Eeeeeek! How long?

Sorry been a bad blogger!

I seem to go from having too much to do and not enough time to blog, to the other extreme of having lots of time to blog but nothing interesting to say!

I have, however, been nagged by several people to update my blog so this is a little start. No new projects to post - other than putting my most recent Collectively Yours projects up here in one place.

This one was for the Summertime theme. Just totally adore Rouge de Garance papers. Love love love them!



This was for our Elemental themed week. The pub along the road in our village is the launch point for lots of hot air balloons during the Summer. Sometimes they struggle with the thermals and really do get very close. The ladybird one was so low once that we could hold a conversation with the passengers! A simple but bold page (love the red and sky blue combo) using Scenic Route Northshore papers.



This page features one of the few photos I can get of Josh at the moment. He hates having his photo taken with a passion so the only photos I can get of him right now are from a distance away when he isn't aware the camera is pointing his way! And yes, more Rouge de Garance papers. This Urbaine range is just fantastic for teen (pre teen) boy pages!


This is a Poundland canvas I decorated for the Harvest theme. Painted then a couple of Making Memories papers attached with a Hambly transparency overlaid. Photo is of the produce we grow in our garden (we aren't such great gardeners, really should make more of an effort because it is SO good to be able to go and pick fresh from the garden to cook and eat straight away).


Finally a page I created for the Halloween themed week. A real nightmare for me (groan!) as we don't celebrate Halloween in our house. Many thanks to my good scrapping buddy Donna for allowing me to use these great photos of her daughter Alex all dressed up for Halloween last year. Isn't she a beauty?!



Not that I haven't been doing anything. Quite the opposite! I have been busy doing projects for the Collectively Yours blog and the Design Collective classes, plus I have had a couple of lovely scrapping jaunts away (one with the kiddies visiting the very beautiful, funny and great hostess Roz .... when I managed 12 layouts) and another time for a weekend away without the kids (yeah!) with a lovely bunch of scrappers (some old friends and some new - Roz, Angela, Kirsty, Jayne, Lianne, Carole and Janet) where I managed 9 pages. My problem is that I am too darned lazy to get photos taken, cropped, resized or whatever, unless I need to (ie for the Dares or Classes).

I will try to get some of them uploaded on here by the end of the week though.

Family stuff sees little change. Have had a crisis point with managing Chiara's behaviour at home and that saw me have (I know, yet another) emotional breakdown. Very embarrassing as it culminated on the phone whilst talking to one of the teachers. Even more embarrassing (but I was incredibly touched) that ten minutes later I had the Head Teacher knocking at the door and she came and sat with me for about an hour talking things through. I now go to school for an hour each week for a session with Chiara and one of her fave teachers who works with children with various needs in Positive Play sessions. Our sessions together are very helpful as it gives both myself and Chiara the opportunity to talk about how we want to improve things with a negotiator helping us.

Mia is continuing with her one on one sessions daily too (she isn't statemented but does need additional help and yet again the school is coming up trumps).

I can't speak highly enough of this school. The staff there really do work hard with both children and parents. There are only three teachers plus the Head and several support staff yet they go well above and beyond the call of duty.

Josh .... having a bit of a crisis here too but I am still trying to get to the bottom of things. He won't talk to me so am having to do some detective work. Really hoping the situation was a one off cos I am really struggling with this. It's a big leap from a parenting point of view going from the local, very involved and supportive primary school, where you see the teachers on a daily basis and know all the children and their parents, to the more anonymous and remote High School where I don't get to see the teachers. Not that the school isn't trying to help, but just it is hard when you don't know the people involved, the teachers, the new friends or their parents.

Phew. Heck, once I get started I can't stop! Off to get something nice for lunch!