A bit of this and a bit of that

Ok proof that I do craft sometimes... a commission for a 50th Wedding Anniversary card or a friend of a friend. I took an arty angled shot but Blogger won't let me upload it for some reason. The card itself is made from greyboard and covered in Bazzill as it is a keepsake card, so needed to be a bit sturdier than a standard card blank. The hearts are cut with my cricut.

We spent last week in Majorca, we had a great week enjoying the sunshine, and most of all enjoying the pool at the villa. My brother and his family came too, as my mum and dad had treated us all to the holiday. The four children loved the pool, in fact Alex would have spent all day in it if I had let her! Her swimming has come on so much because of swimming every day. Sophie is a super swimmer already! Sam, my nephew, had a blast improving his swimming too, and Olivia, my 2 year old niece, actually floated in the pool without an adult holding her! She had her armbands on, but nobody holding her!

Here's my nephew Sam jumping into the pool. Then comes Sophie, who looks as if she is suspended in mid air in this shot!

Finally, Alex making jumping into the water look like lots of fun!

We landed back at Leeds Bradford on Saturday night, so since then I have been unpacking, sorting out and the suchlike. This afternoon I went to have my eyebrows threaded with my friend Dawn, goodness, that hurt! The end result is impressive, but the tears were rolling down my face while it was being done. Amazing what can be done with a piece of thread!

Back to school this week... doesn't seem like we've had almost 7 weeks off. Just debating a weekend at Featherdown Farms at half term, Sophie is keen to go camping, and I think this may well appease her for now! The idea of sleeping in a sleeping bag fills me with horror lol.

Enough for now, hope you've all had a great summer!

Three years on

Here we are again, another anniversary, or sadiversary as some people call it. Yes, a truly sad day, as on this day 3 years ago my Nigel died. In an instant I went from being his wife to being his widow, the last thing I expected at the age of 30.

This year, I am fortunate enough to feel that now is the time to focus on happiness. I need to look back and remember the happy times Nigel and I shared. Two of the happiest days of our life together look me straight in the eye on a daily basis. We had our ups and downs, who doesn't, but the down parts are the parts I want to leave behind me now. Never forgotten, just kept at the back of memories, pushing the good ones to the front.

The last year has been very different. I have done so much, met so many wonderful people and developed new friendships, continued friendships from the past, dealt with my own sadness and decided what it is I want to aim for with my life with my two beautiful girls.

The night that Nigel died is still as clear as day in my mind, in fact it is so clear it could have been yesterday. Remembering that night doesn't fill me with fear any more, it has happened and I can't change that now. Sometimes a desire to change it has crept into my mind, but realistically I know that death really is final, can't be changed, no matter what. Acceptance of that is something I know many people struggle with, strangely enough I was able to accept that Nigel was gone much sooner that people around me expected. I have no idea why this was the case, and I know so many people who can take months, even years to accept that someone is gone.

Grief is a very personal thing, there is no right or wrong, no prescribed time for a bereaved person to 'get over' their loss. I can honestly say that I will never get over losing Nigel, for me it is more about moving in a different direction, using what has happened to help turn me into a stronger person. I have had to be both mum AND dad to the girls, a difficult job at the best of times. Military precision is the only way forward, unless anyone has any other suggestions!

Still, life is moving on, I think about Nigel in a happier way now. Of course I miss him, and I am often saddened that he did not see the girls grow up, and that they didn't get to know him as they grow up too. They have so many people that care deeply about them, and support me on this tricky journey that is life as a widow. I have experienced so many happier times in 2009, my girls are developing into wonderful young ladies, and I have a new partner to share my life with. He is very understanding and considerate of how life has changed these last three years, and knows me well enough to ask directly rather than ignore anything which arises about the past.

So here's to more happiness, life can be good again, I know the journey will not always be smooth, but it is a journey I want to make with a positive outlook. I never realised I would have room in my heart for so much love, for the girls, for M, and for Nigel.

We love you, I hope I am doing you proud in how I am bringing the girls up. If you could see them now, you would be smiling broadly. They are characterful, amusing, beautiful, clever, and little minxes when the mood takes them. You look right back at me through their eyes. Those eyes are smiling more and more now. Three years, seems like yesterday but also an eternity. Happy memories are here to stay now.

Hooray, its the end of term!

The last month has flashed by in a veritable blur! I have managed to ram all sorts of activities into the recent weeks, mostly work related but a couple of fun ones too. I will upload more pics soon I promise, but I just wanted to share a book I made for a colleague of mine who is retiring from school. I can't show you the inside as it contains photographs of the children I teach, but this is the cover of a memory book I made. It is made using the June Popsicle Parade kit from Scrapagogo, gorgeous to work with as usual. I spent a wonderful day last weekend with the ladies from Scrapagogo at a day retreat called 'Colour Me Happy'. What a day I had! I will photograph the layouts and projects I produced when the rain stops lol.

I am very glad it is the end of term now, looking forward to some later starts in the morning! Back soon, I have been a bad blogger and I apologise!

Cardiology review

Last week I took the girls back to cardiology for their annual review. They both had an ECG done, and also an echo scan of the heart. The ECGs revealed that both girls have markers which could be indicative of heart disease in years to come. So more tests to come, including another 24 hour mobile ECG in a month's time. I am glad that we are aware of this problem, but still the news has left me feeling sad and worried about the future. I want my girls to live life to the full, do everything they can with their lives, not live in fear of what might happen with their hearts in years to come, so I am going to do my absolute best to keep them healthy. Scary prospect, it is an enormous task, so wish me well please.

A new obsession has arrived

Hmm Blogger has uploaded my pics in a funny order, so now I have to rejig what I want to say! This is Sophie and her best friend Jennifer. They have been friends since they were 4, meeting at gymnastics class and then ending up in the same class at school. In a few short weeks, Jennifer and her family are moving down to Buckinghamshire because her daddy is working out of London most of the time. Jennifer's mum Sarah is one of my closest friends.

To say we will miss them is an understatement. I understand completely their reasons for moving, family life is so important, and it was getting harder and harder with work being in London. I do wish they were staying here, but that's just me being selfish because I don't want to lose a good friend on my doorstep, and also for Sophie to lose her best friend. Sarah has been a complete rock since Nigel died, there are lots of other people who have been amazing too, I am truly blessed. Life moves on, and in this case it is moving on in a way which I am not looking forward to. Of course, I wish Sarah and co every happiness in their new home and life in deepest, darkest Bucks, but I know I will feel immense sadness when they leave. I know we will keep in touch, telephone and other such modern contraptions. Will still miss them tho!

The new obsession which has hit us is geocaching. It is, to cut a long story short, treasure hunting with gadgets! You use a GPS to find a specific spot somewhere, and in that place someone has hidden a cache. Kind of tricky to explain, but it is great fun to do! It means you have to get outside and enjoy the countryside, so since Friday the girls and I have done lots of walking. As yet, Alex has only done one cache, but that is down to her being tired and needing to get an early night on Saturday. She came with Sophie and I today to find Gomersal Treasure, and was delighted to bring home a bangle we swapped for a trackable geogem. Sophie did me proud on Saturday when she walked almost 4 miles in search of 3 different caches. She only moaned at the end, honest....!
A rare shot of all 3 of us, taken by me holding the camera at arm's length whilst stood in the middle of a rhubarb field in Gomersal. Did you know we live in the Rhubarb triangle? No, neither did I until recently!

And finally, a picture of the girls with the cache and the find, in this case a bangle that Alex is clutching. Now to plan which cache to try and find on Friday with my friend Rebecca who is even more obsessed than us!

Bit of a theme here methinks!

It is Matt's birthday today, Happy Birthday Matt! Seeing as the gift he really wanted was an iPod, I have gone with a bit of a theme with his card and his cake. The outside of the cake is painted with edible paint, all done by hand with a brush. Looks effective, if I don't say so myself!

Tonight I am off to a charity ball at Elland Road, where Matt will be DJing. My lovely friends Dawn, Stephen, Linda and Lindsey are coming with me, so I hope we have lots of fun. Unfortunately I won't get to spend too much time with Matt, but we can celebrate his birthday another time. I do have a rather nice bottle of Bollinger chilling in the fridge for when we get back from the ball tho ;)

Other than that, I am wading through a very busy life atm trying to get this, that and the other sorted out. Bye for now!

A quick card

Apologies for the bad picture, but I took it in poor light last night before we went to the birthday boy's party. This card was for my friend's youngest who is 4 today, Happy Birthday Oliver! The image is of course a Hanglar, coloured with my promarkers. Star punched with my SU punch, corners on the red card punched using an EKSuccess ticket punch. Patterned paper is DCWV Nana's Kids collection.

Off to a ball tomorrow night so I am looking forward to that. It is my lovely M's birthday tomorrow, so Happy Birthday! Need to make him a card but still undecided. Will get my thinking cap on tonight and see what I come up with. I have a lovely dress and new shoes to wear tomorrow night, so it should be fun!

Candy Winners!

To make it fair I used www.random.org to choose the numbers of the winning comments.

1st prize of the candy pictured goes to my friend Jules, laughable really but she was comment number 32 so she wins! Jules is going to give her prize to a mutual friend of ours who loves to craft but is very new to the crafting world, and doesn't have much stash yet. Jules asked if I minded, and I said it was absolutely fine!

2nd prize of some images and ribbon and something else which I haven't decided on yet goes to pigglet who was comment number 1, the second number generated by random.org.

And 3rd prize, even though I didn't quite get to 50 but I almost did, goes to Agus.

Ladies, please get in touch and I will pop your prizes in the post! Email me on annajahead (at) yahoo (dot) co (dot) uk taking out the spaces etc!

Thanks to everyone who entered.

Life is hectic, still getting sorted after a week in Portugal over half term. Brought up some interesting questions and decisions were made. I'll post more about them later in the week, had a very busy day at work today and so I'm off to bed.

Candy Time!

When I was in Bermuda, I realised that my blog counter was about to pass the 100000 visitor mark. In fact, I must update my counter as it can't accommodate all the visitors now! So in honour of all the visitors, it is candy time! This post will stay at the top until the closing date for my candy!

On offer:

5 promarkers in black, satin, cinnamon, dusky pink and pastel pink

Stampin Up Pretty Posies stamp set, brand new and un mounted

A ribbon grab bag in lovely spring shades.

I will also add in some stamped images of Gorjuss girls, Sugar Nellies, Anya from the Greeting Farm and who knows what else!

If you want to be included in the draw, leave me a comment and link to here from your blog please. If I get more than 25 comments I will add in another prize of more goodies. More than 50, which I know is a little ambitious, and there will be even more candy to be grabbed! I am happy to post worldwide, so don't let your location put you off commenting!

The draw will close on 1st June, so plenty of time to spread the word!

Neglected no more

Hmm seems to have been ages since I last blogged. Having arrived back from our wonderful trip to Bermuda (thank you Jan!!), we overcame jetlag within a few days. The first night back, the girls both slept for almost 16 hours non stop! Once I had sorted everything out and put it all away, it was back to normal routine in the relatively cold UK. Life was so laid back in Bermuda. The girls played outside almost all the time, loving the freedom that the children there have compared to here. Alex missed her morning visits to George and Mary, who live next to Jan, to play with their dogs, Brandy and Princess.

The girls were back at school the following Monday, with me back the next day. I ordered some new stamps while I was away, the new Gorjuss girls from Sugar Nellie. I've had a lot of fun playing with them since they popped through my letter box, and here are two I made today. Alex had a party this afternoon for two of her friends, Lily and Laura. The papers on both cards are Stampin' Up, I should know their names but alas I can't remember! I know the second card is from the designer paper collection, in rose red, but feel free to correct me if I'm wrong lol!
I love colouring these in, and have had great feedback for the cards I have made using them so far. They are stamped onto shapes cut with my new nestability dies, finally I got the shapes I really wanted!

More regular posts will follow, I promise. I might even do some scrapping at some point too! Alex kept me up all night on Thursday due to an ear infection, so my priority at the moment is catching up on sleep!

On that note... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz........

An evening with Ron

Did you know that the headquarters of Bacardi is in Bermuda? No, neither did I until we walked past it on Saturday night! They moved here for tax reasons apparently! Their building is very beautiful indeed, with perfectly manicured lawns and flower beds out front. I had to take this picture with my iPhone as Bacardi is my tipple of choice lol.

Today we are heading into Hamilton again, the capital city of Bermuda. Time for a spot of souvenir shopping, as we are going home on Wednesday. I can't believe that our time here is almost done, we have had a fantastic time, Jan and Lyndon have looked after us so well. The social life for expats here is amazing, I don't think I could keep up with it long term lol. I know my liver was complaining when I was handed a bloody mary at 11.30 yesterday morning! Patrick has gone back to school today, and Katrina goes back tomorrow, so it is quieter here than it has been (understatement of the century I think!). Tomorrow we are hopefully going back to Horseshoe Bay, last chance before we leave. I am not looking forward to going back to wearing shoes and socks and thick clothes back at home. I love being able to wear sandals and summer clothes here.

Oh well, it has been great. Back to reality soon...... although I am very much looking forward to seeing my lovely M! He couldn't join us due to work committments, and I have missed him very much, so it will be great to be back and see him again.

Have a great day, wherever you are!

Got to love ER

I'm a huge fan of the TV show ER, watched every season since it started many years ago. My favourite character was killed off eons ago, cried buckets over that lol.

Anyway, I digress. Yesterday morning, Sophie, Alex, Jan and I spent 2 hours in the company of the ER staff at King Edward VII hospital in Hamilton. Oh joy. Last Monday, Sophie fell whilst out playing with the local kids. The road here is quite gravelly in places, so she grazed her side just above her left hip quite badly. As the week went on, it wasn't healing, despite being covered with a dressing and cleaned very carefully. It had got an infection in it, so off we headed to the ER (A&E for anyone who is a bit lost!). Got there at just the right time, as it got really busy about 20 minutes after we arrived. The doctor agreed that it was infected, and prescribed oral antibiotics, antibiotic cream and to keep it clean and covered for a few more days.

Then to the crunch. Time to pay. I have great insurance, would never go on holiday without it, even before Nigel died whilst in Portugal. But the King Edward VII hospital does not accept foreign insurance, so I had to pay and then claim back. Good job I had a credit card otherwise I would have been scuppered. $459 (£313!!!) later we headed home. Eeek. Expensive set of antiobiotics and cream, don't you think? The care we received was great, very friendly staff, they did their best to put Sophie at ease as her wound was very sore. Just a warning really to anyone who is ever tempted to not bother with travel insurance. I can recommend insure and go, they were superb when arranging everything when Nigel died, all I had to do was make a phone call to their crisis line and they sorted everything out. It's a phone call no one wants to have to make, but thank goodness I had insurance. From what I've been told, it would have cost well over £10000 to repatriate Nigel if I had not had cover. That's a cost a new widow can do without!

The rest of Good Friday was spent at two parties. Here in Bermuda, it is traditional to fly kites on Good Friday, so the girls had a go... not very successful though lol. Jan and I sat on the porch of her friends who were hosting the party, sipping rum punch. It was very hot here yesterday, gorgeous blue skies and lots of sunshine. Not really ideal kite flying weather, but the Bermudians seemed to manage it better than we did! Once that party was finished, we headed back to Jan's for a barbecue. Several friends and neighbours joined us, and we had a fantastic evening out on the patio. Jan's a really good cook so dinner was delicious. Drank a lot of rum too.... oops! Today we are just relaxing here, then tonight we are going to the FOlk Club in Hamilton which is very good apparently. Should be fun! I'm off to sit in the sunshine so have a great Easter weekend, whatever you're doing!

A day at Dolphin Quest

Wowsers what a day! Today was the day for swimming with dolphins. It is something we have been looking forward to since I booked our flight tickets to Bermuda last year. Alex was a little hesitant initially, but soon got into the swing of it.
We were in the water for an hour, thank goodness for the oh-so-stylish wetsuits we donned.We stroked the dolphins, swam with them using a water scooter, fed them and got them to do various tricks. The girls and I had permanent grins on our faces throughout! Tired now though, so an early night is on the cards. I have plans for the photographs which were taken, so if anyone can recommend dolphin themed scrapbook stash, please leave me a comment!

Do you deserve a ducking?

Today we went across to St George's, which used to be the capital of Bermuda, until Hamilton took over that role in 1815. Every Wednesday and Saturday, there is a ducking for the tourists. The town crier brings out a woman who has been convicted of being a gossip and a nag. She is then seated in the ducking chair, and 5 men from the audience of tourists help to duck her in the harbour. It all makes for a very amusing show! The town crier then kindly posed with the girls and Jan's son Patrick, along with Bear .

After a bite to eat, we headed back to Jan's, and the girls have been playing outside this afternoon. Sophie came a bit of a cropper yesterday whilst running around on the road, and has a pretty impressive scrape all up her left side, so she has been taking a less active role today. Having removed the dressing on her wound to much screeching, I am sure she will be fit enough for our special trip out tomorrow.

I have booked all three of us in to swim with dolphins tomorrow at Dolphin Quest .

It is something we have all wanted to do for ages, and I have saved carefully to be able to do it. Not cheap, I know, but it is definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We watched some friends swim with dolphins when we were in Portugal last year, and the girls have wanted to do it since then. Hopefully there will be lots of photographs to share tomorrow!

I've just realised my blog has had almost 100000 hits since I started it back in August 2006. Once I am back in the UK next week, I will be offering some special blog candy to celebrate, so watch this space!

Overcrowded beaches of Bermuda...

Random arty shots of the sea :D

As you can see, the beach was rammed full of people today... apparently the Bermudians don't go to the beach until May because it is too cold!! It certainly wasn't too cold for us though, we had a wonderful day at Tobacco Bay beach, with a picnic on the sand at lunchtime. We then went to Convict's Bay beach to do some beachcombing, which the girls loved doing. Jan found a glass stopper which was beautifully smooth from the sea. Sophie was delighted to find acrab shell.

This park was next to Convict's Bay beach, Alex was very excited to see her name on the sign!

Other than that, we are continuing to have a fabulous time. The weather was gorgeous today, here's hoping it continues while we are here!

Horseshoe Bay

Just look at that beach! This is Horseshoe Bay, on the south shore of Bermuda. The sand is so fine, and it is ever so slightly pink because of tiny grains of coral. It was very windy when we were there yesterday, but still I could see how beautiful it is. It was raining too, so not a good beach day lol. Still, today has been gorgeous weather so we will head back to the beach while the weather holds.

Today we went for brunch just up from this beach. Never have I seen such an amazing spread. I had sushi for the first time in a while, and it was excellent. The girls enjoyed bacon and eggs, washed down with a Shirley Temple! Now the girls are in the pool again, and I am going to go out and sit in the sun with my book. Bliss... only thing missing is my lovely M who is back in the UK working hard... oh well, plenty of times for holidays together in the future. We are loving Bermuda so will definitely be back!

We made it through the Bermuda Triangle!

The view from Jan's house... not bad eh! We arrived in Bermuda yesterday, after a very long day which started at 4am. Our first flight took us down to Gatwick, and then we spent most of Alex's 5th birthday hanging around the airport. The flight to Hamilton took 7 hours, and Jan was there waiting for us when we got through immigration. Since arriving, and handing over copious amounts of Galaxy chocolate to Jan's teenage daughter, we have slept a little, I've drunk plenty of rum, and the girls have been in Jan's swimming pool.

Here's a happy Sophie, even though the water was freezing!


We have a special guest with us in Bermuda, this is Bear and he is raising money for a very special little girl who needs her own multi sensory room. He has travelled over 50000 miles, and fundraising is going well. If you'd like to help Katie, go to Bear's site here.

Alex has to wear an ear band-it to protect her ears from the pool water. She has wax ear plugs under the band to stop the water from getting in. Still can't believe my baby turned five yesterday!

The girls are very taken with this inflatable pool monster!

Well that's all for now. Tonight I am going into Hamilton with Jan and her husband Lyndon for a night out with other expats. The girls are staying here with Jan's daughter, so it will be great to get out and see more of Bermuda. We drove through Hamilton this afternoon, and Jan pointed out her favourite haunts. Tomorrow we are going out and about again, not sure where to yet. Fingers crossed the weather is ok, rain was forecast for today but it never arrived. It was as warm as a good day in summer in the UK, so very pleasant really.

Now to get ready to go out, so bye for now!