In the year 2000 I became pregnant with my 2nd child. As the pregnancy progressed I realised that his arrival would be rather close to an important family wedding. The whole family was involved with my Dad giving the Bride away, my Mum organising the flowers, my niece and nephews were bridesmaid and page boys and my DD was the cute flower girl. Extended family were travelling from far afield and we were all looking forward to the special day.
We didn't live that close to the wedding venue, I was due a baby a few days before, my toddler was the mini bridesmaid and I was having a home birth! My midwife was wonderful and as my due date came and went, I worried I would need to go into hospital and be induced, she decided my body was keeping my baby inside until exactly the right time.
I was just over 41 weeks pregnant at the wedding, rather uncomfortable but able to join in the celebrations and we stayed until about midnight then left in our carriage and travelled back to London to sleep in our own bed. Except I didn't get any sleep, my waters broke soon after my arrival home. Eventually I started having contractions (really really painful ones!) and my beautiful son entered the world at 4.30am on June 3rd 2001 weighing in at 9lb 6oz, He was born at home and everything had gone to plan, we were able to join in with our family extravaganza and have our boy delivered in the comfort of our bedroom.
So as Great Britain celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II we are celebrating the birthday of DS, we are dressed in red, white and blue, hanging bunting in the rain and hoping we don't trip over his crutches (he has a suspected foot fracture but that is another story!!)
Todays tale has been brought to you courtesy of Sian's Story Telling Sunday From High in the Sky. Please join in and I look forward to reading the multitude of posts at some point,
(Sorry for the lack of photos I hope to update this post with some but sadly I am away and forgot to choose some prior to leaving home!!)
Sunday, 3 June 2012
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Storytelling Sunday May 2012
''Happy is the home with at least one cat" - Italian Proverb
The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci
"If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." - Mark Twain
"What greater gift than the love of a cat?" - Charles Dickens
"A cat's eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world." - Irish Legend
Brought to you by Story Telling Sunday From High in the Sky with Sian
The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci
"If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat." - Mark Twain
"What greater gift than the love of a cat?" - Charles Dickens
"A cat's eyes are windows enabling us to see into another world." - Irish Legend
Brought to you by Story Telling Sunday From High in the Sky with Sian
Saturday, 5 May 2012
Family 12 x 12 blog hop May 2012
Wow how quickly is this year passing me by! (Have I said that every month so far???)
Anyway one of the things I have really enjoyed being part of is Margie's family blog hop, It is sooo important to me to get a photograph of the four of us together because just as 2012 passes quickly so do my children's child years and I don't want to miss a thing!
In April we had a French exchange student staying with us and she wanted a picture of the whole family so I asked her to take one on my camera too and this was the result.
A typical weekend with DS still in his PJ's, chilling at home!
Please visit everyone else's blogs to see their April Family Photos
Anyway one of the things I have really enjoyed being part of is Margie's family blog hop, It is sooo important to me to get a photograph of the four of us together because just as 2012 passes quickly so do my children's child years and I don't want to miss a thing!
In April we had a French exchange student staying with us and she wanted a picture of the whole family so I asked her to take one on my camera too and this was the result.
A typical weekend with DS still in his PJ's, chilling at home!
Please visit everyone else's blogs to see their April Family Photos
Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog
Jo http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com
Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com
Jill http://jillconyers.com
Moncia http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com
Patricia http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/
Friday, 4 May 2012
pass the book
I was lucky enough to be picked by Scrappy Jacky and received Tantalizing Textures through the post this week. It is a really easy read and I have already finished browsing through this paperback.
Overall the scrapbook pages the author made were not to my taste or style but that isn't the purpose of the book, it is about adding texture to your layouts using a variety of objects, many easily available or everyday items. With this inspiration, I plan to try stamping on sandpaper, use transparencies in my printer and embossing folders and create my own lace flowers! Plenty of ideas that I have never tried before, great to use on layouts, cards and other paper projects.
If you would like to 'borrow' this book, which may give you some new ideas and inspiration, please leave a comment below and look at Melissa's blog here for all you need to know about pass the book year 2.
I will choose a winner either Monday or Tuesday next week, depending on how busy the Bank Holiday is here in the UK. Please note this is open to anyone worldwide as long as they have a blog.
Sunday, 29 April 2012
Another UKS challenge
Welcome to my bloggy corner of the world how are you? In this part of the UK the weather is atrocious it is wet and windy and with a poorly son I have had a great excuse to stay in all weekend (well except for celebrating a friend's birthday on Friday night!)
Anyway, this week on UKS the challenge was to scrap the man in your life, using a fabby sketch (I love sketches as I know where I am going and almost what I am doing!) with the additions of paint/ink/mist, different alphas and some rik rak.
Not a great photo of the page, but it is hubby in Antigua reading at the beach. The upper left corner says 'Relax' and the tag with the heart button says 'with a good book'. Did you spot my mistake? I have added the date as 08/2012! Would be great if we were back in Antigua in August but sadly it isn't going to happen, in fact we haven't even got a holiday booked for this year yet!
I did manage to include everything in this LO. I have never used paint on a page before and I have used it on the title Relax I painted with crackle paint though it is difficult to see, the rik rak and the man are obvious as is the sketch and I am hoping that my numbers, title and alphas on the tag count as different alphas (plus my handwriting of course!)
Hoping you are having a good weekend wherever you are and whatever the weather xxx
Anyway, this week on UKS the challenge was to scrap the man in your life, using a fabby sketch (I love sketches as I know where I am going and almost what I am doing!) with the additions of paint/ink/mist, different alphas and some rik rak.
Not a great photo of the page, but it is hubby in Antigua reading at the beach. The upper left corner says 'Relax' and the tag with the heart button says 'with a good book'. Did you spot my mistake? I have added the date as 08/2012! Would be great if we were back in Antigua in August but sadly it isn't going to happen, in fact we haven't even got a holiday booked for this year yet!
I did manage to include everything in this LO. I have never used paint on a page before and I have used it on the title Relax I painted with crackle paint though it is difficult to see, the rik rak and the man are obvious as is the sketch and I am hoping that my numbers, title and alphas on the tag count as different alphas (plus my handwriting of course!)
Hoping you are having a good weekend wherever you are and whatever the weather xxx
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Some scrapping!
Wow what a week! Nothing terrible has happened don't worry, it has just been a very full on week with lots happening.
Firstly DD has had M her French exchange student staying and my French has not improved, it remains virtually non-existent! I actually studied German at school and boy does it show!!! Thank goodness for Google Translate. It has been interesting to watch 2 French girls versus 2 English girls playing Pictionary and using Google Translate (which didn't always work!). Who knew that you cannot translate Korma or Nan or Tikka Marsala or any other type of curry (they didn't like what they ordered very much but then who eats prawn korma anyway???) Seriously I think they have had a great week with days out, parties and fun socialising and today they have been at Thorpe Park.
On the crafting front I have made a serious commitment, I thought about it for a long time and was watching and waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Finally I jumped in... I have joined a team on UKS!!! I have been a member of UKS for a while but really go there in isolation and rarely comment. I was adopted at one point but was then deserted so I never really got involved in anything and just hung around the shopping boards. Now I have joined the Craftoholics and am really happy that 2 of my blogging buddies also joined.... one co-incidentally and the other with encouragement...can you guess who they are???? So I have gone for it and joined in with a challenge, scrapping a birthday, using an old piece of paper, 4 of something and a colour of the weather
The papers used are all quite old I think, this is DS on his 10th birthday and it isn't the best photo but the only one I have of him blowing out his candles so it also fits Shimelle's challenge 15 and I have used 4 different types of stickers (and 4 patterned papers on the background one! so fits in with challenge 2 mixing up paper collections) and I went for yellow and blue to remind me of the sun in a blue sky. Yay my first UKS challenge completed!!!
I also made these pages, inspired by Shimelle's online crop last weekend..........
this was made using my own simple sketch for lesson one of just one sketch (such fun!) a monochromatic page that uses SJ's printable for my journalling (completed post photo to keep secret as usual!) so Shimelle's 13th challenge. Plus it uses up lots of scraps (challenge 16) my favourite being the upper left circle shape that is the offcut from the sticker (half of which is used just above the photo) I actually love this LO and it really reminds me of the beauty of Antigua.
this page still make me squirm slightly as I went out of my comfort zone to mix up my style (challenge 3). I don't often use flowers I don't really think I am very girly and I have never used twine across the page (I used my original sketch from the previous page and rotated it to create this one) I normally don't do bright and bold colours but encouraged by the bright bathing suits and challenge 10, I used the bright green and the crazy reddy patterned paper!
Finally I used the March ANFSCD page by Shimelle (challenge 9) and used new stamps that I have had sitting in a basket for ever (challenge 8) and I actually like how this one came out...just!
Phew what fun I have had this week, hope I get to do some more next week but it looks like another busy one!!! PS Am I allowed to enter a LO into more than one of Shimelle's challenges???
Firstly DD has had M her French exchange student staying and my French has not improved, it remains virtually non-existent! I actually studied German at school and boy does it show!!! Thank goodness for Google Translate. It has been interesting to watch 2 French girls versus 2 English girls playing Pictionary and using Google Translate (which didn't always work!). Who knew that you cannot translate Korma or Nan or Tikka Marsala or any other type of curry (they didn't like what they ordered very much but then who eats prawn korma anyway???) Seriously I think they have had a great week with days out, parties and fun socialising and today they have been at Thorpe Park.
On the crafting front I have made a serious commitment, I thought about it for a long time and was watching and waiting for the right opportunity to come along. Finally I jumped in... I have joined a team on UKS!!! I have been a member of UKS for a while but really go there in isolation and rarely comment. I was adopted at one point but was then deserted so I never really got involved in anything and just hung around the shopping boards. Now I have joined the Craftoholics and am really happy that 2 of my blogging buddies also joined.... one co-incidentally and the other with encouragement...can you guess who they are???? So I have gone for it and joined in with a challenge, scrapping a birthday, using an old piece of paper, 4 of something and a colour of the weather
The papers used are all quite old I think, this is DS on his 10th birthday and it isn't the best photo but the only one I have of him blowing out his candles so it also fits Shimelle's challenge 15 and I have used 4 different types of stickers (and 4 patterned papers on the background one! so fits in with challenge 2 mixing up paper collections) and I went for yellow and blue to remind me of the sun in a blue sky. Yay my first UKS challenge completed!!!
I also made these pages, inspired by Shimelle's online crop last weekend..........
this was made using my own simple sketch for lesson one of just one sketch (such fun!) a monochromatic page that uses SJ's printable for my journalling (completed post photo to keep secret as usual!) so Shimelle's 13th challenge. Plus it uses up lots of scraps (challenge 16) my favourite being the upper left circle shape that is the offcut from the sticker (half of which is used just above the photo) I actually love this LO and it really reminds me of the beauty of Antigua.
this page still make me squirm slightly as I went out of my comfort zone to mix up my style (challenge 3). I don't often use flowers I don't really think I am very girly and I have never used twine across the page (I used my original sketch from the previous page and rotated it to create this one) I normally don't do bright and bold colours but encouraged by the bright bathing suits and challenge 10, I used the bright green and the crazy reddy patterned paper!
Finally I used the March ANFSCD page by Shimelle (challenge 9) and used new stamps that I have had sitting in a basket for ever (challenge 8) and I actually like how this one came out...just!
Phew what fun I have had this week, hope I get to do some more next week but it looks like another busy one!!! PS Am I allowed to enter a LO into more than one of Shimelle's challenges???
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Family 12x12 blog hop April 2012
Oh dear I am really late to the party this month! I signed up for the blog hop then completely forgot about it! I am just home from work so please forgive me....
Thank you Margie for hosting the family photo blog hops, it really is a great reminder to capture the four of us together and so far this year I have been keeping up yay!
Hopefully you should have arrived here via Patricia's blog, in case you get confused this is the way to hop (very appropriate for Easter ... a hopping bunny!)
Margie http://xnomads.typepad.com
Patricia http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/
Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com
Jo http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com (she will post late, so be sure to check back)
In March we visited Denbies Wine Estate, an amazing English vineyard set in the Surrey countryside. The geology is similar to the Champagne region and the estate produces award winning wines of an exceptionally hight standard. We had a wine tasting tour, which was interesting and informative (though the children only had grape juice!) and we bought a few bottles of the wonderful wine to consume at home!
As we left I took a photo of the 4 of us amongst the vines, not a brilliant shot but the best I have for March.
I am now off to catch up with everyone else's March family photos and I hope you do too xxx
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