Happiness

I am scrapping like crazy at the moment. Good thing I have got lots of pictures!.

New Years EVE

My husband and I spent along time debating what to do on new years eve. We had a baby sitter (my mum) all organized, an invite to a cosplay party and our taxi (my dad) booked. We decided that despite the fact it was new year we didn't want to go out at all. That we would spend the evening both doing something that we loved. We looked at going to the cinema and the zoo on new years day but decided against those too. In the end we stayed in. Charlie working on his art and me scrapbooking. It was perfect.

A brand new year

When I sit and think of the pass year, I am stunned into silence, which is a rare thing indeed. So much has happened in the space of a year that it’s a little hard to comprehend. Our nice orderly life has been turned upside down and we are loving every second of it.

We bought our first home. A big step in anyone’s book. A three bed Victorian end of terrace that still needs some love and attention thought we have managed to decorate three rooms so far. We got it for a seriously good price, all we had to do was move to Wales, which hasn’t been bad at all.

We had our son, Logan. I thought that I would never have kids so when that little blue line appeared it came as a bit of a shock. Even more so to my husband when I rang him in work to tell him. He is wonderful and beautiful and I love him, simple as that.

My husband and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I will always be thankful for him and his ability to make me smile when I want to kill.

I feel, as does everyone at this time of year, that I should make some new years resolutions. I though long and hard over them and decided on these.

1. Clean less and scrap more. In the future my friends and family won’t care that my washing up wasn’t done straight away or that I had a pile of ironing a mile high. Share what matters to you, the rest can wait awhile.
2. Watch a new film once a month. My husband and I love to watch films but of late we have found ourselves watching the same ones over and over again. We have a rather substantial collection of DVDs and a disappointing amount of them we have never watched.
3. Finish what I start. I don’t know about you but I have numerous projects sat in bags and boxes waiting for me to finish them. Many of them would only take a hour or so to finish but I keep getting distracted by the next thing.

Those are my resolutions. Simple and achievable.

Happy new year readers….If there are any of you!

Another Layout!

I have been collecting digi-scrap from a long time. Before I found scrapbooking I was involved quite heavily in the PSP tagging community. For those who have no idea what im on about a tag is a signature that you put on the end of an email, a forum post or anything you like really. These were mainly pictures called tubes with your name added. PSP stands for Paint Shop Pro. Buried deep in this blog are a few I posted along time ago. I have only ever used digi-scrap for tags....until today. I couldn't find the right paper in my stash to match these photos so I turned to my trusty laptop and printed some off! And I have to say it came out very nicely.

The Bear Suit

"Don't stop me now....Cause im havin' a good time!"

Dummy

My creative side can be very hit and miss sometimes. I love to mess around with paper and glue but every once in a while it starts to feel like a chore instead of a joyous and fulfilling hobby. Usually after my 50th Christmas card.

But today I was inspired by a wonderful group of ladies who run the challenge blog Scrap Schemes . i stumbled across this blog while hopping and was so inspired by there scheme 10 challenge that I had to give it a go. Here is my attempt. Its about my little boys growing fixation with his dummy.
Sorry about the picture quality

Lemmings

Something always goes wrong at Christmas doesn’t it? People queue for miles to return the broken presents, screaming child in toe wishing they were at home. Charlies new 360 game went wrong so we had to join the masses in the line for returns. Luckily we managed to miss the traffic and exchanged the game with minimal fuss. We even had time to nip in to toys r us to pick up a cot bumper for Logans nursery.

I couldn’t help but get a little frustrated by the stupidity of people on mass. They all queue like lemmings, shuffling forward complaining that they should open another till, that they will be late for some appointment of divine importance. They came to what is always a very busy shop on one of the busiest days of the year. Did they really think that they wouldn’t have to queue? The only conclusion I can come to is that some people are either very dumb or so egotistical that they believe that the armful of cheap toys they are trying to buy for their spoilt children really matters to a corporation as big as toys r us. I didn’t mind queuing at all. I got to stand there and pull faces at my little boy while he laughed and smiled. Not a bad way to pass the time.

Boxing day

Anyone who knows Bristol will know that my next statement is complete madness. Anyone who lives near or has ever been to a large shopping centre will also know its complete madness.

I went to the Mall

I went to the Mall on boxing day

I went to the Mall on boxing day during the sales.

The Mall is a huge shopping centre in Cribbs Causeway on the outskirts of Bristol. It has been in the local news recently due to the complete gridlock that happens nearly every year around Christmas time. I have been stuck before for over four hours and my brother got stuck on Monday for nearly five hours. But for some ungodly reason it seamed like a very good idea to head to the Mall this afternoon. We packed up the car, prepared for a long queue and

Nothing.

The roads were empty. I thought for a moment that maybe the Mall was closed, it was that quiet. Forty five minutes I am the proud owner of a new handbag, Charlie has a new game for his 360 and I’ve bought some Christmas scrapbooking stuff for the stash. Not bad going really.

Charlie and I decided to celebrate our good fortune with McDonalds. Yum.

I love going to my parents for tea. Mum always does way to much food and I get a little peace and quiet because dad can’t leave Logan alone. Granny and her friend Tom joined us and a good time was had by all. Logan laughed and smiled at everyone, his usual charming self.

I can’t believe Christmas is over.

Christmas day

Today is Logans first Christmas. I feel it should have arrived with more fanfare than it did but as the little man is only eleven weeks old he has no idea what is going on anyway.

We spent this Christmas day with my parents. It wasn’t their “turn” but as it was little mans first Christmas my parents wanted to play at being grandparents and, to be honest it was the easy way out. My mum, though not the worlds best cook always over feeds us. And I know that Jay and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Logan was generally fussed over and spoilt rotten the entire day and I am truly envious of some of his presents. He got some very cute clothes and lots of rattle type toys but my favourite and his is the Glow Worm that my brother bought him. I had one myself when I was a little girl and I love that thing to death. I carried it nearly everywhere and I still have it in the attic at my parent’s house. We didn’t stay too long as Logan was starting to get grouchy. By 7:00pm I was curled up on the sofa with a blanket watching Austin Powers drawing rude pictures on my new etcha-sketch (thank you Jay)

Christmas eve

Do you think that its strange that a 29 year old woman has spent most of her Christmas eve tracking Santa on google earth?

I have been showing Logan Santas journey across the world. He doesn't seem to care that much. But then again he is only 11 weeks old

Have a great Christmas readers....if there are any of you

Loading photos

I have been having serious issues loading photos in to my fotki album. Keeps freezing up. Grr. Starting to get a little annoyed.

Monday, Monday.

Mum and dad came over again to do some odd jobs for me and of course to fuss over their grandson. Dad fixed the banister that I broke when I fell and mum picked up a prescription for Logan. When they left Logan and I spent the rest of the day playing and resting until we had to pick up Charlie. In the evening we did nothing.

It was wonderful.

Lazy sunday afternoon

The title says it all really. We did some housework and watched films. The perfect day.

Dirty little stop out

My Fridays are usually spent with my mother doing my food shopping and wandering around the shops killing time and spending dads money. This Friday was hectic as not only did I spend time with my mother I also had the girls over for dinner. I spent the morning with my mum. We went to Yate, picked up my new glasses and did my food shopping. My new glasses are very foxy, suit me down to the ground and I love them to bits. I left mums about 1:00 pm and headed for my friend Jans house. I love Jan, she is one of my favourite people and you can guaranty that you will get un-abridged honesty. Some people find her a little hard to take because of this but I love her for it. My visit to Jans is our little secret, we wanted to spend some time together without having to temper our conversation and she loves to have little Logan all to herself for a little while. I left to pick Charlie up at 3:45pm, took him to my mums then headed back to Jans. Charlie went off to play Gears of War 4 with my brother Jay at his place while I had the girls round. Kim and Leila showed up at Jans about 6:00 pm and we all headed back to mine for an evening of debauchery in Wales. Much merriment was had. I cooked and we sat around chatting and entertaining Logan until about 11:30 pm when I kicked everyone out so that I could go and pick Charlie up from Jays. Logan had had enough by then and was seriously over stimulated. I rang Charlie from mums when I arrived there and his phone was off. Deciding that Charlie could look after himself I decided to go to bed. I woke up at 9:00 am to a cold and empty bed. My dirty little stop out of a husband had been up all night playing computer games with my brother. He enjoyed himself and I got a good nights sleep so no harm done. We spent a little time around Jays so that him and his girlfriend Katie cound both coo over Logan then headed off to get some food. We spent the rest of the day being lazy, watching films and playing with Logan. Charlie's friends Paul and Nick came over in the evening to meet Logan and to see us before Christmas. Nick spends most of the year in Italy so it was great to see him. We played rock band all evening. Not a bad start to the weekend.

DCWV

I set myself a challenge yesterday. Could I make at least fifteen cards that I liked using only what came in DCWVs vintage card kit in a stack? I allowed two things from my stash per card but limited that to ribbons, brads and other small accessories. No stamps or anything large that would distract from the papers. Its more of a challenge than I thought it would be but I wanted to see if it was possible. The kit comes with twenty card blanks, 191 stickers (sounds a lot but most are alphas) and 5 coordinating papers. No envelopes though. Well...I don't think that I did too badly as I managed eighteen, not all of which I liked but all of which I would be happy to send out. Its nice to have a stash of cards that I can send in a card emergency.

Lack of Mojo

I have been very uninspired of late. My mojo seemed to have wandered off but I think its on its way home as after a evening spent surfing. I came across two inspiring blogs, both of which are linked in my worthwhile reading section. I have been inspired to dig out the stash and experiment again. I have been buried under the tedious but enjoyable task of making Christmas cards which, after you have made your 50th starts to kill off any joy you had for the project. But they are all done now and I feel like playing again. Lets hope that my 10 week old son recovers a little from his cold and gives me some “play” time.

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Bread and Butter pudding

This is one of my favorite recipes and is so easy to make. Be prepared to make a mess though.

Ingredients

A large panettone
125g softened unsalted butter
175g sultanas
125g demerara sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
1/2 level teaspoon ground mixed spice
300ml whole milk
300ml double cream
2 medium eggs
Large ovenproof dish, buttered

1. set the oven to 180c or gas mark 4. Slice the panettone and butter one side. Cut each slice in to triangles. Mix together the sultanas, sugar, lemon zest and mixed spice. Arrange half the panettone, butter side up, in the oven proof dish and sprinkle over half of the fruit mixture.Press down gently. Top with the remaining panattone and scatter the remaining fruit mixture on top.

2. Beat together the milk, cream and eggs and then pour the mixture through a sieve over the panettone. Leave the pudding to stand for at least 30 minutes so that the panettone absorbs some of the liquid.

3. Place the dish on a baking tray, and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes, until the top is golden, the edges of the panettone start to crisp and the custard has set in the center. Remove from the oven and serve immediately.

Great with custard or cream
Not suitable for freezing