Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 30 - Bathtime for Little Dogs

My sister and niece's two little dogs are so cute and they just love bath-time.

The papers are from MME Memorable collection and the butterflies are Cheery Lynn dies.  The title is done with a mixture of AC Thickers and Basic Grey alphabet stickers.

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 29 - Cute Turtles

Whilst at Meadow Barn earlier this year, I borrowed a cute turtle stamp from Jess and made these cards.

Supplies used:

Magazine free papers
Martha Stewart PATP sets
Pink Petticoat sentiments
SU punches

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 28 - Going Quackers

A few more of the lovely knitted toys that my Mum has been busy making for our fundraisers.

Thanks Mum for being so busy through the year and making lots of these lovely toys for us to sell xx

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 27 - The Cutest Witch

The challenge this month on Scrapology is B is for Buttons and to use this sketch.

This is my take on the sketch using a photograph of my sister at my niece's 21st birthday party.

I used a mixture of Doodlebug, Bella Boulevard and Echo Park Halloween papers.  The title is cut with Sizzlet alphabet 'Wingo Zingo' and the buttons are a Die-namics die, which were hand-stitched to the page.

There is still time to take part in this month's challenge as it doesn't close until 5th November.

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 26 - Enjoying the Sun

There is a lovely sketch challenge at Sarah's Cards this month.

This is my take on the sketch using papers from an old kit (April 2012) - Lily Bee 'Buttercup'

The title is cut using Sizzlet alphabet 'Naturally Serif', the butterflies are a Cheery Lynn die.  The photographs are from our Netherlands trip in April 2012.

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 25 - Miscellaneous Cards

A few cards that weren't made for any particular challenges.

A Penny Black t for transparent stamp with a lovely Penny Black sentiment

Using a woodgrain embossing folder and SU embosslit butterflies -

SU stamp coloured with SU markers, the sentiment is Personal Impressions -

Some mini birthday cards -

The lovely box and card made in a class by the lovely Fiona from Staring at the Sea

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 24 - My Month in Numbers September

Well they do say better late than never - so here are my numbers for September!!

As always the most important number is how long till we get our next Marillion fix - it is now only 15 sleeps away - I'm so excited!!!!

My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary - we had a family meal in their favourite Chinese restaurant attended by 17 people.

and then a week later we took them to the beautiful island of Guernsey for a little holiday.

This beautiful cottage was our home for 9 days.

A highlight of the holiday was a day on the beautiful island of Herm - it only took 20 minutes to get there by boat and we enjoyed beautiful weather that day - a glorious 20C.  We made our way to Shell Beach which was a 45 minute walk from the harbour.

 

Coming back we had to negotiate the Rosiere steps to pick our boat back up, what a bad number collector I am because I was so busy trying to stay upright on them that I didn't count them and I cannot find anywhere online that actually says how many there are - but there were a lot!!

We also spent 2 nights in Manchester and went on an elephant hunt around the Trafford Centre - there were over 100 elephants and we managed to track down 85 of them.  Here are some of my favourites -

I also held my first fundraiser of the year - I was allowed to have a stall and run a raffle at my parent's sheltered housing's weekly coffee morning.  We raised £214 for a local charity Children with Cancer Fund, we are now busy getting ready for another one in November.

Craftwise I made 9 Christmas cards, 11 other cards, 10 post it note pads, 2 layouts and a 20 page 6x6 album for my parents.

Month in numbers is a regular blog feature on Julie Kirk's blog - Notes on Paper, you can find out how to participate here

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 23 - August Birthdays

I haven't shared the cards I made for a couple of birthdays in August.

First up for my friend Wendy - a cute Penny Black critter stamp, the sentiment is a Pink Petticoat printable.  The paper is from Creative Memories and I used an Ellison thin cut for the decorative corners.

 I coloured the image with Promarkers - mainly Cool Grey 1 and 3, Almond and Sunkissed pink for the hedgehogs.

I also made Wendy some earrings to match a bracelet that she had bought from me earlier in the year -

For my brother in law I used this Penny Black stamp as he works on the railway along with Mr P and is also a rail enthusiast -

The papers are from Wild Rose Studio and the die cut shape is a Stampin' Up die.  The sentiment is a Pink Petticoat printable.  I coloured the image with Promarkers and used the same colours as this card

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 22 - New Ariel 3 in 1 pods

Every now and then I do a bit of product testing for various market research companies - usually I have to be very hush hush about what I am testing as often these products aren't ready to go on public sale yet.  But recently I have been testing some stuff for Super Savvy Me and as it is a current product I am allowed to speak about it and share samples so that friends & family can try it too.

The product is the new Ariel 3 in 1 pods and I was sent the Biological variety to test (they also come in Colour and Febreze varients).

My tester's pack contained a full size pack of the 3 in 1 pods, samples to give out to friends and family with short surveys for them to fill in plus a money off coupon for a future purchase

The pods are really easy to use, you just put one directly into the drum of the machine, add your clothes, add fabric conditioner if you use it and then away you go.  They are suitable to use at low temperatures and they save time and money as you don't have to mess about adding extra stain removers to the wash.  This is great for me as my husband over the years has earned himself the nickname of 'The Muck Magnet', I swear when he is wearing a white shirt he sees it as a challenge as to how many different stains he can get on it!!  And it is never easy stuff to get out - think curry, mustard, ketchup, tea, coffee!!!!   I've even done a layout called The Muck Magnet showing him in action LOL!!

I was really impressed with the results, my washing was so clean, the challenging stains had gone and I didn't have to rewash anything.  My laundry also smelt absolutely wonderful - I just love the smell of clean clothes and that just freshly washed smell and over the last few years have found that modern laundry products don't have that same lovely smell anymore - it is no surprise that my favourite candle scent is Clean Cotton.  The wet laundry smelt absolutely divine, I had to keep sniffing all the washing before I put it out on the line LOL and they still smelt great when dry too.  My whites are definitely brighter too, thanks to the brightening product that is also in the unique pod.  I was also impressed with how clean they left my washing machine - I have used capsules in the past and found that some brands leave a sticky goo around the door seal, but not these, they dissolve totally and leave no residue behind.

So this little pod is now my new best laundry friend!!!

I definitely found that it lived up to the hype - cleaning, removing stains and brightening with one simple to use pod.  The people that have had samples of it are also sending me back glowing reports too.

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 21 - One Photo & Twenty Words

Joining in with Abi's One Photo & Twenty Words

Warm soft white sand, bare feet, hot sun on my back, last chance at summer before autumn finally sets in

Blogtoberfest 2013 - Day 20 - More Memory Wire Bracelets

Some more of the memory wire bracelets made for my next fundraiser.

Lady in Red -

Moroccan Nights -

Ice and Fire -

Lavender Fields -