Awaiting a very large delivery of stamps...

after my Stampin Up party last night, I am now waiting for a HUGE delivery. Not just for me, of course, but for the ladies who came to play with all of the lovely stamps Monica brought along. We had such a lot of fun, it was great. Plus I got to choose £60 of freebies, 2 hostess sets, and also some stamps I wanted... naughty me lol.
I'll take some pics once they arrive next week for sure.

At last the date for dad's op has come

My dad is having his hip replacement operation on Monday. Thank goodness for that!

A first birthday card

This was a card I made for my lovely niece Olivia, who was one on 24th February. To say she had such a difficult start to life, right from when my SIL was pregnant and nearly had to have Olivia at 24 weeks, she is such a gorgeous little lady!


Here she is with my two girls, so all 3 of my mum and dad's grand daughters in one picture. We don't get to meet up as often any more, as my bro had to move down to Reading as his job changed offices. When they lived in Manchester we saw them more often as their house was only 45 minutes away.

Tonight is my Stampin' Up party which I am really looking forward to. I need to nip out and get some nibbles later, but I am waiting in for the building control inspector to look at my loft conversion.

Better crack on with my cleaning, adios for now!

Did you feel it?

I certainly felt the earthquake in the early hours of this morning!
Really took me by surprise, that's for sure. I was lying in bed, wide awake as per usual, and my bed started shaking violently. The whole house was creaking and groaning. I just lay there, not really sure what to do to be honest!
Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any lasting damage. Scary tho!

Mother's Day is looming

Here's a card made using Blonde Moments papers, American Crafts ribbon, Sarah's cards blooms, a bazzill fabric brad, stickles in cotton candy and lettering cut with my cricut. Made for my friend Avril's mum, now I need to make one for my mum too!



This is a LO I did using a picture I took of myself. The papers are Kelly Panacci I think, they were in a scrapagogo kit last year sometime. The LO is for my Book of Me, which doesn't have much in it as yet!
Am at home with Alex today, we both still have icky tummies, so we'll be staying home tomorrow too. Shucks, no work for me! Although, given the discomfort, I would rather be fit for work than feeling like this!

I won!!!!

I've won £45 of Hobbycraft vouchers after submitting a card I made last month to Quick and Crafty Magazine! It is the 17th birthday card here and I am over the moon! It's the first card I have ever won anything with, so I am counting down to receiving my vouchers.
Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Has made my day, as I am still feeling rather grotty.

Poorly

Alex has a tummy bug, and is feeling yacky.
Well, we tell our children to share, so she has kindly passed it on to me. Great.
So I am not impressed, and feel shocking tonight.

Photos from the shoot

Thank you Anita for letting me post these here.

Photographs...

My photographs taken by Anita Mundt are back. Wowser, they are stunning! Once I have sorted out paying for them, I can share a select few, thanks Anita!
I am snowed under with work this week, had to work Monday as it was a training day, useful but very tiring. I have an observation tomorrow morning, a literacy lesson, which is a hassle, again useful but I know tomorrow night I will be asleep by 8!
Dad's op is looking hopeful for next week, so he will soon have his new hip. I have felt so angry at the NHS because of their treatment of my dad. I really could scream! At least it will be sorted very soon.
No crafting this week due to zero time, so I will definitely catch up next week. I'm having a Stampin Up party on Thursday 28th Feb, so if anyone around Leeds is interested, leave your email address in my comments and I'll be in touch!

The rollercoaster ride...

is getting rocky again. Not enough to shake me off, but enough to make me want to hold on tight. Life is very complex just now, so forgive me if I don't blog so often!

Here's a little something I found on Carole's blog.

What Anna Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Forgiveness

Here's my take on forgiveness... two lovely little people who argued and then made up this afternoon! I'm a bit late posting as I have been attacking the mountain of ironing which has consumed my house. Well it has now gone, so tomorrow morning I will be getting the girls to help me put it all away.
Can't believe half term is over already. It seems to have gone in a flash! Oh well, at least it is only 5 weeks til the easter holidays and our trip to Turks and Caicos.

Diligence

This is another photo with a story behind it. This is my heart monitor which I wear for the gym. I've been working out with a personal trainer, and to achieve optimum results I have to push my heart rate into the fat burning zone. So I wear this monitor around my chest to keep a check on it while I am thrashing myself stupid on the machines. I am definitely getting fitter, heck, I even managed to run on the treadmill! So diligence is my committment to getting fit under the guidance of Tim, my personal trainer. Back there tomorrow morning, so I am most definitely being diligent!

Oh, and Happy Valentines Day to you all!

Charity

Naff photo, sorry, I've been away at my mum's so am playing catch up.
This shows the only charity I now support, the British Heart Foundation. Nigel's Gift of Hope Fund, which has a link to the right of this page, currently stands at just over £1000. I am aiming to get it to £1500 by the second anniversary in August. If, perchance, you're feeling the need to donate, please do. No pressure, your donation would be very welcome so if you are thinking about it, go for it!

Temperance

Now you might look at my photograph today and wonder why I am having to resist fruit when it is so healthy. Well, the diet I am following at the moment is very strict, and so I can only eat food packs provided by the diet... I am shedding just a few pounds before my holiday in 5 and a half weeks' time.
So the fruit bowl is out of bounds, which is hard because I adore fresh fruit!
Oh well, it won't be long before I can reintroduce fruit. Counting down...
We're off to Durham today to see my parents. Alex is poorly, but nothing major. Just her usual cough, which kept me awake all night. As a result I am feeling punch drunnk this morning!

Chastity

This is how it feels to be single at times... enforced chastity! But then I am not going to rush into a relationship for the sake of being with someone, it needs to be someone who really can accept me and my girls, accept Nigel as part of that deal, and who is willing to spoil me with their time!!!!!!
Oh, and that person should be a millionaire too. Ha ha, I can always dream!

Pride

Just catching up with my shots for HSMS. I am filled with pride every time I look at my girls. I beat myself up so much that I am not a good mother, that I am not bringing my girls up properly, that I am letting Nigel down.
In reality, my girls are well adjusted, sociable, pleasant little girls. They have had to face so many things in their lives, which some children will (thankfully) never have to face. So I need to stop thinking badly of myself, start complimenting myself and accept that I am right to be filled with pride when I look at these two gorgeous girls.
It is like looking into their daddy's eyes every time though, which just now makes for lots of painful moments.

Good day bad day

Today we drove over to Liverpool to have some photographs taken by the fantastic Anita Mundt. She is over in the UK for a few days and so I jumped at the chance to have some photographs taken by her.
It was a fantastic shoot, the girls really enjoyed leaping about the place at the Albert Dock. Having my photograph taken was good too, not really had so much attention paid to me before.

However, I have come away feeling very very sad that our family unit is not how it was, how I had expected it to be. I am going through a phase of missing Nigel more lately. No idea why.

Today it is 18 months exactly since he died. And today I miss him more than ever.

Catch up... wrath and envy

A shot of my shoe cupboard in the hall. Each of my girls has a drawer in the cupboard for their shoes and boots. Does that mean they can put them away properly? Does it heck! Makes me so cross when they stuff their shoes in, leave them hanging out, and then I almost break my neck falling over the drawers!


This was funny, have had some fellow members of WAY staying this weekend, and their kids were so envious of my Wii and games. It is not Matthew's birthday til September, but already he says he definitely wants a Wii!

Today we went to see Joseph at the Grand Theatre in Leeds. It was absolutely fantastic! Chris Barton played Joseph, and he was excellent. Keith, runner up in Any Dream Will Do was the narrator, and he was good, just overdid the diction! Then it was off to Wagamama's for tea, the girls wolfed down their mini chicken katsu, rice and cucmber. Tomorrow is photograph day... we're meeting Anita Mundt in Liverpool to have some new family shots done. Time for some pics of our new unit of three. Strange to be a family of three, but we can't change that, can we.

Housework is evil postcard...

is from Paperchase. If you don't have a Paperchase near you and would like me to send you one, drop me an email to annajahead at yahoo dot co dot uk
:D

Sloth

This is a postcard I have on my wall, and explains my feelings about housework... displaying it shows how much of a sloth I am...

Although I am working on improving my laziness... I have been to the gym three times, yes THREE times this week. Twice to have a session with my personal trainer. Ouch. Hard work.

Back to Isa for the post tonight. Will be good to catch up with everyone.

Adios for now, amigos!

Greed

Two aspects of greed in one today. Chocolate and money, what more could a girl want?

Have been feeling gruesome all day, stonking headache, so forgive me if I do not post more.

Gluttony

Not much of that going on for me... working on shedding a few excess pounds before our holiday!
This photograph shows my girls' current favourite type of crisps, Pom Bears. Alex adores the pink, prawn cocktail ones, and Sophie loves the green cheese and onion ones. I have to keep the basket with them in up high, as Alex is a bit of a crisp monster. Given half a chance she will consume packet after packet when she's in the mood!




Great day at work today, really had fun. With reception this morning, we were planning for our teddy bear's picnic. We wrote menus and shopping lists, and the finished pieces of work were fantastic! Then this afternoon I had year 3/4, we started with handwriting which was fine, then after battling with PE kits a plenty, we went into the hall for PE. We had such a ball! Every single child was enjoying working on forward rolls, and I was careful to make sure that everyone managed to do one by the end of the lesson, even if it involved a little help from me. Many house points awarded, and the children left the hall with big grins on their faces!

After school I nipped to the gym, my personal trainer saw me while I was there so at least he knows I have been! Felt good to fit that in, I have been terrible at making excuses about going to the gym, so no more! In fact, I am guilty of making excuses about a lot of things in my life, so I have decided that it is time for that to stop. Time to get on with things instead of letting the past hold me back!

A little something I made this evening

An ATC for someone who has become a very dear friend recently, someone I knew vaguely, but who has given me the chance to get to know them much better. Without naming names, thank you so very much... I was struggling and you helped me so much. This will be popping through your letterbox very soon, so if your initial is R watch out!

This also fulfills the requirement to use something which is blooming gorgeous for the Papertake challenge. This ATC features prima flowers so fits in nicely!

Lust

So HS:MS has been hijacked this week, and there are suggestions of naughtiness to come... on the blog today are two pictures of bottoms no less! The word prompt for today is LUST. Hmm... interesting prompt as I am not currently lusting after a person, unless you can count Patrick Dempsey, star of Enchanted and Grey's Anatomy!

Can you guess what I am lusting after? Two days after Nigel's funeral, I traded both cars in to buy a VW Golf SDi 2.0 litre diesel car. I love this car. I had to get rid of Nigel's car, as I had seen it from a distance that day and my first thought was, "Hooray, Nigel's home early from work."
So my lovely diesel golf came into my life. It is just the best car ever.

However... I am currently lusting after a Golf TDi 1.9 litre. This is a souped up, turbo injected all singing all dancing version of my current car. Just can't quite justify trading mine in when it is so great... a girl can dream, can't she?

So there you go, my current object of lust is a car. If anyone would like to buy me that new Golf, let me know (yeah right).

SOS

Show off Sunday I believe is what the full name is...

Took this on Christmas eve when the girls and I put together this Gingerbread house. We had a ball doing it, shame it tasted revolting! Next Christmas I will make my own gingerbread rather than using shop bought stuff. Yacky and not worth eating at all. In fact. most of it got thrown away I seem to remember!
Off bowling now so have a good day, wherever you are.

Proof that I do actually scrapbook sometimes...

The desire to scrapbook has really been strong lately, so here are three of my latest creations. The cheesy grins one is done from a scrap map, which was good to do for a change, and meant it was a speedy LO!

SPS: Not a self portrait though!

So Anita decided to catch me out and the prompt was to take a portrait today of someone else! Here's Sophie, big cheesy grin, aged 6 years and 2 months as of today.

Blog candy winners!

Thank you everyone for entering, I had a lovely time looking at your cards!
I have chosen two cards to receive prizs as I just couldn't get it down to one!

The one I loved most was a card by cakvd

Just gorgeous, thanks for sharing!

Then the other I loved too was by Jackie

Great 60th card, plus the knickers card made me chuckle!

Can both you ladies email me your addresses and I'll get some lovely candy in the post to you! annajahead at yahoo dot co dot uk (obviously without spaces and inserting @ and . where necessary!)

String

This is a Dora the Explorer necklace that Alex and I made last year. She still loves it, and it is always out in her bedroom when she's not wearing it.