Am I seeing a trend here?

I was taking photos of our house today to post here (see copious pictures below!) and Patrick kept asking if he could take a picture with my camera. I've let him do this before, as my avatar proves, usually with varying results. However, today he actually blew me away with the picture he took. Bear in mind that there was a zoom lens attached so it was fairly heavy and he has tiny nearly 4 year old hands. This is what he took -

How cool is this? I seriously couldn't believe it! The camera wasn't even on auto! All I said to him before he took it was "Can you see yourself in the mirror through the camera?" To which he replied, "Do you mean this?" and showed me the lcd screen. Amazing!

Anyway, now that we've established that my child is indeed a protege (which may explain the extreme tantrums of the last few days!), on to the photo show of the new house. I call this following series of pictures "A study in Magnolia". It will be apparent why! The first photos are of my  STUDIO. Not the study. Michael may say what he wants, but this room will be mine!

 

This is Patrick's bedroom. There are great plans for this in our heads that involve removing the peach anaglypta wallpaper sometime in the very near future!

At this point I feel I need to reassure you that we're not exactly all unpacked and tidy! This is the guest room - any time you Bolands or Hafermanns feel the desire to come visit, this is where you get to stay!

The landing was originally a bedroom which was done away with to make room for a proper staircase up to the master bedroom which is an attic conversion. This was one of the features that really drew me to the house. I've always wanted to have this bench out on display somewhere, and on this landing it almost looks lost!

Now, the reality of the kitchen is not apparent in this picture. The cupboard doors are all on their last legs, the floor tiles are fairly poor and the walls are tiled from floor to ceiling and the tiles have been painted over in another lovely shade of magnolia! In a few months, after the builders and kitchen fitters have been it will be the most stylish kitchen ever, but until then it is a littlle short of hideous!

The main living room is lovely, although it is in need of some soft furnishings and a lick of paint! It has double doors that open out onto the garden which the boys will especially love come the warmer weather. I love this room:)

And the view out to the garden (notice full line of washing - this line makes me very happy!)

Our bedroom is in the attic conversion. I have to confess that I love the fact that we're on a whole separated floor from the boys! Perhaps it's the extra distance between us and Conor that has assisted his sleeping through the night! Patrick insisted on being in this picture as he was having great fun jumping on the bed!

Now the sea is a mere 5 minutes away from us, but try as I might I cannot see it from the house! I've craned my neck and stood on chairs, but it's not happening! But to prove that it does sort of have a sea view, I stuck the camera out the skylight in the ensuite and zoomed in and this is what I got! Pretty impressive, eh!

Right, that must surely make up for not posting any pictures for ages! One other thing that I was thinking today, whilst browsing on 2peas was how great the creating garden is. I love just spending time looking through the mountains of inspiration that the Garden Girls provide on there. (Is it just me or does anyone else secretly want to be one of them?!) I save so much stuff into my book of scraps, and then just forget about it. So I was thinking, perhaps I should challenge myself to use this inspiration. And then I thought, I bet stacks of other people do the same as me, and maybe we could have some sort of online challenge based on the creating garden or our books of scraps? If you're interested in doing something like this leave me a comment on this post and I'll see what I can come up with. I'm going to do it anyway, but it's always more fun to do this sort of thing with others. Are you with me?

CONNECTED!!

Woohoo!! I am positively giddy at our return to Broadband Land! I feel like I'm going to have to spend the next few days just cruising people's blogs and checking out scrap stores and photo sites just to catch up with what's happening! One of my first stops will be 2peas where I was unceremoniously logged off every time I moved from one page to another, therefore rendering any order impossible. It looks like my mother's day present will be 25% more than was previously expected! Oh well, needs must and all that!

I'm sure there's lots for me to blog about, but right now I really just want to visit my online chums quick smart, and that's precisely what I'm going to do! Jo, I promise pics of the house tomorrow - no kidding! Until then, I shall see you all at your blogs!! Boy, it's good to be back:)

Happy Mother's Day

Alas, no pictures again, but I've called at my parents' house to get a Mother's Day internet fix (I hate Orange!!) and thought I'd share a few funny things with you. One of my presents today was a hilarious little book entitled "Behind Every Great Woman is Her Bum". Clearly Michael was prepared to dice with death giving me something with this title for my special day! Anyway, it's a collection of funny little drawings with v amusing 'quotes' from imaginary children, and a few of them really made me laugh. So I thought I'd share.

1. I know it's a bit late, but thank you for all that lovely breastmilk! It was really delicious!  (Wouldn't you love to hear that some day? Do you think it would eradicate the memories of mastitis, cracked nipples and leaky boobs??)

2. I don't know what it's like now, but back then my mum's womb was SUPER COOL! (Ha ha!)

3. In cave times, mums' bodies were made to protect the cave while the dad was out hunting mammoths, and to eat chocolate. Now that the mammoths are extinct, it is totally within a mum's rights to eat chocolate all the time! (Justification if ever I heard it!)

My other presents included the new cd by The Fray, which I'm v excited to listen to, some delicious truffles from M&S, and imaginary vouchers from 2peas. This really means that I've come to my parents' house to spend money from the joint account on scrapbook stash! So I know you'll excuse me while I abandon this post and get on with that pressing matter!

Hope you've had a great Mother's Day x

I know you won't believe this

But we have no internet access! Now you're thinking, hey, how come I've ended up in the archive section of Janine's blog where she rambles on and on in a kind of relentless fashion about the lack of internet access? I know that's how I feel. Obviously we've moved and are currently waiting for Orange to get off their backsides and connect us again. It's like Groundhog Day! And I really am not going to get into a ranting session about how pathetic it all is, but I miss you guys!! I thought I better put something above the very cute baby picture - some people were telling me that despite his total cuteness, they were getting a little tired of him (I won't tell his mum!) So this is really just a quick post to say we're alive and well, albeit that one of us has a slight crack in his head after a nasty fall last week! Hopefully we'll have some sort of access soon, but this time round I've decided that it's less painful to check only once every few days rather than every 15 minutes. That way I stand a better chance of retaining some sanity and my kids are less likely to ask "What does s*#* mean?"

Just one photo

Couldn't resist this one. Am dying to get moved and organised so I can proof the rest of his shoot. This is my sister's friend's little one. Loving his italian dark hair and his cute little frown!!

We're in packing hell!

Since we are actually moving at the end of this week we thought we really better start doing some serious packing around here. And it's a nightmare!! Bit by bit we are taking down little bits of our lives and putting them into boxes and then we get to live in the soul-less shell of our home! I feel like we're slowly dismantling Patrick's little world! It's horrible!

You want evidence?? No probs...

It actually doesn't look too bad in this, but that's because I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of the rooms where we're storing the boxes! I even had to pack my lovely stash this week, although not before I made myself some lovely little kits to be getting on with (obviously when I should be packing!) So I've been making myself feel better by making this fab little book about what our house used to look like, and how we want to remember it. It will be terribly boring to put the whole thing in this post, so I'll tempt you with a couple of pages and you can see the rest of it here.

The book is a Maya Road board book. I love them. Everytime I see them online I feel the need to stock up on a few more - very handy little things to have around! I'm also pretty pleased with my digital skills here. As Annie knows, I love to download the digital kits from 2peas but then never use them. So these are some of Rhonna Farrer's photo edges. But the most brilliant bit I did all by myself. I created a digital brush which says 'Home is where the heart is' and then wrote our address in the middle with a little heart! And then I stamped it on every page!! Well done me! I've been pleased as punch ever since, even though it's really hard to see what it says, but I know and that's the main thing!

Anyway, off to watch Lost in our depressingly impersonal lounge now. Not even a scrap of chocolate to make me feel better :( Although I could call Michael and ask him to bring some in on his way home from work.....

Edited for Jo!

Patterned paper is mostly My Mind's Eye Front Porch collection; stickers 7Gypsies; die cuts KI Memories and the rest just bits and pieces from the stash. HTH:)

Busy doing nothing

Sheila phoned me tonight to see if I was ok since I haven't posted on my blog for a week now! That tells me a few things:-

1. I spend too much time on my blog and other people's blogs;

2. Sheila is as bad as me re. blogs!;

3. I must have been busy doing something this week to have had no time to blog but I can't for the life of me think what that might have been;

4. My brain is not functioning to a satisfactory standard!

What I can tell you is that denial worked. At least in regard to the packing! It turns out we won't be moving for another couple of weeks, so it's really a good thing that we hadn't done much packing! Obviously we've made no use whatsoever of the extra time afforded us, and the packing is still as it was a week ago. Still waiting for those packing fairies to come in the night!! In my case the extra time has been put to use finishing layouts and projects that really could wait. But where's the fun in that I ask you?

This is a layout I've had almost finished for weeks, but I ran out of staples and couldn't ever remember to get more when I was shopping (see above # 4!) It's for my album of stuff that just makes me happy and it's dedicated to Fat Face! I totally LOVE that shop and their catalogue! Everything about it makes me happy, from the cut of the jeans to the inside of the waistbands and the cool tags that are attached to everything. The only actual products I used on this were the Bazzill cardstock, a transparency and staples. All the rest is from Fat Face clothes or the catalogue! How cool is that?!

I've also been doing a mini book about the house we're leaving, because we really love it. If we could take it with us that would be great, but since we can't I did what I had to and scrapped it! It's in the almost finished category - will waste more packing time on it tomorrow and post the finished pages when I'm done.

Before I finish here and get into bed with my chocolate to watch a new episode of Lost, just let me tell you something I learned today about kids. It doesn't matter what you try to get them to do, and it doesn't matter what preconceived notions you have of them in your head - they will always surprise you and do what you least expect. This I learned when Patrick announced as I was making tea that he would have salmon and potatoes along with us, and not the standard sausages! He NEVER eats salmon and is adamant about not liking potatoes, but I have proof! Right here - look at his little plate!

See, you really do learn something new everyday!

Denial

I'm in denial about so many things right now.

1. That lists don't rule my life. Although I appear to have shot myself in the foot with that one straight off!

2. That tomorrow is Monday and I actually am well enough to go to school - grrrr!

3. That I'm organised enough for tomorrow morning, ie, packed lunch, bags ready for boys to go to mum's etc. It doesn't really matter anyway, because no matter how organised I am, there is a time warp between the front door and my car that eats away a good 12 minutes every morning! Seriously, I check the clock in the kitchen when I leave and it says 7:53 and then I check the clock in the car when I turn the engine on and it says 8:05! Can it really take me that long to get everyone and everything in the car? Or am I operating in two different time zones - one for fixed abodes and one for moving vehicles?

4. That Weight Watchers allows two slices of chocolate orange cake and a large bag of Smarties to help me cope with point number 2.

5. That we are going to have everything packed and ready to move in the next 10 days! If anyone has the number for the packing fairies who come in the night and silently do all the work for you, could you please pass it on!!

6. That this is really a constructive use of my time - obviously it must be, otherwise I'd be getting on with aforementioned packing!

7. That some day I will be able to answer the "So, what do you do?" question with the reply, "I'm a photographer (smile smugly)". Really am in denial about this one. I think it's quite linked to point number 2.

Anyway, enough rambling and on to more fun stuff! I am a craft wonder at the moment - I find it extremely relaxing and happy inducing and it really helps with the denial of point number 5. This weekend I have almost completed a mini book about our house here. I really want to have some proper reminder of this house. It has meant so much to us and we will really miss it. If we could take it with us we would, but our buyers won't allow it! I am totally sad to be leaving it, and Patrick is going to be heartbroken. So a mini book it is. I'll post later this week (obviously when I should be packing!) when it's finished.

But I have also done this:

That's right - a 2 page spread! And with patterned paper as the ENTIRE background! This was such a jump from my comfort zone but I am chuffed to bits with it! Excuse me while I blow my own trumpet for a minute hehe! And are you checking out the 10 photos?? The only thing I don't like is the brown pen, but I can't find my black one for the life of me, so in true Ali Edwards' style, I shall embrace the imperfection and go with the flow! I'm thinking I might just do this no comfort zone thing again sometime. I am dying to find a way to do a boy page with pink paper. Perhaps I can use it as a way to move on with the denial this coming week!

Making me happy

Do you ever have days that are just happy? Today was like that for me. Things just felt good, even the not so good parts. To start with, the weather here was just perfect - seriously hardly a cloud in the sky all day long. Against Patrick's wishes, I took the boys down to Mountstewart for a bit of fresh air after all the bugs and germs that have been kicking around here this past week. We took a ball and a frisbee, had a lovely cappucino/carton of juice and some traybakes (don't tell daddy!) and then played in the gardens for a bit. At one point I honestly felt like I was in a sappy Disney family movie! Patrick was throwing stones into the lake (not directly at the ducks - no need to inform the RSPB!) and the ducks obviously thought it was bread (very stale bread that makes a huge kerplunk noise as it hits the water's surface!) and so they all came swimming towards us. Then the 2 swans actually flew onto the lake together and joined the webbed foot parade to the bank. As if this wasn't Disney enough, right then, a little robin redbreast swooped down to the railing of the jetty where we were standing! It was like something from Mary Poppins, I kid you not! Until the swans got too close for comfort and I feared that hissing they do and promptly led my beautiful Disney children away! I always feel that hissing swans are totally unnecessary!

Amongst other things that are making me happy today are the following:

Conor took his very first steps today - he looked so cute! The first step was almost confident, but the next couple are really just the prelude to the downfall! Off to Shoe-be-doo tomorrow:)

The January issue of Real Simple - just looking at it makes me happy:)

The latest Cath Kidston catalogue - it really speaks for itself, and I fully recommend being added to their mailing list!

And finally this...

...the scene that greeted me after driving home from Mountstewart! Have to love 2 beautiful sleeping boys:) Very happy indeed!

So share - what's making you happy today?

Blessings

Tonight I am counting as blessings the numerous irritating aspects of being a mum to two very active boys. I am so blessed to get to wipe bottoms and clean noses about a thousand times a day, and to be able to tidy their toys and worry about the fact that they haven't eaten properly for 2 days. I am so thankful for the tantrums and tears and the number of times I nearly break my ankle each day on some toy left lying around.

I am thankful for this and so much more.

In the early hours of this morning, a friend of a friend gave birth to her son, Finn, at 30 weeks. He died at teatime tonignt. This was their second baby. Their first, a girl, was stillborn at 38 weeks just over a year ago. If you are at all inclined to pray for them, I know your prayers will strengthen them and give them peace.

I'm going now to look at my angels sleeping for a bit.