Happy New Year!

Just wanted to quickly say Happy New Year to everyone!  We're off to celebrate at some friends house tonight and will be singing "Auld Lang Syne" off-key somewhere in the suburbs of Leeds with them.  Enjoy your celebrations and don't overdo it too much!

May all your wishes and dreams for 2007 come true!

Christmas Creativity

Now that all the Christmas rush is over I thought I'd let you have a look at the pressie I made for my Mum.  It was an exploding box.  I can hear all you non-Scrapbooking people saying "a what box?".  Well, its a box that opens out to reveal sections that you can put photo's on. I made one that accomodated 12 photo's and put in one photo for each month of her first year.  I wasn't planning on making an exploding box - although I did think it was a great idea when I saw it on UKScrappers - however, when I got some lovely scrapbooking papers, fibres and stickers from my favourite online shop I couldn't help myself. The papers were just so yummy and I had some cardstock in my stash that suited the papers.... so I found myself cutting and sticking.  Soon I had the completed box and decided it would make a good present for my Mum.  Needless to say, she was thrilled. Pictures are below.... enjoy!

Moving over....

Well as you can see I've had to move my blog... I wasn't really planning on doing so, but Blogger was really starting to get on my nerves!  It was just sooooo unreliable and I couldn't put up with it anymore.  I know I don't blog often enough to suit some people, but when I do feel like doing so, it would be nice if it went smoothly rather than me ending up wanting to throw the computer out the window!  Poor computer it's not its fault that Blogger was completely useless.


Anyway, as you can also see I've moved the posts over from blogger too.  At least I didn't have too many to move over!  That's at least one benefit of not posting too regularly! 
Right, I'm off to put a notice up on the old Blogger page (If it will let me) to let you all know where I am now.... you never know, I might just make it back to blog a little bit more!

Handbag envy

Ok.... just to loosen up! This is todays blog prompt....

What’s your handbag like? What makes a ‘perfect’ handbag? What do you carry in your handbag? What's in it right now? Do you ever have ‘handbag envy'?

My initial response was that I don't carry a handbag! So how do I function without one?? One word..... Jeans! I always have loose change in my right hand front pocket and my bankcards in one of my back pockets. Keys and mobile phones go in jeans pockets too. I have been known to buy/not buy a mobile phone depending on whether it could fit in my jeans pocket. Ok, so technically I have a handbag... but it mostly sits in my wardrobe and does nothing. I also own a wallet although that generally gets left in the house while I just grab the cards I'm going to need.

Do I get handbag envy?? You bet! Although mine usually consists of... nice handbag! Damn, there's no point buying one cause I'm never going to use it. How do they make one of those things work for them?? So, I figure although I love the idea of a handbag.... I'm just never going to be a handbaggy sort of gal! Pity really cause there are some lovely ones out there!
So why am I like this?? Well I grew up on a farm, or rather, several farms in South Africa. At that time in a girls life where handbags become the 'must have' item, I was more concerned about helping Dad milk cows and whether I was too old to be climbing trees! So while all my friends became real girly girls I stuck with my jeans and wellies. Several years later I'm still in jeans although the wellies have been exchanged for trainers. Would it suprise you if I said : "I never wear make up??" and "I don't really like pink" .... probably not! Strange then that I want these girly things for my Erin. I want her to enjoy girly things and definitely would love it if she carried a handbag when she got to that age!

The last 6 months!

Wow.... so much has happened!
To start with Robert got a new job in Leeds with Carl Bro Engineering which meant a move back down south from the beautiful Highlands! New challenges faced us as we tried to find a house to buy within our limited budget. Luckily for us house prices in the Highlands had risen enough to give us some cash to play with for any modifications that needed doing. Boy did we need it! We found a house in Thornton, Bradford which belonged to an elderly lady that had been committed to a home due to her Alzheimers. It needs loads of work, but is a lovely property in a good area. We moved in on the 31st of May even though we had to rent off the vendors for 3 weeks while the paperwork was completed! During those 3 weeks I made use of the time to get quotes from builders, electricians and plumbers. We discovered that the house still had it's original wiring from 1938 with round pin sockets included for free! Also original was the tiny kitchen which couldn't accomodate 2 adults. A huge dining room next door was just begging to be turned into a kitchen diner! So we proceeded to knock the wall down between the two rooms, remove a chimney breast in the dining room, rewire the whole house and replace the entire central heating system. The latter had to be done due to the existing central heating system consisting of a backboiler which was in the fireplace we wanted to remove! OK so it's a bit drastic - but the modifications, building work, dust and expenditure have been worth it as we now have a really big Kitchen diner!
This week the plumber has been turning the understair cupboard into a downstairs loo!! This will be a welcome addition to the house as I'm finding it difficult going upstairs to go to the loo all the time. Especially as Erin doesn't want to leave her toys downstairs but doesn't want to be left behind either! Robert and I are off to Pilkingtons tomorrow to choose tiles for the bathroom as our friendly plumber is ripping out the Lilac 1970's bathroom suite next week. We are needing to remove the tiles on the walls before then!
Other than the house.... the only real thing that has happened in the last few months is that I've started scrapbooking! Really enjoying this as a new hobby and I'm hoping that over the next while I'll be able to share some layouts with you!
Will update this later again with some photo's of the house just so you can see what a state it's in!

oh and....

Might occasionally be using a blog prompt to help me along - although I normally can't stop talking, typing is a different matter! So there might be some random entries here - depending on the prompts!
 

Getting Started

I realised today that the last 6 months have been pretty hectic and that half my friends don't have a clue as to what we've been up to. So, I've joined the ranks of the blogging army. I'm only a small recruit in this army of millions, but hopefully I'll be able to keep up! My postings will not be regular, but will happen rather as and when things happen in our lives that friends and family might be interested in.... I may also have the occasional rant or reflection. I may be proud and show stuff off or I might just bore you to tears! It will all depend on how the mood takes me... so don't expect regular contributions or even ones that make any sense!!
So here it is... my first post!! It's not much, but it's a start! I think I will have to take some photo's and update you all on what has happened in the last 6 months. See you back here soon!