Weddings at the weekend

Well a pretty boring week up until Thursday evening when I got a text from Laura asking for me to take Bailey Balls the large puppy over to the doggie grooming place the following morning. This was because Wayne (who had expected to drop him over) ad not been able to get an hour off work to do so. A good early start to the day then? He is a lovely dog though and sat in the car beautifully as I drove him there, and he went off with the strange lady with no problems whatsoever.


After dropping him off I took a run out to a new venue that has been recommended by the caterers for Laura's wedding. There is nothing wrong with the venue we had picked out except that it needs a marquet plus porta loos plus catering tent plus walkway plus.... well the costs just keep piling up. Its also a far cry from what Laura actually wants which is an old rambling country house with rooms to put up guests and a bit of garden to wander around in if its lovely and sunny. Its not lack of money stopping her turning her dream into reality. and its not that these places do not exist. They just dont exist near enough to the church she is being married in. So if we ever win/earn enough to do so, we are going to buy a place and fill this gap in the market. Kent is such a beautiful place full of old oast houses and such it is just a real pity. Anyway the new place is another converted barn which has only just started doing weddings, so we have an appointment to veiw on Tuesday. Meanwhile I crept up the drive and took a quick photo.




I took quite a few photos on Friday because Shimmelle has a class going on UKS for the cybercrop which involves mapping out the 25th of every month for a year and scrapping it. I didnt take that many photos as I didnt think cleaning out the cooker was going to make much of a Layout. I did take a few of the seeds I planted though

and my square foot garden which I have just planted up with onions, leeks, carrots and beetroot to go with the cabbages, and peas already in it.



On Saturday Kelly had asked if she could lend our Wii remotes as they were off to a Wii party that evening and would I also drop them over as they had to stay in and wait for their new cooker to arrive. Well the new cooker apparently was broken before being delivered so they have to wait until next weekend for it to come. It was a beautiful day though so after a cuppa with her and Ollie I went off on a little jaunt along Sittingbourne High Street. A pleasant surprise as the Round Table were holding a fund raiser and the whole road was full of stalls, clowns, punch and Judy and about 30 vintage cars!

Anyway home to try out my hand at the cybercrop classes. Unfortunately try as I might I just could not get the pdf files to open until it was well past scrapping time. I did finally get one class finished this morning.

Now you think you have read all this drivel and cant see why I called it Weddings at the weekend. But its because I finally got taken to the wedding Fair. I have never been to a wedding fair, they didnt exist when Martin and I tied the knot - you just got on with it. No wedding planners, toastmasters, bands or chocolate fountains. It was a village hall, a disco if you could afford to hire one or some aged uncle bunging records on your home hi-fi system and a buffet with tons of cheese and pinapples on sticks and sausage rolls. If you were a bit posher (like us) you opted for a sit down meal but not many people did that so you were pretty limited in choice.

So the whole fair thing is a totally new experience on me .... and although it was interesting, not one I think I want to experience again. Laura already has many ideas, they are adamant they want more novely rather than traditional things so much of what we saw wasnt really appropriate. We did come away with three bags full of leaflets and info though, and were very impressed with the casino tables (casino tables?????) and cocktail bars.

Lunch time by now we stopped off for sunday lunch at our local country pub where Martin joined us, and we had a huge platter of roast beef each followed by apple pie and custard.

Such a shame we have to go back to work next week.

Oh and good vibes for Laura who's school are being Ofsted'ed on Wednesday and Thursday. Good luck babe although I am sure you wont need it and will come out with a glowing report.

Tagged

I have been tagged by the lovely Soojay.

1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself? And why?
To be honest I am absolutely hopeless with A and B list celebreties, I dont keep up with the gossip or the photo pages, so dont really have much of a clue who is who in the land of Hollywood superstars and leading ladies. I'm the same with books, I can read them, and enjoy them, but wont have a clue who wrote them. And since the kind of movies I like are either in Black and White or U/PG rated I dont think any of the child stars will work LOL


2. You are spending a whole month on a desert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?
See answer to one. Same problem, dont know who is who. If a cleb is mentioned on a forum I have to do a google image search I am that hopeless.

3. What are your three favourite crafting products?
I like making most of my embellishments myself so I guess that after my computer which I use on every LO either for ideas, printing out photos/pattern paper, or images, or for the journalling, its got to be my small provocraft non-stick scissors, my inks and stamps (they class as one as stamps are pretty useless without ink). If I ever manage to get a cricut or robocraft I susspect that my rocket to the top of my list.

4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
Something really small but incredibly useful which would change peoples lives, bit like velcro did. If it makes me incredibly rich in the process I wont say no because I could give heaps of money to a ton of charities then.

5. What are the last three books that you read?
Tricky one because I really am an avid reader but for the past year I have been putting speaking books onto my ipod. This means I can 'read' and craft/garden at the same time. So if those books count I have just finished re-listening to all 7 Harry Potter books as read by Stephen Fry and have just started on The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan

6. Qvc or create and craft?
I used to watch lots of QVC then I changed aliences and moved to C&C. Now I dont tend to watch either if I can help it.

7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?
No idea, cant say I have bought any of it, except from a couple of See-D stamp sets.


8. What is your claim to fame?
Only by association. My mum is related to one of the Beverly sisters in some way. My eldest daughter lived in the same flat complex as Jade when she was on Big Brother, and DH was Shaun Williamson's boss before Shaun went off to actor school and became famous. DD2 and I once spotted 'Ricky' from Eastenders, standing in a car park in Herne Bay!

Ok if they havent already been tagged I am going to nab Jen and because I think both of these people should visit their own blogs a little more and give me some of the stuff I like reading - Boo and Kelly.

Red Noses

I just want to upload my version of the sketch class for this weekends upcoming cybercrop on UKscrappers. Please excuse the bits of glitter and glue, I really need to do some housework on my scanner.

sniff sneeze sneeze sniff

Yes a week full of cold/flu type symptoms, probably caught from Kelly who suffered last week. So glad she shared it.
So I didnt do much at all for the second week of the holiday. Mainly sleep and watch telly. We did go out and buy a heap of card so that Laura could make her 'Save the Date'cards, but that was about the highlight.
.
On Friday Martin and I had been invited to the wedding reception of a girl I had known well through Uni while I was doing my teacher training. Although still in touch we dont see each other often as we have now moved off in different directions. Still feeling like death warmed up we headed out to find the venue. I wasnt sure why we hadnt been invited to the wedding as well, but that soon became clear. Just as she had always said she would, they had had the actual marriage ceremony on the beautiful Island of Mauritus.

It wasnt a bad do either despite the band being an hour late arriving, and the venue being rather like a pub bar and really squashy. The hog roast was to die for, and the 4 songs we did get to hear the band sing were terrific. Sadly by the time the food turned up though, the flu/cold bug had claimed me again. Plus we didnt know a single soul other than the bride and groom, both of who were busy doing the hosts with the most bit. So we quietly slipped away and I was tucked back up in bed by half ten.

So this week, back to supply work and now the cold has gone, suffering from rape seed alergy. Oh well. Summer cant be that far off now can it?

Fun playing

I am having so much fun playing with my new toys from the BSASB show at Ally Pally. These are not really for cards, more experiments. I actually dug out my brayer and used it for the first ever time!

Used Kaleidacolor inkpad to brayer over background then stamped over the top

And this one is a lesson on the Stampscapes web site.

As lesson on website, I just added some sukara souffle to give a slight snow effect.

I was already making this LO - I scraplifted it from Scrapdolly's blog but its actually a class designed by Karen Russell so credit to both talented ladies. Its interactive so the side opens to reveal more photos and journalling. And sorry yes the scanner managed to knock off the 'a', its sitting on my desk ready to be glued back on.

Crate paper, Bo Bunny chipboard letters and swirl, painted , covered in crackle glaze and then inked, embossing paste corner and florish, tapestry stamps to make dragonfly background.

Anyway I was playing with my new Dreamweaver embossing paste and discovered a Creative Memories drawing template of corners and borders which I thought might work as well as a brass stencil (as had been demo'd to us at the show). I added some of my new cosmic glimmer powders and am so pleased with the result. It was pretty daunting doing it straight on to a finished LO though.

A break

Martin has been on holiday this week, so he started off with a very long list of household maintenance jobs to do. Mean while I have been spending time with Laura sorting out wedding type bits and bobs. On Tuesday auto glass were sorting out the broken windows on her car - seems the police finally caught the kids that did it, unbelievably they had damaged 30 other cars! I had to take her car keys over to her in-laws-to-be house as that is where it was parked, and at the moment the keys were requested, the folk buying Laura's house turned up to discuss fixtures and fittings. So I got to spend a pleasant hour with Graham and Di discussing wedding ideas so far
!
Dress shopping
On Wednesday even more wedding excitement as Laura, mum and I went into Faversham to help Laura try on wedding gowns. Gosh there is so much to choose from nowadays. I took a few photos but obviously cant upload them in case the groom takes a peep and she eventually chooses one of the many she tries on. Laura did find it hard work though, those dresses are heavy and so many decisions to make. So I can see a few more trips out before 'the one' is discovered. Laura has such a beautiful figure that she can carry off practically any design, the problem is this does work against her though as none of the shops carry sizes small enough and we are having to wrap a size 8 body in a size 14 gown which doesn't really give a clear indication of what they will look like.


Day out
On Thursday Martin had all but finished his chores so we decided on a day out. We settled for Nando's, The Dickens World, and then the pictures all at Chatham Dockland. Laura came with us as a treat, but I was so so angry and disappointed. Dickens cost £12.50 per person, we were told to allow at least 3 hours to go round. WRONG - OH SO WRONG!! We lasted for 3/4 hour and the only reason we were in there that long was that we really couldn't believe we had paid that much to enter and there was nothing to look at!. Honest, if you are thinking of going - save your money!! Having gone in you are treated to a large warehouse that has been converted to look like a Victorian market place - since London consisted mainly of tiny alleys this in itself is not right. Still, it has been made using fascias with only two places to go into, a tiny shop mainly selling ponchos at a quid each, and other rubbish souvenirs, and the other 'shop' is the photo place to view and buy your photo of you on the water ride.

There is a haunted house but since the queue for this was over an hour long we didn't bother (its this long because other than the water boat and the 3D cinema there is literally nothing else to do/see apart from the pub selling meals!) There were a few people dressed in costume but they didn't interact with the visitors that much, in fact none of them talked to us at all.

So we cut our losses, came home and went to see the Spiderwick Chronicals at our local bug hut. Which we really enjoyed.


Holiday booking
On Friday we spent 3 hours in the travel agents with the lovely Michelle who is very patient with us considering we had no idea where we wanted to go. Just a date and the idea that we wanted to go stateside. We finally settled for 12 nights in California, fly-drive starting at Los Angeles and ending in San Francisco. We still have to book hotels as we go but we can explore to our hearts desire.

Stamp Show
And finally yesterday I travelled up to Ally Pally with Kelly to the Big Stamp and Scrapbook show, where we did lots of walking, saw lots of demos, and spent heaps of money. For those who want to know I bought:

3 stickles at 3 for £5 (sadly I duplicated a colour I already had so Kelly if you want a green?)
A refill for my black Stazon pad (really pleased about that as I thought I was going to have to buy a whole new pad)
A set of stampscapes - I have already been playing! This is my first attemp using a mix of TH distress inks and cats eyes.


A set of cosmic shimmer powders
Some dreamweaver embossing paste, and a christmas stencil to play 3d stencilling with
Some cheap card blanks ready to make wedding invites
and a bag of lush gold glitter.

Today I am very worn out and its back to basic housework.


NB I do have a LO to upload but it will have to wait until I have scanned it in.

Its all happening here!

Two weeks of supply work have left me little time to blog, and plenty of other stuff has been happening too. It was great to be part of a school and not just doing day supply because I really got to know the children, and Friday I even got to dress up with them as part of National Book Week. I was Mrs Lather from Mrs Lather's Laundry (although not many people recognised that fact LOL). But it was enjoyable even if travelling 40 miles a day round trip was rather tiresome.

Looking forward to two weeks off and some time with Laura started well as we took a quick evening shopping trip together to buy her something to go out clubbing in. I ended up with a new handbag and purse, she got some shorts.

This happy start to the holidays was rather ruined when she had a huge row with Wayne, resulting in some lost hours sleep for us and the wedding in limbo, but I am pleased to say they are happily sorted out now and the arrangements for the wedding continue. We are still researching the price of marquees, and hopefully this week we are off out together to take a look at wedding dresses.

As if that wasnt enough, and as if it has only been a couple of weeks since she got her car back from the bump at the round-a-bout, she came home from the cinema yesterday to find vandals had smashed in most of the car windows. Poor Laura is now car-less for the holidays until autoglass get it fixed.

Meanwhile it is too cold to do much even though Martin is off this week. I have given him a list of tasks but they are mostly minor ones and he has covered many of them already this morning. I have been sewing instead of scrapping, continuing to make decs for my 'folk' based Christmas this year.

Felt stars for the christmas tree

These, when sewn together and stuffed will be
little applique sacks to strew about the house.

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.