Could Our Luck Be Changing??

WOW!! we accepted an offer on my Mum and Dad's house today, keep EVERYTHING crossed (even your eyes!). Also our house properly went on the market today and we have 2 viewers tomorrow, again keep all crossed for us. Ohhhhh it's so nerve wracking...........but our house has never been so clean and tidy, I love it. Sorry just a short post today

The Boy Done Good

My man is home and I am glad, even if it is for only one night........he hasn't made a mess, so no need for me to change the locks. He brought me a present..............a really, really great present, a new watch, the one I have wanted for ages- I am happy, very happy...........but what makes me most happy is that we sat and watched the last episode of Cranford that he hadn't seen and he loved it. YEY!!!! Oh yeah and despite his jetlag he bathed Alex and made dinner! I think I am lucky.

I feel like Flat Stanley

I am pooped,knackered, shattered, jiggered, and I feel like I have been deflated like Flat Stanley. I have just spent 2 days getting the house de-junked and gorgeous for the estate agent pics. The house looks fab, I am soooooo in love with it, it has never been so tidy and clean and I going to keep it this way , cos I ain't got the energy to do that again.

Alan is home tomorrow and he has been issued with a death threat if he messes the place up ha ha!! He rang me tonight, he and a friend had "crashed" a convention in Dubai with about 5,000 all having a party grrrrrrrrrrrr "gee thanks for calling me whilst you are in the midst of a party and I am doing bathtime followed by the ironing", he owes me, he owes me BIG time

The For Sale board went up today and it's sad...................it'll be great when we finaly get a house in Edinburgh but it hasn't happened yet, so I am hoping we get some luck very soon.

Whilst I was up in Glasgow I took a quick trip to "S for Stamps" and bought some gorgeous Amy Butler papers and stickers from K&Co, can't wait to have a play, but too tired tonight zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........................later dudes!

Lovely Day

It may sound strange to say that, but I went to a funeral today with my Father-in-law. A very dear friend of the family died last Sunday. Since Alan is away in Singapore I drove up to Glasgow last night to represent us and support Alan's dad. The lady who died was very special to us, and had suffered a very short illness. The service was of course sad, but lovely. I was able to see other very good friends I haven't seen for ages after the service which was just great. I am glad that we have such lovely friends waiting for us when we make the move up to Edinburgh.

I have also dragged my FIL into the 21st century, he bought a laptop today and I have got him all sorted wirelessly, he'll be on itunes this time next week! Tomorrow we start with a lesson on email (oh lord!!) wish me luck.

FIL is 71 and we watched Jack Black on Channel 4 in the film "School of Rock" - he loved it!!!! He has spent the last half hour plugged into my iPod listening to Bing Crosby, yes I have Bing on the iPod, I have a very varied taste in music....................

Mixed Day

Yesterday was awful, I had two rather unpleasant phone calls, the most significant being the news that someone close to the family, a very lovely lady, died after a short illness on Sunday night. I will be attending the funeral on Friday in Glasgow, Alan is still away and I will be going to support his Dad and represent Alan. Gosh, is life always like this? We seem to have experienced so many people passing away in the last couple of years I know so many people who seem to have lost no-one and I envy them so, but am also glad they haven't had to go through what we have.

On the flip side, I had a phone call today from someone from school I haven't spoken to in 20 years, and it was wonderful! It cheered me up no end and the nostalgia trip continues!

Life is certainly very strange right now.................

Nostalgia Trip

The past couple of weeks have been one long nostalgia trip , which is nice because what is happening in the here and now is starting to "bum me out".

It's all started with the family tree and it's several mind blowing revelations, and I have been reading my Mum's diaries. Today I went to their house to check the mail and stuff, I don't much like going there, even though it is the only family home I have ever known it now feels sad and cold and empty and every time I go , it reminds me of all I have lost.

So I went into the loft to move more stuff, and I found the love letters sent to Mum by Dad and it just really cheered me up. I found them from the very first letter way back in 1961 when Dad was in the army. They really were soul mates, I guess we always think of our parents as being , well, just parents, not young people with hopes and dreams and, well, just falling in love, so I am very lucky to have them as a reminder.

I rang my Mum's best friend to see if I could pop in for a cuppa and she was on her way to her grandsons birthday party just round the corner in my old junior school, so Alex and I got an invitation to go. OHHHHHHHH now that was a nostalgia trip. It's a Victorian building that has been converted to a cafe and community centre, and it was just such a thrill to be there, I reckon I haven't been there for 25 years, no wonder I feel so damn old (or is that just too many late nights?). I looked through the window of my old classroom and it has hardly changed, and it was like I was instantly transported back to 1975 it was just magic! SIGH!

My 3rd nostalgia trip of this weekend was the Mr Ben DVD in The Times yesterday. Alex has been watching it and has been transfixed and so have I, and of course now I can't stop humming the darned music. I have also been struck how weird it is for a man in a suit to spend every weekend in a fancy dress shop..........................

HELL ON EARTH

Yesterday we went to a party with Alex in one of those hideous play places, you know the wacky warehouse type deal. We have been before, and it's actually quite a good one, but my God the site that greeted us when we arrived was like hell on earth. I have never seen so many kids in one place IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. Alan almost ran for the door! There wasn't a seat in the house, the noise was deafening, and of course the place was for the most part run by shiftless "am I bovvered" teenagers. The kids had a great time though which is all that matters.

We had to leave early to take Alan to the airport he is off to the far East on business for 10 days (yey 10 days of childcare on my own!) he has had a nightmare though. The plane still on the runway at Heathrow caused massive delays, instead of catching his onward connection to Singapore he has had to stay overnight in a grotty hotel without any luggage. He was booked business class but has had to settle for economy, which is rubbish when he has to go straight to a meeting when he gets there, with no sleep and an eight hour time difference.

I stayed in and watched TV and blog surfed last night. I visited Dawn's hysterical blog http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ she is so funny, one of her readers posted a comment which she had seen on a bumper sticker which I laughed out loud about and I may post on my fridge it read "having kids is like being pecked to death by chickens"...............I guess we can all relate to that.

I got some scrummy stamps in the post yesterday, some of the brand new hero arts stamps from Sir Stampalot, so I will be having a play with them pretty soon.

Off to Rosemary Merry's shop for some craft retail therapy today. Hope I find something nice to spend my pennies on.

Selling Houses

Well the day had to come, we have had 3 estate agents round today to weigh up our house and tell us how much they think we should go on the market for. I have had serious jitters about the whole move thing today, hopefully this will pass..............I've got lots of things whirling round my head at the moment, and it must be bad because I have lost my appetite! So we hope to put the house on the market next week.

Actually I hope the appetite loss continues for another week, some school Mum, who is probably gorgeous and skinny has arranged her kid's party in the swimming pool and we are all invited to get in. I am not good at matching kids to Mum's even now, so not sure who she is, but she is getting ducked for making me bare all in the Winter! So I will be slapping on the holiday skin and hoping for major weight loss for a week tomorrow.

Thank You Cards

OK so I didn't make my own Christmas cards this year, I had a major attack of CBA, this is an acronym of "can't be a***d. So I felt I should make all my Thank you cards this year and I am not even gonna share them here because they are so simple a chimp could have made them. The hard bit was getting Alex to write in them, I am soooo cruel, his little hand was aching but I cracked the whip to make him do it.

I am just watching the new Jamie Oliver "don't eat that" show. I love Jamie and his one man crusade to make us all wake up to good nutrition. I am no saint but heck we live in a world, where Coke has suddenly had "extras" added to make it seem like a health drink and cereal companies make Chocolate cereals for kids to eat for breakfast............................sheesh!

I'll be back when I climb off my soap box............

Post 201

Just noticed that I posted my 200th post yesterday so this is my 201st post - will the excitement ever end?

OK so if you haven't lapsed into a boredom induced coma read on......

Yesterday my Uncle came to visit me, my Mum was his big sister, if you have read some earlier posts you will know that I have found a cousin I didn't know I had. She is doing lots of research on my Grandmothers side. Anyway my Uncle came round yesterday since he is meeting the cousin tomorrow for a catch up and to show some photos. We had a right old laugh with old stories about him and my Mum as teenagers in Liverpool in the late 50's/early 60's.

Later in the day we uncovered some sadness in both of our pasts which I won't divulge here, but it is sad to know that my Mum will never know about these things.

Mum kept a diary for most of her adult life, nothing salacious or "deep and meaningful" really, just everyday stuff but what a record of her life from about the age of 19. She seemed to be out dancing 2 or 3 times a week in Liverpool and writes about all the boys that asked her to dance or take her home.

Gosh how romantic, now it's meet you on the Internet, text you for a date and break up by instant messaging, how very dull!

It's absolutely fascinating reading them though, the first one I found was from 1960, the year she met my Dad. She met him at a New Years Eve party that year and I found the diary entry for that and the first few days of 1961 when they were "courting". She was supposed to go dancing on New Years Eve but had split up with her boyfriend on Christmas Eve, so she was invited to go to a party at a friends house and she met my Dad. On the 30th she writes that she is not sure whether to go dancing or to the party, arrgggh!!! I am glad she went to that party.

Dad always said he knew as soon as he laid eyes on her at that party that he would marry her and he proposed on January 15th 1961, just 2 weeks later! She told him where to get off, but eventually said yes later in 1961. She writes in her diary that he asked her to marry him and then a couple more entries after that, then NOTHING for the rest of 1961, I can't believe it. I was like noooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Normal service resumes in 1962 though , most of the entries start with seems to start with whether she has had a letter from my Dad since he was in the army. It's just great to read, and most of the friends she mentions are still around and I know some of them.

My Room

I just lurve my room, and since I gave it a right good old tidy yesterday and I also think it is highly unlikely to look this good again anytime soon, I thought I would post some piccies.

The left side of my room.

The right side of my room.

My rolling carts, and a pink colander (don't ask me why..)

My Pen Tubs....

A pink cake stand for my paints and can you tell I like stickles? Bring on the bling.
My 12x12 card Bazzillicious!
My desk and Cricut Expression

My ribbons in IKEA jars, it's against the law to store in anything else!

My mags (some of )
Cricut Carts and doo-dads
My uber larvelly and new MM "spinny thing" AKA a carousel
Storage for scraps, check out the colour indicators on the front.

A dark view of the room (sorry....)

My Stampin' Up! stash corner.
Punches, I need a crane to lift this basket, don't try this at home folks.
Expedit rocks!
Scruffy 12 x 12 patterned paper storage.....must do better.
All furniture from IKEA!

My Craft Room

I spent nigh on 5 hours sorting through about 200 packs of photos (I kid you not) yesterday, I had some tears and some laughs. Mum and Dad had this realllllly irritating habit of being impatient to develop their pics so they would finish the roll, and I mean practically every roll with 5 or 6 pictures of their garden. Well I think there were hundreds of the same sodding view to be honest, when I get through those pearly gates, they are getting a rocket!!!!

All this decluttering and sorting is to get the house ready to put it on the market. Alan has been forcibly imprisoned in his HIDEOUS mess he called an office and I have been issuing evil threats all weekend to get him to get it sorted. I cannot even begin to explain the scale of the rubbish he has had to wade through. I threatened to torch the lot if he didn't get moving (having moved my valuables first of course!) Anyway after months and months of endless nagging and tantrums by me, he has finally cleared it. It looks fab!

Spurred on by his de-junking I have been doing the same in my craft room, it is SPOTLESS, and I am going to take pics tomorrow and put them on here for you all to see. That said I have a pressing deadline to make too , so I had better take pics quick otherwise it will all be buried under paper and stuff very quickly. Right I am off to watch the last episode of Sense and Sensibility, can't wait, I am such a romantic sap!

Who Do You Think You Are?

I love that programme - god I talk about telly a lot don't I? I do have a life honest! Anyway I have always had a passion for history (perhaps I am really boring) and family history is especially fascinating so I do love watching that programme.

Several months ago I picked up a letter sent to my Mum and Dad to their house. It was from a lady who was bridesmaid at their wedding, she has been researching the family tree for about 3 years with her daughters - she has been focussing on my grandmothers side of the family. Well she rang the other night and it seems that we always thought she was the daughter of my Grandmothers brother. Well it seems that her father was my grandmother's SON not brother!!!! So I now have another cousin, and my Mum never knew she had a half brother instead of an Uncle. Family secrets, very sad really, my Grandmother had to keep that a secret for most of her adult life and I find that so very sad. He died relativley young too, so she would have been very upset.

Hey ho, on a more mundane note I am off to spend a mind numbing hour or so having my acrylic nails soaked off at a salon up the road, pretty relieved about it, I haven't been able to pick my nose for weeks ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I am SO gross. As for removing the back from double sided tape for my cardmaking, I have been swearing like a sailor, no change there then.

I will be coming home to sort out another 45 million photos that my parents took over the years, blimey she would never have had the time to scrapbook that lot! I am sure there will be a few tears in the process.I did some yesterday and I spent time laughing at teenage pics of me ,gawd now I know why I didn't have any boyfriends , I was stick thin with a DREADFUL haircut, luckily I blossomed heheheheheheheheh (just kidding) more like exploded!!!

Oh and on my post yesterday about my project for SC&P, ahem the article is over 4 pages not 6 - talk about bigging myself up jeez!

Stampin' Up!

Very excited, my first project using Stampin' Up! products has been published in Simply Cards and Papercraft. It's a biggie too over 6 pages ( I think) I picked it up in WHSmiths today and I am really excited to see it in print, it's always such a thrill!

Cover Gal!!!

Yipeeee, I am on the cover of Crafts Beautiful this month, well, actually, not me, but a card I made using larvelly Banana Frog stamps. The mags don't tell you when you are going to be on the front cover as sometimes things change so they don't want to disappoint. Sarah Crosland the editor of CB was kind enough to publish my very first project 3 years ago, so I owe my uber fabbo celeb designer lifestyle to her (hee heee heeeeeee) No seriously it's great to be in CB again.

Jane Austen

OHHHH I am just loving the new Sense and Sensibility on BBCTV. I am mad for period dramas and films, I love, love, love em! The BBC just do great ones don't they? Poor Marianne, that dratted Willoughby is a bit of a dish but a rotten bounder!

My fave has to be Pride and Prejudice, esp the one with Colin Firth. I was that wrapped up in Austen that I dug out the Keira Knightly version of P&P to watch last night, and it was great.

I just love the whole "love" thing that Janey does. All the girls fall in love/lust etc and then wait around in the house playing Wii ha ha not really. They wait around sewing, reading and trimming hats with ribbon until Mr Gorge rocks up on his trusty steed. They usually spot him with about 200yards warning, then run round hiding the reading, sewing and ribbons behind cushions. This is usually mingled with them ripping off their day aprons, patting their hair and pinching their cheeks - alas no Clinique counter in the days of JA, but they still managed to pull eh??

Total bliss, and I must admit to rather fancying David Morrissey as Colonel Brandon! Just love it!

Back Home

Well, Alex and I are back home. Been visiting Alan in Edinburgh since last Wednesday since he went back to work on Thursday (heee heeee heeee) I go back on Tuesday (boo-hoo), lil fella goes back to school tomorrow.

We had a lovely time up in Edinburgh if we could only find a damn house to buy we'd all be up there. All the Scottish papers were full of great news for us on the house hunting front, i.e there is a shortage of good family homes, prices in England are falling but on the up in Edinburgh arrrrgghh!

Despite all my best intentions, I went to the sales on Thursday, I have developed an addiction to George Street in Edinburgh especially within the "White Stuff" shop. Despite proclaiming (within earshot of Alan) that " I simply do not need anything and so shall not be doing any sale shopping" I did very well, and marched out of "WS" with some gorge stuff (naughty!)

I have managed to finish a project for Quick and Crafty, got one to do for Crafts Beautiful to do in the next week or so. My first project for CB in about 3 years, should be appearing in the next issue so that will be fab.

Right, off to get school uniform sorted!