Baseball

This is my take on the weekly challenge over on UKS - had to use circles,4 of something, something hidden and the photos had to be about sport or an activity.

The photo is one of loads that I took when Phil and Kath were here at the beginning of the month. Uncle Phil was teaching Callum how to throw and catch a baseball on Lossie beach - he loved it and some of the expressions he was pulling were priceless!!

Quick cards

Suddenly realised yesterday afternoon that I had a few cards to make - one for this afternoon. Sam has got a birthday sleepover to go to - I can drop him of at 6 this evening and don't have to collect him till 4 tomorrow afternoon - a result! After making my own cards for a while now I really begrudge paying a couple of quid for a sometimes crappy card that will end up in the bin (or recycling box). These 3 cards only took me an hour to make and I used up the few scraps I have left of my Scrapagogo Greetings kit.

Scrap - a - go -go!

My mojo has returned with a vengance so thought I would take advantage of the peace and quiet this afternoon and scrap - the sky went very dark so decided not to venture out.

Did two LOs using last months GoGo kit - one of my neice and nephew on Lossie beach - the first time I had seen them in nearly 9 years. And one of Callum all cammed up with charcoal from the BBQ at Sams birthday party the other weekend.

Crop LOs

Had a very productive crop over in Fraserburgh yesterday - well worth the hour and a quarters drive. Big thanks to Sharon for organising it all, and to Sarah for the lift there and Erika for the lift home!!

I managed to complete 4 LOs including the weekly challenge. The first 2 LOs were made using this months Scrapagogo kit and the 2nd 2 were done with last months Sarahscards kit. Love both of the kits but as we are now saving hard for the house these will be the last ones I get to enjoy for a while - but I really do think I have enough stash sitting here to keep me busy for many months to come!!

Scrap your day July

Not normally so quick off the mark but seeing a most of my scrapping stuff was packed up for the crop today I decided that all I needed to do my entry was some herma, stamps and a pen which I could lay my hands on easily.

My LO shows Sam playing in his tent, Andy cooking the BBQ, our visit to the showhouse (which looks very similar to how ours will look when its built), the buckets and spade from our trips to the beach this week, the lavateria that has grown from nowhere in the garden, my book, my crop bag and my journey to work.

Garden Fun

Sam announced this afternoon that he was bored - on a sunny day in the school holidays???? What I would give to be bored.

During the ongoing decluttering process in this house in preparation for the move we have unearthed some long forgotten about toys. I will be having a car boot sale shortly to dispose of some of the accumulated junk - but not before Sam spotted a few things. Callums old Action Man tent! We put it together and he spent a happy hour sitting inside it playing with his wrestling figures - but he has been told that he can't keep it as its destined for the boot sale.

A reminder

Its that day again tomorrow - the 25th seems to come round so fast.

Team Read

While we were down at the park we popped into the library and the boys signed up for Team Read - a massive promotion of reading aimed at 4 to 11 year old run through your local library.

They picked their forst books - callum chose The Twits by Roald Dahl and Sam chose The Wave Runners by Kai Meyer.

Crazy golf and live Haggis!!

We popped down to Cooper Park this afternoon to enjoy the sunshine - the boys saw the signs for the crazy golf and pitch and putt and wanted a shot. Callum armed with a golf club is a dangerous thing - a few times I had to duck quickly!!

The old boy who runs the crazy golf is brilliant - always got a story to tell the kids. The signs outside say it all really and right next to the kiosk he has a cage - insode of which is a live juvenile Haggis and a Cullen Skink! Every so often there were burping and farting noises coming out of the cage - and the chap offered the boys a closer look. Sam assured me it was only a plastic zebra and a plastic cow inside!!!

Swimming in the North Sea??

Not top of my list of things to do this summer - but Callum seemed to enjoy himself. I think he was glad of the wetsuit as the water was quite chilly this afternoon - not that it would worry a 7 year old boy!

Kitchen plans

Picked up the plans for the kitchen this afternoon - and have spent ages looking at it trying to decide if there is enough cupboard space. Its not the biggest of kitchens so don't want to overcrowd the space - but as it is open plan with the dining room I want it to be pleasing to the eye.

Building plot

We all set off on our bikes this evening to cycle round to the site where our house is being built - we think ours is going where the pile of scaffolding is - but we're not 100% sure.

Off to pick up the new set of plans in the morning which will show the changes we have made.

Buckets and spades

I am working all week this week so am trying to make time to do some fun stuff with the boys as soon as I get home. This afternoon we packed our buckets and spades and headed off down Lossie beach. Lots of people down there but beacause its so big we found a sheltered spot away from everyone else. The boys had fun building sandcastles (took me back to my childhood holidays) and the decorating them with shells, feathers and bits of dead crab!!! Shame my camera batteries died after about half an hour - but still managed a few good pics.

Just look at the colour of that sky!

Too many choices!

We have been to plan our new kitchen today - it was good fun and I was amazed that it only took me an hour from start to finish! We chose our cupboards and worksurfaces, cupboard handles and a snazzy sink and taps. We are having the wall knocked down (in fact we have to pay £120 for the developer NOT to build it!) to make it open plan. This is so we can have extra cupboards and a breakfast bar put in. Just waiting to here how much we have gone over budget on it all.

Then we went to the tile shop and I think we have found both the tiles for the kitchen and utility room and the on suite - so all in all it wasn't a bad days work.

The pic is of the samples of door and cupboard that we have got in order to match everything up with.

Mojo Boosting Challenge

I am taking part in thsi challenge over on UKS. Someone suggest a scraplift for someone else to do - and then that person posts another LO for the next person.

I scraplifted Puppy Love by Scrap-HappyUK. I used my brand new scrummy kit from Gottacraft which arrived this week. Even though I think the papers are quite feminine I think they work well with the photo - not sure Callum will like the pink! The photo is of Callum taken during a walk up to Linn Falls in Aberlour. he likes nothing better than foraging around on the ground for "treasure!"

House Plans

Here are the plans we received yesterday for our new house - seems like such a long way off before it will be ready to move into. Off to the kitchen planners tomorrow as we need to get that done as soon as possible as we want to remove the wall between the kitchen and the dining room to make it open plan. The new plans then have to be approved before they can start building.

My Freedom - todays blog prompt

"Share an old photo of yourself and a current one of yourself with your blog readers. Tell them a little something that has changed and a little that has stayed the same.

I should think about 35 years has changed between these photos!! But the hair has remained surprisingly the same - although there have been many bad hair days in between. One thing that has changed is that I have moved to the other end of the country - far away from all my family.

Blog Candy

Pop over here to see the scrummiest blog candy.

Birthday BBQ

Even though it was Sams birthday last month we had to delay his party for a while as there were so many other parties and things going on at the end of term. We took all 8 lads down to Roseisle beach - and I can only apologise to any families who had gone down the beach expecting a quiet family picnic!! They were all armed with various plastic rifles and guns and proceeded to have running battles up and down the beach. Roseisle has old WW2 concrete defences and the old bunker has slid down the sandunes and now lies at an angle on the beach - a perfect base!! Charcoal from the BBQ made impromptu facepaint and they were ready to go.

All I can say is that I think they will all sleep well tonight!

Roseisle

It was Sams birthday sleepover weekend so today we decided to take them down Roseisle beach to run off some energy - they did so in style. At one point we couldn't see ot hear them when it was time for the BBQ! It was a gorgeous afternoon down there - have never seen the car park so busy. But even though the there were lots of cars the beach was still pretty empty.

My Freedom- First LO - Time

This is my first LO for the My Freedom class - and this one is based on time. Or in my case the lack of time I perpetually seem to suffer from - even when I'm not clock watching at work I have to keep one eye on the time for school runs or taking the boys to karate. And this will only get worse when I start my second part time job tomorrow!!

Its a bit of a standing joke with my friends that I am never on time for anything - but thats a lie - if its a job interview or catching a train/plane - I'm always early.

Used this months GoGo kit - shame my new charcoal ink decided to smudge everywhere. There will be some hidden journalling - when I get time!!

GoGo Greetings cards

This months kit was gorgeous - and by fluke contained some of the same papers that were in my kit from Sarahscards. On first glance it looks as though its a very male inspired kit but I have managed to make a more feminine cards. The first card is for a challenge that the very talented Monica set over on the Greetings thread on UKS. We were to make a card just using the patterned paper and the stamps in the set. I cut out a couple of the little rockets from one of the sheets and used foam pads to give it a bit of dimension.