chicken fever

The chickens are finished!
Still got the actual cards to make but the most fiddly part is done. The cards will be quicker if I can allow for thicker margins between my squares. I make the backing out of layers of card punched into squares. But the margins between are thinker than I like, so then I end up trimming the squares. If I go for bigger it will cut down on making time. Ooooh decisions, decisions.

Still haven't actually had the letter of intent, just a verbal agreement but I'll plough on and just have to give out loads of chicken cards this year!

Carys has her guide uniform now so here is a rushed photo of her as we were going out last night. she is perfecting the tweenage "Do I have to?" look. She looks so old to me! ON Sunday hse is doing a sponsored abseil then next Friday it's the Big Gig where lots of Guides go to a concert with lots of the current favourite singers/bands eg Lamarr.

Another day another post

Surely its a record!
Only got some of the jobs on my list done - the important ones!
BUT I did fit in a trip to Artbase because my little xyron runner had, well, run out.
So I bought two of those
2 square punches (I think I now have them all - but I do use them a lot)
two sheets of black bazzill
and a cropodile.

I wish I could resist gadgets but it does cut through acrylic which will help with tarted up clipboards and resued old cd's. I'm not allowed to use it until all the chickens are made. (29 made, well 30 but one had to be thrown out due to scary eyes).
I have vowed not to do any more crafty spending until next payday. It was payday yesterday...

I decided to try using the refill without putting it back in the machine and it works a treat - you can fit far more in and there is a whole lot less wastage.

I've had a few brain swelling meetings today so tonight will be spent on more chickens. Oh life is so exciting!
As it's not so warm today - a photo of my baby over the summer. She already looks so much older

Where has the week gone?

I am Soooooooooooo sorry!
work has just been a bit worky this week!
I have done some crafty bits though. Finished the book for my Godson. It is a board book about the blessings of Ben, where his parents can put in photos of Ben, his family and God[arents and it also says how much God loves him. The front smudged a bit when I put mod podge on (grrrr) but it looks worse in this photo than it is and to try and do anything else would make it worse....


So I will try again in the morning as I have a scrap book page to make now .

Morning! Pics now up and scrap page done.
Here is my very mature family enjoying their hols in Scotland. Paper is all the wonderful Crate paper (if you see it in the shop it is well worth stroking as it has a gorgeous texture). Title printed on safmat and gone over in pen. Alphabet brads (says Mud Fun) painted with alcahol inks to get the right shade.

But mostly I have been cutting out QK chicks, roosters and funky chickens (well Phil did the chickens for me) as I have an order for 60 cards! Now that is great news only the rooster has 6 parts to ink and glue together so it's all going to take a little while. I am trying to do a bit at a time so i don't get too bogged down in it. I'm ever so nervous and excited that my stuff is going to sell in a real (well online) shop.

And now it's Tuesday. It's (oops) just past 9 o'clock so it is time to crack on with the real job of sharing God's love with the world. Tasks this morning -
1: find desk
2: print out brochure to see how far we have got
3: go to Prayer meting
4: go to brochure meeting
5: prepare Bible study for Thursday night
6: think about Sunday service - harvest then songs of praise in the afternoon
7: tackle in tray.

I will try and blog tomorrow about how far i got!

Just don't say ANYTHING!

because I am likely to shout at you. Nothing personal just a touch of pmt coupled with having to tidy the house rather than craft, plus not getting enough sleep lately (own fault) plus a tactless e-mail to do with work stuff that has me seething and sad all at the same time when really I should just GET OVER IT.
So be warned...

And I have loads of things to be thankful for.

• Rather than meeting up with Carolyn's in Birmingham I managed to arrange the Church's first weekend of prayer which went really well. We did all sorts of things we don't normally do and I was overwhelmed by the positive reaction (until the e-mail, no don't dwell on it Lyth).
• I can now walk round my bedroom without tripping over anything and redicovered my birthday chocolate orange which got hidden (birthday June. Blush)
• Movie night tonight. Every other Monday we get take away and rent a film. I haeve loads of blockbuster vouchers thanks to Tesco's yay! But our local blockbuster just closed. Booo. Still its a simple and good thing for us to do together. We watched Millions. Oh what a fabulous film! Its 12a but I would say pg as no swearing, a couple of shots of ladies in bras and a St smoking a ciggie but that was all. Two brothers find a bag of money - a gift from God - and set about trying to help the poor with the assistance of some saints. They only have a few days to go as pounds are about to be taken over by euros. Oh its no good i can't do justice to it. You'll just have to watch it and if you like reading this blog you will probably like the film!
• I met up with our training officer to discuss doing an MA next year and think I may be mad enough to try (not just in a year though...)

Hope you can count your blessings today too

Here are 3 more of mine. Don't they always look so lovely asleep?

Probably because it's the only time they can't answer back...

No title

cos it's still September....

I was tagged by Jane on Thursday and i didn't notice - shows how busy I am. So here are my answers. The ones I ahve done are in red.
I have had a sheltered life ya know

1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
2. Swam with wild dolphins
3. Climbed a mountain - well if you add several hills together I have
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid
6. Held a tarantula
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone - but there would be no room for my book!
8. Said “I love you” and meant it
9. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped gotta be kidding
11. Visited Paris - hey I've even broken down on the perepherique. Bet that isn't on the list and that IS scary...
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise. Well we did the staying up thing. Me and some friends at Uni. Sat all night at the Ashton memorial (one of the hills mentioned above). Sadly it was misty that morning. Bummer.
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game. Yup Bolton wanderers vs Charlton athletic. Mindblowing.
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables Well DH grew i ate. If that doesn't count then it's only mustard and cress.
18. Touched an iceberg. No but Phil says he does every time my feet touch him at night.
19. Slept under the stars. Only in my dreams. me and Brad. Or Justin. Or Orlando. Oh outside you mean. Only under canvas.
20. Changed a baby’s diaper. No. Changed a baby's nappy.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon. Heights. Me. No, no, no, no, no. I won't even go on the London Eye.
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne Nope. too tight. Mind you I cna get drunk on a half a shandy...
24. Given more than you can afford to charity. Given a lot but I know I could always give more
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment. All. The. Time.
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can. I have 3 kids....
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen an eclipse
34. Ridden a (baby) roller coaster
35. Hit a home run. My dream in rounders was alwauys to make contact with the ball. It never went outside the square.
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking. I'm a dancing fool
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer. No but I've got 4 computers does that count?
40. Visited all 50 states.
41. Taken care of someone who was shit faced - just when they were drunk, or their usual expression? No but I have been the person needing care.
42. Had amazing friends. Ooooooh yes.
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales. No but I'm from wild Wales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving - enough with the height stuff already
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them - only if macdonalds can be classed as a restaurant
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero - what do you mean pretended. I AM a superhero. It's just that I wear my pants inside my tights (but they are as big as Superman's)
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Posed nude in front of strangers - after my bath before mum put my nappy on. That is NAPPY not diaper
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married. well no I GOT married. Honestly grammar today!
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch. well made biscuits anyway. Real Amercain ones with my own extra ingredient - cocoa powder. mmmm American savrouy biscuits with choclate flavouring. delicious. How was I to know it's COOKIES for the sweet things in the US?
78. Won first prize in a costume contest. Many times. mum was good a the old costume making lark.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice. On honeymoon when I GOT married. Aaaah
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an expert - no but I have been on a tv programme as an expert.
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music - as a backing singer
87. Eaten shark
88. Eaten fugu (pufferfish)
89. Had a one-night stand. Bad, bad, bad idea.
90. Gone to Thailand
91. Bought a house
92. Been in a combat zone
93. Buried one/both of your parents
94. Been on a cruise ship
95. Spoken more than one language fluently
96. Performed in Rocky Horror Picture Show
97. Raised children - usually by the ears.
98. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking. Not even when they start putting their hands over their ears while driving.
103. Had plastic surgery. Do you think so? with this face?
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111.Ridden a bike
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild .......(not to eat them ! wink !)
118. Ridden a horse - very slowly pony trekking
119. Had major surgery - c-section
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
Lost the will to live filling in a blog thing...
131. Parasailed. We're talking height again people. Actually if I had to do some sort of scary above the ground thing it would be this one.
132. Petted a cockroach eeeeeeeeewwwww!
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life - according to them anyway

I would post the picture here but blogger won't let me. I have realise dsomething awful.
I have seen the future and it is......
Mrs Doyle.

Ah gawan.
Have a cup of tea.
Ye will, ye will, ye will, ye will.

Apologies to any diaper users who don't have a clue what the feck I'm talking about...

Yes it's september

September is the busiest month of the year for me work wise.
All the organisations that didn't meet over the summer meet in September for a catch up.
I'm also working every Saturday and have really full Sundays all month. 30th September is my first non work saturday so we are going to do something family wise together. I did think of going to Ally pally for a Stamp and Crafting show but thought I probably ought to put family and wallet first.

wallet is feeling a little weak after I splurged on the new Basic Grey collections. I just love their collections because - well, everything goes together so nicely! (duh) and it makes putting patterns together a breeze. It also mean I have to use stuff I wouldn't necessarily and that helps my creativity (such as it is). I also ordered some top ups of the colour me silly range - actually mostly the plain ones as they help to make brilliant backgrounds for chicken cards. I ahve a few Qk chicken dies now and Phil has sent some of my cards off to Omlet to see if they would like to stock them in their online shop. I don't know whether I want them to say yes or no!

Next crafty spend will be a cropodile becacause it cuts through acrylic so next time i want to make a tarted up clipboard I can put holes in it. Hhhmmmm probably ought to do some of these for the church fair in November. We are having a Pirates theme.
Why are pirates called pirates?
Because they aaaaar!

Monday I had some lovely crafting time making a board book for my godson Ben. OK so his birthday was the end of August and this is a leetle late. But hey, he's one and won't notice. I'm going to finish it I hope this Monday. Will photograph the pages too.

Every post needs a piccy so
THAT is what I think of September

Tagged about ancestors

thanks kathy!

1. Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from?
Being the good christian girl that I am (try anyway) my first rection was to say Jesus but then remembered that I would be opening a theological can of worms! So I'll go for Elizabeth Fry who did so much work for prison reform
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from?
There are all too many obvious baddies and I will not give them the oxygen of publicity by naming them!
3. If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why?
I think I'll go for Desmond Tutu. His faith and his ability to make a difference - seemingly laughing all the time too - is such an inspiration
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be?
This answer sounds sinilar to Kathy's. My Gramma becasue she died when I was 8 before could really get to know her. She was beautiful, very musically talented and a bit of an enigma to me. I wouldn't mind meeting the boxer on my dad's side who went to America rich and came back poor to give him some financial advice...
5. Tag five others: NZJane, Axaria, Carolyn, Rachel, Lucylou

So why blog?

That is the rhetorical question that NZ Jane asked on hers yesterday and it got me thinking.
I've come up with a few reasons why I blog

• It's better than keeping a diary
• I like to write stuff. I like to see the way that I write in a blog cos it entertains me.
• I like to find out the trivia of other people's lives and am willing to put at elast some of mine on show.
• Although I don't talk about my faith too much it's a place where I hope that I can share that Christians are (fairly) normal people
• I can archive photos and craft stuff on here in case my hard drive dies. (Mine did last year. Do YOU back up regularly?)
• I love getting feedback from people about what I write (though not many do, hint, hint)

Back to the hols, lets see if blogger will play

Wet picnic with Murray monumint sticking out of my head

Wet people at the top.

One of the fun things we did was go to a farm to make ice cream. Actually we can do this at home wit our ice cream maker but haven't done much. Note to self. Make ice cream.

It was good fun and the kids enjoyed wearing their hats...

They made some 'delicious' ice-cream. Lots of honey, raisins and meringue. Fillings hurt just to think about it!

There was also lots of fun wooden things to play on. I love this picture of Phil

Kids are now back to school (hurray!) Not that I'm glad to see the back of them, it's that there is a better sense of routine now. we had a family meeting last night (we try and have one every Tuesday during term time) and we were very impressed about their grown up answers and solutions to problems. we didn't quite crack world peace but had good suggestions for non crisp items in lunch boxes....

They're coming to take me away ha,ha, hee, hee

Went to use the car Wednesday. S'funny, the door is unlocked and I NEVER leave it unlocked. Weirder still the spare key is in the ignition. Car battery dead as a dodo. Had a good try at blaming Phil for all this then realised I must have opened the boot on Tuesday, got the shopping out and left the key in the ignition. At least I shut the driver's door. Muppet.
And finally here are my feet!

I've almost got the hang of this work thing again. It will be eaier when we are all back in our usual routine. Except Phil who is now on Sabbatical for three months. I may have already had mine but that doesn't stop me feeling green!

I'm sure you are dying to know more about the holiday...
we actually did more out and about things than we do when we are on a campsite in France.
The kids discovered that going on walks can actually be fun.
We did two walks in Mabie forest and on both days it was hot which meant that the sun dappled through the trees beautifully.


We got to watch tv together too - which we don't always do. The kids love Dragon's den (why?) and one great programme was about kids starting school. Carys has now perfected her Reception face.
Can't wait to scrap it!

One of my friends mentioned that we were going to Scotland in "rainy season". So in a very grown up way, every time the sun shone I went "rainy season. Hah!" to myself.
OK sometimes I even said it out loud.
Cos, there was rain sometimes but it was lovely and sunny most days for at least part of the day. And we usually like a bit of rain as it gives us the excuse to stay in and do nothing for a while...

One mixed day was when we went to see the deer. They were doing a deer trail at 2pm. I decided that we could have a lazy morning, eat lunch in the caravan and then drive there and hang around for a while. All went well until I looked at the map again and I realised that I had vastly underestimated the distance. Shoved the picnic in the car and set off. Every mile was an agony as I was sure we were going to miss it after driving for at least 1 and a half hours.
(We have discovered that there is a motorway speed limit, a national speed limit and a Scottish country road speed limit. Even if the road is not particularly bendy and the scenery a bit blah you are not allowed to drive over 45 miles an hour)
The countryside was so beautiful, the weather gorgeous but I couldn't take it in as I urged the car to eat up the miles faster with the power of my mind (it doesn't work)

Dear readers, we squealed into the car park at 1:59.


So we ended up having our picnic lunch about 3:15 near a monument up a hill. It was to remember someone called Murray. So we decided to call it the Murray Monumint. Obviously. And had to climb up to see it. THEN it was raining.

I'll show the photies later when blogger lets me