Birthday Presents

After a hectic weekend celebrating Emily's birthday, I celebrated mine on Monday. I had a lovely day despite having to go to work. I had lots of lovely presents from Mark, the children and family and friends - I felt very spoiled. I made over 70 cupcakes over the weekend to take into work - some for the children in my class and the rest for the staff (I never want to see a cupcake again!!!). But at least they disappeared quickly! The children in my class made a big fuss of me and I really felt the love!

Here are some of the presents I received. My Mum and Dad bought me the Promarkers which I have been keen to try out for some time.

Mark bought me three of these Nestabilities and my parents bought the other. I'm getting quite a collection now and I've even got my Mum interested and she's just bought herself a Cuttlebug.

A couple of new Momiji dolls to add to my collection (from the children).

And some new books. The first two (fromthe children too) are by authors I love, so I'm quite keen to start reading them. The second group are from a friend who knows I love to read and we discussed these books recently. She highly recommends them so I hope I like them. Has anyone else read them? I'd be interested to know your opinion.

I was also lucky enough to get some money, so I've ordered some more Promarkers and will probably get some more wool for my new Granny Squares blanket that has ground to a halt at the moment.

I'm hugely excited about the weekend because I have tickets to see Eclipse - the third in the Twilight Saga. It's not officially released until the 9th, but I managed to get tickets for the preview weekend - I can't wait!

Enjoy the rest of the week and the lovely weather - hope it lasts til the weekend.

M x

Busy Week

Phew! What a week! It's been non-stop this week, both at work and at home.

Work experience . . . District Sports . . . cricket matches . . . rounders matches . . . Emily's birthday . . . Edward's school trip to London . . . etc etc!

This weekend is madness too - we're having a family party tomorrow to celebrate Emily's birthday so I have been shopping and baking and cleaning up a storm today which has been such fun in this heat! I have made 30 cupcakes and 30 mini cupcakes (all still to decorate) to take to work as it's my birthday on Monday. That's one of my jobs tomorrow morning before everyone arrives.

Here is the card I made for Emily's birthday. I used paper by DCWV and some glitter paper for the number 15 - Emily said she wanted it to be colourful! The second card was for her friend from primary school who shares her birthday. Papers are by My Mind's Eye and embellishments are from Craftwork Cards.


Hope you all enjoy the rest of this glorious weekend. I'm looking forward to a fun day tomorrow with family, good food and a well earned glass of Pimms!

Cheers!

M x

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday my daughter celebrated her 15th birthday. Here she is in Pizza Express last night wearing a lovely little hat that was one of her birthday presents - she looks lovely (not that she's agree!!). I'm still coming to terms that I have a 15 year old daughter, I suddenly feel old! And with my own birthday coming up in a few days that just compounds it all the more!

This week she has been on work experience at her old primary school (where I work) and she has really enjoyed it. She is keen to go into teaching and has had some good experience working with the Nursery class and Year 3.

I've not been posting much recently because I have just been feeling so tired in the evenings. Weekends are manic with very little time to chill out. I have got a couple of cards to show you soon when I get a bit more time.

Hope you are all enjoying the gorgeous weather.

Take care.

M x

Progress Report

I've been crocheting away like a mad thing since Saturday. I've managed to make 32 squares (4 of each colour) and then edged them all in cream. I've become obsessed but my hands are aching quite a bit now. I'm really pleased with the results. I couldn't resist laying them on the floor to see what sort of design I fancied. It's quite uniform because I find it really difficult to be random - it just doesn't sit well with me! I haven't decided completely if that is going to be the finished design, but I find it quite pleasing.

I feel a bit happier today - it's Friday, Mark has returned from France (it's been a long week) and I have a new washing machine! I had a night out last night - I went to see Sex and the City 2 which was very good, and very funny at times. I still prefer the series and the first film was better than the second, but still, it was good fun.

If you read one of my earlier posts on my favourite books - a fellow blogger (Autumn Mist - sorry don't know how to do the linky thing - google it!) has joined in and done the same. It's really interesting to read other people's book choices and inspiring as well. Autumn Mist has now taken it a step further and posted some books that were life changing to her - I'm giving this serious consideration and hope to be able to put a list together soon. We'd love to hear about other people's favourite books so please join in if you fancy it - just leave a comment and we'll track you down!!!!!

Bye for now.

M x

New Work In Progress

Hello everyone! How's your week going? Work has been rather busy for me this week, we are on a deadline to finish all our display boards by next Friday and we have rather a lot going on. Then today it would seem that the teacher I work with and myself have been volunteered to do one of the main school boards - that'll teach us for being so creative with our own work!

I'm having a slightly difficult week because Mark is away in France all week (Sunday morning through to Friday) and I hate it when he goes away. Things always seem to go wrong when he's not here. It hasn't been too bad - apart from suspected credit card fraud and a truculent almost 15 year old (who will apparently return to normal in the next few years - we can but hope!!). Bit worried about my cat Sophie who doesn't seem to be herself. She is over 17 so I know we probably won't have her for too much longer, but she is worrying me. She wedged herself behind the washing machine last night, poor old thing.

Anyway, here's a little sneaky peek at a new project that I started on Saturday, along with my cute new bag from Paperchase ( I LOVE that shop!!).



I've been wanting to make some Granny Squares for ages but didn't want to buy anymore yarn, so I thought I would use up the Rowan Cashsoft that has been sitting in my basket since I made the flower corsages at Christmas. I chose the stronger, darker colours and kept all the squares to just one colour.

Of course I did have to buy a couple of other colours, the Navy and Forest Green of the top squares in the photo. I'm going to edge it all in cream.

The finished article is going to be a snuggle blanket for me for when I am feeling poorly or just need to feel cosy (and I probably won't share it with anyone else!!!!)

Hoping there will be more to show in a couple of days - it's all SO exciting!!

M x

Happy Birthday Katie!

My friend Katie is celebrating her 40th birthday today, she's the baby of our group. The card I made for her uses Craftwork Card products. I hope she likes it. Have a great day Katie!

It's going to be a long week this week - back to work tomorrow and Mark has gone to France for the week on business. I hate it when he goes away, stuff always seems to go wrong when he's not around and then I feel helpless (not good for my self esteem!). Anyway, fingers crossed for me please!

Take care.

M x

Handbags

Here is my latest offering - handbag cards. The basic cards are from Craftwork Cards and the papers are from various DCWV paper stacks.

I used to make a lot of handbag cards and had quite a few special commissions for them over the years because I would personalise them. I haven't made any for a couple of years now until I came across the left over card blanks this week. My daughter needed a card for her friend's 15th birthday, so I made the pink one below, then I just got carried away (and more are works in progress as I type). Emily changed her mind when she saw the butterfly one and has given that to Alice instead - hope she likes it!

My favourite one is the blue and cream one - I think it looks really classy.

Have a good day.

M x

Having trouble with Blogger today - really infuriating. I uploaded these photos yesterday and have just typed all my comments about them, and can I get the post to publish, I cannot. I can't work out why it won't - heigh ho, just going to have to do it again - grrrrrrr!

I used Basic Grey papers for this first card, from the Boxer range. It's a retirement card, made as a special commission. Don't know the recipient which always makes it tricky, especially if it's a man, but my client was pleased with it.

The second card was Edward's birthday card - designed by my husband and assembled by myself. Edward was thrilled - cricket is is passion and we had bought him a Kookaburra bat for his birthday.

The final card today was made as an anniversary card - in fact I made two. The oval design and the red Card Candy are from Craftwork Cards and I cut the scalloped oval using the Cuttlebug.

Hope you like them. More tomorrow.

Had to wait in all day yesterday for the washing machine repair man (it broke down on Saturday). Sadly he wrote the machine off as the repair was going to cost over £500! It's going to take at least two weeks before I get another machine - how will we cope??!! My friend and neighbour has washed three loads for me and my parents came to collect a further five loads last night. I fear it's going to be a very long two weeks.

I'd planned to dedicate the whole day yesterday to card making, but it turned out to be quite stressy in the end - let's hope today is an improvement!

Have a good day. Toodlepip!

M x

Ta-dah!

After many weeks of decorating and unpacking boxes, I finally had my ta-dah moment to my family and friends on Sunday for Edward's birthday party. The house (well downstairs!) has never looked so tidy and probably never will again! I'm so proud of it and Mark for all his hard work.

(Note craft shelves in the corner!).

Obviously it wouldn't be a party with a couple of dozen cupcakes - chocolate at Edward's request and Emily chose the mauve colour for the vanilla flavoured ones.

My mum made Edward's birthday cake - the only thing he stipulated was that it had to be chocolate! It's the biggest chocolate cake I've ever seen! It's got Smarties and mini marshmallows around the bottom - yum!

Here's the boy opening his last couple of presents - money from his Godmother and cricket stumps from Grandma. One very happy 11 year old!

And finally - again at Edward's request - the chocolate fountain. It's a lot of fuss for melted chocolate, but the children enjoyed it. Even better, Mark cleaned it afterwards instead of me (it's a bit of a pig to do - result!!).

A happy day!

Enjoy your Wednesday. Take care.

M x

Favourite Books

I've been pondering today about making a list of my top ten books of all time and have decided that it is an impossible task! I've been an avid since I was a child - always a book in hand, often reading til the early hours - how can I possibly narrow it down to just 10 books? I have favourite books to suit my mood, old favourites that bring me comfort or a bit of nostalgia, some that just make me laugh out loud, some that are pure escapism and some that make me cry. Here are just a selection of books, or just authors that have given me pleasure over the years (in no particular order).

1. The Chalet School series by Elinor M Brent Dyer. I started reading this school series when I was about 11 and was really enchanted with the setting - the Austrian Tirol. I managed to buy about 30 books in the series with no idea really of how many were still left to get. I revisited these books about 8 or 9 years ago and discovered that there were 62 (!!) in the whole set - wow. I now own all 62 and have had lots of pleasure reading the whole series from start to finish. I dream of passing them on to my daughter but sadly she has absolutely no interest in them!


2. As a child I was a fan of all things Enid Blyton. I absolutely loved the Famous Five and the Secret Seven, as well as Mallory Towers and St Clares. The Faraway Tree books were also enjoyed, plus various mystery and adventure stories.


3. I really enjoy "Chick-Lit" - it's pure escapism. Anything by Fiona Walker, Jill Mansell, Jane Green, Freya North, Elizabeth Noble, Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes et al.


4. Anyone who knows me, knows I am obsessed with the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer. I try to convert everyone I can! You are either Team Edward or Team Jacob and I am firmly Team Edward - read them and decide for yourself.


5. I've always been a Jane Austen fan - even before Colin Firth came out of the pond in his white shirt! My favourite is of course Pride and Prejudice, but I love Emma too, as well as Sense and Sensibility.


6. Some recent books that I have enjoyed immensely (if that's the right word) - The Kite Runner, The Time Traveller's Wife, My Daughter's Keeper, The Lovely Bones, Sacred Hearts, Star of the Sea and Wedlock.


7. One of my all time favourites - Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I first read this when I was 12 and devoured it in just 4 days. I love reading about that time in history and who can help falling in love with Rhett Butler!


8. The Harry Potter series - I adore these books and frequently read them. I cried at the end of The Half-Blood Prince and was on the edge of my seat during The Deathly Hallows, desperate not to be let down by the ending (which I wasn't!).


9. Watership Down - always makes me cry. Those rabbits really got to me!


10. And finally - anything that is recommend to me. My son often suggests I read some of his books - which I do. I really enjoyed the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz. I have recently read Holes by Louis Sachar at Edward's instigation and will probably read the Percy Jackson books after reading some to Edward in the bath the other night.

I'd love to hear about other people's favourite books - let me know what you think.

M x