A Beautiful Beautiful Day!

So, the wedding of Laura and Gary had been a long time coming, but it was so worth the wait; yesterday was a fabulous day!

We all put on our best togs and headed out into the glorious sunshine:

I couldn't believe how nervous I was for her, which may explain why I blubbed like a baby when she walked down the aisle (proceded by our lovely little Evie in her role as flower girl); she looked stunning. And pretty soon, she was Mrs Russell:

Then it was back outside into the sun for 1 or 500 photos. Emily was so happy she got to do the confetti thing:

And mum was thrilled she got to do the drinks on the lawn thing!

Emily was also so happy she got 2 new step-cousins out of yesterday, Gary's lovely children Mark and Amy:

After the photos it was inside for a lovely wedding breakfast. Laura had made all the kids little goodie bags to keep them entertained which was a brilliant idea:

Although Xander did seem more content quaffing the champers!

Or maybe he was just getting into his role as Uncle Dave's mini me at the wedding in Antigua:

BTW, did I mention Laura looked stunning?!

The meal was lovely and we all sat round and waited for the speechs while being serenaded by Frank Sinatra (!):

All of a sudden, Frank announced he had a partner for his next song:

After that came the speeches which saw a very nervous Matt in the role of father of the bride (unfortunately, my Uncle Brian is no longer with us) but he did a wonderful job. Afterwards he was very relieved:

(changed a bit from that picture in the bath eh?!)

We then had a lull before the evening do so we went out and enjoyed the sunshine again. Evie decided she'd take advantage of all the pretty ladies and their accessories and do a bit of dressup:

Then it was back inside for the fun. We started off fairly early with the first dance, where Laura and Gary danced to a song I can never remember the title of (Everything I Do I'm Amazed By You?). Only for the record to cut off part way in and the DJ to receive a tonne of abuse...until this happened:

I swear, that was THE best first dance ever!

Xander managed to charm a lovely young lady into a few smooches too:

It was a brilliant night, but after a day of partying, I think Evie sums up how we all felt:

So, off we all trotted and left Mr and Mrs Russell to start their long and happy life together. Congratulations you two and thank you for a wonderful day!

A Little Nostalgia! **UPDATED**

I'm a sentimental old soul and I always get really nostalgic when big family occassions are coming up. So, with my cousin Laura getting married on Saturday and my sister Gemma tying the knot 2 weeks after that, you can imagine nostalgia is in overdrive!

Me, Gem, Laura and her bruv Matt were all dragged up together and we spent a lot of time together over our childhood years. In 3 weeks time we'll all be married and settled (was going to add mature but who am I kidding! :P). So, I asked my mum yesterday if she had any pics of us all from back then...and today I went over for a bit of a scanning spree!

So, to start, this is Laura, my sis, me and Matt circa about 1981:

This was probably the same year (that dress was a bridesmaid dress when I was 7 so I'm guessing so!). Can't believe how much Laura looks like our lovely Evie here:

And to think, this little girl will be a married woman on Saturday:

Here's some of the respectable older generations. l-r Auntie Di (mother of the bride), Auntie Claire (her of dancing hen night fame), my mum (mother of the bride too) and my late Nan, bless her:

This was taken on Boxing Day (mum's birthday) when we would always have our big family party:

A few notes here: Uncle Trev, what on earth's with that 'tache; mother, what on earth's with those tights; and to self, what the hell's going on with your hair?!

My mum then showed me another one from Xmas past. But mum, I'm grown up here, that's not possibly a long time ago. Until she pointed out that in the picture is my 19-year-old cousin Jess! God have I really been an adult that long?!

So, that's the trip down memory lane for now, will be interesting to see how we all compare on the photos on Saturday!

***UPDATE*** My sister just emailed me this classic!

When The Crafty Fairy Comes To Visit (no thanks to the Royal Mail!)

Oooh, lovely crafty goodness!

Yesterday, I popped over to my fave craft shop to spend some of my birthday money on a longed for crafty treat. I've been eyeing up a wheelie crafty tote for a while now to keep all my craft junk in but so far, the pennies haven't stretched that far. However, I was very lucky this birthday and got more money than I thought so decided to invest. So here is my new baby:

Look how sophisticated it is. And you unzip a few things and voila, oodles of storage space:

And even better, unzip a bit more and oooooohhhhhhh, it's like a tardis:

I love it so much (and Rob loves the fact that my junk is tidied away!).

Then today, postie came to call with a parcel for me. I took part in a birthday swap over at UKS, but nothing arrived on my birthday. The lady who was sending to me was so upset as she'd posted in plenty of time, but it seems the good old Royal Mail likes to keep it's customers for well over a week (seriously, could have walked down the country and picked it up quicker!)

Anyway, it was so worth the wait, thank you Helen! She'd made me a beautiful card:

And sent me enough scrapping stash to last me a year:

It is just so gorgeous! Problem is, I think I need another wheelie tote to fit it all in! Now which child to stick on eBay....

Plane Spotting For The Grumpy!

With yesterday being a Bank Holiday and Emily being at her Nanna's, we decided to take Xander on a little excursion. He's always loved seeing planes in the sky and, as he's going on one very soon, we thought we'd have a run out to the airport to show him what planes are like close up.

The thing with Xan at the moment is, he's at that age where he likes NOTHING! Everything is a complete trauma for him, he can't decide between hot and cold milk without a full on hissy fit on the kitchen floor! So maybe thinking our little boy would love the airport was a tad naiive!

We took him to the end of the runway with all the other plane spotters and pointed to all the planes on the ground and talked about how we were going to see how they got into the sky, he seemed vaguely interested:

Then the first plane came taxiing down the runway: 'Er, daddy, what on earth is that? Planes are little small things in the sky aren't they?!'

OK, so we forgot how noisy planes are when they're taking off and you're stood 200ft from them! OK, this idea wasn't so good!

So thinks we, why don't we go to the terminal and show him round and he can watch the planes taking off from somewhere with double glazing? Nope, not impressed! He did however seem to like this plane ride and sat for a few moments going 'Oh mummy, pleeeeeaaaasssseeee!'

So, I gave in and popped in the 50p, cue child sat on a moving ride screaming hysterically! Er, WTF?! So in the end we didn't see any planes taking off from the terminal as they tend to be very echoey and my child's screams are very loud.

We did salvage some of the trip though and went to the famous Murgatroyd's fish and chip shop where Xander proved that he's just like his mother, chips will always shut him up!

So, any ideas on just how I get this little person on a plane in less than 3 weeks time would be greatly appreciated!

I went to the barber's shop, to get mi 'air cut off!!

Xander went for his first ever proper haircut yesterday (for 'proper' read, not mummy hacking away at it in the bath!). How much of a man about town does my little boy look?!

Birthday Celebrations Part...er, What Were We On Again?!

Oooh, posh Lou came out to play yesterday. It started off with my good friend Kay taking me for a birthday lunch at Harvey Nicks, oooh get me! Lunch and champers, yum! Bit of shopping then back here to soak our feet before going out.

Kay's always a trouper when it comes to champers, and brought a bottle of Lanson round for while we were getting ready, I'm getting good at this quaffing malarky:

Then Sam and Rebecca popped round:

Off we trotted into town for a joint birthday meal with me old hearty Susan:


Good time was had by all, food was lovely and company was even better:

So, I now declare the birthday celebrations offiocially closed until next year!

I'm A Lucky Girl...Well Up To A Point!

So, today I officially got nearer 40 than 30 (at 5.01pm to be exact). Bit of a mixed blessing, OK I'm older but in a way I'm glad I actually reached another birthday.

The day started off lovely, I got a nice cuppa and present and cards in bed. I got some fab stuff: a beautiful necklace from my son, perfume from my daughter, Sex & The City dvd from Rob, holiday clothes from my sis, Beauty Flash Balm from my SIL (she's the whole reason I don't look nearer 50 than 40!!), some lovely make-up and jewellry from my friend Jane, holiday essentials from my Auntie Nadine and pennies from my gorgeous Grandad and Grandad-in-Law!

After the school run, me and Xander headed down to meet Lauren and Abi for breakfast at Costa Coffee. Now, I took my camera to document my birthday for future scrapping; this is where the 'to a point' bit comes in: my son wiped my whole camera this afternoon! So, you'll just have to imagine this morning. Lauren bought me a lemon and orange muffin and a huge maple syrup cappuccino for my breakfast, yum! She also gave me my pressie: when she asked me what I wanted, I gave her the choice of 3 mini books and told her to suprise me with which one - she blooming well got me all 3, bless her!

Afterwards I had a little shop but not too much as the toddler monster was with me. I came home and mum came round with her pressie (swimming cossie for jollies and bag for Gem's wedding, gorgeous!) then we went out for lunch (again, just imagine the pictures!)

Afterwards postie came with cards and a gift voucher from my friend Maureen (ooh, more shopping, hurray!) and a couple of neighbours popped round with pressie (toiletries and a fab beach bag from Next!).

Now, I'd planned to settle down with a nice dvd while Xan had his nap, but made the mistake of checking emails first. Aaarrrggghhhh! 2 back from places I'd applied saying they couldn't open my applications. So, an hour sat here trying to work it out meant no time for dvd before school run, grrrr!

Anyhoo, home, toddler paddy (hey, almost from me too!) and wiping of camera, but at last it was time to decant the wine:

Aaaahhhhh!!!

And then Rob came home with a Dominos, double Aaaaahhhhh:

Which finally shut the kids up:

Anyhoo, the kids are now in bed, the wine's going down nicely and there's a dvd waiting to go. So thank you to everyone for the cards, pressies, Facebook messages and texts. Just remind me to hire a babysitter and go nowhere near a computer for my 36th!

I Really Don't Know What Gets Into Me

Why oh why I do this to myself I'll never know! Another hectic few weeks, what with weddings, holidays, birthdays, job interviews, assignmnets etc and I get all keen on the crafty projects. Hardly enough hours in the day to sleep at the moment and I decide I MUST CRAFT!

TBH, it's nice and relaxing with everything else going on around and it's important to fit in things you love, but I'm starting to think I should have a word with myself about how much one person can actually fit into a day!

Anyhoo, couple of completed projects. First of all, we have another doll that I made for my little buddy Annabel's birthday:

I was good actually and sewed a load of doll body parts while I was doing this one so for any future requests all I have to do is stuff em and dress em!

Last night, I did a spot of scrapbooking while I was waiting for the last ever Prison Break to come on (sorry Gem, my thoughts are with you!). I loved this idea of just taking a random day in your child's life and scrapbooking it. It's sometimes little things we forget about our kids growing up and so this is good to look back on. I just wrote random things about what his favourite toy was, what we'd done that day, what he ate for tea etc:

Now thinking of one to do for Emily. Hmmm....Today I had attitude, sang to Hannah Montana, had a bit more attitude, refused to eat anything my mother cooked, had attitude...:P

I Should Be Ashamed Of Myself...But I Ain't!!

Take one best friend:

One sister-in-law:

Mix together with stupid amounts of white wine, Caramel Baileys and a few Guns N Roses dvds and you get this:

And this:

And this:

(Ally - that is THE best picture of you ever!)

I should probably be really ashamed of such drunken behaviour but do you know what? It's my birthday this week, I haven't been drunk since September last year, the kids were away at my mums and I had a couple of really good cohorts, so I'm not!!

We had such a funny time last night it was well worth the hangover this morning and I got such excellent pictures and a couple of really funny videos:

Zoe, Ally - you're both a very very bad influence on me...when can we do it again?! :P