Off to the NEC!

I know, it has been an absolute age since I last blogged, I haven't been creating much - apart from some table decorations for my brother in laws birthday party and helping my niece decorate some albums for two of her friends 21st birthdays, all of which I forgot to take photos of, so nothing to see here!

I am just so excited though, as I am off to the NEC tomorrow, with my bestest buddy Faye and her Mum, Val, just can't wait.  My gorgeous daughter Eloise is being taken to school and picked up by her Nanny tomorrow - as we are off at the crack of dawn.  Better make sure I pick up something nice for Ellie, to make up for the fact that I won't be doing the school run.

The car is clean, full of fuel and the snacks are ready - all I need now is my purse and my shopping buddies (oh - and apparently flasks of coffee for Val!)

Challenge and The Firemen (plural!)

First of all I am going to enter a challenge!  Not something that I have done very much of - challenges, but my buddy Faye has just taken over running the Cupcake Challenges Blog - so I had to have a go.  The challenge is distressing, and this is the first time that I have roughed up my papers!

So this is my easel card.  I really had fun making this, using colouring pencils on the image - one of the new House Mouse sets from Joanna Sheen - I just think the rabbit and the mouse cuddled up is so cute.  Lots of inking with distress ink on the My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus and Dovecraft Back to Basics papers and I made the paper flower too.

Now - onto the Firemen!  A couple of posts ago I mentioned that we had received a visit from some Firemen.  Bit of a long story, but I will try my hardest to condense it.

Eloise went to the Devon County Show in May with the school, Fire Service where there giving safety talks, letting the children on the fire engine etc. During the talk the asked who didn't have smoke detectors, well yes, guess who didn't - so up went Eloise's hand.  They had been taken down when we decorated (quite some time ago) and never put back up - that is very bad, I know.  So, she signed us up for a home safety check which included free smoke detector fitting - dear of her.

Well the visit was arranged.  I was expecting one Fireman - but oh no three, very tall, Firemen arrived - in their Fire Engine!!  They were very tall to me, and I am 5ft 10 - so they were really very tall!   I also live in a quiet sleepy cul-de-sac - so the Fire Engine filled that right up.  You can just imagine how the neighbours curtains were twitching.  I was just so embarrassed, why on earth would they come in a Fire Engine!!

Anyway the minute they got in the door, Eloise shot up to her bedroom and stayed there for their entire visit, so I sat there all on my own (feeling like a right burk) with the three, rather lovely Firemen, as they went through the safety check, and then fitted my smoke alarms.  Took about 45 mins and then they were gone - guess who appeared the minute they were out of the door though - yes Eloise!

Evening all

I haven't had chance to sit and play for ages, but that is just what I happen to be doing - and it is lovely.  Usually I am asleep by now due to the fact that I have a dear little cat, called Dex, that just happens to think it is breakfast time at 5am.  If I don't agree with that, then she will wake up the rest of the family - so muggins here has to intervene before my dear hubby tries to launch the cat off the end of the bed with a size 9!

So, at about 5.30pm I just couldn't stop yawning, the sofa and a kip were calling to me, but I had tea to make - so I had a can of red bull (I don't have much caffeine usually) so now I am wide awake, but luckily though, no wings!

Off to carry on playing now :-)

Has it really been that long since I posted last!

I don't know where the time has gone.  We are into July already and the weather is back to its usual British summary best - rain (mess your hair up kinda rain here at the moment - you know the fine drizzly stuff, the gets everywhere), and windy, generally just yuck!  Never mind, I am trying to remain positive and thinking OK, we can have this for a few days, as long as we get another few weeks of the lovely sunny stuff but yes, think I am living in my own little dream world.

I have made a card, but it was a bit of a rush and then I nearly forgot to take a photo of it before giving it away.  (That is my excuse for this being a pants photo).

I had the stamp from my bestest buddy Faye for my birthday (which was back in June) along with lots of other lovely craft stash.  I am so lucky to have a best friend who also is a craftaholic.

I must remember to fill you in with the details of my visit from the Fire Service - nothing bad happened but I was a tad embarrassed!

I think I need a lie down now, after managing to get a post done, with a bar of galaxy to keep me company!

The missing hamster

Luckily for me, the hamster is not real, it is one of Eloise's toys.

Weekend before last Eloise bought a Zhu Zhu toy hamster (it is on wheels and makes funny little noises - very cute and much less hassle than a real one!), then nanny paid for lots of accessories, so she now has a little home for it, complete with play wheel, beds, babies and pram - lucky Eloise.

Towards the end of last week Eloise was looking for the hamster without any luck.   Everything else was all together, but just no sign of the hamster.  We had a big search for it, with me asking the usual 'I can't find ......' questions:

"When did you last play with it" - "when Rebecca came to play" (this was on Saturday)
"Where did you last see it" - "Charlie had it" (Charlie came to play on Wednesday)
"Where did Charlie have it" - "in the bedroom"
"Are you sure that Charlie had it last" - "yes"
"And you haven't played with it since then" - "no"

So big search continued for another hour - but no sign of it anywhere.  Eloise is so good though, I explained that she would have to wait and ask Charlie at school on Monday if she can remember where it was - by the look on her face she wasn't happy about that, but I think she knew that I had had enough searching by then!

Anyway, that was that.  The next day another friend came to play and just happened to bring their little hamster with them.  Eloise got out the house and they started playing - well by then I was feeling pretty sorry for her, to the stage where I was even considering popping out and buying her a new one.  No - I thought - so off I went, back upstairs to the black hole of a bedroom, to have another look.

I re-checked all the places again and I started to think that maybe someone else had taken the little hamster home with them - how dreadful is that - but I just didn't know where it could be.

I started to pack away some polly pocket toys.  Eloise has a set of hanging canvas shelves, that dangle under her bed (she has a high bed) - we usually keep bags, purses and belts in here.  Next to that is the polly pocket tub.  I got out the tub, put the toys in, was just sliding it away when I saw a little glimpse of fur - wrapped in a little orange blanket.  What a relief - I had found the blasted thing!

I then felt really dreadful for thinking that someone else could have taken this home with them, but then happy that I could let Eloise have her hamster back.  Off I toodled downstairs to give her the good news.

Taadaa - I said - and explained where I found him. "Aaaahhhh - now I remember" was the reply, "I put him to bed there".

Well, you can just imagine what I wanted to say - but we had company - luckily for Eloise!!!!

Oh - and I made a card, which I forgot to post just now!

I made a flower

I was full of good intentions to give the house a really good clean, and that has gone out of the window!  I'm in a real slouchy mood today and the pull of crafting and blog hopping has won - well, really - cleaning or crafting and looking at other peoples fab creations, just no contest :-)

Here is my flower that I made.  It was an idea that I completely  copied from Kristina's blog (fab inspiration) - how lazy is that, not one ounce of my own inspiration there anywhere!  I just really fancied having a go at making the little flower, as I thought it was gorgeous.  Next time round I will make sure that I do put in some effort on my part :-)

Going to get out some different papers and have another go now.

I had a fabulous afternoon on Tuesday, which seems like a long time ago now.  I babysat for my gorgeous (16 month old) godson.  I went to his house, picked him up from Mum (the fabulous Faye) and Dad and then we came back to ours to play.  This is the first time that Daniel had been in my car and he was a little unsure about what was going on!   He was such a dear and was so well behaved for me.  He amazes me at how well he copes with new experiences, and apart from a little scowly face during the car ride, he took it all in his stride.

Daniel's scowl soon disappeared and we were having a lovely chat on the way to our house.  As soon as he was in the door he headed for the toy box with the cars in, but was interrupted on the way by Dex, our cat, who he adores.  Well then that was it - all settled and we had a fun afternoon.  The scowl made a brief return when we had to get back into the car again though :-)   He was delivered home safe and sound, and I hope that Mum and Dad will let me take him out again, and maybe this time they will be able to relax a bit more ;-)

Hope everyone is having a lovely bank holiday Monday - and not doing any cleaning - otherwise I will feel really guilty!

Bowl of cherries

I have made a little card, which I really like - not often that I say that about one of my own card, but I don't think we are usually happy with what we make ourselves are we!

I treated myself to a Martha Stewart punch when Faye and I had our girly gossip day - and this is her first outing.  Whilst making this card I have realised that I don't have many papers with red in them - took me ages to dig around in the stash to find one, and then when I did it was totally the wrong red, so back to the stash again - eventually one surfaced that I think works OK.

I was totally shocked when I work up this morning - it was grey, cloudy and had been raining.  I can honestly say that it has been weeks since we had any rain and it was a shock to see it!  The sun is trying to come through again with the odd shower now and again.  

Eloise is taking part in the St. George's Day Parade this afternoon, with her Brownie Pack, so I really hope that the sun is shining for that.  Better go, got some badges to sew on her sash! 

Have a great Sunday xxx

Do you love ribbon?

and do you love a bargain - I do.  I had an email through to say that unfortunately Poppicrafts is closing for a while on the 30 April :-( and Michelle is having a massive sale.  So if you need any ribbon then go and have a browse, she also does some gorgeous little crochet flowers, which just happened to jump into my basket just before I checked out!  Now how on earth does that happen?

I have actually made something too, which did involve a little bit of ribbon.  I found a video quite a long time ago for this little Kit Kat holder, and really wanted to try and make one.  It is so simple and quick.  The video is done by Angie Kennedy Juda, who is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator.  She has loads of videos online if you are looking for any ideas.  The video of this treat holder is here and here is my version:

as you may have spotted Breakaways also fit :-)

The papers were from my recent Pink Petticoat purchase and the little zebra is a Cuttle Kids die.

On a totally different subject my poor sister is stranded in Croatia at the moment, due to the no fly rules that are currently in place.  She went to a work convention on Wednesday and was due back today, but the news yesterday was that she may possibly get a flight on Monday, although it keeps changing by the day.  I feel so sorry for her and really hope that she gets home soon.

Off to play now - got a need to stamp something xxx

Can't think of a title!

What a great morning it is today, the sun is shining and it is just beautiful.

Also its a good drying day - so the entire fabric content of my house will be forced into the washing machine - whether it needs washing or not!  Am I the only one that does that?  I go stalking around the house trying to find things that can be washed - like a woman possessed.  For some reason, just cause I know I can dry it, then I have to wash it.

I had a nice surprise earlier in the week from Lindsey - she passed on these lovely awards - thanks chick!

Most of the people that I want to pass these awards onto have already received them - so I will have to just keep them for myself for now.  I am sure I will come across someone in the next couple of days to pass them on, so I will edit my post then to say where they are going on to.

Earlier in the week Faye and I had a great girly day out.  It included lots of chatting, a lovely lunch - with a nutritious salad with heaps of dressing (see this post, and the comments, on Faye's blog for the truth about that one) and we just happened to stumble into a couple of craft shops!  We have to travel a little bit to get to craft shops down in Devon - they are  few and far between.

One of them is very close to a shop that sells gorgeous cup cakes.  I didn't have one - but picked one up called 'Over the Rainbow' for Eloise - lots of pink icing with a twirly rainbow chewy sweet wrapped around it and Faye said that she was getting her VUH 'Malty Balls' well - how could I not get my dear hubby one with a title like that!  So the boys had Malty Balls!  Faye and I were very good and didn't have one ourselves, as we were still extremely full from our nutritious salad ;-)

I have a couple more things to blog about, but I think this post has gone on long enough - better split it, so I don't send my readers to sleep!

I shouldn't have eaten that!

How guilty (and podgy) am I feeling today.  Last night I polished off a large bag of Walkers Roast Chicken and Thyme crisps AND half  a Cadburys Flake Easter egg!

I was possessed by something, honest, as there is no way that I would ever do that, so there must have been some other spiritual force involved ;-) (do you think if I keep telling myself that I will be convinced? - nah, me neither).

I have to be good today - the fruit bowl is positioned in front of the chocolate mountain - in a bid to distract me from temptation.  Wish me luck!

Cute little kitty

I treated myself to the Colour Collections Paper Designs from Pink Petticoat over the weekend, as I really NEEDED some gingham - oh ok, I didn't really NEED it, but I wanted it.  It was such a bargain too - only a fiver and that is for 5 sets of papers, in millions of different colours (slight exaggeration, but there are lots!).  The offer is only on until Friday 9 April, so if you also NEED these, then be quick ;-)

I had coloured in this little kitty (another freebie digi from the fabulous Sliekje), so I needed something that would go with the darks greys. I went about printing off about a dozen different colours, different designs - and sat there with my card and just mixed and matched - guess what I chose - grey!!

I was a little unsure about the colouring, not happy with the green copics that I chose and then I kinda over did it, but hey - you learn from these things and there was no way that I could throw the little kitty away.

The little butterfly charm was in a pressie that I had from Faye - I have been desperate to use it on a card - and I just love it.  I was prepared for a battle with the jump rings, but they behaved, although the ribbon made up for it - and was determined not to thread easily!  So with much fraying and trimming I got there in the end.

I am working from home, as it is the Easter Holidays, so I am just waiting for the phone to start ringing and the emails popping into the in-box.

I best stop blogging and switch over the the work laptop - pah!  One conciliation is that the sun is shining in Exeter today, hope it is shining for you too - have a great day x

Apology

I have to type a very quick apology, as I have accidentally entered a challenge on Pollycraft, without making anything for it.  I hit Mr Linky and I shouldn't have.

I'm really sorry - promise I won't do that again x

Bank Holiday - yay!

I just love Easter bank holidays - the extra days off are so nice and I really think this is something we should push for, at least once a month!  A four day weekend out of every four weeks would suit me down to the ground :-)  Do you think that someone would take this on as part of their election campaign - if they did I would vote for them!

Anyway, we had hubby's family around for lunch yesterday, which meant that Eloise had her little cousin come to visit, she is 6 and never wants to sit still!  I made up a little Easter goody bag for her, as I know that her mum doesn't like her having too many sweeties and chocolate.  So the bag had a little Easter crafting set:  felt egg shapes, pipe cleaners, crepe paper, butterfly stickers, lovely bright coloured feathers.  Together with a little cuddly lamb, a little bag of white chocolate buttons and maltesers (well it is Easter, so there had to be some chocolate).

I thought it needed something else, so stamped out some images for her to colour in.  I asked Eloise to put them in a little envelope, which she decorated and wrote on 'for you to colour in' :-)  Eloise then started searching for something and when I asked her what, she said she was looking for one of her little pencil sets.  Well - due to the fact that I was cooking dinner for 7 at the time - I didn't really have time to help search.

I suggested that Eloise go through one of her many pots of pens and pencils and get some from there - which she did.  She has so many that some have not been used, so she picked these out.  I think this might have something to do with my love of pencils and pens, not so much hers!  She even found a little Disney Princess pencil case set, again which is brand new - and she is 'oh so too old for now' (her words!) so she asked if Erin could have this too.

I am always amazed by Eloise's generosity - I really expected her to say that she didn't want to give away some of her own pencils when I suggested it - but no, she was more than happy to - she is such a dear.

All the goodies went into a brown paper bag, which Eloise decorated with butterflys and little pink bows, we searched out some chipboard alphabets so she could put Erin's name on the front.  It looked lovely.

The bag was a hit, Erin plonked herself down on the floor and started colouring right away - the images were more popular than anything else (together with the little colouring kit that Eloise put together).  

I made the little header, bag closure thing (have no idea what to call it!) with a freebie image from Sliekje's blog - I love her little images so much, they are just so cute.  She is so generous and gives all her images away free.  I coloured in with my copics, which I am really starting to love now!

Jees - just realised how much I have babbled on, sorry!

Everyone else is still sleeping in the house, so I think I may have a play :-)

Hope everyone has a great Easter Monday xxx

Cheesecake Wish

What a lovely name for a stamp, although if I was to try and guess what the image would be, before I had seen it of course, then it would have shown the mousey actually diving into a cheesecake rather that just wishing for it!  But then again, maybe that is what I would wish for, one massive cheesecake big enough to dive into :-)

Anyway, that was the stamp that I used on Faye's birthday card, which was rather late as, as usual, I ran out of time!  I did let her have her pressies on time though and just said that the card would follow!

You may be able to tell by the excellent photo, that I didn't take this one!  I forgot to take any before I gave it to Faye, so she very kindly did it for me - thanks hunny x

I bought the papers at a show in Taunton about 2 years ago, and loved them so much that I have just looked at them for all that time, but there comes a time when they must be used.  They are from 'on the dot' and called raspberry lemonade.   The card stock is from Stampin' up - and probably has an equally delicious name, but I don't know it!

It has been a really busy week, lots of PTA things going on, we ran a plate decorating competition for the kids, so this week involved the judging and prize giving.  The children were so creative - just fantastic and really made me smile looking at their little works of art.  Eloise won with her plate too - and no, I wasn't a judge so it wasn't fixed :-)  One of the criteria in the judging was to try and make sure that the children had done most of the decorating themselves - we were absolutely amazed at the amount of 4 year olds that could draw perfect chicks and bunnys, and could also colour inside the lines!  I suggested that the next competition we hold should be for the mums and dads and not the kids ;-)  We also held an Easter cake sale, so the cash keeps coming in for the school.

Eloise is looking forward to eating lots of chocolate this weekend (which I may have to help her with a little) and I am looking forward to doing a lot of nothing today!  The rain is pouring down here at the moment, so another excuse to stay all cosy indoors.

Oh - just realised that I can enter a challenge with this card, how exciting, only done this once before :-)
It is over at Charisma, and it is Animal Magic.

Have a lovely Easter weekend all xx

Edwin playing the guitar

It's my gorgeous hubbys' birthday tomorrow - 21 again, of course!

I coloured in Edwin earlier in the week and have just been sat looking at it till this morning - trying to decide exactly what to do with it!  Anyway, after a couple of hours playing, this is what I ended up with:

I really struggled with the finishing touches.  It is just so much easier for girlie cards. In the end I resorted to staples.  I have admired lots of projects using staples - but never had the courage to use them myself - till now.  Who better to test it on than hubby :-)

Right, better get on with the rest of the day - the washing is sat in the machine waiting to be hung out (oh the joys!) xx

Carlyann's mega candy!

Carlyann, Sweet 'N' Crafty, is celebrating nearly reaching 100,000 hits on her blog with a super blog candy - you just have to go and check it out.  I love her work, everything is just gorgeous, and there are lots of Tildas too.

Anyway - here are the rules to be in with a change of winning the fab candy:

1. Become a follower of her blog, Sweet 'N' Crafty
2. Post about her Candy on your blog (or a link on your sidebar)
3. Leave your name & blog link, on her blog, with MR Inlinkz
4. Leave her a comment
*YOU MUST DO ALL FOUR PLEASE*

Candy will close on the 30th April (forgot there's not 31days in april lol) and winners will be annouced shortly after!

Copic class

I went to the Introduction to Copics class on Saturday and had a really lovely day.  Wendy from Stamps and Memories took the class through the history of copics and we started at the very beginning.  It was great to have a whole day to play, as well as look at all the lovely goodies that Wendy had brought along.  Stamps (there were hundreds!) copics, papers, cards, nesties and more.

We were taught about inks, paper and card, and all the different ways of blending.  Here is my effort at colouring properly with my copics ;-)

Wendy is running classes all over the place! (you can fill in a form online to say where you would like a class), so check out the Stamps and Memories site.

The day just flew by so quickly.  I met some lovely new people and I was very happy coming away with my goodies (there were four copics in our goody bags). 

Problem is that I just want to sit and colour now :-)

  

Happy Mothers Day

Morning all and a very Happy Mothers Day to all the mums out there.

My dear daughter is very busy in the kitchen as I type this, making me breakfast.  There are flowers on the table and she has made me a throne (chair covered with a throw and a cushion).  I even have a red carpet to walk on to get to my throne (two tea towels) :-)  What a dear little thing, she is so sweet.

Better go - breakfast is ready x

Confused and copics!

Right - I have been having a great time catching up with all the great blogs that I follow (well, not all - but I am getting there) but now I am a little bit confused.

I was overjoyed to see that I have some new followers, and I wanted to check out their blogs - so I tried clicking on their names - but it wouldn't let me through.  So I thought I would send a message - to ask what their blog addresses were - but when I tried that it said that I needed to be a member of my blog!  Anyway, so now I look like a bit of a 'sad o', as I am now a follower of my own blog!!!  Oh well - one way to boost the numbers I suppose :-)

I am really excited tonight, as tomorrow I am off to an Introduction to Copic Ciao class in Exeter.  This is being run by Stamps and Memories.  I have been using my copics for a while now, but feel that I could do with some pointers - I have watched a lot of tutorials on YouTube and love colouring with my copics and promarkers, but I am still not totally happy with the results.  So, lets hope that I learn lots tomorrow.

Anyone got any ideas how I can label my copics?

Valentines treats

At Eloise's school on Friday we are having a Valentines Goodies sale.  I say we, as I am on the PTA and we thought it would be a lovely treat for the children, and a great way to raise a little bit of cash.

Well that is not the whole story, but I am just getting used to PTA politics and I don't want to bore you with the details - lets just say I seem to have caused an upset with my last set of minutes!

So this is what I have been making these little treats for - they have been made out of 6 inch squares of paper - so they are only diddy - and they have Love Hearts sweeties in them.  So far I am up to 30 and I am going to keep going till I run out of the paper squares, or until I get fed up - whichever may be sooner!

I have kept them really plain, so they are quick to make.  Not sure how well they will go down with the kiddies, but I just wanted to do something that was a little different than cakes.

Saying that, the oven has just beeped - which means that the 2 dozen fairy cakes Eloise and I just made are ready. Don't think I will be able to resist, so time for a cuppa :-)

I have a feeling that I may have to bake some more tomorrow!

Violins

3 girls
3 violins
1 house

Help!

No card - just buns

Sainsburys really need to stop their bogof on hot cross buns, otherwise I will end up looking like one! Just polished off two (no, not packets) and now I need a hot chocolate.

Hmmm - I wonder why I never loose any weight?

I won :-)

This probably isn't such exciting news that I need to blog about it - but I never win anything - and I have won something!

Jayne from Stamposaurus had a little draw to win some tickets to go to Craft4Crafters being held at Westpoint, Exeter - which is in my neck of the woods.  I just had to email in my name and address and she would do a draw.  So I did.  Then on Tuesday morning the tickets popped through the letter box - yay!

So next week, it's on from Thurs 28 to Sat 30 January, Faye and I will have to go and have a mooch around the show. We need to check it out thoroughly as we went the year before last, and quite frankly it was pants!  Last year I was working there, demonstrating for Debbi Moore, and it was loads better.  So this year we are keeping everything crossed that it is still improving.

Free tickets means a little bit more cash to spend on crafty stuff - result!

Challenges

I have just been having a bit of a hopping session (blog hopping that is!) and have come to the conclusion that me and challenges just don't mix.  Now, the ones that have sketches are the trickiest for me - I look at the sketch and think yeah, know where to start with that, then I look at all the lovey things that the Design Teams have made - and then I have absolutely no idea how I can make anything different to those!  Ah - I know - maybe I shouldn't look at the examples before I have made my card.

Right, gotta go - hubby just said that he has a button that may be coming off his shirt.  I asked him what he wants me to do about it, 'Call the Tailor' was his reply!

She's gorjuss

This stamp is just so cute - I love it.  This is the first gorjuss girl that I have bought - having previously borrowed one from Faye - but I think I am going to need more :-)

Faye and I had a lovely gossip and catch-up when she and Daniel came to visit on Thursday.  I was very lucky to have lots of snuggles and tickles with Daniel too. I was also spoilt, as she had a pressie for me, some Prima celebration flowers (yay!), which you will see I just had to use on this card! I have admired these flowers on Faye's projects for a little while now and I am just so chuffed to have some of my very own. I think she may have realised how much a liked them eh!

My dear hubby gave me a quick lesson today with the camera.  He explained that I need to use the macro mode as I am taking the shots close up (that is the little flower button on top of camera mode to me!).  So hopefully now, no more fuzzy pics.  

Happy 101 Award

I'm so excited, I have been given the Happy 101 Award by my buddy Faye - that is just so sweet.

I now have to list 10 things that make me happy, so here goes:

1. My little girl, Eloise.  She is growing up into a gorgeous little lady.
2. My hubby, Tim.  We have been together for 16 years, married for 11 at the end of this month, and he makes me smile every single day.
3. Family, some are near and some are far - but the love is felt just the same.
4. My buddy Faye, she never fails to amaze me in her fluffy little world!
5. Our dear little pussy cat, Dex.
6. Craft goodies.  I was going to put card making, but I think I enjoy getting new goodies more!
7. Now it's card making. 
8. Chocolate digestive biscuits and a cuppa.
9. Laughing - I don't think we remember to laugh enough.  Maybe that should be a New Years Resolution :-)
10. Blog hopping.  I love the inspiration that I get all the great blogs out there.  And really appreciate that time spent by all the people to share their creations.  

I have to think of 3 people to pass this award onto now but can't do Faye as she gave it to me!  So I will pass this to Kath, Debby and Lorraine.

A little Tilda

Instead of photos of the snow, just for a change here is one of a card - yay!.

I am still having problems with the camera - I just cannot get it to focus!  I am not that great with cameras at the best of times and rely on the point and shoot setting - but I think it is time to have some lessons from hubby with this camera, as I am just fed up with looking at fuzzy cards!

I used copics to colour in Tilda, chocolate chip card, and some very pretty paper and lace that I had for my christmas pressie from Faye (I'm so lucky to have a bessie mate who is also crafty!).

Let's Have Some Fun - From Kath's Blog

My Fiskars buddy, Kath, lives up in Scotland.  Poor thing has been getting the worst of the snow and has posted Let's Have Some Fun on her blog, to try and stop her from going stir crazy.  She wants us all to put photos of our snow on our blogs.  So here is mine of Eloise making snow castles:

and also the little tiny snowman she made:

Down in my part of Devon we have only had maybe 4 or 5 inches, so no where near Kath 12inch cutting mat covering amount!

Candy on Mindy's Blog

Mindy has just found out that she passed her exam and has put up some Blog Candy to celebrate.

Visit Stampin Mindy to check out her work, it is just beautiful - I just love her projects.

I just want to play

First week back at work after Christmas and what a week it was.  There is just so much to be done, that I ended up doing 12 hours extra.  So now my house needs a darn good clean, and the washing basket was full to the top.  I had some new stamps arrive on Tuesday and I just haven't had the time to ink even one of them :-(  That is just not on.

Eloise and I had a trip to a little Bead Shop today.  We oooeeed and aaahhhddd over all the lovely little shiny things, and picked up a few - 'cause you have to, don't you?  Now I am sat here, ooeeing and aahhing all over again - trying to think just what I should do with them.

Eloise was looking through her beads earlier and said "I just don't understand these beads" which baffled me totally - I am really not sure what there is to understand about beads?!  

I was chatting to Faye at the time and asked if she had been tutoring my daughter in the ways of "Fluff" - if you are a little confused with that, then go and check out Faye's blog and all will become clear.

I am off to catch up on some blogs and really hoping to ink up those stamps later - they are just calling to me!

The snow has arrived in Exeter

I know that a lot of people out there in blogland have had snow for a while now but this is the first proper snow fall to happen in Exeter. There wasn't a flake in sight when I went off the bed last night, but when I looked out the window this morning...

So, because we have had a couple of inches of snow the city is coming to a stand-still.  The schools are closed, the coach companies aren't running, the park and ride sites are closed - and this is just the first day of snow for us!

Eloise couldn't wait to get outside, so after getting her to put on 15 layers of clothes (OK slight exaggeration there!), she went out to play...

but as for Dex - she knows the best place to be...

Fortunately for me (or unfortunately depending on what way you look at it!) I am able to work from home - so no playing for me yet - that will have to wait till later :-)

Just for a change - a card :-)

and no - it's not with my new stamp set, but it is a fairly new stamp that I got at the NEC, by Lili of the Valley.

I gave up with the Trendy Trees as I really can't line them up properly, so they will have to wait until I have seen my friendly Stampin Up supplier to order my positioner thingy!

I need a stamp positioner

Just playing with my new set of Stampin Up 'Trendy Trees' stamps and realised that I really do need a stamp positioner right now!  :-)

She slept till 9!

I just had to mark this occasion on my blog - my dear daughter actually slept until 9am!

Eloise really does take after her mum on this occasion.  When she is being cheeky and misbehaving, then she takes after her dad!  She likes to get out of bed the minute that her eyes are open, none of this laying and waking up gently for her - oh no.  Sometime it is like a runner off the starting blocks!  Usual wake up time is between 6 and 7, with 7 being a lie in.  So that is why I had to make a note of this occasion - sleeping till 9am!  She appeared downstairs looking very bleary eyed and she snuggled up next to me on the sofa for a lovely cuddle - bliss.

Anyway, I am sat in the chilly conservatory this morning looking at the beautiful blue sky and the frost gradually melting on the decking - and thinking that I really need to go and get a cardie on xxx

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone :-)  I wish all my family and friends happiness, love and laughter.

I was snuggled up on the sofa with my dear hubby when 2010 arrived, watching the fireworks over the city - it was beautiful.  We live pretty high up and have a great view of the city from the front of our house - so we open up the curtains and enjoy the light show.  Eloise slept through all the noise and now that she is getting older I am not so worried about the noise waking her up, so no dashing up the stairs to check on her every few minutes.

We are off to Tim's mums for lunch later, which I am really looking forward to.  She makes a yummy roast and also that means no cooking for me today ;-)  Home made desserts too - squidgy chocolate log and lemon meringue pie.  There has to be two as no one gets a look in with the squidgy chocolate log - that belongs to Tim and his mummy makes it specially for him.  He will share a little bit of it, but whatever is left comes home with him for safe keeping!

I hope everyone has a lovely day whatever you are doingc xx