Get your sunglasses ready!

Here's my CJ for Anything Goes.................

Amazing people

Are in this world and sometimes my breath is taken away at how gorgeous some people can be!

Firstly, a bit ago I asked for some help with a photo. Well I was contact by someone on CBC to ask if they could help. She took my photo, cleaned it up and did exactly what I wanted - look at this, the first one is the photo I sent to her and the second photo is the one I got back!



I don't think you see on here the amazing difference but the first one has loads of white specs and mess on when you zoom in, now it is all resized, cleaned and black and white with my flowers in colour!

So thank you so much Stephie!! It is perfect! Here is her website to see other amazing stuff she has done!

http://www.whiterosegallery.com/

Then when I don't think Em could get any fabbier she amazes me again!! Last week I was walking into town and it was so cold my nose actually hurt!! So I sent a text to the usual suspects to say how flippin ;o) cold it was! Then Saturday I get a package from Em and she has knitted me an amazing scarf - she says it is the first thing she has knitted but it looks so good, I'm not sure if it is lol!! It is my fav colour and it smells gorgeous! So today I walked into work with my new scarf on and I was warm and toasty!!

So thank you Em {hug}

This weekend we flew into Bristol to go to my aunt's birthday party. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of family hugs and kisses - so all in all, I'm pretty damn chipper xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I'm back

Thanks everyone for their kinds words and private messages - you're all stars. I'm not going to dwell on the last week but what I will say is anyone who has Frank's 'My Way' at their funeral has to be a total dude! xxx

I have finished my UKS cj and I actually quite like it!! Can't show it to you unfortunately cos the piccies aren't transferring properly but I can show you my LO....

The group is 'Anything Goes' which means there are no rules. Now I thought this was cool to begin with, but it is actually quite hard not to have rules!! We all agreed to do a subject and a colour scheme - mine is I love and is pink and lime. When I download the main cj I will give you advanced warning, as you will need sunglasses!!

Problem is now I have done mine, that is the easy bit!! I also have to do another 10 cj's with no rules - arrggggggghhhhhhhhhh!! How scary is that!

I managed to get something off my chest last night which has been bugging me for a while, amazing how much better it makes me feel - don't know why I don't do it more often!!

I'm away for a bit now - so see ya'll soon bloggers ;o)

xx

So brave

Iain died yesterday - the bravest kid I know.

You've been released and will suffer no more pain............RIP xxxxxxxxxxx

So proud!

Ollie got his first ever swimming certificate today! He has passed level 1 swimming - how proud am I!!!!

Just thought it was blog worthy xxxxxxxxxx

Calmer!

Am a bit calmer now - just at the upset stage ;o)

Have just scanned a load of old photos so will be scrapping with them tonight / tomorrow.........here's some to show you before I ruin them!!

This is my fav photo of me and my sister. Apparently this was my usual facial expression!! How could my mother dress me in that hat!!

Mum and dad's wedding day.

Could I be any more curly!!

Me at nursery................ahhhhhhhhhh!

So that's what I'm on with at the mo - any suggestion always welcome ;o) xxxxxx

I've found a cure

for crafters block!

Get angry, really really really angry about something and do some crafting! I've done tons tonight lol!

Not that I like being this angry but sometimes people just get you that way!

Oh well - hope I get this out of my system soon, don't think DH can cope with much more!!

Some cards

Some quick and easy cards I have done for my boxes, and Sue's Challenge.

Zoo time!

Well Saturday was our trip to the zoo. Fab day as always but very tiring. Two highlights of the day........

1. Chimps having on hell of a fight! It was proper fisticuffs, with shouting and growling and everything!

2. Ol had spent all day being picked on by a little s**t that didn't like him playing with Ewan. So Ollie tried to sit on this stone lion so he walks over to Ol and tells him to get off because Ewan sits there. So Ollie gets up and my heart sinks cos he looks so sad. He comes over for a cuddle, stands up straight, walks back to the lion and sits on it telling the little s**t, to stop being so horrible and he can do what he wants to do!! I was soooooooooo proud of him!! He is such a softie and for him to stand up for himself was fab to see!

Please see evidence here ;o)

And also looking forward to scrapping this one!

So Em - I took my camera and took some photos! (there are some of me but they won't be going on here, I didn't realise my skin was so bad atm!!)

On a works subject, tonight I have been managing our call tree test and I am still amazed at how many people fail these tests!! They are told to take their department plans home with them and they still don't!! Well I am gonna kick some butt tomorrow!!

And just to prove I do sometimes do beading!

Well I never knew it did that!

I've just found somewhere to put my digital camera memory card into my laptop!! So I can show you some of the things I've done in the last few months.......

The first one is my entry into Em and Carol's Scrapbooking challenge:

You can't actually tell but the flowers have been cut out and put on as 3D's - spent ages doing that and you can't see them lol!!

The next lot are the bits and pieces I did for Sue and Doug's wedding:

Funny thing happened to me today.......

As the saying goes!! I was just driving to pick Ollie up from school and 'the' song comes on Steve Wright which I dread hearing...........Spirit in the Sky by Dr and the Medics. Within seconds I am blubbing and have to pull over!!

Story behind this!

When we were 13, one of our school friends, Justine fell off her horse and hit her head. Went into a coma and took months to leave us. Now at 13 that is pretty horrific (mind you horrific at any age!!). So our head of year Mrs Joyce says, to get us all back together and to say, well you know, we'll have a big school disco.

So we all went into the hall and she had decorated it all out for us and it was fab. Then the dj puts that bloody song on! Now anyone who has listened to the words will know what a bombshell this would have been! We spent hours just crying and hugging each other - which in hindsight was a good thing cos we all 'let it out'.

But 21 years later (bloody hell 21 years!) that song still affects me soooooooooo much! My school friend got married 5 years ago and half way through the night the dj put this on and was told very quickly to get that flipping (;o)) song off!



SO that has got me thinking and woo hoo here comes a challenge blog friends!

What is the song which affects you most? Good or bad?

Don't feel you have to share why - but I would love to know your song.......

Consider yourself tagged;o) Tell me when you answer!

Lisa
xxx

Been creative!

I've been very creative tonight - woo hoo!!

I've done FOUR cards for Susan's template challenge, started my 'All about me' tags for my UKS team challenge of a tag book (very scary!!) and tidied my room!

I then spent a fab bit of time going through my digital photos to chose which ones I am going to use for Em's challenge. I realised what a busy 2006 we had! I chose a school photo, a legoland photo and an extension building work photo. Got them all ready to print and ppooooffff goes the printer / scanner grrrrrr.

So now I can't scan the challenge cards or print my photos for the challenge! But Boots have just installed one of those photo printing thingies where you take in your memory card - sure there's a proper term for them ;o) so I'll be making a fool of myself in there tomorrow lol! We have an old scanner in the loft, so guess where DH is going tomorrow night.

Plus I decided I needed more paper if I'm going to restart this scrapping thing, so I spent all my vouchers on 12x12 paper from The Stamp Man and spent a fab 20 mins in my room filing my papers in my paper trays.......but it is all Em's fault so if DH starts moaning I'm gonna blame her! Then next month I'm gonna blame Carol ;o)

So hopefully tomorrow I can show you some of my efforts.

Hope all my blogging friends are ok and happy.
xxx

Ikea on a Saturday?!!

Yes, we did Ikea today - during a sale and on a Saturday! We went to look at a corner unit and new dvd stands. We realised when we got outside that we hadn't looked at either lol! It was very busy and people were getting very stressed in the car park! How do people get so irrate going shopping - chill out dudes!

and you know that spare guest room that was going to be decorate beautifully, probably with Laura Ashley stuff and all girly? Yeah, we bought some toy chests today and have moved all the clutter into there ;o( BUT at least the toys are all out of my front room woo hoo! Christmas stuff is now all in the loft too. Why is it that the decs are only out for 2-3 weeks of the year but when they go your room seems so big and empty?! Love it when they've gone.

I've been doing quite a bit of crafting lately. I have been really struggling with a friend's bday pressie. I always make her jewellery so this year I wanted to do something different. Have tried to do quite a few different things that have mostly ended up in the bin lol! Well I just sat down last night and had a strike of creativity lol! All done and dusted now! Hope she likes it! I can't show it to you yet, but I will do next month xx

I was starting to get a bit upset about one thing in my life but I've had a good think about it and I'm going to just stand back and see what happens. And now I have made that decision, things don't seem so bad lol! I am a silly bugger sometimes!

ATC stuff is going well for the Stamp Man. Some of the cards sent to me are flippin amazing. There is one lady who as soon as I see her writing on the envelope, I get so excited cos her cards are really stunning.

OK STOP PRESS - I am sat at my dining table watching my 5 year old picking up his toys and putting them in his toy chest. woo. am in shock!

Just to keep Em quiet

Here's a little update!

Happy christmas and New Year!! I had such an ace time - I forgot about my little blog - sorry!! I got very spoilt and got amazing pressies. I got quite choked up by the end of the day cos all my things were just perfect. And my sister and bil came up too so we had a full family christmas. Ollie loved it!!

He was poorly for his birthday but he made up for it at chrimbo! We used to have a spare room, which in my perfect world was going to be a lovely 'guest room' that all my friends could come up and stay with me.........yeah that ain't gonna happen! It's full of thousands of toys at the moment! How much stuff does a 5 year need for goodness sake! And how many types of dinosaurs were there?!! I just figured a Trex is a Trex................nooooooooooooooooo! He is such an expert! He couldn't talk very well last year due to his stammer but he could name every type of dinousaur!

Work is good. It seems my new boss is a fab boss! I actually got a christmas pressie this year! And he phones me up to see if I am ok and if there is anything I need him for ! I am not alone anymore! Woo hoo! Today I started my fav task which is to plan which disaster I am going to inflict on my senior management team. This year we will mostly be dealing with a severe snow storm and loss of heating - nice!!

And one of my bestest friends is starting IVF for the third time, after two succesful attempts (the bestest boys in the world after mine) we may have another to add! I have ordered a pink one this time, we need more girlies!!

I was starting to feel a bit down but then I had a MSN conversation last night which was so fantastic - I feel wonderful today! Ain't friends great!!!

Well, there you go - not really worth waiting for but trust me, when Em gets a bee in her bonnet it is just easier to do what she tells you!!

See you soon (promise ;o))

xx

Happy Feet

Me and Ollie joined our friends at the pictures today to see Happy Feet. The kids all loved it but the three of us 'big girls' thought it was a little bit overated (sorry!). The sound track is fab though and I did get a little goosebump when all the penguins were dancing *blush* They did advertise Night at the Museum, which I really want to see.

All food and pressie shopping is done so now it is family time - woo hoo! We're all off to Bolton Abbey tomorrow (my fav place on earth!) to catch the Thomas train, with Santa. Work have booked a carriage with prebooked tickets - so should be fab! Then we're going to Harrogate for any last minute pressies. As always at this time of year I realise I have focused on all my friends and family, I have completely forgotten DH! He is brilliant at buying pressies so I always feel guilty on christmas day cos I get amazing pressies and he gets the 'OMG I forgot to buy him anything' pressies lol!

Annoyingly I did buy him something he really wanted from t'internet but it hasn't arrived and of course he doesn't believe me!

He did say last night though he enjoys spoiling me at christmas so I should just accept it, plus he doesn't spoil me during the rest of the year (except he does ;o)) - so I may just accept the spoiling and not feel the guilts.....................wouldn't you? xxx








Plus sis and bil are on their way - so perfect christmas all round this year ;o)

Blurgh!

Not just flu it seems - yukky!! Lots of vomit too! But all sorted and lovely now! We went to the panto in Bradford yesterday. His first ever and mine in about 20 years!!! Was fab. Billy Pearce was Aladdin and he was brilliant! Has not changed a bit! Ol liked it and booed and hissed etc - just didn't like it when Princess Yasmin sang.

Today has been a great day. Pub for lunch with some friends from work. Ollie loves going to the pub - always tells daddy (even though he is told not to lol!). Then this afternoon have picked up Paula's little boy from nursery early so he could come round to play. Paula will then pick him up after work. 27 minutes and counting lol! Was just saying to Sue, how to people do this all the time! I can manage billions of £'s worth of assests but two children (4 and 5) I struggle! We agreed in order to do this with lot's of children you have to be as bonkers as Em!!

Going to attempt an exploding box tonight (again!) so will maybe let you see it - depending on what it turns out like ;o))

xxx

Birthday boy!

Well we had our party yesterday and it was fabby! Most of the kids turned up and Ol was overwhelmed by it all to begin with. I couldn't believe how many of the parents left their kids and said they would come back in 2 hours! I would never do that! but ho hum each to their own.....

There were a few bumps and tears but mostly it went well and he had a great time.

Then today we woke up to a VERY poorly baby ;o(. It looks like a case of flu - is very hot (101 degrees atm!) He slept for most of the day and his pressies from grandma's etc are still in the boxes - so we know he most be very sick! Lots of calpol and juice, oh and kisses lol!

What upsets me most is he was really poorly last year with a sickness bug that someone bought into nursery (quite openly in fact!) and he threw up all during his bday and xmas! So this year we said we would do something really special to make up for that and he is ill AGAIN! I know a couple of the mods felt that kids get poorly all the time and he will get better, which I do know. But why does it always happen on his bloody birthday?!! I think he was poorly during the week but we were just so busy it didn't 'come out' until today................big hugs for baby! But he is 5 now, so is such a big boy (hug).

Friday Feeling!!

I finished work today and Ol finished school - until 2nd January!! I am so excited! Today was a weird day. My dept has been audited and has received quite a bad grade. The findings are things I have been telling the Exec for months and no-one listened and no-one helped.

Today I was called into a meeting by three 'Heads of' who all apologised for leaving me and not supporting me and they promised to change things in the new year. I felt like a great weight had been lifted!!! I could myself filling up but managed to remain some level of professionalism lol! I was so happy - how sad is that!

Then I got home and had a fab phone call with Sue, except she probably didn't think so ooops!

Had a tough night with the child! He is so tired he has turned into the whinge monster from hell!! He told me tonight he wished I was dead, then spent an hour sobbing and telling me he loved me............bless him! He has talked about death all night, I did stuggle when he asked if me and daddy died who would look after him! He looked so sad and I really didn't know what to say! It is catch 22 - do you say don't worry that would never happen (because we don't know that it won't happen) or do you answer his question? I did the honerable and perfect mother thing...............completely fobbed him of and changed the subject! Then he asked when people die does everyone come back two days later, like Jesus did! Why do children ask such difficult bloody questions!

Think of me tomorrow - birthday party with 17 of them! Arrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Today

Was Val's funeral. Was a very sad day, especially watching a man bury the woman who he adores and just looks so lost without her. I was ok until the Celine Dion song came on and then I went ;o( but my friends will be very proud of me cos I had a good ole cry instead of holding it in and being brave!

The words are so meaningful that I have never really noticed the sentiment before:
For all those times you stood by me
For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought to my life
For all the wrong that you made right
For every dream you made come true
For all the love I found in you
I'll be forever thankful baby
You're the one who held me up
Never let me fall
You're the one who saw me through through it all
You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'coz you believed
I'm everything I am
Because you loved me
You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith, you gave it back to me
You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I'm grateful for each day you gave me
Maybe I don't know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you
You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'coz you believed
I'm everything I am
Because you loved me
You were always there for me
The tender wind that carried me
A light in the dark shining your love into my life
You've been my inspiration
Through the lies you were the truth
My world is a better place because of you
You were my strength when I was weak
You were my voice when I couldn't speak
You were my eyes when I couldn't see
You saw the best there was in me
Lifted me up when I couldn't reach
You gave me faith 'coz you believed
I'm everything I am
Because you loved me
I'm everything I am
Because you loved me

A perfect song for a perfect lady - RIP Val xxx

Out the other side!

Hellooooooooooo!

Some stuff has been really bad lately and in my usual style I have gone into my little caccoon and refused to accept or talk about it! BUT I am out the other side now and all ok - phew!!

So what has been happening? ol has been doing his nativity play - mummy and daddy are going tomorrow night. Very excited. Grandma went today and said he did his two lines very well (he is a shepherd) but yawned through most of it lol! Also it has been videoed so ready to watch that on ITV when it's on.

I have finished most of my pressies and the cards are all done and sent - with the exception of two which I have lost the addy's for *blush* but they will be sent soon.

Pressies all done and mostly wrapped. So all those people who mocked me for being too anally organised with my lists..............all I can say is.................nah nah nah nah nah ;o) x

Oh good news I forgot to tell you about is that Joey's little girl did not have cancer, thank god. They did test for it and were going to treat it with chemo but one of the consultants was not happy with something on the results so sent a biopsy to New York. Came back not cancerous - so happy tears all round. She really is a brave little girl and as for daddy, just amazes me everyday. A single father who is so devoted to his child - makes me proud ;o)

At the moment DH is wrapping DS's pressies. He has his birthday so close to christmas it seems a shame sometimes. But this year he has so much stuff. Funnily alot of it is stuff DH says he never got to play with as a child....................wonder who some of these pressies are really for lol! There is a definate dinosaur, batman, lego theme for christmas and cars, Power rangers and transformers theme for birthday!

I may have made a bit of a mistake this year! Last year I booked a party at a themed place which was about 40 mins drive from here. As it was the last Sat before xmas, most of the kids from nursery that we invited couldn't make it. So I had to cancel it and have the party at home. This year I was determined not to have to do that again, so I booked Fun Planet which is a bit like Wacky Warehouse. But to make sure he had lots of friends there, we invited quite alot of his class aiming on 40 / 50% not coming so it is so close to chrimbo and the day after breaking up for holidays......................so far we have 17 coming with 4 still to reply!!! OMG it is going to cost us a bloody fortune!!!! Such a difference between nursery and school! Everyone is so excited about it and the mothers have all asked what kind of things he likes and is it ok to get him such and such. Nursery, never got anything like that! I've just broken the news to Dh that it is £7 per head and how many are coming - he's gone very quiet lol!!!

Fab day!

Am concious my last few posts have been blurgh so wanted to tell you about a fab morning I had on Tuesday. I went into school and spent a morning making christmas cards with the kids. 27 of them to be exact!!

It was a great day. Really let me stop and smell the roses, if you know what I mean!! They are so fab cos they just don't have any hang ups or issues. Except the two girls who had a heated arguement on who's xmas tree was better, Chloe's who's was green and Naomi's who's was pink (of course I secretly agreed with Naomi ;o)) Mrs O was really grateful and I've been pre-booked for Valentines, Mother's Day and Easter!!!

Think of me tomorrow - we have Tim's birthday party in the morning (pirate party where O is dressing up as Jack Sparrow lol!) and then Jacob's party in the afternoon!!! Oh and then work's xmas party on Sunday! Three nights out next week and then his party on Saturday! My 4 year old has a better social life than me!

Birthday box

I have FINALLY finished my sister's birthday box!!

Thank you Sue W for the letters (especially APR when I decided to change the original colour scheme *blush*) and Sue F for the halloween bits.xxxxx

A friend, Little Val

A family friend 'Little Val' died yesterday - may she rest in peace, one of the strongest and bravest women I have ever met.

xxx

Today

I survived today - with a little help from my friends ;o)

Nothing more to say, but maybe I will have one day.............