Kool Kitty Musings

A challenge of a different kind

So as you may have seen, I've got back into cross stitching thanks to a few discoveries of old projects in the loft and my Deck the Halls cross stitch project I've been working on over Christmas:

It's a relatively old photo from a week or so ago. But I'm now on the bottom third of the pattern. I may even do a bit more tonight when I get out of the bath.

So the challenge is... I've succumbed to temptation and bought the Caterpillar Cross Stitch Bloom & Grow Stitch Along kit... yes another WIP. But this time I'm giving evenweave a go for the first time:

My kit arrived today and the first part of the pattern goes live on Friday in time for me to get started at the weekend.

Lovely colours eh?

Hopefully I'll get the fabric prepped in time as I'm worried about the edges fraying.

But until then I'd best get back to 16 count stitching that Christmas kit. ;)

Relief!

After a couple of weeks of worry I am so relieved to report my Simon Says Stamp order has arrived safe and sounds after it's 10 night stay in Germany. It got rerouted and made it here in one piece and now I can stop fretting and think about using the lovely goodies that were inside, including the above stamps from The Stamp Market. :D

Hurrah!

Where did the weekend go?

Well, some of it was spent doing a little behind the scenes creativity.

Namely getting prepped for week 2 of Kristina's Distress Oxide combos:

Then getting the swatches made:

Note to self, order more blending foams and tape for the label machine!

My Distress Oxide ziplock bag of bagged individual blending foams is filling up fast! I really don't have a better way to store them. Was toying with the coin storage sheets that I have as recommended by Jennifer McGuire for ink swatches, but them foams are a bit of a lumpy fit in there and I think it would be a hassle getting them in and out once they've been loaded up with ink. Being able to store them in order and at a glance would be nice. I like the little baggies for keeping them  stored transparently and cleanly. I can't store them with the inks as they prevent me easily stacking the ink pads and also space in the Alex unit drawer where they reside is limited since I have the whole oxide collection.

But not to worry, this is working for now.

I may see about eventually storing them on a big book ring, but they take up little space in the zip lock bag they're in and I can keep track of which foam pads are already inked and which aren't yet using my ink swatch sheet.

I just need to rummage around a little to locate them once tipped out of the bag. :D

I'm still intending to use my make-up brushes for blending, but like to use the foam blending tool when putting down a lot of colour for blending. :D

Otherwise Saturday night ma and I were at a wonderful concert hosted by a friend with proceeds to a local charity - music was provided by The Rivelin Duo who are based in Sheffield but travelled up this way to perform and hopefully will be back for a summer concert if we can persuade them. ;)

And finally today, I finished the last three quarters of this month's book group book in time for our get together this week:

A solid 3.5 or 4 rounded up stars out of 5 go to Three Things About Elsie. I am a rather suspicious reader by nature so it's rare a book truly surprises me with its twists and turns, but I'm glad this book had several twists and a couple really were surprises for me despite my spidey sense tingling very early on. :) So all in all, a satisfying read for a wintry Sunday.

So where were we....

December work and life kind of got in the way of my blogging... Here are the highlights!

Christmas cards all prepped inside:

Ready to write and send:

Some new wintry additions for the home came out of their box in time for me to start decorating:

I got the mantelpiece decorated - and the window bunting up:

Got the tree up:

The decorations are old and new:

Got almost all of my Christmas shopping done (there may be a gift to myself in there too):

Had an outing with my mum, super early so we could beat the queue at Bettys:

I stocked up on some more gorgeous Seasalt bags (the circus one was free with any purchase - result!):

I had a few moments of quiet reflection (aka don't really want to move, but must go do some work:

Enjoyed a few cosy nights by the fire:

My niece enjoyed her new bauble for this year:

And I made some progress with my highlighter pen and the Christmas RadioTimes:

So time has definitely flown by in the past week and a bit!

A productive week

Before I log off for the day I thought I'd share some snaps from the past week, as it's been so long since I did a crafty stash blog post or similar.

It all starts with my October calendar:

I was definitely channelling the lady in this image. Waiting for some goodies to arrive in the post.

I finally made up for my whole patterned paper embargo and scrapbook purchasing drought... Yes, it had been well over a year since I'd last purchased any paper other than a couple of 6x6 Lawn Fawn paper pads. I'd bought no new embellishments or 12x12 papers... that was, until I fell in love with this year's Crate Paper Christmas release – Merry Days.

While waiting for the collection to come into stock in the UK at Hey Little Magpie, I'd been trawling the Internet for last year's Crate Paper Christmas release Falala, and a few other items that had caught my attention in the past few months enough to be added to my wishlist.

I found lots of Falala in stock at craftelier.co.uk and was also recommended this store by a fellow crafter. Many of the papers were really well priced so into my basket they went. I bought multiples of some sheets as I knew I'd easily use those versatile designs with basic supplies.

Over at Hey Little Magpie I'd also loaded my basket with more festive supplies from Pebbles:

Yes, festive sloths were added into the mix.

I also saw that the Willow Lane embellishments had come back into stock as they were unavailable everywhere else, so they were added as well:

They will go very nicely with the choice papers I'd ordered from Craftelier for this line:

And also in my Craftelier order I'd included some fun unicorn stuff from Simple Stories, just too fun to pass up!

So it was just a matter of finishing the work week so I could get crafty this weekend. I hadn't even realised that it was world cardmaking day yesterday until I saw some Facebook posts, so it was lovely to wake-up all ready to go Saturday morning, with my focus definitely on getting those Christmas cards started.

I'm glad to report I did get my first 10 cards made, all unique and different (I really struggle with making multiples of the same design unless it's simple repeat stamping):

Sadly not quite as productive today, as I seemed to be channelling my inner-sloth when trying to come up with some card designs for that sloth paper by Pebbles:

But I have managed 4 cards today so I am just happy that I'm a step closer to getting my Christmas cards made this year as it really wasn't looking good the past 9 months of this year!

I'll hopefully get time and light to photograph my makes soon, but I still have a pile of non-Christmas cards to photograph and blog so not sure when all that will happen! lol

I hope all you cardmakers enjoyed a crafty weekend!

Blooming marvellous

It's quite nice to get back into the crafting groove - my new stash purchases are really helping. :)

I've bought some lovely stamps and versatile dies that were put on my wishlist due to an enabling crafty pal.

Here's the finished item my new square dies went into the making of...

Paper: Simple Stories
Stamps: Concord and 9th - Flourish
Dies: MFT - Happy Birthday to You, Avery Elle - Double Pierced Squares, Lawn Fawn - Large cross-stitched square stackables
Other: dye inks, Misti, 3D foam tape

The Happy Birthday to You die is a perfect fit for some decorative square dies (ideally they need to be at least 4" square to comfortably fit in) and I love how the Flourish stamps from Concord and 9th really fill out that space. I used layered die cuts to add dimension to the sentiment with a dark piece of cardstock matted on the back of the stamped panel to make the cut-out areas really pop. :)

Lots of lovely ink shades went into the stamping of this card but I think you could really make it pop even more using one colour for the leaves and one for the flowers but simply changing the intensity of the shade.

And speaking of inks, I spent a lovely afternoon yesterday while binging on Netflix and recovering from Saturday evening's festivities organizing my new craft purchases which included a great deal on the 12 Distress Oxide inks - purchased the bundle from Joanna Sheen when the back in stock e-mail arrived in my inbox! They've flown out of stock again but definitely worth setting up the e-mail notification as it is a very good saving if you can be patient.

There's something rather therapeutic about just sorting and organizing a little and allowing your brain to empty of tired ideas so that new ones can develop. :)

 

Simple Stories - Sunshine & Happiness - 6x6" Paper Pad	Concord & 9th - Flourish stamp set	MFT - Die-namics Happy Birthday to You die	Avery Elle - Double Pierced Squares
Lawn Fawn - Large cross-stitched square stackables	Lawn Fawn - Celery stick ink pad	Lawn Fawn - Freshly Cut Grass ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Lemon Tart ink pad
Papertrey Ink - Harvest Gold ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Aqua Mist ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Hawaiian Shores ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Sweet Blush ink pad
Papertrey Ink - Hibiscus Burst ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Raspberry Fizz ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Melon Berry ink pad	Papertrey Ink - Berry Sorbet ink pad
Lawn Fawn - Wild Rose ink pad	Lawn Fawn - Lobster ink pad	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape	MISTI precision stamping tool
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner

InLinkz.com

Enjoying the sneak peeks from CHA?

Strangely this year, I don't think there's any ONE collection that has truly captured my attention.

There seem to be a lot of repeats from last year in collections from Crate Paper, AC, and MME sadly so it looks like I'll be doing fine in the paper purchasing stakes - there are the odd designs here and there that I'll be looking out for.

I'm not too cut up about it because I have so much gorgeous paper from years gone by that I still want to use and if it doesn't end up on a card I'll definitely be using it to create envelopes.

So in the meantime I've seen the odd design that I rather liked and the timing of releases will depend on whether I end up getting them, but I'm a tad disappointed that MME basically recycled last year's On Trend 2 collection to present Palm Beach - I was hoping there'd be something bright and sunny for spring into summer but Palm Beach is just a bit too close to what I already have left from On Trend 2. I really liked that collection, but I have lots of it I can still use so no need for more of the same sort of thing.

But what really has caught my eye and had me doing a double take at my iPad is that Lawn Fawn are going to start releasing their ink colours in mini cubes!

Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

I think Tropical Island is my favourite option of the 4 shown so far as it includes Mermaid and Hippo which have both been on my wish list a while.

I tried some of the full-sized pads last year and they stamped beautifully, much cleaner than the Hero Arts inks and they didn't stain my clear stamps like all Hero Arts inks seem to.

So bring it on Lawn Fawn, get releasing all those inks in cube form! I still have a Tim Holtz mini ink cube tin going spare. ;)

But I will need to clear another drawer in my Alex unit so I can permanently store more inks in it. Oh Lordy...

When it comes to tools and gadgets... well I was rather impressed with Tonic Studios and Tim Holtz entering the stamp positioning arena. Unfortunately I just don't have room on my desk and around me when I craft to permanently have an 8.5 x 8.5 positioner out all the time. I enjoy using my MISTI and really like the concept of this new approach to stamp positioning - plus the Tonic brand and product quality is there, but I could do with one in a smaller format for faster stamping of smaller images, die cuts, etc. and one that can just sit on the desk as I work.

I also love the concept behind the WRMK Stitch Happy sewing machine that will sew bakers twine and thicker threads, plus it has been designed with paper crafting in mind (even though it works on fabric and thicker materials too) and it has an adjustable guide so you definitely sew straight around all your edges, etc.

It's apparently a lot lighter than it looks - I wonder what the dimensions are compared to the little John Lewis machine I have. But it's more one of those "If I won the lottery, what would I buy..." kind of items - along with the WRMK typewriter!

Other than that, I will keep my eye out for videos as they are released. Looks like a lot of initial videos were live streamed so the picture quality has been lacking due to bandwidth issues in the convention hall - hoping the wonderful folks who take the time to make videos will have some higher quality content to share as these videos from shows are the only way many of us can judge how papers and embellishments look "in real life". :)

Well this week has certainly been an experience!

Long time no post, I know...

I've had a really busy and stressful week which included a day of being unable to work - so what better excuse than to go out for lunch in town and do a bit of window shopping. But apart from that there's been a lot of stressing, working and lack of sleep!

However, I did enjoy some calmer moments...

Like when I was updating my ink swatches with my new MFT ink cubes from Seven Hills Crafts, purchased with a lovely Christmas gift voucher from my brother and sister in law:

I have finally found that elusive light blue shade that has been missing from my collection all these years.

Sno Cone! I will see how I get on using it as to whether it will make it to a full-sized ink pad purchase!

My trip to the Metrocentre last week for dinner and a movie included quite the spree in Homesense, plus a lengthy facetime session with my mum as they had a huuuuge array of Peony-brand artificial flowers in and some gorgeous choices. I got summer/autumn peony and foliage vase for my mum plus a lovely hydrangea vase too for when she wants to put one on the dining table and for myself I got this lovely rose display:

It reminded me a lot of my David Austin roses in the garden and my orange blossom tree, and can you believe it was cheaper than the lovely rose spray I have in my office that sometimes makes it into card photos?

Tiny pic I know, but it's a lovely little spray of floral delight for this room and helps sort out the colours in my photo when the aqua walls are too cool looking.

TK Maxx is the kind of shop I rarely leave without bagging a purchase - and yesterday's little mooch resulted in a new item for this to-do list addict and stationary lover!

When a nice Paperchase week to view diary just isn't enough to keep you on your toes, then a week to view to-do list pad will do the trick. :D

It will have it's first outing at the weekend when I start filling it up for the week ahead. :D

Right, well, after the day I've had I think it's time for a soak in the bath and bed!

While the tree is still up...

I thought I'd best share the Christmas card I made for my niece's first Christmas.

At the rate I was going with sharing projects and other things on my blog in late 2016 it's a case of better late than never!

But anyway, December was soooo busy that I am just thankful I managed to get a card made for little miss before Christmas day arrived. :)

I used a mix of new papers from Crate Paper's 2016 holiday release and some dies I've had since last Christmas but hadn't got round to using properly.

Paper: Crate Paper, Studio Calico
Dies: Simon Says Stamp, Lawn Fawn, PTI
Sticker: Pebbles
Other: Tinsel twine, string, 3D foam tape, 3D glitter paint

I really love the bold pastel shades in the Snow and Cocoa collection from Crate - they include pops of bright pink and teal and they work so well together with the cute snowman from the 2015 winter release from Pebbles. And you know how much I love building a little winter scene on my cards. :) I also found a neat way to transform 1 into 1st by cutting away the rest of the "Christmas" die cut to leave "st".

Anyway, I'm wondering what to feature on next year's card now. ;)

The little festive Matryoshka set featured in the photos above was one of the gifts I left under the tree for my niece - she can't play with it for a good few years, but it was so sweet and I'm hoping to keep to the tradition of giving her a new ornament/decoration each year. I just hope she'll enjoy and like them in later years.

So here were her spoils, in addition to the card and festive tree, Santa and snowman, there was a fab toy dragon who noisily flaps his wings (that went down very well) and of course there had to be a cute outfit. I couldn't resist this little set from M&S with Little Red Riding Hood on it - ma and I snapped up our Christmas gift outfits for her back in late October! :)

Right well, I'd best be off - it's a "school night", back to work in the morning so I'm off for a soak in the bath then to bed!

 

Crate Paper - Snow & Cocoa - 6x6" Paper Pad	Studio Calico Seven Paper - Felix - 007 Paper	Pebbles - Winter Wonderland - Glittered Stickers - Icons	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles die set
Simon Says Stamp - HAPPY WINTER AND CHRISTMAS dies	Papertrey Ink - By the numbers die collection (set of 9)	Lawn Fawn - Forest border die	Tim Holtz - Silver tinsel twine
East of India - Twisted String	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape

InLinkz.com

Welcome to the world little miss Heidi

So Monday was a very eventful start to the week. :)

My niece decided it was time to make an appearance around dawn and well, Monday was one big rollercoaster of a day in the best way possible.

As soon as the news came in from my brother and there'd been a hurried exchange of photos between everyone, it was time to get to my craft desk!

The day before I had an inkling things would be happening soon, so I made the last few preparations for some of the gifts I'd bought over the summer:

Here they are ready to be united with their new friend:

Daphne Bunny was accompanied by a little bunny rattle and another pal for little miss Heidi:

By 8 a.m. I think I was stationed at my craft desk working on a very special card:

Paper: Crate Paper
Dies: Mama Elephant, PTI, Lawn Fawn
Thickers: American Crafts
Other: button, twine, typewriter, 3D foam tape

Typewriter II saved the day - it was perfect for adding the date and a fitting greeting to this card. :)

I am so glad I snapped up these papers from Crate Paper's Little You line earlier this year in preparation for the big event, as Heidi's mum is loving the bunny theme.

And speaking of, as soon as I knew the weight and length it was off to Next to purchase a few new outfits I'd had my eye on.

The Bunny dungarees:

The autumnal kitty dungarees:

The full on cat lady kitty outfit:

I also popped next door to get some balloons and all the trimmings - my goodness did I underestimate the size of the balloons once inflated... It was such a windy day! What a sight I must have been trying to corral these 4 huge helium-filled balloons into the back of a 3-door Swift while also trying to get the seats down to fit everything in!

Anyway, visiting hours were 3 - 4 so I made a mad dash home to get everything wrapped and ready to go to my mum and dads so we could all go to the hospital together to meet the new arrival.

Goodness me was it hot in out there and on the ward in the hospital.

But what a sight greeted us, new mum was looking absolutely amazing considering she'd had zero sleep since the day before and had given birth 10 hours earlier!

There were lots of cuddles coming...

My mum enjoyed her new Babcia status:

So proud and content:

My dad showed he hadn't lost his skill at handling a baby:

And Auntie Natty had her first cuddle:

In fact Auntie Natty enjoyed her cuddles so much she hogged baby Heidi for much of the visit. ;)

The new parents were still floating on cloud nine, rightly so!

We looked more tired than they did! lol

My brother and I also demonstrated what must be a genetic trait, our innate ability to lean on any surface like it's a bar...

I didn't manage to get many photos with my camera - too busy enjoying the moment and the cuddles, but I love this one where you can see her fingers:

She slept the whole visit through, even when she did a few starfish manoeuvres while I was holding her. hehe

But before we knew it the hour had passed, so it was time to head home and then back to my mum and dad's for some celebrating to wet the baby's head Polish style.

I'd saved this from the wedding last year for this very occasion. :)

But of course, my mum and dad's recent trip to Poland had brought back with it many new vodka varieties... including a lovely gift from my brother's god father:

A few vodkas later and nutritional relief was required in the form of Tort Wedlowski!

And after a few phone calls with family and friends we were all ready for bed around midnight!

So that's how the week started.

The new little family is back home and settling into their new life.

Little Heidi was on Facetime this evening and was sleeping soundly still.

Here's hoping she has inherited her mum's appreciation for Bake Off and will continue to snooze through the rest of the evening. ;)

And now Auntie Natty needs to go make sure she has everything in place ready to watch Bake Off too!

Already looking forward to my next cuddle.

xx

Crate Paper - Little You - Precious Paper	Crate Paper - Little You - My Sunshine Paper	Crate Paper - Little You - Baby Girl Paper	Mama Elephant - Framed Tags - Madison Avenue die set
Papertrey Ink - Cloud 1 & 2 die collection	October Afternoon - Farmhouse buttons	Hemptique natural hemp cord	American Crafts - Thickers - Lullaby - Blush

InLinkz.com

Photo catch-up

Just doing a little housekeeping on my PC and see there are quite a few pics I've not shared since the painting project was completed over the BH weekend.

Let's go back to my birthday....

It was definitely a Leslie Knope-style birthday celebration - Treat yo' self was definitely the motto that afternoon!

I also received some lovely bathtime treats from my Polish cousins - love this French range that you can get in Poland (but not here sadly). This new addition to the collection is lush!

So the repainted office/craft space was back in action by the end of BH Monday. Dulux Ocean Ripple is definitely a hard colour to capture nicely in all it's minty aqua glory, but here's my room back in use:

And then before you know it, September has arrived! And of course a trip to Paperchase was on the cards for a browse at the Back to School stationery. Thanks to my Birthday reward and 15% off on my loyalty card this pencil case came in at the grand total of 10 p! I'm using it as a make-up pouch instead:

Saturday I had a day out with my mum at a few retail stores in search of a new desk lamp, well we saw this rather eye-catching lamp:

But it's definitely not for my desk space. I did manage to get a desk lamp but it's just not bright enough to work and craft under (blooming E14 small Edison screw fitting!) so it may be moving into my bedroom instead.

But anyway, along with the window shopping there was also a tasty meal to be enjoyed in TGIF:

It's been a while since we'd been out for burgers and I had a voucher that needed to be redeemed so... any excuse right?

And well, something sinful happened today as well. When I went to Tesco this morning I saw the Krispy Kreme cabinet had been stocked with the new limited edition return of my favourite Krispy Kreme donut - one I've not had since Florida 2012! The Glazed Kreme filled donut:

There were only a few left on the tray so I wasn't alone in craving one of these today. :)

Emerging from my office...

It's been a bit of a non-stop week so taking a little moment to share some of my Instagram photos.

Last week was all about getting my projects prepped and made for my May blog post over on the Hey Little Magpie blog.

It involved a trip to Hobby Craft armed with this piece of paper to try and match the colours for the PL pages I still wanted to make:

Well, an evening of catch-up telly followed and the paper I wanted to use for my PL page was all stitched and ready to go:

Naturally there were of course plenty of cards to go with the PL pages:

And I now have another pile of cards to sort into my card basket - I did very well the other week to get these all matched up with envelopes and baggies:

Friday night was dinner and movie night - Miss A joined us for dinner, she also brought her mad expressions too!

And was very happy with the pizza she insisted she wanted for her tea:

(thankfully Miss A's dad joined us in time to polish off what was left so us ladies of a more advanced age could get to our movie)

The weekend also involved a bit of an impulse purchase on ebay.

A Remington Holiday vintage typewriter from the 60s/70s that looked ok on the image and was described as having plenty of ribbon left and all the keys working.

He's not in the best of nick and came complete with a few dead spiders in the case and wrapped in with the machine - if it had been me, I'd have at least given it a hoover before sending it off. But hey ho - now I just need to find somewhere that sells compatible ribbon and get some compressed air to blast out what my vigorous hoovering and cleaning didn't shift last night.

Currently Mr Typewriter is out in the fresh air and sun where I am hoping some of the musty smell of the shed he was kept in will be blown out.

I only really wanted a typewriter for my journaling on PL cards, etc. - hopefully he will be up to the job, and I was never going to spend serious money on a typewriter so I'll see how it goes. Just rather miss my Tomy petite typewriter I had when I was little. He was fab!

Here's hoping practice makes perfect

The other week I received delivery of something that has been on my wish list a while but which I left of buying until the price came down further on amazon:

Namely the 36-pan set of Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolours.

Oh they are very lush indeed.

But my painting skills leave a lot to be desired.

Before I did anything I painted each of the pans on the colour swatch that is included inside the lid. Then to get started I thought it would a good idea to do a simple watercolour wash + white embossing technique on a card to try things out:

Paper: Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp
Other: white embossing powder, Versamark, Gansai Tambi paints

My brush action definitely needs some work but I'm really happy with how the intense pinks came out inside the embossed heart. Oh and the Misti was great for making sure my sentiment was nicely lined up and stamped properly on the watercolour paper. I might need to invest in some new white embossing powder as I've had this Personal Impressions one for over 10 years now and it doesn't seem overly white, but we'll see!

I also snagged some of the Ranger pre-cut watercolour cardstock along with my paints from amazon and the piece I used is simply stuck onto the front of a 5x7 card.

It appears I might be needing practice in other areas involving a brush:

I finally got round to opening my lovely Naked Smoky palette by Urban Decay - still trying to perfect that perfect smoky eye! And also the fab set of blushes by Benefit - a blush for every occasion. I also got a pen liner in with my Christmas cosmetics and I am just no good at applying it. Practice makes perfect they say, but I just have not got the knack of it!

Oh well, I will persevere but think my Bobbi Brown gel liner is as close as I will get to a dramatic eye-lining look.

In other news, I had a doggy house guest this week. Little Cassie came to stay with me for the first time and we made the most of the park being rather quiet during the day time:

When not walking, Cassie slept while I worked:

But yes, the walks in the park with just us and the squirrels...

...hopefully helped to counteract some of the joys of "Fat Thursday" Polish style - aka lots of donuts!

Yum!

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy - Let's Party Paper

Simon Says Stamp - I See You stamp set

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Japanese watercolour paints (36 colour set)

InLinkz.com

This and that

So last week I managed to have a bumper 2-nights in a row dinner and movie experience with friends.

I had a lovely drive up to see my god daughter, who to be fair was much more captivated by Blaze and the Monster Machines...

...than finishing any of the 3 games we set up to play!

In the evening her mum and I went for our first Nando's of 2016 (it is becoming the default eatery for pre-movie dining...) followed by this:

Well, I have enjoyed the previous two Tarantino outings, but this took some real time to get to interesting story... It was definitely style over substance in places, and let's just say I was very glad that I closed my eyes in certain scenes where my friend Kelly sadly didn't! So yes, we walked out of the cinema rather bewildered and that's about it...

Saturday night it was an Indian meal out followed by a very different movie:

And thank heavens! Really good film and possibly my favourite of the now multiple "Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper together on one screen" outings I've seen. Are they the new power-duo ä la Helena Bonham-Carter and Johnny Depp? Anyway, I saw them most recently in Serena, which was one of those movies where I just wondered why they'd bothered to make it. No great shakes... So thankfully this restored my faith that there are movies out there with a story worth telling in an entertaining fashion - no style over substance here, it had both in ample supply.

Apart from that, work has been ticking over this week. I've been wanting to craft more on the evenings, the desire has been there, but I have been hit hard by the procrastination bug.... so hard. In fact this evening I really want to carve out some time to do a little crafting with my card kit before the next one arrives early in Feb!

But first I need to have something for my tea!

In the meantime, here's a pic of some happy mail that arrived today - the CHA products from MME just came in over at Hey Little Magpie, plus the 50% sale is happening right now, so lots to check out! :D

Brrrrr....

I was hoping for an evening of crafting tonight, but it's just so cold even with the heating on that the only solution is going to be a very hot bath!

Which isn't such a bad thing as my original fangirl crush TV show has landed on Amazon Prime:

Oh yes, all 9 seasons ready for some binge re-watching and so much more convenient than getting out my DVD box set. So I can happily prop my iPad up on a chair by the bath and watch some classic eps from the past (gulp) 20 odd years....

It would be made even better were I to accompany my soak in the bath with a nice cocktail like last week:

Yes, that Nutri Ninja being used for more than its intended purpose...

But I don't have any more Pina Colada mix left and well, I would rather not be falling asleep before 10 as I've only just got out of the vicious cycle of tired in the early evening, wide awake from 4 a.m. which has plagued me since Christmas!

In between work projects I did manage to get my DCM card for this week made last night - my first little play with the MISTI tool I got for Christmas. And I took delivery of some Quilter's template grids today to hopefully aid me further in lining stamps up in the MISTI!

Fun!

Hopefully will get much better at using it with more practice. :)

Also today I managed to pop out to TK Maxx while getting a few bits and pieces and had a good mooch upstairs in homeware. No crafty bits to write home about, but they look to have had a good selection of Boleslawiec pottery come in:

Sadly not the pattern/design I am still on the lookout for. I love my cream on blue spot patterns, but also still hoping to one day see this pattern available:

I bought this cup and saucer for my mum in Krakow a few years ago - it was the only item in that design and we've not seen it anywhere since. Just love it!

Time for a flood of photos

I've been so bad at sharing photos on my blog of late - ever since things got so hectic last summer what with the family wedding and my change in job status to self-employed blogging took a bit of a back seat.

But I want to do better in 2016 and get back to regular posts.

So behold! Some photos from December that made it to my Instagram feed along with my crafty projects. :)

There was a new addition to my Christmas crockery collection:

This fab Santa plate from Next, perfect for holding some festive cupcakes!

The advent calendar was elevated to a new luxurious level:

The Simon Says Stamp kit arrived without delay, but I had zero time to properly play with it (I still hope to remedy that!).

My mantelpiece got a new look this year as I changed things about a bit to accommodate my new Marquee light:

I tried to make an early start on my wrapping:

In fact it was a gift for this little lady, my god daughter:

and the report back was fantastic - I managed to get the German-language version of an apple game I had when I was little and which was very popular in our house and it sounds like it's just as popular in theirs!

I also enjoyed an evening out at Saltwell Enchanted Park with Zoe and the girls - we did well as the event was cancelled the day before due to the snow, rain and windy weather:

 

It was an Alice in Wonderland theme complete with the Cheshire cat:

As Christmas cards started dropping through my letterbox some included some lovely surprises like these hand stitched felt decorations from my cousin's wife in Poland:

And before I knew it it was time for another festive weekend with Zoe and the girls which included a favourite card game I snapped up a couple of Christmases ago at M&S - it never gets old!

We had a very festive Saturday including carol singing, lunch out with the cheeky elves:

...gingerbread decorating and then Zoe and I went for a meal and move (Sisters - very funny!) in the evening.

Before too long Christmas parties were enjoyed and mulled wine flowed and then it was finally Christmas Eve:

Everything finally felt and smelt festive:

The Wigilia table was ready and waiting for us all:

The Prosecco was flowing:

And we enjoyed a lovely Christmas Eve meal Polish style:

There was still room for some sweet treats:

A slice of poppy seed cake:

Made for some interesting dreams before bed and then Christmas day with my mum and dad, who quite excelled himself this year on the gift giving front!

My mum didn't do too bad either in her choice of gift for the resident Ron Swanson and Whiskey fan:

More food was of course enjoyed on Christmas day, including a slice of the fabulous cake my crafty friend Claire's mum made:

Yes I could quite fancy a slice of it now with a bit of cheese:

Boxing day was a very relaxed affair, I was in my PJs all day and we just ate leftovers!

The day after was finally time for Polish breakfast with my brother and SIL coming over to enjoy the full spread:

Including of course the homemade lemon vodka:

And then I had a little guest through to the New Year as Lola came to stay with me and then at my mum and dad's for NY:

We finally had a day of pretty awesome weather for December so me, ma, my brother and SIL and Lola hopped in my car for a jaunt to Redcar for a walk on the beach and a trip to Pacitos:

For a local treat - a good old lemon top - well a strawberry top in my case for a change!

The next morning I checked the weather at about 6 and saw that the stormy rainclouds weren't going to drift in until later in the morning. So Lola and I headed back to the beach for a good run - the sun was just out:

But after a short run on the beach the winds picked up and it was a veritable sandstorm out there, so Lola and I hit the promenade:

The winds had really picked up, but I have to say I was a tad surprised to find the remains of someone else's Christmas tree had flown into my garden when we got home.

And well, then it was NYE and Lola wasn't overly convinced of the new sleeping arrangements at my mum and dad's:

Definitely not as cozy as the spot by my fire:

But Lola was happy to snooze until it was time for her to go home.

A new year meant some new stationery! New diary (and matching phone cover) plus my new desk calendar:

I also had some happy mail in the form of the January card kit from Simon Says Stamp - just need the time for a proper play:

I did however manage to get my lovely Christmas craft gifts all organised and labelled ready for a crafty session:

Time is all that I need!

But I also enjoyed the spoils of some more happy mail - namely this lovely ginger gift set that I snagged in the Origins sale:

And so there we are - all up to date. I've been back to work since Monday and trying to sort out my weird sleep patterns I picked up over the break (ugh dead to the world by 9 and wide awake from 4). The battle continues!

You're the apple of my pie!

I recently took delivery of my November card kit from Simon Says Stamp.

And I thought with this change of weather we've just had (hard to believe this time last week it was 16 degrees C and I was wandering around the Metrocentre sweltering in a cardi!) it was time for a little autumnal detour before more Christmas cards.

Along with wanting to make my first card with the kit, I really wanted to use the sketch for this month's 2015 card challenge that I posted on the 1st, here's a reminder of what it was:

My card isn't an exact match, but it was definitely inspired by the sketch:

Paper: Pebbles Inc.
Cardstock: American Crafts
Die-cut ephemera: Pebbles Inc.
Dies: Lil' Inker Designs, Lawn Fawn
Stamp: Simon Says Stamp
Other: white embossing powder, 3D foam tape

 

I had this woodgrain cardstock lurking in my stash and it went so well with the other items in the kit that I had to use it. :)

I also seem to be moving towards using white embossing powder more often - OK, so it's been two cards in a row, but that's more than I made last year with white embossing powder. The one I have is by Personal Impressions and is over 10 years old now so wondering if I need to get a better one that is a bit more white... depends how much I use white embossing powder in the near future I guess!

I also have a few pics to share from Instagram, well I've not been up to much that's exciting and pic-worthy of late, but I did go out for cocktails and lunch a one Monday not so long ago - if all Mondays could be like that I wouldn't mind!

There was also a trip to the nearby illuminations on what had to have been the warmest October evening ever - I kinda wished I'd not been wearing a jumper under my coat.

I suggested a trip on the Ferris wheel.

And although it looked a lot bigger once we were stood in the queue, I didn't think my fear of heights would manifest itself - surely not when I only get uncomfortable when too near an edge or seeing a long drop under me...

Well I am kinda glad I had the view I had and not the one where you see how far you are going up and when you are about to reach the top. I'm happy to report others were much happier with the height, but I will stick to carousels as my adrenalin rush fairground ride of choice!

Also in the land of the bizarre, unicorns seem to be a real fixture in Christmas displays this year as well as Christmas decoration installations you can buy and take home.

This guy was first spotted in TK Maxx:

And I have since seen 3 other similarly life-sized unicorns in other stores since then.

All I was looking for was a new bauble to add to my collection this year (I have found one new decoration so far, after visiting 10 or so stores with no luck of finding something truly new and worthy of the price tag) - Mr Unicorn is no longer in TK Maxx so must have found a new home. I would have loved to have seen how his new family got him from the store to their front door!

Well that's it for now, best get off the PC and zoom round to my mum and dad's for Sunday dinner!

Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month November 2015	American Crafts - 12x12" Woodgrain Textured Cardstock - Chestnut	Pebbles - Front Porch - Breezy paper	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles die set
Lawn Fawn - Hearts dies

InLinkz.com

Up on the Hey Little Magpie blog tomorrow...

I have some projects that I'm hoping will help ease you into the festive spirit. :)

And that pic features my newest festive addition - the red plastic Joy Marquee kit from Heidi Swapp. It arrived in time for our crop on Friday and I assembled/decorated it that evening.

A nice festive backdrop and hopefully great for boosting Christmas creativity if I stick it on my desk when needed!

Sending you birthday wishes

I had a bit of a creative moment one evening this week and made another card with the October Simon Says Stamp card kit while watching the last episode of the Hairy Bikers on their Baltic Adventure.

It definitely didn't come out how I thought but I also wanted to give some of my new PTI goodies an outing too:

Paper: MME - My Story
Dies: PTI, Lawn Fawn
Stamp: PTI
Other: 3D foam tape, black Stickles, enamel dot

I used cardstock from the kit for the Phrase Play die but the pimento red was a bit too dark, so I swapped it out with pink cardstock for the frame to better match the papers.

My Tombo liquid glue also had a bit of an explosion coming out of the bottle, must have been an air bubble but it just went everywhere so I will definitely be using something else to stick those letters down next time!

Anyway, that's it for tonight's little crafty share...

But I have in my possession some lovely new must-have festive items for Christmas 2015:

I now just need my brain to engage and embrace the Christmas productivity mindset!

Here's hoping! ;)

Simon Says Stamp Card Kit of the Month October 2015 HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU CKOct15	My Mind's Eye - My Story - 6x6" Paper Pad	Papertrey Ink - Small scallop border die	Papertrey Ink - Phrase Play #6 die
Papertrey Ink - Phrase Play #6 stamp set	Lawn Fawn - Hearts dies

InLinkz.com

World Cardmaking Day fun

So, I feel like it's been a while since I made anything that wasn't for assignments or a specific occasion and well, Christmas is soon upon us and I am not sure my mega Christmas card efforts of last year will see me through Christmas 2015, so really it's time to get started on some festive projects!

Enter this month's Throwback Thursday challenge over on the WPlus9 blog - I was reminded of one of my favourite little festive purchases the Pretty Patches: Tree stamps and die set.

I twinned the dies and stamps with some new purchases for this year:

Paper: Elle's Studio - Joyful
Stamp: WPlus9 - Pretty Patches: Tree
Dies: WPlus9 - Pretty Patches: Tree; PTI - Tag Sale #10
Other: enamel dot, 3D foam tape

I love how versatile the Pretty Patches tree and heart die are - they're great on their own as well as when combined with the coordinating stamps. The Season's Greeting sentiment from the WPlus9 set fit perfectly in the banner die from the PTI Tag Sale #10 set which is a new purchase from this week.

I've used the longer greeting from the stamp set for the inside of the card.

There's been some nice happy crafty mail this week - I finally spent some birthday money on fun, fun, fun stuff and things that have been on my wish list for a while at PTI - and I was fully prepared to have to pay a sizeable customs bill too, but miracle of miracles my package arrived a week after placing my order with no customs charge!

Yep, almost the entire back catalogue of PTI dye ink cubes - I already had a few of the new formula dye ink and I received notification that the last few out of stock colours I was waiting for came back in so time to put an order in after over 2 years of waiting. :)

I also got all the colours stamped out on my DIY ink chart:

Happy colours = happy me! They stamped really nicely and I am looking forward to having such a lovely choice of colours to work with in future. The only colour that is a bit off compared to another sample I had of it is the Spring Rain cube which is a bit more purple than the baby blue I thought it was going to be, but c'est la vie! I am just so happy all the other colours are as gorgeous as they are and best thing about these ink cubes is the lack of staining compared to the Hero Arts inks that have been really hit and miss with me.

Anyway, I need to get back to the craft desk and see if any more creativity will be happening today! :D

WPlus - Pretty Patches: Tree stamps	WPlus9 - Pretty Patches: Tree dies	Elle's Studio - Joyful - Shine Bright Paper	Elle's Studio - Joyful - Making a List Paper
Elle's Studio - Joyful - Celebrate Paper	Papertrey Ink - Tag Sale #10 die set	My Mind's Eye - Kate & Co - Cambridge Court - Enamel Dots

InLinkz.com

Creative kids

Happy Friday everyone!

This week over on the Daring Cardmakers blog we've been challenged to create a project for the kids in our lives.

Well, the timing could not have been better!

My god daughter turns 3 tomorrow so I had good inspiration for my project this week. :)

I'm hoping she is still quite partial to owls too...

Paper: October Afternoon
Stamp: PTI
Dies: Lil' Inker Designs, PTI
Other: felt owl, twine, 3D foam tape

I rescued this little owl from one of the lovely birthday cards sent to me by a friend this year - I loved that card and I knew the little felt owl would make another birthday girl rather happy. :) So there she is peeking out of the tree.

Definitely check out the blog to see the other fun and creative ideas from the design team! :D

In other news I have been on a bit of a shopping spree of late and must now do some wardrobe clear outs to make room for new autumnal outfits - timely delivery of some charity bags through the door would be good.And thankfully some of those new outfits will go nicely with my OPI Nordic colours which officially came out of summer hibernation yesterday since autumn is well and truly here:

I have also had some craft-related spending, the first of which was a birthday gift certificate that went towards some lovely new papers from Hey Little Magpie:

Most of the new Elle's Studio Joyful collection is in their - love their designs and colours for Christmas/Winter.

I also added some versatile dot and stripe sheets, plus the wood inlay pattern from the new Jen Hadfield DIY Home line for Pebbles.

And some Festive basics from this year's Simple Stories Claus & Co.

Other craft-related spending was well... impulsive but a long-time coming and in the planning...

I've got a quiet day on the work front before heading out for a hair appointment and lunch with my mum, and depending on how the afternoon goes I'm hoping to be back at my desk not too late in the day so that I can sit down and actually make something.

Busy weekend ahead so got to make the most of any free time today! :D

Have a fun and crafty weekend!

October Afternoon - Weathervane - Crunching Leaves paper	Lil' Inker Designs - Stitched Mats: Circles die set	Lil' Inker Designs - Speech Bubbles die set	Papertrey Ink - Big birthday wishes stamp set
Papertrey Ink - By the numbers die collection (set of 9)

InLinkz.com

A little photo catch-up

There's not a lot been happening for me the past two weeks except for a lot of work - but August did feature some of the nicer things in life too:

Some new scents to ease us from summer into autumn thanks to M&S:

The best kind of Sunday morning breakfast:

Summer strawberries at their finest:

A walk down to town first thing Saturday morning - in the sunshine after a week of rain:

A little window shopping:

Very apt these were:

Some online shopping that included some Bath & Body restocks:

Beautiful summer sunsets where the sky stretched as far as the eye could see:

A little browsing in TK Maxx for the perfect notepads - I didn't get this one as it was a notebook, but they had some great stuff in - good job too as I am really using my notepads a lot for to-do lists each day:  

Some birthday-related online shopping:

So L'Occitane offered me a free candle for my birthday if I made a little order... well, I know it wasn't free but the items I got were on my wishlist, postage was free and there was that £25 candle thrown in for good measure:

And most recently, I enjoyed the MOST delicious lemon meringue cupcakes courtesy of my friend Claire and her mum's superb baking skills! Just amazing:

And here we are in September and I have finally finished the big project I was working on solidly the past however many weeks. I am hopeful for a work-free weekend - but there won't be much rest on the horizon as I have a long list of things that should have been done that still need doing! ;)

Altenew inks in action

Well I have no idea where the evenings have gone to this week!

I've been working on a couple of card projects - last weekend I just hit a total block creatively, very frustrating!

But Monday night I really wanted to just do a bit of fun experimenting so I finally got my new Altenew ink cubes out for a test run on actual layering stamps.

And here are the results:

Paper: Crate Paper, Dear Lizzy - Serendipity
Stamps: Altenew - Vintage Flowers, WPlus9
Dies: Altenew - Vintage Flowers, Lil' Inker Designs, MFT
Other: bling, 3D foam

I layered the inks for the flowers from darkest to lightest shade, but the leaves and lightest to darkest - I am not sure if it makes any difference to the intensity of the colours, but the ink colours really blend together:

The darker pink on the bottom of one of the petals above is where I had misaligned the lighter shades on the top and you can see that pink is a fraction darker than the where the other ink covers that layer. But yeah, those were the three lightest shades in the red set in action and all the greens in action as the other colour in the green set is a black cube.

Oh and I love that Altenew released 12 cubes in one go, it means they all fit in their own dedicated Tim Holtz mini cube storage tin. :D

Also I have been a tad silent on the blog, but it's that time of year when sitting at the PC on an evening isn't so fun. I forgot to blog about my brother's birthday last week:

The ace apple crumble cheesecake my mum baked - that got demolished!

Ma and I had a shopping mission to Newcastle last Friday for my last ditch attempt to find The Dress for my brother's wedding in July. Well, hurrah, hurrah I found it! But despite thinking my existing shoes, shrug, and accessories would work I ended up splurging on new shoes, jewellery and a shrug in the same exact shade I already have from Monsoon, but the cut and tailoring of it is much better suited to this new dress. And there is a 50s feel to the dress, and the shoes are gorgeous, gorgeous.

I'm sure this success was all down to how ma and I started our excursion...

With sugar for sustenance:

Seven hours later and we were ready to grab tea at the Metrocentre:

And of course no trip to the Metrocentre is complete without popping into Ikea for the essentials:

The strawberry tealights are absolutely divine!

WPlus9 - Strictly Sentiments 5 stamps	Altenew - Vintage Flowers stamps	Altenew - Vintage Flowers die set	MFT - Die-namics Fishtail Flags Layers STAX dies
Lil' Inker Designs - Instant Camera die	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes Confetti - Blast Paper	Crate Paper - Craft Market - Stitching Paper	American Crafts - Dear Lizzy Serendipity - Very Vanilla Paper
Versafine ink pad - Onyx black	Altenew - Red Cosmos ink set	Altenew - Green Fields ink set

InLinkz.com

A quick catch-up!

Because, amazingly, it's almost the weekend again! :D

So after my little crafty session on Good Friday playing with those very lush Vintage Flower stamps and dies by Altenew...

...not much happened creatively - however more crafty temptation arrived in the post!

My fab surprise prize from Lil' Inker Designs for my entry in their March challenge arrived safe and sound this side of the pond:

I am really looking forward to creating something with this canvas die - I just need to suss out whether I have any watercolour paper about the place and what my watercolour paint status is looking like. :)

Oh, and I could do with another day in the week - ideally one that could be devoted entirely to sticking and stamping!

Following my spring cleaning antics on Saturday it was into full on Easter mode. We have had glorious weather up here ever since - 19 degrees today! Nineteen! NINE-TEEN! Yes!

We had a lovely Easter Sunday, just me and the parentals (my brother was on his stag weekend in Munich and Kate was enjoying Easter with her family), and a full on spread of food (of course!).

The traditional Polish decorated wooden eggs came out and ma had fun playing with her egg dyes and little sleeves in folk designs that were kindly sent over from Poland by Agnieszka - she knows what we like! We'll be on the hunt for white eggs next year - so hard to find these days, but perfect for decorating and dyeing:

Naturally vodka was served with breakfast (breakfast having commenced at 11 a.m. so it was all ok...):

At some point in the day Ma brought out the real pièce de résistance!

The apple crumble cheesecake:

I didn't think it possible, but she has perfected the recipe even more!

I heard that my dad polished off the last slice of it on Monday... hm... considering only 3 people ate this cake, and half of it was still on the cake stand Sunday evening I'm inclined to believe I know who the chief culprit for the early disappearance of this cake was!

He who professes not to have a sweet tooth!

But anyway, it was soon back to work time but last night I had a lovely day-after-birthday-celebrating meal out with Zoe followed by a cinema outing.

A lovely way to enjoy a Wednesday night.

And now, it's time to zoom on over to my mum and dad's for dinner to enjoy more left-overs from Easter breakfast in time for tonight's Arrow watch with my dad. :D

Oh, and guess who's coming to stay next week?

Things have been busy behind the crafty scenes

This past weekend I was playing with some of this:

Which ultimately led to the equivalent of the crafting apocalypse blowing up on my desk - boooom!

Gee, that was fun to tidy up! And look, there's that 6x6 inch space that I always end up crafting in, no matter how much desk space I start out with!

But it was all in a good cause, because I have some sparkly new stripy projects to share on the Hey Little Magpie blog next week! :D

Oh stripes, how I love you! :D

Time for a little photo recap

{Pinterest pin}

Off round the parentals tonight to join in with my dad's Arrow binge watching - the above photo is very apt because....

This time last week he had only started Season 1! Well we're now into Season 2! The best moment was 5 minutes into episode 1 of season 1 when he asked how many episodes we could get through that night - answer 6! We'll see where we end up tonight - I believe we're picking up from Episode 3 - The Dollmaker. Goody! :D

Tonight on Sky 1 though it's one of the much anticipated episodes of Season 3 - The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak! Goody goody!!

{Link to original image}

But aside from the Arrow stuff, I have some pics to share from the last few weeks. :)

I had a lovely night in with friends and my God Daughter a couple of Fridays ago - guess who was in charge of cooking dinner for Auntie Nat? :)

I had a fair amount of happy mail, including a few new items from Origins that came nicely gift-wrapped:

Ma and I attempted some Christmas shopping at the Metrocentre, naturally this included a pit stop at Gourmet Burger Kitchen for sustenance:

I went with the festive Blitzen Burger and it was most delicious!

Then it was back to the shopping! TK Maxx had nothing we absolutely were desperate for, but took a snap of this year's miniature village winter scene (last year it was in a beer keg if you remember) presented in a vintage TV:

Last Friday night it was our last crop of the year - I packed a lot of stuff, including my festive goodies:

...but didn't get a whole lot done, oddly enough! I did manage to sing along to my festive tunes though. :D

I'm still definitely not there with my Christmas shopping, but at least we have some new decorations for all our trees - my brother took my mum and I for a little outing to some local garden centre's and we managed to score some Polish and Ukrainian glass baubles. :D Oh and take a few comical pics:

We enjoyed a nice lunch before heading onwards and back for the Christmas Fayre at my brother's school.

Sunday night was dinner at my mum and dad's, and my mum tried out a recipe for Polish baked Nutella cheesecake:

Needless to say it was a huge success! :D

This week has passed rather quickly, but I've been playing catch-up on some craft projects - including my card for tomorrow's Daring Cardmakers challenge. :D

And on that note, it's time to head over to the parentals for Arrow night: the revenge!

What's new....

Well, not a lot this week.

Buuuut I have been doing some shopping - and not just boring old food shopping either!

My OPI Nordic minis are in the house! The colours are super lush and I managed to also get the top and base coat set at a bargain price. I have tried the glitter shade on my existing polish, but will definitely have to try it on one of the solid colours in the set too. It is super sparkly! :D

Also my happy mail quota for this week included these pretties:

Looking forward to playing with that Winter Wishes set by Neat & Tangled very soon! I have been very excited to get this set - it's so me! I do wish though I had a "From my home to yours" version of the greeting. ;) Also wouldn't it have been great to have some stand-alone dies to accompany this set as the little houses and trees would look great unstamped and cut from cardstock.

In other news, you can definitely tell winter is on the way... Dramatic evening skies are here for the next few months. The yuckier the weather, the more dramatic the sunset!

And with winter weather comes a desperate need for hot chocolate! Last Friday ma and I tried to recreate our many Wedel moments from our hot chocolate sessions in the Wedel cafes of Krakow, Wroclaw and Warsaw in the last 12 months... m-hm. Good job they sell their hot chocolate real chocolate pieces in their cafes to enjoy at home.

I went for trying to recreate the hazelnut praline hot chocolate I had.

Oh yes... most satisfying!

Also on the winter front, I managed to find and grab the very last bottle on the shelves of this winning Christmas punch that Zoe and I both enjoyed last Christmas - I'll be looking out for some more bottles of this as it's so full of festiveness whether you have it with or without wine. :)

And lastly it's Thursday night, so I am going to deploy my weekly Arrow reaction in advance! This is usually me while watching every new Arrow ep... five minutes from the end, there's always a TWIST!!

Hehe....

Well it was pay day...

So off I went checking out my amazon wish lists carefully compiled over the last week or so.

These included the OPI Nordic mini set:

Niiiice - I also added a top coat and base coat set while I was at in.

And then it was time to checkout my mp3 basket. :)

Here are some of the highlights:

 

 

This next one is totally due to it being used on Suits :oD

Time for a little culture - this song got a lot of play time when we were in Poland this summer. :)

A classical take on a great OneRepublic melody mashed up with a bit of Beethoven - what's not to like?

 Something edgy:

From that extreme to one of the best ever lyrics and melodies in a musical... love this version:

Can't tell you how much I love this song... man...

I already owned a few tracks on the My Head is an Animal album by Of Monsters and Men - but I couldn't resist any longer and bought the rest of the album. King and Lionheart has been my favourite track for the past couple of months! LoveItLoveItLoveIt!!

Time for a classic, all down to the last few lines of melody in this song that are featuring heavily in a car ad... man, I may not be in the market for a car but they sold me on the tune! lol

Hm, after that perhaps I should end it on a lighter note and share another favourite (although not a new purchase) song that I've had on constant loop this week - crank up the volume and enjoy!

Weekend antics

Well it's been a nice Halloween weekend in these parts.

A good few treats to be enjoyed - they didn't all go to the trick-or-treaters:

Also some ice cream enjoyment:

Ben and Jerry's currently on offer at Tesco, so I got one of the new winter flavours and I'm going to try the other, Satisfy My Bowl, later this evening. :)

There were also some Halloween sights to behold on the high street, including a pumpkin Olaf:

November started off with a cute funny courtesy of my Caroline Gardner desktop calendar:

I had a lovely afternoon and evening with Zoe and the girls, including one very mellow Lola who was hogging the fire:

Some quality time with the Playmobil... in fact there was a Playmobil photo call that got photobombed by a certain Playmobil fan:

And said fan also managed to create another Playmobil photobomb incident as some hapless diver got in on the action at Playmobil diving practice - genius! hehe

Then it was pumpkin carving time, which took some time it has to be said - there were a lot of guts to scrape out:

Our evening was made complete by a rather huuuge Indian take-away (the remaining half of which I polished off for lunch today) whilst watching X-Factor (less said about that the better)...

Today, while catching up on some of the week's telly, I have been having a leisurely day of crafting, including finally opening and USING some of the Tim Holtz tinsel I picked up in Florida in 2012!

I knew it'd get used one day!

52 Christmas Crackers 2014 - Week 44

Well, I was going to share my card for this week's 52 Cards prompt jar challenge last night, but I think I got sucked into watching something on telly and before I knew it it was bed time.

But never mind - so featuring pink, die-cuts, and patterned paper I give you my Christmas cracker for this week:

Paper: Crate Paper, American Crafts
Dies: Lawn Fawn, Mama Elephant
Stamps: Lawn Fawn
Ephemera: Pink Paislee
Enamel dots: MME
Other: 3D foam, Promarkers, sewing machine

I finally managed to get my new little penguin friend out of his packaging and onto a card. :) He is very cute, and I will definitely be using him again, but next time perhaps on a tag? I'm feeling a bit out of my groove on the creative front at the moment as things aren't turning out quite like I envisage them in my head - bummer...

Crate Paper - Bundled Up - 6x6 paper pad	American Crafts - Be Merry - Let it Snow paper	Pink Paislee - Merry & Bright - Ephemera	My Mind's Eye - Jubilee - Mint Julep 'Beautiful' Enamel Dots
Mama Elephant - Landscape Trio stitched border dies	Lawn Fawn - Winter Penguin stamp set	Lawn Fawn - Winter Penguin die	Lawn Fawn - Forest border die

InLinkz.com

But I had a lovely surprise today when Elle's Studio shared one of my October Hey Little Magpie cards on their Instagram feed. Sweeeet!

In other news, our current weather trend can be summed up in the following Instagram photos... we have gone from tropical cocktails complete with cactus accessories:

...and fresh coconut for elevenses...

...to 2 degrees in the morning and having to start the day with the holy trinity of hot chocolate + syrup of your choice + a big mug:

Yep.... winter is coming!

Also today was the day for me to try out the next of the colours from these lovely Mavala nail varnish sets I bought in TK Maxx last week. I looooooooove Mavala - their colours are awesome and they come in just the right size of bottle for fashion nails, but best of all they have real staying power - especially compared to Nails Inc which always peels off in one layer for me - without fail!

So in a bit of a dilemma after trying the Candy Pink plus Pink diamond glitter last week I looked to the oracle that is Facebook for what to try next. Facebook replied with Mexico first of all, plus a few recommendations for Black Cherry. I am now sporting Mexico which is a gorgeous shade of purple and promise to give Black Cherry a go for Halloween! Bwah-ha-haaa...

Busy times

September is definitely shaping up to be a busy and tiring month - a lot of work has meant little real downtime, but to switch off most evenings I have been re-watching Arrow and also still trying to get some crafting done. Mind you working at the same desk all day has made crafting a bit less attractive. ;o)

However I have some pics I've only just managed to copy over from my phone since the iOS8 update (boy am I missing my camera roll and photostream being two separate things! going to need a day to compare what's on my PC and what's on my phone and iPad before I go ahead and delete a lot of stuff from both).

This month I finally got back to scrapping - but that meant actually doing my February pocket pages first...

I'll share the full spread in another blog post soon. :)

I have still been listening to this on loop when not working...

I've been trying out some of these lovely goodies from Origins, 3 x 30 ml samples and a lovely little pouch that I got with my restock of Ginzing moisturiser. I have a good selection of cleansers to put to the test. :)

Thursday night was time for a break and cinema outing... I was waiting for my partner in crime to hot-tail it down to the cinema - I'd had nothing to eat except a banana and yoghurt all day and we were both starving for food... I seriously contemplated eating the remaining contents of this box of tictacs during the 3 minutes I was waiting. LOL

Thankfully we did manage to get some food before the film - we only had 20 minutes or so and it was very much a fail on the real food front, slow service, underwhelming "fast food" offering, and then 10 minutes to eat it all and get back to our screen so we could watch this:

All I'm saying is that it's a good job we didn't see this on an empty stomach! Would have been torture. What a fantastic film, just perfect for a September evening. :D

Well, I'd best make the most of my work-free day!