Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Grrr! Me and Technology...

... don't mix. Angry face!

Sunday, January 27, 2008

All About Eve

As a team we've decided to fold the challenge blog All About Eve. It's a bit sad as we've had a lot of fun, but for various reasons we feel it's time to move on. I can honestly say I love each and every one of the girls, and feel really honoured to have worked with them on the blog. They all have amazing talent and I wish them every success in whatever they go on to do. I especially hope Emine gets better, (and I'm praying for that for ya babes).

I hope too that all you gorgeous gals who hung out with us soon find a new blog to follow - but I know you will - there are enough of them out there, eh!! Maybe see you around some place else, who knows?

I've had a bit of a shitty weekend really as I had to do the works newsletter this week and it just takes hours... and hours... I'm pretty fed up tbh, as I find it so hard to write when I have no enthusiasm.

So, I downed tools earlier and made a quick LO instead.... coz i was just so stinking peed off! Lol!


Here she is... Jazz's gorgeous baby girl, Jenna. Isn't she a doll? Look at those eyes! Still blue as anything much to her mother's delight...(even though they don't look it here). Heaven knows where she got them, but aren't they beautiful?

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The good the bad and the downright fugly...

ok, the good: I managed to get some scrapping done this week! yay! And enjoyed it too :-) big smiles all round :-)

First I worked on my dt kit from Scrapping Goodies and the layouts and file folder book below are from that.

Then I started my Friday night Mojoholder layout - this is it - and I love it!



I had a lot of fun playing with this, and the original from Australia's Michelle Grant that we scraplifted can be seen on the blog here.

The bad: Heard from the bank that some twat's been using my debit card to top up his /her mobile phone @ £50 a time... oh joy. I need this like a hole in the head. Luckily for me I s'pose, someone noticed the unusual activity on the card and put a stop on it. Only came to light as I was told an online payment had been declined, and contacted the bank to ask why. God knows how they got my number - I just hope I get the money back... some asshole, eh?

Ugly:

Lol! Not my boy, but most of his fave bands!! OMG Look at them! Just think yourselves lucky you don't get to have their music shared with you.... like I do!! Eeeek!!

This layout was supposed to have been a mojoholder layout a couple of weeks back. But I run out of time before we went away and so it's been on the desk ever since - and Vin's been at me to finish 'his' layout. Finally got it done last night, and it is one for my own personal challenge to use every one of my LD alpha's by the end of the year. This alphabet is called Alpha Graphics Hmm... hard to see the edge of the LO - note to self, ink edges next time... ;-)

LOVE the quote... so very very apt I think!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Yikes....!

Another week flown past!

On the one hand it's crazy... where has the month gone... but also it's good - as it's a little closer to pay day... and boy do I need that. The flaming car needs a new clutch, slave cylinder, modified pipe (what's that when it's at home??) and of course labour......a snip, I'm told, at £350 for the lot. Err hello??

Thank God my knight in shining armour has come to my rescue, but still, whether he pays it or I do, it's still costing us, and that's a lot of money. Especially when I'm starting to feel we're now throwing good money after bad. Sodding car's a nightmare, but I can't get to work without it, so what else can we do?

Scrappy stuff...? yeah, a few bits.

I've missed Mojoholder for two weeks now as everything's been so mad, but I'll be back this week, and i'm raring to go! Lol! :-)

This is my Scrapping Goodies DT work, for the January kit - now with reduced price on the kit, so do pop over and have a look at the kit and the other DT girl's work and gallery.


Carlo's big night lol, perhaps better forgotten :-)

Always loved Vin in his brown and red duffer T shirt. Now T shirts are Black. All Black. Gah....!

I'm loving Angels....miss my girlies everyday.

And a file folder mini book of our adventures in Amsterdam! Be something to smile about in a few years I expect :-)

more later!
have a great day all!
jk x

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Survivors!

So, we survived our visit to Amsterdam…

...though at times it was seriously touch and go :-) There are no less bikes around than the last time I visited half a lifetime ago – in fact, if anything there are more – but the owners have definitely got bolder. 4 times we witnessed people being struck by cyclists, and twice the victims went sprawling. One old dude hobbled away limping and cursing everyone in sight... it was hard not to laugh, but laughing would be dangerous, because then you'd shut your eyes and be run over for certain.
We lived in fear – fear of inadvertently straying into cycle paths (for cycle path, read psychopath) and being run down by a deranged bell ringing biker… and also fear that in frantically leaping out of their way, we might end up being squashed instead by one of the ubiquitous trams which appear to come from every direction with alarming regularity and speed - unless you are waiting for one of course.

Far safer, we found, were the canal boats which lazily cruise round the waterways giving you a relaxing commentary in every language (something which had us chuckling often over certain words which kept being repeated in English, there being no equivalent word for translation). Once we’d heard a funny word, the mounting tension of waiting to hear it again, and the uncontrollable guffaw when it eventually came struck us as so funny that we became completely overcome with our own mirth and could do nothing but giggle helplessly while our fellow passengers looked on in baffled bemusement – no doubt imagining that we’d spent the morning in one of the town’s many ‘coffee-shops’ ;-)

The flip side of the coin was our visit to Anne Frank’s house, which had me tripping in my tears and Carl all misty eyed by the time we left. Massive queues round the building had had us praying it would be worth the long wait in the rain. It was. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say it’s not something either of us are ever likely to forget... Even after all these years, the horror and sadness prevail. It was without doubt an incredibly poignant experience but something I’m glad we found time to do.
We walked miles round the town. Miles...
And miles.
And miles.
We covered so much ground, and did heaps of stuff over the three days we were there. When you only have a short time you just have to cram it in, don't you?





Other highlights were the SEX Museum. OMG! What can I say? Lol!! :-D
The Torture Museum (yep, we are that gruesome!)
The floating flower market and shopping.

Leidensplein at night... (See those pesky bikes everywhere?)The beauty of the lights on the water after dark - even amid the tacky seediness of the Red Light Area.

Nice meals out, from traditional dutch peasant soups to gorgeous spicy exotic dishes and juicy steaks


The warm hospitality and cosyness of the old old Brown Café on the last day, where a charming be-whiskered landlord insisted on pressing delicious lumps of heavily saltl and peppered dutch cheeses upon us to go with our drinks, which we sipped in the corner and watched the world go by for a couple of hours.
Oh...and the double decker train!! Yeah, just like kids we loved it! Never even seen one before, never mind rode on one… but as they say – little things please little minds eh?
The weather was crap pretty much all weekend but we never let it keep us in. So we came home exhausted... and skint. What's new?
Looking at the pics we look like two wrecks... lol. Terrible hat hair, bundled up in coats... freezing most of the time. But it was a laugh... So,thanks for the weekend girlies, these pics are for you!

More later jk x

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Quick catch up:

*Craft wise i'm not doing much. Rather a lot going on in my life so hobbies taking a bit of a back seat. That should all change after this weekend when life will get back to normal.

* Trying to get my Mojo done for Friday night... I will actually be out of the country by then so need to get it done today, if it's to be done at all.

* Off to Amsterdam for the weekend!!! Camera and martini money packed already ;-)

* Totally impressed with my efforts at restraint and moderation thus far this year. Obviously I know this is likely to go out of the window over the weekend, but even that's not bothering me. I know I can get back into it, so have no fear. Amazing!

* Still not done much on the CR - but again, after this weekend, when we get home, I will crack on. Advice from good friend: "Stop running before you can walk..." Duly taken on board!

* Looking forward to my Scrapping Goodies box arriving, i've seen the papers and they are fantastic - can't wait to get working lol :-)

* Managed to aquire an Epsom 1290 A3 printer, and have downloaded the drivers and manual from the net. Haven't had time to set it up and try it yet as things need to be rearranged to make space, but hopefully it will work ok, and as i've always fancied an A3 i'll be well chuffed, particularly as I got it buckshee through Freecycle!

* Loss adjusters in today to my sis and bil's house. Still uninhabitable, so they have to move out of hotel and find rented accom...Could be looking at 6 months drying out apparently... how bad can it be down there? So very very sad for them.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Without warning

Oh, my poor sister....

After our lovely weekend, my sis and bil arrived back in Cornwall last night to find their house totally flooded out. It seems a pipe burst in the loft, flooding the bathroom, and (partly) bringing the ceiling down (the plumber later finished the job and brought it right down!) . The water then continued to pour out of the bathroom door and down the stairs, flooding the hall and one of their living rooms. It cascaded down through a toilet ceiling ruining that small room too, and ran down the walls of adjoining bedrooms. Their dining room - below the bathroom - is wrecked; they have no lighting, and no heating either... and the top of a windy hill in Cornwall is not the warmest place in January, as anyone from down that way will tell you.

Last night they spent the night in an hotel, and they'll be back there tonight and for the immediate future, as the restoration people and assessors are not coming in until Wednesday. You can imagine their dismay and horror rolling home to discover that!

It must have gone sometime in the night on Friday or early hours of Saturday, because the neighbours heard the alarm start about 2am. They think that as the water soaked everything the wall papers started to roll back and fall off, triggering the sensor, and as it was still going next day, one of their neighbours called round to investigate. At that time he could see nothing amiss through the front. Eventually tho, he managed to get round the back and saw the dining room was awash... at which point he located the external stop cock and turned it off. Thank heavens for him.

It's such a shame as it's only recently they've got over having to have major restoration work to a serious problem which led to wet rot, and which was galloping at several feet a month! There have been other disasters, always something... and it was only when we were down there in December that my sister was saying how wonderful it was to have the house back at last and to relax with all the jobs and problems sorted finally... Poor thing - her peace of mind didn't last too long, did it?

I believe it's an unlucky house. I've always said this. There's no bad feel there... but they just seem to encounter one situation after another... too many for coincidence in my mind. I think it's a bad luck plce... maybe built on ley lines or something. My sister agrees. Her other half does not however. He has no superstitions at all. But going over the deeds not long after they moved in, my sister noted that most of the people who'd lived there had had very little luck... always some unfortunate thing taking place, and while they've had no personal bad luck, the house has had plenty...

I'd advise getting it in shape and getting it gone. Some places are just like that. You can't change the way it is. Bad luck is bad luck... and no amount of not believing it is going to make any difference to that.

On a lighter note I thought I'd share this lovely papercrafted lantern as a sort of symbol of hope for them... It's the card Carl's mum made for us for Christmas. It's so pretty and intricate that I hung it in the hall so visitors could see it when they came in.



Gorgeous, isn't it?

And this is the birthday card he received...





Absolutely lovely IRL... sigh.... wish I had her talent.....

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Sober at last......:-)

Yep, it's been quite a weekend....

Carlos Fandango turned forty..... and we all sort of went along with him, to smooth the passage as it were..... :-) Hic!!



We had a totally brilliant time and I think he enjoyed his birthday... I know the rest of us did anyway. We both took Friday off work, so pottered about making preps for later, and donzo popped in with balloons and banners and stuff to make it more fun.
The phone never stopped ringing all day (we have a lot of kids... and grandkids... and it seems he's pretty popular with his mates too...) but he only had his cards in the morning, because Vin wanted to be there when we gave him our present, so he had that about 4 o'clock after the boy got in from school. Then we gave him an envie containing details of the surprise trip to London I've booked for us for in March to see the brand new show The Jersey Boys - this is the Frankie Valli story - which I know he'll love. I've booked us into a four star hotel as well, and we'll probably do an exhibition or something on the Sunday, so we're both really looking forward to that :-D though Vin's cryin neglect lol, coz he's getting left behind!

Later everyone met here for champagne before we went off in taxi's to a big chinese restaurant in Luton that has entertainment.


This Friday (and it was serendipity, i'm sure), they had an ELVIS night... Lol!! And it was blinkin brilliant!

Everyone had a whale of a time... the kids loved it, we loved it, even Vin loved it ;-) it really was so much fun.
Sanna, Daave and Vin
Isabelle dancing on the table... well almost :-)
Mr Cool
My nutty sister going for it!

Carl and his buddy Paul
Sanna and Daave again - they know how to have a good time, these two...

The boys that make the noise...
And a bit of new York new York... did Elvis do that one? lol!

And then Donna and Jon Boy presented Carlo with his gift from all the kids.... A weekend in Amsterdam, which is something he's always wanted to do... Ahem... not very excited about it tho, as you can see.. lol!


YESSSSSSS!!!!
So, we're off to that next weekend :-). Lots of photo opps there I imagine... I've actually been before many years ago, but Carl's never been, so we'll do all the usual touristy stuff... well, you have to, don't you? ;-)

And again... Vin's crying neglect!!! Lol! But we've only really had a couple of breaks away without the kids in over twenty years so I doubt the NSPCC will take him too seriously, and I'm certain he'll have a fab time slobbing at his sister's while we're away pretending to be young again...

Naturally, Carl got dinner ladied at the do... and as this is something that happens often to him, it's something i've come to expect... He must have one of those faces... gangs of women out on the razz always manage to kidnap him at some point throughout the night and only release him when they've danced him to death... Jon Boy Brown often becomes another victim, though he managed to avoid it this time... hmmm... where's your hard hat gone mate...? pmsl... So all in all, a fabby time was had by all, young and old alike....Great Grandma didn't come bless her, but she DID make a fantastic cake :-)
HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY FANDANGO!


LUVYA TO BITS, DON'T WE?

Scrapping wise, I'm all behind, but did just about manage my Mojo LO before all the excitement began. I was very disappointed with the scan, which does nothing for it. IRL, it's very sparkly and pretty, so I took a couple of pics to show the detail, because the scan was a real rush job and it's a shame it doesn't show up the glitter and bling.





Til next time....


hugs from me
jk xx
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