Cropiday! Yay!

I LOVE Cropiday weekend! A whole weekend of chilling, crafting and chatting with some of the bestest girlies I know! I think we were all a bit more productive this weekend than we have the last couple of weekends we've had! LOL! But it doesn't matter to us how much or little we do because the company is always fab!
So this time I found it much easier to find layouts I liked online and placed a nice order! It's quite some time that I've actually ordered 'stash' online. I mean, I've probably got enough stuff to make up several scrapbooks but 'newer' stash is always nice to have, especially when it is bought with a purpose! One thing that did shock me though was how expensive this lovely hobby of mine is getting! It's never been particularly cheap to scrapbook but a little while ago you could pick up a sheet of patterned paper for around 50-60p, sometimes less but now it seems to be a minimum of 80-90p! (some die cut sheets going into several £'s!) When you use a few sheets on one layout without including embellishments it's already a dear do!) Never mind I had a little splurge and really enjoyed it! I also still occasionally buy a Studio Calico kit, although the last couple I bought were from the marketplace on UKScrappers! So these layouts are a mixture of my own designs, found on the internet and Studio Calico designers. Just for ease!

 

 

This layout has a story! The blue background paper on the original layout is now discontinued and I was disappointed but MaryAnne from UKScrappers re-created similar to it for me using a font! How fab was that!

 

 

So that's me more or less caught up now with my scrapbooking which is a nice feeling. Some cross stitching also took place over the weekend and I don't believe I've introduced you to it! This is Mr. Snowman (that's my name for him!) He appeared in the December issue of Cross Stitcher and I fell in love straight away.

 

So did all the other girls and we're all going to stitch him now! Before the weekend I had stitched his scarf, I'm pleased I had it done before as it was frustrating and due to mis reading the chart a couple of times I ended up unpicking bits! So at Cropiday I stitched his face and most of his hat! I'll post a picture soon of his progress.

I always love my break away but it's also nice to get home to Mark, Charlie and Courtney. When I got home I had a nice surprise! Mark had fitted our new living room carpet. (Have I mentioned before he is a carpet fitter?) We had chosen it but it hadn't been ordered so he did that and fitted it without me knowing! A couple of weeks ago we had new blinds fitted as our old ones perished and new curtain rails, our living room now looks and feels cosy. (You should feel that carpet under foot, absolute bliss.)

 

 

 

Nanna's Cat.

Family heirlooms, I have a few. I hope my cross stitching and pine plan chest will one day become family heirlooms to my children. Treasures are important to me, as are the memories I associate with them. One day I came home to find Calico looking out of the dining room window and it did make me chuckle! I grabbed my camera quickly and snapped this photo.....

 

Do you see the other cat? That cat has been in my life as far back as I can remember! He's an ornament that belonged to my Great Grandmother (Nanna Byram.) He sat on her sitting room windowsill proudly looking out at passers by. When she passed away he went to live with my Grandma and sat on her hall windowsill, again for many years until she sadly died. Now he lives on my dining room windowsill (and has done for the past 9 years.) I tell you, he is a real talking point with many people. There's a little girl who walks up with her grandmother when collecting her big brother from school, her grandmother tells me everyday she looks out for him and calls out with a miaow when she sees him. Sadly, he has no name but I will treasure him forever.

Sneaky cats?

Our cats can be sneaky monkeys, they're not allowed on beds BUT if their big brother leaves his bedroom door open then it's an invitation.....right?

Costa treat!

There aren't many days where it's just Charlie and me! Just really in school holidays on a Monday and Friday when Courtney is at Nursery. (and when Courtney goes to school they'll be even rarer.) On the days we do have together I like to do things with him. Even if it's just playing a nice game together at home. This morning after dropping Courtney off, Charlie and I wandered into town to do Daddy's banking. Charlie was really helpful so as a reward we had a trip into Costa! :D

Red Nose Day!

Whilst in Sainsbury's on Wednesday choosing Courtney's outfit we picked up some red noses in aid of Comic Relief! Today they got to wear them!

Little Red Riding Hood

Today was Maisie's party! It was a fancy dress theme. Courtney loves to dress up and has some lovely outfits but she's starting to grow out of some, some are well worn (aka stained, LOL) and, well, it's not really the time of year to be a witch! So off we tootled to Sainsbury's and we let Courtney choose her own outfit. She immediately picked Little Red Riding Hood complete with Grandma and the Wolf in the pocket! We bought her the little heart hairband to go with it. I think she looked super cute and, of course, she really enjoyed the party!

Castle junk modelling.

Charlie's topic at school this term has been castles and history. He has really enjoyed it and has often come home telling us all about what he has learnt. Towards the end of the topic parents were requested to take in boxes, tubes etc. so the children could create a castle! I don't know what I imagined but I certainly never imagined this would be coming home!!!

 

It's magnificent and his imagination really shows. He tells me he made it all by himself! One day he came home and told me they'd made jam tarts! It turns out they were for the banquet on the very last day of the topic. There is a double classroom at school and they'd set up a long narrow table right up the middle! Unfortunately there was a little miscommunication (Charlie forgot to bring his letter home) and all the other children were dressed up as Knights, Princesses or in party clothes. Thankfully the school has resources and Charlie became 'Prince Charlie' for the day! (Unfortunately I didn't photograph his outfit but it was a white t-shirt and gold waistcoat.) He was in his element and didn't want to take the outfit off before bedtime, I think he'd have even slept in it if we'd let him!

Happy Birthday Hughie!

My lovely Father in Law is 72 today!

Mother's Day

As I have said in previous years Mother's Day, for me, is one of the most special days in the calendar! It doesn't have to be all about the commercialism, what I love is it's the one day of the year to feel thankful, thankful I am a Mummy, thankful to my Mum and thankful to my Mother in Law. I am truly blessed.

 

How truly adorable is Charlie's drawing of me!

 

 

Courtney's Party

We held Courtney's party at our local McDonalds. There was lots of fun to be had with face painting, colouring and balloon modelling!

 

 

Happy 4th Birthday Courtney!

Happy Birthday to our gorgeous, amazing princess! This year Courtney was super excited about her birthday, she has attended a few parties recently so fully understands how special birthdays are! We started the morning opening her pressies! Her main present from us was a Silver Cross pram, she loves it! We bought her a new baby to go in it too. The baby talks! As her birthday landed on a Nursery day she was made to feel very special there and got to wear the special 'Birthday tabard' and hat!

 

I did pick her up early though so we could have a walk in the park.

 

 

(baby needed a quick feed half way round)

 

 

 Then we went for a treat at the café, pink milkshake!

 

 

No birthday would be complete without a birthday cake and Nanna is the chief when it comes to birthday cakes!

 

 

Happy Birthday Courtney!! (TuTu from Aunty Karin!)