Excuses, Excuses!

I am seriously bad at this malarky - keeping plates spinning is definitely not my forte! 

Life is pretty hectic here at 'Stoke Park Towers', I am currently working on sample layouts, cards & papercrafts for the Creative Memories annual Roadshow held in Leicester mid April.  I am doing demo's to the consultants for an hour during the lunch-time period, and I'm bricking it!!!!!

Livvy has been really off-colour and has had a cough that is preventing her napping and interrupting her both getting to sleep and staying asleep argghhhhh!  These things are always ill-timed don't you think?!

Anyway I will share a couple of the samples and will probably be AWOL a fair bit, but will try to drop by briefly when I can!!!!!

Surreal moment yesterday morning, picture me (maybe not!) in the kitchen in my pj's bout 9:20 am (I had been up since 6:50 am!) phone rings I answer it - Voice other end says 'Hi is that Belinda?' I confirmed it wer me!  'It's Kirsty Wiseman here'  well at this point if you are still picturing me, I looked really weird, chin on floor, rest of me on the ceiling!

Turns out I had been the first peeps to go to Kirsty's little tab to buy her fabbaroonie Patti Pickleishious CD and she had called me to say how excited she was and that I was first!!!!!! Yeah!! Crazy eh?!  I was so chuffed and she was so lovely!!!!

Belinda x

NEC visit and Neil's Birthday

This first photo to share is Livvy looking for bugs on a lovely walk we took on Tuesday, St Patrick's Day and also Neil's Birthday!  What gorgeous weather it has been, and to take advantage we did a walk after having a lovely lunch out.  The walk took us along the estuary at Oldbury and past a lovely old church.  We followed a route from the 'Kiddiwalks in Bristol' book we got recently and I thoroughly recommend this book if you have small children and want to do a trek that's suitable for little legs!  We have a backpack for her but she is pretty heavy so, Neil gets a good workout when her legs get tired (well they are tiny legs, bless!)

Tea party later with cake and candles, bigger children (& young adults!) and Grandparents! A lovely day all in all.

Second photo is a card I made a couple of weeks ago for my friend Debbie's 40th, it doesn't have 40 on it as I feel us ladies are a tad sensitive about these things (save the big number cards for men!!) so the words 'Fabulous' say it all.  I used my One Four Zero petal stamps (which are fab btw!) rub ons, the butterfly paper was more like card (I think it was 'Paper Adventure' but i will check!

Well last weekend after a very rocky few days health wise for both myself & Olivia, I managed to get to the NEC in Birmingham for the Hobbycrafts show.  I met up with some other bloggers which was really nice and had a great day.  I went by train which is always a bit of a treat for me as I get to sit and do some thinking and planning so I always have my little notebook to jot them into. Strangely I have much more productive thought on the train!!! There were soooooo many exhibitors it was difficult to know where to start, but Clare, Emma & Katy had already been to some of the stands and pointed me in the direction of some of the ones I was looking forward to seeing.

Some hi-lights for me: seeing the lovely Julie hickey at the Craftwork Cards stand (love their stuff) the colours their were to die for, they always make me want everything - which we all know is good............but bad!!

Sissix wow every die imaginable and stunning samples!

Stamposaurus - love their stuff, stamps are so cute, but didn't buy any love their gallery on their website, their cards are amazing!

Little Clare- lovely stamps again, soooo cute and some nice male designs, like motorcycles & cars.  Managed to get the skintone promarkers here that I have wanted for ages!

Paper Cellar - brill cardstock some really gorgeous colours and cheap to buy by the box, but heavy to carry - should have got it just before I left and not on arrival doh!

There were lots of hi-lights meeting the girls being one of the best bits.  Chatting to Clare really took me back that lovely Welsh accent reminds me of my home in Wales many years ago and all my friends & family!  I am quite sad my accent has disappeared but at the time I arrived in Bristol I was a teenager who wanted to blend in, and so.............it was lost!  

I came home Saturday sounding more Welsh though so thanks Clare you helped me reminisce!

Belinda x

My Craft Space (it's messy but it's mine!)

Ok the thing is we live in a town house so lots of stairs, get the picture! I am at the very bottom, next to the utility and by the garage, so it's pretty chilly at this time of year!  No natural light!

The whole space is about 6ft x 7ft and as explained has 2 doors that open inward (utility & garage)!  I have my shoe cabinet at the foot of the stairs on the right as you go up its really shallow so keeps the stairs free to climb easily!  Along the same wall Billy bookcases from Ikea there is the soil stack in that corner so they are level with that and then shelving begins again facing the stairs, but my clever man built along the widest part himself giving me wider areas using Contiboard in an off white the same colour as my Billys.  The thing that I was most grateful for was that he was able to make an A4 paper rack for me, which I know was a bit of a 'mare' for him, but I knew what I wanted and drew a little sketch and bless him he did it.  I haven't painted it yet I do have a spray can for it to match the other white units.  Now he is great don't get me wrong but he does love buying power tools from B&Q that cost a fair bit and he has the proper kit and has had for a couple of years so................I was just helping him get some use out of them if you think about it!!! Oh and a chance to practice too!

My desk was Ikea too and was the type that comes with different types of legs available we chose the type with wheels that are lockable.  Shelves, rails, jars all from Ikea. I am very lucky to have this space and I love it just need more time to spend there!!

I am so lucky I can leave my house and be in Ikea within 5minutes, it's just down the road!! Lovely meatballs - some times it's worth popping in just for those!!!!!

OH & SOME MESS IS CREATIVE OK!!

Belinda x

A Sleepover!

Last night I went out to celebrate my Friends Debbie's 40th Birthday. Will post Debbie's card after Monday as thats when she'll see it! It commenced with a train journey - not far just to Weston-Super-Mare and I got to disappear from home by staying at Debbie's yay I escaped!!!!!!!!!!!! We went to Bottelinos which is a chain of Italian Restaurants around Bristol/Bath/North Somerset. Great night, great company yummy food. Their Lasagne is just delicious!!!!! I left my camera at home, but Debbie had a polaroid disposable one (not sure how they will look but...............??) I am hoping to do something with them. I stole the camera and snapped away all evening and then threw it in my bag promising Debbie I will get two sets printed and will post her a set asap!!! As mostly all of my scrapbooking has been from Digital piccies that I have been able to tweak and play with, it may be a challenge for me to do something with them, but hey a challenge won't do me any harm!!

Candy went off last week and is winging it's way across the pond. I took another photo of a mini album and a card and images that went in the box along with something edible - an absolute must!!

Jack my other Nephew turned 10 this week, he is such a lovely boy! He is super, duper at Martial Arts and is not far from being a Black Belt, he's a great Liverpool FC fan and he is so gentle and loving with Livvy it brings a tear to me. We had two cards for Jack one from Sam & Livvy one from Neil & I.

Belinda x

The Winner is........................

Well yes I finally did the draw but Livvy dipped in the hat actually in her bed tonight!!!!!!! Another manic day!  We had visitors unexpectedly (which was lovely!), however we had not seen Neil's parents in ages and as we had a bit of a Mother Hubbard going on here, did a M&S food hall dash in order to cook something nice for our guests -Livvy missed her nap!  Manic child alert this evening so while she was a little calmer in bed she delved in and drew out

                                                                       JODI

Thanks Jodi and everyone else too that added a comment or just came to visit! 

If Jodi could get in touch with me on  belindaw@me.com  and give me your address I will bundle up the goodies and send them off asap!

Will pop a piccie up here before it goes!

Belinda x