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.

Memorandum Monday - the edition with a coffee cake, crop and new snuggly dressing gown

Well I have just realised that I haven't blogged my Memorandum Monday yet and as I am still up as I can't sleep because I am full of a stinky cold, I will get on and blog now rather than waiting for the morning.

We had a lovely long weekend as Mr P had five days off from work.  Friday we took my parents to visit my Uncle in Rye Hospital - he isn't doing too well at the moment so we keep everything crossed that he will pick up soon and get back to his old self.  It was a dreadful day weather wise and the roads were a nightmare coming home with torrential rain and flooding on the marsh roads and yes there were those loony drivers that had to keep overtaking because they are in a hurry to get to the mortuary!!

Saturday saw the second crop for our new crafting group - we have gone from being the craft group with no name to the Seaside Crafters - the hall we meet in is off of Seaside and most of us at the group are Eastbournians so live by the sea.

I rustled up a coffee and walnut cake for us -

I had a break from scrapbooking and got stuck into Christmas cards as I am replenishing my stocks ready for my next fundraiser which is only two weeks away.  I got fourteen cards made and die cut a load of images ready for more cards -

 Sunday we had a nice quiet day at home, we were both starting to develop our colds.  I got the sewing machine out and made a pile of Christmas themed tissue covers - for my fundraiser and for our WI when we have a stall at our village Christmas Fayre

And Monday found us spending the day in town finishing our Christmas shopping.  I still need to get a few online bits and pieces but otherwise it is all done, I try to get done before the end of November as trying to negotiate the crammed stores in December in a wheelchair is just no fun.  I treated myself to a lovely new snuggly dressing gown - it is damson faux fur and is the softest cuddliest dressing gown I have ever had and it has a hood for extra snuggliness -

I will quite happily spend the rest of the winter living in my new dressing gown LOL!!

Please go and give a wave to Sian over at From High in the Sky who is in charge of Memorandum Monday.  Have a great week and fingers crossed by next Monday I will be a little less snotty!!

Blogtober Day 23 - Dukes Farm Table Gifts

When we have our little crafty meet up each year in Wales we usually all exchange small gifts and this year was no exception.

I had some little packs of nail gems which are great to use for crafting so I made a little box to put them in with my WRMK gift box punch board.

I decorated the boxes using SU Perpetual Calendar stamps in Daffodil Delight and Smoky Slate.

I then added a sweet treat on the top - white chocolate coins decorated with punched scallop circles and a LOTV round sentiment stamp.

In return I was given these lovely gifts -

Decorated mugs by Jessie

Journalling prompts from Jules

Easter chocs in a basket from Fiona

 A box of embellishments from Gemma

Decorated pringle tubs from Sy (they didn't last long LOL!!)

Post it note pad from Dee

A brooch from Lisa

Mini bottle of wine from Mr P and washi tape from Lee

Quilted coaster and pot holder from Tara

Blogtober Day 13 - a 50th Birthday minibook

Whoops I went away and forgot to schedule some blog posts - never mind I still have time to do four blog posts this week and not fail with my Blogtober challenge!!

This is the mini book that I made for my sister's 50th birthday, using clear CD wallets as the page protectors.

I raided my Mum's photo albums for lots of school and holiday photographs

I used lots of papers that were kit leftovers and not large enough to use on 12x12 pages.

I used a mixture of die cut and punched butterflies to embellish the pages

The pages were joined together with eyelets set using the cropadile.

A big thank you to Anita aka the inky blossom for teaching this book many years ago at her monthly class, I have made quite a few albums since then.

If you would like to check out the other participants of Blogtober 2016 check out Sy's blog here

Blogtober 2015 Day 20 - Memory Wire Bracelets

Over the summer I have been slowly restocking my memory wire bracelets that I make for my fundraising.

Warning there are quite a few photographs but here is a selection of them -

I really enjoy sitting with all my pots of beads coming up with different bead combinations for each one - no two are ever the same.