Happy Halloween!

Evie and I (well, me mostly!) had fun carving a pumpkin yesterday. Not just any old pumpkin though; no, it had to be a 'Dora the Explorer' pumpkin!!! So here we are on our journey to a pumpkin masterpiece...



I couldn't let all that pumpkin flesh go to waste so I had a go at making some pumpkin muffins. Found a fairly straight forward recipe online and finished them with some cream cheese icing. They are delicious and must be healthy(at least one of my five-a-day right?!!)

INGREDIENTS: 225g pumpkin flesh 2 eggs ½ tsp ginger ½ tsp cloves 125ml milk 100ml golden syrup 2 tbsp margarine 175g white flour 1 tsp baking powder ½ tsp cinnamon

PREPARATION: 1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Steam the pumpkin flesh until tender then purée in a blender or food processor. Allow to cool. 2. Mix together the eggs, milk, syrup and margarine, and mix with the pumpkin. Combine flour, baking powder and spices and add these dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture. Stir to mix, but don't overmix. 4. Pour into muffin pans and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

I substituted the cinnamon and cloves for nutmeg and added a little brown sugar as the mixture wasn't quite sweet enough for me.

They taste very similar to carrot cake - yummy!

A day in our lives...part 2

Finally finished my 'Tuesday' pages from last week:


Papers are from SC 'iconic' kit, hand stamp is also by Studio Calico, date stamp by 7Gypsies, K & Co stickers, MM alphas. I also included a receipt from my supermarket trip under some of the paper on the right hand side.

As always, if you want to see anything in more detail (or read the riveting details of my everyday life!), just click on the relevant image :)

Being prone to bouts of forgetfulness recently, I forgot to do photos yesterday, so I'm doing it today instead and will cover Wednesday next week.

Being kept busy today carving a pumpkin lantern for Evie - hope to share some piccies later!

Three months old??!!!!

How did that happen? Oliver was three months old yesterday! Cue (more!) baby photos...

From this:



To this:

Dear Oliver...

Evie's at nursery, Oliver was sleeping, so I played with pretty paper :)

The letter reads:

Dear Oliver,

When I first saw you smile, my heart melted. A few weeks later you started giggling; it has to be one of the nicest sounds I have ever heard.
It makes me so happy that you are such a content little man; I can relax a little knowing that I must be doing something right.
I hope that you will always be smiley and happy as you grow up! Love Mummy xxx

I thought it was about time for an Oliver layout. I found it hard enough to keep up with scrapping for Evie nevermind for two of them!



Using up a bit more stash - some Sassafras paper, sequins, frame and stamp from various SC kits, a Crate rub-on, Heidi Swapp heart and lots of machine stitching :)

Happy chappy...

We've got giggling and laughing this week...

A day in our lives...

I finally got round to having a go at Ali Edwards' 'A week in the life' project. Now I've decided to do it a little differently and rather than do a whole week at a time, I'm going to do a different day each week for the next seven weeks. So this week it was Monday...

Supplies: Template from Designer Digitals (I added lines to one of these to journal onto), papers, flowers and stamp from Studio Calico Oct kit, brads, Crate paper rubon swirls, MM tiny alpha stickers.

Sharing some photos...

Feeling inspired by Ali Edwards at the moment and very much into creating layouts about the here and now. It helps that I'm home all day and can note more down and get the chance to scrap about it all too.

So here are a few photos that tell the story of my last week. They're not the best photographs in the world, but they go some way to illustrating our lives right now.

Taking an autumnal walk at Tatton Park.

Playing together. 'Silly Mummy' loved going on the slide!

Getting arty with the leaves we collected

The finished masterpiece hanging proudly on the kitchen wall

Sibling love

A typical scene in our household. Daddy is never very far away from his laptop. (He'll say the same about me too!)

I found Evie hiding in her tent, sitting on top of her table, eating a banana.
Perfectly normal behaviour for a 3 year old!

Washing, washing and more washing...toilet training and a newborn = laundry overload!

After dinner on Sunday, Evie decided to read a story to Oliver. It was one of the cutest things I have seen. Wish I'd grabbed the camcorder!

More cuddles. She really loves him. That makes me happy.

Before Oliver was born, I gave myself a challenge to make a layout from each of the Studio Calico kits that I have piling up. I managed to make a dent in a few of them and thought today, that it's about time that I carried on with this.

The little ones are having their afternoon naps so Mummy has been playing with Newsstand and created this quickie layout...

TFL :)

Evie Talk

Another pink and busy layout...


I wanted to record some 'Evie-isms', all of the little phrases that she uses, so that we don't forget them. I thought it was about time that I used some of the journalling cards that I've been collecting too!

silly mummy!

A very bright and busy layout (sometimes I wonder how much my mood affects what I create?!) Most supplies from SC 'Confections' kit and 'Raspberry Truffle' add on along with some Martha Stewart journalling cards.


'Silly Mummy' This is what Evie says when I do things to make her laugh. These include:
*tickling (especially her armpits)
*pretending to be 'Daddy' or 'Oliver' or even 'Evie'!
*dancing around the lounge
*singing (loudly!)
*climbing inside her new play tent in my jimjams for birthday cuddles.

TFL xx

At three...

Some of the things that Evie can do right now, aged three:


Need to do another layout to add the things that wouldn't fit! Next on my list is a layout about the things that she 'likes'.

walk in the woods part two...

Gone stitching crazy today...


I don't often scrap pictures so soon after an event but I was feeling inspired today and really enjoyed scrapping this: love that picture of Evie in her Wellies! I've also used up some very old stash - papers that I got in a kit in May '07 and bits from the October '07 SC kit.

The dining table is covered in stash and I've a pile of photos and ideas for layouts: hope Oliver is as settled tomorrow so that I can crack on with it all in between feeds!

a walk in the woods...

The weather was lovely today so we've been out on a 'nature walk' in Styal Woods to collect leaves and other bits and bobs to make an autumn collage with Evie this week. I got a bit snap happy...

and because it'd be rude to leave Oliver out, here's a couple of cute-baby pics...