LSNED 27th September

This weekend we've had preschool Teddy staying with us. The children take it in turns to bring him home with them and then write what he's been up to in Teddy's diary. This morning as I was sticking in photos and writing about our weekend I realised that we have started somewhat of a tradition. Connor goes to his Dad's every other weekend and I like to spend some time with him snuggled up on the sofa when he comes home. It's a chance to let him settle back in to being with me again and for me to have a cuddle. And so Sundays have become movie nights without me really even realising it. But I have to say that I love it!

LSNED 25th September

The best things in life are free. I had plans today that I was really looking forward to but had to cancel because I simply couldn't afford to do them. But at the time when I would have been enjoying the highlight of the day today I was giving my son a bath instead. He's a fairly smiley boy and has a wicked sense of humour for a three year old, but every now and then he'll do a real belly laugh and it fills me with joy. It's hard to explain but I guess parents out there will be able to empathise with me. It just makes everything else insignificant. And the best thing is that it's free!

LSNED 23rd September

The War of the Roses starts earlier every year! I don't know about you but I always feel like Christmas is on it's way when I see tins of Roses, Heroes and Celebrations in the supermarkets. But this year it seems really early and the supermarkets have already started a price war over them!!! Asda and Tesco £5 each, and Sainsburys two for £12. Imagine how much (or how little) they'd have cost at Woolies! I can't think about Christmas when it's 23 degrees C.

Precocious Paper

I'm really excited to have been chosen for Tessa's Design Team. I love her creations and can't wait to start showcasing them :) If you've not discovered her blog and etsy shop yet, check them out x

LSNED 22nd September

"Regrets, I've had a few!" That's true, but I'm a firm believer in everything happening for a reason so even decisions I've made that I've regretted, things I've not said or done, things I have said or done and then regretted are not entirely regrets since they lead me to where I am right now and for the most part I'm very happy with my life and where I am in my life (although still some of those wrong turns plague me everyday and I have to deal with the ramification of some of those things that I could find regretful if I were that way inclined). So what have I learnt about regret today? Regret is a wasted emotion. Regret won't change anything. It's like stressing about things that you have no control over or can't change. What's the point? It's a wasted emotion. I feel quite strongly about that. I know that my sister in particular thinks it's odd when I don't get stressed or upset about somethings, but it's just things I can't control so I don't wasted the energy and emotion. I didn't realise that I felt the same about regret until today though. Perhaps if I was less blase about stress and upset I'd have fewer regrets though, short lived as they maybe? Who knows!?

LSNED 21st September

There's a new man in my life! And this is he, Henning Mankell. I devoured Steig Larsson's Millenium trilogy and love, love, loved them so I was bereft when I had nothing left to read since he died before even these were published. Tony kindly searched books that Steig Larsson fans would like and found Henning Mankell. He is also a Swedish writer and he's written lots of books :) I'm on my fourth in the last week and he's very much a part of my daily life. Tony might be regretting his decision...

LSNED 20th September

Today I did something out of the ordinary. I took time out to sit and have a drink and read a book whilst Connor was at preschool. Usually when Connor's at preschool it's all about getting the jobs I can't do when he's at home. This morning I had to go to see my solicitor however and afterwards I was left feeling restless so I went to the library and chose a book before retiring to the cafe to read it for half an hour before pick up time. It was so nice and even with that half an hour of me time I felt revived. I guess it's true what they say; A change is as good as a holiday!

Crafty gift cards

Check out the details of my crafty gift cards at Bubbly Scrumptious today :)

LSNED 19th September

My lesson today is that you can find what you're looking for at a car boot sale :) I love car boot sales. I love browsing on a Sunday morning and bantering a little bit to get the price down. All shopping should be like that :) I had two things I was very specifically looking for at the carboot sale this weekend and I found them both- bonus

The Studio Challenge

It's Sunday and over on The Studio we have a very special guest today. Check out what prompted me to use Halloween papers in September...!

LSNED 18th September

It's never so cold that I'll put the heating on in September!

Win a Scrapagogo Kit!

I hope that by now you've been to Scrap that! to read my Scrapagogo review :) That being so, you'll know how great I thought it was and will therefore want to know how you could get your hand on a kit for FREE! Pop along over to Scrap that! by Wednesday 22nd to find out how and good luck x

LSNED 17th September

Learn a lesson about something you're looking forward to. There are a few things that I'm looking forward to. I don't know about you but I'm a firm believer that most of the time if you want something done, it's easier and quicker to do it yourself. I have found over the years that I am quite specific about things. I like things the way I like them. Some would call me uncompromising. Some would call me obsessive. Some would call me organised and efficient. I would call myself organised and efficient (and a little bit obsessive) :) But there are times when you have to let go of the reigns and let people have their share of their jobs. Today I've learnt that part of me never really believes that these jobs will get done without nagging and constant reminders. And in the time I've wasted in nagging and reminders, I could have just done the job myself. Humpf. But today I learnt that sometimes you only have to remind people once to do that job and it's done. And I'm relieved that it's done. I have no idea how to represent that in a photo mind you...

LSNED 16th September

Thinking about what my family can teach me I learnt that I find myself looking at my little one almost every day wondering what he'll be like as a teenager and as an adult. I'm careful to treasure the moments I have with him as a little boy. I know that all too fast I'll know what he's like as a teenager. I can't believe how quickly the last (nearly) four years have gone and how much he grows up before my very eyes. But I catch myself wondering. My son is funny, bright, quirky and stubborn. But with each new influence there's a minut shift in his character So what will he be like in ten years time, in twenty years time when he's had all that experience and all those new influences?

LSNED 15th September

Sometimes I forget something that I know I had once learnt!!! Today I forgot my PIN. I use it pretty much everyday and it's been the same for about 2 years. And today I stood at the cash till with my fingers on the pads and couldn't remember my PIN. How embarrassing and how worrying that my brain could fail so spectacularly. Trouble is that I went through so many combinations in my head afterwards, trying to work out what it was that I seem to have overridden my 'PIN memory setting' in my brain and it's gone forever :(

The Craft Garden: Annalee Part 1

I've come to conclusion that I struggle with pink papers. Not all pink papers, but the baby pink variety. I've done three Annalee (from Prima) LOs and the only one I like is the bright pink one that I'm showing you today. I had to dig out some old photos of me in pink for the other two but this one is baby Bailey looking so cute. I can't believe how much he's changed in such a short time! Love the paper selection that The Craft Garden sent with the Annalee paper, including this lovely bright pink flower.

LSNED 14th September

A lesson that you're working on over and over? Well, where do I start? I have so many things that I know I need to improve about myself!! One thing I did learn today is that dieting after work on Tuesday is hard. In my quest to lose a few pounds before the wedding, I've been trying to diet. Most of the time that's fairly easy but I'm always hungry on Tuesdays after work and struggle to keep focus on the diet. Is that just because it's Two for Tuesday at Dominos?? And now that I'm aware that Tuesdays are a problem for me, I can learn from that :)

The Craft Garden: Notecards

Kerry at The Craft Garden very kindly sent me a selection of notecards from the new Prima ranges to play with. They are all very different and would make a great mini book all attached to each other but I used two on my recent LOs. You might have noticed one on this LO for my lesson learnt last week and here is my Walk in the Park LO which used another. I also used a selection of flowers, Prima gem vines and some buttons. Oh and a piece of K&Company patterned paper that is a bit old but worked well with the Paisley Road colours.

LSNED 13th September

I read Shimelle's prompt this morning thinking, 'Wow! Another coincidence'. As I was walking the dog this morning I was thinking how nice it is not to work on Mondays. Last year I did and the weekends were kind of spoilt by having to get organised on Sunday night ready for work on Monday, with marking and planning replacing relaxing in front of the TV and enjoying every drop of the weekend. This year I don't have that feeling. I enjoy the whole of the weekend and then I get ready for work on Tuesday on Monday instead. You would think that that back to work feeling would happen which ever day proceeded the day you went to work but for me it doesn't. I don't resent work this year because it doesn't interfere with my weekend. Does that make sense?

Bubbly Scrumptious Monday

Good Morning! It's my day to contribute on the Bubbly Funk web today. Over the past week or so I've been using lots of products from the shop so I thought I'd heap them all on one post to showcase them :) I think that most of them I've already shown on my blog but you can see a recap here.

One new thing to share is the passport sleeve and souvenirs wallet (for ticket stbbs etc) I made using 'Road Trip' from Prima. I've cut out pieces from the papers, stuck chipboard and pebbles on and finished off with some alphas. Quite cute I think :)

LSNED 12th September

Shimelle is right. Sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life and I like to think that I've learnt from them. Today I learnt that there are two sides to every story and if you weren't there, you can never really truly know what the real story is. Life depends so much on trust and on having faith in people doesn't it?!

The Studio and a Sketchy Thursday

I love food! It's no secret. You only have to look at me to know that :) So when Amanda asked us in today's challenge to scrap about our favourite consumable I had to think a little about what my favourite food is. It actually didn't take too long. My favourite is a cream tea, so much so that we're having a cream tea as our wedding meal rather than a formal sit down meal :) I spotted the Sketchy Thursday LO earlier in the week and couldn't resist having a go to try to win some etsy yumminess. I used some Bazzill basic black cardstock and some Basic grey (think it's Ambrosia) paper for the background. The stamped vine is from Kaiser. The Prima flowers are the wonderful collection Prima 'Autumn Harvest- Ginger' from Bubbly Funk and I added a few other flowers from my stash along with some glitter dots also from Bubbly Funk. The leaves are hand cut from an old book and I added some lace that's pretty much hidden, some string and some prima say it with pearl swirls. I love this LO. The flowers make it! Oh and the photos are edited in Rollip to look like polaroids.

LSNED 11th September

Today was the day to learn something new about myself. I didn't spend much time at home today with two long walks with the dog and a playdate but I did learn something whilst we were out walking. Everytime I see magpies I count them. Usually I only see one or two or occassionally three and I know that the Nursery Rhyme is 'One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl, four for a boy' but today I saw 10 magpies all together and I was stumped. So I learnt that I don't know the whole nursery rhyme and couldn't tell what that meant for my day. A quick look on Wikepedia helped me find the modern day version but it was interesting to learn that over the years there have been many versions. Sadly, see ten magpies doesn't mean I'm going to win the lottery today :(

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret, never to be told
Eight for a wish
Nine for a kiss
Ten for a bird you must not miss

The Craft Garden: Road Trip Part 1

You'd think I'd be sick of Prima's Road Trip having had a whole collection from Caroline at Bubbly Funk but when The Craft Garden sent me some more papers to play with I found that I still enjoyed playing with it.
I am definatley a 12x12 scrapper so I cut a sheet of Road Trip 'Twists & Turns' into small pieces and stuck them around the page to create a frame. I used just one of Kerry's hand picked coordinating flowers and cut leaves from an old black shirt which, if you've been following my blog, you'll be familiar with :) The alphas are American Craft Thickers and Chatterbox alphas. I love that the CHatterbox alphas come in upper and lower case.

LSNED 10th September

So what lessons can I learn at home? Well today I learnt that my son can play the harmonica he was given for his Birthday 11 months ago. On that day, he pick it up but didn't really know what to do with it. It's laid in the misci box in the playroom unused for almost a whole year but today he picked it up and played it. Not only was he blowing in to it, but he was moving it across his mouth in a very tuneful manor and getting so in to the whole experience that he was moving with the music, his eyes closed :) It made me smile and that's always a good thing!
For this LO I used a lovely piece of distressed cardstock with orange that tonnes in with Connor's jumper. I made the photo a little old looking using Rollip. I stamped (using Stazon) some Rusty pickle swirls to tie in with the Paisley Road Notecard (from The Craft Garden). The flowers are also a selection of flowers from The Craft Garden- a crocheted flower, an orange flower with a glitter dot from Bubbly Funk and an alterable flower from Prima from The Craft Garden with Viva Decor Croco (azure) from Bubbly Funk pasted on and a Prima flower centre added. The leaves are cut out of some Prima Paisley Road paper and I sprinkled the odd black gem at the bottom of the LO. Finally I placed a Prima butterfly from The Craft Garden on the page, misted over it, moved it to one side of the misted butterfly and stuck it on the LO.

The Craft Garden: 'Paisley Road' Part 1

Next to come under the scissors was Prima's 'Paisley Road'. Again this is not paper that I'd choose for myself but it turned out to be pretty yummy. I would also never buy 6x6 papers but you know what, I might from now on. I love how it makes me think about the papers I'm using and think about using less of the page.

The first of my Paisley Road layouts is 'All Out Alfresco', a photo of my Dad and Son on holiday this summer. The pinks of the flowers behind the table and the blues of the towels hanging around were the inspiration for this LO and the flowers from the paper tied in nicely too. I cut out leaves from the 'Bhangra' paper to add to the flowers from 'The Craft Garden' combo pack. Kerry's flower selection for this paper range is spot on and the colours again worked really well. I splattered watered down acrylic paint and some glimmer mist aroundfor good measure and punched a butterfly out of the lime green 'Bhangra' paper from the'Paisley Road' range. The paper peeking out from behind the photos is 'Panajii' and 'Dandiya'.

LSNED 9th September

Sometimes I get so caught up in teaching that I forget to open my mind to learning. That happened today. I was so busy teaching all day that I wasn't really thinking about learning and as I drove home from school I couldn't really think of anything that I'd learnt since all day I've been standing in front of kids teaching the same things I've been teaching for the last 7 years and because it's the first week there's not much interaction because the pupils just sit and watch and try to suss me out and work out how much of a push over I might be- next week they'll do the pushing and find out that I'm not much of one (fingers crossed). I did discover that I was rather disappointed when I heard one girl whisper (as much as a secondary school pupil can whisper) 'She's nice' and felt as if somehow I'd failed to make the impression on them that I had meant to, but time will tell. I was trained 'not to smile until Christmas' but this is not something I find easy because kids crack me up. So perhaps that is the small lesson I have learnt today, something about myself. I want the respect that is supposed to follow not smiling until Christmas but I don't actually want to be unsmiling until then!

The Craft Garden: Jack and Jill part 2

Another photo that leant itself well to the Jack and Jill paper from 'The Craft Garden' was this close up photo of Connor in the sunshine. For this one I cut out branches from 'Daydreamer' and 'Green Fields' along with some little birds. I used a strip of the daisy side of 'Daydreamer' and the stripes of 'Sugar skies' and pieces of lace and ribbon. I misted around a circle to the right of where the photo was going to be and cut out some butterflies to add around it.

I used three of the flowers from 'The Craft Garden' paper and flower selection pack (£2.49) and added a button, gem and pearl for flower centres. The leaves are hand cut and folded from 'Sunny Meadows'.