Mcgyver

The theme tune is in my head...what can I say. Legend.

Did lots of blog hopping today. Elsie is buying a new house and asked her blog readers for advice regarding interior design, etc. Up to that point all I have ever done is read various crafty blogs...never even contemplated that interior designers would have uber cool blogs too.....talk about a doh! blonde moment! some fabby links which I have subsequently favouritised....and now I'll have to add them to my daily review. Some folks read the newspaper...I read blogs. Is that the way the world is going..?

So no-one commented on whether I should send my DH his loverly LO....but he emailed me a rose and so I felt I had to email him back something...and so I went right on and emailed him the Lo pic anyway. He said he was morto opening it at work....definitely got marks for embarassment anyway LOL!

We have a new arrival in the office. Pat's wife had a baby last night...another boy, so we are now up to three kids between us and he's back to sleepless nights and bags under his eyes!

What did I do for Valentines...? We decided to go out for dinner...but obviously had to bring Eilis and so went to her favourite place - Eddie Rockets. A family favourite. Not quite the most romantic place you could ever go, but as long as we're together. Simple Love.

Nothing else strange and no photos...it's been a busy day and OMG it's Friday tomorrow. One of the girls is leaving and so we're having a special lunch...everyone is going to make something and bring it in for a little surprise. Dunno what I'm going to contribute yet....

What's Love got ta To with It?

Song title....not really how I'm feeling....well, in the way Tina meant it anyway, it's more What's love got to do with Valentines....commercialism and all that. I don't buy into a dozen roses for €65.....absolutely mental and a chronic waste of money. I'm not a flower person really. I do appreciate them when I get them, but think that they can be desperately expensive. This wasn't supposed to be a rant about valentines.....celebrate the love....simple love....not expensive love is the message I suppose.

So here's some simple love....

A valentine card made by my little chicken in the creche yesterday to her Mammy and Daddy. Love it! Some chocolates in the cafe downstairs.....simple love. And finally, my valentine card for this year is a layout for DH. I'm not really a cardie person and I made one last year to enter in a competition which I think totally stunted what I wanted it to be (I sometimes find with competitions...even just small monthly ones on craft forums you get so bogged down trying to incorporate 'metal' or a 'blossom' or whatever, that you don't always end up with something you'd really like). Anyway, I hadn't done a LO in ages....really ages....and so I am delighted with this. Lots of Making Memories chipboard hearts and buttons and not a lot of paper...(used Basic Grey Blush...love it love it) which is something very different for me...I didn't think I could 'do' the whole streamlined look (ok ok it's not that streamlined and sparse, but using only one piece of patterned paper is an achievement for me!). Haven't given it to him yet...that will be this evening. No plans yet....for dinner or whatever. We'll be staying in, but whether we'll order in or cook something nice - play it by ear. Any other valentine's stuff.....last night I watched 'You've got Mail' on TG4. I really don't like Tom Hanks particularly, but I love Meg Ryan....I love wishy washy feel good rom coms and I'm not afraid to say it. Something that makes you feel all warm inside and happy going off to bed, assured that there is love in the world....even if it's just in the movies. I was going to head off to bed early and might pay the price today, but I couldn't really remember how it ended...well I knew that they got together, but not the details...'I wanted it to be you...so much' said Meg when she realised that Tom was actually the fella she had been emailing all along. Awww

So, should I email my Valentine with a picture of his card.....with the title of the email saying 'You've got Mail'.....from Shopgirl? OK lurkers, you've got till 4pm today to tell me whether I should or not and so you decide......

over and out

Love to y'all on Valentine's Day!

Livin on a Prayer

the title's not at all relevant to the post...but anyway.

I think some photos are needed. Some projects that I have recently and not so recently completed....

Here's a photo frame I decoupaged with some funky green crackle paper from Cregal Arts. I haven't got the perfect photo yet, but the frame is more inspiring now methinks.

This is Lulu. My Aunt made her for me when I was about 8. In fact I haven't a clue what age I was...but she's pretty cool. Lulu and my aunt. Lulu wasn't originally her name, I can't remember what it was. Eilis re-christened her after finding her in some of my old stuff over Christmas. An old style rag doll...kinda looks like Betty Boo in a way.

Below is the cover of a pizza box I received last week....all the way from the UK. I hadn't a clue at first, and then remembered that it was from Kirsty - my prize as part of a RAK on her blog. Her little sweetie pie DD picked my name out of a hat. Lucky me. I got these fabby bits...a kit with cardstock and papers and transparencies, a copy of the latest Scrapbook Mag...which of course Kirsty has an article in...and funky foam stamps. Haven't had a chance to use them yet, but the letter to me was the most important part......I am Kirsty's little fruit pudding! How do ya like that!

Where have all the flowers gone....

Yoikes it's been a week since I posted. Shocking. And like many things, as they get left to one side for a while it's very hard to go back, but this blog is for me, and so I want to keep it up and once you get back into it, it's not so bad. Anyway....what did I do in the last 7 days? Busy at work...we're making a database and it's quite tricky cos now we're doing some testing. For the past month or two it was out of our hands, but now it's back to us and so we have to fill in some data to test it. Fingers crossed it will do all the work after that!. Got a fairly big job last Wednesday so am well happy. It's a project I'll probably take on myself and it'll be nice to get back into the thick of things again....actually had a meeting on Wednesday evening with the client and the electricity went half way through! Not in our offices TG, but imagine being stuck in an office with 3 people you've only met a few times before (and one, who looks like Locke from Lost....who you've never met before) .... with no light.

I was reminded of this classic....
Where was moses when the lights went out? In the dark!

I ordered photo prints from Spectraphoto on Tuesday and they arrived to my door on Thursday. Had great plans to scrap the weekend away, but they haven't quite materialised...got a few bits done though..in fact it was a very busy weekend. Tony went to Leeds on Friday morning to a stag party for the weekend....why Leeds? you might ask? Well one of the other guys in the group had gone to Edinburgh last year and the gang flew out from Galway Airport and everyone agreed it was the only thing to do....and so the only prerequisite of this stag was that you had to be able to fly from Galway.....I'm not a great believer in flying anywhere for a stag or hen....but there you have it. So I decided to take the day off on Friday and have a girlie weekend with Eilis. We cleaned the windows in the morning (it's surprising how dirty they get over the winter and that you don't notice it except in day light). Then in the afternoon we headed for the swimming pool. Eilis has been swimming a couple of times only I'm ashamed to say, but loves the water...bath, paddling pools etc and loved the beach last year. New year's resolution to bring her swimming more often. She loved it. We got a pair of armbands and she held on to me (not too tight a grip, but we're not at the let her go stage yet) and we played in the shallow end of the big pool. She could walk in the toddlers pool but slipped and went under the water. I thought it was curtains after that, but she bore no grudge against the big pool and we went back in there. I was freezing with all the standing around so did a little bit of swimming with her up on my back. We stayed in for an hour (so got our money's worth....it could have been an awful expensive 5 minutes if things didn't work out so well!) and she even liked the showers.....so all's good. We headed home and had our tea and watched a new Bosco DVD I got ....we are both big fans!

Friday night, I did some tidying and scrapping....began a valentine's LO for Tony....which hopefully I will get finished, and also finished my Shimelle book....will post pics shortly...
Saturday some of my friends from college were calling around and so I had to get the place in ship shape and make some lunch. I made two staples - garlic potatoes and salad and two experiments - aubergine bake ala Delia, and some peking chicken things...baked in the oven. I loved baked things because once the hard work is done you can leave them in the oven and tidy, etc. Actually quite a good idea, especially with people calling over....you're not labouring over a hot stove. Brenda, Una and Lorraine called over and Eilis entertained them all. We had a fun time chatting. Lorraine is getting married in July to a fella we were in college with, and is all organised...of course. Una's boyf Terry called over to collect her and Eilis had lots of fun with him, and Brenda stayed for evening tea...and even had Little Miss Sunshine in her bag....what a great co-incidence. That was my evening sorted. Fire on, Eilis in bed, so I settled down and watched that for the night.

Definitely don't sleep as well without Tony....not waking up, but took a long time to get to sleep. Eilis was sharing my half of the bed! and coughing a lot, but we struggled on. T was back at 1.30 on Sunday so I had dinner made...and a few more for the freezer. We ate up and then watched the rugby match.....first time in Croke Park. It was quite emmotional watching the National Anthem, etc, although I dunno about Ireland's Call....if there is any need for it. You are either playing for Ireland or not, and as much as I dislike soccer (the sport in general bores me) at least they just have the one anthem.....oooh little bit of opinion there! A lot of the team didn't sing either song in fact. I felt sorry that we didn't win, although I think we were lucky not to have been beaten by more. They actually played really well.....defensively....most of the time. I quite like rugby...played a little in my time and Eddie O'Sullivan was my PE teacher in school for a year or two.

After the match we had a dilemna. We had rehearsal for the play and no one to mind Eilis. Hadn't really thought about it properly....but we weren't going home to rehearse and so didn't have all the people that normally do teh babysitting. Lots of people were watching/gone to the match and so that ruled them out too....one thing for it....bring the child. Eeek. I'm really not one of those parents who brings kids everywhere...or at least I would have been very anti the idea previously. I hate the thought of kids being 'dragged' along with the parent just because they couldn't be arsed getting a babysitter. Of course, now we have Eilis, I won't say I've changed my principles....but I can see the pitfalls. Anyway, we were stuck. Thankfully, it wasn't too late...rehearsal was from 5.30 to 7.00 so it didn't really interfere with bedtime. I loaded a bag with toys, colours etc and she sat in the audience....actually she was really good. For a three year old to sit for an hour and a half without causing uproar during the rehearsal of a play is pretty good going methinks. Although, I wouldn't have brought her if I thought she wouldn't be good....that's the difference I suppose.

I expect this is working out as a long post....another with no pics....but I'll get some up later today. I have a sore throat and a cold brewing (although with a 3 yr old coughing into your face for 2 nights....what do you expect!). I'm off to load up on Vit C and get some work done. Later....