It's Me, Sarah

Simply Does It

Whilst making cards I have realised that - usually - the simpler the design, the better they look.  I do love some of the beautifully intricate cards I see on other peoples blogs (Amy Sheffer for example), there is no doubt they are stunning (and I may attempt some of those one day) but, for me, its all clean and simple because I am making them to have a stash ready for those moments when you need one and I would never get them done if I went all elaborate about it.

Here are a couple more I have made lately :)

The houses are cut from some Fancy Pants Kraft card and the sentiment was printed

Just paper, button and string (sentiment is printed onto Kraft Cardstock)

 

The flowers on this card are from a lovely little Hero Arts stamp and the 'Thanks a Bunch' stamp is from a SeeD's thank you set

My nephew Jason, who has just moved in with his girlfriend, phoned me to say how much he loved the New Home card which was just lovely - especially coming from the male of the species who don't usually care to much for home made stuff :)

I have been scrapping as well but nothing I can share at the moment, I can say that my layout for The Scrapbook Magazine (out on 11th February) will be gracing the cover. 

We are thinking of getting a little fish tank for the kids so I am going to pop to the tropical fish shop today to look at the tanks (will be a small one!) so that it can be set up ready to take the kids to the shop for fishes tomorrow.

Getting the Card Bug!

I have been struck by the cardmaking bug!  I really want to make a big batch of cards so that I have them on hand for peoples birthdays instead of stressing that I need to make one when birthdays are looming.  I never seem to get around to it and end up buying one which is disgusting considering the amount of 'stuff' I have here to make them.

Here are a couple I have done over the last few weeks.

 

 

We are having a very lazy weekend!  Mark was duty on Friday and got home on Saturday morning, we spent the day watching DVD's and snoozing on the sofa - lovely :)  Today we gave the kids a belated Christmas present.  They had so much at Christmas that we decided to save their didicars for a later date so they were very excited this morning to receive a surprise present.  It's amazing how the cars propel themselves along just by turning the steering wheel, I have to admit that Mark and I had a go on them (well a few gos!) in the kitchen.  Ben and Charlotte have been outside this morning screaming up and down the path on the cars - definitely a good buy, they love them.

Snow in Plymouth!

We woke up this morning to a blanket of snow and it was still falling, we switched on the radio to see if the school was closed for the day because checking the local radio station's website showed that all the schools in the area were closed apart from Ben and Charlotte's.  They reluctantly got ready for school and were just putting their shoes on when it was announced that the school was closed.  The kids were ecstatic and raced upstairs to change into snow clothes and we all headed off to the local football field for the kids to mess around.

We took all three bilibo's with us for the kids to sit in and use to slide down the hill they loved that - even Mark had a go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I am just wondering if it will snow again tonight and whether the kids will be going to school or not in the morning.  I think they have enjoyed their snow day playing outside and then having time on the PS3 playing Little Big Planet this afternoon.

Amy has been loving this advert as she is baby and baby doll mad!!

The Last Week of School

It is the last week of school for Ben and Charlotte this week and that is always a bit of a manic week, not to mention the extreme excitement that will invade the house next week whilst they have 6 days at  home before the big day.  Luckily Mark goes on leave on Friday as well which is a huge relief because the children's behaviour is much better when victorian Daddy is home!

I have got three days now to get everything sorted in the house for Christmas so that I can enjoy the week before Christmas with my family, I really don't want to be stressing about last minute presents, cards or wrapping, oh and not forgetting I have Amy's first Nativity on Thursday and the girls are coming round on Friday for a get together - can't wait :)

I took a load of photographs of the kids in front of the Christmas Tree the other day to use for family cards, not one came out good enough!  I may need to do more of that this evening - oh the joy!  They hate to pose (except Ben who is a regular little model!).

Here are some more of my Journal Your Christmas pages, just to add a little light relief to my post

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

 

Day 12

 

Day 13

Now, I need to go and find the wobbly antlers headband for Charlotte to wear to school today :)

JYC Catch Up and Decorating for Christmas

Just a quick catch up on my Journal Your Christmas pages.  I will add a couple more tomorrow, I love how this album is turning out :)

 

 

 

I didn't get around to uploading these at the weekend as we were out most of the day on Saturday having a lovely meal at Frankie and Benny's and generally looking around the shops.  On Sunday I decorated the Christmas tree with the children which went quite well this year!

 

 

 

Journal Your Christmas - Day 3

Can't believe I have managed this three days in a row!  I am getting worried about binding my album already though, it's going to be thick.  I think I need to do a few less dimensional pages over the next few days.

Here is my entry for Day 3.  The journaling is in the envelope and tells how I try to make cards each year and in the past they have been cross stitched, photographic and papercrafted. The pictures show some of the cross stitch cards I have sent in the past.

Envelope closed:

Envelope open:

Amy went to pre-school this morning and the local newspaper came to take photographs of the children in their nativity outfits, apparently she was NOT happy because the baby jesus had to stay in the crib - Amy absolutely loves babies of any kind whether they are real or not.  When I arrived to pick her up she didn't want to come home because one of the Mums was in the hall with a real baby in a pram - Amy wouldn't move away from it she was just staring at the sleeping baby.  She cried when I picked her up to bring her home which is a slight improvement on a few weeks ago when she wouldn't even let me drop her off at school!!

It's Wicked

Here are the other two projects that I completed during the cybercrop.

The first is just a great memory, In 1995 Mark went on deployment for 7 months which was horrible, however, after 5 months I was able to fly out to Singapore and meet him for a ten day holiday in Singapore and Penang.  The funny thing is that when we met each other at the airport it took us a moment to recognise each other as I had lost a lot of weight (2 stone, which was far too much, I looked like a rake) and Mark had shaved his hair off (yes he still had some then!).

The second project was a lovely mini book class by Voodoo Vixen (UKS Username).  I decided to make a book that I can use to for photo's and memories of my boy.

 

I used a sheet of acetate across the front cover of my book so that I could add stickers and rubons overlaying the photographs.

Silliness with Photobooth

The kids and I were taking photographs with the computer the other day and Ben was getting a little silly with the Photobooth effects, just look at the photographs, I can honestly say that I had tears of laughter running down my face.  I don't think Amy quite understood what was going on but she had fun laughing at us anyway.  Ben is bugging me to play on it all the time now!

 

 

 

 

Tea was a bit late that night, I should have been cooking instead of messing around - I don't think they cared much about that though.

Happy Halloween!!!

Well the kids are in bed having filled themselves with chocolate this evening.  They had a fabulous time with lots of little gifts from myself, Nanny and Auntie Carol.  Although I don't mind little ones coming to my door at Halloween doing a Trick or Treat and I always have a bowl of sweets ready and a candlelit pumpkin in the window to welcome trick or treaters I would never take Ben, Charlotte and Amy around.  I just don't like the thought of it!  I don't know why, is it the thought of encouraging my kids to go to strangers doors and ask for sweets? Begging?  I am really not sure what it is, I just have something inside me that says 'No'.  Strange!

One thing I am sure of though, I don't like dressed up teenagers coming to my door and wanting lollipops and sweets - whats that all about?  Use your pocket money!!

That is why I love the fact that my Mum and sister like to give the kids such lovely stuff at Halloween, they don't understand that Mummy has this weird aversion to trick or treating and this way they don't miss out on the sweets because, believe me, Mum and Carol go nuts and they get a massive haul!

Anyway, here is their day :)

 

 

 

The best thing for my Ogre, Pretty Witch and Pumpkin is I have promised them that they can have a piece of chocolate for dessert at breakfast time tomorrow - Scary!

Geek Girl

I really need to find some time to blog, or scrapbook or anything really!

It is half term at the moment and I am trying to potty train Amy which is going quite well she is weeing on the potty without any problems, now I just need to get her to ask for it.  This is more difficult than it sounds because Amy doesn't talk very much yet.

Here is a layout I did a little while ago.  I went the Cathy Zielske route with this one and designed the whole thing on the computer and then created it with a mixture of printing and papercrafting.  I wouldn't call it a hybrid layout but it was great using the computer for the design.  I really enjoyed making the little flowers too.