And more sun!

Yes, it has been beautifully sunny all day here today again. Yippee...the summer has finally arrived. We went out for another family walk today in one of the Sheffield parks. This walk is on a tarmac path through the woods by a stream and is lovely and flat, so great for Tim with his ME. We did a bit of shopping before the walk and by the time we got there Alex was asleep...the car sends him to sleep and it was his nap time anyway. He sleeps in the most amazing ways, often with one eye half open as this photo shows! He did wake up for the second half and burbled gently which was highly entertaining and lovely. The rest of the day was spent at home gardening (another flowerbed got weeded), washing, playing with Alex and doing a bit of crafting.

Yesterdays lovely bath pictures reminded me of the photos I took of Alex when he was 4 weeks old in the first bath he had that he didn't cry in. I printed them out a few weeks ago intending to scrapbook them and hadn't got round to it, so that was todays challenge. I am quite pleased with this layout...the card matches well with the colour of the baby bath, and the wavy lines represent water and there was room for some of the smaller photos of different poses in the bath. Although Alex doesn't look quite so happy, these photos were taken before he had learned to smile so I think they are a very accurate representation of him at the time.

I also received a lovely ATC today from Frances Gale in the form of a black cat which has been decoupaged beautifully. I love cats and am thrilled with this one, another great addition to my growing collection. More tomorrow,

Love,
Caro

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A busy day at home

Having neglected the housework for several days to make the most of the sun we decided that it was a day for catching up with things at home. Most notably we mowed the lawn making the garden look a whole lot better despite the weeds and grass in 4/5 flower beds! The path, patio, one flowerbed and the lawn now look as though the garden is cared for. I also put several washes on in preparation for our trip away this coming weekend and baked some extremely yummy white chocolate cookies. I couldn't resist showing you these photos of Alex taken during his bath today...he made such a mess splashing around happily and absolutely soaking Tim and me. He has grown so much in confidence that he was actually giggling at one point, and doesn't mind getting much of his face underwater. He also attempts to drink the bathwater, which isn't quite so good!

I also set myself a little challenge today, to do a scrapbook page using cream or white card as the background. This is not something I have ever done before, but am really pleased with the result. The centre is a montage of photos taken of Alex and his toys when he was about 4-6 weeks old and the decoration was done using stamps from the Clear choice range of baby stamps. This again took me way out of my comfort zone, but I am really pleased with the results. The title of the page is 'Play Time' and the journalling reads 'Alex's favourite toys when he was 4-8 weeks old consisted of the toys that hung down from his baby gym that he could hit and make move, the catterpiller on the side of his chair and his very soft rabbit which was the first toy he held'

I also had a treat today in the form of a lovely ATC from Barbara Williams from the CM&PC forum. I love the vintage feel to this card and think that the raffia really adds something different to the design.

Love,

Caro

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Sunny day!

It was another lovely day here in Sheffield so we headed up to Graves Park where there is an animal farm with donkeys, cows, sheep, guinea pigs, rabbits, ducks and more chickens than you could shake a stick at! Alex slept in the car on the way, but surprisingly he was actually awake for the whole time we were at the park. He seemed to be looking at the animals, although its hard to say for sure. We also had an icecream in the garden of the Rose cafe where I took these photos. That is Tim smiling in the background...he doesn't really like me putting his photo on the net! This afternoon I managed to do a little more gardening, weeding one of the flower beds and then spent a happy few hours playing with Alex, watching him in his door bouncer which he seems to like, and tickling him while he was in the baby gym making him giggle.

I also managed to complete one scrapbook page, again based on a Pencil Lines sketch (#42 by Jennifer Hall). I thought that the original sketch lent itself well to this photo of Alex taken on his first night at home. The title of this page is 'You sleep in the strangest positions' and the journalling says 'From birth Alex has showed a remarkable ability to sleep all folded up on himself. This picture of him sleeping securely in his Daddy's arms was taken when he was one day old'. As a change from my usual style I wanted to try and incorporate some brightly coloured, highly patterned papers and am quite pleased with the overall effect, especially when combined with the plain background papers and the moon and teddy bear embellishments. I would love to hear your comments on this.

Love,

Caro

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Nice weather for once!

Yes, we have actually had sun today so I dragged the whole family out for a walk at Wyming Brook. This is a nature reserve only 5 minutes drive from us and is based around a stream and a gorge. One of the paths is suposedly pushchair friendly but after today we have to say that we disagree, the terraine was rather too rough and we had to carry the chair over some of the larger bumps in the path. It was lovely to get out into the woods though and enjoy the fresh air and some breeze. These photos are of the brook and Alex in his chair on the walk, and yes, he was actually awake this time, although the extremely bumpy path might have had something to do with that.

Those of you who know me well will know that I am not a gardener...in fact I haven't done any gardening apart from the occasional lawn mowing for nearly 2 years (for various reasons), and the weather recently has provided me with the perfect excuse to be indoors crafting instead. Well, I have decided that I really want to get the garden under control by the end of this summer so that Alex has somewhere to play next year when he is toddling about. This meant that today, while the weather was nice I went out and cleared the top patio of weeds.

I also had some time today to play with a new toy that Tim gave me, a set of Whispers brush pens and blenders for use with rubber stamps. Now, at the moment I don't have very many rubber stamps (although I have ordered some!) so my experiments today were with stamps that were freebies on the front of magazines. That said, I am quite pleased with the results and made this ATC to document my experiments. The butterflies were stamped first and then enhanced with the blender and then 'masked' with a repeat of the image stamped on scrappaper and stuck over the proper images with repositional glue. The flowers were then stamped over the top, the scrap masked image removed to reveal the final effect. I hope this all makes sense. I am quite pleased with the overall effect and am looking forward to some more intricate stamps to try it with.

Love,

Caro

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Crafting day!

Well it has been a lovely day today. The weather was a bit changeable so we dashed out to do the weekly shop in a lovely sunny patch between showers. Alex was so good, just watching everything that happened around him and then gently drifting off to sleep at the supermarket checkout. We also had a lovely short walk in the park to give us some fresh air. I then had a happy afternoon playing with Alex and making him giggle and giving him his bath which was hillarious. He is getting much more adventurous about bath times and was splashing and wriggling away like anything. While Alex played in the baby gym or slept in his swinging chair I managed to complete two scrapbook layouts of him, both of which were based on Pencil Line sketches from this month. This first one, entitled 'Walks' is Pencil Lines sketch #39 by Stephanie Howell which I adapted for a 12x12 format. It was a great way of using the two photos I have of me taking Alex out for walks when he was a week to 10 days old.

This second one is of the first time my brother, Andy, and his wife, Nel, came to meet Alex and is entitled 'Family'. At the time Nel was heavily pregnant with Daniel who was born 9 weeks after Alex and we looked forward to when the two cousins could meet each other. They had also recently seen a photo of Andy aged 1 years old and decided that Alex actually looked a lot like his uncle! The layout is adapted from Pencil Lines sketch #40 by Karia Dudley as I was able to adapt this sketch for use with the two 6x4 photos that I had. I love the rounded edges and curves in this design.

Today I also had a treat in the form of a lovely ATC from Rhea Bellamy from the CM&PC forum entitled 'Dream Dancer'. I love the way that the fairies wings and hair are made all sparkly with glitter. All in all today was a lovely successful day!

Love,

Caro

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Seeing my Gran!

Gran and Alex sharing a nice cuddle and baby talk!Alex looking very comfortable in Aunty Jeans arms
Alex and Uncle Geoff sharing a smile.

Well the reason I didn't manage to post on here yesterday was because we spent a wonderful day at my Great Aunty Jean's house. At the age of 88 she lives on her own near Leicester and as my Gran (aged 82) was staying with her we decided to drive down to see them. It was also a useful exercise as it is the longest time Alex has ever been in the car. It took us 2 hours and he slept most of the way. We had a lovely time there with Alex entertaining the two ladies and my Uncle Geoff beautifully. We had brought his swinging chair with us so that he could sit in it over lunch and he was generally passed around and cuddled as well as having a nice kick around on the floor. As you can see, I couldn't let anyone escape without the obligatory photo of them cuddling Alex.

Today as the weather was miserable yet again, I spent time catching up on housework, playing with Alex and doing a bit of crafting. My brother turns 30 at the beginning of August and so I wanted to make him a card that was a bit special. He loves sailing and sailing boats, hence the picture which I decoupaged with a total of 6 layers so that the sails really look like they are billowing out. This is my first proper decoupaged card and I am really pleased with it.

I also managed to make F is for Flowers as part of my Alphabet for the CM&PC forum swap. This was fun to do and completes the next three letters for posting. The flowers are paper ones and add a lovely 3D effect to the card. Off to look after my son who is getting a bit fractious. More tomorrow,
Love,
Caro
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Jam Packed Day!

Today has been so busy that this is going to be a really short post. I have been shopping, cooking, cleaning, out for a walk in the park, crafting and playing with Alex to mention but a few. I have managed to make 6 ATCs today as a themed set...all very different from my usual style. They were a bit of an experiment really but will be available for swaps if anyone wants them...please let me know what you think of them. I coloured the background with random ink pads in yellow, orange, red and burgandy and then stamped images over that in black ink which I then coloured in using a mixture of glitter gel pens and normal felt pens. I then added a few stickers, peel offs and the word phrase to each one. More tomorrow when I have more time.
Love,
Caro
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Lunching ladies again!

Firstly an apology for not posting yesterday...blogger was down the one time I managed to get organised enough to go on the internet! It was a lazy day yesterday with not a great deal to report anyway, just much cuteness from Alex as I spent most of the day playing with him. Today has been fun though as Alex and I went out to lunch with Julia, my best friend from Sheffield. We originally met when I started my PhD in 1997 and were flat mates until she got engaged to David in 2000. She is currently pregnant with her second child and turned up with a bag of clothes for Alex as she is doing a grand sort out before number two arrives! We had a lovely chat and lunch sharing all our news before she had to go back to work.

The other excitement for today was that we managed to clear out our study enough to fit Alex's baby gym in as well as my crafting desk and Tim's computers, so it really is a family room now. It means that I don't have to craft on the sitting room floor next to him, I can craft at my desk and turn round to play with him. We also had great fun as he is now beginning to giggle and blowing raspberries on his tummy really makes him laugh...very very cute indeed, especially when combined with hiccoughs!

I have had a busy couple of days crafting as well...my brother turns 30 in August and so I wanted to make something special for him. He gave me a picture for my 30th which inspired me to make a digital scrapbook page of him and his new family (his son Daniel is 9 weeks younger than Alex). The papers mostly came from Shabby Princess freebie downloads and I am really pleased with how this layout turned out. I am just awaiting the frame and printing of it before i can give it to him.

I have also been experimenting with stamping and embossing techniques as I have seen some really effective ones used for both cards and ATCs. On this one I used autumn coloured ink pads to randomly colour the background, then stamped images of leaves using clear versamark and embossed using clear embossing grit, the coloured over the whole page in black ink and then finally wiped the black ink off the embossed bits to reveal the autumn colours beneith. It sort of works, but needs refining somewhat and possibly some different materials to make it work better.

I also had the wonderful treat of receiving A, B and C from the Alphabet swap on the CM&PC forum. They are such lovely cards and all so different. A is for Aroma is by Sheila Morrison (Thistle 13) and combines stamping, stickers and punch work. B is for boat is by Tracey Aldred and the stamped image of the boat is combined with some texture paint and overlayed on some stripey blue background paper to represent waves. C is for clock is by Gill Sweetman and is a waterfall card containing images of different types of clock. This is the first waterfall card I have received and it is wonderful, a really effective technique. Needless to say I am thrilled with all of these.

More tomorrow,

Love,
Caro

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Visitors and playtime in the park

We have had a lovely, if somewhat exhausting day today. My best friend from University, Abby, and her family came for the day. Her children are Christopher (aged 4) and Owain (aged 14 months) and are highly active so we had a lovely and very messy lunch (lasagne followed by homemade chocolate cake), during which Alex was supposed to sleep and didn't, followed by a trip to the local park (Spider Park) where there are great slimbing frames, swings etc. The older two boys loved it and Alex was finally persuaded to sleep for a short time (30 mins) on the walk there. I love these photos, especially of Christopher climbing the spider and Owain peeping through the walkway. It was so special to see them especially as they hadn't met Alex before. He was cuddled, kissed, passed around and generally admired by everyone and managed really well despite the lack of sleep (which usually sends him grumpy). This evening as we are totally exhausted, we have decided that we are going to collapse in front of a movie, Casino Royale, which we didn't catch when it was on at the cinema. My other news for the day was that I have been featured as 'subscriber of the month' in Scrapbook Inspirations. They have also featured this digital scrapbook page of Alex which was made using a template designed by Stacey Jewell Stahl together with freebie background papers and elements that I downloaded from digitalscrapbookplace.com. I have rarely been published in crafting magazines so I am thrilled with this. I also managed to complete another necklace today...this time one with blue beads for my sister-in-law Nel. It is a similar design to the previous one, but the central section is different (as well as the colour scheme!). More tomorrow.

Love,

Caro

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Insomnia

I don't know who is suffering more from insomnia, Alex or me. I think I have managed to get only about 4-5 hours sleep a night in the last two, and for the past two days Alex has barely slept during the day and woken up several hours earlier than normal as well. I really hope this isn't the start of a new pattern. On the positive side I managed to get loads done today, tidied the house, did the cooking for our guests tomorrow, made a card, made some phone calls, made an ATC, wrote some letters and most of all played with Alex - the photos are of us having a silly and gentle time sat on the floor of our living room. I have to saythat I now feel like a zombie and can't wait for bedtime!

This card is a little notelet that I made for my sister-in-law, Nel, as I had a few things that I wanted to send her. I love it when a simple design comes together and is quite effective. This only took me 15 minutes and I am really pleased with it.

I also managed to make the next card in my alphabet series 'E is for Elephant'. Again the Elephant is raised off the background of the card by sticky foam pads. All the cards that I make will be following the same overall feel and theme so that the second copy of the Alphabet that I am keeping for myself will be cohesive.

We have visitors tomorrow, so I doubt there will be any crafting done, but hopefully there will be good photo opportunities of all the kids. More then.

Love,

Caro

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Playing, crafting and housework!

It finally happened, our old vacuum cleaner gave up the ghost and refused to remove the dirt anymore so we had to get a new one. We ended up getting a Vax and it is so LOUD. Alex hated it and cried when we first switched it on so the housework took two of us...one to hold Alex and one to do the actual hoovering. By the end of it Alex had adapted at least a bit. As the weather was sunny for once I took Alex out for a walk in the pram to the local park to give us both some fresh air. The rest of the day we spent playing in the sitting room which was lovely. He is so cuddly and entertaining.

I managed to do a little bit of crafting today, catching up on a few of many projects that I have on the go at the moment. I completed the stamping for a stamp swap that is on-going on the CM&PC forum and made two ATCs. The first one is a relatively simple one that I think is quite effective, a posie of flowers printed onto velum, cut out with deckle scissors, inked around the edge and attached to the background card with four red brads. Unfortunately the inking doesn't show up very clearly in this scan. The other card is part of an Alphabet swap that I am involved in and is entitled 'D is for Dinosaur'. The background card and card making up the letter were generated by me using Word and ClipArt images. The blue Dinosaur figure was scanned in from one of Alex's baby grows (!) and is stuck down using foam pads. I hope to do E tomorrow.

I also received a lovely ATC today from Angela Clerehugh, entitled 'Charlie'. It is a pair for one I received from her a while ago of a cat called 'Jaz'. Charlie is a blakc peel off that has been filled in with twinkling H2Os (I think) and it is a fantastic effect. I also love the colours that Angela has used for the background.

More tomorrow,

Love,

Caro

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Ladies who lunch!

I have had a wonderful day today. Alex was back to his normal chirpy, smiley and happy self contentedly gurgling away for much of the day. This meant that my lunch with a girl friend from work was great. He sat peacefully for the first part and gently drifted off to sleep while we were eating. Who could ask for more. It was so great to catch up with Sheila. She is expecting her second child in October and so we were exchanging pregnancy stories. We went to a place called Hanrahans where they do a wonderful all you can eat for £5 buffet. Following that I popped into work where I saw several of my colleagues who all cooed over Alex. This photo is of a very sleepy Alex just before his final feed of the day today.

This afternoon saw me playing in the sitting room with Alex and sitting on the floor with a scrapbook layout in progress. My knees will never be the same again, but I completed it. It was based on this weeks Pencil Lines sketch #41 by Cath. I thought it was a wonderful sketch for showcasing 5 lovely pictures of Alex smiling and earning his nickname of 'Smiler' the title of the layout. The journalling says 'it is easy to see how Alex got the nickname Smiler at the age of three months'. I love the colour combination of blue and yellow and as there is so far very little blue in Alex's scrapbook I decided it was high time that I featured this colour scheme.

I also received another wonderful ATC from Dawn Martindale today entitled 'On the prowl'. The main focus of this ATC is a photograph that Dawn took of a jaguar on a recent trip to Chester Zoo. I love big cats so this card is perfect for me. I love the clever use of the frame on this card. I now owe her a card so I guess the next few days is going to see me making ATCs for a change. More tomorrow,

Love,

Caro

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