Virus Attack!!!

No not the computer- ME!!!
It started with the 'Boy with the Hair' suffering with a temp and sore throat and the most AWFUL sounding cough over the weekend. He was dosed with the world's bestest kid medicine Ibuprofen (Universal Panacea!!) and slepy soundly through his temp.
DH and I visited a local eaterie and had a fabulicious time!!
Starter
DH: Chicken Liver pate on biscotti. (yum!)
Me: Fried Rice balls one with melted Mozarella one with meat Ragu and a pepper sauce for dipping (yum)

Maincourse
DH: Penne with spicy sausage meat sauce (spicy but delish)
Me: Pork Medallions with roasted peppers and rosemary roasted potatoes (YUM YUM!)

Dessert
DH & Me: Hot choc pudd with vanilla icecream. (yum yum yum!!!)

Ahhhh it was wunnerful! Especially as my BFF was watching the sproggies so we felt super relaxed!!! And this was the first K & KJ outing for 2 years!!! Yikes what HAVE we been doing with ourselves???

Anyway a relaxed Sunday turned out to be 'Infectious Sunday' The 'Blonde Tall One' and myself seem to be magnets for every virus going and sure enough we joined 'The Boy with the Hair' on the sickies list. By evening 'Little Miss Acorn' was also ailing.
Monday no school
Tuesday DH had joined us on the sickies bench.
Today recovery is finally in sight.

So I warn you now- before you read this post VIRUS SCAN!!!!!!!

Norty Basic Grey!!

I LOVE the new range of papers from Basic Grey, love, LOVE, LOVE them!!
I have completed 11 layouts out of 30 so if I keep going at this rate my stash diet will be over in time for me to get my mitts on al the lovely CHA 07 realeases!!

Speshal News!

OK I can share my news. I've been invited to join a fantastically (and slightly dauntingly) talented group of Scrappers at Speshal Dares. I was thrilled to be asked especially as I have been casting envious glances at their website for months!! I've just completed my first dare which will be up amongst the others very soon.
Thank you Debbie and Clare for inviting me and I'm so happy to be working alongside and being inspired by my fave group of brilliant British scrappers!

The Good and the Useless!!

I love scrapbooking tools, they make life easier and aid the flow of creativity. PLUS they are not classed as frivilous purchase so do not count if you are on a Stash Diet!!!
Ok so this:-
Is a class bit of equipment. It aids the age old storage problem
and is small and neat enough to sit on your desk.
EXCELLENT!!!





OK now this strikes me as a daft marketing idea:
Did you ever realise that you ad a need for....
wait for this........a ribbon iron *slaps forhead*
I for one WON'T be purchasing this particular
item!!







-

LOVE these too!!

I'm hoping that Box Room Booty will be getting at least ONE of these sets in from Fancy Pants. Just LUSH!

CHA Sneak Peaks

I feel like a spy!!! Like many other scrappers we trawl t'internet looking for sneak peaks of what is going to appearing at CHA this month.
LOVE these papers by K & Co so fresh and zingy. *Sigh* another set to add to my list! Oh well if I have to suffer for my art *stiffens resolve* then so be it!!!!!!

Hmmmmm Yummy Paper

Had an email this morning and I saw THESE which I must say look rather delish!! I think that when my stash diet is over I will go and search out these lovlies!!
Of course CHA 07 has started in the US and quite a few shop owning pals are flying over to Annaheim to lap up the scrapping wares of the biggest and best scrapbook companies in the world. Have a great time girlies and sign up for plenty of new goodies!

QueenofStash suggested that we complete 30 LO's before buying new stash. This seemed like a brillo idea to lots of us. So far: 11 of 30 LOs

I for example had a shiney new QuicKutz Revolution sitting on my shelf ready to use. Christmas interrupted my plans but as I am in the scrapping groove now it has proved itself invaluable. In fact the Revolution has transformed my whole QuicKutzing routine. I can cut 4 single ies at a time which means cutting titles and doubleKutz dies is an absolute SNIP now! I even sold my beloved Pink QuicKutz Squeeze as I realised that Revvy and I are firm friends!!
I used my Abigail Grande alpha on my Spiderman LO and enjoyed using it so much that I invested in another alpha Grande and bought 'Washington' at a fabby price at Cre8tiveOnline.


So I am loving using up my stash, especially as I am scrapping just for me!! I seem to have a thing about getting as many different papers on one LO as possible- I better be careful, I may end up with a LO 2" thick!!

Technology- the bugs are back!

Spent yesterday locked out of my Forum. Well in fact it was ping-pong for the others- sometimes they were in, sometimes they were out whereas I was just OUT! "You cannot be serious" *throws down sweaty headband and keyboard and storms off*
Apparently the server swap on Monday has raised issues with my ISP- why am I not surprised?? Oh that's right because my ISP is PANTS!!!!

So I want to wave and spread glitter on all my forum pals *Sprinkles* miss you all and hope to be back nattering soon!!

Anyway I am scrapping piccies of my two littles losing their teeth at Christmas. I tell you, what with the Tooth Fairy in and out and Santa too- it was like Clapham Junction here on Christmas Eve!!! Apparently (according to the Boy with Hair) I speak to the Tooth Fairy whereas Daddy is in contact with Santa!! So there you go!

The wonderful Jaq sent me my second Dolly Bead yesterday and today Thumbelina arrived. I am so in love with these beads (can you tell) each one has a little story to tell and a little memory attached *warm snuggly feelings*

Excited today because I'm expecting my Scrapbook Sisters DT kit to arrive soon, can't wait to rummage and start playing. Keep an eye on their BLOG here to see everyone's layouts soon!!

SNOW!!!!

When DH got up at 6am he announced quietly to me that 'it's snowed' I managed a sleepy squeal!! When I woke the Little Piggies up I asked them to look outside- more squeals!!!
We like snow- what can I say!!!
Fun was had by all before we trogged off to school!
Nearly lunchtime now and it's almost all gone :O( Hope we see some again, you'll know if we do, you'll hear the squealing!!!!

Lookeee!!!

My 'Katie' bead arrived this morning from Jaq and it is BEEEEEE-AUTIFUL *screeches excitedly* it looks perfect nestled next to my other Trollies. I cannot understand why there were NO purple/mauve/lilac Troll Beads so Jaq obliged with this absolute beaut of a bead.
If she wasn't so lovely I might want to pinch Jaq for being so DARN talented!!!!! Thank you so much Jaq- oh and another Dolly Bead *might* have fallen in my basket this morning!! Tee-Hee!

On a Roll!

Had fun doing this LO of 'the Boy with the hair' or 'Mr Dimples' on his 7th birthday- scrapped a few months late but better late than never!!

We had a GORGE dalek cake which we exterminated pretty fast *chortles*

Cosmo Cricket, We R Memory Keepers and a piece of the Scenic Route (again!) papers with Ginger, Abigail Grande and Studio QuicKutz fonts.

Troll Beads!

I had a very productive Troll Beads night last night- unusual as it was a Sunday. I was browsing the Troll Beads site when the wonderful Erisindevon had seen two of my fave beads on a well known selling site or Schmeebay as it's known in this house (thanks to Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends!!) Well I was too slow for the Ugly Duckling but the GORGEOUS Thumbelina is mine BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Then the second Troll Bead happiness was discovering that the fantastically talented LushieRat has made her own beads to fit the Troll Bead bracelets. Her jewelery and her handmade glass beads are divine- they look like the colours are still swirling and the texture she gets into them is stunning!
If that was not cool enough I discovered (it took me a while!) that she'd named a purple bead 'Katie' I was so thrilled!! I felt all teary too- daft bat that I am but that beautiful purpleness is having pride of place on my bracelet- thank you so much Jaq!

A great night out!!

Had a fabby evening round at a friends house last night with the girls to celebrate two of our number's birthdays! Wine made even the quiet ones amongst us all relaxed and chatty! We had lots of fun sharing and cackling- oh and there was some eating in between when we drew breath!!
Came away feeling all warm and full of bonhomie. I even discovered why we kept seeing lorries in France with 'Le Mutant" emblazoned across them. Sadly it is not a transportation system for characters escaped from MArvel Comics- it is a supermarket rather in the mould og Aldi or Netto- cheap and cheerful. So with that knowledge I wnt home a contented bunny!

Hopes of a Sunday lie-in were dismissed as early as Friday because we HAD to be at 9am Mass to present our No2 Boy as part of the 1st Communion process. Usual arangements have been radically changed this year and as parents we are left floundering in a sea of 'lack of information'. Dates, DEFINITE dates for 1st Communion have yet to be passed on - June is the aim, but as a Gemini and a scrapper i have at least 3 of the weeks scribbled in for other things. Here's hoping the fog of confusion will lift soon, just as my resistance to all this change passed!

Had some Speshal news today...can't wait!

Busy Scrapping

I was searching through our documents and found my Mum's passport. It's a lovely picture of her- remember when the passport machines gave you a GREAT quality picture? Well I Photoshopped it a little to remove the stamp and enlarged it to 7x5" with no loss of clarity- that's how good the original was!
It was the first time I have scrapped a photo of my Mum a I knew her. It's not something I have been able to do until now. Not really sure why that is. I suppose in a way my life with her feels dreamlike, like it wasn't real probably due to the passage of time. It's been 18 years since she died and it took me a long, long time to deal with loosing her as we were so close, it was a dreadful wrench.
After feeling very unsure what to write on the LO- I first concentrated embellishing the page with things that seemed to be her. The beads for example are from necklaces she had and they beads were always in our bead tin for me to play with when I was a child. After chatting to DH and telling him how I thought the photo wasn't a true reflection of Mum- I journalled about how much we laughed! Although Mum has such a serious expression in the photo that really wasn't her way at all! In fact there was much hooting and screaching that went on in our house! We had lots of 'in' jokes and phrases that would crack us up, and when SM came to stay the hilarity was magnified!!!

Back Blogging Again!!

I've been very lax about blogging *hangs head in shame* but after all the excitement of Christmas and the struggle to get back to real life with the start of term things seem to be settling down again.
First of all *waves* to my pals.
I have a new addiction to add to the ever growing list- but not a hobby this time;
some norty person has me hooked on something rather lush, Troll Beads- shall I name and shame them, YES!!!! SallyR wore her Troll Bead bracelet to ScrapManic where it was seen and loved by many scrappers, Em then mentioned it and that was it I was hooked!!! Bad girls!!! Tee-hee!So I am a Troll Bead addict now!

So now I have a Troll Bead bracelet and 3 glass and 3 silver beads and I have my eye on many more!! I love silver anyway- my fave metal and I have 6 silver bangles thanks to DH. They are all jangling and I suspect he buys them so he can tell WHERE I am from the noise!! But I was running out of wrist space. Then I saw all the posts about Troll Beads and I knew it was 'me'!!!! Here's my bracelet so far- I discovered it's best to REMOVE the bracelet to take photos of it or else you end up doing this weird left handed, upside down balancing act with your camera- very ungainly!!!

I can highly recommend the Troll Beads site in Denmark- my beads arrived in 4 days, fabby service. I also own a HUGE Troll Beads poster which is lovely to look at and as Caz suggested it's ideal to drop un-subtle hints to friends and family about future purchases!! That's probably the BEST thing about the Troll Beads- everyone in the family can join in and choose a bead for you.
The beads I have so far have meaning to me. I am collecting the Fairy Tale themed beads, hence the Mermaid, the Knot is for Luck and as there are 5 of us- the 5 Seals represents our family!
Little Miss Acorn asked for Troll Beads for her birthday- 'not until you are a teenager" I said!! But she LOVED looking at all the beads on the post- all sprawled on the floor.

Feeling Faeryish!

After having a lack of Mojo it is lovely to be back in the zone!!
Had a big photo printing session last weekend and completed 2 double layouts then and this one yesterday. I've had real fun with all the scrapping I've done recently -it's great to rediscover this again-I was a little lacking I must admit.
Completed a layout for The Scrapbook Magazine this week- had a mad moment and completed it at 2am!!!

So this layout well Miss Acorn and I love anything to do with faeries and we were both lucky enough to get 'Wings 'n' Wands' (does that sound like an order from Burger King??!) for Christmas. Photos were not the best but they showed what we both upto beautifully. It was a chance to use the gorgeous Lynne Perella paper I have been hoarding since I bought it at the 'You Can Make It" show at Thorpe Park last January!!
Liberal amounts of mulberry paper and glitter were added to give texture and sparkle.
Rouge de Garange paper in a deep pink formed the background and the heart in the centre closes on little hinges to hide the journalling.
It was also my first chance to play with my new QK Revolution 'Washington' font (the title) which I purchased earlier in the week from Crea8tive Online in their fabby sale! THanks to Katie and Dave for excellent service AGAIN!

THe QK Revolution has been a real GEM of a find! I am a dedicated QuicKutz user anyhow and have been for a number of years. I love the lightness and portability of the QuicKutz die cutter compared to ALL the others I've seen on the market. But truely it was always the design of the dies and alphabets that swung it for me. Other company's designs have appeared just too cutesy for my tastes, others too boring whereas the QK designs are so varied in theme that I could happily pick and choose the ones I wanted!
The only bugbear I had was that if I was doing a large project (ie using multiple QK) then it could be a little tiring on the hands/arms even with the new improved QK Squeeze. The Revolution has solved this problem because it has a 'clothes wringer' action rather that a 'press lever' action! OK I feel a little like a washer woman with her mini mangle but that is a small pice to pay!
I can now cut FOUR QK dies at a time (HEAVEN!) and I can use the new 4x4" dies to create BIG BOLD titles for my layouts.
So pinky the Pink QK Squeeze is up for sale as I hate anything sitting around not being used-bless ebay.co.uk!!!!

Some Exciting News.....

The possible after Christmas gloom has been pierced by a cool email tis morning!
I've had some lovely news on the scrapbooking front- something I'm really looking forward to.
All hush hush right now- More later!!

Well it's been announced so please excuse the self tooting here!! I'm delighted to have won a place on the Scrapbook Sisters Design Team *big beam* Really looking forward to getting started!!