Vacation: Day One

So the first day of my break from zapping is drawing to a close....although technically my body clock thinks its probably only about dinner time - due a bit of a late start to the day....a very late start! I was SO cosy in my princess and the pea bed when I hear Dad shouting up the stairs...'you moving, times getting on!' Tut...it was only about 12.30 for goodness sake, but he had a docs appointment at 1.30, and despite the surgery being only about 10 minutes away, he was getting panicky that we wouldnt get there in time!

I guess he had a point as it would take a cuppa or two to bring me round, but still....Im on HOLIDAY, I dont want to be rushing around thank you very much!

Normally he would take himself off to the docs, but I had to go along as I had to beg the gestapo on the desk for an appointment for myself....AND we had the delights of shopping on the way home.....aaaaggghhh.......on a Friday - in the school holidays.....aaaaagggghhh! What a mare!

Due to my late start and my dodgy hip, I had to ask Dad to drive....not that he was going to let me drive anyway after pointing out what a terrible driver I was the other day (???????), so of course I had to get suitably attired for the experience....

lol!

Anyway, after the white knuckle ride of Dads driving, and tescos during the school holidays - I found that I needed a little lie down....and an extra pill!

Speaking of which, I just had to take a pill but you have to take them 'with food'....does a French Fancy count? I do hope so ;)

I made the error of logging into my various enterprises on facebook and therefore have got nothing else done today - I do hope this is just a phase that Im going through which will wear off soon although I sense its going to take some willpower to break the habit...sigh!

I had a good natter with our Lesley who has been on her hols for two weeks. We compared ailments, as you do, and made tentative plans to head for Colemans tomorrow...hip allowing of course. Netty if you are looking in...I think we are kind of aiming for between 11-12 so look out for me - I will be the limping one, probably wearing white trousers...as usual lol! I wonder what scrummy goodies they will have in store for us tomorrow?!?

Well, I guess I'd better head back to my nest or the morning will once again pass me by!

Have a great weekend folks!
Sue x

Hello from the house of pain....!

If there was an Olympic sport for moaning and groaning, me and my Dad would be fighting over gold - what a pathetic pair we are! If its not my Dad groaning 'Ooo me back' every single time he moves, its me grimacing (not only at all his moaning!) as I limp around the place with my sore hip! I am literally rattling with medication, none of which is making a jot of difference...sigh!

Martyr that I am, I have turned up to work each day this week...not that I have been much use, but I hope that getting the morning bits done and the urgent zapping was better than nothing - and I have to thank Lee, Ella & Alison for picking up where I prematurely left off each day...thank you! I think I only saw the week out as I knew that I had two weeks holiday coming....and hooray that day is here...phew!

Fingers crossed a good rest, and probably another visit with the quack will sort things out....it HAS to - Im not ready for my zimmer frame yet!

On the bright side, postie has been very kind to me this week...bringing me not one, but two parcels from cuttingedge - well, there is always something else one NEEDS, and I have started to play with my new goodies...thats a work in progress so all will be revealed later. I also had a couple of mags in the door - Papercraft Inspirations which is particularly good this time, and Scrapbooking Magazine, which is always good! Lots of inspiration there which will hopefully fire up my mojo during these next two weeks, as the best news is - the comfiest place for me to sit is in my emporium chair!

A little update of the 'bug' project....mmmm....it has currently been abandoned with the components hanging in my emporium tree waiting for some life support...



Look at the state of them...the middle one is fine and dandy, but the other two refuse to hang the right way up...doh! They turned out so beautiful - I worked them both sides so that they could hang as a mobile....but not wonky like this! I will have to have a re-think and turn them into something else I guess....

I have to confess this week that despite protesting that 'I am NOT getting involved!', I have been sucked in hook line and sinker to various games on Facebook! Those minx's Gina and Green Tea badgered me something rotten....'all you have to do is agree to be a neighbour' they said, 'you dont have to actually play'.... Yeah well, the next thing I know, Im fitting flowery walls into my cafe and have saved hard so that I could have nice pretty tables with gingham table clothes, I have a pet called Muffin who has a kitchen that I am going to transform into a thing of beauty (as long as I can persuade enough people to become neighbours..lol...and raise enough coins!), AND most recently a shop which needs stocking up every minute of the day.....and Im exhausted with it all! I lie in bed at night worrying that I might not get up in time before my pumpkin pie spoils.....and the worst thing of all is.....I KNEW it would be like this...lol!

Hey ho...lets hope I can tear myself away from all those shenanigans and do something crafty for the next fortnight!

You take care all, until next time....

Sue x

The Princess and the Pea....thats me....

....but more about that in a bit!

Firstly an update on my jippy hip. The very good news this week was that my bloods came back clear of a variety of diseases. The bad news is that my hip doesnt believe it and still hurts...silly hip! Try as I might, I couldnt wrestle some super steroids from my doc with the bloods being good, so I have been given some anti-inflammatories instead. Day one, and I am feeling decidedly woozy...but am still going up the stairs on all fours! However, its very early days and Im hopeful that a restful weekend will sort me out...and I only have one more week of zapping then I really can rest up for a fortnight which will hopefully see off the hobbling and crawling up the stairs! If not, I am going to be sent to a specialist...gulp!

Of course the very best news this week is that it was PAY DAY...and we know what that means...get the 'buy now' finger at the ready and get busy busy busy! lol! Im sure Cuttingedge Crafts are waiting with a package addressed ready for me during the last week in every month, as that is always my first port of call. There are some new fabby dies out which I simply had to have - phrases like hugs, hello and thanks...and another background shape, plus, while I was about it, some Marianne dies (flowers & fancy leaves) and a cupcake chipboard album just to pad the parcel out a bit! I will look forward to that little lot turning up...scrummy!

Before I could do the online shopping however, I had to check that we had indeed been paid (where was your txt Lee???) I had to nip to the docs for my prescription so I diverted to Weston Favell on the way home and had a good old mooch about. I got myself a beautiful shirt in New Look - amazingly they did have something in my BIG size...usually they appear to sell clothes for dolls!!! I will be wearing that tomorrow evening as my son Jamie is taking me out for a meal...nice!

Then I thought I would nip in Tescos for a sheet for my bed. I was very much in need of this as I am such a fidget that my feet made a hole in my bottom sheet which grew and grew until it was a right old state! I actually ended up buying the whole caboodle - a new duvet (climate controlled apparently?!?), a duvet cover & pillowcases and a sheet. I did actually pick up a pack of 3 pairs of knickers aswell, but by the time I got to the checkout I found that the pack was open and I was two pairs down...I had been dropping my drawers around the store.... and I wasnt about to go searching for them! Oh well, back to the grey and frayed pants!

Anyway, back home and I put my new linen through the wash & tumble (absolutely NO ironing!) and proceeded to strip the bed.....and this is where the Princess and the Pea comes in...he he! You see, when I get a new duvet, I dont discard the old one...I place it under the bottom sheet to make things nice and cosy - and there are 4 or 5 under it now...so things are mega-cosy! But when I bought a double sheet to go on my double bed, I failed to consider the not insignificant thickness of all these duvets and my goodness, was it a struggle to get the sheet to stretch over the whole lot! Im not convinced it will hold...I envisage waking in the night all knotted up in my raspberry coloured sheet! We will see.....but I am looking forward to sinking into my cosy nest thats for sure!

Craft wise, I am working on a little project using my Tim Holtz butterfly die...mmm....I think its a butterfly, it could be a dragonfly, or maybe a cross between the two? Its very nice anyway and Im enjoying putting all these 'critters' together and any day now I will decide exactly what Im going to do with them (so many ideas!) Photos of course will follow.

Well blog hoppers, thats my waffle for this evening... or rather this morning! Wishing you all a fabby weekend my lovelies - take it easy!


Sweet dreams!

Sue x

Thank you Lesley for giving me my birdcage die back!

...as I remembered what it was I wanted to do with it!



and a little closer up...



and a 'birds eye view' from above...



I saw this idea at Colemans last month, and I didnt photo it...I thought to myself - no need, I will make that as soon as I get home...only to remember that my dies were living somewhere else for a bit...aaaggghhh! I eventually wrestled my dies back from our Lesley - I felt your pain Lesley - but needs must, my dies needed to come home lol!

Anyway, Im not sure I remembered the birdcage right as Im sure the sample on the table at Colemans looked different to this...but no matter, Im really very pleased with how it turned out!

I used good black card for the die-cuts, and small tabs of black paper glued where they wouldnt show to join the cage parts. Strips of paper, and a square made a floor and I folded a strip over the 'branch' of the birdie die to stick it to the floor. For the top, I used a black brad pushed from underneath through the holes at the top of the cage die-cuts and splayed this out at the top - being black it doesnt show, especially once you thread ribbon through to hang. I added some lovely tiny ivy (bought at Colemans), and a couple of butterflies to the outside. Thinking about it, I think the ivy might look nice inside with the birdie? I added large jump rings with beads attached to the holes around the bottom of the cage...and voila!

It was a little fiddly but great fun to do...and I challenge all of you with your unopened birdcage dies to have a go! lol! Im thinking it might look good made with card which has been embossed with Tim Holtz distress powders...mmm!

I would never have thought to use this die in this way if I hadnt seen it at Colemans, I just dont have a good enough imagination. If, on your blog hopping travels, any of you gals come across more natty ideas using die-cuts that are a bit off the wall - do point me to them wont you!

Have a great Sunday folks, and make the most of the cool weather - another heatwave is on its way....sigh!

Sue x

Hooray for the weekend!

Oh my...its been a bit of a week, what with the unbearable heat followed by the terrential rains and winds...and my very achy body that could not zap a moment more! I paid a visit to Dracula this morning (well, make that yesterday morning) and gave at least a whole armful of blood...I am hoping for some answers and more importantly some effective treatment, as its a bit of a bugger going up the stairs on all fours - especially when you have a brew in one hand and a stash parcel in the other lol! I am well and truly fed up of hobbling around at work like a 90 year old and being pretty much done in only a couple of hours into my shift. Lee...you have been on holiday this week so you missed the revelation that I was offered crafting leave by my doc...and I turned it down!!! I must be sick...lol! However, I only have to hobble through another couple of weeks then its my turn for some holiday...yay! Mind you, I hope to have been given some magic pills before then and be back to zapping like a thing possessed!

Thank goodness I at last finished Jamies puppy album...see my post below, so planned to get stuck into something new today. However, I was very fidgety and couldnt decide what on my big fat to-do list to start....so I decided to have a bit of a tidy instead.

Firstly I popped all my stickles into my new 'storage' - its a jewellery holder that I found in Home Depot...but pah to necklaces & bangles...its was made to measure for my stickles...



Neat eh!

Then I decided to tackle the mountain of loo rolls that were taking over my room like triffids by squashing them flat in my Big Kick. They are all nicely banded together ready for some future project...you can just spot them on what passes for a tidied up desk in my eyes...



You should have seen it before I tidied it!!!!

Then blow me, just when I thought I had all the loo rolls under control, I spotted yet more 'hiding' in a basket...



Doh! They can wait until next time...

This week has seen the arrival of the new tele...Dad is a happy bunny now, he can watch his war documentaries in life-size vision instead of mini-vision....sigh! I have to say - a gold star to Argos who replaced the knackered tv without any hassle, despite us having no paperwork regarding our warranty - welldone Argos!

Remember 'the plant that I wont kill'? Well, I dont own the exact one that I was after yet, but I did buy another in the same family...and do you know what - it is looking a bit poorly...ha ha ha!

Wishing you all a happy weekend - Im looking forward to not having to go anywhere or do anything I dont want to! Hopefully I will find some mojo in that emporium of mine though...!

Thank you for popping by!
Sue x

Phew...puppy album no.2 - DONE!

Happy Birthday Jamie.....for June....lol! At last I have finished the other puppy album, and now I wonder how long it will be before those boys of mine will visit so that I can hand them over?!?

See my little project in the slide show below....(Netty...lol!)

Today I learned something......if you dont like ironing.....

....lose weight!

OK I used the dirty word, and worse still I did the dirty deed today...




I ironed not one, not two but FOUR articles of clothing....no wonder beads of sweat were pouring from my brow - indeed they still are and this all occurred at least an hour ago!

It was while carrying out this tortuous procedure that it came to mind that when I last did some serious ironing (I mean FOUR pieces...aaaggghhh!), I was probably a size 10...mmm okay, maybe a 12 for comfort on occasion....and I have expanded somewhat since then...sigh!



Dragging the instrument of torture up and down, and side to expansive side of my size 16 blouse...I felt like the task would never end - surely this cant be right I thought....it doesnt take this long to flatten one blouse...surely?!? But then as I carted my beautiful wrinkle-free garments up the stairs, I blew the cobwebs off the handle of my 'size 10 drawer' and did a little compare and contrast. It all became blatently clear then - for every one blouse that I am pressing now, I could have done two or three in the good old days - in the same time and using the same amount of agonising effort. So in reality then....I didnt just press four garments - as awful as that was....but the equivalent of about 9, maybe even 12!!!!

If that isnt a bloody good reason to hit the SlimFast plan I dont know what is!!!

While 'researching' for this little blog post, I came upon a little cartoon which I couldnt fit into my tale (not quite anyway...lol!) but just had to share with you....



Love it! Ho hum...give it another year.....

Searching for the ellusive 'you cant kill me' plant is costing me big style!

To set the scene for those not yet involved in the great search for the plant that I know not the name of...

It was a couple of weeks ago at work when I spied a very pretty plant...tiny bluebell shaped flowers, only cream...and possibly pink (Im not even that sure any more!?!) Anyway, commenting on the plant to the lady who works on the department, she assured me that it was a very good specimen for people like me, ie: those who murder plants without even trying. It was a succulent which apparently meant that it didnt even mind if you forgot to water it...not that you could see many of these succulent leaves due to the abundance of the pretty flowers. Well..sadly at that time I was financially challenged, as is often the case after about a week out from being paid, so I put it on my to-buy list (along with a few other bits and bobs) the moment I got paid. BUT..by then, they had all sold out and despite great efforts by the department manager, we cannot track down what the bloody thing was called..doh! Ive searched around the web but no luck so far, so figured that a trip out to the garden centre was required...just for a little looky you understand ;)

Well, this morning, having gotten up considerably earlier than expected considering my very late night, I felt the need to get out for some fresh air and decided to embark on my search at the local garden centre just down the road from here. I looked at every single plant they had - getting wet in the process as the rains had arrived (that was rather refreshing though), and although I came very close to purchasing the odd plastic meerkat, I did in fact leave empty handed as they had nothing whatsoever resembling the 'you cant kill me' plant. Indeed their indoor plant selection was pretty pathetic...unless you want a cactus, they had millions of those. Oh well, a failed mission I thought, but as I headed up to the roundabout to come home, the car took me in a completely different direction and headed for the BIG garden centre near town...mmm...the one with the kitty treats and from where I purchased my mother of the groom outfit...nice!

This looked far more promising - they had oodles and oodles of indoor plants, all very beautiful and some probably more beautiful than the one I want.....but not the one I want...no, not want, I now NEED it, I am obsessed with it, and my life will not be complete without it - even though I know, in my heart of hearts that despite what is said - I WILL kill it lol!

However, having driven quite a few miles by this point, it felt like such a waste to be going home empty handed - so what do I do? Buy an equally lovely plant to tide me over? Oh no, that would be too sensible wouldnt it - and cheap! Firstly I warmed up by stocking up on kitty treats...this is now the only outlet that sells them and its awful if I run out - sulking kitties are not funny! Then, I simply couldnt resist strolling over the Edingburgh Mill Shop...oh dear! They have such lovely things, and better still, they have things that fit a short arse like me, and amazingly dont make me look like the size of a house. This is pure gold in my view and you just cant let these things pass you by. So I left the garden centre sixty quid lighter having bought a fivers worth of kitty treats, a skirt, a pair of jeans and a blouse (that according to the label 'needs minimum ironing') - a nice haul it has to be said....but still no plant!

....ah well, there's always tomorrow!

I WAS going to have an early night!

...but having popped a happy hippy pill and slept most of the evening, I am now wide awake...well, as wide awake as Im ever likely to be anyways ;)

I keep thinking....just one more brew... Do you know, I read a snippet in the paper this week that stated that to ensure a good nights sleep, avoid any caffeine intake after midday....what the heck! Good grief, I would rather go without sleep altogether than go through that torture! lol!

Well, today brought the most delightful gusts of wind....how lovely it was to lie shivering on the sofa as the breeze blew the oppressive heat away...such a relief! It did get very stuffy again once the doors were shut, but I have surrounded myself with fans to keep me going while I waffle...oh, and not forgetting my can of magicool...bliss!

The news on the broken tv is that it has been taken away for repair - thank goodness - life is more comfy without the millions of degrees that thing radiated into the room! Im hoping the heatwave will have subsided before the darned thing comes back! Meanwhile we are squinting at the 22", and the longer this goes on the more botox I will need...lol....I can feel those wrinkles settling themselves in for a long stay...sigh!

Before conking out earlier in the evening, I managed a little mod podging of the album and a little play with my new dominos embossing folder. I love this folder - it was fab when inked to highlight the dominos, and then I simply cut out random ones to add to my page - I definitely recommed that one. All will be revealed of course when this little album is finished....sooner rather than later if I can stay off the sleepy pills!

My weekend starts here after a good week at work - at last all the 'out of order' notes have gone from the various pieces of equipment, although the printer is once again doing a good impression of a vuvuzela....is that how you spell it, you know what I mean...those blooming world cup trumpets! We zapped until we dropped this week and its good to know that we are doing such a great job....eh Lee...how good are we!

Ah well, I think I have just about had enough tea so I will head for my nest and my book - 'Buried' by Mark Billingham....its developed into a very gripping tale...just how I like them!

Have a good weekend all, and as I always say...be good, and if you cant be good - hide the receipts ;)

Sue x