I solemnly swear I am up to s{no}w good

After a lot of last minute shopping last year (once I'd finally dug myself out of the house) and one or two presents that didn't actually appear until January, I am 110% committed to having my Christmas shopping done before 1st December this year. So who's with me?  Go on, say it...

I solemnly swear to:

Sip mulled wine, 

Listen to carols

Enjoy the festive season

And put my woolly sock clad feet up in December.

No shopping (unless it's for fun or me).

 

And on that note, I am heading into town for a spot of festive shopping. So who's organised? Does anyone have all their shopping done? Presents wrapped? Cards bought/made/written???

10 Things in November

Another 10 things you may or may not know about me:

1. I love chick lit. I am currently reading Cafe Tropicana by Belinda Jones.
2. I love reality TV. My recent favourites are Big Brother, The X Factor and The Bachelor.
3. I have a little boy who is three years old.
4. The first time I went on a plane I was 10 years old and on my own.
5. I have been dying my hair blonde for so long I'm not entirely sure what my natural hair colour would be if I let the blonde grow out completely.
6. I once travelled from Stirling to London on a freezing cold bus to protest about university tuition fees.
7. I am addicted to Coke (Cherry Coke being my all time favourite).
8. I am taking part in a 'Twiathlon'.
9. I order chips and curry sauce and call it a 'Chinese takeaway' (in my defence I always order prawn crackers!).
10. I'm 32 years old (I think!). I have got to THAT age where I question what age I am on a regular basis.

Every month, we blog ten things on the tenth.  Your ten things can be absolutely anything you feel like sharing.  Pop on over to Shimelle's blog and link to your specific blog post so we can all come read your own list of ten.

The Great Wall of... (our livingroom)

So things started getting a little spooky around here at the start of the month. My little man celebrates his birthday on 11th October and I take that as a big flashing green neon sign to start decorating the house for his birthday and for Halloween. I mean, you want to make the most of your spooky decorations don't you. So why not start early.

This year we had something new to decorate. I frequently lust over other peoples 'displays'. You know the ones with the gorgeous sentiments and the gorgeous ornaments, and the gorgeous photos. Well, we have no such space in our home. No chunky mantelpiece to drape pretties from, no lovely shelves to decorate, not even a sideboard!! Oh dear, you may way ask, how have I survived all these years?!? I honestly don't know.

We have this wall in our livingroom. It's unloved. It's... bare!! Bar two picture hooks that I unceremoniously string Christmas cards from but once a year (well thankfully really, Christmas cards more than once a year would be, well weird). It was time to show the wall some love. Photo collages to vinyl wall decals were discussed but I wanted somewhere to 'hang', to 'place', to 'decorate'. I wanted... a shelf! And where else does one buy ones self a shelf, Ikea of course. And a few other fancies while your there. It would be rude not to and quite frankly it is The Rules of Ikea to slip things into your trolly you never even knew you desperately needed.

And here it is, loving refered to in our family as 'The Shelf'.

Crys of 'I wasn't sure about the shelf but...', 'I love your shelf, I wasn't really sure about it to be honest' can be heard far and wide but the fact remains they all love it. But most importantly so do I.

Happy Halloween to one and all :)

(apart from the wee buggers that just egged my front window - I wouldn't mind if I was being all scrooge mcduck without any pumpkins on display and no bowl of sweeties ready and waiting for them but come on at least wait until I've tripped the switch to the doorbell to egg me :p)

Halloween's Coming

Halloween's coming, witches will be after you...

I just love this time of year. Although the pitch black when my alarm goes off at 6:15am may take a little bit longer to get used too. But Autumn leaves, central heating, homemade soup (not that I don't eat homemade soup all year round but there's just something a bit lovely about eating it all cozy and warm when it's cold outside), pumpkins and Halloween decorations make up for the dark mornings. I can't wait for the Halloween costumes to appear in the shops. J has been a pumpkin, a vampire and a spider. We have a busy September and October ahead (a stag, a hen, a 3rd birthday and a wedding) but I am hoping to find some time to make some Halloween projects. And at the very least I hope to scrapbook last years Halloween photos!

I've been using Pinterest for a while but only to re-pin images that has already been pinned (are you still with me?). That was until Julie's It's a Sign post prompted me too add all of my Orlando holiday photos of signs. You can see my It's a Sign board here if you are at all interested. It dawned on me that I could be using Pinterest to save some of my favourite Halloween projects so that's what I did yesterday. And here is the board and some of my favourite pins... Happy hauntings :) Yup, I'm slow on the uptake.

Source: 2.bp.blogspot.com via Kir on Pinterest

Source: lemontreecreations.blogspot.com via Kir on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Kir on Pinterest

Welcome to the World

My little neice arrived safe and sound last week; a little bundle of loveliness. In preparation for her arrival I created a couple of pages for her very first scrapbook. I decided on the Amanda Blu Woodland Animals album for her. I have the Robots version of this album as well (in fact I have three but that's a whole other story). The albums have a lovely touchy feely fabric embellished cover which you can't help but stroke. You really need to see them in the flesh. They are gorgeous. My little man loves his 'robots book'. He is always 'just looking' at the cover :)

I used Simple Stories Baby Steps, Prima flowers (Whisper Collection - Celebrate and Classic Lace - Aria), a Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, some Kaisercraft gems and pearls and Lullaby Thickers. I inked the cardstock and papers with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

 

A little slow on the up-take, I am fast becoming a kraft cardstock convert. I just can't see past it at the moment. It's so easy to work with no faffing around trying the match papers to cardstock. No pulling out oddles of one colour of cardstock to find that really you have nothing out of the masses that actually matches. Urgh. 

In other news, I am throwing a  Gruffalo themed birthday party for my little man's 3rd birthday. Amazing! Said the Gruffalo.

10 Things

10 completely random things you may or may not know about me...

1. I'm 4' 11"
2. I collect Pocket Dragons
3. I am an only child
4. I have 3 brothers in law and 3 sisters in law
5. I have two degrees, neither of which I need to do my job
6. I work in IT in a university
7. I met my husband at high school
8. I passed my driving test first time, age 20
9. I've been in prison (I worked for the prison service) :p
10. I am a Taurus

Fairest of Them All

Parades are great for a bit of character spotting and snapping at Walt Disney World! I love to stake out a good spot for taking photos of the parades. And, to be honest at only 4' 11" it's a bit of a neccessity! We were lucky enough to catch the Hollywood Holly-Day Parade (aka the Stars and Motor Cars parade) at Disney's Hollywood Studios' (formally MGM) in December 2007 before it moved to Disneyland Paris. So, I have lots n' lots of photos of  Disney characters in their cars with the added bonus of Santa as we caught the parade at Christmas time.

To create this page I used  a sheet of Bazzill and lots n' lots of Reminisce's Fairy Tales Collection and some seriously old (or should that be vintage) red and pink metal and pearl embellishments that I think my Grandad 'rescued' from a birthday card. My Grandad was crafty like me and I inherited his craft supplies when he passed away in 2006. It's really lovely to be able to use something he had squirreled away on one of my pages.

Have a magical day!