The Real Heart of Christmas Time

We forget forget to thank all of the hard working Mamma’s around the world put in to making it a special Christmas for all the family to enjoy. We al love our presents but behind the scenes is a special someone that brings it all together, so my card is dedicated to all of them.

Mummu’s Nissu by Mo’s Digital Pencil  she’s not really a Christmas image but I think it works very well.

Once my girls were old enough to want to stay at home for Christmas Dinner so they could play with their presents I took over the role of preparing Christmas Dinner and my Mam got to have a rest from it, She’ll be joining us this year too along with Grandson Jack and his mam and Dad.

Before shot

He’s all patched up and smiling again on the post below.

Poorly Jack

What a shock he gave his mam and Dad.

Oh no! Jack has had a fall and split his head, Grans special biscuits seemed to help.

A Special Gift from Katie

Those of you that have been with me for a while will know that my dear friend Katie Renz passed away recently, such a sad time for both family and friends of such a dear, dear lady.

When Katie and I chatted we would often talk about living close to the sea, although many miles between us we would call each other across the sea friends and after the fund raising you all helped me with, Katie wanted to do something for me, I jokingly said to her send me a pebble from your coastline and I’ll use it as a paperweight, of course Katie immediately said she would and to be honest I never gave it a second thought.

Then I got the devastating news that Katie had slipped away from us and her husband Kevin's Mum told me she needed my address because Katie had indeed gone and chosen a pebble from their coastline and given her the task of having it engraved for me. Katie even while so poorly still thought of others.

It arrived on Friday with a beautiful thank you card that friends made for the family to give out and the most gorgeous ribbon bow, inside the card it read “The ribbon from your flowers” these were the flowers that I sent for Katie's funeral. I sat on the floor and wept. Not with sorrow but with gratitude that Katie was part of my life and that both Kevin (Katie’s Husband) and Elizabeth (Katie’s Mother in Law) are still part of my life and beautiful people.

So as you can see I have a fabulous paper weight and every time I pop a piece of craft paper under my pebble I will think of my dear friend Katie Emmerson Renz. miss you Katie xxx

Blast from the Past

I was browsing through my old Christmas card pictures I like to do this now and again and I came across these ones and I thought I would share them with you, the book of tricks had just came out and I made so many of them that I totally sickened myself and gave the board away.

 

Pre2008 Christmas VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Tomorrow I have something special to share with you, I need to do the photography and as of today I have downed my paintbrush and it is now up to the big fella to finish it all off, mind you seeing as it was his works night out last night I wont hold my breath for anything being done on Sunday.

Flexmarker Video Tutorial

Flexmarkers are so easy to use, the ink stays wetter, longer, allowing you time to blend with ease.

This card is one I made a video tutorial with when Letraset were about to release them.

So lets see how they work and what you can achieve with them.

 

Letraset Flexmarker Tutorial

Theres a Moose Loose Aboot this Hoose

Are you all singing along?
These are my little beauties from Creativity Direct, I've only painted one of them up but to be honest I love them bare buff eeek!

Corinthians–Love is Patient, Love is kind

Still in the paint and brush phase, and aching like you know what. Most of the satin wood is finished except the skirting boards need an extra coat, oh yes and as Chris lifted the carpet, Jak got wood spelks in her butt while shuffling along to paint. oh Joy!

So Corinthians love is patient is very apt here at the moment.

 

and the kind bit came into play when Chris made dinner and then finished what I couldn’t do and let me nap on the sofa. (love that man)

My latest scrapbook layouts using the My Memories Suite use my code if you want to buy it and at least you’ll save some pennies.  You could even make the layouts into a printed book as a gift.

My code is STMMMS48868 Enter the code on the shopping cart page At My Memories Suite

Tempting Tuesday on a Wednesday

Oh I’m so behind with all of the decorating going on, The electrician is on his way as I type and then I have a date with the paint paint brush and a pot of satin wood paint. urgh!

My craft room is growning as I pass by it but thankfully I can sit down at my computer when I need a break and still do something a bit crafty.

My first is of the girls with my Mam and Dad, photos took at Hawthorne Dene where they often used to go for walks.

My second page is just of the girls and is a freebie page layout from My Memories Suite and can be yours from here This is just one of the many free extras that you can get when using the software.

Don’t forget by using my code you can get $10 off the My Memories Suite software and also an extra $10 coupon off any purchases made. That's a big $20 saving.

My code is STMMMS48868 Enter the code on the shopping cart page At My Memories Suite

Help!

Will we ever be ready for Santa Claus? we have started on the long drawn process of renovating our stair case, in our wisdom 25 years ago we decided to artex the walls of our stair case, what can I say we were young and penniless and one drop length of wall paper took a whole roll so the cost of a half decent wall papered stairs was just out of our penny limit.

It has been the bain of our lives for at least 10 years, too thick to plaster over the top of and no matter what we tried it just wouldn’t budge.

This year was make or brake and we hired an industrial steamer an my Chris my better half plodded on with steamer and a long handled bladed scraper and bit by bit chipped away at it suffering some horrendous blistered and coming close to death by electrocution going straight through an electric cable.

well all that aside we as in the royal we got the artex off the walls then Friday the lads came in and made good our walls. We are still far from being done, the sanding of gloss paint work has begun and tonight Chris pulled up the carpets while I cleaned behind him, he did comment whilst taking up the carpet that they must have been giving the nails for nowt when I layed it because of the amount I'd hammered in (cheeky devil.)

So here is a couple of shots of the state of play that we are in, the first is of Chris peeping around the landing whilst pulling out the left over nails.

As you can see we have smooth walls but there is 4 doors and frames to paint and a long landing barrier from where Chris is peeping right back to the bathroom, all the skirting boards including the ones that come down the staircase and then 2 doorways at the bottom of the stairs and only then can we start thinking of putting the paint on the walls, We have an electrician coming out on Wednesday to fit 2 new light and switches and a carpet fitter booked for the 16th eek!