Another week

Monday again and a week has gone by without me blogging , must try harder .

Thought you might like to see a picture of us all scrapping away on our lovely weekend retreat from last weekend , so good another one has been organsied for September .Only one thing went wrong and that was me leaving my sleeping bag and overnight bag there , so im off to Newcastle wednesday to pick them up from Bev

OOOO just started snowing ,wonder if it will lay.

Not sure if ive mentioned it but im standing for council in the coming up local elections (May 3rd) so wish me look on my campaign.

Gail's still away on holiday but she was kind enough to leave Hannah , Sharon and me a challenge (just incase we have nothing else to do ??????!!!!!!).We aech have a wooden sign that reads Altered Art and we have to decorate them , so off to Hannah's for tea and decorating.

Next crop

So the next Middlesbrough crop is this Saturday and i thought you might like to see the layouts for the crop kit .We are also holding an evening crop now and that's on Wednesday 21st March this month at 6.30 until 9.30 .So if you can't make the saturday we might see you wednesday.

A Month

A month without anything on my blog , so so busy .
Had a week tutoring down in Oxford which caused me to loose my voice , some might say great , but 2 weeks later it's still not back to normal .Then we had Olivia's birthday ,7 years old now , photo's to follow.
Had couple of days in London for a meeting and now today im off to Gibside in Newcastle dor a weekend scrapbooking retreat with friends until Sunday , how nice is that .Well i hope to get a lot of scrapping done but i bet there is more chatting to be had .

Next weeks crop

Next middlesbrough crop is 17th feb and here are the layouts you can make with the crop kit .

JELLO

jello jello jello and more jello
A parcel full of jello from Laura in the USA , and as you can see from the photo it's such great stuff that i have already made up a berry blue.
Along with all my lovely flaovoured jello's was a fantastic Stampington book , how i love these books but the are so expensive over here so it was a lovely suprise to get it , it's fab.
Another great swap completed

Pick a letter

The idea is you get a letter, and then list 10 things that begin with that letter that have significance to your life. If any of you want to play, just email me or leave me a comment, and I'll send you your letter. Phyliss gave me M, so here goes:

MUM - I supose both been a Mum and having a Mum. Having a Mum still around is a gift i am thankfull for and i am guilty of not telling her enough. My Mum only lives round the corner so whenever i need her or just want a chat i know i can pop round and get the comfort i need from her .Been a Mum , never knew just how much hard work this was going to be or how enjoyable been a Mum would be , I love Olivia so much and feel so lucky to be a her Mum.

MARK - My brother , never seem to see enough of this man and he lives round the corner also.Back home with mum and dad , poor things. So easy going and layed back ou never stop angry with him long. Would do anything for me if i asked (but i never do LOL)

this is harder than you think , so i am going to keep coming back with my 10 thinks

More parcels from Gimme swaps

Yet more swaps have arrived this week so i thought it was about time i upload some of the photo's of all my lovely parcels from around the world.
This is a picture of all the lovel stuff i got from China , Olivia just loved the Hello Kitty bag and the little toy that when you pull a string moves heis legs and arms around. Lots of lovely sweet.
I am now totally addicted to swapping.

Money for Surveys

Yes you can get money for filling in surveys online and here is the link .There's no catch and i have had money from them , tested products and received vouchers for Pizza Hut etc .
Give it a go , if you don't like it unsubscribe .

survey

Had a terrible crafting night last night , had a go at making the tote bag , managed too sew 2 sides together only and then had loads of problems with cotton snapping , gave up on that ,then had a go with the dissolve stuff and some bit, broke a needle , gave up on that decided to cover my 6x6 album for Monday's class with black flock paper from paperchase , cut it all up only to find it is far to thick to cover it , gave up on that went and had a stiff drink , didn't give up on that .Don't know if i dare attempt anything tonight .Think i might have a go at doing some 6x6 pages or even some "inchies" how had can they be..........................

More Gimme Your Stuff

It's arrived another great parcel from another great Gimme Your Stuff swappie, took 4 weeks but well worth the wait and as you can see from the picture Olivia got stuck into the lollies straight away .Who could blame her with all that lovely candy. My husband enjoyed this parcel also as his favourite cakes were in Twinnkies. I sat down with the lovely magazine Krista had sent and some of the chocolate after having a real good look at all the stuff. Thanks Krista!

Had a scrapbboking day at the community centre today , but had little "mojo" .I need to sort out some good pictures .Started a few layout and now all they need is a photo and a few odds"n"ends adding

I do hope the little pink shrine and dominoe doll has arrived for Tree , it was a UkScrappers swap i arranged ,for sending 5 things to alter .I got a large match box , dominoes , paper , german scrap and metal round letter .Here's what i did with it .

This Saturdays Crop

Tonight i have been busy and done the layout for the crop this Saturday The kit this month is My Minds Eye product The Best Of Friends range .It has in it 3 sheets of double sided patterned card , 2 fuzzy flowers , an overlay , title and pack of rub ons .Really like the layout I've done and the card is a lovely colour.

I have also got round to taking some photo's of the case i decorated for Olivia .She believes Father Christmas made it , as she recieved it all wrappped up on christmas day with loads of little things individually wrapped inside. So dont tell her will you .........

Not To Well

Getting better after a trip to the doctors and some tablets , but came home from work Monday not feeling or sounding very good at all .

Going back tomorrow and my day off is Friday this week so one day will be ok.

Gail popped round today so we did a bit of painting and made lots of background papers , so pleased with them , that one came in handy straight away for Jaine's CJ .Now it's finished and it will be in the post tommorrow for her .

This CJ has been great with some great people taking part in it , looking forward to getting mine back.

Have just finished about 5 mins ago making 8 ATC's for a swap , the theme been winter.

Snoring AGAIN

He's snoring AGAIN , so yet AGAIN i am up at 5am crafting .

Every cloud has a silver lining as i am getting a lot of art work done .

Today , sorry this morning , i have managed to do the back and front of the lastest CJ i have joined .My theme is dolls in an altered sort of way.

Also on the production line this morning were 6 ATC made from the ATC kit swap i took part in last year on ukscrappers.Never got round to using them until this morning

A Late HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well time flies so they say

Been busy anyway , lots of new stamps arrived for the site ZETTIOLOGY and LOST COAST DESIGNS very nice , i feel i need these more than the site does

Did my 5 suprise items challenge for the monday craft group , Jean gave me a buckle , canvas , buttons , purple paper ribbon and 2 peices of material .And this is what i did with it

Also been busy doing some ATC's and a CJ entry , got my mojo back by the looks of things .Now i must sit down and design the project for the March kit which has a theme of Victorian .At least i have some ideas in my head .

Next crop i have is on the 20th Jan and i have the kits all ready for that but i haven't done the layout for it yet , i'm hopeing to get that done tomorrow night as yet again it's in my head .Let hope i dont loose all these ideas.

i have just signed up for another CJ on ukscrappers which yet again i have loads of ideas for and the theme i have chosen is dolls in an altered sort of way .

CHRISTMAS DAY

Well up at 5am , had a look out in the street and it seems we where the 1st up , so we had all presents from Santa opened by 7.30am
Both sets of parents where coming for dinner , so i had all the dinner to cook .
They all arrived together at 1pm and we sat down to eat at about 1.15pm , very nice , even if i say so myself.
What did i get , well from Peter i got a days outing to drive a Lamborghini as fast as i want around a racing track , VERY NICE (thanks honey)
Livvy bought me some lovely perfume and all the stuff to go with it .
Then lots of lovely smellies and sweeties , a book , a lovely handmade picture from Gail and other odd n ends
A GREAT DAY

Getting Nearer

So so busy , just getting it all sorted now .Yesterday i did find time to go to my local crop so that was good fun .It also gave me the time to make Mum and Dad's christmas card .We have bought them along with presents to open on christmas day some vouchers for the threatre and gardening so the card has little places that can hold these
Tomorrow is my crafting Monday and we are doing xmas trees will try and remember to take a photo and get it on here

tooooo long

Yes it's tooooo long since i last blogged , so here we are .
Today the January Alter That Kit was posted out , a little early but i didn't want any to go missing in the xmas poast , so fingers cross that doesn't happen.
Just booked a week in London at one of the caravan sites for the 2nd week of the Easter holidays next year , and with a bit of look our friends are going to join us with there 3 kids whilst we are there .Something to look forward to
I think we are going to atempt to go back to Holland in the caravan next summer so we will need to get that sorted .

Well since i last updated this i have been lucky enough to recieve 2 more swap parcels from the Gimme Your Stuff site , i am totally addicted.One was from singapore and the other america. There were some great thing in both parcels . It's a great way to get some wonderful things from differeny places.
I have another taking place from sweden which is just a candy/chocolate swap , so that will be nice to eat over the christmas holidays

Liverpool

So i get back from a weeks tutoring down at out Alvescot Lodge (our's i mean the CWU's) to recieve a message for me to go to Liverpool and the Union Learning Rep event for 3 days .So guess where im off to tomorrow
Just enough time over the weekend to spend time with the family , go to a crop and re pack
O and to upload the next ALTER THAT kit .

Please Welcome Puss in Boots

So here are the 1st photo's of Puss in Boots .We found out Saturday that Boots is a little boy and he had his 1st injections .Not to bothered by it , so that's good as he needs another one in three weeks time.He is a Manx cat so has no tail , which is a bit strange as i am use to my cats having tails .Doesn't seem to bother him.

Had a very productive day at the crop yesterday with 4 layouts for Sue's wedding album done AND the crop kit one also .

Olivia spent the night at Sue's , so Peter and I took advantage and went to see The Rocky Horror Show at Darlington .Great show and some great audience participation .We then went over to Middlesbrough and had tapas at the new tapas bar on Borough Road .Very nice.

Off to Oxford tomorrow to do some tutoring for the week , so no crafting unless i pack a little something to stop me getting board on a night .

Chloe

Olivia and I went to see Chloe last night , we were told that she was not going to get any better so the decision was made .We told Olivia a little white lie in that she had died during the night .She then said after hearing this that her spirit would now be in heaven and she would have no more pain (wise words from a 6 year old) I think the kitten is helping her (and me),just couldn't have a cat free home.
IT now has a name Puss in Boots , Olivia's choice and we can call it Boots but if its naughty we have to call it Puss in Boots.

It's out

Yes my little BT van is unstuck and recovered .They had to use a tractor to do it but apart from all the mud it looks ok .They are taking it to our transport depatment today to check it out .
Glad that's sorted .
Bit of good news is that we went and picked up a 12 week old black and white manx kitten yesterday afternoon .Olivia had gone out to a party for the afternoon so without her knowing anything about it we went and picked it up .She is so pleased with it but does not know what to call it .
Chloe is still at the vets and we are going tonight to see her but there is no improvement , so i am going to have to deside what to do tonight .