A True English Garden

So Pat, my mother-in-law is an incredible gardener. She has literally turned their entire backyard into a garden. The boys tease her that the lawn gets smaller every year as she adds more plants and flowers and takes over more of the grass.

One morning I couldn't sleep because of jet lag so I went out to the garden at 6 and took some pictures. It was so pretty and peaceful to sit amongst the flowers and birds and watch the sky brighten. I took lots of photos and thought I'd share a few here.












































I loved this bench in the back of the garden. Truly looked like it was straight out of a garden magazine. (The bench, not my photography. LOL)













I'd planned all week to take a family picture on the bench when we were all dressed up for the wedding. The English weather didn't cooperate, but this shot is from my practice run with Emma earlier in the week. She was actually quite happy to pose for once so I took a bunch of photos of her this afternoon.

My girl is getting so big.

England photos

I so totally suck at updating this. (Yes, I know that's a recurring theme here.) The trip to England was really nice. The in-laws were on their best behavior and we all really enjoyed the visit. The wedding was really nice too. I didn't know Helen very well at all, but I can happily say we are now friends as well as sisters-in-law. She's much younger than me so I feel very "big sister-ish" towards her. Kinda fun.

I ended up shooting a bunch of photos at the wedding when their photographer flaked on them. I still need to process lots of them, but here are some that I did for the Grandparents.

A truly monumental photograph...The first time I have captured all three kids smiling!

Andy loved his "fancy clothes." He looked absolutely adorable in his waist coat and cravatt.


Andy was quite taken with Helen. He loved her "big dress" and he kept looking for her (and only her) during the entire dance. His Great Aunt Vera gave him the England shirt so he changed out of his wedding clothes into it.

Here's Emma showing off her flower girl dress. She really looked and felt like a princess. When she though no one was watching, she'd spin round and round to make the skirt flare out. It was so cute!

Here's a great shot of Emma and Uncle Mike. Both kids really loved getting to know him better this trip. I think the admiration was definitely mutual!


It took some convincing, but eventually Nana Ivy and Great Great Aunt Lil got Emma out on the dance floor! (not bad for 90 and 84 respectively, huh?!)

Once she started, she danced for hours. She really had a good time dancing with some distant cousins and here with Helen.

One of my favorites of the night.

From our impromtu photo shoot after the photographer fiasco.

And I even managed to get into a photo (and don't totally hate it).

That's all for now. I'll keep posting more as I get them processed.

The thrill of summer

This photo won't win any awards, but it is truly one of my favorites of late. I love capturing real moments and emotions and I think I succeeded with this one. The look of pure joy is obvious.

They were taking turn pushing each other as fast they could on that silly toddler scooter thing.
And yes, Andy is wearing pink knee pads that came with Emma's princess scooter. Don't ask why; I couldn't even begin to guess. LOL

Grrrr

I had a long post all typed out about NSD and all of my purchases when Mozilla crashed. I'm heading to bed so I'll just give the highlights. I spent $133.10 and got over 50 kits and element sets!!! It was a fun day. I participated in my first (and second) chat. I did a "class" with Rhonna. I scrapped a few pages of my Mother's Day book. All in all, it was a fun day! And now I have so many new things to play with that I've got to get to work!

G'night.

Bizarro World

I had my hair cut today at a place called Cookie Cutters. They specialize in kids hair cuts. The chairs are airplanes, cars and motorcycles. There are movies and video games at each station. OMG, what the hell is happening to me?!

We were there for Andy's hair cut. While chatting with Miss Michelle (who is awesome with the kids), it somehow was decided that she would cut my hair for me. I just wanted it shaped before the wedding. She didn't even wash it--just sprayed it down with water and cut the ends and bangs. It cost a whopping $13.95! My last cut at my regular salon cost $65 before tip. I get my color and highlights done this weekend and that runs about $210 before tip.

In the normal world, someone who will pay more than $200 for color would not get her hair cut while Dora is playing on the TV surrounded by small children. But it all makes sense in bizarro world. I think I might stay here for awhile---as if I have a choice. ;)

So I pretty much suck at this blogging thing

Throughout the day, I think to myself, "I really need to update the blog" or "This would be a good story for the blog." But then I either get distracted by one or more kids or I'm just plain lazy. Who knew rambling about nothing could be so much work?

I had a very productive scrapping weekend. I did 5 layouts, which for me is a lot. I'm still pretty slow with the digital scrapping. Not because I don't know how to do stuff. I think it's because I have too many kits (already) and I can't remember all of them. I buy continuously and have only been scrapping once in awhile so I tend to forget what I have. Not a good sign. I think I might seriously be a compulsive shopper. If someone has a sale, look out! I am all over it! LOL

Anyway, here are the layouts I finished this weekend. These are all based on sketches I created for the DT challenge this month at ScrappinDeals. I decided to play along with the designers but with digi instead of paper. It's was lots of fun. I was never really into sketches with paper, but they do seem to inspire me electronically. I'm thinking I need to get more involved with sketch challenges around the community.

Credits: Paper, bar codes and 'a' (recolored) from Tracy Ann Robinson's Jelly Fish Collection.
Font: TKDoodle.

Credits: More from Tracy's Jelly Fish Collection. I love this stuff! :)
Font: Nueva

Credits: Everything is Gina Cabrera's Lucky Star Kit (free from SS Digital 5).

Credits: Gina Miller's Lakeside Retreat.

Credits: Paper from Tracy Ann's Black is Back Blueberry kit (recolored).

I'd better get moving here. It's 1.30 am. Alex should be ready to eat soon and then I can sleep. He was up every most of the afternoon so I'm hoping we don't have a repeat of last night; he was up every 2 hours all night! UGH.

I promise to try to be a better blogger, but I make no guarantees. ;)