Christmas Money Wallets

Well, it's been a while.  Things have been rather hectic to say the least, but I bet everyone else is in the same position.  I am pleased to say that I have pretty much finished my Christmas shopping and most things have been wrapped too.  Today I have been writing Christmas cards, as well as making a couple more.  I have a couple of parcels to post and that is pretty much that.  The next job is to plan the food - haven't really given it much thought yet, except that I have made a Christmas cake.  I used the Waitrose Delia Smith cake in a box and am really pleased with how it has turned out.  Much less hassle than buying all the dried fruit that will sit in the cupboard for ever more.

I am giving my nephew and niece money for Christmas and I wanted to make them something nice to put the money in, hence the money wallets below.  I used a landscape folded card and decorated the front with papers that were free gifts, used matching embellishments for the envelopes.  Then I cut a semi-circle freehand inside to hold the money.  (Just got to find the cash now!!).

I have started a new crochet blanket for Edward - colours chosen by him - which I hope to share with you this week if I have time.  We are now in the final push at work - just got to get through Christmas parties tomorrow, panto at Stevenage on Tuesday, Christmas lunch and staff panto on Wednesday, Christingle on Thursday and then we break up on Friday - if I last that long!!

Ta ta and have a good week.  Thanks for dropping by.

M x

Birthday Week

Another week, another birthday, this time mine. I reached the grand old age of 43 on Tuesday. My birthday was like the Curate's Egg, good in parts. All my family had clubbed together to get me a new laptop as my other one had died, and I have had it for about a month, so I didn't expect anything else. So it was a lovely surprise to get some little gifts from Mark and the children, and a bagful of crafting goodies from my parents (more of that in a later post - I haven't had time to take any photos yet).

At work my fellow teaching assistants surprised me with a voucher for a beauty salon and I am planning on having a much needed shoulder and neck massage, and maybe a pedicure. The two teachers I work very closely with were the only staff members in the whole school to forget my birthday, so that put a damper on the day - made me feel under appreciated - apparently it was too much trouble to even wish me a happy birthday. Anyway . . .

Mark and I had a lovely meal out at Prezzo, they do a divine chicken ravioli, and the gin and tonics went down really well!

I did make rather a lot of cupcakes to take to work - 3 dozen for the staff and 30 smaller ones for the children in my class, and like an idiot I forgot to take any photos. Which is a shame because I bought some really handy cardboard cupcake carriers and they looked so professional, they would make a great gift. Needless to say all the cakes disappeared in record time - my headteacher confessed to having three!

I had to make a 50th birthday card today to go in the post tomorrow. No time at all to think of a new design, so I went for the tried and tested one that I have made so many of this year.

The papers are called Sugar and Spice and are from the Dovecraft range. They are really pretty and were perfect for this card. I popped into The Range this afternoon and saw that they do embellishments and rub-ons to match (no I didn't buy any!).

I'm looking forward to finishing school in three weeks. I am starting to get some ideas together of things I want to achieve during the summer holidays. There will be more of that later. At the moment I just need to get through the next few weeks, because at the moment I feel like I'm pedalling backwards!

Have a good week.

M x

Busy Week

Well, I hope you are all coping with the heat. It's a bit of a shocker after all the rain this week, but it's so lovely to finally have a bit of summer.

It's been quite a busy week and I haven't achieved much in the card making department. The only cards I have made were for Thursday. The first was for a friend's daughter who was sixteen. I used the Craftwork Cards range of Fruit Scoop. It's quite bright, so am definitely adopting the "less is more" approach.

The second card was for my daughter Emily who also turned sixteen on Thursday. I can't believe where the time has gone, it just doesn't seem possible. She's a massive Mighty Boosh fan hence the pictures. She really loved it.

So the week was spent getting ready for her birthday, preparing for the family party yesterday, taking the dog for her training etc etc. Work has been a bit rubbish again, roll on the end of term.

Today I have been making lots and lots of cupcakes to take to work on Tuesday for my birthday. I always make life more difficult for myself by making some for my class as well as the staff, but they do appreciate it, so it makes it worthwhile.

I have realised that this is my 200th post and am thinking of having a little giveaway (if I can work out how to do it on blogger - any help greatly received). I will have a little think about what I can do.

Hope you all have a really good week.

Take care

M x

P.S. Started a new crochet project even though I have a couple still on the go, just couldn't resist! Watch out for some photos soon :)

P.P.S Booked my Harry Potter cinema tickets for Friday 15th July - can hardly contain my excitement :)

Once upon a time . . .

Last week at school was Once Upon a Time week, to coincide with World Book Day. Obviously no themed week would be complete without a dressing up day, and as a member of staff, it's pretty much obligatory to dress up too. Not my favourite thing.

I wracked my brain over half term to think of something that would feel comfortable to wear all day and also something that I wouldn't feel like a fool in! I had a brainwave and decided to come as Cinderella before she got made over by her Fairy Godmother! So I made myself a skirt with a ragged bottom, an apron and a headscarf, then raided my wardrobe for a peasanty type blouse - job done! No photos though I'm afraid - couldn't possibly share that delight with you!!

I spent a good part of the week creating this little masterpiece below, with 29 children as my helpers (not all in one go I might add!). We ended the week with a tea party and the cake was piece de resistance!

It was quite adventurous to make, certainly with the children all having a go. Some helped with baking the sponges, some helped with the construction, others helped make the roof tiles (coloured white chocolate would you believe!), while another group did the icing and the final group added the decoration. It was exhausting for me, but also good fun. I've never tackled anything like this before, but I was thrilled with how it turned out (and it tasted delicious too).

The one thing that worried me was when one of the turrets started to lean away from the cake,but a quick bit of thinking and a clean knitting needle soon fixed that!

And they all lived happily ever after. The End!

M x

Weekend Roundup

Well, I don't know about you but I am glad that January is nearly over. It's been such a long, tedious month - cold, miserable and no money! Pay day tomorrow - hurrah!

Having said that, I have had quite a nice weekend for a change, and productive too.

Perhaps it helped having two nights out - such a rare thing to have a social life! I really enjoyed going to see The King's Speech on Thursday, one of the best films I have seen for ages. Colin Firth really deserves all the awards he gets for it, and Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush were amazing too.

Had another great night out at a friend's house on Friday - 6 women in their 40s, good food, lots of fizz and loads of laughs. Didn't get home till gone 1am and should have been really hungover on Saturday but wasn't. We drank champagne with a raspberry liqueur (Chambord) all night - heavenly!

Am feeling rather virtuous at the moment because we have planned and shopped for the whole week's meals. Usually we have no idea what to have and it ends up with Mark going to Tesco every night and cooking three separate meals (very fussy kids - Edward more so than Emily). But yesterday we planned the menu together with loads of input from the kids and then did a Tesco online shop which came today. So hopefully it will be less stressful and less expensive now we have a plan. Alsace roast chicken, new potatoes and mangetouts for dinner tonight - sounds yummy!

Have manged to make three cards this weekend. The first one is actually the biggest card I have ever made - it's 8" square. A bit daunting at first, but I think it turned out OK. The card is for a friend at work for quite a few of us to sign, hence the size. The paper is by We R Memory Keepers and I cut the numbers from DCWV cardstock and decorated them with glitter glue and tiny Prima flowers.

This second card is for another colleague, just from me, so usual size 14.5cm square. I think the papers are My Mind's Eye and I used Martha Stewart glitter - peridot. It's the first time I have used my new scallop punch that I got for Christmas. I'm really pleased with the design - as you will see, I am using it a lot!!

And another significant birthday!! Same design as before - no idea who the paper is by, and I think the glitter is fire opal.

Have even had some time this weekend to do more baking for the children's lunchboxes - Brownies this time. I used the recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery book. They taste nice but were really tricky to get out of the tin - stuck to the greased proof paper. I wasn't impressed!

Anyway that's me finished for now. If I don't see you before, hope you all have a fab week.

M x

Starting as I mean to go on . . .

I hope everyone had a lovely start to the new year. Ours was very quiet as Emily went to a party on New Year's Eve and one of us had to be her chauffeur - the joys of having a teenager!

Yesterday was spent with my parents planning Mark's 50th birthday soiree which is on Saturday (actual birthday on Friday) - just an intimate little gathering at our house, of family and very close friends. (Note to self - must make birthday card!!!).

I wanted to share with you the Christmas card I made for my parents The paper is by Craftwork Cards (as is the design actually). I like the funky, contemporary colours. Expect to see more of this soon as I plan on making my Christmas cards for this year very soon. I know it sounds mad, but it really took the pressure off in November and December.

I did a little baking recently and made some chocolate whoopie pies - wow they were such a success, particularly with Edward, that I know I will be making them often. I have decided to do much more baking this year so that the children have some homemade goodies in their lunchboxes instead of shop bought.

Well that's all for now. Off to try and get child number one out of her pit (it's only 12.40pm!). Hope you like the new look of my blog, may tweak it a little bit yet.

TTFN

M x