Commander

I so love this Scarlet Lime kit, I thought the Sassafras would be too bright for me, as I've struggled with their papers before but I love it, it helps that these are my fav lo colours! This is LO of Joseph on his Birthday, he is playing a voice activated war game on his xbox, we had so much fun with it! I am really pleased with this LO, I have tried to make it busy as I struggle with busy layouts, if anyone says its simple I will brain them!!!!

Today I bit the bullett and started Slimming World, I am getting so depressed with how I look, that I had to do something! I've done SW in the past, and it seems to work for me, so I am looking forward to seeing results in a few weeks! I weighed myself and was surprised to find I only weighed 10st3lbs, I was expecting closer to 11stone so was pleased with that, I now have to lose 1.5 stone, to be my ideal weight, although, a stone will be a massive improvement on my figure! Its nice to know that this is the biggest I am going to be!

Yesterday Joe tried on his new senior school uniform, he looked so smart, will take a pic at the start of term, its very exciting for us all!

Mucking about with paint!

Had some spare time at last today, so I sat down to create, but that wasn't happening for me , so I decided to just muck about with paint, and this Layout was born. The coloured strips are done in paint, using borders and masking tape as masks. After I had done the 3 strips I put a photo on top, and just made this very simple Layout, a complete accident! It shows Joe yesterday on his 11th Birthday, we bought him a load of Cube Worlds and this is him playing with them, they are very cool, you stack them anyway you like and the little stick men in them interact with each other!

Joes Birthday yesterday was really lovely, for once I had time to play with him, I LOVED his war game for the X BOX, we bought him a headset for it, and we were controlling the game via voice control! We then picked up his make Luke, and took them for McDonalds followed by swimming at Oasis in Swindon, where they have loads of waterslides and wave machines etc.

In the evening my sister came round with her chocolate fountain, Joe LOVED it but NEVER NEVER again, it took 18 bars of chocolate, and it still did not flow like it should, we were messing about with it for about 45 mins, when Sarah remembered that you had to add veg oil to it to make it flow! Now she tells us!!

I Won!

looky what I got in the post today, about 2 weeks ago I got told I won a random draw at Scrapbook.com but as I live in the uk I thought I wasn't eligible for the prize (said not in the rules) however I got a parcel from them today. All you see in the picture, plus a load of Disney papers and stickers, I don't do Disney, so I gave them to Jessica.

We went shopping today, to kit the kids out for school next week, Joe is moving up to senior school so he needs a fair few bits and pieces. Whilst in Bristol we went to PRIMARK, we have just had a new one open 12 days ago and its the 2nd biggest in the country, 4 floors of it! I spent £71.90, mainly on pjamas it seemed!! (I do love lounging around in pjama bottoms!) Oh and I kitted Jess out in a load of new tops because SHE KEEPS GROWING! I managed to sneak in a bit of birthday shopping for Joes birthday on Thursday and all in all I spent £190 today eeeeekkkkK!

And tomorrow we shop for the rest of Joe's Birthday stuff! And then on Thursday, we are out swimming and a meal for Joe's Birthday, I am going to be SERIOUSLY skint!

I have however convinced Jason to buy me a curry tonight, so its not all bad!

Good News for me!

Got another Layout accepted into the readers gallery of Scrapbook Inspirations, its the Christmas one I did last week. Very pleased!

Rulers

Look at what I found in the local pound store today, cool eh? I have a craft robo that can cut out these border shapes, but getting it going is a hassle so these will be real time savers!!! Think they are good for a squid!

We gave notice of our wedding today, so it all feels a bit more real now! We have rushed around all day, so now me and the kids are going to watch a film together and have a relax, Jason is going to do some work on the PC, he is finding it hard being with the kids 24/7 and is having a bit of a naggy day, so frankly we are glad to be rid of him for a bit!!! I find things run a lot more smoothly when its just me and the kids.

Best Buds

Won't have much time to scrap for a few days, so getting them in whilst the going is good! Another one with the Scarlet Lime August kit! Bit of artistic license on this one, Jess is best buds with Bruno, I don't think he is necessarily best buds with her!!!!

Poor Paw

Got my new Scarlet Lime kit yesterday morning, this is more like it! So much fun and loads of bright colours, felt really inspired by it, so today I made this! Poor Bruno had a sore spot on his paw and was licking it far too much, so we wrapped a sock around his paw and secured it with hair bands, he is not bothered by that at all, and the sore is healing nicely now!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at my mums and had a lovely BBQ (Dad sneaked off to watch the cricket and burnt the sausages though!!!) We took the dog as they have a massive garden, and he was in his element running about!

Busy week coming, starting with us giving notice of our wedding at the registry office tomorrow, and ending with Joes birthday on Thursday, with lots of stuff inbetween!

Christmas 2008

I don't know what possessed me to do a christmas LO, but here it is, last year I was too new to scrapbooking to make a decent christmas LO, so it was a challenge to get christmassy in August. The LO is actually the scallop shape (its not mounted onto white cardstock like the pic suggests!) I was mad enough to do the old 'drawing around letter stickers' again. Not much in the way of embellishments on this as the journaling takes centre stage, but I like those swirly basic grey rub ons that I used!

Kids are back today, so thats the end of my peace for the rest of the holiday, looking forward to them coming back, its very quiet without them, and apart from the noise they produce, they are very easy to be with at the moment!

We were out last night with our friend Nicky and were discussing out wedding next year, we basically want a really relaxed informal affair, I said it was a shame that we could not have the reception in The Ship, as we love it there and the food is excellant. Turns out we can have it there, Jeanette ( the landlady) will give us the lounge till 7.30pm and do a buffett!!! cheap as chips, informal, relaxed and in my favourite pub!!! RESULT

Rocket Boy

Heres a LO I managed today, based on a sketch from http://52sketches52weeks.ning.com/ Sketch no #33. I took the pic this weekend, we took the kids to our local park where we walk the dog and Jason bought them this little cheapo foam rocker launcher - great fun!

We had a nice weekend, we didn't do what we had planned as my gran was being moved back to her home from the hospital (apparently she just fainted, so no mini stroke, thank god) and then Jessica was under the weather when I woke on Saturday and clutching her stomach, one dose of calpol and she was over it!!!

The kids went to their dads on Sat night, and Jason and I went out, just us on our own this time but we had a nice night. Yesterday we were out with various friends, 2 hours with Jasons mate Tom as it was his birthday and then we met up with Paul and his girlfriend, much drinking, we gave up at 8pm and went home for food and bed!!

Today I have caught up with some telly I wanted to watch and have done this LO, nice day, very relaxed!!

Still crafting...

... Just about!

Had a busy couple of day and a busy couple of days coming up!

On Thursday we had to take Joe to the hospital for his consultation about his teeth, this took 2 hours, as they sent him for xrays and we had to walk up and down various corridors, sit in various waiting rooms and then go and register in pre-admissions. Joe is having 2 teeth out, the rotten one and the perfectly healthy one directly under it, aparently there is a big risk the on the bottom will keep on growing, if there is nothing to stop it and this can cause problems later. Joe himself seems ok about it all now, the nurses and doctors were very nice although they did treat him like a 5 year old, and I know that he rolled his eyes at me a few times (I don't think he appreciated being given stickers for being a "Super Star" patient lol!!!). We got home and although I wanted to craft I just felt really wiped out, and I hardly moved for the rest of the day, I was knackered!

Today I have had to catch up with the housework, including another bumper mega ironing session, then my sister visited for a few hours, and I have just finished covering a mini album with the papers, now I just need to fill it!

Tomorrow I am visiting my gran in hospital, she has had a suspected mini stroke, she is in poor health at the moment (but she is 94 after all) and is in and out of hospital. We are going via mcdonalds in cheltenham to meet with my mum and dad, so that they can give Joe his birthday present.

So not much crafting to report, life has gotten in the way!

Mini Disaster

Ever had one of those crafting days? Well thats me today, it looks alright now, but at one stage it was for the bin! I had to add the ribbon to cover a large tear in the paper. Actually its a happy accident as it looks quite cute now! The white dots have been glossy accented although it doens;t really show on the pic, it looks raised IRL.

The lettering gave me such a nightmare, we actually holidayed in Saundersfoot, try fitting that on to an album this size! even in two lines it didn't fit!!!

So I have packed up and decided to call it a day, have to really as we are supposed to be going out in half an hour and I am still sat in my house clothes with my hair tied back. I have long hair that resembles a bramble bush when its left to its own devices, to make it look good, I have to first straighten it and then curl it (I know that sounds like madness, but I straighen it first to reduce the volume of hair!!!) So really I had better get to it!

Beeep!

Managed to get this done this morning, decided to have a change from the white background and do it on black, which is all very well and good but it really seems to attract greasy finger marks, so it looks a bit smudgy in real life! This was almost my first attempt at a wonky border, I actually did this with a ruler, to stop me going to far off line. Also I am possibly going to regret using 3 'e's on this, when I next want an e and don't have one!!!

Another quiet (ish) day in our household today, Jason had his tooth out this morning and he came back visibly shaking, poor thing, but he was much better when he left an hour later, so hopefully it won't cause him too much bother.

Back to front

I've just realised that i've spent all day with my top on back to front!

Had to send off for a copy of my Decree Absolute today, having turned the house upside down at the weekend looking for it, I have come to the conclusion that it is hiding and won't turn up until I have spent good money and effort on a replacement, I have given in to sods law and sent off for a new one, I only hope it gets here in time!

Boring day really, Major tidy session, Jess did her room (thats always a BIG job) and Joe helped me, by hoovering the bottom of the stairs and dusting the living room, then I had to have a major ironing session, which I did whilst Joe and I watched Air Crash Investigation, Joe loves Air Crash Investigation, he has a very technical mind and loves how the experts piece together what happened to the plane, although I don't think I will ever get him on a plane now lol!!

I then conned the kids into walking the dog for me! I have decided to allow them a little more freedom, so I let them go to the local shops, there and back takes them about 25 mins, at the moment they are loving it and are eager to go whenever I ask, so I get them to take the dog and it saves me having to leave the house if I don't want too! When they stop loving it so much, I will bribe them with sweets. I'm good at this parenting lark I really am!

Crafting is not working for me today, I finished of the What? Lo and that was really all I have managed to do! I am running out of photos that I want to scrap, so will have to manufacture some photo opportunites soon.

As there is no crafty photo on this post, have these instead, Jess spent a very happy afternoon dressing Bruno in her old tshirts, I think he only growled once!

Hes saying "HELP!!"

What? i'm on my hols!

Another one made using the My Scrapbook Nook August kit with all the October Afternoon lovelies in!

Finding this kit so easy to create with, love the rub-ons and stickers, and this photo of Joe as a baby is so adorable (look at that expression on his face, grumpy old man or what!!!) I remember this day, we were at a BBQ at my friends house before she emigrated to Oz, joe was sat on the floor taking it all in and I couldn't resist putting the beer bottle in his hand and getting a quick snap, it was so cute! Photo quality is not fab as obviously it was taken pre digital, probably on a throw away camera!

The weekend was fab! Ended up with a curry with mates on Sat night, lots of fun and good chatter. Quiet week ahead, Joe is refusing to go on another leisure day, so he will be stuck in with me, the only thing we have planned is a trip to Bath hospital on thurs morning to discuss Joes' up coming oral surgery (really shouldn't have weaned him on beer see!!! lol)

Going to watch a film with the sproggies now, Joe has the kettle on bless him!

On the Road

This must be a record for me, this LO took me 1hr, 1HR!!! thats amazing and whats more amazing is that I LOVE the end result, don't you think that that ribbon I used looks just like road track? Clever clever kit makers.

I have even manage to tidy away all my craft stuff for when Jason gets in from work any time now!! Love that I managed to craft on a Sat morning and get a whole LO done before he gets home!!

Mine!

All mine!!

Get a load of those thickers, I have a thing about buying thickers, I love thickers, I need thickers, I want thickers, but I rarely buy them - they are sooooo expensive, so I rely on my kits to provide me with their loveliness. However I had some birthday money and I took the plunge and bought 8 - YES! 8 packets of thickers and that along with the other bits you can see in the pic and a large pack of AC White cardstock was £52! But I am still pleased with it.



Also today came MY Scrapbook Nook kit, its is Gorg!!! loaded with October Afternoon goodies and I cannot wait to have a play, bit disappointed that my chipboard pieces didn't include a man and a woman like in the pic on their website, but I can always cut that on the good old Craft Robo.

Also and less pleasingly I had delivered some wellies, I am very sore about having to buy wellies in August, but the field we take the dog too is sooooo boggy at the moment, they are needed, and I am fed up of my silly pink with black hearts ones that I have, these are much nicer and practical!


Now I am off to shower before I dive into that scrap kit!

Flapping Ankles

I went to the kids sports day a couple of weeks ago, Jessica comes running out looking so disheaveled and sporting trousers that were massively too short for her, I was a bit embarrassed, but she didn't care! Anyway I had to scrap it.

I did another sketch for this one, it seems to save me time when I sit down to scrap, if I have a bit of a template to follow, so this is another sketch creation of mine that I did a couple of days ago, and this is the LO resulting.

Now I've used Basic Grey Lemonade for this, and I am NOT a Basic Grey fan, their muted patterns and colours just aren't my cup of tea, but I got the range in a recent kit from My Scrapbook Nook, and so I had to at least have a go, and thats what I did, another thats not going into my favourites, but there you go!!!

Was expecting the postie today, two packages are expected and what did I get? none! bit disappointed, if Jason's wellies turn up before my parcels I will be seriously unimpressed!!! One parcel is from My Scrapbook Nook and is full of October Afternoon Roadmap goodies, and the other one is from Sarahs Cards and is full of cardstock and THICKERS (Yay thickers) I spent all my birthday money (£50) on card and thickers

The kids are at their dads this weekend, so as usual we will be down the pub tonight to meet with mates, woohoo!!!!

Skip

Well here is the LO I did from yesterdays sketch, not a favourite, it was going good in the middle, but i'm not a bundle for the end results, and it didn't photograph well either! However I did enjoy working from the sketch!

Been trying to find all my documents today for when we give notice of our marriage in a couple of weeks, am a bit distressed to find that I cannot find my Decree Absolute anywhere, and I was sure I saw it just recently too! Everybit of paper and document imaginable, except the one that I need - sods law!

Lasts night evening out was nice, I had lasagne and it was lovely, Jason won't eat Lasagne (too saucy apparently) so its nice to have when out! Then I decided to share a pud with Jessica, it was a sharing pud, consisting of Pofiteroles, brownies, ice-cream, dipping sauce and wafers and it actually came on a HUGE (like a chopping board) brown wooden platter, I ate what I could and Jess as Jess does demolished the rest! We then went over the road to our local, where the evening was cut a bit short when Joe went for a run in the adjacent park and fell and banged his head! Of course as Joe does, he then worried that he would die of a brain haemorage, and decided that we should go home just in case lol!!! Bless him!

Lastly a pic of the Coffee Cupcakes Jess and I made on Monday, not as pretty as normal of course as Jessica was in charge of the sprinkles (BIG MISTAKE, resulted in me having to get the hoover out for the 2nd time that day!!!)

A Sketch

A few days ago I created my first sketch (its what I created Fetching Fella from) and although I thought it would be a bit of a challenge, I really enjoyed it, and found it surprisingly easy to do (I used OpenOffice Draw and it was a breeze, very self explanatory!

Today I am having a crafting slow-go, I want to craft but just can't! so I thought I would have another go at creating a sketch, this is what I thought up, and tomorrow I will have a go at making a LO from it!! Making this sketch certainly inspired me and if I had time now I would already be having a go! Should you like it, feel free to use it and let me know the results!

Last night at the ship was great fun, enjoyed my adult company away from the sproggies! Tonight we are taking the kids out for a meal in our local two for one pub, they are looking forward to that, makes them feel grown up!!! I was a little worried about going out earlier, it seems to be flying ant day here in Bristol, and them buggers are big this year, I went out the back garden and was back in the house in seconds (I have a growing phobia of flying ants!) The kids had to take the dog for his walk without me as there is no way I am going out! not on flying ant day!!!! Fortunatley they seem to have died down a bit now!!!

Ahoy!

Holiday camp day today at our local leisure centre, and a very well needed day of peace away from the kids, Joe decided he didn't want to go at the last minute and I decided that he did so that was that lol!

I have had a nice day, I watched an episode of Big Love which I absolutely love and did some crafting, managed to get away from blues and greens and oranges and managed this LO, I was blog surfing earlier and found this sketch site: http://www.twistedsketches.com/ and used one of their sketches (no 007) to create my LO, Its surprising just how few portrait photos I actually have, I seem to always take landscape, so I decided to use the same photo 3 times and I am quite pleased with the result! The Skull and Crossbones were cut on the craft robo and then glossy accented.

Now I am going to try to remember more portrait shots!!

Tipping it down with rain AGAIN today, have had to have the lights on in the house all day as its so grey outside, there is a theory going on that the government made the weather forcasters report on the more positive side (barbque summer anyone) to bring more money into the struggling economy and make people book holidays in the UK, and I am beginning to subscribe to that! I am officially fed up with it now.

Meal in the Ship tonight with Nicky, I am looking forward to it! good laugh, good food and good enough wine!!

Firm Friends

Heres a LO of Jessica on her 9th Birthday, she had friends round for tea, was a bit last minute though!!

Struggled with this one a bit, but I wanted to do something and I forced myself, not too bad considering how it was half way through lol!! Used a lot of bits from July Scarlet Lime kit, notepaper, butterfly, lime sticker, chip sticker.

Fetching Fella

This is the LO I managed to do yesterday. Very simple LO, used Scenic Route papers,

with bits from the July Scarlet Lime kit (rub-ons, stickers, chipboard and flowers) The alpha is Basic Grey. Love this photo of Joe, he is so handsome in it!

Such a boring day yesterday, only went out to walk the dog, so a very disappointing weekend all round, I'm hoping for a better week! Tomorrow night I am off to The Ship again with my mate Nicky, her OH Alan is off on business for 2 weeks, so its a chance for some company for her and a chance for adult conversation for me! Then on Wed night, Jason is finishing early (this means he will be home by 5.15) so not mega early and we are taking the kids out for a pub meal. This means 2 nights in a row of not cooking, hurahh!

Don't forget about the my scrapbook nook compo!! details on the next post down, these kits are super lush so don't miss out on the chance to win one!

Strut your Scrap - Chance to win a free kit at My Scrapbook Nook

Yes thats right, you could win a free kit from the Nook, and beleive me when I say they are worth winning!!

Heres what you have to do:

1 Look at my 3 Layouts above (made using My Scrapbook Nook June kit) and leave a comment on this blog

2 Then go to this place http://www.myscrapbooknook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21275 and leave a message saying that you saw me (brite1) strutting my scrap and then link back to my blog

3. Keep your fingers crossed, you will be entered into the draw!!

Good luck!

Funky Girl

Isn't this Kraft paper great? Its part of the scenic route Garden Groove collection. I wanted to have a go at a graffittiesque kinda LO, so this was perfect for it, I coloured in some of the flowers on the paper and then just loaded words around it. There was a stage in the middle where I wondered if it would come together, but I like the results!

A quiet weekend for us here, I was feeling so bored yesterday, so bored I didn't want to do anything, but we eventually went into town, but all I managed to buy was Scrapbook Trends mag and I lovely notebook from WHSmiths with cherries on it! Still it was enough to pick my spirits up. We then went to the pub with the kids for an hour whilst we waited for our chinese takeaway, I've not had chinese takeaway for about 4 years!! (i'm an indian girl myself) but it was very nice, and I am having the leftovers for lunch!

We did want to go out today, I was all for the beach but Jason has woken with a dodgy tummy (hes a very sensitive lad like that bless him) so at the moment we are housebound, hopefully will get to do something this afty though!