>>> On Display! <<<

Some LOs/projects that I've done.

For Homegrown Spring Survival kit. Was roped in to help design some projects. The below projects came out in Week 4 PDF.

This was a lift off Janine Langer. She does awesome work!

My foray into doodling. Kinda like the effect!

A mini album using Fancy Pants Dada card sheet. Fairly easy to accomplish and binded using my trusty BIA.

For BackPorch Memories May Solo kit:

Continuation of my A-Z BOM challenge:

The letter E: Educational Achievement
(have erased some personal info here)

The letter 'F' - Foreign Tongues

TTFN!

>>> Bank Holiday Weekend! <<<

Sheesh, hubby surprised me with a plan on Sat morning. Called me (while he was at the Bath with Ollie) and asked me to pack as we were going to SIL's place in Leicester for an overnite stay. Never mind the Chinese class that Ollie has to attend in the afternoon. 'Let change the routine'. So we did and we ended up spending 2 nites there instead! Thankfully I brought my laptop with me and managed to complete some design work that I had to do. Can't say we did much at SIL's apart from walking about in Leicester town centre on Sat afternoon and a BBQ in the evening.

Sunday was a washout and we stayed in the whole day, only going to the park in the evening so as to let 4 noisy boys expand their energy.

The boys were introduced to their latest craze... the Go Gos. Alien dolls where they stand in a row facing each other and you flick one across and if you hit any of the opponent's, they are yours to keep and the game goes on till one loses all his Go Gos.

Bank Holiday Monday was spend at Cadbury World. SIL and her boys haven't been so we went there. Gosh it was packed! We managed to secure a 4.30pm booking and wandered for 2 hours in the kiddies playground. Having been there last year, I wasn't so fussed and didn't take as many photos as I should.

The boys playing with chocolate that couldn't be eaten! I supposed they were used for playing purpose.
Here you stand in front of a purple light and a picture of you is taken and turned into chocolate. Thought it was cool!

TTFN!

>>> Down And Out! <<<

Yesterday

Got the dreaded flu and was down and out but not completely! Not when you're a mom. Managed to get thru' the day's routine but conked out in the evening. My eldest was so helpful and even took down the washing for me! Bless him!

Today

Feeling much better today. Have to thank those Japanese plum balls that my Aunt recommended when she came a few year ago. Been taking them and they work brilliantly! Flu couldn't have come at a worst time as I've got loads of design stuff to do! Sheesh, I think I need more than 24 hours! TTFN!

>>> Scrapping Weekend! <<<

A stroke of luck led me to attending the Scrapajack Retreat in Stratford-Upon-Avon on Friday nite and Sat morning and afternoon. Gosh, it was fantastic! The food was great, hotel's customer service was brillant and best of all, the Retreat was fabulous. Load of friendly people and I got to meet up with scrappers that I've known and chatted online. It's good to put a face to a username that I know. Here are some photos of people that I've known online:

Fi, Anita, moi, Amanda & Steph!

Steph & Rachel

Mary & moi. She is so fun to be with... makes you laugh!

My team member on UKS.

Claire & moi. We knew each other from Scrapitude forum.

Then on Sunday, it was the Solihull crop that I ran with Morag and Nikki. Had a fabulous day although I was thoroughly knackered by the afternoon. Can't complain much.... how often do I get to scrap for 3 days in a row?!! TTFN!

>>> On Display! <<<

Some cards that I made for my best friend which thankfully did reach China!

For E

For E's hubby

E & hubby's anniversary card

Here's are some LOs I managed to get done during National Scrapbooking Day on Scrapitude forum:

A 6x12 LO. Challenge was to use stamping, my forte!

Another LO that challenges you to use cut out flowers from patterned papers :

Managed to find this old photo of moi expecting Zac! See the little bump .... I was about 8 mths preggio then.

TTFN!

>>> Bank Holiday Weekend! <<<

Saturday

It's was National Scrapbooking Day today and the forums that I frequent had tons of SB activities going on. At the BackPorch Memories forum, I came out with a stamping challenge entitled 'Stamping Fever'. Basically it was to challenge scrappers to use their stamps on a non-LO project. They have till the end of May to do the challenge. Here's what I created:

The front of the tag book

The back of the tag book

Inside the tag book

The tags were glimmer misted and stamped

Back of the tags

Then on Scraptitude forum, there was a host of challenges which I managed only managed two. I didn't have a whole day to scrap and could only do them after the boys went to bed. Didn't go to bed till 4ish in the morning.

Sunday

Had to wake up at 6am so that I could be at Birmingham International Airport to meet Steph and her cousin.
Steph is from Homegrown Scrapbooks and is here for the Scrapajack/Homegrown Retreat in Stratford-upon-Avon which I wish I could go but the new job got in the way. Didn't think they would let me off to go for a scrapping retreat! Anyway, hubby was nice enough to send me there as parking at the airport would have cost me a bomb seeing that I would be there for more than 2 hrs! Came back with the two enormouse luggage containing tons of SB items! Steph and her cousin are heading for Paris and London before going for the Retreat.

Any thoughts of doing more scrapbooking challenge flew out of the window when after picking me up from the airport, hubby went over to his sister's place in Leicester. So we spent the afternoon there before heading to another of his sister's place again. Then it was back here when his sis and her two boys were staying over at MIL's place. One of the boys' cousins wanted to sleep over at our place so we ended up with 3 boys. Man, I think my lucky stars I've only got 2 as having 3 boys would be an utter nitemare!

Anyway, by this time I was just so knackered that I went off to bed before 9.30pm. Didn't even bother to step into my craft room!

Monday

The day started off miserable! Wet and gloomy, a typical Bank Holiday! Anyway, we decided to head off to Warwick Park but not before stopping off at Curry's to get a toaster as ours had packed up! That one lasted us 6 years and we eat toasts almost everyday!

Thankfully the rain had stopped when we reached Warwick Park. The boys had a play at the playground where they were each given 5 tokens to do what they wanted.
Then we headed towards the river to have lunch. After that, it was off to St Nicholas Playground where they released more energy. By this time the sun had come out and there were considerably more people around. Before leaving the boys had a good bounce on the bouncing castle where all they did was to climp up and slide down as many times as they could. They were thoroughly knackered by the time their 5 mins were up!


It was a pity NSD had to be held on a Bank Holiday weekend. Just couldn't do much and I was pretty much conked out come 9pm! Both nites saw me going straight to bed after putting the boys to sleep! Imagine... so much stash and no time to play with them! Sigh! TTFN!

>>> Random Thoughts! <<<

Just occurred I should note down conversation I had with a waiter at the Thai restaurant. We were mulling over some dishes. We wanted to order a platter of Thai starters which state min 2 people. He wouldn't allow us to order just 1 platter but 2 so that we could share. Anyway, I didn't want 2 platter of the same dish as I'm not a big eater. I tend to share food with hubby most of the time. So there we were, trying to decide what to order when he said...

Waiter: Can I recommend the sea bass (and proceeded to tell us how good it was)

Hubby: Is it farmed or caught at sea?

Waiter: It's frozen. (Eh DUD of course it's frozen. B'ham isn't exactly near any coast is it?)

Moi: I know it's frozen. What we want to know is whether the fish is farmed or caught at sea.

Waiter: Dunno. (not I'll check it out but direct Dunno and not a word to try and find out)

If he was expecting to make a sale, he just lost it outright! FYI, fish that is farmed don't taste as nice as those caught in the sea. Also you don't really know what goes into the feeding of those farmed fish! It also goes without saying that fish caught at sea is more expensive than those farmed but they taste so good so it's worth it!

Rite, it's National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow. I'm hoping to get some time off to scrap as the two forums I frequent have activities on. Moreover, just received Homegrown Spring Survival kit and it's massive! Have to make a dent in it!

Gotta go... need to sort out my NSD challenge on BackPorch Memories. TTFN!

>>> What A Day! <<<

Had a great birthday yesterday!

Day started out with work! Had to pop into school for training despite the fact that the school was closed for elections. We were supposed to have training in fire drill but some mixed up and the chap didn't turn up! Quite appalling actually, seeing that the teachers were in as well for the training. Anyway, we ended up having an impromptu training in Makaton as we do have special needs children using basic sign language in the school. Zac came along with me but we headed off to MIL where she took him out the whole day. I had to go to Ollie's school for his violin lessons in the afternoon.

Hubby surprised me with a Chinese birthday cake! I didn't think he would but he proved me wrong (thank god for that!). Oh and got loads of choccies as well. Of course did the traditional cutting of the birthday cake with my boys!

Boys were in their pjs as I had given them their bath before going out for dinner with hubby. Still I made sure they were there to cut the cake with me.

Hubby took me to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Had the most delectable tom yam soup. Main meal wasn't so fab as we chose the wrong dishes but dessert was a killer. I chose a typically Thai dessert and it didn't fail! Dish consisted of mango with coconut sticky rice and mango ice cream. It was simply delicious!

Trust hubby to take a bad shot of moi! Anyway my face is red as I had a bacardi coke. I'm not a drinker and I go red whenever I consume alcohol!

Forgot to add... was in Asda a few days ago and browsing thru Scrapbook Inspiration mag and found my LO in the sketch section. Did that a few months back and wasn't sure which issue it was appearing but it's in May 08 issue. Here's what I created based on the sketch, which I rotated it to fit my photos:

This LO came along so quickly. These photos are for Zac's passport but he kept changing his facial features that I had to take a few in order to choose the best photo! So I decided to scrapbook all the unwanted pics of him!

Well, I'm off to bed. TTFN!

>>> Happy Birthday ! <<<

to ME!

Sheesh, another year gone and growing older each time, hopefully not aging too much! Anyway, hubby has planned to bring me out for dinner tonite and got his mom to babysit the boys. Mmmm, let's see what I fancy eating tonite....

Done a bit of crafting yesterday, only b'cos I had to. Made a card and an altered frame for my son's birthday friend.

The altered frame. Thought it would be more interesting than merely giving the photo away!
Made it simple as I only had less than an hour for completion. Made use of a jumbo playing card as base. Those cards do come in handy!

Lighting wasn't cooperating hence the darkness of the photo. Anyway, decided to do a girly card for my son's birthday classmate. Didn't particularly fancy doing any kiddie type of cards... so boring!

Here's my letter D for my BOM.

Had difficulty choosing a word to represent D but hit upon focusing on my daily schedule as a part-time SAHM. These days I'm the boys' chauffeur, driving them to their activities which occur almost everyday except Sunday! It's tiring but that's my role as their mom! Broke into my Scarlet Lime kit to create this LO. Desperately need to use them as they are piling up skyhigh!

Crop at Morag's last nite but spent the early half watching Apprentice and Desperate Housewives instead. Inspiration strike only at 11ish and managed the above LO. Didn't get back till 1ish in the wee morning. She too was in a scrapping mode so we had great fun.

TTFN!