Lost Blogger Returns!

Oh my! It certainly has been quite a while since I last blogged. Oops! I have had such a busy month, most of my busyness being in preparation for tomorrow! Tomorrow I begin my new career and I am so nervous and excited. Tomorrow I start my degree in Nursing at University. I have known since last September when I applied that I would be starting at the end of February, but I honestly cannot believe how quickly it has come around.

I have yet to share the other two layouts I created with the January kit from Sarah’s Cards, so here they are……

[Caswell..My Favourite Local Beach]



[The Wild Side]




Last month I had Crate Paper Mia to play with and this layout has now been shared on the shop blog so I think I can share it here now too…..

[Authentic Beauty]


Thanks for looking xxx

Well I am not quite sure where this week has gone, but it sure has flown by! Not that I have anything exciting to say. Apart from baby ballet went very well and she absolutely loved it! Will take the camera this week and hopefully catch some sweet shots of her.
Monday was another big day for Ashton as we went to visit the school she will start in September. I was very impressed with the resources available and the tour of the school which we had from the headmaster helped make me feel a little happier about her going to school in September.

I think I can now share this layout as Sarah has already popped it up on the blog and the kits have gone out to subscribers. So here is a layout I made with the January kit from Sarah’s cards…..



The February kit looks beautiful too! There are two teams on the Design Team and we alternate between the kit and other products and this month I am set to work on Crate Paper’s Mia, but unfortunately the parcel has gone missing! :o( Damn Royal Mail.

I also got this layout done last weekend for the sketch over on Create my Keepsake…..



My girly dressed up in a Santa outfit.

Supplies:
Patterned papers ~ Basic Grey - Figgy Pudding
Die-cut ~ My Mind's Eye
Rub-ons ~ Daisy D's
Bling ~ Papermania
Chipboard heart ~ Heidi Swapp
Buttons ~ Rusty Pickle

I spotted another sneak peek I think I am in need of buying once it is available and that is October Afternoon…….




So pretty!

xxx

<3

Wow I am loving this advert!! :o)



xxx

Scraps on a Friday

With CHA being just a couple of weeks away, there are obviously several sneak peeks occurring from the manufacturers releasing their new ranges, and I can’t say all too much has caught my eye enough to get particularly excited about, until I saw this from Collage Press this morning……


Mmmm! I am loving the colours and patterns on the sneak so I hope the rest of the range is just as pretty! What have you seen so far and loved?!

I also saw the news about the end of Simple Scrapbooks this morning too :o( I am quite sad about this as it is one of my favourite magazines.

I managed to get a little more scrapping done this week.

Firstly was this one of Ashton in total amazement of the giant wheel in Swansea’s Waterfront Wonderland.


Supplies:
Patterned papers ~ October Afternoon & Basic Grey
Journaling Spot ~ Heidi Swapp & Making Memories
Alphas ~ American Crafts & Adornit
Die-cuts ~ October Afternoon & Scenic Route
Bling ~ Papermania

The second was done for a challenge over on Create My Keepsake (a fabby forum full of very talented ladies) where you had to create a layout about love, but were not allowed to use the colour red or any hearts. This is what I came up with…..


Patterned papers ~ October Afternoon, Basic Grey.
Alphas ~ Making Memories & Adornit
Blossoms ~ Prima & Sassafras
Buttons ~ Rusty Pickle
Die-cut ~ Crate Paper
Journaling Spot ~ Heidi Swapp

I’m so glad the weekend is almost here! This weekend is hopefully going to be pretty exciting for a certain little two year old in this household! For months and months Ashton has asked to go to ballet class, and I have searched and searched in our area for classes that cater for children so young, but unfortunately we were told by every dance school I rung, that they only accept children from the age of three and a half. After looking for a little while we found a gymnastic school which did pre-school classes so we took her for a little while which she thoroughly enjoyed, but nope this still didn’t fulfil the urge she has to go to dance class! So yesterday I was looking for ideas for her birthday in a few months, and I see that a local leisure centre runs a baby ballet class woohoo! I gave them a ring, and sure enough she was old enough to go, so she has her first class on Sunday. I can’t wait to see her (hopefully) join in as she is just so excited!

Hope you have a great weekend xxx

A belated 'hello' to 2009!

Well we have had a pretty nice, quiet start to 2009 and I really can’t complain, it has been lovely. Just a shame the holidays went quite so quickly.

Some randomness from the first week of 2009.…….

This week has been so, so cold this past week or so, and temperatures have easily reached -10 through the nights. Brrr!! Here are some icicles around my parent’s pond….they are around 12 inches long!! Crazy cold!



Woke up yesterday morning and saw the sun rising…….


We took the tree down on Sunday :o( ………


I was hovering and popped my head around the Playroom door to find Ashton sat on one of toy boxes reading some of her favourite books :o) ……



And I have also managed to get some scrapping done :o) Last Friday I popped over Natalie’s and got my design team layouts done for Sarah’s Cards using the January kit. One of them is featured on the blog today!

And yesterday during nap time I got this layout done……

A quick layout about our trip to Margam Park to see Santa feed the reindeer.

I usually have a love/hate relationship with rub-ons, love to look at them but hate using them as some manufacturer’s rub-ons don’t seem to want to actually rub on! Grrr! But the October Afternoon ones I have used on this layout were a dream to work with!

Products used:
Patterned papers ~ My Mind’s Eye - Be Merry
Journaling spot ~ Heidi Swapp & Making Memories
Alphas ~ Adornit & American Crafts
Jewels ~ Kaiser Craft
Rub-ons ~ October Afternoon
Photo collages created in Picasa 3.

Thanks for stopping by! xxx

~*Merry Christmas*~

Wow, time has simply flown since Christmas Day and it is only now I have really had time to sit down and actually type this! Plenty of time was spent just the way it should be at Christmas - with family! We really did have a lovely Christmas and I only hope you did too!

Some of the pressies left under the tree following Santa’s visit…..

This is what Christmas morning pretty much looked like….(big smiles and loads of pressies!)

Ashton really got into the spirit of Christmas this year, and totally got the Santa concept and was just so excited Chrismtas morning once she realised that he had eaten his mince pie and drunk his Pepsi (!! - the Pepsi was her choice, we offered her the choice of a beer or some milk and she said he needed some Pepsi, and who are we to argue). The reindeer had also had their share of the carrot and celery we had left out for them to feast on whilst undertaking their very busy night. (We had to include the celery as ooops we ate most of the carrots in our Christmas Eve buffet so there were only a couple of carrot batons left!)



I truly hope your Christmas was magical!

Xxx

A couple of weeks ago I had a lovely email from Sarah’s Cards asking if I would like to become a part of their Design Team. I of course said yes, and I received my first assignment this morning - the January Kit. I have to say I have already started creating with it as it is just lovely, and the embellishments are beautiful! I also had an email from Shimelle, to ask me to create a layout for the Sketch Challenge article of Scrapbook Inspiration’s April issue. I was doing really well with my Christmas Journal up until that point, but since I created my layout for the Sketch Challenge, I have really struggled to get back into my Christmas Journal now lol. Never mind though, as I have still journaled all the prompts so will come back to them at a later date and pretty them all up for my Christmas 2008 album. Not too long until the big man in the red suit arrives and I for one am so very excited about that fact! And of course, so is a certain little lady in this household. She knows that the more advent calendar windows we open, the less time there is until Santa comes! Yay! We (me, Mum and Dad) took her to see Santa feed the deer in a local country estate last Sunday and I absolutely loved it, and so did Ashton of course! Here are a couple of piccies from the day……

It was the perfect weather, and we couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful winter’s morning. It was cold, but dry.

And my two very favourite photos from the day……



How’s This for Christmas Spirit?

I was walking into town to pick up my remaining few presents I had left to get in relative calm due to the fact that Mum had offered to have Ashton whilst I purchased my remaining gifts, and whilst walking through the car park to get into the main shopping centre, my handbag decided that would be the perfect time to break! Great! That left me unable to carry the bag in the proper fashion and I had to clutch it instead, which didn’t half look daft. The first shop I went into was Primark, and I bought a cute, beaded necklace for a friend, and I asked the cashier if I could have a slightly larger carrier bag than the one she was going to give me so I could put my broken handbag in it, she glared at me as if I had asked for a free gold bar or something, then proceeded to inform me that she couldn’t possibly give me the next size up carrier bag, and how dare I ask for one! She handed me my change, and I thought my response of, ’well a Merry Christmas to you too’, was quite a polite response! The next store I went into was Lush and the lady there noted my broken handbag and offered me a large bag.

Lol not quite sure why I felt compelled to share that story but hey :o)

Shall be back very soon to share some more of my Christmas Journal pages that I did manage to do! xxx

December Time

Hooray the Christmas journal has started and me being me am already a little behind lol. But I do get to say that Christmas is actually this month! :o) Now that is exciting!

Well here is my front cover for my journal…..



The album I am using is an American Crafts 8x8” D-Ring album.

This is my December 1st entry…..



Are you playing along?

Xxx

Feeling Festive!

Yesterday marked a month until Christmas and wow am I excited? I really am like a small child when it comes to the Christmas period and I just revel in all the magic associated with the season. I finished with buying (well one or two left to get) and all wrapped with most of the cards written, awaiting sending. So last night I decided the house needed to reflect my mood and I put the tree up :o) I am so pleased with how it looks, it is even prettier than I had envisioned in my head. Last year’s tree was decorated in a blue and silver theme, but this year I decided to have a change and chose red and silver, as I have now added red accessories (cushions, vases, candle holders, etc) to my black and white living room.
I haven’t had a chance to take any photos as yet, but will hopefully get a chance over the next few days.

Here is last year’s tree though….





To help get even further into the Christmas spirit, as of Monday I shall be taking part in Shimelle’s fantastic class - Journal your Christmas. I did attempt the class year, but ended up not keeping up and giving up. But the really great part is that as part of the Alumi you get to take part year after year without paying a penny! How fab is that? And this year, I feel a whole lot more motivated and know what to expect etc so really hope I can keep up as I think the completed journal will be a beautiful and treasured keepsake of my most favourite time of year!


Are you taking part in the class?


I have been a little creative recently, but my mojo really has gone walkabouts :o( I'm hoping it will return for the start of the class next week!

This is an altered notebook I created to record all of the sweet and funny little things Ashton says.....



Shall be back soon xxx

Friday Faves!

I’ve noticed quite a few bloggers have been posting their ‘favourite things on a Friday’, so I thought I would play along too. Whilst most people are choosing five favourite things to post about, I’ve decided not to commit myself to five things lol and just however many I want.

So here is to my Friday favourites…….

1. I am totally in love with my gorgeous new tins from Cath Kidston that I purchased in Selfridges last week in Birmingham.

Aren’t they yummy?


2. The fact that next month is Christmas - oh so very exciting!


3. Bowling! Lol I went bowling last weekend and had such a fun time! Going again next week with Nat and Kat and really can’t wait!


xxx