Beautiful colours....

Hi everyone. The challenge over at thisthursday was really difficult this week.

'Our CHALLENGE is attempt to create something you truly believe is either beautiful or useful. If like the design team you find that something didn't quite hit the mark , we still want to see it. Its about the journey not the destination. '

Ummmm well I don't consider anything I make 'beautiful'... more like chuck it together and pray that it resembles something! So I decided to use colours from out of my garden as personally I don't think there is anything more beautiful than nature itself. And yes I know its another necklace...but its easy to do when I'm stuck in bed!! (Have been banned by hubby from having glue and glitter on our bed!)

Not sure its what the girls were looking for but I suppose my interpretation kind of hits the mark...if you squint after drinking a couple of voddies!! LOL!

Hope everyone is well...I promise I will e-mail you all back soon, get round to thanking every one for their lovely awards...and just making a general nuisance of myself on your blog!

Had quite a few e-mails about the new look of my blog. I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint you with where I got the header from...out of my craft room. Its amazing what you can do with some sticky backed plastic and a toilet roll!! LOL!
Seriously its just made from stuff out of my craft room...would love someone to do a digital one for me so if any of you are that clever please let me know!

Big thanks to Tina for letting my kids eat her out of house and home this weekend...she doesn't know yet but as of tomorrow she is looking after my cats whilst we are on our travels!!

If you need a laugh....

This is the fairy tale that should be read to little girls when they're little:

Once upon a time

~~~~~~~~

In a land far away,

~~~~~~~~

A beautiful, independent,
Self-assured princess

~~~~~~~~

Happened upon a frog as she sat
Contemplating ecological issues
On the shores of an unpolluted pond
In a verdant meadow near her castle.

~~~~~~~~

The frog hopped into the princess' lap
And said: ' Elegant Lady,
I was once a handsome prince,
Until an evil witch cast a spell upon me.

~~~~~~~~

One kiss from you, however,
And I will turn back
Into the dapper, young prince that I am

~~~~~~~~
And then, my sweet, we can marry

~~~~~~~~

And set up housekeeping in your castle

~~~~~~~~

With my mother,

~~~~~~~~

Where you can prepare my meals,

~~~~~~~~

Clean my clothes, bear my children,

~~~~~~~~

And forever feel

Grateful and happy doing so.
~~~~~~~~

That night,
~~~~~~~~
As the princess dined sumptuously
~~~~~~~~
On lightly sautéed frog legs
~~~~~~~~
Seasoned in a white wine
~~~~~~~
And onion cream sauce,
~~~~~~~~
She chuckled and thought to herself:
~~~~~~~~
I don't f***in think so.

Well it made me giggle especially as hubby is in a foul mood and the kids are driving me nuts!! LOL!

Things that grow...ribbon embroidery

Hello. The challenge over at CCT this week is 'things that grow...The obvious things would be plants etc but really there are lots more things that grow, we look forward to seeing your own interpretations!'

Well I wouldn't call this card cute but I had great fun making it! I've tried to keep it simple (for once!) and as I love Irises so much I thought this technique would make a change from the norm. The ribbons I used are sheer but unfortunately don't show up very well in the photo.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend...I'm off now to have a nose at what you've been up to!

And the winners are......

Many thanks to everyone that took part in my latest blog candy....can't believe there were so many!
I did two separate draws and the winner for the £10 Poppicrafts voucher was....









ME!!!! Well it's my blog, my candy and I don't want to share...only kidding....a very well done to.....

who had actually said on entering....
'not that Im trying to get noticed and picked above everyone else for the candy... :) but did anyone ever tell you that to be number 55 on someones comments was extremely lucky for the person whose blog is being commented on? in fact... its up there with winning the lottery sorta luck....'
PMSL!!!

I did the second draw for those outside of Europe which was for a set of clear stamps and some small crafty goodies. So a huge well done to.....

I'd also like to say a HUGE thank you to Michelle at Poppicrafts for being so generous...you're a star babe!
I hope you both like your goodies and many thanks to everyone that joined in!

Golden oldies....

Hello. The challenge over at DCM this week is to make a card using some of your old stash.
The only problem was that I have so much 'old stash' that I still struggled to decided what to use!
So this is made using some old BG papers that were forgotten about...a stamp that I've not used for ages (from Crafty Individuals I think) which I embossed and an old button.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend...and I promise to stop playing with my blog...I just wanted to confuse you all! LOL!

A little something for you!

The wonderful Dawny has passed this on to me and I am bowled over by it as I think the award itself is so beautiful! Please check her blog out as well as it is amazing!

1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women and remember the Purpose of the Award:
To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

And the fab thing about this award...there are no limits to the amount of friends I can pick which is lovely as I find it really difficult having to only pick a few each time.
So...to my lovely friends I pass this on to you ALL as each and everyone of you on my lists inspires, gives me confidence and amazing friendship...and most of all...you make me laugh and smile so much!

And now for a giggle.....

Delia's Way
Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice-cream drips.

The Real Woman's Way
Just suck the ice cream out of the bottom of the cone, for God's sake. You are probably lying on the couch with your feet up eating it anyway.

Delia's Way
To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

The Real Woman's Way
Buy Smash and keep it in the cupboard for up to a year.

Delia's Way
When a cake recipe calls for flouring the baking tin, use a bit of the dry cake mix instead and there won't be any white mess on the outside of the cake.

The Real Woman's Way
Tescos' sell cakes. They even do decorated versions.

Delia's Way
If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a potato slice.

The Real Woman's Way
If you over salt a dish while you are cooking, that's tough. Please recite with me the Real Woman's motto: 'I made it and you will eat it and I don't care how bad it tastes.'

Delia's Way
Wrap celery in aluminium foil when putting in the refrigerator and it will keep for weeks

The Real Woman's Way
It could keep forever. Who eats it?

Delia's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your
forehead. The throbbing will go away.

The Real Woman's Way
Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and drop it in 8 ounces of vodka. Drink the vodka. You might still have the headache, but you wont give a flying banana!

Finally the most important tip - my favourite!

Delia's Way
Freeze left over wine into ice cubes for future use in casseroles

The Real Woman's Way
Left over wine???? Hellooo


And trust me...theres never any wine left over in this house!! LOL!
Have a great Friday...

Happy, blessed and smiling!

A little something for my fairy godmother....Mrs T!


Hi everyone.
Well its been a really uplifting week and its only Wednesday! At the weekend I had a bit of a chat with the big guy in the sky. We fell out over twenty years ago and I had turned my back on him and my beliefs. As some of you know the past fours months have been incredibly stressful with lots of heartache and I have, from time to time, asked him for forgiveness and to help my family and friends.
Well he has listened and it looks like he has forgiven me and for that I am truly grateful.

We had left Gibraltar under a dark cloud but that cloud was swept away on Monday and the sun is finally shining down on us. There is now a completely different atmosphere in our home and we can now concentrate on the future and put this behind us...with a lot of valuable lessons learnt.

I also heard yesterday from a friend, who I have been so worried about, and it felt so wonderful to finally hear her voice and to know that she is safe.

Our beautiful cats arrive back from Gibraltar tomorrow and Belle has only one more sleep as she keeps telling us! We have really missed them so much and none of us can wait for our little family to be whole again....we've not missed having to do the litter tray though!

I've also received lots of lovely cards from non bloggy friends this week that were completely unexpected but gave lots of smiles to us all and some of the messages that have been left on my blog and on friends blogs have really made me feel that I am part of a wonderful circle of friends...yes Chrissy and Nessy you did both make me cry!

And my biggest blessing this week...Tina. You all know I have Fibromyalgia and lots of other grotty things, but its not often I mention them on here. Tina sees me on an almost daily basis and puts up with me walking like an old woman and my tears. The pain at the weekend was pretty unbearable but Tina has been giving me Reiki healing and I feel like a new woman! She brings so much peace and calm to not only me but my children and I am so grateful for having her in my life.

And finally, because I can hear you all yawning, thanks for reading this!! LOL!

My very own credit card!!!

Big huge thanks to the lovely Dawn for giving me this award. I feel very humbled receiving it from someone as talented as her! Thanks babe.

The rules of getting this are -

1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

Quite simple really it is a way of saying thank you to those who take time out for wonderful comments to boost your day.

So my five are;
Chrissy,
Tina,
Heather,
Sammi
Not only are they talented crafters but I am lucky enough to call them good friends as well so please check their blogs out as they are fab!
My fifth blogger is overseas and is not on my blog list but I just love her work...Melissa. Her work is beautiful!

I'm just so sorry that I could not pass this on to everyone on my list as I think you
all deserve it!

Interesting!

You Are a Chimera

You are very outgoing and well connected to many people. Incredibly devoted to your family and friends, you find purpose in nurturing others. You are rarely alone, and you do best in the company of others. You are incredibly expressive, and people are sometimes overwhelmed by your strong emotions.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

I'd love to see what you are!
Hugs,

Its a 'bead' world!

The challenge over at thisthursday this week is all about changes. I bought 3 of these tea light holders from M&S about 3 years ago but with all the moving around the green coating had started to peel off. So I scrubbed them clean and then decorated them with twisted wire and beads. Well waste not...want not!! LOL!

This is a bracelet I've made to match a top...

and then Tina made this gorgeous brooch for me this week which matches so well!! I'd admired one she had made when we first met so was over the moon at this present. Thanks hun!

I just wanted to apologise for not being around much at the moment or for getting over to your blogs but have just been so busy with one thing and another this week. I do appreciate you all finding the time though to leave such lovely comments for me to read and for all the very funny e-mails!!
Sending big hugs to everyone in Gibraltar that visits my blog as well...really looking forward to catching up with you all in a couple of weeks.
I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend...I'm off to see what you have been up to!
Hugs,

My wild child!

This is one of my favourite photos of Belle. We were by the lighthouse in Gibraltar and she was just running around everywhere. The shot is out of focus but for me it just captured her spirit so well.

This was taken last weekend when we walked along the coast and found this gorgeous forest. It led through to a beach and we ate our picnic there. On the way home Belle filled her Daddy's rucksack with pine cones...even though she insisted on calling them pinny stones! She was so tired that Dad had to carry her all the way back on his shoulders!

Went to the Chinese Circus yesterday and it was amazing. The only thing I will mention is the contortionist...its so not right that someone can sit on their own head!! Aewwwwwwww!

Its sunny here today...yah!!! Lets hope it lasts!
Hugs to you all,

Got a hot date later.....

...with a clown! Stop laughing I'm being serious! LOL! Actually we have been given some tickets to go and see the Chinese Circus later and we are all so excited!
Just wanted to show you some of the lovely goodies that have been so lovingly made for us this week...

This gorgeous little lot arrived from Linda and I was gobsmacked when it turned up! I knew she was sending a card but this made me speechless. The card is beautiful...thanks Linda!

Tina popped round in the week and gave me this beautiful 'get well' card and a scrummy hand made box full of little goodies! Thank you Ms T for spoiling me!

And this card arrived for Belle yesterday from Poppy who is Tina's dog! Belle is besotted with Poppy and would love nothing more than for her to come and live with us! We even had a temper tantrum when I had to take the card off her to take a pic....bless!

Well I have been busy this week as some of you know and I'm really pleased the altered CD's were liked. Going to take part in some challenges later so will (hopefully!) have some bits of my own to show this evening. Hope you are all having a lovely weekend...a man is stood on our roof just emptying bucket after bucket of water over the house...does it ever stop raining here!!! LOL!
Hugs,

Hugs and birthdays...and a waffle!

This is probably the quickest card I have ever made and I'm actually quite embarrassed about the fact as its for someone very special. The papers are by Crafty Individuals and the butterfly stamp has been done on acetate with a StazOn opaque. I've attached the acetate at the back of the card as I wanted it to be free on the front. Its also on an A6 card and its been at least a year since I made a card of this size.

NOT MORE CD'S...I hear you shout! Actually I've done quite a lot of these lately and am having great fun seeing what can be done with them! This one is for my friend Gill who is now back in the UK. The poem is actually stamped onto shrink plastic and...shrunk! Papers are BG and the stamp is Hobby Art.

Well its been a funny old fortnight...not side splittingly funny but emotionally funny. A year ago this month my hubby was doing his tour in Iraq and I had just received my diagnoses. Its been a tough year for lots of reasons, not just because of these two things, but a few things have happened over the past fortnight that have made me have a good old think about life.

Firstly a wonderful friend of mine has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She is the same age as myself and has two gorgeous young children. Struggling to write this so please forgive me if I make no sense, but its been caught late. You can all imagine the anger and frustration that her and her lovely hubby are feeling and my heart is breaking for them both.

Secondly my Mum heard last week that Stuart, who she had fostered as a child, has passed away from cancer. He was 41. What age is that?

I know that this should not be about me...and I feel so selfish for even writing this, but for the past year I have sat and grieved for the life that I can never have back...for the life that I had enjoyed so much and would do anything to have 5 minutes of again.

But...I'm not going to lose my life...I will watch my kids grow up...I will torment my hubby for quite a few more years. There is nothing for me to grieve for and its time to start enjoying what I have got...and boy what I have got is bloody fantastic.
Hugs,

Altered card swop....I hope!

Hello. Firstly I'm so sorry for not getting round every one's blogs today...I have missed seeing every one's creations but sorting my lists out took longer than I thought...and I still have my SBS one to do! I'll get it sorted tomorrow and will pop round to have a look at what you have all been up to.
I've made this altered CD for one of the girls on the Docrafts forum. We have been paired up for the July swop so I just hope she likes it!
Papers are BG and the stamp is by Elusive Images.
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and didn't get sun burnt!
Hugs,

Really, really pink and girlie!!

Before you ask 'what on earth were you thinking about when you made this?' please let me explain!
The challenge over at thisthursday this week is to make something you can see through. Well I racked my brains and then I realised it gave me the perfect excuse to go really girlie and use pink acetate!!
Its for my friend's daughter who is fourteen in a couple of weeks so I thought instead of a normal card I would do her something she could re-use or attach to her school bag.
I stamped, embossed, glittered and glued....basically just had lots of fun!! (Once in a while its great to act like a big kid!)
Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.
Hugs,

Thanks Juliet!

The beautiful Juliet has very kindly passed these three awards on to me. Thank you so much honey! Her blog is so lovely and her garden is amazing so please go and have a nose!
I have to pass it on to three people. Go on then...how the heck do I only pick three? Everyone on my list deserves them so I'm going to pass them on to three bloggers who I think are complete nutters and could do with a shrink...only kidding but they have made me laugh this week for various reasons so please do not be offended if you are not one of them...in fact be grateful that you are not one of them!! LMHO!!
So Debs, Heather and Rachel consider yourself nutters of the week!!! Love you all really!
And to everyone else who is relatively sane...don't worry...I'll get you next time!
Hugs

You either love it...or you hate it! (No not marmite!)

Last night we were having a discussion on Heather's blog about word verification.
If you get a chance please pop over and see what we were all mumbling about!
Me? I hate WV...its bad enough stuggling to see the screen at the best of times with my FM...but throw fibrofog in...and I spend all night clicking on the disabled button to get a half decent lot of letters I can see!!! Have pity on me and free the WV!!! PMSL!

Puddy cat!

Hi. This is the card I have made for the abc-challenge. Its all about animals this week and as a cat fanatic I just had to do another one of Lou's cats that you can download at CCC. The whiskers are wire and the papers are once again Basic Grey...but would you really expect anything else by now!! LOL!
Hugs,

Muchas gracias!

Sorry for not being around much lately but I've been sleeping a lot! Feeling much better so thought I had better catch up with everyone.
I'd like to say a big thanks to Debs, Cathy, Pauline C, Sammi, Nessy, Cass, Donna, Sarah C, Vicki May, Jo, and lastly but by no means least...Kerry for passing this award onto me. Thank you all so much for thinking of me. Please go and visit their blogs as they are all amazing!

I'm now meant to pass this on to seven more blogs so I hope you can all forgive me if I just pass it on once this time...you can slap my wrists later!
I'm going to pass it on to my amazing friend Tina...with a huge hug after all her hysterical e-mails this week that have really cheered me up. Thanks babe!

Thanks to everyone for all the tagging lately but I'm going to pass on it this time if no one minds as I think you have all had it anyway!! LOL!

And finally many, many thanks to the girls at thisthursday who picked my necklace as one of their favourite 15. Am really happy with this as its now given me the confidence to have another go! Thanks girls!

Off to the fracture clinic now with Jake so will see you all later when I pop over for a visit!
Hugs to everyone,