I've been a very lucky girl...

I was delighted on Christmas morning to see this under the tree...

which, when opened revealed...

this absolute beauty!

I love it :)

And the lining is soooo lush too...

I was also treated to another charm for my Pandora bracelet from Lianne

Which is now on my bracelet with the others, some from my birthday in November.

I seem to have a colour section theme going on here lol!

And some other lovely things too...

Spoilt me? - most definitely!

Now the dust has settled....

I can share some of the lovely cards given to me this Christmas by my crafty friends:

Lynn made this one with a beautiful Angel stamp.

Anita created this lovely aerial view of a snowman - how unique is that?

She also made me a cake stand which I will share later - watch this space...

Liz created this gift card which has a pull out drawer with tea lights in.

Sue made the most beautiful pot of paper flowers..

Sorry I should have unwrapped them :( Will blog them again later!

These are the ones she made for my birthday..

Wendy made this cute card with a Warren the Rabbit image from CWC.

Jill gave me this lovely card with a cute bear image.

Chris hand-beaded this bauble for the tree.

This lovely one arrived in the post from Karen.

Sandra sent this lovely embossed card.

Alison sent this cute card too.

Thanks to everyone for these lovely treasures.



Christmas Dinner and Dad's Birthday

I love to set the table for Christmas Dinner, this year we were only 4.

This is just as we were sitting down to our starter..

Lovely dressed Lobster and Prawn Cocktail :)

It's Dads birthday on Christmas day and this year I made him a fruit cake (Delia's mix from Waitrose) which I covered with marzipan (ready made) and home made royal icing.

I've not done this type of icing for many years so please make allowances :)

This cake stand belonged to my grandmother (or great grandmother?)

I'll take another photo later so you can see how lovely it is.

I added some ready made blue flowers to the top of the cake too but didn't get a chance to take another picture before it was served.

Robert took a video on his phone which I hope to upload too.

Happy Birthday Dad (belatedly I know)

TFL

xxx

Blog-over

It's a quiet time of year at work as not many people travel for business during this period, so, I decided my blog was a little tired and needed a new look.

I chose a page I had created of Lianne's 21st, cropped it and added a text box to cover the photo.

(I didn't she'd like to feature on my header lol!)

I was really pleased with the original layout which I had based on a page by Liberty Chance, and thought the colours worked well.

I tried many of the backgrounds from the Cutest Blog and also Shabby blogs and decided on this one.

What do you think?

How did you create yours?

Would love to hear about how you created yours.

Thanks for sharing....

Deck the Halls

Well, the door anyway :)

For her Christmas present this year, I took Lynn to the florist near my work for a workshop to create a Christmas wreath.

We joined a class of 12 and were given a blue spruce ring, pre-made by the florist as they can be
quite tough on the hands.
We were invited to peruse many embellishments in the shop to gather elements with a set budget (included in the cost of the evening).

I chose glass beaded stems, glittered leaves and pinecones for mine, Lynn chose more traditional elements for hers. We had a lovely evening and enjoyed a glass of wine and mince pies (well Lynn did 'cos I dont like them!)

and were taught how to wire and construct our pieces.

Here is mine:

And here is Lynn's which is just beautiful.

The shop is called Floral Explosion in Longfield but they also have a stall at Bluewater.

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas!

TFL
xxx

Scrapology December Card Challenge - Leaves....

This month's card challenge was to create a card using leaves, leaf shapes and colours.

I used papers from BG Oliver set to create mine.

The leaves were cut with a Tim Holtz pine cone die set as are the cones, the flower shapes from the Tattered Florals die.

 

I cut several sets and just layered to create the card, plus some smaller leaf shapes punched with a Martha Stewart punch. Random jewells were placed to accent.

I've not got the hang of making the cones properly yet but think they would have been better in bazzill as the inside does show and would be better neutral. Will have to have a play at a later stage :)

Thanks to Chrissy at Merly Impressions for setting this challenge and supplying a wonderful prize.

Hop on over to the Scrapology Blog for more details and the rest of the Design Teams cards.

Challenge runs until 15th January 2012 so plenty of time to enter.

Dressing the Tree(s) II

And on to the lounge....

I have taken a different approach to this tree and 'draped' it with floral garlands and sprigs.

Pride of place went to this lovely Angel, made by Lynn to match my colour scheme of purple and lime. Thanks, Lynn, she looks perfect.

I love these white spikey stems and the new lilac sunflowers.

There are jewelled, feathered birds too.

The lilac garland is new this year. 

These are the new jewel stems I got from the Christmas shop in Bluewater, some in an olive/lime green. 

Some in purple.

So, what colour is your tree this year and do you prefer traditional or modern?

Would love to hear your choices :)

Thanks for sharing.....

Linda

x



Dressing the Tree(s)

Yesterday, we bought a real Christmas tree to put in the hallway.

It's the first time we have put one here but it seemed like a good idea.

We got the box of old decorations from the loft and had a sort through, Lianne decided on a blue and lilac theme.

Once the lights and baubles were in place we were quite happy with the result.

I took this one today with a little daylight from the front door, I love the glow.



Finding the old decorations was fun and I found this polar bear balancing on ice cubes, so cute :)

This tree is very different from the one I've had in the lounge for the last few years which is very modern. I'll add that one tomorrow with some new pieces added this year.

TFL

xxx

Its a family affair.

Our mega talented friend Anita created this frame class recently, see here for details, and we were lucky enough to be able to make one at last saturdays crop at Cardinal Colours.

I didn't have a recent photograph of Robert, Lianne and I together so I used two taken on the Eurostar on our trip to Disneyland recently and "merged" them. I was quite happy with the result as you can't see the join! :)

The papers are from My Minds Eye, Lost and Found collection, the roses are cut from spirals of paper and glued in place. The word "Family" is accented with a swirl stamp and some stazon ink.

Jewells were added to the frame and the rose centres, although you can't really see them here.

Thank-You so much Anita for sharing another fabulous idea.

Gifts for the Girls..................

We always exchange gifts at our Chistmas crop at Jill's - Cardinal Colours - so this year I made gift boxes like the ones shown us by Zoe Pearson.

The bases are Bazzill with patterned paper by BG - Nordic Holiday, topped with a reindeer stamp from Stampin' Up.

Each box had a L'Occitaine shower gel or lotion or soap and a stamp from Sweet Pea Stamps plus

a bracelet I made with glass beads.

This one was for Lynn as she loves greens.

This one is Anita's

I made Jill a matching necklace too.

This one was for Sue.

And the remainder....