Announcing the safe arrival of Coco-Beans chocolate drops . . . . all 9 of them!

Well after a stressful few days Coco-Bean starting in Stage 1 labour on Monday evening. She went off her food, definitely unheard of, so a sure sign she's not feeling great :(   Eugene and I took turns to stay with her out in the kennel and Eugene even slept out there with her too that night he's such a darling. Tuesday morning and things were pretty much the same with her sleeping a lot and not eating anything. I snuggled up in the kennel with a portable DVD player and a couple of books to keep an eye on her.

These photo's were taken at 2.30pm that afternoon - she loves her armchair as she can sit and watch out the window at all the comings and goings.

At around 5pm she started to progress in labour and began getting very anxious and nesting frantically. This got more aggressive as the evening wore on so I had an fair idea we would be seeing babies during the night. So I took myself off to bed at around 9.30pm leaving Eugene on duty with instructions to fetch me the minute anything happened. Well, I got an hour and a half sleep before he came and woke me and by the time we got back out to the kennel 5 minutes later she was bearing down with her first pup. Things went very well and thankfully there were no complications. All nine babies were delivered safely by 5am. Understandably by this point Coco-Bean was absolutely exhausted and fell into a deep sleep just minutes after pup 9 was born. Im sure her snores could be heard a mile away.

These photo's were taken after we had a chance to clear up a little without disturbing her too much. She was sound asleep and the babies were all feeding. A sight to melt your heart if ever I saw one.

And, up close and personal with the chocolate drops xx

Well, thats all for now but I will say in advance that there will be lots of Chocolate Drop updates in the weeks to come as I will be recording this event with as many photo's as possible . . . . . .  and I definitely feel a mini-book coming on :)

So from when very tired me,
tfl,
Hugs
Dee
xxxxx

Very Much Dad's Girl . .

My first LO for The Studio Challenges Summer CC. This LO is my take on the Becky Fleck sketch from the 8am Challenge.

Photo's are of my husband and daughter. Amy is definitely a Dad's Girl always taking the opportunity to grab a cuddle when she can. These pics were taken in my craft room one evening. We were chatting when Amy came in and parked herself on Dad's knee. I actually took about 20 shots but these are my favourite three.

tfl
Hugs
Dee
xxx

Anyone for a Cyber Crop ?

After taking part in my first CC on UKScrappers early this year I have had my eyes open for another and came across this one on The Studio Challenge Blog. Im hoping to play along as much as possible although it all depends on CoCo-Bean. She has gone off her food and started to become a little restless so I think labour may be on its way. 

Amanda set a pre-Crop Challenge which I missed last night so was unable to get a LO done, but I'll answer the questions just for a bit of fun and also if anyone from the Cyber Crop is popping over here they can read a bit about me :)

1. What's your name and where do you hail from?

Im Dee, originally from London but now living by the sea in beautiful Co Donegal

2. Who's your favourite scrappy manufacturer?

I have a few which I really love : Cosmo Cricket, Bo Bunny, October Afternoon and of course a girl cant live with Basic Grey!!

3. What product do you find yourself using most?

Cardstock!! Any manufacturer 

4. Do you prefer make your own embellishments, or buy ready made?

I dont mind using ready made one's and there are some gorgeous one's to be had but lately I do prefer to make my own and with some fab tutorials out there its very rewarding to do-it-yourself :)

5. Have you ever taken part in a cybercrop before?

YES!  Just once on UKScrappers - the Monopoly CC.  I had so much fun and I think I am definitely going to become a CC Addict!

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Today is also my big sisters birthday! Here is a card I made for her earlier this week using my Stampin' Up Stamps:

And another one for my sister-in-law who's birthday is next weekend (its OK for me to share as she doesnt check out the blogs!)

Im loving the Stampin' Up stamps sets and want, no NEED more!  

So, its 8am on Saturday . . . bring on the Cyber Crop!!!

Mojo Overflow

My mojo is definitely flowing at the moment so thankfully I've had plenty of time to scrap. July came and went in a flash with hardly any crafting time so I'm making up for it now. 

This LO was my effort at the House Challenge for UKScrappers - Summer in My Hometown.

I used some of my Cleo Crafts monthly kit for this one. The kit had really pretty blooms in it this month. It was my first kit from them and I was really pleased with it so I'm looking forward to more lovely kits from them in the future :)

This next LO was a challenge within my UKScrappers team - The Rik Rak Ravers. Using this old pagemaps sketch:

And taking colour inspiration from this image:

I came up with this :

Photo's are of my youngest son Tony climbing in the park at Pollan Bay, Co Donegal.

And finally, a LO with a photo of me!!! Shock horror ! There's not many of these around I can tell you. I love being behind the camera  . . .  not in front of it :) 

This photo was taken of me when I was 4 years old and I had just started school. I was going to scan it and keep the original but I decided to use it instead as I like the old feel of the photo, complete with pin-prick marks where its been displayed on cork boards and such like over the years. I was prompted to scrap a school photo by Heather (one of my team mates in the Rik Rac Ravers)  as we had been chatting about old school photo's and Im brave enough to share this one but the later ones are all freckles, pimples, buck teeth and braces so they can stay safely stored in my old shoe box thank you very much. I really like this LO and actually its probably my favourite of the three I finished recently. It could have something to do with the sweet little girl in the photo!

tfl
Hugs
Dee
xx

We're having babies . . . .

well to be more precise CoCo-Bean and Max are having babies. After a trip to the vets on wednesday to have  a scan it is now confirmed that CoCo-Bean is pregnant and its not the phantom pregnancy we thought it was. So in just over 2 weeks we will be hearing the patter of tiny paws.

Coco-Bean is doing great although Im not so sure she is enjoying the pregnancy bless her she looks every bit fed up :(   and with 2 weeks still to go she will get quite a bit heavy then this. She is enjoying the extra meal a day though thats for sure.

I found this photo of CoCo-Bean and Max when they were pups. It seems like forever a go that we brought them home and they were so small, especially CoCo-Bean. I cant wait to see what their babies are going to look like.

This is Mum & Dad before the start of the pregnancy.

Watch this space for Chocolate Drop updates!

tfl

Hugs

Dee

xxxx

Pimp My Ride

I've been making the most of my free time while I can as its short and sweet at the moment with the children on summer holidays. On my craft desk at the moment are half dozen things that need starting / finishing but what did I do last night ? I pushed them all the one side and started a new LO . . .lol!

I am determined to use my beautiful Go-Go kits as they are starting to back up now and they are too gorgeous to just keep in storage files so I found the perfect photo to use with my June kit - Are We There Yet ? and a sketch from Pagemaps.

This photo is of my son Tony when he was around 2 years old - he loved his car x

I particularly loved the Maya Road chipboard shapes we got with this kit and couldnt resist inking my car in bright red to match Tony's car. I like the way it works with the subtle colours of the papers.

tfl

Hugs

Dee

xx

More Go-Go on the Go!

Since my July Go-Go Kit was still out on my desk after I finished my 'The Chase' LO I decided to use some more of it for the weekly challenge on UKScrappers. I have had the photo's printed out for a few weeks just waiting to be scrapped and this weeks challenge theme suited them perfectly.

The story behind the photo's : Each year in June the primary school have 'Mad Hair Day' to raise funds for a local charity. Amy's hair is very easy to do and we had lots of options to make it 'mad', but Tony's short hair proved more of a challenge. In the end we opted for a whole tube of hair gel and a tub of glitter. After applying the gel and taking ages to get the spikes just right I threw glitter all over his head. It doesnt show up too well in the photo's but it actually worked really well. He was very happy with the end result. Its a shame that this tradition has come to an end now that they are heading off to 'big' school in September :( xx

tfl,

Hugs

Dee

xxx