30th March When I stopped.....and FSM # 28, 29 and 30

This week has been my challenge about what we can miss if we don't look around and take a photo of those moments as life rushes by...
As I was making the bed the other day I looked up at the bear I gave Peter many years ago, this is what hisT shirt says.....

Well it has been a busy week but now quieter over the weekend.
Here are my photos from this week.

Tuesday was DGS 2 and his Mum's birthday, Matt was 15 and much taller than his Mum! Also my FSM #27 photo for PAIR

 We went and saw Zac's yr 3/4 school production on Wed evening

 grabbed the camera one evening as I was cooking to catch the sunset, sadly just missed the best: photo

Babysitting duties on Thursday night, thank goodness for having a camera in my mobile phone or I would have missed this shot!

A Good Friday?

This story is worth a read... I had just cleaned the houseand then disaster struck with man in the kitchen who decided to make marmalade like you do on Good friday before having a meal for 8 !!  Well it didn't set so he asked for help, I went over the recipe on the tin....instead of 3/4pint of water he put 3 to 4 pints of water LOL...so an hour later (with visit by him to supermarket) 4 more tins, 6 bags of sugar and an overflowing preserving pan plus the largest saucepan we have we are in production for a supermarket!! Note I am now in on the marmalade making!!

Anyway all the jars we have are filled plus many plastic containers til we get more jars and are sitting on shelves in the garage  I then set to to prep my meal and finally sat down for an hour at 6pm...shattered!
Here is what I served (courtesy of Sainsburys) lamb chops on a butterbean pesto base with cabbage, toms and green beans

and my Easter tree to remind me it is Easter weekend regardless of this bitterly cold and dark day

FSM catch up

#28 MIRROR

#29 - GOODNIGHT - last night as I went to bed at 1.05am!!

 #30  RELAX- teaching myself to crochet using my kindle crochet download and having a cup of tea too!!

Babysitting duties again tonight so will take my laptop and catch up on blogs then

26th March Quotation week and FSM #25 and 26

This week it is my quotation again. I chose a quote from a movie in 1987 Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"

So this week what am I busy doing and what might I miss?  Don' t forget to take photos!

Since retiring some weeks are pretty mundane and quiet, especially in winter.  I can spend my day scrapping, watching TV, reading and of course DHW occasionally. Having said that,  life is moving fast I cannot believe it is Easter this weekend and April next week!
This week my calender is pretty busy!!

I already know I have missed scrapping my view LO and Laughing pages so this must be fitted in this week

I have finished the last CJ and posted it today.

and my daily photo has been taken too!

day 25 - Show the inside of one of your drawers!! This is one of my most tidiest!!

day 26 - What am I doing today - writing Easter cards

Off now to see family who celebrate birthdays today,Our DGS Matt who is 15 and his Mum Sara who shares the same birthday day!!

24th March End of Nostalgia week - 5 Facts and # 24

 No snoaw here but bitterly cold outside so after church this morning I am staying warm and cosy for the rest of the day!
#24 UP...wish the temp would go up!!

So to finsh off with the last 2 facts  Sadly I cannot think of a special person who has influenced me in the last 67yrs!!

• I wanted to be a hairdresser at 17 but my parents especially my Mother wanted me to have a career with training not an apprenticeship!! They thought that if I trained as a teacher and got married and had children it was very suitable job for a woman as I would have the school holidays!! How true that was but I still would have liked to have been a hairdresser by choice but in those days I would have never argued or disagreed with my parents!
• The oldest item I have in my wardrobe is my wedding dress I wore when I married Peter 28yrs ago this year. When I lost weight in 2009 I took a photo of myself getting into it. I can never see myself wearing it again but it felt good to know it fitted me...well JUST!! The true colour is a shade between the two colours in the collage!

23rd March -scrapping today! - FSM #23 what do I do for fun?

FSM #23-My fun is definitely scrapping, alone,at retreats with others and at crop groups, I love it!

Today was very cold and damp but fortunately  the snow hasn't come back to the south coast!
I spent the day scrapping and managed to do the weekly challenge on UKS for week 3.
We had to use multiple photos with one at least 6x4. 10points
Scrap a building, place or object. 10points
Make a title not using stickers  10points

Here is mine for 30 points. Another LO for last year's holiday to the Azores.

Last facts about myself tomorrow and hopefully march View LO and page for Silver linings - LAUGH.. I am in a scrapping mood

22nd March - more facts and #22 about me

What miserable weather for the end of March.So cold and windy here. Can you believe that next weekend is the start of summertime! Thank goodness we haven't got the snow again that a lot of the UK is having again
More nostalgia and facts today. now I have got started I can find plenty of facts you don't know about but no special person has influenced me except perhaps my father...need to think about that!

• The Yorkshire lasses ( the female side of the family) were all on the plump side( how much better than saying fat!!) We all have big busts (well endowed) with thin ankles!

L to R my Auntie, Grandad, Nana and my Mother

Me and my Nana

L to R Mum, Dad, Me, ?  and Auntie 

Can you see their busts and ankles?

FSM #22 - about you - hate ironing (fits in as another fact) I hide the clothes that need ironing until in desperation I have to iron!  Winter time is good as hardly anything needs ironing but in the summer everything we wear needs an iron!!

Will finish this week over the weekend with the last facts including my oldest piece of clothing!

21st March - Nostalgia week and FSM # 18,19,20 and 21

I am finally catching up after my weekend away. My minibook class went well. Here are photos of the minibooks produced, not quite finished

and my thank you pressie from the girls

6 of them did a mini canvas swap here are their canvases

I am still managing my FSM photo a day
#18 Shoes - my shoe collection

#19  -a Sign -my town sign as you enter our town

#20 - Clean -my cooker hob which has been altered in Picasa!

#21 - Working - the working farm I visited today

Now to this week's challenge set by Kathi  - Nostalgia - Information or facts about ourselves,so here are some facts

• Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire at the end of the war in September 1945..My father was in the RAF and stationed in Scotland and during the war my mother had gone back to her home town Morley and  was living with her parents and working as a secretary. After my birth and my father was demobbed they brought me back to Hastings where they had been living and my father had been teaching and he returned to his school again. Every holiday we went back to Yorkshire and as I grew up my grandparents and their friends were fascinated with my lack of any accent and used to say I talked like the Queen LOL!!
• I failed my 11+ but thanks to my father being a teacher he managed to get me into the local grammar school...I don't know how but he did!  There I struggled, found maths difficult so didn't take 0 level but just RSA which was only arithmetic. Today I would not be able to go on to Teacher's training college but I did managed to go in 1963 aged 17 and two weeks later had my 18th birthday!

Tomorrow I will finish telling you some more facts!

17th March Scrapping Weekend #1516 and 17

Happy St Patrick's day from rainy Wiltshire. I have managed to use a mobile router so here I am whilst I am away!

Can you believe that it is the end of Anne's week today!! I had plenty of laughs this weekend,starting on Friday which was comic relief day.We all sat and watched on the red button the Comic relief wedding which Miranda arranged and then on and off the TV during the evening, I found a Baby every Second so funny but left when comedians came on, so thanks Anne for making me aware of what I laugh at!!

I have managed to keep up with FSM
#15 Explore - my Tomtom route as I left on Friday

#15 - 9 o'clock -my breakfast next to my phone

#16 - Green - all my drink containers had green, sparkling water, red wine and coffee

This is where we are on our scrapping retreat with the UKS team The Crumblies

And to finish a group photo of us all laughing!!

13th March -More laughing! #13 SOUND

This weekend I am away from Friday - Monday with my scrapping pals . We were the 365ers in 2008 and now in a social group called The Crumblies on the forum UKS. I am all packed and teaching a complicated mini book so all prepped and scrapping wise ready but what to wear is the tomorrow night problem!  We meet twice a year and this will be the third year at this wonderful property for 10 of us. Last March 2012 we were in T shirts and crops and sitting outside in glorious warm sunshine!! Now I am collecting warm cordsw and thick jumpers!!  We have no internet  so will be back on Monday night!

I decided to finish Laughing tonight

Remembered another programme that makes me laugh ...Gavin and Stacey..so now you know my humour if you live in the UK or get the prog in USA. Guess Borqna doesn't get so many UK programmes?

Tonight on the One show she had the challenge to sing in a group... I took these photos, only funny if you saw the programme!

To finish laughing this week, here is a collage of my DS Mark's 40th birthday, sometimes we do laugh a lot together! or rather I do!!

FSM #13 - SOUND music I am not keen on!!

Well the snow has nearly melted away with the warm March Sun today but tonight we had a wonderful sunset and suddenly a freak hail/snow storm. The photo unfortunately doesn't show the hail and snow!

12th March Snowed in! #12 - In the Distance

We woke to quite a lot of snow . There were no buses today and very little movement on the roads until lunchtime when a gritter followed by a snow plough did the main road. There is a wall of snow against our garage door which has to be dug out before we get the car out!  Hopefully I can catch a bus tomorrow to get to a supermarket for supplies of veg

back garden first thing this morning

 From our kitchen window

 Top of the road to the town not gritted at all!!

 Daffodils struggling under the weight of the snow!!

 Peter off to the garage at the bottom of the garden, the sun has come out

.  FSM#12 In the distance,-  standing in the middle of the road outside our house after the gritter and snow plough has been!! and blue skies have arrived

A little more about Laughing

What makes me laugh?... some things on TV....

• well Miranda has definitely has made me laugh on the On Show last night and tonight as she raises money for Comic Relief. even though I didn't like her series Miranda
• Little Britain I love and find so funny
• Graham Norton in Room 101
• The Office- Ricky Gervais, yet don't like him in anything else
• The Royale Family
• Being Eileen

Comedians leaves me cold, so does Panto and slapstick except when DGS had an apps on his phone to change faces...here is Peter and myself!! I can see you all laughing!!!

11th March- SILVER LININGS and # 11

This week is Anne's challenge SILVER LININGS and the 3rd letter is L for March....LAUGH

She says " laugh is excellent in many ways.It makes you feel close to other people. It relaxes you.It creates unforgettable memories.It helps building deep wrinkles around your mouth(not sure if I like that idea!!!!)but it is living proof you laugh a lot. It makes you feel alive and happy1
Laughing is what a baby does most of the time. It's only when we become adults, that we seem to laugh less, although that's not true for everyone," I think Anne is right, sadly I seem to laugh less these days!

So to start to answer Anne's questions,
How often do you laugh?
What makes you laugh? Confess all the little things you laugh about
Share your videos or photos

Thankfully I don't have deep wrinkles round my mouth......yet!!I don't often laugh out loud and as Peter says, I laugh inwardly!

It is a very snowy today and the snow is swirling round in the strong wind. Peter had a phone !call at 7.30am from his boss telling him not to try and get today so he is home too. Buses have stopped and all the schools have now closed  so today was an ideal day to stay snug indoors and I looked for laughing photos in my archives.

Retreat photos over the years with other scrappers have produced photos of me laughing and messing around. I definitely need people around me

More tomorrow and I will finish today with my last March views...more snow!!

 11am  from our bedroom window, the road has so little traffic that it is covered in snow again

 Our back garden at 12 noon.. More snow has fallen and still falling as I write this!!

FSM#12 Important- used laugh as my theme today and Peter laughing

It takes a lot to make Peter laugh like this but when he is comfortable with close friends and family he can really laugh too.