YAY! My first gift bag!

The beginning of forever…

One thing led to another…

… & before a realized what I was doing I’d rearranged half the room. My craft room is great, I love it. However, I still wasn’t sure I had some if the things in the right place yet. Today, when I was clearing away one project ready to start another one, I began to feel like all I was doing was moving deck chairs on the Titanic. Every where I wanted to put something down there was already something else in it’s way. So I would move that somewhere else & then later want to put something else there, & so it went on.

I’m suffering from insomnia again at the moment. My neck is causing me a lot of discomfort, for reasons that are not very clear. I have some stuff fogging my brain & clouding my thoughts – both during the day & at night. I know I’m not on the ball right now, I’ve given the boys each other’s lunches a few times now, & is not always easy for them to switch at school. I’m forgetting things & behaving clumsy. It’s not a bad thing that I am just hanging out at home for most of this week, less likely to get into any serious trouble. Instead, I could have gotten my self into a right pickle moving shelves, but of course I didn’t think of that at the time, or how bad it would be for my neck!

Still, it’s done now & I think it will work better to have all my card making & scrapbooking stuff occupying one corner of the room instead of either side of my big craft table. I now have my eye on our old dining room table to put my sewing machine on, but it’s currently being stored in a different part of the house. I think it best that I save that for another rainy day.

 

I got carried away…

… Scrap booking with my BFF & forgot I hadn’t written anything. So there you go now I have!

Building…

I have had a very stressful day in which I did this years ironing, & going to one of my favourite stores in the whole world – the Scrapbook Warehouse – where I remembered while sat at the lights, almost there of course, that they are closed on a Monday!

Therefore, if anyone complains about the lack of blog tonight they can find me in my craft room building Lego!

Sunny Saturday…

07.30 – YAY! I slept better & even had a little sleep in.

09.30 – Elder child’s first ‘real’ field hockey game out in deepest darkest Surrey. I’m off duty because I already had a cardmaking class booked before the game schedule was published. Hubby has a long drive I kindly let him take Mercury, my Mini convertible, it is a beautiful day & she also has sat nav. I’m only driving a few blocks down the street.

10.00 – The class is about using pēbēo fantasy prisme & moon paints – which I discover are AWESOME! We do our paint effects first & then while they are drying on a hot plate of all things, we build are cards. I always lower the average age by about 20-30 years at these classes, & the other ladies drive me crazy because they don’t listen. Honestly, you would some of them had never made a card in their life.

11.30 – I get a text from hubby at half time – our son scored his first goal, which ended up being the only goal his side scored – they lost 6-1 but did well for a first game.

12.15 – I finish early but my painting still needs to bake a bit longer & I need to get away from the fools who have just stuck their cardstock together upside down, so I go shop -well what is the point in learning a new technique if you don’t buy the toys to do it yourself?

12.45 – Home to cook a lunch that will feed three hungrey boys.

14.30 – we decide to go to MEC (a ‘candy’ store for everything & anything outdoorsy). Elder child needs new cycling shorts before he strains something trying to get into the current ones, & younger child needs new rock boots. An hour & a half later we exit the store having bought new cycling tops aswell as shorts, a top for younger child aswell as his boots, & a hat, a pair of Birks & a 2 spikey balls for me! (Poor hubby only managed 3 bags of electrolyte mix)

16.45 – Arrive home to animals sprawled all over the kitchen wasting away.

Now – I need to do a quick change & tidy up before the nanny arrives at 6pm for dinner with friends – in my new sandals!

 

Back to normal…

As operation ‘she shack’ comes to a close & our home begins to return to normal again, there is still so much needs to be done. Before I can move anything into my new craft room I have to stain the woodwork & touch up the paint. It is the start of a weeklong staycation for my husband, we have set aside the time to complete all the odd jobs that we’ve saved up for some time. We all do it, save up stuff for ‘when we have more time’ the problem is that if you don’t have the time when you say it, you never will. Well we have a list (you knew there would be a list involved didn’t you) on the fridge that is now almost full of all the stuff we are going to get done this coming week. It will be interesting to see if by the time our friends arrive from the UK, on Easter Saturday, just how much of that list is ticked off.

It’s also important that we spend some quality time together as a family. Life has been very chaotic recently with the renovations & everything that’s been going on with me knee that any spare time has been dedicated to what we need to do get done & not what is important as a family. We do have one thing planned for next Friday, & I would really like to see my elder son get out on his road bike if the weather holds. Of course we still have Java, & my boys love going to the forest & exploring, that in it self is a great fun family thing to do, but probably not very knee friendly.

We’ve managed to con a friend of ours into helping us get sorted on Sunday, in exchange for a decent home cooked square meal. His wife & kids have gone back to the UK for spring break so I need to make sure he eats some vegetables than he can at least be honest with his wife when she asks.

I should be really excited about finally having my own space, but right now I’m just trying to figure out where I go next. I’ve now had so many conflicting opinions I really don’t know what to believe or whose advice to take for the best. I’m sure once I start filling my room with fancy paper & fabric & let the creative juices flow I’ll feel very excited.

Operation ‘She Shack’!

Day 1 of our renovations, & so far so good. What are we doing? Well, it all began when the old lady who lived here before us asked for her table back! Why did we have her 8ft solid wood dining room table? Simple, she was down sizing & as you can imagine there are not many rooms in the average house that it would fit into, never mind in an apartment. She offered it to family members; nobody could accommodate it, so we jokingly said ‘we’ll have it!’ & that was that!

An agreement was drawn up with the sale of the house stating that if we needed it moving or she wanted it back, it would be moved at her expense. This thing was big & heavy, & it was standing on a very nasty carpet that we knew could only be lifted when the table finally moved on. That was in early December, the new table arrived just after that in time for Christmas (& is even bigger would you believe!), however, this one is in several pieces so much easier to move.

An extension at the end of the dining room has another room on the other side of a wall that we have been using as a shed. When we moved in, nearly 4 years ago, we found some old plans for the house, which is approximately 80-90 years old. The plans that were originally drawn up for that extension stated that is currently the shed, was meant to be a sewing room. The room was only half finished, & that end of the dining room is the only room that was extended on the main floor & didn’t have the hardwood matched, maybe she ran out of money, hence the nasty carpet instead. The dining room hardwood is completely covered by the carpet, & the hardwood underneath extends to about two thirds of the room length.

Now that the other table is gone we can lift the carpet, complete the flooring, & the best bit, knock a door through to the ‘shed’ & finish the sewing room. Believe it or not, that room is going to be exactly that – my she shack!! Not only is it just off the dining room, it also looks out onto the garden, therefore perfect for sewing, scrapbooking, card making, and of course… writing!!!

WARNING: Mouth works faster than brain!

This is a problem I have always had. Usually it’s amusing so I get away with it, often it is a blonde moment when I just don’t get it, and occasionally I completely drop myself in it! Then there are the times when my kind & generous nature agrees to do something that will take up time & energy.

So there I am hanging out in the school lobby minding my own business just waiting for No.1 (No.2 was in dance!). I get talking to the president of the parent association. I don’t know how but we get talking about our principal retiring, & gifts etc. This is where my mouth started, even though my brain was a little late in engaging, it very quickly started saying “SHUT UP!!” But no, the mouth just kept going…

What did I get myself into?

Well I am a HUGE crafter. So much so, that we are about to renovate a part of the house so that I can have my own room. Once a week my best friend & I make cards, scrapbook, & have a good old bitching session during the process. We get excited about cardstock, embellishments, die cuts, stamps, ink, embossing, heat guns & oh so much more.

You know what’s coming don’t you…

That’s right, I first of all offered to make a personalized retirement card, which the president thought was a fantastic idea. She was also trying to think of something very personal, a keepsake of the 16 years he’s been principal or a project the kids were involved in. Then my mouth really got going, ‘how about a scrapbook?’ Then she remembered the scrapbooks that I made for our winter gala fundraiser last November (they fetched $3000 each at the live auction – which I’m rather proud of thanks to my best buddy for helping me). The response of course was “what a fantastic idea!”

As her son arrived & she had to shoot off, we left the idea open & said we would talk about soon. I would work on some thoughts & ideas in the meantime. As I too gathered No.1 & headed off to the coffee shop to join other mum’s who were waiting for siblings, I chastised myself for being to kind & generous. This would need to be done by June, yes ages away, but not really when you consider the potential scale of the project. However, it is what I do, & I do it well & love doing it. It’s always fun to do something different. I have done several baby books, a wedding book, holiday books & of course my own kids scrapbooks (which constantly get put on hold to accommodate what my mouth can’t say no to!), a retirement book for a fantastic principal who stands at the door every morning & shakes the students hands as they enter. Who knows every child by name, who their siblings are, who their parents are, & even who their grandparents are. A principal that will be missed by everyone, students, staff & parents. To be part of documenting his achievements & wishing him well in his retirement, I’ll find the time even if I have to stay up all night!!