Happy happy happy me!

It's half term! Hurrah! I am so completely ready for it. 8 weeks of teenagers is really taking its toll on all of us at school. Which really bodes ill for the other 30 something weeks before the summer! But further bridges will be crossed as they are come upon.

I really have nothing interesting to say today, but several people have been talking about me behind my back, or indeed to my sister for not posting often enough, and so for them I shall ramble for a bit. I don't even have any pictures to post, but I can describe with much detail the fabulous box of loveliness that arrived from twopeasinabucket today. Really, as those of you who scrapbook will know, there is little more exciting than the arrival of that 12x12 brown box arriving at your door. Today my mum collected my parcel from the post office so it was sitting in a very enticing manner beside the basket of clean laundry she had done for me when I went to collect Conor after school. And I was extra specially good and waited until the boys were in bed before I opened it, just so I wouldn't be interrupted. Oh, it was worth the wait! A few of my very special friends had given me vouchers for my birthday which I had no trouble spending, and then because I only had to add a few dollars I thought I may as well go ahead and treat myself just a little bit more! Let me tell you, I shall have to put rub ons to every project from now until next Christmas in order to get the use out of them! And I really have no idea what I'm going to do with my new stash of Basic Grey Christmas papers, but, you know, I just had to have them! And the very exciting thing is that there's another package from Lifetime Moments due to arrive any day too! All because I got a bit bored last week. At least I might be motivated to get off the settee and do some actual scrapping now.

I would really love to write a bit more, now that I'm kind of in the flow again, but Michael is watching the Liverpool match he recorded while we had our fellowship group here earlier, and I seriously can NOT listen to him huff and puff over their poor performance any more. I'm likely to make some unacceptable comment about the fact that it's only a game and we all know that's only going to stir the wrath of the defeated fan. So I'm going to bed with some magazines instead. Off to my fantasy world of make believe layouts and dedicated scrap rooms!

Poor little blog

I feel so awful for neglecting my little blog of late. Personally I'm blaming Sheila for putting photos on her Facebook that I had to see and therefore had to create an account for. And the next thing you know you're friends with about a billion people you haven't seen or talked to for 40 years and scouring YouTube for hiliarious videos to add to their sites! It is eating up way too much of my time, so I'm having a little blog love tonight instead.

I have been very busy with my photos of late, especially since one of my best friends just produced the most adorable baby girl. She is the sister to two of our favourite boys, and was just so good for my camera. Needless to say, she will be much photographed!

That's all you can see because looking at her really does make me want one!

As for scrapbooking, I've been doing lots of it in my head, but NONE at all in reality. I don't know what's got into me, but I just can't muster up the energy for it. And the longer this goes on, the more I feel I should be doing some, and so I create this negative cycle of guilt that need not be felt. I can almost hear Ali Edwards and Cathy Zielske shouting at me to let it go and just do something for fun! If anyone has any ideas to help me out of the rut, I'd be glad of them. For now, I shall just post a couple of layouts that have been published in The Scrapbook Magaizne but not on here yet. Acutally, I think I'm being a bit bold with one that is only in an upcoming issue, but there was a tiny image of it in the 'Coming next issue' bit, so I think I'm ok. Annie, you can shout at me if you like!

(Look at the way it got scrunched up in the post - all the archival freaks will be appalled at the poor way I packaged it up for the magazine!)

And that's it for tonight. Looking forward to your suggestions for getting out of the creative rut. Oh, and if you're interested I just added a photo album of cute Christmas templates for putting inside your Christmas cards. If you didn't get an e-mail from me about these and are interested in using them, just let me know:)   

How cute is she?

My latest favourite image from a session. What is NOT to love about this baby girl? Especially loving the baby chub on her arms!

*Almost* making me want another!

A promise is a promise

So here I am again. My laptop is seriously wondering what in the name of goodness I'm doing on here again, but I wanted to post a few layouts I've done recently. The pictures aren't the greatest, but I'm way behind on installing the scanner my dad gave me so it's wonky photos only I'm afraid.

This one came after the realisation that I had a shocking amount of stash, so the natural thing to do was just grab as much of it as possible and stick it on a layout! Rather busy as my layouts go and I'm not sure I'd call it my favourite, but I love it nonetheless. I've wanted to do a page for ages about the many reminders that my house is filled with boys and their toys. I had a stack of much better photos at one point, but managed to delete them.

The shock of the previous busy layout made me revert to the opposite end of the spectrum. I really really love this one, not just for the photo, but it is exactly how I imagined this layout to be. Another one that's been rumbling around in my head for a while. How completely adorable is this wee man?

There are more to come, but I'm rather enjoying this little and often approach, so I shall leave you with this fab photo Sheila took on Friday night when we went out for her birthday. Ignore the flabby arms if you please. Judith, I'm afraid my lips are sealed about the suffering hehe:)

The finished product

Finally I'm getting round to posting the pictures of the kitchen after the tiling and decorating was finished. The reason it has taken so long to do this is that everytime I thought I'd take pictures I realised I'd have to do a major tidy up first. But today it looked good! Behold.....the finished product.

Isn't it fab? We are loving the tiles that go right through from the front door. Michael's idea, which I was initially sceptical about, but turns out he was right!

I haven't posted in such a long time that I'd almost forgotten about the tag that Jo made for me and Sheila and that it was now up to us to reciprocate. Jo, I hope you don't mind that I didn't use pictures from your blog, but my little tag book from the scrapbook mag came back this week and I thought it would be silly not to share the ones I'd done for that. The book sounds very similar to the one Jo is doing about her friends, except that mine is a book of thoughts about friendship, as quoted by my friends. So, Jo and Sheila, you have been tagged!!

True words from both of you ladies! Right, now I have a lot more to post, but I have been suffering slightly today and feel the need to put my feet up and watch High School Musical 2 which I Sky plussed last night (while I was out doing the damage for which I have been suffering today, 'nuff said!) I promise to come back tomorrow. Seriously! 

Big school

Well, we've reached the point in our lives where we have children at school. Wow! I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to be in this group - the school parents I see go past our house every morning seem very grown up and I don't think I am! But we will muddle along as best we can.

We may not be ready, but this big boy is. How grown up does he look in his uniform? Not to mention handsome (admittedly the hair is still surfy summer hair but Julie is coming to do emergency haircuts tomorrow - see, I'm not even organised enough to have had their hair cut before school!)

He was so excited when he got up this morning. He had packed his bag last night and despite the fact that they don't stay at school for lunch until November he wanted to take his break in his Cars lunch bag. He was so cute about it that we just let him!

And you know, the whole experience was just great for him. First of all, we're lucky that the school is about 2 minutes from our front door, and secondly, his teacher is a friend of ours and we LOVE her! On top of which the school has had some new buildings added and a total refurbishment of the rest and it looks amazing. Makes me wish I was going to be in Mrs Stephens' class too! He very happily hung his bags on his peg and went into the class and got straight into the play doh beside his chum Comhan, who was also very happy. And then I had a kiss and a hug and daddy had a kiss and a hug and we left him to his fun. And that was that. Obviously I had a bit of a weep, but really I am so happy that he is happy there. I am finally over playgroup being finished and ready for the new adventure of school. We will be reporting here frequently  -ish!

In other news, I survived my own first week of school and it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Hurrah! Although I'm still working on the escape plan haha:)

A photograph

Just to prove I'm still here in the blogging ether. I have so much I want to write about and share but my time has other priorities right now, so I'm just posting one photo from a shoot I did a week and a half ago. The most adorable and slide friendly toddler! Another heartbreaker for Bangor!

There will be more tomorrow as it's a VERY exciting day for us. Patrick is off to school for the first time. He will look so cute and I will try not to cry so that I can take a fabulous photo of him to preserve this little slice of history!

If I could go back....

I would totally make my mum send me to dance classes and audition for every musical going! Yep, I'm a secret repressed dancer (although there are a few close friends who already know the truth!) So what, you may ask, has brought on this sudden need to share my regrets? Nothing more than a week of catching up on some musical viewing at the cinema and on dvd. Last week my mum, sister and I went to see the new Hairspray movie, and I cannot even begin to tell you how much I LOVED it! My friend Aly had seen it a few times and had us pretty well hyped, but not even that prepared me for the songs and the dancing. I am now a happy, sing-along owner of the soundtrack as well, much to the disappointment of my husband who does not get it at all. Although the boys seemed happy enough to listen in the car. (Would it be wrong for me to live vicariously through them and send them to dance classes?)

Not satisfied with that musical, however, Lesley and our musical loving friend Cathryn came round the next night with this....

Ok, I know I'm losing some of you as you read this (but I'm pretty sure Judith will read on and possibly follow the link too hehe!) but again, I LOVED it! I have been walking around all week humming some of the songs and have even snuck it on the dvd a few times when the boys have been around, but don't tell Michael - I'm not sure if it may be grounds for divorce. What is it about these cheesy songs and dances that makes me wish I was 15 again and could buy the dance mat and singalong microphone from the Argos catalogue? I don't know, but I am happy to disclose that instead of scrapping tonight after I came back from a long day of wedding photos in Enniskillen, I popped this in the dvd again, poured a glass of wine, grabbed the Dairy Milk from the fridge and enjoyed an uniterrupted viewing while Michael kept the peace in East Belfast and my mum and dad kept the boys for the night. surely life doesn't get much better than that? I dare you to check this out and not end up singing along! Do I feel a layout for my 'just because it makes me happy' book coming on? I think I just might!

Missing in action?

It's beginning to feel a bit like that around here! Every day I think I'll get a chance to post something and everyday I clamber into bed exhausted after watching too many CSI episodes again. I am also completely engrossed in Harry Potter at the moment too so there are many things distracting me from the blogging world. And after this post I'm pretty sure my mum will want to know what's going on and why there have been no holiday updates! Truth is, it's too painful looking at the holiday photos at the moment, especially in the rotten rain that's been on and off for the past week. I shall try to put some holiday stuff on soon.

This post is just random photos from our little lives right now. The big news round here at the minute is the school uniform which we got for Patrick last week. This was something I was a bit worried about, Patrick being the sort of boy who likes to choose his own clothes! But surprisingly the uniform has been a big hit. So much so that he sported his tie with his t-shirt the whole day we got it! How cool does he look? It's all a bit Busted, but I always did like them!

We're also pretty into picnics round here at the minute. Any excuse to get out the cocktail sausages and some crisps and call it lunch! But it rained last week so we did this....

And Patrick took these. Both gorgeous in their own way!!

Ok, these next few photos are for Jo and Sheila, but I would be appreciative of other scrappers' thoughts too! It has been a source of amusement to Michael since we moved that I refuse to call the study anything other than the studio, so last week I took steps to make it such. Round came handy Jim (aka my dad) and out of the garage came all the tools and up went the notice board, cool shelf, magnetic strip and rail. Now I've been very excited about the prospect of the rail because I've long wanted to hang up my stickers and rub ons etc. That way I can see what I have and use them. So you can imagine my excitement when I got a chance to sort them out at the weekend. Now they look like this.

 

The only thing is I'm actually rather shocked at the amount I have and at the number of sheets that haven't even been opened! Can you help me out here? Am I being paranoid or is this way too much? I think I'm going to have to set myself some challenges to use some of them up! If you can make me feel better by telling me this is nothing in comparison to your stash, go right ahead! In fact, show me pictures! The rest of my little studio area looks like this at the moment but I hope to get more done later this week. Check me out with works in progress on my desk! So not the norm!

Love these layouts about our holiday - will post them properly when I get a chance (or a new scanner!) 

And look at this great little cabinet my aunt bought for us (me!) as a housewarming gift! The perfect little spot for bottles of paint, cute jars of buttons and ribbons that need to be on display!

Wow! And now the guilt of not blogging is gone!   

Giving it another go

It's taken me til now to muster up the desire to try to re-post after Wednesday's fiasco! So here we go again.

After we had nearly killed ourselves walking round MGM and staying to the bitter end to watch the amazing Fantasmic show we decided we better rest. And what better way to rest than to spend the next few days shopping! Shopping in America is the best fun, especially with the exchange rate so good right now. We did outlet malls, bookstores, Downtown Disney (again) and Wal*Mart. I can't tell you how much I love Wal*Mart! That place has the best birthday/party/office supplies sections anywhere! I always come back laden with cards, notebooks and about a million cute unnecessary things. Not to mention toiletries! Although I'm always thinking about weight restrictions on the flights as I'm deciding whether to lift another bottle of Jergens body lotion (seriously makes my skin feel smooth as a baby's bottom, and I have a pretty cute baby's bottom to compare it to!) I did think about taking photos in Wal*Mart but I was worried they might throw me out and it wasn't worth taking that risk! We even managed to get a system going which meant we shopped in shifts so that we didn't have to trail the boys with us. Patrick and Conor, I mean. Dad pretends he doesn't like shopping but ask anyone who was the last out of Barnes & Noble! And as for Michael, he shops like a girl! I'm a very lucky wife!!

Next park was Seaworld. Such a great place. In fact when I was a teenager I even wrote to enquire about job opportunities there! The last time I was in Seaworld was on my honeymoon in San Diego and it wasn't the great experience I remembered from yore. We had borrowed my dad's video camera for our trip and but it died in Seaworld. I still maintain it wasn't our fault. We were BEHIND the Soak Zone, and we had the camera protected in a towel under the seats. Had we done everything necessary to protect it? Yes. Were we looking forward to the dolphin show? Yes. Did anyone mention there were Beluga and Pilot whales in this show too? I don't think so! All was good until the end when the whales splashed and the spray went past the Soak Zone. And that was that. So I was keen to enjoy a positive experience this time!

First up was the Sea Lion show. This is always a pretty funny show and this one was exceptionally so as it seemed the trainers may have been out on the town the night before and couldn't remember their lines. Little as funny as someone struggling to get their lines out because they're laughing so hard. Patrick really enjoyed this show as it had a pirate theme.

We were pretty hot even this early in the day - my dad looked like this a LOT during the holiday!

It was fairly sticky the whole day - we were glad that there were some cool exhibits indoors too. This is the closest I hope to ever come to a polar bear!

Obviously the main attraction at Seaworld is the killer whale show starring Shamu. We kept missing this in a bid to find cool air or because we got lost trying to find the stadium (duh!) But eventually we got there. And it was a fantastic show. There is a part of me that's thinking there's something wrong about such massive animals contained in a pool, but watching them with their trainers and knowing that so many of them were bred there eases my conscience.  Patrick was completely entranced during the show, Conor was mostly asleep. Oh well, at least we have the pictures to show him!

And of course no trip to any park is complete until you've parted with some hard earned cash for some nonsense items! See below.

This would be the lunch box Patrick's kids' meal came in which we had to carry around for the rest of the day and have yet to tell him was left behind in the villa. Shhhh!!

We had to do the evening shows on a second day because we were so hot and tired by tea time. The ticket entitled us to a second day free anyway so it made sense to quit while we were ahead. Michael, Lesley and I took the boys back a few days later and it was so worth it. Patrick got to go on the Shamu Express, a little roller coaster for kids that I was sure he would back out of at the last moment, but he actually persevered, although I'm not sure 'enjoy' would have been his word of choice after, but I was so proud of him for being brave enough to go on it. And the evening shows really were fantastic, especially the Shamu Rocks show. Mum and dad made the right decision not coming back because the rock music they played as we sat sweating for an hour waiting for the show to begin would have killed them. Which in turn would have killed the rest of us! Michael and Patrick were very brave and sat in the Soak Zone. I think slightly damp zone would have been more appropriate, but the wee man got a bit wet and everyone went home happy! After having shelled out some more money on these ridiculous glasses! Oh well, I suppose you leave your common sense behind on holiday, or maybe you just can't resist seeing your kid ecstatically happy for a while until they forget about them!

Ok, now fingers crossed while I try to get this online......