Back to earth with a bump...

and a rather full suitcase, or two!

So I am back from the land of sun, oranges, wonderful eating and shopping experiences, but have stumbled back into the land of the sick and cold-virus-ridden. Excellent timing of course, haven't even had chance to put my tree and decorations up, but I have plans to put that to rights tonight!

We all had a wonderful and rather memorable time - ate loads, enjoyed every mouthful, had some great classes including one at the MFT boutique (fab!), laughed a lot and bought far too much... It was a grand caper indeed!

The big news is that despite not intending to come home with an iPad... I kind of did! Will-power zero when directed into the Apple store and stood next to friend who had intended to buy one and she said "she wants one in white"... hm...

Anyway, this has of course meant hours of fun and playing with instagram. Behold what I have unpacked so far:

My Pottery Barn Santa mug, filled with Hershey's Candy Cane Kisses. I am not a fan of Hershey's chocolate usually, I only like Reese's PB cups and had seen these in some baking pins on Pinterest. They are white and red peppermint chocolate swirled together and look most festive, and thankfully the peppermint is nice and strong with the choc. :)

I brought a good few years' worth of PTI cardstock back with me, including the current sampler pack and loads of neutral and well-used shades!

Felt re-stocks plus some of the MFT felt to try....

Lots of glittery delights to play with. It was sooo hard to find any misting sprays on this trip, or indeed Melissa Frances products, or coarse glitter for vintage projects. So I restocked on my most used Distress Stickles while I was at it and got some of the dry Distress glitter, plus some lovely glitter paint oh and some boring Martha Stewart cream paint, it would have been rude not to. Thankfully Whim-so-doodle came up trumps for the Ranger items and some of the Melissa Frances things.

So before I left I had made great efforts to determine which Distress Inks I needed to definitely get to extend my meagre 3-pad collection. Well I managed to get some of the ones on my list, plus a load of other pale/pastel inks at Scrappy Boutique and Whim-so-doodle. Joann's and Michaels were really disappointing for inks. You could only get limited bog-standard colours in single pads or would have to buy sets where you weren't too keen/needed the other colours. So it was great to get the majority from the Scrapbooking stores we visited.

I did get some other odds and ends, in retrospect it looks like I was on a button spree, but this was about it for embellishments... including that fabby retro tinsel from Tim Holtz with plans to use it to decorate my Melissa Frances Christmas houses and bell jar.... one day!

And finally, a selection of the dies, stamps, and embossing folders that came home with me...

Also in that pile is a rather handy item I picked up to try out. The Small and Medium stamp mounts from Martha Stewart. They are similar to the Fiskars stamp press, but smaller. I have already tried the small one out on a fiddly little die-cut and it worked like a charm for positioning and stamping cleanly. And not as bulky as the stamp press which I don't think I'd really use for small fiddly bits.

So there we have it.... I still have other items that need unpacking into bathroom cabinets (mmmm C.O. Bigelow lemon stuff and Bath and Bodyworks purchases, not to mention some items from Sephora...).

Oh and I accidentally bought a new Fossil bag - well it was red, and very light and well... I caved in!

Suppose I should get back to unpacking or maybe, just maybe get my tree and decorations up!

Comments

[Lola G.]

It sounds as though you had some great adventures, including top-drawer shopping! All of the felt I own is from PTI, but I've been curious about the Replenishments line that MFT is now offering. I've ordered the MFT card stock sampler and am looking forward to seeing how it compares to PTI, but I need to start using felt again (instead of just 'collecting' it, lol) before I can justify buying more of it.

Between all of your new crafting goods and your iPad (I love mine), there's no doubt in my mind that you'll be spending plenty of time creating and smiling in the next few weeks – enjoy!

[sharon]

Oh my goodness what a gorgeous lot of stash - I am SO jealous :)

[Handmade by Natty]

Afraid I'm not one for doing things by halves! As you have probably gathered from all the blog posts over the years. ;)

I didn't manage to sample much of the MFT cardstock, we had some in the classes we did and it seemed similar weight and smoothness to PTI. I am just rather partial to the colour tones PTI does even terracotta tile now that I found it was a perfect "red" for some Studio Calico Christmas paper.... But the Bazzill card shoppe cardstock is just as good and has some fantastic shades... However, PTI soft stone and rustic neutrals... mmm lovely!
The MFT felt is a blend and not 100% wool so it will be easier to cut with other dies, I can't get clean cuts through my PTI felt using Marianne dies, but I have little to complain about there as the PTI felt colours I have are lovely (except the Pine one) but must say was totally surprised with the colour of hibiscus burst, it is almost the same as raspberry fizz felt that I already have and is a shocking pink not what I was expecting... not sure if I got sent the wrong felt or what, but I bought MFT bubbglegum felt as it was the lightest pink they had in the shop. It comes in sheets rather than rolls and you get a few A4-ish sheets to the pack. Lots to play with, just not enough time to do it! :( Including all my new christmas sets from PTI!