Goodbye 2007

A pretty picture of Pilch to see out the year - one of the highlights of the year was getting my DSLR camera - and to date I've taken nearly 400 photos with it. Not bad since I've had it less than 2 weeks!

This has been a good year for me. Starting college went better than I could have possibly imagined. Getting engaged and starting planning our wedding was a definite highlight of the year. A lot of the people I care about had a terrible time though - relationships breaking down, and some really terrible things I can't even begin to talk about. My wish for 2008 is that everyone has a year to remember for only good reasons.

I've signed up to Got Paint? - Emily Falconbridge's class on BPS. Can't wait. I'm totally in awe of her amazing work - hope some of her talent wears off on me.

Had my first lot of photos for the new camera arrive today - the colours are amazing! You really don't get the full affect on the computer screen. Hope my mojo hurries back as their are some beautiful ones I'm desperate to scrap. Might even have to resort to looking for sketches on challenge blogs which I normally avoid. I always feel like it's not 100% my own work, but it seems to work for other people, so may give it a try. any suggestions as to blogs to try would be gratefully received.

Happy New Year!

A good Christmas

Except that I was ill for the second Christmas running. Must start those Vitamins! Ruth and Alex were really good, and loved all their presents - favourites were Alex's bike (photo is his face when he realised what was under the blanket Father Christmas had used to wrap it), his personal DVD player (which didn't work so yesterday we had to brave the sales and take it back and buy a new - twice the price! replacement), their (very cheap) MP3 players which they listen to constantly, and Ruth's Hannah Montana stuff and Momiji doll - she is obsessed with Japan.

I was lucky enough to get the Crumpler camera bag I'd asked Santa for, and the Olivia and Friends stamps - so I now have all 3 sets.

John enjoyed Christmas as well even though he was ill too.

On Boxing Day we took Alex for his first ride on his new bike. It is a little big for him yet but he did really well, and obviously loves having a big boys bike. Both kids said it was the 'Best Christmas EVER!', so was all worth while. Tommorrow we are taking them to Cribbs Causeway so they can spend their Christmas money. Ruth's desperate to get a Hello Kitty from the Build a Bear Workshop, (more Japanese influence).

Was very bad and seduced by the sales in the UKS sponsers shops - only spent about £15 including postage, but its money I don't have til I'm back at college when I get my next installment of Student finance.

Heroes Fiend...

...according to the 'Addicted to Heroes' application on Facebook! I'm spending far too much time on the trivia quiz - and I've just discovered the graphic novels on the NBC website.

I did do a bit of creating last night though - started my mini chipboard books of our wedding. The first one is 'the proposal'.

HerSpace MySpace

Look what I've got!

My lovely shiny new camera! It's a Canon EOS 400D and I love it!!!! We went to Cribbs Causeway again yesterday and I bought it with my birthday and Christmas money from John Lewis. After staff discount and the cashback offer it will have cost £330. Not bad. I haven't been brave enough to try it on anything other than full auto, but am going to start reading the manual (with a box of chocolates to help me!) in a minute. I took lots of photos of Christmas tree decorations - they're not great, but it's a start.

I also managed to track down the Sizzix Bigz die I've been after for months in Hobbycraft, and today I ordered a Cuttlebug and some Revolution Dies - Tattoo Art - they're so Alex. Have no money left now though!

An update on my beautiful ring - the one John bought me originally which was the size the shop said I was was too loose - it was almost falling off, so heartbreaking as it was, we had to exchange it. H Samuel only keep 1 of each ring in stock so the chance of them having my ring in the right size was fairly remote, but we popped in to the one in Cribbs Causeway as we thought it was worth a try - they had it in a size smaller which was what I needed. We were stunned. And weirdly although it's an identical ring, the diamond looks far sparklier and John's mum and I both think it looks bigger (but may be because the band is smaller).

Here are some photos we took (had to wrestle MY camera from John to get a look in!)

My photos -






By John -

It's my birthday!!!!!

I had a feeling that this would happen!

Had the best day yesterday - we all went to the cinema and saw the Golden Compass. LOVE that film. We all did actually. I am a massive fan of the books, but I loved the film in its own right.

Then we went to the candlelight carol service at the church we're getting married in. It was the first time we'd been inside, and I'm so pleased - its lovely! John's Mum and brother came too, so it was lovely. Alex was really good for him, especially as he'd been sitting still all afternoon in the cinema.

On the way home we bought takeaway pizza (not healthy but I love it!), and when we got home John went upstairs for a while. I was sitting there with the pizza going cold watching snooker when he reappeared carrying a tiny (9") real Christmas tree. He knelt down in front of me and said "Will you marry me?" On the top of the Christmas tree where the star would go was this ring (well not this actual one, we couldn't get a good photo so I borrowed it from the website of the shop it came from. Once I've got my DSLR on Wednesday I'll recreate the Christmas Tree with ring). Of course I said yes! We have been planning our wedding for months after all!

And then Ronnie won the snooker 10 frames to 2 so I was very happy. We (John and I, not Ronnie and I!) shared a bottle of Taittinger champagne but I was so excited I couldn't eat more than one slice of pizza!

This morning Ruth, Alex, John and Pilchard came down singing 'Happy Birthday to you', and carrying my 3 presents - my gorgeous Emily Falconbridge camera strap, a memory card for my camera, and these stamps I just LOVE!

So its been a great few days for me - hope anyone who reads this has a great day and a lovely Christmas.

It's getting better....

...everything that is.

It's only 3 days til my birthday, and although I'm going to be 27 (!!!) I'm as excited as any nearly 7 year old. Have a feeling this'll be a fantastic one - will update on that if what I think may happen does. And I will finally be getting my DSLR next week - hooray!!

Secondly Alex is staring to make a small improvement in his behaviour, and Ruth has managed 2 nights without her ear infection waking her in agony.

And the final bit of good news - I got another 2 Distinctions at college. Was a total shock, as I don't think I'm as good at those areas as the 2 I got my results for last month. I got 75% for Constitutional Law, and 77% for Legal Sources and Skills. So my average is now 72.5% which is an overall Distinction.

Looking forward to Christmas (putting up the tree on Monday - a life long tradition which started when my Dad bought a set of fairy lights the day I was born, and they were the first thing I focussed my eyes on), and saw this on Katy's blog, so had to give it a go -

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I'm not much good at wrapping, but love it.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial - love real ones, but not practical with small kids and a cat.
3. When do you put up the tree? Always on my birthday - the 17th
4. When do you take the tree down? 12th Night unless the kids/cat combo forces us to take it down sooner.
5. Do you like eggnog? Never tired it - I do love Bailey's though.
6. Favourite gift received as a child? A computer compatible tape deck. That was so cool at the time - took half an hour to load a game though!
7. Do you have a nativity scene? No
8. Hardest person to buy for? John - men are sooo hard to buy for
9. Easiest person to buy for? Alex - the hard part is knowing when to stop!
10. Worst Christmas gift ever received? 'Smellies' that smell like ****
11. Mail or email Christmas card? Mail
12. Favourite Christmas Movie? The Snowman. But I always cry when he melts.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Noember
14. Have you ever recycled/regifted a Christmas present? Not that I can remember
15. Favourite thing to eat at Christmas? Lebkuchen - reminds me of Christmases with my Grandparents
17. Favourite Christmas song? Love all the Slade/Wizzard/Wham etc etc classics.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Tried this with Ruth the other day - think we managed about 5.
20. Do you have an Angel on top of the tree or a star? Got a new one this year - its a sort of starry snowflake thing.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Day
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Overwrought kids!
23. Best thing about Christmas? The atmosphere and build up to it.

Being Brave

Today I'm being brave and going back to the GP to see if we can be referred to a Behavioural Psychologist. Having struggled for about 6 years, I think I've finally realised that Alex's behaviour isn't something I can tackle by myself.

I'm also hoping that the GP can write to the HA and get us moved up the transfer list, as we are desperately in need of a bigger house.

I'm scared at the moment - can't think about it without crying, so talking to the Dr. won't be easy. But it's something that needs to be done, and the sooner the better. One thing I've noticed from reading on the net is that a lot of problems in children are caused by the parents and their reaction to the behaviour. That makes me feel sooo much better.

I do feel better today than last week. I can see what could be a light at the end of the tunnel - but it could be a hallucination.

Hard Week

This has been one hard week. Alex has been poorly with a chest infection, and the anti-boitics he was given to make him better made him the most hyper-active I've ever seen. Really bad. Totally out of control. Today we went back to the GP and he's been taken off the medicine in the hope his body will make itself better. Hopefully the behaviour will calm down now. In a strange way though its been a good thing, as we now have some idea why his behaviour has been getting worse recently. Hopefully by cutting out hose additives, and other ones advised by health officials, we should have a chance of improvement.

Fingers crossed.

Haven' managed to do any scrapping yet this month - and hardly did any in November either. Want to, just don't have time or energy. Would love to start a Christmas journal - would be great way to use my new Bind-it-all which has barely been out of the box yet!