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.