Disneyland

Well I finally got round to sorting out the photo's of our holiday to France - there are too many to list all in one post so I will start with out trip to Disney Land in Paris. The girls were so excited and to be honest so were we! Matt and I last went to Disneyland on our honeymoon back in 1999 so it had changed quite a bit since then. And we seemed to have picked the hottest day of the year to go there too. Here are some of the highlights - if you click on the photo it should enlarge it.

Anya squealed like mad when she saw the castle and then got even more excited when she saw the shops that line the main entranceway into Disney. We were there with Matts sister Nicola, her husband John and their son Tom. They have annual passes so we got in at a discount and got free parking too. Also as Tom is autistic he has a disabled pass which means that he doesn't have to queue for the rides - on some we could go straight to the front and on others we had to go back at a specific time (he is allowed to take some helpers on with him too) Anyway it made the day much more bearable for the girls as I'm sure they wouldn't have queued for the times that were advertised. And Disney have changed the system so that you can only fast pass one ride at a time and until you have been on that ride you can't fast pass the next ride.

It was great for me and Matt too as Nic and John don't like the rollercoasters but Tom does - step in Uncle Matt and Auntie Lynsey!! It was fab that we got to go on lots of the rollercoasters but I feel old as they aren't as enjoyable as they once were :) We all went on Small World which the girls loved and we all went on Buzz Lightyear. Anya hated this as the Zorg character scared her (the result of a very overactive imagination!) but Tara loved it and was zapping away at the baddies all the way round. Later in the day we went on the Aladin themed carpet ride which Anya loved as she could control if the carpet went up or down but Tara really didn't like it. Matt asked her if she liked it - 'Me did NOT' came the response!

The parade at the end of the day was the highlight for the girls although we had to grab a spot on the side of the road an hour before it started (!) but it enabled the girls to have a rest, drink and something to eat. So all in all we have good memories of that day and the girls want to go again soon. We will have to see!

Treasury

Not one I'm in but one I curated - I called it colourful cute!

I love Dexter the needle felted guy in the middle - very very cute! I've had one friend over this afternoon and I have a different friend coming over this evening so that will be it for today. I'll be back tomorrow though! Hopefully with giveaway details but if not then that will be next week!

Envelopes!

Well I've been busy getting on with some more bubble envelopes - they are quick and simple to make and pile up quickly so it's a satisfying thing to make. I'm envisaging a whole lot more soon but I need to go to Asda to get more bubble wrap first :)

First up some huge envelopes made from an old atlas I bought from the Post Office (our local postmaster sells books for the local hospice and so far he has raised about £16,000) so I try and support him when I can - and at 50p or £1 a book he is a lot cheaper than the charity shops!


And then some made from old Usborne books - I loved the illustrations as a child and I still find them fascinating. These are made from The Word Book - Inspector Noun, Adjective etc etc are out looking for criminals.

And this last shot is to show you that they really are lined with bubblewrap!


These are all for me to use for my craft sales and I'm still thinking about whether to sell them or not - I do have plenty of book pages to be getting on with!

Is it bad......

.....to be eating frosting straight out of the tub with a great big spoon? Feel a bit sick now so I have to stop! I've just noticed too that this is my 300th post so I'll be hosting a giveaway shortly :)

Adipose baby trains for the olympics!

Well we have just got back from visiting a friend whose elder daughter was 7 yesterday. We dropped off the presents and ate some yummy cake so thanks Alex! I made Elizabeth an Adipose baby as she loves Dr Who (as do her younger sister, mum and dad!) I wanted to take some photographs of him and as he had been watching the Olympics with us he decided to try out some gymnastic moves for the photo shoot.

Here he is outside using the washing line as parallel bars - he did do a super spin but he was too quick for me to capture!

He wanted to try the horse vault next but the nearest thing we had was the rocking moose - he seemed to like it anyway.

He liked the slide but decided it was a bit tame for him after the washing line :)

But the team sport that he enjoyed the most was the synchronised snuggling with the girls!

My girls (and Matt) are now pestering for their own Adipose babies. Well guys, it's nearly Christmas!

More post goodies!

My lovely toadstool swap arrived earlier this week from the lovely Patricia and I love it!

Two lovely toadstool pincushions with gorgeous fluffy underneaths and that wonderful spotty fabric on top.

The card she sent is gorgeous too - I want to try paper cutting at some stage but I'm a bit daunted now I've seen this!

And these two cuties were taking shelter underneath the toadstools. The girls have already claimed these but I will wrestle them back at some stage :)

First folksy sale and some new address lables

Yeah - I got my first Folksy sale yesterday!!! Thanks to the lovely Natalie of Roseberry Crafts :) It happened a lot quicker than I thought it would and much quicker than my first sale on Etsy. Here's to many more!!

And here are some address labels I have been working on - I've only done one of each and they are rough ideas at the moment so any thoughts on improvements are welcome!

There are some close ups of the top left ones and bottom right one below.


My favourite one is the top left one and I quite like my Etsy shop address in the middle - what do you think? My second favourite is the bottom right one - I'm not sure if it should have my web address on the bottom instead of just Swirlyarts. The other two were just rough ideas that evolved into the ones with the close up's. Please do let me know what you think - I'm sure you will!

Lovely post!!

Aren't I a very lucky girl - look what was waiting for me when I got back from holiday. A lovely envelope stuffed full of goodies from Lindsey at Ethel and Edna. I'd sent her a sticker maker and some other goodies a while back as she had always wanted a sticker maker and I got these in return :)

I'm particularly thrilled with the Rosie Lee tea bag - she is fabulous!! Anya thinks she is wonderful and keeps offering me a cup of pretend fruity tea with Rosie hanging out the cup! You should do some in brown Lindsey for the non fruity tea drinkers!

I also really loved my Silly Doll - she's even got a Swirly necklace on her so I know she is mine!!

And of course there were chicken things like the sticker above and the bright and beautiful postcard below.

So thank you Lindsey - I'm thrilled with it and Swirly Silly Doll and Rosie Lee are going to fight for a place on my bookcase with the other goodies that live there.

Speaking of chickens I got a book through the post the other day (well month - blushes) from the lovely Emma at Jellybelly*Jellybrain and although I said thank you personally I didn't show the world (well the few people that read this) the book - it's quite appropriate really!

And I want to know how Emma knows that that chicken on the front looks exactly like me when I do exercise!! So thanks Emma and sorry it's taken a while to write about!

Yeah - in a treasury!

This treasury was created by the lovely Amy and she is a member of the Crafts Forum and included lots of us from there who sell on Etsy. Thanks Amy! See it pays to be members of lots of craft related things!! Did you spot Gertrude the chicken? She's hiding at the bottom.

I'll be back later to show you some wonderful things that were waiting for me in a parcel when I got back from holiday :)

Everything has a re-use in our house!!

Like teabags! This is a sneaky peek at a little something I am working on and I've used tea bags in it. I'll unveil it when it's finished - can you guess what it is??

And now onto other things. I've made some address labels for the numerous parcels I post out - what do you think?


I'm going to make some changes to them like making the coloured line separating the from and to sections straight (as it is in the top picture) and I think I'm going to use a thinner pen for the black lines as my writing is quite small and the lines are quite big! There is plenty of room to write too which I like. And the last question is - would you buy them? If I do sell them do I need to have my name on there somewhere and where would you suggest - and how many in a pack? I was thinking 20. Any ideas would be appreciated - thanks!