Surviving!

Well I am glad it is the end of the week as I am shattered and appear to have a near permanent headache due to a sinus infection. However, that said, the week hasn’t been as bad as I first feared and I think I will manage to get through everything on time, although lecturing at 9am on a Monday morning isn’t something I look forward to! Alex is being really sweet at the moment, wanting to give us loads of kisses and cuddles which just melt my heart. He is tired at the end of the week, although still has the energy to keep me entertained while playing with his garage and cars. Crafting wise I have only had time to make this Mother’s Day card for my Mother-in-law. This therefore fits with the My Time to Craft theme of ‘Just for Mum’ and fits with the ‘green’ theme of Cute Card Thursday, ‘beads’ from a Spoon Full of Sugar (not sure you can see them easily in this photo…they are on the ribbon) and the sketch from this weeks ‘Sketch and Stash’. The new stash I have used is the main flower image from Crafty Individuals and the patterned paper (MME). As usual I would love to know what you think. Have a great weekend.
Love,
Caro
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Busy

I am so busy at work at the moment that I don't know whether I am coming or going! In the next two weeks I have to teach on 4 different subjects, write a grant application, make a presentation to a visiting professor, all on top of my usual workload. I will be glad when March is over and it is only just beginning! On a positive note, I am getting on top of it all (I think!) and Alex is being good fun to play with, although a little naughty about going to bed. Here he is clambering all over his Dad and giggling and grinning like mad.

Crafting wise I have only managed to make this scrapbook page although it does fit with several different challenges. It follows the unscripted sketch for this week, the theme of 'textures' from Scrap and Stamp (ribbon, chipboard, flocked stickers and tinsel), 'glitter and sparkle' from Stamp, Scrap and Doodle (the glitter doesn't show well in the photo but is in the gaps in the red flocked stickers and on the stamped baubles at the top), 'round and round' from CCC (the ribbon and background paper have circles) and 'Brads and bling' from PTW (green tree brad and the glitter and tinsel). The title is 'Cousin Pile' and the journalling reads 'The boys had so much fun playing together and one game they invented was 'piles' whereby they all piled on top of each other. Despite being the youngest Alex found it funny being squashed. Christmas 2009'. (Alex is in the middle of the pile). Thank you for looking and commenting. Have a great week.

Love,

Caro

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Nice weekend

Alex has been a little better having had a little more sleep and so we have had a lovely weekend, not that the weather has been any good. Yesterday as it was misty and rainy Alex and I went to the museum where we discovered that they were holding a teddy hospital so teddy went through an MRI scanner (made of polystyrene - with a little camera mounted and attached to a lap top) and an x-ray machine (made of cardboard - followed by a lightbox and some real x-ray images) and was then given some medicine! I don't think poor teddy was expecting that, but Alex enjoyed it. We then had fun playing with the food and the till in the butchers shop in the main museum...I bought some eggs and was given a lot of money!

Today we went to a friends house where Alex and her little girl Katie had great fun emptying all the toys out across the sitting room and playing together. Alex was really good at sharing the toys with Katie and they were very gentle with each other which was lovely to see. Callum, Katie's older brother, had cleared out some toys to give to Alex so he was a very happy boy. It was great for me to be able to spend some time with a friend as well...definitely something to repeat!

Crafting wise I have made two cards this weekend. This one was requested by Tim for his younger sister. She is really into her i-phone and the facebook and twitter aps, hence the topper of the card. This card actually meets several challenges this week as well: 1) Crafty Cardmakers tri-colour challenge (I used split complementary colours of yellow, orange and blue) 2) Daring Cardmakers sun challenge (the rays in the background) 3) CCC friends challenge (facebook and twitter are sights where friends keep in touch so I thought that this counted, although it was somewhat different!) and 4)SCSC of stitching (I drew some stiches round the edge of the card...me and needles and thread are not a good combination!).

I got my first ever issue of craft stamper yesterday and loved the look of the technique of generating reflections in pools of water with your stamps. After a few disastrous attempts I came up with this, but I can't decide whether or not I like it! I think it would look better in black, but my black ink pad has run out hence the dark green instead. I will be buying some black ink this week to try again! In the meantime I would love to know what you think. Have a great week everyone.

Love,

Caro

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Tired and tricky

It hasn’t been the easiest of weeks so far, hence the late posting of this update. I went to London on Tuesday to lecture at UCL and the train was delayed by an hour meaning that I was late for my lecture and then late for my lunchtime meeting with Dad and Andrew and then the train back was also delayed by over an hour, a total nightmare. To top it all off my poor little boy is so tired due to his cold and cough that he keeps getting himself in a muddle, not knowing what he wants , rebelling against things that need to be done, then regretting it and crying non-stop wanting to try again, which isn’t always possible due to time constraints of getting to work etc. I really hope he gets better soon as it is so hard to see him get himself into that state.
Needless to say I haven’t done a great deal of crafting this week, but did manage to make this card for one of the ladies who looks after Alex at nursery. She is going on maternity leave this week so I made her this card to wish her all the best. I don’t know what sex the baby is going to be so I decided on a gender neutral card using colours of yellow and white. The card follows this weeks Friday sketchers sketch, the theme of fancy folds from Kaboodle Doodle (the windmill), the theme of in the frame from My Time To Craft, and the challenge to use distress inks, glitter and pearls from A Spoon Full of Sugar. I used distress inks to edge the sentiment and white image panels, and coloured in my teddy bear using them as well, the glitter is on the frame and the centre of the teddies bow. The card also fits with the theme of ‘Cute’ from the Quirky Crafts challenge blog. Have a great rest of the week and weekend everyone.
Love,
Caro
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Weekend shenanigans

It has been a funny old weekend. Alex slept a lot and was a bit better on Saturday so we went to the park in the afternoon, and enjoyed the sun while exploring the various monuments, trees, paths, streams and waterfalls of Endcliffe Park. He had another go on the bouncy castle and slide, but there were lots of children on then slide and he was feeling a bit delicate so we gave up on that faster than normal.
Today we woke up to heavily falling snow which had reached a depth of 3 inches and showed no signs of stopping after we finished breakfast so we moved the car onto the bus route and had a brief family snow walk. The snow did stop by mid-morning leaving us with over 4 inches to play in for our afternoon walk. Alex and I had a great time sledging although the snow was rapidly melting. Alex also decided that falling into snow piles was great fun, although it wasn’t so much fun for me when he turned it into a battle of wills and lay there expecting me to carry him home. I didn’t give in so he lay on the pavement for nearly 10 minutes before getting up and walking the 20 metres home! At least he wasn’t lying there having a temper tantrum!
Crafting wise I have made two scrapbook pages. This first one follows the challenge set by Scrap and Stamp which was to make a hybrid page by including a digital element. My digital element is the journaling block which is computer generated on computer background paper. This also fits with the challenge of using metal set by CCT. The title of the page is ‘Twas the night before Christmas’ and the journaling reads ‘It was a perfect Christmas Eve, with lots of snow resulting in lots of fun, scraping the snow, sliding on the sledge, falling over with shrieks of laughter, climbing round the snowy playground and throwing snowballs at me. Those grins just say it all!’. The papers are all from MME and the snowflake stamps are from Hero Arts.
The second page follows this weeks Unscripted sketch and the colour scheme of brown, beige, green and blue. The papers and elements are all from Fancy Pants rough and tough collection and I hand drew the title (Trains) to match. I used my new Martha Stewart punch and the journaling reads ‘I enjoyed the relatively rare sight of Alex playing quietly with his train track. Oct 2009’. The reason this sight is so rare is that my son almost never sits still for more than 2 seconds at a time! This is also the reason that it fits with this weeks Quirky Crafts theme of 'cute'. I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Caro
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Make me happy!

Poor little Alex isn’t very well again. He has been suffering with a cold for the last week which has exacerbated his cough again so he isn’t sleeping well. As a result this afternoon when he came home from nursery he had a temperature and was rather upset, crying and saying ‘make me happy’. It is hard to know how to respond to that when nothing you try has much of an effect, but some calpol, cuddles and a little food and a little bit of television helped and he was happier by the time he went to bed, poor little thing. We had a sprinkling of snow again yesterday so couldn’t resist another berries in snow photo!
Crafting has gone a little by the wayside over the past couple of days as I have been looking for holiday cottages and watching the winter Olympics! However, I did manage to make this card which fits with four different challenges; My Time To Craft (green + 1 – yellow in this case!), Spoon full of sugar (Spring) and it followed the Sketch & Stash sketch (the stash I used was the daffodil stamp – it has sat unused for nearly a year!) SCSC (Mothers Day). The card will be for my Mother who grows daffodils. I would love to know what you all think. Have a great weekend.
Love,
Caro
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Snow again!

I can’t believe that we have had ½ an inch of snow fall this afternoon. Alex, of course, thought it was wonderful when he came home from nursery and started scraping the snow together to make mini snowballs to throw at me. All good fun! I have had a great crafting week so far as I had a day off on Monday so that Tim and I could go out for a meal at lunchtime. I made this scrapbook layout to fit with the PTW checks theme as some of the patterned paper is checked. The papers and elements are all from MME, the title is ‘Christmas no.2’ and the journaling reads ‘Our second family Christmas was spent at Andy & Nel’s in London. We al had a lovely time chatting, drinking champagne, eating nice food, exchanging presents and playing with the two boys. 29th Dec 2009’. Sadly the photo doesn’t do the page justice as the colours are a little strange. This second scrapbook page follows this weeks Pencil lines sketch and fits with the theme of keep it simple from CCC. The title is ‘Yummy’ and the journaling reads ‘Alex enjoying a freshly cooked mincepie. Christmas Day 2009’. I hand drew the big circle with the spots and the little circles are cut from MME papers. The background cardstock is Bazzil Bling and is somewhat shiney, so unfortunately the colours of this page haven’t come out well.
I also made a card following this weeks Sketch Saturday sketch. This is a larger card than I normally make so that everyone from work can sign it as it is for a colleague who will be going on maternity leave. She doesn’t know what sex the baby will be hence the blue and pink colour scheme. The gingham paper fits with the PTW theme. Finally I made a simple ATC as a thank you to the little boy who is running the history swap on the CMPC forum. As usual comments are welcome. Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
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