lot as she was taking part in the "52 Walks with my Camera" challenge and was producing some really OUTSTANDING work. I was in awe of her amazing photography skills. Looking at my sad little pictures I realised that the reason I don't improve is probably because I don't practise enough. So this year, along with Jo and quite a few others, I decided to take part in the "A-Z Photography Challenge". Every two weeks we are supposed to take photo's of people, places or objects that start with a particular letter. 

As usual, I am waaaaaaayyyy behind! However, I didn't want to get all depressed about that so I've decided that while the year is still relatively young I want to do some catching up. My inlaws came up two weeks ago for a few days to visit and we all decided to visit one of Glasgow's many museums - the Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. I took along my camera and decided that this was probably as good a place as any to do some "catch up shots" for the letters A, B and C.....

A is for Arches....

.... Antlers...

.... and Art!

(oh and Anthea too, but you saw these pictures in an earlier post!)

I love Glasgow's architecture so B is for Beautiful Buildings! 

These are both of Kelvingrove Museum's external features. This red sandstone is so prominent in Glasgow's architecture as the whole city is full of it. Everything from grand civic buildings to the lowliest tenements were built with it.

C is for......

Curves.....

....Café's... 

 ....Cecily with Grandad's silly Cap on!.....

...Crockery and Cutlery....

... Chairs... (particularly Art Deco ones!)

.... Costumes....

... with beautiful Cuffs...

.... and Columns!

We all had a fabulous time at the museum - even my two girls! I admit that I didn't think it would be their thing but they thoroughly enjoyed it. We didn't even make a dent in it though as we only got to see about a third of the museum so I think a few more trips will be called for.... and while we're there I shall definitely be visiting the café again. The food was gorgeous, especially the Chorizo and Bean soup that I had! Delicious!!

Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Come back soon as I'm currently working on photo's for 'D'.... and I want to share about my One Little Word for 2011!

Most recent LO

Just want to show you the Layout I have just completed. I'm dead chuffed with this one since its been such a long time since I last managed to complete one. I have been feeling like my inspiration had completely fled the country, but after a visit to the Falkirk Wheel it came back with a vengeance and this is the result.

The title of the LO takes the form of a conversation saying:

"What did we do today?"
"We went on a wheely big boat wif a yittuw Ewin toiyut"

Erin just loved the small child-sized toilet in the boat that she wanted to go back there for days afterwards just so she could go to the loo!! So I felt I really needed to document the occasion. Although I will do another LO about the Falkirk Wheel itself at a later stage. I'll update more about our 3 week stay in Glasgow later.

Friends Reunited

I have a little time to do another update post before we dash off for our hols, so I thought I'd tell you about the wonderful visitors we had... our lovely friends David and Tjits and their two girls came to stay for a few days having travelled all the way from Inverness!!  It was so good to see them as they are the couple that we really miss from our old Church in the Highlands.

It was great to have them round! Just to be able to chat to them without the constraints of the telephone and being able to see them face to face was brilliant; and served as a huge 'pick-me-up' to both Robert and Myself.  The girls all had a fab time playing together too!!

While they were here we took them to Golden Acre Park in Leeds for a bit of a stroll... and for the kids to see all the ducks! The weather was beautiful, lunch was delicious and the kids had a ball!!

Here's some piccies to prove it!

Dead chuffed with some of these photo's as they were taken with my mobile phone's camera!!  I can't believe the quality of the pictures it takes.

Anyway, I hope you all have a great time over the next week or so!! I'm sure we will be... and I'll have plenty more pictures to show you when we come back!