Its very nearly Christmas....

...and I'm sooo excited already. I can't wait to be spending Christmas with my family...I don't see enough of them with them living so far away. My closest relatives (my parents) live about 120 miles away and my sister lives about 400 miles away so its really difficult to get everyone together, especially since dad still works full time and doesn't get Christmas off. Mum managed to get Christmas off this year, that must be twice now in the last 10 years...but she is semi-retired so I think its fair she started getting some Christmases off.

Anyway.....onto Christmas, we are going to this event tonight and it sounds really good. I'm so excited because I just LOVE our church choir. We went carol singing with them the other day and I just loved getting to know them better. Unfortunately I am a terrible singer so I have zero chance of EVER making it into the choir *sigh*. I'm looking forward to this Christmas party though :)

We have no tree or decs up yet....anyone else still not got theirs up? I love Christmas but just can't be bothered to unpack that tree.

Its snowing outside again, for the third day running. And they talk about global warming, are they serious? I hadn't seen snow for 13 years before last year. Here's some nice pics of the snow at our house.

LIfe is crazy busy..just for a change

Well life has been crazy busy here in the lead up to Christmas. We finally have the Christmas shopping done, the tree is almost up...well we've dragged it out of the attic and are busy psyching ourselves up to decorate it LOL. And last night we even went carol singing...but I'm telling you there is no Christmas spirit in our neighbourhood....at all. BAH HUMBUG has nothing on where I live. We have a lot of old and unwell people in our town who haven't been able to get to church lately so we went to their houses and sung carols and spread some Christmas spirit. It was sooooo lovely to see their faces and how they loved every minute of it. It was truly very emotional and I am sooooo glad we went along (even if reluctantly at first). Then we went to some of the regular houses in the neighbourhood....the ones with no Christmas spirit. Gosh those people....I could feel them sucking the life out of us. We joined another bible study group to do this, so we got to make some new friends too. There's 1 lady in particular who I would really love to meet again....we just clicked....you know?

Well I'd better go, the day job is about to start for me, then onto the evening job and then onto the graphics job. Did I mention we have now lost our unemployment insurance payout because andy was a day late getting his papers signed? Long story and something that was out of our control so lets hope the appeal is upheld. So that's us having to pay the mortgage now. Just one more blow in a whole bunch of bad news that seems to be unstoppable lately. You know, we are very ready for some GOOD news after 12 months of worrying. I feel like I've aged about 10 years this year...no joke :(

Tell Us Tuesday!

Ashley (click the link above) is having a Tell Us Tuesday thing going on at her blog. All you need to do is go see what her question is, answer it on your blog and then leave the link in her McLinky. Simple....I think!

Today's question is How do you celebrate Thanksgiving every year? What are your traditions?? Did you have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner or a family potluck type deal?? Do you fight the crazy crowd at all the stores and go to all the Black Friday sales??

Well here in the UK we don't celebrate Thanksgiving  so I will be carrying out my usual tradition of going to work at 7.30 am....slogging my guts out all day in the lab and then fighting my way through the traffic at 5pm. I'll then cook dinner and sit down for a fun-packed evening of replying to emails and making more graphics :)

Now you're here, don't forget to go check out my other blog :)

Its a giveaway!

Its a giveaway...no not here silly....over at Made In Canarais. It's Ave's birthday at the end of November and the generous soul is having not just 1 giveaway...but about 10 of them. They are all posted there now, so go have a look if giveaways are your thing.

You might like one of Hoganfe's cute little tote bags for example....I know I do :)
or maybe some jewellery is more your thing? 
or a cute little zipper pouch 
or journal and bookmark?

Look what my sister got me :)

Its a cats life

Must be nice...

Diets. The recession (again). Vegetarianism/pescatarianism

Sorry guys...its another food related post I'm afraid LOL.

Roday I wanted to talk about 2 things:
1 - people keep asking me how the diet is going...or not going
2 - pescetarianism/vegetarianism/anything related to it...and the recession again

First, the diet. Well I'm trying not to call  it a diet because well its just off-putting, but for the last couple of weeks I've done pretty good. I've had a couple of slip ups during each week, but on the whole I've managed a minimum of 5 portions of fruit and veg and also reduced my salt/sugar intake. So far so good...not sure what the weighing scales think yet...I'll let you know in a couple of weeks.

And now onto the other things, I was just reading on the news that in the recession more people have been staying away from meat and have become vegetarian (not eating anything killed at all) or pescatarian (eating fish). Personally I am not a huge meat lover, particularly if its processed meat, but I do succumb to eating meat most days. I generally stick to white meat though as I prefer chicken/turkey over the other meats. I'd probably eat pretty much vegetarian if I lived on my own, but I don't and it's just easier to cook the same thing. We do try to have a couple of meat free days a week now though, partly to save money and partly because its a good way of squeezing in some more veggies.  I was also wondering about trying to add in a fish day - I'm not a fish fan at all (unless it's hidden under batter or a layer of mashed potato LOL) but I guess I could grin and bear it for the sake of my health. Ok I'm rambling so I'll shut up now.

Today's questions...you know how I'm nosey...
Any one eating less/more meat/fish/veggies due to the recession. Any veggies or pescies out there? Or vegans?

Giveaway - Ave is giving away a TON of stuff!

The lovely Ave at Made In Canarias is having a birthday giveawy where she is giving away a TON of stuff between now and her 25th birthday in November. She has loads of really cool stuff in her giveaway so remember to check back there every day to see what is the current giveaway item.

The current giveaway is here
Or go visit her blog here and look in her left sidebar for the other giveaways

Good luck!

Have your eating habits changed due to the recession?

I keep reading on the news that our eating habits are changing due to the recession. According to the news reports, we are generally eating out less, but eating more take aways.We're also switching our food choices at the supermarket for lower cost ones such as downgrading from "supermarket's best" to regular or from regular to "smart price" or budget ranges.

I can certainly vouch for this. Me and Andy used to eat out at least once a week before he lost his job...now it's maybe once a month or less, but we have a takeaway from the local Chinese take away once a week. At first, when we started doing this, I kind of threw a tantrum and paddied a bit. I liked how we could dine out whenever we wanted....call it the positive side of not being able to have kids LOL. But actually I'm quite enjoying eating my take-away in front of the TV, in my cosy winter PJs.

The reports also seem to say more people are going to all you can eat restaurants. Until recently there have been few of them about, but they do seem have exploded in numbers lately....maybe with a corresponding increase in people's waist sizes LOL. Personally I avoid these for hygeine reasons, but also because as a fat person, I feel liek everyone is watching what I'm eating, so I tend to hold back and only get 1 small plate, meaning that I don't tend to get good value for money. I wonder if I'm the only fat person that does that? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but you'll never see me making a pig of myself in public. According to this report, the average number of plates eaten at Taybarns (like Golden Correl) is 3.37. Now call me a wimp, but even I couldn't fit that in, so I'm wondering how people who don't normally pig out are fitting that in....ok, I digress...

As for the supermarket choices, well we watched an interesting program on TV about 2 families who downgraded their food choices and had to survive off supermarket budget range food. At that time we were buying all regular brand, with some supermarket brands and some of the luxury brand foods like "Tesco Finest". Anyway, in the TV program, the family said they couldn't really taste the difference at all, so that spurred me and Andy into trying out some of Asda (Wallmart) budget range. We did come across some really awful items in this range, such as basically anything with processed meat and their fruit yogurts...but many of them such as the pita breads and natural yogurt were the same as the regular range. And in the case of the chicken, it tasted BETTER and had a nicer texture than the regular range, that was a complete surprise. We'll never buy the regular chicken again.

So talk to me, I'm interested in this. How have your food habits changed? Are you eating in more? Have you downgraded your food choices? Would you consider downgrading?

Halloween plans

I can't believe how quick the week has gone since we came back from London. Andy had a job interview on Friday which would be absolutel perfect for him, so I'm hoping this is the one. He'd really love it and the location is like 1 mile away. We don't know what the salary would be but, who cares? Money isn't everything.

And onto next weekend, I have my sister (and possibly her housemate) coming down from Scotland at the weekend. I'm sooooo looking forward to this. We have a children's choir from Africa visiting our church this Saturday and they're supposed to be REALLY good! So we'll all be going there on Saturday night...what better? Spending Halloween in church...heck I don't even need to buy any Halloween sweeties for all the kids LOL.

What are your Halloween plans?

I think I just had my wake up call

So I was looking through some f my favourite blogs this morning and I came across one of my favourites, April Showers blog design. Now I know its bad business sense maybe to mention other blog designers, when I also offer designs, but I just have to mention this one. She is different. Her blog is funny and from the heart - and she's genuine. Also she doesn't delete my comments (although she never responds either) like other designers generally do...although I try hard not to comment for obvious reasons.

Well the day before yesterday, at the tender age of 28, her husband had a heart attack. He's in ICU and I pray to God that the recovery is going well. But the fact that he's only 28 and her 24...well I can't get that out of my mind. For one thing my heart aches (scuse the pun) that 2 such young people are having to deal with this, but also I know that I have abused my body and generally not taken care of it for many years. I don't know why but I've kind of always had the thought that actually I probably am going to die of a heart atack one day and seemed resigned to that fate....I don't know, it's hard to explain...obviously I don't want to die. I guess I feel helpess from all the trying and failing to lose weight and get fit.

Anyway, I think I just had my wake up call :(

I doubt April will read this, but if you do then know that I am praying so hard for you guys. Anyone else reading, could I ask that you say a quick prayer for April and her hubby, and maybe go leave a comment on her blog to give her your support? I'd love you forever if you did :)

In other news, I have posted the next Blogger Uncovered at Adori Graphics....its an interview with myself I'm afraid LOL. But go check it out anyway, I did try to appear less boring than I am in real life LOL.

Pics galore

Just a few (ok...a LOT) of pics from or recent trip to London. Please don't expect anything spectacular- they were taken wih my rubbish camera and most of them were taken in between the hoards of tourists walking past...so no time for fancy composition or anything :D

The hotel room
(no we didn't have hoards of tourists passing through here by the way LOL)

 Hiddeous looking chair (IMO) but very comfy

 

Very comfy bed but awful pillows that are so soft they wrap around and suffocate your face :(

 

I liked how you couldn't really see the office area until you walked behind the bed.

 

Yes you really can see the person in the bathroom from the comfort of your bed LOL. 

 

One thing I couldn't figure out was the telephone next to the toilet...I mean....why???
Lots of people on the website had complained about other people in the same room being able to see you on the toilet, but you couldn't at all, I mean the door was frosted glass and there were these curtains everywhere so you couldn't see a thing.

Completely random pics

Dig those prices!

(For a rough guide, multiply the prices here by 1.5 for $US and by 2 for Aus$)

Hi *wave*

 

 Notice the transparent floor!

 

The Ferrari Andy's favourite Shop

 

Hamleys Toy Louise's favourite store :)

A rare glimpse of me and the hubbs - taken at Kensington Roof Gardens

Kensington Roof Gardens

Albert Memorial

Albert Hall/Royal Albert Hall?

Royal College of Music

Natural History Museum

Winter wardrobe

Well its getting cold here now and I'm being forced to start thinking about my winter wardrobe. I've found 2 jumpers that look like they're going to be really toasty...whatcha reckon?

Thought this one above would be great with jeans - and boy oh boy doesn't it look toasty :)

This one I thought would be good with jeans or some black trousers? The idea was to be able to dress it up or down since I can't really afford a casual AND dressy winter wardrobe. Obviously neither of these tops are suitable for work so that's ANOTHER wardrobe entirely that needs shopping for *sigh*.

Anyone else got their winter woollies out yet? I'd love to see your purchases :)

Agh!

Agh - wrong blog LOL

Back later :)

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday: Lower calorie tuna pasta bake

I haven't done a TMTT post before but now were doing more cooking these days, I have more food to photograph so that I can actually make a post. So without further ado, here is my first ever TMTT post....a lower calorie tuna pasta bake....which is really yummy.

Ingredients

• 200g can of tuna
• 200g uncooked pasta
• 1/4tsp pepper
• 2 tsp parsley
• 100g very low fat garlic and herb Philadelphia soft cheese
• 1pink skimmed milk
• 2tbs light margerine
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 1tsp French mustard
• 60g reduced fat Cheddar cheese, or similar (grated)
  

Method

• Add 200g pasta to boiling water and cook for 10 minutes
• In a separate pan, add the butter and melt over a low heat
• Slowly add the rest of the milk
• Add the flour to the butter along with a drop of the milk and stir until smooth
• Add the parsley, pepper and mustard and cook until thickened
• Add the soft cheese to the milk sauce
  
• When the pasta is cooked, drain it and our it into an oven dish
• Sprinkle the drained tuna over the pasta and pour the cheesy sauce over the pasta
• Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top
• Cook in a pre-heated fan oven at 160C for 20 minutes or a standard oven at 180C for 20 minutes
• Enjoy!
  
  

The Bra Graveyard

Before I forget...can I shamelessly plug my first ever scrapbooking kit that I've just released at my graphics design blog, Adori Graphics. I have actually made the digital scrapbooking kits before, but I've never offered them at Adori Graphics before. So anyway, if that kind of thing interests you then hop on over there now :)

Well you can take it from my absence that a) the diet didn't go terribly well (starting diet 1,002 soon!) and b) things have been very busy in Blog-Makeover-Land.  I'm not going to dwell on either point because it's not going to get me anywhere, but I have made some steps to getting a little more free time. Well anything is an improvement on zero free time isn't it. The last 2 weeks I never even had chance to get to church, but that's what told me things have to change so I spread out my waiting list and crossed my fingers that people don't hate me for it. Anyway, onto the subject of the post.

You know its going to be a bad day when you go to the loo only to find there's no toilet paper left and you have to shout hubby to bring some from the other bathroom - and then when you get in the shower and realise there's no shower gel left and have to wash in shampoo.....but when your bra strap just snaps off when you're getting dressed, that's a sign of a really bad day ahead. Sure that happened to me this morning. I was just fastening the back and TWANG, huge piece of elastic came whipping towards my left eyeball. This was a rare occasion where I thanked the Lord for blessing me with like 2/20 vision and a need to wear glasses 24/7. So anyway I threw the bra onto the spare bed where it is now happily lounging about with about another 20 dead bras that I keep meaning to fix. Does anyone else have a bra graveyard? Or a sewing pile as long as mine? Nope, I bet you don't!

Oh and then the day just get better when, on the way to work,  some *insert bad word here* changed lane without indicating or checking mirrors and was about half an inch (no joke!) from sideswiping me off the road. The ensuing emergency stop saw my tupperware of porridge leap off the passenger seat and dump itself all over the floor of my car *sigh*. So not only have I got to clean the mess up after work, I also have no breakfast....maybe I'll have to make do with a nice bacon butty from the canteen.

Make that diet 1,003 coming up ;)

Don't forget

Don't forget that to be in with a chance of winning a rotating header, you must comment on my give-away post at Adori Graphics.

Have a great day folks :)

I've learnt something today...

Sorry...another food related post...you may wish to switch off now or groan very loudly :)

Its just that I've learnt some interesting things about myself this week and I feel the need to bore you about them. Things like...

It is possible to actually stop eating when you are full...yes really...well who'd have thought? Now this is a biggie for me because a) I hate waste and b) my eyes are bigger than my belly (and that's saying something). Consequently I usually end up stuffed but forcing myself to finish everything on the plate. I blame my mum (sorry mum) for always making me finish every last scrap of food before I left the table. It gets you into the habit of thinking you have to eat everything...which is fine if your portions are small enough...which mine aren't...or weren't. I couldn't eat all of my dinner last night so I've chucked it in a lunch box and have brought it to work today.

Planning works - and it stops you feeling guilty and giving up. Normally I have a very busy life with working full time in the day job, working full time on my blog make-overs and generally trying to have a life too. My life generally forces out on a couple of social functions every week, such as the usual Friday afternoon drink after work. This normally involves me, Andy and a friend from work having drinks (usually full sugar Pepsi at the pub and then heading off to the Chinese take away on the way home. Well sometimes I found this regular Friday jaunt stopped me being good in the week as I just thought "well what's the point, I'm going out of Friday and will be totally blowing the calories anyway". So this week I've approached this from a different angle. I know how many points I can have (points=calories....kind of) and I've planned what I'm going to have and how many points I'm going to need to borrow from another day. So its all figured out...I can have my treat...not blow my points...and not have to feel guilty about it. Yay for planning! I've even managed to plan in a trip to Nandos on Saturday evening since mum and dad are insisting on taking me and Andy out to dinner.

And now a shameless plug for my other blog....If you'd like to WIN a fabulous, funky and absolutely spiffing ROTATING BLOG HEADER then go check out my giveaway at Adori Graphics...the link is below :)

Giveaway!

A little bit about worry

Well I can't help but feeling a little disappointed at yesterday's weight loss....I am only human after all...but in the grand scheme of things I realise its only small fry. I do try not to worry about small fry or battles already lost. I say I *do* try...though that's difficult when you're a worry-wart by nature and you come from a loooooong line of worry-warts. The reason I'm trying not to worry is that I realised I should be putting my cares, worries and anxieties onto God.

You see I was browsing the bible the other night...as you doo...and I thought "I wonder what the bible has to say about worry". And I went digging and found these 2 snippets...

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall. (Psalm 55:22)
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

So, I'm trying to do what the bible suggests. Its early days but surprisingly I feel more care-free already :)    Although funnily enough I've not worried much about Andy's job situation since right back in the early days. I just always knew from then that God has the most amazing plan for Andy and that it will happen on HIS time-scale. I firmly believe that and it gives me comfort knowing that.

Well - better go I have a ton of emails to get through - have a lovely day folks.

1 measly stinking pound

After the week I had I lost 1 measly stinking pound *insert full blown pout here*

Better luck next week perhaps?

You may well be wondering

You may well be wondering if I survived my first week on the diet? Well I had a few slip ups. mostly because its just been a horrendous week and I felt too tired to spend ages in the kitchen preparing food, but I think that overall I did fine. Even when I wasn't particularly good I still made some effort by sharing something with Andy or by having a smaller portion, which is a huge achievement for me.

I will find out tonight whether it has been enough!

I survived day 1!

Well I survived day 1 on the 1,501st diet that I started yesterday. Nutrition wise it probably wasn’t the best, but calorie wise if was great. I’m happy with that…Rome wasn’t built in a day after all. Day 2 is going reasonably well, I’ve felt a little hungry earlier but nothing that a cup of hot fruit tea didn’t sort out. Friday night is Chinese take away night in our house so I’ve had to plan early to make sure I can still take part in this. I’ve saved some points from my lunch and added them onto dinner – plus I banked some points from yesterday. I won’t be able to get EXACTLY what I want but it will be a close second :)

I’ve never really talked about my weight on here but this is a really big deal for me. About 5 years ago I lost 79 pounds with Weightwatchers and felt absolutely amazing. Then it all went pear shaped in my final year at university with my dissertation and finals exams. And now, after the deaths of 3 close family members, 1 house move, 2 new jobs and 1 redundancy later, I’m back up to where I was…if not 10 pounds heavier….which quite frankly I feel totally ashamed about.

I have no idea why I have even mentioned this on my blog, but at least you are getting to know who you are dealing with – and why I don’t post many photos!

Food.....gimme food.....real food!!!

I've been back from my vacation for 4 days now and I feel like I might...finally....be getting on top of things here. The laundry is done, the house is tidy (if not very clean...yet) and I've paid the bills. I'm also catching up with my graphic design stuff (the evening job) and I've almost caught up with my investigations in the lab (the day job)...so yeah....life is plodding along nicely :)

I've started diet number 1,501 this week (well it must be at LEAST that number by now) and I have to say I'm feeling pretty low on energy right now. Normally after a few days I find that I have bag loads of energy, but all I have this time is heartburn, churning guts, a headache and bad breath. Sooooo not nice. Well, we'll see how things go when I weigh myself next week...presuming I'm still doing it by then. I hate diets, doesn't matter what the diet, I just find that its almost impossible to stick to it. And its not that I don't like diet-food, its more the food preparation side of things. I really hate cooking and after a long day at work I really really don't want to start cooking a meal...and I can't say I want to spend all of my weekend in the kitchen preparing stuff for in the week either. What I really need is a live-in housekeeper and chef....any offers?....anyone? One of my colleagues is having her birthday today and has brought donuts in...that will be hard. I don't really want to tell her I'm on a diet, but I don't really want to eat a full donut. Decisions.....decisions...oh heck, I need hubby here to eat half of it for me!

Stirling Castle visit

Today was a lovely day...and our first with decent weather all day long. I bet some of you from abroad wonder why us Brits are fascinated with the weather...well its because its so flippin' annoying! If its not torrential rain, its howling gales and you can get 4 seasons worth of weather in 1 day, so you're always having to dress for any weather and carry I don't know how many coats around with you. Well anyway Scotland can make even the most chilled-out Brit pre-occupied with the weather! Today was glorious though and was perfect for viewing the beautiful vistas from the top of Stirling Castle.

The Wallace Monument, seen from Stirling Castle

We also went to a dedication for a friends baby - that was held in a local park and was absolutely beautiful. The baby's dad is the pastor of the church and decided to do a small dedication service for family and friends in this local park. It was glorious...and such a wonderful day to dedicate this young girl. I also got to meet many of my sister's church friends who were absolutely lovely :)

Day 5...guess where we've been

Guess where we've been today...I'll give you a hint...

Andy (cheeky thing) says this one looks like me and my sister. I think they're much prettier LOL.

We set off from Glencoe for the journey towards Stirling at about 10am and we made good time getting here just in time for lunch and a trip out. We went to Blair Drummond safari park and had a great time watching the animals in their...erm...reasonably natural habitats.

Guess what the weather is doing?

Well today what started out as a washout with the rain soon turned into something a little sunnier. We drove up to Malleag on a scenic tour and even managed to get out of the car to take a few photos. Harry Potter was filmed in this area and we saw some of the hills used in the Harry Potter films. We even ventured onto the beach at a small cove and had a walk down there.

We're heading to Stirling tomorrow to spend some time with my sister before heading back to England on Sunday. Hopefully I'll have chance to update again from there.

Just a couple of pics today as I'm running out of internet time :)

Our hotel - beatuiful but weird

Hubby at the beach

Ready for another update?

I will explain more about this trip when I get back, but just let me say so far that the trip can be summed up in 1 word....weird.

Its the only hotel I've ever stayed at where nobody is there to greet you and check you in...and yet somehow you are supposed to just GUESS where the rooms are! Yes you heard me right - you have to just guess where everything is...until evening time when some staff arrive. See? I told you...its just plain weird.

The view from our window simply amazing, but I wish I could say the same about the view INSIDE the room - I'll share more on that later LOL.

We will be cutting our trip short by a day or so due to cat/cattery issues but to be honest I'll be ready for home by then :)

Ok so onto today's highlights....today we drove into Oban (on the west coast) and then ventured into the seae life centre/sanctuary. The weather was grey and wet.....again....which is kind of getting annoying now as there is the most amazing scenery round here, just begging to be photographed!!

Well I'd better wrap up otherwise Andy will have drunk the bar dry by the time I get back into the lounge....here's today's highlights...

This photo sums up the weather so far

Some fish at the sea life centre

Cute little (show-off) otter at the otter sanctuary

I must give you some advance warning by the way....do not expect fabulous photos on my return. Thanks to wonderfully dull and wet Scottish weather, my camera has hardly been out of the bag...and the photos I do have have needed some MAJOR tweaking. Rhonda I need your photography skills!! I have lots of questions for you on my return :)

The forgotten pic

I forgot to add this other one - the view from our bedroom

And 1 from today...taken in Glencoe vilage.

Guess who

Well it seems that there is signs of civilsation even in the Scottish highlands...yes we have internet access! Yay!! So who cares if its shared with like 100 people and you get a 2 minute window to log onto it? :)

On the way...

Quick stop off at Loch Lomond

View from the hotel bedroom

Anyway I'll share a pic or 2 now and hopefully update more later. We got up here early evening yesterday and its done nothing but rain so excuse the dull...hurried....really rubbish excuse for photos. Hopefully I'll get some better ones before the end of the trip.

My birthday treat

Its a couple of days late (since Fridays and Saturdays are manic here LOL) but want to see where Andy is wining and dining me for Sunday lunch? Look here.

This place is seriously fab...though I guess you'd have to like veggies :)

Its my all time favourite restaurant!

Many thanks

Just a quick post as I'm about to start work (on the day job) - just wanted to say many thanks for the prayers and thoughts this week. Things have been a bit better over the last couple of days as hubby has finally realised that he's only human and has admitted to feeling very down. Please continue to pray for us - I will update soon :)

Please pray for us

I'm sorry I haven't really blogged much lately. Things have been a little difficult at home really and I haven't really had the energy to think up a decent post....and I guess this one isn't going to be great either.

Please pray for me and Andy as right now things are difficult with our marriage. It is nothing insurmountable but nevertheless we need strength to get through this. Andy's job loss is really taking its toll on both of us, its sapping our energy, straining the finances and making him short tempered. He just bottles it all up and then blows his top at the stupidest of things. Yesterday he nearly broke his computer by slamming the lid shut in a rage when I asked him if he agreed that he was over-reacting to something. That kind of brought it home to him that he had been over-reacting about things, but it was a long and painful process getting him to admit it. For the sake of my own sanity I really needed him to see that. I am trying to be patient and compassionate but after 9 months of this I am really beginning to be ground down emotionally. Please God I really need to feel your presence right now.

Blog awards!

Ave at Made In canarias has given me some lovely blog awards. Thanks so much Ave. So without further ado I'll go add them to my sidebar :)

I sooooo need a holiday

8 days until my holiday and I can't wait, I am so ready for a holiday. With my blog design "business" (if you can call it that when 95% of your stuff is done for free) doing AMAZINGLY well, I'm beginning to forget what its like to have any free time. I'm enjoying every minute of it though and its so easy to get carried away when you're having fun, but I'm beginning to feel exhausted and I think hubby is fed up of me always being on the computer. I can see his point, I mean lately my routine has been this....

Monday-Friday
7am - up and go out to work
5.30pm - home from work
5.30-6.30pm - cook and eat dinner
6.30pm - 8pm - respond to makeover request emails etc
8pm-12.30am - making graphics for makeovers

Saturday
9am-12pm making graphics for makeovers
2pm-midnight - making graphics for makeovers

Sunday
3pm - 8pm - installing makeovers
8pm-midnight - making graphics for makeovers

So yeah - pretty busy. Maybe hubby has a point?

Don't you just love it...

Don't you just love it when you're at work.....eating your lunch and you open an email from your husband which reads....

"Megs been sick.....................in your shoes."

Meg is our cat. Niiiiiiiice.

Friend Making Fridays

Since I have a few followers now I'd like to try having some kind of interactive thing going on where we get to know each other. I'm sure so many of you have many interesting things going on in your life and on Friend Making Fridays you will have the opportunity to tell me more about you!

So my question today is....I'm going to cook you a 3 course dinner, what would you like to see on the menu?

Here is what I would like....
Starter - garlic bread with mushrooms
Main course - thai green curry with rice
Dessert - white chocolate and raspberry torte

So bear that in mind when you invite me round for dinner :)

I'm lovin' it

I'm loving this new laptop - even if it does has Vista. You know I must admit that I hadn't heard ONE good thing about Vista - and coupled with the fact that I had to go out and buy new graphics software as well had really just emphasised that Vista is...well without being very polite.....crap rubbish.

So imagine my delight when I found all these really cool features that my graphics tablet now has - all thanks to Vista. So now I never even have to touch my keyboard when I'm making graphics for my blog makeovers which will be so much less annoying - so who cares if I can't alter any settings or find any of my files?!

Anyone else use Vista? What do you think of it?

Anyone want a trip to the Urban Beach?

Now this seems a strange concept to me - given that nowhere in the UK is more than 75 miles from the coast. Its called the Urban Beach and apparently the first one was created in Paris in 2002 - and since then they have been springing up around the UK....with Edinburgh, Birmingham, Cardiff, Belfast and Bristol all sporting one.

The concept is basically that the town ship in hundreds of tons of sand and make a beach - seeminlgly anywhere. At a new one in Nottingham, they're building it in the main square in town apparently. Has anyone ever heard of urban beaches or even been to one?

I wonder in the future if I might hear somebody say they're off to the beach in Leeds or Manchester. Now that would seem odd.

You can find out more about this curious phenomenon here.

Baptism thoughts

Andy and I have been talking about getting baptised. Neither myself nor Andy are fans of crowds and, although our church does baptisms a few times a year, they are in front of 800-1000. For somebody with an intense dislike of crowds and being the centre of attention….that’s just waaaaay too many people. My sister has offered an alternative, which Andy and I are thinking about. She said her church sometimes do baptisms in a local river and she’s going to ask the Pastor (who just happens to be her friend’s hubby) if we can have a small baptism there. That would be nice as although I don’t know the Pastor, I do know everyone else there, including the Pastor’s wife. I’m not so sure Andy is very keen as really he wants a church baptism with just me, him and the Pastor….and I can’t see that happening. I’d like to accept my sister’s offer, but I’d like Andy to do it with me…for his sake not mine.

An afternoon of delights

Have you noticed yet that I'm trying to post a photo every day (no matter how old or naff it may be). I think blogs need photos and mine was sadly lacking :) So since I have nothing else really to talk about I'll show you what I get to do at work on a typical Monday afternoon....when I'm not in meetings.

Doesn't the title on the door look grand? LOL. Its basically a room stuffed full of optical microscopes and a UV light...a room which actually doubles up as the kitchen. So anyway, in here I get to inspect broken pieces of metal and then photograph them with a camera and microscope. Then comes the dull bit (yawn....yawn) I have to write the report. Well wasnt that a pointless update....oh well.