Wow, where is the time going! Seriously, on Friday, the guy who comes round to clean and deodorize my wheelie bin (garbage/trash bin) came. He comes every 4wks to do it. I had taken in the wheelie bin after it had been emptied and proceeded to fill it up again. How I manage this I dont know. The bin gets emptied at 8am, and I start to fill it up again, I really need to review my carbon footprint, anyway, I digress.

So, Scot, the wheelie bin cleaner comes round and I looked at him agog. Actually my words were, 'What the hell are you doing here so early?' And he proceeded to tell me he was due to clean the bin, 'But werent you here last week?', 'Um. no, Its been 4wks' I still stared at him, and I stared at him some more. I obviously had a confused look on my face. I started to think, maybe, I have watched way to much Dr Who and I am actually believing that I have been time traveling!

But no, I have not been in any such tardus, he was in fact here 4wks ago. I told him that I had just filled up the bin, he thought maybe its a few items and that I could remove them before he cleaned it out, but he looked agog when he realised that I had half filled the bin, and I could tell by the look on his face that I did require to review my carbon footprint!

Anyway, my point is I have no clue where the time is going, but, I do pray that it continues to go fast so I can fly through summer term! Seriously, I love my kids, but I need them to go back to school, and dammit, we are only on day 2! From 10am this morning, I have had kids in, and out, in and out, all.....day.....long!! And its not one extra kid, at one point I counted 5 extra kids in Sarah's bedroom.

Well, since I havent been here for a while, do you want a new template?

This one I call Focus, and its been inspired by one of my favourite designers Amanda Taylor of TaylorMade Designs she has made me look at photos in a totally different way, and how to scrap photos differently, you need to check out her blog, she has the most awesomest tutorials and inspiration :)

Here is a preview of the template


This is a page I made with it;

Image linked for full credits

If you want the template grab it here, its 12x12 in PSD and TIFF files, please, a little thank you wouldnt go a miss ;) And, if you do use it, make sure you link me up, I would love to see what you do with it :)

A tip on getting those focused photos, when placing your photo into the photo layer, dont use the select, magic wand and paste.

Highlight the photo layer
Paste the photo
Click on the photo and press ctrl and G, this will clip you picture into the frame and there will be a chain link on the layer palette. You can move you picture around and resize if you want, once you get the look you want, click (Ctrl and mouse click) and highlight your picture and the 'photo' layer, right click and merge layers, voila.

Just doing a flyby :)

My girl Shauilee, aka Fei-fei's stuff, released a gorgeous scrummy paperpack today :)

introducing, Stationary Memories


Its just divine!!!

Here is a page I made with it;


I wanted to give Shauilee's papers a layout that would not only compliment my pages, but, compliment her beautiful pages. So I actually made a template before using it myself.

And you can have it. Its in PSD and TIFF files, here is the preview of the template

Grab it here

Ok, this is a quickie! I cant believe its nearly 1am LOL!!

I have actually had the day from h*ll!!

First, Sarah decides to cut her hair! (AGAIN!!) This is the 2nd time she did it, in fact, in 3wks time it will be exactly a year! The first time she cut her hair was ON her 4th birthday!! Thankfully she didnt take as much off this time, but man, wont she ever learn!!

2nd, Jamie decided to break the card in our Sky box (UK's equivilant to cable) I had to phone the company and explain! The woman on the phone told me not to worry, I am not the first, nor will I be the last mum to call due to a toddler vandalising Sky property!!

Then, to top it all off, as I was making dinner, Jamie then decides to remove 6 keys from my laptop!! AGH!! Break anything child, BUT DO NOT TOUCH THE LAPTOP!!

I managed to get them back on, but, my E key is standing tall!!

Anyway, do you want a new freebie??

Here is a preview of a swirl doodle

Grab it here

I got a tablet!!

One for my hangover!! DH took me out for dinner last night with the kiddos. It was very nice, so was the bottle of wine I had there, and the other bottle of wine I had when I got back!! LOL It was an excellent night, not so excellent morning!

The other tablet was the birthday present I got from my MG (Mr Gorgeous!), my Bamboo Fun Tablet. I HEART THIS THING SO MUCH!! I also think MG hearts this thing so much too because I have being doodling on my computer rather than on his work spreadsheets and other scraps of paper!!

So I played and played and drew a little dino which my DD has named Bruce (Dont ask me why, but she did, and actually it is a cute name for him) It was a bit of a learning curve trying to get the right pen pressure and drawing on a tablet rather paper was a bit wierd!! But after 8hrs of drawing the little guy, then another 4hrs coloring him in (which I have just finished!!) I am pretty pleased with my first ever doodle done via computer. I also have to say Thanks to my friend Tracey Monette, who gave me tips on how to get a good texture on him.

But, for my first ever doodle I am pretty pleased with him, and I hope to get better.

So this is a preview of Bruce the dino!!


I am going to make another one, so keep your eyes open ;)

If you like Bruce as much as I do, you can grab the .png file here