What's your favourite gadget?

I'm having a tidy up in my craft room today, well, I call it my craft room, it's our spare bedroom and I am spreading around it - hence the tidy up, and I started thinking about some favourite things, one being gadget.

As crafters we have hundreds of gadgets available to us, most of which we buy, use twice and stick in a cupboard. But it came to me that my favourite gadget isn't a crafty tool, but my pasta maker.

This little baby is the one thing I love to use. Jamie more often than not like to help cut the pasta once it's all rolled out. It also means a scrummy meal is on it's way, usually with a rich homemade tomato sauce. It's serious comfort food and we rarely eat dried pasta now.

So, come on, share, what's your favourite gadget?

Thankful for....

Look what I just came across.... These little journaling cards are from Elle's Studio and they are FREE! Pop across to the blog and you can download the pdf for yourself!

Never let it be said I don't share! (That's just chocolate...)

A little treat....

Just thought I'd quickly share this little beaut with you. It's my birthday next week and I always like to buy myself a little something. This year it's a dolly bead from A String of Beads. It came on Saturday and I have snaffled the photo from the website to show you. It is just stunning in real life.

A new circle....

Where does the time go? Firstly I can't believe I last posted 12 days ago, and secondly - last minute Annie here (no offence to those Annie's amongst you) has just finished putting together the pages of her new circle journal. Phew...it's due to be posted today.

My journal this time is titled " A Day In The life". I love the idea of Ali Edwards 'Week in the Life' project (one I intend to do around February time - I'm assuming I'll have chance by then although I'm really not sure what will have changed between now and then), so given my desire to do that project thought it would be fun to do a day in the life.

I think we all assume our lives are, in the main, mundane and routine. My day is generally get up, battle with the kids, get ready, battle with the kids, get the kids ready, school run battle, coffee, housework*, lunch, guilt chores**, school run, main battle with the kids....and so on. I think you get the drift.

The day I chose to do my page turned out a little differently, became a reflective day where I mostly sat, drank coffee and thought about things. After that I decided that I would stick to that day to journal and ended up creating a page without considering the journaling which is now tucked away as a little book in the envelope.

You may notice I have gone the collage route again. I loved the last one I did so much I wanted to do something similar in my own so I have one to keep.

I'm really looking forward to reading about everyone's day when it comes home again, although that's a long way away yet.

by way of explanation

* reading blogs, blogging, facebook games and paper stroking

** actual cleaning of the home

Funny face day

Rosie has a thing about pulling funny faces, except it's not really faces but face. She shouts "funny face" and promptly pulls her mouth wide with her fingers. This she finds wildly amusing, and so do I and anyone else around at the time. Today she asked me to take pictures of her doing a funny face, who am I to say no.

I know it's not the sharpest shot in the world, but I think that that is partly down to me laughing at her and to her inability to keep still as she was trying to pull the widest mouth she could manage. When she's old enough to understand I will be telling her the wind will change and she'll stick like that! LOL.

All good things....

....must come to an end. Today I share with you a sneak peek of the final journal that I am taking part in on UKS. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by for this. Sadly mine is amongst a couple of journals taking there time to come home again. It's not been the smoothest of CJ's but I have enjoyed working on all the journals and seeing how everyone has interpreted the themes.

The theme for Tracy's journal is "Quotes" and I have chosen two to share with her and I hope she is happy with them. I'd better go and wrap it up ready for posting.

Thanks for looking!

The Twilight Zone

If I had to say which was my favourite class from GoGoGetaway, I would probably say this one - The Twilight Zone with Nicola Kerridge. I had such a sweet photo of Jamie to use on this and wasn't sure how he's take to me making him into a full blown Monster, so a subtle Devil seemed in order. I loved this technique and could run and run with it. It's in need of a little more paint but I really wanted to share it with you.

Wow, what a weekend!

What a fabulous weekend with so many amazing classes. It was really hard to chose which one's to do, but I made the right decision as I loved them. Just wished I could have taken some of the others as well. Perhaps I need one of this time thingies from Harry Potter. Note the technical term there - thingies. Oh yeah, I know what I'm on about.

I'll do a few posts to cover off each of the LO's I did in the classes, but first up - stash shopping! I was extremely good when you consider how many gorgeous goodies there were in the shop. An extra treat as I only ever shop online.

Some beautiful glazed cardstock.

Ooh, I just loved this one from Prima!

Some KI Memories embellishments. yep, one is missing and has found it's was onto the LO from Shimelle's class.

These Maya Road stamps were just too cute to leave behind.

More of those Melissa Frances frames...

Some amazing lace

(remember that blog candy I'm planning - some of this may find it's way in to it)

One of the challenges from the weekend (of which I only managed two) was to travel light, so all I took with me was my tool kit in a table top tote, and an empty box to bring everything home again in. As you can see...the box was a little..full shall we say.

That's it for now. I will return shortly with more gogogetaway goodness.

GoGo Getting away....

Preparations are now underway, starting with me being up at seven this morning to raid the kids "make it" cupboard for some yellow paint. By half past eight I had the beginnings of my name badge for GoGoGetaway which starts tomorrow evening. I may add a couple of bits to it yet though.

In the meantime my desk tote is almost packed. Oh boy there was a lot of stuff in it (now all over Chris' desk - soz love!) but I am making us a special dinner to make up for being away.

I'm travelling light and not taking any page kits with me. I'm just going to relax and finish what I start in the classes. My goLITE is charging up and the camera is charged. So, the next thing to do is sort my overnight bag out and decide what I'm going to wear for my photo shoot with CJ!

Hope you all have a fab weekend and I'll share what I've done when I get back!

I'm soooo excited!

365 #300

At last, a 365 photo! Beads again though - sorry. I'm a tad obsessed with them at the moment. Some of this little lot are destined to be turned into a bracelet. I'm itching to get on with it, but all the household duties and a retreat this weekend come first. Or do they...?

For a sense of scale, each of these teardrop shaped beads are about the size as the tip of your little finger.

An old flame...

At last, the lurgy is finally feeling like my body is kicking it in to touch! Hurrah! These last few weeks have been a nightmare, just hoping half term is kind to me.

As a result I treated myself to a trip to the Bead Fair this weekend in Harrogate. At first I didn't think I was going to spend much... that didn't last long. Jewellery making is an old hobby of mine, one for which I used to get a lot of commissions from people. So, here are the first pair of earrings I have made in about, oooh, ten years! Eeek! Kept them nice and simple though and used my favourite metal for them - Stirling Silver.

Thanks for looking!

Questions, questions...

Having taken a break from trawling through photo's, I decided to do a little blog-hopping and stopped on I Speak Melsh. She's posted these questions, as always, discovered by a spot of blog hopping herself, so I thought I'd do them. Something I wouldn't normally do, but as the idea is one word answers I thought - why not?

1. Where is your cell/mobile phone? Desk
2. Your hair? Greying
3. Your mother? Hmmmm..... (lol)
4. Your father? Undeserving
5. Your favourite food? Homemade pasta
6. Your dream last night? Peaceful
7. Your favourite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? Less chaos
9. What room are you in? Study
10. Your hobby? Creating
11. Your fear? Loneliness
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
13.Where were you last night? Home
14. Something that you aren’t? Sad
15. Muffins? No
16. Wish list item? Organisation
17. Where did you grow up? Midlands
18. Last thing you did? Blog-hopped
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV? Off
21. Your pet? Annoying
22. Friends? Few
23. Your life? Busy
24. Your mood? Exhausted
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? Car
27. Something you’re not wearing? Necklace
28. Your favourite store? Lakeland
29. Your favourite colour? Brown
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Tuesday
32. Your best friend? Chris
33. One place that you go to over and over? School
34. One person who emails you regularly? Junkmail fairy
35. Favourite place to eat? Piccolinos

If you answer them and share them on your blog, let me know, the nosey side of me would like to, well, take a nose!

An apology

Hello folks.

Just wanted to pop on and post to say sorry for not posting. Illness has hit this house like a dose of salts recently and although I've been around on the UKS and the Scrapagogo Clubhouse, I haven't had anything to post about.

I'm hoping to be able to share a few things with you next week, including the new GoGo Celebrate CJ that I've just finished making the covers for. Outside of doing the admin side of that, I'm also sorting out an Advent Swap and getting ready for GoGoGetaway which is in two weeks time. I'm currently in photo hell for that, trawling through literally thousands of photo's to find some suitable to scrap for the 7 classes I'll be taking while there. I haven't even started the pre-getaway challenges yet, but then again I have been in bed most of this week.

Between now and then Jamie is desperate for a train ride, I have a lunch in Birmingham with friends and a Bead Fair to go to. So, no rest for the wicked as they say, and lets face it - for those of you that read my blog and know me well, I've had some wicked moments in my life. Take that how you will.

I'll announce it now, but you'll have to wait a while.... It's my "blogiversary" on December 1st. Wow, a whole year since I started to talking to nobody in particular out there is cyber space! LOL. Well, not strictly true, I started blogging to share my Journal Your Christmas. So, to celebrate the enormous support I have received for my blog I'll be doing blog candy! It will be up in November and the winner drawn on the 1st of December, so keep your eyes out for details. Sorry, but it will only be of interest to those of you who are crafters, or want to start crafting.

Right, that's it for now. Coffee is required and a return to the photo mountain.

TTFN!!

Vicki xx

It's CJ time again....

Here we are nearly at the end of my first CJ on UKS. It's been an experience, and yes, one I will repeat. (I've signed up for one over on the scrapagogo clubhouse. We just need two more if you are interested...)

So, this time Tilda came to visit..... and now she's winging her way across Yorkshire to visit Tracy.

Don't you just love those cork alphas... I've broken into my pack especially for this one.
Right, Tracy's CJ is waiting for me to come up with something. It's the next on my HUGE crafting to do list. (That's after craft shopping of course)

As always, TFL!

365 2009

I've lost track of the days now, and the dates I took photo's, but here are a couple to share. Chris sent me flowers last week when I have having a particularly horrid day, so I took some close ups a few days later in an attempt to get the camera out again.

TFL!