Off on my travels again - Beautiful Bournemouth!

Look at that beach!!

Stunning picture!

Ooh another short break, this time in my lovely country. We don't get to see enough of it, why do we always fly off abroad when there is such beauty all around us. Yes the weather can be unpredictable but there is more to life than sunbathing surely!

Wow look at the pier back in 1856!

So three girlies are heading off to Bournemouth, my mum, my sister and me. We have used up some airmiles and will be staying at the Cliffside Hotel. Have printed out all the money off deals from myvouchers.com and have programmed the sat nav. I'd end up in glasgow if I had to use a paper map ;o)

Ooh and we have to sit in one of these with our feet in the sand!!

My mum has been very stressed out lately and this always worries me, so really looking forward to her being able to relax, see some beautiful scenery, take in fresh clean air and eat lovely food without having to worry about cooking it. Or me cooking it either, ha ha!

Have just realised that our route will take us past Winchester where the new Cath Kidston shop is going to be. But it doesn't open until 1st July!!! Stamps feet on ground and pouts, not fair!!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend too and see you all next week xx

Cath Kidston Summer Sale!

Was reminded about the Cath Kidston sale over on another blog, good job as I nearly forgot about it which would have been a disaster.

Anyway have just been onto the CK site and the banner is up already and there are new items in the sale section. However they don't have the sale prices on them yet, pants! Still it is only 15mins past midnight!

Anyway here is a preview of some of the items I wouldn't mind putting in my basket;o).

Love this top, all sizes in stock too


And I'd love to iron it on this! They don't say a size though, anyone know how big they are?

Love that her coin purses take credit cards now.

Nice stand up tote, although not sure about the print

This has to go in my office!

And this just for the jar!

It's now 30mins past midnight and still no sale prices on there! Do they not know it is now the 25th June. Oh well I suppose I shall have to go to bed. You can bet your bottom dollar I'll be up early though ;o) xx

Pink Petticoat Flower Challenge

Liz over at Pink Petticoat has set her challenge for June - to use up PP papers to make flower embellishments. The prize for one lucky blogger will be the gorgeous Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch, defo would love one of these!

On to my entry then. I made the flowers using one of my Anna Griffin templates that I've had for years. It's basically a draw and cut out process, perfect for when BF has a load of old c**p on the telly :o) I got the odd funny look from him, a few grunts when I asked him what he thought, and then complaints that I was taking up all the sofa, shame eh! Note: I did catch him holding one up and looking at it this morning, then he quickly put it down pretending indifference.

First piccie shows a group shot of them all and you can see I used PP and other scraps of paper.


Here is a close up of one of the PP ones. I used the big dots double cream papers, swirls paper and one of her Big Fellas letters.


And here is a close up of the one of the other ones. This used some of my Anna Griffin scraps and a button from last week's bootsale finds.

Overall I think they turned out okay. They are large flowers measuring 4" across and would make great embellishments just on their own on the front of a square card. I would probably add some glitter to the edges of the petals as well on some of them.

Now all I have to do is keep my fingers crossed that mine is the name pulled out of the hat!

Hope you like them and thanks for popping by today xx

Oh Golly, Just Look At These Lollies!!

Over on my favouriete cake blog, the Cake Journal, they've put up a post showing the most gorgeous cookie lollies ever! Look, aren't they cute!


Mmm can you imagine biting into that lovely sweet fondant, then hitting the crunchiness of the biscuit underneath as the two textures combine in your mouth. Ooh sorry, got a bit carried away there for a mo!!

They are very shabby chic and would also look lovely without the lolly sticks and just laid out on a nice teaplate for afternoon tea.

Apparently there is cupcake fondant mould that you put the fondant into so no flower making skills required, perfect. If you love these you should pop on over to their blog and read the full post here. xx

Boot Sale Sunday

Trundled off on our usual trip to the bootsale this morning. Got a bit of a shock when we arrived, it was practically empty! Started to wander around the few booters that were there, then it suddenly dawned on us, of course it was Father's Day, doh!!! The term 'numpty' crept in my mind :o)

Oh well all was not lost as I managed to get this gorgeous pink and white dotty teaplate for 50p.


And yes another picture frame, 50p. Not so sure about the frogs! I seem to be buying these every week now, but no I am not opening up a framing busines, promise ;o) I'm just 'framing' bonkers!


Hope all daddies out there got spoiled to bits and waited on today, although that probably happens most days of their lives :o) Oops did I say that out loud, tut tut.

xx

The Happy Tag has come my way!

This arrived from Little Gem. Never done one of these before! I have to list 6 things that make me happy, tough to pick just 6 but here they are:

1. Obvious one this, but it really is true, my lovely mother, who is just the best
   
2. Good old fashioned english fry up, yum, making me hungry just thinking about it
   
   
   
3. Pretty notebooks, I don't know how many a girl can have, but I just can't resist them and as a compulsive list writter they are a must
   
   
4. Blue sky days, I just don't function if I can't see blue up there
   
   
   
5. Cute furry things, aka my 3 darling kitty cats, no matter how stressed you get these guys always make you feel better
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Cath Kidston shops - I grin continuously like a cheshire cat the minute I approach one of these gorgeous establishments ;o)
   
   So there you have it bloggers, some little snippets into what makes me tick :o) xx
   

Birthday Card using fabric

Made a card today for my nan's friend and thought I would share with you all. I found some small pieces of fabric stashed in a draw that were too small to make anything with but perfect for a card. Went with pale blues and creams, I love how restful the combination is, probably coz that's the colours you get at the seaside, doh!

These fabrics are great for cards as the prints are small, they were what my nan used to use to make the soft furnishings for her handmade dollshouse furniture. Everything was to 1/12th scale and the fabrics took real prints and scaled them down. Sadly she can't make these anymore so I have inherited all her old trimmings, including an enormous amount of lace and silk ribbon. Thought it would be nice that the card she gives to her friend used some of her stuff.

The card was being posted so didn't layer too much. Royal Mail really sting you for this now!

You can see the trim in more detail here, it is not too fussy which I liked. The heart is by Quickutz and was diecut from one of those rolls of sticky back plastic you get at Hobbycraft in pink sparkle which I stuck to acetate before cutting. It's a shame the camera didn't pick it up better as it really does twinkle! Makes the diecuts very cheap as you get a lot of roll for you bucks :o)

Thanks for popping by and hope you liked the card. xx

Wow 2 blog awards from the lovely Susie

What a lovely surprise to find these waiting for me! It's silly o'clock in the morning and I should really be in bed but got sidetracked catching up on the 'Home' show that goes out on channel 4. I had 6 of them backed on my Sky+ box! Came upstairs to switch off the PC but couldn't resist checking my blog, am so glad I did as the lovely Susie over at Sassy Designs had given me these lovely awards.

The words on these 2 awards really sum up what blogging is all about for me, unending support from lovely people who also make me smile. That's what life should be made of, love and happiness. Ooh get me going all mushy on ya!

Hmm, who to put on my list of 6 fave blogs of the moment (I know it should be 10 but I was always a rule breaker at school, so why stop now, tee hee). Here we go girls, you are, in no particular order:

1. Little Gem
   
2. Live Love Laugh
   
3. Vikki's Albums
   
4. Our Shabby Cottage
5. Lissy Lou
6. Sassy's Secrets
   

Girls, really appreciate the time you take to leave me comments, always puts a smile on my face and I love popping by to see what you have been up to ;o) If any of you haven't visited these ladies before you really should pop by and say hello.

That's it eyelids are twitching now! Off to bed, sleep tight everyone xx

Boot Sale Sunday

Wow what a glorious weekend of sunshine we had, it was just fab! Perfect for an early bootsale trip ;o) Trotted off with my mum at 8.30am and when we got there cars were already queuing back onto the road! It was busy, we paid our 30p and parked up the car, we were roasting already. There didn't seem to be so many sellers this week, maybe they preferred to stay in their gardens today and have a barbie instead, who could blame them. That didn't deter us though and we managed to come away with a few goodies.

First up were these 2 picture frames with no glass in them. In really good nic and got them for £1.00. The lack of glass is perfect as I want them to go directly on the wall and painted the same colour so they look like part of the wall if you get what I mean! I've got so many 'painting' projects from stuff I've accumulated, I really should make a start on them :o)

Next are 3 pillowcases, 50p each. 2 of them are matching and will look lovely on my bed, the other pretty floral one is probably destined to become part of something else.

My obsession with glass candlesticks continues, I picked up this one for £1.00 and it will sit nicely with the other 10 that hang out round my fireplace! I particularly love the fact none of them match.

A bag of buttons for 20p, not exciting colours I know but you can never have too many neutrals in my book :o)

And this old pine shelf for £1.00 which would have originally been used for spices but which I am going to put my little pots of beads and glitter on as I hate having such prettiness stashed away in boxes.

Well that's it for another week......................thanks for popping by. xx

Bedroom Makeover - French/Shabby Chic Style

You may remember my post a while ago on how I was helping my lovely mummy redecorate her room, well we've finally finished and thought I'd share some before and after piccies.

Vertical headboards were very in vogue back then!

We recycled one of them, recovered it and hung it horizontally.
The wallpaper is by Monsoon and is a breeze to put up as you paste the wall, not the paper, brilliant idea!

Those old dark wooden blinds had to go, they sucked out all the light!
And the makeshift dresser definitely had to go!!

Much brighter! My mum made the roman blinds and covered the stool to match the headboard. Now she can actually see to do her hair and make up!

From paper to................

crystal! I had it in my office but it went so perfectly in her room, how could I not give it to her ;o)

The quaint little drawer unit was from an Antique fair a few years ago. Updated with some gorgeous pink paint.

As was this shelf unit which used to belong to my nan and was made out of an old church pew.
Perfect to fill a corner.

And finally, someone is obviously very happy with the makeover lol :o)!!

Well that's it then, all over. Now I have no excuses to not get on with moving my craftroom into the back bedroom! Thanks for popping by xx

Anna Griffin Card

Another post today on cards, I am getting good aren't I, scroll down to see the other one.

Needed to make a nice card for my mum's friends birthday, which is today and they have both gone out shopping for the day. Which is a good choice as the weather is really rather pants here at the moment!

Anyway back to the job in hand. Card size had to be the square cream one and I dove into my lovely Anna Griffin stash for the embellies.

I love this floral paper of hers with it's ivory background and subtle colourways.

To match this paper I made up some of her diecut decoupage and layered these on top of the paper, even though they are not an exact match to the print underneath I think it still works.

The sentiment is from a great kit I got from QVC last year which was an A5 box fall of cardstock embellishments for all occasions, there were hundreds in there. They do come in very handy and are all foiled in either silver or gold tones.

And that's it, didn't want to overwork the card with lots of layers, simple but classic me thinks. xx

Supplies:
Papers - Anna Griffin
Die Cut Decoupage - Anna Griffin
Sentiment - QVC kit
Cardstock - My stash

Quick birthday cards

Hi bloggers, have been crafting again, some quick cards for some birthdays. First up, little cheerful yellow themed one. The cardstock is one of the Papermania printed card packs which meant I didn't need a background paper, how lazy am I!

The embellishments were made up from some old Brenda Pinnick bits I'd forgotten about leftover from a QVC kit. The yellow looks quite scary on here but is much softer in real life.

This next card just had to be pink! Used blank cardstock this time and the backing papers are by Anna Griffin.

Chipboard embellishments are again by Brenda Pinnick.

I have so much stuff from kits that I bought in the early days that I need to use them up and they are perfect for quick little cards that don't cost much in time or cash ;o)

xx