Harmonious marital relationships - Rule No. 3

NEVER agree to be in when the boiler man comes to repair something that's gone wrong and your partner has asked you to explain the problem to him. Even if you manage to convey , verbatim, every last detail as it's been explained to you , it WILL be your fault if he fails to fix it.

Trust me on this.

And in case you were wondering about Rules No. 1 and 2 ?

Rule No. 1 has to be-  NEVER believe them when they say they will participate fully in the childcare.

They may change the odd nappy but this first flush of enthusiasm will evaporate pretty quickly once the novelty wears off. By the time your child is sitting GCSE's and you're pulling your hair out over homework, whatever promises they made in the hazy afterglow of the delivery room will be history.

Rule No.2 - and this one is very important ..... do NOT be fooled into thinking that sleepless night belong only to the baby phase. The real problem comes well after that when your partner starts to snore , all night , every night.

Anyway the boiler is fixed now and peace has been restored. Shame really because the problem , if you can call it that, was that the heating would come on every time the hot water was heating. Not really a problem eh on these chilly mornings ?

Total Papercrafts Classes

Just in case you didn't get your layouts finished at Karen's Crop ( Total Papercrafts ) the other week, here's a reminder ....


Le Chateau

and Back to Basics

Can't wait for the next crop where I'll be using Glitz Design's Hoopla range ... watch this space.

The Other Day ...

... I was wondering how on earth to store and display all my lovely jewellery without having to hide it away in a gaudy box that popped open with a ballerina to the tune of the Sugar Plum Fairy ( although now I come to describe it , it almost sounds appealing in a kitsch kind of way ).
I was thinking along the lines of chrome with maybe some acrylic , clean lines, no nonsense , maybe a bird here or there.

Today I was wandering through my local department store and I laid eyes on a jewellery stand that was chrome with some acrylic , clean lines, no nonsense , and a bird here and there. If only life was always like that.

And here it is in all its resplendent avian glory. The fact that it can probably only accommodate a couple of necklaces is irrelevant . Form over function in this case.

Way too many gorgeous papers

I've succumbed and broken my summer long stash ban. Temptation was everywhere and it was only a matter of time. Yesterday I bought some My Minds Eye ( Lost and Found) . Wished I could say I had all of those pictured below but I was good and only bought a few sheets.

  ... and Crate Paper's Restoration ( thank you Sandra ) ... again not all of the below just a teensy few...

And is if that wasn't lovely enough I was given an early birthday present ( thank you Ali) ... have a look at this scrumptious little project....

I'm also lucky enough to have the lovely Karen at Total Papercrafts let me have free reign over what papers I choose for the classes I teach at her crop. She and I always love the same ranges anyway . On order for November's crop is a collection from Glitz Designs called Hoopla. Never bought any of Glitz Desings ranges before but judging by the loveliness of all of their recent releases, think we'll be ordering from them again.

It's nice to get my scrapping mojo back after a long summer absence. There's always just so much demand on my time that I can never squeeze everything in. Just finished planting some luscious ferns and a flame red acer in the garden. My new criteria for garden planting is ... maintenance free, slug resistant and year round colour. It is the most glorious Autumnal day out there . Perfect Indian Summer / last vestiges of summer type feeling. Long may it last.

Giddy with excitement

It's just gone 7am and the boys have gone back to school clutching sports bags slightly larger than themselves , containing enough kit to clothe an entire team all freshly labelled. New pencil-cases , pencils sharpened , novelty rubbers , bendy rulers, healthy break-time snacks ( wonder how long that will last ?) and shiny shoes ( ditto ) . I have my day time life back and I'm giddy with excitement as to what to do first. Hang the housework , time to scrap I think. And tomorrow I'll be going into school myself as a SEN teacher . Now I know how the boys feel . Nervous, anxious but hoping that , with time, the new job will settle into a familiar routine and normality will return .

Bye Bye Duvet

My beloved duvet of 12 years in now crammed into an extra large bin bag ready to be re-cycled.

After a week of sweaty nights ( no .. past the menopause and the weather has been decidedly un-summery) , I decided that enough was enough. A small fortune later ( although half price so only half a small fortune) I returned from Bentalls with a replacement . A superior version filled with sumptuous duck down. Oh my goodness is all I can say after my first night under the fluffy gorgeousness.

Cool and yet warm, light and yet weighty enough , moldable and malleable to the perfect body shape. I am in love with all those sweet and fluffy little Hungarian geese  for shedding enough to ensure a perfect night's sleep.  Bless their not so fluffy bodies.

But there is a downside to this story The impartial journalist in me has to report both sides of the tale. I'm a hopeless romantic and the departure of this  200cm square synthetic sagging sack has left me slightly sad. I've realised that over the last decade I've fed babies underneath it , drank tea and spilt it on it, scoffed midnight snacks and left crumbs in it , celebrated Birthday mornings and opened Christmas stockings on it, watched telly from underneath it, probably cried and even thrown up on it .

A thousand and one memories and now they're all about to be re-cycled into something like roof insulation material ( apparently that's where all our duvets go ). Well at least it will now keep someone else warm and maybe save the planet for a nano second.