Getting To Know You - Getting To Know All About You!

22:27 Karen 3 Comments



SJ found this website and posted about it on her blog and I thought what a fun way to write a post so here we go:-

1. Do you have a fetish?
David would say unfortunately not - I would say thankfully not!

2. Do you sing in the shower?
Oh yes, very badly and very loudly.

3. Who was your first crush?
It was David Cassidy - a blast from the past who was in a program called the Partridge Family which was a must watch American show. (He is the one 3rd from the left at the top).


4. What do you think is the best manly trait a guy could have?
To protect those he holds dear.

5. Do you sleep naked?
Again David would say unfortunately not!

6. What do you do when (you think) no one is looking?

I discuss things with myself out loud :o}

7. What's the first thing you do when you go online?

Check my e-mails and then check Google Reader

8. Summer is.....?

6 weeks off work!

Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. A long walk with David, Kiera and a couple of his friends - lovely weather and lovely company.

2. Homemade Bakewell tart for tea.

3. 1 week down and only 2 more weeks to go for Gracia's exams.

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Back in my Zone

12:17 Karen 4 Comments



The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a struggle as I have had so much work to catch up on for David and I have been really tired as a result of an ongoing but not life threatening, health issue I have. But yesterday I finished the last of the invoices I had set my mind to do and my energy levels miraculously clicked back to normal.

I don't usually work on Friday afternoons and that meant that once I had finished my 'David Work' the afternoon and evening, as both David and Gracia were out, were mine to do with as I wished. And what did I wish to do - well scrap of course! I made a page for this challenge and it reignited my love of paper scrapping. Although I have made my Gracia album and I absolutely love it - it is not truly my style so I made this page and am back in my zone!


Lots and lots on the page, bright vibrant colours, buttons, a must for any page in my opinion, and a photo I love. This is in fact the third time I have scrapped this photo and maybe it wont be the last!

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Feeling myself again and not so tired that I am having to spend so much time sleeping.

2. As I write this it is warm enough to have the french windows open and listen to all the country noises - birds singing, lambs calling their mums and I can hear the men playing cricket on the green!

3. I have promised myself that once I have blitzed the house (boy does it need it after the past two weeks of not doing anything) I am going to do a little more cutting and sticking.

I hope your weekend is as lovely as I intend mine to be.

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Mischief & Mayhem

17:55 Karen 1 Comments



Yes that is the only way to describe how these two behave when they are out. The will do anything to make each other laugh, jumping out on each other making funny noises. Having piggy back rides, making up silly walks and then giving them amusing names and generally causing mischief and mayhem.


Am I surprised at how they behave - not really because it is almost a carbon copy of how we behaved 25 years ago and it did us no harm. I used three kits from here, here and here to make this page to celebrate the silliness of my two lovlies and how much pleasure it gives me to watch them fool around.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Gracia has 1 AS down and only 8 more to go.

2. They work so hard together at their college work and at revising for their exams that they will both get fantastic results.

3. As I sit here I can hear the birds singing so loudly and see the new green leaves on the trees and it makes me so grateful to be where I am and to have the life I lead.

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Finishing and Fame

20:51 Karen 3 Comments


I have mixed feelings about finishing my Shimelle album. I am delighted with the results but sad that it is finished as I have really enjoyed making it. I am not sure whether this was due to the subject of the album or the style of the album or maybe it was the perfect combination of both!

I have added 4 pages which I have tried to make as much like Shimelle's designs as possible so that my album has 20 pages.








The fame part of this post is this:-


What a lovely surprise when I opened up my copy of The Scrapbook Magazine - an article about our crop on page 6!

Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. The man is coming to lay my lounge floor on Wednesday.

2. A digi page that has come together beautifully - can't reveal it until Tuesday.

3. A long hot bath beckons :o}

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Oh How I Love This Class

18:46 Karen 3 Comments

Just a quick post with a couple of photos of the Shimelle album so far - I have added a little more than I was supposed to but it would not be my style if it was as minimal as Shimelle's suggestions. I am savoring making this and so only finish a page or so at a time.

I also made 4 additional pages in a similar style so that my album has 20 pages in total. I have loved doing double page scrapping so much that I am going to make an album of our wedding in a similar style.

So far I have completed the introduction page - see previous post.

The first two double pages



and the final page.


The other pages are 90% finished, the journaling is printed so it is only a matter of finding a little time each day to complete a couple of pages and it will be finished.

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. Accepting that when I am tied if I go to bed for an hour, when I get home from work, always results in a much calmer evening.

2. The nice bubbly feeling I get in anticipation of David's return from work.

3. My new car is just soooooooooo fantastic - it is not brand new but just new to me - small, cute, blue and most importantly, after the last one, very economical

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Baking, Making, Breaking and Taking (photos)

11:48 Karen 3 Comments

What a busy day but what a lovely one! Gracia's Josh stayed over, which resulted in us all going to bed at 1.30 this morning, anyone who knows me will vouch that I don't do late nights but fortunately, this morning, I slept in until 7:30 (unheard of for me) and so today hasn't been the grouchy one I had feared!

First thing this morning I made some cookies for the kids as they had requested some yesterday and also some owl cakes from my cupcake book. When David bought it for me at Christmas I thought it was lovely but was convinced I would not make any of the cakes as they looked too complicated. How wrong I was! The owl cakes turned out really well, although I simplified them a bit for speed. I had all the ingredients necessary as I had planned to make them on Friday but time ran away with me.



After cooking a full English, vegetarian style, I redid the first page of my Shimelle class by



changing the title


and adding the butterflies at jaunty angles.


I bent their wings up so that they looked like they had just landed on the page - I know they will flatten back down once in a page protector but just looking at this page at the moment makes me very happy - what a gorgeous little scrap my baby was!


This is my lounge floor at the moment - a mass of rubble with a path through it in preparation for the new floor which will be laid in the next month!

Usually, I would have to distance myself from the mess for a while to come to terms with the upheaval but this time I have lived with the noise and mess - maybe after 18 years I can now cope? Josh and Gracia also wanted to get in on the 'smashing up the old floor' action!



Gracia's nose really isn't that big - Josh had his elbow in the way :)

This afternoon, we all went for a lovely long walk to to woods where the bluebells are just coming into flower, I think that next week they will be at their best. Look at their shorts, David and I decided that we need to cut about 4 inches from the bottom of Josh's and sew it onto the bottom of Gracia's and then they will both be wearing decent length shorts!


Having had Josh stay for the weekend has made us realise that he is really a part of our family now and so we have awarded him the accolade of being an honorary family member and this weekend our little family of 4 (Kiera is always included as a family member) has now become 5.




Reasons to be cheerful:

1. David's banking is now done - it always takes so much longer than I anticipate.

2. Rubble for the lounge floor means the new floor is on its way!

4. That both David and I think that Josh is as near as anyone can get to being worthy of going out with our girl!

I hope your weekend has been as lovely as mine.

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Playing instead of working!

16:47 Karen 1 Comments



Two posts in one day - what is the world coming to?

I really did intend to sit and spend the afternoon catching up on work for David - honest I did but you all know what happens sometimes! Well, I thought I would just have a little blog hop before I started and before you could say "Jack Robinson" I had started a digi lo and purchased some digi flowers from 2Peas In A Bucket. Not a great expense you understand as they were only $0.99 which equates to about 65p - not much more than a bar of chocolate but much less fattening. So the afternoon has been wiled away playing and I don't feel one little bit guilty, well maybe a little but I certainly know which is more fun - typing invoices or digi scrapping. AND the great thing about digi scrapping is that it can be done without any mess and no one really knows that you are not typing up invoices :0}


This page was for the Lift This challenge and the photo is one that I rediscovered last week.

Reasons to be cheerful:-

See previous post!



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Spaghetti and Meatballs, Jessie & Woody and Speed Scrapping with Shimelle!

08:39 Karen 6 Comments



Edited with the addition of a photo from the NSD Eclectic Keepsakes Crop.

A random post title for a random week!

On Wednesday, it was Gracia's bestest best friend's birthday - there is only 5 days between them, they are both only children and both have scrapping obsessed mothers, what more do friends need to bind them together? It is very fortunate that Gracia's best friend is also the daughter of my best friend, but I have to admit that their friendship started a little while before ours.


Well, spurred on by the success of the sunflower cupcakes, we browsed the cupcake book and decided to make Hannah a spaghetti and meatball birthday cake. What a laugh it was and just sooooo easy, I promise you anyone could make it. I made the cakes on Tuesday evening and Gracia got up at 6:15 ( she didn't know that such a time existed) to ice and decorate the cakes. We piled them onto a plate and she squiggled the icing onto them. The meat balls are Ferrero Rocher Chocolates dipped in jam and then more jam spooned over the top. The Parmesan cheese is grated white chocolate - et voila a Spaghetti and Meatballs cake.


Hannah had a party to celebrate her birthday on Friday and as it was fancy dress Gracia and Josh had to go as some sort of 'couple'. They decided on Woody and Jessie from Toy Story 2. Although, I have to say I have never seen Jessie is a little short cowskin skirt - in all the pictures I Googled to get an idea on how to make the costumes she was wearing trousers but my girl does not do trousers so a short cow skin skirt it was! Despite this they did look really good.


Yesterday, was our long awaited Shimelle Class crop. I am a great fan of Shimelle's scrapping style, although I do struggle with white space. During the day I thought my blog bud Amy would love this class as it is so graphic and so her digi style. But I digress, the big day arrived and we scrapped from 11.00 to 5.00 with an hour for lunch and during that time we made 16, yes 16, 8.5 x 11 pages for an album. I cannot believe how much stash we each got in the kits - 4 packs of Thickers/letter stickers, 10 or more pieces of ribbon, 20+ pieces of card stock and sheets and sheets of Dear Lizzy paper - my absolute favorite line at the moment. I still have to finish some of my pages as I am not, by nature, a speed scrapper. It was so lovely to spend the day with the lovely Shimelle, with old friends, with new friends and with people I had never met before. We had 16 places for the day and all were sold so what a super way to spend National Scrapbooking Day. Thank you to all you lovely ladies for making the day such a fabulous one. Photos to follow when I have finished my album - I may have to add some more bits and bobs to each page to make it more my style!

Sorry Katherine - you missed the photo shoot :(

Reasons to be cheerful:-

1. Yesterday was a tip top day and one that will be remembered with a bubble of happieness for a long time to come.

2. Gracia has Hannah for a best friend and I have Eileen - no more needs to be said xxx

3. Because Josh is staying over tonight, in Gracia's room BUT she is sleeping in with me, Gracia has willingly cleaned and tidied her room without me or David nagging!

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