Cala! Now 7 months old!

It's been a while I know, but here are a couple of recent pics of my darling Cala:

With her favourite teddy!

Doing her 'X Factor' impression

It's Launch Day!

You may (or may not) wonder why I've been so quiet of late - no new tags, no new news!  Well, I've been busy building a new website.  Most of you will have seen the scrapbook layouts I make for Cala and Alfie - I've had so many comments about them and enquiries about how to get them, that I've decided to open an online store where I can (maybe) sell them to a wider audience. It's taken me about two weeks to build from scratch and, despite setbacks (won't even go there!), I think it's finally ready to go 'live'!  So, here it is, ready or not - just hope it loads as the host servers were down earlier (typical!). 

http://www.digitaldaydreamz.com/

If you notice any broken links, etc. would appreciate it if you could let me know!

Ciao!

I just couldn't resist buying a new scrapkit yesterday - it's called 'Pink Zephyr' and is by Irene Alexeeva - I love it!  I spent most of yesterday playing with the kit and here are the latest results using the pics I took of Cala on holiday.

I also decided to make a special layout for Mum which I hope I can print up and send to her.

It's been extremely hot here the last couple of days; in the high 80s, and no breeze.  I'm not good in the heat - I just get lethargic and grumpy, lol.  As it's a bit cooler today (we had rain overnight), we have decided to go strawberry picking - it's probably the last chance this season and I'm hoping the rain didn't ruin what is left to pick.  Luke eats as many as he picks so it's good job they don't weigh you on the way in and out again!  Have a feeling it'll be Eton Mess for pudding later!  Ciao for now!

Hola! from Lanzarote

It´s our last full day (boo-hoo), and I´ve just managed to commandeer Stacey´s PC while she´s at work, and Kevin´s playing Padel Tennis.  We´ve had an absolutely lovely time even though the weather has been decidedly temperamental - always very warm, but quite a lot of cloudy skies.  We will be checking out of our hotel tomorrow morning and going to Stacey´s apartment to spend the rest of the day until our flight at 8.10pm (Monday) - which gives us most of the day together.  Am dreading saying goodbye - Mum´s already had a teary moment this morning, which she´d kept quiet about till just now!

Here´s a picture of Cala after her first taste of baby rice! 

We decided to try first stage weaning as she´s been getting more and more whingey between bottle feeds and had started waking during the night again.  She took to the spoon practically straight away and seems to really enjoy the whole feeding experience.  Stacey and I spent yesterday preparing ice cube trays full of pureed pototo, cauliflower, carrot, apple and pear so she can try out new flavours over the coming weeks.

I don´t have any other photos yet, as I´m using Stacey´s computer and not sure where she saves her pics to - will post some others when I get back home.  Just about to have some lunch with Kevin and Mum - Cala is at her other nanny´s as Stacey had to go to work this morning and Kevin was playing Padel Tennis so his Mum had to babysit - she´s not seen much of her while Mum and I have been here so I can´t complain. lol!
Well, my ´sandwich mixto´ (ham and cheese toastie) is ready so I´ll say ciao for now and love to you all.

Siggie Piggy!

For all you siggie piggies everywhere!  Grag it now at SS - will be posted Thursday!

A True Friend

Available now at SS - will be posted tomorrow so go grab it first!

The Birthday Party tag!

Another tag combining the fab talents of Lily Designs (scrapkit), and Suzanne Woolcott - it's called simply, 'The Birthday Party' and you can request it now at SS - it won't be posted on the forum till Monday!  Hope everyone's enjoying the fab weather - I spent the day gardening, more from necessity than choice but at least my lawn's less like a wilderness now.  Planning to have a bar-b-q tomorrow which, by default, will probably mean it will be raining come 5pm - don't you just love the British weather! (and that's rhetorical, btw).  Off to play Google logo Pacman again - I'm so easily entertained, lol. Ciao for now!

Giggles from Cala

Stacey sent me this clip a few weeks back, when Cala was 9 weeks old - is there anything cuter than a baby's giggles?!

A new day, a new tag

Preview of my latest tag creation, using the fab kit of SussieM and Suzanne Woolcott's Gorjuss girls.  You can get it now from SS before anyone else - this one will be posted at the weekend. 

First come, first served!

Another pretty for you to grab before anyone else - I'm calling it 'Bicycle Ride' for pretty obvious reasons, lol. You can request it now at SS before anyone else - I'll be posting it in the Gorjuss folder at the weekend (if I can remember!). This time I used a new kit from Irene Alexeeva, called 'Make Me Smile' - adore the colours, and a gorjuss Suzanne Woolcott girl - hope you like it! Ciao!

'Floral Harvest' - new tag!

Available right now, this tag combining a fantastic scrapkit from Lily Designs and a 'Gorjuss' Suzanne Woolcott cutie - a match made in heaven, imho!  Be the first to grab it now from Sensual Signatures!

New tag up for grabs!

 As promised, I've been busy making some new tags using the fab scrapkits of Lorie Davison. Her stuff is unique and really quirky (like me) and I just had to have her 'Bee Garden' kit. This is the first of the tags using her work - more to follow next week, if I can find the time!  I think this kit co-ordinates perfectly with Suzanne Woolcott's Gorjuss fairies too.

As usual, you can put in a request for this tag over at Sensual Signatures.

The scrap album I'd made for Cala has now been printed up - I'd wanted to order the hard cover version but with shipping at almost £30, I decided to get the soft cover version and ordered 2 of them - one for my Mum's 80th birthday in June, and one to take over to Stacey when we visit next month.  I'm really pleased with the printed result as I wasn't sure what the quality would be like - I was very pleasantly surprised! I think Mum will be thrilled.

Well, I don't have any other news for you, so I'll say adieu for now mes amis!

It's been a while since I had anything significant to blog about, so thought I'd post this latest photo of Cala, who turned 11 weeks old yesterday (7th May). I know she looks a little startled in the picture, but Stacey assures me she was all smiles and giggles right up until the shutter clicked - typical eh! Anyway, this is Cala with her very favourite teddy, nicknamed Juno, after my Mum (June).

I have also been busy adding more pages to Cala's photo album - it now has 25 pages and I still haven't used half of the photos I took when we were in Lanzarote!  Here are a couple of the new layouts:

It's hard to stick to just one theme, as I have so many new and beautiful scrapkits to choose from - but I hope they all work in their own way.  I used a combination of layout artists this time - Lily Designs and SussieM Designs, both absolutely awesome artists, I think you'll agree! I'm also very excited about a new artist I've discovered, whose work I hope to feature in some tags very soon - I just need to save up some money to buy the kits, lol.  Here is a sample of her amazing work:

That's all from me for now - ciao!!!

I'd almost forgotten I'd made this little video clip of Cala - she had just turned 4 weeks old when this was taken - it's hard to believe that was five weeks ago already! She even smiled on cue!

Tubeless!!

My tubes are missing!!  And, no I haven't had a medical procedure - 'tubes' are the elements used when making tags in Paint Shop Pro, i.e. all my Gorjuss girls and all the scrapkit tubes, sob!  I've got my computer back, but the eejits at the shop forgot to reload my documents as a backup, which means yet another trip back to the shop with computer!!  Apparently, the backup they made was nearly 38gb, compared to an average backup of around 10gb on 'normal' PC's (I guess that makes me 'abnormal!).  It means I will have to take my computer back yet again as the files are too big to put on a disk.  I had a wee bit of a ding-dong with the guy in the shop as he tried to imply it was my fault the backup wasn't put back on as I hadn't asked for it when I returned it the 2nd time!  I pointed out to him that the back up had NEVER been put on even though it clearly states on the job sheet 'backup documents and reload' - I also pointed out that I paid for this service when I picked the machine up the 1st time!  Fortunately, I had copied a lot of files to my external hard drive before I handed them the computer the 1st time round, but all that said, I am still missing at least half of my graphics, all my fonts, and all my plugins.  It's just so frustrating as I know they won't do the job with any urgency and once again I will be resigned to using Luke's laptop in the interim.  Ok, rant over!

Update on sick PC!

Had a missed call from the PC shop yesterday so made a quick dash down there in the hope that it might now be fixed and ready to pick up - more fool me!  Apparently, my graphics card is 'mashed' beyond repair; something they didn't pick up on whilst running the 'health check' - consequently, I've had to buy a new one and (hopefully) it will be installed today.  I had my suspicions that it was more than a Windows software problem, which is exactly what I told them when I returned the PC last week - pity they didn't believe me.
Anyhoo, having already spent a small fortune just having Windows XP reloaded, I'm praying that the final bill isn't extortionate (some hope!) and I'll be able to afford to collect my battered PC sometime today - will keep you posted.

Not a happy (Easter) bunny!

As the title suggests, I am far from happy!  Picked up my desktop from the shop yesterday and was told all was fixed and backups made of my documents - not only are my documents nowhere to be found, but my graphics card seems to have gone AWOL and after updating a couple of things, i.e. Internet Explorer and AOL, the damned thing is freezing again on the desktop screen!!   I tried rebooting 3 or 4 times, and it completely freezes every time - so much for the 'health check' they alledged to have performed.  Now, with the Easter weekend, it will be Tuesday at the earliest before I can return it to the shop, and it's anyone's guess what/who they will blame for the problems this time.  Consequently, I am still unable to open my folder in Sensual Sigs or begin taking requests until I can access my PC again, aagggghhhh!

My beautiful Cala Nicole Hodges

PC kaputt!!

Mein komputer ist kranken!! It seems the weird noises my PC has been making for quite a considerable time may have been an indication that all was not well with the motherboard - quick dash to the PC hospital yesterday and at least another 4-5 days till I get the results of the healthcheck. I can't begin to describe how frustrating it is not being able to continue with my Scrapblog for Cala, especially as I have new photos just waiting to be 'played with'. I had also been working on some layouts for an album for Alfie too - I'm praying that I won't lose all the work I'd done before the PC 'died' - I did manage to sign on in 'safe mode' and, hopefully, copy most of my tag creations to my external hard drive, but there's no guarantee (sob). With every penny going towards our trip to Lanzarote on the 16th, I just cannot afford any lofty PC repair bills, so it could be quite a while before I'll be back to 'normal service'. Stacey has sent some more pics over and I'm dying to get at 'em, lol. Here's one I'll be adding to the album just as soon as I'm able.

After several lengthy phone calls with Stacey this week, I now have confirmation that Cala wasn't 8lbs, but actually 7lb 9oz - not a huge difference (unless you're the one giving birth!).  Cala is doing very well - she is now quite used to her brace, and both Stacey and Kevin have now got the hang of getting it on and off without too much of a drama.  Cala has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow so Stacey will ask some specific questions regarding the brace and the degree of Cala's hip dysplasia - fingers and toes all crossed!

I bought a few items at Bluewater (mall) yesterday to take with us - some anti-colic bottles and teething/colic powders, which they can't get over there.  I also HAD to buy some baby clothes - I must have spent at least an hour just in Monsoon Baby - the baby girl dresses were to die for!  I must resist temptation, but as Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist anything..... " etc. lol.  I'm now getting quite concerned over the amount of baby stuff I have to pack into my 20kg suitcase!  I am going to very frugal with my own clothes, but I'm still woried that our cases may be over the limit - I think I'll just have to persuade Luke that he only needs a couple of t-shirts and shorts for a fortnight, lol.  Anyway, I'm away to start on Sunday lunch - got mum-in-law over for dinner today so I'd better do a pudding too!  Auf wiedersehen meine freunde!

Cala Nicole Hodges - Baby Book

I've been playing with a digital scrapbook site - this is what I've been busying myself with for the past few days.  It's not really finished yet, and I am adding more photos as and when I receive them, but I'm having fun!

The wait is finally over!

I present my brand new beautiful granddaughter, Cala Nicole - born 11am, 19/02/2010, 8lbs - after a long, and difficult labour.  Congratulations Stacey and Kevin - can't wait to see you all in March!
 

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be!

For anyone who remembers when Wagon Wheels were the size of saucers, PCs were Police Constables, bob-a-job week, Mrs McClusky, and only 3 TV Channels; enjoy!

So, what was that TV theme?!?!

As nobody attempted to guess the first theme I posted here, even after all my clues, I will tell you that it was..........   

.............   'The Singing Ringing Tree' - part of the 'Tales from Europe' series first transmitted on the BBC in the 60s and again in the 70s.  It was arguably the most scary piece of fantasy aimed at children and is probably responsible for more than one disturbed childhood - judge for yourself here.

New tag contest!

My newest tag, and I'm calling it 'Frog Prince' for obvious reasons.  I used Irene Alexeeva's 'Kiss Him He's Green' PTU scrapkit, and another beautiful Gorjuss girl from Suzanne Woolcott.  This tag will not be available at SS until Monday 15th Feb.!!

 
To be the first to own this tag you simply have to identify the movie the quote below comes from:

 

Answers in the comments box please - no emails.  You may make as many guesses as you like.  First correct answer will win the tag - good luck!

Prize tag competition!

Ok, I've had a rethink about yesterdays TV theme choice and, as it was probably never shown in anywhere other than Europe, I've decided to void that theme and substitute it with another, more familiar, TV show.  This one was definitely shown both sides of the pond and, because it's really quite easy, I won't be giving any clues straight away!  You can make as many guesses as you like - first correct answer will win my latest tag offering, 'Counting Sheep' - this tag isn't available at SS yet, and won't be until this competition ends.  So, good luck! 

p.s.  If you think you know the answer to yesterday's theme, put it in a comment - no prizes, but you'll have the admiration of millions - I'll reveal the correct answer in a few days.

~Counting Sheep~

For this tag, I used the Gorjuss artwork of Suzanne Woolcott and the fabulously surreal backdrops and elements of Irene Alexeeva - please visit their stores and take a look at their wonderful work!

Now for the question:   Name the following TV theme - no emails pls, leave your answer in a comment.  First correct answer will win the tag!

Not quite a Supergran........ yet!

My daughter, Stacey, is expecting her 1st baby at any moment - EDD was yesterday so I'm on tenterhooks at the moment and just waiting for THAT phone call!  In anticipation of the happy event, I have downloaded a new ringtone today - personally, I think it's very apt!

And just for a bit of fun - if you can name the TV theme featured below, I will reward the first correct answer with my latest tag creation, 'Counting Sheep', which I will reveal here tomorrow, before it's posted at Sensual Signatures!  No emails on this one please - just leave your answer in the comment box.  You may guess as many times as you like - I'll reply when I see a correct answer!  Good luck!

Hint:  You need to think a long way back - weekday afternoons around 4pm'ish on BBC1 (I'll give another hint tomorrow if still not solved).

Click here to listen to Mystery TV theme.mp3

Adding an animation to your blog

Blogger makes it easy to add pictures to your log.  Unfortunately, it's not quite so easy to add animated pictures just using the editing functions as Picasa, as yet, doesn't support .gif formats.  If you're like me and you like to display your animations too, you might want to know a fairly simple solution to make sure your blog groupies can fully appreciate your pretties!  First of all you will need an image hosting service like Photobucket - these are free to register with and offer stacks of free storage space.  Next, you will need to upload your images to your host - it's a good idea to make a separate album for your blogger pictures so that you don't lose track of them. 

A new day, and a new tag!

I'm adoring these new girls from Suzanne - and they complement Irene Alexeeva's new 'Hunny Bunny' kit perfectly.  You can find Suzanne Woolcott's 'Lovehearts Girls' at her Gorjuss shop and Irene's new kit is at Scrap Orchard now.  Here's my newest tag - and it's available over at Sensual Signatures from today.

I've called this tag 'Sweet as Chocolate' - because....... it is!

New tag available now at Sensual Signatures

Since it's fast approaching that time of year again, I thought I'd better get busy and make a new tag to mark the occasion.  It's not strictly a 'valentine' tag, but I think it can work.  Hope you like it - you'll find it in Sensual Signatures from today.

Once again, I'm using the beautiful Gorjuss girls from Suzanne Woolcott - this one is from her latest collection called 'The Loveheart Girls' which you can purchase from Suzanne's store, here

Problem Resolved!

My web browsing problem is now resolved and, exactly as I thought, it was down to AOL changing their DNS settings (again).  AOL have a habit of doing this - and then blame your router model for not picking up on the change - do they ever accept responsibility for their crap service?!?!?!  So I finally managed to buy the new scrapkit I'd been hankering after for the past seven days - it's called 'Baby Elf'' by Lily Designs and is available to purchase from After Five Designs.  As you can see, I couldn't wait to use it and incorporate it into my blog layout - at least it's not too girly now (as several people commented).

I also intend to switch the start page picture on Sensual Signatures at some point - it's now nearly February and I'm still displaying the Christmas one!  I just get so absorbed in what I'm doing sometimes that I completely overlook the most obvious things - oops, that reminds me, I need to do some ironing - see you all soon!

I want to live in Pandora!

Yesterday, we finally got round to seeing Avatar!  I wasn't sure what to expect because of all the hype and contradicting reviews in the media - but I swapped my cynical head for my impartial one and just let the movie do the talking.  Wow!  I loved it!  I absolutely loved it!  The 3d was better than anything I'd experienced previously (i.e. 'Up', 'Final Destination 4') - there was no loss of sharpness this time and I didn't feel the need to 'rest' my eyes every 20 mins or so.  My only moan was that we were kept waiting in the lobby for 10 mins before the film started so that the staff could 'clean the 3d glasses before the next use'.  Pah!!!  They were mingin'!!!  Every pair I picked up were icky - good job I had my lens cleaner with me.  But I digress - the film was superb, sumptuous and spellbinding - ok, I've run out of alliterative superlatives now.  If you haven't seen it yet - go! 

I spent most of Saturday playing with my new Genio Touch phone - I intended to trade-in my old LG Chocolate but when the nice Carphone Warehouse lad told me it was only worth £3.75, I decided to keep it as a spare.  Disappointed it didn't come with a PC cable though, so had to fork out another £12 to buy a PC Connectivty lead - my desktop hasn't got bluetooth built in, so transferring pics and music would be a problem without one.  Eventually found and installed the Samsung PC Studio software online and then uploaded a few new ringtones and wallpapers.  This is how it looks now:

I think I may invest in a Bluetooth dongle as the Samsung software seems to be a bit longwinded for simple transfers.  Anyway, I like the phone so far and at least now I can hear it if it rings when I'm out - my Chocolate's volume was never loud enough.  I know Jojo has one too, so I'd be interested to hear her verdict so far.  Right, I'm away to phone AOL to find out why I can't access some websites - I know it's not my computer 'cos I've done every troubleshoot known to womankind!  I may be some time!

Favicon Offer!

A few days ago I mentioned that I'd spent several hours creating and installing a custom made 'Favicon' for my blog page - a favicon being the little icon that appears next to the URL in your browser window (like the Blogger 'B' on most Blog addresses.  I was wondering whether anyone would be interested in having their own unique favicon for their blog too - if so, all I need is an idea for your favicon design (remembering that it's only 20x20 pixels), maybe an initial, colour or symbol that represents you, or your blog content.  I'll provide the HTML code and instructions on how to install it into your blog and guide you through the process (it's quite painless).  Leave me a comment on this post if you're keen and I'll be in touch!

Recharged the camera batteries and managed to get these snaps this morning - the 50p piece gives a better idea of the scale of the teddies that Tobyann sent me.  Cute eh!

'Artistic genius'!?!?!

The title of this post is a quote from my lovely friend, Jo - who is obviously a very discerning lady (or just perspicacious, like me!).  I made her a blog background yesterday - only took me six hours of hard slog, sweat and tears till it finally met with her approval (kiddin'!!).  This was my 1st draft, which Jo wasn't keen on because it was too dark:

This was the 2nd and final draft (whoopedydoo!)

To be honest, I like 'em both - but the 2nd is a bit more girly I guess!  Good choice Jo!

You may, or may not, know that I am an arctophile - that's someone who likes/collects teddy bears, and not some kind of deviant!  My teddies are all limited editions - some are totally unique.  Consequently, they are rather expensive to buy (hence my small collection).  My lovely American friend, Tobyann, recently sent me a 'sleuth' (collective noun for bears) of adorable miniature teddies that needed a new home!  There were eleven in total, in various colours and sizes - the smallest are only 1½" tall.  I promised her that I would post a photograph of them once I'd cleared some room in my cabinets to make way for them.  I found the camera yesterday so took the opportunity to take a few pics.  This isn't the whole collection as the batteries ran out on the camera before I could snap them all, but here are the bears that Tobyann sent me.  Thankyou Tobyann - I will treasure them always!

And these are some of my other bears - they measure only 6" tall, made mostly of mohair and filled with lead shot to give them weight.

'Bam Boo', 'Archie' and 'Misty'

'Treacles', 'Twizzle' and 'Magnus'

She's done it again!  Yes, Irene Alexeeva has produced yet another fantastic new PTU kit - it's called Dream With Me and you can find it at Scrap Orchard, here. 



And here's what I did with it this afternoon - available shortly from Sensual Signatures in the 'Gorjuss' folder. I'm calling it 'Solace of Dreams' - again, I'm using a Suzanne Woolcott tube which you can purchase from her site, here

New tag available now at Sensual Signatures

This is my latest tag offering over at Sensual Signatures.  I wanted to utilise one of my Irene Alexeeva kits so found a fab tutorial at Gem's Taggin' Tuts - it's called 'Gorjuss Wonderful' and you can find it here.  The kit I used is called 'Kind of Magic', which is a PTU kit by Irene and can be purchased at Scrap Orchard. I have called my version of this tag, 'Enchanted by Magic' and you'll find it in the 'Gorjuss' folder at Sensual Signatures.  I love how the colours of this kit complement Suzanne's (Suzanne Woolcott) 'gorjuss' girl - they co-ordinate perfectly!  Of course, it was a great excuse to use Xenofex's Constellation plugin - one of my fav plugins ever!

What I learned today!

Today I learned how to make my own favicon - that little icon thingy that sits next to your browser tab name (like the 'blogger' icon on left).  I'd like to say that it was easy and took me no time at all, but then I'd be lying!  I spent at least three hours trying to get that little blighter to appear after first having to make the damned thing, and then convert it to an .ico file and then upload it to a web host (neither flickr, photobucket or fotki accept .ico formats), and then find the correct HTML code to make it finally work!  I know what you're thinking - was it worth it for a tiny little box with two Ps in it - well, yes it was - to me anyway.  I hate being defeated and I was determined to get it working before I signed off for the night!  I'm metaphorically patting myself on the back for that one - well no-one else will, lol.

Irene Alexeeva has just released her newest kit, 'Kiss Him, He's Green' - you can find it at Scrap Orchard and, right now (10.01.10), it's 20% off the normal full kit price - the full kit also comes with free quick pages which are perfect for digital albums if you want a fast and professional looking result.

My daughter, Stacey, and her fiancé, Kevin

Irene is also offering a free cluster frame which can be used in conjunction with her full kit - you can download it here

This is another JibJab video - quite funny, if you're not too sensitive!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Been playing with Windows Movie Maker today - wanted to see if it was possible to embed a small video clip into a post - it's my grandson, Alfie, as the elf.  You can make your own elf video, or choose from loads of other themes at JibJab. Guess this is the acid test!  Just hit the 'play' button.

Happy New Year 2010!