Brown Rice and Sandals

Last night I decided to catch up on the Sunday supplements, thought it would be nice and relaxing errrrrr how wrong could I be???

Was reading the Sunday Times Mag (oohhh hark at me with my matching shoes!!) and there was a long article about global warming which I started to read. Listen my friends by the end of it I didn't know what to do with myself............it was SOOOOOOOOO SCARY I almost jumped up and called Al Gore himself ( the new saviour of the planet)

Basically it ran through all of the totally plausible scenarios for global warming based on climate changes of 1 degree to 6 degrees and it is not good. Basically if we don't do summat radical RIGHT now the consequences are horrendous ranging from flooding, millions of people becoming refugees and starving to death to basically most humans, animals and plants becoming extinct all within the space of a 6 degree increase in temperature!!!!!!!

All I can say is early this week I wanted to punch David Cameron for suggesting we go to Butlins for our hols instead of jetting off to the Sun...........but now I am ready to embrace the nearest red coat and chuck my tumble dryer on the tip...........

Genius

Get a load of this photo, now I HATE having pics of me I suppose most people do, but on Sarah's retreat last weekend I met Anita Mundt for the first time and she was doing photo shoots and look what she did - I could weep for I am not photogenic at all and I am sooooooooo chuffed with this. A very big thank you to her.

This was the first retreat I had taught at and I had a great time, all those involved were just lovely. Jools did us all proud again with her fab cooking ably assisted by Sarah's Mummy Wendy.

Sarah, who is pregnant with twins for goodness sake did a great job with her goody bags AND she hauled all her gorgeous stock with her of which I did partake (what a surprise.......) A great time was had by all.

One more sleep to go

Yep I am teaching at my very first retreat tomorrow, Sarah of Sarahs Cards is running her 2nd bumper retreat this weekend and has kindly asked me to teach a class for 50 ladies (yikes!) Hope they like me and don't throw rotten tomatoes at me. I am lined up against the uber talented Julie and Anita so wish me luck. Also it seems my Dad is well enough for my Mum to come along too, AND my replacement crocs arrived so I am a happy bunny!

I also managed to teach my first Photoshop one day course at work this week, it seemed to go well, can't be bad eh? being paid to learn and teach such a fab piece of software.

Anyway, gotta dash got 50 kits to make up for tomorrow, hopefully I'll get chance to post some pics tomorrow

The Queen

Ohhh I am sooooooooo chuffed that Helen Mirren won the best actress Oscar for The Queen, it is a fab film and I just love her she is brilliant. She looks fabulous for her age and the dresses she wore for the BAFTAs and the Oscars were stunning - Good on ya Nell!!

On a more sour note, I was just watching the news (can you tell I don't work on a Monday?) and it seems that more and more of our dairy farmers are going out of business because UK supermarkets are squeezing them on milk prices. I have to say this makes me very angry. We have all got used to paying less for our weekly shop but this has a detrimental effect on our farmers. Did you know for example that the "buy one get one free" offers you see are not being funded by our generous supermarkets? Oh no, many of them basically tell their supplies that they need twice as much for the same price, so next time you are in Tescos and see that they are discounting Veg for the health of the nation, they are probably squeezing a farmer.

The thing is, the "big boys" now make it sooooo easy for us to do all your shopping in one place that is has a knock on effect on small local businesses. I for one am not a fan of Tesco, the supermarkets are all as bad as one another but I really don't like the foothold and power they hold in this country

I could go on for ages on this one - like why do we "need" to buy Portuguese Strawberries in February -they taste of nothing and are addding to global warming with all those "food miles"

CRIKEY!!! Listen to me, I have turned into a "right on" hippy type, and I still can't be arsed to go anywhere than my local Sainsburys!

Rant over

T'Interweb


Golly this 'ere T'interweb ain't half good..........Look what I got from the postie this morning only ordered these yummy things yesterday and here they are today.

Obviously they didn't come together, though if you can find a shop online which sells Crocs and trimmers I wanna know about it hee hee

The trimmer is for all the paper I need to cut for my class at Sarahs' retreat next weekend, I didn't think my little x-cut trimmer cut stand the pressure of cutting up for 50 kits! I have had my eye on one of these MM precision trimmers for a couple of months and since I have probably spent over 20 quid in replacement blades for my X-Cut I thought what the hell! (thanks to Vanessa from Papermaze for sending so darn quick)

And the crocs? Well the downside is they are too small.........but have ordered replacements. I never thought I would be seen dead in a pair of these, hubby think they are UUUUGLEEEE, but I really like them and they are PINK which I lurve. So I am 300 hundred years behind everyone else but hey better late than never eh?

Why Is February so Short?

Well got my Quick and Crafty Mag and the cards I made with Blonde Moments goodies have been published, I hope the guys at Art from The Heart like them. Bev Fletcher from the gorgeous Banana Frog also got published this month which is fab.

I am gearing up for my teaching slot at Sarahs Cards retreat on the 3rd March and quite frankly I am cacking my pants, I really hope everyone likes what I am going to teach, especially since there are going to be 50 talented scrappers there (gulp!) In fact I nearly fainted when Sarah brought me back to reality to gently remind me that it is NEXT FLIPPING WEEKEND arrggghhhh!

Just having a crisis of confidence, when I went to "Stitches" at the NEC I felt a bit like the class outsider , lots of fellow designers were on the big stands doing demos and I felt left out (boo-hoo), I have a "real" job too so I am not really a full time bona fide freelancer and I don't really have the time to devote to the shows (mores the pity!)

God what a whinger eh?

Daddy's Home

My dad is home from hospital, I am so glad. All I can say is don't get ill at a weekend and I am gunning for an NHS Direct doctor

Nuff said, all that is important is that he is home and safe.........

Life's Ups and Downs..........

My poor Daddy isn't well, he is in hospital bless him. Not ever posted about this before, but my Dad has advanced prostate cancer and he hasn't been well for a few days. The bugger was playing golf the other day and then whammo! here we are with him in hospital. He has an infection and yesterday was rather incoherent, or totally doo-lally. Anyway he is a little bit better today, still slightly "away with the fairies", but cracking jokes, in fact he is kind of like a happy drunk so he is on the mend.

I was due to go to the trade show at the NEC today and ummed and ahhed about going with Dad in hospital - anyway hubby said I should go, so I went but felt rather half hearted about the day. Saw some lovely stuff especially from Cosmo Cricket, Sassafrass Lass , Basic Grey, Crate Paper and others, but since I don't run a shop I can't buy any yet (boo-hiss)

Caught up with some crafting peeps, Lynn Martin the lovely editor of Quick and Crafty who has been soooooooo supportive of my designs and I love her for it!! Also saw Dyan from Art from the Heart, Diane and Linz from Practical Publishing and the fabbo Paula Pascaul and Amanda Walker who were demoing on the Kars stand.

Back home now and keeping fingers crossed for my Dad!

Let Joy Be Unconfined!

It's finished - my gorgeous craft room which I started to "do up" in September last year is finally finished and I am sooooooooooo happy.

Check out the pics

Back Home

Well hubby and I got back home last night after our fabby trip. Our luggage FINALLY arrived at 12:45 AM on Saturday morning a FULL 30 hours after we had arrived in Prague, BA rocks, NOT!

Anyhow we managed on what we had till then, so we'll put it down to experience. We saw the sights and have the blisters to prove it. We have had a fabby time

We went to a Mozart concert in the Municipal House on Saturday night, it's an Art Nouveau treasure.

So finally here are some pics...............the first on is the entrance to the Municipal House

And a view of the city towards the castle

The other great news is that my Craft Room is nearing completion, the carpet will be fitted tomorrow!!!! Here is a pic of it a few weeks ago.........

Tomorrow it will be gorgeous and I can't wait to do the trip to IKEA for the furniture yey!

Computer Says Noo..................

Welll we made it to Prague through the snow drifts (yeah right) pity our luggage didn't

Honestly, we got the shuttle down to London and were there for about 3 hours till our connection in the SAME terminal and they have still managed to lose our sodding bags. I am so fed up about it. I have a small amount of make up and thankfully packed a spare outfit in my carry on bag so that's not too bad, but I have no brush and have hair like Wurzel Gummidge. Apparently our bags on now on separate flights at 6pm and 9pm tonight arrrgggghhhh!!!!!! So tomorrow I plan to wear about three outfits to get through all the stuff I packed.

Anyway at least we are here and the weather is lovely, we are on the Exec floor of the Prague Hilton and it is GORGEOUS, we look like tramps though ha ha!

Today we have visited the Mucha museum I love Alphons Mucha ( Mr Art Nouveau) We have been over the Charles Bridge and had yummy Goulash Soup for lunch. Off to the bar for a quick snifter, followed by a siesta and later on din-dins!

Keep your fingers crossed for our bags folks!

Snow Joke

I am writing this from the palatial splendour that is the BA Exec lounge at Heathrow - la-di -da! En route to a 3 night mini-break ( I am Bridget Jones) to Prague.

Hubby works away quite a lot so the perk is he has exec club membership and what a perk! I have had a lovverly lunch and a couple of glasses of Chablis - bliss!!

Different story last night though, we got a text to say our flight had been cancelled due to the weather, but we managed to book on the earlier flight yey! Those media types have a lot to answer for, you would think it was like Alaska down here but no so!!

Soo I am off to do some duty free shopping, will blog more soon!

S'me Again

Ohhhh look at me I am number 68 from about 109, I feel loved again ( I paid a kid down the road to sit at his PC hitting the refresh button all day yesterday, seems to have worked)

It seems like I need to post more embarrassing stories to remain popular, however, I can report that I have not been near a carpet shop in the last 48 hours.

Yesterday I took a trip to see Diane at Practical Publishing, ohhhhh I have never been to a real life publishing house before, felt like taking my coat off and saying "gis a job". They are all reet nice and Sarah and I had a right hoot with them on their stand at the NEC in November.

Well I have managed to complete 2 mag projects this week and they weren't actually too late for a change.

I am off to Prague with hubby on Thursday, v excited and hoping the airports ain't snowed in, typical we were panicking about a BA strike and now that is off there is heavy snow forecast!

Never mind, I am going to take my book with me it's the new one from Bill Bryson "The Thunderbolt Kid" He is the funniest writer and I have read all of his books. The other night I was crying laughing out loud . The book is all about his childhood in the USA in the 1950's and he just cracks me up!

How Embarrasing

Oh my god! I had the most embarrassing moment EVER today. My office/craft room has been under construction since last September and today was finally ready to paint, so I was dispatched to go and look for a carpet. Me and the little fella went to the local carpet shop and a nice chap was helping me, then a youngish couple and and old bloke were floating about near us in the shop and the old bloke says to my helpful chap " how much for this?"and drags my chap away! So I am standing there feeling like a right prat and quite frankly a bit p***ed off. He barged in an stole mychap - how rude!! Now normally I would avoid confrontation with strangers and would then go home and beat myself up for being a total wimpo! But I am thinking "what a cheeky sod, I am not having this!" SO I look the old chap straight in the eye and say "well I don't know if you noticed, but this chap was helping me before you BARGED in and THANKS VERY MUCH!"

The old chap and the couple looked at me for a second and said nowt, so I am thinking "good on ya gal , you finally stood up for yourself". Helpful chap comes back to me and I say "sorry, I am not usually so gobby but that old bloke wound me up" Helpful chap just smiled at me and said "it's OK"

10 mins later and the couple have left and i noticed the old chap is still around.................and behind the bloody counter. It takes a minute or 10 before my pea brain suddenly thinks...............OH MY GOD THE OLD GUY WORKS HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The poor guy was asking my chap for a bit of advice and I tore a strip off him duuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrr

Much red facedness and a grovelly apology followed and I still feel very silly. So I have resolved to be meek and mild and not open my BIG trap again...............................I am soooo not going back to that shop either, I think Carpet World Calls!

CHA

Well I am back from an exhausting few days at CHA and boy did I drool over all the yummy new stuff......................................hahahahahaha and then I woke up!!!

God I have been torturing myself today looking at all the glam US blogs written by celeb scrappers and papercrafters and I am totally "wazzed off". I WANTED TO GO TO CHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOT FAIR - big sulks. I am in desperate need of new stuff to play with but I bet it'll take forever to land over here. I sound like Kevin the teenager don't I?

Gotta admit to feeling slightly, well jealous of the US celeb crafters though. Their lives seem so glam and they all have perfect teeth and lives and it's all so Hollywood. hey ho!

One bit of great news is that the Recipe Cards I did for Craftwork Cards are out this week I think - BIG thanks to Sue and Julie for their faith in my work it is sooooo flattering.

Anyway I am off to the land of nod I have been a grumpy old heifer all night need some Z's

BTW I am getting rid of that bloody crafty blog wotsit, I can't face it any longer boo - hoo

Tour T-Shirts
OK after last nights Nerina gig I got to thinking about the "merchandise" sold at gigs, you know the little stall with T-Shirts, Programmes and other assorted stuff. It's usually got another stall next to it offering financial advice as all the stuff is so frickin expensive. Not so our Nerina, it was all very resonably priced!

Anyway my experience of buying merchandise is usually that it is a complete waste of money. They must pump something into the air at gigs which makes you think "ohhhh how cool will I look wearing a tour t-shirt for XXX artist, everyone will be soooo jealous that I went to that gig" In reality tour t-shirts are worn by people who favour stonewashed denim and bum bags - so be warned...........these people are also the sorts who spend every penny they earn on going to EVERY gig on a tour. This I believe borders on psychotic\stalker behaviour that nerdy types exhibit.

Gosh and I wonder why my blog is soooo low on the "hit parade" after re-reading this waffle!

Nerina Rocks

Gosh I think I have become a "special occasion" blogger. Like I ain't had nuffink fab and groovy to say for a few days but today I have!

Tonight I went to see Nerina Pallot. Now this girl is TALENTED, she is a singer songwriter but this does her little justice she is talent personified. The gig I had got tickets for cancelled in Nov last year and was rescheduled for tonight, was meant to be going with my best mate, but she is poorly (get well soon matey!) so I begged DH to come with and he did me proud.

Soo the gig was at Manchester Academy which is slap bang in the middle of Manchester Uni students Union - I am 39 for god's sake but I tried my best to look hip and trendy with my "smocky type" top that looks great if you are skinny and 15 but I just look "up the duff".

No matter I spent a blissfull evening quaffing Bud out of a plastic pint pot, reliving my youth and listening to the fabby Nerina. You've probably never heard of her, but may have heard her toons - I URGE you to pop on over to iTunes and download her album "Fires (Remastered), no I mean REALLY go on and do it..............you will thank me for it I promise. She is up for a Brit Award and if she doesn't win, I am gonna chain myself to the railings in front of the House of Commons...........cos there will be no justice in the world. I am now off to read her blog......

Talk About Unpopular..............

OK , do I smell or summat? I am now at the before now unplumbed depths of being number 78 in the crafty blogs chart. I wish I hadn't added the darned thing to my blog cos now I just feel unloved and boring. I mean this whole blog thing was just meant to make me internationally famous and a household name, I failed the X-Factor audition ( I kid you not) and now this is just another blow.

I wanna be an Elsie, a Cathy or a Kirsty....................hang on, I think I have sussed it. I need to change my name to end in "e", it seems to be the winning formula, from now on I shall be known as Sammie. Or maybe I just need to write something interesting, or hey hang on to your hats, ACTUALLY post a PHOTO or 2. hmmmmmmmmmmm now there's a thought..........

Saturday Morning

Phew! What a week, what about that wind?? Here in sunny Cheshire there were loads of trees blown over, mostly on my way home from work. I had friends stuck on the M56 for 3 hours not moving , what a mare.

The worst news for us crafters is that Thorpe Park is cancelled this weekend, not that I was going but hey ho!

Talking of crafting, you HAVE to check this video out, it has been posted on UKS but in case you haven't seen it, give it a whirl it's hysterical

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXLIniGz24&eurl

I was cropping again on Wednesday with the crop I co-host with my pal Sarah and she didn't even let me open my laptop! I was instead working on a design for an altered clipboard for her retreat on the 3-4th March. I am really looking forward to it and with 50 ladies to teach my knees are knocking a bit too. Who knows, I could really take to it and I could be the new Elsie Flannigan - you read it here first folks.

Right I am off upstairs to carry on with the craft room refurb...........it's only been in progress since September

I've Been A Croppin'

Oh flip - look at me back at 69 in the Crafty Blog Hit Parade...............I was up there at the dizzy heights of 43 and now look at me back on the scrap heap

Not to worry eh?

I went to my first crop in about 400 years yesterday, it was in "Wozza". Wozza for the uninitiated is short for Warrington where I was born and bred. Great crop hosted by Sarah, Lianne and Rebecca who hauled all their luverly stash there for us all to drool over. Met loads of lovely gals including 2 other Sam's. There was a gang from Anglesey, one of my fave places. They really made an effort coming from there what crazy chicks!

I ended up taking my laptop and DIGI scrapped BOY did I get abuse, good job I am not sensitive. Someone (you know who you are) said "DIGI scrapping - THAT's cheating!!"

It ain't and I love it, and I will soon be carted off to the flipping poor house if I carry on downloading kits etc. My PC is groaning with the gazillion Gigabytes of digi wotsits it has to bear now.

Will post some of em soon