Happy Birthday Suz!!

It was my good friend, Suz's birthday on Saturday - she probs thought I had forgotten! Anyways, I made this card for her in addition to her gift. Hopefully I'll be able to give her it later on today [Wednesday]. Yeah I know, it's just a wee bit late - I work weekends and Suz has been on a training course up north yesterday and Tuesday so it's the 1st chance we'll get!

People Imagery Photography Course

A really good start to today! I logged on to the photography forum in association with the photography course I am currently doing only to find out that Cheryl has picked her final 3 favourites for "Image of the Week" - I am one of them - yippy do!!

Driving Lesson #8 [2 hrs]

Well, what a fabby lesson today! Nerve wracking though but still a hoot! Today I managed to do a couple of turns in the road [3 point turns to the long established drivers] - considering its been a few weeks since I last did my turn-in-the-road. With having no instruction or reminder on what to do, I surprised myself by knowing how to do it LOL!

Next task was parallel parking. That's when you have to park behind a parked car making sure your car is straight but not too near nor too far away from the kerb. I understand using 'focal points' such as in lining up mirrors with the other car's bumper to allow positioning. But WOW!! trying to keep the car moving very slowly AND turning that steering wheel to be in the correct position! That's okay if the road you are on doesn't particularly 'bank' but when it does, using the break too! I used an unusual phrase to describe myself and laughed about it - in turn making Donna laugh too! My word - what an 'experience' I must be LOL!!!

Anyway, its all good!

Nappy cake commission

I was asked to create 1 x baby girl nappy cake and 1 x baby boy nappy cake for 1 client. No twins though!!

Some of the contents inside nappy cake without the nappies

The gift tags for nappy cakes:

Cake 'toppers':

Nappy cakes unwrapped:

All wrapped with handmade gift bows:

Shortlisted for Photography course!

Yay! I received an email yesterday saying that I have been shortlisted to be in the 'favourites' for module 1 - see earlier image!

Driving Lesson #7 - 2 hrs

Well what a fabby lesson I had on Friday past! On and off the bypass/A1, did roundabouts again! Donna took me through to Rosewell to a wee car park to practice 'bay parking'. Talk about a *pants* effort LOL!! Getting the co-ordination, trying to remember to observe all round, getting the wheel moving fast whilst clutch control and movement of the car slow! Apparently if you get this in the practical test, even if you are in the parking bay squint and between the appropriate lines, it will be a 'pass'.

Next week we are going to do the reverse round the corner maneouvre - I am hoping that doing that maneouvre will make things click into place for me with regards getting the hang of bay parking LOL!! Only time will tell. Anyways, it seems the 2 hours just flee by and more is accomplished. Already looking forward to the next lesson! Need to swat up on the highway code though - that's another story LOL!!

People Imagery Photography course

Well tonight is the deadline for module 1 submissions. This module specialises on children. Got to get them to fun things and take a few shots, submitting 9 of our best shots onto a template [boy that a learning curve!] and upload to the forum.

Sunday I thought I had 'nailed' the module as I was preparing dinner, kids out in the garden having lots of fun on the trampoline, lots of laughter. I get the camera out and start shooting. It wasn't until I had started uploading the images to the PC that I could clearly see a shadow on the kids' faces in some of the images I thought would be great to submit. I was gutted!! Ideally I could have done with a reflector but with it being an 'on the spot' kinda thing, I didn't think I would need anything else!

Anyways, Alwynne offered to pose for me tonight which I was surprised about because she is a bit of a stickler when it comes to getting her photos taken - if she's good she is really really good - when's she bad she is awful!! LOL

Anyways, here is my submission

Trip to Eyemouth

We took a wee trip down to East Links Family Park, nr Dunbar. It was absolutely heaving with people! So we decided to take off in the car elsewhere seeing as we had been to the Family Park quite a few times. We landed in Eyemouth Harbour - it's been a number of years since we were last in Eyemouth!! A walk round the harbour and we wondered what the commotion was all about as there was some aggro from seagulls. Then we realised it was seals! A chap who had a mobile fish shop was tethering pieces of fish to the end of a line enticing the seals!

Driving Lesson #6

Sorry for the delay in keeping you up-to-date on my driving lessons etc - just had a fair bit to do with the kids being off on Easter Hols! So a belated 'Happy Easter' to you all!

Well I managed my 2 hour lesson very well indeed I thought! On and off the bypass/A1 at various points. Anyone who knows Sherriffhall Roundabout will know what its like! Well I even drove round that heh heh!! That lesson was all about roundabouts, using the foot brake and clutch as a follow on from last week's fiasco! I managed all very well. We travelled through to Bonnyrigg and Lasswade and back all the way to Tranent. The 2 hours went rather quick but I was chuffed to bits and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I got the highway code/theory test on CD Rom so am trying to get to grips with some of the stuff in that!

Do you happen to know the difference between a pelican crossing and a toucan crossing? Answers on a postcard .......................... LOL

Ooh I've been busy!

For the first time in ages I've actually set up the table in the living room and spent some time stamping! My youngest DD Alwynne asked if we could do 'arts and crafts' seeing as I had tidied up the living room [at one point I hated looking at the mess!]. I had planned to sit down and do something as I never really seem to have the time of late!

Details of ingredients used can be found here.

A wedding card:

Some bookmarks:

Thinking of you card

I can't say too much at the moment but this is for a lovely lady who has recently undergone an operation. I do hope she has a speedy recovery!

Movie: Marley and Me

Have you been to see this movie yet? If not and you are planning to go and see the movie, don't forget your tissues folks!

I took the kids off to the movies at the Vue yesterday. I am not terribly keen on Owen Wilson but I managed to tolerate him because the movie was pretty good! If you are already a dog lover, you will definitely be 'moved'.

I was a bit of a blubbing wreck and the kids were kinda surprised to see mum all teary-eyed and guess who got teased by them LOL?!!

Blender Banana Loaf

The girls and I met at Sheila's house on Saturday night for a blether and a wee drink. What a hoot we all had. One of the girls brought in her offering of a banana loaf. Sadly the loaf had totally sunk in the middle of of it!! Poor 'S' has always been successful at baking - this was an unfortunate result of perhaps too many bananas and then took in good humour, the flak we all delivered! Apparently 'S' had tried my method of firing everying in the mixing bowl/food processor and "going for it" so-to-speak!! I did promise the girls my recipe so thought I would put it here too for those who wish to try it! It's not too bad for sugar/fat content so a wee bit healthier than most recipes! Enjoy! PS - if anyone wishes a PDF [best quality] version, please email me here and place Blender Banana Loaf in the subject box!

People Imagery Online Photography Workshop

I received confirmation yesterday to say that I am on the above workshop- Yay!!

Hopefully this course will help me overcome my shyness in taking people's photos. I feel quite self conscious taking portraits so I am hoping this will help my plight!

Driving Lesson #5

Today's lesson was fine - except for an error I made! Although not a HUGE error, it was enough to spook me for the rest of the lesson and my confidence took a wee knock.

We were approaching a junction - nothing odd about that. The road we were actually on was a sloping road and therefore on the approach to the junction, I had been using the breaks gradually and then changed gear accordingly. What I forgot to do was to continue depressing the breaks slightly whilst dropping gear so inevitably the car went at a further speed than it should have done!! My foot was resting on the break pedal but it wasn't actually doing anything!

It kinda panicked me and then I started to ask myself what I had to do next to do regards to using the breaks, clutch and speed at junctions, going round corners. This way of thinking just was not good at all seeing as before I was fine using the break and clutch on the approach to junctions and turning corners.

Och well, we all have a bad day or lesson from time to time and sometimes we need it to keep us on the ball so to speak! I've booked a double lesson for next week - a whole 2 hours! We'll see how I get on then and if need be, subsequent lessons will be booked for 1½ hours instead!

Now then, where did I put my bravery tablets? .....................................

Teacher's filled Easter Bag-a-lopes

Just a little Easter gift before the kids break up for their Easter hols!

I filled the bags with mini eggs:

The little bags were made completely with envelopes. A tutorial on how to make bag-a-lopes can be found here on my Stampin Up blog.