Memos, Mail, Me on a Monday - the Pink or the blue arsed fly edition - take your choice!!

Hello I am still here - alive and kicking!!!!  Just barely any time to blog at the moment, even though I want to  But I am busy in a good way - lots going on with the parents at the moment plus uber-busy-ness for myself too.  The first convention of the year is looming, I have been baking for Queen and country - I swear we have no real food in our freezer at the moment - just cakes LOL!!  

And I have another retreat coming up as soon as we get home from convention #1 and a break in the Netherlands.

So first all of what has the post yielded this week - well there was this - can a girl ever have too many scarves???  The answer to that question is a big fat NO!!!!!!!  There is no such thing as too many scarves and to prove it I now have a pink scarf with flamingos on - it will match the new hair!!

 I resolved end of last year to only buy one stamp set from each new Penny Black release this year - I broke that resolution this week!!!!  The new release was divine and I narrowed it down to two sets and three cling stamps in the end - ooooops but they are all so lovely and I know I will use them lots and lots!!

And it is also the time of the month when we get our monthly Birchbox - a lovely selection this month, I think I will use everything in the box this time.

And on to today, I have mainly been blonde since I was 16, apart from the odd flirtation with auburn and some red streaks over 7 years ago, I have pretty well stuck with the same blonde highlights.  So this month I fancied a change and thought that convention time was as good a time as any to have a complete change and I fancied pink - I didn't want fluorescent pink or candy floss pink but something that would last more than one wash - so this is how it turned out -

It will fade down to a much softer pink after a couple of washes and I think I like it, I do a double take in the mirror at the moment LOL - and tonight under artificial lights it looks more red than pink, in fact Mr P even called me Ging-er earlier - he likes to live dangerously LOL!!!!!

The rest of today has involved deciding what Marillion t shirts to pack for the convention - I only have a couple to choose from!!!!  (There are about 10 t shirts missing from this photo) - I will get it down to about 8 eventually!!

I also need to finish these as gifts for so many of our friends - the now traditional convention chocolate sets -

But I did finish some special gifts for some of my friends that I am sharing a cottage with -

But I must dash now - my packing is calling me, I need to have most of my stuff and all the foodstuff packed by tomorrow evening and my to do list is growing by the minute.  If you get a moment go and say hello to Sian over at From High in the Sky and if you have time please join in with us Mondayers.

Convention Chocolates

It has become a tradition now for me to make these themed packs of chocolates to give out to friends at the Marillion conventions.  I originally got the idea for them from the It's All Fiddle Fart blog.

This year the albums for the convention were Anoraknophobia and Marbles and I used images produced by Marjo Klingenberg, Carla Barros and Mark Kennedy to decorate them.

I didn't get a chance to photograph the packs that I took to the UK convention in Wolverhampton last weekend as I was still packaging them up the night before we left.  I did however get a quick snap of the chocolates waiting to be packaged.

The only difference apart from saying Wolves 2015 on the back was the Barry image against a Union Jack instead of the Dutch flag.  I enjoy making these as I can set up a production line approach to do them plus they are a great laptray craft so I can watch TV at the same time!!

British Themed Mints

I always like to take a little gift for all the family when we go to stay with our friends in the Netherlands.  This time I decided to make up some Elizabeth Shaw mints on a British theme - I first saw this idea on The Fiddle Fart blog and have since made them on various different themes.

 The papers used are a mixture of Docrafts and Craftwork cards.  The crown is a SU stamp which I embossed in gold.

My Month in Numbers - March

Oooops I almost forgot to share my March numbers.

2 weekends away, first one near Cambridge, meeting up with 5 online friends from my Flylady group

Weekend no 2 was our annual trip with fellow Twilight lovers to a huge converted barn near Hereford for a weekend of crafting.  13 of us in total, including 3 husbands.

I made 1 coffee and walnut cake for the weekend and 16 vampire cupcakes

We make little gifts for each other, I made 12 sets of Elizabeth Shaw chocolates

I set myself a goal of making 30 cards over the weekend - I hit my total and started another 6 cards!

The 3rd weekend of March was spent up in London at Guy's Hospital, whilst my Dad underwent a cochlear implant - Mum and I spent 6 anxious hours waiting for him to come back to the ward.

Dad was very chipper following the op and wanted a photograph showing off his head bandage -

After a 2 night stay we were allowed to take him home, he is making a good recovery and we now wait for the device to be turned on.

Inspired by some of the ladies at the barn who are on stash diets, I set myself some targets before I can buy myself new stash - my targets are 30 layouts (not including class pages) and 100 cards.  I'm allowed to replace adhesives, inks, page protectors and neutral cardstock but no patterned papers, embellishments or dies/stamps.  So far I have 84 cards and 27 layouts left to make!!

I have some countdowns for next year - the Marillion European convention in the Netherlands, only 335 days to go and then 356 days to the UK convention.  Also 132 days to my big birthday!!

 My crafty totals are 3 layouts, 15 Christmas cards, 32 other cards, 1 bracelet and earring set, 12 sets of Liz Shaw mints and 18 blog posts.

If you would like to join in with Julie Kirk's monthly number crunching, you can find out how right here

Marillion Christmas Chocolates and mini cards

I suddenly decided to make a little gift to send to some of my Marillion friends for Christmas and decided on a Christmas version of the Marillion convention chocolates that I had made earlier in the year.  I found some lovely Christmas Marillion images online and chose four to print and punch out.

And then attached them to punched scalloped circles and enclosed an Elizabeth Shaw mint chocolate inside each one.  If you want the full instructions on how to make then take a look at Fiddlefart's blog which is where I got the idea for them.

I made 32 sets in the end and then had to make some very quick and easy Christmas cards to go with them.  So I stamped directly onto the card using some Penny Black T for transparent Christmas critter stamps.

Marillion chocolates

Ooops I ran out of scheduled blog posts and only just noticed - bad me!!

Over the last couple of years I have made many friends on Facebook through some of the Marillion groups and I was very excited that this year I was going to meet some of them either in the Netherlands at the Port Zelande convention or in Wolverhampton at the UK convention. (As many of you know the PZ convention didn't happen for us in the end due to the dratted 'flu).  I wanted to make a small gift for some of my friends as a little memento of the weekend and just as a small token to say thanks for their friendship.  It needed to be something quite small that I could easily make lots of and also something a bit fun.  I then remembered these chocolate gifts that Helen from the Fiddle Fart blog makes and set about making some Marillion themed ones. 

I used some of the weekend artwork and artwork from the two albums that would be played over the weekend - Radiation and Brave.

I used a Stampin' Up scalloped circle punch and a CM circle punch to make the sandwiches for the Elizabeth Shaw chocolates.

Port Zelande chocolates showing the reverse -

Wolverhampton chocolates showing the reverse -

I used a SU ticket stamp and punch for my label.

I think everyone liked them - I wonder how many will actually eat their mints - if you are reading the best by date is August 2013!!  I just wish I could have made them for so many more people, so apologies if you didn't get one.

Christmas Gifts

I have had some fun in the run up to Christmas this year making some different bits and pieces.

I love Helen's blog It's All Fiddle Fart - there is always lots of inspiration to be had there and she has some great ideas for gifts.  This year I decided to make up some of these decorated mints using Elizabeth Shaw mints.

I made girly ones with pink and purple scallops.

The stickers came from Wilkinsons and I  used a Stamps Away round sentiment for the back of the mint.  The scalloped circle is a Stampin' Up punch and the plain circle is Creative Memories.

 I used more traditional colours for the boy's mints and I also made up one set with white chocolate coins for my Dad as he can only eat white chocolate.

These went under the Christmas tree and were given out at the end of my Christmas Eve party.

I also made some wine glass charms to give to a friend as a gift - I had seen some photos of charms on Facebook so I found this tutorial and came up with these -

I did find these fiddly to do as my hands are very clumsy and I find it hard to grip small things, but I persevered and only said a couple of norty words when I broke some of the wire earrings.  I loved the butterfly ones but they are for a gift so I made these snowflake ones for my own use.

I will definitely be making some sets of these for my fundraising stalls next year.  DH is going to get me a proper tool set so hopefully I will find those easier to use than the large pliers that I had raided from his tool box LOL!!!