Absolute Heaven!!

OMG!!! Jon ad I went to see Ronan Keating in Oxford on Tuesday night and had an absolutely fantastic time! We were 5th row and, because this was a theatre tour, you felt so close to him!

He put on an amazing show for us fans and the atmosphere was electric. There were a few sad moments when he talked about Steo but we all lifted him back again!

Thought I'd share with you one of my fav photos from the night.

xx :0)

Owww!

Haven't been able to get into my craft room today as I woke up this morning to pain in my upper back, like a minor spasm which has caused great discomfort moving my neck and left arm. Hopefully it will ease in a day or two and I will be able to get back in for some more work.

Thanks for all the lovely birthday messages you have been leaving, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

Thank You!

I had a lovely birthday yesterday, in spite of being at work and I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to some really lovely people who sent me gorgeous cards.

I would firstly like to say thank you to Michelle for this gorgeous cards and the wonderful gifts that were beautifully wrapped. Do you think blue might be my favourite colour?!

I also received this gorgeous card from Stacey. Isn't she fab?! I love those papers. I'm definitely getting ideas for my new Miss Anya stamps. I really love the highlights in her hair!

Last, but by no means the least, I received this lovely bookatrix from my very good friend Nikola. Sorry for not zooming in on the photo, not sure what happened there! It is fab, thanks mate.

I hope to have some cards to show in the next day or two so please pop back!

Thanks for stopping by and for any comments you leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

What a wonderful husband....!

Jon didn't know what to get me for my birthday tomorrow so suggested I might like some more crafting goodies. Well, of course, I couldn't turn down an offer like that so yesterday we headed off to the fabulous Glitter Pot in Haywards Heath.

We all know what a fantastic service they provide for their online store so I couldn't wait to see what the store itself was like and I wasn't disappointed! I can only describe it as an Aladdins Cave for crafters. I have neve seen so many Penny Black stamps displayed in one place! I simply could not choose which one I wanted (secretly I wanted them all!) It is truly an amazing place and if you get the chance to go then you really should.

Would you like to see what Jon treated me to.....???

Aren't I lucky girl to have such a generous husband?! I kept saying it was too much but he kept telling me to get some more goodies. As you can see, with the exception of the PB transparent sets, I only selected 2 of wooden stamps. It was just too difficult to choose as they are all so adorable. Here are some close ups for you:

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. Don't forget my blog candy if you have not already entered. It's open until next Sunday so tell all your friends.

Thank you for stopping by and for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

New Chat Box

Boy, am I glad it's Friday! I've been struggling on at work all this week with a horrible sinus infection. I eventually succumbed and went to the doctors last night who prescribed me some antibiotics after telling me that I looked terrible! My glands are are really swollen in my neck and I have to admit, I don't look great, but I still went to work today! I know, I'm stupid! I heard it all from people at work, including my brilliant line manager.

Anyway, my reason for posting was to let you know that I've joined the club and added a Chat Box to my blog. Please stop by and say hi or, if you've any questions, ask away.

Bozzy's off to the vets tomorrow. After thinking that he'd started to get an appetite again, it transpires that all the food that's been being eaten over night is down to another cat! Jon caught it last night as the cat flap went, but Bozzy was curled up next to us! Poor little man!!

Hope everyone is okay. Have a good weekend and thank you for stopping by.

xx :0)

Bad Day At The Office

I had a bad day at work today which has left me kind of deflated and knocked my confidence. Just before I was due to leave I took a call from an agent who wasn't happy with some news I had emailed. He basically got nasty with me and tried to bully me into going against rules and EU Regulations. I managed to keep my composure on the phone, but the minute I rang off I just burst into tears. I don't like confrontation and just freeze. I just kept repeating that whilst I appreciated his predicament, I could not go against scheme rules. I'm just lucky that my boss is so supportive.

I'm just a bit down about it all now as I take everything to heart and find it very hard to forget about these things. Jon just keeps telling me to think about the Hobbycraft show at the NEC on Friday which I have been looking forward to for weeks. I wish it was Thursday now and that I didn't have work tomorrow.

Thanks for listening. I hope to have some cards for you soon.

xx :0)

News Article

Sorry I've not had anything to show the last couple of days. I've been having lots of thoughts about possibly doing a Christmas Fair (I know!) this year and what items I would want to make and sell. It would be great to know what you would like to see if you were at fair looking for something a bit different.

Anyway, my main reason for posting today was to apologise for not having shown the news article on my card win. It wasn't shown on the website like I was promised so I need to scan the image and post in on here for you all to see. I was a little bit disappointed by it as she said that I took the top prize when I explained that I was one of 4 lucky winners. I was also told that my blog address would be included, but this did not happen either.

I hope you are all having a good day and thank you for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

You'll never believe this!!!

I'm in shock! After excitedly posting on Saturday that I had was one of the Elzybells Valentines competition winners, imagine my surprise when a comment is left from a journalist for a local weekly newspaper saying how she would like to do a little photo story about my win!!

I couldn't believe that they were seriously considering this as, in terms of the major card making competitions, this is fairly low key (not for me!). Anyway, after emailing the lady back, she confirmed that it was the sort of "good news" story their readers like. I did an interview over the phone last night and this morning a photographer came round to take a photo of me with the winning entry and another with me holding a couple more cards!

They've said that it should be in this Thursday's edition as well as appearing on their website!

How mad is that?!?!?

Hope everyone is having a good day and thank you for any comments you may leave, they are greatly appreciated.

xx :0)

Confessions of a bad blogger!!

I know, it's been a week since I last posted anything! I don't know where this last week has gone! It's been so busy, what with battling the weather to get into work everyday. Work has been full on for me too, so by the time I get home, I just flake out and haven't really ventured into my craft room.

I have managed to finish hubby's Valentine card, but I daren't post it in case he decides to pay a surprise visit!

When I have made it into the room, I've been getting very frustrated as I've been trying to get to grips with using my Coloursoft pencils and Sansador. I just do not seem to be able to grasp this technique at all, and my work looks very messy and untidy. I've seen so many people who have the most beautifully coloured images and it all looks so effortless. I don't seem to be able to get the colour to reach the centre of the area, or look neat. I'm using 160gsm cs and paper stumps from Hobbycrafts. If anybody can give me any tips/advice or point me in the direction of a good video tutorial I would be eternally grateful!

I hope you are all having a lovely, snow free weekend.

xx :0)

Busy crafting, honest!!

I have been busy since my last post and have made another card but I can't show it just yet as it might spoil the surprise for someone!!

I've been colouring in lots of images and practising with my copics. Thanks to everyone that I have emailed for question on using them properly. I have taken on board all your tips and tricks and think that I'm slowly getting there.

I don't know about you, but I've found that, even though I'll be using the same colours on matching images, the end result can still look different and I think that depends on the amount of pressure that I use when applying colour to the area. On one of my images, it looks like it's lighter in one area for the highlighting and my OH said "That looks really good, how did you do that?" My response was "I haven't a clue, I don't think I put enough colour there as it wasn't intentional!".

I do have another question for you all, but not about copics! This is for all of you who have a cuttlebug! I love my bug and use it loads but there's one thing that, if you'll excuse the pun, "bugs" me!! I was embossing a 13.5cm square piece of card using the fab Swiss Dots folder. The folder isn't big enough to do this all in one go. My question is this, how do you make it look like there hasn't been a break in the embossing? Whenever I have to do this, I always find that either the edge of the folder squashes a row of already embossed dots, or, in trying to avoid that scenario, I don't emboss the second section fully enough. Either way I end up with this small section that just looks wrong!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Anyway, I hope to have more cards to show you at the weekend. My best friend, Nikola, is coming round for a craft session, although we always seem to end up doing more talk than craft!!

Hope you're all having a fab evening.

xx :0)

Where do you start?

After looking at so many wonderful blogs and cards this evening, I was just wondering what your starting point is when making a new card.

Do start with the sketch first, or do you choose your card and papers? Do you decide on your stamp and colours first and then choose papers to match?

I seem to just stumble my way through each card and am starting to think that I should try and be a bit more organised when making a card

Anyway, I would be interested to hear how you go about things.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope to have a couple of cards to show in the next few days.

xx :0)

Very Disappointing.

I really wasn't looking forward to writing this post and have been putting it off since I got home last night.

The fair was very poorly attended and where we were situated was away from the main hall so at times we got forgotten about.

I sold just 2 cards. The lady on the stall next to me told me not to be disheartened as it was not to do with my cards as they're lovely. She used to own a craft/sweet shop and makes cards, but currently concentrates on selling old fashioned sweets (not good as I spent £8 on there!).

She was really good at giving Nikola and I advice on where to try and other ways to sell our cards. We are thinking about maybe trying some local fetes in future.

I went with the intention of it just being a learning curve and not to let it effect me if I didn't do very well, but it's hard when people just walk passed you without even looking at what you've got on display.

xx :0)

A little bit scared!!

It's 15 mins before Nikola collects me for the Art & Craft fair and I have to admit to feeling scared, nervous and sick!! When we set up last night, we had a look around a felt a bit amateurish when looking at everyone else's stall set ups. We also found that we've put fairly close to another card maker.

I've had nightmares about not selling anything! I was up at 6:35am this morning so managed to make a couple more cards. I've got a lot of photos to post of cards that I have made in the last few days in preparation.

Once this is out of the way, I promise that I will get back to checking out all your blogs again and hopefully participate in a few more challenges too.

Keep your fingers crossed for me and I will let you know how I get on!!

xx :0)

Highs & Lows of Life!

Yesterday afternoon I was on such a high as I found out that I had passed the interview and got my promotion!!! The others that had been interviewed kept coming to ask me if I had got an email which was really starting to make me worry. Turns out the failure emails went out first and the passes went out a few minutes later. They were the longest few minutes of my life!!! I'm really happy as my good friend, Estelle, also got through.

Unfortunately Jon's team, Chelsea, lost in the Champions League final after a dramatic penalty shoot-out which put a dampener on the rest of the evening. Although Reading are my team, I do have a strong liking for Chelsea because of Jon so felt the defeat just as hard. I so wanted them to win it for Frank Lampard who so recently lost his mum. Seeing the big man, JT (John Terry) in tears last night was enough to start me off. I really hope they can pick themselves up from this and rebuild for next year. I also hope the likes of Frank and Drogba stick around too as the Premier League will be a sad place without them.

And they're off!!

Thank you for all the good luck messages for my interview yesterday. I was more nervous waiting for that than I was on my wedding day!

I think it went okay. My mind went blank for the first question and I really don't know if what I said bared any relevance to the question!! It appears that my mate after me also suffered the same fate!! After that I think it picked up okay, but you can never tell for sure with these things. They hope to made their decision by the end of next week.

I had a great afternoon at the races after that, culminating in winning £50 on the final horse for a little £2.50 each way bet!! Between Jon and I we had 6 winners out of 7 races, both picking 3 a piece. Jon was so sweet, he gave me £100 at the start to bet with and I came out with £110 so I ended £10 up on the day, thanks to the final horse!

I was hoping to get back to some card making today, but we've been invited to some friends for a BBQ. I just hope it brightens up a bit more!

Fingers crossed I will be back with more tomorrow!

xx :0)

Down, but not forgotten!

Yep, come 4:45pm last Sunday my worst fears were confirmed; Reading FC were relegated from the Premiership after a 2 year stay. I'm not ashamed to admit that tears were shed at the final whistle! I'm still a bit down about it all now, but I'm still proud of my boys and what they achieved for a small club. Unfortunately there were just not good enough this season and paid the ultimate price.

I will be back there next season to try and lift them to try again. Hopefully Stevie Coppell will be too!!

I've not got any new cards to show just yet. I've been busy preparing for an interview I have on Friday. I'm going for promotion and it's my first interview in 11 years!! It's all changed since I first got the job. It's all competence based now and you have to show how, in your work, you've meet the competencies required!! It really is a case of selling yourself too as you're advised to always say "I", never "We" and you have to answer the questions in a STAR format:

Situation/Task
Action
Result

I've been trying to revise/remember what I put on my application form for each competency. We've been told the the 4 that we will be questioned on.

As my interview is fairly early on (11am), I am taking the rest of the day off and Jon is taking me to the races at Newbury Racecourse as I've never been before!!

Keep your fingers crossed for me!

xx :0)

Unbelievable!

Once again thank you to everyone that has left such kind and thoughtful messages.

I cannot believe the conversation I had with my dad yesterday. After the stress of the weekend worrying that my mum had a heart problem, it would appear that that is incorrect! My dad got my mum down to see her GP to discuss the ECG results from the hospital. After looking at it, she said that it showed exactly the same as the one that was done at the surgery a few weeks before which was given the all clear. Apparently, ECG machines give a verdict on the reading, which in this case showed an irregular heartbeat, but different machines interpret the same results differently. My mum does have additional beats in her heart, but this is caused by the anxiety and hyperventilating that occurs when she panics, but she does not have a heart problem!! It is also the hyperventilating that is causing the dizziness and feeling faint.

How can machines give different readings on the same report?!?! I've been worrying about this all weekend and am really angry by it all, but also relieved that my mum's heart is okay.

Anyway, the latest on my mum is that she is to start attending the hospital for relaxation classes and stress management among other things. She will go Monday to Friday from 10am to 3pm and it is meant to last for 6 weeks. Obviously she is a bit anxious about it all. It's a bit like being a child starting their first day at a new school. But ultimately it's what she needs to do to try and come to terms with what has been happening and find other ways of dealing with her anxiety and stress, and hopefully we will start to see an improvement. It also means that my dad can go back to work and try and regain some normality for himself. He needs space too and some time for him as he has been the primary carer since it began 3 months ago.

I'm hoping to start making some cards soon as I have this fair to get ready for. I've got some stamped images next to me that need water colouring and mounting, and then hopefully everything else will come back to me.

Thank you all for persevering with me and my lack of crafting. You are all truly wonderful people and I won't forget the support and kindness that you have shown me.

xx :0)

Update on Mum

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post but, to be honest, I've not really had a lot to say.

Thank you so much for all the kind words of support you have offered, they are greatly appreciated.

Things with my mum have pretty much stayed the same. My dad has had to be off work all week as he's not been able to leave her, despite the Home Support Team saying that she should be left to fend for herself. How can you leave someone on their own for 7 hours when she keeps coming over faint?

Anyway, things have come to a head a bit over the weekend. My mum collapsed twice in the space of 24 hours. With the help of a neighbour, my dad took my mum to the Out of Hours clinic at the hospital on Saturday morning. After a thorough examination and an ECG, it appears that my mum has a problem with her heart; an irregular heartbeat. This has been exacerbated by the lack of fluids and food she has taken on board, and is partially dehydrated. This is the reason she has been collapsing, or nearly collapsing. The doctor could also not believe the low dose of antidepressant she was on and feels she should be on at least double, but that is down to the HST.

The HST came round yesterday and were talking to my mum about going to the hospital to their therapy rooms, but, apparently she became very argumentative and was adamant that she was not going. Unfortunately this is non-negotiable and I don't envy my dad when they come to take her down on Tuesday.

I still don't feel 100% either from when I was poorly the other week. Something has triggered off my BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo) and it is making me feel even worse. I am unable to sleep or lay on my left side when I have this and any movement to my left can bring on a bout of vertigo.

Thanks again for listening. Hopefully I will have some cards to post really soon.

xx :0)

Feeling Blue.

I've not been feeling very inspired the last few days and not just because I've been feeling poorly.

My poor mum is really ill again. She has taken a real downturn the last few days and, I hate to say it, she looks like an old lady. My dad phoned me in tears this morning as he just doesn't know what else to do. The home support team from the local psychiatric hospital don't seem to what to know anymore. They say they've done their bit and want to sign her off. She's just as bad as she was when they first started. They've messed around with her medication which gave her problems with her heart problems (she was getting extra beats) and not a lot else.

When my dad rang them today, they kept saying that they would ring back but didn't and when they did finally call, all they did was speak to my mum for 15 mins and said they would pop round on Thursday. I'm sorry, but that's just not good enough. She needs to bee seen now. Our surgery can't get involved either as she is still being "treated" by the hospital.

She's not eating much, hardly drinking, not really sleeping and she's lost so much weight. She's so exhausted she doesn't have the strength to do a lot and quite often her legs go from under her and she collapses.

It's breaking my heart to see her like this and even more so to hear my dad so distraught. I really feel for her state of mind and well being. I'm really scared that she won't get back to the way she was. I wish I could turn the clocks back 7 months to my wedding day and have my mum back again because I miss her so much.

I'm sorry this is such a long post.

xx

Where?!

Well, Jon and I are still off suffering! After posting yesterday saying that I was hoping to make some cards, I have to admit that I didn't do a thing. I just couldn't myself up and motivated, despite receiving my new Sugar Nellie's.

My reason for posting is this. I would like to know where you guys get your white cardstock? I would really like some bright white, smooth cs to stamp on, that will also take watercolouring. I'm currently using cs that I got from the Paper Mill ages ago, but it's not pure white and the majority of it is textured.

I've been lucky enough to receive stamped images from you lovely people and the cs used is just what I'm looking for so can somebody point me in the right direction please??!?!

Thank you!!