Happy, happy, happy

Tonight we have had some excellent news. Our son now has a place at our preferred choice of secondary school, through the Continued Interest list, which means no Appeal. We were quite literally jumping for joy and then I promptly burst in to tears! It's been a very difficult three weeks and now I feel like a weight has been lifted from our shoulders.

Not much going on in the crafting department at the mo. We are in the middle of decorating so we're in a state of chaos which is likely to remain over the Easter hols. I haven't even had a chance to play with the goodies that I bought at Stamperama nearly a month ago. Definitely getting withdrawal symptoms.

I did pick up my hexagonal blanket this week, but have only managed three hexagons. Maybe now my mood is lighter, I will feel like doing a bit more.

My main problem - maybe some of you guys are the same - I spend to long blog hopping and not enough time crafting! It's such a dilemna - which addiction to give in to!!!

Have fun!

M x

Mother's Day (Part 3)

Final installment today. I've been a bit of a busy bunny and made quite a lot of cupcakes. The chocolate ones are for home but the others are for work as I feel everyone needs a bit of cheering up.

It's been quite a busy day today and I've been awake since 6.30am so am feeling a bit pooped now. Mark is busy cooking us steak for our dinner which I am looking forward to. I've had a nice day - not as restful as I would have liked, but that's life isn't it!

Have fun!

M x

Mother's Day (Part 2)

It's a funny Mother's Day for me today with one of my children out of the country. I can't remember if I said that Emily is on an Italian Exchange and comes home tomorrow. She phoned me this morning which is the first time I have actually spoken to her in nearly a week (Facebook chat just isn't the same!). To be honest, it made my day!

She did give me a lovely card and the Gavin and Stacey DVD Complete Set as well as half a dozen Cadbury's Creme Eggs (I might even save one for her!!).

Edward gave me a lovely card that he had bought, plus a beuatiful one that he had made at school. From him, I got the DVD of The Time Traveller's Wife and he painted me a beautiful plate - it really is lovely, he did such a good job.

I saw my parents yesterday for an early Mother's Day. They are going to my sister's house today. They bought me a few gifts - lucky me!

I love this apple flavoured liquorice from Lakelands - the only problem is so does Edward!!

They also bought me this Tala icing set that I have wanted for ages. It was supposed to be for my birthday in June, but my lovely Mum couldn't wait!

Got to go now, but I am planning a Part 3, so don't go anywhere!!

M x

Mother's Day (Part 1)

This is the card I made for my Mum. I used a piece of paper from a new pad that I bought at Stamperama (can't remember the name - sorry!). I covered the letters with more of the Martha Stewart glitter - the colour is called Kunzite, although the photo doesn't do it justice.

I bought my Mum two silver charms for her Lovelinks charm bracelet. She was thrilled.

Have a great day. More from me later.

M x

Well, there's no going back now . . .

We've started decorating our lounge and it's going to be a BIG job! Our lounge and dining room are one big room separated by a fireplace in the middle. The fireplace has an enormous hearth that juts out at least two feet - it takes up a lot of space. Or I should say - it did.

Here's the picture before.

And this is what we've done to it so far. It wasn't as big a job as Mark feared. He thought it would be solid concrete under the tiles, but it turned out to be cement and a lot of rubble! Of course he had a little helper in the shape of Edward who really enjoyed hitting the concrete with his own hammer - he was actually quite helpful.

The hardest part was taking the final layer of cement off - lots of drilling and banging (bit noisy whilst I was trying to make cards!!), but it didn't take too long to get rid of it.

On Wednesday Mark put down some levelling compound to bring the hearth area up to the depth of the rest of the floor. I did mention that Sophie our 17 year old cat was likely to walk across it whilst it was wet, an idea that Mark pooh poohed. Well guess who was right! Yes we now have a rather delicate set of paw prints set in the concrete now!

The plan for the rest of the decorating is to cover up the chimney breast and fireplace, lay a wood floor (Easter holidays oh joy!) and to paint the walls and freshen up the skirting boards and door frames. I'm not good with decorating - low boredom threshold, and a bit slapdash if the truth be told. Luckily Mark has booked some holiday - perhaps I shall just keep him supplied with tea and food.

And look what came today!! Brand new sofas - hurrah. Our old ones had seen better days, the leather was worn and tatty and permanently covered by a throw because I was so ashamed of the state they were in. I'm so happy! I know we really should have decorated first, but we had to seize the moment. We decided to have black ones so that we can change the colour scheme of the room if we want to and they will still match.

So, I'm going to be very busy packing all my books and CDs and ALL my craft things into boxes, not to mention glasses and best crockery. It's going to be a nightmare clearing the room - I have a lot of clutter (much to Mark's annoyance) so there are going to be quite a lot of boxes!

I'll keep you posted on the progress. Wish me luck!!

M x

Special Commissions

These two cards were commissioned by a friend of mine. The first one was made using DCWV papers. I cut the two scalloped circles with my new Nestabilities. The number 3 is a chipboard number painted with a Denim coloured Dabber.

For this card I used papers that I have had for a while (can't remember what they are - general boy theme), and cut the number 6 using chipboard numbers (Craftwork Cards again!), and Card Candy (yes, you've guessed it - Craftwork Cards!!).

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was good in parts. My daughter came back from three days in Berlin on a Year 10 History trip at 11pm on Saturday, and I spent all day yesterday washing, ironing and repacking so that she could go off at 8am on an Italian exchange. Actually it's exhausting just writing about it! She woke up on a high and then nosedived as the day continued and ended up being very grumpy and uncooperative. Anyway, a week's respite until she returns! I love her dearly, but oh my goodness!

The pressure is off for a while at least - it has been somewhat manic here recently. Both Mark and I are utterly exhausted. Although now we have to tackle our next "project" which is to lodge an appeal to the School Admissions department, as we found out last week that Edward didn't get into our preferred Secondary School. That really contributed to my low mood last week. Edward, bless him, took it on the chin and has been quite philosophical about it.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

M x

Retail Therapy

If in doubt, shop!! Here are the goodies that I bought at the Stamperama show in Stevenage last weekend. Spent far too much, particularly on the Craftwork Cards stall, but it made me feel So much better!!

These stamps are from Stamp Addicts (the flourish was a free gift - I like those!!).

Been meaning to try some Glossy Accents for ages.

Glitter glue - I use a lot of the Stardust but couldn't resist the baby blue and pink.

Nestabilities - never used these before - hopefully they will be successful.

Craftwork Cards goodies - bought these chipboard shapes mainly for the cute elephants. Will use them as templates.

Assorted bits and bobs - flowers, elegant rectangles and templates.

Paper packs and die cut embellishments.

All spent up, but all these goodies will keep me out of mischief for while.

M x

Cards

Thanks so much for the supportive comments after yesterday's post. I am feeling much more on top of things today. I've actually had a lovely day - watched some TV whilst Edward was at football, caught up with friends and made some cards. Mark has started on our grand decoration plan for the living room - he has dismantled our hearth, in readiness for the new flooring that will hopefully go down during the Easter holidays. Will post some photos of this later.

Anyway here are the cards I made a couple of weeks ago. The first two are general birthday cards using stamps and card from Craftwork Cards. The third card was for our Goddaughter's 21st birthday last week. I used paper by Die Cuts With a View and my new Martha Stewart glitter. Hope you like them.

Our school had a dressing up day for World Book Day on Thursday - the theme was "It's Magic". Edward has never been that keen on dressing up so I had assumed since hadn't mentioned it, that he wasn't bothered. Until Monday night when he said he thought I would have sorted something out for him!!!! So off to town on Tuesday after school to buy fabric (as well as buying currency for Emily's trips to Berlin and her Italian exchange - more of that later). I spent the whole evening until 9.45 hunched over my sewing machine - boy were my shoulders aching after that, but it was worth it. Edward was thrilled when he saw them the next morning.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. More from me soon.

M x

First let me say . . .

I'm really sorry for not being around at all during the last couple of weeks. Things have been hectic and difficult in the Frecklepuss household recently, and I have felt that everything was getting on top of me. I have not felt like I have been able to keep all the balls in the air and I even had a bit of a melt-down at work! My crafting mojo has almost disappeared and my poor hexagonal blanket has been abandoned. I didn't even have the energy to open the computer and comment on other people's blogs. But I am feeling my mood lifting and hopefully I will get back to normal (whatever that is) quickly.

I'm planning to post a few photos over the weekend - cards I have made before all the drama of the last two weeks, lovely goodies I have bought recently and even a set of snazzy wizard's robes I had to make a short notice for World Book Day yesterday!

Ta ta for now!

M x