He's Here!!!!

Welcome to the world my grandson, Alistair.

Born at 7.50am and weighing in at a whopping 8lbs 15.5oz, he arrived with a little difficulty - but mum and baby are doing well now.

Congratulations to my daughter and her hubby, Katie and Karl... and of course to Alistairs big sister, Lily.

I'm such a proud nonna!

Not a crafty update...

It is the early hours of the morning, and my daughter is in labour. Yes, I know I'm supposed to be there - I am her birthing partner after all (well, one of two - the husband has to be present as well *lol*)... but the evening has turned into a farce. Arriving at the hospital, we were suddenly informed that only one birthing partner was allowed (Katie's husband obviously takes priority over little old me)... and that there was no visiting allowed after the birth either (partners or husbands only). This is all apparently due to some virus scare at the hospital... or swine flu... or something daft that really shouldn't have interfered with a joyous occassion - I may be wrong, but I do think that there are sensible precautions... and then there are scaremongering jobsworths who really should be a little more calm about things. So I came home rather than wait in one of the most awful and dreary waiting rooms ever created by the NHS, and... I am thoroughly peeved. I had my camera ready... magazines too - and a shawl that my mum had knitted (it is GORGEOUS!!!). I was all pumped up and excited about seeing my grandson being born... and instead I'm sat here at home with a stress headache, wondering how my baby is getting on...

I'll post when I can about Alistair when he's finally born (names are already decided upon, and no amount of whining by the grandmother could persuade them that Peter would be such a wonderful name to use instead) - getting exact birthweight and a photograph if I can.

His First Disco

Oh, the memories! My eldest child's (and only son) first school disco at his 'big school'.

I loved the checked paper I had that matched his shirt so perfectly - but wanted something a little more as well. I love the tactile sense of using stitching, and decided to add to ths with my choice of background... the large background strip behind the photograph is made by weaving two papers together - fiddly, but well worth the effort. Of course, stitching and handmade flowers arepart of this layout...

...and I decided that lollipop flowers would have a more masculine feel. Scrunched and spritzed rougly cut-out circles from co-ordinating papers made these flowers match in with the layout quite nicely :)



Layout!!!

Okay, so this isn't a recent creation - it was made well before the Yuletide holidays, but I've only just had time to upload! My camera (quite a good one a year ago) is apparently outdated, oldfashioned and pretty much useless now *lol* Still, when it does switch on, it seems to work okay for now (hint to Hubby for upcoming birthday ... don't mention my age, but please ask me if a camera would be a good pressie).

My middle daughter is due to have her baby today (I just knew baby Alistair wold be coming late into the world), and this layout was made with a photograph that was taken when she was just five years old. It was so cold and frosty, she could barely smile - we all said she looked like a cute chipmunk. Plain Co'ordinations papers and also MyMndsEye was used, with lots of stitching...

I used the colours in her coat to decide what I wanted to use... and the poinsettia flowers I had made fitted in perfectly with the layout.

I highlighted the wording with a little sparkle - very unusual for me.

"Your Cute SMILE warms up a cold WINTER day".

Time Flies

How time flies by! Not that I have done very much creating of late - a couple of layouts and a half-finished paper album... but the recent holidays were a busy time for me and my family - with some terribly saddening times as well as celebrations too. Suffice to say, along with a multitude of birthdays in January, there is also a funeral tomorrow and one on Wednesday also... my deepest sympathy and humblest thoughts go out to Dave's widow Sue and their family, and also Pete's widow Eileen, their children Penny and Steve as well as their grandchildren. Sad times.

I'm hoping to start regularly positng again very soon - with photographs of happier times (gingerbread houses and christmas cake!) with some papercrafting included.

Be well, everyone.