I have so much to do today,

but instead I am blogging did that give you a hint that most of the things on my to-do list are things I don’t really want to do like put away clothes and clear my desk lol. I am actually starting to believe that I really suck at this blogging thing, I mean I even forgot to come back and blog that I was hosting a speed scrap and invite you to join me. If you are wondering the layout I ended up making is this one. I am intending on sharing the template I made before making the layout, but not today because it’s not ready yet sorry. I do have a freebie (actually 3 freebies) to share with you today, but you have to read my rambling first sorry about that.

Yesterday was Mark’s uncle Tim’s funeral. Despite the fact that Mark managed to lose his trousers and when the taxi arrived to pick us up he still wasn’t dressed we managed to be on time, which is unusual for us. A lot of Mark’s family wore white to honour his bowls hobby and many of them (although not Mark or Mark’s dad), walked behind the funeral procession. It was a nice service, the minister sang a psalm and there were readings from some of Mark’s family members (his aunties Rachel and Michelle, Rachel’s daughter Sophie and Tim’s wife Sam’s mum). It ended with a very upbeat song called Red Fish, Blue Fish, Cardboard Box which made everyone laugh. The boys were both amazingly well behaved and we were very proud of them. After it was over with, we decided not to go to the wake. Instead we wondered over and Mark showed me his mum’s wall plate and where her ashes were scattered. Lukas had started to whine and complain that he was hungry so we decided that instead of getting a taxi home we would get one to McDonalds. Logan got to have his first happy meal he managed half a chicken nugget and about half of his chips which was quite impressive. He’s not too sure about the chicken nuggets but he liked sitting in McDonalds. Lukas opted for a cheeseburger happy meal and a chicken nugget happy meal, he didn’t manage to finish it all while we were sitting down but he enjoyed himself. I ordered a plain cheeseburger and mozzarella sticks with a large sprite, the drink ended up being sent back because it was nasty and tasted strange, the replacement diet coke wasn’t much better so maybe it was to do with the ice. I usually ask for my drinks without or I order stuff in bottles. Mark went for a Summer BBQ Beef burger meal, he thought the sauce was a little spicy but still enjoyed it. While we were eating we decided since we were already out we may as well go and pick up Logan’s birthday presents. So we walked over and got a bus into the city centre. Lukas was thrilled because he got to ride upstairs on a Double Decker bus, Logan decided the bus ride was a great time to take his first nap of the day lol. Our first stop was M&S to look at trousers for Lukas we ended up not buying trousers but we did get the boys new swimwear each and Logan got 3 new pairs of shoes and a t-shirt, we also found some great books on sale so we picked those up for Logan as well. Next stop was Primark we were intending on getting more socks and pants for Lukas but ended up deciding against it because the queues were so long. Next up was Sport Soccer where we picked up two more England shirts one each for Lukas and Logan, Logan’s has shorts with it and Lukas’s is just a top. Now they have the white one and the blue one, I am very tempted to buy them the red one but I don’t think Mark would approve lol. Then we went to Next and I managed to get some real bargains, a top, a dress and a cardigan for just £6. Then we went to Sainsbury to buy drinks for everyone, with a quick stop in Game so Mark could pick up some skateboarding game he wanted before we headed to Argos to get Logan’s presents. We decided on a kitchen, a tool bench and a BBQ for Logan, a microwave and a doctors set for them both to play with and some Lego mini figures for Lukas. Then we caught another Double Decker bus to Cowley Centre to pick up birthday cards, we also made 2 other stops in B&M and the 99p Store. Logan got an activity triangle toy since he had been such a good boy all day, Lukas had been a bit of a brat all day lots of whining and complaining but since we were willing to put it down to him still not feeling very well he couldn’t find a toy he wanted but he got some sweets. We also got plates, cups and napkins for the boys birthday cake. Lukas decided on Ben 10 Alien Force Plates and Napkins and I convinced him to get racing car cups because you got twice as many for the same price. We ended up getting KFC for dinner as everyone was tired and fed up after being out all day long. Me and Logan ended up falling asleep with our clothes on still apparently Lukas kept up the whining and crying for a long time after we went to sleep, but I was so tired out I didn’t even hear him. He seems to be in a better mood today but he’s not really himself. The plans for their birthday have changed more times than I can keep track off but right now it looks like we will be going somewhere on Friday and then on Tuesday which is Lukas’s birthday we will be going to the cinema to see Space Chimps 2 in the morning, followed by Toy Story 3 in 3D, possibly bowling in the afternoon and then either eating out at Oxy Oriental or ordering dominoes pizza at home before we have birthday cake. On Wednesday which is Logan’s birthday we don’t have any plans confirmed yet, with me and the boys still being ill it’s easier to just go with whatever we feel like doing on the day. Now that I have rambled enough I am going to get on with what you are really here for, the freebies. As I told you earlier in the month I am hosting the Altered Art challenge at DSDI, but I think I forgot to mention that there was a freebie that went along with it. Since my challenge was to add some text around the edge of your page, I provided a free 12x12 text path to help you do that. I don’t have a preview made for it, but if you want it you can find the download link in the challenge thread here. I am also hosting the Get With It (Desktop) challenge at DSDI this month and for that one I provided a free desktop template in 3 sizes 800x600, 1024x768 or 1280x1024, I do have previews for them, I am going to show you two different ones as the 1280x1024 is slightly different than the other 2 (has 2 extra circles). Here are the previews for you. All of the downloads can be found in the thread.

If you want to see what I made with the template, it’s the layout in the last post. I made it using Laura’s (C.W Picket & Company) 2 new releases Basic Scallop Templates and Flea Market Finds, since we are talking about freebies you may want to check out her blog for a free addon.

Both of those products are available exclusively at Digi Scraps Drive In.

The last freebie I have to share with you today was created for the Go For Pinks (or blues, or…), which is the name of the colour challenge at DSDI. It’s a great challenge, you receive a swatch and the challenge is to scrap/create using it. I made this whole set using Jewel’s Grunge Genius 2 Overlays and I think it turned out quite cute. If you want them, you can find the download link here. The set I made last month is also still available here if you want them.

You still have time to take part in any of this month’s challenges at DSDI, I really hope you will come over and join us. I am going to sign off now because Lukas has just gotten back. He’s been out with Lisa and Ella for a little while and I haven’t really seen him much today.

Desktop

Desktop, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Flea Market Finds and Basic Scallop Templates by Laura White (C.W Picket & Company)

1st Day At Nursery

1st Day At Nursery, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Back To School and Back To School Journal Addon by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Font is DJB Cindy S by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: WHEN WE ARRIVED FOR YOUR 1ST DAY AT NURSERY SCHOOL, I WAS EXPECTING YOU TO BE CLINGING TO ME AND SCARED OF GOING INTO THE CLASSROOM. I WAS PREPARED FOR TEARS AND YOU BEGGING ME NOT TO LEAVE YOU. YOU HAD NEVER EVEN BEEN HERE FOR A VISIT BEFORE. SO YOU CAN IMAGINE MY SURPRISE WHEN THIS IS WHAT I GOT. YOU RACED INTO THE ENTRYWAY, WE HUNG UP YOUR COAT AND BAG AND THEN YOU GRABBED HOLD OF THE DOOR HANDLE AND TRIED TO PULL IT OPEN. YOU WERE CROSS THAT THEY WEREN’T OPEN YET AND YOU CARRIED ON SHAKING THE DOOR UNTIL THE STAFF CAME AND UNLOCKED IT. ONCE THEY DID YOU WERE OFF, DESPERATE TO GET STARTED AND YOU WERE CROSS THAT I CALLED YOU BACK SO I COULD HUG YOU AND KISS YOU GOODBYE. YOU WERE LITERALLY SHOVING ME BACK OUT OF THE DOOR. SO MUCH FOR MISSING ME AND NOT WANTING TO GO TO SCHOOL. I GUESS I SHOULD BE GLAD THAT YOU ADAPTED TO THE CHANGE SO EASILY AND TRY AND IGNORE THE TINY STAB OF HURT THAT YOU JUST COULDN’T WAIT TO LEAVE ME.

Picking up where I left off

when I blogged last (if you don’t count the moving posts around and video I posted of Logan), I had recapped everything up to Tuesday. Wednesday was the last day of school. Lukas went off to school with mini chocolate muffins (because his birthday is in the holiday) and haribo sweets (because it’s the last day of term). He had enough for one muffin and 2 packets of sweets for everyone. His teacher told him he was only allowed to give out 1 packet of sweets to each child and there were a lot of people absent on the last day, so he came home with lots of leftovers. It ended up being a good thing as Logan tried the chocolate muffins and ended up eating 6 of them lol. He’s never really liked cake before and he really devours these. Lukas came home with a nice frame and photo of his class, apparently they took a nice photo of the class and a silly photo of the class, Lukas decided he wanted the silly one. He also has a certificate for Forest school. I was a little surprised that I didn’t get the usual collection of art and schoolwork home. I am not sure if he forgot it or if they haven’t been given the stuff because they have the same teacher next year. Amazingly he managed to remember everything else like his uniform and lunch bag. Yesterday I was feeling really ill again, and I have my period so I was feeling really miserable. We ended up having a really nice quiet day. I watched some Eli Stone on my computer and Lukas played his X-Box and spent some time downstairs with Nan. Logan seemed to be running a bit of a temperature but he seems to be fine today. So far today me and the boys have all had a bath, I have finally cleared out my inbox, caught up on my Google Reader and I have started tagging the school fete photos on Flickr. I made lunch (crisps, frosties, a kitkat, a pepperami, cucumber and star shaped ham sandwiches for Lukas and star shaped bread and butter for Logan). Lukas and Logan are both being really good. I think Logan might even be intending on taking a nap since he’s laying down drinking his bottle. It’s very peaceful at the moment and I like having them both around especially when they are not fighting with each other. I have one more blog post to write before I make a start on doing some tidying up and hopefully finding some scrapping time. I haven’t scrapped for a few days and I miss it.

The little drummer boy

I wanted to share this in a post by itself. Logan loves to bang things and when he goes downstairs one of his favourite things to do is sit on top of the freezer and play with Nan’s tins. Usually he just spins them around on top of each other or bangs them with his hands. He also loves to send them flying off the top of the freezer and laughs when they crash to the floor. Nan doesn’t mind because with all of the other things he does while he is downstairs, this is by far the least destructive. For some reason I decided to give him a spoon to bang them with, still not quite sure how the tins don’t have huge dents in them because he was really whacking them. You will have to excuse everyone talking in the background apparently none of them are able to grasp that the microphone records their noise as well as Logan’s. This is the first time I have used the camera to record a video so hope the quality is ok.

Logan using Nan's tins as drums 19th July 2010

Still recapping

Sunday I crashed again and spent nearly the whole day in my bed. That takes us all the way up to Monday. I suppose I should mention something here so the next part makes sense. Lukas has had a sore big toe for a while, at first I thought he might have dropped a toy on it or stood on something. I decided the best option was to keep an eye on it, then it started to look like an ingrown toenail, I have had them a few times (ironically on the same toe as Lukas). I knew that there was really nothing that could be done about it. Yesterday Logan dropped the annoying singing butterfly, it’s actually Lukas’s toy from when he was a baby on Lukas’s foot. His foot started to bleed and while I was cleaning it up I noticed that not only had his toe swollen up to about twice the size but all the skin was very tight and red. So I thought we should go and get it checked out, since Conor’s ankle was still hurting we took the pair of them down to the out of hours surgery. We called a taxi and they said they would be 10 minutes over half an hour and 4 phone calls later it finally showed up it was nearly an hour after we had first called the taxi before we finally got to the doctors. Sat around for a long time, before finally being called in by the doctors. Lucky for us even though we had to wake him up from his sleep to change him and his clothes, Logan was in a fairly good mood and was a little angel. Lukas got the diagnosis of an infected ingrown toenail and we were advised to keep his shoes off where ever possible, keep him home from school today because it’s the school picnic and there would be a lot of walking, and bathe his foot in salt water and clean it with antiseptic. Just in case you feel like seeing how sore it is. Warning it is a gross photo! The red on his other toe is just blood.

Conor’s is just bruising she advised that he keep moving and showed him a few movements with his foot that should help it feel less stiff. It took about 3 hours total. When we got home I was feeling really ill again and ended up getting an early night. I did sleep all night but I have been awake since 5 this morning and I am really starting to feel tired now. So Lukas is home with me today (Tuesday), he’s been mostly good apart from waking Logan up. He will be going to school tomorrow because it’s the last day and he has things to collect and cakes and sweets to give out since his birthday is in the holidays. This year I am not doing anything fancy, they are getting everything in the original packaging because I don’t feel up to sitting up all night, fighting with the printer, trimming, cutting, gluing/sticking etc. It’s not like Lukas really cares as long as he gets to give things out he’s happy. I don’t feel like I have been very productive today, so far all I have managed to get done is dress Logan, feed Lukas, change Logan, watch last nights Raw, feed Logan, check and clear some emails, clear my Google Reader and blog or at least I have managed to do that in between getting Logan down from the shelving unit and trying to find something for him to play with for more than a few seconds. Seems a lot more productive when it’s wrote out as a list lol. I still have a lot of other things I need to do including another blog post and some CT work. Logan has gone to sleep and I have just ordered dominoes pizza for Lukas for dinner. I haven’t decided what I want, I don’t really feel like eating lately, nothing really appeals to me. Mark will be home around 8, I will see what he wants to eat, knowing him he will probably pick up some form of takeaway on the way home he usually does on this shift. Maybe I can get a layout done while Logan is sleeping, that’s sounds much more interesting than the other tasks on my to-do list, actually if I am being honest it’s more like a to-do book at the moment. Hopefully Mark can have the kids for an hour or so when he gets home and I can cross a few more things off my list. The other option is that I bribe him to do bath time, but he hates bathing the boys and honestly the boys hate it when he baths them. Logan likes to sit and play in the bath and Mark just whips him in and out again and Lukas whines and complains the entire time. I always end up having to go in and wash Lukas’s hair anyway because he refuses to let Mark do it. That’s a thought maybe I can get some cute bath photos tonight to play with the new Bella Gypsy kit I treated myself to yesterday. I have lots of bath photos, but it’s always good to have more lol. Mark did end up bathing the boys for me, but we never took any photographs. This post actually made a lot more sense when I wrote it the other day, I have tried to edit some parts but I have probably missed some sorry about that.

The School Fete

lol don’t I have imaginative titles today. In the last post I recapped up to Saturday, which was the day of the school fete. We take Lukas every year and he always really looks forward to it. I will give the school credit every year they try new things, and every year whatever the weather the school fete is a lot of fun (at least for the kids lol, not so sure about the poor teachers lol). This year the three highlights were Archery, Mr Alexander’s Travelling Show and the school’s first ever horticultural show. Basically they sent a letter home a few days before informing parents they were holding the show at the fete. There were multiple categories you could enter under let me see if I can remember them since I seem to have misplaced the list. Photography – The Natural World (plants, trees, flowers, stones, sand, dirt etc), Miniature Gardens (constructed out of anything of your choosing), Vegetable sculpture, Cake decorating, 6 Miniature Cakes, Home-grown plants (flowers, herbs etc), Home-grown Vegetables and Handpicked Flower Arranging. It was 20p an entry and you could enter as many under each category as you wanted. There were points awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places and trophies for the most points overall and the judges pick for best in show. Since I was sick and we had 2 days notice Lukas decided just to enter the photography contest. He was absolutely thrilled that even though it had been raining I was willing to take him into the garden on Friday night to take some photos, although not quite as thrilled as he was to be allowed to play with my brand new camera. Anyway since I was ill and couldn’t sleep I sat up on Friday night and started trying to print his photos. I went to a speed scrap at DSDI and got some of the other ladies to help me pick which ones he could submit. The printer decided to be an absolute pain and it pretty much took me the whole night fighting with it to get it to print out his pictures. We ended up entering 6 different photos and had to rush a little because of the deadline for submitting entries. Do you want to see the ones that he submitted?

 

After we had submitted his photos we started wondering around and having a look at everything, for some reason they decided to have everything down at the bottom of the field this year instead of in the playground and classrooms like they usually do. Our first stop was the Strawberries and Cream stall. The strawberries were all grown in the schools allotment, which Lukas couldn’t wait to tell me all about. So we each bought a bowl of strawberries and cream (except Lukas who just had strawberries, for some reason he decided he didn’t want the strawberry and marshmallow kebabs even though he likes marshmallows and strawberries separately). Unfortunately that was the wrong decision as his strawberries were super sharp and now he’s decided he hates them again, oh well it was nice having him like a different fruit while it lasted. Our next stop was the cake stall lol what can I say none of us had breakfast and Lukas had been going on about the cake stall for days before hand. He wanted a fairy cake, with pink icing and sprinkles and nothing else would do. I didn’t get a chance to photograph it before he devoured it. I decided as the last second that I wanted a chocolate brownie as well. I also forgot to photograph that but it was very yummy. Logan wouldn’t have eaten it if we had bought one him so we didn’t bother and there was nothing that Mark liked the look off. Then Lukas started whining that he wanted a drink so we headed over to that stall. He got a blackcurrant fruit shoot and we bought an orange one for Logan (since that’s what Nan has and he always swipes). This was the first time we had ever given him a plastic bottle to drink from outside, and he didn’t do bad at all hardly sprinkled any over himself, also didn’t spit any out which made a nice change. Since the BBQ was up and running we decided to buy some burgers before the rush started. Cheeseburgers for everyone except Logan who was starting to get sleepy. We found a bench to sit on so we could eat them unfortunately they were not great. Mine was still slightly pink inside and I can’t eat anything that doesn’t look fully cooked and Lukas couldn’t finish his. They had been cooking them inside in the oven and then finishing them off on the BBQ so not sure why they were not cooked through. I think Lukas not finishing his had a lot less to do with the actual food than it did with his desire to go and have a go at the Archery. It was £2 for 6 arrows, and the guys running it were nice enough to let me stand right beside him and take photos. I haven’t really used the sports setting on my camera before but some of the pictures turned out great. I only wish Lukas would have slowed down a little bit so I could have had a nice one of him holding the bow with the arrow in it. That seemed to be the theme for the day though, he raced through every activity and we didn’t manage to catch hardly any of them on film. School fete’s always seem to be a bit of a bust for me when it comes to photos, he has absolutely no patience at all and just can’t wait to get one thing over with and move on to the next. Anyway here’s a couple of the photos of him that I really liked.

  

After that was over we moved onto the games, we started with the one organised by Lukas’s class, some form of tennis. You had a choice of three balls from the selection available and use a plastic tennis racket to smack the balls over the tennis net and into the hula hoops on the other side. There were different prizes depending on what colour hoop your ball landed in. Lukas had 2 turns at this and managed to win a kazoo and a plastic horn thing. Then we moved onto the game organised by the other year 3 class – Feed The Chicken. They built a chicken out of paper and crepe paper, and the goal was the throw the bean bags into it’s mouth and feed the chicken. Lukas missed with all three bean bags and the poor chicken went hungry. But he won a prize anyway a little plastic clapper toy which Logan claimed as his. Here’s a photo from the tennis and a photo of the chicken I never bothered to take any of his prizes.

Next game was a bouncy horse race, this one seems to be there every year and Lukas loves it. They have space hoppers with little horse covers on them. This year you had to have someone to race with and since nobody else was around at the time and we were trying to avoid a Lukas meltdown, he got to race against Logan. I sat Logan on the horse and I bounced him and it down the course. I still don’t know how any of us managed to get down the course because we were all laughing so much including the teacher running it (Lukas’s teacher from last year). It was a tie between them but Lukas got a gold winner sticker which he was incredibly proud of. I was not exactly thrilled that Mark hadn’t bothered to take any photographs of the race. Logan thought the whole thing was so funny, but he was not very impressed that he had to go back into the buggy afterwards. Luckily for us he was getting tired so we were able to bribe him with his bottle. Our next game was a Sand Sieving challenge. Next we headed back over to the cake stall, we were going to buy another cake for Lukas so I could photograph it, but they were all out of pink icing with sprinkles, so he decided that he didn’t want one at all. The last game he ended up playing with a Treasure Hunt. There were cups full of sand and sieves, you had to sieve the cup of sand and retrieve the prize from the bottom of the cup. Lukas won a packet of sweets, which he was quite pleased about. Here’s the photo we managed to get of Logan sitting on the bouncy horse after the race and one of Lukas doing the treasure hunt.

He wasn’t at all interested in getting his face painted this year, but he did say that he wanted to try the miniature golf and the obstacle course, but by then the magic show was starting so we headed over in that direction. This next part is important to remember for later. I parked the buggy next to the benches and sat on the floor next to it. Lukas sat beside me and Mark decided to stay standing so he could get some better photos. We chose to sit there for two reasons. The first is because it was the only place we could park the buggy and give Logan a way to see what was going on (although that didn’t end up mattering because by the time the show started he was fast asleep). The second is that Lukas is a fidget he finds it really difficult to sit still. I often choose to sit on the floor in places with him rather than have him disturb other people. The show was quite good even if the magician was slightly rude and patronising. He got annoyed when the kids sat on the floor at the front started screaming when he started juggling a sword and then later a set of knives. Most of them were nursery school age, stupid idiot why would you not expect them to be scared you are going to cut them if you drop them. But apart from that the show was quite clever, lots of optical illusions, a balancing act involving 2 chairs and a plank of wood, some juggling and lots of loud music and him talking. I am not going to upload photos of the show here, but there is an album on my Flickr account called Lukas’s School Fete 2010 if you want to see them. Then he got out the unicycle. Which the kids were not too sure about at all. The panicked a little bit and his answer to that? Get out a bigger unicycle and tell the kids that they were going to be the road as he rode it down the centre of the benches. If you were paying attention at the beginning, yes exactly where we were sitting. This is where is gets kind of interesting. We go to get up and because we have been sat there for so long, my leg is asleep. I whisper to Mark that I am not sure how I am going to get up because my leg is asleep, it’s funny to both of us and Lukas. I use the buggy to get up and I am standing there trying to get some feeling back into my leg because it’s completely numb. The stupid idiotic entertainer strides over, says get out of my road and shoves me. Already unbalanced because I couldn’t feel one of my legs, I went down, hard. With everyone watching, except the entertainer whose already walked off back to his unicycle. I am trying really hard to get back up again, and the pain in my ankle is unbelievable. Somehow I managed to get up without throwing up despite really wanting to and Mark helps me over to sit on one the benches. I am feeling dizzy and sick, and my ankle has swollen right up. The only thought in my head, how the hell are we going to walk home. We had someone coming at 1:30. I’ll be honest the guy should think himself very lucky that his wheel was rubber and I am allergic to latex, because it was damn tempting to shove him off the unicycle or whack him with it. Lukas’s head teacher was standing right near me when I fell, she was really concerned bless her, I would have been concerned if I was her too she’s a tiny little thing I could have crushed her lol. I was quite proud of the fact that I didn’t swear as I fell, or cry. While I was sitting on the bench they announced the trophy winners for the Horticultural Show. A Little boy in Lukas’s class called Bartosz won best overall for his marrow boat in the vegetable sculpture category and the award for overall points went to another little boy whose name I can’t remember. With a lot of support from the pushchair we wondered over to the tent to see if any of Lukas’s photo entries had placed and were surprised and thrilled to see not one but two separate awards. A second place certificate for his apple photo and a third place for his white flower photo. We were so very proud of him. I had been worried that they wouldn’t believe that he had taken the photographs himself. Lukas takes better photographs than I do, he truly has a talent for getting great shots, maybe it’s luck or maybe he just has some great perspective that I don’t but I have a lot of photographs that no-one believes he took. He’s been allowed to play and take photos with my various digital cameras since he was two years old. He’s never used a crappy kid safe digital camera always whatever one I was using, I trust him that he won’t break them. In all honesty there aren’t many things that Lukas is ever likely to win awards in, he tried really really hard but he’s not great at sports or even learning based things. So we were all so very proud of him for getting those certificates. Even if I do think the first place winner cheated lol. It was a 3D collage of the pyramids, in my opinion a collage is not a photograph and I think it’s kind of unfair that they can win with a photograph out of book that they have altered. But that’s ok because now that we know they aren’t going to be strict about whether the “photograph” has been taken by the child, we can take a great photo and get out the digi supplies. If a collage can win first place why not a digital scrapbook layout. Lukas knows how to use Photoshop so it’s not like I would be doing it for him. I also can’t believe we completely forgot to take any photos of the other entries, the vegetable sculptures were all really clever, cauliflower sheep, a butterfly and the marrow boat were our favourites and the miniature gardens were adorable. Lukas fell in love with the little garden built completely out of Lego and went on the whole way home that he wished he had built one. So that was our school fete for this year, it was definitely memorable. Logan really seemed to enjoy all the sounds and smells. Lukas was upset that there was no cake decorating or pony rides this year but he had a great time. I wish that my ankle hadn’t got hurt so that he could have played a few more games but overall we had a great day. I will admit though that yet again I was grateful for how well behaved the boys were, I was still feeling quite ill before we went to the school fete, and by the time we walked home my ankle was making me feel sick to my stomach. I did it because I had to but within an hour of being home it was too swollen and painful to even put any weight on and Mark had to go to work at 4pm. I had also had no sleep the night before so I was starting to feel pretty crappy. Lukas went downstairs with Nan and Logan had a nap with me. Lukas was really sweet he got bottles for Logan and helped me keep Logan from climbing. They were both really good. Since I originally published this, I have added the photos and decided that the post needed to be split up a little more, because it was far too long. In case you are wondering what’s different about it.

This could take a while

pretty much since the last time I blogged, I have been sick. Yes I know I am always sick but this was different. This was the sort of sick that made me crawl into my bed and not get up. Thankfully, it’s changed now and although I have a nasty chest infection and I am still running a fairly high temperature I am ready to start trying to play catch up. I have tried really hard to stay on top of everything, despite being sick and for the most part I haven’t done that bad, even managed a layout here and there but with all the normal day to day stuff, end of year school activities and a few other things a lot of things have been left to slide. Emails have stacked up, the bedroom is even more chaotic than usual and it all needs to be sorted out but for now I need to try and recap the month. The last time I blogged was the 9th so that gives me 11 days to recap doesn’t it? It’s probably not going to be accurate as far as dates go. *sigh* my P365 for this month is going to be a nightmare to scrap, don’t even have many photos to play with so minimal journalling is not going to be an option. I haven’t really twittered or facebooked, yeah this post is going to be a lot of fun to write lol. Speaking of P365 I have ordered my first photobook. I received some free photobooks from Artscow, so I decided to go for it and made weeks 1-18 into a book. I used actions for the pages and templates for the cover by Wendyzine to resize everything to the right size. Then I made a cover and an introduction page. I am really excited to see how it all turned out. Let’s start with the things I know have happened but unsure on the dates for. Logan now has 4 teeth, the top two have come in, one is through enough to hurt when he bites with it, the other is getting there. Lukas tried strawberries at school and decided that he really liked them, he would never even try them for me. Logan took his first few solo steps between me and Nan, up until now he can zoom around in the baby walker, he can walk around using the furniture but he’s point blank refused to even attempt any steps by himself. It’s kind of scary to imagine what it’s going to be like when he can walk unaided, he can already cause so much destruction when he’s limited in where he can go lol. Conor had an accident on his Skateboard and hurt his knee and then managed to have another a few days afterwards and whack his Achilles tendon with the skateboard, so he’s feeling a little stiff and sore at the moment. Mark had a week’s worth of holiday from work. It was kind of strange (and frustrating) having him around all the time. He messes up the tiny bit of routine that we have and it’s annoying. But on the plus side it was nice that he offered to take Logan with him each day to get Lukas from school. I got to work with C.W Picket & Company for one of my Paper Shaker assignments at DSDI. I got the chance to play with her new twitter/facebook inspired collaboration with Nibbles Skribbles – Something To Say. You can see the two layouts that I made using it here and here. It’s a really cute kit, here’s the preview (I linked it up just in case you want to go shopping and pick up a copy of your own). C.W Picket & Company is exclusive to DSDI, but this kit is also available here and here in Nibbles Skribbles stores. After I was finished with the kit, Laura (C.W Picket & Company) sent me a really nice message asking me if I wanted to be a part of her CT, it’s always a huge honour to be asked to join a CT, so obviously I accepted and I was so excited about it. I even downloaded a new kit to work with, then things got um interesting. On the Sunday, which would be the 11th, I had laid down at around 7pm because I wasn’t feeling very well, within a few hours I was really really sick. I had a really high fever but I was shivering and shaking all over, I was struggling to breath, dizzy, nauseous and in a lot of pain. All I really wanted to do was sleep. It was hard to even lift my head up off the pillow. I remember Mark waking me up and telling me something, I was really too sick to concentrate on what he was saying. I didn’t even know what day it was at the time lol. Yes the word delirious does come to mind, I had absolutely no clue what was going on. Things were not much better the following day but after a combination of painkillers I was at least able to comprehend what Mark was saying to me. He had received a phone call during the night telling him that his uncle Tim had died. It was a huge shock for all of us, ironic really that it always seems to work out that when Mark needs me to be strong for him I am always at my worst. Mark isn’t really as close as he probably should be with his family, but it really hit him hard. I think it had a lot to do with the fact the Tim was Mark’s Dad’s youngest brother. It made him realise that his Dad is going to be around forever. I think even after losing his mum it was hard for him to even imagine a day when he would have neither of his parents around. So it shook him up a little. The Monday was his day off anyway,but he ended up having an extra day off work to try and process everything. As much as I hate to say this, him having that day off benefitted everyone, because I was still really sick that day and spent a lot of the day sleeping. On the Wednesday (up to the 14th now aren’t we?) he went back to work, he had a twilight shift so it only left me having to look after both boys between 4 and when Lukas went to bed. I never fully appreciated quite how well behaved my boys are. They were perfectly content to snuggle in bed with me and watch dvd’s, they kept the noise and chaos to a bare minimum and I was incredibly grateful to them both for that. I have no clue how I would have coped if they had been having a bad day. Thursday I was thrown right into the deep end again, I even had to get Lukas from school. It was very lucky that the worst of it was over with, and apart from being more tired than normal, a lot weaker than normal and the chest infection really starting to take hold it didn’t work out too bad. Friday Mark was able to get Lukas from school but I had to take him out into the garden to shoot some photographs for the Horticultural Show at school the following day which takes us right up to Saturday, which was the school fete and that post is going to have to wait because both of the boys are awake now and they both want breakfast. Mark is still asleep so I am going to leave it here for now and try and get back later.

Pictures Of You

Pictures Of You, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Splendid Summer Mega kit contributions by Mandymade, Jaime Rhinehart (Cjoy2Day Designs), Paper Planes Designs and Laura White (C.W Picket & Company), Floral Swirls Brushes by Miss Tiina and Simple Tear Action by Atomic Cupcake. Fonts are AdineKirnberg-Script and Comic Book Commando.
Journalling reads: When it comes to taking cute photographs of you, I am not very lucky. There is always something that goes wrong. My photo usually ends up blurry or out of focus. Or you move at the last second. Or perhaps it ends up being a little like Lukas’s 3rd birthday party. You had on a little pink dress and you looked absolutely adorable, I wanted to take lots of photographs of you. Then for no reason we could find, my camera completely died. I ended up with just one super blurry photo of you and mummy and one photo of you and Lukas with neither one of you looking at me. I was so disappointed. Having all boys of my own, you are the only one who can help indulge any desires I have to scrap pages filled with flowers and sparkly things. I guess we will just have to keep trying to take some photographs of you looking gorgeous, and if all else fails, perhaps I can borrow some from your mummy. Because you are far too cute and pretty not to scrap.

Can he break it? Yes, he can!!

Can he break it? Yes, he can!!, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Handy Helpers 2, Template 4) by Denise Tilley (DigiDesigns by Denise), Background Templates by Elizabeth Albers (Scrapping With Liz), Tool Box by Laura White (C.W Picket & Company) and June Wedding Glitter Styles by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Fonts are FO Textura and FO Textura Traced both by Fontologie.
Journalling reads: This is exactly why I do not like it when Mark starts to play with the power tools. For some reason his insane male brain told him it would be a good idea, to take off the safety guard on the router while he was working with it. He ended up cutting into the end of his thumb and taking a very long trip to A&E. After an x-ray they saw that not only had he cut part of his thumb off, he had also shattered a bone in his finger, and he had also completely destroyed the nail and nailbed. He ended up having some Day surgery to remove a shard of bone and 6 weeks off of work. Because when it comes to tools, he is an absolute idiot!!!

Logan @ The Park

Logan @ The Park, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Fun With Text, Template 1) by Elizabeth Albers (Scrapping With Liz) and Something To Say by Amanda Krueger (Nibbles Skribbles) and Laura White (C W Picket & Co). Font is DJB Journal Bits by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: After a disagreement with Conor I felt like I needed to escape the house for a little while. I decided that even though I was hurting and feeling ill, it would be a good idea to go to the park. Park’s have always been a bit special to me that’s usually always wherever I tend to head when I am feeling depressed. I knew that you would cry if I just left, you don’t even like it when I go to the toilet and leave you in the bedroom! I don’t like making you sad so I took you with me. Lukas didn’t want to come, so it was just the two of us. Rather than go too far I just took you to the park around the corner. You were a little confused about what was going on but you were also excited. When we got to the park, you were squealing with delight. Most of the park has been vandalized, there aren’t any swings any more. So I pushed the pushchair around for you to play with one of the few things remaining, the coloured abacus balls. I unstrapped you and you had fun standing on your pushchair playing while I took photos. You had a great time. It wasn’t long before I was feeling calm enough to go home again. You were starting to get tired and I was worried about you being cold in your little summer suit. I wrapped you up and we headed home. I’m so glad we got this chance to spend some time together and turn a really negative situation into something positive and fun. I guess sometimes a little space is all that’s needed. Photos taken 22nd June 2010.

A Little Birdie Told Me

A Little Birdie Told Me, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Folded Paper Templates, Template 4) by Elizabeth Albers (Scrapping With Liz) and Something To Say by Amanda Krueger (Nibbles Skribbles) and Laura White (C W Picket & Co). Fonts are DJB Erika by Darcy Baldwin and Copperplate Gothic Light.
Journalling reads: that there’s somebody in this house, who is very excited today. Bet the little birdie doesn’t know why you are so excited, but I do! Today is your last day in foundation. In September you are going to be in year one and you are really looking forward to it. You are so proud of the fact that you will get to play on the big playground. You are excited because Ella will be in the class you are in now. You are thrilled that you will be having a new teacher. More than anything else though you can’t wait for the school holidays to start. I know something else the birdie doesn’t know. I know that you are a little bit scared of everything changing, you don’t really like change very much. But you will be fine once you get used to it. I’ll let you in on a secret though, promise you won’t tell it to anyone. I am a little sad today, you seem to be growing up so quickly. I can’t believe you are ready to start year 1, at least we have 7 weeks to get used to it!

Cooking Cakes The Easy Way

Cooking Cakes The Easy Way, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (July Made In The Shade Template) by Kerry Ticknor (kerryt) and In The Kitchen Basics by Karen Schulz (Snickerdoodle Designs By Karen) and Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Fonts are GG Leslie and Sugar Coma.
Journalling reads:When you were younger, it was never easy to do anything fun with you like cooking. You had a real phobia of getting anything on your hands or being dirty. so we used to cheat. We would buy a packet cake mix, put you in your painting apron and get out nannie fredas food processor. we got to have all of the fun of baking cakes together without any of the mess. i only wish you would have at least tried some of the cakes we had stood and made. Or at least not insisted on covering them all in that icky pink icing. We always ended up with so many we couldn’t eat them. I will say one thing though, everyone daddy worked with used to love it when we baked, because they always ended up getting all of the cakes to eat so they were not wasted. 22nd May 2005

Accident Prone Lukas

Accident Prone Lukas, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Can Ya Dig It, July 2010 Template), Not The Doctor and Not The Doctor Alphas all by Laura White (C W Picket & Company). Fonts are GG Basic and FO Howie's Stamps Lowfat by Fontologie.
Journalling reads: There really can’t be all that many children, who are as accident prone as you Lukas. On your first day in year one, you ended up getting a cut above your eye and a nasty graze on your hand. Apparently another little boy had knocked you over. On your second day in year one you got hurt again. We ended up getting a call from the teacher, who told us not to wory but Lukas had a little accident and hurt his head. When we came to pick you up we were not expecting it to be this bad.. We found out it had happened when you fell from the top of the climbing frame what are we going to do with you Lukas?

Talking Tree

Talking Tree, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Vertical, Template 1) by Elizabeth Albers (Scrapping With Liz and Once Upon A Time by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Fonts are DJB Mat by Darcy Baldwin and FO Empty Wrapper In Between by Fontologie.
Journalling reads: When we visited Gullivers Land, everything was decorated for Christmas. They had converted the Enchanted Forest into a winter wonderland leading to Santa’s Grotto. You were busy pointing out all of the details, like the little toadstools and the little animals, then suddenly you just stopped talking and started to giggle. You seemed to think that the trees having faces was one of the funniest things you had ever seen. Or at least you did until the tree spoke to you. You were just intrigued and at first kept looking around the tree for a person. It was only when you found the button to press and make it talk again that you were content. You are full of curiosity, and you have to know exactly how everything works. You are never satisfied until you understand it fully. You also love to press buttons. But honestly Lukas, tell me was it really necessary for you to push the button quite so many times?

Now that Mark’s home

I can show you the other things I wanted to talk about. We have a daily download running again this month at DSDI. Jewel (Mad Genius Designs) has teamed up with Snickerdoodle Designs By Karen, and this month there’s a twist. Last month Jewel posted a thread inviting DSDI members to suggest themes and colours for this month’s daily download. You can see that thread here. They then followed that up with a second thread asking what people wanted to see in the kit, you can see that one here. This is the first time I have ever seen site members having so much input into a daily download. The final kit – In The Kitchen Basics turned out great, but because I am very disorganised we are already on day 3. But don’t worry, because in this thread you can find all the details of how you can earn up to 2 missed days by taking part in our challenges. You can find the download for Day 3 in this thread, if you don’t want to wait and collect the other 7 pieces you can buy the whole kit here for the bargain price of just $2.39 until the 16th July. But I suppose I should stop rambling and show you the preview shouldn’t I lol. I have already scrapped with this kit, my Making Pizza layout.

The next thing I have to show you is this month’s Flavour Of The Month Kit – Splendid Summer. This one is really fun to work with, I fell in love with the cardstock and glitter styles. I have a bit of an obsession with cardstock, and giving me the option to use it as a style and be able to scale the pattern makes me incredibly happy. I decided to try my hand at making quick pages this month and I have 4 that were included in the Splendid Summer Quick Pages Set, which makes me feel very proud. This is the kit that Mark used in his layout but it’s also the kit that I used in my Tire Swing layout. I haven’t actually gotten around to using the quick pages I made to scrap with yet. Don’t forget that by signing up for the It’s A Fad challenge you can get this kit for just $3.

 

If you did want to pick up the kit and the quick pages, you would qualify for the special offer we are running in the store, when you spend $6 or more you receive Independence July for free. Of course you can buy anything in the store to a $6 value for this offer. It’s automatically added to your cart once the total comes to over $6. Now I am just trying to remember what else it was I wanted to show you lol. I suppose I could show you Jewel’s 2 new releases while I am trying to remember. These are both commercial use items, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them in your layouts. I love using overlays to add more texture or different patterns to papers in kits, and the edge ones really make your pages unique. Unfortunately because I am useless when it comes to blogging these sets are no longer on sale, sorry about that. They are still great value though especially if you happen to be a designer. I will try and be better about blogging when they are released.

Oh I remember what I was going to show you now, you will like it there are freebies involved. This month Jewel is hosting The Works challenge at DSDI, as part of that she has designed a really sweet little mini kit called – Once Upon A Time. The challenge simply involves using the mini to make a layout, don’t forget you get 15 points for taking part in that challenge, another added bonus is that it would count if you wanted to earn one of the Daily Download links you were missing. The other freebie she has available is her contribution to this month’s blog train blog – Picnic In The Park. I haven’t actually gotten around to using either of them yet.

The last thing I want to show you today is a charity kit that Jewel has contributed to – All Creatures Great and Small. This kit was designed to benefit a really great cause, helping to protect the animals whose homes have been and are continuing to be affected by the oil spill. All of the money raised will be donated to The National Wildlife Federation. It’s available exclusively at Funky Playground Designs until the 18th July. Mark actually bought me this kit as a gift, neither of us knew Jewel had contributed at the time of purchase. The kit is really cute, and I am hoping that I manage to find some time to use it soon. You can purchase it here.

So much to talk about

and I have as long as Logan decides to nap for to do it lol. I keep meaning to come in and write a blog post and then I get distracted it doesn’t help that I have been feeling really ill lately. But anyway I might not have long so I am not going to get started on that. This month has been super busy over at Digi Scraps Drive In. Hopefully I won’t forget anything. First up we have a new collection of challenges, including one I volunteered to host – Altered Art. The points system is really good you get 15 points for each challenge you take part in, most of the challenges also offer you a 10 point bonus if you use 90% DSDI products (It’s A Fad, The Works and Yakkity Yak don’t) and Go For Pinks, or Blues offers you a 5 point bonus for promoting the challenge via blog or twitter or facebook or forum. When you reach 500 points you can redeem them for a $5 store gift card. You can check out all of the challenge details here. Usually the Drag Races (Speed Scraps) earn you points as well, but this month things are a little different. We are holding a whole month of drag races, there is a speed scrap every single day. I had never been to a speed scrap before but I chose to give it a try and I have had a blast. So far I have only missed one speed scrap this month. But I do have to get better at actually scrapping rather than just chatting lol. I have only managed to scrap once during a speed scrap. I’ll let you in on a secret, the layout I scrapped looked really nice but I felt like it was lacking something, so after the speed scrap was over, I tweaked it a little. Which one do you prefer?

While I am talking about Speed Scraps, I took Mark to his first one the other night. He had fun chatting but didn’t end up scrapping. He’s coming more over to the dark side all the time lol. He has a twitter account now to go with his facebook account, and he even joined in with a challenge at DSDI. Since I doubt that he can even remember his log in details for his blog, I am going to share his layout with you, if you feel like it please go and leave him some love, it will make him really happy and then he might scrap a little bit more. My logic is really simple if I encourage him to scrap more, then maybe he will whine less about my digi stash shopping lol. Anyway here’s his layout, he took part in the Made In The Shade Challenge (Template).

I suppose it would also be useful to show you the advert for the Month of Drag Races wouldn’t it, I have linked the image up to the forum where you can find all of the details you need. I even volunteered to hold one a little later in the month, that should be amusing to watch lol.

I still have things I want to share with you but Mr Monster has just woken up and Mark is still at Tesco, I will try and pop back later when he’s back. If not tomorrow for sure.

Making Pizza

Making Pizza, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Flight Plan 4) slightly altered by Peppermint Granberg (One Little Bird) and In The Kitchen Basics by Karen Schulz (Snickerdoodle Designs By Karen) and Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Fonts are Century Gothic and Stripes and Stars.
Journalling reads: When you were little food was a constant battle with you. It started because you refused to even try new things. At one point you were only eating bread and butter, yoghurt, cheerios, toast, cucumber, bananas, sweetcorn and pizza. Even the things you did like you only ate tiny little portions. So I had to get a little bit creative. I bought a set of cheap pastry cutters and I would cut your sandwiches into shapes. I would arrange your food into pictures and I tried really hard to make food fun for you. Your favourite cutter was the little person, you used to always ask for people sandwiches. One day I got the bright idea to make homemade pizza for you, I bought pizza dough, and pizza sauce, I let you roll it all out and cut out the shapes all by yourself. I let you spread on the sauce, grate the cheese and sprinkle it on and even pick and chop your own toppings. Then we put them in to cook. I was excited and thought this was such a good idea, you had prepared the food yourself, we had fun doing it together, we had even done lots of tasting. So much for that idea! It never even entered my brain that you would refuse to eat the food we had cooked. Or that you would be outraged at the thought of eating your pizza people. We had made all of this mess for nothing!

Im So Bored

Im So Bored, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Flight Plan 1) by Peppermint Granberg (One Little Bird), Edge Genius Volume 1 by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs) and Just Another Day (slightly recoloured) by Jen C Designs. Font is DJB Constance Beauregarde by Darcy Baldwin.
Journalling reads: When we took you to Jamboray for your birthday, we were expecting to be there a while. What we hadn’t expected was how boring sitting there for hour after hour was. Daddy amused himself playing games on his phone and playing the Nintendo DS, he’s easily frustrated when he’s bored. I mostly tried to run around behind you snapping picture after picture, and doing crazy things like going down the slide with you. Eventually I was too worn out to play anymore, so I went and sat on the sofas with Daddy. kicked off my shoes and sat back to relax. I usually don’t get bored, because I am always doing something. The first thing I tried was sketching out some page designs for layouts, after that I tried organising some things on my phone, before giving in and playing your Nintendo DS. I was really mad with myself because it felt like such a huge waste of time and it was making my hands really hurt. Lesson learnt next time I am taking a magazine to read! or better still, the laptop so I can scrap while you play!

Leo

Leo, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Boys Club and Heart Genius Volume 1 by Jewel Goodwin (Mad Genius Designs). Font is DJB Gimme Space by Darcy Baldwin and Lauren Reid.
Journalling reads: Of the few photographs i have of you, these are among my favourites. They are just random shots, most of them are blurry or out of focus, but these ones make me cry everytime i guess that missing you drives me crazy baby.

Logan's Mohawk

Logan's Mohawk, originally uploaded by Lukasmummy.

Credits: Layered template (Wonky Grid Template) by Melody Valentine and Everyday Moments, Everyday Moments Cardstock and Everyday Moments The Neutrals all by Jane Shaver (Little Red Scraps). Font is DJB Constance Beauregarde by Darcy Baldwin.