JUGGLING

Dear Reader

Hi again!

Well it's been a busy old time and I've had some health problems affecting my eyes so crafting's had to take a back seat of late. However, last night after doing a bit of blogging and seeing everyone's lovely creative efforts I decided to try a quick Christmas card.I'd checked out Tracey's class cards and thought how nice the easel cards were. Don't ask me why but I'd never thought of doing an easel Christmas card before. So I did one and the above is the result. Maurice bought me these Papermania papers and matching stamp set for my birthday and I was really pleased with them. He's a great lover of the traditional as you can see. Many of the papers are glittered or embellished in some way. I stamped the image with Versamark and embossed with 'old gold' embossing powder. The card is finished with a Prima pearl and a sentiment that came with the Papermania kit, along with a ribbon and bow to match the embossing.

I've also been busy juggling the day job with my hobby turned sideline company "The Cats Pajamas" and have been making some progress. I now have some business cards and the website is up and running http://www.catspajamasonline.co.uk and I've got a commission for an Irish themed wedding so really looking forward to working on that.

Talking of juggling I had to laugh today. Whilst I was crafting last night Maurice did my packing up for my lunch today. We'd obviously run out of just about everything - it being shopping day on a Friday - as when I opened my lunch box at 12 noon (I can never hold out much longer than midday lol) I was faced with a little ham sandwich and three oranges. Yes, three oranges. I wasn't sure whether to eat 'em or juggle 'em! When I asked why three oranges Maurice said he thought I needed to get my vitamin C levels up. Couldn't argue with that.

Finally, I booked tickets for the Help The Heroes Concert at Twickenham a week last Sunday. Their cause is very dear as Maurice was in the army for 24 years and did 3 tours of Northern Ireland and served on the front line in the Gulf War. He's lost a lot of army friends in active service over the years. Anyway, we went. I didn't really know what to expect to be honest but wow! it was an amazing thing to be part of. I've never been in a Mexican wave of 60,000 people before! There were a lot of our 'heroes' and their families there and their stories were very moving. It really breaks your heart to see such young men with such horrific injuries but their capacity to rebuild their lives and just 'get on with it' was truly inspirational. And the concert was awesome. Our seats weren't the best - aren't concert tickets expensive these days? - but we thoroughly enjoyed every minute. And of course the chance to see and hear the legendary Robbie Williams was just wonderful. A night we will always remember!

An historic moment - Robbie and Gary sing together again

Hopping all over the world

Dear Reader

It's been a busy week and I've not managed to take any pictures of my crafting efforts to post. So tonight I sat back, poured a glass of wine and went blog-hopping. I love doing that as you never know where you'll end up. Tonight I came across two blogs that I thought worth sharing with anyone who likes a bit of artyness. Perhaps you've already come across them but they were new to me. The first is http://illustrationfriday.com which surprise, is a weekly illustration challenge posted every Friday with a word of the week. This week's particularly appealed to me as the word was 'proverb' (I love proverbs) and I thought there were some really good entries. This blog led me to another http://ornithoblogical.blogspot.com/ , a blog by award-winning Anna Raff, which is posting a whimsical bird-related image every day for 365 days. There's some really good ones. I particularly liked day 218: A bird in the ham. Which is your favourite?

Happy weekend everyone!

The Day a Tiger Came to Tea

Dear Reader

It's been another day to remember at the St Leger Ladies Day in Doncaster. The sun shone, the horses ran (and a couple even won for me) and it was a great day. The icing on the cake was the 'tiger' we'd hired for the day. He was fantastic and really played his part well. Here he is taking afternoon tea with the President of the Chamber and his wife and helping himself to a scone! Lots of people had their photo taken with him (the girls above really got into the swing of it) and gave a donation to the St Andrew's Children's Hospice for the privilege. This all helped to swell the funds being raised by Chris Tonge of Ultimate Packaging, who sponsored our event and who is celebrating his 50 years on the planet by doing all sorts of stuff to raise money - like waterskiing across the River Humber.

I've been talking about the tiger for weeks so I thought you might like to take a look at him.

AB FAB!

Dear Reader


Don't you just love a good night out! I do! And last Bank Holiday Sunday was a corker. Those of you on Facebook forgive me as you've already seen the pix but I wanted to post something for posterity and I loved the night so much I've already made scrapbook pages. The evening was a Charity Ball for Breast Cancer but it was an amazing event. Chamber had two tables and I had 20 people coming along, some friends, but many of whom didn't know each other so I was a bit worried but what the heck I like a challenge! Anyway, the Ball started at 4.30 pm (yes, 4.30 pm!) with a red carpet 'paparazzi' entrance and champagne reception. My first scrapbook page shows quite a few of my party who I gathered together for a 'proper' photo to use in our magazine. I didn't want to rely on my trusty camera!

After the Reception we went through for Dinner. I'd put four bottles of wine on each table and I think that helped to get people talking! We were entertained with the "Singing Waiters" , operatic singers who are pretending to be the chef, a waiter and a guest at the event! Wow the voices! Whilst we carried on with the meal a soundalike Michael Buble took to the mike followed by a game - which table could make the most noise. I think there was cheating going on as one table were armed with whistles and another table had a town crier on there with a bell!! Then there was an auction run by lookalikes/soundalikes 'Ab Fab Patsy', 'Lily Savage/Paul O'Grady/David Beckham/'Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne' with some wonderful prizes. My friend had problems with her husband who wanted to bid for everything. In the end in a particularly expensive auction she kissed him until it was finished! One way to take his mind off bidding!!! Then there was a raffle - again lots of great stuff to win - followed by a young 10 year old girl who sung like an angel. Then there was a cookery demonstration! Yes a cookery demonstration! I was busy talking and hadn't realised what was going on but suddenly saw flames leaping up at the front of the room and thought we were going to be evacuated so I drunk my wine down in one gulp (waste not want not!) but it turned out to be part of a demo, so I sat down feeling rather foolish. Once the meal and Dinner entertainment were finished some of us thought we should have a picture taken. Below is the result! I really liked this one!

Then it was on with a Beatles tribute band and then an Abba tribute band and we all danced. And laughed. And danced. And laughed. Sometimes we danced and laughed at the same time! I think that's what I'm doing in the picture below. Oh! it was a good time. Loved every minute.

For my scrapbook pages I kept it very simple. But then I don't do complicated. The papers are all Bo Bunny and from RWS. On the first page I used a Martha Stewart punch. I've had it some time but often find it too big a pattern for cards but I think it's found its forte with this 'evening' page. I also made a flower by using the punch to make a double border flower shape, cutting them into individual flowers and layering them up, then adding a couple of the flowers folded in half to give dimension. I decorated the flower with a diamante spacer from the Hobby House and a jewelled brad from my stash and some cerise pink diamante gems. For the second page I made a simple bow out of striped paper (learned at class - thanks Tracey) and decorated with a large Papermania gem and a 'breast cancer' emblem made from ribbon from RWS. Beautiful ribbon this - recommend it - as it's so versatile, beautiful quality and easy to use and stick (always a bonus in my book!)

Finally here's a card I made recently - yes I know it's a Christmas card but I'm not going to mention that. Oops perhaps I just did. Well it's out there now! The inspiration came from my crafty friend Lynda. She brought into class the most beautiful card a friend of hers had designed and after I'd waxed lyrical about it for half an hour took pity on me and designed me a template so I could recreate it. And recreate it I did and I love it but it's not mine to post so I shan't. But thanks Lynda - it's a beaut!! I'm leaving you all in suspenders I know so sorry about that. Anyway, again moving swiftly on, the card used a scoring board to make a design on pearlised background paper and I thought I'd do my own version. What I ended up with was this simple 'diamond' card, which I've embellished using my new Marianne pointsettia die from Running with Scissors to create an embossed central flower.

oooh! forgot to mention, the Ball raised over £10,000 for breast cancer, which really is ab fab and what it was all about.

Thanks for looking in!