Aaaaaaand Relax.............

Can't believe it, a full day at work, small child tucked up in bed and me having finished a project ON TIME - yep ON TIME, obv I can't share it but I am very pleased with it.

Ohhhhh the lovely Julie Hickey (twas her who got me interested in this card making malarky) has just launched her blog - Good on you Jules take a peek at her first posts here.

Finally got some pics of my weekend in Edinburgh so thought I would show you some of the Botanical Gardens, I am quite chuffed with them, although I don't think the likes of Kirsty Wiseman need quake in her Crocs just yet - I ain't no threat....

The gates are made from these amazing metal flowers

A purty flower.......

More Purty Flowers (ain't I just the botanist?)

My favourite role...................guarding the picnic with my bottom (no one will dare touch it!!)

VB in LA

So my pal T popped over tonight and we had a glass of Vino and watched Victoria Beckham in LA (or whatever it is called)

Now I don't quite get her, I have seen her being interviewed on Parky and she was fab, but what's with all the pouting? So the programme starts and first of all T and I were like "what the................... ???" , and "oh my God she is awful" and other things I can't write cos my Mummy reads this (waves to Mum).

Then it dawned on us............it's a "p*** take" she was totally hamming it up (and God do I love her hair), also there was a kind of disclaimer about some scenes being "dramatised" at the outset. The bit where her new PA arrived and she is around the pool in stillettos and being so horrid was so believable at first then it was like "oooooooohhhhhh NOW I GET IT"

Hee hee good on her! Can't wait till next week

What a Party!!

OH my word, we had the party on Saturday night and it was FAN-TASTIC!

The weather was great, no rain and clear skies all night and we all had a jolly time. We had spent a lot of time organising and planning the "do" with Alan away working it was tricky but well worth it.

I spent Friday morning at the hairdressers, followed by a hair raising dash round The Trafford Centre, I bought the most gorgeous blinging top covered from top to bottom in sequins then I had to find a pair of silver wedges to go with. I was like Anneka in "Challenge Anneka" dashing into shops shouting "do you have silver wedges in a size 6". I did find some thank god!!!

Then I scooted round Costco, bought 4 MASSIVE pizzas that were duly troughed (not by me) at the party and about 900 tons of salad that were not troughed at the party!

The big day dawned clear and sunny and we got cracking with our preparations, Alan put a gazebo up and our mate brought a glitter ball and spotlight, it was sooooo cool. The barbie was going with 2 of our dearest mates flipping burgers for us. Said mates brought a case of champagne with them and I was like Patsy out of Ab Fab all night in my silver wedges and glass of champagne.

We had a terrific night, surrounded by our lovely friends . Aren't friends just fab?? I know that sounds sooo obvious but it was great just to see loads of sets of friends from different times in our lives all partying together, the last time that happened was when I got married! They all mucked in and helped and brought gifts (v nice indeed!)

I will post pics when I get some with me on (not sure if some of the people in the pics I currently have would object to being published).

My Mummy was a trooper - she baby sat for us - if not for her we couldn't have gone ahead, so good on ya Mum xxx

So, this weekend it's off to Edinburgh for another 40th, then another 40th the weekend after and then the weekend after that it's a wedding for heaven's sake!!

Not Funny

RIGHT! THAT'S IT!!!!

I have officially HAD IT with the weather so please, El Nina, El Ninja - whatever you are called, just PACK IT IN - bring on the Sun.

It's my party on Saturday and it had better clear up asap. I am making ice like a demon and the wine is stacked up, actually I am so stressed I'll probably drink it before Saturday.

OH and I am so glad I dyed my left hand black, NOT! Sports day is flipping cancelled (can't think why..............she ponders)

Anyway gonna get my hair done and shop for my party outfit tomorrow , so I am going to party anyway!!!!

It Could Only Happen to Me

Gosh sometimes even I wonder at my own blonde-ness. After the craft knife incident I have been playing it safe, but with little success.

It is sports day this week at the little fellas school, if the rain stops that is!! So I get a letter from school, as you do, like every few days we get something in his school bag, that has some impossible request that is needed in 48 hours! Well he is apparently on the "black" team and needs a black t-shirt for Thursday. Have you any idea how hard it is to find a plain black t-shirt for a nearly five year old? Well I'll tell you - IMPOSSIBLE!!! I mean do these teachers with amazing brain waves like this actually have kids??

So I came up with the fab idea of dying a white t-shirt black, so I toddled off to Woolies and got some of that black dye in a wee tin. Now these dye tins are flipping lethal, this tin is full of black powdered dye and you have to pierce the damn thing, errrrr the capacity for a major dye incident is fairly high so I reckon to avoid accidents you should just be naked to do it (I wasn't!)

Never mind, I managed this task without incident, then I was up to my elbows in rubber gloves swishing the t-shirt around the dye bath for 10 mins. HA HAAAA I think, I pulled that off without getting covered in dye - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr I DON'T THINK SO. I pulled off one of my gloves and my left hand was like totally dyed black - there was a hole in the pigging glove. My skin is red raw from trying to scrub it off, my nails are a mess and to cap it all the bloody t-shirt looks dark navy not black. Everyone in work is saying "eeewwww what's that on your hand?".

I give up................

Guess How Much.?.............Go On!!!

Grrrr I hate the "guess how much?" game. I am like that woman in the office on the Catherine Tate Show. Alan went IKEA shopping on Saturday for stuff for our party next weekend ,je is totally stressed already.You know how someone always cries at a party? Well it'll be me probably, cos I will be all stressed and strung out.

Anyway back to the plot. Paper plates or plastic for our party? Nope I think hubby reckons he is a "cut above" so he refuses point blank to have "artificial plates" arrrrggghh!! SO instead of being able to bung all the plates in a bin bag and forget about 'em he's bought "real ones" from IKEA.

So he goes "go on , guess how much", and I say "ohhhh I don't really know just tell me" and he goes "ooohhh go on guess how much" and I say "arrggggh I don't know - like a quid or summat?" and he says triumphantly "19p each". 19p, 19p??? You can't even buy a bag of crisps for that, how amazing is that 19p for a plate?

Then he pulls out some potpourri and says "go on guess how much" and we start over again - turns out it is 29p per bag! Mind you I haven't the heart to tell him that it smells like 29p's worth (cross betwixt bog cleaner and cheap perfume if you ask me).

Yesterday I was in Tescos ( I know I hate Tescos,but we had no choice) and I was looking for mint sauce, there were 3 teenagers looking for the very same condiment and the girl says "flippin eck, mint sauce for 3P" I goggled in amazement and sure enough they sell jars of mint sauce for 3p! One of her male friends said "eeeeeewww ya scruff that'll be mingin'" in a big loud voice and I nearly wet myself laughing....................you had to be there I suppose.

Back home I settled down to watch the concert for Diana, boy did I get choked up and teary hearing all the "Diana and Me" stories and seeing her on all the film clips reminded me of how much I miss being able to see her on the TV doing her engagements, I can't believe she would have been 46 yesterday, I wonder what she'd have looked like............

What A Night!!

Oh golly, did I have a good night last night!!! One of my very dear friends is a TV producer and he invited a group of Uni friends to attend a ball in a castle in the Cotswolds last night.

The ball was the culmination of a TV show called American Princess, the final was filmed there. The judges of the show included Paul Burrell , Diana's butler and I got to chat with him about Diana and I can't tell you how thrilled I was. As a huge fan of Diana it was just amazing to talk to him and he is such a lovely guy.

I even got my picture taken with him! He was wearing a kilt, made from his own design of tartan and he explained what the pattern meant, he also showed me his Royal Victorian Medal he was awarded as recognition of his services to Diana.

Well I am still cockahoop about the whole experience, you'll just have to wait for me to come back down to Earth!!!

Back Home

Wow what a weekend, lots of jolly sightseeing in Edinburgh and even a trip to the beach (yep the beach) yesterday. OK so it was breezy and overcast but at least it didn't rain. Alex ran around like a maddie with no shoes and socks, the sea was freezing but he loved it - check out the action shot!

I just love Edinburgh, it's nice to be in a city with so much history and lots of little independent shops, its so refreshing not seeing the same-old shops like you do in other cities. Can't wait to spend more time up there in the SUmmer pottering and seeing some of the Fringe Festival.

Thought you might like to see more shots I took in the city - very arty eh?

Hoots Mon!

Well me and the little fella finally made it up to Edinburgh to spend the weekend with Alan, he has a flat here. If you have just tuned in, the Currie clan are set to re-locate to Sconnie Botland from Cheshire in 2008. Quite franky je is a bit "boo-frickin-hoo" about the whole deal, but I am sure I will love it

The upshot is, Alan has a rented flat in Edinburgh and this is the first time I have seen it and it is GORGEOUS, all Victorian and lovely stripped doors etc, i.e what we should be doing with our own house but haven't managed to do so far. It's quite a small place and I am typing this in a very clever computer room which is actually a cupboard about 6ft from the cooker - genius use of space methinks!

We have just been to Hard Rock Cafe and were waited on by a very over enthusiastic young "dude" from the States............anyway hubby and a glass of Chardonnay await so gotta go .......

Flippin 'eck

Phew (collapses into a heap!) that's another working week over with, I normally work 3 days but this week I worked 4 and boy did it suck.

I am KNACKERED (I am also such a laydeeee hee hee)

Got home to my very first kit from ModScraps which is from the Love Elsie range- Toby. - yey!

I just love getting those pizza boxes in the post. Thank goodness our postie has twigged that he can leave packages like this behind the planter next to the front door otherwise I would have been faced with a traipse to the post office that closes for pick up half past sodding two ( I told you I was a laydeee) I mean what's all that about? Most of the world shops on-line but it closes in the middle of the flippin' day (DOH!)

Off to Edinburgh tomoz, hoots mon! Hubby is working up there and has his own flat for a few months and I have yet to see it. We are off to the Hard Rock Cafe for scoff and a thimbleful of wine (yeah right!) tomorrow night so that should be larvelly.

It's Been A Funny Old Day............

Do you remember that from the end of the "Open All Hours" episodes, I just loved Ronnie Barker and his Arkwright Character.

Well today has been a funny old day, it started with some nice stuff and somewhere in the middle someone was rather mean. I came home feeling a bit sorry for myself and found that someone very talented (who really inspired me to get into card making) had sent me the most beautiful card with a lovely message inside. I have been a fan of this lovely lady for ages and it just totally made my day................xxxx

We seem to have "acquired" a puddy tat, now this kitty lives round the corner but has started to look a little thin and poorly so I have been feeding her and she is such a star. Alan is mega allergic to all things "fur" so she is only allowed "little" visits, but she is very cute and mee-ows all the time, I wish we could really adopt her. I have some pics I need to post, will try to find them and post soon.

What Next - Paint Your Baby Blue?

So I am work today boo-hiss, don't usually work on a Monday so totally had that Monday morning feeling. Anyway I love to surf UKS on my lunch break and it's offline for a server move -arrrrgggghh!! So what to do? I headed over to the BBC website to have a mooch and brace yourself..................another rant from Sam.....

Some berk from Unicef now says that giving babies pureed food is "unnatural" and not necessary, for goodness sake not a week goes by without some "expert" changing the rules about baby feeding. Less than 5 years ago when my son was born we were advised to wean after 16 weeks - now it is 6 months. I give up - what are parents to do???

OK rant over (it was only a mini rant really)

Oh I am so glad that Opera Singing fella won "Britains Got Talent" he is so shy and humble and boy what talent. I really liked Conny but she is so little she's got lots of time to grow and get some more experience.

Tonight I am determined to get crafting again, despite my finger, I have re-bandaged it and it looks like a HUGE cartoon finger!!

What a Berk!

After my creative lag of late I decided to do some "playing" yesterday, so I take the little fella and myself upstairs to my craft room and ended up in casualty!!!

Yep!! I slipped with a craft knife, my brand new cutterpede retractable (meant to be safer) knife, and cut across the knuckle of my middle finger on the right hand. It took me a grand total of being in the room for 2 mins, boy do I feel stupid - added to that I have done it before, making Anita Mundt's "Happy Flowers" with chipboard. The split second before I did it I thought "uh-oh I don't think I am doing this in a safe way - remember last time......................"

Blimey, now I just have to wear rubber gloves to keep the dressing dry, as I have had to have steri strips over the cut.

Anyway, I forgot to mention I went to see George Michael in Manchester on Friday night in the City of Manchester Stadium. He was really good, but it rained alllll night (luckily we had posh tickets in the stand). He sang loads of the Wham stuff and his own and it was brillo.

Changes.....
Well I have been reflecting on my creative output of late and I have to say I have not been particularly active - given recent circumstances I am not surprised but that said I am determined to get going again. I have finally added some of my stuff on a slide show since there wasn't a fat lot on here before. Since most of my work gets published I kind of felt I shouldn't post it on my blog (DOH!!!) so I have now resolved to put my stuff on here once it has been published.

I have been buying loads of goodies lately and I am looking forward to getting cracking with them, but for now, here are some pics of cards that appeared in last months Quick and Crafty Mag using my all time fave - Scenic Route......

Sad......

After 6 years of cancer and a 6 week stay in a hospice, my wonderful Dad passed away today, not much else to say ......

Big Brother...............................I just don't get it

OK first off I don't want to offend anyone by what I am about to write, so if you are a fan of Big Brother, look away now.....................

I HATE BIG BROTHER, I just don't see the point, it's a waste of life, but loads of my friends just go mad for it every year when it is on - WHY?

It's what ? 15 weeks of watching complete strangers who are desperate to become celebs but have no talent behave like nutters in a house, it's just awful. Think of all the things you could be doing with the time spent watching this garbage, I know it's like TV Heroin, once you start watching it's addictive.

Mostly I hate it because it seems to have this "hold" over popular culture, TV like this dumbs us down. There are thousands of young kids who are mesmerized thinking they too can become rich and famous for doing nothing - rather than doing something worthwhile like becoming a vet or a poet or a plumber.............and that's why I hate it, because it robs us of our imagination and makes us worship people who have done nothing spectacular. There are millions of people out there that we should be in awe of for the things they do on a daily basis, not these numbskulls who want 15mins of fame

Well I brace myself for the hate mail - I know I know, what I have written is not very popular so I suppose I'll have to take it on the chin!! Mind you I don't think many people read this anywhere so I suppose I am fairly safe (I'll be out of hiding in 15 weeks..................)

Brmmmm.................Brrrmmmm

Oh I am very excited, I am a VERY lucky girl. I am getting a new car - yey!!!

When I was pregnant with the little fella I had a really nice black Ford Puma which went like s*** off a shovel, but I realised I had to be a sensible chick and there was no way I could get a baby seat into the back of a Puma in a hurry. Soooooo I got a nice little (BORING) A-Class Merc, which has lots of room and is safe blah frickin blah.............................

So being the totally spoilt brat, high maintenance wifey that I am I have been whining about having a new car for yonks and hubby finally caved in and agreed it was a good idea. Well after I picked myself off the floor I started my quest for the new motor. I have switched my reading habits from all my papercrafting/scrapbooking mags to "What Car" and I have been glued to the Autotrader website. I still haven't the foggiest what BHP means but I have finally got a new car which I pick up at the weekend.

We drove to go and see it in Sheffield yesterday, now getting to Sheffield from Cheshire ain't no mean feat, you have to drive over the Woodhead pass which is pretty hairy in a sissy little A-Class and we under estimated the time it would take to get there. Actually our sat-nav was deffo on drugs 'cos it told us it would take 1 hour...........................yeah right try 1 hour 40 mins, which ain't so bad when you are not in a hurry but it sucks when you are trying to reach a place that shuts at 4pm. The air was blue - I was soooooooooooooo stressed, but we got there and loved the car and the deal is done. I will soon be in proud possession of a lovely shiny 4X4 - a Honda CRV and I am very happy.

Is Noah Coming?

Oh my lord, global warming, more like global drowning, what the heck is all this flipping rain about? So it gets very warm a few weeks ago and I dashed out to the shops flinging colin credit card hither and thither to buy sarongs for work (since it was so boiling) and now look what has happened! I would have been better off buying a sou'wester! But blow me I am wearing that white linen skirt and pale pink ballet shoes, even if I have to wade from my car into the office!

I finally took the plunge and changed my mobile phone from BT Mobile to Vodaphone cos (a)BT seemed to have been charging me half the national debt of Chile to make a teeny amount of necessary calls and (b)The choice of new phones for the total gadget freaky geeky I am were PANTS.

So I got myself a nice new shiny Sony Ericcsson summat or other, the guy in the shop said "oooh and it comes with a memory card included free" - Crikey, he opens this "flap" on the side of the phone which is about the size of a baby's fingernail and pulls out something the size of a molecule which I goggled at and then mentally made a note never to touch it, cos if I drop that on the floor I ain't never gonna find it EVER!!!

I settled down for a nights TV viewing tonight. which for me is a rarity, and stumbled on a programme on Channel 4 about "embarrassing illnesses", well I do have a streak of the morbid about me and I am not squeamish at all so I think it might be worth a whirl. How wrong could I be? Suffice to say I am glad I wasn't eating. This bloke comes on saying he had piles, so this young doc gets him to remove his strides to have a quick butchers at them. At this point I am thinking "surely they ain't gonna show some geezers piles on colour TV......................" WRONG!!!!! OH MY GOD, this guy had piles like a bunch of grapes and the doc then proceeds to show photos of some other poor individuals bottoms with even worse piles. Now I can watch all sorts of gore normally, but I must say I have never changed channels so rapido in my life! So my TV viewing is over for tonight!

Got my sub copy of Quick and Crafty mag today and my latest project is in it, I still get a real buzz seeing stuff in print, I am very lucky that they like my stuff and I get chance to see it in print - such a nice feeling

Anyway, think I might venture back onto the couch for some "pile free" TV

Banana Frog

Cool!!! - Bev Fletcher of Banana Frog has set up a type pad wotsit bloggy thang which she has invited her DT to contribute to - that includes lil ol me. The Bevster has also been very busy creating new yummy stamps, forget autumn leaves and grab some of her very own homegrown UK stamps, they are LUSH

The blog is here it's still in it's infancy but should be worth a look once we all get a posting

I have been a very good girl this week and finished my Quick and Crafty project on time using some lovely papers from Sarahs Cards from a company called Collage Press

Anyway not much else to post, off to enjoy the sunshine, and download some classes from the UK Scrappers cyber crop, got visitors this weekend so can't take part but hey ho!!!

Lottery Winner

Sorry guys our huuuuge lottery win and our world tour has meant I have neglected my blog, I am up to my eyes in Champagne and Prada.Just taking a break from flicking through the Range Rover brochure..........................

HAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding - I am still poor, just been totally lazy blog - wise of late so no posts

OK so what's been happening with me........................................

1. Got published in Simply Cards and Papercraft for the first time - yey and double yey!
2. Been to see "The Producers" with Peter Kay (it was fab)
3. Enjoying the gorgeous weather but got even more hysterical about global warming
4. Hubby has finished the deck at the back of our house - AWESOME (pics to follow)
5. Been arranging a BIG party in May for hubs and I's 40th ( I should like to point out I am not 40 till July!!)
6. Downloaded even moreDIGI kits off t'interweb
7. Watched the last episode of "life on Mars" - very upset it is all over
8.Become strangely obsessed with housework (why??)
9. Spent some time at Easter in Anglesey in my mates holiday home ( I LOVE HER!!)

Phew..................so quite a bit really

Gosh now I have started I must keep this up, let's hope I can summon up the time/ brains and energy to get my arse in gear for another post xxxx