Back from 'Oop North'

We are back from the frozen wastes of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Except we actually saw very little snow. Back home it seems that they had more than we did!! On Friday I met up with some of my scrapping padders buddies. I was a pleasure to meet for the first time Andrea, Jean and Gail. (I have photos of Jean and Gail but they wouldn't thank me for displaying them !!) Friday morning at 11.30am we met up at the Metro centre and headed for the Pizza Hut. The weather was terrible, blowing a gale, freezing cold and raining, apart from that it was fine. When we arrived at 'The Hut' we found that on every other day it opened at 11.30, but Good Friday they made an exception and opened at 12!! We had thirty minutes to endure the weather. Once Andrea and Jaffers arrived we went in and waited for Ginger to arrive for lunch. Its strange how you know someone having only previously spoken to them online. Gail was the only one who I really didn't know too much about, but we soon got chatting!!

After lunch Andrea went home as her poor back was starting to play up.The rest of us went back to the Metro Centre and hit Papermill, I bought a pad of the new Laura Ashley paper, which is rather nice! We took Jen back to our hotel room, (just so that we could freshen up don't you know!!)and then down to the coast where we all played at being kites in the strong wind!!

I don't think I have experienced such strong gusts, it just about blew us off of our feet!!We took Jen back to Central Station (that was a nightmare, in the past 10 years someone must have moved it!!) We eventually got her there and we were only 30 minutes late for our dinner date with Tom's sisters!! By this time it was snowing hard, great big fluffy lumps which were settling on the cars. We had dinner at The Bluebell Inn and eventually arrived back at the hotel for 11pm.

We're Off.

Today we are heading for the frozen north of the country. I started to look on line for a place to stay and came across a 4 star hotel offering Bed and Breakfast for £49 for the three of us. It sounds good. So once we have collected Beth we will be off.
Carl had a sleep over at school last night, under the guise of raising money for one of the school projects in The Gambia. He thought he was going to get some sleep, but he didn't he was up all night and I expect he will be like a bear with a sore head when he gets home. He has swimming training tonight (if he manages to get up in time!!)
This weekend Dad is going to be the chief taxi driver!!
So I am off to finish packing my wet weather and snow gear!!!

Run Beth Run...

We were quite shocked when Beth came home from school to say that she had been picked to run in the schools B cross country team. She had never shown the slightest interest in running before and we were so surprised. She practiced at school for three whole weeks before the event, running on flat ground. I really don't think she had the slightest idea what she had let herself in for!!

On the day of the race we went along with hundreds of other kids. Beth's race, for the girls B teams was run first. She set off well on a circuit that took them into the woods and included a VERY steep hill that they all had to clamber up using their hands.

She ran very well for the first round but the hill sorted out the runners from the rest. We were very proud of Beth for finishing her first ever Cross Country race. We think this is likely to be be her last race as well!!

My Town Monday - An odd fact!!!!

I was out and about taking in the local scenery when I came across the below plaque, so I photographed it with the intention of doing a bit of research on it. Its an informational Historic event kind of plaque, but it struck me as funny to celebrate such a minor event!!!

To start with it was a piece of 'History' that I have never heard talk of before, so I went off in search of further information. Well it has been very hard to come by and I did wonder at one point if the present cottage owners had decided to have the plaque made to 'big up' the history of their humble abode. The more I thought about it the more I thought that this was unlikely. If I had been trying to improve the history of my house (which I think in my case would be hard as we have lived here for 50% of the time it has been in existence, all the previous owners can claim is that they left us with the effects of numerous County Court judgements recorded against our address!!!) I would have chosen something more exciting!!

So Rose Cottages' claim to fame...... Anne Van Gogh lived in the cottage for a whole year between 1875 and 1876 and on AT LEAST a couple of occasions it is BELIEVED that her, at the time ordinary brother, Vincent Van Gogh, walked from London to visit her. It was reputed that at the time he was living in Ramsgate, he somehow managed to get to London whilst being penniless and then completed his journey on foot. We are around 22 miles North of London, so it was a reasonable trek for him. On checking on the history of the great artist, I can confirm that he was in England at the time, I can confirm that he has a brother called Theo, but info on Anne is not available!!

The fact is so unimpressive that of you do a Google search you will find only two references to this amazing fact!! (possibly three soon if enough people read this blog!!!)

So there you have it, you are now party to a very secret fact about my town, should I inform the Tourist Board????

I have made a couple of Cards.

This week Beth's Teacher gave birth to her first baby, a baby boy they have named Alex!! how exciting. She actually went into labour on Wednesday which is the day that Beth has her extra maths lesson from her husband, so we saved the tutoring fee this week!!! So in preparation I made a boy card, a girl card and an emergency either sex card!! I love this little baby grow stamp its so versatile!!

The above card is a bit of a cheat, I have made it using a 'cupcake' post it note!! Just before Christmas I spied these notes in Tesco's they came in a pack of two different designs for 99p. So I bought a pack and finally got around to using one. I stuck the post it note to some sparkly brown paper, I added the sentiment around the outside in white souffle pen. I then mounted it on green paper and then on the card. I added some 'stickles bling', which is more obvious in real life!!

This week I received a small package that I ordered from an Etsy seller in USA. I had been looking through and spotted some hand made silver and pearl rings, they are beautiful and so reasonable in price. Look Here! The lady was lovely to deal with and included an extra ring free of charge. They are made out of sterling silver wire wound around to make the ring. The stones are thread on to the wire and the wire ends are wrapped around to form a shank. I am so impressed with them, I think I may well have a go at making one, I have lots of beautiful beads!!

My Town Monday - Mill Green Mill

This week I was undecided about what to comment on, so I eventually decided to tell the story of our local Water mill - Mill Green Mill.





There has probably been a mill on this site since Saxon times, for the Doomsday survey of 1086 records that the manor of "Hetfelle", held by the Abbot of Ely, included four mills. With the dissolution of the monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII the manor of Hatfield, and thus Mill Green Watermill, came under the control of the crown. The crown maintained control until the Cecil Family took over the Hatfield estate in the early part of the 17th Century.
Mill Green Watermill remained a part of The Cecil Family estate until its purchase by Hatfield Rural District Council in the 1950s.







Down through the centuries the mill has seen many alterations and repairs. The date and initials "17 IB 62", which are still visible on a front wall brick, suggests a major rebuild was undertaken during the latter part of the 18th Century. This was probably connected with the need to increase milling capacity as the medieval system - "soke" - fell into disuse. The initials "IB" are most likely those of Joseph Biggs, a prominent entrepreneur in the area at that time. A signature dating from 1824, visible on the first floor Hurst frame, may indicate further structural work.
Modernisation of the milling industry meant that by the early 1900s the local grocer was able to supply flour much cheaper than the local mill, and so traditional milling, and, inevitably, millers themselves, began to disappear.

In 1911 the miller at Mill Green, Sydney Christmas Lawrence, dropped the sluice gate and closed the front door for the very last time. After his emigration to Australia both the building and machinery were left to fall into disrepair.

Plans to restore the mill were first formulated in the early 1970s.
The Mill Green Watermill Restoration Trust, set up in 1979, pooled the resources of a large number of interested groups and individuals.
A new staircase and first floor were installed, and the pit wheel and Hurst frame were both repaired.
The work was concluded in 1986 with the replacement of the waterwheel and millstones.
Following a break of 75 years the wheels and gears roared back into life, the millstones began to grind and Mill Green Flour was once again being made.

Now the Mill is open to the public and produces its own brand of flour. There is an education centre and a range of different exhibits. During the year there are many different interactive activities. If watching the water mill in action become too much, there is a great pub, The Green man, right next door!!!

Blogger is behaving tonight and allowing more than one photo at a time to be uploaded. Here is Dad blowing out his candles and Beth hiding in the balloons!!

The weather today has been awful heavy rain and strong wind Plus its really quite chilly. Tomorrow I have a meeting in Bury St Edmunds so I hope the weather is better!

Suprise!!!!!!!

Today we finally managed to pull off a surprise 70th Birthday Party for Dad. It has taken a bit of organising and again Beth has done us proud, not once letting slip what the plans were!!

We arranged for people to go to the Conservative Club in North Watford for 2.30pm Mum and Dad were arriving around 3. By the time we arrived the food was laid out. We put the balloons and banners up. We put the cake on the table and arranged the candles and waited for the arrival of the victim.

When they arrived dad was surprised, he was pleased to see his friends from work, some had travelled from Norfolk to be there.A lot of us had travelled from Welwyn Garden City!! Our cousins and dads brother and sister in law were there. Unfortunately we had a few people unable to make it, Uncle Roy and Auntie peg. Roy is in hospital and Auntie Peg has been struck down with the sickness bug. Karen and Graham, Andy and Pete, all struck down by the same bug!!

We had a very nice afternoon with lots more photos, but because Blogger is playing silly bloggers I can only upload one photo per post!!

SBS-9 Card Challenge.

This weekend I have had quite a good one craft wise. I have made a lot of cards and managed 5 layouts! This is my one for the March Card Challenge. Trouble is I can't actually remember what is what, or who makes what!! I used a stamp, stazon ink, a rescued ribbon and a scrap of flowery paper. I am quite pleased with the result considering its been made from scraps!!

Feeling sad.....

It has just dawned on me that I have watched the last netball match that Beth will ever play competitively for Panshanger school. I can't believe that this is her last year. What will I do? I will really miss going there and I feel that its the end of such a long and happy era.

What does it for you???

I was sitting here blog hopping and listening to the music player on my own blog, when 'How deep is your love?' by the Bee Gees came on. I knew it was there, I had chosen it, but just listening to those first few bars instantly transported me back to my youth, to the time when Saturday Night Fever was the hit of the year. I was just starting out on my career. I can clearly remember going to see the film in Watford, (when there used to be three independent cinemas!) I can remember who I went with (Debbie Roberts) I can remember watching the film and being totally in love with John Travolta.
I can remember coming out of the film and getting into Debs car only to realise that someone had broken into her car and nicked my cassette tape of the film tracks!!
Its funny how music is the signature tune of our lives, it allows us to pinpoint exactly what was going on at that time. I have other songs that take me back.

'Puppy Love' - Donny Osmond. Memories of listening to this 45 record over and over again on my portable record player. I knew/know all the words!!
'Now that we've found love' by Third World and 'Shame' by Evelyn Champagne King- takes me back to training school and the fun I had there.
'A message to you Rudy' - Specials - A great night out at Hatfield Polytechnic!
'Hit me with your rhythm stick' Ian Dury and the Blockheads 1978 absolutely classic!
'Vindaloo' Fat Les - Memories of driving to Whitby in the sun with the windows down!
'Avalon'- Roxy music (Bryan Ferry, I married the wrong Geordie!!!)

These are just a few of the memories that spring to mind, what music brings back memories for you??

Hello Buzz and Woody!!

Hello Woody!!


Hello Buzz!

Last week Beth's hamster, Fudge, passed away. He was old for a hamster, he was over three years old. He had been looking quite elderly and slow of late. Beth was still very upset to find that he had gone when she went to feed him. We buried in the garden.
She had asked us ages ago if she could have a bird if anything happened to Fudge and we had said yes. So last Saturday we chose these two little flappers to live with us!!
Woody is green and yellow and is around 3 months old. He is a little boy, you can tell this by the colour of the cere which is the small blue/purple patch above his nose.
Buzz is Turquoise and yellow, he is younger by a month he is not fully grown as yet. The other problem is that we are not fully sure what sex Buzz is, the cere is still quite pink in colour. If it turns brown it would mean Buzz is a lady. If that turns out to be the case we will have to rename him Jessie!! They are pretty little birds who have settled in really well.

School Allocation!!

Well this time everything has gone according to plan!! Beth will be going to Nicholas Breakspear Catholic School and Sports college, our first choice, Megs over the road got her first choice of Bishops Hatfield girls school and Sam got his first choice of St Marys Catholic and Performing Arts School Bishops Stortford,(Waves to their mums, Karen and Debbie!!!)
Phew, thank goodness that's the last time we ever have to go through that!!

Netball - An Explanation !!!

I had no idea that Netball wasn't an international sport until one of my readers said they thought it was like Basket ball, so although there are some similarities, it is a completely different sport.

Netball is played on a court which is divided into thirds with a semi circle in each of the end thirds. The posts with the nets stand just outside the court in the middle of the semi circles.
Its a team sport with 7 players, when it is played at primary school the teams can be mixed boys and girls, although it is mainly played by girls. Once the game is played competitively out of school teams are all female.

Each player is only allowed in designated parts of the court, only 4 designated players are allowed in the semi circles, two goal shooters and two defenders. It is a non contact sport, once you have possession of the ball you can not run or walk with it, if you do you commit a foul. If you drop the ball and pick it up again, you commit a foul, If you step into an area you are not allowed in you commit a foul, if you get too close to your 'partner' you commit a foul, With all those restrictions it is still a fast game and tactics help players know which space to throw the ball into! (or not sometimes !!)

My Town Monday - Welwyn Viaduct.

The Welwyn Viaduct, also called Digswell Viaduct is a famous viaduct over the River Mimram and a locally important landmark. It is located between Welwyn Garden City and Digswell. It is just to the south of Welwyn North railway station.The viaduct is around 1,560ft (475m) long and comprises forty arches of 30ft (9.1m) span, and is 100ft (30m) high from ground level to trackbed. It is built of brick fired from brick clay quarried on site during construction, and took two years to build, including the construction of embankments at both ends which required the movement of around one million tons of earth by human and horse power. Local history says that for every arch built a man died during the construction of it.

It was designed by William Cubitt and styled after a Roman aqueduct.It was originally opened by Queen Victoria on 6 August 1850, and remains in use today, carrying the East Coast Main Line, which has to narrow from four tracks to two to cross the viaduct, making it a bottleneck restraining capacity over this strategic transport route. Several ideas to overcome this limitation without damaging its essential historic character and design are periodically discussed. The line was electrified in the 1970s.

There is a story that the Queen herself was anxious about taking the train over the 100 foot high viaduct, and preferred to disembark before reaching it, travelling by road to the next station on the other side.

Saturday Morning Entertainment.

A toss up between Beth and a player from Peartree.

Beth and David practicing !!!

The Runners Up - Minus Tears!!

Saturday Morning was Welwyn Garden City Primary Schools Netball Tournament which is held at Stanborough School. We (Panshanger Primary) had two teams entered, the A team and the B team!! There were two competitions in one, the B team played in a round robin with other B teams and the A team played in a knock out competition. The B team played well and won their competition.
Beth plays for the A team , they have been unbeaten for around the last 18 months and have won the last two tournaments. The first match of the tournament was against Peartree JMI, It was a really rough match with a lot of physical contact, which was odd as its not a contact sport!! After a hard slog the match ended a draw, which was a fair result as we had chances which we were not able to convert into goals. (it was incredibly windy and freezing cold!!)
We won the rest of the games in our section and went through to the semi-finals against Applecroft. Again we beat Applecroft and went into the final. We were in the final playing Peartree again. It was a very scrappy match which was very physical, this seemed to bring out the worse in our team and we struggled from the very beginning. Eventually after a very hard fought match Panshanger lost 3-2. There were lots of tears. The problem was they felt as if they had not lost fair and square. Our players were knocked over, elbowed and scratched, it seemed that every single penalty pass and shot went against us. None the less they received runners up medals and certificates and played a very good tournament!!

Duxford on a cold and Windy Day!!!

Today I was lucky enough to be asked along on year six trip to Duxford. They have been studying the second world war and Duxford have a fabulous education centre. We started off in the classroom where they were shown all sorts of things including the life of an evacuee,life in a war time school, air raid shelters, make do and mend, living off the land, black out, all sorts of things. It was really interesting and quite sad as well, seeing the effect it had on people.

After lunch we walked for what seemed like a million miles into a fierce strong wind to the furthest exhibit, the land army. By the time we got there our eyes were streaming, my hands were blue and my ears felt battered and frozen!! We spent some time looking around before heading back to the American Airforce exhibit. I am pleased to report that it was actually quite hot in there and I sat down with the other adults to a very welcome cup of tea.

We headed back outside just in time for the rain to join the wind. It was a quick trip to the shop and then onto the coach for home. The heavens then really opened so we were lucky not to be outside then!!

It was a great day which is free to schools, I really think that they learnt something as well. Beth was lucky and got herself picked out to try out a gas mask, which she is modelling at the the top of this post!!

My Final Guest week :0(

This is the last week as a 'Guest Star' On Di Hickmans Blog,
I am sad about it as I have enjoyed having a deadline to meet and the challenge of thinking about new ideas. So this card is the final offering. Boo Hoo!!
Again this week at work has been busy and back to back meetings. I am off tomorrow so I am looking forward to having a break. Beth has a netball tournament on Saturday morning, we have to be there at 8.30am which is the middle of the night for the weekend, as usual we will have to be in two places at once as Carl has another production at school. I keep thinking that life will be easier once he has passed his driving test, problem then will be the amount of worrying I will then have to do while he is driving by himself!!
The next big worry is the secondary school allocation which is due on Monday afternoon. Fingers Crossed that she gets into the school we all want.

My Town Monday - on a Tuesday!!!!

I was blog hopping when I came across one that suggested that it would be good to blog about where we come from, so I thought that would be a good idea. The only thing is that it was to be done weekly on a Monday. So already on my first week I have failed!!

I live in a 'New' town. Welwyn Garden City. It is a very pretty town, the town centre has a nice fountain and lots of green areas as you can tell by these photos. When it was built all the houses were very similar and all buildings in the town centre looked good together. The new Towns Commission (before it was run by the council,) had strict rules about what people could and couldn't do with regards to their houses, for example, no TV aerials on the roof, all windows had to be small panes of glass. As years have gone by this has been relaxed and people pretty much do as they like now.

So there is the first thrilling installment of Life in My Town!!!

My Collage.

I hate to throw away hand made cards, So I got myself a big frame off of Freecycle and I have made a collage out of SOME of my hand made cards. I have some left over, so I am going to look for another frame so that I can use them as well. I love it and I have it displayed on the wall in the conservatory! I can use it as inspiration.

A rare Moment of Quiet......

Carl is at School doing a production, Beth has gone swimming with Heather and and Emma, Tom has gone to see his accountant, Hunny is asleep on her sofa, and I am all ALONE !!!!!!

Peace at Last!!

Saturday Morning.

This morning I have finally got around to photographing all the beautiful hand made cards I received for my birthday. I have made a new slide in the side bar to show them all off!! Carl was a bit cheeky, he took a card that I had made for a challenge, removed the heart element and replaced it with a picture of himself!! He then sent it to me for my birthday!!!
So its thank you to- Georgina,Carl, Gina, Ginger, Jaffers, Manna, DebbieLou, Suzanne, Natalie, Debbie Y, Lulu, Amber, Karen and Sue D. I love them all!!!

This weeks Card.

This is my card for Di Hickmans Blog. I have really enjoyed working to the deadline for this blog. It really concentrates your brain!! This one is made with Junkitz Salsa paper. (I am a late discoverer of Junkitz and I love the bright colours!) The little gems are from a baggie I received from Nets!! Thank You.

Today I received another present from my old friends Tina and Rod, they gave me a huge scrapbooking kit for Christmas and a little scrapbooking kit for my birthday!! I have been so lucky with the gifts I have received. Thank you.

I have been very busy at work, lots of driving to do and now my partner in crime is off on her holidays to the exotic east coast of Yorkshire, I bet that will be bracing this time of year, not much danger of a tan from that holiday!!

I have made a good start on my wedding anniversay invitations, I have used the same colours but I have a variety of designs. I have yet to print the inside of them, I'll need to wait until I get all the details finalised.

Amazingly I still have a few packets of tomatoes left, its not like receiving chocolates, as I'm the only one that likes them in this house!!!

More Cards.

Today I received some more birthday cards from my web friends I just don't have time to photograph and post them at the moment but I promise to show all for the weekend!! I also want to say thank you to my friend Sue D who gave me a lovely birthday pressie of a Momji Doll, the first one I have ever received!! She is very pretty and is likely to be a new collection for me!!
Tonight has been a strange one, I went to Slimming World and some how managed to lose 1/2 lb. Not much but I was expecting a gain. (two lots of birthday cake plus some other naughties this week)
Very sadly when we arrived Sue who runs the club told us that one of the long time members, Penny, had passed away. Its so sad, she was such a sweet little lady who looked at Slimming World as her social club, she was always full of questions and enjoyed chatting to everyone. When we started back at the beginning of January she was there and she always made a fuss of Beth telling her what a pretty face she has. Beth knew her well as she had a grand daughter in year five at her school. Its very sad that she has gone, she will be missed by all of us at the club, plus people who knew her at the coffee shop in town and all her other friends.

My Birthday!!!

Today I have had a very nice Birthday. I have been lucky enough to receive some beautiful hand made cards which I will post over the next couple of days, from my online friends from all over the world. My family have given me some wonderful gifts,Troll Beads (Laura and Scott)Tickets to see Blood Brothers in Leicester square, (Carl) Beth surprised me by asking one of her teachers to paint a picture of me from a photograph she took in, I was very touched its a great picture! Mum and dad bought me a dozen twinkling H2O's (as demonstrated to my Dear friend and neighbour, karen, waves!!) They also gave me a bouquet of flowers. Tom gave me flowers and a birthday cake.

I also received flowers, candles, jewelry and a book about Amsterdam from Debbielou and her family (thanks)

Fran, Pete and Becca gave me a box of pretty candles and a funny fridge magnet - Thank You!

Ginger gave me some stamps and a Lurve CD (so I can print my own background papers) Thank You !!

Shirl thank you for the stamps glitter and paper, much appreciated!!

Jaffers I love my happiness stone!

The girls at work gave me a bottle of port (very Large) a hands free set for the car for my phone (hate the in the ear devices) Flowers, and some crafting goodies.

My holiday pal gave me a sweet fridge magnet (Thanks Wedney old bird!)

So just when I thought that my cup could runneth over no more, Karen and Megan arrived. The card at the top of this post is from the family Heron. I love Tomatoes and karen knows that. So I was most impressed with a birthday card dedicated to my favourite delicacy and with the immortal quote - 'Its Difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.' I laughed, they laughed, we all laughed!! I opened my present from her and found that I was the proud owner of four assorted packets of tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, vine tomatoes, beef tomatoes and bog standard tomatoes!! Inspired absolutely brilliant!! It was so funny I had to throw Karen out before she ruined my carpet!!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who has made my day so great!

Respect!!

Tonight Beth performed at The Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage. She is a member of the Barn theatre youth group and they were asked to do a performance. Respect was about just that respect, a young persons view on what that means to them and how it effects everyone.

They put a lot of work into it and the performance was very good. The children are all between 11 and 13 and in the first class at the Barn. Beth loved it even though she was a little scared!!

The theatre was full, Tom was working so we took Hannah with us.

Huge theatre with hundreds of people but we still managed to end up sitting behind one of my friends from work, we did exactly the same when we went to see Godspell!! Perhaps she is stalking me.

Last Week on Di Hickmans blog.......

I had this card published. I bought a bargain Junkitz Salsa Pad at a crop that I went to and I really love the bright zingy colours (typical, I discover Junkitz just as they go out of business!!) I am addicted to twinkling H2O's they really cover well and are such vibrant colours.

I used the sketch for this card, but I have already given it away, We sent it to Hannah for her 18th Birthday!!

Happy Saturday!!

Today has been a busy but productive day. I got up early to take Carl to work. Beth and I then stopped off at the Market and it was FREEZING, my eyes were watering and I felt about 108!! It is worth it because the fruit and veg are half the price of the supermarkets.

We then went onto Tescos and did the shopping, surprisingly it wasn't very busy so we whizzed around there and we were back in the house with the shopping put away by 10am! We then went around to see mum and dad and I tried out my new camera. (not really mine its a work camera, but I am looking after it!)So the pictures above are the result of my testing!

This afternoon I have managed to scrap some more of my holiday photos. Not too many left to do now, just as well as I am running out of Disney related Bellies!!

Tomorrow should be fun, I only have to be in two places at the same time twice. Beth has to be in Stevenage as she has a dress rehersal at The Gordon Craig Theatre and 20 minutes later Carl has to be at work in Hatfield, I have exactly the same problem at picking up time, the trials of being an unpaid taxi driver!

Valentines Day round up.

Yesterday as we all know was Valentines day. Tom is quite romantic and has always bought me gifts and a nice card every year since I have known him (28 years now!!)Yesterday he bought me a minature red rose bush. I love roses and they are always such a huge expense on Valentines day. I made him a card and gave him a packet of jelly lips!! He is the only person in the world who finds chocolate 'too sickly' I mean he is just not normal. He tells me that he can't finish a whole mars bar, for goodness sake I think that is bordering on abnormality which needs medical intervention!!
Yesterday saw beth receive a Valentines present and card from a special friend. She had decided to make him a card. We went out and bought a present with her pocket money. The funny thing was that they both had very similar ideas, cute teddies and chocolates !! She is so proud of the present and card!! Ah young love!!

Thank God its Friday!!!

This week while having been no worse than most weeks is coming to an end, I think the law should be changed so that all weekends are at least three days long. Looking forward to getting home tonight and starting on the housework :(

Tonights the Night.

Well its weigh in week again, but tonight I am not feeling very confident, it feels as if I have had a bad week, but I have tried very hard to be good. We'll see. I have been busy at work and tomorrow I have a conference in Cambridge, still keeps me off the street I suppose.
I am itching to get started on my invitations for my Silver wedding Reception, the only problem is I can't exactly decided what design I want. Being mean (or frugal) I want to make them out of stash I already have, I have a ton and really don't need to be buying more. So when I thought about it I don't really need to make them all matching as no one will see what everyone else has got!! So that ping of inspiration means I can use up a lot of my stuff AND make them individual!!!

Complaint.....

Today I had another flat tyre, what is going on??? I suspect that Malcolm has been around to my house, pretending that he has more cat poop in his shoe and while hopping around on his one good shoe, he has stuck a three inch nail into my rear nearside tyre. I think its pretty poor show, shoddy goods thats what I say, Shoddy goods........

The Purple Challenge - Shame I can't remember which blog I saw it on!!!

I was blog hopping when I saw a challenge to make a card using PURPLE and then post it on your blog, Well I have made the card, I have used purple, I have posted it on my blog, its a shame I can't remember whose blog the original challenge was on to link back to!!! So if anyone out there knows the challenge blog this came from, let me know !!!

SBS9 - Blog challenge.

I have at last got around to posting my card from the sisterhood blog challenge. I have had it ready for a while just not got around to posting!!. This card has a Magnolia Stamp and the background paper is Junkitz Salsa range, three prima flowers finish it off!

Beautiful Day.

Today we went out for a drive, (Carl driving us around for practice!) I planned on going down to Tewin Water to look at the snowdrops in the woods, but we got diverted and ended up at the Church at Tewin instead. The sun was bright and the sky was even brighter,a vibrant blue, although its still only February it was warm enough to go without a coat.

We took a walk through the church yard and found loads of snowdrops,primroses and daffoldils a spectacular spring site! I had never been to this church yard before and it was interesting to wander around looking at the grave stones. One read that the man had died of an 'apoplectic fit' in 1728. There were lots of graves containing just about all of one family (so it seems). There were lots of babies in the 16, 17 and 18 hundreds. It was a time when life expectancy in children was not very long. It makes me want to get out my own family history and dust it all off!!

Disaster!!!!!

Today started off badly, I got up and had my shower, went back into the bedroom to dry my hair, as usual I sat on my bed rubbed my hair switched on the dryer and was starting to dry my hair when I got soaked by a deluge of water pouring through the light in the bedroom! Beth told me that she had heard dripping from above the room, so Tom was sent into the loft to see what was happening.
While we were getting the loft ladder sorted out water started to come through the ceiling in the upstairs hall, downstairs below the stairs and through the heating trunking into the kitchen. Beth ran around with pots and pans, I turned up the mattress to stop that getting wet.
Tom discovered the problem, the cold water inlet into the water tank has a small U bend in it directing the water downwards into the tank, for some unknown reason this had come off and the water was shooting straight up and going outside the tank and into the loft.
Tom managed to fix it back on with the temporary aid of a hair bongo. We need to get it fixed properly as now everytime water goes into the tank it is too close to the overflow outlet and causes the overflow to activate.
The thing we forgot about was the airing cupboard, that was directly below the water tank so when I opened that it was flooded as well, loads of towels and linens soaking wet, looks like I have some washing to do over the weekend !
So just as I thought that it was save to go to work, I went out to get into the car only to find I had a flat tyre!! (I blame this fully on the previous owners who have quite obviously sold us a substandard vehicle!!) By the time we had sorted that out I was well and truly late. Thank goodness Tom was at home, he hasn't had a restful couple of days off!!

Fame at Last!!!

Last month with a flash of inspiration I 'tried out' for a place on Di Hickmans design Team, well I never made it into the full team, but I did make it as a guest designer and as a result have made cards for each week in February!!

Have a look at Di Hickman 's blog!!

Here are my first two, I had to follow a sketch that she gave me, the full write up is on her blog, but the stamps used are Inque Boutique coloured with twinkling H2O's.

I am pleased with how they have turned out, the black card is certainly not a traditional valentines cards!!!

On Track.

Lasy night I weighed in and lost 4 lbs !! Hurrah, that takes me to 1 stone 2 1/2 lbs. Tonight I am going to celebrate with a bacon and tomato sauce sandwich!! Yummy yum.

Little Mummy!!

Beth has always loved dollies, which is a bit of a shock considering that she is a bit of a Tom boy! She has a room full of babies and toddler dolls, all named all schooled and loved! At Christmas Beth received a fair few pounds so she decided that she wanted a lifelike doll (she had also seen the reborn dolls on a programne on TV) So she talked us into it. Here she is cuddling her new arrival, Michael, he is very life like, he smells of baby talc and has eyelashes and lifelike hair. He is the right size for a newborn baby and weighs 5 1/2lbs, with the feel of a baby!!

Beth has some clothes for him and would love to have a moses basket for him, so I am having to look out on freecycle for a pre loved one !!

I've been tagged...

I've been tagged by Katie! How exciting. It's the Middle Name Game! I have to post the rules before I give my answers so here goes:

List one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name.
Each fact must begin with that letter.
If you don't have a middle name use your maiden name.
If you're tagged you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. Oh and don't forget to leave them a comment and tell them they've been tagged.

Here goes.....

A - Alien (suggested by Beth) Adorable (again suggested by Beth!!) Artistic (sometimes)

N - Noisy, Neat but not tidy!

N - Natural Scrapper (not!!!)

E - Enthusiastic, earnest,Efficient (sometimes!!)

That was quite hard and I don't think it captures the true Me!!
Anyway I am going to tag Debbielou, SueD, Anna and Ginger Pie !!

Look at these Beauties!

Last Sunday our friends Debbie and Malcolm came over for lunch and along with the wine Debbie bought us some beautiful roses. They were in tight bud and there were loads of them. Now a week on look at them, they are gorgeous, a lovely buttery colour and all of them are holding their heads up high, not a single droopy one!!

I love roses!

Today......

I'll mainly be cleaning, shopping, cleaning, driving someone to work and cleaning up my scrapping area so I can make a start on some crafting!!

Weighed in!!

I forgot to report on this weeks weight loss escapade!!
Well I managed to stay the same, (I blame a Chinese last Friday and a bottle of wine that I was tricked into drinking on Sunday, thanks Debbie!!!) Mum lost 2 lbs and Laura lost a whopping 5 lbs!! So I have lost 12 1/2 lbs, mum has lost 12 lbs and laura has cracked the stone at 1 st 1 1/2lbs!!That said I am finding it a big struggle again this time, everything naughty seems so appealing and I want to eat it. HELP!!!