Billy Bargain!!!!

Woke up to the news today that I won 2 sets of the new Hero Arts Clear by Design stamps from US Ebay for the grand total of £10 including shipping!!!

Not bad considering they're being sold in shops over here for £13.50 a set!! I know I already have the "J" and "M" sets coming for Christmas so that only leaves another 22 sets to get hold of! LOL!

Looking good!

Had my anomaly scan yesterday and the baby is looking great and growing at the normal rate. When we first saw it it was sucking it;'s thumb but then decided to play hide and seek with the sonographer and was moving around everywhere: We still don't know if it's a boy or girl and that's the way it's going to stay right up until it's born. Both boys think it's going to be a girl but we'll have to wait and see.

Today, OH has gone to his model railway club monthly meeting so the kids and I are at home. They're quite happily playing with their Star Wars Lego and I'm hoping to get some crafting done as I've done hardly any recently.I did make 3 ATCs last night for the Christmas swap I'm hosting on the Pad but I have loads more to make. I keep thinking of loads of ideas but then forgetting them all!! I'm dying to have a play around with my Pearl-ex and black Perfect Medium so will have to have a think about that.

Burning a hole..........

in my pocket.. well my birthday money was - until I spent it!!! Went to the garden centre and craft shop and came back with 2 black Perfect Medium pens, a daisy stamp, 2 cute little 3" x 3" board books (£2 for the two!), lilac embossing powder, silver Perfect Pearls, some lilac and aqua Bazzill, some Chloe's Closet papers and another DCWV 8.5" x 11" cardstock stack. Then on to Ebay for more double-sided tape and a Marvy blender pen. Then this morning I have been tempted to shop with the lovely Jill and have ordered some of the new sheets of Scrapworks Rubz, some Wholy Cow rub-ons, 2 sets of Technique Tuesday stamps and a set of Stampendous stamps. (For someone who said they'd never get in to rubber stamps I seem to be doing quite well!)LOL!

Mum asked me last night about what I wanted for Christmas and as she does about 90% of her shopping online I've sent her a link to Banana Frog with a great long list of stamps I'd like but also pointed her in the direction of the new Hero Arts Clear Designs stamps at Happystampers . That should keep her busy for a while!

Matthew is off school again today (was off yesterday too) with a weepy eye- not quite conjunctivitis but they like him to be kept off. Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow otherwise we'll have to drag him up to the hospital when I go for my scan. They should be able to do it properly this time as I'm now officially 19 weeks today! Only another 21 to go and then the baby's guaranteed to be late anyway!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Yep - yesterday I reached the grand old age of 37 which the kids aren't going to let me forget!! Day started as it usually does with me getting them ready for school and then I had an appointment with the midwife. I was all psyched up for it as we were supposed to be getting the results from my triple blood test (which gives an estimate of the risk of Down's, spina bifida and cerebral palsy etc) but the midwife hasn't had them back yet, after 2 weeks, so I was psyched up for nothing! Apart from that everything was fine although baby does seem to be a bit of a "wriggle-bum" and didn't want to stay still to have it's heartbeat listened to at all! If the baby ends up looking anything like this I feel sorry for it!! Yep and embarrassing photo of me eating chocolate pudding! After the appointment it was off to Tesco where OH bought a birthday cake for me then back home for lunch. He went off for a walk on Dartmoor after that and I had a play around with my gorgeous new Brilliance and Versamagic Dew Drop inks that I chose a few weeks ago and had to wait for my birthdya to have. I also had some of the K&Co Addison papers and OH bought me the new Meat Loaf CD. My parents came around in the afternoon with my card and pressie - 4 sets of Marvy Le PLume II pens which I've been craving recently- and stayed for a cup of tea. After that it was a normal evening although I did treat myself to chicken enchiladas for tea - YUM!!! Had a play around on Ebay in the evening as OH was watching "I'm a Celebrity" - managed to get 2 fairly recent copies of the US Papercrafts mag which I love and also a Scrap and Stamp Arts mag as that looked quite good. This morning I'm aiming to go to the bank shortly to pay in a couple of cheques and then I may saunter off to either the local craft shop or the craft section in a large local garden centre to see if there's anything I fancy to spend some birthday money on!!!

Slap my wrists please!!!

Just been to my local craft shop and spent some money - ie: blown my budget for this month! Came out armed with a pack of American Crafts mini rub-ons (accents book 2), lilac acrylic paint, 3 bottles of stickles - lavender, aqua and frosted lace, 2 American Crafts Glitter Gems pens in aquamarine and purple kunzite (?!?!) and 3 metres of aqua ribbon!! Christmas card making here we come!

Scan, weekend and oven!!!

Well, had the scan on Friday morning and as I suspected my dates have been changed slightly and going by the size of the baby it's now due on April 12th.

I have to go back for another scan in 2-3 weeks time so they can do a proper anomaly scan and measure all the "bits" but it's looking pretty good in there so far!

Had a great weekend up in Wiltshire. Fireworks on Friday night were amazing as always but it was absolutely freezing outside. I was realy gobsmacked when both the boys had sparklers that their cousin had bought them. I would have thought that Matthew wouldn't go near them!

Saturday we went to a garden centre for a look around and they just happened to have a craft shop. OH told me that if I wanted something that I could choose up to £x worth and the boys could get it for my upcoming birthday so I have some of the K & Co Addison papers and quite a few of the gorgeous new Versamagic and Brilliance Dew Drop ink pads. I was looking for the chalk ink queues as I quite fancy those thanks to Natty but the shop didn't have them. After the garden centre we went to Mothercare World in Swindon to have a look at pushchairs, highchairs and travel cots as these are the only big things we need for the baby and we can't look at everything in our local shop but we weren't that impressed with the selection apart from maybe a travel cot. The boys wanted to buy a toy for the baby but we managed to make them wait for a while!! After that it was off to Toys R'Us where the boys spent their birthday money on some Lego Star Wars and we managed to find a suitable highchair and pushchair. It's very difficult trying to find a pushchair that a 6'4" OH can push comfortably but we think we've found one!

Yesterday it was time to say goodbye to the family and then back home we came. As usual I ended up with a headache after driving for a while but managed to sleep that off in the afternoon. Was merrily cooking tea for us last night and had got the boys sorted - just our tea left in the oven when I opened the door and thought the oven didn't feel as hot as it should do! Pigging thing had no heat at all ao after finding something else for us both to eat PH took it apart and found that the element had blown so this morning it was off into town to buy a new one. Luckily OH is off work today and has managed to fit the new element so we can eat cooked tea tonight!!

Hoping to maybe do some scrapping/ cardmaking of some sort soon. Keep seeing things I'd really like to try and then when it comes to getting all my stash out I have no interest whatsoever. I think I just need to make myself do it!

Happy Birthday Jamie!!!!

7 today!!!! and still as gorgeous as ever!!!

He opened some presents and cards this morning but later after he comes home from school Granny and Pops will be here with more pressies and then he's having a roast for tea followed by a Dalek birthday cake.

I really should have timed my kid's birthdays better - Matthew's was less than 3 weeks ago and it'll be Christmas in just under 8 weeks! At least the next child will have a birthday in a different month!

Tomorrow morning I have my one and only scan to check my due date and that the baby is developing OK. It's awful having to wait until 18-20 weeks to get a dating scan as many places do it at around 12 weeks. I have a feeling they'll put my dates back about 10 days but we'll just have to wait and see. The boys aren't coming with us although they did come with me to my midwife appointment on Monday and were quite chuffed that they got to hear baby's heartbeat for the first time.

I'm half expecting them to tell me tomorrow that the baby looks like a chilli due to the amount of chilli crisps I've been eating recently - well either a chilli or curry and rice!!! At least it won't look like a chocolate bar as I've developed a real aversion to chocolate!

After the scan we're off for the weekend in Wiltshire at OH's uncle's house as we do this time each year. Their village has a massive firework display of which we have a great view from their garden so we set up a huge gazebo, gas barbecue, heaters and the obligatory mulled wine and have a great evening. All OH's family are there - sister and her family, Mum and step-dad, cousins etc and we have a whale of a time.

Next week I'm doing a special tea for Jamie and a couple of his friends from school as there was no way I could have done a party tonight and get ready for tomorrow but at least it gives him something else next week to look forward to.

Right - off to tidy up now before my Mum comes over later. One day she'll stop running her fingers along the mantelpiece looking for dust - won't she?!?!