Survived it!

We all survived my first day back at work. Alex and Tim had a good morning and Alex ate half a pot of baby food mid-morning, and played in his door bouncer, and baby gym and then had a little nap later on. I popped back at lunchtime to breast feed him and then Tim gave him a bottle mid-afternoon. He actually took 4floz from a bottle (a bit of a breakthrough for us). My day at work was a bit chaotic as I had to move office, so much of the day was spent moving furniture and large quantities of files and slides, and catching up with the progress of my students. I also started to wade through my 2,567 e-mails! I don't go in again until Wednesday when I hope to get some more detailed work done. This evening I have been playing with Alex and we are going to have a take-away and watch a movie as I am really tired from the rest of the day. More tomorrow when hopefully I will get some crafting done.

Love,

Caro

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Last day of freedom!

OK, OK, I exaggerate. It isn't that bad really! I will only be working two days this week, Monday and Wednesday, but it does feel like it. So to make the most of it we went for a lovely walk this morning in Endcliffe park, stopping for yet another Bradwells ice cream. I went for tofee & banana and Strwberries and cream with a flake...a special treat. I just love the fact that we were able to get so close to this moorhen, isn't it a beautiful bird? Other than that I have spent the day doing a bit of organising getting things ready for tomorrow and making sure that Tim has everything that he will need for looking after Alex. I am a bit concerned about the two of them, but have to face facts, Tim is a grown man and is perfectly capable of looking after his own son. I am only a phone call away after all. My latest crafty mess has all been tidied away and I feel like things are now under control.

Alex has been really quite amusing, he found his wooden rattle and was waving it around, hitting himself with it, and got a complete fit of the giggles while he was doing it which was lovely to see. He chatters quite a lot and is very active, wriggling and kicking and playing with various toys. Instead of doing much crafting today I spent the time playing with Alex, making up for the fact that I am not going to see as much of him tomorrow.

The little bit of crafting I did today was to make an ATC using some of the green and yellow inked background that I made and stamping it with the Flowers sign from my paperartsy stamp and the Stamps Away rose, then edged it with the same black StazOn ink and finally added two pewter flower brads. Quite a simple ATC, but very effective.

Yesterday I received two lovely ATCs in the post from Momiji and didn't have time to scan them in until now. They are based on a Japanese character called Mamegoma and a really sweet. The pockets contain different things, one contains a note to me and the other contains a large Mamegoma. These are probably among the most unique of my ATCs.

Anyway, must go now. Wish me luck for tomorrow,

Love,

Caro

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Chinese food!

Well I know I keep mentioning it but with me going back to work on Monday, Tim decided to treat me today and so we went out for a Chinese at lunchtime. We went to the Candy Town in the centre of Sheffield as they were very relaxed about Alex being there. There were four other groups in the restaurant and they all had babies! Although Alex didn't go to sleep until the very end of the meal and was slightly fractious, on the whole he was very well behaved and had his very first tastes of Chinese food - mostly squashed rice. He seemed to quite like licking my finger with sweet and sour sauce on it and had a couple of sips of Chinese tea. It was a lovely set menu and the crispy aromatic duck and the sweet and sour pork were particularly yummy. I very much enjoyed being out as a family and was a very special treat.

Alex's 'solid' food meal today was mashed up peas. This was so funny as he was in a very giggly mood while he was eating and kept getting fits of giggles with his mouth full so he looked like some sort of swamp monster (Tim's expression, not mine!). Yes, that is pea on his ear in this photo!! Today we dressed him in jeans which are supposed to be for 3-6 month old babies...they are far too big for him, not in length, but in girth! When we pick him up, he is in danger of losing them. He is looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby these days.

I have managed to do a little crafting today, although many of the experiments didn't work very well. I am, however, pleased with this card as it is a lovely bright and cheerful one. The background was made with smudging red and yellow ink that I have had for years onto glossy paper and then spritzing with large quantities of water and then placing another piece of glossy paper on top to transfer the inks to that. I then stamped the butterfly images over that and mounted it onto a red card. The central butterfly image was embossed with red embossing powder and then coloured in using glitter gel pens and the word butterfly added with red ink, and then this panel mounted on red card. Finally the red angel kiss flower and yellow flower brad were added.

Love,

Caro

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Granny and Grandpa Pete come to call

Well, I haven't had as much time/energy for crafting over the past couple of days as Alex has still not been very well and therefore needing more attention, and I haven't been sleeping well, only managing about 3-4 hours sleep a night. I am probably not sleeping due to worrying about going back to work and about how Alex and Tim will cope. I am sure they will be fine, but it is hard to keep a clear perspective on things sometimes. As a result I feel a bit like a zombie. Yesterday we had a visit from Tim's parents which was lovely as they haven't seen Alex for about 6 weeks and he has changed so much in that time. He was on good form, chatting, yelling, wriggling, giggling and generally being very entertaining. Pete and Kath both reckon that Alex is looking more like me than he used to, especially with his big blue eyes and cute little mouth. It was lovely to see them and chat about their plans to move to Sheffield and I really hope that things come together for them soon and their house sale goes OK.

Today was a more gentle day, with shopping in the morning, a gentle walk in the park this afternoon, making the most of the sun and time for a bit of crafting. Yesterday I made this necklace for Kath for her very belated birthday present and she loved it and asked for a matching bracelet for Christmas! It is hard to see the colours in this picture but they are rust reds, deep yellows and greens.

I have also been experimenting with ink effects with mixed sucess. This card is the first one i have made with a green and yellow background. It is a complete change from my usual style of card, but I am quite pleased with the effect. I am going to spend some time messing with this idea and trying out different stamping styles on top of the background to generate different style cards as I really like this. I will also make some ATCs using this technique. More soon.

Love,

Caro

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card making challenges

Over the past couple of days I have set myself the challenges on various card making sites and have managed to make 4 cards. This first one is from the Card Positioning Systems site (challenge #28) and uses BasicGrey patterned paper, an image of wine bottles cut out with pinking scissors mounted on dark green card, a Happy Birthday stamp free from one of my magazines with the image stamped in dark green and dark green ribbon. I was quite puzzled as to how to use this sketch initially, but am thrilled with how it turned out and think that my future brother-in-law will like it.

This second card is for my brother-in-law whose Birthday isn't until October, but I am trying to get ahead based on the fact that I go back to work on Monday and don't know how much time I will have for crafting. This is based on the CPS sketch #29. The patterned paper is BasicGrey and the image of the wine bottles has been decoupaged. I am relatively new to decoupage, but have decided that if the cutting isn't too fiddly I really enjoy it and like the effects it creates.

The third card is based on last weeks sketch from Sketch This Cards! (#24). I just love the bright colours of these papers from Art From The Heart, and the flowers in the centre were cut out from one of these papers, finished off with a small angel kiss and a bright orange brad. This is a funky card that doesn't have a destination as yet...just trying to build up a backstock of nice cards for emergency use.

Finally, this is a card based on this weeks sketch from Sketch This Cards! (#25) and funnily enough, as it uses a blue theme, and a stamped image works well for last weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge as well! The papers used for this are from Sassafras Lass, and the flowers are from Hobby craft.

No time to write more now, all is well here, Alex is looking and feeling much better so is less inclined to cry and be clingy, although he still feels a little hot to the touch. He keeps on rolling onto his front and getting stuck which is quite amusing. I am looking forward to when he works out how to roll back again so I don't have to turn him over!

Love,

Caro

x

Poorly boy

Alex has had a bit of a cold, and although he was fairly chirpy in the morning, most unusually for him in the afternoon he got really upset at the slightest unexpected noise and cried whenever we put him down. he was in a 'I'm poorly, please cuddle me mood'. This made cooking our tea rather tricky, although I did manage to make us a spaghetti bolognese and some most delicious white chocolate chip cookies. In the morning when Alex wasn't so ill he was playing in his baby gym and rolled over from his back to his tummy four times and was stuck there each time. He got really frustrated after 5-10 minutes and yelling for us to turn him over whereupon he turned straight over again! I just love these two pictures of him on his tummy looking really pleased with himself. I was so tired that we ended up having a take-away pizza and watching a very silly and good fun film, Blades of Glory, last night, which was lovely. It is a real treat having a take away, as it is not something we do very often.

Today Alex was a bit better so we have been out for a walk along a different part of the Porter Valley, although we didn't go far because Tim isn't feeling very well. Alex was very funny, wriggling and kicking and punching most of the way along and making his favourite sounds, which today consisted mainly of 'oooo' said very loudly! We went to a fishing pond and sat and had a picnic there, before walking back. Since then, Alex has been lying in his baby gym blowing bubbles and making some fairly sloppy raspberry noises, and yes, he has also rolled himself over a couple of times.

I have had a successful couple of days crafting wise, making two wedding cards for this next weekend. This first one is for a university friend, Philippa, who has always liked 1920-30s things, so the photograph is of a couple from the 1930s. The heart and the couple dancing in the corner are actually gold - for some reason the scan has turned them black. The papers used were Basic Gray.

The second card used an aperture card I was given about 3 years ago and never got round to using, coupled with red ink, gold hearts and the couple dancing, Basic Gray papers and stickers from the recent wedding set that I got. This is for a friend from Somerset, Debbie, who is getting married in two weeks.

I have also been trying to generate a stock of generic cards for seding to anyone who needs cheering up, or that I need to send a note to, and this is the first of these cards. The papers used are Junkitz papers that came free with Scrapbook Inspirations magazine, and the photo is of a rose taken in one of the Sheffield parks this summer. This is quite a simple card in many ways, but quite effective. Exactly what you need when you have a lot to make!

Finally I did make one ATC, again using the PaperArtsy stamp. This time just the figure of the woman was stamped in ginger onto a butterscotch background and then cut out and mounted onto some vintage paper with writing and buttons. Then finished off with a butterfly image, a button, and some gold ribbon secured with a brad. I really like this one.

More soon.

Love,

Caro

x

Wonderful Wedding

We went to a lovely wedding in Leicestershire yesterday. The wedding was of a family friend, Max, who I have known for 25 years. His sister was a bridesmaid at my wedding 6 years ago and sang during the signing of the register. It was a lovely day, as although the weather was a bit mixed it remained dry and warm enough. My whole family were there, so we had lunch in the local pub, got changed in the ladies loos(!) and headed to the church. Mother very kindly volunteered to look after Alex during the service so that I could go into the church. They sat in the porch where Mother could see and hear everything, and Alex was pretty quiet during it. The service was beautiful, and Emma, the bride was so overcome with emotion that she almost couldn't say her vows. Susie, the grooms sister, sang during the signing of the register and it was beautiful. Formal photos outside the church were followed by a marquee reception on the cricket pitch of the neighbouring village. It was lovely to spend time catching up with some old friends from Somerset and the grooms family. Alex was a star, and only cried twice, when everyone shouted for the group photo and when everyone clapped the bride and groom as they entered for dinner. My sister-in-law, Nel and my nephew, Daniel waiting outside the church for the bride to arrive.
Emma and her father arrive at the church, followed by the bridesmaids.
Just Married! The Bride and Groom leave the church first.

The formal photos - Max, Emma and Max's family.
Max's sister, Susie, and her father, Simon chatting to Somerset friends.
Susie, and her Mum, Yvonne, hug after the service.

Throwing of the confettie (Rose petals) - the wind blew it over the guests more than the bride and groom!

Dad, Andy (my brother) and Daniel (my nephew) outside the church

Alex and myself having a lovely cuddle outside church

Max and Emma arrive at the reception - don't you love the car!

A family portrait - Me, Dad, Mother and Andy.

Alex makes a friend over dinner.

I am totally exhausted today mind you, and have spent the day gently catching up on things that needed doing, housework, washing, cooking, garden tidying (only a very little bit!) and on all the chat on the forum. Alex managed to roll over from his back to his front this morning, and then got very frustrated because he was then stuck!

I received 4 ATCs in the post yesterday as well... these two are from Margaret Barwick and follow a fashion theme. I love the way she has hand-drawn the handbags.

The other two are from Joanne Browne, and funnily enough the bride is very appropriate for where I was yesterday...it is a lovely and romantic ATC, and I just love the look on the naughty kittens face in the other one. I have a long list of cards to make and so hopefully I will be crafting again tomorrow and will post some of my cards for you to see then. More soon.

Love,

Caro

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