So Depressing

Today I went shopping at Bluewater. I bought a few nice things, a few useful things and a couple of essential things. However, I felt very depressed when I went into Evans.

There was rack upon rack of dull, uninspiring and downright depressing clothes, some of them so bad I felt like I could cry. With the current fascination for early '70s dodgy smock tops and horrid shirred elastic dresses I felt like I was looking at the fashion pages of Jackie from about 1973! And everything seems to be in a nasty shade of brown - why?

Obviously in one way this is good as I'm not inspired to buy any clothes, but doesn't make my search for a decent outfit for the wedding any easier. I have to say that New Look, usually my little haven for cheap(ish) clothes shopping, was no better and I came away feeling quite depressed and realising that I really do need to lose a decent amount of weight in order to get any nice clothes - although at the moment that would be a challenge anywhere without wanting to look like a reject from the 1970s.

Saturday's/Sunday Morning's Cybercrop output

Having realised that I wouldn't be able to take part on Sunday I decided the best course of action was to stay up as late as possible on Saturday and complete as much of the Saturday timeable as possible. A little hard at first as I had no enthusiasm, but finally got going about 10pm, and dropped into bed about 5am this morning.

Class 5 - Tea Party was a digi class so perfect for me anyway

Class 6 - Queen of Hearts

Next was challenge 4 - Cheshire cat

Class 9 was Box of Sweets. I had wanted to use this photo for ages but could never find the right LO for it. Making it a huge focal point was a great move I think.

This was the final class I managed class 11 - P is for Princess

Friday's Cybercrop Output

Here is the LO from the first class on Friday night - Ace in Our Hearts

This was followed by class 3 - Curious and Curiouser (I didn't do class 2 as it was a tag book and I couldn't be bothered to do real life scrapping as it would have meant getting it all out). This is a photo of my grandad who I never met.

Then it was time for a challenge LO - this was called the Dormouse

And finally to complete Friday night challenge 2 was called Lost the Plot - and the only bit of real life crafting I did this weekend

So It's Over ...

The Mad Hatters cybercrop has been and gone as quickly as it arrived (well with the exception of the after-crop party which is later this evening - need to get dinner made so I can decorate my hand for the final challenge) and from what I can see on the board my team THE CLUBS has won!

Another frantic weekend (I really MUST take the weekend off next time) during which I managed to keep up on Friday night, caught up last night and completely missed today's activities. I managed to get 180 points on Friday night and by 5am this morning I had accrued 290 points which is a record for me. Several LOs of Kiefer this time, and plenty of other stuff too. I shall need to do separate posts for Friday and Saturday I think. But firstly, above is the pre-crop challenge layout that didn't make it into the competition - although maybe I'd have been better entering this one as the other one didn't get any votes (will post the other one tomorrow after the CC is finished properly.

Getting ready for the Cybercrop

To try and get myself in the mood for the imminent cybercrop I had a go at the pre-crop challenge last night which closes tomorrow. I ended up doing 2 LO's and I can't decide which one to enter (obviously can't post here yet, but I will once the weekend is over). The theme was 'Once Upon a Time' a fairytale title if ever I heard one. *LOL*

After a bad journey to work this morning (grrrrr to Ken Livingstone for closing the tidal flow of the Blackwall tunnel) I was so fed up by the time I got to work that I decided I need some 'me' time. So I'm taking Friday off so I can get myself sorted for the cc and then having Monday off too, just because I can - maybe I'll sleep all day or something.

Nothing else to report, my life has been decidedly boring and routine for the last few weeks. I need some excitement in my life, but don't know where to find it. Answers on a postcard please ...

Another LO

I had a go at Jen's 2nd sketch last night. I probably should have saved these pictures for the cybercrop but they fitted so perfectly and I'm sure I can use them again for any future LOs.

Perfect Timing

I'd just finished making my low carb lemon, lime & ginger cheesecake when my mate FP pointed out a challenge thread in the Mad Hatter Cybercrop. They wanted us to hold a tea party showing some lovely cakes we'd made and to make sure we didn't use old pics we had to include a playing card with our team on it. As it's a points scoring challenge I felt I had to take part, I mean it only needed a photo. So below is the result - Harrington teddy checking out the cheesecake. Unfortunately for him he only got to look at it - I got to eat it and it was absolutely scrummy!

My take on the sketch

A few days ago I mentioned that my friend Jen had produced her first sketches. I decided it was high time that I got back into scrapping of some sort (in practice for the cybercrop if nothing else) and I really wanted to use the sketches, so did a LO with some of the photos that Lynne sent me from Andrea's Birthday Meal at the Indian. I was really pleased with the way that it came out - and the photos were great. The kit is Delighful Girl by Melany Violette. Hopefully, I'll have a go at the other one soon. A challenge has also been posted in the CC forum to make a planner using playing cards which I'm thinking I may have a go at over the weekend.

Killing time

You know how I love these quizzy things. Here's one that I found on Jen 2's blog so I've borrowed it. I'm sure she won't mind. I don't know where number 10 has gone!

Welcome to the 2007 edition of getting to know your friends.The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends, if you did not know them already. This is fun and we ALL need some fun in our lives!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 4:45am

2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Hot Fuzz

4. What is your favorite TV show? House although I love CSI Miami, Cold Case and Bones as well. I'm a sucker for all those US crime shows!

5. What did you have for breakfast? Ham and Dairylea Cheese

6. What is your middle name? Don't have one

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Cajun and Creole

8. What foods do you dislike? Baked beans

9. Your favorite type of crisps? Not really a crisp person but marmite or worcester sauce

11. What kind of car do you drive? Tropical Green Daewoo Matiz

12. What are your favorite clothes? Good fitting jeans and nice tops

13. Where would you want to retire? New Orleans

14. Favorite time of day? Night

15. Where were you born? Maidstone, Kent

16. Pepsi or Coke? Diet Pepsi

17. Pedicure or manicure? Manicure

18. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? Nope. Nothing interesting going on in my life at the moment

19. What did you want to be when you were little? Actress or a Princess

20. Been in a car accident? No

21. Favourite flower? Tulips and Gladioli

22. Favourite fast food restaurant? Pret a Manger

23. Bedtime? After midnight, much later at weekends!

24. Last person you went to dinner with? Lisa

25. What are you listening to right now? Imagine by John Lennon on 100 Greatest: The Ultimate Chart

26. What is your favorite colour? Purple

27. How many tattoos do you have? One

It's the weekend already!

Blimey how time flies. I can't believe that it's already over a week since I went to Jo's. Where does the time go?

Had a lovely meal with Mrs H3 at Pizza Express on Wednesday listening to the dulcit tones of the Rooster Boys (Mrs H especially loved them ;)) and making plans for our Harry Potter evening. My last trifolata pizza and garlic bread with cheese before the big day, the start of my new eating plan. All going OK at the moment, just hope it lasts.

I just have to quickly mention my friend Jen. She's a fantastic teacher, an excellent actress and singer and a complete whizz at scrapbooking and now she's creating her own sketches - check them out. Unfortunately she's on the Heart team for the cybercrop so her talent is going elsewhere - we could definitely do with her in Clubs. I can't wait to have a go at the sketches myself, it's been so long since I did any scrapping of any description its definitely about time for me to do some. Watch this space and you never know some may appear.

On the subject of cybercrop I have been busy scouring the net for some new pictures of Kiefer - I mean I can't not scrap him can I? Disappointingly few new ones that don't involve him holding a gun as Jack Bauer, but I have managed to track down a couple and of course can always use one of the many old ones I have if need be.

Another Cybercrop

It’s cybercrop time on UKS again (blimey doesn’t time fly!). This time the theme is Mad Hatters (Alice in Wonderland) and I’m in the Clubs Team. I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to once again end up in a team with so few of my friends in. I’m not really getting much involved with it at the moment due to too many other things going on but I’m sure once the weekend starts I’ll get into the swing of it. Of course as usual I’ll be working so won't be able to do everything, and the big question is whether to paper scrap or digi scrap. I really enjoyed the paper scrapping that I did at the last crop and keep meaning to do more but just no time to do so. Mind you haven’t done any digiscrapping either *LOL*

I didn’t get a mystery kit this time – to be honest I wasn’t really bothered about doing that again and I missed the opportunity anyway with them selling out so quickly last night. I'm waiting to see what the pre-crop challenge is going to be to see whether to take part in that. At least I have my new printer now so I can finally print photos etc. again.

The weekend munch!

At last I have a minute to myself to catch up. Everything seems to be go-go-go round here at the moment and all I seem to have done is eat and rush around. At least with the rushing around I’ve still managed to lose weight!

Had a really fantastic and successful weekend with mum and Jo (and the weather was fab too). Picked mum up at the airport on time (can you believe parking for 40 minutes was £3.90!), but ended up stuck in traffic on the M25 for an hour or so. Arrived at Jo’s just in time for a nice meal and a few glasses of wine at one of her local pubs (The Black Horse – definitely recommended) – I had salmon & crab tagliatelle with garlic bread and salad, Jo had chicken with cheese & bacon with vegetables and mum had the lasagne with garlic bread and salad. Had an early night and was up with the lark on Friday all ready to do battle with the bridal shops.

Unfortunately the first shop that Jo had arranged an appointment with didn’t bother to turn up and didn’t bother to contact Jo (and we couldn’t get hold of her), so after 20 minutes of standing outside the closed shop we gave up. To be honest I don’t think Jo would have liked any of the dresses anyway, but obviously it wasn’t a great start to the day, and left us at a bit of a loose end. We did visit another couple of bridal shops but they too were closed – the one in Reading was about the only shop closed that day! Eventually in frustration we gave up with wedding dress shopping and instead started looking for something for mum. I bought some new trousers and a new top; mum also bought several items, but couldn’t see anything she fancied wearing for the wedding. At 4pm we had an appointment at the Wedding Centre in Marlow (we had already phoned to check they were definitely open). I think by that time Jo was convinced that we wouldn’t find anything but mum, I and the lovely lady who helped with the fitting were certain we would find “the dress”.

Jo had said all along that she wanted a very plain dress, with minimal train and just wearing a simple flower in her hair – the first dress she tried on was the exact specification and looked beautiful, soon she had been convinced that a veil was the way to go and teamed with a tiara and the dress I have to admit to having a little tear in my eye as did mum. The second dress wasn’t anything special, but dress 3 was absolutely amazing, especially once the veil was on. After trying on several more dresses in various other styles including the dreaded meringue, it became very obvious that dress 3 was “the one”. It was obvious from the first time she tried it on that it was Jo’s favourite as she held herself differently, and I have to say that she really does look like a princess in it. Not the plain dress she had said though, instead a beautiful mermaid dress in ivory taffeta, with a pearl beaded bodice and a lovely big train. This is teamed with a full length veil covered in diamante and a tiara (still to be chosen). Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take any pictures during the fitting and I’ve not been able to find the dress on the net, although in one way that is a good thing. No chance of people seeing it who shouldn’t and as I’ll have forgotten what it looked like by the wedding it will be a lovely surprise for all of us. Joyous at finding the dress we celebrated at Standlake’s other pub, The Bell with steak and chips all round and yet more wine.

On Saturday morning we visited Bicester Designer Village where we spent a few hours browsing round the shops, but not buying much (I managed to resist the £645 Jimmy Choo’s!) although I did get a bargain on L’Occitane hand cream. Eventually we’d finished there and decided that fed up with shopping we would go to Witney for a nice cream tea at one of the teashops there. It was another lovely meal (I ate so much nice food this weekend) so we decided to walk it off with a wander round the town. Mum had given up on the idea of finding an outfit for the wedding, so Jo and I lured her into Country Casuals where we proceeded to bombard her with dress ideas. Finally, we managed to get her to try some on and strangely yet again the 3rd dress she tried was the perfect one. The colour is a sort of turquoise and suited her perfectly. Shortly after, we had found matching shoes, handbag and hat and mum’s Mother of the Bride outfit was complete. Yet another successful mission and so once again we felt we ought to celebrate back at the Black Horse. The food was so nice that we had to have starters as well – I had a smoked salmon and crab parcel with salad, mum had wexford mushrooms and Jo had deep fried mushrooms. This was followed with fish pie for mum, lasagne for Jo and mushroom stroganoff for me.

Sunday morning and we were up and watching the Grand Prix before mum and I had to leave to get her back to the airport. It was amazing how quickly the weekend had gone and it was such a shame to have to come back. At least mum had the decency to leave the good weather here when she went home.

Yesterday was Andrea’s birthday – belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY matey! Last night we went for a meal at the Indian to celebrate – another excellent meal, although the service was diabolically slow. Tonight I am off to meet Mrs H3 for another meal (see I said I was doing nothing but eating) to celebrate belatedly her birthday from last week.

MCR Rock!

So how was it? I can hear you all asking. Absolutely bloody fantastic is the answer. After a somewhat damp trip to Wembley, I met up with Anna (a fellow UKSer who was really lovely and a Blue October fan too!) and we made our way to our seats. The seats were pretty close to the stage so we had a fantastic view. I did take some photos but not sure how well they came out as it was on my phone and I can’t find them (I know I am rubbish with my phone). *LOL* MCR put on an amazing show, from the moment the lights went up to reveal Gerard lying on a hospital bed to the final strains of Helena at the end of the encore. The whole set was accompanied by explosions, flames, confetti and Gerard bouncing around the stage like a hyperactive and somewhat lunatic 10 year old. He must have been completely knackered by the end of it. I know I was shattered watching him – if only I could bounce around like that I’d be stick thin! Now that Gerard has dyed his hair black again I really don't fancy him so much. Yep, I know I’m alone in loving him blonde, but I really think he looks much cuter like that. Bob still looks great though ;)

For those that are interested in such things here’s the set list. They played the whole of Black Parade and then encored with some of their older, but well loved tracks. The album was played in order (as it should be as a concept album) unfortunately the BBC obviously hadn’t taken this onboard when they filmed the Radio 1 concert on Monday night and so it was rather jumbled. I still have the 3 hour Monday night concert to listen to when I get some time.

Set List
The End
Dead!
This is How I Disappear
The Sharpest Lives
Welcome to the Black Parade
I Don't Love You
House of Wolves
Cancer
Mama
Sleep
Teenagers
Disenchanted
Famous Last Words
I’m Not Okay (I Promise) (Encore)
The Ghost of You (Encore)
Helena (Encore)

On Friday the new landlord and landlady (Mark and Jackie) took over the pub. I was introduced to them on Saturday lunchtime when I went into work and have to admit that contrary to my initial impression of them on the short visit they made last month, they do seem very nice and are obviously very committed to turning the pub around. In fact Mark was already out clearing the rubbish when I arrived and Jackie and her sister have scrubbed everything they could lay their hands on. I also got the gossip about Gary. He was escorted off the premises, having been caught doing major fiddling so I don't suppose we’ll be seeing him again too soon. Obviously only time will tell whether they’ll be OK, but the atmosphere at the pub has improved and everything seems much more positive.

Tina and I decided to pay for Andrea to have a decent hair cut and colour for her birthday (next week). She’s lost so much weight (3 ½ stone) and is looking really good, but her hair was really letting her down as it was such a mess and so out-dated. Although very averse to the idea initially, we finally managed to get Marie round to her place last night and by the end of the evening she had gone from bad condition frizzy hair to slightly shorter but better condition straightened hair, with lovely dark red lo-lights throughout. We had expected floods of tears, but fortunately she loved the cut – so T and I aren’t in the bad books!

No update from me for a few days as tomorrow mum is arriving from Spain and we’re off to stay with Jo for the weekend. The plan is to find Jo a wedding dress, get an outfit for mum and generally have a bit of a girly weekend. Should be good!