The One About The Dance Hall.....

Well we've been going to Salsa class ever since we met, (it was our second date in fact - more about that in a mo), and we've just found out that the dance hall has been taken over and the class might have to stop running.  I know we've been having issues recently about whether we actually we want to go (just generally being stressed, or not bothered - which is awful!), but I don't like that the decision might be taken away from us.  And today, while we were there we had a really good time. Yes I kept spinning the wrong way, and yes it was complicated at the start catching up on three weeks of missed lesson moves, but do you know what, we giggled and smiled and just relaxed and had fun.  Which at the moment we both need.

Thursday night has been our traditional date night for the last 21 months or so.  My OH chose the first date and what we did, and then said I could choose the second date, whatever I wanted he would try anything! So I tried soooo hard to think up something interesting and unusual, it didn't really work though, all I could come up with was bowling (which I felt was a bit too boring) or ice skating (which is much better but the rink wasn't open on Thursday, which is the day we had decided to next meet).  So I was struggling.  But my friend at work said why not try Salsa, so I got on the internet and found a class not too far away for beginners.  And we had a really fab time, and decided to go again the following week.  Now, we can actually hold our own on the dance floor!  So it would be a shame for the hall to close, because after a really tough day at work it always cheers me up!

Finally, I want to say a proper hello to a new friend Jayne, in blogland who read one of my posts last week, then commented on her own blog here about what I had to say about Eddie spotting! I was so pleased and surprised to see some of my ramblings inspiring someone elses writing, especially as this week I've been struggling to know what to write on the blog using the prompts from Shimelle's class.  So thanks Jayne for giving me the push to keep going :)

The One About Goals For The Future.....

This is something that I think about in great detail, or document really, just things that I know I want to improve, nothing majorly life changing, just little things that will make me feel happier :)

1) to try to keep on top of the housework - I know its mad, but I see dust in the house and I want to clean it up!  I'm still new to this living in my own home thing, with my partner, its been 9 months now and I still like to try and keep things tidy.  Its becoming increasingly difficult though recently because of the works going on upstairs to my new craft area.  But... it causes dust to land everywhere in the house, it just spreads!  And I can't clean at the weekends, because thats when all the dust is being made! So the last two Fridays have been days off, and thats what I have done, cleaned and cleaned!!!

2) I want to pass my AAT exams and complete the qualification.  I started just after Christmas, and have completed the first module, just need to sit the exam now.  I'm currently doing about ten hours a week (which means less time for cleaning) and there is so much to take in, but I so want to pass!

3) I want to be happy at work.  At the moment its just not happening, coming home stressed and with headaches, so not what I envisaged.   One of the perks of my job, is that they pay a professional to come in once a month to give half hour massages to the employees.  Well today I had my first one and it was fab!  Only problem was I wanted to go to sleep afterwards (not good when you're expected back at work for the rest of the afternoon!)

4)  I want to do more scrapping, but with the studying its just not really happening at the moment, last weeks 3 pages (one still incomplete) only got done because I had the day off!  There is always just something else that I know I should be doing, and I just feel so guilty all the time, because I think that I should be doing something more productive for the house! Does anyone else feel guilty all the time???  My OH doesn't mind at all, he's more than happy to play on his xbox whilst I scrap.  I think sometimes I just put too much pressure on myself!

So... not terribly interesting goals, but things that I'm trying to work towards at the moment.  I'd best go, I'm meant to be cooking dinner and I've started feeling guilty again!

The One About My Sister's Wedding....

Yes, thats the reason why I was wishing for good weather, and what my new bag was for :)  She only announced her engagement a month ago, so she did really well getting everything arranged in time!  We had a long visit in Manchester City Centre looking for her wedding dress, and found it in the very last shop (I know, it would have to be the last shop because we weren't going anywhere else, but it really was the last shop left in Manchester.)  But we found one and it was gorgeous.  Finding my outfit was a little more stressful, with nothing in the high street shops fitting, and having to order online, I'm always a bit dubious about ordering clothes online as it's not the same as trying it on in the shop, but this online shop you could send it back if it didn't fit, for free!!! And the dress fitted, which was such a relief.  Anyway, enough of my rambling, I'm sure you're more interested in seeing the photos!

So here they are.......

This is a picture of our side of the family, I'm the one in green/teal, my mum to the left, my OH to the right of the groom, and my brother on the far right.  It seemed to be a theme of the pictures to have boys on one side and girls on the other!

Me and my little sis :)

The one and only decent photo of me and my OH, doesn't he look handsome in his suit :)  You can't tell from the photo but I have twirled my hair with my fancy twirling tongs (a surprise christmas present from OH) it took ages to do but was really worth it :)

...... and finally my sis and her new husband at the reception after the ceremony.

I'm waiting to see the pictures that the official photographer took (I say official, but he is the groom's brother in law) with his fancy camera lenses (I would have taken my SLR was but was asked by my sis not to - I can't imagine why!!!).  I'm sure they will be much nicer than the ones I took on my little compact, and I'll choose a few to upload later on.  I've still got lots of lovely pictures to be scrapped! And I kept my name setting off the table, and a few of the scatter charms off the table too (Im sure my sister didn't notice that a few were missing!)

The One About My Pretty Pages...

So Friday was my day off, and after spending the morning doing boring housework (I know I know it has to be done) I spent the afternoon surrounded by my craft stash :) Following one of earlier posts, inspired by Shimelle's class, I did a LO about Eddie spotting!

The next LO is about my OH's twin nephews, I loved being able to scrapbook little ones :)

 The the last one is a DLO of my friends wedding from back in February, but its not quite finished yet, and I'm not sure what I want to do with it, everything is stuck down so far, but I need somewhere to put a bit of journalling, and maybe a few more embellishments, but I don't want to overpower it as I think the balance is ok at the moment.  So any suggestions would be fab!!

The One About My Pretty Nails.....

PS Todays Eddie was Leanne Amy, over near Bolton!

The One About The Eddie's That Got Away......

Yesterday because I was so busy writing about things I loved, I completely forgot to write about my new bag that arrived.  I had been waiting for it to arrive all week, and yesterday it came.  It matches my shoes for Saturday, and I love it! Its from Accessorise and I had to order it online because they didn't have it in the shop.  Isn't it pretty!

Following on from my post yesterday about Eddie spotting, and I have a little story about todays.  Unfortunately there wasn't one parked outside Tesco on the way to work this morning (nothing unusual in that, they're normally there Mon/Tues/Wed) but then I spotted one further along the journey, but I was always about 100 metres behind it in traffic.  It even went the same way I was going, but turned off before I got to it.  For any of those that don't follow, all the Eddie Stobart lorries have a ladies name but its only on the front of the lorry or on the side doors, and its always quite small so you have to get up really close to see it.  So this morning I missed one.  Then coming home this evening I spotted another one burther up in the traffic.  So being me, I switched into the outside lane (even though its not the one I need to get home) in the hope that I could overtake it and see the name.  Unfortunately things conspired against me and I got caught by the traffic lights! The things I've done to spot an Eddie!  I've had my OH move into the outside lane on an empty motorway before now so that I could see the lorry on the other side of the dual carriageway!  I'm sure I'm not the only one that does mad things!!!!

I thought that today I would share what is going to be my craft area.  Its got to also be used as an exercise area, so I'm having built in cupboards, but a fold down table under the tv (which is there so that I can do my exercise dvd's).  And its turquoise!!!  I love the colour (the room - which is really just a landing area - was bright orange before!).  The wooden shelves and fold down table are still a work in progress by my lovely OH.

  

Today I made the most of the weather again, and got out of the office in my lunch break.  Well today I managed to remember to take a photo using my phone (which I love by the way, its a smart phone and I've had it a month and I still love it - I might even do a LO about it) its the view as I walk round the local park, of a blossom tree.  It always makes me smile when I see a blossom tree because my mum has one in her back garden and I just love the pink petals :)

I'm very lucky to have tomorrow booked off, so hopefully I can get some scrapping done, using some of the ideas from my blog, and I want to paint my nails ready for Saturday.  I'm going to have a go at doing some pretty patterns so I'll take a photo if I get a chance.

Thanks to everyone that has commented so far :) its nice to know people are interested in what you write :) 

The One About The Things I Love.....

So todays post is about things I love right now....

1 Waking up every day next to my lovely other half  always puts a smile on my face :)

2 That the sunshine is actually out this week, and I've been out for a walk in my lunch break and didn't even need my coat.  Oh I hope the weather stays nice and warn for Saturday.

3 The daffodils are out.  Mine are out but they're a bit droopy!  We've not really got a garden but a back yard, which we have to share with next door who have two young children.  So I've had hanging baskets, and I've put some bulbs in a raised bed, but I can't really do much else with it.  I've got a clematis in its own pot, but can't really risk many more in case of any footballs flying about.  So back to the daffodils, they're under a some tall bushes, so aren't really getting much light or water, so they've done quite well to come up a second year really.

4 That I planned to do my step aerobics today, and actually stuck to that plan and did it when I got home!  First time in months too!!

5 That my craft/exercise area is a work in progress, which is more than just an idea on a page

6 That when I suggest we go out for a walk after dinner my OH agrees and then not only humours me when I want to go and play on the swings in the park, but joins in too!  We even went on the giant swing and looked up at the stars.

So thats it from me for now, another of Shimelle's blog prompts completed :) 

(all pictures courtesy of Google)

The One With My Confession.....

So I had a think about yesterdays blog, and couldn't really think of an interesting story to tell.  Which got me thinking, at the moment we're just going through our daily routine, and not doing much out of the ordinary.  We're both getting up and going to work every day, doing our usual evening socialising (and for those of you that are interested yes we still go to Salsa classes and have moved up to the intermediate class where they teach much more complicated moves), we work on the house in or spare time, and I study for my AAT qualification.  The only out of the ordinary event in the last week was babysitting for the twins on Saturday, but even that wasn't very exciting because they were fast asleep before we got there!  The twins are my other halfs nephews and are 16 months old at the moment.  Not that I'm complaining, I quite like our routines and we have settled in to living together (9 months since I moved in!).

I do have a bit of  confession to make though... I'm a bit of an Eddie Stobart fan!! Not one of those mad people that goes to their depo's for days on end.  I just like to count the ones that we see and watch out for their names - they are all named after women - did you know???  Anyway it all started when I went on long journeys with my mum down the motorways to fetch my brother from uni, then I started looking for thier names (I have spotted one named after me too!)  Then at Christmas my OH father bought me a membership to the fan club! Little bit sad I know but it was the only way to get the book with the full listing of names in.  So now I admit I do mark them off as I spot them! If I'm lucky I see one on the way to work unloading outside Tesco, todays was called Linda Swan :) so I dare anyone who is reading this to look out for Eddie's this week and list the ones on here that they've seen!  After a while it gets quite addictive! Link here is anyone is interested!

So... the whole privacy thing with blogs. Was anyone else really quite worried by wht Shimelle put in the prompt? It really made me think about what I post on here.  I do want to try to be as honest as possible because otherwise I don't see the point, but I also dont want to divulge too much, especially if its about friends and family.

But I do have an important family event coming up this weekend which I will be logging about and most definitely uploading photos from!

The One About my Christmas LO...

I know I'm a bit late with it, and its lovely and sunny outside today and Christmas has been long forgotten, but its the first proper scrapping I've done in months!! So I wanted to share a picture of what I'd done...

The pictures aren't great but I wanted to get them uploaded before running off to my usual Tuesday night aerobics class!  I used up stash from years before,  and kind of veered off the traditional colour scheme of red & green because I liked my turquoise sparkly paper!! A good a reason as any!

I've just had a quick look at prompt 2, but need to think about it first.  So I might pop on again later with my proper prompt 2 (if I'm not too exhausted from aerobics that is!!!).

The One Where I Decide my Intentions....

Well how excited was I today knowing that the first prompt for the Blogging class would be coming today!  I love Shimelle's classes (although I don't always finish them!) and I'm sure this one will be just as fab.  I'm hoping that it will help me record memories as they happen, I've been a bit lapse in that department in the last year or so, and want to try to record as much as possible here.  I'm hoping too that it will inspire me to do more scrapping, as again that has fallen by the wayside with real life getting in the way.  Although you'll be pleased to know I actually completed a double LO last Thursday about Christmas of all things! And I'm hoping to keep in touch with other bloggers that I have lost touch with over the last year (sorry  about that) and meet new bloggers too :) So... no pictures tonight, but hopefully tomorrow I'll have more time to upload something interesting along with my christmas LO.

The One About the New Blogging Class...

So I've just signed up for one of Shimelle's classes, in the hope that it will inspire me to keep an up to date blog, and to start scrapping again :) The class is called Blogging for scrapbookers. Hopefully I'll be able to do lots more scrapping when my new craft area is finished too! My lovely OH is building me a desk and drawers, shelves etc and I'll finally be able to put my stash away, rather than it being shunted from room to room in boxes and bags!