Still Here!

Nothing much of note that I feel like sharing on here is happening right now hence no updates! We have a show at Hintlesham near Ipswich on Sunday, or rather Mum does because Darren is away on a residential school trip so i am home with Izzy all weekend!

Tomorrow I am also off on a school trip, but only for the day, to Marsh Farm in Essex. It is supposed to be really lovely so I am quite looking forward to it!

No pictures to post at the moment and not a single minute spent crafting so nothing to upload - I have circle journals waiting to be done and no time at the moment. It doesn't help that Isabelle has decided she doesn't need a lunch time nap and worse still is climbing out of the cot (cue a second more disasterous Sudo Cream incident yesterday!) You can tell it was a bad one as i didn't even have the inclination to get the camera, I just surveyed the devastation in her room and wondered where on earth to start!

That's about it for now - just thought I had better update!

Busy Week

As Isabelle gets older she will learn the art of spinning out your birthday to last at least a week and I have been working on that this week!

Saturday 2nd - Family Party

Monday 4th - Actual birthday, cake and candles at Music

Thursday 7th - Picnic with friends

Friday 8th - Swimming and lunch with friends

I still haven't had time to do any crafting whatsoever although I am going to photograph a couple of layouts that I finished a while ago and get them uploaded hopefully today.

If anyone can tell me exactly how to fit in scrapping, in amongst running a business, working part time, having a family and attempting a social life i would love to know. Answers on a postcard please!

**Edited** Ok now i have photographed the layout although I can't for the life of me get a decent, straight photo of a layout and my A3 scanner (Mustek) is not compatible with Windows Vista much to my annoyance. i am holding out in the hope they write a driver for it so it will work but I am not happy at the prospect of buying a new scanner :(

So here is the layout. Isabelle adores Jonathon and asks me nearly everyday if we are going to "See Johnny?" Try as i might I haven't been able to get a good photo of them together. On the day this was taken we decided to try to get them to sit and pose for a picture together so I said "Go and sit together in front of the tree" - of course being the impeccably good and obedient children they are the both ran behind the tree and peeped round the other side... click click click and I got this shot which I LOVE!

The title came very easily (unsurprisingly) and although the lettering isn't perfect (I used masks and paint) I decided i quite like the little imperfections and persevered with it. When I thought i had finished I went away and came back and decided to add the little pink flowers to balance all that green and to pick out the pink in Izzys hat and the tree looked very large so I cut out the heart, used masks and watermark ink to create the word friends and stuck it in the middle.

Happy Birthday Izzy Whizz!

Our baby is TWO today!

It seems like a lifetime ago but also only a heartbeat ago that Isabelle was born and now she is two. We had a family party on Saturday which was lovely (although somehow her neglectful Mummy and Daddy FORGOT to do the birthday cake!!!!)

As Darren is back to work today we spent the day as we normally do going to music in the morning and I took along the cake so everyone could sing to her there. i also managed to get a birthday cake and candles shot!

This afternoon we have been shopping to buy her last minute present (it wasn't available to be delivered on time if i ordered online so I had to collect it today) and Darren came home earlier than usual so we have been playing in the garden and Izzy has been making music!

Woinderful Wembley!

Darren and i had a great time at Wembley on Friday, we wanted to take pictures and checked about whether they officially allowed cameras into the ground - the answer was that a smallish compact camera is fine but not one with "lenses and stuff!" I translated this as point and shoot but not DSLR which is a shame as i wanted to try out my long zoom and play with the settings for some shots. Nevermind though, our old digi compact has an 11x zoom so it did an ok job..

We drove to Stanmore (we usually park at Newbury Park and get the tube into London but it was better to drive further and only be four stops on the tube this time) journey was pretty good til we were nearly at the Tube station and then it got a bit slow as everyone tried to park.

Four short stops and we were at Wembley Park Station, as you exit the station you get a view up Wembley way which is a good start! We were heading for a pub Darren found on the net (in the hope of a bit of food and not too expensive beer, but after a very long walk it was packed out, nowhere to sit and eat except in the middle of a throng of smokers - urgh, I try to be tolerant but I really can't stand to have smoke breathed all over my food :(

So we had a quick drink and headed to Pizza hut instead! A bowl of salad and a Chicken Supreme later we headed back to the Stadium.

Wow - I was very impressed. It looked great from the outside, there were no problems with excessive queues to get in and although we were in the top tier there were escalators and lifts manned by stewards to ensure that everyone got to their seat quickly and safely.

Now this may sound bizarre but I think you can tell a lot about a place by the toilets!!!!! Darren and I travelled to Milan for the day to the famous San Siro Stadium a few years ago to watch Ipswich play Inter Milan - amazing stadium, glad I went, but the toilets were strategically placed holes in the floor - in the ladies loo. Not up to scratch I'm afraid! In the area we were in the toilets were plentiful, clean and tidy. However the hand driers sounded like there was an alien invasion going on - VERY noisy and strange!

Anyway, toilets aside we went to find our seats. We had opted for the cheapest seats and were prepared for not the greatest view but boy were we pleasantly surprised. We were three rows from the back and diagonally behind the corner flag so pretty much as far as you can get away but the whole pitch was clearly in view, there was plenty of room in the seats and the gradient was steep enough so the person in fronts head wasn't in the way but not so steep you felt like you might fall off!

Before kick off they held a minutes applause for Alan Ball which was well respected and I managed to use the zoom to get this shot of the players clapping.

I couldn't get right in on the action without going into the digital zoom which ruins the quality but I like this pic which captures the zie of the stadium and the crowd as well as a bit of the game.

Anyway, enough rambling, we had a fab time, it was great to see David Beckham playing again (excuse the picture it was taken off the big screen) and we thought he or John Terry should have been man of the match not Steven Gerrard.

As we left I managed to get some pics of the arch all lit up which was lovely.