It's Me, Sarah

8 Today and The Stig Revealed!

I can't believe that my little Ben is 8 today!  He has wondered off to bed after a really lovely birthday, he says it was the best birthday ever!  Here he is, my wonderful little boy who is now, well, not so little!  He is 8 - I can hardly believe it.

 

and here is the card I made for him because he absolutely loves Top Gear and what could be better than finding out that he is The Stig (for a day anyway!).

I found a picture of The Stig using Google Images and then printed it and attached it to the card with a brad with a photo of Ben underneath it so that the Stig's helmet could be swivelled to reveal Ben as The Stig - he was really pleased with it.  The Doodlebug alphabet stickers were perfect for the title the Happy Birthday is stamped with a little Hero Arts stamp and embossed with white American Crafts Zing embossing powder which is brilliant for detailed or small images.  The 8" x 8" card is from Papermania, they are great quality and it is the biggest card I have ever made!

We have been extremely busy in the house this week.  Mark is on leave for a couple of weeks and we want to get a wooden floor laid in the Hall (almost finished thanks to Geoff), paint the hall, paint and re-furnish the front door and decorate the bedroom.  I don't know if it is all going to be done but we are trying!  We have bought some gorgeous new bedding, bedside lamps and a little chandelier for the bedroom - all duck egg blue and cream.  We have also got a lovely green paint for the hallway - I am very excited. 

However, I have crop all day on Sunday which I am definitely going to (after all it IS Mother's Day) and then I have a week to do an awful lot of sorting, this house REALLY needs to be reorganised.  I have always know exactly where everything is in my home, I am 'Mrs Organised' but since we adopted Amy I just haven't had the time, three kids are a lot more work than two!!  So next week, feeling refreshed from my crop I am going to set to work - I can't wait for the result but I am dreading the doing!!

Oh, Where To Start?

It's been one of those months, lots of nothing going on and it is all taking up my time.  I haven't really felt in the blogging mood as all the crafting I have done is design team work and can't be shared.  My camera has been firmly zipped in it's case so there haven't been any photo shoots.  I seem to have so much to do that I don't know where to start and now I have even more to do so I need to get my a** in gear on Monday and start to sort through the 'to do' list!

Did you watch Tim Holtz on QVC's craft day last week?  I loved it and, of course, had to order his TSV which was brilliant, the book is great.  I have to admit when it arrived in the post the book "A Compendium of Curiosities' was much smaller than I had anticipated but that does not detract from the content. The book is jam packed with information, technique tutorials and fabulous photographs - did I say that I loved it.  I can't wait to sort all my other 'stuff' out and have a play in the craft room.

Issue 44 of The Scrapbook Magazine is out and the cover features a layout that I created for them.  I was a little scared of the brief which required me to create a layout with purple in it to match the masthead.  Purple is a colour I always find difficult to scrap with and I didn't have many papers in that colour either.  I was pleased with the resulting layout though - you can't see on the image but the purple vellum down the left hand side of the photo is layered and punched with the Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch and it looks so pretty.

I don't have an article in this issue but there are some great ones so it really is worth picking the magazine up if you see it.

Talking of Martha Stewart punches have you seen the new embossed button punch - I can think of so many ways to use this!  Mine is on the way, I couldn't resist it.

We went into town yesterday and I bought some clothes for Amy, but my favourite item had to be a gorgeous little denim skirt with Hello Kitty on the pocket.  Charlotte was quite jealous when she saw it, I may have to go in and see if they have it in her size too.  Mark bought me a new Emma Bridgewater pen and a moleskin notebook with squared paper (for all those layout sketches!).

I can't wait to start scribbling!

Don't Impress Me Much

I was pointed to this little web application which tells you what your name would be if you were a piece of Ikea furniture...umm, I'm not THAT impressed!

mmmm!

Can you tell that I am bored?

Simply Does It

Whilst making cards I have realised that - usually - the simpler the design, the better they look.  I do love some of the beautifully intricate cards I see on other peoples blogs (Amy Sheffer for example), there is no doubt they are stunning (and I may attempt some of those one day) but, for me, its all clean and simple because I am making them to have a stash ready for those moments when you need one and I would never get them done if I went all elaborate about it.

Here are a couple more I have made lately :)

The houses are cut from some Fancy Pants Kraft card and the sentiment was printed

Just paper, button and string (sentiment is printed onto Kraft Cardstock)

 

The flowers on this card are from a lovely little Hero Arts stamp and the 'Thanks a Bunch' stamp is from a SeeD's thank you set

My nephew Jason, who has just moved in with his girlfriend, phoned me to say how much he loved the New Home card which was just lovely - especially coming from the male of the species who don't usually care to much for home made stuff :)

I have been scrapping as well but nothing I can share at the moment, I can say that my layout for The Scrapbook Magazine (out on 11th February) will be gracing the cover. 

We are thinking of getting a little fish tank for the kids so I am going to pop to the tropical fish shop today to look at the tanks (will be a small one!) so that it can be set up ready to take the kids to the shop for fishes tomorrow.

Getting the Card Bug!

I have been struck by the cardmaking bug!  I really want to make a big batch of cards so that I have them on hand for peoples birthdays instead of stressing that I need to make one when birthdays are looming.  I never seem to get around to it and end up buying one which is disgusting considering the amount of 'stuff' I have here to make them.

Here are a couple I have done over the last few weeks.

 

 

We are having a very lazy weekend!  Mark was duty on Friday and got home on Saturday morning, we spent the day watching DVD's and snoozing on the sofa - lovely :)  Today we gave the kids a belated Christmas present.  They had so much at Christmas that we decided to save their didicars for a later date so they were very excited this morning to receive a surprise present.  It's amazing how the cars propel themselves along just by turning the steering wheel, I have to admit that Mark and I had a go on them (well a few gos!) in the kitchen.  Ben and Charlotte have been outside this morning screaming up and down the path on the cars - definitely a good buy, they love them.

Craft Room - The Details

I have had a lot of people asking me lately about the exact furniture used in my craft room.

All the items are from Ikea.  Here is a list of the actual pieces I have used, including links to them on the Ikea UK website:

5x5 white expedit unit

Vika Amon worktops

I can't remember the exact sizes I have used but if you just get the ones that will fit your space it will look great!

Vika Curry table legs (3)
Vika Annefors (the white shelf unit under the desk)

Vika Alex (the white drawer unit under the desk)

Red Helmer Drawer Unit (under desk)

Snille Swivel Chair

Kassett Storage Boxes in various sizes

Rajtan Spice Jars (for my buttons)

Fira Mini Chest (the little drawer units on my desk)

Bygel rail and wire basket

Traktor Stool on casters
Bekvam step stool

I hope this helps :)

Snow in Plymouth!

We woke up this morning to a blanket of snow and it was still falling, we switched on the radio to see if the school was closed for the day because checking the local radio station's website showed that all the schools in the area were closed apart from Ben and Charlotte's.  They reluctantly got ready for school and were just putting their shoes on when it was announced that the school was closed.  The kids were ecstatic and raced upstairs to change into snow clothes and we all headed off to the local football field for the kids to mess around.

We took all three bilibo's with us for the kids to sit in and use to slide down the hill they loved that - even Mark had a go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I am just wondering if it will snow again tonight and whether the kids will be going to school or not in the morning.  I think they have enjoyed their snow day playing outside and then having time on the PS3 playing Little Big Planet this afternoon.

Amy has been loving this advert as she is baby and baby doll mad!!

Happy New Year :)

Well, we had a great time for new year this last year!  Yesterday one of our nephews got married so the day started with a wedding and reception.  Following the afternoon reception where Ben made himself poorly at the Chocolate fountain and Amy and Charlotte won the hearts of everyone we had an impromptu party.  All of Mark's family descended on us for an uproarious evening of Curries, alcohol and the Wii!!  I nearly wet myself on numerous occasions at the antics of my brother in law and we all learnt the new space invaders winners dance which will no doubt always accompany our Wii games in the future.

The funniest moment was when Simon told Jenny (my mother-in-law) that we were to play triple jump next and she asked 'Chubby jump?  what's Chubby Jump?' - Sharon and I were on the floor, I haven't laughed so much for years!  Jenny said this morning that it's the best night she has had for ten years, so it seems the little party went down well.

Just past midnight I nipped across to my Mum's house to wish her, Geoff, my Nan and Colin a happy new year and then came home and collapsed into bed!

We woke up this morning and I cooked a nice roast dinner for us and Jenny and now, whilst I am watching Eastenders Mark is setting up the cheese board, pickles and other yummyiness on the coffee table so we can have a little picnic and watch Gavin and Stacey!

Domestic Sluttery

I love the Domestic Sluttery blog, I subscribe to it via blog lines.  I just wanted to point out the great competition they have on the blog today with gorgeous prizes of around £500!  Don't enter though, I want to win it!!

Have a look here.

This is what you could win!

The Last Week of School

It is the last week of school for Ben and Charlotte this week and that is always a bit of a manic week, not to mention the extreme excitement that will invade the house next week whilst they have 6 days at  home before the big day.  Luckily Mark goes on leave on Friday as well which is a huge relief because the children's behaviour is much better when victorian Daddy is home!

I have got three days now to get everything sorted in the house for Christmas so that I can enjoy the week before Christmas with my family, I really don't want to be stressing about last minute presents, cards or wrapping, oh and not forgetting I have Amy's first Nativity on Thursday and the girls are coming round on Friday for a get together - can't wait :)

I took a load of photographs of the kids in front of the Christmas Tree the other day to use for family cards, not one came out good enough!  I may need to do more of that this evening - oh the joy!  They hate to pose (except Ben who is a regular little model!).

Here are some more of my Journal Your Christmas pages, just to add a little light relief to my post

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

 

Day 12

 

Day 13

Now, I need to go and find the wobbly antlers headband for Charlotte to wear to school today :)