WHAT I LOVE ABOUT BLOGGING.........

..is the wealth of friends I have "met" from all around the world and I am always blown away by their generosity. One of the blogs I love to visit is Lesley's and she plays along with my inchy challenge. Now Lesley is a true artist and creates wonderful decorate folk art which I just adore. I happened to mention to Lesley that I love her work and would love to purchase something from her if she would ship it from Canada over here to the UK.

Well, imagine my surprise when this morning I received a package from Lesley as a gift. It was a beautiful Home Sweet Home sign and here it is in all its glory.

It also has pride of place in my hall and looks so lovely nestled among the decorations don't you think.

Thank you so much Lesley - I hope you have a wonderful Christmas. xx

INCHY BLOG - LAST CHALLENGE FOR THE YEAR

THIS IS THE LAST CHALLENGE I WILL BE SETTING FOR THIS YEAR'S INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - THE THEME IS CHRISTMAS CAROLS -

NEXT YEAR'S CHALLENGE BLOG WILL RUN ON A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT FORMAT SO WE DON'T ALL GET BORED. HOPE YOU'LL CHECK US OUT IN THE NEW YEAR - YOU'LL FIND US HERE IN CASE YOU DON'T KNOW.

CHRISTMAS CARDS, CAROLS AND MULLED WINE

Sounds good doesn't it - a friend came round last night, we had the carols playing, mulled wine and we sat and made loads of Christmas cards. We both needed that extra bit of motivation and managed to get a lot done.

I've found another new challenge blog today, the Play Date Cafe, and they are asking for Christmas colours of Red, Green and White, always my favourite - this card fits the colours requested.

The colours in this one don't quite fit, but I love this sentiment taken from The Night Before Christmas.

Shabby Christmas !

I found a new challenge blog on my blog travels and it inspired me to join in - I've made a Shabby Chic Christmas Tag. You'll find Let's Get Shabby here - there are some fabulous samples from their DT team.

INCHY BY INCH CHALLENGE - PRESENTS

I thought I'd get you all in the Festive Mood early with a Christmas challenge on Inchy by inch this week - the theme is PRESENTS.

Also stay tuned - there will be a new format on the challenge blog starting in the New Year - I was thinking of stopping it but had my interested sparked with a slightly different idea so I'll keep it going for a bit longer - stay tuned to 2010 to see what the new format will be!

I've also received my first Christmas card - thanks Karen (Missy K)

Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday

It's Wednesday again and that means its time for WOYWW - I've tried to do this many Wednesdays before and even got as far as taking the pictures but not as far as putting them on the blog! doh! Well, here's today - its a CJ I'm doing for a forum that needed to be done by the 15th November - looks like I'm a bit late then! Oops

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - GUEST DESIGNER - JAINE

We have a Guest Designer Jaine, this week over at Inchy challenge blog and her challenge for us is Texture. Pop along to the blog to find out more about Jaine and see her great inchies.

Here's mine - I've used some mulberry papers, pink and purple and purple beads plus some purple fibres.

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - WINTER WHITE

The challenge over at inchy challenge blog this week is Winter White - all white but with an addition of one colour - tricky one to scan or photograph! Here's mine:

There is also a Christmas Inchy Swap running if you fancy joining in!

SMALL WORLD OF INCHIES/TWINCHIES /ONE POWERFUL HOUR

Over at the Small World of Inchies blog this week - the theme is faces. Over at One Powerful Hour the theme is small - well can't get much smaller than an inchy can you?

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - MEET OUR NEW ARRIVAL - ATC CHALLENGE - MIXED MEDIA MONDAY

As its Bonfire Night here on 5th November in the UK - our challenge over at Inchy challenge blog is Fireworks. I've done the Catherine Wheel as its one of my favourites so I thought I'd see if I could find out where it got its name. Wish I hadn't bothered - apparently it was named after an instrument of torture, the breaking wheel, upon which St Catherine was martyred. Hmm, not so nice.

I thought you might like to see a picture of a new addition to the Whitehead household - puppy! She is a Welsh Springer Spaniel and will be ready to come to us on 13 December. She's not really for Christmas - definitely for life! - its just so happened that's when one has come available. We thought we didn't quite have enough pets what with 3 cats, a dog and a horse!!! Isn't she gorgeous - We're all busy trying to decide on names for her? Any suggestions????

CHALLENGES

Its a while since I've been joining in with the challenges - but TMTA sparked my enthusiasm this morning with their theme of BROWN - I love the colour brown in all its nuances - I've used all Stampin Up stamps and supplies for this ATC. I just love this pheasant and have used him lots of times already - he lends himself really well to embossing!

The Challenge over at Mixed Media Monday this week is Opposites Attract - I used a Cherry Pie stamp here

BOO - INCHY CHALLENGE THEME - HALLOWE'EN

The theme over at inchy challenge blog this week is Hallowe'en. I've used some Cherry Pie Stamps and a Stampin Up stamp (the Spider) for my inchy this week.

The witchy among you will know that the word Samhain is the magickal word for Hallowe'en. Hallowe'en is one of my favourite Sabbats in the Magickal calendar - I always lay a place at the table for those of my family who are no longer with us - the practice of candy at Hallowe'en stemmed from the ancestors putting out food for their loved ones who were no longer with them. How many people realise that today? Once you get away from all the hype of Hallowe'en it really is a magickal special time.

DD and I are off to Glastonbury this week -just to soak up some atmosphere and, as we have a Hallowe'en party to go to, we may just pick up a few bits and pieces.

Have a great week!

LEAF ART

I've been playing around with leaves lately - here are some works in progress.

Stamps are Cherry Pie

INCHY CHALLENGE - BABIES

The theme over at Inchy Challenge blog this week is Babies - human or animal.

Why not give it a go - they don't take long to do!

INCHY BLOG - GUEST DESIGNER - TIME

I'm so late this week with my own inchy for my own Challenge Blog! Our guest Designer is Ali Manning and she has a wonderful theme of Time.

Here's my Time inchy - I don't know why but I always seem to quote this saying whenever there is a time theme - am I predictable, unimaginative or just plain scared silly about how quickly time passes! Don't answer that!!! lol!

The stamps are from Tim Holtz

I've also been doing some Christmas Cards which I'm going to donate to a charity - Too Many Tears - this is an animal sanctuary mainly dealing with Cats and Dogs - its a fabulous site and they do a lot of good work around the country. If you are thinking of adopting a dog or cat - do check out the site - don't say I didn't warn you though - its not called that for nothing.

his Santa stamp is one I tracked down last year - I knew he'd become one of my favourites. The Do No Open stamp is from Stampin Up.

I can't remember where I got the stamps for this one - I've always loved the sentiment Have Yourself...... - stems from one of my favourite films, Meet Me In St Louis with Judy Garland - I've blogged about this before so I won't bore you with it again!

RED SKY AT NIGHT.....

I just had to take some pictures of the red sky tonight just outside the front of my house - should be a good day tomorrow then!

If only I could do as well with the Brayer!

SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT....INCHIES

The challenge blog Something Completely Different is doing inchies again this week - the theme is birds. Don't forget my inchy challenge blog every Monday if you enjoy doing inchies.

CHRISTMAS STEP UP CARD

Trawling through Splitcoast Stampers, the way we do! I was inspired by Jennifer's Step Up Card using Winter Post - I love this set and want to find new ways of using it.

I used some old SU Designer Series Paper for the actual card - the paper is so thick it doesn't need cardstock!

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - RAIN

Rain rain go away ........ I know its not been here for a while but I so enjoyed those sunny autumn days - so the challenge on inchy challenge blog this week is Rain. Here's mine:

We will be having a fabulous Guest Designer next week so pop along for some extra inspiration.

LOOK WHAT I GOT!

I received a gorgeous card from my friend Julie this morning - Julie is my downline in our little Stampin Up family and she sent this card to thank me for my help when she first started as I am now leaving Stampin Up behind and going on to other things.

Julie made the card with all SU materials and you can find out more on her blog - the photo doesn't do it justice - such a beautiful card - thanks Julie and I hope you continue to do well with SU.

GINGERSNAP CREATIONS CHALLENGE

Gingersnap Creations has a challenge of Movie Stars this week - I've used Scarlett and Rhett! The background was made using the Brayer and I've used various stamps including Cherry Pie, Stampin Up and Tim Holtz. The inks were all SU and I used a total of 7 colours to make the background. Gone With The Wind is one of my favourite books and the film, although great, doesn't really do the book justice as its not just about a love story but is far more gritty.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM - SCREEN 2 SCRAP!

This week's challenge for Screen2Scrap is to be inspired from the Night at the Museum Poster, together with the following criteria:

1. Use a group photo

2. Yellow or gold title

3. Use one element from the poster - a dinosaur, monkey, plane, rocket, squid etc.....OR

3. Something inspired by one of the figures in the poster.......example #1 The Pharoah = a pyramid or egyptian themeexample # 2 Napolean Bonaparte = the Eiffel tower

The poster reminded me of when we'd taken the children to the Natural History Museum in Houston when we used to live there - they've always both liked dinosaurs so I dug out these pictures - well its very nearly a group photo! The paper was Cloud 9 Design and I used some of Tim Holtz Idea-ology masks to add to the background. I actually have a Texas punch, which is the little ones at the bottom!

BLOG CANDY

Wow - some fab Blog Candy here to celebrate Sharon's special birthday.

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - MASKS

The Challenge over at my inchy challenge blog this week is Masks. Here's mine:

Doing our bit for charity

Mrs Dunnit (Julia from Stamping Ground blog here ) and I had a great time meeting up for coffee today and doing our bit for the Macmillan Coffee morning - I'd noticed our local garden centre was holding an event so we went along and did our bit - and of course we had to have cake - what's coffee without cake??????? Its like stamps without ink, paper without scissors, cards without envelopes - I think you get my drift! lol!!!


I really should have some craft bits to show you but I'm so nervous as I have a job interview today (a job after 20 years home looking after kids - faint) that my hands are shaking too much to do anything.


Maybe later................. gulp! In the meantime here's a picture of my strawberries - thanks to the lovely weather we've had the last few weeks - they are still going strong and so sweet. Not enough to share around though - what a shame! I've also made some sun-dried tomatoes - Well Aga dried tomatoes with my crop of toms! Yum!

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - LEAVES AND A BLOG CANDY GIVEAWAY

Oops - I was somewhat late with this week's challenge over at my inchy challenge blog. Blame it on the fact that I've been away celebrating my wedding anniversary - 24 years! Yikes - I feel too young to have been married that long - I can still remember my parents' 25th! DH and I reckon we need long service medals! lol!!! We're already planning next year's extravaganza!

Anyway - enough of real life and back to blogging - the challenge over at inchy this week is LEAVES. I just love autumn - its my favourite season and I love the colours of the leaves - this is a great leaf which comes in the new Autumn Days set by Stampin Up which I just seem to be using all the time at the moment! I've used SU's marker pens to get the different autumnal colours on the leaf and a leaf brad I found in my stash!

I've got a little stash of assorted brad shapes that I will give away to the first person who leaves a comment and becomes a follower. If you are one of my lovely followers anyway - that's fine!

BLOG CANDYS

In my hunt for scrapbooking challenges - its amazing how one thing leads to another - here's a great scrapping challenge site and they are also offering Blog Candy if you fancy becoming one of their followers. You'll find Sweetie's Sketches here . Good luck!

Here's some more Candy up for grabs too you'll find it at Sassy's Designs here

WOYWW!!

Or What's On Your Workday Wednesday for those in the know! Well, mine is a mess, as it usually is - its a wonder I ever find anything. Today I was busy doing the layouts - see post before this one!

But I also thought I'd show you WOYCW - which translates as What's On Your Chair Wednesday - I ask you - how am I supposed to get my big butt on that chair to do any work when Pepper is taking up all the room! lol!

SCRAP CHALLENGES

I was prompted by Shazza stopping by my blog and asking me to join in with some of her scrapping challenges to do some more layouts this afternoon.

The first one is for her Artastic Challenge blog and this was their challenge - produce your layout inspired by the following picture by the artist Kandinsky - I must admit I had never heard of this artist but I love finding out about new things and new people. This was the piece we were given called White II.

I produced my layout called White on White II as I've chosen a picture of me in the snow. Honestly, I'm in the picture - just that dot over there on the right! lol!

I then discovered that Shazza runs another challenge - this one is called from Screen 2 Scrap where she takes a Movie Poster and you use it for your inspiration. The poster was from Home Alone.

She also included the criteria that you had to use either blue or red, a piece of patterned paper and a two word title.

.

Pleasant Pheasant Sunset!

Funny isn't it - a few weeks ago I was bemoaning the fact of making cards - and all it took was a new stamp set to get me going again!

I'm loving this pheasant stamp from SU's new set Autumn Days. This is the first really successful card I've managed with they Brayer - thanks to a youtube tutorial I found - can't remember who - I'll have to check and get back to you. She said though to start your rollings off card before you start on the card - if that makes sense.

Anyway - this is my card - hope you like it!

PS - here's the link to the brayer tutorial I found on you tube which really helped me, sorry I couldn't get the video to download

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPRVv1qF5Uc

You'd better watch out.......

You better take care....... cause I absolutely adore Reindeers at Christmas time and I couldn't wait to have a go with the Reindeer from the new SU set Winter Post. I can see he's going to become one of my faves - all details on the card are on my SU blog here where you'll also find details of up and coming Christmas card classes!

WINTER POST

That's Winter Post stamp set by Stampin Up - yes I've done my first Christmas card - woohoo only 100 or so more to go! lol!

All details on my SU blog here

DOTTY DIVAS!

Dotty Divas is a new challenge site - and a scrapbooking one at that - thanks Julia! Their challenge this week was to gain your inspiration from the following Coco Cola advert:

Here's my take on it - I used the old catchphrase for Coca Cola which was "Its the Real Thing" and its certainly proved to be that for my DH and me - 24 years next week!!! This picture was taken at the Trevi Fountain in Rome last year - one of our favourite places. The stamp of the Colliseum is a Cherry Pie Stamp.

So sad.......

I found out today that someone's blog I have visited in the past has just been tragically killed whilst out doing what she loved which was jogging. How unbearably sad it is when you go on their blogs and it is so full of life and yet is no longer up-dated. How hard such a tragedy must be for their families - we find it hard enough and we don't even know them.

Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts.

Her name is Michelle Hale and you will find her blog here

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - ASIA

The theme on Inchy Challenge Blog this week is Asia. Here's mine: