it's nearly Christmas!!

today was the Christmas festival in Durham. It was extremely busy and crowded but the best bit was my two boys singing carols. The Youth Theatre they go to was singing carols to entertain the crowds but also to raise money for their next production (fame in April). I love listening to children singing and carols are especially fab! they ranged from 9 (my ds2!) to about 18. I did take some pics of them singing but they all have at least one other child in the background so can't put them on here.

look at the kittens' new toy!

Tams rang me last week and said they had a cat scratching post they didn't want and were going to put on freecycle but would we like it? We were thinking of getting one so I said yes please. I arranged to go and pick it up and it's a good job a emptied the boot before I went - it is huge (3 1/2 feet tall)! the kittens absolutely love it and that is where they choose to sleep. So a very big thank you Tams and Paul xx

my first challenge entry!

This is the first card I have entered into a challenge! I have decided to enter it for the Project Tuesday challenge (thanks Craftygranny for the info) which this week is to make an easel card. Since I have made quite a few I thought it was an appropriate challenge for my first! I even made a brand new one especially!! This is for a friend - I won't say who cos she won't have received it yet!

The biggest challenge is linking the card to the Project Tuesday blog!! Thanks Flourgirl and craftygranny for the info on how to do this - fingers crossed it will work!

more easel cards!!

I love making easel cards - they look great and are so quick to make!

our kittens

last week end we collected our 2 little kittens. the boys have named them bubble and squeak. they are so cute and the boys love them to bits. Oliver especially loves to pick them up and cuddle them. he loves going to bed with squeak lying on his duvet but can't understand why she won't stay for long! she is more interested in chasing her sister round the house at the moment!

bubble is on the left and squaek on the right.

Oliver's birthday!

I can't believe my baby is 9 years old. here he is with his birthday cake - yummy chocolate with lots of smarties and tootie frooties!

my first easel card

Oliver said to me "will you make me a card like you made for Luke for my birthday?" I made Luke a swing card but thought I would do something different for Oliver so decided on an easel card. I am pleased with how it turned out and it wasn't too hard to make!! I hope he will like it!

NEC

I had a fantastic day at the NEC. it was great to meet people from mse and to put faces to names! I came away with some great stash and lots of lovely gifts.

card from skiergirl - Christmas pressie from furrypig - bag of goodies from Rusty - peg magnet, bookmark, 2 choccys, tic tac holder from Rainmac

5 guys named moe

Luke has had a busy week rehearsing for his SYTG show "5 guys named moe". He has had rehearsals every day since Sunday and performances Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings. He has loved every minute of it and is still full of energy and smiling. we went to see the show last night and it was fantastic - they all did so well and really enjoyed themselves.

I have made some thank you cards for the staff. I made wallets and put a teabag and couple of mint chocolates in. I hope they will like them and will enjoy the tea and chocs when they eventually get to relax after all their hard work.

mse challenge

the current mse challenge was set by Melissa and is to make a spooky/halloween card. my card is for ds2 to take to his friend's halloween party with the bag of chocolates and the Horrid Henry book.

ds2 has been invited to a halloween party so I have shamelessly copied Rusty's fab bags! I have filled it with chocolate pumpkins and eyeballs. I have also bought the Horrid Henry halloween book to go with it.

pirate bag

my two boys have been invited to a friend's 6th birthday party on Saturday. We have already given him his present as his birthday was in September but wanted to make something for them to take to the party. I used the template that Rusty used for her halloween bags (Daisy and Dandelion I think) and used Paper Nation pirate backing paper and decoupage. I filled the bag with chocolate coins and a wispa gold. I hope he will like it!

good luck card

my brother has decided to have a complete change of career at the age of 39 and has gone back to university to study horticulture. I have made him a card to wish him good luck

countdown calendar

thanks to Rainmac on mse for the fab idea of a countdown calendar. I made one last night to put in the advent box, have to do another to go with it.

I have rotated the photo but for some reason it won't save it!

more coaster calendars

these are for the boys' advent box. I am also going to make matching post it note holders.

Christmas...

At last I have started some of my crafting for Christmas. For the altered container challenge on Crafty Place I have transformed an old box into an advent box for my boys. Now I have to fill it...

Sharon's 50th birthday candy

Sharon is celebrating her 50th birthday and to celebrate is giving away some fantastic candy. You can enter here until 9th October. Good luck!!

coaster calendars

I had a lovely day with Tams and Maddison today. Tams very kindly brought me some beer mats and calendars. I made a couple after she had gone - I am addicted! they look lovely and are so quick and easy to make!

notebooks

Luke is having some friends round on Saturday evening for a movie night for his birthday so I have decorated some notebooks to go in the party bags with a pen, pencil, rubber and sweets.

tri fold card

at last I have made my trifold card for Melissa in the Crafty Place swap. I have had so many problems making this card and mine was fairly simple! I cut it wrong, I found it really hard to find papers i liked (note to self: need more papers!) then I cut them wrong. I had so many attempts! Anyway I hope Melissa likes it...

my first wallet

I made my first wallet the other day to send some stamped images in. I was quite pleased that I managed to make it! Although looking at the photo the ribbon isn't too straight!

mse challenge

on mse marg very kindly organised the current challenge. this was to make Christmas cards to send to the troops for them to send back to friends and family. Marg is collecting them all in amd will send them off shortly. I spent yesterday morning making mine.

Luke's birthday cake

Last Wednesday it was Luke's 11th birthday. In previous years I have made Dr Who, tennis and various other cakes - this year I made a chocolate cake and decorated it with maltesers and marshmallows. I think it went down well!!

my blog

at last I have created a blog!! that is the easy part...now I have to work out what I am doing with it!