Happy Birthday to him and her

In the last couple of weeks, my head has been about 3 days behind real life I guess.  I've been caught on the hop twice this week with cards that I should have made and left till the last minute.  One of those cards was for a rather special birthday girl who you might have heard of, young Sarah at S J Crafts.  In celebration of her birthday week there have been / are various offers on at the shop and if you are quick you might just catch one.  Don't forget to have a look at the challenge which closes soon too.

I used the Papermania Linen capsule collection and went for feminine but simple and elegant.  

This next one was for my Step-Dad.  The monkey stamp was one of the many 99p ones that I've picked up from Hobbycraft recently.  I got this one for little boy cards and a simple outline of a princess castle for little girl cards.  I thought I would try it out on this rather hurried affair for my Dad - I stamped it, coloured it with Promarkers, then thought, now what?  I rifled through my scraps box and found this ancient piece of handmade paper from the days when I bought any pack of paper under £5.  The aqua circles matched the aqua in the monkey's hat and so it all turned out okay in the end.

I quite like him.  I think he'll be visiting again.

Bye for now
xx

One

How cute is my little man here?  I can't believe this was over 5 years ago and yet he is still as smiley and cheeky as he was back then.  

The journalling, for those without magnifying glasses, reads: I definitely think that I was more excited than anyone about your birthday.  To be honest, I didn't think we'd get there, plus I was bored of the same toys!"

The funny thing is that looking at the toys in the photos here, I remember how little he had back then and how crazy the amount they now have between them.  We had an Adam's style fireplace (a brick opening, as wide as the actual fireplace with nothing inside it) and inside there we had a set of small shelves for his toys.  In front of this was one of those folding plastic baskets where we used to keep his books.  That was it, one bucket of books that we read over and over.  Now we have shelves and shelves and shelves of books for both of them and I still find myself buying more.  When I think of the amount of "schtuff" we have now, I wonder how we would have managed if we hadn't moved into the suburbs.  I certainly wouldn't have my own craft room with approaching 15 albums of layouts that's for sure ;-)

Bye for now

xx

First Halloween

This post is brought to you as part of Story Telling Sunday with Sian at High in The Sky.

Being a slightly quirky sort, I love Halloween, or Samhain as it's also known.  The veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest so you feel closer to those you have lost at this time of year.  Of course, with the veil being thin, our lost loved ones can pass through but so can those whom we would really rather didn't, hence why we dress up and make lanterns and try to be scary.  I love that it is becoming more popular here in the UK to have fun with the Halloween theme - any excuse to dress up the children is fine by me!

We used to live in a very rural area, a couple of doors away from the retained fire station.  Every Halloween they would have a sort of open house and the local children could come along and get a few sweets, have a sit in the fire engine and have a go at squirting the hoses etc.  Really it was about bonfire and firework safety as much as anything.  We were really excited to take Louis on his first Halloween (second really, but he was only 5 months old the first time).  It was one of those little milestones that seemed really important while we were dreaming of what being a parent would be like.  He thought it was great fun to go out in the dark when he should have been in bed and obviously didn't have a clue what we were doing there or why but it was new and therefore exciting.

For some reason I was thinking just now about how great that little ghost costume was that he wore that first visit and then realising that he was actually wearing the monster costume in these photos which he wore the year after.  This means that although the layout says "1st Halloween", it is actually not.  Now I have a dilemma which will take a lot of tea and cake to solve.

As a slight aside from the costume conundrum, I've just spotted the gorgeous polished wood floor in the photos.  Our old house was a 3 storey Victorian terrace that used to serve as a staff house for the big Union work house at the end of the road.  We loved our little house but it was just too little once we had 2 children.  We miss the village so much and never more so than this week when a chance conversation has led us to believe that Louis's asthma may actually be because of the pollution here, even though it doesn't seem polluted (we are close to the M3, M27 and Southampton Airport).  We now face another conundrum of what to do about this potential new information as nothing is concrete yet.  Of course, I will need a fair bit of tea and cake while we process this.

Switch the kettle on would you?

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 174

This post is brought to you by the regular "What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?" blog hop courtesy of Julia.

I've got to be honest, I just can't get around to many desks at all at the moment with my writing. I always reciprocate but it doesn't seem in the spirit of the thing to get around to only a handful of people.  I'll still join in as and when I can but it might be quite a while between visits sadly.  I haven't even got a pic of my desk today as it is completely bare so I am using last weeks as a reference point!  I found that I couldn't write at the same desk that I craft at as I got too distracted by pretty papers and shiny embellishments.

I've moved the kraft desk set out and into our spare room which has a rather old desktop computer in so I can keep the lap top for my ..er.. lap and spread my papers out and dance between the 2 areas of creativity rather than have to put things away before I can change my focus. Huzzah!

I did a talk at my son's school last week about my "job" and all the children (and the teachers!) were jealous of me playing with paper and glue every day but since then I haven't touched my craft stuff!  In fact the last thing I made was Lunch Lady Jan's book!  I've made LLJ a notebook before and I wanted to give her something to say thank you for the amazing friend she has become and an extra thank you for the fabulous bag that she made me.  I wanted to make her something useful to keep her project ideas in so I made a book with lots of pockets and places to keep photos and measurements etc.  There is space for notes and a pencil case in the back full of tags for more notes and details etc.  I decorated all the pages in stitching themed papers and embellishments, stamped the tags with sewing machines and then added some flowers and bees because they make her smile.

 I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoy my bag.

Bye for now
xx

Her faces tell such stories

I'm very lucky that my children still love having their pictures taken.  Sometimes though it can work against me because they are always on the look out for the camera and I prefer the more candid and less cheesy shots!  Miss Bella has such expressive little features and I wanted to capture that on a layout.

Each of these images are very much "her" and yet each one is so different.  They were all taken on a trip to the zoo last April when she had just turned 2.

Her teeth are being affected by her thumb sucking and we are desperately trying to tackle it but she looks so cute!

The photos are perfect IRL, please excuse the mottled light here!  I used the gorgeous Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" collection here (on sale at S J Crafts right now) and went for a grid formation so I could use photos of different orientations.

I went to town with punched shapes and gems and some garden twine from the pound shop.

I am really enjoying using the natural twine at the moment as it adds such great texture and interest but works well with the natural floral theme.

I took the photos outside as I often try to do but its getting a bit cold to be laying on my slate tiles path.  Can you believe it is October tomorrow?  This year has just marched right past me!

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 173

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday is a blog hop for anyone with a creative interest and is brought to you by the wonderful Julia.

My desk is incredibly creative this week, alas not in a paper-crafting way but so far I am thoroughly enjoying my course.  That kraft coloured box and all its contents (which actually you can't see very well but include a pen pot, letter rack, magazine file etc) are just ripe for altering but I'm not sure what I want to do with it just yet.  I managed to get the fountain pen working after a fashion and I am so pleased to be writing with it.  It is a year on Sunday that my Step-Mum died and I think she would be really pleased that someone else is using her beloved pen for its intended purpose and not just for scribbling a shopping list.

You can also a gorgeous notebook and a rose, both presents from Management to celebrate 14 years of marriage.  The rose was one of 40 tightly furled flowers and I rarely get a chance to use my bud vase so it is a pleasure to have it keeping me company on my desk while I ponder and scrawl.  I did make Management a card but it was not successful.  I was attempting a new technique, that of using Promarkers on a stamped design (easy peasy for so many of you but oh such a fail from me...)!

The only other thing of note on my desk is that fabulous nail polish.  Debs over at Paper Turtle inspired me to paint my toenails teal in this special post about Ovarian Cancer.  Please do check it out.  As it happens, my fingernails are teal but my toes are stuffed into thick socks and hidden away in my slippers - bbbrrrr, oh yes, Autumn is a'comin'!

Bye for now
xx

S J Crafts Challenge - Learning

It's time for another challenge over at S J Crafts and this time it is about school / learning.  There is also an optional extra to use scallops.

This challenge was a good excuse for me to use these fun pictures of Louis learning to feed himself.  BLW stands for Baby Led Weaning which is where the baby feeds themselves solid food from 6 months with no purees.  Its messy as heck but loads of fun!  It is a lot more popular now but even just 5 years ago it was very "new age" and most people hadn't heard of it.  My Mum and Mother-in-Law thought I was torturing Louis and spent mealtimes with their hand on the phone ready to call an ambulance for when (not if) he choked but he never did.  They still didn't like it when Bella went through the same regime but they were not so anxious second time around!

I used a scallop border punch and a scalloped circle punch to fit the 2nd part of the challenge.  The buttons are from Handmade Treasures and the papers are Echo Park "A Boys Life" in yet another 6x6 design (you know I like them, right?)

So, have you made any projects recently with back to school photos or someone learning something new?  The closing date for this challenge is 17th October so upload your "learning" inspired project on the blog there to be in with the chance of winning a prize.  Have a look too at the great projects by Sarah and the other DT girls.

Bye for now

xx