Monday

Today is Jon's daughter's birthday. Happy Birthday, Michelle - hope you have a lovely day and that your card arrived on time.

Christmas is receding into the past but, before I revert back to posts of our everyday life, a few pictures from Saturday. Kyle, my nephew, and his partner, Emma came round to exchange gifts and Mum and Dad joined us. Unfortunately, Hugh and Claire were both at work. A glimpse of our Christmas tree between Mum and Dad. Emily got a number of books for Christmas and is working her way through them. The new furry slippers are getting used daily ;o)

Kyle Emma

Dad

Jon

A rare one of me :oP

Mum (Sorry you've gone into Black and White Mum!! The colour one just wasn't working!)

Emma and Kyle open their presents

We had a lovely afternoon catching up (and eating too much food - again!). In the evening Jon's sister Debbie and her husband, Dave popped round on their evening walk. It was freezing outside and they were all bundled up. I admire them for walking, I would have got the car out ;o)

By yesterday I was ready to start tidying the house again and doing a bit of a clean up. The kitchen got the brunt of it. I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing that Kim & Aggie's "How Clean is Your House" was on TV all day yesterday! I'm taking it as a good thing because the kitchen looks great now. I'm also beginning to think I need to give Flylady a try again in 2009 to keep on top of things.

Today I went into WHSmiths and they and they had some cute storage boxes and magazine holders on sale. I bought a couple of magazine holders (pink with white polka dots) and a 3 tray storage unit (black with pink drawers) so I can start a system of post that needs action, post for filing and the third tray has take away menus (not that we have many but they're handy to have to hand when we do!) and odd papers I want to keep.

Tomorrow I think I need to get some more boxes to help organise the clutter around my computer. Makes me feel better when it looks tidier. I may even take some photos when I've finished...

I'm now ready to wind down for the night and tomorrow is another day.

xx

Happy Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with family/friends. Ours started nice and early (Emily and Claire woke at 3.30am but I didn't get up until 5.30am). Mum came round for 6am and present opening. I did say she didn't have to but it was lovely to have her here to share the fun. We had a much smaller Christmas this year but still managed 11for lunch, including Tyler. Jon did a good job with the food and it was a lovely afternoon spent with family.

I didn't take many photos and those I did take weren't wonderful. However, after chatting to Norma on msn this morning we agreed to each make a scrapbook page with our Christmas photos. Mine is very simple but it gets the photos onto a page and, for that, I'm happy.

Best wishes to you all and I hope you enjoy the rest of the festive period.

xx

I know ....

... I haven't posted on the blog in ages ... I haven't been writing emails to anybody ... I haven't been taking photos much lately ... I haven't been doing much scrapbooking ... I don't have much to tell at the moment I have been ... ... writing Christmas cards ... ordering lots of presents on the internet ... wrapping presents as the come in ... trying to get over this rotten cold and cough ... walking the dogs ... trying to more or less stick to weight watchers ... trying to get into the Christmas spirit (and it's starting to work) ... making lists to try and keep on track I will ... ... try and start blogging more regularly again in the near future. Please keep checking back from time to time. xx

On a roll!!

We got our class handout for week 8 on Thursday and by Thursday evening I had these two layouts completed. They were really quick and fun to do.

Today it is COLD outside!! Walked down to Mum and Dad's to see if Dad could help me with downloading RAW photos from my camera with Photoshop Elements 6. I have been trying for a couple of days and not been able to open them - it tells me there are no valid files. I took my camera round to Dad (who also has Photoshop Elements 6) and they opened straight away. Now why won't they open on my computer. I'm presuming there must be something stopping them but I'm blowed if I know what! Waiting for Jon to get home so he can have a look at it and see if he can figure it out. If any of you have any ideas, please let me know. I'm soooooooooo frustrated!!!

xx

DYL Week 7 layouts

Today, after a coffee morning at Nero's with friends, I finished my layouts for last week's class. I am up to date again and, it feels GOOD!! I have now downloaded this week's class notes and am starting to think about the next couple of layouts. Here are the ones I've completed

Sketch 1 Sketch 2

RWC Sketch 3

Did you realise, it is 5 weeks today till Christmas?????? Claire and Emily seem to be taking great delight in reminding me of this fact! Am I ready for all that Christmas entails? NOOOOOOO. I can't get my head around it yet and the thought that there are only 5 weeks to go, doesn't help! How I wish I was an organised person - Mum says I used to be but I can't claim to be any more. I now need to get lists made and start getting into the Christmas spirit (non alcoholic - lol!!)

I went back to Weight Watchers again last night and am happy to say that I have lost one of the two pounds I put on last week (or as some of you ladies say - released that pound, I certainly don't want to find it again!!). Now to keep going - if I could lose 1,5 pounds next week it would take me to my 10% goal which would be wonderful. I'm not banking on it but just don't want to put on again. As it gets colder I find it so much more difficult to stay motivated but feeling my clothes that little bit looser makes me feel so much better. Going down a size would make me feel even better!!

Off to make lists ;o)

xx

Finally DYL Week 6 Sketch 3

Today I finally finished the third layout for last week's class. I played around with the colours for a while but think I'm happy with the end result. Wasn't sure about the flower on the left hand page but have decided to leave it in for now.

I went to take some shopping round to my sister in law on Friday. She has laryngitis and when she called earlier in the week, I honestly didn't know who I was talking to. Hope you're feeling a bit better now Deb. I also hope you haven't passed it on to me ;o), woke up this morning with a really raspy throat and have developed a cough during the day. I've had a quiet day and am hoping that it's gone by tomorrow. Positive thinking!!

Hope this week is a good one for everyone (and that I get to complete the layouts for this week!)

xx

One more

Went into town this morning with Mum to get some more card. I'm printing out the pages on Jessica Sprague's Stories in Hand class and I ran out of white card so had to make a trip into town to get some more. We had a wander round the shops, popped in to see Claire at work and then went to Nero's for a coffee (and in my case an early lunch because my tummy was rumbling!). This afternoon I've managed to complete one more layout for Cathy's Design your Life class. This one was the Real World Colour sketch where we had to use black, green, orange, purple and white. I didn't know if I was going to do it but I did!! Here it is

I know Alison is going to love this photo of her on the website ;o)

I have one more layout to do for this week and, I have to admit, I'm battling. There are a number of photos on the layout and most of them are landscape rather than portrait. As this class goes on, it's making me realise that most of my photos are portrait rather than landscape. I guess I need to stop turning that camera around but it's not helping me at the moment! I'm sure I'll find some but I need to go a bit further back in my files. [Just to clarify, by landscape I don't mean photos of scenery and portrait - photos of people! ;o) ]

I haven't been to weight watchers for the last two weeks and I'm making myself go back tonight. I know it's not going to be good (and I doubt I'll be posting my progress tonight - lol!!) but I have to go back otherwise I'll slip backwards even more, and I don't want that. How I wish I could just eat what I like rather than what's good for me!!! Sigh!!

More soon

xx

PS> The strip at the top of the layout is white - don't know why it doesn't look like it in the photo.

More Layouts

I've not being doing very well at keeping up to date - with this blog or my layouts. However, I've managed to complete another two layouts and wanted to post them before I head off for bed.

The first one is my final layout for the week 5 class.

This second layout is the first one for week 6 (last week's sketches)I hope to get to do the next two sketches tomorrow - fingers crossed. However, right now, my bed is calling me {I can hear it getting more insistant ;o) } xx

Rememberance Day Service

This morning Jon, Emily and I attended the Rememberance Day service at the War Memorial in East Grinstead. I find Rememberance Day very moving and today was no different. It reminds us of the need to remember all the men and women who served in the different wars, the ones who didn't come home again and the families that were left behind. But also, to remember the young men and women who are serving their countries today and their families at home.

Will, Theresa, Michaela and Tyler were also at the service and although Tyler wasn't aware of what was going on, he was very well behaved throughout.

xx

East Grinstead

I've spent this past week trying to catch up on some of the housework, washing and ironing after half term last week. It hasn't been terribly exciting and hence no blog posts. However, today Mum and I went into town for a coffee at Nero's and I decided to take some photos of East Grinstead so you can have a better idea of where I live. I think we're very fortunate to live in this area and sometimes we have to take the time to look at the buildings around us and appreciate the beauty that we see. East Grinstead has a number of Tudor buildings (1485 - 1603). East Grinstead was also the halfway point for people travelling from London to the coast (Brighton, Eastbourne, etc) and we have some of the old inns still standing. I don't know all the history of the town but each time I learn a little bit more it fascinates me and I'd like to learn more. Perhaps I should take one of the walking tours. Here are some of the photos I took this morning.

Tudor buildings - now used for shops and offices

Prezzo's is one of our favourite restaurants in East Grinstead.

The Dorset Arms was one of the Inns used as a halfway house

Some of these Tudor buildings are residential and some still offices/shops

Looking along the High Street

St Swithuns church - the tower can be seen for miles around

The Lych Gate entrance to St Swithun's Church

The High Street

Caffe Nero - Yay!!! The War Memorial

Continuation of the High Street

Looking down London Road

This is the Blockbuster's store where Hugh works

And this is Waterstone's bookstore, where Claire started work on Tuesday :o)

I'll leave it at that for now and hope to update again soon.

xx

Design Your Life Week 5

This class is whizzing by and I'm loving each week as it comes along. This week I am a bit slower getting started on the layouts but here are the first two. Sketch 1

First attempt at Sketch 2 - not that keen, looks too dark So, second attempt at Sketch 2 - much happier with this one and this is what I'll keep.

I still have a few photos from Halloween to post and will try and do that later this afternoon.

xx