Our Christmas Part 2

Our Christmas

I've not managed to scrap any of Journal Your Christmas yet but I have put together some collages to print at 8x6 to use in my book.  Here are the collages I have put together so far:

As we are not that far from 12th night now I am going to wait until the end of the month and print off all my photos in one go then scrap the mini book in January.  Something to pass those cold dark nights away.

Meeting Santa

Can't wait to scrap these!

Merry Christmas x

Only 2 More Sleeps!

Yes it really is only 2 more sleeps and I have so so much still to do, including, I'm very sad to say, more Christmas shopping.  I still have another 10 people to buy for.  I know this is shocking and for those people who know me, you can get up off the floor now.  Never ever have I entered December without all my Christmas shopping being done!  But this year, everything has just gone so so wrong.  Its mainly been down to have one infection after another the past 2 1/2 months.  I have literally gone 2/3 days then back down again with something else.  To be honest I don't think at any point since the beginning of October I haven't felt ill or at best just tired.  


Then the past week this snow really hasn't helped.  This is the view from our house last Saturday:

All very very pretty when freshly fallen and there are no foot prints in the snow.  I like snow if it is here for one day and I don't have to go anywhere.  I am now at the point where I need to get out, I need it to warm up so my washing machine pipe defrosts and I don't have to trek 15 minutes through the snow to the laundrette to wash clothes; this has become part of my daily routine as I can only manage to carry one load at a time and the hour round trip is getting to be a pain.

My Brother & his family (other half, step Son, in-laws) are coming to ours from South Wales for a few days over Christmas and as I type this I still don't know if they will be coming.  I have to go to work for 2 days next week then I am away for the New Year weekend.  Go away snow, you really have lost your appeal now!

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

Sadly no papercraft as desk has moved upstairs but has not been put back together again yet.  However I have been keeping myself busy with crochet:

Hope you all have a great Christmas with your loved ones and this snow is not causing too much trouble for you all x

Twenty Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? 

Wrapping paper but I am terrible at wrapping so do use a few bags here and there!

2. Real tree or Artificial? 

Love real trees but hate the mess and my cats love to climb them so we have fake but I do have a lovely real one planted in the garden.  Brought it about 10 years ago and was about 12" high.  After Christmas we planted it in the garden and when we moved took it with us.  Its now about 4 1/2 ft tall.

3. When do you put up the tree? 

Have always put the tree up the first weekend in December.....until this year :0(  See previous posts for regarding my plumbing work that didn't happen.  Plan is for it to go up this weekend.

4. When do you take the tree down? 

12th night

5. Favourite gift received as a child? 

A pair of roller skates when I was about 9 or 10

6. Hardest person to buy for? 

Struggled with quite a few people this year.

7. Easiest person to buy for? 

My Brother.  And yes you will wear it! 

8. Mail or email Christmas cards? 

Mail for family & close friends.  But I have done some email cards too.

9. Favorite Christmas Movie?

Home Alone was a huge hit in our house last year.  Kids were old enough to get the funny bits and I just loved watching their faces light up.

10. When do you start shopping for Christmas? 

I usually have it all finished by the end of November so my November pay is for parties.  However, all gone pear shapes this year and I still haven't got the kids main present along with presents for 6 other people.  Yes Christmas is a week away!

11. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? 

Only a bottle of red wine I was given and that is because I don't drink red.  But the person who I gave it to knew it was recycled and it wasn't the only present they had, it was an extra. So no guilt there.

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? 

Turkey, stuffing, cranberry & apple sandwiches on Christmas night.  Much prefer this to the actual Christmas lunch as I always over eat and end of not enjoying it.

13. Lights on the tree (colored or clear)? 

Clear and lots of them.

14. Favourite Christmas song? 

Just got Now Christmas and loving all of them!

15. Travel at Christmas or stay home? 

Prefer to stay at home and always have apart from last year.  We went to my Brother's in South Wales which is the first Christmas I have not spent at my house or my parents.  Didn't feel right somehow.  But think that was probably down to the fact I have cooked Christmas lunch every year since I was 14 and I LIKE to be in charge!  Just don't walk in my kitchen, I don't NEED ANY HELP!!!!

16. Angel, star or ribbon on top of tree? 

Angel.  As a child we had one of my dolls which I dressed as angel.  When I got to 20 my Mother finally agreed it was time for a new one!

17. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? 

Christmas morning at silly o'clock!  Last year we travelled down to my Brothers Christmas morning (2 hour drive).  At 8 o'clock I ended up waking the kids as I wanted them to have the chance for a little play before we went.  Here I was waking a 6 & 7 year old up on Christmas morning!!!  What is that all about????  I however, hardly had any sleep.  Went to bed about 1 after greeting Santa and couldn't really sleep as I kept thinking any minute now they are going to be up.  This year I'm off to beb at 8 and someone else can entertain Santa, not that there is any chance of him coming to our house this year after the behaviour of 2 little horrors.

18. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?

Fact I always end up ill.  Am actually sat here now with horrible cold and conjunctivitis. 

19. What do you want for Christmas this year?

Let me think.......new roof for my garage, laundrette & downstairs loo (getting a bit annoyed your can't use the loo for 12 hours after it has rained as you get a drip on your head!)  new central heating, lottery win, new washing machine (after weeks of teasing me it has finally dies yesterday) house completely decorated, extension finished, new kitchen.  In fact just bulldoze my house and build me a new one!

20. Traditional colors (red and green) or other colors? 

Our lounge decorations are all pastel; pink, green, blue, lilac & silver.  Would quite like a brown/bronze tree and decorations next year but need to save my pennies for that and to be honest any spare ones need to go on the house next year.

Link up below and share your answers to these 20 Christmas questions.


I've still not managed to do any scrapping but I have done some crocheting.  Mainly crocheted on the train to and from work - I'm not silly you see, a nice warm blanket on your lap while you are sat on a cold train!  As well as present buying I still have so much to do for next week, wrapping, tidying, cooking, food shop.  Totally totally disorganised this year.

Well I'm off now to bathe my sticky eyes and I promise to come back soon with some pictures - not of my eyes but Christmas cheery ones....now where did I put that disk for the camera, still need to load it on the new laptop!

Another week has passed.......

Well I have had what can only be described as a super busy yet achieving nothing week.  As I said in my last post we should have had some plumbing work done last week but everything went wrong and it didn't happen.  Plumber promised me without fail he would be here this Friday to do the work.  As it was just over a week after he should have been here, just put the floor boards and carpets back down and left the furniture where it was.  Too much hassle to move it all back for 10 days.

Friday came and 9.30 went.  At 10 the plumbers office called to say he would be with me at 1pm.  Before I had chance to ask why the phone went down.  

1pm came.  No plumber.  

2pm came.  Still no plumber.  

So I called the office and was told they did not know what was happening.  I asked them to find out.  I felt like I had just asked for the world!

At 2.30pm the plumber called.  He wouldn't be here until 5pm.  Discussed reduced price, he said he had not inconvienced me!!!!!!!  Much laughter from my end.  He would not reduced the price.  Ok I said.

I called the office and told them I wanted a reduced price or I would pay the full price then send my bill for 2 wasted days.  Don't really think they believed I would do that.

5pm came.  No plumber

At 5.15pm I called the office,  He would be with me in 45 minutes.

6pm came.  No plumber

At 6.30pm I called the office again.  They would get the plumber to call me.

At 6.40pm the plumber called.  He would be at least another hour and a half.

Now he thinks I am going to let him come to my house gone 8pm at night and drain my central heating and then do 6 hours work.  He will need access to every room in the house.  I have not gone mad.

Told him he can come at 8am Saturday.  He has another job.  Well cancel it dear plumber, you have annoyed me and put me out enough.  You let me down to earn a quick buck when you took on the emergency job Friday morning.  It is Saturday morning at 8am.  There are no other options before Christmas.

I reminded him about me sending a bill for wasting my time.  I don't think he was listening.

8am Saturday morning.  He has not come.

Dear Mr Plumber, I do not make idle threats.  My bill will be dropping on your doormat.  If you don't pay it I will go to my local County Court and pay £9.50.  But trust me I will be compensated for 2 wasted days, my deposit with interest, the difference between your quote and what I actually pay and compensation for having to wait to get my central heating sorted.  

I will let you decide how to compensate my Children for missing their outing last night. But how you will put a price on two young children missing their visit to Santa I really don't know.

Happy Christmas Mr Plumber x

I Disappeared Again

The past 2 weeks have really flown by and I can't quite believe it has been so long since I posted to my blog.  Well I have been busy as well as ill.  I've had the kids off school from Thursday last week with a very nasty cold virus/bug thing.  They only went back to school on Wednesday and to be honest it has really knocked the stuffing out of them.  Every night this week they have come home and had an early evening nap, just sat down on the sofa and fell asleep.  Anyone who knows my Son will realise this is unheard of let alone the 9 hours sleep each night.

I had a little mild version over the weekend, when I say mild I mean the horrid symptoms apart from the tiredness. Think it helped I was on antibiotics for something else.  I have also come home for the past 3 days and slept.

Then there has been the plumbing work, well the plumbing work that didn't happen!  Long story but the plumber used a part for my job on someone else's heating and can't get a replacement until next week.  In the meantime, I move literally every piece of furniture I own away from radiators (every room in the house) and get carpets up in preparation.  To be honest some of the things haven't gone back due to the trouble encountered in moving them and we then have to move them back again next week so things are utter chaos.

At last my craft desk & unit has moved but sadly the space hasn't been decorated.  As I have had to move things around to get to radiators I have an item of furniture from another room in the exact spot where my scrap desk should go.  Sadly the desk won't be attached to the expedit until after the plumbing at the end of next week so I have no crafty space to scrap at the moment.

All this has not helped with my 50 LO's in 50 days challenge.  Today is the deadline and I have managed to complete the grand total of 21.  Ooops!

Finding this a bit of a pain as I so want to get started with my Journal Your Christmas book and can't.  Will just have to have a mega scrap session next weekend.  Sorry no pictures but I've also had a new laptop (my treat to me for Christmas) and I've not sorted the software out yet to upload the photos.  Truth is with moving all the furniture I can't get to the disk and the cupboard I need to move is a little on the heavy side!

Hope you are not too snowed in and those completing JYC are having fun!

Lots & Lots Of LO's

Now that's a lot of L's!  I have scheduled this post for over the weekend as I will be away.  Here are the rest of the LO's I have completed this week.  On Thursday I went to Bromsgrove crop and completed the October pages for Document 2010:

And on Friday, you know when I was having my cup of tea and cake and not wanting to be lazy?  I did these:

Really happy as with these 4 LO's I finished up the May Scrapagogo kit.  One kit down, just another 17 to go!

A Cup Of Tea & A Slice Of A Passion Cake

Yesterday before I started on the housework I had a cup of tea and slice of cake.  As you all know it is very lazy just to sit and drink tea and eat cake.  Not wanting to be lazy I did a bit of scrapping whilst having my tea and cake.  I just have to say the cake was delish!  I'd got the recipe off the internet for a carrot cake last year (sorry don't know where).  That word 'carrot' cannot be uttered in this house as for sure the kids would go running to the hills, so I renamed it passion cake and the fact there are carrots in are never ever mentioned!  Being a sharing sort of person, I thought I would share such yumminess with you all.

As it is a healthy cake - got fruit, veg, nuts and fibre - I can't possibly cook it with the kids in the house, so with much sadness I had to leave the ironing yesterday afternoon in order to bake some cakes.

(Healthy) Ingredients

8oz wholemeal self raising flour (fibre)

5oz soft brown sugar

1/4 pint sunflower oil 

2 eggs 

4oz walnuts (nuts)

4oz sultanas (fruit)

2 ripe bananas (fruit)

1 carrot (vegetable)

2 tea spoon baking powder

1/2 tea spoon ground cinnamon

If you don't like nuts or sultanas they can be left out.  As you can see I didn't add walnuts, as I didn't have any.

This recipe makes a 1lb loaf and 3 muffins or 2 x 7" round cakes or 12 muffins.

Method

Heat oven to 160

Grate carrot.

chop/mash bananas

Place everything in a bowl and mix.  

That simple!

Cook for 45 mins to 1 hour for loaf/cake.  

Muffins 25 to 30 mins

Leave to cool

Yummy Frosting

(the not so healthy bit)

6oz full fat soft cheese 

2oz softened butter

4oz icing sugar

couple of drops of vanilla essence

Place all of the ingredients in a bowl & mix.

Spread over the cooled cake

If you like it can be decorated with walnut halves or marzipan carrots (at this point I'd got some walnuts!)

Slice & enjoy with a lovely cup of tea (at this point you can think about doing some housework but it is really NOT recommended)

I Like Fridays.....

During term time Fridays are mine.  All mine.  I work Monday to Thursday and I have kids under my feet Saturday & Sunday but Fridays are different, they are all mine, to do as I wish.  Well that was the theory!  Since the kids went back to school in September not one Friday has come and gone when I haven't had appointments to go to, extra day at work or sick kids.  Well today, Friday is all mine again!

I am sitting here thinking I really should tackle that ironing pile, perhaps do some housework or even continue with the decorating of my scrap space.  But all I can think about is doing nothing apart from a little scrapping.  A girl can dream right?

But sadly there is that ironing starring at me with evil eyes, the cobwebs are waiting to attack and as for the fluff on the floor....why I just can't say what that wants to do to me.  My scrap space *needs* completing urgently, I have to move my desk from the lounge for Christmas lunch, unless my guests want to eat in my half finished scrap space......now that's an idea.

So off I go to start the never ending & unthinkable task that is housework.....but before I do, a nice cup of tea and slice of cake won't go a miss......and I might as well be sociable and pop the tv on to keep me company while I scrap as I couldn't possibly just sit & drink tea and eat cake now could I?

 ;0)

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?

Here we are again and its Wednesday.  Didn't join in last week and I can honestly say it doesn't feel like two weeks since I was last showing blogland what was on my desk.  Wasn't at work yesterday and fancied a little scrapping to pass the time.  But what do I do?  Do I use up some of the 8 scrap kits I have already started or open one of the untouched 9 kits I have?  Hhhhhmmmmm, lets open a new one!  So here you can see some of the Scrapagogo August kit along with usual junk on my desk:

And this is what I made:

That now leaves 38 LO's to make over the next 18 days if I am to complete 50 LO's in 50 days!

As usual if you want to join in and have a look at lots of other craft desks around blogland (including international blogland I'll have you know) visit head WOYWWer Julia.

Thanks for looking and hope you all have a great chilly Wednesday.  Remember wrap up warm and be good as Santa won't come!

The Crafty Book Cover I Forgot

Forgot to show you this yesterday:

The cover to my Journal Your Christmas mini book.  All prepared and waiting for the 1st December!

Its not too late to sign up with Shimelle for the annual workshop.  Anyone else taking part?

Twelve Days

It has been twelve days since my last post and so much has gone on and the time has just flown by.  There has been a big change in my life lately and I may be tempting fate but......things may finally be on the up.  Really don't want to tempt fate so can't really say exactly what yet but it is for the good and things are going really well.  I'm happy and the kids are happy.  Anyway enough said but if you are friends on facebook you probably know what I'm talking about.

Having a relaxing hour this morning on my own.  To be honest I really should be tackling the ever increasing mound of ironing but blogging is much much more fun.  As I am off to the hospital for an MRI in an hour I think I deserve a little bit of 'nice' time.

Not really had much time for scrapping apart from over the weekend when I completed 6, yes 6 LO's.  All Halloween based:

All made with American Crafts Boo papers which I brought then promptly went & found some Halloween papers in my stash!  Just typical but they will be put to use as I have some 'Witches School' photos to scrap from Shugborough Hall.

I also went to the NEC Hobby Crafts the beginning of the month.  Very disappinted with what I saw.  Went for pretty paper & thickers and to be honest apart from some Echo Park (Christmas Papers) and older ones there was nothing there at all.  Very short on thickers.  To be honest it was aimed at card makers more than scrappers, but I should have known better than to expect pretty paper.  Lots and lots of spell binders, buttons, ribbons, glittery 'stuff' and punches.  None of which I wanted or needed.  So I came home empty handed; didn't buy a thing!  


However........I did attend a brilliant workshop with Shimelle where we made this:

My garland is still in pieces as I need to finish a couple of the tags off and I am gong to add some more so I can make it longer.  It really was a fun packed couple of hours with new techniques and lovely easy fabric flowers that are so effective, yet so simple (Freya came home and made one on her own, they are so easy!).

The entire class was done with Freya sat on my lap as the budding 'scrapper' had to have a go!

Would love to say thank you to the lovely Fiskerettes for organising this class and to Shimelle for the experience - well worth it.

May struggle to complete my current scrap busting challenge - I now have 40 LO's to complete in 20 days - 2 a day?????  Two LO's every day is a challenge at the best of times especially during the week and the fact I am trying to squeeze extra hours in at work to enable me to have time off over Christmas is not going to help.  I am going to try my best and I must try to get in front by the end of this weekend as I am at some point in the next couple of weeks dismantling my craft unit to move back upstairs where it belongs - something that needs to be done before Christmas.  Nearly at the stage now of lining paper going up in my scrap space and then paint.  Can't afford the flooring this side of Christmas so it will have to wait but in order to seat all the guests; a definite 10, possible 13 for Christmas the expedit & desk needs to go out of my lounge.  To be honest I am going to miss having it in the lounge as I have been able to just sit, scrap and watch tv/kids which has resulted in more scrapping time.  If I have to shut myself away upstairs I know my scrapping time will be reduced and be limited to when the kids have gone to bed; sadly they are still at the age where all hell breaks loose if they are not constantly watched.  But as they, say needs must.

Enjoy your day, be it a chilly one and I hope not to be absent for so long next time.