Belated Merry Christmas!

Having a great Christmas break! 11 days off! Yay!!

I've discoved the wonder of the video setting on my little waterproof Olympus - ideal for soggy holidays!! This was me and Martha on our Christmas Day walk!

Tardis!

OMG!!! This could be my best present ever!!! It's a talking Tardis money box complete with Tardisy noises!! Thanks Em!!

Busy busy!

Oh my gosh what a hectic day and i'm still not really any nearer to being ready for Christmas!!! Beginning to get a bit stressed now!



Busy day at work too, spent this afternoon constructing the new 'do crafts' blog. I'm quite pleased with it's early stages and hope you all can pop along and leave us a comment!


Managed to do a page this evening too. I've dug back into my Basic Grey - Mellow collection and i'm loving it all over again! I'll get the page scanned and uploaded in the morning.

I'll leave you with a pic of my Christmas Tree. I think this is the first time ever i've had an artificial one.. but circumstances dictate this year. I actually don't think it looks too bad considering it's fake!

Picturing Christmas

I thought it might be nice to share the photo that features on my cards this year! Martha loved her hat, and was a little star posing!

She's a bit bemused by the whole Christmas thing, as this will be her first! (she was born on the 27th December)

All sorts!!

Currently I have the dubious pleasue of both going to work and coming home in the dark... so apart from this sunset picture from yesterday (shot through glass!) i've been fully embracing my flash to get some Martha pics, including some in the garden in total darkness!

Had a fab time yesterday at the last Scrapping Frenzy crop of the year, as well as lots of scrapping, even more chat and nibbles... We also had a great fun secret santa as well as a bit of retail therapy with David from Craft Obsessions! We are so lucky to have one of the best online stores around, just on our doorstep! We have a fab bunch of girles and I always love catching up with them all!

Tomorrow night is our works party - the whole team has worked so hard all year and it's our chance to let our hair down! We have a red theme so i'll aim to get a pic of my red offering before tomorrow night. I'll be taking my new little Olympus 790sw camera tomorrow, so I hope to share some pics after! I'm far too scared to take my dSLR so my new baby will be getting broken in tomorrow! It seems to be a fab little unit, not least because it's shockproof and waterproof! I'm sure you've seen the fab and slightly scary advert! I'm hoping that i'll be able to take it to hydrotherapy too, to get some underwater shots!

Christmas questions...

As it's nearly christmas thought this might be fun... i've seen it on a few blogs recently.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? wrapping paper – I adore wrapping!
2. Real tree or Artificial? Normally real… this year artificial –SHOCK HORROR!!!
3. When do you put up the tree? This year it went up on the 8th but that’s way early for me!
4. When do you take the tree down? Always by 12th Night, probably before.
5. Do you like eggnog? Rather have my alcohol with salmonella thanks!
6. Favourite gift received as a child? Full set of Crayola crayons in a groovy tower!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? No one… I rock at shopping!
9. Easiest person to buy for? Sandie
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Can’t think of anything… maybe I’ve blocked it from my subconcious
11. Mail or email Christmas card? Mail
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Groundhog day. Is that Christmas???
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? No
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Turkey and sausages wrapped in bacon! Yum!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Love them all in an ironic sense!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Um… yep!
20. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? Neither
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Day
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Shoppers!
23. Best thing about Christmas? Time off!

If you're reading this.... consider yourself tagged!

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow sees a new look and a slight change of format for Scrapping Frenzy. Daily inspiration, monthly challenges and prizes! Check out the link to the right!!

Feeling low...

So i'm just hoping my horoscope is right... i'm willing to make the effort!

Your key planet Venus is at home in your sign now and today enjoys the magical vibes of Neptune. You are on a creative high, but you might not even attempt to manifest what is currently possible. Do whatever you must to motivate yourself into action; you'll be very glad you did.

Halloween's hard work for a busy Newfy girl!

'First I need to pick my outfit!'

'Supergirl?'

'Devil ?'
'Knife Victim?'

'Then I need to pick my pumpkin.... '

'Carve it!'

'Phew! Need a rest!'

'Just in time for a bit of apple bobbing!'
'Yummy! Munch!'

Spooky!

Had a fantastic time at the crop on Wednesday. My first proper visit since Marthas arrival - rather than just popping in to chat for a hour or so! Did a couple of pages and had a good ol' chinwag! My new Papermania Tote set worked even better than I excpected! Just the right size and looks gorgeous!

However the highlight was arguably our little trip over to Tesco which is opposite!!! (particularly ironic as i HATE supermarkets and avoid them like the plague!) We only went over to buy bottled water (and maybe look at the shoes!) but Emma, Sian and I got a tad excited in the the Halloween section! Sian picked up a 'Spooky Sounds' CD (that was a right laugh the next day in the office!!) and although I managed to resist a set of three glow in the dark plastic bones, I did get rather tempted by the kids Halloween outfits! Now anyone who's knows me well will guess where this story is going!!

Yes, the outfits (Batman and Ghost) are intended for Martha! I decided to employ the (supposedly!) fool proof method that if they fitted on my head. they'd fit Martha so I of course popped them on to check in the middle of Tesco, and again for the crop girls once we got back to the hall!

So tonight i've put them on Martha and it transpires that her head is WAY bigger than mine!! But at least one of them (Batman) fit pretty well!!

Just because it's cool!

Weird and Random.... shouldn't be a problem!

So i've been tagged by Emma! - I'm sure it's a ruse to get me blogging!

Here are the rules which you must abide by if you are tagged.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

Here are my things!

1. I don't mind newfy drool... in fact i quite like it!
2. I hate Jelly
3. I really love giraffes
4. My car is called Rodney
5. Clowns scare me
6. I love blogging, but i'm rubbish at finding the time
7. My handbag is so heavy I can barely lift it!!! Even though I have a tiny phone, an ipod Nano and quite obviously nothing in my wallet!!

I'm going to tag...
Kitty
Corenna
Laurie
Karen
Jenny
Martha
Carol


Ooh that was fun thanks Em!

Rubbish at blogging... and instant photo challenges!

Ok, ok... it's been an age since I blogged, but in my defence i've been a tad busy with Scrapping Frenzy.

Last night Emma and I had a round of our new game... instant photo challenges! Via msn we take turns to set a quick challenge and report back within seconds/minutes that we have done it! Here are the fruits of last night!

Daily Inspiration..... Coming Soon!

Makes me happy!

The 'A True Friend' blog always makes me happy! Such a wealth of inspiration all in one place and all because of our gorgeous pets! This week Kim Cupp joins us and shows off her beautiful Bulldog girlie, Belle aka Tink.

Newfies will always be number one with me of course, but I have real weakness for squishy nosed dogs! Especially Bulldogs, French Bulldogs and Pugs! A gorgeous pug baby called Toby joined our Dog Training Club a few weeks ago. When he first met Marth he was a little unsure, but by week 2 he was desparate to play, standing on his back legs and boxing her nose!! They adore each other even though she must have at least a 50kg weight advantage over him!

Here's my page - I really think I may have a slight Scenic Route obsession... it's yet more Ashville!

Today i'm.....

STRESSED!!

So here's a happy giraffe... to try and ease it!

It's not working quite yet...

Another convert!

After months of nagging I've finally managed to convince Sandie to start a blog! Admitedly I had to physically create it myself but it's the final result that counts!! I also delived Sandie's CJ today - it was all about TV Sci-Fi. Her page was about how she was converted by me to watch Sci-Fi series' initially by a selection of gorgeous men, but later for the content! So of course I had to continue the tradition and provide 5 more nuggets of eye candy to inspire her to try a few more shows! So just to give you a hint here's just one reason to watch Battlestar Galactica!

Big Hugs!

Another fantastic over at the True Friend Blog and the theme is Cuddles! Perfect theme for Martha as she's sooo cuddly! The pics on this page were taken by my mum using my dSLR! Yay for her! And yes Martha is munching my nose.... another favourite pastime of hers! Guest Designer this week is Katie Shanahan-Jones who is a new dog owner with Beagle puppy Willow who's so cute! It sounds like she's having loads of fun with her! Here's my page...

Perhaps unsurprisingly I'm loving the new Scenic Route ranges, Ashville and Summer... I think it might be my new favourite! Here's a Chloe page using it.

All the fun of the Fayre!

Went to our Village Rustic Fayre yesterday and amazingly for a Bank Holiday Monday the weather was lovely! Martha came along too and entered into the Pet Show - I was perhaps a little over excited when she won first in Best Puppy and Best Large Dog and (shockingly!) second in 'Dog the Judge would Most Like to Take Home', although the judge did say she didn't want to pay to feed her! Martha also had her first taste of Bitter and rather liked it!!

She also managed to force down a whole hotdog too! After all that excitement she was glad of a dip in the river that surrounds the park - in fact she rather enjoyed laying down in it!!

Loving a challenge..

The new challenge is up at A True Friend - this week it's all about your pets' likes and dislikes. Most of Martha's seem to revolve around woofing and being dirty!! There are some fab pages as always on the blog, Lauries really caught my eye this week with her Stroposaurus!! So cute!

Planning an early spring visit to Brum....

Martha is quite a sleepy girl this evening... that's cause we've been to Bournemouth Champ Show today where she won 2 third places. That means she's very pretty, i'm vey proud, but also that we'll be off to Crufts in March!! Woohoo! Blogger not playing nicely tonight... can't upload pics!

Mad Martha!

Martha is loving the sunny weather, especially when it's not too hot! Here's a few pics of her having a mad sprint around the garden last night! I don't want to catch anyone looking at my long grass though!!

Communcation is Key

I’ve been thinking about how a lack of communication is probably the one thing that is most responsible on a daily basis for making my life more difficult. People who don’t ring you back, people who keep information to themselves. I’m sure sometimes it’s just a lack of thought but that in itself can be rather frustrating. So rather than (just) moaning about it I suppose the only way to effect change is to strive to do better yourself, so I’m pledging to attempt to be as open and helpful as possible to enable other to see that communication is key.

Promise i'll be back with something pretty later!!

You can't fight fate!

Ali Edwards is always inspiring, but today's AEzine really struck a chord - I've been chatting with Emma about scrapping everyday life including how works affects us all, so Ali's prompt to create a little something each day, telling a story about that day came just at the right time. For me the best way to get these stories down is to blog them as they happen, so that's what i'm going to do. Here's the first of many!!

I don’t hold much for horoscopes, only when they tell me what I want to hear – so when I read today’s I was so up for a day of playing!

'Even with the current conflict between your head and your heart, you can still feel a deep sense of well-being that is most welcome in your life now. It doesn't matter what you should be doing today; self-indulgence may win out over your responsibilities. So, why bother fighting the inevitable? Go ahead and play today; life's too short not to enjoy it.'

It’s the start of the UKS mini summer cyber crop today and I’m a bit bitter about being at work.. do you think I can squeeze all three classes in when I get home?? If Martha has anything to do with it, it’s unlikely!!

Finally Summer!

I think it's finally summer! I was able to get out in the garden yesterday and take a couple of pics with my lovely new Tamron 28-75mm. I was quite pleased with these especially the gorgeous Monbretia, which seem to grow like weeds in our garden!!

One or two...

Just a couple more pages to share!!