Amazing how quick things come together

when you are trying to stay out of the way lol. Lukas is still busy amusing himself, Mark is still skiving off doing anything and me well I am slowly getting stuff done. *shock*, *horror* lol.
Credits: Layered template (Headstart 2) and Rainy Day Sundays by Amy Bleser. Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: This is your new favourite outfit. The Khaki hat, the WWE raincoat, one of the five John Cena T-shirts you have, the grey or the green tracksuit bottoms, combined with the John Cena pants, the John Cena socks and your John Cena trainers. You call it your John Cena outfit and you truly look too adorable for words every single time you where it. It’s nice to find a really boyish set of colours that looks so great on you. It makes taking photos of you so much more pleasurable when you like what clothes you are wearing. I just wonder how long this one will remain a favourite outfit for.

Enabling: Headstart 2 and Rainy Day Sundays by Amy Bleser available here and here or here. DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here.

I made a decision

that the best way to avoid trouble for myself today is to stay up in my room in front of my computer and try and catch up on the huge to-do lists that have been neglected lately. So far I have got this done while Lukas is amusing himself in his own room. He's alternating between playing his Nintendo DS and the Playstation 2, there's a good chance his floor is littered with toys as well, it usually is lol. Mark is currently supposed to be doing boring stuff like tidying up the room but at the moment he has stalled again and is sitting on his butt on the bed watching a dvd.Credits: Layered template (Headstart 3) and For The Love Of Clover by Amy Bleser and Wordart by Bethany Harty (Elegant Wordart).

Enabling: Headstart 3 Template and For The Love Of Clover by Amy Bleser available here and here or here. Wordart by Bethany Harty (Elegant Wordart) available here.

Sometimes I really should listen

to my own instincts like when they tell me that the best course of action for today would have been to crawl into bed last night, I should have listened. Or when they told me that going downstairs was a bad idea, I should have listened. When they screamed at me that making conversation with Nan was the worst idea I had ever had, I should have listened but because I am an idiot I didn't. I stayed up and scrapped a layout, I went downstairs and attempted to make polite conversation with Nan and I said Lukas could have the day off school because he was rubbing his ear and saying it hurt. So you might wonder what exactly I am moaning about well it's just gone 9am already this morning I have had my head bitten off a grand total of 3 times, once for happening to say I had been up all night long again (but it really is impossible to sleep if you are up and down to the toilet all night long) which prompted Nan to spout off about how ill she was, once for saying Lukas was staying home, that one earned me a lecture that I was a bad mother for not taking him to the doctors about his ear (it hurts every so often and I have taken him each time they tell me it's a wax build up put oil in it and clean it at least every other day) it's probably annoying him today because he got water in it in the bath last night. The third time was when I happened to ask her if she was going somewhere today since she hasn't gone to work, and I got my head bitten off about how she's too ill to go today (apparently she's not too ill to be a complete bitch though!). I'm fed up of not being able to say a word to her without her biting me head off or getting a huge lecture about how ill she is, i'm sorry but I am utterly sick of the constant one-upmanship if I happen to say my head hurts she replies well mine feels like I have a brain tumour. I'll tell you a secret she's always said that she doesn't know where Lisa and my mum got being so self centered from I do they learnt it from her! I used to think that she was such an amazing person, you know what they say about rose coloured glasses well I want mine back, I don't like this side of her and I would rather be naive and believe she was some saint than see her for the person she really is. I am trying my hardest with her but sometimes even I reach my own breaking point. I can't take being belittled and snapped at all the time. She seems to think she is the only person in the world who feels ill, but I could live with that if it wasn't for the little digs she tacks onto the end of every sentance, like when she said she was too ill to go to work today and then added, "but we can't all lay in bed all day and do nothing" that bloody hurt. I didn't ask to be in so much pain that no-one could even touch me yesterday, I didn't ask to spend the whole day zoned out on painkillers I don't take them unless I have to and I think I took 4 different lots of painkillers yesterday. I'll make another confession Lukas was only being bothered slightly by his ear today, I could have rubbed it and maybe given him a paracetamol and he could have gone to school but I wanted to spend some time with someone who loves me. I needed to have someone wrap their arms around me and tell me I was special even if that person did happen to be a 5 year old little boy. I'll admit there was a little bit of selfishness involved, but he really is the only person in the world who doesn't make me feel like a complete failure at the moment. I missed him yesterday I didn't see him at all by the time I finally felt a bit more human he was asleep, and I was still hurting too much to even kiss him goodnight. I had to kiss my hand and rub that across his sleeping angel face. Mark hasn't done anything wrong he was actually quite worried about me yesterday but I often get the feeling he doesn't really understand and sometimes thinks that I am sleeping or in bed all day because I am being lazy. Right now if someone gave me just one wish it would be for just one person who would just take me in their arms and hold me, who would listen to me when I talked and just hug me to make it better. For now I will have to make do with Lukas, he does most of that but it's really not the same thing.

Sick but still scrapping

I've been in bed sick all day, but after Lukas had his bath I decided that sounded like a great idea, so after adding a bit more hot water I had a little soak and felt a bit more human. 3 bottles of squash and a bowl of weetabix and banana I feel more like myself which is only a little bit over human anyway lol. Anyway I got the bright idea to empty the camera cards from when Mark took Lukas out the other day before I went back to bed. The first card I put in had 24 photos on it. I will admit I was very surprised to see that they were great, nice and sharp with only a few blurry ones. Maybe Mark is finally listening to me when I talk to him about the camera. Since I am the one that uses it most I have worked out how to get fairly decent images from it (it hasn't exactly worked the way it should work since it took a flying leap off the shelf over the computer.)
So I couldn't resist scrapping one of them. Then the layout I envisioned taking me a few minutes, half an hour tops has just been finished, over 4 hours after I started it lol. I really need to set a timer or something so I don't do this, but once I get started on a layout it's really hard to just stop and go to bed I tell myself it will only take another few minutes and it ends up taking a few hours lol. Oh well who really needs sleep anyway lol (I Do!!!!!) anyway here's the layout.Credits: Layered template (Angie'licious 2 Template 4) by Chrissy W, My Boyz All That (slight recolouring) by Royanna Lea Fritschmann, Photo Masks 2 by Annie Manning (Paint The Moon) and Doodled Journal Tapes and Fast Food Doodles by Kate Hadfield. Fonts are: AL Highlight, Oreos, Pea Nancy and McLawsuit.

Journalling reads: Whenever we go out, we always take you for a happy meal in Mcdonalds. You normally have a chicken nugget happy meal (chicken nuggets, chips and a toy) with either orange juice or a fruit shoot, we also get you a plain cheesburger and sometimes a plain Mcflurry. It’s such a simple little thing but it gives you so much pleasure.

Enabling: Angie'licious 2 Templates by Chrissy W available here, My Boyz All That by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here, Photo Masks 2 by Annie Manning available here, Doodled Journal Tapes and Fast Food Doodles by Kate Hadfield available here and here. AL Highlight available here, Oreos available here, Pea Nancy available here and McLawsuit available here.

Having a bad day

but I will give you some advance warning there will be no layout shares, CT promotion, shopping shares, freebies, recommendations or anything remotely amusing in this post if that's what your looking for you have two choices, either scroll down or go look somewhere else. This post is going to be entirely filled with me venting and feeling sorry for myself. As I have already said I am having a bad day, I am feeling really down and I need somewhere to get some of it off my chest. Now I could apologise for the whingefest that is going to follow but why should I, someone asked me recently why I felt the need to discuss all my private business on the internet for everyone to see, and I thought about that comment a lot the other night. I don't write my blog for readers, I really don't I know sometimes it reads like I am addressing it entirely to some unknown person on the other side of another monitor but there's a reason for that. I like to vocalise the conversations I have with myself in my head. I can argue both side of any argument to myself from now until the day that my world stops spinning or I can argue with myself via a keyboard and a screen. Seeing the thoughts in text makes them easier to process, it's like having someone other than myself to argue with, even though technically I am still arguing with myself it feels different. Most people they work through their issues when they sleep, me I sleep when I am too exhausted to stay awake anymore and if I dream they are usually bad ones. I often feel like the only person I have to talk to is myself. I don't feel as if I fit in anywhere and I never have done. Never made friends at school, or college. Never seemed to click with any of the mothers at the toddler groups or at the school gates. I certainly don't fit in with my family or Mark's. Mark's family talk about me behind my back, i've heard them when we used to live there and they forgot how loud they were talking, they say I think I am better than them. Couldn't be further from the truth actually, I never feel like I am good enough for anything or anyone. It's not just being ill all the time that makes me feel alienated from everyone I really don't know what it is I just know that I feel like no matter what I do, it's not good enough to be accepted. I've spent a lot of time lately crying there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes here, it's a hard place to live in right now. I am tired of the constant conflict that seems to exist. My heart is hurting because they only two people who have ever accepted me are at war with each other. I feel like I am stuck between a rock and a hard place lately on one hand I have the only member of family I have who really cares about me in Nan, she's sick and I have spent a lot of time lately worrying about the fact that because of everything that's happened I have reached a point where there are days when I really don't care. I used to love her with every inch of my heart, I would stand outside her door all night if she had a cold now I am so blinded by how much she is hurting me my heart can't find the love that I know is still there for her. I can't take how she makes me feel anymore, it's so hard to be belittled and have your every decision questioned. I hate how she talks about Mark and how she makes snide little comments all the time. I never remember her being like this before. Maybe she was and I was just seeing her as the ever loving Nan, patient, kind and caring. The one who was there for everyone and who you could turn to for anything. Maybe it's being sick that has made her into this bitter resentful person. I can't stand feeling like she hates me, but I feel obliged to stay here incase she needs me. She says she doesn't want me to go but I am miserable here and I feel so utterly isolated and alone right now. Mark is causing a lot of problems, but all he's really guilty of is being himself. It's so hard knowing where to start because there are just so many things that are contributing to the way I feel. I'll let you in on a little secret lately I have thought so many times that everyone would just be better off if I wasn't around. I truly wish I had never been born because I feel like all I have done is made everyone whose life I have touched miserable. Nan's fed up of Mark and feels I am responsible for making him be different but I have tried so hard to make him into what she wants him to be and all I have done is made him believe that all I do is nag. I tell him things over and over again in a desperate attempt to make him realise how much he is hurting me with the things he is doing. I hate not being able to say hello to Nan without earning myself a lecture. I have begged, pleaded and tried so many other things to get Mark to do simple things like take the washing downstairs but his argument is always the same, why should he be the one to do everything. I wish I could wave a magic wand and make the problems go away but there really is no solution he feels like he is asked to do too much (take the washing down, take Lukas to school, pick Lukas up from school, sort the rubbish out and tidy up his mess), she feels like he should be doing more if I try and do it she goes mad because she says it's his job it doesn't matter to her that what she wanted has been done, it only matters that he hasn't done it. Right now we are in the situation where she has refused to do anything for him, he is taking his washing up to his dad's and since he goes up waits for it to wash, puts it in to dry and then makes another trip back to collect it he is doing even less around the house because he is never here. He goes back to work on Monday and to be honest I don't know when I am ever going to see him because this week he has dropped Lukas off at school gone to his dad's, stayed there playing games and watching dvds until it was time to collect Lukas and then gone back under the excuse of having to collect the stuff and getting back really late at night. I can't continue to live like this but with how ill she is me moving out isn't going to be a very favourable option either. I am getting more ill within myself all the time, the worrying over everything is making me feel so run down and exhausted all the time. The worse part is that I am having more and more difficulty being the one in control of being sick, the seizures have started up again, the migraines are almost constant at the moment. I am feeling sick all the time, every muscle in my body hurts but I could cope with that if it wasn't for the massive temperature swings, freezing and shivering one minute sweating and burning up the next. I am thirsty all the time, and that means I am drinking loads about 8 litres a day at the moment. I am up and down to the toilet all the time, I am not getting any work done and I am close to tears all the time. I can't cope, and I don't know where to turn to for help. Maybe if I could just get some decent sleep I might find a way to see a way through all these problems but that's not going to happen this week. Nothing is more effective at taking a good nights sleep and keeping it just out of reach quite as well as having my period. It's always such a pleasure to add more pain to my stomach for a week or two each month. It's a blast to combine all my usual crappy existance with the added extra of having a sanitary towel bunching into a solid lump and knickers giving me a wedgie. Actually the most fun part of periods is the search for towels that don't contain latex amazing how many of them do, or more accurately how many of them do now. Because it's not something they advertise on the packet that they have changed their product, no you don't find out that piece of useful information until you open them and go to take one out and burn your hands (well you do if you are allergic to latex as severly as I am lol) what makes this extra fun is when they add the latex into the glue on the back and you think your ok when you first touch it and then you can't breathe properly when you take the backing off. Periods have always been the worst week or two of every month for me since I first had them. Not having them was the only good thing about the 4 pregnancies from hell. Before Lukas was born I accepted that for 2 weeks out of 4 I was going to feel even more tired than normal, I accepted that I would be wearing upto 4 maternity towels at a time and changing them every hour at the most. After Lukas was born I was thrilled that I could knock that down to 2 towels every hour and sometimes even have it go on for a week and a half. Then in 2003 after we lost Gaiebraille, and they removed part of my uterus they said things might change, no-one told me that for the 1st time in my life I would have to endure period pain as well as everything else. No-one told me that I would go up 2 or 3 sizes for those 2 weeks of the month, that the headaches would all merge into one never ending migraine that would continue for almost the whole month. But most importantly no-one told me that for two weeks out of four I would turn into an emotional wreck who felt suicidal one minute and like they could quite happily slit someones throat for talking to her the next. That went on until I got pregnant with Leo when he was born everything changed again. After the bleeding from having him finally stopped (I think he was nearly 2 months old) instead of 2 weeks out of 4 they turned up whenever they felt like it sometimes they lasted a day, sometimes a week, sometimes they were normal and other times, they were well for me light (or for most people normal) the headaches had some breaks in them and stressed out and near tears became the normal state of being. After he died every single one became another way for life in general to mock me or so I felt. Here I was desperately wanting a baby to replace the one I had lost and every month intead of being given that baby I was being given what I saw as my body betraying me, and refusing to cooperate. Eventually we reached the point where we asked the doctor for contraception because I just couldn't take the periods mocking me anymore. I had it once and I didn't bother going back for the next one 3 months later. My periods became even more bizarre I never knew what I was going to get. Then we got pregnant again and we lost that one too (Ambrose in April 2006) and since then I am pretty much back to where I was in 2003 with a few differences, they are pretty much contained to 1 week out 4 but for almost a week before I get them I am really really sick, I run a high temperature, I come out in rash all over me and my skin is really dry so I spend a fair amount of time scratching it until it bleeds, I have an upset stomach, I have a lot of seizures, we often get to the stage where I have to resort to taking painkillers and retreating to my bed only to fall asleep when I am too exhausted to stay awake anymore. I spend the hours that I am awake being on an extremely short fuse or wishing I wasn't here. But I take comfort that for the rest of the month I am my normal crappy self. But as much as I hate periods and everything that they come bundled with the part I hate most is the way I am unable to focus on anything. I get even less than normal done, and let's be honest I am not exactly the most productive of people normally. For now I am alternating between turning the fan on and trying to use the insomnia to my advantage by scrapping or tagging stuff in ACDSEE and sitting here allowing myself to be consumed by feeling depressed. I prefer the productive approach but it's just not always possible to stay on top of my emotions. Sometimes everything going on here just overwhelms me with sorrow and simple things like watching American Pie: The Wedding makes me burst out crying. *sigh* if only there was a way to just get away from it all even if it was just for an hour but it's impossible to even lock myself in the bathroom for a nice long soak in the bath, going out is out of the question because of feeling so ill so I am stuck with only my blog for company, there really isn't anyone else who would even begin to understand or be able to sit here and listen to my disjointed rambling. I suppose I could always talk to myself but conversations in my head get confusing and they really don't seem to help. So for now at least you are stuck with me and my whingefest aren't you lucky lol.

Just a quick layout share

Credits: Layered template (Headstart 4), Purple Paradise and wordart (from Primary Fun) all by Amy Bleser.

Enabling: Headstart 4 available here, Purple Paradise available here, here or here. The wordart came from Primary Fun which was a collaboration at Digiscrap Divas and is currently unavailable sorry.

I might be back later, but I am feeling really rough today so maybe I will just spend my day in my bed catching up on the sleep I couldn't get last night.

Remember those layouts that I couldn't share

well now I can and I have finished the one I was working on while Lukas and Mark were out, so I have 4 new layouts to share with you. So I think I will post them in the order I scrapped them.
Credits: Layered template (Ange'licious 2, Template 1) and Paper Cutters (Scallop Paper) by Chrissy W and Flowers For Mom by Amy Bleser and Flowers For Mom Bracket Album created by Pam Bumbaca (used as a clipping mask with Flowers For Mom). Fonts are DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin, Dymo and Zrnic.

Journalling reads: Don’t get me wrong I don’t hate the Playstation 2. Sometimes i’m very greatful that we have it to amuse the kids. My problem has to do with the arguments that having is causes between them. This is a perfect example.When Ella broke her foot and came in to show off her cast, Lukas was playing it nicely on his own. After allowing me to take a few photos of her with her crutches and her cast, she didn’t waste anytime getting across the room and taking the controller away from Lukas because she wanted it. He instantly starting making a fuss, when I told Ella off she starting making a fuss. The bickering over it really does seem never ending. That's why you drive me crazy Playstation 2.

Enabling:Angie'licious 2 Templates and Scallop Paper Cutters by Chrissy W available here and here (i've linked to the collection but they are available seperately), Flowers For Mom by Amy Bleser available here, here or here, Flowers For Mom Bracket Album by Pam Bumbuca for Amy Bleser available here, here or here. DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here, Dymo available here and Zrnic available here
Credits: Layered template by Chrissy W (Angie'licious 2, Template 2) and What A Mess by Amy Bleser. Font is 4990810.

Enabling:Angie'licious 2 Templates by Chrissy W available here and What A Mess by Amy Bleser available here, here or here. 4490810 available here.
Credits: Layered template (Angie'licious 2, Template 3) by Chrissy W, Spunky Girl and White Felt Alpha with Red Stitching (slightly recoloured) both by Amy Bleser and Gloss Stamp action by Atomic Cupcake. Font is Boring Showers.

Journalling reads: Sometimes you just have to let your cheeky side out for a play.

Enabling:Angie'licious 2 Templates by Chrissy W available here, Spunky Girl and White Felt Alpha With Red Stitching by Amy Bleser available here, here or here and here or here. Gloss stamp action by Atomic Cupcake available here and Boring Showers font available here.

This one was the one I was working on earlier, I made it for Amy's latest Template Challenge at Scrapbook Bytes.
Credits: Layered template (April 17th-31st 08) and Little Man by Amy Bleser and ScrapApple Week 14 - Memories and From My Notebook {Artist} by Sue Cummings. Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads:When it comes to scrapbooking about your life, I often struggle with finding the right balance of events and moments. I tend to scrap whichever photographs grab my attention at the time. But there are so many other things that I tend to forget. Like the artwork on the left, we made that together mostly with stuff we had picked up on our trip to the park. We didn’t have the camera with us and thought this would be a fun way to remember feeding the ducks. You were so proud of it you took it to nursery with you to show your teacher. The drawing on the right was you trying to copy the car onto your magnetic doodle pad, you erased it right afterwards but I was so proud of you for drawing that all by yourself. It’s hard to remember that little things like this are just as important as the day trips out and the photographs of your 1st day at school. Actually they are probably more important because these are the little things that you won’t remember when you are older, The drawing will be long gone and the artwork will probably get lost along the way but if I scrap it for you the moment and the memory doesn’t have to get lost with them. I want you to have a record of the things we used to do together, who knows maybe one day you will have fun doing these things with your children too.

Enabling: Little Man by Amy Bleser available here or here, ScrapApple Week 14 and From My Notebook {Artist} by Sue Cummings available here and here. DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here. Template is for current template challenge at Scrapbook Bytes you can find all the details including the download link here.

4 days and no scrapping?

no you are right that wouldn't happen lol. I have been scrapping (well not yesterday but the other two days lol) but I can't share them because what I used isn't available for sale yet. Scrapping like this seems alien to me lol because my process usually goes something like
find kit>find photos>scrap layout>save layout>resize layout for web>save again> write credits>mass upload layout to blog and galleries>enable purchases on blog. But sometimes I find the photo first and then the kit lol. Then there are times when I get fed up and just can't finish a layout for one reason or other so I save it as a work in progress and go back to it. It's not even funny how many times I have logged in and started uploading my layouts and then remembered I can't I guess it's become a bit of a habit like how I open the fridge every time I go in the kitchen. I hardly ever get anything out of it I just open the door look inside and shut the door again. Now the question becomes if I can form habits for that why can't I form some that will help me get organised or tidy lol. I guess I am in a rambling mood today lol. That might have something to do with being here all by myself, Lukas has gone out with Mark and neither of them wanted me to come. I am scrapping a layout but I have stalled since I am currently, searching for some wordart to use on it. I have a thing for wordart and I have lots most of it used to be tagged in ACDSEE (remember back to when I told you Mark reinstalled my computer and lost a lot of stuff because he was too lazy to back it up, ACDSEE was one of the casulaties) so finding some appropriate wordart now takes an age and is guaranteed to drive me a little insane, and I have some great wordart so to say it's frustrating is a huge understatement. Anyway I suppose I really should go and do something productive instead of blogging, so i'll be back later.

Want to know what I have spent the morning doing?

I have been playing in Firefox. Everyone is always raving about how great it is and to be honest I have had it installed ages but it's never really appealed to me to use it for everything. I normally just use it for downloading stuff and reading my google reader. But since I am really really sick of Internet Explorer randomly closing with no warning (usually while I am downloading and mostly when it's at 99% done I swear it does it just to annoy me lol) and it's generally being a pain in the bum lately, I have tried another browser called Safari but truthfully it's slow and I am impatient so to me it's a bit useless so I thought I would try and explore some of Firefox's real potential. For me a web browser has to be quick, it has to download what I want it to where I want it to go, it has to be able to do multiple downloads and I need to be able to open as many windows as I want without it throwing a little tantrum. I have spent a while going through addon's for it and there are tonnes and tonnes I have already unistalled some of the ones I added because they were bugging me lol. Ok so these are what are currently installed into firefox and for now I think all of these will be staying for a while but we will see. This is the order they appear in I am not doing my favourite one first or anything like that. I have linked up the names incase you fancy downloading them yourself.

Accessibar - This one allows you to mess around with the display you can change colours, fonts, text size, spacing between lines of text, you can hide graphics and there's a feature called read aloud I haven't experimented with that one yet but it sounds interesting.

Ad Block Plus - This one is pretty self explanatory it blocks annoying adverts on websites, I don't really bother with it as much as I should do so I am not exactly sure of it's full worth on here. I usually block all those annoying screechy smileys when they pop up lol and that's about it.

Ad Block Plus: Element Hiding Helper - This one I will hold my hands up and admit I didn't even read the description when I installed it, so I am not actually sure what it does lol the description said it recommending using them together so I added this one.

Addictive Typing Lessons - I used to be very addicted to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing when I was at school I could do a lot of words per minute if memory serves my average was 195 words per minute with a 93% accuracy, it's not that good now but I thought this might be something to do while I am waiting for photoshop to finish doing something lol.

Blogger Bar - I really like this one, it has a link to Blogger.com, a search function, search profiles, and my favourite bit a function called Blog This. The idea of that is when you find something while surfing the net that you think is worth blogging about you can hit that little button. So just for an example I will use this,
Amy is currently having a great promotion at Scrapbook Bytes, you can get all her layered templates for just $35, if I go to the posting and click the blog this button I get this.
Template Bonanza Sale by Amy Bleser :: Sketches/Layered Templates :: SCRAPBOOK-BYTES
I think it's pretty cool anyway lol but that's enough about that little addon for now anyway lol.

Colourful Tabs - (but it's American so there's no U in colour but I just can't bring myself to type it as I would consider it - wrong lol). This one is super simple it makes each of your tabs a pretty colour lol. I like colours so anything that's pretty to look at and not pink makes me happy. It gets a bit depressing spending as many hours on the computer as I do without some pretty things.

Download Statusbar - Makes all your downloads go onto a little bar across the bottom of the screen I love this one, so much easier than that silly pop up window thing showing the downloads. This one was one of the 1st addons I ever added to Firefox and I am so glad I did.

FoxClocks - This one displays world times, when I can work out which timezones crops are in I will add those as well but for now I have UK time and China time (I can't remember if I told you or not that Malcolm is working in China for a year) it helps me remember what time it is with him (7 hours ahead of us) so then when Nan asks I don't have to try and work it out lol.

FoxyTunes - This is a favourite of mine it's a music toolbar, handy when like now I have no charge left in my ipod shuffle lol but strangely right now I have it disabled, for no reason other than I was playing around and it was bugging me today lol.

Minimize To Tray - This one makes Firefox go down into the tray (next to the computer's clock/calendar function) means it doesn't take up more space across the bottom of my screen very handy for me, because with ACDSEE, Photoshop, Lightroom, Notepad and usually at least 1 My Computer screen and usually Hello open things tend to end up getting stacked up and annoying me. I like everything laid out where I can easily and quickly click through them. We have already covered I am impatient lol I multitask a lot I can't just wait patiently while something finishes what it's doing I need to be doing something else while I am waiting.

Minimize To Tray Enhancer - Just gives you a few more options with the Minimize To Tray one.

Morning Coffee - This was the 2nd or 3rd addon, this one is designed with the idea that people sit down with a coffee to look at certain websites either every day or one one day of the week, you can set them all up and open them with one simple click of a button. Personally I have my site daily downloads set up under every day and then I have digital store specials, promotions etc that happen on different days of the week under their day. These are the ones that I have set up.
Monday - New Lightroom Preset @ Lightroom Killer Tips, New 52 Inspirations @ Oscraps
Tuesday - New releases 30% off @ Digital Freebies
Wednesday - Special $1 pricing on selected item(s) @ Little Dreamer Designs
Thursday - New releases 20% off @ The Digi Chick, Thrifty Thursday's selected items 30% @ Designer Digitals
Friday - Froggy Friday @ The Lily Pad,
Saturday - New releases @ Sweet Shoppe Designs
Sunday - 2 new items for 25c @ Designer Digitals
Everyday: 1 Hour Scrap, 3 Scrapateers, Digitals, Digital Scrap Garden, Divine Digital, Go Digital Scrapbooking, Gotta Pixel, RAKScraps, Scrap Outside The Box and Scrapping Garden.

PermaTabs - The one thing I wasn't ever keen on about firefox was it's one home page I have 5 set up to open when I start or hit the home button in internet explorer. This is a little workaround you can make any tab a permanant meaning when you open the program it opens that window, it doesn't matter if you refresh, restart etc that window will be there when you reopen. These cannot be closed unless you turn the permanant tab on it off, very very useful. I only have one post set as a perma-tab my google reader.

QuickRestart - Everything you change, play around with etc usually requires a restart to show the changes (or if you have screwed up the colours lol to get rid of them) this allows you to do this a lot quicker than exiting out of the program and reloading it.

Save Session - Allows you to close all the windows you have open and reopen them in the same order.

Session Manager - Does pretty much the same thing as Save Session only you can name the sessions and save multiple different ones, I haven't decided which will be more useful for me yet.

Stop Autoplay - This one stops blogs, websites and pretty much anything else that plays music when you click on the page. This one is very useful for me since I am often on my computer late at night and opening a blog only to get blasted with really loud music isn't exactly appreciated by people who are actually sleeping (imagine that lol) at night.

TabRenamizer - The only lets you rename the tabs you have open, I would bet this one would be useful if you happened to be browsing something you shouldn't be at work lol I am not quite sure if I will use it yet since I don't have to hide what I am viewing from anyone.

Talkback - Lets you send an error report if Firefox happens to close for some reason or other. I think this one comes already installed because I don't remember adding it lol.

URL Fixer - Corrects common spelling mistakes made when typing URL's like if you typed .con instead of .com.

WebMail Notifier - This is my favourite one I have added, I have never really gotten on with firefox because I still needed msn messenger running (when it actually felt like cooperating) to let me know I had new mail. My alternative was having hotmail as one of my home pages which was slowly driving me insane. I have never gotten on with Yahoo and although a lot of people seem to like GMail I don't, I need my folders to sort everything into. I have my googlemail emails forwarded to my hotmail address. It tells me when I have a new message via a little pop up in the bottom right hand side of my screen. I can click the little envelope to open my inbox in a new window. All that is great but the reason I love it so much is it loads almost instantly not slowly or not at all like Internet Explorer has been doing lately.

I will have to let you how I get on using Firefox as my primary browser, I have a feeling I will still find myself hitting the Internet Explorer icon for a while since it's second nature.

Mrs Wresh Blog Challenge Final Layout

How did 12 weeks go so fast? I do have a lot to say about this challenge but I am not very well so I am uploading this and then I am going to go back to my bed under my duvet. Credits: Layered template (Template 54) and Basic Frame Sampler by Mrs Wresh and A Papered Life 10 - Restoration Retro by Royannna Lea Fritschmann. Fonts are DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin and FancyPants.

Journalling reads: I am 23 years old, and my hearts been through the mill,it's suffered lots of hardship, in a body always ill.I have cried many tears, and given lots of love, I've talked to all my angel babies, living up above.Sometimes I have sat here, and scrapped a page or two,to let you know about me, and what I have been through.I've also made some others, that showed you how I think,about my love of music, and my hatred of pink.I've shared a lot of photos, asked questions of my family tree, I've showed you what is precious, what means the world to me. When I am gone, and left behind, is just this simple book, I hope that you will snuggle up, and slowly take a look.For now there's living left to do, things to do and see,And surely one day those things too, will be a memory.I hope that these will one day, be something you can treasure, all the snippets of my life, the things that gave me pleasure. You will never really know me, and that's a little sad, But for this glimpse into my life, I hope you will be glad.

Enabling: A Papered Life 10 - Restoration Retro by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here. The Basic Frame Sampler and The Layered Template were both freebies on Mrs Wresh's Blog. As for the fonts DJB Nicole is available here and FancyPants is available here.

Pickleberry Pop meets Gotta Pixel.

This month Pickleberry Pop and Gotta Pixel have collaborated to create a mega kit, each site is offering a challenge and for completing both challenges you earn the full mega kit (one half from each site). I have to say I am a huge fan of Gotta Pixel already and I have taken part in a few things at Pickleberry Pop but never really gotten around to making it somewhere I remember to visit. The challenges looked really fun so I thought I would give them a go. This one was for the challenge hosted by Gotta Pixel which just happens to be a what's in the pickle jar challenge (Pickleberry Pop's signature challenge) they give you some pickles (items you must use on your layout) and your challenge is simply to scrap a layout with all of those "pickles" on it. The pickles for this one were Family, Black, Bow, 2 Photos and Bracket. The whole challenge is really open to any way you choose to see it, and to me that was very appealing, so this is what I created. I will be back in a bit with the Pickleberry Pop one, will add it to this post for easy reference. The fonts I chose for this came from the font challenge in the April issue of Bella Scraps Magazine not ones I would have usually used so I was surprised to see how well they worked together I did add one extra one and leave out the dingbat one they wanted used but challenges like this always confirm to me just how little I know about fonts and typography maybe one day I will learn something about it and my titles and journalling will improve but until then there's challenges lol.

Credits: Layered template by Hetty DeBoer (Sketchabilities 2008 Template 6) and Bow Beauties 03 and 4 The Boyz 1 - The Basics by Royanna Lea Fritschmann. Fonts are Sue Ellen Francisco by Kimberly Geswein, EpoXY histoRy and 4990810.

Journalling reads: Why is it that whenever we go anywhere as a family you always want to wear your WWE hooded sweatshirt. You have so many other lovely clothes but this is your favourite one. You wore it when we went to the fair and when we went to the park, You wore it when we had an egg hunt and you wear it around the house at every chance you get. It’s not very easy to take nice photos of you in it because you are like mummy a little bit too pale skinned to wear black clothing. I guess I can take some comfort from the fact that it’s starting to get a little bit small now, so maybe sometime in the near future I will be able to take you out for the day wearing one of the other outfits that I have bought for you. But knowing you the way I do I am pretty sure that you will probably just insist on wearing something else that is hard for me to photograph. I guess I could just buy you clothes I like, but I don’t want to do that. As much as I sometimes wish you would wear what I want you too, I love how you pick your own clothes, and have your own sense of style, it’s what makes you well you, and I would never change that for anything in the world.

Enabling: Bow Beauties 03 and 4 The Boyz 1 - The Basics by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here and here. Sue Ellen Francisco by Kimberly Geswein available here, EpoXY histoRy available here and 4990810 available here. You can find all the details of that template challenge including the download link here.

I was intending to do the layout last night but I never got around to it, I have been doing it today though so here is the layout for the challenge at Pickleberry Pop. The challenge was a photo hunt (a challenge Gotta Pixel are well known for). You had to include a photo for all 5 of these:

A - Something appetising....your guilty snacking pleasure.

P - A prize that you have won...either online or in person.

R - A picture of yourself or someone in your family reading.

I - One of your favourite interests (hobbies)

L - A picture of someone you love

Since I have photos relevant to Lukas for all of these, I did it from his point of view and I have to admit I am very proud of the end result. Even if it did take longer than it should have done.

Credits: Layered template by Amy Bleser (Starting Blocks 2 Series 1, Template 1), Staple Shapes by Mikkel Paige, Twelve{12} September, From My Notebook and ScrapApple Week 14 - Memories by Sue Cummings. Fonts are Dymo and DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: Reading my books (or at least looking at the pictures in them)
Eating chocolate buttons (even if I do end up wearing more of them than I eat)
My Bunny Rabbit cuddly toy (I won him as a prize, for finding all my eggs really quickly in our easter egg hunt)
Bowling (but I need a little help because the ball is still a little bit heavy for me to lift)
The two people I love best (apart from myMummy, My Daddy and My Nana) Conor and Ella my cousins and my best friends in the whole wide world.

Enabling: Starting Block 2 Series 1 Templates by Amy Bleser available here or here, Staple Shapes by Mikkel Paige available here, Twelve{12} September, From My Notebook and ScrapApple Week 14 - Memories all by Sue Cummings available here, here, and here. Fonts are Dymo available here and DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here.

I really need to start tagging these posts

so I don't have to search every single time I am trying to remember which weeks of which challenges I have done lol. Will start with this one.
These two were created for week 5 of the Simply You Challenge at Divine Digital. I would ask if you want to see, but it's a bit pointless really since I am going to show them to you whether you want to see them or not lol. I have a confession to make, the 1st one is scrapped with photos I took while I was trying to scrap it lol (with the exception of the 2 stock photos because I tried taking photos of my ipod and I just couldn't get a decent one, and the hot chocolate I have some and cream but I was too lazy to go make it, bring it up, photograph it and too hot to drink it lol.) But as usual I am getting away from the point, the confession is not my photography skills *snigger* it's that this layout is one that I really like lol yes I know very very rare for me to like one of my layouts. The 2nd one I am not so keen on it's a country song so I thought using Royanna's Americana Country (that I had to have to complete my collection but never actually had any ideas for using lol) would work but I am not so sure now it's finished, good thing I save layered documents, I might go back and switch some things around to try and make something I like better, the only part that is going nowhere is the swirly doodle things made up of brads, I think there are 90+ they took ages but I think the end result is pretty cool. Anyway enough with the rambling I better hurry up and show them to you since it's 5:16am and I really need to get my very tired body into my very inviting looking pit aka my bed.
Credits:Layered template by Hetty DeBoer (Sketchabilities 2008 11 Template), Fasten Down The Hatches, Tweet Baby Alpha, Keepin' Tabs 01 and A Papered Life 11 - Waverider all by Royanna Lea Fritschmann. Stock photos: Ipod shuffle from images.pcwelt.de and Hot Chocolate from Stock Xchng (by LastClick).Lightroom Presets: Vintage New York Effect Light and Vintage New York Effect Dark by Matt Kloskowski and Vintage Pop by Annie Manning (Paint The Moon).Fonts are DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin and Stamp Act.

Journalling reads:1.My engagement ring and my wedding ring. 2. My Latex allergy bracelet 3. Caffeine Free Coke (my favourite drink) 4.My Ipod shuffle (the best way to have all my music in one place, I listen music and audiobooks on it while I scrap. 5. My Shakeaway badge (myf avourite treat to myself) 6.Hot Chocolate (the onlyhot drink I will touch) 7. My computer (aka my lifeline for so many reasons) 8. My Leo bracelet (won as a prize for a photo competition @ Divine Digital, helps me feel close to Leo when I need to) 9. My Mothers Day cookies (a gift from Lukas I love to be reminded that I am a mummy)10. My bandaged wrist (it’s the only way I can use it) 11. My birthstone ring (I had originally wanted a silver and turquoise engagement ring but we couldn’t find one. Nan saw this one and bought it because she knew I would love it).

Enabling: Fasten Down The Hatches, Tweet Baby Alpha, Keepin' Tabs 01 and A Papered Life 11 - Waverider all by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here, here, here and here. Lightroom Presets: Vintage New York Effect Light and Vintage New York Effect Dark by Matt Kloskowski available here and Vintage Pop by Annie Manning (Paint The Moon) available here. Fonts are DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here and Stamp Act available here. All the details of the template challenge including the download link can be found here. Stock photos: Ipod shuffle from images.pcwelt.de (found via google) and Hot Chocolate from Stock Xchng (by LastClick).
Credits: Layered template by Chris Greiser (Twosies, Template 1) and Americana Country by Royanna Lea Fritschmann. Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: I love this song everytime I hear it, I am reminded thatI shouldn’t feel guilty about all the time I waste every single day. Sure I could be moreproductive and be caught up oneverything for once in my lifebut then I would miss out on all the fun stuff about having Lukas. Things like snuggling on the bed watching dvd’s, going to play in the park. The “work” is all going to be here waiting for me but those precious little moments with him will be over way too fast. To me that definately is time well wasted. My Favourite Song April 2008. Time Well Wasted Brad Paisley. The other writing is the song lyrics.

Enabling: Twosies Templates by Chris Greiser available here, Americana Country by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here and DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here.

Nothing to say just a layout today

Credits: Layered template (Everyday Templates - On A Strip, Template 1), Little Boy Blue, Little Boy Blue Alpha and Monogrammed Negative Frames (combined with I Love Felt actions by Tandika Star) all by Amy Bleser.

Enabling: Everyday Templates - On A Strip and Little Boy Blue by Amy Bleser available here and here or here. The I Love Felt action was purchased from Digi Scrap Designer but since they no longer appear to have a store, I can't link you up to it sorry.

I am trying really hard to get caught up on stuff but getting nowhere fast, Lukas is currently amusing himself with his world of little people stuff in his bedroom and Mark is making a phone call trying to get his laptop sorted. Might be back later if I manage to get anything at all done.

This is not turning out to be my week.

Yesterday really was a bit of a disaster I have spent pretty much all weekend and yesterday trying to fix some problems on my computer. One of the biggest problems I have is the hard drive I use for photographs is full, because when I had to reinstall my computer last time, everything important had to be backed up to that drive (because there was no space anywhere else). Since then I have a brand new 750GB External hard drive so they now have to be moved on to that. I have 6 SD cards that are completely full, I can't take anymore photos until I have somewhere to empty them off onto. Moving files, sorting files and emptying SD cards takes a lot of time. It also slows my computer down to a crawl. I also have a lot of CT work, photo editing and other stuff that can't be put off so I have tried to work around the slowness but then everything takes up to 4 times longer than normal its insane. Last night we added even more fun into the mix when our upstairs toilet broke again, and flooded the downstairs bathroom again. Right now I still have 4 SD Cards to empty, another 30-50GB of stuff that needs to be moved and every time we need the toilet we are having to go all the way downstairs and negotiate around the container catching the water because the upstairs one is completely out of comission. As I am writing this the very nice plumber is making his 3rd trip to the local hardware store because the part that he bought that should fit doesn't. *Sigh* I have a lot to get done today, and since it's almost 3pm and I still have yet to actually open photoshop and get started I think it's going to be a very very long day. Ok let's try this again, when I started this it was nearly 3pm lol. Then Nan got back from shopping and Ella was having a little meltdown, so I offered to take her and Lukas to the park for a while. It's now 6:15, Ella has just gone home (fast asleep lol) Lukas is now playing the playstation and I am going to attempt to get some work done lol. The upstairs toilet is now properly fixed, and we have a fully working flush for the first time in a very long time. The downstairs bathroom is still damp, still have water running through the light fixture and still need to phone them again tomorrow and try and get them to come fix it. But despite everything I did manage to get 2 layouts done using Amy's new releases last night.

Credits: Layered template (Rock The Template September, Template 4) and Purple Paradise by Amy Bleser. Font is DJB Erika by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads:Ella you have never been the kind of little girl who played nicely with dolls. You bore easily so they don’t hold much interest. So it was a very nice surprise when we went to play at Jamboray, to see you and Lukas playing mummy and daddy in the home corner. You weren’t able to find a baby so you took it in turns to walk around with the empty plastic carseat. Eventually you two found a dolly right at the bottom of the dressing up box and then you played together like this almost the whole time we were there.It was so sweet to watch you both.

Enabling: Rock The Template September Templates and Purple Paradise by Amy Bleser available here and here or here. DJB Erika can be found here.

Credits: Purple Paradise Quick Page 1 by Amy Bleser. Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: Poor Ella, you fell at the park and broke your foot, and now you have it in a plaster cast for the next 3 weeks at least. I took these photos after they fitted the temporary cast and you were still hurting a bit and feeling pretty miserable. I know it might not feel like it but there are some plus points to having a plaster cast. You have to be carried around like a little princess until the real cast is fitted. Everyone wants to make a fuss over you, and they are happy to fetch anything you want. But best of all you get to have your dummy all day long. See it’s not all bad is it?

Enabling: Purple Paradise Quick Pages available here or here, DJB Nicole can be found here.

Mrs Wresh Blog Challenge Week 11

wow those weeks have just flown by I would no way have said we started these challenges 12 weeks ago, the next one will be the last and I am a little sad about it. I have really enjoyed doing these challenges, some of them have really made me think and I think almost every one of them is something that I might not have scrapped without the challenge. This one has taken me all day to do everything I used looked wrong, not good enough for one of the only photos we have of her. The journalling came easy I wrote that down yesterday but then I ended up not having time to sit down and do the layout. But I am quite proud of the end result.
Credits: Layered Template by Mrs Wresh (Template 130), Grandma's Treasures and Wisdom In Legacy by Royanna Lea Fritschmann and Cherry Blossom Borders by Megan Farrows (Flergs). Fonts are CAC Pinafore, Colour Me Purple by Kimberly Geswein and DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling: I was lucky enough to get to know you, but never very well. There are so many things I never felt comfortable saying to you, because as lovely as you were you were always kind of unapproachable. I used to feel intimidated by you a little. I was only 10 when you died and since then I have often thought of things that I wish I had asked you while I had the chance. I would love to have known about when you were growing up and when you met grandad, If I had the chance to ask you just 10 questions I know just what I would ask.
1. What do you remember most from your childhood?
2. Nan has often told me of the stories you used to tell her about working in the easter egg factory, but second hand stories are never as good as the real thing, so what was it like to work there?
3. How did you meet grandad?
4. Do you remember what it was like in the war?
5. What was the most memorable moment of your life?
6. Were you proud of the way your kids turned out?
7. After Grandad died, how did you cope?
8. Is there anything you regret about your life?
I suppose the last questions I would have may sound silly to some but it has always played on my mind, I would want to know if you were in pain and if you felt alone when you died. I know Nan has always felt guilty that we had just left after being with you all day long when you died. I really hope you never suffered and your journey to heaven was peaceful. I hope you were too busy being with grandad and enjoying heaven to watch some of the things that happened after you died. One day I will hopefully join you in heaven and you can tell me all the answers until then take care of Leo for me and please don't be too disappointed in the way things have turned out down here after all we are only human. I love you Nana.

Enabling: Grandma's Treasures and Wisdom In Legacy by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here and here, Cherry Blossoms Borders by Megan Farrows (Flergs) available here. CAC Pinafore available here, Colour Me Purple by Kimberly Geswein available here and DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin available here. The template was a freebie on Mrs Wresh's blog I believe, but you could always check out her store it may be available in one of her template packs.

Time for that blog post I haven't managed for 2 days

Oh this just isn't my day! I had almost finished the blog post and then the electric went out, so much for the autosave function! Oh well let's try this again shall we, but I have to be quick I have a lot to get done today. Monday and Tuesday I didn't really do anything, except play with Lukas and scrap a bit. I already blogged about what we did on Sunday (on Tuesday lol), Lukas got a new game for his playstation, The Incredibles 2: Rise of the underminer I won it on Ebay and I think that anything that costs less than £5 and keeps him entertained for any amount of time is a bargain lol. On Wednesday I had a really bad day, and spent the whole day in bed it was so bad Mark had to take the day off work to look after Lukas. Thursday well that was definately interesting. It was Ambrose's Anniversary and Darren's Birthday so as you can imagine I was feeling pretty low, I miss my family a lot of the time, birthdays are among the worst. I hate all of my angel babies anniversaries but I guess this one was a little harder because someone we know had her baby girl the same day. I am not going into anymore detail about that because it's a very sore point for me, she's had lots of abortions and I am pretty bitter about the fact that she can have kids as and when she pleases and has chosen to get rid of so many when we have lost three definately not through choice and there are so many other people who struggle to have just one child. Babies are precious and while I believe abortions are an individual choice, I also believe that they are wrong, I have always been of the opinion someone should sit down with her and explain what contraception is and how to use it! But anyway enough about that. When I got up and went downstairs I found that Conor had stayed the night, not really unusual for him to stay but he doesn't normally stay on a Wednesday night, I just shrugged it off thinking that it was nothing important. When Nan got back she explained that Lisa had rung during the night saying Nan needed to make the bed up for Conor so they could take Ella to the hospital. She had fallen over at the park earlier in the evening and had been screaming for a good few hours because of it. They were expecting to be told she had sprained her ankle or something. When they x-rayed her foot, they found not only had she broken it but she had broken it in the one place in your body that's supposed to be practically unbreakable lol. The put her in a temporary plaster until she went back to clinic the following day. They came to pick Conor up and obviously I couldn't resist getting a few photos of Ella. See she even managed a little smile for me, even though she was really hurting bless her. On Friday Mark went to the city centre and bought Lukas another playstation game, Lego Star Wars mainly because he wanted it lol. Ella went to the hospital and the decision was that she would have a permanant plaster for at least the next 3 weeks and they would review the situation then. I will say one thing for her, she definately has a sense of style all of her own. She went for a pink plaster cast and lilac crutches, and was not at all impressed the only plaster shoe they had in her size was blue lol. She gets around on them great, kids are great at adapting. When Nan said she had crutches we looked at each other and bet that when someone annoyed her she would use them in a completely different manner than they are intended for lol. This morning Nan told me that so far she has tried to use them as a weapon a few times and has also knocked quite a few things over with them lol. Here's a photo I took of her yesterday. Can you see how much better she felt once she had a proper plaster on it, she has a lot more colour in her skin in the second one. Nan says the easiest way to tell if something is broken is to see if they have that sickly look about them and look really pale, if these photos are a judge she is spot on. I used the same camera setting in the same room, and she's stood in almost the exact same spot.
I suppose I better get started on some of the many items on my to-do list. What I don't get done tonight I should be able to get done tomorrow though since Lukas if off to see CBeebies Live with Ella and Gary. Gary got the tickets for Ella because Conor is going to see the wrestling tomorrow with Lisa, her friend Louise and Louise's kids Morgan and Reece and he thought Lukas might like to go too. Now if only I could find a way to get rid of Mark for a few hours I could have some peace and quiet lol. Might be back later with a layout, but have to bath Lukas before I can start scrapping, hopefully then I can bribe him with a dvd while I get some stuff done.

Baby Tigger

Just to give you a little background on this very cool template and explain why there is no link to buy it lol. Between the 15th and 22nd March the digital scrapbook community celebrated CT Appreciation week. Designers collaborated on a huge kit which was then given away free of charge to CT members. You can find out some details about the events that took place and see the previews for the kit here. Well you all know by now that I hoard a lot more digital scrapbooking supplies than I use lol, so it's been sitting on my hard drive this morning I was feeling a little bit guilty see yesterday I made CT layouts for Royanna and Amy but I haven't made anything since the beginning of the month for Chrissy. I think I have used everything she has lol. But I always feel guilty if I am not giving my creative teams equal time, i'm strange like that so I did a quick search I was looking for a template of Chrissy's that I could maybe reuse and this one came up part of the Grateful4U CT Appreciation kit. Then everything kind of fell into place, I remembered these photos of Lukas and thought they would go perfectly with Amy's kit. The hardest part of the whole layout was resisting my natural urge to hit the align button for the title lol. I find it so hard to do title work, and I just can't master doing anything other than using one alpha and lining it up straight across or down. I am working on it though and since I am quite proud of this layout I think I might have finally made a teeny tiny improvement lol.

Credits: Layered template (Grateful4U CT Appreciation Kit Template) and Paper Cutters Tiny Zigzag Paper by Chrissy W and Come Celebrate! by Amy Bleser. Raspberry Glow Lightroom Preset by Rachel Martin.Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: When you were a baby you used to love your door bouncer. You would have happily spent the whole day in it if we had let you. It used to make me giggle that as soon as you heard us putting it up again you would start trying to bounce in whatever you happened to be sitting in. You were really inventive about using it as well, you used to spin it around in circles and mummy would have to rush over to untangle you which you thought was very funny, you used it as a swing, you used it to just stand in and watch the world go by, and sometimes you even fell asleep in it. It was a very sad day for us when we realised that you were getting too big for the door bouncer, it really was the end of life as we knew it. I guess all good things come to an end. We used to long for those times where you would happily bounce away and coo too yourself, when we were diving out of the way of the rapidly oncoming baby walker, or tending to the bruised ankles but that‘s a whole other story, that you will find out about when you have children of your own and we get our revenge by buying the little angel a baby walker of their own!

Enabling: You may not be able to pick up the template but you can buy everything else!

Zig Zag Paper Cutters by Chrissy W are available here (or you can buy them combined with the scalloped ones here) and Come Celebrate! by Amy Bleser is available here or here. DJB Nicole font by Darcy Baldwin can be found in this pack. I believe the lightroom preset was a freebie on Rachel Martin's Blog but I can't find a link to that sorry.

Sweet Boy

Credits: Layered template (Just the tops Cover Page Template) and Little Boy Blue by Amy Bleser.

Enabling: Just The Tops Templates and Little Boy Blue by Amy Bleser available here and here or here.

Yet another template challenge

This one is from a slightly older challenge at Divine Digital, Sketchabilities with Hetty (number 13), the challenges at Divine don't ever really close, you can usually take part in them anytime. Actually I believe you can still download the layered template from the 2nd week in December!
Credits: Layered template by Hetty DeBoer (Sketchabilites 2008 template 13), Warm Winter Wishes and Studio Styles 05 by Royanna Lea Fritschmann. Fonts are DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin and Snowflake Letters.

Enabling: Warm Winter Wishes and Studio Styles 05 by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here and here, DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin can be found in this pack, Snowflake Letters can be downloaded here and you can find all the template challenge details here.

Another template challenge layout

I have a real thing for templates, and as I am sure you have noticed a slight obsession with challenges, so template challenges are my idea of a perfect combination lol. I get inspired and I get a new template to add to my small *insert sarcasm lol* collection of templates. What I love best about template challenges is if I don't like the template the way the designer made it I can flip it, rotate it, remove certain parts of it, add more parts to it and the end result sometimes looks nothing like the starting template. But anyway enough rambling, this one was created for the latest Sketchabilites with Hetty (number 15) over at Divine Digital.

Credits: Layered template by Hetty DeBoer (Sketchabilites 2008 template 15), Winter Bliss and Studio Styles 05 by Royanna Lea Fritschmann. Fonts are Frosty and 4990810.


Enabling: Winter Bliss and Studio Styles 05 by Royanna Lea Fritschmann available here and here. You can find the details of the template challenge including the download link here. 4990810 font available here and Frosty font available here.

Just a template challenge layout to share for now

i'll be back later with a real blog post.
Created for this month's template challenge at Polka Dot Potato.
Credits: Layered template by Rachel Giallongo (pdp sketch challenge 08 April), Come Celebrate! by Amy Bleser, Chocolate Dream Lightroom Preset by Annie Manning (Paint The Moon) and Heavy Smooth Inked Edges Action by Atomic Cupcake. Font is DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: For your 3rd Birthday we held a little party for you. Unfortunately most of the people we had invited didn‘t turn up but even without them we still managed to have a great time. You really enjoyed playing with Josh and blowing out the candles on your birthday cake, but you thought the best part was the special lunch boxes mummy made, (pink carriages for the girls and red and black sports cars for the boys). I just wish we had managed to get a few more photographs, but we were so busy we forgot about the camera! Oh well there will be plenty more birthdays.


Enabling: Come Celebrate! by Amy Bleser available here or here, Heavy Smooth Inked Edges Action by Atomic Cupcake available here. DJB Nicole by Darcy Baldwin can be found in this pack and you can find all the details for the template challenge including the download link here.

My boy doing what he does best - sulking in front of the camera!

Credits: Layered template by Melgen Designs (Set 2 Template 1), Torn Out and Curled Rips Template by Jen Caputo (template 2) and ScrapApple Week 7 Smile, Nantucket Whitewash Volume 1, 52 Inspirations 2008 week 4 and Simply Red Papers all by Sue Cummings. Font is DJB Lorraine Bold by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: Lukas when are you ever going to learn, that it's a lot less hassle for you (and mummy) if you just smile for the camera.The sooner you cave in and give mummy that smile, the sooner you can get back to whatever you were doing. Is it really worth the moaning and being told off because you won't sit still for 10 secondsand smile for the camera?

New CT Layouts

Both of these were created with Amy's new template set that launched at Digital Freebies today.

Credits: layered template (Starting Blocks 2 Series 1 template 2) and For The Love Of Clover by Amy Bleser. Font is DJB Stacy by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: From the very 1st time you saw Leo you adored him. You would spend hours staring at him and talking to him. You were always begging to touch him and cuddle him. You never hesitated to do anything for him. He was a lucky little boybecause he had you, his amazing big brother Lukas.

Enabling: Starting Blocks 2 Series 1 and For The Love Of Clover by Amy Bleser available here or here and here or here

Credits: Layered template (Starting Blocks 2 Series 1 template 3) and Flowers For Mom (recoloured) by Amy Bleser. Font is Fiolex Princess.

Enabling:Starting Blocks 2 Series 1 and Flowers For Mom by Amy Bleser available here or here and here or here.

Spring is snow much fun

remember the other day I said I was going to post about what I spent the day doing, and then I forgot and what I was doing today sort of became what I was doing 2 days ago lol. On Sunday we got up (well technically I didn't get up since I didn't go to bed) to snow! I can never ever remember seeing that much snow in my life let alone, that much snow in April!
This is the view from my bedroom window, (that's not noise on it that's falling snow!)
and this is the view of the back garden,
The ones that we took outside are a lot clearer, but I defy anyone to be able to take decent photos either hanging out of the window, poking the camera through the tiny window and using one shoulder to wedge the window open as far as possible or while leaning over a toy medical centre to take photos through the back door, with the net curtains draped over their shoulder lol. Now I bet you are wondering why I didn't wonder outside to take the photos, the answer to that one is simple even crazy people like me don't venture outside at 6am in the freezing cold to take photos. I will do a lot of things for a good shot but outside at 6am is just a little too much lol. I noticed it had snowed at 5am and I couldn't resist waking Lukas up to show him lol. After getting really excited, and begging to go outside for a while he eventually went back to sleep for a grand total of almost 3 hours. I never thought I would see the day when we were all up and dressed and outside by 8am. We spent the day playing in the snow and taking photos. There are some great ones of Lukas eating the snow lol. Unfortunately there aren't any of when I decided that standing on the trampoline would give me a better angle for photos, and while stepping up managed to slip off the trampoline onto my butt, it was a good idea in theory I just didn't know that they outer edge of the trampoline would be so slippery. I managed to get up there on the 2nd attempt though and got some great shots until Lukas told me to get off lol. He wanted to jump on the trampoline (which was still covered in snow!). After we had been in the garden for a while we decided to go to the local park and play there for a while, mainly so we could take photos lol. Me and Lukas made snow angels, and he went down the slide into a huge pile of snow. So far I have only gotten around to scrapping one of the many photos I took. I went for a little bit of a different take and went for spring colours rather than snow, and ice. Here's the layout.

Credits: Layered template (Twelve{12} January), Twelve{12} April, From My Paintbrush Overlays, 52 Inspirations 2008 Week 4 and ScrapApple Week 21 Spring all by Sue Cummings. Fonts are Stamp Act and DJB Writes A Lot by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: I guess this year winter is hanging around a bit longer than normal. We were really surprised last year to see snow on Valentines Day. But that was nothing compared to seeing it in April.

ADSR Season 3 Layout 12

So here it is the final challenge for ADSR season 3. It's gone really really fast this time around. I forgot to say on here that when Amy couldn't complete her challenge 7 layout, I had two options I could continue racing alone, and still pick up the remaining weekly challenge prizes but not be eligible for the grand prize drawing at the end or I could team up with someone else who had lost a partner but completed all their layouts and we would form a new team who were eligible for the grand prize. I chose the 3rd option lol. I teamed up with a member of the NDISB team (Helena Jole), who had previously been teamed up with another NDISB designer (Karin M), because she was staff she wasn't eligible for the grand prize anyway. Now a lot of people thought I was a bit crazy when I did this (don't know me very well if they think it's only a bit do they *giggle*) but my reasons were really simple, I didn't want even the possibility of winning that grand prize without Amy, to me that wouldn't have felt right, she's my partner and my best friend. I wanted to do ADSR to work with her and have a giggle along the way, but I like getting to know new people, and I like helping people out. So to me this was the perfect solution. Now if only I could find a solution to Amy feeling guilty and thinking she had let me down I would be all set. I just can't seem to convince her that she didn't do anything wrong, I understand perfectly why she didn't get her layout done in time, and the only sadness I feel over it is seeing her sad because of it. We're a funny pair really lol, each one of us would rather blame ourselves than anyone else. Guess that's one of the reasons we get along so well, we are so alike it's uncanny.

Anyway I have gushed on for long enough, guess I was just trying to delay putting it all in print and driving home the point that with this post, ADSR is over, well until next time which can't come soon enough for my liking. Who knows by season 4 I might have learnt how to get the layouts done sometime in the week, and not be frantically trying to get it done at 11:59 EST lol.

The 12th and final challenge was right here at CG Essentials.

Challenge: INTERSECTION

Scrap a Major Accomplishment In Your Life. One team member will supply the photo(s) and do the journalling, and the other team member scraps everything.

Deadline: Sunday April 6th Midnight EST

Prize: $3 Coupon to the CG Essentials store.

My Take: I really don't know what to say about this challenge. It's scrapping someone else's photographs, which is something I always have mixed emotions about. On one hand I get to be play with something other than photos of my gorgeous boy, my angel boy or my grumpy git of a husband and it appeals to my nosy nature lol. But on the other hand there is always the fear of making something that doesn't do the pictures justice, or that the owner of the photographs doesn't like. I don't care whose photos it is I always feel like they will just not have the heart to say that they hate it and then they will have a layout that they don't like, or maybe they will delete it and then all my work was wasted. Yes I know I am paranoid lol. Then there's the other problem of sometimes being sent pictures so far away from what I usually scrap that even in my vast stash I don't have anything to use to scrap them lol. So I played it a little bit safe, since Helena is a designer I used some of her products to scrap it with. I tried to keep it simple, so she can add more stuff to the flattened version if she wants to. I also offered to redo it if she didn't like it, but like I said most people don't have the heart to ask you to do it again. I have done a lot of RAK layouts for people, and I have never ever been asked to redo one. So I guess that's either because they are too polite, they thought my work was so hideous that they didn't want another one lol or maybe just maybe I am slightly better at this scrapping thing than I give myself credit for, and when they said they liked it they actually mean't it. (yeah I am shaking my head and making sarcastic noises at this suggestion lol) what can I say I am not exactly a confident person.

Anyway here's the layout you can make up your own mind about it. Title work is a huge weakness of mine so I am not exactly happy about that part of the layout, the rest I am divided on I still think that someone else could do a better job of scrapping those gorgeous photos.

Credits: Layered Template (Treasured Times Template 1) and Naughty Or Nice by Amy Bleser , Blue Bird and Baby Blues Eyes Sampler by Helena Jole, Neutral Stitches by Kate Hadfield and Fairy Dust by Kris Myers. Fonts are Teutonic No4 and Cardinal Alternate.

Journalling reads: I dream of a house where I can paint my own walls. Until then, every once in a while I have the treat of being able to paint somebody else's walls. Working on the Hogwarts mural out in Port Orchard was one of the neatest things I've ever done, and also one of the most challenging. Painting with a small baby in tow is tricky, not to mention working around vacations, car trouble (ours), and chemotherapy (hers). Fourteen months later, it was finally finished! February 2005 - April 2006.

Enabling: Blue Bird and Baby Blue Eyes Sampler by Helena Jole available here and here, Neutral Stiches by Kate Hadfield available here, Fairy Dust by Kris Myers available here (Plain Digital Wrapper is currently down will update when it's back up). I can't remember where I got the template from and Naughty or Nice is retired. Teutonic No4 is available here and Cardinal Alternate is available here.

Right I can't be bothered to type up what I did yesterday now lol, so you will have to wait until later but I will be back at some time today.