Dear Blog...

I'm so sorry! It appears I haven't updated you in a while, since last year in fact!!! :(

The rest of the year flew by! Christmas came and went - far too quickly!

Little Miss Christmas!

January has been a busy month so far, starting with me taking my mum to see Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Pt1 on Jan 1st - I'm determined to watch all the HP films at the cinema so Daddy had the little lady for the afternoon & they both survived! I'm starting the year as I mean to carry on!!!

Once Kyle was back in school, Madison & I took Nanni & Grandpa shopping and of course to Starbucks!

Where's Mine?

Jan 7th - someone decided to try to roll but since finding her toes on Jan 13th, she'd rather chew those instead!!!

Hmmmmm, Tasty Toes!

Kyle finally joined Cubs after 2 years on the waiting list for Beavers - he loved it & was desperate to get his uniform! In a few weeks, Little Man - be patient!!! LOL

We all went out for a Chinese Buffet with my mum & dad to celebrate mum's 80th birthday on Jan 19th - HAPPY 80TH MUM!!! - anyway, the food was fabulous, Kyle couldn't wait to get to the chocolate fountain! One finished plate, still with dropped chocolate led Grandpa to say he was surprized Kyle hadn't licked it clean - uh-oh!!!

Look what he did!!!

I gave myself whiplash!!! Don't ask!!! Oh, okay, if you insist!!! :snigger: I trapped my foot under front door whilst closing it and twisted & jarred the rest of me! My foot is absolutely fine but have spent the rest of the week feeling a little on the woozy side, with back & neck pain after seeing the doctor who can't give me anything stronger to take than the painkillers I'm already taking! That'll teach me to allow more time for going places and concentrating on what I'm doing!!!

And now today is Andy's 31st birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDY! - it looks like January has pretty much come and gone as well!

So, blog... have you caught up yet? I'll be back soon to tell you about my crafting challenges this year!

Times flies...

Wow - time really does fly by, doesn't it???

All of a sudden, Madison is 7 weeks old and Kyle has just turned 8 - 8!!!!! Where did the time go??? Now as I hold Madison in my arms, I remember how small Kyle once was and then I find myself wondering where the last 8 years have gone!!! I must have blinked for far too long!!! LOL

A quick catch up...

Halloween came and went - Madison had her own little outfit - come on, who on earth could resist this cute little number!!! Thanks to Fiona (aka Angelfish on UKS) for the heads up on this outfit!!!
As you can see, even Madison was full of glee with this outfit!

Then there was my fabulous friends' daughter who regularly comes to walk my pooch, who was looking for an excuse to dress up on Halloween, so she took Kyle out for 'Trick or Treat'...
For Kyle's eighth birthday, we went Ten-Pin Bowling and then Pizza Hut with his best friend Leo and our family...
And a LO, just the one!!! This took me a couple of weeks really, by snatching 5 or 10 mins here & there...

Introducing Madison...(used the most gorgeous Pixielicious range from Cosmo Cricket, which was part of the ScrapaGoGo kit for October!)


Madison has been having loads & I mean LOADS of cuddles from lots of friends and family - I can't show them all here as you'd never get the page to refresh properly!!! So instead, just a few smiles from Little Miss Indecisive (my team on UKS is 'The Indecisives') and/or the Ribbonette (on UKS, I'm part of the fabulous and best house - Red Ribbon House)...



Til next time...

Creations

So much to catch up with... grab a cuppa - this could be a long one!

Madison has been weighed twice by the health visitor and is just over her birth weight which is good! She's sleeping well when she has a good feed but when she falls asleep early on in the feed, she doesn't sleep for very long afterwards! But we do tend to get spells of 4 or 5 hours during the night!
We're getting lots of beautiful smiles from the little lady so they more than make up for the lack of sleep!!!Before the appearance of Madison, I made this mini book for my best friend & Godmum-to-Madison Suzy after watching the incredibly talented Laura create a Grungepaper & Canvas mini album - lots of inking involved with red & orange fingers for the main part of a week!!! I finally gave it to Suzy after Madison was born - its for her to put whatever photos and memories of hers & Madison's time together.
I have been able to do a couple of LOs - first 'Les Fleurs' for Suzy's Weekly Challenge over on UKS & I shocked both Suzy & myself by using the pink Cosmic Shimmer mist that my friend Sam sent me in an attempt to get me used to pink stuff! These three beautiful bouquets of flowers bought after the birth of Madison by Andy, my parents and my fabulous UKS team The Indecisives, deserved a LO to show them off!

Pegs! was created for the October UKS house challenge to scrap your quirky traits & idiosyncrasies and to scrap in a style that is so NOT you! This more 'graphic' style is a style I've been meaning to scrap in for a while and I like it a lot - I think I'll be doing more LOs this way!

My journalling reads "Each item of clothing HAS to HAVE the same coloured pegs handing it up! Coloured clothing has coloured pegs - White clothing has White pegs! Different coloured pegs on one item puts me out of my comfort zone!" and its amazed me how many other people have admitted they do the same thing!!!

Introducing Madison...

Madison Grace Annie arrived at 5.14am, Thursday 30th September 2010, weighing in at 8lbs 8ozs :)


Madison posing under the handmade blanket! It may well be wind causing the smile in this photo but its still a smile - just a windy smile!

Quick LOs

Hullo - I'm still here... and STILL waiting for baby to arrive... if Mother Nature still hasn't taken over before Tuesday, then I'll be going in to be induced! Come on Little Lady - everyone is getting impatient, especially ME!!!!!

I've managed to do several LOs though in the past week or two while I've been waiting and I'm now down to doing LOs with kits and/or instructions so I can complete them quickly - just in case!!!

So firstly, Hello Mr Dragonfly - I was quite happily scrapping when I heard Gizmo behind me and a very LOUD buzzing noise... turned out she had caught this beautiful dragonfly. Andy managed to rescue it and the camera came out rapido to get some photos as it recovered from its ordeal. I don't think I've ever seen a dragonfly soooooooo close before so I was really happy to get some decent shots of it. Then I just had to wait for my September ScrapaGoGo kit to arrive as I knew the contents of the kit would be perfect for these photos. With the addition of some pre-made ribbon dragonflies from BF Suzy, the LO was complete...

I also had another perfect photo for the same kit - Andy & I went to the 'official' opening of Rare Aquatics in Crewe and I had to take a photo of this pleco Jo had in a tank. I was gobsmacked at the size of the fish, probably about 8 or 9 inches in length and those teeth!!!

I managed to take part in the UKS weekly challenge this week - to scrap an obsession or guilty pleasure - well, as I don't wear matching socks anymore and was proudly wearing my new Little Missmatched socks that day, I set to work basing it on a sketch from the Bo Bunny blog - this turned out to be a very BRIGHT LO!!!
And finally today I did this Tasty LO - one of the quickies! This LO was courtesy of my fabulous teamie on UKS, MJ who put this class kit together for a DLO and gave it to us at our retreat back in June. I only wanted to do a SLO so also based it on a LO that another fabulous teamie Katy created from the same kit, here. Thank you ladies for the inspiration! Photo is of Kyle when he was approximately 10 months old - just enjoying a quick snack!!! There was a very soggy end to that french bread by the time he'd finished munching on it!!!

There is something else crafty I've created but I can't show it yet as it is for a certain Godmum to be!!! Be patient Suzy - I'm not!!! tee hee!

Maybe on my next blog post I'll finally be able to introduce you to the Little Lady!

Zentangle ATCs

I've been looking at the Zentangle blog and receiving the newsletters for soooooooooo long now but never really got round to actually doing a Zentangle! Pretty normal for me!!!

When an ATC Zentangle swap appeared on UKS, I signed up immediately - despite my resolution that I would not do anymore swaps - hey I kept to it for over 8 months!!!

And I have to say I'm suitably impressed with myself! Each ATC is different but with the same heart shape in the middle. Eight done so far, may have another 7 to do yet but have felt very relaxed doing them - although it may not be ideal to do so many all at once - right wrist & shoulder are complaining a little!!! LOL

Quick update on Bump - nothing happening yet - had hospital appointment this morning, have midwife appointment next Tuesday, and if Mother Nature doesn't get a move on, it'll be the 28th when I go into hospital to be induced!

It's September at last!!!

Phew! Made it into September! Now at 39 weeks and no sign of baby coming yet! Despite being told I'd probably be induced a week early due to the SPD, it hasn't happened and nothing will happen now until next clinic appointment on 14th Sept! Unless Mother Nature takes over before then!!! Fingers Crossed!!! LOL

Kyle has started Year 3 (Juniors) at school - in a mixed class (Year 3/4) of the eldest children from Year 3 and the youngest from Year 4. All due to the number of children! We took the now traditional first day at school photos ready for a LO in the future but here he is - one of his mad poses!

My best friend Suzy has bought us (well, baby!) a gorgeous sleeping bag from Mothercare's Baby K range - I love the colours - purple, orange, teal, black, white & grey! So much so I was contemplating on buying the blanket from the same range but at £32 for a blanket I decided against it!
Instead I decided to do my own in the ripple pattern I saw on Attic 24 blog - so I bought this beautiful soft cotton wool (by Sirdar) then had to buy some more because I hadn't bought enough the first time and got to work! After 110 rows and a double row of edging all around, I now have (well, the baby now has!) a lovely soft blanket to snuggle under!And did I save any money by doing the blanket myself - NO and YES!

NO - the wool cost me £50 including postage in the end (still have some left over) and

YES - its more than twice the size of the Mothercare blanket, its homemade and it was made with Love!!!