last of the bakeing done!

Finally finished baking, all done now .... Christmas, bring it on !!!!!

more Christmas yummies!

to go with the marzipan fruits to send everyone into a diabetic coma this Christmas i have been making another family fave.

these chocolate biscuits / cakes are full of all the things that are not good for the figure! - Brown sugar, butter, treacle, chocolate....etc!!! and in our family it has always been named "Jimmy Young" not because its made from old radio 2 presenters!!! LOL but because that's where the recipe came from and no one wrote down the name of it!

and as i have been into cooking this week i also made a few Christmas muffins packed full of cranberries and blueberries - yummy x

Christmas is.....

...Marzipan fruits

Well as i seam to be snowed-in a bit today i thought i would catch up on a bit more Christmas prepping xx

ITS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Well Christmas has finally arrived at our little home, i have now put up the tree done some shopping (not all !!) and the wreath is on the door i admit i still have loads to do but am staring to feel a bit christmasy.

supposed to be out finishing the Christmas shopping today but the snow overnight may have put a stop to that - will have to see what the roads are like latter - fingers crossed.

and to really start the Christmas season this little angel had her nursery nativity play yesterday

First Christmas laout

Well of the list of things to do today i have not accomplished much lol!!!

... but I have done a layout x

Happy Holidays!!!

Well I think today is the day to start to get a bit Christmassy!!! I have been a bar-Humbug up till now with the attitude that Christmas this year will be miserable... have now come to the conclusion that is i don't make the effort then YES it will be miserable!!!

SO...... today i will be making cards, marzipan fruits, making Christmas biscuits, and poss a Christmas layout or two! I will not be putting the tree up yet as I will get fed up with it by Christmas eve so i might do that at the end of the week, and to really kick off the Christmas season tonight i will be going to the Christmas party at church and tomorrow is the first carol concert of the season (pity the person standing next to me as i cant hold a tune in a bucket!!!!)

sneak peek......

The good news is the kitchen is all finished (at last) and i t is great to be able to get back in there and do some cooking and as i now have twice the cupboards i had i can now have all the gadgets to hand - bring on the pasta maker LOL

and can you spot Johnny in the photo... he seams to have found a new place to sleep!

We also had i last scrap club of the year this week, along with the Christmas treats like sausage rolls and mice pies we had a bit of a scrap pass the parcel (well pass the page actually) we all started a page and then after a few mins we had to pass it on to the next person so we all had an impute on each others work!!!!!! we stuck to the theme of black white and read so it didn't get to scary... this is what my page looked like at the end of the evening, i will prob tweak it a bit and change a few things but it turned out not to bad really!

What I should be doing...and what I have been doing!!!

Well this weekend I have tons of work to catch up on, and really don't have any other time to do it...but I have rebelled and spent the day yesterday finishing off a couple of pages and faffing about as normal LOL

Well I now have to spend today with my head stuck in work till I am finished (prob midnight) oh well that's life!

The kitchen is still not finished and that's getting me down now, this is the third weekend with no kitchen and I have had he washing machine in the middle of the craft room all week so I couldn't get in there...withdrawal symptoms are setting in !

7 bis avenue Nicephore Collection

Hi there, being an extra good blogger this week to make up for the recent poor show !! LOL

Had a play with the fab new papers from Indigo mill the bright colours are not my normal choice so it was a bit out of the good old comfort zone...but that's good from time to time.

I couldn't work out what was not right with the photo of me, then hubby pointed out i had no glasses on. I just thought it was because I looked Young in the picture...LOL

UKS Mystery Kit

A couple more pages from the cyber crop.. These are the pages i made with the Craft Emporium Mystery Kit for the UKS challenge. I am not too sure Amy would be very impressed as this photo is a few years old now and face painting is not cool when your 16!

I must admit i was shocked when i looked at the voting on the MK pages and found i had come joint 2nd, big thanks to anyone that voted for my page xx



... and this one was made from the scraps left over ...

Earth Love

I love the new CosmoCricket Earth Love papers that have come out recently. I already used some of the papers in a page a few weeks back, then at Karen's Club this month i completed a double page layout with them (page designed by Claire Fader - beautiful as ever Claire xx)


...and fellow Indigo Mill DT member Tracie ( big wave to Tracie !!!) also designed with these papers for another UKS cyber crop class, so i had to make this page too.


This is the one i did a few weeks back ... and you may still find some of these papers here xx

Finally!!!

At last i have got some order back to the craft room, its been a week! also for the last 7 days i have had no kitchen but i can live with that but no craft room has been hell!

So having got back to normal (if only in one room) I managed to scan the pages I did last weekend for the cyber crop on UKS, did a few of the classes but didn't get to upload what with the kitchen and re-wire nightmare.

both these pages were classes on the cyber crop but i changed the colours to something that was more to my persona taste and went with the photos.

For the Handsome Cat page I used a mish mash of supplies : coordination's white wash for the base, Swiss dot bazzil, some MME laundry line and Daisy D's for the paper beads.

Proppa Funny was done with MME Laundry line plus a few scraps and the most gorgeous sparkly brads by Karen Foster Designs.

Thanks for looking and sorry for the craft famine that has been going on lately...normal service to resume shortly !! LOL xxx

Update

Well i have been neglecting the blog a bit lately !!! Understatement!!!!!
Crafting time has been extremely limited with other lie stuff getting in the way as normal, but worse than that i have had my craft room taken over by the kitchen...yes the kitchen!

we are having a new fitted kitchen put in and it is a total nightmare. i have had no kitchen from last Friday and have little Chance of it being sorted until late next week. the walls have been knocked down, the boiler moved and the house has all be re-wired at the same time - bad planning!!!

so due to the building work i have things stacked in every room in the house and have had no heating all week (just as the weather gets cold - typical!!

i an missing my craft space and my pc as i cant get into my office / craft room and all my favorite stash is in the car as there is no room left in the house. BOY I NEED TO DO SOME CRAFTING need to relieve the stress

ope to return to normal soon, ill keep you posted xx

Some craft at last!!

At last i have managed to squeeze some time out to do a bit of crafting, its been ages!!!

What with work and life in general its been as mad as ever and i have just been craving time to sit and cut up paper!! last weekend was spent moving desks, cupboard and boxes as we moved offices, all moved in now and i must say that it was worth it, the new office is great.

Today i have been up at an obscene time for a Saturday and went to the dentist for an 8o'clock appointment! had more root treatment done and spent over 45 min in the dentist chair... just getting feeling back now.

We are getting a new kitchen fitted and i received a call yesterday to confirm when they are coming to start the work, to my complete shock they are coming in this coming Friday to gut my kitchen!!!!!!! they will be ripping everything out, re-wiring, knocking out walls and moving the boiler! i wont have a kitchen for over a week, and not to mention the fact that some time this week i have to empty the entire contents of the kitchen and find some non existent space to put it all for the duration!!!!! ... i am sure it will be worth it, but why next week!

so as i should be packing up the kitchen into boxes, and i really cant be doing with it today, i did this instead :O)

I used the Indigo Mill October kit "Harvest Moon" that i an ashamed to say i have only just taken out of the package x

Wicked!!!

As you may (or may not) know i am a no1 Wicked fan!!!! So when UKS set the theme for the cyber crop as the Wizard of Oz i had to sign up, i wasn't to sure as i have never done the cyber crop thing before but Steph gave me a prod in the right direction so i have signs up

i am in team TOTO ! hope to see you at the cyber crop x

its not quite a dog in a basket .....but its all i have !!!! LOL

Total madness!!!!!!!

Every year our church has a "Road Show" competition between all the local branches in the area, each branch has to write and perform a short play / skit in front of everyone and a panel of judges to compete for the prestigious title of Best Road Show !!!!!

and if you think that sounds mad you should see some of the shows! (bearing in mind that we only get a couple of weeks to write, cast, rehearse, make costumes and put on the show... all with a non existent budget and not very many willing volunteers- think school show in a rush.

Well this year we came second, and can i just say ...WE WERE ROBBED!!! we lost a couple of points on some very picky technicalities and lost by 2.5 points ....but we had fun and better luck next time ( watch out Ashford we'll beet you next year!)

so here are a few picks of the evening .... don't ask me to explain the plot (not to sure there was one LOL)

...oh and i have to mention that my little nice (who would never have made a ballet dancer!) had a part doing Irish dancing which she loves, and i could have cried she was so cute and the audience loved her, she was beaming with joy and lapping it all up ...arrrrr she is the one that looks like a strawberry in her bright red dress...go girl xxx

And yes that is a break dancing lobster!!!!!!!!!

Got my hands on some new Pink Paisly

And it is lush! I have made a couple of pages with it ( in between the mad moments!!) this one is for Karen's Club kit so she can chill out ( as if LOL) and get ready for her upcoming wedding.

The second one I made with the bits I had left over as I couldn't bear to put them in the scraps box.

And this is the other kit for Karen using the new Basic Grey Indian Summer, my photos are a bit naff as the ink was on the blink!

Picture This...

The training seems to have paid off! Gary now has his blog up and running!!

He has called it Picture this and is using it to show his photography to the world as well as to have a good old fashioned moan up as well..LOL

He is very new to the Bloggersphere so pop over and say hi to uncle Gary..... oh and auntie Sharyn is not best pleased with me for introducing him to another hobby ... sorry xx

you can find him at gazandshaz.blogspot.com

latest page

love this page, the colour in the patterned paper are so warm and soft, reminds me of a cosy cold night in front of the fire..... now where is that co-co

Training again

teaching Gary to make a blog!!! as you can see he is an ace photographer x

on a roll now!

second page this week with Autumn Leaves papers, I just love the colours in these papers and this is one of my fave "nature" picks, hope you like. Thanks for looking xx

Normal Crafting activites have been resumed

We got home from Somerset last night after a very draining trip. Dads send off was as good as it could be and i think it was as he would have wanted.

Back to scrapping today and this is what I have made (along with a mess in the craft room!)



Pop along to the Mill pond to have a go at a challenge I've set with this page x
TTFN XX

Catch up..

Well things have been a bit mad since my last post.


Went to visit family in Somerset last weekend and allow sad as father in law was poorly and in hospital we had some time to relax and be together.

here are a few picks of Burrow Mump... I have to admit i only made it half way up as it was very steep and i was being a big girls blouse and to frightened that i would fall over on the way back down .. and I couldn't drive home if i had twisted my ankle!!!

We also went to Cleeve Abbey that was also very pretty and the weather was just great all weekend.

We got home late on Sunday after the 4hour drive, back to work Monday then sadly we had a call Monday night to go back to Dad as he had taken a turn for the worse. Drove back to Somerset late on Monday and got to the hospital about midnight. Dad passed away Tuesday morning and it has been a very sad week. We came home late on Thursday and well be back next week to say goodbye. Just want to say thanks to all my dear friends that sent there love and best wishes, thank you xx

Normal Crafting activity to return soon, in fact I have placed a BIG order with Steph today to cheer me up! will keep you posted xx

DAD xx

Helloooooo

Hello all, i haven't been slacking i promise!! i have been working away all week, but i did take the tote with me and this is what i spent the evenings doing.......

Papers from Indigo mill September kits and flowers from my stash.

this one was with the last of the 7 gypsies papers and bits from the August kit

This one again from the September kit x

Indigo Mill - September Kits

Hi there all, been a bit slow on the blogging and crafting this week, having a bit of a creative slump :O(

I did manage to put a couple of pages together with bits and bobs from the Indigo Mill September kits that were kindly given to me by Steph a couple of weeks back.

the paper here was so pretty i just couldn't cut it up! so unusual for me i know but i used it just as it is!

Used the new Slice on this last on to make the flowers and the title, and my other new fave - Scrapper's Floss! - on the buttons x

Have a good week all, I will be in Southampton all week but have packed some paper and scissors to make a mess in the hotel room LOL!!