Bows, Blossom, Bella and Bruises

I feel like I have not blogged in years. Its only been 5 days - but that's TOO long!
I know I need to announce the Rak winner from my shop - I promise I will dedicate a post to that 2morrow, but for now I am playing catch up.
Sunday just gone marked the Ruby Wedding Anniversary of my parents - which meant a family party, which meant CAKE! yay. I was put in charge of cake, and came up with this idea...
40 cuppies, decorated with Ruby Gerbera sugar flowers, which were all hand painted BTW! *with edible food colourings and sparkle* It was a laborious process, but satisfying with the end result. Getting them there by car was a worrying time, thank goodness for my niece who sat with them on her lap!

The weather was glorious, and the sun stayed out and hot till gone 6pm! The party was only meant to last a couple of hours, but thanks to the sun, the wine and my siblings utter devotion to the task, the hours melted away and it lasted about six hours! We didn't realise the time till someone pointed it out and we realised we had to get Finlay fed and home to bed.. which in my books shows what a brilliant time was had.
I love hot April days - it brings home how far into spring we have come without really noticing. Its around this time of year that I embrace clothes again, shrug off the dark hoodies and start thinking about accessories! I love summer accessorising, the pretty shades and patterns in the shops right now are really pretty. Whilst walking with my mum and sister on Sunday to get the bread etc for the party - we came across a little boutique at the end of our road, new to open, inside was the most adorable collection of headbands - that look like glass, but are perspex. I fell in love with the headband below, and mum, very generously bought it as a gift. I love it lots and it will encourage me to wear my hair down and style it better when I wear it!

So so cute huh!! We walked past the shop again today, and they have had a new delivery in, with cherries and cupcakes!
Claire's accessories is a funky and cheap place to buy up some new bits if you fancy it, I found these cute rose earrings and the blue hair slides in their sale, yay!

Also picked up this butterfly necklace, man, everywhere I look I am seeing butterflies at the moment! Its SO easy to get caught up in loving them, it seems to be the new trend in scrapping too, which I am not complaining about! I have a natural affinity with butterflies, and plan to get a tattoo of one this year, to cover up a bad bad design I am already branded with!

Not such a great accessory is a bruise.
I slammed the car door on my arm by accident a few days ago, currently a gross green and brown shade, I hope it goes soon!!

One other thing, literally TAKING OVER MY LIFE right now is Twilight.
Ok, Ok. I know, I am like a year late! BUT still - it has taken me time to get back into reading, I used to read a lot before I had Finlay - and this is the first full book I have read since having him!
*shock*
But it was AMAZING, I read it in 2 days - it would have been 1 day if I had not had a 17month old demanding I put it down and feed him... lol
I have wanted to see the film since It came out, but I had promised myself that I would read the book first, so I did just that. I finished it at 1am last night, and this evening I walked Finlay to town after dinner and rented the movie.
There were a lot of mixed opinions regarding the film, but I can honestly say I loved it.
I went into town today and bought NEW MOON which I am itching to start! I almost didn't blog in favour of starting it - but as I said, I have not blogged since the 24th!!

It now appears I have myself some serious "Edward-itis" Or rather, obsessed with the idea of Edward, and what he represents to Bella. I used to be Gothic, I should really find some photos of that and blog them lol! Anyway - this movie stirs something inside of me which I cannot quite describe... I guess anyone who read the book first knows what I am talking about. The tension between them is magical and some parts of the book had my heart pounding!

I think Ben had started to fear for my sanity, so he took me and Finlay out to the local park, to see if I still tolerated sunlight (lol) And there we found Blossom. I love the blossom part of spring -the smell, the way it covers the grass like pink snow and how it twirls on the breeze.
Romantic and beautiful, and something my soul craves right now.

So.. that brings me to the end of my blog for tonight - no scrapping I am afraid...
I would stay and chat - but I don't have the will power!!!!!!

Happy Blog Birthdhay

Well - yesterday I was blog hoping - and came across a blog where the owner was celebrating her blog-birthday. I was like "ahhh cute! -I wonder when mine is!?" So, I scrolled to my first post and, it was THIS time three years ago!
I was a little freaked at the coincidence of timing, but that's by the by.
So, three years ago today I started "little musings" My first post is {HERE}. It made me laugh at how specific my "love and hates" list is.
I also laughed at the fact that in my "hates list" I put down that I don't like bright colours or inks.
lol
Its amazing how we change over the years! (also my hair.. when that photo was taken and bizarrely colour edited in photo shop, my hair reached the lower part of my back, in fact, if I tipped my head back, I could sit on the ends of it!) I really loved that hair, and fully blame pregnancy hormones for making me cut it ALL off.
Er.. sorry for that tangent. So, onto the scrapping part of my entry today.
Yesterday I mentioned that I scrapped two layouts. Here they are, the pink one, as mentioned looked even pinker to me in the harsh light of day.. so even I am reserving judgement on it!
(the little journaling under the photo says "Er..isn't "strawberry blonde" just another term for ginger?" who cares, I love you my little red head) *or something like that, its in the other room now and not in front of me*
And the other one is my "Daily Internet life" (as it stands April 2009)
I have a TON of stuff to do today.. literally no time to stop and breathe so bye bye!

Daisy Daisy......

I had the fabulous chance to meet this 2 week old lil "Daisy" girl at an old school friends house on Wednesday. She is gorgeous, just look at that last picture, the most delightful little "Oooooo face" I have ever ever seen. I loved Finlay's "Oooo" face when he was first born, it made me warm inside, so when I saw this lil bean's pout through the camera lens, my heart did a little beat!!! I am doing a "Birth to One" package for her parents, which means I will be getting a gorgeous array of photos of this little Angel and putting together in a photo book.

xxxx

In other news, I scrapped tonight! whoooot! TWO whole layouts - just for meeeeeee.

I also.. shock horror.. scrapped one of them in JUST PINK.

Ben was like "That's a whole lotta pink for a layout about a boy"... I was like "don't you think it works?!" He said "Er.. I am not sure"

So.. I will upload tomorrow for you to cast your scrapbookers eyes over!

Till then, good night!

23:06 in the UK.. Ben's eyes are practically closing, which means one thing. Bed, which in turn means one thing, snoaring. Bens hayfever is causing havoc with my sleep!!!

Which, actually reminds me. Does anyone else have the Sims (the hotel one) on the DS.. how do you defent the robot invasion!? I am wearing the rat suit, but have no idea how it works!!

*random and won't make sense to most, but if you do know, please email and I'll rak you some of my Journal Spots as a gift!!!*

Sunday Sunday

This weekend has seen a bit of this..
"Happy Pizza hut faces"
*(I mean, we were IN pizza hut - not that they have 'pizza like faces' you understand!!)*

Cuddles from "new found cousins" :-)

Lots of snot and miserable moments (Finlay has a cold)

And some of this...

which lead to a little of this (stone throwing)...which resulted in this..
one lost bucket lol!
Buckets sink FAST!! (something to do with them being a empty vessel?)
****
And then, last night, saw this new addition to the shop.... Kraft scallop circles 3" wide.

Talking of the shop. I am running an "opening" giveaway.
All purchases made between now and 5pm next Sunday will be entered into a prize draw and the lucky winner will win this "sample" pack (including designs not available in the shop yet!)
(Each item purchased will get a "ticket" - so if you buy 3 sets of tags, you get three chances!!)

cool huh!
(if you have already made a purchase, I have put your name in the draw)
***
Happy Sunday

Saturday additions

Two new "list" packs added to the shop today.. the bottom ones are my current favourite, they are 3.5" tall, and really sweet for smaller journalling.
You can find them Here
****
In other news, Finlay had his first ever hair cut yesterday!!!
Cute huh! He held onto this little green plastic letter for comfort the entire time!
Afterwards... he looked like a proper little boy, I mean, I know he is a "real little boy".. I can't explain it, but I know you will know what I mean.
It was the next photo that made me realise he may be in need of a trim.. lol!
He was all mucky from a sandwich or something, so I baby wiped him all over and he was in such a cheeky mood, I couldn't resist taking his picture.
Finlay is going through a lovely stage, where he mocks you or imitates you.. and if you poke your tongue out he finds it hilarious!
This is my favourite photo I have of him so far, I love all the photos, but this one shows his personality perfectly.
Tonight he has developed a cold (caught from Ben **curses**) So he is all stuffed up, and sad and cannot sleep well at all.. I feel sorry for him. His room smells of Karvol.
Ben keeps sniffing and blowing his nose, I am the only one who hasn't caught it. hurrah.
Mind you, having two men in my life with colds is hard work!!!
Enjoy the rest of Saturday and your Sundays people!

at last

Well. I finally opened my little Folksy shop for business!!!
The journal tags you saw a preview of earlier in the week are now available to purchase!!
HERE
I plan to upload a whole load more over the next few weeks, with the butterfly designs coming really soon! (I am in the process of creating a butterfly set that I really love - think white butterflies on Kraft with a white scallop edge- yum!)
Its half midnight in the UK, hence the BAD photo below.. I was just keen to get things started and couldn't sleep!
Anyway, enjoy!!
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

lol @ that bad photo...

Mens Hair

Ben is having his hair restyled today.
He normally has mahoosive spikey hair, but today he is going for something that "matches his years" (lol... he is only 30!!)
So we did a quick "Mens hair 2009 style" search on Google.
Two options have caught my eye,
but perhaps not for a few years yet...

literally... these are real options!

*walks away in wonder*

*apologies in advance if either of these two men are your friends, family or loved ones*

DREAM GIRLS

I love this fortnights challenge for the DREAM GIRLS.

Prompt: Use a quote from a movie for your page title (You can choose any movie, we just used Jerry McGuire as examople).

Technique: A penny for your thoughts (Show us some visible journaling).

Product: Use chipboard or grungeboard on your layout.

If you do decide to play, you could be in for a seriously awesome prize, Scarlet Lime are donating another one of their mind blowingly gorgeous kits. The colours in this make me wanna scrap right away! Click on the picture below to get a close up of the kit and then literally go and scrap the prompt - you know you want too!

This is my take.
x

The story of you

last night - I decided, quite on a whim, to make an 8x8 album, with the aid of AC page protectors, some heavy duty mount board covers (much to the detriment of my paper trimmer.. eek!) and the Bind it all. I wanted to create something for Finlay in his future years, a little memento of "his story"
The inside will document my pregnancy, cravings, how we felt, the music that was "cool" at the time, decorating his nursery, the day before he was born, the labour, the few moments after, the first week at home, his routine and various other random snippets that spring to mind. I will also create some "sewn" shut pockets from a page protector to house things, such as his first cotton hat when he was born to keep him warm, the little scratch mittens, the belly button clip and the little "name" wrist bands (that said "Dowsett" and not "Welch" as I was un-married at the time!!! *Que disapproving looks*)
I am pretty excited about it - I got a bit carried away last night and have already scrapped six pages to go in. I think the nice thing about creating this, is there are some pages where photos just don't fit - or I have none suitable to document, so I am doing A LOT of writing - which I am enjoying.
Man I hope he appreciates the effort when he is a grown man.
I will post some pages later -wether you like it or not (lol)
xx

Easter Sunday

Today I got to go to a friend-of-the-families farm, where they are lambing.
I got to hold this lil 6 day old cutie! He was MUCH lighter than I thought he would be. He was "number 17" of the heard (is a that the collective name for sheep, or is it flock??) I think its flock, anyway, he was cute and didn't smell. I have no idea why I assumed he would smell, but he didn't, which is good (and as you can see, I did get close enough to fund out in the top photo lol!)
I don't really have much else today say today, apart from "Happy Easter!"
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Winchelsea Beach

Simple beach maths...
Angel wings drawn in sand + a cute baby = a photo to {heart} forever.

Been Busy!

I have been busy.. and wanted to show you what I have been doing.

I have been designing my own mini range of Journal spots!
They are going to be on a mix of white, cream and kraft cardstock and will be on sale as soon as I have everything in place.
What do you think!? I am excited!
xx

Sunday Weighty Musings

So, I failed on my "be thinner by summer 2009" goal.

I mean, I have lost 20Ibs - but that has not made me thin at all, and I have way more to loose, so I am back on track again weight wise, back pointing and I will be weighing in on Wednesday to asses the damage of the last five guzzling weeks.
I feel disappointed in myself, knowing that I could do it, but just couldn't be "bothered".
I mean, the only one who can do this for me, is me!
I really needed some inspiration today to beat the Sunday boredom, Ben working, perfect time to "pick" at food in the kitchen habit I have gotten into. So I have been looking at pretty dresses, I have a couple of weddings coming up, one this year (so I gotta work hard!!!) and one next, and I am determined not to be the chubby one in thier photos!
*(for as much as their sake as mine lol!)*
I am already the "fat girl" in my own wedding photos, and feel disgusted at myself. thinking about it, I guess that is why I have not run head first into scrapping my wedding album, I mean, we don't even have a normal photo album printed yet! (and it was last July folks!!!) I am so gutted to have been so "big" on my big day, that I think we will do a do-over when I loose my weight, have a little ceremony in a church, and actually have a honey moon. I sometimes get soooo jealous when I think about honeymoons, I know this is my 2nd marriage, but I feel sad that Ben hasn't had the full wedding experience and I feel sad that we will never be able to afford to do it for a long time.... *wow.. those feelings run deeper than I thought*
I have a lot to work on. Hence the little Weight Loss Tracker on the left there...
<---------------------- (somewhere)
Do you ever sit down to right a random blog post, about dresses, etc and end up realising how you actually feel about things!? Sunday musings come at a cost!
So onto the random part of this post, which somehow feels insignificant now.. some pretty dresses...