I didn't post a link to new blog as I really wasn't sure if anyone even came to this blog any more but I came over to get a few links and see that indeed visitors are still being logged soooooo in the interest of good manners {I do try lol} here it is.
See you on the other side *smooches*

Hi and Hair Journey Ahoy!

Hiiiii!! Its been way too long. I have been gone from blogland and my online communities for a very long time but I have finally returned.

It has been a hard year or two, my last pregnancy was very rough. it started with hyperamisis and ended with pre-eclampsia...... well not to be too dramatic (me?? lol) I'll move on. We were blessed with another baby boy. That is what matters at the end of the day. All the illness, stress, fear... post natal depression.. AGAIN... it all was worth it when I look at my lovely boy, who was in distress at times invitro. When I got very ill and was in hospital it was sooo scary to hear his geart beat too fast or moving oddly. I just have to be thankfull that he and I made it.

I have been trying to get myself better and that has included leaving work for the time being.

One of the many changes I have made is to my hair..... I once had lovely hair but all my health issues and sad moods left it and my body for that matter in very bad shape. I am so overweight it hurts.

My hair started to fall out and I tried to stop it. I added a hair weave at Christmas and it really helped, so I did another one and it was fab, "yesssss" I thought, so I added another one, I also straightened the front to blend all week, when I took it out larrkksss my hair had broken off, all the front was short and the back too.

I was quite upset..... ok I'll admit my dramatic self was devestated lol.

I felt I needed to add extenstions now to add length and thickness, my own hair couldnt even go into my signature ponytails and buns. I decided I'd try clip ins as I didnt want to try sew in weave as it would hurt my hair too much.
I knew what I wanted to do and decided to have a little look on youtube OMYGOSH! I had an eyeopening.... not only did I find tips, tuts and advice but I came across people embarking on or in the middle of what they called a hair journey. WOW!! I made my clip ins and wore them, but couldnt help watching hair journey vids. I researched into healthy hair and came across blogs too. I am in awe of the great bloggers and youtubers who have obtained long but also healthy hair. I haven't stopped browsing and decided to start looking after my hair and join them on a hair journey. My beautiful cuzz is also on a hair journey which was so weird as we hadny mentioned it to each other and we have always done thinhgs together which just makes this even nicer.

Are you bored yet? *covers face*

I started to care for my hair properly in august and have done weekly wash days with intensive treatments and deep conditioning. I will post more about that in the next couple days. I add moisture and seal every night which is now starting to feel like its not so new and more of a good habit

I have been crafting on and off and have had a few commisions for invites, cards, chocolates etc so thatpart of me is still buzzing in the background but just not so much time to do all I want.

Well I'll leave this post there for now..... I have a milk run due soon and need to get ready for bed before that.

bye for now xxx

Pssssst!!!

Heads up..... The Blog Hop is startng in a few hours!!

lick through to the Challenge section for more info

Whoooahhh!!

Just noticed, I last posted on this blog a year ago!! So much has happened crazy stuff at home and Illness with pregnancy kept me away from so much and life really!!

I will do a round up post at some point but for now, I updated the DT/Challenge section

Welcome Baby Cuz! .....

.... And congrats Big Cuz

Sooo chuffed to have a new baby in the extended family.My Big cuz had a baby boy! He came early but is strong and healthy, Thank God for a safe delivery.
My Big Cuz is such a cute Daddy LOL. His wife is already a big part of the family and loved by us all - Love you TanTan xoxo

Mummy wanted a handmade card to bring to the hospital so I quickly made one the evening and the next morning we pooled our monies together and had a small shopping spree picking cute baby clothes and blankets... oh it was so fun looking at all the yummie baby bitz, but when did baby clothes get so expensive??

Here's the card, simple in style as usual.

Catching up..

... Hmmm story of my life... playing catch up.... AGAIN!! Here's a few Christmas goodie catchups....(please excuse grainy drainy photo's... I so need to put my picture software on my Lappy)



Boys and I made Mince BakewellPies - Inspired by costco, motivated by Pink whisk... Boys and Adj loooOved them.... ok I did too, have some mincemeat left so will have fun with boys at weekend.




Stocking Fillers for Mummy, Love the Pink/blue/white colourway...oooo
{Dies -PTI, Sizzix; - card - SU, DCWV; Felt Embelies - American Craft; Stickles; papers, gems, felt & ribbon- mixed stash}



Stocking Filler for Wkins, so fun making the box adhoc but it was a little flimsy.
{Die- Sizzix; Punch - Martha St; Card - SU; Brad - Papermania; paper, ribbon - mixed stash}

candieee Girl.......

You are my world..... lololol

SOoooooo I just spotted some yummie candy HERE!!!

You'll go for the candy but stay for the Yummie projects for sure

Merry Christmas!!!

Have a great Day everyone. Hope the season is enjoyable for all. Thinking about the reason of the season makes me smile from ear to ear!!

Joy To The World, The Lord Is come.....

card recipe;

papermania and Stampin up {card}. DCWV {paper}. sizzix and PTI {dies}. Stickles. own supplies {felt and button}

Last couple of days!

Last couple of days in the US!!

Have had a fantastic time here in the States.

Here's a couple of pics of my Michaels haul

Crafting goodies:

Cake making stuff:

Ahem... and the extra bag I had to buy to carry the extra goodies in, I got the boys and Adj small gifts too which needed extra space.

WTW - Tootin About Treat and Gift Holders

Fabby Treat Holder challenge. Loved the example and will making some soon but as I had some cookies to package up I made my Treat Holder bigger.

Used one of my fave anya stamps and coloured the hair using a technique from colour me copic,

I seem to have lost one of my circle nestie so had to use a smaller one which made the scallop frame too big.... hunph bet the nestie is hiding with my extended bigshot plate AND my gypsy to cricut lead BAHHHHH!!!!

As an aside, I love love LOVE copics but a lot of mine dried out and many are on their way out, with limited cash, earlier in the year I thought I'd try promarkers, now I had tried them in a shop but they didn't blend in to each other..... so I thought but I realised months later that I hadn't waited till the ink dried to see the finished results.... how silly did I feel??? very haaaaaaa

Can't believe all the deals I passed up at craft shows ahemmm.

Anyhoooo.... as I was saying, earlier in the year the promarker 5 sets were on a bargain offer and I thought "Why not try them??" so I did, now I love the results you get from them and have lots of colours but I still LOVE my copics... so I use them both.

I started to try different effects using both markers to compare.

Here's the "feathered hair" look:

copic on bigger piece, promarker on smaller. I must say, the copic "skin" colours are nicer than promarkers, I find PM's make skin look dull.

Daring Bakers!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I am sooooo happy I got to play this month, I have been MIA form the DB challenges because of my silly ankles, I was so happy to see sugar cookies are Septembers challenge!!

So erm..... It didn't go too well.. Firstly we are super strapped for cash this month and have no eggs in the house so I used one of the egg free recipes for the cookies and my own egg free recipe for the icing, No butter so used Margarine instead, no lemon juice so left it out. I also added a little marge to the icing because I didn't want the icing to set rock hard as the kiddies like softer icing.

I decided to make cookies at late o'clock... after 1am, and was tired - mistake number 1 -

I dont have an electric mixer so decided to warm butter... in the microwave... forgot it in there and it melted.... I decided to use the melted butter as it was the last bit... without letting it harden - mistake number 2-

Added the other ingredients but of course the butter made the dough toooo wet as it was liquid arrrggghhh!!! LOADS more flour needed I had already added almond essence I decided to add ground almonds to the mixture and stop it becoming tasteless with too much flour, also had to use more sugar - saved!! -

erm decided to work on some other projects while they were in oven.... forgot to set timer - mistake number 258 heee -.... yep over baked cookies... gahhhh!!! put second batch in oven.....

sooooo.... time to ice..... couldn't go wrong?? er.... yes it could, mixed red and yellow colouring to make orange.... more like salmon... add more yellow.... nice colour but more sorbet that bright.... decide I like the colour anyway.

Right.. time to ice, where's my piping stuff???!!! arrgghhhhhh ok, use greaseproof paper and roll... overfilled.... tired brain = shakey hands and UGLY iced cookies ugh!! Can't even tell they're pumpkin shaped can ya LOLOLOL

almost didn't upload them but here they are, I must say they do taste delish and kiddies certainly love them so I'm happy on that count :o) :

{{bah!! just noticed I forgot to turn my daylight lamp on before taking photo...... sorry about dark picture}}

Almond Sugar Cookies,

used pumpkins as my september theme as september means begining of autumn and change of seasonal produce, pumpkins defo mean that to me... reminds me of harvest time at school and church as a young girl lol

Happy Anniversary TGF!!

Hoping this post works as am using scheduling for the first time.

A BIG Happy Anniversary to TGF.

Here's my Teacher cards and chocs for the Blog Hop, The 2 middle boys chose the teachers they wanted cards for, simple designs for quick teacher 'Thanks'

Please excuse the poor photos as I cant get to remove the noise etc... I will try to replace with better pics later. Thanks for looking, I cant wait to Hop along and have a look at every one elses... Last time I found some great blogs which I submitted to in Bloglines/ followed.

I realised that the last few posts down are from last year's Blog Hop!! I cannot believe that I posted so little the last year..... I really did melt down there, Glad to be back Tho.

*Cardstock - Stampin Up, DCWV

Papers - Stampin Up, DCWV,

Flowers - American Craft, Prima, Die cuts

Bling - Papermania, kaisacraft(sp), pound shop(lol)

Pins, buttons, ribbons from stash pile

stickers (on choc tags) - paperchase

Pens - Promarkers, Copics

The Master List for the Blog Hop is HERE!!!!

****EDITED****

I think the pictures aren't going on properly as they cant be clicked, and are small........ ugh!!!

*****EDITED again...... (am I the most ditzy blog hopper ever??)****

soooo... The pics are being odd, here's the individual pics hopefully they're bigger.

***yet another EDIT (rolls eyes)***

I only just this moment realised the boy stamp wasn't TCF, I put him in my TCF pack by mistakee.... so sorry!! I removed the individual card from this post.... ugh... I am such a hop novice.

School's Out!!

Let the fun begin!!! LOL. The boys are so excited to be off! Jayz had his last day at his school ad will going to Juniours in Sept!! oooooo so exciting but oh where has the time gone? Kali was just going into the juniors!! Ugh!!! My babies are not babies anymore.... sigh!

Just seen the video "dodah" at the bottom is all messed up.... say due to some licensing issues the videos can't be played in this country... sooooo until I get around to changing or replacing no more vids!!

more blog candy

Found more candy... so much lovely goodies.... go along HERE to see Debbie's Birthday Candy

blog candy finds

just a couple of yummy blog candy i found while catching up on bloghopping:

create a critter cart I looooove this cart and it has to be my next get cart!

a PINK cuttlebug!!

Happy Valentines Day!!

Here are the treats Adj got me. Such a lovey. He also cooked me a yummy meal and we cuddled up watching a few episodes of Life.

A Simple Card for Adj:

Stamp and Felt hearts- American crafts

A Card for Mummy:


Stamps - American crafts and Magnolia, Punch - Martha Stewart and Stampin up, Felt hearts - American crafts. Coloured with watercolour pencils and Copics.

I Hope everyone had a great day.

Design Team Call.

Click to view

Newness!!

Arrggggg!! Last year whizzed by at the end... soooooo mad and hectic but good too.

I had baaaad pc probs and stuff and an Animal Crossing "addiction" hmmmm any one got it and wanna wifi??

Gotta keep my Blog up to date more!

Dress!!

AARRRGggggg!! Just tracked my Bridesmaid dress!! it's in UK now waiting "clearence" whooohoooooo!!! cutting it fine, was thinking it may not get here in time whoooooo!!

must remember to set some funds aside for customs

Teacher cards ala Anya!!

Soooo..... being me I left teacher cards late, had my eye on Teacher anya for a loooong time, trying to budget still (yeah not to thrifty) so had her on wish list but as I has quite a few cards thought I'd get her - justify... would have to buy 7 cards at £1-£1.50 I'd say so she paid for herself..... yep thats what I'll tell Adj if he asks LOL

sooooooo....... I called stampezzee panicing about delivery and the sweetie told me she'd post out next day and we had a laugh about leaving stuff til last minute. I was soo pleased I ordered her, she is lovely in stamp person and colours so well... oh and Superstar Anya jumped in my basket while I was there....justify?? erm... no I hid her... and the prima daisies too.. shhhh....

so late to post but here's the cards... simple style as usual












{card - bazzil and DCWV. PP - DCWV and scraps. flowers - Prima and local art shop. Bling}