London by Taxi

My sides hurt, I don't think I ever laughed so much. At the airport today as we recalled what happened over the weekend strangers around us were laughing so much their sides were splitting too! I can't remember half of what we laughed at, but most of it happened in the numerous Taxi's we travelled in.

Saturday was fantastic! We didn't go to Liz's at all but Dianes previous residence, Kensington Palace, which was bought as Kensington House by Willaim of Orange and rebuilt into a Palace. The reason why I mention William of Orange is that my birthday is on William of Orange Day and as my Dad dig's with his left foot he wanted to call me Willamina. All I can say is thank goodness my mother didn't give into that one!!!!

Afterwards he headed to Harrods, for a quick lookie, especially in the most delis food hall. Then off to one of my now favourite shops of all!!! Swarovski! I've always loved their crystals but never dared purchased, well i did this time.

We also bought Eve the most gorgeous pair of crystal earings. After this we headed to Harvey Nics, which I have to say is so over priced but was still fun to browse the handbags starting at £300!

The pre Theatre meal in the Criterion was perfect. The restaurants looked like a Russian tea room with gold mosiac ceilings, columed arches and palms trees everywhere. Around the corner from the restaurant was Her Majesty's Theatre where the hi-light of our trip took place. I've been to a few musicals in my time, but this was magical. The singing, the sets, the drama of it all.... If you've never been, well then its time you did! We finished off our night drinking a few cocktails back at the fantastic Crowne Plaza (a place I would recommend if you are staying in London).

This morning we took a quick trip to a local Market where we purchased a few pressies for ourselves, LOL! All in all, the package was fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about heading to London for the weekend.

Cheers!

'ello, 'ello, 'ello, whats going on here then

I am sitting in my hotel room in London writing this from my bed on the TV. How cool is that! We've had a wonderful first evening here.

The flight from Shannon wasn't a bother, except for a little turbulence where my SIL lost most of her champagne. The taxi driver was fab and the hotel is just amazing. its called the Crowne Plaza and its so central. WE had the most amazing Italian meal last night, italian meats like salami followed by the lightest pasta I've ever tasted, all washed down with the most beautiful savingon blanc(sp?), yummy!

Today we are heading to Liz's house (HRH) for a princess Diane tour, i plan to be ther for about 10 mins, then off to Harrods, Harvey Nics and Swarzcov (sp? again). Tonight its dinner and then Phantom of the Opera.

Right, I think its time to peel myself off the bed and hit the town!

See ya all very soon.

Goodbye from London

feeling inspired

Isn't it wonderful when you find inspiration in the midst of doing something else... this happened to me this evening :-)

While Shona and I were out for a walk in UL, I came across a wonderful building that houses the Health Science department at the University. Now anybody who knows me knows how much I love architecture, so to find a gem like this when I wasn't expecting it was fantastic. I was also fortunate to have remembered my camera, planning on taking a few shots of Shona (not at her, LOL). None of these shots were edited, they were taking as is. It brought me back to my college days when we would wonder the streets of Limerick trying to capture unusual images, most of us returning to the college with the same shots.

I'm going to have to lock myself away for a few days, dust off the acrylics and get painting :-)

Scrap West #24

This weeks them was set by Annamarie and is called Scrap Lift. The idea was to find a LO that you found inspirational and ScrapLift. I found a wonderful LO by Jlyne Hanback called Read. Jlyne kindly gave me permission to scrap lift her LO. I really like the dimensions of this and the fact there was so much cardstock visible.

My own version is an 8x8 for my Book of Me. I used the Twirl Collection from Crate Paper, oooh I love this stuff so much, its so girlie and sweet.

Off now to do loads more scrapping :-) Happy Easter to all, enjoy all the yummy chocolate!

As promised...

... the complete LO. This is inspired by a wonderful poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer called The Invitation. As soon as I read the words, I knew I wanted to scrap it some how, without using pictures (an unusual departure for me). The Basic Grey papers were just perfect for this LO. The pocket holds a booklet with the complete poem, so the recipient can dip into it every now and then... and if his reaction was anything to go by, I know he appreciated it. I am planning on doing a series of canvases based on this poem pour moi, so I'll keep you posted on there progress.

If you get a chance read the poem (see link above), keep coming back to it, pick out the bits that are meaningful to you. Every time I read it, there is something new and profound. At this moment in time my favourite piece is...

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

M.I.A.

Ok..... I know I've been missing in action and its been sooooo long since I updated this thing but sometimes real life gets in the way of cyber life and truly that is a great thing! A few things have happened since last I posted, all good...

...But firstly this evening I gave my over grown lawn a bit of a hack, the smell of the freshly cut grass gave me a sense that summer is really on its way and so to celebrate I decided to refresh the blog too by giving it a new banner dedicated to the spring season. So make yourself a coffee, pull up a chair, we could be here awhile.

Work is really progressing with loads of training envolved. Last week I was in Dublin over night and met up with the ever talented Lainey, we had a fab night going to see a friend of hers art exhibition, then later catching up over a few drinkies. I'm also heading to Brussels for more training the day after Crafteire and all I can think of is all that yummy chocolate I'll have to sample while there :-) Gosh, I have it hard, LOL!

My wonderful Mum had her 70th birthday party two weekends ago, so there was alot of preperation envolved, not only organising the event but also making a few things for her too :-) The weekend was amazing with loads of pampering in the Renaissance Suite at the Radisson in Limerick. If you ever want to treat yourself (go on you deserve it!) I'd hightly recommend this place, all I can say is WOW!!!! Her girls are taking her to London for the weekend as her birthday gift (we gotta treat ourselves too), another gift she got was from my niece Deborah and it was a voucher for a tattoo... and yes she did at the age of 69 my Mother got her first tattoo, I'm so proud :-)

On the scrappy front besides Scrap West and making the gifts for my Mum, there's loads of creative projects on the go. At the moment I'm mainly getting ready for Crafteire, the classes are nearly finished. I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone, taking a few classes and buying loads and loads of stash! I've just finished an A4 LO using the scrummy Basic Grey Scarlet Letters papers. As its a gift I can only show you a teeny piece of it but I'll post up the full LO soon... promise!...


.... Oh yeah and there is someone putting a smile on my face these days too, thought I'd sneak that one in :-)

So thats all the news, yeah its been busy, but sure life is good and thats all that matters. I hope all you wonderful creative ladies are all well, can't wait to see you soon.

Eva x

What a weekend!

There is hush over the house with soft music playing in the background. However a few hours ago the house was filled with the sound of 4 talented women laughing, joking, crafting and telling their stories :-) Thanks ladies for the making the journey far and wide and for your wonderful company.

Alot of the LO's I did are for the Scarpwest Blog for the next few weeks, so I can't show them at the moment. However we started yesterday with Scraplifting a LO from Kimmy on Pencil Lines which was based on a Sketch by Ali Edwards. Check out it here.

I used part of the Kit from Annamarie in the Scrapbookstore, it really is fab!!!!! It so suits the Irish blue light, which is so evident in all our outdoor shots. The size isn't as wide as A4, it was what was left over from a previous LO.

Friday after work, I went to dinner with the girls from work, we had a gorgeous meal in Copper and Spice and little drinkie in the pub afterwards. Here's to many more 'end of month' nights out.

P.S. Thanks Donna ;-) via Tigger for pointing out where I work :-)

First Confession

With the run up to the Holy Communion the kids were preparing all week for their First Confession. Walking to the Church every day, learning prayers and songs. Ealier yesterday on the way to the church Shona tripped and grazed her Knee quite badly, she was fine, justy needed a little TLC.

Shona has been saying for a long time she doesn't want to do her Holy Communion as everyone will be staring at her going up the aisle and that she is way too shy... I told her the only ones who will be staring at her is her family. She seemed ok with this and happy to proceed - phew!

Anyways last night (Valentines - awwwwww) was the night they had to do their First Confession. Shona was excited, nervous, shy(?) and happy all in one - her words! It was beautifully organised, really nice, nothing OTT! Each of the kids had a role to play in the cermony, which was just a few prayers and loads of songs. I noticed my one has got her Mammy's singing voice. LOL!

2 Priests were on either side of the alter and the children went up one at a time to confess their sins. I was thinking it was very public way to confess, but when Shona's Dad said it was better than a quiet dark room, the penny dropped!

Shona got up at the end with a few school mates and did the actions to the Our Father (Gaeilge). It was so cute! I was thinking how angelic she was, however when she finished she hobbled down the church (her knee was at her) with everyone staring and I was thinking to myself, please don't let her notice that everyone is looking - phew!

Roll on May 12th!

Been Busy!

Oh its been awhile since I've posted. I've been really busy with work (which i love). I also went back to Curves to get fit and hopfully loose a little weight while I'm at it :-) My sister and I were also making my Mum's invites for her 70th birthday in March. We got them finished last night after 2 bottles of vino :-) I even got a few hand-delivered today, just have to work on her calendar, which will be given to each guest at her party.

Annamarie from the Scrapbook Store asked me to be the Designer for this month. She sent me the most gorgeous papers and Coasters from Chloe's Closet called Six Below Zero and scrummy rub-ons from Heidi Swapp. While Tigger was in the U.S. she picked me up some fab tins for altering, as soon as I saw the papers I knew I had to use one of the tins and photographs from St Stephens Day.

A LO of my Sister and Mum on our St Stephens day walk in Castleconnell :-)


A couple of Birthday cards :-)

Thanks Annamrie, i really loved using this wonderful kit!

Blue Monday

Today the 22nd of January is offfically the most depressing day of the year according to psychologists..... between the bills from Christmas, cold weather and the holiday season being over. Well all i can say is if today is the worst day of the year then I'm for a great year :-)

Today the company i was temping for offered me a full time job (well actually a 9 month contract). I am over the moon. So here's to 2007 :-)

Tagged

I've been tagged for the first tme by Tigger, Kate, Caroline, so here it goes:

A - Available/Single? Single
B- Best Friend? Louise, Viv and Fiona
C- Cake or Pie? Yummy Choc cake please :-)
D - Drink Of Choice? Coffee and Beer
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Deodrant LOL!
F - Favorite Colour? Pink
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Oh please worms of course, the jelly ones i mean.
H - Home or Homesick? Hom
I - Indulgence? Aveno cream, lasts about a week
J - January Or February? January, new start to the year.
K - Kids & Their Names? Shona
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? My family
M - Marriage date? April 1st 2009 (LOL)
.N - Number Of Siblings? 1 Sister and 4 Brothers
O - Oranges Or Apples? Oranges
P- Phobias/Fears? Claustrophobia and spiders
Q - Favorite Quote: "Here's a stick to beat the lovely with" The Quiet man
R - Real Hair Color? Blonde, inside and out!
S - Season? Spring
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? The girls i know who have blogs have done this, so I won't be passing it on :-(
U - Unknown Fact About Me? I was Queen of Puck Fair at the age of 12 (cringe, LOL)
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Tomatoes, or is that a fruit!?
W - Worst Habit? Putting things off!
X - X-rays You’ve Had? On both Ankles
Y - Your Favorite Food? Lobster with butter
Z - Zodiac Sign? Cancer

St Stephens Day

After the excess of stuffing our faces on Christmas Day we usually pick a place local to walk. This year we picked Castleconnell. The weather was fantastic, so crisp. After our walk we fed the swans and even found Santa's robin ;-)

Merry Christmas 2006

Oh what a wonderful Christmas :-) We started the day opening Shona's pressies from Santa Claus at 9.30 (imagine we got to sleep in). Shona and her Dad went visiting his realtions while I got the dinner ready. Buddy, Eve, Louise, Shona and I had a yummy dinner loads of laughs and plenty of drink. Dad went to bed early, so I didn't get any after dinner photos :-(


Merry Christmas to one and all :-)

24 hours later

this is what i've made from my shrunken felted jumper:



This will be a Christmas pressie for my sister. I can safely post it here as she doesn't read Blogs (imagine someone left in the world who doesn't know about Blogs).

Happy Christmas to my Big Blister :-)

Waiting for Mr Postie

I'm sitting here waiting for Mr Postie to arrive, not because I'm waiting on scrappy parcels or even more Christmas cards, but because I've a little pressie for him :-)

Yesterday, as part of my unemployment, I decided Shona and I should Bake! I haven't done any baking for about 4 years, mainly due to work and being so knackered, LOL! And I must say its like riding a bike, except you can't back pedal when baking. We made Banana Bread and aslo Choc Chip cookies :-) We had loads of cookie dough left over so this morning at breakfast I cooked the remainder of the dough. They were in the oven a little bit too long :-) but sure they still taste sweet (must be all the sugar). So this year instead of an envelope of money or a bottle of vino, Mr Postie is getting a box of cookies (slightly over-done ones).

I've set myself a challenge! While going through the wash basket, which holds clean clothes that neve find their way back upsairs , I found a jumper I had shrunk over the summer. I was about to through it out when I decided to re-cycle it. I have an idea of what I'm going to do and I'm giving myself 24 hours to come up with a Christmas gift for my sister (along with her altered journal).

Alter Me

This weeks theme on the Scrap West blog was Alter Me. I've been altering things for the last few weeks and kinda had run out of new ideas so I decided to use the title for a LO. I did however alter the Basic Grey undressed monograms with mini photogrpahs of me and used glossy accents to seal the letters. I alos used the gorgeous Crate Paper which is the most devine paper in the world!

With what happened in work last week, I kept thinking if I just kept my BIG mouth shut I'd still be working, but really and trully I believe they had no intention in renewing the contract. And I suppose learning to stand up for myself hasn't been easy so I am proud that I did do it. So today isn't one of those days!

Deja-Vu

John (Shona's Dad): I have a note here in Shona's bag to bring in her Elf outfit tomorrow

Me: Her What????

John: She's the 4th Elf in a christmas play, she needs to bring in her outfit tomorrow.

Me: Wow, just got a feeling of Deja-vu, right I'll be there in an hour.

This is how the conversation went on wednesday at about 5.30pm, just as I was finishing work for the day. Now where was one supposed to get a cheap elf outfit at this time of the evening??? I headed off to Dunnes Stores in search of anything green or red, trying to picture in my head what an elf looks like, surely anything green and red would do!?

The only thing I could find in the right colour was a green ladies 3/4 lenght sleeve v-neck in a size 8-10 (its been soooo long since i bought anything in a size 8-10, LOL).

When I got to John's I sent him searching for a few other things like a brown belt, some boots, a red top and a santa hat. Et Viola, one little Elf.

This is so cool...

.. found a great online slide show thingie and had great fun messing around with it. Here's what i came up with which has a festive flavour :-). Check out the site rockyou dot com.


| View Show | Create Your Own

Christmas Journal

Yay, got the journal started at last... using the gorgeous SEI christmas papers. Also started the first page of the journal, hopfully i can keep this up :-)

8th December

Tonight is the night for Scrap West blog load ups. This weeks theme is called "Autumn" set by Annamarie :-) Not having a decent Autumn photo i was left with a bit of a problem, so i decided not to do a photo LO, or to even use typical Autumn colours and yes Autumn normally doesn't have flowers, artistic license. yeah right, LOL!


I love these yummy papers from the Twirl Collection from Crate Papers. I was very careful when cutting the scraps, so as to keep as much as possible for future projects.

By the way, a little birdie told me there is something happening at Scrap West in the next few weeks. Keep posted, I know I will! LOL!

7th December - a little hiccup

Headline:

"Irish Charity leaves Single Mother go 3 days before Christmas"

Could you even imagine that??? They wouldn't, would they? Well I can tell you, yes they can!!! I have been given notice today, that my contract will not be renewd on the 22nd of December. The reason? Not for my lack of work, not for lack of puntuality but as a few of you reading this will know, for being bullied. I stood up to the person that bullied me and it has been thrown back in my face. I was told he can no longer work with me..... So there you go!

I still reckon, if you are being bullied you have to face up to them, for so long i got stressed because i let bosses Bully me, in fear of loosing my job.... ok i know i still lost my job in this case but i took the control back. I'm am very proud of the way i handled this as its only a job!!! My mental health is much more important.

I'll be celebrating with my gorgeous daughter tonight by eating chinese and drinking beer. Christmas will be a little smaller but i have been given the best gift today. Self Esteem.

4th December

Just began making our Christmas Cards and have decided to do a mix of styles, mainly so I don't get bored making the same card over and over and over, here are 2 samples of this years cards.... so far!

A simple and quick doodled card using a little glossy accents to high light the berries and leaves.

A gorgeous stamp from Craft Supplies, screaming out to be used. I decided not to use traditional colours and go with pink and blue instead.

3rd December....

... i know its the 4th but was slightly hung over on Sunday and really had to finish my list of things to do over the weekend...

1. drink huge amounts of beer x2
2. have a hangover x2
3. sleep til 12 (10.30 and 9.30)
4. Get Crimbo Deco's down from attic Done
5. Clean the house some what Done - to be honest 2 rooms
6. and if there is time left over .............. might get a bit of scrapping done :-) No :-(

Our tradtion (of 3 years LOL) is to put up the decorations while watching the re-run of the Toy Show, which we did again this year. Shona as usual helped with the first few decorations but after awhile it was left to me, which of course i don't mind :-) Another tradition we have is to have little crackers on the tree (2 euro store types) and Shona gets to pull a cracker every day on the run up to Christmas day. This year we have Dennis the Menace, Shona's favourite character!

Anyways here are a few photos of our Christmas Tree:

My favourite decoration: I love this little angle, her knitted jumper and her wooden wings. I bought this while I was working in Carraig Donn about 3 years ago. She doesn't get put up on the tree but has pride of place on the mantle.

Over the next few weeks Shona and I will pick up a few new decorations which will get added to ther tree :-)

What will my Obituray say?

Not to sound too morbid but I thought this was hilarious!!!

'What" will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

The muppets thing I understand as that's the ringtone on my mobile (freaky) but a hot tub??? LOL!

What would yours say?

2nd December

1. drink huge amounts of beer Done
2. have a hangover Done
3. sleep til 12 (does 10.30 count LOL) ... and I've got to do it all over again tonight with John and Ray!!! The photo above is my drunken attempt at a capturing Ray and myself, it looked more in focus at 2am this morning, wonder why that was, LOL.

Also went to Curves this morning, to sweat the hangover out :-) so I reckon extra bonus points.

Was in a bit of a rush last night uploading the Scrapwest Blog but it got done on time. Yet again wonderful work by all the talented ladies :-) The theme was If The Hat Fits set by Noelle.


Ok off now to have a cuppa and start cleaning the house for the Crimbo decorations..

1st December

Happy First of December.... I have major plans to make this the best Christmas EVER... mind you I say that every December 1st , then next thing its Christmas Eve and nothing is done. As we are having Christmas in my house this year I want to chronicle as much of the holiday as possible. So camera and 5x5 album are both at the ready to be inspired.... On the subject of inspiration Coco is doing a wonderful project on her blog, i may not be able to do something every day, but will be certainly be using as much of her ideas as inspiration for the Christmas Journal.

In the meantime my Social life is gone from 0 to 60, its like a feast or a famine, between the Dream Ball last weekend, 2 Birthdays this weekend and a Christmas "Do" next weekend I'll be exhausted. Oh I love this time of year :-) all I need now is someone to kiss under the mistletoe :-x

Ok, so the plan for the weekend is:
1. drink huge amounts of beer
2. have a hangover
3. sleep til 12
4. Get Crimbo Deco's down from attic
5. Clean the house some what
6. and if there is time left over .............. might get a bit of scrpping done :-)