"Pudsey" LO

On Children In Need day DS wore his very cute Pudsey t-shirt, which Sib had sent to him. He looked gorgeous in it and had great fun racing around while I tried to take his photo!

The Polar Express

I don't know if any of you have ever see the movie The Polar Express? I picked up a copy this morning from WHSmith for a mere £6 and we watched it this afternoon with a cuppa. What a magical story, DS was totally enthralled for the whole 90 minutes and chose to sit either on Granny's lap, or on mine or between us on the sofa. I think that it will become a family tradition in the run up to Christmas that we watch this film; look out for it in this year's JYC (starting Monday!).

Loft Progress #27

Things have been progressing rather nicely this week, at long last! The Juliet balcony for the French doors arrived yesterday morning and was fitted within half an hour, Jeff the Roofer has finally finished, the Sparkies completed the task of powering up the loft (although what DH will make of the box on the kitchen wall when he sees it next week, I don't know!) and Jim the Gaffer & Mikey have made a start on the laying the floor.

Thursday

So another busy day here in Suburbia. The builders are continuing to make headway with the loft, we took DS to get a new pair of shoes this morning and he hosted a playdate late afternoon for 2 sisters from his YMCA class (and their mummy).

The best bit of the day for me was watching mum read Hairy Maclary's Rumpus At The Vet to DS!

Scrap Your Day - November's DLO

Here's my DLO for November, and thanks to mum for holding it while I took the photo!

Journal Your Christmas Class

Less than a week to go now ...

More Photos From Today

These two photos are so cute that I had to put them on here. There is DS at bedtime having sprouted what appears to be a large furry ear!! And there is the pooch completely dead to the world at 10pm.

Scrap Your Day #8

Hard to believe that we're into month 8 with this project. I've decided that I'm going to continue with it after next April, although I may change the day to the 9th. Here's a snapshot of my day so far ...

Scrap Your Day - November

It's that time of the month again, although no prompt from Shimelle yet ... camera at the ready for tomorrow. DH is off on a business trip and Mum is arriving so lots to photograph.

"Trendy?" LO

This is a LO for my Book of Me and I've borrowed most of the elements from this week's challenge over on UKS. I do find it much easier to follow/adapt a sketch rather than starting from scratch.

Loft Progress #26

Progress at last! Today we have Jim the Gaffer & Anthony (builders), Jeff the Roofer and Mike & Fay (think that's his name!) (electricians) all on site and making a lot of noise in the process. As you can see in the photos, the slates are going on around the dormer, the sofit boards are going up around the edge of the gable ends, power is now on the way to being installed in the bathroom and the new staircase has a bannister and spindles!

Added at 8.30pm - one of the workmen left a tap on in the new bathroom with the plug in ... can you guess where I'm going with this? Yep, we had a flood at 6pm tonight with water coming through the new plasterwork, down the stairwell walls and onto the stair carpet ... words failed me.

Loft Progress #25A

As an add on to the last post about the loft ... what do think the collective noun for builders would be? Personally I'm favouring a "loaf" but DH likes a "bum"... can you tell just how fed up we are with the whole process?

The InLaws

Straight after our meeting with the Big Boss, DH left for Maidenhead to collect his parents and drive them home to Derbyshire. He would then stay the night with them and come home tomorrow. That was the plan .... he phoned just before 6pm to say he was still in the Maidenhead because MIL had thrown a wobbly about driving in the dark and refused to go. So he is staying the night there and will try to take them home tomorrow. He's staying to give SIL some morale support because she is beginning to feel the after effects of her treatment yesterday and also it's pointless to drive 25 miles back here only to go back again 1st thing tomorrow.
As for me, I'm off to get a cuppa and catch up on more episodes of 24, which I don't think I've watched since September! DS is all snuggly in bed and the pup is pining for DH!

Loft Progress #25

So ... the meeting took place this afternoon (they were late, which just about sums up their attitude) ... and I missed most of it because the 3 men went off to do a tour of inspection in the loft, leaving me to put the kettle on (what a traditional family we are!). The upshot is that we are promised a glut of builders next week, including the extremely elusive electricians, and that the 2nd fix will be finished by next Friday, a week today. DH has said that the crunch time will be when he gets back from his overseas business trip on December 1st (he leaves on Tuesday). Can't say that I'm looking forward to next week.

Trips To The Park

I think that afternoon trips to the park will soon be put on hold until the Spring because by the time we get there after DS has had a nap it's getting dark. We'll just have to fit visits to the park into our morning routine instead. Hmmm, can't see that happening easily!

Loft Progress #24

At last!! After 14 long weeks we are now living in a weatherproof house again. Jim the Gaffer turned up on his tod today and installed the French windows into the dormer window. No fuss or messing around and by 2pm he was done. He'll be back tomorrow with one of his boys to make a start on the 2nd fix - external facia boards and sofits (not sure on spelling of that but that's how it sounds), which they need the scaffolding for. And apparently we may even catch a glimpse of a Sparky of two! DH and I are meeting with the Big Boss at 2pm tomorrow to discuss how things have gone (or haven't, as the case may be!) so far ...

The Magic Of "In The Night Garden"

Here's DS just before lunch today, just sitting quietly and absorbing In The Night Garden on CBeebies. He was so quiet while I was making a cuppa that I actually went back into the lounge to see what he was up to ... and for once, nothing at all!

Shimelle's Christmas Class

So the alphas arrived this morning and they were put to use as soon as DS had gone for his nap! I've got two 7x7 pages for the title pages but I think each daily prompt will be a SLO. Apologies for the rubbish photo, the light wasn't great and I was standing on the kitchen chair!

John Sergeant: Did He Jump Or Was He Pushed?

Such is the furore about John Sergeant's continued presence in Strictly Come Dancing that his announcement re leaving the show made it onto the Radio 2's 1 O'Clock news as the 2nd item! In a statement, he said: "The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far." It has been announced he will return on Saturday's show for a "farewell dance"... bless him!
Strictly judge Arlene Phillips said: "I'm always sad if a contestant leaves of choice, because you are always expecting to let the public vote them in or out - but John is his own person and he has his own reasons for doing this." Yeah, right!

Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas Class

Yep, it's looming. The 1st December sees the start of this class and it runs until 12th Night. I'm really looking forward to it and have started gathering my supplies. I've decided on a 7x7 album and have most of the title page in place, just waiting on some Christmassy red Doodlebug Loopy Lou alphas to arrive. I've even started a list of potential subjects for photos - Starbucks red cups, anyone? (Sib - I need you to keep an eye out for any really hideous outdoor Christmas lights on houses in the village!)

We Go Visiting

DH had a free afternoon today and, as we had no builders on site (don't ask!), we decided to go to Maidenhead to see DH's parents. We knew that SIL had gone to work but reckoned we'd still get to see her because we wouldn't be going over there until DS woke from his nap at around 3pm. Now, as most of you know, DS doesn't go in the car very often because neither do we! (Anywhere we go locally we tend to walk because it is just so much easier, not to mention better for the environment.) So there we are on the M4 when DS somehow manages to wriggle his arms free of the harness and has a go at opening the door!! He managed to open it enough for both the interior light and door open warning light to come on - I aged 20 years in a second, I kid you not! As soon as we got to Maidenhead DH sussed out how to set the child lock and IT IS NOW SET!!!!!

The photos show DS with "Marilyn", DS with his grandparents and DH with his sister & parents (a rare shot of them together).

Surprise Visitors

This morning we had a very lovely surprise in that my SIL & FIL came to visit us!! (Apparently MIL wouldn't get out of bed!) DH and SIL went to Derbyshire yesterday and were able to persuade their parents to come back with them - yay, at long last! Anyway, as you can see in the photo, SIL is looking well, all things considered. I told her that she looked like a blonde bombshell and that I was going to start calling her Marilyn! The poor girl has even lost her eyelashes. However, on a good note, she has just 2 more treatments to go and is talking of holding a birthday party in January just because. The shadow of surgery is still looming but she is such a postive woman that she refuses to dwell on it. I feel very proud to have her as my SIL.

Autumn Light

This afternoon in the park I discovered just how clever light is; one moment you're in daylight, then in semi-darkness because the sun is setting and then back to reasonable daylight again. This photo was taken just after 4pm and I can assure you that we did have about another 30 minutes of actual daylight. We certainly weren't in the park in the dark!

Children In Need

In a week where we have learnt of the deaths of 3 young children who were known to Social Services, this year's Children In Need Appeal has added poignancy. It needn't be a huge amount that you donate ... in the words of a supermarket's slogan, "Every Little Helps". You can see DS, our very own mini tornado, modelling a Pudsey t-shirt (courtesy of Sib). And very cute he looks in it as well. This branch of the family has made a donation via the Radio 2 Music Marathon but we've yet to hear our request on air (one of thousands, I expect).

Loft Progress #23

So .... big fanfare here, I feel ... at 8.30am this morning 3 guys from the glazing company turned up with the frame and glass for the gable end wall and the glass and frame for the French doors!! Wonders will never cease!! But before you get too carried away, here's the thing ... we'd ordered 4 blocks of glass (2 for each side of the upright post) and the glazers turned up with 2, one for each side of the upright. A five week delay on delivery and they still get it wrong?? Anyway, the glass is in the gable end, although you can see daylight in places, but have no fear, DH will be negotiating some sort of compensation package for a botched order. Jim the Gaffer will be fitting the French windows next week (he's gone home to Ireland today for his SIL's funeral; these guys are becoming like family, we're getting to know them so well!)

"Never Too Early" LO

Another LO for DS's album, on the timely subject of remembrance. Apologies for the poor quality of the image ... having a job just now to find some decent natural light!

Wednesday

It's been a funny few days. Work on the loft conversion appears to have ground to a halt although a sparky did turn up this morning to fix the bathroom & en-suite extractor fans (which were broken by the builders!). The rather inefficient PM has incurred the wrath of DH by suggesting that we will need to pay a further £3,500 for the doors required to pass the fire safety inspection, which is a requirement in law if we want the Building Inspector to sign off on the whole thing.

Last night I managed to break my photo printer! Somehow I managed to get a piece of paper jammed in it and had a go at trying to "fix" it ... when will I ever learn?? Needless to say, the machine is now as dead as a dodo!

On the plus side, I did manage to capture an image of the moon when we were in the park just after 4pm yesterday and this evening I caught a lovely image of DS directing DH cooking spag bol!! So it's not all bad...

"Boogie Boy" LO

This week's challenge on UKS was to follow a sketch, use brads, use rik rak and use green, white & pink. I scrapped the photo of my Boogie Boy and am pleased with the end result.

The Answer To The Question??

DH threw me a metaphorical curve ball during supper tonight when he asked this question: Why have we done this? The subject under discussion, as I'm sure you can guess, was the loft conversion and the recent lack of progress. I was rather lost for words......

Remembrance Sunday

I had DS watch the BBC's coverage of the Remembrance Day Parade & Service from the Cenotaph with me this morning. Obviously, he is still far too young to understand what was going on but I wanted to sow the seeds so that as he grows older he knows that this is what we do in our family; we watch the Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance from the Albert Hall and we watch the Remembrance Day Parade.

"At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them."

DS At 22 Months

Yep, DS is 22-months-old today and I took him to our local war memorial for his "photo-shoot"! I wanted the panels of the memorial to be the main focus, rather than DS, so am chuffed at how the shot turned out. I think it might have been more luck than judgement, though!