Goodbye 2011

Good morning from a very damp Derby. It's really dark out there, wonder if we are due some rain.
Well this is the last day of 2011 and I am ready for 2012. The craft room is clean, all the washing is done and I have taken the decs down (yes I know its early but its a bit of along story), we are having a new bedroom carpet so have to dismantle our bedroom. I need to put the dressing table, chest of draws and other bits in the spare room. The spare room has all the empty boxes for christmas decs so we have had to put the decs in the boxes and then put those in the loft, now I can start to dismantle my bedroom.....why does everything seem so complicated? But it is.
We are off to the crem today, do a bit of food shopping and then its the mamouth task of doing the ironing and then start to dismantle the bedroom. But how nice to start the year with a nice sparkling bedroom.

Here are some of the cards that I have made this last year, although I am not too sure if they are in the right order

JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

I hope that everyone has a lovely day, the last of 2011 and that the New Year will bring everything that you wish for. Thank you for having a read and

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL

Santa paid me a visit

Santa came and I must have been a very good girl as I got lots and lots of pressies. Thank you so much to all my wonderful friends that gave us such thoughtful presents, Paul loves his too. So Christmas day was spent making a mess with wrapping paper, first on our own in the morning. Then more pressies were opened when Paul's mum arrived. I cooked lunch for Paul, mum in law and myself and we were stuffed. We had a cuppa and opened even more pressies with Sis and family later in the day. I watched the twins open there gifts via Skype, what a fantastic thing that is. Then it was feet up (amongst the mess) and we watched TV. Yesterday we decided to give the study a good sort out all because I received a lovely cook book for Christmas and I had no room to put it away. The drawers were emptied, paper was shredded and we took 7 bags out to the bin. Then it was a lovely tea with mum and all the family, back to the TV amongst the mess phew.
Today I am cooking again for Rob, Nat and the grandchildren who are coming for tea. We did manage to put some presents away but as I got a lot of baking bits and pieces (ohhh lots of moulds for the cupcakes), I had to sort out my baking cupboard first.

I have 4 birthdays coming in the couple of weeks and I managed to make quite a few tags, in preperation.

Not a brilliant photo but the tags are ready and believe it or not, the cards just need inserts. This years motto for me is "TO BE AHEAD OF THE GAME" Nothing is going to be left till last minute, wonder how long that will last "giggles".
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and that you are enjoying your time at home. Thanks for having a read

Santa Clause is coming to town

A very late start to the day today but then I didnt sleep too well last night. I have this awful TCP taste in my mouth from the dental work I had done yesterday yaks....... I am rather sore this morning but will just take more tablets and feel a lot better, yeah.

Paul and I shall be nipping into town for lunch today, grabbing some fresh veg and just have a wander around, which I love.

I thought I would show you this lovely gingerbread tin that Katerina gave me, oh dont worry it was empty, she ate all the gingerbread men but I filled it with mini tarts. Not too many of these left now.



The postman left me a lovely parcel yesterday from Cyprus. Here is the card that Christiana made for us this year.

As promised, here are the rest of the Christmas cards that we have received, quite a few of them, all lovely.















Thank you so much for reading my blog today, I would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas. Hope that Santa visits and that you get all that you wish for.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2 Sleeps to go

What a bright and breezy day I had yesterday. The kitchen got a good clean including the cooker, hob and extractor, all my bits and bobs came out, had a clean, a polish and put back into place. I even managed a little bit of ironing fortunately, I was saved from doing lots and lots of it by visitors, which was really appreciated. Then I made mince pies, lemon curd tarts and jam tarts. Finished the day off with shepherds pie and a tidy up.s

As promised, here are the some more cards that I have received, tomorrow I shall show you the last of the them







Arent they all stunning?
Well I have been to the dentist this morning. I had a broken tooth, my front tooth. I believed it was a past filling that had come out and I was right. As I have been in quite a bit of pain with this recently I suspected that I had an abcess and unfortunately, I was right. The abcess was so bad that the dentist had to make a hole in my tooth to relieve all the puss and pressure. Not nice. On top of that, he has had to remove the root/nerve, not quite sure but I can tell you that it was not a very pleasant experience. my dentist is the the nicest person you could hope to meet and as he knows I am afraid of dental treatments, he puts so much stuff in my mouth to freeze it that I dont feel any pain at all. I can certainly recommend him to anyone who may be afraid of dentists.

So here I am, sat at home with my mouth frozen, my face swollen, eye half closed. Paul has gone off to do some xmas shopping and I am going to go and have a potter and then try and get in my craft room. I am sure that everything will all be okay by the time santa comes and I can enjoy my xmas dinner.

3 sleeps to go

Up early today, for a change but only cause I was at docs at 9.20. My boken tooth now has an abcess and I rang doc yesterday to check I can take pain killers, doc wanted to see me. So, on top of all new mediation I am also taking painkillers and antibiotics, at least I will rattle for Christmas.

Had coffee with friends yesterday and today I am staying at home. Thought I would tackle the cleaning of the oven, arent I brave. I want to bake later today and to me there nothing better than seeing my tarts through a clean oven door. So if you fancy tarts, you are most welcome to pop round later this afternoon and say helloo



What about these cards? This was a stamp I was after for ages and ages and ages and my friend, who has just become a grandmother AGAIN, managed to get it from the states. She got one for me too and its just adorable. I think I may be using this for a valentine card too.

Congratulations to Pauline and hubby on the arrival of their new grandson. He has arrived quite a few weeks early but both mum and little one are doing fine. I will get a card sorted as soon as I am able.

Here are a few more cards that I have received from my talented friends


And I will show you more cards that I received tomorrow.

Last night we went to see the grandchildren and we had a lovely surprise. Robert had taken videos of the Christmas plays so we sat and watched them, stars in the making.

Thanks for having a read today and thank you for all your comments. Have a lovely day

4 sleeps left

It was bitterly cold yesterday but I wrapped up warm and felt a lot better after my morning meet up for coffee and cake and then my afternoon stroll. I went to the post office and posted the last of my cards and went and got veg etc. as we have a little visitor for tea today. Bethany, my eldest grandaughter finishes school at lunch time today so is going to spend the afternoon with me, have tea and then go home this evening. Pauls mum will also be joining us for tea so a bit of a busy day for me, just the ironing to do this morning, yaks.

Here is another Christmas card that I did for family members. I stamped out some images at one of the dabblers get togethers and finally made up a few cards with them, quite cute arent they.
Paul breaks up today for a couple of weeks off, it will be nice spending some time with him but I do believe he has created himself a great big list of things he wants to get done.

Thanks for having a read and I hope you have have a lovely day.

5 sleeps to go

I made it into town yesterday, in the cold and the rain but I did just have to nip into Argos to pick up the LAST present. It took longer than I thought it would as everywhere was soooo busy, I had trouble driving into town, took twice as long as normal, car park was packed but I was lucky as someone was just leaving as I arrived and then the queue, but at least its all done now. Then it was home for a cuppa and a warm and to start cleaning my craft room. Well I only got so far as I suddenly remembered that I hadnt finished off the family Christmas cards, trust me. So I spent a couple of hours doing those.

As promised yesterday, here are some more of the wonderful handmade cards that I have received for Christmas this year.




I must tell you about an incident on Saturday which goes to show, you dont get anything unless you ask for it. Paul and I nipped into Debenhams to get a couple of bits. Whilst we were in there Paul saw some boots, a big thick cardi and some other things he liked. As we all know, its difficult finding clothes for men so I thought we were lucky he liked so many items, off to the till we went, queued up and paid for all the stuff, which cost £147.00, but that was with some pressies as well. Paid, down the escalator and on our way out of the store there was a big sign "buy a £50 gift card and get a £10 gift card free" So we thought that if we purchased 3 x £50 gift cards we would get £30 for nothing. As we had just spent nearly £150 could we return the items, buy the gift cards, purchase the items again and get £30 for nothing? strange. Paul said forget it as it was too much trouble but those that know me, know I like a challange and to be honest, £30 would go towards more presents we needed to purchase. So off I went, back up the escalator, back to join the queue at the till and spoke to the sales assistant, luckily it was the same one that just served us.
"excuse me, would it be possible to return all these items (3 bags full), purchase 3 x £50 gift cards, get the 3 x £10 gift cards free and then re purchase my 3 bags full of goodies?" Well that stumped her, she asked another team member who said that I couldnt use the gift cards straight away, which I said was impossible. Then she called the floor manager. By this time, lots of other people were interested to. She asked the manager who said of course you can but dont bother doing a refund, we shall just give you a £30 gift card. Thank you very much.

Yesterday I remembered that I hadn't finished off some family cards, so I did that and here they are
and a bit of a close up. More to show you tomorrow

I managed to get the craft room quite straight, just another half an hour and that will be done, but that will have to wait until later, along with the ironing as this morning I am off to meet a friend for coffee at Little Eaton Garden Centre. The Garden Centers are all decorated lovely at this time of year so I thought I would have a walk round and have a coffee.
Thanks for having a read of this mamouth post today and I hope you have a lovely day.

6 sleeps to go

This is an extremely long post so grab a cuppa and get comfy.
Oopps I overslept on Saturday and on Sunday but the good news is that I got up around 8a.m. this morning. When I say overslept, I mean I got up later than I wanted to cause I hadnt really got to get up for anything too important over the weekend. Katerina rang me at half 8 Saturday morning to chat on Skype so it was lovely having my morning cuppa chatting to her and Sophia. They are both well and were both getting ready to go into Larnaca town centre for coffee with friends. Paul and I went into town to get the last of the presents. I am really really lucky as Paul doesnt mind a crowded town with lots of shoppers, he just says the more the merrier and we managed to get everything that we went for (plus a little more). Just one more present to buy and wrap today and then its all done and dusted.

Here is another one of the Christmas cakes I made recently
I hope to bake later this week, just have to get my chores done first, especially the cleaning of my craft room, I cant walk in there, nevermind about do a card or two, I dont know how I got it into such a mess.
We had the family round to visit on Sunday and as I had left my bigshot downstairs after cutting out even more tags (well I couldnt do it in the craft room as there wasnt a space for me), the grandchildren were asking what it was. So I showed them and just look what they all created.

Are these the next generation of crafters? Next time they come we are going to use the bigshot to make cards using a caterpiller die that I have, more kits to get ready lol.

Here is another little card that I made for Craigs son
And here is a card that we made recently. As soon as I saw this I knew I had to CASE it and I am so pleased that I did, its a lovely card and I really enjoyed making this with all my friends.
I thought I would share some of the wonderful handmade Christmas cards that I have been receiving this last week with you. I have so many talented friends, thank you so much for these.







I shall share more with you tomorrow.
I really must get my skates on now and start my pottering. Thanks for having a read on this really cold day. Wrap up warm and have a lovely Monday.