39 Sleeps till Christmas!!!

That's right scary aye!!!

And on that happy note did you see that Wellington had their Christmas Parade this weekend - wow it's not THAT close is it?

So much for writing lists and getting things done, Monday & Tuesday I pretty much spent the days in bed sick and the rest of the week was not much better.
Typical when I had something planned for Friday and Saturday Night, but it was not meant to be and instead I was in bed early every night!

But I have some exciting news - our own Diane Hanson has made the Elite Design Team for the Up 2 Scraps magazine!! Congrats to Diane I am SO excited for you, you have much more talant that you give yourself credit for!! Here is the list

# Annelie Maddock (Whangaparaoa)
# Sonya Pickles (Duntroon)
# Pauline McArdle (Napier)
# Dianne Hanson (Timaru )

Congrats to you all ladies - it is exciting with Sonya Pickles and Dianne from our neck of the woods and both ladies have amazing talent, and Annelie who Bronwyn and I had the great pleasure of meeting last year at the Sketch book retreat - Annelie was kind enough to give us both a ride back to the airport we know that three out of the 4 have amazing talent and I am sure that Pauline will to so looks like I will need to Subscribe to the magazine so I don't miss out on all that Inspiration!

Diaine made me a gift which was totally unnecessary but very much appreciated and nearly eaten (lol lots) here are some photos of what she did with an Prima tin!




Thank you Diane - it was so very kind of you and boy do you know me so well, pretty scrapped packaging, chocolate and strawberry lollies from the lollie Jar - YUMMY!!!

So I hope you all had a much better week and weekend than I did and I will start that list again for this week!

Have a good one

*hugs*

Rachel

Busy Weekend?

What did I planned for my weekend?? NOTHING!!! Well that was the plan, I am big into making lists at the moment to get things done - seems it is the only way that I can get anything crossed off! Although I wanted to get a scrapbook page done this weekend as I took some cool photos of my son which just show what he is all about - but it will be on my "to do on Tuesday" list - gotta love Tuesdays my day off work!

So Yesterday I spent the day playing in my room, what did I make - take a look:


and a close up



And what is so amazing about this card I can hear you ask? Well if you remember quite a few post's ago I was asking if ANYONE could help me figure out how i could "digital stamp" and colour with distress inks, and this wonderful lady answered my call and gave me all the information I needed to be able to do it!
Please check out Mina's blog for a HEAP of inspiration! And thank you, thank you Mina I can't tell you how excited I am to now be able to use the images that I brought and also confess to popping over to Mo's Digital Pencil and purchasing a few more! (Mina is also a design team member for Mo).

Now this is what I had while trying to look for an image to "copy"


He was a BIG help!

I also used the new Kaiser Christmas papers to start making my own christmas crackers, I was really pleased with how this turned out and to be honest it doesn't show all that well in the picture but looks much better in real life!


I used the spellbinders Poinsettia nestabilitie, Kaiser Christmas paper, Kaiser Pears, Matha Stewart Butterfly punch, and cut the word "nana" from my Klic N Kut and covered it with glitter.
Inside the cracker is a custom joke just for nana, and HEAPS of lollies and a explosive thingy that spouts paper everywhere!
These are heaps of fun to make and lots of fun on christmas day - no dud jokes and silly hats for the Forrester Christmas this year!

And I want to wish Alvina (our little christmas elf) from Christchurch & Sean Flannery a happy birthday for yesterday!
Then after all that today, I got up and did house work, cleaned windows bathroom, toilets etc, and then started baking, we now have full tins with Chocolate cake, yo yo's, tan square (Marg's no nut slice to our close friends)Lolly cake, & chocolate fudge!!! Better be no complaining there is nothing in the tins for the next week at least!
I also made a chocolate cake for a friend who is in our thoughts.

Righto off to get some cake and perhaps make a start on that scrapbook page!

Take care will be back before the end of the week with that scrap page!

Take care

Rachel



Catch you all again soon!

Send some Love!

I have just come from Katharina Frie's blog, this is the lady that is responsiable for Whiff of joy stamps.
There has been a tragic story and I would love to be able to help spread some love to little Jamie - just think if this was your own child.

Here is some information about what happened:

"On October 4th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These 4 boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings."

Our hope is that everyone hopping around today will stop for a moment and think about Jaimie and her father and what life must be like for them now. One moment in time has changed their lives forever. We are asking that everyone reading this message please take a moment to make a card and send it off to Jaimie. You can make something very simple or much more involved, but please share some words of hope and love and let her know that people do care and want the best for her. Please send your card to the address below:

Jaimie Cates
c/o Mont Vernon Fire Station
Main Street
Mont Vernon, NH 03057
United States

We have over 60 hoppers joining us and some amazing sponsors who have donated fabulous prizes for our Spread the Love Card Drive Challenge!

The Blog hop will end on Monday, November 9th at 10am ET (3 pm GMT). At that point we will draw random winners to receive the prizes offered by our generous sponsors.

Pop on over to Katherina's blog for links to the hop.

Thanks for your help in helping make this little girls future perhaps a better one - just in the knowledge that others care!

Take care

*hugs*

Rachel