A BLOG AWARD AND SOME MORE CRAFTING

Ooh I've received a lovely blog award from the fabulous Susie

 I haven't received one of these in absolutely ages so it was a lovely present surprise when I got home

The rules are to tell you 8 things about myself and pass the award on to 4 bloggers 

1. I have a fierce temper but a long fuse 
2. I write my Christmas lists in shorthand so OH can't read them and then struggle to read them back myself.
3. I like to make Christmas cards in January - it's stress free and great fun
4. I'm not sure that I like my current hair style primarily because I think it looks a little like "lego" hair (you know the ones on the lego characters LOL - although mines not removable)
5. I'm re-reading the last Harry Potter book having watched the last film because I can't remember the ending 
6. I've dragged out my glider to get fit on and my 10 year old has spent longer on it up to now than me LMAO! 
7. If I write a to do list I have to finish it regardless of the time or how much damage I do to my back - so I have to be ultra careful when I write them now!
8. I have atrocious eye sight and everything is blurry when I'm not wearing glasses!  So much so that my Mum claimed once in church that she couldn't read the numbers on the hymn board and I took my glasses off and said I couldn't see the hymn board! 

 

Right now I need to pass the award on so here goes

Fi

 

Carmen 

Sandra

Jude

So hop on over and have a look

Now on with the crafting

This 12 x 12 documents the gorgeous carved monument at the top of Robin's Hood Bay which was part of a treasure hunt that we did, which was placed there in the year 2000 hence the title.

I'm so loving time to do layouts at the minute, its a joy to spend evenings doing this although I'm starting to need to turn to paint as I am following the Union Jack layout I did the other night - I'd forgotten how much fun getting messy with paint actually is!

A busy day ahead with a busy and lengthy to do list so I'll leave you for now, hope you're all having a grand weekend.  If you pop by leave a comment I love to here from you.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY!

Good morning Rockers and Rockettes - tis that time of the week when we take a breath, followed by a large step back and summarise the positives and gratefuls of the week!  This is the first "Rocking" post of 2011 so eyes down starter for ten no conferring

Extra days off before starting back to work - means I've got a two day week which I can sooooooooooooo cope with honestly!

Warm milky coffees and cups of tea - being perpetually drunk as the evenings extend into these lengthy hours that I'm simply not used to!

Little man having a great school trip out to the theatre and arriving back safely!

Catching up with cousins and Aunts even if only for ten minutes tonight was lovely!

My amazing sister who is starting 2011 with a very positive proactive outlook - I'm liking the new Melanie!

Having a teetotal week - it's been great and meant loads of crafting which I'm liking.

New Year pledges - awesome stuff, we as a family have taken to sitting and reading in our bedroom for half an hour a night, little man reads a page to us and then we all sit and read in silence for the remaining time, in essence it was to encourage little man's reading but if I'm honest it is simply bliss for all of us just to have some quiet time away from square noise box that sits in the corner of the room!  

So there you go my list of gratefuls for this week.  

And not to leave out a little bit of crafting and let's be honest you've been well and truly spoilt this week LOL another double page layout and a little bit of upcycling in that the ribbons came off the Christmas crackers - it was a lovely layout to do - really enjoyed it.

and the leftovers as I said in previous posts I'm trying to use the off cuts up as I go rather than waiting until I do a batch of cards - trying to make some of them more masculine so that I've got some male cards in stock!

So there you go another Rocking Your World done - if you join in put a link in the comments, I've previously used Mr Linky but when you go back over the months they disappear off the page so I'm not able to go back and look at your lovely postings so going to ask you to put your link in the comments - OK officially waffling now! If you're not joining in but want to say hi just leave a comment - I love hearing from you all!

SSH DON'T TELL ANYONE - I KNOW 2 POSTS IN 2 DAYS ....

Good morning bloggers how are you all this morning?  It's still dark outside and I'm sat all ready for work, another half an hour before we have to venture out to school, first day back at work - going to feel mighty weird after almost three weeks off me thinks.

DH went to start the car this morning and spent an absolute age trying to get her to work but to no avail - then we both had the same thought as we are picking a new car up (new car to us that is not new as it were) later on - is he insured to drive the old one?  Mmmm maybe a bit of divine intervention or what?

Anyway, these new longer evenings are so long................... they're great, getting loads of crafting done, at this rate I may get to a point (eventually that is) where I run out of photos to scrap - but that is still a long way off.

Feeling a bit better this morning, still not a hundred percent but definitely getting there and only a two day week this week - yay!!!!!!

So on with the crafting which is the reason you came for a look isn't it!

Last night's layout 

 This is a really vibrant layout which sort of fits the photos.  Taken at Chatsworth country show this 'stall' was basically a large swimming pool full of inflated balls - little man had great fun in it - which is a good thing given that this little amusement was about £6 for 5 minutes!  

I did the 'film' strip using my bind it all to create the edge of the strip primarily because I liked all three photos and there was something of a family debate as to which one to use, ended up I managed to use all three albeit that I cut two of them down!  I also hand cut the bracket and used my circle cutter to cut all the circles!  

In an effort to be less 'wasteful' when it comes to projects like this, I've taken to converting the 'leftover' papers into cards - now these papers had to be converted into bright birthday cards (rather than Christmas cards - another story that I'll tell another day) so this morning my evenings crafting looks a little like this.  Don't get me wrong I don't normally throw away the leftovers, they go in a 12 x 12 plastic wallet where I always promise myself that I will use them up at some point - but let's be honest, sometimes this just doesn't happen, so by converting them immediately it means my intention turns into reality!

I've already got a few more papers and photos ready for later, so watch this space.

My weight watcher pack has still not arrived and we still seem to be eating up the rubbish that's left from Christmas, can't wait to get started properly now.

Finally I'll leave you with another Christmas gift, this started out as a pack of party bags and a sheet of wrapping paper from Paperchase - now I know I could have simply bought a Paperchase book in the range, but where would the fun be in that?  So I cut off the handles, cut some cardstock down and rounded the corners, had hubby cut me some chipboard covers which I covered in paper and bound it all together with book rings and then presented it to my niece at Christmas!

Inside looked like this

and this

 

So how's your week this week?  How's the crafting going and the New Year resolutions and pledges, how's your blank canvas doing?

See you tomorrow for Rocking your World Friday! 

LIFE RESUMING NORMALITY?

Good morning one and all - my last day off before returning to work and I've woken not feeling a hundred percent, running a temperature during the night - thinks I must have picked up a bug!  Drat!  Not how I wanted to spend my last day off, so I'm drinking copious amounts of tea and avoiding food like the plague (most unlike me).

The last of the Christmas decorations are down and although the house now looks clean and tidy it also looks just a little bit bare!  I really miss the lights on the stairs when we take them down.

I was amazed and so pleased that everyone "got" the blank canvas feel to my last post.  I have an Aunty that I rarely see these days who used to get into the new year and have something happen or occur and then simply write the year off - stating it was going to be another one of those.  I always feel it's really sad to do that, life can be difficult as I stated but there's no need to decide that the entire year will be awful just because of a single issue!

So how's life this new year for you?  

For me I haven't made any new year resolutions - why?  Because I've made pledges!  The word resolutions makes it sound like something you have to do not something you want or choose to do and for me this has signalled quite a big change, why would we want to make ourselves do something that we don't want when we can pledge to make changes that we do!  Are you following me or have I lost you?  

This year I have made quite a few pledges to make changes, the first of these is to be teetotal in 2011, I've done spells of about six months at a time when I don't drink at all and they've always been so fruitful and positive that I've decided to make 2011 a teetotal year.  I sometimes feel that life races along so quickly that I struggle to keep up so I'm wanting to be completely awake and aware of every moment so I can feel that I'm living it and so I decided to stop drinking, primarily this is to stop me falling asleep on the sofa at nine o'clock which is the norm if I have a glass of wine LOL.  I'll keep you posted as to how I'm doing.

I'm also re-joining Weight Watchers but doing it from home I often find the meetings evolve around a long list of things we can't eat rather than focusing on the positives - again I'll keep you posted - I'm still waiting for the pack to arrive to get my head around their new system - should prove interesting.  

In these new longer evenings I've been enjoying, I've also managed to do a few layouts - I know step back in amazement so I thought I'd share a bit of crafting for a change.

This is one that I finished last night - part of a double layout 

the second page looks like this

it documents the Red Arrows at Chatsworth's country fair - they were simply spectacular, I decided to imitate the Union Jack flag, did a bit of a painty base and then hand tore the design for the top!  It's a real onslaught on the senses because it's so busy - but I think it captures the essence of the acrobatics on the day!

I thought I'd leave you with a few more homemade Christmas gifts that little man made, the first is for Aunty Melanie who is a momiji doll fan - when he did the outline initially I was somewhat distraught as he said it looked like Shrek LOL however, that changed once he'd add the detail! 

 The second one was for my Mum - can you guess who she works for?

 And the last one is for his Grandma!

They all went down a treat and were really good fun to make, I'm really impressed that they've now brought out new porcelain paints that you don't need to heat up in your oven for them to set as the aroma that comes off

the oven isn't always that great!  However, we have loads of the 'old' sort left so for now we'll continue using up!

So if you meander along to have a read and you get to this point - post a comment or send me a little wave!  If you've made resolutions (or pledges) this year how are you doing with them?  Or if you don't make them do you think naming changes and choices pledges might make them more person friendly?

Hope everyone is having a grand day on this rather wet and cold Wednesday morning here in Yorkshire!

A BLANK CANVAS KNOWN AS 2011

That is what you have in front of you a blank canvas a beautiful clean sheet, you've turned the page and it's all pristine and beautiful and perfect, you could choose to stroke the page for a while as if it was beautiful new scrapbook paper - but wouldn't that simply be a waste of your beautiful life.  You could choose to let the ink and paint from last year dribble over and start to spread along your canvas and if that ink and paint is filled with joy and happiness then carry on - but if it's not use a piece of blotting paper and take up the residue don't allow anything to spoil your clean new sheet.  

Now let's be sensible this page will get messy, it will end up with footprints being walked over it, there will be days when the water pot gets tipped over and it makes a mess, there will be times when you glue your elbow to the page and you have to prize it gently off the surface, there will be occasions when the paper will feel thin and fragile - but that is all to come and when it does you can deal with it - but at this moment what you actually have is a blank canvas on which to paint your life!

What will 2011 bring?  What do you want from life this year?  Do you want family time? Do you want to make amazing memories?  Do you want to take stock a little?  Work hard?  Play hard?  Do you want to reach for the stars?  Do you want to go back to learning?  Set up a new business?  Work less?  Have fun?  Whatever you want is achievable if you take each day at a time, don't expect things to be perfect, life is for living and it isn't perfect!  Just take time to enjoy the little things and acknowledge them along the way!  

I'll still be "Rocking my World" this year each week - join in it's fun - and if you don't have time to do a blog post just take ten minutes out of your week to have a cuppa and think about what you have to be grateful for that week - it makes your heart happy!  

I have so many things I want to do and challenges I have set - but for now, I'm going to enjoy my big blank canvas and I'm going to take each day as it comes. 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY

Good Morning Rockers and Rockettes how are you all this morning?

Well the question is did he arrive at your house?  Did he?  Did he bring lots of presents?  Did you get woken at a ridiculous time or wasn't it too bad?  Have you survived the food gorging - from turkey to Christmas pud?

Rocking my World this week in no particular order is my ten year old - he stayed in bed until 7am before waking us on Christmas morning and took a record 33 minutes to open all his presents LOL!  He was so giddy on Christmas Eve he had us in stitches honestly such a little star!  And he seemed happy with his lot on Christmas day which is always a bonus!

Then there was the time on Christmas morning when everything was prepared and there was nothing to do (I kid you not) we'd opened presents, showered and were waiting to commence the cooking - it was such a precious time for us as a family and me and hubby had an hour of peace and quiet just absorbing the day simply magical!

Then there was my family on Christmas day - we were a few short this year and it felt mighty different as a result but we all had a lovely day nonetheless - we managed yet another gingerbread challenge this year - here they all are being very quiet whilst preparing their houses

They all seemed to enjoy themselves - look at my Mum concentrating - she did a miniature clock tower with jelly baby gargoyles - I kid you not!

Then John looking a little the worse for wear following his night out on Christmas Eve - made this beautiful heart house!

 

A close up of the heart!

Then there was my gorgeous sister - how amazing does she look!  Last year I took hundreds of photos trying to get one that she actually liked - this year I took about half a dozen and she looked amazing on all of them! 

 

So Christmas day went without a hitch - amazing stuff so I'm grateful for that.

I'm also grateful for the gingerbread tower not falling over just yet - I mean it has a serious tilt on - think we must have had rogue builders in this year LOL!  This is what it looked like with it's town around it on Christmas day!

And it had already got a lean on but now it's really tilted - not sure how much longer it will hold on!  Think it will be the last gingerbread challenge we do - it has been awesome over the last three years but the baking challenge when everything else is so fraught before Christmas is simply crazy so this may be the end of an era!  We'll see!

So there you go another Rocking your World and the final one of the year!  I can't leave you without a bit of crafting but this time with a twist - this is some of the cups my little lad did before Christmas for family how amazing are they! 

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy New Year - hope it's a good one and I'll see you in 2011!  If you are joining in put your link below I'm a bit late putting mine on this morning I know Susie has already posted so here's her link

http://scrapbooksusie.blogspot.com/2010/12/rocking-my-world-friday_31.html

ROCKING MY WORLD ON FRIDAY !!!!!

Morning one and all and a very Happy Christmas Eve to you all - where has December gone, I'm sure I had loads of time to get everything ready and prepared from presents to the big day itself - and then I woke up it was Christmas Eve - I kid you not!!!!  I'm kind of blaming the snow at the beginning of the month that removed a week of my life grrrrrr - anyway today's post as always should be about positives so 

This week's list in no particular order - my sister for rescuing me and my washing - yes my dearest washing machine has gone to the great washing machine heaven in the sky just before Christmas which has meant frequent flier miles to dearest sister - thank you hun you are a star!

A week off work - but if I'm honest I didn't notice that i wasn't at work as the week went that quickly plus I've had a few phone calls from work so keep having to flip into work mode!

Royal Mail for finally getting all the parcels I was waiting for to me - I had almost given up hope but they came good - almost gave the Post Man a heart attack on Tuesday as he arrived at the bottom of our drive to find me at the door with arms waiting for parcels!  He seriously jumped LOL - then produced two parcels from said bag thinking I'd be happy but then I said I was waiting for another one - he said he'd keep his eye open for it - do you think he might just have been having a laugh with me?  anyway said other item arrived the next day woooooo hooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An evening out with girlies from the neighbourhood - we all work and are so busy most of the time that I've never really got to know them, then a little note through the door would I fancy a venture out into the village and off we went, had a good laugh with them all so a big positive there!

No snow - thankfully, occasionally it threatened it but none became visible hurray and for me it can stay that way!

Visitors from Stafford battling through their snow for a visit which was lovely - little man so enjoys catching up with Ellis and I get to sit and chat for hours catching up on latest news and gossip - bliss!

My local scrapbook shop being open the other day when I was almost out of double sided tape - thank you Lynn - you are a star!

Nobody realising how quiet Asda is at 7am when you are food shopping hurray!

Finally hubby arriving home from his works Christmas do yesterday sober enough to allow us to get on with the gingerbread challenges for Christmas day and for helping us make the clock tower - one less thing to do!  And if you haven't got a clue what I'm going on about (which you probably haven't) we make a gingerbread challenge for family to decorate on Christmas day, this year's houses are crosses between barns and tardises - I kid you not this is what happens when you leave me in charge of gingerbread LOL!  Anyway once they were done we put them together and put our Christmas challenge together, a family affair decorating this year's challenge of a gingerbread clock tower - what do you think?

So there you go this week's posting!  If you join in then put your link in the comments so we can come and visit!  If you just pop by for a read don't forget to say hi!  And can I take this opportunity to wish you all a very festive season - may your day be filled with laughter and family and friends.