picture crazy

Feeling all inspired at the moment but haven't actually had the energy to climb through the boxes that are packed in the front room to get to my crafting stash. It is on the list of things to do once the kids are in bed,which fingers crossed will be extra early tonight seen as they were treated to a pub lunch and some fun on the bouncy castle today.

Hopefully the layouts ive added today will inspire you to get out that stash and make something too. They are the layouts i did at the retreat during that first sleepless night. I think that the new blonde moments papers were just what these photos of me and the rest of tribe when we went to see the X Factor at the NEC needed. I also used some beautiful Heidi Swapp ghost hearts that i attached to the layout with ribbon. And last but not least no girly layout would be complete without some primas!

And my hunting for easter eggs layout, this is my favourite of the weekend I think.

I love the fact that these papers they are not your normal light pinks and greens easter papers allowing me to use the pictures i took of Jack with them easily. I also used the coordinating stickers to make the easter egg part of the title. The side pictures on the layout were made from the rest of the matching papers from the range. LOVE IT!

I need to get myself in gear, as this Sunday its Nuneaton crop day and I have a CJ to do along with a layout that was part of a picture swap we organised last month. I cant believe it is the crops first birthday. it only seems like seconds ago that me and mum were panicking about if enough people would come or that we would be sitting on our own all day. We needn't have worried as almost all of the girls that came to the first one are still coming each month, along with a few new ones.

The picture on the left is one I took today of Jess, she looks so grown up and trendy in it I think that its one for the wall as well as the scrapbook. I love the composition of the photo and got the idea this morning on the way to school after seeing a sale board having a picture taken at this angle on it. It took me a few takes before it worked out how I wanted it.

have a good night all.

love Na

here are the new celebrate lines for you to have a peek at :D before mum hee hee hee

EGGTASTIC

HI all hope your enjoying the sun? It has been a lovely day here so me and the kids have been for a picnic with Jessica's friends in the park. Don't you just love picnics. All that yummy food with lots of sunshine added, the perfect combo for me. Of course a picnic also meant the chance to get some pictures of the kids running around. I managed to get some really lovely ones of Jessica's friend but I think that was only because (unlike jess) she hasn't grown up with a camera stuck in her face, therefore making her a little more likely to enjoy having her picture taken.
And joy of joys the new paper salon papers have arrived with their matching stickers, alphas, and tags for me to use with them yay!!!! my only trouble is that I love all of the sets we have. So I am going to have to pick just one arrrrrrrr. For the snaps of today im thinking of using the celebrate collection with all its yummy spring colours. But if you still have some pictures taken on mothers day to scrap you will love the serenity collection and for those of you that like the more vintage look Chesapeake is for you with all its light blues and browns. ummmmmmm yum. Now to explain the title for today's post - egg tastic.
Last night Rob came home and procecced to tell me all about a visitor he had been showing around his work all day. No other than a government egg inspector!!! and no he doesn't look at chocolate eggs but the real thing . (I cant believe that someone actually holds this job title. I wonder where you would go for your training?) A government inspector must sound all serious down the pub, until his mates ask what he inspects that is! LOL.
Any way rob said this guy knew everything about eggs and I mean everything. Did you know that if you put a egg under a ultra violet light you can tell by its markings if it is free range or not? As the caged hen egg will have lines down it from where it has hit the bars underneath the hen. a bit of knowledge for the pub quiz there :D
So I said to rob wow someone who can answer anything about eggs did you ask him a question?
Yeah said Rob. Im thinking great he has asked the clever egg man the most important question ever and with government insider info this guys going to know the answer. Soooooo I said to rob what came first the chicken or the egg?
Rob answers with - what I don't know I just asked the guy where eggs should be kept? the fridge or the cupboard! DOH!!!
I really do live with this stupid man LMAO. I nearly died from laughter and so had to share with you guys his stupidity. and just incase you think rob asked the right question the answer is that eggs should be kept at 5 degrees therefore making your fridge too cold for them, and the little egg thing that the fridge company puts in redundant! PMSL!

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POST RETREAT RECHARGE

I'm back!! and i am now in recharge mode. what a weekend, I had a fantastic time. The hotel was wonderful, food delicious, company completely nuts and the classes were fabulous . What more could you want from a scrapbooking retreat.
With 8 classes to chose from all weekend the schedule was pretty tight and by the Sunday I really had cropped till I had dropped.
The 2 classes I enjoyed the most had to be the brag book scrapperdashery class and the layout class designed by the talented Anna Bowkis. The papers she used along with my favourite embellishment at the moment - angel kisses went so well together and looked amazing. I will have to get some pictures taken just to show you how fabulous they really are.
And the new scrapperdashery collections are just beautiful in the words of Becky think ranger inks meets Shakespeare (to name just one writer used) as they have the words from all your favourite plays over them. gorgeous ! A very classy line i think.
I also got to share a room with the completely loop the freaking loop chell. Which meant that on the Friday night neither of us slept a wink. we went to bed alright at 4am but after an hour of talking, switching the light on and off and general stupidity, we decided we were never going to sleep so we went back down to the cropping room . giving us both the chance to finish quite a few layouts.
The next day although we had planned a nap in our time table come 3am the following night we still hadnt had so much as 40 winks! 6 hours shut eye ,all weekend is what you call serious cropping.
Another highlight I think for everyone was the Saturday night PJ party! 15+ woman all in the hotels bar wearing nothing but PJ's and the masks they had made well you can imagine the looks we got! it was hilarious. esp. when the games started, as the forfeit for losing was to stand up and sing at the top of your voice IM A LITTLE TEA POT along with doing the actions. people in the bar were actually cheering the girls on after a few rounds.
NUTS I think that is how the weekend will always be summed up for me. And as you can see by the pictures here of the moxley/nuneaton croppers , nuts sums them up quite well.

Id also like to take this opportunity to thank my mum for all her hard work over the weekend, the teachers for the fantastic job they did, and last but not least the girls that came because after all if it wasnt for you there would be no retreat. Thanks girls you were stars.

And a massive welldone to all the winners and girls that took part in the challenges over the weekend the layouts you produced were stunning.

one day to the retreat woooooooooooow!

ONLY ONE DAY TO GO!!!!! AND I AM SO EXCITED! CAN YOU TELL?
everything is made, bought and packed for the retreat, so I am all ready to go.
I am planning on having the maddest weekend ever with the girls im going with, seen as they are all a little nutty in one way or another.
Luckily I am escaping this madhouse I call home before I get traumatised forever! The reason? My kids are now huge fans of............ NIGHT GARDEN. For you guys that have no idea what I am talking about it is billed as the new tellytubbies but with even stupider names like upsy dasiy (not so bad your thinking wait for it) Igglepiggle, Makka Pakka and the tombliboos??? I ask you were these people on the office Christmas party when these names were chosen because this is how I think I sound after a few drinks! BABE ITS JUST THE IGGLEPIGGLE THINGS THAT HAPPEN, HIC! AND I COULD REALLY EAT A MAKKA PAKKA NOW. you get the idea? It is nuts. And what is worse come Christmas I am going to be expected to pay out a shed load of money to get my little angels these toys. arrrrrr
And for all you scrappers, that don't already know, UK SCRAPPERS is having its next cyber crop in two weeks time. The cyber crop this time promises to be bigger than ever so don't be doing anything silly like booking a holiday or arranging to go out with the kids. Get a babysitter for them instead as it will be a mad weekend of classes, games, challenges and loads more. But the best bit? you don't have to move from in front of your pc (well if you don't want to) all weekend while you catch you with all those pictures you should have scrapped ages ago.
well I wont be back now until after the retreat so have a good weekend everyone!!! I know I will.

MOVING, MOVING, MOVING

Wow what a week! so much has been happening.
My mum finally got the keys to her new house last week, which meant we could finally agree a date for the big move, of her going into the new house and us moving into her old one. That now means that both houses are full of boxes. It is honestly a nightmare. I cant wait for it all to be over and for us both to be settled again. Or should that be having our stash to hand rather than behind or in boxes. arrrr so annoying.
I don't think you truly know how much of a horder you are until you move house, the amount of rubbish you keep hidden around it has amazed me. Mum did find some fabulous stuff in her loft including my first scrapbooks of sorts and even better a pair of cream shoes that I had when I was a bridesmaid for the first time. They are so cute!
Which got me thinking. I'm lucky that mum has the inability to throw anything away, Keeping it hidden in the loft for years. But with society being programmed to throw everything that even looks dirty or broken away are we taking these keepsakes away from our own children?
I know the key word to happiness in the home is minimalism and given the fact that we all seem to have little or no storage space (even though it is shoved down our throat every time we venture into a Ikea.) it is a difficult feat. But shouldn't we make space? keeping our children's first pair of shoes or first school pictures are something that I am sure most parents make space for. But what about the bigger things? you know the things I'm talking about.... that huge teddy that uncle Joe bought when baby was still the size of a peanut, the Wendy house that your daughter spent all summer cleaning, even the arm chair that you love to curl up in after work. You cant keep them forever can you? You would never make space for things like that.
So my answer? well its not that hard really. Walk around you house and take pictures of all those things now why they mean so much to you, before you move on to something else. Make space in your scrapbook to add few pages about these things alongside the birthday, wedding, Christmas pages that we scrap continually. And I am sure in years to come you will look back at those layouts with fondness and also give your children an insight to their childhood.
Only 3 days to go now until the retreat and I am sooo excited! I plan to spend tomorrow doing all my last minuet jobs so that come Friday I will be all sorted and ready for the off. I really cant wait to go its been hard work sorting it all out and at times a little trying but you want me to let you in on a secret? It must have been fun for the best part of it as I am already thinking of how I want the next one to go!!!! So much in fact that tomorrow I am off to talk to a man I know about sorting something out for it. I must be nuts or all that Easter chocolate has given me a sugar rush.
So that's enough waffling for now and oh before I forget!!! Jessica's Easter bonnet (the one I posted a picture of) well guess what!! It won. Major proud mummy moment. Making this year the second year we have won the Easter parade!! LMAO! I think I will go for the hat trick next year. and in the words of Jessie. AHHHAHAHAHA HAT TRICK! GET IT!! HAT TRICK AHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Mid week catch up

I cant believe its Wednesday again! the weeks are going so fast and I just cant seem to keep up!
So far this week all ive managed to do is spend a bomb at the wholesalers (which isn't hard seen as they have such great stuff!) on all new products for the retreat AGAIN! I tell you girls you had better bring some kind of blindfold if you don't want to spend much as I think its going to be impossible. We have the create paper zoom coming in this week along with lots of Heidi swapp stuff, not forgetting the paper salon new ranges have I said yet? OMG they are gorgeous! I am not kidding you when I say that, I am going to need a bank loan when it comes in as I want so much of it.
I guess its all to do with my new no basic grey for my stash rule that im doing so just getting stocked up on lots of other things instead, well that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.
On the plus side I have been good with the Karen Foster wedding line that came this week, I didn't touch it at all, how long that will last for I have no idea. But hey ive been good so far hee hee hee. I think the real reason behind that could be that A I have no wedding pictures I want to do and B ive not got any coming up so wont need the papers any time soon.
Along with the fact that mum have her eagle eyes on the stock and I think she would notice if I so much as touched a piece of it so I have to be good. but mum! (I know you read this) be warned some of the above mentioned stock including the create paper ribbons will be coming home with me :D LOVE YA BABE!
Ill tell you the babe and mum being a little pig story another day LMAO! As I still don't think she see the funny side enough for me to put it on here. ;) Give her a day or two and maybe that will change.
I've also been having a go at making some jewellery for a midnight class I have planned for ........you guessed it the retreat. So your in for a treat girls I will try get a picture tomorrow for you to have a peek at. Its more a charm than jewellery but I love it anyway and it is already hanging from my tote. Although I might move it soon to my hand bag. Jack is really fascinated with it and has hidden it twice already. Mum came to have a peek yesterday only to be told that jack had lost it again so she will have to wait until it turns up. Luckily it did as I think he would have really been in my bad books if he lost that.
On a different note I received the most wonderful thing today from a fantastic friend! (She knows who she is) it was the Heidi swapp embellishment set and I love it. All the ghost letters are right up my street, the ribbon is beautiful just to name two things in this kit. There is no less than 158 pieces with lots of my all time must have stash item chipboard! There is letters, frames, words, label holders ummmmmm I love it. Thank you so much hun for getting it for me. so everyone else keep your eyes out as im guessing you will be seeing an awful lot of this kit on my layouts :D
TTFN
love na