Back to school in the morning

Can't believe that the holiday has gone by so fast, thanks to the great weather the kids spent most of the time outdoors and they have healthy glows in their cheeks going back to "real life" tomorrow!
I had a busy but fun week last week too, contracts for the house have gone to our solicitor to be reviewed and hopefully will be signed asap so their was allot of sorting out there. Our own house is being painted and decluttered too and we loaded all the boxes into the attic today and our bins are full too! This term is going to be a busy one for me in school - in Rockboro we have two piano concerts (half the students in each), an open day, piano exams, feis performances and hopefully a trip to the theatre to fit in in the next eight weeks as well as communion and confirmations to celebrate (and teach music for too!). In Pres We will have a performance for the parents to showcase what we have worked on since January too! Matthew and Abbie will be performing in the everyman palace theatre at the end of may in the CADA end of year show - can't wait to see Abbie's reaction to being on stage - she will love it, Matthew is an old hand at this stage lark now! Matthew also has a feis and a karate grading coming up too so it will be busy for him!

I did a scrappy party on Saturday with Sarah who had booked me for it last September and was so so excited! We did canvases using the scrummy Basic grey Gypsy papers and some Huge Heidi swapp blooms and the girls did a fantastic job - they were working so hard all afternoon and their wasn't a sound in the room other than - "can you pass me the circle cutter" and oohs and aahs over each others work - some of them used their left over papers to make a bag too that was inspired by the bag template I found HERE (challenge three) but I have adapted it a bit to make it slightly smaller and without the insert bit too - one of the girls has the bag as well as her canvas in this photo - check out Karyn and Kerri's work these two girls were the youngest at the party at only 7 and 9 and worked so hard! . Here are the next generation of scrappers!!! By the end of the party they were using words such as "brad" "eyelet" "cropadile" and "Layout" like seasoned scrappers!




Only five more sleeps to crafteire - I'm getting really excited now - must sort out my photos tomorrow evening, am doing classes with Beckie (my roommate for the weekend too!), Jane Amber, Kirsty, and Annamarie as well as meeting up with all my favourite crafters - I can't wait!!!

Belated Happy Easter!

The weather for the weekend was fantastic and we spent loads of time in the garden. Mum, Dad and Ronan came over for lunch on Sunday and the kids had great fun with Dad in the garden racing on the hoppers. Ronan took loads of great pics too -really love his camera!!

Just some here to show, will post more later!

Abbie's novel way of climbing on her hopper!


The race in progress


its a close call!



We also took Mum, Dad and Ronan to see the house, well the site really and they were impressed! The house is looking on to an equestrian centre and Matthew decided that when we move he might take up horse riding - just to add to his already huge list of activities and he has already applied to take up the French Horn next September!

I spent all day today sorting through all my stash into stuff that can be packed away until after we move (ie Christmas stuff mostly) and sorting my totes into as Richard put it Business and Pleasure! even managed to sort out my eyelets and brads into separate colours again! I can't wait to have my own space! Not to have to clear away all the time would be fantastic!

Am off to Lismore tomorrow for the day and going to meet Janet (aka Tigger) there with the kids and check out the craft shop too, Matthew is so excited because Benjamin is coming back with us to have a sleepover, we have made him do so many jobs for us over the weekend on the strength of this - we are such evil parents! LOL!!

Better hit the sack here as I'm sure Matthew will be calling me bright and early in the morning!

the decision has been made

Tomorrow we go and pay over the deposit, I'm getting a craft room! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oh and we are buying a house too! lol Can you tell which excites me more!
Here are the floor plans for the house and my craft room is the room on the first floor with the balcony - stupidly referred to as bedroom 1 by the developers - don't they realise that they would sell way more houses if they marketed them properly!

Will try and get photos tomorrow of the house as it is at the moment!

I think we have found our house!

Fingers crossed that by the end of the week we will have a deposit down on our new house! Don't want to post the link to it until it is all finalised but I am so excited!!! It is a new build and won't be finished until november and it is GORGEOUS - the craft room even has a balcony - so loads of light! Have phonecalls to make in the morning and a final viewing of the showhouse on wednesday but it looks like it will happen!

Watch this space!

My wonderful Bro!

I'm so so proud of my little brother today! (all 6ft 6 of him!) He is in second year in music college (just 19 years old!) and he has always been a high achiever!
I met him for pizza today and he told me that he has been accepted as a deputy on the European Youth Orchestra - considering that there is usually only one/two Irish members in the orchestra and it goes up to age 25 AND that he as a french horn player was competing for one of eight places this is a HUGE achievement! Most of the french horn players in the orchestra are finished their degrees and some even finished their masters! He also has been accepted as a deputy player for the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland - a fully professional orchestra!AND as a member of the world symphonic wind orchestra who will be playing in Ireland (Killarney) next summer!
Big toot toot for Conor!!!

Now comes my dilemma, Conor is playing in a very big bursary competition in Dublin next week the night before a crop that I am running, if he wins this will really set his career off and I would love to be there to hear him play, so do I cancel the crop and go or stay and run the crop??? At the moment I am leaning towards cancelling but is that unfair on the other crafters?? I could drive back early on Saturday morning but that would mean leaving Dublin at 6am and being really stressed out trying to make it back! (also if Conor does well there might be celebrations!)

Might see if I could change the crop to Sunday, will check out if the hall is free then tomorrow!

Still haven’t got to my mothers day card, but am working on a LO using the left over Junkitz papers from the canvas! Waiting on paint to dry so probably won’t get to post it until tomorrow! Must take a better photo of the canvas then too – it is far more 3d than it appears in the current photo!

Off to watch paint dry and clean up some of my mess!!!

Canvas

Still haven't got to the mothers day card, got sidetracked by this canvas!!!

Lots of 3d paint going on in this!

Need to get a better pic of it later but wanted to see if i could manage to post a pic here!

First post!

Finally decided that I should go and get me a blog so now I have yet another addiction to eat into my crafting time! Have spent about the last 15 mins playing with the set up, just enough to realise that it will take me HOURS and I still won't be happy! lol!
Joined the design collective today and can't wait to get started on their classes, all that talent in the one spot, almost too good to be true. My aim is to try and do as many as possible while buying as little new stash as posible, we are trying to move house at the moment and the thought of moving all my stash is frightening so if I can reduce it somewhat over the next month or so it should make the move all the easier.
One of the essentials in the new house is going to be a craftroom, even Richard agrees - I suspect that the piles that gather all around the house get to him even more than he lets on at times, thankfully sailing gear can live on board the boat and in the shed otherwise we would be completely overrun! Abbie's craft piles are even starting to take over now, she has one in her bedroom next to her easel and another in the kitchen next to my desk - she really does take after me in that way, I even caught her the other day trying to "borrow" a 12x12 of some urban lily paper that I had given her a scrap of, she claimed that her offcut was too small!! LOL she really is starting young!
Off to try and make a mothers day card now for the pre class challenge on the design collective and might even get a start on some easter cards for the school fair too! I have a suspicion that I might get sidetracked though, I have had the idea for a canvas going round in my head for the last few days and might just get to try it out this evening,
Watch this space!!!