Santa can't come soon enough :)

You know, it's not usually until I take my Mystery Block of the Month block photo that I realise how...manky...my cutting mat is. You can't even see the worst of it...there are big chunks taken out of the middle of it, pencil drawings all over it, and general discolouration is everywhere.

But I'm kinda fond of it :) It was my first ever cutting mat, and I've been using it for so many years that a new one would really take some getting used to...so I persevere :) It's going to take a special cutting mat to replace it, and so far all I've found is dark green...bleh. Anyone know where I can find a really pretty one? Maybe I'll have to rely on Santa to source one for me ;)

Anyhoo...what I'm really here to show you is my MBOM Block Two all finished! It was designed by Sandy Gervais from Pieces From My Heart, and if I am totally honest, I don't really love it. Despite the obvious appeal of the polkadots, I'm not all that sure that I love the Avalon fabric that the whole quilt is made from either. Could be the brown?

I'm hoping it grows on me.

TTFN xxx

Project Life 2013 - Weeks 31 and 32

Hello Weeks 31 and 32...and hello to winning the catch-up battle once again :)

This Project Life journey can be so rewarding...but it can also feel like really hard work sometimes! Lack of photos and periods of sadness have really played havoc with my last few weeks of documenting :(

Week 31 was particularly hard for me, as I wanted to document the passing of our precious dog Clancy, but couldn't bring myself to put it down on paper for a while. The vet had given me a snippet of his fur, and I really couldn't decide whether to include it or not...and what part of the story to include...and how to include it without breaking into tears every time I tried to write about it. It all got a bit too hard :( Anyhoo...I wrote some words down but hid it on the back of a long journaler in the end, and tried to compensate for my lack of photos for the rest of the week as best I could. Once I got past that, catching up seemed so much easier.

I mostly used my Midnight kit, with some splashes of hot pink thrown in.

Week 32 saw me pull out my Honey Core Kit...lots of bright colours and crisp white.

I thought I would really struggle with this week due to lack of photos again, but managed to fill the pockets!

Thanks so much for visiting...hopefully I'll have a bit more crafting happening around here soon!

TTFN xxx

Confessions of a Paper Addict

It all started with some recreational online shopping.

One minute, I was happily popping all sorts of lovely new papers and embellishments into my online cart (as you do), and the next, I was staring in horror at the mess that is my craft room, wondering where on earth I was going to put even a single extra sheet of paper.

The fact is, I have more paper than I can poke a stick at. Pretty paper, plain paper, patterned paper,and everything in between. I have A LOT of paper. Single sheets, whole collections, paper pads...often with co-ordinating accessories. Oh yes...I am a paper addict.

So I decided right then and there to clear a space on my desk, stop the insanity, and actually make something.

Making something wasn't too tricky...my desk was covered in supplies that I'd been using for Project Life, and it all looked pretty good together. This particular layout started with the background paper and "our beautiful life" sticker by Echo Park and came together from there. The photo wasn't a particularly good one of Merryn, but supported the theme of the layout perfectly :)

While looking for the beach photo, I came across this one of Riley from Easter 2013, and decided to pop it onto some chalkboard paper by Fancy Pants. Funnily enough, chalkboard paper and embellishments were filling my online cart not an hour earlier...I had forgotten that I even owned some!

I kept this one VERY simple so that the focus would be on the photo, but couldn't resist the red polkadot background ( everything looks better with polkadots, right?) The embellishments are Sweet Pea by Kaisercraft...I'd used the banner before I realised that there was a "hoppy times" cutout in the pack...hello Easter!

I then challenged myself to put more than one large photo onto a page, and managed five!

Some Basic Grey Basics paper for the background, some more embellishments from the Echo Park sticker sheet that I used in the top layout and Thickers for the title...too easy! There is nothing ground breaking or technique based in these layouts, but sometimes quick-and-easy is the way I roll ;)

I'm finding that now I'm documenting so much in my Project Life album, I'm not feeling the need to journal quite so much on my layouts...not sure if that's a positive or a negative?

Thanks for making it to the end...it got a bit long today! LOL

Have a great day

TTFN xxx

Project Life 2013 - Week 30

Seriously? Week thirty...and we are actually in Week 33 right now, but I'm just a little bit behind ;)EEEK!

I've used some elements and papers from Kaisercraft's Sweet Pea collection for this week's spread...it was still sitting on my desk from the cards I made the other day, and I couldn't help but notice how well it matched my friend Janelle's birthday invitation (which I had hoped to include). I attached the invitation to some of the gorgeous mint bunting paper, decorated with a cutout from the Sweet Pea Collectables pack, and popped it into an insert.

I kept the mint colour scheme running right across the spread, and added some of the cute animal cutouts to my 4x6 journal cards...they are so very cute! I especially love the orange dachsund, and am saving my red polkadot dachsund for another project ;)

Thanks so much for popping in to visit...I really appreciate your comments too ;)

TTFN xxx

Scandinavian Rose...some progress.

I've slowly been stitching away on my Scandinavian Rose quilt blocks lately...this quilt is going to be a long time in the making!

I've found my progress has really slowed now that I have to wear reading glasses. I used to do most of my stitching curled up in front of the TV at night, but have found that wearing single vision lenses for stitching, and trying to watch TV at the same time is giving me a major headache :(

So now I stick to stitching during the day time at any opportunity I get...which is hardly any time at all.

On the upside, my stitches are so much neater now that I can see what I'm sewing LOL!

Hope you're having a great day

TTFN xxx

P.S. still having issues with blogger, thus the small type. It's very frustrating...almost frustrating enough to switch to a new platform. Any suggestions?