oh my gosh...

cha just gets better. cratepaper have new lines of ribbon and crateboard, which are letters! some of the new lines are called...brunch....crush.. and... baby bee.

cropper hopper have come out with large canvas wall banners with definitions on, fantastic wooden crafters cubes...doubt we will get these as they would be expensive to ship, some fantastic stam pad cases from tim holz which hold up to 60 stamp pads and some great tins for holding all your alcoholic inks.

this year is definately about clear stamps.....ellisson have brought out some clear stamps under the sizzix name. fancy pants have excelled again. their stamps are absolutely lush. and so is their large chipboard range.....see more of their new range here maya roads clear stamps are awsome, as usual they are presented in the journey tins. check out skippimg stones for their stamps and storage.

and just incase you havent noticed...then take a look at some of the new chatterbox here ...dont forget to scroll down the page and have fun.

quickutz are....

bringing out a digital cutter which links to your pc.
it will cut as small as 1/4" and as big as 8" tall, cuts cardstock, magnetic paper, Wood paper, vinyl, Iron on transfer paper, vellum...and exculsive digital images that will be available for download it will also cut any true tupe font. rrp $369

now dont get me wrong ladies it sounds fab but it also sounds very much like the craft robo which you dont have to pay for downloads...not that quickutz say that you will have to pay for them but come on we have to realistic here dont we, and with most products converting dollars to pounds this little beauty is going to work out about £369 which is much dearer than the craft robo

more cha news

purplecows have come out with a great little freestyle trimmer which i can see coming in very handy at crops, especially if they do interchangeable blades for different cuts....speaking of purplecows..i just missed their trimmer on create and craft the other daywhich is getting great reviews over the pond.





i like the look of the basic grey precision tool...but would i really use it when i have my sanding discs....i think that this is just too gimicky, and i am very surprised that they havent brought out a boy paper line that isnt focused on young boys.

for those of you who have ancied getting a crop-o-dile but arent into pink then you are going to love the new green one. crate paper have sneak peeked 2 new lines in more detail..samantha and zoom ...i am loving samantha, it will be going into my collection as soon as it comes out lol.

you can see fontwerks sneak peeks here i just love what kate teague come up with...wish i could do digi

cha news

it has been reported on scraptalk that deluxe designs is closing! i just love their plain jane chipboard shapes and i will have to start stocking up on them.

basic grey have today started showing their new releases...one a day for 5 days. todays release is called...stel a ruby and its gorgeous...reminds me a bit of urban couture.



7gypsies are now showing their new products. some have pics and some dont. i am sooo needing those crystal and pewter book knobs....the new gaffer tapes in all colours lol. please someone bring all the new colours out over here. oh oh oh and look at those new photo turns. ooooooh look at the new papers....i need to stop now and remove the drool off the monitor.




oh and look at this crate paper sneak peek.....i dont do yellow....but i could make an exception for this lol




you can see creative imaginations here on marah johnsons blog...lots to see just have a scoot round.









and please please please...someone bring these over here we are just desperate for this kind of storage...well i am anyway. i am just sick of not being able to store stickers etc properly.

i have to confess...

that i have finished shimelles class. it was quick and great fun and i will use the idea again. i concentrated on how i like certain foods.
for those of you looking for cha sneek peeks there are some here on scrapscene

right dancing on ice is just about to start...so i'm off

i have to confess....

ive been stalking

this week looking for cha releases. 3bugsinarug are bringing out new doublesided lines here and new this year are tinkering ink click on the blog link for more news. i am eager to see what 7gypsies will be bringing out this time as i just love their products.

if you like shimelles classes then she is doing a free one this weekend.

ive been busy making stamps all week with my new imagepac i am loving it but dont seem to be getting much scrapping done !

i cant believe this plant is still flowering. i planted it last june and only expected it to last during the summer, it just shows what strange weather we have had in the last 12 months.

i did it...

i finished my christmas journal just after midnight last night!
i had decided to finish at new years eve but yesterday morning i had a brain wave and decided to carry on so i spent all day yesterday catching up. i am so glad i did. i cant finish last years as it is so i am going to start again with a new book and using the same format, that way i dont have to think about things too much.

well its back to normal in the morning, raena is back at school and i'm back at work. heaven knows how we will get up in the morning as we havent been able to manage getting up before 9am all holiday.

right...need to catch up with all the housework and the ironing!

oooh nearly forgot...happy new year everyone.

2006

What can I say about 2006? It was a crap year in so many ways.
It started off fine with Raena’s birthday….the first time she had had a party at home…she loved it and although Andrew didn’t really want her to have one at home he was in his element with the kids and said we should definitely do it again.
Then Andrew became ill in February, he went to the doctors and was told it was a viral infection. I called an emergency doctor out on the Sunday because he hadn’t been able to lie down, he just sat on the bed and now his leg was swelling up as well as not being able to breathe, again he was told it was a viral infection. On the tuesday I had to call an ambulance because his legs had turned purple and were freezing and he just couldn’t breathe. Two hours later he died at the bottom of the stairs as they tried to get him to the ambulance.
The world as I knew it just disappeared, all our hopes, dreams and our future. He wouldn’t be able to vet Raena’s boyfriends, wouldn’t be able to pick her up from a disco when she became old enough, wouldn’t walk her down the aisle or revel in his grandchildren. There wouldn’t be anymore windups…for years I thought he was ticklish under his chin….no more fights with cushions…no more dancing in bed…. No more dreaming of living in spain…it had all gone.
Days became weeks and then months…all rolling into each other.
Then in june Bali our black cat was runover…I was lucky and somehow he managed to survive. Some how during august I managed to decorate all of downstairs.
then in late august came the news that Andrews best friend Malc had died in his sleep due to a ruptured heart valve. Malc had been devastated when Andrew had died and many believed that he died of a broken heart.
We went to spain in October for a week, it was awful. I missed him even more. Then when we came back there was a letter saying that Andrews 2nd cousin pat who lived in Australia had suddenly died as well.
This year has been an emotional rollercoaster….. my health has suffered because of it, I have been in and out of a&e all year because my tongue keeps swelling up, I cry myself to sleep most nights and I really want to get off this rollercoaster now.
Apart from Raena the only thing that I have to be thankful for is my family but most of all my friends. They have made me laugh and cry. They send me endless text, pm and email messages…let me phone them at stupid hours and just cry down the phone at them, and THEY have given me the strength to go on.
So to you girlies I say thank you and roll on 2007…it cant get any worse.

we coped fine...

on christmas day. there was a couple of times when we were near to tears...when raena still made three piles of presents, one for me, one for her and one from me to her..... and when i gave her the present that me and andrew had discussed in january ...tickets to see the show mama mia.
we just had a quite day the two of us, we always aim for lunch at 3pm but never make it on time, but this year we sat down at 2.50pm...i was quite chuffed with myself. i think the fact that we had already talked about what we were going to do and the fact that there was just the two of us made it so much easier...i dont think i could have coped with other people being nice and jolly.

boxing day we were going to go to the sales but we couldnt because there wasnt any buses! and then yesterday i stubbed my toe during a midnight dash to the loo and my foot now has this major bruise and i spent most of the day with my foot up with a pile of cotton wool soaked in witch hazel on it.

ok...

so blogger wont let me post more than five at a time...heres the rest lol.

merry christmas...i hope everyone has a fab time.

oh my gosh

its christmas eve already, how quick the last 10 months have gone.

are we ready for the big day...no...is the house tidy....no...will we cope tomorrow...no.... ive been crying on and off all this week so maybe i will be calmer tomorrow or maybe it will all come flooding out but what ever happens we will make it through the day somehow.

its the little things that get you, like buying your own present from raena, knowing that this year that i will have to mash the potatoes instead of andrew, or the fact that there will only be two piles of presents instead of three.





ive finally caught up with my journal today...please excuse the scan of the 24th as the verse sticks are so lumpy...i'll take a photo of it in daylight and replace it.

everything went pearshaped....

last week, nothing went right. i sent my stocking swap minus a stocking coz raena was still ill and i wasnt able to get to town to get one. i sent my christmas card swap without even writing in it.....what was i thinking!!

i was sooooo far behind with my christmas journal that i decided to cheat, well not exactly cheating, but i am determind to finish it this year and the only way i could achieve that was by scraplifting shimelles! so the question is did i really cheat...no...i didnt, coz at the end of the course i will have the christmas journal that i so want, recalling my christmas...i mean...i didnt copy the journalling just the lo's....that cant be cheating ...can it?

busy busy busy

had visitors yesterday so i didnt partake in carolines cc as much as i would have liked, and ive been informed that i will have visitors again today! i hope to get more of the classes done....fingers crossed. i managed to get jakeys verse sticks done. the first one now sits on my christmas tree and the second one is for my christams journal. i even managed to get yesterdays journal done as well.

these are the last 3 days of shimelles class. i am really enjoying them, much more than last year for reason lol. the tags on the middle one say "presents to buy" and "things to do"....theres loads left to do on both of them! i was going to finish the christmas shopping this week but with raena having an ear infection which has effected her inner ear so that she is dizzy all the time they will just have to wait till next week.....fingers crossed!

just a quickie...

as i am running around like a headless chicken!
theres a cybercrop on tomorrow and sunday at carolinezcrafts ...have fun.

oooh and have you seen anams new venture. its not live yet but you can bookmark the site and check out the blog herehttp://www.justlikesnowflakes.com/

ive started....

so i WILL finish this years christmas journal.

i had visitors at weekend ....less said about that the better.....so i didnt start untill sunday but i am now upto date...well apart from decorating the journal lol.

we went shopping in manchester on saturday i hadnt realised how much the arndale had changed...i spent a fortune at hotel chocolate! the christmas markets were fab and we got some great presents and some fab german christmas tree decorations.

fab weekend

this was shimelles clas for the uks harry potter cyber crop.

more of the classes....

and these are for the scrappad cybercrop. the classes were by marylin healey, rebecca sower and anso