scarf at last

yay i finished it! and managed to cast off!. next step, crochet, although my efforts so far havent been very successful.

later...

so we popped to my sisters this evening and she had to rush out and take her water dragon to the vet...we got a call half an hour later to say one of their bearded dragons was egg laying! summer has laid 24 eggs, but flower , the water dragon, appears to have a calcium deficiency and is fitting. they've gone back to the vet now so we'll find out soon, although the outlook for Flower isnt good.

show and tell

here are two of the things i got for christmas, apologies for the poor lighting, it always seems to be dark here!!














today i braved the sales and only came away with this fab pink sparkly beret and a little jar of instant toffee mochaccino coffee...


...and fell in love with these shoes

and these...


but which to buy!!??

so?

was everyone good? did father christmas bring lovely goodies to help celebrate the birth of baby jesus?? i got some fab pressies, including a gorgeous solid silver charm bracelet, a hello kitty ceramic money box and the book to follow on from 'wicked'.
went out christmas eve and saw loads of people i haven't seen for ages.
christmas day was a busy one, what with being at my dad's for 9am, my mum's for 1130am (with alcoholic nan) and then bed by 2pm for work; so good one all round. apart from going to work christmas night. last night tonight though, then off til jan 4 . yay!

2 more sleeps

ive been a bad blogger. yes i have. its been 10 whole days and i cant think of anything of interest to write about. i feel like ive been working constantly. i finished nights yesterday morning, and i start 3 more christmas night. bummer. i have a cold, which is perfect timing for festivities.

i have recently picked up knitting needles and am now almost a foot into a thick grey scarf for marcus.
this is the new qtea kit, how cute is this!! ive already put my preorder in. love love love it.

couple of things...

..on the go at the moment. first, ive finally started Zeus's album. i painted the album cover with pearlescent acrylic paint. its very pretty.


the second thing is my disney paris album, using love, elsie paper.





both have taken a while to get started but with any luck, im on a roll now!

sadness

i found out yesterday that one of my favourite authors, terry pratchett, has alzheimers. he's famous for writing the Discworld book series and has had the Hogfather turned into a one off shown on sky at christmas last year.

yikes

america's ice storms and some pictures. scary. makes my morning job of defrosting the car trivial (i might add that the fact it refrosts as im driving is slightly scary).

on a cheerful note, we got our first christmas card from my old uni mate Sade today. yay!!

found this shop on etsy..these notecards are so cool they should be framed!

if you like fabric, check out equilter. thousands of cool fabrics. i esp like this and this. but what to make with it!!

takeaway christmas pizza

work last night was very busy! as it was our christmas meal and some of us had to work, we had money for takeaway. man we were all looking forward to it!! pizza and chinese..yum. i had to go collect it from the main entrance, a floor up, so ran with pizza money to find mr chinese there too. cue comedy sketch about change which lasted 5 mnutes. then i had to run back down to get money for mr chinese and back up a floor, keeping in mind he was parked in an ambulance parking bay and could be fined. so finally, all food was together.
i had to put it in the coffee room cause one of the patients was awake and it wasnt fair on her (what about us!!), so just as we were about to traipse in one by one, we had a referral from another hospital. *sigh* the team rushed out, leaving cold takeaway, only to get there and find out the child wasnt technically and ITU patient. there then ensued a not very funny sketch involving stressed ward staff, the bed coordinator and us, who didnt want to fill a £1000 a day bed if the child wasnt needing it.
finally food time...oh no! an internal referral!! from the ward already mentioned!! by the time we managed to eat it was VERY cold! ick.

the nativity

this is my nativity, with batman keeping a watchful eye. i also dont think there were giant bananas in the Christmas story but unfortunately there wasnt anywhere else for it to go!


love this car...the new suzuki splash, which is out next year. looks pretty fun but £8000 is a bit steep for me.

merry almost christmas!

yesterday we did decorations!! yay! now we only have a tiny house, so we only have a tiny tree, but i love it. we have so many individual decorations that i think it looks like a traditional tree :) see lovely marcus adding the star!

i also got my nativity out...baby jesus is being watched by batman. ace. no illegal activity going on here. (i have repeatedly tried to u/l the photo but its not use.

have had a fairly quite, if wet and windy, weekend here. we bought a logic3 ipod docking station yesterday which is brill. finally some music! my bampop papers turned up, then to my sisters for chinese and cheesy film. today was food shopping, paper reading and tacos for tea yum. the weekend has gone too quickly. back on to nights tomorrow :(

for you

leigh-ann at freckled nest will be making personalised Christmas ornaments, taking orders for a week from wednesday only. she'll also be releasing more little travellers for adoption. check it out tomorrow.
*photo from leigh-ann's blog*

later i might try my hand at painting. i bought a cheap canvas, brushes and pearlescent paints from lidl yesterday and want to try a picture of a russian doll (my new mini obsession). i also need to feed fat cat (my mum's cat Maddie) as my mum is in St Ives and visit my sister Tasha who has picked up the dreaded sickness from my nephew Charlie.

later: just been to see tasha. poor girly is not good. we were watching Family Guy and she kept having to jump up, displacing roxie (the kitten) who had only just settled

and finally, some christmas-ness. marcus put our german decoration together

good tunes

so ive finally listened to the whole streetlight manifesto album and boy is it good! the above is a video for one of their songs, 'we will fall together'. so good.

love this

check this site out..dolly dagger. 5os style coolness

later...
just got back from a family trip to Bath.

• what an afternoon! to start, my nephew was ill with a sickness bug but was adamant he was coming, so, half asleep, he was dressed and packed into the car with a bowl.
• on the way to Bath, my stepsister lucy felt ill and we had to pull over on the motorway.
• we got to Bath and it started to rain and blow a gale. we had gone to see the Christmas market but seeing as the weather was awful, it really wasnt much fun, so we headed to the indoor market, where my other stepsister's (bryony) boyfriend proceeded to shout to her across the market. a nearby couple were none to subtle with their staring and disbelief, so i turned and said 'if you dont like it, dont watch' with non serious tone. yikes, where did feisty me come from!! the couple were gobsmacked and started 'tch'-ing. oops.
• after being soaked and blown around, we headed for a coffee shop, where my nephew started to feel ill again. he got rushed to the toilet and i struggled up some stairs with his pushchairs. meanwhile next to me, an older guy just watched. so as i walked past, under my breath i said 'people are so polite nowadays' and sat down. his wife joined him and sat down and proceeded to stare daggers at me, so i waved! (more yikes). she didnt like it at all and yelled at me 'you stupid cow, we didnt see you'. charming. Bry didnt like this and told her to wind her neck in, being so rude!!
• THEN charlie (nephew) sicked up his toast into bry's hand! eugh.
  

but it was a fun afternoon!!

lidl goodies!

for those who dont know, Lidl is a german shop that sells continental foods and gets goodies on discount. this afternoon i dragged myself out of bed to go there (im not lazy, i finished nights this morning) to go get one of these..how cool!! they've got some cool arty stuff from monday for cheap...6 balls of wool for £7, 5 tubes of acrylic paint for £5, paint brush sets for £2 for 12 brushes..think im going to be going there on monday again!!

sad day

ive just found out that a girl we have had on the unit at work for months with TB has died. it was even on the bbc website. when i left for my 2 weeks off she was doing really well, she was managing to get herself out of bed with help and had the school teacher coming down to see her too. i wonder what happened...

watch this!

watched marie antoinette on saturday night and loved it! cant believe it was slated. the was it's filmed brings it home how young she really was, and the pressures put on the marriage. and the costumes! beautiful. although i was left wondering why there were a pair of baby blue converse in it...

also check this out (photo from story kits message board). this is the sneak peek of the story of my life dec kit. gotta have it!

also, check out moo.com, where you can get your photos made into stickers and small photo cards. brill.

boo time...back to work tomorrow night for 3 nights, after having 2 weeks off. :(

loud night out.

yesterday me and marcus went to cribbs causeway for a bit of crimbo shopping but i ended up spending all my money on me in John Lewis! i got a badge maker, a pirate cross stitch, some christmas slipper socks ( and a pair for a present) and a dress pattern! oh and a momiji doll for a present. and some little fake uggs for my neice..very cute!! there were loads of chrismas nibbles in john lewis, including gingerbread houses, sleighs and trees...you could make a whole village!


also saw this brill pug dog bag...


then last night i went to see some bands with a couple of friends of mine, chris and gaye. it was supposed to be a ska night. the first band, grownathome were really good, like early capdown; the second band, flaming tsunamis were hardcore ska, bit too heavy for me, and the last band i hated!! the womans voice just went right through me! chris was really happy at the end cause he had the tsunamis staying at his house!

a zen moment

here's strawberry having a chat with buddha. just chilling.

just finished sorting out the bits for the button swap im hosting. man its confusing! i hope people get the right stuff back!

i really want some disney villain stuff for the christmas tree but cant find it. if anyone knows of any, let me know!!

edit: i just had to add this to my post..
starbucks do tree decorations! how cool are these! and lookie at these hair clips i picked up from paperchase..

i return!

Disney paris was brill. but very very cold! so cold we didnt watch a parade cause we all wanted to curl up in bed! it didnt rain though which was really good, and i went on all the roller coasters with hardly any queueing involved. perfect. bit gutted that tower of terror doesnt open til january though. never mind! im doing florida next year. it was supposed to be decorated for christmas, but i had imagined it being more christmassy than it was. i didnt buy anything there, apart from a thermal mug which came with gorgeous hot chocolate (or chocolat chaud) in. the top photo is me, my sisters, my nephew and my little sis's bf, and the bottom photo is me, my sis and my nephew with king john from robin hood. :)
i got back from disney paris last night, feeling very ill! i felt rough when i woke up and turbulence the whole flight home meant i had to stop the car and jump out! i think my little sis gave me a stomach bug. unfortunately the place chosen happened to be for 'doggers'. eugh. vile.

now i just need to sort out photos!


and when i got back, my little traveller strawberry was waiting for me! thanks leigh-ann!

felt fun

went over to my friend Gaye's house today to play felt!! i made felt stockings for christmas presents (to use as gift tags) and, because i got bored after 4 stockings, i made myself a flower brooch using an idea from shimelle's blog.




for the past week ive been popping over to my sister's house at lunch to check on her kitten. she's only 10 weeks old, called roxie. she's such a cutie! she recognises me now and jumps straight on my lap, purring away..awww here she is flopped out under marcus's legs




in other news, im going to a class tomorrow at paperarts, taught by shimelle then EARLY saturday im off to disneyland paris for the weekend

thank you..

..to those who have fought for our country in wars past and present. for those of you who dont know, it's Rememberance Sunday, or Poppy Day as it's also known.but i have to say i was upset at the lack of people wearing their poppies in town, and how few did the 2 minute silence. its not much to ask is it?? 2 minutes to show respect and thanks for those who have died protecting us??

..and also a thank you to jodie for my chameleon :) very cute.

it's very strange without zeus in here and without his timer ticking away...luckily my Swatch is very loud so i still have some noise next to me :)

yesterday was crop day and i manged a CJ and 2 singles



also popped around to my sister's new house and saw her little kitten roxie! so cute. my order of love, elsie zoe came yesterday from scrapshed, as well as some more buttons for the swap im hosting, and i preordered the new streetlight manifesto album. phew!

oh, and my qtea kit came, am already feeling inspired.

excited!

im so excited! im seeing Reel Big Fish next year! woop! and im taking marcus to join the fun. AND they're being supported by streetlight manifesto. now those are pennies well spent...just so long as marcus doesnt see me eyeing up Scott RBF and tomas from SM...

remember, remember...

so on sunday, Zeus went to his new home. we took him to a guy near Reading who runs a rehoming place from his house. i dont know what i was expecting when i got there...but not someone's house, especially one as filthy as his! the kitchen was full of dirty plates and stuff! gross. but he knows his stuff with reptiles and has even been interviewed for the BBC and the Sunday Telegraph.
it was strange, but the times we had tried to take Zeus to the vets, he was impossible to get out, but the time we take him to his new home, it went really smoothly... on the drive there he was really calm in his box, poking his head out occasionally to see what was going on. we got him there and the guy said he was really cute and looked very impressive and healthy and i nearly started to cry! we took his viv with us so he would be in a familiar environment so hopefully he'll do really well. his new home is in a conservatory so it gets really warm, and the guy there is around all day so he can get the attention he needs. *sigh* i miss him. its really empty without him. the room the computer is in is the room Zeus was in, so he used to sit watching the computer whilst i typed. :-( i knew marcus was upset, but he didnt show it til sunday night, when he totally broke down!

*******

yesterday we went to Birmingham and i had a delish donut from Krispy Kreme in Selfridges. it was called something like 'sugar and spice' and was basically a Christmas flavoured donut! totally scrum. bought a few other bits then got home and went to see some fireworks! good old Guy Fawkes.


also check out 'sew, mama, sew'. its a blog with 30 days of gifts to sew, with tutorials for each.

tomorrow

yup tomorrow is the day. Zeus is going. :-(

should i??

so ive spent some time today looking at kits...i feel like my scrapping style is changing and so is my choice of papers. i really wanted this kit from red velvet, but it sold out













so im thinking of this one from zany zinnia




dilemma.

and im annoyed cause im on nights and my noisy neighbour with his 5 motorbikes was sat outside revving them up at 3 this afternoon. grr. how selfish.

rolling stone

thank you leigh-ann for pointing me in this direction!! i also found it on anna's blog, so at least im not the only person looking at him! makes me feel slightly less dirty!


just watched pan's labryinth...it's very good, very shocking in parts and very confusing..is it real or not??

winner!

my 'buds' layout (a few posts below) won the scrapping frenzy challenge :) well, there was only 1 other layout submitted but i still won!

i bought some high school musical stickers yesterday and got 3 of zac efron. now i know he's only 19 and its a huge bit wrong, but he's not a bad looking guy!



















we also went to pizza hut last night as i really couldnt be faffed with cooking and cleaning up after.

here's marcus contemplating pizza!














and here's a LO i did for the scrap mojo blog. although i was born in the 80s...at the beginning of to be truthful, i remember more of the 90s. i dont know why im pushing my sister in a wheel barrow. maybe im taking her to market to sell her??

kind of cupcakes

so i feel like i've been spending every day at work recently. this off duty, my shifts have all been really close, i.e 3 on, 2 off, 3 on etc. when you're working 12 hours plus driving time, it's really tiring. and yesterday, because of the clocks going back, i ended up doing an extra hour at work...now that felt like a long day!
so because of all this time spent at work, i havent been able to play for what feels like ages! although im sure in reality it isnt.

saturday night we had a drama at home. as we live on a new development, parking is at a prime, especially as so few people use their garages. but we do. i was at work and marcus had been invited out by some people he hadnt seen for years, but when he went to leave, there was a car in our drive, blocking him in the garage. it took him 2 hours to find out who's car it was (who didnt seem remotely bothered) so he missed his night out. he didnt want to leave it for me to sort out as id been working all day and he wanted the drive clear for me (ahhhh). so he wasnt happy and i had visions of coming home to find him in a puddle of blood!

one small recommendation for everyone reading this...dont shut your knee in the car door. it really hurts!!

and this afternoon i attempted to make cupcakes. for some reason, mine never turn out right. these are today's. they dont come out of the cases properly

............................................................................
...........................................................................

and is everyone on here at the same time?? this is ridiculously slow at the moment. i have just tried to u/l a pic and it tells me its done, but there's nothing there...lets try again..

ok so you cant see my poorly made cakes. never mind.

and on publishing i found that there were 2 photos. so this is edited to remove one of them. *rolls eyes*

the countdown starts.

we have a day for Zeus going...November 4th. we'll both be really sad to see him go, but at the same time relieved. he's been such hard work.
my sister is already trying to persuade us to get a cat! in time maybe.

play time

so ive just done another couple of LOs, one of which is a double *gasp*! the style is very different to my norm but i felt the photos needed it. the flowery paper is actually wrapping paper from Paperchase!













LO no 2 is using the Scrapping Angels october kit.


so apart from paper play, i havent done much today...paid a credit card, told some lads off for throwing rubbish on the floor, met my sister for lunch.. and im currently eating Ben and Jerry's half baked. yum yum.

i emailed the guy who is supposed to be taking Zeus to find out what is going on. he said he could take him if we're willing to donate his vivarium too, so i replied 'that's more than possible' (mean yes, obviously) and he sent back 'is that yes or no?'. duh!

also, through the blog funky finds, i found this site called little travellers. basically its a charity which supports HIV/AIDS initiatives in africa, and they do it by the people in africa making these little beaded doll pins called 'little travellers' and other people 'adopt' (buy) them. they're really cute and its such a good idea.

edit: 25 new ones up for adoption on Leigh-Ann's blog, i have adopted Strawberry!


also, check out these stamp companys: cats life press, purple onion, pink.sugar.pop, asta arts.
enjoy.