Life's hard at 2 1/2

Excuse the bad photo and I just see the string hanging over the title ahhh

Quick Bind it All Album

We had a pretty rough hospital stay in April when Eil had the first of his big operations, didn't help the situation when my Granny died on the same day of his surgery. He took a bad reaction when we got home from Dublin and spent another week in Castlebar Hospital. Pretty crappy time all in all but using my 365 photos that I had to take on my phone I decided to make an album with them. I wanted something simple just to focus on the photos so not much embellishments and I used my new Little Hero's Waltzing Mouse add on set. Of course the set made me cry because it was just perfect for this. A great release for me to make this, helps me to process it in my own head and have it recorded for Eli when he wants to know about his story later on.

This took me about 1 and half hours using kraft card as the background and an American crafts paper pack I got in TK MAXX recently. Quick bind with the bind it all and even I was impressed with the speed of it!

Front cover

Waltzing Mouse stamp at top of page says - once upon a time there was a boy

and he was very brave

After surgery and he was in a morphine induced sleep, I added a filter to it because it was so blurry and out of focus but I think it adds to the effect of it

He was so nervous before he went down, they gave him a premed. He acted like he was so drunk, giggling and falling over himself. Made it easier bringing him down to surgery as he sang twinkle twinkle putting the gas mask on but I cried as I came back up. It's not an easy thing bringing your child to an operating room and leaving his life in a team of surgeons hands. The stamp says- and I was so proud of him (how fitting for this photo)

We got home late Saturday night but were back in hopsital the next day...twice

Not easy being confined when you love outside

Never seen him as sick and it was heartbreaking seeing him in such panic and pain. It didn't help the situation when I got the gastro bug from the hospital and passed out, cutting up my face. I looked like I had gone a few rounds in a boxing ring

First smile I had seen in over a week

I was so happy we were released when we were.... I thought Eli was getting Munchausen syndrome!

Last stamp- and he could do anything

And I truly believe he can, 1 surgery down 4 more to go....

PTI Birthday Card

A quick PTI make, I need a good session just stamping some spares up. Always handy to have!

Eli's summer fruit meringue cake

*Disclaimer- I gave out the whole way throughout making this because it used so much butter and eggs but it is totally worth it!

I got the recipe from this month's Easy Food magazine and made a few alterations as you do. Here's the recipe and how I made it so if it doesn't turn out right please don't blame me. It's like a mixture between a bakewell tart and meringue.

225g butter
225g sugar
4 eggs
175g self raising flour
50g ground almonds
A little milk
150g fresh or frozen fruit ( I used a big handful and a few little Eli handfuls of Tesco's frozen mixed summer fruit)

Meringue topping-
3 egg whites
175g caster sugar
handful of flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 170 degree.
Grease a springform tin
Cream the butter and sugar
Add eggs and then sieve the flour and ground almonds, this took forever because Eli insisted on doing it so I ended up bunging a load of it in and it didn't make a bit of difference
Mix until creamy and add a little milk to loosen the mixture
Throw in your fruit and place in tin
Bake for 40 mins (I only left it in for about 20 mins and think that's why it was so soft)
Mix 3 egg whites until soft peaks and add 175g caster sugar
Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 150
The cake will still be wobbley so add the egg white mixture gently but quickly on top with a handful of flaked almonds and place back in oven for another 20 mins

Now it says in the recipe to remove from oven and let cool for 4 hours or all night. I can confirm as can Eli it tastes as good coming straight out of the oven and served with a handful of frozen berries :) A great occasion cake if you wanted to impress someone

Altered pages- if you are offended by bad language skip over!

I saw the quote on pinterest and knew it would be my next page. I've left my journal by the way side recently  so I needed something to give me a kick up the derriere. Charles decided to pop in with his gold tooth and the hexagons were made from modelling paste and my ex credit card.

You know when you prepare a page and go back to do the previous page completely unaware that the colour has seeped through....well fuck it is the only thing that would have fit here and I think it suits it!

Tri Fold Card...yet again

,

A friend asked me to make her a birthday card and send a little note from Eli in with it too, although it nearly turned into an Eli card when I found him poised with a pen over my craft table...there was words.

I used my Prima A4 pad and PTI birthday greetings, a great set and I'm so happy I got it, about time I got a decent birthday set!

Father's Day Card

I am rolling out my Waltzing Mouse stamp set again with inspiration from Pinterest. I told D I wasn't making him a father's day card but never said why. Quietly he asked  "is it because you think I am a bad father?" lol I just told him I don't have the fricking time so I felt bad and made this tonight allthough Eli has 'made' him loads from Montessori. I said made loosely, more like attacked with a pen while screaming E L I and then horrified when I offered him a crayon to colour it in! 

Post card swap with Uk Stampers

My first swap so I'm a little nervous and I couldn't use my original idea but worked with what I had. The criteria was to add a hat so I embossed my new Waltzing Mouse bowler hat and added it to the Tim Holtz attic collection. So hard not to add any embellishments and 3-dness because it wouldn't be in an envelope in the post but I wouldn't mind getting a bright postcard like this in return!

I used a Gelli plate background, just makes me want one so much it makes such amazing backgrounds effortlessly. I will have to have a good session the next time I go to Anne's *hint hint!

I want to make a full book of tags...I make 2

I bought this gorjuss stamp but had it in mind to make her as creepy as possible but found it hard! I killed all her little paper men though.

Testing out my new Tim Holtz stamp set, it's cute but a little small but I still wanted the butterfly stamp for so long!

Book of Ruination finished

It's so hard to get the texture and colour of this journal but it was a lot of work getting there! 

I recently did the Andy Skinner online course for the Book of Ruination and this was the result. I love running my fingers over all the textures and I am so so happy with my new big letter die it's perfect for this kind of thing!

So i'm just going to clean my scrap table I say....

four layouts later he comes and asks if I am finished cleaning it. Ummm yah I say, peering over a mountain of  paper packs and boxes.... I can't seem to do anything when he's not around I need him there just in case Eli kicks off so I can have dedicated

 time all to scrap. Selfish, yes I know....