Woo Hoo I love Cyber Crops!

Cyber cropping this weekend. I should really be able to do layouts quicker if I am only copying, right? Hmm, well not always. Especially late at night when my brain is halfway to dreamland.
Anyhow I started off with an absolutely gorgeous class by Karen (will come back with blog link!) it was done the 8.5x11 size so it was tweaked a wee bit (but not by much). My photo was even the same theme and matched the same range of papers! Just changed a few details but it is still obviously Karen's fab design, thanks Karen :) The photo of Mia was taken the other day on our trip to Bakewell.

And we were off to McArthur Glen again. The other day, eagle eyed Chiara spotted a poster advertising Paddington Bear as the special guest today. So we tootled along just to go and say hello to Master Bear! The girls had their faces painted, Chiara as a Fairy Princess and Mia as a butterfly. Mia had a strop about something or nothing (still none the wiser) and went and washed her face before I could take a picture. Here is Chiara though, not the best of shots (needed flash and it's a bit glaring) - she looks so weird and definitely much too grown up! She loved it though - especially the vampish lippy!

Okay just a quickie to add in some piccies from the last few days.

Going to start with the handmade pressies I received. The book from Kathryn is larger than a cheque book and each page covers one of the letters for my name (haha at the Z!) with lots of positive affirmations in it (ideal for when I am down, I know I will treasure it for years to come as I have another friendship book from Clare from a couple of years ago and I still love looking at that one too).



Then look what I got in the post this morning from Clare Wow! I know that she took the time and trouble to make it to my favourite colours. And the slide mailer has the most wonderful inked and stamps glass plates inside. Clare thank you so very much. (and also the flowers and ribbon, you know me too well!)

Plus I forgot to mention about my bargain yesterday from the Next outlet store at McArthur Glen shopping outlet on the M1 J28 (about 20 minutes from home). All the kids sale stuff was £2 per item and all accessories only 50p each! Sod's law though that most stuff wasn't in the sizes we needed (so no clothes for Mia or Josh, pity).

Quick list, fluffy collar cardigan, denim skirt with belt, velvet crinkle skirt with divine beaded waist trim, two winter hats, sequinned belt, diamonte buckle belt, two pairs party tights, one heart necklace, three swim/pe bags - full retail value over £90, MINE FOR £11 Oh I do so love a bargain :D

And I only need two of the pe bags. They are waterproof and feature mini mouse and sequins and are really cute. Anyone want one? First to say I DO gets a pressie for their little girlie!

I've got a couple from Bakewell too but Blogger is being silly with uploading the photos again. Does anyone else have this problem. I upload them, it says done, then ......... nothing ........ nowhere!

Well here I am - on broadband. I was yelling hooray earlier only for the connection to keep losing which I'm not happy about and will be onto the isp tomorrow. I have now, however, figured how to reconnect. Oh and there is a file missing from the second computer so I can't get the wireless adapter to work. I have to download some file and copy it over. A job for tomorrow I think (yes I AM a dreadful procrastinator).

Anyhow, BIG thanks to everyone for their warm wishes for my birthday yesterday (and lush presents to boot). I had a really lovely friendship book from Kathryn which I am certainly going to treasure, it made me feel so special (thanks Kathryn) plus some fab stamps and other stuff from Frances, yummy punctuation stamps and Maya Road chipboard from Donna, Chatterbox and HS embellies from Peppery Katie (my birthday swappee) and not forgotting my extra extra early and yummy pressie from Dawn (a Karen Foster tote no less). I love the good friends I have found through scrapbooking.

We (myself, Josh and Mia, seeing as Chiara was on a sleepover) braved the bus for a trip out to Bakewell yesterday (the car was in the garage). Suffice to say I now know why I won't relinquish my car. It was 15 minutes late going plus standing room only for most of the way and coming back it was 40 minutes late! We had a lovely day though, feeding the fish and ducks, at the park and eating ice-cream. Finished the day (the three of us again, Len wouldn't miss his football/pub night for me now would he?) watching Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD, cuddling, eating choccie cheesecake and downing a few port a lemons. Idyllic really :D

Been out today and spent the money from my parents/inlaws on a lovely pair of earrings and then took the kids to watch Over the Hedge. It was better than I was expecting, but Josh was a bit disgruntled as he wanted to see Pirates 2 - the showing times were way out though for us to accommodate both. Will try to encourage inlaws to invite the girls over for a couple of days next week so that I can take Josh to see Pirates just the two of us (Mia is such a scaredy cat, she just about managed Pirates 1 at home but the cinema would be a totally different matter).

Oh and big note to me to remember Orange Wednesday more often! Four of us for a few pennies over a tenner!

Well am trying again. I could NO WAY yesterday get this place to upload more than one photo and I wanted to get two on. So going to give it another go.

Had a real lazy day yesterday. Finished off a layout from the crop on Saturday and made a birthday card for a party Mia has been to plus another for my MIL whose birthday was yesterday. We went out for a meal to give her a rest from the usual gorgeous Sunday dinners she usually makes for us all each week. It's a double celebratory meal cos it's my birthday Tuesday. Not that I will be doing anything tomorrow as Len very inconveniently booked the car into the garage so we have to get up early and get the car in then walk back. Chiara is staying at a friends too and having her very first non family sleepover out. To say she is excited is somewhat of an understatement!

Anyway, back to Saturday. Had such a lovely time at crop - I'm really glad I made the effort. And thanks Jackie for providing the lift to the supermarket to get lunch, even if we did have to twist each others' arms to get the profiteroles :D

I did the Ali Edwards pp challenge from Annie's blog - actually started AND finished it in the day. Not quite random as I stupidly forgot the random papers and left them at home so I had to work with papers I had in my crop bag.

Those little stamps around the border are some stem stamps from My Sentiments Exactly. Aren't they gorgeous? They've got little phrases, the ones I used on here say 'you make each day sweeter', 'you are quite special to me' and 'follow your dreams and passions'.

There are another couple of sayings too, plus some flowers and leaves to match. I guess they are meant for card makers really, but I couldn't resist them.

I'm so in love with them I used them on the Easter Egg Hunt layout too! That features some more lush papers, this time from Heidi Grace. The darker pink is embossed and catches the light with beautiful, soft, shimmery kaleidescopic colours. Just perfect for a girly girl page.

Oh well, insert as many bleeping ***************'s as you figure suitable regarding Broadband. Suffice to say I'm still on dial-up!

Spent a couple of hours changing all the cables and stuff over (no mean feat as just getting to the back of the computers in here is a major job in itself) for the connection not to be recognised. Went and picked up a second hand monitor for the kids pc only to find out that one of Mia's friends' Dad is a computer geek so he came over to check it out. Three hours and two modems later we are back to dial up. Tried the technical helpline at 6.30 to find out it closes 5.30 - the guy thinks there is a problem with either username or password. So I am not best pleased, least of all because I have to start all over again next week.

Have got a crop to escape to tomorrow (yeah!) at Hobby Horse in Elvaston. Was considering not going until I realised the kids' social life was so more exciting than mine, so am going to make the effort after all. And perhaps I may even organise a project this time (but please don't bet on it).

I'm wondering if my deflated ego where computers are concerned can stand another battering - I think I need to figure how to start adding to the links on here and actually get some piccies up!

I am filled with trepidation (well scared stupid actually). I am a real technophobe, I can do the basics with my computer and nothing more. Well time has come now to try and get the broadband set up AND the computers networked together.

I have the Belkin modem/wireless router and the two adapter bits for the pcs plus the email from Euronet.

Just trying to pluck up courage to figure out what to do now.

I must just do it. Not having Broadband is a real pain as there are three of us fighting over the internet connection.

Also I will then be able to upload my photos to photobucket much easier and create one of those super duper slide shows of my layouts.

Wish me luck .........

A bit of a mixed bag today.

We made jelly and playdough today. I'm such a cheapskate, but homemade playdough is so easy to make, I will post the recipe tomorrow. The one thing I miss though is the smell of the real stuff. I always mean to add some vanilla or almond flavouring into the mix, but it's always too late by the time I remember. The jelly went down well at lunchtime, served with trifle sponge, ice-cream, spray cream, grapes, strawberry and chocolate sauce. Yum :)

I love the village school but it causes real headaches in the summer holidays - the children have few friends because of the small class sizes (for example there are just three girls and two boys in Chiara's year) and hooking up with them during the break is a logistical nightmare. Some have working parents so are not around anyhow (being at grandparents, holiday clubs and so on) plus mix in that their own holidays and, well, the kids have done well with each others' company for the first week but now they are craving to see their friends again.

We managed to have two of Josh's friends around today, he is off to the cinema tomorrow with another friend and Mia is also visiting a friend tomorrow. But Chiara is having a real crisis. Not helped by the fact that she doesn't want people to come here, she wants to go visiting other people. I tried explaining that it wasn't good manners to ring up and invite yourself over, but she just couldn't get it. Thankfully Len was home early from work today so I made good my escape, a mini trip to Derby. I bought three t-shirts, a copy of Scrapbook Answers, then spent an hour with a coffee reading the same in peace and quiet. Bliss!