As yet unnamed!

New Storage

Sorry to have gone missing the past few days... just wasn't in the mood to blog and take photos, etc. In the past few days I had a birthday so am officially old but it's okay as I don't look as old as I am (38). I made some red velvet cupcakes with the best frosting ever. I might have to make more cupcakes this weekend. I also had my Ikea delivery on Wednesday of my new wardrobe to go in the dining room for my scrap stuff. I outgrew my other storage unit and it was starting to buckle under the weight of all the stuff I have. I am going to have to declutter again and get rid of stuff I will never use as this is it for storage in the dining room. Bit overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I own but that's nothing unusual with the amount of shopping I do. It is nice to have a sort through from time to time though as it gives me a reality check that I need to slow down with some purchases. It's also nice to see what I own and want to use. 

I took a photo of my organization in progress. Still need to fit the wardrobe doors but need Kirk's help to do that as the unit is very tall. I thought it was the same size as the one in Charlie's room but it's around 40cm taller. Good job the dining room has 10ft ceilings! I got a clothes rail for the wardrobe and added some curtain hangers which have little clips on them to hang my sticker sheets and rub ons. It works so much better than that totally overpriced Clip it Up thing I used to own. Glad I sold it on ages ago. 

For now it's time to go buy some fruits and stuff before Noemie gets home from wherever the nanny has taken them. I'm a bit behind on all my errands as well for some reason so need to have a bit of a catch up day! Looking forward to the long weekend!

Layouts and Cards

So far in the past few days I have managed to do 6 layouts and 2 cards for the ScrapPad cybercrop week. It's been so nice and laid back with 1 class a day and we have until middle of next week to upload to the gallery for a chance to win prizes. I've had so much fun getting pages done and now am wanting to keep scrapping in the hopes of catching up a little bit. I'm 2 Christmases behind and poor Charlie has next to no pages. I'll just share photos and give credit to the designer but won't get into the manufacturers of the stash as I can't remember some of them already and it'll take too long anyway.  

This was the first class designed by Lousette. She gave us a sketch and as soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for the photos I had from the other day in the park. 

This class was by Ann and called for using some texture. 

  

Monday's class was by Jean and I used a kit from Sarah's Cards that I started subscribing to the past two months. Purple is my least favorite color but I am pleased with how this turned out as it worked well with Noemie's little dress! We got bonus points for also doing a card version.

 

Tuesday was a sketch by Katie which we had the option to do digi or paper so I opted for paper as I'm not a digi scrapper. I loved that this used multiple photos as I tend to do one photo pages yet have some events where there are more than one photo I want to use. I think I will do pages with more photos in the future. 

  

Skipping Wednesday (haven't done it yet!) and onto Thursday's sketch by Andrea. Another one where we got a bonus points for doing a layout and a card. I love this sketch as it's so simple yet not boring; I can see myself using variations of it again and again! 

Friday's class was by Charlotte (I won't link to her blog as it's not been updated in nearly a year-- hint hint if you're reading this Charlotte!). I think this was my favorite class of all of them as it was something different than what I would usually do. I have done one page like this in the past but with just a bunch of eyelet punched holes which was actually published in a mag about 3 years ago. This one was far more elaborate though and fun to do. You can't tell in the scan but the top layer of the layout is raised up using foam glue pads. 

I haven't yet done Saturday or today's class but am hoping to do at least the Saturday class this evening when we have had dinner and tidied up. No time to scrap tomorrow as I'm off to a quilting group for most of the day and then WW at night. I am dreading my weigh in as I was a bit naughty all week and I'd bet I have gained weight. Not that big a deal as I had a nice time eating it and so long as I don't make it a habit it will be just fine. Have a busy week ahead with some fun stuff planned so I'm looking forward to it all!

Weight Watchers for Crafts?

I need to go on a stash diet, or at least start counting my stash points before I buy anything else. I don't mind spending the money so much as I mind that I don't seem to sit down and craft as much as I should/could. I'm going through a stage of stash accumulation and while I know that a creative phase will soon follow, I just wish the two would go hand in hand sometimes. I might have to go back to my create to spend plan that I had earlier this year. I failed after a month but I still spent less overall this year than I might've done had I not had my self imposed spending challenge. Eleni has been doing the create to spend challenge and is doing amazingly well with it. She says she took a page from my book to do this challenge but I think that it's now my turn to take a page from her book and try a little harder not to give up so easily this time around! I'll go with the same payment plan as last time (£5 per layout, £2.50 per card and £10 per quilt block) but I'm not going to take into account my monthly quilt block subscriptions and my single monthly scrapbook kit subscription costs. I'll think of them as magazine subscriptions instead. As I bought a Big Shot machine today there are several XL dies I want to get so my earnings will most likely go to buying them. I did buy 3 to start myself off today but there are a few others that I really want so I suppose I better get to work soon! I do need to sell my nearly brand new Cuttlebug to make space for my Big Shots. Anyone interested? 

The Stitch & Craft show in Olympia today was a lot better than previous years. Either that or I just have lower expectations of what I might see there so when I do find something I want, I am pleasantly surprised. I got some more polka dot fabrics, some white fabric with white butterflies (good for background fabric to stitch on), the Big Shot and dies and then a pack of cardstock for £6 (it's the one where you get as much as you can cram into the file folder). Had it not been so easy for me to get to, I wouldn't have made the effort to go but it's really nearby so it would've been rude not to go!
The kids both slept well last night with Charlie waking at 7am followed by Noemie waking up early at 7:15am. She was in such a good mood though and by 8:30 we were in the garden running around, blowing bubbles, playing with her sand table and makka pakka was taken around for a stroll in the doll buggy. Hopefully we have another good night as I am still a bit tired for some reason. Going to go sit in bed and read some more I think. Just not in the mood to sew tonight. Will leave you with a photo of Noemie reading a book I bought her the other day. It's about two monkeys fighting over a banana. Noemie ate 6 bananas after dinner and before bed tonight. She had a slow banana start to the day though. Still, it's better than eating 7 bags of potato chips!

Change of pace...

I put my stitching away for the morning and worked on a scrapbook page for a change. The photo Kirk took yesterday made me want to scrap and then I saw a title over on the AMLT blog and sketch 71 on the SketchThis blog and I was off and running. I used some of the new papers which recently arrived by 3Bugs along with prima pearly things, my new Papertrey heart stamps amongst other things. I feel very rusty with the scrapping as it's been a while since I've worked on a proper page. The 6x6 pages I did were different as there's very little space to fill on the page so it required less thinking and planning for me. I've got so many photos to catch up on so hopefully I'll scrap more often. 

Had my 10th WW weigh in today and lost... a pound. A measly little pound. My leader told me it was still a good loss and that as I'm nearing the healthy weight range for my height, it is normal for the weight loss to slow. She also pointed out that 3lbs a week is a big amount to lose and that most don't manage to lose as fast as I did for as long as I did. In any case it's disappointing so I need to exercise or something. At least I'm in the 10 stone range now... 10st13lbs to be exact. That's 153lbs so my next goal is to get under the 150 mark. Hopefully by the end of this month. I suppose I've lost 27lbs which isn't too shabby. I'm just so impatient. 

Tomorrow morning I am thinking of going to a quilt shop in Richmond. I'll have to call to make sure they are open. I don't really need anything but it sounded like a fun thing to go do. I'm also planning on going to the Stitch show in Olympia on Thursday morning. I don't buy much when I go but it's nice to wander around and look at what's new and if I go in the morning then I can go out to the park with the kids in the afternoon. Then on Saturday I'm going to Miniatura up in Birmingham. Then on Sunday, Kirk and I are going out for a lunch date at a restaurant called Wild Honey. Lots of fun stuff to look forward to this week.

Yay me! 6 pages done today!

I spent a bit of time scrapping today, especially while Noemie was napping and the nanny was playing with Charlie. It was nice to have a break! I tried out my twinkling H2Os for the first time today on one of the pages I did and I really like them so will be using them more often. Otherwise I just picked random stash out of my Christmas stash box and went with the flow. The album is going to have a very random look to it but I'm okay with that.

I forgot to share this photo yesterday of Noemie and Charlie watching TV together. Charlie was holding onto a little rattle and Noemie who usually has no interest in the item decided she wanted it afterall. I love the look on her face, trying to act like she totally wasn't trying to steal a toy from her baby brother. The kids took a bath together tonight and Noemie even washed Charlie's tummy for him with a wash cloth. I won't share that photo on here though as I haven't figured out how to conceal some bits that probably shouldn't be on a public blog! Now that Charlie responds and interacts more, Noemie is getting more interested in him and spends more time paying attention to him. 

So, I mentioned my spending mishap yesterday but never got to update my budget amount. Typepad for some reason won't let me edit yesterday's post at all. I had uploaded 3 images but only 1 appears and 2 show up as a blank box for me yet I can't remove them or reload them (no worries, just pics of QK stuff but it makes the page load slowly for me). I suppose I could just delete the entry if it bothers me enough. 

Old budget: -£22.45 

Additional oops: £44.40 

Earned: £17.50 

I'm still poor: -£49.35 

(thank goodness it's a fake budget)

A another page, a spending mishap and such

I totally forgot about the challenge over on UKS for Scrap like you mean it. I remembered at around 10pm tonight and managed to get this done quickly. Photo of Noemie from boxing day (I think I wrote the wrong date on the layout, oh well). The challenge was to scrap using your favorite color which in my case is pink. I used papers from Imaginesce (with glitter already on them!), AC Thickers, Maya Road Journaling sheer and the word everyday is a Technique Tuesday stamp by Ali Edwards. I'll go back to the Christmas album tomorrow I think and work on it until it's done. 29 pages left to go! I had another spending mishap today but luckily it will get paid off when the Christmas pages are completed. I just can't have anymore oops moments between now and then! I ordered some QK Revolution dies, the cake and the label ones to be specific. I also had a pink storage binder on hold and then got a few more ink pads. I don't feel as bad about spending now that I am actually using my stash but I still do want to try and stay within my create to spend plans. My parents came over for lunch today. Grandpa and Noemie made playdoh cookies and whatever else Noemie wanted Grandpa to do. Charlie got some good cuddle time in with Grandma which they both seemed to enjoy. I spent the majority of my day trying to get Charlie to eat but he was having a weird day of barely napping and not wanting to eat much though he did catch up by bedtime on the food side of things. Noemie made me do stickers with her for several hours today. I am SO sick of stickers but the upside is that she cuddles up to me while we do them so that part is pretty cool. Both of our kids are so affectionate and love to be held and sit on our laps. We call them our handbags as they are constantly being carried around. Well, man bag in Kirk's case of course.

Charlie is 3 months!

Hard to believe but Charlie is already 3 months old! I had put him in his room just before it was time for Noemie's bath and I heard him giggling away so I went to see what he was up to. He's been grabbing things this past week or so and is so proud of himself. Usually it's the parrot that hangs on his bouncy chair. Earlier today it was this dangly thing on his playmat which plays a little jingle when you hit it hard enough. Today was the mobile hanging in his cot. At one point he was pulling on it and rolled onto his side and then grabbed the cot railings with his other hand. I probably should do more tummy time with him so he can practice rolling over but he hates it and I hate watching him hate it. I went back to read what Noemie was up to at this age and she was grabbing things as well and rolling onto her side so I guess Charlie is doing what he needs to be doing for his age. I'm pretty laid back about this stuff as it frankly isn't that important to me for my kids to do these milestones early. It won't make any difference as life goes on. So long as they do them in the "acceptable" time frame, I'm happy.

I got two more pages done tonight after we finished dinner. I'm really enjoying the 6x6 size as it goes fast and you don't have a ton of options about what to put on the page as there isn't a ton of space. Hopefully I will be able to do a few more pages tomorrow night. I noticed something weird about the AC Thickers chipboard letters on the second page and scanning it confirmed I wasn't seeing things. It's the same pack but the letter "t" and the "!" was on the 2nd/reverse sheet and they are a bit lighter green than the other letters from the front sheet. Odd. I have another new pack downstairs so I'll have to check it tomorrow to see if I just had a faulty pack or something. It's a good thing I'm doing a 6x6 project at the moment as I need to "earn" some money quickly as I bought something today that I didn't have the budget for. I better make a note of it so I can make sure I pay it all off! 

At least I did well with my first day of WW. I've got a point left over that I'm saving for the weekend. Went out for two walks today so got some exercise too. It's weird having to stop and think about what I'm eating and it does make you so much more aware of how easy it is to overeat. I'm going to need to plan my weeks in advance as it's too hard to know what to eat when I don't always get to eat when *I* want to or might not make it to the store or something. Will spend some time on this later this week to get organized.

Old budget: £22.75 

BOM debit: £23.45 

Purchase:£26.75 

Earned: £5.00 

I'm poor: -22.45 

Some Christmas Layouts & Fat Momma

Oh my gosh how cold was it today? And tonight? FREEZING. The last few winters have been so mild not to mention, pregnant, so it's weird to have a cold winter during which I'm not pregnant so am actually feeling cold. I decided to do some 6x6 Christmas layouts and managed to do three this afternoon. I can't even remember what products I used as I was using scraps and just grabbing stuff from my massive pile of Christmas stash I've collected over the past two years. Once I finish this little album I will do a bunch of cards with my scraps. I'm planning on around 34 pages for my 6x6 album and I'd like to get it done in the next week or two. I'm on my own with Noemie and Charlie the next few days though so not much will get done, at least not during the day time! 

I had my first weight watchers meeting this evening and though I didn't weigh as much as I expected, the amount I weigh is awful. I think it falls into the obese category. If it doesn't, it really should. I gained 5lbs over the holidays which puts me at 10lbs heavier than what I was pre-Charlie pregnancy. My first goal is to lose that amount. It's easier to work with little goals but my overall goal is to lose 50lbs. That would still make me heavier than when I first met Kirk though that was 10 years ago so I should cut myself some slack. I was younger and hadn't had two kids. My point counting starts tomorrow morning so I need to figure out what to eat so I can make sure not to mess things up on my first day. I have a 22pt allowance a day so will have the Pret a Manger deluxe sushi worth 6pts for lunch, a tall skinny latte from Starbucks worth 1-1/2pts and then some fruit and perhaps oatmeal or a slice of toast for breakfast. I need to figure out dinner, maybe some tofu with noodles or something. We'll see. Any bonus points I get for walking or whatever won't be for extra food consumption. I'd like to lose a steady 1-1/2 to 2lbs a week. I'm not going to weigh myself in between WW meetings as I don't want to get obsessive. It's a lifestyle change rather than a diet and I'm not going to spend the rest of my life weighing myself daily. 

I think it's time to crawl under the duvet in an effort to warm up a bit.

Old budget: £15.25

New Budget: £22.75

And one more...

Only managed one more page last night but had fun doing it. Am hoping to do more today but we'll see how the day goes. I used Basic Grey Blush papers, lots of Autumn Leaves buttons, Scenic Route chipboard letters, Heidi Swapp chipboard heart and a KI Memories Love, Elsie heart sticker. It's great getting some old stash used up. I haven't made the card using the scraps yet as I decided to go to bed instead. 

Charlie is having his 3 month growth spurt as he woke up at midnight (we were still up) and again at 5:30 and drained his 8oz bottle both times. That's in addition to the two 8oz bottles he had before bedtime. He is a boy who likes his milk. 

We all finally woke up at 9am today when Noemie woke us up. I hope our kids always sleep in a bit in the mornings as it would suck to get woken up at 6:30am or something. I made us all some pancakes for breakfast which Noemie actually enjoyed. The last time I made pancakes in early December, she refused to eat them. Today she ate an entire one along with a banana and lots of milk. Lunch will be Kirk's thing to figure out. Meal times are challenging with Noemie as she knows it's one of the few things she can control in her life so she often refuses things that she usually likes. I know it will pass and that she won't starve herself but it's still frustrating. At least she likes fruit and veggies and doesn't like much junk food. 

Old budget: £8.25

New Budget: £10.75

On a roll!

I took advantage today of the fact Noemie and Charlie both took a nap at the same time and both took super long naps at that. I also knew that even if one or the other woke up, Kirk was around to go to them so I could scrap uninterrupted for a while. I managed to get a layout of Charlie done and then made two cards with the scraps. The photo was taken 2 days ago and I really liked it so had to scrap it right away. I used Scenic Route Metropolis patterned papers, AC Thickers letter stickers, Junkitz twill ribbon and a MM journaling thingie (no idea what to call these things). The Feel Better card was made using an October Afternoon stamp colored in with my prisma pencils. The thank you card is a Hero Arts stamp, SU ribbon and various punches. I really should plug in and charge my MM slice as the Noteworthy cartridge has some great shapes for card making. 

Charlie is already in bed, Kirk is playing with Noemie upstairs, so I think I will go downstairs and get the kitchen tidied up and then start working on another layout. I'm on a roll and don't want to lose momentum! Besides, I just bought some more 3d foam tabs and a few bits of grosgrain ribbon from The Ribbonrie so I need to earn a bit more as my BlueBirds BOM block 2 is due to ship on Monday and that's £18 or so I believe. I am nearly done with block one, just the outside scalloped bit to applique. 

Budget: £19.75 

Earned: £5.50 

Spent: £17.00 

Remaining budget: £8.25