Ooops can't believe it's been so long

... since I last blogged. Time's flying past and it's my last week at school before the New Year! What a busy 6 weeks I've had at school, it's been totally manic this past week still I've enjoyed it and have been told my colleagues are amazed how I've settled in and got to know the work so quickly :) My colleagues and I are having a Christmas meal out together this coming Thursday evening and it's at one of my favourite restaurants here so I'm quite excited about it. I've been making some pillar boxes this afternoon and plan putting some Thorntons sweets inside as a surprise for them. LOL they don't go out with the teachers, not really their thing apparently, but I'm glad, I prefer smaller groups.

I finally feel on top of the Christmas preparations. I was struggling last weekend but managed to get cards in the post this week and some parcels sent off today. Now I have to think about wrapping presents and turning my thoughts to food/drink over the holiday period.

I actually made 3 non Christmas cards this weekend. Here they are:

The 50th card is for the headteacher, I'm going to see if my colleagues would all like to sign it for him for his birthday on the 24th. I have a few more cards to make for the end of this month so hope to get round to those this coming weekend.

After school tomorrow I'm off to visit my best friend for an afternoon drink, then in the evening brother David is coming over and we're off out for a pizza - a busy day is planned LOL My David is down in London till Tuesday, he said this morning I'm looking forward to coming home already - and he hadn't even left for London then. We love our life here so much and it's just wonderful being so close to Mum and brother David.

Time to go, hope to post real soon. Take care and please do leave a message if you're reading this. I love to know who's visited my blog. Thanks.

OMG I gave in ...

... and bought some Christmas cards today. I can't believe I did that, it's goes against my principles to buy cards of any sort but I'm just too way behind to make enough before the end of November. I'm putting it down to the move, changing jobs etc I just didn't have any spare time between July and October.

I have made a few Christmas cards over the past week which I'm pleased with and made a few birthday and general cards for December. Rather pleased with this one which I made for a friend who was 60 last week:I made a large 60 in Word and printed it off on card, cut it out and stuck it on the background paper and then stuck lots of gorgeous little Prima flowers on the numbers. Added some Stickles glitter glue and voila. Made similar 50 cards for my sister and my other sister's cardmaking friend.
Happy birthday today to my sister Margaret and to my good friend Linda. Hope you're both having a great day.

I can't believe that I've only been working in school for 2 weeks. It's gone so quickly, no two days are the same, every day is busy and often we're doing 2 or 3 things at once but it's great - I'm loving my new job. I'm starting to get used to working part-time too and to David being down in London 2/3 days a week. Even getting used to zipping about in the car, I left David watching sports on TV yesterday afternoon whilst I went to Mum's to wait in for her and my brother's Asda delivery and made us all some shepherds pie, then after that drove to my brother's to deliver his shopping as he's poorly with the flu at present. Popped to the shops on the way home too! I feel great having a little bit of independence and am getting better at parking (one thing I always hated doing and was anxious about).

On a downside, I'm getting old (or it feels like it) LOL. Had my eyes tested a couple of weeks ago and am getting veri-focals - knew something was amiss when I had to take my present glasses off to read! Our new glasses should be ready sometime this week.

That's it for now, thanks for looking in and please do leave a comment if you're able, I never know who's reading this otherwise {{{HUGS}}}

Blimey lots to update you on

Yoohoo, hello there - blimey I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted - sorry about that. You'll all be wondering where we are, but we're here, just been busy.

Since I last posted, I left my London job on 22nd October (and received some lovely gifts and card, and my boss gave a touching speech - thanks Meg); went to school on the 24th at my own request for a few hours so I'd have an idea of the job I'd be doing; and we've had a week's break.

It was David's birthday on the 28th and Mum's on the 29th - so we had two days of celebrations. Here are their cards I made, somewhat hurriedly as I was so behind.
On the 30th I drove with David to Soham, Cambs for me to visit Capture the Magic. I normally buy crafty stash from them online but thought it'd be nice to visit their warehouse. Blimey it's massive and I spent a good hour looking round and ummmmmm filling a basket :) Spent quite a bit but as I didn't go to the craft show at Alexandra Palace in London end of September, I thought I deserved a bit of a spend up.

Charlotte (aged 13), the grand-daughter of a resident here came round Friday afternoon to craft with me and we had a great time. It was also good for me to be around a youngster what with working in a school. I managed to actually make some Christmas cards - 10 of them - and Charlotte make some and a few other cards so we were both pleased.

Well, it's been a very busy week at work this past week but I've enjoyed it. It doesn't seem possible that I've now worked my first week at school in the office. It is part-time - 25 hours a week - but it hasn't seemed that way, the time has just flown. The office is so busy that even on Friday when I worked 9 - 5 pm it didn't drag at all. The other ladies in the office are lovely and so friendly and helpful - it felt I'd been there ages, even though I have so much to learn. The hardest is getting to know the teachers and their names and the pupils and get to know my way around the school - I've now found a map which is helping :) On Friday we aslo booked our Christmas get together - just the office staff - and it's at one of my favourite restaurants on the cliff top, I'm well pleased. We'll be eating out on the evening of the 19th our last work day before the Christmas break.

David was down in London Monday to Wednesday but I was fine - so pleased about that. My brother came over Monday evening and I cooked him dinner. It's so great having family near by, and I received numerous phone calls asking how I was.

David and I have booked some events at the Marina Theatre here mostly for next year but one is a Christmas Spectacular on the evening of the 6th December which we're really looking forward to. When I was working till 4.30 pm on Wednesday I could hear the school choir, can't wait till they start singing Christmas hymns and carols and I can get tickets to the school concerts - ooooh I'm excited already LOL

I managed to make some cards this afternoon, the birthday and general cards for this month, and this evening some Christmas cards. I've still got many many more Christmas cards to make but feel better knowing I've made a few. I really hope I feel up to making some during the week.

Mum and brother David are coming over for dinner and tea tomorrow so it's going to be a busy day, hope the weather is good then we can take Telford on the seafront for a while in the afternoon.

Time for bed now. Don't forget anything for us needs to be posted to our Suffolk address as we're not in London any more.

Take care, thanks for reading this - please leave me a comment or email me, would love to hear from you.

Some good news

Hello there, sorry it's been a while since I blogged but I've some fantastic news to share with you all.
I applied for a job in a middle school in Suffolk earlier this month, the deadline for applications was 13th October, I had an interview last Thursday morning and that afternoon I had a phone call to say they were very impressed with me and wanted to offer me the job! To say I was gobsmacked was an understatement. I enjoyed the interview and tests etc but I thought I only had a 50/50 chance because there were 5 interviewed and some of those knew the school and other admin staff, plus I hadn't had an interview for 23 years! I start on 3rd November after half term but have offered to go in to school this Friday to do some work shadowing. This job is part-time 25 hours a week and term time only. It will give me more time to spend with Mum and persue my hobbies, I haven't even started making Christmas cards yet!

The sad thing this week is that I finish my job down in London on Wednesday :( I've worked with some lovely colleagues and have enjoyed my London job but am very happy to be living and soon working in Suffolk. Both David and I have a week off work next week so are looking forward to that and to finally catching up and finishing off sorting our bungalow.

I even managed to make some cards on Saturday. A couple for my present line manager Meg, I will miss her so much, she's been a huge inspiration to me and I wouldn't have got through the last couple of years (when I was poorly) without her support and advice:

Meg's birthday card - Happy Birthday for today Meg, and her thank you card (below) which I will give to Meg on Wednesday

Then I made a thank you card for our dentist's receptionist. Whilst David was in the dentist's chair last Wednesday Chris and I had a lovely chat about the interview and job and I'm sure it helped.I will update you again soon. A mixed week as you can imagine. Still we are enjoying our stay in a hotel whilst down in London and eating out!

Take care, and thanks for reading, hugs to you all. Would love to hear from you if you can leave a message :)

Sending emails to us

Good morning, it's pretty dull here in London :( seemed odd waking up in a hotel room this morning.

I meant to add on Saturday that we no longer have our Orange (Freeserve) email address so if you plan on emailing us please send your email to either my hotmail or yahoo email address. If you need it just leave a message here. Note I don't have access to Hotmail whilst in London as I cannot get Hotmail emails at work (something to do with the setup).

Have a good week, can't wait to get back home to our gorgeous bungalow.

Lots to tell - poorly PC :(

Hello there, well it seems a decade since I last updated you all, but there's been so much going on I haven't had chance.

Unfortunately I have a poorly PC :( the lovely thing is my brother is a computer whizz (he part-owns a PC shop) and will be over tomorrow morning to see what's wrong with it, in return I'm cooking him breakfast :) Brother David is the best to have around, and his gorgeous greyhound Telford. Can't wait to see them tomorrow - though we did see them for a while when we visited Mum this afternoon. :( Mum isn't too well at the moment, she's on penicillin and antibiotics, her left leg is really bad: red, swollen and horrible looking. Hope the medication will help, Mum is also in a lot of pain with her back - she has Osteoporosis, I wish there was something I could do to ease her pain. If you know of anything please let us know. When Mum had brother David 37 years ago the doctor said Mum would be in a wheelchair within 5 years and she's still getting about with the aid of walkers, that's Mum's stubborness and determination.

Yoohoo we are a one home family again :) we completed on the house on Friday. What a hectic day, a few hours at work, back to the house, finished packing - just about got everything in the car (although we only had the essentials left), up to Suffolk, unpacked the car - unpacked some bags then over to Mum's to see how she was. It was a day and a half I can tell you. No money in our account yet but with it being a Friday wasn't surprising. We both had a rough night last night, I was drinking a mug of tea at 3.30 am and David sat in the living room watching TV. Hope we sleep better tonight.

I still have 3 weeks left to work so it's back down to London tomorrow late with a few nights in a Premier Inn, that'll be odd especially as it's only a 20 minute walk from our ex-house. After this week we'll be working two 3 day weeks until 22nd October so will be able to spend more time up here. We still have lots to do in the bungalow with unpacking, never realised we had so much stuff! Still we've ordered a little shed so can store some stuff in there and of course there's the attic.

I've applied for a job! It's as a part-time term time only clerical assistant/receptionist in a middle school only 10 minutes drive from here, in between us and Mum. Sounds ideal for me, I know I'm over qualified for it but don't need the stress of a more intense job and will be around for when Mum needs me. Fingers crossed huh? Went to put it in the school's letterbox this afternoon but couldn't find one so will have to post the application off recorded delivery Monday. It doesn't have to be in till the 13th but I wanted to get it done. It was fun looking at all my certificates and award letters, found a certificate I received in 1979 when I was 13 and won a prize for a poster I'd designed for Keep Beccles Tidy :) I must have been creative even then.

No crafting, what with my tennis elbow (the doctor confirmed that on Tuesday) but I need to make a few cards so might try and make at least one tomorrow before we travel back to London. How can you rest an elbow when there's things to unpack?

Anyway enough rambling, better check my emails before this PC brings up an error message.

Take care, will try and post some more next weekend :)

An update on the house!

Good afternoon, what a glorious day today, around 20C here in London. We came back down here this afternoon ready for work tomorrow :(

The good news is that we exchanged contracts on the house last Thursday. The buyer had delayed by a couple of weeks but we should complete by the 10th or earlier, may be even on the 3rd! It's good news for us. I've also formally resigned now from my full-time job in London, all being well my last day is 22nd October. I will be sending out change of addresses to my lovely friends and family next week, also need to cancel services to the house, lots to do and not much time to do it in. We have already redirected our mail from the house so if you do happen to post to London don't worry we will receive it in Suffolk at some stage.

The bad news is that I have tennis elbow :( I've had it for a good week now. Unfortunately I did a bit of sorting out in the bungalow yesterday and am paying for it today as my left elbow is as bad as ever and I'm suffering.

Mum is still not feeling that good. Her back is really paining her. We brought her over to our bungalow on Friday and I did a roast lamb dinner (her favourite) and she enjoyed spending a few hours with us. We even managed to get her to laugh by watching Keeping Up Appearances and Last of the Summer Wine on TV. I love watching those.

No crafting at the moment due to my elbow but hope to get back to it soon, haven't even started Christmas cards yet so it could be bought cards this year :(

Take care, will try and update you as and when.

I've been tagged

Thanks Jenny for the award
The rules are:

1: The winner can put the logo on her blog.
2: Link the person you received your award from.
3: Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4: Put links of those blogs on yours.
5: Leave a message on the blogs of the girls you've nominated.

Ooops this seems to have been doing the rounds as I haven't anyone to send it on to. Will have a think see if I can find some.

Jenny has also tagged me - thanks Jenny - I don't normally do tags but these questions are easy to answer. A bit of light reading for you :)

What was happening 10 years ago? - Almost the same as now - working, living in the same place, doing the same things, although I wasn't making cards and scrapping then, but I was cross stitching.

5 things to do today - Spend a full day at work! My boss returned from leave today so it was no getting away early. Chase estate agent and solicitor. Do the washing (not done); cook dinner for tomorrow (again not done :( ) and book David's appointment at the surgery - remembered that one!

Snacks I like - :) well that's easy really all the things that are naughty - cake, chocolate, cookies, crisps. I'm comfort eating at the moment which is NOT good - too much stress.

What I would do if I was a millionaire - Buy a detached bungalow with a huge craft room in it and a den for David. Give money to family and friends and some to charity too, I'm not greedy and we wouldn't need that amount of money, just enough to live on.

Places I have lived - Suffolk, London and now on the move back to Suffolk :) yay

Not sure who to pass the tag on to so will have a think and come back.

Just to update you - Mum came out of hospital last week and is on the mend though her oxygen levels are still not good and she might need oxygen at home. We spent a few days in Suffolk over the weekend which we enjoyed, even went for a blowy walk along a promenade on the day it was gale force winds - certainly blew the cobwebs away :) managed to make a few cards too.

No new news on the house front yet, there might be something in the wind but don't want to pre-empt anything so won't say too much at the moment.

Take care

Mum's poorly

Sorry I haven't been around, we took some extra time off as Mum went into hospital on Tuesday as she became poorly and when a doctor was called out it was discovered Mum's oxygen levels were very low. In hospital, where tests were carried out, we were told Mum also had a chest infection. She's now on antibiotics, steroids, a nebuliser and oxygen and is much improved from earlier in the week and hopes to go home tomorrow. We've spent the last few days visting during the afternoon and evenings, unfortunately we had to come back to London today as David has a doctor's appointment tomorrow and it's also back to work :( Whilst in Suffolk David had a problem with a tooth so we spent some time hunting out a good dentist and David is now minus a tooth and has sore gums but is much better than before.

We're hoping next month will be a much better one for us all.

Happy Silver Wedding Anniversary Margaret and Geoff

Happy 25th wedding anniversary to my dear sister Margaret and her husband Geoff on the 27th August.

We met up with them last Friday for a celebratory meal. I made them a card depicting the colours they had for their wedding (peach):
I also made a trio hanging out of beer mats, prima flowers, adhesive pearls, metallic silver ink and silver liquid pearl. I covered both sides so if it turns in the breeze it still looks okay. The first side shows Margaret and Geoff on their wedding day and the other side are photos taken last year when they were on holiday.
To complete it I made my first ever box and covered the top with a sheet of silver anniversary scrapbook paper. I was well pleased with how it came out. I dug into my Christmas ribbons for some glittery silver ribbon and used Prima flowers and a Doodlebug silver glitter brad to finish. We also gave Margaret and Geoff a silver knife and serving slice with love knots on the ends as Margaret loves to bake rich fruit cakes.

They were over the moon with the presents.

Happy belated birthday to their son Peter whose birthday was yesterday. I can now show you the card: It's a Bank Holiday Monday here and David and I have been busy having a clear out. We dismantled a wardrobe, bookcase and chest of drawers and took those down to the recycling centre. We then got everything down from the attic (thankfully there were only cases) and David also cleared some bits and pieces from the garden so it was another trip to the dump. I think we deserve a relaxing afternoon. I might even colour in some Christmas images, can't believe I soon need to start making Christmas cards.

Take care

Card toppers/cards made

A couple of months ago I took part in a topper swap on the cardmaking forum which Carol Ann kindly organised. I made these toppers:
I received some gorgeous toppers in return but have only just got round to making them into cards:
I was pleased with how they turned out.

I also made three other cards on Saturday with some die cut flower decoupage. I glittered the flowers but you can't really see it in the photo. I used K&Co background paper on these cards and some gorgeous lace.
Thanks for looking :)

At long last ...

... I've been meaning to show you these for simply ages. I made them for a scrapbooking competition on the cardmaking forum back in May I think it was. I then framed them in separate LO clear wall hangings and gave them to my sister. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of the completed wall hangings but here are photos of the LOs. I won a prize for the wedding one:I can't wait to show you my new craft area. I've never had a craft area before. We have odd shaped rooms in our house and so I had to make do with putting things on bookcases, in and on top of wardrobes etc. Although we still only have a one bedroom property (a bungalow) I have a corner of the bedroom and am so pleased with the result. David loves it as much as I do :o) I can't wait to do some proper crafting, so far we go up with a car load of stuff from the house each weekend and that's about all we get chance to do. Still both properties look rather tidy and the house is looking particularly empty now. We just hope that before Christmas we'll be in the bungalow permanently rather than coming down to London for work and sleeping in the house. Positive thoughts and fingers crossed please.

Anyway here is my crafty corner:Not sure how long it'll stay that tidy for, especially when the PC goes up :o)

Thanks for reading this, take care

Thanks so much

to those of you who sent me birthday cards. I received the most gorgeous cards including many handmade ones from my lovely cardmaking and scrapping friends. We had a good day Friday, popped over to Mum's where she watched me open my cards and packages then in the afternoon my sister and her hubby arrived from Cheshire and later that evening we all went out for a meal. Afterwards it was a stroll along the promenade and a quick trip in the arcade to use up some 2p pieces so not a bad day.

Unfortunately besides the buyer let down earlier last week we now have another problem. We cannot get satellite in our new home due to trees at the back (which we are unable to cut down). It's very disappointing as David loves watching sports and we can only subscribe to NASN (National American Sports Network) via Sky and Virgin Cable. Unfortunately cable is not in our area either, that's the trouble with living in the country.

Troubles seem to come in threes and there's one at David's workplace, so we're hoping things will start to improve for us now, fingers crossed huh?

May be I'll be able to do some crafting when we go East this weekend.

Take care

Gutted :( :(

Oh I am so disappointed, we've just had an email from our estate agents to say that our buyer has pulled out :( he had his mortgage but decided that it would be too much of a financial commitment. To say we are disappointed is an understatement, now we have to start all over again trying to sell the house all over again :(

We will still continue with our move to Suffolk but will use our house as a working home during the week.

Woohoo - so excited

Yay, we are so very excited we have a buyer for our house. He put in an offer last Tuesday which we accepted and it's now in the hands of the solicitors. Fingers crossed the survey when it's done is fine then it's all steam ahead. It's greating seeing the "sold STC" on the estate agents website.

Been busy packing for our weekend trips to East Anglia. Our new home is taking shape and it's just lovely being near the coast, only 5 minutes from the beach and not far from the Broads. We are so lucky to have had the opportunity to rent this bungalow in such quiet and tranquil surroundings. The great thing too is it's only 15 minutes drive from Mum. She is so happy we'll soon be near her permanently.

Haven't done any crafting for a few weeks now :( but I'll be packing my stash up this week as we hope to take it up to our new home on Friday. I'm real excited.

Take care, will try and update you soon.

New life

Where would you rather be? Me I'd rather be in Suffolk :) we picked up the keys to our new home, a bungalow, on the Suffolk coast last Thursday. We then spent the next few days shopping. The bungalow which is in a lovely quiet area is still empty but lots of new goodies are being delivered this weekend. It seemed unreal coming back down South on Sunday when we'd much rather be living in Suffolk near the coast. Mum is delighted that we'll be closer to her (15 minutes drive away).

I haven't done any crafting for a while and won't until we've taken all my craft stash up to Suffolk. We still have to find a buyer for our house :( have had a few viewers but the housing market is very bad and it's hard for buyers to get a mortgage too. Still fingers crossed we've only had our house on the market for nearly 7 weeks - it seems much longer than that!

Once we move permanently end of August (take the rest of our larger items up) Suffolk will be our main home and our house will be the place we sleep in whilst we're working - until the house is off our hands.

So, please pray we get a buyer soon.

I hope to show you soon a couple of layouts I made a while back but couldn't show you them as I've made them into wall hangings for my sister as a surprise. They're at Mum's awaiting my sister's arrival.

Take care

Hello again

I must apologise yet again for not posting on here. It's been a weird ole week, what with having a bad head cold until Tuesday, when I finally started breathing normally again (I was soooo stuffed up yuk), and then having an offer on the house us accepting it and then him messing us about (it was a property investor) so we decided in the end to get our estate agent to tell him "forget it", we'll take our chances, be patient and wait it out until a better buyer comes along. We would love to sell the house as soon as possible though, now that we have a bungalow to rent in Suffolk - we pick up the keys next Friday - how wonderful is that? We're so excited and we're going up Thursday to do a bit of new home shopping - mainly for a new bed and a suite and recliner, oh and a seat for Mum. Mum gets a special seat as she likes high backed chairs and I know she'll be pleased to have her very own chair.

Congratulations to my nephew Matthew who passed his driving test first time last week. Here's the card I made him:

Here's the card I also made his brother Peter who passed last month first go (think I mentioned it on here last month). I couldn't show you the card then as it was entered into a competition (the theme was yellow male) on the cardmaking forum and I came third - woohoo. That cheered me up.

We have a viewer supposedly coming this afternoon to see the house. Hope he turns up, supposed to have come Thursday but changed it to today. Shame the weather isn't too good. It would be better if the sun were out but we can't have everything I guess. I'm praying and praying he likes the house and the price and puts in an offer. We've put the price down a couple of times now in the hope it attracts the right person, he's a first time buyer - so fingers crossed.

We've been decluttering the house for the past few weeks and have nearly finished. Did the kitchen cupboards and a couple of things in the living room yesterday and this morning. Went to the dump again today and have a couple of bags for the charity shop. I've never seen the cupboards look so good or empty LOL

Speak again later, thanks for looking. Take care xxx

Sorry I haven't been around

It's been all go here and both David and I have a virus of some sort at the moment so we're feeling a little out of sorts.

Back to our holiday, seems a long way off now, but we had a fabulous time. Here are a few photos from our travels. The first photo our lovely friend Sarn took at Silletts Cottage on our annivesary:This is me with Brighton pier in the background:

A view of Sheffield Park house from the lake, the house is not open to the public but the gardens are and they are beautiful:

I adore this photo of David. It was taken whilst we were on a steam train on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex.

And lastly a photo of me taken in the chocolate shop in Buxton, Derbyshire when took a trip there whilst at my sister's in Cheshire:

The reason we haven't been around is that whilst we were in Cheshire we had a phone call from an estate manager in Suffolk to say she had a bungalow becoming available and were we interested. We took a dash over there and loved the bungalow so will be renting it from 18th July. We still have to sell our house but we have high hopes. In the meantime we are busy sorting out everything we've accumulated over 19 years! Lots of trips to the dump and charity shops. We've finished the bedroom and nearly finished the bathroom so that's good. With us doing it now we won't have to worry so much later on when we do sell the house and it will mean more weekends in Suffolk - yay. Our bungalow is only about a 5 minute drive from the beach so we're very excited about that and it's in a very quiet location.

I haven't done hardly any crafting although I did sort out my crafting stash and bits and pieces I hadn't used for a few years I gave to a nearby secondary school who were very pleased with everything.

That's all for now. I'm rather stuffed up with cold so will rest now, hope to write more soon.

Take care

At long last huh?

LOL sorry I haven't posted in a while, we went away on 14th June and only returned late on Monday 23rd. We had a lovely break but will update you on that later.

First I'd love to say a HUGE thanks {{{kiss}}} to our lovely friends who sent us handmade cards for our 11th wedding anniverary on the 14th.

We travelled down to East Sussex that day and had what ended up as an enormous afternoon tea at Sillets Cottage, Selmeston (will add a photo or two in the next post). Sarn, a lovely crafty friend joined us and she presented us with a gorgeous card and gift:

Isn't it super? I've never received an explosion box before and it's wonderful how Sarn did the images on the candle, this is one candle I won't be able to use, it's too precious. Sarn knows I love Penny Black stamps :o)

Here are photos of the other cards we received. The gorgeous frog card is from our lovely friend Louise; our dear friend Linda in Somerset sent us the cute elephant card and the cute birdy card came from our friend Linda in Scotand - thanks so much {{{kiss}}}. I can also now show you the card I made for David:

I used Doodlebug embossed white card, gold stardream card, Imaginesce patterned paper and Craft Creations decoupage with some lovely stickles glitter glue. I was quite pleased with how it came out :)

Enough for now. Our first day back at work and I didn't stop all day, was so glad to get home.

Will write more tomorrow on our travels.

Take care and thanks for looking :o)

New stash {{{BLUSH}}}

I put myself on a "new stash" ban last month but unfortunately I sort of broke that over the weekend {{{blush}}}. I had some essentials to buy and needed a couple of other items for a project I'm working on as a present for someone so had to go shopping LOL. Bought a few bits and pieces online on Sunday and it all arrived today. How quick is that?

Here you are, I'm gonna make you jealous LOL: Isn't it all delicious! The flowers and adhesive pearls came from Rebecca's Scrapbooking Stash, the paper and heart lace, along with the fantastic Doodlebug glitter set and paint came from Capture the Magic, the spotty flowers and heart template and some of the stardream card came from Joanna Sheen; the StudioTac adhesive, mat and other stardream card came from Carysma Cards and the Glimmer paint came from Craft Obsessions; so I had a little shop in 5 places!

I also had a surprise today, my lovely friend Linda from Somerset sent me the May issue of Making Cards magazine. It's gorgeous and has some free good quality vellum; patterned paper and images to cut out. It looks like a good read and some lovely cards to take inspiration from. Thanks Linda {{{kiss}}}

I might not be around for a few days but don't worry I'll be back soon, probably with some photos of my lovely bought stash from The Glitter Pot. Yay hope to visit their bricks and mortar shop either next Monday or Tuesday, can't wait, and David has given me some money for our anniversary to spend there, how fantastic is that? He's a good hubby. I'm treating him to "afternoon tea" on Saturday, our anniversary day, we'll have been married 11 years come Saturday, and been together over 19 years (met April 1989).

Take care, thanks for dropping by :o)

Cardmaking session Saturday

Good afternoon, boy isn't it hot today, 26C and brilliant sunshine, a little too hot for me so I haven't been far.

I cannot tell you what I've been doing today as it's something I've made as a present for someone, I love how it's come out though, all I can say is it involves coasters and it's something I haven't made before.

I had a lovely cardmaking session yesterday, it was brilliant. I made 3 yellow cards for a competition on the cardmaking forum so they'll have to remain a secret for now. I also made some cards using Penny Black clear stickers. Haven't used these for a while but wanted to do something relatively easy and I love Penny Blacks whether they're stamped images or stickers.

LOL you'll see I sort of fell in love with pink and green! One thank you card and 4 thinking of you cards.
The pink and green patterned paper is by Making Memories and the other by K&Co. I'm not too sure who the kitty paper is from as they were scraps. All the sentiments are by Stampin Up apart from "Big Hugs" by Cuddly Buddly. Aren't they cute? You'd never tell they were clear stickers, even in real life.

Ummmm, I did a little stash spending online last night and David's got 4 parcels coming to his workplace this week LOL. I had put myself on a stash ban but some of it I considered essential like adhesive, well I can't craft without adhesive, and well other things just fell into my basket!

I'm sending all my friends some BIG HUGS, some are going through a tough time at the moment.

Right, I'm going to write these cards now and get them ready for posting.

Take care, keep cool and hope you're having a lovely weekend.

Oooops sorry

I didn't realise it was so long since I last posted until a friend told me to post as she had nothing to read - LOL. I'm pleased at least one person looks at my blog.

It's been pretty hectic here to say the least, I cannot tell you at the moment what's going on but when it's all sorted and something's happening I'll let you know. I don't want to pre-empt anything just in case. It's a big thing though and not related to crafting at all. All I ask is please keep your fingers crossed and think of us, that should help.

I didn't do hardly any crafting at the end of May when it was a Bank Holiday, I did manage to make a LO which I was pleased with and which is below:

It was for a challenge on UKS and the challenge was to do a LO on the ABC theme, A = alphas, acetate, accents or arrows, for example; B = buttons, brads, bling or blossom, for example and C = chipboard, circles, charms or chalks, for example; and we also had a sketch. I used Doodlebug paper ripped with a ruler under the photos, Doodlebug buttons and chipboard arrows cut using the Cuttlebug and a Cuttlebug arrow die. The alphabets were also chipboard. This is of my lovely niece Jean and I crafting back in 2006, um or was it 2007.

I have to show you two coaster boxes which I received recently. The first is by my lovely UKS friend Maddy who sent me this last month and which I adore, it's stunning in black and red:

I really like the Bind-it-all mini book too, it's gorgeous, and my first Bind-it-all gift. I'm still debating whether I need one of these machines or not. I'm not sure how often I'd use it.

The other coaster box was for a swap on the cardmaking forum and is by my good friend Natalie, ooooh she knows exactly what I like - Eeyore!!!! The colours are exactly me and I love the poem

I've included it here on it's own so you should be able to read it. Isn't it lovely? Thanks Natalie.

I made some cards last weekend but cannot show you those as they're for birthdays this month. I also have two LOs to show you, but can't do this until a couple of weeks time as they're a present for someone who might look at this blog. They were originally made for a competition on the cardmaking forum but I loved them so much I framed them so they're hanging LOs. I hope the receiver will like them.

CONGRATULATIONS to my nephew Peter who passed his driving test yesterday. That's fab news isn't it? His brother has his test next month so good luck to Matthew.

Well, I must take some time out and make some cards this weekend, I don't know what's round the corner so must be prepared and get some cards made in readiness.

I have a phone call to make so must go now. Hope you all have a good weekend and I'll be back soon.

Sisters

Kerrie on the cardmaking forum posted a lovely scrapbooking sketch challenge for this coming week. I hunted out some photos and as soon as I'd decided which ones I wanted to use I just had to scrap them straight away :o)

I adore these photos. They are even more poignant as David's youngest sister Ollie passed away a few years ago, we have lovely memories of their visit to England and to us in 2001. The sisters are from left to right on the top photo: Luverta, Ollie (middle front) and Mildred with David at the back.

I used Daisy Bucket Garden Gate partterned papers (seem to be very popular with me at the moment); Doodlebug embossed white Bouquet Impressions card; Bazzill bling blue flowers with red cosmos and yellow prima flowers and Craftwork Brads in the centres; green ricrac and dark blue velvet ricrac, and white Doodlebug Mini Just My Type alphabet stickers.

Hope you enjoy looking at this scrapbooking layout, really hope David's family visit my blog and see it.

Take care, have a lovely weekend.

Coaster box

What a week! Still I have tomorrow off work and plan on catching up with the housework now I'm feeling a little better. David has a horrible dentist appointment tomorrow so isn't looking forward to that.

Here is a coaster box I made for my good friend Lynne for a swap on the cardmaking forum which she received today. I was praying she'd like it and she loved it.

I used Basic Grey Luscious paper on the outside and Daisy Bucket Garden Gate summer sweet distress paper on the inside of the coasters (which I made). The quotes are by Cloud 9 Woodstone Simple Thoughts and edged with Bazzill Bling card, and the flowers are Bazzill bling and Prima fixed together with Doodlebug Sugar Brads. I used lace which I bought from a store in Beccles, Suffolk and Kaiser Adhesive Pearls to finish it off. Lynne's name was cut using Sizzlets 12 inch decorative Naturally Serif alphabet die on my Cuttlebug. When I put the coaster box together I left the ribbon long. I sent the coaster box flat (unmade) so Lynne could put the box together and then either tie the ribbon and cut the excess off or tie into a bow and tidy the ends.

Thanks for looking.

Snowy scrapbook layouts

Yay, I don't normally craft during the week as I'm normally too tired after work but ... you know how it is :o) you have a sketch, look through your photos, print them off then go and hunt out the paper. I just couldn't resist making a start and in the end made 2 layouts. The first one was last weekend's sketch challenge layout on the cardmaking forum:

I love this sketch. I used Bazzill card, Doodlebug Flurry and Winter Ribbon Stripe papers, Doodlebug Cold Spell stickers (snowflakes) and Carolee Creations Snowy World stickers (the wording).

The second layout is this week's challenge on UKS. The elements were: use the sketch; incorporate stamping; use ribbon and do some doodling, yay claimed 30 points for my team (Spring Chicks).

I used Carolee Creations patterned paper, snow brads, Hero Art snowflake clear stamp (under the journalling), white ribbon, and did the doodling with the help of the Funky Swirl doodling template by Crafters workshop.

We are having a competition on the cardmaking forum and the theme is "celebration". Umm that's so hard because I've got 2 layouts in my mind and I'm only allowed to enter one. Never mind I'll do them both and then decide which one to enter once they're done. So far I've printed off the photos and selected a range of papers ready. Hopefully I'll get round to putting these together at the weekend.

Must go and prepare dinner now, thanks for looking :o)