This week I finally…

…got round to putting my digital scrapbooking layouts in an album.

I don’t know why but there are some things that just take me ages to do and this little job has been one of those things.  You could call me a master procrastinator.

Actually a lot of my layouts were already placed in the album, I just needed to stick them in place.

I thought I needed those sticky photo corners you buy but every time I went shopping I would forget to buy them or think they were too dear and that I would get them cheaper somewhere else.  (I do that a lot!)  Then I realised I could use two sided tape of which I had some all along.  Anyway, so now here I am all up to date and that is my very satisfying simple pleasure with which I am linking to Dayle at A Collection of This and That where others are sharing their Simple Pleasures  too.

I must be the last…

… blogger around to have discovered Picnik. 

For ages now I have admired all the mosaics out there in blogland and known that a lot of bloggers use Picnik to make them but I’ve just never bothered with it.  Well, things are going to change because I’ve just had a proper old nosey at Picnik and it’s great!  I’m going to be posting a lot more mosaics like this one!  Hopefully better ones as I get more used to the ins and outs of it.

These are pictures of George and Nicholas at the start of their new school year.  Of course it’s Nicholas’s first school year ever.  He started nursery school a couple of weeks ago, he’s only three, and he’s very proud of his uniform.  He also likes going to nursery so that couldn’t be better for everybody concerned.

TTFN

A Sunday Stroll…

…by the canal.  It was a gorgeous autumn, sunshiny  day yesterday.   Billy and I had said during the week that if the weather was good we’d go for a walk on Sunday, it was and so we did.

 

William’s knees were hurting, he’s having an allergic reaction to some tablets he’s taking, so he wanted somewhere on the level.  My immediate thought was the canal, in particular the one that runs through Uppermill.  It is just so pretty!   We started at the Brownhill Countryside Centre

 

Everything was very still and peaceful, no wind at all.  The water was glasslike.

There are quaint, stone-built cottages dotted along the sides of the canal, more so as you get closer to Uppermill village.

 

This one has its own mooring and long boat too.  I’ll bet that is somebody’s dream house.

 

I took this picture using my camera’s remote control.  I’ve had that thing for a while and forget to use it but now I’ve remembered about it I’m going to try and use it more.  The looks on our faces say is it working or is it not?  It was.  Next time we’ll be more confident and not look quite so mystified!

After this we walked back to the garden centre, where we’d left the car.  We had a drink and something to eat then a mooch around.  Like everywhere else they’re gearing up for Christmas – I’m definitely not ready for that yet!  We are on the lookout for one of those fire pits for the garden but they didn’t have any.  We definitely need one for Bonfire Night so we’d better keep looking.

All told it was a really nice afternoon and now that William no longer has Sky Sports it might be something we’ll get to do more often!

Before I go I want to say “Well done!” to Caroline.  She has been on a study course this weekend which is in preparation for part two of an important exam at work.  Not only did she pass the course but did it in style coming top of the class!  All that hard work is paying off, keep it up.

Ciao for now.

Naughty but Nice.

Caroline, Charlie and I went to The Trafford Centre today for a tootle around.  I had stuff to take back to Marks and Spencer from my shopping spree with William last weekend and Caroline had stuff to return to Next.  Shopping isn’t a big expense for me at all, I always seem to take back more than I keep!

Anyway before we started our leisurely traipsing round the shops Caroline and I indulged ourselves and made for Krispy Kreme first.  My donut was the “chocolate covered custard centre” one.  Which would you choose?

Now if that isn’t a simple pleasure I don’t know what is!  Therefore I’m linking to A Collection of This and That for today’s assortment of  other’s Simple Pleasures.

TTFN.

Let’s Make a Cake.

I asked Charlie today if he’d like to make a cake with me.  

He practically flew into the kitchen and grabbed the stool he needs to see over the counter top.

I think the answer was yes!

TTFN.

Budding Musician?

Yes, we have a budding musician on our hands.  George came home from school yesterday with a cornet!

He wanted to come and show it to me today after school.  And of course play it for me too.  He can already get some awesome sounds out of that thing but I’m looking forward to hearing him play when he’s had a few lessons!

I wonder where he’ll practise?  Will it be in the house, in the garden or on the big field at the back of their house?!  Time will tell.

Good luck with it, George.

Ciao for now.

Oooh, I would love…

…one of these.  In fact I would love this one in particular.

It’s a VW Beetle and I spotted it outside Marks and Spencer in Handforth Dean this afternoon.  I like Beetles anyway but the graphics on this one just made it stand out from the rest for me.  I think it just looks soooo cool!  My girls will love that, me using the word cool, eh girls?.

William and I went on a little shopping spree today.  I say little because we only went to two shops one of which was M & S in Handforth Dean and the other was my favourite shop, John Lewis,  just down the road from it.

It was a very productive shopping trip, we got what we went for and a couple of things besides.  One of the things besides was this pair of  FitFlops   Not a very good picture I’m afraid, I pinched it off the internet. Why do they put a mainly white product on a white background?  You get the idea though I hope.  I didn’t know I needed these sandals until today but I’m glad I got them.  They really are so comfortable and feel so good and what’s more they are supposed to be very good for your feet, your bottom and everything in between too!

I love me a brass band and to day The Salvation Army band was outside Marks’s playing their hearts out and shaking their collecting tins of course.  I feared at first that they were playing Christmas carols!  They weren’t though, so that was OK.  It’s bad enough that the shops are gearing up for Christmas already.  I wish they wouldn’t do that in September.  Surely after Bonfire Night would be soon enough!

By the way I took these two photos with my mobile phone’s camera.  Didn’t  turn out as bad as I thought they would.

That’s it, until next time.

Cheerio.