a whole month

...has gone by in a flash! Where did that go? Well, first was my birthday. For this day out Katy chose the National Gallery, we spent a nice morning there looking at the paintings. Afterwards we wandered to Covent Garden and did some Christmas shopping. There were some great street performers entertaining the crowds, we really enjoyed one of the shows in particular. Dinner was in Belgo, a fab Belgian restaurant where Katy decided she loved moules. She was also partial to the chocolate ice cream.

After dinner we walked up Regent Street admiring the Christmas lights, Katy was particularly enthralled by the Hamleys windows. Who can blame her when they have life size Barbies there.Then December came and the start of the advent calendar routine. Katy gets out of bed and this is the first thing she does. She then scoots downstairs to open the two she has there too! Check out that morning hair! Brushing this is what we fall out over the most.

One day we saw a rainbow....

and another day we bought and decorated the Christmas tree.

Added to that have been 4 performances (2 drama club Wizard of Oz shows and 2 class Christmas shows) and an open ballet lesson. We are so so ready for the holidays now.

Glasgow

We had a lovely weekend in Glasgow. The weather was perfect. Here we are in the park, enjoying the autum colours. Katy loves being outdoors and is usually happy to try everything.

I'm getting better at handing the camera over to George.

It was Halloween on the Friday so Katy got all dressed up to trick or treat at Fiona and Stuart's. She had been disappointed that she would miss the chance to trick or treat at home, but as it was she was totally spoiled by Fi and Stuart as always (thanks guys). Here she is as Pirate Katy.

And she also enjoyed this fab park, after getting over her fear of the super high slides.

It was lovely to catch up with family and friends, and to have the chance to spend a weekend with Mike and Sue. We had talked about them coming to Glasgow for ages and I'm really glad we managed to do it.

more crafting

All these were made using the Confections kit from Studio Calico. Looking at them all together they feel a bit samey - maybe it's the pink felt on each page!

travel layouts

Just sharing some of the pages I've done using the Via Airmail kit from Studio Calico. I'm enjoying getting some of the photos from our trips finished, this kit was perfect for these layouts. I just need to get some more journalling onto them now.

birthday day out

We went to London Zoo on Saturday as Katy decided that's what her Dad would really like to do for his birthday.

She loves giraffes and could watch them for hours. Everything else she just sees, looks at and then is like 'OK, next...' but with the giraffes we have to nag her to leave. It was such a hot day, sadly the winter coats we had brought were no more than excess baggage which we were none to happy to carry around all day. Word of warning - there are no lockers at the zoo. Anywhere.

Afterwards we went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner, which was pretty nice. Which was a relief after some of the reviews I'd seen.

At the end of the night George was presented with a bowl of cream (yes really) so that the restaurant could sing happy Birthday to him.

a room of my own

A year ago it looked like this. Now we've finally settled on what room is what, and the 'blue room' is now my space. I love it.

Since these photos, I've put my sewing machine on this chest of drawers at the foot of the bed, and will maybe put my cricut there too.

Now all I need is a bit more time there.

the great outdoors

We've been having such lovely weather these past couple of weeks, so one Sunday we decided to get out there and enjoy it. We did the circular walk around Old Redding, which is about 3 1/2 miles. Katy moaned and moaned about doing a lon walk. The she asked if it was like a hike, so we said yes, it was just like a hike. 'Oh, I want to do it if it's a hike' she replied. See, it's all about the packaging!

It was beautiful out there, we all really enjoyed it.

Katy was very excited by the reindeers, thankyou to the kind people for sharing their reindeer food.

And with Aleida in mind, my first in my commitment to get more photos with me in.

And lastly, some layouts. The first two are using the via airmail kit from Studio Calico.

George in Sri Lanka, 1998. And below is our first stop on the Big Trip of 96-97, Sanur in Bali. Those were the days.

The layout below uses the Confections kit from Studio Calico. Love all the bright colours.
And this is using a gorgeous kit from Little Red Scrapbook.

changes

Looking back from one year to the next; Katy's first day of reception and year one. Look how much she's grown!

Don't you just love those shiny first-day-of-school shoes. Needless to say they are already scuffed.

Been in a thoughtful mood this weekend since those of us who spend time over at Studio Calico learned of the tragic death of Aleida in a car accident leaving a husband and two young children. She was a huge part of the board and was a lovely warm, kind and oh so funny woman. I looked back through some of my layouts yesterday and she had left comments on nearly every one. Recently on her blog she had been thinking about how she needed to make more of an effort to step out from behind the camera and be in more of her photos, that one day she wouldn't be here and there wouldn't be any photos of her with her kids. Apart from giving me mega shivers, that definitely gave me something to think about. And something to work towards.

My mosaic

My mosaic, originally uploaded by cathann1.

1. Lake Cathrine Panorama, 2. Colorfull Thai Mini Snack, 3. Joan of Arc, 4. ♫ YO Yo yo, there's no place like a green penthouse... so i told the genie i wanted to be well hung. ^o^ ♫ nah... wildlife from singapore♫, 5. armitage, 6. blissful moment, 7. One Night in Bangkok, 8. mango cheesecake, 9. True Mystery, 10. Clumber Bridge, 11. Bairro Alto de Lisboa, 12. 18. Cathann doin' the Somnambulist Twist

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

I've seen this on a few blogs lately and have always fancied trying out a mosaic, so here is mine. I think it's quite 'me'. It's fun to do.

Here's how you do it:

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search. Using only the first page of results, choose your favorite image, copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (4 columns, 3 rows).

The questions:

1. What is your first name? (Cathrine)
2. What is your favorite food? (Thai Food)
3. What high school did you attend? (St joan of Arc)
4. What is your favorite color? (Green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Richard Armitage)
6. Favorite drink? (cup of tea)
7. Dream vacation? (thailand)
8. Favorite dessert? (cheesecake)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (novelist)
10.What do you love most in life? (katy)
11. One word to describe you. (calm)
12. Your Flickr name. (cathann)

home from ireland

Mum's birthday party was great fun. Katy stayed on the daancefloor all night and went to bed at 2am! She was so good throughout the night, especially as she was the only child there.

Here she is looking out at the Shannon waiting for everyone to arrive.

After most of the birthday celebrations were finished, we moved the boat back to its marina. Katy hadn't been on 'her' boat for a while and she really enjoyed it this time. I enjoyed it more too as she was a much better age to understand the safety aspects of it all and was really good.

We went up the Shannon and onto Lough Ree, where Katy enjoyed waving to all the other boats and wildlife spotting.

She then had a go at the helm and took the boat through the markers onto the inner lakes. With a little help of course. The inner lakes were beautiful, it was so quiet and calm. We met more family at the marina and went for a gorgeous lunch in Grogans. I had my usual - steak sandwich and my only Guinness of the trip. Yummy.

It's nice to be home now, we have a week of uniform shopping and last minute sorting to do before life gets back into its normal routine.