An Award

My friend, Anita, very kindly gave me the following award - Thanks so much Anita :)
You can see her beautiful blog here:   Anita

There are some rules I need to follow:


* Thank the person who gave it to you...... Thank You Anita

* Tell seven things about yourself...

* Pass the award of to five other bloggers who you think are fantastic......
Anita had already awarded most of my blogging friends, so here are some other blogs I regularly visit (wonderful inspiration here)

Emily; Jane; Julie; Paula; Zoe
 
Now for seven things:
 
1. I'm addicted to Martha Stewart punches - I know, it's serious - but great fun.
 
2. I recently lost my cat after 18+ years and am finding it very hard to get over.
 
3. I work as a Business Travel Consultant, but am afraid of flying :)
It never used to worry me but I had a very bad experience in a storm coming back from Cyprus.
 
4. I never act my age - more my shoe size (3) yes, I have very petite feet which are now not in proportion to my body.
 
5. My first wedding dress was a size 10 which had to be taken in. The alterations were soooo bad that they had to order me a new one 2 weeks before the wedding and start again! Marriage didn't last either.
 
6. My second wedding dress was ordered from Confetti and Lace in Lakeside. It had to be expressed from the states and altered ready for me to go back to the USA to get married in on St Pete's Beach, Florida. Robert and I will have been married 10 years this November and I've never been happier.
 
7. I love cooking - I just never get the time.
I used to bake gateaux of all descriptions. I have made Indian currys and even naan bread from scratch.
Just wish I had more time..................would be nice to reverse the working week and have 5 days off, two on - for the same salary of course :)

Just call me Martha........

I know, I know, I know!

I saw these on QVC Saturday, they were the TSV, and just had to have them.

I just can't resist Martha Stewart punches, they are sooooo beautiful.

The other option was christmas snowflakes and I already had the round the page set, but, the deep edge was a strip of snowflakes which I just had to have too.

Can't wait for it to arrive.

Am going to sell the round the page set (snowflakes) as don't need two :)

Let me know if you are interested?

Watch this space.....

A Champagne Wedding

I was asked to make another wedding card recently for a friend.

The brief was two champagne glasses on a card in ivory and yellow.

Here is the result.

I used an 8x8" textured card from CWC with K&co papers.

I cut extra Daisies from the paper and added with 3d foam pads.

The champagne glasses were from a set of stamps recently purchased from SU.

I coloured the champagne in with a Sakura yellow stardust pen.

The letters were cut with my Cricut Zooballoo cartridge in yellow with a gold shadow.

I added yellow grosgrain ribbon and the message was printed from my PC.

Anita received the card yesterday and e-mailed me the following:

The card came yesterday thanks and as usual it's lovely! Thanks very much for doing such a great job. I love the detail you put into your cards - it makes them very special.

It's really lovely to get feedback :)

Work Shop with Jane Gill at Cardinal Colours

Jill at Cardinal Colours organised a fantastic days workshops for us with Jane Gill who creates the most beautiful paper flowers.

This is Jane's blog:

http://janeelizabeth-flowergirl.blogspot.com/

Jill's website is:

http://www.cardinalcolours.co.uk/catalog/index.php

Here are the flowers we learned to make with a selection of leaves.

The flower below was using a "sunray" punch and was made with white copier paper, coloured with chalks.

The Asiatic lilly looks real.

I really loved making the rose below which is made with a heart shaped punch.

This little flower is very clever and made from tiny hearts

And of course Daisies.

The following one Jane called a fantasy flower.

And a christmas tree made from the same punch as the lilly.

This is a card Jane displayed to show how the tree can look

Jane will be teaching floral punchcraft at Cardinal Colours retreat in Eastbourne in September.

Why not take a look at the website and book your place?

Be quick though as space is getting limited!

http://www.cardinalcolours.co.uk/catalog/index.php

A very sad time..............

Friday was a very sad day.

Jess, my beautiful cat, died in his sleep.

He had a long and happy life and was 18+ years old.

Jess didn't originally belong to me, he lived along the Road from my old house.

He decided to move in with my other neighbours but spent a lot of time with me.

I think he preferred us as his owners had 2 small children at the time.

The neighbours moved so he came to live with me, his owners also moved and asked if I would like to keep him - which of course I did. He was such a character, so cheeky and funny and definitely in charge!

When we moved he came with us and changed so much, he used to be afraid of men but suddenly loved the world. He was so happy and spent a lot of his time under Roberts van with his legs catching the warmth of the sun. Most evenings were spent sleeping on my lap or at the end of our bed on my feet.

Sometimes competing for my lap with the laptop - he used to sit on the keyboard til I moved it away :)

This was his favourite place in the front garden, in the corner under the bushes for some shade.

He really is going to be missed so much, I still expect to see him marching up to the front door or snoozing in the sun.

Wherever you are, my baby, remember we love you xxxx

Pevensey Bay

On Wednesday I took my Dad to Pevensey Bay to lunch with his Rugby friends, they have known each other for 70 years!

Robert came with me so we left him in good company and went off to explore.

The weather was a little overcast as you can see from the beach shot below.

We went to the castle and ate lunch in The Oak and Castle Inn.

This is my Surf and Turf....

And Roberts Mixed Grill (chips came in a separate bowl)

The onto the castle to walk it off :)

This is the Gatehouse.

They have a free audio tour and when we went into the Dungeon it was voiced by a actor being a prisoner.

I looked at Roberts shadow and it looked really spooky as below.

Castles are another of my passions.

@ the royal exchange

Anita, very kindly allowed Lynn and I to scraplift her LO, see the following link:

http://inkyblossom.blogspot.com/2010/07/some-kind-of-wonderful.html

Lynn kindly gave me some spare papers she had and we thought it would be fun to use the same LO and papers as we did before for a Scrapaholix kit.

The papers are: Petals in the Sand from the Rusted Sun collection by Fancy Pants and some red bazzil.

Here is the result:

I used some of my elephants to create mine, cut out and 3d'd some of the flowers and added stickles.

Pop over to Lynn's blog to see hers -

http://amomentintime-craftycooper.blogspot.com/2010/07/garden-girls.html