2 special cards

As I might have mentioned, last week was a bit of a crafty frenzy.  I had lots of projects all to be ready for Wednesday, and I worked late lot's of nights to get them all done.  The main parts for me are the cards.  Making a nice card is a very personal thing for me.  I could take up to 2 hours for me to get a card looking like I want it, so when you invest that amount of time, you really hope the card is personal and styled with the recipient in mind.  (soap box rant over!).

This card was for my friends DD Saoirse, who turned had her 1st Birthday party.  The papers are from a kit that I bought ages ago the papers are from a name I don't know much of, but liked the little girl style of them from Brenda Waldon Designs..  The card kinda fell together after I saw a ruffled paper blog entry on UK Scrappers, and I just LOVE ruffles so had to have a go.  I used some of the big delivery I got from The Ribbon Girl of seam binding, which I just love love love!

My second card is a version of a card that I saw in one of my old Card Trends books.  The papers are from Prima, lace could be Prima too and the lovely pin was from a shop on Etsy and more seam binding to add to it.  I did a bit of machine stitching on this card too.

My little one had surgery on Friday to have a Stomach Feeding Peg installed, and she is home today and on the road to recovery.  Spending the weekend in the hospital in Dublin with her was like spending time in a Russian Orphanage, no chairs for the parents to sit on, nurses too busy to get you a glass to give your child a drink from, you cannot even go a get something to eat as the nurses are too busy to mind your child, even tho have been at that childs side for over 24 hours and not eaten a thing, and you cannot take them down to the canteen with you as it's not allowed.  The canteen is now only opening for short hours too due to the receession.  The TV was not working in the ward and there was not even enough room at the side of her bed for a chair - I was intruding on the space of the person to the side.  OMG it was such a horrible ward.  I will be playing catch up all day today with laundry and getting the house back to normal.  Have a lovely weekend.

Ta M

Quilled heart frame

One of my friends was 40 yesterday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUDREY!!  I made her a card, some cupcakes, with toppers, and this frame made with different types of quilled papers.  I cut lots and lots of cardstock and patterned papers and 3 times had to make more as I kept running out.  


In my head I had an idea, but the first time around it did not work out right, the wet glue I used to glue the quills down warped the paper and there was no way it would sit straight in the frame so I pulled it apart and left the whole thing till nearly 11pm the night before her Birthday (nothing like being prepared eh!).


So I trimmed around the heart, and glued it on a different backing sheet of cardstock and then took the plunge and finished the piece...  

Note grubby handprints on the side of the fame - that was me!!

Close-up of the frame, the colours a shades of pink and a light gray, on a gray sheet of 12 x 12 cardstock.  The title (slightly obscured) says My Girls.  The tiara is my friends mother in law's communion tiara, and the lovely lady died recently and it seemed like the right time to have a photo of each of the girls wearing the tiara, just to add another layer of sentimentality to the gift.


She loved it (I think) and is now looking for a place to show it off.

Back soon with the cupcakes, and cards.

Ta M

Crafty marathon...

Today is a finishing post for me - I had so much that I wanted to achieve and so little time that I wrote a list and broke it down into days for each item to be achieved by.  I had little blips alogn the way and got sidetracked but I got it all done and I am mostly a happy bunny but one item is giving me a dose of worry, but probably only me being too anal.

So these items that I have been working on will be shared soon - want to ensure they are all gifted and recipients are happy before I blab them on the blog!

About two weeks ago I was blog hopping and I saw a very talented girl had made a lovely framed LO with sticks.  What a fab idea and I was inspired!  At school waiting for Shannon to come out I spied some twigs on the ground and brought two home.  I then put them in my craft bag and at our crop on Sat (2nd Sat of the month) I started this LO, I stuck the yards of ruffled ribbon on the edges of the LO and selected the photo but did'nt get any further.

Here is the finished LO....

A sheet of Pink Paislee paper, mostly handmade flowers made from paper and twill ribbon, some string, some lovely pins I got on Etsy and some prima flowers.  I love this LO and have 2 more to share but think this is my favourite.  Colours are a bit muted for me but I like it!

Thanks all...

Michelle

St. Patrick's Day Parade....

We chose not to go into the city centre for the parade yesterday - there are just too many people, to hard to see and to get a decent vantage point you have to wait for hours in the same spot.  Not something we can easily do with our two small ones....

Instead we went to Swords, a town near the airport and where my DH's offices are.  We were able to see the parade just outside the door of the office and leave our bags locked in the foyer and not worry about them.  The little ones got to sit on the kerb and got a front row seat for the whole parade.  (Apart from mommy standing in front of them with her camera!)

Before we left I snapped a picture of my DD's friends all dressed up for their day out yesterday - remember it was not warm and sunny....

 The parade passed over an hour and we went to have some lunch and then off to see my DH play in his traditional irish band.  We only lasted about an hour as the little one was just too grumpy and upset that she could not run around the pub on such a busy day so it was home to bed for us and we left DH to play.

 So that's how we do it here in Ireland, no pinching, no green beer (that I could find), just a family day out and a bit of fun for all.

St. Patricks Day - Not St. Patties, or St. Patty's Day!!

It's a really big bug bear of mine when the crafty girls in America call our National day, St. Patty's Day OMG where did it come from, cause you would never in a million years ever hear anyone here calling it that.  While I am on the subject also (SORRY!) where did the "Pinch" thing come from?  That one is pure American and not a bit Irish.  Rant over!

A few weeks ago I made batches of St. Patrick's day cards for my mum and I to send to friends and family in America and Australia.

Here are the ones that I made for myself to send out - using my heart shaped punch, scraps of green cardstock and a download that I found free on the web.

 Terrible photo - but I was just about to put them in the post and had to rush to photograph them before I posted them....  There is a little gem in the middle of the shamrock to give it a bit of bling!

I made a batch for my mum too - another freebie image this time from Waltzing Mouse stamps. Here is a snippit of the card - coloured with promarkers and the full image too.

Wishing you all a very Happy St. Patrick's Day - we all have the day off tomorrow, there will be parades and family fun all around Ireland, we plan to see a local parade and then my DH is off to play in his traditional Irish band for the afternoon and we will go for a quick listen then take the girls home and leave him to play into the evening with his friends.

Life is funny...

A few months ago I made a card, I put the card on my blog and for some reason also put the card on my gallery in Two Peas in a Bucket.  The next morning I got an email from a girl in Australia, and some notifications of comments on the card.  Eagerly I opened the comments and they were kinda snippy, and this girl was a bit annoyed with me as she thought that our cards were similar (they were!) and hers was in the gallery ages, and if I had copied it, then why didn't I credit her.  Well I looked at the cards and, Yes!, they were similar, and I had seen one of the things that she had made as it had been featured in the gallery and it was a stunning midnight blue and navy floral Christmas wreath.  Absolutely STUNNING, and it was from that wreath that I took my inspiration and the card came from there.

Anyway - I took time to consider my reply to this lady, I picked my words and within moments of sending the email I got a reply....  My email had explained that I had not seen her card, just her wreath and was blown away by how beautiful it was.  She replied "Thank  You" and if I did lift her idea, it's nice to credit - and our emails went back and forth for a day or so, each time talking a little bit more about our scrapping, crafts, photography and family. 

We outgrew Two Peas and moved to emails and Facebook, where we now talk on the live chat and exchange emails regularly.  Anyhoo - my point is that the old adage "When you get given Lemons, make lemonade!" comes to mind. 

Kathy is now a really good friend, and our lives are quite similar.  She has been rocked with life changing news and is trying to come back from it, but I know she is strong and can take what has been thrown at her.  So life is funny - from snippy email to good friend, and a really good type of happy.

Right - It's ages since I shared some crafty stuff.  I have been working on stuff, 35 cards for a 50th Wedding Anniversary party, and a bunch of St. Patrick's Day cards, 4 for my mum to give family and 8 for me to give to friends and family who are far away.  I will share the St. Patricks Day Cards nearer the day, but here are the cards that I made for my friend Sinead, she is arranging a party for her mum and dad.

Simple Black and White cards, I had given 3 samples to pick from and this was the one they selected.  It was an easy card to replicate and gave my new Hero Arts flourish stamp (a gift from my friend Elaine!! Many thanks hon!!) a really good first use.

Editing and editing photos at the moment....  finally up to date and need to burn some DVD's but the IDVD on my Mac is playing silly beggers...  Need help from a Mac Master, anyone know any?

Have a good day all.  Small bean having her surgery on Friday hopefully (she has a cough and not on form so hopefully she will be well enough).  Teenager going to see Justin Beiber tonight the excitement is HUGE!  Her friend met Willow Smith (Will Smith's daughter) choreographer in town and he is going to take them backstage!!  Hope this works out cause there will be 2 very disappointed teens if it goes wrong.....

Bye!

Bogged down with "stuff"

Truely I cannot tell you what I have been doing - really the weeks fly by and the days all melt into one big blob of mommydom.  What I can tell you is that I:

• rubbed snotty noses
• dispensed spoonfulls of Capol and Nurophen
• did mountains of laundry
• worked at my proper job
• went away for the weekend
• crafted a little but not stuff that I'm too proud of
• tried to keep house tidy
• brought small girls to appointments
• kissed boo boo's
• negotiated many truces between the warring factions....
• & tried to sleep but my back is not good at moment so my bed is not my friend

Really time is something that I find seems to fly by - whizzing past and I don't feel like I am living in the moment, rather the days are being run and managed by others and not the ones that should be doing it.  I run on busy 90% of the time and sometimes my body and mind need time to stop and smell the flowers.  The last few days have been me reaching for the last of my reserves and gosh I feel so low - tired, worn out and impatient.  So weekend here I come and OMG I am going to try and repair and try and do something that might renew by flagging spirit.

Right - whinging over....

I had great fun taking photos of Miss S - wow she has the most expressive face and magical eyes.  She is a dream to photograph and these are a few of the ones from the session.  Her brother Mr W was a charmer and I will share him soon.

A couple of weeks ago I photographed an 11 week old baby Miss C - her photos turned out so lovely, I will share one of them with you but will show more soon....

Crafty stuff being done too - some St. Patrick's Day cards and some 50th Wedding Anniversary cards that I made for a frined, so have been busy but will share soon.

Nite all - and Audrey, I told you I was blogging!!!