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