~ Week in the Life - Thursday ~

Hello Thursday!

The next few days are likely to be a bit hit and miss around here as I have the builders in doing the conservatory still. They arrive promptly at 8.30am so no lie ins for me.

We woke up to find that the dishwasher had not worked over night and the code meant it hadn't filled with water. I'm blaming the plumber from yesterday who had to pull it out to move our outside tap. This unfortunately meant that before breakfast I had a whole days worth of washing up to do. One of my least favourite chores.

Although last night I missed my Ranger Unit meeting due to falling asleep on the sofa post night shift, Guiding is a large part of my life and I have roles within County which mean I often have emails to read/send and meetings to go to. So this morning's aim was to catch up whilst watching some trash TV that doesn't require concentration. I'm this case it was the new series of Teen Mom 2. I can't help but love it!

My parents called round for a coffee and to see how the conservatory is progressing. Mum needed to go out and get some new shoes so we had an hours retail therapy which resulted in me buying 3 new tops in Next (oops!). But she did manage to pick up some flip flops. Only one of these I bought but I forgot to snap a pic of me trying them on.

My dad loves to take photos and always has his camera attached to his belt and today I go this lovely photo of him as he tried to take a photo of me when we were talking about 'week in the life' and I was taking photos of him with Oscar on his lap. I wonder if this is where I get my love of documenting life from and then the crafty side from my mum.

I'm a bit of a nightmare when it comes to eating at lunchtime as I'm not really a cold sandwich person. I often just have snacky bits at lunch but today I made myself a bacon sandwich with tomato ketchup. Yum! I don't know what it is about cold sandwiches that I'm not keen on, maybe its because I don't really like cold meats except cured ones and that I can't stand mayonnaise. I'm really not a fussy eater, there's just something about sandwiches for me. But saying that if someone made me one for lunch I would eat it.

Today the flooring and the roof went on the conservatory which means we are on the home stretch and is really just the finishing touches left to do (electrics, plumbing, plastering etc...). I'm so excited. The cats keep staring through the kitchen windows wondering what is going on. I'm sure they are going to love being in there.

The afternoon went pretty quickly by. I scrapbooked and had an unexpected nap whilst I waited for my Canon Selphy to print some photos. I desperately want to get started on my 'Week in the Life' album but am holding out to print them all online at the end of the week along with my holiday photos. I love spending time in my craft room, it is my little haven at the top of the house.

When it came to tea time I wasn't hungry so had a healthy humus and veg plate whilst catching up on The Scrapbook Process class by Shimelle. I'm really enjoying this class and the mix of PDFs and Video. It's really making me think about how I put my albums together.

So this is pretty much how my evening continues. Lots of Oscar snuggles, catching up with my social media and other people's WITL posts. I finished the night off by booking tickets for Disney on Ice - Frozen with an early bird offer for December. I am a bit of a planner and love to have things lined up to look forward to. Milk and cookies as a treat for supper as I had a light dinner.

I'm on my own this evening as the Boy is out with his family at a rugby league match. He doesn't go every week now that we have Sky sports as it is a good hours drive away. Some weeks are like this where we barely see each other but then others are very quiet and we spend more time together. I don't mind these weeks as long as we make time on a specific day to have some us time and we chat/text throughout the day. 

Cups of Tea = 4, Total = 18

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Wednesday ~

Happy Wednesday!

So again my day started mid way through my night shift.

One of my work emails highlighted that this week is 'Dying Matters Awareness Week' and as I work on a palliative care unit where death and dying is kind of our bread and butter I wanted to use this opportunity to highlight a great cause.

Because of the job I do I am very open about health, bodily functions and death however I am very aware that it is not everyone's cup of tea and here in the UK are often taboo subjects. The most important thing I have learnt is that death and dying is a normal natural process that everyone will experience therefore we shouldn't hide it away. 

I love my drive home, even on days like today when it's cold and wet. This country road is beautiful in all seasons and weathers. I can recall driving home one New Years Day and the fields were covered in a pretty crisp frost.

So today we have had the builder and plumber here to continue work on or conservatory which meant that I couldn't go to bed after my night shift. Occasionally I will go straight to the hairdressers but don't usually stay up at home. Thankfully I had arranged for my work friend to come round for lunch which kept me awake.

I made a kind of Antipasti platter for us to have for lunch and she brought a lovely key lime pie for dessert. I really like the cured and cooked Italian meats that you can get from Aldi at the moment. They are really good value for money and very tasty too!

Today was my first experience of acupuncture. It was a very different experience from anything that I have had before. It was a strange feeling to have heavy, achy legs caused by small needles inserted in to specific parts of the body.

On return home I was delighted to find that our conservatory has come on leaps and bounds today. We now have a frame and windows in place, hopefully the roof will go on tomorrow. It's so exciting and I can't wait to get it furnished.

The tiredness all got a little too much for me and I fell asleep on the sofa. Unfortunately this meant that I missed going to my girl guide ranger unit meeting. I wasn't needed but I had planned to go and see the girls so I'm a little annoyed at myself.

The acupuncturist did warn me that it can cause tiredness so I suspect that on top of not sleeping after my night shift it was pretty inevitable really.

The boy and I had a little dispute about what we were going to have for dinner. When I'm tired I really struggle with making decisions about what I want to eat and I can be very grumpy. However, one thing I have learnt is that there is always a time for cereal. 

I left him to his Liverpool Football Match and went off to bed.

Although before settling down I had to have the nightly game of 'pounce on and bite feet' with Millie. She usually sleeps amongst our feet at the end of the bed but does occasionally sneak further up.

Cups of Tea = 5, Total = 14

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Tuesday ~

Happy Tuesday!

My days are starting to get a little mixed up now as I've been working the night shift but am using midnight as the cut off in to a new day even though its kind of like the middle of my day. If you know what I mean!

At work I had a break to eat a quick breakfast and have a cup of tea. I've decided to count the numbers of cups of tea that I drink over the course of the week (I must admit to being a little scared of the answer!). So far, Monday = 4 and Tuesday = 5, Total = 9!

I don't have a specific breakfast at work when I'm on nights. It has to depend what I fancy, sometimes cereal and other times toast. I love to read a home or food magazine for some light easy reading.

We had a bit of an eventful shift but for obvious reasons I can't go in to that. I will document in my album but ensure I don't break confidentiality. Needless to say I had to use a manual Blood pressure monitor which I haven't done for years.

Shattered, I snapped a quick selfie in the car as I set off to come home and bed. Looking rough!!

Slept well and kept company with my 2 cutie pies. How cute is it that Oscar has got his paw round Millie! Sometimes they are super cute but in the next breath they will be tearing round the house play fighting. 

What a difference a day makes! Sunshine and warm weather to a much cooler and very wet day. I was certainly in the right place being in bed.

When I'm on nights I have to have time to come round once I've woken up. I certainly feel like a zombie until I've had a cuppa and watched some TV. I have a few programmes at the moment that I really enjoy watching on Sky +

Yey! Happy mail! I love it when I get crafting goodies in the post. I've just signed up to 6 months of Ali Edwards 'Story Stamp' subscription. I picked up the first month for $5 which was amazing. I've really enjoyed using stamps on my scrapbook pages recently so hoping that these will give me a few more sets to play with. Unfortunately no time to play with it today though.

When I'm on nights the boy and I are often like ships that pass in the night. We do try to eat tea together before I go if we can manage it. Tonight we had an all day breakfast kind of dinner which included bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, potato waffles and tinned tomatoes.

This week is Nurse's Week so I picked up this meme online as I wasn't able to take any photos on my shift. We had a very busy night and it just continued as it had started.

I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with more photos to share with you.

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Week in the Life - Monday ~

Good evening! So here we go with my first attempt at Ali Edwards 'Week in the Life'. It's a great week for me to do as I'm working a mix of nights and days so it really captures my life.

Happy Monday 9th May 2016!

Normally I would have a lie in on the day of my first night but as we are having a conservatory built we have the electrician coming for 8am so I needed to get up early. Millie and Oscar can often be found snuggled up with us when we wake in the morning.

Whilst the workmen are here I'm enjoying my second cup of tea and catching up on some television. We rarely watch anything at the 'correct' time. We Sky + everything and watch it when is convenient, This for me is usually in the morning with my breakfast or a cup of tea. I love a cup of tea so am going to keep a count of how many I drink over the week.

The builders and electrician had finished so it is time for me to do some laundry. The weather is gorgeous here today with temperatures up to 25 degrees. I really would have liked to be able to sit out in the sun but my garden looks like a building site.

One of the more recent changes to my week is trying to plan our meals and write a food shopping list. I found that if I don't do this I visit the supermarket numerous times in the week and spend way too much money. This has been a great money saver (which I can then spend on stash!).

Today I headed out to both Morrisons and Aldi supermarkets to get my food shopping. This is my ideal way of shopping but I don't often have time to do this and end up doing an online ASDA delivery late at night. I do love that I can get my food delivered for £1 at some daytime slots.

Off to bed for my pre night shift sleep. Unfortunately just as I put my head down on the pillow the neighbours started to mow their lawn! This is just typical when I had to get up early. I did manage to get a little sleep.

Up post snooze and it's time for more laundry. This time I can't be bothered to change out of my pyjamas.

Our early evening routine is for me to have another cup of tea and for the boy to have a frothy coffee. Its a great time for us to sit together for a few minutes and swap stories from our day.

Often Oscar comes to join us too. He loves a cuddle.

The final photo I have to share is from the tea I made for us. The boy ate his and I took mine for my supper at work. I do enjoy salad but it doesn't often agree with my stomach. I absolutely love this new find from Aldi, its their Italian Ham selection.

Finally I headed off to work for my night shift. As I work in a hospital I am unable to take many photos and those that I did take I am going to keep private. Last night (up until midnight) was pretty unremarkable at work. It was nice to see some of my colleagues as I have been off work for a week.

I hope you are having a good week and those who are joining in this week are enjoying documenting their stories.

Terri

x 

~ {Inter}National Scrapbook Day Round Up! ~

Happy Monday!

Well I hope you all had a fun filled {Inter}National Scrapbooking Day, I certainly did. I managed to get 6 layouts completed using the online challenges over at Like For Ever & For the Love of Pretty Paper (UK scrapbooking Facebook Group).

The first challenge over on Like For Ever was to scrap lift yourself. I chose a layout from my India 2015 album and scrapped photos to go in my Vietnam & Cambodia 2012 album. I'm impressed at how different they look.

I used papers from the January Like For Ever Kit 'Twenty Sixteen' along with embellishments from my stash. Love that I'm starting to use some of my papers up.

If you've seen any photos from my recent trip to Latvia over on my Instagram account you will note that I do like a good cocktail. That certainly hasn't changed since these photos were taken.

The next challenge I attempted was this lovely sketch created by Laura from Beads, Buttons & Birds Blog. I had a great time looking back to my birthday in March for this one.

I used the current Like For Ever Kit 'Live out Loud'. Before I received this kit I wasn't excited by the Pink Paislee Paige Evans 'Fancy Free' Collection. But in real life it is super gorgeous!!! I am a total convert, just wish I had more of it!

I wouldn't usually use a mix of colour and black & white photos on a layout but I didn't have the colour version of the pic I wanted to use. I'm actually really pleased with the result. I'm hoarding the pretty 'Fancy Free' papers so this was ideal for only using the branding strips.

Ironically, when looking at last years album I noted that we had Pizza on my birthday last year too!

This next challenge used both the Mood Board over at Like For Ever & a scrap lift challenge from the Facebook group.

Below is Beth Moloney's layout which we were challenged to scrap lift.

This was the very pretty looking mood board by Elsie over o Like For Ever. As soon as I saw this my brain was shouting COCOA VANILLA STUDIO 'FREE SPIRIT'.

So I obliged and created a very pretty, girly page about me and my friend's love of hot chocolate and cake!

The next layout I did was for the 'Coffee' Challenge over on the facebook group. The challenge was to use coffee as inspiration, whether it be colour or content.

I had this photo of the cute spring Starbucks takeaway coffee cup that I had been waiting to scrapbook and then I remembered some Stampin' Up stamps which would fit in perfectly too! The new textures set even has a coffee ring stamp which I used on the background.

Nicola over at Like For Ever gave us access to this 'Just Smile' cut file and asked us to use it as inspiration. I have again used the lovely May 'Live out Loud' Kit and there will be a process video for this layout in the next week.

I was clearly enjoying outlining my layouts this weekend as I've done it to quite a few!

My final layout was for the Like For Ever challenge to scrap a selfie & use a song on the page.

I used the Silhouette Cameo to cut out this background (which I love!) and added selfies from different times over the last few months. They all show me looking happy and enjoying my life. So I used some lyrics from Avril Lavigne's song Innocence as my title. The Little Things that make Life Great.

Thanks for stopping by today and having a read. Over the next week I'm hoping to be able to blog my 'Week in the Life' as I join in with Ale Edwards documenting class.

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

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~ YouTube UK Hop and Travel album flip through ~

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

Today I am taking part in a YouTube Hop hosted by Nancy aka Kitty Scrapper. Please head over to YouTube and 'hop' along the participants videos. It would be great to see more subscribers and thumbs up.

So today is another first for me, not only is it my first video hop but also my first album flip through. I have completed (I think!) my Thailand & Laos Album and as it is 9x12 I wanted to show a flip through. There are very few 9x12 or 8.5x11 process videos on YouTube so I wanted to add this in to the mix.

I'm having a scrappy weekend so hope to get more videos up in the near future. Thanks for watching!

Happy Crafting!

Terri

x

~ Stick It Down - May Sketch ~

Sorry for being a day late with my reveal folks but I have been away on holiday to Latvia for a few days and was completely wiped out last night. Off for a lovely spa day today with mum to recuperate after my other half made me walk for MILES!

 

So over on the Stick It Down Blog this month not only is there the usual monthly sketch challenges but in view of it being National Scrapbooking Day tomorrow they are having a giveaway. So to be in with a chance of winning some amazing goodies head over to the blog and join in this month!

This is my interpretation of this months single page sketch. I had allsorts of ideas jumping round my head for this layout but unfortunately life got the better of me and they didn't happen. The black and white photo of me and my other half was taken on an impromptu walk round our local park. I had been stuck in the house for 5 days with a virus and it was a beautifully sunny afternoon so after work we had a little stroll.

 Now I'm going to be honest and say I didn't get the hype around the Pink Paislee Paige Evans 'Fancy Free' collection. But since getting it in my Like For Ever kit this month I'm completely in love with it. The colours are gorgeous and there are some super cute button embellishment which are to die for.

Happy Crafting!

~ A Cat'z Tale ~

Good Morning!

This photo has been sat on my computer for a while as I forgot I hadn't blogged it.

It is the final full 12x12 layout I created with the Like For Ever 'Little Things' kit. I cut out the paw prints using my Silhouette Cameo and then back filled them with the red patterned paper. I love this photo of my cat Oscar. He gets himself snuggled up in the smallest of places by my side on the sofa.

I had run out of 'S' letters on the alphabet sheet so had to use a 'Z' instead. I had quite a lot of journaling to write so I split it up in to 2 sections on the right hand side although now it feels a little lopsided to me. I really struggled to use the large die cuts in the ephemera pack but managed to get a few on this page.

Happy Crafting!