It is that time of year when we wish all of our loved ones a very merry Christmas.

I am so very thankful for having a wonderful family and great friends. My thoughts are with all of the families that have said goodbye to loved ones this year. A couple of days ago my husband and I were just picking up a few bits from a near by town. The town was Wootton Bassett and the time was just gone 1p.m. The people of the town were moving away from saying goodbye to our latest fallen hero, (who had been flown into RAF Lyneham). It makes me realise how very lucky I am that my children are happy and healthy and I am loved by an absolutely fantastic man. I count my blessings every day and even though money is in shorter supply this year I know I am rich in other ways. God bless to everyone who reads this and I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

What a real bad blogger I am. No excuse. I have been doing a few crafty bits but as most of them are for presents, I can't post pictures until Santa has been.

I am settled into my new job. I am still working in the school where I ran the After School Club but I am now a Teaching Assistant in a lovely class. (Reception and year 1). We have just finished our performances of the Nativity. What fun, dressing and undressing nearly 30 shepherds. The only mishap was an angel falling off stage but he was OK as he landed on some shepherds!!

A few weeks ago we had a Stampin' up demo at our craft club. There was so much lovely stuff, I decided to become a demonstrator. On Tuesday my kit arrived. Absolutely scrummy. I haven't had time to play with any of it but this weekend is just for crafting after we have finished decorating the house with the Christmas decs. It will give you a laugh when I show you our tree this year. It is very me. Short and dumpy!!!

Making a few bits for Christmas. I will post pictures when there is better light. This is a little bag to hang on the tree with smarties inside.

I went to the craft club again last Wednesday and took a project in for show and tell. Some of the girls liked it so much that I am doing a class for them in December. Got to save tins now for the projects. These were cut open using a tin opener from Pampered Chef which cuts the lid off without causing a sharpe edge on the can or lid. It also creates a lip so you can stick the lid back on.

Have been busy making Christmas cards and other things for the festive holiday but can't put it on here as it would spoil the surprise for my family. I have just found out that there is a craft group that meets very close to me so I popped over there on Wednesday. There was a lovely bunch of ladies there and chocolate cake. I WILL be going back!!

Guess which team won the football on Sunday? Yes, our youngest sons football team finally won a game. First time in nearly 2 years!! All of the parents and team were so happy. Me and another mum had promised about a year ago that we would do a cheer leading dance if they ever won. We are now barred from supporting by our sons!!

Here is some pictures of the cards I made using the absolutely gorgeous stamps from Lavinia Stamps. The stamped images are really crisp. There are 3 in this set and cost £8.50. Well worth the money.

Don't know why the photo in the previous post is half pink. You can just make out the papers though. Sorry about that.

Last Saturday I had the most wonderful day with a friend of mine. She drove us to London and we spent the day at Alexandra Palace at the big scrapbooking and stamping show. What was even better was that some of my anarak buddies (The collective name given by my husband for the girls on the Just Bex craft forum) were there and we got to meet up and chat. Lovely Lythan whose blog I just adore was there but was only able to gossip for a few minutes as she was much more focused in her shopping. It is always lovely meeting people for real. Hi girls. The photos are of what I purchased. I did curb my spending a bit as I could be jobless very soon but it was made easier by there not being all the scrummy new papers that have been on the American market for a little while.

The flowers from Ikea. I am planning on pulling them off, bit by bit to use on cards.

I haven't really felt in a crafting mood lately. It is mainly down to the fact that I am being made redundant. Initially I was upset that the after school club would be closing down but now I am hoping it will be the push I need to go out and get a job that isn't just term time.

I have been to Ikea today. (Well a girl has got to do something to cheer herself up)! They were selling silk hydrangea heads for £4.99 that has hundreds of flowers I can pull apart and use on my cards.

Last Saturday we had a family day out to Twickenham to watch a charity rugby match for help 4 heroes. What a brilliant day. The charity raised over a million. Even though I still keep feeling a bit fed up about losing my job it kind of puts your life into perspective.

Sorry to take so long in posting pics of our holiday in Croatia. I won't put any of me in my costume on in case any of you are eating!

I can't believe I haven't put anything on my blog for so long.

Quick update of my life. School finished at the end of July and I disappeared down to Cornwall for a week. What a wash out. Rain every day except the Sunday which saw us all on the beach getting a beautiful ruby red colour on our shoulders!!

After a week at home we packed the cases and went off to Croatia for a fortnight. Some of the 300 photos we took will follow!!

We have had friends visiting last week. Their gorgeous daughter loves crafting and we spent a few hours doing glittery stuff. What fun.

Back in January, I put a picture up of the Summer House where my dad works. I have finally got round to getting a picture from him of the finished project. The photo was taken in May at its grand unveiling. (Notice the bluebells in the background).

Went to the Newbury Show yesterday with a friend. We had a brill time and bought the odd thing or two. Here is a photo of some different papers I got. I also bought some stamps from Banana Frog, cuttlebug embossing folders, a magazine (craft stamper-i'm loving the new look) and a few other bits.

OK, I have hundreds of things I should be doing but I have spent the past few hours blog hopping. Over at Marias cards she has some lovely blog candy. http://http://mariascards.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html

There is also a newish site that I haven't actually taken part in but like to have a look and see what everyone else is up to. http://http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/

Right, I really need to go and do some housework or I could just put the kettle on and have a cuppa and another half hour browsing!!!

Here is a hanger to attach an art project to. I made it as part of a challenge. I was influenced by the wonderful creations on the sassy crafts blog site. http://http//www.sassy-crafts.blogspot.com/ My inspiration came from an entry on April 30th by Sian. I will add the name of the person who it belongs to on the peg but I don't know who I am giving it to yet.

I should of been sharing some wonderful pictures with you of our family day out on Saturday. However I, like thousands of other people were disappointed when the Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford was cancelled. As we hadn't planned anything else we just stayed at home and did some jobs around the house.

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I'm hoping this will work. I found this link from someone elses blog and thought it would be a good site to play on. http://www.magmypic.com/

In May I showed you a photo of my family sorting out the garden by moving the play house. We still need to grass a small area where the play house was originally but apart from that it is now finished. The gravelled area was a small patch of earth and some pinky/red slabs. Looks much better now and we can actually use the space.

I'm such a proud mum. This is my son who was awarded players player at the football presentation evening on Sunday. Unfortunately my OH missed it as his work have sent him away AGAIN! However it did mean he didn't have to sit through hours of speeches.

As the weather was so horrible and wet yesterday, I hid in my craft room and got stuck into some of my new stuff that I got for my birthday last week. The last 2 pictures are using some Laura Ashley 6" papers.

I had said in a post that I had written in May that I would show you my new storage box for 12" papers. I bought it from Hobbycraft for about £18. Bit pricey but I do love it. At the back I have some 12" bags that contain papers in colour groups that I have used. The concertina box (I think it is Papermania) that I had used originally was difficult to use as it flops open. Some of the side seams have ripped because of this. I am now using that for all of my scrap bits.

Here are a few pics of what my darling sons got me for my birthday.

Still stamp sorting but I have nearly finished!

These are the cards I sent to my dad and hubbys dad for Fathers day.

We had a lovely family day yesterday. It was the OH's birthday. The day started with a treasure hunt for my husband to find his birthday present. The boys had hidden clues all over the house. All I can say is Nicholas cage has nothing to worry about!!

At lunch time we went down to the local and had a drink or two followed by a gorgeous BBQ cooked by the boys. No dramas after initially setting the webber alight! Didn't need to worry too much about a fire as the rain would of put it out.

Bank holiday activities

On Saturday we went tent hunting. Not to be used this weekend but so we have something that doesn't leak like a sieve when we finally go and venture into the great outdoors. We went to various places but ended up at Go Outdoors in Oxford. (Near the Park and Ride). We got a lovely tent that cost £103 (with the discount card) that I have looked up on the web that costs up to £300 at other places. When we got home we put it up and took it down again in the wind in about 90 minutes. (Don't want to look complete prats at the campsite).

Yesterday was a hive of activity in the downstairs loo. It has been painted and the grouting finished. Hubby and youngest then spent the rest of the day boxing in the pipes. I stayed out of the way for a couple of reasons.

• Not enough room for us all.
• OH gets bad tempered when he is doing jobs.
• I was far too busy looking at Lythans blog. She is a daring card maker and has a great tutorial on decorating circles with doodling. (April 2008).

When I wasn't on the web I was in my craft room. I have been cataloging my stamps and putting my 12" papers into a new storage box I bought last week. (Useful box co). The old 12" storage container now has all of my bits of paper stored by colour. This is how I split the sections.

• Colours. Red, yellow/orange, blue etc.
• White, silver, velum, grey
• Brown, beige, gold
• Pastels. (Patterned papers with a combination of colours).
• Brights. (Patterned papers with a combination of colours).

The system works for me. I will take some pictures and post them next time.

My son was doing a tandem parachute jump a couple of weeks ago. The bear belongs to a charity and he was asked if he could look after it. I couldn't watch. He now wants to do another jump but on his own. He is very busy saving up his pennies so he can do it.

Not much crafting been done recently. I have made a couple of cards but haven't got round to photographing them yet.

Last weekend we moved the play house (that came with the house when we bought it) to the top of the garden. We wanted to change the colour so have given it a coat of undercoat in white and can now be seen from space! (When I see we I mean hubby and youngest son). I think the end colour will be cream with a pale green door and window frames.

Weekend plans

I had hoped to go to Cornwall this weekend. The main reason being it is my dads birthday on Monday and he is now of retirement age. I can't see him giving up work yet though. Of the three people who work on the estate he is the young un! I was hoping to see the bluebells in the grounds as they are a sight to see and I never seem to be there when they look their best. If you want to know more about the gardens here is the link. http://http://www.gardensofcornwall.com/site/garden-finder/enys-garden-p467353

There are two reasons we are not SW bound. Firstly the cost of fuel for a weekend away is not extremely cost effective and secondly and much more importantly is that our youngest son has a football tournament today. His team have won the 'fair players award' and as he is captain, he has to pick up the trophy. That will be the only one they do pick up as they have lost every game this season. It is a shame as the team have loads of enthusiasm and team spirit but never seem to bring it all together.

Cards up close

Thanks for the lovely comments on the cards I posted yesterday. I thought I should show a few a bit closer.

Basic grey-Archaic

I bought a 6X6 pad from Sassy Crafts (http://http//sassycrafts.co.uk/) who is a cyber buddy of mine. I thought I would try and see if I could make some different cards with them. I love the papers and was really pleased with how the cards turned out.

Sisters birthday

This is the card I sent to my sister for her birthday. For some reason I have put my address book in a safe place and couldn't find it so had to phone her. In my haste to post it off, I wrote the address, sealed the envelope and was just about to pop it into the mail when I realised I hadn't written it. Thankfully, I could get it open, write it and stick it back down with some tape. I am having more of these moments...is it my age?!!