trout and sausage rolls

I tried to fob Oliver off with this food combination for lunch yesterday, since that is what I had available to give him, (and the trout needed cooking), I thought I could get away with it, him being 6 and all. He made a face to rival a Michelin food critic and informed me in no uncertain terms that those two things did NOT go together at ALL - 'no no no no no no NO,' I seem to recall was his appalled response. 'One is FISH and one is MEAT'. and then he made urging faces and I felt as if I'd offered him the poisoned challice and I was full of shame.....

I have, and I cannot believe this myself, done a THIRD layout for SLYMI, on time, and with enthusiasm.

I check on the old scales tomorrow morning to see if my week making an effort has paid off. I have to say, in all honesty, I have not bust a gut (pardon the pun), but I have certainly cut out the crap I have been piling in and done nearly 3 hours walking to boot.

And finally.... had a call from an old school friend today to say she was passing through and could drop in some books for me (language text books for Oliver, bless her) so that was an unexpected and pleasing surprise. It was very weird, in a very good way, because she still looks as familiar to me now as she did over 30 years ago, and in the very short time I saw her (don't park in the middle of the bloody road next time lol!) I felt as comfortable in her presence as I ever did and longed to spend more time with her. There are very few people I have ever felt that at ease with, and since I have seen her only about twice in fifteen years - I feel I should cherish and nurture that friendship rather than letting another fifteen years slip by...... Look out V - I will be inviting myself to Bath this year!!

And, really finally, a big CONGRATULATIONS to my niece, who has passed, with a good grade, her Geography GSCE - ahead of 'school schedule' since she is home taught, in a comparitively very short space of time. She is inspirational in that she appears to have a good grasp of the fact that effort equals opportunity equals reward. Very well done Sammi. xx

WARNING - diet bore ahead

Will have to go in for a few weeks of dieting - can't keep putting it off with talk of 'cutting back' and 'listening to my body' blah blah, really it's all excuses to keep living to excess. That's my problem I think - excess. Not recognising limits. So, have found Weight Watchers the best for me in this sense because the rigidity of points counting and works for me. For a while. This morning I weighed in 11st 8.5lbs, with a calculated BMI of 39.8. Seemingly, with this BMI I will be lucky to make it to the end of today without succumbing to a coronary.

Wine will be my downfall - it always is, and with a few wines inside me, four packets of crisps and a tub of peanuts seems to be an acceptable late night snack. So - got to be restrictive, and to help me in this, I will be posting my small victories on here, a la Bridget Jones.

A little workshop, and week 2 of SLYMI

Quite a scrappy weekend for me - today I got to hold a mini workshop with a friend's daughter and a her friend, where I taught them how to make a folding flap-book. They did really well to get it made and fully embellished in four hours. The photos don't really do their work justice, since I didn't have great light to take them in, but they looked great in real life, and I think the girls were pleased with what they had achieved.

Last night I spent the evening in ye olde crafty room and, almost unbelievably, completed week 2 of the SLYMI challenge. The prompt this week is hearts or stars. I have done hearts. In felt with real live stitching. Yes, I know, I am incredible. Lol.

That's better

Re-vamped and better for it I think. Now week 2 - Hearts or stars.

Vi-ggo-go-go

Bugger all to do with scrapping or anything I have blogged about recently, but really got the hots for Mr Mortensen, above. Or rather, after watching the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy with Oliver, think I have fallen for the Character of Aragorn. Since I then made the effort to look up his other films and some tasty pictures on a google search I think I have just bought my ticket into the sad world of potential stalker.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I have done my first layout of the year for the 'Scrap It Like You Mean It' challenge on UKS. Another Shimelle-inspired scheme where there is 'inspiration' posted each week for you to do a layout, theory being that you get into the habit of scrapping regularly. The first weeks is your favourite colour. Since I don't really have a favourite, I have used colours I like to scrap with - muted blues/creams/pale yellow/grey to do this:


Which I liked, up until the point I did the r, k & s like this:

and now I hate it. And now I have to pick all the bits off I DO like and re-do it. The second weeks challenge is already up - hearts, I think, and so the catch up begins....sigh.

We came back from a New Year's Hol in Tenerife with my Mum & Dad on Sunday, and whilst I would say much of Tenerife is concrete world, the climate is beautiful, and the Brit element appealed to me as I felt quite safe & homey there. Not the point of travel at all, I do appreciate.

This is Oliver using his Nan as a cushion.

Yes, it really was warm enough to go in the sea. In January. Easily. Couldn't help but imagine what these Tenerife wimps would make of plunging into the sea in in Britain at the height of summer. Heart-attack material.

Mount Teide on New Year's Day. Mark has the better pic of this, since it was him Oliver was posing for, not me.

On Tuesday, we took in a meal at Pizza Express, chosen more for their acceptance of Tesco Clubcard tokens rather than their quality food, and then, as a surprise for Oliver, went to the Theatre to see Sleeping Beauty. It was fab - very, very funny and very well done. I drank a litre and a half of water though - after wine and a chilli pizza I had the thirst of - well, a thirty person really. Here is a pic of the view from Pizza Express - unrivalled I think in the City really, since it looks out on the magnificent west front of the Cathedral. so near Christmas, just as dusk was falling, it all felt so very, very atmospheric and lovely. Warm fuzzy feeling alert.

As if working at the hospital on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day wasn't enough, I found myself paying a visit on Christmas Day too! But as a paying customer, sorry - patient - not as an employee. Well - Oliver was the patient. He's been running a temperature for a few days, but very well in himself and we'd had the normal Christmas morning thrill of pressies and excitement, and we were settling down to a game when I noticed he seemed to have a rash. ANYway, we took him to A&E and after a very boring hour's wait - he doesn't have dengue fever, he has a viral rash. And this is him with his DS and new game (and in Christmas clothes) waiting to be seen. This was in the children's 'play area' of the waiting room, which contained the sofa Oliver is lounging on, and a book of nursery rhymes. Bugger me. This is a stretch of the definition of 'play area' if EVER I saw it....

We went on to have a lovely Christmas lunch at the in-laws and a walk through the country lanes and then on to my family for tea and undercurrents. Although I love my family dearly, I am finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy and like them, and found myself longing to be back at the in-laws where we had been welcomed with affection and laughter......

We are off on hols with my Mum & Dad, for the first time, so hope it all goes well. Would really like to enjoy it for lots of reasons. Will report back.

The only creative thing I have done in the last few days is finish off altering some wooden letters for my nieces. They seemed well-received.

glitterpants

Well, maybe not in my pants, but in my hair, on my face, clothes, cat and child. Bloody stuff. And I could only get the really, really super-crap stuff which is as fine as icing sugar and packaged, can you believe, in teeny flimsy plastic bags and sellotaped in with super-strong wide sellotape so trying to get it all out results in showers of glitter and much swearing.

Anyway, I think Oliver enjoyed himself - it was nice to set aside some arts and craft time and grit my teeth to get on with it. The resultant mess is making me a bit tearful lol, but he seems truly happy so that's OK.

And we made a snowstorm, but being very boy-sy, Oliver doesn't have cutesy animals or fairies to put in it, so his has a skeleton tomb warrior in it. Very Christmassy dontcha think?