moving blogs....

not so much moving just not updating this one when i have the oliviagrace one going - seems silly to update both with the same stuff! lol See you on the other side!! MWAAHAHAHaaaaa

I will close this one down in a week or so :)

erm....yeah right!! PMSL!!

me thinks it mucked up somewhere as i havent ever looked like ange!! PMSL oh well at least it made me laugh!! LOL

competition and wahooo holiday!! lol

Go check out oliviagracedesigns blog, leave a comment and you could win one of these fabby coffee totes!!

Yeah nice one Jake.......this is what comes of trying to take one too many pics - this kid gets bored so easy and resorts to pulling stinky faces!!

I just booked us on a week away in Suffolk, we have made plans for almost everyday PLUS i get to meet up with the fabulous Annette (muckyfingers) and get to meet her adorable little poppet!! Hopefully we will be able to call in to see Ness too and if the kids act up lorraine has said i can send the kids to help her pack up the kits! LOL

Ben is coming back home on tuesday and will have been away for over 2 weeks - feels strange that one kid missing from the brood can make such a difference! Its very quiet tonight since Scott is staying at my sisters too - theyre going to see Transformers as part of his birthday pressie from her :) So two kids down means i actually have time to catch up on a few things - now just need to bundle the last two off to bed and i can crack out the sewing machine (and alcohol!) LOL

dressforms, kids and bags!!

so much to do so little time!! Ive managed to take some fairly decent pics of the kids while they were running wild today - thank goodness the sun is out and i can let them run free in the garden! It gave me some time today to create more bags and ive managed to get them all uploaded too! wahoooo!!

which reminds me i must go take them off the dress forms before they collapse under the weight!! LOL
Thanks to Heather http://designrecollections.squarespace.com/ im a Rockin' Girl blogger!! WAHOO!!!

Holidays and Harry Potter!

Today marked the last day of school for the boys - big day for Ben as he starts 'big' school (comprehensive) in September.....I still cant believe i have an 11 year old! When did that happen
?? Mwahahahaaa From now on its all uniforms and attitude and belive me its already started - yes we spent a fortune on kitting him out but more than that is the stinky 'tude he has right now - everything is too big a deal for him to bother about. He seems to love the word NO or I CANT or just a grunt with 'that look'! LOL He is going to stay at mum and dads come monday for a little holiday - means the kids have a holiday from each other too! Below is a piccie of my mum and dad, doesnt he look well concidering everything.......this was one of the only times Ethan has given them willing kisses and cuddles after a visit here - so glad i had the camera at hand!



An old friend is coming over tonight who i havent seen in years so that should be fun, catching up and drinking (well i will be, she cant shes pregnant!) Thankfully i dont have a broody bone in my body anymore so im going to be fine on the cooing and feeling the bump stage! LOL Im thinking pizza for tea - i hate a messy kitchen when guests are coming and pizza boxes just need binning so yayyyy take away night! ;)

I stupidly forgot to order the new Harry Potter book - ok slap me now, how the heck did i forget when its been all over EVERYWHERE for the last 6 months or so! Come tomorrow i will be chewing my nails knowing people are reading it and im not -bwahhhhaaaa! I cant even get out to get one - oh the joys of living in a little village with no transport (and a hubby 6 hours away!) LOL


Just uploaded this yummy kids apron to the site - bought a shed load more fabrics too including wipe clean bag and apron fabric. Off on a mission next week to get some more goodies so watch out soon for some interesting news :)

Another added to the collection...

dressform that is! :) Dontcha just love these, so girly and practical too (at least thats what i tell dh when i come home with another! ;) )



The last one there is holding the new aprons uploaded to the store.

The kids were just too funny today standing at the window mouths open watching the hailstones!! YES its july and its hailing - where the heck is summer, isnt there supposed to be at least a little sunshine??!!

catch up and thanks!

Thank you to everyone who has wished me well with my new store :) Im so excited and loving every minute of it - so many ideas just not enough hours in the day to get them all through the sewing machine!! lol

Instead of blogging here about Oliviagrace designs i have created a blog to give all the details about new products, fabrics, links and lots more info etc - check out oliviagracedesigns.blogspot.com

Ok, back to normal life.....when will this rain end!! Seriously i know i did a little rain dance earlier so dh couldnt go flying (well a girl has other priorities!) but this is just silly - not only did it start raining once they were on their way back home but it still hasnt stopped and i have washing to dry and kids to let play outside!

Dad is responding well to the chemo, he even said how he had had 'a nice day out' on his last session!! They took a different route to the hospital so got to see some new areas, the needles went in well during the chemo and he felt nothing, no sickness at all and the weather was fab for them - i couldnt ask for more and am so proud of how he is handling it all! He has lost a lot of weight but is in really good spirits which is more than any of us could ask for. I think he has one more session left before he has to go for the scan to see how the cancer is progressing etc.......guess we just have to wait now....

How manic can one month be?????

Thing are just so bad around here lately i have to laugh otherwise i would cry - seriously its a wonder i have time to breathe let alone anything else!! So many different directions and new projects - daunting and scary all the same time, i swear if i close my eyes i could sleep for a fortnight! LOL
Debden weekend was absolutely hilarious - ive never laughed so much in ages! Got to meet a lot of new friends and catch up with a lot of good friends ive met before.....i can honesly say ive never had such a fabulous weekend! (and we are off to do it again in october - yayyyyy!!)


A snippit of another bag i made - i have all the photographs now, uploaded all the info etc to the site and im now just waiting on the boxes to post them out in and we can go live!! So exciting but daunting too. Over night ive been working on a new duffle bag wit outside pockets, fully lined etc but my needles just cant take the super thick fabric and ive snapped 2 since i started!! Oh well, more have been ordered (tougher ones!!) and hopefully they will be here tomorrow so we can launch the Olivia bag! :D :D

bag making frenzy!!

I am an addict - what can i say, these little babies are keeping me up at night! Im in luurrvveeee!! They are fully lined and will each have their own little differences (buttons, ribbons on the handles etc) Working my socks off here with dh on a project that will hopefully see him spending more time at home and us both doing something we are really enthusiastic about - more about that later! :)

So excited as im flying down to Debden at the weekend for a complete friendfest! About 30 of us scrappers are getting together for a girly/scrapper/tipsy weekend - and its going to be fab, so much planning has gone into it thanks to suzanne and claire and im giddy about meeting lots of peeps who i havent before as well as getting back together with a few old friends :D

House hunting and scrapping!!

yep ive been doing both this weekend!! We have travelled miles today looking for a new house.....saw one i fell in love with, gorgeous stone built country house.....not so gorgeous when we saw the price!!! Almost £600k!!! Jeez...why dont my lottery numbers come up - heck i dont even win £10 let alone enough to buy my dream house!! LOL

I worked out how to thread my new sewing machine so have been stitching everything in sight! Will upload a couple of layouts as soon as the camera is charged :) Heres a couple more beach shots in the meantime ......
I couldnt believe how long my hair looks in the pic above - its the longest its EVER been!!

lol good start!!!

ok i am here!! sorry im 2 days late but i got Ben to draw the winning name on Tuesday night but it was too late to post and i started homeschooling Jake so things have kind of taken on a life of its own there! LOL In 9 months at nursery he has played with toys and come out with a few choice words - thats it!! 3 days at home and he is writing his name and raring to go every morning - im so proud of this kid!

How freaky does scott look in this pic - i swear it was a complete accident as i meant to get him looking like a captain (he was on a wooden ship!) but he ended up looking like a bl**dy elephant! LOL :)


The dares went live tonight and im back in the team after a break - heres my layouts, i tell you its good to be scrapping again!
Not to prolong it anymore - THE WINNER OF THE GOODIE BAG IS....











ISOBEL......... if you can email me your full name and addy honey i will get your parcel out to you straight away :D :D

Tired but Happy!

First off - mwahahahah darling dh looksie at the post below - see im not billy no mates!! *sticks tongue out* :)

What a fab day today has been, it actually felt kind of summery!! The sun was shining and gee wasnt it blinking hot - i swear i should just leave the shower running here as we all get a little bit niggly when we overheat! Today being sunday it was time for dh to go heli flying - not before we all headed off to the skate park though to tire the kids out a bit - fun was had by all and i got some fab photos!!

How excited does this kid look!! Haha - I swear you would think he never got out of the house, he was like a little happy bomb waiting to explode just whizzing round the park and creating havoc everywhere! LOL

Jake is such a brooding, thoughtful little kiddo. He often comes over to me and tells me if i havent had enough cuddles and kisses for the day, ask him what he is and his answer ........'Mams soulmate' - i swear my heart melts every time he says it!

almost 3 months!!!!

yep, shocking!! Its almost 3 months since i updated this blog! I havent a clue where to start or what to say that wont have you running for the hills but sadly we have had a bad couple of months here....lets leave it at that eh and move on to something happy :)

Im coming back with a vengence and intend to scrap my little heart out tomorrow! Will update with some pictures from the weekend too - we have been to the beach, house hunting -yep we need out of here already - part of the crappy last couple of months...ahem moving on... (in more than one sense... haha) and we have all generally been taking advantage of DH having a long weekend off work :D

Heres one ive photoshop'd already to make it a bit lighter - the fret from the sea was making things fuzzy!

I still cant believe im mum to an 11 year old!! Yep, Ben turned another year older in May!

Anyways, I promise to update hopefully once a day if not every other day - lets just see if anyone has missed me or if i am indeed (as DH says) talking to myself! LOL Im going to offer a goodie bag to whoevers comment (even just a hello will do :) ) gets pulled out of the hat on....say.....Tuesday.....that gives me 3 days to hope i have at least one visitor to prove DH wrong! LOL

Dares up...

This weeks dare was Texture - since i dont do fabric without making a right old mess i went for the next best option......paper!! lol I crinkled, inked and painted to my hearts content and made a Home is where the Heart is canvas for the kitchen :) Im thinking of painting a red cross on my house and calling it ER - i swear this house has so many germs at the minute! Not only does Ethan have the flu but now Jake and Stuart have man flu too - sweats, shivers, im too ill to breathe let alone move from the sofa type vibes - you know what kind i mean! lol Poor Jake though today had the mother of all nose bleeds, i swear ive never seen so much blood in my life. Someone turned on a tap and it just wouldnt stop, he was so scared :( OOhhh well back to nurse duties, starting to wonder if i should declare this as a full time job! lol

busy busy busy

Only 7 weeks until we go to see Justin Timberlake - swoon!!!!


so much to do i havent even updated in over a week!! LOL

Design Collective is ready to launch next week and the response we have received is fantastic! We cant wait to get started and regardless of a few negative comments the whole concept has been received really well!

On more personal notes my baby is poorly, yep teeny Ethan is loading with cold and has a temperature through the roof :( He scared us during the night last night when he almost jumped out of the bed screaming 'I fallin...I fallin' awww poor kiddo. You know how frightening it is when youre just dropping off to sleep and you fall so goodness knows what its like for a poorly 2 year old :(

Im back in this weeks Speshal dare and i havent even used a photo - this week mine is a bit of 'home decor'. What with so many cream walls to fill i decided to go all out and create a piece of art for the wall.......but you will have to wait until Friday night to see it sorry LOL :)

Fresh, Fabulous & Inspiring!!!

Introducing a new and exciting concept in scrapbook design inspiration. Our team of designers are renowned for their diverse and creative approaches to scrapbooking and altered art projects. Their wealth of creative experience in designing new and innovative pages and projects is already being tapped into by leading magazines, retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers in the scrapbooking industry. They now come together to bring you a whole range of fresh, fabulous and inspiring ideas for your scrapbooks and other memory art projects. The team comprises: Fiona Beckman, Clare Brown, Jane Dean, Amber Harrop-Johnston, Debbie Jewell, Karen Leahy, Elaine Loughlin, Jennie Leon, Ali McGovern, Karen Miller, Debbie Nicholas, Katie Shanahan-Jones, Suzanne Torr and Kirsty Wiseman. Classes will be issued four times during each calendar month on the 3rd, 11th, 19th and 26th. By subscribing to The Design Collective, on each of these dates you will receive: one major class project; two additional inspiring projects (taking a variety of formats such as challenges, new ways to use something, themed pages and so on); a range of tips and ideas from the design team.

A newsletter will be sent direct to your email box with the relevant classes in the form of attached pdf files. Classes will focus on different design elements and techniques and will cover a whole range of projects from layouts to mini books to gifts and altered items. You can choose to print out the classes or save to disk; whichever format you choose, over a period of time you will be creating your very own Design Collection to use over and over again to create beautiful and meaningful pages and projects. In addition to issuing project pdf files, we will be hosting a blog to keep up to date with all the latest news and a community forum for subscriber chat, help from the design team and a gallery so that you can share your work with us. And we will also host two cyber crops over the course of the year for even more fun, challenges and inspiration! For just £10 a month (and NO! that is not a typing mistake!) you will be getting four major project classes, eight further classes and a wealth of knowledge and tips from the design team. That works out at under 85p per class! Plus, there will be no having to buy expensive class kits as we will be positively encouraging you to use up that stash mountain in the corner of your room! You choose what supplies you want to use, to match your own photos and themes, you get to stay in your pj’s and scrap in the comfort of your own home, whilst having the class designers to call upon for help and other subscribers to talk to in the community forum. And think of the money saved on petrol! We will also be incorporating a Loyalty Scheme which will reward subscribers with additional benefits on the completion of a six and twelve month continued subscription with us. Subscriptions will be taken on a monthly basis, paypal is preferred but we will also accept bank transfer. This way you don’t need to pay out a lump sum up front, just the monthly subscription charge of £10.*

We will be taking registration bookings from Monday, 12th March. To make sure you don’t miss out on any important updates and registration details, please register your interest by email to subscriptions.designcollective@gmail.com and keep checking for more information on the team blog http://designcollective.typepad.com

Notes:
* Subscriptions will be due on the 2nd of each calendar month to ensure you continue to receive the classes without interruption.
** Registering your interest at this stage is not a final commitment.

Dares up!

This weeks dare was to scrap a week in photos and although i hated the whole concept i have to say the blog looks amazing!! I only hated it because i panic when it comes to multi photo layouts etc and im in a mojo funk at the minute so wasnt sure how the heck to get round it! Voila.... my box of days from our Majorca holiday last year :) Im really pleased with how it turned out and Scott now has it sitting on the shelf in his bedroom.

We are off to see mum and dad tomorrow, believe it or not its the first time we will have seen them since Christmas...im going armed with loads of goodies and leaving Ben there for a week so at least i will have one happy kid during half term! LOL

I have new goodies!!

FINALLY i have the expedit bookcase from Ikea!! So many of the girls have this unit and ive been after one for ages, in the old house we just didnt have the room and ive been promising myself one since we moved in here. Now the dining room is taking shape as my craft room, one wall has been painted a lovely deep green colour and i have a huge black round clock to go in the middle of the wall surrounded by lots of pics of our family.

Woke up this morning to about an inch of snow...that lovely crisp snow that crunches when you step on it! The kids had fun sliding up the close on the way to school this morning and throwing teeny snowballs at each other! :) If theres snow in the morning ive promised them we will set off early so i can get some photos of them playing. They really want more pics on that wall and i can see its going to be a game as to who has the most - ok, whos up for a game of 'look at me mummy' Mwahahahahaaaa

oops meant to say...

the dare is up... this week its a combined slot with the Daring Card Makers and wow the work everyone has done is just amazing! DH will hopefully like the fact i added a photograph to his Valentine card (tough if he doesnt cos its made now! lol) - I found the verse on 2peas in the soup section, I think its called resources now though, anyway, the verse hit a chord with me and I knew it had to be included on the card. The heart stamp is Making Memories and I made the crumpled heart using patterened paper covered in Tim Holtz inks :)

I know its really sad to get excited about something like this but my new washing machine plays music - SERIOUSLY!! LOL When the cycle is finished it plays a little tune, honestly, its novelty at the minute because everytime i do a load the kids keep nipping into the kitchen to see how long the wash has left! Ive lost count of the number of times I've heard 'come quick theres only 1 minute left'!! Mwaahahaaa Now all I need is one that does the ironing too and I will be happy! :D :D

Getting there..

Almost finished my project for Kirstys weekend, just need to add some finishing touches and work out the supplies list then im set :) Flights are booked and im meeting Natalie O Shea and we are travelling together meeting Kirsty in Manchester....i think we have a little girlie time too so that should be fun!

Been full of busy here as the kids are coming down one by one with sore throats, sniffles and 'the bug' - why is it they can never all get it at once, get it out of the way and done with in say a week or so. Noooo, my life at the minute is dirty tissues and kids who just want snuggles all the time - who can refuse though when those big brown eyes just beg for a cuddle :)

Ive received another journal in the Alphabetica circle journal group im in - its absolutely gorgeous!! Will post piccies of my finished page once its dried - i cant believe we are at he half way point if not past it! A lot of the girls were meeting up at CHA this week, im so gutted i couldnt be there as they are all truly amazing artists but i guess thats the only downside of working with 24 girls from the states and 1 from Italy! LOL Oh well maybe next year!! :)

Time for a change...

Ok so ive given in to the powers that are blogger! Yes, i know, i know - all those that have blogger accounts have said 'no dont do it' but I just can't seem to do anything on my other blog and im already in love with the format here. I'm going to move a couple of posts from the past few days over from the other blog - i just hate the thought of losing everything ive wrote since the middle of 2005 :( If anyone knows how i can keep the info please let me know :)

Today i started working on the project for the class im teaching in February ( Kirsty's Creative Photography Day), so so excited about it all and just can't wait to see this project completed - its so cute and I just hope everyone loves it :)




How cute is this kid!! We stood at the window watching the snow fall and i think its the first time he realised just how exciting it all is - he was so happy and giggling the whole time! Sadly, not enough snow to do anything major like snowball fights or building igloos but hey it was fun while it lasted (...yep all 5 minutes of it!) LOL

I cant believe the talent we have on Everyone is speshal... - just look at the new girls who have just joined us, go down to the first post that was done yesterday to see a little piccie and a rundown of all the fab accomplishments the girls have achieved...intimidated, moi - erm yeah just a bit!!
The dare this week was to get in the kitchen and get creating....thats exactly what i did - i nabbed one of the cake trays and made an altered project for my craft room......i love it, and it has all my favourite bits on it too!! We have so many fun projects and ideas lined up its so good to see the Speshals looking so damn fantastic!

If you upload a link to your creation for that week to it will go into a showcase gallery on the blog and it will give you entry into a prize draw for some yummy goodies! :D :D
Have been doing some christmas shopping too - yes i know its early but when things are so flaming good in the sale right now its just beggin to be bought! Now just need to find some really good hiding spaces! Mwahahahahahaaa

Dare #37 is up...

I missed doing the speshal dares while i was offline for a while but now im back and getting into the swing of it again. We have loads of ideas for the re-vamp, there will be new girls coming on board, a gallery for everyone to upload there layouts too, sponsorship and a monthly prize. Things are changing and boy it will be great - something to get the creative juices flowing again yayyy!!
The photo i used this week was the one shown earlier of jake doing his 'over the shoulder' 'you cant see me' 'arent i cool' wink! Ever since he learned how to wink its been the 'in' thing to do - well, that and his thumbs up sign! Cool dude!!
Ok, enough for now as im off out shopping this afternoon and visiting sis to see her new flat :)