WOYWW

Wow, it's Wednesday again! Where did that last week go?? I had been intending to post loads and get back into the swing of blogging again but then life happened and all my best intentions shacked up with my will power and they both fled the country. Consequently, not only am I blog-postless but I'm also feeling fat. Oh, and I'm also waaaaay behind on the things I need to do.

All this has not been helped by Herself who decided on Monday that it would be a good idea to trip over her own feet and break her fall with her face. This resulted in the school phoning me at 9.20am to come fetch her. When I got there she was covered in blood and not in a happy frame of mind. Once we'd cleaned her up a bit more it turned out she'd grazed her forehead, cheek and nose; bitten her tongue and top lip and also dislodged three teeth. They're not completely out, thank goodness, but they're more than a little wobbly! Luckily they're still her baby teeth so it's not a complete disaster but still not what I (or her) needed on a Monday morning. After the emergency dental appointment we came home and she suddenly decided she was fine. And then she decided she was bored. And then she whinged..... the whole day! So consequently, I spent all day entertaining her and got nothing done. Remind me again, why I volunteered to become a parent??

Anyway, so here I am on Wednesday posting a photo of my Workdesk. Several of you have told me that this is not a mess... but when you consider how small my space is it definitely feels messy. I've had to clear some of the things away that I was working on as they're a secret until the new Stampin' Up European Mini Catalogue is launched on Friday. After that date I'll be able to share again. The other thing that I'm working on is all preparation for a workshop on Friday night. The hostess wants ideas for wedding invites and her colours are Purple and Silver... hence all the purple cardstock and inkpads on my desk!!

If you'd like to join in with the WOYWW meme then head over to Julia's blog for more details! Thanks for popping by and all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate them!

Now, I'm off back to my desk to see if I can come up with some more Purple and Silver ideas! Wish me luck!!

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!!

Lazing on a sunny afternoon... in the summertime!

(Photo's taken in May 2009)

Blog Prompt #3: 5 Favourite things!

So today Shimelle has us thinking about lists. Mostly lists of our favourite things, places or people. Favourite aspects of life, our kids, food, landscapes, tv programmes, clothes, colours, scrapbook pages, books, movies, CD's, concerts, plays, colours of nailpolish, pizza toppings...  Well as you can see the list of all the lists could be endless!  So thinking about my list of favourites, I started thinking about all the bits of life that are good right now. So 5 things that I love about life at the moment: 

1. I love our new house! OK, so its cost us a fair bit more than we had expected. We've had to do stuff that we didn't think needed doing. Like replacing the entire fuseboard because the vendors had tampered with it and it was unsafe as a result. Like having to replace the oven - which had looked perfectly ok, but wasn't. So the ensuite needs completely replacing because the previous people bodged it and the garden drainage needs sorting because a tiny bit of rain turns it into a quagmire. BUT! And here's the big BUT, I love it. The house feels more like home in the few weeks since we moved in, than our previous house did - even after all the work we did to it. We've all settled in well and most of the boxes are actually unpacked!




2. I'm loving how both the girls are playing so nicely on their own now! Both herself and the little one are enjoying taking themselves into their own corner and playing. No interference from me! Herself is currently dressed in a Stephanie costume (from LazyTown) and playing with her little sisters toys. The little one on the other hand has crawled between the bookshelves and sofa and is happily unpacking and re-packing her older sister's bag of Baby Annabel accessories. Both girls are happy playing with each others toys, and peace has ensued. Long may it last!

3. I'm enjoying my little scrapping space! So himself finished building my new scrapping space inside the spare wardrobe, all the rails and flatpack have been assembled and the stash has been unpacked and sorted... and then re-sorted again! Now that its all accessible I am really enjoying my crafting again. I'm trying to make time every evening to sit and do a little bit of scrapbooking and also some altering. In fact, I'm in the process of completing a project that I bought the pieces for 2 years ago! I shall post piccies once I've given it to the recipient.


4. I love that the Christmas preparations are underway! I love the festive period every year. The days getting shorter, the air is getting that cold bite, the councils are putting up the christmas lights, we're drawing up pressie lists and making our purchases (slightly later this year!), menu's are being created, christmas cards crafted (or bought!), christmas cakes baked,  the decorations will soon be taken out of the loft and then christmas trees start appearing in every window on the street and soon we'll be sitting down to eat a meal and open presents with family and friends. I love it all... including the mulled wine!!


5. I'm loving the thought of setting up my own business! BUT, the reality of it is quite scary actually! There's so much to think about! Wholesalers, ebay, website, premises, funding, business plans, bank accounts... and then the elusive name for the whole lot! Definitely having problems with that one! Each time I think I've got a name that's suitable I discover that someone else has beaten me to it. Suggestions on a postcard please! 


Phew, that's enough for now I think! Thanks for reading!

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!

Its my burfday!

No, not MINE.... herself! Everywhere we went she kept telling people that it was her burfday. And she was quite right! I cant believe that she is now 3. Where did that time go?

We had a fab time yesterday. She opened a few presents in the morning and then we headed off to play at "Space Planet" which is officially known as Adventure Planet and is the largest play centre in Scotland... and its only 5 minutes from my parents front door by car! Much fun was had there - even when a little boy kept knocking her over. After lunch we went shopping and then for a bit of a drive. At home again we played with the new magic painting set (Crayola) until himself came home... at which point the fun really began! All the presents that had been hiding all day came out to be opened. Much excitement, ripping of paper and  giggling later herself was the happiest 3 year old on the planet! Included in the presents were several sets of Playmobil room settings, an easel and a sandpit. Of course all the presents had to be unpacked and put together right there and then!

Many thanks to everybody for the lovely presents! Especially to Grandma & Grandad, Ouma & Oupa, Aunty Liz et al, Great Granny and various family friends and neighbours! It now falls to myself to send out Thank You cards! It might take a while under current circumstances!

At least I'm going to have plenty of pictures to scrap. Including these ones which were taken by Ouma... and a whole load on my own camera too!

It's a losing battle...

But I'm rather happy about it! I've lost my first half stone and am dead chuffed! I have been anticipating this moment for a while and so went and bought my next dolly bead in preparation. Unfortunately I've been banned from wearing it until I reached the milestone properly... which I did this morning. So I have now added 'Tanith' to my bracelet! Isn't 'she' beautiful??

My next goal now is going to be to try not to put any weight on over the Christmas break! It's going to be tough, but I'm hoping that if I control my portion sizes, severely limit the puddings and chocolate and stay away from cheese completely that I should be able to do it. I might just treat myself on Christmas Day tho'... afterall, I can't be a stick in the mud all the time can I?

The other battle I've been fighting has not been so pleasant. Herself has now recovered from the 'water' infection but has then come down with croup, which has now turned into a nasty cold. And then to top it all off perfectly she started complaining about her ear being sore... one visit to the doctor's later she now officially has a double ear infection!! Just what I needed. Anyway, hopefully this next set of antibiotics will kick in quickly and she'll be fit in time for Christmas.  Speaking of Christmas, it's her nursery's nativity play this afternoon. Her first one! I'm sooo looking forward to it and will definitely be taking photos and possibly a video too.

I suppose I'd better dash off and go check that the various camera's are fully charged up and have enough film/memory!

(un)Happy Birthday to me!

Wow, I'm completely shattered! To say that yesterday may have been the worst birthday ever, is the understatement of the century. The day started fairly well with all those lovely pressies that I told you about and then got steadily worse from there on.

Firstly herself was miserable and grumpy because of a roaring temperature... at one point in the morning we recorded 39.8C. Which is not a good temperature for anybody to have! We duly stripped her down to her knickers, gave her a cool(ish) bath and pumped her full of Calpol. I phoned NHS Direct and they said that she might be coming down with a bug. So himself and I decided that we should stay away from people and not pass the bug on to anyone else... at which point himself decided to tell me that he'd organised a suprise dinner party for me and would have to call the guests and cancel. Herself continued to struggle with the temperature all day until we finally decided to take her to the A&E Department at the local hospital at 6.30pm. There they did all the usual checks, including a urine sample test, and found that she had a 'water' infection. Poor little mite! They prescribed an antibiotic and sent us home. We managed to get her to eat a little and then put her to bed. She woke up again at 11.30pm crying and complaining of back ache; she was also shivering uncontrollably and definitely in distress. I was halfway through my second phonecall to NHS Direct when she turned a strange shade of greyish blue... all the way down to her toes! The nurse on the telephone line immediately had an ambulance dispatched which took himself and herself to the A&E again, while I followed on in the car. This time the A&E doctors took some blood tests and more urine samples as they were concerned that her infection may have spread to her kidneys. After which we were referred to the Pediatrics department who further reviewed her test results. After several hours they decided that it hadn't spread to her kidneys and we could go home and continue on the course of antibiotics. We eventually left the hospital at 5.30 am this morning and were in bed shortly after 6am. After only 4 hours of sleep we had to start dealing with herself again as the temperature had returned.

To make our day even more distressing, we recieved a phonecall from my sister-in-law, just before lunchtime, informing us that himself's uncle had passed away. His employers raised their concerns with the police when he failed to report at work. The police went to his house to investigate and ended up having to force their way into the house where they found him at the bottom of the stairs. Early investigations indicate that he may have suffered a heart attack.  Himself and the rest of his family are devastated at this news as their uncle was well-loved and was always the life and soul of the party. We will miss him.

Uncle Chris and Erin - October 2006.

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.

Sleeping Beauty

This morning herself has been a whirling dervish, a two foot high Taz... creating havoc wherever she goes!  She has not been in my good books either, mostly due to the mess caused.  The final straw was when she got hold of the glass of water on my bedside table and emptied it's entire contents onto the bed! Which means extra work for me as I've had to strip the whole bed to let it dry out and will have to put new sheets on and remake the bed later today.  It's not a job I enjoy doing at the best of times...

I got the young madam to help me tidy up the mess she'd made, by packing up all her toys.  During which she was whinging the whole way. I figured it was just because she had been told off.  After most of the tidying up was done she went to sit on the floor on the upstairs landing while I finished off. When I turned back to look at her ....

Bubbles!

Yesterday morning herself and I went to Tesco's to do the monthly shop, boring yes I know!  Still, it had to be done as we had nothing in the fridge and even the larder cupboard was looking a little bare. So despite the snowy conditions we got in the car and drove to Tesco's. While I was there I found some Mer-Matey bubble bath in the kids section, which I thought herself would enjoy. Boy was I right!! She loved them and had a great time trying to eat them... don't ask me why? Who knows what goes on in her little mind?  Here's a few pics:

Unfortunately she enjoyed her bath so much that she didn't want to get out! Which ended up in tears; at least they didn't last too long as she was deposited into her bed not long after. I'm rather looking forward to scrapping these photo's... should look good!

Productive Day

I had a good day yesterday. Got Erin and I out the door fairly early and went with a friend and her two girls to a soft play centre. Erin had a whale of a time bringing Mummy the balls from the ball pool and climbing up the soft squishy stairs and then sliding down the curly slide.  I had a good chat with my friend and a lovely cup of hot chocolate, and best of all we sat inside in the warm while the world outside got blown to pieces by the terrible windy weather!

When I got home Erin was ready for her nap and went off to sleep very quickly. I decided to use the time to do some scrapping!  I used a class by Shimelle (for the UKScrappers Cyber Crop) as the basis for the layout so it went fairly quickly and by the time himself came home from work it was all done except for a few finishing touches.  The best part is that I finally got to use some of the yummy Basic Grey Fruitcake papers that I bought with my Christmas money, and it looks fabby!  Have a peek....

On a different note.... I'm just wondering how many people actually read this blog. Do you read it regularly or just occassionally?  Please let me know... post a comment!  The reason I ask is because my free trial here on TypePad is coming to an end and I'm wondering if its worth paying the money to continue posting. 

Beach Babe

Just wanted to share my latest Layout with you. The photo's are from our first family holiday in September, I have been looking for a way to scrap these for a while as I didn't want to wreck the photo's!  I am pleased with the result! Here's the LO...

Thanks for looking!