Busy Bee

Well Easter was soooo boring for the most part as both girls were busy and Martin was working Frday and Saturday. My shoulder was too painful to do much housework or scrapping so I spent most of the time (since the weather was so cold) watching Harry Potter films and eating (sorry diet).

Ok the snow in this doesnt look like much but on the other side of the car (at the same time) it looked like this!

On Monday though Martin was off and the whole family went to the pub that Laura had earmarked as one possible wedding venue for lunch.

Back of Grove Ferry.

Grove Ferry is right on the river Stour and has been established as a venue for years.

Back in the 70's part of the place was used as a disco/nightclub. We ate in the main bar though. The food, in the main, was delish (although my chips werent up to much, the home made burger and pickles were yum).

The meals.

Then we went outside to look see where the marquee would go.

Outside by the river.

Well from what we could make out, slap bang in the middle of the pub garden with pub users and boat owners still able to wander around.

The garden where marquee will go.

The cost is also an issue so we continue to look round.

Next stop, after saying goodbye to the others, was a bed and breakfast farm just outside of town. I had found it on the net and Laura had emailed and phoned but had had no answer, so she had decided to go knock on doors. Wayne and I both loved it the minute we stepped out the car.
A lovely tudor type farm house, all black and white windows on the outside, with an expansive well established lawn and pretty patio,

House and gardens.

arrived at via a covered gravel walkway beside a stable block.

Covered walkway

More stable blocks to the side housed 3 ponies and a lovely (very) friendly dog greeted us as we walked to the door. The whole place feels well out in the countryside with beautiful views of the downs in all directions and the catherdral in the distant valley. The lady who greeted us was lovely too, so this one looks like a good option and has rushed to top of the possible list.

It also opened new options as surprisingly there are quite a few farm type b&b's that may offer wedding service/hire possiblities so it was back on the net searching them out.

On Tuesday I was asked to bail out a school some 20 miles away, a lovely mixed Year 1/2 class. Their poor teacher has managed to injure her foot rather badly in a gardening accident so I ended up there all week and am back for the start (at least) of next week until she has been back to the doctors. It is quite a while since I did a whole weeks teaching and by Friday not only was I very tired but the house looked like a bomb had hit it, there was no food in the house and nothing left to wear that wasnt in the wash basket. Yesterday was a busy busy housework day.

Upshot? Very little crafting has gone on but hopefully now I am up to date again there may be some to come. I have just bought my new issure of Scrapbook Inspirations and could be inspired.

(Don't) let it snow, let it snow, let it ...

Well they promised it would.

Luckily at the moment its not laying

I suspect it will

I HATE SNOW!!!!!!

Happy Easter

Jo is making progress, very slowly but progress all the same.

This has seemed a rather long week with not much going on really. I guess thats because I seem to have spent most of it in the car.

On Tuesday I was asked to go to a new school on the agency's books, one I had not heard of before and some 20 miles away on the Isle of Thanet. Now Thanet, alegedly, consists of quite a few towns, Margate, Ramsgate, Birchington, Broadstairs...but as far as I am concerned its just one almighty sprawl of roads and houseing estates that all look alike, go in no particular direction and have no specific landmarks. So I was very careful, knowing the amount of hours I have wasted driving around the place, to print lots of maps off google before leaving. Luckily I found the place first time, not effortlessly but I found it. Not that there was any real rush to get there as the TA was taking them until I arrived, since the agency had not phoned me until 9.20 am.

On day 2 however they were expecting me at half 8 so 15 minutes after being phoned and asked to repeat the cover I was back on the road. There was an accident on the main road which held me up for a while so knowing I had passed the hospital the day before I decided multimap was wrong and I knew a shorter way to the A&E. After all I had only been there the week before with Laura.

WRONG!!!!

My shortcut put me the wrong side of the railway tracks. I had to double back and try again. The school run had started by now and the traffic was horrendous. Panicked because it was now 8.25 am and I had no idea where I was I started taking roads at random. Luckily I hit on the right one and arrived at 8.45. Just in time!

Then yesterday I thought I would go and check out another school, who were advertising a vacancy. I again took directions from multimap and set off. 2 hours and a quarter of a tank of petrol later I finally got back to some familar roads after driving forever around country roads (some with grass growing in the middle of them) in the back end of beyond. I think that school is a little too far to apply for.

Apart from that I am still on here because the computer hasnt been turned off all week. And I have done quite a bit of scrapping. This one is a sketch from Scrap Mag and uses up some of my old Junkitz papers coupled with some stuff from the latest Shabby Princess free download.

How long ...

...my computer will last and let me on here to update I don't know. It totally refused to work all today and I have had to wiggle wires and threaten it with lots of dire things before it would boot up. So if I am not around its because it has finally fallen over for good.

Back in January we managed to get my dad along to the local theatre to watch the annual town pantomime. No this may not seem like much of a feat but because of his hearing disability he is very reluctant to go to these kind of things, however we persuaded him to have a go at the hearing loop. It worked a treat and he could hear everything going on on stage, thoroughly enjoying himself.

Flushed with our success we booked tickets to go to the larger theatre in Canterbury to see Treasure Island.

What a complete waste of money and total disaster!!

For a start off we couldnt hear, the sound system was totally rubbish and the actors were literally mumbling into their false beards! Then the loop we had got for dad didnt work at all - not that he was missing much but it was hard to get that across to dad, he just thought he was missing out. We swapped his loop and got a new battery but still no joy.

On top of that the acting was appauling and the story - which should have been exciting, full of murder, plots and swash buckling, was soooooo boring. Even the scenery was naff, one set for the whole 1 hour 30 mins (including a 15 min interval)!!! Yes thats how short it was. Which considering how awful it was, wasnt such a bad thing. The group in front of us even said they hadnt understood it at all, and its not exactly a complicated plot.

At least we laughed about it, but it was a rather expensive laugh at the price of the tickets, petrol and car parking.

We took mum and dad home and then went to Prezzo's with Laura and Wayne, which turned out to be the best part of the evening as we had a super Italian meal and some good company.

Not as clever

So I am not as clever as I first thought - my computer is working but is very very temperamental. Twice I have had to take it to bits again, after shutting down as it would not start again. I am tempted to leave it on all the time but am worried that the obvious short circuit/wonky connection/whatever may cause a fire. And I don't want fried cat when I return home should I go out and leave the computer on.

So I am still going to have to buy a new 'puter.

On a much more positive note, I received a text from Jan to say Joey is being moved back to the local hospital!!! Although not fully conscious, there is an improvement and a definite difference between Jo asleep and Jo awake. Soppy me, I sat in the staff room of a strange school, with tears of relief streaming down my face, scaring the rest of the staff to death. They kept asking if it was bad news, and where really genuinely pleased for Jo when they got the full story. The male TA even went off to find me some tissues.

Computer panic

This morning when I got up I switched on the computer and went to get dressed. Suddenly the cat shot out of the study and I heard what sounded like a plane taking off! It was the PC. The fan was going ten to the dozen but everything else was completely dead as the proverable dodo!
I switched off and tried several more times but it wasnt going to do any more than make a horrific noise, so I gave up and went to work.
When I got home, I bemoaned the death of my pc to Martin who's response was to simply get a new one! So thinking I had nothing to loose, I took the cover off and looked inside. Not a clue what I was doing but one wire looked like it shouldnt really be floating about in the air, so I plugged it into the motherboard in the only place it seemed to fit. I then grabbed the hoover and cleared out 2 years worth of fluff bunnies. And........

IT WORKS!!!!!

Not only that it is so much faster and better than it has been in months. I have been blaming sky for the slow internet pace, but am seriously thinking it could have been to do with that stray wire?

Anyway although I have done myself out of a new pc the panic is over and better than normal service is resumed!

A quiet weekend

So what did I do? Well yesterday I went with mum and dad to visit Kelly and take over the gooseberry Plants I bought her last week. Plus to take Ollie and her a bunch of flowers and a card as it is their first wedding anniversary tomorrow. My baby, married one year already ...and I am still doing wedding photo layouts LOL. Laura and Wayne went to look at another wedding venue, which they were much taken with. I scrapped a little and have spent so long on the computer I now have a very sore neck and shoulder.

Oh and I started a blog to note all dad's little stories on.

Crete paper (lots off, I thught it went so well with the pattern on Kelly's top) Heidi Grace Urban Acres stamps Craft work chipboard flowers Prima flowers with stickle centres Foam alphas painted and then stickle dots added American Craft ribbon Oen buttons

Update

This weeks Pencil Line Sketch
Chatterbox papers, Stampendous stamps, chipboard swirls from Bo Bunny, painted with acrylic and then covered in Ranger crackle medium, , Butterflies cut from K & Co paper and mounted on 3D foam, BG stickers and Early Learning centre beads.

There has been plenty going on here, I just havent got round to adding it all to my blog so -

Sunday
The whole family were invited round to Kelly and Ollie's for evening meal which was a lush roast pork dinner made by Kelly and a Cherry Pie made by Laura. The girls gave me ear-rings and a necklace set (Laura) and the Autumn Leaves calender 2008 (Kelly) Plus I had had a packet of skittles from Pumpkin fur baby! So it was a happy mummy who went to bed sunday night.

Only

Monday
I got a phone call from a very shaken Laura early in the morning. She had been driving to work when someone pulled onto the roundabout in front of her car. She deftly avoided hitting him only to find he was towing another car, so she slammed on the breaks. Unfortunately the driver in the car behind wasnt so quick reflexed and sailed into the back of her car. So we got to do some mother/daughter bonding sitting in A&E waiting to be seen. Luckily not too much damage although she is terrified she will have whiplash again, it seems the damage is mainly to her shoulder from the seat belt.

Tuesday
A day supply at Jo's mum's school. I have not heard from Jan since last week so it was nice to see on their notice board a staff update saying Joey was opening her eyes of her own violation.

Wednesday
Laura tried going back to work but only managed half a day so we went to pick her up. We spent the afternoon attempting to find a venue for the wedding. Seems most places have shut down and there are very few doing weddings in our area. A niche in the market but not much help for us.

Today
I again kept Laura company and we phoned up a few more venues. One is booked to veiw on Saturday, but sadly one of the ones at the top of her list no longer offer a wedding service. She did at least get the letter to the vicarage to book the church before heading off to the doctors for pain killers and sleeping pills.

The wonderful supplers of my internet service, Sky, dont seem able to give me a decent enough signal to load pages after 6 at night so I have managed to do a little bit of scrapping although I have been playing Dreamworld the longest journey which is just as much fun.

More from the French Twist Kit I got from Scrummy Stash Cafe

Good and bad

Yesterday was a really bad day. Sometimes I really love supply work, new places, people, children, no paperwork and home by 4. Others I just think why?? Why am I putting up with this behaviour/attitude. Ah well.

I did get a text about Jo. Although she has been fighting a bad chest infection she did open her eyes for a few minutes. Please God let this be a sign that she is waking up and will be well soon.

I have been scrapping and card making, and as soon as my scanner stops turning everything bright green and my ISP lets me upload more than a few bytes at a time, I will get them uploaded.

Sparkles

With still no good news (or any news come to that) on Jo its hard to think of other things going on, but go on they do. Martin has been on holiday all week so we have been getting the garden ready for the coming year. The cherry tree needed a good pruning - it should have been done in August but it was too big a job when in full leaf. We also noticed a lovely ornamental cherry tree near the house had split vertically through the trunk so most of that has had to come down for the sake of the conservatory too.

I planted heaps of seeds in the greenhouse, some gooseberry bushes and lots of raspberry canes, so looking forward to a fruitful summer (groan!)

I also made a start on the attic but it looks like its going to be quite an ongoing task.

We had dinner with Kelly and Ollie on Sunday, she tried out a new Jamie Oliver recipe on us. I don't particularly rate the guy but the steak in Guinness pie was delicious. We also went all the way to Bluewater just so Martin could go in the TFI Friday - our nearest being 60 miles away it was a bit of a trek for a beefburger.

I organised a little surprise get together for Laura and Wayne to celebrate the engagement. They were kinda out of it when they finally arrived back from Goa at half eight last night, but all the two families were there to crack open a bottle of bubbly, and look at the sparkly rock

- apart form Kelly and Ol, since it was a bit far to come out that late on a Sunday night for them, and we couldn't guarantee the plane would land on time.



I have also been crafting - I sent this one in as my entry to the BG challenge being run on A trip Down Memory Lane

A celebration!!

Last week Wayne sneaked over to see us on the pretext of filling his car with petrol in order to ask Martin for Laura's 'hand in marriage' and our blessings. He planned to ask Laura to marry him while they were away on holiday in Goa. He had also been out and bought her a stunning engagement ring.

Not able to share this news for fear of Laura finding out, we have been waiting for him to 'do the deed'. Last night our patience was rewarded, and I got a text message with two simple words - 'I'm engaged!'

Futher texts flying between India and UK revealed that she loved the ring and he had done the full romantic, meal, walk on the beach, down on one knee proposal.

So another wedding to look forward to, and a new album to bore all my blog readers with!!

Of course this is all tempered by the fact that we have had no further news (good/or bad) about Jo.

No good news

Another text from my friend yesterday to let us know that Jo has still not woken up, and was to have a brain scan, results in two days. Fingers and toes and everything else hoping that the scan is to check that brain activity is normal before forcing a regain of concience.

So I havent been doing a great deal of scrapping as its just too sad.

I have really only come on to blog so that I can record some of the good things going on (because there always are, no matter how sad you may be feeling).

Laura and Wayne have left this evening to jet off to Goa for the half term week. A well deserved break as they havent had a holiday since embarking on the property development game and worked so hard getting the house built, finished and sold (subject to buyer selling their gaff).

Kelly has invited us over for dinner tomorrow, and sent a text to say her boiler is now fixed and deep joy there will be hot water to do the washing up with!

Martin is on holiday next week. We went to Homebase for storage boxes so I can finally get up in the attic and store all my teaching stuff properly, and discovered they were having a 10% off day. So we ended up getting a new lawn mower, strimmer and wheelbarrow. Looks like its either the attic or the loft next week then.

Scary news

Floral Frenzy Kit by Linda Walton, and some Katie Hadfield bits

I had a text from my best friend this morning to tell me her daughter had fallen off her horse on Sunday, and is in a London hospital still unconcious. I havent heard any more but hope that Jo will soon be awake and on the way to recovery. In the meantime a very quick throw it all at the page LO for today's Load 2 Can't say I felt much like scrapping or blogging today.

Doing it digi

Layout removed for publication

I am still keeping up with Load 2 which now means I have made and uploaded 42 layouts in 2008 (counting todays.) The more I play about with digi scrapping the more I am enjoying it which is why my three sheets of BG for the Trip Down Memory Lane competition is sitting untouched on my table. This is the photo I have chosen to use but I thought I would digi scrap it too. All the elements and paper are from the Nani Romance kit.


Tomorrow and Thursday I am covering classes, so today I tackled all the ironing and started work on readying the garden for spring. It really is a non-stop roller coaster of a life at the moment LOL

Headache

Yes, I have had one all day today which is why I have only just thrown this LO together in order to keep up the target of one a day. And why the only other thing I have done today apart from try to sleep it off is to plant a few kiwi, cucumber and cabbage seeds in the greenhouse.

All the elements come from Nicole Kaltenecker's christmas special kit, apart from the black background, the red mat and the chains on the baubles which I made myself.

making templates

Some days I dont know where the day has gone. I certainly havent filled it with much.

I started doing a little housework but Laura phoned to say mum and dad were on the way over to collect me and take me to her place. When we arrived they were on their way round to look at the property they have just had an offer accepted on. Eager to continue their property development career, they intend to knock down the 1930's bungalow and replace it with two detached 3 bed houses. The present bungalow still has many original features, including carpets and wallpaper, and judging by the pink and white bathroom, original tiles. It really didnt deserve any more than to be flattened after salvage. Its more of a shame that the mature garden with its 6 or 7 apple trees, and thousands of plants, bulbs and fruits has to go. But if they can put two 3 bed dwellings on the plot of a 2 bed bungalow and create more decent family homes then all power to them.

I came home and since it was more like May then Feb, I planted out the raspberry canes I bought last week, some asparagus, strawberries and sewed a few seeds. I washed the greenhouse and weeded some of the garden.

Finally I taught myself to make a template in photoshop. Now all I need to do is design some. This LO is from a template, inspired by the challenge on Vera Lim's blog. I cant take part in it as I dont have any of her kits but I liked the idea of scrapping on black so thought I would have a go.

Template by Trish Heffner at Templates and More
Background paper Tamara Diepeveen aka MoonCatcher
Lots of brushes and some shadows and bevels added.

Sooo tired

Kristin Cronin-Barrow Quick page

After dog sitting for Laura's dog last night and then working with a really difficult class today (some very challenging behaviour *sigh*) I am way too tired to do more than a quick page with the only photos I could find on my pc. My Father in Law's birthday some 20 odd years ago.

No time to play

Today (and tomorrow) I have been called in to do some supply work so no chance of playing in my scrap room. Although tiring it was a nice day to go into school as the children were all doing plenty of activities to celebrate chinese new year, ending the day with a visiting troupe who demo'e some chinese lion dancing. So today its just a quick digi LO and to wish everyone Fung Hei Fat Choy.
Again lots of freebie brushes to make my own background.

I've just discovered that Prima hybrid have a forum...and a blog...and a gallery. I think it was just me but I kept loading the site and then getting lost. I didnt find it very easy to navigate for some reason. And even though I managed to register with the forum when it first went live, I could only ever end up in the shoppe. I desperately wanted to go join in the opening party but guess what ...I finally found it tonight. And its all over done and dusted. So now I'm off to see what else I've missed out there.

Inspired

Inspired by reading/looking at the beautiful work on Vera Lim's blog this morning I fired up Photoshop and had a go at making my own backgrounds using a huge selection of brushes. (I finally found where I had stored them all on my pc). Its no where near as good as Vera's work but I am quite happy with it as a first attempt.

My own homemade background, and a variety of 'bits' found on the net free.

Today both Martin and I are off work. But we cant think of anything to do. I've told him at this rate we will have to join the Heritage group and start taking coach trips out like proper old people do. In the mean time I am on here and he has settled for 'Homes under the hammer'. I'm going to drag him out in a moment to go book some theatre tickets, Treasure Island is playing at the Marlow next month and Dad excited over his new found toy on the hearing loop, wants to go.

That wedding album

I didnt get called to do any supply today and since I had managed to catch up with most of the housework and shopping I had a bit of a lazy day.

Dad is feeling better and recovering from his 'man flu' (mum just had a cold) so they came over for a coffee, and then I took myself out to post two job applications and take a look round the local hairdressers.

I hate hairdressers. I dont mind the hair cut. I have the kind of hair that will look a mess whatever disasters or brilliance any qualified person with a pair of scissors can come up with). No its the 'small talk' with strangers, the intimidating atmosphere in the actual saloon. So I avoid them like the plague, and usually use one of those mobile hairdressers at my parents house. Except she has been under the surgeons knife twice in the last 6 months and still recouperating. My hair was last cut in September (if you dont count the hacking of the fringe in December) so is long overdue a trim.

Well I looked.... and thats as far as I got. How do they justify the price of a 15 minute trim??? So next time I am off, I may get really brave and go offer my head as a model.

I spent the rest of the day tidying up my scrap table and washing all my cutting mat, messy mat, and table. Now minus glue I can safely get on with the LO's for the wedding albumn. Today's Lo is a bit of a cheat as it is the second half of a double LO. I did work on the first side though as I decided I really didnt like the photo that I had accidently managed to get repro herma on, so I took the photo off and redid it, with a different photo. There are quite a few singles that need making into doubles so I could be doing those for a while.

Chatterbox papers (theres a surprise) E-Z rub rubbons and papermania ribbon