Tag I'm It

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• The lovely and ever-so talented and damn funny Helen has been and gone and tagged me. Because I've got nothing better to do - phnaar. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a million squid...
  
  The rules are to list 7 random facts/habits about yourself. Then choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names (don't forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog and they need to write the rules in their answer too). So...7 random facts/habits:
  
  
• I've got a funny thing about textures in food. For example, love cake. Love nuts. But can't stand cake with nuts on/in. Hard bits in a soft cake...bleeeuch. It would be the same if there were peas in my mash or nuts in my ice-cream. Or smoothies with lumps of fruit in (love fruit juce, love fruit...but together they're just wrong). Cack.
  
  
• I like to sleep with the gap between my big toe and the toe next to it (does that toe even HAVE a name?) straddling the back of my ankle on the other foot. Feels safe and secure and comfortable!

• I'm petrified of butterflies. Evil wing-ed creatures that can FLAP IN YOUR FACE. Banish them, I say.


• I can't stand cupboard doors being left ajar...makes me twitch. I have to go and shut them in an OCD type manner.


• I have a habit of leaving the bathroom door open *in a Will Smith voice* when I do my toilet ting, if you know what I mean there. Not at friends' houses...and not if the local minister's over my house on a visit you know...but around my family that door's as wide open as the Mersey Tunnel.


• I was mortally embarrassed about periods until I was well into my 20s. I couldn't even SAY the word period (even in the context of classes at school for example...I would never say "We've got double French for first period"...ho no!). In my diary I would write PS and PE to mark when my Period Started and Ended (not from a shorthand point of view, but a 'if anyone ever reads this they'll never know that I even have periods how mortally embarrassing would that be' point of view). Now I'm completely the other way and couldn't give a monkey's bottom!


• My favourite film ever is When Harry Met Sally and I could quote you nearly every line from it. I've watched it more times than I could possibly say.

There you go. A peek into my strange little world. I hereby tag:

Debbie, Gems, Amber, Tina, Anna, Toni, and The Scrapbook Widower

Off to Reading tomorrow for the scrapping seminar. Still talking a LOT about packing kits and have got things in piles on the floor in the living room. But haven't done it yet. Ho hum. Have to, have to. *sigh*

It's all good

I must admit to reeling a little. After having a few days "off" (as I work from home, I can hardly say I didn't "go" to work! LOL) following the busy-ness that was the Brecons retreat, I sent the Swansea Summer Time Out and Gloucester 3 retreats live on the Scrappers Unlimited website yesterday, late morning.

Gloucester 3 was full by 10 o'clock this morning (although I have since begged the hotel for another two more rooms...but then that is definitely it, it, it), and the Swansea retreat is 65% full (get me with the percentages - heh!). Wow!!! Brecons 2 sold out in less than 24 hours but I'm amazed it's happened again!

It's all very pleasing to know that people enjoy the Scrappers Unlimited retreats so much, and that word of mouth is selling these for us with hardly any advertising. I have a great team who do wonderful classes and people really enjoy being with them as people too. Kudos to them. Anyway...if you fancy bagging one of those final spaces then go here and get clicking.

I'm trying to sort something special for Gloucester 3 too...hush hush (I haven't even told my team about it We'll see if it happens first!)

Off to Reading on Friday for the Shape Up for Design Seminar with Julia (on Saturday), so I've got to get my derriere into gear packing up the kits

*Chrissie exudes a noise not unlike a cat choking on a fur ball*

I hate packing kits. Never mind. It'll be lovely to see our delegates, some of whom we're becoming quite good friends with now. And I also get to see some of my close friends as I lived in Reading nearly all my life. YEY!

It's my dad's birthday on the Sunday so I thought I would visit the memorial garden where he was...scattered (is that the word? LOL), seeing as I'm there that weekend (although we're coming home Saturday night). He died in June 1983 when I was very young really, and I can honestly say in all that time there hasn't been one day go by that I haven't thought of him.

So. Kits are calling. Tra la bleuch. I shall leave you with some lovely pictures of my girly-girl on the patio last Saturday (when the weather was still sunny and warm... *sigh*). Did I mention I got patio furniture? Oh the fun of spending money! AND *smug grin* a friend from church here who likes gardening like I like scrapbooking (imagine that!?!...she's nuts!) has said that she's happy to come to my house once a week and sort out my gardens, front and back.

I, my dears, have a gardener. Now all I need is a cleaner and I'll have a full set.

So soon we'll be able to sit on my lovely patio, on my lovely patio furniture, admiring my lovely garden. It's all good! And...as I finished typing this blog entry, I glanced through the window and noticed that the rain has stopped, and the sun is shining brightly again. It IS all good!

I'm crackered...

...of the cream variety, so I'm just off to bed. But...couldn't go without uploading these cwtshy photos of Gingernut who is now 3 weeks old and getting bigger and stronger! We had a little visit with him/her today (we can't tell at the moment whether we have a boy or a girl! LOL. It's harder than you might think!)

Celyn is trying so hard to learn how to hold her kitten and how best to stroke him/her. Look at the concentration on her face. She's just in raptures about it all...but I was having palpitations the other evening that she would end up 'giving him a bath' or some other terrible accident would befall him. However she suggested (with absolutely no input from me) that we should "go to the library and find a book on how to look after kittens...and then we'd know how to do that." What a clever kid!

I actually actually did it...

After saying I would, I did. Go me! At the retreat this past weekend I actually scrapbooked two whole pages for me, me, me.

Well.

Technically, I created one page and finished one that had been floating around in my unfinished pile since December. But still...schaaaaa-wiiiing. Two new pages. Heh!


'Munch Bunch' has photos of Celyn's friends at her birthday party last September. The girl's name has been rubbed out for obvious reasons (so... what I'm trying to say is... it doesn't have a big white line through it on the original one. Honest to goodness). I just love those photos though...she's fab she is.



And 'My Star' is Celyn age 3, Christmas 2005, wearing the hat she made in nursery school that year. There once was a girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead.... Big 'momentes speciales' (joke from the retreat) to Helen who said "ribbon...rouche and staple, rouche and staple" when I had stared at this half-finished layout for a good half hour without any inspiration at all. I'm like a little wind up toy...just set me off in the right direction and I'll toddle off by myself. Anyway...very happy with the rouche and staple, thanks very much Helen. AND (on t'other layout) I used some Pebbles Inc shaker doo-dads that I've had since Noah was a yoof, which work a treat with that yum-bum American Crafts papers (loves them I do). It's all good.

My patio got laid while I was away at the retreat too *joyous balletic type movements around the room, flapping floaty scarves and pirouetting a bit* Shame I haven't got any patio furniture ain't it? And the garden looks like some scrub land at the back of the local tip. Ho hum...I expect I'll have to sort THAT out now. Chuh. Seriously happy to have a patio at long last though and I intend to sit on it a-blummin-lot this summer.

Right. Off to do housework *yawn*

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip 'Thou Shalt Always Kill'

Sometimes he makes a very good point...and other times he's just HILARIOUS. Love this!

An Eggy Hunting We Will Go...Eventually...

Did I, or did I not, say (previous to leaving for the egg hunt) that we were going to Penllergaer Woods? Did I? Did I?

So...10 minutes after Husband leaves to deposit a stash of choccie eggs around in an Easter Bunny manner we had arranged that I would follow.

Dutifully off we went, Celyn all excited with a rustic and suitably photographable basket in hand, to Penllergaer Woods. We pull into the car park in the woods... no Daddy. No Daddy's car. I start to huff and puff and whinge such things as "Oh for goodness SAKES, where IS he???!!!!" (etc. you get the drift). So I sit there creasing up my brain for 2 or 3 minutes (in ratty arse mood), with Celyn beginning to look like someone had just popped her balloon, when it dawned on me that he had perhaps gone to Squirrel Park instead (around the corner from our house).

Upon arriving at Squirrel Park some 40 minutes after we should have, we are greeted by a ratty arse husband (get us...a matching pair) who was muttering things about having to fend off extraneous children and the odd dog or two from the little trail of eggs he's left all over the woods, and people were beginning to wonder who this strange bloke hanging around in the woods on his own was. Of COURSE we'd agreed Squirrel Park (he says). Why on EARTH would we say Penllergaer Woods (10 minutes drive from our house) when Squirrel Park is practically walkable (2 minutes drive from our house).

I spent the entire time walking around the chocolate trail spontaneously bursting into laughter at the thought of him hanging around the woods trying to get rid of dogs and being stared at in a "nutter in the woods" manner *snort*

Priceless.

Cute pictures huh? :D

The Traditional Easter Scrap

Because *that's* a phrase sweeping the nation. Heh.

Had the S Wales Crop yesterday and I was DEEEEEEtermined to ACTUALLY scrapbook. I am mighty fed up of going to crops...actually having a WHOLE DAY where I can ACTUALLY scrapbook because that's what I'm there to do, and spending said day administrating and talking and not actually doing anything. S'rrrrrrubbish. So I took along a Pencil Lines sketch and a box stuffed full of the most faaaaaabulous (dahling) American Crafts products (wot I got sent by a rather fabulous person in America) and spent most of my non-chatting time doing this layout. I then submitted it into the crop challenge (which I had set) and then realised that it was supposed to be an Easter theme. *snort* What a div.

Anyway...I'm rather liking these here American Crafts papers and chipboard letters and all. They're a bit yummy aren't they? And thanks to Sue and Linz for the ribbon. And Fi for her pen.

Busy busy busy girly Iyam, trying to do all the last minute details of the retreat which begins (for me and the team) on Wednesday. I sat in church this morning unable to concentrate (bad Chrissie, bad Chrissie) because of little jobs that kept popping into my head, so I just gave up and grabbed my phone, typing in a whole list of important tasks to get done before the off. On that list is my determination that, no matter how busy I will get at the retreat (which I don't mind...I'm there to do a job after all, and a job I enjoy very much), that I will do at least one or two pages for me. But that means PREPARATION. I can't go with a vague wish. I HAVE to make up a kit of papers and photos that can be scrapbooked together.

Lovely beautiful gorgeous Easter day today...17 degrees, beautiful sunny day. I love Easter...it is definitely my favourite holiday (far surpassing Christmas for me). The sun shines, the flowers are all out, the birds are singing (I heard a beautiful blackbird (my very very favourite) whistling a tune on top of a roof in the middle of the village yesterday evening. I have a little silly thing that because I love (LOVE) the song of a blackbird so much, God always sends them to sing just for me. Dappy I know, but it keeps me happy). We have four days of Easteriness, and it's not over commercialised...but there is an attitude of giving and being with family. And no 'enforced jollity' (like what one gets at the Christmas/New Year's season). I. Love. It.

So my lamb, honey roast carrots, and roast potatoes are all cooking in the oven, sending gorgeous aromas around the house, and Husband has just gone off to Penllergaer Woods to set up an Easter egg hunt for Celyn (photo op' I think!)... I need to follow with Daughter in about 10 minutes. Tomorrow we're all going to Folly Farm/Tenby for the day. And then it's Monday evening and Tuesday work-like-the-clappers to get ready for Wednesday.

I'll blog with eggy hunt pictures later. Happy Easter everyone :-)

Just had an asthma attack...

...laughing at this wot I just got sent in an email *guffaw* And I was in the middle of talking to someone and suddenly started howling at full volume. Of COURSE I was paying full attention to our conversation Penny and not opening emails at the same time... *Chrissie raises her eyebrows and tries to look sincere and convincing*

Anyway. Busy busy busy. Got a retreat next week you know. No time to BLOG to the likes of YOU LOT! Heh.

Mmmmwaaaah!

May I Introduce...Gingernut

This lovely little tabby 6 day old ball of fluff is going to be our new cat in about 6 weeks. We've been umming and aahing about getting a pet for probably a year, and the other day one of the mums at school said her friend's cat (that she was looking after...I can't remember all the ins and outs, but it's the sister of her cat or something) had just had a litter of 5. And I just knew this was the time to do it. So over the weekend I asked Celyn if she'd like a kitten as an Easter present and she said, "Mmm...well, it's not very Eastery Mummy" (far too clever for her own good) and I said, "Hurrumph hurrumph, new life and all that, hurrumph" or words to that effect.

Anyway, this afternoon we went up to meet these little creatures, whose eyes have only been open a day, and Celyn and I picked out the tabby from the litter. Penny (who comes to the S Wales Crop) wants one of the greys. And then there's another grey and two black and whites left.

So. Meet Gingernut. Celyn is adamant that her name is Gingernut, despite me pointing out several times that the cat wasn't at all ginger. "It's still a nice name Mummy. That's what I want to call it." She sounds terribly precocious but anyone who's met my girl will know there's not an ounce of precociousness in her body. Anyway, I kinda like it. A non-ginger cat with a very ginger name...sort of paradoxical and ironical and all :D

I apologise to all cat lovers for the terrible way Celyn's holding Gingernut in the last picture. She has lots to learn but that's all the fun and responsibility of caring for a pet eh?

Tee hee!

Of Bonnets and Ballet Dancers

Life's been getting in the way of blogging again. Bloggin' hell eh? (bwaahaahaa!)

Anyhoo...

Celyn is now on two weeks holiday from school, which is lovely in some ways and difficult in others. I love having her around of course (and she is such a pleasant child, and is really developing a great sense of humour) and the promise of the odd day out here and there beckons. However, I don't like the wishy-washyness of the lack of routine. And I have a retreat coming up in 1 1/2 weeks so I'm fairly busy. Not so busy I'm going crazy (I'm surprisingly calm and organised which is worrying me slightly - LOL. Keep thinking I must have forgotten something and I'll suddenly realise and say the odd swear word as I do). Anyway, on the last day of school (Thursday because Friday was an Inset day) they had an Easter Bonnet Parade in assembly and so I rustled together this little cap, which she has plonked rather unceremoniously on her head when she exited school that day, but hey ho. Anything for a blogging picture eh?

Celyn has also been in her very first ballet concert. Oh I was so proud. There is no other feeling in the world like seeing your offspring, the fruit of your loins, the genetic, nurtured piece of you prancing around on stage in a happy manner. It starts in your toes and swells throughout your whole body...a thrilling pride at her wonderous achievements. Well...her and all the other snotty, germy, oh-so-ordinary children on stage with her of course. LOL! There she is in a terrible photo, being a butterfly. Wha'dya mean, you can't tell which one is her?!!

To be in this concert was such the palava (ballet is a mighty fussy and expensive little to-do, I can tell you) and my lovely scrapbooking friend, Eileen, came over to do her hair for me. I was having itty-bitty kittens at the thought of having to do one of those 'doorknob' buns with nary a wisp of hair out of place for this concert, but Eileen, whose daughter has been dancing (with the same ballet teacher as it happens) since she was 3 (and is now 18), put it up all gorgeous in a minute flat. Maybe two at a push. Doesn't she look fab?!









I got to chat to my wonderful (dare I say, soul-mate) friend Lee in New York on Friday evening. I really never know quite how to express my love for this lovely human being. Just love him. And he may *Chrissie sighs, half not daring to type the next bit in case it doesn't happen* be flying over in 3 weeks to hang out with me for a few days (he gets to fly over for next to nothing because his partner works for an airline). Happiness.

It will have been 12 years since I last saw him....