Getting ready!

Well it is Wednesday today and I am mega excited!  My family is coming up to see us in Sheffield for the first time in simply ages.  My brother's family hasn't been up here for 4 years and my parents for 2.  Needless to say I am getting the house ready, but more to the point I am using it as an excuse to do all those jobs that I have wanted to do for ages.  On that note I now have new curtains up in our study, both in the alcove (hiding the filing cabinet and various storage boxes etc) as shown above.

And in the window behind my desk, replacing the awful patterned ones that were there before.  Doesn't it look so much better!

Here is my desk (not looking quite so neat) as part of WOYWW.  This time has caught me in the midst of Christmas card making so there is a pile of Christmas papers, images, peel offs and stamps on my desk as well as my trusty mug of hot tea and the latest card I have just finished making.

Here is the Christmas card which fits with Kaboodle Doodles 'squares or inchies' challenge, Ooh La La 'Let it snow', Aud sentiments 'Winter theme' and Crazy4Challenges 'Holiday' challenges.

I also made an almost duplicate of the card I made at the weekend, this time including pearls for a friend who has just passed her PhD viva.  I am entering this into Stamptacular 'You choose' and Lets ink it up 'think pink' challenges. That is all from me for now.  Not sure when I will next be able to update...probably after the visitors have gone! In the meantime, have a great week.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny October weekend!

I can't believe how nice the weather has been this weekend after the winds and rain of last week. I hope it is like this next weekend when my family are with us in Sheffield. Alex had a wonderful time yesterday following a treasure map and digging for treasure in the garden. He was most disappointed that he didn't find the treasure box first though!

Today he went to a party where he had the greatest of fun diving into the enormous ball pit and sliding down the very fast tunnel slide.  I enjoyed the opportunity to meet some of the other mum's from school and to put faces to some of the names I have been hearing from Alex.

This afternoon we went to the park with Alex scooting round as batman.  Did Batman ever wear a bicycle helmet? My little batman did!

He also had fun on the slide, climbing frame and climbing his first ever tree. All in all we had a wonderful weekend enjoying the beautiful autumn sunshine.

The girls at Less is More have challenged us this week to make cards based on cocktails. Here is my attempt which uses an inkadinlado swirls stamp (twice) and a Katie and Co 'celebrate' stamp (my only drink stamp!). I coloured the drink in pink to resemble a cocktail I had at University all those years ago (I can't remember what it was called, only the vibrant pink colour!). I added clear glitter glue to the bubbles and circles in the swirl stamp for the final touch.  I am also entering this into Speedy the cat's friends 'seeing double' and SCSC 'white plus one other colour'.

They also introduced us to an on-line site (HERE) where you can find out what your personality is in terms of a cocktail.  Mine was 3 parts understanding, 2 parts beauty, 1 part bravery and a splash of fascination.

Sadly I had to make a sympathy card this weekend as well, as one of my on-line crafting friends died on 7th October. Many of you will have known Kath, also known as Lazy Kay. She was incredibly supportive and generous with her time and talents. Although we never met in person we had a lively e-mail and snail mail correspondence and I will miss her a lot. I am entering this card into Ooh La La 'sympathy',  and Daring cardmakers 'bird' challenges.

Finally I had to make a birthday card for one of Alex's classmates (this mornings party boy). I took this as an opportunity to use up some scraps, so this fits with DYSU challenge. It also fits with PTW 'three different shapes' and Papercutz 'stars, circles or diamonds'. That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone. I will be spending some time getting the house ready for an influx of visitors next weekend so there may not be much crafting going on!
Love,
Caro
x

First parents evening!

We had the first school parents evening today for Alex.  It was basically just to let us know how he is settling in and anything that he is struggling with. Apparently he is very popular and is making friends, always smiling and happy, never mardy, and is a live wire who is very enthusiastic about everything BUT and it is a fairly big BUT...he struggles to sit still and concentrate in class and is always fiddling with something so that his teacher feels like she is constantly on at him.  I am not surprised really, because he is like that at home, so it is something that we are going to have to work at with him. On the plus side he does like doing his reading with me at bed-time and is getting better at concentrating on that.

It is time for WOYWW and you will be pleased to hear that I have my new laptop and have almost finished setting it up...just a few things to sort out, such as printer drivers, and I will be there.  It is such a relief to be working on a responsive machine again and to have everything to hand.  Anyway, I digress!  On my desk you can see a lot of tapestry stamps and ink pads, including a Kaleidacolor Creola Spice ink pad which I was given years ago and is perfect for autumnal colours.  You can also see my trusty mug of lovely warm tea, some scraps of card and the card I am actually working on.

And here is the finished card, which is a one layer card for this weeks Less is More (hearts). This time I drew a heart shape, then stamped the birds and masked over them, before using the tapestry leaf stamps to make up the heart shape for an Autumnal take on the theme. As a result this card is also being entered into Kaboodle Doodles 'Lets see those leaves', Simon says stamp and show 'things with wings', Sew many cards 'colour challenge: burnt orange, yellow and brown' and, Fussy and Fancy 'Fall or halloween'.
That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Busy weekend!

Yesterday, despite the wind and rain, we decided to go out on a family trip to celebrate my birthday.  As we were all tired we decided to go to Magna, which is indoors and not too far away from home.  Unfortunately, my favourite exhibit wasn't working, but the indoors tornado was very cool.

Alex had a great time; spinning wheels, pushing buttons, lifting levers, operating a full size digger arm, blasting us with air cannons and shooting the water pistols.

The best bit however, was probably being a miner, wearing a hard hat and blasting the rocks out, then wheeling them to a grader which he could operate.

Today we went to the harvest service at our local church, which was lovely; 300 people there including Beavers, guides and scouts who joined in with the service.  Alex found sitting in for the whole service quite hard, but did say that he likes church and wants to go back again so I am pleased about that. This afternoon we went to see friends where we did crafting with the kids which was fun.

I can't believe it is a fortnight since our last challenge at Quirky Crafts. This time it is Lyn who has set the challenge of spooky/Halloween or a recipe of black, gold and glitter.  Now, I am not a Halloween fan, but I was given some 'spooky' images to work with and was given a free spooky looking stamp with my last order from Crafty Individuals so decided to combine the two to make this tag.  The bats and poison symbols come from our sponsor, Limited Runs and I coloured the tag using distress inks and promarkers. As this tag does have a Halloween feel I am entering it into Stamp with fun, Tuesday throwdown, and Meljen's, all of which have Halloween as their themes this week.

As usual I had to check out Less is More this weekend. Their new challenge is a one layer card featuring at least one heart.  My first attempt was a disaster so I took inspiration from Mandi's card and cut out a heart to use as a mask and then stamped autumn leaves into the mask and added red gems for berries and a few sakura stardust sparkly highlights (sadly they don't show up in this photo). To me this feels like a pile of leaves, or a hand full of leaves thrown in the air by a child! I am entering this into Simon says stamp 'sparkle and bling', Stampin for the weekend 'Autumn colours', Speedy the cats friends 'no designer papers' and SCSC 'Anything goes plus sparkles'.

Finally, I made a scrapbook layout following this weeks Sketchy Thursday sketch. This features Alex's 4th Birthday trip to The Deep in Hull.   I am entering this into sew many cards 'anything goes' challenge.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone...I am hoping that my new laptop will have arrived and been set up by the time I post next.
Love,
Caro
x

Celebrating!

Well I had to laugh when I looked out of the window on my birthday...despite all the lovely sunshine we have had recently there was a howling gale and torrential rain! No surprises for October really, especially as this is usual birthday weather for me, but  it was a shame. Mind you, I did manage to have lunch outside in the sun the day before so I am not really complaining.

I have had a lovely few days celebrating with a gorgeous bunch of flowers including these orchids, new crafting goodies to play with including a Tim Holtz 'A compendium of curiosities', various Idea-ology embellishments, distress inks, acrylic paint dabbers, crafty individual stamps, charms and some lovely paper chase boxes and files. We have had a yummy take out curry and went to the cinema to see 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' - an excellent movie.

With the new goodies I made this altered printers tray. It is small, at only 6x6 inches, but was my first ever attempt. I loved it so much that I now want a bigger one! I used distress inks, Lavinia, Hero Arts, Tanda and crafty individuals stamps, crafty individuals nature images, Tim Holtz Ideology frame and glass bottle, shells, a conker, a pressed leaf, and a bird cage charm...more detailed photos follow.  I am entering this into the Simon Says Stamp and show challenge for this week, as some of the techniques used were demonstrated by Wendi Vecchi, although I don't own any of her stuff so I hope that this counts. This also fits with the sew many cards challenge to use the colours burnt orange, yellow and brown, all of which can be seen throughout this piece.

I had so much fun incorporating all the different things, playing with inks, paints etc, that I want to get hold of a full size one to alter for our study wall.  I am going to enter this into the Pixie Dust 'Anything but a card',  and crafty creations 'crafty decoration' (this is a wall hanging).

As I used autumnal colours for this and a small conker and real, pressed autumnal coloured leaf I am also entering this into Stampavie's 'autumn', Fussy and Fancy 'fall' and Paper play and stampin' for the weekend 'autumnal colours'.

The largest panel is shades of brown and has real shells, a glass vial full of sand (from Cleethorpes beach!) and so fits with the DYSU 'brown', CCCB '3D' and Delightful challenges 'make it dimensional' challenges.

Parts of this piece also have the same colours as the inspirational photo from this weeks Flourishes Timeless Tuesday challenge and the butterflies (there are 2 of them), mean that it also fits with the Flutterby Wednesdays 'open' challenge.

I apologise for the photos..all will be improved once my new computer arrives on Monday! Have a nice weekend everyone,
Love,
Caro
x

Wednesday!

It is time for another WOYWW, but before I start I just wanted to update you on my laptop.  It is officially dead, but I have rescued all my files from it and a new laptop has been ordered.  Once it is up and running then I will be back to producing better quality photos.  I can't wait as the keyboard on this thing is a nightmare; half the keys don't work first time so I am constantly having to re-type things.  Anyway, I digress...here is my desk as part of this weeks WOYWW...actually this was taken late last night hence the lack of tea as I was on my way to bed. On it you can see my Christmas stamps, a cuttlebug embossing folder, and the plates, various ink pads and card.

Here is a Christmas card I made as part of this weeks Less is More challenge to use your eye colour (in my case blue) as the main colour on your card.  Both picture stamps are from Crafty Individuals. I am also entering this into Crafty cardmakers 'Anything goes' challenge for this week.

This is a black and white Christmas card made using a Cuttlebug embossing folder and two Hobby Art stamps; clean, quick, simple and effective (I hope!). I am entering this into CCC 'black and white Christmas', TioT 'make it minimal' and PTW 'Anything goes' challenges. That is all from me for now. Have a great rest of the week.
Love,
Caro
x

Sunny October weekend!

Well I have to say, along with everyone else, that I simply cannot believe the weather we are having at the moment. The last few days have been boiling hot and we have been back in shorts and T-shirt which makes such a pleasant change.  This has meant that yesterday Alex and I were able to meet up with friends in the park and have a great time charging round.

Alex had so much fun he did not want to come home!

Today Alex and I tried a new church, actually the one that is nearest to us, and it was wonderful!  We both enjoyed it so I think it is safe to say that we will try and make it a regular occurrence. The weather has been slightly cooler again today, but it is safe to say that we enjoyed getting out to Abbeydale Industrial hamlet where they were holding a steam fayre. Alex really enjoyed having a go at the wood turning and going into every building looking at the different machinery, especially the huge water driven bellows which were working

I think his favourite part was being allowed to sit on the traction engine seat.  For me, well I am happy anywhere near steam so I had a great time too!

Crafting wise the Less Is More challenge for this week is 'make the colour of your eyes prominent on your card'. My eyes are blue (ranging from a vibrant bright blue in sunlight to a paler blue indoors) so we have all shades of blue on this card.

My other card is a Christmas card which is scraplifted from Sandi's card as part of this weeks CCCB challenge. It also fits with Ooh La La 'punches and dies' and Meljen's 'squares and circles' challenges.

Finally I have made a scrapbook layout using inspiration from SIWAS challenge of Brian Adams 'Heaven'. The  line I chose was 'Young and wild and free' so the title of my page is 'Bounce wild & Free'. The journalling reads ' Alex had a wonderful time on the bungee trying to bounce as high as birds fly and pretending he was spiderman' hence the images I chose to use on this layout.  This layout also fits with Pixie Dust 'book or movie' (Spiderman), and stamp, scrap and doodle 'Anything but a card'.  Once again my apologies for the quality of the photos...I am hoping that my new computer will arrive this week, but that remains to be seen! Have a good week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x