Aarrgghh the frustration! I am in a job that no longer challenges me and I really think it is time to move on, ideally to a job closer to home. But I have no way of going to see any agencies as I leave for work at 6.40am and only get back to WGC at 6pm. I am so bored, it's depressing when I think of the scrapping I could be doing at home, and even the housework that could be done instead of sitting here doing very little. I do try find things to do, but there is only so many times you can do the filing!

Right I think it's time for a coffee!

ScrapManic 5

Debbie started our chat thread yesterday and of course I had to count the sleeps, which are 65 by the way!! One of the people I met there last year, >Jules wasn't going to be able to make it this time and I have been really sad about it cause I think she is fab and I really wanted her to come.

Anyway, she has just sweet talked her husband into 'allowing' her to come and I am just so happy i'm fit to burst! And of course Scrapdolly is going, haven't seen her since Bonanza last April, and now Kirsty may also come and oh I would love to see her madness again.

And I think I need to go lie down....

Catch up.....

So on Friday I went out at lunch to M&S to have a look at clothes, half way down our road I noticed my head and eyes felt very sore. And after some thought I realised this was possibly due to the fact I had had not seen day light since the sun went down on Sunday. Yes that means 4 whole days without seeing any day light!!

This week has been better, both Monday and Tuesday I went out at lunch, just up to the post office but at least i got out the office for a while. Today I haven't been out yet but I plan to take a little walk even if it's just around the block!

Besides turning into a mole I have no news, life is quiet, and even quieter on the scrapping front. I am dying to have a scrap day again, where I can veg out in my pajamas and just scrap.

Ooh actually I just remembered I have next Monday and Tuesday off, besides an inspection from the estate agents and a trip to collect the car I have no other plans so I may have two scrappy days coming up!

I have been debating having a trip to SA in July, I know it's winter but as i'm thinking of Durban rather than Cape Town, it really doesn't matter what time of year I go, cause it's bound to be warmer than here, lol. If I go in the school holidays I will get lots of quality time with the girls which I so need. Well i'll keep thinking about it, guess I need to make sure I have the money first.

Roll on Friday!

It almost the weekend!! Wahoo!! Sleep in and relax time.....

So this week is nearly over and i have achieved nothing! No scrapping done, very little housework (just a few loads of washing) what a waste! I really must try harder to maximise the time I have in the evenings and actually get stuff done!

So now for some exciting and good news! Danni and Mick are getting married!! Well he still has to ask uncle George, but as he has been given a heads up from Danni I shouldn't think the shock will make him say no, lol.

I am so excited cause we can plan together, although neither of us is going to have a big wedding, with loads of people cause all our family is in SA and i'm getting married here and her in Oz but we can still be excited together! (and nervous!)

The need to scrap

right now is overwhelming! And as luck would have it I am at work. I felt like this yesterday too, and when I got home I fed the cats, had a shower and washed my hair, caught up with ScrapPad and discussed our upcoming cocktail party with Stuart. Before I knew it, it was 8pm, time to warm up supper and eat, so I in fact got nothing done, well no scrapping.

I need to get my time management skills up to scratch and start making the most out my evenings. Now that I have my own scrap desk and I don't have to unpack and repack all my stash each time I scrap it should be easy to just sit down for an hour a night and actually get some scrapping done. So why isn't it happening??

It seems Debbie tagged me too, lol!!

Happy Birthday to me, well for yesterday....31 sheesh! Had a fab day, spent in my pajamas, watching tv, surfing the net, scrapping, tidying and I even managed to figure out how my flash gun worked!

Saturday morning, after breakfast we went into Hitchin, I had a parcel to collect, Christmas presents for Sarah and Jessica to buy and I was in desperate need of some books. After our shopping we drove up to Letchworth garden city to have a look at shops and also look to see if it's somewhere we could live. Unfortunaltly it's a bit big and the town isn't as nice as Hitchin. We drove back through some of the villages in the area and there are a few I could definatly live in!

Saturday evening we went to see Memoirs of a Geisha, and then went for dinner.

All in all it was a great weekend!!

Tagged

I've been tagged byt the lovely Jen

Four jobs you have had in your life:

Barmaid, au pair, technical administrator and centre manager

Four movies you would watch over and over:

Finding Nema, Mary Poppins, Gladiator and Beaches (forever friends)

Four places you have lived:

Durban, Cape Town, Notting Hill, Hitchin

Four TV shows you love to watch:

Friends, CSI, Lost, Home & Away

Four places you have been on vacation:

St Petersbourg, Helsinki, Najac, Paris

Four websites I visit daily:

Scrap Pad
UKScrappers
Hotmail
ScrapMagic, yes I go there daily!

Four of my favourite foods:

Chinese, toad in the hole, boerewors and black beans and pumpkin fritters

Four places I would rather be right now:

At home in my scraproom
Lying round the pool at moms house in Cape Town
Clan William
Stash shopping in the USA!!

Four bloggers I am tagging:

kel eh
Jules
M A A B
Jackie P

Phew......

last night, thank goodness, I didn't have to bath in the basin, Stu made us a make shift tap which I have to take a photograph of as it's just too funny! Plumbers are very inventive!

I managed to do a bit more of my bubbles LO, finished the inserts of the file folder now just need to do the cover. Am having one of the photos enlarged and using the other 7 along the bottom of the DLO. I'm not sure it's going to turn out how it is in my head but hey, i'll try! Also having a few of Stus holiday pics printed off, there is a great one of an ostrich, with her pretty, long eyelashes, that I am dying to scrap!

I am also going to attempt to add photos to my blog at some point this week, Clare has given me great instructions, I just have to get round to doing it now, lol!

Oh boy.....

I got home last to Stuart taking the hot water tap off the bath, well he had been at it an hour and only just managed to get it off. So tonight we battle with the cold and then hopefully get the new taps on.

In the meantime we get to bath in the basin! Thank goodness all my house guests have gone, not sure mom would have fancied doing the facecloth bath thing! I have to laugh though cause I was so not expecting it and so looking forward to a soak in the bath, but hey ho what can you do. I'm just thankful he knows what he's doing!

I have the cutest photos of Hayden and Byron playing with bubbles that I started to scrap last night, am doing a father and son themed LO rather than the event of playing with bubbles. Using Daisy D's patterned paper, and having a go at one of their file folders too! Loving how it is turing out so far, just hope I get a chance to do some more tonight, in between the plumbing, lol.

I am planning a major embellishment clear out soon too. Well not so much a clear out as a tidy up! I have two great plastic sets of drawers that Debbie gave me, but I am just not using them efficiently enough. So I will restack them, as you can change the drawers around, and get it all tidied up and repacked. It may also shock me to realise just how much I have!

It's a sad day.....

Debra (maggs0034 on UKS) lost her battle with cancer today. I loved her sense of humor online and her scrapping style was just fab! She made a brief appearence at ScrapManic IV last October and i'm sorry she was unable to stay for longer as I know she wanted to and I would have loved the chance to get to know her. My thoughts are with her family and her friends during this hard time.

New Years Resolutions

I don't think I have ever made a new years resolution and I know the chances of me actually sticking to them are very remote!! But this year I need to make a few, well they're not really resolutions, more positive changes. Now I know i'm a little late cause aren't you supposed to have all this done on old years eve?? But anyway here we go......

Personnal
1. Make a huge effort to be financially stable.....if I am going to have any chance at all of having a baby, I need to be able to go on maternity leave and still be able to survive!
2. Be nicer, something I included in my 'one fine day' ScrapManic IV cj that i'm not great a keeping to and I hope to make more of an effort in 2006. Tell Stu I love him more often, be more tolerant of people and not tut at the little old ladies who walk slowly in front of me and most important - smile more!
3. Diet.....this should actually be on top of the list as it's the most important. It will impact directly on having a baby and I don't want to be a fat bride! Now I actually go on diet every Monday and by Wednesday, if I make it to then at all, it's already slipping and i'm back to eating rubbish. When I gave up smoking I said "Monday's the day, no cigarettes from the minute I wake up" and viola that was it, I gave up smoking, just like that. So why the hell can't I do that with a diet?

Scrapping related
1. Stash diet.....details are already posted below, and impact on number 1 above.
2. Get published well actually I have managed to get myself published in SI magazine although not till the March/April issue but I hope to be able to do a lot more.
3. Become a better scrapper, my head is bursting with ideas and I need to find the courage to put it all on paper and not be worried about it looking rubbish. You won't know till you try!!

Short week

Thank goodness for bank holidays, a 4 day week is just what I need! I am so not enjoying being back at work after the holidays and could quite easily book the rest of the week off......

So mom flies back to SA tonight, it's gone quick and the house will sure be quiet again. She has managed to get loads of LOs done while here and has also managed to go through some of my stash, lol.

I am on a self imposed spending ban again as I have booked ScrapManic V and can't really afford it if I keep buying stash.

So my rules are:

1. I will only replace patterned paper, not add to my already too large collection!
2. I will continue to buy cardstock only if i actually scrap, ie replace as apposed to add to!
3. If I manage to finish my 1 million letters (metal, wood, chipboard and any other variety I may have picked up along the way) I can replace SOME NOT ALL!
4. My mag subs:-
Scrapbook Magic will continue and I will renew when it expires
The scrapbook magazine will continue and i won't renew when it expires
Scrapbook inspirations i will continue to buy unless I can get a sub for my birthday from OH
5. The passion for primas HAS to stop!
6. Ribbon can be replaced, again NOT added to.
7. glue is allowed.
8. It is essential I clear out 'un-usables' and sell them.
9. I will wait to hear scrap magics kit info before deciding whether I want to subscribe to monthly kits.

Wish me luck!!

and it's over

okay I know i have been really bad at updating my blog, again, and with Christmas life has just been too hectic!

Christmas in our home was lovely, just sad without Stu, he was missed. We were up at 5, yes 5, to open presents, mom was too excited and got us up way too early, so by the afternoon I was exhausted, lol.

We didn't do too much on the days that followed, watched tv, scrapped and took loads of photos. We had a bit of snow which was lovely!

Stu came home on the 30th and it's great having him back, and it snowed all morning so he came home to white! He had a good time but missed home, he was gone for almost 4 weeks which is a long time to be away.

For new year we had John and Danni staying and although we were all in bed by 10 it was a good evening, lol. The new years day braai (bbq) tradition is going strong but we did miss Mike and Chantal.

And today it's back to work, boo hoo!