Boo!

Happy Halloween folks! My mate Clare sent me a bunch of these funny spooky doggy pictures the other day so I thought I'd share. Do you think some people need to get out more - bwaahaaahaaa!! Celyn is off to a little Halloween party at her friend's house this afternoon but dressed as a fairy and not anything scary, as we don't really do devils and vampires in our house. Striking a happy medium...ain't parenting tough!?!

Two more days to the retreat...and I had a fantastic night's sleep last night. Just what the doctor ordered.

It's all good.

Scrapping...my aaaaarse!

Went to the South Wales Crop on Saturday and had a great day. For the first time in...well...ever...the whole Scrappers Unlimited team were under the same roof. And oooo we did have a laaaaaaaaugh.

Scene: I'm taking Nattie's class (loooooovely autumnul layout with the very very strokeable new Crate Paper) but as usual am trying to do three things at once...one of which is chatter. I've been cutting out rectangles with the help of Sue who is losing the will to live as I'm asking her to repeat the size of the rectangles about 3 times (at least) as I'm going. And we've been sanding all pieces of paper to within an inch of its life.

Me: Right. What am I doing?

Sue (sighing and muttering about, 'Please don't make me sit next to this woman at the retreat'): This rectangle...you need to sand the edges.

Me (obediently picking up said rectangle and starting to sand): Okay

Sue: Round the corners

Me (obediently sanding around the corners of the rectangle with vigour, like a good girly)

Sue (and Julia): No...! ROUND. The CORNERS.

Me (noticing my corner rounder lying in front of me on the table and having a bit of an epiphany): Oh.

At this point one corner of the room (i.e. that would be the corner where I was sitting) all erupt into hooting, howling, gales of laughter. Including me.

Scrapping humour.

You won't get that at all unless you scrap.

And talking of laughing, big huge thumbs up for The Royle Family last night. I had one of those very rare moments whilst watching the brand new episode which is down to the most fantastic writing of Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash. In fact, the only other time I've ever had the same experience as this was whilst watching the film Steel Magnolias.

So...Nana's rushed to hospital after some very funny and also very very touching moments previous to this, and dies. It's completely brilliant writing because they got it right on the money...I was in floods and floods of tears, near to full on weeping. Cut to next scene and they (and several family friends) are back in their living room after the funeral, sitting quietly eating and drinking. I'm weeping away, trying very hard not to make a complete pansy out of myself because Husband is sat one foot away, when the camera starts to pan across all the guests sitting on the sofa. And as it goes past Cheryl (the girl next door who's always on a diet), she's sat there in full funeral black, with a Hula Hoop on each finger, mournfully sliding each one into her mouth. And my tears instantly changed to full on wetting myself with laughter.

10 out of 10 for comic genius.

Oh. And also one of the funniest lines...

Mary (I think): What were Nana's last words?

Barb (very earnestly): Trevor MacDonald

Mary: Well that's a fine tribute to the man.

Man, I'm tired.

But my list to do for the retreat is very much shorter and everything is ready for the South Wales Crop tomorrow (well...technically today).

And I'm. Going. TO BED!

Move over Samuel Pepys!

At long blummin' last my entry for One Day In History is actually up on the site. I kept thinking that they'd lost it, or it hadn't gone through (seeing as I emailed it to them the evening of 17 October like a good girly). But if you click on 'One day in history entries' and then type 'scrapbooking' (would you believe! LOL) as a key word, then there I be. And BLESS ME, who's below me on the list but none other than that superstar Kiwi of the Scrappers Unlimited team, Rach Millington. And exCUSE ME Ms. Millington...telling the world that we talked on the phone for an hour gossiping!!! What with me always whinging on about being soooooo busy, and being SUCH a good girl and all... *Chrissie rolls eyes and mutters* ...talking on the phone for an hour, gossiping...tsk! As if.

And then, two below Rach on the list is Gill James' entry (one of the retreat delegates :D ) and then two below her is Penny Kafai's entry (another delegate at the retreat, and fast taking on the job of my PA ...she's so fab at toddling off and doing little jobs for me). She mentions Scrappers Unlimited by name (yey! preserved for future generations!)

Anyway...back to my long, long list of things to do for the retreat. AND the South Wales Crop on Saturday. Gosh, I'm SO BUSY, I must get on the phone to Rach and have a gossip....

Very Proud Moment

This mothering malarky is a powerful thing eh? I had the funniest feeling on Monday.

Dropping Celyn off to school, the teacher and her assistant yelled across the room, to be heard over the mayhem of 20-something 3 and 4 year olds settling on the carpet for the start of the day. They yelled, "Ooo mum, mum...go and look at the display in the other room" (there is a 'work' room and a 'messy play/work' room for the Nursery kids). So I obediently toddled into the other room and immediately saw a large, new display all about Noah's Ark (they're doing 'Floating & Sinking' as their topic this term!). It was really cute, and with the children's* little boats on the table in front (*read "parents' boats that they made for their children because, let's face it, they're 3 and 4). And then my eye spotted something. They had a photo of Celyn drawing Noah for the display, explaining that once she'd drawn him, they clothed him with pieces of fabric.

The teacher and her assistant both explained to me later what I sort of knew immediately...that they had asked Celyn to draw him "because she's the best artist in the class." *Puffs out chest with pride*

This funny feeling started in the centre of my body and spread out into a warm, tingling, expanding, swelling sensation to even my tippy-tippy toes. Coupled with a cheesy grin. Gotta love those bandy legs - bwaahaaahaaa!

But pride in your child's achievements and talents...WOW!!!!!! Powerful! Of course I've felt proud of my girly before, but somehow this was different. And it's also very cool that she takes after people in our family - Husband's mum is a fabulous painter (with next to no training as well). Danny is good at art too.

Visions of her becoming a graphic designer and keeping me in my dotage

Tee hee.

And you can bet your fluffiest coin in the bottom of your handbag that I was back to pick her up later with my camera in hand!!

Why I don't scrap enough...

Nearly every single day I awake and think "I'll get x, y and z done and then sit down and scrap a page". And does it happen? Does it, my backside. Because there's always something to do. Today is a prime example. I thought, "Now...although I have loads of retreat stuff to do still, because it's Sunday I'm not doing it. Nor am I going to do the washing, dusting or [insert some other inane household duty here]. Keep the Sabbath day holy ya-di-ya-di-ya. So...after we've had dinner...or perhaps even when Celyn's off abed and because Jane Eyre finished last Sunday, I shall scrap for me, me, me and have a relaxing Sunday evening".

That's what I thought. It's what I think quite often. But what actually happens is a hundred other little things. Because? Because I am a woman and women never stop. "A woman's work is never done" eh?

My thoughts reminded me of something I read on UK Scrappers ages ago, which made me howl with laughter:

How To Shower Like a Woman

• Take off clothes and place them sectioned in laundry basket according to lights and darks.
• Walk to bathroom wearing long dressing gown. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
• Look at your womanly physique in the mirror - make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.
• Get in the shower. Use face cloth, arm cloth, leg cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.
• Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins. Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean. Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner enhanced.
• Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red. Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.
• Rinse conditioner off hair.
• Shave armpits and legs.
• Turn off shower.
• Dry off all wet surfaces in shower.
• Spray mould spots with tile cleaner.
• Get out of shower.
• Dry with towel the size of a small country.
• Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.
• Dust the shelf below the mirrow.
• Clean teeth, and then start cleaning the soap/toothpaste etc. off of the sink.
• Return to bedroom wearing long dressing gown and towel on head. If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.
• Get dressed and replace towels neatly over bath/radiator/towel rail again or put them in the laundry basket.

How To Shower Like a Man

• Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.
• Walk naked to the bathroom. If you see wife along the way, shake willy at her making the 'woo-woo' sound.
• Look at your manly physique in the mirror. Admire the size of your willy and scratch your bum.
• Get in the shower. Wash your face. Wash your armpits.
• Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.
• Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.
• Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.
• Wash your bum, leaving those bum hairs stuck on the soap.
• Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk.
• Wee.
• Rinse off and get out of shower.
• Partially dry off.
• Fail to notice water on floor because curtain was hanging out of bath the whole time.
• Admire willy size in mirror again.
• Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, light and fan on.
• Return to bedroom with towel around waist. If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake willy at her and make the 'woo-woo' sound again.
• Throw wet towel on bed.

Perhaps if women approached life more with the "shake your boobs and make a woo-woo sound" approach, we'd get more scrapping done? What do you think?

A couple more dates...

For you diaries.

Linz at Crafty Pastimes has booked us for two Design seminars (yey), and I realised as I was dropping off to sleep the other night that I hadn't listed all the South Wales Crop dates for 07 yet either...so:

January 13th - S Wales Crop, Newport

February 10th - S Wales Crop, Newport

February 17th - Design for Design, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

March 10th - S Wales Crop, Newport

March 24th - Shape Up for Design, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire

April 7th - S Wales Crop, Newport

May 5th - S Wales Crop, Newport

June 2nd - S Wales Crop

June 30th - S Wales Crop

July 28th - S Wales Crop

August 18th - S Wales Crop

September 15th - S Wales Crop

October 13th - S Wales Crop

November 10th - S Wales Crop

December 8th - S Wales Crop

Booking on the S Wales Crop is absolutely essential as there is only table space for 40 and it's a very popliaaaar crop.

Can you believe it's nearly 2007? SEVEN!!! That's well and truly in the second half of the decade. Madness I tell thee.

Interesting trivia about the upcoming retreat...

• There are six guests who have the name Julie or a close variation of Julie. Two pairs of Julies are sharing twin rooms, just to complicate matters further (Julie & Julie and Julie & Julie). Two have surnames that are very very similar as well.


• There are three Sues. Two Katies.


• There are four people with the surname Davi(e)s. Two of these Davieses are Linz and Lynne. There's another Lyn coming too (therefore three Lynnes or homonyms of)


• There are three people with the surname Evans... two of whom have similar first names as well.


• There are four Jills/Gills. Two of the Jills have surnames that are places in Britain...so I get them mixed up.


• There are two Chris's coming, but one of them is me, so I don't get confused by that! LOL

I'm so confused.

I need a little lie down.

But, as Rach put it today, there's only one Rach and there's only one Ang and for this fact I am truly thankful.

Toot Toot!!

One of the Scrappers Unlimited team, Fiona, has a four page article this month in Scrapbook Inspirations. It's all very exciting!

This was her pamper box that she made to swap at the Brecon Beacons retreat in April this year. We often get our delegates to make a box which will then be passed to another delegate (and vice versa of course) - it's always a fun and much enjoyed exercise.

Fiona put a beautiful keepsake paperbag book inside her box, which the recipient (who happened to be Rachel who wasn't on the Scrappers Unlimited Team then) filled with pictures and journaling about the retreat when she got home.

Fiona rang me all excited the other night to tell me she was on pages 28, 29, 30 AND 31! LOL

Well done Fiona! And thank you Scrapbook Inspirations.

Oh...and Fiona's teaching a paperbag book class at Gloucester in 2 weeks. :D

We have the COOLEST delegates!

Gloucester 2 Retreat is only 2 weeks and 1 day away now so things are just getting so busy with preparations. Two of the 16 classes on offer during the weekend are about journaling (as I happen to think learning to journal...just even DOING journaling (so many people don't!)...and what to write and how to write better...is really important. As important as the photos. Says she...waffling in a very un-writing-very-well manner - ROFL!!

Anyhoo...one of the classes is called 'Journaling With Chutney' (you have to take the class to find out why it's called that!) and as part of the class I always give away a jar of chutney to remind them of the class. A couple of weeks ago I got chatting via UK Scrappers to Sue, one of the Gloucester delegates, who mentioned she'd been making chutney.

Can you see that little lightbulb above my head?

So Sue went off on a mission to make some new jars of her delicious green tomato chutney for my class. First she had to find more green tomatoes. THEN she had to find more jars, as she'd wiped out all spare jars from every person she knew when she'd made her original batch. Then another delegate who lives in Sue's neck of the woods came up with a brilliant (it has to be said...BRILLIANT!!!) idea. Use Prima Flowers bottles. How cool is THAT?!!

And here are the jars, looking all purdy and gorgeous. Isn't that the yummiest, nicest thing?

Sue...you are a STAR!!!! Big snogs to you.

One day in history...

My friend Sally-Ann in Bletchley rang me this morning to tell me that she'd been listening to some bod from the British Library on the radio talking about 'One Day in History'. It is a one off opportunity for everyone (you) to join in a mass blog for the national record. They want as many people as possible to record a 'blog' diary which will be stored by the British Library as a historical record of our national life today...the 17th October 2006. Apparently the bod on the radio was talking about Samuel Pepys diary and saying that he wrote about his political meetings which are endlessly boring, but the real fascination in his diaries are the everyday occurrences...what he had for lunch, how he interacted with people and so on.

Cool. Right up my alley that one. I love doing genealogy (have done family history going back to the 1500s on my mum's paternal line and at least to the 1700s on all others, except one, where we're stuck ("we" being my Auntie Mary and me, as we are the family genealogists), but anyway...witter witter).

So I have just written my entry on the website. I think this particular day sounded really dull and I wasn't in a particularly prosaic mood (or even mighty witty) so it was even duller than dull. BUT in my 'Journaling with Doughnuts' class I am always telling the ladies who take it that we would love (LOVE) to have even a shopping list written by our great-grandmother in 1885, would we not? And, thinking about it, if it were possible for people in 1885, or even 1945, to write an emailed diary entry for the British Library, it would be really interesting to see how life has changed since then.

Anyway...if you haven't contributed and would like to One Day In History is right here. Go on. Be part of history. You know it makes sense!

*sigh*

Okay. See this. This is a car roof. To most people.

Except me.

To me this is a resting place for things personal. "I'll just rest that there" I think, and then said object goes for little spins around the countryside with a lovely view because it's still on the roof. Unfortunately said object is completely crap at holding on and invariably...well...always comes off. And then gets run over. The demise of thing personal. RIP. Etc.

You all know (and have no doubt tittered at) the story of my poor scrapbook album that went for a ride on the roof of my car. We parted company. He got run over. I was then reunited with it, tyre marks and gravelly indentations in many of its pages.

*sigh*

Today I blummin' did it again.

I left my purse on the roof of my sodding car. It flew off from roof of said car about 1 minute after leaving Tesco petrol station (who I blame entirely because I paid at the pump and not at the kiosk because I had two children in the back and couldn't go into the shop to pay...and then you have to pay with your card first, and then put your card/purse down to actually pump the petrol...so of COURSE I put it on the roof). Purse then spent a while getting run over on the main road until a kindly gentleman, who was on foot at the time, found it, took it home, looked up the Scrappers Unlimited's website (name gleaned from my business debit card) and phoned me. Can you blummin' believe it?!

Well...when we drove over to Gowerton to retrieve my poor purse, it transpired that although that debit card remained in the purse, two other debit cards didn't (one belonging to my mother...oh my, was she NOT a happy bunny!!!!!!) so we've had to cancel them (although Danny and I spent 15 minutes searching the side of the road where me and purse parted company this evening looking for them to no avail). Nothing's been attempted from a stealing point of view, but the cards have gaaaaaawn. And my purse is crushed. The popper doesn't pop any more and it looks decidedly ...well...squashed.

Me and car roofs should be banned from working together. Never, ever let me put anything on a car roof again. Even if I protest at the time.

*sigh*

Nice people who found my purse though. And no major tragedy really.

Yesterday I had the hardest, most *I can't stop, I truly can't stop* laughing fit I have had in a year. Or two. I laughed till I cried. Okay...let me set this up for you. Celyn sometimes (as do most kids) wants to sleep in our bed with us. Just to be near. Or because she's had a bad dream. We're not of the 'no way Jose are you getting into that coming into our bed malarky' parenting thought. I know some parents are but I figure they wont' be doing it when they're 15 (LOL...can you imagine!?) and it's nice to have a cwtsh every now and again. Bonding...ya di ya di ya. However, having said that, 2 adults and a 4 year old in a 4' 6" bed is squished to say the least, especially as Celyn does the breast stroke in her sleep. So, if she's ever wanting to be with us, we set up a mattress on the floor next to our bed and she just is happy as larry in her little 'camp bed'.

So...she's been on her camp bed for 2 or 3 nights last week, and last night she couldn't get to sleep. She was a bit whingy and said she wanted to sleep on the actual bed, so in the end Danny got into his PJs [read 'underwear' because neither of us own PJs, let alone wear them], got into bed, and lay there chatting to her quietly. He figured he'd just wait it out till she fell asleep and then come back downstairs. Which is what happened...she fell asleep.

So, there he was, just making sure she was definitely in the land of nod before he joined me in watching some chill-out TV...when my mum walks in.

Now this is not a normal occurrence. Although she lives with us, my mum doesn't come into our bedroom. Not ever. So it was a bit of a shock. And she didn't say a word (because, it became clear, she had no idea he was there). She had heard Celyn whinging earlier and then (it later transpired) had wondered if she was alright and hadn't heard Danny come upstairs.

So she walked into the bedroom and then bent over in the dim light and was staring, staring, staring at the mattress on the floor. She expected Celyn to be down on the floor and was trying to work out where her head was. So she just kept in the same bent over position, just staring and staring, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

All the while, Danny, who is in bed remember in his underwear, is quite perturbed by his 84 year old mother-in-law standing in his bedroom, and also can't understand why she is bent over staring at an empty mattress.

Well, when he came downstairs and recounted this tale to me I burst into the loudest, most side-splittingly howling fit of laughter I'd had in ages. I could just imagine Danny clutching the duvet around his neck, trying to protect his modesty, and wondering why she was bent over staring at the floor. The more I thought about it, the funnier it became until I could hardly breathe. I had tears pouring down my face, and Danny was as bad as me. I truly was howling...so much so that my mum actually shouted down from the top of the stairs to ask what on earth was so funny, which made me laugh harder and harder and harder.

I'm quite sure some of you reading this won't get why this is funny at all, but some of my friends will (Sue Turney being one of them...and I'm going to email her to make sure she reads this blog entry! She has a sense of the ridiculous just like me. I miss laughing with her - she's a friend in Reading by the way).

*sigh*

I just had to blog that story so I would remember it and laugh again in years to come.

I scrapped!

After my pooey day yesterday, I just needed indulgent behaviour today. Danny was home and said he was quite happy to be with Celyn, so I sat and scrapped. I thought I would try the sketch on the new website Pencil Lines, and here is my take on it.

I really enjoyed scrapping these fun pictures of Tina and her daughter in August at Joe's Ice-Cream (happy summer memories), and I also really enjoyed playing with these lovely SEI papers and tags because they're prettiness (plus the green background paper matches Tina's t-shirt poy-fect-leeeee).

The small photo on the circle opens up to reveal the journaling.

I have to say though that we didn't waste this glorious glorious weather (21 degrees in the middle of October...what's THAT all about?!) and took off down the park with Celyn for an hour in the afternoon. I sat on the bench watching her play, soaking in the warmth of the sunshine and thought "This is the life!"

So...what did YOU do with your Saturday?

This is just to say...

if you fancy reading more about the Plums poem (as some of you, as I predicted, liked it and some of you just didn't get it)...then here's a Poetry Class I found on line about it.

Well, Get Me!

I have been asked to be on the Crafty-Ness Design Team. That's nice innit? My bio and some of my work has just gone up on the Crafty-Ness website (under Scrapbooking Design Team, of all things, would you believe) and it's lovely to be 'working with' a nice team of ladies. And Morag...you look NOTHING like I imagined (she's the team member who made this blinkie, clever thing). Apparently I get my first kit to play with next week - how fun!

I had a p***y day yesterday. I am not in the least bit superstitious...not at all. But Friday the 13th really lived up to its name yesterday. It was pure stress from the beginning literally to the end of the day. This is how bad it is...I received two (two!!) Memory Makers magazines yesterday and have done nothing more than look at the covers. That's it. How bad is THAT? I didn't even have time for a cursory flick through the pages.

Still. Worse things happen at sea. This too shall pass. And all the other phrases that I remind myself of when I've had a poop day.

I've been arranging a bunch of Scrappers Unlimited events for 2007 however. There are lots more to follow that haven't been totally finalised yet (including a couple of very exciting things...all over the UK) but for now take your pick from these events, all at the Crafty-Ness Studios in Caerphilly, South Wales or (the crops) in Penllergaer, Swansea:

10 November - Swansea Crop
8 December - Swansea Crop (7.15 till late late late...with nibbles, 2 classes and a lot of ho ho ho)
19 January - Swansea Crop
20 January - Shape Up for Design (new design seminar on...have a guess...)
24 February - Design for Design
16 March - Swansea Crop
17 March - Shape Up for Design
18 May - Swansea Crop
15 June - Swansea Crop

All of these will be available to book on the Scrappers Unlimited website, as soon as I pull my doigt from mon derriere and do it ;D

Of Plums and Poo and Tampons

Well...with regard to the Plums...I think it's a man to a woman (a woman would have at least saved some of the plums for him and possibly the children!). BUT I don't think they are married...I think in the first flush of a relationship, otherwise he'd have never even bothered with the note.

And my friend in class? Her response was:

"They. Weren't. Plums."

Too funny! Kim was as close as can be with her answer. I should give her a prize. You must remind me at the next crop Kim.

Talking of which. We had the fabbiest fab fab Swansea Crop last Friday. New hall which is to DIE for. It has been refurbished over the whole summer and (I have on good authority) they spent £400,000 doing it. The smell is all shiny new and the floor is all shiny 'oh my goodness gracious I can't drag my crop trolley over THIS!' new, and the kitchen. Well. I thought Sue was going to have a coronary, she was getting so excited (and trying to work out if she could actually take the cooker home with her in the back of her Peugeot). So now we have lots and lots of shiny new space (and smell) and lovely tables (quite a lot of those), so it's all happiness. Come one, come all (but you need to book on the Scrappers Unlimited website otherwise we won't have slices of cake or class kits ready for you). The next one is on 10 November, 7.15 to 10.30pm. And the December one will be 7.15 till late late with lots of foody bits on 8 December.

Apart from that, I've been ordering the last bits for the retreat in 3 weeks 1 day. That's 22 days. Eeek! Also printing the class instruction sheets. And stressing about packing up my class kits and goodie bags (I hate that job...anyone want to do it for me for a few quid and a Galaxy?). So all terribly boring from a bloggy point of view, but very necessary for my 58 ladies who are turning up in 3 weeks 1 day. And breeeeeeeathe...

Oh have to tell you the funniest funniest story my mum told me yesterday which she watched on TV...so you may have seen it too...but not necessarily. I was in the middle of peeing myself laughing about it when the phone rang and I answered still giggling mightily and it turned out to be someone ringing about our new mortgage. It was really hard to keep a sensible voice!

So...I think it was Rick Wakeman...was saying that he was sitting on the toilet having a number 2 when his 3 year old walked in and said, "Daddy. Where does poo come from?" Well, Rick thinks, 'I must answer this seriously and not patronise him' so went into an explanation of how you eat food and it goes down to your stomach, and then your body takes all the good bits and then the stuff your body doesn't want goes down through your intestines and out through your bottom as poo. There. That's how you get poo. And the child replied...

"Mmm. And Piglet??"

Bwaaaahaaaaahaaaahaaaaa!

Oh...and another funny...did you know that the French word for stamps (as in rubber stamping with ink and embossing powder) is 'tampons'. Titter titter.

Later bloggy peeps.

Plums

This Is Just To Say

William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

I was blog surfing this afternoon (on a break from doing lots of admin work for the retreat) and came across a cool blog where she'd posted this poem...which I recognised instantly as we studied it in university. I love it. I know some people don't like it at all, because it is very much about the beauty of the images and sounds of the words...and about the underlying relationship of this person and the other. And not a poem that rhymes and has an obvious moral message.

So I shall ask you the things we were asked when we studied this poem. Because I miss (miss *sigh*) going to English classes. Leave your answers in the comments.

• Who wrote this (a man, a woman, a child)?
• To whom did they write?
• What is their relationship
• Write a reply (this is a short piece...the answer would be short)

And then I'll tell you the BEST reply that someone in my class wrote. I wish I could take the credit for her reply, but I can't. It was brilliant.

She makes me LAUGH!

Driving back from the bank today after picking up Celyn from school at lunchtime...

Celyn: "Mummy, can I have some of that water please?" [I was swigging a bottle of Evian]

Me: "Yes of course [passing back the bottle]... here you go. I've loosened the lid a little bit. Make sure you screw it back on tight when you've finished"

[Celyn drinks]

Me: "Have you put the lid back on tight, tight, tight?"

Celyn: "Yes"

Me: "Really tight tight?" (worrying about water glugging all over the back seat of the car)

Celyn (slightly irritated voice) "Yes Mummy! I've put it on as tight as a cow could do it!"

Cue me falling about laughing.

Then...

Celyn: "This drink is really cold because it's freezing cold today"

Me: "No it's not! It's quite warm and sunny today! You've just had to take off your sweatshirt because you were too warm eh?"

Celyn: "Yes. It's really warm. It's as hot as a carrot!"

Cue me falling about laughing again.

Me: "Why is it as hot as a carrot then Celyn?" (still laughing)

Celyn: "Because he's fallen into a pot of boiling water stupid"

Okay. She didn't say "stupid". But she would have done were she older and ruder.

Oh my heavens, she makes me laugh!

I'm scrapping today. I may even post some pages later. Don't faint.

Queen of Nattering

I often say that scrapbooking is either:

(a) Nursery school for adults (you know...cutting and sticking, painting and glittering, and even rolling out Playdough (clay) every now and again). There's even snack time and playing shops! LOL But I really do think that's why we like it...we just feel like kids again, playing happily in the art corner.

or

(b) Just a very good excuse for women to get together and natter. Husband despairs of me sometimes and doesn't really understand what in heck I can talk about for hours on end, because I really can natter for Britain (IRL, by phone, by Instant Message, by UK Scrappers...you name it). Women generally can fill a whole day just natter natter nattering. However I really think it makes us more psychologically robust, in that we don't think we're completely crazy for all our strange habits or experiences (twitch twitch).

So here's to a lovely Nursery School Nattering Day on Saturday at Crafty Pastimes. I was up at 6.15 (I did mention this SEVERAL times throughout the day, as usually I don't even know that there are actually two 6.15s in a day and was a bit shellshocked by the whole getting up with the larks experience) and picked up Debbie on my way past Cardiff. And before you knew it we were pulling up outside the hall with 1 minute to spare before the workshop began. I always feel very anxious walking into a hall with lots of new people, so I often over-compensate for my nerves and am either too loud or too confident (looking). I hope...I try...to always remember this when I'm the one in charge, as ALL people just want to feel accepted and greeted with a genuine smile, n'est ce pas?

The first class was by Kirsty which was cool...a 6x6 album created almost entirely from found items (cardboard, CD cases, paint, paper bags, cable ties). I finished it in that it's all put together (which I like because I NEVER have any time at home to really finish off these things and then all the bits get lost and I never finish them). I do (must) need to find time to froo and fuss over it so that I've got piccies and prettiness all over it, and then I'll post a photo of it. But here are pics of Debbie and the hilarious Helen (who had me giggling all morning) working on this little book of delights. Well, actually Debbie's working on tearing cardboard, and Nina and Helen are slobbering all over Emily's book. The dribble probably added to the bohemian nature of it all...and anyway, the cover is acetate so it had a waterproof quality about it. Nina kept making primeval noises EVERY time Kirsty or Emily's projects came round our side of the room. Funny as heck!

The second project was by Emily Falconbridge - another cool book made from acetate and ribbon and lots of arty farty things. I loved the masking tape and paint technique she taught us (MUST use that again). This book was most decidedly NOT finished and I'm scared, scared, SCARED I tell thee, because it may never be. Should I just get up at 6.15 every day and make it my scrapping time (I am a morning girly-girl after all...I don't function very well after 9pm!)??? Votes on the back of a big parcel of stash and sent to the usual address please :D (bwaahaahaaa).

Now, it transpired (I had my sneaking suspishes) that Ms. Falconbridge is a member of the same church I belong to, and as I was making my book all about the beautiful temples I have been to in my life, her daughter Ivy (who was a cutie and wore her princess crown all day - how great is that?!) enjoyed a little peek at them all and we talked about which ones she'd seen too...and I got to chat churcy stuff with Emily. AND (AND!) she's staying in Reading (yes, that would be MY HOME TOWN) AND (AND!) not only Reading, but in CAVERSHAM in Reading (yes, that would be MY SUBURB of my home town) because that's where her family live. Yep, yep, yep...me and E...we're *crosses fingers* like 'that'. What can I say. Yep, yep, yep.

*Stalker, stalker, stalker*

Have to say though...it was just as fine meeting the lovely (and I do mean that) Hebe whose work I have admired for ages (well, a few months!). She was a lovely person...it just shone through her face. Liked her. And I also at long blinkin' last met Jools who've I've 'known' for ages (genuinely ages) and talked to on the phone - she even lives in one of my best friends' old houses in a weird turn of events. Well, I would post a pic of us both that I took but I look more like Mrs Fat Face in all of them than I even am in the 'me, Emily and Debbie' photo here...(wha'dya mean, I AM Mrs Fat Face???!!) so it's not happening. Forget it. No no no. My ego can only cope with one cack photo of me in a post.

It was also great to meet two of the many (many MANY) Julies who are coming to the Gloucester retreat (in 4 1/2 weeks...eek!), and Nic (who's coming to the Gloucester retreat). And see Hair Bear Ang and Linz who are ALSO coming to the Gloucester retreat. So it was a pre-retreat party really.

Debbie and I then toddled off for a litle drive round the beautiful Cotswolds and sampled the dubious delights of Stroud. Is there anywhere in that town that one can eat something that is not a pizza, burger, or served with chips? We went in one Thai restaurant, sat down, ordered drinks, and then the waiter came and said, "Um...I'm sorry...the chef's gone to Cheltenham. We're trying to get hold of him, but I don't think he'll be back." Eh? Why is the restaurant open then?! Too funny! We both got free drinks out of it though...and then we went in another establishment around the corner that was filled with smoke (I don't think so...my very biggest peeve in the whole world. Can't wait till they bring in that smoking ban law) and so we then walked to another pub where the first thing we were greeted with was the manager having a ding-dong with a leary customer at the bar in a scary manner. So we ate food sitting in the garden, only to have the heavens open and have to rush with it all inside.

Stroud. Mmmm....

Naughty Nattie...

...has been and gone and tagged me. The rules are: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. I am tagging Sue, Rach, Jackie, Tina and Linz.

1. Our dog Beau, sadly deceased in 2004, would sing along, howling like a werewolf, every time the title music to Neighbours came on. He'd run into the living room as soon as the opening notes started and off he'd go. Only that tune, and only the original music when it first started in the 80s. Really really funny. We have it on video somewhere...

2. I've never been drunk, not even slightly. I suppose a lot of people would think that was weird.

3. When I was in Junior school my friends and I went through a phase of bringing in an Oxo cube to eat for a snack at playtime. Now that IS weird!

4. I have little blood vessels on one of my legs which make a crucifix shape.

5. My eyes change colour according to the weather...they're very bright light blue with flecks of green in if it's very sunny, and distinctly darker and grey if the weather's dull. My husband didn't believe me until he witnessed this for himself...

Later bloggeroonies.

Oh stop going on all of you!

I've been BUSY!!!

I had a week out with the demise of Pooter. Then A blinkin' O blinkin' L sent me a connectivity update the day after we got Pooter 2 up and running, and rather than making me connect in an updated fashion, it actually made it so I actually couldn't connect at all...actually. A very grumpy soddin' Chrissie a whole day later and many phone calls to A blinkin' O blinkin' L (including one to Customer Services imparting words of venom in as calm a manner as I possibly could muster in the circumstances) and I was back on line. And (would you believe) 45 minutes after being back online, they sent me the same connectivity update. Needless to say I did NOT accept it that time. Chuh. So then I spent all day last Saturday working like a thing possessed to catch up on Gloucester retreat stuff (literally 9am to midnight...I don't think I ate anything at all till about 3 in the afternoon when my stomach was telling me it would even eat a scabby donkey).


And then Monday and yesterday I was doing a layout for Scrapbook Inspirations, which I can't show you. Nothing new there then. But here's a picture of me holding it :D Bwaahaahaa. I did send them a more normal pic of me holding it as I felt they may not go for the 'mad witch' look. Plus my roots need doing...tsk.

So I thought I would show you a layout I finished at the South Wales Crop this month (grovelly thank yous to Penny for having pretty black punch out flower things on her class layout which I nicked, and to Fi for the use of her rather yummy stamp which finished the page off a treat).

Anyway...I repent of being a bad bad blogger and I shall mend my ways and be a good good blogger from now on.


So...two bits of trivia. Danny and I were discussing the fact that we'd not seen a Cadbury's Whispa in the shops for ages. I love those! Where in the heck have they gone then? So I emailed Cadbury (oh yes I did - I'm so laughing now at my own weirdness) and said, "Where are the Whispas?" and they said they'd discontinued them. Tsk! I think we need to start a campaign! They discontinue Whispas and yet keep some of their other rubbish choccie bars on the market. I'll show them...I'll eat nothing but Peanut Kit Kats which are made by Nestle and then they'll be sorry.

And who saw the new version of Jane Eyre on telly on Sunday? Ooo I do love a Bronte (Wuthering Heights being one of my favourite novels of all time). It's a 4 parter so if you missed it just join the party this weekend. It's directed by the same woman who did the wonderful Bleak House last year. Anyway I LOVED it, although it did make me laugh when Mr Rochester says to Jane "So Jane, do you think me attractive" and she says, "Oh NO Sir!" and I'm sitting there thinking "Big big pants on fire" as Mr Rochester is just sexy-yum-yums on a stick.

Right. Off to sort out the best retreat this side of the English Channel (La Manche for all you Frenchies who read this blog!

Helloooooo...did you miss me?

It's a busy time at the moment, to be sure...but HECK CHRISSIE...6 days before you blog again? SIX DAYS!!!? What the...?

Well...busy, busy weekend, followed by a busy Monday when I was just about getting round to blogging when...then...at lunchtime...Pooter went "BANG!" Literally. It made THAT ACTUAL noise. My big black wheely chair screeched back so fast from the desk, its little castors didn't know what had hit it. And then there was the unmistakable smell of burning. Burning, 'bang!' and Pooter are not a good mix.

So. No Pooter for the rest of Monday. I felt like my leg had been cut off. Didn't what to do with myself. So I did what any self-respecting SAHM who happens to WAH as well...I made an apple pie with Daughter. Pastry and everyfink. Danny thought he'd come home to the Waltons. Monday is usually our Family Night too, so we had a little lesson teaching Celyn a song they sing at Church that she doesn't know very well, and then we sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (with Celyn accompanying us on the guitar).

(I will at this juncture just interrupt my Pooter story and point out that my daughter is no Mozart child progedy. So don't alert the media. She strummed her little guitar (proper one but little) with open strings. Sounded cack. But hey, we love her, so it was MARVELLOUS!)

And then for the game Danny had picked up a few conkers during the day and we threaded them on string and taught Celyn how to play conkers. Now. Here's another little side-track. I have been married for 7 years last month. In that 7 years Danny and I have played any number of games of all varieties. Absolute Balderdash. Monopoly. Scene It. Articulate. Silly word games whilst just vegging. Chess. Noughts and crosses. Hangman. Test the Nation. Gin Rummy. Boggle. The Oscars. Scrabble. You name it, we've played it. And of all those many many games, I can count on one hand the amount of times I have beaten him. Literally about 4 times. It's pretty flippin' annoying I can tell you (me being Miss Competitive and all). It drives me NUTS. He is an IRRITANT. So...Monday night...he plays Celyn and he wins (no big surprise there). Then he plays me. And wins.

I can't even win a game of blummin' conkers. I'm so depressed.

So I drowned my Pooter/Sore Loser sorrows by eating apple pie. With squirty cream (because Danny thinks squirty cream is actually how it comes out of cows. It's a boy thing). And Danny carefully placed his 'Twoer' champion conker with love and affection on the windowsill, ready for its next match.

Yesterday we visited a well known shop for all things Pooter and they said that, indeed, Pooter had popped its clogs. But the memory was all retrievable (oh joy, oh bliss...all those documents...all those photos...) but we'd need to buy a new Pooter.

So Pooter 2 has been born. He's black. He's got a plasma screen. He's got a funky green light on his base unit (I had a date like that once...).

And THAT is why I have not blogged for six whole days.

I shall blog later with some pictures I've been wanting to upload though. Who Do You Think You Are is on now. Must See TV.

It starts with a P...

I like to lurk on a website called Mormon Mommy Wars which is just a bloggy type site for Mormon Mommys to give mostly humorous account of life and children. There are some funny posts. I like it! But one post today reminded me of a couple of funny stories of my own, and while I recover my sanity for half an hour (I've been loading the classes for the Gloucester 2 retreat nearly all day yesterday and since this morning too and my brain is fried), I thought I'd share them with you.

My friend Kristin in Utah told me this story a few years ago. Her friend and her husband live in a small town in Arizona. Very small. Teensy. And she and her husband have PhD's, so they are both known as ‘The Doctors’ by most of the community there (although not of medicine y’know). Anyway she was pregnant and had a visit with her gynaecologist one morning.

So…there she was…lying on the exam couch, wearing nothing but her freckles and a paper gown…just waiting for the doctor to come in…chewing gum. Chewing gum!!! “Oh no” (thinks she). “This isn’t quite the ‘thing’ for one of ‘The Doctors’. I have a bit of a standing in this here community…I need to get rid of my gum!” Well, as she was pretty pregnant by now, and already on the couch, she just took the gum and stuck it to the inside of her paper gown. After all, it was only going to get thrown away. The logical thing to do....

So, Mr Gynae arrives for the exam and begins to prod about in the undercarriage area, shall we say, when he suddenly stops and says, “Oh. Ummm…your gum?!” “Oh I know…soooorrrryyyyy,” says she. “I didn’t have anywhere else to put it.” “Oooh. Oookaaay” says the doctor, and carries on, looking a little perplexed but professional through and through.

It was only when she was getting dressed afterwards that she realised the gum was not, in fact, attached to her gown…but to her…oh yes…there…you know…

It starts with a P and rhymes with boobs.

This second story was told to me by a friend at university a few years ago. I am not convinced that this is definitely true and may be an urban myth (please comment if you have ever been told this story). She swore to me it was a friend of hers it happend to though....

So...my friend (she said) had a friend up in Leeds (in the North of England for all you foreigners!) who was going for a smear test one fine day. Well, the mantra 'clean, clean, clean' was going through her mind. She'd had a shower, put on nice clean knickers, shaved her legs...clean, clean, clean. Anyway, about half an hour before the appointment she was in the town centre when she desperately needed a wee. Uh oh...bit of a problem...once she'd done the deed, she realised there was no toilet paper in the cubicle. 'Clean, clean, clean' thinks she, so she rummages around in her handbag for something...ANYTHING...to wipe herself with, and finds an old tissue at the bottom of her bag. Phew!

So...half an hour later she finds herself on the examination couch, legs up, things being inserted...when all of a sudden the doctor stops and exclaims, "Oh. That's a funny place to keep a stamp!"

It starts with a P and rhymes with boobs.

The very last teaser...

The classes for Gloucester 2 are about to go up on the website (for delegates eyes only) in the next couple of days. Here's the last teaser for y'all before you see the full things in a few days. Fab photo eh? Fab papers too! This is Hulia-Julia's class.

There are only 7 weeks to go and the pace of organising and preparing will get faster and faster from now on. I'm just desperate NOT to be ill like I was last year, coughing up a lung and no voice left whatsoever on the Saturday morning. Oh my heavens I felt horrendous that morning, and my class started at 9am...and they had to come and knock me up (as we Brits say...tee hee!). I felt like creamed crud on toast, draaaaaging myself out of bed and teaching a class. Not fun. And Sue was high on caffeine, what with the coffee and the cold drugs she was taking...and Sue and caffeine don't mix. Do not. No-ho. Uh-uh! There was one hilarious moment when we thought our Susie-Woo, normally so placid and kind, had completely lost it. All due to caffeine. She was marking her territory on the table with venom (and a ruler, if memory serves me correctly) and we were so astounded all we could do was laugh. We remind her of it often!

Celyn's birthday yesterday was lovely, but very tiring. Her teachers said that they could tell who the children were that had come to her party...they were yawning their way through school all morning. One little girl (according to her mother) was so excited about it all, she went to bed cuddling her party bag! Bwaaahaaahaaa! Anyway...here are a couple of piccies of them all munching party food and playing. And Celyn on her new bike. Awwwww! That pic of them blowing the thingummies (whatever they're called) with her friend about to bash her over the head with a hammer is hilarious!







Off to start loading classes now...

On a day such as this

I want to write about two events today and both events happened on a day such as this. Beautiful, sunny, early autumn weather, a normal day in many respects. 11 September.

2001

Danny and I had returned home from Germany the day before, where we'd been spending the weekend with a few of Danny's good friends from America and Europe. We'd stayed in the beautiful town of Bad Hamburg, just outside Frankfurt. It was a lovely weekend. We flew home on the Monday, and Tuesday morning Danny was back at work.

And then my mum rang. "Switch on the TV!! A plane has just hit the World Trade Center in New York!" Staying on the phone, we both sat and watched the events. A tragic and terrible accident? Very visual, whatever it was...the building being so tall and well known. And I'd seen them in real life a few times...they were completely, mind-bogglingly huge. Then the second plane hit. It was horrible. Reports of a third plane hitting the Pentagon, and another crash landing somewhere else. I was completely panic stricken. I have a very very dear friend, Lee, who works as an Art Director in an ad agency just a few blocks from the Trade Center (and who, in fact, designed my Scrappers Unlimited logo). At the time of course we didn't really know what was happening or when it was going to stop or whether, in fact, it would get worse and worse. All I could see on my TV was a sinister blanket of smoke choking the whole of Manhatten island and I knew Lee was in the middle of it...somewhere.

Funnily enough, Lee was literally in the middle of emailing me when the planes hit (and anyone who knows Lee will know that he is a shocker for phoning/emailing, so it was bizarre that he should be doing that right then. A twitch on the thread...). A second paragraph after the first normal chatter, where he explained that he'd just been stood at the office window with some colleagues, watching the first tower alight and discussing what a terrible accident it was, when he watched a second plane bank sharply and head straight into the other tower. He said all hell broke loose in the office...everyone scattered for phones, the internet, televisions...anything to make contact and find out what was happening. He finished his email by saying he had to evacuate and would be in touch later. I was then desperately trying to call New York and managed (much to his partner's complete amazement) to get through to his apartment. His partner told me he was fine and was walking home but could I call his parents in New Mexico and let them know he was okay, as neither of them had been able to get a line out of the city. His partner had also just stood on the top of their apartment building and watched the towers coming down. He was pretty shaky.

Horrific.

What he watched, what Lee saw, and what we all witnessed on TV was the murder of thousands of innocent people. Including this 28 year old 'proby' firefighter, assigned to Brooklyn Ladder Company 131 and covering for somebody else on the morning of 11 September. His name was Christian Michael Otto Regenhard. I am paying tribute to him just as one person chosen randomly from the 2,996 who died. There's more information about him here. He was a real person...not just a face and story... much loved by his family, who is no doubt missed and will be forever. God bless you Christian.

It was Lee's birthday the next day. It wasn't one of his best.


2002 - One Year On

11 September and I was in hospital. I was having an elective C-section because I'd found out the day before that my overdue baby was back to front, lying sideways, and had something blocking her path out into this world! My nursy friend Clare (who I spoke about last post) had on her NY t-shirt and was anxiously hovering around outside the theatre. Danny was with me, dressed up in greens (he said he looked like George Clooney in ER and I said things like, "I WISH!" and "In your dreams love!"). The weather was remarkably similar to the previous year's - bright and sunny and beautiful. Several of my friends had wondered whether I would perhaps change the section to the following day, as 9/11 seemed such a sad day to have a baby. "Hell no" were the words that sprang to mind. I was HUGE and I just needed to have this baby and soon!!

(Layouts created by me when I was a much newer scrapper!)

At 12.43pm my beautiful daughter, Celyn, was born. She was so, so beautiful. And completely perfect, weighing a fabulous 9lb 2oz. She was very much wanted and waited for and I loved her with all my heart from the second I saw her. And I thought about the people from the year before, and it occurred to me that bringing new life to this world on that day was somehow fitting.

So happy 4th birthday to Celyn. We've not long finished having her birthday party (jelly and ice-cream and pass the parcel with lots of screaming girls!) and I'm knackered!

And happy birthday Lee for tomorrow - love you.

Life is a funny thing sometimes

This was the opening sentence of an email my very good friend Clare sent me today.

So...here's the thing. I subscribe to Bloglines which is a great way of checking which of the blogs I read and enjoy have been updated since I previously looked. There is a bit of a phenomena with Bloglines though. If you update your blog and then change your mind about your post and delete it, Bloglines will still register it and it can be read via that website (so be careful what you post - LOL!)

Anyway...about a week and a half ago someone whose blog I read had written a message and then changed her mind and posted about something else instead. However, I read the original post in Bloglines and followed the link she had put in her message. It is a very moving and somewhat upsetting link, and yet uplifting as well in a way. But very emotional. Perhaps that's why she changed her mind about posting it, and why I didn't post about it either at the time.

Blair Blanks is a professional photographer of (mostly) babies and children in the States. She had obviously had a colleague present at the birth of her second child, when the very worst thing happened and her baby was stillborn. The cord had become tangled around his neck. This link is a montage that they put together of that day.

http://www.blairblanks.com/jameshudson/james.exe

Well, as I said, the person who originally blogged about this changed her mind but I still saw it. Of course it moved me deeply and I thought, "There but for the grace of God go I."

I felt I should send this link to my friend Clare, who works as Sister of a Special Care Baby Unit. She's very very good at and very passionate about her job, and we have talked in the past about the important things they do as a staff to preserve memories for parents if one of their babies dies. She told me in reply how lovely the montage was and what a treasure it would be for that family.

Today I received another email from her. She said:

"The photographs you sent me the other week were very touching, but I am rarely in such proximity to a whole family if their baby is dying. We have a private room they can spend as much time in alone as they want to. However, last Weds we had a baby who only lived 2 hours. Mum had had a section so was unable to come up to us. Dad really wanted Mum to be able to hold Baby while he was still alive so I put Baby into our transport incubator and went down to Labour Ward with the consultant. I had the presence of mind to grab our digital camera. I then found myself in the same position as that photographer present at the still birth. I spent a good hour in the room with mum, dad and Baby taking lots of photos - inspired by the images I'd seen. The parents were so grateful it was overwhelming....

"You know I don't know what I believe in the grand scheme of things but I can't help but feel you sent me that email so I could help that family. Was an amazing experience."

I don't know what else to say really to finish this story. I'm moved beyond words.

Coucou Des Francophones!!

Salut toutes des scrapbookers Francaises et Belges!! Je suis un peu occupee en ce moment la d'expliquer pourqui j'ai beaucoup de visiteurs Francophone aujourd'hui...mais j'ai voulu dire bonjour. Laissez un petit message si vous voulez...je parle Francais :-D

Irony

I hate that song, 'Isn't it Ironic?' I spend 90% of the time it's played on the radio (because heaven knows I don't OWN a copy of it) screaming at the direction of said radio: "Well actually NO it's NOT ironic...and you obviously DON'T know the meaning of the word you silly woman!" .

I know. I need therapy. But all she needed to do was look it up in the dictionary and her song would be a pleasure to listen to. As it is - snappy tune; stupid words.

Irony means an oddly contradictory situation. For example, if you trip just as you are telling someone else to be careful, that's irony. Irony is NOT that it "rains on your wedding day". That's just tough luck. And irony is NOT "the good advice that you just didn't take" either Ms. Morissette. That would be stupidity....

Irony is also if you transfer your blog to Beta Blogger and then realise that there are problems with people posting comments on your blog BUT never mind...you wax lyrical that "at least I can post photos at the speed of light now"...and then it won't let you upload any photos.

So, Alanis my love, stick THAT in your song.

Anyway...if you are having problems commenting on my blog now there are four things you can do to overcome this:

1. Update YOUR blog to Beta Blogger and then we'll all be happy (it IS way way faster when it is (normally) uploading photos; or

2. Create a second account that you then update to Beta Blogger and use THAT to comment on my (and any other Beta people's) blog; or

3. Just email me your comment - Chrissie@ScrappersUnlimited.co.uk; or

4. Scoff at commenting to me anyway, and go and write a letter to the Alanis Morissette Fan Club about my derisory ramblings just to get me in a heap of trouble.

Pah.

Who DO you think you are!!!?

One of my favourite programmes...on my Must See TV list...is returning this very eve. And (better and better), on the line-up for this series is Nigella Lawson. Now...don't get me wrong...I am definitely straight. I like blokes. Big square shoulders and rippling stomach muscles are absolutely my cup of tea...not that I drink tea...but you know what I mean. But Nigella is mesmerising. She just exudes sex appeal. I think I'm so fascinated by her because I admire everything about her...her calm poise, her intelligence, her wit, the way she expresses herself, her cooking, the way she has handled tragedy in her life, her curvy figure (stick thin women do my head in) and that huge je ne sais quoi that makes her a sexy sexy lady. I know very few men that don't find her attractive.

Do any of you ladies feel this way about another woman (celeb)? It's not that you fancy them...but you are completely drawn by them? Please tell me I'm not alone - ROFL!!!

Anyway...also in this season's line up is Jeremy Irons (who I've met...and I'll tell you...THAT is a SEXY MAN. Phwaaaw!) (do you think I'm over-compensating after my Nigella worshipping - LOL?)...and also Robert Lindsay who I have seen on stage a couple of times in the West End and love. But whoever's on the line-up, this show is fabulous. I love family history, and it's completely fascinating to find out these people's roots.

So don't go phoning me at 9pm tonight. I won't answer. BBC 1. And it's Barbara Windsor tonight.
Other stuff: I've been completing the class sheets for the Scrappers Unlimited seminar on Saturday at Crafty-Ness. It's loads of work (people don't realise how much sometimes), but I enjoy putting these seminars together. Julia and I both agree...it's so rewarding because we actually TEACH something...design principles and skills that actually improve our delegates' work. Wouldn't it be fun to run a scrapbooking school...?

Right...off to sort out dinner (back to reality!)

Tagged Again!

I've been tagged by Gems - yey! I love a good tagging!

Four jobs I have had in my life: Secretary/PA; Primary School Teacher; Missionary for my church; Scrapbooking business owner

Four movies I would watch over and over: When Harry Met Sally; It's a Wonderful Life; Seven Brides for Seven Brothers; Ferris Beuller's Day Off

Four places I have lived: Provo, Utah; Liege, Belgium; Reims, France; Reading, England

Four TV shows I love to watch: Desperate Housewives; Jonathan Ross; QI; Who Do You Think You Are

Four places I have been on holiday: Mexico; Greece; Italy; Germany

Four websites I visit regularly: Apart from all the blogs and scrapping sites...my internet banking site; www.LDS.org; www.bbc.co.uk/CBeebies; www.Tesco.co.uk

Four of my favourite foods: Creme Brulee; cheese and biscuits; roast lamb dinner; good homemade soup...leek and potato or mushroom or tomato or... or...

Four places I'd rather be right now: On holiday somewhere warm and beautiful (didn't have any holiday at all this year - boo!); At the theatre in the West End about to see something fantastic; In hospital giving birth to another baby; In a health farm where I'm losing tons of weight

Four things that make me smile: Feeling that my Heavenly Father loves me; phone calls from friends; When Celyn does something clever and amazing; Danny telling me mushy stuff

And I tag...ummm...Tina, Sue, Evie and Jakki

Right...off out for Family Night tonight and I need to get my clothes in the drier or we ain't going anywhere! Well...unless Husband thinks it would be okay for me to go to our friends' house in my knickers...

Classes are UP!

Not that any of you can see them UNLESS you're coming to the Design for Design Seminar in Caerphilly this Saturday.

As usual (yawn yaaaawn YAWN Chrissie!!!) I can't show the whole layout just yet, but here's a snifter of the page I completed this morning, using the lovely Rob & Bob Studio papers and stickers. And some scrummy vellum. And my Heidi Swapp colouring pencils. And doodling.

I read THE FUNNIEST blog at the weekend. Two stories that had me in stitches. If you fancy a laugh, go check out I am not left-handed, which is Karen Burniston's blog (the post entitled Grossology - Part Deux).

School starts tomorrow...and Celyn is going to be attending in the mornings this year. 10 to 9 start. Oh she's going to HATE getting up. And Mummy's going to LOVE it...because she'll be flaking out earlier in the evenings instead of going, going, going like a Duracell battery.

Busy month this month too. Friday is the next Swansea Crop, and then Saturday is the seminar (as previously mentioned). The following Saturday is The South Wales Crop and then two Saturday's after that I'm a delegate (OH YEAH BABY!!!!) at the Kirsty Wiseman/Emily Falconbridge workshop at Crafty Pastimes. Scrappy Happy.

Right...Celyn keeps stealing bits of bread out of the packet on top of the kitchen counter. Methinks she hungereth. Off to be a mummy...

I need some sunshine!!

On sunshiny days I bounce out of bed with a spring in my step and accomplish much.

Well okay, that's a lie.

On sunshiny days I creak of out bed, come round properly whilst having my morning constitutional and THEN accomplish much. In the manner of happiness. Chirpy chirpy me.

Days on end of rain, grey skies, cloud, rain and more rain, and I turn into a big old slug, wasting my life away. Big old wasting slug. Thinking slug-like thoughts and working my way through the kitchen cupboards and watching daytime TV. SL-UG. Certainly no creativity in me today, that's for sure...which is rather distressing as I'm going to be having a scrapbooking emergency soon if I don't pull my finger out. Do slugs even HAVE fingers...?

Please please please make it stop raining. In. Di. An. SUMMER!!! C'mon baby!

More tid bits...

to drive Gloucester delegates into a frenzy of excitement whilst yelling "Irritant" at me at the tops of their voices for only showing particles of layouts...

This is Hulia-Julia's class...just look how YUMMY BUMMY those stamps are (she keeps saying, "Mine...all mine" to me when I hint that I might want her to give them to me. Tsk.) You're going to be using lots of gorgeous material and ribbon on this layout.

And I do believe this is 3 blogs in one day. I've got blogging diarrohea today :D

Whole Tone Music Pics

Set them to work early, that's what we say (we're sending her up the chimneys next month...) . We spent a whole Saturday painting and stripping wallpaper in the reception area.

Here's the large hall (it DOESN'T have all that mess in now, I hasten to add, and has been painted now too), and one of the classrooms, and Danny and Celyn standing in the doorway of the hall.

I just transferred over to Blogger Beta and it seems to be working more speedily, is letting me upload photos and (my main fear) hasn't lost my whole blog! LOL Phew!

My Fab Husband

Since Husband graduated from uni in July, he's been busy, busy, busy getting his own business up and running. He found fantastic (perfect really) premises in Fforestfach (for those of you who know Swansea) and we've all been painting, cleaning, choosing furniture etc. He has also sorted out his own web site, which went live yesterday.

Whole Tone Music is a teaching studio where you can go to learn lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards or vocals. For those of you who don't know, Danny is a really excellent guitarist - his degree is in Performing Arts - Popular Music, with an emphasis on Guitar. Essays on Punk Rock were de rigeur in our house...but as easy a degree as that sounds (it so wasn't!), I was always a little freaked out by his homework. 'Write a song' (was the remit) 'notated, with all instrument parts, and produce it in the studio' or 'Perform a selection of pieces showing your playing range before a panel from the Royal Welsh College of Music, including arranging a backing band'. Heavens to Betsy, give me an essay on comparative literature any day of the week!

Danny has always taught guitar in a way that kids and teenagers have really enjoyed (although he can of course teach adults too!). He finds out what music makes them tick (Nirvana, Girls Aloud...whatever) and then teaches via their songs...but of course teaching the skills and chords they should be learning. They are always excited because after a short period of time they can play the chords to one or two of their favourite bands' songs - which of course then encourages them to carry on. He'll also introduce them to other bands or styles of music, to broaden their range. And that's the way his business will be run too, with other teachers working for him teaching bass, drums, keyboard and vocals. On Saturdays they will have workshops where people learning each instrument can get together and practice with each other, so they get experience playing with others and under Danny's watchful eye to help them make the sound tighter. They're also going to have events with guest players teaching one day workshops. There is a lovely big reception area, two classrooms, a fairly large hall area (*mmm, thinks Chrissie...a CROP SPACE!!!*) and Danny's office.

Anyway...I'm very proud of him for getting this business going. It's been hard work for the past couple of months, but things are there now...he's started teaching already and people are ringing to book lessons too. I'm proud of his skills and I'm proud that he didn't just waffle on about perhaps starting a business one day perhaps...he went and DID IT!

So. If you or a member of your family is a budding rock star, and you live in or around the Swansea area, then get in touch. Take a look at the Whole Tone Music website for all the info.

I would upload some piccies I've got of us working on the painting, but Blogger is frankly doing my noggin in and won't let me upload AGAIN. Grrr.