Totally Gorjuss Challenge 238 - Stitching.

Good morning everyone. I'm hoping for another sunny day like Thursday and Friday!

This week at Totally Gorjuss we'd like to see some stitching on your card. This can be real stitching or faux stitching like mine.

I needed to make a card for a friend's grandson who's just become a "big brother." I love this cute image. I also have a "big sister" stamp.

I used :-

Image ;- Funky Kits.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts and Stampin' Up!

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

I quite like how it's turned out, nice and simple for a wee boy.

I'm at work this morning as usual. At least back to normal now after a few weeks of freedom. And yes I'd be lying if I said I was pleased to be back at work. I've really enjoyed being at home and I never got bored! I maybe haven't managed to make many cards or do much blogging but I have done a lot of knitting and crocheting. I'm knitting a summer top just now (as well as crocheting 2 blankets) and I've remembered how much I hate using a circular needle!

We're going to the theatre tonight to see Dial M for Murder so I'm looking forward to that. We haven't been to the theatre for ages but the email offering £10 off was a nice incentive!

Catch you all later. Thanks for looking.

Kat xx

Big Brother!

No not that one! I don't do so called reality shows. I can't be bothered with that kind of stuff. I don't want to offend anyone that likes that  kind of thing but it seems as if you get every idiot under the sun on these programmes! I've never seen any of them but I've heard perfectly normal people talking about watching them and it makes me despair!!

Anyway here's my "Big Brother" card which I made for my boss's grandson who has just become a big brother. So far he seems quite taken on with his wee sister.

I used :-

Image :- Funky Kits.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts and Stampin' Up!

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Washi Tape.

It's quite simple but boys don't really like anything fancy and this little lad's only 3.

Well I'm going off to a friend's house tonight to do some crafting so I'd best go off and have my tea now.

Thanks for looking.

Kat xx

Big Brother.

Hi everyone my broadband is being a bit iffy tonight so I'll be brief. I've just finished my Tesco shopping and that was not a lot of fun with the connection being so slow.

Recently the last of the three girls at work who became a Granny within a few weeks had a new granddaughter. So her little grandson became a big brother. I thought it would be nice to make a card specially for him. So this is it.

I used :-

Image :- Sugar Nellies.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

DP :- Craft Creations.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts and Stampin' Up!

Card Candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Challenges :-

Sugar Bowl :- Anything Goes.
Stampin for the Weekend :- Anything Goes.

I'm off to catch up with my DT work now.

Thanks for looking and all your lovely comments.

Kat xx

My Favourite Stamp.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope it's as lovely a day where you are as it is here in Aberdeenshire. I've got the day off as it is a local holiday here and the sun has shone all day. Fantastic! I haven't achieved a lot but it's been lovely and relaxing.

I noticed that the As You Like It challenge want you to use your favourite stamp and say why. Well I just love this image and if you visit me occasionally I'm sure you'll have seen a version of it at least once before. There are two images in this set, the other one is narrower and the flowers are not as open. I love them both. They're easy to colour. You can use Promarkers, Distress Markers, watercolour pencils, colour the stamp directly with markers, the choice is yours. They're also great to paper piece. So what stamp is it?................

Here it is! Do you love it too?

I used :- Hero Arts - Delicate Blossoms.
Sentiment :- SU Wacky Wishes.
Colouring :- Promarkers.
Ribbon from stash, Stickles.

Other challenges :-
Stamping Sensations :- Summer Blooms.
ABC :- O for Open ie anything goes.
Gem of a Challenge :- Summertime.
Created with Love :- Anything Goes.
Totally Papercrafts :- Anything Goes.

Well I'm off to walk my dogs now and make tea.

Thanks for looking and catch you all later.

Kat xx

You'd get less for murder!!!!

Well so they say! What I mean is tomorrow is my Wedding Anniversary and birthday. When we were going to get married 37 years ago the minister thought it would be nice to get married on my birthday! I suppose if hubby forgets one he forgets both lol! Anyway here's the card I made for him yeserday. And it's sitting next to the birthday cards I've already got ready for him to open tomorrow. Usually I'm finishing it late on the 12th. I thought I'd best be organised since everyone was here this weekend. Catriona and her husband and kids and dogs left after lunchtime so that Poppy would have time to do her homework and Iain and Mhairi left soon after them. Then we went to Tesco to get a Tesco finest meal for two and then went for an ice cream. Quite different from the fantastic meal we had at our favourite Indian restaurant. My son-in-law thinks it's the best one anywhere!

So here's the card - I hope, since as I'm writing this my connection is so bad that I can't upload my photo. Fingers crossed I'll be able to do it soon before I lose my temper with it. Too late I'm already pretty annoyed!

I used :-

Circle Burst die :- Memory Box.

Hearts :- Stampin' Up! Fashionable Hearts Embosslits.

Husband :- Hero Arts

Happy Anniversary :- Rubber Stampede.

I need to go and catch up with what's going on blogland as I didn't get a chance to do anything yesterday before everyone came. I did take the morning off yesterday but I went to a Christian Aid coffee morning instead. I usually miss any coffee mornings in the village as I work every Saturday so it was nice to go and have a chat and a coffee. I even won a prize in the raffle. There were a lot of prizes and a couple of people won more than one!

Thanks for looking and I'm hoping to get some quality crafting time tomorrow!

I'd love to hear from you if you've got a minute to spare.

Kat xx

Bingo at Totally Gorjuss!

Good morning everyone, what a bad blogger I am. I haven't posted since last Saturday!  I've baked, been to a WRI meeting (with my baking) and been out crafting with friends. And last but not least I've done a lot of housework. My family are all coming at the weekend and we're having a meal at our favourite Indian restaurant. Today is my brother's birthday, he's nine years and 2 days older than me. I've even taken the day off on Monday for a change. I usually end up working on my birthday but this year I just thought why not have the day off.

Anyway you don't want to listen to me waffling so I'll tell you about the challenge at Totally Gorjuss this week. We have a little bingo challenge for you :-

Lace     Ribbons   Flowers
String    Buttons   Sparkle
Pearls   Stars       Charm

I decided to use lace, string and pearls and here's what I made:-

I used :-
Image :- LOTV cute square.
Bakers' Twine and lace :- Ribbon Girl.
Glamour Dust.
DP :- LOTV.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Tag punch, round nestie die, Die-namics  fishtail flags dies.
Pearls from stash.

Challenges:-
Freshly Made Sketches :-

Fussy and Fancy :- Anything Goes.

Did I tell you we're sponsored by Crafters' Companion this week? Don't forget to pop over and see what they've got to tempt you. 

Well since I've got a day off today I'm going to a coffee morning in the village hall so I'll catch up later. 

Have a lovely weekend and thanks for looking. And if you have a minute to leave me a comment I'd love to hear what you think.

Kat xx

Just a note...

Hi everyone, hope you're all fine. I would say I am but I seem to have developed a bit of a cold so I'm a bit fed up!

I enjoyed making a card the other day for Less is More using Jen's lovely colour combo and layout. So today I couldn't resist making another one. This time I've used a different colour combo. Do you like this lovely ridged Kraft card I found in my stash and some of my favourite Lilac Bazzill card.

I used :-
Image :- LOTV popped up on sticky pads for some dimension.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Colouring :- Promarkers.
Fishtail :- Stampin' Up! Stamped with Hero Arts

Envelope pattern in Wisteria Wonder.

Well that took ages to upload that pic, my broadband's hopeless tonight!

Hope you like and feel free to tell me what you think, I love to read your comments. Sometimes I need a wee bit of encouragement. At least I get a day off tomorrow. I hope I can get some crafting done.

By the way have you entered my candy yet? I added some more items to it and I extended it to next Tuesday, the 30th.

Thanks for looking.

Kat xx

Congratulations!

Not sure if I need a Congratulations card for a Graduation any time soon but if I do I'm prepared with this little cutie.

When I saw that the challenge at Less is More is a one layer card and the subject is "A Film" I thought I was going to be struggling. It's not the one layer part that bothers me as I'm getting used to that now. No, it was the film part. I usually struggle with making a card to depict a film or a tune. Then I had a bit of a brainwave! My favourite ever film is "The Graduate." I remember seeing it years ago, and I won't say how long ago, with  my boyfriend. Trying not to drool over Dustin Hoffmann! After that I would have watched anything with Dustin Hoffmann in it and if I'm honest I still would. Don't tell my hubby though.

Isn't he cute. I added blue to his gown as that's the colour of the hood of my graduation gown. A wee while ago now.

I used :-
Image and sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Watercolour pencils.

I'm also entering the challenge at Crafting When We Can which is "At the Movies."

I have one or two more ideas for the LIM challenge so I might be back later in the week. Unfortunately I have some knitting I need to sew up for a WRI competition on Wednesday. I also need to bake for another competition. It's also our AGM and I'm feeling quite pleased with myself because my books are done and were exactly right first time. My boss is auditing them for me now and all I have to do now is sort out the points prizes. At our monthly meetings we have either one or two competitions and get points for a 1st, 2nd or 3rd. At the end of the year the member in charge of this works out who is 1st and 2nd overall and who has entered most competitions and got fewest prizes. We call this the endeavour shield now as most entries fewest prizes doesn't really sound very nice especially since there are only a few of us and it depends on the judge who might not know anything about what they're judging!

As some of you might know I work in my local sub-post office. The subpostmistress does not work due to health problems so I do everything that she would do. ie ordering cash, stock and stationery and doing the weekly balance. We were audited recently and to the auditors' surprise we were balanced to the penny. They told my boss that this never happened! She said that I liked everything to be right so she wasn't surprised. One of the auditors asked if I had worked in a bank and she said that I had. When I worked in the bank we had to balance to the penny every night before we could go home so I guess old habits die hard! My colleague was working that morning and they were pleased with how well she was doing since she has only been in the P.O. for about a year and a half. Needless to say neither of us got a nice bonus for our good work. We were both pretty chuffed though.

Enough wittering though, I'm off to have a nose around the blogs and see if I need to do any DT commenting.

Thanks for looking and I love to read what you think. So if you've got a minute to spare I'd love to hear from you.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 176 - Something Borrowed.

Good morning everyone, I hope you're going to join our challenge at Totally Gorjuss where our theme this week is "something borrowed." This could be an idea borrowed from someone else, something borrowed from another craft or another person. I'm sure you can think of something and if you pop over to Totally Gorjussyou can see all the "borrowed" ideas my talented teamies have come up with. We're sponsored by The Ribbon Girl this week, wish I could enter. I don't know about you but I can always find something I want in their online store!

Back to a simple card again this week.

I used a few Stampin' Up! goodies this week. The card and the ink are Wisteria Wonder. The border is SU textured impressions Adorning Accents. The larger heart is cut out with a  Hearts a Flutter framelit and I added a small Hearts a Flutter image popped up on foam squares for a bit of dimension in the opening. The sentiment is a Hero Arts wooden stamp I've had for ages. Not sure if the ribbon came from the Ribbon Girl or my local shop.

I'm entering the following challenges :-
Freshly Made Sketches :- Sketch. I hope this fits!

As usual this morning I'll be at work, lucky me! Then I'm going to a crop at my local craft shop in the afternoon. But before that my friend and I are going to have our lunch at a "soup and sweet" in the village hall. At the time of writing - late Friday evening - I have no idea what I'm doing at the crop. I need to make Easter cards for Poppy and Oliver so I'll need to try and get some bits and pieces together for that. The shop  changed hands at the beginning of the month and I haven't managed to get there till now so I'm looking forward to seeing some new goodies.

Thanks for looking and I appreciate it when you leave me a comment.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I hope none of you are badly affected by snow. We've been really lucky here so fingers crossed we don't get any more.

Kat xx

Hat Trick!

Well when I say Hat Trick I mean I've posted three times in three days! Long time since I managed that!

I couldn't resist trying to use one of the great sketches at Retro Sketches. I chose to use sketch no.9.

I made - whisper it - a Christmas card. And yes I do know it's only February. But it's not the first one I've made this year!

Looks like I've managed to take a squint photo!

I used :-
Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punches.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Bakers' Twine :- Ribbon Girl.
Pearls :- Hobby House.
Snowman embossing folder and Glamour Dust.

Other challenges :-
In the Pink :- Bling and Pink.
Winter Wonderland :- Snowflakes falling all around.

I'm quite pleased with this card! Surprise!! I hope you can see the embossing. It's a lovely folder and the embossing is always lovely and crisp. And I love this sketch. You could add more to it but I like it plain.  I think it's a layout that would be suitable for most occasions. I can see it with flower or butterflies. Perhaps even with more embellishments.

Well this is my day for working all day. It's also my evening for the Guild. Luckily we're never that late so I should be able to see what everyone's been up to in the evening. It's also my husband's birthday so he's getting one of my car cards made using that really useful car set from Papermania. Yesterday was my son-in-law's birthday and he got a car card too. He got a Ferrari card. (same set of stamps) He sells Audis but there aren't any on that set lol!

Thanks for looking and if you have time I love to hear what you think. I really appreciate every comment I get. I know how busy everyone is so it's nice when someone takes the trouble to comment.

Catch you all later.

Kat xx

Simply Poppies.

Hi everyone. Well I'm feeling quite pleased today as I managed to achieve a couple of things yesterday lol! At my crop I picked up the stitches round a v-neck slipover and finished the neck and then picked up stitches round one armhole and knitted a couple of rows. I've had this ready to finish for weeks now but the two things I hate doing are picking up stitches to do a neck and sewing up knitting so I've kept finding other things to do! I need the slipover in 2 weeks so I'd best get it finished. It's for a WRI show and I'm bad for being at the last minute so if I get it finished soon I'll be doing well!

Then in the evening after visiting my favourite blogs and catching up on what challenges are around I made a quick card. This is a similar idea to yesterday's DT card and was very quick to make. Regular readers may notice that this is one of my favourite images.

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black Poppies cut out with Nesties.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Pearls from stash.

Challenges :-

Freshly Made Sketches :- Sketch.
Cute Card Thursday :- Simplify.
Crafty Cardmakers :- Blooming Images.

This afternoon I'm going to attempt to make a cushion, also for the show. This is one of 6 items for our co-operative table. I have no idea what possessed me to offer to make a cushion. I've never made a cushion in my life! I bought a pattern and I've cut it out. I had to go and buy some tartan to put round the edge so that's my excuse for not having any more done! I have a few other things to get done so I might show them on here when they're finished.................if they're fit to be seen that is!

Anyway thanks for looking and I love to read your comments. Means I'm not talking to myself if you tell me what you think lol! It also means I can visit you and see your lovely work.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 172 - Happy.

Good morning everyone, I hope you're all having a good weekend. I'm off to a crop this afternoon after work so I'm hoping to do some blog visiting this evening. 

Time for our latest challenge at Totally Gorjuss where our theme is "Happy." This week we have two sponsors, Ribbon Girl and Saturated Canary so you have two chances to win!

As you can see I'm still making simplish cards. Not quite so CAS this week but still no DP and not a lot of embellishments.

I used :-
Image :- LOTV.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.
Ribbon :- Ribbon Girl.
Pearls from stash.

Challenges :-
Created with Love :- Things that Fly.
Creative Card Crew :- Birthday.
Lili's Little Fairies :- Butterflies.
Seize the Birthday :- Sketch plus feminine.
Ribbon Girl :- Turqoise/aqua.
Pink Gem :- Add a Bow.

I'm scheduling this post so I hope Mr Blogger is kind to me! My internet connection has been horrendous this evening (Friday) so I'll quit while I'm ahead now and just press publish before it goes off again.

Thanks for looking and I'm looking forward to hearing what you think about my card. It really makes me happy when I get a kind comment or two.

Have a lovely weekend. Catch you later,

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 170 - Love.

Good morning everyone. Is it still cold or is it just me? Still compared to some parts of the country we have been very lucky. I think we've had everything this week......snow, hail, frost, rain, wind and even some sun!!

But that's good for staying indoors and crafting. I wish! Bit of a nuisance having to go out to work.

Anyway enough waffle, here's my card for Totally Gorjuss. This week our theme is "Love," guess it must be something to do with the time of year lol! We are sponsored by the lovely people at Crafters' Companion this week.

As you can see I'm still into CAS cards. It's a bit scary stamping and colouring straight onto the card but I like the effect. What do you think?

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Sentiment and heart :- Hero Arts.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

I 3d'd the heart on top of the heart balloon for a bit of dimension.

Aren't they a pair of cuties? I might give this to hubby for Valentine's Day!

Challenges :-

Cards for Men :- All my Love.
Everybody Art :- Hearts.
Simon Says Stamp :- Have a Heart.
Lili's Little Fairies :- A Touch of Romance.
Cute Card Thursday :- Love Struck.
Charisma :- Love.
Ribbon Girls :- Love You or Valentine.
Totally Papercrafts :- Valentine or Love.
Daring Cardmakers :- Love is in the Air.
Crafty Ribbons :- Anything Goes with Ribbon.

I'm sure some of you won't have made your Valentine yet so if not you could look out your love images and join us this week. I'll be popping over later to see what everyone's been up to.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and thanks for looking.

Still not Saturday.

Me again! Can't believe I'm posting again. Two posts in one day, don't know when that last happened! I got some new Stampin' Up! goodies yesterday and I couldn't wait to see what I could do with them.

I haven't actually used much of my new stash yet but my head is full of ideas for CAS cards.

I used :-

Hearts :- Stampin' Up!

Sentiment :- Hero Arts. 

Heart gems from my stash.

Challenges for this card :-

Retro Sketches :- Sketch.

Addicted to CAS :- Hearts.

CAS on Sunday :- Be Mine Valentine.

The Pink Elephant :- Photo inspiration - hearts, red and white.

Created with Love :- Valentines.

Creative Inspirations :- Sent with Love.

Here's another one!

I used :-
Image and sentiment :- Stampin' Up!
Pearls :- Hobby House.

I'm entering the challenge at Less is More :- Kraft and Kreme.

Now that I see it on the screen I'm not sure I like it. This is a lovely set of stamps though!

Now I have a cushion to think about. No idea what possessed me to volunteer to make a cushion for the WRI Group show in March. I must have been daft. I've got material for it now and I suppose it won't go wrong as the suite in my sitting room is cream leather and I've got red cushions and cream cushions already.

I made scones a wee while ago. It's my friend's fault. Yesterday she asked about a recipe for scones. She had seen Paul Hollywood on tv making scones with strong white flour instead of ordinary. She made some and put them in the bin lol! I showed her my Paul Hollywood book and a WRI one so she took a recipe from the WRI one. Needless to say I had to give it a go today. I won't show you a picture of mine but they're well risen and light and they taste ok. Just a wee bit lopsided lol! I'll probably try them again, maybe with sultanas or cherries next time. It's a completely different method of making scones from the one I grew up with.

Thanks for looking, I'd better catch up with my favourite blogs now and do my DT work.

It's not Saturday!!

It's only Thursday and I'm posting! I've been really bad so far this year and hardly posted anything else except my DT cards. I'm hoping to do better from now on!

I had a text from my niece on Tuesday evening to tell me that she was in hospital with a broken hip! She has MS so I don't know if it was anything to do with that. Anyway I made her a quick card yesterday as I can't just nip off and see her. She lives in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles and I'm in Aberdeenshire.

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Ribbon and button from stash.

Very simple and quick. Think I should do more cards like this. I think sometimes I get bogged down choosing pretty papers and embellishments and finding a sketch for inspiration!

Now I'm going to play with some new goodies that were delivered last night. I might even be back later with something else.

Thanks for looking and don't be shy about saying what you think. I love to visit people who've left me a comment.

Have a great day everyone. It's lovely and sunny just now but when I was out with the dogs about 7am there was a nasty snow shower. At least it was just snow, yesterday we were out during a very nasty hail shower and even the dogs wanted to go home!

Does this count as sport?

Hi everyone, I think I've been very lazy since Christmas! All I've done is my DT cards so I thought I'd best try to get some more cards made. I have done some knitting so I haven't done absolutely nothing! I had a bit of a rake among my stamps to see if I had anything resembling sport and I found this lovely LOTV stamp. Maybe it'll be useful for making cards for Oliver and his friends. He started nursery last week and is loving it. The first morning Catriona said he went in without even a backward glance. I think she was hurt!
 But he's been used to going with Poppy when she was there and his older cousin and his best pal go too so no surprise he wasn't crying for Mummy.

I'm always a bit nervous about stamping straight onto my card. Probably I should try doing it more often. And then of course I'm even more nervous about colouring straight onto my card. I'm not very good at colouring at the best of times so I was glad to get it finished!

I used :-

Image :- LOTV.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

I haven't entered the challenge at Less is More for ages so I really wanted to make the effort this week.

Thanks for looking, I'm off to make a coffee before bed now. Catch you all tomorrow, I hope! 

Totally Gorjuss 163 - Easy Does It.

Good morning everyone, are you all getting excited about Christmas? I can hardly believe it's only three days away. And I work in a post office too! 

This week at Totally Gorjussour challenge is "Easy Does It." Now what could be simpler. We are sponsored by Craftwork Cards this week and I'm sure I don't need to tell you what they sell and what good quality all their products are. Last week I made a someone special card for my granddaughter and this week I've made a card for my husband. I've used a favourite colour combo and some stamps I love.

I used :-

Images and sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punch.

Embossing :- Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.

Stepper card :- Craftwork Cards.

Hero Arts Winter Moon was stamped in Memento London Fog then Many Branches Tree was stamped on top in Versamark and embossed in silver. The embossed panels were all edged with Memento LadyBug.

Quite simple really but it seemed to take me ages to make it.

I'm entering the following challenges :-

Stamping Sensations :- Tree-mendous.
Simon Says Stamp :- Merry Christmas.
Creative Inspirations :- Anything Goes.
Paperplay :- Out with the old, in with the new. The two Hero Arts stamps are new.

I have a feeling I'm not going to be around much for the next week! I'm working today and of course Monday and so far I have no food preparation done. The cake is made but still to marzipan and ice. I also have to make gluten free sponge so Mhairi can have Tiramisu and I've bought gluten free digestives so she can have my famous Rocky Road traybake too. I need to make meringues, pavlova, mince pies and shorbread. Not to mention organise the main course. I think we're having roast beef on Christmas Day and steak pie on Boxing Day when everyone's here. So who's going to do a bit of hoovering and dusting I wonder. Well I do have a candidate in mind. Someone who has two weeks off whereas I have two days each week. Not fair is it?

Anyway I'll do my best to keep up with my DT work as well as a bit of visiting.

Thanks for looking and have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing.

Why did I start this........?

I often think that! I used to give my great nieces and nephews and latterly my grandkids too a book token every Christmas. Now most of my nieces and nephews have reached 18 and don't get a Christmas present any more. Only one is under 18 so I decided to make a gift card holder to put his money in. Not a book token any more as I realise he would probably prefer to put the money to something else! So then I thought I might as well make some for Poppy and Oliver too. The next thought was what to decorate the front with after all a 17 year old boy probably doesn't want a snowman or a santa! So here's what I made.

This one is for Lachlan. Hope a snowflake is not too yuk for a teenager. I took the photo last night and I think it looks a bit blurry but I can't get a better photo as I posted it with their Christmas card this morning!

This one's for Poppy and it was definitely blurry so I took another photo.

This is Oliver's gift card and my second attempt at a photo.

I used :-

Flourish :- Corner from Sizzix.

Snowflake :- Papermania.

Images :- House Mouse.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Happy Christmas and To-, From- both inside - Hero Arts.

Glamour Dust, silver and gold embossing powders and ribbon.

I should have taken a pic of the inside but I'm now a little short of time! I'm going out for a Christmas meal with the Guild tonight and I'm picking up my first passenger at 6pm. Our meal is booked for 7pm as some of our members are elderly. I usually take my neighbour but she's the lady who broke her hip a couple of weeks ago. She's now convalescing locally and seems to be doing well. Someone told me you only get two weeks there. Not sure if it's like a nursing home or a cottage hospital but I'm told it's really nice. Apparently she's determined to come home after that. She's very independent. Her son lives next door but he's a busy farmer. I'm sure she wants to have her family from children to great grandchildren for Christmas! Quite a crowd now. Her son looks after the turkey and the girls do the rest but quite an upheaval. But it's what she likes so they'll probably have to agree!

I went to look for a Christmas stocking for Oliver today. Poppy has always had one but Oliver has just had a gift bag. The ones at the garden centre at Inverurie were only £1.25 and really poor quality so I didn't bother. We would have looked in the town but hubby resented having to pay to park for a few minutes so we ended up coming home. I expect I could make one if I had some felt or material.

I ordered bike helmets for them last night after Catriona told me what website to look at. I sent a text to ask which one to get for Poppy and she replied "Poppy says" and she wants the one I had chosen for her already. So who's a clever Gran then? For some reason she wouldn't stay in her bed last night. Not like her at all. Oliver's had a cold so he's been asking to go to bed about 6pm. I expect they'll get a bit high the nearer we get to Christmas.

Not done much with my day off today but at least I've got my cards posted. Some handed out yesterday and some to hand out tonight. I'll take the rest to work tomorrow and hand them out to the rest of the staff and customers and friends who live in the village.

Not sure if I'll be too late to catch up later so maybe I'll try to do some visiting just now before I get ready to go out.

Peace and Joy.

I think I may have become addicted to making Christmas cards! At the weekend I thought I had made enough Christmas cards and just needed to make the family ones. But I'm still making more! I love this embossing folder and I thought it would be nice with some pearls. Unfortunately I'm rubbish with a pearl pen. I didn't mean to add a sentiment but since I had messed up one of the pearls I needed something to cover up the messy bit lol.

I used :-

Sentiments :- Hero Arts and Craftwork Cards.

Snowflake :- Spellbinders Snowflake Pendant 2011.

Pearls :- Viva decor pearl pen.

Colouring :- Spica glitter gel pens.

Glamour Dust, gems.

Embossing folder :- Couture Creations.

Nice and simple and I love red and white for Christmas cards.

I sat last night and typed out all my addresses into my label programme. Nightmare but my own fault since I had to replace my hard drive a few months ago and needless to say it wasn't backed up. I think I've probably made too many cards now! I seem to be in a making Christmas cards rut now though. But the worst thing was that I couldn't find my packet of labels anywhere. So nice kind hubby volunteered to go to Tesco and get some for me. Unfortunately they didn't have any in Ellon which is only six and a half miles away so he went on to Aberdeen from there. After a lot of searching he found a packet thank goodness! But what is it about men that he couldn't just ask someone where they were?

It's a horrible day here. I went to work to finish off the weekly balance and get the papers first thing. I went really early to get it over with as it was icy under the snow and we have to make a right turn and go uphill from the main road. You end up having to drive really slowly as the main road is clear but our back road is icy. A bit scarey in a wee Golf as I always worry about getting stuck and having to ask the farmer at the top of the hill for help. Luckily the car got her winter tyres on the other day and even though I felt a bit of sliding we made it withoug getting stuck.

I'm off to have some soup now. When I went to make my coffee earlier I decided to make mushroom soup so I'm looking forward to having some for my lunch.

Thanks for looking and I'll catch up later.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 159 - Not Square.

Good morning, and I'm glad it's Saturday at last. It's been a long week at work, but then it usually is! Yesterday was Poppy's birthday. She's 5 already, I don't know where the last 5 years went.  Catriona made a cake for her. But....... yeah there's always a but isn't there! Catriona went to all the bother of hiring a cake tin in the shape of a five and making a cake. I think it was a bit of a bother between preparing the tin and getting the cake out of it. Then her young dog stole it. So she grabbed her and shut her in her cage and she had to watch the old dog eating it. I think there was a broken bit left that she hadn't got a hold of. So poor Catriona had to go off and make an ordinary chocolate sponge and top it with a 5 made of Smarties. Heaven knows how we're going to keep that little pest under control at Christmas. My dogs are almost saints compared to her!! 

I used :-

Image :- LOTV die cut.

DP :- Papermania.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Gems :- Hobby House.

Glamour Dust.

I'll catch you all later. Have a lovely weekend and thanks for looking.