My Mum is THE BEST!!

My parents live in France, so we don't get to see them very much. We had a great Christmas this year, they came over to England and stayed in a farmhouse near by.

I don't think that I would be as crafty as I am now if it wasn't for my parents.

When Mum met Dad, she was a photographer, she loves crafts, she sews, knits, crochets, loves pottery, cold porcelain, what else,I remember when I was younger she came into school and taught macrame, helped build production sets and probably loads more! Since I started making my own cards back in 1999, I've now got her into card making.. say no more..

Dad, also LOVES creating things.. from woodwork, turning, pyrography, making beds out of sideboards, building chicken sheds! He has a passion for 'his' birds in his garden and I've seen some lovely drawings he's pencilled. His only school qualification is in ART.

Anyway, I guess that's where my artistic flair has come from.

With Mum being in France, she's quite lucky NOT to be surrounded by craft shops, I say this as the creations she comes up with are totally unique with the supplies that she has! She's a total magpie like me and when she sees something shiny, thinks of another crafty uses for it!

Mum now has her own room in their house where she will soon be creating... so I thought a nice pressie for her was this craft bag. So, on the phone this morning I asked if she had filled it... put it this way, sounds like she is getting organised and sorted out her 'small' bits like sticky pads, pens and tools etc.! Secretly Sarah (my eldest) wanted the bag, maybe I'll have to get her one for her birthday... (hope she's not reading this)

The other great news, when i see embellishments made by BIG companies, I always think of ways I could recreate them myself, cheaper.... well with Mum's great craftiness, I've asked her to do some crocheting for me...
I saw these lovely flowers, thought of Mum and asked if she could help me by making some.. and she said YES!!!! She also made me and Sarah 2 lovely crocheted netted (holey) bags for Christmas presents, and she's now made some more for Molly & Aimee, they're going to have fun with them! So they should be coming in the post next week.... ooooooh, like parcels!

I'm on a buzz now from talking to my Mum and Dad, it's so lovely to hear their voices... I really miss them. BUT, shall get on and do some crafty bits with the girls now that Molly's back from Nursery.. Have promised to do some painting (don't do this often as it's messy!)

Hugs,
Em x

Katie's card

I made my first magnolia card at the weekend. It was my friend's daughter's birthday on Tuesday, so she should have received it by now!

I used my newest of my nestabilities, I bought a magnetic sheet at Craft Central so that I could keep them die in one place when cutting out on the cuttlebug. It seems to have worked, and didn't dent the sheet too much. I'm loving these dies and can see an endless use for them! Have ordered some Rectangle ones now, as I like the effect they have embossed onto a plain card blank.

The b/g paper is one of the new dovecraft papers, part of the pack Retro Floral. The plain cardstock is Creative Memories, I'm trying to use it up (the reason to be explained later!)! The flowers are new primas we got at Papermaze (we got 3 bottles between us, (me, Jo & Lynda) and split them!) They're really nice as there are 2 different sizes of each colour. The brads are papermania. The greeting is from Pink Petticoat.

Hope that you like!

Hugs, Em x

OK one more before going to bed (maybe)

So... if you're anything like me, I read alot of peoples blogs! You can tell alot about what people are into by their title. It's about time I showed you a picture of my shed... sorry conservatory... in progress.

Rob's been working hard on it for 18 months now.. it's included him digging the footings, filling with cement and now putting up the wood base structure.. He's worked so hard and loves creating things (just like me but BIGGER - well he's a man isn't he!?)

OH MY GOSH.. it isn't 18 months at all!! I've just looked at the photos and he started digging the footings in May 2005, so this year it will be 3 years (hopefully completed!)

So, here's the first picture, May 2005. the length of that wall is 15' and the shed will be along that wall.. it's more exciting now that it's nearly finished, I still can't get over the fact that it was almost 3 years ago (bearing in mind we've had another baby since then.. ) But that simply seems ages ago! Time just flies by!

Em x

WARNING Dodgy 'L' key!!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

I've been rereading a few of my posts and realised that the dodgy 'l' key on the keyboard is worse that I thought. I'm usually quite a stippler for grammar and spelling, I couldn't believe how many mistakes there were... I also had Sarah telling me that there were errors - I obviously brung her up proper (Sorry, starting to talk suffolk now!)

That'll teach me to type in the middle of the night and not check through, my speedy typing! Oh well.. won't change them now, I'll just have to keep bugging Rob to get a new keyboard at some stage.

My layout from tonight.

Here's the layout I did tonight.

I have lots of Creative Memories albums left still from when I was a consultant, and they will get filled, as I'm not going to sell them!

I get fed up with the size of the pages (11 1/2 x 12), and have seen this style used in a couple of inspiration books/magazines I've been looking at. With the white pages of the album, you can add a square in the middle (8x8 here) and embellish around it.

Anyhow.. more mojo returning, it's like an electric shock going through me bursting with ideas and inspiration with the stash I already have (SHOCK HORROR!)

Keep your eyes out for more, might even get some wedding ones done!

Got behind already!

Well what can I say. The kids go back to school and my blogging goes to pot!! Well, not quite, I've not really crafted much this last week, not through wanting believe me! Our rotten virus cod/flu thingy we had over Christmas turned into an eye infection which turned into a very nasty head cold. (me and Sarah got this - bad) So I've not really been concentrating on much on crafting, eye ache been just too bad..
I went along to craft club last Tuesday and didn't do alot, made a few scrapbook templates and chatted with friends.
Didn't go to my other craft club, just wasn't in the mood, that and it was very cold, windy and rainy last night... yercchhhhhhhh...........
Have sat tonight and made a scrapbook page. I've not sat down and finished a page for ages! Had fun, and now I can't stop! Said that I was going to bed an hour ago, and am sat now printing more photos out for a layout that I have in mind!
I don't write down resolutions, I aways end up breaking them with in a month or so... but in my head I have a list, of to do's that I'd like to achieve. One of them being, to journal and display our photos more. Our children are growing up so quickly, the photos are wasted just say in photo cases or on the harddrive!! I've really enjoyed tonight, being surrounded by lovely photos of our gorgeous family!

Don't worry, more pictures will be posted soon. Have been quite productive tonight and don't intend to stop again now that I can see and concentrate better!

Bye for now - and NO I'm not going to sleep!
hugs,
Em x