Wednesday 23 December 2009

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

I've been busy this past week, trying to get myself all organised for Christmas, so no time for crafting I'm afraid.  But this year, for the first time I can ever remember, certainly not whilst we've been living in this house (some 20+ years), plans have been thwarted by the weather (or more precisely, the snow)!  I know, I know, in other parts of the world the amount of snow the UK has been experiencing would be looked on as just a sprinkling, but here, it has caused real problems around the country - people stranded, cars abandoned or wrecked, broken limbs from falling over, and although main roads have been "gritted" to a degree all the side roads (ie where everybody lives) have been neglected. 

My car has been buried under a mound of snow for the past three days and is only now just emerging as the snow begins to thaw.  The same at my parents' home, they couldn't get beyond their drive today, everywhere is too icy - I had planned to take up some Christmas food and pressies for them this afternoon, but we've abandoned that idea for today.  Now all the food (that won't fit in my fridge) is chilling out in the garage until tomorrow.  Lindsay and David also have to make the journey over today so hope they don't encounter too many problems with the roads.  It's our dad's birthday tomorrow (Christmas Eve), so we are all supposed to be gathering at our house to celebrate ...... anyway, fingers crossed, it looks like the snow is finally starting to vanish, so all should be well by then.



Mind you, it has been lovely to look out at the snow in all its beauty, especially where it lies thick on the ground with no footprints in it.  We have an old tree at the edge of our driveway and the weight of the snow brought a large (and I mean LARGE) branch down onto the pavement (it's the size of a small Christmas tree!), so we had to drag that back onto the drive.  Luckily, it didn't land on a nearby parked car!



Yesterday evening the sky looked really dramatic too, all turning a fiery pink, as a backdrop to the snow-laden trees and rooftops - and the garden took on a mysterious, eerie glow as dusk fell.






Little Mia has been enjoying "helping" to wrap Christmas presents and exploring the radio - she couldn't figure out where the music was coming from and wondered if she could climb to the top of the aerial! 







We've tethered the top of the Christmas tree with string to avoid it toppling over ..... Mia has had great fun climbing up the trunk on the inside as far up as she can get before we catch her!  One night she came running into the living room with a garland of tinsel streaming out behind her which she could only have pulled off the tree ..... if only I'd had my camera to hand, it was such a funny sight! 

I hope you all have a very happy time over the Christmas/New Year holidays, however you choose to celebrate ..... and I'll be back posting again in 2010, hopefully refreshed and ready to go with new challenges and ideas! 





Sunday 13 December 2009

Guardian Angels

The Guardian Angel swap that I was running was swapped out at the beginning of this week - we were a very "select" group of four (I guess everyone was caught up too much in preparing for Christmas to take time out for this one - or maybe it didn't appeal).  Anyway, here are pics of the ATCs and ornaments that we all created - as you can see, everybody put a different interpretation into their designs .......





Joanne's








Sheila's





Lindsay's







Mine

I used Crafty Individuals frames and images to make my ornament, along with embossing, fabric and feathery embellishments.  The ATC, again, used a Crafty Individuals image (they're one of my favourite craft companies, can't you tell?), matted over a gauzy ribbon fabric, and embellished with gold stickles, beads, ribbon and dictionary "angel" definition.  (The stars are part of the ribbon's pattern).

Thanks to Joanne, Lindsay and Sheila for participating in this swap - I hope you all enjoyed it - I loved seeing what everyone created.

Today I took my parents out to the local garden centre for a spot of lunch and a bit of Christmas shopping - I love to see all the Christmas decorations laid out, the glittery baubles, the trees, sparkly fairy lights, scented candles, but we were amused by this Santa Claus taking time out in his hammock at the entrance to the garden centre, dreaming of some faraway golden beach no doubt (his stomach actually moved up and down as though he was really breathing - LOL) - I just had to take a photo of him ......




I wonder what you're dreaming of this Christmas?

Friday 4 December 2009

And the Winner is ......... ?

Today I made the draw for my little Christmas Giveaway and who better to help me than Mia - she was a brilliant assistant!! 

First, I wrote out everybody's names on pieces of paper, folded them up and popped them all into a wooden "Mouseman" bowl that we have (well, it seemed appropriate to use a mousey bowl if Mia was going to pick a winner out of it). 



When Mia saw all the bits of paper in the bowl she immediately dived in, picked one up in her mouth and ran off with it (I wish I'd been quick enough to take a photo of that particular moment, but she is just soooo fast) .....



Here is Mia with the winning "ticket" .........



..... and the WINNER IS .........




Well done and congrats, Denise!  Just let me know your address and I'll post the Christmas kits and ATC out to you as soon as I can .... hope you enjoy them all and have fun making the kits up.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Where does all the time go?

It's frightening how quickly time is flying, suddenly realised it's been a week since I last posted ..... and I've not been doing a lot of creating in that time either.  So I'm just checking in to say yes, I am still in the land of the living, and remind you all that I'll be drawing a name tomorrow for the winner of my Christmas giveaway ..... so pop by tomorrow to see who's won.  The Guardian Angel swap is also coming to a close this weekend ...... there were only a few of us in this swap, I know it was all a bit short notice really, with Christmas being so close, but what I've received has been great.  I'll be posting pics of the swap on here after the weekend.