Circle Journal

Finally, I've managed to find time to finish my Circle journal album and upload the LO's from it! This CJ was completed by ladies in my scrapping team on UKS and I'm sooooo pleased with the results. The theme was 'Women in my family' - I sent each member an envelope with photos of a different female member of my family, going back several generations and asked my teamies to scrap it with either a sewing theme or colours from the Cosmo cricket 'Material Girl' line. So with out further ado... My mum (scrapped by AD):

My maternal Grandmother 'Nanny Nora' (scrapped by Sally):

My Paternal Grandmother (scrapped by Jackie):

My Maternal great grandmother (on my grandfathers side) scrapped by Dawn:

Me as scrapped by my best scrapping buddy, Mel (love ya Mel!):

Florence May, my maternal great grandmother as scrapped by Tracy:

My paternal great aunt, Pauline scrapped by Paula:

Thank you girls so much! I love my album. You did a wicked job! :)

Now all I need is a snappy name for the album cover- any suggestions?

Happy Mothers Day!

I hope you had a good day- I'm sure you deserve it! My family thoroughly spolit me by giving me two gorgeous Cath Kidston bags. I'm a massive CK fan and love my bags so these were perfect! More importantly, K made sure that I had a lie in this morning - bliss! - and when I was woken up, it was with a cup of tea. A very rare experience nowadays but one which was very much appreciated and enjoyed. After Church, we went out on our bikes for a while to spend some quality family time and then K cooked dinner for us all. A perfect day in my books. How did you spend Mothering Sunday?

Too much time..

on my hands? Yup, probably. You'd think that with 2 young children, a house to run and schoolwork to do, I'd have better things to do this afternoon than make 36 cupcakes but it would seem that I don't. lol. Ah well, a little of what I fancy, makes me happy! Chocolate nests: Roses in bloom:

Plus chocolate and banana. Yum! Rest assured, these aren't for me but coffee morning on Saturday although one might not make it that far... ;)

I figured that a little cake was appropriate for my 100th post. :) Crafty photos will return soon. :)

A good old spring clean!

I love this time of year. I love the lighter nights and the lighter mornings. I love the flowers that are brightening my garden and the fact that the children can now play outside all afternoon if they desire. I like being able to stick my washing on the line rather than the tumble drier. All simple stuff. I equally love the chance to have a spring clean and a declutter. It simply appeals to my stupidly obsessive and 'born organised' nature. I can't help it; I'm offically a saddo! ;-) I sent a large bag of my baby junk to the NCT sale on Saturday and hopefully made about £90- not bad from stuff we no longer used. Spurred on, I've been in the mood to tackle the attic and shed ready for a carboot sale that I'm planning on doing with my mate. I've spent a fair whack of my afternoon, cleaning my bedroom, which to be fair, did need it. I even pulled out the bed to hoover underneath and discovered a whole new colour carpet. Amazing! I've hoovered, dusted, washed, sprayed, polished, organised and binned- and it feels good! It's nice to curl up in bed tonight in a duvet with new covers and smell that freshly washed fragrance (although this is making it sound like I don't change my bedding very often...) I still need to declutter my wardrobe and the attic, not to mention all the places where I store my craft stuff but I'm seeing a difference already. I will not be moving all our junk to the new house and I'll hopefully have some space and pennies from it too. I'll be ready for the summer with a clean house. Fab!

Just call me Erin....

I've just had my Erin Brockovich moment. After endless emails to my local councillors and NHS officials, regarding about the proposed closure and relocation of my local BabyCafe group (a breastfeeding support group), the councillors have managed to secure funding for it for the next 6 months. The chair of the Council has also pledged that whilst he is leader, the group won't close. He's going to use the next 6 months to find more permanent funding for us.

The group is really well supported by local mums so it seemed really silly to shut a successful group to start a new one in a different area of the city especially as there are similar groups in other areas of the city that aren't well supported. I'm all for providing more support for mums who want to breastfeed but not at the expense of closing ours.

Anyway, it would seem that all my arguments about the health benefits of breastfeeding and the lack of parental discussion with the closure of the group were considered by the 'big bosses' who have listened and responded appropriately. Hoorah!

The good, the bad and the ugly..

A round up of my life this week:

The Good

• My gorgeous new nephew being born.
• How proud I felt of my class of Year 2's (ages 6-7), when they raised £285 for Bliss, a premtaure baby charity, by holding a cake sale.
• Having a first viewing on our house (fingers crossed)
• Having fun at swimming lessons today with my two
• Listening to Jack as he has his 'girlfriend' here for a sleepover and farm trip tomorrow. Giggles galore!
• Seeing lots of signs that spring is here! Hoorah!

The Bad

• Being so absolutely busy, that this is the first time all week that I've sat down.
• Having a tooth extracted earlier in the week. Painful!

The ugly

• Face bruising after dentist visit. 3 days on and it's just starting to go down...

He's here!

My gorgeous new nephew, born at 5:32 this morning. Isn't he just lovely!?