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Thanks Chrissy!

Darryl moves out on Friday...

So my firstborn is leaving home on Friday to live with his girlfriend, Abby. They will be living about 3 minutes walk from us, which is ideal for when they want us to babysit - not too far for them to walk to ours and bring him over, lol. Matthew, although he has said that he will really miss Darryl, is looking forward to moving into Darryl's old room, which is probably 3 times bigger than his little room he is currently in. He is excited because he will be able to have his little portable telly connected up to the Virgin Tv box and not Freeview like he has at the moment.

I am of course sad that Darryl is moving out, but I am also looking forward to claiming Matthew's room for a craft room!! I shall be moving my big craft cupboard - it's on of those canvas shelving unit thingy's (click here to see what I mean), and little wheelie draw thing, and click here to see the desk that Justin is ordering for me, and an office chair to have up there as well. I will get my old portable telly from Dad's that is currently in Dad's kitchen, unused nowadays, and plug it into Matthew's old Freeview box, and now that Create and Craft are broadcasting on that I shall be able to have that on up there. My laptop can connect wirelessly to the broadband, and my Cricut Expressions can sit proudly on the desk out of it's box. So that, I'm looking forward to.

Darryl hasn't packed a single thing yet. I do keep on at him to get started and not leave it till the last minute, but Darryl has always been a last minute kind of guy, lol. They, Darryl and Abby, have just left for London. It's their two year anniversary today and they're going for a meal at Planet Hollywood, near Picadilly I think.

So my plans for today is to do some cross stitching. I need to get the first card done in the next couple of days, then get started on the other two...

A double celebration!

We cut the first cucumber from the plant and also the first strawberry!!!!! Wooohoooooooooo!! LOL!
I don't actually eat cucumbers, but Justin said it was lovely, tasted just like a cucumber, lol. He said the strawberry was a bit sharp - he wanted a ton of sugar on it!!!! We actually cut the strawberry into three pieces so the three of us here got a bit. Darryl was at work at the cinema so he's having fun enough, but didn't get any strawberry lol. He gets to watch his first free film tonight after he's finished working.

I've not done any stitching on my puppy this week. I've had orders for three cross stitched cards, so I'm having to get on with those... first one looking good so far!!

A few photos of summer...

Matthew sitting amongst the growing tomatoes! LOL!

In the paddling pool after a hot summers day.

Just chillin' after a hot day at work.


Matthew's sunflower he planted from using a seed from the wild bird food.

The rest of the pictures are some of the veggies I've been growing. I'm definitely going to do it again next year.


Runner beans! Grown from some seeds dad gave me. First sown in the greenhouse, then planted 3 in a big pot with a wigwam cane structure.


Tomatoes.


This is how the cucumbers are coming along. This is just an updated pic of that other cucumber on a post further down the page. This photo was taken 8 days after the other one.


First RED strawberry, wooooohoooooooo!

I have learned that I need a bigger pot for my carrots next time.
Cucumbers, when started in the airing cupboard only need about 2-3 days in there, then transfer to a greenhouse - mine was unheated and did fine. If you leave them in the airing cupboard, they get too "leggy" and then die when transferred. I did start off another one in the greenhouse, and that grew and is outside next to the other plant. It produced cucumbers about a week after the one started in the airing cupboard.
Next year I shall also plant peas. I wanted to this year and I have no idea why I didn't sow any.
I can't wait to try something that we've grown!!

Sports Day!

First game was controlling the football.

Matthew with his teacher, Mr Lemmon.

Hockey anyone?

Matthew in the centre of the track competing in the relay race.

It was a very hot day, 32C - 91F. Justin had the day off work to come along and cheer Matthew on with me. Matthew came first in a couple of the races/games.

We went to town in the afternoon, Darryl upgraded his phone to a Samsung Tocco Silver. We also got some shopping, including ice lollies!!

I'm about to make a salad for dinner and Justin is going to sort out Matthew's paddling pool.
Darryl heard yesterday that he and Abby can move into their maisonette next Friday. I shall miss him, but he will only be 3 minutes away. I'm looking forward to moving Matthew's toys from the lounge up to his "new" bedroom!

I'm famous!

Click on the above image for a much better view, plus you'll be able to read it, lol.

This is my cross stitch picture that I'd made for Sean a couple of months ago! It's the STAR LETTER in issue 67, on general sale July 2nd, of Cross Stitch Card Shop. Wooohoooooooo. I knew they were going to publish it, but I didn't know until the Friday just gone that I was the star letter! I got an aperature card pack with stickers, and £30 to spend in the Card Creations magazine!! I think I'm spending it all on scrapbook papers.

Today I have got a poorly back and left heel... sniff. Last night after work it was so hot and I decided to put a skirt on, lol. I very rarely wear a skirt in the summer - I do in the Winter. (I know, how weird is that?!) So anyway, put my lovely long thin cream skirt on and made my way downstairs... Our stairs curve at the top and it was up there that I trod on my skirt! My foot then slipped and I landed on the edge of one of the stairs with such a thud, lol, and my foot seemed to stomp on the edge of another stair. Today I feel like my back has a trapped nerve in it, and my left foot feels like I have Plantar Fasciitis in that one as well as the right one! (Must say though, my right foot hasn't hurt like it did four or so years ago, just every now and again, but the left foot is painful).

Oh well... carry on as normal, albeit a bit slower.

The Noisettes!

I LOVE THIS VIDEOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

My first attempt at growing veggies...

Here is one of my first little cucumbers!! Justin measured it tonight and it's 4.5 inches already!!
Our Runner Beans are massive too, well the plants are, but there's no sign of any beans yet, just red flowers. Strawberries are green at the moment, and the tomatoes plants are at various heights, the best ones are the ones growing in the ground and not pots. Spring onions are doing well, just tiny bulbs at the moment. Carrots are good but need a much bigger container next year. Yellow peppers are growing merrily in the greenhouse as well.

Been to dads today, love roast chicken dinner, thanks dad! Dad gave Darryl and Abby a dinner service tonight as they should soon move into their maisonette, which is about 3 minutes walk from our house. They're happy to find somewhere. The council will be helping them with their rent as it's quite expensive and the council couldn't house them.

I managed to do some cross stitching today on the puppy picture that Matthew will have in his new room - Darryl's current room.

Gorgeous weather we've had all week, great for the first week of Wimbledon which I've also been watching on the telly.

On a roll with this scrapping lark!

The challenge over at UKScrappers this week was to create a page incorporating the ladies in my life... well I don't have any ladies in my life really, apart from Cheryl I suppose, lol, so I decided my "ladies" would be my dogs, Abby and Sophie. The other parts of the challenge was to follow a sketch, to use yellow somewhere in the layout, and to use techniques or tools that were your favourites... mine were the paper flowers and the Kanban jewels. I created the background paper myself with rubber stamps, and the lettering was of course cut with the Cricut Expressions machine.

I really need to do some stitching on my puppy!!

Oh, I must also give my cousin's daughter, Melanie Eakins a wave!! Helloooooooooo Mel! *Waves like a loony*.

Riverside...

We decided today to take the dogs over to Portholme Meadow. It's the largest meadow in England. You can get to it via Huntingdon, Godmanchester or Brampton. It was a gorgeous warm sunny day. It wasn't one of those horrible humid days or too hot, it was perfect.

Click on the individual pictures for a better view.



Me and Sophie.

Matthew with Abby for a short time.

Matthew calling Abby to him. Look at that blue sky!

Abby LOVES the water... and those swans wouldn't budge. They kept chasing after Abby!

Justin and Sophie.

Matthew and Abby.

Matthew posing.

Darryl and Sophie.

Ooohhh, mmmmmmm, this is heaven! Abby chillin'.

Abby can't get enough!

A picturesque view of the River Ouse.

Another page today!

This page is for another challenge over at UKScrappers.

The challenge was to follow a sketch, use a number in the title, use 3 or more patterned papers... and different techniques (which I didn't do), so I earned 20 points.
The photos are from our holiday last year in Devon, and these were of our day in Woolacombe Bay - I need to make the other page to this tomorrow.

BBQ scrap page... d'oh!

I can't believe it! I've only gone and spelled barbecue wrong, lol... Justin said the word didn't look right last night, but I kept saying it did, lol. Oh well... I suppose I will have to correct it... later!
I used my Cricut for everything... the text and shadows, the cheery sun, the red barbeCue, the grassy frame. I had fun making this layout, but it took about 2 hours to get the printer to print the photos!
Since getting a new computer, we hadn't set it up so that my laptop could talk to it and get it to print. So I decided to use the usb and connect it directly to the printer, it took an age to install all the drivers, and then it decided that it didn't want to print them... in the end we finally got the laptop and computer chatting again.

Hunstanton

We had a great day yesterday at Hunstanton in Norfolk. Justin's dad and step mum were over for the weekend.
It was raining first thing in the morning, but soon cleared up, and by the time we got to "Sunny Hunny" as it's called, it was warm and sunny, although a little bit windy.



Justin and Matthew, coming back after a quick visit down to the sea.

Matthew putting shells on Nannie's sandcastles.

Me and Justin posing for a pic.

Grandad and Daddy burying Matthew's legs.

Along the promenade.

Matthew on the Blackbeards' golf course.

Justin, Grandad, Nannie and Matthew on the Aztek golf course.
Justin won! I had been taking photos of various parts of the course, went up onto the bridge which crosses over this part of the course in the photo. I was walking backwards, tripped up and fell on my bum. My camera swung round and bashed on the bridge and the lens cap fell off onto the part below. Camera ok, bum a bit sore today, lol.

We left Hunstanton at 6pm and were in Frankie and Benny's for dinner at around 8pm. After F&B's, it was back home and we looked at Steve and Joan's (dad and step mum) photos of their recent holiday to China on the telly. They left around 11pm and we were all in bed by 11.30pm.

I had today off work as well. None of us got up until 9.30am!!!!! Never sleep in that long, but we were all tired out after yesterday. Joan and Steve came at 10.30am and stayed until 1pm, and then drove back to Devon. They should be home by 7pm.

We had a great weekend!

How mad is this woman???

A mad woman and a train.

Click the link above. The bloke on the bottom left legs it; I think I'd do the same!

It's mug time again!

This is me and Cheryl after work today. The photo is to be put onto a mug again. This time it's for our boss who's retiring. When we had the other mug done for Pat, who was also retiring, Penny had said when she retires she wants one as well. I shall upload it at Tesco's.

For some reason the order didn't go through when I tried via Tesco's, so I tried it with Boots. I'm SO glad I did! Even though the mug is a few pounds more, it's gorgeous!! I chose a gorgeous pink bird design with a grey heart where you can add your own text, and our photo is in an oval. Gorgeous, Penny will love it!

The news today is...

Most of you who follow this blog know I'm going to be a grandmother (I'm still far too young!), but anyway... they found out today it's a boy! I'm used to boys, lol. Dad is going to have a great grandson!! They don't have any boys names at all, they had plenty of girls names, but now of course need a boys name. They had no intentions of telling us any names before the birth anyway.

I've only gone and dyed my hair.... DARK!

Justin is the ONLY person to tell me I look older in this pic! Mind you... I have to say, when I looked in the bathroom mirror first thing this morning... you know, messy hair, no make up on etc, it was a scary sight!
Two other people at Matthew's school are now going to dye their hair tonight/tomorrow, lol. I've started something now!