Not off on me hols.

Well it seems that our mate cant get the same weeks holiday as us and Martin cant change his to meet the weeks our mate can have so our week on the canal ways of Yorkshire are off for this year. We may manage a long weekend in gay Paree instead, we will see. A bit of a disappointment as I was already on that boat meandering along the waters.

This week has been so long - I am just so unhappy working at the Nursery. Don't get me wrong the people and children are lovely but there is just too much internal politics which seem to trying to involve me. Plus I am so physically exhausted - in some ways teaching is so much easier, but for the pittance I am being paid it just isn't worth it. Anyway my psoriasis has flared again, so after a chat with hubby I have decided NOT to take up a permenant contract if/when it is offered.

As well as that I have an interview for a part time teaching job which although a little further away than I want to travel, great. Please let me get through the interview this time.

Father's Day

We had the kids round for a BBQ - which their father had to cook!

I was very tired as the white monster puppy had been up since half five and t Laura and Wayne had taken us to Zizzi's for dinner the previous evening, but not until 9.30 so we didnt get to bed much before 12.

And then I managed to throw the glass bowl of strawberries and raspberries (my first crop) all over the patio so only ice cream for desert.

I bought my dad chocolate - the fruit and nut kind. Turns out he cant eat the nut one with his one tooth but that will teach him not to say 'nothing' when asked what he would like for father's day.

Here's the card I made him - design from Its a Creative World site but I made my own paper in photoshop

Painting with light

That's the title of the photography course I have been
doing online and this week we had to find different angles or zoom in to take our pics. At first I was very confuddled over what was expected and I am still not sure I have got it right but I did manage a bit of painting with light ....look at this!



Taken by hanging the camera by its strap over the edge of the pond wall, amazed at how the light caught the inside of the lily. And by using macro and portrait mode I was able to get in close and create a short depth of field.

Monday I really was fed up with working at the nursery - the people for the most are great but the lady I work with most of the time can be a right old moaner which can get you down after a while, plus I am used to running my own classroom, not being the class skivvy which is what I ended up being Monday..cleaning, making the snacks, serving dinner..not exactly what I spent 5 years training for. So I came home Tuesday and hit the 'net for something better. There still isnt much going but I did find 5 jobs to apply for, and this morning I got a message to say one of the schools phoned with an appointment for an informal look round. Yes I know most schools do like you to look round but to actually phone YOU to make the appointment. So fingers crossed it at least means they are interested.

Something for the weekend?

Due to some huge mix up with stock ordering Martin had to work stock Friday night so Saturday left me at a bit of a dead end as he was snoring in bed not to be disturbed. Since my computer is in the bedroom I couldn't get online, couldn't print out stuff for my scrapping and couldn't do any housework because of the noise. So Kelly and Ollie took pitty on me and invited me over to Sittingbourne for a cup of tea and a trip to B&Q. They were buying stuff to fit in a bathroom suite as they only have a shower and my baby sooo misses her baths!

I got to be the 'list' holder as it was a pretty long list, paint, tiles, plumbing gear, screws (I reckon you need a degree in screws to buy the correct ones) or and cat flea stuff! By the way hon your cat's fleas bit me several times.

By the time I got home, via a trip to see my parents and get my instructions for this week - yes I am dog sitting again while they are on a break to Norfolk for a few days, so I have to be shown how to water the plants and feed the hound for the umpteenth billion time - it was past 3 o'clock and Martin was just waking up. Just as well as I had a splitting head ache and ended up crawling into the bed he had just left and falling asleep. This didn't get shot of the headache and so I had to go to my bessie mate's BBQ still suffering. Still its amazing how good a cure 3 pints of cider can be.

We finally got round to discussing holidays, and because I can't find any narrow boats operating in parts of Ireland we haven't already visited we have now opted to take one out on the Yorkshire Dales and up into the Pennines. Its sometime since we holidayed in England so will be somewhat different but I am looking forward to booking something and going now. Some of the photos on the net look stunning and to be honest on a canal barge it really doesn't matter what the weather is like.

As I had hoped to persuade Kelly to take me to Hobbycraft but had ended up at B&Q I talked Martin in to rushing over there after golf on Sunday. He wasn't too keen but couldn't think up an excuse. I bet he wish he had as I ended up spending £85 but what bargains. I got a whole alpha die set (upper, lower case, numbers and punctuation,) 6 other smaller dies, a heap of felt squares (which I have since discovered can be cut in the die machine) loads of ribbon and the hugest bottle of PVA glue.

An extra zero

Have you visited Its a Creative World yet? You really must, the girls are providing a wealth of interesting, beautiful, thrifty and practical projects that are described in fantastic detail. And tomorrow they promise TWO exciting offers to celebrate their first week anniversary!

Today I finally got a response to the interview I went to 11 days ago. As I guessed from the lack of news I didnt get the job but to rub salt in the wound the letter apologised for not ringing me but the telephone number on my application form came up as unknown. Reasonable excuse on the face of it as when I checked I had accidently leaned on the keyboard and put a zero in front of the phone number, but ....

ALL local calls round here are 6 not 7 digits, and start with 27 so it was pretty obvious what the correct number should have been and would have been worth trying.

I dont have a common name, they had my addy, how long would it have taken to open the local phone book?

Both my referees could have given a contact number, they also had my work number

why wait 10 days to write and then send the letter second class?

AND WORST OF ALL my correct phone number, addy and email was on the CV I had also sent them!!!!!

Missing e

This hound is growing at a rate of knots! 14 weeks old already and look at the size of him.

One of the girls at the nursery where I am supplying is getting married in July. I overheard her talking to another member of staff, asking where she could get stamps of the letters L and N for her wedding stationary, so I chipped in, offering to lend her some of my alpha's. When I turned up with a small pile of alpha stamps yesterday she asked why I had so many, so I explained about my little scrapping hobby. Since she had shown such an interest I took in my half finished 12x12 album of my daughter's wedding plus the nearly finished mini album of Helen's wedding. The whole staff were really impressed, one even suggested I did it professionally and another said they would be bringing in all their photos for me to scrap LOL

As a staff, as we have to cover looking after the children all day we dont get together all in one go at any time during the day so I left the bag with my work in for anyone to go enjoy. I was over the moon that they were all so interested but sadly when I got home tonight I discovered that the letter stickers on the front of the mini album were peeling off and the 'e' in Helen had disappeared entirely. I dont have another so it looks like I am going to have to replace the whole title! That will teach me to get the diamond glaze out earlier. In the meantime a photo of my newly dyed and highlighted barnet - not a very flattering photo (taken by Laura) and my hair is a bit in need of a brush but at least it shows the colours.

Mini Album

I have finally made a start and I am quiet pleased with the result. The mini book instructions can be found at Craft TV weekly
The papers so far are from a small freebie digi kit,(Country Velvet Back Pack )
Created by Marcee Duggar one of the weekly freebies from The Digital Scrapbook Place, which I printed out (finally now the printer is happy again). I then heat embossed some of the flower stems with silver as the wedding colour theme was blue and silver. The flower is a sizzlet which I then hand painted so it matches the brides bouquet.
I run a neat little action I found online on the photo which scrolls the corner of the photo
It is all straight but scan isnt.

Tilt and Turn

Kelly (my eldest daughter) moaned at me yesterday because I had not linked her blog on mine. I admit I am pretty lax at putting blog links up, but over this week intend to rectify this. To make up I shall upload some of the shots I took of her and her new(ish) hubby as I tried to get to grips with this weeks module of the photo course. Tilt and Turn. MMmmm not sure I have the hang of it yet.



I want to make a mini brag book for Kelly's best mate of the wedding event, but am having the worlds most awful job matching those lovely bridesmaids dresses and flowers with a range of patterned paper. Having spent a few too many hours yesterday looking at both 'real' paper and digi kits in the hope of a perfect match I attempted to print out my own using my new copy of Photoshop CS3 but the printer is having its own hissy fit, demanding new ink in all 6 colours!

I know a secret

and it starts in June. You can read all about it and sign up here

And I have finally finished another LO -


its a scraplift of a LO that Vanessa Matthews published in the Feb 2007 SI mag as a lesson on beading techniques. I would have included the beading but just as I opened my bead box my cat jumped on it, and I still have to find all the beads yet. I was beginning to get the feeling this LO wasnt to be. Still I am pleased with the result. Guess what? Its another for the wedding album, this time featuring my other Daughter and her fella, still using the Chatterbox powder room papers, prima flowers, Bazille buttons, home made chipboard heart using MM template, and clear stamps from The Paper Mill (Studio g)

We have a winner!

I am stunned because my bottle photo has been chosen as one of the top 5 photos for this week's module on Cheryl's photography course. Wow!

I have had a headache all day and managed to fall asleep until 1.30 this afternoon. So much for all the things I was going to do on my day off.

And the bride

The bride looked rather special too. (And looking at that photo I have just realised how like Prince Charles her dad looks!!)

The happy couple are wonderful youngsters, with the most fantastic personalities both of them. So I was saddened to discover that after the wonderful time we had had at the church the reception was frought with family rows and the poor bride ended up in tears a few times.
Still the actual ceremony was magical. The brides little babe walked ahead of the 4 bridesmaids in his own 'car' baby walker (he is not yet a year old bless), and looked so cute. Sadly not allowed to take flash photography in the church I didnt get a shot of him.
It all took place in a small village church so it was really cosy, and something I really liked, the bride and groom stood facing each other - sideways on to the congregation so we saw their faces all through the proceedings. Much better than spending your time waiting to see if the groom has removed the price label from the bottom of his shoes as you stare at the couples backs.
And then that bit you all dread happening at your wedding, the vicar getting your names wrong. And this vicar did!!! He had accidently filled in his scripts with the groom's middle name and asked if someone called John would marry Helen (grooms name is Alan). Obviously this caused some confusion and then bouts of laughter as we all realised what the poor master of the church had done, but five minutes later he asked Helen if she would repeat her vows to 'John'. To peals of laughter the poor bloke walked away and did a few stretching excersizes while Alan and Helen offered to go out and come back in to start all over. Wonderful stuff!!

Didn't she look geogeous?

Blogger in the family

It would seem my eldest daughter has started a blog of her own, prompted by the fact I forgot to tell her about my interview and she had to read about it on my blog. She says its to remind her of things and also so that her and I can put things on it and then it wont matter so much if we forget to grab a phone and tell each other stuff.

So no pressure on me to keep my blog up to date then LOL

Well actually I have been a bit lax in blogging of late so I guess it wont hurt to have another reason to get on here typing.

Yesterday Wayne finally managed to install a new computer for my dad. His last one (a Time machine) was over five years old and in all that time dad had never done a defrag or a complete virus scan or a reset. He had installed/uninstalled/installed numerous times numerous bits of dodgy software, (I alone had reinstalled zonearlarm 4 times for him because he kept taking it off saying it 'messed up his computer'. Of course then he wondered why it had got to the stage where booting it up took nearly an hour????!!!! I had attempted to reset to factory settings for him but Time, who no longer exist, had given him a blank disc instead of a restore with files on it. Research showed this was a common Time scam as you had to pay an extra £60 to them to get another disc. So we had to assign his pc to the techno playground in the sky and he now has a shiny all singing all dancing Dell machine. With very strict instructions (which I am sure he will ignore) on how to keep it shiny all singing all dancing.

Today Kelly's bessie mate is getting married and Kelly is the Maid of Honour so Mum Dad and I are off to the church to bless the happy couple with a few handfuls of paper roses and a few tears. Sorry but looks like more wedding photos to share with you all. Tee Hee. Oh come on there's nothing like a good wedding.

So what was the outcome?

Well I thought the interview went ok. I answered all the questions, there were lots of smiles on both sides and nods and scribbled notes on pads. There were things I could have said but forgot and things I might have said different but then there always is afterwards.

So did I get the job?

Who knows? I certainly dont. Because here it is - half past nine and no one from the school has phoned to say if I was successful or not.

This is something that has never happened before, and something I have never heard of happening. So I am somewhat flummoxed but moving on.

One green bottle hanging on the wall

I have has such a rotten cold, I have felt so miserable and tired with it and struggled in to work for little reward. I was also really fed up with this weeks assignment for the photography course as I really didnt understand what I was supposed to be doing. Anyway I finally uploaded this photo and Cheryll thinks it 'rocks', with light, colour and focal point being 'spot on'. Of course its such a shame I have no idea what I actually did to get this photo other than point and click! I'm just glad I got something as I was just getting soooooo grumpy about the whole thing. And I have an interview for Friday so fingers crossed and lots of good vibes for me please.

Photography

I am signed up for an on line photography course. Hopefully it will get me thinking more about how and when to use my camera.

The first module has been a bit of fun as we have had to take silhoette photos against the light. Easiest done outside but eversince we were given our coursework it has done nort but rain. So there have been some rather inventive photos and some people on the course have been getting up very early (too early in my opinion) to take sunrise photos!!

Anyway here are my attemptsTaken through the bedroom window about an hour before sunset when there was finally a break in the weather.


Shot looking up through my wisteria


Across the back of the gardens - I just liked all the telegraph poles and wires.

A few more wedding album LO's

I used a DC class as inspiration for these two but couldnt do the class as it stood as it needed clear packing case tape which I havent been able to get hold of. So instead I used some brushes and photoshop to make some home made rub ons for all the doodly type flourishes.

This week another interview and again I am told I am 'brilliant' but dont have enough Nursery experience - so why interview me I ask myself. After all they can read a CV?? Anyway I havent had chance to feel that miserable about it as I have had a splitting headache for 4 days and all I have done really is sleep.

On the other hand our new member, Bailey, is not doing as much sleeping as I thought he would but he is really good, almost house trained, only chewing his toys and went off to have his injections as good as gold. I am dog sitting today though as Wayne is enjoying another trip to the hospital thinking he may have broken his fingers again playing cricket yesterday.

A scanner, a scanner ..

I finally have a scanner!!!

*big cheesey grin*

Wow, we have been out spending money, a new Epson photoscanner for me, and lots of goodies from the PaperMill (they have some great scrapping deals on at the moment) plus another controller and game to go with hubby's birthday present (a Wii from all of us) so he can play lots of games while I scrap, and a pair of shoes for him.

Don't you just love wet bank holidays!!! Anyway finally I can upload some of my wedding album LO's and DC classes.

OK scanner is fantastic - my ability to stitch is now a bit rusty, hence the blur. This is my attempt at Karen Miller's class from the DC - lots of fun stitching, hand made heart and HS chipboard letters. The paper is Chatterbox Powder room which I wanted to use through out but I am having difficulty sourcing it so now I have some similar stuff from the Paper Mill for the next efforts. I know I have already used this photo in a digi LO but this is the version I am putting in the paper album.

Partieeee! ..... and a puppy.

Well after all the hard work the BBQ went off really well, despite the cold overcast day. We did have waaaaaay too much food though and the chocie fondue didn't work, but no one seemed to care.

Kelly actually arrived quite early so was around to give me a hand. I had been to Iceland on Thursday so only had to go get beer and salad stuff early Sat morning. Then it was simply a case of slicing, dicing and a little bit of cooking (I made a fabbie raspberry pavlova).

It was really great meeting up with people we hadnt seen for 16 years and finding we still had things in common. One couple have even invited us up to their son's birthday party this coming weekend so hey, things on the social side could be looking up.

One sad bit though was when Martin's brother and wife turned up and we discovered that in January their adopted son had come home to tell them he had testicle cancer. We found it hard to reason why it had taken them 5 months to tell us though, from a family that is supposed to be so close.

There were also about 6 people who said they were coming who didnt turn up which was a dissappointment, but apart from that it was a good day.

There was an awful lot to clear up afterwards though, made even harder by our surprise lodger. OK, yes I am a soft touch but the kids have been knocking themselves out this past week trying to get the house finished this weekend in order to provide a home for the puppy they had bought. BUT it just didnt happen. Hold ups with plumbers and electricians, kitchen units that were wrong or not delivered, all meant that there was just no way they could move in just yet. There is at least another two weeks work.

So a sheepish Laura came to us Friday night asking if she could keep the puppy shut in the dinning room/kitchen/conservatory while the cat has the run of the rest of the house. Which meant a total re-arrange of furniture, and cleaning all the floor, keeping the cat away at least until Wednesday when the puppy has his first injections and early mornings to give the little scrap his morning meal. But how could I say no to this? Meet our new family member .. Bailey the Golden Retriever.

50th birthday bash

Martin will be 50 on Thursday. About three weeks ago I suggested he have a BBQ this Saturdayto celebrate, he could ask whoever he wanted. He was in ectasy as we scoured the net and phone and got in touch with people he hadnt talked to for 16 years.

As a bloke though he did all his invites really casually over the mobile and didnt confirm who exactly was coming so I made him a whole batch of invites and got him to send them out. Of course he doesnt have a vast social circle so I wasnt expecting many to be coming. Many of those he did invite are partnerless so again the blokey chap response, not proper RSVP's but a quick text or phone message. Hopeless, I still had no idea of numbers.

This morning, my only day off this week, I finally sat him down and made a guest list. Turns out 32 people have agreed to come with 6 more not yet replied!!!!!! Not only that but two guys I have never met are coming down from Wales on Friday and will need putting up for two nights!!!!!!!!

So panic stations ensue - of course Martin is still being really laid back, 'Oh yes we can do the clearing up and cleaning later in the week' 'I'll mow the lawn near the day' etc. Flip! What are guys like???

So I had to set about clearing and cleaning the conservatory and then move most of my craft stuff from the spare room into our room so that Martin could get the single beds out of the attic and put them up. Of course we dont have any bedding so I am going to have to borrow that from my mum, and we dont have enough chairs for the garden so Martin must make a trip to B&Q to buy some cheap garden furniture, and we will have to have paper plates and stuff because I dont have enough crockery.

Blokes! Who'd have 'em. He seems to think everything is just going to magically be sorted on its own. Looks like I have some exhausting evenings ahead of me getting everything sorted. And there was me thinking he only had two mates LOL