Oh Mr Postman

I LOVE the postman!! And if he were to be honest i think he would say that i scare him just a little....lol.

This is what he brought me yesterday. The latest issue of ScrapBook Inspirations (look out for a review of some of the articles later next week) and along with this magazine came this mini book as the free gift. This little books looks lovely and i know exactly what i am going to do in it.
The postman also brought me this. The March kit from Modscraps. All that i can say is Wow! I must have really been out of the latest things in the scrapping world because there is just so much that i haven't seen. I love the black lace, the letters and most of all the tube of flowers! Never seen those flowers before or the black lace. The papers are just gorgeous and i already have ideas for them.
Today is my last day at work for a while...10 days actually but who's counting! I have got some nice plans for the week ahead so not sure how much i will be around. Anyways, have a great weekend everyone and i will be back with photos, as I'm doing a photo shoot next week, a new hair style - going to the hair dressers on Thursday and hopefully a whole lot of new stash and new layouts to show.

Have a good one.

Hurry up weekend!!

I was talking to my mom last night and we only have 2 more sleeps until we go to the Hobby Crafts show at the NEC. I am so excited i am jumping up and down - well, only jumping on the inside for now as i am sitting at my desk at work. In true child like enthusiasm i want to get there as early as possible and see everything right away...lol.


Holiday mode is definately starting to kick in as i dont feel like doing anything - work wise. Most of my stuff is up to date so im just taking it easy. Roll on Friday afternoon!

If you have some time and you want to see some fantastic drawing take a look at Karla's blog. All i can say is WOW girl!

I placed and order with Amazon a few days ago and i got an email to say that the order had been processed. I thought nothing of it until my books did not arrive. Each day i was expecting the postman and each day he never showed. So i had another look at my order. My books arent comming until April 16th at the earliest!! Apparantly, one of the books is making its way over from America which is why it caused the delay - although, in my opinion, it doesnt take 4 weeks for a order to come from the states but anyway.

I also just want to give a shout out for yesterdays post! Wohoo - Yesterdays post was my 100th post. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who stops buy and to all the new friends that i have made.

Fun Times

Once again just a quick post from me today. Last night i put this layout together. Don't you just love when you sit down and it all comes together. No problems, no doubting yourself, no battling. This is nothing how i imagined it to be when i started but isn't that always the case...lol
Happy Wednesday!

Perspective

Ok, so i know i said that was going to take some time out for me - and yes i still am going to do that but not just right now. I have four days left at work (including today) and then i am off for 10 days! Yup 10 days to do what i want, 10 days to take some time out for me. So that is what i am going to be doing.

Yesterday was rather a low day for me but today I am feeling better. Perhaps its my perspective that has changed, perhaps it is down to simply getting more sleep - I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong, i still have all of that going on but i don't feel like it is overpowering me like i did yesterday.

Anyways, on to other stuff. Last night when i got home i had this waiting for me. Yup, my new Nokia 7373. How girly is it! I love it. The colours have altered a little in the photo but you get the idea. I love the swirls, i love the dangly bits, i love the change!

Keeping it short and sweet today so that is it from me.

Have a great day!

Inside my heart

Things and thoughts that i am dealing with at the moment in no particular order.....

* The people who we need the most will let us down from time to time. Dealing with these feelings is not easy! Moving past it is no easy task.

* It only takes one small choice to undo everything that you have worked so hard towards.

* You cant go back to the way things were before or to where you were before - it never happens and is never the same.

* Love is a choice - a choice i don't always feel i should make.

* A lot of life is uncertain and knowing what to do and which path to choose is never straight forward and never an easy task.

* Sometimes, the dreams that get born in our hearts will simply stay dreams. Dealing with and accepting that is also difficult.

* Knowing that you have disappointed someone is hard, knowing that you have disappointed yourself is even worse!

If you are the praying type i could really use a few extra prayers at the moment please. I might take a few days away from here. I need to find myself and try to figure things out.

The sniffs

So it seems to be in full force! I have the sniffs, the sore throat - basically i have the YUKS!! But i am not letting it stop me.....i have too much to do. lol . Tonight i am going to meet my mom at Borders and we are going to have a nice chat and a cuppa. Cant wait!

I also have a few layouts that are midway through and i really need to get a moving with them. I hate having things half done. I also want to do a mini book at some point and i have a circle journal entry to do as well.

I have also been playing with the idea of going to get some more fabric and a new pattern and get a sewing but next weekend my mom and i are going here so if I am being smart i will be keeping my money for then instead of going out and spending it now.

Yesterday i bought this and this from Amazon. I have been looking at getting both for a while now but i can find Inside my Heart here in the UK yet. Because of this it will take between 6 - 8 weeks for my books to arrive but i don't mind. I know that they are on their way! Yipee.

A few nights ago i got my camera out and took this photo. I love how the colours show in this photo! I love my camera!
I had loads more to say but I'm just not feeling up to it.

Peace out!

I thought i had escaped it!

Considering spring is almost upon us i thought i had managed to elude the flue bug this winter. I was so wrong! I'm sitting here at work feeling so grotty. Runny nose, sore throat, achy body - i just want to be at home. The problem with being the only one in my department is that if i am off sick - there is no one else who can or does do my work. I have got so much work waiting to be done as it is i just don't think i have any choice but to sit here and carry on.

Last night i decided that i needed to do some baking. I am doing weight watchers at the moment so decided to try a recipe Cream cheese swirl chocolate brownies that i got off their site. These are delicious beyond words and i will definitely be making them again. The only tip i can give is that next time i make these i will cook them for a few minutes longer as they were a little undercooked in the middle - nothing too bad but they just could have used a few more minutes.
Next i hope to find a delicious recipe for some banana bread so if you have one you would like to share please do.

When i got home last night i had two lovely parcels waiting for me. The first one was my page kit swap that our team on UKS are doing. Here is what i got from Rosie - Thanks Rosie!And the second parcel contained this........Yup - lucky me won these gorgeous stamps here. Thank you so much. I have a layout in mind that i am going to use them on and hope to get it started tonight....that is if i am feeling up to it of course!

Last night i finally got a layout finished. I have been working on this one for a few days now so am very glad to see if finished. It is in honor of my new hobby that i have taken up. *I will update with the journaling a little later today*.

We got some very sad news on Saturday. My gran was taken into hospital back home in South Africa. Thankfully - she is doing much better now and if all goes well she should be home by the beginning of next week.This is a photo of my gran that i found while looking through some old family pictures.....I think she was about 4 years old in this photo. Anyways, after i finished my layout last night i decided to make her a card to let her know that we care and love her very much. Now i am not a card making person but i did put together this little card for her that is going in today's post.

That's it from me today my friends. Hope you have a great Wednesday and if you don't here from me soon it will be because i am bundled up in bed trying to get rid of this silly cold!

A little bit of everything

So i know that i haven't been a very good blogger lately but life just seems to be getting in the way of some very good intentions. I had a few days off work last week, use them or lose them as they say, and even though i had this "extra" time on my hands i still feel as if i did not manage to catch up on anything.

While doing my quick blog surfing yesterday i cam across this quote on Francine's blog.

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."-Emerson

This really spoke to me - especially with how busy my days are and how most nights i go to bed feeling that i accomplished so little of my to do list. This quote just reminded me that i am only human and that as long as i go to bed each night knowing that i did the best that i could that day then that should be enough for me. I must not be so hard on myself. I should not expect the unattainable. Thank you Francine and thank you Emerson!

I did manage to get this layout created over my long weekend. It is for this competition that is running at the moment. I know that it is not going to be picked as the best and while i was putting it together i didn't think that i would like it, but now that it is completed i really do like it. Its personal and its me!

On the sewing front i have managed to do some work on my skirt. As you can see i pretty much had it finished on Sunday. The zip was in, all be it a little wonky and no where near the professional standard that i had expected from myself
The slit that i put in the skirt did turn out fantastically so at least i could feel good about that.

After trying the skirt on i found out that after all this the skirt was way to big. I don't know how this happened because i thought i had double checked and triple checked my measurements but obviously i am missing something along the way. So last night i sat down and unpicked the zip and the side seam. I cut away some of the fabric to make it a little smaller and redid the zip correctly (oh for the love of the Internet - you can find anything on here). I tried it on and it fits and looks oh so much better. This morning it went in the wash so tonight i will give it an iron and then take a photo of it. Skirt project complete - tick.

This photo below is of my shirt that i was making. Its complete and i wore it to work yesterday but i am not happy with it at all. It is just too big over the boob area and i think because of this it doesn't sit properly on me. I was thinking about unpicking the entire thing and re cutting but i am not sure i have the patience for that. My mom is going to have a look at it for me but if all else fails i might just bin it and try again.

This week Stuart is working lates so i have the evenings to myself. Tonight i am going to try to get some of my scrapping ideas down on paper and maybe make a start on one or two of them. Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Its here, its here!

This is what arrived at my house yesterday morning while i was at work. I placed this order in January from A million little things but because i had it shipped via sea it took seven weeks to get here! I was so excited to get it as i have not bought stash in months due to the pennies being so tight. Wohoo - guess what i will be doing tomorrow and Friday? Oh yeah, while i think about tomorrow and Friday let me just shout from the roof tops that i have those two days off work! Yup, i have a four day weekend coming up.

So why has it been so long since i blogged?Once again my days seem to be running off with out me. Work is so busy that i don't have time to check emails for surf sites ( i know i shouldn't be doing these things normally but a girl who works really hard deserves these few minutes of distraction every now and then). By the time i get home i have to do dinner and clean the house etc and once that is done i just feel so tired! This has started to worry me a little because i have been a lot more tired than what i normally am. Maybe i just need a good nights sleep but a few nights ago i was in bed by 8:30pm and had to nudged out of bed by OH when the alarm kept going off the next morning. I'm just so so tired!

On the scrapping front - I have finally finished my teams circle journal and am hoping to have it in the post by Saturday at the latest. I was going to post some pictures of it but decided that it would be much better kept as a surprise for my fellow team members. Other than the circle journal i haven't done much scrapping.

On the sewing front i am still stuck with my shirt. That is now sitting in a pile next to my sewing machine. Last night i decided to make a start of my trousers. I cut out the pattern, fold my fabric, place my patter on the fabric......you wont believe it........i cant fit the pattern on the fabric. No matter how i try it just wont fit! I pick up the patter cover, turn it around and *BAM* it hits me right on the nose. My pattern calls for 2.5m of fabric, not the 2m that i have. Arghh. So away with that idea and out with my skirt pattern. This time, before i go to all the trouble of finding the pieces and cutting them out i check how much fabric i need....just over 1.5m. Yippee - i should be able to make this one!

Have you seen this blog? Its really cool. i have been visiting it for a while now and keep meaning to join in but life got in the way and i never got around to it. Then, while cleaning out my memory card i came across this photo that i took a while ago and i knew that it would be a great way to start my journey. Now i no that these are not in order but it doesn't matter to me. This photo is for the prompt Read.

And this prompt is for Plastic! I really like how this photo turned out. The way the light is hitting the keyboard and how some of the keys are in focus and how others aren't.
If you have some spare time and want to see some really good blogs and meet some fantastic ladies take a look at toya's and adrienne's inspirational Wednesday entry.

That's it from me for a few days! Have a great weekend and make sure to catch up with me next week. Chow!

Circle Journal

So i don't know if it is just down to my ears still playing up but yesterday and today i have been feeling like crap! My body aches, my ears hurt, I'm constantly cold - my poor body must be working overtime trying to keep itself healthy.

In other news - I got my first circle journal back about a week and a half ago. It is lovely and i am so pleased how it has turned out. Thank you to all the ladies who took part and put their time and effort into my journal. The theme of our team was Love/Hate. Below are the pictures of my circle journal.





I have been waiting very patiently for Robin McGraw's book to come out here in the UK, Inside my Heart, and I see that it now has. I still have a voucher from Christmas for Waterstones so I want to pop by and pick this book up. It looks awesome and so fits in with my word for the year - CHOICES. A definite must have for me!

I have a question for you all......how do you manage your finances in your household. Do you have two accounts, one account, a personal account and then a bills account? I'm looking to revamp our finances situation and was wondering whats working for you. If you don't want to answer on here feel free to email me.

Off to do the work that seems to be mounting higher and higher on my desk and then i am off to start the weekend! Have a good one everyone.

Mouse and Cheese

OK you guys, you have just got to watch this video. It had me in stitches! Sit back and enjoy.

This is my level of humour gals!

Last night we seemed to have had a bit of a blow up in the house. Anyway, this left me with an entire evening to do what i wanted. I went upstairs, sat at my desk and just began to scrap. If you read yesterdays post you will know that my creativity has been lacking lately but i am pleased to say that last night i found it once again.

First i want to show you a layout that i did a few weeks back. I entered it in to a magazine but i have not heard anything back yet so i assume this one did not make the cut and that now i can post it here for you all to see. I so love how this turned out and it is a very different style for me.

Then this is the layout that i started ages ago but finally found the creative juices to finish it. I'm pleased with how it has come out. I used Fancy Pants paper, ribbon, 7 Gypsies tag, Lil Davies alphabets and the blue letters i got free with my Scrapbook Inspirations magazine a few months back. Halfway through my title i realised that these felt letters only come with one M so i improvised and turned my W upside down. I don't think you can really tell....can you?

Oh yeah, on second thought, i just wanted to add in that the little white swirls you can see around the photo are from Kirsty's site. I downloaded one of her overlays, made it a little bigger than my photo and only got the edges of the swirls to show. Thanks Kirsty!
I also managed to make a start on our team circle journal. I had a really good idea for it and the cover is turning out far better than i thought it would. Yahoo to me!

In other news, my diet/healthy eating is going very well. I lost 1.5 pounds this week and i am going to start incorporating some exercise into my day so that i can begin to build up my fitness level. Yesterday i had a look at taking part in this years Race for Life. For the past three years i have been tempted to join in but this year i think i am going to take the plunge and enter. If your reading this mom, i am going to try to get you to come with me so be prepared!! lol.

I am still battling with my ear infection. I had to go back to the doctors on Tuesday and i still have both an inner and outer ear infection. Man......this just isn't getting better! Anyways, he gave me some antibiotics and told me to come back in a weeks time. Lets hope it works this time.

Tonight i am hoping to carry on with my shirt, do some more work on my circle journal and also spend an hour(providing i can actually manage that) doing some salsa dancing with a workout DVD that i have at home.

Well, that's me for today.

I'm outta here!

Have a good one.

Life

So I'm going through a bit of a rough time at the moment. A lot of emotional stuff is going on and unfortunately it is affecting my creative flow. I haven't felt like doing anything except watch TV, bath and go to bed. I have a layout half done, a new circle journal to do, a shirt to finish, a trousers to make, swaps to do and i don't have the energy to do any of it.

Isn't it strange how things are brought into your life when you need them. Yesterday, i was reading one of Joyce Meyers books and her statement hit me straight in the middle of the eyes.
Do i want to be pitiful or powerful? I want to be powerful! So, i am lifting my chin up high and walking through the next couple of days like this - even though this is not how i feel on the inside.

This morning i opened up my email from Oprah and this was her quote for the day.
"Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim."
—Nora Ephron

Shall I Laugh or Cry?

Last night i suddenly realised that i have not updated my blog for days and days - definitely not like me. Then i began to run through what i had been up this past week and it hit me. Sewing is what happened to my week!

Let me share with you what i have learnt this week from my sewing adventure (and this is in no particular order):
1. This is not something that you can simply do for half an hour and then stop - It pulls you in and makes you feel like you want to finish the entire thing even though it fully knows that it will take you at least another week to finish it!
2. Just because someone else finds something easy does not mean that I will - When i went to go buy my fabric and my pattern, the woman who sold me the patterns told me that they were easy. If this is what easy is then i have NO hope of getting this shirt finished. Don't even think about showing me a difficult pattern, lol, i can see myself running a mile!
3. It takes all night just to figure out which pattern pieces you need and in which size.
4. Fabric has a grain - Can someone please tell me when this happened? Was i off sick the day our home economics teacher taught us this lesson? I had to Google it to find out just what it meant and how to find it!
5. Follow the pattern - So before i started cutting out my fabric i decided that in order to give myself a little extra material i would cut about a cm away from the paper pattern all the way round the pattern. My shirt is now too big and looks like a tent! Arggg
6. When you start to sew, expect to miss at least three things - "What three things did I miss"? you ask. Well first i completely missed one of the pattern pieces that i needed for my shirt. I didn't even cut it out of the fabric! Secondly, i completely missed a step in the "Easy instructions" that was provided and thirdly i completely missed that fact that this patter calls for a zipper!! Since when?? lol
7. You can always unpick - LOL - if it was up to me i would have just left the colour the way it was, but with my mom their she insisted that i unpick it and do it properly...lol. Mom's!
8. Practise makes perfect - I had to re thread my machine that many times that i can now do this blind folded! Wohoo to me.
9. Sewing has a whole new lingo of its own - Yup, that's right. It has its own lingo with its own secret words and secret meanings and i feel like i am sitting on the outside of this secret circle looking in.

As I didn't have a zip, I tried to fix it and alter it myself. 10:30pm last night this is how i left my shirt - feeling very disappointed with it and myself.

I still have the hem and sleeves to do but am thinking about leaving the shirt for now and perhaps starting the EASY trouser pattern that arrived in the post on Saturday.
On the scraping front i managed to complete another cj and also started a new layout. Here is a sneak peak as it is not finished yet.
I have a new circle journal to make for our UKS team cj and i also want to get some layouts submitted to a mag tonight.
Have a good day everyone