I'm on a roll.....

The time off over Christmas was lovely but very manic with the two small kids, we live from hour to hour with the temper tantrums and the odd behaviour that we deal with so once the baby was in bed I made sure I went out to the office to have some me time. I tried to clear lot's of stuff that was waiting to be finished and I completed the few LO's that I've shown over the week. The LO's often come together and I know I am finished, and love the look and the outcome. This one is different... I wanted to use these photos taken at the 12 Days of Christmas market, and when I was taking the photos of the girls my DH was nattering in my ear saying why do you take these photos when you never do anything with them. So I was on a mission to use them and had the bits left from a LO that I did using the scraproom kit from months ago papers from My Minds Eye - lovely papers....

Sorry back to the reason why I had a hard time with this LO, I had the photos that I took of the signs on the Carousel and wanted to use them too, so had a lot to get in on this LO. Anyway, I have pushed stuff around, stuck it and unstuck it, torn the paper, hid the damage and still not sure it's balanced and right. Anyway, I was not going to show it, but will put it up and I am not going to touch it again, but it's not something I am happy to showcase, but maybe someone might know why I am so not sure about it... So here it is - warts and all!!!
Sharing some more photos of the snow days we had, it's all gone, we have lovely cold sunny days and the weather is due to get into double digits soon.

Our holiday home has suffered a burst pipe and the kids bedroom and bunk beds are ruined. Typical I am taking a group of friends down there the weekend after next for a photography weekend and now the girls will have to double up in the twin room. It's only cosmetic damage, and the beds took nearly all the water and some carpet, floor and 2 ceilings damaged. Not as bad as it could have been but still not great news!!


Thanks for looking - any bright ideas on the LO let me know!!

Snow helps my mojo....

This LO did not exist in any way before Saturday night, the photos were taken on Saturday afternoon and printed that night, and the whole LO came together nicely. It might sound a bit mad (actaully probably does!!) but when you have a LO in your hands that you only just took the photos - you get a little kick out of it!

The PP is from Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses, Alpine and I just loved it, only have a little piece of it left and will be buying more as it's not only limited to Christmas LO's. The snowflake stamp was reduced to €1.25 in my local craft shop and I heat embosssed the paper with sparkly blue embossing powder along with some extra snowflakes for the top to embellish. Again, most of the makings of this LO came from the Christmas Cleo Crafts December kit. Even some of the gems came from them, the kit seems to be never ending.....

This was my backgarden on Saturday night, the office at the end is my craft room / office.

I found this message in the snow from my DH on Sunday morning - knowing that I get up with the kids and let them look out the window in the morning.

This little guy was visiting to say thank you as I remembered to leave some food out for the birds.

Have another LO on my desk that I am pushing around, using one of my Scraproom kits from My Minds Eye, again papers I've used before, and just loved them.

Nite all - there is a big thaw on and hopefully the snow will be gone by tomorrow and the kids are due to school tomorrow. Back to normality, and a big diet!!!

Day 9 of snowy Dublin

We got our first sprinkling on New Years Eve and it been hanging around and being refreshed frequently and its not going anywhere for the forseeable future either!!

My Dh left for an overnight business trip and got caught in Brussells as Dublin Airport closed due to the snow and his flight home never left Dublin. So I was a single parent for one more night.

These Photos are some of the ones that I took over the last few days, lot's of random stuff.




Snow Angel! - lots of these were made...


Snow ball fight in St. Annes... I stood to the side and watched these boys for ages, they were vicious...

They used these signs to slide down the hills, but I just loved the irony of the sign... Think safety first.... Yah right!!






There is a lovely graveyard and I stopped by to take some photos, someone hangs these baubles from the trees above the grave and I just loved them....




Last night's sunset over Donnycarney church....


OK if you still with me you might like to see a LO that I did, I was using the Cleo Crafts December kit, and nearly all the bits for this page came from the kit apart from the alphas' as they were from my stash...I hand cut the big snowflake and the white page is actually swiss dots... Drop by Cleo Crafts as they have really well priced mini kits and this one was jam packed with bits, that I still have not used yet. Defo one for reordering.... www.cleocrafts.co.uk

So this post was mainly for Nana & Grandad who are in Spain on their 4.5 month holiday - enjoy the lovely weather... this is what you are missing.... Love M

Love it / hate it, it's been and gone, phew!!!

Every year I do it, take on too much, my plans are just too big and I stress myself out. Dh hates Christmas and every year there is the moment where I melt down and just feel that I won't all come together in time. This year was no different and my poor mum came to my rescue. (thanks mum!!) I had a pretty staggering list of things to complete so I really had gotten myself into tizzy! Not helped by us deciding to update the downstairs bathroom on Christmas week and having to go around and deal with this all on my own till the day before Christmas.

Here is what I wanted to get done....

Handmade gifts for teachers - acheived
Cards sent out on time - achieved
packs of homemade baked goods for neighbours and friends - achieved
Handmade table arrangements and placecards- achieved
House squeaky clean - well nearly there....
Brunch for 20 family members on Christmas morning - done and enjoyed
Christmas dinner for 12 - done and enjoyed
Supper for 8 - done and enjoyed

We visited 12 homes on Christmas eve to deliver these packs of baked goods, half dozen mince pies, same of cookies and Brownies, jar of homemade Cranberry sauce and then some packs of Peppermint patties and coconut ice.....
I made in total 15 boxes of goodies, 15 jars of sauce and 20+ bags of sweets all tagged and wrapped (must be totally mad!!)

Here is part of the present for the teachers - DD has a lot of people to say thank you as she has an angel of a Special Needs Assistant and learning supoort teachers for her visual difficulties... So I made up a bag for each of them with notebooks (made by a very telented Anne!), the sweets and either a plant or wine for each one of them.
These are the place cards that I made for our Christsmas Dinner - the first ones are for the kids an the second ones are for the adults. Really easily made with my new Nellies multiframes that I just love.....
This is the card that I made for my mum, based on one that I saw somewhere, (searching memory for the site! - will update if I remember!!). Anyway, I completly forgot to give it to her and will not hold onto it till next year!

This is what my husband gave me for Christmas, I got it before the day, and used it over and over and I am thrilled with it.
We started entertaining at 12 on Christmas day and the last people went home at 12 that night, so the next day I indulged myself in a jammie day, stayed in PJ's all day, told the kids it was a self service day and if they ate selection boxes all day it was OK by me! So we lit the fire, sat around and they played with their new bits all day.

I have become addicted to the Wii game Rockband and am fab at Roxanne on the guitar! Wow just amazed that it is soooo much fun!

Here are some random images from around our home over the Christmas, I removed it all on New Years Eve as I just needed to get the place back to normal and our tree was so dry it was in need of the bin!!
Wow - Santa's magic footprints....

Thank you one and all to take the time to stop by my blog. I REALLY REALLY appreciate all your comments and I hope to be able to share more images and crafts with you all in 2010.

It's coming..... really it is!!!

This is our Christmas card that is arriving with friends and family right now... I took the photos myself, but the template was one I got on Etsy. Two of the girls were really unwell and it took ages to get the right photos for the card. I like the outcome but will be heading back to Shutterfly next year as the company that printed them did a really awful job and I am in dispute with them over the quality and the service I got They told me today after I complained on Friday that I was to photograph the cards and send it to them, but as they are all gone in the post that his not possible, so we are in stalemate - I ordered from snapfish.ie, but it seems that they are printed in the uk and you have to wait the extra delivery time as the post from the UK in very slow... So just in case you think that ordering from an Irish site means local delivery, you like me would be wrong... Steer away from them, got better quality & Colour copies from my local chemist but they were much more expensive.

Had to make some cards this week for Christmas and a thank you too. Found it hard to get my head around them, but made a few more too, but can't show them as the people they are for read my blog (wink wink!)

Four years ago I gave personalised Christmas stockings to my friends for their kids... Life moves on and when my friend Audrey had baby Millie, I realised that she would need another one for her new baby, (she is just like me and would like a matching set!!). So I rummaged in the attic and found the bag of red velvet, bought some new white velvet and begged my mum to run me up some new stockings - just 4 this time and I set about personalising them. So Audrey has a full set for her 4 girls, and I now have a set for my girls too - so it's all good.

It's full steam ahead here for Christmas, our tree is up, I've made 7 dozen mince pies, boxes made for the baked goods, my photo card all done and posted and I've even started wrapping presents... My girls have all been sorted out for presents so I would say that I am about 85% of the way there.

I am having a big group for dinner 11 people and the baby - so have plans for second table, and some surprises for those coming. Have an idea for a little jar with small notes in it and everyone can pick a little slip and they will have an instruction, like tell us what was your best gift this year, or what you are most grateful for this year or even give someone at the table a compliment (like what a lovely dinner I cooked!!). So working on that list too. (Bet they can't wait to come here for dinner now)

The above card was one I liked, the Sizzix die is a lovely one and I migh be making a few more of this type of card and it like the balance and colours.

Nite all, had a hard time blogging, as blogger not playing nice. So going to iron the uniforms for tomorrow and get sorted for the morning.....

More to come soon. Ta Michelle