Sunday 14 December 2008

Wow!!!!

Well I can't believe where the time has gone and now its December speeding onto Christmas! Between the last post and this I have been to Naples and through a new type of Ofsted (very stressful!) Been to Liverpool to visit some friends and their fab children.
Helped children perform a Nativity and made several cracker cards for the children to design and decorate, that's just of the top of my head. It has been rather a manic few months but I have appeared from the cobwebs to say hi.
Now I am frantically making Christmas cards which I should have started much earlier than now. I work better under some pressure obviously!!!!
Anyhow better get back to it and will post some cards I have already made for tomorrow. See you then!

Saturday 4 October 2008

Birthday


I had a brilliant birthday and want to say a huge thank you for all my birthday cards and presents. They are lovely and I am slightly overwhelmed. I also got some fantastic flowers and some money to spend on more crafty stuff.
I got this beautiful card or minibook from dddeeebbbzzz and will put it on my blog tomorrow to show all the pages but need to use photobucket.

I can't wait to play with my nestibilities and penny black christmas stamps.
I also got some lovely papers and scrapbook, stamps and tag brads from my birthday swap partner Alison and want to say a huge thanks to her. I know how nervous you get sending a present to someone else and I love reds, browns etc and the stamps match perfectly.
Anyhow am now trying to tidy up the house in between sleeping off a cold which has seems to be making me more tired to day than during work????


Sunday 21 September 2008

Loved the show!

Had a fantastic day at the Sandown park stitch & craft show. Saw loads more I could have bought and ran out of money at around 2.30 which was probably good as by then both Mum and I were very very tired. I think we had craft overload and were trying desperately to remember where items were we had seen and wanted after seeing all of the exhibits.
Two of the items are birthday pressies & I can't wait to try out the bow maker. Mum tried it out last night and it the bow came out perfectly!

Here are the items I have bought from the show.

Saturday 6 September 2008

Horsing around!



Well I was asked to make quite a few cards and one of them had to be for a person who likes horse racing. I thought and thought and then realised I had these stamps 'peeking over' from woodware. The horses and fence were perfect and I am really happy with this card. I made the grass background using a graphics programme and Anita's ribbon matched brilliantly. Have been very busy today cutting out houses, a cat and display titles for the classroom with my craft robo. Also bought some new very cheap trousers only £5 for school as they get painted and play dough covered so no point in spending a fortune!!! The times I have got on the bus with a hand print or bit of brightly coloured piece of play dough attached to me. Keep the better clothes for going out.

Wednesday 3 September 2008

Busy & back at school!

I have been busy making cards for a child who loves fairies and princesses and a man who likes F1 and cars. I used the woodware F1 stamps and for Milly's card I used the Lilli of the valley fairy iris image. I added a bit of glitter using gelly roll stardust clear. I coloured F1 cars using gelly rolls metallics. Back to school today so hoping to get some time to get to craft too.



Tuesday 2 September 2008

More Blog candy...

Found more blog candy and here it is on karens blog crafty goings on and if you like fairies go to crafty love n hugs and unicorns at just add love and lots of stuff in craftlings cosy corner
Please read this is posted from craftlings blog and is about word verification when posting on blogs have a read and see what you think???

ARGUMENTS AGAINST WORD VERIFICATIONEveryone will have their own view, but in my case, I regard the removal of word verification as a basic courtesy to my visitors who are kind enough to take the time to leave comments. Being aware of their comments through comment moderation, but not hindering them with word verification is the very least I can do to reciprocate their courtesy to me.The problem with word verification is that it takes too long. The characters are very often hard to decipher, and it’s frustrating when you get them wrong and have to re-enter the little suckers!So this campaign is on behalf of busy bloggers. Please spare a thought for the poor bloggers who work so hard at getting round as many blogs as possible to leave sprinkles of blessing and good vibes wherever they go. The terrible proliferation of this awful plague of word verification is a blight on their efforts to make the Land of Blog a cheerier place.
I think most people don't realise that they have word verification on their blogs by default, or how easy it is to switch it off, and perhaps not realising how annoying it is for other bloggers. Either that, or they’re under the misapprehension that they will be bombarded with spam messages. This is not the case. I’ve had mine switched off now for three of the four months that I’ve been blogging, and have had two spam comments. The responses I’ve had from other bloggers to my earlier posts on this topic back this up. (You can see the comments in response to my previous post on this subject, HERE.)For safety’s sake, have comment moderation on for sure, but please consider canceling word verification on your blog. Maybe for a trial period, and see how you get on.Unless there are thousands of comments being left, comment moderation shouldn’t be too much of an issue for the blog owner, and other bloggers will also be more inclined to leave comments if they can see that you don’t use word verification.However, each to their own, and if you disagree with me, that’s cool. We can agree to differ and not visit each other’s blogs! lol ;o)
OK.. rant over. If you have read all the way to the end, thank you for putting up with it, and ~ obviously ~ do what you wish on your blogs, but I had to say something. I love to get around and leave comments, but word verification spoils the experience.
Of course, when I get my new job, all this will be academic to me, as I will then have a life, and I won't have time for much blog-hopping!! Not that blog-hoppers need to get a life.. Errr... think I'll stop digging now, before I get into REAL trouble!! lol ;o)Peace. :o)
EDIT: Interesting link HERE, provided by sharp-eyed Sammi (thank you, hun!).. Seems that 'Captcha' (the technique for identifying whether input is human or computer) is of little value, if any, anyway, as spammers have software that can break it. In which case, comment moderation is your only defence. Completely backs up my case.
Posted by Christine (Craftling) at 23:36

Blog candy

Have a look at Kelly's blog a pocketful of sprinkles she has some fantastic blog candy and fab photos and LO.

Back to school


Wow you can tell I have not blogged for a few days...

Well firstly it was Andrews mum's birthday on Monday and so of course I had to make a card and used an idea I had seen in a magazine you undo the two photo clips and there are 2 more garden type pictures hidden. The pressie was some money towards a new dress for a cruise she is going on with Andrews dad.


I also have had my hair done before going back to work so I made an appointment but did not get an appointment for getiing my hair coloured. Thought it would be okay until the hair was cut and I could see these grey hairs and I love having some colour too.

So here is the before and after shots


Before

After

Saturday 30 August 2008

Blog Candy

Blog candy time have a look here and here both have fantastic goodies at 'Karen's creation' and Tash's blog 'Little observations of everyday life' Fab!

thanks


Well I have finished my thank you cards to the children and here they are. I used 2 peas in a bucket dingbat downloads for the images and dovecraft and funky hand papers.

Friday 29 August 2008

Visiting Childhood and Ragged Museum


Well on Wednesday I had an outing with my mum to visit the Ragged museum and museum of childhood. The Ragged museum told the story of Dr Banardos and talked about Victorian school life, included was a Victorian classroom. Mum wanted to specifically visit the ragged museum as her grandfather had been an orphan and had spent his early life in an industrial school in London. As the children got older they then made items to raise money for the school to continue! It was really interesting.
Then we moved onto the museum of childhood and looked at all different types of toys although it was strange seeing some of the toys I used to play with in a museum! One thing that was interesting though was a little old wooden rocking horse which had this sign in front of it...
'This horse was made by boys at the Boys home industrial school in Regents park, London. The home for orphaned boys was founded in 1858 and closed in 1920'.

Just think my great grandfather could have been involved in making this item it was such an exciting find!

Monday 25 August 2008

No so big decorating disaster

Well disaster over! Andrew decided to call his dad and ask what to do and over his dad came to look at the situation and we can mastic and then cement and then plaster the holes. So no problem. Andrew doing some DIY! Quickly got a photo as evidence that he does DIY honest! So no plasterers needed PHEW! I am off to sugar soap the walls before painting them. woohoo!

Only problem now is that all this mastic, cement and plastering is going to take longer so will still have to wait longer to craft OH NO

Wordle

I have seen wordle pictures and they look fab you type in words and hey presto you get a LO here is my winter words version

Sunday 24 August 2008

Decorating!!!

If anyone is thinking of decorating heed this warning. You might find more issues with your room than just a need to repaint especially if there is wall paper involved!!! As you can see we are going green two tonal and then I am having a bare winter tree painted onto one of the walls. As I have always wanted a tree in my house, strange I know.

Here is the room as it was, before removing wallpaper and








here it is after wallpaper was removed...










All plasterers in the Chessington area please help!!!

Thursday 21 August 2008

Sorry!

Have been busy cleaning carpets and sorting out the house that I have not really had much time to craft except croping my pink petticoat images ready for christmas cards and thank you cards. I also have to make some commisioned cards too before going back to school!
It's so nice getting lots of things done that I normally wouldn't have time for!

Wednesday 20 August 2008

Roman Villa

Well before the journey home and after more scrummy breakfast (and boy am I missing getting breakfast cooked for me) We decided to visit cheltenham and Chedworth Roman Villa.
We have been to Bath and Cirencester which are roman sites with loads to see (worth going really nice shops such as Sally Lunn's bun shop)
So thought it would be worth seeing. Cheltenham had lots of shops but we
didn't find much to go and see site seeing especially as it is Sunday, so we did buy a few things.





Chedworth was really interesting and showed lots of mosaics, a bath house and a spring. Although there is not much left. It makes you realise how much we in the UK treasure with the little roman artifacts we have. This is especially after visiting somewhere like Rome where there are artifact's every inch you visit and they are just laying around everywhere and still just about surviving!

Anyhow after we left to go home and see how Charlie and Lola were doing. I missed them terribly, they were looked after brilliantly and I would like to say thank you to a lady called Ann who fed them whilst we were away. As you can see they are not too phased about us being back!

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Tewkesbury

Here is the second part to the day. We moved onto Tewkesbury and visited both the town and abbey. The town as you can see is quite old and has lovely tudor style buildings. It reminds me of Canterbury, somewhat. We had lunch here in a tea shop (very scrummy!) and then went shopping. I saw an art and stationary shop which had loads of craft stuff and ended up buying some Derwent aquatones crayons and flesh coloured watercolour paint


We visited the abbey, it is very old and dates back to 1102AD more info here.

Took lots of photos for my scrapbook so can't wait to start but need to sort out packing away my craft stuff to paint our 'pink' room

Anniversary day!!!


Yes it's our 8th wedding Anniversary, no idea whether that or paper, iron or what? We got my mum & dad's and Andrews mum & dad's card today and so here they are both parents cards handmade by the mum's

The first card is made by Andrew's mum and the second by my mum and she made the top cats topper as a magnet which is now sitting on my fridge. Inside Andrew's mum's card she used one of those embossed rose stickers similar to the one at the front. See I am surrounded by crafty people!

Well anyhow I better tell you about the second day of our little holiday. We went to Gloucester and started with a HUGE breakfast and toddled off to the centre of Gloucester
and it's cathedral. There was lots to look at generally and museums galore! Including a traditional Aunt Sally's sweet shop which I had to go and see...


Here is a picture of one the corridors or cloisters in the cathedral, which they use in two of the films of Harry Potter and a picture of the cathedral gardens, really pretty...


Monday 18 August 2008

I am back!


I really enjoyed the break but am equally happy to be back. I really missed Charlie and Lola, and will now have Charlie trailing after me for the next few days becoming my shadow! Lola on the other hand just keeps appearing from nowhere and meowing at me as if to say 'Where were you!' I am now catching up with washing and tidying as well as trying out gifts I have bought over the break!!!

For our Anniversary we went to a hotel called 'Cheltenham Chase' in Gloucester. Outside it is really modern but inside and the grounds were beautiful. We looked out onto Coopers hill the famous cheese rolling hill! Here is a view from our bedroom window!



Andrew also surprised me by laying on champagne and chocolates, all which were extrememly yummy!!!
Apart from that we enjoyed the jacuzzi and steam rooms as well as lots of swimming before going to a very big 3 course dinner, again very yummy but did need to recover lots before breakfast the next day! I will fill you in on the second day tomorrow as I have loads of photos and feel all the photos are better in bite size pieces! Just like the chocolate!!!!

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Wendy

A lady a work absolutely LOVES Bon Jovi. I had already made a card for her via another friend. She got back from New York and missed her birthday as she was away then, So I made her this card which she loved. She told me lots when I gave it to her. I had watched a Artylicious programme on create and craft and was taught how to make this folded book/card. I was really pleased on how it turned out!

Sunday 10 August 2008

Debz birthday card









Debz birthday party was really good fun, loads and loads of food and I caught up with lots of friends. It was a shame it was raining but you wouldn't have known everyone inside in the hall chatting away.
I made her card as you can see and a little bag to place it in and a friend and I bought her a 'bind it all' so watch her blog for lots of minibooks when she gets back!





Friday 8 August 2008

No Sneaky peeks!!!!

Well I would blog what I have been working on but a certain 'someone' might realise it was for them and I have not had time to finish the circle minibook yet but it is coming along! Hopefully I can share the item with you tomoroow afternoon! Have also had a bad back and last night could not move for quite a while :(
If anyone has any good ideas on how to mend it I would be very grateful. Debz I am hoping to rest it so I can jump on the bouncy castle tomorrow. That's if I am allowed on! ;)
Hope you are all well and have fun crafting!

Wednesday 6 August 2008

Guildford











Well today I visited Guildford so decided to blog this instead of my unfinished circle minibook which needs some more embellishments. Guildford was fantastic we saw some really old places dating back to medieval times one being an undercroft and also a chapel with beautiful gardens. We also had a bit of lunch & shopping and then went onto the guildford museum and learnt a bit about Lewis Carroll who wrote 'Alice in Wonderland' I wanted lots of inspiration for my 'wonderlandish' garden.

Here are my parents preparing to go to the museum.