Slipping

Blogging has been slipping away from me recently. I get annoyed when people talk about how busy they are. The truth is you will find time for the things that are important to you. You will grab the moments to blog if that is what you love. And I have a confession. I like blogging. I don't love it.

I have been finding time for the things I love lately. Spending time with family, working hard at my jobs, trying new recipes. Spending time with T and our friends. Planning adventures and being creative.

I've also been finding time for the things that are important to us. I don't love them, but they matter to me. Looking for jobs and round houses are the main ones.

So I will be back every now and again, and maybe in a few days, weeks, months, I will want to find the time for blogging. But until then - I'm busy doing what I love. And I hope you are too.

Big Blog Card Swap Show and Tell!

The Big Blog Card Swap is finished now, and hopefully everyone has received and sent their cards! Here are some of the cards people have received, thank you for blogging about them ladies...

Hannelore from Paper, Beads and Inspiration sent this card to Sketchstitch who posted about it here.

{I love the perfect folding of the paper. It's simply lovely.}
Hannelore herself received this sweet card from Hilary at Molly Moo designs.

{That owl is adorable, and it is a lovely touch to include a sticker to seal the envelope.}
Pam received this card from Sarah at DottyDaisies:

{Sarah has used so much recyled stuff in this card - recycled card, sheep poo paper and old catalogues!}
Pam sent one to Myfanwy:

{I love how the flower picture tones with the card, so pretty.}
Sarah, my co-organiser received this card from Helen and posted about it here:

{So creative to mix media and use embroidery in a card design, thanks for the inspiration Helen!}
Kellie sent me this card:

{I love the matching gift tag with this, and that Kellie has used a card which has two flaps opening in the front, so unusual.}
I sent Vicky this card which she posted about here:

{Glad she liked it, I had fun making it!}
Vicky sent Kellie this card:

{This design is from Vicky's anonymity range, I love her style!}

Marice posted about the card she received from Mary at Quite Contrary Crafts here:

{I love that the simplicity of the colours, without embellishments makes the cutout the centre of Mary's designs, it's beautiful.}
Marice also posted about the card she sent Jenny:

{Those buttons are great, I love how the colours tone in this one.}
Jenny and her daughter Dakota get special mentions for being our furthest away participants, they live in New Zealand!

Thank you to everyone who took part and Sarah for being my lovely partner in this. We've had a few requests for another swap so keep your eyes open...!

Let the Card Making Commence!

The Big Blog Card Swap is now closed! Thank you to everyone who signed up, we will be drawing partners soon and will let you know asap! Cards should be sent by Thursday the 6th of May - that is two weeks from now. So get creating!

Introducing...

The Big Blog Card Swap!
Over the last week I have been chatting and emailing with Sarah from Wrapped Up With String. She posted a mini review of Craftrak and it got us thinking - why not organise our own bloggers card swap?


If you make cards, or want to - we'd love for you to join us. All you have to do is send your name and address to bigblogcardswap@gmail.com by midday (GMT) on Thursday the 22nd of April. Then we will draw the names and will email you the name and address of someone else. You make a card. You send it to them (by Thursday 6th May). They send one to someone else and someone else sends one to you. It's like a big card sending circle of bloggers.

The idea is to share inspiration and ideas so hopefully at the end we'll be able to collate some pictures or posts of different people's cards.

So - if you want to get involved, please email us! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments here. If you want to share this with your own readers, please post the info on your own blog, linking back to here or Sarah's blog.

Finally, we totally promise not to give your info out to anyone outside the Big Blog Card Swap. That would be rude. And we're not rude, we're lovely. So join in!

New Week, New Look

We had a good weekend here. Nothing much planned except time together and relaxing, which led to a bit of team work sorting out the new look. Hope you like.


Have a bright and happy Monday everyone!

Look! A New Look...

I didn't intend to give my blog a makeover this evening. It just kind of evolved. I'll just change this...and this...and this. And then T came home and helped me change all the things I wanted to but was struggling with. I will do some more tweaking over the next couple of weeks...so watch this space. But right now it's time to eat so I'm stopping. Let me know if you like it (or if you don't, try to be kind), or if you have any problems with it and I'll try and fix them.

While I'm Away...

I'm going to be away from blogging for a couple of weeks - seeing family, eating plenty and playing hundreds of games will be taking over my days for a while. In the meantime, I'm going to set up some posts on different topics to appear. No particular theme, just a bit of this and that...

Happy Christmas and see you next year, lovelies.

Appreciation Revolution

I'm guest blogging today over at Life's Chocolates. Usually you'll find a lovely lady called Sam over there writing about life, work, friendship, family, and a whole host of other topics. Lately Sam's invited some other bloggers to borrow her space and write on the topic of appreciation and she kindly asked me to join in!

If you've found your way over here from Life's Chocolates, thanks for visiting!

And in the spirit of appreciation - right now I am appreciating the delicious smell of the chicken I threw into the slow cooker before I went out this morning. I love the crockpot...and I love that it's name always makes T laugh.

Proverbs, Photos, Plans

Proverbs 4:20-23

My child, pay attention to what I say;
listen closely to my words.
Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
for they are life to those who find them
and health to a man's whole body.
Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life.

Photos

Day 8:


Day 9:


Day 10:


Day 11:


Plans

Weekend away. Romantic. A Georgian House. Him and me. A mini-book.

Weddings in the future. RSVP-ed this morning. Cards to be made.

Next week - visit from a friend. Besom. Teacher training course meeting. Other meetings.

Treading On Water

Another busy day as we're going to visit my family tonight, so I tried to make my Treading On Water a quick one. Here it is:


I've loved the Go!venture project this week, thanks to Elise and Kal for letting us play along! Have a good weekend!

Song and Dance

Today's topic in the Go!venture challenge was song and dance. I had an idea when I first read the clue last night. When I left Besom this afternoon I felt ill and so by the time I got home I didn't have the energy to start my more optimistic idea. Instead I sat down and started drawing, and so this is my "Song and Dance" piece:


The final challenge of the week is: Treading on Water.

I also planned to do a bullet point update today but as I'm tired...things are good, more next week!

Pocket

For those who may have missed a few days...Elise at enJOY it. and Kal Barteski at [i] LoveLife are having a design challenge this week. They're each creating something every day on a specific theme. I've been playing along and today's theme is Pocket.

The first thing that came to my mind was this blanket made for me by my grandma when I was a baby. It has my name on the pocket. It's almost twenty two years old!


I decided to take inspiration from the colours, blue and pink are a great combination. Anyway, this card is what I came up with...


I used double sided tape to stick the pocket down so that when I send this card to someone I can put something in it specifically for them - all our pockets are different, and the stuff in them reflects who we are!

Tomorrow's theme is...song and dance.

Not My Type

Hmm. This was a tricky one. I wanted to get away from stuff I would usually do as a gesture to this theme. Today was quite full and although I thought about it a lot nothing really came to me. When I got home I pulled out some paper and did a quick scribble. My problem was not knowing what my type was or wasn't. And I couldn't decide where to go. I remembered some old kiddie paints that belong T had upstairs. I got them out and this is what happened.


I wouldn't let myself look at everyone else's until I'd finished mine...so off I GO!
Tomorrow's challenge: Pocket.

Green and Dizzy

Elise at enJOY it. and Kal Barteski at [i] LoveLife are having a design challenge this week. They're each creating something every day on a specific theme. Although I've been working on a few crafty bits recently I like the idea of shaking things up and doing something a little differently. Monday's theme is "Green and Dizzy" and this is what I came up with...

I got a little messy...


I made a card...


I scanned it to T's computer...


I played about on a program I've never used before...


Tried some effects...


And some more...


Green and Dizzy.



Tomorrow's challenge is..."not my type".

Picture Post

I've been taking a lot of photographs recently and have decided to try and do a "photo from the week" post on a regular basis. I've surprised myself by being good at keeping up with this blog (heading into its fifth month!) so we'll see how this goes.

Anyway, the photo this week is from a lovely evening out with some friends playing TopGolf (kind of like a driving range for people who aren't that interested in golf). This, ladies and gentleman, is my wonderful husband.

My Blogging Skills

I am VERY proud of myself this evening. Earlier today I was reading one of my favourite blogs, and saw something I thought looked good. Later in the day, I described the "tag list thingy where they're all different sizes" to T, and was informed it is called a "Tag Cloud". Later still I searched, followed instructions and made my very own Tag Cloud. All by myself. I then prettyfied it and made it fit with the rest of my blog. Feel free to admire my beautiful cloud. I feel like I accomplished something today.