I have to come up for air.  I will presume that anyone who comes here will also read Shimelle? Have you seen the lovelies that she has been posting these last few days? I love the Christmas ranges, in particular Bo Bunny and Simple Stories. I can feel some sneaky shopping occuring whilst himself is on the golf course. Here is hoping I can be a bit more bold this time....I never shop with confidence. I always create a huge basket then trim it half, then half again.  The boss never feels that guilty when he shops online!

Whether any shopping will occur though depends largely on how nice our insurance company is to us.  You see, our house decided he fancied another shower at the weekend. He wasn't happy that we had managed to thwart his attempts since he washed downstairs and the inside walls 5 years ago.

Then he had a brainwave.

 Realising the dogs were not going to bat an eyelid at any disturbance, he figured that night time was the time to turn the shower on and complete his wash.  He figured he would give the lounge another going over since we are in it so much and risked the bedroom floor in the hope we wouldn't fall out of bed too early! 

The house is in serious trouble.

However, I may be able to forgive him if the insurance pays up.

In the meantime, smelly walls and chipboard floors I will have to deal with.



Which is why, today, I won't be photographing where I sleep lol.  I do have pictures of where I sit though

Sofa on right side of fireplace

Sofa on left side

Nothing hugely remarkable about the chairs. Our lounge is small so both offer good view of the tv.  The one on the right was the first sofa we ever bought. You can see it is used often as it has started to sag in the spot where we sit the most. It is also the sofa that the dogs are allowed to sit on....hence the tartan rug on the part where we don't sit.  Now, are you wondering if we both sit on that sofa at the same time because us 2 and the dogs?....doesn't seem possible right?

Yep, it's not possible. We very rarely sit next to each other....not even for movie night :( probably because I usually have some form of craft taking up any space left by the dogs lol

And we swop seats as well. If I am here during the day, I will take the nice comfy sofa on the left.  Good access to the plugs for the laptop and comfier yes, but the boss prefers the other seat for playing his computer games so I don't end up walking in front of him every 10 minutes.

Come the evening and we swop. I prefer the older seat for putting my legs up so I am directly facing the tv (which is at the end of the sofa). Plus, the lamp is there for the extra light when I am stitching.

So, throughout the day, we generally play musical chairs, whilst carefully maintaining a safe distance from each other lol

As for where I stand, I have been pacing the floor today as I start my stint of 4 nights and I find it awful hard to settle as I always get up early and find it hard to sleep in the day.  And according to RTE, we are gonna get a heatwave this week *FUME* I am wondering whether I should fish out my sleeping bag and sleep in the garden this week.

So, it was pretty hard to decide the best place today.  Definately one to think about!

While I am here, a picture of my playbook.

I am using Studio Calicos Mind The Gap kit.  Thought it was pretty suited for the class to be honest.  Yet to make some headway on some of last weeks prompts but guess whats coming to work with me later........!!!!!!!! The butterflies, if you are interested, came in a swop I participated in, on the Docrafts forum. Go check it out, they have some great swops.

With that, I better go print off this weeks workbook.

And before I go, imagine Dave are currently showing a Christmas edition of QI.....I guess CHA blogs and tv are definately hinting to me that I may need to start my Christmas cards!!!!!

Yay, I love it when a new class starts.  I have been reading the classes on my phone which I am totally addicted to and have finally got access to the 'real computer since I have still not managed to figure out how to blog with it yet partly cos I have been away, partly cos I am just damn lazy lol

So, I will start with the self portrait.

This is me and my #4 my sis has 4 children and the boss gave the numbers so he doesn't have to remember their names.  handy for here i think :) She loved looking at the pictures I had taken so I let her 'take' some pictures after I found the ingenious button that flips the lense round without turning the camera did I say I love my phone lol  I actually took the picture the day before class started so was quite chuffed that I had it as I hate taking pictures of myself.  This is something I will definately have to explore since if I am not confident in myself, how am I going to get confident in my creatvity.  So, that is my goal for this class I think. Exploring how I create, why I create and what I create!
I have yet to make my playbook. I might use my Studio Calico kit that came last week but am undecided so I have left my stash on the kitchen table.  I do this sometimes when I am unsure of the direction I want to go although not usually downstairs what with dog hairs, dinners etc however, lots of tv to catch up on .....  the only problem being that it can slow down the process a bit.
Hopefully, I will have it finished it by tomorrow. In the meantime, I am off to reread the next prompt and see if I have any old maps lying around......!

A feast for the eyes

And what a feast it is :) An order from 2 peas.  Arrived yesterday of course because I was back at work but it gave me something to drool over on my return. The sprays are Mister Huey. I had a little play with them today and wow...they sprayed not just the card but half of me and the table as well and yes, I had put paper down to protect it!! They are great though and I cant wait to have a proper play with them. Unfortunately, my plan for a craft full day disappeared pretty quickly once I had finished all the boring house bits and I am unlikely to get near my room now for over a week....work this weekend then a trip over the water home to visit my family will curtail that! O well, cant complain. 

What u can't see under the paper is the American Crafts album....very, very pleased with that!

The other feast is dinner.  Hot beef and bean thread noodles....or egg noodles in our case. I had to change a couple of bits (!) but it was actually quite nice.  I was pleasently surprised as the boss is the adventurous cook here! To me, mince means spag bol, lasagne or sheperds pie....not that I don't eat it any other way, just they are the only things I am good at cooking with it!

But, now I have another string to my mince bow :)

Right, can't linger. I have to figure out why my 3D doesn't work on my phone and upload a few albums to it and pack for home since I am working 13 hour shifts all weekend and leaving at 5am on Monday...thank god, I leave half my stuff at my uncles...small rucksack and a chance to sleep on the boat! I also have to write a list of jobs for the boss to do while I am away...hee hee hee...but he will ignore it!!!!

Presents from the postman

We got rudely awoke by the postie today....well, 8.30 was rude to me since I am recovering from nights!

But, he was totally forgiven when he passed over 2 huge Amazon boxes :). Well, I have never jumped out of the bed so fast.  The boss had ordered some Denby pasta bowls, silver napkin rings, white napkins, chopping board and some DVDs.  I forgot to take a pic of the kitchenware but the DVDs are above.  Can u guess which ones I ordered?

I was really impressed with how quick everything came. We ordered on Wednesday and the way the bowls were packaged I was a little nervous of them being ordered to be honest I will definately order stuff other than music from them again. Now, we just have to organise a 'dinner party' which is actually bringing the neighbours over for food and a few beers so the boss can show them off....yes, he is definately the house proud one of us.

The iphone was purchased yesterday.  I hate not having good access to the internet when I am out, especially at work since I am there for no less than 13 hours a shift. I had to get a bill pay but after the last 24 hours I have had with it, it was worth it I have shied from them before as I am not a lover of talking on the phone ..yes, I am strange being a lady but I hate clothes shopping as well......!
The first app I got was the Hipstimatic one. I have long admired Cates regular pictures using it and after a couple of test shots on the doggles, I am really looking forward to playing and adding to it.

I have also finally got myself on Twitter.  Not posted much yet but I am going to reread Julie Tips for the Twitter Curious to get myself up to speed. My other goal before the week is out is to beable to blog from the phone and comment on other blogs....I am pretty sure I can figure that out before the end of the day....provided the boss stops playing with my phone that is lol

Now, I just have to wait for the crafty treats I bought myself :)
And on the subject of crafty stuff....here is the card I made my friends daughter for her Naming celebration.

A Month In Numbers

I have finally got round to joining in Julie Kirks A Month in Numbers. And what better month to start than with this one.....

18/06/2011, 5 gorgeous men, 77, 529 (I think) screaming women (and a few men, including the boss)..........Yep, it can only mean Take That.

 The gig was fantastic, I sang myself hoarse and cried when they played Rule The World (our wedding song!!!). Such a shame I was so far up and couldn't see much of the boys when they danced at the end of the stage see the speakers that look like a pint of Guinness? they kinda blocked the view a bit.

Here you have my celebrity husband .....at least the longest one I have had anyway lol. He is still beautiful all these years on and its a shame I have not got round to scanning my photos from...

19 years ago...which is the last time I saw them when they were beautiful boys at Cambridge Corn Exchange.  A little smaller than Croke park, which incidentally is the 3rd biggest stadium in Europe I believe.

Oops, the boss said there were 6 gorgeous men at the concert........so here he is lol

mmm...that was the easy part. The rest of the month was much harder to put into numbers.

1 failed driving test....my first in Ireland but unfortunately my 5th overall as I took 4 in the UK. There has been a huge 14 year gap though and I am a good driver (honest!). I get terrible anxiety before exams, etc and it is definately causing me  a problem as I had great lesson before my test....as always.  It is also the main reason why I have put off my test for so many years, but it getting a bit ridiculous that I don't drive in a country where it is so important....especially when u live in the rural areas like I do.

Talking of cars....€400 is what the damn thing has cost me at the moment and that will rise since we had to put it back in today to fix a squeak. I am slowly falling out of love with the thing and we just can't afford to change it at the moment :(

Ok, I will definately have to make a more conscious effort to write everything down this month. But at least I have the ball rolling and seriously......Murray is totally distracting me at the moment so I am off to send positive thoughts through the telly wires :)