Learning Something New

I've signed up for Shimelle's new class, "Learn Something New Everyday", which starts tomorrow and runs for the whole of September. I've yet to hear from Shimelle, apart from the basic email so I hope all is ok for tomorrow ... she has been rather busy this weekend, though ... she got married yesterday!

Christening

Wouldn't you just know it? For the 1st time ever I used non-rechargeable batteries in the camera and by lunchtime the bloomin' thing was almost flat!! However, there was one pretty decent photo, as you can see. It's gorgeous Miss E. with her Godparents (of which I am now officially one!!!). Young Master K. doesn't feature in any of mine - I couldn't find him half of the time! DS had a lovely day and got to mix with lots of small people, which I hope he enjoyed. He did manage to knock over a jug of squash on to himself & me into the bargain, doh!

The service in the church was fairly traditional and lasted 1.5 hours but the hymns were from Mission Praise and not from Ancient & Prehistoric! The vicar was pretty cool about the use of cameras, it's just a shame that the light wasn't so great. At the back of the church was a children's play area, a great idea although the noise level did rise as the service went on!

At lunch afterwards I got to chat to people I haven't seen in almost 20 years - absolutely lovely - but where have the years gone? 1988-1992 were halcyon days indeed.

Big Day Tomorrow

We're off to a double Christening tomorrow out "in the country" so it'll mean leaving here about 8.30am. The Christening is for the children of my BF and yours truly is going to be a Godmother to her DD. I'm so excited!! I've even polished DS's shoes, because you would never believe they were less than a week old! If we're not too late back tomorrow I'll post some photos, otherwise you'll have to wait until Monday.

Bubbles!

We got the bubble making machine out this afternoon for DS to have fun with. He loved it, although I think he loved "playing" with the dog more!

Just For Fun

This wasn't the intended shot but I love how it's turned out.

Grandpa Would Be Proud

Here's DS doing his pre-flight checks this afternoon before taking Tigger Plane for a spin across the lawn! I couldn't help but think of Dad and how proud he would have been to see DS becoming a chip off the old block.

Daily Chores

There's on daily chore that I like to begin with but dislike by the end ... what is it? Sweeping up leaves from the drive. Next door's trees overhang our wall and there are 2 very tall London Plane trees outside the gates. In a few months time it will be more interesting because DS (and Granny) will be jumping into piles of leaves and having a rare old time! Until then, I'll try and persuade DH to do it!

Bob The Builder?

DS loves having the workmen here every day (as does the dog!), I'm sure that he thinks that they've come to play with him (ditto for the dog)! Luckily I had the camera to hand because look what DS got upto while I was chatting to Jim the "Gaffer"! I'll have to get him a toolbelt & a hardhat next .... DS that is, not Jim!

August 25th DLO

Here it is, a little later than usual because apparently Shimelle had a few problems uploading the prompt to her blog. Considering that I ended up not taking as many photos as previous months, I'm pleased with the overall effect.

"Snip" LO

My scanner can't scan a full 12x12 LO and it's dark outside so I can't photograph it in decent natural light until tomorrow; this taster image will have to do for now - actually, it doesn't look too bad.

Scrapping In The Home

I bought a new duvet cover in the sale yesterday just because it reminded of scrapbooking - how sad is that? It was a bit of a bargain, though, £12.49 for a kingsize cover & 2 pillowcases.

Slow Cooked Rice Pudding

The rice pudding I made last week in the new slow cooker was so successful with DH that he asked me to make another today. I defrosted the last portion for DS yesterday and I'm pleased to say that he scoffed it with alacrity (as DH would say!). I probably shouldn't serve it up in our yellow bowls...

New Shoes

DS had new shoes today and already they are looking rather lived in! Back at the end of May he was a size 5, today his left foot is 5.5 and his right foot is 5.75! We went for a funky red colour because all too soon he'll only be wearing black, brown or trainers.

Scrap Your Day #5 - The Photos

Here's a snapshot of our day. I took a while to get going because a lot of the early photos were repeats of the last few months and therefore not very interesting, but I suppose that's the whole point, isn't it! I had a play around with the camera's macro setting and got some good shots of my computer & my lunch ... even if I do say so myself!

London 2012

Now it's our turn ... the summer Olympics in Beijing ended today and London became the host city. The last 2 weeks have been awesome (the BBC has done a spectacular job in its coverage, although they perhaps needn't have sent out so many commentators & presenters) - my runaway favourite was Chris Hoy in the velodrome, closely followed by Rebecca Adlington in the swimming and young Tom Daley in the diving (every time I saw him on TV he seemed to be having a ball!). Can't help feeling that London may not pull it off, given that we are apparently already over budget and nothing appears to have been built yet!!

Scrap Your Day #5

Yep, here we are again ... tomorrow is the 25th so yours truly will be photographing everything in sight. No builders tomorrow as its a Bank Holiday.

Sun & Sand

Who needs to go to the seaside on a Bank Holiday weekend when you can bring the sand into your garden and hope that the sun shines - it did show its face for a few hours, luckily. DS and the dog spent a happy half an hour playing together although I suspect that the dog had a sigh of relief when DS went for his nap! Just look at DS's face in the last image - classic "Who me?"

Srapping As Art

Over the last couple of days I've been tryting to "create" some artwork from my scrapping. You can see the finished result here but I'm not 100% confident that it works ... but I like it. What do you think?

The idea came from CK magazine earlier this year, January I think.

Discovering the World

Here are some more lovely shots of DS discovering the world around him. He thought it was hilarious to play "Peep-O" through the washing! I think the time may have come for the use of reins because when he is on the Common or in the park, he doesn't want to come back!

Drip, Drip!!

At 11pm last night DH discovered a drip coming through the landing ceiling near the nailed shut loft hatch! We decided that it must have been from the cold water tank & that when it was moved earlier in the day something came loose. Cue 2 buckets on the landing carpet all night! The builders were great and were here within an hour of DH calling them this morning, they then called the plumber who arrived within 30 minutes. It seems that one of the joints had never ever been solded (spelling?) and had been only held in place for the last 17 years by water pressure. All it took was for it to be moved yesterday during the fitting of the girders and away it came! We came to the conclusion that we got away lightly...

Steel Girders

The steel girders are here and in place. The 2 lower ones will support the floor of the conversion and the one on the ridge will support the roof, which is good to know! The plumber is coming on Tuesday to resite the water tank; he'll actually remove the old one and position a new larger tank in the roof space above our bedroom. We probably won't see the builders again until Wednesday or even Thursday. (Monday is a Bank Holiday here in England.)

I'm continuing to keep the builders on side - choc chip cookies to go with their tea and coffee today (currently on offer in M&S, 2 for £2).

Crane

Did I already mention that the crane was due at lunchtime today? It arrived at 7.30am this morning, bearing all the materials needed bar the steel girders (which are probably a fairly important bit of kit!). They are now coming tomorrow at 10am... It seems that the entire roof isn't coming off any time soon so it's actually quite difficult to determine exactly what is going on above our heads; the loft access in the landing ceiling has been nailed shut so that none of the builders fall through it! For the duration of the build DS is going to have his naps in our room, sleeping in the travel cot. There is no work going on directly above our bedroom so we thought that would be the safest place for him to be.

One of the builders looks as though he should still be at school! However, so far he has been very polite although he did drop the plate which had the biscuits on! (It was one that DH had at university so no great loss.) He likes his tea white with one. (Builders are like postmen, they should be cultivated in order to get the best from them!!!)

There's A Hole In Our Roof

No going back now, as we now have a hole in the roof! Jim the builder told us, "08.30, Tuesday"; he arrived at 14.50! (Apparently stuck at another job!) And the crane? Well, that's now due at lunchtime tomorrow...we are not full of confidence that this adventure will have a happy ending!

Tidying Up The Stash...

Isn't it amazing just how far your stash can spread when you're not looking?? While DS has been asleep, I've managed to tidy it all up again, even down to making tags for bags so that I know what's inside them! I also finished my DLO for a CJ called Mad Hatter's Tea Party - basically the girl wants recipes for tea-time, nothing to do with Alice In Wonderland at all really!

Hello to Mandi, who asked for an invite to read this blog - hope you won't be too disappointed!

Not-So-Lazy-Sunday

I've been a busy little bee today - washing, ironing, trip to the supermarket and managed to squeeze in a spot of scrapping for about 20 minutes while DS was asleep. We went back to the park late afternoon; this time one of the swings was free and DS & the dog tried to play together, albeit not very sucessfully!

The Real McHoy & His Boys!!

Chris Hoy and Ross Edgar grabbed Olympic gold and silver medals for Great Britain with brilliant performances in the final of the men's keirin in Beijing. Bradley Wiggins retained his Olympic 4000m individual pursuit title with a magnificent ride, while his team-mate Steven Burke claimed the bronze medal.

Never have men in lycra looked so good! Go, Team GB!