A great weekend!

This has been a really great weekend - for a start we got to spend some time with the kids, the first time Jack and I had seen them since Christmas and the first time in ages that Dave has seen them other than in the street for more than 10 minutes! Dave had asked to take the kids swimming as it is something they have aways loved to do together and at the last minute he got a text saying that he could meet them at the pool as his ex was taking them. We had all planned to go together so it wasn't a big deal to meet them there and it was amazing to see Dave interacting with LJ and Melissa. It was so obvious how much they absolutely adore him and I just couldn't stop smiling the whole time! He played with them the whole time and had limitless patience as they wrestled him, jumped on him and poured water over his head. My Jack was thrilled to see his brother and sister again as he has missed them so much and the boys played together as if no time had passed at all.

I think it was a bit awkward as Dave's ex was there sat at poolside and it was obvious that the children didn't really know how to react. Its a difficult situation as the children feel in the middle and don't want to upset anyone. I know my Jack has talked to me at length about being between two parents and his Dad and I get on quite well so I can appreciate how hard it must be for LJ and Melissa and I was so proud of them on Saturday. Its so important that divorced parents accept that their children absolutely need regular contact with both of them in order to develop into happy, healthy adults and I hope that this is the first step towards that happening. The alternative is that they will grow up with a deep seated resentment towards the parent that 'stopped' them from having a relationship with the other one which is why I actively ensure that Jack has quality time with his Dad and sees him every week - the way I see it, thats part of my job as a mother.

Sunday was an equally fab day as we ran our 'Finish your Pages' day in Kent and had an amazing turnout, in fact we sold out of places weeks before the event! It was a really chilled out day with a great fun vibe in the hall the whole time. We got loads of work finished, the final tally was;

7 double page LOs from scratch
39 single page LOs from scratch
63 LOs finished off

Thats one heck of a lot of work done in one day!! We are looking to run another day to finish off work some time in September so watch this space for the details as soon as we have them. Next on the agenda is our August crop day on the 22nd, the classes are coming in thick and fast and I'll be releasing them any day now.........

Kit #2 for July

Things have been more than a little bit crazy of late especially as my Jack has had a horrid sickness bug this past week. I'm a bit behind and the subscription kits will ship this week - my apologies for the delay but poorly kids come first!

Anyway, this is the second sample design for July. We are using another one of the templates from the fab set that comes with this month's kit, this time its the largest template which I think works really well on a double page design. Kit 2 also includes cardstock, 3 double sided patterned papers, a sheet of double sided cut-outs and a whole box of assorted flowers. You'll just need to add a dark brown inkpad (the sample used ColorBox Dark Brown) and a handful of mini brads. I used some leftover brown Thickers letters frommy stash for the title but you could easily cut letters from brown cardstock for the same effect.

For those of you who like to know photo sizes, the sample uses two 6x4 landscape, a 7x5 portrait and a 3x4 landscape. You could use a different combination really easily so don't fret about finding the exact same sizes!