April 12 on 12

Ha ha!

Going for the easy layout and design... Maybe this will be the same design for the next 12 months, maybe not!

But as Easter was so pink, this was ideal for this month's 12 on 12 and overall, I am happy to have it to add to my album.

Of course, like I said before, I totally forgot about it on the day and remembered two days later! Luckily, we took a lot of photos anyway that day but I am definitely missing some that I would have taken - me cooking dinner, the food, the boys finding their eggs etc. But no worries...

It's done and it is not even May yet!

Sigh...

... happy.

Had a quiet hour in my *local* scrapbook store (one hour drive away!) and made some scrumptious purchases including Wisteria. They had all 18 papers which makes me very happy and I lurve it!

Soft greens, blues, yellows and shades of purple and lilac. Just lovely.

Of course, I got lots of other stuff to make the journey worthwhile!

Pretty papers, MM Paperie Greenhouse goodies, inks and cardstock.

I'm sitting here with a smile on my face!

What's making you happy this weekend?

Pink (of course)

Ahhh. Things are calming down here again after a couple of weeks of rather chaotic days. Littlest brother was staying with us. Not much work you would think. But one extra bod in the house seems to make a big difference and I seemed to spend my days cleaning, washing, preparing food and putting up with football.

But it was lovely to have him here - he is easy to have around and he is such a laugh! He got into all the German trash TV that we are addicted to such as Germany's Next Top Model (go Mandy!) and Pop Idol (shame on you Bohlen for calling Anne-Marie the B-word) - (ok, only funny and relevant if you a) live in Germany and b) stoop to watching this trash!) and entertained us with his rather amusing renditions of some of the *stars*!

Of course, Easter came in the middle of all this and we decided, after a lot of umming and arring, to stay home rather than braving the horror of the Easter weekend tourist traps. So, home it was and I pottered around decorating the place with the usual plethora of eggs and bunnies.


I decided that this year's Easter would have a pink (what a surprise!) theme and even managed to find the time to make sure I actually followed through on some of the ideas for decorations etc that I had had. Yes, I am that type of person who has all the right ideas and gets all the bits and pieces in to do them, and somehow runs out of time at the last minute and ends up disappointed with myself for not getting myself in gear sooner!!!

So, even though I did not manage everything I had in mind, I was very happy at my pinkness that came together at the last minute.

I asked R to organise some flowers for me, pointing out that they should be *pink* and he heard *orange and yellow*! How? Don't ask me. Man ears I reckon. But luckily they know me at the florist and included lots of hot pink for me which was a good coincidence! No thanks to the man ears!

Mum had sent over some adorable Easter crackers which are always a winner here in Germany as they really do not really have any crackers. They know the score now and instantly want to pull them, tear out the paper hat and wear it, play around with the silly toy and try to translate the jokes (sometimes with limited success!). And these were no exception.

There was lots of laughter, a good (I think) dinner, plenty of bubbles to drink and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun - I love these dinners! They really are worth all the effort.



Mum had also sent over some bunny masks which we were instructed had to be worn on Easter morning - duly done and recorded! Catch the much more appealing and sweet photo of the same masks being modelled by Cam, Maddie and Isabella here!

Of course, Easter Sunday was the 12th. I was really excited that this year, my 12 on 12 for April would be Sunday. And was quite excited about this fact the whole week. Naturally I totally forgot on the day! I have enough photos of course, but not the selection I would have chosen had I been taking them all day! Oh well...

So, now it's all back to normal. Enjoy the sunshine and have a good week!

One For The Boys...

Bellaboo did it again this month, producing the most fabulous boy inspired kit for April.

I have had a lot of fun rummaging through some old pics of my little brother (should read enormously tall these days brother) Joe from when he was an adorable little boy! Can you believe that he ate this whole rack of ribs??? Well worth a layout I think!
This one was about him when I left the UK so he would have been 13 and he got into the car I was about to drive over to Germany. Mum and I looked at each other and we both thought what a scary idea it was to think of Joe behind the wheel of a car! Now of course, he is 20 and actually has his own car and I still find this scary but I hear that he is a very careful driver so I suppose I should be happy...


And look at these two adorable little ones! Hard to believe that this is so many years ago now - need to confirm with mum but I think it would be 1991 or 1992. Makes me feel SOOOOO OLD!


Of course, no boy kit would be complete without featuring little Cam - our star! I decided to get the sewing machine out and get creative with scraps. I honestly used every little last scrap with this and now have nothing bigger than half a square inch pieces left which i think is not really much use! I really feel like I made the most of this kit and as ever, it went on and on and on! I still have loads of the embellishments left which makes these kits such good value.


And here are the guys pummelling the cans at the fair - so much testosterone! Even Ted managed really well and won himself a "fabulous" pencil! He is very proud of this win :-)


The kit was so versatile that it lended itself to so many more ideas than just boy projects and I decided to tie it in with the third assignment on my journaling class - telling the story behind the picture. This is one of the very first photos of me and R when we first met more than 10 years ago (yes, we both look VERY young and VERY much slimmer!). Who would have guessed looking at this that 10 years later, here I would be living in Germany and loving it! At that time, I thought I would be going back to the Philippines or somewhere equally as far away.


There was a sweet little Jenni Bowlin mini-book in the kit and I decided to make myself a little inspiration book to store all my ideas for layouts. I divided it into four sections for stories about us, people, places and things (á la Library of Memories) and it turned out so sweet - I adore it. It is sitting here on my desk and I can't wait to actually start listing ideas and stories.


So, if you have not got yours yet, you better go over to Bellaboo and grab one before they sell out.

Yipee, it's Friday again tomorrow - Happy weekend!

Nothing much to report

Just wanted to check in really as I see it is already a week since I last posted although I have no new layouts to share.

My baby brother (at 15 maybe not so "baby"!) is here for a visit right now so that is keeping us busy with trips to the Palm Kirmes (Palm (as in Easter) Fair), a day trip to Düsseldorf, various evenings out for dinner and the joy of football on the Playstation when he gets home from work. As you can imagine, this is just my cup of tea - not!

But we are having some fun and getting some great photos in the process...

BUT, I DO have the new Bellaboo April kit - One for the Boys - in my sticky little hands and it is FAB as always. So obviously Bellaboo and yet not a drop of pink in sight. I am letting my creative juices start working and will get to work on it tomorrow so watch this space. In the meantime, you could pop over to Libby's blog - here - to see what wonders she has been creating with hers. I love it. And I have lots of ideas of how to honour the boys in my life. And also some of the girls because as ever, this kit is so versatile that I will definitely be branching out!

I will leave you with another layout about the adorable Maddie which was completed last year.

Time is rushing by and it is so important to capture their characters when they are at this lovely age.