spring in pictures :: days 10 and 11

Well I would have posted photos from Thursday yesterday but, um, I couldn't tear myself away from all the coverage of the royal wedding. Seriously! So I bring them to you today. Our amazing weather has really made such a difference to our days. Just being able to be outside enjoying time together is such a novelty. And to be able to take pictures of blossom on the trees as opposed to scraping wet blossom of the windscreen of the car, well, it just about makes my day. I will never tire of taking photos of blossom, and there were a couple of trees just begging to have their picture taken when we went out for coffee. You may take it for granted that I no longer have any shame in how weird I might look trying to get the best shot, and when that's coupled with all the options of my Hipstamatic app I simply exist in my own little bubble of photo love! Bless my family for ignoring me and letting me just get on with it.Let me also point out just how pretty coffee is at this particular spot - it's the same place where we made pretty dishes last week. It would have been rude to pick up the dishes and not enjoy some of this!Or indeed to have robbed the boys of playing 'How much fun can you have with giant sticks?'The day went on to include a few of Conor's friends who at one point went missing and were replaced by 5 Jedi.Alas, the Jedi had to return from whence they came, leaving behind only small signs that they had ever been here. This little scene I stumbled upon in the kitchen once the boys had all gone home and it just said to me 'small boys were here and had fun'!Now as I mentioned at the start of this post, yesterday I came over all of a dither over the royal wedding. Perhaps it was tiredness, or hormones, or general lack of anything girly in this house but I couldn't get enough of it. My lovely sister hosted a royal coffee morning where she greeted us in a formal dress, my mother arrived in some shocking pink kaftan and wedding hat, and I had no good reason not to crack out the spangly silver sandals I wore at my sister's wedding! We laughed, we cried, we oohed and aahhed and generally had a jolly good time. What was not to love? And I don't even care how sad (or just downright weird) it may make me look that I took pictures of the TV screen so that I could prove I was there and watching it live! Hurrah for a jolly good show, that's what I say!Just before I leave you to ponder exactly what sort of person would take photos of a TV screen, let me remind you that the giveaway for a place on Creativity Boot Camp is still open until 9pm on Sunday. I'll randomly draw a winner on Monday and post it here after 9pm.

spring in pictures :: day 9 (and a giveaway!)

Without wanting to put the scud on it, it must be noted that we, in usually cold, wet, grey Northern Ireland, have been enjoying some unseasonable lovely weather. It's the first time in ages that I can remember being off school and being able to get the boys outside every day! And with the newly beautified back garden it's been absolutely bliss. So the images for today are pretty much what you could expect to find at our house on such a day - on this occasion with the added bonus of Nanny and Grandpa as extra playmates! Aside from the super shot off Nanny's right foot I love that so many of the pictures I got of Patrick were blurred. I'm sure there are technical reasons like ISOs and shutter speeds that explain it, but not being one for technicalities I'm going to put the blur down to the fact that he moves at lightning speed most of the time. His life is literally all about football right now and that means running, passing and shooting and it's hard to do that without a bit of blur. And for me it's important that my photographs reflect our lives rather than technical perfection (which obviously does have it's place).  No doubt they'll end up on a scrapbook page sometime in the future so that I can properly document this little stage of his life.Which leads me neatly to an exciting giveaway, whoop whoop! You can hardly have failed to notice that I'm contributing to Maegan's Creativity Bootcamp: Spring Training programme which runs for 2 weeks in May. I am so excited about this programme I can't even begin to tell you, so it is my absolute delight to be able to give away one spot on the course to one of my lovely readers. All you have to do to enter the giveaway is leave a comment here on the blog before 9pm on Saturday 30th April and I will draw a winner randomly to announce on Sunday 31st. I'm leaving it open through Saturday because I'm sure that most of my UK readers will be far too busy with Royal wedding fun and shindigs tomorrow to be bothered checking in on the blog. As, indeed, shall I! So on that note I will leave you to your preparations and wish you all a great day tomorrow, whether you're celebrating the nuptials or simply revelling in an extra day off work this year!Eta: Giveaway extended until 9pm Sunday 1st May.

spring in pictures :: day 8

Just for Sheila.Oh, he's just too cute! I've had to limit what I post today for fear I may actually give in to all the demands that we get one ourselves!! Cute puppies aside, this picture pretty much typifies our kitchen at work during the day - laptop, Lego mini figures, a small person and a cup of tea - perfect!Don't forget to stop by tomorrow for some giveaway excitement!

spring in pictures :: days 6 and 7

I'm lapsing, I know! I'm trying my best to keep up with my promise to myself. I have been taking photos every day, but it turns out that on some days I've just had too much fun and am way too tired at the end of the day to upload and blog them. It's a poor excuse, but true nonetheless. So today I bring you a snapshot of the last couple of days. On Easter Sunday we went to my mum's where she had made an amazing egg hunt for the boys. With rhyming clues no less! There were so many bags of treats that there was hardly any room left in the bucket for the last one. Although we wondered if the last treat was a year's complimentary dental care to make up for the sugar overload!Yesterday I had the most fun photo shoot with the best of friends and their extended family. Photos from that session will be on the blog soon, but after the shoot I was almost past taking any more photos, so the best I can muster up is one from before the session and a couple from my phone. We went to the park at lunch for a while and then retreated home to the garden where we did the same as most of the other days on this Easter break - played Lego, football and Wii. And I may even have fallen asleep on the bench in the sun for a nanosecond! It couldn't be helped, I promise!Do pop back tomorrow and see if I'm staying on course! And there's going to be a giveaway later in the week. Exciting indeed!

spring in pictures :: day 5

I'll admit that these pictures don't really epitomise spring. But they do epitomise what's going on in our house this spring. We're all about Ninjago, the latest creation from the very clever Lego people (it still amazes me that grown ups get paid to devise new things to do with those little bricks!). You may notice in the previous post that the t-shirts we made feature the Lego ninjas. And yesterday the boys got to go to the toy shop with the remainder of their Christmas money and the money they'd been given for Easter to buy a new Ninjago set each. They left the store with 2 of the biggest boxes of Lego you've ever seen and a giant smile each! The next 2 hours looked like this.Frequent readers of my blog will know just how much Lego is a part of our lives - Conor goes everywhere with a mini figure in his hand or pocket, Patrick is all about creating scenes which can be looked at but not touched, and I spend most of my time at home on the hunt for missing hats, swords and other tiny pieces of the stuff. The love is strong, but I'm beginning to think someone needs to talk to the chief Lego men about the box to model ratio. Their carbon footprint is definitely going to be bigger than that of the average Lego man!

spring in pictures :: day 4

Today I am:: beginning to feel like the Easter holidays are finally kicking in.:: pretending that the rest of the house (ie not the bathrooms and kitchen) don't really need cleaned.:: creating some new t-shirts using printable transfers and googled images.:: enjoying spending time with friends before they fly home tomorrow :(:: reading a Chapter and Verse by Colin Bateman - it's holiday reading at its best.:: wondering who this very big boy is because I'm pretty sure it's not my wee man! (that's another home made t-shirt - original idea spotted here):: looking at layouts here and here and here amongst other places!:: loving the sunshine and the generally happy disposition of the residents of this house :):: remembering exactly why this Friday is, indeed, so very Good!

spring in pictures :: day 3

Today we went on a little adventure to Carrickfergus Castle with some of our very best friends. I can't begin to tell you how much I'm loving these sunny days and how much more enjoyable it is visiting places like this in warm weather than it is in fine drizzle, which is usually the case. And from the noise that was coming from the 5 boys amongst the 6 kids today I'm pretty sure they were having a ball as well! After all, it is hard to beat a medieval castle when you're aged 5-7 and have a plethora of plastic swords and axes from the gift shop to wave around as you shout your battle cries! There are loads of canons around the castle. Peeking out of escarpments. Pointing towards Holywood and Bangor (how rude!). Lined up in the courtyard. And at just the perfect height for climbing on! Rumour has it that even the mums may have clambered onto one to have a photo taken, but I couldn't verify that! I love these giant games they have upstairs. It's a shame that there are always a lot of people there and it's impossible to play giant chess or snakes and ladders. But they do provide ample photo opportunities!Our adventure and general busyness these past few days have left all of us feeling grateful, happy and altogether tuckered out. And with more of the same pencilled in for tomorrow it is high time I took myself to bed in preparation. See you back here tomorrow x

Spring in pictures :: Day 1

Today, after what was actually the longest term I've ever taught, the Easter holidays finally began. Yay!!! The sun was shining, spring was in the air, I was slightly giddy on freedom and I made a rather rash promise to myself  - that I would take and blog a photo every day that I'm off. Now those of you who read this blog regularly may know that I've tried this kind of thing before and generally tend to fail miserably. But this time I feel buoyed up at the prospect of almost 2 weeks of relaxing, enjoying the new garden and the possibility of a few warm and sunny days and so I shall begin my adventure, confident that I can keep that promise.Today's photos were taken at one of our favourite haunts, Eden pottery. Just my mum, sister and me with some pottery and paints. And a hefty traybake or two, of course! It's hard to beat good company and a bit of creative flow. Sheer bliss, I tell you! Talking of creative flow, you may have noticed in my last post that I was pretty excited about Maegan's Creativity Bootcamp Spring Training. The course is going to be absolutely amazing, but on top of all that excitement, this year I am also one of the guest contributors! I can't even begin to tell you how thrilled I am to be asked to be part of such a fantastic event, or indeed, how humble I feel being in the company of the other contributors, all of whom are incredible. If you haven't already, please click on the link below to go to the Bootcamp website and check out the details. And if you like the look of the course (which I guarantee you will!) Maegan is giving a $10 discount on the cost of the course for this week only. A veritable bargain!

CBC: Spring Training

Now, I have just one question to ask you before I finish today - have you ever seen a cuter town cryer than this one?

I thought not!!

making stuff = happy me :)

I am such a procrastinator. I'm sure that statement instantly has my mother on the floor laughing as I admit out loud what I've been told pretty regularly since I was a child! And the most frustrating part of it is that I know I procrastinate, but I persist with whatever mundane or fruitless activity I'm engaged in (most likely browsing online or watching tv) instead of making myself get up and go and do whatever it is that I should be doing. Or in most cases, really want to be doing but lack the motivation to just get started.But yesterday, spurred on by a delivery of new scrap loveliness, I decided enough was enough and cleared some space on the work desk in my study and got down to some serious creating. It seems like an absolute age since I've shared any layouts on the blog. I have been creating a couple a month, mostly as commissions for the Scrapbook Magazine, but I have to wait until they are published before I can put them online. Yesterday, though, I created purely for me and the sheer enjoyment I get out of cutting paper up and sticking it on a sheet of card with photographs was immense! And I made two, yes, two layouts! Let me talk you through them.I love this picture of Patrick, taken last year during mini rugby. I love that he's playing with his bite guard which is pretty much how he spends most of the time on the pitch! I love how happy he looks and the way the sun makes his hair look all surfy and fabulous. The layout itself I'm not sure about! A tad busier than I like things, but I'm trying to break out of safe mode and do things I wouldn't normally do so I'm going to run with it. Things I do love about it are.....super cute button and stars on the photo, and ......little strips of journalling that I made more effort with than I usually would, adding a bit of ink around the edges to make it stand out.After I did that layout I did something else I never do (I know, shocking!) and scrapped 2 inanimate objects! Obviously it needs to be a pretty special object to have a layout created, but I think you'll agree these are worthy subjects.Now this layout I completely love! It's everything I love on one piece of cardstock! Pictures of pretty things made by apple, a lovely rub on, some buttons, a few strips of paper and a bit of stitching.... {sigh}....! You want to see some of that loveliness close up? Oh, ok then!It never ceases to amaze me once I get going just how good creating something from nothing makes me feel. I'd have to confess to having dragged the sewing machine out for a couple of (very small) projects lately as well. And in doing so I have laid my borrowed pair of knitting needles to rest and accepted that I'm a sewer, not a knitter. There's just something I love about the feel of fabric in a pile all ready and waiting to be made into something useful or pretty. And it's so much faster which means the gratification comes that much quicker! And there are so many amazing fabric shops on Etsy it would be rude not to buy some, right?So I plan on making and creating a whole lot more this Easter holiday. And I'm going to drag the kids down with me! I have all sorts of plans going on in my head - if any of them come to fruition I'll be sure to share them with you here! On the subject of creating, if you're in the slightest bit creative and fancy getting stuck into some new and inspiring ideas, you absolutely have to check out Maegan's Creativity Bootcamp: Spring Training. Check out the website for details and I'll keep you updated here as well. Registration opens this Monday along with some further details of the course - I'm definitely up for it and it would be great if some of you joined me for the ride! Until then I'm going to leave you with a couple of layouts that I did for the magazine this month based on the ideas of the great escape and favourite places. No big surprises with what I chose to scrap!Don't forget to check out Bootcamp, since I've left you all these lovely links to it! Have a great weekend x