Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas everyone, hope it is truly wonderful!

you used to be able to see the living room lol!!! 

Charisma Cardz ~Anything Goes

OMG I am sooooo..... late with my post today, sorry!  My excuse = I've had visitors on and off all day long, and I've also had excruciating back pains which make me feel sick so haven't felt much like doing a lot!

Anyhow the new Charisma Cardz challenge is SUPER easy and the theme is 'Anything Goes' and is going to last 2 weeks!

I've done hardly any crafting lately, what with feeling ill on and off, doctors and hospital visits, work, the puppy and christmas I just can't believe how quickly days are flying by.  So the cards I have are ones that I made a few weeks ago, and was going through a 'round' card stage, I thoroughly enjoyed making these!

We as always have FAB sponsors with 3 lucky winners and also a lucky Facebook winner!

It's my babies 7th birthday tomorrow, bless her, so close to christmas!!  We're off to the coast for a trip to the christmas circus, can't wait!!

There's a meerkat on it's way to our house!!!

Just purchased dog insurance from Compare the Market (not meerkat!!), woohoo meerkat on it's way to our house lol!!!  This little vid is such fun!!!

Good morning one and all, it's been a while since my last post but to be honest I've not made anything for a while.  As well as being unwell (again!) our time is somewhat preoccupied with the puppy and trying to get organised for christmas!

Well it's team Gem's turn to set the theme for this weeks Charisma Cardz challenge and we would like to see 'NO CARDS!'. 

I saw a fabby decoration whilst blog hopping a while ago and thought I've got to have a go at that!!  Well you know I got so frustrated with it, I had it pulled apart about 4 times before actually getting it round lol!!  I must admit to not fully following the tutorial just trying to d it from memory, in the end I HAD TO follow the tutorial!!

if you would like to have a go at making one of these for yourself, you can find Sarah's tutorial and much better pictures HERE.

Here's anothe piccie, it doesn't look round in the piccie but I promise it is (now!), and for some reason the ribbon looks blue below, but it is green!! 

Not so sure I'll be making any more, but who knows with practice they must get easier/quicker to make!!

We have fab sponsors with great prizes and lovely examples from the rest of the girls on the blog so please go take a look.

We have a mad day at work today, it's christmas lunch day, so we have over 300 to feed!!  Then I have to dash to see my youngest in her nativity play, she is Angel no.3!!

Charisma Cardz - Snowflakes

Good morning, boy it's been a while!  I seem to have neglected my blog just lately, I've made a few bits and pieces but Jacobie (our puppy) is taking up my time, we do like our cuddles lol!).

It's time for a new challenge at Charisma Cardz and the theme this week is 'snowflakes', let's hope we're not seeing any of the real thing any time soon heh!?!  Although it looks pretty, I don't like walking around looking like a dork in case I slip over, oh the embarrassment!!!

For my card I have used a ready coloured topper which I printed from my Newtons Law ~making greetings cards cd, easy peasy no colouring for me!!!  paper is from the Daisy and Dandelion christmas collection pad, charm and ribbon are from my stash.

I so can't believe christmas is getting so close, it's scary and at the moment I just can't see us being ready!

We have fab sponsors offering super scrummy prizes (as always) so please pop on over to the blog and join in.

Charisma Cardz ~Cutesy!

Good morning, can you really believe it's Thursday again so soon?!  Which means it's time for a new Charisma Cardz challenge, our theme this week is 'Cutesy', which shouldn't be hard now should it?

For my card I have used some of my Forever Friends 3d stickers, which were on 3for2 in the Range.  We have a local store now, so only 20ish minutes instead of nearly an hour is great!!  Mind you it's a much more scaled down version, I managed to come away only spending £20 which I thought was very well controlled lol!!!!

We have fabby sponsors with great prizes as always, and we also have a mini DT call out, so pop on over to the blog and take a look.

Have fun!

Introducing our new family member ~Jacobie

 We picked him up yesterday lunchtime and he is simply adorable!!  10weeks old and a little bundle of fun, that is when he's awake!!!

posing in his lovely new jacket!!  Very smart don't you think?

bringing me his new toy!

and this was my pair of sleeping beauties last night!!!!

he sleeps anywhere at the moment bless him!  His fave place is at or on my feet, he is asleep on my feet now, and gets disturbed every time I have to answer the door to the trick or treaters!!

first jab was this afternoon and he was an absolute star!

Charisma Cardz ~Anything Goes

Soooooo....... late with this post, but here we go!

This weeks Charisma Cardz challenge is 'Anything Goes' so yes you can make and enter absolutely anything you like!!

We were lucky enough to use Saturated Canary images (which you can get here)if we wished to choose and use one, and omg for me it was a must, these images are gorgeous!

I chose Nevaeh, she's so pretty and innocent looking!  I don't know why I chose green for her dress but love how it's turned out.

Fabby sponsors and prizes so please check them out on the blog.

A good day doing nothing!

Well it's been a lovely birthday day, I've been thoroughly spoilt, love all of my pressies and have money to treat myself with to.  We haven't really done anything, except eat and watch a dvd, but it's been nice being all together!

Thought I would share a piccie or more!

Here is one of the 2 handbags that I received, this one is for fun days, the other is more grown up lol!!!!

My youngest and I spotted a lady in Morrisons with the exact same bag and we just loved it.  Not being one for going up to strangers and asking them where they got things I managed to track them down on the internet, they are part of a range called Crazy Gang Guinnea Pigs and they are so much fun,  may have to have a few more bits yet!!!

We just love our guinnea pigs, here are our 5 girlies!

Left to right : Denise, Tasha (Natasha), Boots, Fluffball and Baby Stripes!  ~We also have 2 boys and 2 bunnies!

My birthday cake here was made by me, but decorated by hubby, it has choccie icing, mini rolos, white choccie chips and marshmallow pieces, very calorific and very yummy!!!!

so with eating the cake I will definately be needing to use my new toy!  My vibration plate!  I used one of these at our local beauty place several times before we went to Disneyland, and after finding out they weren't that expensive decided to have one of my own.  Oooo... it shakes and wobbles every single part of you, fingers crossed it will reduce my wobblyness if only by a little bit!  It does say 10mins is the equivilant to 1hr at the gym but I'm not so sure!

40th Birthday

No not mine lol!!!!  Although it is my birthday today, the big one comes next year for me!!

I actually share my birthday with my brother-in-law, but he arrived one year earlier than me!

So here is the quick easel card that I made for him.  It's only very basic but gets the point accross!!!

Hubby and I went on our usual 'yearly' trip to Norwich, we normally go on my birthday but this year I got us tickets for the theatre and the show finished on Saturday.  We went to see 'All the Fun of the Fair' starring David Essex aka Eddie Moon in Eastenders!  I liked the show, but didn't get tingles like you do when a show is really fantastic.  Although I must admit to welling up at one point when Levi (David)'s son was accidently killed by his friend (in the show of course!) and then they sung 'Silver Dream Machine' which I remember from my childhood and had everyone cheering!  We were told that David would be signing programmes etc at the stage door afterwards, so yep you guessed it we had to wait.  I mean when the chance is there you'd be daft not to heh!?!  To me he didn't come accross particularly friendly, myself and another lady asked if we could have a quick piccie, but he wouldn't look at the camera's not even for a split second, saying he couldn't do all this multi tasking!  I know there were several people there and he wanted to get as many signings done as possible, and they did have another show less than 3 hours later, but still he could've looked up!!  But managed to get a few ok=ish piccies!

 attempt at a picture with him lol!!

So with birthday shopping done, some more christmas presents purchased, we rounded off our day with a meal at our favourite restaurant Pedro's a mexican I have loved for many years and introduced Matthew to exactly 10 years ago.  They never fail to deliver the most scrumptious food set in a fab atmosphere, such a shame it's not closer, but then maybe that's a good thing!!    

 a sneaky sangria!!!!!

Charisma Cardz -Embossing

Good afternoon all, I'm a bit late with my posting today but you know what they say!?  Better late than never lol!!!

Our new Charisma Cardz challenge is 'Embossing' this can be either dry or heat!

I don't do a lot of embossing, never gotten on with dry embossing with a tool, could never stick to the grooves!!  Heat embossing is hit and miss and I find my cuttlebug involves faffing around!  Saying that I am desperate for a set of 'labels' dies for my birthday lol!!!  Best be ordering them as my birthday is on Monday, I'll charge them to my hubby lol!!!!

So luckily I had a few pre embossed sheets done from a previous project, and with inspiration from Jane Millards cards in the latest Quick Cards Made Easy mag, I made the following card which I just love!

The little couple are so cute, and what makes it even better is they were part of a 4 packs for £1 deal from The Range (think they are docrafts).  I really loved making this card, and will be using this style for many more!

We have 2 wonderful sponsors offering great prizes for our winners and we have the special Facebook prize to.  So please nip over to the blog, take a look at the other dt examples and get embossing!!  Look forward to seeing your entries!

Charisma Cardz -Black and Orange

Good morning, hope it's nice where you are, we have blue skies with white fluffy clouds but lots of wind to accompany it.  Still at least the first school run of the day was dry, fingers crossed the next one will be too!!

Right, onto this weeks Charisma Cardz challenge and this week we have a colour combo of 'Black and Orange'.

For my card I've used a Meljen image, the paper was a freebie from one of my mags and as I thought the orange layer was a bit plain, I tried to replica the little swirls etc from the image!!

We have 2 great sponsors this week : Simon Says Stamp and Pink Cat Studio and don't forget there is a special prize for Facebook entries to!!  Please check out the blog for DT examples I think most of us had the same idea with the halloween theme lol funny how a colour combo and that time of year can do!

Charisma Cardz -Love

Good morning, it's team Carly's week this week over at Charisma Cardz and the theme is 'Love' I thought that as I had got a card made I would share it with you, not very lovey but at least the sentiment has some love!!

I have used an image that I printed from a freebie disc that came with one of my mags, these ones are really quite sweet, ready coloured and perfect for quickie cards!  I have sliced the front off of the card diagonally from corner to corner and edged it with snowflakes, I think I like it!

for all prize details and to see the 'lovely' examples from the rest of the team please nip on over to the blog and share the love lol!!!

Charisma Cardz - Gift bag/box and card

Good morning, new challenge time at Charisma Cardz and this week our challenge is to make a 'Gift bag/box and card'. 

I had fun making these, my mojo seemed to come back for a weeks visit last week (gone again now!).  The image is one from Digi Stamp Boutique, I love her big happy smile, she's so happy to be on her way to give the lucky person her gifts and card!

I've used the same image for the gift bag which started out as a plain white paper bag.  I've used the same papers but added a couple more as it was a bigger area to decorate. 

We have 2 fabby sponsors this week who have donated great prizes, for details of what these are and to see the wonderful examples from the rest of the girls please pop on over to the blog.  

Charisma Cardz - Inspired by a song

Good morning, new challenge time over at Charisma Cardz and our theme this week is 'inspired by a song' any song you like!!

I've made a scrapbook page using pictures I took of my eldest nephew on a day out at the seaside right at the beginning of the school summer holidays.  I had bought a bubble wand from a cheapie shop and took it onto the beach with us, they loved it!  Nephew got hold of it and started blowing bubbles, hence my song inspiration being 'I'm forever blowing bubbles' perfect heh!?!

I'm planning on making a page for my youngest nephew, with pictures of him rollerskating entitled 'Skater Boy' I would've made this as a 2nd example for the challenge but just haven't had the time!

I'll then let the boys have them to put on the wall of their new bedroom!

We have some fabby prizes up for grabs and the girls have made some gorgeous examples, so please nip over to the blog for a look.

As for me, I should've gone back to work yesterday but couldn't.  I'm still unwell, I'm now into week no.5 and getting somewhat fed up with it now.  Survived a weeks holiday at the Isle of Wight last week (JUST) was ill but just had to get on with it for the kids!  Bless them I start couging and then it's as if my throat closes up and I fight to catch that first breath, they rush over saying "breath mum, breath" and come armed with tissues etc caus I'm bringing up yuckness and my eyes water every time.  It's great when I have an attack when I'm out as it looks like I've been crying!!!  I actually think these 2nd lot of stronger antibiotics might be working, although the doctor doesn't know what's wrong as when he checked my chest was clear and the oxygen in my blood re breathing is really good!?

A Spoonfull of Sugar - Party Time!

It's a sad day for us all at A Spoonfull of Sugar as although it's new challenge time it's also our last challenge boo...hoo...  Yes after this challenge A Spoonfull of Sugar will be no more, our lovely Nikki and Debbie who have run the blog for over 3 years now have made the very difficult decision to end the challenge blog.  We back them fully, both are very busy with other things and as I say 'real life' must take priority!!  I've been with the girls from the very start back in May 2008 and have only just recently missed a couple of challenges, it's been an absolute honor to be a part of this wonderful blog with such lovely ladies.

Anyhow now I've explained the situation, the challenge theme is 'Party time' as it's bank holiday this means the Nottinghill Carnival and who needs an excuse to party heh!?!

I used a forever friends topper for my card, it's so sweet, the party poppers, you've got to love a party popper!!! and sentiment (I think) were all part of the same set, I just added a couple of little gems to the sentiment!

For all prize details please nip on over to the blog and take part one last time, sent the blog out in style!!!

As for me I've have this annoying cough for the past 3 weeks, it's exhausting me, I've burst the blood vessels in my right eye which looks a real state, obviously due to all the coughing!  I just can't catch my breath when I start.  I've had a weeks worth of antibiotics and they haven't touched it, so what next I ask myself?! 

Have a fun day!