Update

Hellooo, just to let you know I've not given up blogging or exploded after eating 3 and a half tonnes of christmas pud! I was a bit daft and left my camera at my parents' when I visited them on Christmas day and all the photos I'd planned to show are on it! It's my fault for not visiting my parents more often, frankly. So I plan to be reunited with it soon and will be back in the New Year with pics galore (I hope!). I hope you all had a great Crimble and all the best for 2010!!

Crimble-tastic!!

Phew! Now that I've FINALLY got all the home-made pressie malarkey done and dusted I can at last enjoy the spirit of Crimbleage in the proper fashion! Despite the terror-inducing snowfall (this post will tell you how I feel about snow!!) I have got pretty much everything made and am just working on the final, brain-frazzling Secret Santa gift for work (WHO suggested that we make the gifts again this year??? I would hunt down the fiend and slap them - except, er, it was me!).

Never mind, I'm getting there. Unfortunately I can't show any piccies yet, apart from the flippy calendar thing I made for my Mum:

Yes, those Bloom & Grow papers are STILL doing the rounds!

As this is likely to be my last post before the festivities on Friday may I just take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, have a great day!!!

Getting Worried Now...

Only 11 sleeps til Santa and I'm nowhere near on track with my making-of-christmas-presents plan. Arg! I do this to myself year after year and never learn! Sigh. At least I was a tiny bit organised on Sunday when we went for a "mock" Christmas dinner with Himself's family:

I made a Wild Blossoms calendar to take as a gift for H's mum (pity I'd already put it into a cello bag before I remembered to take a photo of it!)

The meal was scrumpshy and H's Sister had made personalised gingerbread place settings for us all:

A few of them had some unfortunate deformities as a result of becoming conjoined twins in the oven, but I think mine got off lightly. I particularly liked the blue hair!

Oh Nooooo!!!!!

Is it really???

I've left making my Christmas cards soooo late this year that I've had no choice but to cheat and make teeny little cards that are a lot quicker to put together:

I do like making little cards :o)

Drugged-Up Cat

Well, Ben had to go to the vet today to have a tooth extracted and apparently he turned into Psycho Cat Extraordinaire after he was given his premed. Seems like they must have had to throw every anaesthetic agent known to man at him to get him to go to sleep so of course now he's home he's spaced out to the max. Poor Ben. Hopefully the wobbling about like a feline-shaped jelly won't last too much longer and it's nothing a good night's kip won't fix!

Card-wise I've made a couple more for my Retail Therapy Class which is looming near:

As you can see I've managed to avoid any of the hated watercolouring completely and I've stuck to a basic colour scheme with the whole set. Hope the class folk won't mind all the fiddly cutting-out!

A card made to take to a wedding we're going to this weekend:

I've gone over to Jo Kill-stylee for this one!

Right, just going to rescue Ben from a wobbly fate and remove him from the bed onto the carpet. At least he can't fall off the floor (I hope!)!!

Cuteable!

So far so good on the card front - woo!

Forgot to mention in my last post that my cat cards were part of Cuteable's Flickr Friday feature - yay! I love this blog as I am, as you know, a big fan of cuteness.

If you too like having cute things in the world, check out the blog!

Misty Moochings

Crivens - I can't believe it's nearly December!! Scary!! The new year will soon be upon us so I've been churning out a few more calendars:

Another pleasant weekend occurred, with coffee and big cakes at South Queensferry to celebrate my Dad's Birthday. Shame the bridges were swathed in mist:

The Forth Rail Bridge

The Road bridge wasn't much better!

We pitied the poor coachloads of tourists from Yorkshire or wherever who'd travelled up especially to see these miracles of engineering only to find them half-missing!

The card I made for my Dad was a little bit cheeky..

The immense age on the front is a reference to the age he would be in cat years (I'll let you work that out for yourselves - sorry Dad!) and it was a good excuse to use another paper piecing.

I have a few days off work now, but a busy week ahead - let's hope I have time to make a few more cardettes!

See you soon!

Organic Crafting

Well, with the weather being sooo horrendous and me being afraid to step outside the door without my wetsuit on, you'd think I'd have had time for a bit more crafting! Sadly, however, this is not the case.

Last weekend already seems a long time ago, but it was a good one, with a night out at the Queen musical "We Will Rock You" (brilliant, good fun, didn't realise I knew or even liked so many Queen songs!), the discovery of a new organic food place to visit, and a meal out with Himself's family, not to mention a coffee with friends and a good dollop of rugby-watching (big men in shorts, grappling - oooerr missus!) - my feet have barely touched the ground!

But as I've been feeling a bit "organic" myself, I decided to make some cards using the technique I started out in - paper piecing - and came up with a set that are entirely hand-drawn and cut out from scratch:

Dull photo of course - blame the weather! This is my homage to all things cheeky about cats!

Why I like these creatures so much I don't for the life of me know - mine had me up at 5.30 this morning!

Blah!

Sad, Sad, Sad!

Last night I finished the cards to go in a gift wallet I'd also made (thanks J for letting me use your idea!) and I was quite pleased with them:

The cards were pre-patterned, from a set by My Minds' Eye, so didn't need much added to them. They have a gorgeous linen texture too.

I've not been up to much today so far. It's nice to be cosied up indoors, the weather is sooo bad!

But I did venture out briefly this morning, for I had a Next Giftcard to spend and essential items to purchase...



Yes, with regards to the slippers, I know I'm the saddest of the Saddoes from Saddo Land - but I don't care!!! :o)

First Challenge!

I've always wanted to enter a card challenge so as I was designing cards for my up-and-coming Retail Therapy class, I thought I might as well put one forward as an entry for the Stampin Chic blog challenge this week! Here is my card:

I love this new range, but I'm none too keen on watercolouring so my cards are going to stick to a basic colour theme. Sorry about the dull lighting - the weather is dire! Blinged the card up a bit with some little gems and a pink souffle pen, although that isn't clear from the pic! I'm pleased with how my stamped backing paper came out!

Crafting + Pizza = Yay!

A nice crafty day :o)

I decided I'd better make use of the calendar tabs I bought recently, and managed to make the first of a batch of chipboard, er, calendars:

And finished a set of mini Christmas notecards:

Those birds again, this time another set of notecards for my shop:

Still not attended to any of the projects that are actually on my To Do list though!

Oopsy!

D&D Christmas Projects

The Christmas Daisy and Dandelion design Team projects are now available to view - woo! A great selection of fabbo creations from the Team to get you in the festive mood!

(Don't panic - it's not really only 10 days until Christmas - it just feels like it !)

I really enjoyed coming up with my projects. If only I could launch into making Christmas cards with the same enthusiasm! And to think I planned to have them all done by August!

It's looking to be a Successful Food Day here at Mushroom Towers. I've just burned my tongue on some homemade veg soup, but it was worth it. And Himself is coming over later with a Quorn Cottage pie he's created - slurplicious! Now I'm off to warm my toes on a hot water bottle and hope that I don't end up swearing at the TV during X Factor tonight....

Random Update

Thought I'd better report in as some concern has been expressed at my recent lack of blogging. Well, I'm pleased to say I am currently alive and kicking; the reason for my abscence has been the scarcity of decent daylight to take pics of my creations. Not that there's been time for any creations - boo! But there has been time for cooking (Quorn chilli - nice!), a bad case of X Factor Rage (don't get me started on that one!) and a random visit to the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Scotland's Championship Show (as you do!).

I tell a lie - there has been a smidgeon of crafting. Someone gave me these little gold boxes which just happen to fit my scalloped circle embellishments...

But that's about the "height" of my creative productivity this week. I have a class to prepare and Christmas cards to make and my shop to stock, so this is no time for resting on my "laurels". But first I've got to go and clean the flat from top to bottom and I'd really rather eat my own head than do that. Sigh.

Before I go, I thought I'd share a photo I took of Ben this morning, where he's looking rather "pretty" (note the fake plant; I have a habit of killing real ones):

At this current time he's "helping" out by sitting on my lap and making it virtually impossible to type. Cats eh?

Byeeee!

Getting Boring Now...

I feel very virtuous at the moment because I've just given my car it's annual wash and yesterday I performed the heinous task of defrosting the ice compartment of my fridge - both jobs I had been looking forward to with about as much relish as that of my execution. But now I can tick them off my never-ending "to do" list and move onto something more enticing, such as making things like this:

This little box once contained dental floss sticks (how delightful!)

Now it's home to 8 little birdie notecards.

The World: "Gah! Will you please STOP using the same set of papers for every project you've ever made since the beginning of time??!?"

Me: "What?? Not until every last miniscule smidgeroony has been used up from my scrapbox I won't!
Mwahahaaahaaaaahaaaarrr!"

Ahem.

Quick Visit

As hoped for, I am having a nice, crafty week - yay! Quite a few projos on the go, nothing I can show at the moment though, except for a couple of cards:

As you can see, I am getting quite a lot of mileage out of those papers!

Cosy v Scary

Hello folks, hope you all had a good Halloween. Mine was spent in "interesting" circumstances at a Hen Night in the centre of Glasgow, that I was not entirely sure I would come back alive from. But I lived to tell the tale, which included a pleasant meal, a "tired and emotional" bride-to-be, a Sex and the City theme (we scrubbed up well if I say so myself), an encounter with grown men dressed as Oompah-Lumpahs (bizzarre!) and actually managing to find our way there and back without ending up just north of Aberdeen. It was fine but I'm rapidly reaching the conclusion that I'm just not a party animal in any shape or form!

Much more my scene was a cosy day in yesterday; wild weather outside, a game of Scrabble with Himself (he won - bah!), a veggie curry and curling up under a throw to watch X Factor. Bliss!

I've spent a couple of evenings in front of the telly, making Christmas embellishments:

And I finally used my new Craftwork Cards stamps to make this New Home card:


PPs are Wild Asparagus from My Minds' Eye, just love those papers! The stamps are pretty nice to use as well.

That's all for now; the cats are tearing round the lounge in a frenzy so I'd better go and rescue my priceless Ming vase (ahem) from toppling. Byyeee!

Feline frisky...

It's been going Pumpkin and Aubergine crazy round here, with my class being themed around them, to show what a versatile range it is....

We were making:

Gift card/money wallets.

Treat bag toppers.

A birthday card for someone mischievious.

And another version of the teepee card.

So even though Halloween will soon be over, I look forward to making things with these little characters all year long...

A Load of Old Waffle

Ah, yes, feeling much better now, thank you, after my little "off"-day. In fact, by Friday I'd recovered sufficiently to be able to attend the Hobbycraft show at the SECC with my craft friend V. We'd vowed not to spend much money. We both broke our vow. Oh well. It was an enjoyable day and for once we didn't have to wear full body armour in order to survive the crowds of determined crafters who were jostling around all the demo areas. There were some fab products and sample cards on display. My favourite stand had to be the Craftwork Cards one, where I bought some goodies:

V and I both bought these cute owl/birdie stamps because the cards they'd made with them were sooo nice. V also introduced me to the "delights" of Cut-n- Dry foam, which should "revolutionise" my stamping, thanks to it's many uses! And I couldn't resist more candy dots, in festive colours.

When our feet were sore and our brains were jellified, we called it a day. In the evening I had a very nice time at A's house while our other halves indulged in a Mexican-themed evening, complete with huge sombreros and margaritas. A and I had a rather more sedate evening of chat, but we did manage to eat more jalapeno "poppers" than our wussy menfolk!

This weekend I have had not one but two delicious meals cooked for me by Himself - his culinary skills know no bounds! And, in the name of culture, we spent a chilly autumn afternoon perusing the works on display at the National Gallery of Modern "Art" and pretending to be pretentious art snobs, when in fact we were snorting with derision at the sight of a lump of plaster someone had thrown at a wall and named "Creation of the Universe" or some such piffle. After that, a visit to H's brother's place to coo over the VCB and to deliver a 30th birthday card:

I decided to go slightly "avant garde" with this one and make it into a criss cross pocket card with a pull-out tabbed insert.

Or, in other words, a juxtaposition of colour and form, combining the ordered geometry of straight lines and the free-flowing curvaciousness of ethereal colour, which can be analogous to the fragility of the human condition.

Pah!!

Bluuurrrggghh...

Been feeling a bit under the weather today :o( but some rest and relaxation has done me good, as has the fact that my Halloween projects can now be found HERE . The Team has come up with some fab projects using those Pumpkin and Aubergine critters so check them out!

My projects are:

A HALLOWEEN MINI CHIPBOARD ALBUM

A TEEPEE HALLOWEEN PARTY INVITE

All instructions for making these and the other girls' projects can be found on the D&D blog.

A couple of quick cards made for occasions this week:

Stamps are the Pocket Silhouettes set by Stampin'Up.

Not sure what the stamps are on this one as they were brought back from Canada by K (who has been very kind to me today - thanks K!), but the wee notelet is from the Scrumptious set by Papermania and the PP is Wild Asparagus from My Minds' Eye.

Not much to add today; I'm off for a bath, but normal service should resume next time folks!

Holiday - A Summing Up!

Well, that's my weeks holiday just about at an end. As expected, there has not been a dull moment to be seen. It has involved:

-A wedding and some "liquid" overindulgence

- a couple of very pleasant days by the sea, which have resulted in a desire to live within 2 yards of a beach

-a sick cat :o(

-the 30th birthday party of our shop manager; it had a twenties theme, of which I didn't adequately warn Himself, so for the first excruciating (for him) hour he was the only male not attired in a trilby hat, pinstripe suit and spats. I'm not sure he will ever forgive me.

-A complete and utter lack of mojo

So there you have it! Today was my planned cardmaking day and so far I have produced the grand total of NONE! Just as well I had an owl-fest a couple of days ago:

With this one I was messing about with my new chipboard shapes from Stampin'Up. I coloured the eyes with brush marker pens and added Glossy Accents over the top. The leaf stamp is a Bloom and Grow one from My Minds' Eye and the PP is DCWV's Green Stack.

OK, now I'm off to do a spot of truffle-making. I realised I hadn't brought my colleagues anything back from my trip away (oopsy!) so this is my attempt at a thoughtful gift (ahem)! Will they notice that said truffles are NOT bought from a quaint sweetshop on North Berwick High Street? We shall see!!

I'm Back!!!

Yip, that's me back from my mini-break in North Berwick and very nice it was too. It may only have been a couple of days away but I could quite get used to a life of early morning walks on the beach, early evening walks on the beach, big fried breakfasts (veggie ones of course!) and general relaxation!! Ah yes, 'twas definately the way forward. I now want to live by the sea. In a blue cottage. And have a craft studio with doors that open onto the beach. I don't want much then. Sigh. At least I took my camera with me....

The Bass rock from the beach.

A nice B&B to stay in.

Big Rock, Little Rock.

Morning on the beach.

End of the season.

Colourful pots.

Rusting hulk.

A few boats.

Birdlife Mural.

Steps to nowhere.

Weather station?

Woodland Walk.

Ladybird Highway.

Preston Mill

Autumn Colour.

Sorry so many pics, just wanted to share them. Now I'm back there are cards to be made and a shop to stock! It'll soon be Craft Central around here - I hope!!