A little premature but necessary

Well it might still be two months away but when you are nine every day matters.......yes its chistmas.....scary how quickly its approaching - well scary if you are me ut as I mentioned very very exciting if you are small and santa struck. So fed up with the how many days is it now question I thought I would pop by the blog and put up my decorations....aaahhh well at least I will be able to give Ffion an instant answer now and it is a very pretty tree

Shock Horror......a post

Well I'm back and I don't need to tell anyone how long it is since my last post. So much has happened I finally signed up to Stampin Up. I knew I would crack eventually as I have loved their products for so long. I was successful on getting onto my course and a month in its going great, Justine took some of her GCSE's two years early and did so well we really are proud of her, Ffion now has a kind of diagnosis although not much has changed for her and I have learnt to be careful what I wish for....... yes for ages I kept asking Rhiannon when she was going to move in with Ben so I could have her room for a craft room....well Ben asked Rhiannon to move in with him and on the 1st of June she moved out......still at least she knows I was joking because over 4 months later I still haven't touched her room.

The picture is the sky here a short time ago.....the photo doesn't do it justice and it certainly had me running for my camera.

Giving it up for Lent

Ffion gave up gummy sweets for Lent - the Haribo type ones she likes so much.

Justine gave up chocolate - we all tried not to laugh too much - those of you who don't know Justine will need to understand that Justine without chocolate is pretty unimaginable.

I was pretty impressed with both of them and decided I would try and give up something myself... Buying rubber stamps I decided.....Jay smirked a bit....I don't know why.

So it will be 4 weeks tomorrow since Ffion had any gummies. Justine has managed without chocolate of any form (she is saving up all the chocolate she is given in a box and has quite a collection) All credit to them I am most impressed.

So what about me then?? How am I doing?? Well lets just not go there.....the pictures should explain that I have failed astoundingly..... Now thats why Jay was smirking .

I really was trying.........apparently Jay says I am always very trying.

Oh and whilst I'm confessing ......they haven't all arrived yet. LOL

Did I get old or did I just get lazy???? & FREECYCLE and the Rolls Royce

In true words of the Eagles classic!!! I think the second ......I won't admit to being old.

I took radical decisions re: my blog this morning and removed myself from crafty blogs......I had decided this was why I wasn't blogging as I don't seem to get time to photograph and upload what I do everyday.... so now I'll feel less pressured, life will be sweet and I can rant to my hearts desire:)

I freecycle.....I love the idea of being able to pass something still useful onto someone who can make use of it without the hassle of selling it. I do think there are people out there who use freecycle for personal gain though and so am reasonably choosy who I freecycle too.
I get alerts from the local group of offers and wanted requests and I pick these up with my e.mails in the morning. There are lots of genuine people around and I for one like to help someone if I can, the words of my grandma still ring in my head long after she died "If you can't do anyone any good then don't do them any harm". Where is this going I hear you ask? Well this morning I picked up my e.mails whilst Ffi was having her breakfast and proceeded to go down the list deleting all the spam and rubbish and speed reading the rest. In amidst the usual old tv's and video tapes I saw this.
Freecycle.......Offered "1987 Rolls Royce, 6 months tax 6 months test, genuine requests only" I read this several times just to make me certain that mornings with Ffi hadn't finally pushed me over the edge.
It left me wondering as whilst this, if genuine is an amazing offer, a good many of the people on freecycle seem to come from 3 large local council estates - how would they possibly be able to afford the running costs of a Rolls Royce....I know that We couldn't. The insurance alone would probably cost as much as the purchase of a small family car. I would love a drive of it but that would be it for me it's hard enough trying to find a space big enough for our car in car parks let alone a car that size. It certainly woke me up anyhow and I half hope its a genuine offer as I like to restore my faith in human generosity from time to time but I can't get this image of lots of people around here this morning trying to put together e.mails of why they genuinely NEED a Rolls Royce so I guess I'm going to have a smile on my face all day:)

Who Stole January???

Well January came and January went.....I don't know where it went in fact I think I am still there in it somewhere...at least some of my thoughts are.
I haven't blogged for ages but I had my reasons and I think I have now come to terms with things enough to say.
Rhiannon's operation has not worked. No other way to put it really, what should have been the second to last op for her hasn't taken. I think it was really hard to take in because it is the first one in the 15 years since her accident that hasn't. Not sure what happens now but she sees her plastic surgeon again in March.
Having said that January was also the 15th anniversary of Rhiannons accident and I am normaly not worth knowing around that time but this year I think I did really well all things considered.

Craft wise well I haven't done much at all which is probably down to the fact that I haven't been on uks very much. I think I need to be part of a team again to give me a bit of a push. I will be very careful if I do decide to take the plunge though. I have gone back to cross stitch also which I think I will always love the most.

Finally

Well it has taken me a while.....well quite a long while really but here they are (well one but they were both the same) the hanging decorations I made for our lounge at christmas.
We have great difficulty finding anything significant as our lounge ceiling is 13ft 6in high so I decided I would have a go myself.
They are based on a wreath ring and a hanging basket chain. The white fir is from a bundle bought at a garden centre for £6.99 (there was enough to do both and enough left for another one). I then just used cheap baubles/ribbon and bead chain so the finished result came in at way less than £10.00 each.
I had so many comments on them too which was nice. I may have to do some more traditional coloured ones this year so that I can alternate them.

AND THE WINNER IS!

The winner of the airbrush kit for the LIVES cards is........................

CraftyLiz

Liz if you could let me have your contact details I will arrange getting your new toy to you ASAP.

A big thankyou from Jay to everyone who sent him cards.......down to me now to keep the charity card racks full then.

A RUBBISH CARD.

Literally.....This is a card I made for my friend. Why a dustbin? well I have a strange sense of humour and a while ago she posted on a thread on uks that she wasn't bothered what was on the front of a christmas card... "it could be a dustbin with holly coming out of it" for all she cared - it was what was inside that counted. Enter the afore said strange humour... I stayed off the thread and had a template made of a dustbin and the picture oppisite is the result. Much nicer IRL if I say so myself......which I do (someone has too...LOL) the holly berries are red diamante and its all very sparkly.

Whilst I was making it Jay came in and looked across and commented "that looks like a dustbin babe"......I replied that it was meant too.....he shook his head, smiled at me and announced he would shut up then.

Justines comment was to look at it and say "thats rubbish" ......so predictable huh.