Shopping in my sleep, a Plumbrella crisis...and... it must be nearly Christmas!

Hooray, last weekend brought pay day, and after my enforced stash diet (after paying the paper bill and the money grabbing fool of a dentist)...in the wee small hours of Saturday morning, I found myself shopping in my sleep! I was having nightmares that the posties would hold all my parcels hostage, so I thought I'd better get all my orders in before they went AWOL again!

Yesterday, Cuttingedge and Cuddly Buddly came through with new (much needed) dies, Prima goodies...a real treat, and some fabby colours of Stickles! Today, Crafts U Love goodies arrived - a couple of inks, MORE Prima goodies, and some festive papers ready for my dotee doll 2009 (more about that later) layout. Here is a selection of my newly acquired scrumminess:



Sleep-shopping RULES eh! Ive had a very nice email from Sizzix to tell me that DHL will be along shortly with my (much needed...of course) dies from them - you know my motto - one can never have too many alphabets lol! AND QVC have shipped some goodies to me too, but Im guessing they will be held hostage by the posties for a few days yet...boo! No matter, to tide me over until further stash deliveries - Lesley and I will be hitting Colemans Warehouse on Saturday - yay!

In an attempt to squeeze more stash into the Emporium, I had a little tidy up...he he - here is my desk space....


Well...there is just about a 12"x12" work area clear...what more does one need!?! For the benefit of Graybags - here is a better look at the Emporium - just think, you could have a space like this when Lesley gets home on Saturday...ha ha ha!



So...the Plumbrella crisis!!! Last night was crafty club night, and a good time was had by all. I stitched faces....a sneaky peak coming up, and much deep and meaningful debate took place about Strictly and The X Factor...and let me tell you there wasnt a single fan of 'the twins' in sight, surprise surprise (not!). Anyway, I took my Plumbrella layout along for 'show and tell', but now it is more worthy for 'show and SMELL' as an accident occurred on the way home! I brought home the leftover milk, and I was sure it was sealed up tight, but no...it appears my 95 mph down the A45 might have loosened the cap somewhat (!) as I found a soggy mess in my bag when I unpacked it this morning....aaaaggggh! Thank goodness my sewing bits and bobs were in plastic bags (thank you Waitrose!), but the layout was loose..lying up against my cutting mat, which only served to maintain the dampness....sigh! Luckily, the photo was printed onto matt paper - this soaked up the milk rather than the print lifting from the page, and luckily no.2 - it is a distressed looking kind of layout, so a bit of running ink and stuff might just add to it?!? I might get away with it when it finally dries out...if I pop it in a bag with a dose of pot pourri!!!

So, here I am at the end of day 3 of my holiday, and what have I been doing with myself all week...?

I have been sewing faces, faces and more faces! Because my lovelies, it is nearly Christmas, and its time to get started on those festive dotees - yay!



Aw...aint they sweet! Thats the last sneaky peek you will be getting - now you will all have to wait and see!

But, thats my fun over for the week - tomorrow I have the ordeal of root canal at the dentist...groan! When will he finally do his job properly so that I dont have to keep going back - 'you've made enough money out of me, you money grabbing begger!!!'

Just a thought though....Hobbycraft is on my route home..........!

Have a good rest of the week folks, and thank you for popping by!
Sue x

A Happy Birthday to Susie J

Hooray, its Susie's birthday today...and as those naughty posties are holding her card hostage, as promised Sue, I am popping it on here so you can have a sneaky peak..if you manage to get online! I know you are busy just now nursing your poorly Dad and I am sending him oodles of sparkles for a speedy recovery, and also..I do hope you have lots of smiles on your birthday Sue!

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for being such a very good friend - totally supportive in my hours of need, not least by providing me with my sweet little cuddle kitty who has accompanied me through my trickiest of times!

Have a happy birthday Sue, and dont forget the birthday rule...you absolutely must buy stash at the earliest opportunity!

Hugs & sparkles, Sue xxx

Celebrating....the PLUMBRELLA!!!

Back in the summer...remember that...plums were aplenty in the garden, and an invention was needed to gather the bumper harvest. Enter Fred with his brilliant idea...'the big brolly in the hall would do the job' says Fred, and Joe & Kate got busy with said brolly and a long stick. Kate...ever creative, came up with the inspired name 'plumbrella' - what a giggle...one for the Dragons Den dont you think!



I loved making this layout - using up a few of the oodles of letters that I got in my (two) K&Company boxes of scrumminess, and my new WRMK circle cutter...love it!

Below is a little slide-show of my latest tags....one day I will catch up, these are no's 29, 37 & 38....a tad out of order!

Tomorrow...an exciting day - we are going to fetch our shiny new car...the one we were only going to have a look at and definitely NOT going to impulse buy! Watch this space!

Thank you for popping by...and dont forget your 'click a day' - they are worth double through October!

Sue x

A fat book for Alma!

Grab yourself a cuppa and a big packet of your favourite biccies, and enjoy the slide-show of the beautiful pages the lovely folks on docrafts created for our wonderful friend Alma....

Scrappykatz welcomes Craftin' Crazy!!!

Woo..this post is so overdue - this is all about the meeting of two crafty clubs on the 26th September, when Babs, Cheryl and I, from Craftin Crazy popped over to St Neots to play with Sue & Mandy and the girls from Scrappykatz!

Oh what fun we had....an 8 hour crop - an outing to their local crafty store, and fish & chips too - the perfect day!

No sooner had we unpacked our bits and bobs, and spread ourselves out on the tables - 'one each' we demanded (lol!), and we were heading in convoy to Clovers - a stationery store which also sells crafty bargains - SUPER bargains! Thank goodness [says my local newsagent] that I had paid my paper bill before this event, or he would have been waiting another month! [More about the paper bill another time....groan!] Still, I did manage to snaffle a K&Company box crammed full of loveliness, a K&Company embellie kit and ...guess...a K&Company paper pad - each only £5.99, plus a couple of ink pads, some perfect pearls....and...I think thats it!

Having got our fix for the day, it was back to the hall for some serious...I would like to say crafting, but I guess there was a significant amount of gossiping too! I did actually start and complete a project however - a first for me, and this is it...

Take one Waitrose recipe card holder....



...cover it in some delish sparkly Tiffanys papers...and voila...



One scrap-album-to-be, filled with 60 vinyl 'page protectors' and index tabs! I removed the 'stand' and when I can get hold of a second card holder to alter and remove the stand from that...I will have a superb set of fold-out album covers!

My creativity did not end there.... challenged by Cheryl to create something using the packaging from a craft kit that I had 'acquired' that morning - I made this beautiful thing...



...and look at Cheryl, she is thrilled with her lovely gift, and will treasure it always...he he he!



But hey, this is what you have been waiting for - photo evidence of the day! Okay, this may show more antics at the shop than actual crafting, but I think you can SO feel the fun we all had on this wonderful day!

Thank you Sue & Mandy and the Scrappykatz gang!

Sue x

...and a Happy October from Kate!

It is a great pleasure to share this wonderful calendar page with you all - hand drawn by Kate...Joe's very talented girlfriend - isnt she clever!

Thank you Kate, Im am so lucky to be the proud owner of so many of your treasures!

Sue x

I've been at the loo rolls again...!

Here is a pretty slide-show for you - a loo roll album that I made for my lovely friend Babs. Babs is a special friend to me, always there when it really matters - like picking me up to go to craft stores when I was unable to drive, and visiting me in hospital...very welcome after my trauma with the woman and her nappy pants! I so enjoyed making this album - full of optimistic sayings, and on the tags...'friend' sayings, including: a good friend is cheaper than therapy....so true! It was made to wish Babs a very happy birthday, and a happy retirement...lucky thing, I wish I could join you!

Thank you for being a wonderful friend Babs!

Sue xxx

Happy October!!!!

Lots of blogging to do...not least all the gossip and snaps from the fabulous 8 HOUR crop at ScrappyKatz, another loo roll album, an update on the paper bill saga, and my return to work - but just now I have a way more important thing to do - GET MY HAIR DONE...woohoo! Its been 4 months, and the 'dead mouse, mop on head' look has long since gone out of fashion...its time to return to my 'natural' blonde! lol!

So I will leave you with the above halloweeny [sizzix die] extravaganza, which is my calendar page for Kate. Happy October to Kate and to all my visitors!

Sue x