Sunday, March 25, 2007

I love Sundays....


They always go at a slower pace, everyone sleeps in later (even if it's only 30 minutes), we have a leisurely breakfast and potter around in our pj's longer than you would get away with during the week. No school runs, mammy taxi's or things to do and I usually get to play in my craft room. Ed's just taken the girls off to Church for a couple of hours and that's exactly what I'm doing now :-)

I was out and about all week - arc angels on Tuesday, birthday coffee morning at my pal Jennifer's on Wed am, drinks with Eavan and my new neighbour Una on Wed night, Annamarie's scrapbooking class on Thursday night and had Annamarie and Linda over on Friday night followed by my scrapbooking class yesterday in Cabra. So I'm quite happy to take it easy today...

On Thursday at Annamarie's class I had the pleasure of sitting beside this delightful old man called Paddy (80 years of age!). He told me his wife had passed away 18 years previous and he had a stack of old photos which he was afraid would be thrown in a skip when he passes on so he wanted to do something good with them. You should have seen the photos he had - you know the little B&W ones with white borders - each one telling a story. He picked out a few of him and wife in their 'courting days' on Whit Sunday, May 1951 sitting under a tree by a river and in the background was an old ruin. For a man in his 80's he had a fantastic memory and was able to tell me what the day was like, why they were there.... I showed him how to set up the LO and got him to write the details down of the day. Sometimes you forget that old people were young once and had lives just like we have. I'm facinated to think that this man can take up scrapbooking in his 80th year and his family probably don't even know about it, but will one day find an album full of his stories. That to me is what scrapbooking is all about...

Anyway, we had a great day yesterday. Lots of new faces which is always great to see. We did a double LO called 'Change' showing the growth of a person over the years. I did one of Eva from birth to her 6th Birthday last November. So I will have to go and do another one soon so Lucy won't feel left out !

This is the LO I did for Scrapwest last Friday called 'Playtime'. I'm having fun with my new doodling templates. This photo was taken last October in Lanzarote - we couldn't get the girls to get off the pedelo boats - they were in their element pretending to sail.




















Oh I won a competition this month on www.craftsupplies.ie - the monthly scrapbooking challenge. This was my entry and I'm really pleased with it as it is my fav photo of the girls taken last August.

We have a good week ahead of us. Ed just finished up work on Friday and doesn't start til mid April so we will have lots of time to do family stuff and gardening and painting and all the other things I have on my list for him LOL!!! Poor guy will be ringing his new boss to see if he can get an early start!

So I'm off to do a bit of crafting while I have the house to myself. If you would like a right old giggle click on these -hilarious!

Revenge of the brothers on her wedding day...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uojhahf7lo4

Wedding Thriller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmYbP0F4Zw


later
X

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

A day at the seaside...

Yesterday we got up early despite it being a bank holiday and took an impromptu decision to go on a trip (or a spin as my dad would call it!). We planned on visiting our friends Niamh and Ollie in New Ross. However on the way down we discovered that Niamh had to unexpectedly come up to Dublin as she has just written a book (soon to be launched in May...and watch out for it as it is going to be brilliant!!!) It's called 'Secret diary of a demented housewife' by Niamh Greene and it's published by Penguin. They needed her in Dublin for some prelaunch publicity...interviews for magazines and the like. I'm so chuffed for her as this is going to be the start of something really big and she so deserves it!


Anyway as we were already on the road we continued on to Waterford and ended up in the most picturesque little village of Dunmore East on the south eastern coastline. It was fairly wild and windy but the type of day which blows the cobwebs of your brain away. I just love that fresh healthy smell of sea air. The kids enjoyed a few cold minutes on the beach making sandcastles and we had lunch and pottered around the village.



A funny thing happened on the way back to Waterford. Lucy (age 3... and I swear she is psychic sometimes!) suddenly said out of the blue 'mama can we go to the swings and slides'. I told her there weren't any to play on as we were back in Waterford city at this stage. Lo and behold we turned around the corner only to discover this huge playground in the people's park. 'There they are ' she said, delighted with herself. Ed and I just looked at each other in a sort of freaked out kinda way! We had no choice but to stop and give them a half and hour to burn up some energy before the trip home. That was spooky! Wish she would predict the lotto numbers for me!


Sunday, March 18, 2007

Happy Mother's Day!

And I got the best mother's day present today - a lie in and breakfast in bed. We had a great dinner last night and it went on til 3am so it felt just like the old days BC (before children!) I cooked up a storm and did a buffet which went down well and the craic was good. Ed was discreetly tidying up and washing up all night so I didn't even have that to contend with this morning - pretty well trained he is... I would say!

So having a lazy day - the kids came back from the overnighter and party and are just pottering around the house colouring in Dora the Explorer print outs. I'm going to try and get some CJ's done today (promise to Isobel!). I made this LO for Scrapwest on Friday and I was really happy with it as they are some of my fav baby photos with mum. She was delighted when I gave it to her yesterday. That's why I love scrapbooking - these photos were up to recently decaying away in one of those nasty plastic albums in my mum's wardrobe and now I can do something creative with them and tell a story for my girls...The only frustrating thing is there's not enough time to get through the millions of photos that I have in my possession!

Anyway enough about that - must get some scrappin' done! Happy Mother's day to all - hope everyone is getting spoilt rotten!

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Top of the Morning to ya....(begorrah begorrah!)

Happy St Patricks day! The only day of the year when it is acceptable to wear green in access and dye your hair a vibrant shade of grass! Not that I did you understand... Celebrations are kicking of around the country as we speak - we have decided to watch it from the comfort of our own home - there's a bit of a wind chill factor out there (bbrrrhh!). I did this LO for an 'Oirish' challenge this week - brings back happy memories of the World Cup Ire vs. Italy match in '94.




Had a busy week this week. On Tuesday night I went to arc angels craft club and got some mini albums covered. On the way home I popped into my pal Niamh's surprise 40th drinks in Glasnevin. She was totally surprised. I made her this necklace as she likes my jewellary... The kids were spoilt for company this week as we had three different play dates Tue/Wed/Thu with their little pals and mums.

Better sign off as I'm cooking dinner for 12 people tonight and I havent even finalised the menu not to mention the house looks like a hurricaine has blown through it. Thankfully my sister-in-law is taking the girls tonight as they are going to my nephew's birthday party tomorrow in ENRG at 10.30am and it would be ambitious to think they would get there as our dinner guests will be here 'for the night'. Better make a start.

Oooh forgot to say Ed got us tickets for George Micheal during the week so I'm chuffed to bits. You know you are getting old when you realise that you know all the old songs of an artist and that was 25 years ago!

Enjoy the festivities!

Monday, March 12, 2007

Your health is your wealth...

And true it is...Just over a really nasty dose of flu and strep throat. Had to call in the ERT (Emergency Response Team = mum) as I couldn't get out of bed for a few days. (thanks mum!x). Must have been sick as I didnt scrap for a whole week which is not like me at all :-). Ed took this photos of the girls last week - they were making a 'hotel' out of our dining room chairs! You gotta love their little imaginations - no end to the things they can make out of ordinary household items....





Anyway back to normal this week -have a few get togethers planned with the kiddies and we have a dinner party arranged for St Patrick's night so that should be fun... Will try and bring the girls into town for the parade this Saturday as they have been too small to appreciate it so far.

This is the LO for scrapwest - Audrey sent me a bundle of supplies and we had a scrapmap to work on. Quite happy with the end result. If you'd like to see more, click on the new scrapwest link in the right hand bar... TFL


Not a lot else to report today...chat later