Feeling Festive - Or Not?

Well, I was feeling quite Christmassy yesterday but today, what with all the snow that's falling and the fact that it's soooo cold, I've wanted to do nothing but hibernate. It took a great deal of willpower to force me from my "pit" this morning and now that it's already getting dark again, with more snow forecast, all I want to do is crawl back in there!

It was quite a different matter yesterday. There had been some snowfall early on, but the rest of the day was sunny, crisp and frosty, and it was lovely to visit the Hopetoun House Christmas Craft fair, where Himself's mum had a stall. It's a lovely house and grounds and we very much enjoyed wandering around. My camera lens seemed to have some annoying specks on it but I didn't notice that when I took all my photos!

Even entering the building made me feel festive:

And inside, all the Christmas decorations and cinnamony-smelling candles added to the effect:

After perusing the stalls we took a walk round the grounds:

It's quite an impressive building:

My shadow makes me look as tall as he is! (I'm not)

The fountain was in full flow:

A snowy owl?

Doggy Graves:

Another festive entrance:

It was lovely to come in from the cold and enjoy steaming bowls of pumpkin soup in the tearoom afterwards, before having another wander round the stalls. Very enjoyable and definately worth a visit!

In the evening it was my workplace's Christmas night out. A good laugh and tasty meal was enjoyed by all and the Secret Santa presents were a success. I had been a little nervous about giving mine, as I'm still new to making felt critters:

But I think it was well-received.

And I certainly loved my gift, which was a fabby stationery set:

Thank you, Santa! ;o)


I'm still feeling a bit under the weather at the mo, but hopefully it's nothing a hot meal and even hotter bath won't sort out before braving the drive to work tomorrow!

Byeeee!

Cupcakey Winner!

Well, the time has come to announce the lucky winner of my CUPCAKE GIVEAWAY! Many thanks to all who entered and who left such lovely comments, I appreciate you taking the time to do that!

I've used the random number generator to pick my winner:

Comment number 8 was left by Kerry Fairy so many congratulations to you! I have emailed you for your address so your prize should be winging it's way to you forthwith!!

Thanks again to all the entrants! Look out for more giveaways on this blog!

Back To Work

Yes, after a very enjoyable and to-do-list-conquering week off, I am now back to working the day job. Can't complain really, because it did feel like I was off for aaaages! I am pleased with what I achieved - 80% of my Christmas cards made, Secret Santa gift almost complete, car serviced and MOT'd, friends caught up with, registration with the library (hooray!) and the dentist (boo!) in my new area, etc etc.

And to top it all, a very pleasant weekend. Went to see Himself's family (including Very Cute Nephew), followed by a Body Shop partaay at my friend Clare's on Saturday, and then a visitation from my family on Sunday, at which we ate my home-made Bounty Balls and Butterscotch Bars! It really has been all go!

There has been some creating, including these Little Tree gift tags, which will be going into my Folksy shop.

And an update on my giveaway - many thanks to all who have entered so far and have left such lovely comments. Tonight I am going to work on the MYSTERY part of the prize and results will be announced on Thursday. There's still time to enter, so don't be shy!

Folksy Friday - Vegetables!

My previous post on chutney, combined with the fact that for the last couple of years, I have been a vegetarian, has inspired my Folksy Friday this week to be about VEGETABLES!

It has to be said, there aren't many items on Folksy that come under that heading but here are my faves:

This crate of realistic-looking mixed veg from Grandma's Miniature Market:

This "Go Veggie" apron from total radness:

This 5-a-day Card from Liz Clayton Illustration:

This cute corn brooch by Sarah Von Kim:

And as this Peter Rabbit knitted bunny by The Hunny Bunny Company is holding a carrot, he counts too!

Hope you liked my selcetion of veggie-themed items! Now I'm off to make some carrot and coriander soup!

Nice Friend

I had a visit from my friend Michelle and her family yesterday. It was the first time she'd seen my new abode and she brought me the most adorable house-warming pressie. Look at these cuties:

The two end ones are eggcups and the middle ones hold salt and pepper. I love them!

Not only that, Michelle also brought me some home-made chutney which contains her own tomatoes and other veggie goodies:

I've had some with oatcakes and cheese for lunch today and it's absolutely delish. So thanks Michelle!

Cupcakey Giveaway! (AKA Free Stuff!)

Hello there, dear readers, hope you're having a good day! I've been thinking for a while of having a wee giveaway, and as I'm nearly at 200 followers on Twitter and 50 "likers" of my Folksy shop, now's as good a time as any!

So, for your delectation, here's a selection of cupcake-themed goodies which are up for grabs:

There's a calendar:

A bookmark:

A notepad:

And a wee surprise extra, but only the winner will find out what that is!

So, cupcake-lovers, to enter all you need to do is:

- Check out my Folksy Shop

- Leave a comment here, telling me your favourite item from my shop and why.

- Ensure I can contact you through your comment

I will pick a numbered comment at random on Thursday 25th November. If this giveaway is a success there will be more to come!

Hope to hear from you soon! :o)

Pssst!

I've had a very productive day (shopping, baking, reading) and now I'm preparing items for my very first giveaway - involving these:

Watch this space!

Christmas Cards in a Flash!

Ahhh, it's one of those freezing-and-crispy-but-sunny days that I love, it's so cold your nose could fall off but the outside world looks beautiful! I'm on holiday from work this week and I have a to-do list as long as a giant's arm, but I'm ready to tackle it!

This morning, realising that I have, as usual, left it rather late to make the 30 or so Christmas cards I require this year, I decided I'd better come up with something simple but effective that could be "whipped"up in a flash.

I started by gathering together lots of scraps of card in different shades of green and creating my own patterned paper using my new Dot,Dot,Dot stamp from Stampin'Up.

Then I drew a simple template of a tree in three sections and lots of intensive tracing and cutting followed.

I put them together with a couple more stamps and some little punched circles and - voila!

I should be able to make 30 of these before December!

Ominous Weather

Managed to snap some pics of two more cards before the light goes (the sky looks a bit evil and snowy out there!):

I love these papers by mylittleshoebox and Stampin'Up!

Now I'm off to experiment with some "micro paper-piecing" (more on this another time!)

Byeee!

Nice Day Off

I really enjoyed the day off I had this week. I had a lie-in, ignoring the cat's demands for breakfast (cruel, eh?) and spent the day pottering between my craft desk and the sofa! My craft desk almost disappeared beneath the piles of different projects I had on the go! I did some paper piecings and soon had a batch of little items made up:

Cupcakes, Owls and Little Trees. I think these are destined to go on gift tags or notepads.

I also made several cards using some gorgeous papers and stickers from the Green range at mylittleshoebox, which I received as an unexpected gift, but with the lack of decent light I've only been able to photograph one so far:

I've also used my new Stampin'Up papers as they go really well with this range! Can't wait to make more!

That's me on holiday from work for a week now. Woo! Must work through my "To-Do" list!

Still Around!

Apologies for the recent lack of bloggage, folks; I've been working flat out at my day job over the weekend and the last couple of days, which hasn't left much time for crafting. It has, however, been helped along considerably by the consumage of cherry cupcakes and the arrival of our Stampin'Up products. Can't wait to start using mine and getting down to some proper crafting again!

I have made some cards, using my woodland characters and some autumnal papers:

Badger and Owl.

Fox and Squirrel.

The leaves are definately falling around here in this wild weather we've been having! I'm looking forward to a day tucked up cosily at home tomorrow!

Week So Far...

Well, I think my Stampin'Up partaayy was a success, despite it being an evening of atrocious stormy weather and a couple of people bowing out. We gorged on pizza and nibbly things, ordered loads of crafty goodies and made these:

It inspired me to go all Stampin'Uppy again and to dig out my fave Pocket Silhouette stamps to make this retirement card, which is required later in the week:

Finally, I was delighted to receive some adorable goodies from the lovely littlebirdtoo , who was my partner in a Halloween Swap organised through Folksy:

Soooo cute!

Recycled Gift Tag

I loved this little tag that someone gave me on a card last year, so I whipped it off and re-used it on a new card!

The letters are cut out from vellum , which was a bit fiddly, and I got in somewhat of a twiddle trying to tie the fibres into a bow, but other than that it was fun to make!

Stampin'Up party at mine tonight - pizza and purse at the ready!