New Year's Resolutions

OK so I know it's the time of year when everyone makes the usual crap resolutions ... to give up smoking, lose weight, stop eating chocolate etc. I have made all those resolutions over the years and stuck to none of them and so tend not to bother with them.

Now I'd love to say that I will make a resolution to scrap more ... 'cos I'd really love to, but I know that I am pretty unlikely to stick to that one. I'd love to say that I'm going to be more chilled about things and not get het up over stupid things, but there's no way that's going to happen either. I did suggest earlier that I try to be more tactful, but it was generally agreed by my friends that not only would I not be able to stick to it, but I would lose an essential part of myself, so that's a no too.

Earlier my mate Shazzer made a comment and a resolution that I am going to knick (I've never worried about plagarism) I have some great friends with whom I've shared good times and bad, laughter and tears and so my New Year's resolution is to keep talking to my friends and sharing all those times.

Thnak you to all my friends for everything - I love you all!

New Years Eve

So it's almost midnight on New Year's Eve and I'm home alone updating my blog. The last few days have been a real whirlwind and it's nice to have some me time, and to be honest I was feeling far too tired to go out.

Yesterday was a surprise birthday party for Christine at the Huntsman. it was a very good evening, but I was feeling a little deflated as I was trying to get over a migraine that hit me just before work in the morning. Unfortunately, the after effects were still hanging around today even after a decent night's sleep, which accounts for me being so drained and spending the evening indoors rather than out celebrating with friends. Mind you, not many people I know were going to be out celebrating anyway and I wasn't feeling amiable enough to go to someone else's house for the evening ... a nice hot bath, a glass of wine and slouching in my pyjamas has become the perfect evening!

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.

Busy Day

Today is a busy day.

Having got the visiting out of the way (although I do still have a few presents to dish out) today will be spent cleaning and (hopefully) scrapping. My I-dog is happily dancing away to My Chemical Romance - a dog of good taste indeed *LOL*

Last night I watched 'The Company of Wolves' which Leanne bought me for Christmas. I love this film and it was such a pleasure to see it again. Had a lovely relaxing evening doing a jigsaw, having a glass of wine and a few scrummy chocolates from Leonidas (thanks Lesley) ... perfect!

I've Been Tagged!

I was just catching up with other people's blogs as I've finally had a few minutes to myself and I realised that I had been tagged by Dolly. Thanks hun and sorry for the delay in responding!

So here are the answers to my first ever tag - The A-Z tag:

A - Available or taken: Available and open to any reasonable offers! Now that Kiefer and I are both 40 I think we’re just about old enough to settle down *LOL*
B - Best friend(s): Lynne, Andrea and Lisa (but I am fortunate to have a lot of very good friends)
C - Cake or pie: Both please. Oh, I can only have one? Cake then – something chocolatey.
D - Drink of choice: Jack Daniels and Diet Pepsi (no ice) or a glass of champagne

E - Essential item you use every day: Moisturiser
F - Favorite colour: Errr let’s see … PURPLE!!!!
G - Gummy bears or worms: what’s a gummy bear? I’m sure it would be one of them as I can’t stand worms
H - Hometown: Walderslade a village near Chatham in Kent, but I was born in Maidstone
I - Indulgence: a long hot bath with candles, a good book and a large glass of wine

J - January or February: January coz it's my birthday as well as Dolly’s!!!

K - Not sure what the question was but for me the answer is Kiefer Sutherland :D

L - Life is incomplete without: family and friends – oh and Kiefer Sutherland

M - Marriage Date: Not married (yet)

N - Number of siblings: 1 younger sister
O - Oranges or Apples: Apples
P - Phobias or Fears: Loads ‘cos I’m a complete wuss. The worst would have to be needles though

Q - Fave Quote: “I can resist everything but temptation” by Oscar Wilde. The story of my life really
R - Reason to smile: I have a great family and truly excellent friends
S - Season: Autumn – Halloween ... nuff said!!!!!
T - Tag 3 or 4 people: Shazzer, Jen and KJ (wonder how long it will take them to spot they've been tagged?)

U - Unknown fact about me: Unknown to whom? Can’t think of anything offhand ... well nothing I'd like to share ;)

V - Vegetable you don't like: Sprouts! Absolutely HATE them!
W - Worst habit: ignoring my housework because I have better things to do
X - x-rays: Yep, just about everywhere – I even have proof that contrary to popular opinion I DO indeed have a brain.
Y - Your fave food: Mushrooms – anything (and everything) with mushrooms
Z - Zodiac sign: Aquarius – the best sign of the zodiac!

The Wind Down

I'm having a nice relaxing morning chilling out to an old film favourite 'Bugsy Malone'. Later I will be going to Barbara's for the traditional Boxing Day get together with Leanne, Jane and Derek.

Yesterday was a very good day, albeit a long one - I got lots of fantastic presents - a stuffed christmas stocking from my secret santa containing all sorts of scrapbooking goodies plus chocolate, jewellery, socks and loads of other little bits and pieces, an i-dog (so cute!) from Mrs H3, a dual phone from Jo and Paul, gift voucher from Andrea, Nigel and Aiden, chocolates, an angel, wine and relaxing kit from Lynne and Mark, bath kits from Richard and Annette, jewellery from Chris, Phil and the boys, jigsaws from Kate and Paul, chocolates from Lesley, Richard and the kids and Anna, an angel and magnet from KJ, some Zatarain's rice from Sharona and a CD and some more chocolate from Andrew.

Spent half an hour in the pub, just long enough to say merry christmas to everyone before joining Chris, Phil, Aaron and Perry for christmas lunch at The Malta. The meal was very nice, plenty of food but not too much so I felt pleasantly full rather than stuffed - still felt drowsy though of course *LOL*

Then it was back to Chris' where we were joined by Andrea, Kate and Paul (and later Nigel) for an evening of fun and games. Perry was very taken with a game called 'No-Brainer' whilst the rest of us had a game of 'Cranium' (which Andrea, Aaron and I won!), followed by 'Frustration'. The evening was rounded off by a visit from Andrew and we just chilled for a couple of hours, a nice relaxing end to the day.

Christmas has gone as quickly as it arrived!

Happy Christmas Everyone!

So Christmas Day is finally here.

The presents are wrapped, the cards are done and I'm sitting here with a large Baileys and the carols from the Midnight Mass playing in the background whilst tracking Santa via the NORAD site. He's just arrived in London and is making his way across the country.

I have had a pretty good day today. The pub was busy but not overbusy and the shift went quickly. A couple of drinks with friends after work and then I went to Jane's 40th birthday party. Fairly quiet, but a good chance for Andrea and I to catch up and for me to spend some time with her parents too. I just hope tomorrow is as good a day!

I'd just like to take the time to wish everyone who reads this blog

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Time for a Clearout

Today I invested in a brand new shiny 400Gb external HDD.

For some time now my computer has been performing worse and worse as I accumulated more and more stuff on it - music, audio books, digi scrapping kits etc. have all taken their toll and the poor little thing is fragmented almost beyond repair - windows hasn't worked quite right on it for ages now.

I aim to transfer everything to the new HDD and then completely reformat the old HDD and then reload all the software, leaving a nice clean computer.

Winding Down

So Christmas is almost upon us, and I am finally almost ready. All the presents have been wrapped (well almost) and the Christmas cards have been made and written (well almost). Time to relax and start to enjoy the holiday season, as it gets into full swing. *LOL*

I am lucky enough to only be working my normal shifts at the pub this year for both Christmas and New Year so I will be able to go to a 40th birthday party on Christmas Eve, out for lunch and then relaxing with friends on Christmas Day itself and then round to Barabara's for a get-together with Leanne, Jane and co. on Boxing Day. I am also hoping to take in a visit or two to the cinema during the week too. I enjoyed a pleasant evening with Jo and Paul last Sunday before they disappeared off to San Francisco and Las Vegas for Christmas.

I will try to keep a bit more up-to-date with the blog too. The last few weeks have been a bit of a trial, but hopefully I will find a bit more time now.

Found!

Yesterday I managed to track down Leslie, my partner in crime who I had met in Houston airport and shared an excellent Voodoofest weekend with. Amidst the millions of text messages on my phone that I'd sent and received (the most annoying thing about my phone is that it doesn't auto-delete so every so often I get a message telling me my phone is full - although in this case it was a good thing) was one from her and I contacted her to see how she was. She was pleased to hear from me and immediately sent me some of her photos from Voodoofest, which was useful as I didn't have many. Below is a picture that was taken of Leslie, Kim and I the day after the festival in the French Quarter.

Happy Birthday!

I just wanted to wish the gorgeous Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland a very happy 40th birthday.

Well I'll Be Blowed!

Now I know that all of us scrapbookers jealously hoard our stash, and often have trouble using some of the more beautiful papers in our collections (for instance I bought another set of the Basic Grey Black Tie when I heard that it was being withdrawn as I couldn't bear the idea of being without it), but today I have seen something which astonished me - a paper collection obviously designed to not even be considered for actual use. It is the Serie Limitee by Rouge de Garance and each set contains 12 individually numbered papers which are wrapped in tissue paper in a bright turquoise box. There have only been 5,000 of these sets produced and the company will not be making any more. Undoubtedly they are beautiful papers, but as someone who already has far too much stuff cluttering up my flat, the last thing I need is for MORE papers that I know I won't be able to use. Of course, this also makes them an extremely attractive must-have item (fortunately I'm broke at the moment so I WON'T be getting them). However, I'm really interested to know if the people that are buying the sets are actually going to use them - or whether they will be keeping them as they are too precious to use.

To relax during lunch I have been reading a list of '100 things we didn't know a year ago' on the BBC website. Of all the interesting things on there the one that most caught my eye was the following:

When faced with danger, the octopus can wrap six of its legs around its head to disguise itself as a fallen coconut shell and escape by walking backwards on the other two legs, scientists discovered.

The mind boggles - I'm trying to imagine how an octopus can look like a coconut shell. *LOL*

Apologies for the Delay in Posting ...

I’ve just realised that it’s been over 2 weeks since I last posted on here!

Not only are we well into December, Christmas is fast rushing up – there are only 13 days left on my chocolate advent calendar(s). Fortunately I am just about finished with my Christmas shopping (with one big exception) and even almost all my wrapping has been done. At the moment I am going through a pretty stressful time and the main reason for not posting has been a difficulty in knowing what to say and how to say it, and even whether I want to say it. So here’s a quick update of some of the more interesting things that have been going on in and around my life since my last post.

Monday 27th November was Christmas decoration night at the pub. Gary (the relief landlord) had told me that he and Steve would do them in the afternoon (Steve was back off holiday that day), but they didn’t, so I got lumbered with the task. What a great idea – give the shortest person in the pub the job of putting up the decorations! Not aided by the fact the staples had disappeared so I only had some cheap crappy old sellotape to do the job. Fortunately, my forte is supervising rather than doing and soon had a couple of wonderful customers actually doing the putting up. I did get the Christmas tree up as well, but we ran out of time and so had to leave the decorating of that to someone else. Imagine my surprise then, when I got to work on Saturday morning to find that the tree still hadn’t been done. Yep, I ended up spending an hour decorating it myself, although I don’t mind tree decorating. Met up with Mrs H3 for a nice meal at de:alto on the Thursday evening. As always an entertaining evening, although Bluewater was packed with people doing their Christmas shopping (haven’t they heard of the internet? *LOL*). It was weird to be sitting in a traffic jam at 11pm! The following night was a Christmas meal at the Kestrel with Annette and Lynne. We had a good evening and the meal was very enjoyable. It made a nice change from being at the Sherwood too. Didn’t overdo it in the drinks department though as I had to be up at 4am to drive Lynne to Stansted. She was off to Gothenburg for the weekend on one of those cheap Ryanair flights (she said it was very nice, but very expensive). Saturday night was spent looking after Perry, Chris’s 12 year old son. I get on with him very well so he was a breeze to look after, although his criticism of Take That (who were in concert on the TV that night and fantastic) was uncalled for *LOL*.

Monday 4th was Jack’s funeral. I went to the service, which was very interesting, and upbeat being a humanitarian service, but really wasn’t feeling in the mood for the wake, so instead I went home and decorated my Christmas tree. The wake was still going strong when I got to the pub in the evening, so I had a chance to commiserate with the family anyway. On Wednesday Andrea and I went for a meal at the Tiger Moth. Yep, another meal – and I have loads more to come over the next few weeks. Definitely must get back on that diet in January! It was a nice evening, a chance to take my mind off things and relax, well, at least as much as I can at the moment. Thursday my car finally went for its MOT – only a month or so late … Oops! It passed OK, although I do need to get a new tyre soon. Whilst waiting for my car to be done, I visited Silver Moons and had an aura reading done. Currently, my aura colour is violet – a complete change from my last reading when my aura was bright yellow (mind you that was about 10 years ago) and the reading was startlingly accurate for my current situation. While I was there I bought a birthday present for Chris and also a little something for me. Friday found me helping Mark and Lynne at the Golf Club Christmas Quiz – always a good evening out. A quiet Saturday night spent wrapping presents was followed by a more gregarious evening last night, as Dick and Sheila are down for a few days and so a few of us got together with them for a drink (however, I resisted going for an Indian at 11pm!)

Anyone who knows me will know that I have left the largest and most important part of my life out of the above review. This is due to continuing difficulty with chronicling both the facts, and my feelings. I am sure that eventually I will be able to talk about it, but now really isn’t the right time for me. However, it was important for me to get some words down as I don't want my blog to disappear. It is my lifeline to the world and it’s important to me that it continues.

Those Cybercrop Challenge LO's

OK so the cyber crop is now over so I can finally post my challenge LO's. I didn't win but did manage a few votes, so at least some other people liked them.

First the pre-crop challenge called 'Hidden Secrets'. This LO had to have something completely hidden, so I created an envelope containing a mini album. The subject is the water features that were at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2006.

Finally, the Gryffindor mystery kit from Jillybeans Scrapyard. The brief for this was to create anything but you could only use the items in this kit with very limited access to other items. I made a LO of the New Orleans skyline taken from across the Mississippi at Old Algiers on my last day in the city. I traced the fleur de lis embellishment and created a tag book containing a set of tags showing items symbolic to New Orleans. I also created a mini accordian book with photos of Voodoofest.

Final LO's

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

Well I've just finished my final LO of the cyber crop. I have ideas for at least 3 of the other classes but I just don't have time to do them as I have to be at work in 20 minutes and it'll take longer than that for me to cut the papers!

Here is the LO that I finished first thing this morning - another picture of Leanne. As ever the photo isn't very good, but it was hard to get the title to show as I used clear plastic letters (perfect for photographing ... NOT!)

And here is the final LO - yep it's Kiefer! I have always done LO's of my favourite man in every cyber crop and I was determined not to miss him out this time. I'm really pleased with the result actually :)

I will post the two challenge LO's later this evening after the cyber crop has finished as voting is still going on for the pre-crop challenge (although tbh I don't have a hope of winning it).

Final CC points accumulated = 205 (not bad considering that I worked both days!)

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

Another Layout

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

I have completed one more LO this evening, and am currently half way through another, but will be stopping for tonight and will complete that one in the morning.

The LO is from the Marauder's Map Challenge - it had to include a map somewhere on the LO, so I chose the place dearest to my heart - the French Quarter in New Orleans. Slightly simpler than some of my other LOs, although I did hand cut the title which took a bit of time.

I am really enjoying the paper scrapping, although my lounge looks like it's been burgled with paper, ribbons and embellishments everywhere (not to mention Christmas presents that arrived today that I haven't yet had a chance to put away). Just wish I had a studio like mum so I could be creative without worrying about having to put the stuff away all the time!

CC points accumulated so far = 165

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

Cybercrop News

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

The cybercrop has now been going for 13 1/2 hours and I have so far completed 2 challenges and 1 class.

The LO below was from the first class - it's been really interesting to do everything properly, rather than digitally, although it's a lot slower! Unfortunately the picture quality isn't great as I don't seem to be able to get a decent photo of my LO's. They look so much better in real life.

I also decorated a ciger tin for the charms challenge:

CC points accumulated so far = 145

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

It's Here ... The Harry Potter Cybercrop Weekend!

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

Yep, the HP CC weekend has started. The first two classes and the first challenge have been posted and the chat has started. I am feeling really pleased with myself as I've already done some scrapping, and not digiscrapping either, the real thing - actually using some of my precious stash.

I completed both the pre-crop challenge (Hidden Secret) and the Gryffindor Mystery Kit and really enjoyed doing both. I am not able to show the LO's yet as they are both in hidden galleries for the time being, but I will be posting pics as soon as the crop is finished because I am very proud of them.

I've also made a digital cybercrop planner:

Better get back and check out the latest class ...

CC points accumulated so far = 105

GO GO GRYFFINDOR!!!

R.I.P. Jack White

When I got to work at the pub last night I heard about the sudden and completely unexpected death of Jack White. Jack had been a regular part of the furniture at the Sherwood Oak for many years (probably as long as it has been a pub) and was certainly a real character. Depending on who you talked to he was either a great guy or a cantankerous old bugger, and although there was no doubt that he couldn't walk properly, he had hearing like a bat, and the ability to listen in to every conversation going on in a 500 yard radius. He certainly inspired liking and loathing - sometimes at the same time!

Always up for a laugh, he was happy to join in with the dancing at many of the pub's discos and often requested particular tracks on the jukebox to get the dancing going. Remember Hey Ya! anyone?

It was really weird seeing his last pint still in the fridge where he'd left it from the previous day, and even stranger that he didn't come into the pub by 10pm for that last final drink. It was amazing how many people didn't believe it was true, we all thought it was some sort of trick - nasty for sure, but it had to be a trick didn't it? Well, no it wasn't.

So Jack is gone and no more will we see his buggy at the pub. I'm sure everyone who knew him will have their own remembrances of him. Rest in peace Jack.

MCR Update

Well I've bought 2 tickets for MCR's show at Wembley on 30th March 2007. I was looking for tickets (seated obviously as I'm not a complete nutter, there's no way I'm going near the mosh pit!) and everywhere only had seats N11 or back, but I found a site which had 4 tickets for S5 so I bought 2 of them.

I'm sure I can persuade someone to come with me by then *LOL*.

I haven’t posted for a while, so thought I’d better have a bit of a catch up. In the last few days I’ve been to an Avon party and a jewellery party (semi-precious gems). Both were interesting, but nothing really caught my eye, although I may have some ideas for Christmas pressies. I have invites to a few more parties but unfortunately I can’t make them as I’m already busy doing other things. I really need to find time to fit in a trip to the cinema though as I want to see ‘The Prestige’ and it's been out for a few weeks now. I also need to find time to do some Christmas shopping as I still have my stocking swap to sort out among other things.

Grrrrrr! My lovely new ipod froze on me on Friday evening on the way home from work. Bloody annoying to say the least - but according to the internet, not an uncommon occurrence amongst ipods. This meant I had to reset it. Luckily I’m not one of those people who changes the settings much so I didn’t lose any custom settings. At least if it happens again I’ll know what to do rather than having to leave it frozen for the best part of 2 hours (and before some wag comments - no it wasn't the ipod reacting to my overplaying of 'The Black Parade').

I really want to go and see MCR at Wembley (end of March) - currently looking for someone to come with me - anyone want to volunteer? Talking of concerts I am absolutely gutted that I have missed the tickets for Gary Numan's mini Telekon tour - he released the tickets while I was in America and it's completely sold out. I could buy from a tout but they are charging over double the original ticket price and with you-know-what so close I can't really justify the expenditure. For the same reason I stopped looking at the New Model Army tickets, although it would be fab to see them again as well. I'm really into going to concerts at the moment after Voodoofest.

Iain is currently still living at the pub. He has launched an appeal against his dismissal, so it appears he’s staying put for the time being (that and the fact he apparently has nowhere else to go). I can’t imagine he has a chance with the appeal, but I just hope it is all sorted soon as I’m eager to see who is coming into the pub so I can decide whether to carry on working there or not. At the moment it’s a close call and the choice of landlord will tip it. Obviously I’d like to get sorted before Christmas, but maybe they can’t do anything until the issue with Iain is resolved and Steve is back from holiday.

I really meant to get on with my cybercrop challenges this weekend. I received the Gryffindor mystery kit from Jillybeans Scrapyard and of course need to do the pre-crop challenge. Unfortunately this means real life scrapping for both challenges this time and I have even more trouble getting going with real life scrapping than I do with digital. Needless to say, the weekend has passed and the kit is still in its box, and the pre-crop isn’t even a plan yet. Can’t remember the deadline for them, but as I’m busy for most of this week it’s going to be a bit of a struggle to get them done I think.

Congratulations to Jo on getting her new car – looks very nice and is very flash with the heated leather seats etc. Very useful with the cold weather coming. I've had to make do with a new coat. Dennis Basso has a full length faux fur coat as a TSV on QVC today at a great price so I got one. Well, actually I got 2 because I couldn't decide whether I like the redwood mink or the white lynx best. I shall decide which one I prefer when they arrive and send the other back (or maybe both if they look horrid on me). Seems a bit extravagant maybe, but I haven't had a new winter coat for about 6 years, my old one is really beginning to look a jaded around the collar where it has been removed so many times for dry cleaning (or at least it would if I could find it - I put my winter stuff away somewhere earlier in the year and haven't managed to find it again yet *LOL*).

Oh yes, I will be posting the next holiday installment shortly.