I LOVE JEREMY CLARKSON

OK OK I know - 2 posts in one evening is not "normal" but I have watched a little bit of TV tonight, The TV awards. Jeremy Clarkson won a special award tonight and I just LOVE him. He is clever, VERY funny and I never miss Top Gear. I love his non-pc way and the way he speaks. His column in the Sunday Times never fails to make Alan and I laugh our socks off !

He was so good, and of course I also love the Hamster (with his new gorgeous haircut - yum!) and James May!!!

Although Jezzer is known for his TV work with cars, I also really loved the documentary he did on the Victoria Cross.

He went through nearly an hour telling the story of the bravery shown by a guy in the second world war, it was one of those stories which ol' Jezza is so good at telling. He was saying "and then he did this" and "despite all that he still carried on", and "then, this happened" and "unbelievably faced with such adversity having lost most of his men he still carried on", and "in the face of all this he still managed to..." so you were hanging on every word he said.

And the upshot, the "punchline", the whole story about the most amazingly brave man...........................was his own father in - law. A man so modest that Jeremy did not know of his bravery , a man he knew as an executive in the oil industry was in fact a war hero, who never spoke of his medal. Great story eh??

Stampin' Up!

Well I have decided to take the plunge and become a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. This fabbo company are coming to Europe including good old Blighty on the 15th November and I am a huge fan of their stuff. Although I won't have time just yet to actually do demos and partys I will be able to supply stamps and accessories to anyone who wants to buy. I will post pics of what I manage to create so you can see the sort of products they produce. Check out the online catalogue at www.stampinup.com LUSH. There are lots of papercrafting gals just gagging for SU to launch here!

I am based in Cheshire at the moment - relocating to Edinburgh sometime in the next 3-4 months so I will be able to take orders for both places at the moment since I spend every other weekend in Edinburgh - yey!!!

Anyway enough of that - suffice to say I will still be using other products in my mag projects, which reminds me , I must add more pics of my more recent stuff to my Flicker account. I have just had some cards published in another mag "Complete Cardmaking" with the fabbo "Build a Bloom" set from Banana Frog. This set seems to have been a real fave with a lot of designers.

I popped over to see Sarah of Sarah's Cards on Monday,ohhhhhhhhhhhh she has just had a BIG delivery of the most GORGE stuff, I can't divulge what it all was since some of them are for here fabbo kits - she now does cardmaking kits as well as scrapbook kits. All I can say is keep your eye on her site for the new goodies to be uploaded. This kid has twins and is still doing the business!! She and Rebecca had made the most fabulous acetate mini book kit for the UK Scrappers cyber crop.

Right I am off - our road is teeming with trick or treaters

SECC ............grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Well I was fortunate to be North of the border this weekend, as I could go to the Hobby Crafts show at the SECC.

Craftwork Cards, Art from the Heart and Hobby Horse Crafts were all there, which was great and that was where I said hi and got big hugs from Julie Hickey but to be honest the rest of the show was very disappointing. The booths were tiny and it was very crowded. The organisers must have made a lot of money but I was not impressed! The crafters North of the Border are not well served with this show at all. I don't want to go to a show to see stands selling gold chains or nail varnish - come on ICHF make it easier for the "real" born and bred craft shops to have a real go at selling their wares in Scotland. OK so the NEC is more central and it is expensive to exhibit but it would be nice to see more shops at the SECC next year, there was a lot of cut price tat there this year and as member of the public I do begrudge paying £6.50 for that!

OK this post may not make me popular but I am mad!!!!

Brrrrrrr................

Well we are back (thank god you all say, no more pics of flippin South Africa!!)

We got home and the house was like a freezer, hubbie (Scottish - ahem!) likes to turn down the heating whilst we are away and this time the boiler had conked out. It was FREEEEEZIN'

I was so glad to get home after the overnight flight. I am such a pain when I fly, I am pretty high maintenance most of the time anyway (poor Alan) but I am a complete nightmare on a plane. First off on a 12 hour overnight flight I see no reason why I shouldn't be in first class, I actually feel extremely hard done by when I am not. OK so we can't afford it, it's ridiculoulsy expensive but I seethe with resentment at those who can. Silly but true. I couldn't sleep and as Alex was sleeping on me I couldn't move either. Eventually when I thought I couldn't hold on any longer for the loo I managed to wriggle out over a sleeping Alex and Alan. At one point I was stuck astride Alan facing the back of the plane, nearly dislocated my ankle getting out of that position!!

I consoled myself with 2 movies, "Knocked up" and "Vanity Fair" talk about from one extreme to another! "knocked up" is hilarious (lot's of use of the "f" word though).

So we got home, unpacked then packed again and driven up to Edinburgh for the rest of the half term hols. I have been thinking about all my new craft stuff that I got at Harrogate and so I have packed up my new Cricut and my 2 new carts that arrived when I was away "Zooballoo" and "mini monograms" so I am going to play with those later. I may be posting some pics of my efforts with some luck.I am also off to the SECC on Saturday for the HobbyCraft fair, looking forward to seeing some familiar faces there!

Last Day in Cape Town

Well today is our last full day in Cape Town, we leave at teatime tomorrow, we've had a wonderful time, the weather has been great.

Yesterday we went over to the V&A Waterfront for retail therapy and lunch. After that we stopped off at Clifton beach, well there are 4 beaches in Clifton, and they are all what you could call "the perfect beach". They are ringed by the most GORGEOUS beach houses, check out the ones behind Alan and Alex in the photo. How the other half live eh? Alan noticed that most of them had 20 year old blondes on their balconies (grrrr!) and wondered if they were included in the house price "ha flippin ha!".



Here's a pic of Alex writing his name in the sand.

Later on we went for dinner and Alex has been kept amused by a colouring book for most of the holiday (he likes to colour everything black and we keep remembering the sketch in the The Fast Show where Charlie Higson is an artist and says "black black everything is black!" and then tips his easel over). Anyway he has also been very taken with some teeny motorbikes which I bought a pack of for £1.50 . They come as something looking like a square credit card, you pop out the (microscopic) pieces and assemble them. Best £1.50 I have ever spent and I will be stocking up again on my return to Blighty. Check out the concentration!

Today I am off for a facial and some "me time" at the 12 Apostles Hotel and Spa (hark at me!) Apparently it was voted one of the worlds top 100 hotels so I hope it's good. Mind you having read a review on trip advisor one person said it smelled of "burger king" , however they were from Switzerland and probably have higher standards than a gal from Warrington.

I am hoping they don't "exfoliate" my tan off my face. The big joke at work is that I never have a tan - I'll be smothering my fizzog with "fake tan" if they do hee hee!

I am looking forward to getting home and doing some crafting, I saw copies of Crafts Beautiful and Simply Cards and Papercraft in the mall yesterday. I am awaiting delivery of 2 cricut cartridges and something EXTRA exciting from the US. I have also been given use of a Xyron Wishblade and will be creating some projects using that, it's great fun.

As soon as we land we'll be packing up and heading up to Edinburgh to spend the last few days of half term and look again at houses. Not looking forward to the flight home, it's an overnighter and I just can't sleep on planes at all. Well it's a small price to pay for such a wonderful holiday.

Penguin City

Well here is a pic of Alan, getting close to a penguin in Boulder Bay, it's a lovely place, a beautiful little swimming cove with penguins dotted here and there, I was paddling and one penguin shot past me underwater like a little bullet, it was brilliant.

They are such pleasant little chaps and just sit about quite tame , under the rocks, bless em!

We've been out for some lovely meals, here are the three of us, full of good wine and food (apart from Alex of course)

South Africa is currently gripped by Rugby World Cup Fever, as I type this, we are a couple of hours before kick off, there have been people driving up and down the sea front at Camps Bay all afternoon, posing, waving flags and beeping horns. There is a LOT of money here, lots of BMW's Mercs and other covertibles full of gorgeous young things!

Anyway we are having a Brai ( i think that's how you spell it) tonight, which is SA for Bar-be-que.

OH OH almost forgot, we were whale watching from our balcony this morning - what a sight!

So I am off to prepare for the rugby - may the best team win!!!!!!!!!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears............Oh My!

OK well, not quite but here is a list of animals we have seen this week

Whales

Cheetahs

Penguins

More whales

And these things.................??

Lord only knows what these dudes are, but one of 'em was eating - yep EATING a straw, so they get my vote for being the most whacked out animals I have seen this week. I am thinking they are definitely related to guinea pigs or rats.

So apologies about there being no Whale pics, but believe me, my camera is not good enough to take pics of whales and I had a pair of binoculars welded to my face for quite a long time, in fact an almost headache inducing amount of time. There are no words to describe how flipping cool it is to see a REAL LIVE WHALE – we were in Hermanus today, which is just the Whale watching capital of the world. The weather was gorgeous, the place was gorgeous and we went to the most wonderful seafood restaurant right on the rocks. Basically we had wine, food and whales errrrrr perfection methinks.

We have been up to all sorts this week, we've been to the V&A Waterfront, check out the view...the clouds were tipping over the edge of Table Mountain like a witches cauldron,

After that we went to the Aquarium and saw the most fab stuff including this chap, I love Rockhoppers

On Monday, we decided to take a tour of the Winelands with a guy in a private tour bus, we asked him if he would take us through one of the townships. We were expecting a 90 mile an hour trip through but it wasn't like that at all. We'd seen the townships on the way in from the airport and were shocked, there are huge areas of run down housing and, well, what I can only describe as shacks. You would think that these are just lawless awful places to be, but although there is poverty things aren't quite what you might think. I have no photos, I felt it would not be the right thing to do, I am also not politician so I am not going to make a comment, but it was worth seeing and we did it in a very respectful way.

We went on to the Winelands from there and tasted lots of wine, we didn't spit any out (hic). We visited Stellenbosch for 4 Wine tastings, here we all are

Check out the skirt, a la Sienna Miller about 2 years ago with her trend setting gypsy skirt and vest combo – OK so I look more like I ate Sienna Miller here!!!

Cheetahs do not like BIG skirts,we visited the Cheetah outreach centre and saw the most beautiful animals, but one hissed at me when I crouched down near to it on the other side of the fence. I was quickly told by the keeper to stand up! Here though is one of the baby Cheetahs.... very cute and just lying chilled out right up against the fence.


Phew – a mammoth post, thanks for sticking around.

Taking it easy

Well we are still having a wonderful time here in Camps Bay, I thought I would share a few picures taken from the balcony of our apartment. We have been taking it easy so far with some lovely meals and just enjoying the sunshine

Last night we went to a lovely seafood restaurant which does Tepanyaki and Sushi, we decided to go for the tepanyaki option which came with Miso soup, Alex loved the soup -that kid amazes me, I for one think Miso tastes a bit yukky but he did very well and we had some giant prawns which he loved too!

I am totally blown away by what we have seen so far here, we are planning a couple of trips out in the coming days including a trip to the Winelands and Boulder Bay where there are loads of penguins. Apparently there were dolphins in the bay visible from our apartment yesterday morning, but we were pretty tired after our travelling and weren't up early enough to see them. Fingers crossed they come along again soon.

Heaven

Words cannot describe the beauty of where we are right now. We arrived in Cape town just before 8am this morning, picked up our hire car and drove to Camps bay. We had to wait until 2pm to get into our apartment, so went for a drive about 5 mins away and we saw the most amazing sight 2 whales in the sea, probably about 200 yards off shore. Apparently it's quite unusual to see them here and we were so excited! We just saw lots of people with camera and binoculars and stopped to gawp with them.

We then arrived at our apartment and it is soooooooooo gorgeous, just above the beach with the most amazing wrap round balcony we love it - pics to arrive very soon. The sea is just awesome with HUGE mountains behind, and the weather is HOT HOT HOT - yey!!!!

We're on our Way
Yep we are en- route to Cape Town, yey!!!

The fact that my hubby does a lot of travelling is a BIG drag most of the time - however, when it comes to holiday time we do get the chance to go into the BA Exec lounge. Yey and double yey, I am sitting drinking a loverly Chardonnay (hic!) and smurfing the t'interweb.

We've now got a 10 hour night flight ahead of us (not tooo keen on that idea but it should be fab when we get there.

I am a TOTAL gadget head but it isn't till you get into an airport and you see everyone on mobile phones, laptops and Blackberrys that I realise how gripped we all are with technology.

OH MY GOODNESS, I wish I could share this with you via a photo, but a completely whacky elderley lady just walked by in a crocheted jump suit - yes A CROCHETED JUMP SUIT, in orange , brown and cream....................... how cool/mad is that, I am totally impressed. Even Alan's eyes popped out ha ha!!

Well I'll soon be packed into a seat like a battery hen, sharing a loo with 300 other people so wish me luck and good weather at the other end!!! And hey OH MY LORD JUMPSUIT WOMAN JUST WALKED PAST AGAIN

Aaaaaand relax, if Heidi Swapp can travel from the US to Bejing with 5 kids then Alan and I can manage it with one ( I hope)

I'll keep you posted on our trip!

Great Idea - Not!

Trust me, like an idiot I decided to apply "St Tropez Tan" today so that I don't blind everyone in Cape Town with my pale legs. I was kinda hoping to lose a stone in weight and look tanned before I get there, but it's not easy to achieve such results in a week!

Anyway last time I applied St Tropez, I looked like I had been "tangoed", it looked like Stevie Wonder had put in on and I spent a week trying to scrub the damn stuff off, I was red raw for days. So after this disaster, I chucked the stuff in the back of the cupboard vowing not to touch in again.

As Julia Roberts says to the shop assistants in "Pretty Woman"- "BIG mistake, HUGE....." yep I should have chucked it out, but the dumb optimist in me decided to give it another go.

Well it has been lurking in that cupboard for a couple of years (oops!) and I think it might have "gone off" , I followed the instructions to the letter, but my legs are GREY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Arrggggghhh!

Will I ever learn................erm Nope!!!

I'm Back

OK well I am still totally "cheesed off" about the house thing, but hey ho, that's life, gotta just get on with it and keep looking.

I have had a couple of bits of good news this week, first off I was idly flicking through my latest copy of Quick and Crafty and I am one of the designers listed as a contender for best general designer in Q&C. Aceville hold annual awards for designer, products and shops. OK I know I am not going to win as anyone voting can add a person of their choice but I am still chuffed about it. The lovely Paula Pascual is also nominated in the same category.

The other bit of news I can't really share, but I am being sent something very exciting to play with and I am very happy.

Still loving my Cricut made a card with it the other night but forgot to take a piccie - DOH!!

I am doing some creating today once the little fella is packed off to school and I have dropped the ironing off (la-di-flippin'-da) Wish me some inspiration xx

Gutted............

Well folks the house isn't ours, we didn't win, I am very upset. Was kinda hoping for some good luck, but it wasn't to be. Thanks for your good luck messages, everyone was hoping we'd get it.

Not in the mood to blog today..........................

The Suspense is Killing Me

I think I might take a knock out pill which will make me sleep till Wednesday morning. Alex would have to walk to school and back and sort out his own food etc, but it would save me the stress of tomorrow. Tomorrow is where we find out if we have "won" the wretched house. OK so the house isn't wretched at all, but if I don't convince myself that it is a dump then I'll be heartbroken when we don't get it ("when" - do you notice even more self preservation?). Every time the phone rings tomorrow I am sure I will have a heart attack arrrrrgghhhh!!!!!

PLEASE let's hope it goes in our favour.

Hey ho, as Doris Day once sang "que sera sera" - there'll be others..............

Anyway if you could just keep everything crossed for me that would be super fab and groovy - ta very much xxxx