Charmed again.

I totally fell head over heels in love with charms and hosted my own swap on uksI made three sets of 10 charms for this swap and now have an enviable charm bracelet filled with the most gorgeous and creative charms. My addiction did not stop there. I signed up to a heart swap AJsstampworld My charms are now made. The deadline is not until 21st of July however the swap host lives in the US. I wanted to make sure that mine arrived on time. They are all made now, packaged and ready to fly. I am so excited. I just hope the host loves them as much as I do.

The theme for the swap was hearts and because I am in love with felt, they had to be made from that material. I die cut heart shapes using Sizzix Hearts (38-0157) using red felt. I used cuttlebug bloom die to create the pink flowers which were sewn onto the orignial heart using red embroidery floss. A little bit of bling enhances the centre of the flower and the entire thing was backed with a plain red felt heart. Jump rings were attached using pink embroidery floss and sandwiched between both red felt hearts. I love the way they have turned out.

Bumpy

I have been thinking about extending our family for a while. Its always seemed like not the best time; now is certainly not the best time. There is never a best time. I just know that I want another child. I am blessed to have 2 wonderful boys but I hanker after a daughter. Now I know there are no guarentees but as from today I have had my coil removed and we are trying to get bumpy.

Scanning and stitching video tutorial

Scanning and stitching a layout using CS3 and other versions of photoshop. Can't believe I've stumbled over this.
Tutorial

Smile

I came across this quote:
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it,
change your attitude (Maya Angelou)
It made me smile because it made perfect sense.

Dumb and Dumber

Yeah the idea was to take my camera so that I could have photos; I forgot the darned camera. Those who know me know what I am like; scatterbrained, should've been blonde etc. Ah well.

The last few days have been a bit hairy in my life. I do hope that things have sorted themselves out for now.

I am up for Jems challenge.(UKS) I will see what I can do.

Nothing more to report except while UKS was down yesterday I made lots of new scrummy stamps. Thanks to Lemon.

Will post piccies later.

Shopping.

I am tagging along with a friend and her daughter shopping in Manchester today. I am going to tke my camera. My friend has had her hair cut and styled, something I've been going on about forever. I cannot wait to see what the new and improved Cheryl looks like. I am so excited for her. I think I will do a before and after page for my album.

so why am I grateful today

I am grateful because
I have a loving and supportive network of friends and family.
I have taught my 8 year old his 4 times tables.
The evening is beautiful.
I have tidied up lots and feel content with my work.
I have a scanned image to send to a magazine, hopefully they will like my work.
I can hear birds singing right now.
I have great faith in God and I know things will work themselves out.

I have a lot more than this to be grateful for but these are the things that sprung to mind and made me smile.

Humph

Some days just do try you. I woke up this morning 10 mins before my son was due to arrive at school. Not a great way to start the day and things just keep getting worse.

I went to bed last night quite early feeling rather pooped. My OH promised he'd take the wee one to school, but then did not wake up. So as I've already said, my day started really rather bumpily.

I decided to go to the local tenants association to complain about the repairs that need to be addressed in my home and having done that felt quite positive.

I decided to come home. I spent the late morning tidying up. That made me feel pretty low as there are three adults in this house and I seem to be the only one who can do any cleaning.

After cleaning I decided to have a sleep. Not been sleeping too well recently with one thing and another roaming through my mind. I slept for 2 hours and felt quite good when I woke up. Then the day took a turn for the worse.

OH decided to go to get the wee one from school and on the way home with 2 kids he was verbally abused by a young lad we've had trouble with before.

What kind of person does something like that infront of two small children. He has attacked my OH in front of me on a previous occasion (the day my brother committed suicide). I am just so stressed out with it all.

I don't want to bring anyone else down with my troubles but felt I had to get this out somehow.

Things could be worse. That's what I say to myself when I have a day like today. so I suppose I should do something positve with this notion like the second prompt for scrapping the secret.

I am trying to be postive and I totally get the law of attraction. Perhaps I can turn this around. I am going to make a list of all the good things that have happened today. Be back later with my list.

Charmed I am sure.

These are a few of the charms that were made for the charm swap on UKS. I love them. They are now going to hang and dangle from my handbag as having them on my wrist is far too heavy but I want them to be displayed and also be somewhere that I can admire them.

I have a few more to add but need some jump rings before they can be added.



I have had quite an eventful week. Spent the day with Cheryl on Monday in Wilmslow and ate Fish and Chips for lunch (that was necessary; to soak up all the alcohol from Sunday's over indulgence at our barbecue). Tuesday I went into Manchester and picked a few cheap things up from Primark. I do love the prices, but my conscience is pricked when I think about how they are manufactured; slave labour or thereabouts. Still I don't do all of my cloth shopping in places like this or do I? What choice is there for consumers. Must look into this a bit more.

I spent a fab day with my friend Lou and her new baby Harry. I think he is teething as he seemed pretty restless on the day or it could have been the weather as it was very warm. I did take some really cute piccies of him. I hope his mum and dad don't mind me sharing.



He is such a cutie.

I also got my CJ back. Whoopee. I am loving every page. My CJ was based on techniques. Each page had to include that technique. The work is stunning I hope you will agree. Thanks to all the girls on UKS from the WIYHCJ.













I wonder what this week will hold in store?

Denim Flowers

I love cutting fabric with my dies. Wonder what I can use these for. Actually I won't be using them at all as they are going off to a swap on UKS.

Antother scrap page!

Finally my mojo for scrapping has returned and we have another page. The picture was taken yesterday. (June 1st) Marcus and his friend Liam enjoyed being out in the country air.

You might have known that during the 1/2 term the weather would be awful. It has been wet and grey all week. Yesterday morning I saw what seemed to be a glimmer of blue sky and thought 'This needs to be taken advantage of' So off we went to STYAL.

Good fun was had by all. I even climbed a tree. Yes me. I am slightly too old but never mind.