Saturday 27 August 2011

Catch up...

Well now the kids are back at school I am trying to get more organised and will try to blog weekly.  I think if I set a target of one post a week I might manage to keep to it!  I also need to remember to photograph my creations before I put them in the envelope!!!!

June and July just disappeared in a whirlwind of activity.  It all kicked off at the beginning of June with my niece Ava's blessing.
 This is the card I made for the occasion.  It is very simple and used pink and white pearlescent card, spellbinders, a Martha Stewart punch, some paper flowers and pearls.  I really like the way it turned out.


I took quite a few photos on the day and used them to make mini albums for Graeme and Kyra and for Ava's grandparents.

The next day I took my Brownie pack raft building at Castle Semple.  The girls had a great time and everyone ended up very wet.  We finished up the evening with toasted marshmallows and chocolate biscuits!

Then we had school sports day, a birthday party and Family Fun Night at my daughters school, so it was a very busy week!

The rest of the month wasn't quite so busy but with working extra hours before I knew it we were heading off on holiday!  We went to Menorca.  It was a lovely relaxing holiday but I did have to explain to the girls that sometimes you go on holiday to laze by the pool and relax!

 I've heard of reading by the pool but not reading in the pool - I guess these 2 just can't go anywhere without a book!


 The geckos proved to be an endless source of fascination  for the girls, especially the night one fell off the wall and was caught by the cat.  It used the gecko special ability and made its tail fall off.  The tail continued to wriggle about on its own for at least 5 minutes keeping the cat occupied while the gecko played dead for a few minutes and then made its escape! A bit gross but totally fascinating to watch.



This lovely beach was only 5 minutes from our hotel.  It was quite a small beach but most of the beaches on Menorca are as it has lots of little coves and inlets along the coast.

We had a great time but all too soon we had to come home.

Well I think I will call it a night for tonight,  till next time take care

Ali

Thursday 4 August 2011

Life got in the way!!!

Life has run away with my free time, what with working overtime, sports days, blessings, birthdays, assemblies and prizegivings, holidays - you name it and it has eaten in to my free time recently.  But I can't really complain because some of it was fun!

Saturday 28 May 2011

Where has the time gone?

It feels like it was only a few days ago when I wrote my last post but it's actually several weeks!!! I really must get my finger out and try to get into the habit of blogging a bit more frequently  but in my defence I have been very busy since my last post.

Peter had just started back to work after his stay in hospital when the kids stopped for spring holiday.  The were back at school 3 days and then had a long weekend for easter, back for three days and then off for the Royal Wedding and May Day - it felt like they were never at school in April!  For most of May I have been working extra hours to cover for a colleages maternity leave so have not had much time to myself.  Anyway enough of my excuses!

When the kids were off school in April we took them to London for a few days. We crammed so much inthat I could have done with another holiday to get over it.

We got the 8:40am train from Glasgow to London on the Thursday.  No better way to get there - we were in London just after 1pm. Caught the tube to Tower Bridge and dumped our bags in the hotel. After a bit of a walk along the riverside we headed round to the London Eye. Not having a head for heights I took a bit of persuading but in the end they talked me round (also it's quite embarrasing when your 10-year old thinks you're a scardy cat). 

Veiw from the London Eye

After  dinner at My Old Dutch (a Dutch pancake house in Holburn) we went to see Wicked.  It was amazing and even Peter enjoyed it.

The V&A (having a bit of work done!)

Chinatown

On Friday we visited the Science Museum where Becky the adrenalin junkie talked Peter into going on a flight simulator with her.  Apparently she spent most of the time flying upsidedown! We also had a quick trip into the V&A as it is just across the road from the Science Museum. Finished up with a lovely meal in China Town.

Birthday girl!


Saturday was Debbie's birthday (she turned 10). We had arranged to meet Peter's sister and her husband in the afternoon. We took a bus tour in the morning to show the girls as many landmarks as we could. We met Lindsey and Nick outside The Globe Theatre as that was one of the places Becky wanted to visit (she loves Shakespeare) After a quick coffee we went to see the ceramic sunflower seeds in the Tate Modern then headed over to Covent Garden to catch the market and some street theatre. Finished up with dinner in a great little Italian restaurant on the edge of Soho.
The ceramic sunflower seeds at Tate Modern


Outside the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Sunday was the day of the London marathon so we thought that a trip to the zoo would be ideal as the buses were not running in certain areas.  Fortunately the weather was glorious and we had a fantastic time. Afterwards we had dinner in a Mexican resaurant. Hang on lets recap - Dutch, Chinese, Italian and Mexican - visit London and eat the world!!!

Debbie and the penguins


"Smile and wave boys, smile and wave!"

Monday morning we caught the train back home.  I don't think I have ever crammed so much into 3 and a half days!!!

Anyway time to get to bed,
Take care,
Ali

Friday 25 March 2011

Monochrome

It's ages since I have had the time to blog.  The last month has been particulary stressfull but things are starting to return to normal so it's time to catch up on my blogging.

First things first I have decided to enter a card in the Ladybird Crafts Ink challenge blog - I've often thought about it but have either not had the nerve or the time but this week everything came together as if by magic!!  My daughter Becky asked me to make a birthday card for her friend Chiara.  Whenever they ask me to do this I try to incorporate the friends favourite colour.  When I asked the immortal question this time I was informed black and white!!! Now I have never done a card using only black and white but I also have never been known to back down from a challenge.  So I duly set to work and this is what I came up with...


I used my new embossing folder to emboss the black card and then went over it with perfect medium and white mica powder. Then I inked up my "Untamed" stamp that Debbie gave me for my birthday - I thought it was the perfect image for a 12-year old girl. I coloured the image with prisma colour pencils. A little bit of silver mirri, some white organza ribbon and a little happy Birthday stamp and voila!!

On Tuesday I logged on to check out the Ladybug Crafts Ink challenge blog and discovered this weeks theme was monochrome - fate or what!!! So needless to say I am going to enter this card. 

What makes it even better is that Chiara loved the card and told me so in person when I picked Becky up from the party - I was so chuffed as it's always nice to hear what the recipients think of your cards.

I thought I would also put up the photos of the Halloween costumes mentioned in an earlier post - I should have done it before now but time ran away with me.

Debbie as Peasblossom

Becky as Queen Titania



The costumes were designed to go with the masks that my sister brought from Venice thought the characters are from A Midsummer Nights Dream which we took them to see when we were inStratford on Avon last summer.

Now a little update as to why I have been a absent from the blogging scene for the last month or so:

I have been quite busy with work, Brownies and Sunday School since the New Year.  But about 4 weeks ago my husband was complaining of a sore elbow when he came home from work at 7.30.  It got worse very quickly and about an hour later he was in so much pain and starting to feel sick that he agreed to go to A&E.  Up at the hospital the doctor said his temperature was up and that it seemed to be an infection in his elbow that was causing the pain.  Because it had deteriorated very quickly they decided to admit him to give him some IV antibiotics.  These had no effect and 3 days later they decided to operate to see what the problem was.  It turned out that he had developed an abcess in his elbow.  The infection caused him a few problems after the operation and he ended up in intensive care for couple of days.  2 further operations to clean out the abcess and masses of antibiotics later he finally got allowed home, with yet more antibiotics!!!  It was the longest 2 weeks of my life.  He has 36 staples up the back of his arm but isfeeling much better.  All going well the staples will come out on Monday and life can get back to more or less normal.  Who would have thought a sore elbow would have resulted in 2 weeks in hospital and 4 weeks off work!

Well I'd better sign off for tonight as I have work in the morning and do need to get some sleep!

Take care everyone,

Ali.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Ladybug Crafts Ink Blog Hop

http://ladybugscraftsinkchallengeblog.blogspot.com/?zx=f3c403824520947e
Why not hop on over to the Ladybug Crafts Challenge Blog and join the blog hop,  there are some lovely stamps up for grabs.  So what are you waiting for!!

See you later