What A Night!!

Oh golly, did I have a good night last night!!! One of my very dear friends is a TV producer and he invited a group of Uni friends to attend a ball in a castle in the Cotswolds last night.

The ball was the culmination of a TV show called American Princess, the final was filmed there. The judges of the show included Paul Burrell , Diana's butler and I got to chat with him about Diana and I can't tell you how thrilled I was. As a huge fan of Diana it was just amazing to talk to him and he is such a lovely guy.

I even got my picture taken with him! He was wearing a kilt, made from his own design of tartan and he explained what the pattern meant, he also showed me his Royal Victorian Medal he was awarded as recognition of his services to Diana.

Well I am still cockahoop about the whole experience, you'll just have to wait for me to come back down to Earth!!!

Back Home

Wow what a weekend, lots of jolly sightseeing in Edinburgh and even a trip to the beach (yep the beach) yesterday. OK so it was breezy and overcast but at least it didn't rain. Alex ran around like a maddie with no shoes and socks, the sea was freezing but he loved it - check out the action shot!

I just love Edinburgh, it's nice to be in a city with so much history and lots of little independent shops, its so refreshing not seeing the same-old shops like you do in other cities. Can't wait to spend more time up there in the SUmmer pottering and seeing some of the Fringe Festival.

Thought you might like to see more shots I took in the city - very arty eh?

Hoots Mon!

Well me and the little fella finally made it up to Edinburgh to spend the weekend with Alan, he has a flat here. If you have just tuned in, the Currie clan are set to re-locate to Sconnie Botland from Cheshire in 2008. Quite franky je is a bit "boo-frickin-hoo" about the whole deal, but I am sure I will love it

The upshot is, Alan has a rented flat in Edinburgh and this is the first time I have seen it and it is GORGEOUS, all Victorian and lovely stripped doors etc, i.e what we should be doing with our own house but haven't managed to do so far. It's quite a small place and I am typing this in a very clever computer room which is actually a cupboard about 6ft from the cooker - genius use of space methinks!

We have just been to Hard Rock Cafe and were waited on by a very over enthusiastic young "dude" from the States............anyway hubby and a glass of Chardonnay await so gotta go .......

Flippin 'eck

Phew (collapses into a heap!) that's another working week over with, I normally work 3 days but this week I worked 4 and boy did it suck.

I am KNACKERED (I am also such a laydeeee hee hee)

Got home to my very first kit from ModScraps which is from the Love Elsie range- Toby. - yey!

I just love getting those pizza boxes in the post. Thank goodness our postie has twigged that he can leave packages like this behind the planter next to the front door otherwise I would have been faced with a traipse to the post office that closes for pick up half past sodding two ( I told you I was a laydeee) I mean what's all that about? Most of the world shops on-line but it closes in the middle of the flippin' day (DOH!)

Off to Edinburgh tomoz, hoots mon! Hubby is working up there and has his own flat for a few months and I have yet to see it. We are off to the Hard Rock Cafe for scoff and a thimbleful of wine (yeah right!) tomorrow night so that should be larvelly.

It's Been A Funny Old Day............

Do you remember that from the end of the "Open All Hours" episodes, I just loved Ronnie Barker and his Arkwright Character.

Well today has been a funny old day, it started with some nice stuff and somewhere in the middle someone was rather mean. I came home feeling a bit sorry for myself and found that someone very talented (who really inspired me to get into card making) had sent me the most beautiful card with a lovely message inside. I have been a fan of this lovely lady for ages and it just totally made my day................xxxx

We seem to have "acquired" a puddy tat, now this kitty lives round the corner but has started to look a little thin and poorly so I have been feeding her and she is such a star. Alan is mega allergic to all things "fur" so she is only allowed "little" visits, but she is very cute and mee-ows all the time, I wish we could really adopt her. I have some pics I need to post, will try to find them and post soon.

What Next - Paint Your Baby Blue?

So I am work today boo-hiss, don't usually work on a Monday so totally had that Monday morning feeling. Anyway I love to surf UKS on my lunch break and it's offline for a server move -arrrrgggghh!! So what to do? I headed over to the BBC website to have a mooch and brace yourself..................another rant from Sam.....

Some berk from Unicef now says that giving babies pureed food is "unnatural" and not necessary, for goodness sake not a week goes by without some "expert" changing the rules about baby feeding. Less than 5 years ago when my son was born we were advised to wean after 16 weeks - now it is 6 months. I give up - what are parents to do???

OK rant over (it was only a mini rant really)

Oh I am so glad that Opera Singing fella won "Britains Got Talent" he is so shy and humble and boy what talent. I really liked Conny but she is so little she's got lots of time to grow and get some more experience.

Tonight I am determined to get crafting again, despite my finger, I have re-bandaged it and it looks like a HUGE cartoon finger!!

What a Berk!

After my creative lag of late I decided to do some "playing" yesterday, so I take the little fella and myself upstairs to my craft room and ended up in casualty!!!

Yep!! I slipped with a craft knife, my brand new cutterpede retractable (meant to be safer) knife, and cut across the knuckle of my middle finger on the right hand. It took me a grand total of being in the room for 2 mins, boy do I feel stupid - added to that I have done it before, making Anita Mundt's "Happy Flowers" with chipboard. The split second before I did it I thought "uh-oh I don't think I am doing this in a safe way - remember last time......................"

Blimey, now I just have to wear rubber gloves to keep the dressing dry, as I have had to have steri strips over the cut.

Anyway, I forgot to mention I went to see George Michael in Manchester on Friday night in the City of Manchester Stadium. He was really good, but it rained alllll night (luckily we had posh tickets in the stand). He sang loads of the Wham stuff and his own and it was brillo.

Changes.....
Well I have been reflecting on my creative output of late and I have to say I have not been particularly active - given recent circumstances I am not surprised but that said I am determined to get going again. I have finally added some of my stuff on a slide show since there wasn't a fat lot on here before. Since most of my work gets published I kind of felt I shouldn't post it on my blog (DOH!!!) so I have now resolved to put my stuff on here once it has been published.

I have been buying loads of goodies lately and I am looking forward to getting cracking with them, but for now, here are some pics of cards that appeared in last months Quick and Crafty Mag using my all time fave - Scenic Route......

Sad......

After 6 years of cancer and a 6 week stay in a hospice, my wonderful Dad passed away today, not much else to say ......

Big Brother...............................I just don't get it

OK first off I don't want to offend anyone by what I am about to write, so if you are a fan of Big Brother, look away now.....................

I HATE BIG BROTHER, I just don't see the point, it's a waste of life, but loads of my friends just go mad for it every year when it is on - WHY?

It's what ? 15 weeks of watching complete strangers who are desperate to become celebs but have no talent behave like nutters in a house, it's just awful. Think of all the things you could be doing with the time spent watching this garbage, I know it's like TV Heroin, once you start watching it's addictive.

Mostly I hate it because it seems to have this "hold" over popular culture, TV like this dumbs us down. There are thousands of young kids who are mesmerized thinking they too can become rich and famous for doing nothing - rather than doing something worthwhile like becoming a vet or a poet or a plumber.............and that's why I hate it, because it robs us of our imagination and makes us worship people who have done nothing spectacular. There are millions of people out there that we should be in awe of for the things they do on a daily basis, not these numbskulls who want 15mins of fame

Well I brace myself for the hate mail - I know I know, what I have written is not very popular so I suppose I'll have to take it on the chin!! Mind you I don't think many people read this anywhere so I suppose I am fairly safe (I'll be out of hiding in 15 weeks..................)

Brmmmm.................Brrrmmmm

Oh I am very excited, I am a VERY lucky girl. I am getting a new car - yey!!!

When I was pregnant with the little fella I had a really nice black Ford Puma which went like s*** off a shovel, but I realised I had to be a sensible chick and there was no way I could get a baby seat into the back of a Puma in a hurry. Soooooo I got a nice little (BORING) A-Class Merc, which has lots of room and is safe blah frickin blah.............................

So being the totally spoilt brat, high maintenance wifey that I am I have been whining about having a new car for yonks and hubby finally caved in and agreed it was a good idea. Well after I picked myself off the floor I started my quest for the new motor. I have switched my reading habits from all my papercrafting/scrapbooking mags to "What Car" and I have been glued to the Autotrader website. I still haven't the foggiest what BHP means but I have finally got a new car which I pick up at the weekend.

We drove to go and see it in Sheffield yesterday, now getting to Sheffield from Cheshire ain't no mean feat, you have to drive over the Woodhead pass which is pretty hairy in a sissy little A-Class and we under estimated the time it would take to get there. Actually our sat-nav was deffo on drugs 'cos it told us it would take 1 hour...........................yeah right try 1 hour 40 mins, which ain't so bad when you are not in a hurry but it sucks when you are trying to reach a place that shuts at 4pm. The air was blue - I was soooooooooooooo stressed, but we got there and loved the car and the deal is done. I will soon be in proud possession of a lovely shiny 4X4 - a Honda CRV and I am very happy.

Is Noah Coming?

Oh my lord, global warming, more like global drowning, what the heck is all this flipping rain about? So it gets very warm a few weeks ago and I dashed out to the shops flinging colin credit card hither and thither to buy sarongs for work (since it was so boiling) and now look what has happened! I would have been better off buying a sou'wester! But blow me I am wearing that white linen skirt and pale pink ballet shoes, even if I have to wade from my car into the office!

I finally took the plunge and changed my mobile phone from BT Mobile to Vodaphone cos (a)BT seemed to have been charging me half the national debt of Chile to make a teeny amount of necessary calls and (b)The choice of new phones for the total gadget freaky geeky I am were PANTS.

So I got myself a nice new shiny Sony Ericcsson summat or other, the guy in the shop said "oooh and it comes with a memory card included free" - Crikey, he opens this "flap" on the side of the phone which is about the size of a baby's fingernail and pulls out something the size of a molecule which I goggled at and then mentally made a note never to touch it, cos if I drop that on the floor I ain't never gonna find it EVER!!!

I settled down for a nights TV viewing tonight. which for me is a rarity, and stumbled on a programme on Channel 4 about "embarrassing illnesses", well I do have a streak of the morbid about me and I am not squeamish at all so I think it might be worth a whirl. How wrong could I be? Suffice to say I am glad I wasn't eating. This bloke comes on saying he had piles, so this young doc gets him to remove his strides to have a quick butchers at them. At this point I am thinking "surely they ain't gonna show some geezers piles on colour TV......................" WRONG!!!!! OH MY GOD, this guy had piles like a bunch of grapes and the doc then proceeds to show photos of some other poor individuals bottoms with even worse piles. Now I can watch all sorts of gore normally, but I must say I have never changed channels so rapido in my life! So my TV viewing is over for tonight!

Got my sub copy of Quick and Crafty mag today and my latest project is in it, I still get a real buzz seeing stuff in print, I am very lucky that they like my stuff and I get chance to see it in print - such a nice feeling

Anyway, think I might venture back onto the couch for some "pile free" TV

Banana Frog

Cool!!! - Bev Fletcher of Banana Frog has set up a type pad wotsit bloggy thang which she has invited her DT to contribute to - that includes lil ol me. The Bevster has also been very busy creating new yummy stamps, forget autumn leaves and grab some of her very own homegrown UK stamps, they are LUSH

The blog is here it's still in it's infancy but should be worth a look once we all get a posting

I have been a very good girl this week and finished my Quick and Crafty project on time using some lovely papers from Sarahs Cards from a company called Collage Press

Anyway not much else to post, off to enjoy the sunshine, and download some classes from the UK Scrappers cyber crop, got visitors this weekend so can't take part but hey ho!!!

Lottery Winner

Sorry guys our huuuuge lottery win and our world tour has meant I have neglected my blog, I am up to my eyes in Champagne and Prada.Just taking a break from flicking through the Range Rover brochure..........................

HAHAHAHAHAHA just kidding - I am still poor, just been totally lazy blog - wise of late so no posts

OK so what's been happening with me........................................

1. Got published in Simply Cards and Papercraft for the first time - yey and double yey!
2. Been to see "The Producers" with Peter Kay (it was fab)
3. Enjoying the gorgeous weather but got even more hysterical about global warming
4. Hubby has finished the deck at the back of our house - AWESOME (pics to follow)
5. Been arranging a BIG party in May for hubs and I's 40th ( I should like to point out I am not 40 till July!!)
6. Downloaded even moreDIGI kits off t'interweb
7. Watched the last episode of "life on Mars" - very upset it is all over
8.Become strangely obsessed with housework (why??)
9. Spent some time at Easter in Anglesey in my mates holiday home ( I LOVE HER!!)

Phew..................so quite a bit really

Gosh now I have started I must keep this up, let's hope I can summon up the time/ brains and energy to get my arse in gear for another post xxxx

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?