Last day of being in my twenties!

And it feels good actually!! I'm not nervous about turning 30 - in fact I'm quite looking forward to it!

On Ruth's insistence (and she honestly made me!) I opened my presents from her a day early. She wanted my reaction to them asap and seeing as she gave them to me a week ago I think I've made her wait long enough!


My actual birthday card is fantastic - I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! And the present itself isn't bad either! They are little notecards with chickens on the front - she knows me well! I'm just deciding if I am allowed to keep them for myself or if I have to send them to other people. I think keeping them for myself might just win out!


So on the eve of my 30th birthday I am sat here in my bird pajama's (what else!) with a glass of wine and when I have done this post I am going to hunt down the latest episodes of Project Catwalk on t'internet.


Cheers!

Well I didn't intend to leave it this long!

Oopps! I hadn't realised that my last post was on Thursday! We've had a super busy weekend - sorted out a whole boot full of stuff to take to the charity shop on Saturday afternoon which was good. And it means we've finally got rid of the boxes of videos that were in my craft room - no excuse not to tidy that room now then! I've nearly caught up with the posts that I am writing in advance for Cuteable for while we are away, as I'm hoping not to do a great deal of anything on my actual birthday. It just means I will be super busy tonight and tomorrow night!

Right another one of my gifts at Christmas time was from my lovely sister Sarah. Sarah and me are so alike that we have been known to go to the same shop (in different towns but on the same day) and buy the exact same shirt - spooky!! Anyway she is very good at buying fab gifts for me and this Christmas was no exception.

I got a gnome book!!!!!!!!!!!!





I love gnomes!! And it's full of glossy photographs of gnomes in all kinds of places and situations. And I also found out that there is a gnome reserve in Devon so if we ever venture that way again then I know where I am going!!!

Apologies!

To those who come to my blog to get their (well I won't say daily) dose of crafty goodness from Swirly HQ. Cuteable is taking up quite a bit of my time at the moment whilst we get into the swing of things and my actual crafting time has taken a back seat. It's strange though because now I don't actually have the time to make things, my brain is going into overdrive with fab ideas! I have made one thing but I can't show it to you yet because it is a birthday present for a little girl called Francesca over here.

I can show you though that my girls are very funny indeed! I was in the kitchen when I heard a loud grunting and stamping noise coming towards me and when I looked up I saw Anya walking through the house like this!

No wonder she was grunting - Daddy's boots have steel toecaps in them! Of course Tara wasn't content to have Anya take all the limelight!


Now I'm not saying that my girls like shoes but here's a cute piccie of little toes in her sisters dressing up shoes.

Hopefully more crafty stuff coming soon!

Thrifty goodness!

When my mum came over the other day she brought all the Christmas presents that we had left at her house and she also brought some of the things we bought at the charity shop just before Christmas. All of these little beauties were in the 50p box in Oxfam!


Can you tell I like aprons?

First of the gifty posts!

Well I did promise lots of gift related posts didn't I?

Meet Mr Cumulus the Cloud - he's cute isn't he?? He's the perfect size for my morning cup of tea :) Hand painted by Katie Tree.

These books were also bought for me by Matt and they are perfect - I love old books, especially ones that tell me how to be a good housewife. Nothing rubs off on me though - I'm still a rubbish housewife! I love the picture below - I'm sure this is how Anya and Tara see me. A Ministering Angel rather than the mummy who makes them have nasty tasting medicine :)


I've also got to include this photo of a proud mummy moment - Anya's first model from nursery! It's a fairy cake maker - as in a machine that fairies use to make cakes rather than a machine to make fairy cakes. I was told off for getting it wrong :)

And who says that creativity doesn't run in families!

Yesterday's outfit

After wearing jeans for the best part of a week due to the torrential rain we have been having in the UK I decided that I needed a change. So out came the skirts and dresses and I decided on this little beauty - whadda ya think??

I love the skirt - it's got a handpainted duck on it - what's not to love!

On another note there will be some piccies coming up of the lovely pressies I got for Christmas - well some of them anyway! My mum came over to see us today and brought the presents that we had to leave there due to lack of space! Matt's parents are over next week too so expect lots of gifty posts from me.

Right I am actually going to do some crafting now - I haven't done any for ages due to Cuteable and poor health etc so I am going to relish the opportunity to chop up some fabric!

The Sound of Music

Oh my goodness - how did I get to nearly 30 and not watch this before?? I'm only half way through but how wonderful is Julie Andrews? And is it wrong to want the outfits in this picture??

Oooooh!!!

I have fallen in love with a pair of shoes!! Typically they seem to be the most expensive ones in the shop - I have a happy knack of doing that - but my feet would love me forever if they could be ensconced in these beauties! Going overboard a bit? Well they are nice shoes!

Feeling a bit better today as the medication has kicked in but only on one side of my face! The right hand side is fine but the left hand side still aches like mad - fingers crossed it will go soon! Cuteable seems to be fine now but Matt had to take out lots of plugins - only time will tell if they are features that we need!

Best go and search for more cute - these are some of my favourite items on Cuteable at the moment. Available here.

Blurgh!!

Ever feel like you are having the worst day ever??? Got wet through on the way up to nursery this morning and got back to find that the man had tried to deliver the tv while we were out despite me asking the lady on the phone to try and do it at a time when I wouldn't be at nursery! I still have a headache from last Friday although not quite as bad and it turns out I have sinusitis which is very painful!! And then to top it off Cuteable is broken!!! Something to do with the php memory we think but Matt can't do anything about it at the moment because he can't access the right pages from work (bloody Government - pah!) and I haven't got a clue! The hosting people seem to be ignoring us too despite two separate service requests - ah well. Today can't get any worse can it???

I should be spending this time catching up with some crafty stuff but my face aches too much so I'm sat at the computer reading blogs instead!!

Cutie pie!

Doesn't she look gorgeous, cute and angelic while she is asleep?

What you can't see in that picture is the huge mess her and her big sister made of the front room just before she feel asleep!

Things that make us happy!

Lynsey - a big pile of magazines waiting to be turned into envelopes.

Tara - bouncing and playing hide and seek at the same time.

Anya - snuggling with her baby sister, playing Cbeebies on the computer.

Matt - snuggling with his gorgeous girls!

Phew - busy day!!!

And I think that is an understatement! I've been busy writing my first posts for the new venture Cuteable which became ours a few days ago but we were sorting out lots of boring stuff before we broke the good news to everyone! I *think* I've finally mastered wordpress too which gave me a bit of a headache to begin with but as I say I think it has sorted itself out for me now. I'm going to be super busy from now on but I will try to find time to pop in on here every day even if it's just to type some random blab - no change there then!!

I introduced the girls to this little beauty today and they thought it was very funny! Not as funny as I thought it was but then I do have the mind of a 6 year old sometimes :)

Edited to say - my husband is a genius! He showed me how to get a video onto my blog - so here for your pleasure are The Muppets with Mahna Mahna.

Ooooh spooky!

This is how my Crafts 2007 photograph came out when I was trying to cut and paste it from Word - pretty cool eh? I think I prefer this one. I especially like the the bunny family in the bottom left and the mod chicken next to them!
Off to bed now - night night
xx

Crafty round up of 2007

I made lots of things in 2007 and thought I would do a round up of my favourite crafty things from last year. Expect a fair few chickens!


1. Set of fishy cards, 2. Kingfisher mini envelopes, 3. Monster card, 4. Jersey chicken, 5. Set of 3 notecards, 6. Congratulations card, 7. Vintage button notecards, 8. Needleful things, 9. 60's Chicken, 10. Bracelets on me, 11. Re-purposed earrings, 12. Paint card gift tags, 13. Henry climbing trees, 14. Price tag chickens, 15. Christmas owl pennant, 16. Glove bunnies, 17. Mod square chicken, 18. Mini Christmas decorations, 19. Swirlyarts Christmas card, 20. Disco chicken

It's difficult.............

............... to try and get organised for a new business venture when your 18 month old has turned into a limpet and stands and howls when you have the cheek to nip to the loo! Oh well it's a good job I can type with one hand!
News about the business venture hopefully coming soon :)

Ideas, ideas, ideas!!

Don't you just love it when you suddenly get struck by inspiration for fab gift ideas? I was struggling to think of something to make for a baby boy whose birthday is coming up (not until June so plenty of time!) but I have just thought of the most fantastic idea! All I can say is it has something to do with these things.

And while thinking about this idea I have just come up with another one!! It's the lack of sleep that does it for me :)

De-stash

Well, before Christmas Matt and I had a huge tidy up of bits of the house and took about 6 black bin bags of stuff to the charity shop! We've started again today after sorting out loads of stuff to go to the tip and we already have another box of stuff to go to the charity shop! I also know that I have 3 huge boxes of stuff in the loft from when I used to be a teacher that I won't need ever again as I am never going back to that job :) I might give it to Anya's school if any of it will be of use to them - some of the games will be I'm sure. It will also give us enough room in the loft to put some of the stuff that is cluttering up the study at the moment!!
As my craft room is next to the study I have been popping in there to sort stuff out too and I have some things to put into the swap group on Flickr. There will be more coming soon I can assure you! Here's a couple of pictures.

Bag of leather scraps

Bag of bits of broken and tangled jewellery. Oh and the picture at the top is the view out of our study window over the park - we've been in the study tidying for most of today!

Christmas time

Picture heavy post - be warned!

Well we had a lovely Christmas - we spent time with my parents on Christmas day and then at Matt's parents on Boxing day. We'd already been at Matt's parents for a few days because Gramps (Matt's Grandad) was 94 just before Christmas.

Here's a picture of he girls opening their stocking presents. In out house stocking presents come from Santa and the other presents come from family and friends - otherwise there is no point in writing thank you cards ;)


Here's a piccie of me wearing my Christmas outfit - and it was all from the charity shop or gifts!


Here's my sister Sarah wearing her Christmas outfit of choice - the Ninja outfit.


Another piccie of the girls - here they are wearing their Christmas outfits made for them by Alex (which are fab by the way!!!)

Right back soon with more posts!!

I'm back!!

From a freezing cold, but very good holiday in France. Too tired to blog now but I'm sure there will be more coming soon! Ta ta for now :)