Simply because

some people are so helpful they deserve a little thank you.

Anne XXX

Busy weekend...

including gardening, baking, skiing, playing lego, covering school books, cleaning, scrapbooking, rocking poorly baby, walking, playing in the park, cutting the grass, trying to stop the arguing... I don't know about you but I am looking forward to this week for a break. Although, this won't happen as I have quite a lot of work this week and two school assemblies to go to and the school fete at the weekend, oh, and an evening scrapbooking with friends but that's is something to look forward to!

So anyway, I have a page to show you. I managed to finish it in a weekend and be pleased with it. I getting good as this quickety quick business! I bought the kids some onesies, however you spell this, they are pyjamas like babies wear. These are quite cute, Amelie's is a Monkey and Harry's is a tiger. The kids must be sweating like mad in them and they are so not practical to go to the loo but, hey, what do I know. I don't quite understand the attraction, other than they look cute, but the kids love them. So I thought I would take a picture and it came out really lovely. Well I think so anyway but maybe I am a little, slightly, biased! And here is the page I made.

As I said earlier I also had time to do some gardening this weekend. It is a good thing Violette loves being outside as there is so much to do at the moment in the garden. Weeds grow faster than the flowers and I am finding it hard to keep on top of it. Still, it is one of my favourite time of the year, so colourful and bright, even on a cloudy day like today.

And last but not least, my poorly baby is 22 weeks today. I am not sure what is wrong with her but she has been very sad and tearful over the weekend. Not herself, could it be teeth?

have a lovely week everyone.

Anne

Nearly five months.

A few days and we will be celebrating yet another birthday. Nearly five months already and still the best baby in the world !!

Her favourite thing to do at the moment is to blow raspberries. We even encouraged her at first (silly sods do I hear you say!! ).But now, as a result, she is constantly wet and I have decided to wear an apron when I feed her as I have successively been covered in sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach and other colourful marvellous combinations! But don't take my words for it, here is the proof! ( of Violette dribbling, not me covered in food! )

hey, I did finally get time to scrap last week. This page, which is far from being a creative masterpiece by the way, took me a whole week! five minutes here and there and I eventually managed to finish it. I think for now, I will have to accept that I won't create anything fantastic, just attempt to record memories the best way I can will do for the time being. I like the colour combination though.

Anyway, I feel sick as I have just had nearly a whole baked camembert that I had prepared for my students but only the lovely Karen turned up and she didn't even eat that much of it! Now, I wonder why I am struggling to lose this baby weight !! Any suggestions!

have a good week, mine will be busy.

Anne XXX

20 weeks...

and officially sleeping through from 18.30 to 07.00 !! That should give me time to scrapbook and yet I have nothing to show you !! I spent the holidays helping Amelie make a mini book for her school project, it was fun, but not really how I would have liked it to look!! Do you often feel the urge to just do it! It would look so much nicer, trust me! But no, I was good and left her to choose everything that she wanted, and it shows!!

But here is a picture of smiley baby...

My harry is going away on a residential this week. Unlike Amelie, he hates being away from home and I hate him being away. They are only going 30 minutes down the road but I know I will miss him terribly.

Have a good week everyone.

Anne

Weekend away.

As part of my birthday present, Andrew and the kids had booked a surprise weekend away to Dorset. We stayed in a holiday park, my idea of hell before I had kids but the prefect place now that we have three busy little people to entertain. The three day weekend was full packed with activities and discoveries. There was skiing, doughnutting, basket ball playing, fossil searching, ice cream licking, boat fantasying, the unmissable amusement spending, fish eating, go kart speeding, barbecuing, sleeping, live show watching, bingo playing, hmm, have I missed anything.. oh yes, beach strolling, sand castle making, hill walking, and lots of moaning, swimming, cooing, and stuck in the traffic I spying!!
But here are some pictures to prove it..

And if you wonder what the giraffe,( Greg is his little name) is doing on every single picture, you will have to ask Harry how he thought that bringing the school teddy with us was going to enhance our holiday break!! You don't know how stressful this is, trying not the lose the .... teddy. It is worse than loosing a kid, it is the school teddy, what a responsibility!!

Anyway, we had a great time and I fell in love with Dorset and I want to retire there but I am sure another ten million people do too so we will only ever be able to afford one of these static caravans!!

This week is our gorgeous baby girl 19th week. Looking chubbier everyday but still the cutest baby in our eyes.

and because I know my mum wants some more pictures...

I hope you have enjoyed half term too.

Anne

What a weekend!!

It all started on Friday night, with my birthday party. 28 girl friends came to celebrate my birthday at a Robbie William tribute in a hotel near us. Now, I am not the biggest fan, well, he is kind of nice but I wouldn't necessarily pay to see the real guy, but this chap was really good fun, cheeky and talented. We all had a fantastic night. Well I hope people did, I know, I had a great time and it was so lovely to have all my friends around. All the men babysat, which was also a nice change!

I stayed the night and had breakfast with some friends and when I got home Andrew and the kids had lots of surprises for me and gorgeous food ready on the BBQ. I felt a bit worse for wear on Saturday but I blame it on Mariska's snoring.
On Saturday night, the Eurovision was on and as sad as it sounds, we love watching it and Grahame Norton's comments always make me laugh.
And Finally on Sunday, I did a 5 hours cookery course and in farm near us. It was great, especially since a friend of mine was also there. I ate in enough in a weekend to last me for a month. I dare try the skinny jeans I wore on Friday night, they would probably burst!!

And now for the cutey Violette 18 week picture...

 Still the easiest baby in the world! But I am sure I will eat my words one day!

Have a great week.
Anne

Happy birthday...

baby girl, 4 months today, that is 17 weeks.

 

And because it was difficult to choose, here are the other pictures taken today.

 

 

Have a great week everybody, I know mine will be eventful!

 

AnneXXX

 

 

Another day late!!

but we were away for the weekend so here is the 16 week old picture.

 

I know, the body is dirty, but I thought I would leave it this way to remind myself that it was the week she started eating. Well, tasting more than eating, judging by how much goes on her clothes more than in her mouth!

 

And just because I love this picture...

 

Have a nice week everyone.

Anne

 

So much to tell !!

Well for once I have something else than Violette to show this week! But since I know a lot of friends and family just check the blog for the pictures of Violette, here is the 15 week update, and because I didn't know which one to pick, this week you get two pictures!

She is smiling in the second one, promise, this isn't a cry!

But now for the scrpabooking. I was lucky enough to spend the day at our local crop on Saturday and I had a really productive day! First we made a page with the lovely Lisa at Artfull Scrapbooking. I always love what Lisa does but it takes me a while to like what I do when I follow her instructions. But this time, I loved it straight away. The page didn't take half an hour to finish which is super quick for me. It is bright, funky, messy, I love it.

 

The second page I made, didn't quite turn out how I wanted it to be. But still I like it. Clean, simple and girlie.

 

Now, the third page I made, took a lot longer to finish. I wanted to follow a sketch I found at   Creative Scrapper



I knew I wanted to paint my circle and found the perfect colour thanks to my lovely friend Rosemary but then, I don't know, it just didn't work. I had painted in on a white cardstock, that another friend had kindly given me, but I wasn't happy with it. I continue my page on Sunday, well, in fact started all over, with the kids around painting too. It got really messy and we had to use kitchen roll to clean everything and that's when I got another idea, and somehow, I just looovve this page, Grungy, very yellow and definitely messy!

This page also links to the Scrap friends challenge that encourage you to use this colour palette:

So what do you think, three very different pages but which one is your favourite?! have a good week.

Anne

 

14 weeks

and definitely into chewing everything in sight, so it was quite hard to get a picture with her hands out of her mouth so unfortunately, not a great a picture!

See you next week.
Anne

I should really be working...

but the weather is nice... I spent the morning at a friend drinking tea... I am tired because Violette didn't sleep well... I have to think about what to cook for the party I am going to tomorrow...I could think about ten millions other excuses but really I should get going and do some preps, so  let's make this post short.
Here is another page I made this week, I am on a roll, no stopping me now!!

 

 

 

This page was fun to do. I first had to make a stencil and use Gesso, then cut lots of triangles. I then added lots of bits and pieces on the theme of parcels. And here we go, messy start for quite a clean page in the end. And because the Studio Challenges is encouraging you to use masks this week, I thought I would enter their competition.

Right, back to work it is then.

Anne

At last..

Some time and inspiration to scrap. I really, really enjoyed making this page. I had bought some magazines when I was in France but hadn't had a chance to look at them until last week. They are full of good ideas and I couldn't wait to try a few. So here is my first page in ages !

 

I love this picture of the girls, they both look so happy together. Amelie loves to give Violette attention and Violette seems very pleased that someone comes to her every time she shows any signs of boredom.I wonder how much Violette is going to miss her now that she has gone back to school. I know I will! She and Harry are great little helpers.

 

 

And now a picture for my lovely sister who keeps sending me parcels full of goodies...

 

 

 

 

I wasn't sure at first but this cardigan is growing on me and it looks really cute on. So thank you!

 

And now for the 13 week picture...

 

 

and because time goes by so quickly, here is the difference 13 weeks make...

 

 

 

from skinny to chubby!!

 

Speak to you soon.

Anne

 

 

 

 

12 weeks...

Not quite three months but not very far at all...

 

We now get massive smiles, well Harry gets the biggest if it was to be a contest

and we even get the odd chuckles, this is just such a great age. We have been going swimming during this holiday and although it takes a lot of organising and bag carrying when you are taking three kids, it has been lovely to have fun all together.

We went pottery painting last week and here is what we have made. Not sure it will ever get first prize in any exhibit, but we like it! And yes, I am very proud of my little hearts inside the cup!

Enjoy the rest of your holidays.
Anne

Nearly three months...

11 weeks.... time flies and it is only when we meet up with younger babies that we realised how far we have come already. We went to Brittany at the weekend and met my brother and his wife and new baby Louise. She is sooo small or may be Violette is sooo big!!

and if you can't see her cheeks from far, here are a few closer shots!!

 

 

I will have some pottery to show you next time. In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying your Easter break.

 

See you soon.

 

Anne

 

A day late

but we were busy yesterday so here is the ten week picture...

 

Definitely filling out and officially sleeping through from 18.30 to 07.30 with a bottle at 22.00. Life is good!!

 

I had time to work on my mini book last week. I managed to make the front cover and add a page about sleep.

 

I like the front cover as I have used different little things that were given to us, including the ribbon we had on flowers, a giraffe on a card, the fabric of the curtains in her room. And the actual card board was from a gift box. It feels more special that way.

Anyway, I wish you all a lovely Easter break.
Speak to you soon.

Anne

 

She did it !!

I am not going to bore you with it but last night Violette slept for 7 hours!! Houray!! the fact that I didn't sleep because I was convinced there was something wrong with her is another matter, but we are slowly getting there.
And here she is, 9 weeks and looking chubbier by the minute!

 

Should have time for some scrapbooking this afternoon, so might have something to show you other than a cute baby next week!!

Take care

 

Anne

 

quick update..

This week Violette is two months and is proud to announce the birth of her little cousin Louise, born on Sunday.The photo shoot was fun this morning and I couldn't possibly choose just the one picture so today I give you three !!

 

Have a great week.

Anne

7 weeks

Times flies and baby grows...She went to the creche for the first time this morning while I went to Yoga. It is nice to be back but very hard to leave Violette with strangers. Well, I know the ladies well as Harry and Amelie both went to this creche, but she is only diddy and I spent most of the practise worrying about her. It will get better, I know!

I had time to make a very simple Thank you card the other day. It is for a cousin of my mum who sent a beautiful wrap for Violette.

Back to cleaning and tidying !

Have a lovely week.

Anne.