Rubbish and Button Buddies

Good morning, its a damp one in here in Derby, it has been raining in the night.

Today we have our rubbish collection, its the blue bin, the brown bin along with the orange bag day. Two weeks ago I put out my orange bag, full of cardboard and it stayed out all day. No one collected it. I emailed the local council and got an automatic response saying someone would contact me within 2 working days....I am still waiting. There are signs all over Derby "missed bin call this number" so I called them. As expected it was an automatated reply but not to worry,they will call me back, I am still waiting. So here we are two weeks later and I now have 2 orange bags and I shall keep my fingers crossed that they take them away today.

I joined FC (Fat Club) last night and the ladies were wonderful, so here begins the wobble less journey. The Zumba classes restart for half an hour tonight too, goodness where will I find all this extra energy?

Onto another button card
I have made lots and lots of these in various colours. I've used the Button Buddies set along with some of the Paper Stacks designer paper. A bright and cheery one on this dark damp morning. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you will see that I have threaded card through the button hole. This was one of the cards we made during a crafty week and all the ladies loved them.

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

SALE A BRATION ARRIVED - yes, its here

I know this should be midweek musings but wow, Stampin' Up! have Sale a Bration and its just fantastic because you can actually get free stamps and/or free 12 x 12 papers. If you place an order with me, (or your local demonstrator) for £45 worth of goodies (plus p+p) you get to choose an amazing stamp set or the 12 x 12 designer papers absolutely free. If you spend £90 you get two lots. Host a party during Sale a Bration, which runs until the end of March, you could get more goodies. And, for the rest of January I am offering free postage for goodies delivered to me which you can collect.....does that sound good?

On top of that, why not sign up to join my team during the sale a bration and as well as getting over £230 worth of products for £119, you can also chose a stamp set out of the catalogue. This is the perfect time for signing up. Give me a call on 01332 721877 so that we can arrange to have a cuppa and a chat where I can answer all your questions.

Here are the FREE Sale a Bration sets

you may have to click on the image to make it bigger

Tonight I am off to join Slimmers World...so wish me luck. I shall come back and make another Lemon Drizzle cake for tomorrows Christmas Card Club, which I am looking forward to.

Thanks for having a read and hope you have a lovely evening

Tuesdays Twitterings

brrrr I do hope that everyone is wrapped up warm, it is soooo cold today. I saw the forecast and its for snow, ooopps. How about this for a lemon drizzle cake
Paul loves it. The sponge is so light, soft and lemony and the outside has a lovely drizzle on it. Again its thanks to Maria because my other cakes didnt come out as good as I had hoped and I made 3 of them, so I gave it my best. But this one, well.......Paul has nearly eaten all of it and its not even 24 hours old lol. I will be making another one tomorrow for visitors on Thursday evenings.

Thursday is the first night of our Christmas Card Club. A few friends will gather to make some cards and then next month, we will all go to someone elses home and hopefully, by the end of the year, we will have all been out once a month and made a stash of Christmas cards to boot, perfect. If you are free Thursday and fancy making some cards, just let me know.

I spent a wonderful day on Saturday with some new friends and some old friends (oops, I dont mean old as in age, I mean old as in, friends that I already have) and just look what Margaret made for me.....isnt it wonderful.

It contains a mini candle that smells perfect. I shall be very sad when it has all gone, thank you so much Margaret. Here is one of the cards we made on Saturday
I havent put Marina Mist and More Mustard together before and I have discovered that More Mustard goes with just about everything. Opps, if you dont know what an earth I am talking about, Marina Mist and More Mustard are the names of colours that Stampin' Up! products are called, the blue being Marina Mist and the yellowy orange being More Mustard. Sorry about the photo quality but Paul has done something to my camera, which I will get him to undo later today. Back to the card.....we stamped the image with Pocket Silhouttes stamp in the two colours. Mounted this piece of white card onto the Marina Mist card, which was then layered onto More Mustard card. A piece of Marina Mist ribbon and some little butterflies just finished it off. I have a greeting on my card but its still blank as I am not sure for which occassion the card will be used for, I guess it could be a birthday, a get well, a note, a congratulations....etc. etc.

I am now back at work, mornings only at the moment. I seem to be managing okay and I go to see a works doctor next week. I am still off the cigarettes which I am so proud of and tomorrow, joining Slimmers World to try and shred the lbs that I have put on. Life seems to be getting back to normal now although its a little slower, which is fine by me. I am taking time to smell the roses, as Jackie once told me.

Thanks for having a read and pop back tomorrow, where I have all the news about getting FREE 12 x 12 papers or FREE stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

Steaming Sunday and buttons

My Sunday is going to be a steaming one due to the ironing I plan on doing, nothing more exciting that that today, sorry. Paul will cook lunch as he loves doing it, honestly he does and whilst ironing I will be catching up with some TV that I have missed this week, did I miss anything exciting? I know I missed the Spondon Dabblers Friday night and I hope that everyone had a lovely time. I am sure I didnt miss any birthdays although I have been told that one of my birthday cards didnt get delivered, thanks Royal Mail, again. I wont rant and rave about it cause that will just get blood pressure up and it wont get me anywhere and we dont want the bp going up.

I also know that I didnt miss anything from work during my absence. I returned to work on Thursday which is a bit of a shock to the system but I went back.

A couple of weeks ago I got to playing with the Button Buddies stamp set

I must stand up and admit " I AM ADDICTED TO BUTTONS", yes its true, pretty ones, bright ones, small ones, big ones, shaped ones, you name it....I love them. What do I do with them? not a lot. I cant justify buying one more button (nor snipping them off shirts and blouses) as I have so many so, I have had to start using them, which was painful. Here are some Stampin' Up! buttons which as we all know, co-ordinate perfectly with the SU coloured card, inks, ribbons etc. etc. I could go on but....it is Sunday.

Here is the insert of the card using the new Swirls & Curls Verses from the mini catalogue. I am just loving this stamp set soooo much because it has lots of little flowers, birds, balloons and butterflies around the words that you can colour in. Here is a close up of it

You may have to click on it to get it a little larger.

This is a hostess set and if you have been thinking about having a Stampin' Up! party why not book one today. You can have a couple of hours of crafting with your friends and, get your hands on this lovely set as well. Give me a call on 01332 721877 to have a chat about booking a party and find out how to get the sought after hostess sets, for free.

I am "waving" a big hello to all the wonderful ladies that I spent the day with yesterday. We had a wonderful time crafting through the gales of Derbyshire and I am looking forward to seeing everyone again in a few weeks time.

Thanks for having a read and please, do leave a comment if you can. Its lovely to know that you have visited.

Monday morning and piles

Good morning and another new week begins. After a lengthy recovery period I am returning to work this week, not until Thursday but back to work I go. It will do me good to get back into a routine and there really is only so much daytime tv that you can watch, really.

I had lots and lots of lovely visitors last week and everyone commented on my second pretty table cloth so I thought I would share a photo of it with you. It looks crumpled but it wasnt??? For those that dont know, it took me months and months to find two pretty table cloths but I did find them, in the end
A bit of a close up of one of the butterflies. It is quite interesting to note that crafters pull the wings of the butterfly up, so that they stand up. Non crafters press the butterfly down, to make it flat......

Yesterday morning I went through my piles. Yes I am a pile person, in the study I have two piles, things to do and things to file and everyday they get taller and taller. In the kitchen I have a pile on my worktop, this pile is underneath a book of things to do. My craftroom is full of neat little piles and to be honest, they are all the same things, either to file or to do so I set to, and got rid of them. Paul has been commenting on my piles for ages and you know what, he didnt notice that they had gone, thats men for you.

Here is a card I made using the Everything Eleanor Stamp set and the Stampin Up In Colours, I really like this card, so simple to make and it only uses up a few of the stamps in this stamp set
I have had plenty of time to go round blogs and I have seen some wonderful cards and have CASED quite a few.
Thanks for having a read on this extremely cold morning and I hope you stay warm today.

A chilling Sunday

Brrrrr it looks like Winter has met Spring!!! I have woken up to yet another very frosty scene outside, everywhere frozen over, little puddles of ice (can you say that), and sooo quiet. A tinneey tiny -2 degrees which is a big difference from earlier this week, 8 degrees and the blossom coming out on some trees, a couple of new rose buds and plants looking green. As I said, Winter has met Spring and goodness knows what will happen to the plants but still, its warm and cheery inside.
Up at 6 today which is extremely early for me these days. I used to get up at 5.30 ish every day but since I had a mini stroke and started taking medication, you would be lucky if I got up before half 9.00 (one day it was half past 12 in the afternoon opps). I havent got anything planned for the day, I am just going to take it as it comes (yes another change for me).
No cards to show you today but I did want to share a photo of a meal I made. I have been following a blog for quite a while of a lady who cooks/bakes and its lovely to see some proper homemade meals and cakes. I know we can all buy a cake for less that £1 in the supermarkets but I dont think you can beat something homemade, especially when we have the time to make one. I do appreciate that not everyone has the time but...ok, I shall shut up rambling on.


This meal was based on THIS that I read on Maria's blog. Instead of chicken thighs I used chicken breast and I put mushrooms in. Unfortunately I couldnt add garlic as mother in law was coming to eat with us and she cant stand the smell of garlic, never mind the taste. It was just as Maria said, something for a wintery night. I got great comments so thank you Maria it turned out a treat.

I have also been trying to master the perfect Lemon Drizzle Cake. So far I have made 3 from a receipe that Sandra gave me and whilst they have been nice and lemony, they are not perfect so, if you fancy some lemon drizzle cake this week PLEASE pop in for a coffee and a taste because this is not going to beat me, I shall be making another one tomorrow. Here is a picture of the first one
I had a bit of an accident with it when I turned it out so it had to go upside down.
Thanks for having a read today and I hope you manage to stay wrapped up and warm if you venture out.

Tuesday Twitterings

Puff.......and the weekend was gone. I did manage to see most of my immediate family at the weekend which was lovely and just did some pottering.
Yesterday was Millie's birthday, she was 8 and here is her birthday card
I know she was going out with friends last night and I really hope she had a great night. It was also Liz's birthday and I will show you her card later in the week. I also hope she had a lovely day.
Yesterday I used a Christmas present
Mum got me this scrummy proper baking bowl, it reminded me of cookery classes at school lol. So I made some chocolate brownies. Well Katerina is due back in Preston tomorrow and she loves brownies so I have been practicing.
She loves the brownies with cheese on top so I am not sure that these will be up to scratch. I also had a go at some lemon cupcakes
I have now got the receipe for lemon drizzle cake so will have a go at that tomorrow, after I have been to see the doc.
I had a lovely natter with Sophia and Katerina yesterday over VIBER. Its a programme that you can download on your telephone and the best thing about it is....all my calls and text messages to the girls in Cyprus are free. We spoke for ages and ages and ages.
Well its warm outside, even if a little dull so I am off to sweep up some leaves and do a little pottering in the garden.
Thanks for having a read and I hope you have a lovely day
Barbara was the name of the lady that I spoke to at Sainsburys last week lol.

Saturday -

Yesterday sped by but I can tell you that I had that Friday feeling. I actually ventured into town on my own but I wasnt there for too long. I am sure that I really am on the road to recovery now. I also had more blood tests and did a little shop in Sainsburys where I met umm, Debera? no that doesnt sound right, me and names, I just never remember. Anyway, she was lovely and tipped me off that the petrol station will be closing for a couple of months, whilst they do some refurbishment. That will be a bit of an inconvenience to me as I normally fill up when we do the weekly shop. So *waving* to you as you said you would pop by the blog as you are another crafter.

Today I have been out for a coffee with mother in law. We went to CC to watch a card making demonstration and then had coffee and cake, dont worry, the diet isnt starting until Monday so I havent cheated.

It was Lesleys birthday yesterday and here is the card that I have sent her (hope she doesnt read my blog before she opens her card as I know she is away this weekend, opps)
As this is my week using just one stamp set, Charming, I made a couple of cards with one of the stamps using the IN COLOURS, embossing folders and punches. A nice cheery card and here are another couple of pictures

and a bit of a close up.

Unfortunately with the light that we have at the moment, my photos arent coming out too well. I know they arent brilliant at the best of times but not quite crisp enough for me. Do I need a new camera?
Thanks for having a read and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Thursdays blustery post

Flooding, trees fallen down, lorries being blown over, no electricity and that is just the latest that I have read for Derbyshire. I know we are experiencing strong winds but I had no idea that it was so bad. Fingers crossed that it soon blows over (excuse the pun).

I am really pleased to report that today I feel almost human which is a great feeling, it must mean that I am getting used to my new tablets YEAH. The non smoking is still ongoing, I thought it would get easier rather than tougher. Paul has told me it will take about 2 years to get used to not smoking so, just 1 year, 7 months and a few weeks to go. I am back at the doctors next week and hoping he will tell me I can go back to work, there are only so many drawers and cupboards that I can sort out. Speaking of which, another 2 black bags are off to the charity shop today but I have come across my foot spa, which I just am not using anymore. If anyone would like this £30 foot spa, for £10, please do come and collect.

As promised in my post yesterday, here is another card that I have made using the charming stamp set, not a brilliant photo but I am sure that if you click it, you will be able to see it.



I shall post more over the weekend. Thanks for having a read and welcome to my new follower.

Spring Mini Catalogue Blog Hop

If you have reached me on the blog hop from Carolyn, welcome.

Thanks for joining me on this very dull, damp and miserable Wednesday morning in Derby. Stampin' Up! have a brand new Spring Mini Catalogue out, starting today. You can order products from this catalogue right up to the end of April 2012.

To see inside the catalogue click HERE.

Some of my fellow SU demonstrators have got together to bring you this Blog Hop. That is where you hop from one blog to another to look at all the wonderful projects we have put together, using products from the Spring Mini Catalogue. You can order any (or all) of these by getting in touch with your local SU Demonstrator, telephoning me on 01332 721877 or you can hold your own Stampin Up Party where you should be able to get some freebies too.

For my cards, I was inspired by my Margaritta Plant, which is coming into bud again. The plants just dont know what season it is do they?

I just love the green and yellow together, so I made these, using the new Charming Stamp Set, first using green (old olive)

and then using yellow (Daffodil Delight)

Then for a splash of colour, just because I could

I shall be sharing other cards with you over the next week, all using the same stamp set which is
brilliant value for money as you can do so much with it, here are all the details.




If you are here on the blog hop, your next port of call is with Kara, so just click HERE

Should you have gotten a little lost around the hop, below is a list of all the people taking part today.

1. Alison P - www.craftyalisoninlyon.blogspot.com
2. Daisydaye - http://www.emma-daye.blogspot.com
3. Sarnie - http://www.kraftybiker.blogspot.com
4. CarolynUK - http://www.stampaholix.blogspot.com
5. Tracey R - http://www.derbyshireducks.blogspot.com
6. Kara M - http://karascraftycorner.blogspot.com
7. Hayley (craftydevils) - http://www.mycrafthaven.blogspot.com
8. Emma_H - http://www.emma-letsstamp.blogspot.com
9. Kate - http://stampinupwithkate.blogspot.com/
10. Theresa M - http://my-next-chapter.blogspot.com
11. TinaFaghy - http://littlewhitehousecrafts.blogspot.com
12. Donna M - http://www.head-over-heels-by-dlm.blogspot.com
13. Laura - http://airingcupboardstamping.blogspot.com
14. Charlie - http://craftylittlemoos.blogspot.com/
15. Sara (craftingandstamping.com) - http://craftingandstamping.com
16. Leanie - http://www.beautifulimpressions.co.uk
17. LittleBeckie (Beckie) - http://www.bextiesandstickytape.blogspot.com
18. Jayne (charliemenace) - http://jaynescraftycorner.blogspot.com
19. Julie H (craftybug) - http://www.the-crafty-bug.blogspot.com
20. Fiona W - http://www.oakfieldcrafts.blogspot.com
21. Natalie - http://www.natalieoshea.co.uk/blog.html
22. Rozelle (LittleMoo6) - http://thepapercraftsessions.blogspot.com


If you would like a copy of the new Spring Mini Catalogue, just let me know and I will put one in the post to you. Thanks for having a read and I do hope that you will leave a comment so that I can come and visit your blog.

Birthday Girls - Post 1 of 2 today

Its Pauline's and Elvie's Birthday today - Happy Birthday to you both, hope you have a wonderful day. Here are the cards that I made for them which I hope the postman has delivered on time.



What with bank holidays and Christmas post, I dont know when the postal service usually get back to normal.

I shall be back later with my post for the Stampin' Up! Spring Mini Catalogue Blog Hop.

Hello 2012 - Tuesdays Twitterings

And what a blustery start to the New Year. We have such a lot of rain today and the wind is very strong today. I haven't seen any weather forecasts recently so dont know how long these blustery conditions will last. I guess the best place to be is to stay home, wrapped up warm and maybe do a little crafting but not me. No I am going to brave going into town and buy a few birthday presents as its family birthdays this weekend and next week not to mention birthdays tomorrow, but I will wait until tomorrow to show you the cards.

We spent New Years Eve playing cards with mum, mum in law and dad. It was a lovely evening that flew by and I didnt get to bed until nearly 2.00a.m. New Years day was spent clearing the bedroom (7 black bags went into the rubbish). I have 4 bags for the charity shop and whilst I have done under the bed, all the drawers and cupboards, I havent sorted out my wardrobe yet. But a great way to start the New Year, clearing out.

Yesterday I managed to get ALL my ironing done, now that is a great achievement for me as I hate ironing. It's a good job that I did it because it looks as though Paul will have to go back to work earlier than expected and he will need some of his shirts to pack. I also managed to spend some time in the craft room, gettting ready for tomorrows BLOG HOP.

Myself along with quite a few other Stampin' Up! Demonstrators have got together and are doing a blog hop with new products for an exciting new SPRING MINI CATALOGUE. I cant show you this until tomorrow but it has some lovely things in it.

I received a great new mobile telephone for Christmas and today I have tried to transfer all my telephone numbers over from the old phone to the new one. CATASTROPHY - there are no numbers in my old phone. Typical. Because I transfered my old telephone number to my new phone, I have lost all my phone number so, if you are reading this, please please please, send me an email with your phone number.

I wanted to show you this lovely gift bag and matching card I got for Christmas from Sue. She is such a talented lady



And this was inside it. This is now in my craft room and lit during the daytime, smells lovely.

Also this set that Paul got for me, he knows me too well, I love pretty matching things, the only problem is, I have too many of them, opps

Thanks for having a read of my blog today, the first post of 2012. I do hope you will pop back tomorrow to see what I have to show you, from the new mini catalogue. Have a lovely day and stay dry.