Kool Kitty Musings

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. :)

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)

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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!

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

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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

May! Where did you go to??

I'm having a bit of an update and organizational fix with my phone photos and I realised although May passed in the blink of an eye I didn't take all that many photos that weren't craft related... but hey, why not have a little catch-up? ;)

I've had some fun times with Miss A in May - we even attempted our first selfie:

Miss A was quite taken with the taking of a selfie and tried to take some more but kept jumping out of shot! LOL

Selfie taking got old, especially when there was a scooter to move around on:

There were also some dining and cinema outings in May:

Sadly no cardboard cut-outs for the Spooks movie, wouldn't that have been nice with cardboard Kit? But that evening did start off nicely for a Tuesday evening:

There was some crafty behind-the-scenes antics in May - namely my big crafty clear-out. There is NO before photo as I just couldn't bring myself to record that. But this paper pile took 4 plus hours to sort through:

And then my Harry Potter craft cupboard (complete with bi-fold doors that close and hide it all away) was tidied and organised a bit better and there's now space for more - which is the important thing right?

Oh, and some crafty antics were required in preparation for my future sister-in-law's hen weekend in Edinburgh. There was a sea theme and so I got to work on a pirate badge to go with my pirate hat:

The weekend was definitely memorable - despite the sheer volume of vodka and cocktails enjoyed! :D

My brother was sure looking forward to a quiet weekend:

The less said about this the better:

But wowzers, after our spooky Mercat underground tour of Edinburgh (which included my watch stopping for 15 minutes) we headed to the Hard Rock café for one of my favourite activities of the weekend. A 2 hr cocktail making class (really educational and fun!) which included discovering my new favourite cocktail (I'm hoping I can still remember how to make it) called Island Spice (a fantastic rum, ginger and mint combo!) followed by more cocktail drinking over lunch:

This pineapple and roasted coconut mojito was lush! And it looked like we all enjoyed our cocktails to the max!

Anyway, we all made it home safe and sound on Sunday - a bit tired but all in one piece.

The weather was fab up north of the border except for Saturday night, but down here it's been stormy and temperamental ever since...

I'm still wondering if it's really June - it is still so cold!

Here's hoping the sun comes out and stays out for some actual summer capering!

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?

Fun and games

It's been a week of work, lots of work, and more work through next week and probably next weekend with plenty of OT...

But it's been a week with a little play too.

Last Saturday we enjoyed a lovely meal out at Chiquitos as a group - complete with sombrero posing while waiting for everyone to arrive.

Unlike the food and cocktails the lighting is always shocking in there, but some pics had to be taken!

Not everyone got the memo for which pose we were going for!

But thankfully there were more important things to tackle:

In crafting news, I am hoping that this little guy is going to aid in making straighter cards - I am game for anything at this point!

Cats and boxes, no matter what their age, they revert to kittens as soon as a box appears:

Caption: "Don't judge me!"

Then Thursday night was officially Fat Thursday, the Polish Tlusty Czwartek celebrations were in full swing with donuts and Faworki - I have officially had my fill for 2015:

There were even left-over donuts for a certain little someone to get in on the action after her cheese sandwich:

And last night, while the rest of the world seemed to be at the cinema in order to watch Fifty Shades of Grey, Kelly and I went to see:

Great film and some exciting trailers for new films coming out. Oh and I am definitely in a Dire Straits music kinda head space after watching this. LOL

And February's cinema outing naturally had a new cardboard cut-out photo op:

I wonder who they'll have for Kelly to pose with next time!

Time for a little photo recap

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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....

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...

Weekend hijinks

Well after the mammoth crafting session on Saturday, Sunday was spent out and about in the sunshine of York with friends.

It was so sunny in fact I had trouble getting some decent pics of our little group without blinding them:

After lunch (sadly not the Yorkshire pudding wraps we'd been looking forward to) we strolled up to the Minster - not that you can really see it, and I promise the sky was blue...

There may have been some sweet purchases at various fudge stops and the like...

And there may have been cake....

The good news is that Patisserie Valerie is coming to Newcastle - in a couple of months apparently! I wonder where it'll be located. :D

After the last cake and refreshments of the day it was time to go wait for the last Park and Ride bus to take us back to the car - good job we checked the time as we'd have been locked out otherwise!

A very nice day indeed. Let's hope this weather continues for a bit longer, especially around the 19th as I have a little visitor coming to stay for the weekend. ;o)

Happy Mother's Day!

I thought I would pop in with the last of the cards I made for someone else's mum, I'll share mine tomorrow. ;o)

Paper: Dear Lizzy
Stamps: Avery Elle
Stickers: Echo Park, Crate Paper
Dies: MFT, PTI
Other: resin flower, stickles, sewing machine, pearls

That Avery Elle Handwritten Notes stamp set has had a fair bit of use this week, eh? :)

And on the topic of Mother's Day - ma and I had a very nice but rather shattering outing to the Metrocentre and IKEA, polished off with a good old burger at Gourmet Burger Kitchen:

So good, but boy oh boy was the walk back to the car a difficult one!

Yet again we had spent something like 3 hours in IKEA, and left with the usual... serviettes, tea lights, washing up scrubby and zip lock bag restocks!

However, I did come away with a new storage container for my stamps, and the two smaller boxes in the set are great for storing 6x6 pads.

These Notudden baskets were in the bathroom section and are pretty durable compared to the cardboard CD storage boxes. They are those ones made from a durable fabric that zip diagonally at the bottom to assemble. I have some cream ones in my Hemnes chest of drawers in the bedroom, but I loved this print and they are really handy looking. The baskets will definitely do for now for my stamp collection, if it needs rehoming again I shall just move these baskets to my Hemnes drawers to store chargers, etc.

Well, I had best log off, as I think an early night is definitely in order after today's shenanigans!

Crafting away...

Friday night I started on a little project in order to sell some of my cards to friends and family in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care. It all came about because of the cancer awareness selfies popping up on Facebook urging friends to donate to the various cancer charities. After sharing my no-make-up selfie there and making a donation I thought it would be good to do a bit more as every little helps. :)

No one could ever accuse me of being a speedy crafter, but I am hoping there will be enough in my card basket to tempt some folks to parting with some money.

But I can at least share the first custom-made card that has gone off to a new home, a welcome excuse to play with my new WPlus9 stamps and dies:

Paper: MME
Stamps: WPlus9, My Cute Stamps, PTI
Dies: WPlus9, PTI
Other: sewing machine, 3D foam, Promarkers

It makes a real change for me to have so much white space on a card - but I filled it up quite a bit with those fab birthday balloons, and I tried that embedded die-cutting technique, rather like how it turned out. Oh and there was a request for a cat theme, so those My Cute Stamps came to the rescue again - I love that little kitty cat. :)

In other news, it's been a rather busy time with work, so no thrilling photos to share, but here are some random bits and bobs.

I have been unwinding with the aid of my L'Occitane almond shower oil and other almond goodies I got for Christmas from my mum - especially loving the foot cream! Heavenly!

Banana bread made a return to the dessert menu, served hot with custard as a pud - yummo!

There's not been much chance to get into my current book, but I am plodding away and no doubt when I am in the right head space and in the reading zone I will get into it so much that it'll be unputdownable.

The baking bug hit again, and I invited the parentals round for tea and...

Blueberry muffins!

The spring sunshine has been much enjoyed, not least by Kizia who spent a lot of the sunnier days out the front of my mum and dad's warming herself on the heated path and wall.

And it hasn't been my imagination, the strange cat from a few doors down who ambushed me a few weeks ago has been hanging around and generally stalking me! My flower trough by the front door has definitely been dug out a few times, and I found the cat flap in my back door had been forced through despite being blocked from the inside with a cover panel. I've also had strange noises of something walking on the conservatory roof - thought it was a jackdaw or something, but who knows now... he is a very strange cat, all sweetness and light but when I was trying to get in the house he embedded his claws in my backside and tried to get inside with me... I hope this is not going to be a regular thing. Have never experienced anything quite like it in my life!

Last but not least, I managed to get to Hobbycraft yesterday armed with my list of Gutterman threads I needed to restock and get additional colours. Sadly, they have discontinued two of my favourite aqua shades, one is pictured above - the darkest one. Sad times - the nearest aqua shades they had I bought - also in the picture but they are not as vibrant unfortunately... Oh well, I definitely have enough pink/peach shades to keep me going for a bit!

Right, best get my stuff sorted for tomorrow...

Saturday round-up

Well, it's been a while since I posted any non-crafty pics. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened this week, I've been working from home since Tuesday as I still have lots of work going on. But Monday I managed to pop into TK Maxx in hopes of finding some of the new AC products reportedly doing the rounds. No crafting stash at all in my TK Maxx local (which was very unusual) but I did see these fab pigeon holes:

There's no where I can put them, but they were awfully nice looking!

Tuesday night I popped over to my mum and dad's for pancakes - the last Pancake Tuesday in my mum's old kitchen. :)

Can't beat Nutella for a sweet pancake. :D My savoury favourite is Jambon-fromage from my days in Grenoble. Yummy!

So aside from the crafting I've also been enjoying some telly and reading a new book, which I finished in the very early hours of this morning having woken up at 2 a.m. and was still wide awake at 5 a.m. when I finished said book. Then I watched some TV on amazon prime on my iPad and finally fell asleep at 6.45! The lie in did not work out so well... but I'm hoping I can make it until this evening before drifting off.

Especially as I now have these lovely items arrived from Sarah's Cards ready to play with this weekend:

Got to love a month off from council tax and the water bill as it allows a little selfish spending. ;o)

So a little show and tell:

Some lovely packets of Basic Grey Basics enamel dots. They are just lovely colours, especially loving the kelly green and aqua combo, and the seafoam in with the navy. :)

I decided to take the plunge and purchase some more of the Oh Darling collection by Crate as I've loved using the papers from this line I already have, and fingers crossed the quality will be fine. I went for the 6x12 stickers (includes mini alpha stickers), the ephemera pack, the chipboard pack, and the journaling cards - I looked at these to see how much was really about kids/little girls and most of the cards are really versatile and will work with other everyday stuff. :)

A little restock of some of the Crate papers, plus the Styleboard journaling cards for my collection, and a set of teal alpha stickers by Elle's Studio that I absolutely love - you get 300 stickers on the sheet and the colour is just perfect - a bit less blue than in the pic above. Gorgeous!

And finally some more papers and stickers.

• 12x12 alpha sticker sheets by Basic Grey - think this is a great option for extra colours - 6 alphabet sets to a sheet and a good size for pocket scrapping.
• A selection of Basic Grey Mon Ami papers and the 12x12 sticker sheet - shame there weren't more embellishments in this line - just stickers as far as I could see.
• A couple of sheets from Basic Grey Capture - love the blue and green one - great for spring!
• And a sheet from MME Now and Then (navy stripe) and those lovely hearts from Elle's Studio. MME paper is so expensive these days that I can't splurge on it especially if the other side isn't something I totally love. But I think I'll get a good few cards from that navy stripe sheet!

Anyway, time to get the stash sorted into its new home and grab some lunch before starting my playtime. :)

Almost Monday and back to the grind

It's been a busy couple of weeks and this one looks to be the same, work has been really busy and I've been working from home plus working extra hours to get everything done, so I have neglected to blog and share what I've been up to when not working.

So I've been out a good few times to Chiquitos - yum!

Had a fun games night with Zoe and the girls:

Finished a book I started and have to say it's been the best book I've read so far this year (and probably will be for a bit... )

The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty - big recommendation to try it!

Enjoyed a break from work last Thursday to go and celebrate Tlusty czwartek (Polish Mardi Gras) at the parentals:

Ma made the staple item of Tlusty czwarten enjoyment - Faworki, above is the before photo of plate one.

Here is ma with plate two.

Here is plate one ten minutes later....

And apart from that I've been watching some telly in the evenings - yay Silk is back!

Then there was the next gripping instalment of Line of Duty:

And I also enjoyed this week's episodes of The Taste, The Great British Sewing Bee, and Hair (on BBC3).

And at last it looks like Spring is coming around, the days are getting noticeably longer and the sun was actually shining and heating up the kitchen on Friday:

Today I've had a work-free day so it's meant I've been able to catch up with crafting for next week as well as my 2014 album, well I'd only had chance to get my January photos printed so have finished those now:

And now I'd best go and rescue my dinner in the oven!

52 Christmas Crackers 2014 - Week 4

Just popping in quickly to share my Christmas card for this week's Pinterest inspiration pic:

{Pinterest pin}

So the Christmas inspiration I took from the pic were the doily patterns and the biscuit that looked a bit like a snowflake, the lacy details, the little white dots, the woodgrain pattern, and the leafy accents.

And this is what I created:

Paper: MME
Dies: Marianne, Sizzix
Stamp: PTI
Die-cut strip: Crate Paper
Pearl: Kaisercraft
Other: 3D foam

I quite like how it turned out. :)

In other news I was really glad to hear that Make the Day Special had re-opened after the Christmas break and had stocked up with the latest WPlus9 release, and a few other items. :)

I love the font in the Valentine Wishes set by WPlus9 so had to get those Avery Elle greetings, I hope more greetings in this style will be coming out as they are very nice!

And at last I bought an Easter egg set - hoping to put it to good use this year and in good time!

I also had a bit of an 80s flashback moment the other day when I managed to buy a box of these:

Used to love Nerds until they disappeared from our shores - wouldn't mind some of the sour cherry ones, so will have to look out for them. :)

Now that's how to spend the weekend

Doing nice things. :)

I finally cracked open my lovely Origins Christmas present to myself - you know that one I bought while buying presents for someone else...

I just love Night-A-Mins night cream, but tried out the Drink Up intensive overnight mask last night. Fab!

I met Zoe for lunch yesterday followed by a wander round the shops.

Well lunch was fabulous, we had Nachos to start, a couple of Mock-jitos (ginger beer option):

I was weak and had my beloved BBQ pulled pork chimichanga as a main:

Needless to say the stroll round the shops was quite leisurely!

This morning I finished off my current read - The Sum of All Kisses by Julia Quinn whilst still snuggled under the duvet:

Then I added a few finishing touches to my cards for this week and got photographing everything while daylight was around.

Now I'm waiting for my mum and dad as we're off looking at kitchens for ma... I don't think I'll be able to wear my fleece poncho for that, more's the pity - so cold out there! Brrrrr!

What's been occurring this week?

Well nothing overly thrilling - it is January after all!

Sunday marked the first roast of 2014 - delicious as usual:

It was also time to clear away Christmas....

Monday marked the return to the office and also a stroll around a certain store I am addicted to.

I didn't leave empty-handed, in fact I cleared the shelf of my all time favourite Molton Brown product.

I first received one of these little bottles of "pillow spray" in a Molton Brown Travel set from my brother for Christmas in 2012. It was my favourite travel item of 2013 because just a few sprays on a pillow and I was instantly transported off on a fluffy cloud. It came away on a weekend outing with my friends and was an instant hit. So I have one to give to Clare, one for myself, and one as a birthday present for a certain someone. I really hope she likes it as much as me. I also rediscovered my little bottle of Heavenly Air which is fantastic sprayed in the air just before you get in the bath. Seriously ups that Spa feeling!

That feeling was definitely needed after Monday night's reintroduction of Just Dance! A long relaxing soak was the perfect stress relief.

And of course you can't beat lovely fresh linens and PJs after a long soak.

Finally, I didn't get chance to share this last week, what with the gloomy daylight situation:

My lovely present from Zoe for looking after Lola. Love it! :D

It's beginning to look a bit festive....

So, this weekend has been spent getting a few festive tasks done, and some other things.

Friday I was definitely in the mood for some pre-weekend baking:

Over ripe bananas = banana loaf. I tried a recipe by Mary Berry, but have to say the cinnamon spiced on with brown sugar in the Hummingbird recipe book is one I'll try again as I think that one was just little bit nicer and more bannana-ry.

Needless to say once it was out the oven I was enjoying a nice wedge with some custard as a late evening pud - fabulous combo! And best enjoyed by the fire:

Yesterday I wanted to get all crafting out of the way so I could concentrate on Christmas decorating today.

First up using some of my new Flea Market 6x6 and ephemera:

I must say I am slightly cheesed off at the 6x6 pad, it features 2 of of some designs and typically 1 of my favourite designs in the pad. The Ephemera pack is missing the gold doily, instead you get a scalloped circle, but the worst part is that a lot of the labels are printed crooked and chopped off in the wrong place. Also a lot of the gold elements aren't cut right through and are torn and bent. :( I think I will need to contact Crate Paper CS about it with some photos as it's a real shame that so many elements in the pack aren't perfect.

Oh well, once crafting was out the way it was time to get sorting the pile of handmade Christmas cards ready to match them to recipients:

Thank god for post-it notes - they're all done and ready to write:

But I need to feel the festive love again before I get on with that. ;o)

Today has mostly been spent battling with decorations.

I also had the idea to Instagram one decoration a day and share my love for it.

The decoration for December 1st is this new one from M&S - my Santa tree topper:

He is a very wise and cheerful looking fellow. :) He even looks great atop a silver tree!

And another pic, this time of my folky shelving unit where I usually keep my Polish items, now added with some traditional decorations and of course my festive nested dolls and that Pottery Barn Santa mug:

Right, well I'd best get the lights on now that it's getting dark outside, I wonder how many homes will be lit up on the street tonight. :)

A trip down memory lane...

Can't believe it's almost a month ago that we were in Krakow enjoying that mini heatwave.

At last I thought it about time I shared some pics on my blog, not just my Instagram account!

So it's about to get image heavy here!

After checking into our hotel, we set off on our very short walk to the market square in search of something to eat.

The first night was definitely the night for something filling.

So down the steps we went into a cellar restaurant hoping for some traditional fayre and of course the first beer of the holiday for my brother:

Indeed my brother went for the whole shebang with his platter of food!

The next day we were headed down the Wieliczka Salt Mine - it was a seriously sunny day out, but very nice to spend all that time underground being wowed by the sights, even with all that walking down countless steps and tunnels. We were just very glad there was a lift back to the top - only took 20 seconds to reach the surface again, having spent 3 hours walking down as far as the tour went it was amazing how fast we got back to the top!

Have to say those miner's uniforms are very smart and perfect for a cheeky photo op, here's my brother down pit:

After we resurfaced we got dropped off at the square again so we could go and enjoy a bit of refreshment.

It was still gloriously sunny:

Refreshment came in the form of cake and ice cream:

It was just lovely sitting outside relaxing and enjoying the view around:

The love birds went with an ice cream to share which came with a gingerbread heart, ahhh:

I had an iced coffee and a slice of Black Forest, although "slice" doesn't do it justice!

And ma had a traditional slice of Polish apple cake - although I've never seen a slice as big as that before! hehe

After some more shopping and a freshen up at the hotel we hit the square again in the evening for dinner and a pre-bedtime trip to the Wedel chocolate cafe:

For the best hot chocolate I have ever had (oh man and there have been some good ones):

Kate went for a very seasonal spice bouquet infused tea:

The next morning it was time for more culture. We set off to the through the park:

This was really the only sign that it was October - you couldn't tell by the weather that's for sure:

Then it was up the hill...

And through the gates:

Then into the courtyard:

Off to wait for our tour of the private apartments to begin, but blimey it was so warm, you'd think we were in Italy!

Naturally we enjoyed a nice ice cream and a bit of cake at the cafe - a very nice Kremówka to be had at the Wawel cafe it must be said!

Then it was time to walk back to the square around the walls of the Wawel and do a bit more shopping - mainly window shopping at the L'Occitaine shop - and a few nice items at the Boleslawiec shop.

We passed Kredens again, a bit like the Krakow version of Lewis & Cooper, and they had a nice window display on again (last time we'd been in 2012 it was a vintage delivery bicycle) with a nice old samovar:

And there were some more photo ops:

Thursday was the only day it rained, ma and I had a little venture out to some places we wanted to pop into before heading off for the afternoon to family friends for a lovely catch up. By the time we got back to the hotel it had stopped raining and was lovely and warm, even though it was now dark. And yep, it was off out for our last evening meal in Krakow back to Max 18 - a fab restaurant for your favourites - plus, best of all, lots of fresh traditional salads (like grated carrot and sauerkraut, etc.) yummy!

After checking out the next morning and leaving our bags at the hotel we did one final tour of the square via a well trodden route.

It was time for our last eating adventure in Krakow, my brother was desperate to finally have his fill of street food, a sausage and beer followed by some black pudding:

Ma and I, on the other hand, were much more interested in having our last fill of cake!

Rafaello cake for me at the aptly named U-la-la - btw this was the BEST place for a Kremowka in the end, it's what ma had and was definitely 10 out of 10!

My brother tried to put a brave face on it when enjoying his last beer of the holiday, but he was glum:

And then it was bye-bye Krakow...

... and off to the airport.

Thankfully lots of nice things came home with us including a very nice array of Christmas items (alas no proper baubles this time as we couldn't find what we were looking for), but there's enough nice stuff here to keep me happy!

I also saw these and remembered how much we loved our own similar wooden ornaments as kids (which still go on the family tree) and bought this set for a certain little lady to enjoy in future years:

I also got my fill of the folk art I love so much:

Including that excellent round mouse mat on the top that I'm now using. Ironically designed in Poland and made in the UK! You don't hear that often!

And here are the Boleslawiec items added to the collection. For me a little spoon rest (I know it's for tea bags but I'm not a big tea drinker, I am a big stirring spoon user though!):

And for ma's name day coming up in December, this gorgeous cup and saucer:

Neither of us had seen this pattern and design combo before - unfortunately just the one in the shop, but I really wouldn't mind one for myself. ;o)

And I think that more or less covers it.

World cardmaking day? Not in this house it ain't!

Quite ironic, I thought, of all the days in the year that I am not actually crafting away it would be this one...

Nope, instead I have been awake since 4 a.m. unable to sleep, yet able to finish off the new Mary Balogh book I started earlier this week and rather enjoyed.

Then Ma came over and we went for a walk to the new local deli so Ma could enjoy an Italian, ooer:

...Coffee that is.

And we could try some of the paninis on offer:

I have to say I do love a nice Gorgonzola and onion marmalade combo, this time with Parma ham. :)

After our meal which also included a sweet treat we went for a wander around the village, stopped off at a few shops then wandered over to the park for a stroll via this fella:

Who I am sure was hoping for some nice minty polos.

So... yes, not much creative stuff done and I have a long list to be getting on with. Best fire up the iPlayer and get to work!

Picture catch-up

Well, there's not much been happening in these parts other than work, tv catch-up viewing, staying out of the rain and cold, and dusting off my Remoska ready for the return of winter meals!

But here are some recent pics of this and that.

Ma and I went for a bimble round the Metrocentre on Sunday and at long last I managed to get myself the paper pad I've been searching for! The Pier 12x12 pad from Crate Paper:

It was a bit battered around the edges and I only got 99 p off, but £7 was fine with me!

After more walking and no buying we finally went for lunch at Gourmet Burger Kitchen - it was our first visit so had no idea what size things came in.

We ordered a few sides just for test purposes and I had a free sauce with the app so we were well and truly happy with our meal! Next time we will just get the onion rings and homeslaw plus the garlic mayo as that would have been enough and lovely as the fries are they got cold very quickly.

Ma had a small blue cheese...

And I had The Taxi Driver - seriously yummy!

We weren't up to much more shopping after that so headed home.

I admired the last of the cut roses at my mum and dad's:

Then it was off back to mine to stroke my paper. ;o)

Autumn must be in full swing because Monday marked the first seasonal hot chocolate in Starbucks - the barrista wasn't kidding when she said she'd put a bit of extra cream on it!

I am rather partial to a hazelnut hot chocolate, but it's always best enjoyed with a slice of something - raspberry and coconut loaf in this case!

Tuesday onwards I've been working from home and next week looks like it's going to be a seriously busy week with work and birthdays. Eeek. Think I am also going to have to work some of this weekend just to keep on top of things but I've definitely got birthday cards to make!

Right, best tuck into my dinner and see what's left of the evening. :)

A quick round up

So the blog's been a bit neglected this week - I've been rather busy this week with work, a bit of crafting, and a nice meal out.

In fact, let's go back to Friday when I had a rather long and tiring day at work and finally could rest and relax in the evening in the awful rainy weather with a warming hot choc and slice of cake:

Saturday morning I had a bit of work to do before an afternoon hair appt and a late lunch out with Ma at our favourite local Italian.

Glad to see our favourite drink was back on the menu:

Strawberry Pago juice cannot be beaten!

We decided to forgo our usual garlic bread starter (mmmmm) and have something a bit bigger for our main.

Ma went for a really filling Pork dish with Chirizio and some peppers, plus potatoes and salad on the side:

I went for the Pollo Speziale with a lovely salad and potatoes on the side - the caper, olive and cherry tomato salsa under the chicken was delicious and the chicken has to be one of the best grilled dishes I've ever had, so light and tender:

Sunday was a definite day of rest - or the day I did a bit more work and then got on with some cardmaking. ;o)

Monday evening was my only crafty time this week...

I got the inks out!

Tuesday night I was working right up until The Great British Bake Off.

Yesterday was a bit of a trying day but thankfully there was light at the end of a tunnel, a lovely meal at the Indian with Zoe - totally stuffed after polishing it off but it was sooooo good:

And off to the cinema we went to see We're the Millers. From the trailers at the cinema I am somewhat worried about the lack of comedy films coming our way this autumn and winter. :( We may get desperate when the SAD kicks in and have to go see Bad Grandpa:

But yes, I'm hoping there's at least a few more movies to go see this year!

Tonight I have managed to get my crop packing done in record time for tomorrow night, but I'd best double check I've actually got everything for this "light" packing malarkey.

It just doesn't seem right....

Some Wednesday pretties

I have no crafty makes to share - still not feeling 100% and I think it'll definitely be a very early night tonight. Only 7 p.m. and feel like I should be tucked up in bed.

Buuut...

Here are some pics of some pretty things I'm liking.

First up I failed to share this lovely collection of pamper products my mum put together for my birthday:

Lots of Elemis goodies plus my old favourite, the night treatment oil by ADS skin synergies. Lovely stuff. Even a nice Nails Inc shade to enjoy. I am having to exercise some patience right now because I need to use up what's left in some existing moisturiers/cleanser bottles.

Next up, yesterday I managed a mini haul in TK Maxx, but still no elusive Pier 12x12 pad from Crate - I hear they are out there!

But I got these lovely Crate 6x6 pads and the yellow corner chomper to complete my collection.

And finally, I picked up some lovely iced tea at M&S yesterday - they have them on 3 for 2 so it would have been rude note to.

This is the one I am trying tonight which is just the tonic in this heat.

It's such a shame you can't get iced tea from green tea so easily in the UK. My favourite one that we stock up on in Poland is this:

Most refreshing!

Right, think I am going to head for bed and take the iPad with me. :)

Not how I expected my week to go...

From the highs of last Friday's birthday celebrations I am now feeling my "advanced age" (:oP) and suffering with a rather uncomfortable and problematic trapped nerve down my left lower back into my thigh. Ugh, sitting has been a real problem ever since Tuesday morning when I must have jarred myself between getting dressed and arriving at work. I just couldn't handle sitting at my desk as it was so painful plus I overstretched when trying to (ironically) move my monitor to a more ergonomic position. Thankfully have managed do some work from home in my PJs between stretching on the floor and applying arnica, etc. I've managed to get some high strength anti-inflammatory tablets from Boots now and they really helped last night in addition to the pain killers and heat pad. I thank heaven that lying stretched out in bed is fine so I can at least get some sleep, but sitting at a desk isn't great... am hoping the weekend will help get me sorted as I don't need to drive anywhere or be seated a lot. If the lovely weather sticks around I could at least get some vitamin D therapy while I tackle my book pile...

But anyway, here's a look back at the halcyon days of last weekend.

Friday I enjoyed a lovely trip to Fountain's Abbey with my brother and Kate. The weather was nice for us and not overly warm as there ended up being a few hills to climb whilst trying to avoid the pheasant population.

We started off in the manor house which included a rather nice dressing up area that someone took advantage of:

There were some lovely dresses indeed:

We then set off for the abbey ruins:

Including a look at the rather formidable cellar:

I think my brother was getting ideas for how to store his beer collection...

Then we wandered further... lots of photo ops, especially for those who like to play hide-and-seek.

We then wandered to the lake to enjoy a nice scone with a view:

Before heading right back round on the other side and snapping a few more pics from across the river:

I think Kate and I were rather in need of a nana nap in the afternoon, but I managed to stay awake long enough to get ready to head on over to the parentals where ma had cooked up and prepared a veritable feast of Polish favourites for us all:

We started off with cold meats, cheeses, breads, salads, etc. Including my current favourite combination of very thinly sliced Polish yellow cheese (mmmmm) with tomato and sweet onion salad.

Naturally every course was accompanied by vodka, and we put one of the latest additions to the family collection to the test:

I'm afraid I much preferred Belvedere, but we got the job done... After my fave soup in the world - gherkin soup - we moved onto the main course. Not much left here, but ma had made Polish pork schnitzel, a roulade of pork in a lovely sauce, buttery grated beetroot (mmm), new potatoes, and French beans with lardons. All very lovely and very filling!

Naturally the vodka was rather low by this time:

So much so that by the end of the main course we'd finished the bottle and my dad had decided we needed to polish off the rest of another one so the bottle could be put to use in the making of home-made lemon vodka ready for Christmas. We were happy to oblige.

Last on the agenda was my birthday cake - a gorgeous triple chocolate mousse cake:

Saturday of course was mostly spent recovering from the food excesses of the previous day - no hangover - you don't get that with good vodka. ;o)

Sunday afternoon I had a nice trip out with Zoe and the girls, plus Lola:

Lola even perfected her mountain goat dog routine.

It's a good job we did all that walking - because we went for tea to The South Causey Inn near Beamish, and oh my word - if you want to get your money's worth in dining this is definitely the place to go. Very generous portions and I have never seen such a large dinner plate in my life - in fact it was larger than the clock on the wall:

So large I couldn't get it all in shot - and this was after I'd loaded up my plate with the veg I knew I could manage.

That's not to say of course that dessert was off limits... It would have been rude to ignore that aspect of the menu.

However I think I would have been just as happy with the Mr Whippy option the girls had on their menu:

BH Monday was definitely a day of rest! In fact I finished off a book and got a few things sorted at home, including putting my lovely gift from Zoe out in its new home:

My lovely Babushkups are now residing on what has become my folky shelf.

All was well Tuesday evening as I enjoyed the latest instalment of the Great British Bake Off.

The only bright side to Wednesday morning was receiving some lovely post from Ang over at Paper and Ribbons.

She'd very kindly swapped some die cuts from me for these handy PTI dye ink sample charts and a couple of cubes she no longer needed. And best of all, a gorgeous handmade card using her new PTI goodies accompanied these pretty items:

Anyway, I am just hoping my back and hip will be ok enough to enjoy a little craft activity this weekend as I am behind on making a get well card for my grandma in Poland who now has her wrist in plaster, and I have other thank you cards still to make and well... at this rate they will be Christmas thank you cards! Plus I want to do better for next week's DCM card since I have been out of action this week and couldn't craft in time.

Right, best go and apply some more arnica as I am feeling the need!

Before I get back to work

On this little project:

Complete with all photos now stitched last night into the late hours and awaiting the next stage of album assembly:

I thought it would be nice to look back on the past week that flew by so very quickly. I am really hoping this weekend won't be a repeat of some of the mishaps of last weekend.

Namely...

When the Hummingbird Bakery definition of a 23 cm pie dish is somewhat different from John Lewis' definition and you have to transfer the entire biscuit base for your Keylime Pie into a rather larger baking vessel!

When your washing line flies free from its moorings just as you've pinned up the last of your sizeable bedding wash and it promptly all collapses in a heap on the (wet-in-places) decking! Above the emergency solution still in place.

When quite by chance you see a little wasp disappearing into your shed when the door's closed and you go and investigate, only to find a small planet wasp next being built by the door. That's when you can't get your head out of there fast enough! Thankfully wasp man (aka father) came in with his basket of wasp-eliminating products to resolve the matter!

But in better news there have been some enjoyable moments:

The Keylime Pie turned out fine! Next time I will just halve the ingredients, then it should fit in my flipping pie dish. ;o)

The weather was great for the lovely BBQ we had on Sunday. In addition to dessert, I also dished up two of my favourite summer salads, Polish tomato and sweet onion (so simple but so satisfying), and Pear and Blue Cheese (St. Agur in this case) salad, with toasted mixed seeds and avocado for extra oomf:

All that food, sun, and sparkling conversation all proved too much for some:

And then it was Monday before you knew it. And by what a scorcher it was. The Coke truck was in town offering you the opportunity to finally get your name on a diddy Coke bottle - I am never going to see my name (the closest I ever got to personalised pencils or keyrings as a kid was Natalie or Natasha - never a Natalia to be found!) or my brother's on a bottle, so thought I'd go along after work and see what the queue was like:

At 29 degrees and spanning almost the entire length of two department stores I wasn't going to stand about for two teeny bottles. Instead I went in search of something cool and appropriate:

It hit just the spot!

Speaking of cool - I managed to get rid of share some Keylime pie on Tuesday night when I went round to Becky's for a catch-up and to try out her new Slushy cups. They were fab, so off I went and bought myself my own:

Alas mine isn't freezing fully in the freezer - despite it being on the lowest setting I can get. Need to test it in someone else's freezer and if it doesn't work there it's definitely going back. I can get slushy out of it even without it freezing fully, but it's nothing as spectacular and easy as the ones we made on Tuesday. At £13 a pop if it's not working (and I can't make frozen cocktails as easily as I'd envisaged) it'll go back.

As you can see I've also been playing with my apps and combining the various features.

I'm loving it, but one of the niggles I have is with the image size/resolution being saved post-processing. A lot of the pics that I've put through A Beautiful Mess are very small compared to the Instagram pics - I have seen that they are hoping to increase the resolution on the next update, which would be great as the photo printing rating on Photobox is usually medium (for a 6x4 shrink to fit print) compared to good for a full size Instagram image that hasn't been through A Beautiful Mess first.

Mind you I haven't felt the need for filters and doodles on some of the lovely pics I managed to get when round at the parentals on their tour through the David Austin back catalogue:

I too have had some spectacular blooms in my rose collection - but being at work have missed some of the best. But how lovely this one looked:

I'm hoping to get some more pics today once the sun is on the other side of the garden, but what state those blooms will be in today after all that sun I'm not sure. They got a very good watering last night, so hopefully they'll be thriving!

But now, it's back to work on the album I need to make.

(Plenty of mishaps occurred due to the combination of spray paint coating, drying issues due to the heat, and then Wilko clear enamel coating not being received too well by the spray painted surface - so having to rethink a few things and try and make the best of a bad case of pages having become stuck together and pulling paint off! Don't think I will ever buy a black annoyingly shaped chipboard album again! Too much trouble when it comes to actually decorating them!! LOL)

The temperature is already hotting up here, and tomorrow we're going to be on the big Ikea convoy so best crack on. Thankfully got this left-over "Christmas" body lotion from bath and body works to keep my legs and feet cool.

I do indeed smell like a stick of rock, but that's small price to pay!

Now this is definitely not going to become a regular blog feature...

...because I definitely cannot afford to keep up that habit!

But thanks to a nice conversation and swapping of info about apps last night with Zoe, I have a new recommendation to add to the list. The Rhonna Designs App by Rhonna Ferrar is the newest addition to my iPhone and iPad. Go follow that link to see what it's all about - there's a little promo vid too. There is soooo much jammed into this app - so many fantastic text elements, words, fonts, basically there is oodles to play with that at first you are going to spend ages playing away with all the various elements. I also love the colour sliders so if the colour you want to pick is a touch darker, too red or a smidgen off, you can use the sliders to get the colour you want. I'm sure it's an app you'll keep on discovering elements with, for instance I had no idea there were masks until I saw the vid! hehe

Also I think I will use this app much more on my iPad as the bigger size will make it easier to fiddle with all the elements than it would on my phone screen. We shall see! But I'm rather looking forward to discovering everything this app offers.

So yes, that is hopefully my last photo app purchase for a while, otherwise I will be so busy playing with pics I won't have time to take any!

With the aid of my various photo apps, here's a snapshot of yesterday:

The day was filled with blue skies and nary a cloud in the way - Hipstamatic

I picked up a couple of books from the library just in time for the weekend, weather I'll have chance to read them is another matter! - Instagram

I headed up to Zoe's for a delicious and bargainous (Groupon) meal out at a Thai restaurant, loved the subtle flavours of this dish, much smokier than the Chinese equivalent and the batter was very different too. First time I've ever done "proper" Thai food that wasn't lemongrass-based! - A Beautiful Mess + Instagram

Afterwards we went for a little pootle and finally found the secret beach - A Beautiful Mess

Caught the only type of beach sunset you'll ever see in the North East - Hipstamatic

On my way home I stopped off at 24 hr big Tesco to get the ingredients ready for this weekend's BBQ fodder - I am in charge of dessert (above + almost a full tray of Dangerous Cake), Pear and Stilton salad, Chicken and veg souvlaki and I bought myself some freezer cocktails for good measure. Alas the ice lollies were almost all sold out so nothing to tempt there really. How will I survive this hot weekend without ice lollies??? - Rhonna Designs

So, I'd best get on. It's going to be too hot to scrap this afternoon, and I think it might be a good idea to leave off work on my mini-album until the spray painting has definitely had 24+ hours to dry completely. At the moment all the mini-album pages are lined up in my dish drainer by the kitchen sink, as it was the only way to stack them without them touching something else and needing recoating! LOL

Enjoy the sun while you can folks!

Spray paint is my new crafty best friend!

So this week I have been planning a rather special project involving a lot of post-it notes for the planning stage:

And thanks to the post-its I avoided a booboo before putting my Photobox order in, which arrived yesterday:

I was getting itchy fingers to start on my project, so out came the paints...

And I struggled for 4 hours to get the covers and brackety ends of this Basic Grey black chipboard album...

...coated in cream acrylic paint - as you know they'll be a bugger to cut round with a craft knife if covered in paper! Then I fought with my MM paints to mix some very light pastels that I was going to alternate through the other 10 pages inside. Well, after covering 2 colours worth of the insides I gave up and thought I needed to find something that would actually stay the right shade and not end up with this ghastly bumpy finish I was getting.

So I thought... aha! Spray paint!? Can that be used??

Indeed it seems spray paint is excellent for chipboard. So very early this morning before work I toddled off to Wilko to invest in some very light white-based Dulux tester pots for my paint collection should I want to go the pastel white route for the inside pages and a big can of Antique White Matt spray paint.

This evening I have been alternating between finally making Dangerous Cake and applying coats of spray paint to the fronts of the chipboard pages - building up the layers:

Seriously - why did I not do this sooner??? I am wondering whether I need to invest in a clear acrylic sealer spray before starting on decorating the pages... but it seems much more robust than your usual acrylic paint so should be fine. :)

And Dangerous Cake I hear you say... yes, dangerous because these are the ingredients:

OK the Kirsch-soaked morello cherries are an experimental addition, and the funsize Malteasers are to make up for one of the Crunchies I ate for lunch yesterday... hm... but well now you know why it's called Dangerous Cake.

So dangerous that even the wafting smell of chocolatey deliciousness it gives off while cooling is drool-inducing.

So tomorrow I am hoping that the weather is less windy so I can get the backs of the pages spray painted ready for any crafty time I might have this weekend. :)

I also need to NOT buy any more spray paint - but that shouldn't be too hard as I've not seen anywhere stocking girly pastels and soothing colours. Lots of black, grey and in your face primary colours, but no subtle tones a scrapbooker would appreciate. hehe