Bye Bye 2011!

It may only be 3pm but it's SOOO dark outside, it feels like the middle of the night! Not conducive to taking good photos but I have a couple of "themed" cards to show:

For a rambler!

For an accountant!

For an airline worker!

I enjoy building up a collection of designs to keep in my "repertoire" - next time I'm asked to make an accountants card I'll have a design to hand!!

I'm always late to catch onto things, but I've just discovered Pinterest - fascinating stuff - I can tell I'm going to spend a lot of time over there from now on!!!  Can't wait to start building my own pinboards!!

And so, another crafting year draws to a close.  I hope you've all had a great creative twelve months.  I certainly know what I'd like to achieve during the next twelve.  It's an exciting journey!

Happy Hogmanay everyone, see you in 2012!!!! :)

Lazy Lingerings

Howdy, peeps, how was your Christmas? I hope you all had a lovely time; I certainly did and I'm very grateful for that!  Too much was eaten, too much was drunk, too little exercise was taken, so the waistline has expanded, but that's what new year's resolutions are for, eh?!!

I don't tend to give a lot of gifts at Christmas (bah humbug!!!), mainly because I NEVER know what to get anybody and as a result usually give something very uninspiring.  The people that get presents for me, however, never seem to have that problem, and I received a very lovely array of goodies.

These included gorgeous toiletries to pamper myself with, some cute Pip items, a photography course (which is so thoughtful of Himself because I don't know how to use my camera properly!), a lovely lantern and lots of handy wee stocking fillers courtesy of Himself's mum.  Thanks to everyone, I hope the presents you received went down as well!

As is usual after all the festivities, I'm feeling VERY lazy and completely lacking routine, so today I plan to chain myself to my craft desk and remain there until productive things are achieved. I have a large card order to fulfill by the 8th January so I need to get my act together!!

I'm not one to hit the sales (I accompanied Himself to the shops on a shoe-buying mission yesterday and it was frankly, headache-inducing, although he did treat me to a nice meal afterwards!) but craft-wise I couldn't resist a pack of pretty sticky notes that had been reduced in Sainsbury's!  I made them into little books so they might make a good stocking-filler for next year!

Right, no more messing about - it's time to CREATE!!!! :)

Nearly There...

I've not been making much lately, caught up as I am in the seemingly never-ending Christmas preparations. This afternoon I did have a big sort-out of my stock ready for the new year as I'm planning to join a daily listings club on Folksy in order to get my shop filled up! I've not done one of these for a while but it's high time I was disciplined in my listing! I've also put aside a pile of images to work my way through and make things with, so that should keep me out of mischief! 

 Tonight I'm planning a quiet night in with the cat and a glass of wine and box of chocolates before the festivities properly begin! I hope everyone has a fantastically Happy Christmas, see you again soon! xxx

Weekend Wonders

I have enjoyed a very pleasant weekend, starting with my work night out on Saturday night (a tasty meal, bit of merriment and lots of dancing!)and yesterday Himself and I treated ourselves to a curry and then to the cinema to see a film/documentary that I'd heard about that really intrigued me - "Dreams of A Life". Unfortunately I can't post a link to any details because Blogger is playing up, but it's worth checking out. Himself and I don't usually come out of films deep in discussion; it's more like "So what did you think of that?" "S'alright." But this time we did have plenty of comments to make! It really makes you think!

Card-wise, here's a commission for someone who's worked in a variety of professions!!



Have a great week, everyone!

Winding Down...

So my tree is up, along with a few meagre decorations. I've only got a few more cards to write and post and a couple of pressies to make. I've got a cinnamony-scented wax tart to burn later and a glass of mulled wine to slurp. There are pine cones and baubles scattered about the place and I've been thinking about what veggie treat I could make as a turkey alternative on the big day. I made this tonight and it's quite tasty but not very festive.

I'm as Christmassed as I'm ever going to be!

This card is one I made for a recent commission, all drawn from scratch:

In the run up to the festivities I'm planning to wind down my crafting and my shops, and just take some time to chillax, but not for long because I've already got some ideas for next year!

Sweetie Pouches

There have been sniffles 'n snow hindering progress here at Mushroom Cottage over the last few days. I've been too preoccupied with trying to keep my feet warm and dosing myself with Lemsip to do much crafting. However, I did feel a tad creative yesterday and, when I spotted this template for cute sweetie pouches, I knew I had to make some to take along to an evening of chat 'n pizza with the crafty girls.

They went down a treat and can be easily adapted for any occasion!

They went down a treat I think!

I've also got a couple more jute bags on the go:

And tonight I'm planning nothing more than an evening of mulled wine, mince pies and X Factor! Hope you're all having a great weekend!

New Projects

Now that the year's craft fairs are all done and dusted, it's now time to concentrate on other projects, such as my Folksy and Etsy shops. I plan to rethink my stock, and this will include making sure I have available all my card designs, including this new-style baby card:

As you can see, this card can be personalised and it's also available in a boy version!

That's not to say I won't be making other items, such as these Holly gift tags:

I hope you all have a great week and don't get too much snow!!

Folksy Free Listings!

Folksy is having a free listings day today so I thought I'd take the chance to make some cards using a selection of toppers I created a while back.

Things are running a little slower than normal on Folksy; I would imagine there's a LOT of people trying to list items all at once!

But who would pass up the chance of a freebie?? Not me! :)