Sarah Youde

Merry Christmas

Woo Hoo!  Merry Christmas everyone.

The dinner is cooking, Charlotte is singing into her new CD player with a microphone (a wonderful noise!) and Ben is watching Inspector Gadget and playing with his Transformers.  Mark and I are partaking in a couple of glasses of red and all is well.

My lovely brother Roy gave me a tripod which has been invaluable today for the camcorder.  I got some lovely trollbeads from the children (their initials) and the sibling coil from my sister.  I got a beautiful pink sapphire necklace from my Step-Mum and as for my Mum well, she is the best!!  I got the Basic Grey magnetic precision mat and not one but two momiji dolls (one of which is the limited edition Angel).  Mark got me a gorgeous top and a few other things that I wanted and we really are having a wonderful christmas.  I will update with pictures tomorrow.

I must check on my potatoes!!!!

Festive Hair!

Last year I made an appointment with the hairdressers to have red streaks in my hair for Christmas, I bottled out!  This year I was determined to get it done and I love it!

Here is the proof:

And no, Charlotte isn't screaming in the background because Mummy's hair has gone red, she was singing!  Actually, she said this morning that Mummy's hair is beautiful and smells lovely!

We are almost sorted for Christmas, I just have to pick up the final bits of food and wrap up a couple of presents and that's it.  I can't wait to sit back and enjoy the festivities!

For Sarah at Fost

Mark told me that you wanted to know where I got the instructions for the Christmas tree I made. It was a class from an online workshop over on the Bad Girls forum. The instructions can be found here. You will need to register on the forum first before you can see the instructions. Bad Girls also do a monthly kit which is fantastic!

Hope this helps.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Well, I have done most of my present shopping, I have written my christmas cards and  yesterday we put up the christmas tree, decorated the fireplace and got out my gorgeous Harrods snowglobe along with the other christmassy bits and pieces.  The kids absolutely loved decorating the tree, although I was running behind them taking stuff off and trying to maintain some sort of style on my tree!

Finally, I have updated my blog design so that it looks a little more festive.  I really feel like christmas is on the way now :o)  I am looking forward to Ben and Charlotte's school play tomorrow and the fact that Mark goes on leave at the end of the week. 

Well, whaddaya know about that Merry Christmas!!  Ha!  Guess the film, it's my favourite.

Sorting and Scrapping

I am very proud of myself because I have really got all of my scrap supplies organised, labelled and exactly where they should be.  It meant that I didn't get much scrapping done this week but at least when I get to scrap at home next time everything will be organised - I love that!

I have been scrapping though, I finally managed to get around to making Tina Sue's Christmas tree and it is lovely.  I enjoyed making it but it was a bit fiddly.  Thanks to my Mum for the papers because I just didn't have anything appropriate and these K & Co ones look perfect on the tree.

It was the Plymouth crop again yesterday and on Friday I packed up all my stuff ready to go.  I didn't really know what I was going to do when I go there so I threw some photos in my bag and a selection of papers to work with.  I am shocked to say that I managed to make a birthday card and three layouts!!  Amazing.  Mind you two of the layouts were based on recent Pencil Lines sketches which makes life a little easier.  I love to take sketches to crops because it means you can chat and create at the same time.

The first layout was based on PL #61 by Shimelle Laine.  I love the clean lines on this one.  The layout is based on the school play that Ben took part in last Christmas called The Grumpy Sheep and how he spent a whole month going around singing the 'Bah Bah Grump' song from the show complete with the grumpy face.  Just a little memory I wanted to record.

Then I decided to tackle Wendy Rago's Pencil Lines Sketch (#60).  For this one I chose a photograph that I had snapped of Charlotte in the park (after chasing after her with the camera).  This one uses the gorgeous new Scenic Route papers and is very pink and fluffy!!!

A couple of close-ups...

Last, but not least, I quickly finished off a layout that had been sat in my 'to finish' pile for about 6 months.

Now I am going to go and put up the Christmas decorations and watch Miracle on 34th Street with the kids!

A Wonderful Weekend

I am so happy with myself!  I drove to Barnstaple and back lol.  As I said, this may not be a huge feat for many people but for me....well, I am glad I did it because I drove myself to a wonderful weekend!

On Friday I spent the morning frantically crocheting the rest of the flowers for my class amidst packing and putting away food shopping.  Mum and I left Plymouth at 1pm to travel up to Tracie's house.  The journey wasn't great because there was awful fog and rain on the way to Exeter but luckily that passed and we got to Tracies safetly.  Anna was already there and she is just so nice, I thought she was going to be lovely just from her online persona but I have to tell you she is so down to earth, friendly and caring that it was a pleasure to meet her!

We stayed at Tracies for a little while chatting and packing kits etc and then we made our way to our home for the night.  Kate was already there and after quickly freshening ourselves up we went down to the bar for some fabulous food (a gorgeous green Thai curry for me), yet more chatting and a few glasses of wine.  A great night was had by all.

The Christmas Workshop went really well.  Anna taught a couple of fabulous layout classes and Mum was in her element with all the glitter and Christmas themes!!!  We had a lovely lunch and then I taught my layout class.  The little pincushions I made (See last post) were well received and everyone loved the ATC's that I gave them so that was a relief!

My ATC Glitter Shaker

This was the class that I taught.  I think everyone was quite happy piercing and stitching their layout and the results were gorgeous.

In the kit I included instructions to make this pop-up christmas card, it is so cute in real life!

The kits were amazing value and I also managed to create this layout from it.

I know it is quite a simple layout but I lovei it and to get two layouts and a popup card from one kit is just fab!

Tracie's class was nice and everyone went home smiling which is the most important thing.  Tracie gave all the delegates a goodie bag at the end and also handed one to Anna and myself.  I was doing something at the time but saw Anna get up and give Tracie a hug, as soon as I looked in my goodie bag I realised why.  Anna and I had a little something extra in ours!!  Tracie had sneaked in a Momiji doll for each of us.  I have to say, I think I screamed when I saw it, I was so happy.  I have wanted to start collecting these for ages, but refuse to buy them for myself (I think they are supposed to be gifts!).  I immediately ran across the room to hug Tracie.  Mine is called Flowers and she likes action movies :)

Then came time to say bye to Tracie and Anna and head back home.  The drive was perfect (although dark!) and it was lovely to get back home and see Mark and the little ones.  The only downside was that (until about half an hour ago) our internet connection disappeared, it came on briefly yesterday and then went again - I always feel like I have lost something when the internet is not working - it is amazing how dependent you can become on technology without even realising it.

So that was my weekend and it was great.