Sweet nothings

The old man is snoring. He must be...

You know the song? Its raining its pouring, the old man is snoring..?
 Yeah, it is RAINING here. The Uk is currently experiencing heavy rain. And flooding. And ridiculous amount of rain. Plus strong gales. Did I mention the rain?

 

This is a lovely lake...

 

Oh no, wait, thats not a lake, my mistake. Thats my Driveway!
 I have a little Mollie who hates wind. and rain.  With a passion. So shes having fun right now :(

 We get wet on the school run, the dog walk, the errand running. The coats cant dry fast enough, my boots are quite probably ruined. And we've been reminded how badly old windows and doors 'fit' the house.

 We'd like a respite please. Before we float away...

its beginning to look a lot like...

yes it really is.

Nine days til our Christmas Cd breaks out in the car. 

Starbucks red cups have been here over a week now.

My hand designed Christmas cards arrived back from the printers today. Oh my oh my. am I glad I used a new company this year. WAIT til you see them!

And the German Christmas market opened in Town today.

 

 This little collection of wooden huts, holding traditional - some more traditional than others- european goodies opens up for a few weeks before Christmas every year. 
 It marks the season for us in our house. The stall holders obviously add their ferry crossing to every.single.item on their stalls because its way over priced, but the smell of candy nuts and gluhwein is just divine. We love the cuckoo clock stall most. We cant afford one and the guy running it is, it has to be said, the most cranky man out there. But the weather houses and clocks are lovely.

You can now have a hot chocolate in Pret and watch the festive market around you :)

 

woohoo, festivities :)

this week's listings...

{Alternative title - why this week has been crap}

1) did you know there was a button on the side of the iPhone that mutes everything? It looks like a 'lock settings' button on older mobile phones, which is prob why I switched it. and then ages later thought my iphone was broken!!

2) O2 { my mobile service provider} has a stupid set up for voice mail. You dont press the 'voice mail' button on the iphone, oh no. You dail a random number. Well of course. how logical. NOT!!!! Thank goodness for google enabling me to work this, and the previous issue, out!!!

3) Falling over when old is not a good thing to do. I still hurt in varied places from falling over eight/nine days ago. Nothing major but enough to be miserable.

4) my Dr is fully booked. HOW did we get to a state in our health care that enables our Drs to be fully booked? how can I know in advance if I'm sick/the children will be sick??!!!

5) write down phone directions to somewhere carefully. do not think 'I'll just jot these down quick, no real need, I'll just use the sat nav', because, then when the person talking ends her conversation with; 'Our address doesnt exist on sat navs, isnt that silly?' you will be in a real pickle. to put it mildly.

6) apparently road rage and stressing over being late affect only one type of personality. And apparently I'm that type...

7) using a pen and paper calendar and a computer calendar does not work. they do not sync while you are sleeping. which leads to double booked appointments, forgotten meetings ETC ETC. which turns into point 6 above...

8) Dog behaviourist are amazing. But expensive. and will make you feel like an idiot many many times during the conversation.

9) dog clicker training works fast. however you need one more hand than I have... one to hold the lead, one to hold the clicker, one to hold the treats for instant feeding....wait...

10) back/side/rib pain is all encompassing. whatever you do it hurts. 

11) grocery shopping is pointless. People keep eating the damn stuff.

12) ditto laundry. Except they don eat it, obviously....

13)I am not the type of person who thrives on stress or being busy. I dont think I like those people for being like that either... If stressed or busy I am the type of person who needs to crawl back under the duvet. 

written from under the duvet.

my latest....

My latest layout-

 

My latest blog readers
 Guess what my teen daughter does in her computer/business studies lessons? READS MY BLOG!!!! with her friends. So, theres a whole new audience I had no idea about.
 Hi teen people! Wouldnt you be better off working???? Hi, teen people's teacher. I'm sorry about this. But its okay, this is a teen friendly blog. No swear words here. Well, only ones that are spelt '*^&%$£@!!**'   ;)
 By the way, Teen daughters friends think I'm fun. and cool. oh yeah. and arty/alternative/different. But I'll stick with the 'cool'. 'Bout time  someone thought that...;) Teen daughter does not share their opinion....

My latest crafty 'thing'
Is another rag wreath. {which you cannot say fast} In case you have no clue what a rag wreath IS , or better still, you really want to make one, there is a tutorial coming soooon. Which means I remembered to take pictures during the making, and not just at the end!!

My latest scary adventure
Tomorrow crazy dog and I are off to the other side of Hampshire to consult a behaviour specialist. {A DOG behaviour specialist I hasten to add} We are going to fix Sullys super fears and change our life. And Yes I do feel thats a realistic expectation from just one lesson. LOL. Just kidding. Why is it scary? "cause things like being watched and assessed make me nervous. and driving to somewhere off the map makes me more nervous....

My latest POTD

 

My latest achievement
erm...five loads of washing today -and emptying the laundry bin. For about two hours there was nothing in there! {miracle in this house} Then teen daughter came home...

My latest worry
There have been a few today :( last one I am conscious of being Daisy and preschool. Short version? sometimes she says shes not happy there and I dont know why :(

 My latest email 
  Was to thank someone. which was nice :)

My latest pet peeve.
 Postmen.  Or more specifically, postal deliveries.  You know, when I was little, the post arrived before breakfast. Not at 3pm!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tell me your latest! :)

Saturday good things

Finally, Mr BG took a day off. first time in a month!

 {photo from 'movie mode', camera bag app, iPhone}

and the first offer arrived from the Universities for Teen Boy. SO proud of him. 

 

He's pretty excited.... by tea time another offer had arrived too... The world is his oyster. wow, what a fabulous future ahead! 

open.

Today saw the opening of Mr BG's fourth shop. Something he has worked very hard to achieve and done so very well.
 If you've never been part of behind the scenes before a store opens, then I can only attempt to tell you about the man hours, long slog, sheer determination, not to mention lack of sleep, it takes.  whoa. 
 I got to make the 'Now Open' posters for today. Obviously I was crucial ;)

digital scrapbooking sale today!

A huge big fat reminder for you :0 Designer Digitals are having their quarterly sale right now, with a massive 30% from everything in the store! You'll need to go shopping!
 Plus, oh yes theres a big plus! today is the all day chat event... chats change every hour on the hour, with a fabulous freebie available for that hour only! I'm chatting it up with a new itunes challenge at 7pm UK time, - thats 2pm EST- and I have the very best itunes freebie for you! Katie made it just for this challenge. I hope to see you there! :) :) make sure you say Hi!

Also this weekend is our christmas shoot. Yes, that time of year where I force bribe coerce take the family out for en mass photos. mmm... my favourite.hahahaha.
  Its the kids and the dog this year. One year I'll feel brave enough to attempt Mr Bg and myself as well, {when I can count on the kids behaving... which will be...er....}  right now the dog will prob be the only one looking at the camera!!!

See you at the chats!

what did you do today?

What did you do today?

I built a bed.

this bed to be precise  {For Mollie. So she can finally move from her 0-4 yr old short bed. A few months before shes 7. We're so on the ball here... }  
Before I could build the bed lets not forget the buying, hauling to car, fitting in car, bring home, hauling up stairs, opening the packaging {!!!} and THEN building it.  wooooooo stressful!! Big kudos to Daisy who put up with a mattress practically  on her head for the trip home. And not to teen daughter for moaning about having to help me lift it into the car. 

I also tracked down the perfect wellies for growing tomboys {that would be Mollie} who still like pink a bit, but not shiny pink okay?  

met Mr Britguy for a 15 minute lunch{!} fought my way around some stores {uggh, saturdays in town are heaving.} walked the dog {tho not very far, sorry Sulls} did the usual laundry,cooking et al, picked up Mr BG from his run {why does he only run one way??? am I a mug??} and reorganised the girls room so the newly built {and cursed over} bed would actually fit.

Just another quiet day then.

bwahahaha.

oh and I finished a layout :)

Yes I do

still have a son. He is just never home anymore. Natures way of getting me used him being away at Uni next year, I guess!

Todays walk was...

...round in a big loop of the Forest. And the weather held for us after all; glorious crisp autumn day.

 

Today we walked Shatterford loop - about two hours walking -or two and a half if you've got Daisy and Sully ;) Awesome walk that starts with moorland, goes through Oak woodlands, across the marsh, into the pine tree enclosures, and back through marshland {via wooden bridges} So the view keeps changing. 

This was from the edge of the ridge, just before the woodland starts. If you look at those tiny dark trees in the middle waaaay in the distance...
 

...thats where I was stood to take this second picture! {The ridge is in the middle to the right}

 

About *here* is where I'll put the picture of the twenty strong herd of deer we saw. Oh, wait. I didnt get a photo of them!!!!!  Or the shot of the New Forest Drift - thats lots of horse riders to you-... oh no wait missed that too......agggghhhhh...
 How about cute people instead?

 

Love how seriously Mollie is balancing, whilst Daisy is putting her effort into the 'Ta-da!' :) SO very them.

My herd of walkers ...

 

Love this next one. 
 

And, just so you dont have to look at 97 pictures of my beloved forest, heres today all on one layout {click it to see it bigger}

 

Some of those, or ones I missed from here, will be appearing centre stage on a layout too. 

Forest walks and scrapbooking! Am loving this half term so far:)