Faking It!

No not an bogus injury from the car crash it's the title of the midweek challenge from the girls at DCM.

Fee Fi Fo Fum.....For our Little Extra challenge this week, we'd like you to "Go Faux it" Yes, all we want you to do this week is to use something fake on your cards. For instance you could make fake ribbon, fake brads or fake chipboard - we think you talented folk can come up with lots more "let's pretend" ideas so we can't wait to see your ideas.

I needed to make another birthday card for another Nephew so doubled up on this one. He loves trucks so thought I would adapt the train idea. I have done faux stitching on the truck and it's load and the buttons on the wheels are faux too. Not very happy with this one but I have 10 cards to make and only this afternoon to do them in so time isn't on my side. 2 down 8 to go!

On the car crash side of things I think I have got a hire car sorted out and it should hopefully be arriving at 11am tomorrow morning and I have been promised an estate car. It has taken until lunch time today and numerous phone calls over the last 4 days to get it but fingers crossed I am finally there! Just got to fill in the report form and draw my little pictures and I should be done with it until we get back from the sun.

Rach

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FROM BAD TO WORSE

I am now just about ready to scream or kill someone - preferably the idiot that ran into me on Friday night. I have spent ALL day on the phone to various places and I still haven't got a hire car and time is running out before we have to go on our hols. It started at lunch time when I was told that without the other party's name and address they couldn't do anything a bit difficult as I couldn't get this info on Friday as he was unconscious and fitting at the scene. I then had to phone the police to get the details who told me they couldn't tell them to me because of data protection so I gave my insurance people the number who phoned for the details and were told that the details could only be given to me because of data protection. I phoned the police back and eventually got the mans details including his insurance policy number - great I thought. I passed these over and was then told that I still couldn't have a car as they had to speak to a witness to confirm that I didn't do anything wrong and that they would get the money back from his insurance people. Guess what - the witness I have the number for was out at work so I still have no car. Then to top it off I have been told that my car is probably going to be written off but we won't know until Thursday and this in turn will effect my car hire. Apparently as soon as it is written off I won't be covered for car hire so will have to foot the bill myself.
I think I will be needing more than a holiday by the time Friday comes around!! We will just have to see what tomorrow brings - hopefully it will be something with a shiny body, 4 wheels and a large boot!! Lol

Rach
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Ongoing Saga

It took all of Saturday morning on the phone to various people but I did get somewhere - not sure where though. I had to phone the police station to find out where my car was then I had to phone them to see if it could be fixed - the jury is out on the one at the moment. Then came the all important call to the insurance people. They have kindly said that they will take on my case !?! which baffled me just a little bit as surely that's what I am paying for. This was after they asked me if I could keep the car on my drive - I think not with Brake fluid and oil leaking everywhere. I am still waiting for a phone call about a hire car as I should be getting it today but as of yet nothing and that's with me phoning twice this morning already. I am starting to get a bit flustered about it as I have to contact the Ferry place and the holiday place about the new car and I have no idea how much stuff will fit in it, but we have been told that it should be an estate.
I got a phone call off the police yesterday to say that the man, who is Portuguese, was unhurt and was arrested at the hospital as he was drink driving and will be up in court soon - I hope they throw the book at him, hard. He was driving his wife's car and was insured so that is something.
I suppose I will go and wait some more to hear about my hire car!

Rach
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CRASH ! BANG ! WOLLOP WHAT A FRIDAY !!

To say I had a bad Friday the 13th is an understatement just remind me next time we have one to stay in bed!!

Last night we went merrily along to Warrington in our nice Ford Focus Estate, which incidentally will carry our family and all the camping gear we need quite happily to France. We had to go to MIL house to pick up her small car, as she is very kindly letting us use it while she is in Oman, which is a God send over the school holidays I can tell you. We thought while we were there we would do our shopping at the rather huge Tesco rather than our very small Asda and then we headed for home with me in front in the estate.

So I happily pull out of Tesco at about 9.20pm in the drizzle and about 2 minutes later I am at a huge roundabout sitting waiting for a car to pass me. Thank god at this point I checked to see if I was clear as what can only be described as a maniac was coming from the road to my right onto the roundabout at an amazing speed. All I could do was sit and watch what happened next as he hit the kerb, span round and headed towards me at speed. I was still stationery when he hit me on my drivers door, thankfully his car had spun round so that his car hit me sideways on rather than head on. Smoke started to pour out of my car and all I heard was a woman (from the car behind) shouting "It's on fire" the smell was awful (later I found out it was brake fluid). My drivers door was knackered so I climbed out of the passenger door, very quickly, and then proceeded to shake - lots! The other driver was blocked in by the front end of my car, which had stopped smoking, and he had started to fit and foam at the mouth and I didn't look to close but they were saying he had blood on his head. By this time Pete had caught up and pulled over and I just fell into his arms sobbing. The next thing I know we have sirens going everywhere and about 6 police cars, an ambulance and a fire engine turned up. I was checked over and deemed OK and then I was bundled into a police car to give details and to warm up as I only had a t-shirt on. I was given a breath test which I passed with a big fat 0 and they gave me the mouth piece to keep as a souvenir.

Time was pretty muddled up then but I am sure the other man was stuck in the car, fitting most of the time, for at least 45 minutes until the fire men could cut him out. My car is now sitting in a police pound somewhere in Warrington waiting to see if it can be fixed !!

I am still a little shaky and didn't get much sleep last night but other than that there doesn't seem much wrong. My arm feels a little heavier than normal but I presume I banged my shoulder on the window as I remember banging my head and my hip too. I don't think I hit anything hard as my tank hardly moved compared to his Saxo and there are certainly no bruises or tender parts on me.

All I can say is a huge thank you to my wonderful husband who spent hours looking cars up when we bought this one to find the safest family car he could. I wouldn't have thought to look for a car with an anti something bar in the doors but it certainly saved me last night.

I asked the police if the other bloke was going to be OK and they said he would be it just looked worse than it was and I wasn't to worry. I know it sounds harsh but I'm not, if you drive like he was you are asking for trouble and I am just so glad it wasn't me that had to be cut out and taken to hospital and that there were no children in the cars as he did have a baby seat in his.

I just have form filling, picture drawing, document producing, phone call making to look forward to now. I am going to have to try to get a courtesy car that will fit a family in with a vast amount of camping gear and get us to France and back. Wish me luck!!

Rach

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A for Amphibian

I really couldn't resist sharing this with everyone on HS:MS. I am pretty sure the ugly large frog is eating the pretty small frog for lunch either that or the small one is tired or cold and the big one is helping him out! We didn't stick around long enough to see if he finished off his greens. LOL

I have just looked it up and Frog Cannibalism is quite common - apparently it's the frogs way of regulating the froggy population so that we don't get too many around. You learn something every day.

Visit to the Haberdashery Department ...

G'day all, Gillian here, and it's my turn to dare you all this week
Your card can be any theme you like, just as long as it's got something you'd find in a Haberdashery Department on it
Alright then, grab that old sewing basket of yours or raid your sewing machine drawer, have a look at what creative bits are hiding away there....maybe it's buttons, a zip, hook & eye's, ribbons, braids, Dressmaking patterns, tape measures,Pins & Needles, lace, safety pins or embroidery thread....
so many wonderful little treasures just waiting to be added to your next card :O)
I'm going to add one more rule....
Yes you may stitch on your card, but that can't be your only haberdashery item....

This challenge was great fun as I could double up and make my Nephew Sam's birthday card at the same time. As well as some stitching I used some press studs for the wheels on the train.

Basic Grey paper, another paper from the back of my drawer, blue, black and brown card stock and my cricut machine. Ooh forgot to mention the green and brown inks.

I have been a bad blogger this week as my step sister Rachel has been visiting, from Newcastle, with her 3 year old and 1 year old for a couple of days. I spent a very fun morning with them at a play barn dressing action men, in bizarre combinations of clothes with Patrick who is very insistent about everything. Things get very confusing when she is here with 2 Rach's around. My Mother In Law returned to Oman yesterday so after 4 weeks we are visitor less :( just in time for me to start thinking about going away on a much deserved break to hotter climes. Got a ton of cards to make before I go for myself and commissions. It seems like everyone has got a birthday or anniversary in July and August you would think they would spread them out through the year a bit more evenly!!! Lol Then when I get back I suppose I had better start thinking about Christmas cards or I'll end up buying mine again.

Kyle has nearly finished Primary school and got his very good school report on Monday which included his SATS results - well some of them anyway. He got a 5 in Maths and a 5 in Science but all the English results have been sent back for remarking as there were a lot of discrepancies but his teacher is expecting him to get a 4. We are soooo very proud of his behaviour and results. He must take after me as I have just done the IQ test off Suzyb's site and apparently I am a Universal Genius - I've been telling people that for years but they never believed me !! Lol

Rach
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CPS #20 ... More Stars!

I used the last CPS challenge to make a card for my nephews birthday in a couple of week.

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White Linen Card stock

Basic Grey Oh Baby Boy - Cannon

Basic Grey Gypsy

Orange card stock

Free beads from Magazine

Ribbon - ?

Bad hand sewing!!

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Not really done much today other than make a card even though it has not rained for the first time in what feels like forever! We did take a run out to Dagfields this afternoon where I bought some greyboard that will double up for chipboard (thanks Sheila). We are sitting watching Wimbledon playing spot the Gran as she is in the front row on centre court today - we are either crap at this game or she is hiding from us as we haven't spotted her yet! Off to the MIL later on for tea and that is always an experience. Lol

Rach

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DCM - TEXT MESSAGE & FIRST EVER LAYOUT

The photograph of this is pretty naff but this is my first every layout. I have been meaning to try scrap booking for about 3 years now, that's how old the frame is, but never got round to it. The other night provided the ideal opportunity to start when my Aunt suggested we did a photo collage for my Gran for her birthday showing our day out on the canal. In the past I have always started to get the bits and pieces out to make a page/picture and then given up as I never know where to start. I have loads of bags under the stairs with ticket stubs, bottle caps, paper bags, pins and all sorts of other junk in for various layouts that I have thought of and it all just sits there day after day desperate for attention. Hopefully now that I have managed the first scary layout, in a fit of panic, I will be able to improve my techniques and manage to give these lost and lonely items some love and attention. Lol

The top right of the picture reads birthday girl as Georgie was thrilled with the Pink Birthday Girl banner and balloons that we put up on the inside of the boat. Hence the pink theme and the flowers tied in to the Pink Lei (not sure if that's how you spell it) that we gave her to wear all day.

TEXT MESSAGE

Well, this week the Design Team have come up with this idea for you to play with, we hope you'll enjoy it.

TEXT...
definition... the main body of matter in a book or manuscript. the actual wording of anything written or printed, short passage of scripture, etc

We'd like you to somehow incorporate text into your cards this week - not just one word.. but a portion of TEXT... like a poem, or newspaper print, Calligraphy, Even rip up an old text book and use some of the paper from it, there are masses of possibilities here, so let your imaginations run riot and let us see you texting to your heart's content!

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Here's my take on this weeks challenge. Sorry I don't know what the papers are as they were stuffed at the back of my draw. I used a birthday definition stamp with pink ink, a dream designs flower and some machine sewing (I don't do hand it's too slow and I always prick myself) Lol

Rach

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Nearly Back

Just a quick post so you can see why I have not been around for the last week then I am off to lie down with a thumping headache. Our wonderful relatives have now all gone home and left us :( and we won't see them for another year until we celebrate Pete's 40th birthday with them in Canada. We have had a great time over the last week or so despite the awful weather and can't wait to see them again! ** Huge waves and hugs to Lyn, Claire, Chris and Nick **

Rach
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HS:MS - Filigree & DCM - Love

Ornamental fine wire work.

I had 2 choices today, I could go up to the attic and route around for a couple of hours trying to find the filigree Christmas angel that is somewhere up there or I could use the lamp in the Living room and hope it passes as filigree. Guess which one I went for!!

I would like to thank everyone for their kind words about Pete, yesterday. He has just taken himself off to the hospital so should be feeling a lot better by lunch time. The fun will begin when he comes home at tea time full of bounce and energy and annoyingness. It's just like having a huge 5 year old in the house who can't sit still, fidgets, plays practical jokes and generally winds everyone up - it's great as he makes me laugh so much!

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I made this card last night to fit in with the DCM midweek challenge.

So what Little Extra treat have we dreamed up for you to play with this week?
Well, there's a lot of wedding talk around on the design team with two weddings coming up soon. So inspired by this we'd like you to put some LOVE into your cards this week. Wedding, Anniversary, Engagement or simply to say "I love You" - there are lots of opportunities to get lovey-dovey and slushy, so get out all the romantic stash out and show us what you can do. After all, you know what they say;"All you need is Love, Love, Love"

I used red, white and brown card stock, black cotton, brown brads and some black and brown ink pads.

Rach
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CPS #19

I'm on a roll today! I know it won't last long so I am making the most of it while it lasts. I liked the latest CPS sketch so thought I would double up and make my sister in law's birthday card at the same time. Just hope she doesn't read my blog before her birthday!




I used basic grey papers (as usual), American crafts ribbon, dusky pink card stock and some pink and white inks. The writing round the centre of the flower reads "have a very happy birthday Maire!"

Me thinks I need to stop know and tidy up (I must be the worlds messiest crafter) before the In laws arrive.

Rach
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DCM - Tagged

This week on DCM it is Rhi's turn to dare everyone.

Hi, its Rhi here his week! Wow! What an amazing response for Lythan's {EM}Boss Dare and the FABULOUS little extra. It's great to see so many inspired cardmakers, thank you to each and every one of you who has joined in and shared your creation.

Now onto this weeks dare...

Everything we buy has packaging, some of it excessive, some of it beautifully designed. Tags, labels, stickers... all sorts of bits and bobs that we can recycle onto cards.I dare you to make a card using a tag, label, sticker or anything else you can find, thats from packaging and would normally end up in the bin. Of course you can ink it, change it, distress it and add anything else you like!

If you're feeling brave, I DOUBLE DARE you to make it a card for a man!

I was lucky with this one as I bought a pair of jeans last week and they had this tag on them and the blue ribbon. I also used basic grey paper, blue card stock, brown ink pad and some brown brads from my stash, oh and a little bit of sewing. No idea who I'm going to send it too!!

Rach

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HS:MS - Sit

A round, deep dish.

Today's picture is of the fire bowl on the patio but as you can see it is more like a gold fish bowl after all the rain we had yesterday!

Not a very exciting day here yesterday I am afraid as I just played catch up most of the day. We did have a phone call from the hospital saying that Pete's blood test results were back after only 3 hours. His blood count is at 75 which is not good as he should be more like 160 - 180. Another phone call at 8.30 this morning told him that he is booked in for 3 units of the red stuff tomorrow. So yet another thank you has to go out to all the amazing people who regularly donate blood as without them, and his fantastic nurses, Pete would have been dead a long time ago.

He did start out to work this morning, got there, sat in the car and then came home again as he felt too sick to go in, which is unusual for Pete (he has only had 2 days off sick in the last 2-3 years). One of the side effects of anemia is nausea which he had this morning. He only really gets it first thing and it then passes off as the morning goes on so he will be in work at lunch time, he is already feeling a lot better and is currently playing on the Wii. We suspect that he is actually pregnant and the Doctor is hiding it from us as he has also been put on Folic Acid tablets! Lol

In total contrast tomorrow night I will have to deal with a hyperactive husband because after he has a transfusion he goes loopy and generally winds up and irritates everyone for a few days which puts us all in a fantastic mood - so roll on the weekend just need the weather to pick up now!!

Rach

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HS:MS - Sit

A position in which we relax.

I have a distinct lack of sitting in my space at the moment! Even the dogs aren't playing as they want to brave the atrocious weather and go on a walk, even if I don't. Kyle is in school, Pete is in work, Claire has gone to Newcastle for a couple of days and Matt has gone to Germany so I am home alone :(

After a bit of thought I have taken a picture of Matt's teddy bear who is sitting on his makeshift bed on Kyles floor (Claire has Matt's room) waiting for him to come home from Germany on Friday.

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We had a good day yesterday as we dragged Claire out of bed and went ten pin bowling in the morning, had some lunch and then took the dogs out on a long walk yesterday afternoon. I get today, tomorrow and Wednesday to myself before the real get up and go starts. Thursday Claire and I are going for a girly day out shopping, Friday Claire, Pete, Kyle and I are hopefully abseiling into Devils Gorge and then picking Matt up, Saturday we may go to Derbyshire and the caves, Sunday is Alton Towers, Monday we have booked a canal barge for the day and Tuesday we have no idea yet but you can guarantee it won't involve much sitting apart from the meal booked at a hotel in the evening.

Pete started with the symptoms of anemia again yesterday so is off for a blood test today to see if he can get an iron infusion on Thursday so all being well he should then be good to go. Bless him he will keep going even if he doesn't get it as can be seen in the photo. He doesn't let his illnesses effect us any more than is necessary - not bad for a man who permanently lives with a blood count of less than half of what it should be!

Rach
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HS:MS - Soap

A product we use to help us clean.

Playing catch up today with a nice seaweed soap we have at the moment. Not easy to take a photo after you have lathered up your hands that much they are silky smooth and slippy!! Lol

Write

To make marks wth a penil , paint or ink.

Hers: Matt doing his Maths homework.

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How handy was the prompt for me (no pun intended). I spent last night sat at the kitchen table with Matt working over his Maths homework which was equations. My initial reaction was to take it to Grandad Clive's today and he could help, Grandad Clive is a retired High School Maths teacher, but blow me, when I got passed the initial confusion of how he has to set it out, I could actually do them!! So we spent a pleasant hour doing equations together on some scrap paper. This meant that this morning Matt had to re-write them neatly in his book, hence the photo opportunity. Just needs to wash his hands now and scrub what there is left of his nails !!!

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Most of yesterday was spent cleaning the boys bedrooms - uuurggghh. There were things in there that I swear were alive at one time or another and by the time I had finished I was hot, sweaty and covered in dirt. It was worth it though as my house is now shining like a new pin, well sort of ish. Now comes the hard part of keeping it that way until Claire arrives here this afternoon. She is actually in the UK now as her Toronto plane should have landed at 7.30am but is expected to land at Heathrow any moment now (7.56am) it will then take them forever to get their bags and collect the car and then there is the drive to Grans and after that up to Cheshire so I don't expect that they will get up here until about 4-5pm this afternoon. A long time to keep the house clean with 2 boys in it! Lol

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Yay the plane landed at 7.55am - TOUCH DOWN!

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Rach

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HS:MS - Straight

Moving or extending in only one direction.

Hers: Bedroom blinds.

When you live in a house that is over a hundred years old it is very difficult to find anything that could remotely pass as straight. Even if the item in question is straight it looks crooked against the wall, floor or any other housy bit that strays into the piccy! I did think about my hair but that would be too much like hard work, washing, drying, straightening. It was lovely and straight yesterday until I got caught out in the hugest downpour of the wet stuff ever, even the cows were sprinting for cover as I walked passed the field.


It's going to be another dreary day here doing nothing but housework. I didn't manage to get much done yesterday due to one thing and another. The postman bought me some interesting mail yesterday, a letter from the mobile phone insurance company saying that Kyle's mobile is not insured as they have never had the receipt or payment details (I gave this job to Pete in good faith about 6 weeks ago and he promptly forgot about it) and an unexpected surprise from Matt's school in the form of his school report. Mmmmm is all I can say really, the words silly, easily distracted, talks too much, doesn't listen enough feature in most lessons! The consensus is he is intelligent (gets that from my side! Lol) but must try harder to reach his full potential. Matt came home from school yesterday and the poor lad had to then sit and listen to me rant at him about the importance of education, he eventually made his escape taking the dogs out for a walk, which is unheard off so I must have been going on. He maybe should have stayed at home as I ended up getting phone calls (about 8 in total) saying the dog had bitten his tongue off and Kyle had walked fully clothed into the river with his new "LG Chocolate" mobile (yes the uninsured one) in his pocket. AAarrrghhh! On their return it turned out that the dogs tongue was slightly cut not bitten off and the mobile was dead. After a lot of tears from Kyle it spent the night tucked up on the radiator and is feeling much better this morning but it did have to endure a lot of jokes last night about it being a hot chocolate.

OMG I have just noticed that you can see the dust on my blinds, off to dust them now!

Rach
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HS:MS - Tea

A drink with jam and bread, that will bring us back to Doh, oh, oh,oh.

His: Think he's given up!

Hers: My favourite tea! Taken very weak, no milk and 2 sweeteners. Your supposed to use 1 tsp of this, I use less than 1/4 so very very weak tea here. So weak in fact that Pete made me a lovely cup of tea the other week with water and a smidge of gravy browning and I didn't notice!!

Back to reality today after my spending spree yesterday, I so needed it though, after over 8 months of not buying anything at all for myself! We had a very nice meal last night which was yummy even though it was fattening so I will just have to run a little bit further today to make up for it or I won't be fitting into my new clothes for long. Matt has his own ideas about my clothes as he told me I looked pregnant in the outfit I wore last night. Don't you just love teenagers! He did then correct himself though and said it looked like I should be pregnant as I was wearing a dress over my trousers, this was after my Mum had told me in the shop that a looked like my Great Aunt with an apron on! My Father In Law did make up for it when he arrived as he said I looked pretty and very young!!! I think that was the point that my chin hit the floor as my mouth fell open, as it was totally unexpected, but it made me feel soooo good.

Well back to the drudgery that is my Thursday, it's that exciting that the highlight is going to be watching "House" tonight. Think I will have a nice cup of tea to start me off, after I have cleaned it up of course.

Rach

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HS:MS - Press

To compress, extract, squeeze, urge and manufacture.

His: Maybe later

Hers: My Sizzix machine.

I have just got back from my shopping trip to Chester, laden down with goodies. As predicted a few things other than underwear jumped into my shopping basket, you really have to watch these jeans, trousers, shorts and tops they are really sneaky!! By the time I noticed they were in there I had already paid and it would have been a shame to put them back at that stage! Lol. My best buys were some funky green knickers (M&S of course), some gorgeous boys fit jeans from Next and some really, really, really cool drinks containers from Lakeland. They are so cool I can't wait to use them. There is a stick in the middle of the bottle that you pull out and freeze so it keeps the drink cool for up to 4 hours and they have there own little bag to carry them in. Totally fabby for our biking holiday to France in the summer!

While we were out Mum treated me to lunch at the Slug and Lettuce where I had some scrummy chicken wings and salad washed down with a large diet coke (much too thirsty for wine). Then to top off an already fantastic day my In Laws are taking us out to dinner tonight so I can wear one of my gorgeous new outfits!! How lucky am I. All I have to do now is find a good hiding place for all the receipts - may have to be the cleaning cupboard!! Lol I didn't just spend on myself, I did buy Pete a bottle, some undies and some socks and I mustn't forget the sundae spoons!!

Rach

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HS:MS - Milk

A creamy white liquid nutrient provided by animals.


His: Too busy doing DIY


Hers: Very boring picture today, the camera went faulty this afternoon so had to wait for Mr Fix It to come home before I could use it. The black background was unintentional - the milk is actually shot on a glass table outside, I had hoped to be able to see the fern through this in the shot!! It would have worked had I been able to do it when there was some daylight but instead it turned out black!! Lol




Very busy at the moment trying to get everything ready for our Canadian visitors on Saturday and for Matt's trip to Germany on Sunday. On top of that I am shopping all day tomorrow in Chester, poor me!!! Lol It won't be that thrilling as I mainly need knickers and bra's (most of mine are a disgusting shade of grey) and Pete's ordered undies and socks, oh and Kyle needs some school shirts, but I am sure a pair of jeans might sneak in with some shorts, shoes and tops!!! Lol

Rach
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