Woo Hoo - at last!

The car has been picked up this morning to go into the garage for repair. For repair of the passenger side doors (front and rear) caused by that plonker (male driver obviously!) who went straight into the side of my car in Asda car park way back in July!

Heaven's knows why it has taken so long to get the go ahead and I was starting to get mightily frustrated when my phone calls to the insurance company just resulted in 'we are waiting to hear back from the third party insurer'. Hmmm 5 months down the line anyway today is the day. Just sat here now waiting for the hire car company to come with the hire car (like for like means I should be getting another 7 seater, though they did try and fob me off with a smaller car so we will see.

My desk needs a good declutter it is covered with papers, scrapbooking and business and a lot of little individual chocolate boxes I cut out with the Craft Robo (courtesy UK Scrappers again!) and which Chiara had great fun putting together (Mia couldn't quite get the hang of it.

Going to get a cup of tea and hope the people bringing the car find me without too much trouble.

Oh one more thing .... universal in car chargers for mobile phones. I bought one an age ago from Tesco (hence I no longer have the receipt) and just tried it out this morning and, whilst it fits my phone, the other end won't push into the cigarette lighter. No way. Nope. Am I allowed to swear? Well I am doing I can tell you.

Subscriptions will be open for December very shortly so keep your eye on The Design Collective blog for more information. We do gift subscriptions too so very handy that to bear in mind if you want to treat someone (or want someone to treat you!).

Oooh Craft Robo!

Well I had been lusting after one since they came out but it seemed so extravagant a purchase.

Anyhow, at the beginning of the Summer I bought a second hand one from my very good scrapping buddy Donna. Got it home, put it on the printer shelf. And left it there. I had read so many 'horror' stories on UK Scrappers and it all seemed so complicated the more I thought about it the more I couldn't stand the thought of dealing with any problems it might throw up at me.

Well, last week I took the bull by the horns and plugged it in. Downloaded some templates from UK Scrappers (thanks to all the very talented ladies who share templates for free!)and started cutting! I have only done simple things and haven't contemplated even trying to make my own templates yet. I need to go and read up how to create matted fonts though, that is a must!

These are two projects I created for The Design Collective. As well as the TWELVE CLASSES PER MONTH, on the run up to Christmas we have made an extra effort with the weekly extras that we send out and the girls have come up with some absolutely gorgeous projects on the countdown to Christmas.

I used the Craft Robo to create the scallops for my Noel wall hanging (template courtesy of Clare33, this is her blog where she has other templates for free download too) and the decorative box template to create these little decorated boxes for hanging on the tree (courtesy Ruthan, larger template here and smaller one here).

All papers and die cuts are by K&Co, the Peppermint Twist range, I adore it, in fact I must buy some more of the papers as I have nearly used my pack up on layouts and projects already and Christmas isn't even here yet!

Just need to pack my bags (cropping bags that is) and I am heading off to Donna's for the night.

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!

Collectively Yours challenges

UK Scrappers ran a laid back online cyber crop last week and various retailers and inspiration blogs took part by providing the classes. The class provided for the Collectively Yours inspiration blog was my own page 'Beauty is ....'

I loved looking at all the different interpretations of this class in the gallery over on UKS. We were offering three winners a prize of a one months subscription to The Design Collective. Boy was it hard to choose just three! We eventually thrashed it out between us and those winners will be announced on the UKS home page shortly. Thanks to everyone for playing along and for the lovely comments and feedback on the class.

For anyone that didn't get time to play along last week, the instructions can be found in the library over on UKS here.

Over at the Collectively Yours blog we have taken a little breather ourselves over the summer holiday period BUT that doesn't mean you have to! We have issued a new challenge for all our blog readers, to incorporate a quote (from a whole selection given) in a layout and to link back to the blog. The winner will be picked at random after the deadline of 23rd August. So pop along and check it out!

We had a great time at the Safari Park and Living Museum by the way (still got to upload the piccies to the pc yet, must do that today) and both places gave vouchers for FREE entry another time, which we will be definitely taking up at some point. And the Inn Keepers Lodge was fab! It was in an old house and we had a huge room, must have been at least 25'x15' with very high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, full height windows .... must have to remember to request that room again next time!

Anyhow, busy, busy, busy so have got to go and get some scrapping done :)

Stress free summer hols ...

Apparently you can get stress free summer hols. I reckon if you keep the kids in school then, yeah, or perhaps you keep them in straight jackets, or you only have one so they have no-one to bicker with. Three .... all I can say is thank goodness I went to the doctors to get meds before they broke up from school! I'm trying to pace the days out (money) and last week we visited Monkey Forest near Trentham Gardens at Stoke. I thought it was fabulous, the kids enjoyed the first hour I think but after that they were like 'oh yeah, another monkey ... when are we going home?' I got some lovely shots. It was wonderful to see the monkeys unfettered by glass, wire or other cage and of course they looked so cute, especially the baby ones!





Tomorrow is my birthday but the only thing planned is that I have to take the car to get new tyres. Oh yep and on the subject of cars ... I took Len and the kids to Pride Park to watch Derby County v Nottingham Forest last week, went to Asda for a browse and a little shop (only place open that time of night) and this guy reversed his car into mine. I got a good witness and the man was (seemed) genuinely sorry. It made a right mess of both the passenger side door front and rear so that will have to go in sometime when the insurance gets sorted.

What else? Oh yes, I have booked for us (me and the kids) to spend the night at the Inn Keepers Lodge at Dudley Thursday night. So Thursday and Friday can be spent going places. West Midlands Safari Park for definite and probably the Black Country Museum for the second day. I love that at WMSP you get to go back for free another time before the season ends (a BOGOF in other words!). I will surely be wondering why I am putting myself through sharing a small room with three bickering kids YET AGAIN when every time I swear it will be the last :D I just hope that we get some enjoyment for some part of the trip.

And thanks for the kind comments (on here and on the DC forum) about my last class - I didn't really explain it very well before. The Design Collective is a group of talented UK designers who have got together to present a variety of online scrapbooking classes. It's a subscription based service (paypal, UK cheque or direct bank transfer) and for just £10 you get 12 classes sent to your email box over a four week mailing period. There is a community forum for discussion and questions and a gallery to share your work. Plus there are other extras available to members. We have subscribers from all over the world too. It's free to register as a member on the forum and that is the place to find out more about how to subscribe.

Don't you just love it when ....

Something turns out as gorgeous as you hoped!

I have had real problems focussing on scrapbooking recently with everything else that has happened but this week I have a class up at The Design Collective so obviously I couldn't let anyone down so got stuck in and ..... I love what I have done!

I've created a very textural page with lots of mediums (corrugated card, transparency, paints, ink, lace, gems, shrink plastic ... the list goes on). I wish I could share it on my blog but I can't but here is a sneak peek here for you.


I'm glad it's turned out beautiful ... just perfect colours for displaying on an easel in my bedroom ... I always have a bit of a confidence crisis, especially when my work is up next to the other fabulously talented DC team members (the other two classes this week are by Jane and Dolly!)

Deadline for August subscriptions is 11.00 pm tonight, checkout our forum for details (you need to register to become a member ... that bit is free ... then you can read what to do ... alternatively you can read more on our blog.

I will update with personal stuff at the weekend ... we are off out to Monkey Jungle at Trentham Gardens for the day tomorrow ... looking forward to a day out with the kids ... must remember to charge up the batteries and put the photo card back in the camera.

Thanks to everyone who is keeping my spirits up at the moment .... love you all!

Quick update .....

Still got icky tummy (stress goes straight there!) and the tablets I think are compounding it, not really sure.

Chiara had another episode in the night last night. We had not had one for a couple of weeks. Very sicky tummy feeling plus she can't stop shaking, sometimes she is sick, sometimes she isn't. I can't really get a link of food/drink between all these episodes which have been over the last couple of months, often once a week. Several have been after a party, another after a hectic and late play session and then now she is worried about having her tooth extracted Friday. So I am wondering if her problems are stress related too? Or whether she is being affected by the tooth abcess. She was given anti-b's by the dentist and things eased. Will wait and see if having the tooth out makes any difference, if not then I will be taking her to the doctors see if they have any suggestions.

More things happening in my life ....

Accounts
and
Rain
and
Friends .......... thank heavens for friends! I had a weep at the school gate last night (yes embarrassing I know) and my beautiful, lovely and very kind friend Sharon took me home for a cuppa, under the guise of us all needing a cuddle and play with her two sweet new little kitties. Thanks Sharon!