Hmmmm.... welll.....

Things haven't quite gone to plan (when do they ever?!?)

First week of the new year came, my husband went back to work, my little boy went back to playgroup (with some protesting) and started at Nursery Plus and all was going well.   Then on the Wednesday evening there was a knock on the front door and when I opened it, there on my doorstep was the headteacher of the local school!  She had come to see if I was still doing supply teaching as she had some work to offer me. She asked me to go and see her in school on the Thursday morning and I came out of her office with 4 mornings a week of work (in addition to the alternate 1 afternoon one week and 2 the next I am already working at another school!!!)

So, crafting has had to take a back seat, I am hoping that once I get my head around the structure of my week I will be able to find some slots to fit it in as I would still like to be selling my cards etc through KK@the PO (although that's all about to move to a new location as well!) and have it there to fall back on when this work comes to an end!

What a year!

Hi!  It's me!  I'm back!

2013 has been a rather busy year and I am sorry to say my blog (and to a lesser extent, my crafting) has been rather neglected.  So I'd like to say a huge sorry to all my followers and let you know what I've been upto....

A couple of weeks after my last post Baby Rowlands Number 2 was born.  It seems a bit strange referring to her as Baby Rowlands Number 2 now as she is very much our little princess, Charlotte Francesca Naomi, known to most people as Lottie.  She is gorgeous, so laid back and happy and has just fitted right in to our little family, I can't believe she was 9 months last week though!

I am still running my weekly Mums and Tots group; running Rainbows and helping with Brownies; I have joined the newly formed WI in the village where I live and still go to Stampin Up classes in the next village when I can.  I have returned to work as a supply teacher working one afternoon one week and 2 afternoons the next which I love as my class are fantastic!

Crafting-wise I have kept busy this year although I haven't managed to blog about any of it!  In May I went to the Stampin Up Regional Day in Telford (with 2 month old Lottie in tow!) which was a fantastic day with some amazing inspiration, I just need the time now to have a play!!!  

Over the summer I made my best friend's save the date cards for her wedding next year and in the early Autumn I spotted an opportunity on one of the Facebook groups I'm a member of - a lady not too far from me was taking on the lease of a shop space within her local post office and was looking for people who would be interested in selling their handcrafted items in the shop.  I got in touch and arranged to deliver some cards and notebooks to see if they would sell - and slowly they have been!  I am hoping to have more time in the new year to increase the amount of stock I can produce and get to her to sell as I know there are customers out there!

In November I attended Stampin Up's annual Convention in Manchester where I received some fantastic free gift, saw some great demonstrations and picked up some brilliant ideas... Again I just need more time to play!!

The run up to Christmas was filled with charity fundraising events and Christmas fairs so it was all rather busy and chaotic around here!  Now Joseph has celebrated his 3rd birthday, Christmas is over and the presents are unwrapped (apart from Lottie's!) it's time to get my stash organised, have a play with my Christmas present (SU envelope punch board) and start turning the creative ideas into reality!

My new year's resolutions are going to have to be the same as last year...

1. Get making!

2. Blog my makes

3. (re)Join WoYWW 

4. Find a Christmas challenge to take part in and make at least one Christmas card a week!

Hope all my followers / visitors have had a lovely Christmas.  All the best for the new year and I WILL be back very soon!

Baby Rowlands #2 at 38+3

At this point in my first pregnancy I was in hospital waiting to be induced; this time round it doesn't feel like the baby is ever going to put in an appearance! I feel massive and don't think I have any more skin left to stretch!! Keep your fingers crossed he or she decides to arrive soon!

Especially for my Netmums Jan 2011 friends, here are a couple of photos to show just how big I am now!!

WOYWW 30th January 2013

Well, after a bit of a false start - thanks to Orange - I am back, re-starting my attempt at keeping my new year's resolution of joining in with WOYWW every week!

On my desk today we have (roughly left to right!!!)...

My friend's save the date cards which are in the assembly process! All the printing is done, all the cutting is done, the ribbon has now arrived and they just need the paper sticking to the card, the ribbon attaching and the bows adding... Times 50!!!!

In front of those is a small pile of completed cards which I need to find cellophane bags for before adding them to my box of 'stock'!

Then we have some thank you cards made simply from photos of my 2 year old. The joy of him having a December birthday is that this is only a once a year job!!! You may also just be able to spot a baby shower invitation peeping out from underneath!!

And on the workspace / mat itself is a pile of card blanks I cut and folded earlier, plus some more photos ready to be stuck together and written, which is what I'm going to do just as soon as this post is finished!!

Finally...I'm back!!!

Well what a start to the year... We were with Orange for our Internet were offered a much better deal with BT so we decided to change over, simple you would think? Not in this case... Orange were supposed to send us a code to give to BT to enable us to transfer over...it never came but our Internet went off on about 4th January!!! Eventually we managed to find out that Orange had simply cancelled our contract and disconnected us! We have now received our new box from BT and we are well and truly back online (hooray!!!!) so it's time for me to try and catch up with what's been happening in the world and get my blog up-to-date... Just in time for WOYWW tomorrow!

WOYWW 2.1.2013

Having made much more of an effort with my blog last year (partly helped by the purchase of an iPhone and the discovery of the Blogger app, I have decided that this year I am going to attempt to take part in WOYWW... in an effort to make myself keep my desk tidy(ish) as people will be seeing photos of it!!!

So, here we have the first photo of my desk for 2013. I spent most of NYE sorting, tidying and even (shock, horror!) THROWING OUT and now once more have a space I can actually work in!

The shelf part of the desk is my main storage for my ink pads at the moment but the lower shelf is my newly cleaned workspace! To the left of the photo is a stack of now-finished cards that have been sitting unfinished since the Christmas cards were first started! On the working space is the remains of a sheet of toppers I started using last night, plus the card blanks to put them on along with a couple of other paper scraps that I am also going to use on these very basic 'quick' birthday cards to put in my 'stock' box!

Sheena's Birthday Card

This little lovely is for one of my KraftKrazy forum friends, Sheena.

As hers is a December birthday I toyed with the idea of a winter birthday card but decided to use that one as her Christmas card instead when I suddenly remembered this fabulous image I just had to have and had already stamped out with Sheena in mind!

I come from a motor racing family so was quite sure I would get a lot of use out of this stamp, and knowing his much Sheena loves the F1 (especially Ferrari!) this was a must for her card too!

Tilda's outfit is coloured with Black and Berry Red Promarkers and her hair is Spice. The backing paper is from a K & Co stack and a small off-cut of a Black Magic Coredinations paper embossed with Swiss Dots, which was used on a Christmas card but just seemed to work well with this card!

A simple peel off from Craft Creations, some flowers and brads from my stash and some sticky backed gems (Crystal Stickers) which I bought at the NEC just finished it off nicely!

Christmas Robin #1

This gorgeous Christmas image was sent to me by a lovely lady known as ChrisAndCat on the DoCrafts forum.

The robin is coloured with Berry and Shale Promarkers with Gold Promarker legs.
The boot is coloured with Cocoa and the sole with Caramel Promarkers.
The holly leaf was coloured with Holly Promarker (not a huge surprise!!) and the snowdrop leaves with Forest Green.

The whole image has been lifted with Star Dust Stickles glitter glue, an absolute favourite of mine all year but especially at Christmas!!

The image was sent in response to a request I posted as I needed a traditional Christmas image for a card order and didn't really want to go to the expense of buying a stamp that would hardly be used. When I eventually get round to blogging all my ordered cards you will be able to see what I did with this image!!