Just for Val and Imelda.....

Sorry for absence, there was a little grumble in the background that I had not blogged and it's not because I have nothing to show, its due to being busy.

Here is are two cards that were made and delivered last week....  One is a wedding card and I was at a bit of a loss on what to make and then I took a little trip onto Pintrest and found something, and this card was born.  Simple card that looked fab in real life.

My husbands niece was 21 last weekend and this was the tri-fold card that I made her, all made from Crate Paper Pretty Party collection.

Lovely card and Eamonns niece was thrilled.  She asked me to make her a cake, and this was a copy of one that I made for my own daughters birthday, 7 colours and 2kilos of icing sugar later......

Great to be able to use my paper stash to make the bunting for the cake.... Probably my favorite cake ever!!!  Made quite a statement!!!

Random stuff....

Like most weekends here, it's busy!  Over the last week I have been running around (as per usual) but I would not have it any other way really!

Here are a few cards that I made recently.  I wrote a list and needed nearly 10 cards for a variety of things, so I gave myself a full night and made a bunch of them.

OK variations on a theme but I had some new Papertrey Ink dies and stamps to play with and well you really just have to!  

The one above is my fav of the ones I have made recently.  I used up all my bright red card and that perfectly teal card and cannot make anymore but I will be looking to buy more of these colours as they are just magic!  The inspiration came from a top that my little one Lea was wearing, and these colours just worked so well on the top that I had to combine them on a card.

Boy cards always a hard thing to make, so this was my card for my nephew Conor for his Confirmation, I hope it was not too girlie for him, but I did my best!

Mastering time management!

Time is funny - my motto is generally to stuff as much as I can into a day and keep going till I fall down.  The last few months have been particularly hard, and probably due to a steep increase in the amount of photography requests coming my way - and if you have a moment pop over and see what I have been doing!

www.michellelagruephotography.com

So what have I been doing?  Well school runs, hospital visits, meetings, school gym and dancing displays, baby shoot, running all over ireland on a wild goose chase, Parent council meetings, preparing for the schools First Holy Communion, making cards (6 in one session!) etc. etc. etc....  I cannot remember the last night I just sat on the couch and relaxed!

This is me at a recent wedding I had the pleasure of taking the photos for - just a quick snap a friend took with my camera and the other one on my shoulder!  (Note I did not liquify my body, to make me smaller, but I was tempted!!)

 I am keeping up with the Project Life - just about 10 days behind now but a night on it will sort that out and we all love it!  It's such a fab thing to do and the girls love lookign at the photos of themeselves, but I have to say the plastic folders are a bit flimsy and not as tough as I would need them to be.

 

Some recent card to share - loads more to photograph but it's been raining non stop here and need a nice bright day.

Michellexxx

Pretty Shabby Chic

New blogger is giving me a run for my money, been locked out, stumbling along and then it posted a very strange layout so trying again.

Not much spare time recently but my diary is getting back to normal again and I can see the wood from the trees again, and have done more crafting and will show you soon.

This card was made for a special friend Audrey who has always cheered me along with my crafting.  She likes hand crafted stuff and I enjoy making it for her.

I was thrilled to play with some papers from this company The scrapcake and I had great fun ordering these paper thru a Polish site, using google translator and making loads of mistakes but the papers are fab, great quality, lovely colours and designs.

Will be back soon!  Promise!!!

This card....

is one of my favourites.  I just love everything about it and I recently submitted it for publication and Yah it got selected.

The full article is here, and there is a lovely story to go with it.  There is
even a step by step guide to making the card if you feel inclined.


More coming soon - Promise!

Babies, babies and more babies....

I have been having a fun time photographing some newborns and enjoying it.  Now I have my new camera a 5d Mark III it's time to start taking this seriously.  This is my new Logo and OMG I adore it (I did not make it myself so I can say how much it ROCKS!)

So more to come from me when I get myself sorted!  But I just wanted to share some Baby Announcement cards that I just made as a sample for a new mom!

Thank you for coming for a look - it's appreciated!

.....working my way back to you......

Been a while - so sorry but here is a little update....

OK not much crafting going on - even a full morning with the girls crafting could do much for my mojo, I pushed paper around tried to make a card and then covered the pages of a mini album that has sat on my desk since.  So maybe in the next few days when the kids go back to school things will get back to normal.

Two weeks off school = 2 weeks of play referee!  Seriously no fun for all of us, after 2 days I de-camped to Leitrim with the girls and we arrived home just in time for Easter and there is a basketball camp planned for 1 little bear tomorrow which will help.

So what have we been doing...  Well I found a local pet shop that has some Meerkats and I adore them so I have been going to visit them....I think I like it more than the kids!

I have taught myself to crochet - so this has been keeping me busy at night when I would normally go to the office and play with paper.  Without any plan I tried to crochet a granny square and when I got the hang of it, I went and got some lovely cotton and as the plan came together in my head I needed 96 squares, and over 30 balls of cotton.  Its been a labour of love and really good therapy and the helped to get me over my little "moment"!  So it's nearly finished, just small bits of string to be tied off and sewen in place and I will be able to do the big reveal.

Crocheting is great for passing the time early morning when you are forced to watch Blues Clues on Netflix at silly o'clock.

 We went on a picnic to Powerscourt waterfall and had such a fab day. 

I got a new camera (so spoiled but adore it) so I was able to get the use of a hotel room for an afternoon, and two willing (fab fab fab!!!) models and I styled and shot a Boudoir photo shoot and OMG I had so much fun.  I just want to sit and edit and swoon over the images, which turned out better than I could have ever wished for.  (Just before I left I had a mini moment thinking I had bitten off more than I could chew and I was in over my head but so glad it worked out).  On the same week I got to photograph a lovely new baby boy and OMG baby J gave me a workout!  Not your normal sleepy, limp limbed baby, this boy was wide awake, not happy to be posed and had already gotten control of his arms, legs and head!!!  This time I had a serious mini moment and wondered if I was going to have anything to show Baby J's parents!  Will promise some photos but have to be sure parents and models are happy for me to share.

As they say - I WILL BE BACK!  Next time I will share some crafting that I did before my dry spell and some stuff I did for a design team (I resigned recently as I felt this coming on!).

Thank you for everyone who kept stopping bye - I hope you will keep coming!

Nite all!