Pringles have gotta stop popping...

Sat here feeling very disgusted with myself. Shoving pringles in my mouth as we speak and that's on top of the 2 coissants (however their spelt), an apple doughnut & 2 tesco's versions of 2 stick kitkats. Yet I can't seem to stop eating and with feeling chronicly tired and lacking in energy all the time this just makes me want to eat more!

Really do not know what to do with myself, should go on my trampoline and exercise, but I've walked home from work and shattered from that.

Life is very cruel.

On the bright, most of my craft shopping has arrived for the month! Wow I been a naughty naughty girl...

Prima flowers from Helen
Decopatch paper from one shop
12x12 Karen Foster papers from another
More decopatch paper to come...
Pretty sure that's not all of it??

Really need to make a start on the final commissioned card for the lady at work, but once again the complete lack of energy is killing me and I really need to do it tonight. But also have to go food shopping tonight so that will knock 2 hours off my evening.

Right gotta go make a start... but that means going ALL the way upstairs getting my mini dongle hard drive thing, coming back down, putting the pics on and then going ALL the way back up stairs... Sofa looks far more comfortable!

Just pop me & call me a pringle!

I have just eaten a rather disgustingly large amount of ready salted pringles with mild salsa... It was goooooooooooooooooooooooooood :o) however gonna have to have something ridicously healthy for dinner tonight, like cardboard maybe :op

Back to work today, oh joy of joys! Couldn't get into it at all, did a few things but really wasn't putting a 100% in, already planning my next holiday! Which is in about 3/4 weeks time as I have looooooooooong weekend planned around my birthday. I'm a summer solstice baby, no wonder why I'm into dragons, witchcraft and all things magic related!

Also been looking into plane tickets to get my mum back across from the states for a visit, it's looking like either August or November. If she comes for August gonna try and swing it so she can come to the craft weekend, have set her up an account so she can try chatting on the forum but I'm not holding my breath. She's not as internet reliant as me.

Made a few cards over the weekend, one as a commission piece for a lady at work & one for Garys grandad, pictures to follow!

Spent a rather large amount of money yesterday :o/ bought £27 worth of goods in hobby craft, so many things going for 99p... however it does add up! Then New Look, bought a couple new hairbands and a top. Did return a pair of jeans, yay up £25! However then went a bought Jen a spanky new outfit from New Look in the Trafford Centre as a birthday present, cost £30 but that's not bad for a pair of trousers, a top & a pair of shoes!

In Hobby Crafts bought some blending chalks so I can have a play, I see people decorating their own backgrouns and everything on ATC's etc (Cynthia is very good at this), so want to have a go myself. First attempt looked good, but then went and smudged the rubber stamp I put on, doh!

Anyway I have to go digest my pringles, see ya later!

>^..^<

Interesting Weekend...

Well as I said on Saturday morning, my dad was coming over to visit with my stepmum for the night. My dad is a sore subject when it comes to myself as though I am currently talking to him, it was only last year that I decided to let him back into my life. The reason for this, is I suddenly lost him like I did my older brother I knew I'd regret that I never let himhave the chance to try and fix things.

Sadly somethings never change, they arrived 6pm, not bad timing but they were travelling from Dorset and didn't leave till gone 1pm so my dad was doing his normal reckless speed driving. Then through out the entire evening my dad and stepmum between them consumed 2 bottles of scotch... and my dad who has a bad knee fell down cos it gave way. Oh yeah, Belle also got very confused by the patio door and ran smack bang into it... We all thought a firework had gone off, looked out side to see a very dazed puppy looking in :o/

Despite this we did have fun, our friends Jen & Gary came over, we had a BBQ with lots of salad, we played on my dad and stepmums Wii. The Wii was interesting, quite fun but no way in hell can any of us afford one in the near future!

Didn't get to bed till 2am (So neighbours are probably p'd at us!) and then Belle decided to howl on and off til 6am. So was a little tired yesterday!

As I couldn't sleep very early Sunday morning, I ended up getting the instructions off the craft forum for making an exploding box from A4 card rather than 12x12. I can be very thrifty with card as it is soooooooooooo expensive!! Bought a 50 pack of white the other week for the up and coming Circle Journal and it cost me £3.99. Gary did once find me a cheap pack of 25 for 99p, but the card was rubbish.

I'm decorating it in dovecraft "manly" papers, it's looking quite nice but have just made a mess of the 2nd inside layer so going to have to go up stairs and fix that before I go any further. The problem I have is that as it is a "manly" box, I really don't have any "manly" embellishments!!?? Oh well may go to Hobbycraft later today and have a look.

Also yesterday as Gary and I were so tired we just vegged in front of the tv and watched some on demand movies. I wouldn't really recommend "The Dark is Rising", it was kinda boring and slow, also very hard to work out what exacly was going on. Then watched "Good Luck Chuck", VERY rude & disgusting, but very funny. Typically Jessica Alba was her normal disgustly sweet gorgeous self :op

What was very amusing is one certain puppy dog, who couldn't quite work out why she was so tired yesterday... Couldn't be because she was up barking all Saturday night could it!!!

Anyway going to go play with my exploding box now,

>^..^<

D-Day is here...

Yup my Dad and stepmum arrives later on today for a short over-night visit. We'll be having a BBQ (if the weather holds up) and having a go on their Wii.

Not updated yesterday or Thursday as was just too busy & far too tired. It's horrible as I seem to suffer with chronic tiredness all the time, spending my days going around yawning not ever feeling like I've woken up properly. Ironicly it's extremely tiring in it's self.

Craftwise - Tried a new card design that was in my monthly magazine, would of taken a pic but it was late & Gary needed it for his collegue at work who was leaving Friday (talk about leaving it to the last minute!). WIll have ago making another as it really required paper that was patterned both sides rather than patterned one side and a block colour on the other. Other than that haven't done much.

Have however done some craft shopping and any crafter knows this can be one of the most important (and fun) parts to crafting, hehehe. Have ordered some new karen foster papers from a lady on ebay, Caylees Crafts. She does the most lovely diecuts at a really reasonable price so I like using her alot. From Craftables I've ordered more Prima Flowers & a versamark inkpad, last time I just ordered the pen to see how it worked, like it so have gone up to the proper pad now :oD and finally some decopatch papers from The Pottery Place. They are the ONLY shop I have found who has the blue cherub decopatch paper which I need to alter a chipboard album for my dad (their very reminescent of micheanglo cherubs which my dad likes).

Also Gary bought me some craft items I want from craftsulove, not the new big bite crop-a-dile though :o( have to wait till i find it somewhere cheap like with my original crop-a-dile.

Anyway I can't chat much longer as we've still got lots to do around the house as basically we did jack-all during the week! So probably catch ya late Sunday

>^..^<

Almost the weekend!

Wow am I tired today, didn't get out of bed till 7.20am which meant I ended up having to buy my breakfast from work. Have spent the rest of the day feeling pretty greasy and carppy (just like to say I did have a bath this morning!).

Last night after I got home as I said yesterday the rats new fuzzbutts arrived, I spent quite a lot of time dismantling the boys cage, scrubbing it clean then putting it all back together with their brand new bed! This time they have spider man, but they've had batman in the past (who is the better superhero!)

Tate 'n' Lyle chillin' in the batcube!

Also put up the new curtains in the living room, hoping that the crumples in the main pair fall out by themselves as I'm not really on for ironing and have no idea where I'd start on how to iron them! Despite crumples the rooms looks a little more together now.

Of course some of you may know that there was some football match on last night, supposedly a big one... meh, hates footballs so don't cares for it in the slightest! So I disappeared off to the craft room and left Gary "cleaning" while he was watching.

Ever have one of those nights where everything craftwise goes wrong!? Tried chopping a small edge off a card but it kept slipping, ended up cutting about a cm & 1/2 off in the end. Then I was doing a birthday ATC and smudged the sakura glitter pen ink and of course to finish off the night, thought I'd play with a birthday card and glitter glue... well you can guess how many times I got my fingers in the wet glue and of course I wasn't patient enough to wait for it dry I had to put what I wanted to put on the card there and then! After I'd finished the card decided I'd be safer leaving any other craft stuffs to another day!

Received my postcards from the postcard swap today :D their all very pretty! Can't remember whose I got though, but it does mean I can put up pics of ones I did. Though as I really don't like 2 I made, will only put my fave two up!

Anyway I have to go have dinner then off weekly food shopping, so enjoy the pics of the postcards:

Garfield licking his bum lol

Fishy!!!

I had a good title...

But because I got disturbed at work by people actually wanting me to work, I never got round to finishing my blog and have now forgot my fabby title!

Also I've been told I have a fan of my blog :D herro Maria!!! lol and I've been oh so naughty not updating for a day or 2!

Lets see... The past few days haven't been overally interesting. A guy who works on our admin team has been offered a new role which has opened up a admin position, something I'd much rather be doing than my current role. So my TM (team manager) has said he'll let this guy train me up on his reports and if he cannot find a replacement in time I'll be contingency *the rest of this paragraph has been deleted*

Craftwise, yesterday was good. I took in my Retreat Circle Journal to work as a lady on my team was interested in seeing it. Anyway after it got passed around, I've been asked what would I charge to make them for other people as presents! I think I worked out with materials it'd be about £10 minimum, so will go back with the cost. Also another lady asked if I could make some birthday cards for her mother in law, one from her and her hubby and the 2nd from the kids. Have made the "adult" card, now waiting for pics of the kids for 2nd card. Quite pleased with that card, I've done one similar to it for my TM's wife but have tried it in different colours this time. Will post a pic at the end of it.

Though I said the other day that I REALLY have to help Gary do housework, neither of us has yet :o/ so gotta make an effort tonight to do it. As the rats new fuzzbutts have arrived (see www.fuzzbutt.co.uk) it means they'll have nice clean pretty cages for when my dad and stepmum arrive Saturday afternoon.
ALSO the new curtains have arrived, so those will be going up. Got a lovely pair of damson pink curtains with black filligree patterns on for the bedroom, also their be a lot smaller shorter than the current pair that's up which pool on the floor and trip me up on a regular basis. I've been considering moving the bedroom around... Not sure how Gary would take to this?
My problem is I have to have a particular side of the bed because of my bedside table and my set of shelves which has my mirrors and jewellery boxes on it. If we move the bed around, then I'd want to be able to sleep near the window (hate not having fresh air when I sleep), but I wouldn't be able to have my bedside table & my shelves there... It's all very confusing, maybe I'll just try and shift everything when Gary's not around one day :D

Right well I shall leave you with the picture of my TM's card and also a sneaky little pic of my circle journal... not too much though to give the game away :D

Oink Oink!

Well I feel like I've eaten like a piggy wiggy today! Don't know what's up but I've been starving all day! Yet I've eaten 2 banana's, 1 orange, packet of crisps, ham sandwich, yoghurt, thai green curry with rice & a ickle nan bread + my cereal this morning :o/ maybe I have worms??? lol

Sat here at work till 6pm, I'm doing 2 10-6 shifts instead of my normal 1 a week, as to stop one of my collegues kicking off about having to pick up an extra 10-6 I just offered (anything for a quiet life).

Overall today hasn't been too bad, hayfever has been playing up a bit or I have a cold, not sure which yet?! If i have a cold will be blaming my manager who spent friday coughing and spluttering all over me, ick! However if it's hayfever gonna have to up my tabs, I hates having itchy eyes & nose.

Went online this afternoon to find my Gary a new doctors as he's wheezing something rotten, he needs to go see the asthma nurse, but worries about taking time off work. Found a doctors that does late night appointments, so fingers crossed we can get him registered & seen ASAP. Don't like it when his chest sounds this bad :o(

After Jen making my new mouse tank lid & putting my meece in there new home, they seem a lot happier! Nice actually seeing them and walked into my craftroom last night to find Muzzy Mouse half way up the knotted rope :oD Yes in my craft room I have my very own "House Mouse" lol, well two of them are. Which reminds me, haven't been rubber stamp shopping on House Mouse for a while... with my burpday coming up may have to go have a looksie to see if there is anything I want.

Doubt I'll get any craftwork done tonight as I really need to help Gary with cleaning the house :o( stupid families coming for a visit. It's awful because I get really twitchy feeling when I want to do my crafting and can't settle. Though gonna have to wait till pay day to go buy anything for my "Craft Retreat" circle journal, thinking of going with Karen Foster papers, I really love the princess/fairy/bedtime ranges she does & there's a lovely ebay seller who does some good deals on it. My problem is I have no idea what to put about myself on these pages??? Sure I will think of something. Had a play yesterday making little booklets to put on the pages, worked quite well but need to work out how to do it with less paper...

Well I have half an hour of work left, fun stuff! Will sign off now and go have a perusal around some craft shops :oD

Weekend nearly over??

I'm going to start a petition to demand a 3 day weekend, as 2 days is just not enough!!!

Gary is currently going around the house cleaning, I know I should help but I have a stinking headache and another awful condition... I can't be bothered-itis!

On Friday (not sure if i mentioned this or not), but we received a £10 gift voucher from our landlord!!?? Thanking us for being great tenants!!????!!!!!!!!!! I think it's to do with the fact that the toilet and the water pressure is rubbish in this house, they've now managed to fix the toilet but we're still waiting for when we're getting an electric shower put in.

However to say we're great tenants, when we've only been here a couple of months & the fact they don't know we have 11 rats, 4 mice & 1 dog extra than what we originally said, it's quite funny!

Anyway we spent our £10 voucher on some really cute little icecream bowls & also a tub of extremely chocolate bites, they were tasty :oD

Yesterday I managed to decorate my 2nd circle journal covers for the crafty weekend, I decopatched them with some lovely paper I got from the Birmingham Craft show, then embellished with some stickers from the Liverpool craft show :oD also used some embellies that I've been storing away for a special occasion! I don't know about anyone else, but all the really really good embellies that I have I always hoard away to use just for myself cos I know that way I get to keep em... how incredibly selfish :o) of course it's difficult not too as people send you craft pressies they send you stuff that they know your gonna love! Terrible terrible catch 22 lol

I have this months perm. ATC's to post out for myself and my friend Jen. Really must remember to package them up.

Considering using this months scrap-challenge on the forum to do a page for my furry family album, really want to scrap Gadgets & Belles picture from last Sunday of the sponsored dog walk :o)

Right well Gary has finished doing a blitz around the house and I think he's caved on letting us go to the seaside :oD (think it was the chips comment that got him) so gonna go wash me hair and get ready to go out, yay!!!

First Page to my Furry Family album!

It's Saturday!!!

Yay, the weekend is here :o)

The last few hours at work yesterday seriously dragged! Was meant to wash up when I got home but my mum rang and we spoke for awhile (I sent a mothers day box of goodies for her and granma) and then when Gary got home we had to go to Tesco, joy of joys! Nothing like trying to do your weekly food shopping at the end of the week, your going round thinking "I need to work out what I want for lunches at work next week.......... but it's the weekend and I dont care about work" lol

Did get any crafting done, when we got home we had our dinner - expensive tesco lasagne portions and cauliflower cheese - then vegged in front of the tv.

This weekend got a few things to do:

• clean the house!


• go yell at O2 as to why the internet & bluetooth doesn't seem to work properly on my new phone


• walk puppies dogs (preferably on a beach!)


• make a start on my circle journal intro page!
  

On the circle journal, we now have 12 people signed up so we can start actually getting ready to post :oD there are a few tricky themes (like Lou's italin art theme, can't even spell the period she wants!).

Anyway I need to go get ready for my day, may try and update later on!

Maybe I'll make an appearence in Kt's CJ! Look at my sexy butt ;o)

My 2nd Home...

A little on my 2nd home - http://lousloonies.10.forumer.com

I joined another craft forum back in Jan/Feb 2006 and i'll be honest didn't find it overly welcoming apart from one person who directed me to another forum she chatted - Canny Crafters and I've never looked back! Everyone on the forum has become a part of my extended family, i love them all to pieces and would be totally lost without them!
Nearly did lose them all last year when our original site was lost due, however lovely Lou set up a brand new site which we all settled into pretty quickly!

I'd say we're a bit of a quirky fun loving bunch and everyone is extremely talented! The best thing about this is that it makes you pick your own game up a notch or two to try and make sure your's is just as good as everyone elses and then you realise, hey it wasn't that hard, which of course makes you want to take up on any craft challenges that come your way (however Lou's embossing challenge for this month as well and truely scared me and I'll be giving it a wide berth lol).

I really can't wait for August where we're all meeting for a craft weekend in Nottinghan, I'll be sharing with Kim which should be fun! Really hoping to learn some new techniques, like how to use my alcohol inks which currently I'm too scared to use. I've also offered to buy a DecoPatch pack which includes glue, brushes, papers and papermache pieces to decorate.

Anyway I really should be working and not "blogging", so back to the slog for now :oD

I will be a good girl!!

So I weighed myself yesterday and I didn't like what I saw (not entirely sure who does but hey!), so I am determined to lose at least a stone by my birthday! Thinking of hiring Bobs from the craft forum as my personal guru on this as she's done such a fantastic job, just wish I wasn't so bloody jealous lol. I have been good and done some trampolining 2 nights running, just with I wasn't completely knackered now.

It's been another warm sunny day, however I have heard rain is moving in. Now I don't mind warm & sunny if it's not too hot, but I hate rain with a passion! Maybe it's the fact I have little legs and all my jeans tend to be too long and end up getting ruined in the rain, bah!!!

Today at work they were raising money for a charity called "Foyer", something to do with homeless people. Either way I got to go in my own clothes if I paid a £1 (which I did), also I entered a raffle within the department, the prize, the winner got to go home an hour early. Guess what... I won :D So I left at 4pm today woohoo.

Also we had a visit from Richard Branson, I didn't personal see him (couldn't see the fuss to be honest) but the girl I sat next to shook hands with him!

Craft wise, today I finished off my sign in tags for my circle journal! So far I'm pleased with how it's turning out. I just have to word an intro page that doesn't sound to incredibly cheesey, also still considering my ickle & large animals for my 2 pages.

Rather annoyed, I ordered 2 7gypsies 6x6 albums from the states which arrived yesterday. Anyway was thinking hey I could nick the 6x6 pages and put them into my sara binder album which is already covered for CJ, but it turns out that the 7gypsies album is about a 6 1/4 wide!?!? So I have a sara binder where the pages are 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 & a 7gypsies albumb which is 6 1/4 by 6", what's wrong with a bog standard 6x6 album with pages that match??!!

Anyway rant over.

Dinner is nearly ready and I'm going to settle down to watch Heroes with my Gawwwwwwwwwwwwy lol, night x

Confuzzling Technology!!!

Oh dear, after I stupidly lost the back to my gorgeous little pink nokia 7373 on Sunday I went and signed myself up to a contract with O2 to get a pretty pink blackberry phone!

I DON'T GET IT!!???

It's so confuzzling, and was very miffed when trying to find a new ringtone for my phone some stupid website gobbled up £5+ of my remaining credit on the pay as you go sim to download a "free" ringtone...

Also on a blackberry (though mine is more a pinkberry), the keyboard isn't a standard phone keyboard... nope it's like a proper PC keyboard! Now I'm normally pretty quick with texts, but this will slow me down for awhile.

Then when I rang O2 to get my old pay as you go number transfered to my new sim I was told that my credit of £8.50 would be transfered to my new contract account as a credit! Great I thought and was really impressed, then I was transfered to the department who did the move of the number... "No we don't do that, so you have till 9am Friday to use your credit" >:o(

And my final bugbear (where did the word bugbear come from???), I didn't get ANY crafting done last night because I was too busy messing about with my new phone trying to work out what's what!!?? and my new luggage tags for my circle journal arrived.

Though I did get a pleasant surprise with my luggage tags, the company who sent them gave me 6 free small un-mounted rubber stamps! Don't know what I did to deserve them, I was just happy they arrived really quick!
If your interested in this rather nice company they are called "Craft Individuals".

Anyway it's now 07:02 and i have to be ready for work by about 08:45 or Gary wont give me a lift, so I will try and update later (especially as I heard there are no managers in the office today, woohoo!)

Thought I'd leave you with a visual treat...

Lucky dragon ATC

Good Morning,

So Day 3 of my blog! Writing this one pretty early, still sat in my PJ's as I'm on a late shift today at work (10-6), blah!
My Gary's already headed off, Gadgets growling at who knows what through the front door, Belle can't decided whether to beg for my breakfast or chase Gadget & Garfield... He's past out on his cat scratching monolith!

The skies are blue outside, so could be another hot day! I don't know about anyone else but I much preferred hot summer days when I was kid and could actually enjoy them, there is something quite tortourous about having to be inside an office, I don't even have a window to look out of :o(

Also hoping that my new phone turns up today before I leave for work, was told delivery between 9am-5pm, so hopefully it'll be here before 9.20am (yeah I know fat chance of that happening!). I'm a touch worried by this phone as I've gone against my better judgemet and gone back to being on contract and a 18 month contract at that... But I get 1000 texts, 400 free minutes, free calls to other o2 numbers & a spiffy pink blackberry phone :oD
The whole reason behind this, because my gorgeous little Nokia 7373 lost it's back so the battery is constant display. Now I loved my little nokia & I would of just bought a cheap one to replace the back, but on ebay people are still paying over £30 for a damaged phone?? Madness and I'm not paying that just for a piece of plastic that goes on the back!

Anyway enough for now, I have to get in the bath andget ready for work!

You may not of noticed, but doooooooooooown below is a slideshow of my Circle Journal for last year! It's only of the work I've done, but will eventually get round to adding the work my 11 friends from The Craft Forum put in.

See ya x

Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

Woah, another hot day, sadly this time I spent most of it in-doors working!

Bit on where I work, it's for a large communications company that deals with the business side, shan't name any names but I work for the "Loyalties" side which basically means if you wanna disconnect you gotta get through me first ;o) I work in a pretty small team, there is only 4 of us and we get on most of the time.

Anyway enough of work, I've clocked off for the day!

Guess your all wondering if I did in fact do any crafting last night, well I did! I finished off Pattys Postcards, but I won't put up any piccies yet incase anyone sneaks over from The Craft forum and takes a peek. I also started decorating a couple of luggage tags for my Circle Journal, that came to a quick finish when I ran out of luggage tags and now waiting for new ones to arrive!

Also yesterday I set up another ATC swap, last month my chosen theme was "Time" and boy you should of seen ALL the gorgeous ATC's I got sent to me, sadly I had to dish them all out and send them back to the people who took part in the swap. Have to admit I did pick my faves first. What was really special about the "Time" Swap, was that my mum joined in, which was very tricky as she's currently living it up in Gatlinburg Tennessee. But she managed to get her ATC's sent and they arrived on the dead line (What timing!).


So that my mum can join in more swaps I'm going to try and hold a few more on a regular basis, I could never let mum join up with someone else's just in case she doesn't get the items sent on time and she's ok with that.


About my mum, she's a very special lady and I'm proud to say that all my weird unique-ness comes from her! Though we've had our rough spots over the years she's become my closet friend and I really miss her now that's living over in the states with my Aunt Kathy & Granma.

Me & mum, Thanksgiving in Gatlingburg - 2006

My puppy Belle has just come down the stairs with a treat in her mouth... I'm pretty sure said treat was buried yesterday under my pillow which means last night I probably slept with a Pedigree Tubo lol, puppies you gotta love em!

Anyway though I can't show pics of my postcards, I'll end this blog with some pictures of the "Time" ATC swap :o)

Mum's School Time ATC's

Mum's Time in Bottle ATC's

My Angel ATC's
Reads: "Every time you rubberstamp an Angel get it's wings"

The 18th Annual Sponsored Dog Walk 2008

Well this is my first post on my blog!

Good day to post as me, Gary, Gadget & Belle have just finished our sponsored dog walk in aid of Manchester Dog Home. We did 2 laps of Debdale Park in Gorton, phew it was warm!!! Both dogs managed really well but we all had to stop for a few water breaks. Here's a pic of Gadget & Belle showing off their ribbons which they got for taking part.

Now thinking of carrying on with some crafting, I have to finish off Pattys Postcard swap (i've done 2 out of the 4 postcards), then may do some more work on this years circle journal. My theme for this year is "All Creatures Great & Small". So far I have done the front and back cover + the sign in page, though I am cheating for the tags. Instead of cutting them out myself I've order some more blank luggage tags to use and decorate :D lol

Anyway I shall try and keep this blog up to date with my daily doing's & pictures of everything I create!


xxx