Me Time

Over the past few days, since my last post that is, I have taken some time out for me. Even though this has been the plan it has still been a very busy few days so to say that i am looking forward to Saturday for some more Me Time is an understatement! I feel like i am at that point in my life where a major decision is about to be made. I cant explain it, i cant clarify it more than that. I just feel very unsettled in my spirit-like something life altering is about to take place.

This is a layout that i have been working on for a few days. This has been a very personal layout for me and i was in two minds about posting it on here or on anywhere for that matter....but in the end i decided that i may as well because it is part of who i am and what i am going through. We cant just always show the happy, positive sides to ourselves. (for that reason i am not going to retype the hand writen stuff but if you would like to enlarge the pic to have a look it might be easier to read. It was for one of the everyone is speshel dares but i cant remember which one....sorry

Over the past four days we have been having some work done on the house that we are renting. We have had new double glazed windows and a new front and back pvc door. It took the men two days to do the entire house for us and it looks fantastic! They did such a great job with it and what a difference it makes to us inside. The house is so quiet now - we used to be able to hear every car go by, every bus pull over at its stop and even the milkfloat at 5 in the morning. No longer. We are like a little caterpillar wraped up in it's cacoon.
Here are some photos of our nice new windows and doors....




Then yesterday we finally had our kitchen ceiling fixed. We had a leak in the bathroom which led to the kitchen ceiling falling in on us. This happened at least six months ago, and i may be being too kind with that estimate, but we finally have a new ceiling. It took the men about three hours to do and it took me another five hours to clean up all the mess they had created! There i was removing old ceiling, hardened plaster, pieces of rocks or rubble and dust. Dust was coming out of every hole possible! I had to clean the kitchen from top to bottom, left to right. I had to remove the fridge, oven, the dryer, completely clean out all the cupboards as they had managed to get that dirty as well! I am so glad that it is over. Now we have someone coming round next week to paint the house and then we should be good as new....im hoping anyway!



I spent some of my lunch time blog surfing and i came across Ali Edwards blog. One of the links on her blog is "What is my happiness for today" which i think is also part of her blog. Anyway, i have deicded that this is a great idea and just might help me with how i am feeling. It is so important to remember the things in our lives which we can be greatful for. So everday, i am going to keep a gratitude journal type thing. Just a few lines at the end of my blog entry to say what it is that i am greatful for. To remind myself of all the good things i have in my life at the moment, to keep my focus where it should be.

Well, i hope that everyone has a good weekend and i will see you all here on monday. Oh yeah, please also keep my dad in your prayers today as he is going for his first interview in the country and this job would be fantastic if he gets it.

oh yeah, one more thing...do you like my new banner. I had a blast putting it together!

Tough times

Im finding things a little difficult at the moment. I dont know why exactly but life is just hard. Im not normally the type to complain and grumble but today just feels like one of those days. I want to have a pitty party all on my own so i can sit and mope about how tough things are, about how everything seems like an upward battle, about how my OH just doesnt understand me and about how dissapointed i am in myself! Before anyone kindly says that there are a lot more people in worse positions than i am and that i have a lot to be greatful for ..... i totally understand that and i totally agree! I have got so much to be greatful for and i am so better off than a lot of other people but today... i just feel trodden on.



This is page six in my grans birthday album. I really love how this turned out and i am so greatful for the kind people on UKS who helped me clean up and fix the photo of my granny and her sister. This is turning out to be such a lovely gift that i cant wait to give it to her. I took my layouts round to my parents place on saturday and i had my dad in tears! Its such a good feeling to know that my work has that effect on my dad. For lack of any better words....it's pricless.

Motivation

Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing; its when you had everything to do, and you've done it. -Margaret Thatcher-

Even though you may want to move forward in your life, you may have one foot on the brakes. In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain your old pain. The energy it takes to hang onto the past is holding you back from a new life. What is it you would let go of today?-Mary Manin Morrissey -

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results. -Anonymous-

Happy Autumn Everyone

Happy Autumn everyone! I just love how the season is changing, how the colours in the leaves are turning from green to browns and oranges. The nights are drawing closer and the air is fresher than ever. I LOVE autumn!

I had some e-cards emailed to me today by some spam mail and i fell in love with this card. The colours, the words - they just inspired me so much.



I have been working very hard on my grans 80th album and thought that i would let you all in on a few more layouts that i have done for it. Let me know what you think. The second one i am not too sure if i like it or night but i am sure she will love it.





Thats it from me today. I have loads of exciting things to look forward to this weekend and i hope that you have all have a great weekend!

Till Monday

Happiness

"Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour…" — Walt Whitman

Be happy today, right where you are. No matter the situation there is always something to be greatful for, something to be happy about. My mantra at the moment is Season's Pass and this is what i tell myself when things are getting a little too much for me....Season's Pass!

Have a happy thursday everyone and make sure you come back tomorrow to see some more of my layouts for my grans 80th birthday present.

Time

"Deliberately seeking solitude—quality time spent away from family and friends—may seem selfish. It is not. Solitude is as necessary for our creative spirits to develop and flourish as are sleep and food for our bodies." Sarah Ban Breathnach

Time is becomming more and more valuable to me at the moment. I guess it has always been valuable and always been the same but more and more i am feeling like there is so much more that i want to fit into my day, so much more that i wish i could do. I am beginning to realise how important priorities are and how badly i need to sort mine out.

As much as i love my friends and family, there is nothing better than having some quality time to myself. Doing what i want. Reading what i want. Learning what i want.

Tonight Stu has had to work late so i have had the house to myself for a few hours. I love it! Got some house work done, took a few photo's, watching Home and Away and updating my blog. i also got to play with Paint Shop Pro. I did a photo like this a few days ago but tonight i got to get a little more practise at it...


I hope everyone has a great day and try to make sure that you take some me time over the next 24 hours....i know i will! Happy hump day!

Change

Tuesday's Quote:

"We make time for the things we want to do and we make excuses
for the things we don't want to do." — Royalmrs

Todays quote really hit home for me. I have always battled with my weight but just lately it has been a bigger battle than normal. Im not sure why things have changed so much but they have and i have been trying to talk myself into doing something about for a very long time now. Saturday night something inside of me clicked....as Oprah says, i think i had a Aha Moment. I forced myself to start doing weight watchers at home a week ago but my heart wasnt in it and i was doing it because i felt ashamed and knew i should be doing it to lose some weight instead of doing it for me, because i wanted to. Then, Saturday night, i sat down with my Joyce Meyers Magazine from last month to catch up on some reading. Her articles were for me, right were i was in my life. It was as though we were the only two people in the room and she was saying all that stuff just to me, just for my benefit. Nothing like this has ever happened to me before but i fell the difference deep down in my soul, deep down inside of me. Something has changed. While looking for the quote above i also came across this quote below which i really feel falls nicely into todays blog.

"Change means movement. Movement means friction."
Saul Alinsky

Even though i feel the way i do today and probably tomorrow and probably the day after there will come a day when things get difficult, where i dont feel like carrying on, where all i want to do is give up but the quote above will remind me change does not just happen easily, and if you want it then you need to be willing to go through those transition periods where things are difficult.

Wow, i truely believe in what i have writen but i didnt mean to get so deep, sorry ya'll. Anyway, as you may or may not remember, i am making a special album for my grans 80th birthday which is in January. A few weeks ago i finshed the first page in it and last night i sat and complete page number two. Going from 12 x 12 down to 8 x 6 was very scary at first but i am loving the freedom that it gives me. I still have several more pages to finish and i also need to alter the outside but right now i am just working one page at a time.



Our next door neighbour moved in to our close earlier this year. He is such a great guy and we soon became friends. During the course of his move we found out that he has a very unusual hobby, or at least it is unusual to me although i'm sure he thinks the same thing about my scrapping...lol. He races Pigeons! Good old pigeons. Apparantly, some of his pigeons are worth £1000 each!! FOR A PIGEON!! Anyway, as he has moved he now has to teach his pigeons where the new house is so ever so often he lets them all go and they fly off and then a little later they all come back. I cam home last night to find loads of pigeons sitting on my roof! they were waiting to be called in apparantly - and while i raced inside to get my camera, Jim blew his whistle thing and they all took off from my room and started circling the area getting lower and lower until they were able to fly straight into their little bird pens. I got some fab pictures so thought i would share them with you.

Relaxing, relaxing, relaxing

Ah, what a brilliant weekend i have had. It started off with the house to myself for most of saturday - just what i needed. I spent my time playing with my new camera, reading my weightwatchers magazine and then doing some scrapping. In between all that my mom and dad popped round for a visit and i stopped for a well deserved cup of tea!

Thursday evening i arrived home from work to find my September kit had arrived from http://www.thescrapbookshed.com. At first when i opening it i wasnt too sure about the colour of the papers but after spending some free time with them on my scrap table i fell in love. There is still one sheet that i just definately dont like but all i did was turned it over...lol....thank goodness for double sided paper!


This is a layout that i did using my new kit. The photo was taken last weekend when my parents took us out for a meal for my birthday. It was such a fantastic photo of us i just couldnt resist using it. I have been playing around with this idea for a while now but before saturday the title had always been He says/She says. Then when i sat down and thought of what i actually wanted to say the title changed to The things we say. The writing is a little small but if you click on the image it should make it big enough to read.


This week i think i will be doing a quote of the day every day. Something for us to think about and hopefully something to inspire us through our day to day life.
Todays quote is...

"Everything you need for this journey through life has been promised
to you by your Heavenly Father"

New beginnings - Again

Not again.......First off i started with a blogspot blog. Then a few weeks ago i decided it was time to try a differnt home and i moved on to typepad. I was very happy there until last night when.......drum roll please.........my blog got deleted! Yup deleted. Gone for Good! I dont know how or who or what but i went in to go and update and it says this no longer exists, it has been deleted. sob sob sob

So today is the start of my new home. I have moved back to blogger, decided to change my blog name, blog banner and just reinvent the wheel.

I hope that you will all come back and visit. It might take me a while to get things up and running again but it will all be sorted before we know it.

Have a great weekend everyone