Christmas Goodies

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a lovely, peaceful Christmas.  We had a lovely time with family, and are now enjoying a quiet few days (playing with our presents!).

I was a very lucky girl at Christmas and received some fab presents, which I thought I would share with you today, although I apologise for the poor quality of the photos.

I got two sets of Dylusions inks as well as these great rubber stamps. These are in readiness for starting Art Journaling which I have been interested in for a while, although I confess to being slightly nervous of doing it wrong.  I have been slowly building up a collection of acrylic paints, stencils and inks, and I think now I am ready to make a start.

I also got a set of star shaped Nestabilities dies that I have wanted for ages, a flourish die from Memory Box and a 2-disc set of Art Journaling DVDs by Kate Crane.  

A much wanted addition to my tool kit from my mum and dad.

The cake stand was a present from the teachers I work with who know that I love to bake cakes.  A very thoughtful and much appreciated present.

As a huge fan of the Great British Bake Off, this book was a lovely surprise.  The recipes look amazing and I can't wait to try some of them out.

The second series of Glee and a Robert Pattison DVD - these will keep me happy for hours!

Not to mention some edible goodies and a bottle of Pimms!

I was indeed a lucky girl.  I also got a couple of calendars and a new charm for my Lovelinks bracelet.  But the present that meant the most was from my children.  We have had a pretty tough year and Mark and I haven't been able to go out together, so the children saved their money and gave us some to have a meal out - just the two of us.  It was so thoughtful of them and unexpected and it made me cry,

So, I hope you are enjoying your presents as much as I am enjoying mine.

Take care

M x

Yippee!

The summer holidays are here!!

Well, it's been a roller coaster of a year but it finally came to an emotional end yesterday. I've had a brilliant two years with this group of children and it was hard saying goodbye and sending them on their way to secondary school. There were tears and hugs, presents and cards and lots of photos. The children and parents gave us some lovely gifts - lots of chocolates, flowers and some very generous Cath Kidston vouchers. I feel very lucky indeed.

And now the pressure is off and the holidays are here, and I've been thinking about setting myself some goals for the six weeks, and a few spring to mind.

1. To make my ME in my MoleskinE Journal from this clever lady here .



2. To enter into a challenge blog as suggested by the lovely Autumn Mist (check out her blog here .



3. To complete my current crochet WIP (more of that later).



4. Making a start on some Christmas cards.



5. Spending more time in general on my card making, trying out all my new products and being a bit more adventurous.



6. Tidying up my craft area and making it work more for me.

That's turned into quite a list - I didn't expect that. And the other thing is to find more time to share things with you.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

M x

And the end of another busy week . . . .

Thank goodness! As we near the end of term, work is just getting more and more frantic. This week I have been making props for our Year 6 production on The Wizard of Oz, backing display boards, mounting work, painting a rainbow and making an Emerald City for the display, not to mention dressing up as a Victorian school teacher. It doesn't look like it's going to ease up anytime soon. I've got a list as long as my arm of jobs to do on Monday. Two more weeks and counting.

I never got round to posting some photos of my birthday presents. This first one is from a friend at work who knows me so well. Unfortunately they have all gone - boy could I have done with some of these yesterday!

Mum and Dad, as well as contributing the lion's share to my laptop, also gave me some more Promarkers to add to my collection. The colours are lovely. I'm going to need a new storage box for them soon, as I can't get the lid on the tin I'm currently keeping them in.

My parents also gave me four packets of Candi, some fancy edge blank cards and a storage box for the Candi - all from Craftwork Cards.

Mark and the children gave me The King's Speech on DVD and a couple of packets of Thorntons chocolates, as well as a contribution to my laptop of course. Can't wait to find the time to watch the film, as it is fantastic (and the chocolates didn't last long!).

Hope you are all having a lovely, relaxing weekend. Ours is very busy - just what I need after an exhausting week, but heigh ho!

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

Stuff I hope everyone had a relaxing Mothers' Day on Sunday. I can't say my weekend was relaxing in the slightest - we had so much to pack in that we were absolutely exhausted by the time Sunday evening came along. Having said that, it was quite a nice weekend, but I am looking forward to this one, which will hopefully be quieter. My children bought me a beauty voucher (Emily's idea, bless her), some Promarkers and a box of chocolates, so I felt very spoilt. I also had a cup of coffee and a biscuit brought to me in bed. This is the card I made for my mum. It's the first time I have had a go at an easel card (don't think it's clear from the photo), and I really enjoyed it, although it took me a long time to get it right. All the materials are from Craftwork Cards - you know I am such a big fan. It was good for me to have a go at something new, as I have been feeling that my card making has been stagnating of late. I have been making the same design, just in different colourways - it's all those 50th and 80th cards I've been making recently, I just went for the easy option. I'm feeling happy with my reading choices at the moment. Fiona Walker has released her new book in paperback and I snapped it up in Tesco on Saturday evening and am a good way through it already. The trouble is that I would rather read it than go to work, so am feeling a bit resentful at the moment - roll on Friday at 2pm when we finish for the Easter Holidays!

I love her books, particularly the ones about horses, eventing etc (even though I'm not horsey at all!!). They are a bit racy and make me laugh - pure escapism.

Well three more days to go. Parents' evening at Edward's school tomorrow - our first one at his secondary school. I've also got to make some chocolate cornflake nest cakes for the children in my class, for Easter, so there's no time to relax just yet!

Enjoy the rest of the week.

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