{Meet Bubbles}

This is Bubbles, our new addition! 

She came home with us at the weekend and we are all completely enamoured with her. I have never seen Benjamin so happy about anything before, he's bouncing around with excitement. It's so great to see. Poor kitten is going to have to become pretty tolerant I think, as he's desperate to keep picking her up, carrying her, and depositing her in various places like people's laps and boxes and trays! I'm so looking forward to seeing their relationship grow. 

Mungo, our 3 year old cat has yet to meet Bubbles - the big introduction is scheduled to happed this evening when he arrives home from the cattery. Hoping it goes smoothly!

Yummy Mummy?!

I am fully aware of the fact that it's been an age since I last blogged. I've fallen out of the habit. I could put hundreds of excuses here, and follow that up with promises to myself about getting back into the habit but really, what's the point?! So I'm just going to jump right back in...

The lovely Leanne recently blogged a series of questions along the lines of motherhood, and I love little questionnaires so I'm joining in:

What is the first thing you do when you wake up?
I usually try to roll over & go back to sleep! Failing that I go and get my little boy (or hubby does) and he gets into bed with us for snuggles, my favourite time of day!

Do you shower daily? Are you an early morning shower or evening bath type?
Morning for me. I let my hair dry naturally 99.9% of the time, and I hate going to bed with wet hair, so it has to be morning! On a work day it's before hubby leaves so we take it in turns in the bathroom while the other looks after the little one, but on non work days I'm usually joined in the bathroom by my 1 year old who sits & looks at books or play with cars while I get ready!

Do you wear make up daily?
No. I very rarely wear make up, even though I love looking at it / buying it!

Whats in your make up bag?
Benefit foundation, Estée Lauder mascara, eyeshadows from Avon, No 7 & Estée Lauder, touché éclat, plus a whole variety of lipsticks, glosses and sheens!

When your having a slummy Mummy day what do you normally wear?
I don't do "leisure wear" unless I'm pretty ill, so I tend to wear my normal clothes which is usually jeans and a pretty top. I have a couple of hoodies that come out for home days, which my husband refers to as my "old friends"!

Nails – how often do you get them done?
I have a confession...I bite my nails still. They look horrid. This is not something I like about myself! In fact it's my sister's wedding next week so I am having acrylics applied this week, after which I intend to have Shellac or similar in order to grow them out & keep them looking nice!

Your top tip for tired eyes?
I wish I knew! My eyes always look tired!

How many children do you have/want & why?
We have one gorgeous son Benjamin, who is one and a half now. I am one of two children and my hubby is one of three. I would love three children and he'd love two. I think we'll agree on three lol, that is if we are lucky enough to have more children.

Where is your favourite place to shop for babies/children’s clothes?
I love brights for my boy, and Next always come up trumps, along with Boots and Mothercare. Sainsburys have also been fantastic recently, I find myself eyeing up every item in their boys collections - such fun designs!

Flats or heels everyday shoes?
It has to be flats for comfort really, but I do love low heels too, and I have the odd pair of skyscrapers that come out for special occasions!

So there you have it...am I a "yummy mummy"? No probably not, but I'm comfortable and I don't spend hundreds of hours or pounds on looking "just right" whatever that means these days.

There has been a lot going on around here in the last few months, including a garden redesign, plenty of home decorating, Benjamin reaching milestone after milestone, and lots of crafting including quilting, cross stitch, full page scrapping, project life, felt food making, crochet, and sewing. Maybe I'll get around to sharing some of those things one day soon!

{Project Life Week 5}

Week 5 was a busy week, so I used a whole double spread, plus both sides of a divided 6x12 page protecter to fit in everything. 

One thing I am adoring about this project is it's ability to "scrap-bust"! Early on I went through my scraps pile and cut a load of papers into 6x4 and 3x4 sized pieces. It's great to have a pile there ready to grab & go whenever I want to dip in and create a little bit, and I love that I'm mixing old (sometimes really old!) papers with brand new ones. There is no set theme to my album in terms of colours or style or papers, I just try to make sure that each week coordinates across the pockets. I find the easiest way to do that is to limit supplies - I grab a couple of alphabets, a few journalling stickers, my pile of papers, a coordinating twine and a couple of rolls of washi tape and I'm good to go. Here & there I've added the odd embellishment, but not a lot. This album (or albums) is going to be bulky enough as it is without loads of embellishments.

{Project Life Week 4}

I have always been pretty rubbish at the memorabilia side of scrapbooking. Occassionally I remember to keep a ticket stub or receipt, but I never know how to include it, or it's got lost by the time I get around to wanting to use it! I'm trying to be better at this, and include a few things here and there in my Project life album. In week 3 I included a save the date card we got in the post, and for this week I've added in a party invitation (even though we couldn't go - I've journalled about being sad when my job stops us from doing fun things!), and part of a restaurant flyer since we had a lunch date midweek (a rare occurance!).

{Project Life week 3}

 Week 3 of the year was the first time I included an insert page to my album. 

We did a few things this week, and I had a few photos to include, but not enough to fill two whole pages, and I had one that I wanted printed out larger than the others. I used a 5x7" page protector and added my favourite pics to that. I'm using all the same page protectors for my main pages - they are from Becky Higgins. However, I'm using a variety of styles for my inserts and have a whole box to choose from! I'm not sure whether I'm regretting just getting one style for my main pages, but I have 60 of them so I've got to use them! Adding different inserts means it's mixed up enough to satisfy me.

 

Main page above, and insert (both sides) below :)

{Project Life week 2}

Onto week 2 of my project life album. This week I included pictures in lots of different formats. I like to use full size photos to fill a slot - either 6x4 or 3x4, and just add a bit of information right onto the photo either on a sticker/washi tape or sometime straight onto the photo with a journalling pen. I've also used small square photos from Instagram, a photo printed and cut out to give a polaroid effect, and a photobooth style strip from my camera cut down into individual pieces. On my wish list is an Instax polaroid camera, so I can add another type of photo to my pages.

Each week I choose which photos I want to include and insert them into a word document, arranging them to fit onto a page and resizing to the size I like. Then I just print the whole page onto A4 photo paper. I have a few friends with portable Selphy photo printers, and I'm wondering how well this would work for me. It does sound appealing to be able to print straight away from the camera, minus the faffing around on the PC...

{Project Life 2012}

We won't mention how long it's been since I last blogged.....wow those months just skip on by don't they?! Let's just pretend the massive gap didn't happen, and jump right on back in. 

If you read the Sarah's Cards blog you'll know I'm still here and still scrapping. Most of what I make these days ends up on there, but in addition to those pages I am working on my version of Document 2012 / Project Life. I'm using divided page protectors, and documenting on a weekly basis, but in general just one side per week, with extra for really busy weeks, or added inserts as necessary. 

I love how it is coming along!

This is the first page in my album (the title page has yet to be done) - week 1 way back in January and starting the new year off. The "2012 Memories start here" card was a free printable I found via Pinterest. I am just loving all the printables available, and have an entire pinterest board dedicated to them. Check it out here!