Playing catch up

Most days when I look at friends' blogs and other fab scrap sites I see new layouts everyday. Take my good friend Jo for example. No sooner is she back home from a fab family outing til she has the photos uploaded and a page or two completed! Absolutely brilliant. And Sheila has gone scrap mad! But me, I take pictures galore, leave them on the card til I need it for a session before uploading them. And I am brimming over with inspiration from the hundreds of scrap magazines I read but rarely muster up enough energy to actually create the layouts that are in my head! But this last week or so I have actually managed to do a few layouts that I've been thinking about when I should have been marking coursework or doing chores!!

I love these pictures of Conor playing with his toys uninterrupted by his big brother! He's getting so much better at amusing himself and is amazed by everything he sees these days. I've been a bit inspired by Jamie Waters' layouts in Ali Edwards book. I love how she uses patterned paper.

I'm on a bit of an inspiration kick when it comes to layouts at the minute - see above note about reading magazines! This time doing what I've seen many do, and using a square punch to crop photos and paper. It's a bit busier than my usual stuff but I like it! Obviously scrapping the birthday pictures from last year!

This last one was a bit of an unexpected layout. A few months after Conor was born last year, Patrick began pulling out his hair, right on the top of his head. I came across this picture while looking for the ones in the previous layout and was really taken aback. I had forgotten just how much hair he had pulled out - a patch nearly the size of my hand. I had never intended to scrap this little episode, but when I saw the photo I realised it is an important and noteworthy part of his little life and deserved to be recorded. It certainly was the focus of our lives for a few months and had knock on effects galore. I'm glad I've done this page. Loving my doodles as well! Good to see I'm behind the times as usual with scrap trends, but it's all good, right?

2 boys and an egg hunt

It's all been a bit crazy around here over Easter. Good crazy, that is. For a start the weather has been fantastic so we've been outside a LOT! This is good because it means less tv, more activity and lots of fresh air. However, this is not good because the garden is a health and safety hazard as far as Conor is concerned - lots of uneven paving and a playhouse with a little wooden ladder (leading only to A&E as far as I can see!) This is not going to be the year of lazing in my sunchair while watching the boys play peacefully! But we've been having fun. The grass is a football pitch, a rugby pitch, a cricket pitch and a golf course all rolled into one. Thankfully we've made friends with our neighbour behind who I think will be tossing a lot of balls back into our garden! She seems jolly lovely:)

Easter Monday was a great day. We went to Nanny and Grandpa's for a BBQ (I may have previously mentioned that my dad is the king of bbqs. See post about Christmas dinner, ie, bbq'd steaks!) Nanny had also painstakingly organised a totally fun egg hunt for Patrick, complete with clues and rhymes! You can tell she was a primary school teacher in her hey day! The egg hunt looked like this:

1. Find clue in paper bag.

2. Reach into bag for next clue and mini egg treats.

3. Stash treats in fab little bucket!

4. Read next clue to find next little bag of Easter loveliness!

5. Stuff face!

Conor also seemed to be having a great time while all this was going on, although what exactly he was up to, or about to be up to, we're not too sure! Definitely trouble of some sort judging by this face!

 

Finishing up with a VERY cute pic of my little lovelies. Patrick is totally loving Conor at the minute - he better soak it up while the going is good! Playing with my new set of actions from Jinky. Love them but need more time to play with them.

 

How cute is this?

I've been taking photos this week. Of babies. But not the human sort.

I honestly could have brought one home with me, but common sense prevailed and I left them behind. They were just the cutest things. And I get to go back and take pictures of the one they're keeping. He's the runt of the litter and hasn't been well and was in isolation from the rest when I took these.

I am, however, going to do newborn photos for my friend Jen's sister next week which is very exciting as the baby will be less than a week old. Again, nearly dying with excitement! I LOVE taking newborn pictures - all that scrunched up loveliness and parents just beside themselves with how amazing their tiny bundle is. Yummy all round!

In other yummy news, we spent such a fab morning with our top chums ever, Gareth and Rosie, and Auntie Lesley too, of course! Lots of coffee, cream doughnuts (all part of the Florida plan!) and then lovely lunch at Eden pottery. So great to catch up and spend a bit of time with people we totally love to death:) Wish we could see them more often though. We miss you guys too much!

After lunch, Patrick and I decorated the incredible Easter egg Lesley bought for him. It's a Smarties one that you put face stickers on before you eat it. This is Patrick's doing!

It's like Mr Potato Head, but edible! Love it.

Nestle have done well this Easter!

And yes, Patrick is still bored with the camera!!

Finishing off tonight with a few words we've used on our Easter service invitations.

Death is dead

Love has won

Christ has conquered!!

Have a lovely Easter:)

Pencil Lines Layout

Every week I check out the Pencil Lines blog and sketch and think to myself, "I'm definitely doing that this week." And every week I find about a hundred other non-scrap related things to do instead and so I never get round to it. Until now! I have finally allowed my inner creativity to over-ride the urge to either surf the internet, veg out on the sofa or do mundane jobs. I decided to do a page about Conor's use of the phrase "uh-oh" which we hear all the time! It really is very cute, but generally accompanies some minor spillage, droppage or other toddler misdemeanour! I may have been urged on by the Hambly goodies that one lucky post will receive, but regardless, another little instance of our life has been scrapped for future generations to enjoy!

Glorious day

It honestly felt like summer was just around the corner here today. The sun was out all day and it was warm enough to be out in short sleeves this afternoon. I know that this will particularly gall my sister who is in York visiting friends for the weekend and who told me earlier that they were wearing hats and gloves! We, on the other hand, took a walk down to the beach. This is why we moved here:)

And I think my favourite shot of the day was this...

Today's other major event was our trip to the Big into Baby show at the King's Hall. It's one of those events that has exhibitors from Huggies to interior design to clothing. I went mainly to see what the photographers had to offer, and I have to say they were genuinely impressive. So I had better keep up the practice! However, the highlight was that Patrick was brave enough to get his face painted. He has shied away from this kind of activity up to now, so I was really chuffed that he waited patiently in line with Nanny (bless her for coming with me and doing general childminder duties on her day off!) for a good 20 minutes. The end result was this.

How cute is that? He kept it on all day and I pretty much had to bribe him at bedtime to get his face washed! He ran round all day doing Spiderman 'stunts' and pretending to catch us in webs! We loved it but Conor was less than impressed!

A thoroughly lovely day in the Boyd household (obviously ignoring the continued whingeing from tiny - it's just assumed at the moment that he isn't in great form, poor little lad). So how was your Saturday?

Am I seeing a trend here?

I was taking photos of our house today to post here (see copious pictures below!) and Patrick kept asking if he could take a picture with my camera. I've let him do this before, as my avatar proves, usually with varying results. However, today he actually blew me away with the picture he took. Bear in mind that there was a zoom lens attached so it was fairly heavy and he has tiny nearly 4 year old hands. This is what he took -

How cool is this? I seriously couldn't believe it! The camera wasn't even on auto! All I said to him before he took it was "Can you see yourself in the mirror through the camera?" To which he replied, "Do you mean this?" and showed me the lcd screen. Amazing!

Anyway, now that we've established that my child is indeed a protege (which may explain the extreme tantrums of the last few days!), on to the photo show of the new house. I call this following series of pictures "A study in Magnolia". It will be apparent why! The first photos are of my  STUDIO. Not the study. Michael may say what he wants, but this room will be mine!

 

This is Patrick's bedroom. There are great plans for this in our heads that involve removing the peach anaglypta wallpaper sometime in the very near future!

At this point I feel I need to reassure you that we're not exactly all unpacked and tidy! This is the guest room - any time you Bolands or Hafermanns feel the desire to come visit, this is where you get to stay!

The landing was originally a bedroom which was done away with to make room for a proper staircase up to the master bedroom which is an attic conversion. This was one of the features that really drew me to the house. I've always wanted to have this bench out on display somewhere, and on this landing it almost looks lost!

Now, the reality of the kitchen is not apparent in this picture. The cupboard doors are all on their last legs, the floor tiles are fairly poor and the walls are tiled from floor to ceiling and the tiles have been painted over in another lovely shade of magnolia! In a few months, after the builders and kitchen fitters have been it will be the most stylish kitchen ever, but until then it is a littlle short of hideous!

The main living room is lovely, although it is in need of some soft furnishings and a lick of paint! It has double doors that open out onto the garden which the boys will especially love come the warmer weather. I love this room:)

And the view out to the garden (notice full line of washing - this line makes me very happy!)

Our bedroom is in the attic conversion. I have to confess that I love the fact that we're on a whole separated floor from the boys! Perhaps it's the extra distance between us and Conor that has assisted his sleeping through the night! Patrick insisted on being in this picture as he was having great fun jumping on the bed!

Now the sea is a mere 5 minutes away from us, but try as I might I cannot see it from the house! I've craned my neck and stood on chairs, but it's not happening! But to prove that it does sort of have a sea view, I stuck the camera out the skylight in the ensuite and zoomed in and this is what I got! Pretty impressive, eh!

Right, that must surely make up for not posting any pictures for ages! One other thing that I was thinking today, whilst browsing on 2peas was how great the creating garden is. I love just spending time looking through the mountains of inspiration that the Garden Girls provide on there. (Is it just me or does anyone else secretly want to be one of them?!) I save so much stuff into my book of scraps, and then just forget about it. So I was thinking, perhaps I should challenge myself to use this inspiration. And then I thought, I bet stacks of other people do the same as me, and maybe we could have some sort of online challenge based on the creating garden or our books of scraps? If you're interested in doing something like this leave me a comment on this post and I'll see what I can come up with. I'm going to do it anyway, but it's always more fun to do this sort of thing with others. Are you with me?

CONNECTED!!

Woohoo!! I am positively giddy at our return to Broadband Land! I feel like I'm going to have to spend the next few days just cruising people's blogs and checking out scrap stores and photo sites just to catch up with what's happening! One of my first stops will be 2peas where I was unceremoniously logged off every time I moved from one page to another, therefore rendering any order impossible. It looks like my mother's day present will be 25% more than was previously expected! Oh well, needs must and all that!

I'm sure there's lots for me to blog about, but right now I really just want to visit my online chums quick smart, and that's precisely what I'm going to do! Jo, I promise pics of the house tomorrow - no kidding! Until then, I shall see you all at your blogs!! Boy, it's good to be back:)

Happy Mother's Day

Alas, no pictures again, but I've called at my parents' house to get a Mother's Day internet fix (I hate Orange!!) and thought I'd share a few funny things with you. One of my presents today was a hilarious little book entitled "Behind Every Great Woman is Her Bum". Clearly Michael was prepared to dice with death giving me something with this title for my special day! Anyway, it's a collection of funny little drawings with v amusing 'quotes' from imaginary children, and a few of them really made me laugh. So I thought I'd share.

1. I know it's a bit late, but thank you for all that lovely breastmilk! It was really delicious!  (Wouldn't you love to hear that some day? Do you think it would eradicate the memories of mastitis, cracked nipples and leaky boobs??)

2. I don't know what it's like now, but back then my mum's womb was SUPER COOL! (Ha ha!)

3. In cave times, mums' bodies were made to protect the cave while the dad was out hunting mammoths, and to eat chocolate. Now that the mammoths are extinct, it is totally within a mum's rights to eat chocolate all the time! (Justification if ever I heard it!)

My other presents included the new cd by The Fray, which I'm v excited to listen to, some delicious truffles from M&S, and imaginary vouchers from 2peas. This really means that I've come to my parents' house to spend money from the joint account on scrapbook stash! So I know you'll excuse me while I abandon this post and get on with that pressing matter!

Hope you've had a great Mother's Day x

I know you won't believe this

But we have no internet access! Now you're thinking, hey, how come I've ended up in the archive section of Janine's blog where she rambles on and on in a kind of relentless fashion about the lack of internet access? I know that's how I feel. Obviously we've moved and are currently waiting for Orange to get off their backsides and connect us again. It's like Groundhog Day! And I really am not going to get into a ranting session about how pathetic it all is, but I miss you guys!! I thought I better put something above the very cute baby picture - some people were telling me that despite his total cuteness, they were getting a little tired of him (I won't tell his mum!) So this is really just a quick post to say we're alive and well, albeit that one of us has a slight crack in his head after a nasty fall last week! Hopefully we'll have some sort of access soon, but this time round I've decided that it's less painful to check only once every few days rather than every 15 minutes. That way I stand a better chance of retaining some sanity and my kids are less likely to ask "What does s*#* mean?"

Just one photo

Couldn't resist this one. Am dying to get moved and organised so I can proof the rest of his shoot. This is my sister's friend's little one. Loving his italian dark hair and his cute little frown!!