I'm going in...

..... to my craft room that is and I may be some time lol!!!

This year was our turn to have a delayed Christmas as my girls went to their Dads for the actual day and we had our Christmas day yesterday. My parents came to stay for a few days and so the den, which is currently my craft room, has slowly filled up with boxes, wrapping paper and general stuff.

It's time to enter the room of gloom and clean it all up again so I can actually do some stampin!!!

I promised pics of my favourite projects of 2011 and Santa was very kind to me this year and left an all singing, all dancing digital camera under the tree which will make taking pics a much more enjoyable process than before.

As long as the room doesnt eat me alive I promise to be back later with pics of projects and who knows maybe even a before and after shot of the disgraceful den.

I just want to wish you all a Happy New Year and may all your resolutions be crafty ones!!

Bloggy Hugs

Kindness and pity lol

Many of you who know me know that I am a blonde through and through... and for my fav American this Englishism means I often do dumb things!!

My blondness really showed through in my last post as no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get the photos the right way up and my usual go to guy was busy braving the North sea on the local Lifeboat!!!

However some kind soul, namely Michelle, took pity on me and emailed me the photos the right way up and cropped to boot so you can all see them in their glory. My ladies worked really hard on these most of saturday so they really do deserve to be seen properly...
This is the one Cathy made....

and this one by Anne

I hope you enjoyed looking at these the right way round and no-one has sore necks lol.

Bloggy Hugs to you all and a very Merry Christmas

Last class of 2011....

WOW, time flies when you're having fun...
I cannot believe the last class of 2011 was yesterday. Being a seaside town it gets pretty quiet here out of season but two of my lovely ladies braved the damp and chilly air to come along.

Cathy became a Grandma in Feb this year and Anne has her first Grandson due Feb next year so it seemed only right that we abandon all things Christmassy (well apart from the lovely mince pies) in favour of some lovely baby goodness.

I first saw the box frames we made here on Victoria's Blog. They are absolutely gorgeous and I just knew they would be perfect.

Cathy chose Marina Mist and So Saffron for hers and this is how it turned out...

 Aploogies for the crick in your neck as you try to look at it but blogger is steadfastly refusing to rotate photos and I'm all out of ideas (being the technophobe I am!!!)

Anne chose Certainly Celery and So Saffron too match the eagerly awaited arrivals nursery.

I'm sure you will agree, once you have your head the right way up again, that both ladies did a sterling job and have gifts to be very proud of.

I hope to be back soon with round up of favourite projects this year.

Till then Bloggy Hugs to you all and have a very Merry Christmas and a Stampin New Year!

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas...

or as my gorgeous little boy says Chrimmis!!!

Finally after an hour and a half wrestling with putting the tree up and a futher hour decorating our monster tree (8ft) is now up!

Now I just need to do the rest!!!

The tree was done at the weekend but its been one of those weeks with most of the house suffering from the sniffles so I've only just got round to taking a pic.
Also done a little while ago (at our retreat weekend) were these cards. I have decided they will be my Christmas cards for friends and extended family this year.

Both of these cards were made using the new Tags til Christmas set along with embossing folders. I used Cherry cobbler and Always Artichoke to keep with my vintage feel and the Cherry Cobbler seam binding certainly adds to that feel.

Finally I just had to show you a parcel of goodies which arrived at my door yesterday sparking the same level of excitement as when Mr UPS turns up with my lovely SU goodies. It was the medicine i needed yesterday and certainly made the sniffles much easier to bear lol.
 This was sent all the way from Italy by the lovely Jeannie after a conversation at convention about how much I missed the American sweets I ate as a child while living in Berlin with my Dad who was in the RAF.
Jeannie ( http://happy-jeannie.blogspot.com/ ) is currently living in Italy with her husband who is in the US Army and creates the most wonderful cards so pop on by and have a look.
I'm just hoping my parcel of English goodies arrives with her in time for Christmas.

I hope you are getting in the festive mood too and enjoying the lead up to the big day.

Hugs

Life gets in the way again....

OMG... I just realised how long it's been since I last posted (hangs head in shame!) I'm hoping to find more time for blogging now that family issues have settled down a bit.

It's been a crazy couple of months but in amongst all the chaos I found myself with the most fantastic bunch of people on this planet (apart from my OH and kids that is).

Early Nov saw me heading off to Paris for Stampin Up's annual convention. What a great couple of days and soooooo many talented and friendly people all in one place. We spent 2 days swapping, training, laughing, eating, drinking and of course stamping, all in the lovely surroundings of Euro Disney.

A better bunch of crazy crafters you could not meet!

I will upload more convention photos soon but just have to show you this one of a wonderful, funny and very genuine woman who I now have the privilege of calling friend.

You can just see me on the right hand side of this pic. Jeannie is behind the blue napkin and is crying with laughter at some of our English words. Jeannie is an American demo who is currently living in Italy as her husband is in the United States Forces. As such Jeannie is allowed to attend Eurpoean convention and we had been messaging for a while beforehand and met up at convention. We quickly became good friends and I know we will stay that way.

Please come back soon for the rest of the photos from Convention and some of the many gorgeous swaps I got while I was there.

Hugs