Welcome to my little bit of the world.

From scraps...

2012-01-31T21:23:00.000+08:00

...I made this, another table runner.

When i packed up my Christmas table runner even Andrew said that he missed having something colourful on the table, so i made this using scraps left over from a past Labelcrew project.

I stipple/random quilted the top and i must say that i am getting better and better at stippling. See, practice nearly makes perfect.

even the binding was made from scraps,
and here it is with the matching mug mats.

I love walking into our big room and seeing these bright happy colours.

School starts here tomorrow so that means i am officially at work, even though i started on Monday. I have spent tonight printing and photo-shopping my Project Life photos for last week and plan to finish it of tomorrow.

I hope you are all well and having a good week.
Linda
xxxxx

Project Life weeks 2 & 3

2012-01-26T13:15:00.000+08:00

Just thought i would share my PL with you as its too hot to do much else.
So here is the LHS of week 2

for this week i didn't use much of the kit, instead i used one of my 8x8 paper pads from October Afternoon. I made most of the journaling cards and in the case of "Joe's Story" i actually scanned the paper and then made the circles smaller so i could see more of the pattern. I actually amazed myself that i could do this.
Here is the RHS

see that wonderful 4x6 photo collage, you can buy the template here for US$4.00, you get 20 templates and like in the image above you can incorporate up to 15 photos. Its easy to use and worth every penny i reckon. On this page Caitlin got her make up professionally done at Napoleon, she knows to keep receipts and such for me now so i cut apart a little card that she was given.
I actually did a 6x12 insert for week 2 as well so here that is

more hybrid scrapbooking and another great photo taken with my I Phone and an app called Incredibooth (I think)
then of course i had to put something on the back so here tis

It was an early birthday gift for Tracey and as Tracey loves banners i used them on the page.
Now on to week three.
For this week i mainly used the Clementine kit, with bits and pieces from my stash
here is the LHS

even Joe is sending my photos via his IPhone and poor Caitlin did you ever see such an ~~unhappy face~~/mug shot.
here is the RHS

bottom right is an image from my IPhone again using the Diptic app and if i haven't said it already "if you have an iPhone you NEED this app", and on the bottom right is some more digital work, i love typing white on photos.
Now if you made it to the end I THANK YOU.
For all you fellow Aussies have a wonderful Australia Day
i am now going to jump in the pool.
xx

A little stitching

2012-01-25T20:55:00.000+08:00

Hello one and all
its hot here in Perth West Aus it was 40degrees today and ahhh its meant to be 41 tomorrow, i will surely be getting in the pool.

anyway i have done a bit more stitching on my stitch a long so i thought i would share it with you,
here is the first panel with the side border and sashings sewn on.

and here are the next two blocks for January, so that means as far as this quilt goes i am UP TO DATE.

you cant see the top block, its some chocolates (in case you were wondering)

now my Project Life is up to date as well, i just haven't posted week 2 and week 3, hopefully i will do that tomorrow after i have been for a swim of course.

Poor Joe said the temp in the kitchen today was 56degrees, i do feel for them as their chef uniforms are very thick and there are a few layers.

oh well that's all for tonight i am going to work on another ufo which hopefully by tomorrow will be a F O.
xx
Linda

Card Kits

2012-01-20T15:59:00.000+08:00

Hello and welcome
Boy its humid here, i don't mind the heat but i hate humidity.
Ok that was the weather general chit chat, now for some crafty chit chat.
I was very lucky/spoilt to be given a card kit just after Christmas, thank you Susan . The kit was designed by Tracey and is available from here.

The kit comes with instructions from Tracey to make four cards and a little gift bag. There is so much left over you could easily make another ten cards.
So here are my cards

Kraft card stock , doilies, butterflies, and banners, how could you pass that up.

Thanks for stopping by and have a greeeeaaaaaaaaaattttttttt weekend, i intend too.
xx

Week One

2012-01-17T13:27:00.000+08:00

Hello hello hello

I have joined the thousands of others and am doing Project Life (link in sidebar) for the first time this year. For those of you that haven't heard about it, its all about documenting the everyday, you don't have to take a picture a day or anything like that, but its remembering the little things. IE when Caitlin was little she used to say ambulance wrong, Joe used to say hospital wrong and for the life of us we cant remember how they used to pronounce them. If i was doing PL back then i would have documented all this so that i wouldn't have forgotten, because we do forget.

Here's my first page

sorry chopped of the photo.
Now it all sounds easy and it is easy but when i went to do this very first page i sat at my desk shuffling things around and got completely overwhelmed after about half an hour i gave up, took my IPad to bed and studied this lady"s blog. I love her PL and although i cant/wont copy her style i love that she has made each page a bit scrapbooky which is want i want to do. So the next morning i got up and of i went, easy peasy, i had so much fun. I used stamps that have never been out of their packets and letter stickers that i seem to have thousands of. Oh yes i do likey PL
here's my next page

oh and if you are wondering about the top left photo, Joe was on YouTube and saw Smores. Well we don't have Smores over here and definitely not the right crackers but he made his own version. I have to say that i could not bring myself to try them. So all in all i had fun fun fun doing my first week and am going to start documenting last week today, some weeks i know i wont have enough photos for a two page spread but that's OK you can do it any which way.

Wow you have made it to the end
Thank you
xx

Etsy shopping

2012-01-16T14:58:00.000+08:00

Well hello and happy Monday to you.
On Christmas eve i was browsing my favourite blogs and i ventured into Michelle Woodersons Etsy shop. I love her style, all mixy matchy and layers, so i treated myself to two of her notebook kits. (and yes i do not take notes but these are very cute and i will use them at work)
Here's the first one

and the second one

both were easy to assemble and they would make great gifts.

My PTI order for December finally arrived on Friday (they have just had their Jan release and i have only just got my Dec order, no ones fault that's what happens when we live half a world away). So even though they are now old they are still new to me, so here's a card i made playing around with their heart border die

and yes i did order more today, cant help myself its an addiction.

Tomorrow i will have my PL to show you, the first week anyway, i cant guarantee that i will have finished last weeks pages before tomorrow.

TTFN
xx
..and just a little note-the etsy order from Kansas only took ten days to get here yet my pti takes four weeks.hmm i wonder why that is?

Labelcrew

2012-01-15T17:56:00.000+08:00

Oh yes i am way behind on my blogging, yet again.
Last Monday the Three Of Us caught up for our Labelcrew project.
We made these gorgeous journal covers.

Susan's on the left, mine in the middle and Tracey's on the right. Same pattern but all so different.
We also celebrated a very early birthday for Tracey. Her birthday is early February but we didn't know if we would be catching up before then. As Tracey's "One Little Word" for this year is baking we thought that her gift should help her along with her one little word. So along with some cake pans and cooling racks we made her these

some pot holders

and a tea towel (another Sweetwater project)

Love the tea towel, its not one i would use, i would have it purely for decoration and all my friends KNOW not to use my hanging tea towels.

I have my photos all ready for tomorrows post (didn't want to overload you today), all i have to do is to remember to post it.

Enjoy your week
xx

Hi there

2012-01-08T17:03:00.000+08:00

Well hello and Happy New Year, yep its come and gone already.
I'm on holidays so i am having a very relaxing time doing.....nothing really.

I have finished the first part of the Stitch A Long that i am participating in, so here it is

kind of a skinny long panel.

I also wanted to show you a card/envelope that i made and i am sorry i didn't take note of where i found the idea.
Here is the envelope

ahh so pretty
now for the inside where you cut a real envelope in half to create these two pockets

weird ha, but in one pocket i will be putting cash and in the other a little note just like this

here i have used the beautiful Mendhi Medallion stamp from PTI, and as the person that i made this card for has already had their birthday i had better go and post it.

I made some mini quiches today to take to my crafty interlude with the "Three of Us" (which will really be the ten of us as the children are on holidays) but i forgot to tell my man giant (Son Joe who is a 17yo 6ft 6in hungry tower) that they are NOT TO BE EATEN, alas there is only half left now. I tell ya it costs a fortune to feed teenage boys. Actually, given the language that is coming from his room as i type this (Joe plus Xbox live) i will be giving him a few bars of soap to eat. Does anyone else have this problem?

Alrighty i have a few crafty things to do tonight and i may even do my first week of Project Life. Enjoy your night. Thanks for stopping by.

Linda
xx

Is it too early?

2011-12-28T15:53:00.000+08:00

Never having done Project Life before is it too early to show you my first/cover page?
Well i want to be up and ready for the first week so i have done my first page already
here it is

I got to play with a lot of stamps that i have never had out of their packaging before. I can see this is going to be a great way to use my Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday stamps that i have been accumulating over the past year. It's also going to be a good way to use all these little bits and pieces i have in my collection.
Funnily enough this page turned out quite bright and i would never have said that bright was my style..hmm.
Any way i am sure that each week will take on a different theme and look completely different.

So I am ready, my IPhone is ready it has Instagram and Diptic Apps waiting to go (love love love the Diptic app).

If i don't manage to post again before new years......have a wonderful safe and happy night and HAPPY NEW YEAR
xx

Chrstmas Decorations

2011-12-20T15:57:00.000+08:00

I have had a lovely day today and have spent most of it in my craft room pottering around doing this and that and finishing a few projects. So i have a lot to share with you today.

The three of us caught up a week or so ago to make a Labelcrew project here are some photos

Tracey's is on top and as Susan was the hostess she didn't get much time to make hers (to busy decorating a yummy pav) so the three pennants are hers and the blurry one on the bottom is mine.

I worked some more on mine at home, changing the ribbon and adding some buttons.

Cute cute cute.

here is what i played around with today and Andrew has just told me that i have a "glittery moustache"
oh well you get that, it is Christmas after all.

and here is another project from my Mouse Paper Scissors Give class and i am not giving this away

OK its meant to be an interchangeable theme where you just add a different photo but i wanted Christmas so even my backing is Christmas, i can always change the photo every Christmas.
Now here is a close up of the flowers as guess what i made these all by myself, so happy, they turned out really well, you just need a tea light candle and some polyester type slinky material, so just ignore the singe marks where i got a little close to the flame.

I think i need to distress the star a bit but otherwise i love it.

and tonight i may just do some hand stitching and try and get up to date with some of the stitch a longs i am involved in.

thanks for visiting
xx

Just in time

2011-12-19T20:08:00.000+08:00

Hello there
it was my work luncheon today where i wanted to give my table toppers too my two wonderful co-workers.
Yesterday saw me frantically sewing on the binding for number two TT and making some cute tags.
So without further adieu

here they are
and here they are again with this cute tag

and here's a close up of the tag (my PTI dies and stamps came in so useful here)

As these were made to go on a table i made them with a great cheap wadding that makes washing easier. Of the two girls one uses a dryer and the other is appalled by this and prefers good old fashioned sunshine so i stipulated both on my little tag. I must say that i never hand wash any of my quilts and quite often throw them in the dryer, after all i do have this super sized washing machine. (ok maybe i am lazy-a little bit).

Here's a card identical to the one in my last post but in pink.

Now has everyone finished their Christmas shopping? I am nearly done and will finish it of on Wednesday.
The postie dropped of my Project Life so i am going to go and unwrap it now.
Enjoy your night.
xx

Holidays

2011-12-15T20:43:00.000+08:00

Yep it's official, i am finally on holidays (from paid work that is) yahoo
Thought you might like to know that one table topper is finished and the other one just has to be bound. another YAHOO. You have no idea how my crafting mood changed as soon as i got it into my head that i was going to make these as gifts. I love giving home made things as gifts but as soon as i said i need to make two before Christmas my brain went into some funny kind of state thinking ah i will do it later but then when i went to do something else my brain would be telling me you need to do this first so in the end i was doing nothing. DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ANYONE out there. So i have learnt a lesson, i will make extra things for myself when i feel like it and put them away in a pile so i will have some gifts on hand.

Okey dokey

Here's a card i made and i must say that i quite like it (even if i do say so myself)

Everything is Papertray Ink, i may just have to make another one in pink tones as its one of my friends favourite colour and her birthday is coming up.

Here's some more of my food journal

inside the cover i put this little pocket to keep receipts and business cards etc.

Here's my first page, i found this wonderful app for my IPhone called Diptic that makes little collages of your photos, i think most of my photos will be like this in the journal.

and another page. We literally fell upon this restaurant at Hillarys, the food was nice and the views were glorious but this is my food journal so no photos of the ocean.

The weekend will be spent putting the final touches to the table toppers ie) signing them on the back and making up two cute how to labels-how to wash me and "what i am"-just in case my friends don't exactly know.

Enjoy your Friday everyone, i will as i am out to Grilled for lunch on the first day of my holidays. More photos for my journal
oh and my Project Life is on its way, another YAHOOooooooooooooo
xxxx

Tea Towels

2011-12-06T20:38:00.001+08:00

I do love Sweetwater just as much as i love Fig Tree, today's crafty interlude comes courtesy of Sweetwater. I purchased the kit for two tea towels and here is one of them. (I whipped it up today)

Oh just look at all of these ruffles

Love love love
and i didn't like the cover of my journal from last post so i changed it

much better i think. The doily is meant to represent a plate. Caitlin is having a great time, although one of the guys she is travelling with had his wallet and I Phone stolen yesterday so with Caitlin's camera that was stolen on Saturday they are not having much luck.

i am loving looking at every ones December dailys
and that is what i am going to do now, when i get a cup of george.
xx

Two days in a row

2011-12-03T15:57:00.000+08:00

Yep I;m on a roll.
I have had a Smash book for ages now and knew what i was going to do with it but hadn't done anything about it until last night that is. here is the front cover

As we seem to go out quite a bit now i am going to do a food journal, here is the inside page

how perfectamondo is that blackboard paper, just like being in a pub or something-ok not quite but i got excited when i found it in my stash
and here is a close up of the journalling

and guess what? as Caitlin is in Bali (more in next paragraph) and Joe has an evening shift Andrew and I are going out to dinner so i will be able to put something in my book straight away.

Caitlin phoned to say "having a ball mum, hotel is great BUT....last night my camera ($400.00) got stolen out of my handbag" ,
"where were you" i said
"at the Bounty"
well.....THOUGHT i if you visit such a den of inequity THATS what will happen.
and I'm still not stressing or thinking about it.

Last night while journeying around computer land i found a beautiful digital Christmas pack from Jessica Sprague, i only purchased the elements ($3) because it had this wonderful word art transparency on it.
I clipped it to some red razzle dazzle paper and printed it of. I planned to put it in one of the frames i had in my junk basket but i think daughter has nicked it so i will have to go and buy a frame.

Isn't it great
and i also made another couple of choccie bags

These are for little girls aren't they sweet.
Must rush Andrew just told me the time and one must go and get ready for dinner and make sure my trusty I Phone is ready to take some snaps.

Bye all
xx

Playing

2011-12-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

Yahoo its Friday afternoon and the weekend. I am making a concerted effort to show you all the things i do and post more frequently. So today i have two things to show you.

My PTI was delivered during the week and last night i was playing with some of the new stamps, so here is a card.

This uses the new Tag Its No 10 stamp set. Do you think it's alright for a boy card?
and next is a bit of re-purposing.
I needed somewhere to put my quilting pins and what better than a chocolate box that Caitlin was given.

I removed the chocolate -yes there was only one left, took of all the stickers and used the new PTI stamp set called Stitches & Swirls isn't it gorgeous. This set comes with heaps of stamps and i am thinking of stamping some onto some fabric to embroider. Well that's the plan it will get added to my never ending must make one day list.

Other news-Caitlin left for Bali yesterday with 6 or so of her workmates, she will be there for eight nights and i can honestly say that these will be the longest 8 days of my life.(trying not to think about it).
                 -there is a parcel waiting for me at the post office, i hope that its my Fig Tree quarterly project from The Fat Quarter Shop, i will pick it up before i get Joe from work
                  -booking our next trip to Penang on Monday (two weeks from the end of March 2012)
                  -haven't bought one Christmas present yet
                  -or written out my cards like i said i was going to do
                  -haven't done any more sewing on my table toppers,
                  -but have managed to stay on my diet for a whole week

Time to get Joe
have a great weekend.
xx

About Time

2011-11-28T20:44:00.000+08:00

Hi there and a thousand apologies my poor bloggo has been badly neglected over the last few weeks.
Here are some of the things i have been doing,

making jam, and how cute is this label,here's the top of the jar

making these oh so very cute gift boxes (and not a cricut in sight)

Here's the link and a great tutorial from Cosmo Cricket The boxes are quite big and will hold a lot of normal size cards and envy's.

Tracey has been busy making some more cards and of course i had to copy (and copy i did, this is exactly like hers-thanks Trace)...(have i no shame-na i love her cards)

and here's a cute fun card made with leftovers from something

and yes my table toppers are still a work in progress, this one is half quilted and i only have three weeks left to finish them

My to do list is BIG and i had better go and start writing out my Christmas cards or my international ones will never get there.
Have a great week.
xx

Birthdays and cooking

2011-11-08T15:47:00.001+08:00

Ok none of the title applies to me, it was Andrew's birthday and Joe's cooking.

The good thing about Joe working at a resort is that he gets to spend time in different kitchens learning new things. For the next six months he was lucky to be chosen to work in the Burswoods new Italian restaurant Modo Mio.

As it was Andrew's birthday a couple of weeks ago we decided to go to Modo Mio, especially when Joe comes home and tells us the amazing food he has been making.

So here is a LO i did b/c as you know apart from being a scrapbooker we have all, thanks to Joe, become foodies.

This LO was so simple, for one of my papers i used the actual menu as Joe had brought it home to study. It flips open, see

You have to click on the garlic bread, its amazing. Caitlin ordered the best, Joe wanted to try everything that was made back of house as he works in front of house doing cold larder. If you go there i highly recommend the involutinis for entree not just because Joe made them they really are divine. I am hoping he will make us some for Christmas.
I wanted some bright tape to stick the photos down only on one side so i could go back and look at the menu and i didn't have any, but Papertrey Ink had a wonderful Make it Monday video showing you how to make your own washi tape and wow it looks so good. I could go on and on about the restaurant but i have more to show you.
Here is a fun LO that i did of my niece

You don't always need to have that perfect photo, i happen to love the one where the top of her head is missing, she looks so pretty i just had to use it. (that doesn't sound right i mean looking pretty without your head but i guess you know what i mean)
and speaking of not perfect photos here are two very blurry photos of some cards i have made along the same theme as the post below.

Now the postie came yesterday oh how i love it when he comes (he came today with 5 little bundles for me as well) OK i digress anyway yesterday he delivered last months Papertrey Ink release stamps that i ordered so i just thought that i would share with you what i played around with last night, now keep in mind i was just trying it out,you know to make sure it all works OK so this is a pretty basic first attempt but there are so many pretty possibilities

Its a gift bag (dah as if you didn't know) it uses the new front and center die, you cut one for the front and one for the back then stick a bag in between and voila you have a sweet little bag. Endless possibilities of how you can decorate them i was just playing with my new stamp set and cardstock.

OK phew that was long, i must rush and pick up Joe and hear what delights he has cooked today and who he has cooked for, Tiger Woods was in with James Packer last week and guess what Tiger ordered? Today i believe its Dolly Parton.

and to think for dinner poor Joe is only getting stir fry.(poor nothing)
xx

Cards Quilts and A Storey

2011-10-30T15:38:00.000+08:00

Hi there
its a beautiful day today here in WA i hope your day is as nice as ours.
I have made a couple of cards this week, here's one

The idea came from the Papertrey Ink Gallery and uses PTI dies with Stampin Up ink and cardstock
here's another one

I was making some felt flowers (will show you another time) and had some left over felt on my desk so i used it on this card.
and leaving the very best till last

I love love love this one. Its a lift and the designers name is Julie and i forgot to write her link down, i will find it and add it later. The butterfly's are a Hero Arts digital stamp that i have printed and cut out.
On to other things
Now because i obviously have heaps of time on my hands and NO unfinished quilts in my basket (I LIE) or cards to make or LO's to do oh wait i haven't even mentioned cooking cleaning and ironing yet have i? Now this is the perfect time to start another quilt and join a stitch a long. (The link is in my side bar) Here are my first two blocks

I am trying needle-turn which is a different type of applique for those of you who don't sew. On My family gathering applique i am doing blanket stitch, just in case you are wondering and following my progress. Anyway for this quilt i am using more Fig Tree, this time its Buttercup. Love heart love my Fig Tree.

And now its on to the storey
I had no intention of wasting my precious time going to see the Queen. Na, no, not interested.
On the day of her arrival in Perth i had to go and pick Joe up from work and as his work place is on the route that the Queen would be driving down i thought i would go early to avoid the traffic. Which i did.
I had half an hour to wait for Joe and from the car i could see the road and hundreds of people lined up on the far side of the street. So i thought why not go for a stroll across the park and wait with all the masses, after all you will only be sitting in the car checking out Pinterest on your I Phone. So off i toddled.
When i got to the highway everyone and i mean hundreds of people were lined up on the opposite side of the road. This didn't appeal to me at all so i sat with two other ~~losers~~ people and waited and waited and watched all of the police cars and motor bikes then finally the motorcade arrives and low and behold can you believe it the queen was sitting in the side of the car that was closest to us, so when i say the queen waved to me well she did b/c there was only three of us on this side of the road. All those poor people on the other side ..one of the ladies with me was beyond happy and excited which probably rubbed of on me a teeny bit. So alas after all that i toddled back to the car and waited for Joe.
Enjoy your Sunday evening everyone
Linda
xx

Sometimes

2011-10-15T17:05:00.000+08:00

Sometimes
the first attempt is....mmmm...not what you had in mind

so you try again, adding things, but it's still not right

still missing something, so you add some more

and finally you are happy with the result.

Have a nice day everyone.
xx

A bit of Tracey love

2011-10-12T12:16:00.000+08:00

I think that i have mentioned before that way back in 2009 my friend Tracey from "A Luscious Journey.blogspot.com" won the the award for the Australian Card maker of the year. Well Tracey has been on a roll lately designing some wonderful cards and of course i just had to copy/lift them.
So here's my take on Tracey's wonderful cards.

This uses a beautiful stamp called Mehndi medallion from PTI
and of course some tags

so simple and so stylish

This card uses the same stamp as before and also PTI's flower bloom builder die and tag no 1 die.
yes more tags

using the bloom builder die
and here's another card. last one

this one is quite a bit different from Tracey's, but that's the fun part of lifting you can work it around what supplies you have.
So thanks Tracey for the inspiration and all of the gorgeous cards you make.
xx

A Family Gathering catch up +++

2011-10-09T16:31:00.000+08:00

Hi there

how are you all?

i thought it was time to show you my progress on my quilt that "the three of us" are doing, just in case you thought i had given up

here are four blocks

and here's a close up of the aeroplane block

i designed this one myself as i wasn't to keen on the block in the pattern, and my cricut was a great help, it cut out the plane, suitcases and clouds. I had intentions of drawing faces in the windows but they didn't come out very well so i will have to wash them off.

my latest block "dads shed" if i remember correctly

and here they are all together so far, yes there is a place for one more block and then after that we have another whole row to add to the bottom, so about 4 or 5 blocks to go.

On Friday the "three of us" caught up for our monthly craft night and although we used some label crew labels this was not a Sweetwater pattern

the first apron i have ever made
and here's how i used a spare label

here's the link to Tracey's blog where you can see all three aprons. Susan made her apron a while ago-just to make sure that it wasn't too hard for Tracey and me, as you may have gathered Susan is our own personal guru at anything that involves sewing machine and thread, i tell you its great to have such fantastic ladies as friends.

OK enough of the mush

i just have to leave you with this cute, cute oh so cute angel i made with my PTI delivery the other day. I bought the dies especially to make her and used 4 layers of cereal boxes glued together

oh it's just love love love

so so so easy, perfect for gifts and i can think of a 101 ways to use her OK maybe not 101 but at least five starting with a brooch for us to wear at work.

phew did you make it here to the end
thanks
one more week of holidays left so i will have to do as much craft as i can
enjoy your week ahead everyone
thanks for stopping by
Linda
xx

The Juicer

2011-10-05T14:38:00.000+08:00

Hi one and all
its school holidays here-yippee
my new buffet/side board arrived yesterday so that meant i had to get out my polishing cloths and unearth this antique from a packing box that has been in there for years. My MIL gave it to me because it was a pain to clean and yes it is but i love it.
I have searched books and websites trying to get some info on this solid silver antique all to no avail, unfortunately my MIL has been diagnosed with dementia and other illness's so i doubt if she would remember so if anyone has any info on this piece can you please leave a comment.

here's another one from a different angle

two of the glasses sit on these cute flower like somethings, my FIL told me that even the glasses are antique (they have a lot of antique pieces and were collectors for a couple of years)
Now for the next one just pretend its a lemon, i had no lemons so used an apple instead.

So happy that its finally out of its box
Also on my buffet is my new collection of glass-nothing antiquey just stuff that i like

and here are some more projects i have made using the art philosophy cartridge

beautiful lace doily

cute little gift box and flower and tag

some more flowers

yep you guessed it more flowers.

The postie just dropped of a Papertrey Ink package choca block full of goodies so i am of to play.
See ya
xxxxx

A card or eight

2011-09-19T17:14:00.001+08:00

Cards seem to be all that i am capable of lately
so here are a few
the first three are all on the same theme, but i tried different ribbon dying techniques. The pretty blue cardstock is the new Stampin Up colour Pool Party and the dies and stamps are from Papertray Ink.

i like the last ruffled ribbon the best
next up a tag, surprise surprise

love these cute button card dies from PTI together with the tag its stamps (only US$5 bargain)

now i was trying to teach my friend Pina how to make a rosette at work, which wasn't very successful so i went home and made her one

love how this turned out, it uses some Tim Holtz tissue paper ribbon roll and cream cardstock

here's a bright card for ya

last week my nice postie bought me a new cricut cartridge "Art Philosophy" and i have to say that its my favourite ever and i would go so far as too say that if you buy a cricut machine you really only need this cart. It has a font, 3d flowers, 3d boxes and bags, some lovely shapes and flourishes, cards and envelopes. It doesn't really cover the men in our lives so you might need a cart for them.
anyway here is a card i made which is an exact copy of the demo they design for you, it was so easy

and a couple of days after that delivery my postie bought me my Papertray Ink delivery with their new bloom builder die, oh love heart love heart this die.
so these cards were made with PTI stamps and dies and some more new incolour Stampin Up cardstock (love the coral)

and yes i dyed my own seem binding with some of the coral ink, isn't that flower just lovely lovely lovely.

well my big dilemma now is what to make for dinner and as its 5.09 i had better head towards the kitchen

thanks for making it to the end

enjoy your week
xxx

Are you Jealous

2011-09-11T17:25:00.000+08:00

Hi all
there is no crafting happening here at all
but on Friday i came home from work to a wonderful delicious surprise
Joe was on his day of and bored so he walked to the shops and back (about 4k's) bought some supplies to create an amazing sweet.

so here is Joe's interpretation of pavlova

first off he sliced some strawberries very finely and coated them with icing sugar and arranged them on rice paper and baked them in the oven. They tasted like strawberry jam

they were placed in front of a quinelle of whipped cream that included diced strawberries and some of this amazing sauce he created.
Here's the finished masterpiece it really was delicious and a work of art.

we are so proud of him as he has found something to do for which he has a passion and he can practice on us anytime. xxx

A challenge

2011-09-06T21:36:00.000+08:00

A couple of weeks ago i challenged myself to create a LO using an oldish photo. I had to open my album and pick a photo on that page.

I did it and had so much fun.

a bit of doodling and lots of jounalling talking about everything in the background of the photo and of course me and my mum or if my mum was reading this mum and I (the grammar of children is getting worse these days is a topic mum frequently refers too).
It bought back a heap of childhood memories especially the story about Shaun Cassidy which lead me to a U Tube search and i sat there watching/listening to That's rock & roll and Da Do Ron Ron...ah was anyone else a Shaun Cassidy fan?

and last night another challenge a card this time
i had the latest Cards Aug 2011 mag on my desk and i closed my eyes picked a page and had to make the card on that page.
Now this was a challenge as this card is a bit shabby chic which although i love is really not my style. I had loads of fun doing it, needless to say mine turned out nothing like the original which was made by Maureen Plut (page 20)

and you know what? I enjoyed this process so much i am going to do another one. (i don't have to think, just copy and that's what i need at this moment in time)
Hope you are all enjoying your week
xx
and if you get time go and search Shaun Cassidy and watch the videos and yep even in his satin pants i still think he's pretty cute.

Cute

2011-09-03T21:35:00.000+08:00

I cant believe that it was over a week ago that "the three of us" got together to make a LabelCrew (link in sidebar) project.

Here is what we made

Susan's is on the left, Tracey's is in the middle and my chubby one is on the right. Aren't they just the cutest pin cushions ever?

and just in case you needed to see a close up here i am with said pin cushion and don't forget that it was late at night.

OK now for a couple of cards and lifts i might add as well
this first one was from the papertray ink gallery and i just had to copy it

simple and easy
now the next one is a lift from my favourite card maker Dawn Mcvey and this card was on the cover of the very first issue of the Create:Stamping magazine-another line in the scrapbook trends magazines.

so i just had to copy it, here is my version

A lot is happening in Linda land at the moment and although craft is my therapy at times like these i certainly wont/don't have the time to do many posts so please forgive me if my posts are few and far between in the next month or so. I love to see what you have all been up to so i will still be looking so please be safe,be happy and have fun.
xxxx

Mmm what should i title this post?

2011-08-24T20:02:00.000+08:00

Gosh its been so busy around here that i actually forgot to play with my July Cocoa Daisy kit. So the other day i had a little peek and found this beautiful paper that i just knew would go with one of my Papertrey Ink Stamps, so i made a card

well several in fact all of the same design
and because you follow my blog you know what comes next
yes a tag

and i haven't cropped any of these photos as you are all meant to be going ooo ahhh over my lovely new blind and voile's in the background...are you, i cant hear?

and then i had to do a LO with some of the bits and bobs that came with the kit
the photo i used is one that catches my eye whenever i am going through my Adobe catalogue so i thought i should use it. Caitlin took it of herself with my IPhone when i was ~~driving~~ taxi-ing her around, i just love how the light has reflected of her sunnies.

and here's a closer view

very simple, but i got to play with some ink and a stamp from my rather largish collection it was fun to do.

Off now to play some more
see ya
xx

oh and i haven't forgotten about my antique juicer, its just that we haven't got the side-board yet, but i should go and get it out of its box and give it a polish, yes that's why its been in said box for nearly 10 years its silver and needs frequent polishing and its so intricate oh maybe i should do it now instead of playing with crafty stuff.

Fabric & Paper

2011-08-07T14:43:00.000+08:00

Hi there

i have heaps for you today so not too much chitter chatter

here are my last months blocks for "The Family Gathering" quilt that the three of us are making.

i am too lazy to hold my patterns up to the window to trace everything so i have just free hand drawn my people and boy if you look close it tells. I cant work out whether the guy in the middle looks like a frog or if he has the mumps and as for the poor little wee one on the end he's looking a bit cross eyed

this guy is kinda OK he has very long skinny arms and i drew the fishing rod which turned out OK. On to next months block which is meant to be a family tree and as i don't think this particular block goes with the quilt i have designed my own block (god help me), will show you when it's finished.

Here's a quick boy card using SU stamps and ink.

and here's a LO, the photos were from my IPhone and the sun was way way shining so the photos aren't that crash but i still wanted to scrap them. Poor Andrew has got a nice big ink blob on his face from when i was inking the photos, all journalling is tucked away in that gorgeous envelope.

Yesterday saw me making some more tags and dying my seam binding with different types of inks and sprays

and now you can meet my tag lady. As you know i make a few tags, so where does one put them, on a tag lady of course...

now all i have to do is just grab one when i want one.

Now i have tried to resist, even when i have seen some amazing blocks completed i have still tried to resist, i have too many projects on the go as it is so i still tried to resist, all to no avail, here is the book which arrived last week

and the fabric should arrive in a couple of weeks. So i will be behind but that's OK i can work at it at my own pace and i haven't decided yet whether i will hand piece it or machine stitch it.

Whew that was a long post thanks for persevering and making it to the end.

Have a great week

xxxxLindaxxxxx

Can you remember

2011-07-31T17:23:00.000+08:00

way back to last year when i was very lucky to be given some fabric by Susan to make a table runner that she had made and i had fallen in love with? Well i cant remember when it was either but alas it was ages. I have had the top finished for months and it was just waiting to be quilted so yippee here it is all finished.

and a close up coz the quilting really did take me ages and ages

and i went for yellow binding for a few reasons
-Susan's is in yellow and i love it

-Cadel Evans was wearing the yellow jersey in the Tour DE France when i was deciding on colours

-all my binding choices seem to be red red red
so yellow it was.

Now you may also remember from only a few posts ago i made a beautiful little "Table Topper" that was oh so easy to make so i have decided to make one each for my fellow work colleagues for Christmas, this one is made from Fig Trees-Butterscotch & Rose fabric mm mm i love this and will have to make a table topper for me as well. So here is 1 top made it needs to be sandwiched and quilted and binded/bound then only three left hmm have i bitten of more than i can chew? I wonder.

and here's another shot of my table runner just in case you have forgotten it already.

I am just waiting on getting a new buffet to put it on along with my new antiquey jars and my real very real and very old antique lemon juicer and i can promise you that you have never seen one of these before and it's most definitely antique, from the 17th century i believe-thank you to my in laws who were huge antique collectors-i got this one b/c my MIL hates to clean it. Anyway when i get my buffet i will show you..

Have a happy, fun,joyous week
xxxxx

Mmmm waffles

2011-07-27T16:31:00.000+08:00

Mmm what could be better after a late night out ~~dancing~~ night clubbing than yummy fresh waffles made by mum for breakfast.

Yep i am the mum in this case (no one made them for me) I made them for Caitlin and some of her friends last Sunday morning after one of their late night outings. I like to make sure that before they leave the house they have a nice hearty breakfast or in this case brunch as it was nearly 11am. Oh the joys of having teenagers.

Here is another card i made after watching the Papertray Ink "make it Monday" videos. I love how this turned out and i think i will be basing my Christmas cards along this line.

The only edger type die i had was the giant Ric rac, it all just seems to give the card some texture. Very impressed with the way it turned out.
and because i use my scraps you know what is coming next

yes you guessed it, a little tag.

and YAY Cadel for winning the Tour de France, i stayed up late every night to watch the whole tour. Apart from the cycling its great to sneak a look at country side France all of the villas and chateaus. We watch it every year.

thanks for dropping by
xx

More Lucky Me

2011-07-22T16:21:00.000+08:00

Hi there just popping in to say
"not only does he cook

he cleans up after himself as well."

Yes lucky me.

Joe made donuts on his last day off and they were delicious.

Have a good weekend everyone

xxx

I'm Lucky

2011-07-16T16:17:00.000+08:00

I'm one very lucky girl and here's a few reasons why
lucky to have a husband that doesn't mind me spending a ton of money on craft
lucky to have the money in the first place
lucky to have a husband that is interested in whatever crafts i do
lucky to have great crafty friends
lucky to have great children
and lucky to have a daughter that loves having her photo taken (in fact she takes more photos than me) and she happens to be very photogenic (not a trait she got from me)
and this is what i am talking about

This layout uses bits and pieces from a few of my Cocoa Daisy kits. In the last kit we got some 5" fabric charm squares and i used one under the rosebud ribbon. Apart from sewing the fabric the rest of this LO was just simple glue and stick, when you get a great photo like that you don't have to do much. No journalling on this one but that's OK.

My lucky list could go on and on but that's enough for today.
xx

Making Pasta

2011-07-15T15:10:00.000+08:00

I think that i am one of the few people out there that loves this wet rainy cold weather. I love nothing more than being inside nice and snuggly warm looking at and hearing the rain outside, and that is what i am doing right now. Although the floors are taking ages to dry with this cold weather.
Anyway the cleaning is done, i am home alone and browsing on the PC so i thought that i would share with you the layout that i made last night.

Pretty simple and straight forward. I had this wonderful photo of the finished pasta so i made my title out of it. Then i thought it needed some colour and i wanted red, alas no red paint so i got out my paintbrush and rubbed it on my stamp pad.
Definitely not an award winning LO but its not meant to be. Its for Joe's album and i tried to write my journalling as if i was talking to him.

Anyway that's me done today
have fun and enjoy whatever you are doing, me- i am going to make myself a George (yes i still love him oh so much and he gets used daily) and go and see what you guys have been up to.
xx

Quilting,cards & LO's

2011-07-10T13:43:00.000+08:00

oops that should be a LO as i have only done one.
Hello all and happy Sunday, its a wee bit cccold over here in my part of the world, whats it like in your part?

I have finally caught up with my Caravan quilt and completed June's blocks, now i can start on July's and seeing as its school holidays over here which means i am on holidays maybe i can get ahead.
Anyway here they are

yes this one was very simple, the top animal is apparently meant to be a bird-i cant see it- looks more like a sheep to me with funny ears.
here's the next one

Picking Blackberries i believe it was called.
here's a close up of my french knots

and here is a really bad photo of a LO i completed last night, sorry its a bit blurry and on a funny angle

I used a template/sketch from my Big Picture class-what a great class, and i got to incorporate some of my Ali Edwards stamps. The pink holey edge paper was cut with the cricut.

and because i like to use the left over scraps, a card, inspired by Christina (link in sidebar)

This uses Papertrey Ink's dies and stamps.

Well thats it for my crafty Sunday, everyone is out at the moment so i have the house to myself.
ummmmmmmm what shall i do?
xxx

I've Been Busy

2011-07-05T20:58:00.000+08:00

Hi all, thanks for dropping by.
I have a lot of cards to show you-so no chit chat from me or else you will never make it to the end
here we go

this card was made from the left over digital papers on my mini album.
oops here's some chit chat-i have not cropped any of the photos as i wanted you all to see the beautiful lace doily that one of the volunteers crocheted for me for my birthday, isn't it just divine atop of my flower frog. (love that name flower frog-doesn't resemble either a flower or a frog!)
sorry sorry i feel this is going to be a long post, i just cant help myself and yes i talk as much as i write, often jumping from topic to topic in mid topic, you just have to keep up or get lost.
oops sorry

Oh yum yum i love this, it is a straight lift from Nichole Heady (one of the owners of Papertrey Ink) and uses one of her newest stamp sets

and because i loved it so much i did it in another colour

over at Papertrey Ink they have a video every Monday titled appropriately Make It Mondays where you can learn new techniques and this was one of them

another card with my left over digital papers, the butterflies are all sparkly but it didn't come out in the photo. Are you still admiring my doily?

and this card i made for Caitlin's birthday, it uses yet another technique that i learnt from the make it Monday videos-the tissue paper technique. The stamps are actually from Technique Tuesday my new medallion stamps from PTI hadn't arrived when i made this (although they have now)
OK we are nearly there

and yes you have seen one like this in a previous post but this is a different colour
and yes here is the matching tag made with the scraps and some oh so yummy crinkle ribbon OK that's the posh name for it, it really is plain old seam binding.

so did you make it to the end
thanks for hanging in there
i am going to do a spot of craft and then go watch either NCIS LA or the Tour DE France. Does any one else love watching the tour. I love to see the countryside and the houses and dream of when Andrew and i will finally get there.
xxxx

Mothers Day

2011-07-01T16:30:00.000+08:00

Yes yes i know that it was a while ago and a great day i had as well. I have just finished making another mini album using photos from mothers day.
This mini is for my cousin who hails from the UK but is on a working holiday with her family in New South Wales (eastern Australia). Nicky and her family came over for a two week holiday and we were lucky to have them for Mothers Day. My 13yo niece took some amazing photos with my SLR camera (and not on auto either)

This mini album was another hybrid online class at Jessica Sprague, so all of the papers were printed from the PC,

Love love love the ruffle, here's the close up

and here are a few other pages.

Aren't the littlies so cute? Now if Nicky is my cousin that makes her children my second cousin, is that right?

Now that i have finally completed this i can go and do some LO's.

To all of my wonderful American friends Happy 4th of July and enjoy your long weekend.
To everyone else, i hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
xx

What has been keeping me busy?

2011-06-23T19:51:00.000+08:00

Well that's easy. Life. Sometimes you know it just gets in the way. Birthdays, work, taxiing, cleaning etc but apart from that i have been busy working on this

Its another tablecloth but oh how i love it. It is made from a charm pack of Strawberry Fields from Fig Tree and the pattern is from Camille Roskelley's book Simplify and its called Coming Home. Love love love. As you may have noticed i seem to have a thing for quilting/sewing at the mo, it seems ages sine i have done a LO but i have still been making cards, so here is one

i made this a couple of weeks ago. The ruffle is cut from an old sewing pattern (sorry Jen i know you think that's sacrilegious). Boy how i am learning in this crafty world not to throw anything out, who would have thought that we would be using old patterns for craft. Its only a shame that i don't have any. and here is another one

This i made for Joe (OMG where have the years gone) and uses some new Papertray Ink stamps that i got.
and here's another one

this one is a straight copy from the PTI gallery and i am sorry i really cant remember who to give the credit to. Great for a male card don't you think?
and here's.... no not another one but something else

a gift box of cards for the Tea Lady at school who was very nice and gave me her old typewriter when i mentioned that the craze in scrapbooking at the mo is old typewriters, and lucky for me hers was collecting dust. The cards in the box are again another copy but i will post about them next. The flower is again made with old pattern paper. Oh and guess what, Tea Lady happens to have a big big box of old patterns that she doesn't want :) :)

So there you go i hope you made it to the end, if you did THANKS
i just have the binding to sew on my quilt which i may go and do now.
xx

A sewing bag

2011-06-05T13:56:00.000+08:00

Happy Sunday

as you all know, last Friday night was our Labelcrew get together.

here is what we made, but before i show you first let me remind you that this is MY work and don't forget what MY motto is.... "near enough is good enough"..... in the sewing dept any way. So please excuse the pockets that are meant to have rounded flaps and how everything is not exactly in a straight line and the other mistakes.

here's another closer look

and an even closer look i covered the button with my I Top tool

looks OK so far, well here's the dodgy inside

OK, i love it, if it was perfect it wouldn't feel like i made it. I love the colours, the fabric is called Pure by Sweetwater. Now all i have to do is pack it with my sewing supplies ready for our next Labelcrew night.

TTFN
me
xx

A canvas

2011-06-04T19:21:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone
We have a long weekend here yippee.

A couple of weeks ago a teacher asked me to make a canvas for her mum and dad as it was their wedding anniversary coming up. Their whole family had been to Bali for a holiday and had some professional photos taken and i had to use these on the canvas.
So what does one do when they are asked to do something creative for someone else, well in my case wait and wait for inspiration to hit, which of course it doesn't. I knew the photos would be bright and colourful so i wanted to keep the canvas mainly white to focus on the photos. Alas more waiting and thinking about ideas, ho hum nothing jumping madly out at me. Then i had to deliver some PTI goodies to Tracey one of my craft mentors (I am lucky to have two mentors-Tracey & Susan) who were/are both scrapbook and card teachers who i am very lucky now to call good friends-anyway i digress as usual.

Tracey suggested a few things and gave me a piece of Collections tissue paper and this was the end result

I am so so happy with the way it turned out.
here's a close up for you

I just might have to make something similar for myself, have to add that to a already long list.
I am just finishing of our sewing project from last night so hopefully i will be able to share that with you all tomorrow.
Enjoy your Sunday
xx

Papertray Ink (PTI) Love

2011-06-02T13:23:00.000+08:00

Hi there
last week my May PTI order arrived, and oh what fun i have had with theses stamps and dies.
I went to their gallery to get some inspiration and there was one card that I had to make so here it is all totally lifted from their gallery.

I liked this card so much that i had to make another

which i have sent to my dear friend Jenni whose birthday it was yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN.
and of course i had to use my scraps so i made this gift tag

Aren't the doily's cute they too are from PTI, a die that i am using over and over again.

Tomorrow night "the three of us" are getting together to make our next Labelcrew kit, so here is my fabric all cut out and i am ready to go

I cant wait for tomorrow night it seems like ages since we have caught up, and what are we making you may ask-well I'm not telling i will show you on Saturday.

In The Nick of Time

2011-05-27T17:24:00.000+08:00

With the wait for my new glasses and the renovations to the house i was behind with my quilting project that "The three of Us" (Susan & Tracey) are working on.
Susan worked us out a time table (or else we would never finish the quilt) and this block had to be completed by the end of May, and may i say, this was my least favourite of the blocks so far. So many small bits to applique on. Although i must say that i am very happy with the end result.

So there it is, The Festive Table complete with turkey and potato's (i think).

Here's a close up

and here's a shot of all three completed blocks so far. (i apologise for the photo-methinks i cropped it just a wee bit too much but you will get the gist of it.

The next two weeks at work are going to be very quiet so hopefully fingers crossed on Sunday i will have time to cut out Junes blocks so that i can take them to work to hand stitch. Well that's the plan any way.

Do any of you out there have a favourite gluten free recipe you could share, my friend is on a strict gluten free diet and i would like to make something yummy for her.

It's Friday night and we are in (how unusual-not) but i feel the need, feel the need for.....not speed but paper crafting so hopefully tomorrow i will have something else to show you.

Love and hugs

LINDA

Finally

2011-05-22T19:52:00.000+08:00

Yes finally i have completed a layout.
I have been doing an online class at Big Picture (when i say doing i mean reading) called 28 Sketches with Lisa Day and yay i have finally got to play along. The good thing with these classes is that you can do them any time, the classes stay on your profile for ever.
This was sketch 9 and it suited me as it uses 16 photos so you can really get a lot on this page.
Please excuse the photo as i was eager to share with you my work and its late here and definitely not the best lighting.

The photos were taken by my 13yo niece on my SLR camera and may i say NOT on auto, she was having a great day playing with all of the settings and most of the photos are great, some are even breath taking.

Joe must be in a risotto mood as he came out of his ~~cave~~ oops bedroom and made a cheese risotto this time, he needs to remember that at work he has stewards to wash the dishes after him, at home.....no wait.....he has Andrew who was standing there washing Joe's dishes as he went along. There is something very wrong with that picture as no one follows me and washes the dinner pots and pans.

With that in mind i will bid you all a good night>
xx

Cooking class

2011-05-21T20:59:00.000+08:00

This must be my favourite way to spend some time. Joe had the day off and i had just came home from work and after much discussion on what to cook for tea we decided on pasta. So what do you do when you are tired and have been on your feet all day, make pasta with your son and it was so much fun.

We had a ball and all of my tiredness disappeared. Here is our end product.

and we didn't stop there. Joe frequently makes risotto at work and as i have only made it once he gave me a lesson. So here is our mushroom risotto,

I love the fact that i am now getting cooking tips from my nearly 17yo son.
and i just have to share with you a card i made for my MIL, she was 85 yesterday.

don't you love my new, very old flower frog, i searched eBay for one of these as i have never seen any like this in WA.
craft room is nearly back up and running
both bathrooms have been finished, carpet has been laid, house has been painted, we are just waiting on our window dressings then yippee its all done, a new house.
enjoy your Sunday
xx

Butterflys

2011-05-08T19:46:00.000+08:00

Happy Mothers Day i hope that you all had a lovely day.

I had to brave the garage and dig out a few tools and paper to make my mothers day cards. The first thing that i grabbed was one of my Cocoa Daisy kits and the second thing was a Stampin Up butterfly punch.
So here is the end result.I made two of these.

As Mothers day was at our house this year, yes gasp amongst the uncompleted bathrooms, ripped up carpet and lovely paint smells we had a delightful brunch. My cousin Nicky and her family were over from the UK via Sydney (long story) and they came as well so it was a really great day. My niece took some wonderful photos on my camera and i will have fun scrapping them. So as i knew that Nicky was coming and that my SIL-Grace loves handmade cards i used the supplies i had at hand to make a little card pack for them both, so i made two each of these cards.

and a little note card made with the stamp from the Cocoa daisy kit, did i mention that all kits come with a stamp.

Hopefully our ensuite will be finished tomorrow, then we will be able to get the new carpet laid in the bedrooms.

I hope that like me you had a lovely day.
Enjoy the up coming week.
xx
and still no new glasses.
xxx

Still Here

2011-05-02T10:57:00.000+08:00

Hi there
yes i am still here, my new specs haven't arrived yet but here is another reason why there has been no craft in my house.
this is my craft room currently

and here is the rest of it in our garage

and gosh you don't realise how much stuff you actually have until you have to move it all. So the main bathroom has been finished and looks amazing, the painters hopefully will finish today but i still wont be able to get my craft room back as new carpet has to be laid and we wont get that done until the ensuite is finished-hopefully in another week.

Now onto other things

i bought this cookbook-

about three years ago to make some yummy pudding the kids and i had seen her make on telly
so its taken me three years to make it but here it is

oh yum yum yum

Caramel Croissant pudding.
now i am not a lover of bread and butter pudding (actually i hate it) but this is in a class of its own and very easy to make and very caramelly and YUM that's the only way to describe it.

i am feeling like i need to make at least one card so hopefully i can go and unearth some supplies and make them on the kitchen table.

and ahem-Andrew and Joe spent about ~~three~~ no make that five hours putting together a chest of drawers from Ikea and were about to give up as according to them a piece was missing all it took was mum/me to come along and softly suggest that they may have had a piece in the wrong spot.....needless to say a lot of bad words were said and it still sits unfinished in the family room...ho hum...

ahh the painter has just kindly bought me my April Cocoa Daisy kit which was left at the front door so i am going to make a cup of "George" and take delight in opening my package.

happy monday

Linda

xxx

Easter Wishes

2011-04-21T14:16:00.000+08:00

Hi there
i am just letting you know that i wont be posting, crafting or even looking at your blogs for the next two weeks at least. I am having serious problems with my eyes and i have to wait for two new pairs of glasses which over the Easter break may take a while. Who would have thought that changing eyesight can lead to severe dizziness, fainting, vomiting, and extreme tiredness, not I, but boy i can not wait for my new glasses. I just feel so sick and how sad is it that crafting makes me sick-all that eye strain and i am on holidays and you all know what i like to do when i am on holidays. CRAFT CRAFT CRAFT so alas non for me :( and i cant even check to see what you all are doing on the PC as that makes me dizzy-although i do plan to a little bit and just suffer the consequences.

image from classiceventsbykris.blogspot.com

So i wish you all a happy Easter with way to much chocolate and a lot of happy family time, stay safe.

and don't worry as soon as i get my new specs i will be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack
xx

Waste not want not

2011-04-17T16:35:00.000+08:00

Is that how the saying goes?
Anyway here is a little file that i made from an envelope i received in the mail last week. I used my last piece of canvas from my Cocoa Daisy kit and other bits and pieces.

Next up i was experimenting making flowers with the cricut and these were too pretty to waste so using my new Paper Tray Ink background stamp i made this card.

Now my next card i don't like at all it didn't come out at all how i imagined but instead of throwing it away i thought that Caitlin might use it sometime. The back flower was meant to be made out of felt but as i didn't have any white/cream i cut it out of cotton wadding, there is also a Paper Tray doily die on here (i do love that)

i don't know maybe its just the colours.mmmmmmmmm still don't like it.

Now the three of us met last Friday night and shock horror i have nothing to show you, instead of working on our current label-crew item we sat and hand stitched the next block in our caravan quilt and as its not quite finished i cant show you just yet. (thanks Susan for a lovely night and Tracey i am so sorry that our drive home was extra long-guess who was talking to much and missed the exit ramp???not me-never)

Only two more days of work left until the Easter hols-yippee-and i am now going to turn around and make a couple of Easter cards, i have had an idea looming in my head so lets just see if i can put it together to be something special. (oh and by turning around i mean that my craft desk is behind me so i will just swing around and begin)

enjoy your week everyone and thanks for stopping by
xxx

Some scrapbooking

2011-04-04T17:16:00.000+08:00

Hi there
happy Monday (does anyone suffer from Mondayitis? My husband does real bad he hates Mondays) alas i digress as usual
i have finally done some scrapbooking and enjoyed it very much
the first lay out was from my hybrid class that i forgot to post.
my dad always used to call Joe "Joebee" and it has now stuck in the extended family although none of us at home call him that only his cousins and uncle
and boy look how cute and little he was here it seems like only yesterday

the other two lay outs have been used with my February Cocoa Daisy kit
i have just realised that this next one doesn't have a title on it, do you think it needs one?

the bird cage tag up the top is made out of canvas, i thought that they would look really good on some cards but then i would have to give them away so i put one on this LO instead. The journalling is hidden in that cute little envelope. The die for the envelope came today in my big pile of happy mail, it is from Papertray Ink.

The next photos sat on my desk for about two weeks waiting for inspiration and then when inspiration came it only took me about 20mins to start and finish the LO.

Not much journalling on any of these LO's but you get that sometimes.
I have been eagerly reading my emails every half an hour as i have signed up for Kelly Purkeys Sketchbook 3 to hopefully give me some more inspiration, alas its not here yet, i will have to go check again.

thanks for dropping in
enjoy the week

Linda
xxx

Easter Pails

2011-04-01T19:41:00.000+08:00

It seems like ages ago but it was only last Friday that 'the three of us' caught up for our monthly Sweetwater sewing night.
This is what we made with our label kit

Some oh so cute Easter pails/buckets

this is a close up of some of the labels we received
and here is a close up of one all on its own.

again all three of us went for different colours and i must say that unusually for me mine was the brightest could be the fact that the only canvas i could get was bright pink or red and red doesn't go real well the sunkissed fabric line.
Here's the link for Susan's blog and
Here's the link for Traceys blog
The link to Sweetwater if you want to have a look at their blog and wonderful fabrics/labels is in my blog list.
PS the buckets are bigger than i thought, i bought 35 eggs thinking that i would fill all three, and i can stuff all 35 into the 1 pail, that's probably why the one pictured in the photo looks a little wonky. Might need to find a big bunny to go in there and just a few eggs.
Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your weekend.
xxxxx
Linda

It's time to meet George

2011-03-31T09:36:00.000+08:00

It has been a couple of weeks now since i first met George at my good friend Marys house. Oh he is so cute and so strong and very quiet. It was love at first sight.
I came home and asked Andrew if i could have a very early birthday present (May 30th) and get a George as i was going to call him George as well. No! he said.
So as we all do i kept mentioning it (nagging) and said that he doesn't make much mess and that i would gladly clean it up.
We had now gone from a NO to a "I'll think about it"
but on Saturday he said lets go and find a George
then there was no stopping me
so here he is
all dark and handsome and very stylish

Oh he makes the best coffee ever and so very quiet and hardly any mess.

There are over 16 types of coffee that you can get, it will be a hard life deciding on my favourite, they come in pods like this.

and the taste-yum and the froth is thick like marshmallow, oh i just love my George.
here's my very first try at a cafe style Latte.

mmmm mmmmmmm just look at the froth.
why is he called George? you might ask-well George Clooney does all of the ads for him on telly so alas we have our George.
I wish i could make you all one coz it really is impressive, if you are ever in my neck of the woods drop in and i will make you one.
off to work now
see ya
xx

Another Hybrid Album

2011-03-30T16:20:00.000+08:00

Hi all
still waiting on one more photo of George before i can show you but in the meantime i thought i would show you this album i made in my digital class. I actually gave it to the girl the day after i had finished it and forgot to take photos so she kindly took some photos for me.

Now just to explain what i have done, the pages of the album were all printed on glossy photo paper, i chose the background colours and the photo is part of the page not something i have glued on after. The front and back of the book were printed onto cardstock then i added bling, ribbons and pearls and a little bit of pom poms. All of the paper items on the front were printed on the pc then cut out.
here it is.

I decorated the pages with stamps and ribbon and cut out the butterfly and popped it up a bit as you have to have that touchy feely thing going on.(well i do)
Isn't she beautiful she looked wonderful.
I left some journal spots so Aylish can do that in her own time.
Ok going now
my house is full of dust and the jack hammer has been going all day.
xx

the photos-second time lucky

2011-03-28T16:02:00.001+08:00

Caitlin's new hair cut

my first card that was too girly

my grungy card and i must say one of Andrews favourites

OK if you didn't visit yesterday then you need to go and read that post-that explains the photos. I had problems uploading my photos, hopefully these have worked.

and Tiff i can understand your acrylic stamp addiction, you just need to ask my crafting buddies Tracey and Susan and they can vouch for my stamp addiction oh and my gadget addiction, actually i have a few.

alrighty of course i forgot to take some photos of the bathrooms before they were demolished so i may just go and sneak a couple.

xx

The Brief

2011-03-27T20:06:00.003+08:00

was to make a 21st card
which i did
and i even used one of my very favourite, special pins that i didn't really want to part with, but i was happy with the outcome

sorry poor photo.
then i find out that the brief had changed, the lady wanted a card that wasn't to girly as the 'girl' was the guitarist in a band.
hmm ..grunge is so not me
but i came up with this

and i must say am very happy with the way it turned out. I used one of my new stamp sets from Stampin Up.
so hopefully the lady will be happy with this one.

now caitlinn has had all of her hair chopped off so here she is on friday night with her bf Brie

(just thought you might like to see)
i have been so busy crafting away that i haven't had time or to be honest the inclination to post anything, sorry i know thats rude as you all share your wonderful creations. I cant say that it will be any better for the next couple of weeks as our two bathrooms are getting completely gutted and revamped (note to self-must take photos) and we have a new house member that i will have to introduce you to as well his name is George, but that had better wait for tomorrows post.

i hope that you are all well and not working to hard.
xxxx
edited to add that for some reason my photos have not loaded and yet they are there in the preview, please let me know if you can see them

In A Week

2011-03-13T16:24:00.000+08:00

Hi there, just thought i would share with you what has been keeping me busy this last week (apart from the normal work, and housework that is)

Yesterday we went to a wedding, and very nice it was too. Here is the card and the extra big envelope i made.

The papers, ribbon and ink are Stampin Up and that cute cute cute doily is cut out with a die from the new Papertrey Ink release. "yum yum yum i love this"

next up we have more from my hybrid class "Mouse paper Scissors" have i told you how much i am enjoying this online class? This is a lay out that is paper but most of the paper and elements were made in photoshop and printed out.

Sorry i normally crop all of my photos before i put them on my blog but hey i couldn't be bothered today, you get them as is. In our kit we were given the blue paper and the black background paper and the tissue paper the rest was printed on the PC.

Now if you remember after Christmas Susan, Tracey and I made a table runner (i made a mistake as i do on everything that i make be it paper or fabric-i think i will make mistakes on purpose now b/c it just wouldn't be mine if it was perfect, any way i digress) with my mistake i made these four mug mats.

See sometimes its worth making mistakes.
here's a close up as i am trying to perfect my stippling. (ha like that will ever happen)

Now the last thing to occupy me during the week and i might add that it only took me one night was another project from my hybrid class
oh i love this
we are meant to give it away
but can i part with it
i don't think so
have i kept you in suspense long enough
no
OK
i will ramble some more
OK no i wont
here it is

A kind of envelope mini album. Once again we downloaded templates for the envelopes and cut them out of paper we had printed from the PC, so the actual items that we received in our kit were the hard plastic covers the pink crete paper and a vellum envelope.
Aren't the colours just divine?

OK that sure was a busy crafty week, here's to another one and i cant wait for my next online lesson.

On another note if you have friends or family in Japan my thoughts are with you.

Take care
xxxxxx
Linda

In The Summer Time

2011-03-08T15:18:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday the weather was buuutiiiiiiiful, not to hot or humid and the sun was shining. So Andrew and i decided to go out to lunch. When the weather is this perfect we usually head down to the Iron Bark Brewery which is in the Swan Valley (5mins from our front door) and we share this yummy platter. What could be more perfect. (and now that i have the new bute I phone 4 i took some snaps and boy did they come out great)
so here is our lunch-such a shame you all couldn't come and join us especially my bloggy friends in the US, you could spend all day here amongst the grapevines listening to some great music, eating and drinking.

a very quick lay out made with Echo Park everything.

I have made my second gift bag to go with last months Labelcrew only two left now.

but boy oh boy i can see a whole lot made in christmas fabric.

Now if you follow Susan's blog and Tracey's you will know that we have started on a big project that will take us through to next year, its a quilt called A Family Gathering happily referred to by us as "the Caravan Quilt" because one of the blocks has a caravan on it.

here is my first block

you should go and check out the girls blocks as our colour/fabric choices are so different and it really is amazing how the same pattern looks so different (if you know what i mean)

I am lucky to have an extra day of today so a lot of craft has already been done and my postie just delivered my Papertray Ink stamps and dies that i have been waiting, waiting for so i am of to play some more.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings once again and welcome to all of my new followers, thanks for taking the time to leave a comment it makes me feel very special.
xxxxx

Still hot

2011-03-01T17:38:00.000+08:00

Hi there
yesterday some parts of Perth had a very small tiny storm but oh what damage it caused leaving 50 000 homes without power and yes we were one of those. So from 3.30pm until about 7am the next day we sweltered as it was 39 degrees or 102.2F (i looked that up). No air con no lights no nothing, gosh i couldn't even see to do a bit of hand stitching.
and i so wanted to be on my PC as i am doing a Hybrid class at Jessica Sprague.com called Mouse Paper Scissors and it is so much fun. probably the best online class i have done and with the class we got an actual real paper kit
so here is the first thing that we have made.

and the inside

love it and so does Caitlin and of course she wants me to make her one and any of the teachers that she is paired with this year at Uni, they will make the most perfect gift.,
and here is one of two cards that i made for my friend to give her daughter (she chose the one with more butterfly's) but i didn't take a snap of it before i gave them to her.

and yes i have sewn on this card.
have to go now as i want to catch up on my class as i am now a day behind
xx

Hot hot hot

2011-02-26T17:31:00.000+08:00

Hi all, it is so hot and humid here, we are used to hot but this is just plain yuk.
Anyway that's my moan for the day.
Here's a LO i made using supplies from my Cocoa Daisy kit (cant remember which month)

its a bit mushy but oh so true.
here is a card i made with inspiration coming from here (that really means that i copied it) but it turned out really well.

"The three of us" met last night to make March's label crew kit, and how cute is this-the tag is fabric, oh can i bear to part with it? I do have to make three more as we get four labels every month so i may just keep one, and can you imagine them in Christmas fabric to put your Christmas gifts in (that's what Susan did so if you click on the word three that is highlighted red you will be able to see it and check out Tracey's as well)

here's a close up of the tag

and just in case you are interested here is the new fence, hooray, and yes i have been in the pool a lot today.

cant stop and chat, i have so so so many ideas and projects that i want to get my fingers into i just don't know where to start.
have a happy weekend
hugs from down under.
xxx

oops- just adding as i post this i don't know if Susan and Tracey have actually done a post on their gift bags yet.

Humpty Dumpty sat .....

2011-02-16T16:34:00.000+08:00

Here i was on Sunday afternoon enjoying a lovely cup of coffee out by the pool when all of a sudden there was a big gust of wind followed by a huge roar and then this happened

Yep half of our back fence fell down and we can see right into the neighbours backyard. Now as we have a pool this must be fixed ASAP and as luck would have it because of the floods and cyclones in QLD there is no Super 66 (fencing material) anywhere in WA so now we have to wait for another type of fencing. I tell ya i have never seen Andrew so stressed. To me its just a fence and yes it will get fixed.

so on to more cheery things
Here is the latest project that "the three of us" have been working on

some beautiful mug mats. The pattern and labels for these came from our Label Club that we are getting every month. You really should go and take a look next months project it is way to cute and Tracey is having kittens over the Easter project.
here's a close up for you

just had to show you my Starbucks mug, i bought it in Penang and just love it and next to it is a little antique plate (not vintage real antique) that my MIL gave me. I think i remember saying that one day i would show you all of the antiques -china and furnishing's that we have been very lucky to get passed down. OK maybe another day.

and here is another project that i have been working on, made with Susan's scraps from her beautiful table runner. This is the completed top, it needs to be sandwiched now and quilted and binded.

It is so hot here today and i sure don't feel like cooking maybe we will have take away tonight, although we did have it last night as well. shh don't tell anyone.
feel like card making tonight
see ya
xx

Some Valentines

2011-02-14T16:10:00.000+08:00

Happy Valentine's Day everyone
hope you all got spoilt
my delivery of flowers must have got lost as i don't seem to have received them yet.
now my poor little blogo has been a bit neglected of late and i am sorry about that, i am still trying to find a balance of going back to work, house work, home life etc as i am sure you all know.
that does not mean that i haven't been crafting it actually means that i haven't had time to photo and upload my craftiness as i would rather just read all your blogs

i did make these cute little notebooks to give as Valentine's to my work mates.

here's a close up of one

wish i had gotten a photo of them all wrapped up, so cute.
and here is another Valentine that i made three of

oh so cute and oh so easy.

The "three of us" met up on Friday night to sew our Label Crew monthly kit and i am busy sewing the finishing touches to mine so hopefully i can share that later in the week

and click here for a lovely free antique dictionary clip art page.
Enjoy your Valentine day everyone
xxx

Plum Jam

2011-02-06T19:58:00.000+08:00

Hello hello hello
how are you all my friends
well it's Sunday (of course) and you all know what i do on Sunday's yes iron. So i spent the morning ironing and the afternoon was, oh, spent doing happy happy things like going to the Swan Valley to get some yummy fresh grapes and vegetables then coming home and making some plum jam with my lovely fresh fruit, making some cute labels for my jam jars and finally cutting out the last three blocks for my table runner.
So a fair bit of craftiness has been done today and hopefully more tonight.
So here is my jam (can you guess that plum is my favourite).

Did i ever tell you that i cheat and make my jam in the bread maker, oh, its so easy. The labels were made by my friend cricut using the Preserves cartridge.

Did anyone watch Hawaii 5 O last week? I did and i thought it was quite good so i will be tuning in tonight. Tonight will be the first night since Joe started his apprenticeship that i have had to stay up late to pick him up then have to get up early for work the next morning.(didn't mind when i was on holidays) so i expect to be tired this week.

Alright that's my lot for today
keep safe
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Linda

Busy busy busy

2011-02-03T15:52:00.000+08:00

Hi all
last months Cocoa Daisy kit was oh so me and when i saw it i knew just what i was going to do, so here is a LO of Joe, everything is from my monthly kit except the pot which i cut with my cricut. This LO design is from a sketch but i cant remember where sorry.

Don't you just love the chefs hat?

Now never throw away any clothing tags, the next is a tag that came from a T shirt that Joe purchased. I couldn't believe how thick the cardboard was and it came with this funky type pin and some leather so why would you throw it out. I covered it with paper and a few scraps and oila here it is

Next up are some Valentine cards with a bit of a red theme going, just love my cherry cobbler from Stampin Up. These two cards were made using my new stamp set that i get as a kit by Ali Edwards.

I always seem to have a problem with circles but these came together really easy.

Now for the next two cards i stamped the image onto sticky back canvas, one i left raw and one i covered in glossy accents, cant work out which one i like the best. The stamp and ink is from SU.

Now here is the same stamp but used a different way (love this one)

That's all of my crafting for the mo, i started back work yesterday so to say that i am tired is an understatement and this school term is a very long one.
I still have 3 blocks of my table runner to cut out (my so least favourite part) so maybe i will do that tonight.
Hope you are all keeping well
Linda.

All mixed up

2011-01-31T20:37:00.000+08:00

Hi all
how are you?
this is a very quick photo heavy post as i am itching to go and do some more quilting.
so here is a couple of cards all made with scraps

and here is another two pages to go into my 5x7 hybrid holiday mini album, i love these templates as i can use a few photos

and here is one of the things i am currently working on. Susan made a divine table runner way back in November and was very very kind to give me her left over fabric so i could make it as well. So here are the three blocks i have finished so far, don't look to closely

i have two more cut out and ready to sew, so that is what i am going to do right now.
night everyone.
xx

Very very deep.

2011-01-25T21:22:00.000+08:00

Okay how are you all
i am now in to week 4 of my Ali Edwards online class and this week we had to do a LO that was personal and deep, it was up to us if we wanted to put it out there in blog land.
I have no problems with everyone knowing my ins and outs and this LO is pretty out there, Andrew cant believe that i am actually going to put it on my blog although he did say that he wished that he could write like i did. High praise indeed coming from one that is very very literate and well read.

Can i first say before you see the LO's that they are all about the story not about the paper or embellishments. The actual story only took me about half an hour to write and for some reason, i don't no why i wrote this piece in Photoshop instead of Word and this took me ages to edit as Photoshop doesn't have spell check or anything, so after about two hours i gave up, printed it, stuck my photo on and a few embellishments and edited it by hand which is now a feature of the page i think. And for some reason the type came out really really small . For those of you who want to read my story i hope you can see it by clicking on each photo. If not stick a magnifying glass in front of the screen.LOL.

Also before you read this might i add this is MY story and how I feel in my own case, i understand that other people don't have the same opinion as me or might think that i am wrong but this is for my kids to read and understand and also later in life its all there in case they want to follow it up. I don't.

Here goes.

Well did you make it to the end?
Pretty deep huh.
may i just add that this is why i scrapbook, sure i like flowers and pretty papers and i am the queen of tools and gizmos but sometimes you just don't need it.

whew a lighter post tomorrow with some patchwork and some cards.

PS . Suzitee i know that you will love this LO.
Thank you all for stopping by.
xx

Remember this?

2011-01-20T12:43:00.000+08:00

Hellooooo

do you remember this?

Well it now looks like this

Those colours are so me.
and here it is in its new home

Very simply quilted by machine and apart from the Sashiko in the middle all of it was made from fabrics in my stash so you have to love that.
Going now to get started on another quilty type project, gosh this is fun.
xx

Yesterday and Today

2011-01-19T17:20:00.000+08:00

Hi there
One of the online classes i am doing at the moment is with Ali Edwards and its called Yesterday and Today so here is my first page and this one is a digital page. (don't laugh at the photos, you are about to see me as you have never seen me before)

The next two pages are 'hybrids' which means i have printed out the journalling block on the computer then stuck it on to paper, i haven't enhanced or cropped any of these photos (that's something Ali very rarely does) so this is what they looked like when i snaffled them from mum.

Oh to be so slim again.
OK enough of that.
In my last Cocoa Daisy kit we got some sublime Jenny Bowlin butterflys and i just had to put them to use making these cards that were inspired by Dawn Mcvey ,

Blue and brown is my new favourite colour combo.
There is a bit of quilting going on around here and hopefully i will have more to show you tomorrow.
xx

All ready for christmas next year..lol

2011-01-14T15:14:00.000+08:00

Remember when 'The Three Of Us' (Susan, Tracey and me) started to make a table runner, it was a Christmas theme but we knew that it would never be finished for Christmas, well they are, and 11 months early i might add!!!

This one is Susan's with a white background. Oh so yummy and crisp.

photo from Susan's blog

and this one is Tracey's, her very first quilting project and hand quilted as well. Tracey's has a cream background.

photo from Tracey's blog

and here is mine with a green background, hand quilted with a bit of stippling-i haven't stippled (that sounds funny) for years so its a bit rough and uneven but i am very happy with it.

and a close up so you can see that puffy, puffy puffiness that i love.

The three of us met this morning for a scrumptious breakfast at the Burswood and i was meant to come home and clean, well .....who feels like cleaning.........so blogging and some craft it is.
Off to potter and play
xx

Did you know

2011-01-13T15:45:00.000+08:00

that i love to read and i love books. I have such an eclectic taste in authors however i will not read Stephen King or any of the Twilight books they just don't do it for me.
I love spy books and war books yep that's right, here's my latest addition to our bookcase

I have had to wait ages for the new Tom Clancy book, its a big one and quite hard to read whilst laying down (I love to read laying down with a drink and a ~~bag of chips~~ oops apple. Andy McNab is another of my favourite authors and his first book Bravo 2 Zero is a true story of how he managed to escape from a prison in Iraq he is the most decorated soldier in British history. His other books are all fiction with war themes. I love KGB/CIA spy type books so if anyone can recommend me any please leave a comment.
The other day i picked up this book and read the blurb about it and thought OK i will give this a go and when i got home i looked at the author "Nicole Ritchie", surely not 'the' Nicole Ritchie i thought, she cant write but what little did i know it was quite a good read.
Of course there had to be some crafty books purchased

and this leads me on to all of the baking that i have been doing lately,, before i go on let me tell you that these were the kids choices and i am so OVER chocolate.

A giant milk chocolate cookie, i found it very sweet but the kids loved it, and

these ones were called chocolate crackles, very nice but a bit of an effort to make.
I am not a sweet person, give me a cheese platter any day but i must confess to a love of home made cookies or biscuits, and here are some all ready to go as gifts, aren't they cute?

Boy that was a long post, i am home alone and plan to do a bit of scrapping now before i start on dinner, so
TTFN
Linda

Hooray

2011-01-11T19:55:00.001+08:00

Yippee.
Last night i finished a LO.
This LO has taken me ages to do and has put me off doing any scrapbooking at all. Why you might ask. Well the photo has a storey with it and i wanted to tell it well, i also had an idea of how i wanted the page to turn out but couldn't bring myself to do it. So in the hard pile it went.

Last night i thought STUFF IT, just do it, and you know what, it was real easy and i am oh so happy with the way it turned out.

Now its not really a pretty page, it does however tell the storey which is exactly what i wanted and thanks to a Friday Photoshop tutorial with Jessica Sprague i was able to do my journalling on the computer.
Its a sad storey with a bittersweet ending.

That doily stamp is oh so pretty and came in my monthly kit from Cocoa Daisy.
And here is the newspaper article..in case you are interested

So yay i did it, i am very happy with it and now i am in the MOOD to SCRAP.
Thanks for dropping by.
xx
Linda
PS i have baked yummy things all day today and i will show you tomorrow so if you are on a diet "sorry".

Would you give this to a boy?

2011-01-06T21:41:00.000+08:00

Hi there,
i have just finished making two cards and one i wanted to do in boy colours, i was quite pleased with myself and walked out to show Andrew (dh) and he said "you cant give that card to a male its got a cake on it". humph##** so what do you reckon?

Could i give this to a boy or not?
Here is another one in different colours that i am entering into a challenge at Meredith Scraps.

Now i don't do new year resolutions but this is one thing i will be working on next starting Saturday, will ya just take a look at my craft room.

My desk. OMG what a MESS.

Next to my desk. OMG what a mess.

Now this corner is real BAD.

and my computer desk, bad as well. I consider myself a tidy person with everything in its own place, well judging by this mess you all wont agree, so i am off to Ikea on Saturday to buy some units or something.

Ok, have to go pick up Joe now who has been working in a hot kitchen for the last nine hours. He has met just about all of the tennis players playing in the Hopman cup including Andy Roddick and Leyton Hewitt and a couple of weeks ago he met Shane Warne and the man himself James Packer. Gees if only Pierce Brosnan came and stayed at the Burswood i would have to hang out in the kitchens with Joe.

Night all

xx

A little pink

2011-01-03T16:16:00.000+08:00

Hi all, how you doin? We are having some very hot weather here in Perth so its nice to spend the day at home with the air/con on and jumping in and out of the pool and eating yummy crunchy sweet fresh grapes straight from the Swan Valley.

A little crafting is going on here-not much but some.

Here is another rosette, pink this time on top of one of my handmade boxes all ready to give to a sweet girl who will be turning 14, who as i type this is one her way to KL for some shopping with her family. Happy Birthday Rebecca.

and here is the card i made for her birthday. Everything is from my Cocoa Daisy November kit and Stampin Up. Apart from my vintage button which was courtesy of my MIL. I do so love buttons and hate to part with them but what good are they sitting in a box?

Next up is a card inspired by PTI and they were easy to make so i made a couple to put in my stash and the stash i am creating for my SIL who loves to give home made cards.

Flower stamp is from PTI everything else is Stampin Up. BTW Andrew and Caitlin ~~hate~~ dislike the Kraft one and yes i think the green and red ones are better.

Joe is fast asleep and has been for nearly the whole day, he worked from 12 noon yesterday until 11.30pm poor thing he could hardly walk when i picked him up. He is still loving it and coming home with funny tails from the kitchen every night. As yet he has not cooked me anything but i am patient and can wait.

I want to do a LO now it has been a whilst since i did one but i just don't feel it if you get what i mean. I may stick with cards or do some Off the page thingy or work on my mini album or maybe i will go and have another swim. I have told said 18yo daughter and friend to get out of the pool as they have been in there for about 2 hours and they WILL be burnt but ha who am i to know these things.

Have fun, thanks for visiting i so love it when you do.
xx

Cards For Australian Troops

2010-12-30T19:50:00.000+08:00

Hi one and all
Over the last couple of years i have read many American blogs (Jennifer Mcguire in particular) that talk about 'cards for troops' and thought what a great idea, but what would i write to a soldier that i had never met? Well.........++##DAH**## Linda you don't actually write on them you send them blank. OK so it took me a couple of months to figure this out and i love this idea. Just imagine sending a blank card to a serving soldier and he can then write in it and send it back to say his little son, imagine how the little boy would feel-"I got this from daddy" or how about a Valentines card or I am so proud of you card. Oh its making me feel quite sad and happy at the same time thinking that we as crafters can do this to help support our Aussie Troops.

I am ashamed to say that i never thought to organise anything like this for our troops but a lovely lady from the Cricut Messageboard has. Her name is Mel and she can be contacted via email here all we have to do is send some cards-with envelopes to Mel and she will forward them on to the appropriate places.
So please all you Aussie crafters out there go through your stash (i know you have them) or make some new ones, any themes. Melissa is sending the first batch out on Jan14 so you still have time.

Here is my first contribution, these all came from my stash so i will make some new ones for my next lot.

Here is a piece from Mel's post over on the Cricut messageboard-

"Had a chat with the US organiser of the Cards for Troops and have a few tips.

If you would like to put a name on the back of the card please feel free to do so, but use only either your screen name or your first name, no surnames please. We will also be stamping the back of the cards with an email address so if anyone wants to make contact with the girls they can via that one. I will onforward all emails to the card maker and also share them on this thread. The email address is cardsforthetroops@hotmail.com
For those sending cards, a huge thank you. For those thinking of participating, please remember this will be an ongoing event until all our troops are home!! So whilst you might not be able to help out now, any and all help is welcome at any stage and any time, as well as any amount of cards be it 1 or 100!!
We have approximately 2,900 personnel overseas at present time from all three services. These areas include East Timor, Sudan, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Middle East."

Okay so this is my mission for this year and now i will have to go and replenish my card box and what a great excuse to buy some more supplies, surely Andrew cant begrudge me even more money to spend on craft to make cards for our troops!

Thanks for reading my very long post i had better go and make some more cards.
xx

Okay

2010-12-29T16:14:00.000+08:00

..It's 3pm and i have just taken Joe to work, Caitlin is at work and Andrew much to his disgust returned to work today so GUESS WHAT? I am home alone for a couple of hours. The ironing is up to date for the first time in about 6 weeks so i have some extra time to share with all of you.

So how was every one's Christmas? Mine was OK i don't know if it was because we had been on holidays or what, but i wasn't very prepared and the excitement wasn't there for me this year or is it because my children have grown up and would rather sleep in on Christmas morning than get up at 5am (OK not Joe's fault as he was working until 1pm Christmas morning).

Anyway here is the start of some of my holiday snaps and aren't you lucky not everyone gets to see me in bathers. (oh and before you look at these i have put on about 15 of my 40kgs but not to worry am back on track now)

me buy the pool RELAXING

Andrew and Caitlin at the pool bar for Happy Hour.

Well that's enough of that for now, some more to come later. Here are some lovely rosettes and flowers that i made after watching a video on the Hero Arts website by Jennifer Mcguire.

Cant you just see the big ones on some yummily wrapped prezzies, oooo, I can so i will be making a ton of them in different colours b/c after all 'its all in the packaging'.

Now you all know that i love to make mini albums and seeing as i was so inspired by Tracey's hybrid Christmas album i am going to do a little hybrid 5"x7" album of our holiday.

Here is the album cover with a lovely photo courtesy of Joe who had fun playing with the camera. Very simple but this is what this album will be.

"Lets start at the very beginning a very good place to start" do you remember that song? Doris Day i think. Anyway i digress as usual, yes the beginning.. us waiting for the taxi at home and us at KL airport in Malaysia waiting for our connecting flight. This was done on a 5x7 template that i purchased from Jessica Sprague. You will see a lot of these throughout the album in different formats. I also kept the envelopes that they give you in the room to add to my album.

So what do you all have planned for the next couple of weeks? Apart from doing some rearranging of rooms and cupboards i am enrolled to do two online classes, one starts tomorrow. So yay i am back in crafting mode.

Will be back later today or tomorrow to ask you Aussie crafty people for some help (its all about cards for troops a huge thing in America and hopefully one that we can start here)

Its good to be back

See ya later
xx

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T17:47:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone you probably thought i went on holidays and never came back. We have been back for a little over a week now and as you can imagine it is a very hectic time so i have no crafty projects to show you.

We had a fabulous time on our holiday, spent heaps and ate way to much, i will put you all through the agony of seeing some-not all, of my photos after the Christmas rush has died down.

I just wanted to pop in and wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a safe and happy new year. Thank you all , for your lovely comments and support over the last year.

xxx
Linda

A quick post then up up & away

2010-11-24T20:46:00.000+08:00

Hi there
thanks for stopping by. I just wanted to share with you what i have been playing with this week apart from my Christmas table runner which i am pleased to say has been hand and machine quilted and is now ready to have the binding sewn on.

Last night my Stampin Up consultant-Tracey dropped of a new stamp set and punch and of course i had to have a play right there and then. Look at these cute little ornaments, i just have to add some bakers twine and then they are all ready to hang. I am thinking a whole lot of them in a bowl or big jar would make a great decoration. And how could i not go past this mini milk carton die, isn't it just way way too cute? It fits two yummy wrapped chocolates, i think i will be making a lot of these as well.

Everything used to make these cute things come from SU apart from the twine.

Now on to a lay out (or LO as i normally say) This one actually started out as a digital LO but i wanted to print it out there and then and as i don't have a 12x12 printer that wasn't an option so i kept the photo bit exactly how it was on the digital template and then i just printed that out. Then i just copied the rest of the template using real papers and ribbon so now tada i have a Hybrid LO. All of the papers and alphas for this LO came from my Cocoa Daisy kit club (incidentally they were voted in the top three kit clubs by the scrapbooking industry USA so if you get a chance go check them out. So worthwhile) the ribbon is from Stampin Up.

OK here is a link to a very cute free digi stamp, if you don't use anything digital you should have a go at downloading this one its a thank you and oh so cute.
This will be my last post for a little bit as up up and away we go, so please take care of yourselves and think of me doing it tough ie/ lots of shopping in the morning then relaxing by the pool in the arvo then a sumptuous dinner followed by more shopping (and can you believe i hate shopping-but not on holidays) be back soon with lots of photos.
Love Me
xx

Planning Ahead

2010-11-17T19:52:00.000+08:00

Hi there
We are off to Penang in a couple of weeks and there is a whole heap of tasks that have to be done before we go. This is one of them.
Its one of our volunteers (at work) birthday whilst i am gone so i have ~~instructed~~/asked the girls to organise some flowers for her and also this card and cute little purse full of chocolates.

The paper and stickers are Basic Grey-Capella and the purse was cut out with the cricut and the Forever Young cartridge.

I am busy hand quilting my table runner so not much else is happening here or should i say no more show and tell.

Have fun doing whatever you are doing and enjoy your day.

xxx

Linda

All ready to quilt

2010-11-14T20:23:00.001+08:00

Remember a while ago Tracey and I got together with Susan to have a bag making lesson? Well this time its a quilted table runner session. Yesterday under Susan's supervision and much moaning and groaning from Tracey and me (we HATE the cutting out bit) we cut out our triangles and did a bit of sewing.
I then stayed up most of the night (was waiting for Caitlin to get home) and sewed mine together.

Excuse the poor lighting but you can get the gist of what it looks like. The patterned fabric is Kate Spain's 12 days of Christmas. We all used a different colour homespun so like our bags they will all turn out completely different. And mine will be even more different as i thought that i had made four blocks to many and didn't include them in my runner (oh well you get that) it would have made it very very long. I am saving the other four to make into a coordinating coffee table quilt as you all know i have a thing for those.

Now i just had to show you a close up as i am very proud of the fact that i nearly got all of my points to meet correctly (i am a very near enough is good enough person) so i took extra care with this project as i couldn't have Susan's and Tracey's looking all perfect and mine slap dash could I? So its all ready to quilt and unlike Susan and Tracey i love hand quilting so that is what i will be doing and yet another reason why our table runners will look very different.

Now this is why i was up so late, wouldn't you wait up for someone that went out looking like this?

Have a great week everyone
Thanks for stopping by.
xxx
Linda

This and that

2010-11-07T14:16:00.002+08:00

Hi there, how are you all?
I have a couple of things to show and tell.
Scrappy Go Lucky are having a new challenge on Wednesdays called Whip It Up Wednesday and the theme this week was to colour a cricut image. I can tell you now that i have never thought to colour an image that i cut out so i had a great time looking through carts and deciding what to cut and how to colour. The stockings were coloured with Copics and some Distress Stickles.

The snowflakes were coloured with distress inks and then a quick spray of Glimmer Mist. Love how these turned out. I got this idea from the Hero Arts blog although they didn't use a cricut image. So there you go more great things you can do with the cricut.

Last night Andrew and i went out to dinner with our BF's without the children/young adults (who were disgusted that they weren't invited BTW) and i just had to make a little I Love You present for my friend so this is what i made.

Another little card set and one of my crocheted cleaning/dusting cloths. If you hadn't guessed already her favourite colour is PINK.

All presented in a cute bag because as you know it's all in the presentation.

Another of Caitlins BF's (she has two) is turning 18 at the end of the week so Caitlin asked me to make her an album so this is what i have done so far.

Didn't have to do much to the cover-add the ribbon, some pearls and a lovely stamped sentiment and of course ink the edges.

Inside the front cover is this pocket that i have inked the same way as i did the snowflakes on the very top photo. Love love love the way this turned out with the matching tag. The flower page is from my favourite October Afternoon-Fly A Kite collection and will have a photo attached to it. So with that in mind i had better go and work on the album as it has to be finished by next Saturday.

Have a great week everyone, thanks for stopping by.
xx

Great Giveaways

2010-11-02T15:43:00.000+08:00

Here are the links to some great giveaways.

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You can win all of this by clicking here

and Enfys has a great giveaway where you can win the complete set of Promarkers.

remember you have to be in it to win it.
Have a great day.
xx

Pizza box mini card set

2010-10-19T17:44:00.000+08:00

Hey there, thought i would start with all of my pics first. As you know i so LOVE making little cards and matching boxes and aren't these just oh so cute. The mini pizza box instructions can be found here it is oh so easy to make. I did cut out a half circle on the opening top flap to make it easier to open.

..and aren't the cards oh so cute. All made with some very nice Stampin Up stamps that i have been dying to play with, the cards are 3x3inches.

...and i just had to show you the matching envelopes i made to go with them (they fit in the box as well). LOVE these, they are made with my friend the cricut using the Cindy Loo cartridge.

am going to make me some more, why? I don't know, to be honest i never use little gift cards but these are so cute i am going to make a stash to keep on hand for prezzies-have some cute tea cup stamps that i may use in my next box.

If you are into stamps GoingBuggy has another great giveaway - some fairy stamps.

Happy crafting.
xx

M I A

2010-10-15T20:38:00.000+08:00

Hey there
sorry have been MIA this past week.
My school holidays did not end well for me with a huge fall in the kids bathroom which left me with the biggest bruise i have ever seen (about 10inches long) on my butt which made sleeping and sitting down very painful.
Am happy to say that its not too bad now.

Before i forget Enfys at Going Buggy has an amazing giveaway and it ends on the 17th so you had better get in quick.

Here's what i have been up to over the last week.

This is a double LO from when Caitlin went to her music festival a couple of weeks ago. I have used Basic Grey papers and the Stampin Up butterfly punch.

Well i did have a load of other crafty things to show you but my browser doesn't appear to be working so i will have to put them in another post.

***some cricut love***as you all know, i love my cricut, well Caitlin and her Uni friends love it now. Boy has my bug had a big workout this week. Caitlin had a whole week of prac at her primary school, teaching and preparing three lessons a day, we had girls over here making posters for some of their lessons, cutting out huge clouds to hang the children's work from, big flash cards etc. This only justifies what i said to Andrew when i upgraded to my bigger machine "apart from me using it Caitlin can use it for her class work" i said this only half believing it and of course i had to justify the money i had spent on it and guess what it was true so i didn't tell a little lie. Now i wonder if i spend $400.00 on more craft stuff if i can say the same thing. (I don't think he will believe me)

So i spent last night making thank you cards for Joe's teachers as it was his very last day at school (he starts his apprenticeship soon), thank you cards for Caitlin's prac teachers and 28 goody bags for all of her year 1-2 prac class. And guess what- not one photo to show you.

I will try and post all of my other crafty things later on
Hope you are all well, and have a lovely weekend.
Linda

Purple, Orange & Black

2010-10-04T21:05:00.001+08:00

That's the colour challenge over at ICopic and as i want to get in some practise with my Copic markers i thought i would give it a go. As we don't celebrate Halloween over here i didn't use a Halloween greeting (could be the fact that i don't have one to use either) but who could resist this cute digital stamp that i purchased from here. It is so cute.

Of course my trusty cricut got a workout with the frame and the background paper is from Stampin Up.
I don't have a clue who i will give this card to but i think it's very cute.

I have been reading quite a few blogs lately and in most of the American blogs i have read, everyone goes on about their love for "Candy Corn". Can someone please tell me what it is and what the texture is like. Is it like the coloured popcorn here which is plain old popcorn coloured with food colouring or is it something far more yummier that we are missing out on?

Linda

Challenge 2

2010-10-03T00:00:00.000+08:00

The next challenge over at Christina's blog is to make a card using PINK as pink is the colour for breast cancer. So here is my card.

and that's it for me, its gone midnight and i am going to bed.
xx

World Card Making Day

2010-10-02T22:55:00.000+08:00

Well good evening or good morning where ever you are in the world. Christina from Creations With Christina is having an all day blogfest in honour of World Card Making Day. I have been waiting patiently all day for this to begin and no doubt like some of her other Australian followers will be staying up a bit late to do a couple of the challenges.
The first challenge was nice and simple although mine still came out different.

The papers are Fly A Kite by October Afternoon and the stamp is Stampin Up. If you get a chance go and have a look at Christina's blog she does the most awesome videos.
Have a great night/or day.
xx

One mans trash is another....................

2010-10-01T17:34:00.000+08:00

As the saying goes "one mans trash is another mans treasure". This wooden Christmas tree was in my friend Tracey's chuck out box so i nabbed it. I thought that i would decorate it and take it into work and leave on my bench for the girls to look at, not to count down the days until Christmas but to count down the days until i am back at work as in a couple of months we are going to Penang.

Sorry the photo is terrible but can you make out the little presents i made for under the tree?

Next up is a very simple layout of Joe playing with the new camera. The journalling is done on the PC so this then becomes a hybrid layout.

The remember stamp is from the Ali Edwards monthly club set and is stamped in Poppy Parade ink one of the new 'in colours' from Stampin Up which i happen to think matches the Basic Grey papers perfectly.

Last but not least is a card i made for Joe who has just earnt himself an apprentice chef position at one of our 5 star resorts. (I think we only have one five star resort) Well done Joe we are very proud of you and i must say that i will be waiting for you to come and practise some of your new skills in our kitchen.

Hope you all have a good weekend.
xx

How sweet is this

2010-09-26T17:26:00.000+08:00

I was blog hopping- as you do- and came across instructions to make these adorable, sweet, cute, amazing gift pouches. In the USA they call them sour cream containers as i guess that is what their sour cream comes in. First off i have to apologise to the owner of the blog where i first saw them as i didn't copy the link because i was so excited and had to make one there and then, really they are so very very easy to make.. I used a die and stamp set from Paper Tray Ink to make this cute tag. The paper is 6x6 made into a tube like a toilet roll and glued down at each end and then you crimp it with a crimper. I just happen to have one that my friend gave me about 10 years ago and i have never used it. I have been tempted to throw it out many times but now i am so glad that i kept it as it gives these that little extra finesse.

Here's a LO of my mum, it should be titled "never to young to swing" The papers are all Basic Grey.

I got some Stampin Up goodies during the week and here are two cards with different sentiments. The HB sentiment is an Ali Edwards stamp from Technique Tuesday (another monthly package i get). The idea for these cards came from the SU catalogue.

Here's a LO that just had to be done as the story had to be recorded. In our family we are all tall. I am 6ft. My son Joe has been taller than me for a while now but not taller than his dad. Well, he is now, Joe is 6ft 5in and he's only 16, how much taller will he get?

The tape measure on this page is a canvas ribbon from Tim Holtz, the ruler stamp is from Paper Tray Ink and the Title letters are from Stampin Up (notice how perfectly aligned they are-i used my new stamp positioner)

BTW-the papers i used to make my three cards in yesterday post were October Afternoon, Fly A Kite. My new AB FAB FAVOURITE.

and last but not least is a photo of my yummy Yorkshire puddings that i made last Sunday and promised to show you.

Wow the set out of this post is all over the place, that's what happens when you are rushing. Sorry.

It's a public holiday here in the West tomorrow so if you have tomorrow off have a nice day. Joe is going to the Royal Show with some friends. Caitlin as i type this is at a Music Festival called Park Life which started at 12 lunch time and finishes at 12 midnight, guess what poor soul has to pick her up?

but i cant complain as its also the start of the school holidays here and that means holidays for me, and guess what? I have a real lot of crafing mojo happening so that's what i will be doing.

OK that's me done

take care everyone

thanks for dropping by.

LINDA

Emmas Challenge

2010-09-25T17:04:00.000+08:00

Hey there and happy Saturday to you all. Yes my photo should be up next but alas it came up first. For this weeks challenge over at Creative Time for me with Emma was to make a card without using the cricut, well i had so much fun last night and was so in the mood to make cards that i made three.

It is a glorious day here, quite warm in fact, i think we will be having an early summer this year and that its going to be very hot.

Sure do have the crafting bug right now so i am off to make something else, have lots to share tomorrow, i have been a very busy girl.

Have a great night, thanks for stopping by

LINDA

Lazy weekend

2010-09-19T15:33:00.000+08:00

Hi there, i hope you are all having a wonderful weekend. Just have to let you know that my gnocchi last week was a huge success. I made so much and was starting the huge task of rolling them into their shapes when Andrew (DH) volunteered to help. Cant remember the last time he made anything in the kitchen. Of course his were way better than mine! It was so much fun and i would still be rolling them today if i didn't get any help.

Had a lovely scrappy night last night (by myself) and made some more Christmas's cards and tags from the scraps. Mum was over this morning and said that she had better go and buy some but i think i will make her some tonight although it had better be a simple design as mum (and dad) send out loads.

These three cards were made with scraps and are pretty crappy really but when i want something crafty to do but don't feel like doing much (if you know what i mean) i sit in front of the telly and colour so i thought i would use the coloured images for a couple of cards.

I also made this LO yesterday afternoon and am very happy with the way it came out. I love the continuous shooting on my new camera, unlike my old one were you only got about 6 frames this camera will keep shooting frames until you take your finger off the button. (i used this feature on the LO of mum on the swing). Everything used here is Basic Grey-Pyrus range.

Now this LO took me all of Friday night to do and it's from a Basic Grey class so i didn't have to design it myself. (lots of layering) The photos are of my nephew Ben who is a very talented football player and has made the districts for his area, who knows one day he may be playing for an AFL team.

So that's it, it sure has been a crafty weekend for me and its not over yet.
In case you are wondering (and i know that you aren't but i will tell you anyway) we are having a Standing rib roast beef for dinner with Yorkshire Puddings (i make the best Yorkshire puds i have seen anywhere-probably because i haven't seen any anywhere) if you are lucky i will take a photo just to show you.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Bit of a Banner Thing going on

2010-09-11T17:00:00.000+08:00

Hi all, wow sorry my blog has been a bit neglected of late but that doesn't mean i haven't been crafting.
So here is a couple of things i have been working on over the last few weeks. Incidentally when i looked at them they happened to have banners on them hence the title.
This LO was inspired by Rebecca Keppel and i think i used Echo Park -A Walk in the park papers.So bright and fun and because i like a bit of texture on my LO's a hand drawn and sewn flower.

Next up i did make my god son an eighteenth card welded together on the Gypsy and then cut out on the cricut. I must say that i am happy with the way this turned out.

Now here is my next banner bit. My Basic Grey Monthly kit arrived this week and i knew i just had the perfect photos to use with these papers. The kit comes with some sketches and some LO instructions in case you don't feel like creating your own, so the LO on the left is a lifted one, the LO on the right is my own.

Now you know how i go on about "it's all in the packaging" . Well my dear friend Tracey gave me a sheet of scrapbooking paper and look at how she wrapped it. Oh its so nice it just sits on my craft desk where i can admire it. The paper will probably be so rolled up when i get to use it that it wont be any good, but it's just way to pretty to open.

This morning i felt like cooking so i said to the kids that we will have slow roasted lamb shanks with home made gnocchi for dinner. Huh, what was i thinking. The shanks aren't a problem they are in the slow cooker but it is now 5pm and the last thing i feel like doing is making gnocchi. Ahhhgh i had better go and get on with it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Linda

Be Prepared

2010-08-27T21:13:00.000+08:00

At least i think that was the motto of the Girl Guides when i was one, oh so many years ago. With that in mind i thought that i would get an early start on my Christmas cards, so here is what i have done so far.

The idea came from the mini autumn Stampin Up catalogue and funnily enough all the products i have used come from SU as well.
Now with all of the scraps i made these cute Christmas tags and mini cards.

I love these and the stamp set in particular, it's called Winter Post.

Must dash i have an 18th male birthday card to make which is a month overdue. (not very good for a godmother i know) but i did want to give it to him in person which i will do on Sunday.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Linda

2010-08-23T20:04:00.000+08:00

Another week has gone by. Gosh they sure are flying by.

On Friday night i had a night of crafty goodness with Susan and Tracey

although not much craft was done, a lot of talking and ooing and ahing over Tracey's

vintage aprons and Susan's lovely needlework.

This card was the only real crafty thing i did.

I did however make this card on Saturday.

and late last night i was sewing the buttons and flowers on my crocheted crochet bag (do you get it) its to hold my current crochet project in. The pattern for this bag is free from the talented Lucy at Attic 24.

Earlier in the week the postman delivered this...Joe and i had been waiting not very patiently for it to arrive.

Our very own SLR digital camera. Yes we are going to share it and as he was home from school and i was at work when it arrived i said that he could have the first play. Very generous of me i thought seeing as i was the one that actually paid for it.

So here are a few shots that Joe has taken.

Our first blossoms from the nectarine tree.

A daisy. (the macro feature is amazing) Actually i think i took this one.

and REALLY the close up portrait feature on this is just way to good.You can see just about every pore on my face.

OK, that's it folks

have a good night

LINDA

Lots of photos

2010-08-15T18:58:00.000+08:00

Hi how is everyone. Hope you are all having a great weekend.
I have spent the last 15 minutes trying to get my photos and text up in this new format so once again i apologise if everything is askew.

OK so far so good. Here is a simple card i made for my friends daughters birthday, coloured with my copics.

and the inside of the card.

and two photos of Joe's stripey grandma blanket. L O V E it. I think that its the colour combo that makes it so eye catching. The minute it was of the crochet hook Joe had it on his bed.

Some Sunday cooking. Gee can you guess what type of jam this is. Cut out with my dear cricut.

I am very short of male cards so i put some thought into it and this is one i came up with. The present is cut by the cricut and all of the papers are from my Cocoa Daisy monthly Kit and i just had to use my ticket die and stamps.

Hopefully this one will pass for a male card as well, it is made from leftovers of a LO which is up next

This was made entirely with a Coco Daisy kit, every kit comes with an acrylic stamp (that sold it for me) and here i have clear embossed it in two corners.

Now the next LO is made with papers that i received from the lovely Tereesa for my birthday and this LO is very very simple but it tells a story and that is how i am feeling right now (no that's not true, how i was feeling on Wednesday) am glad to say that i have got passed that little hiccup, but i thought it would be good to write about my feelings. Click on the photo and you can read it. To me this is the whole point of scrapbooking, the journalling, the feelings, writing something as if i was speaking so that in years to come my family will know how i was feeling as well as how i looked. OK that was pretty deep-have i lost you yet.

so here is the LO

see very simple but quite effective.

OK that's me done.

Enjoy your week everyone..

xxxxxxxxxx

Linda

All finished

2010-08-10T16:51:00.000+08:00

Yes another quick post, i am just about to finish Joes stripey blanket (working on the border) so no paper projects will be done until thats finished. Here is Caitlins finished 18th album and wait until you see the pom pom trim it cost me an arm and a leg so please admire it.

A cute little paper flower i made and some gorgeous tickets that i made with my new PTI stamps and cutter.

My favourite SU stamp set (i have used it on quite a few projects)

A little pocket to put extra photos in

Paper ric rac made with another new cutter from PTI and here is a glimpse of my beautiful pom pom trim.

This blank space is for journalling bit i will get Caitlin to do that herself.

Ok on to the crocheting.

hope you are all well and happy

bye for now

A weeks worth

2010-08-03T18:12:00.000+08:00

OK i am trying to work out how this new blogging format works so if everything is all over the place i am sorry.
Here is my third scarf all ready to be given to my friends daughter. So far i have made four all for gifts and am a bit scarfed out now.

So far so good although my text is now in the middle.

Isn't this crocheted butterfly just gorgeous. Here is the link where you can find the video it really is quite easy. I have made about 10 so far, some with magnets and some with clasps to go on coats.

Joe did some baking on the weekend and there are my fingers all ready to grab one. They were delicious but not very diet friendly.

Here is a quick card i made this afternoon for one of our volunteers.

And last but not least is Caitlin's 18th album. Well the front anyway i will post the rest later in the week. I was given this album as a birthday present from the lovely Tereesa all i had to do was cover/decorate it and add the photos. The journalling still needs to be done and Caitlin will need to do that as i don't know the name of all of her Uni friends yet.

OK now my text is to the side mmm very strange. Linking is much easier but i have found putting the photos in harder.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Thanks for stopping by
Linda

A LO, A Card & More

2010-07-26T14:36:00.003+08:00

Yes this is my recipe book i have had it for about 20 years and its a bit hard to find all of my favourite recipes and when i see something i think that i might like to try well it gets printed and then stuck in here. Not very organised. So what does one do... this... all in their little own plastic pages, sweets at the front and savoury at the back. I got an expandable folder so that i can add more sleeves when it gets full which is just as well because i had to put in another packet of sleeves before i had finished putting in my recipes.

Here's a photo taken on the weekend just to show you the half new me, by half i mean i am half way there now 38.2 kg's these last 10 have been very hard. Oh and that's Andrew (DH) just in case you haven't met him. (he's is moaning as he says his head looks square in this photo-it isn't in real life)

Here's a card that i copied from here

really good as you use left over ribbon bits.

and here is a LO, a different one from the style i usually do. I thought that i would give my cricut a little workout sorry cant even remember what carts i used

Haven't been feeling very crafty lately although i am still working on my granny stripe blanket.

Joe and i are going to go halves in a SLR camera, we are currently looking at a Canon EO500, does anyone have any advice, comments or suggestions for me before we go spend our money.

Our trip to Penang is booked and paid for so all we have to do now is wait until Nov 26th oh its ages away.

Lucky me i had the day of work today as Joe had another Laser treatment on his birthmark and this was the first time in his 16 years that he didn't have to have a General Anaesthetic, yep straight into outpatients, no fasting and early morning appointments we were there and back within an hour and a half. Although he did say that it hurt as he was awake for the whole thing and this was the first time in 16 years that i actually got to see what they do, i had to put some funky glasses on and watched.

Ok babbled on enough for today have a great week everyone.

Bags,Baking and Cards

2010-07-17T17:01:00.003+08:00

Happy Saturday everyone. As usual in the school holidays my friend Pina and I spend one day baking biscuits and here are some of the delights we baked. There were still about another 4 trays waiting to go in the oven when this photo was taken. Unfortunately for me they are all delicious and not a diet friendly food. Now isn't this card cute? Made with a little help from my friend the cricut.

and another blogger friend made me this gorgeous, gorgeous bag. Janelle will soon be starting her own etsy shop so if you want one you will be able to order very soon. When Caitlin saw this she immediately suggested that maybe she should look after it. Oh no its mine. Janelle can make them in quite a few colours so we/i could get one for every occasion. Caitlin would like a dress made with the rose fabric as a ruffle down the bottom, oh what a shame i am not a dress maker....

Have just finished a LO that is a bit unusual for me, i will post it tomorrow, that is after we get back from our lunch outing at my mums local Italian restaurant, its her birthday and getting very near to a year of my dads passing can you believe how quickly that has gone? So it will be a very family orientated couple of weeks as it will/would have been my dads birthday next week as well.

have a good day/night everyone.

cards and crochet

2010-07-11T17:43:00.003+08:00

Hello
How are you all?
Fine i hope
Here is my entry for Emma's Throwback Thursday Challenge we had to use the Zoobaloo cart and make anything that we wanted with an animal, i don't have this cart so i chose this cute dog from Everyday paper dolls and used my Gypsy to make a card. Below i have just used some scraps to make a tag and at night sometimes i just feel like colouring-in so i thought that i would make a card out of some of my coloured flowers. I have used my copics for these flowers and the stamp is Stampin up (so is the cupcake in the tag)

oooooooooooooooo look at my granny stripe blanket it is growing and i still love the colours i have chosen (sometimes i get half way and think :i dont like the colour) anyway not this time. I am about a third of the way i think and in these cold nights its nice to sit and crochet.

I have a duck roasting in the oven (yuk not for me and Joe) but for Caitlin and Andrew, the smell has gone throughout the house ugh, now i have to think of something for Joe and I. mmmmmmmmmm something yummy and fattening is called for.

Have a great week everyone, we have another week of school holidays here so i am getting in lots of sleep-ins.
XX

Linda