and another.....

Dare #11 Once upon a time....I never knew planning a wedding would be so hard. lol, it really is and i feel like all I ever do is write lists, make calls and then make decisions. But it will all be worth it on the day **heart**

i'm behind......

with my Speshal Dare uploading!! With one thing and another I haven't been able to blog for two days, but without further delay here are another two LOs......

Dare #9 I was there. I was there to say goodbye. 04/03/95. The day we turned my dads life support machines off. Had he built up the strength to live on his own, he would never have been able to do the things he did before, he was brain dead. Very emotional time for me at the moment, what with my wedding next year and September being his birthday month. I have however felt the need, at last, to get some feelings down on paper so the dares have been good for me.

Dare #10 If it wasn't for.......CRASH. This LO is about the scars I have on my right arm which are the result of a really bad car crash I had on my 24th birthday. I spent 2 weeks in hospital but I thank my lucky stars all I damaged was my arm! But never the less I hate my scars and if I didn't crash the car I wouldn't have them, lol! I will one day do a LO with photos but for now this is all I can manage.

I am having a scrapping weekend, cause Stu is away, can't wait but as always I will miss him :(

TFL!!

Only 2 LOs tonight cause I decided to be clever and glossy accent something on dare 9, so I removed it (it was only stuck down with temp herma) and now it's still wet so I can't put it back on my LO to photograph and obviously I can't scan it, lol. Oh well!!

Dare #7 was changes! What a change in me since last October.....

and Dare #8 I wish. I wished on every first star and every birthday candle for a bride doll!! I'm still waiting, lol...

My poor body is aching from helping Stus brother and SIL move house on Saturday, but boy was it good excercise, I felt muscles working in places I didn't even know exist.

I was at the docs today, I had a few things to talk to him about. The one was the yucky excema I have on my hands and feet, he's given me cream that I hope works cause it gets so itchy expecially in the warm weather and it seems to be hotting up again. The other thing is my weight!! He has me going in for blood tests to check a few things and has put me on medication which I will start tomorrow. I also need to start eating proper meals during the day so will buy some cereal on my way in to work for breakfast and then go out to buy some groceries to make a decent low cal lunch. If you have any ideas please let me know!! The third thing I had to sort out was this odd little lump on the back of my ankle. It's apparently achilies (sp?) tendonitis (sp) and he has recommended I wear heels for the next three months, so I guess I need to go out and buy some. I wear flats ALL the time and this apparently puts strain on the achilies tendon. Besides these things my BP is good and i am generally healthy.

So I hope you all had a good Monday and enjoy your week!!

3 more SPESHAL DARE layouts!!

Dare #4 was 10 THINGS.

Dare #5 was I WISH THEY TOLD ME.

Dare #6 was I NEVER.

If you've not yet done any dares YOU MUST. I have really enjoyed the challenge and scrapped so much about ME!

TFL y'all and have a good Sunday!

It's taken a while but I have finally caught up with my SPESHAL DARES ! I am going to upload 3 LOs a day for the next 6 days so I have them on my blog and then I will keep up and upload them once a week.

I have decided to use the weekly word prompts to make an 8x8 BoM, taking a look at who I am and how I feel about things in my life NOW, and how I deal with things from my past and how I feel about things that have happened in my life, in my childhood. I'm not going to type out my journaling but if you strain your eyes you may be able to read it!

Dare #1 was I DREAM, and my dream right now is to be married and have a baby.
Dare #2 was THINGS THAT MAKE ME MAD, and two things that make me mad are IGNORANCE and SELFISHNESS.
and finally Dare #3 was PERFECT, so I chose to do a LO about how perfect{ly} happy I am!! (I have been asked to take this LO down till it is decided whether or not they want to publish it - It will be back ;) )

The lovely Anita has a very ill sister and is trying to raise some extra cash, to get her something very special, by offering a photo popping service! Have some photos you are dying to scrap but they are just too dull and uninteresting?? Then get on over to her blog and she'll pop them for you!!

loving.....

Cathy Zielskes new book Clean & Simple - THE SEQUEL. So much inspiaration hitting me smack on the nose and all i've done so far is page through it!! What I really love about Cathys scrapping is that she scraps emotions, something I do more and more these days too.

Events are cool and if it's a birthday, holiday, family get together etc etc then yes it needs to be scrapped as an event. But what if you just have a BBQ at home with friends, and you happen to have the camera out and get a great shot of a friend, neice, loved one.........the day in itself isn't an event or something you want to do a page about but the photo is cool and when you look at it you think about how much you love the person, how cute they are or highlights their personality! Like this LO of Jessica, it sums her up, who she is and how she is all the time, lol!



I know i've posted the LO before, but i'm just using it to make my point, hee hee.

Happy day y'all!! Oh and Debbie, inspiration hasn't hit yet!

(I have been asked to take this out till a decision is made whether or not they want to publish this LO - It will be back ;) ) Here is the last of my completed LOs from the weekend. 'My love!' Very palin LO inspired by the Living TV logo. I have used the alpha stickers from the BG Gypsy range, BG rub ons and the edges are inked in white although this is not too clear from the scan :)

Work today is not bad although it is SO quiet and boring. I did bring my little brown paper bag holiday journal in with me to write up but i've not done any writing yet! Going to have a cup of Green Tea with Jasmine (it's really good), in the hope inspiration hits.

Till tomorrow, I bid you farewell.......

loving this new Gypsy BG paper!! So much you can do with it and such funky colours!! Here is another LO using a pic from Edinburgh Zoo...



I have also used some Prima flowers, ribbon, chatterbox rivets, MM metal letters and the note paper stamp from the leave memories stamps I got from Box room booty last week. 'HIPPOS' are lil davis chipboard alphas (except the s which is hand cut!) painted with MM acrylic paint, honeydew, and glossy accented to give it the shine. The patterned paper cut in a circle with an arrow on the end idea came from a LO I saw on Suzannes blog called @ the edge.

We have had people around for a BBQ today and despite the few downpours of rain, it has been a lovely day.......,

Back to work tomorrow :(

ooh today I am going to show you all the delights that have landed on my lap this week!!

Firstly I went in search of some winter boots and I found these beauties from Love those shoes, and yes I love the colour. They are just fab on and open up all the way down so easy to pull on and it doesn't matter how big/small your calves are they will still lace up! Of course they are completely fur lined to keep my toes warm and have a negative heal so good for ones posture :)

The new Chatterbox rooms have reached our shores and I had to have them all :O check them out at Artbase , ordered Wednesday, they arrived Friday- is that a record??..... and while I was shopping I had to have these 'Wanted' Cosmo Cricket papers from Box Room Booty, I also bought a few ribbon to match the papers and the fundamentals rubber stamps by Leave memories. If you've not yet got these, go now and bye them cause they are so COOL!!

And please go over to a string of beads to see the amazing pieces of jewelery that Jaq makes. I bought myself a necklace, which is absolutely FAB! Thanks Jaq, great service!

And onto a LO I did last night, using a pic taken at Edinburgh zoo of a red panda. They were up high in the trees but I managed to get this cute pic of her as she was yawning, hence the little tongue sticking out, lol! Red pandas are one of my favourite animals, and are so cute and almost look like they have painted faces. The new BG gypsy papers worked well with the orangey sheen to her fur(due to the sun shining right on her) and the leaves which came out bright green.

Happy bank holiday and what ever you are up to please be safe!

Oh my goodness.......

I totally forgot to add that...... you know the summer CC comp on the Pad, the LOs I have posted below.......WELL I WON!! WOO HOO! So excited cause I really loved doing the LOs and I managed to scrap some pics that I was battling to scrap! My prize is a £30 voucher from A trip down memory lane (link on the right) which I am in the process of spending!!

Bad blogger and other stuff

Ooh I didn't realise I hadn't updated my blog for so long, for this I apologise!! Um so where to start.....well the rest of the week before last wasn't too bad, and work for a change was quite busy with room hires and of course not having the onsite kitchen means we have a bit more to do with keeping the milk jug and coffee topped up.

Thursday was the end of my week as we were off for a long weekend in Scotland. We left just after the rush hour on Friday and took a slow leisurly drive up to Durham, where we were breaking our journey and having dinner with Stuart, Debbie and the boys.....it was so lovely to see and spend time with them socially rather than scrapping or rc heli-ing, lol.

After breakfast on Saturday we set off again and took the scenic route up to Scotland, this took a bit longer than expected but we got there in the end, lol. Our guest house was lovely and our room luxurious even though the bathroom was the size of a closet! After dumping the bags we headed off to Maureen and Lon for lunch. It was lovely to meet them and I couldn't get over how similar Maureen and Stus dad are. Yes I know they are brother and sister but even their mannerisms are the same! And they haven't been around each other in 50 years!!

We spent the first evening in the city walking around the street performers of the festival and taking in the Edinburgh atmosphere and supper from our favourite chippy was a must!!

Sunday was spent driving around the west coast after a stop at the Falkirk Wheel. The wheel was impresive and I managed to get some great photos. The west coast isn't as pretty as the east but it was lovely to see the country side.

To find a place for supper on Sunday night we walked along George street, and then about 5 times up and down Rose street. Neither of us wanted to decide where or what to eat until enventually I couldn't handle it anymore and chose The Mussle Inn. I'm not a huge fan of fish but I do like shell food so it was a good choice! We had a bowl of mussles to start and then for mains Stu had a seafood platter and I had the goats cheese starter and a salad.

After dinner we found ourselves in Flannigans Wake (or something like that) where we enjoyed a few (too many in someones case, lol) after dinner drinks. It was a great night as they had live music and the place was rocking!!

Monday was a good day! We spent it at Edinburgh Zoo, lol. Stus cousin is the head of the bird department so we went in search of him and then had a few personal guided tours throughout the day. It is a great zoo and the best part was seeing the little lion cubs that had been born in the zoo not long ago! So cute!!

Monday night we met up with Jaffers and went to dinner at a gorgeous little Moroccan place! So lush, the food was delicious and decor devine! After taking our leave of Jen at her bus stop I got a bad attack of hayfever so we didn't stay out much longer.

Tuesday and it was time to go pack up and start making our way home :( After yet another scrumptious breakfast we packed the car and headed into town for a little shopping......i had seen a little hand bag I just HAD to have, Stu wanted some Whisky, and we also had to look in at Hector Russell the kilt makers to see if they had the tartan for Stus kilt, which they do!!

Once we were all shopped out we climbed into the landie and made our way to Maureen and Lon for a coffee and to say bye, then we were on the road again...

It was a long trip down but we took the scenic route so we saw the Yorkshire Dales, which were beautiful and lots of sheep ;)

Ordered pizza from the car when we were 15 mins from home so at least we didn't have to wait too long for dinner, lol.

It was good to be back in our own bed but just not good having to come back to work the next day. Work has been okay cause we have had loads of 3rd party courses on but still not good enough to feel secure in our jobs :(

Not much else to report other than wedding plans are finally taking shape, and we shouldn't have a mad rush right before the big day. I do feel a bit wierd getting married though, it seems such a huge step to make and even though I am very sure about it, I still feel a bit nervous. I know Stu is very nervous so I am doing my best to keep all chat light and breezy, lol.

Will update with some pics of the zoo when inspiration hits!

Last week was Round 4

of the pad/speshal comp and it's also now finished. I have remembered some great times through the weekly prompts and have got some LOs done that I wasn't sure how to scrap, so it's been fab! Again there where to categories, the first a LO based on one of the following movies, THE LOST BOYS or PRETTY IN PINK. Now I love both these movies but none of the quotes seemed to work with any photos I could think of, BUT they did get me thinking about the time of my life when the movies came out. And also about how the movies influenced my life, like my MASSIVE crush on Keifer Sutherland that started with THE LOST BOYS, lol. So I jogged my memory to think of movies I love and that I could watch over and over again and ones that had some meaning to me and changed the way I look at life, relationships and the world. Of course some are just fun but I love them all the same. Pretty plain LO, using lil davis chipboard letters, some heidi grace rub ons and my handwritting. I have also since scanning the LO thought of and added a few more ;)
The second part of the challenge was to do a LO inspired by the DURAN DURAN album titled DURAN DURAN.....I battled a littl ewith this one, but during our BBQ yesterday I managed to get this photo of Stuart and Jessica who was munching on a carrot she had just picked from Stuarts veggie patch. The song title I used was SIN OF THE CITY, and my thinking is the city is bad and the country is good, lol! Bit of a stretched interpreation! :D

I am off to register with the docs today, thanks Suzanne for your concern, you are so right I do need to be registered just in case of an emergency! But funnily enough I am feeling SO much better!

oh banner beautiful banner

the very tallented and lovely Anam made me this gorgeous banner, thanks hun, I LOVE IT! You're a gem and you'll need to start stalking your postie at the end of next week! MWAH!

And a huge thanks to Clares banner instructions without which I would never have got it up there, lol! Thanks hun!

Not well :(

oh I feel so crap, haha, excuse the pun but I have a dicky tum (and I am a poet too), and have had it for 3 weeks. Is this okay?? I am sure it should to have stopped by now. TMI? Sorry, lol!

Okay so now i'm a little worried and think I really should go to the doctors, BUT I am not registered at a doctor. So I have to take time off work to go in and fill out a form to register, then wait 24 hours before calling for an appointment. So basically if I go tonight to fill in the form (they close at 6.30pm) the earliest I will see a doctor is next Tuesday (they close at 1pm on a Friday). I am having my hair cut tonight, well I have an appointment, which I think I have to cancel!, in order to get registered.

I did have two days off a few weeks ago, but the last thing on my mind was registering at the doctors!

Oh and today I feel Nauseous too :(

The saga of Josh and his hunting continued into Saturday night and I managed to save another tiny baby rabbit from his evil clutches. To be honest I have no problem with them hunting or killing, but it's the torture and playing with the animal first that I don't like :( And I know by rescuing the creature I have only let it live to grow and eat our veggies, ho hum........

So round three of the pad summer CC comp and the themes this week where again FAB! The first was to do a LO inspired by the title or a line from either Dirty Dancing or Flashdance. I used the quote 'When you give up your dream, you die' from Flashdance, and the LO is titled 'I WANT TO LOVE YOU 4EVER'. The sentiment behind the LO is about my longing to get married and have a baby and wanting to be with Stu. Giving up on my dream to have them both would have resulted in me loosing out on one of them, something that I never wanted to happen. Luckily our love is too strong!
The second LO needed to come from Michael Jacksons THRILLER album, again using a song title or a line from the song. My LO is titled PRETTY SASSY GAL and comes from the song title PRETTY YOUNG THING (not 100% sure about the title but it's only stuck on with temp herma so I can change it later if I want). Photos are of Danni taken back in 2002.

Only 109 days till ScrapManic! So excited and can't wait to hear what the classes will be and who is teaching. And of course seeing the 'gutter girls', my 'lovely room' pals and the girls who are coming from the Pad! It promises, again, to be a FABO weekend.

I said to check back for the mini album I was making over the weekend......I made the album but didn't get all the pages done so will try do it during the week and let you all see.

Josh the hunter

Josh has been at it again! Last night he brought a baby rabbit into the house, I chased him out and in the process the rabbit got away. This morning I heard a noice downstairs and knew it was him with the rabbit! I chased him out and again the rabbit got away. Mid morning I was outside photographing butterflies when I heard the squealing and rushed to lock the cat flap and close the door.

He spent ages, at least an hour, chasing the rabbit around the garden, both of them were exhausted. The rabbit didn't have the strength to escape and Josh didn't have the strenght to kill it.

But finally the clever little thing managed to get under the line of trees and across the road onto the field. I followed him over and began chasing it to the other side and into the bushes. He was so tired that I managed to get quite close to take photos! You can see he's a bit dishevelled from his attacks....



Half way across the field the poor thing was just too exhausted to go on and came and lay down next to my foot. I had the zoom lens on the camera so had to use the macro setting to get this shot, lol.



I put the camera down and carried him across to the bushes. I hope he doesn't get killed by the other rabbits cause I have touched him :( and I hope the exhaustion doesn't kill him.

And that is quite enough excitment for one day, i'm back to scrapping!

It's yet another hot day in London and still we have no air con in the office. The poor delegates are sweltering in the classrooms and we have a few mobile air con units working overtime to try make it bareable for them.

Today is the end of my working week, I have a day off tomorrow cause Stu is off to the 3D masters and is taking the landie so i'll be house bound till Sunday. Won't be an issue though cause I plan to do lots of early morning and late night gardening (in the cool) and during the day I am going to scrap my little fingers off. I am terribly behind on my Speshal dares (link to the right and down a bit), and week 3 of the pad/Speshal challenges need to be uploaded by midnight on Sunday.

I also have an idea for a mini book which I will make and upload so make sure you check back ;)

One day I will take photographs like my mate Darrin ! We used to be neighbours, before we became country bumpkins, he is my inspiration and if he would just sit still long enough I would have him teach me everything he knows. Check out his site, he has some seriously amazing photos!

Week 2s pad summer CC challenge was again split inot two parts, 1st was to do a LO inspired by the title or a quote from the movie The Breakfast Club or St Elmos Fire. 2 classics that I love. The quote I picked was 'do you know how popular I am? I am *SO* popular, everyone at this school loves me'. It's very tongue in cheek but I am so glad I got to scrap this photo!
and 2nd we had to do a LO inspired by the Wham album 'make it big', so it could be a song title, the album title or a line from a song. Mine is not a very serious LO and based on the title 'Wake me up before you go go', bit of a broad interpretation, haha. The LO title is 'please don't wake me up' and I have used a photo of Josh curled up asleep and looking too darn cute. I have an annoying habit of always waking him up for cuddles and kisses :)

Yesterday we went to the Farnborough air show and it was so fantastic! I have never seen Jets fly in real life and the sound was just awesome, it seemed to rumble your tummy as they took off. The A380 did a demo and I must admit I was a little nervous as it is just not natural for a hunk of metal like that to do twists and turns so close to the ground. But it too was an swesome spectacle. Oh course there where a few C130s and I am still determined ot have one in the garden as my studio! But I was also looking at the Chinook, which is just an spectacular helicopter, and it comes a close second in my search for garden ornaments :o It was very hot again, but we luckily managed to stay hydrated, and I got to top up my tan! It was a very long day but a most enjoyable one, now I need to sift through my hundreds of photos to find some that I can scrap....

Have a good Monday y'all!

The journal of a........

first time gardener, is what I spent my morning making. The idea for the style came from a cyber crop planner Ching made over on UKS. I love the idea of using envelopes to create an acordian journal. i have used Crate new garden collection papers and co-ordinating cardstock.

Inside the 'front' are 5 pockets, (the envelopes), which each have a theme, 'what to plant where?', 'buying plants' etc, and inside each envelope are two large tags for journalling and photos.



and again on the back there will be more journalling, in fact I plan to fill it up with as much info and feeling as possible. As I have said before this is the first year I have ever had a garden of my own and it has been a awesome journey of discovery!

Pad challenge

Debbie and the Speshal dare girls are running a series of challenges on the pad leading up to the summer cyber crop. Week 1s challenge, which was last week, was to create a LO using the title or a quote from one of the two following films....Pretty Woman or Beaches. AND a LO using the title or words from Madonnas Like a Virgin album. So here are my two LOs...
Firstly the LO using the title of the film Beaches, which in South Africa was called Forever Friends, and it a LO based around the friendship between my best bud and me. We have been best friends for 21 years! and I love her dearly. ( I have been asked to take this LO down until it is decided if they will publish it or not - It will be back ;) )
The second is a LO using a photo of my new jewelery stand that I posted last week. It's inspiration came from the song title Material Girl, which describes me to a T!

All my links.....

went haywire, but I think I have managed to fix them, lol, no idea what happened :?

Still on a high today........

from making it into a design team!! lol.

I did not however make it into Jillybeans team, although I did make the final vote which is just a huge boost to my confidence.

It's another very hot day in London and i am so tempted to take a half day and perhaps tomorrow off too. I want to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and spend time in my garden.

Yesterday I baked a carrot cake, and, even if I say so myself, it was delish! I gave two big fat slices to Ron and Poppy and had a slice myself. I really should have brought the rest in to work for the guys but actually it is too good to share, so i'll have the rest myslef tonight mwhahahahahahaha. On another note I actually don't know what has come over me lately, this is the second time I have baked in less than a week :O mmmmm I wonder if i'm brooding??

Woo Hoo

Good morning bloggers! Feeling very chuffed with myself this morning as I have been selected to be on the
Kraft Stop design team! The LO above was the one I sent in for my 'audition'. Well done to the rest of the team too...

Nicci24lego
kellyg
LisaPink
Natbag
Natalie1
Hysteri-CAL
RozRoz

....I am looking forward to getting to know you all over the course of the next year.

Happy Sunday!

today we bought

a new vacuum cleaner, it's a SEBO , of course when we got home we had to try it out and it works a dream! I can't believe how easy it goes over the carpet and it picks up EVERYTHING. Oh and i've christened her Sophie!

My new, very girly (so Stu says, hee hee), dressing table mirror and jewelery stand! Aren't they gorgeous!! So glad this week is over, it's been very draining and i'm feeling quite fed up :( I need a break so looking forward to having a little one in August. Even though I decided not to go back to SA for yearly holidays I have to say I've missed it this year. It's always a boost of sunshine D, and great shopping and of course lots of swimming!

So looking forward to spending time in the garden this weekend, it's my tonic.......

Oh and last but not least a big {{hug}} and special thanks to Suzanne for sending me {{hugs}} today I so needed them :)

A randon pic from the weekend. Ron gave us loads of gorgeous veg, lettuce, potatoes, spring onions and carrots! So yummy!! We really are spoilt.
Yesterday our power went off again, but this time only for a hour and luckily near the end of the day so no real disruption to classes. But a huge pain in the arse!

I am home today as I have a dodgy tum, won't go into too much detail :D but it's not nice :(

Another

very warm day in London! And to make matters worse our air con in the office is faulty, gah, it's about 26 degrees, far too hot to work ;)

oh my goodness, check out the chatterbox blog chatterblog oh why haven't i found this before!

Another......

design team submission......another failure :(

We have had another glorious weekend in the country! We did our shopping on Saturday morning, including a trip to the market for greek olives, fete and stuffed chillies YUMMY!! Stu did lots of work on his veggie patch yesterday, he has about 40 broccoli and cauliflower plants (that's 40 of each :o ) so he had to extend it a bit to accomodate them. I planted some seeds into trays and also split my cosmos plants, that I got from May, into seperate pots.

When I put the nastersium seeds into pots all those months ago I also planted mission bells, but they didn't do very well when I transplanted them into the garden and I thought they had all died but yesterday I noticed some of them have started to grow and one has even started to flower, so maybe I'm a little green fingered after all!

I'm trying my hand at growing peppers too, Stu didn't have any luck and I doubt I will be any more successful but there is no harm in trying.

Last night we had a roast dinner, the first for a very long time, the potatoes came from Mays garden and the roasted carrots came out of Stus garden. We used shop brought onions only because we bought so many last weekend but the ones in the garden are ready to eat! We also got loads of lettuce from Ron yesterday that I washed and popped into the fridge. I think we will have left over chicken, boiled potatoes with mint and fresh garden salad for dinner tonight!

I hope you all have a fab day!

Freaky Friday

What a day! Yesterday just before 2 we had a power outage the whole office in total darkness and of course no phones or pcs (which is really bad in a business that does IT certification!) We spent the afternoon trying to keep everyone happy and find out when the power would be back on. When I left at 4.30 there was no change.......

This morning when I got in there was STILL no change, yes that's right our office was still in total darkness, and to make matters worse the emergence lighting had also gone out as they only last a certain amount of time on battery. We managed to set up our coffee purculator out in the main reception so at least we could make the delegates coffee before sending them home! By 11 though we were back on and here I sit waiting for 4.30 so I can go home......

It's also a year since 7/7 and the city is very quiet, i'm sure lots of people chose to stay at home today with their families.
My last photo of the week is Stuart flying his Raptor 50, he is really doing so well and getting the hover perfected, soon I imagine he'll have his 'training wheels' off!

Happy Friday y'all!

Last Sunday was open gardens in our village, basically people come from all over and pay a fee for a map and the chance to walk around and look at the beautiful gardens. Stu and I helped on the big field which was used as the car park, and luckily only had to be out there for 2 hours as it was so dang hot! Mark was up at his alotment with William so when we got back from carpark duty I managed to get a few photos of him. Love this one of him looking so cool in his cap, lol. And talking about being hot..........
My poor kitties have been trying to find shady spots to sleep and shelter from the scorching sun. I spotted them both crashed out under the hedge and couldn't resist some photos (blogger plays havoc with the colours so they're not as clear as IRL)
Thankfully is has cooled down a little today, well it was this morning but goodness knows we will be melting again on the train on the way home.

Happy Thursday everyone!

My flowers!

It's so grey and dull outside that I thought some bright and sunny flowers might cheer me up! This first pic is my cosmos, I have white and pink that are flowering like crazy and last night May gave me some more that she has grown from seed. They are still teeny tiny so i'll need to nurture them more before planting them into the garden.
I have 6 Cape Daisies, 2 white, a pink, a purple, a light burgandy and these lovely bright yellow ones. They are so cheerful and being Stus moms favourite plant they also bring him lots of joy!
This last photo is of a plant I don't know the name of but I managed to catch a bumblebee poking him butt out of one of the flowers :D

I have news to update but want to do it with photos so watch this space and i'll post agian tomorrow, or tonight!

Well my trip home yesterday was a doddle, so quick and easy, but this may be die to the fact i left work at 1.30pm, lol, i just couldn't has all the commuter traffic so booked myself a half day and spend a glorious afternoon at home scrapping. This is the LO I did, it's a scrap lift of a LO I saw on 2 peas sometime last week (sorry can't remember whos LO to credit them properly but I will try find it!), I loved the journalling on the strips of paper. The photo isn't great, as you can't even see it's me but I still had to scrap it.

This morning all train service had been restored so it's back to normal, thank goodness!

Thanks all folks!

travel nightmare

Last night when I got to the station we were told that there were no trains running and we would need to get a rail replacement bus to WGC :O WHAT!! OMG!! okay well there wasn't anything for it, no amount of whinging was going to make the situation any better, so I dealt with it and started the long tiring journey home. Luckily as it was still only 5pm things were relatively quiet so I managed to get to Finsbury Park and on the bus, which was full and I had to stand but hey, at least i was on my way.....

After what felt like hours, oh haha it was hours, we pulled inot WGC and I jumped in the car and headed for home. At that hour the roads were quiet and it only took 15 mins. So in all it took me 2 and a half hours to get home. Not too bad.....

This morning I checked first capaital connects web site and saw that there were a few trains running but figured the earlier i got on my way the better! There was alot of traffic for so early but I made good time and got onot the platform at 6.55.....and waited.....and waited......lol and waited. 45 minutes later a train had arrived and we were on our way, woo hoo!

All trains are terminating at Finsbury Park, and on arrival there were 100s of people waiting to get down into the underground to continue their journeys, it took 20 minutes to get off the platform and out of the station, which is where they were directing us, only to make our way back into the station, from the other side, to get on a tube. On my way around I spotted a bus that was heading to the barbican so I hopped on and eventually I was close enough to jump off and walk the rest of the way. So in summary the journey this morning took just over 3 hours! And I still have to get home tonight, haha.

It was a lovely relaxing weekend, with braais on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night :o our neighbours think we're crazy and i'm sure a few even think we have no oven, lol!

I even managed a bit of scrapping and sorting a pizza box of supplies for Danni who has been asked to do a little album for a 50th birthday which is on Friday! Talk about these people leaving things till the last minute. Poor Danni, she's going to have to scrap her little heart out.

A few new blogs that I want to share, firstly check out Everyone is speshal , these girlies are so talented and the LOs so inspirational. I am using the weekly prompts to do a BOM, me as I am today (ie the day I do the dare), scrapping the moment, capturing who I am and how I feel about life.

And you must pop over to the new ATDML blog, there will be blog specials, links to the DT gallery and much more.

And last but not least, Autumn leaves published 'the me book' which has been hugely popular, and they have now launched the me blog , have a look!

forgot to say HEY HEY IT'S FRIDAY! WOO HOO!!

I sent the following email out to my nearest and dearest......

Describe me in ONE WORD...just one word! Send it to me only, then send this message to your friends and see how many strange things people say about you! This is really fun! Just hit reply and send me my one word ! back. Then forward this message on to your friends (including me) and see what they say about you! GAME ON!! This will make you laugh out loud.

Caz
xx

And this is what came back..
naughty :o
wise
spirited
adventurous
creative
rock
funny :D

Lovely to see what they all think of me!

The bounty of the land

Last Friday we had a braai with John and the girls (Brendalene had had a day and a half so needed time out!). Stu wanted to make a potatoe salad but we had run out of potatoes, so you know what he did........he went out to our veggie patch and took some out the ground! How cool is that! But the wally didn't take any photos so I can't even scrap our first harvest. I did however photograph our gifts from neighbours.....

On Saturday Ron came over with a handful of little lettuces for us, they were so green and lush and smelled of soil. I washed them in salt water and made the most gorgeous salad, but not before taking a few photos ;)
We were also given by both Ron and George these cutsie little new potatoes, which when cooked with mint and butter were so darn tasty! We really are very lucky and very spoilt by our neighbours, they are so cool!

ARR!

My pirate name is:

Bloody Charity Flint

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Stuart has come on in leaps and bounds with his flying, he is really doing so well. It's been a long hard struggle for him as the weather at weekends has never been ideally suited to flying and getting in the practice hours, plus the big helis are SOOOOO big they can't exactly be flown in the garden. But since getting the little battery T-Rex he has been able to put in the hours and is mastering the hover, which is the first and apparently most difficult thing you learn. He still has the 'training wheels' on but I imagine they will be coming off soon. He has also been accepted into a flying club at Knebworth house which is very close to home so I think I am on my way to becoming a flying club widow once again, haha.
This photo was taken when we took a walk to see the cows with Tania, Tristan and Danni when they come to visit us a few weekends ago. He looks so gorgeous in his cowboy hat I couldn't resist a pic and thankfully he didn't put up too much resistance to having the camera shoved in his face, again!

The wind has been blowing in good ol' London town for the past few days and while it's been pretty humid it has also been pretty grey! Lets hope for sunshine on the weekend so I can garden!

Oh and major excitment! My nasterciums (bad spelling!) have flowered, I am so proud of myself cause I grew them from seads and planted them in the garden a few weeks ago. I wasn't sure they were going to survive but they have and are so colourful and bright! I will try get some pics tonight as it was too cloudy last night to get anything decent.

Wayne Rooney

is a brat! His behaviour last night should have resulted in him being on the first plane back to England. What a kid! I truly hate sportsmen that think they are better than the team!

I'll be back later to add some more piccies!

During half term our neighbours daughter and granddaughter came down to stay from Scotland, on the second day Kiera learnt to ride her bicycle and by the end of the week she was doing so well and didn't mind cycling up and down the road so I could get some photos!

An update at last!! This cute little kid is William and he belongs to Nikki and Mark who live around the corner from us and have the first allotment to the right of our house. He is a great little 'Dads helper', always coming round with dad to water the veggies and make sure everything is growing as it should, and I was lucky enough to get a few photos of him before he realised what was going on and became VERY shy!! He has an equally cute little brother who I hope to capture at some point in the summer, but he is a little tornado and does not stand still for one second so I imagine I'll have my work cut out for me :)
I just adore taking photos of the beautiful flowers in our garden although I have NO idea what any of them are called! I was very lucky to have the perfect lighting when taking this photo as the colours are so vivid and bright, and I wanted to capture that without the use of photoshop.

I have a few more photos to add but don't want to put them all on one post incase it all crashes :o so will add more this afternoon!

24

Oh my goodness! We watched the end of 24 last night (my lovely work colleague who downloads them from the US put them on dvd for me) and it is awesome!!! Although I totally didn't see the end coming ;) I can't wait till the next season....

I am a bit slow on the blogging front, for which I appologise. With the poopy weather I was finding it very hard to get enthusiastic about much and then all of a sudden the sun came out and I didn't want to spend time inside on the pc, lol.

So i'm just popping on to say Hi and I will do an update soon on my laptop so I can upload some of the gorgeous photos i took at the weekend!

What lovely weather......for October :o COME ON SUMMER!!

Here a a few pics that I took on macro setting for the Pad May Photography assignment #1

In a round about way I arrived at Christy Tomlinsons blog which has a sneaky peak at the new Chatterbox lines that will be launched at the Summer CHA!! OMG I want them all.........NOW!!

I am back on my stash diet, so I can afford ScrapManic and I have to save up for these papers!!

I am in LURVE!!

Last night I made another baby keepsakes tin, this time for a guy at work who became a dad, to a precious baby girl, for the first time last week! The sad bit is him and mom are not together anymore :( so I thought he could use the tin to keep a few bits in so he always has something of Abigails with him.

I have one more tin that's tiny and I may decorate it for Stu to keep the little shoe of Rebeccas he has in his bed side draw.

lol, Jules call me paranoid!

So chuffed

This is the tin I made for the guy Stu is working with and I got this message last night......Dear uncle Stuart and auntie Caroline, thank for my lovely present. So far I have put my name bands and umbillical clip and my cot tag in my tin and my clothes are lovely. When I get some hair i'll put a lock of it in my tin. Lots of love Darcey X

I was really excited that they like it and am so glad it will be used. Home made gifts always make me very anxious, as i'm never sure the recipient will 'get it'.

Woo Hoo

I have just booked ScrapManic6 and am so excited! Although it is still only 185 sleeps away, lol! Now I wonder if I can start packing yet :o

Last weekend we did alot of work in the garden, John has lent us his lawn mower so I redid the lawn, and it looks great. I did a much better job than the clown who has been doing it for the last few months! He was mowing and leaving the grass cuttings in trails behind him, so between us and the cats we had more grass in the kitchen than in the garden. I have also cut it short so it doesn't tickle Flos tummy as she walks over the lawn, haha.
One of the flower beds is over run with a plant I can't identify so I am in the process of digging it up again! It grows very quickly and regrows from any root left on the soil no matter how small. I can see it being a big job but i'll get there eventually.
There was a rose bush in the same flower bed that was being strangled by this triffid like plant, so I had to move it, but I don't think roses like being moved. I really hope it doesn't die :( I have been giving it lots of TLC so holding thumbs!

I have not done any 'me' scrapping for a while......there are so many things I want to do but just seem to run out of time in the evenings. Will try tonight!

I altered a tin at the weekend for a work colleague of Stuarts whos wife had a little girl two weeks ago. It's a keepsakes tin and we filled it with baby grows, as I imagine they go though a few every day! He was very touched at the sentiment and so excited to get it home to show his wife......it's lovely when people appreciate the hard work that goes into making gifts :)

ETA: I called the letting agent to ask that they stop the guy coming to do the lawn, and as she couldn't find any info in the house file about the garden service she has to call the land lady to cancel direct.
She calls back and would you believe we are not allowed to cancel, this clown has to continue to mow the lawn!! Well of course I wasn't taking no for an answer, as the garden looks so shite after he has been! I said please can I give more 'evidence' for my case (lol), and told her how he doesn't cut around the stepping stones or around the edges of the flower beds, he leaves the cut grass on the lawn and we are trailing it into the house blah blah blah....
So Kate (she's the nice lady from the letting agency) called the land lady back and she has agreed to let us look after the front and back garden but would rather her guy do the big bit at the side of the house. Now in all honesty that big bit is a bit like a really rough sea, it's all humps and bumps so I guess I don't really mind not having to do it. But I will take photos the next time he is round and then redo it myself and take more photos to prove what sort of job he does, and why we wanted to do it ourselves.
Crikey, normally people would jump at the chance of getting something for nothing, not this lot, haha.

it's nearly Friday

and the end of my second week of early waking up. I am awful at getting up in the mornings and would rather lay in bed till the last possible minute, then rush around getting ready and race out the door. But out in the counrty it is so lovely to get up and enjoy half an hour of the day before starting my journey into the city. I get a chance to hang the washing, have breakfast and a cuddle with the kitties. Definate feel good factor!

My flowers are all coming up and it feels great to see the rewards of all my gardening :) Stus veggies are looking good too and I can't wait till we can eat them. Imagine that, eating fresh veg grown yourself! We just have to keep the rabbits out.

I have not done any scrapping this week, the weather has been too fine to sit in doors. We have been enjoying G&Ts in the garden watching the sun set.

The weather today is lovely and I'm stuck in the office! But I hope to have an early finish to go home and enjoy the afternoon. We have also planned a bbq for tonight, YUMMY. Tomorrow looks like it will be fine and warm, Saturday should be dry and around 15 but it is forcast rain for Sunday :(

I have sorted through my scrap room again and have more for sale in the marketplace over on UKS. Soon I will have loads of empty storage to start filling up again :o

hey hey it's Friday!!

Well little miss Flo came home yesterday morning and is acting like nothing has happened and ignoring the fact she put me through 3 days of HELL, the naughty minx. She looks good and healthy so she must have managed to feed herself out in the wilds. Haha.

Last night Stuart decided it was too fine and sunny outside to waste the evening indoors and we had a braai (bbq, heehee). It was lovely, he cooked chicken, sweet potato and steak and I ate far too much but enjoyed it all, YUM YUM!!

The cats had great fun playing in the garden and I managed to get loads of cool photos of them.

I have been getting up early every day to have breakfast before leaving for work and it has not been the awful struggle I thought it would be. I feel much better and more awake when I walk out the door and getting ready is not the mad rush it usually is. Lets just hope I can keep it up!

It continues...

I have decided that instead of sitting at reception in the morning I am going to sit down in the main ofice so that if security send any delegates in before 8.30 they will just be stuck at the dooor and I don't have to deal with them till I go out at 8.30am. I used ot do this months back but got bored of being in the main office so relocated back out to reception, this is fear was my mistake ;)

Phew, I can't believe we are into May already, this year is just flying by. I have ideas to update my blog daily but it never works out that way so please excuse my slackness.

The bank holiday weekend was rounded off nicely by my having yesterday off too. And as it turned out Stu also had most of it off so we had a nice break together. Saturday was a shopping day, again, we had to go to ASDA to top up the food shop, Baldock to get meat from the South African butcher and Hitchin for thread for my sewing machine. The afternoon was quiet and relaxed.
Sunday Stuart was out with John at the motor X, they had a great day but the landie started playing up on the drive home so Stu wasn't too happy.

I had a scrapping day but didn't actually manage to achieve anything constructive :( I have a design project to do for SI and it just wasn't happening for me. Silly really as I should have put it away and done other things till the idea came to me, which insidently it did last night in bed, and I so badly wanted to get up and do it!

Monday we managed to get out into the garden and I cleared more flower beds and planted more seeds. It is so lovely to see some already growing and I can't wait till we have lots of colour out there. Stuart cleared a grassy patch next to the veggie garden so it's bigger now and he planted some corn, so hopefully it grows. The beans are growing nicely as are the onions he got from George. His potatoes are also coming up and the radish is too. I do hope we manage to eat from the garden as that would make the hard work worth it.

Yesterday we managed to fix the landie, problem was the clutch had given up but it just needed a flush of fluid and it came right, I had to be the one to pump the fluid through the cylinders though and my poor legs were aching afterwards, lol.

My little Flo has gone walk about, not seen her since Sunday and I am devastated especially as I didn't get to give her a birthday hug, she was 2 on Monday. We have heard from neighbours that she's been seen running about and that the cats usually have far too much fun chasing rabbits at this time of year to be bothered about going home.
Rons barn is also a great hang out as there is an abundance of mice and if she gets locked in there she is very unlikely to starve, as I said abundance of mice!
I found rabbit bits behind both sofas yesterday so I guess that's what she's up to!
The black cat with the white tipped tail came into the house again last night, he doesn't come in too far just has a sniff around the food bowls and maybe some crumbles but any movement and he's off. Josh doesn't seem too bothered about having him in the house as he never goes to chase him out, but this could also be the result of him having double helpings of dinner and is too fat and lazy to go see him off.

Well I think I have typed enough for today. If I made the effort to update every day I wouldn't have to have mamoth sessions like this, hee hee.