This week I have mostly been doing this...

This is what my table looks like at the moment. It's a little book for the girls Granpa and its gonna be a quickie one I think. What I mean is it's not gonna be too overly embellished or overindulged. It has to go through the post so I think the less there is to get bashed and fall off then the better - besides, it's for Granpa - don't want it to be too blousey and girly. Haven't a clue yet what the cover will be like as I can't decide what to call it. Come back soon to see how it progresses!
Have a great weekend everyone however you chose to spend it!

Traumatic morning...

My poor Millie has just had 5 teeth pulled at the hospital this morning! OMG it took 4 grown ups to hold her down while the gas did it's work. Not a pleasant experience for a mum to see but we're all back home and she's doing well now! Apparently she doesn't remember anything but I think I will remember it for a long time!!!! She's glad they're gone already though - she was in a lot of pain with them. They were deformed and had no enamel on them and had started crumbling away. She's out of it lying on the sofa watching Nanny McPhee, bless! Leon's just gone to get our wee monster from nursery and hopefully once everything has calmed down here, I can get on with something creative. I start to get withdrawal after a wee while if I don't get a chance to shuffle some bits of paper about...

Well that was a quick weekend...

Phew, yeah!
We've been busy round the house sorting out the girls rooms. Millie had her first sleep in her new bed and we had a little outing to Arbroath - a place I remember well from my own childhood, when we always had a holiday on some east coast seaside town, never very far away from home except it felt hundreds of miles away to me at the time. Tomorrow, I go back to work (oh groan!) and Leon takes over with the kids. Much as I love what I do for a living, going back after 2 weeks off is always a bit of a "Johnny Browner" as we say round these parts. (Mind you, I'm just grateful meantime that I do have a job to go back to.) Not to worry though, by 10.30am it'll feel like I've never been away! I have lots of new photos to do nice things with and first on my list is a wee something with some up-to-date pics of the girls to send to their Grandpa who lives in sunny Brighton. I'm looking forward to starting a new project. I love working out colour schemes and patterns and looking out some fabric-y tactileness to compliment the photos I want to use. So I'll be posting my progress on that one. I don't have very long to do it because he'll be moving house in 2 weeks and I don't want it getting lost in all that chaos and upheaval...

Zzzzzzzzzzz... is it bedtime yet?

Just dispatched little Sadie into her new bed in her newly carpeted and decorated bedroom. She's spent the 4 years of her life so far in a cot-bed and was desperately needing a better one so this is a big step up for her. She looks so tiny, she might get lost in it! Of course big sister is having a cream puff about it. Oh sibling rivalry ... Apparently Sadie should not have had hers built first 'cos "she is not the big sister"!!! So guess what Daddy's doing first thing tomorrow! No crafting for me tonight - I am totally cream crackered and need to unwind with a nice cuppa or 2 before I'm off to my scratcher too! Night night!

Look what I found!

A long long time ago I used to make bits and bobs out of Fimo. I sold loads around xmas, but that was way back in the 80's/early 90's. I came across these unsolds while looking through some art materials that I'd stashed away when we moved house. They're some leftovers from my production line back in the day. I used to spend hours at a time making these kitsch little things. I made bears, pandas, polar bears, xmas puddings to name but a few and I used to sell them for £2- £3.50 a hit! Here's the thing - when I opened up the box, the smell of Fimo and varnish hurtled me back in time to the dining table (which I still have) in my little flat where I spent many a long night making them. Aaaah happy days! Hope you dig their kitschyness!!!!!

Yummy!!!

Look what we made!

Some b&w's

a view from the Law


... fairies (not!!!!!) at the bottom of a tree


... a tree in Balgay Park, Bonnie Dundee.

A Grey Day Needs Cheering Up!

Well if you could just see the rain we've had this morning...
It actually woke me up 2 or 3 times during the night cos it sounded like a river rushing down our street. We live near the top of a very windy hill so luckily we're not at risk of a flood or anything but I always worry if I'll awake to a find new leak in my very old roof. Not today though thankfully! So, as seems to be customary, I'm in need of some lovely colours to brighten up a very grey day. This pic is from a wee book I'm in the process of completing - I was just waiting for the right photos to come along. They arrived today courtesy of Jessops online service and I am v impressed indeed. They were uploaded 8pm Monday and arrived today (Wednesday) lunchtime. Phew - I think that's good going. Lots of lovely colour ones in there and some atmospheric b&w's. I'll add a few on here before I delete them from my decrepit old laptop.
Kept the girls occupied by making some fudgy chocolate crispy cakes - yum! and if I can recharge the camera battery before they get scoffed I'll put them up too for my hordes of followers to drool over!!!

It's nearly finished...

Here's a wee book I've been making over the last coupla weeks. Sometimes things take a bit longer to complete than I'd like but I do eventually get them done. It has used up quite a few photos that were lurking about in various places and although they're not brilliant photos for scrapbook pages they still merit doing something with. I find minibooks ideal for using up these kind of photos. In fact I just love making minibooks! I have lots of pretty fabric from the girls old clothes that would be ideal to use up on little tags or something, so that might be my next project. Maybe...

Will it ever stop bloody raining!!!!

I'm only gonna moan just this once then that'll be it off my chest and over with...
What the flip is going on with the weather!! As usual Dundee is getting the bloody opposite weather to a'body else in the uk (possibly not entirely accurate)!! Personally, I think I may have a small part to play in this as I did use a lot of hairspray back in the 80's. It took a whole can of BOOTS STRONGEST HOLD to do my back-combed, spiky, nearly 1ft tall 'n' wide hairdo. I think that's why there must be a hole in the ozone layer directly above Dundee where all the rain comes through. Now a little bit of rain doesn't bother me much, but it makes small children a bit bonkers 'cos they get cabin fever and need to let off a bit of steam and even playing simple games like "snap" can escalate into WW3. So it's time to take matters into hand. We're going to make the most of the rain and go dig out the wellies and go find some puddles to jump in! Whhhhhheeeeeeeeee! If I end up with double pneumonia you'll know why.
... the sacrifices I make in the name of motherhood!!!
J
xxx

Hooray! No cooking for me this Sunday!!!

Not long back from my mum's and totally stuffed full of homemade lasagne - yum! Thankyou Mummy McMoo. Food is always better when it's cooked for you by someone else (or is it just that my cooking is so bad?) So yeah, great, no real cooking for me today which = no dishes to do (even bigger hooray)!

Hey it's crazy saturday when I don't normally sit down till bedtime!!!

...except to do this! Bloomin heck! - just been to the carpet shop for a mere scrap of carpet for Sadie's room - not a big room - barely enough for a single bed - and phew! I thought I'd get one for £75. WRONG!!! Every shop £120+!! Not fair, its only gonna get covered in play dough 'n' paint 'n' other gutters!! Eeeeek. I wonder if she'd mind if I just taped some black binliners down instead? Once I have got over the initial shock of this (think I'll need a cup of tea and a biccie!) I will find a nice colourful piccie to post as a bit of therapy. Bloody £120.....!!!!! Bah!!!!

Yay! - its Friday!My most favourite and best day of the week! C'mon!!!!!

Well whad'ya know - I'm a whole week into my holiday now and hey it's actually stopped raining!(Rain + bored children = hard work for Mummy!) Today we have already made 2 cardboard bugs and will be making some more this avo when little Belle comes home from her playtime and lunchdate with her little friends, otherwise known as nusery! That's when the fun/trouble begins, haha! She is a little livewire/toe-rag and utterly cute with it! Millie is watching the Sarah Jane Adventures and I am desperate to play with some new stamps I won on Ebay! However I won't be doing that just yet as I'm away to recycle some old cereal boxes and repurpose them into more lovely bugs ready for painting when LaBelle comes home. Long live the good old cereal box - can't imagine there'll ever be a shortage of them in this house! Coco Pops Rock!
J
xxx

When I grow up I want to be....

...a scary alien! This is Little Sadie with her face painted. She decided to paint some nice patterns on her legs to complete the look!

A close up detail...

I made these little hearts by covering an old pizza box with red card, covered the card with a real thick layer of glue stick and clear embossing powder. Heated the hell out of it so it cracks and distresses, then rubbed some dark ink over it and into all the cracks. I love the look and how it feels to touch - a very important factor for me, I love to have a tactileness in my arty bits, it just adds that something extra. I think they look a bit gothicy and wouldn't use them on a cutesy style of layout but that's okay cos they go fine with my project of the moment. Hope you like them!

Good morning!

Seeing as I'm on holiday, I'm gonna try and do an entry a day! There! Now I've done it - I've gone and put it out there, I've committed myself, there's no going back! Now, I didn't say it would be anything too in depth, but there's no point in doing this unless I do something with it, so I'm sure even I can upload an image or make a wee entry daily. One thing you need to know and you might have picked up on this already but - I'm a commitmentphobe! Now I don't know if that's a real word or if I just made it up but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there! So this might be good therapy...
Anyhoo hope if anyone is out there, you like my piccies! This is what's on my desk this morning. It's a little book I'm making full of little piccies of daughter no.1. Daughter no. 2 gets a wee look in near the end too

And this is what I do... when I can!

First one!!

Hello world! Don't try to hold me back! It's official. I now have a blog - whooopeeeeee. I'm not quite sure when I'll ever have time to update it (probably v infrequently!) but I hope to try and do something as much as possible. See how I didn't actually commit to anything there - that's so me!