Goodbye to all that

Well after a truly devasting year, 2007 is one I would like to forget, since April this year, life has been well, how can I put it ? Bloody awful! Losing both parents and having hubby working away all week, has just been bad bad bad.

All I can say is that roll on 2008! We'll be moving to Edinburgh, very soon I hope and there will be a new school for Alex, working from home for me, and lots of new friends and faces to meet. I will be getting cracking with my Stampin' Up! business and continuing to submit projects to the mags.

For those of you who have left messages of support or simply drop by to read my blog, I would like to send a huge thank you and lots of love. It means a great deal to me and I sincerely hope you all have a very, very happy 2008 !!

Sam xxxxx

I Lick My Cheese...............

Actually I don't because I really HATE cheese, I actually tell everyone that I am allergic to it, for fear that they may cook it for me. I am almost scared of cheese I hate it that much. Anyway "I Lick My Cheese" is the title of a book my hubby got me for Christmas and it is hysterically funny. It's a compilation of notes that flatmates leave for each other and each note has a brief narrative, commenting on or explaining the background of the note. It's one of those books which really mean something if you have shared a flat or house with others.

When I first met my hubby he had a lodger, a perfectly lovely Irish girl. One day I was round at his house and just before we left to go out for the evening he said "oh hang on I just need to write a note" he had a chalkboard in the kitchen and he wrote "BIG tidy up required tomorrow"................. I looked at him , he said "too much?" I snorted , then nodded and he meekly rubbed it out. Now this is the man I have to tidy up after. He didn't share at house at Uni but I bet he would have been a total "note Nazi".

The book got me thinking about the weird and nutty people you get to share living accomodation/bathrooms and kitchens with when you are in Uni halls of residence. There was one girl (who shall remain nameless) who I will never forget. She is now either a genius ( I must google her) or a drug addict.

Once she flooded the corridor when she decided to do her weeks washing in her hand basin in her room. She also dyed some clothes black in the kitchen sink turning most other things in the kitchen, my wooden spoon included, black! Hey ho, those were the days................I am off to google!

Love Actually.....

Gosh I haven't posted in aages, so Happy Christmas

So what have I been up to? Panic Panic Panic, shout shout shout, bought too many presents and waaaaaay too much food. Lost half a stone, somehow in the run up to Christmas, I, complete piggo, lose interest in food, running round like a blue arsed fly ( I love that phrase), and seem to feel like throwing up most of the time, so I don't eat. What gives? I have no idea....! Anyway now I look like Kate Moss, ha flippin' ha I wish!

So just Alan, Alex and I plus Alan's Dad for Christmas day this year, you all konw why ..........................Alex got lots of pressies, and I got Jo Malone (not the person herself ha ha) and Harvey Nicks vouchers and Sing Star for the Playstation, and just for the record I CAN SING OK! and the damn thing keeps rating me BAD and AWFUL and I am so going to sue Sony- wish me luck.

Also Alan got me the most hysterical book for Christmas, called "I lick my Cheese", it's all about the notes flat mates leave it other, and I nearly wet my (smaller) pants reading it today.

Anyway I am now watching the most perfect film, "Love Actually"......................Colin Firth?? YUMMO times 1 million, so I have to go.

Cor Blimey

I am up to my eyes in Christmas preparations. This year I have left it waaaayy too late to make my cards, I am ashamed of myself but stuff it, I am not gonna beat myself up about it I don't have time. I managed to order our turkey and goose in the nick of time and so all I have to look forward to is my annual Christmas morning nervous breakdown over which bird goes in which oven - hey ho.

Made good progress today, did most of my shopping at the Trafford Centre today. I have had a good and rather pickled weekend, 2 Christmas "dos" and a rather daft spending spree on a big new telly , a PS 3 and Sky TV. This is nothing short of a miracle since Alan does NOT approve of lots of TV, so I think my Alan has been abducted and replaced with an alien. I am damned if I can work out the bloody playstation. I pride myself on my own geekiness with all things techno, but I stared at the instructions like an 80 year old trying to programme a video yesterday and then gave up. At one point I ejected a game without going through the "correct" procedure, Alan was REALLY mad at me, and he hates "games" - he deffo has been adbucted by aliens....

3 more days of work to go then I am off till the 8th Jan - yay and double yay!

Christmas Cards

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH last night I went to see Take That in Manchester. What a FABBO night, I still can't believe how good those boys are now. I thought they were OK first time round, but didn't go and see them. Last year I went to see them twice and they are back again and now they are just so damn good, their latest stuff is so brilliant, I had a great time and sang my heart out!

Back to crafting - I thought it was time to spread a little cheer, here are some cards I made for Quick and Crafty Mag last month - hope you like...

Bleeeuuurggghh!

Well I now have a full blown cold/chest thing, feeling very sorry for myself, and quite honestly I have been a complete cow all weekend. Given the events of this year, I am very much not looking forward to Christmas and I am feeling quite bitter and twisted about the whole thing. Alan and Alex have borne the brunt of my self pity/evil temper, so I am feeling rather ashamed of myself.................

Anyway, I am about to watch Cranford, God knows who will kick the bucket this week, but I have tissues at the ready. Hopefully I will feel slightly less rubbish after a good nights sleep.

Weird Night.......

Well I made it out last night and it was a weird night. We went to a social club and the place was full of women, there were 2 men in the whole room and they must have been 70 if they were a day!!

We arrived at 7:30 and the food was served at 9:00, and there was no disco prior to that, mind you judging by the age of the old dears in there they would't have like it LOL! We were all moaning about how rubbish it was and then a young chap (hark at me "young chap") came on singing some cover versions with a backing tape and a guitar. I ended up getting up and singing "Valerie" with him. Yes I am a frustrated performer! I really enjoyed it, all the gals were whooping and cheering, we all started to have a great time and 20 mins later we had to go cos our cab arrived !

Anyway I am glad I went, still full of a cold and cough but hey it's the weekend!

Not Well

I am feeling rotten, Alex had a raging temperature/cold/virus thing earlier this week and was up for 2 hours for 3 nights zzzzzzzzzzzzz............Alan came home late on Tuesday night en route to Paris with a hacking cough/cold, and now (thanks Guys!) I have some lurgy. It's my school Mum's night out tonight and I am going by hook or by crook because I have a new dress and killer red satin high heeled shoes. The shoes will be cleverly accessorised with my red nose !

On a more positive note, I have completed my first Stampin Up project for a mag, and I have placed my first order for more stamping goodies. Don't forget if you want to order a catalogue or other stuff I am very much open for business.

I have also done some cards for Sarahscards new cardmaking kit with some scrummy Paper Salon papers and her gorgeous Aunty Sarah's Bloomers, check the kit out here.

Added to that I have almost finished another project for Quick and Crafty mag, so I have been quite a busy bee this week.

Well I am writing this from my sickbed, Alan is home getting Alex ready for school so I am having a lie in (bliss!).

TV Perfection

Oh isn't Cranford just TV perfection, I love it. It is supposed to be set in Knutsford, which is just up the road from me.

I wish they'd all stop dying though, last week that poor little boy died of "the croup" and Eileen Atkins character dropped like a fly. Then this week, just as Judi Dench's character was about to get "jiggy" with Michael Gambon, he up and gets pneumonia and dies, as if Dame Judy hadn't been through the mill last week. I have been in floods of tears the last two weeks, but my goodness it's just brilliant. Top Gear and Cranford on one night, who needs to go out eh?

Trafford Centre.......................

OH gosh what a dimwit I was yesterday. I went to the Trafford Centre and it was PACKED! Apparently it was the busiest Saturday of the year. Alan and Alex came along to meet me to see a film and he had to park on Costco's car park as there was no room anywhere.

I got 2 dresses for my Xmas do's, 2 Xmas pressies and got my eyebrows "threaded". This is where they pluck your eyebrows with cotton thread. Heaven knows how they do it, and it HURT - a LOT! But now I look human again.

So we took Alex to see Ratatouille and he hated it and we left before the end. Don't you love those family days out when you organise something for your kids and they ruin it?? Ha Ha Ha!