How lovely....A Lovely Blog award!

Thank you so much to Susie J and to Maria for both passing to me this very lovely award!



To accept the award, I have to list 3 things that I would never do..so here goes:

1: The ironing....not if I can help it anyway!
2: Sell my body...not even for stash cash (Ha..like I'd even earn enough for a pack of brads!)
3: Enter a craft store, and leave without supporting the economy in some way (however small or BIG)

I have to pass the award on to 3 other lovely blogs...and Im going to have come back to you all on that one...!

Thank you to Sue and Maria, it is very kind of you to pass on this award to me...it surely has eased my poorly head, along with a little bit of retail therapy earlier on today lol!

Sue x

Error message: poorly head suspends blogging...

Another mercy dash to the quacks this morning as I woke up with a stinker of a head...I think it was genuinly close to actually exploding...it sure felt like it anyway!

Thank goodness for magic pills...but still, it only held off for so long and it crept up on me again.

It was only an email which arrived a short while ago from Crafts U Love telling about their free shipping..and the subsequent shopping trip... that cured my nasty head...lol!

Im heading for my nest now, and hoping for a better day tomorrow...

Sweet dreams all!
Sue x

My favourite fives 2010!

Hooray, Im up and running with our new tag project for 2010...our favourite fives, as posted by Tinks over on docrafts!

My little slide show shows my cover (a flash photo, so not so good looking here), my intro page and the first two questions/answers.

Hopefully, having made my little album up front, I will be able to keep up with this project....whereas I am still playing catch up with last years 52 Q&A...but still working on it!

Lee...funnily enough, I didnt wake up in a blind panic thinking I should be at work zapping lol! I did wake up with an evil migraine though....thankfully itself was zapped with a magic pill! I hope promo changeover went off okay and there are lots of brill offers for me to buy on my return to work!

Sparklies to all my buddies!
Sue x

Farewell to Craftin' Crazy :(

Crafty club this evening, and once again there were only 5 crafty folk there...not enough to even cover the rent on the hall, let alone the tea and biccies. So sadly, it was decided to close down our little club...such a shame.

At one time there were about 20 of us, lots of crafting and even more chatter. Such lovely ladies full of inspiration...I wonder where you all went???

I want to thank Babs and Anya for getting the club going in the first place...was that really two years ago??? I think it was. Babs, Cheryl and Leigh-An - you did your best to keep it going, but 'they' all abandoned us. However, hundreds of pounds was raised for Clic Sargent, in memory of Babs' little angel Naomi, and with new friendships made, it was a very worthwhile couple of years.

I will surely miss our monthly get-togethers, but I know we will find other ways of getting together - to craft and to spend lol!

But hey, on the upside...I won the final raffle prize!



LOL!

I actually did some crafting this evening too! I added a title to the beer mat album...and a few gems, but it needs more so I will have a play tomorrow and hopefully pop my first two favourite fives in...then I will unveil it!

Oh, and I made more bread.....hooray, it worked out this time! What a difference it makes when one reads the recipe properly eh!

Sweet dreams all, and have a wonderful Wednesday...with lots of sparkles going to my office chicks as its promo changeover today...and Im not there!!!! My feet are very happy about that!

Sue x

Oh yes...thats more like it!

Yummy yum yum!

Oh dear...I slept through my first days holiday....

...not getting up until it was virtually the time I would have been home from work!

But then, I dont think I turned the light out until getting on for 4 a.m. - I was engrossed in the hilarious rantings of Jeremy Clarkson...so I guess I didnt really oversleep and am not quite as lazy as I look (not sure about that though!)

However, I did put my waking hours to good use and finished making this jazzy beer mat album...





I am going to use this for our latest project on the docrafts forum. Each week Tinks will ask a 'favourite five' question...and my answers as the year goes on will go on my beer mat tags.

I covered the beers mats with all sorts of pretty papers using mod podge...it gives a nice smooth finish and dries nice and quick! I then inked the edges of the mats with a rainbow of colours of chalk inks which gives a nice finish. THEN I had the task of fitting 27 beer mats onto a BIA wire...I didnt think I could do it, but it was a doddle in the end, and with plenty of room for all the embellishments to come! We've had two questions already...so watch this space!

However, I have an atc to make for SusieJ's swap...and as it was pay day today (hooray), I ordered printer ink to arrive tomorrow, so regular scrapbooking should resume shortly...I still have my Christmas album to make!

So many projects, so little time....mmmm....so maybe an earlier night would be a good idea!

I hope sweet dreams are being had by all!
Have a happy Tuesday, Sue x

Are there no limits to my creativity...???

Mmmm...maybe...

Rootling in the freezer, I find a yummy looking prawn ring with seafood sauce. We forgot all about it over Christmas, so goody - we can have a treat on a Saturday night and what could be nicer to go with it than some fresh baked crusty bread.

So I blow the cobwebs off the breadmaker and gather all the ingredients...Im rushing a tad as Total Wipeout has just started and I dont want to miss all the antics on the big red balls do I!

The machine starts chugging away on its 3 hour journey (3 hours of drooling as we look forward to our tasty treats!)

We hoot at the big red balls and the poor souls on the dizzy dummies, followed by failing to win the Natitional Lottery...again (not even a fiver...doh!), and the minutes slowly tick by.

Prawns defrosted - check

Sauce defrosted - check

Bread....oh goody, only 5 minutes to go (that must be worth a photo eh!)



Then....beep beep beep beep!

Only there's something I forgot to mention above :( About half an hour into the chugging, I took a peek in the square window and thought...mmm...that doesnt look quite right, a little sloppy one might say. I immediately knew what stupid thing I had done - my brain had read 1 1/8 cups of water, but my body actioned 2 1/8 cups of water....uuugggh! I let the whole soggy experience continue to its sorry end however, because - one: it would be easier to tip out the result after 3 hours of proving and baking than at the point of realisation, two: it will test the gadget still works after all this time, and three: you never know...it must just work out okay ?!?!?!

What do you think???



Ha ha ha ha!

But hey, waste not want not....its amazing what some fat laden butter can achieve!



Yummy!

The good news is, I re-discovered the ability to make tags so have continued with the 52 Q & A's...okay, they should have been finished by the year end but hey ho. I added another 4 to my collection with maybe a dozen or so left to do...Im getting there. I also made a couple of dotees for my lovely friend Alma who celebrated her birthday this week. I am forever thankful to Alma as it is she who introduced us to dotees in the first place. Somewhat more successful than the bread episode, my crafty makes are shown on my little slide show below.

The BEST news...I am on holiday from work this week...hooray! Maybe by the end of the week I will have mastered the art of tipping just one cup of water in the flipping breadmaker, and will probably gain (another) half a stone in the process!

Have a good week folks!
Sue x

And the grand total is.......

...to be announced shortly!

First a fabby little poem by Valerie, whose wonderfully funny and inspiring blog can be found HERE

Sue was in the counting house,
Counting out her money;
Her cats just sat their watching,
They didn’t find it funny!
Her Dad was in the kitchen,
Brewing up the tea,
And Sue was singing joyfully,
“The money’s all for me!!”

Brilliant Valerie, thank you!

((((((Drum roll please))))))

The grand total of lovely cash tipped from my bottle IS........

£159.36 !!!

Welldone to June (Northernlass) who was only £5.22 out with her guess of £164.58!

And lets not forget the 2 euros, a dime, 5 cents and an OLD 10p!?!

Right, now who is volunteering to lug it all up the bank??? lol!

Sue x

..and Sue was in the counting house, counting out her money...

Four years and eight months...and at last my big fat whisky bottle was FULL!



...which is just aswell, as that 'rainy day' has arrived both physically and metaphorically, and my bank account is in dire need of a sharp intake of cash! In addition to this - the car is in desperate need of fuel...Ive been driving on fumes for miles...yikes!

So, I decided tonights the night for the big count up but OMG...it took forever just to prise the cash out of the bottle.....but I got there in the end...



Piles of 2p's, 5p's and so on...and I started bagging up. At about 2 a.m. I was a tad bored with it all, but felt that I had to keep going as I dont think Dad will appreciate coming down to pennies all over the living room floor! I bagged up a bit more, but by 3 a.m. I really had had enough...so have sorted all the cash into denominations and heaped it all in the cats bed - sorry Bubbles & Daisy - I will carry on tomorrow! Its looking good though, and I might have a good bit left over after filling the car with petrol....though how Tescos will react to forty odd quid in pennies Im not sure...lol! Mmmm...I dont think even I have the nerve to do that!

Anyway...who wants to have a guess at the grand total? We are talking 1p's, 2p's, 5p's, 10p's...just a few 20p's, 2 £1 coins and 1 50p...if that helps lol!

Normal blogging, with some actual crafting projects will resume over the weekend!

Have a great one!
Sue x

ps: Oh, and how did oddments of foreign money, a button and a punched out flower end up in my bottle???

Ooops...I forgot to show you my buttons!!!

Foof A La!


Sue x

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow....NO MORE!!!

Its been 'a bit of a week' one way and another, which started off rather grotty but ended on rather a high it has to be said...

Monday brought me the migraine from hell - it had been brewing all weekend but then went into turbo charge...and I had run out of magic pills...sigh! We all know what that means - I have to run the gauntlet with the doctors receptionist to attempt to get a speedy prescription...double sigh! I fell at the first hurdle - 48 hours she says, and thems are the rules...what is it with these people??? But, the following morning - as I faced a complete waste of my day off, I rang the surgery to beg for mercy..this time, not only did I get straight through to the surgery (unheard of when they have just opened), but I got 'the nice one'...the lady who felt my pain and assured me that my prescription WAS indeed available and I could nip over there straight away...phew!

I finished my cuppa, threw my clothes on and headed out into the frosty air...I didnt care, I NEEDED my drugs!

Feeling slightly better already, I happily picked up my passport to a pain-free day and ventured to the Lloyds chemist on site. Now..Im usually made of sterner stuff, and can resist all their attempts to sell me gadgets they wonder how I live without...ie: pedometers, heart rate monitors and the like...but this time they had me - they had a post-Christmas CLEARANCE section!!!

I sat for some minutes ignoring these shelves...well, only peeping at them with one eye, but Im sure they make sure that the time you wait for your prescription to be filled, is long enough for you to be sucked in...and so I was...

Picking up a digital thermometer on the way, I 'hit the sales', and picked up a delightfully sparkly pink travel clock (???)

Here it is, only £3...how could I resist! lol!



Good grief....!

Anyway, they must have realised that that was all they were going to make out of me, and finally handed me my drugs. I sat in the car and popped a magic pill before heading home, and indeed by the time I got home, I was well on the road to recovery...yay!

So that brings us to Wednesday - its an early start at work (6 am) as its promo changeover day - this means us audit girls zapping a squillion price changes before the shop opens...sometimes we even manage that! But not on this occasion...as the world was white and the roads were grim...yikes!

One good point was, I had popped a screen cosy on the car, so the snow clearing process was a whole lot easier...but the sights I saw on the way to work boggled my mind! The best was the car sitting on top of the central reservation barrier - I have no idea how he (and it was bound to have been a he) managed that, snow or no snow!!! This was followed by cars spinning their wheels and attempted to skid into me...but onwards I went at 20mph without so much as a wobble - woman driver see, we are perfect lol! I picked up our Ella on the way, and although a little late..we got stuck into that zapping and just about finished by the time it was home time!

Here is the lovely view from our office window..we are very lucky to overlook the Rec and it is so pretty...



But of course all this white loveliness starts to melt, then decides to freeze solid by the following morning - its a snow day for me, the roads are treacherous!

Luckily, on the way out of work on the Wednesday, I purchased a few essentials to keep me going if stranded....



Yummy yum yum!

This was a funny old day...despite being up really really early, and being stuck indoors, I seemed to get nothing done. BUT...the best news of the week - my Sizzix order showed up - 22 gorgeous dies...look and drool:










Phew...lots of lovely things to play with there! A big thank you to the DHL man who parked at the end of the road and walked down to me...good on ya!

Friday it was back to work...it was fine once I got out of the estate, you just have to hope no-one else is around to skid into, or into you on the way out...very slowly does it!

So here I am having survived my week...and Im wondering if it would be pushing my luck to head to the Colemans Warehouse in the mornning...they HAVE A SALE ON!!!!!

What do you think....?

Have a very peaceful, safe and happy weekend!
Sue x

Oh crumbs....one wrong click....

...and I deleted my favourite blogs list..ooops! Ive managed to find a few..by pinching them from others favourites lists, but if you are missing - please dont think I have cut you off without a penny - let me know, then I can pop you back on!

Thanks!
Sue x

Told ya!

ha ha ha!

Sue x

Size DOES matter you know.....!

There comes a time in your life when you wonder why! 'Why what?' you may ask....well, let me tell you. WHY oh WHY do I take photos of loo rolls, funny shaped vegetables, normal shaped vegetables, ie: sprouts, every single piece of stash I buy (and thats a lot!), every single flower and leaf in the garden (through the seasons), cats sleeping, cats awake, cats doing nothing particularly interesting at all.....ditto dogs.....my dinner, things I love, things I hate, messy spaces, tidy spaces, the time on the clock, the tv, and even the pc screen at times.....and oh so many more things????

That time has come, as I attempt to transfer millions of these 'interesting' photos from my pc....which is threatening to die just because we had one or three power cuts today, onto my laptop using only a 65MB MEMORY STICK!!! [Correction - 64MB...silly twit...and that 1MB makes ALL the difference!] Good grief...I think I might just expire before the pc does! Do they even make such small memory sticks any more...I very much doubt it!?! It will only take about 20 photos at a time...and that will only cover one session of painting my fingers nails, or at a push...one weeks stash - what use is that!

I found to my horror that I hadnt backed up my wonderful and irreplacable photo collection since October 2007.....a lot of flowers have grown, died and grown again since then, and the mind boggles to how much stash has been photographed in that space of time (what with being led totally astray by the dc girls!)!!!

So the mission commenced at 6pm....and by 12 midnight..yes, thats midnight, I had only gone back as far as August 09...sigh!

At that point my brain had no choice but to think 'sod it', I will risk turning the pc off and hoping for the best tomorrow....when I have headed out to the shops to buy myself a bigger fatter memory stick!

I shall probably take a photo of that too!

Have a happy Sunday folks!
Sue x

So...how did you celebrate New Years Day?

I celebrated by cataloguing my loo roll collection..yay!



They were taking over the house!



Lurking in my bedroom, all around the Emporium and under piles of bits...





Ah...but no more, they have now all been squished in the Big Kick and are now ready to be transformed into things of beauty!

Whilst saving space, I attended to a most important task...making room for all those new Sizzix dies which I hope and pray will be winging their way to me next week!




Just check out all that wall space..mmm...it will be wall to wall Sizzix very shortly! Those who know me well will be aware that this is not my full die collection...I confess to being somewhat of an addict, but these are my most-used ones which I keep close to hand...I really must rootle through all the others as Im sure I have forgotten some good ones tucked in drawers, bags and boxes!

It was indeed my first experience of a Sizzix sale a couple or so years ago which set me on the path of stash buying on a large [and it could be said out-of-control] scale. They have such bargains, one just has to stock up...then of course you need paper and card to use them on, albums and wotnot to fill with all your dies....and very much so on! Thats the theory anyway...my motto is - they dont eat anything, and Im sure they will all come in handy one day!

I managed a little crafting too, as it is my resolution this year to actually USE some of this mountain of stash! Having collected a years worth of beautiful calendar pages from Kate, I cut off all the appointments and am creating a BIA album with Kates beautiful artwork...it is in progress...



Day one of 2010 and all is well...I hope you all had a good day too, with many more crafty days to come!

Thank you for popping by my lovelies!

Sue x

Festive fun at Chez Bubbles

Okay...lets backtrack a bit...my posts are a tad topsy turvy..just like me!

Having welcomed in the new year, I look back on December and Christmas time at our house. I give you a Wordle and a slide show - sprouts and all!

Righty, thats Christmas out of the way...once again, I wish you all a happy new year! May 2010 brings us all lots of happiness...and of course - oodles of stash!

Hugs & sparkles, Sue xxx

Wishing all my buddies a Very Happy New Year!

Hugs & sparkles, Sue xxx