Me on a festive Monday

It's been an escaping santa, Christmas jumper wearing, ladies what do lunch, pizza gorging, kiddy entertaining, last minute shopping and wrapping, cheeky sneak previews from the Baby, Christmas tunes blaring, tree abusing (toddlers and trees don't mix!), fast food craving, recieving a letter from the big man himself, a hairy night with lots of little one coughing, a blissful lie in till 9,30 and editing pics in bed kind of a Monday.

Thanks Sian for keeping my blog going with this meme!

All about the tree

Finally getting a chance to join in with Sian's Christmas club. Every week I have racked my brains for a story I haven't yet shared and then always change my mind as I don't have a corresponding picture or I've left it too late. So here it is...

So Christmas 2010 was a pretty memorable one. In many ways it was quite a quiet one as my youngest sister and her husband were working out in the paradise that is Turks and Caicos and my older sister decided Christmas on the beach was a better option.

When we arrived at my parents house we were disappointed, but not surprised, that they didn't have a tree yet. We're a real tree family and so we set off to the tree farms to find the perfect specimen.

This was also the year of the white Christmas and this smattering of white stuff makes everything instantly more magical. 

There seemed to be a shortage of trees a few days before Christmas and so we ended up in Homebase where they had two measly specimens left. See below...

Certainly not the best spread of branches and a bit bare at the top. This is when I hit on the idea of asking for a discount. 

Now my dad is Irish and like the Scottish and the Yorkshire folk they are very careful with their money (read: tight) whenever we've been shopping and dad asks the price we always halve it and he'll still comment, "that's expensive!" We knew for his sake we had to get a discount.

My mom, however, is the opposite and loves the luxurious things in life. Her idea of a sale if the Harrods sale where everything is 20% off and still barely affordable! So I dared her to ask for a discount.

The pimply sales assistant was clearly not used to such bolshy customers and so he had to call the supervisor and we wee beginning to lose our nerve by the time he turned up. 

However she used her South African charms and logic in pointing out that it was one of the only ones left and the big day was almost upon us. He ended up taking a tenner off for us and so we found dad in the bargain corner to tell him our exciting news.

His response? "£18 for a tree? That's expensive!"

No pleasing some Irish men.

Sunday Scrapbooking: July Project Life

I have loads of Project Life spreads to share. These are from July when a certain baby turned one and we threw him a pirate party.

Since my talented sister, Gem, was taking the photos I kept the layouts simple to just keep the focus on the stunning photos.

These were some of the first spreads that I did and I didn't have much product so I just tried to find any black, white or red cards from the few part kits I had.

This stamp was a great find in the £1 bin at Hobbycraft and I used it for a lot of the small touches at the party - like the napkins and signs on the buffet table.

I used wrapping paper and some of the larger Project Life cards to fill these bigger pockets. This is my least favourite size to work with but I had purchased the variety pack and these are what I had left to work with! 

Again stamping was the main embellishment and I used it to provide minimal journalling to enhance and tell the story of the day.

The front side of the top layout and a similar approach. I included the invite to tell some of the details of the day.

Lastly the helium balloons which helped everyone to find our house as we had just moved a month prior to the party. 

A close-up of the smartie cookies which were a hit on the day - again thanks to my talented sister Gemma.

So that is my Sunday scrapbooking shared and in the meantime I will bask in smugness that I have actually managed 23 days of blogging in a row. What have you been creating lately?

52 Saturdays: Birthday celebrations!

Today we headed into a very festive looking Leeds. We instantly regretted it when the crowds were closing in on us and I had run into too many peoples' feet with the pushchair! Who goes into town so close to the big event?

However, as shopping was not our purpose we headed to the top floor of Harvey Nichols to our fav lunch spot in Leeds. The Belgian got to chose where we were eating as it was his birthday and so He chose Yo Sushi, a firm fav of ours (cue link to previous blog post and layout) and it helped that when you sign up online you get a third off voucher on your birthday. 

We treated ourselves to dish after dish and some filling miso soup for a very reasonable price. The Baby had pineapple and mango coconut water and plain noodles. He also enjoyed playing with the emdame beans and charming all of the ladies in the queue. As usual! He was also a lot happier out of his highchair and sat on a big seat next to daddy.

Afterwards we went to check out the Lidl outside of town as I keep seeing gorgeous kitchen toys that I am after for a certain Baby's stocking. However they weren't stocking them and so we just indulged in some of their Christmas treats. The chocolate Santas are for celebrating Saint Nicholas on the 6th.

When we arrived home the Baby pottered around. Played with some at dough and sensory bits and watched the footy with daddy.

Then dinner time, bath and bed so that mummy and daddy can watch some Netflix and do some sofa surfing! 

Did you brave the shops today? I have decided that I will only Christmas shop on my days off or online!

Friday Five: Five Happy Memories with the Belgian

In the spirit of Friday Five and the fact that it is the Belgians' birthday I will list five happy memories we have shared together:

1)  Night markets, sunset cocktails, lots of noodles (even for breakfast), five star glamour, karaoke and sight seeing on honeymoon in Malaysia

2) Dodging jellyfish, eating lots of delicious ice-cream, historic tours and our yellow bus setting on fire on holiday in Malta

3) A Californian road trip: three weeks of huge portions, town hopping, kayaking with tiger sharks, staying in some questionable motels, climbing the steep streets of San Fran and Jelly Belly World

4) A romantic mini break in the historic town of Budapest with visits to the night market, lots of selfies and lots of lounging around in saunas

5) Him holding our little baby is his arms for the first half an hour of his life whilst I was being sewn up. You were so supportive and he was the most gorgeous baby either of us had ever seen!

Happy birthday to a great husband and father!

Difference between men and women...

So tonight I had parents evening (yeah I know on my day off!) and so the Belgian was in charge of dinner, bath and bed time all on his own. 

I arrived back at 8:30 and can you imagine what I found?

The top picture shows the bath which had toys everywhere and was still full of bubbles. 

The Babies' clothes were strewn across the floor along with a just stepped out of wet nappy.

Dinner dishes were strewn across the kitchen along with a half eaten pizza.

Toys littered the floor in a car, block and duplicate explosion.

 The Belgian was no-where to be seen, but was finally found asleep in bed.

Who says that men can't multi task?

Workspace Wednesday: Favourite Product

So I turned to the #blogvember guru to help me stay on track with blogging every day in November. The prompt was your favourite product right now. Since I am no fashion or beauty blogger I shied away from sharing any fabulous make-up or beauty products. (Let's be honest half te time I use Johnsons baby shampoo as it's all we have in the house and whatever moisturiser is on special at the supermarket!)

So in my crafty time lately I have been loving my Heidi Swapp Interchangable stamp. It is perfect for adding a little sentiment to project life cards or adding embellishments to layouts.

I have mainly been using it just to stamp on a card but have also stamped and then cut around it and added it to a layout with a pop dot to add dimension. I can imagine embossing the image wod work quite well and you could even try stamping in a different colour if you don't mind getting too fiddly with it.

At first I wasn't getting a perfect image, but then I found this video and found the tips very helpful. 

What is the one crafting product you are loving lately? What is the one you could not love without? 

Cake smash step by step layout

So what is more shocking - that I have blogged every day in November so far or that I produced an actual scrapbook layout?

Bit of both I guess. But I had some time on my hands (umm...not really) and love, love, love this photo from the Baby's first birthday (which I still need to blog about actually!) of his cake smash. He really got involved. I love the pose and the wrinkled nose and the conviction of this shot.

He is his mother's son for sure.

I was also inspired by the gorgeous layers on this layout and so I cracked out a 12 by 12 pad and got building.

I started with this bright yellow polka dot print as it reminds me of the sunshine that day...

I built some layers with other papers and washi tape and a day of the week sticker.

I repeated the date stamp and the 'SO SWEET' stamp in alternate black ink and coloured ink.

I inked all of the edges to make it pop and built some more texture in with the wood veneers.

I added the photo with pop dots and built some more layer by cutting the sentiment out of a 12 by 12 sheet.

I added a banner and the number 1 in blue polka dot - both cut out from one of his birthday cards.

There you have it a layout created in about thirty minutes and I might be reverting back. Or switching it up a bit more. After all you can't create such impressive layers in Project Life can you?

Me on a Monday

It was a woolly hat wearing, soft playing with gusto, rejecting the toddler section, forcing mummy to follow me down the rainbow slide, meeting up with a friend for a play date, daddy sanding doors, watching series ten of Grey's Anatomy, church attending, lovely Sunday lunch at our friends house with lots of yummy roast potatoes, book marking and target setting and cookie gorging kind of a weekend!

And how was yours?

52 Saturdays...

Today started with a lovely lie in for mummy whilst my two boys went for an early morning swim. Breakfast was toast and pancakes for the Baby - swimming always makes you hungry. I did some dishes and other fun jobs like laundry. 

I built the bricks into towers and he pulled them apart whilst daddy had a snooze. We played with his cars and trucks. He loves anything with wheels nowadays. 

The baby napped for a record two and a half hours. I made a scrapbook page of his first birthday after being inspired by Jill Sprott's colourful and vibrant layout. 

The Belgian and I had pumpkin soup and salt and pepper crusted white bread. Then he headed to the garage with he sander whilst the Baby and I headed off on a play date.

We ended up at a huge soft play centre and the Baby was in his element diving and climbing and dancing and driving and whizzing down the slides head first!

We had hot dogs and baked potatoes for tea. We read some books and then had bath time where the Baby decided it was fun to throw all his toys out of the bath! He was pointing to the sink and making noises and I realised he wanted his toothbrush. I wouldn't say he brushes his teeth but he likes sucking on it!

The Belgian and I pigged out on donuts and Chips Ahoy popcorn cookies whilst watching three episodes of Greys Anatomy in a row.

How did your Saturday look?

Five Thoughts on Project Life

1) Washi tape is everything

2) Repetative stamping is a simple and effective way to embellish 

3) Cutting up 12 by 12 papers makes great cards as you never get enough of the big ones in a kit

4) Orange, grey and black is a great colour combo

5) Simple is best

#Pinwin

 

Are you addicted to pinning?

Do you find yourself spending your creative time just pinning things for the future?

Do you never get around to actually making all the things you pin?

Do you ever make anything you pin?

So, most of the time my answer to all these questions is yes, yes, no, no but today was a Pinterest win as I actually made two of the things I pinned.

1) This delicious pumpkin cheesecake trifle as we had friends for dinner and pumpkin purée aplenty in the freezer. It's my kind of dessert as it was largely whipping and assembling. Try it! You'll like it! If you like pumpkin...if not don't follow my Pumpkin Everything board.

2) On my Fun for Toddlers board I pinned lots of baby sensory activities so today I raided the stationary section of our local Asda Home and got some stash. We had fun creating monsters - even if the Baby got distracted trying to eat the googly eyes!

Have you had any #pinwins recently?