A Good Weekend!

Hello Everyone

I've just had a lovely weekend - I had my day off work on Friday - Richard was off too, though he went golfing in the morning - left home about 6am! He was home at lunchtime and we went for lunch at a local cafe, before doing the grocery shopping, then collecting the children from school.

Then, on Saturday morning, I went to a Stampin Up Craft Workshop, where we decorated some wooden letters for a Christmas mantlepiece decoration. I love it. When Andrew saw it though he asked "Who's Noel?" - so funny!



We also managed to make a Christmas card - I thought this was a fabulous idea. We made a patchwork of different Christmas papers, then diecut the shape and embossed it, inked around the edges and added the sentiment. I might try this idea on another card, using my own tools.



Then, when I came home, it was such a gorgeous afternoon, we all went for a walk along the river and canal, down to a weir to try to watch the salmon leaping. We did see a couple of salmon attempting it, but they did not manage to get up whilst we were there.

Yesterday, Richard's Dad came for Sunday lunch with us - it was good to see him too.

This week is half term, but I have no idea what we're doing - Eleri is out playing with a friend at the moment. She wants to go swimming sometime in the week. We'll just take each day as it comes I suppose, and the week will fly by!

See you soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Oh Man I Struggle With Men's Cards

Hello Folks

It's my brother's birthday today, and I really struggled with a card for him. I'm not happy with the card I've made to be honest - it looks more like it should be for his son (in fact I did use the same image for his son earlier in the year!) The card turned out OK, but it's just not a man's card!

Here it is



I followed this month's Glitter Fairies sketch challenge.
I'm also entering Do You Stack Up - use scraps (I didn't break into a new piece of card or paper at all for this - amazing!
and St Luke's Charity Cards Challenge which is Let's hear it for the boys.

Must go now as I have to cook tea before going back out to work for a meeting.

See you soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Gift For My Sister

Hello Folks

We're having a bit of a downer week this week - Andrew and Eleri were both sick on Monday evening so I had to keep them off school yesterday. Just typical, yesterday was a day I was supposed to be having training on how to use our new video conferencing facilities - thankfully, Richard's boss is good and allowed him to come home for a couple of hours so that I could go in to work for that (though I don't think he was really too happy about it!). Both children seemed OK this morning, and I was meant to be in the office on my own this afternoon because my colleague had to have the afternoon off for an appointment. But I had a call from the school secretary about 2.30 - Andrew was ill again and could I go to collect him (oh no!). At least I was able to collect Eleri at the same time rather than having to go back at 3.20 for her. But that's put paid to my shopping trip tomorrow as I'll have to keep Andrew off school again. Mind you, I think I'm coming down with a cold today - sore throat, cough that's making my chest sore, runny nose - hopefully I will have fought that off by tomorrow though!

It was my sister's birthday yesterday - the card in my post below was for her. I made some jewellery for her present. A long necklace, a woven bracelet and a stretchy bracelet - all made with labradorite and pearls.







Well, that's it from me - better go make something to eat, and grab myself a honey and lemon drink I think.

Love, Andrea xx

One of My Favourite Images

Hello Everyone

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend. I took Eleri to a show at the local theatre last night - it was a medley of Disney songs by a local musical theatre company. I really enjoyed but I'm not convinced that Eleri enjoyed it so much. But she was very tired - she'd been for her first sleepover with her Rainbows group on Friday night and I wanted her to have a sleep yesterday afternoon. But, despite Mums always knowing what's best, children know better don't they???!! Lol! She would not have a sleep. Eleri wanted to come home during the interval and then, during the second half of the show, she kept asking when the last song would be on. But she says she enjoyed it and I saw her showing the programme to one of her friends this morning.

Well, enough waffle, I wanted to show the latest card I've made.



This is one of my favourite images - Sweet Blossom - which is a digi I bought from Cuddly Buddly earlier this year. I've coloured her with promarkers. The papers are from my stash - from a pile I won in a candy a couple of years ago and I can't remember what they're called. But I love this colour combo.

I followed the sketch for this week's Pollycraft Challenge.
I die cut the image, the mat it's on and the circles for the sentiment with Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle dies, and the flowers were punched using a Woodware punch, so I can enter this week's Fab n Funky Challenge which is Die-Cut or Punches.

I'm also entering:
One Stop Craft Challenge - Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes with the option of adding something punched - for their 4th birthday challenge

Well, that's all for now. I hope to see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

For My Niece

Hello Peoples - well, what a gorgeous day today - mind you, I was extremely hot by the time we'd walked home from school today - I hadn't realised how hot it was!

My niece was 14 yesterday - she'll soon be as tall as me, she is growing up so fast, it is scarey LOL!

As per usual, I was very last minute making her card, so had to end up making a fairly quick and simple card. And I find that the Labels 10 die from Spellbinders is such a nice shape, and if it's embossed, it doesn't need much more to it really. So I made an easel card, using a Miss Anya image.







I would like to enter the following challenges:

Delightful Challenges - Pearls and Swirls - not sure if this card will count - the blue patterned paper does actually have swirls on it, but the image has covered them up - the embossing folder I used for the base card is a swirly flower one (called Hanoverian from Do Crafts I think)
One Stop Craft Challenge - Easel Cards
Truly Scrumptious - Clean and Simple

I also made my niece a jewellery set as her gift - a long necklace, two bracelets and earrings set. I loved it, and I hope my niece likes it too.



I've used white jade and quartz, and added a haematite heart to the clasp on the necklace and on the one bracelet. This photo really doesn't do it justice - I must find a good way of displaying and photographing jewellery.

Eleri says she wants some 'real' jewellery made by me - so I think I'll have to make her something for Christmas.

Well, that's it from me - thank you for calling by - I hope to see you again soon.

Love, Andrea xx

Show and Tell

Hello Everyone - I hope you're having a good week so far - we have had some gorgeous weather the last couple of days, and it is supposed to be good for a few days to come - lovely!

I've finally managed to download photos of the cards I made at the class on Saturday, so here they are:






I think the reflection technique on that last card is fabulous - I must check whether I have any stamps which would suit that technique.

And I've also made some more jewellery. This is a set I've made to go with an orange top I have. A long necklace, bracelet and earrings, made out of grey agate and haematite. Because of the weight of the gems, the necklace does hang straight when it's on, but it looks a bit scrunched when it's not on.



I've decided not to apply for the Advocacy job in our office - I don't meet the essential criteria for qualifications so it's not very likely that I would be shortlisted for interview, and we as a family could not afford to lose money each month anyway - it is a bit disappointing, but I'll soon get over that - better than going to a lot of trouble filling in an application form, and then discovering that I'm not shortlisted! So I'll look forward to working with a new person in the office.

Eleri's complaining of earache again today - I hope there's nothing wrong - I'm keeping a close eye on her at the moment. She says she's definitely not put something in her ear (because she's not been lying down - she's convinced herself that the last bead was on the floor and it popped itself in her ear when she lay on the floor LOL!)

That's all from me. See you soon. I need to make a birthday card for my niece as soon as Holby City has finished LOL!

Love, Andrea xx

Dilemmas in Life!

Hello All and Happy Sunday to you - I hope you're having a good weekend.

Well, I had a lovely morning yesterday - I attended a Christmas Crafting class run by Ruth and we made 4 lovely Christmas cards using Stampin Up products (I've not used those before and I am very impressed!). Hopefully, I can photograph the cards and post them later today. I'm looking forward to attending another class with Ruth next month.

But today I feel fed up again! Cricket season finished yesterday (yay!) so it was the end of season drinking session for my hubby last night - he's gone to work today with a slight headache but otherwise not feeling too bad! Football started on Friday evening and I was told this morning that indoor cricket starts next Thursday, and there's a golf day next Friday that Richard thinks he might try to get his day off this week to go to! As Richard keeps saying to me, I knew he was into his sport when I married him, but we didn't have children or a house and garden that needs a lot of work then, and Richard didn't have to work most weekends then either! And Richard seems to find it easy to ignore the fence that fell down last January and the big gap between us and the neighbours, and the weeds and grass that have grown around the tree branches that he cut down and left in the middle of the lawn in the spring! It just depresses me! And I want to buy some new curtains and blinds for our living room and kitchen, but I don't want it to be just my decision - but when am I going to get Richard to come with me to choose something - I just don't know!

And I have a dilemma at work at the moment. A job has come up in our office, at a higher grade than I'm on. Lots of people are saying I should go for it and, though I'm not as confident in my abilities as they are, I am tempted to have a go for it. The problem is I currently work 24 hours a week, and the job is 18 hours a week so, even though it is a higher salary, it would mean a cut in wages for me for a few years, and I don't know if we can afford to lose up to £140 a month. That might all be academic anyway as an essential qualification is to have a Degree or a professional qualification - I don't have a Degree and I'm not sure if one of my qualifications will count as a professional one - I need to check with our HR Manager on Tuesday.

But now some really happy news! I have realised this morning that I was chosen in the Top 3 for last week's Delightful Challenges with this card - so that's cheered me up some!

Instead of all that waffle, I could probably have just typed a few words today - I feel unsettled!!! LOL!

I'll go and leave you in peace now - better finish loading the washing machine and then get some cleaning and ironing done.

See you soon.

Love, Andrea xx