And relax ...........

He came, he left presents, they got opened and played with.  Christmas is just about all over and done with and now I feel like I can finally sit down and chill!!

I wasn't up too late on Christmas Eve, the building of the Dude's garage and keyboard were fairly straight forward. The garage started off like this

 

and ended up like this!  Of course I had to have a little play, just to make sure it was put together properly of course!?!?

I then had to wrap everything - built up garages are not the simplest of things to wrap on your own!  The dude had great fun on Christmas day opening everything up and then deciding what to play with.  He has been well and truly spoiled the last few days but he's worth it.  Although we might need to move to a bigger house to fit everything in.  (Seriously - I'm already thinking about getting rid of a chair and changing the TV unit just to make more space)

 (Singing along with daddy)

 (Playing with the Happyland village set)

 (All the toys under the tree)

 (Giggling at being chased by his cousin - who can only crawl!)

Yesterday (Boxing Day) we had dinner at my dad's - more presents!!  But a good time was had by all, the Dude had great fun playing with his little cousin (the Squealer) who is now 11 months and yesterday the Dude turned 19 months(!?!).  It was pretty much the first time they've been in each other's company for a prolonged period, when they can both move about on their own.  I predict they are going to be a terrible twosome in a few years, if yesterday was anything to go by!!

I got some fantabulous presents, which to be honest I've hardly had time to look at, but they involved lots of baking goods (a proper pie dish - very chuffed about that), food stuff and other funky stuff.  I've still got another week til I start back to work so I intend to do lots of baking, making things and just generally taking some time out for me.  I got a funky book on sock animals for my birthday and I bought some toy stuffing just before christmas so I will be making something in the next week. 

Festive panicking

What is it about this time of year that makes us all run about like headless chickens? Even when you know that your fairly well organised. Well the weather hasn't helped - the rest of the dude's Christmas finally arrived last Friday, 17 days after they were ordered! But at least it came in plenty time so that was a big relief.

Toddler's Christmas party last Friday was as successful as it could be, considering the kids presents were also stuck in transit and were hastily replaced on the Thursday night. The dude wasn't too keen on taking present from Santa but I'm not surprised, it's a bit freaky still for him.

I gradually feel like Christmas is slowly falling into the right pieces, our dinner is coming together, presents are all bought and nearly all wrapped. Still some building to do but that's reserved for Christmas eve!

Only got half a day to work and then that's me til next year - yee ha!!!!

Snow, snow....

go away, come back another day. Preferably after this Friday!!!!

Oh it's all very pretty to look at and we've been out and built a lovely snow man but enough all ready. It's now just a pain and not even that nice to look at any longer. I've never known the ice to be so thick on the pavements and roads before either. The main roads are fine but side roads aren't that great. I made the mistake at lunchtime of driving down a short cut home, which isn't a well used road and it was like an ice-rink, downhill too! And there is more forecast for the end of the week. Whoopie!!!

I am feeling slightly smug with myself today. We left the house at 10am yesterday and we didn't return until we'd blitzed the present shopping. There are still a few little things I need to get but I can get them at the end of the week. Then a little bit of baking to be done next week and a jolly Christmas will be had by all :). Well assuming our delivery from the Early Learning Centre arrives. We placed the order on 1st Dec and it's currently in transit somewhere in the country.

Photos of our snowman to follow - updating this on my iPod so not got any good pics on here.

My son, seriously umipressed with our handiwork!!!!

Sick House Syndrome

Nevermind the whole 'sick building' thing, we had sick house!  We'll all been ill!  Pedro had the flu first - not just 'man flu' either, real flu.  Then the dude had a chest infection thingy, almost like croup which saw us ending up at the out of hours GP at midnight on a Friday night, 2 weeks ago today.  Then the next day I ended up in bed feeling ill, totally and utterly wiped out.  That was me until the Monday morning when I hauled myself into work only to be sent home a few hours later.  I stayed in bed the rest of the week. Proper influenza, none of this 'oh I've got the flu and you're all better in 24 hours' stuff - haven't felt that ill since I was at school.

So that was then and now, over a week later I'm on antibiotics from the doc (shock! horror! - still can't believe I got them for flu) and I'm still sniffling and coughing away but so much better than I was.

In amongst all of that we've had 2 birthdays, one Christmas Fayre and today the Dude is 18 months old!!!!!!!  Where does the time go? 

Christmas is approaching very fast, too fast for my liking!?!?  I'm not feeling very organised and that is starting to annoy me.  I need to spend time this weekend just planning out my next few weeks.  My organised side (or anally retentive side some might say) is not happy being so out of sorts - I don't know who I've to buy for, what I've to buy, when I need to have it bought by, or anything.

The only good thing is that we have a tree, some fab light and we're pretty much sorted on the tree decoration side.  Although I do need a good tree topper - just can't decide what I want on the top.  Don't really fancy a fairy, too girly for this house, need something a bit more 'dude' like.

Getting into the spirt

For a long number of years I loved christmas.  Coming downstairs on christmas morning, finding out which pile of parcels was mine, which pillowcase full of presents was mine (we didn't do stockings - just good ol' pillowcases!), trying to figure out what was in each wrapped up parcel before opening it.  The helping out with christmas dinner, eating til I was fit to burst.  Then life changed and I fell out of love with christmas. 

But now life has changed again and I'm ready to love it again, I'm looking forward to getting into the spirit of things.  Yes it's the dude's 2nd christmas but last year he didn't really understand what was going on.  This was his attitude towards his first present - the 'I'll open it with my teeth' approach.

  But this year is different, he understands about playing with toys and is amazed by sparkly lights and stuff.  So from this year we are making our own traditions, our own happy times and that starts with the decorations!  The fibre optic tree is being replaced with a tree we can properly decorate and I've gone a little bit crazy already - there is a lot of red in there!  I've decided my theme is red, green & gold - and a bit traditional if I can find the right stuff.

Spiderbaby, spiderbaby

does whatever spiderbaby does ..................

Today was the dude's first Halloween party at toddlers and I found the best spider costume.  It's got cool stripey trousers!!!  We had a great time, loads of kids turned up and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  I even made my first ever pumpkin lantern (with a handle) and a spiders web that I'm particularly chuffed with!

It's been a looooong day but I'm pleased that it's my last Friday at work for at least the next month - hopefully longer.  I'm also very pleased that our car passed it's MOT - well quite shocked really, but we're legal again.  Much happier about that!

So that's halloween just about all done with - taking the dude through to visit his great-granda in his old folks home on Sunday for their halloween party (I wonder if they will dress up the old dears :o) and then it's time to get started on Christmas.  Got a few things to make before then - busy, busy, busy.  Isn't something like 59 sleeps to christmas!?!?!?!

The other event of this week is that the dude is now 17months old. How did that happen? Life is just flying past way too quickly for my liking. Like I've been told, before I know it I'll be buying his first school uniform. Stay a baby little dude for just a little longer - please! But how cute is this cheesy face (although covered in chocolate!!!)  The other picture is just plain funny - looks like he's trying to match his daddy's big belly LOL



 

Colander Heid

Never mind having a brain like a sieve, today I have surpassed myself in terms of forgetting important things!!  My brain has holes in it the size of a colander - it's normal to forget stuff like updating my blog or not having enough time to get everything done that I need/want to get done but today I've stunned myself at my stupidity.  Things have been a wee bit hetic lately - constantly feel like I'm rushed in everything that I do and a lot of stuff isn't getting done (like housework), work is mad, 5 hrs a day is nowhere near enough time to get everything done that needs to be done!  So it's fair to say that I'm not really on top of my game either at home or at work.

And today has been an example of how off my game I have been lately - our spacebus needs new road tax Monday so I started a mental list of what I need to get together to buy it.  Number one on the list was MOT ..... now when does the MOT run out I ask myself?  So we looked it out ........ it RAN out, as is EXPIRED on 5th October!!!!!!!  So for 22 days we have been totally oblivous to the fact that we have been driving about illegally.  How did I miss that for goodness sake?  I've never missed an MOT before, in 15 years of owning cars I've never forgetten!?!?!  However, somebody was looking out for me, cos when I phone the garage I've managed to get it booked in for 10am tomorrow.

On that subject I've got a plan, nearly underway, to try and be more effective at stuff.  From Monday I'm trialling a change of work pattern where I'll work 9-5 Monday to Wednesday and 9-12.30 on a Thursday.  We are going to trial it throughout November so see if will work out for both the work and for me.  So I'm very happy to say that tomorrow could very well be my last Friday at work for a while :)

On a more positive note I did finish something - yay! My friend's daughter finally had her baby - 13 days after her due date! So there is a new little baby boy in the world and he is the proud (well hopefully) owner of this

Who dunnit?

Pushed Paul Robinson??  My guilty secret (well not really secret at all) passion is watching Neighbours

(See!  That's my telly - on Neighbours).  I haven't been watching it lately as religously as I have in the past but it gets sky+'d every day - yes I'm that sad - and for the 6000th episode it ended with Paul Robinson being pushed off the mezzanine.  At the moment there are 4 main suspects, including his son Andrew (I missed when he appeared on the scene and I can't quite fathom out why he's got a slight Scottish accent!?).  It's keeping me gripped though, even ended up watching an episode at half past midnight last night.  Very, very sad LOL

TGIF

I'm sooooo relieved it's Friday.  Work is mad at the moment, tons of stuff going on and very few people to do it.  Monday seems like it was a light year away!?!?  If only the dude was school age and I'd have had a decent excuse to get a holiday but at this rate it could be christmas before I get any real days off.  Although I do have a plan that will increase my time at home.  I'm going to trial a change in working pattern throughout November - instead of going into work 5 days a week, I'm going to try out 3 full days and 1 half day.  It will mean I should finish at 12.30 on a Thursday and not start again til Monday morning, I'll have a long weekend - EVERY weekend!  Well if it all goes to plan and the work agree to it - fingers crossed.

My Friday night is currently being spent catching up with all the tv I've recorded this week - Neighbours (somebody has pushed Paul Robinson off the mezzaine - shock! horror!); Strictly - It Takes Two - Ann Widdecombe is doing the quick step tomorrow, it'll be hilarious :); currently watching Private Practice and I think I've missed a week cos I'm confused about what is going on. 

The other night I subscribed to Fat Quarterly and it's great.  I got the holiday special emailed today and I want to rush off and make ALL of it! Right NOW!

Autumnal Cleaning?

I never seem to quite get round to spring cleaning every year, it's more like autumnal cleaning in this house!  We got our new kitchen floor about 2 weeks ago , so it no longer looks like this

it looks like this

NO MORE BLACK!?!?!

And I've been powerwashing - how much fun is power washing???  Our patio is looking 1000% better than before.  I was filthy by the time I'd finished but the patio was clean.

I've also been working on this, my friend's daughter is due her baby any minute now and they're on team yellow so I've gone for greens, blues, yellows, purple and some polka dots.  I bought some lurvely brushed cotton for the backing so just need to cut the backing, do some simple quilting then bind it.  Should get it done over the weekend no probs.  Just need to hope the baby holds on until it's ready!

It's been a while

I've been doing a bit of this and a bit of that. Mainly working, but I'd better not say too much about that as all employees have been reminded about the 'social networking policy' that is now in existence - so I cannot comment in case I say something potentially negative which could lead me to be sacked!! Suffice to say my daily theme tune is 'Happy Days are here again'.

So onto more important things, the following is a brief tour of my life from the last few weeks .........

We've been to Toddlers (the dude is in the stripe tee),   

we've been entertaining small people,

we've been to look at lots of lurvely quilts at the Quilt Championships,

and I've playing with bits of material, trying to make a baby quilt for a little new person who is due to come into the world at some point this week!  It's not the greatest of pictures, it looks quite pink but it's a range of pastel colours.

Found it, found it, found it

circle time
Originally uploaded by crazymomquilts

I found the quilt I knew I'd seen, (thankfully - was beginning to think I'd imagined it!)

It's by crazymomquilts and I want to make a similar one for the dude. Got some really cute farm animal print material but I'm also thinking it would be cool to do with some car/truck material - just need to find the right material now!

So Calm

Aurora Borealis in Singapore. Turning Night into Day
Originally uploaded by Ragstatic

How lovely is this picture! It's the aurora borealis as seen in Singapore and I've nabbed it from flickr. I'm in need of some calmness and this just looks so fab, like you could step right into the picture.

So that's calm done - getting organised is next on the list!!!!

Dontcha just

hate it when you can't find something on the t'interweb that you know you've seen before? I'm trying to find information about a quilt that I saw a while ago - it had a white background with circles appliqued onto it. I KNOW I've seen it, I haven't just made it up but I'll be damned if I can find it tonight.

Need to admit defeat tonight and look again tomorrow - knowing my luck tomorrow I'll find it in about 5 mins (hopefully)!!

All in my attempts in getting organised for Christmas.

Cotton candy

that's what the inside of my head feels like! I've got a stupid cold again, this time I've been really generous with it and passed it to the Dude too!

We've had a few days out recently. Couple of weeks ago we went down to Strathaven to the Balloon festival. We went down late afternoon to see the 'Glow', which is a display of the balloons lit up at dusk. Unfortuately they didn't fly because it was WAY too windy but they did try to get them upright and lit up with the flares.
It was really good to watch, it's hard to believe just how windy it was and how difficult it was for the balloons to fill up to become upright. There were about 4/5 HUGE guys on each basket really, really struggling to keep them on the ground.

They sort of did the glow too, but instead of the balloons going up they did a bit of dance with the flares to music. It was really cleverly done and very impressive. Might even consider going next year for a bit longer, as long as the weather right - needs clear skies with ZERO wind. Easy for Scotland then eh!

15/67

The dude is 15 months old today this is him pretending he didn't want his photo taken!!
And my dad is the grand old ago of 67 ...... and still not retired! Mind you if he ever did he wouldn't know what to do with himself.

I'm currently killing a tree, by printing off a TON of information from the Scottish Chartities Regulator so as I know what I'm doing in my attempt to be a part-time treasurer for the Toddler group. I haven't a clue what I'm doing but hey what's new!!!!

We had a bit of creative day yesterday, it was lovely and sunny so I taped some huge sheets of brown paper to the patio and we went to work with crayons, paint pens and chalks. We had interesting results - until the Dude decided he's had enough and wanted to put the paper on his head!

Cute

Isn't little guy the cutest! The colour scheme of my cousin's wedding was black and white (very classic) and this was the Dude's wedding favour. I love it, but then my first cuddly toy was a panda - bought for me before my parent brought me home from the hospital, so I'm really impressed that the Dude now has his own little panda too!

Exhausted

It's been a busy few weeks round these parts. Getting back into the old diet (lost 2.5lbs in 1st week), work is getting busier and 2 big family celebrations. My big bruv is now the tender age of 40!!!! I'm the only one of us still in my 30's now - ha ha And this weekend has been one of my cousin's wedding.

We left for Carnoustie on Friday afternoon and were staying in a self catering flat for 2 nights along with my dad and his wife. It was a really nice flat, older property with big rooms, high ceilings and an amazing view from the livingroom out over the sea.

It's been a really good weekend, weather has been fantastic (bit windy but what else can you expect on the east coast of Scotland!) and it's been really chilled out. The dude has been fab, not phased at all about sleeping in his travel cot, or in a different location and was a total flirt with the waitresses at the hotel!

The day began with us waiting outside for the new bride and groom to arrive by helicopter so the dude thought he break in his new shoes! Then a wee chilled out drink with daddy. Unfortunately the meal was a bit of a let down and the dude almost didn't get fed (apparently they thought the 'babies' wouldn't need a their own meal) but it all ended well - he had half of mine and then some cheesey pasta.

This morning we decided to take a little wander along the beach first time paddling in the north sea! We had great fun.

I was so busy last week that I didn't get any sewing done so my aim this week is to finish the backing of my current WIP.

Restarting

I've taken the bull by the horns and rejoined weightwatchers today. I've had enough feeling and looking like a big weeble so enough is enough! It's not going to be easy getting back into it all again but I've done it before so I can do it again. It isn't exactly rocket science - eat less, move more!

It's been a good day today - I finally got shoes to wear to my cousin's wedding, yeah :) They're purple too!!!
The sofa seat covers are all washed, hopefully the blue crayon has all come off, and I've spent more time trying to tidy up the monoblocking. It's like painting the Forth Bridge! As soon as I tidy up one section, give it a brush I spot more little weeds that I hadn't noticed before. That's about 2 hours in total between last Sunday and today I've spent scrapping out moss/weeds and brushing and I've barely done a third of it. If the weather holds out I'll be back out at it tomorrow, I'm determined to get it finished soon. It does make a big different in how tidy the outside of the house is looking though, so it's worth all the back braking bending.

Something New Every Day

I've learned tonight how to put pdf ebooks onto my ereader! And photos (it's still processing the photo but it's on there!).

It's the weekend again, woo hoo. I feel like it's been a really long week and I am happy that the weekend is here. I'm still trying to get myself organised and into a proper routine being back at work but I'll get there.

This was the Dude walking about the garden last weekend, just before he lost his balance and broke his fall with his nose! It's slowly getting better but it'll be the first of MANY. It's hard to believe how fast time is going when looking at the Dude, this time last year he was only 10 weeks old and I was still trying to figure out what to do with a little baby. Now I'm trying to chase after a little walking dude!?!?!

(see how messy the drive is - I was in the middle of tidying it up, it's looking miles better now, still needs a bit of work done but it started to pour down so I stopped)

Nippy Reality

It is offically the end of my 2 weeks holiday (boo hoo :(), back to the snappy teeth of reality of work tomorrow morning!

We've had the odd day out - visited the Scottish Deer Centre, Edinburgh Zoo, done the odd bit of shopping, tidied up our garden, made plans for improving the kitchen, finished the monster quilt, started another quilt (yeah!) but most importantly we've chilled out and spent time with the dude.
a reindeer having a munch
choice of colours for the kitchen
koala chilling out
a painted hunting dog
spinning the dude

I've also started my next quilt!!!! Made 3 of 7 strips already. I'm looking forward to how it looks when it's finished.