My Baby's all grown up

Am very sad tonight :( My little man is all grown up on me. Despite him turning 3 at the weekend and despite him being able to answer me back now, it really only hit me now how grown up his when he stopped looking for his BaBa. BaBa is a baby doll that my niece very generously gave to Ruairi after he had destroyed it in dribble 2 years ago. BaBa has been the fourth member of our family for the last two years, she came everywhere............holidays, wexford, town, bed......... you name it BaBa came with us. Two weeks ago BaBa got left in Wexford by mistake and Ruairi didn't ask for her, so when she was posted back we didn't give her back but she got found and the two were inseparable again. So we made a decision that when we were coming back from Wexford at the weekend we would hide her again, so BaBa is as I type in the back of my wardrobe. Ruairi hasn't asked for her not once and he's even been sick and out of sorts tonight and I am heart broken. I think I've been in denial for the last few months, trying not to notice how grown up he is getting :) I really dont know where the last 3 years have gone, it really only does seem like yesterday when the surgeon's voice came from behind the green curtain "my god that's a big baby" before holding up all 10lb 9oz of him !
So bye bye BaBa, enjoy your stay in the Wardrobe, I promise to take you out again for Ruairi's 21st!

Some Holiday Snaps

These are a very small few of our holiday photos i just downloded a few of them....







As promised a few snaps from our hols.......

Latest Cards

two long months

Wexford didn't win the All Ireland :( But that's not why I haven't been around. No Sheer Laziness I think is the phrase. Since I was hear last we've been on our Holiday to lovely Kerry & Cork, we did the Dingle Peninsula (sp) the ring of Kerry and the Beara Peninsula in my in-laws camper van. We really had a great time and apart from the miserable rain on the tuesday we had good weather after that, the showers all happended while we were driving and it was dry when ever we stopped. I do have loads of photos, (about 3 memory cards full!) and I will post those up later cos there are some great ones. Ruairi had a ball , he's been to every playground between here and The Kingdom, he's only request every morning when we started driving was "play ground an sea side" so we found as many of them as we could and one day we even found both in the one place! We got in loads of walking, up to the coppermine in Alihies and around Gouganbarra another day, it was great, very relaxing. My in-laws are trying to perseude us to take the van to france next year.......we'll see.

My Mam had her surprise 50th Birtday a few weeks back, we really surprised her, we thought she had twigged something was up but no. We took her for a meal in a local hotel where they had this little dining room set up just for us, whilst all the neighbours and relations were gathering in the bar, my sister and I were going in and out like mad things and she still didn't realise. We had a great night and my mam loved it, here are a few pics,

The family including my mams godmother;


My Mam and Granny


My little bro (on the right) and my cousin


So that's it for now, thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Karen

C'mon de yella bellies

Off to see the match this afternoon, hope to be seeing scenes like this at about 5.30ish.........

Another Month Gone - Aghhhhhhh!

Another month has flown by and a miserable month it was too weatherwise. Our August started with a day trip to Doolin with DHs parents. Ruairi had to be shipped off to Wexford for race week as that's when the baby minder takes her holidays so the Grannies in Wexford were only delighted to have him. Alan's parents brought him back up in the Camper Van - he loved it sitting in the front with Granda looking at the world go by. On the Saturday we headed off for doolin - they were going to spend the rest of the long weekend there. We had a lesurely drive down and we all relaxed a bit in the campsite. I took some photos and this is the least wintery looking of them :-)



We hope to get away in the camper ourselves at the end of september - when the Indian Summer arrives lol. At least if it's too miserable we will be able to drive home!


I've been busy finishing off some wedding invite orders and despite thinking I got nothing else done for the month I did get to do some very nice crafty things in between. I went to my very first cardmaking day out in on Siopa Bui in Spiddal. It was brilliant. Jackie gave some lovely classes and I forget the other girl's name who did the bella's. Here are some of the cards we made on the day.




I had a fantastic day and really enjoyed the classes and the company and especially the shopping........ I bought Markers, bellas, punches, water brushes, inks, scoring boards.......I have no idea how I ever made a card before without these items :-) And I got loads of good advice from MayoMom who helped me all through the day and must have thought I was the greenest card maker ever!

So of course having got my new bella stamps I had to put them to use and ended up using two on the one card for a friend who had a load of really nice things happen to her lately and I wanted to wish her well, the most exciting of these being she is pregnant, so armed with colouring pencils, water brushes and stamps here's the result





I also manged to get me second invite order finished, do 60th Bd invites and get one or two other cards made.






Well that's it for now, that was a long post so thank you very much for taking the time to read it.

Karen xx

Tuam Sunset

When we viewed our house for the first time the estate agent told us that on a fine day you can see Croagh Patrick - That same morning we were doing well to see Tuam only 4 miles away it was a wet dark november morning at 8.00am! Well he wasn't lying! I took this pic only this evening, it would make you think it was summer!

Daniel O'Donnell Concert

Here are some pics from the Daniel Concert, no sniggering please!

The first one is my Mam and granny in the front row!




The great Man himself



And these 3 refused to go to the concert......


all messing aside he did put on a great show, and he didn't finish until quarter to twelve! The crowd loved him and I found myself clapping and singing along too :-)

Hubby in Irish Times

This is a very quick entry, but am so proud of Alan, a feature on his company appeared in yesterday's Irish Times!!!!!!!! It was a really great article, and for the first time in years I have a laymans version of what he does :-)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0718/1216073237405.html

Boyzone, Brides & Barcelona!

Well, had a busy few weeks since last here!
Firstly I went to the Boyzone concert, it was fantastic, am now deaf in one ear because a woman behind us kept shrieking any time Shane Lynch appeared on the big screen, but in fairness I could see her point! And as for little scrawny Ro, never judge a book by its cover! They all stripped off their tops at one stage, I think the woman behind me may have fainted, there was silence for about 5 seconds, they really had been working very hard in the gym! My only hope for next week is that Daniel O'Donnell has been working as hard. The things I let myself get talked into! DH thinks it's hilarious that I have front row seats for Daniel, my mother and grandmother are secretly delighted but they haven't told my Dad yet, I'm under instructions not to hand over the ticket to him until we are at the seats :-)

I handed over my first wedding invites last Sunday, in a carpark of a hotel on the M1, very clandestine but the bride was in rush. She loved them as did her h2b, so I was more than relieved. She is a lovely girl and really nice to deal with. No bridezillas at all!

So that brings me to Barcelona, here I am since yesterday, and just to rub it in, left dublin yesterday in the pouring rain and 2 and a bit hours later got off a plane to blue skies and heat! the joy of wearing my new sunglasses to keep sun out intstead of just to tone down the glare off the grey clouds!

DH left for registration of his conference at 7.30 this morning and I haven't been able to go back to sleep, hence the blogging! Shops dont open until 10 so I'm biding my time, there are sales everywhere and size 16s as well so I'm in my element!
The only bad thing is I have picked up Als cold, so am all stuffed up but I am armed to the teeth with uniflu and strepsils so that's keeping the miserable side of the cold at bay!

OK, was looking at the clock in the corner of the laptop, but have just discovered that it is on Irish time, am off to the shops!

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen

PS: notice no mention of Wexford hurlers this week.........Kilkenny destroyed them, the minors too, oh well the footballers are our only hope of silver ware this season, but aginst the Dubs so I won't be getting too excited yet........

First Wedding Invite order

Wedding Invites, All things Agricultural & Come on the Yella Bellies

Today is a fab day for loads of reasons.
1. I finished my first wedding invite order and am ready to deliver it.
2. Wexford Minor Hurlers drew with Dublin in Croke Park
3. Wexford Senior Hurlers beat Dublin today in Croke Park

But best of all

4. WEXFORD SENIOR FOOTBALLERS BEAT LAOIS TO MAKE IT TO THEIR FIRST LEINSTER FINAL SINCE THE 1950s

The joy, was only sorry I wasn't there to see it, had to make do with TV3 coverage and patchy coverage over the net of the hurling. I'm not a total GAA freak, I couldnt tell you who played half back for wexford in 1995 but I am proud of my county and I do love going to matches, all though they are far and few between now since we moved to Galway and had Ruairi, it really is too far to travel for a game, never mind the expense and if we brought Ruairai you could be garunteed that we would have to leave after 10 mins cos he wouldn't like the noise.


The wedding invites have been taking up most of my time lately, so blog and chat forums lose out unfortunately. I'm thrilled with myself today though that I have finished off the first order, the second order i have already started but will be working on it full time now! Hopefully these to orders will get a few others for me too. The only card making I've been doing is for orders and they tend to be the same at the moment, all wedding ones! Good job I adore weddings and all things wedding!

The last few weeks have seen us go to the County Show in Clarinbridge, Ruairi loved the show jumping - horseys jumping up and down, and all the sticks fall down! He loved the bouncy castle and icecream more though. Alan took some really cool photos of the show jumping, I'll post some pictures later, I'll put up some of his and of mine so you can see the difference!

On Friday evening after work we went to Farmfest '08 in athenry. Alan and ruairi went early in the afternoon and had sourced all the free lollipops by the time I got there. It was a really great show, and best of all I got to meet one of the Craft Supplies ladies in real life! Hello Helen aka Mayo Mom, she had the coolest stand at the show with her friend, they had loads of really lovely cards and bits and pieces. I bought a lovely blue angel phone charm from Helen, it is gorgeous. I also introduced her to Alan, just to prove to him that all you ladies are real, and not in my head.

The next few weeks are pretty busy for me again travel wise, I've to go to Portlaoise on Tuesday, to Dublin for the weekend to see BOYZONE!, the following weekend I'm down home to deposit Ruairi with his grannies so Alan and I can head off to Barcelona, Alan has a conference, and I'm tagging along,it's a beautiful city and I wont mind one bit exploring it again. Then we arrive back in Ireland on the friday and my parents, granny and neice are coming up to Galway that weekend to come and see Daniel O'Donnell in Salthill......... I'm going too for my sins - Alan "kindly" offered to baby sit that night! Phew I'm exhausted typing this, never mind doing it all!

Considering yesterday was the longest day, I reckon I'll be back to blog again just before Christmas............. sure it's only around the corner now ! ! !

Some of my recent creations

These are some of the cards I've been making over the last few months, although I do tend to get asked for several of the same design so I have made more than that ;-)

Where does the time go...........

I can't believe that its been 3 months since I was last on here. And truth be told I have very little to show for it. Everyday life just gets busier and busier! Alan has spent a bit of time travelling since St Patricks/Easter and I find I can be constantly chasing my tail. My shoulder is still on the mend and on Friday I had an injection into the joint to take the pain out of it. It was all very straight forward but had to be done in hospital for some reason. It seems to be working though, pain gone from joint so that should help improve everything else.

On the card front I haven't been too busy, lots of orders for wedding/communion & christening cards and I did an order of thank you cards for a friend who got married in South Africa, she didn't know I made cards until I sent her on for the wedding :-)
And finally, a year after setting up my website www.cardsbykaren.ie I have finally gotten a wedding invite order, actually I got two in the last 10 days so I'm going to be busy busy busy with those.

Thats it for now though, I'll post up some pictures later of the cards I've made and some photos that I've taken

Bye

It wasn't Supermac's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apologies to anyone who might have thought DH did bring me to Supermac's and that he is now buried in a bog near Tuam! He took me Moran's Oyster Cottage in the Weir in Kilcolgan. We'd never been before but had heard loads about it and it was fantastic:-)

It's been a very busy week, since I've gone back to work the time is just flying. I made a few mothers day cards this week for people, I won't post them up because they are all the same! Everyone saw the trifold one blue/yellow and they all wanted that one. Who am I to argue! It also means I still have at least 3 to make for home because I gave away the one I had made for my Granny because I had run out of large sheets of card so on the upside it means I've to head into Galway today to do some shopping!

I've also been busy with Cheryls techpro masterclass which is a good bit more challenging than the PWL but I'm glad it is, I'm learning about the settings only Alan used to use so I'm happy with that.

Since I've gone back to work I've started to cook abit more - might sound odd but Al does most of the cooking in our house, he hates washing up (shhh we have a dishwasher, don't tell him) I got a couple of cookery books over Christmas one of which was the SuperValu cook book which is great, full of simple everyday receipes if you know what I mean. You dont have to have your cupboards full of exotic ingrediants. Our favourite at the moment is a Pizza which is sort of like a breakfast pizza, it has sausages and B&W puddding etc on it but I make the base myself ! I know it might not sound much but I can't believe I make it, the only thing is the dough has yeast in it and you have to leave it for 2 hours to rise but it's worth the wait. Another favourite at the moments is Walnut, Cinnamon & Apple Muffins only problem with those is they are gone too quickly!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!!!

Happy Valentine's day everybody. I love Valentine's day. It's the day my DH asked me to be his girlfriend many moons ago, obviously I said yes! I love all the cards and flowers and nights out. The pampering and and spoiling. Not saying that all of this happens to me every year mind you, but it is nice to see it. I used to work in an office in Dublin a few years back where one side of the office was this big glass wall that looked out into the atrium where the security/reception desk was for the building. We could see all the bouquets being delivered and we'd look out the window at the security guard to see was he going to come towards our office. But, alas, no! He'd give us a sad little nod and head off to the lifts with the flowers to the other offices. The poor man was endlessly up and down the lift that day :-)


Have to admit though, the nearest I'll come to Romance tomorrow is my trip to the Physio - Ahh nothing like the smell of wintergreen!

Al and me have done some lovley things for Valentines, like the year I went to Dublin when he was still in college and he brought me to see St Valentines relic, we went to London another year and there was the year that he came down to Carlow where I was in college on the bus just to see me on Valentine's. I have loads of lovely memories of Valentines and this year will be the same no doubt, he has a meal booked for us on Saturday night, I don't know where it's a surprise and he arranged the babysitter and all on the QT. So where ever it is I won't care, Supermacs or McDonaghs fish & chips I'll be happy because it really is the thought that counts!!

(PS if there are no more posts from me it means he really did take me to Supermac's and I've buried him in the Bog out the back of our house.............. ;-) )

Back to Work

Well I finally went back to work on Wednesday and after a sleepless night on Tuesday it wasn't as bad as I thought. The Shoulder is pretty sore but I had my physio appt last night after work so she loosened it up a good bit for me again. It's like I was never away but after months of being off the tiredness of having to work all day was mad, I'd go asleep at 9.30pm! It's also strange being around people again after months of spending the majority of my day on my own.

I haven't had a chance to be blogging since I went back and my card making took a back seat too, but I sorted that out today too and I made some cards. Two of the cards were made following Jackies Tutorial on Scrapwest and I'm delighted they way they turned out. One of them was for my friends daughters Christening tomorrow so It was just the inspiration I needed in the nick of time!

My Fave Photos

I love taking photos. It was always hit and miss though to see if people had been decapitated, or someones elbow was pokeing into a wedding cake! So after reading some posts on CS last year I signed up to Cheryls Painting with Light course. Now whilst I don't claim to be the next David Baily I do now take the time to look at what I'm photographing thanks to Cheryl. So imagine my excitement when her email arrived last week, I'm going to bite the bullet and try the TechPro class. I'm cheating a little bit by doing the twopeasinabucket one so I am learning a little about aperature and speed etc before Cheryl bombards me with it all.

I love taking photos of people and especially when they aren't looking, although looking at the album below you wouldn't know that, all my people are posed :-) And whilst I do love colour, I have a hankering for Black and White images, the Chrys (am not going to shame myself by attempting to spell it) below was a beautiful yellow colour but I somehow thought it might look good in B&W. A good few of my photo's of RuairI are B&W too, it helps to hide the dirt on his face!!!!!!!!

My big downfall though is printing photos, generally they end up on the hard drive here and never see the light of day again. But since I've been off work I have been printing quiet a few, I managed to get an album full of our holiday ones and I've framed a few as well. And thanks to CS I've found new ideas for laying out photos etc which is great.

Better get back to the real world for another while, I hear the laptop and accounts calling from the kitchen, so bye for now and Thanks for Reading!

What a difference..............

Hmm........ a very different scene to this morning!

Busy Busy Bee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I got quite a few samples made for my Wedding Invite website Cards by Karen. I am getting my website updated at the moment and am adding a page for "bespoke Designs" and "Special Occasions/ General Cards". Thank god Alan can do all the techie stuff for me. Whilst I layed out the original website Alan does all the updating etc. I just tell him what I want and he does it. He also takes the phots for me too, he gets better results than I do!

Since the shoulder is getting better I want to put in a bigger effort with the invite side of things and I hope to do a bit of advertising and stuff this year. Typical of me though to start something when all of our friends are already married!

Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It snowed here this morning. I thought it hadn't because when I was lying in the bed, deciding to wether to get up or not I could hear the cars flying up and down the road so I assumed there was no snow but waht a suprise when I got to the kitchen and looked out the window! The neighbours must have thought I was nuts running around with the camera but it's all gone now so I'm glad I got them!

Ruairí didn't even notice the snow, I think he just thought it was different colour grass :-)

ABC (Accountants, Blogs & Cards)

The last few days have been very busy for me, I've spent the last 2 afternoons with Alan's accountant trying to learn how to use there new accounting package. Up to now they have just been recording everything on a spreadsheet but now we have a sparkly new accounts package that will be using. And for practise I am entering up 2007 figures!!!!!!!!! I'm quiet enjoying it though and at least it's another thing to put on the CV that you can use Tas Books I suppose. I have to say though having been away from the day job for so long I am absolutely wrecked, I forgot how using your brain can tire you out :-)

In the middle of all of this I have managed to get a few cards and things finished and here are a couple of the pictures. I really like the blue one, it's the first time I've made a trifold one so I'm really pleased with it and its a lot simpler than I thought.

Beacuse of all this activity for the last few days i have managed to stay away from chocs, crisps etc and most especially the dreaded coke, it's been 3 days now........... I'll stop thinking about it now!