Spring Clean - part 1

Yesterday I took the day off work and while Alex was at nursery went on a massive spring cleaning splurge. The house had got chaotic and there were piles of things everywhere so I had a major clear out, re-organisation and proper deep clean...what a friend of mine calls ‘Bottoming’ (getting to the bottom of things!). I usually do this during my two week Christmas break but we were all too ill to manage it then. It was exhausting but very satisfying, although I haven’t finished yet! I have done the kitchen, sitting room and dining room including cleaning out cupboards, washing windows and windowsills as well as the hovering and dusting. I will be doing upstairs next week. It is so much nicer to cook in the kitchen now and to sit and watch TV in the sitting room and I am much happier as a result. Alex had a great day at nursery yesterday and by all accounts has been great at home with Tim today, albeit very tired. Bath-time was hilarious and very wet (for me and the bathroom floor!). Crafting wise I made a card for a family friend who has broken his hip. I always find get well soon cards for gents very difficult, but having found this great image of a bear on crutches the card came together fairly easily following the Papertake weekly sketch. The card also fits the brief to use one image, two papers and three embellishments for the Secret Crafter’s Saturday challenge. I have also managed to make a Valentine’s day card for Tim, which fits the Cute Card Thursday challenge. This one uses the weaving technique detailed on the Cuttlebug Challenge site. My weaving of two different cardstocks has then been embossed with the Cuttlebug Hearts folder (not sure how well the embossing shows up) and so this card meets the Cuttlebug spot challenge of making a card for your significant other. The gold heart is triple embossed metal magic which has been stamped into using the free stamp from the latest Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine, and finished off with a red ribbon, strip of gold hearts and Valentine’s day peel offs. As usual I would love to know what you think.

Finally I have been given these two lovely awards by Sally and Debbie. Thank you ladies. What you have to do is go to your pictures folder and open the 6th folder in that and then upload the 6th picture and tell us the significance of the picture. Here goes!

This picture is of me when I was nearly 4 feeding Fred, my Gran's very friendly Afgan hound. I am being helped by Gran and my brother is in the foreground...I loved that dog and followed him everywhere! I pass these awards on to Kerry, Frances, Allison, Heather and Tassy. That’s all for now so have a great weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Mid-week chaos.

Wow, what a week it has been so far. I feel like a dog who is constantly running round chasing his own tail! So far I have run an experiment (which took all day and didn't work), discussed a plan of action for three different publications, and been in numerous meetings with varying degrees of importance. I feel like I need a day of working in a locked room with no interuptions in order to catch up with everything. Hey ho, such is the life of an academic. Home life is fun at the moment with Alex keeping us highly entertained with his constant chattering. For some reason he is fascinated with our boiler and whenever he goes past it, or it kicks up he shouts out 'Boillaaaar' at the top of his voice! He has also developed a love of fish fingers and apples. On Monday he went round for the whole evening with an apple nibbling little bits of it...he wont eat it if I cut it up for him...he wants to eat it from the whole apple!

Crafting wise I have made scrapbook page following sketch #71 from Stuck?!. I love this sketch and am sure I will use it again. This page features a photo from last August and is entitled 'Good Boy'. The journalling reads 'we were so proud when Alex came home from nursery with his first 'Well done' sticker for eating all his lunch and sitting nicely through story time. 20th August 2008'. The papers are a mixture of K&Co, hot off the press, papermania and Bazzil. I added loads of stars and so the page fits with the how much is too much challenge. [Ooops, just re-read the rules for this challenge and it should have featured a photo of me as well...so it doesn't quite fit!!].

I also made this card for a friend who's birthday is at the weekend. I followed the card sketch from Friday sketchers and this actually fits with the Cupcake crafts challenge which is to use three different pieces of cardstock (Yellow, cream and patterned K&Co), two embellishments (flower and brad) and one ribbon. What is more this card actually fits the My time to craft, little ray of sunshine challenge as well. As usual I would love to know what you think. Have a good rest of the week.

love

Caro

x

Hair cut

We have had a lovely weekend enjoying the dry weather during the day as it only rained at night. Alex and I went to the park both days and he absolutely loved stomping around in his new boots and splashing in all the puddles.

Both trips were a real mixture of walking down the path to stamp in the 'puggles' and playing on the climbing frame, in the tunnels and going down the slide. It was rather cold both days, but good fun. Alex had begun to look like Little Lord Fauntleroy with his curly blond locks and as he kept getting food in his hair which was proving very difficult to wash out we decided it was time he had a hair cut. I am not sure who found it more traumatic...him or me. Once he was bribed with chocolate buttons he coped quite well, but I think it looks far too short at the moment. I have continued with my efforts to photograph some thing from nature each weekend this year and this time I have managed two efforts. This one is of the sun going down this evening using the night scenery mode on my camera. This one is of a magpie who was perched at the top of a tall tree as we walked underneith. The camera was on full zoom.

Crafting wise this weekend I have been doing a project that I meant to start about 18 months ago and that is an oldfashioned scrapbook of Alex's art work. I found this colour paged scrapbook in my local post office and decorated it with wrapping paper and stickers of things that Alex likes.

The inside includes any photos of him crafting along with his art, the dates on which he did the drawing etc and his age.

I have included the things he brings back from nursery for a complete record and am going to add some of his attempts at photography as well. I will continue to fill this book throughout the early years of his life. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.

Love,

Caro

x

Healing nicely.

I am pleased to say that Alex is healing nicely and his head is looking much improved, except that he picked one of his scabs off this morning, little monster! In the last couple of days he has learnt to say Grandma so when I pick my phone up he says ‘Phone Gramma’ as he loves to hear her voice on the phone. Now that he goes to nursery three days a week he is completely exhausted on a Friday and today he fell asleep on the floor surrounded by his toys again before his usual nap time. I have to say that I am glad it is the weekend and I can spend some more time with him and have a break from the chaos of work, we have been drawing tonight which was good fun. I have had fun making cards over these last couple of days. This one was made using the sketch from Saturday sketchers and also fits the Penny Black lets get spotty challenge as I embossed one of the pieces of card with the Swiss dots folder, used a spotted ribbon and the little hedgehog image is a Penny Black stamp. This second one uses a sketch by Becky Fleck which is this weeks Cuttlebug Challenge. I enjoyed using this sketch and embossed the Angel kiss flowers as well as the background. The embossed leaves I coloured in using chalks and then added some mica powder to provide a bit of sparkle on the highlights not sure it really shows up on the photo though. As usual I would love to know what you think. I have been given this blog award by Debbie, Frances and Jan which is very kind. In order to receive the award I have to tell you 5 random facts about myself so here goes.
1. I have blue eyes
2. I love dogs and cats, but sadly don’t have one
3. I love to sing Opera (although my voice is a bit rusty these days!)
4. I am a tea freak...I drink at least 10 large mugs a day
5. I met the Queen Mother the summer before she died
I love so many people’s blogs that it is hard to choose five to give this award to, but here goes:

Lottie
Tassy

Allison

Anna

Sue
Have a great weekend everyone!

Love,

Caro

x

Lethal ice

It has certainly been a busy week this week at work. I have become the postgraduate tutor for 6 PhD students who are undertaking a new design in PhD courses and I have had to write guidelines for their lab reports and then marking schemes for those who mark them. This is not something I have ever done before, but is interesting and challenging and makes a change from writing papers and grants. It has been nice to come home in the evenings to a chatty and lively little boy. We have done a mixture of different things including playing with my old camera, extremely messy bath times, building lego towers, drawing, watching in the night garden and playing with his toys all to the accompaniment of very loud words such as ‘camma’ (camera), ‘curting’ (curtains), ‘Makka’ (Makka Pakka), ‘Pigle’ (Iggle Piggle), 'dwaw' (draw), ‘tower’, ‘cuck’ (truck), ‘farm’, and most recently ‘happy’ which means that he wants me to sing the ‘If you are happy and you know it’ song. His recent fixation is with the sun and the fact that at night time it is ‘All gonna’. All great fun!
I hate black ice! Our drive was covered in it yesterday and you really could not see it at all. Poor Tim was carrying Alex out to the car when his feet literally slipped out from under him and he went crashing down trying to protect Alex as best he could. Despite Tim’s best efforts Alex bumped his head on the ice/concrete and is now sporting a massive graze on his forehead as you can see in the photo as well as a bitten lip. Unsurprisingly they were both rather shaken up, but fortunately, thanks to Tim’s efforts Alex wasn’t concussed and there was no serious injury so after a lot of TLC and cuddles Alex went off to nursery quite happily and by all accounts had a good day there. I have done a little crafting over the past few days including another scrapbook layout, this time following sketch #70 on the ‘Stuck?!’ challenge blog. For some reason I found this one hard to do, but I am quite pleased with the final result. This page is entitled ‘Wigwam’ and is meant to reflect the fun that Alex had with his Wigwam last summer. I tried to choose papers/cardstock that reflected the natural colours of the grass, trees and wigwam. The journalling reads 'Alex loved playing in his new Wigwam and was in and out of it, peeping out of the window, through the door and playing with the sticks all summer 2008'.Unintentionally this card actually fits with several challenge sites this week. It was originally made following the sketch from Sketch & Stash and uses my newest stash which was a set of K&Co scraps. However, it fits with the Papertake challenge to use at least three shapes on the card (rectangle, hearts and star) and also fits with cute card Thursday and my time to craft challenges which are both to use something humorous. I personally find this image of the dog dangling from the balloon quite funny. I don’t know who the dog stamp is by as I was given the stamped image in a swap and have lost the details of that stamp. Finally it fits with the Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge to use hearts on your card. As usual I would love to read any comments you might have. I hope you are all having a good week.
Love,
Caro
x

Weekend fun!

We have had a fun weekend playing with Alex who has been hillarious with some of the things he has said. Yesterday I took himto the big supermaket with me for our monthly shop. He was so proud of himself sat in the shopping trolley and telling me that things were 'pots' 'cans' 'bread' 'cheese' etc. Unfortunately as I don't know that supermarket very well yet, it took me ages to do the shopping so he was getting a bit fed up at the end. A bribe of a Bertie the bus toy soon cheered him up though and he hasn't stopped playing with it since...it is the first thing he asked for this morning.

It was beautifully sunny this morning, but blowing a gale and bitterly cold so we didn't venture out for long, but did enjoy playing in the garden. These seed heads are still attached high up on the trees at the back of our garden and this was a lucky shot as the wind was blowing so hard all the others were out of focus!

Alex got very excited every time a bird flew over stopping whatever he was doing to shout 'Bird' at the top of his voice and watch it. He also got very enthusiastic about me cooking this weekend, saying 'cook' several times over, and then when he got some of the bolognaise sauce saying 'yum yum yeah!'. At the end of his meal he asked for 'Cotchut' (chocolate) and was given a milky way star much to his delight. Finally when I came to wash his extremely mucky face he said 'uh oh' in a very cute voice. What completely cracked me up though was him wandering round the place saying 'oooo ooo Monkey!' while waving around a monkey picture.

It has been a fairly good weekend crafting wise as well as I have made inroads into my scrabooking. This page is loosely based on one of Becky Flecks Page Maps and is entitled 'SPLASH'. The papers are a mixture of hot off the press and Bazzil. The journalling reads 'Alex loves going to the park after it has rained as there is a large shallow puddle which he can stomp and splash in to his hearts content. The only problem is he doesn't have any books and we have to dry his shoes every evening'. These photos were taken in August 2008.

This next page is based on this weeks sketch from Pencil Lines and was a challenge for me as I don't usually use these colours. I think that the patterned papers are all Basic Grey and the cardstock is Bazzil. Some of the flowers are from Angel kiss. The title is 'Safe in Great Gran's arms' and the journalling reads 'Alex refused to sleep in his cot when we went to Barr at Easter, after an exhausting night he finally decided to sleep when Great Gran cuddled and sang to him'. March 2008.

Finally, I made this sympathy card for a dear friend who has recently lost her Mum. I never know what to make for sympathy cards so I kept this one simple. Incidentally this card also fits the Cuttlebug challenge to make a card using your favourite embossing folder. I have to confess that I don't have a favourite yet as they are all new to me, but hopefully this still counts! Have a good week everyone.

Love,

Caro

x

So glad its the weekend!

I had a pressing deadline to submit abstracts and register for a conference so despite feeling awful I struggled into work yesterday. I am glad to say that I am feeling better today although still full of cold and very tired so I am very glad that it is the weekend. Alex is on fine form although rather tired and inclined to be moody. He has discovered/invented a new game. He has a picture of a monkey and runs around while Tim chases him and they both make monkey noises...it ends with Alex giggling like mad and is the greatest of fun. Alex has also developed a liking for bread...he had finished his tea yesterday and I had put a loaf of bread on the side...no sooner was my back turned than the loaf was on the floor and Alex had a slice in each hand munching from alternate slices!

I haven't felt much like crafting these past couple of days, but have come across some new Oriental images so decided to make a few trading cards. These first ones were made with a vintage feel to them and I stamped the background with chinese lettering.

This set are of geishas and I highlighted the flowers in the background with my sakura stardust pen, stamped the silver character and edged with silver peel offs. As usual I would love to know what you think. Have a great weekend everyone.

Love,

Caro

x

Revenge of the bug

I thought I was getting better on Sunday despite the fact that I wasn't really able to eat much, but sadly it didn't work out that way. I have been too ill to go to work at all this week, although with an abstract deadline looming on Friday I have had to do little bits of work each day. I had hoped to go in today, but I had an awful night last night, and to top it all off I am getting another cold! I object! Alex has been a little unsettled by the fact that his routines have changed as a result of our illness...he isn't unwell fortunately and has been to nursery every day this week, though he hates being dropped off by me and cries. When I have collected him in the evenings he is very confused that Daddy isn't in the car and keeps asking for him. This means that evening playtimes have been with all three of us romping around which Alex absolutely loves. His current favourite games are 'tower' which is building a lego tower, his 'tane' which is a Thomas the tank Engine train, and 'Makka shower' which is an episode of in the night garden which contains a water spout.

Despite having three days off work, being ill has meant that I have had very little energy for crafting, although I have attempted to do some in the form of three scrapbook pages. This first one I found the most difficult to put together because I couldn't seem to get the balance of the page right. It is of our trip to the Mary Rose last May. The journalling reads 'I have been fascinated by the Mary Rose since learning about her in history at school. Ever since she was raised from the sea bed I have wanted to go and visit, but it wasn't until 26 years later that I finally fulfilled that ambition. As well as seeing the actual ship I found the exhibition of the thousands of personal, domestic and military ites including tankards, cannons, bottles, rosaries and backgammon sets a fascinating glimpse of Tudor times'.

This second page, although a double page spread, came together much more easily. It depicts our trip to the Weald and Downland Open Air museum. The cardstock is Bazzill, the patterned paper K&Co and the flowers are Angel kiss. The journalling reads 'We all loved our day spent exploring the old buildings at the Weald and Downland Open Air museum. The mill was one of our favourite buildings and Alex was fascinated by the big waterwheel going round and the grinding wheels inside. He also loved being able to crawl around an old barn while we ate a very nice lunch followed by extremely yummy shortbread made with flour from the mill. May 2008'

I finished with ths page of Fishbourne Roman Palace. I used Bazzil cardstock, K&Co patterned paper, and Purple Onion fluorishes. The journalling reads 'I remember being fascinated by the beauty of the mosaics at Fishbourne as a child so it was wonderful to share that beauty with Tim nearly 25 years later. They are still amazingly beautiful, an outstanding example of Roman Art'.

I did manage to make a set of ATCs for the winter themed swap on the Time for Crafting forum. The background to these cards is Basic Grey paper stamped and embossed with snowflakes using pearl gold, then stamped with snowflakes in silver and snowmen in blue. The photos are my own and are edged with holographic glitter glue. That is all for now, All being well I hope to be back at work tomorrow. Have a good week everyone.

Love,

Caro

x

This photo was taken on Friday as I was leaving work, the sun had just set but the silhouette of the tree was still evident and as I had my camera I couldn't resist snapping it. It has definitely one of those weekends...I came down with another sickness bug and spent most of Saturday collapsed in a heap on the sofa while Alex ran round the sitting room coming and getting the occasional hug and showing me his trains, cars, bus, van and drawing. I felt really weak and wobbly and in a lot of pain from my tummy. Tim, bless him managed to pop out and do the shopping for me and fed Alex to relieve the pressure, but by the end of the day Alex had got a bit stir crazy poor thing.

Today we are all much better and so after a morning of organising various parcels for posting Alex and I headed out to friends to play. He loved exploring their house and playing with their different toys, especially a postman pat van. He and Chloe, who is 6 months younger than him, were very funny together both wanting the same toys at the same time, then passing each other things and pushing past each other. They are both a little young to play with each other, but still enjoy the company. They were both a little tired and hungry by the time we left and getting a bit fractious, but all in all it was a great afternoon out.

There has been little energy or time for crafting this weekend but I did manage to make this card for my sister-in-law who loves elephants. All the backing papers and images are from the Jane Netley-Mayhew CD and the oval and scalloped edges were made using my nestabilities dies.

Finally I made this fatbook page out of an origami elephant that I attempted to make. It is probably the most ambitious and difficult origami project I have ever tried so i couldn't just throw it away, hence it being turned into a fatbook page for someone who loves elephants. Hopefully I will feel more like crafting this week and there will be more to post but for now have a great week everyone.

Love,

Caro

x

Friday at last!

Well, it is Friday and that means that I can play properly again. Considering that it is the first week back at work it has been hectic, but I have succeeded in completing the grant application, submitting a paper, writing two abstracts, reviewing a grant and analysing lots of data. I am definitely ready for a weekend off! Alex has been on cracking form and we have had so much fun in the mornings and evenings. He loves to chatter at us about what he is doing whether it is playing with his lego 'bwox' (blocks) and building 'towers', standing on something while saying 'up' then climbing down and saying 'down' or playing with his 'tanes' (trains). We have had some great games of chase this week and generally had loads of fun. Yesterday evening when I said 'Let's go upstairs and find Daddy' he ran to the stairs, climbed them and at the top called out 'Daddy, Daddy' in a very cute voice...it is the first time he has done that.

I have been on a bit of a crafting spree as the original safari ATCs I made proved so popular and there were requests for more please. This meant I made these 4 sets using a mixture of images and background, including some cuttlebug embossed backgrounds which are currently up for swaps on the CM&PC forum.

I have also made my card for this weeks Cuttlebug Challenge which was an all white card (except the greeting). This one is a thank you card for my Mother (so it meets the Daring Cardmakers challenge as well) using the butterfly die and emboss and two different embossing folders for the background. The embossing has been embellished with holographic glitter glue.

This final card was made to meet the Cuttlebug Spot challenge which was a mans card and used my new Jane Netley-Mayhew CD (a Christmas present) so also meets the Cute Card Thursday challenge! I coloured the stripes in with black pen and then chalked in between them with two different colours and used my other Christmas present of the nestabilities scalloped Oval for the sentiment. Have a great weekend everyone.

Love,

Caro

x