2 out of 3 ain't bad

In the words of the mighty Meat! I've been very bad and not gone to bed when I should and instead did this layout of two of my favourite pictures. The top one is of Patrick lying on me and the bottom one Conor. I remember feeling so totally content when the boys were so tiny that they just lay on my chest and fell asleep, and that time disappears before you've really had time to appreciate it. So this one is for my own little book. In hindsight, I think the photos would have looked better in black and white, but it's done now and I don't really care. This one is for my 'It makes me happy' book, and it does. Make me happy, that is. I'm so far behind with Ann(i)e's challenges I can hardly bear it, but this one is about #10 or 11. The one that unifies 4 papers together with stencilled paint, or in my case stamped paint. Really love how it turned out, even in colour!

Where does the time go?

Seriously, if anyone has seen where my time went could you please let me know so I can go and get it back since I had a lot more to do! I promised myself that I would do 3 layouts this weekend and so far I've only done 1, and it's 22.10 on Sunday night. I'm guessing that's probably my lot!

I say I don't know where my time goes, but I'm pretty sure I saw Patrick and Conor sneaking off with most of it this weekend. The poorly little chicken pox sufferer has been pretty demanding, although after 2 massive tantrums today (which the grandmother will think I have made up!) I'm fairly sure the worst is over. More than likely Conor will get it just in time for my days off this week! That said, I honestly don't know how much more of my time that baby is after, since he now has me up during the night again, clearly aware that during term time it really is the line of least resistance!

Anyway, I did get to do this page about 'Trouble', as we so often refer to Conor these days. He is such a monkey. All cries and tears until you pick him up then nothing but smiles. And he moves so fast already, always towards poor Patrick's things. It's as if he was born knowing that his lot in life was to infuriate others while retaining the ability to melt their hearts at the same time! Sometime during the summer he produced this face. It usually occurs just as you're trying to shovel more Weetabix into his mouth and is accompanied with a sort of huffing down his nose, thereby spreading said Weetabix all over himself and the feeder! These phots caught it perfectly, and they make me laugh every time I look at them. Journalling (scrawled on the rocket paper) says: "We've always said you'd be 'nothing but trouble'! And once you produced this face, we knew our suspicions were spot on! If this isn't trouble I don't know what is!"

I'm having so much fun with my fab Rhonna Farrer frames that I downloaded from 2peas. Totally worth the bargain price of $4! And as always, BasicGrey rocks!

It's all gone pear shaped!

And no, I don't mean my post-children body, although I can see why you would have immediately made that connection! No, let me run you through my day so far.

1. Got up at 6.45 to feed Conor - not a bad start

2. 7 am Patrick appeared after having asked for and drunk 2 glasses of apple juice in bed

3. 7.05 Patrick produces 2 glasses of apple juice all over the kitchen floor and down his jammies

4. 7.10 Get Patrick changed and discover that he has the dreaded pox! It was inevitable since half his nursery school have had it and he's not been particularly well for about a week

5. Everyone is content for a while so mummy gets a shower and fixes foxy new hair do

6. 9 am Conor goes back to bed (admittedly this is anything but pear-shaped and is indeed heart-shaped!)

7. Mummy is so pleased that all is well in her happy (poxy) house that she decides to clean a bit

8. 10am after cleaning the kitchen I notice a funny smell, only to realise I'm about to set the house on fire because the steriliser, which is sitting rather dangerously I admit on the hob, is quietly melting! I had accidentally knocked on the ring where it was sitting as I cleaned the cooker and it was spreading all over the top of the hob!

9. Patrick has a blue fit because he thinks the smoke alarm is about to go off - why wouldn't it since there is now smoke practically bellowing out of my kitchen as I scramble to get the melting plasitc off the ceramic hob so that Michael doesn't have to know about this if I choose not to tell him. He rarely reads this, but I've just realised that most of the steriliser is now all over one of his wallpaper scrapers so the truth will out eventually!

10. All is well now and harmony is restored - at least for a while, although foxy new hair do is looking decidedly un-foxy due to sweating over earlier fire hazzard. Conor is just about to make an appearance, so I can only guess what will happen next.

Do check back later for further installments of crazy life with Janine and the boys. I hope no one from social services reads this!!!

Halfway to 70!

This was how Michael wished me happy birthday this morning! The cheek of it! He'll be sorry when I get to retirement age a whole 7 years before him - being older won't seem like such a bad thing then ha ha!! So anyway, happy birthday to me! We were just talking at teatime tonight about how David Cameron could be sure of being elected next year if he made it against the law to have to go to work on your birthday. Bad enough that I had a full teaching day, but I had kids in detention too. Although, since one of them didn't bother turning up I decided to let the other one go early - and jolly well requested formal detention for the reprobate! I felt like it was really my birthday then! The simple things really do make me happy :)

I have set myself the task of listing 35 things that truly make me happy - I think it will do me good to actually think about this, so here goes:

1. Michael

2. 2 gorgeous sons

3. Great parents who never say no (or rarely do anyway!)

4. My lovely sister - see below for a pic, although not her best side!

5. Way above average in-laws! Truly thankful for them given some of the horror stories I hear!

6. Cups of tea

7. Dairy Milk chocolate

8. The first flick through a new magazine - combined with # 6 and 7 = perfection!!

9. My camera

10. Gareth and Rosie

11. Too many other good friends to mention in one go (Leanne, Sheila, Jo, Jan...........it just goes on!)

12. 'Friends' - as in TV show. Doesn't matter how many times you've seen it before!

13. The computer

14. The internet

15. Scrapbooking supplies - can't believe this is only no. 15!

16. Magazine subscriptions

17. Seeing Patrick run into nursery

18. Seeing how pleased he is to see me when I pick him up

19. 2peas

20. E-mails from friends I don't get to see too much

21. Seeing how in love with their babies the mums I have photographed are

22. Wednesday, 3pm!

23. TK Maxx bargains

24. Reading other people's blogs

25. Fat Face

26. Trips to York

27. A whole night's sleep - uninterrupted, of course!

28. Conor's babbling

29. Michael's 'Strictly Come Dancing' dancing - a sight to behold! Even funnier than the moonwalk!

30. Bill Bryson books

31. Visa bills that look payable

32. A glass of red wine on a Friday night

33. Stationery shops

34. Fairy lights

35. Rainy Sunday afternoons in the winter with the fire lit and a good film on tv.

Oh, the list really could go on, but I shall stop there. Have a lovely evening - I'm off to indulge in a few of the above! Obviously it would be wrong not to post some birthday photos, though!!

Sorry Lesley - it was just too funny not to post!

We have no hair

At least, there's a whole lot less on our heads than there was a day ago! I've long been thinking about getting mine cut short again, but I always get a bit deluded somewhere along the line that if I just keep growing it, it will look like Jennifer Aniston's! Alas, in my (almost) middle age wisdom it turns out that it will never be so. (Apparently my post-children midriff will also never look like Jennifer Aniston's!) So I give you the new 'do'.

It's affectionately being referred to as the FatFace cut, inspired by the beautiful girl in the Autumn catalogue. Now all I need is some birthday money to order some chunky jumpers to go with it!  However, not one to be outdone, Michael decided he'd finally do what he's threatened to do for ages now, and took his down to a #1 all over. He is dreading seeing his mum haha! It would be fair to say I'm not overly keen on it, but I do think he looks particularly handsome in this fabulous photo!

Obviously I'm going to have to post a picture of Patrick to make up for the shock some of you may have had looking at these previous two photos! I love this wee man! Look how happy he is - a direct result of having both mummy and daddy at home for two consecutive days. And another reason why I need to get my own business up and running. I leave you with this.

While the boys are asleep...

Mummy will throw a page together and get it posted in record time! I've lost track of which challenge this is, but I've sneakily left out the stencil one due to lack of both time and stencils! This is for the 'journal on patterned paper and use it in a mini book' challenge, although I just don't have any idea how I could have done a mini book! So in my quest to keep things a bit simpler I have just printed on to one little piece. Admittedly a pain to read on screen but it's done now. Love me this Basic Grey range, and I will always have space for a Scrapworks Tailored Tab! Get some if you don't have any - you won't regret it!

I could eat him up!

Seriously, I could! He is just the most cuddly, smiley, gorgeous bundle of baby. Now I know it seems like I might be biased, but I would challenge you (if you actually could) to pick him up and not instantly agree. If he wasn't asleep right now, which I am thankful for after another rubbish night with him, I would interrupt this post and go and cuddle him right now! Just look at him...

He's just too yummy for words!

On another note, I've been meaning to post this picture of me beside one of my storyboards for ages. This is one I did for a friend of her family and new baby. It's 5' wide and 2.25' deep and it hangs on the first wall you see when they open their front door! Better advertising couldn't be bought! This is me lying on the floor beside it to give you an idea of the size (not one of my better shots,but it serves its purpose).

If you fancy one for yourself, you know how to find me! Have a great weekend :)

Just wanted to say thanks!

You know you're really sad when you get the boys down to bed and the first thing you do is trundle off into the study to check whether anyone posted on your blog or not! It totally makes my day when you girls (and the occasional boy!) take time to comment on something I've said or photos I've taken. And on days like today where I felt like I'd done a day's work by the time I got the boys to my mum's at 8am your comments make me smile:) Maybe it's because you all say such nice stuff! In fact I've never seen a negative comment on a blog anywhere - and I read plenty! So I just thought I'd say something nice to you all as well - THANKS!

And Jo, you know I'd love to do proper photos of these gorgeous boys!

I'm totally mortified!

It was all a bit of a "worst nightmare" scenario. There I am, Janine Boyd, photographer, armed with camera, spare batteries and even some bubbles to help attract little one's attention for the perfect shot. Had a cup of coffee, chatted with mum and dad, took a few test shots........and then my memory card died:o(  And I mean it totally died. Wouldn't let me take any more. Stupid gadgets. This was the 3rd attempt to actually photograph this little girl (who was too cute by far, not that I have any photos to prove it!) and now I've had to reschedule again. I felt like such an idiot, but they were very gracious and understanding.

These, however, are from a shoot I did a few weeks ago for a really lovely family. Their little girls were beautiful to photograph and I'm pretty pleased with these. Do enjoy while I go off to order some spare memory cards!

Two become four

Teeth, that is, not children haha! Conor finally decided, after about 2 months of dribbling and paying no attention whatsoever to my cunning plan to get him to sleep through the night, that it was high time the top two teeth made their appearance in his mouth! Thank the Lord! He has been hard work this past week or so, off his food and milk and generally not his usual smiley self. So that's 4 down, 18 or so to go. I can hardly wait for the molars!

Anyway, check me out with my super fast scrapping today. I did these 2 layouts for Annie's challenges # 6 and 7. I'm now officially only 3 behind and am feeling altogether chuffed with myself. This one was a challenge to use triangles of patterned paper and some stitching. In a bid to make life easier (and hence more enjoyable) I used rub on stitches. These are some of the first pictures I took with my camera and I love the warmth of the colours and the glow the fairy lights cast.

This next layout is an 8x8 for a book I'm doing just for me. It's simply going to be a place for me to record the things that make me happy. I'm sure the boys will be interested in it someday!! The challenge was to use 7 different patterned papers to create a background.

I love that I got both of these done so quickly. I'm sure it's because of the challenges. They're also making me be a bit more spontaneous with my choice of papers and not worry so much about the placement of photos or embellishments. Instead I'm just doing what I feel like doing and hoping for the best. And who cares if you can see the odd glue mark or the rub on stitches aren't quite in a straight line?

This idea of making life easier and more enjoyable has been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe since I'm back at work and have a lot more to cram into my days and less time at home to do the things I really want to. I bought a great magazine today, a US one called Real Simple. It's based on the premise that life should be lived and not done. That we should spend more time just being and not doing. I like the sound of that. So today I spent a lot of time on the floor with Conor and did some puzzles with Patrick. And the white wash is still lying upstairs waiting to be done. But guess what? The world didn't stop turning and I have a few more moments to treasure when the boys are both at school and I can't do those things with them anymore.

Go on. I dare you to leave a chore undone tomorrow and just do something nice instead! Or don't even do anything! Let me know how you get on.

And before I go, please stop by my friend Sheila's new blog and say hi! She's a hoot and I love that she's been totally sucked into the world of scrapping and blogging!