2009 was busy!

Ok so I have totally stolen Curly Pops idea of a 2009 recap (it's ok - she said we could!) I thought 2009 wasn't too busy but reading back over my blog it certainly was!

January

We went to France and did a whole lot of nothing, we made a start on getting rid of crap, I finally tackled the Craft Room and made it work for me, we settled into our new bathroom, I made a pact not to go to the scrapstore (hahahahahahaha!), I made my first toy for The Toy Society and then dropped it and at the end of the month I celebrated turning 31.

February

I made a few things, found the alternate use for peel offs, made a crafty gift for a little girl and entered a fabulous mug swap.

March

Was a very busy month! I was in a book, had a sampler made for the kitchen that is very true, I went to a fabulous jumble sale and to some great charity shops, I got a (very dodgy) fringe, I resolved not to go to the scrapstore again, I went to the scrapstore and wrote a feature about them, the girls told me they loved me, some artwork went up in the craft room and I wrote a tutorial about making your own padded envelopes.

April

April was use what you have month (for me anyway!), I made a curtain for the bathroom, made a cute squid called Sidney, did another Toy Society drop, filled a wholesale order, played in my Mum and Dads garden, left a chicken alone in my craft room which was a bad idea, had a commission from Anya and made a slug.

May

The girls turned into butterflies, I sorted some buttons to be sold, I introduced Phillis to the world, I went to my first Fuse Craft Collective meeting, we discovered some pencil monsters, I listed some notebooks, listed even more notebooks and made some elephant costumes.

June

I showed off the goodies I got from the Brocante in France in May, I tided my porch, WE GOT BUMBLE!!!!!!!!!, My husband was fab, Bumble went for his first trip, I did a quick refashion for Tara, Tara turned 3 and I started a mad project (which still isn't finished!)

July

I had a teeny-tiny piece of cake, things jumped into my arms whilst shopping, I love my mum, Bozo needed some TLC, the girls made some teacher presents, Anya dressed up as a Native American, we went thrift shopping in America, I was creative at the airport and my dad is a superstar.

August

I got some new glasses, we went to Skipton Castle, Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, we saw cock man in Paris (just waiting for the hits that brings in!), we went to a VW festival and I finished my first quilt!

September

The price of my gift tags went up and I'm pleased to see they are still as popular as ever, we laughed at the incompetence of the people who lived here before us, I developed a new obsession with a magazine, I opened a Misi shop, we put the door on the bathroom finally (yes the one that was finished in January!), Tara had her first day at nursery, we made jam again, I made a book bag for Tara and developed a new range of cards.

October

Anya had her portrait painted, I made a nappy cake, I went to my first Ilkley Arts Market, two friends went to Australia for a good cause, I wrote a tutorial about how to use Craft Juice and I designed yet another range of cards.

November

I made some Christmas trees, Tara was a rainbow girl, some chicken cards were made, Anya turned 6, all the artwork made it up onto the craft room wall, Anya had a fab party, I made some new chickens I love and I was featured seller on Folksy!

December

I went to the scrapstore again, the girls cooked tea for us, Woody got a little too friendly with the Barbies, I had a couple of great fairs, the girls opened a shop, we got scissor happy with paper, Gramps had a birthday, we had fun in the snow and I had a sort out in my shops!

Phew, what a busy year!!

Christmas day

I just realised I didn't show you what I wore on Christmas day.

The pink sequinned top was teamed with a plain black skirt at first but it lacked pazazz so I opted to wear it with this turquoise skirt instead. I had to tuck the top in rather than have it out as it didn't look right. I liked it anyway! Here are some more pics from the big day.

The girls unwrapping their favourite things - books!

Santa was very good to them (he brings the stocking presents in our house) and the girls got these fab ballet tiles from Leigh Shepherd. They were very impressed that Santa knew they had seen the tiles at a craft fair and that they had liked them! Santa also brought them some fabulous crocheted hair bobbles from Jennyflower and some cute rainbow cats from Quernus.

And here is Matt opening his Star Wars cats from Kirsten at Quernus too. He was very impressed :)

So I went shopping yesterday.......

......and bought a few things :D We were heading into Manchester anyway to have lunch with some friends who have come 'up north' to visit friends and family. We were some of those friends :) We had to call in at Paperchase as they were having a huge sale and I'd spotted some decorations in the window.

I couldn't resist these glasses! They are just perfect for me! And they were down to £2 so a bargain :)

These bauble also called to me - too cute!

And a new notebook for me - I couldn't resist the birds! We also went into Primark and we all got a few things. I only took photo's of a few items though - all of my things!

A new top! I like a bit of bling, it's my inner Bet Lynch coming through :)


And some new hair things - these are staying away from the girls!

Treasury

I've made a treasury featuring lots of lovely birds!


Go see!

Bah Humbug!

This has been the view from my front door for the past week or so.

Very pretty and white but I am glad to say that it has been raining steadily in Burnley for the past couple of days and the snow has nearly all gone - yeah! It means we might be able to get the car out of the bottom road at last (it has been stuck there since Monday!)

A change around!

I am in the process of moving all my mixed media artwork and Aceo's out of my Swirlyarts shop and into my Anya's Attic shop. When I asked for comments about my Swirlyarts shop most people said that the artwork didn't really fit in with the recycled/repurposed nature of the main shop and that I should open up another shop just for them. Instead of that I decided to move them to Anya's Attic where they fit in much better! And just as a reminder, here are some of the pieces that will move or have been moved so far.

I will be discontinuing my 'normal' drawn Aceo's and have reduced them to $1 each and you can find them here in my clearance section. There aren't many left now so hurry if you want one. Some I have already taken out of my shop and they may form part of a giveaway soon :)

I am having a big clear out in terms of stash and of made things so keep an eye out - I will let you know here of course first!

Merry Christmas!

May your day be jolly and bright!



With plenty of fabulously decorated Christmas cake just like this one!

Merry Christmas to one and all :)

Christmas eve 2009

1. Lots of frantic early morning tidying and sorting ready for tomorrow.

2. Picnic lunch with Matt's delicious salmon rolls (we know it's Christmas when they are made!)

3. Snuggling on the sofa with hot choc, Quality Street and some Disney Christmas films.

4. The lighting of candles and sitting in near darkness watching the tree lights

5. Excited girls carefully choosing the right plates and bowls for Santa and Rudolph's snacks.

6. The thoughtful writing of a note to Santa.

7. Lots of giggling and excited smiles as we tracked Santa via Norad.

8. Finally hanging up the stockings in their bedrooms (near the door so Santa can find them easily!)

9. Some snuggling on the sofa for Mummy and Daddy - perfect!

I hope your Christmas Eve has been good :)

Winter wonderland

Lots of pictures of my in-laws garden!

The bridge next to the pond

The frozen pond

The view across the pond and back up the garden

The very bottom of the garden. I wasn't taking pretty photographs all the time though.

First there was the obligatory foot shot (I do these all the time!)

Then there was some sledging to do (whilst getting wet through!)

Some footprint making in the fresh snow

And some chasing of Grandad as he whizzed down the slope! I didn't get a photograph of him bumping into the wheelbarrow ;)

Gramp's birthday

Matt's Granddad (Gramps to the girls) had his 96th birthday on Sunday.

Here he is looking happy to see his family.

The girls were very eager to give him his presents - they helped him open them too :)

And he seemed to have a good day which is always nice. The girls were thrilled to see Gramps too and Tara danced and sang for him! Always the showoff! Anya was a bit shy :)

Whooo hooooo - some evidence of craft activity!

Can you believe it? I was so tired this week after the manic panic of the past few weeks with fairs and orders and madness that I haven't been creating much. And admittedly these items were made during that period of madness but have actually been listed rather than languishing in the 'to put onto Etsy/Folksy/Misi shop' folder I have on Flickr!

Some cute Hippo recycled gift tags - they are cuter in person! I also have the covers from this book turned into a small notebook if you know someone who likes hippos! No photograph of the notebook though yet.

Around the House gift tags (set 1) These are great and came from a vintage word book. There are some great illustrations :)

And Around the House set 2 gift tags - from the same word book as above.

That's all so far although there are many items to be listed yet - hopefully next week when I cut back on the Cuteable posts for a little while! 3 a day this week has been tiring me out!

Teacher presents

The teacher presents are bagged up and ready to go.

The bags are from Ikea and match the lights on the tree.

And the tags are recycled from the fronts of last years Christmas cards and the presents are some of my recycled Christmas trees :) Hope the teachers like them!

The goose is getting fat!

Following on from yesterdays blog title! The other day the girls got a little scissor happy with some white paper and made a mountain of snowflakes - and I mean a mountain!! I decided to use some of them to create a display on our front window - hopefully it will give the postman something to smile about :)

Here are some of my favourite ones :)

Simple but effective!

Christmas is coming!

And here is the big tree in the front room :)

No tree is complete without a Santa

Or a snowman - Tara has a personalised one too.

You need a handmade Rudolph.

And of course in this house you need a chicken!

I tried to get some photographs of the other special decorations but the camera/lighting situation just wasn't working!