Sarah Youde

As Promised...

I finished stitching all the beads onto Judy Dixon's Fairy Dust last night.  It has turned out really pretty, I will probably make it into a little pillow.

I have been scrapping with those gorgeous acrylic albums today.  Photographs will follow but here is a little sneak peak of todays creation.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday!  Mark is off out tonight so I can watch whatever I want on TV!  I may even do some more stitching.  I have decided to stitch a little scissor fob next - it is called In My Garden and is by Shepherds Bush.

Skater Dude

Saturday morning was Ben's swimming lesson which is at 8am!!  We had to leave the house at 7.30, don't these people know that us parents need a rest sometimes?  Anyway, Ben did really well.  I was watching him from the cafe (with cappuccino in hand) and I was astonished when I saw him jumping into the deep end!  This is a little boy who hates getting water in his eyes - he was brilliant.  Mark bought Ben and Charlotte some new go-gos (goggles to you and me!) before he had his lesson but they weren't fitting him correctly and Ben had to empty the water out of them each time he got out of the pool!

Charlotte went for a swim with Daddy whilst Ben was having his lesson and after that it was time for her Ballet lesson (thankfully at the same health club).  Whilst Charlotte was doing ballet and Mark had finished in the gym Mark and I had a coffee and a piece of cake (mmmmm - lovely carrot cake). 

So that is our Saturdays - although generally Mark takes them by himself so that I can get the house all sorted and ready for the weekend.  I wanted to go this week to see Ben jumping in the pool :o)

Ben got a skateboard for Christmas so on Sunday we promised him that we would take him up to Central Park so that he could have a go on it.  So we packed up the car with Ben's skateboard and Charlotte's scooter and drove up to the park.

I was really impressed with how well Ben is managing on his scooter - bless him.  He can balance on his own for a little while and Mark is trying to teach him how to jump off properly.  Actually, Mark was returning to his youth and skating down the path, twisting and turning (unfortunately I didn't manage to capture that on camera!).

Charlotte had fun on her scooter (falling off as usual!) and then we headed to the park to let them go mad for a little while.

They had a great time :o)

I have done a little bit of scrapbooking.  I have been using Kylie's acrylic albums from Scrapping Clearly and they are absolutely gorgeous.  I will put a picture here of the album I have finished as soon as I have sent it to Kylie for the DT gallery - I love it.  I am halfway through my second album and they are so much fun to make.

I quickly put a layout together yesterday morning just because I felt the urge and ended up with this one of Ben on the beach building sandcastles with Grandad at Marazion in Cornwall last summer.

I have also been doing a little bit of stitching and I have almost finished the little project I showed a few months ago (I know - but I haven't picked it up again until last night!).  It is Judy Dixon's gorgeous little Fairy Dust project.  I will post a picture tomorrow when it is complete.

On a sad note:  All About Eve has come to an end.  I am sad that we have decided to put an end to the blog as it was great fun but I think some of the girls have gone their own way and the heart was just not there to continue at this time.  So bye, bye to all my fellow Eve's, it was great fun whilst it lasted.

Untitled

How do you blog when nothing is really happening and how do you think of a title for the post?

I had an amazing couple of packages in the post this week.  One came all the way from Australia.  Kylie sent me some of her acrylic albums to play with and they are absolutely amazing - I am in love.  The other was my package from Bellaboo and I have been busy creating 'stuff' this week.  I can't show you what I have done with the March kit for Bellaboo yet but it was such fun to work with.  Now I am going to get to grips with those gorgeous acrylic albums and do some creating for kylie :o)

The children have been amazingly good this week, I don't know what has got into them, especially Ben who is being an absolute angel!  Last week his teacher actually called Mark over to tell him how wonderful Ben is behaving!!  This is a complete turn around - we are so proud of him.  I am going to school this afternoon to do some reading with the children in year 2 but hopefully I will get to see Ben and Charlotte too.  I love watching them when they are at school.

I did this layout last week:

Woo Hoo Bellaboo!

I had a lovely email the other day.  It was from Liberty at Bellaboo asking me if I would do bit of work for her with her monthly kits.  I have to say that I have just received March's kit and it is going to be perfect for those Spring and Mother's Day projects so next week I am going to get to work preparing some projects for the March newsletter.  Thanks for asking me Liberty, I am shocked and pleased in equal measure!

Other news this week is that I took the decision to leave Mojoholder.  The only reason for this was that I find it difficult to scraplift.  I love working from sketches which is why I started providing sketches for the layouts on Mojoholder in the first place but I found that I still had the original layout in my head each week and it was putting me off a bit.  So it was my problem and not that of Mojoholder, I still think it is a great blog for providing inspiration if you have lost your mojo!  I loved being part of Mojo and will still keep popping on their forum to say 'hi' because I will miss them!

I am still loving All About Eve and being part of Scrapgenie.  Talking of Scrapgenie, don't write them off because there are some fantastic developments brewing but I can't say any more than you are going to be MORE than happy with a particular little venture that Robert has up his sleeve - I can't wait.

Oh and I got tagged by Beckie with a You Make My Day award this week. 

The tag is:

"You Make My Day Award” the rules are…..Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!

My "You Make My Day" Awards go to:

Tracie
Anna
Annie

Things to share

Just a quick post today to share a few things with you.  I realised that I hadn't put my little London mini album on my blog so here is a picture of that:

I painted the Prima Paintables with watercolours after cutting the 12" x 12" sheet into 4 x 6" rectangles for my mini book.  The front cover has an acetate window so that the London scene on the first page can be seen through the cover - quite effective I think.

I started this layout of Ben at a crop quite a few months ago and it has been sitting in my drawer with the photos and background patterned paper on it ever since - I just couldn't seem to get the inspiration to finish it but today when I found an old gold gel pen the rest just came to me!  Only a simple layout but the gold (I usually hate gold lol) really makes it.

And lastly, I have just done another layout of my cheeky little monkey.  It was another quick one for me as it only took about an hour but I love the results and those Prima chipboard letters were just perfect for it.

I Feel Goooooood

Woo Hoo, today for the first time in a week I slept through the night without waking up to have racking coughing fits - it feels so great to feel normal!  I am still a little devoid of energy but apart from that I think I have finally shrugged off this bug (or whatever it was).

All About Eve came back from the Christmas break today with a great new challenge - New Beginnings.  I chose to depict the day that Charlotte started school last September.  I know All About Eve is about scrapping yourself but to me the day Charlotte started school was a new beginning for her but also for me as my baby finally left me to an empty house five days of the week.  I was so proud of her on that day (but then I am always proud of Ben and Charlotte).

Last Friday's Mojo was a scraplift of the brilliant Lee Woodside from Australia, I wasn't feeling great when I did the layout so it isn't exactly how I wished it to be but the idea is there.  I used Lee's multi-photo layout as a showcase for some of my favourite layouts of 2007.  It truly is a hybrid layout as the border, text and most of the title were printed directly onto the cardstock and I just added the paper and photographs.  I also could not get a decent picture of this, the colours match in real life and the little felt heart is nowhere near as neon as it looks lol.  The other girls on the Mojo DT have created some amazing layout so go and have a look. 

I always create a sketch of the layout for the Mojo blog and I am putting this one here because it is a great sketch to follow for multi-pic layouts :)

Talking of Australians, I have a wonderful team mate on Mojo called Kylie Tout and she has just started a new scrapping company in Australia called Scrapping Clearly selling gorgeous acrylic albums and various items which decorate them.  Anyway, she contacted me the other day to ask if I would be on her design team and I was thrilled!  Kylie has sent a package to me so that I can do some work for her and I can't wait to have a play with the products.  She ships to the UK so go and have a look at her shop because it is brilliant. 

I have also done another layout this week but I can't share that one with you, it is for something that I am very excited about and I was so honoured to have been asked to contribute to!  You know who you are :)

I got a new phone today too.  It is a Nokia 7373, very pink and girly.  I really wanted an iPhone but Mark forced me to be sensible and just get a normal phone because, to be honest I don't really need an iPhone because I always carry around a compact camera and my ipod anyway.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box and saw my new phone - it's so sweet.  It even came with a gorgeous little pink soft case and a lovely silver phone charm :)

As well as that, I ordered a lovely little gem ring the other day in white gold and it arrived today - so pretty! I still need to get a photo of that though.

Bleuuurghhhhhh

I still have this horrible bug. I am really fed up now, I wish it would just go away as I am bored just sitting around and doing nothing. Every time I try to do something, even making a cup of tea I get completely worn out.

Boo hoo - I want to be better!

The Poorly House

Everyone here is poorly!  Charlotte was off school yesterday and then Ben got sent home from school.  Then I got ill too.  The only person to escape it (so far) is Mark.  I can't tell you how lucky he is because I feel really terrible and flu - ish.  I think the kids are beginning to feel better because they are both getting a little more mobile than they were yesterday and are interested in eating and playing again, which is good.

I just wanted to show you my new Momiji's that Mum bought me for Christmas, I forgot to upload the picture in the last post.

Happy New Year!

How late am I???

Happy new year to everyone, even if it is a little late!  I have been really busy this week because I was doing the christmas video on the computer and my hard drive ran out of space.  I was gutted but it prompted me to go out and buy an external hard drive for photograph and video storage and back up.  Then I spent the rest of the week (every day!) sorting out all my files and approximately 8,000 photographs and backing them up.  I feel so much happier now it is all done! 

I missed doing Mojoholder last night because after I had sorted everything out my internet connection decided to die on me, I couldn't even get the sketch done for them like I usually do, so sorry girls.  Here is my mojo layout from the previous week though.

Festive Feast

We are a really proud family this week because my niece Kimberley...

Kimberley

...has just found out that she has been awarded a place at Cambridge University next year.  She wants to be a doctor (well, actually a surgeon) and I am sure she will realise her dream.  Well done Kim!

Here are a few photographs of our Christmas.  I promise to blog sooner next time, I just wanted to get this computer sorted before I got anything else done - and now I feel so happy that it is all organised.  I must admit that I got a bit carried away and have organised the house as well - it is so nice to open all the cupboards and see complete organisation - ok I admit it, I am an organisation freak!!

Cheers!