Destroyed

Destroyed, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Tuesday Template, 10th November 2009) by WM [squared] Designs and Winter Berries (slightly recoloured) and Winter Berries Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps). Font is DJB Lisa S Script by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: Once Logan started crawling, the snowmen were pretty much done for. He no longer needed to wait for us to give them to him to play with. He took great delight in swiping at them as he crawled past and even more in crawling over to them and making himself comfortable before battering them. The first casualty was the snowmens eyes, they were tiny little black beads that he pulled too hard one day and sent catapulting around the room. The next one was one of the trees, he grabbed at it and yanked on it so many times it took on a permanant bend and refused to stay upright anymore. Then came the hat he chewed on the pom pom and somehow managed to destroy the wire support inside. We were forced to cut off the pom pom so we could pull out the broken wire. They don’t really have smiles anymore as he’s pulled out the stitching, the scarfs don’t hand right anymore because they have been stretched from being pulled so much. They don’t move anymore and the music doesn’t last long but that may be just because they need new batteries from being played so much. I somehow don’t think they are going to survive until Christmas.

Hush little baby please go to sleep

Logan hasn’t really been himself today, I’m not really sure what’s wrong with him but I am guessing he has another tooth coming through. He was running a slight temperature earlier and has alternated between too hot and too cold all day long. He’s clingy and unusually quiet. When I picked Lukas up from school I had him dressed in jeans, a long sleeved top, a vest and a very thin fleece suit. While we were waiting he got a little bit too hot so I took the suit off. Lukas wanted to go to the park for a little while so since Logan didn’t have any shoes or socks on I put the suit back on. When we got home he felt warm so I stripped him down to his vest to cool down. Then he was whinging because he was cold so I dressed him in his new little England suit. He seemed to have perked up a little bit and even managed to learn a few new tricks, walking along the sofa, walking between the sofa and the table and shaking the kitchen gate. I wasn’t too worried about him as he seemed to be a lot happier and more himself. He had a little nap when Mark came in and something woke him up before he had finished. He’s been a little monster ever since. He moans for me to pick him up, he moans for me to put him down, he moans for Mark, he moans for me again. It was frustrating but I felt sorry for him, thought he must be feeling poorly. I comforted him and gave him whatever it was he was demanding at that second. It was only when he started dozing off to sleep that things changed, and he started acting like he was possessed or something all of a sudden he decided he didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want his bottle (but he did want to squirt the milk everywhere, tip it upside down and shake it and generally do everything else except drink it). He wanted to crawl around everywhere and touch everything he was told not to touch. He wanted to shout and babble at the top of his voice, he emptied the bin out, knocked over a can of drink, unplugged my external hard drive from the laptop, touched the power cable and almost got burnt, stuck his fingers in my tiny fan and almost got cut, tried to launch himself off the bed headfirst, climbed out of the car seat, almost knocked a pot of baby food out of my hands and over my laptop and he threw absolutely everything I tried to bribe him to be quiet with. Did I mention this was from 1-30am or that Mark slept through it? It was about 4-20am when he finally decided he wanted me to rock him to sleep and now he sleeping in his car seat. I have to admit naughty is a lot better than inconsolable crying but he was being so loud. I was worried the neighbours were going to start banging on the wall and Lukas was going to be awake. What worries me is that he will decide to have a repeat performance while we are in the hotel. Looks like I spoke too soon he is crying again and wanting to be held. Better run I will try and pop back tomorrow between packing. We have to go shopping for a few bits as well.

*Day 8 of the daily download at Digi Scraps Drive In is available here*

Snowmen

Snowmen, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Tuesday Template, 26th January 2010) by WM [squared] Designs and Winter Berries (slightly recoloured) and Winter Berries Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps). Font is DJB Lisa S Script by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: When Nana saw these Christmas snowmen on one of the shopping channels, she had to have them. So I picked up the phone and bought them for her. Unfortunately when you saw that they played music, lit up and moved you had to have them too. Nana was more than happy, to let you sit on her lap and look at them and she enjoyed it when you coo-ed and giggled at them You loved them so much that she decided they could stay out all year round, instead of being put away with all of the Christmas decorations. The only problem was she forgot to account for you being able to sit up and play with them by yourslef. At first it was harmless enough since you were more concerned about keeping yourself upright. But once you had that mastered they became your favourite toy. We would press the button for them to play music and leave you to play. You liked to play by grabbing pieces and yanking on them. First it was the hats, then the scarfs, then the trees. Next you moved onto chewing them. You love to munch on the carrot noses and on the glitter pom poms on the hats!

Feeling happy today

not really sure why, but I am not going to question it since I like feeling like this. Last night we were up really late (4am lol) watching WWE Extreme Rules, I think it was one of the best pay per views I have seen in a long time. Much better than Wrestlemania and we had to pay for that one, this one we got for free because it was on Sky Sports. My favourite part was watching John Cena beat Batista in a last man standing match by duct taping Batista’s legs around the ringpost. But then as a general rule any match featuring John Cena is my favourite, I think he’s yummy lol. Today I picked Lukas up from school, and we went to the shop to spend his money from the tooth fairy. He chose a power ranger style action figure, Doritos, a kit kat and a drink. Then we went to the new park for a little while. Not really much there for little kids but they had fun and I got some cute photos. Unfortunately I can’t share them today because I can’t find the cable for the phone, i’ll look for it tomorrow. Then we went to our usual park before going home. Lukas had a great time running around, Conor had fun climbing things, and Logan well he slept. He’s been very grumpy and sleepy all day, I think he may have another tooth coming through or a slight cold. Either way there’s not much wrong with him he’s still being noisy and getting into everything. I rang up the hotel about getting a room this weekend, we were intending on staying one night. But since I couldn’t get the night I wanted on our annual pass discount rate, I had a change of plans. I ended up booking two nights on our annual pass rate lol. I am really pleased that now we get to do 2 days at Chessington as well as 1 day at Thorpe Park. Lukas was so excited when I told him. He’s looking forward to swimming in the hotel pool more than anything else. Personally I am looking forward to the food lol. Whenever we go to Chessington I actually eat and enjoy food. Everything they sell there is really nice and we have quite a few options to choose between. Mark has 5 days off from when he finishes work on Wednesday, so hopefully we will manage to fit in having out time away and having fun with some major tidying and organising. Anyway I better run because Logan is whining.

*Day 7 of the daily download at Digi Scraps Drive In is available here*

Octopus Garden

Octopus Garden, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Bottom Ups 7, Template 1) by Traci Reed, Everyday Moments by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Tea Party At Georgia's, Tea Party At Georgia's Cardstock and Tea Party at Georgia's Glitters all by Jane Shaver and Jewel Goodwin (Red Genius Enterprises). Fonts are FO Haphazard by Fontologie and DJB Lisa S Print by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: While everyone else went off to go in the Saw Alive Maze, Me, Logan, Lukas and Ella wondered over to Octopus Garden, so they could ride on the kiddy rides. When we got there the man running the rides measured them both and said Lukas was too tall. They had both ridden on these rides earlier in the day but apparently the other staff member was not so strict. He tried to tell Lukas that made him tall enough to ride the big fast rides, but all of those terrify Lukas. Just when he was ready to burst into tears, the guy took pity on him. He said Lukas could ride, just this time, as long as he didn’t tell anyone. We were all incredibly greatful to the guy for doing that. It was such a sweet and simple act of kindness, but it stopped our whole day from being ruined. It also stopped me having to find some other way to occupy the two kids for about half an hour. They only ended up riding it once before Ella announced she needed the toilet and we had to go and search for a disabled one.

Men should never ever be allowed to touch technology!

Yesterday I asked Mark to please reinstall my desktop. I have been asking him to do it for months but it’s gotten worse and worse. He’s lost the original set of installation disks to reinstall it but he told me if I got a copy of Windows XP it would install with one of our codes, we have a few because we have had quite a few computers break. After being awake again all night I was tired and fed up so I made sure everything was backed up, then went to bed and left him to it. He woke me up as he was walking out the door to go to work, and tells me he couldn’t do it. I was still half asleep so I stupidly assumed he meant I was still stuck with the same problems I have had for months. It was only when I went to use it that I realised I no longer had a desktop that didn’t work properly, now it doesn’t work at all! Apparently there is some compatibility issue between the version of windows had and the version of windows he tried to install, even though they are both XP. I can’t explain any better than that because I don’t understand programming and operating systems. But apparently we can fix it by obtaining a replacement set of original disks from Dell who were closed for the weekend. So I am stuck with the laptop which has issues of it’s own, mainly that it frequently overheats and turns itself off. It’s still under warranty so I can send it back to be repaired, I have been delaying doing it because the desktop wasn’t working right and I didn’t want to be without anything to use. So I am very frustrated and fed up, I do still have the photos taken with my phone on the laptop, and I have some stuff including my CT kits on the laptop so I can scrap, if the laptop stays on long enough. Anyway I better go in an effort to help it stop overheating I have the laptop raised up on a box and it’s killing my shoulder to type on it.

*Day 6 of the daily download at DSDI is available here*

Bottles

Bottles, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Vanilla Bees Template Freebie) by Crystal Livesay, New Beginnings by Royanna Lea Fritschmann, Ribbon Rose by Designing On The Edge, Basic Alpha - Stunningly Silver by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps), Love Everyday (slightly recoloured), In Your Eyes Love and In Your Eyes Love Cardstock all by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) and Glass Styles by Holly McCaig. Font is Century Gothic.
Journalling reads: This is one of my favourite photos that I have of Leo. He was so tiny yet he was already starting to show off his personality and independance. Every single time we fed him with the bottle, he used to grab hold of it with both hands. No matter how hard we tried we couldn’t make him let go. I know it looks like he is trying to pick his nose at the same time, but he wasn’t. He was so used to the feeding tube being there, it was almost instinct for him to reach up and feel for it. While he was at the hospital he used to drive the staff crazy, pulling the tubes out faster than they could put them back in. I really wish I had got to see his personality change and develop.

Sorry just didn’t feel like blogging yesterday

don’t really feel much like blogging today either if I am being honest. I’ve had a really bad day health-wise and lately I have found myself pulling away from everything again. I don’t feel like talking to anyone, I can’t focus on things and nothing holds any interest for me. I hate being like this. It doesn’t really help that things are not great around here at the moment either. There’s a lot of tension between me and Mark and I am just longing for a break. We are hoping to fix some of the the issues with a trip the Chessington next week. It seems incredible to think that we haven’t even been there once this season yet. Unfortunately until then you are just going to have to accept that I will probably be a little distant. Blogging doesn’t help because there’s not really a specific problem, it’s more of a I think my life sucks problem, it comes and goes. The time has definitely come to go back to the doctors again though. Should Biggest problem with that is that they usually dismiss it as “oh, you can’t be that sick if you haven’t come and seen us for months”, they don’t get that I just don’t have the energy or desire to bother. I fail to see the point when they can’t even understand that yes I am depressed I understand that, but I am depressed because I am sick not sick because I am depressed. The pain was there before the depression, actually the pain has pretty much always been there even before I bothered to tell doctors about it. If I am completely honest I don’t ever remember the pain not being there, I just used to work around it better than I do now. The constant comments about “just being lazy” didn’t used to bother me so much either. I guess it’s like everything else, things change and there’s nothing me or anyone else can do about it except shut up and deal. So that’s what I am doing, shutting up and dealing. The only advantage to feeling like this is that I tend to like purging clutter. So sometimes boxes get sorted, clothes get recycled etc, generally though I tend to purge digital junk. Like old freebie kits and anything I consider inferior quality. I also tend to be quite ruthless about doing it and that’s a good thing. I like seeing how many GB of junk I have gotten rid of, I also like buying stuff to fill the space I just cleared lol. If nothing else it lets me find all the stuff I had forgotten about ever buying.

*Day 4 of the daily download at DSDI are now available*

Uh Oh

Logan decided that today would be a good day to attempt climbing the stairs. Here's a quick video I managed to catch of him doing it, sorry there's no sound I had to use my camera. I will try and get better one tomorrow with my mobile phone, it didn't have any charge in it today.

Things to show you part 2

So it’s just dawning on me that I am an idiot. I published the layouts directly from Flickr, when I should have posted them in this post oh well I will just have to show you them again lol only smaller. Jane’s new kit Fruit Of The Spirit is so much fun to work with, I loved the bright colours and fun elements, but I admit it when I saw the wordart I was a little bit worried about working with it. I can’t do religious layouts, you know my thoughts on “God”. But I guess if nothing else my layouts show just how versatile this kit is. I even have an idea for another page using photos from Jamboray (it’s an indoor play area) because I think the bright colours will work perfectly with the photos. It was a nice contrast to the soft pastel colours in the last kit April Showers. Right now you can pick up the kit at 25% off which makes it just $3.74 and you get the cardstocks included for free. You can pick it up here or click the preview of the kit.

Here are the layouts I have created with it so far, for a better look you can just scroll down. The first two were created with really old pictures so I resized the templates and made them 6x6 layouts. The last one was with a really recent photo, I wanted something I could print out and pin to my desk. I have a really old photo (like August of last year old) of Mark and the boys and one of the boys with Santa up at the moment along with my Fulfilled Soul bunny postcards.

Hopefully I will be back a little later, I am hoping to get a layout finished while everyone is still asleep. Lukas will be staying home today because of his tummy so I have a lot less chance of Logan sleeping for any decent amount of time.

Things to show you part 1

I decided that I am going to split this into two parts, one to show you things from Jewel (Mad Genius Designs) and one to show you the latest kit from Jane (Little Red Scraps).

Remember how I told you about the daily download yesterday? Well if you missed picking up day 1, or maybe by how late I am writing this post day 2 as well you need to check out this thread at Digi Scraps Drive In. Jewel is offering the chance for up to 2 coupons to download days you have missed, just for completing the challenges at DSDI. If you need some suggestions my favourite ones I have done this month are the Killer Threads and the Spice It Up challenges, I also quite liked the Radioactive Font challenge. I am hoping to find the time to do both the Part One and Part Two Made In The Shade template challenges and the Go For Pinks or Blues or colour challenge (there are some amazing mini kits available for free in that thread including this one by Jewel).

Then she’s also offering you a coupon to pick up a set of cardstocks papers that coordinate with the daily download for free, you have two options you can either post an introduction at DSDI or post about the daily download (blog, facebook, twitter, forum post or yahoo ad) you can find the details in this thread and here’s a preview of the freebie you could get.

The last thing I have to show you today is the ad for Jewel’s week 4 birthday sale. This time you get the chance to build you own personal use grab bag, simply purchase this product for $4 and add your 3 selections to comments field. Jewel will send you a coupon for the total amount.

Do you want to see what my choices would be if I built my own grab bag? Well I am slightly addicted to cardstock so I would probably get three packs I don’t have,  but since I am not entirely sure which ones I do already have lol I am going to show you three kits I am looking forward to working with instead. Pretty Cozy, Renew and Boys Club.

  I just wanted to point out that if you did choose these three kits, you would be essentially paying about $1.34 for each one, which is completely insane! This promotion is good until the 27th April. The last thing I have to say today is that Day 3 of the daily download is now up.

Why do I only ever seem to blog at night?

Or I suppose if I want to be technical about it, in the early hours of the morning. I think it’s mostly because it’s the only time I don’t have people demanding my attention and talking to me. I can concentrate on what I want to say and even if Logan happens to be asleep on my lap and I only have one hand I can write my blog in one sitting. Blogging is the one thing I have found that just doesn’t work for me unless I sit and get it done in one sitting. When I have the plan of finishing off a post later or going back to edit a post, it never ever gets done. But the problem I am running into is that when I come to writing the post especially when I want to share layouts, it takes a really long time and Logan’s awake before I am finished. When time is limited you have two choices either stop doing them or make things simpler. That’s why my last few layouts have been posted directly from Flickr. I can and probably will edit the posts (after I am done writing this one) to add the enabling but this way they took a few seconds to post. I decided to try it today when I realised I had 6 new layouts to share, not because I scrapped 6 layouts today but because I just hadn’t gotten around to uploading them and that’s silly. Hopefully doing it this way will help me to blog a little faster, I might even be able to find the time to write more posts about things the kids have done or said instead of trying to recap the whole week in my P365 layouts. Ideally I would love to find a way to blog while Logan is having a nap, but whether that will ever happen or not is a different matter. Tonight Logan is sleeping in the bed with Mark so I have both hands free which is very rare. I had kind of reached complete meltdown point after spending the evening cleaning up poop. Lukas has an upset stomach so he’s been in and out of the toilet since he came home from school. He still refuses to learn how to wipe his own bum so I have been trying to deal with cleaning him up and Logan has been constipated for the last few days, so yesterday I gave him plum and apple desert. It had the desired effect and then some lol. I had a list of things that needed doing today as you can imagine hardly any of them got started let alone finished. My bed is still partially covered by Lukas’s new clothes that came today as I haven’t had chance to find somewhere to put them. Most of Logan’s new clothes are away in his wardrobe but none of the other stuff is. I have to go through it and see what will fit him for a few more wears, what’s going in the charity bag or being given to someone and what if anything needs to be thrown away. It seems insane to me that Logan is now wearing 9-12 month clothes. He’s just gotten so tall all of a sudden that the 6-9 month stuff is too short for him. He can’t stretch out properly in the babygros, the other side to that being he hasn’t quite grown into the next size ones yet so when he’s trying to crawl he’s getting tangled up in it. So there have been a fair amount of bumps this evening, the worst one had nothing to do with the new clothes. Logan was crawling around our bedroom and he sneezed and head butted the floor. For a minute I was scared that I was going to see a broken nose when I picked him up, he screamed for quite a while and had a nasty red patch on his head for a while, but luckily you can’t even see that he did anything now. Anyway that’s enough rambling for tonight I think I will start a second post because I have a few things to tell you about and this post is getting kind of long.

Inspiration Love

Inspiration Love, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Timestop Templates, The Singles No. 05) by Molly Weight (Biograffiti), Fruit Of The Spirit Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps), From My Notebook 52 Weeks Of {inspiration} Bonus 1 by Sue Cummings and Glitter Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs).

5 A Day

5 A Day, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Kjersti's Templatez - Featured Artist April 2010, Kjersti_W, Template by NeeNee's Creative Inspirations (It'z A Neet Design, Studio Nee Nee) and Fruit Of The Spirit and Fruit Of The Spirit Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps). Fonts are Edwardian Script ITC and FO Textura by Fontologie.
Journalling reads: Sure I am a girl and I have a weakness for chocolate, but my biggest food weakness is fruit and vegetables. Everytime we go shopping, we buy at least 2 kinds of apples, bananas, oranges, pears and tangerines or satsumas and our fruit bowl looks like this, for a few hours, maybe a day if it’s lucky. which is exactly why Mark has always called me his little fruit bat.

First Banana

First Banana, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Jenn's Templatez - Featured Artist February 2010, Jennamy82, Template 3) by NeeNee's Creative Inspirations (It'z A Neet Design, Studio Nee Nee), Craft Archives Alpha Beads by Stefanie Burt, Everyday Moments, Fruit Of The Spirit and Fruit Of The Spirit Cardstock all by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps). Font is DJB Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: When we first started weaning you,there was nothing you wouldn’t try. Then you got sick and went off your food and there was hardly anything we could get you to even taste,except bananas. Somehow you managed to eat them even with no teeth. We always used to joke that it was because you were a little monkey.

Logan

Logan, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Lotsa Paperz 1, Template 1) by Chrissy W, All Stacked Up April 2010 by Rachel Jefferies (Captivated Visions), Logan Word Mask by April Cotton and In Your Eyes Love by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Font is DJB Janelle by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: From the very first time I looked into your big blue eyes, I was under your spell. I wanted to hold you and protect you. The intensity of the love I felt for you scared me senseless. I didn’t feel ready to love like that again. But I couldn’t help it, every time I saw you I loved you a little more.

Slide

Slide, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Cindy's Templates Set 36, Template 2) by Cindy Schneider and Fall Into Fall by Jane Shaver and Jewel Goodwin (Red Genius Enterprises). Font is Gunhild Storeide Hand.
Journalling reads: For as long as I can remember you have loved going to this park. I used to take Conor here when he was little too. The slides have always been your favourite. I wouldn’t like to guess at how many hours I have spent sat in here. That’s why it makes me sad the city council decided to renovate it and replace all of the play equipment. I’m sure it was needed but it doesn’t feel like “our park” now. Logan will never get to go down this slide like you and Conor used to.

Baby Nest

Baby Nest, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Cindy's Templates Set 38, Template 1) by Cindy Schneider, Sleepy Snuggles by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) and Glitter Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs). Font is DJB Annalise by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: Cost of baby cocoon to keep you safe and entertained for a litle while - 24.99 Time it took Daddy to cycle to Argos to collect it and back again - 90 minutes. Time it took to get it out of the box and assemble and inflate it - 30 minutes. Time you spent playing in it - 5 minutes. When we first saw this it seemed like it would be perfect. It was an inflatable baby nest, with a fabric cover that came with a 2 position soft bar. The bar could either be used as a play arch or as a support bar to help you sit up. You had just started to sit up on your own, we were worried about you falling over and hurting yourself. It seemed so promising at first you were fascinated by watching Daddy inflate it and eager to look at it and touch it. When we sat you in it you cooed at the toys. But after a few minutes you decided you had been in it long enough and wanted to get out. There was nothing we could pacifiy you with. It was the same story every single time we tried it, you liked it but only for really short periods of time. Honestly it just ended up taking up lots of room and being a bit of a waste of money. I did have to see the funny side though, even at 4 months old when you didn’t want to do something, you always managed to get your own way!

Just some enabling today

I do have some layouts but they seem to be lacking something, since I am not quite sure what that something is, I don’t want to upload them yet. The problem with that is it looks like I haven’t done anything. I’m also starting to realise that I am a bit of failure as a CT. When I took the position it seemed simple enough and I thought I was ready to cope with being a CT again. I forgot to account for a few things though, the being so ill was unforeseen, I couldn’t have been expected to account for that. But how demanding Logan is and my own inability to do just what is required are things I should have considered. I have so many ideas in my head and so many things I want to do and there really aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. I need to find a little bit of balance between scrapping with the kits and the promotion side of being a CT member. I also need to learn to schedule my day a little bit better. Hopefully things will improve when I start to feel a little better. Just one example of how much I suck lately, I completely forgot to blog about Jewel’s Birthday Sale Week 3 which ends today sorry. If you hurry you might still be able to take advantage of it. Whatever you spend in the store, Jewel will send you a coupon to exactly match the amount. You can save the coupons until you see something else you want to buy as they will be good for 30 days from the date of issue.  I also have something else to enable that’s time sensitive, Jewel has also designed the kit for the current daily download at Digi Scraps Drive In. They have been having one every month and I have collected some very cute kits. It started today and runs until the 29th. The sneak peek image is linked to the thread for today, or you could just click here and find all of the details. The kit you are collecting is called In Your Eyes – Love and was inspired by Jewel’s son. I haven’t gotten around to scrapping with it yet since Logan has been in a bad mood today. You will have to excuse the rushed post tonight, I am trying to type with Logan on my lap having a meltdown but I didn’t want you to miss out on either of these offers because of my inability to remember to blog lol. I will be back with a post tomorrow hopefully with those layouts finished.

*If you don’t want to wait to collect the pieces of the daily download, you can pick up the whole kit at 40% off making it just $2.99 – In Your Eyes Love by Mad Genius Designs*

The problem with being sick

is that every day just seems to meld with the one on either side of it, and instead of seven days a week you just end up with one seemingly never ending cycle of pain and sleep. A day becomes defined by starting when you wake up and ending when you finally get to sleep. The biggest problem with that is that some days end up being 3 hours long because you are just too tired to function anymore and some of them end up somewhere between 24-30 hours sometimes longer. It gets depressing when you add in painkillers things get even more unpredictable as some of them make you a virtual zombie they are the ones that usually help with the pain a little, some of them make you the energiser bunny those are the ones that usually don’t help with the pain, some of the combinations of mixing them together make other things happen that you weren’t planning on. So you are faced with the choice of doing nothing and suffer, medicate and sleep it off or medicate and work until you pass out from exhaustion. Not really great choices and obviously these only become options once ignore it and hope it goes away no longer is an option. It’s always a balancing act of coping with the pain while making sure my family is taken care of. It sucks that I am pretty much screwed whichever option I chose. Lately I have been a lot more sick than usual and I am struggling to keep track of whether it’s day or night outside, I'm struggling to get anything done and more than anything I am struggling to cope with the guilt. Lukas has been on school holidays and we haven’t done anything. I had plans to take him places and do things, but between being so ill and some money issues we haven’t ended up going anywhere. He’s been out to the park a few times with Lisa and Ella but I feel sad because I know I should have been the one taking him. Mark doesn’t seem to care that Lukas’s holidays have sucked so it causes arguments between the two of us. Yesterday Logan had an accident, I noticed his first tooth had finally come through and I wanted to show Nan. As I tipped his head back to show her he kicked me in the ribs and the pain was bad enough to make me lose my grip on him for a split second. I managed to grab him before he hit the floor but he still ended up bumping his shoulder and getting a little carpet burn graze on his head. I cried about it a lot more than he did. I felt so ashamed that me being in pain all the time had hurt him. This morning I woke up and I could barely move, I had to wake Mark up to feed Logan because I couldn’t straighten my fingers out enough to hold Logan’s bottle, but something has changed. Yesterday when I started writing this post I was full of despair and feeling utterly miserable, and today even though the pain is worse and I feel a lot worse physically, mentally I feel a little better. When your sick it’s all about taking it one day at a time and dealing with whatever life throws at you. It’s about enjoying the little moments and trying to cope with the bad hours/days/weeks/months and it’s always about finding some balance between the two. Balance is something I have been lacking lately. Tomorrow Lukas goes back to school and I have no choice but to pull myself together and deal with the pain, because Mark’s working and I have to pick him up from school. I have to go and cut his hair and bath him and Logan and then hopefully we will get the chance to sit down as a family and watch a film. When he goes to bed I have a list of things I need to get done but I am aiming to be in bed not long after he is because I want to be up when he goes to school in the morning so I can take some back to school photos. Fingers crossed I will be back later with another post and maybe even a layout.

I was sitting here

trying to decide what to write and I was drawing a blank because I really had nothing to say. I kept leaving it and leaving it and hoping something would come to me. I had no layouts I could share and I figured nobody really wanted to listen to me whining about feeling ill. Then something interesting happened I checked my email, and I found that the new releases at The Digichick were already up, which means… you get a blog post because *insert sing song voice right about here* now I can share my layouts. I have a grand total of 3 brand new ones and 1 that’s a combination of both and an old layout and a new one, trust me it will make sense when you see it I promise. Maybe I should start with showing you the kit I was working with first. It’s a collaboration between Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing) and it’s called April Showers. I was worried when I first saw it because it seemed a little bit too pastel for me and I couldn’t think of any photos I had to use. Then I remembered two things, firstly I am an idiot and secondly, I have a baby boy who is usually dressed in pastel blue! Here’s the preview for the kit you can buy it at Digi Scraps Drive In or The Digi Chick.

If you buy it this week you get the cardstocks set for free, and Jane has this cute addon available for free on her blog here

None of these layouts were created for challenges, I just scrapped them with Cindy’s template sets that I just had to have. I am going to show you them in the order I scrapped them. The first layout was made entirely with the kit and one of Cindy’s templates (Set 44, Template 3).

Credits: Layered template (Cindy's Templates Set 44, Template 3) by Cindy Schneider, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Paredes (Madame Wing), April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps), String Styles by Miriam Lima and Coloured Krafts 2 Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs). Fonts are AL Post Master and CK Constitution.

Journalling reads: After we were done with his doctors appointment, Lukas was picked up by Lisa. He was going to Jambinos with her and Ella. Since we had nothing better to do we decided to do a bit of shopping before we went home. We spent a lot of time in Boots and Tesco looking at different foods for you to try. We thought that Heinz Biscotti would be a good choice. Before we went home we stopped to pick up some dinner for Lukas from one of his favourite take-aways. While we were waiting you started moaning. I offered you the bottle, not interested, I offered you toys, not interested, offered you a biscuit, result you stopped crying. You were a bit confused at first, but you soon got the hang of it. This was the first time you had eaten food in your pushchair and the first time you had tasted a biscuit. You chewed on it a bit, then waved it about a bit, chewed on it a bit more then threw it on the floor. You were not at all happy that you had dropped it. I think you did really well for a first attempt. Clever boy!

Enabling: Cindy’s Templates Set 44 by Cindy Schneider available here, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing) available here or here, April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) currently available free with the kit here or here, Coloured Krafts 2 Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs) available here, AL Post Master Font available here and CK Constitution font available here. I am not sure if Miriam Lima is even selling anymore sorry.

The second one was made using the kit and one of Jane’s alphas I have been dying to use since I saw it and another of Cindy’s templates (Set 37, Template 4)

Credits: Layered template (Cindy's Templates Set 37, Template 4) by Cindy Schneider, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing), April Showers Cardstock and Basic Alpha - Stunningly Silver by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps), My Day My Life by Ale Parades (Madame Wing) and Glitter Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs). Fonts are Dirty Headline, Bead Chain and DJB Miss Liz by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: It always seems that whenever we have to get Lukas from school, it’s either pouring down with rain or blowing some kind of mini gale. That means I am forced to struggle and put the raincover on the pushchair. Some days you really couldn’t care less and you seem to enjoy scratching at the plastic, but there are other days when you despise the raincover with a passion and scream the entire trip to school. Unfortunately little man it’s one of those things you just have to put up with. Stupid unpredictable weather.

Enabling: Cindy’s Templates Set 37 by Cindy Schneider available here, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing) available here or here, April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) currently available free with the kit here or here, Basic Alpha – Stunningly Silver by Jane Shaver is available here or as part of this bundle here, Glitter Styles by Megan Farrow (Flergs) available in her store here, Dirty Headline Font available here, Bead Chain Font available here and DJB Miss Liz Font by Darcy Baldwin available here. My Day My Life by Ale Parades (Madame Wing) is now retired sorry.

The third one was built around the photos, the colours in it matched the kit perfectly, I ended up using the kit, the addon, Jane’s alpha again, another of Cindy’s templates (Set 43, Template 1) and a few other bits and pieces like Miss Tiina’s felt, Holly McCaig’s glass styles (it’s a blue glass style) and my own glass styles (a pink glass style and a yellow glass style). I think this one is my favourite out of all of them. It took a while to get the journalling sounding right.

Credits: Layered template (Cindy's Templates Set 43, Template 1) by Cindy Schneider, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing), April Showers Cardstock, April Showers Addon and Basic Alpha - Stunningly Silver by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps), Felt Sheets Pastel by Miss Tiina, Glass Styles by Holly McCaig and Glass Styles by me. Fonts are DJB Judy T by Darcy Baldwin.

Journalling reads: I really love this photograph of Nannie Freda and Joshua. I took it when he was staying with us for the weekend. Joshua looked so adorable in the outfit I had bought for him, I couldn’t resist getting out the camera and taking some photographs. I was able to capture this photograph of Joshua and Nannie Freda having a cuddle on the sofa. This photo is special, Nannie Freda never really liked to have her picture taken when she was alive. I used to have to take the odd one here and there when she wasn’t looking or she thought I was just snapping pictures of you or Josh or Hayley. I ended up with quite a collection of random pictures. None of them were great quality but they were better than nothing. When Nannie Freda died, almost everyone was worried that they didn’t have any photographs to remember her by. It took me a lot of time and effort to gather together everything I had, and fix them enough so they could be printed. Everyone was really grateful to have some photos to remember her with. It was the first time I have really appreciated how important taking photos really and truly is.

Enabling: Cindy’s Templates Set 43 by Cindy Schneider available here, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing) available here or here, April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) currently available free with the kit here or here, Basic Alpha – Stunningly Silver by Jane Shaver is available here or as part of this bundle here, April Showers Addon available for free on Jane’s blog here. DJB Judy T Font by Darcy Baldwin seems to have been retired as I can’t find it in Darcy’s store and Holly McCaig’s glass styles no longer seem to be available. The Felt Sheets Pastel by Miss Tiina I got as part of her GIA Club membership, if you are interested in reading about that details are here. If you would like my glass styles let me know I will be happy to share them.

The fourth and final one is the one that needs a little bit of explanation. I read a thread over at DST and I linked up my original layout you can see below in it. The only problem was when I looked at this layout again, I saw things I didn’t really like anymore like the drop shadows and how washed out the colours were. Still liked the template I used though and the placement of the colours. I updated it a little bit with the kit, changed a few elements and fonts.

Credits: Layered template by Bree Clarkson (inspired by Karen, template 2) and Yesteryear: Baby Collection by Julie Billingsley. Fonts are DJB Nicole DJB My Dear Marsha, and DJB A Bit Of Flaire by Darcy Baldwin, Gigi, Mr. Wade, Shelley-Volante Script and Scriptina.

Journalling reads: I used to think my heart had been broken before, but I soon realised that before you everything was just cosmetic damage, minor scratches on my soul. But you, were the first one to break my heart into a million pieces and use the shards to rip my very existence into confetti. I remember the exact moment that you did it you now, and no matter what else came after you were the first and the first cut is always the deepest. I shouldn't blame you, I mean you were dead you couldn't have done anything to help me but in my mind it was your fault and for a while I hated you for it. When they told me I didn't cry you know, I was determined they wouldn't have that power over me but before it was all said and done they didn't just see my tears sometimes they saw the shattered remains of my heart spread out for them to examine, to pass judgement on. Nobody will ever understand why I cried so hard for the loss of you. But then no-one else knows my secrets do they, no-one else knew how much you were my hope for the future. There was no cloud over you there wasn't any doubts that you might be part monster because you were definitely not created by force you were made with 100% love. You were supposed to make everything better, but you almost destroyed me. I know you made my soul unbreakable, nothing could ever hurt me as much after you. I wouldn't have gotten through losing Leo without you. But I still wish every single day that I never had to hear those words, I never had to endure that pain, I never had to learn those lessons. Every single day I miss you and the part of me that you took with you. I wish i'd gotten to know you as more than just being my heartbreak. I loved you then I love you still, always did and I always will. Gaiebraille Charlett Blake.

Pink Tag: It's hard to say goodbye before you even have a chance to say hello. Unknown. 17th Feb 2003.

Blue Tag: Given wings to soar but never far from our hearts.

Enabling: I can only link you up to the fonts since Bree Clarkson is no longer selling and Yesteryear: Baby Collection by Julie Billingsley has been retired. So DJB Nicole and DJB A Bit Of Flaire Fonts by Darcy Baldwin available here, here and here, Gigi Font available here, Mr. Wade Font available here, Shelley-Volante Script Font available here and Scriptina Font available here. DJB My Dear Marsha Font by Darcy Baldwin seems to have been retired sorry.

This is the finished version of the remake. I like this one so much better than the original.

Credits: Layered template by Bree Clarkson (inspired by Karen, template 2), Yesteryear: Baby Collection by Julie Billingsley, Precious Angel Memories by Kim Brodelet, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing), April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Embossing Powder Styles by Miss Tiina. Fonts are DJB Nicole and DJB My Dear Marsha by Darcy Baldwin, 2Peas Fancy Free, 2Peas Tattered Lace, Scriptina, Vladimir Script, Good Vibrations ROB and Mr Wade.

Journalling reads: I used to think my heart had been broken before, but I soon realised that before you everything was just cosmetic damage, minor scratches on my soul. But you, were the first one to break my heart into a million pieces and use the shards to rip my very existence into confetti. I remember the exact moment that you did it you now, and no matter what else came after you were the first and the first cut is always the deepest. I shouldn't blame you, I mean you were dead you couldn't have done anything to help me but in my mind it was your fault and for a while I hated you for it. When they told me I didn't cry you know, I was determined they wouldn't have that power over me but before it was all said and done they didn't just see my tears sometimes they saw the shattered remains of my heart spread out for them to examine, to pass judgement on. Nobody will ever understand why I cried so hard for the loss of you. But then no-one else knows my secrets do they, no-one else knew how much you were my hope for the future. There was no cloud over you there wasn't any doubts that you might be part monster because you were definitely not created by force you were made with 100% love. You were supposed to make everything better, but you almost destroyed me. I know you made my soul unbreakable, nothing could ever hurt me as much after you. I wouldn't have gotten through losing Leo without you. But I still wish every single day that I never had to hear those words, I never had to endure that pain, I never had to learn those lessons. Every single day I miss you and the part of me that you took with you. I wish I'd gotten to know you as more than just being my heartbreak. I loved you then I love you still, always did and I always will. Gaiebraille Charlett Blake.

Pink Tag: It's hard to say goodbye before you even have a chance to say hello. Unknown. 17th Feb 2003.

Blue Tag: Given wings to soar but never far from our hearts.

Enabling: Precious Angel Memories by Kim Brodelet available here, April Showers by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) and Ale Parades (Madame Wing) available here and here, April Showers Cardstock by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps) currently available free with the kit here and here, DJB Nicole Font by Darcy Baldwin available here and here, Scriptina Font available here, Vladimir Script Font available here, Good Vibrations ROB Font available here and Mr Wade Font available here, the Embossing Powder styles were also downloaded from the GIA Club membership linked above. DJB My Dear Marsha Font by Darcy Baldwin seems to have been retired and I can’t seem to find the 2Peas Fancy Free or 2Peas Tattered Lace fonts sorry.

Oops so I missed 2 days of blogging

In my defence I have spent the majority of the last two days in bed, whatever it is that’s wrong this time is getting worse and I am having to resort to taking painkillers. I hate taking painkillers, because they rarely do anything except make me even more tired than normal. Anyway whatever the problem is it’s affecting my vision a lot. I have had to resize all of the fonts on my machine so I can read them a bit clearer I have had migraines for a long time and they don’t usually affect me like this. I’m hoping that everything will sort itself out soon and I can get back to feeling my usual crappy self lol. So I haven’t really felt much like blogging, but I have done a little bit of scrapping. I have one layout I can share with you now as the other ones are my P365 layouts and they are not quite finished, well some of them are but I don’t want to upload them and get them all up to date in one go and I can’t do that quite yet. Yes I am a freak sorry about that. This one I am sharing was created for the template challenge at Elemental Scraps.

Credits: Layered template (Freebie Template 44) by Chrissy W, Christmas Past by Lena Brandenburg and Tabatha Reed (Bella Gypsy) and Oopsie Doodle Borders by Suzy Iverson (Suzy Q Scraps). Fonts are Pea Megeletto and Pea Mystie Unicase both by Amanda Bottoms (KevinandAmanda).

Journalling reads: On this day I decided that it was warm enough for you to go without your coat. I dressed you in a vest, babygro, trousers, top, dungarees and your little fleece jacket and hoped you would be warm enough for just the short trip to school and back again. Then Nana asked me to go to the shop and get electric for her. Since we were running late we thought we would go after we had got Lukas. Then Lukas begged to go to the book fair. He took ages looking through books before finally he finally chose one. We went to the shop, got Nana’s electric and then Lukas decided that he wanted to go to the park. He asked so nicely that I couldn’t refuse. Whenever we go to the park, you love to go on the swings. It’s a lot more fun for you since you can sit up on your own now. As you were giggling and swinging the wind picked up. It got cold really fast and then it started to rain., You were already damp so we decided to stay. We moved on from the swings to the slide, we moved from the slide to the see-saw, back to the swings, I put you in the tunnel and that was when you decided that you have had enough. When we finally left we were all cold and damp. You were grumpy and fed up, but you cheered up a lot once I put you in the pushchair and gave you a bottle. You were asleep by the time we got home, but you were still quite cold to touch. It took quite a while for al of us to really warm up once we got home. I felt so guilty that you hadn’t had a coat on. I hated that you had gotten cold. I knew that I was a very bad mummy on that day. Hopefully I get a few points for the fact that you and Lukas had a great time at the park. You were both enjoying yourself so much I couldn’t bear to make you leave, even when my mummy instincts told me different. I learnt a lesson for the future, I should always trust the mummy radar over the weatherman and I should always keep a coat for you underneath the pushchair!

Enabling: Christmas Past by Lena Brandenburg and Tabatha Reed (Bella Gypsy) available here, Oopsie Doodle Borders by Suzy Iverson (Suzy Q Scraps) available here, Pea Megeletto font can be downloaded here, Pea Mystie Unicase font can be downloaded here and you can find all of the details for the template challenge including the link to download the template here.

Happy anniversary baby

Today is Ambrose’s anniversary. It seems insane to think that it was 4 years ago that we went for a routine scan and were told they couldn’t see a heartbeat. It was 2 days later that I wrote this post. So many things have changed since then but the sadness is still there. I still grieve for what might have been and wonder what my baby would have been like. Mostly it’s selfish fantasies about how things would have been. I won’t lie sometimes I think things worked out the way they were supposed to. I think Ambrose and Gaiebraille and Leo are lucky that they don’t have me as their Mummy. Lukas and Logan are hard work and I can’t always give them everything I feel they deserve. I have to adapt the way I care for them because of my health issues and I feel as though it’s a good thing I only have the two of them to disappoint. I wonder if they would be better off without me too, wonder if they would rather have a different mummy who could run around and play with them. I hate that I get tired all the time and the pain makes me irritable. I have to remind myself that no-one could ever love them the way that I do, and that even though I am far from perfect they love me anyway. They don’t care that I'm sick, or depressed, they don’t care that when we go places I have to take frequent breaks and it takes me days to recover afterwards. I often still question whether there was something I could have done differently to save my angel babies and the truth is I will never know for sure. In my mind it will always be my fault. I will always be filled with questions and I will always feel the sadness at them not being here. None of that will ever change but experience tells me some things will. Time will help heal my heart, it will let me go for seconds, then minutes, maybe even hours at a time without thinking about my angel’s. Days like today will become more about celebrating their lives than about grieving for them. I know that because they already have a little bit. This year hasn’t been as hard on me as last year was, and last year wasn’t quite as hard as the year before. I will never ever forget any of them, because a piece of my heart will always have their names engraved on to it. It will never completely stop hurting, but that’s ok the pain helps me to remember. So happy anniversary my darling Ambrose, I hope you know how much I miss you.

A second layout from yesterday

As soon as I saw this kit, I knew what I wanted to use it for. It’s not very easy to find carousel elements, and I have lots of photos. I decided to rescrap the ones from Milton Keynes, but I have ones from Chessington, Thorpe Park and the fair to scrap as well. The kit is on promotion until the end of today, for $2. If you scrap a layout with it you get the other half of the kit for free. It’s a very cute Mary Poppins kit but versatile enough to do other things with as well. Since I am in an enabling sort of mood, here are the previews of both halves (The $2 and the other half you get when you scrap a layout with it) and a link to the challenge in the forum.

The first image is linked if you want to buy it. Here is the layout I made with the first half of it.

Credits: Layered template (May 08 Square Template) by Di Hickman, Practically Perfect by DeDe Smith and Gold Action by Atomic Cupcake. Fonts are CK Handprint, CK Leisurely, ILS Script and Circus.

Journalling reads: You have always loved to ride on the Carousel. When we took you to see Father Christmas, we had some time to waste before the timeslot on our tickets. We decided to take a walk over to the Carousel inside the shopping centre. Usually we go for the seats we can all sit in as a family, like the Cinderella carriage. But this time we had quite a lot of stuff that needed holding on to. You decided that you wanted to sit on one of the white horses. So Daddy went with you on your first ride, while I took photographs. Then you asked to go again and I went on with you while Daddy waited and took some photographs. On your 3rd turn you asked to go all on your own. You only needed a little bit of a boost to get up onto the horses. It made me realise just how much things have changed. You are growing up so quickly and becoming more independent every single day. 1st December 2007.

Enabling: Practically Perfect by DeDe Smith available here, Gold Action by Atomic Cupcake available here, CK Handprint font available here, CK Leisurely font available here, ILS Script font available here and Circus font available here.

Zzzz

If you saw this last night and wondered why there was no post with it, sorry I just couldn't drag up the effort to sit and type anything, so I published it directly from Flickr. I didn't realise that it didn't add the description when you do that, at least I know for next time. Anyway back to the layout, after I blogged the other night I was planning on taking some more painkillers and going to bed. Well I tried the painkillers and they did less than nothing, so I ended up going to the Featured Designer Chat at Log Your Memory. This month's featured designer is Traci Reed and she was giving away a free layered template. We were also given a code good for a free one month memory logbook or $5.95 off either the full Log Book or the Weekly Challenges book. I had bought the full Log Book previously but have never gotten around to doing anything with it. I decided to pick up the April Monthly Log Book, I even got around to printing it out, I decided to print it at half size (A5) and print two per page. As soon as I can find the paper trimmer I will put it into my folder and hopefully start using it and doing the weekly challenges. This is the layout I using the free layered template from the chat and Jewel's kit Sleepy Snuggles.

Credits: Layered template (Log Your Memory Chat Freebie, Stephanie Template) by Traci Reed and Sleepy Snuggles (slightly recoloured), Little Tags Months, Edge Genius Volume 1 and Heart Genius Volume 1 all by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Font is Pea Missy With A Marker by Amanda Bottom (KevinandAmanda).

Journalling reads: I don’t remember much about these photos. I know that after your bath we went downstairs to get something, I left you alone in the kitchen for a few minutes and when I came back this is what I found. You were fast asleep on the kitchen floor. I couldn't resist taking photos of you, I remember you turned over in your sleep and pulled the hood over your face. I guess either you were cold or the light was bugging you. According to my blog, I carried you upstairs asleep. I was obviously not as ill then as I am now. I also blogged that you went to the toilet and fell asleep again on the bathroom floor. You must have either had a really hard day or you were poorly with something. I only wish I could remember which one it was. I hate having bits of your stories missing.

Enabling: Sleepy Snuggles, Edge Genius Volume 1 and Heart Genius Volume 1 by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) available here, here and here and Missy With A Marker Font available here. Layered template was a chat freebie and Little Tags Months was a participation prize for the Project 365 challenge at Digi Scraps Drive In.

Goodbye Flowers, Goodbye Pink

Notice anything new? It took me a while but I finally got around to giving the blog a much need makeover. I decided to go with Zoe Pearn’s Blog In A Box: Blissful but I couldn’t resist recolouring it so there was no pink in it. But apart from the blog redesign, I seem to have spent all day on the computer and not actually done anything. I feel too ill to do anything so there have been no layouts, no tagging, no renaming, no organizing, no stash deleting honestly I am not really sure where the day has gone. I hate days like this where I don’t seem to have anything to show for the hours that have passed. I always feel like they would have been better spent sleeping, because at least then I wouldn’t feel quite so ill. I did get 2 of the P365 layouts I was behind on finished yesterday, but haven’t gotten around to uploading them yet. Anyway while I am here, I may as well do something useful. Do you remember the sale I linked you up to the other day, well Jewel has decided to celebrate her birthday all month long with a different promotion each week. This weeks promotion is a grab bag with a twist, well two twists I suppose because not only do you get to see what you get before you buy, you get to choose which things you want. You get to build your own 3 product commercial use grab bag for just $5. There are a lot of other stores where just one commercial use product costs more than $5, so you are getting a really good deal with this offer. Anyway here is a link to the product you need to purchase to get this offer, you just put the three products you want in the comments section, and you will receive an email from Jewel with a coupon to buy the items, sent to the email address associated with your store account. The ad is also linked to the product.

Do you want to see what my choices would be if I built my own grab bag? Assuming I had bought the things I showed you last time in the sale I would go for these three.

CU Edge Genius Volume 1 and CU Edge Genius Volume 2 because I have a bit of a thing for edges and CU Star Genius Volume 1 because I think they would be great for boy layouts.

 

Now do you want to hear something crazy, if I bought this deal technically I would have got both of the edge sets for 1c since the Star Genius Volume 1 set usually costs $4.99 on it’s own. See I told you it was a complete steal! This promotion is good until next Wednesday (14th April).

Sharing yesterday’s layout

I started this one on Monday but left it unfinished because I was feeling so ill. For some reason I seem to be in the mood to scrap really old photos lately. The strange thing was I actually chose these photos to scrap before I started scrapping. That’s backwards for me, usually I pick the template I want to use first, then the kit/elements, then the photos. With the exception of my P365 layouts I add the journalling first and then the photos before I start really scrapping the page. I am not really a themed scrapper, I like to use things that match the colours in the photo or I find a pattern I like and recolour it to make it match the photos. When I saw these photos I thought they would work really well with an Autumn themed kit by Red Genius Enterprises called Fall Into Fall. I had spotted it the other day while browsing the store but I didn’t really have a clue what I wanted to do with them. Since the photos are so old they are not great quality so I know they couldn’t be huge focal points on the page. Mark bought me some templates from DSDI when they were on sale, simply because they were on sale lol. I never had plans for what I wanted to do with them, except a vague idea that if I had templates from there I could do more challenges from there lol. DSDI don’t require use of their products but I personally feel guilty uploading anything to a gallery that doesn’t have something from that store in it. Anyway I am rambling aren’t I sorry. The point I was trying to make was that when I started this page the only idea I had was to use the brown background paper from the kit and maybe recolour the papers a tiny bit to match the bowling balls better. The layout kind of took on a life of it’s own and ended up being suitable for the Killer Threads Challenge. I probably wouldn’t ever have imagined doing this with these photos but I really love the finished layout, I hardly ever say that.

Credits: Layered template (Blocked Out Templates, Template 2) by Denise Tilley (DigiDesigns by Denise), Shine On DSDI Exclusive Freebie by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs), Fall Into Fall and Fall Into Fall glitters by Jane Shaver and Jewel Goodwin (Red Genius Enterprises), CU Neon Styles by Scrappin Cop and Lomo V2 Photo Actions (Lomo No Vignette Action) by Addicted To Design (A2D). Fonts are SF Cartoonist Hand SC and My Own Topher.

Journalling reads: You have been bowling before, when we went to Aylesbury, but we decided it would be a nice after school treat to take you to the local Bowlplex. We have never been there before, even though it’s just over a mile from our house. When we picked you up from school, we told you where we were going. You were so excited! You were very disappointed that we had to go home and get changed before we could get going. You were so impatient and kept telling us to hurry up. As we were waiting for the bus you struggled to calm down, you were firing questions at us and hardly even stopping for breath. Once we got there you somehow managed to take in all of the little details, like the sign on the wall outside and the games arcade just inside the door. It was all of the little details that made it so special, like how you were ecstatic that you and Daddy had almost matching shoes, and thought it was funny that Mummy had ugly red lace up ones. The obvious thrill you got, out of helping Daddy type in your name on the keypad. How you insisted on using a heavier ball than we thought you would be able to handle and how you were annoyed that you couldn’t find a blue ball. You ended up being really good at Bowling, both with the support frame and without. We played 2 games and you and Daddy ended up winning one each. I had so much fun watching you both and taking photos, until the camera batteries died. We decided to finish off the evening with burgers and chips at the bowling alley. you had a kids meal that came with a cow Mask and played on the bob the builder ride on, before we got a taxi back home. It was a really nice evening. When we got home I was a little sad to see that because of the bad lighting in the bowling alley, hardly any of the photos were useable. The colours were really bad but I did manage to save a few. At least we have the memories of going and there’s always next time for more photos!

Enabling: Blocked Out Templates by Denise Tilley (DigiDesigns by Denise) available here, Fall Into Fall and Fall Into Fall Glitters by Jane Shaver and Jewel Goodwin (Red Genius Enterprises) available here and here, CU Neon Styles by Scrappin Cop available here and Lomo V2 Photo Actions by Addicted To Design (A2D) available here. SF Cartoonist Hand SC font available here and My Own Topher font available here. Shine On by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) doesn’t seem to be available at the moment sorry.

Legoland After Dark Ben 10 Alien Force

This was the post I wanted to write yesterday and the day before but felt too ill to do. Honestly I don’t feel better today, but if I don’t write it today it won’t get written because I will forget the details lol. The day started off badly because of everyone going back to sleep. By the time they finally got up we were running really behind. Nothing was ready to go and everything seemed to take forever. We decided that it would be nice to go and have lunch at Eamayl on the way to the train station. The food is always yummy and it’s a lot cheaper than the rubbish they sell at Legoland. We had a really nice time, Lukas was quite well behaved. He had some rice, chips and prawn crackers which are usually the only things he is willing to try. He tasted the chicken balls but didn’t like them as much as the ones from our local takeaway. But he did surprise us by eating the chicken satay I put on his plate and then asking for more. He tried it when we went to Oxy Oriental but although his liked it what I gave him was enough. It’s very unlike him to not only ask for more but to eat about half a plate full of something lol. His favourite part was the ice cream he ended up having 5 of the tiny bowls 4 vanilla and 1 chocolate and 1 bowl of jelly. We were quite impressed with him. Logan tasted what the sign said was a tomato omelette, don’t think it was though as it had mushrooms in it, he really enjoyed it, he also quite liked the jelly. Coconut pudding was not a hit though he spat it out. Lukas thought it was great that there was a birthday dinner going on and everyone sung Happy Birthday when the staff bought out a cake for the lady. He’s now asking if we can go and have Chinese for his birthday. I told him we would see, since he keeps changing his mind about what he wants. It took a while to get to Legoland but for once we didn’t run into any cancellations or delays. When we got to the bottom of the hill on the shuttle bus, we felt a bit sick when we saw that the opening sign said “Park Closed”. We were dreading having to explain to Lukas that for some reason the park wasn’t open. We were trying not to panic the entire trip up the hill. When we got off the bus we saw that all of the turnstiles were closed and so was the ticket office. We managed to find a member of staff who told us it was fine for us to come in. When we went to collect the event leaflet from guest services, they said the park was closed because it had reached capacity. They were only accepting pre-booked tickets and Annual Pass holders. It was a huge relief to hear that Annual Pass holders were guaranteed entry. Then we saw the ride board, every ride in the park had a waiting time of 30 minutes or longer. One of the rides even said 1hr 45min. We didn’t really go for the rides but Lukas was still a bit disappointed. We wondered around hoping to do some of the Ben 10 special events around the park but they were all too busy. We couldn’t even get into the Lego building contest area. We decided to go and see the new 4D show and were turned away because the theatre had reached capacity. They advised us to come back in half and hour and see Bob the Builder, but since we have seen that one a few times we didn’t bother. Lukas wanted to have a go at laser tag but after lining up he was told they had closed for the day. They were cooking steak on a BBQ and it smelt yummy so we decided to buy a couple, but as we went to bite into them they were not only not cooked through they were tough like leather. Mark finished them off but it was annoying. We decided to try chocolate waffles on a stick, took one bite and threw it away because it was absolutely disgusting. By this point we were cold, miserable and fed up. The kids cheered up a bit when we bought them a balloon each, Logan hasn’t had one before. We also bought and released one for Leo. Lukas had fun playing in the Pirate Training Camp (what used to be The Rat Run) and Mark tried out the new ride, The Jolly Rocker (huge swinging pirate ship). He seemed to enjoy it but he was lucky it broke down just after he got off it lol. We picked up some doughnuts and hot chocolate and headed over to the area where they were holding the laser show. We were really early but it was still packed. We found somewhere to stand and watch it but by the time the show started people had barged in front of us and we couldn’t see anything. Mark managed to pick Lukas up and sit him on his back and lean against the fence so Lukas could see something. Since we hadn’t been able to see the show we stayed for the repeat. We were able to stand right at the front and honestly, that show made the day worth it. None of us have every seen anything quite like it, they used lasers and smoke and projected images off the lake to music. I was able to find a suitable setting on my camera and took lots of photos. Some of them look amazing but I am not quite sure what to do with them yet. We ran into a few problems on the way home. The first one was when we saw a group of 4 girls arguing at Slough station. It turned into a fight between two of the girls. We did inform the guard because I was worried it might get nasty but he didn’t seem very interested. The train only ran from Slough to Didcot Parkway, it was a coach between Didcot and Oxford. The coach was beautiful though, it had really comfortable seats that laid back. There were strip lights along the wall and huge luggage storage bins. The buggy fitted underneath without even being folded up. Both of the boys slept the whole way home. When we got to Oxford station there were no buses running because of how late it was. We had to walk into the city centre. We picked up a Macdonalds, and were quite surprised to see that they have a separate late night menu. Lukas was annoyed that they couldn’t do him a Happy Meal or a double cheeseburger. He ended up getting a double quarter pounder and chips, half of it ended up being his breakfast the next morning, Mark had a Big Mac and chips and I got a McChicken sandwich. Logan decided that would be a great time to have a complete meltdown. We got a taxi home because there wasn’t much difference in price between that and the night bus. By the time we finally got home it was about 1:15am, we were all exhausted and longing to go to bed. It had been a very long day for all of us. Lukas asked to watch a dvd but was asleep before it even got to through the trailers at the beginning. It was a strange day, not one of our best trips out for sure but the laser show made up for some of it. I think we will go again next year, because the Laser show was that good but we will have to get to Legoland a lot earlier so we can get some rides in.

Just keep swimming

you know those days where you feel like you are barely keeping your head above the water even though your legs are frantically kicking underneath, today has been one of those days. I had a bad night last night and ended up spending hours, laying in bed flicking through mindless tv programme after mindless tv programme. For someone who doesn’t really watch TV it’s my idea of hell to be unable to do anything else except watch repeats of tv shows that have been on too many times to count. I just didn’t have the energy to get up and sit at my desk and even if I had dragged myself to the desk I was hurting too much to concentrate and do anything. So I have been dragging pretty much all day, I am tired and I hurt but I just can’t sleep. There are a lot of reasons why I can’t sleep but none of them really matter because the end result is the same, sitting here wishing I was asleep and getting grumpier and grumpier because I am not *sigh*. I think I should go and try laying down again maybe I can find a cookery programme to watch, they are a bit of a weakness of mine. I love watching other people cook it’s kind of my little indulgence when no-one else is around. I don’t love the television enough to waste energy arguing over the remote with Mark and Lukas. I know if I sit here I am not likely to get anything done and that’s just going to frustrate me even more than laying in bed will. I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully feeling a little bit better and in a better mood than I am now, if nothing else I have a layout I want to share with you and my P365 to sort out.

So very tired

and not feeling very well, so I am going to advantage of the fact that Logan is asleep and go to bed. I will be back with a proper post or 2 tomorrow sorry.

Forgot to mention

There won’t be any layouts today, unless I can get one scrapped now. That’s because as soon as Mark, Lukas and Logan finally decide to get up we are off to Legoland for the day. They are holding a special Ben 10 Alien Force After Dark event. There will be activities all day long followed by two laser and light shows this evening. Since they are open until 9pm so we aren’t in any hurry to get there. Mark and Logan were awake earlier as Mark wanted to watch the Formula One, but they have gone back to sleep. It’s always a much better idea for everyone to let those three wake up on their own, it makes for a much more peaceful day. But if you want to do some scrapping today, for Easter Sunday, one of my CT’s Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) is having a sale this week for her birthday. From the 1st-7th April you get 35% off everything, personal use and commercial use included in her Digi Scraps Drive In store. Discount shows up once you add the items to the basket. Here’s the ad for that, linked to the store.

If you want some suggestions, here are a few of my favourites from her store. Images are linked.

Back To School Bundle

CU Foil Genius Commercial Use Overlays

CU Heart Genius Volume One Heart Scatter Brushes

Perfect Plum Cardstock

Sleepy Snuggles