Memos, Mail, Me on Monday - the decorated bags edition

It was Monday when I started this blog post and then I got distracted by some emails and alas it is now Tuesday but never mind I will still sneak this in as a Monday post LOL!!  As you know the drill - on Mondays we check in with Sian at From High in the Sky to share about our weekends, look ahead for the week and share our mail.

It was a fairly quiet week as I try to shake off yet another cold and recover from last weekend's retreat.  I pushed on with getting all the charity newsletters ready for the post - I should have photographed them all when I was finished but I forgot so these are all that are left to go in the postbox (I had about treble this amount but they can't go to the postbox all at once as it is just a small one in the wall of the old railway station)

 In an effort to try and boost my immune system I am adding in some other supplements to give myself a boost.  I eat lots of fresh veg and fruit but it doesn't seem to be doing me much good at the moment.  I also take vitamin C, B and echinacea and was reading that vitamin D plays a big role in immunity and many of us are deficient - so am going to try adding in some vit D to see if that helps.

As a little pick me up I have treated myself to a new nail polish from the new OPI Fiji collection.  I love blue and grey nail polishes and 'I Can Never Hut Up' ticks all the boxes for me, it is a lovely grey with a blue shimmer through it.

I spent the weekend catching up with my parents and making a start on some decorated bags.

Right I will make this all for now and go and give Sian a wave.  I have the first WI meeting of the year and a trip into town to look forward to this week.  Hope you all have a great week with lots of lovely things in the mail!!

Memos, Mail, Me on Monday - the Arundel retreat edition

It has been a lovely but tiring weekend - Wendy and I spent it with a load of other crafters at a beautiful hotel on the outskirts of Arundel.  There was plenty of lovely food, prosecco, wine, chocolates and lots of crafting going on.  I completed another three layouts from the to be finished pile and did another 6 layouts from scratch plus made four cards and decorated a bag for a challenge. It was just so lovely to chill out and not be distracted by home stuff and be able to totally focus on craft stuff.

We didn't travel very light - this was just my stuff -

The hotel -

The crop room -

Our table and my lovely tidy working space -

And as we didn't get any car shots before we left, we did them on the way home -

Hopefully soon I will get some decent light to photograph my layouts.  But in the meantime some of the week's mail.  Some of the happiest mail is managing to find two pairs of slippers online - big deal you may say - but Mum and I both have the same foot condition and have to wear orthotics, which are impossible to wear in slippers.  We both love Rohde shoes and their mules have a built in arch support, but since the factory shop closed  in the UK it is very hard to find a retailer in the UK, especially as I am a size 3.  I periodically do a little search online and was thrilled to find a stockist that not only had Mum's size but mine too - so that is a present sorted for Mother's Day (and don't worry Mum is not online so she won't see this!!)

And the mail that I will be sending out this week is sending out the annual newsletter to the Friends of Children with Cancer Fund, so I had better get back to stuffing envelopes.

Hope you have a great week, if you get a chance go and say hello to Sian over at From High in the Sky and see what the other Mondayers have been up to.

Uplifting Occasion

One of my all time favourite Penny Black stamps is Uplifting Occasion and it was one of my earliest Penny Black purchases and helped put me on my slippery slope of Penny Black addiction!!

I made this card for a cat-mad friend's birthday.  The image was coloured with Promarkers and glittered with Black Stickles.

The sentiment is by Stampin' Up and the sentiment mats are SU punches.

I am entering this card into the Penny Black and More and the Penny Black Saturday Challenge - both challenges for January are 'Anything Goes'

Happy New Year

I did very little crafting over the Christmas/New Year period as I was just feeling so blah, but I did get one of my new Christmas sets inky to make these New Year cards.

I used Stampin' Up 'Frosted Medallions' and Pool Party ink and cardstock.

The sentiment is from SU 'Good Greetings' set and heat embossed in silver.  The stars were punched from silver glitter cardstock with a EK Success border punch and the silver thread is from my stash.

Memos, Mail, Me: It's Monday

It's Monday (again) and for once I am being a bit organised and not dashing in at the last minute before it becomes Tuesday!!  So as it is Monday you know the drill by now, it is time to say hello to Sian and the other Mondayers over at From High in the Sky.  For this year Sian is focusing on the mail that has dropped on our doormat over the past week.  It has been a good week mail-wise for me, not a single brown envelope, no red cards of doom from postie, just the usual junk and a couple of pieces to make me smile.

Those who know me well, know that I am a Penny Black junkie - I am trying to rein the habit in but I just can't resist so I try to limit myself to just one or maybe two items from each new collection. There is a new Valentines collection just been released, I had done a pre-order a couple of weeks ago and this dropped on my doormat at the weekend.

I can't wait to get these inky and coloured in, I already know which one I will be using for Mr Ps Valentines card.

Sian's post last week reminded me that due to the visitation of the plague to Parkhurst Towers I never did order my Christmas present to myself, so I got straight onto Etsy and sorted that out.  I wish all my mail was delivered wrapped like this -

I almost didn't want to unwrap it and inside was this little gem - Julie Kirk's Snipped Tales

I have only had a little flick through so far, it is hard to put it down and I say just one more tale, oh go on then, just two more.

The weekend was a pretty quiet affair, Saturday evening was spent with my parents, hearing more tales from their Christmas and New Year cruise and we watched The Hunger Games - can you believe I have never seen any of the films??  It was pretty good and Dad has the next two films on DVD for us to watch.  Sunday I threw caution to the wind and started packing all my kits for next weekend's retreat - yes I know a tad early for me but I have decided to be ahead of the game for once.  I hope I have packed enough kits - not always easy to tell how much I will get done in a weekend and I know there will be challenges set over the weekend, so I have put a small box of spare photographs into the tote as well.  I still need to pack all my crafting bits but that should be fairly easy as my tote and bag are crop ready most of the time - the joy of having a regular monthly crop to go to.

I am sure this week is going to go quickly, I have the retreat to prepare for but before that I have the chiropodist, the hairdresser and my ears being syringed to look forward to - I can't wait to hear again and be able to dispense with the subtitles on the TV - the poor spelling and appalling grammar is driving me mad LOL!!

Have a great week everyone and don't forget to say hello to Sian

Me on Monday or Getting back onto the blogging horse!!

Hellooooooooo ............ long time no see ............... I can't believe how long it has been since I was last here!!!!  I have a long list of excuses which include following Marillion's UK tour, getting a lurgy, getting over the lurgy, going away again in December and coming back home with another lurgy - which took hold and became laryngitis, a chest infection and an ear infection.  So Christmas has been a very quiet affair - partly because both DH and I couldn't even speak and I haven't been able to hear anything either - what a pair we have been.

But excuses no more - I am back and hopefully I might be able to keep up some kind of regular blogging schedule - we shall see.  I would like to say that I have been crafting up a storm in my absence but sadly I haven't - I just haven't felt like it - but I do have a lot of stuff from last year that I haven't even photographed yet so I won't be running out of things to blog anytime soon.

So anyway it is Monday and a good a day as any to get back on the blogging saddle and join in with Sian and the other Mondayers.  Our new twist for this year is to look at some of the mail we have received and weave a favourite piece into our blog post.

Well this is what I found on the doormat this morning - not favourite mail at all!!!!!

Since the ear infection I can hardly hear and I keep missing delivery drivers and getting the 'note of doom' - sadly no neighbours were in this morning so my parcel has been whisked away again but hopefully will be reunited with me on Wednesday.

I did have one piece of happy mail in the week that I managed to hear the door for and that is a new phone - I have finally come into the technological age and have a phone that not only sends texts and makes calls but connects to the interweb thingy and takes photographs which meant for our first crop of the year on Saturday it didn't matter that I had forgotten to pack my camera - I was still able to take some photos on my phone!!

A view of my desk -

Yes I have actually done some scrapbooking!!!!!!

And some of our dedicated band of monthly crafters -

I still have to wait another 10 days till I can get my ears syringed - I can't wait to be able to hear again and stop using the subtitles on the TV.

Anyway have a great week everyone, it feels good to be back in blogland once more and if you want to join in and be a Mondayer too then pop over and wave to Sian at From High in the Sky