Back to work!

Well the holidays are over and it is back to work for me this week. Things have been a bit manic considering that it is the first week back, with a grant application to get sent off, another two to review and a paper to submit all by Friday. To make up for work, Alex has been a complete star so far this week as he is so happy and in such a good mood. He chats away from when he first wakes up giving us a very loud running commentary on what he sees which include ‘foot’, ‘toes’, ‘soss’ (socks), ‘shuss’ (shoes), ‘cwoes’ (clothes), ‘cark’ (dark), ‘off’ (meaning the light is off and he wants it switched on), ‘koo-at’ (coat), ‘teddy’, ‘car’, ‘Vann’, ‘bus’, ‘tuck’ (truck), ‘foor’ (floor), ‘door’, ‘mat’, ‘at’ (hat), ‘ot’ (hot), ‘camma’ (camera), ‘gas’ (glass), ‘cup’, ‘shpoon’ (spoon), ‘bowl’, ‘ball’, ‘awl gonna’ (all gone),’bag’, ‘bub-bay’ (bye-bye which is accompanied by a wave) and my personal favourite ‘fug-fits’ (fruit flakes which are his favourite snack) to name just some of his words. Alongside the running commentaries there have been games of chase and hide and seek before work which have yielded some wonderful giggles...it is so nice to hear that giggle again as it has been too long. We have had the greatest of fun in the evenings after work as well and he went back to nursery for the first time yesterday which he loved and apparently he had a fantastic day both yesterday and today although he was very tired afterwards. Bath-time remains a firm favourite with lots of fun, splashing and water everywhere!
In an attempt to keep my New Years Resolution I have managed to start the great tidy-up of my craft area and have a clear desk at the moment, although I still need to sort out some of the shelves and general dumping areas which will happen over the next few days or so. For actual crafting I made this layout of Alex following a sketch from a blog which I have just discovered called ‘Stuck?!’. I did a mirror image of the sketch as that suited the orientation of the photograph better. The title (Contemplation) uses Making Memories rub ons, the papers/cardstock are a mixture of K&Co, Bazzil and Basic Grey and I used Purple Onion stamps. The journaling was written using the sakura white glaze pen and reads : ‘I wonder what you were thinking when we went to feed the ducks on a sunny but cold Sunday afternoon only to discover they were already well fed. You sat contentedly watching the pond for ages contemplating the world'.
Finally I made a 4 in 1 card! The card fits the brief for four challenge sites this week, more by accident than design. It was made following the sketch on the newly established ‘Sketch & Stash’ website where the rules are that you need to use a new acquisition on your card as well. In my case the new thing I used was the penny black stamps, both the image and the words. This card also fits the My Time To Craft food glorious food challenge as it features a cupcake, the Cupcake Craft glitter challenge as the icing on the cake and the top of the candle are covered in glitter and finally the Papertake Weekly challenge of spots having used the Swiss dots Cuttlebug embossing folder to generate the background. Not bad for one card! Have a great week.

Love,

Caro

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