As I am sure most of you know we have moved from rural Wiltshire to the very wild and rural Falkland Islands. You can follow our adventures over at www.polka-dot-penguin.blogspot.com. Hope to see you there

SO THIS IS SUMMER!

Well I am sure you are all as sick of this weather as we are. At least my boy enjoys his walks in the rain. I find it so comical when I see him jumping through the fields. The summer holidays have started and so far, cross my fingers they are going well. We have had trips to build a bear, play dates with friends, swimming trips and play at home days. Today we have had a friend's twins for the day and after a very wet but fun walk over the fields, we have had a quiet afternoon watching Bedtime Stories. The boys were desperate to get on the x box which worked nicely to bribe them with when it came to tidying Euan's room up. I am suffering from another head cold (isn't it always the same when you stop!) but am holding on to the hope that it wont affect my surgery scheduled for next week. Right I shall head off and dig out the pizza from the freezer for tea and then I might allow myself some time to surf the net.

Forgot to post a picture of the party bags. I had Maddie draw a teddy bear for me so that I could scan and print the tags out for the bags. She did a wonderful picture complete with party hat. I used publisher to change the colour and re size and then stamped the names in the turquoise to match the ribbon on the sweet boxes. They turned out simple but cute.

I have been trying to make all my birthday presents this year, or at least all the ones for the kids parties that mine get invited to. It was getting ridiculously expensive with 3 or 4 parties each month. I seem to have stuck on the theme of pen rolls which I try to match to said birthday girl or boys taste. The above roll was for a friend of Ellie's who liked lions and I loved the result.


Spiderman for the boys of course.

Tractor for a friend of Maddie's. Boy did this bring back the memories of Euan and his love of tractors!

Another lion and this time I wrapped the tail around to come inside the pencil case.

Batman as a commission for a friend.

Pretty flowers for another of Maddie's friends

and a little butterfly bag which I added a butterfly notebook and pen from Tescos to.

and before I forget, the picture from Saturday night's Ball. We do scrub up okay occasionally. Right today has to be a garden day. The Lavender is getting to long again, you know you are upsetting the post lady when she leaves you a little note on your post asking you to cut the lavender back a bit! I haven't been in the garden out front for months and you can tell. There are rape plants growing, massive weeds and everything is looking rather unkept and messy.

I cannot believe that my little one is 6 years old now! I know every one seems to say the same thing but wow time has flown by. She is definitely my cheeky monkey, always quick with a smile and a hug.

She had her birthday party at Build a Bear this year with 10 of her little friends and it was a massive hit. They each got to choose, make, name and dress their own bears. It was the first time mine have ever done this and they loved it. They got to choose a sound, and a heart to put inside their bears before they were stuffed. I managed to keep them all to a strict budget so they had to choose whether they had a more expensive bear with only a sound or a cheaper bear with a sound and clothes. It worked out really well and I would definitely recommend it to anyone with smaller kids.

This years cake was of my choosing, I wanted to stay along the teddy theme but also keep it simple. I have to say (not blowing my own trumpet) but it was really effective. I got the idea out of a cake decorating book and just altered it to suit our pink and polka dot theme. Each child got to take home their own individual cake in a party bag that just had a little box stuffed full of gummy bears. Since they had their own bears to go home with I thought that was more than enough.

The Thank yous came from a close up photo of the cake with a little bit of a tweaking in photo shop. I am currently in the middle of a course with Jessica Spraque which I cannot rave about enough. I am slowly learning about all those techniques I have seen on others blogs and silently craved to know myself.

Maddie's actual birthday was today, so we had a quiet family tea and have promised to take her out on a birthday trip to see ice age three on Thursday. She has been thoroughly spoilt and her room is full of even more Littlest pet shop and Build a Bear clothes!



I have also been learning about masks, frames and TTV files this week so watch this space for a few more glitzy photos as I slowly attempt to take on board all this new technology.

Saturday night saw John and I head to Shrivenham for the Purple Ball. We had a lovely time but unfortunately I made the fatal mistake of eating a curry and then going on the waltzers. Ah! I did manage to keep things down but boy did I feel mighty rough for the next hour or so :(
John obviously didn't laugh much as I was screaming my head off on the ride. I think at one stage I sounded like Maddie on Big Thunder Mountain at Disney - I do not like this ride, I want to get off. Thankfully the dodgems were more tame but that was the end of my fairground activities for one night.

Sunday saw us head to the village green for the annual Strawberry Fayre. Other than that we have just been ploughing on with life and trying not to fall of the fast paced treadmill.

A little bit of manipulation

and no that doesn't mean me manipulating J! I actually mean digital enhancement :) John helping with the shelter building at Euan's 9th birthday.
I have been having some fun on the computer tonight in otherwords wasting time farting about. I have found this great site on one of my favourite blogs. Link to http://www.picnik.com/ and you can upload your photos and play about with all sorts of actions. I am a real newcomer to all this digital enhancing game. I had my first lesson on photoshop a few weeks back and I think I could be hooked! This is definitely a quick and easy way to sharpen up your photos without having to know what you are doing. The peonie above is the same picture as the post below but wow what a difference. J had a 60's effect added to his and I quite like the outcome. He will be home from Washington tomorrow which will be nice, as long as he isn't grumpy and jet lagged! Right my neck is pulling and I feel absolutely knackered so I think for once I might listen to my body and head off to bed.

A new haircut has inspired me to blog, no only joking just thought it really was time to get back on the blog!

Boy it has been a long time since I updated. Lots has happened while I have been away. Firstly we have finally heard that we are on the move! we are heading off to the Falkland Islands in January 2010 for 18 months. Many might be surprised to hear that I am really excited about this move. The kids and I went down to the Falklands when J was there for four months a few years ago and we loved it, yes it is remote, yes there is not much down there and yes it is a very long way from home but we are really looking forward to the family time it will bring us. I will have to adjust to J being home every night and possibly every lunch time :) but the chances to see wildlife and step away from the hussle and bussle of life will be super.

A photo for Hilary to show her my letters that I have in my hall, Hilary something like this even just with initials on your wall would look good. These are about 15 inches high and are all old shop letters except the S which I made myself.

Right what else have I been up to. Well lots of scrapbooking, quite a few orders, gardening, caring for my 95 year old Gran and a few other bits and pieces. My Mum broke her ankle while she was on holiday in Turkey unfortunately, but is making a good recovery. In the meantime I have stepped into the breach and have been doing the shopping and cleaning for my gran. We have had some fun taking her out for day trips with the kids. It has been a good opportunity for me to get to know her better since I think time is very precious at the moment.

A few layouts to show from last month.

My boy has just turned 9, I cannot believe it. He had a lovely party in the local Forest School. He had fun learning how to make shelters, build fires and track. As usual there was the cake request from said birthday child. I swear these get harder every year. This year Euan wanted a clone Troopers helmet and the language which came out of the kitchen was rather colourful by the end! The next morning I asked Euan if he liked it and he said he did, I checked it out and found he had already been sampling it around the bottom! Ah well I guess he was the birthday boy!

Right I had better skidaddle and go and pick up my children from school. Tesco awaits and then Brownies tonight. J is lucky enough to be in Washington this week, working he says - yeah right I say. It was good timing because my engine on the scenic gave way last week and is rather poorly in the garage at the moment. I have been told to expect a £1,000 bill so we shall see. It only needed to hold on a few more months and we could get our tax free car ahhhhhh!

A MIXED BAG!

WARNING this post is photo heavy and off a scrapbook nature so look away if you are not into paper!

Firstly we had lots of fun the other week when the kids had a few days of school because of the lovely white stuff. We headed out into the field opposite with some friends to build ourselves a snowman. Well anatomically speaking it was a snow woman with perfectly formed bosoms. It brought a smile to lots of peoples faces as they drove by and realised it was slightly more special than the usual snowman at the side of the road.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the same for all people. We went to bed with an intact snowlady only to wake up to find it completely smashed up. Our lady had been assaulted! Ah I keep forgetting I am no longer living on an Airbase but a small sometimes small minded village. It would seem our lady caused offense! Well nothing new here then, me causing a rucas in the village again :)

Last week Ness and I got together to make some cakes for her boys 6th birthday and for J's 30 something birthday. The boys were having an outdoor forest party and for J a rugby ball was called for. I did contemplate putting English colours on it but thought my marriage might not survive if I did!

I have decided that I might start doing cakes for local people if requested. A lot of people ask me if I make them and I usually decline but I could desperately do with making a bit of dosh at the moment as the marketing is rather quiet and difficult. I am in the process of looking into food hygiene and see where that takes me. So if you are in the Wiltshire area and would like a novel birthday cake give me a call!

Next up is cookery club. Three girls and myself started this last month. We get together once a month to cook together. The idea is that we take turns in picking recipes we would like to do - are scared of doing! and then cook them together. This month is was noodles for starters and then lemon curd sponge puddings for desert. I forgot to take a picture of the pudding but they were both fantastic dishes. In March we have a pasta dish on the menu with possibly Key Lime Pie for desert. Anyone have a good recipe for either?

Felt Hearts was also in order the other night in front of the tv. I have been wanting to make one of these for a while now but just never seemed to get the time. Sod it I thought the other night and got out my mess and started creating. I was rather pleased with the result so made another to give to a friend as a thank you as she had given me a rather nice cupcake book.

Well that is about it for the news front. Here follows the scrapbook weight. I have still been trying to get caught up with the girls 2008 books. Only around another 40 pictures to go :0