I'm not fed up now!!

Just put a post on bemoaning losing all my posts since 11th May after having my hard drive stripped and re-configured today, when after putting it up, it all re-appeared!!!
Whoo Hoo!!! I'm a blogger again!!!
I am in the process of putting all my settings back to rights,
so can't stop just now.
Just thought I'd let you know I'm back!!! :0)

Hugs Viv xx

I've sneaked on here.......

This is the first card I've made all week, thanks to Harvey!

By the time I've finished seeing to him and other stuff,

I've been too bushed to make any cards! LOL

I sneaked this, while changing my craft room back to a bedroom.

My son and his wife are staying over tonight.

They are flying off to Las Vegas tomorrow for a friend's wedding.

They fly from Manchester Airport and as we live only 20mins away,

it makes sense for them to stay here tonight.

I have a double sofa bed in here, so it's fairly easy to convert. ;0)

Hopefully, I'll be able to get back to cardmaking again before long!

Harvey permitting of course!! LOL

Has anybody missed me?

I've been AWOL 'coz my PC is a bit poorly.

Another reason is here....................

He's called 'Harvey' and he's a 10 week old Shitzu/Jack Russell!!!!

Yeah..right! He looks more like a Border Terrier to me, but I don't care anyway...

He's stolen my heart. :)

Had no sleep, and the house has been destroyed already and he's only been with us for 36 hours!!!! HaHa.

I'm off with Pam (Handcrafted With Love), to Basingstoke.

We are going to for the weekend to attend a workshop on floral punchcraft.

We are staying at the home of the lady holding the workshop too.

She's become a dear friend to us both and we can't wait to see her and her lovely family again.

So peeps, I won't be posting until Monday. Please don't think I've disappreared.

HAVE A LOVELY WEEKEND!!!

She's mine!!!

Ha Ha! I love the Li'l Ballerina so much, I've just bought her!

Got her off Ebay for $12.95!!! That includes S&H!

That's half what it costs in the UK! (She's brand new too). :0)

While I was watching Ebay for stuff, I made this challenge card.

My friend makes the sketch and our little forum makes the cards.

Here's her sketch.......

And here's my take on it.........

(It could be almost be a Christmas card)! :0)

CCT challenge card.........

This is my entry for the CCT challenge. :0)

I've put little pink gems on her ballet shoe toes,

her costume neckband and her hair band.

She's watercoloured with Marvey Le Plume pens.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to the U.S. contingent of Blog Land. :0)

Viv xx

Oh dear!

I'm NOT a happy bunny today
Photobucket has totally seized up on me now.<->
I have no idea why it's gone so horribly slow, but it's driving me crazy.

I can't even get to log on now!!!!

I've resorted to Picasa for a while now to upload pictures but it's not the same as PB. :(
I can't get Picasa to work on my forum though, so I'm fed up and going to give up for the day, throw my toys out of my pram and sulk for England! LOL

I blame Vista for this. I tried uploading onto PB with hubby's PC, which is an XP version......

No problems!! I COULD use his to upload pictures, but it's not ideal is it!

OK, rant over. I'll be back soon with some more Picasa type piccies. :)

My first Friday Sketchers card

Friday Sketchers is a brand new Challenge blog.

Here's the first challenge card.

Go along and take a peep!

You won't be disappointed!

I decided to do Cute! :)

I'm really pushing the boat out now! Bazzill card again!!

(I've snipped that stray bit of ribbon off now).

Papertake Weekly Challenge

Well I thought this would be a tad difficult, but it turned out really easy!

I really enjoyed doing this as it's a bit different.

Great instructions Claudia!!

Check out the DT cards!!!! GORGEOUS!!!!

Shock, horror! I used my Bazzill CS. Nearly had a seizure! LOL

The gorgeous patterned paper is a cut up 12x12 sheet of the new Papermania mega block.

A length of ribbon from my stash, all assembled on lilac hammer card! :)

Might make another of these as I think it's really nifty.

I ordered a watch off Amazon for Luke yesterday and it came today!

I LOVE Amazon. Their turn-round is fantastic.

Off to wrap it and I'll take it round this evening, when he gets in from work. ;)

Grandson's Birthday Card

Thanks to Terrie, I managed to do my Grandson, Luke's, 18th birthday card.
I happened to visit her gorgeous blog today and found the inspiration for this card here!

The sentiment is a bit hard to read as my photographic skills aren't all that brilliant.

It says...

'There are souls in this world
who have the gift of finding Joy everywhere
and of leaving it behind them when they go'.

He is the kind of young man who doesn't find it 'uncool' to see his Nanna (me)in the street

and give her a big hug and a kiss, bless him. He's a lovely young man.

I've used lime green CS matted with Basic Grey's 'Scarlet's Letter' DP.

Faux stitched the sentiment matt and stamped with 'Souls in this World' by Verses Rubber Stamps.

(That's what it says on the stamp anyway). Ink is Fluid Chalk Eyes 'Chestnut Roan'.

The '18' was cut using my Cuttlebug and the metal 'L' Initial tag and frame is from a PaperMania set.

Must go and check out CCT now for another challenge!

A new challenge blog starts Friday!

Not only THAT... there's candy to kick it off with.

It's called Stamp Something. It will run every Friday. Go see!!

AND... there's this one too.....Friday Sketchers

Such a lot of 'toys' to play with! LOL

I'm NOT happy! I decided to change my photo in my profile.

I forgot Blogger was being a pain and now I can't load up my photo.

I don't know what's going on with Blogger, but it's getting beyond a joke now.

I WISH they would sort it out. Maybe tomorrow will bring some good luck.

It's 11:05 and I'm yawning my head off, so it's nite nite from me. xxx

For Gina's blog Candy challenge

Gina is celebrating her 10,000 hits.

(I bet you all knew that already).

There isn't much time left, so get yer skates on and visit her blog.

Apart from the candy, it's well worth a visit because it's just a fabulous blog!

This is my offering.
I've adapted the one I did yesterday 'coz I like it. ;)

Shopping today

Off to Mum's soon. It's shopping day today. I take her every two weeks to Aldi.

She enjoys the little ride out and we aren't out too long. (About an hour).

I get her other shopping myself from Tesco. (Only go to them because it's so near me).

Made this yesterday from a sketch a friend made..........

I'll be back later on no doubt, with more results from 'playing'. :)

Blog candy galore!

Trina's Timeless Treasures !

Trina, along with her Mum, is giving away her first blog candy, in honour of her Mum's birthday.

Pop over there and take a look. They are both fab! ;0)

Also!... Michelle is offering candy too!

Michelle has been a firm favourite of mine for a long time now.

Hurry over to her lovely blog. You'll be glad you did!

Oooh!!! it's very exciting.

I've even made another My Paper World sketch!!!!

Here it is........I'm quite pleased with it, considering I've still got the headache I woke up with and I'm a foul temper!

Poor Alan is copping for it left right and center!!! LOL

I found a patterned pearl paper pad (Oooh all those'Ps' Ha Ha).. I hadn't used in ages that I got from the NEC at least 3 years ago!

Thought they'd go well with my blue bear. He's coloured with Crayola pencils and Sansador.

I've used my trusty scroll stamp too. I LOVE that 99pence scroll.

The flowers are made with a flower punch, shaped, then placed on the card with the two white brads.

It's more vibrant than I've captured on camera. ;0)

It's Tuesday!!

The Bank Holiday was lovely with glorious sunshine almost all day.
Only a spit and a spot of rain, which for our neck of the woods, is good!

I'd like to wish ILA, a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To celebrate, she's giving away some fabulous blog candy.

Get along over to her fantastic blog and take a look. (And wish here happy birthday of course)! ;0)

Had Pam and another friend over yesterday. Pam did some really pretty baby cards. Tracey and I opted for stamping images.

I made a My Paper World challenge card this morning! Wow! I'm doing well.

What do you think................

DP..The English Paper Company, brown CS...The Paper Mill Shop, Forever Flowers, Sentiment stamp...Penny Black.

There's some guy with a strimmer out the front somewhere, driving me NUTS.
It sounds like a revving engine.
I'm going to get a cup of tea and an Aspirin!!!! :)

It's Sunday and I can smell curry!!

Alan is making a curry for my youngest son BJ and his fiance.

He makes it early to give it chance to mature a bit before we sit down at around 6:30pm. Yummy!!

It's quite approriate today, as the weather has gone from yesterday's glorious heatwave, to torrential rain today!! :0O
English weather is crumby! No wonder we talk about it a lot.......it's SO variable day to day. *rolls eyes in resignation*. LOL

Anyway, never mind the weather, here's what I made this morning.

It's kind of developed from the CCT theme of

'In the garden'.
I wanted to use the gorgeous bright, almost turquoise blue but struggled because that's not an immediate colour one would associate with a garden.
Then I remembered the remit was for anything 'to do' with a garden....

so, I thought this would be OK as it's got flowers on it!

Flowers grow in the garden, so that's fine. :)

What do you think? It's a bit different from what I've been doing lately.

I DO wish Blogger could sort out this problem with uploading pictures.
Using Photobucket is like walking through mud, and Picassa shrinks your pictures!

AAARGHHH!

Cute Card Thursday Challenge

'In the garden'. is the challenge on Cute Card Thursday this week and here's my entry.....

I DO love challenges. :0)

Still can't upload Photos!!!

Blogger is a pain.

I have to upload photos via the code and they just don't look as good. Blogger makes them all the same size, which looks so much nicer and it's easier to upload using the little icon method).

Oh well, 'till it's sorted, I'll have to use the scenic route!

Pam and myself had a fantastic day yesterday. We went to Craft Central firstly for some envelopes, then called in to our little craft shop at the graden centre that's about halfway there/back to macclesfield. (Can't for life of me remember the name today)!!!

My memory isn't what it used to be......and it wasn't up to much then!! LOL

Anyway, I digress. We called into Somerfield's for some groceries as it's only next door and picked up some essentials. Came back and started 'playing'.
The chap came to fit the rest of my venetian blinds and liked the sample I did for his daughter.
He's taken that back with him and I'll be getting the order by the sounds of things. Goody!!

Here's the card I made.

The colurs are a lot richer than this picture shows.

(Only managed one, 'coz I was too-ing and fro-ing with the blinds man and just colouring images in that I'd stamped).
Pam made three!! And beautiful they are too.

Alan (Hubby) was supposed to be burning all the hawthorn we had chopped down, but he's got Transverse Mylitis and can't do too much for too long.

SO!, Pam and I played pyromaniacs and set too burning loads of wood in the incinerator.

(A metal dustbin with holes in, tiny legs and tube in the lid, which we were charged over £30 for at B&Q)!!!!!!

Going to do more today, as our garden looks like Steptoes yard and I want to start returning it to something to enjoy, not shy away from.

I'm trying to get some challenges done too, so it's busy Bank Holiday weekend for me, LOVELY!! :0)

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend everyone!

It's Thursday..again!

Where do the days go?

Went to my mother's yesterday. Wednesday is her day. She kind of managed to swing that while my back was turned! lol

Never mind. It's company for her, stress for me and peace for hubby! Ha Ha!

I've been asked to make a sample wedding invitation. A tri-fold one, in cream with red script and ribbon!!!

Here's what I've come up with....

This is the inside, showing the pocket I made to take the response card.

It's just a piece of the same card, cut to fit and attached with DST. :0)

This is it closed.

This is to show the mechanics of the closure.

Hope it passes muster!

It was quite a challenge in the end, believe it or not.