Brrrrrrr!

Have you got your thermals out? I never used to feel the cold but since I was told I'm anaemic I quiver like a jelly on a plate at the slightest temperature drop... slight exaggeration but I'm sure you understand. Anyway, when the first snow fell last week I snapped this view from the window (in Durham) Although the snow is pretty, doesn't it scupper your plans!



Its a good job Mum, Dad and my sister's came to visit the previous week or my plans would certainly have been scuppered! There's a funny story to these shopmobility scooters... Mum and Dad were so worn out after I trekked them up hill and down again (and believe me, Durham has hills upon hills)



We had visited the Cathedral and Dad suddenly said "I'm not walking any further" He suffers terrible pain if he does too much walking and he knows his limits, so Andy and I had to go find them a ride - courtesy of shopmobility scooters...



You might be having a chuckle at me (or Andy) here, but if you had seen my Dad run his scooter 'aground' you would have howled! The Bailey (the street from the Cathedral down to the town centre) was being re-paved, so there were those rubber protector things laid over the jigger pick cables so people didn't trip - you may see where I'm heading here - Dad tried to drive over it and 'grounded' his scooter! He tried to go forward and then to reverse back but no... he was well and truly stuck! There were a few strange looks from passers by... Dad was concentrating hard at trying to get free and was oblivious to anyone else... I couldn't do anything for laughing!!! The workmen came to our rescue and lifted the scooter over... Dad just got back on and set off un deterred. I'm still chuckling away to myself every time I think about it!

You know I'm living two lives - one in Durham and another (tougher) one down in West Yorkshire, well I don't get too much time to get creative and play, in fact I feel like I'm only half hearted about it when I do get the chance, even though I'm longing to let go and push all the other crazy, messy, work related worries out of my mind. I sometimes make backgrounds in my journals and go back to them at another time, or add images - as in this case...



I did manage to spend a carefree day at Art from the Heart regular journalers day last Sunday. Dyan challenged us to use a background from a magazine and also to cut out random words to use as our journaling.. I enjoyed the exercise, this is my first attempt - I've done a couple of others which I may show you later...




These two were made using Dylusions paints, inks, stamps and downloads...





It was a day of fun in my busy schedule!

Now I have a confession to make...we put our Christmas tree up on Saturday (in Yorkshire)...now listen to my reasoning before you judge me! We have a BIG tree, it lives in the loft and it takes two people to get it down. We were down here for Andy's routine appointment at the transplant clinic in Leeds so we decided to take the opportunity to make a few Christmas preparations while we were both here (he won't be back until 18th December) It will save us much time as when we get back there will be a gazillion other things to do. I have put the lights on but no baubles. That's a tradition I will keep for the 14th December as I shall be home on that day - my last night at College for this year! It is our son's birthday and we made a tradition that we always put the Christmas tree up together as part of his birthday celebration - I shall be doing it alone this year - well the bauble bit, the tree is up now! Unless my girls decide to take pity on me and come home to give me a hand ... although it would probably take twice as long - they always dig through the box that holds 'everything they ever made' when they were at school - but I love those "Oh can you remember the year we made this Mum?" moments - part of what makes my Christmas magical!