Merry Christmas!

Merry christmas everyone :) I hope you got everything you wished for!



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That dreaded snow

It's a repeat of January. I have already packed up a back pack ready for a long trek to work in the morning. Though instead of having to walk the full distance, I will still have to catch the bus and it's not doing the full route. The closest main road to us is just a sheet of ice and so many cars have been sliding all over, so first thing in the morning I will need to try and find out where the last stop is for the bus and walk there. Catch the bus into town, and then walk a further 1.4 miles to get to work. Beats walking the full 4 miles though. I tried walking the 3.6 miles to our old building back in January before we moved and that was hard enough, and so it seems I shall be catching the 6.57am bus (well, I say that time, but who knows really with the weather??)  and Gareth shall be catching the bus too but then catching the train as he works in a nearby town.  There is no way I can get out of the cul de sac, and even if I did, I would then be skating on the little road off it, and then skidding across the main road after that, and it's just not worth it. Though it's going to cost Gareth a good £7 or more to get to work tomorrow, and that's a bit of a bitch, even knowing I will be leaving so early I won't be able to get a return ticket, and even then if it goes on alllll week, maybe I should by myself a week's bus ticket? Gosh and with my late shifts too, I'll be getting home very late indeed, but that extra time I do the cleaning I suppose will be a contribution towards the bus fare. Won't cover it at all, but it'll contribute.

2010 Christmas Prep

Now, normally I make the Christmas ornaments but this year I decided on a special ornament instead. The requirement was that it HAD to have the year on it. So whilst on our honeymoon in Disney, we picked up this cute ornament!

I have been a busy bee making Christmas presents, so photos to follow on that, but the whole point of this post is something I read, firstly on Craftster, yesterday. Then again today on the Silhouette blog lol.

Something you want, something you need, something to wear and something to read

How cute is that idea? Sometimes people can get a bit carried away (I must admit, I'm generally one of those people!) and the idea of 4 presents under those categories is something I'd like to try... Of course I'm sure my wonderful husband might have something to say on that matter! He's just like a big kid!  There's also something about HANDMADE gifts that I adore as well. Knowing that someone took the time & effort to make it, just fills me with warm fuzzies :) Something as simple as a bottle of bubble bath, or some handmade chocolates. Sadly not everyone GETS that. My family do, they don't even expect a present & sometimes that whole appreciation & the concept are completely lost on some people. For my parents I made them a simple ornament, (well it was a clear premade ornament) and I had a photo of Oliver (My nephew) & on the other side with the help of some digital scrabooking kits, I had "OLIVER'S FIRST CHRISTMAS 2009" on the back. They adored it, and it has pride of place on their tree this year too.

I'm not religious in the slightest, and some might argue "Why do you celebrate Christmas then?" For me, it's about being with family. Spending time together doing things like playing board games and such that you wouldn't normally do, and fully appreciating each other. That's what it's about.

Saturday night... What a HOOT! I got into my clean jammies, into bed with my clean sheets just before 10pm, chatting with my Hanson friends ready for a Live streaming on the Hanson website. We were all so excited (Hanson became a trending topic world wide on Twitter!)  I was thankful Gareth had the new Expansion on World of Warcraft to play on, as though it was supposed to start at 10pm we were on Hanson time after all! Just before 11pm GMT the guys came on and me and all my friends were messaging each other and in complete hysterics. They played songs from Snowed In, they baked cookies, opened presents... and just generally had a laugh. I'm not getting a Christmas party this year, so for me that more than made up for it, and best of all I got to spend it in my PJs nice and cosy at home, with some of the best people you could be with, and with my favourite band in the world, singing along with them & having such a laugh my stomach hurt the next day :) you just can't beat it! It all finished about 1am which was just LUSH. Though I was thoroughly tired Sunday, but oh so worth it ;)

bad blogger!

I have been here a dozen times before. I keep saying I need to blog more, but then life gets in the way. I put wordpress on my phone so I can type out posts when I'm not by a computer + I've never used it until now.
With new year just around the corner I have decided that I need to make more time for myself, have a better system at home that means all my time isn't taken up with housework, and that I get to do the things I want to do not what I have to do.
It is difficult with family matters as well. My father in law is getting more and more ill as time goes on, and this often means late night phone calls to say an ambulance has been called to his home which is about an hour away from where we live, and often my husband having to take days off work to go + sort things out, which as you can imagine causes a few more problems itself.

They weren't kidding about the first year of marriage being the hardest, though we've had all this to deal with before we got married.

I can't even remember the last time I did some scrapbooking, and squeezing in the chance to blog has gone out the window, but I'm hoping all that will change. I have a few subjects already written down to do, I have a week off come xmas break, so bring it on. I hope to be a much better blogger now ;)

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Florida

It seems just a distant memory and I really need to sit down and write about everything, but in the meantime as our CD came in the post yesterday, here are a few pictures:


Tinkerbell said hello


Mickey's Halloween party


I got to meet Mater :)

Isn't it funny?

I made this for @pennydog and there's just something about doing a random act of kindness for someone :)  



(Sorry about the blackberry pic!)

To know how much it was appreciated fills me with a lovely warm fuzzie feeling :) Which seeing as I'm reading two self help books to make myself less stressful and to feel happier :)  And any excuse to play with my Robo ;)

Second Life

Have been catching up on Second Life and getting to play around with some cute outfits for Verity :) I've also been experimenting with in world photography too.







Any clothes or accessories you want to know about, leave me a comment and I'll direct you to the right place!



I found a lilo over at Siggy's Waterworks - I must admit I love swimming at Quan Li, a few newbies go there and you can only swim if you have the HUD, and I do like to giggle when they try to swim and then proceed to ask me how you do it, but at Siggy's where you can pick up the HUD, everyone knows that so sometimes it's nice to swim around there.



But sometimes it's just so nice to watch the sunset at Quan Li!

Loving Right now...

Things I am loving currently :)



Paislee Press kits & plates :) Grab some freebies at the blog here.



I love this show! I adored the first series last year but it's always on a bit late for me (I'm in bed by 10pm) so I recorded it. When the second season started I was so engrossed in it, I finished the second series on Side Reel. DOH! Still, I can't wait for it come on DVD! Have already got season 1 on my Xmas list :) Lots of twists and turns and I cried like a baby at the final episode.

I also love Erica's wardrobe. just... *sigh* I wish I had the figure for it, alas I'm working on it!

And "Alien Like You" song from the final episode:



Adore this song. Have heard it at least 100 times. LOVE it!

And some of my fave linkies:
http://www.aliedwards.com/  Just so inspiring!
http://www.bakerella.com/  Cake goodness. I just want to lick the computer monitor!
http://cathyzielske.typepad.com/my_weblog/  Because I adore Cathy and her blog is full of great and funny reading!
http://karlastudio5.typepad.com/karla/  I love Karla's designs and especially loved her journal class!
http://www.domestifluff.com/  I just love reading this!
http://www.dottiemakesmagic.org/door/  My awesome friend Miranda has a new blog, you HAVE to see!
http://www.gourmetmomonthego.com/  Cute food! It just makes me inspired to want to try and cook. Which I can't.
and of course:
http://www.marthastewart.com/  Because I wish I was more Martha-esque!

Family Love

We have my cousin's daughter's Christening coming up soon so I made this from the Silhouette Store. They have such lovely stuff there!



I also had fun chatting with Lauren today. She came and sat on Nan's lap and I snapped this picture:



It was overcast today and I had my kit lens on my camera like a numpty. I really should check it before I leave the house. I was hoping to catch Erin today, but she didn't go to nan's today. Still, I get lots of photos very soon :)  And of course, the best Nephew in the world, Oliver! With cute haircut from mummy and daddy.



She's so cute!

Mmmm chocolate

Again, sorry for rubbish Blackberry Pic. It's getting dark and I don't have the time to go grab my Nikon. Love my mum, she bought me these. Actually this is half lol, I have an another identical set of boxes of the same chocs. I'm not giving up my chocolate!

A reason why the Wii Fit is just plain wrong is that you really shouldn't weigh daily. I hate it for telling you to and I feel the need to do so, so I'm just generally listening to what it says on a Sunday. So imagine my frustatration (not to mention the profanity) when it tells me Saturday I lost that pound I gained, only to do a workout on EA Sports Active on Sunday then pop the wii fit on to weigh and it tell me I had gained 2 lbs. Even Gareth said it was talking poo! I continued to do a few workouts totalling 12 mins on that and it tell me I was now 22.88 BMI. A drop of 0.2 BMI in 12 mins. More profanity. Body test yesterday and short workout on wii fit (as 30 day challenge is 2 days on, 1 day off) and it was my rest day for 30 Day. Back into 30 Day this evening, (My trainer is a witch. She made me do side jumps today. They hurt!), and the last 3 days I have remained a steady 22.88. The thought of extra work tomorrow and then having to come home to do my work out was worrying me. Yes I've done it before but I'm just feeling so low and run down I don't know if I CAN do it. Then I saw this post at Cathy's blog.

Heck yeah this is freaking hard work, but if you want something enough you will do it. I felt inspired. I'm sick and tired of having a bunch of clothes I cannot fit into. I'm sick and tired of wearing slightly baggy clothes because I feel so self concious of my tummy. I am sick and tired of not feeling good about myself, and feeling so bloated and big.

EA Sports active 30 day challenge is a killer. It will not get the better of me this time... I WILL complete it!  So I guess I'm getting up an hour early and I'm doing a longer workout on 30 day challenge :)

Doing quite well!

Alright! 3lbs down... Well... That was until it was someone's birthday yesterday (cream cake) and someone left today (Jam Donut and giant cookie) so I have put on another lb after I weighed today. Easy fixed though!



And my wii fit age is 20 :)  I plan on starting that elusive 30 day challenge that always gets the better of me!

I have the day off on Monday, and I have to say I am in serious need of it. The possibilities of what I could do are making me giddy! I could finally finish my Me:TAV class, digi scrapping, work on my Disney binder... :) The fun list is endless!

Sewing practise

OK, another it's-bedtime-but-I'll-update-quick post. At the weekend, not that I didn't have enough to do as it was, I decided that I was going to make Rae's Spring Ruffle Top. Minus the ruffles, of course.



I have to say, I struggled to follow the instructions. I didn't get the strap instructions at all, and ended up doing them my own way. Took a lot of adjusting after Gareth saying it was too "puffy" (Still too puffy, apparently, but it's comfy and those spare tyres don't show when I sit down, so that was an immediate win for me!) There's just something about walking around wearing a top that you made with your matching bag even though you're actually only walking down the road to your parents house. But still, I loved it!

In my absolute madness I have decided that as I've done that, I totally want to make a dress using the same pattern, so fingers crossed that this weekend I can at least make a start by cutting up the bedsheet I plan to use.

I also am putting it out there that I intend to lose a little weight. Coming from someone who has, for her entire life, been in great shape... well I've sort of let myself go a little. And it gets me down that I can't wear those cute little tops anymore, and that a large chunk of my wardrobe no longer fits me. Now I'm not going to do a Cathy, and take pictures and put them out there... I just have to look in the mirror and feel completely embarrassed and feel sad that I no longer have my cute little figure. That said I am no way overweight, and I can guarantee I am doing this right. I have an account at Calorie Count, which I totally think is an awesome resource... and best of all it's freeeeee! It even pointed out to me that I am low on things such as Potassium (this is just general life for me), and calcium. So I know I really should be getting a little more of that in my diet.  I hope to fit in a bit of Yoga on the Wii Fit, and I am determined that I absolutely will complete that darn 30 day challenge that has gotten the better of me/life got in the way of a few times now.

So, here's to hoping that I manage to do all these wonderful things :) I will do my best to keep you updated.

Quilt & Disney journal

It's almost bedtime so I'm going to be quick. Life is just so crazy you wouldn't believe. Lots of family stuff is just taking over things, the other weekend we spent visiting my Father-in-law in hospital and the weekend before we were visiting him for Fathers day.

I really do mean to blog more, and I hope that I can do it more often than every month and a half!

For one, I never posted a picture of the finished quilt I made, and I was so incredibly chuffed at my hard work!






My current project (apart from trying to squeeze in sewing my very first item of clothing when I can!) is my "travel" binder which I made back last year:

Now you will have to excuse the poor quality Blackberry photos on these ones:


I bought some Moleskines. I just ADORE these books. Including these 3, I have a total of 5 now LOL!
I made a little pocket so I can slot the back of the book into it and have it in my binder.


and for the Moleskine which will be my travel journal, I made a cute title with my Craft Robo/Silhouette and some stickles.


I will be making some custom page protectors to fit in the binder to collect ephemera on our travels :) I'll do that when I have the sewing machine out... when I get around to it LOL!

Mrs Davies

Ok that is super weird LOL!









We had a lovely day, some hiccups which was to be expected. We seriously couldn't have picked a better day - the weather was the hottest day of the year, glorious sunshine all day :)  It was very hot though!

I'm back!

I had to use alternative means to contact my host but I'm back on my site, just an hour ago, from home! Toot toot!



I found this photo on Gareth's old phone and love it. It's totally me and Taz :) Anywho, my Week In The Life project is finished and I will get pictures of it. I am getting a new toy tomorrow as well so pictures of that when it arrives.

I have been doing some digital scrapbooking a lot the last couple of weeks. I'm a big fan of Karla Dudley, after taking her Journal 3 Ways class and getting her downloads as part of class. Totally in love!


(digital layout about Oliver's Christening for my own album. All Karla Dudley Designs)

Another life saver? The one and only Cathy Zielske.  My scrapbook idol! I have spent a few pennies at her Designer Digitals shop, and I have to admit I bought her template pack as I have all my cousin's kids to make scrapbook pages for, and not enough time, and to be honest their scrapbooks are not the top of my scrapping priority, so I have found, dragging and dropping the photos I snapped of them at my nan's house with some of the awesome digi kits I have and need to justify buying them (LOL!) so quick and easy. No mess, no fuss!


(Holly McCaig "Oh So Girly" kit. Template from Cathy Zielske at Designer Digitals)


(Shabby Princess kit: Promise Collection. Template from Cathy Zielske at Designer Digitals)

Sorry about the random post, but I wanted you all to know I was back. I do have a Blackberry now and have an app for Wordpress on there so I can post (hence previous post!) I will be back with some eye candy! :)

You might also be seeing a lot of activity over there in the side bar. Follow me on twitter for my latest random thoughts :)

slight hiccup

For some unknown reason, my host has blocked my isp so I can't view my blog (Nor their website ironically enough, so I'm having problems contacting them) so once this is resolved I shall be back with my Week In The Life pages. Yup, I've been busy working on them :) I went the Ali template inspired, fully digital version, and will get them printed at photobox. It has been a lot of fun to do, but at the same time slightly relieved it's over lol!

Nearly Over

Totally loving seeing everyone's Week In The Life.  Ali Edwards [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="yes" overflow="visible"][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="no" center_content="no" min_height="none"][1] [2] [3] [4] and Cathy Zielske's [1] [2] to name but two :)  I really do love this sort of project I really do, and it's just as cool to see how everyone else live their lives.

I will leave you with a few pictures (most of which are from today, but a couple from others) before I get on to watching TV (Ashes to Ashes is coming on BBC 1 in just a couple of minutes!)  This weekend I plan on finishing off the template I started for this project, and I hope to get a lot of these scrapped.


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A week in the life

Many MANY years ago, on Dodo's message board (which is no longer around) and we used to do this thing called "Daily Grind" project. You can still view mine right here: http://www.kirstybase.com/photolog/  It went on for 5 wonderful years and I have my life captured from such a long time ago :) People from all over the world shared their stories and photos and it was just a great experience and a peek in to other cultures.

Being a scrapbooker I decided to put them into an album, just plain and simple like I did on my photolog. I came up with a sketch and had matching KI Memories stuff from a few Christmasses previous and put it in an album (also matching KI Memories lol)  Now it's not amazing to look at, but the story is there, and that's all that matters :)



Ali's Basics post is here: http://www.aliedwards.com/2010/04/the-basics-of-documenting-a-week-in-your-life.html I love her design for her album and how it looks, so I think I may just scraplift it!

I'm currently fixing my computer, hope it works soon!

Pretty Rainbow

My cousin had a little girl last week, and as a little present I decided on a quilt... I saw this rainbow fat quarter in Hobby Craft and I fell in love! So much so, I'm not sure I'll want to part with the quilt when it's done LOL!  Who wouldn't want a pretty rainbow to cheer them up every day?



I've cut 96 squares, and I've now got to sew them all together. The backing fabric will be pink (for a girl of course!) and white bias binding. My first quilt, I'm so excited!  And not forgetting all the other cool stuff:

(1) I've had an e-mail about my extra bobbin case. As I have a Brother sewing machine it will not do shirring so I have to get an extra bobbin case to adjust the tension and be able to do it! I will get to have my cute top after all!
(2) Free coffee cup album at twopeas
(3) Free eBook at Ella Publishing
(4) Gossiping with Kelly Ann about hairstyles for the wedding (She's doing my hair and nails for me), scrapbooking, sewing and the colour GREEN :)  I have got to make her a little something from my left over green fabric :)
(5) Loooong weekend! I'm going to do some MAJOR spring cleaning, and I'm completely into Martha Stewart right now, she is just my idol at the moment :) I have a lever arch folder where I'm gathering things from Martha Stewart's website and putting in the folder for safe keeping and easy referal later!

My Colorado has arrived!

Super DUPER excited, my Garmin Colorado arrived on Friday by courier. Super service, I bought it from a merchant on Amazon and it was super speedy and wonderful service!  I have loaded it up with quite a few geocaches, and the reason I purchased the Colorado was because it has Wherigo capabilities, so I've loaded it with a few Wherigo cartridges as well :)

I went to my nan's as I do every Saturday and I had my little helper Morgan with me, and there is a cache right around the corner from my nan's house which I have found before to make it easier, so with GPS in hand we set out to test it out :)



We luckily timed our outing just right as on the way back it started to rain. I managed to avoid the rain twice - testing the GPS then walking from my parents to my place LOL! But sadly it's been raining heavy since and I haven't been able to go out and find a cache yet, nor play Wherigo.  I have some rechargable batteries, which I know are more expensive but I like knowing I have batteries on hand if need be, and it's a good job because my Colorado gobbled up the fresh batteries I put in so I took them out, recharged and put them back in... So I will have to make sure I have several batteries on hand!  But in comparison to the iPhone which we used before, we had no way of charging it up on the go, at least if you have batteries on you when the others are used up you can change it and keep going!

Hurry up Spring!

Themes

I have been working on redoing the couple of themes I had done and I've so far done a green photoblog theme for Wordpress. I will be working on this one for Blogger very soon, but I will update you all on that once it's done. Just wanted to post that I'm doing some new free themes :)  And my photoblog themes are Flash Fader ready as well so you can have a flash header like that in my photography blog. All you have to do is install the plugin to Wordpress as you normally would do and the theme is already set to show the flash header over the header image.



Get this one: Green Photoblog theme

How to unwind

I spent this morning working on my wedding invites, I was literally sat in the bedroom with the sewing machine and silver thread sewing on my invites. It seems I don't like to do things easily!  My geocaching book arrived today so once I had done that I sat and read it for a bit.

This then got me thinking about some stuff to put in caches when I next go. I don't have anything really on hand and I have some silver fimo I've not used in a long time and I got to making some pendants/charms/zipper pulls (whatever they'll be used for lol!) In my log reading experience it's mainly guys and their kids who geocache that I've seen (not saying that's all who does it, I mean look at me exhibit A!)  so why not take something back home for mummy/wife/girlfriend LOL!



And then while uploading the image, I realise I hadn't uploaded the photo of my 2009 xmas ornament. What a donut! It's a bottle cap with diamond glaze :)