Embellish your World

Big school

We have a very excited 5yr old who jumped out of bed this morning for his first day at big school and immediately put his uniform on!!!

His alarm barely went off before he was up, and shouting down the stairs "in what order do I put my uniform on Dad?"

Apologies for lack of blog updates, have been my usual crazy busy self, and also got my head buried in a good book, which tends to mean I take myself off to bed nice and early and curl up with a nice cuppa to read!

Am aching so much today, having helped at Ally Pally this weekend on the ScrapShed stand, first setting up on Friday, then a half hour demonstration to around 100 people on Saturday afternoon, showing just how much can be done with crafters workshop templates, and then I worked all day Sunday too, including another demo (smaller audience this time) and packing the stand away afterwards. I have slept for several hours this afternoon to recover and have no idea if I will ache less tomorrow, but I sure hope I do!

Tell you what though, sure brings it home how close Christmas is with plenty of festive craft goodies around!

Happy 5th Birthday Bob!

Born September 17th 2004 after a very stressful day of hospital delays our Robert arrived in the world, utterly gorgeous and has done nothing but improve with age!
Sadly I had a long day at work today and didn't get to spend much time enjoying his day with him, but super daddy took him swimming, to the cinema to see G-Force and then played Lego Batman - what more could a boy ask for?

Is this true?

Can anyone confirm or deny my learning for today "it is illegal to die in the houses of parliament"?

Strange fact sharing thing occuring at work today, mostly as a result of my sharing the various things you learn or even recall when doing secondary school history homework some 25 years after you have left school! Ok that sounded like I am REALLY late with homework but indeed it is the assisting with my daughter's homework I refer. These last few days I learnt that mince pies used to contain 13 ingredients to represent Jesus and his apostles, in the 16th century women rarely wore underwear, and that (not part of the history homework) the strange sound heard coming from the McDonalds building on the A10, not too different from what you might expect a strangled chicken to sound like!, is actually the recording of an eagle! It's intention to deter pigeons from the property!! Clever stuff! Thinking our Nelson in Trafalgar Sq may need an implant!!

And so I am off to snoozeville now, sharing my bed with sons #1 and #2 who are taking advantage of daddy being away this evening. Lucky man having watched the England cricket team lose another one dag event v the Australians at Nottingham today :(

Playing Catch-up

I am playing catch up with my life as everything either goes in slow motion at the moment in an almost surreal haze, or full pelt fast so much so you get giddy!

So quick update on my lsned journal - images to follow tomorrow, but my learnings are:

Friday 11th - Some day I will have time for all that is in my head, or learn to slow down!

Saturday 12th - I may have a young masterchef in the making! (My Robert baking cakes at Daisy Hutchinson's 5th birthday party)

Sunday 13th - I can run 3k without stopping in under twenty minutes (a goal I set myself earlier this year when I dragged myself around a 5k race!)

Monday 14th - I can make a tasty pasta sauce from all my home grown tomatoes!

Plenty to do this week so it should be a busy week for blog updates!! (hoorah indeed!)

Feeling quite autumnal

Most definately a chill in the air as I left work this evening and walked along the river path that leads to the car park. The leaves are starting to change colour on the trees and several starting to fall already. Yes indeed, Autumn, my favourite season, is on it's way, and that shall be my learning for today. I am a few days behind on my artbook pages for this "Learn something new everyday" class, but I have had a crazy busy week at work again, am shattered and to be quite honest not all that sure how I will manage the 3k run I am doing on Sunday round Forty Hall in Enfield! Plenty of Red Bull me thinks!

SO before I head off to make a much needed cup of tea, I wanted to share a couple of layouts I did with some totally fab papers from a Norwegian company called 3ndypapir. They are totally lush and the colours truly fab!

So far I have created these two pages with them, but have another crazy layout in my head which I hope to get on the page very soon.

Testing remote blog update

Just a quick blog post to test if I can upload photos as i update my blog from my iPhone. If it works the photo j am sharing is a screen shot of a stupidly addictive game downloaded to my phone as suggested by Ally. In this game you hurl a sheep into the air and then tap him to prevent him falling and instead catipult him into space!!! Waste of time? Yes indeed but very addictive and quite amusing too!!! That's my learning for today! Ann Sent from my iPhone

My random friend!

Another day in the office, another day glued to excel spreadsheets, tired out and ready for an early night when my bestest buddy calls to check I am in saying she is 5 minutes away. When I open the door all I have to say is "so not the best of dates then?" and we both burst into laughter. Several cups of tea later and I conclude that my learning for the day is "Some friends are just more random than others!!!" Love her!!

Sharing my lsned pages for my 6th & 7th of September learning below.

Glad to report that my grandads 84th birthday party went well yesterday evening, held in the canteen of the hospital he is currently in, with balloons and a cake and surrounded by his family. Fingers crossed the paperwork goes through and he will be moved to his nursing care home this weekend.

Finally before I head off to bed, a photo of my ScrapMates crop class layout from the weekend. We had great fun making the cupcakes, lots of stitched sprinkles and a sparkly cherry made from a blank "ready to cover" button from the local habadashery (spl?)

What I learnt today...

Hooray, happy dance indeed, we finally have a start date for Robert to start reception year at school. The very last day of this month, but he will go full time from then on as opposed to just mornings or just afternoons. I also can acquire the final uniform bits now and sort a childcare solution for our youngest! So today I learnt when my son will start "big school".

Currently on route to hospital to visit my grandad and celebrate his birthday with him and the other members of my extended family in the hospital canteen. Not looking forward to seeing how poorly he has got and hoping my kids behave themselves - crossed everything xx

Sometimes I get lucky!

Sunday evening, all children fed, eldest in shower getting ready for her first day back at school tomorrow, boys watching an episode of Pingu before they got to sleep, having been bathed and fed, dad enjoying a beer and a curry with the lads after getting his highest ever batting score at cricket today and mum ready to hit the sack any moment through utter exhaustion!

We did have a nice day down at the cricket, family fun day with a bouncy castle, face painting and a raffle for the National Autism Society, think over £200 was raised and I was lucky enough to win 2 prizes including a nice bottle of Southern Comfort! Yummy, just need some ginger ale to mix with it now!!! SO my learning for today was "Sometimes I get lucky!". Scrapping page to follow tomorrow but here are my two entries for the 4th and 5th of September.

Now to tuck my small people up in bed, have a soak in the tub and then an early night xx

The end of another week

Happy Friday lovely people! Lets hope for a little sunshine this weekend to brighten us all ready for week 2 of September!

Today I am sharing images of my creations for days 2 & 3 of lsned.
I am going to add a photograph of Temple Bar to this page just as soon as I uncover my photoprinter from whereever I have hidden it?! Funny how everyone I have mentioned Temple Bar to has stated they already knew it once resided in our borough, I must learn some things this month that other people don't already know!! And does learning not to overdo the bubbles on a school night count as a lesson? even if I am sure to have to learn it again one day? I think it does! Used peel-off champagne glasses on this page to create tiny masks, inked over the peel off and then removed to leave the glass images, bubbles added with stickles from Scrapshed

I wonder what I will learn today?...