My wee Chookie.

So, my wee monster is in the local Beaver Scouts colony. She's the only girl out of a group of 20. She LOVES it. Anyhoo, they had a competition to design a new area badge a few months ago. Long story short is my Chookie was a joint winner! *g* They've basically used her design and added 2 elements (a bridge and tower) from the other boys' design and in a few weeks every beaver, Cub and Scout will be wearing it. I'm so proud!!

It was her Beaver trip to Dundee today. They visited the Sensations live science centre and Camperdown park. She had a ball and came home knackered - they left at 9am this morning and got back at half 6. Long day for everyone! The wee pet bought me something from the gift shop, too. Aaaaaw! It's this cute wee green ring (my favourite colour!) destined for my treasures box. Bless her wee heart.

On account of having a Chook free day and him indoors being on standby (there's another story) me Mam and I went shopping in Linlithgow today. I was very good and didn't have a major splurge in the patchwork shop but I did come home with the dearest little Boyd's mouse courtesy of Mammy. Chookie has her eyes set on him but he is MINE!
And poor Spouse? He got in at 2am this morning (having left at 8am yesterday) and was called back out at 4.30am. It is now (time check) after 11pm and he's STILL not home. So that's a 19 hour shift on 2 hours sleep. We are not happy campers.

Painting with Light - the sequel

I did a fabulous online creative photography course this time last year with Cheryl Johnson at Feelgood Photos. Well, she's running a new course, the sequel to last years. My first weeks homework was due last night. These are my efforts.

Look what arrived...

...yesterday. *drool*Such pretty fabrics! Lots of green, too. *whistles* You'd think I liked it or something. I also made the quilt top for Baby Ben's pram quilt. It was dead quick and is dead loud!!

Cute though, eh? Remember his pram is scarlet!! I was hoping the greens for Baby Euan's might arrive today so I could start cutting but, no. I've uploaded my first module photos for the new Painting With Light course instead. I'll share tomorrow.

Chook's been poorly today. Running a temperature and being generally miserable. It's her school trip tomorrow so I hope a good night's sleep and copious Calpol will cure her. Fingers crossed!

Mid Week Mundanities.

my general mood? is smug. *g* I'm loving this patchwork lark!

what am I wearing? the boyfriend jeans and a black scoop neck tee with a bow on the front. Barefoot but the toennails are purple.

what have I been watching? Last weekends DVD's were "Eagle Eye" (Shia LaBeouf is....well, buff!) and Underworld something (the third one!). Both were ridiculous but entertaining!

what am I reading? Kelley Armstrong's "Living with the Dead".......or something like that. I'd check but me reader's downstairs.

what have I been listening to? New downloads this week are Daniel Merriweather's Red and Dizzee Rascal's Bonkers

what have I been creating? Quilts! I made the top for Catriona's baby quilt tonight - photos tomorrow maybe!

Baby number 2!!!

Yep, ol' Biff had baby Euan Peter early this morning. Whoop! She is in a bit of pain, she says, but the baby is lovely. Massive congrats to her and Pete - OMG, Pedro Mendez is a daddy!! *g*

So, this has necessitated more baby pram quilt fabric shopping. Shame. Biff told me in passing last week that her pram is black with pistachio. So I've gone for green and am planning a shabby square affair. These are my choices.

Biff loves cats so the second one was a shoo-in! I've also got a pale blue marley one for the back. Hopefully they'll be a decent match - all the same tones. Hard to choose anything from a 'puter screen! Fingers crossed!

Baby number 1!!

Would everyone like to put their hands together and (quietly) welcome the delightful Ben Alexander to the world. Isn't he a darling? Massive congratulations to my pal Catriona and her lovely bloke Derek. All are hale and hearty and doing well!

I have consequently been shopping. Now, I planned to go for the ubiquitous baby clothes but after having such fun with the patchwork I've had a change of tack and am planning a pram quilt out of this fabric.

Catriona like BRIGHT things and since her pram is scarlet I thought this mixed with red and black could be her sort of thing. I've seen a cracking baby quilt that's just a giant log cabin square so we shall see. Very me, just jumping in and hoping for the best!! *g* Quite a lot of other pretty fabric fell into my basket, too. I am definitely a vintage/funky type girl.

We thought we were going to have 2 births in one day - that's BOTH expectant friends. Biff has been having contractions since 3.30am but at 4pm was only 2cm gone. Dagnammit. C'mon, baby, Mummy's getting tired!!!! *wafting hurry up vibes* Although Spouse has noted that since he is on standby tonight he can't drink. So for wetting-baby's-head purposes he would quite like a tomorrow birth. Men.

How did that happen?

Okay, so I've known for a time that my wee girl is rapidly growing up. Less Fimbles, more High School Musical these days (although her favourite HSM character is Sharpay coz she wears pink!) but I took these photos last weekend and suddenly she's SO grown up! She picked out this outfit and dressed herself coz she wanted "to be COOL, Mummy" but I really see it in the size of her bike. It's all of a sudden tiny! Look at the length of those legs! But then she starts playing and, bless her, she's still a wee 6 year old.



My garden looks like a playground!!

doorstopping.

Lookie! I'm so pleased with this little doorstop, I haven't patchworked OR quilted before and this was a fab size to cut my teeth on. I really enjoyed myself, I've enough fabric for another 2 so since this is Chookie's (hence the cat button she fell in love with) that's one for Gerr and someone else.

Here's a close-up of my patchworking. It should be noted that in these photos there's no beans in the bag, yet! So it's not a beanbag. Just a bag. *g*

And this is the back. Pretty fabric is Moda's "Swanky" collection. Oh, and the pattern can be found here at the lovely Oh, Frannson! blog.

Look what arrived!

My first patchwork supplies arrived yesterday - mostly Moda "Swanky" in the form of a half metre and a charm pack (33 little 5x5in pieces). I made my very first 9 square last night. It's *almost* straight and since the wadding arrived today I was hoping to have a play tonight. However I have a bellyfull of Frankie & Benny's finest pizza and Godfather pud and a choice of 2 rental DVD's to watch. So quilting tomorrow maybe.

Frigatoni Megatoni.

Okay, so this is our favourite family tea and it's actually called Rigatoni Fiorentina. And, no, it wasn't the Chook who gave it *our* name. That was someone else. *cough*spouse*cough*. I thought I'd share the recipe with you. You will need (this is like being on Blue Peter! )

250g rigatoni pasta

300g spinach

1 tin tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 mozarella ball

1 tablespoon parmesan

Put the pasta on to cook and get stir frying your chopped garlic and spinach. Just until the spinach is starting to wilt (soggy spinach is nasty!). Add the tin of tomatoes and lots (and I mean LOTS) of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Warm through and turn off the heat. Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and combine with the spinach mixture and turn it into an oven proof bowl. Cube the mozarella and shove into the top of the pasta mix (shove being a professional culinary term, obviously). Sprinkle the parmasan over the top and either pop into a hot oven or under the grill for about 15 minutes.

Yep, this strange child squeals "yippee, spinach for tea!" Not that we're complaining, like. *g*

My doorstop fabric came today so I'm about to go and get cutting. Fingers crossed!!

stickin' an' gluein'.

That's what Spouse calls scrapbooking. *g* I finished 2 LO's at the weekend.

"A ticket to ride" regails the story of a lovely train conductor who said Chookie's toy pony couldn't travel without a ticket. He then printed one specially for him - Chook was delighted!!

I like this one. *g* Chook at Comic Relief this year - jammies to school day!

Papers are all Sassafrass - I adore them! Hmmmm - I'm having a circle phase it would seem!

A failure!

I've MOT-ed a lot of cars over the years. Spouse and I have averaged one a year since we got married (10 years ago) and I had my own car when we got together plus there's been some of his-indoors' project motors. I've never had an MOT failure. Until now.

I've had Lenny the Lupo since December and haven't been so emotional about a car in a looooong time. He's perfect for the Chook and I bombing about town in and he's cute and ickle but the badge gives him a certain coolness (at least I think so!). Check his indicator nostrils! I mean, really, who can resist a car with a face? We've plans to pimp him when Stinky Eric is finished. Anyhoo, he had a dodgy nearside spring which the garage niftily replaced the same afternoon. Very cheaply, too!! So he's all shipshape again. Woot!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I'm a Trekkie. Have been for 20 years and (along with Star Wars - yes, you CAN love both!) will always have a soft spot for it and the whole Federation universe. We saw this on Friday night.
It is just unbelievably good. They've set up the franchise very nicely - there's a fairly major catastrophe involved and a whole rewriting of *our* Trek history. Very smart. Spouse and I reckon it'll be Klingons next time round, that could be veeery interesting if they forgoe the Khitomer massacre. *squeeee* I really want to go and see it again!

Mid Week Mundanities.

I dunno where the weeks are going!!!

my general mood ? is lovely and chilled. Lenny has been MOT-ed (more on that tomorrow!), the garden is lovely and tidy (I have given away the Chook's sandpit - it was tiny!) and the sun is out!

what am I wearing? boyfriend jeans, my fave scribbled on tee (that's it in the photo up there /\ ) and a green flower in me hair.

what have I been watching? Absolutely nuffink. Oooh, no, I saw "Tropic Thunder" at the weekend and laughed like a drain. Tom Cruise was inspired!!

what am I reading? Creating Keepsakes magazine - still my fave scrapping mag by a mile!

what have I been listening to? Embers by Just Jack (the "we are all embers from the same fire" line is brilliant, as is the orchestration) and Gary Go's Wonderful (say I am!!!)

what have I been creating? Nothing new, yet, but I'm in the planning stage of some bean bag doorstops. Need fabric!

the great bedding plant challenge.

The Spouse and I had a delphinium growing contest last year (party central, eh?) which he......grumble........mayhavewon. *ahem* So THIS year the Chook chose hollyhocks for our front door bedders (I wonder why?!?). I know they're not really bedding plants but I can't keep them. So here they're annuals, 'kay? ANyhoo, she planted one pot, I did the other and there's two challenges afoot. First to flower and tallest. The winner gets a...........well, that's unspecified but I'm sure it shall be splendid. This is Chookie's pot. There's some trailing lobelia in there, too.

And in other unrelated news we've all three finally decided on a favourite cake. These chocolate chip muffins. They are goooooood!!

Oooh, I had lunch with a (very) pregnant friend today (waves to Biff - you're looking great!) and Catatonia (another friend) has been having contractions since Saturday. C'mon babies, lets go!!!!! Lynz wants to buy cute baba clothes!

You'd think I'd know by now!

So, Chookie was playing on her chute after tea today. We've had such a lot of rain recently that even though the grass was dry (I'd just cut it) it was quite wet underneath and her wee bot was starting to get wet through her jeans as she whooshed off the end of the landing strip. I had a brainwave and proceded to cut 2 holes in the bottom of a carrier bag for her legs to go through. It was a happy accident that it was the type of bag that has looped handles - she stuck her arms through them like dungarees. And back out she went to play on her chute.



10 minutes later the Spouse asked had I seen what she was up to. This was what greeted me.

Same old, same old.

It really is business as usual round here. Cleaning (boo), scrapbooking (yay!), diddling around the internet and buying white t-shirts. *grins* You can never have too many plain white tees!! Ooh, we baked, too. Muffins again.

Chookie made these raspberry and white chocolate ones ALL by herself. I just did the fiddly case filling bit. And the oven, obviously. They were delish - she's frozen a couple for in her packed lunch next week.

And these are cinnamon and apple. They were yummy but not a patch on the raspberry ones.

I'm hoping to finally get my bedding plants in today, the rain has FINALLY let up and the sun is out. The race is on!! I need to do the Tesco run, too (ick) and clean out our furry rodent friends. And iron since it's Sunday. *le sigh*

Late mid-week mundanities.

Ooops. Missed it yesterday! Here we go.

my general mood? Is pretty okay. Excited about enroling in the new "Painting With Light - the Sequel" course and trying not to feel bad about the money spent on it.

what am I wearing? Jeans, a "Moonlight" Vampire Solidarity-rah-rah-rah t-shirt, green monster slippers (it's COLD here today!)

what have I been watching? Swing dancing on YouTube. Gotta love that Lindy Hop!

what am I reading? "Twilight" fanfiction. My guilty pleasure are fanfics - for every 10 I read I find 1 really great one - don't tell anyone, 'kay?

what have I been listening to? The Prodigy Warrior's Dance - honestly, the are just THE BEST!!

what have I been creating? 6 layouts in the last week - woot! God bless new stash!!!

wall art.

I saw this fabulous piece of photographic wall art at the wonderful Tara Whitney's blog last autumn. I was desperate to give something similar a go and spent several days gathering photos together, editing them and tracking down 12x12 clip frames (not easy I can tell you!). I eventually ended up with this on my living room wall, six months later I'm still absolutely loving it!

So, my wee sister-in-law has always loved it and comments every time she visits. I was thinking to mention to her when we saw them on Sunday that I'd be more than delighted to do something similar for her - it doesn't have to be so large or have so many photies. She bet me to it and asked herself!! The thinking caps are on, she's going to make a list of important things she might like immortalised (apart from her other half and own wee Chookie!) and hopefully soon I'll be in shutterbug mode - I love taking photos (I make no pretensions to being especially brilliant, I just enjoy it and am - I think - halfway decent) and LOVE a project. Hopefully in a wee while there'll be a new piece of wall art to show!

May Day

Bank holiday today, woot! After the energies of yesterday it's nice to be having a lazy time of it and catching up with family. I had planned to take the Chook to the shows this evening but they appear to have packed up their vans and left. Whoops. So she's rented a DVD (Wall-E) and we've had hotdogs and popcorn for tea. I've been having a clear out of my drawers trying to make some room for all the pretty accessories I've been acquiring lately. I should be wading through my wardrobe (how many white t-shirts does one girl need?!?!?) but think I'll leave that til tomorrow's afternoon off.

"Never do today what you can put off til tomorrow..." *g*

I've a half finished LO on my desk, that may take priority over the casual clothing cull. I finished 2 over the weekend - just quickies using not brilliant quality but quirky story-telling photos. Glad to have them documented!!

This is the Chook playing at High School Musical - being a Wildcat cheerleader, apparently. I hear "Getcha Head in the Game" everytime I look at them, her wee pink CD player has been getting a bunch of back garden use !

The Caledonian State Circus!!! Spouse and Chookie messing about in the living room. This went on for days after tea - poor Spouse's back was in a bad way by the time she'd tired of it!

Both use the Sassafrass "Hog Heaven" line, alphas by K&Co (small black) and Basic Grey (large multi). I'm enjoying the slap-it-on technique ATM, not too much agonising over placement - just get the damned stories told!! *grins*

(not so) Lazy Sundays.

I was baking these wee beauties at half past eight this morning.


There's nothing like warm banana and walnut muffins with your coffee on a Sunday morning. *g* It may never happen again!! I filled the papers more - only got 9 out of the batch but they're much more muffiny looking I think.

We visited Michael and Gerr (and baby Amelia) late morning and Gerr has a wee project she wants me to have a go at. More of that tomorrow, methinks. Exciting! Then we shopped for girlie stuff (more money spent in Monsoon by me and the Chook!) and pretty bedding plants. Ooh, and rattie gubbins. The pet shop had the most darling wee baby rats in. We aaaaw-ed over them something terrible. Then it was tea, cutting the grass, tidying round and we're about to hit the bedtime rush. Glad it's a bank holiday tomorrow!!!

Yum!

I've found what I think is going to be my new favourite muffin recipe! It's a total doddle (dry ingredients together, wet ingredients together, combine the two and add your own flavouring) and we had just enough frozen berries and chocolate chips to make a batch. They all cooked at different times which was a bit of a gitter fishing some out and sticking the rest back in for a couple minutes but they have passed the Spouse/Chookie taste test!! You'll find the recipe here.

I'm still trying to perfect that classic muffin top. Hmph. They were very tasty, though, and I'm fancying banana and pecan for breakfast tomorrow. *g*

Chook and I have been round at Wee Granny's helping Mam spread some chucky stones and get a half barrel in place. Daft auld Papa was digging what appeared to be a big ditch - why we have no idea! We shoved all the soil back into place, flung down the membrane (in a professional gardening manner, natch) got the chuckies down and they're all set to get to the fun plant buying step. My hands are hurting, though, I hate wearing gloves but those stones were sharp! I bet a coffee and a muffin would help them. *g*

2 for 1.

A quickie today, I'm in a scrapping frenzie (lookout below!) and am trying not to burn the lasagne. The above LO is about the Chook's Nativity at Christmas. The big white thing is the programme tucked in a pocket. BamPop! paper and the pig by Little Miss herself.

This one documents the pony-mad Chook's first pony ride. At a local fete and after a veeeeery long queue! And, of course, my camera batteries were flat so these are phone photos. They're actually not bad quality! Papers are Scenic Route (I love!) and the basic LO is one of the last ones I did as a class at memory Avenue. In November 2006 - nice to finally use it!!

Gotta dash, I do not fancy tandoori pasta for tea!!