The Abbey Gardens, Suffolk

I took several photos of the Abbey Gardens on my way home from work the other day and they may not be of interest to those who live locally but really I'm shariung them for family overseas, both as a reminder to those who have visited them in person and those who have been away long enough to miss them.

We also have a nephew living in Texas who is planning to marry here in a couple of months time and every now and then when walking through the park you see wedding parties having photos taken against some of the stunning backdrops.  In fact last night we watched briefly as a couple sat on the edge of the Abbey ruins arm in arm whilst a professional photographer snapped away.  By the look of things they were posing and taking shots either for an engagement announcement or wedding invite type of thing. 

Why not?  The gardens are stunning and on a perfectly sunny evening with the light just right what more could you ask for?

 

There are so many lovely spots to enjoy and all of them great for photo opportunities too.

 

 

This is the entrance into the gardens which is very impressive and you will often see groups of tourists taking photos especially during the more touristy months.  To us it's always been there and is pretty much a daily part of my life as hubby drives me past it every morning in the car on the way to where I work and as I walk through it every day on my way back home again.

 

  

 

This is a view looking over the rose garden which is not yet in bloom but it won't be long before this is awash with colours and beautiful scents from all the different roses.

 

 

And of course the Abbey Gardens is full of history from St Edmund (King Edmund) and the magna carter right through to the American servicemen  commemorated with gardens and monuments.

 

What is it they say? ' One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth'.  Maybe that's a bit of a romantic view but there's no denying the beauty of creation when you're surrounded with it in all it's splendor and God is known as the 'creator' God after all. 

 

Romans 1:20 puts it this way

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

 

Just watch a documentary programme on how things in nature work and fit so perfectly together and then tell me there isn't a greater being that thought it all out.  Someone said believing in a big bang theory as suddenly causing all this to happen is like believing your ford fiesta could explode and magically transform into a ferrari LOL!

 

One day we will all of us stand before God - believers AND non-believers - and each have to give an account of ourselves.  Being a good person won't cut it and neither will ignoring the fact that God exists - there will be no excuses accepted - the bible makes this clear time and again.  God himself has given us all of creation to look at to prove He exists.  All we have to do is believe it, accept it and & trust in Him.

 

 What I will say is that the more I learn, the more I realise how blind we are, even those who believe.  Blind to the truth that is staring us in the face if we would only stop a while 'be still (stop striving) and know that I am God' - Psalm 46:10, and begin to see it for ourselves.  Want to see what kind of control God has over nature and all creation and how the story ends?  Just read Revelations.  Want to know how it began?  Read Genesis.  Want to know how we can have hope that there is a better plan for all of mankind, that God will one day wipe away every tear?  Read any one of the 4 gospels - try Mark for instance.  And just in those 3 books of the bible you have the beginning, the end and salvation (Jesus) inbetween.  You don't have to take my word for it - read God's word. John 1:1 -  In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

 

And there endeth the lesson for today! :-) I'll get off my soapbox now but I make no apologies for speaking truth.

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

Charlie

It seems I either post loads or not at all.  That's because my life can be pretty hectic at times with back to back stuff happening so by the time I get a breathing space I have loads to share and it pretty much all goes here on my blog in a couple of days.

There was a time when I could do a bit here and there to keep it consistent but when I'm not at work or church we seem to be always doing family stuff.  Doing things for my family has always been my way of showing my love for them so I doubt I'll ever change now.

Speaking of love.  We never knew just how much joy was coming into our lives a year ago until we really got to know this little cutie.

 

Meet Charlie.

 

Anyone who knows me well knows my grandchildren have been my most favoured photo subjects for about 14 years now - ever since the first one came along and Charlie ADORES his older brother.  In fact mummy tells me that Charlie sometimes cries when Zacheriah goes off to school - how sweet is that? And Zach is so good with him.

 

 

He is clearly now an expert at drinking the ol' moo juice and even so clever he can do it one handed LOL!  We walked on up to the Abbey Gardens yesterday early evening for Papa's birthday celebrations and were lucky enough to get into this picnic area in the children's playground.  Not only did it have stools and tables but it had a gate so we could sit. relax and enjoy without any fear of Charlie wandering off anywhere.  He will be 1 year old in June so he's walking incredibly well and babies are mighty quick once they figure out they can take off walking!  We've already planned to have a 'teddy bears picnic' for his first birthday - one that family and friends can bring a picnic along to, oh and of course they must be accompanied by a teddy bear - this might be the perfect spot if we can get it.

 

 

The sun was something to be contended with even though we had quite a bit of shade, especially when it gets in a little boys eyes but it was a glorious evening.  The kids had such great fun playing after our picnic that we couldn't believe we hadn't done this more often.

 

We're really fortunate I that we live just 5 or 10 minutes walk from the Abbey Gardens.  All this free outdoor space, open air, play areas, natural beauty, history.  We agreed we should be doing this as often as possible in the summer months.  Next time I might even invite my mother or other friends and family to join us. 

 

These are days full of memories in the making.  Oh and don't even get me started on the scrapbook page I feel brewing when I look at this little guy.  I'm lovin the navy blue and yellow pinstripe with the green for a colour theme.

 

Shame I was so busy running around during his baptism.  I might've got some beautiful shots otherwise.  By the time I'd finally stopped and given it some serious thought it was towards the end of the day, he'd had a nappy change and gotten out of his suit.  I might have to be quick and 'fake' it before he outgrows his little outfit.  Funny how the white sailor's romper suit I made 14 years ago has done all 3 boys at different ages yet still fit!

 

Enjoy Sis!  So cool talking to you last night by the way.  Praying we get the chance to make it over next year so we can hang out for awhile.  I know Dave would love to celebrate his big 60 with his brother and sisters around.  It's all he wants for his birthday.  Simple things huh?

 

Hugs

 

Suezie 

Sneaked in a Bit of Cardmaking - Just!

I've spent pretty much the entire day trying to get a single card done for my darling hubby today.  It's taken me most of the day because he was in and out all day and I had to quickly hide it each time I heard the car pull up!

Today is his birthday and after such a busy time with our youngest Grandson's baby baptism I couldn't find time to get hubby's card made.  Add to that I hadn't gotten out anywhere special to get a gift and I just couldn't find the WMS stamp set I had in mind to use so it looked like it was heading for disaster.

We changed our original plans for today to boot and so he went down the allotment this morning giving me an opportunity to make a quick start.  Part way through today we did manage a nice pub lunch together but after that he was in and out the house like a yo yo!

I managed to finish it but it was right at teh very last minute and just before we headed out to the Abbey Gardens with the family for an impromptu picnic to enjoy some R & R and take in the sunshine (vitiamin D).

This is how it turned out.  I had plans to use my WMS 'my kind of guy' stamp set but just couldn't lay my hands on it.  I went through my baskets of WMS stamps that I keep in CD cases and found everything else but not the set I needed to lay my hands on.  Fortunately I'd managed to grab a gift card in the grocery store which caught my eye because of the 'man card' theme which made me think of this set when I saw it.

 

Because the card was full of masculine type images and text including a moustache on the carrier card  I decided to improvise and remove the gift card, cut up the carrier card and make do.  Recycling as a necessity! 

 

 

 

 I cut the main text into a strip to set the theme for the card.

 

 

 

Using the carrier card meant that I needed somewhere to put the gift card so a quick cut with the WMS envelope die was the perfect answer - my Big Shot was still out from making the cupcake pokes so this took me seconds to cut and it looked great on the front of the card.  It was all shaping up nicely thanks you very much.

 

 

Next I added a green fold over slip to tuck the gift card into and used an image on the front of the carrier card adedd 3D as a tab to pull out the card.  Because I had made this tab 3D it sat nicely over the envelope.

 

 

And because there was a second image the same I used it inside the cardas well  to mirror the theme on the front.

 

 

And there you have it - one quick, easy masculine card made on the hop.

 

Hubby knew to pull the tab without being told so I guess it worked well.  And would you believe it?  When I went looking for a last little bit of equipment to finish off this card I found the missing WMS stamp set!!!  I told myself to look in that basket but then shook off the idea thinking there's no way it would be in there.  I sooooo have to be better organised with my crfat stuff.  Anyone got a room my daughter can rent so I can have my craft room back LOL!

 

Will post a few more shots later.  For now enjoy :-)

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

Beautiful Baptism Flowers

I have to share my handiwork at the flowers Jilly and I created for Charlie's baptism today.  We started at 7.00 pm yesterday evening and finished just before 10.30 pm.  between us we did 8 of these.  It might not sound like many but we had to go around about our neighbourhood gathering greenery - I live in a cul-de-sac so we just gathered what was around us and we had to soak and tape in the oasis before we could even begin.  Then we divided up our flowers, cutting several apart before laying a foundation of greenery followed by a central flower - a delicate yellow rose - which is why the yellow came into the mix to begin with and then added other flowers and finally fillers.  I took these shots before trimming them up to remove unwanted or odd looking leaves so they're a bit wayward in this shot.

 

These went on round tables so they looked especially nice and thanks to some long, wide and very sturdy boxes from the grocery store they travelled pretty well too.  I think they were boxes that fruit and veg come packed in - the kind that the store puts out by the cash registers for customers to help themselves to.  I regularly use these for transporting food or flowers to parties - they're easy to load, to stack and to carry plus they will usually slide under tables, hidden by tablecloths to make packing up easy too.

 

 

And here are my beauties all lined up on my garden bench where they spent the night quite happily.  Aren't these colours stunning?  The mix was way better than I first thought when I bought these (rather ghastly) dyed blue flowers on sale mid-week but if you'd seen all the blue and yellow at the reception you'd have seen just how pretty it all was.  I've never been very good at getting those kind of shots at things like this that somehow capture all the details so these are the best I could do I'm afraid.

 

 

And this is a kind of 'aerial' shot looking down on the pretty yellow roses which were our central flower (donated ny my younger daughter Jessica).  They were absolutely jam packed with blooms, even green kinda 'pom pom' looking blooms but Jilly said the green would set off the other colours beautifully and she was so right.  I tried real hard to go buy just the right flowers based on her good advice.

 

I managed to give all but one away to various people who had kindly provided food or drink for today.  Some had worked really hard baking cupcakes and things (see my efforts in a previous post).  I figure they can still be enjoyed for a few days at least and each one went with the proviso that the containers came back to me.  We have a family wedding coming up in July and hopefully now that I know I can do these maybe I'll get another chance again but in different colours.

 

Much as I loved doing them and spending time with Jilly showing me how to do something for a change the last few days have been such a lot of work that I'm really quite glad it's all now over.  It's 10.00 pm and I think I've had about as much as I can handle for one day so it's off to Bedfordshire I go. 

 

Hope you're inspired to create something beautiful looking at these pretty posies.

 

Hugs

 

Suezie

 

 

Doily Bunting & cake pokes (toppers)

I have been megga busy planning our youngest grandchild's baptism reception.  Mummy took care of the service and arranged a venue, food, drink and the like and left the decorations, cake, flowers and anything else we can think of to me.

With that in mind I set to work on creating lots of pretty bits and pieces with a colour theme of blue, white and yellow.  It was originally blue and white but despite having bright blue flowers, when I had to add a few more I had to throw another colour into the mix.

By this time I'd actually already made up my blue and white bunting but at the last minute I used some smaller bright yellow ones over the top and 'restitched' only where I needed to.  I threw in a few other touches of yellow like balloons and blue AND yellow cake pokes in cupcakes that had blue and yellow swirls of frosting and I think I got away with it.

 

First up is the bunting.  I took these pictures before I added the yellow so apologies you don't get to see the double layered effect.  Here I have strings of 1 dozen all neatly bundled up ready to take to the church hall.

 

 

And here's how I made them.  Obviously I started out with prety paper doilies - I shopped around to get just the right size I wanted.

 

 

I used a cream coloured cotton twill tape that was about 1/4" wide and once the tape was loaded into the machine with a longish tail and secured with a few stitches I began folding doilies over the tape with a folded cupcake case centered over that.  When I later added the yellow I made sure they were slightly smaller than the blue polka dot cases and just added them in randomly by stsitching over previous stitches.

 

And that's all you have to it!  I guess if you don't have a sewing machine you could still do this using staples or adhesive tape but I love to sew even if it's on paper so I was in my element.  Not so with the flowers but that's another post LOL!

 

 

And for my cake pokes I used my new envelope board and punched up a whole stack of paper bows.  This was actually the first time I'd ever made these and it definately won't be the last.  I loved making these!

 

 

I found that an easier way to put these together super quick was to staple them in place.  The small strip of paper that you use to create the centre of the bow easily covers the staples.  I even figured out that I could do this task with the tails in situ too making it even quicker - love the 1, 2, 3 step process of making these bows this way.

 

 

Here are the finished bows before theyhave the centre strip in place.  Once I covered up the centre all that was left was to curl the tails and reshape the loops, the add them to my toppers.

 

 

And here's how they look when they're finished - aren't they ADORABLE!!!  If you make them up with a thicker quality designer paper such as Echo Park or Cosmo Cricket they hold their shape really well and can be quite firmly handled to roll them back into shape.  I chose several verses of scripture that related to children to add to the back of them.  I thought it was somehow appropriate and there were a few positive comments so I'm glad I did it.

 

 

I packed them all into a sturdy box I had handy to get them to the reception in one piece.  I often use shoe boxes (which are free if you ask nicely) to store handmade items such as this in and with plenty of room they travel quite well.

 

 

 

 

And just so you can see what they looked like here they are in one of my many cake stands.  Hubby bought me this one and I sooooo wish I'd gone back and gotten a few more the same.  I could think of a hundred and one uses for having several the same.  This is one of the stands that usually comes out at family birthday parties and at Christmas too.  I am an avid collector of cake stands.  Do you see the yellow and blue mixed swirls of frosting?  You load up one half (side) of the piping bag with one colour, bit by bit alternating with the other colour in the other half of the bag.  When you pipe you get a 'mixed' swirl.  For added luxury I used my daughters gadget that takes the centre out of the cake and piped in sweetened, whipped double cream. mine was scrumptious!!!

 

Well I have a few more posts to do but might have to settle for just one more tonight.  My 1.30 pm stay up to finish my bows and my 7.00 am early start might just about be catching up with me.

 

Enjoy

 

Suezie

A Lesson From Jilly

I make no secret of the fact that anything to do with wreaths, flower arrangements, hand tied bouquets, all that kinda thing takes me completely out of my comfort zone. In fact if you want to see what I look like when I'm not in control, out of my depth, incapable of making even simple decisions and get completely frustrated and stamp around (and quite verbal about it too) then give me a floral project of the real life garden variety and stand back! 

Jilly and I had planned to have a go at a small posy pedestal arrangement and since she has done several flower arranging courses and classes I consider her the expert.  Fortunately for me she's my bestie and really loves me so she was even willing to brace herself for the worst.  I'm not kidding when I say the ugly side of me can sometimes come out during these floral episodes.  In fact you'd wonder why I even bother.  The fact is that I love flower arrangements and I soooo want to be able to do them, even if like my limited crochet knowledge, it's just a couple of things; I'd still like to be able to do enough to hold my own.

 

With that in mind and a bunch of practise flowers at the ready Jilly and I took a walk around the neighbourhood and picked a selection of what she called 'foliage and fillers'.  Some came from the houses in our cul de sac and some from nearby wooded areas.  I have 8 to make for a baptism this Sunday and we're on a tight budget here!

 

I keep a white plastic portable table in the house for my floral projects and generally work in our carport.  We laid out a blanket to protect Jilly's car and spread out our greenery.  I would usuallymake hubby move our car and lay things out on the ground but as Jilly had her car parked and can't cope with alot of bending down we used the bonnet of her car.  I need to remember this tip and save my own back next time.

 

 

My daughter and I picked up these clean white ceramic pedestal dishes at a charity store for just .50p each which is why we bought all 8 of them.  We are experimenting with various methods of attaching the oasis right now but for our first attempt we used florist tape - not my first choice I must say - that was my first paddy!  I got over it eventually.  Jilly gentle reassured me we wouldn't be able to see the tape once we were finished.

 

 

I had intended to take 'step by step' pictures but got quite carried away once I started.  I picked up several tips from Jilly and whilst this isn't the best of shots it shows how we built up the pretty posy.  On the day ours will be a light blue, white and maybe yellow combination of sorts for a boy.

 

 

And I apologise for the small photo (couldn't get it to enlarge for some reason) but this is the finished arrangement.  Looking at it now it's a bit over green on the left side but a trim here and there would fix that.  For my first effort I think it turned out pretty good.  Some of my flowers are a bit large but they were some left over from a bouquet for my daughter that she said I could play with so I used what I had to get the general idea.  I'm sure when I do them for real I will be able to improve on this.

 

 

And today I got to take a look inside this amazing building - the Unitarian meeting house which is a building I walk past every day on my way home.  We were checking it out for a wedding reception for my nephew.  He is actually getting married in the Atheneum in the center of town but needs a venue for the reception in the same area.  This is just minues away and a very short walk and is incredibly old and full of character inside and out.

 

 

The windows alone are incredibly huge and there is a staircase on either side that leads up to a balcony above.  Needless to say we were incredibly impressed and I for one hope that he books it.  The pillars were just crying out for some kind of decoration - bunting, swirled flowers, twinkling lights - oh I am already running amuck with ideas.  Whereever we end up we're hoping to recycle and reuse the white pedestal dishes and do table centerpieces so I will get plenty of practise.

 

Now, I'm off to add a few photos to my FB page so Tim can check out what his clever Auntie can do LOL!  Plus I'm hoping to make the doily bunting this evening because tomorrow I have quiches and cupcakes to make and then a cake to decorate.  I plan to make a pair of high top sneakers to go on the cake so will share how I get on with that project - something else that takes me out of my comfort zone!

 

Wasn't the weather today wonderful?  Hope you had the chance to get  out and enjoy the sunshine.

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

Birthday Gifting

It was our youngest daughters birthday yesterday and I promised to share the card and gifting I did for her so here it is.

 

I created the card whilst I was crafting at my mother's house but I tweaked it a bit after I got home.  I also added a white paper sack that I prettied up with a bit crafting and a bit recycling and then threw in one of those sweet WMS mini envelopes with a handmade gift card inside.

 

 

I added some pretty pearl dots here and there on the card front around the flowers.  These are just squeezed from a small bottle of pearlescent liquid.  They dry raised so my card has a tactile element to it along with those black gems I like so much in the middle of the flowers.  I also like inking up the edges of these flowers with a light coloured ink like beige.  It not only softens the edges but I really like the look it creates.

 

 

I used a wide strip of patterned paper cut into a banner shape which I folded over the top of my bag.  And since I was inspired by the tags in the latest release over at Claire's blog I added a layered up tag and then a further mini tag with a sentiment tucked under the flower embellishment to finish it all off.  I punched two holes through every layer, threaded pink sheer ribbon through, popped in a little gift and tied it closed with a bow.  So simple but really sweet.

 

 

I recycled on my tags using an old card somebody gave to me a while ago and then I recycled again die-cutting my mini envelope from the envelope that the card came in.  To match everything up I stamped a pretty background of leaves and flowers onto a piece of plain white cardstock before stamping the Verve notebook page, punching the notebook edge with the StampinUp! punch that I use again and again and finished it of with a handwritten note.  It's an offer of cake and coffee any time Jess wants to go. 

 

 

This is just another shot.  Of course there were other gifts and today we had a birthday BBQ with family so we could celebrate.  She worked on her actual birthday and it's a rare thing to get us all together so that made it an even more special treat.

 

Well hubby is in bed and the bank holiday os just about over - back to work tomorrow I guess so I'm headed off to Bedfordshire myself.  It's been a full on and very busy weekend so it might be nice to have the rest LOL!  I only say that cos I have a sit down job.  I might sit at a desk all day but I work hard honest!

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

My Mother - The Crafter!

It may be increasingly difficult for my mother to craft as easily as she used to but she still manages to craft a bit now and then.  Yesterday whilst hubby was out with Zach for the evening I spent some time with her.  I had a few kits left over from a recent workshop for Caring For Life so I let her have them and gave her her very own private workshop.

 

We have a really fun girly time together when we're crafting and mum is almost ALWAYS in need fo a card for some occasion or another.  WShilst I took along my Big Shot and the WMS funky flower dies and stamps she much preferred to cut out the flowers by hand.  The die leaves a border but you can cut much closer by hand.  I don't mind either way - it's nice to have a choice but since everything else in the pack was already cut out I guess mum felt she should do something at least.

 

 

Mum reaally gets engrossed in what she's doing and I love seeing her being creative.  I'm not really sure where I get my 'creative gene' from but I'm sure some of it is from my mother.  She worked in a florists for a time and has always knitted or crocheted so she has a crafty gene herself.

 

 

These flowers look fabulous stamped up in big, bold colours.  I try to keep a pot of pre-stamped and die-cut flowers and leaves on hand for those 'quick crafting' moments when you need a card or a tag in a hurry.  I am loving the tag dies released yesterday over at WMS I have to say - they've already been added to my growing wish list for a future date.  Imagine how my mother would like those?  Anything quick and fairly easy means we can get a few more done in an evenig than maybe one or two.

 

I will share another project using these funky flowers on here tomorrow.  For now it's been a very long day with an early start for church since we visited St George's as a family of 7 at 9.00 am service and a full on day with our own church service this evening.  I've been posting and catching up on emails ever since we got home and now I'm yawning my head off and it's after 10.00 pm.  I'm pretty sure it's time to give up and head off to Bedfordshire. 

 

Oh I forgot!  I stripped the bed this morning so it needs making before I can climb into it.  I need to go find that hubby of mine I guess.  I rarely make the bed on my own - much, much easier with two.  I guess then I'm off to go make my bed and climb right into.

 

Will catch up a bit more tomorrow.

 

Hugs

 

Suezie

Surprise Gifts

I have been waiting for a while now to share a card that I made using a surprise gift kindly sent to me by Claire at WMS and now that she has released it I'm guessing it's finally okay to do just that - well I hope so anyways.

 

I purchased the simple sprig mini stamp set some time ago and in fact have purchased several more of this cute set since for workshops.  I go back to it time and again too.  It makes a perfect 'intro' set for anyone who hasn't tried Waltzing Mouse stamps before and was so easy to teach and design with.

 

I emailed Claire and said if she ever made the die for this set I was most definately going to have to buy it.  If you don't yet know what kind of sweet lady Claire is - let me tell you.  She tucked the die in with a back order item that I was waiting for as a wee gifty.  Isn't that just the sweetest?  She has done sweet things like this ever since I have known her. 

 

There is no need between friends to feel you have to immediately return the gift with another offering but every now and then when I think about it I send something along her way 'just because'.  I will wait a while and surprise her out of the blue.  Isn't that just so exciting?  The thought of putting together a package, of how surprised someone might be when it gets delievered to the door, the excitement of opening it up - oh I love the whole package thing - getting them AND giving them.  My family joke that I get more excited about the packaging but really it's that someone thought kindly of me - enough to put together a paqckage for me and send it.

 

 

Okay, enough waffing on and mushy stuff, back to the card in hand.  I can't explain just why I like black inked images on coloured card stock but I do.  There is just something so strikiing about all the detail when you use black ink.  I actually die-cut the small sprig leaves and then stamped them up afterwards.  I used just two sprigs on this card and spread them out across the width of the card.  The background 'chicken wire' stamp is also from WMS.

 

 

I added some 'bling' gem swirls and used my tracing wheel to add faux stitch lines.  I also chose to have a pretty scalloped edge to the front of the card so I trimmed ther front a bit shorter than the back, stamped up using a further WMS round stamp from the 'Rescue Remedies' set on a strip of pink, cut it out by hand creating the scalloped strip and adhered it to the inside of the front of the card level with the back so it would stand nicely.

 

 

And then I took a shot to show off some of the lovely 3D going on here.  I stamped up a few more leaves on the scraps of green paper left over from the first run through with the die.  Next I clipped them off individually and 3D'd them behind a few of the leaves in the sprig.  Once I'd 3D'd the flowers the whole thing was popping off the card.

 

I've already given this card away so it's now long since gone but I did enjoy looking at it for a while at least before letting it go and it did go to someone really special so that made it much easier to part with it.

 

Blessings

 

Suezie

Brotherly Love

The gap in years between our first Grandson and our youngest Grandson couldn't be more wider - 13 years difference but it only takes a few moments watching them together to see how much they love and adore one another.

Zacheriah has always been good with babies and young children.  He loves to entertain them and care for them and seems to have a really natural and nurturing flare.  In fact Charlie cries every day wehn Zach leaves home to head off to school - aawwwwww.

 

We recently got a new car - well new-ish, it was never going to be a brand spanking new car but it is a 7 seater and we are so very grateful to have it.  We can never quite take everyone out together unless hubby makes two trips which means we can never go very far either.  Up until now we've had to take them out in smaller groups to go any great distance.  Now that that's changed we decided to surprise the kids by dropping by, picking them up and taking them for our very first ride altogether.  It gave us a chance to see how we all fit, including mummy.

 

It was too late to go very far so we ended up in MacDonalds for icecream.  Charlie had to make do with his baby biscuits.  We can't eat now if he's not eating too.  He is still very much on baby foods at only 10 months old but we didn't think it would hurt if he tried a little bit of icecream.

 

 

As we all watched to see what his reaction would be it pretty soon became clear he wasn't at all sure about icecream.

 

 

And doesn't this face just say it all?  LOL!  That icecream stuff is really COLD!!!  We all had great fun at Charlie's expense - shame on us - but we just couldn't help ourselves.  Every time Zach gave him a taste he screwed up his little face at the cold and we just sat around in fits of laughter being most amused!  Poor ol' Charlie, weren't we awfully wicked.

 

We are celebrating our youngest daughter's birthday tomorrow and can you guess what we will be eating?  If you guessed icecream you'd be spot on.  This time around Grandma has some baby fromage frais in the fridge especially for Charlie so he can eat with us and not have to have that yucky ice cold icecream LOL!

 

Here's hoping everyone enjoys the bank holiday weekend.

 

Hugs

 

Suezie

New Release!

I always watch with great anticipation (and much drooling) during the few days before a new release from Waltzing Mouse Stamps when all the DT gals share some incredible samples.  Claire Brennan herself shares some incredible creations too.  I'd love to see inside her mind when she dreams up these fabulous designs and die sets LOL!

 

I try to be very restrained and not let myself get carried away with it all.  Besides I can collect and collect and yet not find time to craft with all my stuff so these days I buy only what I think I can use and I try to stick to a budget.  I don't drink or smoke, don't spend money on loads of clothes or anything else so a little treat now and then is okay I think.

 

But I do enjoy the excitement of seeing all the fabby creations unveiled day by day and for this new release Claire is running a bit of a competition to win several goodies.  With that in mind I'm entering into the spirit of things and sharing a couple of my favourite samples here so I can enter it..

 

I love the idea of this folded tag that opens up into a sewing kit by Karin Akesdotter - how cool is this?  Wouldn't this just make the most perfect tag pinned on to a bundle of pretty sewing fabrics for gifting?  I 'sew' might have to copy this idea.  In fact I've pinned it to my Pinterest boards for future reference.

 

 

 

This one from Laurie Schmidlin is perhaps my other favourite - maybe because I've always had a thing for brown paper sacks (so, so cute), maybe because of those pretty die-cut felt flowers and button or maybe because it all looks so perfectly pretty tied up with string and this adorable tag - I like it all.  Quick, clean and simple packaging but oh so pretty all at the same time, what more do you need?

 

I will be out and about all day tomorrow with our two eldest grandsons and then at my mother's crafting in the evening which has been long overdue so I'm likely to miss the actual release but I don't doubt it will be fab.  If you've never seen any Waltzing Mouse Stamps before why not hop on over to Claire's blog and check them out.

 

Now I'm off there myself so I can leave a comment and be in with a chace to win - you gotta be in it to win it right?

 

Enjoy!

 

Suezie