My fave

This is my fave layout, so here's the story behind it. When Libby was about 3 months old I became very ill, so ill that I was in hospital under intensive care for nearly a month. The first week I physically couldn't see her but as time went on I was allowed little hour long visits, but as you can imagine this was not nearly enough. So when I eventually had my surgery and was allowed home I was worried about our bond, I was worried she wouldn't remember me or know me as her mam. I'm so glad norman took these photos as they are a constant reminder that this was not the case, she remembered her mammy, we put her in her bouncer as I was quite weak after surgery still and she laughed and giggled and smiled, raucous laughing, flinging her head back full belly laughs. I was over the moon and norman said she hadn't laughed or smiled like that since I went away. I have this story written out and secretly placed behind the photos, you might be able to see the little pull down tag there. The quote at the top of the page reads: 'A smile starts on the lips, a grin spreads to the eyes, a chuckle comes from the belly; But a good laugh bursts from the soul, overflows, and bubbles all around'. A perfect quote for this layout me thinks. I lifted this layout also from a scrapping magazine as when I saw it I knew it would be a perfect way of getting all the photos on one page, I didn't want to leave any photos out as each one is so special to me. xxx

My newest layouts - scrapbooking, wherein I find peace and solace

Car bootie

Well we made a hundred pounds at the car boot sale and in the rain too. Better still a car full of stuff has gone out of our house - fantastic. Better still again, Libby loved it and had her own little stall of toys and her own bag to collect the money in. Her chatterings were priceless especially when she announced one of her toys was 40pounds!!! and one was 8pence!!!!!!!!!we had to teach her to smile even at the people who passed her as she couldn't understand why some people were not looking at her toys and was giving them very cross looks?!?!? she got into the swing of it anyway and she enjoyed it. I also bought a little activity table for Jack for a pound, they are normally 30/40 pounds so bargain I say. I feel so much lighter now its all gone :-) Clothes and cuddly toys that were left have gone to the charity bins too. A good day and thanks to the men in my life for all their help xxx

Popcorn for breakfast

So I'm not even going to mention how bad I have been at blogging (and prove how bad I am at procrastinating) and just jump straight on in here.
Well we did finish the garden which I will post piccies of later, but we are still waiting on any news of moving...I guess it's a long process. Its starting to get somewhere again now thankfully so I hope it won't be long. Scratch that- I KNOW it won't be long now :-) need to be more positive to bring positive things to us. I'm so excited to be moving soon, I've never felt at home here, and have started hating this house, I hope we fall in love with our new house and have a better time there.
The reason for the title is it's half term and me and my darling little girl had popcorn for brekkie the other day...well why not I say.
When I heard we would be moving I didn't want to get too excited and start packing so I decided to sort the loft, a horrific job, why do we toss things up there, like we think its some sort of Bermuda triangle that the things will just disappear up there and that we'll never have to deal with those things again! So every free moment I have(which are few) I've been sorting, putting rubbish out, I have a load of stuff to take to a car boot and the rest of the stuff I've been taking to my dads to store in his loft until we get moved, therefore less to move on moving day. So hopefully this will be a massive job out of the way which will mean less work for me and hubby.
Ooh and I joined weight watchers and have lost 11pounds in 3 weeks :-)
I think at the end of each post I'll start setting goals for myself and report on them on my next blog post so...today (Saturday) whilst keeping harmony betwixt husband and children in this mad hot heat I WILL finish the loft and have all car boot sale stuff ready for Sunday and I will post pictures of the garden done and the scrap booking layouts I have done lately. AND I WILL NOT PROCRASTINATE X

whoosh it doesn't rain but it pours...

Talk about everything coming at once, after two and a half years we have finally sold our house. I can't believe it. Procrastination will most certainly not be staying in my house as I'm so eager to get to where I want to be I've already started planning declutters, car boot sales, storing stuff and packing. Hang on a minute...we need to find somewhere first. It's very exciting but it's early days as well so I mustn't get my hopes too high yet. It's a shame in a way cos this house has had everything done to it and I mean everything...roof, loft, floors, new bathroom, new kitchen, damp proof course, new double glazing...the list goes on, I think the new tenants have grabbed a bargain here but I'm just so happy...I'll be closer to my dad and libby's school, etc; wahoo out with old and in with the new.

Right so better get on first job= systematically sort and empty loft...either bin, car boot or store in dad's loft, lets see if I can get this done by the end of the weekend!! hang on, I can get this done and WILL get this done, there that's better.

Time flies when you're having fun

I can't believe we are at the end of the first week of the kids holidays and I haven't been pulling my hair out yet. Maybe because this holiday I decided to get organised and plan every day as a lot of holidays in the past me and my daughter have just lazed around the house thus annoying each other eventually. We've had a fab time and we have so much more to do next week. One of the things I'm always putting off is seeing MY FRIENDS and this last week I've seen all my bestest friends at least once. Just my bestest and oldest friend left to come round on saturday and I'll have seen everyone. I feel good for seeing them all too cos I have some fab friends, I promise not to leave/procrastinate seeing my friends so long in the future as I don't have my mam around I really need my friends. xxx

Project Easter - Libby's Garden

Right one job that was deeply hidden in the list of procrastinatable (I think I made that word up but I like it) jobs is the garden. When the good weather comes the trampoline goes up which turns the lawn under it to mush. The rest of the lawn is destroyed by the dogs digging,wee and poop which means the bairn can't play on it. I thought we should dig it all up and then cover it with decorative stone which would
1/ save so much time in tidying, mowing, etc (= more time for the kids and scrapbooking!!)
2/would be so much cleaner, the dog can't trail in the mud from her digging, and the poop will be clearly visible therefore will be easier to see and get rid of instead of poop that gets lost in the grass (excuse all the dog poop in this story but it is necessary so u get the full mucky picture).
3/The bairn will actually be able to play on the garden as we normally have to keep her off the dog's grass.

The bottom of the garden is going to be her very own fenced in secret garden where the dog can't get in, and she can decorate it with all the windmills and animals, etc she loves. We get them from home bargains and the pound shop so they didn't cost much either.
Of course this all had to be done as cheaply as possible as I am a budget queen and has so far cost about 70pounds, handy having a husband who works for a builders merchant, discount and expert advice has been on hand luckily.

So following are some before photos to put me to shame and then what we have done so far...it's saturday morning and it WILL be finished by the end of the day








Here's the culprit


So to save money we did all the legwork ourselves, here it is in progress




more photos to be posted later in the day, the stones are down and it's looking fab, I love the feeling you get when a long awaited job is nearly done.