9 on the 9th - some of my favourite non-papercrafts blogs

I'm a day early for Shimelle's 10 on the 10th blog post so only going to do a list of 9 things.

This month I thought I would share links to some other blogs that I like to look at that are not papercrafting blogs.

1.  The 'Love What You Wear' Project

A friend of mine is joining in with this where you pledge not to buy any new clothes for a year, instead you repair, refashion or make from scratch your own clothes.  I would love to join but I am so hopeless with making clothes.  I can do very basic repairs and simple alterations but that is about it - I remember the trauma of taking a whole year at school to make an apron and then another year to make one skirt.  But I am enjoying following what others are doing and I love seeing some of the refashions that people are doing with charity shop finds.  I am hoping that I might be able to get the confidence to make something quite basic for myself.

2.  My Make and Do Mend Year

I found Jen's blog via The 'Love What You Wear' Project.  Jen is going one step further and is trying not to buy anything new for a year - lots of enjoyable posts on green living, upcycling, repurposing, crafting and recipes.

3.  A Year Without Supermarkets

I found Team Pugh via Jen's blog and I now look forward to their daily blog posts on how they are managing with giving up shopping in supermarkets for a year.   As well as updates on how they are coping, they also share recipes and other interesting tit-bits about their lives.

4.  Mum's Monkey

A daily blog post about the adventures and musings of Mum's Monkey, Darrell and Nigel.  A visit to this blog never fails to put a smile on my face for the day.

5.  The Small Things Blog

Lots of lovely hair and make up tutorials, plus articles on clothes, fashion and home decor.  Kate's hair tutorials are all on YouTube and really easy to follow.

6.  The Pink Whisk

This is my favourite cookery blog - Ruth Clemens was the runner up in the first ever Great British Bake Off in 2010.  Her blog is packed full of lots of lovely recipes - each one accompanied by great step by step instructions plus photographs. 

7.  Charity Shop Chic

Lots of lovely ideas on how to refashion clothes to make lovely new outfits

8.  Wacky Laki

Lots of great nail art ideas and some good tutorial and nail care tips

9.  One Good Thing

Lots of recipes, household tips and homemade stuff

So there are some of the other blogs that I like to visit - have you any favourite blogs that you would like to share?

10 on the 10th

Time to join in with Shimelle's 10 on the 10th and a good way to kick off the new year is to look at 10 things that I have to look forward to in 2013.

A weekend away in Hereford with some of the mad Twilight Addicts from UKS

Seeing Miss Saigon in Brighton - I managed to see this in the West End before it finished it's run there and have been waiting a long time to see it again.  I will need plenty of tissues - I wept buckets the last time I saw it.

 

 Marillion convention in Port Zelande in March - three fabulous nights with my most favourite band ever,plus time spent with some of my wonderful Facebook friends.  Also we hope to stay on afterwards for a short holiday catching up with friends in Nijmegen.

Cardinal Colours scrapbooking weekend in Eastbourne- details here

Marillion convention part 2 - this time in the UK at Wolverhampton in April - another 3 most wonderful nights of music and more time spent with other great fans

Pendragon in May at Leamington Assembly - my next favourite band after Marillion

Mr P's 50th birthday in June - I'm planning a big family meal out and hopefully some other surprises too.

A week at Champneys in August with some of my bestest friends and this time my Mum gets to join us too - we usually do a four night stay and that never feels enough so we are doing 6 nights this time for some extra pampering.

My parent's Golden Wedding Anniversary in September - they only want very low key family celebrations but have suggested that we go to the Channel Islands for a holiday afterwards.  I have never been to Guernsey or any of the smaller islands so we will base ourselves on Guernsey and hopefully get to Sark, Herm and Alderney.

Christmas at home this year!!  As much as I enjoyed being away on our cruise and it was lovely to be released from all the baking duties, the cooking and the cleaning, I did miss seeing family over that period and all my home comforts!!

So a lot of lovely things to look forward to in 2013!!

11 on the 11th

I completely forgot that it was the 10th of the month yesterday and so missed doing a blog post for Shimelle's 10 on the 10th, so I am going to do 11 on the 11th.

I was scratching my head what to do and then I remembered this blog post by my friend Jessie where she set her iPod to shuffle and listed the first ten songs - so here are my 11 shuffled songs!!

1.  Marillion - Heart of Lothian (Misplaced Childhood)

2.  Marillion - Ocean Cloud (Marbles)

3.  Muse - Hysteria

4.  Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go

5.  Paramore - Decode

6.  Muse - Blackout

7.  Linkin Park - Leave Out All the Rest

8.  Marillion - Garden Party (Script for a Jester's Tear)

9.  Evanescence - Bring Me to Life

10.  Marillion - The King of Sunset Town (Season's End)

11.  The Reasoning - Dark Angel

10 Things on the Tenth - Blogtoberfest #10

As it is the 10th today it is time to join in with Shimelle.  I thought that I would share ten of the different challenges that I like to join in with each month when I have the time.

1.  Scrapology Card Challenge - usually goes live on the 15th of each month and you have a month to enter

2.  Scrapology Sketch Challenge - goes live on 1st of each month and the closing date is usually on the 5th of the following month.  There is always a sketch to use and a theme.

3.  My Creative Sketches - the sketch usually goes live on 16th of each month and you have to the 14th to complete.

4.  Going Buggy - Enfys usually has a monthly card challenge and these will be starting up again in the new year.  Do keep an eye on Enfys' blog as she is on the Letraset design team and often has Promarker and Aquamarker giveaways plus fab tutorials for using the products.

5.  Penny Black Saturday Challenge - this is now a monthly challenge and the theme goes live on the first Saturday in the month.  Always some lovely prizes on offer and it gives me a chance to use my many Penny Black stamps.

6.  Penny Black and More @ Allsorts - a monthly challenge which goes live on the first Sunday in the month - not just limited to using Penny Black stamps, but there is an extra prize for those that do.

7.  52 cards challenge - the weekly challenge goes live on a Monday and there is also a thread over on UKS where participants can chat and share their cards

8.  Sarah's Cards - a monthly challenge that goes live roughly in the middle of the month, usually a sketch or a theme to follow.

9.  Monthly Make - hosted by The Felt Fairy and all you have to do is make something each month.  I have tried to do something that doesn't use paper and have ended up hooked on beading and jewellery making.  There is a new Flickr group each month to share your work in and a whole array of crafts to take a look at.

10.  Month in Numbers - hosted by Julie Kirk and a fun way of looking back over the activities of the previous month expressed in numbers.

So that is just a few of the things that I get up to each month - some months I do all of these challenges but other months life just gets in the way and I only get to do a couple.

And I couldn't leave this blog post with no pictures so here are some cards made with scraps from a class kit

10 on the 10th - My (current) top ten favourite Marillion songs

I'm sneaking in at the 11th hour with my 10 on the 10th post.  As it needs to be a very quick post this month I have gone for my 10 favourite Marillion songs.  Now please bear in mind that my top 10 changes virtually every week and it would be far easier for me to do a top 50!!  Also these are not ranked in any order either - I love all these songs and couldn't possible decide which is actually number one - this is just the order in which I scrawled them down

1.  Beyond You -

2.  Fantastic Place -

3.  Neverland -

4.  This Train is My Life -

5.  These Chains -

6.  Afraid of Sunlight -

7.  The Other Half -

8.  Between You and Me -

9.  This Strange Engine -

10.  The Invisible Man -

It is such a shame that this isn't 20 on the 20th as I have left lots of my favourites off of this list.  If you are new to Marillion you can request a sampler album called Crash Course from their website.

And if you want to join in with 10 on the 10th, then go and check out Shimelle's blog and see what 10 things other bloggers are getting up to!!

10 things on the 10th

It is that time of the month again when it is time to join in with Shimelle's 10 things on the 10th.

Just a very quick one this month - thought I would look at my favourite Penny Black stamps.  I have quite a few stamps but the one manufacturer that I have loads of are Penny Blacks.  I particularly love their critter stamps with the Margaret Sherry images.

My first ever Penny Black purchase and I love it, though I must admit that I don't use it a huge amount these days as it does take a long time to colour.

My second purchase - must dust this one off again, I used it a lot when I first got it but haven't used this one for a little while

This one was bought on a whim, I needed to make a card for one of the ladies in the Twilight Addicts social group and I thought this would make a nice funny card - it has gone on to be a big favourite of mine

Yes it is Feline Count!!

This is a fairly recent purchase but has already been used on lots of cards.  I actually bought it to make Easter cards with and then didn't use it on a single Easter card so will rectify that next year!!

I bought this one to make a Valentine's card for Mr P but have gone on to use it minus the banner of hearts on lots of male birthday cards

This was another early purchase and was used a lot initially, I think it is time to dust it off again as it makes a nice cheeky male birthday card!!

This is a favourite Christmas stamp and is one of the most popular cards that I make for fundraising.

Another favourite Christmas stamp is this cling nativity one.  I rested it last year so will have to dust it off again for this coming Christmas

One of my favourite cat stamps is this one, it is so cheery and a nice one to layer

I have a lot of the t for transparent sets, this one is my favourite of all the Christmas sets.

I especially love the two kissing mice, that is probably the stamp that I have used the most for Christmas cards.

Ten Things on the 10th

It is amazing how quickly the 10th seems to come around each month and once again it is time to join in with Shimelle's 10 things.

I thought this month I would share my 10 favourite musicals - both Mr P and I love a good musical (though he is not so fond of some of the older ones that I like).  But we both agree that the best musical ever is

1.  Phantom of the Opera

I have seen it three times now and would happily see it again and again - it is a beautiful visual spectacle and the music is wonderful

2.  Les Miserables

I have been to see this four times now and each time I still weep buckets, thankfully I am never alone and my pack of tissues usually ends up being passed down the row LOL!!  I'm looking forward to seeing the film version of the musical once it is finished.

3.  The Sound of Music

This was the first musical I fell in love with - my Nan had the record and I played it all the time - for a brief spell I wanted to be a nun when I grew up LOL!!  A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to see Connie Fisher play the part of Maria when a touring production came to Eastbourne

4.  Blood Brothers

Another favourite of mine which I have seen several times and it is another real weepy one.

5.  Evita

I never got to see this in the West End but have been lucky to see it locally with touring productions, this will always be in my top 10.

My favourite song is High Flying, Adored

6.  Spamalot

This has to be the funniest musical I have ever seen - I took Mr P to see it in Brighton for his Christmas present last year - we are both Monty Python fans and found it hilarious, we were lucky to see Jodie Prenger and Todd Carty in it and can't wait until it is this way again as we would love to see it again.

7.  West Side Story

 An oldie but still an excellent one and a real weepie too.  I have lost count of how many times I have seen this one and I have the film on video too.


8.  We Will Rock You

We are both Queen fans so it was inevitable that we would go to see this - I took Mr P for his 40th birthday present and we enjoyed it so much that we immediately booked to go again the following month.  Definitely one to see if you like the music of Queen and don't take things too seriously.

We also discovered through seeing WWRY the amazing Kerry Ellis, she has an absolutely stunning voice - I don't think there was a dry eye in the house when she sang No-one but you.  Can't wait till December when we will see her in War of the Worlds.

9.  Miss Saigon

Are you beginning to see a pattern here that I like musicals that make me cry - it isn't intentional but I do tend to find the best musicals have some wonderful blubarama moments in them and Miss Saigon is no exception.  Sadly I have only seen this once though I play the soundtrack all the time - it is no longer in the West End and we haven't had any touring productions come this way.

10.  Oliver

 

Another oldie and yes a bit weepy too but it has a lovely happy ending LOL!!

So that is my ten for this month - sorry it is such a long post, I could easily have made it 20 musicals LOL!!  Looking forward to seeing what other ten's people have posted this month!!

10 Things on the 10th

Every month I say I am going to join in with Shimelle's 10 things on the 10th and every month I forget - it is always seeing Julia's blog post that reminds me that I have forgotten yet again.  I hope she doesn't mind but I am going to kick off my very first 10 things with the subject that she used in February - 10 events to look forward to in 2012

Sarah's Cards retreat in Warrington in March

Cardinal Colours weekend crop at the end of March

Taking my parents to Nijmegan (The Netherlands) to see our Dutch friends - this will be an emotional visit as my parents have not seen Mr and Mrs Jansen for almost 30 years (I know I spent most of the time crying when I saw them last March for the first time since 1977)

Pendragon at the Assembly, Leamington Spa in May

 A weekend in the North East in July and hopefully getting to crop with some of the Frozen North scrapbookers from UKS.

A five day pamper break at Champney Springs with two of my bestest friends in August

Going to Cardiff to see Marillion (September)

Another Cardinal Colours weekend crop in September - this time over in Hastings

Fish convention at the Assembly, Leamington Spa in October

A Christmas and New Year cruise down to The Canaries and Madeira on Fred Olsen's Boudicca

So a pretty eventful year to look forward to! 

You can find more 10 things on the 10th at Shimelle's blog